TV Topics: Late Night Snacks/Girls

TV work has been good lately.

In America, we have what we call sweeps week: the period of time when the ratings for television shows are measured, and used to make decisions about programming. There are a couple of those periods each year in Japan where they measure the 視聴率 （しちょうりつ;　shichouritsu）and determine how they're going to proceed with their respective bangumis.

For the people who work on camera, if you think about it, this period can be nerve-wracking, because if the viewers don't think you're entertaining, your show might get cancelled, or you might replaced. But as it actually plays out in real life, the directors and producers are planning a bunch of special segments that are so much fun to film that you don't really think about the consequences.

Last week I spent two days traveling around Kumamoto with this guy, Nakashima Tsugumasa-san, visiting "power spots," beautiful mountains, waterfalls, and rivers. Spent the night drinking and laughing, at a funky little mountain lodge, and woke up the next day to film a segment straight out of Power Rangers. I have footage of myself being jumped and pummeled by men in rubber suits built to look like a mutated boar, fly, and wasp.

Next week we're going to film a segment in Oita in which we go river fishing, barbecue our catch, and then play with dolphins at an aquarium. I would seriously pay money to do this shit, and instead, it's my job. And it's getting busier and busier.

Starting in October, I'll be working with the channel KBC in Fukuoka, and over the last few months I've been making very small appearances on a show called 「イケメン学園」on TNC (also Fukuoka). I discussed that show briefly in my post on rivalry, but I guess they were happy with my level of "talk," because yesterday I got an invitation to appear on another show of theirs, which brings me to the bulk of today's post.

The show is called "Gee Bee," which stands for "グルメ; gourmet" and "ビューティ; beauty." It's a "girl's talk" bangumi and you can check out the link for the TV show here.

What will I be doing on a girl's talk bangumi? I'm assuming they're asking me because of my self-proclaimed 料理人 （りょうりにん；cook) status, because the themes for the show during my appearances will be food. Here's the information I received:

内容は、女性が好む『夜食』です。
The subject will be "late night snacks" for women.
「アメリカ人が食べる夜食」とか、「こんな簡単に出来る夜食があった！」

とか、「何かと何かを混ぜると実は美味しい！」などをイメージしています。
"Popular late night snacks in America," or "You can make this late at night, really easily!" or "If you mix this and this together, it's ACTUALLY really good!" are the kind of topics they're imagining.

So I have to be prepared with a number of conversation topics that will fit in along these lines.

If you guys have any suggestions, I would love to hear them in the comments. The more I have on deck, the easier and better the filming will be.

Keep in mind, these have to be not only true (ideally), but also things that will resonate with a Japanese audience. Even though the first thing that pops into my mind is "Taco Bell," there are no Taco Bells in Japan, very little Mexican food, and even less marijuana. So while I could potentially tell them "Actually, Mexican Food is very popular in America, and there's a fast food restaurant that's open 24 hours, so everyone goes there when they're stoned...." it might get like a 「ああ、そうなんだ。」out of them at BEST. Also, it's probably better to avoid the weed talk entirely.

The dog is even harder to access, culturally....

So here are some of the things I'm thinking about so far:

• Eating Ice Cream Straight Out of the Tub:
  
  
  
  
  
  This is something that I've actually had Japanese women ask me about a LOT! They see it on TV and in movies, and wonder "Do American women really do that?" I guess... yes? I mean, I used to do it. But I think in movies, it's most often used as a way to communicate that the female character is stressed out, or depressed, like what you would call やけ食い （やけぐい；yakegui) in Japanese. Putting it in a bowl is just too much of a pain in the ass... and you're probably gonna eat more than a bowl anyway.

• Chocolate Popcorn:
  I knew a girl who used to put chunks of hard chocolate and caramel in with microwave popcorn. Also small marshmallows too. That would all melt and once the popcorn had popped, she'd give it a good stir and it would coat the popcorn. I'm not really sure how she worked out the timing in terms of WHEN do you add the meltables... but in the end it tasted... really strong. Like popcorn covered in melted chocolate and caramel. And it was really gooey and messy to eat. But she seemed to love it.

