I Survived a Japanese Game Show - Splat!

Having seen a few of the Japanese game shows, I just had to see this one. A group of ten people think they are going on a "traditional" reality show. What is traditional in the world of reality? You can get engaged, be stranded on an island, dance, sing, cook your way to the top or design yourself silly. Where is the traditional part? Anyway, everyone says they are there to kick butt and win money but they don't know at what.

The group is sent to Tokyo and shown where they will be living. A nice house in the 'burbs. One emerging diva doesn't like the beds on the floor while the guys go crazy over the remote controlled toilet. That's right guys, no reason to leave that toilet seat up! Next enters the mommason and, as she says, she is not their momma! She jumps on them right away to take off their shoes while in the house and to go to bed all in a tone that says she means business.

The next morning everyone gets up early so they can go on a tour of Tokyo, or so they think. They end up on a sound stage where they are told they will be watching a, you guessed it, a Japanese game show. The stage is pitch black and when the lights come up, the group is on the stage facing a rowdy Japanese audience and Romu, the host, who is a total nut. At least Romu speaks English and tells the group what they are going to do.

The group is split into two teams, the yellow penguin team and the green monkey team. They are dressed in business suits and given helmets with a tray on top. One person from each team has to eat mocchi balls (?) out of the trays while the tray wearer runs on a treadmill. Yep, it's a Japanese game show all right. When the one with the tray falls, they end up in a large bin of flour. Who ever eats the most mocchi balls wins. Most contestants did well with the treadmill but Darcy from the yellow team just can't figure out the treadmill and ends up in the flour bin before her player can eat her balls ;) Sorry, I couldn't help myself. The green team ends up with 10 mocchi balls and the yellow team starts to catch up with Romu saying in Japanese "look at his chubby face work!" That's the problem with this, Romu could be saying anything about you and you won't know it, just keep smiling and nodding.

The green monkey team wins and gets a real tour of Tokyo in a helicopter and then in a limo. They get treated like royalty while the yellow team finds out they have to be rickshaw drivers for two hours. At least they have a day to rest before carrying out their punishment.

The next day, mommason takes great pleasure in waking up the yellow team calling them "the losers" and to put on traditional rickshaw driver's uniforms. Our diva, Cathy, makes everyone wait while she takes her time getting ready. They go through their two hour shift pulling local citizens, most of whom do not speak English, around in the rickshaws. At the end, they have to decide on two people to play a game to decide who goes home. Darcy volunteers for one spot since she messed up on the mocchi ball challenge. Darcy tried to get Cathy sent up and everyone seemed to go along with it until Cathy channeled her inner politician and got the group to nominate Bilenda. Poor Bilenda, she is such a team player and so nice, why they listened to Cathy, I don't know. Weak as water the lot of them!

Darcy and Bilenda are dressed up as bugs to play bugs splat on windshield. Sounds lovely. The girls have to jump on to a trampoline and land on a "windshield" and leave their marker for points. Oh yeah, they also leave a green "splat" mark. Gross! It did look rather painful. Neither girl wants to go home and they tie. They go into overtime and Bilenda wins sending Darcy home. Darcy gets carried out of the studio on the shoulders of what looked like the Japanese CIA, all men dressed in dark business suits. Those Japanese sure are stylish!

I'm not too sure about this show. I guess I'll have to watch one more time to see happens! Double D

