Tonight I came home and had a really good dinner thanks to my aunt and uncle, who had sent along a packet of seasoning to make carne adovada. I marinated some pork overnight and it made for some excellent tacos.
After dinner we were flipping through channels and watched a show for a little while that was interesting. The show was about about what foreigners really want to do when visiting Kyoto, and they had a group of foreigners being led around by some Japanese comedians trying out the most popular activities.
It was pretty bad, actually. While ostensibly the show is about seeing Japan through foreigners’ eyes, instead the foreigners tended to screw things up, and the comedians laughed at them, rather than with them. Foreigners getting scalded by hot bath water in a public bath, screwing up making sushi, and not able to pick up an object correctly while dressed as a maiko were just some of the events where the Japanese guys (and no doubt the audience) were shaking their heads.
Even worse, the foreigners weren’t given the chance to comment on their experiences (perhaps because of language barriers?) with the exception of two – one who stars in Softbank TV commercials, and another cute girl who was apparently Korean. All the other foreigners were simply laughed at. A pretty bad show that could have been much better if the foreigners had given their opinions about the experiences, or told why they thought they were interesting. Probably that wouldn’t have been entertaining – and I think that is what the show was really about – providing entertainment. I watched all I could handle and then turned the channel – not good for cross-cultural understanding.
Last night we went to bed around 10 pm, but Kuniko couldn’t get to sleep and ended up staying up all night. Tonight I got home and she was still awake, but she recently decided to turn in. Hopefully she’ll be able to get up on time tomorrow and function at work. As for me, work went well today and this week should be pretty busy (as usual). The warmer weather is a big plus, though.