• Pizza Toast:
  
  
  
  
  
  The key to a good late night snack is being able to work with whatever you have on hand, and in many American kitchens, you're likely to have bread, tomato sauce, and cheese. Even if you don't have sliced bread, maybe you have a bagel, or a hamburger bun, or crackers... you make do. For a Japanese version, people are not so likely to have tomato sauce, but they are likely to have oily canned tuna and mayo. If they're lucky enough to have bread and some kind of processed cheese, maybe tuna melts?

• Instant Ramen de Pasta!
  
  
  Again, this kind of hinges on whether or not you have sauce. When I was little and wanted something fast and simple, but not something really bad for me, I'd throw away the Top Ramen flavoring packet. I'd just cook the noodles in boiling water, and then season with salt, pepper, garlic olive oil, and toss in whatever vegetables I had on hand. It worked just as fine with tomato sauce, any kind of cream sauce. Parmesan cheese is pretty rare here too, but that made a great addition.

• Salad Dressings as Meat Marinades/Sauces:
  Another quick/healthy fix was to take a piece of fish or white meat chicken and leave it in a bag of Italian (or other oil/vinegar based dressing). Even if you don't have the forethought to do that, you can pan-fry the meat or fish, and pour the dressing directly into the hot pan just a bit before it's about finished. Toss to coat, salt and pepper, and you're good.

• Poached Eggs in the Microwave:
  I'm not sure why we called these poached eggs... they were more just like, fried eggs, but in the microwave. You would lightly oil a small microwave safe bowl, crack an egg into it, season, cover with wax paper, and microwave at a low heat for like, 45 seconds. We used to eat those over toast maybe 3 times a week. Fried Eggs for people who always break them in the pan... or for people who don't want to wash a pan after? That might work.

If you have any other suggestions or interesting anecdotes (and you don't mind the idea of me talking about them on TV), please let me know!

Notes:
*I promise, I'm working on setting up a new system where I can post videos of my TV work online, where blog-readers can find them, without drawing major attention to them and violating any copyrights or getting fired. I'll let you know as soon as they're available.

*Would you guys be interested at all in a vocab post about TV production jargon?

Taboo Topics: What Japanese People Talk About that We Don't

Went blog-topic fishing on Twitter and got a good question from takayamakouichiさん. He asks:

「アメリカに行って、迂闊に意見すると大変なことになるトピックは何ですか？妊娠中絶以外で!!」
"If I were to go to America, what topics should I avoid if I don't want to cause trouble? Other than abortion..."

I like his phrasing, "迂闊に異見する," to carelessly give one's opinion. Imagining a Japanese visitor to America casually saying "So, abortion's pretty great, yeah?" struck me as hilarious. I'm glad you already know to avoid that one, Takayama-san. 笑

It would actually be pretty easy to list the major conversational themes to avoid in America:

1. Religion
2. Politics

Sometimes I hear "The Economy" thrown in there too, but that's so mixed up with politics that I think it's safe to lump those together into a "Politico-Economic" category. Like "abortion," most of the topics I would want to stay away from at the dinner table seem to tie into these.

I have a feeling that there's probably a lot of cross-over between Japan and the West when it comes to what not to talk about in mixed company. Imagining an off-the-cuff Takayama-san saying「妊娠中絶のことですが。。。」("So, about abortion...") at a party in Japan, or say, his in-laws' house, is just as laughable.

Plus, if you were a Japanese VISITOR in America, I have a feeling you'd be forgiven for asking about American politics, religion, and yes, even various methods of... birth control. As someone who was foreign to the country, people would expect you to be curious about it, and as long as you didn't openly reject the answers you got, I think you might be able to have some educational conversations.

So instead of going too broad and basic about what topics are potentially offensive among Westerners, I'd like to offer up a couple of specifics. The following are things I've noticed that Japanese people talk about that I don't think get tossed around so openly in the West.

POOP
(and other movements of the bowels)

I'm sure this has come up at least once on the site before. Japanese people really don't mind being specific about going to the bathroom. It's just as common to say "うんこしたい: I have to poop"or "おしっこしたい：I have to pee," as it is to say "トイレを借ります：I'm going to use the restroom." I'll allow that a Japanese business women might not say "I'm going to go poop," to co-workers, and that an American man might say "Gonna go take a shit" to his friends. But overall, in America it's not really cool to get specific about what you're planning on doing in the bathroom. In Japan, not a problem.

