Kelly Goes Home

Kelly Osbourne’s three-part TV show “Turning Japanese”, in which she spends time in Japan, has come to an end. And what has she learned? Well, a fair amount – contrary to what you’d expect from a show with a title that references a song about masturbation. In fact there are parallels to the experience of most JET and NOVA teachers – she even spent a day teaching English in a junior high school!
Japan comes across well in the final episode, especially the impeccably behaved school kids (who actually enjoy going to school), and during a trip to Kyoto, where Kelly is trained as a geisha.
Kelly does her best to be respectful and claims she has learned how to be more patient. The only thing she hated was working in a maid cafe, which she said was demoralizing and demeaning to women- One of the highlights of the show was the awkward scene where she refused to give a foot massage to the maid cafe manager.
In fact, the thing that struck me most about the program was it’s similarity to all the travel shows on Japanese TV, where they send a celebrity to an exotic country for some lighthearted hi-jinks, and top it off with a teary farewell. Maybe she is “Turning Japanese” after all!

The photo above is from someone’s weblog