Episode Transcript
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Let's get this dinner party started. Wow.
1:06
Question one and your starter for a perfect
1:08
ten was this. How many
1:10
different colors are on the national flag of
1:12
Greece? And the answer is there are
1:15
two colors and they are blue and red. Hello
1:21
and welcome to the Abroad in Japan podcast. Probably
1:23
the best way I've learned about life in Japan
1:26
without actually being in Japan. I'm your host, Chris
1:28
Broad, but joined as always by England's top Japan
1:30
enthusiast, Mr. Pete Darlson himself. Pete, how
1:32
the devil are you doing? Hi, I'm
1:35
just waving. Hello. Hope you're well. Chris,
1:37
since you've been away doing
1:39
your cycling and stuff, I've done so much
1:41
stuff. I've been doing
1:43
my own cyclo-thon, AKA flying to
1:45
New York, driving an electric car
1:48
down to Philadelphia, going
1:50
to all of the indie shows around WrestleMania,
1:52
attending WrestleMania, driving back up to
1:54
New York, seeing an eclipse and then coming home.
1:57
Oh, fuck, you saw the eclipse. You lucky round- Saw
1:59
the eclipse. It was just basically,
2:01
the eclipse wasn't that interesting because we've
2:03
obviously experienced them before in London but
2:05
the thing that was interesting was that
2:08
every time I was in a Walgreens
2:10
or a CVS people would
2:12
just run in like three, four
2:14
hours before the eclipse would arrive going have
2:16
you got any of the eclipse glasses? And
2:19
like people were putting
2:21
out signs saying we don't have any of these eclipse
2:23
glasses it's just really
2:25
funny that I had no idea eclipse glasses were
2:27
a thing like a can of
2:29
coke or a shoe that you could buy
2:32
who makes these eclipse
2:35
glasses and they've clearly made too many because
2:37
everyone had them but it
2:39
just made me laugh that for one day and
2:41
one day alone people were just running into every
2:43
shop unrelated to anything eyeglassware
2:46
and asking for these eclipse glasses,
2:49
absolutely fascinating There's a man
2:51
in America, he's been waiting his whole
2:53
life for this moment making his eclipse
2:55
glasses today's the day I make
2:57
my money all the time I don't
2:59
know why he sounds like that, he's not
3:02
his American but he's made a profit It
3:05
was interesting, it was really interesting kind of
3:07
driving down from New York in
3:09
an electric car because yeah, I
3:11
mean if you live in a city, like if
3:13
you live in Philadelphia which is where we were,
3:15
which is where I had to get the old
3:17
car charged up the,
3:21
what, a Mustang Bolt? It was some kind of
3:23
car called the Bolt Chevy Bolt
3:27
Chevy Bolt It
3:29
takes like seven hours to charge and
3:31
I couldn't find anywhere to charge apart
3:34
from those really expensive kind of overnight
3:36
sort of car parks and even then
3:38
you couldn't find a charging port It
3:41
was a real logistical fucking nightmare
3:43
getting this blummin' thing charged because
3:45
you got to charge it back up to give it back
3:47
to the car hire place which is another kind of car
3:51
and I thought, you know what, I'm going to be a good
3:53
guy I'm going to get myself a little electric I've been casted five times as much
3:56
have a little, have a little What
3:58
did you choose to electric car? She's
4:00
an electric car though. I've never driven an electric car,
4:02
wanted to see what it was like. Turns out, difficult
4:05
to administrate in a busy city. I
4:08
know EV car sales are
4:11
down quite a bit at the moment actually. Tesla's
4:13
laying off quite a bit of
4:15
their workforce, 10% or something. I
4:17
mean, I've been to Tesla, kind of cool,
4:19
it's all right. I don't really like having
4:22
just one big screen, everything on one screen.
4:24
I like buttons because when
4:26
you're driving, you know
4:28
where the buttons are. Attack time. Attack
4:30
feedback, yeah. Yeah. I think,
4:32
I could see you getting a little Cybertruck
4:34
action in there. No. Packing
4:36
it up outside your city pile. I
4:39
don't know, I don't know how I feel about the Cybertruck.