Case in point: Tell a Japanese co-worker that you're not feeling well, they might ask you directly if you have diarrhea. Or if you're constipated. My reaction to that question is always, "Sorry, what?"

I'd even recommend that Japanese people avoid using the word toilet. Having been here for five years now, when I go back to America, I sometimes catch myself saying "Where's the toilet?" which I forget is actually more vulgar than saying "restroom," "bathroom," or "facilities."

PERIODS

Having never been a woman, in America I found myself left out of period discussions. Not so in Japan. Where periods are considered a much more valid reason for taking the day off of work, I was pretty surprised to find "Oh, my period was pretty bad," a not uncommon answer to "Were you out sick yesterday?" I'm not sure people would balk at this as much as they would the above mentioned bodily-functions, and I don't want to be the guy who consigns periods to the realm of the shameful. That said, practically speaking, you would be labeled as "the lady who talks about her period" pretty quickly, Japanese woman.

RACE/NATIONALITY

If you are not a racist, and you've ever heard a Japanese person say 「外国人は苦手: I don't really care for foreigners,」you were probably shocked. I've been shocked and I've heard it more specifically: 「黒人は苦手: I don't really care for black people」or 「インド人は嫌: I don't like Indian people.」

Part of the problem is with my translation. 苦手 might also mean, "I don't handle foreigners well," due to being shy, or not speaking English, feeling uncomfortable, or whatever personal fault of the speaker. It might not be intended to reflect negatively upon the group in question. It's still something you would never say in a social environment in the West, unless you were comfortable that those around you shared your feelings.

It's come up here a million times before, but in a largely heterogeneous country that sees nothing wrong with using generalities to think about not only other groups, but itself as well, these kinds of statements are more acceptable.

My wife and I were discussing our world trip plans the other day with another couple, and they asked if we had plans to go anywhere in Africa. Morocco and Egypt are on our lists, but beyond that, not really. What my wife said though, was "アフリカが嫌：Nope, Africa's no good."

What she meant was "I don't have enough specific places in Africa that I want to see to make it worth putting up with the heat and what I've heard are dangerous areas." But as I mentioned to her later, writing off an entire continent that way, in a conversation with people you don't know that well... not the best move. In Japan, unless your conversational partner happens to love Africa, you might not make a lot of waves. In America, some people would take that as a racist remark.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION

This is the last one and it probably doesn't belong on this list, because it's not something I hear discussed openly in Japan really. It isn't really talked about in Japan at all unless it's in relation to someone on TV. In recent years, gay and transsexual entertainers have become really popular, but it's extremely telling that it's usually only gay or transexual men who act or appear feminine. お姉 (older sister) is what they're called, and with no public dialogue to contradict them, they've led a large portion of the country to believe that gay = a woman stuck in a man's body (or vice versa). To my knowledge, this is pretty far from accurate.

I haven't heard a whole lot of openly made remarks about sexual orientation, but in private discussions, it's clear that the average Japanese person knows little about homosexuality. "I wish I had a gay friend," is something that I hear from women from time to time, but then I heard that from very young or very naive women in America too. I'm pretty sure that grew out of whatever image of "gay" they were getting from TV as well.

I guess there were two reasons I wanted to include it here. First, I think a straight Japanese person who tried to start a conversation about homosexuality, and expected it to conform to what their perception of homosexuality was, might potentially offend some people. And second, there's no religious-basis for any kind of hatred or condemnation of homosexuality over here. When I'm away, I tend to forget that there are lots of hateful people in America who get really fired up over things that have nothing to do with them. I imagine, depending on the venue, that conversation topic might turn up a handful of those people as well.

So those were the ones I could come up with off the top of my head. Have you guys found yourselves in any conversations that made you think, "This would NOT be cool to be talking about back home?"

Rivalry, Competition, and Assholism in Japan

When I was teaching English, I worked with a guy who greeted me every day by saying "Oh, Bobby! MY RIVAL!" He was a goofy, funny-looking guy, and a bit anti-social. After numerous attempts to start regular conversations with him, I realized he wasn't comfortable talking to people without putting on some sort of anime-style voice/character. He did it with Japanese co-workers as well, and the "rival" joke was one of his favorites, despite the fact that after the first few meetings, it made everyone feel really awkward. I'd guess it was his way of dealing with low-self esteem by taking his notion that he didn't measure up to some of the PE teachers, the cool crowd, or the foreigner, and turning it into something he could laugh at.

