109 (Alex Morgan) The Japlan

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Testing, testing, 1-2. Welcome back to the Bliss of the
Abyss. My name is Robin You, Mark
Jones, also known as Rusk in Denmark.
How are you? How are you doing?
The time is 6:48 on the 15th of August 2023.
Or is it July? Who knows, eh?
Now it's August. Time has flown, and so have I

(00:22):
I've been doing a lot of flying lately.
Apologies for the slight lacuna,the summer holiday, the break in
the podcast for a little while, but I've had to go to New York,
just come back, and before that I was in Indonesia for the old
honeymoon. Oh yeah, he did it.
I went on honeymoon. I went on honeymoon.

(00:43):
I think we talk about a bit in this episode featuring the
amazing Alex Morgan, and we talkabout the Japan.
You'll see what that means later.
But the its episode was recordedactually a little while ago.
It was a few days before I went on the honeymoon and I just
didn't have time to upload it. As you can imagine, that was
very busy. But thanks for asking.
It was a good honeymoon. We went all around.

(01:06):
We went island hopping. We went to obviously Bali.
That's where everyone goes, but there's lots of different parts
of it and lots of other islands,including Komodo, to see the
dragon, and we saw it almost straight away.
They were very serious about notgetting too close to it.
Some people still did coming. A little dragon and then not
little. Although the little ones, Trivia

(01:28):
alert, trivia alert, trivia alert.
The little ones have to climb the trees.
Sometimes the babies, because the adults will cannibalize.
They will eat them, but the adults become too big to climb
the trees. They're literally massive, as
you can imagine, figuratively humongous.
And they can't climb up after the little ones, the little ones

(01:50):
are scampering up the trees and get this.
Sometimes when they eat they as,I mean I think some people know
that they bite the ankle and their saliva is full of horrible
bacteria and the animal dies from infection.
That's obviously one way they kill.
That's how they kill like the water Buffalo, bison type
creatures. But when they kill goats, they

(02:12):
can, they can just run. I mean they can run.
I think it's 13 miles, 20 kilometers an hour.
So they can run really fast, catch a goat, doosh, kill it,
buy it to death. You maybe use the claws too, and
the immense power and strength and weight, and they can
dislocate their jaw like a snake.
So they start to if the baby, ifthe baby, go, if it's a baby,

(02:33):
go, if it's small enough, they can just eat the thing whole
head 1st and they put it in there.
But sometimes it's too big to completely fit down the gullet.
So what they do is they they ramit against a tree and it pushes
the animal inside down into its stomach where it stays.

(02:53):
And they only need to eat sort of 12 * a year because they all
go at once. Yes, so I went there.
Also got bit by a dog, Milo, Milo.
He's a good boy though. He's a good boy.
So the guy on the phone said, no, he's a good boy.
Don't worry. Caitlin was like, you're gonna
get rabies, are you gonna die? And the local guys were just

(03:15):
like putting rubbing alcohol, being like, that's not a
problem, is it? But obviously it is a problem.
There's a full story there that I shall regale with another
time. But don't worry, I'm not dead
from rabies. Got all my shots.
Just have to get the insurance company involved, as you can
imagine. Really looking forward to that.
Not putting that off at all. No, no, no, no.

(03:36):
It's top of my priorities. But anyway, yeah, after that was
New York, and New York is obviously an amazing place.
And I left this country just a few days after coming back from
my honeymoon, so I barely had anytime to do anything.
I left this country. I was pissing it down.
And then a fucking few days later, I'm at the beach in New
York. The surf is strong.

(03:57):
I'm riding the waves with my body.
The sun is out. I mean, it's such a great city,
honestly, New York. And it's very, very infectious
when you're there to kind of pick it up and you just get that
American energy. If you've been into America
enough times, it's kind of like you know how to live there.
So you just walk about, you're like, hey, I'm an American.

(04:19):
This is what I do. This is who I am. yo-yo, yo,
I'll have the deli meats. Give me half a pound of cheese
and white cheddar. It's always white cheddar.
It's totally not a thing in the UK, but a massive thing over
there. White cheddar.
And I was out on the island, so the seafood anyway, I could go

(04:42):
on and on and on about it. Friend of the podcast Dave Fox
met up with him. That's a brilliant, brilliant
story. He brought pizzas and we we sat
on the beach and drank a few glasses of wine and watch the
sunset over Islip. Shout out Dave Fox.
So anyway, that's enough about me.

(05:03):
Let's get onto the episode featuring the amazing raconteur
that is Alex Morgan. Mr. Morgan, What can I say about
him that hasn't already been said already?
He's an intelligent, talented, beautiful man and he can tell a
story. So if you like hearing about
stories, if you like hearing about the Japan, if that
interests you, and it should, then stay tuned for this amazing

(05:25):
episode with Mr., Alex Morgan and Caitlin's in there too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

(05:46):
This is the honeymoon. I'm.
I'm thinking, how many freebies can I get on this?
How many people are gonna be swayed?
How many people believe me like honeymoon?
Is it sure thing mate? Have you set up Crab Fun yet?
The official hype. This time it's personal.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 19,000 pounds.

(06:07):
But Caitlin, I was thinking thatI might travel on and this is a
surprise for you, Alex. I've waited, by the way.
Welcome to the show. Of course.
Thank you. Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I was thinking I might go to
Indonesia on this. All on the mic, baby.
So I see it. Tell people what's going on,

(06:28):
Alex. OK.
So Rob has just handed me his Irish passport.
Oh, it's all new and Irish and European.
Oh my God, I'm so jealous. European.
Well, so you know I'm applying for a check one.
Yes, you did say is there not a language requirement.
No, because it's through blood. Ah, yes.

(06:50):
Done. How close does the blood
relation have to be? It's my grandfather.
So, yeah. So same, same one grandparent as
well. Congratulations.
Thank you. It's lovely, to be sure.
Isn't it beautiful? If I could just.
Look how we should. I somehow look more Irish in it.
Well, I don't know how I did it.Well, it's because the picture

(07:12):
is in a reflection of a Guinnessglass.
I made sure to do. That.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is amazing.
Congratulations. Well, I was thinking, shall I
travel on it? Caitlyn, what do you?
Think why not do it, christen it.
Right. With your honeymoon.
With your official honeymoon trip, Yeah.
Sounds nice. Well.
So I have actually never been oncheck soil and I've vowed that
to never go on to never. I never said they give me a

(07:34):
password. Yeah, I know, but I quite like
the idea of setting foot on Czech soil with the first time
as a Czech national. Yeah, that would be very cool.
Yeah, and if they give me a password, I'll learn the
language. Surely they will.
If it's if it's a grandparent, it's well, but he's a linguist,
I. Know.
Well, no. But yeah, it is.
I mean, do Lingo's got a bit of but.

(07:56):
It's taking a long time. All the documents are in.
So actually there's quite a funny story with the documents
of what one needs to provide to the Czech consulate.
I'm sure you've got many as well.
So when I suppose one would callit, partition occurred.
So Czechoslovakia split into theCzech Republic or Czechoslovakia
indeed, that. If you want a Czech passport,

(08:18):
you have to get confirmation from Slovakia that you are
indeed not. A Slovak citizen.
Ah. So I had to translate my
documents into Slovak first and go to the Slovak consulate and
knock on the door and say hello.Can you tell, can you give me a
document that says I'm not slowing back?

(08:39):
And they were like, oh, OK, that's weird.
If you want, I was like, yeah, Ido.
OK, I'll take three months. And then it did take three
months. And I got a text message three
months later in a foreign language and I thought it was
spam. It was just a text message.
It just, I don't think my name was even on it.
It was just a text message in what was clearly looked like a
northern or Eastern European language.

(09:00):
Right when I was about to deleteit, I thought I'll just put it
into Googs. Yeah.
See what's what? Diggoogs and it said hello, Your
Slovak documentation confirming you're not Slovak citizens
ready. So I can't do common great.
And so I went straight texting Yeah yeah.
Who just takes me? Slovakia texted me.
Dear Yeah, from Slovakia. And so I went to the Slovak

(09:23):
concert and I looked on, looked on Google and it said it's open
today. Great.
I was like, I'm, I'm on it, I'm going to go now.
And I went. And of course it was closed.
Of course. And I was they've got these
railings and I felt like I, you know, I clasped the railings.
And so because these things, as you know, take so long.
And then a man came out of the consulate.

