On the virtues of Japanese television

I believe that the world at large is beginning, in our modern age of youtube, to get some idea of exactly how surreal Japanese television is on any given day. The popularity of shows like Ninja Warrior and the whole human-tetris phenomenon speak to some level of the warped world of Japanese pop entertainment appealing to the world at large.

When I first got here, I neither understood, nor enjoyed Japanese television on any level. It was frustrating, impossible to keep up with even with the subtitles, and for some reason they kept putting these little picture in pictures of Japanese celebrities who seemed to do nothing except gasp and laugh at the show, which they were not actually participating in.

Lately, as part of Project Literacy, I have actually been watching a fair amount of tv. I didn't even touch the thing for the first 4-5 months here, but now that I can't go to the beach every day I'm spending more time in my house, and can't always muster the wherewithal to focus on reading something. At these times, tv provides useful background noise, especially when I'm doing something in English and music would be too distracting. It was profoundly useful as something that was interesting, but entirely ignorable.

At least until today. So I'm watching a show which I actually struggle to describe in English. Japan really likes "The top X" type shows, varying from "Top x weirdest animals!" "Top 3 most popular meals at every train station along a route!". Today's top x, is "Top 30 instant noodle meals".



It is literally two guys, getting served bowl after bowl of instant ramen, eating it, and talking about how awesome it is in a fashion which is so Japanese it makes my teeth hurt.

But for me, this particular moment in Japanese televised oddity, will always hold a special place. So I'm sitting here, trying to study my kanji while the dudes on screen slurp down bowl after bowl of ramen, and I'm getting all frustrated because for some reason I just cannot focus on the kanji! Damn dudes and their ramen just keep on distracting me! It's not even that interesting! Most of the noodles probably taste exactly the same!

And that's when it hit me. I'm being distracted by Japanese, and not in like a "screaming children way". Even when I'm not focusing on it, trying to understand it, my brain is deriving substantial meaning from it. My brain is starting to understand Japanese passively.

This. Is. Crazy.

My god if manzai starts being funny I am going to shit a brick...