Rival is a popular loan word, pronounced "raibaru; ライバル" in Japanese. Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the competitive nature of people in general, about our tendency to measure ourselves against one other. By no means do I intend to imply that any of what I'm going to talk about are phenomenon exclusive to Japan, but in turning over ideas about rivalry in my mind I've found that living here has given me a lot to talk about.

My coworker's idea of rivalry, for one thing. I think about things in a competitive way. I keep track of how badly Ciaela blows me away in the YouTube subscription department, for example. And I figure a lot of my progress in Japanese has been motivated by feelings of competition with my Japanese speaking foreign friends. But I've never actually considered anyone a rival. I can't help but wonder if it's because I didn't play a lot of sports as a kid. Here, where the students dedicate SO much more time to competitive activities with the explicit goal of making it to a national competition, no matter WHAT the activity, and there are a proliferation of competition-based manga and anime, maybe Japanese people are more socially conditioned to think of others as rivals?

When I first registered with the modeling agency in Fukuoka (which I discuss here), at one of the walking classes, the teacher addressed all of the new models and said "Just to be clear, the people around you... these are not your friends. They're your rivals. When you go for an audition, you're competing with them, and you need to know your strengths, as well as their weakness." He went on to add "For example, Bobby's strength is that he's a foreigner, and his weakness is that he's bad at modeling." What he said was entirely true, but at the time, I entertained the thought that he was demonstrating his point by treating me as a rival from the start.

As a consequence of this kind of thinking, in the entertainment industry, your coworkers, at least those who are also your peers, never quite relate to you as friends. When you watch Japanese TV shows, you see the "talento" making fun of each other a lot, and it's mostly good natured. Behind the scenes, everyone acts civil enough, but the rivalry that goes on is actually pretty intense. Even when you're working together on the same show, the people that I work with seem like they want to get as much screen time, as much talking time as possible, even if that means doing what's called "nakama hazure," leaving someone out.

Personally, I find it hard to participate in on-screen banter even without the competition. Trying to keep up with a fast-paced conversation, full of jokes and pop-culture references is hard. There's often a lag before I can catch on and respond, and that window is all the opportunity my co-reporter needs to make his or her joke and bring the camera back to him or herself. On a few rare occasions, I've even had a co-worker compliment me on something funny I said during rehearsal, and then turn around and use it themselves during the live broadcast.

I don't hold anything against them for it. The more they speak on air, the funnier they prove themselves to be, the better it is for their career. And I'm probably the only one on the show that isn't concerned about my long-term career, not to mention everyone else has probably worked harder than me just to get there.

There's another show that I've started work on recently, loosely titled "Ikemen Gakuen" or "Hot Guy School." In it, two famous Japanese comedians teach a class of 12 "cool dudes" random stuff. It's not so much of an education as it is an excuse to make models sumo wrestle each other, and eat all kinds of food (the latter half being the prototype for all Japanese TV).

I know a handful of the other models in the room, and it's surprisingly easy to look around and put the 12 dudes into groups. There are the ones who speak when spoken to, and don't get very much screen time, the ones who don't speak even when spoken to and get less, and then there are the ones who really want to be talento, and they speak CONSTANTLY, which means cutting each other off, and interrupting the "teachers," as well. The last group, of course, is the one that's most likely to get more jobs in the future. You have to be willing to assume the role of the rival to have any kind of success.

But if you know any competitive people, you also know that merely being competitive doesn't make you successful. In fact, a lot of people use a willingness to engage in rivalry as overcompensation. Here I'd like to make an awkward segue into areas of competition between foreigners in Japan.

A long time ago, I remember reading a blog about the 10 types of foreigners you'll meet in Japan. It's pretty mean spirited, but also accurate in places, especially when it comes to the "My Japan" types.

I look at it this way: On a surface level, Japan REALLY likes foreigners. If you're the kind of person who can survive on shallow praise, Japan is the perfect country for buying your own hype. And once you start buying your own hype, it becomes all too easy to start participating in it.