4:41
It looks cool but also
4:43
shit. It's funny. I mean,
4:45
everything that's gone wrong with them is very
4:47
funny, Ross. Yeah, like the door. The
4:50
door doesn't shut properly. It's like,
4:52
whatever you do, don't watch the
4:55
Cybertruck. The fit and finish of
4:57
a Tesla is well exposed. Nothing
5:00
ever lines up. Nothing ever looks like it's been
5:02
put together properly. It's good stuff. Oh,
5:05
Chris. Oh, oh. Speaking of
5:07
cars. Speaking
5:09
of cars, it's
5:11
been a long journey. We've died in
5:14
October time. But
5:16
the Toyota Century is finally
5:19
on the road with legal
5:21
role plates. Just
5:23
outside my house right now, I'm very
5:26
pleased with myself, Chris. Well done. I've got a chance
5:28
to drive it. I've been very ill and very busy.
5:30
Oh, shit. This
5:34
is a landmark moment. A narrative. It
5:36
really is. It's taken nine
5:38
months to play out. It's been a big situation for a
5:41
long time. So maybe I'll do some filming with it and
5:44
we'll stick the video at the end of the podcast or something. But
5:47
yeah, it's here. It's
5:49
long. My neighbors think that I'm
5:51
a decade. It's not good. My
5:55
government. I mean, can we
5:57
do a podcast in it or a segment?
6:00
Yeah, I could do a podcast. I could run anything into it.
6:05
We've got a feature in one of these
6:07
videos. It's been talked about so much more
6:09
than anything else. I don't
6:11
even know. I think I've seen
6:13
one photo of it on the
6:15
back of a truck or something
6:18
in Southampton where we ended up.
6:20
That's amazing. From the
6:22
grit and grime of Yokohama to
6:24
the macabre streets of Essex. I
6:26
think it's from Bepo. I think
6:28
it's originally from
6:31
Bepo. A lot of sun
6:33
damage from the paint. But precious little
6:35
rust which is good. Well
6:37
Bepo's famous for having the biggest hot spring
6:39
town in Japan. Maybe the Solman. The
6:42
car up. He knows. It's very steamy. Well
6:46
done. Well done. Is it fun to drive around?
6:49
I love it. The traction control light
6:51
is on so that doesn't work. We
6:53
didn't have traction control
6:56
in the 70s did we? If
6:58
I drive a vintage car they don't have
7:00
traction control. They just have car control. I'm
7:03
comfortable. I'll get it fixed at some point. I
7:05
just need to start driving
7:07
it. The first big job is driving into
7:09
Stack Towers tomorrow morning for a
7:11
football ramble show. We'll see how that
7:13
one gets on. See how we get on there.
7:16
Can you imagine just crashing it on your journey
7:18
into London or this journey? That's
7:21
eminently possible I'm sure. The
7:23
traction control's not working. The
7:25
traction control's not working. Well
7:27
good luck to you. Good
7:30
luck to you. Let's hope it
7:32
makes the journey in one piece. Yeah me too. That
7:34
would be a very tragic end to this narrative,
7:38
this story. Epic story. We've got a
7:40
story from Katie. He
7:42
says, hey there Chris and Pete. On our trip to
7:44
Japan my wife, 31 female and
7:46
I, 30 female, kept running into funny
7:48
interactions with locals where I, a 5
7:51
foot masculine lesbian, kept being referred to
7:53
as my wife's small boy child. My
7:56
wife is 5 foot 6 female presenting and her Japanese is
7:58
pretty good so she's a good guy. she was able to
8:00
translate for me. A full tattoo sleeve
8:02
and bedonkers of my own would not consider
8:05
a single soul that I was a 30-year-old
8:07
lady and not a small boy travelling with
8:09
his mother. Need to get a sweeter card?
