The Ridiculousness Just Keeps Coming...

I've said before how much I enjoy Japanese dramas, primarily because they are just so absolutely ridiculous. J-dramas are usually between 11-13 episodes long, so there are several "drama seasons" throughout the year and just when I think it can't get any more ridiculous, a new season starts and another drama comes along that tops all those that came before.

For example, a while ago there was a show about the "social dancing" club at a high school (social dance seems to be pretty much the same as ballroom dance, but less exciting). However, apparently that activity was neither lame nor gay enough for Japanese TV, so they had to come up with something lamer while at the same time gayer. I think the conversation went something like this:

Japanese TV Exec 1: "Well, social dance is pretty lame and we did have that one homosexual character, but they were still dancing in boy/girl pairs, so it just wasn't quite enough."

Japanese TV Exec 2: "I know! How about Men's Rhythmic Gymnastics?"

And so, the show "Tumbling" was born.

Yes, a drama about the type of gymnastics that no one ever watches. Women's rhythmic gymnastics is lame enough, but men's? According to the show, the men's version of rhythmic gymnastics was started in Japan, which doesn't surprise me in the least, but I'm still pretty sure there aren't men's rhythmic gymnastics teams at any real high schools. (Men's synchronized swimming teams, on the other hand...)

So, the show just started last week and it seems to be following the classic Japanese trope in which "a rag-tag group of young people attempt to do X-activity, failing at first, but then over an amazingly short time period, barely longer than an 80's training montage, they pull together, overcome various adversities, and give it their all to succeed in the end."

In addition the sappy, predictable plot line, the show is rife with scenes of supple young men helping each other stretch out their tight hamstrings, polishing their batons, and running around in skin-tight spandex. So, you can see that the show is trying to appeal to a wide audience (Japanese school girls who don't know any better and creepy old men).

The characters are ridiculous as well--the main character, an unnaturally redheaded hooligan who is forced into joining the club to make up missing credits so he can graduate, but then realizes he has finally found an activity challenging enough to keep him interested--is probably the least astonishing. There is the captain of the team, who spends at least a third of the special 2-hour first episode crying because, "rhythmic gymnastics means everything to me," and who, surprisingly, I don't think is the gay one. (I know they are going to have at least one gay guy in there for good measure and my money's on the tiny, adorably effeminate first year who sounds like a girl.) There is also the captain's former teammate from middle school, who is now team captain at a high school famous for their prestigious men's rhythmic gymnastics team. He likes to act bad-ass and talk smack about how lame the other school's team is, apparently forgetting that at the end of the day he's still rolling around on the floor with five other dudes in sparkly unitards.

Based on the first episode, I am satisfied with the level of ridiculousness and am eager to see more (did I mention the supple young men running around in skin-tight spandex?) It should be an entertaining ride...

Bonus question: Which do you think is the effeminate one?

Official site (Japanese only) with preview video: http://www.tbs.co.jp/tumbling/

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today (4/16) is my Mom's birthday! So, I am sending my birthday wishes in the form of a Japanese-style karaoke video:

Why I Hate Hipsters.

I know this blog is supposed to be about my life in Japan, so I usually don't comment on things back home. But when I attended the annual sake festival in Niigata a few weekends ago, I came to the horrible realization that a certain plague that has been infecting the US for the past several years has now spread across the sea to Japan. That's right folks, hipsters have come to the Far East.

This is a sake fest, not a steam-punk convention!!

So now, I feel like I must finally address the issue of why I hate hipsters. I should note that, while the majority of hipsters I see are foreign, there is an increasing number of native Japanese starting down the dark path as well.

First off, they love to steal cool things from other people, and then claim that they invented it--to the extent that the original people who started said trend are now only "wannabees" in their eyes. One major example is skinny jeans. Bands like The Sex Pistols and The Ramones were wearing skinny jeans decades before the term "hipster" was even a twinkle in American Apparel's eye. Skinny jeans are punk, period. I don't have a problem with anyone else wearing them, but don't pretend that you made them cool, hipsters. Same goes for Converse high-tops. Even the V-neck T-shirt for boys, which I highly disapprove of (unless you have some really nice pec-cleavage and NO chest hair), was first worn by fashionable Japanese guys (and it was also the thing that made foreign guys swear that all Japanese men are gay), but now every hipster guy is wearing one.

Some other things hipsters have ruined: Bicycles, Used Clothing, Big Headphones, Old-Timey Facial Hair, etc., etc.

Also, gross miscarriage of "Irony." Life is not an Alanis Morissette song; you can't just decide that anything you want to be ironic is ironic. Fanny Packs aren't ironic, also they are not cool. Wearing a Hitler 'stache and doing the "Heil Hitler" sign is not ironic, not even if you're a Jewish hipster.

But the biggest reason I hate hipsters is because they claim they are "cool" because they are so "original" and "individual," while at the same time dressing exactly the same way, listening to exactly the same music, and having all the same values as their hipster "friends." I'm sorry, but I believe you have confused the word "original" with "carbon copy." I don't care if you like "hipster music" or "hipster fashion"--wear what you want, listen to what you want, do what you want, but don't let anyone else tell you what "what you want" is! That's how I live my life...so I guess that means I am not cool...boo-hoo. (Ironic crying)

Check out the hilarious site "Look at This F**king Hipster" for more F**king hipsters: http://www.latfh.com/