The Eiteljorg Museum of Native Americans and Western Art is located where I didn’t expect it to be. I don’t know why it surprises me that it’s in Indianapolis, Indiana. I assumed it was in the Southwestern part of the United States. But, now that I’ve typed out Indianapolis, Indiana, and see how the word Indian appears twice, I think, well that’s fitting. According to the Web site, the museum is one of the only two museums east of the Mississipi River to focus on Native American art. Contemporary art and Western culture and history are part of the museum’s focus. Georgia O’Keefe, Andy Warhol and Charles Russell’s work, among other notable artists are included in the collection
Here’s a video tour of the contemporary art exhibit with a commentary–just another reason to head to Indianapolis. This weekend is the WestFest, a family day of cowboys, entertainment, art and food.
While everyone in America is arguing over whether or not Kid Nation is innovative and groundbreaking entertainment or cheap and exploitative thrills, it seems as if the Japanese have once again bested us.
Don’t believe me? I promise you – you’re in for a surprise!
Click on the video above for a little preview of a popular Japanese game show known as Haneru No Tobira, which I believe roughly translates to ‘Human Tetris.’ Although this clip defies mere explanation, the idea is simple.
Contestants stand in front of a moving conveyor belt, which transports life-size blocks with cut-away human shapes. Unless they want to be knocked off the platform into a pool of icy water, contestants have seconds to contort their bodies into the appropriate shape so that they can pass through the block unscathed.
So now that you’ve all seen the video and are no doubt utterly confused, I suppose I should offer some sort of cultural explanation as to why Japanese TV shows seem to be anchored in another reality. Truth be told, and in light of the fact that I have an anthropology degree from a rather prestigious university, I have no freakin’ clue.
Of course, in times of confusion and doubt, I always turn to the great archive of cultural knowledge that is The Simpsons. Weaned on America’s favorite nuclear family since I was but a wee Japanophile, the early seasons of The Simpsons did more for my personal development than any other institution of higher learning.
With that said, do you remember the episode entitled Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo, which was the finale of the 10th season? After besting the Flanders by picking up the mega-saver tickets at the Springfield airport, the Simpsons fly to Tokyo for a Japanese-style family fun vacation.
Interestingly enough, Wikipedia reports that a Japanese dub of this episode never aired in Japan. Although the series was running concurrently in Japan, the TV censors banned the episode because of the scene when Homer throws the Emperor into a pile of mawashi or sumo thongs. In fact, Sanrio also objected to episode because of the depiction of the Hello Kitty factory as a giant smoke stack fueled by truck loads of stray cats.
Anyway, let’s get back to the original question at hand, namely why it is that Japanese TV shows seem to be anchored in another reality.
In the climax of the episode, the Simpsons appear as contestants on a TV game show called The Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show, hoping to win plane tickets back to Springfield. As serious Simpsons aficionados such as myself quickly recall, the show was hosted by a rude and violence-bent game show host named Wink, who was voiced by George Takei of Star Trek fame.
At the start of the show, Wink offers the Simpsons a quick and simple explanation of why Japanese TV game shows are so cruel: “Your shows reward knowledge. We punish ignorance.”
Ah – so! Hey, it’s not groundbreaking cultural commentary, but it’s the best got!
Anyway, feel free to offer your ideas as after five years of living in Japan, I still have no idea what’s going on when I turn on the TV.
A few days back I blogged about Tourism New Zealand’s innovative approach to internet marketing. Israel is another country that’s been harnessing the power of the interweb to push their claim as a great place to visit.
Unlike New Zealand, Israel can’t offer alpine lakes and adventure sports on every street corner, so they’ve decided humour and sex is the best way to lure visitors to the Holy Land. (Read that last sentence back for the true meaning of irony).
Who knew Israel was the Mediterranean’s answer to Brazil?
To get you ready for this Oktoberfest season, we’ve advised you on what to wear– Lederhosen, given you instructions on how to eat a Weisswurst, shown you the best carnival rides to try, and pointed you towards the best beer. To recap, we’ve hit dress, food, entertainment and libations. What’s missing from this Oktoberfest round-up is dancing. To prevent the situation where you are left standing in your Lederhosen gazing into your beer mug, unsure of what to do on the dance floor, here’s a lesson on the Chicken Dance. Any Oktoberfest celebration wouldn’t be complete without it. Perhaps, you’ve seen it at a wedding. Even when guests are sloshed, this one is doable.
For the easy version, all that’s really required is that you:
Put the fingers and thumbs of each hand together so that you have two chicken beaks–sort of
Raise your beaks to at least shoulder level to look engaged an interested–higher is better–and open and close them four times to the other dancers
Bend your arms at the elbows to simulate bird wings and flap four times.
Wiggle your behind as you bend and your knees so you lower to the floor and comeback up as you continue to wiggle. (Try to do this to four beats in order to look like a pro.)
Repeat the steps, but going faster and faster until the song ends.
Here’s a Chicken Dance how -to run down, complete with an animated chicken, and a You Tube video with a variety of Chicken Dances performed last year at the Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, Washington. As the video shows, you can do this dance several times in a day and it’s just a little different each time–as in a tad different, as in almost identical.
