☆MY BLOG☆僕のブログ☆MON BLOG☆

Ainori is a popular reality show in Japan, aired on Fuji TV on Monday nights at 23:00.

In August 2005, I discovered that Ainori was not only popular in Japan, but also all over the world thanks to Bit Torrent technology. I decided to write a summary of each episode, and do a translation of the weekly photo captions from the official site. What do I get out of this? I get to improve my Japanese, I get more traffic to my blog, but above all, I get the satisfaction of knowing many non-Japanese speakers all over the world can appreciate a truly unique reality show. Enjoy, and don’t hesitate to post any comments or questions you may have.

Ainori’s official homepage (Japanese only).

Current participants

Ainori’s BT downloads available @ D-Addicts and Saiyaman

Ainori #310

WARNING! THIS IS A …

Oh, what the hell, who am I kiddin’ here?

Peep-peep-peep! Ok, so we could all hear the sound of that huge dump truck with Izumi behind the wheel, backing up slowly since last week. Well, at least Alec gave it his best shot, with a somewhat obscure comparison with bath water temperature! He told Izumi that she was like hot bath water at 41°C (about 106°F), i.e. at first he’d thought he couldn’t possibly get in, but once he’d tried, he’d found it just perfect. Whatever…

Of course, Nintendo boy was in his own world until the end, truly believing he had a 70% chance of going back to Japan with Izumi. Upon being asked what he thought the remaining 30% entailed, he replied that maybe Izumi had an eye on Suuzan…

Needless to say, his heart practically stopped when she ended up saying: “I can’t go back to Japan”, on account that she had someone else on her mind. Of course, Izumi was talking about Tagamikun, but Alec really thought she was talking about Suuzan until the end…

Aftermath: he just sat there on his bags for a while, still unable to believe he had been dumped. Dudes, I can’t imagine how humiliating it must have been for him upon returning to Japan, and realizing that what he thought Izumi and Hisayon were feeling for him, and the alleged romance between Izumi and Suuzan, which precipitated his love declaration to Izumi was all the product of his imagination. Either he left Japan all together, or he got plastic surgery and started the “Ainori Victim Relocation Program”.

Another funny thing is that he said “un” (the Japanese version of “yeah”) an unbelievable 35 times during Izumi’s reply. It was excruciating! I was literally screaming “Shut up! Shut up!” at the TV screen. My wife was having quite a good time laughing at me… Ah well, so long, Alec. You really gave us some good times with your, ahem, lunacy.

In other news, the group has left Austria, and entered Liechtenstein, Ainori’s 66th country. However, for the first time (unless I’m mistakin’) in Ainori’s history, they just crossed that very small country and immediately went to Switzerland, Ainori’s 67th country. Boy, that was weird! The Swiss driver even looked like he was Alec’s replacement. Next week, a new male member will join the group, apparently a future lawyer, and Izumi getting pissed off again holds the promise of what seems like an unprecedented incident on Ainori…

Ainori 310 – Special treat for non-Japanese speakers

NEXT ON AINORI

Ainori is a popular reality show in Japan, aired on Fuji TV on Monday nights at 23:00.

In August 2005, I discovered that Ainori was not only popular in Japan, but also all over the world thanks to Bit Torrent technology. I decided to write a summary of each episode, and do a translation of the weekly photo captions from the official site. What do I get out of this? I get to improve my Japanese, I get more traffic to my blog, but above all, I get the satisfaction of knowing many non-Japanese speakers all over the world can appreciate a truly unique reality show. Enjoy, and don’t hesitate to post any comments or questions you may have.

Ainori’s official homepage (Japanese only).

Current participants

Ainori’s BT downloads available @ D-Addicts and Saiyaman

Ainori #309

WARNING! THIS IS A SPOILER!

Yep, the group got drunk, again. And what happens when these guys get drunk? Why, all hell breaks loose, of course.

It all began when the group started drinking this Austrian wine, called “Sturm”. It’s supposed to contain only 10% of alcohol, but they compensated for that “lack” by drinking more of it, and quickly, as it is the custom in Japan… Events then unfolded in an unpredictable manner, but I’ll try to summarize them as clearly as possible. Here we go…

Offender #1: Suuzan – The man who was regretful thinking about Mie. Suuzan was the first one to go. He started lying on the ground putting grass blades on his head as if it was hair, started crying like a baby, and ended up climbing up a tree where he cried even more, apparently reminiscing about Mie.

