The name of the drama is "自販機男(Jihanki Otoko or the Vending Machine Guy)" which is a part of “世にも奇妙な物語 (Yonimo Kimyou-na Monogatari) Fall Special Version.” Yonimo Kimyou-na Monogatari is a very popular omnibus series which started in 1990. It usually gives the viewers the bizarre (奇妙な) short stories that are just way too weird to be true, but still make you think, “hey, wait a minute, it could happen for real!” Yonimo Kimyou-na Monogatari is like the omnibus of urban legends, in a sense.

It looks like that “Jihanki Otoko” will be the 3rd story in tonight’s “Yonimo….”

世にも奇妙な物語 (Yonimo Kimyou-na Monogatari) Fall Special Version
October 2, Tuesday from 9:00pm to 11:24pm
Fuji TV (or Channel 8)
Tsukuba Film Commission’s announcement
(Japanese, but you can see the pictures)

Please read Shaney's post "Have Your Treasures Appraised in Tsukuba" or visit the Tsukuba City's website for more information. According to the city's announcement, the cityscape and some research institutions will also be on TV.

One of the TV and internet services available in many areas in Tsukuba is provided by ACCS.

Despite its quick internet connection and good customer service, this company’s “credit card only” payment policy has turned away a lot of potential customers. The good news is that ACCS has recently started to offer a couple of other payment options. Now you can also choose to pay your bills at a convenience store or through your bank account. In both cases, a deposit of 10,000 yen (when using either the TV or the internet service) or 20,000 yen (when using both services) will be necessary, but
you can get the money back when terminating the contract. No charge for paying through the banks designated by ACCS (such as Joyo and Kanto banks), but a 105 yen/month transfer fee will be necessary when using non-designated banks. Paying at a convenience store will incur a service fee of 210 yen/month.

Call 029-852-6111 to check out the details.

Here is the channel guide for Tsukuba.

1 NHK
2 Shopping
3 NHK Educational
4 Nihon Terebi(NTV)
5 Tokyo MX TV
6 TBS Terebi
8 Fuji Terebi
9 Cable (ACCS)
10 Terebi Asahi
11 TV University
12 Terebi Tokyo

Koshien is a perfect way to show hometown spirit, and many of your friends who live in Tsukuba now are probably rooting for their home prefecture team. Native Ibarakians and others who have grown to love the Land of Hitachi (Hitachi no Kuni) have always had a lot to cheer about since this prefecture has often fielded very strong teams. The most famous of these is Joso High School which is located just near Tsukuba City. Once again (for the 3rd straight year) their manager Yukio Kiuchi, who is now 77 years old, has taken them to Osaka for the finals after an incredible extra-inning win in Mito on July 27th. This is a very impressive feat considering the hundreds of schools in the prefecture. Maybe attribute this success to what has been dubbed KIUCHI MAGIC.

Holy cow! This game that I'm watching! The Tokushima team has just come from behind to win! Incredible! Pandemonium! Unbridled joy! Tears (looks more like sobbing) of defeat! Slouching, bent over players. Dirty, sweaty uniforms. Wait! This is the part I love best. The winning team belting out their school song, singing with their bodies and souls making it known to the world that they are making an effort!! They go into their victory sprint. And now, the losing team is scooping up some soil from the infield, a memento of their fleeting moment on the Big Stage. Certainly the game will be replayed in their heads over and over again, probably for their whole lives, with thoughts of how it would have been if things had gone the other way.

Sorry for the digression. Let me get back to my main point. High school baseball fans in Ibaraki have been looking forward to watching Joso play and maybe even win the tournament and some people I know even went down to watch today's game. Unfortunately, things did not go as expected and our local boys were blown away in their first game, by a Tokyo team (even more frustrating). Thus, Kiuchi's bozu, as with all losing teams, could be seen after the game, scooping up the Sacred Soil of Koshien. So much for Kiuchi Magic. But... wait till next year!

Don't be surprised then if you see more than the usual depressed, sulking Ibarakians this week. They were hoping to see their team do better.

And of course there are other ways of looking at this High School baseball madness. I, myself often cringe when I hear about the boys' PURE SPIRIT. Like everyone else they are in it for the glory (and the girls?).

Another aspect to think about is the PROFESSIONALIZATION of the game in a similar way to what has happened in college sports in the US. Thus many teams, including Joso recruit players using certain incentives.  Many students DO NOT get the high school education they should be getting, and will be stuck after graduation. So the coaches, administration, etc., come out ahead, but what happens to the boys who have spent their school years playing ball and not preparing for exams?

Anyway, they sure WANT to play, and they do it well! That's what makes it so much fun to watch.

For Koshien games just turn on your TV and flick through the channels.

An episode of Kamen Rider being shot at Tsukuba Center (January 24th 2011). The crowds were being used as extras.

On days when the light is just right and there is very little chance of rain, you might get lucky and find a colorful collection of super heroes and monsters battling it out at Tsukuba Center. For many years, TV production companies have been using the Lion Pit between the Okura Hotel and the Right-On building as an unearthly-looking set (which more importantly for the producers is free of charge!) for shooting Sunday morning kids’ programs. Like me, you will probably have to ask one of the moms with toddlers who are excitedly watching the proceedings to find out the name of the show they are filming.

