The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die

A story from Japan. Paper cranes. Killer sharks. And our very first guest, Maddy Cross.
This story is from The Japanese Fairy Book  by Yei Theodora Ozaki, published in 1903.
Follow us for sporadic posting on Instagram and Twitter. Email us your secrets at [e-mail].
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Straw Hut Media. Hey foll Glorical listeners. The episode that
we are bringing you this week we recorded a little
while ago at the end of March. Since then, you
are probably aware that a lot has happened. We didn't
release an episode last week out of respect for the

(00:21):
massive shift and movement that's happening in the world right
now that we are very supportive of. We are two
white people and we are trying to be allies. We
are listening, we are learning, and we're trying to support, and.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
More than anything, we just hope that if you are
part taking in the protest, that you are staying as
safe as you can and helping out those around you.
It's hard to challenge authority on its abusive nature while
it's and then to have it retaliate and be abusive
in response. So I just hope that everyone out there
is being safe as much as they can. And we're

(00:59):
with you, guys. We're all for the movement, We're all
for the change, and we just wanted to take a
moment and say that.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah, and I am also one in favor of defunding
the police. If any of our listeners want to argue
with me about it, very happy to engage. I'll try
to be nice. Can't promise. I'm a little bit mean sometimes,
but I'll try to be nice. I'm on the side
of education rather on this, rather than on the side
of bashing. That's just my as a person. However, I

(01:29):
do really appreciate when people are assholes to ignorant people,
so I will try my best. That's a weird thing
to say.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Threats, So if anyone wants to talk to me about it,
meet me on a corner. It's like, I don't know,
Maggie went rogue and started throwing out times that she
was going to be ready to fight.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
But really, I am here to help educate fellow white
people who are confused, threatened, non supportive. I will talk
to you, and I promise I will be as nice
as possible. Ball Yeah, and listeners, I hope you enjoy
this episode today because it's lighthearted. I hope you get
a kick out of it.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
And this is our first episode with a special guest,
so that's something to look forward to as well. We
hope that, if anything, you just find some sweet reprieve
in this in this hour long episode, an hour out
of all the chaos in the world. If anything, all
we want is for you to have an hour that
you just are able to hang out and laugh and
enjoy folklorica and.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Then get right back out there.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
And get right back out Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, okay, So here is our show.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Death is not the opposite of life, but an innate
part of life. A rookie Murakami from his book Norwegian WOODA.

(03:11):
Welcome to Folklorica.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
I'm Welacome and I am Maggie Bowles. We are the
hosts of your favorite podcast about folklore.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
We assume we assume it's your favorite because it makes
us feel better to assume that you're doing. Maggie, how's
your quarantine going? You know?

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Eric Garcetti, somebody just sent me an article. Actually, my
group chat with my friends just sent an article where
Garcetti was like, stop be optimistic.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Who's Eric Garcetti?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Oh right? For those unaware, Eric Garcetti is the mayor
of Los Angeles, where I reside. Yes, he recently spoke
to Business Insider. He said, people need to stop being
so optimistic, and we're probably going to be in here
for at least another two months.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Wow, yeah, I mean, and that's I kind of thought
that I knew that it was going to get I
think maybe even our governoral Gavin Newsom had put out
some sort of statistic that said that in about two
months time. I think he said maybe eight weeks, but yeah,
two months time, that fifty percent of the population will
have the coronavirus.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, I've heard stuff like that, So.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
It's definitely like two months from that. Like, it's just
going to keep getting more serious. And I was talking
to a couple of my roommates yesterday and we're all
kind of talking about people we know who are taking
it very lightly and you know, just kind of being
kind of blase about it, which is I guess as
long as you're doing social distancing and you're doing all
the things you're supposed to be doing, your thoughts on

(04:47):
it aren't as dangerous.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
No, we're not requiring that you're dying from anxiety every night.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Exactly, no requirement. No think I mean I do that
to myself anyway. Yeah, a real treat. But there will
be a point, and I don't think people are really
aware of this yet, that there will be a point
when each of us knows someone who has the virus
and it's going to become a bit more like, oh shit,
this isn't like just some passing thing. Like basically we're

(05:15):
all waiting out just getting it and trying to flatten
the curve as you and I have talked about. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Well see, I know quite a few people who believe
they have it, but they haven't been able to get
tested because the hospitals say just stay home if you
like don't feel like you're gonna die, just stay home.
We don't have enough tests to go around.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah. They also say to call if you feel like
you might have symptoms.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah. Yeah, that's what they all did.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Oh and that's they called. And that's what they told them,
was like, well if you're not imperiled.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Exactly, that's exactly what they told them. They did call.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
I see, I see wow that's crazy, Yeah, because I
mean sometimes you can be asymptomatic not show any signs
of it, and then you're just like through the window
and then you're immune to it, right.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, like in in Contagion, Mark Ruffalo's character or no
was mart Reblo, it was Matt Damon.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Do you have a rotine? I'm sticking to a routine.
I don't know if you've set up a daily routine
for yourself.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
I finally wrote on my whiteboard.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
So I have what's called it's a little memo in
my phone called the Quarantine Routine and brilliant. Step one
I do meditation slash yoga either one sometimes both. Yeah,
every morning, every morning. How long, No more than half
an hour, nothing crazy. Step two is coffee and breakfast.

(06:33):
Three is positivity absorption. It's where I just watch anything
that kind of you know, maybe it's bloopers or some
sort of improv thing on YouTube or something funny, just
to like get your your mood up. And then four
I read or take in some sort of creative inspiration,
whatever that may be. Five I write for about an hour.

(06:53):
Six I eat lunch, got a pencil it In seven
I do some sort of learning or study time, Like
right now I'm learning German through duo lingo, so I've
been doing that after lunch. And then eight exercise some
sort of like I have like workout bands and stuff,
so I do that. I'll do sprints in my yard.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
I just ordered some workout bands from Amazon the other day.
Oh did you they haven't They haven't arrived yet, though
I'm very excited.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, they are super useful. I used to use free weights,
but then I got tired of every time I moved.
You literally have weights to move. Yeah, so I had
these like thirty pound weights and I'm trekking from house
to house that are straight up just dead weight. So
after I exercise, then I do some sort of creative
time where that's like maybe I'm just messing around with

(07:41):
my microphone, improv something like that, or just writing stream
of consciousness stuff, whatever it may be. And then ten
is movie time, and so I try to watch a
different movie every day. WHOA, And that's my routine?

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Do you do this every day? Is there any like
do you have any mix ups that you do? You know,
you ever get it interesting? You know, throw it around.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Sometimes coffee before meditation? WHOA?

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Stop you do that?

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah? I fuck around?

Speaker 1 (08:10):
So what movies? What are some highlights of the movies
you've seen?

