Starting Wednesday, October 8th in the 9pm timeslot, "Woman": http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1865.htm

gaijinmark wrote:

Might be a "Doctor X" marathon. Since it's in the old "Aibou" slot they'll probably run "Doctor X 2" after that and if "Doctor X 3" has finished it's run in Japan by then they could show it as well.

Looks like it. They're going to start "Doctor X - 2" November 27th, 9pm. I would provide a link for "Doctor X -2" but it's not listed in the JDorama database.

But here's the Drama Wiki synopsis: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Doctor_X_~_Gekai_Daimon_Michiko

(scroll down for season 2)

After "Legal High" ends "Marumo no Okite" will take over the 9pm Sunday slot starting Dec. 28th: http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1629.htm

"Woman" ends its run in the Wednesday 9pm time slot on January 7th. Starting on January 14th will "Last Cinderella": http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1838.htm

18.2 has started a show called "Gurunai" on Mondays at 9pm. Here's a basic rundown on what it's about:

Gurunai is a weekly variety show by a comedy team called Guru-Guru Ninety-Nine (shortened to Gurunai). They are in the 11th year and seem to have quite a following. The premise is this. The crew of 5 regulars, plus one or two celebrity guests, get together at a high-end restaurant, and for each episode, there is a price target between 10,000 yen to as much as 35,000 yen (roughly $150-350 per person), and they have to order from a menu (without prices, of course) to try to get closest to the target price. The one who is the farthest from that target has to pay for the entire meal. It�fs like the high-end restaurant version of The Price Is Right. Further, there is a 1,000,000 yen prize for anyone who hits the exact target price (has happened maybe twice in the last three years), and a prize for those who are within 500 yen from the target. Besides ordering from the menu, the chef, who they meet at the beginning of the show, creates a limited number of two special dishes, and the crew plays some silly game to determine who gets to eat the special items. The final minutes are spent with the two remaining contestants agonizing with their heads down, as the chef hovers over them with the check, and patting the loser on the back. In addition to having to pay for the entire check, there�fs a also a year-long tally among the regular cast, as the one with the highest total gets kicked off the show at the end of the year.

The first show was last Monday and it's funny how you get an impression of somebody. One of the members was Makiko Esumi and I've gotten so used to her characters from 'Shomuni' and 'Overtime' it was kind of strange to see her laughing and joking with the others. Took awhile to adjust.

gaijinmark wrote:

18.2 has started a show called "Gurunai" on Mondays at 9pm.

Just curious if anybody else has checked this out. It took me a couple shows to figure out the rules (such as they are) and object of the game, but if you're a foodie I think you'll like it. They definitely are not cheap restaurants. For sure places I'll never see the inside of. The total bill for the seven or eight participants comes in well north of $1,000. They do drag out the ending too long to reveal the big loser, but that's my only real complaint.

The first show I watched Anne ordered some ebi and these were not small. But she was the first person I've ever seen that ate the whole thing including the head. You could hear the head crunching as she ate it.

After "Doctor X 2" ends on Feb. 5th, starting on Feb. 12th in the 9pm slot will be "Shinigami-kun":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1955.htm

And the 2015 taiga "Hana Moyu":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.2069.htm starts on Feb. 21st.

Starting March 30th they're going to be showing "Amachan" from 9p to 10pm: http://jdorama.com/drama.1828.htm

Since it's an asadora I'm guessing they'll probably show about 3 episodes a night which means it will take a full year to run it.

Also on March 29th and April 5th from 9pm to 10pm they'll be showing the "Marumo no Okite" special.

Edit: As usual, it looks like I'm wrong. They started "Amachan" last night and they're showing two episodes a week which means it will take 78 weeks to finish this. That should be sometime around the end of September or beginning of October 2016.

Starting April 12th 9pm, "Roosevelt Game": http://jdorama.com/drama.1963.htm

Aibou 13: http://asianwiki.com/Aibou:_Season_13

Will be aired starting April 16th, 9pm.

gaijinmark wrote:

