I wish I had a boyband.

Japan is a wonderland of boybands, nearly all ruled over by the ominous Johnny's Entertainment. They have boy bands with anywhere from two to ten members aged anywhere from their early teens to their early thirties, and they also have an army of hundreds (thousands?) of singing, dancing boys in reserve, just waiting for a chance to debut. The most popular boybands get their own TV shows, but none compare to my beloved SMAP (Sports Music Assemble People), who have a veritable entertainment empire spanning TV shows, movies, commercials, voiceover work, English textbooks, sports commentating and really, really terrible pop music. I love them, and my greatest wish is to one day be a guest on the show where they cook a gourmet meal based on whatever genre or ingredient the guest requests. Here I have posted a video from a recent episode of SMAPxSMAP featuring the BSB (they always sing with their musical guests), so that you can get a glimpse of just how effective the SMAP English textbook really is, and how talented they really are. Also, one of them is consistently voted the sexiest man in Japan, but I will leave it up to you, intrepid reader, to find out for yourself.

So Hot Right Now

Currently very trendy in Japan

1. Billy's Boot Camp

2. Yoshio Kojima (seen above parodying Billy's Boot Camp), and you should be glad that I didn't post the six minute clip of his retarded, repetitive schtick.

3. "Bitter Caramel" and "Salt Caramel", two flavors that until recently I had never imagined.

4. The Brain Maker http://nounaimaker.com/ which tells you what you are thinking if you type in your name. My brain is mainly sex and secrets, with a little bit of friends and fun. Naoya is all "vacation," with a tiny speck of "money". Sorry, it's only in Japanese (hence the popularity in Japan).

OP-PA-PI!