James May: Our Man in...

(Flash Review)

It makes sense that between Clarkson and Hammond that James May would be the one to explore Japan from a cultural perspective. Over six episodes and across each island, May explores several cultural activities from artistic to food & drink to Japanese heritage to local manufacturing to picturesque nature to the bizarre. The spectrum goes from simple and cheap restaurants to luxury train rides. His dry wit and quirky charm is entertaining for the duration and he really exposes the viewer to a wide array of what Japan has to offer. A solid combo of information and amusement.

This six part travelogue follows presenter James May as he travels from snow covered Hokkaido, the most northerly island in Japan to Kyushu, the most southerly of the main island group. On the way he visits numerous sights; some familiar, some more obscure. In each episode he explores the local culture. This varies from the more high-brow traditional aspects of Japan, such as sword making, beautiful gardens and calligraphy; surprising things like competitive snowball fighting, go carting through the streets of Osaka and a 'penis festival' near Tokyo; to things like a cat-maid café that he found too pervy to enter! There are also views of amazing scenery in areas that rarely feature in programmes about Japan.

I found this to be a really interesting series. James May is a fun presenter who clearly had an interest in Japan. While some of the stranger elements of the country are mentioned it never felt as the series was dwelling overly on such items... unlike some past shows about Japan that revel in the bizarre. Each episode is broken down into many sections so we get a broad view on numerous things rather than going into great depth so we get a taste rather than a real insight into each topic. Occasionally I wished certain topics could have been looked at in greater depth but for the most part I liked the format. For three of the episodes James was joined by Yujiro Taniyama; a man who is far from the stereotype of the very reserved Japanese. He provides many local insights into his culture without being afraid to laugh at it at times... at first I thought he was a bit over-the-top but soon thought he was a great addition... perhaps Amazon will commission a series where James acts as a guide to Yujiro as he travels through Britain; I know I'd watch it! While I've seen a few series about Japan this managed to show areas I don't think I've seen before; including some amazing scenery in the southern islands... as James remarked anywhere else tourists and the wealthy would flock there but here they were suffering from depopulation. Overall I'd definitely recommend this series to anybody fascinated by Japan. I hope Amazon find another fascinating country to send James to.

The show is good overall, but it's let down by half-heartedly squatting between two schools of thought aboht what it wants to be and it suffers greatly for it. I want to watch James May spend hours excitedly explaining intricate processes in detail, admiring the delicate craftmanship of woodworking and the technical complexities of engineering; there is a bit of that, but far too often in this series this is cut short - seemingly on the (spurious) assumption that people would rather see James May being forced to perform ridiculous antics and laugh at him he complains about it. Please, drop this for the next series; it's not smart, it's not funny, and it's a waste of James May's talent as a presenter. We get enough bullying of him on The Grand Tour - let him explore things he's passionate about and share them with us. Too much focus on these antics has left the show felt rushed overall - it could have done with another few episodes and much longer segments of the interesting bits.

Producers and directors are looking too much for 'funny' awkward situations to put James in. Interesting places like the rocket factory and particle collider have only 5-10 minutes of screen time. Italy is known for for its rich history, food, art, exotic cars and science. But no, James has to visit someone who likes to dress up like a Hobbit...

The episodes (especially episode 3) are FILLED with a lot of activities that have 10 -15 minutes of screen time. This makes it a bit dull and without any memorable events. We have already seen that a healthy balance between funny situations and serious activities can be achieved, with the previous season in Japan!

Unlike many documentaries and YouTube videos filmed in japan, James really showed how japan is like in a respectful way. Funny, entertaining and I learnt a lot more about japan than just the touristic places. Watch it!