When I was working in Toyko in 1994, not unsurprisingly, I had a really hard time adjusting to the change in time zones. I’d wake up like a pinball machine at 3AM and stay up. There wasn’t much on TV at night in Japan then, but each morning at 7:30AM an absolutely amazing kids show came on that blew my doors off each time I watched it. Not that I had even the slightest idea of what was going on, of course, but it looked incredible. Curiously there was a character who was a talking turd...

Ugo Ugo Lhuga was a big-budget childrens program that adults liked too, similar to things like Do Not Adjust Your Set, Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Yo Gabba Gabba. Sometimes pop acts like Shonen Knife or Pizzicato 5 appeared on the show. It was a mix of live action and frenetic computer animation, most of it done on a Commodore Amiga. The show was a victim of the economy and Japan’s “lost decade” recession, but the show lives on on YouTube and DVD.