Christel Takigawa, possibly Japan's most popular newscaster, has seen ratings for her blockbuster new program boom, but only because she's started flashing the flesh, according to Shukan Taishu (5/28).

The 29-year-old talking head -- now referred to frequently by her nickname of Takikuri -- and Yuko Ando, 48, probably the most powerful female newscaster in the country, were expected to achieve big things with their Fuji TV program "Shin Hodo Premier A" when it went to air in April.

But it didn't quite work that way at first.

"Ratings for the first show in April were just 8.6 percent, but they grew on May 6 to a commendable 9.9 percent," a reporter covering the TV beat tells Shukan Taishu.

"During Takikuri's corner, she walks from the main newscaster's seat to a place over in the corner of the studio, giving viewers the chance to cop some camera angles showing the lower half of her body. When she was sitting down, one shot almost showed off her milky white thighs and I couldn't believe what lovely legs she had," the reporter says. "She was just lucky that her skirt wasn't shorter or she could have been in real trouble."

A Fuji TV insider reveals why Takigawa has been able to reveal more of herself in recent weeks.

"Ando made sure at first that Takikuri toned down the '45 Degree Camera Shot' and 'Sexy Styles' that she was famous for, but she's loosed up a little lately," the Fuji TV insider tells Shukan Taishu. "Ando was a little worried by the poor ratings and decided to set Takikuri free. That made Takikuri feel more at ease and she's become sexier on screen as a result." (By Ryann Connell)

May 25, 2007

Shiawase

okinawa

my failed attempt at keeping a journal

December 9th:

The fun has already begun.  Although Incheon Airport is outrageously overpriced, I really enjoyed the flight (probably because it was less than an hour long -- takes almost an 1.5hrs to Tokyo!).  I had an 8 hour layover, so I took my first nap in an airport, and watched bits of Charlies Angels and Spiderman 2 while chowing on Bibinbop and reading up on Jaipur.  Nice to have some decently spicy food without having to ask for it that way. 
 So once I got on the plane, the staring began.  Mayumi told me that as a foreigner I'd attract everyone's eyes because I'd be clean like a shining gem among the dirt.  Well obviously the people who can afford a plane ride are not dirty by any means... but because I was one of maybe 4 white people on the flight, I did get a lot of elongated looks. 
 As soon as I sat down the flight became quite amusing.  Immediately, about 7-8 Indians around me began changing seats because they wanted window seats or they were separated from friends, etc...  the stewardesses kept telling them over and over just to stay seated because there were so many vegetarians and they had to make sure all of them were accounted for.  But no matter how many times they said "please wait until after we've taken off" they just didn't listen. 
 An (probably 80+ year-old) woman across the isle from me wants to lie down, but there's another person two seats down from her.  So what she does is lie down and put her legs up in this funky position.  Man, this is India!  Old ladies bending their bodies into crazy positions!  
 When the vegetarian dishes are brought out all the stewardesses begin running around finding where the Indians have moved to.  I feel bad for them... but it's really entertaining watching them go back and forth and then of course have about 5 other indians get up and start looking too.  everyone is all over the place.  Hey! the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie is on!  Yay! a flight with decent movies (*ahem, Northwest).
 OK nevermind...  Pirates wasn't that great. 

December 10th:

