Nekketsu BO-SO TV - Narita Special

"Wowww, totally going to be a true star!"

Yvonne Neo

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I have been receiving quite many interesting comments recently, since I made my debut in Nekketsu BO-SO TV (熱血BO-SO TV) on Chiba TV. Some said nowadays, my only job is to appear on TV, while some are regretting for not getting an autograph from me when they met me last time lol! Never mind guys, if you guys wanna have my autograph, just let me know 'coz I already photocopied a whole pile of autographs, ready to be distributed to you all haha wtf!

Hmmm, I guess I shall stop crapping because this week's show is supposed to be about Narita city. Yes, the little town in Chiba Prefecture that is often associated with Narita Airport and unagi, or freshwater eel.

Posing with Unari Kun, the mascot for Narita town.

Konnichiwa from the two Chiba Kun Ambassadors.

Speaking of unagi and Narita airport, that is what that brought to the birth of Unari Kun. Some said it looks like a penguin, with two tissue rolls attached to it. My Mom thought it was a dolphin. I have no idea how on earth did it make her felt that Unari Kun looks like a dolphin lol!

The first segment - "Nekketsu Local Gourmet" (熱血ご当地グルメ) was about unagi. Mr Happa Ikki went to Narita to try out on the town's most famous food - unagi. The ironic thing is that unagi is not something that he really likes, but unfortunately he had to make the trip to Narita because nobody was available at that time haha!

Unagi set lunch which costs a bomb!

Another local food to try in Narita - Unagi ice cream.

The unagi set lunch (大井川共水うなぎ) which contains two thinly sliced and grilled unagi costs a whopping 5,000 yen! Looking at how delicious it is while he enjoyed the sumptuous meal, we thought that those in the studio will get to try on the unagi as well. Not much, a small bite would be very good enough. Unfortunately for us, there were no unagi-tasting session this time :(

Anyway, from 12 July to 19 August, 2012, Narita Unagi Festival (成田うなぎ祭り) will be held in Narita. During the period, there will be a stamp rally by participating shops and restaurants around the town. With a purchase of more than 1,000 yen, you are entitled a stamp. Once there are three stamps collected, it will go into a lucky draw, in which among the prizes would be oversea holiday trips for five lucky winners.

 The Deputy Mayor of Narita City, Mr Sekine Kenji was at the studio with Unari Kun to introduce some of Narita's attractions.



As we listened to his explanation about the charm of Narita City.

The next segment was "Nekketsu BO-SO Spot" (熱血BO-SOスポット). Besides being famous for Naritasan Shinsoji Temple, Narita Airport, Narita City's Sakura-no Yama Hill (a small hill surrounded with sakura trees and offer a wonderful view of aircraft taking off and landing), there is one popular event which is held annually in Narita City. With an approximately 450,000 visitors attending the event, Narita Gion Festival (成田祇園祭) is one of the largest and greatest festivals held in Narita for three days in early July every year. This year, it is held from July 6-8.

During the period, this old town holds celebration from morning till night. It begins with the passage of a portable shrine on the first day, as well as ten decorated festival cars that belong to respective blocks of the city. These floats and stages, which are lighten-up at night, are drawn through the town for three days. The most anticipated highlight of the festival is "Sobiki" on the third day. Young people standing on the floats encourage the runners to carry them up the steep slope of Nakamachi. This festival is said to be dedicated to Dainichi-Nyorai (Dainichi Buddha). 

Mai purin (舞プリン) or the "dancing pudding".

Trying on the first scoop of the pudding as polite as possible haha!

The segment that followed after that was "Nekketsu Local Gourmet" (熱血ご当地グルメ) again, but this time it was by Kimura Kanako and Seimiya Yumi. In the previous episode, they introduced the delicious mackerel sandwich (サバサンド). This time, they introduced some dessert made out of nanohana tamago (菜の花たまご) eggs. These fresh and delicious eggs are locally produced in Chiba Prefecture and the dessert was developed by the producers themselves.

They call it mai purin (舞プリン) or dancing pudding. Why dancing pudding you may ask. Apparently, this pudding tastes so good that it will make you feel like dancing when you eat it. During the rehearsal, we were only given empty plates and hence didn't get to taste the pudding. At that time, the statement that the pudding will make you dance hardly convince me because I felt it was just exaggerated.

See! Takeuchi siblings stood up and started dancing after eating the pudding lol!

Then, during the live show, each of us were given a pudding each and when I took my first scoop, it not only made me feel like dancing, I felt like flying haha! Trust me, this pudding is r.e.a.l.l.y d.a.m.n good! Topped with caramel, the pudding has a very soft and smooth texture and it has a strong egg flavour. The secret behind it is its recipe of using milk and egg to the 1:1 ratio, compared to normal pudding where the ratio is usually 2:1.

