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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.

Good News, people! It seems streaming videos of Ainori are still available on youtube.com.

This week we had a busy episode, with a lot of stuff going on. Yankumi’s replacement joined the group. Sanchan cried in front of Bambi, unaware that he was in fact crying for her. Bambi apparently gave up on her diet, even though she is under a lot of pressure. Nagisa went through an unbelievably transformation, and Issy suddenly revealed he felt attracted to her. But as usual, let me start by introducing the new girl woman:

Meet Akiko “Miyanee” Miyakawa, 31 (yes, 31), from Okayama Prefecture. She’s actually the oldest female participant to join Ainori ever, which is good news because she probably won’t be jumping up and down and singing all the time, or trying to look good by putting others down due to an obvious lack of self-confidence She has a history of dating younger men (Ainori must be a paradise for her), and applied to the show because she got dumped by her boyfriend. She was in Canada (cool!) on a working holiday visa just before joining the show, and I hope she’ll find love on Ainori – maybe she’d be a good match for Gurasan (26)? Good luck!

This week we had the sublime privilege of watching another wonderful Ainori lesson about tectonic plates, and how the ones diverging from each other in Iceland where converging back together in Japan or something, accounting for all the earthquakes, bla, bla, bla, zzzzzzzz. Mmh? Oh, sorry, I fell asleep while typing. I’ve said it before, and (unfortunately) will say it again, if we’d wanna learn about plate tectonics, the fate of whales, the Holocaust or the rise and fall of communism in Europe (not that I’m trying to imply that these are trivial topics, on the contrary), we’d watch the Nature Channel or read about it on Wikipedia. Please, don’t take valuable Ainori air time away from us!

We don’t need your freakin’ lessons!

So the group was having traditional Smalahove, i.e. sheep’s head (yes, sheep’s head – and you thought the Japanese had unusual food!) and everybody was having a great time, except for Sanchan. So later that afternoon, Bambi invited Sanchan for a talk, convinced that she hurt his feelings when she refused his support last week. So she started by apologizing for crying a lot lately, to which Sanchan replied that it was ok for someone to cry if they felt like it, that he actually felt like crying, too. Bambi, thinking he was sad because Yokomi had left, told him she understood as she knew he was close to Yokomi. She then asked Sanchan if he wanted to cry, which he did, unaware that he was in fact crying because he had realized Bambi was in love with Yokomi. I think Sanchan shouldn’t be so sensitive. This is what Ainori is all about, and besides, now that Yokomi is out of the picture, I say he now has a better chance than he ever had before. Then again, with his history, it’s probably the first time he got so close to romance, so I guess he’s having a hard time dealing with all that’s going on. Hang in there, little buddy!

Then, the group visited a hot spring, and Moriken and Gurasan took a dip even though the water was at 50 °C (122 °F)! Usually, the hottest baths in Japanese hot springs go as hot as 43°C (about 110 °F), and let me tell you that you slip in veeeeery slowly. I can’t imagine getting in at that temperature! Anyway, while the group was relaxing and having fun watching the two screaming “It’s hot! It’s so hot!”, Issy told Nagisa: “I’m going to say this just once. Nagisa…”, and then there was a big SPLASH which covered what he told her. Later, back in the staff’s room, Nagisa revealed that he had told her that he was the only one who could change her character. Issy had indeed been on Nagisa’s back for a while, scolding her whenever she did something wrong, but in a “big brother” kind of way, never giving up on her, which was in fact why Nagisa was falling in love with him more and more everyday.

“Nagisa…” SPLASH!

And then, the unthinkable happened! The next day, it had been decided that the group would sleep in tents, so they had to pitch them in a cold, rainy weather, at that. Nagisa, who hates tents as we learned when she made a scene a few months ago, was wearing a mini skirt and high heels as usual, and didn’t look like she was looking forward to another night of camping. So as the group was all working together getting the tents ready, with Nagisa was conspicuously absent. And then, Nagisa appeared out of the blue, wearing jeans and sneakers, apologized for being late, and started helping the others. She then wrote in her diary how sorry she was for being such a nuisance to the rest of the group and the staff, and that she was done being irresponsible.

From Nagisa’s Diary: “I’m done being irresponsible”

Aaah, excuse me, but wasn’t that a little sudden? Last week she was telling Bambi to die, and this week she’s reformed, just like that? Granted, other despicable Ainori participants, like Outlaw, have gone through changes during the show, but at least we could see the process take place slowly, as it should naturally. Personally, I don’t buy it. I say she’s just trying to please Issy because he told her she should change and she’s infatuated with him. I’m willing to give a chance to Nagisa (hey, and even maybe forgive her), the human being, going through a real period of growth and changing for the better. I don’t care much (not at all, actually) for Nagisa, the robot, who just flipped a switch to become Miss goody-two-shoes.

Then we have Bambi, who’s going through a “diet crisis”. It seems that she was told by all the boys in one way or another that she’d look cute if she’d lose a bit of weight. She was told directly once by Gurasan that she would be popular if she lost weight because she was cute, then Sanchan told her he preferred thinner girls, and to top it all, Issy told her that guys probably told her she’d look cute if she lost weight all the time. She wrote in her diary that she didn’t need to be told, that she knew it. I have to agree that the guys are a bit insensitive on that one. I mean, who goes around telling girls they’d look better if they lost weight? Anyway, the next day the group was having bread cooked from magma heat only (cool), and the reason Bambi is loosing her fight became clear: she was eating like there was no tomorrow! Ok, so she’s on a diet and suddenly there’s a ton of delicious hot bread and butter in front of her (sigh). I guess nobody would resist. But she kept eating even after all the others were done – and no wonder, they were all laughing watching her. Girl! It’s ok to try the food, but you have to pace yourself!

“It’s good”

That night, Issy met Nagisa in the lobby, who had decided to play a little piano for him. They had a lot of fun, and although I didn’t think she was that good (and she dared turn down a career launch with THAT voice, on account that she wouldn’t be able to sing like she wanted to – please!), Issy seemed to appreciate her “talent”. And then another bomb came: Issy went and tell the staff that he had seen “another” of Nagisa’s good sides, and that he was moved that she started helping with the tents. He also added that he didn’t dislike the fact she was so proud at all. Ah, well, love works in mysterious ways, but I’m disappointed that he fell for the “I’ll help with the tents even though I’m usually a brat” bit.

Without noticing, he was on the verge of love

Next week, Nagisa and Issy’s relationship will apparently skyrocket, Sanchan will get “mature” advice from Miyanee, and try to use it, and some incident (read: unnecessary false suspense engineered by brilliant producers) will happen.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 7.00 pm and is filed under Ainori 　あいのり　戀愛巴士 恋爱巴士. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.