Autoethnography continued …my experience

.My idea was to look further into Japanese game shows, as they are really popular and often localised in other countries. I wanted to experience watching them myself and get a sense of the entertainment value they provide in their own countries and any others watching. There is definitely a Western fascination with them. Take this segment of Ellen’s show as an example.

 

Japan is known for many things including it’s beautiful scenery, architecture, traditional arts like Geishas, highly advanced technology and its mega cities. The people are known to be very polite and intelligent. So when you think of all this and then see these crazy game show concepts it’s quite interesting. They have so much creativity and fun.

I watched one episode of Downtown no gaki no tsukai ya. The episode involved 5 funny men going to 37 different stores to eat an 8 pack of Octopus balls. At first I thought this was strange and gross, and that it might have been a specific challenge but it turned out that they did actually enjoy them and that many shops had different variations so I think it is actually a proper meal in Japan. The show wasn’t that fast paced, a lot of it involved the men sitting in a car talking getting driven to the different stores. They were quite funny though and their banter was good. I’m still yet to watch part 2 as the episode finished before knowing if they actually finished this hefty challenge.

I feel like the other show I’m going to watch will be quite different. It’s the Team Fight show and from what I have seen from small clips is that it will involve some very interesting games and celebrities partaking in them. To put all my findings together I am thinking of doing a podcast. To explain to listeners what these shows involve, and any greater value they bring to the culture and other cultures around the world especially in the entertainment industry. I think a podcast will be good and I can also include sounds from the shows so people can see what I mean when explaining. The ‘Downtown’ show I watched, they spoke so fast it was hard for me to read the subtitles so quickly but that’s all in the experience of doing something new.