 I sat the entire 8 hour flight.  For some reason I was too embarrassed to get up in front of everyone staring at me.  Ok yeah dumb reason.  So it's 12:45am and we finally land in New Delhi.  4:15am in Japan.  I left at noon the day before.  I'm tired.  I have to pee.  I waited patiently as we landed cuz I figured i'd just pee in the airport...  but there is no bathroom in sight.  I'm walking with everyone toward baggage claim.  where the hell is the bathroom????  Also, I thought the "bad air" people say about India is more in the city and due to dust and pollution... but it's horrible in the airport!  I can't stop coughing.  Bad enough I come to India with my cold still lingering, but now the air INSIDE the airport is really aggravating it. 
 Going through customs was a breeze.  Almost as quick and painless as Busan, Korea.  Good thing because i'm still really tired and I REALLY have to pee.
 I get to baggage claim and pick a spot to stand, but within the next few minutes i've been pushed farther and farther back by other Indians trying to get in... so now I can't even see any bags coming out.  grrrrrrrr....   I stand there for what feels like FOREVER and finally I see my bag.  I try to push my way through to get it, but people aren't budging.  MOVE PEOPLE!  I run out of the crowd and try to meet my bag on the other side, but everyone and their mothers has brought those stupid carts in and there's a baggage/cart/people jam.  damnit, MY BAG!  so by the time I get to the other end of the belt, my bag is nowhere to be seen.  *sigh.  I make a new post to await the re-arrival of my bag.  I wait for what seems like half of forever and by now there are only a few bags left on the belt... but mine is still not in sight.  I check a clock and i7ve now been waiting for my bag for almost an hour and a half.  So I decided to look around at the hundreds of bags by people's feet to see if anyone had taken mine by mistake.  Well, apparently someone had taken mine off the belt and just left it there in a pile of other bags.  I finally found it and dragged it out of the pile it was in. 
 I walk out of the "safety" of the airport and the walkway is lined with people holding signs for customers they are picking up.  I look for my name (someone from my friend's travel agency was supposed to come pick me up), but I don't see it.  I head for the exit not knowing what to do.  Am I stuck at the airport??  As soon as I stop to think i'm approached by some guy offering me a taxi.  I say, "no a friend is picking me up".  he says "a friend?  you want telephone?"  ok, so what does this guy have everything I need?  I tell him no, my friend is here  but thanks for offering.  I keep looking another 5-10minutes and see nobody with my name.  Along the way tons of people come offering me taxis and hotels.  go away!!!!  and when you say no thanks they follow you like you're lying and like they'll eventually get you to cave. 
 I go change some money so I can make a phone call.  The phones in India are not coin phone booths, but little stands where they have a few regular phones and you just pay for the service of using them.  I discovered later that many of them have actual meters so you aren't cheated.  At the airport, there was a long line at the phone booths and my patience was running thin.  I still had to pee.  I look to my right and who's there?  none other by the taxi/phone guy sitting there with a hand-held phone.  I gave in and showed him the number of the person who was supposed to pick me up.  The guy was in bed.  But he said he sent someone else.  Just as I started to flip out I heard a "sumimasen" from behind me.  Thank god my driver found me! 
 I asked the guy how much it was to use his phone and he tells me 54 rupees ($1.30).  Now, I still have no concept of how much this is or how much a phone call is supposed to cost, but something inside me tells me this isn't right.  I look at the driver to see what he says about this ridiculous price and he just nods his head in agreement.  I guess phones in India are expensive.
 The ride to my friend's sister's house was a trip!  Indians have no regard for red lights!  Almost every stoplight was red, but I don7t think we stopped once.  You just honk your horn as you're going through to warn any oncoming traffic that you're there.  We almost got hit once, but I guess that's how it is here.