(09:45):
And he saw me sort of, you know,wailing and beating my brain,
smashing the teeth, Gnashing theteeth.
Yeah, yeah. And he said, oh, I don't know
why everyone everyone's got there.
That's the slope I catch. You what?
Are you OK? I was like, oh, I got this text
message, and he's like, can I see it?
I was like, yeah, So I showed him the text message.

(10:07):
He was like, give me a moment. I was like.
And he went, he went in. 5 minutes later he came out, he
said, can I have your passport documents?
I was like, yes. So I gave my passport to this
stranger through railings in andI think it's near.
It's near Fitzrod Via. A lot of them are in.
Actually, no. It's posh West London or.

(10:27):
It's Posh W London. Yeah, near Massive Park.
I can't remember which one but. And then 5 minutes later he came
out with the document and he's like, here you go.
I was, oh God, thank you so much.
And then I left because I got mydocument.
So then I had to translate everything into check, of
course, but not that document. Likely I didn't have to do that.
Get write an e-mail saying helloDear, you bear.

(10:53):
Be consistent through the whole day.
I want only this. Money.
Yeah, Check. Contilla and I have.
An appointment. I promise I'm not slow.
Vague, Yeah to get. My citizenship and they were
like, OK, come on, the 21st of September, I was like.
Thank you. Oh, that soon.
So no, no, this was Julius like last year.

(11:15):
So I went and I handed everything in and I had
everything. It was really nice.
Nice guy who don't me. And so my aunt is doing the same
thing. So he put our documents
together. Nice.
And he said. I've got to do the voice.
Yeah, you do, I'm afraid. Sorry, I'll.
Put your documents together withyour heart and we'll send it off
to the Czech Republic. How to September?
Check here. And yeah, maybe after Christmas

(11:37):
we'll call you in and move your passport.
And here we are with no passport.
So it's gonna, I mean I was not expecting it to be in kind of
the schedule that he. That's like nine months.
Yeah, you didn't do any cooking.Doesn't.
Matter. You right.
And who knows? So I have actually sent him an
e-mail, which may go unanswered because you know how.

(11:59):
I mean, they're very, very busy people.
On inverse, yes. In fact, sorry.
So I turned up, I turned up halfan hour early to the Czech
consulate and it was closed. I was like, Oh my God, this is
happening again. And the same guy came out.
The same guy. The railings Hold on.

(12:20):
In his mind, Partition has not happened.
It's still the Czechoslovakian. Yeah.
No, actually was a lady this time and I sort of my face was,
you know, pressed, pressed to the glass again gnashing of
teeth. Please let me in.
I've had this point. Praise at me and I'm good.
Almost. And yeah, right.
And and she sort of shouted through the door.

(12:44):
And she and she pointed at her watch, and I was like, oh, and I
think I'd, I put my hat fingers up to indicate the time.
This is good. And then she looked at her watch
and she went, Oh, throw the shoulders up.
What? Who knows?
No, no. As in, what are you doing here?
You're half an hour early. Your appointment is not for half
an hour. So come back then, you idiot.
Oh, I was like so, so they just were opening for that specific

(13:07):
early, it's on time and on time is late that's yeah that's what
you were going on the assumptionof and they were like.
Exactly. Anyway, obviously I did have the
appointment, so yeah. Anyway, it's all done.
It's just the waiting game. The waiting game?
Yeah. Can you track it online?
I could track my Irish one online, yeah.
I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't a foolproof system because it went

(13:28):
past the date at which they saidit would be issued and it was
like they didn't update yet. So it's like it'll be issued 3
days in the past and I was like.HM Yeah, I see a problem in the
system. Computer said no, no, I know.
I remember talking to Caitlin about the process, and I spoke
to them on the phone at one point.
Right. Because it's a bit different.

(13:48):
Because some of my family getting German possible.
Yeah, And that system is incredibly efficient.
Not to have a stereotype home, but my God, they know what
they're doing. That's a hard part to say.
From an excellent trajectory. Trajectory.
They don't talk like that. This is what it is.
Hello, welcome to our. Welcome to Tram and I I brought

(14:12):
on earth this now, I don't know,some sort of strange Alan
Partridge. I spoke to the embassy people on
the phone, and I just remember talking to Caitlin after being
like, oh, I worked it out. They're Irish.
They were like, I was worrying about the paperwork and all of
the documents and stuff. And I spoke to Scott.
You can send your passport if you want, but of course it was.

(14:36):
The people running the show are Irish.
The people stamping it are all Irish.
Yeah, I get it now. I was thinking they were German
because that's what my family like.
No, no, no, no, no. They're Irish.
It's cool. It's a very different energy.
So how? That made me feel much more
secure once I learned. That driver's license, Which is
cool. I sent a driver's license.
Yeah, Which is nice, because then we.

(14:57):
Travel. So you can still use the
passport, Yeah, I just. Had No, no, it's always just
been to Japan that's we're gonnahear all about.
Yeah, no, it was all Fed copies.You don't have to do the Voice
for Japan by the. Way Hello, welcome to.

(15:17):
Japan. Hello Hello.
Alas, a bit more difficult to understand than that.
Go on. What were you gonna say?
I was just gonna say the fact that they texted you and you
would imagine things to be a lotmore professional and whatnot.
And now they're ghosted. Yeah.
Cuz I sent that e-mail, I've been ghosted by the Czech
Republic, Yeah. I guess you can't get a text

(15:39):
message to go to spam, so you will get a text message you
won't necessarily e-mail. But well, no, I haven't.
Yeah, I have emailed him, but yeah, it's.
Yeah, but it just made me think of the.
Time that I was using Instagram and Instagram wanted me to put
on two factor authentication. And I bypassed it because I
didn't want to put it on and then it just enabled it for me.

(16:11):
Yeah, right. So it was enabled without being
synced and I got locked out of Instagram, which is now owned by
Meta. Yes right?
And so there was nothing I coulddo to actually get into the
account except e-mail. And I'm not kidding.
You meta this. One of the biggest corporations
in the world sends me a no subject e-mail.
Did a red dot appear on your forehead?
Yeah, exactly. It was a no subject e-mail from
what looks like the most dodgiest.
It was like Facebook support.com.
It could be like completely made-up asking me or telling me

(16:35):
that I had to take a picture of myself with my username and like
the identifying information and send them a picture.
Like in the old school days where you'd have to prove your
existence online. And then it took about three
months for them to actually respond to me.
And basically as I was waiting, I started becoming a Facebook
worker, which I hate cuz I couldn't use Instagram.
But every other day I would e-mail the person and be like,

(16:58):
how's it going? Yeah.
Yeah, this person have a name, just no subject.
Yeah, it's just like no subject.How's it going?
How's your life? My life's pretty bad.
Without. Yeah.
God, it's yeah, it's such a funny one of the I saved one of
the emails Caleen sent because it's like you're about halfway
into the so you're getting kind of like comfortable with them

(17:19):
being like you were to. Whom it may concern kind of
girl. Are you a deal?
This is just a hello at this point.
OK, a hello and a thanks. But my favorite line is I'd love
to log in again. It's some sort of like, yeah, it
is valid. Brilliant.
Are you now back on the gram? She's back in.

(17:40):
She's logging in and loving. Logging in and loving it.
Yeah, but yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's why I shared that.
Just because it's like they texted you, all right?
They emailed me. No, no.
Every day I'm like, please text me the consulate.
I'm desperate to hear. Are you ready to tell us stories
about the Japan? Are you ready?
Do you want to do it? You don't have to, but it would

(18:02):
be very interesting. I've got lots of questions.
You just, yeah, you asked and I'll yeah, I'll answer.
How long were you there for? I was in Japan for 9 weeks, 9
weeks and. Why?
So there are quite a few reasons, but primarily because I
wanted and I've always wanted tolearn as much Japanese as
possible in Japan. So I was there to attend a

(18:26):
language school every day and live for the host family.
But I also because Japan is beautiful and different, I want
to explore it. But.
Yeah. So that's a truncated version.
And which part, which part did you visit or where were you
based? I'm sure you traveled around a
bit. Based in Kyoto, so Kyoto Eastern

(18:46):
capital or is that Tokyo? So Kyoto's in the West, right?
Tokyo's the eastern capital thenmaybe.
I don't think of ADO. I don't remember.
We watched the video the other day.
Yeah, that's why I can never remember as well, but so Kyoto
is. Is the ancient Capital One of
the ancient capitals of Japan? Yeah.
And you're actually not allowed to build skyscrapers there
because it's World Heritage and it's very traditional, etc.