Today, on my way to the Center Building I noticed large crowds gathered around the edge of The Pit peering down. I knew right away that there was filming going on. It wasnt until I approached for a peek of my own and was stopped by the production staff that I realized that all the people that had gathered were EXTRAS who would be appearing (as a featureless mass , no doubt) in the episode being shot. I was even more surprised when under the direction of the director, all these enthusiastic would- be- thesbians began to chant as if they were cheering on a battle between gladiators.

As I walked on in my hurry to get to an appointment, I remembered how two years ago  I watched the cast and crew of the popular channel 10 show Go-On-Ja (ゴオンジャ), which often uses the Tsukuba Center location. It is  interesting (especially if you have small kids to bring along) to watch the actors get warmed-up, rehearse and shoot the individual shots, then get half out of costume and enjoy a cigarette break. Sometimes small explosions startle the onlookers who ring the set and are treated very politely. (Remember, the space is being used for free!)

The professional way Japanese film crews go about their business is impressive to watch and should be eye-opening for those who can only picture the age-old racist parody of a Japanese TV director as shown in the very popular (and perpetuator of old stereotypes) Lost In Translation.

For me, the bold poses taken by each character when they identify themselves or challenge each other, is reminiscent of the mudra positions introduced to Japan by Buddhist monks, most notably Saicho and Kukai, more than 1000 years ago. This may sound far-fetched, but please look closely at both and you might see the connection.

Also, one thought that I have had about the great international success of so many Japanese produced kids shows is that unlike their American counterparts which were also very entertaining for adults ( and in fact impossible for kids to really understand- take Bugs Bunny or Popeye, for example), the Japanese had the revolutionary idea of creating programs at a childs level- making them vitually unwatchable for adults ( POKEMON, for example).but absolutely fascinating for little kids. A brilliant and profitable concept!

No-one can predict when there will be filming at the center, but as I said earlier, there is a good chance it will be happening when the weather is favorable.

Dont forget to bring the kids!

A view from a little higher up of the Kamen Rider set and the throng of enthusiastic extras ( January 24th 2011)

3 Comments

• At January 25, 2011, Mamoru Shimizu wrote:

  Last spring when my naughty grandson was staying at our house there were some very severe struggles between him and I at around 8 am every Sunday morning. He wanted to watch Go-Ranger and I wanted to watch the News review. Go-Ranger was very appealling for him but not at all for me.

  Now from Avi-san’ article I understand that the Japanese producers were making programs at a child level(子供の目線：important concept!), Are you also suggesting that Japanese comics have become very popular because they are tagetting people of specific gender and generation?

  Mudra: I cannot find it in my dictionary, but I guess it a crossed-arm gesture? My other naughty grandson used that gesture toward me crying something like “Gyao-“”Pyao”. He thought it was very cool,I thought "fight with me? I am not afraid!"

  I myself am of the Godzilla(ゴジラ) generation (1954), worried about him destroying the NHK Tower in Tokyo. Or Tokyo Tower(built 1958).

  So when Gekkoukamen(月光仮面：Moon Light Mask) got on stage(1958), he didn’t appeal to me(already 16years old). Popeye-spinach I watched so much when I was in Kindergarten and I ate plenty spinach with advice from Mama wanted to become strong.

  Should I or should I not tell there will be possibility to see Location of Go-on-Ja in Tsukuba center to my grandson, this will be big distress!!

• At January 25, 2011, Avi Landau wrote:

  Mamoru-San! In the end did you take your grandson to see the Kamen Raider set today? I dropped by and there were lots of onlookers ( probably lots of Tsukublog readers!). Everyone seemd to be a good spirits!

  You are right to infer that I suggest that one reason for the success of MANGA is their being written for specific audiences.

  And about MUDRA, in Japanese this is INSO-印相, or INZO-.

  These are the various hand and finger poses, or even full body poses used in Buddhist meditation and iconography, and in yoga as well.

  Just as the various figures in the buddhist pantheon can be recognized by their MUDRA, so the various super hero characters on Japanese TV can be identified by the poses they strike.

  Thanks, as always, for your excellent comments.

• At January 26, 2011, Mamoru Shimizu wrote:

  I always miss something recently, I missed Kamen-rider in Tsukuba-Center 25th, how that audience got information about the location? It would be my bad dream that if I took my naughty grandson finding empty area, I could imagine his complain and I had to by some ice-cream as compensation. Any way I would like to begin an research project how to find those important schedules. I should uses maruda 説法印　or 来迎印 while thinking.

  Today I missed Hanamuro-Jo remain I went to the Tsukuba Central-Library to return DVDs and found “The history book about Tsukuba-Town” was made of two volumes and three times thicker than that of Yatabe-town, looked much more interesting about History around Tsukuba. Today I just looked briefly, but in the future I would like to read it closely.

