"Susunu Denpa Shonen," which airs every Sunday night on NTV, has become a bona fide phenomenon partly by tweaking noses and partly by joining hands -- call it cynicism cut with altruism
While the long-running show has produced a number of different mini-booms, its most well-known segment has been its travel series, which has basically involved feckless comics (or more precisely, comical people) traveling to the globe's four corners, through Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. The travel conditions have become progressively more elaborate. The original concept of a pair of travelers, hitchhiking and working in odd jobs, was proceeded by that of an enka singer having to sell her tapes in the countryside of Thailand, and then later by a pair pedaling a swan boat 4,000 km from India to Indonesia.
This past Sunday the program launched a new series in which a couple must travel around the world in 80 days. The hook? They've been given an Iridium Pager and "Denpa Shonen" is asking the world to lend the voyagers a hand. Send e-mail and make an offer -- a home-cooked meal in Topeka, a lift to Berlin, lodging in Cairo.