And if you're interested to get this mai purin, it can be found at Nishino Direct Sales Center (西野直売所) in Takino, Kimitsu City (君津市滝野). By the way, these pudding can also be bought online. Trust me, one is never enough. Once you eat one, you will feel like eating another one.

The limited edition Japanese spiny lobster potato chips.

Hardly tasted the lobster, which explains our "errrrrr?" facial expression. It tasted more like potato chips lol!

The final segment of the week is "Chiba's Soul Stirring Taste" (魂を揺さぶる千葉の味) by the Takeuchi Siblings (竹内兄弟). This week, they introduced the limited edition souvenirs and snacks from Chiba Prefecture. It is a common thing that the locals usually don't buy the product produced locally, which according to them, a pity thing. Therefore, they did a research to find out if the limited edition products of Chiba Prefecture are really delicious.

The first snack is the "isei-ebi (Japanese spiny lobster) potato chips" (千葉限定伊勢海老ポテトチップス). Isei-ebi are usually made into rice crackers (煎餅); however it is quite rare to see it processed into potato chips. By the way, Chiba Prefecture is Japan's top producer of isei-ebi, which makes it one of Chiba's popular brand.

Biwa fresh caramel, which can be found in Tokyo Doitsu Mura (東京ドイツ村).

Next up is biwa (びわ) or loquat, which is a fruit that represents Chiba. The sweetness and smoothness of biwa and soft fresh caramel is combined to produce "biwa fresh caramel" (枇杷生キャラメル). Chiba comes second in terms of biwa's production, and the biwa produced in Chiba Prefecture is known as Boshu biwa (房州びわ).

One of the most popular local production of Chiba is its peanuts. From the hugely well-known Bakauke's thin banana-shaped rice crackers (senbei),  a new limited edition of "Bakauke peanut flavour" (ばかうけピーナツ味) has been introduced and sold only in Chiba. The fragrance of peanuts match perfectly with the Bakauke rice cracker that it made one of the guest requested to have this snack to be placed in the waiting room of Chiba TV lol!

Chiba's limited edition of Bakauke's peanut flavour rice crackers.

Looking into the crackers to see any peanuts visible lol! Double thumbs-up for this one!

 Some info about asari (あさり) or clams, in which the shellfish catching can be enjoyed until late July every year.

The final snack was "Bakauke's clam butter flavour" rice crackers. This snack uses the extract from clams and it combines very well with the butter flavour. Chiba Prefecture, by the way, is popular for its shiohi-gari (潮干狩り) or shells catching. It is usually held in Kizarazu (木更津) and Futtsu (富津) in the southern region of the prefecture. 

After the show, the guests and the rest of the production team, continued munching on the crackers and snacks as they had not much time to do it during the live show. As for me, I went to the backstage to look for any extra puddings but too bad there were none anymore :(

 Group photo with the host and guest at the end of the show.

 Look out for me again next week lol!

By the way, here's an announcement of my next appearance, which would be on July 14th. And by now, I guess you already know which channel and time to turn to, don't you? It's the usual drill - Saturday, five-thirty p.m. on Chiba TV!

※ Link of the show (30 June 2012) on the official site.

Behind The Scenes Of Nekketsu BO-SO TV

"Celebrity in the making?"

my third aunt

in her e-mail sent to me

Posing in front of the monitor screen which shows the official logo of the show - Nekketsu BO-SO TV (熱血BO-SO TV).

If you were to tell me six years ago, before I stepped my foot for the first time on Japan, that I will appear in a Japanese variety show one day, I wouldn't have thought that is gonna turn a reality. But here I am, making a fortnightly appearance on Chiba TV as the representative of Chiba Kun Ambassadors. At the same time, I'm proud to say that I'm also able to introduce Malaysia on a foreign soil. Dear Minister of Tourism of Malaysia, I am here hinting you to award me with a Datukship. But if you wanna add some yen yen (￥￥) also I will be more than happy to accept it.

This week is my second time making an appearance in the show. Just like the first time, I only received the script late evening, a day before the show. I thought since I have had the experience once, I would not be as anxious as my first time. I just browsed through the script quickly and looked for my parts.

The many variety shows produced by Chiba TV, including the one I am joining on the bottom left (BO-SO TV), pasted on the wall of the main entrance.

VIP-like reception. Our names put on the door of the waiting room for the two Chiba Kun Ambassadors.

It was the same when Mr Kimura Akihide, the producer came into our dressing room to briefly explain the flow of the show. After looking through the script, I realised that we were gonna get to try on many kinds of food once again this week, which is of course a great news for me lol! If you wanna know what we had this week, then you gotta wait for my next entry.

This week, I decided to wear something different to the set. My senior, Crystal a.k.a. Kevin's mom gave me this beautiful pair of yukata recently and I thought it would be a nice idea to wear it to the show. Besides, my partner, Mi from China had planned to wear her kimono, so it would be very matching for the two Chiba Kun ambassadors.

