In about late September / early October, I was contacted by the Ohana Company regarding the possibility of doing some work for japanese tv. They wanted to shoot for a program called "Saturday Night 8 O'clock" [that's the translation I was given] and to also get some footage for use in presenting me for use in commercial work as well. I was excited about the prospect but the dates they wanted were right in the middle of my run at Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights, ultimately though a new set of dates were found that worked for everyone involved.

The plan was for the director to come to the states and film some footage of me at home, along with a sort of concept story and then I would go to Tokyo to shoot the in studio portion of the show. Due to my show and travel schedule, the story sequence was actually shot at Scott's house in Albany and the surrounding area. My friend Fred filled in as the housemate for the story, which basically ran along the lines of the director searching for me but only catching glimpses of me slithering about outside and the remnants of 'meals' I had left behind - bits of raw meat, chicken, etc. Normally, I would have been immediately suspect of such an idea, but they approached it with a real sense of humor and I felt confident it would come off well and not be used insultingly. It did go well, but also quite long - after 11+ hours we finished the sequence.

As a bonus, the company provided an additional ticket for Meghan, so that she could come with me to Tokyo and scheduled in some free days for sightseeing. Nothing comes entirely for free though, they wanted her for the studio shoot as well. We arrived in Tokyo after a thirteen hour flight from Houston and were met at the airport by Yurime who then rode with us by bus (2 hours) to our hotel: The Shinagawa Prince Hotel. We had a corner room on the 28th floor with a beautiful view, though our initial priority was a nap and quick clean up before dinner at a traditional restaraunt with Yurime and some of her colleagues.

  Our first full day in Japan was to be spent wandering about while being filmed for b roll footage - the latter was cancelled but we still managed the former. Meghan and I strolled around the hotel and managed to find mostly construction and train tracks. There was a meat festival going on, but we only stopped to look at the large inflatable creatures and costumed characters. On the way back to the hotel we caught preparations for the women's marathon which would pass right by the hotel.

  The next day was the studio shoot. We took a cab (1 hour) to the studios and then played the usual game of 'hurry up & wait'. All in all, it was really any different than shooting anywhere else in the world. I got to see the end result of the footage taped in the states as it aired before I entered. Well, made an entrance...they had me leap out of small set of bushes continuing the wild theme from the concept story but then quickly transitioned into me interacting with the hosts and guests - showing my mods and talking about my show and the things I do. This eventually came around to bringing out Meghan, so that everyone could see The Lizardman's girlfriend and ask her some questions. For a finale, I swallowed a sword and then ran back into the bushes.