With COVID-19 disrupting regular TV Japan broadcasting since last weekend, the only source for our Japanese television in our family has now been feeding straight in from NHK World Japan which means no more variety programs or other shows from the commercial networks such as NTV or Fuji-TV. Initially, I thought it was a problem with TV Japan itself since it's based in New York, the epicentre of the outbreak in the United States, but now I think that variety shows themselves in Japan have been disrupted. For one thing, there are no more studio audiences allowed and the plethora of tarento often crowding in front of the cameras may now be a thing of the past. So, I can imagine that those shows are probably on hiatus or will have to undergo serious retooling.
Thankfully, "Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru"(チコちゃんに叱られる!), being an NHK show, is still going on. In fact, we got the most recent episode for April 10th right on April 10th, although maybe the social distancing among co-host Okamura and the guests could have been better. One of the two guests happened to be Atsushi Yanaka(谷中敦), the baritone sax player for the cool veteran band Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. Strangely enough, earlier this morning, the NHK music show "SONGS" featured TSPO in all their ska-kicking glory.
When I heard the ska version, I wondered why it sounded so familiar. Well, for a certain generation, the game Tetris was all the rage, and yep, I was also one of the millions who had his/her copy of the game with the computer music version of "Korobeiniki" placed as the theme song. If TSPO's version had been used, I can guarantee that those various Tetris blocks and segments would have been dancing instead of strutting down the screen.
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