Japan: You are crazy. If I was suddenly able to ignore everything I’ve seen and read about your culture except for that show you did with Nasubi, I’d still think you were fucking crazy.

Never heard of Nasubi? In the name of good television, Nasubi was stripped of all clothing and locked into an apartment with no food, household goods, furniture, or any form of entertainment. Nasubi was led to this apartment with a blindfold on so he would not know where he was. This was just the beginning of the Japanese reality show known as Susunu! Denpa Shōnen.

Aired on Nippon Televison, we Americans unfortunately missed out on all the fun. For you see, after being thrown naked into the desolate apartment, Nasubi found himself with only a table, a cushion, a small radio, a telephone, some notebooks, and a few pens. So I exaggerated a bit, but not much. He really didn’t have anything whatsoever to eat; he didn’t even have toilet paper.

Locked into the apartment, there was only one way for Nasubi to aquire that which he sought; he had to win everything he needed to survive by sending thousands of postcards into contests. The object of this whole mess was for Nasubi to successfully win $10,000 in prizes via these postcard contests. The most fucked up thing? Nasubi had no idea that this whole ordeal was being broadcast on television.

This whole bizarre mess began in January, 1998. February 8th marks the first contest Nasubi won and it was for some jelly. This day would also mark the first time he ate in two weeks. February 22nd was the day he won a 5kg bag of rice. With nothing to cook with, he first ate it raw but eventually figured out a way to cook the rice in a can by placing it next to a burner. Using two pens for chop sticks, Nasubi would eat roughly a half cup of rice a day at this time.

Bored, Nasubi would write between 3,000-8,000 postcards a month. But, by the end of March, he had won a measly 66,840 yen. In other words, he still had to earn another 933,160 yen to win.

When he won contests, Nasubi would do a victory dance and make up strange songs. Gradually his apartment filled up with stuff. Although every prize would seem like gold to Nasubi, there were times when they weren’t so great. At one point he won a TV only to realize that there was no antenna or cable.

Five months into it, a doctor visited Nasubi and revealed to the viewers that he was in perfect health. By the end of May, his ration of rice was no more and he was forced to eat dog food. Every night he would prey for rice.

In June, the mass media realized where he was staying. To ensure Nasubi was not made aware that he was being televised, the producers woke him in the middle of the night, blindfolded him once more, and moved him to a new apartment. Nasubi literally was at the breaking point when he realized that they forgot his rice at the old apartment. By the end of June, he was half towards the goal of one million yen.

In July, the show went live over the Internet. They needed 50 staff members to control the dot over Nasubi’s private parts because he was nude. Viewers witnessed Nasubi’s solitude as he talked to his stuffed animals.

August and September were considered his toughest months. He won little and what he did win were of hardly any value. In October he was moved again.

He would finally win a VCR and saw a woman for the first time in 10 months on his TV. In November, he won two rolls of toilet paper which was a big deal for him.

Things came to a close in December when he won a bag of rice that put over the target. He was given his clothes back and was finally able to wear something other than women’s underwear. He was taken to an amusement park and to eat his favorite food. After this break, he was taken to Korea and put back into a room. He could not speak or write Korean and was to earn his airfare home. The airfare was roughly $400.

After he won relatively easily, the staff made the challenge more difficult by forcing him to get a business class and then a first class ticket. They, of course, explained none of this to Nasubi and he began to become suspicious.

Finally, they flew him back to Japan, into a television, and then into a box. Out of habit, he stripped naked and waited until the “room” suddenly fell down and the “ceiling” was raised”. There he was, naked, in front of a thousand cheering fans and the hosts of the show came out and explained everything to him. He was told how his diary had become the number one best seller, that he had been used in a Ramen noodles commercial, and that his web site had grossed a ton of money.

Read more about Nasubi, or check him out on wikipedia