So the theme of this years 24hr TV is "Start! Take the first step~" and so Shige learned to play the steel drums. He went to Trinidad & Tabago to meet these two girls who play and made his own drum. The girls came to Japan for the performance and they did a medley and ahh~! It was so good! I want that on video! Shige was so moved by his own performance, he cried. Aww~ And I agree with Yamapi, he better continue to play. I'd try to get to a News concert just to see that!
So they've raised some 800,000,000 yen so far but seriously, I wonder how much they spend on this charity event. They've got Matsushima from Othello going all over Japan visiting World Heritege sites (though that's probably by a network-owned car), they've sent Shige off to Jamaica, they've got a few boats up in Aomori/Hokkaido for the girl swimming the channel, they've got Oshima and another guy and a bunch of kids in Sri Lanka searching for jewels. Not to mention renting out the Tokyo Big Site location and paying all the staff... I really wonder if there is much to donate to charity after all is said and done. Maybe Lydia can enlighten me since she knows more about television production than I do.
I'm going to have to start watching Newsfan's releases more closely for 24hr releases. I want that Shige part! And his English was totally adorable.
And I think this is becoming my favourite icon of all time. :D
Nagura Jun of Neptune went to Fukushima prefecture on his darts tour. I love how people greet each other in Japan! And I notice it all the time in daily life here, just saying hello to people on the street. And they have no shame about asking your age. It's a lot different from western culture. I heard somewhere recently that in Japan, asking someones age is a way of showing that you are interested or care about them and you want to be more familiar with them. One granny said the thing she wants to start is learning how to use a computer. So cute!
It's time for Ryo's dart tour of Japan and he's off to Nagano prefecture somewhere. I think this is the first time I've actually heart his Kansai accent. I think it suits him more than standard Japanese. His face was priceless when he met some jr high students who were Yamapi/Koyama fans. Poor guy. XD And none of the old folks know who he is. Haha.
Thoughts on 24Hr TV 32 so far...
It's not as tear inducing as last year's was. Of course there are a lot of "I was in a terrible accident/got cancer/was born with this disease/disability" stories that have been touching but each of the News member's tasks aren't so moving. I guess with a theme like "Take the first step," it's more happy.
News is also a kind of boring personality... from what I can tell, they're just standing around a lot. And they are so obviously not used to this kind of job. They miss their cues a lot and talk over each people on the video feeds a lot but they have gotten visibly better as the show's gone on. For a while this afternoon, all they did was check in with the swimmer (Yamapi's job) and the runner (Tegoshi's job) and played the plea for donation video.
I guess I should take a shower while there's nothing interesting going on. They're going to do the Dance Koshien contest now. I see some MJ inspired groups.
3:10p
Daigo and Keila are leading a blind boy who wants to climb Mt. Fuji. I always enjoy Daigo's antics. Especially when he's doing air guitar with sounds in the middle of a forest. Poor kid.. he's so exhausted and they are already half way up. He got altitude sickness! They climbed the mountain the same day as that big earthquake recently. The plants were shaking so much... and they showed footage of an office in Shizuoka. Damn. I've never seen/felt such a big quake. The guide says that Fuji hardly ever shakes during a quake, so it really was a big one.
Ahh~ I feel like crying again. T___T
3:50p
Horiuchi Ken's task was to go to India and teach a village to make paper! These kids had never seen paper before and wanted to write and draw. It was really intersting seeing how they could make paper with things they've got. I remember trying to make paper from newspaper with my friend when I was a kid. The kids looked so happy! And they drew a picture on a big sheet that they made and sent it over.
Coming up is Koyama's task, I think. He went to learn sign language and is going to perform a shadow show with some kids. :D I need to pay more attention to Koyama. ♥
There's some discussion going on about the ethics of arguably the largest charity event in Japan (at least that I know of) on
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4:00p
Speed is on again this year? Boo.
4:45p
Koyama and the kids were amazing. Japanese sign language looks much easier than American and he's gotten really good at it. He's crying too as are all the parents... I'm really touched. That's another video for the collection. I recommend everyone to watch that cut if you can find it.
5:45p
They've got Shoten doing a 24hr TV special? Boo. I guess even NTV can't pre-empt something as institutionalized as Shoten.
7:15p (but actually written at midnight and drunk so pardon)
FINALLY Yamapi's task! Of course, they left the best for last. Yamapi decided to start scuba diving because of a promise he made to his childhood friend who was in an accident that left him in a wheel chair. They promised to go scuba diving so his friend could take a picture of a manta ray. Okay, so to be honest, Yamapi has always been kind of dull to me (despite being fucking hot) but here... he just shone. He really cares about his friends. And him calling his friend Shu-chan, and being called Tomo by his friend was just heart-warming. And omg, as if I didn't want to go to Okinawa before... just gorgeous. The pictures Shu took in the water with Yamapi are going to be treasured forever.
After the VTR his friend read a letter he wrote to Yamapi, thanking him for the opportunity to go diving and that he knows he's busy but he should try and get his diving lisence so they can go again and take a picture of a manta ray (what Shu wanted to do originally) and Yamapi's trembling lip and his cheeks turning pink as he tried not to cry was just priceless! And then afterwards, his comment... as if I had any doubt he was straight before. xD
Oh, and Kame had shown up before--like, WTF. But it was so they could sing Seishun Amigo for Shu-chan. Touching!
And then I went drinking so I don't know how it ended, but I don't think Imoto made it to the end of her marathon. And it looks like the Democratic Party of Japan is out!