8:11
The kind lady kept asking my wife how
8:13
old her son was and was very confused
8:16
when we said that we needed two adult
8:18
sweeter cards. Need to find the laundry room
8:20
in our hotel? I was currently escorted to
8:22
the laundry machines in the men's washroom. Need
8:25
to get museum tickets? My wife was asked
8:27
if she needed one adult and one child
8:29
ticket. No hate to the locals at
8:31
all. These interactions were taken fully in jest and
8:33
my wife and I have a new hilarious inside
8:36
joke between the two of us. We know that
8:38
gay marriage isn't legal yet in Japan so
8:41
we were very conscious of keeping PDA to
8:43
an absolute minimum. Love the podcast and your
8:45
YouTube content. Wishing you guys all the best
8:47
from Ottawa, Canada, Katie. Okay,
8:50
I mean you say that you were keeping PDA
8:52
to an absolute minimum but imagine if at
8:54
the point in which they are
8:56
assuming that you're travelling with a small
8:59
child you've just started absolutely going for
9:01
it Macon. That'd be hilarious. That'd be
9:03
so good. They'd be so like, what
9:06
the hell? Yes. Oh
9:09
my God. Brilliant. My lord.
9:11
But yeah, no, I mean at least you
9:13
could have got some child price ticket savings
9:16
instead of the cheekbones. I know. I mean,
9:18
Alexa, show me what looking a gift horse
9:20
in the mouth is all about. Guys, you
9:22
could have got some bloody cheap
9:25
tickets. Honestly. Gay
9:29
marriage, it's not yet legal in Japan
9:31
is it? But then there's places that
9:33
do sort of, they're
9:35
getting there, Tokyo and Sapporo,
9:37
right? They're getting there but
9:40
not. I think at this point, I think
9:42
Katie and her partner would probably take
9:44
a bit of gay women that have
9:47
visibility because they're clearly not enough of it.
9:51
Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't
9:53
think in 12 years I've really met many
9:56
like gay folks here. It's very under
9:59
the radar. like it's not like just
10:02
nothing here they keep it very concealed
10:04
I think the message here Chris is
10:06
if you work in a museum check
10:09
the badonkers clearly clearly
10:13
but yeah that must be trippy that must
10:15
be trippy coming Japan like that just people
10:17
reacting to it but yeah
10:21
cool all I'm hearing is
10:23
a lot of missed opportunities
10:25
for absolute chaos there are
10:27
bars they like it I
10:29
mean Shinjuku is
10:36
good for that my first night in Tokyo
10:38
in Japan ever I went to a gay
10:40
club I was kind of cool everyone's really
10:42
fun man. It was in Shinjuku area but
10:44
like any gay area it's
10:49
like I used to live in all Compton
10:51
Street it's like one gay
10:53
female bar and then and then the rest is
10:55
just lads having pints. This
11:01
week though we've got a story that has
11:04
nothing to do with anything we've talked about. Usually I
11:06
find the segue I'm not that good at it this
11:09
time basically sushi sushi is on
11:11
its way out or rather the
11:13
good old-fashioned conveyor belt sushi restaurants
11:16
are on their way out because
11:18
hygiene and it mainly
11:20
involves lots of people doing
11:23
bad things that shoot sushi restaurants but
11:25
also lots of waste as well. Phyllis
11:27
MP what's going on in the world
11:29
of sushi in Japan? Well it's simple
11:31
it's simple really Chris the
11:34
recent spirit of viral videos that we featured
11:36
on this very channel about
11:38
pranksters tampering with the
11:40
dishes that are passing along on a plate there's
11:43
a real lack of kind of consumer
11:46
confidence I think in that that food just simply because
11:48
of a couple of viral
11:50
videos where some idiot has done
11:52
something stupid. The customers are just
11:55
not into the conveyor belt sushi
11:57
anymore obviously conveyor belt sushi is a very good
11:59
idea. about sushi by its very nature
12:01
is slightly wasteful in a society that
12:04
doesn't really respect that kind of behavior.