"My Japan" types have forgotten that they're not as special as Japan tells them they are, and because of that, when they meet a foreigner who threatens that belief, you'd be surprised by how blatantly obvious the competitions can get.

(I stopped myself from using the term "alpha-male" just now, and then on reflection realized that I've never come across a woman who was obnoxious about her status as SUPER-Gaijin. Hmmm.)

By far the funniest shut-down of such behavior I've ever heard of was from Ciaela. She was drinking with a group of foreigners at a bar. A westerner that they didn't know approached them and said "Hey. How long have you guys been in Japan?" Then, without really listening to or waiting for an answer, he blurted out "Oh, cool. I've been here for 12 years now. And I'm not an English teacher or a student, like you guys probably are." Whereas I would've quietly tolerated him and hoped he would go away, she said "Oh that's nice. Does your Japanese wife know that you're out tonight?" and shut him the hell up.

The competition that I've noticed seems to go on a lot more among people who've been here longer, but I'm not really sure why. I was at a barbecue a few months ago, and met a guy who'd spent some time in Nagasaki and recently moved in closer to Saga. I'll call him Warren, because I think that was his name.

Warren, American, mid-20s, English teacher. He speaks exceptional Japanese, complete with regional accent, and when I came up to the group of Japanese people he was talking to, he was making fun of a girl there because she spoke with an Australian inflection. Without really addressing him, I told her that she shouldn't feel bad about it, because a lot of Americans find that accent attractive: they 憧れる。I asked him if he'd ever heard anyone say that they thought Australian accents were sexy. He said "Those people are fucking stupid."

I kind of cocked my head and smiled awkwardly, and he jumped back in right away with "Dude, that was just a joke."

So I had already written him off as an alpha male type with a sense of humor VERY different from mine (Does that actually count as a "joke?"), but I had a few more occasions to talk to him during the night. On one, he asked me what I was doing, and I said I was trying to get my cooking blog off the ground, working in restaurants, etc, etc. He said "Oh, you like cooking? I can teach you how to make Fillipino food."

There was this INSTANT elevation of the conversation to "This is what I can do and I can do it better than you." And then, later when someone else was asking me to tell them my blog address, and I was getting ready to hand them my business card, he said "Dude, I swear to God, if you pull out a meishi, I'm gonna slap you."

I can see his point of view a little bit here. A foreigner with a business card can come off as a little bit... pretentious. If that foreigner is an ALT. But if you do any kind of business at all, in any country, especially one that depends on publicity and networking, you need to have a business card. So why such a negative reaction? To me, I had a piece of paper with my blog address on it. Handing it to a person who wanted it was easier than searching for a pen and a different piece of paper and writing it out. There was nothing strange or out of place about it. But to him, I looked like one of those "MY JAPAN" guys making a move, and he wanted to discredit it, lest I usurp him.

These kinds of interactions happen a lot, and they boil down to the same phenomenon as the TV shows: other people are your rivals for attention. He wanted all the talk time.

On TV, I get by because I don't have to be as pro-active in seeking out chances as my co-workers. As the modeling teacher pointed out, that's my strength: just being a foreigner means I stand out. They want me to talk more, so they'll meet me halfway.

In the personal sphere, I've learned to ask people a lot of questions about themselves. I think I picked that up from my wife. It's something I've always admired about her. She's lived in foreign countries, traveled all around the world, and yet, when we're talking to some backpacker who just toured SE Asia, she doesn't go: "Oh, I've been there too, weren't the fried bananas great. I also went to THIS island, did you go there? You should," like most people do. She just asks questions. And most of the time EVERYONE has a better conversation for it.

I'm not as good at it as she is, but I definitely don't feel the need to dominate the floor. Believe it or not, as much as I plaster myself all over the internet, I'm not really a spotlight seeker at social scenes and I'd rather laugh at someone else's jokes than talk about myself at length.

Which is one of the reasons I gather a lot of Japanese "friends" who, when it comes down to it, I don't think we actually like each other. I don't like them because I know that they want to be my friend for all the same surface reasons that Japan likes foreigners, which I find dehumanizing and immature. So I smile and answer their questions politely, and am friendly when we meet in town (which happens a lot when you work service industry in a small city). But I find reasons to decline invitations to their parties, or to go out with them and their friends, because I don't want anything deeper than that.

