When I first came to the US, one thing which surprised me was the large number of reality shows on TV, and their variety of contents. When I was in Japan, I was not a big fan of TV and mostly I spent my free time doing net-surfing. Here, however, once you turn on the TV, it's too late to stop watching, and you can never go back to your homework.
Since most of my Japanese friends are having hard time doing job-hunting, and I think they need to refresh at some points, so I want to introduce a couple MTV reality shows. If you really don't want to waste your time, maybe you'd better not to watch it because it can be an addiction.......
The first one and my favorite is "The Hills".
This reality drama series has already continued to Season 5 and the final season is going to be premiered at the end of this April in the US. Due to the location of Los Angels and the sophisticated fashion of the cast, I think some of fashion-conscious Japanese girls might have seen it before.It's mostly about the relationships of job, love, and friends among the socal girls and boys with lots of dramas.
When I watched the first episode, I thought the concept was a little bit cheesy or how should I say...predictable. But I think that predictability is one of the biggest fascinations about The Hills, and whenever the story goes as I expected, I shout in my mind "There you go!"
Above all, the biggest attraction of this drama for me is that you can glimpse the behind scenes of fashion industry through Lauren and Stephanie who are working at the fashion PR firm, People's Evolution as interns.
Now I feel I'm writing too much, and I think you want to watch something, so I put the URL where you can stream all the episodes.
I put both English and Japanese subtitle versions just in case you don't understand English or you hate English. For those who want to improve your English listening skill, I highly recommend you'll watch it without subtitle. I think the level of English is intermediate or semi-advanced.
Japanese Subtitle Version
http://www.mtvjapan.com/thehills
English Version
http://www.mtv.com/shows/the_hills/season_5/video.jhtml?filter=fulleps
Other than "The Hills", there is another reality show which recorded by way bigger hit throughout the US last year. In contrast to the socal celeb-ish girls and boys in the West Coast, "Jersey Shore" features the Italian American party girls and boys from the East Coast who have been selected from the public through the audition. I started watching it with my ex-roomie, and when I saw it for the first time, I just lost my words to see how nasty and dirty the content was. From my outside perspective, I swear God that that kind of reality show can never been seen in Japan. If I say like this, maybe I antagonize the enthusiastic followers of Jersey Shore, but seriously, it's nasty.
But I confess here that I ended up watching all the episodes, and even the special episode of their reunion. I'm sure most of Japanese readers will be surprised with its obvious expressions of the messed up relationships or sometimes violence. If you get interested with this my personal review, you can also stream both English(I checked today, and all the episodes are temporarily unavailable now, but surely you'll be able to watch them sometime soon.) and Japanese subtitle versions in the following URL.
Japanese Subtitle Version
http://www.mtvjapan.com/video/program/30036?playlist_id=2249#video_title
English Version
http://www.mtv.com/shows/jersey_shore/video.jhtml?filter=fulleps
Even though my favorite is definitely "The Hills," if I put these two different types of program on the scale of "reality show," I cannot deny "Jersey Shore" is more realistic and even unexpected to some points because there is not as much hint of made up scenario as "The Hills."
That is, if I have to rate these two reality shows, I would say it's a tie game.
What is your evaluation going to be like?
Anyway, talking about the reality show, there is one mega-hit reality show in Japan which had been broadcasted as long as 10 years from 1999 to 2009. The program called "Ainori" which literally means "Car pool" and can be meant as "love ride" was about seven young girls and boys traveling the world riding a pink bus. Like or unlike "Jersey Shore", all of the seven cast are single and they are selected from the public. Their ultimate goal is to find love with one of the crews and return to Japan as a couple. It might be not exciting for the Jersey Shore fans, but you can see the kiss scene only if two of the cast become a couple.
If you've already finished watching "Jersey Shore," you might be able to appreciate more how cute or how mellow the Japanese people become when they are in love.
I tried to find the English Subtitle version, but unfortunately I couldn't.
You can still check the further information on its episodes through the archives in the English official site.
