Something unique happened for our dojo in January! A TV crew visited for a short segment on a TV show local to our prefecture, called “Michibura Shizuoka Ohako”. I have to admit, before this happened, I hadn’t heard of this show, or the famous comedy team Pakkun Makkun, who host it with Tomoko Shigenaga. My bad! They’re a lot of fun, and I hope to see more of their work! “Pakkun” Patrick is from the USA, and he speaks perfect Japanese!! The above picture is Sensei with Pakkun, Tomoko, and Makkun (they are not actually black belts, by the way).
Heh, Rintaro (the hand growing out of Patrick’s shoulder).
The segment will air this Saturday! It should be cute… Patrick completely took a beating from Shiina, one of our teen Nidans. We performed kata, and tried to teach them a few things! Tomoko practiced self-defense with me before she took a black belt down, and I attempted to speak Japanese on-air. I’m definitely braver now… Sugoku tanoshikatta!!! I can’t wait to see which parts they actually used!!!
It was a very casual set-up, and only 2 cameras. No rehearsals, but we rehearsed our kata many times before the day of the shoot though! It was over in a couple of hours, and then all the kids got autographs and photos. Everyone’s really looking forward to this Saturday, of course. When I have a DVD copy I will post still pictures from it. Ahh Japan… there’s really no end to the awesome experiences you can have here!
