今、この顔がすごい

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I received some requests to talk about my TV appearances in Japan. Since starting this blog I’ve done a handful of these spots. It is fun, as long as you have the time. Shooting for a five minute clip seems to take an entire day!

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The NY Times article I helped with a few years ago got a lot of press, and the Japanese media tend to think that The NY Times is the pinnacle of publications. I think it was this bit of exposure that put me on the radar of the Japanese networks.

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The most recent one was 今、この顔がすごい, which translates to “Right Now, This Face is Awesome!” This show features a panel of famous people watching videos about people who are doing something interesting.

The idea for my segment is the same as always; they follow me around and I show them some ramen shops.

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They were fascinated that I will write about bad ramen. The above picture says, “This was unbelievably horrible!”

It was.

As a rule, TV in Japan never trashes bad food, unless it is something that is off-the-wall strange. Something like spicy curry ice cream might get a negative reaction, though this is all as a gag. They are almost never serious about negative reviews.

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For this show, the producers were obsessed with a rumor that they had heard. A rumor that in America, no ramen is normal. I guess someone made a ramen with fresh cream in it in New York, and now they think that all ramen in America is like this.

A lot of Japanese people still think that in America the only sushi you can get is the infamous California Roll.

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So they wanted me to introduce my top three crazy bowls from Tokyo. Bowls that are far from ordinary, but still tasty. I came up with:

  1. Gotsubo for their veggie tsukemen.
  2. Papapapapine for their pineapple ramen.
  3. Kono for their Tequilla ramen.
By the way, these are all good spots that I recommend you try.

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In the studio, the panel of famous people tried these three bowls. On the right is one of my favorite actors, You-san. Making the supporting actress of Dare mo Shiranai smile made my day!

I will post about upcoming TV stuff on the facebook page, so check it out if you are interested!

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