6/01/06: NHK TV. The Home of Domo Kun!

 Today we traveled to Yoyogi Park past Harajuku station and visited the NHK TV studio headquarters today. NHK is kind of like Japan's version of PBS (in America) or the BBC (in Britain) where many dramas, news programs, educational programming, and other shows are broadcast (and filmed at this location). There is an entertainment plaza/museum for fans to go and check out how the station is operated, and it only costs 300 Yen (about $3 USD) which was nice. If you are familiar with the station and its shows it's a neat place to spend an afternoon.

 We got to explore the NHK TV entertainment plaza and museum. This has great exhibits about shows that have been on NHK TV over the years, including walk on set replicas of a detective mystery and some children's shows. One of the most famous and beloved of these children's shows is Domo-Kun, who is this big brown fuzzy monster with a wide open mouth lined with pearly sharp, white teeth and a bright red tounge. He teaches young people about morals and doing the right thing (like not watching TV late into the night and keeping your room-mate (a rabbit-san) awake!)

These little cartoons are pretty cute. I have watched all of the Japanese ones and began watching the ones they started publishing for Nickelodeon recently over here in the US.

 We also got to try out the interactive exhibit where you can practice dubbing anime, acting in a traditional, Shinto-style drama about love, or do a news broadcast. We attempted these, but don't read kanji so we really couldn't read much on the screen! When the prompts came on the screen we said stupid things like, "Oh, I love you!" and "I love you more! and for the most part just overacted using Basic English and Japanese. Apparently we were quite hilarious to the Japanese people watching us. Carol and professor Powell did their test performance in Japanese (because, at the time, they were they only two of us who could read Japanese) and they sounded quite good.

 I also got to explore Takeshita Dori again today! I've already been down this trendy teen street like five times but I keep coming back for more.

 We ended with Karaoke in Shibuya, which was tons of fun and I wish it was more popular in the US. When you go, you get your own private room complete with karaoke machine, library menu that is bilingual, surround sound, and a food and drink menu you can order from while there. It's a pretty great place to hang out on a weeknight with a group of friends.

Signing off,
Lady Lara Jones
















So.....Cute!














Domo-kun!






























Karaoke: Carol is singing a Japanese pop song. The little characters you see above the Kanji (that big, blocky character that looks much more complicated than the others) are supposed to help you figure out what Kanji it is (In this case, syllable-based Hiragana Characters are above the Kanji Character.)