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Sure? Man, I just watched yesterday. I did a Roy
Anderson movie marathon. And for those that don't know Roy,
I understand. Roy Anderson is a Swedish director and his
movies are are like some of my favorites. They're so
good the way that they're shot, it's like the camera
doesn't move. It just looks into a room or down
a hallway, and the whole scene takes place in that
one shot. I mean he definitely like changes scenes quite

(08:36):
a bit, but it's like whenever they're there, you're looking
at a scene that camera doesn't move, everything takes place
in the frame, and he's like absurdist. And this I
watched yesterday Songs from a second Floor and if you haven't,
that one is super I guess, pertinent to what we're
dealing with right now. It's it's like all about the
hierarchy of society and how the wealthy make the like

(08:58):
kind of live their lives up above the I guess,
the one percent versus the ninety nine percent. And this
is all in Sweden too, so you're just watching this
like cultural societal collapse happening to all these like, you know,
normal people, and then what the wealthy do to try
and stay on top. And it's just what it's like
to be human. And his movies are so good at
observing that, So that would be my recommend.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
I have never heard of Roy Anderson, and I'm very excited.
Is this on Netflix? Amazon Prime? Where can I watch
this movie? Do I have to not illegally download it.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
I think I think pigeons sat on a branch reflecting
on existence, which is the third in this little trilogy
of human human observation.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
That one is my pision, sat on a branch contemplating
human existence.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
A pigeon sat on a branch reflecting on existence.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Ah, Okay, I was close.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, that one was on Netflix. I'm not sure if
it still is.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Okay, Roy Anderson, I'm gonna look them up.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Do it. Do you have a routine you've been sticking to.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Absolutely not.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
You're flying by the seat of your pants.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I have been. I have been trying to create a routine,
but you know, I am still working. So I'm still
working nine to five basically. So it's like not as
much free time as I want it to be, except
that mostly Ryan and I have just been watching a
lot of television together. Yeah, and movies. We watched a

(10:23):
lot of movies, more movies than normal. We've been binging
broad Church. Uh, it's with that English guy and that
English lady. She's she's the best. Okay, the lady is
the Olivia Coleman.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Okay, Olivia Coleman.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Love Olivia Coleman. She's the best. Thing about the show.
And then the guy is the guy from he's in
like Doctor Who and he was on Jessica Jones. David Tennant,
that's the one, Yeah, David Tennant. And it's like a
murder mystery show, which I'm very into. Yeah, uh, this
show's the show is like a six and a half

(11:03):
out of ten, I'd say, but I will watch it
just for Olivia Colman because I want to. I want
to hang out with her. It was great. Why did
you lick that all weird? It was weird and.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I made eye contact with you while I did it.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, it was very strange.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
It was unintentional, and I am sorry. I'm a you're
drinking a white claw. I'm drinking a PBR that I've
put in a giant Mason jar and added lemonade too,
so like a shandy.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Would you call it a peb jar?

Speaker 2 (11:31):
It's a PB jar, No, because that would confuse me
when I want peanut butter. Yeah, it didn't work, So
it's PBR lemonade. And then my roommates made this cucumber
base that they wanted to use in beer and cocktails
and things, so I put some of that in there too,
so you have this lemonade cucumber shandy basically, and then
I rimmed the jar with taheen, so you kind of get.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Like little sum that sounds delicious.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
It's really good. It's a perfect quarantini.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
That's great. I'm very very impressed. We ordered White Glad
to be delivered to our house on Monday night from
Whole Foods.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
How did that doorway interaction go?

Speaker 1 (12:15):
I think they just dropped it off and then ran away,
went and picked it up. Yeah, that's how it goes. Yeah,
So Clayton, you chose the story this week. It's from
Japans about it? What's going on?

Speaker 2 (12:29):
So the story I chose for this week's episode comes
from the Japanese Fairy Book, which was originally printed in
nineteen oh three, received and I'm assuming an English reprint
changing the title to Japanese Fairy Tales in nineteen oh eight,
but we're going to try to stick with the I
guess this would be the one from nineteen oh eight

(12:51):
because it's in English. So it is by yay Theodora Ozaki,
and yay Theodora Ozaki was born in eighteenth She lived
until nineteen thirty two, so not a terribly long life.
But I would say, on par for that time in the.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
World, that's like sixty one years old.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
A sixty one that's not bad. I mean, I'm assuming
for turn of the century, turn of the twentieth century,
sixty one isn't the worst. Yeah, she wasn't feels young, Yeah,
it feels young now. She was an early twentieth century
translator of Japanese short stories and fairy tales, and she
was super liberal in her translations, but they still remained
very popular even after her death. And I just I'm

(13:33):
assuming what that means is she took She just yeah,
took a lot of liberties with just to make them
more fun and more engaging to certain readers.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
So what I read about her is that she was
like really in between the Japanese and like English culture
because she was half Japanese. That just reminded me of
that Weezer song, remember that song half Japanese Girl Del Scorcho?

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yehcha?

Speaker 1 (14:00):
How you thinking about it? Every time I get Del
Taco because that's the best hot sauce.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
At Del Taco, it is, You're correct.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
And so her father was Japanese and her mother was English,
and so she grew up in England for the first
part of her life until her mom died, and then
she moved to Japan and her dad wanted her to
be more Japanese. He thought she was too like Anglaized,
and she really loved Japanese culture, and she also really

(14:29):
like felt at home in Western culture. And I read
that this well in this book that you got the
story from. It's really sweet. The dedication. Did you read
the dedication?

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. To her friend was Elizabeth.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
It says to Eleanor Marion Crawford, I dedicate this book
to you and to the sweet child friendship that you
gave me in the days spent with you by the
Southern Sea, when you used to listen with unfeigned pleasure
to these fairy stories from far Japan. May they now
remind you of my changeless love and remembrance. One of

(15:06):
the sweetest little things ever, it.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Was to dedicate your book to somebody who is already
a very like She could have just said to Eleanor
and that would have been very moving, but she got
very specific and was like, I want to explain to
you exactly what you mean to me, which is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
And she wrote the stories apparently for a Western audience,
so she didn't write them for Japanese people. She wrote
them for Western people because she wanted to change the
way that the Western world looked at Japan, because she thought,
first of all, she thought they looked at women like
they were like passive and oppressed, like Madame Butterfly. The

(15:44):
opera was popular, and she also just wanted to, like,
you know, share the rich Japanese culture with English speaking people.
And so she even like she stops, she doesn't even
use like words like sammer. She says knights instead of samurai,
and she says like purls instead of daimeo. I guess

(16:05):
is the word? I don't know, And.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Then yeah, she looks like yeah, her father had set
up an arranged marriage for her, and she left and
became a teacher and a secretary and got to travel.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, she spent time in Italy with friends. She was
just living like a cool life.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, and I'm sure you read this part. It was
while she was traveling she would often her name being
Ya Theodora Ozaki I love This would often receive male
intended for the Japanese politician Yukio Ozaki Yaeyozaki Yuki Ozaki.
You could see maybe where the mistake would be, and
her male would often go to him. And this happened

(16:42):
for years, apparently, until they finally met in nineteen oh four.
He was, I mean within the last few years divorced,
but he's you know, hot, single, ready to mingle. They meet,
have an instant connection, and they get married.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
I love that story. Is it like you've got mail?

