Japanese television never fails to entertain, or give me inspiration for these J-List updates. A given flipping of channels might bring up a show that challenges people to live on a budget of $100 a month (they come up with interesting ways to prepare bean sprouts), a Korean drama featuring a man crying for some reason, and variety shows in which semi-famous "talents" (a generic catch-all term for comedians and other TV personalities) doing things like touching grotesque animals through a screen that prevents them from seeing what they're touching, though we can see everything. One problem Japan has had to come to grips with is its falling test scores relative to other nations of Asia, and one method Japanese TV producers have come up with to combat this disconcerting academic trend are well-executed TV shows like IQ Supli (IQ Supplement), which quizzes viewers in questions culled from university exams, organized by IQ level. The shows are fun to watch with the whole family gathered around to see which intelligence group their answers placed them in, and are probably helpful to students as well.
Japanese TV isn't quite as weird as you think it is. Maybe.