(19:07):
So it's with the whole city. Geez.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.
Incredible. So it.
I mean, I didn't see any, but it's very different to Tokyo.
So Tokyo is. As I'm sure many people know,
Gargantuan. Yeah, huge.
You go up to one of the either Tokyo Tower or the Sky Tree.
Yeah. Do you know what Tokyo Tower is

(19:28):
in Japanese? No.
Talk your tar and the sky tree is sky tree sky. 3 I had orange
juices, orange juice. Orange juicer, Yeah, yeah.
So many. Hey saw this.
So many western concepts will generally have English or
derived from Dutch because it's very similar to English.

(19:50):
It sounds English words, a lot of that Dutch studies, right?
There's a whole we were watchingthe whole thing.
You know the history about Dajima.
Was so Japan had an isolationistpolicy for I think it's over 100
years. I think there's a lot, yeah,
maybe longer. Maybe it's a few 100 years.

(20:10):
But they had one pork called Dajima.
Where they traded with One Nation.
Who were the dots that was? That's that's why a lot of words
are they look English, but actually they're from Dutch
because they got them from that,from that interesting.
Yeah, yeah, cuz I think the wordglass.
In Japanese, grasso is actually from class, which is from the

(20:31):
Dutch word for class. But because it's very because
Dutch and English are obviously,there's a lot of yeah.
So people go, oh, it's English. And actually that origin is
done. Oh, how interesting.
Yeah, it's Dutch. So, yes, but so Kyoto is this
beautiful traditional with with temple, so we know.
So I was describing Tokyo, Tokyo.
When you go up to one of these, either Pala or Sky three, yeah,

(20:51):
you see this? It just never ends.
It just because if you go up into the London that you know
the London Eye, you can sort of see the bowl that London sits in
and you can sort of see that theboundaries in Tokyo you sort of
can't. It just doesn't stop.
No, it's and it very quickly I was only there for days, so I

(21:11):
obviously had the sort of rose tinted tourist glasses on, Yeah,
but it very quickly became one of my top capital cities.
It's so huge and yet. To well, to what I'm used to.
Sparklingly clean, incredibly well functioning.
One of the first pictures I tookwas of the floor of the Tokyo

(21:34):
Metro, right? Because it is.
It looks like you could eat off it.
And if I had to choose a metro floor from which to eat, it
would be the Tokyo Metro. Have you been to Singapore?
I have, but I was very, very young, right?
I had a similar experience. It was astonishingly clean.
I couldn't believe yeah it couldfunction and be that clean and

(21:56):
yet busy. So this is what it in it seems
to your kids, New York. They must be very diligent.
I was gonna say. Ah, right.
Sorry. Go on.
No. In New York, when I first came
to the UK, I was like flush. Yeah, you can't have flush
seats. Yeah, that's right.
Really. The fact that there was fabric
on the seats blue her. Mind, so London was your Tokyo?
Yeah. So here is.

(22:19):
There it is. Oh.
It is so clean, oh sparkling. So it's it's shiny, sparkling,
not a single blemish or a singleitem of litter or anything
nefarious. Yeah, one stayed to clean.
Up I think that was the World Cup, was the World Cup.
That was the World Cup. So that's I found Tokyo to be

(22:42):
like that, in fact all all the cities I visited.
And you are met by tradition. What what I what I loved about
Japan was the fact that they arethey're like a technologically
advanced society. Yeah, on one foot, but their
other foot is securely, what would you call it sort of
fastened into their own tradition maybe you would get,

(23:05):
you know, obviously I am not. I didn't grow up in Japan.
I'm not Japanese. This is from a Western
perspective of nine weeks in Japan.
But this is my perspective. It maybe if you spoke to, you
know, an elder, you know a grandmother or grandfather, they
would say the youth of today is is losing all the traditions.
I'm like, sure, yeah, of course they would, Yeah.
But to my mind, at least when I was there, it seemed very

(23:28):
strong, yeah, that there was a strength of tradition there,
mixed with the technological advancement and the
extraordinary cleanliness and functionality of the place.
And it's pretty good. You it's obviously the food is
well, if you want Japanese food,it's heaven.
So Tokyo was this huge sprawlingcity with skyscrapers but with

(23:48):
parks and temples, Buddhist and Shinto.
So Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.
And so if you, if you, if you'veever seen one of the most iconic
pictures of Japan is a red curved gate which is rising from
the sea, yes. So yeah, so that is.

(24:10):
That is Miyajima or it's Kushima.
It's got sort of two names. It's an island outside of
Hiroshima. So I visited Hiroshima and the
red gate is actually not red. It's a specific sort of bright
ready orange that is used to paint Shinto, a lot of Shinto

(24:31):
gates and and I think it actually some Buddhist.
Around some Buddhist temples as well, there must be some bleed
between the two inevitable. So this is what's fascinating is
that Shinto is a native Japanese.
Yeah, I I sort of hesitate to call it religion.
It's animist animist beliefs, right?
Like, yeah, spirits of the forefathers and ancestors and

(24:53):
also nymphs and stuff like that.Right.
So it revolves around, I think, the the concept of so that the
Japanese word. Kami means we would spell it's
KAMI. Kami is sometimes translated as
God or spirit, mostly as God, but it's not.

(25:13):
It's nothing like God in the Abrahamic sense, right?
The the Shinto kami. And by the way, there's no
plural in Japanese, so it gods all things singular and plural
the whole time. Words don't have they don't
inflect for plurality. Oh, interesting.
So there are there are suffixes that you can use that mean group

(25:35):
of right. But there's no plurality like in
English we would have table tables, plant, plants, basically
plant. And that doesn't exist, yeah.
OK, by the way, table in Japanese is theibudu because
it's a Western concept. Brilliant.
So, so the Shin so Shinto revolves around the fact that a
sort of Nate N. Whether it's sentient or not, a

(25:58):
sort of divine energy of nature in my Kaya type, but it.
Is it? But there are thousands and
thousands millions of them. And as getting said, you could
they can inhabit maybe stones, but your ancestors can become
kami Ah. So, so this is.
I mean this is as far as I've you know, I didn't do nothing.
Aren't anthropomorphized or are they objects that we, you know

(26:23):
forces in nature? But you know, because obviously
the Greeks have like a similar type of thing, but then they put
like a face and a back story to though those same ideas as.
Far as I've seen, yeah. And when you So if you've ever
seen Spirited Away, love it, Love the.
The the gibbly gibbly in Japanese it's DB.

(26:44):
Although it's from an Italian word, the the the spirit world
and the spirits are personified.Anthropomorphize, whatever kind
of word you want to use. They have sort of personalities
and speak and all that sort of thing, right?
I mean, I don't know enough about it to make to.
It would make more sense becausethen you can then they have an

(27:04):
origin story and they have talesaround the mythology.
If it's just a stone, there's only so much a stone can.
Be good in a story. Honey inhabits the stone, right?
Exactly. So the stone itself.
Is to people who aren't in this room.
There is a wonderful, sleek black cat enjoying more than I
would want. I want to enjoy life as much as

(27:25):
she is right now inside a cardboard box.
Hey, Alex, you'll get a kick outof this.
You know cats have the the little thing in the ear.
Yeah. Do you know what it's?
Called a little pocket, no Henry's pocket.
What oh, is a pocket? It's called a pocket called
Henry's Pocket. Who was Henry?
I don't know. Is he the cat?
Is my knowledge. Is he the kami God that
inhabits, inhabits, the ears of cats you inherited by a kami God

(27:46):
you? Know what's going on.
And at sometimes I could. Believe that?
Yeah. You.
Had historically, they say cats are the guardians of the.
Underworld, yeah. There are times where this cat
either runs up and stairs to look at us at like 3 in the
morning as if she's protecting us.
And she'll also just very much be alert and looking at nothing.
And you're like, oh, those the ghosts.
Yeah, yeah. Staring into the middle

(28:06):
distance. Yeah, that's what I love it.
So yeah. So anyway, so that's the and
then the Buddhist, the Buddhist religion, I think came from
China. But what's amazing is that they
coexist. They have coexisted.
And you'll have a Buddhist temple and a Shinto shrine,
which to the uninitiated will just look like the same, right?
Complex, right? So, but they didn't try to raise

(28:28):
the other. It to to my knowledge, no,
right? That's good.
No, so lovely. It's it's really lovely and the
and it seems that really religion in Japan people sort
of. Pick and choose the things that
the matter. I think there is.
I can't remember which one it isspecifically, but there's
something like weddings are traditionally one of them and
funerals are traditionally the other.