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Totally right? I mean you literally, but this would be
titled You've got my the name of this she's a
business lady traveling around the world. He's a Japanese politician.
How will this ever work? You've cut my mail?

Speaker 1 (17:10):
You've cut my mail. I think it's really sweet, that
little love story. I like it.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, me too. And he Yukio Ozaki is actually a
super cool dude. Doing a little dive into him. I mean,
I don't want to go too far into his whole life,
because we're here to talk about Yay, not Yukio. Yeah,
but Yukio Ozaki is worth a google. He was a
Japanese politician of liberal signature, so he's a progressive guy.

(17:39):
And I mean we're talking. He was born in eighteen
fifty nine and he lived until nineteen fifty four. So
who's just shy of one hundred years old. So pretty
good life.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
That's a long life.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
And he is still to this day in Japan revered
as the god of constitutional politics and the father of
the Japanese Constitution.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Wow. So he was a big deal.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, and he advocated and I think sometime in the
twenties or thirties he advocated for the vote of women
and criticized the growing influence of the Japanese military.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
That's great. So he was an early feminist.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeah, Well this was during a period in Japan's history
when they were like getting really liberal, Like the whole
society was getting really liberal because they were trying to
you know, they were trying to show themselves as a
power equal to Western society, you know, trying to make
their way.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Well yeah, check that guy out. He's a handsome, handsome fella,
and it is Yuki oh Azaki. But yeah, so back
to yae Yozaki. Her other works other than the Japanese
Fairy Book include Warriors of Old Japan and other stories
Romances of Old Japan, and then also Buddhist Crystal and
other fairy stories. So this is something she really fell

(18:48):
in love with just being someone who is a translator
and a teacher. I mean, this is like obviously a
passion of hers that really defined the rest of her
life and in the stories we're doing today, this story
of the Man who did Not Wish to Die was
actually written initially by Shinsui Tamanaga, who was a Japanese
novelist from the Edo period. But do you uh, I

(19:10):
feel like as Westerners there's kind of this cool awareness
we have of Japanese culture. Did you have any sort
of like you grew up with, any sort of like
Japanese culture thing that you that made you appreciate Japan?

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Well? I had. When I was little, I had two
best friends who were Japanese. Their dad was a very
famous Japanese baseball player. Really I can't remember his name
because I didn't care at the time. Yeah yeah, yeah,
But so it was just a dad he was well,

(19:43):
he was just like an absent dad. He was like,
oh I see, he was always like out playing baseball
and I think they ended up getting a divorce maybe.
And his mom their mom, you go, she's an amazing
keyboard player. She plays with like all the like old
blues R and B. Singers and stuff. Oh damn, that's
I feel like I had, you know, all the stuff
that like kids like Japanese kids loved, which was like

(20:06):
a lot of like anime and cute stuff, A lot
of cute stuff, A.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Lot of cute stuff, the cutest stuff stuff. So were
you Hello Kitty yeah, Samria.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Huge Hello Kitty fan? Probably maybe partly due to Saya.
I don't know, huge Hello Kitty fan.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
And you have a favorite character from Hello Kitty or
was it just Hello Kitty?

Speaker 1 (20:28):
No, I never had a favorite. Oh well, I guess
Kopi was my favorite growing up.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
I'm a bad Matt's Maru boy.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Oh yeah, really hardcore.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
It's a hardcore penguin.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, he was pretty, he was pretty gnarly. But now
I feel like Miyazaki is the one that influences is
like the biggest influence that's remained. So what about what
about you?

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Similar veins? I mean it was I loved I grew
up with like dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were
like my first introductions to anime. And then I was
right in the sweet spot for when Pokemon finally came out.
I was I think eleven. I was like their target demographic.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Did you ever play Pokemon Go, the.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
One on your phone. I did, like when it first
came out, but I quickly got bored, did you No?

Speaker 1 (21:11):
But I worked with this girl who was like one
of the best Pokemon Go players in LA or something
like that. Really, she was like, she was like famous
in the Pokemon Go community.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Man, that's cool. Yeah, you know, find find your passions
and make them your life.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yes, she's a funny lady.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
But then I also got into a studio ghibli Is
that how you pronounced I don't know.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
I've always just avoided saying it.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, you'd made the right decision in saying Miyazaki, you
made no choice. But yeah, I got into Miyazaki films.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
You know that.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
Spirited Away is the highest grossing film in Japanese history.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
I did not know that it is a good one,
and it's I think it's at the top of a
lot of people's lists of Studio Ghibili.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Films, Academy Award winning Wow, my friend is just texting me.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Oh, yeah, yeah, you have a friend who has a theory.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, I have this friend who has a theory about
Western culture and Japanese culture. So I was thinking that
she could be an interesting uh expert to invite on
the show, our first ever guest, our.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
First folklorica guest.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, I'm going to give her a column. We're going
to skype her in. It's calling her, but it's not
making that fun noise. I was hoping you'd make that
fun boo boo whom And then she joins, Hey, Hey, hello, Hello,

(22:42):
how are you? I'm good? What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Watching Ozark? Doing everything? I cannot to fall asleep at
like eight.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Tonight, I mean, just lean into it.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
How are you? What are you all doing?

Speaker 1 (22:54):
I just finished working. I am drinking a white cloth
out of a crystal glassy.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Beautiful, and I'm on my fifth PBR beautiful.

Speaker 4 (23:04):
Guys, Times of Corona went to the grocery store. I
went to the grocery store. I got a bunch of
truly today.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Nice ill.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Yeah, it's gonna get wild.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
It's gonna get crazy over here.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
So Maddie, Yes, the reason we've called you today is yes,
because we are talking about Japan. And I was still
in Clinton that you have a very interesting theory about Japan,
and I was hoping you could tell him and our
listeners about it.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
Sure, it is less of a theory about Japan as
it is about men specifically.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
Uh I used to.

Speaker 4 (23:49):
Say it was just straight white men, but I'm noticing
it's kind it's you know, sometimes this is in the
queer community and people of other nationality and races as well.
But I just have a theory that dudes love Japan
and more so than women.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
Like dudes just you know, they're.

