AltJapan

Meet the Mansions

Attention, residents of Japan: my latest Tokyo Eye segment will be airing on digital TV tomorrow (Wednesday the 10th) at 10:15 PM, channel 3, sub-channel 2. How's that for an obscure patch of the TV spectrum? And for those who live abroad, if your cable provider offers NHK World, check your local listings for episode 103 of Tokyo Eye. 

It's all about "Western-Style Residences," expensive estates built at the turn of the 20th century in the European style by extraordinarily wealthy industrialists and aristocrats. In this week's episode, chaos almost ensues when the crew convinces a restaurant of the sort I'd normally get kicked out of to serve up fine wine, roast squab, and Cuban cigars. I feel like the Count of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area!

Sewer Shark

The long-anticipated "sewer invasion" episode of Tokyo Eye has finally made it online! Watch as we plunge deep beneath Tokyo's surface into the gaping tunnels of the sewer system, battle tardigrades, and come perilously close to plunging off the poopdeck.

This also marks a watershed moment as NHK decided to dub rather than subtitle all Japanese speech (including my own), giving parts of this episode the rich feel of a Shaw Brothers chop-socky. It also marks the first time I get to walk out of the john on camera.

A Maid Man

A photo taken on the set of the latest episode of Tokyo Eye, which covers... The Japan Maid Association's official Akiba Maid Certification Test! These freshly-minted Level Threes joined us in the studio to tell us all about it. It's set to air at the end of next month -- I'll post details when they're available.

That's right: there's now an official Japan Maid Association (motto: "From Fad to Mainstream Culture.") Intriguingly, it doesn't test applicants as to anime or manga knowledge, as you might expect, but rather drills the history of Victorian maids into them so they can (wait for it) get jobs as "real" maids cleaning peoples' homes. Talk about coming full circle. It's like a maid outreach program.

In the meantime (and how's this for a segue?) fans of raw sewage will be excited to hear that another segment will air first: I plunge into the depths of Tokyo's sewer system for an up-close and personal look at, uh, Tokyo's bowels. That particularly fragrant episode airs on May 7th on NHK World abroad (check your cable provider for details) and at 10:15pm on May 14th on terrestrial digital channel 3, subchannel 2 in Japan.

Eye-O-Rama

Supersexy photo taken by Patrick on the set of the NHK show Tokyo Eye. This week's segment is all about building super-detailed dioramas. I invade the lair of Tatsuya Kaneko, master modelbuilder, to learn the art. Check it out on terrestrial digital subchannel 3 in Japan or on NHK World abroad. Click here for air dates and times.

Truck Yaro

My latest Tokyo Eye segment has made it online. This time, I cover "art trucks" (a.k.a "Deco-tora" to those in the scene). If you've ever spent any time driving on Japanese highways, you've seen them. They're fabulously decorated cargo and work vehicles festooned in enough lights to rival a Vegas casino combined with spectacularly airbrushed ukiyo-e and kabuki motifs. No nekkid ladies on the mudflaps for these guys.

I'd expected to be thrown into the mix with some real truckers, but like so many other subcultures these days, the otaku are firmly in the driver's seat: the average art truck owner is more likely to be a well-heeled suburban thirtysomething living out dreams of being Bunta Sugawara on the weekends than an actual long-range hauler. So the original drivers who came up with the concept in the '60s gave rise to a series of films in the '70s that essentially define the scene as it exists today. What a tangled web we weave.

Me & Kawaii

Kawaii "working characters" -- and a shout-out for Hello, Please! -- abound in this segment I filmed in Kichijoji for NHK's Tokyo Eye show. Check it out here! And for those of you who prefer YouTube, looks like it's been posted there as well.

Meet the Beetles

Someone's posted the latest episode of Tokyo Eye online, featuring.... me! Watch as I suit up Steve Irwin style, head into the wilds of suburban Tokyo with a couple of bug-crazed kids, and learn how to catch monster stag beetles in the forests of Japan. Mushi king!

Akihabaran Idol

Footage of my debut appearance on the "hit" NHK show Tokyo Eye has popped up on YouTube. Watch as the staff throw me into the wilds of Akihabara, where we acost up-and-coming idol singers and their obsessive fans on the street, invade a concert, and insinuate ourselves into the lives of "high speed digital unit" trio Junk System. Unlike Yokai Daisenso, for better or for worse this time I was allowed to actually show my face. Are you feeling the love?

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