(28:50):
So it's all a bit of a mixture. And in the house that you stayed
in, did they have a shrine to their ancestors?
Was that a thing for them? So I'll just explain briefly
what you say. You said house that I stayed in,
so while I was studying I stayedwith a host family.
What were they called? So.
I will give a second name just because.
Yeah, of course, of course. But my host mother was called
Jungle Son and my host father was called Keety Son.

(29:14):
Now I've said the word son. Just honorific, isn't it?
It's an honorific to show respect.
It's just a respect, but you canattach it to either your second
name or your first name. So it's a little bit like saying
Mr. Rob or Miss Caitlin, which is I love it, it's something but
there are there are obviously different words that you can.
That you can affix to give different sort of develop the

(29:38):
status yeah levels of like you stead and two but even for the
how many levels are there to this game.
Well, well, it was no. So it was there than to our
personal pronouns in Spanish. But in Japanese, the suffixes
are just literally like Mr. and whatever, so you've got. 12340

(30:01):
God in terms of the actual suffixes, you've got summer,
which is very polite, sound which is quite polite, and then
kung or Tam, which is quite friendly, but it also depends
on. Whether it's a boy or a girl as
well to never just say someone'sname without any of the suffixes
I. Pretty rare, I think.
That's pretty. I don't so interested.
That well, that would that neverhappened with me because

(30:22):
obviously I was talking to teachers and they were talking
to me and we were. So you have to maintain that.
Oh yeah. Yes, I got.
But actually so do call some my my quote UN quote host mother
when when you know she sort of just call her mum.
It could. Well, no.
No, she she actually wanted me to call her grandma.
And he Gran and him grandpa. But I said, you are far too

(30:45):
young. I'm a 37 year old man.
You're like 60. You're younger than my parents.
I can't. So I so I sort of I I got the
convention of names, which is great, but my name Alex Adiksu,
Adiksu or Adiksunda. But I was like, it's too much.
So Adikosu. She found a little bit difficult
to pronounce. And I was there was another chap

(31:08):
who was staying in another one of their rooms.
Whom she called TJ. And I thought well and he was he
was from America. They you know, they called him
TJ and I said, well my middle name is John.
I could be AJ. So I said AJ and she loved it.
That was it. So now she just calls me AJ She
doesn't she put son or Coon. She just say says AJ right.
Maybe that's because I'm not Japanese.

(31:28):
Yeah, I'm not so unique label, isn't it?
So it like that, you know, I'm what's the word?
It's not like it's someone else that you could be talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, that's the thing.
Whereas like those those modifiers on the end, the levels
will be like if two people have the same name, the modifier
might tell you which one you're.Supposed it could.

(31:50):
I suppose it could, yeah. You know what I mean.
But obviously AJ is obviously not a Japanese name, so it was
pretty easy to. So yeah, so that was what and
she Jungko san. Is a chef in a local restaurant.
Oh my God, you're killing. So when you say in host family
you can. So I chose breakfast and dinner,
and This is why you are. Key This is why my body has
changed somewhat since it's gotten better.

(32:13):
How much fish and rice can one man eat?
Did you test the limit? I could have.
I could have done a whole 9 weeks again.
Oh, the food her cooking was just.
I mean, she's a chef. Japanese food is already so
nice, right? But then to be living with a
chef? Yeah.
And I well, I did. I did a couple of shifts in the
restaurant, which was, oh, that sounds fun.
Totally terrifying now with standards ridiculously high.

(32:36):
In terms of, as in, like, have you seen Giro Dreams of Sushi?
It's like that poor. It is a documentary about this
sushi chef who runs this incredibly elite sushi
restaurant in, like, a Japanese metro station.
I see. And his son, his eldest son, so
desperately wants to be in charge of lots of the kitchen.
Yeah, And he's got him on the, you know, the egg sushi, right?

(32:58):
The one that, like, no one particularly likes.
It's a bit of omelet. Oh, I love that.
The the time ago. Yeah, on the It's an Agiri, I
think. Right.
They put it on top, right? It's it's nice, but it's like
it's not anyone's favorite. No, but it's not.
It's not the high end sort of, no, exactly.
Because you're you're dealing with such nice fish and all of
the and it's none of that. His poor son has been doing this
omelet for decades and it's likeonce you perfect the omelette

(33:21):
sun, you can go on to other stuff in the kitchen.
And never he never. So, well, so that sort of
actually is a nice segue into something else that I noticed
and realized and had heard aboutJapan.
So when you go to restaurants, so in the in the UK you'll have
a restaurant which will serve many, many different types of
dishes. Right now there are of course

(33:42):
restaurants like that in Japan, but you can find restaurants
which will serve only one thing one.
So it'll be a Raman restaurant or a sushi restaurant or a
Tempura restaurant, right? Because that's that.
Yeah. Oh yes.
Yeah, which is a word that comesfrom Spanish.
Is it or Portuguese? Portuguese, yes, OK.
Anyway, sidebar, Carry on. So they'll do one thing better

(34:06):
than anyone else on the on Earth.
And you know, so that that that poor son now is probably the
best Tamago. Is it tamago yaki that one?
Well, Tamago just means egg in Japanese, yeah.
And it was the nigiri one, whereit's like on a block of rice, on
a block of rice and wrapped witha little bit of seed.
Of naughty Yeah, that was it. Oh, she So Junkerson did make

(34:28):
sushi, but there were many otherthings as well she made.
Yeah, Yeah, that was his whole. But it was the So have you ever
tried Tamago? Have you ever tried NATO?
NATO No. This rings a bell.
So fermented soybeans. Yes, I have, yes.
Yeah. It's quite a quiet taste.
I love all fermented food apart from the rotting fish, the
Norwegian. The Norwegian of me is.
I haven't tried that. I can't, Yeah, I can't hack that

(34:48):
shit. Not so.
Do you like that? I do.
Yeah. So me too.
But it's a bit I don't know. So it very different comes in
the little polystyrene box. Yeah, environmentalism Japan in
a minute, but polystyrene box. And it's about, I don't know the
size of your iPhone, but square.Bit smaller and you open it and

(35:11):
there's a little sort of cellophane cover which covers
these dark, small beans. And they're soybeans, but
they've been fermented and OK, And what you're supposed to do
is whip them up with your chopsticks and they become quite
foamy and stringy. And you can just eat them like
that. But very often they come with a
little packet of mustard or somesoy or both.

(35:31):
And you put both of those on, whip them up, and then you mix
them with rice. Yes.
And I would have that quite a lot.
And they were apps, in fact, so astonished that I enjoyed it and
would eat it on a regular basis when given to me that I think I
texted Junkosan the other day and said, oh, I miss Kyoto.
And she said A J is, you know, AJ is Japanese.

(35:52):
He likes Nat Dog. Because it's so rare that a non
Japanese person would like not all because it's such a strange
concept to a non, You know, right.
Yeah, or stinky cheese in France.
Exactly. That is exactly as I described
it because it does smell quite funky.
Yes. So I I likened it to stinky
cheese. And then you taste it and it's

(36:13):
take and it's nice. Yeah.
But you know, it's still, some people don't like it.
That's fair enough. Yeah, yeah, of course.
It's very much like Marmite, actually.
That's probably what would you say that's the most divisive
British? Yeah, I probably is.
Yeah, Jelly deals. No, but Marmite is more
ubiquitous. Marmite is more ubiquitous,
yeah. And accessible.
So, yeah, so the food was extraordinary.

(36:34):
Now I've heard this. I've not heard this.
I don't really fully grasp it. So I've got a bit of a question
for you. Yeah, I've heard that there's
this thing in Japan called Western cuisine, which is not
actually like, so for example, katsu Curry is Western cuisine
in Japanese terms, even though obviously it's Japanese.
Well, yeah, so there is actually.

(36:57):
It's gonna be. I think I'm partly right on.
No, no, you are absolutely. Because there's there's a word,
there's a special word for it. Yeah, but because obviously
Curry doesn't originate in Japan.
It came from obviously India, but like it was brought in by
your. Soku so washoku so soku is sort
of like food or whether and sokuso often things that have at the

(37:22):
beginning of it means things to do with Japan.
So for example Japanese sweets are called waggashi, Waggashi
and then washoku is Japanese food.
Western or non Japanese food is called your soku.
So we've got wah, soku and your soku.
And by the way in Japanese thereis pitch accent which I am very

(37:42):
bad at. So my pronunciation is nowhere
near perfect. But so yes, there is the concept
of Western dishes. But then we have we, I mean, we
might kind of group things in and go, oh, East Asian cuisine,
right, which is the broadest capture of all.
Yeah, yeah. Good point.

