James May: Our Man in Japan review – penis festivals are no place for jokes!

The ex-Top Gear star reveals rarer sides of Japanese culture in this travelogue – but why won’t he just quit the gags and be his true, highbrow self?

Japan, James May informs us at the beginning of his travelogue, is “about the most abroad place you can be” if you are from England. He has been there many times as a regular Joe before he got this commission from Amazon Prime Video, and his love for and fascination with the place shows. At least until he remembers who he is and what his brand requires, and lunges for an effortful joke about an automatic translator gadget. There’s a moment early on in the opening episode, when May has mastered the basics of dogsledding in the beautiful snow of Hokkaido and, after speeding smoothly through the silent majesty, forgets himself enough to make a reference to feeling like Prokofiev. We then labour through a fourth-wall break in which he tells us the crew are worried that line will make him look pompous and intellectual. They chat, wonder if Raymond Briggs or Elsa would work better, until the danger of seeming thoughtful or moved has passed. It must be exhausting.

But the travelogue itself is charming. Over three episodes, May moves from Hokkaido to Tokyo, taking in a day with one of the few samurai sword-makers left in the country, an octopus fishing expedition in Sapporo, a cat cafe, a parkful of the revered sakura (cherry blossom trees) in Tokyo and a penis festival in Kawasaki City. This last event is exactly what it sounds like: an honouring of the god of fertility by erecting and carrying around phalluses of various sizes and colours, if not shapes. May asks one of the overseers if there is any sense of embarrassment attached to the day. “Carrying a huge penis is embarrassing but necessary,” he is told unsmilingly. A penis festival is no place for jokes.

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