A roapy soap

An Englishman in Osaka posts about a really badly acted Japanese soap. I’d love to know what show this is from. If anyone knows, please post a comment. This goes above and beyond the typical Japanese overacting, possibly because it includes an actual English-speaking actor. Although he’s supposed to be English, he sounds at times like he’s German.

You really should read the post, but here’s the video clip for those who just want to see the horror:

Deliciousness!

For the cookout yesterday we bought a big stack of burgers from Costco and a couple nice, ripe tomatoes from the Farmer’s Market. I had forgotten what a joy real, fresh tomatoes are on a burger. We’ve become accustomed to those bland, tough, watery mass-martket tomatoes they sell in the stores and which fast food joints foist on us, but those aren’t real tomatoes. Real tomatoes come from the garden, picked when they’re ripe and ready and at their sweet, juicy best. Those other tomatoes are picked while they’re still green and then gassed to turn them red. But once the tomato is picked, it stops developing. Its texture and flavour will never improve, and those mass-market tomatoes taste like a cross between styrofoam and particle board.

If you’ve forgotten how wonderful a ripe, fresh tomato tastes on a burger, do yourself a favour and grow or buy some and see for yourself. Your taste buds will thank you.

Drama Thoughts 2.0

Just watched the first episodes of three of this season’s crop of dramas. So far I’m not really in love with any of them.

Ghost Friends is about a high school girl who can see ghosts. Oh, and her mom is a ghost, and so are her two best friends. After an accident which killed her best friends she finds she can see and talk to ghosts. She helps them fulfill their last wishes so they can move on to the next life. There’s lots of cheesy effects. It’s...OK, I guess, if you like that sort of thing. I’m not really into the supernatural shows, but this one is kinda cute. I’m giving this one to episode 3 to prove itself.

Konkatsu Rikatsu is following the “Oh NO, single 40-year-old women! How HORRIBLE!” story. It’s a comedy, as opposed to Around 40 which was more of a serious drama. It has the requisite meddling mother (who doesn’t appear to be much older than her daughter) and the daughter’s rival, a recently divorced mother who comes to live with them after her divorce. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep up with this one. I’ll watch the second episode.

Lastly, Ikemen Sobaya Tantei is about...um... You know, I have no clue what it’s about. It’s one of those, “Look how crazy our characters are!” shows. There’s a guy from a ramen stand who delivers noodles to people on his bike, and there’s an insane guy with an afro wig who whistles and behaves like he’s schizophrenic. And then there’s a cop with AWFUL teeth. He yells a lot. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, so I just tossed it.

Some of the other shows I want to see have aired, but the only copies around right now are the high resolution versions, and I don’t want those. If you’re going to offer up something in HD, shouldn’t it look markedly better than the SD version? I kinda think so. But no, the HD videos are always grainy and blocky. Whoever’s doing the encoding is using too heavy a hand in the compression. Oh well. I’m sure the SD versions will show up in time.