"Pussuma" (TV Asahi, Tues., 11:15 p.m.) started way back in 1998, making it one of Japanese TV's longest running variety shows. Eternally hosted by aging idol Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and loud-mouthed actor-comedian Yusuke Santamaria, the nonsensical title is meant to cash in on Kusanagi's membership in SMAP.
This week fellow SMAP member Shingo Katori and idol Satomi Ishihara join Kusanagi and Santamaria for the first half of a two-part tour of Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. The idea is to conduct a "one-day photography" excursion of the city's leafiest, most suburban ward. Each member takes pictures for a planned album. In a forest in the center of Setagaya they dig up bamboo shoots (with permission, we presume) and then impose on a nearby family to cook them up. They also explore the area's apiaries.
Shingo Katori is also the special guest on a special two-hour installment of the travel variety show, "Pittanko Kan-kan" (TBS, Fri., 7 p.m.). He and the host, TBS staff announcer Shinichiro Azumi, visit locations associated with Katori's new movie, "Zatoichi the Last" which opens in theaters the next day.