Suuzan is now realizing what a big mistake he made when he turned her down. With Mie’s ghost hanging over him, I think he won’t be able to concentrate on any other girl for quite a while. I say he’s a potential contender for Hide’s record…

Offender #2: Hisayon – The lonely girl who was shocked by the fact nobody had an eye on her. Hisayon had her feelings hurt earlier on that day, when the whole group dressed up in Renaissance clothes, but none of the boys threw themselves at her to have their picture taken together. When the group started drinking, the fact that Tagamikun, the boy she likes, and Goki were having a lot of fun drinking didn’t help either. She suddenly felt really lonely, and after a few glasses went to sit separately from the group and started crying. That mobilized Goki and (surprisingly) Outlaw, who didn’t try any dirty tricks – on the contrary, he seemed to be genuinely supportive. Must have been the wine…

Offender #3: Izumi- The woman who had one way feelings towards the 20 year old Tagamikun. Then, Izumi started to look after Suuzan, who was obvioulsy in pretty bad shape. Pretty drunk, too, she tried to climb up the tree he was in to join him, and doing so flashed her panties quite unabashedly. That didn’t go down too well with an overprotective Alec, who was screaming at the top of his lungs. After spending some time up there, she joined the others back, tried to comfort Hisayon, and suddenly decided it was all Tagamikun’s fault if Hisayon was crying. She walked up to him and said in a crude manner: “This is all your fault. Don’t you get it? I don’t wanna be anywhere near you”.

Brrr, what a bitch! It felt like Takano was back or something!

Offender #4: Tagamikun – The innocent, heartless boy. Right, this guy had absolutely no clue as to why Hisayon was crying, and was trying to understand so much why Izumi told him (wrongly) everything was his fault. The real victim in this series of disorderly events…　

　Offender #5: Alec – The man who set his mind on Izumi. Now Alec got so excited when Izumi started getting too close to Suuzan, he was practically jumping up and down. And the panties incident really worked him up! He got so suspicious that on the next day he went to see the driver and asked for the fateful plane tickets. Yep, next week, Alec is going to declare his love to Izumi, and will most probably go back to Japan by himself. Too bad, he was so funny…　

Ainori 309 – Special treat for non-Japanese speakers

NEXT ON AINORI

Ainori is a popular reality show in Japan, aired on Fuji TV on Monday nights at 23:00.

In August 2005, I discovered that Ainori was not only popular in Japan, but also all over the world thanks to Bit Torrent technology. I decided to write a summary of each episode, and do a translation of the weekly photo captions from the official site. What do I get out of this? I get to improve my Japanese, I get more traffic to my blog, but above all, I get the satisfaction of knowing many non-Japanese speakers all over the world can appreciate a truly unique reality show. Enjoy, and don’t hesitate to post any comments or questions you may have.

Ainori’s official homepage (Japanese only).

Current participants

Ainori’s BT downloads available @ D-Addicts and Saiyaman

Ainori #308

WARNING! THIS IS A SPOILER!

And the new Ainori host is… (drum rolls) Wentz Eiji!? Wentz Eiji is a 20 year old singer from mixed Japanese and American descent, who’s been working as a model and an actor since he was young. He’s part of a duet with Teppei Koike , called WaT, who have just released their first album on March 1st, 2006. Obviously one the (many) fads here in Japan, he lacks the credibility of Haruhiko Katou, his predecessor, and I really wonder how long he will last on the show. Ah, well, I wish him good luck anyway, he’ll need it.

Alec finally made up his mind, and it seems he’s going to go for Izumi, decision based mostly on the fruit of his boundless imagination. He was talking with Izumi on the bus, about how frankly she could speak to a hypothetical boyfriend, and although she replied “in general”, sure enough, he thought she was talking about him. Later, when Izumi couldn’t repress her tears because Goki and Tagamikun (the boy she has her eyes on) seemed to be having too much fun together, Alec thought she was crying because of him. I really feel bad for Alec. It’s gonna hurt so bad when he falls down…

Weekly “sukebe” corner. OMG! Outlaw IS human after all! According to him, the fact that he’s sharing a lot of time with Suuzan, sharing the same room and all, is actually having an influence on him. He thinks he’s getting so much in touch with his feelings that if he were in Japan he wouldn’t be able to walk the streets of Sinjuku, not being “superficial” enough. He even wrote in his diary that he thought it would be nice if he could find a girl he’d love… Wow!

Apparently, a CD has been released with all the songs Alec has sung, available only through the official Ainori homepage. There’s also a few songs from TK , and other highlights from some of the past episodes.

Ainori 308 – Special treat for non-Japanese speakers

NEXT ON AINORI