(38:03):
So for instance. If you get sushi in New York
City, yeah. London.
Yeah, it's actually very different.
It's pretty different. So like, spicy tuna, for
instance, is often like kind of minced in the States, yeah?
Yes, yeah. Whereas in London you often tend
to get like a spicy powder on it.
Yes. So the powder I wonder is it
might be Chimi, which is A, which we have because.

(38:25):
That stuff is meaty. It's lovely.
It's yeah, use it all the time. It's so delicious.
Would you get. Yeah.
What's the sushi like? Was it completely different?
No. It wasn't really.
No, not at all. And I was, I was pleasantly
surprised because I thought, ah yeah, I can get good sushi in
London, right? Hey, maybe a Japanese person
would be in complete disagreement with you later, and
I would respect that, but. I the food was So what was

(38:49):
different is that it was much less costly there, right?
But that might be because the yen is very weak at the moment.
Go to Japan now because the yen is weak so getting there is
expensive, but while you're living there is not too bad.
Not too bad. Not too bad, as long as we had
time on our trip to. Pop over?
Yeah, it'd be great. So yeah, but the cuts, The katsu
Curry and. But so, so interestingly enough,

(39:11):
and breakfasts a very traditional Japanese breakfast.
Very often we'll have a grilled fish, rice, nut, or maybe a raw
egg, etc etc. Yeah, such a mental break.
Sorry, sorry. Yeah, I mean, but I mean, I got
used to it. I love this.
Yeah, yeah. But it is to us because we like
sweet breakfasts and or great Italians take that way too far,
don't they? I can't have breakfast in Italy.

(39:32):
I mean, I probably could becauseit's, well, you might like
pastry more than me. I like savory pastry a lot.
Like it's a weakness today and. We were like, I would prefer
savory, like made a bacon sandwich and Italian food might
be my favorite. It's definitely up there, but
the breakfast I can't has. So the my favorite breakfast is
a partial cola. With coffee.

(39:52):
And then I debauch it by putting, by taking the roof off
and putting. April got jam on them.
So whenever I've told to told myFrench friends, I look.
That's good. Trailer.
Yeah, you could. You know, the one that's you.
But yeah, so. But sometimes she would say, oh,

(40:12):
English breakfast. Oh, English What?
Really. No, In what she called English
breakfast. And I don't know whether this is
something that maybe in Japaneseculture is, I don't think.
And maybe it was just her. Right.
It was a plate of sandwiches. Yeah.
Well, like ham and cheese. Kind of.
Exactly. Ham and cheese and another
sandwich. That they have white bread,

(40:33):
another sandwich, which they have, which I adore.
So there is the car. Have you ever heard of the
concept of combini? No.
So the word combini comes from the English word convenience,
and it just means a convenience store, which is like a Tesco
metro or whatever, right? But the combini, there are three
main ones. The You can, you can book
festival tickets. You can get out money.

(40:54):
You can, yeah, you can do a hugeamount of things in a Conbini,
but of course, and you can buy underwear in a Conbini
stationary and food. And the food in a Conbini is
cheap and incredibly delicious, right?
And. Even though it's just like

(41:15):
ubiquitous and immediately available because obviously in
the West we would you know, I think of like something like
Costco or Kmart or you know something where it's like you
don't expect the quality to be high, but you expect it to be
readily available and there you go, you've got it immediately.
So I the quality is incredibly high.
And I have, I have had this discussion with another other

(41:36):
Japanese friend of mine and she loves Conbini food.
So it's not just me as a super, super Westerner who's going, oh,
it's great. Oh, I went, I.
So I traveled with the gentlemanfrom the track concert from the
Slovak consulate. Yeah.
As a way to say thank you for giving me my document.
So they in, they have sandwiches.

(41:56):
This is the Conbini sandwiches. And they're sandal, sandal,
wichi sandal. So that's obviously your soku.
That's the Western food. Right.
Right, the best egg sandwiches you'll ever have in your life.
Caitlyn Egg and mayonnaise and fruit and cream sandwiches.
Sorry, Right, So the bread is very much.
Like a sponge. It's incredibly light and a

(42:18):
little bit sweet, so between 2 slices of that is a whipped
cream and fresh fruit. That sounds good.
It's incredibly. Yeah, that sounds really good
for it because I was on the holidays and I was like, I'm
just gonna wait what I want, which is why, which is why I've
gone through such a a shift in body composition in the last.

(42:40):
By the way, you are overselling that you.
You look just the same. That'll be the metal girdle I
bought in the airport. But thank you, it was saying
about the the sandwiches. Oh yes, it's sometimes for
lunch. I'd be very naughty and just
have one of those and and fruit,cream, sun, door.
And so the word, the word in Japanese for delicious, which

(43:02):
they use all the time, is oy sheyeah.
Yeah, that rings the bell. So you can and there's a there's
a little particle at the end of things that you it which is net,
which means sort of isn't it. I see net which is.
So if you if you're both eating something, one of you could say,
oh, you see net, which is isn't it delicious?
I see there's. How so?

(43:25):
How conversational are you now in Japanese?
I'm not, I'm not good. Is it really hard cuz you're
really good at languages? Well, from an objective point of
view, it's definitely true, cuz how many do you speak?
Well, depends what you move. I speak, but I would say that I
I would sound fluent in French and Spanish.
Yes, and and. I've spoke about other languages
with you. You're very good.

(43:45):
I can get by in others. Yes, and you.
But you're innate understanding of language is like you're a
natural linguist for sure, and you don't.
You don't have to bat away the compliment.
I'm giving it to you and you're taking it, but I accept your
compliment and I thank you so much.
But obviously this is a completely different structure.
So that's the hit the metal head.
So the Japanese is not necessarily by an objective

(44:08):
point of view to speak. Reading and writing is a
different thing, difficult. It's just the structure is so
wildly different from what we'reused to that it's difficult to
us. Now, if you are Korean, Japanese
is probably the easiest foreign language to learn, and vice
versa. OK, that makes sense.
They're not necessarily genetically related languages,

(44:31):
but I think because of a lot of mutual contacts.
Yes, structures are quite similar, yeah, but I find it
difficult. It is not an easy language.
However, to be understood in Japanese is not too bad from a
pronunciation point of view, because you very often, well,

(44:53):
mostly have consonant vowel, consonant vowel, consonant
vowel. Okay, right.
That's kind of easy to ape, to mimic, rather, You know what I
mean? Yeah, exactly.
So it's not. Sounds are repeatable, yeah?
And they don't have and they only have 5 vowels, right.
Right. So like a IOU.

(45:13):
Right, Right. But then the order of this khaki
cookie called REAO, that is the.That's it for vowel sounds.
Yeah, they do have some diphthongs, but I.
But basically, it's just the twovowels combined, right?
And then the consonants are pretty, I say easy.
Obviously. It's difficult to sound like a

(45:34):
native, very, very, but easy to be understood, yeah.
That's the game. That's the game exactly, but the
only real clincher, the really the really difficult consonant
is the LR, which so they don't have either an L or an R but
it's combined into a that sort of sound which is sort of like

(45:55):
an Italian or a Spanish tapped flapped R that sometimes been on
the region. It can sound like A and more
like an L, but that's why nativeJapanese No, it's no light, but
it's more like that. But it's no never law, right?
But that's why traditionally Japanese native speakers find

(46:15):
the difference between L&R. I mean forgetting for an instant
for a fact that there's even a light and a dark L, just an L
and are very very difficult. Because in their language is the
same. It's one in the same one the
same. Yeah.
So of course that's gonna then sound different if you translate
into something else. And then this isn't even getting
into the the kanji. And they've got three different

(46:35):
systems of writing and all of that stuff.
So I mean for if you count normaji, which is the Roman way
of so which is, which is Roman letters.
But that aside, because we can read that one.
They have, yeah, as you say, 3 different writing systems.
Yeah. The most difficult is kanji,
which is Chinese characters. And that's what that Kanji
really sort of that's how they would describe them.

