I spent pretty much the entire night watching the five-hour long Kouhaku Uta Gassen , which has become sort of a New Year's tradition for me. It's an extremely popular show in Japan, where it's shown on New Year's Eve (the Japanese language station in the US that I watch airs it the following day). The TV station translates the title as "Red and White Songfest"; Wikipedia translates it as "Red and White Song Battle," which is maybe the more accurate meaning, as it's a contest between the "white... read more