18.2 is going with a game show after Keiko Kitagawa's drama ends on May 12th. Starting on May 19th they'll be showing "Himitsu no Kenmin Show". Here's basically what it's about: Himitsu no Kenmin Show (�閧�̃P���~��show), roughly translated as Prefecture's Secrets Show. It follows along the variety show format, with panelists representing a handful of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Although the show addresses culture, language, and customs, about 80% of the show's information is organized around food and drink and all kinds of local variations and specialties. One of the first segments is called "himitsu no gochisou" (secret delicacy) which usually introduces the viewer to a local delicacy specific to a certain area in a given prefecture. The delicacy in question is introduced mysteriously... Announcer: "we heard that people in southern Miyazaki prefecture enjoy a dish that people in Tokyo would consider very odd..." Locals are showed in small soundbites, "of course we eat that", "I really enjoy its crunchy texture", "well, it's fish, but not really fish". Announcer: "not really fish? To find out what they're talking about, we went to the local supermarket..." Fishing for more information, we find the fish department of the supermarket... Announcer: "just like most supermarkets, in the sashimi section we find fresh fish, like maguro, saba, kinmedai... but next to the maguro, there's something we've never seen before (the item covered up from the viewer). Interviewing the fishmonger at the supermarket, "we sell more of this than any of the other items in the cold case..." After the commercial break, the panelist representing Miyazaki prefecture reveals: "those are maguro intestines! In Miyazaki prefecture, it's a regular delicacy to eat maguro intestines!" Audience and panelist moan in disbelief. Then the segment continues with the interviews with the fishmonger, locals, with a home visit to see how the ingredient is cooked and served, and finally, a food historian/prefectural expert on the history of the dish. Then the featured dish is brought into the studio for the panelists to sample, with most of them agreeing that it's really good. Each week, there's a new unfamiliar "gochisou" introduced from a different prefecture. One of the final segments of the show follows a fictional married couple, Higashi Kyo-ichiro (Higashi=�� Kyo=�� =Tokyo) and his wife Harumi as his job is transferred from one prefecture to another. He meets his boss and his wife (usually real people) who invite the couple over and serve them local delicacies which they've never seen before, and later Kyo-ichiro is taken by his boss to a local food plant for a business introduction (also with the actual workers of the plant), where he encounters odd local items as well as familiar national brand items, and then stopping for lunch at a local spot usually serving a variation of a dish that Kyo-ichiro has never encountered. Then we see Harumi with the boss's wife out food shopping at the local supermarket, where Harumi looks around and finds a number of unfamiliar items, or is surprised by the plethora of choices of a given item (e.g., varieties of curry in Tottori prefecture, varieties of sashimi fish in Chiba prefecture, varieties of shiitake mushrooms in Oita prefecture), among other regional specialties. Himitsu no Kenmin Show highlights the diversity of Japan's local traditions. Most of what we might consider a singular "authentic" Japanese food in the US (or outside of Japan) have so many delicious variations. In almost every episode, there's a moment of incredulity when locals are told that most others in Japan have never heard of a local specialty, or that their local variation is different from most others in Japan. Edit: Found a blogger who gives a better idea what it's all about: http://radiusedcorner.blogspot.com/2013/08/favorite-foodie-television-part-one.html

And they're bringing it back!

Starting June 5th in the 9pm timeslot. I just hope they're new episodes and not just repeats of the old ones.

gaijinmark wrote:

And they're bringing it back! Starting June 5th in the 9pm timeslot. I just hope they're new episodes and not just repeats of the old ones.

About two dozen of these episodes are posted on YouTube. Seen most of them; they're quite entertaining. I believe the person who uploaded them recorded them from Hawaii broadcasts.

shin2 wrote:

About two dozen of these episodes are posted on YouTube. Seen most of them; they're quite entertaining.

One of the hosts, Masami Hisamoto has been in a few dramas and she's been almost unbearable. Really bad and obnoxious. But in this show she's very good interacting with the other members.

Starting June 21st, 9pm, "Galileo 2": http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1825.htm

gaijinmark wrote:

Starting June 5th in the 9pm timeslot. I just hope they're new episodes and not just repeats of the old ones.

Looks like they're repeats. Watched last nights show and I definitely remember seeing the part about how people from Miyazaki refer to sports day groups as "dan" �c, and everywhere else they're called "gumi" �g.

Still fun to watch though. And this week they had Rina Chinen from Okinawa.

Couple updates for the Fall season. First, starting October 4th in the 9pm time slot "Tenno no Ryoriban": http://www.jdorama.com/drama.2091.htm

And Thursday October 8th, 9pm, "Doctor X - 3":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.2031.htm

Posted this the other day but somehow it got deleted.

This years Taiga "Sanada Maru":http://asianwiki.com/Sanadamaru

Starts on Feb. 20th 9pm.

"Hanasaki Mai" ends on March 6th. For the next three weeks after they're airing the "Marumo Okite" Special:http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Marumo_no_Okite

There were two specials so I have no idea which one it is. Or it might be both since it's airing for three weeks.

"Shitmachi Rocket":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.2101.htm

starts on Sunday April 3rd 9pm-10pm. It was written by the same guy that wrote "Naoki Hanzawa". Same scenario, little guy fighting big guy, lots of screaming, pounding on tables, massive overacting. Got huge ratings in Japan.

Also, starting on Thursday, April 7th, 9p-10p, "Aibou 14":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.2128.htm

Takashi Sorimachi is the new partner. Will be interesting to see how he works out.

New travel related show starting May 25th: http://utbhollywood.com/en/program/variety/travelsalad/

"Shitmachi Rocket" ends this Sunday. The three Sundays following (6/26, 7/3, and 7/10) they will be showing "The Apology King":http://asianwiki.com/The_Apology_King

Okay, it's a two hour movie and they're stretching it out to three hours which means lots of commercials, but it's still a very funny movie. Sadao Abe is hilarious.