Speaker 4 (24:11):
Really into ramen and uh anime and like even like
Japanese art like the yeah, like those waves and different
different things like that, Like dudes are really into that
stuff and hen.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
Tai, yeah, hen Taie all that, all that stuff. Dudes
really like it. Dudes love Hentie.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
Dudes love I mean, Ramen's huge in the dude community.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Clayton, I'm curious, are you an egg in the ramen?
Are you not? No egg in the ramen?

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Egg in the ramen all day? The egg is like
the best part, I think because it's kind of sweet too,
Like I don't know what they do to them, but
there's also like a sweetness to it. So it's like
typically I go spicy ramen. Just to further prove your
point about dudes who love ramen, I go spicy ramen.
But having that egg in there, and that sweetness, it
does something else to it. It's big egg guy.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
This is the thing about the ramen, though, that dudes
love the I discovered this in dating culture because the
amount of dudes that wanted to get ramen with me
was exponential.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
You know.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
First things first, Ramen not a cute food to eat
in front of a stranger.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
I've also had a bunch of dudes asked.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
Me to get ramen as like a as a Sunday
brunch activity to me as a bruncher, I'm a huge bruncher.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
That is offensive to the brunching community.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Although some people would argue that anything with an egg
is brunch.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
Well, I don't fuck with eggs in my ramen.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Really.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
I don't like the yoki neess of it all.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
You would you say you find it yoki?

Speaker 3 (25:46):
Very good, Maggie very good, Clayton, can I give me
a man, Yes, yes, I do. I find it yoki.
I do not like it.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
But dudes fucking love ramen and they want to take
me there at two pm on a Sunday when it's
too hot outside for soup.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Dudes love soup.

Speaker 4 (26:03):
My stepdad eats soup every morning for breakfast.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
I think that's so weird.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
But dudes love Ramen, and dudes love Japan, and dudes love,
you know, Miyazaki more than they love Pixar.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
Anytime you ask a dude where in the world would
you want to go right now? If you can go anywhere,
they always say Japan.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
Clean. If you could go anywhere in the world right now,
where would it be be Japan.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
The only way that they don't say Japan first is
if they recently want and if anything they say, they
mentioned another country, and then they're like, I'd also love
to go back to Japan.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
It's always in the wheelhouse, It's always in the same it's.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Never never far from a dude's mind is Japan and
it's culture, and it's women and all things that are
tiny to make them feel all big and strong.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
And have you noticed that it's more small men he
liked Japan? Or is size not a factor?

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Size is not a factor. I've you know, I'm.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
Five seven, so I've noticed this mostly just with dudes
i've dated, so I tend to not date, you know,
people who are below five ten. I'm not an asshole.
It's just how it goes. And no matter what their height.
They always seem interested in going to Japan.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
They always love it.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
They've definitely got some sort of Japanese art on their wallalls.
It's either like Japanese art or like a Wes Anderson poster.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, like Isle of Dogs, yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Which yeah, the blending of the world.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Yeah. Whereas but like you know, women love things too.

Speaker 4 (27:44):
I think all women love Paris, and I'm not offended
by it. But men can get really defensive when I
bring up this theory, and I notice the ones that
are weirdly obsessed with Japan get really defensive because they
recognize that I'm insinuating that there's thing messed up about
their obsession with Japan, which they obviously self consciously know.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
That as well.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Would you say it's messed up or would you say
it's stereotypical or both.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
Them loving Japan stereotypical. But the ones that are like.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Obsessed with Japan and like.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
That, like really like are obsessed with every single Japanese
movie and like have a bunch of crap, they're the
ones that get defensive because it's almost like fetishized.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Which is actually probably pretty true with women loving Paris too.
Like if there's a girl with a picture of the
Eiffel Tower in your bedroom, Like, run the other way.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
It's a bad get out of there, Get out of there.
That girl is a hot mess.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
She's an exacts.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Got a picture of the Eiffel Tower and a Live
Laugh Love poster. You run the other way, and Audrey,
who's worse.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
The Eiffel Tower or Live Laugh Love?

Speaker 4 (28:49):
Most most commonly you're finding both in that room.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
They're pretty hand in hand.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah, you know, it's it's just something I noticed, And
men can get defensive about it and uh offended.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
By it, but it's just because they know I'm right.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Them. I'm not offended because I get that. It's I
get why I think it's trending, I think, or why
men typically are they're so drawn to uh Japan. There's
something culturally about it, uh that men are very much
like in charge in their culture, it seems. And then

(29:28):
women are very timid. And there's like if you I
don't know if either of you have ever watched Terrace House,
but it's a reality show I love, but everyone's very shy,
you know, Like culturally it's so amazing to watch, like
how people use their hands when they talk, or what
they say, or how they how they communicate things, and
people are very timid uh in Japan, and so it

(29:49):
just seems like maybe there's a power, a power dynamic
with men who are not from Japan and are drawn
to it. They like being like in charge or something.
I'm not one of those guys.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
What our lady who compiled this book of stories said,
one of the reasons she started writing on these stories
was because to try to change Westerners' minds about women,
Japanese women being passive.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
And I mean, and this was written in nineteen oh three. Correct,
it didn't work. I don't think it worked.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
No, she failed, Sorry she did.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Sorry. Sorry.

Speaker 4 (30:28):
Part of my examination of men loving Japan has always
partially been about the like male dominance in that culture
and the feeling big when everything is small.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Yeah, sort of noess of it all.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
But I also have a theory that Japan culturally is
just like super different than our own. It's like bright
and colorful and loud, and like everything's a.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
Little more complicated than it needs to be.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
And I think that, you know, my biggest is I
think mostly straight white men fall under this category of
loving Japan.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
And I think it's because they.

Speaker 4 (31:07):
Haven't like straight white men don't have day to day
struggles that women do or you know, uh, queer folk
and stuff like that, where I think that they are
drawn to Japan because it's like a little crazy and
out of their comfort zone, and almost nothing's out of
their comfort zone.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
And it's the same reason that a lot of street.

