Thirty Minutes over Tokyo
"Thirty Minutes over Tokyo" is the twenty-third and final episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.
In the episode, after being robbed by Snake Jailbird, the Simpsons visit a money-saving seminar, where they learn ways to limit their expenses.
Soon, the family can afford a cheap last-minute flight to another country, the only disadvantage being that they do not know where their plane tickets will bring them, which leads them to spend their vacation in Japan.
Several guest-stars appeared in the episode, including George Takei as the host for The Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show.
While visiting an Internet café with Bart and Lisa, Homer is cyber-robbed by Snake, who downloads the savings that the family planned to use for a vacation.
Homer attempts to save money by burgling Ned Flanders, who catches him and explains that he learned thrifting strategies from attending the Chuck Garabedian Mega-Savings Seminar.
Arriving in Japan, with Lisa wanting to explore the local culture, the family eat at an American-themed restaurant before Homer and Bart attend a sumo match.
When his pretzel is stolen by a wrestler, Homer subdues him (with the help of Bart) before throwing Emperor Akihito into a receptacle of worn mawashi.
Their final challenge has them collect the tickets from a rickety bridge over an active volcano, which they succeed at but fall into the lava, which turns out to be Orangeade with added wasabi.
The Simpsons finally leave Japan, though their flight out is briefly halted by four giant monsters – Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, and Rodan.
However, Tomi Yamaguchi, a Simpsons layout artist at the time, pointed out that cars in fact drive on the left side of the street in Japan.
[5] The speech that Homer gives to the audience in The Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show was originally much longer, and would partially involve kitchenettes from Broyhill.
Chuck Garabedian, the speaker at the seminar, was portrayed by series regular voice actor Hank Azaria, who plays Moe Szyslak among other characters.
Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves nor the greedy, nor drunkards nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
[9] The scene was included as a reference to the 1998 action science fiction film Godzilla, in which three of the main The Simpsons cast members (Azaria, Cartwright and Shearer) had a live-action role.
[10] In its original American broadcast on May 16, 1999, "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo" received an 8.0 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 8 million viewers.
[14] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, gave the episode a positive review, and wrote that it was "A magnificent end to the season."
He wrote: "I am going to go ahead and give this one the benefit of the doubt and assume that making fun of Japanese junk culture and game shows felt fresher in 1999 than it does do now.
[18] The reasoning behind this was that a scene in the episode, which shows Homer throwing Japan's then-emperor Akihito into a box filled with sumo thongs, was considered disrespectful.