Hell's Kitchen-Final Two

To celebrate the final three Chef Ramsay will cook the chefs one of his signature dishes but not before their families come in to join them. Petrozza is like a 7 year old seeing his dad and girlfriend. Girlfriend? I thought he would be married with 10 kids! Everyone is seated in the restaurant while Chef whips up his dish. Both Corey and Petrozza are too engrossed with their families to take notice what is being served while spunky Christina has the smarts to say that she better know what's in this dish because he just might ask them to cook it. Her mother says that there's cream in it and Christina says there's also a white bean puree. After lunch, Chef does ask each one of them to cook the dish. That Christina is pretty smart and just might win this whole thing. I thought that was a good challenge had not that the chefs got to taste it again. Hey that's cheating! I think he should have let the chefs cook from memory and not by tasting it again, that would have been a real challenge. Corey says that the sauce is sweet and there must be some raspberry framboise in it which was correct. Petrozza and Christina chose the right kind of meat, venison, but Corey choses buffalo. Petrozza leaves off the puree and Christina gets the sauce wrong,shoulda listened to mom, but Christina wins it again and gets treated to a Hollywood double decker bus tour and lunch with her parents and Chef. Meanwhile, Petrozza and Corey get the ice crushing detail in the kitchen. Dinner service this time will feature how strong each one of them will be expediting food. Corey can't yell at the kitchen staff nor does she have a commanding presence. She was one giggle away from laughing hysterically. Petrozza manages to get into and Christina tries to channel Ramsay. I would have yelled and screamed and swear up and down just like Ramsay because that's what he wants. Be the Ramsay, be the Ramsay. Chef sets up the usual sabotage by leaving off certain ingredients to see if they will be caught before they leave the kitchen. The only one to catch it was Christina. I tell ya, that girl's got a lot on the ball. At the end of dinner service, Chef has the awful dilemma of getting rid of someone. This time it's really difficult because there is no one to hate, how awful is that! Send back Jen! They each have something different to offer, but it is Corey that is sent home with Christina whispering in her ear that she'll be on her team. What does that mean, if she wins will she hire Corey for the restaurant? I hope so, they both said that they work well together, however, if Christina sees what Corey has said about her, like= her voice is so high pitch it gets on my nerves she might think twice. Does Petrozza have a chance? Petrozza is always the bridesmaid never the bride. Can his runner up status in challenges outbeat Christina's moments of brillance? Which one will Chef chose? Average and steady or brilliant and learning? I'm thinking brilliant and learning-Christina-Single D

The Bachelorette-Home Dates

Is it the hometown dates already? First up is a trip to Breckenridge, Colorado to visit Jesse and his parents. I've been to Breckenridge and it is really cute, one main street with views of the snow covered mountains, breathtaking! Jesse shows DeAnna what he's like in his element. He's fantastic on the snow. After giving DeAnna a lesson in snow boarding he takes her to his modest home showing her his art wall of snow boards. Jesse for all his appearance is really neat, labeling his cupboards, plates, cups, saucers, who knew, Martha would be proud! Typical guy, having to label where to put his dishes, I just know DeAnna wanted to break out in peels of laughter. His parents show up with Dad sporting a cap with that fake long hair. I was like, omg, he's got long hair! Thank goodness it was just one of those caps, or I'd have to say, hillbilly, then again those caps scream hillbilly. Jesse is the only child and it's obvious he's loved very much. I really like his parents. Hey, if Jesse and DeAnna get married, they could be best friends with Ryan and previous bachelorette, Trista in Vail. Finally the long awaited kiss DeAnna had been waiting for as Jesse plants one on her in the sleigh ride through the snow. Wonder if it was worth the wait? Jesse is beginning to grow on me even if he reminds me of Sean Penn in his "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" days, but look how good he turned out. Next it's onto Dallas where Jeremy picks up DeAnna on his big bike, gotta love a hog between the legs. Jeremy takes DeAnna to his condo which is meticulously decorated. Jeremy brings out pictures of his mother and his journals he wrote when she was dying. Ok, even if I don't care for Jeremy, I did for a moment feel myself well up, just for about 1/2 a second. Next the brothers show up to give the third degree to DeAnna. One word DeAnna, run! Hey what's up with the crib notes of the bar exam on the walls as art, looks like he needs to display how wonderfully smart he is. The third hometown date is to Seattle to see Jason and meet his son, Ty. When DeAnna meets Jason at the Space Needle she tells Jason she doesn't know what it is. Come on-who doesn't know that landmark? Next it's on to Jason meeting up with his son whom he hasn't seen since he's been on the show. It's a very touching scene as DeAnna says it was such a movie perfect moment. DeAnna tells Ty that she brought him a present, a golf ball, obvious she's never been around small children! Jason and son have a very large extended family and they welcome her with a traditional Greek dinner. I thought that was very thoughtful and looks like she would fit right in. The last date is to North Carolina and Graham's home town. Graham meets DeAnna at his old school where his path to pro basketball was formed. You can so tell that DeAnna is totally smitten with him, she can't keep her hands off him. Graham takes her to his parents lovely house. His parents seemed nice enough but they didn't make food or anything, what's up with that. For me it's all about breaking bread together, nothing says welcome to the family like pot roast. Once alone, Graham calms up again and it looked like he wanted to tell DeAnna something, but snaps his mouth shut. Come on, what's up with this guy? Is he gay or something? He definitely is afraid to commit to anything, no wonder he's not had a girlfriend. DeAnna is put off and tries to coax it out of him but he can't open up and talk to her. DeAnna, one word of advice, lose him! DeAnna leaves with the look of frustration on her face. Back at the mansion and the rose ceremony, DeAnna looks still pissed at what transpired between her and Graham. I know she's torn with the choice of should she keep him and hope that he'll come around and get rid of someone whose committed to her. When she came out, she did not give her customary speech, not a happy camper, she went straight for the jugular and axed Graham. What was he smiling about, like he was happy to be going? He's a jerk. It was obvious DeAnna was torn in getting rid of him and once again her heart was broken. I bet if Graham would have opened up to her, he would have been the last man standing because you could so tell that she likes him the best. Graham writes her a note and tells her to read it in private, maybe he tells DeAnna his deep dark secret, like he's secretly a psycho or something. I think if he would have told her that he was falling in love with her on the way to the limo, she would have done a whoa, ok, ABC hello, I made a mistake, I meant to say Jason not Graham! Either way she did the right thing to cut him loose. Who wants a guy like that? He would take years of therapy to unravel. And besides Graham's name doesn't fit in with the 3 J's. At the end, DeAnna is afraid that maybe she won't fall in love (because she was in love with Graham), could a Brad ending be in store for the Bachelorette?-Single D http://primetime.tv.yahoo.com/ funny bachelorette clip!