However, the yukata was slightly short to match with my long arms and legs, that some of them commented that I look like a small kid from the downtown of Edo (江戸の下町からの子供) lol! Upon seeing the two of us when we stepped into the studio, Mr Happa commented that we looked more Japanese than Japanese. He told us we looked nothing like husband and wife haha wtf!

Satoe-san - the Mom and daughter helping me to put on my yukata the right way. She just ignored me camwhoring in front of the mirror and continued with her job. 
In fact, since she already knew I love to take photos, when I got into the make-up room this time, she asked me "Where's your camera?" lol! 
By the way, Mom said my yukata looks a little like the National Service uniform lol!

Gotta thank this two nice people for helping us to put on some light touches of make-up everytime before the show.

Now that I have gone twice in the show, I began to realise that it is not easy to produce a show, what's more a live show like this one. The number of backstage staffs actually exceeds the people who appear on screen. They are the ones who make sure the chairs and tables are on the right spot, the ones who would bring the food for tasting onto the set in between the commercial break, the ones who provide us with wet tissues to clean our lips during the show.

Not forgetting are the ones who put on make-ups for us so that we look good in front of the camera, the ones who hold the script as the presenter speaks, and of course the technical staffs including the cameramen, AV room people, director and producer. Without these people, it will be impossible for the show to run.

With the cute Nishiori-san (left) from the International Division of Chiba Prefectural Office, who accompanied the two Chiba Kun Ambassadors, 
and Kimura Kanako (木村佳那子), the announcer for Chiba TV who hails from Nagareyama city in Chiba.

Unari-kun, the official character for Narita city was the special guest this week.

With the manager (社長) of the Nekkestu BO-SO company, Mr Happa Ikki (八波一起), who sometimes can get really crazy during the show.

The show this week focused mainly on Narita city and that is why the mascot for Narita city's sightseeing - Unari-kun (うなりくん) made its rare appearance on the show. Its name comes from the combination of two words - "unari" (freshwater eel) and Narita, because Narita city is famous for its eels and Narita International Airport.

It is said that unari-kun came from a star called the Unari star far in the universe. As it flew into the Earth, it found the best airport in Narita and decided to land there. He later found that Narita city was such a wonderful place to be, that it made him forgotten to return to his homeland haha! By the way, sweet potatoes and lotus roots are among its favourite food.

Took a photo with the Deputy Mayor of Narita city, Mr Sekine Kenji (関根堅次).

I asked my Mom what does Unari-kun looks like. Her guesses were penguin and dolphin haha wtf! And my sister told me she thinks that it looks like the blue Twitter bird lol! But if there's a prize for the most imaginative guess, it will certainly go to Christopher, who commented: "Looks like a penguin with two giant toilet roll stuck under the wings".

That is one hell of a creative imagination, wasn't it?

Watching the 20-second introduction of the show on the monitor when the show kicks off. By the way, if you looked properly, you probably would notice the cardboard of Mr Morita Kensaku (森田健作), the Governor of Chiba Prefecture on the left. Unfortunately, he was absent again this week and they put his cardboard on his seat haha wtf!

Miss Kimura, who acts as the translator for Unarikun as we welcomed the mascot onto the set.

Super close-up shot on the two Chiba Kun Ambassadors. I feel I'm getting better in locating which camera to look at after two appearances on the show haha!

Everyone's mouth was wide open as we were introduced to something that looked super tantalising and delicious.

From what I saw during the rehearsal and live show, although the hosts and guest looked like they are having fun and talk crazy stuff during the show, they get really serious once the recorded material videos are played, or when commercial breaks comes in. It is during this very short breaks that they sometimes change their costumes, or rearrange their seating position before the next segment starts.

Looking at how precisely the time management is kept, where not even a couple of seconds is allowed to be wasted, is just something very amazing. Even though the camera will roll in less than ten seconds for example, they never panicked and looked super composed as ever.

However, usually during the live show, there will be some parts where what they talk is not in the script. These spontaneous conversations are usually filled with humour that it makes even the technical staffs behind the camera laugh together with us.

 

That guy standing on the right is the director, whose job is to hold the script for the hosts. So far, I've never seen him flipping the wrong page for the hosts.

Something interesting as we watched the video of one of the segments in the show.

The director (right), who holds the place card to give us the cue of 45 seconds until the end of the show.

As the end of the show, everyone were invited to the set and do the usual chant of "Nekketsu BO-SO TV!"

 

By the way, there is a good news that I would like to share here. I received an e-mail from Mr Ishizaki from the International Division Affairs Department of Chiba Prefectural Office several days ago. In the e-mail, he told me that they would like to request me to appear twice again on the same show in July. You wanna know why? They felt that I have the talent to be a geinoujin and I just need to brush up my skills on several areas, and it will be perfect.

Hahaha! No-lar, I was just kidding on the last part (^.^;b

~ to be continued ~