Justin Lee Collins: Turning Japanese

In this three part series Justin Lee Collins claimed that he was going to spend three weeks in Japan with the intention of getting to know what it was like to live like a Japanese person; I don't quite think he succeeded in that intention as many of the things that he did seemed almost as shocking to his Japanese translator Mei as they did to him. That isn't to say the series was a failure though; amongst the stranger sites were some interesting facts about ordinary Japanese people; particularly in the final episode that dealt with the stressful lives of the people of Tokyo. The stranger things he showed us included a man with a huge collection of 'love-dolls', a café where patrons are served by a monkey and a company selling bras for men! While these sections provided some genuinely laugh out loud moments the more serious moments proved more interesting to me; such as the karaoke for pensioners and the forest on the outskirts of Tokyo which seems to be a magnet for those wishing to commit suicide.

Justin Lee Collins proved to be an entertaining host and it was fun seeing his reactions to some of the more unusual aspects of Japanese life. The entertainment was increased by Mei who was frequently surprised at what she saw and also teased Justin in a friendly way when he had difficulty dealing with certain things. It was admirable that he managed to be non-judgemental about such things as the eating of whale meat. Some times he could have delved deeper into a subject; such as when he was surprised about the comparatively low age of consent there but didn't ask if this was to prevent the criminalising of youngsters or if it was considered acceptable for adults to be involved with people that young; I was left hoping it was for the former not the latter reason but we weren't told. Over all it was an entertaining series which provided good laughs as well as including some interesting facts about Japan, just don't think everything that you will be shown to be common place there.