(46:56):
Chinese characters, Yeah. Which are the very elaborate.
Well, most of them are very elaborate characters which mean
one thing. They're like more complex.
It's not an alphabet, is it? It's not an alphabet, it's a
What are they? What's?
The word for it? Yeah.
Graphic or no, it's kind. Of like hieroglyphs.
Yeah. An image tells a lot of stories,

(47:18):
not just a sound or a word exactly.
I say mean one thing. They may have a sort of a
concept which could have many meanings, but that is so.
So they've got that system and there are thousands upon
thousands of of characters to learn.
Then they've got 2 syllabaries or syllabaries.
Celebrities. So in English we use an

(47:40):
alphabet, we use a symbol can either represent a consonant or
a vowel. So the letter B is but it's a
consonant, the letter A is, it'sa vowel.
Put them together and you get. But in the Japanese celebrities,
the consonant and the vowel is. It is connected, you can't

(48:01):
separate it. So you will have a symbol which
represents ka, another one whichrepresents key, and then another
which is ku, and another which is K, and another which is call.
So because there are five vowels, you have the five vowels
attached to 1. Does it work the other way as
well, like ack or no, It no. It's always a constant vowel.
You can have the vowels by themselves, so there are five

(48:24):
symbols all. And then there's Kaki Kuki.
Call Sashi sucessor. Sorry.
Sashi sucessor. Hi Kaku go Sashi So touch.
It's They thought, so they're all connected.
Now. Both celebrities represent
exactly the same syllables, but one, Hira Ghana is 1 celebrity

(48:50):
is used for native Japanese words and katakana.
The other one is used for foreign words, or sometimes to
emphasize, or sometimes for plants and the names of
botanical things. And biological things.
So all of our names would be written in katakana, which is
the celebrity that is used for foreign words.
The way to think about katakana,I think this is someone.

(49:11):
This is not my original idea, but I think was brilliant.
That seems to suggest that I only think my ideas are
brilliant. That's not.
It's not the case at all is thathe described katakana as like
italics. So think about sometimes if you
have texts in English and a foreign word might be written in
italics. Right.
Yeah. To sort of demonstrate, by the

(49:31):
way, this is not a misspelling. This is a foreign word, right.
So katakana is essentially that.It's just that italics are the
same alphabet, just in a different font, whereas in
Japanese is an entirely different writing system.
However, we have capital letters.
We sometimes aren't anything like.
Sometimes look very different capital E in lower Casey.
And weird scripts. Sometimes I can't.

(49:53):
I can't read things in. Yeah, an English scripts.
Absolutely the. Q tends to sometimes be the
weirdest little weird. Sometimes it's like a 2.
Yes, it does exactly. But in in Japanese, in a in a
standard sentence, you can very very.
There's a very high chance that you might have all three of the
writing system, so you can't really interchange them.
There are rules as to when to use which.
So good a good sentence is my name or I am English.

(50:18):
OK, I am English, which is if you were to say, if you were to
say it formally and in sort of long form would be vattashiba
irisi in this, Vattashiba irisi in this.
So Vattashi is one of the ways in which you can say I, and
that's written using Chinese symbols, but it's pronounced
Vattashi. However, you could, if someone
didn't know how it's pronounced,you could write hiragana on top

(50:41):
of that symbol, using wakta C todemonstrate how it was
pronounced. So like transliterate?
Yes, yeah, it's like the IPA, but but I use yeah, that which
is the International Phonetic Alphabet, but they have hiragana
for that. So what has she?
And then wah is a phonetic symbol which is a grammatical
concept, which means the thing I've just spoken about is the
topic of the sentence easy Sir, which comes from the from which

(51:05):
is means England. And I know it's, I know it's not
very they use England to mean the United Kingdom, but.
OK, well I didn't use this one. Is is what it is.
But you can say there are other words but that's the worst
common. But igi dsu is used Using uses
katakana because it's a foreign word.
Then the word gene which means person uses another symbol which

(51:27):
means person. And then this is a grammatical
thing, so it uses hiragana again.
So it's totally wild. It's wild just.
Simple. That simple sentence uses yeah,
all those different systems. Yeah, Yeah.
Do we have any equivalent in thein English that would be like
that? I don't feel like we do capital
letters, I suppose, but things. It doesn't seem as wild though

(51:47):
the. Only thing I can think of is
that Buffalo, Buffalo, Buffalo. Buffalo Oh yeah, which I don't
fully. It's not the same thing, but
like, yeah, that's that's, I suppose, homophones.
Yeah. Meaning yeah.
So words that sound the same butmeans slightly different things.
One's A verb, one's a noun. One's a name and replace One's a
yeah. So it's not SVO then subject,

(52:08):
verb, object. No, general it is.
Well, so if you want to say I like chocolate, which is.
In my head, I was thinking ice cream, but yeah, let's do ice.
I went for like as well. I went for ice.
There we go. Well, that's brilliant.
Well, let's do so. Chocolate is tocoreto and ice
cream is ice cream. So ice cream, ice cream.

(52:31):
So I like ice cream would. What tashy So.
Well, yes, although informally you wouldn't need to say that.
So if you were to do it formally.
But Toshiba Ice Cream Muga mosquitos.
OK, so I ice cream like so. Actually it means, As for me,
ice cream is desirable. I love literal translations.

(52:55):
Even even more literal for me, speaking.
So me or I, Speaking of ice cream, subject of this sentence
desirable is yeah. It's fantastic.
The in Russian the most common way to say what your name is,
right. My name is is Mina Zavut.
Yes, Robert, right. But directly translated, it

(53:16):
means they call me. It's such a.
It's such a different way of same in Hebrew.
Is it called Emily? And in the Romance languages
it's. I call myself Drew Mapelle,
right. Yes, Yammer.
So their name, nomenclature and they're kind of stating it is
very different in, I mean, you can say.

(53:37):
In Japanese, you could just say easy.
In this you could just say is English.
So this is what you think about personal pronouns in Japanese is
you don't. Especially when you're, you
should avoid them if you can. Why?
Because they're complicated Because.
They change. The other words around them do
they Not necessarily. No, they don't.

(53:57):
Not that it's just that it's notnecessary.
So for example, if you if you'respeaking so if I say easy
decision, this just that just means is English.
Because I'm not asking a question it's probably assumed
that I'm talking about myself. If I say easy in this car, now
that car means what I've just said is a question.

(54:19):
Now I'm obviously not asking myself if I'm English, so it's
assumed that if I say English person, English person that I'm
talking about you because unfortunately to say the word
you in Japanese can be quite rude.
So if you do have to specify theperson, generally what you say
is the person's name. So I would say what Caitlyn
would be Kate dream son. So, Miss Caitlyn, English

(54:44):
person. Or you know.
Mr. You would be like I know. Put me above, son.
I want the high level 1 summer, yes, but I'm thinking would you
want dobet or dob? Dobbosama, Dobbosama.
Not the sound. That's good.
You just seen this car so on sort of like honored, honored

(55:04):
guest or you know. Nah, Cadence.
Cadence, Yeah. Caitlin Son, Cadence son, so, So
yeah, It's a really fascinating sort of concept.
It's different from what we usedto, but in terms of the so,
subject, subject, object, verb. Yeah.
OK. Which we can do in English, but
it ends up sounding a bit yoderish.

(55:26):
Yes. I.
You desire. Yeah it's understood.
But it yeah, but that's the general thing.
But it's. I mean goodness I'm own at the
beginning of my my Japanese journey.
Japanese journey. Oh my God.
Made your plans. Yeah. 35 years of plan.
So yeah, it's. Yeah, no, it's honestly for I
think as long as I've known you,you've had the Japan.

(55:47):
So this is something that has been.
But maybe not quite that long. But to make it sounds very old.
Maybe it's concealing it, but it's definitely it's been a
thing that's been bubbling away for quite some time.
Yeah. And then to actually follow
through with it and it to happenis sort of you may as well die
now it's that's it. Oh God, are we going to now hear

(56:09):
a loud noise? And that's it.
My voice will stop. I've come here and it obviously
I'm, you know, I feel very luckyto be able to have done it.
It takes a lot of organization. I would urge anyone to go to
Japan. It is a beautiful place in my
view. The scenery is extraordinary.
The travel is very easy since I think the Olympics They have
everything If you're not, if your Japanese ain't so hot,

(56:31):
they've got all the announcements and the signs in
English which is of course really lucky and the food is
incredible and and the sites arejust so.
I was lucky enough to go in at the end of March, which is the
sakura season which the cherry blossoms.
Oh my God, so. To see that in real life, yeah,

(56:51):
Walking around in clouds of pinkand white and what is really
lovely. And this is something that I
respected so much about. I think that the culture that I
saw is that when I was a touristin Japan, I didn't feel the
Japanese are also tourists in their own country.
They adore the Sakura, they adore going to visit temples.

