Inside NHK Studio Park, I see everything from props and set locations, the history of NHK, quiz machines to test my knowledge of NHK, a machine that lets me be a nature cameraman, and my favourite activity, a mock up television studio.
At the mock up studio I am seated at a news desk and instructed to look at the camera. Next, I take part in a fake weather broadcast. I stand behind a Tokyo skyline and point at things which are projected onto a large television screen. It is all very exciting.
The other thing I get to see here is a live broadcast. Beyond a large glass screen NHK are broadcasting a television show called, “Studio Park Kara Konnichiwa.” It is a live chat show. There are two hosts, a guest, a producer and four cameramen. I watch for a while, standing what is probably fifteen feet from the host, before eventually realising I can’t understand a word of what is being said.
Leaving the NHK media theme park, a statue of Domo-kun waves me goodbye. Domo-kun has been the broadcasters mascot since 1998, and is described as ‘a strange creature that hatched from an egg’. Goodbye Domo-kun!