Speaker 4 (31:27):
White men have military time on their phones. They need
something to be a little more complicated.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Because sh it's just too easy in general.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Just like some sort of challenge, that's what it is.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
They just like some sort of adversity, like you guys haven't.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
Yeah, like you've never had to like go to work
while on your period and dying, so you're just going
to like make it more difficult to tell the time.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Like ASMR.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
That was nice sound. Some people think that it's strange
to feel kind of like a lot of people are
enjoying the moment we're in right now with the quarantine,
because there is this sense of urgency, there is a
sense of dilemma. Is that do you think that those
kinds of guys who are like looking for that challenge,

(32:18):
do you think those same people are excited by this
quarantine we're all in where things seem kind of scary.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Oh, I'm sure there's one guy in my life who
I who's like one of the big proponents of this
theory because he's so obsessed with Japan. But he you know,
he's also one of those guys that's going to post
on Instagram like I'm here if you need like we're
all in this together, like I'm.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Here, like reach out if you need anything.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
You know, it's just like needing to be like wanted
and interesting really badly. So I'm sure this is a
beautiful climate for dudes that love Japan. I'm sure they
can ingest a lot of you know, more Japanese as culture.
They can plan out their next trip to Japan, you know,

(33:06):
get it all ready, Maybe do some online dating for
specifically Japanese women.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
I'm sure that's also part of it all.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Here's another I'm sure is in Asia in general they
wear face masks. Is that also in Japan or is
it only in China that they do that, like all
the time.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
They do that in Japan.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Interesting that in Japan. So maybe this is also really
exciting for those japan lover men to be able to
wear a face mask like.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
Their masks, like they got yeah on their second trip
to Japan.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah. I actually spent some time watching some YouTube videos
of homemade masks.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
I don't have a sewing machine.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
I saw somewhere. You don't need one.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
I don't have any elastic either.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
You just take it out of like a pair of sweatpants.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
You think I'm ruining any of my sweatpants at a
time like this. That's how I exist. I ordered more sweatpants.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah, I've almost bought some sweatpants. I did just buy
a bunch of cotton dresses to wear around the house
like a pilgrim.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
So, Clayton, what do you think of this theory? What
is your what's your takeaway?

Speaker 2 (34:11):
I feel very seen, So I feel.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
You don't feel attacked?

Speaker 2 (34:15):
No, not attacked. I get the cliche. I guess. I
mean I definitely grew up like watching anime and being
very intrigued by everything Japanese culture, and I mean like, uh, yeah,
I love I mean, Murakami is one of my favorite authors.
That's for real. I love I love me as Zackey,

(34:37):
I love Kirasawa. I don't feel attacked by because I mean,
I know my understanding and my appreciation for Japanese culture.
Isn't that necessarily sexual? But I think a lot of
guys I think it's sexually.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
Certainly.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
If they're defensive about it, they have a secret, and
it's not a good one.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
If they're defensive, they've been jerking it to tentacle porn
for a long.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Time, for a long long time.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
You know.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
It just real, Clinton, is that you're the stereotypical white
dude into Japan, and I'm the stereotypical white girl into Paris,
except that I don't have like, I don't have the
you know, I don't have any pictures of the Eiffel
Tower anywhere.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
And actually when I place, do you have any Do
you have any Japanese art any waves up around your place?

Speaker 2 (35:20):
No, thankfully no. That's my only saving.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Grace is your phone at military time?

Speaker 2 (35:25):
No, no, no, no, I don't think with military time. Okay, good,
those are my only two. Everything else is accurate.

Speaker 4 (35:33):
Every time I see a guy's got his phone at
military time, I'm always like.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Oh god, any any last thoughts, any last questions before
we uh, before we wrap this up.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
I don't know. I feel good, I feel very vulnerable,
and and you feel super opened up I feel very seen.
I hope that.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
I hope that none of your your male listeners.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
Are offended, and if they are, they should go talk
to a psychiatrist about it because they obviously have an
inappropriate relationship with Japan.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Agree.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
Yeah, hear that, listeners, And please do not ask women
to eat ramen with you on a hot day at
two pm.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
It is inappropriate, so weird, especially a first date and
hot weather. That's that's psychotic.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
All right, guys, this has been This has been great.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah, thank you Maddi for for talking to us about
your theory.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Have no problem.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
You really appreciate it. We appreciate your research, your dedication,
and your your insights.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
Thank you for letting me practice my ted talk. Yeah,
all right, all right, happy Corona. You guys have Corona.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Everybody are we have to Clayton, okay? You know, and
like you call your parents and your mom's your mom's
like you want to say hi to Sam and you're
like okay, and then they say bye, and then they
hang up after you say bye, and you're like, wait,
was that the end?

Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, I never said bye to mom. She just handed
me up.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Here's here's Steven. And then Steven's like, all right, I
gotta go by, like, wait, where's am I going back
to mom? Or yeah, well, I guess I'll just talk
to mom later. Glad she passed me off. Thanks Mom.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Okay, Mom, I guess you didn't want to talk to me.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah. Cool.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
So that was Maddie. We'll see if we want to
use that.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
No.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
I love that. I thought that was so cool when
she as soon as she brought up Ramen, I started
dying laughing because since we moved to Sacramento in November,
we have so many Ramen places up here, and I've
tried to convince Nicole to go with me to ram
and I can't tell you how many times, and she's like,
I just don't. It's just not the time, Like middle
of the day, Ramen doesn't sound good. So it's so

(37:48):
funny to have Maddie come on and be like, yeah,
dudes always want ramen, like it's a cold weather right. Yeah,
it's delicious. I love it. On that note, I think
it's time.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
I think we're ready.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, let's take a quick break and when we come back,
we'll read the Story of the Man who Did Not
Wish to Die, The Story of the man who did

(38:22):
not wish to die. From the Japanese fairy book by
ye Ozaki. Long long ago, there lived a man called Centaro.
His surname meant millionaire. But although he was not so
rich as all that, he was still very far removed
from being poor. He had inherited a small fortune from

(38:45):
his father and lived on this, spending his time carelessly
without any serious thoughts of work, till he was about
thirty two years of age. One day, without any reason whatsoever,
the thought of death and sickness came to him. The
idea of falling ill or dying made him very wretched.
I should like to live, he said to himself, till

(39:06):
I am five or six hundred years old, at least
free from all sickness. The ordinary span of a man's
life is very short. He wondered whether it were possible,
by living simply and frugally, henceforth, to prolong his life
as long as he wished. He knew there were many
stories in ancient history of emperors who had lived a
thousand years, and there was a princess of Yamato, who

(39:29):
it was said, lived to the age of five hundred.
This was the latest story of a very long life
on record, Cintaro had often heard the tale of the
Chinese king named shin No Shiko. He was one of
the most able and powerful rulers in Chinese history. He
built all the large palaces and also the famous Great

(39:49):
Wall of China. Yet everything in the world he could
wish for. But in spite of all his happiness, and
the luxury and splendor of his court, the wisdom of
his counselors, and the glory of his reign, he was
miserable because he knew that one day he must die
and leave it all. When shin No Shiko went to
bed at night, when he rose in the morning, as

(40:11):
he went through his day, the thought of death was
always with him. He could not get away from it. Ah,
if only he could find the elixir of life, you
would be happy. The emperor at last called a meeting
of his courtiers and asked them all if they could
not find for him the elixir of life of which
he had so often read and heard. One old courtier,

