"Detective! Night Scoop" (ABC TV, Fridays at 11:17 PM) is a popular variety show where "detectives" tackle bizarre requests and worries submitted by viewers. On April 17th, Detective Takanori Takeyama investigated a "5-year-old who loves lion dances." Special Director Yu Yokoyama, Assistant Director Yasushi Ishida, and Secretary Saori Masuda appeared on the show.
The request came from a 38-year-old woman in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture. She wanted to fulfill the wish of her son, Haro, who loves lion dances. Ever since they went to see a festival in the town where his grandparents live, her son has been completely captivated and has been begging her to make a lion dance costume, so she made one for him by hand using a candy box and cloth. Now, he practices the lion dance every day while watching festival programs and YouTube videos.
As they praised him, saying, "Great! Great!", he began to say, "I want to get even better! I want to perform the lion dance at Himeji Castle and show it to my friends!" However, neither the woman nor her husband are experts in lion dancing, so there are limits to what they can teach him. In addition, there are no festivals in the town where they currently live, so they don't know who to ask for help. They are asking if you could help teach their son the lion dance so that he can perform it at his dream Himeji Castle.
Haro-kun was captivated after seeing the "Ushiyacho Lion Dance." He says "the intensity is cool," and he shows off his dance in the lion dance costume his mother made for him, but he's worked so hard that it has several parts that need repairing. He immediately contacts the local youth group and asks them to teach him the lion dance, which they readily agree to. Haro-kun is a little nervous at first, but when he performs the dance in his homemade lion dance costume, they recognize his "potential" and he begins receiving instruction as "an adult." When the special training begins, he finds that the adult-sized lion dance costume weighs 12 kilograms and he can't lift it. Nevertheless, with the desire to "become a lion" in his heart, Haro-kun takes on the challenge.
