rubik's cube mania

Random late night tv can be very interesting.

So there's this show featuring a former member of Morning Musume. Morning Musume is a long-lived group attesting to the power of fanboys in Japan. And the consumer strength of young girls. Because I think they must be the reason that this revolving door group of fluctuating numbers of girls has survived so long. Also, their manager is a very good writer of catchy pop songs.

Anyway, there's Yaguchi the singer, and this comedian guy, who host this late night low budget variety show. Yaguchi is surprisingly funny and charming. I like her a lot, even though her music isn't so good. The comedian guy is pretty funny too. He's actually a big rubik's cube maniac, and holds some certificate that you can get attesting to your rubik's cube prowess. So, lately, he's been matching up against other enthusiasts in timed contests. Last night, they had another rubik's cube enthusiast on the show. Apparently there are two main methods for solving a rubik's cube. The guest actually worked out one of the methods on his own, through observation and experimentation. He'd track the movement of all the pieces, noting them down on paper, until he'd worked out the entire process. So the comedian was very impressed, because he just looked up the methods online and memorized them in order to solve the cube. The guest also talked about types of rubik's cubes that he'd like to see. I believe he said he'd like to see a rubik's cube where a solved side would show up as a wooden panel? And the comedien said that would be very elegant. And they started descending into their own little rubik's cube world. Meanwhile, Yaguchi who has minimal interest in rubik's cube, was practically dying at the whole fanatical conversation. Eh, you probably have to watch the show yourself (with english subtitles) in order to get the full effect.