Cultural Immersion

I will start this by recognizing there's no possible way I can do justice to what I just saw. However, it was funny so I will try.

I was flipping channels and stopped on a Japanese channel because there were grown men dressed up like bugs on a set that made it look like they were in the grass. Jeff said they'd watched A Bug's Life too many times, if that helps you get a visual. So that, in itself, is pretty funny, right? Because honestly, Japanese men have NO ISSUES walking around in head-to-toe spandex and this time they also had on spandex headpieces with antennae. Moving on.

We keep watching and it turns out the show is a challenge of sorts. Each bug (man) takes a turn going up on a hydraulic platform and tries to drink milk through a thin rubber tube. The tube is clear, so there's an arrow on the screen showing us the progress being made. And here's the kicker: the platform is at 6m, 30cm (that's all I could read in the kanji at the bottom of the screen) so these guys are practically passing out because they're having to create so much suction. And when they fail, which the green bug and the orange bug did, these two ladies in pink and black spider costumes come running out, pretend to eat something gross looking, then one of them wrestles the loser bug to the ground and covers his mouth while the other spiderlady places a clear tube over her mouth and the bug's nose, then burps into the end of it and blows it in his face. I kid you not. This was a show over here! And I was dumbfounded enough to watch it! Oh, and while they were switching out who was on the platform, they cut to footage of another guy dressed up like a dung beetle, rolling a giant ball of fake caca with his feet while doing a handstand. But don't worry, they had cut tiny little slits in his headpiece so his eyeglasses could still sit squarely on his face even as he fell down time and time again.

I also watched one crazy commercial that involved a Japanese man dressed up like a stereotypical Mexican (sombrero, cheap blanket poncho, long black mustache) who eats a van full of Japanese people off a sushi-go-round, another that had Jennifer Lopez peddling shampoo and yet another ad with Cameron Diaz pitching either cell phones or a bank (couldn't tell which).

I'm so glad I've gotten a real glimpse into the Japanese culture.