The Comedy Roadshow is coming to a Theatre near you!

The Japanese are a stoic and honourable people.  They have shown tremendous strength and resilience in the face of adversity as well as unwavering solidarity in times of despair.  For these things alone, they are a nation to admire and respect.  Very little however is said about their sense of humour, and I wonder sometimes whether an assumption is then made that they simply don’t have one. 

This couldn’t be further from the truth.  These people are hilarious, and what’s more, they have no ego about laughing at themselves.  I guess it’s like the British, who are often unfairly labelled as refined but somewhat detached and dismissive.  That certainly hasn’t been my experience.  However, no one can fault their razor sharp wit and the ease with which they dispense side splitting anecdotes.  The Japanese too are great fun when they’re in the mood to make you laugh. 

I was talking with a friend the other day about my dislike for cold ocha (green tea) which is served in most Japanese restaurants in the summertime.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a refreshing drink but I’ve always preferred to drink it hot.  I jokingly asked her if it was rude to send the drink back to be heated up in the Microwave or Denchi Renji.  My friend immediately said to me ‘or Ching’.  I told her I’d never heard of that word before and she said a popular name used for ‘Microwave’ instead of ‘Denchi Renji’ is ‘Ching’.  I asked her if it was a slang word.  She started to laugh and said that it’s the noise the microwave makes to let you know that your meal is ready.  Then in a high pitched voice, she says ‘Ching’ and then using gestures, she pretends to open a door, presumably attached to a microwave, where she pulls out an imaginary piping hot dish of food for me to sample.   Are you serious? I laughed so hard, I nearly cried.  I mean it’s so adorably silly isn’t it?  Who thinks this stuff up?