Late night TV in Japan is always fun. One show I like to catch sometimes is called Arita and MMatsuko and Men and Women, a “talk variety” show in which 50 people from a certain area of society are gathered into a studio to have a discussion about different issues. One week might feature Tokyo University students who tell of the years of sacrifices they had to make to enter Japan’s most prestigious university, and another might feature housewives or “cabaret girls” working in hostess clubs, while the rather large and frightening Matsuko throws out questions to be audience and gives advice. Japan has a unique role as “the only country that cares what its foreigners think,” and the show sometimes features gaijin living in Japan, who vent about what frustrates them about life here. It’s interesting to hear the point-of-view not only from Americans and Canadians and Brits living here, but people from China and Thailand and Africa as well.
For a late-night show hosted by a 250 lb transvestite, it’s quite entertaining.