Ainori English Official Site
http://ainori.tripod.com/archives.html
It's always fun to see something from outside of your world.
Get to know the world, and be international!
Since most of my Japanese friends are having hard time doing job-hunting, and I think they need to refresh at some points, so I want to introduce a couple MTV reality shows. If you really don't want to waste your time, maybe you'd better not to watch it because it can be an addiction.......
The first one and my favorite is "The Hills".
This reality drama series has already continued to Season 5 and the final season is going to be premiered at the end of this April in the US. Due to the location of Los Angels and the sophisticated fashion of the cast, I think some of fashion-conscious Japanese girls might have seen it before.It's mostly about the relationships of job, love, and friends among the socal girls and boys with lots of dramas.
When I watched the first episode, I thought the concept was a little bit cheesy or how should I say...predictable. But I think that predictability is one of the biggest fascinations about The Hills, and whenever the story goes as I expected, I shout in my mind "There you go!"
Above all, the biggest attraction of this drama for me is that you can glimpse the behind scenes of fashion industry through Lauren and Stephanie who are working at the fashion PR firm, People's Evolution as interns.
Now I feel I'm writing too much, and I think you want to watch something, so I put the URL where you can stream all the episodes.
I put both English and Japanese subtitle versions just in case you don't understand English or you hate English. For those who want to improve your English listening skill, I highly recommend you'll watch it without subtitle. I think the level of English is intermediate or semi-advanced.
Japanese Subtitle Version
http://www.mtvjapan.com/thehills
English Version
http://www.mtv.com/shows/the_hills/season_5/video.jhtml?filter=fulleps
Other than "The Hills", there is another reality show which recorded by way bigger hit throughout the US last year. In contrast to the socal celeb-ish girls and boys in the West Coast, "Jersey Shore" features the Italian American party girls and boys from the East Coast who have been selected from the public through the audition. I started watching it with my ex-roomie, and when I saw it for the first time, I just lost my words to see how nasty and dirty the content was. From my outside perspective, I swear God that that kind of reality show can never been seen in Japan. If I say like this, maybe I antagonize the enthusiastic followers of Jersey Shore, but seriously, it's nasty.
But I confess here that I ended up watching all the episodes, and even the special episode of their reunion. I'm sure most of Japanese readers will be surprised with its obvious expressions of the messed up relationships or sometimes violence. If you get interested with this my personal review, you can also stream both English(I checked today, and all the episodes are temporarily unavailable now, but surely you'll be able to watch them sometime soon.) and Japanese subtitle versions in the following URL.
Japanese Subtitle Version
http://www.mtvjapan.com/video/program/30036?playlist_id=2249#video_title
English Version
http://www.mtv.com/shows/jersey_shore/video.jhtml?filter=fulleps
Even though my favorite is definitely "The Hills," if I put these two different types of program on the scale of "reality show," I cannot deny "Jersey Shore" is more realistic and even unexpected to some points because there is not as much hint of made up scenario as "The Hills."
That is, if I have to rate these two reality shows, I would say it's a tie game.
What is your evaluation going to be like?
Anyway, talking about the reality show, there is one mega-hit reality show in Japan which had been broadcasted as long as 10 years from 1999 to 2009. The program called "Ainori" which literally means "Car pool" and can be meant as "love ride" was about seven young girls and boys traveling the world riding a pink bus. Like or unlike "Jersey Shore", all of the seven cast are single and they are selected from the public. Their ultimate goal is to find love with one of the crews and return to Japan as a couple. It might be not exciting for the Jersey Shore fans, but you can see the kiss scene only if two of the cast become a couple.
If you've already finished watching "Jersey Shore," you might be able to appreciate more how cute or how mellow the Japanese people become when they are in love.
I tried to find the English Subtitle version, but unfortunately I couldn't.
You can still check the further information on its episodes through the archives in the English official site.
Ainori English Official Site
http://ainori.tripod.com/archives.html
It's always fun to see something from outside of your world.
Get to know the world, and be international!