  Anyway before dark I just thought I could visit Hanamuro-Jo which Avi-san introduced,

  I thought I could find it easily if I get Hanamuro-cross and make my mind as that of builder-War-lord: thinking where should I build a castle considering land shape. But I failed after 30 minutes bicycle riding around there just I found a memorial statue of rock for an imperial Japanese army general Miyamot in Meiji-era. After I came back my home, I checked the article again, found I searched wrong place. Next time I won’t miss the small shrine of “Migawari-Amidanyorai” and put on a pebble praying no missing much!!

  Another thing I missed was I missed what I had been missing!! Biggest miss!!

And, if you read this on the day it was published (New Year's Eve), you might want to watch Kouhaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦), the traditional show that everyone (or maybe just older people these days?) watches on December 31. You can read more about this show on Wikipedia. The show will air from 7:20pm to 11:45pm on NHK (Ch 1).

Like a little goateed munchkin, or a Japanese version of one of the seven dwarves, the mascot of the 23rd Annual National Culture Festival (kokumin bunka-sai, or kokubun-sai for short), which this year is being held in our very own Ibaraki Prefecture, can be seen practically everywhere these days, adorning posters, leaflets, packages, and most noticeably the banners fluttering outside convenience stores and public buildings.

For most Japanese, from any part of the country, this cute little character is instantly recognizable as a cartoon rendering of Mito Komon, the hero of one of Japan's longest running weekly historical TV dramas (jidai geki). And by long running, I DO mean LONG RUNNING, as new episodes have been aired every week for nearly 40 years ! As you can imagine, there have been a few cast changes (think of James Bond) over the decades.

What makes this shrunken down caricature of the great Komon so easily recognizable are his little beard and mustache, as well as purple (or golden) cap and vest (symbols of having reached a venerable old age).

The show, which has been broadcast during prime time since 1969, follows the same basic pattern each episode. Mito Komon (an affectionate appellation for the 2nd Lord of Mito, Tokugawa Mitsukuni), travels the country incognito, accompanied by his trusty bodyguards Suke and Kaku and assorted others (also undercover). You can be sure that trouble is encountered in every new locale, with the villains' plans being properly foiled before the great Lord finally reveals his true identity by displaying an INRO (small case) with the Tokugawa Family seal of three-leaved AOI. All the locals then proceed to quiver with awe.

Amazingly, this simple formula has been keeping viewers satisfied for decades, and this show is probably what Mito (the capital of Ibaraki) is most famous for, even though the stories take place all over Japan.

Though it might be useful to check out the show on TV (Monday nights from 8-9 PM on channel 6) or rent a DVD or video for becoming more familiar with Japanese pop culture, I think that it is MORE ESSENTIAL to know a little about the historical figure on whom this fictionalized series is based.

I'm talking about Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628-1700), a grandson of Ieyasu (the unifier of Japan), who became the second Lord of the Mito Domain, and went on to have a great impact not only on his own domain (now part of Ibaraki) but on the future course of Japan's history and its dealings with the outside world.

This impact was due to Mitsukuni's sponsorship of a huge and highly ambitious project which employed the services of more than 100 Japanese and Chinese scholars. Their task was to compile a definitive history of Japan, which would be called the Dai-Nihon Shi and would fill 397 volumes by the time of its completion in 1906.

This work was first carried out at Mitsukuni's Edo (Tokyo) residences, but later continued in Mito. Thus, the way of looking at Japanese history which evolved from this undertaking (highly influenced by Chinese historiography) would be called Mito Studies (Mitogaku). Pointing to the centrality of the role of the Emperor in Japanese history, the Mito Scholars, especially during the times of Mitsukuni`s descendant Tokugawa Nariaki, would lead to the rise of the extreme xenophobia of the Revere The Emperor, Expel The Barbarians (Sonno Joi) Faction, which ironically helped lead to the overthrow of the Tokugawa Family and bring back (?) direct Imperial Rule. I don't think I have to tell you what road this special brand of nationalism eventually lead to.

Besides sponsoring this greatly influential academic project, Mitsukuni became legendary for his wise  and benevolent rule of his domain. His tax relief and distribution of rice during times of famine was deeply appreciated by the people, and because of this his legend grew after his death. Fictional accounts of his travels around Japan were popular at the end of the 19th century. These tales eventually turned into the famous TV series from which derives the mascot of this year's culture festival.

If you would like to do some Mitsukuni (Mito Komon) related travel, I would highly recommend a trip to SEIZAN-SO in Hitachi Ota in central Ibaraki. This is the great lord's simple and rustic retirement villa. Beautiful in any season.

Good news to the Tsukuba parents. ACCS has extended the time to air Nickelodeon to 6pm starting yesterday. ACCS used to air Nickelodeon only from 6:00am to 12:50pm on channel J706, then changed to 6:00am to 3:00pm. Now ACCS viewers can watch Nickelodeon until 6:00pm! (Okay, too much TV is no good, but it might help you a bit if your kids keep bugging you during the spring break!)

ACCS: http://www.accs.or.jp/
Nickelodeon Japan: http://www.nickjapan.com/