AltJapan

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A pic above for those who missed the epic denouement of my last Tokyo Eye episode: Mattzinger Z runs amok in the workshop that forged him. Don't worry, casualties were minimal. And no, footage isn't online. Blame NHK.

Meanwhile, there's been a terrifying new development: yesterday, Maywa Denki's Tosa-san revealed plans for an entire new robot army based on the Mattzinger Z prototype design. The implications for Tokyo's safety are.... minimal. But let's pretend otherwise. I need every excuse I can get to suit up in glorious red and silver.

The World's Strongest Robot

Move over, Chogokin Z. This Wednesday, Maywa Denki's Tosa Novmichi and I raid the back-alleys of Akihabara to scrounge up parts for a little DIY project: building the single most powerful mechanical creation humanity has ever seen. It's amazing what a little spray-paint and duct tape can turn into in the hands of a professional mad scientist like Tosa-san.

The half-hour Tokyo Eye segment, filmed in a painfully long 16-hour session over a single day in December, will air on the JIB-TV website on Wednesday, January 12, at  3:30am, 4:30am, 8:30am, and 3:30pm EST. Alas, it's a realtime feed and not on-demand, so you have to tune in to turn on. You also have to be based outside of Japan, as the feed is blocked here. (Don't ask -- I just help build robots.)

For those in-country, it'll be airing on NHK's BS-1 at 4:00pm on January 18th. 

Sumidagawa Alt

We just wrapped shooting another episode of everyone's favorite "hit" show, Tokyo Eye! This time, I take Miss Universe Japan 2007 finalist Ako Koizumi on a tour of some of my favorite watering holes in Tokyo. "Denki Bran," Hoppy, "Chu-hi," major and micro-brews, quaffed in everything from Yurakucho dives, to rooftop beer gardens, to brew-pubs... It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. The episode will stream live on the NHK World website at the following times (JST):

September 9 (Wed) at 9:30 am 

 1:30 pm

 5:30 pm

 9:30 pm

Translated into American Eastern Standard Time, that is:

September 8 (Tues) at 8:30 pm

September 9 (Wed) at 12:30 am

   4:30 am

   8:30 am

Down the hatch!

Yokai & Yurei & You

Thanks to whoever went to the trouble of posting the Yokai/Yurei episode of Tokyo Eye on YouTube! The end of summer is spook season in Japan, and what better way to celebrate than by following first-timer Hami and I as we tour some of Tokyo's scariest spots unraveling the differences between yurei (ghosts) and yokai (er, yokai). 

In a nutshell, yokai generally represent a "something," while yurei represent a "someone." But tune in to see some examples for yourself. We hit the Oiwa Inari Shrine (where we underwent a Shinto purification ritual to protect us from harmful spirits), Zenshoan Temple, Masakado's Tomb, Kappa Temple, out to Chiba to examine the Hyakki Yagyo scrolls, and finally unwind with a spin through Korakuen's haunted house. 

For some reason the video's been split into parts -- here are two and three.

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.