Threat of Japanese Megaquake Rises | @AbroadinJapan #248

0:00 Norman Reedus is coming.

0:01 So, I've tried to whisper it to Connor and he's like,

0:03 "What?" Roar roar roar roar.

0:04 And then every we we sort of just stood around awkwardly.

0:08 And then the the dude was like, "Oh, he's late.

0:10 He's stuck in traffic, but I don't think Norman Reedus is coming.

0:13 I don't think Norman Reedus is there.

0:17 Wow.

0:18 Hello and welcome to the Abroad in Japan podcast.

0:20 Probably the best way of learning about

0:21 life in Japan without actually being in Japan.

0:23 I'm your host Chris Broad.

0:23 We're joined as always by England's top Japan enthusiast, Mr.

0:27 Pete Donaldson himself.

0:28 Pete, how the devil How are you doing?

0:30 What's going on?

0:32 I'm good, Chris.

0:33 I am I I I wouldn't say I'm particularly fresh.

0:36 I've basically been spending the last week in a bit

0:38 of a post WrestleMania in Las Vegas funk.

0:42 Uh I I don't really know what time it is.

0:44 I missed your birthday by a couple of hours

0:48 uh and then remembered about 2:00 in the morning.

0:50 Um but I did uh turn up on your texts a day early for Charlotte's birthday.

0:55 So, um it's all good stuff.

0:58 I'm having a solid time with it.

1:00 I am uh yeah, it's it's it's been good, really.

1:04 I'm I'm as I said, I'm uh I'm basically celebrating in the post haze

1:08 of a little sort of little work trip to to WrestleMania in Las Vegas.

1:11 So, that's kind of what I've been doing the last couple of weeks.

1:14 You've been obviously hanging out with Ryotaro and others.

1:17 Um yeah, and and and you're obviously recovering your legs from the cyclathon.

1:23 Oh.

1:22 Do you get culture shock?

1:23 What?

1:23 From from Las Vegas?

1:25 Yeah, cuz like Las Vegas and Essex are like a world apart for many reasons.

1:30 We've got the Genting's casino on the on the water, Chris.

1:33 I don't know what you're talking about.

1:34 I I for the first time I've been to Vegas three times now

1:38 and for the third time I finally kind of got it a little bit.

1:44 We didn't On the last trip to WrestleMania in Las Vegas,

1:48 the which was last year,

1:50 we basically spent our time in our little dirty little Airbnb off strip on some

1:57 waste ground near the near the old storm

1:59 drains where where all of Holmes people live.

2:01 Um now this time we decided to push the boat

2:04 out and and and spend our time in a hotel room.

2:09 The The Horseshoe Casino, Chris.

2:11 So basically I kind of get Vegas now.

2:15 I kind of see why people get so excited about it.

2:17 I mean the jet lag killed me.

2:18 I barely were able to make any of the midnight wrestling shows,

2:22 but other than that it was a bloody good time.

2:24 Uh so well done Las Vegas for showing Daddy Doddsons a good time for a week.

2:32 I I do want to go at some point.

2:33 Like I think Connor and Pete went for an event

2:36 a year or two ago and I always hear of their exploits.

2:39 I played Blackjack and I lost all my money.

2:42 You always hear things like that and uh Yeah,

2:45 I don't know how I feel about I think I want to go.

2:47 Like two of my favorite films are set there.

2:50 Uh Casino, which is about like the gangsters

2:52 who created the entire Las Vegas strip.

2:56 And also a film called Leaving Las Vegas.

2:58 It's quite a depressing film.

3:00 An absolute classic.

3:01 What What about the alcoholic with Nicholas Cage?

3:04 Yeah.

3:05 I never did see it.

3:05 Projects a beer underwater.

3:08 That's just a Tuesday in Essex.

3:12 Yeah.

3:11 He Yeah, he goes he's he loses his job.

3:13 He's an alcoholic and he decides to drink himself to death in Las

3:17 Vegas and it's uh quite uh it's quite an emotional film but like

3:21 It's inspirational is the word.

3:22 Probably his best performance I think.

3:24 Inspirational.

3:25 Oh, I think I think Wild Wild at Heart or or that's

3:28 that been Superman film he was going to be in.

3:30 I mean he's got got I'm a big Nicholas Cage fan.

3:33 I can't remember whether it's Wild at Heart or or um

3:36 or the Vegas one uh Leaving Las Vegas where

3:38 he has a snake skin jacket that he's obsessed

3:41 with and he won't let anyone mess with the snake skin jacket.

3:43 I think it might be Wild at Heart actually.

3:45 Either way, both excellent films and uh yeah, I mean let's make it very clear.

3:50 that like your trip actually.

3:52 Las Vegas did no, it was I mean unless he was going to um 11:00

3:57 uh wrestling shows in the Horseshoe

3:59 in in the uh in the Horseshoe Casino event room.

4:02 Probably not very similar at all.

4:04 But um the I think the changes that I've seen from Vegas over

4:08 the years and I spoke about this on this very podcast last year.

4:11 Like the floor space of like casinos now,

4:14 there's just no croupiers, there's nobody really working.

4:17 It's all just uh drink services and um

4:21 Chinese Chinese interest um uh sort of arcade machines,

4:24 little sort of one one-arm bandit sort of machines.

4:27 Um and it's all for like the Chinese market,

4:30 it's all for like the you know, the Floridians coming in and stuff.

4:33 Um and and there's precious little else for somebody else.

4:35 And also, like a lot of like Britain's Got Talent kind of failed acts go out

4:40 to Vegas and have a little bit of a have a little bit of a resurgence.

4:44 There's a guy called Puff the Magic Dragon or Piff the Magic Dragon, I forget.

4:47 I I think Piff might be the um Saudi investment fund.

4:50 Um the Puff the Magic Dragon uh he does a show

4:52 out there and also um the boy with tape on his face.

4:56 These guys are like really really big out there.

4:58 Such legends of entertainment.

4:59 I know, right?

5:00 But but I finally got Vegas a little bit.

5:03 I still don't like it.

5:03 I still think it's terrible.

5:05 Um but uh but but but I very much enjoyed my time a little bit more.

5:09 I mean, you know, the jet lag is punishing as as always.

5:11 Hitting the ground running, starting to do something, and then uh you know,

5:14 getting out with a smile on your face is quite difficult.

5:16 I've just been busy doing that.

5:17 I want to see the the sphere thing.

5:19 Did you see the big giant sphere with the screens on?

5:21 Yeah, so so so you'd open your curtains at about

5:25 5:00 cuz you got jet lag and it'll be the the sphere will be like a big like

5:30 yellow head and it'll sort of wake up with you.

5:34 It'll sort of wake up and sort of face the day,

5:36 which I think is very very lovely.

5:37 And you know, my my daughter didn't like it when

5:39 I showed her it on the on the video, but

5:43 Then we're going to build one in um then we're going

5:45 to build one in London like in uh towards like Stratford.

5:47 And then they were like,

5:48 it's just going to annoy lots of people in their houses having

5:51 a blinding light the size of like the Death Star on their doorstep.

5:55 It's kind of a shame, but probably for the best.

5:58 But You're going to turn it off at night?

6:00 Is that not Is that not a thing you could do?

6:01 Cuz you're not turn it off at night.

6:02 No, no, no.

6:03 We should have built it.

6:03 We should have built it.

6:05 But while you've been off being leaving Las

6:07 Vegas and living the life of Nicholas Cage, I've been on a bike again.

6:13 What Why can't we switch roles once and for all?

6:15 Let me have fun.

6:16 You go on the[ __] bike.

6:18 Probably got less of a less of a truck magnet.

6:20 I watched you once again nearly get wiped out by a big truck again.

6:25 This is very upsetting.

6:26 That's what he said.

6:27 I mean, I think because of my tardiness I might have

6:30 had a chance to have met Norman Reedus, unlike you lot.

6:34 Just getting out of dodge before you met Reedus.

6:38 crazy.

6:38 Yeah, uh we we got like a tour of TeamLab

6:41 Borderless which is the most insane TeamLab I've ever been to.

6:45 I think there's there's quite a lot in Japan.

6:47 The two big ones are in Japan, TeamLab Planets.

6:50 TeamLab Borderless, TeamLab Planets.

6:52 The one in Kyoto is like next[ __] level insane.

6:57 And we were able to get permission to stream it and also

7:00 meet like the sort of crazy wacky inventor of TeamLab, right?

7:05 I sort of Hideo Kojima figure.

7:09 Uh and I think he was He said he was like, "Oh,

7:11 I'm friends with Kojima-san." Uh which makes sense given

7:14 his uh friendship with Norman Reedus and Death Stranding.

7:17 But like, he showed us around and Obsessed with projectors, I imagine.

7:19 Obsessed with like projection and light.

7:22 Well, he was really nice.

7:23 Like, he was just I don't know.

7:24 The video is somewhere on YouTube,

7:26 but I recommend watching it cuz you've got this incredible artistic

7:29 guy and he's like interacting with these exhibits that he's dreamt up,

7:32 like the walls that move.

7:33 And he's like a kid playing with it and it's just so like endearing

7:37 and humbling seeing this incredible artist interact

7:40 with the very art he created and inspired.

7:42 And like there's there was some art exhibits that were like like I you I you've

7:47 kind of seen it all once you've been to the first two team labs in Tokyo.

7:50 You think like, "Yeah, I've seen it.

7:52 Nothing can impress me now." Haha.

7:53 But there was two rooms that were like mental.

7:57 One of them he tried to explain it for 20

7:59 minutes rather than just taking us in the room.

8:02 He tried to explain the most like unexplainable exhibit.

8:05 And it's basically a vortex of uh balls.

8:10 Which sounds[ __] up.

8:11 Uh like kind of like spheres that are kind of like balloons, right?

8:16 They're kind of tough.

8:17 They're kind of like tough balloons.

8:18 And there must have been I don't know, 5,000 in this room.

8:23 And the whole room has like these massive fans

8:27 that blow the balls around like into a tornado.

8:31 And it goes from one side of the room to the other.

8:33 And so you're standing in this room there's just tornado of balls.

8:37 This is sounds so wrong.

8:39 You're going to edit this to make me look bad.

8:40 I hate you.

8:42 It's a tornado of It's tornado.

8:44 That's That's the show title.

8:45 A tornado of balls with Chris Broad.

8:48 This tornado of like balloons like races towards you.

8:50 And then you just get in it.

8:52 And you've got them smacking you in the face over and over.

8:55 Uh it's just incredible, right?

8:56 It was really It was like being inside a vortex.

8:59 Being inside a literal tornado with no ramifications.

9:03 And then the other one he wanted to hit

9:06 this like room where they'd pumped in loads of bubbles.

9:09 Uh and the whole room looked like

9:12 looking into a room where they've contained clouds.

9:16 Uh but the clouds upon closer inspection are bubbles.

9:18 And you go in in like a coat.

9:21 And you just walk into the bubbles.

9:22 You get lost.

9:23 And all of a sudden you're just surrounded by bubbles on all sides.

9:26 You don't know where you're going, what's happening.

9:28 You bang into people.

9:29 But it's kind of like walking through clouds.

9:31 And just things like that.

9:33 The it's kind of like, "Ah, we need this team lab in London." But it won't work

9:37 cuz you know what people in England will do in such environments.

9:41 They'll slash the balloons up.

9:42 to it.

9:43 Do something awful in the ball.

9:44 in the corner and stuff.

9:45 Yeah, well, that's the That's the thing.

9:46 It's like it's it it's having that space and seeing these kind of art exhibits.

9:51 It's the sort of thing that you sometimes

9:52 will occasionally see stuff approaching in like the Tate,

9:56 you know, like the big um there's a big turbine room that they use and stuff.

9:59 Like seeing this stuff at scale and, you know, repeatedly, you know,

10:02 hour after hour for hours during during the day for everyone

10:05 to sort of come in All the tourists come and see.

10:06 Um I think people in Japan are a little bit cynical about team labs.

10:09 I think it's brilliant.

10:11 It's like the robot restaurant.

10:12 Do you know what I mean?

10:13 People People can get a bit cynical about it and sort of go, "No,

10:15 it's it's a quintessentially Japanese thing and it's really,

10:18 really enjoyable." I know they've done them all around the world and stuff.

10:21 Uh what I would like to see is where this guy does his kind of R&D.

10:26 Like where he Has he got like a big lock-up

10:28 where he tests all of his mad[ __] out and goes, "Right, that one's done.

10:32 Get install all of these um you know,

10:34 blowers in in in team labs in Odaiba or whatever."

10:37 Yeah, he said they like prototype things.

10:40 Uh so, team lab it calls itself a collective.

10:43 And I still can't really work out what that means.

10:45 I think it's some artists in the room.

10:47 And then someone in Abu Dhabi gives them

10:50 a billion dollars and then they go and do it.

10:53 Um Right.

10:53 But I yeah, I think they get to experiment a lot and they've

10:55 all got different ideas and they sort of experiment and test them out.

10:59 Um I I kept being like, "Please bring it to London.

11:02 Please bring it to London." He kept being like, "Nah." No.

11:07 They've built one in like Abu Dhabi.

11:09 They've got a few around Japan and they seem to be expanding,

11:11 but I don't think team lab London's going to be happening anytime soon.

11:15 So, if you come to Kyoto,

11:18 it's obviously you come to Kyoto for the history and the culture,

11:21 but don't come for[ __] 2,000 balls being smacked into your face.

11:25 Come for bubble room.

11:27 Don't try to It sounds so boring.

11:29 Go and and then mix Norman Reedus.

11:31 And yeah, this sucked.

11:32 So, we finished the tour and while Connor and people are prepping

11:36 the bag and the bike and getting ready for our last 45 km.

11:40 Doing the hard work.

11:40 Doing the hard work.

11:41 Doing all the work, yeah.

11:42 Doing all the work.

11:42 Doing all the hard work.

11:43 I was standing there like not doing anything about it.

11:45 And I spoke to the guy uh and and he was like, "Oh,

11:48 I'm just uh just talking to Norman Reedus." I'm like,

11:51 "Oh, that's cool." He's like, "He's coming in 10 minutes.

11:54 Let's meet him.

11:54 Let's hang out." And I was like, "Fuck,

11:56 this is awesome." And then I went like, "Oh,

11:58 maybe Norman Reedus is coming." Sort of tried

12:01 to whisper it to Connor and he's like,

12:02 "What?" And then every we sort of just stood around awkwardly.

12:07 And then the the dude was like, "Oh, he's late.

12:09 He's stuck in traffic,

12:10 but he'll come next time." And I was like, "Ah, shit." So.

12:15 Right.

12:15 It was kind of like

12:16 I don't think Norman Reedus was coming.

12:17 I don't think Norman Reedus was there.

12:22 Yeah.

12:21 He's not allowed out of He's not allowed out of Kojima's love love basement.

12:27 He's not He's the only He's not allowed

12:30 out of there to go to Kyoto, unfortunately.

12:33 It's It's yeah, it's interesting.

12:34 It makes sense all these artistic folks seem to know each other,

12:37 but Norman Reedus next time.

12:39 Um I don't really know much about the dude.

12:43 No, no, me neither.

12:44 He's He had a crossbow in that He was like a kind of '90s it boy.

12:49 Do you know like it it's like kind of muses,

12:51 kind of like film and television sort of muses.

12:55 He was kind of in the '90s like a sort of a scraggly handsome you know,

12:59 everyone thinks he's not that handsome, but he's incredibly handsome,

13:02 very dynamic and very magnetic man in the '90s

13:06 that a lot of like directors and stuff got very excited about.

13:11 And he's in like The Walking Dead more recently, right?

13:13 And obviously the face of Death Stranding.

13:16 been enough, hasn't he?

13:16 Yeah, yeah.

13:17 Well, look, all in all, a another cracking cycle-a-thon.

13:22 Have your legs recovered?

13:23 Have you recovered from your constant I like

13:25 that a lot of like the videos where like

13:27 you and you and everybody just bickering about how

13:31 well you treat people who work on your projects.

13:35 I'm in the I put I put them in in a nice hotel.

13:40 He has a nicer time when he's with me.

13:43 Of course he does.

13:44 He gets the the royal treatment.

13:46 I mean, we I think we treat the people we work with pretty well to be fair.

13:49 But yeah, it's we always try to one-up

13:51 each other with how much we spoil the team.

13:55 But you know, credit where it's due to Connor,

13:57 he did an amazing job putting it together as always.

13:59 It went really smoothly.

14:01 I don't think anything went wrong apart from the weather[ __] us.

14:05 And you know, it was my idea to go down the west coast of Japan,

14:08 which is a beautiful area,

14:11 but my god, the weather is horrific because

14:12 it's like Siberian wind and rain and awful.

14:15 Right, yeah.

14:16 And the first week of the cycle, I genuinely felt like I might have to get

14:21 in the car and let Connor do some of it alone.

14:25 I don't know if I don't know how that's going to work cuz

14:27 like there was one point the wind was so bad the bike stopped moving.

14:30 Like no matter how hard I pedaled.

14:32 And that's not normal.

14:34 And just stuff like that.

14:36 But like the second week was amazing and we got through it and it was cool.

14:39 But definitely the toughest week of cycling I've ever done.

14:41 And I think Connor agreed with me as well that it was brutal.

14:44 But it's really cool it's a really cool vibe.

14:47 But it's it is pretty surreal.

14:48 You know, on the I think the the third to fourth

14:51 last day with the biggest mountain of the whole trip.

14:54 Of course, Connor gave me the bike

14:57 with the camera equipment on which weighed like 25 kg.

15:00 I was like I've been stitched up like a[ __]

15:03 But it's really fun like cuz the most of the cycling

15:05 I'm at the front right navigating trying to work out

15:07 where we're going and then Connor's doing the entertaining behind.

15:10 And it's kind of it is like exhilarating and surreal

15:13 when you've got this bike and you're cycling you've got

15:16 messages in front of you you've got a speaker reading

15:18 out like messages in Connor's weird voice that he's done somehow.

15:24 Uh you've got like 20,000 people watching and one of the days

15:27 I had Iron Mouse on the front of the bike on an iPad.

15:30 So, she's talking to me on an iPad mounted to the[ __] bike.

15:35 And she's like got this like bird's eye

15:37 view from like just above the wheel pointing forwards.

15:40 And I'm like talking with her and I'm interacting with people and there's

15:43 that it's just so like it's it's so insane but so fun.

15:48 It's really fun, really cool.

15:49 And I I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

15:51 And uh I don't think I'll be streaming anytime soon.

15:54 cycle.

15:55 No, I would forget to cycle and just mash my car into a wall.

15:58 That's I forgot about this part.

16:01 Absolutely, but no, really really cool.

16:03 And um yeah, and and it raised, I think, 1.4 million dollars.

16:08 So, it was a record amount uh for a cycle-thon and um yeah, really cool.

16:12 Emotional stuff at the end.

16:14 It's kind of awkward cuz like Congratulations.

16:17 Pete were emotional and good about,

16:20 you know, that they're they're open and emotional.

16:23 And I'm literally standing there being like pepperoni pizza

16:26 cuz we were at a pizzeria at the end.

16:28 And I'm just eating this[ __] pizza being like and they're like this moved me.

16:33 It was the greatest thing I've ever done.

16:34 And I'm like like it's it's it's atrocious.

16:38 It's appalling.

16:39 I think that's fine, isn't it?

16:40 That's your That's kind of your MO, isn't it?

16:43 Cynical pizza enthusiast.

16:45 I just felt like, oh, maybe I should Should I be more emotional?

16:50 But I was saying[ __] hungry.

16:52 The pizza was so good.

16:54 This pizza is so good, man.

16:56 so good.

16:56 Oh my god.

16:58 Oh, man.

16:58 It was good.

16:59 It was good.

17:00 Um and Well done.

17:01 And then like you do something like that and then afterwards, yeah,

17:04 you feel a bit weird cuz you've had like all eyes on you.

17:07 You're pushing your hope forward 100 km every day.

17:09 You're waking up early, hitting the road,

17:11 pedaling hard, talking to 1,000 people.

17:14 And then it's sort of over.

17:15 And you do feel a bit weird at first.

17:17 Um but luckily in my case I got to do a little road trip with Charlotte

17:21 cuz as you mentioned it was like our birthdays and we had a lovely trip.

17:23 We went to this place called um Gujō Hachiman which

17:27 is a town in central Japan nicknamed the city of water.

17:32 The city of water, people call it.

17:35 And it's like it's got a river and it's good

17:37 but I did feel like it was a little bit overhyped.

17:40 Um beautiful as it was.

17:42 I heard about the city of water for 10 years.

17:45 Well yeah, it's got some water in it.

17:47 It's got some water.

17:48 Where is the water more importantly?

17:50 In the pipes.

17:51 We've got We've got piped water.

17:54 Guys, I mean this might have been impressive in like the 20s, fine, but like

18:00 I mean to be fair like there's a lot of little streets

18:03 and there's like water flowing with like koi carp swimming down it and there's

18:06 rivers but I think after you've gone to teamLab and and stood

18:10 in a vortex being in a city of waters is kind of like oh yeah.

18:14 Yeah, I'd rather go to teamLab again and almost meet my own reflection.

18:20 Tsushima.

18:20 This isn't as pretty as Ghost of Yhorte.

18:22 You have unrealistic expectations, sir.

18:24 You don't know what you're doing.

18:26 How dare you?

18:27 Uh but it's time for power spot of the week.

18:36 Is there a title?

18:37 Do we get the power spot of the week title?

18:39 Yeah, you just got to do if I'm if

18:41 I'm going to make a bit of some some graphics,

18:43 it's it's going to be used quite frankly.

18:45 __] yeah.

18:46 All right, power spot of the week.

18:47 And this is the So when we hit a million dollars

18:50 on the charity stream I we were standing next to Lake Biwa,

18:54 Japan's largest freshwater lake and the only time

18:57 I've ever been there was with you Pete Donaldson.

19:00 And Pete Ian was there and he was like remember

19:03 the time Pete was here and I was like of course.

19:06 And it was on Journey Across Japan one

19:08 and you pretended to emerge from the water

19:11 and somebody have you seen like a fish and stole my hat or something ridiculous.

19:16 And Sounds like I'm just bringing the content.

19:18 What you What you're basically saying is thank you for elevating my content.

19:23 Thank you for making my videos better for that for being hilarious.

19:28 You Well, you certainly had a memorable entrance.

19:30 It was very surreal.

19:32 Mhm.

19:32 And awesome.

19:34 Yeah.

19:33 And we went to so we we we did this thing where if we hit a million dollars,

19:37 we said we'd like dive in the sea and dive in the lake.

19:41 We hit it and I got in the lake and then nearly passed out cuz it was so cold.

19:44 It was like the coldest water I've ever been in.

19:48 Oh, police have come to take me away.

19:49 Can you hear that?

19:50 Oh, it's police.

19:51 Take you to the land of the free.

19:53 But It's really scary.

19:55 What I like about that police that police siren or whatever.

19:58 It's like proper like it sounds like someone's

20:00 on top of the car going It's haunting.

20:04 Absolutely haunting.

20:06 That's not a normal siren.

20:07 It's kind of weird.

20:08 I think it's finished.

20:09 Mhm.

20:09 We're hearing it now.

20:10 No sirens.

20:11 But Lake Biwa one of the most place like we had a great time cycling around it.

20:15 When you and I cycled,

20:16 I remember we stumbled across so we cycled across like a windmill.

20:20 And I the whole time I was doing the cycle tour,

20:22 I was like, "Oh, you got to see this windmill.

20:23 It's[ __] amazing.

20:24 A windmill." And then we couldn't find it.

20:26 And I don't know where the damn windmill was or if it's still there.

20:30 It's It's surely only what like you can't miss it.

20:32 Maybe you missed it looking at your screens.

20:36 Probably.

20:35 flew right back right right right past it.

20:37 It was I don't think it was a functional windmill.

20:40 It was just some kind of Was it going

20:41 to some kind of Dutch little farm or something?

20:44 I don't really understand I don't know what it was.

20:47 But I was really sad cuz

20:48 Nobody around.

20:49 Well, all through the cycle tour, I keep hyping up things and I'm like,

20:52 "It's going to be amazing this thing." And we'd get

20:54 there and it was broken lost or we couldn't find it.

20:56 Like on day one, I hyped up the entire day

20:59 one around this one place we're going to go, right?

21:01 In Aumori, there's a place called Terror Mountain or Sorizan.

21:05 And it's so good.

21:07 It's like a caldera smoldering with a temple in it.

21:10 And I was like, "Oh, it's amazing." I was selling Zen Terra Mountain, brilliant.

21:13 20 times I must have hyped it up all morning.

21:15 Got there, and the road was closed cuz it was winter.

21:18 And it was like, "You can't go to Terra Mountain until March or something,

21:21 or until May." And I was like, "Fine, don't want to go to Terra Mountain.

21:23 Sounds terrible.

21:24 I don't I do not want to access Terra Mountain.

21:26 Sounds awful." And so, the windmill was like the second thing.

21:30 Like, if not Terra Mountain, then suddenly the windmill.

21:33 And that also we didn't see.

21:35 So, that was a bit disappointing.

21:36 But, Lake Biwa my power spot of the week

21:38 because it's such a beautiful place to cycle.

21:41 I Nobody ever goes there, to my knowledge.

21:44 You could probably circumnavigate the whole

21:45 thing in two long, very pleasant days.

21:48 Um and the lake is just pure stunning.

21:50 It's a really relaxing, beautiful place just north of Kyoto.

21:54 And don't go swimming in it in winter.

21:57 It is very cold, so be be advised.

21:59 Don't go in it until at least June.

22:01 But, it's my power spot of the week.

22:03 What do you reckon?

22:04 And also, when you you know when I went, there was loads of cats.

22:06 There was cats as well, and they've all gone.

22:08 There was a lot of cats kicking around, yeah.

22:10 Probably probably got their eyes out cut

22:13 their cats' eyes out for the the the bass.

22:16 There's a lot of bass fishing happens in in Lake Biwa.

22:19 It's a very, very old It's one of the oldest lakes in the world, apparently.

22:23 But, yeah.

22:25 Apparently, like the if you ever sort of see television in in Japan,

22:31 you will occasionally happen upon a fishing TV show.

22:35 And they're always in Lake Biwa.

22:37 They're always casting their lines and casting their nets

22:40 in Lake Biwa because it is absolutely overflowing with bass.

22:44 So, that's where all the people get on their boats

22:46 and do bass fishing out on the open lake.

22:49 Yeah, honestly, when I look back to times I've been in Japan,

22:54 and I think it was my probably like my fifth trip, I think, probably to Japan.

22:59 Lake Biwa was a real kind of like, "Oh, yeah,

23:02 there is more to just Kyoto and and Osaka and the and you know,

23:06 Fukuoka and all of the cities and stuff.

23:08 And it was just lovely to sort of get out and about and and see it.

23:11 So, yes, power spot of the week,

23:13 a very I I think that's a lovely little um day trip or two-day trip.

23:17 Get get yourself drive around or or maybe just cycle around or maybe

23:20 just stroll around uh the the the um the environs of of Lake Biwa.

23:24 You fly there, yeah.

23:26 It's going It's going on the It's It's getting a thumbs up from me.

23:28 I forget what our scoring system is,

23:29 but it's a thumbs up from me on the old power spot of the week.

23:32 It's Lake Biwa, baby.

23:34 And there's one one downside, though.

23:36 Do you remember when we went,

23:37 there's a beautiful shrine in the sea in the lake, right?

23:40 Like a big torii gate.

23:42 And they call it like the Itsukushima Shrine of um Lake Biwa.

23:46 I had a lovely memory of you and I going there.

23:49 We put it in the video.

23:50 I think it's called I traveled Kyoto without a map, right?

23:53 And I So, again, I hyped this up.

23:55 I was like, oh, it's a beautiful shrine by the sea.

23:57 We're going to have a great time.

23:58 Got there, and they've blocked it off because there's too many tourists going.

24:02 So, you can't get near the shrine.

24:04 You can't get near it.

24:05 So, why why?

24:06 Were people swimming up to it or just kind of taking pictures with it or

24:09 I guess it's just too many people on a busy road.

24:12 Like you have to cross this road to get to it.

24:14 And so, you can't get to it.

24:15 And what annoyed me is I've written about this in my book.

24:18 I'm like, oh, yeah, the beautiful shrine.

24:20 Go there.

24:20 You'll love it.

24:21 It's great.

24:22 And now my book's redundant cuz you can't actually get up to the shrine.

24:26 You have to sort of look at it from afar, from a[ __] tree across the road.

24:30 So, that's kind of a shame.

24:31 So, there was a lot of jokes about

24:33 my book already being redundant before it's already come out.

24:36 God damn it.

24:37 Stupid.

24:39 Shouldn't have written a book.

24:41 Just have a website.

24:42 You update things.

24:44 Oh, dear.

24:44 You can update it, yeah.

24:45 But what is going on in Japan?

24:47 What is the news of the week?

24:48 Obviously, we've covered the cyclothon, but what's going on in Japan?

24:52 Well, I mean, you've um I think you touched on it on social media.

24:55 I think I saw you make a post about it on Instagram.

24:58 But it has been a difficult few weeks,

25:00 a few days in Japan after powerful earthquake magnitude

25:03 7.7 struck just off the northern coast early this week.

25:07 Authorities quickly issued a tsunami alert and folks along the coast

25:11 were told to head for higher ground just in case.

25:12 The good news is the tsunami threat didn't stick around for long.

25:16 Waves were recorded but nothing on the catastrophic scale

25:20 that people feared and the alert was eventually lifted.

25:22 But they are now saying They keep talking about this bloody mega quake,

25:27 the authorities for crying out loud, the officials,

25:29 the authorities, the boffins, the big wigs,

25:32 the pen pushers up at City Hall keep talking about this bloody mega quake.

25:36 And so they've basically the odds are not point one usually,

25:40 not what point one percent for the mega quake.

25:42 Now they've gone up to one percent for the next week or so and look

25:46 if I was going in for an operation I'd take those odds to be quite frank.

25:49 Officials are telling people not to panic or stop daily life but to be ready

25:52 by taking action like checking emergency provision provisions

25:55 and familiarizing yourself with any evacuation routes is advisable.

25:59 I spent a couple of days up in with me folks literally yesterday and I've

26:06 always got a plan that if you know nuclear war breaks out or whatever happens,

26:09 you know, pestilence, war, whatever,

26:12 I'll drive up to me I'll get in the really un

26:16 fuel efficient Toyota V12 and drive up to my mom and dad's.

26:21 It's It's Hartlepool but we're not really a shipbuilding

26:24 town anymore so they probably won't bomb us.

26:27 And I'd get up there and I was like I mean mom and dad have

26:29 always got food in and honestly their their provision

26:32 for cans they've got no cans anymore.

26:35 They used to have cupboards full of cans Chris and now I'm just like oh

26:39 god I'm going to have to just get cans and bottled water myself aren't I?

26:42 I'm going to have to I'm going to have to dig a bloody shelter myself aren't I?

26:46 You're going to have to pull out the karaoke machine

26:49 from your Toyota and replace it with like big things or something.

26:53 That'll be a painful sacrifice.

26:54 I couldn't imagine driving all the way to bloody Hartlepool from from your neck

26:58 of the woods in the face of a nuclear conflict, but

27:02 No, well, I did it before yesterday, so.

27:06 Took me about 2 and 1/2 6 hours.

27:08 I I do work with the with the petrol prices of the Strait of Hormuz.

27:12 I imagine your car is barely affordable to run it these days.

27:16 Yeah, it's I I tried to what I would used to do

27:18 is wait till the I've I've emptied to get it filled up.

27:22 Now I wait until about 3/4 full,

27:25 so I don't actually know what a full a full a full can a full

27:30 can a full tank actually is because it's

27:32 it's it's horrific at this moment in time.

27:36 I mean, yeah, we talk about earthquakes frequently.

27:40 Um, I think what this earthquake represents is uh,

27:44 a little bit scary cuz with the the big boy earthquake,

27:47 the horrific one 2011 9.1 magnitude,

27:50 there were earthquakes before that that sort of, you know,

27:54 alerted people to something potentially going to happen.

27:57 Hence why the chance of this happening has gone from 0.1% to 1%.

28:01 It's still pretty low.

28:02 1% chance is thankfully very low indeed,

28:05 but it's something to be mindful about if you live in Japan, I think.

28:09 Always have water ready and food ready in your cupboard

28:13 because you got to be prepared for these things.

28:16 And I never remember I never forget, you know,

28:19 hearing the stories about how Rio Auto had no water and he had to wait

28:21 for this like water truck to arrive every day

28:24 and fill up people's bathtubs with water and yeah,

28:27 it's uh in the land of convenience where everything is very easy to get

28:32 hold of, suddenly being robbed of all that would be quite a nasty shock,

28:36 but uh yeah, luckily though the tsunami um there was

28:40 a sort of small tsunami that uh affected the north,

28:43 but uh it wasn't too bad, thankfully.

28:46 Um, but yeah, always be careful.

28:49 And if you are certainly if you're uh traveling

28:53 around uh Tohoku or the northeast coastline this year,

28:56 as I hope to do quite a lot.

28:58 Um, take precautions.

28:59 Be careful out there cuz that unfortunately is

29:01 the place that kind of gets hit the most.

29:04 Um, and seems to see the most damage.

29:07 Um, but they also Kumamoto and Wajima a few years ago have also been affected,

29:11 so yeah, you never know what's going to happen.

29:14 Bloody earth quake, eh?

29:15 Yeah.

29:16 Great.

29:16 Um, it's a good time to rewatch my video, The Day Japan Fears the Most,

29:19 One Trillion Dollar Earthquake, out now on a bunch of Japan.

29:22 Where I interviewed the governor of Tokyo for about

29:25 an hour and we used one line of speaking.

29:30 And she wasn't overly team weren't overly happy.

29:33 But then Wow, come on now.

29:35 should have been more interesting, shouldn't it?

29:37 Yeah.

29:37 Unfortunately where you went into the Was that the one you went underneath

29:40 the in the in the water bit in in Tokyo or am I thinking of a different one?

29:45 Yeah, yeah, we went to the underground.

29:47 Yeah, it's a insane place to be.

29:49 Yeah.

29:51 Yeah, it's

29:51 It looked like um it looked like a video game control.

29:54 Are you familiar with that?

29:56 What I don't know.

29:57 You see the video game control?

29:58 It looks It basically looks like a level from that, basically.

30:00 It's amazing.

30:01 Absolutely amazing.

30:02 I mean, that place, yeah, it's next level.

30:04 It's a it's a uh I don't know what you call it.

30:07 A place where when the river floods, they can offset a lot of the water.

30:12 They pump it through this massive storage room

30:15 that's like it looks like alien technology or something.

30:18 It's absolutely astonishing in scale.

30:20 discharge channel.

30:22 That's it.

30:22 That's it, yeah.

30:24 Uh we don't have one of those in England, I don't think.

30:26 But uh yeah, we should probably build one.

30:29 But um yeah.

30:32 Japan Tokyo is prepared.

30:33 Tokyo is definitely prepared.

30:35 I was really awkward.

30:36 I Yeah, I interviewed the governor for like an hour and she

30:39 walked in with like 20 PR people and I was like,

30:42 "Oh god." I I thought we'd like talk a bit more freely,

30:45 but I think she sort of read off a a screen behind me.

30:48 To be fair, you know, busy person.

30:50 Key talking points.

30:51 And also Japanese politician, you know.

30:54 Yeah, obviously didn't want to deviate from the script.

30:56 So, I know, you know,

30:58 I'm just grateful that she she met with us and and whatnot.

31:01 Yeah.

31:02 Um Yeah, but yeah.

31:03 She was cool.

31:04 Um all right, speedy Japanese, the dream lives on.

31:12 Well, well, I I think we should make it about

31:13 um we should be making it about the cycle, obviously.

31:16 It's no point talking about earthquakes.

31:18 You only get to witness those very, very rarely.

31:20 We need to talk about your important your important cycling.

31:25 Yeah, I mean, you know what a bike is, right?

31:27 In Japanese.

31:28 actually.

31:30 What?

31:29 I don't.

31:30 It's not I I know train, I know two words for cars,

31:33 but do I know the word for bicycle?

31:35 I do not.

31:37 Really?

31:37 I mean Yeah.

31:38 cuz it's it's sort of all like there's ways like

31:40 a bike bike who kind of means like Uh Right.

31:43 like uh motorbike, confusingly.

31:46 Mhm.

31:46 Um Right.

31:47 Whereas bicycle's like jitensha,

31:49 which literally means like self-movement vehicle.

31:52 Right?

31:54 Right.

31:54 Jitensha.

31:54 Um And

31:56 Jidosha is is car, isn't it?

31:58 Or an old old word.

32:01 means vehicle.

32:02 Keijidosha means K car.

32:05 Ah.

32:07 Uh So, the the character for like Uh uh vehicle, it's it's read as like sha.

32:12 So, like densha, train.

32:13 Jitensha, bicycle.

32:15 Right.

32:15 Nice.

32:16 Jidosha, vehicle.

32:18 Ah.

32:17 So, stick sha at the end, job done.

32:20 But, I clearly I'm not the best Japanese teacher.

32:23 But, it's a it's a it's a word worth knowing, right?

32:25 And uh the casual slang for bike as well is chari, mama chari.

32:30 You probably know that one though, right?

32:33 Chari?

32:33 No, I don't even know that one.

32:34 Chari?

32:35 What?

32:35 Chari?

32:36 Do you know when you're in Japan,

32:37 like most people have like a really cheap bicycle.

32:40 It's like got no gears.

32:41 It's got the basket on the front.

32:43 And the handlebars are sort of curved round.

32:46 Yeah, and it's quite heavy, a bit clunky,

32:48 but it's the most popular bike in Japan.

32:50 Everyone has one.

32:51 Typically, mothers have them.

32:52 They have like a kid on the back and they've got shopping in the front.

32:55 And they call that mama churry like bikes.

32:58 Um Right.

32:59 And that's sort of like casual slang for bike, churry.

33:03 Um But they're like a triumph of like engineering.

33:06 I think they like kicked off in the 1950s.

33:08 And they sold, you know, millions of them.

33:11 And they're still very popular to this very day.

33:12 But my god, even though my legs are pretty good after the cycle, I'm muscly.

33:19 I swear churry bikes like you you need a lot of strength.

33:22 Cuz it's like one gear and the bikes

33:24 are really heavy cuz they're like made of steel.

33:26 They're designed to be like cheap, ubiquitous bikes for everyone, right?

33:29 A car in every garage, chicken every pot, and a bicycle in every garage.

33:34 And uh yeah, so they're they're cheap,

33:37 but they're not that comfortable or fun to ride,

33:39 but they're very utilitarian and practical.

33:41 Kind of fun.

33:44 But But going from um in London,

33:45 we have these kind of hire bikes uh that I use quite a lot.

33:48 And then we've had quite a lot of street tube strikes um recently,

33:50 so I've been basically Lime biking.

33:52 They call it Lime bikes.

33:54 Um Lime biking it from Fenchurch Street up to where

33:56 we um where we broadcast the um football broadcast, the Football Ramble.

34:02 Yeah.

34:00 Uh in Vitruvia.

34:02 And uh going from like if you ever sort

34:04 of go from like an electrified bike to a normal bike,

34:08 you're like, "Oh, bloody hell, I forgot.

34:09 It's actually quite hard work, isn't it?

34:12 It's actually quite impossible to to sort this."

34:15 I mean, get a bike, cycle around, job done.

34:19 Yeah.

34:20 Secret.

34:20 Completely agree.

34:21 Completely agree.

34:22 But uh I just got I'm looking up the mama churry bike.

34:24 The frame mounted lock can be unlocked by simply pushing in the key.

34:27 So like you've got a little key over the wheel.

34:30 And you lock it and then the the wheels can't turn.

34:32 That's how you sort of keep it going, right?

34:34 Yeah.

34:34 Um They're the lights are attached to the bike, so you can't steal them.

34:39 Uh there's a chain guard that's made of like plastic.

34:43 There's a bell.

34:44 It is like but the Ford the Ford the original Ford like T model.

34:50 It's It's Mary Poppins It's Mary Poppins's bike.

34:53 I I I think I've seen Mary Poppins on a bike and I'm

34:55 fairly certain it looked like that with the basket on the front.

34:57 Yeah, you're right.

34:58 I mean, like those little kind of bike locks at the back that kind of grip

35:01 the back tire don't grip the back tire but they basically get in the spokes.

35:05 Um it's one of those things that you see in Japan and you're like, I mean,

35:07 that is that is a charitable little

35:09 thing but then maybe they're just not attractive.

35:11 They're not very expensive bikes that anybody wants to steal in the first place.

35:14 Everyone's got one.

35:15 Well, yeah.

35:15 I mean, you could just lift that up.

35:17 If you want to steal that, you just lift up the bike and walk off.

35:19 Well, they they're quite heavy.

35:20 I think bikes are is after umbrellas the most stolen item in Japan are bikes.

35:27 Yeah.

35:26 Um but a lot of people just leave

35:28 their mama chari bikes around cuz they're like 10,000 yen.

35:32 They start to rust quite quickly and go to[ __] if you leave it outside.

35:35 And you just see them like abandoned a lot of different places, you know.

35:38 It wouldn't be an abandoned northern Japan north Japanese town

35:42 if there wasn't a few mama chari bikes lying around rusting.

35:46 Part of the fun.

35:47 But they they're kind of cool.

35:48 They're kind of cool.

35:51 Wow.

35:53 All right.

35:53 We turn our attention to fax machine.

35:55 What's What's going on this week?

35:57 Stories, listeners, comments, questions.

35:59 All kinds of stuff.

36:00 Whatever you want to send us, really.

36:02 Um abroadinjapanpodcast@gmail.com.

36:04 Yeah, we still got the Gmail.

36:05 We're keeping it real.

36:06 Um Dora from Hungary.

36:09 Hello, Dora.

36:10 Hi, Chris and Pete.

36:10 I would love to visit Japan one day,

36:12 but I'm really scared of the long flight, more than 10 hours.

36:14 The longest flight I've taken to uh it was Scotland,

36:18 3 hours and uh that was more than enough for me.

36:20 Do you have any tips out to make uh traveling for so long less daunting?

36:24 Uh Chris, do you plan to make a 14-days

36:26 ultimate travel itinerary in Japan off the beaten track version.

36:30 Thank you and have a nice day.

36:32 I mean, what I usually do and what I did for my 10-hour trip

36:36 to Las Vegas recently is I downloaded Death Stranding 2 to my Steam Deck again.

36:42 I've never played with the aforementioned Norman Reedus.

36:45 And I drank a couple of beers and then fell asleep for the whole trip.

36:52 So So not did not really take advantage of that.

36:56 Just just buy a 50-pound video game and you'll just

36:59 nod off and wake up wherever you want to be, really.

37:01 That's all right.

37:02 That's my That's my advice.

37:04 I mean, it is a long flight, isn't it?

37:07 I think I'm in fact How long was

37:09 your You said your Las Vegas flight was 14 hours?

37:13 10 11 on the way out and then maybe like

37:15 9 and a half on the on the way, I think.

37:17 It's interesting how after you've done a trip a few times, your body adapts.

37:20 Like first time I flew to Japan,

37:22 it felt like I was flying to another universe and home never felt so far away.

37:27 And then after done it a few times, I was like, "Eh, 10 hours isn't that bad.

37:30 It's like two films, like a bit of dinner,

37:33 job done." And then it became 14 hours for war reasons

37:38 and all of a sudden it felt like hell on Earth.

37:40 And I won't lie, it is quite long.

37:42 It is long.

37:43 I tend to like listen to stuff.

37:45 I was well I If you're afraid of flying like I am,

37:48 I watch a lot of comedy stuff.

37:50 I tend to watch films that like I

37:53 watch on repeat like Beverly Hills Cop or Planes,

37:56 Trains, and Automobiles or Death of Stalin, good film.

37:59 I watch a lot of comedy and I get through it that way.

38:01 As for like the 14-day ultimate travel itinerary,

38:06 we do have a kind of off the beaten track version,

38:09 which Pete Donaldson was going to be in, but then he then he wasn't.

38:13 And Right, yes.

38:14 Maybe we can repurpose Pete Donaldson for the next one.

38:18 Or is this the Is this the Is this the Nick Nickol Nickol footage?

38:22 It is, yeah.

38:22 Really[ __] Nickol trip.

38:25 Just a real shame.

38:26 Just a real It's like missing Norman Reedus at a at a at an art installation.

38:30 Just Just a real shame.

38:32 But we've still got the footage.

38:34 In 10 years, when I'm old and decrepit, I'll put that out.

38:38 That's your That's your retirement pension plan, isn't it?

38:40 It is.

38:41 Ah, million views immediately.

38:45 It's a shame it was actually quite a good

38:46 It was quite a good sequence, to be fair.

38:48 Me, you, and Natski going around the Tottori Sand Dune Shrine.

38:51 But I ran I like ran out of time.

38:52 I didn't get the video uploaded.

38:54 And I had to like edit it, and Dave, the editor,

38:56 was like, "Have you done it yet?" I was like, "No.

38:59 Go just upload it." And we've regretted it ever since in the last 14 years.

39:03 editor's fault, is it?

39:03 Right, okay.

39:04 Now I know who to talk to.

39:05 Now I know who to apply pressure to.

39:08 Yeah.

39:08 It's his fault, not mine.

39:11 Peter says, "Hello Chris and Pete.

39:12 I'm currently in Japan at the time

39:13 of my writing with my partner and 10-year-old son.

39:16 After we spend each day walking more than we thought physically possible,

39:19 we retire to our hotel.

39:20 A few times, I put the television on.

39:22 I've noticed it doesn't seem to matter which channel is on.

39:25 They always have that live feed of someone's

39:27 face reacting in the corner to what's being said,

39:30 whether it's about awful events going on, or whether

39:34 it's been silly comedy of things like You've Been Framed.

39:37 I remember Chris doing a video of his own

39:38 that touched on the subject quite a while ago.

39:41 But I wondered how this phenomena that predates social media came about.

39:45 Keep being awesome, guys.

39:45 Peter." That's a really good question, actually.

39:47 I don't know where it came from, cuz it is quite unique to Japan, isn't it?

39:53 This kind of idea that the entire show is constantly being reacted to.

39:59 I don't know why that is.

40:02 I think cuz a lot of shows on TV in Japan,

40:05 they have like eight presenters at once, right?

40:07 It's very much a collective experience.

40:09 Very heavily booked.

40:10 I mean, I don't know who the celebrity booker is on these shows,

40:12 but bloody hell, they're earning their They're

40:15 They're earning their nod installations, aren't they?

40:19 It kind of works though, doesn't it?

40:20 Cuz if you think of like Graham Norton who has like three

40:22 or four actors and musicians and celebrities on his couch at once,

40:26 it's kind Half the fun is watching them interact.

40:28 And I think Japan's kind of the same in that regard.

40:30 I also think uh a lot of Japanese TV,

40:34 it's sort of just put on in the background in restaurants and shops things.

40:38 You see the TV, uh it's often like low volume or muted.

40:42 You've got the kanji characters so you can

40:43 kind of read and follow what's going on.

40:45 So you can read that and then you can see the people reacting in the corner.

40:49 And so the television's there in the background and you can kind

40:52 of get a vibe for what's going on but without audio being necessary.

40:56 That's the only thing I can think of.

40:58 I really don't know where it started or how or why.

41:01 it's probably about that kind of like Japanese

41:03 kind of culture of like um you know, collective experiences.

41:07 You know, like how people just want to be part of something

41:10 and to see like well-known celebrities reacting in a certain way.

41:13 It leads you to enjoyment, humor, disgust, horror.

41:19 Like it it basically leads you by the hands like go

41:21 this is how you should be feeling about any particular thing.

41:24 And but you like you see this sort of stuff on online like now.

41:26 A lot of people have kind of taken up that taken up that style of broadcasting.

41:30 The ones I hear There's There's There's a guy who started this all.

41:35 He'll basically do Tik Toks of um uh workplace disasters.

41:41 Basically just people like not like falling off you know,

41:45 cement walls at in in a building site.

41:48 People like driving um excavators into walls and stuff.

41:53 And and it'll just be a bloke and he'll just have

41:54 a little hi-vis jacket on and he'll have a hi-vis helmet on.

41:58 And he'll just be sort of pretending he's

42:00 like the foreman of the of of the site.

42:02 And he'll just sort of be looking at different disasters happening on his site.

42:06 And it'll just cut to different Tik Tok videos he's stolen.

42:09 Um and that became quite a big thing for quite a while.

42:12 It's just people sort of looking at stuff going, "Oh,

42:15 what what what a load of idiots I'm working with today."

42:17 And it's like I think he got like a development deal.

42:20 He I think he became so successful that people started throwing money at him.

42:24 And he's like, "Mate, like he's just he's just YouTube

42:27 videos he's just concatenating just just sticking

42:29 together videos video clips here and there and I'm just reacting to them.

42:33 I'm not even reacting I'm not even creating anything just sort of going "Ooh,

42:37 these guys are idiots, aren't they?" It's rubbish.

42:40 Absolutely rubbish.

42:42 People like it though.

42:43 I've always wondered like why we like reaction content so much and uh Yeah.

42:48 Yeah.

42:48 Well, maybe I should just do it.

42:49 It's a lot easier and cheaper than

42:51 doing a documentary about earthquakes, isn't it?

42:54 Maybe you can react to the Nico footage

42:55 and and tell everyone why you didn't upload it.

42:59 This is the point I realized I didn't want to do this.

43:02 There's like 20 sirens outside now.

43:04 It's like part of the experience of the Broadhurst podcast.

43:07 on you.

43:07 I look I think it's I can't hear them that much and I don't

43:10 and I'm sure that the listeners can't hear them as much as you can hear them.

43:13 But I will say that it it adds a little a certain something

43:17 to a downtown Tokyo broadcasting environment

43:21 that you can hear a siren's going off.

43:23 Live from the the middle of Kabukicho.

43:26 Yeah.

43:27 Yeah.

43:28 Yeah.

43:28 If you want it from Richard he says, "Hello Chris and Pete.

43:29 A few friends and I visited Japan last October for 3

43:32 weeks and we based much of our trip around Chris's video,

43:36 especially the how to spend 14 days in Japan guide.

43:39 People love that video.

43:40 Yeah, I'm I'm glad I made that video.

43:42 Every day people are like, 'Thank you for making this video.' And I'm like,

43:45 'Yeah, that's all right.' Why didn't you watch the[ __] sequel though?

43:48 Nobody watched the sequel, Pete.

43:49 21 days in Japan.

43:51 And then go and watch that one.

43:52 It's just as good, but it's not Nobody watches it.

43:55 We spent so much Anyway,

43:56 we're now back and we're now heading back for a second visit this November.

44:01 And we're planning a new itinerary.

44:03 This time we're thinking of going north.

44:05 The only definite stop so far is Sapporo.

44:08 So, I wanted to ask,

44:09 what would Chris say is his one unmissable spot in north Japan?

44:12 Thank you, Richard.

44:14 The one unmissable spot in north Japan is I don't know, really.

44:21 I don't know.

44:22 Hakodate.

44:24 Uh I don't know.

44:26 In my In the When the 21 Days in Japan video,

44:29 it was uh Yamadera Temple in Yamagata, hm, which is nice.

44:34 It's just like a temple up in the mountains and you get to Yeah.

44:36 escape the crowds temporarily and enjoy that.

44:39 Yamadera is very nice.

44:40 And it's like a 50-minute train ride from Sendai.

44:43 So, get to Sendai Yeah.

44:44 Up on the train, go to Yamadera,

44:46 up on the train, go to Matsushima Bay, job done.

44:48 Like that gets my vote.

44:49 Use Sendai as like a sort of jumping off point, maybe.

44:53 Um yeah, it gets my vote.

44:55 And we've got the listener We've got the story of the week,

44:59 which we've we've put at the end of the podcast now,

45:01 but I'm thinking I quite I quite miss

45:04 listener story of the week uh at the start.

45:07 So, I don't know, maybe we should put it at the front next time.

45:10 Depends if they get in or not.

45:11 Let's read this one if it's Let's have a short meeting.

45:12 Let's have a Let's have a short meeting.

45:14 meeting, yeah, yeah.

45:16 A board meeting.

45:17 Hello, Chris and Pete.

45:18 I've just spent 5 months living in Osaka.

45:21 I lived in a nice little area near the Yodo River.

45:23 One day, I was doing my daily walk along the river,

45:26 watching the birds and a great heron flew down

45:28 from a tree and landed 10 ft in front of me.

45:31 It sounds like the Birth of a Nation lore or something, the legend.

45:36 Yeah.

45:35 And the heron said to me film.

45:38 Yeah.

45:39 I stopped in my tracks, not wanting to speak to the heron.

45:43 Kill everyone.

45:46 I stopped I stopped in my tracks, not wanting to speak the heron.

45:51 Then the others walking on the path stopped as well.

45:53 I ended up making eye contact with a little

45:55 old Japanese man and we smiled at each other,

45:57 admiring how beautiful the bird was.

45:59 And then he started walking towards me.

46:01 I began panicking because at that time I've

46:03 been living in Japan for only a month.

46:05 I could barely speak any Japanese.

46:06 I was terrified he was going to come and speak some Japanese

46:09 to me and have to awkwardly apologize for not being able to communicate.

46:12 But to my surprise, he spoke a decent amount of English.

46:15 I quickly learned he was 78 years old and had

46:17 learned English 50 years ago back when he was at university.

46:21 We chatted for a while and then exchanged numbers

46:23 and from there on we met once a month getting coffee,

46:26 dinners, lunch, or seeing the plum trees blossom.

46:30 I won't lie.

46:30 The first time we met up I was worried

46:32 he's going to try and sell me into a cult.

46:36 But he really But he to be fair,

46:39 it's a rational response sometimes as we've discussed previously.

46:43 But he really just wanted a friend to practice English with and I think he

46:46 was a bit lonely as well as all his kids and grandkids lived in Tokyo.

46:50 Many of his friends didn't hang out as often anymore.

46:53 So now I've got a Japanese Ojisan and I'm glad that we met.

46:57 More young people like me should chat with the older Japanese population.

47:01 You never know what friendships you might make.

47:04 All the best, Kat B.

47:06 That's a lovely story.

47:07 It's so good.

47:08 This is This is the sort of story we

47:09 should have had at the start of the podcast.

47:11 I'll bring it out.

47:12 I want it at the front.

47:13 It's a To be fair, it's a bit hit and miss sometimes, isn't it?

47:16 But this is a 10 out of 10.

47:18 Don't have a go at this.

47:19 There's more email in.

47:21 Hit and miss, honestly.

47:22 They're all cherished beautiful stories.

47:25 They're all brilliant, but this one's even more brilliant.

47:28 The problem is Chris doesn't pre-read them.

47:30 So he'll get in the middle of the story and go "It's quite good,

47:31 this." Yeah, I know.

47:33 All All listener stories are equal, but some more equal than others, all right?

47:38 Uh this one is exceptional and uh That's beautiful.

47:41 And I think There was a video that went viral a year

47:44 or two ago by uh American dude called Kyle Metcalfe.

47:50 Metcalfe but I've I've Nice guy, met him.

47:52 And he was in Osaka and he spoke to a elderly Japanese man on a bench.

47:57 And the elderly Japanese man invited him back to his house

47:59 and they had dinner and caught up and it

48:00 was lovely kind of a lovely video lovely Tik Tok

48:04 and um I think it warmed a lot of people's

48:07 hearts because the the elderly generations not just in Japan

48:10 but in general are often left behind and there's clearly

48:13 a lot of loneliness happening and um it touched upon

48:16 that and this story made me feel the same way you

48:19 know I think it's lovely and to be fair I

48:20 can relate to that I had a friend uh Eto

48:23 sensei uh who taught me Japanese up in Sakata

48:27 in Yamagata and we met up every Thursday and every Wednesday

48:31 we we we he taught me Japanese but in the end

48:34 it just became us just hanging out and talking

48:36 and messing around for an hour a week and it

48:38 was just really fun hanging out and hearing his stories how

48:41 he like ran the train line on the west coast

48:44 and um yeah I really want to make a video

48:46 about our time together cuz I I think about him

48:49 a lot you know and it was a lovely lovely man

48:52 uh who sadly passed away now but I think yeah

48:55 I think it's really important and um yeah really lovely

48:57 story Kat thank you very much more more guys if

49:00 you if you've met an an elderly person had a tender

49:03 moment let us know on the Abroad in Japan podcast

49:07 if you've met an elderly person hasn't gone so well

49:09 don't don't let us know let's keep up the good

49:12 vibes keep it going but for now keep the stories

49:15 questions comments coming into Abroad in Japan podcast at gmail.com

49:17 we'll be back next week to do it all over

49:19 again but the question is will the listener's story be

49:21 at the start or the back you decide or we'll decide

49:25 I'll look at the next one and depending how it is go from there but for now guys

49:30 depending on how it is have yourself a

49:32 have a graphic for it I don't have the problem is

49:34 I don't have a graphic for listener story of the week

49:36 make one make one but for now guys see you next week

49:40 get yourselves to Las Vegas have yourselves a good one bye for now Mhm.