12:07
And also these recent videos have
12:09
kind of made it clear that
12:11
people just aren't into convey belt
12:13
sushi at the moment. And one of
12:15
the Kaiten sushi giants is reportedly doing
12:17
away with the convey belt concept and
12:19
they're just basically having the
12:22
classic, I've got a menu, I ask
12:24
someone for what I want or order on an
12:26
iPad and deliver an order where
12:28
people just sort of rock up with the food with
12:30
dishes. Which
12:32
presumably Chris must be absolutely
12:35
brilliant for employment. Surely
12:40
if you're replacing a convey belt with a human,
12:42
we're fighting back against the AI. I
12:44
think this is fantastic. Not quite there because
12:46
they still use the convey belts to send the
12:48
orders out. So the convey belt basically, I think
12:51
it's their ending. You know how they put
12:53
the fish out and it goes
12:55
around in circles for half an hour and they take it
12:57
off. Which is cool if you're hungry and you
12:59
want to get the food straight away. They get rid
13:01
of that but they're keeping it
13:03
where the fish is delivered to you on
13:05
the convey belt still. Okay, so you're still
13:07
kind of like, so you're turning it on,
13:10
turning it off. Yeah, so like
13:12
you'll order your salmon and it'll come like five
13:14
minutes later or whatever down the convey belt. I
13:16
think it's good though because I never really like
13:18
the idea of eating like, un-fresh,
13:20
like crappy fish that's been
13:23
going around for half an hour, getting heat, like
13:25
getting hot and going to shit.
13:28
So I'm all for it. And also, you know, even
13:31
though the odds of somebody doing
13:33
something to the sushi or whatever
13:35
is low, when you see somebody
13:37
like licking bottles or licking things
13:40
and sticking them on the conveyor
13:42
belt, it does make you think,
13:44
oh, what's happened to the things on
13:46
the convey belt that have been going
13:48
around for three hours past 200 people,
13:50
has somebody done anything? So
13:53
it's not always the case that they've
13:56
got plastic over them. When I first moved here,
13:58
you know, you just have the fish. completely
14:00
bare to the world just going around
14:02
in circles and I think
14:05
Covid has kind of eliminated that because people
14:07
coughing all over the food you know
14:10
it doesn't really go well with it doesn't really fit with
14:12
Japan's image does it of like being this clean
14:14
place where you know the
14:17
food's just going around a bacteria
14:19
museum effectively. Producer
14:22
David pointed out that video
14:24
from TMZ caught on a
14:26
hot camera what looks like
14:29
it looks like a kind
14:31
of that's not the word it
14:33
looks like it was a donut
14:35
shop basically and the singer-songwriter Popstroll
14:38
Ariana Grande is basically just
14:41
licking donuts on the counter. I
14:43
mean people would want those donuts what's the
14:46
ethics behind that? Eight years ago all right
14:48
yeah Ariana Grande's new boyfriend got upstaged by
14:50
her tongue which got David's
14:52
got some powdered donuts I mean if
14:55
you are in the business of licking stuff they
14:58
are in shops you
15:01
really have to be careful that you're not
15:03
being caught on camera you need to know
15:05
where the camera is guys. I would like
15:07
to think our listeners don't lick day nuts
15:09
for pleasure or fun. I don't
15:13
know what's she thinking Pete
15:15
what's going through her mind? I want
15:17
some icing sugar in my mouth. It's probably the
15:20
thing of that. I mean
15:22
it's always Ariana Grande these stories like remember
15:24
when she she
15:28
tattooed Shichidan onto her wrist or something
15:30
like she had a song called Seven
15:32
Rings and they fucked up the
15:35
kanji and it was like small barbecue grill
15:37
and it was not what she you
15:39
know Ariana Grande didn't have
15:42
an obsession with Japan's tiny barbecue
15:44
grills but I think
15:46
that's actually quite a good tattoo. He's somebody
15:48
who loves barbecue. I would get it
15:50
on my wrist. Don't lick
15:52
food on a barbecue that's what I would say. It's
15:55
probably a bad idea I think. But
15:57
yeah I mean so don't worry guys the world
15:59
has compared about sushi isn't entirely coming to
16:01
an end, but I think the
16:04
bit that isn't that good is coming
16:06
to an end. And I did always like in the UK, I
16:08
know we've got like Yo Sushi where they have the conveyor belts
16:10
as well, and I know they still
16:12
do it where they have the crappy food going
16:14
round in circles all day. Well the good stuff,
16:16
you've got to order special anywhere, the Karaage and
16:18
stuff, you've got to press your little button and
16:21
order it that way. It's always
16:23
like the crap stuff, never the
16:25
premium stuff that's been flown around. It's not a true
16:28
conveyor belt sushi place for me. And
16:32
also the fact the food is shit is
16:35
also not a good conveyor belt sushi restaurant.
