Former BB guestblogger and Japan-based blogger Danny Choo has a neat post up with snapshots from Japanese festivals, shot with a Lumix. Above, one of the game/contest stalls alongside one ceremonial observance. "Kingyo Sukui is where folks try to nab as many goldfish as possible from the tub with a single hoop of thin paper."
Another photo in the gallery shows Sesame Street character dolls on display at a festival vendor stall. Danny jokes that Sesame Street looks a li'l different over there. You have to watch the video clip after the jump to appreciate just how different: now, I'm very ignorant about Japanese media culture, but am guessing that this is a spoof on a comedy show or something.
Japanese Festivals (dannychoo.com)
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It may be only me... but I think that Japanese culture will ALWAYS SEEM bizarre, and maybe even rotten until you get to visit the country and get to know its culture first hand.
I won't get to sleep well after this!
yeah, that clip is a parody from a comedy show (it's even called Banana Street if you look). I always hoped Sesame Street was somehow different here but it's the same thing with dubbing in Japanese, sad to say.
Heh, I guess Danny was making a joke, then!
XD mm.. such fond memories. i was simply horrible at catching goldfish though...
"single hoop of thin paper." A what? Is this like a bowl or cup device?
@#5 you spambots are getting clever... i wonder how long till they gain sentience and go all skynet on us... except with penis pills and dodgy loans.
To Xeni Jardin and Danny Choo, thanks that was a lot of fun!
Re: #2
It is actually from a show called Lincoln, and the comedy group is called Banana Man so the segment is called Banana Street.
Sesame Street is different in Germany too - everything is brighter and more cartoony, and Oscar the Grouch is cuter looking, less scruffy, and not bad-tempered. I think that German adults are quite scaredy on behalf of their children, and the original Oscar is possible a bit too much like a real hobo-wino to contemplate.
When I was teaching kindergarten kids there, I did special Halloween vocabulary cards for the week around Halloween. All the adults who saw it were all "I don't think you should show the children a picture of a skull or a ghost - it will be too frightening". All the kids were all "Ein Totenkopf! Toll!"
Perhaps slightly worrying, in retrospect, that they didn't think of it as a skull, but rather as the symbolic 'Death's Head' that certain Prussian units - for example - used to wear on their hats. It puts me in mind of That Mitchell & Webb Look - "Have you seen our hats? You don't suppose that we are...the baddies, do you?"