The Eggplant and Everest
This is Tomoaki Hamatsu, aka Nasubi, so-called for his eggplant-like face. He “starred” in a Japanese comedy reality series titled “Susunu! Denpa Shōnen” at the height of the genre’s popularity in Japan. For a year a half, Nasubi had almost no human contact, no clothing , and subsisted at times on plain rice or even dog food. The game show’s objective was to win a million yen (about $10,000) in phone or mail-in sweepstakes prizes. Averaging about 5–6,000 postcards in entries every month, Nasubi experienced extreme isolation and loneliness befriending a stuffed seal and a boxer action figure; he danced for joy after a receiving a poster of a famous model — someone else to talk to.
You can watch the two-part special of the series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4lYc34HNSg
Nasubi, like many aspiring actors, endured these hardships in the empty promise of fame and his career never fully blossomed. Later retrospectives of Susunu Denpa Shonen and other Japanese game shows of the period have likened them to torture with Nasubi’s experience compared to a real-life “Truman Show.”
This 2014 episode of “This American Life” is worth a listen on the subject: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/529/human-spectacle
At first blush, Nasubi is neither a remarkable nor heroic character. After all, the nation and the world know him primarily as a poorly compensated game show contestant whose genitals were constantly censored by a giant cartoon eggplant.
But in 2011, when his home region of Tohuku was ravaged by an earthquake and subsequent nuclear power plant disaster, Nasubi committed himself to making his fellow townsfolk smile again. His plan? To summit Mount Everest.
Nasubi tried — and failed — three times to reach the top, but never quit on his dream. Finally, in 2016, Nasubi and three other Japanese climbers reached the summit on his fourth try. The actor not only drew attention to his hard-hit home region, but also raised over six million yen for the people of Fukushima.
Last year, when asked for wisdom during the global pandemic, Nasubi said,
“That would be to find a little pieces of happiness in daily life while managing to sort out your feelings. For me, the standard of happiness is low. Like, compared to the sweepstake days when I had to eat dog food, I am happy with having even one meal of human food a day. It’s fine without side dishes. Now, in the stay-home situation, many people may be having difficult time to pursuit their ‘standard of happiness’ as high as usual, so lowering the standard a little bit would work.
Also, if we think about the people who are desperately trying hard on the front line, such as the ones working for medical and nursing facilities, financial and IT services, and logistics and transportation companies to protect our society, we need to be patient to reduce their burdens. And I think, we also desperately need to behave properly to protect the people around us. We need to be more thoughtful. Not like ‘it’s OK as long as I am OK.’ By being deprived of freedom all of a sudden, many people must be frustrated with the inconvenience, but staying in a house for one month or two months won’t kill you. I proved it in a sense by surviving from the days being locked up for a year and three months.”
https://stylekoriyama.com/fukushima.../2020/06/10/interview/