16:38
Yeah, but on the
16:40
cycle we went to Sushi once or twice, Hamazushi
16:42
is a really good chain and
16:44
yeah, if you're in town, Hamazushi
16:47
is a good one. And also Sushi's
16:49
Am I, one of my favourites as well. We've
16:52
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16:54
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actually got a head-coured once in Wales, and there was a
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Dad, have you thought about putting in a breakfast
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wine question time for the tech production. Yeah.
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That's betterhelpaglp.com/Japan. Wow. And
21:09
we're back with the fax machine. What have we got this week from
21:11
our listeners Mr. Dolson. Got a message from
21:13
Adam from New York City. Hi Chris and Pete, my
21:15
wife and I are talking to Japan and mate and
21:18
wondering if we need a pocket WiFi. Our
21:20
cell phone carrier says we will have 5G coverage
21:22
everywhere we're going but I've seen so many people
21:24
suggesting pocket WiFi. It has me
21:26
wondering is phone service unreliable. What have we
21:28
got to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Thanks so
21:30
much. Relatively new listener but
21:32
loving the show. Adam, I will jump
21:34
in here because obviously Chris is a
21:37
resident of Japan. I
21:39
went to New York and
21:41
Philadelphia recently for WrestleMania and my
21:44
local EE in London was
21:47
charging me like something six quid a day for 150 megabytes.
21:52
150 megabytes. Awful. Absolutely
21:55
awful. But there is a company
21:57
called Ubigii Who we spoke
21:59
about before. nah sponsor non often who
22:01
do a sin so if your phone
22:03
is he seemed compatible am I would
22:05
recommend you get in and pan if
22:07
your phone services let you down at
22:09
just get the you beat Eu Biggie
22:12
app and am is this and you'll
22:14
edu basically got the all around the
22:16
world if garlic all a difference and
22:18
he seems as the data and you
22:20
could use use the a Sim for
22:22
dare to returning your mobile phone number
22:24
what's happening you know normally do so
22:26
the form thinks the a zone to
22:28
use that for debt basically. So it's
22:30
a it's a really interesting, an easy
22:32
and painless system and and something the
22:35
I took full use of a while
22:37
I was in America. above used in
22:39
Japan as well in that was really
22:41
good them coverage saw Get there if
22:43
it doesn't work. Don't. Worry you'd have
22:45
to go hunting around like the yeah that
22:47
is a the back streets of Japan for
22:50
I'm said sir dare touch discover who Biggie
22:52
ah a said no other companies do it
22:54
I'm chef but I'm it seems a general
22:56
the way towards again I don't think the
22:58
afterlife i get dizzy caucus external thing going
23:00
to carry around very is a very light
23:02
we've moderate a mulatto many of those are
23:05
the i mean and groups were one of
23:07
us as lost as in like a busy
23:09
night club has since like a big hot
23:11
and and and it if you use it
23:13
quite a lot all. If it
23:15
is kind of like flowing into now
23:17
is that reception they get bloody hot
23:19
like really hot pebbles, hundred Asia know
23:22
I they'll say oh wait we tried
23:24
to use them as he could generate
23:26
roster pantsuit a while by a chance
23:28
to ship but ties Soviet the Sims,
23:30
the way to get to free the
23:32
see jets, aloe cranky Chris and premium
23:34
pizza.com First time travel to Japan with
23:36
next to no command of a language.
23:38
Is it wise to be getting connecting
23:40
flights from Tokyo on arrival into the
23:43
country? Was Usman right to be bombarded.