I think that most of them probably don't like me because they've figured out that I don't want to be friends with them. But then there are people who clearly haven't figured that out, and I think that they also secretly don't like me. I get the sense that they really like having a foreign acquaintance because it confers "status" on them. But at the same time, they're jealous. This is a pretty arrogant claim to make, I know, but think about it. We're popular for no reason. They don't know that it can be really frustrating here. They know we get to drink free a lot, and members of the opposite sex who are out of our league will talk to us, and everyone wants to know all about who we are and where we come from. I've faced jealousy at every place I've ever worked in Japan, especially at schools. To outward appearances, the ALT is, in many cases, the most popular staff member while being the least qualified, and working the fewest hours. If I was a regular teacher, that would piss me off.

And I think that same jealousy creates a sense of personal rivalry with those casual friends as well. At one of the restaurants where I work, there are a handful of customers who would call me their friend, who also make it a point to make passive aggressive digs about how I'm getting fat, or how my skin is bad, or how my pronunciation sucks. Emphasize or go out of their way to point out what I don't know. Friends don't do that. People who want to bring you down do. Rivals do.

And for me, the longer I'm here, the less interested I am in being anyone's rival.

I'm really curious to know if you other foreigners in Japan have had similar experiences in the fields you're in, either at school, at your job, or in your personal life. Do you find yourself in competition with others? How do you deal with it? What do you think causes it?

And, about the last bit: In my opinion, Asians in general are more likely to make comments about weight or appearance directly to your face than Westerners. Do you think it's actually more acceptable? Would an Asian person not find the same sort of comment insulting or take it negatively?

Crazy Whim of the Day

Love in the Time of Cholera is one of my all-time favorite books. I've read the English language translation four times.

My wife has never read the Japanese copy I bought for her a few years back. So I'm gonna.

I don't really know why I'm blogging this. Maybe because it'll be harder to back out. Wish me luck.

Behind The Scenes on Japanese TV in the Aftermath of the Disaster

Author's note:
The first part of this post is geared towards Japanese Language students. If you're interested in the disaster related content, skip down past the vocab lists.

I've mentioned this before, but if you watch Japanese TV,
you'll hear the same handful of words OVER and OVER and OVER again.

They boil down to three basic categories: "Delicious," "Beautiful/Cute," and "Feels Good!"

Which means that even a beginning Japanese student should be able to survive a Japanese TV appearance with the following five phrases:

"美味しい！"
（おいしい）

"甘い！"
（うまい）

"きれい！"

"可愛い！"
（かわいい）

"気持ちいい！"
（きもちいい）

Of course, I get a lot of mileage out of those five. But since I've started working in TV, I've found myself using some other words A LOT more than I used to. I'd like to introduce you to those today.

癒される
いやされる
to be cured, healed

Used in relaxing situations. Connotations of peacefulness and quietness that magically clear away your stress. Good for nature and for onsen, and massages!

落ち着く
おちつく
to calm down; to harmonize

Also good for relaxing. Great for quiet restaurants with traditional Japanese decor. Think relaxing on the tatami and drinking tea.

圧倒される
あっとうされる
to be overwhelmed; over powered

Great for fantastic vistas, stunning scenery. Imagine a lookout point with a 360 degree view, beautiful in all directions. Or being confronted with like, an ENORMOUS tree that's been alive for thousands of years.

神秘的
しんぴてき
mysterious

While I NEVER use the word mysterious in English, it gets used a lot in Japanese. The Easter Island statues are "shinpiteki." So are jellyfish. It's a great word to pull out for travel segments that involve shrines, natural wonders, or "power-spots." Or jellyfish museums.

風景
ふうけい
the scenery

My English-language brain thinks that scenery always has to be outside, like a landscape, but 風景 can just be what's in your visual field. Interior decor can sometimes be described with 風景. The point is that it's what you're looking at, purposefully.

景色
けしき
the scenery

THIS one is for the landscape :)

絶景
ぜっけい
a superb view

A simple one word phrase that you can use to combine 風景 with 圧倒される。 Scenery that overwhelms you with how splendid it is. The kanji 絶, used in other compounds like 絶品 (a unique or superb item) or 絶妙 (exquisite, miraculous) has a touch of the high class to it.

