I think I’ve just discovered my new favourite TV show. It’s called Captain Domino, and it started airing tonight for the first time, I think on the TBS station (I still don’t know what station is what, the numbers are fudged on my TV and my Japanese still wayyyy below the understanding line).
Anyways Captain Domino is genius through and through. Two teams, wearing what can only be described as military and spaceman outfits, battle each other on 5 games, which are by far the best TV games I’ve ever seen in my life:
A real life version of Super Mario - where you jump across platforms and collect coins on a screen!!
A real life pong - a giant screen on the floor holds a version of pong, with the contestants controlling the pads by moving along a line at the bottom of the screen
A twisted version of Dance Dance Revolution - contestants have to tap a rhythm on pads strapped to their bodies (two on the chest, two on the legs, one on the head)
Memory noughts and crosses - teams battle it out on noughts and crosses but based on memory. They see a number table for 10 secs and then have to say a number each trying to be the first team to make noughts or crosses
A weird skill game where a contestant is shot down a roller coaster ramp with a lance in his arm and he has to hook a tiny ring onto the lance as he races past
All of which makes for thoroughly entertaining viewing. The Domino Body Beat game is particularly LOLsome. I can’t remember laughing that much to a TV game in years - the contestants’ lack of rhythm being the most hilarious element as they try to catch up to the song by hitting various parts of their bodies :lol: .
Unfortunately no youtube videos of this yet, though I assume it’s only a matter of time. You can see program information and game details here:
Also big up the Japanese TV programming schedule - stuff doesn’t run from 8 till 9pm, cos that would be too boring. It runs from 19.56 till 20.54 :lol:
This actually made me laugh uncontrollably when I first read it. I mean come on seriously? Turns out a certain number of Japanese women were sold sheep as poodles by a company called Poodles as Pets, and didn’t realise their dogs weren’t too kosher until a Japanese actress discovered that her own poddle lacked the rk to its ba on TV.
“Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles.
Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each.”
Also the Stippy site has a more in depth look at the story here.
UPDATE - just found this link which proves the story to be a hoax! Which really isn’t too surprising, and while this story does perpetuate the stereotype of the crazy Japanese it was funny if only for a day. Ah well I’m sure there’s something true that is equally as hilarious happening somewhere right now.
We went to the amazing (I say that with a heavy dose of sarcasm) Namjatown amusement park in Ikebukuro the other day, an indoor amusement park from Namco which is pretty ‘peculiar’ to say the least. Amongst all the tacky weirdness, we played Namco’s Taiko drumming game for the first time.
Taiko drums are a traditional Japanese instrument, with origins in Korea and China, which has seen a massive resurgence in popularity in recent years, primarily due to the release of the aforementioned game Taiko no Tatsujin aka Taiko Drum Master and the increased popularity of taiko drumming ensembles.
Taiko Drum Master is a classic arcade game - two big drums, some sticks and a screen and speakers pumping out covers of various ‘classics’ to which the players have to drum in time, accumulating points in the process. Anyone who’s ever played the likes of Guitar Master or the more classic (and my personal favourite) Samba De Amigo and Parapa The Rapper will know what I’m talking about. The kind of game that allows you to feel like you can play an instrument if you have no musical bone in your body.
So anyways we played a couple of games on it, it was incredibly good fun, and I even managed to beat Ella even though I’m totally rhythmcally challenged.
I would actually like to check some proper Taiko drumming while I’m here, as the few bits I’ve seen on TV have been pretty interesting, and it’s apparently a really great live experience.
And then today I came across these two youtube video gems :shock: out to the otakus out there, some serious skills!
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