23:45
With information of the airport when turbo
23:47
jet lagged and adding pressure to make
23:49
connections are connections pretty straightforward offshore? Just
23:51
go to take your hotel. Any advice
23:53
is appreciated. thank you are readily. Ah
23:55
no it's really easy. Like.
23:58
i still the time when i lived in north Japan
24:00
in Yamagata, right? Getting to
24:02
Tokyo, literally at the airport,
24:04
there'll be a sign being like, connecting flights this
24:07
way, Tokyo, fun that way, and you just go,
24:09
and it's easy. A friend of mine
24:11
is in Hokkaido now, and he just went
24:14
straight to Haneda and got on the first
24:16
flight to Hokkaido Direct, so easy
24:18
peasy. It would be
24:20
more stressful to leave. He
24:23
remembers domestic
24:25
time, well
24:28
done. Speedy Japanese has returned
24:32
with limited vocabulary, unless
24:36
you're in an airport. Konnichiya, gentlemen. This
24:38
is Hannah from Sweden. Thank
24:40
you for your work on the podcast, bringing
24:43
you entertaining stories week after week. I have
24:45
a question related to the new Japanese film,
24:47
Perfect Days, a film about a toilet cleaner
24:49
in Tokyo who finds joy and beauty in
24:51
the smallest moments of life. I want to
24:53
watch this film, actually, I've heard good things.
24:56
My question to you both is, what are
24:58
the coolest toilets you visited in Tokyo and
25:00
the rest of Japan? Keep up the great
25:02
work on the podcast. Best Hannah from Sweden,
25:04
the best toilet in Japan. I mean,
25:08
I went to the bloody toilets that I
25:10
think are in this film, the ones near
25:13
Harajuku. Where they're
25:16
like transparent and you close the door and lock
25:18
it and it goes opaque. And
25:20
I went and it was just like,
25:22
today the toilets are broken, so just
25:25
opaque. Thank God it wasn't just
25:27
transparent. The
25:29
limitations exposed. It's
25:31
quite a leap of faith, isn't it, to go into a
25:33
toilet where the walls are electronically
25:35
transparent or opaque. What if you're
25:37
just sitting there and suddenly it
25:40
flickers off? Anyway, luckily, yeah,
25:43
the best toilet. What's
25:45
the best toilet you've been to,
25:48
Pete? They're always the ones that
25:50
are in public parks because
25:52
it's really hot. There's always
25:54
the risk of getting a spider nibbling on
25:56
you, really. a
26:00
lot of, or also like truck stop bathrooms
26:03
as well where there's always pictures
26:05
up saying watch out for this
26:07
spider which makes for
26:09
a really exciting ablution I think.
26:13
Spider toilets. Yeah. I
26:16
mean, yeah, I mean, what I'm glad
26:18
is that they've definitely done a good
26:20
job getting rid of the traditional Japanese
26:23
style toilets. Each year I've
26:25
noticed they are disappearing. That can only be a
26:27
good thing. The fact that I've only used, the
26:29
last time I used one was probably like eight
26:31
years ago is very exciting
26:33
because I remember when I first came here they
26:35
were a lot more widespread particularly in parks and
26:37
things. And when you're desperate to use the
26:39
bathroom and you go in and it's like a squat toilet
26:42
and you just, I, to this day I still don't know
26:44
how fucking things work. The fact that
26:46
they've gone almost extinct can
26:48
only be a good thing. Yeah. And
26:51
if you meet a spider in there,
26:53
a cheeky bonus as well. Keep the
26:56
stories, questions, comments coming in to [email protected]
26:58
or leave a comment down below on YouTube. For
27:00
now though guys, have yourself a great few days.
27:03
We'll see you right back here to do all
27:05
over again on the AbroadinJapan Podcast. Bye for now.
27:24
AbroadinJapan is a stack production
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and part of the Acast's
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seriously, mate. Dad, have you thought about putting
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in a breakfast snook? My dad
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did you give a duck an orgasm, Craig? It
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