(57:13):
They love traveling, you know, around.
So I didn't feel like I was sortof a you know a tourist that
they might be going oh God I've seen this 1000 times why is he
interested in that because they were interested in it too.
It is the the culture is is profound and and so different
and it someone someone has described it a little bit like

(57:35):
being in a in a different dimension that they that
everything is the same but slightly different.
You know, I mean this is I suppose I would say a divide
between Asia and or the oxidant and the Orient that that there
are doors but they might slide instead of open.
Although you've just got a sliding door in your.
Yes, I know. Although, you know, I think
because things are globalized now, obviously everything is

(57:55):
much more blending into one another.
Yeah, and sharing. But you know, they don't have
cutlery, they have chopsticks and did that.
I mean that's a very surface level thing.
No, but I mean there's it's kindof like it.
It explodes from the tiny to theyeah, it doesn't it.
And it's all on a scale. And and is the thing about
eating true that it's all like sat on the floor and stuff and
no, no, we ate at a table. It's all at a table is you.

(58:17):
When you go to sort of maybe a posh restaurant, then you would
go and sit. So the posh, The posh is
actually the sitting on the floor.
Yeah, yeah. Or the OR the traditional which
which are often one of the same because the traditional are
probably quite. Expensive, so that you're
talking about the tatami mats. So most Japanese, from what I

(58:38):
understand, most Japanese western dwellings, well, they'll
have a Japanese room, a washitsawhat?
So they'll. So most of the rooms will look
very much like the room is sitting in now the western room,
a kitchen and a bathroom and a, you know, and then they'll have
a Japanese style room which has the sliding doors and the tatami
mats. And the tatami mats are set in a

(58:58):
sort of Tetris like arrangement on the floor to fit the size of
the room. And they're thick material,
covered light green, very beautifully made mats, oblong
and you can sleep on those with a, you know, the blanket over
you. Now I find them very hard.
But my host father slept on a tatami mat, but my his mother

(59:21):
slept on a western bed. Lucky I had a western bed.
Oh, interest. And it's so the the the the
Japanese room is just for sleeping.
Or is No, no, no. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
You can have tea ceremony now you could.
Yeah, you can entertain the Japanese.
How interesting that they have aspecial room.
I mean it love to have any equivalent here, do we?
What would it be The stocks in the local village?

(59:42):
Exactly. Says to remind us of where we've
come from. And it's so lovely because it's
a it's it's a it's a space that is an an unapologetic
acknowledgement of where you areand what the culture is.
It's lovely. I loved it.
I thought it was. I sort of didn't want to step in
it. I knew there's a very strict

(01:00:04):
regime of not wearing shoes inside as well.
Very strict, which is lovely because you do not wear your
outside shoes indoors. Makes perfect sense.
I've always had that policy in my houses.
You know, me too. Yeah, it makes perfect.
Don't wear absolutely but you, but you wear slippers.
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's a I can tell

(01:00:25):
you're made-up, man. It's like, yeah, it's everything
you wanted and more, which is such a great thing.
Do you know about the public baths in Japan, Caitlin?
Do you? It's public.
Baths. I don't think so.
So there's there's what's calledthe the onsen, which are an
onsen natural springs. But in cities where there aren't
natural springs, maybe they've got the same this word.
I know onsen because there's a type of egg that I want to try

(01:00:47):
it called an onsen egg. Oh, which is like slowly cooked
over 20 minutes. Oh, really?
OK, Yeah, right. I think maybe, maybe you're
talking about the black, the black eggs of No, not that, no.
What's that called? The ballute.
I don't know, but I tried one. It tasted like.
Egg That's one thing. No, just tasted of egg.
There's no different store. Oh, the shell was black from
volcanic. Oh, right.

(01:01:09):
No, I'm thinking of the fermented.
Oh, no, no, no. The century.
About the century egg, yes, which I think it's called the
ballute. No, ballute is the one that
usually has. The dead.
The the. Oh.
Oh, see? Yeah, there's that as a.
Century Egg is the one that's been steeped for.
Long that's yes. That's yeah.
OK. So onsen.
So the ONS the onsen are. Public bars from natural springs

(01:01:30):
and then the sin door are publicbars, not necessarily from
natural springs. But anyway, they're all public
bars and they're divided by sex.And you are not allowed to wear
clothes in them, as in you're not allowed to wear swimwear.
So, Scandi, yeah. Yeah.
Or Central European, yes. What?

(01:01:51):
So what's interesting is that when you go in to the bath,
you'll have your robe on and you'll leave that at the door,
go in naked and around the edge of the bars or however they've
set it up in that particular, but generally around the edge
are open. So they're not really cubicles,
but they're sort of divide Stools maybe.

(01:02:11):
Yeah, of shower, a shower, and lots of, you know, shampoo and
etc. And soap and a stool.
And they're just next to each other.
So, you know, the guys will all sit down, the girls will sit
down in there bit. And you wash yourself
thoroughly. My God, you're clean.
And it's amazing because when everyone gets into these bars,

(01:02:31):
you know, completely naked, you think, well, this is clean,
right? Very often in the natural
springs, it's running water. Yeah.
And you, my God, you scrub and like 10 minutes of everything.
Soap, shampoo, conditioner. Every orifice.
And you know, it's all amazing. You're incredibly clean and then
you get into the bars and you enjoy yourself.
That sounds good. And it's, it's So what was nice

(01:02:53):
traveling alone is that I've never really had to witness
going in with a friend. Yeah.
I feel that And and I thought maybe so my one of my private
teachers, I asked her about this.
I said, are you confident in going?
And she said, actually with friends it's not.
So I'm not. I prefer it when I don't know
people. I thought, ah.
And this is from a, you know, from a Japanese person.
So I thought, OK, that's. I think that makes that makes
perfect sense. It's like when I did the the

(01:03:15):
play where I had to be naked, right?
It was like it was only awkward if my brothers made.
Magic Mike. That's the one.
Yeah, I'm the Mike that is namedafter.
Yeah, But I felt no compunction about doing it at all if it was
just like a load of strangers. Yeah, exactly.
As soon as it's people you know,it's terrifying, Yes, it's just
a completely different thing. Yeah, but they're great.

(01:03:36):
And you wanna go to Japan? Check out the On Sen and the
Ascent Door because they're I'm a big fan of hot water.
That's my thing. Yeah, that's my thing.
I've built a personality around water.
Well, then you Japan would suit you?
Yeah, I think so. I'd love to go.
Have you heard of this? Actually, I don't know.
I don't know if it was a friend or a female Blogger or whatnot,
but they did that and they said that you get so scrubbed.

(01:03:56):
Yeah. Like, well, you scrub yourself,
you're not. But it's like you have this
whole thing, so maybe there's another.
I mean, there's Turkish bars, which are where you get that's
where they use the banyan tree, right?
And whack the shit. Yeah, that's quite.
That's quite painful. Nothing about that.
I didn't experience that in Japan.
Now you wash yourself in Japan. Yeah, If I tried to wash someone
else, that might have been quite.
Did you see any of the underbelly?

(01:04:29):
I'll show you my Yakuza tattoo. Come on, Japan's got a lot of
other stuff going on. Did you see tentacle porn?
How weird. Did you get Alex?
No. You're quite vanilla sometimes.
But I know there's a dark side. Come on, I'll show you.
Give us a little. So funnily enough I'm poking the
bear. Let's talking of which and many
of the public baths you are not allowed to go in if you have
tattoos. Really.
And I think it's because. Because tattoos remind them of
the Yakuza. Of the Yakuza, oh.
Shit. So it's in disorganized crime.
Yeah, there are some which are more modernized now where you

(01:04:49):
can, but you've got to check. Interesting.
And if you've got a little one that you cover with the plaster,
then just don't. Just don't talk about it.
Yeah. So no, the underbelly.
I didn't really. I think, you know sort of like
cleaning a gun. You're right.
Yeah. I didn't explain the what end of
belly there is. No.
There. Is.
Yeah. I am now an ambassador.

(01:05:11):
I wish. Yeah.
No, I like none of this or I didn't see any of the vending
machines. Was with Nicosia and all that.
No. I know that you were talking
about the hentai. This sort of strange, yeah,
yeah. No, I didn't because I suppose
that if you wanted to see that, you can see that here, you just
go online. It's very true.
It's not. It's not a sort of novel thing,
you know, if you you know about the depression, that's obvious

(01:05:32):
There gets talked up a lot in the West, like people kill
themselves a lot and stuff like that.
And I mean Forest and all of that.
Yeah, As I said, I was only there for two months.
And yeah, I was in a very sort of.
Yeah, it doesn't say. That sounds great to me.
Yeah, I mean that I would. What about depression?
Yeah, What about darkness and evil?
They. Want to talk about sous shapes?

