Guess what, which one is 100 million yen (one million dollar) BONSAI?

 A little while ago, I watched a Japanese variety show "TV performer rating classification check (芸能人格付けチェック)". Major Japanese artists, major Japanese TV performer, major Japanese comedian and major Japanese actor appear in the TV show. They are checked whether they are real major people or not. 

GACKT is a regular of the TV show.

Masatoshi Hamada is a facilitator of the show. He is one of major Japanese comedian. His comedy duo name is "Down Town". His partner is Hitoshi Matsumoto who made a film "Big man in Japan (大日本人)". "Down Town" is a great comedy duo. I love them. Especially, Hitoshi Matsumoto, he has a great deal of talent. I want to post an article about them someday.

Masatoshi Hamada. His nick name is "Hama-chan"

Hama-chan shows general products (Amateur) and luxury goods (professional) of the same category to the major people. And then, they have to figure out which one is the luxury goods. That will determine their rank according to the number of correct answers. The question is alternative "A" or "B" with some exceptions. 

For example, they distinguish sound of a violin. The violinist plays same music by using two different violins. One of them is a mass-produced product, cheap violin and the other one is Stradivarius which is worth hundreds of thousands to several million U.S. dollars at today's prices. It is very hard to distinguish. 

And there was a Bonsai question. Here are two Bonsais.

Please try to think which one is one million dollar Bonsai.

One of them is made by Kunio Kobayashi who is a Bonsai expert and owner of Shunkaen Bosai Museum. 

Bonsai expert: Mr. Kunio Kobayashi

 Shunkaen Bosai Museum

4 times winner of Prime Minister Award

The other one is a fake Bonsai. But It is made by Mitsuyo Otsuki. She is an artificial Bonsai expert. Her Bonsai is not real but her technique is fantastic.

Artificial Bonsai expert: Ms. Mitsuyo Otsuki

These are the materials for Artificial Bonsai.
She is also winner of Prime Minister Award.

They are both professional and master of the field. Here is the Bosai picture again. The point is the height. A has double in height than B.

Have a closer look at A and B

They look very similar for me. A is kind of huge as Bonsai, I guess. B is bright in color.

They can not touch them and they have to see Bonsais from some distance. Did you get your answer? Please take a look the pictures again if you are still thinking.


Are you ready to answer? The answer is... (scroll down)

Japanese noodle, Soba is like a mirror of the mind

I watched a Japanese documentary TV show, "Professional" yesterday. It was a very interesting program. A soba chef, Kunihiro Takahashi was a great chef of soba (そば or 蕎麦). He is 68 years old. People call him "A God of Soba". 

Soba is the Japanese name for buckwheat. It is synonymous with a type of thin noodle made from buckwheat flour and it can refer to any thin noodle in Japan (unlike thick wheat noodles, known as udon). Soba noodles are served either chilled with a dipping sauce, or in hot broth as a noodle soup.  

In his case, he just served chilled soba with a dipping sauce. Because he said, "It is very simple menu so it shows my mind. Soba is like a mirror of the mind." 

He lives in the countryside of Hiroshima in Japan. His Soba restaurant is open only weekends and holidays. He teaches how to make Soba for his pupils for the weekdays. 

He mixes 9 different of buckwheat. He rolls out the dough using a rolling pin. "If the dough's height is 1.2 mm, it is the best", he said.  It will be great "Nodogoshi（のどごし）". 

"Nodogoshi" is a word that is represented the comfort to go through the throat smoothly while feeling the coldness because of appropriate boiling and swing of noodles.

A very famous Japanese nationally-televised TV program, "Waratte Iitomo! (It's OK to laugh!)" is terminated?

A TV show "Waratte Iitomo" started in October 1982. This show aired every weekday at 12 pm on Fuji TV. This show's host is Tamori (Kazuyoshi Morita). The show features a series of regular members who only feature on a particular day of the week. These regular members are changed periodically. Everyday we can see the different casts and the different programs with Tamori in the show. The system is a kind of fun for us to watch the show. The show is at noon so actually, the workers and the students can not see this TV show. But every Sundays, the show airs the digest version, so those people also can see the TV show.  

Tamori attended Waratte Iitomo's 5000th show, giving him the record for the longest continued hosting of a live television program. His record was recorded in the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records. Bill Gates has appeared on this show at the time.

But this TV show will be terminated in March 2014 because of a backdrop of a fall in viewing figures. We thought we could see this TV show forever even if Tamori retired. 

Fuji TV slipped to third place in the annual viewership of last year. Chihiro Kameyama, who was appointed the president of Fuji TV in June this year, was hit and series "Bayside Shakedown" mission as a producer in the viewing rate recovery. According to the officials, Kameyama regime analysis "Waratte Iitomo is a large presence to affect the rating of the day. We can not expect to rise the entire rating of Fuji TV without this decision." he said. He actually had decided to end the show just after he became the president. It was a very famous and lovely show for us, but the things will change. I hope Fuji TV can make a wonderful TV program in the near future after Waratte Iitomo.

Thank you!