Sights of Japan

9.pick a Sunday.07

Besides some of the sights that I see on my Sunday walk to church I would first like to address the “amazingness” of Japanese television. Personally, I must admit that I am not a big proponent of television, simply because I don’t usually have time to watch it. I would rather read a book, hang out with friends, go ride my bike, or do just about anything else including bake banana bread.

Despite my unwillingness to watch television in the United States, I am thoroughly surprised every time I happen to sit down and watch a few minutes of Japanese TV. Lauren usually has the television on while she is working, and since I’m usually working at the same time, I can’t help but watch along. On Sunday night (9.23) at 8pm we were working on some of our lesson plans for the following week. While doing this Lauren was flipping through the few public channels we have and I yelled for her to stop when something amazing caught my eye. At 8pm on a Sunday night, there was a man explaining complicated integrals that brought me back to my days in physics 132 at Binghamton University. Yes, he was explaining some physics law (Does anyone know the name of this law? I think it has something to do with either Gauss' Law or Maxwell's Equations but I can't remember.), thermal energy, and the following night the same station was talking about the diffusion of solutions across a membrane.

Math is a universal language!

Only in Japan do they show these types of programs at 8pm on a Sunday night. In America this time is reserved for prime time shows. How odd would it be to see WB showing calculus lessons at 8pm on a Sunday night? Sorry all you Grey’s Anatomy fans, but it’s time to learn how to solve integrals. Please put away your calculators. We’ll have none of that.

One more thing, I also wanted to say that I had the opportunity to watch SpongeBob’s Japanese cousin who is, strangely enough, also called SpongeBob. They have “Best Friends Day” in Japan too! You know what is even more amazing? The guy that does the voice of SpongeBob (American citizen SpongeBob) is from East Syracuse, NY! What a small world.

Now that I’ve explained what I mean by the “amazingness” of Japanese television, I would like to take this moment to present you with some of the things I see in Ochiai.

I really need to go and see what type of things one would find in a "happiness" museum.

Will I look like this too if I sing karaoke in Japan?!

Not from Ochiai, but I would like you to meet my new unnamed plant.

I would like to end this entry with a little clip from the Japanese SpongeBob episode called "Best Friends Day". In this episode, Patrick gives his best friend SpongeBob a present. The present happens to be a gigantic ball of bubble gum that Patrick has been saving for a very long time.