Here are the previous recaps for this series of Bijo Gaku appearances:

Part 1 Part 2

Maimi, Captain, Maasa, and Mai returned for a third week of canned food study under the tutelage of canned foods expert Kurokawa Hayato on the “Extracurricular Lesson” segment of Bijo Gaku (aired on 3/17/2011), which immediately began with another quiz this week. Kurokawa showed the girls a can of “mentaiko” (walleyed pollack roe) called “Mentai Can”, and asked them to tell him what kind of fish mentaiko comes from. After a couple of incorrect guesses from the other girls, Captain asked Kurokawa for a hint. For the hint, Kurokawa pointed out the character on the can (Taizoo-kun) and read his profile, which contained information on his age (28) and hobbies (surfing, karaoke). As that hint clearly didn’t help any, Kurokawa offered another one, first telling the girls that the fish is called “_______dara”, and then “su_____dara”. With that hint, Maimi was able to correctly guess “suketoudara” (walleyed pollack) and won a bowl of mentaiko on rice. Captain asked Kurokawa what he was going to do with the remainder of the mentaiko, to which he replied that he was going to eat it himself afterwards.

For the next quiz Kurokawa brought out a can of “Matsusaka-gyu WHAT’S Curry”, a high-grade beef curry which is made from meat that is boiled for 3 days, and asked the girls to guess the price. Before the girls wrote down their answers, he offered the hint that each 810 gram can has 4 servings in it. With that in mind, Captain guessed 1980 yen, Maasa guessed 2200 yen, Maimi guessed 3500 yen (citing the luxury of the long cooking process as the reason for the high price), and Mai guessed 2400 yen. Kurokawa revealed that someone had guessed the price exactly, and it was Mai with her guess of 2400 yen. While enjoying her plate of curry, Mai feigned like she was going to share a spoonful with Maimi, but quickly pulled it away and ate it herself. Maimi commented that Mai pulled the spoon away too fast, though, as she hadn’t even opened her mouth yet.

Kurokawa had one more special canned food and rice dish to teach the girls about, and for that he took out a can of SPAM. Upon seeing the can, Maimi revealed that she really loves SPAM and has it in the morning for breakfast. Kurokawa then showed the girls how to prepare “SPAM and tuna Italian donburi”. The first step is to make a spread by mixing together tuna, anchovies, and mayonnaise. Then you spread it on top of a piece of SPAM and add black pepper and soy sauce. Kurokawa placed the SPAM on top of the bowl of rice with a “DON!” (the Japanese onomatopoeia for a loud thud), and Maimi tried to make a pun by saying “SPAM don” (“don” being short for “donburi”, a bowl of rice with food on top).

Like the weeks prior, the girls had to battle it out in a series of Rock-Paper-Scissors matches to see who’d be the lucky three to try the “SPAM and tuna Italian donburi”. The first winner was a jubilant Maimi, who avoided repeating her fate from last week by beating the three others’ paper with her scissors. Captain won the face-off with Maasa and Mai and secured a bowl for herself, leaving Maasa and Mai to battle each other for the final bowl. A nervous Mai tried to gather her composure, but ultimately lost to Maasa’s rock versus her scissors. As if being excluded from the meal wasn’t enough, Kurokawa then asked Mai to hand everyone the chopsticks that were next to her. Mai watched on with teary eyes as the winning girls sampled the SPAM donburi, and Maimi commented that the combination of flavors was really delicious and that she was really happy.

The canned food “Extracurricular Lesson” series came to an end with Kurokawa asking the girls to try to apply what they learned there at their homes, and with the girls thanking Kurokawa.

For part 1 of the Bijo Gaku recap “Maimi’s canned food genius”, please click here.

Maimi and the girls (Captain, Maasa, and Mai) were back again for another week of studying canned foods for the “Extracurricular Lesson” segment of “Bijo Gaku”. This episode picks up right where last week’s left off, and the girls were given another canned foods quiz. Their teacher, canned foods expert Kurokawa Hayato, brought out a can labelled “Teppou Jiru” and asked the girls to guess the main ingredient with the hint that it’s something famous from Hokkaido. Maasa instantly and correctly guessed “kani” (Japanese for crab), and as a result was presented with a piping hot bowl of “teppou jiru”. Unsure how to eat it initially, as the crab meat was still in the shell, Maasa shook a piece until the meat simply fell out. Captain asked why it was called “teppou jiru” (“teppou” is gun, “jiru/shiru” is soup), and Kurokawa explained that the motion for digging out the crab meat is similar to how guns used to be loaded a long time ago.

