"Television is for appearing on -
not for looking at."
Noel Coward
English actor, dramatist
& songwriter (1899 - 1973)
I graduated from my TV appearance in Nekketsu BO-SO TV
aired over Chiba TV after making four guest appearances on the show
last year. What made that even more intriguing is the fact that it was a
live recording! Super cuak throughout the show but I am glad
that it turned out to be a really exciting experience. However, that
wasn't my first TV appearance as I was interviewed for a show on Chiba TV - "Weekly Chiba Prefecture"
in early February last year. The fact that the show was shot at my
university made everyone in the university knew me, which led to me
being picked as the "Most Eligible Bachelor" at the graduation ball
after our convocation night.
I'm sure you didn't believe the last line, did you? Haha!
Mr Takahashi, the director from Chiba TV, conducting the interview at the Katara Forest of Chiba University in February 2012.
Anyway,
all these involvements came from my ambassadorship with other
international students and foreigners, who are appointed as Chiba Kun
Ambassadors. Just in case you wonder what Chiba Kun Ambassadors is all
about, and what do we do, you can read it from the entry of our appointment ceremony earlier this month.
This
is my third straight year becoming one of the Chiba Kun Ambassadors
since this project was started in 2011. Although technically I am no
longer living in Chiba Prefecture, as I now live in Kamata of Ōta-ku in
Tokyo, I am glad to be given the privilege to contribute as one of the
tools to boast the tourism industry of Chiba Prefecture.
As
for this year, there has not been any appearances on TV shows (yet?).
For a change, we made ourselves famous in another media; a much more
traditional media which is made of tree. Yup, paper, or more precisely,
newspaper. The appointment ceremony at Chiba Prefecture Government
Office was widely reported on major newspapers in Chiba and Tokyo.
The first one would be the coloured-first-page article which made it into Chiba Nippo.
The
news basically reported about the objectives of Chiba Kun Ambassadors
and the countries the Ambassadors come from. It also mentioned about the
short speech from the Governor of Chiba Prefecture, Mr. Kensaku Morita,
who told us about this summer trip to Thailand last year. Everyone in
Thailand seems to know about Tokyo Disneyland, but they have no idea
where Chiba Prefecture is.
As a matter of fact, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea are both located in Urayasu City in Chiba Prefecture.
Yomiuri Shinbun, 7 June 2013 (page 35).
The result for sticking out my head the highest - almost kena cropped out from the photo lol!
Nikkei Shinbun, 7 June 2013 (page 35).
Mr.
Morita, who believe it or not, used to be an actor in the 70s, also
reminded us to write our honest thoughts about the food, the tourist
spots, our personal opinions on Chiba in our blogs and other social
media, no matter it is a good or bad comment.
Being a busy man, he left the ceremony immediately after his five-minute speech.
However,
that was not the end of our brief fame on the media. Besides newspaper,
we made it to the news as well; the evening news on Chiba TV to be
exact. On the same evening of the appointment ceremony, the event was
reported on the news. However, due to copyrights issue, the video is not available for public viewing. You can leave a common if you wanna watch it.
From all these publicity, I am wondering if these will lead to fame and fortune, and not just make me well known as an overgrown giraffe lol!
From all these publicity, I am wondering if these will lead to fame and fortune, and not just make me well known as an overgrown giraffe lol!