NHK studio park

Today me and the girl went to NHK Studio Park where many of her favorite television shows are filmed in Shibuya. It is a Tokyo Public Holiday today and NHK offered free admission. The pictures above are from a summer trip to NHK including Papa which was the result of a failed picnic excursion to Yoyogi Park. We got to Yoyogi just fine but Papa forgot many things needed for the picnic (*ahem* food *ahem*) and it was so hot at one point I almost threw up. Not. Joking.

Both that day and today the above, who doesn't look as hilarious in person as he does in this picture, came out for the children to take pictures with him. His name is "Wanwan." Wan wan is the sound dogs make in Japan, like "woof woof". The guy who does this character is incredible. Its always the same guy, the real actor, and he is live in there. As in, we've seen him sing while dancing in the suit and talking to specific children he's shaking hands with in the audience. We've also seen him do a cartwheel in this suit. Live! And at free events! He is the man.

My favorite thing to do at NHK is the dubbing booth. They let you go in and choose from a few different scenes from different famous Japanese cartoons. You get to practice once, record and it plays it back for you. Hilarious fun and really quite educational. I laughed so hard today at my own dubbing. Bobei wasn't as into it, of course. The other cool thing is that there are viewing stations where you can view a live set from above and from a few screens in the building. We've seen the actors taping one of bobei's favorite shows and today we watched a few takes of an adult samurai drama, Ryomaden, that's really popular right now. For a kid who loves television its a great way to sneak in some knowledge of how that all works. On another note: Today my daughter said I should be on tv and that made me smile. Really big. Kid's television entertainer big.