Onto the next question, Kurokawa presented the girls with a can that read “Ra Furansu” (“La France”, a special kind of pear from France). After Kurokawa verified that all of the girls knew what “ra furansu” was, he challenged them to draw a picture of one. The girls revealed their drawings one by one, and Kurokawa declared Maimi and Mai the winners and gave them each an assorted fruit bowl containing “ra furansu”. However, as Maasa and Captain pointed out, both of them went for other fruits first, with Mai eating the peach and Maimi eating the cherry.

It was then time for Kurokawa to introduce them to another canned food that goes well with rice, this time bringing out a can of mackerel. While opening the can, Kurokawa mentioned that mackerel and sardines are both rich in EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). None of the girls seemed to understand what he was talking about, and Mai commented that it sounded like TPO (time/place/occasion). As Kurokawa was taking the mackerel out of the can, the girls expressed their amazement at how big the pieces were and how many were in the can. For this dish, dubbed “Sappari Saba Donburi” (simple mackerel on rice), the mackerel is first covered in a Japanese sauce made of soy sauce and citrus juice, then extra virgin olive oil, and is then topped with black pepper and placed on top of rice. Much like last week, there was only three bowls of rice on the counter.

To decide who’d get to eat the “sappari saba donburi”, the girls once again had to play rock-paper-scissors. This time, all the girls went at once and Captain won herself the first bowl by beating everyone else’s scissors with her rock. This left Maimi, Maasa, and Mai to challenge each other for the remaining two bowls, and much to Maimi’s shock, she lost and was excluded from the meal, despite her certainty that she was going to win. As the other girls enjoyed their meal while Maimi looked on, Captain tried to comment on the extra virgin olive oil, but stumbled on the pronunciation and instead said “extrura oba”. Maasa took no time in eating all of the mackerel and showed off her bowl that had only rice in it, but Mai, who had been excluded from most of the meals up to this point, one-upped her and showed off her completely empty bowl.

Maimi, Captain, Maasa, and Mai will continue their canned food studies on next week’s episode of Bijo Gaku (airing on 3/17).

Maimi appeared on this week’s “Extracurricular Lesson” segment on “Bijo Gaku”, along with Berryz Koubou’s “Captain” Shimizu Saki, Sudou Maasa, and fellow ℃-ute member Hagiwara Mai. The segment kicked off with Captain attempting to juggle a couple cans of food, which worried the other members around her. After announcing that today’s theme is “canned food”, Captain introduced their teacher for the day, canned food expert Kurokawa Hayato.

From there, the five of them headed to a canned food restaraunt called “Slow Comedy Factory”. The girls were amazed by the amount and variety of canned food in the restaraunt, with Mai remarking that is was a “canned food paradise”. Kurokawa-sensei introducted the girls to several kinds of the canned food there, including “Iwashi Umezuni”, sardines cooked in plum juice. He asked Captain to read the label, which had a pun in Japanese (“These sardines are good”/”Kono Iwashi Umeetsu”).

The girls then took a seat at the counter so they could sample some of the canned food dishes. First up was Kurokawa’s specialty, “Creamy Yakitori Donburi” (“yakitori” is grilled chicken, and “donburi” refers to dishes served on top of rice). To make this dish, Kurokawa first added a small amount of cinnamon (though the girls thought it was a lot), and then heated the can in the oven for 2 minutes before adding in coffee cream.

As Kurokawa was putting the creamy yakitori on the rice, Captain noticed that there was only three bowls of rice. The girls then found out that they’d have to play “Rock-Paper-Scissors” to decide who’d be the one left out. Maasa beat Captain to start, and Maimi beat Mai despite her giggling, leaving Captain and Mai to battle for 3rd place. Captain took the victory, and joined Maimi and Maasa in tasting the creamy yakitori donburi. Maimi enjoyed it so much, that she said she planned to tell her family about it.

Next, the girls were presented with a can of “unagi”, or eel. Those who could correctly answer the question would get to try “unagi donburi”. They were asked to guess where the canned ungai was made, and given the hint “Mt. Fuji”. Captain, Maimi, and Maasa all correctly guessed Shizuoka, where Mt. Fuji is located, while Mai incorrectly guessed Hokkaido, again excluding her from the meal. While eating the unagi donburi, Maimi noted that she usually dislikes eating unagi, but was able to eat that.

For their last challenge, Kurokawa showed the girls a can that was labelled simply “Ichigoni” and asked them to guess the ingredients (he noted that they weren’t “ichigo”, or strawberries). Amazingly, Maimi was able to guess both of the ingredients, “uni” (sea urchin) and “awabi” (abalone), from the hints given. Maimi alone got to taste the soup which, despite her curious reaction, she assured everyone was delicious and recommended they try it.

The girls will continue their study of canned food on next week’s episode of Bijo Gaku.