NMB48: Ohayou Asahi Desu! – 11/26/2013: Girls be tricky

Ready for a surprise?

Ah, good ol’ cheesy Nana.

WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR

Well, I heard she dyed it back for now, so that’s good. Man, what a disaster.

And stop making those funny faces at me!

This was a pretty short section this time around. All they did was put makeup on. Okay, so they actually explained the rationale behind their makeup and it does make sense, kind of. They use optical illusions to balance their faces and stuff.

AND THEY’RE THE SAME SIZE! NO WAY!

Basically, if you want to make your eyes look bigger or smaller, you play with your eyebrows and stuff.

Heh , she looks funny when you can see her forehead.

And so they do some magic on her.

Does this scare anyone?

I’ve probably said this a billion times, but man, makeup scares me sometimes. It’s kinda trippy how some people wake up in the morning and look completely different than during the day. I guess it’s cool that they have Nana do this since she takes makeup-less pictures and posts them on G+ nearly every day. And she doesn’t look that great without makeup, so I applaud the effort. In some ways you can look at it and think that she’s prettier because she doesn’t look like everybody else.

Or maybe I’m just going crazy.

Dat forehead though.

They also put makeup on the other girl.

Skirts are short.

Aaaaaaaaaaand we’re done.

She had a nose complex, so they did that one trick with the inverted arrow.

This one.

By applying make up in a pattern like the top arrow, they are able to make her nose not look fat.

 

And that was it. Really. I told you it was a short episode.

NMB48: Ohayou Asahi Desu! – 10/28/2013

Man, remember when I used to watch these? These used to be fun. I guess they decided that having little girls stumble when reading the teleprompter was not as entertaining for the morning crowd.

Now only one woman remains standing.

I used to crush on this girl! She seems older now for some reason.

Was this always her logo? It looks so… tacky.

Instead of random NMB members, it’s just Nana and her newscaster buddy.

And surprisingly she seems to have gotten prettier. The newscaster, not Nana…

And today we’re going to talk about the sport Squash. In Japanese it becomes Skasshu. Uh, okay, I don’t know how that happened. It’s almost as confusing as how things like “donuts” and “peanuts” are the Japanese word for “donut” and “peanut” too since there’s so singular/plural distinction. I would like one donuts please.

“It is said that Squash is the healthiest sport.” I don’t believe it. Maybe in terms of cardio, but come on.

I used to play racquetball in university. And by “play racquetball” I mean that we’d go to the gym on campus, rent the rackets, and then just hit the ball with little regard for the rules actually were. I think one day I actually looked up the rules, but I stopped there. Like hell I would actually play by the rules!

Squash is different from racquetball, though. They have a lot of similarities but they’re different. Kinda like… DotA2 and LoL.

This is not one of the rules.

Nana looked straight out of the early 90’s. I swear I saw that costume in Saved by the Bell.

So our lovely ladies walk us through the rules and do a few practice shots and then it’s game on.

Don’t get hit on the head with the ball though.

Nana ends up taking the match 5-4. I mean, it goes about as well as it could for beginners, where pivotal moments are decided by whiffing the ball.

Look at her smug expression!

I’ve actually been looking for a cardio solution since I can’t really run due to my flat feet. I don’t think squash or racquetball will be that solution, though. It looked cool, it made me want to try it again, but I don’t think it’s doable.

And that’ll do it for this segment. I actually do miss this show. I remember analogizing it do Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and such a show is really helpful when it comes to learning about niche stuff and vocabulary. Just a shame my hard drive went under.

SHE’S ALSO TINY. WAT

NMB48: Teens Hakusho 3/12/2013 — Supermarket Sweep

This will be the strangest update ever. You ready?

I’ve already told you about how I think that girl is kinda cute, but you know what else? That bunny is creepy as hell.

This episode is about a really cheap supermarket. It’s not quite Costco but it has its own quirks.

I’ve went to the supermarkets in Japan, so get ready for long stories.

Renapyon looks like a beast compared to her tiny compatriots.

There are small supermarkets that you find in the metro areas, but there are also the big supermarkets that are comparable to the US ones. And for some reason I like going to supermarkets, maybe because I’m so enamored with food culture.

Last year for New Year’s, I was hanging out with my cousin and we were out late on New Year’s Eve. The following morning we woke up at around 1pm-ish (because of an earthquake, no less) and not knowing the neighborhood we were in, decided to set out to find some eats and just look for fun. We ate at a family restaurant and then while walking we also spotted a department store way down the distance so we decided to walk there.

We also passed an unattended 24-hour rice stand where they sold rice in these stalls.

When they said the name of the market was DO I thought it was Dio. But the logo looks like both.

We got to the department store and it was huge, and we started wandering the supermarket section. For the most part it looks like a supermarket that we’re familiar with in the US; meat sections, dairy sections, refrigerated sections with drink, aisles with dry products. Arguably US supermarkets are arranged better, but that’s because there is a ton of research done regarding psychology in that area. Ever noticed how you always seem to start on the right side and make your way counter-clockwise through the store?

What’s huge in Japan is actually quite normal in the US. Heh.

My cousin and I made our way to the back, where they had prepared foods. The apartment we were staying had a refrigerator and we didn’t want to eat convenience store food all the time, so we thought that we could pick some other stuff here for variety. We settled upon this platter that just had meat on it cooked in different ways. There was probably some shrimp too, and I think it was only 1000 yen. It seemed like a pretty good deal. I think just for fun I bought a hot dog wrapped with a waffle too.

50 cents per slice? That’s actually pretty good considering that a whole pizza from Pizza Hut in Japan is about $30 and not even close to the size of a large in the US.

I haaaaate it when they’re not round numbers. 1 yen coins are super difficult to use.

We also bought some other things, I bought my huge 2 liter bottles of iced green tea like usual, and we may have bought some fresh fruit too. That’s actually a big deal because fruit is really expensive in Japan.

I like how corn dogs in Japanese are called “American dogs”. Hmm.

We got home and ate that meat platter and it was awful. Of all the things I’ve eaten in Japan that was probably the worst thing I’ve ever had. We still ate it and it did take us about 3 days to get through it, but it was really nasty tasting. Like slightly worse than what I would expect from an American supermarket in the prepared foods section. I don’t think anything disappointed me more than that meat platter.

Watching this episode, that was all I could think about. I don’t care how cheap your 6 piece takoyaki was (100 yen) because all I could imagine was it tasting like that meat platter.

They claim that they’re so cheap because they don’t have a large variety of products, so they are able to save on overhead. They also use private label stuff a la Costco and Kirkland Industries.

I probably would want to try that pizza though, it seemed pretty good for 50 cents. I’m not sure I believe that whole speech about not having a lot of products. That does look like a lot of toppings on the pizza.

Also when they were cooking the (frozen) croquettes, they dumped 25 into the fryer. It’s already bad enough that they’re frozen, but if you don’t manage the temperature of the croqeuttes (or any fried food for that matter) it tends to get really oily and soggy.

Well, you do get what you pay for. And I have to admit, sometimes, I am craving the oily and soggy croquettes along with the light hit to my wallet…

NMB48: Teens Hakusho 02/05/2013: Choco Raytoe

Today on a nice relaxing morning, the following thought entered my head:

“OH MY GOD I AM SO BEHIND IN MY JAPANESE STUDIES I NEED TO CATCH UP BY WATCHING OR READING SOMETHING!”

Right now I’m trying to read Kokuhaku (Confessions), a mystery thriller-type novel. But I read slow, so no on that.

I also bought the movie Thermae Romae which stars Abe Hiroshi (one of my favorite actors, who can play both comedy and dramatic roles impeccably) and Ueto Aya (one of my favorite actresses because she’s hot). But no on that movie, because movies take a long time.

Oh hey, new Teens Hakusho, sure, why not.

Hey girl, I miss you~

I seriously hope this person is like an aspiring student at a university, studying something cool like architecture or atomic physics, and as a part-time job she plays the electric piano on this news show. She would look good AND be smart.

But knowing Japan, I would not be surprised if this is her full-time job. *sigh*

Anyway, today’s episode is about Valentine’s Day chocolate. I’m pretty sure anyone with this much amount of vested interest in Japanese culture already knows that their Valentine’s Day is different from the US… but just to be sure…

In Japan, girls give chocolate to people on Valentine’s Day. There’s 3 types of chocolate, which is explored in this episode. There is “Tomochoco” which you give to Itano Tomomi your friends, there’s “Girichoco” which you give to guys that you’re not romantically into, and there’s “Honmeichoco” which you give to someone who you do have a romantic interest in.

It seems cute in anime and drama when they do it. I’ve never seen anyone do it in real life. I kinda wish I had hella Girichocos right now.

Our hostesses, Nana/Riichan/Murakami Ayaka-chan

They invade a classroom at a girls school and ask them about it. I always wondered if anyone ever recognized them. No one ever seems ecstatic about seeing them.

Look at all these hard workers, they say they handmake their chocolates.

She says she has one-sided love. I can see why.

Ok, I don’t want to be mean to her, but I mean… I’d think if you want to appeal to the opposite sex, you’d clean yourself up. Isn’t that basic? And who knows, maybe with some work she can look really splendid. But not now.

I’m actually curious if the throngs of people who visit AKB/NMB handshake events also bother to clean themselves up. They might, or they might not. I dunno, because it’s a common stereotype that idol fans are these nerdy guys with no hope at relationships, but that hasn’t been the case with me.

They go to some chocolate shop, where the chef trained in France or something.

This guy seems awesome. Like the last boss of a cooking game or something with an alternate personality.

Double boiler in action

And I dunno if anyone here makes chocolates, but yeah, when you make chocolates you want to use a double boiler; put a bowl on top of a pan with boiling water on it. But you don’t want to put the bowl in the water, you just want the boiled water to heat the chocolate so it heats smoothly. You can’t directly heat it because the properties change at 50 degrees Celsius according to that screenshot, and having the bowl touch the boiling water is not as hot but still hot.

I kinda wanna make chocolates now. Actually I wanted to make girl scout cookies, because I didn’t want to pay for them and if I make them, they’d probably taste better.

Nana’s reaction when she puts her nuts in her chocolate.

To flavor the chocolate, Ayaka puts strawberry jam, Nana uses mixed nuts, and Riichan… doesn’t put anything.

They make a bed of powdered sugar, then use a wine cork to make little holes in the bed, pour the chocolate in (the chocolate was also mixed with whipping cream), and then cover it again with powdered sugar. But apparently you don’t refrigerate it because then it gets hard.

The completed product

And that’s it for the show. I guess it’s interesting if you like chocolate, but to be honest it really told me nothing about NMB.

Well, when they were making chocolate, I thought Ayaka had a metric ton of makeup on.

And also, Riichan’s baka character still lives on somehow, even though she doesn’t really say anything dumb or do anything dumb anymore. I don’t know why it is like that.

NMB48: Teens Hakusho 01/08/2013 – Show me your Dou

Here’s a show I haven’t watched in a long time. So why did I watch it again?

Actually, I don’t know. Maybe because I’m realizing how horribly deficient my Japanese is, and how I need to catch up. Nevertheless, I decided to watch it.

Kanchiru~ It’s also funny how small Nana is compared to her 14/15-year-old buddies.

This episode is about Shodou performances: drawing Japanese characters with brushes, combined with music and dancing and such.

So, about Shodou… the very first Japanese drama I decided to watch, without English subtitles, was this campy morning drama. I can’t even remember the title of it right now, but it taught some pretty interesting stuff about it. I’m also kinda confused on what to call it, as Shodou is commonly translated to calligraphy, but it’s specific to writing characters with a brush; penmanship is different.

I also watched the movie Shodo Girls on the way back from Japan once. It was a decent movie, and it made me kinda sad because of the general feeling of the Japanese recession that it gave out. Well, I wouldn’t really call it recession, but more like economic stagnation. It also featured Narumi Riko who is one of the great up-and-coming Japanese actresses… she also starred in the movie “How to Become Myself” across from some girl in a famous idol group… I think she was called Maeda Atsuko.

Anyway…

Hee hee, they have sunflowers on their butt.

It WOULD take courage to put sunflowers on your butt.

Now, I’m not sure, but I think Shodou performances are actually quite new to the Shodou world. In Shodou Girls it was a point of contingency, a clash of the old vs. new, as it’s not a traditional part of calligraphy. But in today’s modern society, people like it. And there’s dancing, and music, and people writing characters is a pretty rhythmical fashion. I can’t say I’m a big fan, but it is what it is.

In this episode, NMB visits a high school that does it, and then they participate in one of their own.

Here we see Haruna tag-team with one of the guests to make this rainbow thingy.

I’m no Shodou expert, but during the practice scenes it appeared that Kanchiru had the best writing. So underrated.

For the music and dance, they picked “Oh My God!” Of course. To be honest, that’s probably my second least favorite single of NMB, with “Virginity” below it. Compared to all their other singles, it’s not as daring or audacious or in your face, and except for the pyramid the dance does kind of look silly, especially the whole hopping on one leg thing.

While she does look cool…

Their writing is uh… questionable. Nana wrote the red characters, Kanchiru had the black text below that, and Haru wrote NMB48, lol.

Granted, they’re probably not Shodou experts anyway. Hell, they probably write 100 times better than I do. But you know what WAS great about this episode?

We get to see them in Shodou outfits!

It’s funny, you always have me rallying about how I dislike gravure and swimsuit shoots, but then here I am writing about how cute they look in Shodou outfits. Well, it’s not like I hate gravure and swimsuits, but I think that seeing them so much like that, it kinda takes away from their attractiveness because that mysterious allure is kind of gone. It’s like… you already know what they look like, there’s nothing to anticipate.

Reminds me of when they said that if they didn’t get the #1 spot on Oricon for Zetsumetsu, they would perform in their bloomers. And I think they did anyway. I think they’ve come a long way since then.

Maybe.

NMB48: NMB48 no Teens Hakusho Ep06 05/08/2012 — BROGS

This should be a reasonably short entry. I think the segment itself was kinda short too.

(Yes, I’m still missing Kagai Jugyou.)

Our hostesses are Nana, Jou, and Akarin.

Jou would make my Kami 7 （髪）with Kinoshita Haruna and Tanigawa Airi. Kami as in hair. Alright, I’ll stop with the awful puns.

It’s tough having a blog, I think, in Japan. Probably because they place a premium on privacy so no one ever puts up pictures of their face or reveals too much information about it. I remember I posted a picture of my room on a language blog that I maintain and they were all worried that someone would burglarize it. There’s like a billion houses in California, I doubt they’d be able to find mine to steal my 32″ HDTV. Yeah. 32″ only. And I hardly use it for anything because I hate all the Media Center applications on Windows 7. Ironically, the first thing I noticed when I upgraded to the HDTV was that everyone’s hair in Japanese TV shows is nicely conditioned and shiny. Anyway…

“Do you guys write blogs?” This is a silly question because they all write their blogs on the same account! Come on now!

They interview some random high school girls about writing a blog and what it’s like. I kinda understand what they’re saying. “It’s like a way for people to get to know me.” “People I don’t really know leave comments and it’s really cool.” Hmm, I did allude to this in my post about community. But thankfully for you guys, I don’t post pictures of me in frilly skirts to show off to my girl-frenz. And I’d have to hide my face too.

Yes! I found Engrish! Who teaches them these sentences?!

They also visit some famous fashion blogger, who manages a clothes store. She’s pretty nutty. She blogged 2 times before coming to work. And it’s not like a simple Tweet or anything, it’s a full blog.

I think she looks cute, but she probably looks like a different person in the morning.

She took a photo of an outfit she was trying on and then blogged it. Then she went on break and while NMB was waiting she updated her blog about lunch. Well, at least she’s living a life where people actually want to know about that kinda stuff. Personally, I used to take pictures of my food a lot but I kinda got tired of it because I would rather just download the pictures that professional photographer took online, so I stopped blogging about that. Actually I wanted to make a food blog called “Food Blargh” but my food reviews are usually mediocre. I’m way better at eating things than I am about writing about eating things.

Aaaaaaand… that’s it.

Well, they did a little promo for Nagiichi. I thought it was funny because they were standing in front of themselves on a green screen.

Heh, you can see Kanakichi and Jou’s side belly wrinkle thing.

NMB48: NMB48 no Teens Hakusho Ep05 05/01/2012 — Look at my bun…bougu.

I want to write more in my blog but… it seems like it’s very slow in terms of drama. When I first scanned this episode it looked pretty lame, but I need something to write about!

So here we go. Today’s episode is about girls and their pen cases. Oooooooh exciting! I can’t wait to see what kind of exciting markers and pens there are!

*sigh*

Perhaps we’ll get an inside look at the pen fifteen club.

It’s so exciting that the monitor accidentally revealed #1 before they called for it.

Today (or last week, I guess) we have Yuipon, Haru, and Nana. The more I watch these shows, the better Nana gets. The gap between her two guests keeps getting wider. Also it’s nice to see Yuipon. She looks old. But she’s not as old as Nana. My hormones are confused.

I’m sorry to say this but the center girl in the top left picture is soooo busted, lol.

First they head over to Tokyu Hands. I think it’s like Target or Wal-Mart. People keep saying the one in Shi BOOYAH is really fun to go to but I never feel like going. And they play with the pen cases and stuff there.

Aw hell no what’s up dog

But meh, whatever. Let’s go to an all girls high school.

Yeah! PEN BOXES!

The weirdest thing is that the girls know which girl is the most into these. I dunno about you but in my high school we were just happy to get porn on the internet. Pen boxes. Pshh. The other thing is that when NMB walked in, the girls were… largely unreactive.  They’re no Ranran Acchan.

So unnecessary…

“I use all of them.” Pfft, maybe you should study instead of using pens.

There this one crazy tool they showed that I thought was pretty cool.

This is not a green New Orleans Saints logo…

It holds your book open! Oh man! That’s so awesome! I keep trying to study and I have to like, put another book on my book to keep it open.

There’s some cool tools, but there’s also some tools I think are unnecessary. One thing I really hate is highlighters. I hate highlighted textbooks. It’s really distracting. I like highlighters when I have like a document that my boss is too lazy to read and I need to highlight the important points, but other than that I never liked taking notes or whatever with highlighters.

God, even my side-rants are boring.

This highlighter has multiple functions for maximum uselessness.

Sure, that’s a straight knife. Suuuuure.

The only other notable thing from this episode was Nana’s face when she discovered that one tool could turn into scissors.

WAO!

There was one other thing I thought was cool…

I was so embarrassed when I saw this because I couldn’t recall the graph of y = tan x. Ugh. I need to level up my math skills.

My calculus is on point though. I always thought limit theorems were fun. They’re like… so cool and useful in physics. I always thought math was boring but easy until calculus, then it was kind of exciting. It’s so practical and everything…

I mean, there are some pretty nifty tools but… I dunno. I miss the old show when they’d go to stores and businesses because it seemed more informative and more exciting. Pen boxes are… yeah. The episode before this was about decorating, the one where the girls put on the little crappy shiny stones and that was pretty bad. They need to go back and talk about old school vegetables or go to the aquarium and stuff. That was fun. This is kinda meh…

It’s one thing for me to like Docking48 episodes for the comedians. But for me to like Ohayo Asahi for the anchors more? That pretty much says it for your show…

I like watching grown men play with bitches.

NMB48: NMB48 no Teens Hakusho Ep03 04/17/2012 — La Pelicula

I lamented the end of NMB48’s version of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Kagai Jugyou when this new segment started, but then I realized that, well, it’s pretty much the same thing. It just has a different name and a different intro video.

Today’s episode is about Purikura, machines that take photos of you. I always thought it sounded like “pelicula” which is Spanish for “movie.” It also randomly reminds me of how Filipinos don’t call it a “movie theater” but “the movie house.” Heh. But actually Purikura is another weird word coming from Purinto Kurabu (Print Club). One of my Japanese friends used to call them cardass because they were also called “kaado dasu” (“a card comes out” or something like that). I remember one time before he had to return to Japan we were standing outside and he blurted out, “Oh I forgot! Cardass!”

Also, the old school Purikura used to just be regular photos with silly backgrounds that printed out stickers but apparently everything changed. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Our hosts: Nana, Keiichi, Murase Sae. Note my random mixing of full names, nicknames, and first name only.

There was a funny moment as Keiichi froze up and totally forgot to say her lines and everyone just stood there smiling.

We go to some building where there’s a bunch of Purikura machines. Honestly, I thought they’re all the same but apparently everyone there is familiar with the various brands and they even have their own favorites. Huh.

Well at least they all look like the type to care a little too much about Purikura.

The first machine they try is called “Lady by Tokyo.”

My cousin, who taught English in Japan, told me that they settle many things in Japan through Rock Paper Scissors (Janken) and the results are absolute. There are no takebacks. This is the law of Janken.

They Janken to determine who pays and after Murase loses she points out that Nana is the oldest.

This is the first time I've ever seen the law of Janken broken.

So what does a purikura machine do now that they didn’t do back then?

They make your eyes big and your skin smooth and they make you look more glamorous. It’s kinda scary sometimes. Guys look especially funny. I think one time I flared my nostrils and it enlarged them instead of my eyes.

It's like Auto-Tune Photoshop. Needs more lens flare.

You can also draw pictures on it and stuff, and they print out on stickers that you can distribute. But this machine is even more amazing because it emails the photos to your phone. Whaaaaaat?!

The miracle of technology!

There’s also a machine that takes a picture of your whole body and gives you longer legs and stuff.

Oh man what's wrong with Keiichi's legs...

They made Nana's torso large when she knelt down so it looks funnier.

There are also some weirdos people that cosplay and take pictures. I’ve actually seen people do that here in LA, but that’s more or less because they came from a con or cosplay meetup and then want to take pictures instead of explicitly dressing up for purikura.

Snow White, Alice, and a cop walk into a bar...

So that’s it for this episode. Cool to see Murase Sae get some time. I only know who she is because Ainyan said in an interview that Murase looked really adult-like in the Complete Book 2012. She doesn’t really look like that here. Definitely looks older than Nana, though.

We leave with these two pictures.

I swear, one of my friends did the exact same pose as Nana on the picture on the left during a Purikura with me and some other friends. Ah, if only I could find those…

NMB48: NMB48 no Kagai Jugyo Lesson52 03/20/2012 — Cleaning your dirty thoughts

Today’s episode is about soap. Not the guy from Modern Warfare, but you know, the thing that keeps you clean. The thing that fat smelly wota need to use. Yep, that thing.

It looks like Eigen... which reminds me of eigenvalues. Which reminds me of math I should know from engineering class but I totally limped out of there with a C.

Guess who's back?! Nana's face says it all!

Good to see Akarin back on TV. Unfortunately this is also the time I learned she was still 15. She sure looks older. I had her pegged at 17/18. Oh well. She can hang out with me when she’s older.

What we’re seeing today is not just any soap, but handmade soap made old-world style. Eat your heart out, Ivory and Dove!

Hm, seems pretty cheap too.

Time for a side story!

My Japanese isn’t all that hot yet… during my trip to Japan this holiday, I stayed at a friend’s apartment with my cousin. I had to do the laundry. I spotted a package with lots of small packets and I couldn’t really read it, so I started the washer and emptied the packet into it, releasing a fragrant smell and yellow colored water. “Hm, this doesn’t seem right,” I thought. I don’t think detergent is supposed to smell good, and dipping my clothes in bright yellow water didn’t seem like a good idea.

On closer inspection, it turns out they were bath salts.

Sure smelled good though.

I guess it’s not really related to soap though. Close enough.

The power of science!

