I don’t know how I looked, so I’ll assume I looked marvelous. I don’t know how I sounded, so I’ll assume I sounded awesome.
On Monday I ventured to Asakusa to meet some old friends and their shockingly cute children. While I was waiting near Kaminarimon, the main gate of Senso-ji, I was approached by a camera crew and a guy from St. Louis who asked me if I’d like to do them a favor and be on television.
I was hesitant at first because, as I’ve written before, my one experience on television seemed to go well but I ended up looking awful. (I now appreciate how celebrities prefer to be seen only from certain angles and/or from their “good” sides.) Since that interview, and the public viewing of it that ended in snickers and a couple snide comments from the people I was working with, I’ve done my best to avoid television crews, video cameras and security cameras (although the latter is for different reasons than you might think).
The Nippon TV camera crew and the guy from St. Louis asked me if I’d vote on which of the four possible Tokyo Olympics logos I liked best. This involved placing a sticker under my favorite design (Design B, the ring: Before you die, er, win gold, you see the ring) and explaining myself whilst the guy from St. Louis translated.
Unfortunately, when I said that I liked the Paralympic logo a lot and that the ring reminded me of a kamon (note, so did Design A but Design A is ugly and seems to move by itself if you stare at it too long) the reporter began to ask me if Americans would wear anything like that and I said, yeah, maybe, sure, as a lapel pen. He then asked what kind of family would wear such a pin and I said a rich and powerful one and he asked if that mean Japan was rich and powerful and I said of course.
That was the general outline, at least, but there was a lot more than that and at some point I used some Japanese to show my ranking (B, D, C, A). In fact, the interview went on long enough that I’m sure I eventually did and said something foolish.
When it was all over I was told when it would air (the next day) and what time the show started.
When that time rolled around I made a token effort to see if I made the cut. I decided I’d check a couple times and if the segment was on I’d watch it but I wasn’t going to sit and wait for it. I also “forgot” to record it (isn’t that convenient?) as I’d much rather imagine I did better than my first television experience than actually witness what happened.
When I got to the school where I work, the first teacher I saw mentioned he’d seen me on television. A few others did the same. When I got to class a few students had seen me.
They haven’t made any jokes/memes out of me yet, so that means I probably did pretty well. At least that’s what I’ll keep thinking.