(40:32):
Jofuku by name, said that far away across the seas,
there was a country called Horizon, and that certain hermits
lived there who possessed the secret of the elixir of life.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Just curious, have we moved from talking about this first dude,
Centao and now we're talking about the king Centao.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Is what we're hearing right now is a story that
Centaaro is aware of, basically in Cintaro's mind, and he's
telling us a story from his that he's heard about
the elixir or about an emperor who sought to live forever.
Whoever drank of this wonderful draft lived forever. The emperor

(41:18):
ordered Jofuku to set out for the Land of Horizon
to find the Hermits and to bring him back a
file of the magic elixir. He gave Jofuku one of
his best junks. A junk is a Chinese sailing ship.
Really h If you look up a picture, you'll be like, oh,
I've seen those before, very traditional Chinese ships, and they.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Call it a junk.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
They call it junk, so strange. He gave Jofuku one
of his best junks, fitted it out for him, and
loaded it with great quantities of treasures and precious stones
for Jofuku to take his presence to the Hermits. Jofuku
sailed for the Land of Horizon, but he never returned
to the waiting emperor. But ever since that time, Mount
Fuji has been said to be the fabled horizon and

(42:02):
the home of the hermits who had the secret of
the elixir, and Jofuku has been worshiped as their patron god.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Whoa Jofuku? Wow? So he went to go like he
was like, yeah, sure, I'll go check it out. And
instead of helping, he just went there and he decided
to be king.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Uh. The people of Japan have worshiped him.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Okay, all right, okay.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Now, Sintato determined to set out to find the hermits
and if he could, to become one so that he
might obtain the water of perpetual life. He remembered that
as a child, he had been told that not only
did these hermits live on Mount Fuji, but that they
were said to inhabit all the very high peaks. So
he left his old home to the care of his
relatives and started out on his quest. He traveled through

(42:47):
all the mountainous regions of the land, climbing to the
tops of the highest peaks, but never a hermit did
he find. At last, after wandering in an unknown region
for many days, he met a hunter. Can you tell
me asked Centaro, where the hermits live who have the
elixir of life? No, said the hunter, I can't tell

(43:08):
you where such hermits live, but there is a notorious
robber living in these parts. It is said that he
is a chief of a band of two hundred followers.
This odd answer irritated Centaaro very much, and he thought
how foolish it was to waste more time in looking
for the hermits in this way. So he decided to
go at once to the shrine of Jafuku, who was

(43:28):
worshiped as the patron god of the hermits in the
south of Japan. Centao reached the shrine and prayed for
seven days, entreating Jafuku to show him the way to
a hermit who could give him what he wanted so
much to find. At midnight of the seventh day, as
Sintaro knelt in the temple, the door of the innermost
shrine flew open, and Jafuku appeared in a luminous cloud, and,

(43:51):
calling to Cintaaro to come nearer, spoke, thus, your desire
is a very selfish one and cannot be easily granted.
You think that you would like to become a hermit,
So as to find the elixir of life. Do you
know how hard a hermit's life is. A hermit is
only allowed to eat fruit and berries in the bark
of pine trees. A hermit must cut himself off from

(44:14):
the world so that his heart may become as pure
as gold and free from every earthly desire. Gradually, after
following these strict rules, the hermit ceases to feel hunger
or cold or heat, and his body becomes so light
that he can ride on a crane or a carp
and can walk on water without getting his feet wet.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
So he's like a monk. So the hermits are monks.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Seems that way. Yeah, they're practicing monks. They're trying to
find higher enlightenment, it would appear.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Yeah, I like the idea of being able to ride
a carp.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
Like a surfboard, is what I'm picturing. Or when you
think like you saddle.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
It like all the last story, I mean, same as before,
same question. I think like a paddle boy.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Oh that's right, that's right. You s are fond of
good living and of every comfort. You are not even
like an ordinary man, for you are exceptionally idle and
more sensitive to heat and cold than most people, you
would never be able to go barefoot or to wear
only one thin dress in the wintertime. Do you think

(45:18):
that you would ever have the patience or the endurance
to live a hermit's life. In answer to your prayer, however,
I will help you in another way. I will send
you to the country, a perpetual life where death never comes,
where the people live forever.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
It sounds like it's gonna not because.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah, it's like we've run into this before, like the
genie that gives you bad wishes or bad versions of
your wish right.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
No, Yeah, it's like you better say what you want
real carefully because there is someone who's gonna try to
screw you with it.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, that or they know that. Look what you're wishing for,
you don't really want. You just want to be free
of your anxiety of death.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Yes, that is it's all.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
He really wants. He just thinks mortality is the answer.
The fool. The fool saying this, Jofuku put into Cintao's
hand a little crane made of paper, telling him to
sit on its back and it would carry him there.
Cintao obeyed, wonderingly. The crane grew large enough for him
to ride on it with comfort. It then spread its wings,

(46:21):
rose high in the air, and flew away over the
mountains ride out to sea. Centao was at first quite frightened,
but by degrees he grew accustomed to the swift flight
through the air. On and on they went for thousands
of miles. The bird never stopped forest or food, but
as it was a paper bird, it doubtless did not
require any nourishment, and, strange to say, neither did Centaro.

(46:46):
After several days they reached an island. The crane flew
some distance inland and then alighted. As soon as Cintaaro
got down from the bird's back, the crane folded up
of its own accord and flew into his pocket. Just
like the Jetsons cars, they turn into a briefcase after
you get out of them.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
I forgot about that. That's very true, you know.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
It's the Jetsons were inspired by this Japanese fairy tale.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
That's so cool though, Like imagining you're like riding on
a bird and then you get off of it and
it's just like like a transformer into a cute little Oh.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yeah, yeah, I thought you were eating ramen.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
That's it. Of course you did. I also really like
the illustration here of Centauro sitting on the crane. It's adorable.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
At first I thought his butt was hanging out.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, it's a very he's.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
Like he's got his robe on. But then really like
any sort of decoration on the robe or anything, really
only starts at his butt. And he has a very
defined butt crack.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Yeah, the butt crack is very clear. Maybe yeah, I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
And that's a very good paper crane. It looks very lifelike.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Yeah, well it turned, it got bigger, right, And.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Oh, I don't know. I guess I mean from this picture,
I would say, yes it did.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Maybe we'll put a picture of this illustration up on
the on the on the tour twitor would be a
good place for this.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Yeah, and we'll put a picture of his butt crack
on the Instagram. Perfect now. Cintao began to look about him, wonderingly,
curious to see what the country of Perpetual Life was like.
He walked first round about the country and then through
the town. Everything was, of course quite strange and different
from his own land, but both the land and the

(48:33):
people seemed prosperous, so he decided that it would be
good for him to stay there, and took up lodgings
at one of the hotels. The proprietor was a kind man,
and when Cintaro told him that he was a stranger
and had come to live there, he promised to arrange
everything that was necessary with the governor of the city
concerning Centaurro's sojourn there. He even found a house for