風情
ふぜい
the flavor; the air

Encompassing hospitality and atmosphere, it's the intangible feeling of a place. You don't have to add more descriptive language to this word. Think of it like "This place has character."

雰囲気
ふんいき　（pronounced ふいんき）
the atmosphere

Again, the general feeling/mood of a place. This one is better used with descriptive words, and can be used to talk about places and people. Check this archived Nirav post for more detail.

豪華（な）
ごうか（な）
wonderful; gorgeous; extravagant

Useful when faced with a lavish spread of food, or anything that was clearly expensive.

贅沢（な）
ぜいたく（な）
luxurious; extravagant

Again, luxury is usually determined by the money. A hamburger is おいしい. A hamburger made with Kobe beef is 贅沢。

How the Earthquake Affected Language on TV:
A handful of these words actually became NG (no good) to use on television recently.
In the aftermath of the Touhoku Earthquake/Tsunami, most Japanese regular TV programming was canceled or preempted.

For live entertainment based shows, like the one I work for, this meant going off of the air for a while. I had about 7 days of scheduled work that, due to the crisis, became inappropriate to air.

And when the regular TV shows did resume, it was with a more somber tone. My first day back at work, I had to present a segment about going to an aquarium, watching a dolphin show, visiting a petting zoo, and eating whale sashimi. All while Disaster Relief information and aftershock updates ticked across the bottom of the screen. You can imagine the delicate nature of trying to figure out what kind of mood you want to communicate to the viewers.

Because of that, in editing all of the footage we had shot, the directors chose to excise any instances of words like "extravagant," "luxurious," "fun," and even "delicious." Whole sections were cut out of a trip to Kumamoto segment, like a scene in which a local fish market presented us with a 5 pound brick of fresh sushi-grade maguro.

Even words like 癒される (to be healed), and 落ち着く(to relax) had to be called into question. We were being "healed" by relaxing in onsens. What right did we have to even talk about "healing" when those affected by the disasters were in real emotional and physical pain.?

The nature of these kinds of shows in general is problematic in a situation like this. The basic format is "We're going to show you someone enjoying something." When faced with a disaster, it suddenly became inconsiderate to do that. We were living it up, wasting money, and going on and on about how great it was.

Personally, I don't enjoy watching Japanese gourmet or travel shows, even in the best of times. Every reaction just seems over the top, and as a "reporter" having to rant and rave about how good the theme park curry is has only reinforced that opinion. So I was impressed by the recognition for the need for restraint and respect.

At the same time, I draw mental parallels between the director who says "We can't show people having fun" and the governor who says "It's inappropriate to hold a flower viewing party."

True, a private flower-viewing party with friends and family in a park isn't quite on the same scale as broadcasting a TV show next to disaster-related news. But for me, hanami and Japanese TV are both manifestations of the culture, and both hold a place in Japanese life. And there comes a time where you have to go back to normal life.

It's neither my intention nor my place to say "We've spent enough time on this disaster, let's move on." I actually would have preferred a longer moratorium on television shenanigans. It's REALLY uncomfortable trying to sell a fun little video clip of yourself rowing a boat and feeding ducks, when the news at the top of the hour is about evacuees.

I talk about TV's place in Japanese life because of the emails, faxes, and letters that the TV station receives.

Many of them say "Thank you." Just like the people who refused to abstain from hanami, the people who watch the show seem to feel that it's important to be able to have fun again. The messages are full of phrases like "元気を貰える”　(we can get our positive energy back) or "笑顔が戻る" (to be able to smile/laugh again). They say they think it's important to be able watch someone "enjoying" things, because it lets them imagine themselves feeling the same way. They say it's what people need in a time like this.

I can see what they mean.

I also understand the opposing argument, that TV is used more to distract than to galvanize. But our show is still working to help support the survivors. The anchors have filmed a commercial that tells people what they can do to contribute. Miranba-kun, our mascot, makes public appearances and brings a donation box.

In any case, as of last week, "delicious" and "fun" are back on the table. On TV at least, it seems like everything's back to normal.

My Answer to The China, Korea, Japan question is finally up!

Question I got from JetDaisuke. What's the deal with Western movies and TV confusing Asian cultures?

Your comments really helped me with the answer to this one, so please, check it out: