CaptOblivious Turn on Fuji TV. Tamori Show 00:25 AM

[gmat]

There is a program on about Tamori visiting a train Yard. Should be on until One.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[gmat]

Right now, he's with a work crew replacing a concrete tie. They were shifting ballast by hand. One interesting thing is that shoveling ballast by hand is a two man affair. There is a cord attached to the shovel blade neck and another worker pulls the cord while the man with the shovel is shoveling, helping man with the shovel to scoop up the ballast rocks.  

Now they are demonstrating how to shift the concrete ties by hand. It takes three men. Each has what looks like a cross between a scissors and caliper and use it to lift the concrete tie. The workers move it short spurts. They all chant 'Sei No' each time that they lift it as a way for each person to get into rhythm.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[gmat]

There was a brief interlude where they play portions of western songs which part of the lyrics sounds like Japanese. The Japanese is usually humorous.

 

Now they are lifting rails to place on the ties. They are using what looks like a metal sawhorse with a winch to lift and lower the rails. They put a rubber grommet between the tie and the rail and then lower the rail.

That's all for this week. To be continued next week. 00:47.

 

It was very interesting. My wife came rushing in to tell me to switch to channel 5, (Fuji TV in Tokyo) so that's how I knew about the program.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

gmat, are you talking about "Waratte ii tomo"? It's unusual to have something like that on a mid-day program...

[gmat]

It's the Friday program on TV Tokyo, Channel 7. (Tamori Club, Asahi TV) Sorry, I gave the wrong TV station earlier. It's the one that comes on at around Midnight. and starts with pantie clad derrieres gyrating to the beat of Short Shorts. (Who wears short shorts...) I don't know if you might get Asahi TV outside of Tokyo. If it had been Fuji TV, I think that you should have.

I had to confirm the station with my wife. She came back and told me a bit more about the show. She says that it's for 'boys.' When I said for men, she said it's funny and a little immature. I guess that's a women's point of view. She likes to watch it, though. She also said that the two guests with Tamori last night were manzai comedians from Kansai who are not really interested in trains. So when they were invited to visit the Keikyu Line facilities near Tokyo, they really didn't know very much. Apparently they asked out loud 'How long is the  Keikyu Line," which was a faux pas. My wife said that Tamori and the rail workers were a little surprised to hear that. The Keikyu Line had invited them to visit, so it's kind of like insulting the host. My wife was amused at that.

Continued next week.

 

Tamori wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamori

 

Tamori Club wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamori_Club

 

manzai wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzai

 

Soramimi wiki - the music segment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soramimi

 

Sorry about the confusion. I thought my wife had said Fuji TV, or else my brain had gone on automatic pilot.

 

Usually my wife will tell me to turn on the TV, there's a train show on, and I'll post a notice here. So if you don't catch it at once, it'll be too late. Sorry.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[CaptOblivious]

Whoops, guess I missed it :( Just found this thread (haven't been on a lot lately)!

[bikkuri bahn]

It's the Friday program on TV Tokyo, Channel 7. (Tamori Club, Asahi TV)

 

Thanks, gmat.  I'll try to catch the second part this week.

 

She also said that the two guests with Tamori last night were manzai comedians from Kansai who are not really interested in trains. So when they were invited to visit the Keikyu Line facilities near Tokyo, they really didn't know very much.

 

I wonder why the show producers invited them then.  In general, comedians/"talents" subtract (much) more than they add when the topic is something serious (some would say they lower the denominator no matter the subject matter...).  They could have invited that Kansai comedian, his name eludes me at the moment, who is actually a railfan, he could have added some observations from the Kansai mintetsu perspective.

 

btw, many of you likely know Tamori is a big railfan, he has admitted he likes to read the JRF timetables!

[bikkuri bahn]

Checked, and the comedian is Nakagawa Reiji, of the Yoshimoto duo Nakagawa-ke. Here he hosts a feature on railway archeology in the Kansai area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C8TEehxvIA&feature=fvst