(48:54):
his guest, and in this way Cintaro obtained his great
wish and became a resident in the country of Juel Life.
Within the memory of all the islanders, no man had
ever died there, and sickness was a thing unknown. Priests
had come over from India and China and told them
of beautiful country called Paradise, where happiness and bliss and

(49:15):
contentment fill all men's hearts, but its gates could only
be reached by dying. This tradition was handed down for
ages from generation to generation, but none knew exactly what
death was, except that it led to paradise. Quite unlike
Centao and other ordinary people, instead of having a great

(49:36):
dread of death, they all both rich and poor, longed
for it as something good and desirable. They were all
tired of their long, long lives, and longed to go
to the happy land of contentment called Paradise, of which
the priests had told them centuries ago. All this Centaro
soon found out by talking to the islanders. He found

(49:57):
himself according to his ideas, and the land of topsy turvidum,
everything was upside down. He had wished to escape from dying.
He had come to the land of perpetual life with
great relief and joy, only to find that the inhabitants,
themselves doomed never to die, would consider it bliss to
find death. What he had hitherto considered poison, these people

(50:20):
ate as good food, and all the things to which
he had been accustomed as food they rejected. Whenever any
merchants from other countries arrived, the rich people rushed to them,
eager to buy poisons. These they swallowed eagerly, hoping for
death to come so that they might go to paradise.
But what were deadly poisons in other lands were without
effect in this strange place, and people who swallowed them

(50:43):
with the hope of dying only found that in a
short time they felt better in health instead of worse. Vainly,
they tried to imagine what death could be like. The
wealthy would have given all their money and all their
goods they could but shorten their lives to two or
three hundred years, even without any change, to live on forever.
Seemed to this people wearisome and sad. In the chemist shops,

(51:06):
there was a drug which was in constant demand because
after using it for one hundred years, he was supposed
to turn the hair slightly gray and to bring about
disorders of the stomach. Cintaarro was astonished to find that
the poisonous globefish was served up in restaurants as a
delectable dish, and hawkers in the streets went about selling
sauces made of Spanish flies. He never saw anyone ill

(51:28):
after eating these horrible things, nor did he ever see
anyone with as much as a cold.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
So all these people in the town are really obsessed
with dying, and nobody can do it.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
So what they're all like, it's weird on the daily,
buying and taking poison, trying to die whereas he's used
to and failing. It's just the topsy turbudum where we
in our world where death is a part of life,
constantly trying to escape it through like really expensive meals

(52:05):
or things that taste very good. You know you want
to like it brings more life to your life to
have like a delicious meal, whereas these people are doing
the opposite.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, be like how much poison can I eat?

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Centaurro was delighted. He said to himself that he would
never grow tired of living, and that he considered it
profane to wish for death. He was the only happy
man on the island, for his party wished to live
thousands of years and to enjoy life. He set himself
up in business and for the present never even dreamed

(52:36):
of going back to his native land. As years went by, however,
things did not go as smoothly at first, yet heavy
losses in business, and several times some affairs went wrong
with his neighbors. This caused him great annoyance. Time passed
like the flight of an arrow for him, for he
was busy from morning till night. Three hundred years went

(52:59):
by in this not in his way, and then at
last he began to grow tired of life in this country,
and he longed to see his own land and his
old home. However long he lived here, life would always
be the same, So was it not foolish and wearisome
to stay on here forever? Centaurro, in his wish to
escape from the country of perpetual life, recollected Jofuku, who

(53:21):
had helped him before when he was wishing to escape
from death, and he prayed to the saint to bring
him back to his own land again. No sooner did
he pray than the paper crane popped out of his pocket.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
So he had this paper crane in his pocket the
whole time.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
For hundreds of years.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Three hundred years, he had a paper crane in his pocket.
And I guess he never washed those pants because.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Yeah, maybe in the land.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Of perpetual life, set in your wallet.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Yeah, oh, it destroys, it just crumbles up to bits. Yeah, somehow,
I guess perpetual life. You also don't need to bathe
because you're not you're not.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Expiring, right, that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
I guess you're like frozen in time, so there's no
like build up of odors and oils. Yum Cintaarro was
amazed to see that it had remained undamaged after all
these years. Once more, the bird grew and grew till
it was large enough for him to mount it. As

(54:23):
he did so, the bird spread its wings and flew
swiftly out across the sea in the direction of Japan.
Such was the willingness of the man's nature that he
looked back and regretted all he had left behind. He
tried to stop the bird in vain. The crane held
on its way for thousands of miles across the ocean.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
So wait, he left the land of forever living, and
then as soon as he got on it, he was like, wait, wait, wait, no,
I don't want to die exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Cintao's wishy, washy guy.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, topsy turvy land.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
Yeah, he's a topsy boy. Then a storm came on
and the wonderful paper crane got damp, crumpled up, and
fell into the sea. Cintaro fell with it, very much.
Frightened at the thought of being drowned, he cried out
loudly to Jafuku to save him. He looked round, but

(55:20):
there was no ship in sight. He swallowed a quantity
of sea water, which only increased his miserable plight. While
he was thus struggling to keep himself afloat, he saw
a monstrous shark swimming towards him. As it came nearer,
it opened its huge mouth, ready to devour him. Cintaaro
was all but paralyzed with fear now that he felt

(55:42):
his end so near, and screamed out as loudly as
ever he could to Jafuku to come and rescue him.
Lo and behold. Cinao was awakened by his own screams
to find that during his long prayer he had fallen
asleep before the shrine, and that all his extraordinary and
frightful adventures had been only a wild dream. Oh, come on, man,

(56:06):
so real kick in the pants. He was in a
cold perspiration, with fright and utterly bewildered. Suddenly a bright
light came towards him, and in the light stood a messenger.
The messenger held a book in his hand and spoke
to Centauru. I am sent to you by Jafuku, who,

(56:28):
in answer to your prayer, has permitted you in a
dream to see the land of perpetual life. But you
grew weary of living there and begged to be allowed
to return to your native land so that you might die.
Jofuku study might try you, allowed you to drop into
the sea and then sent a shark to swallow you up.
Your desire for death was not real, for even at

(56:50):
that moment you cried out loudly and shouted for help.
It is also vain for you to wish to become
a hermit or to find the elixir of life.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Wait a second, So he sent a shark to eat
him to test if he really wanted to die.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Yeah, it seems that way to really test it. Was
he ready to die or not?

