A show Sachi and I sometimes find on Japanese TV while flipping through channels is Otameshi ka, a kind of game show where a group of people collect at a family restaurant, a fast food joint, or a noodle-gyoza shop, and try to guess the ten best-selling menu items. In the past, we’ve seen them do Denny’s, First Kitchen, and KFC.

The catch is that they have to (as a group) eat every one they guess at, and there are usually more than a hundred items on the menu. Worse, they start after the place closes at night and don’t get to leave until they guess all of the top ten, which often results in a bunch of bloated guys with indigestion watching the sun come up through the restaurant windows.

In one sense, the show is a kind of huge advertisement for each restaurant, though I am not sure if the image of a bunch of sick people leaving the place at 7 am is the best publicity you want to have.

By this time, something like 4 am, they are literally praying that they get one of the remaining top menu items. But no, it’s #41.