Some news:

Last Thursday, I traveled two hours to middle-of-nowhere Kanagawa to film some more TV stuff. I got there expecting the whole Mojya squad to be there, but to my surprise I ended up being the only foreigner. The people present were me, an eight-person crew, and a clown named Joe (a name I gave him because he had suggested "Catherine" and I didn't think that was appropriate). I started out by doing my makeup all pretty, and then was handed the familiar bright green afro wig and oversized green shirt. Dammit.

So Thursday's work was to film fifteen short segments called Let's Exercise. Here's how it goes:

1. The opening sequence. Joe is doing some clown trick, and I'm watching, mesmerized. The camera zooms up and we turn back to back, do finger-guns, and I exclaim, "LET'S EXERCISE!" These were filmed in front of a live audience of about 200 kindergarteners.
2. Joe is in a small room, doing a clown trick. I walk in, singing to myself. I stop, look at Joe, and give a command ("Sit down!"). He looks at me, confused. I repeat it. He sits down. I give another command ("Stand up!") and he follows. I repeat a few times, and say "Great!" with two thumbs up. Then I run up to the camera, get right up in it, and introduce us: "Hi! I'm Mojya Green, and this is Joe the Clown!"
3. I'm standing with my arm around Joe, in a close shot. I say, "Let's Do It!" look at Joe, and Joe makes a funny face.
4. We're standing in the same room. I give a command to Joe, then look at the camera like I want it to join in. I give the other command, and look back at the camera. I do this a couple times, do it once just looking at the camera, then say "Great!" to the camera with two thumbs up.
5. Starts out the same way, except this time, I give the commands one after another, faster and faster until Joe falls down or crashes into something. Unfazed, I run up to the camera, get right up in it again, and say "ByeBye!!!!!!" while waving vigorously.

That's all there is to it. We filmed a whole bunch of these, and threw in something stupid here and there (like I say "ByeBye!" and blow into my open hand so Joe is blown away in the background). It took all day, but it was a good time. The crew seemed to be happy that I could speak enough Japanese that it wasn't awkward. We did most of the shots in one take. The guys on the crew were loving every minute, laughing and telling me that it was perfect. But I could have sworn that the producer/translator woman was giving me looks once in a while that read as something like "I can't believe you're willingly doing this."

I'm still waiting on the still photos that one of the crew members took, so I can post them. He said he would email them to me. I've gotta track his ass down.

Anyway, "Let's Exercise!" is due to start in October, and it will be on BS Fuji twice a day, every weekday. Crazy.

My feelings on this are hovering somewhere between "holy crap I'm awesome," and "someday these will fall into the wrong hands and boy will I be sorry."