I’m too lazy to look up those words in the dictionary, so I’m going to assume that my hunches are right–this soap is a combination of coconut oil and beef tallow, mixed with sodium bicarbonate and heated. At my local farmer’s market, there’s this guy that sells M.Bison, and one product you can buy is Bison fat. The pamphlet that comes with your purchase even comes with directions to make your own soap using the fat. What a nutty guy.

Is it live, or is it flubber?

The guy running the show at the soap factory was pretty awesome. He knew when to heat and when the right time was to stir and everything. I guess it’s not really an easy task. After a heating cycle, it’s then set out to sit for a few days until it solidifies.

Roots. Responsibility. Soap. Buy me now.

WOW! YOU CAN CUT SOAP!

These girls were screaming like mad when they ran the big block of soap through some wire to cut it. I… guess. They repeated it several times to get the right shape.

Of course, you can’t judge the soap without using it first.

I'm really glad I'm not a hand fetishist.

Fats obviously have a much different and slippery texture so they enjoyed using it.

And that’s that. Actually, thinking about it, there wasn’t much NMB-ness in this episode. There was a lot of hype for that old guy though. Every time they showed him they put all these honorable adjectives next to him.

I guess the only thing I really noticed besides Akarin’s return is that Nana looks thinner. Maybe I’m just imagining things. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing to be thinner for her anyway, I’m starting to get worried when their waists are thinner than one of my legs. On the other hand, I like my legs. Squats all day, son.

NMB48: NMB48 no Kagai Jugyo Lesson50 03/06/2012 — U-DO… n.

I remember being excited when Xenosaga came out. I was kinda disappointed when they were alluding to the all powerful destructive being as UDUUUUU. Like how could you take it seriously? Especially when they say it like that?

Anyway, that is neither here nor there. Today’s lesson is about Udon, with Nana, Shinohara, and Milky.

Oodles of noodles!

The name of the chain restaurant is Marugame Seimen. And actually… I’ve eaten there before, when I visited my cousin in Iwakuni! Unfortunately, it gave his younger brother diarrhea, which he affectionately referred to as “Nobunaga’s Revenge.” Well, I liked it. It was good and cheap. And by that, I mean, it was cheaper than the US, and yet still much tastier.

Milky staring down her fried... thing.

We first get to watch them eat udon. So torturous. Of course, I had to watch this show at 10pm when all the places I want to go eat at are closed.

Tastes like Asuka's Kuramocchi... mochi.

With today's exchange rate and gas prices, that's about 3000 dollars.

We also see them make noodles in-house. It looks pretty simple… in fact, it looks like a regular pasta machine. I remember trying make lasagna by hand. I didn’t have a machine so I rolled it with a rolling pin. That was probably the worst lasagna ever created.

Anyway, we also get to follow them in to either the factory or the backroom where the dough is made, I can’t tell which. It certainly looks like a factory but it probably is just the backroom.

Wet noodles are where they got the sound effect for the Zerglings in Starcraft 2.

After that’s all said and done, (including a brief stint in which they played Azumanga Daiou music while making the fried thingy) they get a mini challenge to create a new flavor of Udon to serve in the restaurant between the 3 of them. If you read my earlier recap on the cooking battle, you’ll know that I like simple flavors with maybe a touch of variation; sticking with tried-and-true combinations.

... *sigh*

Nana goes with some unholy combination of chocolate, persimmon, and fried sanshoku dango. And she adds zenzai, sweetened red beans. This is sounding more and more like a disaster already.

Look at that name too. 3 Sisters + Alpha? I just… man, like… why can’t you … just stop freestyling!

"Is it tasty?" "It's... a new flavor."

That's what you get.

Yeah, it’s not good.

Shinohara ends up taking it with some basic vegetable + tuna combination. They’ll propose it to management and we’ll see if it gets adopted. My bet is on no.

We leave this episode on a strange note; one with an ad telling female high school students to mail in stuff that interests them lately.

This is more complicated than SFxT.

Whenever I see ads like this I always want to submit something and see if they care about their 1 fan from the U.S. Unfortunately, I don’t go to a female high school or middle school so I can’t test my interest here. I did submit a question to NMB48 Gakuen but I doubt it’ll appear. Well, there’s always the next ad…