Japanese Sesame Street Ad

[Drtooth]

Okay... first of all, I cannot link this or upload this onto Youtube, so don't ask.

Now I gotta tell you something. I was at a Korean market and they were getting rid of all the stock VHS's they have for rental. I got a couple One Pieces and something called Kochikame and the ones taped off of television (there were films too) had the commercials intact. One of them was Sesame Street. I had no idea what it was for, but Big Bird and Elmo (with their American Puppeteers) were in it.

Basically they were singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" (in English, mind you), while American kids were going through the motions of the song. There was a Japanese announcer and letters that said something. I don't know what, since I can't speak Japanese. I can't remember if the words were in Kanji (complex characters based off of Chinese), Hiragana (basic letters native to Japan) or Katanaka (blocky letters used to spell foreign words, such as someone's name). I can read the last two. I'll have to watch that tape again.

Anyway, this ad was from 2004 (the tape was dated 2004).

 

[JLG]

Interesting. I read somewhere that Sesame Street was broadcast in Japan for many years undubbed and untranslated, specifically for people who were trying to learn English.

I don't think they've ever joined the list of countries that have their own home-grown versions, though.

 

[Big Bird Fan]

That's probably because they don't need it since they already have plenty of preschool educational shows over there.