Speaker 1 (57:11):
Are you ready to be eaten alive by a monster?
Then no, you're not ready to die. You fuse to die.
You refuse to die if you won't get eaten alive
by a shark. I feel like that's a really strict criteria.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Yeah, I feel like I don't know too many people
that would prefer like if you got to choose how
you died. I don't know anyone that would put shark
attack at the top of their lists.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
I definitely would not.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
No, they're terrifying. It is also vain for you to
wish to become a hermit or to find the elixir
of life. These things are not for such as you.
Your life is not austere enough. It is best for
you to go back to your paternal home, and to
live a good and industrious life. Never neglect to keep
the anniversaries of your ancestors, and make it your duty

(57:56):
to provide for your children's future. Thus, where you live
to a good old age and be happy. But give
up the vain desire to escape death, for no man
can do that. And by this time you have surely
found out that even when selfish desires are granted, they
do not bring happiness. In this book I give you
there are many precepts good for you to know. If

(58:18):
you study them, you will be guided in the way
I've pointed out to you. The angel disappeared as soon
as he had finished speaking, and Sentaro took the lesson
to heart. With the book in his hand, he returned
to his old home, and, giving up all his old
vain wishes, tried to live a good and useful life
and to observe the lessons taught him in the book,

(58:40):
and he and his house prospered henceforth. The end Wow,

(59:08):
so sow very clear moral very clear moral.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
Content here.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
So we've got Centaurro, who classic dilemma wants to be
a mortal. They also address the fact that he's not
necessarily quite a millionaire, but he's definitely well off, right,
So there's definitely I think there's some sort of they
tie into worldly possessions, material possessions, money, into the sort

(59:42):
of vanity that people have when they want to be
immortal as well. There's something about really not wanting to
let go of what this world has for you.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Right, they want to but it's not about like love,
Like it's not like you want to like be with
your family forever or whatever. It's like, I want to
enjoy my fancy crap.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Forever, exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
I want to eat well forever.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Yeah. No one's ever like I want to be immortal
because then I get to be married longer.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
Yeah, not a single person in history has ever said that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
No. I think most people in marriages and that they're like, no,
we've had a good sixty years. That's cool.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
We had a good run.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
Yeah, we had a great run. Ready to go, let's
end this, let's wrap this up. But yeah, typically if
you're looking for some level of immortality, you're probably also
in the pursuit of maybe power or financial power.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Yeah, immortality is power at the end of the day,
isn't it truly is as you get to have something
no one else has.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
And I mean, if you think about the way that
things are structured and how there's so much of a
fixation on certain kinds of success in society and financial success,
like when you remember that we all get like an
eight your window, like all that other shit doesn't matter?

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Really, what do you mean what doesn't matter the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Pursuit of financial success? You know?

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
I mean, or is it all that matters?

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
I mean, I think whatever is important to you in
this tiny window is what matters. That's that's like asking
what the meaning of life is. Yeah, but there's something
very It just makes like money feel very arbitrary when
you're like, but I can't take it with me. And
this is the this is the shot I get. So

(01:01:31):
fill your life with whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Right, But it's so much easier to fill your life
with stuff when you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
Have money, you know, and if you I'm sure the
a lot of you know, people who are who live
their lives like kind of poor, just like when is
this thing over?

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
You know, if you've suffered a lot, A lot of
people who suffer are just like, life is tough. I
don't want it to last forever.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
It's very philosophical.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's very I feel like it's very elitist
to want life to last forever.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Mm hmmm. It's like, oh, is your life so great
you want to fucking live forever? Ooh loddia up.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Yeah exactly. Oh you want a thousand years of this? Wow?
You must be real cool. So that seems like a
very obvious moral lesson. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Do you think he was ever really there?

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
I mean, emotionally is all you need? I can't stress enough.
How tired I am of all these crazy dreams I'm
having in quarantine, Like I just want to have like
a night's rest. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
I had a dream I had a unibrow last night?

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Was it? How did you feel about it?

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
I was like, what the heck? I've never had a
unibrow before. I was like, and it was growing kind
of sideways too. Oh, And I was like, what is this?
I have a unibrow now?

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
I was growing like wonky.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
It wasn't like, well, it's like the hair instead of
like sticking up straight like a unibrow should stick up,
you know, like in the shape of your eyebrow. Instead,
they just grew sideways, as if I had a Sideway's eyebrow.
I was really relieved when I woke up and I
didn't have a unibrow, not the unibrows or anything terrible.
I just like I've never had when it would have
been a whole new thing I had to deal with,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, No, I mean I think that
that's to to bring it back to the story, Like
just the emotional journey you went on, is what Centaurro
went on, Like living these.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
Dreams, that emotional journey of mine. Yeah, it's claustrophobic knowing
that you can't get out of life, right, because it's
the same thing. It's just a lack of control.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Yeah, that's all it is. It's I mean that's and
I think that's part of the fear of death too,
is that you don't have any control over it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
So you just swap out one lack of control for
a different lack of control.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
Yeah, that's all it is. And if you can find
some sort of acceptance in your lack of control, that's
I mean, that's the that should be a real pursuit.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
That's the key. Yeah, accept the lack of control. Wow,
Jesus take the wheel. I feel like we said this
last year, last week? Do we say last week Jesus
take the wheel?

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
I think so. I think. I feel like we say
it a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
I do say it a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
No, I do too. I feel like we've the wheel.
I feel like we really like set it in season
one as well. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Yeah, it must be a recurring theme.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
It's just the throwing your hands up and letting life
do what it's going to do and you just kind
of have to roll with the punches. It's a good takeaway. Well,
I feel like we really covered this whole mess.

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
I feel like we did a great job.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
Yeah. Thank you again to Maddie for joining us and
sharing us, sharing with us. Her research was fast.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
It's Maddie Cross. She is a researcher into men and Japan.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Do you have any of her handles?

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Yeah, Madison underscore Cross.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
So yeah, thank you to Maddie for joining in and
chatting us up and sharing with us her research.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
And Yeah, and listeners, please reach out tell us what
you thought of the story. If you have any experience
with dudes loving Japan or your favorite you know, aspects
of Japanese culture maybe or even how you feel about dying.
I'd be into hearing that too. You can at us

(01:05:12):
on Twitter at Folklorca Pod, or you can maybe the
Instagram will be happening and you can go to Instagram
at Folk Glorca Pod.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
It's at folk dot pod. Yeah, and yeah, feel free
to reach out to us and share with us your
quarantine experience, is what you're doing to stay sane and
what stories you're reading in these trying times.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
I would love to hear that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
Yeah, I have been Clayton.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
Stucker and I am still Maggie Bowles and this is
also Folk Clorca and.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
We will see you next week, same time, same place,
Full Glorica and now for your moment of Warren zenfhon

(01:06:06):
Sha la la la la la la la la la
la la, keep me in your heart for a while.
Sh Sha la la la la la la la la
la la la la, keep me in your heart for
a while. I record