Since I'm behind (again) this will be the cliff note version for me. This was hometown date episode and we start with Jesse in Colorado. The parents love DeAnna and after getting advise from dear old dad, Jesse finally lets loose and kisses DeAnna. I too, thought the labeling of the cabinets was a little weird. I've heard about those snowboarders, maybe after a little recreation he has to have his cabinets labeled!

Next is Dallas and Jeremy. That motorcycle looked so uncomfortable with them all hunched over. It was more like a crotch rocket than a cruise bike. You could so tell DeAnna didn't like his house except for the upstairs balcony looking over down town Dallas. Tear jerker moment with the pictures and journal. For a minute I really thought Jeremy had made that journal like yesterday to get sympathy from DeAnna. I'm such a cynic! Jeremys brothers let DeAnna know that they are there for him not her but they really like her.

Jason and Ty in Seattle are next. Did Jason morph into the Easter bunny? He was hopping around like he had to pee when DeAnna came into view! They took the Space Needle tour, how can you not know what the Space Needle is? She finally meets Ty and give him a golf ball. Golf ball? What's up with that? Maybe it's an inside joke. After dinner with the family, everyone dances and goes outside to play leap frog. OK, it was cute, but does anyone really do that? The family loves DeAnna.

She saves what she thinks is the best for last, Graham in N. Carolina. They have fun playing basketball at Graham's high school then it's off to meet the parents. Graham is obviously close with his parents, and himself, but stayed aloof with DeAnna. No dinner here, strange. Either they are cheap or they don't want to get attached to DeAnna. You know, if we feed her she might keep coming back! Mom doesn't waste any time by asking DeAnna if she can really find someone that will last in such a short time. Funny that we don't get to hear her answer, ummm. DeAnna's light bulb is finally going off that maybe Graham isn't ready for a serious relationship. The parents seem to like DeAnna.

