The weird and wonderful world of Japanese TV

I think I’m hooked on Japanese TV. I started off watching NHK World using Sky but have recently found another way of getting my fix. I’ve been watching everything from Animax to TVh (aka TV Hokkaido) and TV Asahi and it’s amazing. I especially enjoy the news reports and, oddly, kids TV. There’s even a little anime to boot, mainly Naruto. The lack of English language subtitles has forced me to decipher what is being said using my knowledge of the language and whatever is happening on screen.

I’m particularly intrigued by adverts. Japanese commercial breaks are a little shorter than ours and a bit more abrupt. For example, say Naruto is on. Well the moment the opening credit finish, a commercial break will suddenly kick in. I noticed at least three adverts in that one break relating to the franchise (in this case the two games and the new movie) and the rest seem to be relating to cosmetics or summer, which in Japanese is called natsu (夏/なつ).

These adverts, for things like ice cream or tofu and unagi, really do evoke the heat of the season, often with a good amount of Engrish thrown in for good measure. But on the whole these adverts feels a heck of a lot more real than the ones on British or American TV but with that polished edge as well. The only unfortunate thing is the difference in time zones, I seem to be watching kids TV before I go to bed, late night drama during the day and anime first thing in the morning. It’s kind of surreal.

That said, there’s not much anime on Japanese TV, not unless you watch Aniplex and even then it’s on really really late at night Japanese time. However, I have ended up catching more than one episode of Natsu no Arashi which is not something I expected to be doing but it’s a nice way to spend a Friday evening.

I firmly believe the best way to learn about a foreign culture is by watching its TV shows and the best way to learn a language is immersion. I’m not sure if it’s working but it certainly is fun and it beats watching British TV at the moment, there’s precious little on. I’m not so keen on the weird game shows but it amazes me how much singing there is, whether it’s in a TV show, an advert or a TV channel’s theme song. The latter is especially catchy and that is not good!