"Detective! Night Scoop" (ABC TV, Fridays at 11:17 PM) is a popular variety show where "detectives" tackle outlandish requests and worries submitted by viewers. On March 27th, Detective Seiya investigated the request to "recreate 'The Giant Turnip'!" Shingo Murakami reappeared as the special director, with Takanori Takeyama as assistant director and Saori Masuda as secretary.
The request came from a 35-year-old woman in Aichi Prefecture, about "The Giant Turnip," a story her 3-year-old son loves.
About a year ago, I casually read the fairy tale "The Giant Turnip" to my son, and he became completely engrossed in it. Since then, he has been pretending to be the old man from the book, constantly saying "Turnip! Turnip!" whether he's awake or asleep, and he even pretends to pull up turnips in the air at home and buries them in the sandbox.
As his enthusiasm for turnips intensified, Ritsuto saw a photograph and learned about a giant radish called "Sakurajima Daikon," a specialty of Kagoshima. Its size and shape reminded him of the giant turnip from the fairy tale, and in his mind, "Sakurajima Daikon" became synonymous with "the giant turnip."
Since then, he's been watching videos of Sakurajima radishes non-stop, and now he's saying he wants to pull one out himself! And not just pull it out by himself, but he wants to work together with dogs, cats, and mice to pull it out, just like in the fairy tale. I'm begging you to let my son pull out a gigantic Sakurajima radish just like in the picture book.
The picture book "The Giant Turnip" tells the story of a grandfather, grandmother, grandson, and even a dog, cat, and mouse who line up and work together to pull up a giant turnip. We immediately headed to Kagoshima in search of a Sakurajima radish like the one in the picture book. My son was overjoyed when we were shown a field where Sakurajima radishes were still available. He immediately took on the role of the grandfather and tried to pull up the giant Sakurajima radish, but it wouldn't budge. So the grandmother (my son's mother) and grandson (my son's father) joined in and worked together. Then the real dog, cat, and mouse joined in, and everyone tried their best, chanting "Heave-ho, heave-ho!", but the dog, cat, and mouse showed absolutely no interest...