At the rose ceremony, DeAnna sends Graham home telling him he is the one person she was falling in love with. Are you kidding me?! She is all about opening up and being honest, all that Graham isn't and she was falling for him? Goes to show that opposites do attract. If she is so in love with this guy why send him home? I guess there is that whole don't want to get my heart broken thing. So now she has to chose from three other guys and all she will be thinking about will be Graham. Not so fair for the other guys. Double D

The Next Food Network Star-Coast Guard Feeding

For this episode it's Tyler Florence as guest judge. Did I mention I saw Tyler Florence eating at an outdoor cafe in Sausalito? Yep, he was just sitting there eating a salad (alone, no entourage or anything!) looking out onto main street. As I passed by with my sister in law in tow, we walked by the table and I said, he looks familiar, but I couldn't place the name. Then my sister in law, whose as subtle as a pink elephant said that's Tyler Florence! She made me walk back and forth several times so she could get a good look at him. After it became obvious we were walking back and forth, we then hid in the hedges to watch him eat. Ok, sounds stalkerazzi, but we only did it for all of 10 seconds ok, ok, 10 minutes, thank goodness my husband called me or we'd still be there! Tyler does have very soft looking hands (he doesn't do his own dishes, ummmm? And he looks exactly the same in person) . This first challenge involves a 60 seconds teaching video with a food item. Aaron's item is a pineapple, but he's more interested in showing how to display the top than cutting the prickly skin. Shane's is a coconut, but he has no idea how to get it open. Hasn't he ever watched Survivor? Nipa was totally flipping out, she hates to touch fish, in this case squid. OMG how ever does she cook? SIU! (suck it up!). Kelsey wins the challenge with her lamb boning. The major challenge involves cooking a dish for Red Lobster, but with a twist, cooking two dishes one for the Red Lobster menu and then one with a uncommon ingredient, fish with stuff like, coffee, chocolate, marshmellow creme, fruit loops, grape jelly, what the? I definitely don't like my fish tasting like a flutter nutter! How's Nipa going to do this challenge when she hates to handle fish? Nipa pares down her fish to one tiny bit and throws away the rest, doesn't she know there are people starving in India? The crew then takes their dishes aboard a Coast Guard cutter to give a short presentation of their dish to the 30 men and woman aboard. Adam decides that he will do his Dick Van Dyke falling over the ottoman prat and falls on the floor but that stunt falls flat on it's face-cue cricket sounds. Next Nipa thinks she might win over the audience with a lesson in Bollywood dancing. Well heck, if her career peters out in cooking she could become a Bolly dancer, hahaha! I slay myself! Lisa's meanwhile is in the kitchen as we watch her take a huge fall dousing herself with sauce on her $300.00 shirt. Yikes, a $300.00 shirt? My whole closet is probably worth $300.00! She does manage to remain cool and collective and gave a very heart felt presentation, even if she still looks like Gephetto's daughter. Kelsey again wins the challenge. She's managing to rein in her bubbly and looks like a front runner to win this thing and Nipa is sent packing, if you can't handle the fish better get out of the kitchen!-Single D

See Kelsey's winning receipe below:

Macadamia Crusted Tilapia with White Chocolate Beurre Blanc Recipe courtesy Kelsey Nixon

1/2 cup all-purpose flour 2 large eggs 3 cups macadamia nuts 6 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets Salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 tablespoons olive oil White Chocolate Beurre Blanc, recipe follows Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place flour in shallow bowl. Whisk eggs in small bowl to blend. Finely grind nuts in processor. Transfer nuts to another bowl. Season fish with salt and pepper. Coat fish with flour. Dip fish into eggs, then macadamia nuts, coating completely. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in each of 2 heavy large skillets over medium heat. Place 3 fillets in each skillet; cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer fillets to large baking sheet. Bake fish until just opaque in center, about 7 minutes. Top with White Chocolate Beurre Blanc and serve. White Chocolate Beurre Blanc: 1/3 cup shallot, minced 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon garlic, minced 2/3 cup dry white wine 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup coconut milk 2 tablespoons white chocolate Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper Cook shallots in olive oil in a heavy saucepan over medium high heat, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes, adding garlic in the last minute. Deglaze with wine and reduce by half. Add cream and coconut milk and reduce by half once more. Remove sauce from heat and mount with white chocolate until sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper A viewer, who may not be a professional cook, provided this recipe. The Food Network Kitchens chefs have not tested this recipe and therefore, we cannot make representation as to the results.