 When I got to my friend's sister's house I was excited to find I had my own bathroom.  yay!  It was about 3am and I finally got to sleep in my own room and my own giant bed.  I finally got up around 8:30 and was served biscuits and chai.  yummm..  I found out that the bed I was sleeping in was their son Umesh's bed.  It's apparently almost always in use because my friend Roop is constantly sending his friends there.  I think they like meeting foreigners though.  They are all really nice.  I finally decided to venture into the city around 12:30pm.  They told me how to get to the bus stop.  The first stop for the bus is luckily right near their house.  Along the way I passed several cows.  I really wanted to pet one, but then I remembered that on those health forms you fill out when you come back it usually has a question on there asking if you've been around farm/wild animals, so I just left them alone.  There was nobody on the bus, so I asked if it was the right bus and when it would leave.  one guy stuttered 5minutes, but i waited 5minutes and nobody had gotten on the bus at all.  I looked to him again and he just pointed like I should get on...  so I asked "is it ok for me to get on?"  he just tilted his head, which I discovered is something ALL INDIANS DO AND I CAN NEVER FIGURE OUT WHAT THEY MEAN BY IT!  but in this case it seemed that he really wanted me to get onthe bus.  a couple other young girls went on so I felt better following them.  The bus was bumpy, but entertaining.  the bus driver and his friends sat in the front eating curry and chapati while he drove.  There don7t seem to be any real bus stops in Delhi.  Well there are some along busy roads, but it seems that the bus stops for anyone who wants to get on anywhere.  There's a guy who sits near the front and yells out the window.  I think he's trying to get people to ride the bus, but i can7t figure what he's saying.  But he keeps hitting the bus really hard.  I thought it was to let the bus driver know if there are people who want to get on, but he just kept doing it.  it got really annoying.  But then the bus started playing hindi music really loud.  hee.  awesome. 
 The bus took me near Connaught Place, which is one of the central, posh areas in New Delhi.  Within seconds of getting off, I was approached by this kid and asked if I was looking for a hotel.  I told him that actually I needed to get to a certain hotel to drop off a laptop I was donating.  He said he could point me in the direction.  Along the way I saw him mouth something to another boy with really bad teeth and I wondered if something was up, but nothing came of it... until I was left on my own and within seconds that boy popped up and asked me if I was lost.  hah.  I told him where I was going and told me he'd take me there.  I knew it was fishy but I had nothing else better to do so I went along with it.  I learned that he was 16 and that he worked for some shops and he gets paid for bringing customers in.  I thought it was great he was being so honest so I let him take me to one of his shops.  it was outrageously expensive!  They were selling giant marble pieces and jewelry locked behnd big glass cases so I knew I wouldn't buy anything.  The punjabi suits were slightly more costly than the ones I bought in Malaysia, that were imported from India...so I knew this place was a ripoff. 
 When I went back outside my little friend was gone.  Oh well.  I decided to get an auto (rickshaw) so I could just get to this stupid hotel and then walk around the rest of the day.  I got the driver to agree to 20 rupees (50cents), but after about a minute of driving he pulled over and some other guy got in.  Man, does everyone around here work together?  He took me to the metropolis, but before I got out he asked me where I was going.  I told him I just wanted to walk around and look at shops and stuff.  he insisted that this area wasn't good and that he could take me to a cheap shop.  I didn't really care, so I agreed.  After dropping off the laptop he took me to one shop but the people were so pushy.  They wouldn't give me any time to think or look around.  So I decided not to buy anything.  I kept telling the driver I would just walk around but he kept saying that someone would shoot me and take my money so it was better to have him take me where I needed to go.  He took me to change money and to a couple other "cheap" stores.  I bought a couple things, but I actually thought they were a bit pricey.  The driver kept insisting on taking me to other cheap stores, but frankly I was getting sick of him.  He told me he could take me to a nice place to get a massage.  I told him I didn't like massages and then he said "no this is a good massage.  I will give you very nice massage.  No charge you money.  It is a good massage".  yeah right!  I told him to pull over right there.  I didn't know how much to pay for a rickshaw taking you to several places.  I asked him how much and he said "as you like".  what the fuck is that?  well as I like I would just give him 50 rupees and get the hell away from him... but like I said, I didn't know and all i had were 500s.  so I gave him a 500 and told him to give me the appropriate change.  He gave me 100 back.  At that point I just wanted to get away from him and anyone associated with him, including those pushy shops, so I just took off and went looking for the bus home.  After about 40min I finally found it.  When I asked about the prices of the things I paid for today I was told that these were all "about right" (later when I met a more honest indian I found out that I was completely and heinously ripped off).  I got myself some cough medicine and ate some tomato soup with paneer (yum!) and went to bed around 8pm.  slept right through till 9am the next morning (except for the short time around 5am that I heard someone violently puking outside). 

sorry I have no pictures yet.  someone told me that if I take pictures in India, people will be attracted to me like flies... AND I have a horrible reputation of getting things stolen (um, well just my denshi-jishos).  so I didn't bring a camera.  stupid stupid!!!  next time I'm bringing my video camera and taking pictures/videos of EVERYTHING!

back

i think there are only 2 people who still actually read this.  anywho... i'm back from my almost-4-week trip to india.  it was awesome.  many stories to be told.  and i shall tell them... when i don't have 12 pages of translating... and when i'm not falling asleep at the keyboard.  no pictures at the moment because with my track record i was sure my camera would get stolen.  BUT i'll be back again someday and then... it's picture city baby. 
PS. I made paneer all by myself today.  it's like Indian tofu/cheese/curd stuff.  I have spinach so if I get up early enough i'm going to make palak paneer (spinach curry). yum!  now THAT's saying something when I just get back from eating curry 3 times a day for almost a month... and the first thing I do is start making more curry.