Hisasiburi!

Ok, tonight, I'm finally watching TV again. I've forgotten what a fantastic adventure can be had in TV land. Also, my attempt to blog from my mobile failed. Chris is smarter than me.

Anyway, I don't know what tonight's show is called, but its a common one where a panel of celebrity contestants has to read various obscure kanji and kanji compounds to either win prizes/food or avoid somewhat painful punishments. The first game involved food related kanji, and if the contestant got it right, they were allowed to eat the food associated with that kanji. The second game was pretty strange. The contestants had to guess the long word or phrase that a shortened pair of kanji stood for, kind of like an acronym quiz. They had approx 5 seconds or so to answer. If they got it right, they chose another contestant for the next question. If they got it wrong, however, they were beaten by two small Russian boys wearing white dresses and angel wings/halos, and then taken to 'heaven', a small room offstage. After a little bit, the Russian boys started to go crazy and started beating the old guy named Tamori, and he responded by doing a Russian dance. The next game involved drawing kanji in the correct stroke order. If wrong, two large balloons popped right next to your ears. The next game involved reading the kanji for the names of various hot springs around Japan. If they got it right, they got a small prize. Tamori is a genius and gets nearly all of them right without a hint, while Eiji Wentz of WAT needs to work on his kanji. It would be acceptable if he spoke a language other than Japanese, but he doesn't. Frown on you. I got the last special one right because we went there for our round Kyushu trip. It was Ibusuki, which indeed has a strange reading for its kanji. Also, I'm a genius.