The Next Design Star-Oaklawn Mansion

It's a junk sale at the Design Star house and junk is right, could they find a more pitiful assortment of stuff? Everyone is roused from their beds with the loud call of Clive's obnoxious bull horn. They are told by Clive to pick their treasure carefully, like you know they will have to do something with it, a duh! Mike has a sheet wrapped around his scrawny body as he grabs for a cylindrical glass vase. Can you say phallic! He wishes. Stephanie picks the pink flamingo, like why? I confess, I have a pink flamingo in my garden but I don't want to look at it inside my house. The designers are told to bring their stuff to a mansion called Oaklawn once owned by "Stand by your Man" Tammy Wynette and George Jones. I'm having the greatest urge to sip sweet tea and sit on the veranda right now. The mansion has 4 identical sitting rooms, what else do genteel southern ladies have to do back then, but sit? And one haunted basement, does Ghost Hunters know about this? The designers are paired up by the paint can draw, with each team one given one of the sitting rooms to do a makeover with their junk finds. Their first taste of the haunting was the framed number one flying off the wall and crashing to the floor. Oooooh! I'm wondering if any of the designers felt a rush of cold air around them? The designers have three days and $5,000 to complete their projects. Tracee survived last episodes beheading and is paired with Jennifer, who is willing to give her a second chance to redeem herself after throwing her team under the bus last time. I'm just wondering who divided up the work load and chose Tracee to go to the store while Jennifer painted. Bad idea, Tracee spent 5 hours picking out two chairs, (which Jennifer hated) and paint, gee go figure.

I really didn't like any of the rooms except for Matt and Mike's black painted sitting room. At first Matt was like, I'm not feeling the black to which Mike said that it could be primer if they didn't like it. Primer? How do you cover black paint? In the end, it was Mike's and Matt's room that won the judges, but leave it to Vern to notice that the other walls were left unadorned. Is Matt gay? I always say two gays are better than one when it comes to design. I totally hated D. Paul and Trish's Linda Blair split pea green vomit room with those heavy antique Jed Clampett couches. D. Paul deserved to be in the bottom two for spending 3 days on crown molding which he insisted that the judges would take notice. Yeah, they took notice alright and said why did you do that, huh, huh? And Vern said he didn't even notice it, he's so subtle. That made D. Paul even more De-flated. And what in the world was Stephanie going to do with that hideous pink flamingo? Well take it apart of course. That was crafty by taking the pink flamingo apart, but did she have to create an entire line of flamingo products?

In the end, it was Tracee again in the bottom two, with De-flated er D. Paul, and was once again Ms. Congeniality was spared as D. Paul is sent packing, back to the bayou with ya. Is Tracee going to cry at every episode? So you be the judge, pictures falling, sconces hurling through the air and paint trays being mysteriously moved. Ghost or what? I'm just wondering who is going to clean the halls, the ghost? -Single D

Ghost Hunters - Fort Delaware

The team goes to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island, Delaware. This place is huge! It was used as a POW camp during the civil war. Apparitions of a cleaning woman are seen as well as a cook and a confederate soldier. The winner of the hunt for the hunter will be joining the team. I wondered if we would be seeing him again.

J & G go to the officer's quarters to do EVP work. They ask the spirits if they want to communicate and show themselves by way of the K2 meters and the meters go crazy. Looks like they got some "live" ones!

In the tunnels, Joe & Tango ask if there is anyone there could they throw something. A few seconds later they hear what sounds like a rock being thrown. Later, J & G go to the tunnels and hear voices. J & G continue on down the tunnel and they catch a figure on thermal that walks across the hallway, stops, turns and walks back. Thinking there may be another investigator there, Jason runs down the hall but doesn't find anyone. They decide to leave the thermal camera in the tunnel to see if anything else happens. They go to kitchen to see if they can draw out the spirit of the cook by talking about cooking and hear a loud bang which does not have a source.

Going over the tapes, you can hear something say "show some respect" and "kitchen". On video we see the figure in the tunnel as well as what looks like someone's head and shoulders peeking down the hall. The video on this was amazing! If J & G hadn't accounted for all of the investigators at the time, I would swear someone was trying to pull one over on them. It gave me the chills. Jason declares the fort haunted. After seeing that video I would say so!

Congrats to Kris for becoming a full fledged investigator! Ghost Hunters International is back in two weeks, can't wait! Double D