(01:05:52):
Yeah, sorry, I can't help. It's in me.
Yes. Of the abyss indeed.
So I mean people work. It seems very hard, but teacher
that my teachers were so they. What was nice about when I went
is that it reopened post COVID in October 2022.
Yeah, so not even a year yet since they opened.

(01:06:13):
Yeah. And the school that I joined,
the first day that they opened, since COVID was the day I
started. Wow.
There was a really, what a unique experience and everyone
must have been so grateful and thankful.
Yeah, that that kind of comes off people, doesn't it?
And you can feel it. And then you will join in that
together and create something beautiful.
The teachers were so enthusiastic and every.

(01:06:35):
Every week. Sorry, that was a bit about
every. Every week there was a
graduation where you had to do it.
If you were graduating, you had to do a speech and you had to be
presented with a certificate andthere was a whole sort of little
ceremony. I'm all in favor of speeches,
mate. That's so.
I he am not, but fine. Well, I mean if you have think
of 1 in Japanese, I can imagine a scary.

(01:06:56):
Well, I show I chose something slightly different.
I'll tell you about a minute. But yeah, so the teachers, some
of them would cry a kind of, Kind of.
It was almost a competition of who could make the teacher cry
most by leaving. She's gonna miss me, and that
was yeah, she's gonna miss me like she's gonna cry a lot.
And then she wouldn't. Like what?
Yeah, You see, I'm not. And you're like, let me throw in
something, Yeah. Exactly.

(01:07:16):
But they were so enthusiastic and passionate and gorgeous
about it. It was it was lovely, but no So
instead of a speech, so people can go on and on.
And on I chose I don't want Thisis gonna sound, This is good to
sound pretentious. It's fine.
I try. I tried to write a haiku.
Good luck. Wow in Japanese in Japan.

(01:07:37):
Yeah, which was I was very set the bar high so.
It's quite nice that they know that I'm not Japanese because of
if it was clearly terrible, but it's fine because I'm obviously
not. Yeah, you're a sort of allowed a
bit of leeway. Yeah, it's like, oh, it's fine.
He's a he's a stupid Westerner. He'll try to do it, fail, but
it's fine. But but a haiku.
But that aside, haiku. You are so haiku are not haikus

(01:07:57):
because they don't have plurals,right.
Right. So 757575575.
But it doesn't, it doesn't always have to be.
Yeah, it doesn't always have to be that.
But that's the sort of general and what's really nice, you
might think, oh, it's really simple.
It's just 57. But you in the traditional ones,
you have to include a seasonal word in the first.

(01:08:18):
Does it have to be the first line?
Not quite sure. But that doesn't have to mean
necessarily spring, summer, autumn, winter though it can be.
It could be green leaves, or maybe a specific animal that
only comes out at a certain time.
So it means that something that references a season references a
season way. Exactly.
And. I did not contrast is I think
favored quite highly in haiku. So that there's.

(01:08:39):
I'm obviously not going to read out mine, but they one of the
most famous ones on. Do you not hear it in Japanese,
please? Absolutely not.
Oh, may, you can't set that up and not deliver.
No, terrible dragonfly Tell us aspeech you would have given.
No, no. So dragonfly haiku.
So one of the most famous haiku is, and this has been translated

(01:09:01):
into English. So it's not 575, it's just
translation. But this is the translation is
the dragonfly, distant mountainsreflected in his eyes.
So the contrast there is this tiny little dragonfly with
enormous scenery reflected in his in his minute eyes.
So instantly and I saw your eyeslook up.
You had the image of a tiny, beautiful creature flying with a

(01:09:22):
mountain Ranger. Dragonfly only lives for a small
period of time at a certain point in the.
Year if voila. And that's exactly what I'm
assuming is the seasonal elementin it, right?
And so that's one of the that's one of the most famous.
Ones and it's and you and you'vewritten by you and that that's
how he presents. And that was mine.

(01:09:44):
Yeah. Yeah.
And that's my haiku. No, alas, alas, not.
No. Actually the.
So the one of my favorite thingsabout Japan, I bought one when I
was there. So when you enter
establishments, restaurants and some shops, in the more
traditional ones, they'll have curtains which don't go all the
way to the floor. They can be very short, so they

(01:10:06):
can only be a few inches or theycan be sort of a meter long.
And the traditional ones are made of hemp and they're called
norem and norem are curtains with a split down the middle,
and you part them as you go in and between rooms as well.
So my host family had them sometime between rooms, and I
love that. I wanted to write a haiku about

(01:10:26):
what is outside the nor in and what is beyond the nor in,
because they're two different worlds.
I think it was traditionally just keep out flies or whatever
but now that you know they put kanji on them writing art you
can have cherry blossoms whatever it is.
Yeah mine has a Willow tree on it and they are ubiquitous in
Japan and and they're they're really beautiful because they

(01:10:47):
sort of flutter of their own accord because they're so
delicate in in a breeze that youhaven't noticed yet.
It's it's very I won't go on it sounds pretentious but it's they
they're really lovely and I thought a haiku about a not end
would be would be nice. So I've sort of gonna try.
Did you get a tear? Not from the haiku, maybe.
Maybe a tear of disappointment? No, a tear of fury.

(01:11:09):
A tear of fury. How dare he try.
No from foreign the teacher who was presenting me with my
certificate? There was.
There was it. They were certainly crying.
I don't know whether I was assuming there was someone was
crying someone. No, no, she was people.
She devastated. She I am not special.
She was emotional when anyone left.
I know one person. She didn't get emotion, but
that's fine. That person was only there for a

(01:11:29):
week rather than two months. So yeah, yeah, she she cried.
So yeah, it was it was it was lovely.
It's a lovely way to experience a country.
But if you're not into language then.
Just go, and I think it could still be great, even if you're
not into language, because you're immersing yourself and
you're living with the family. So absolutely, you're seeing
actually how people do it ratherthan hoteling and absolutely all

(01:11:52):
the rest of it. But if there there are, if
you're not into language, there are still 2 words which you
should learn going to Japan, andthat's thank you and.
The the best word for please youprobably you know the word for
thank you, arigato. Yeah.
So arigato is is thank you. You can say arigato was imus.
So gos Imus is like thank you very much right.
Yeah. But you can't just say I got so
it and then please, the best wayto say please, I think is only

(01:12:14):
guys she must. Only guy she must.
This rings a bell. Or nega.
She must so quite a lot though for please, is there a short
version? Yeah, could aside, but it's not
quite as polite. It's a bit rude, is it?
Even it's not rude, but it's more it's like you can be
bothered with the other one. Is that right?
Yeah, it's. Could I say is more, it's more
of a command. Like if you were saying to a
class, be quiet, please. Ah, then you'd say, could I that

(01:12:37):
kind of please affirm a bit more?
For a bit, well, and you can useit to ask people right things,
of course, but it's a bit. But on the guy she must is only
go she must. Or nega she must?
Exactly. So you can just point and say, I
think I should ask. Yeah, right, right.
And then I think I thought was IMS.
That gets you very. And then, I mean famously a very
polite society. So please and thank you is

(01:12:58):
obviously incredibly important. So she's from a foreigner.
Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.
Yeah. So what would be a very rude
thing to do? You know something different
cultures. That we're thinking.
About with Indonesia, Prabali, don't.
Reach your hand out or something.
Oh, what was it? It was always about taking
things. You should take things with both
hands. Similar.
So in Japan they would give, they give you things with both

(01:13:19):
hands. I probably took things with one
hand and probably shouldn't have, but but yeah, they give
you things and they bow with with two hands.
It's very right. It's good, delicate and
respectful, making noise in public, which I greatly respect,
yeah. Which is probably does sound
good like a good. That's not a bad rule.
So on the buses and trains, theyactually make an announcement

(01:13:41):
saying please do not use. Obviously you can use your
mobile phones by texting and listening to music on your
headphones. Don't blare it.
Don't blare it and don't speak. You do not take and make calls
on not many people doing TikTok dances in public then and
recording it for the gram. I don't know.
I think if I saw them, I would have blotted them out in my
memory. I mean, anyone could do what

(01:14:03):
they want. It's fine.
Right. Right.
Yeah. So no, you are all right.
Tick tock. Right.
No. So yeah, don't make noise in
public. Apparently sort of.
Eating on like while walking is not really a very good.
Idea, but when you just kinda look down.

(01:14:26):
Yes, you're there because of thelittle octopus things and build
dope. Balls with octopus?
Yeah, I don't like them at all, but.
Basically from the. Stair.
Yeah. So that's it You.
Yeah, I think it's a very yeah. All right.
Interesting. Yeah, good point.
But. I mean, yeah, so I would try.
I mean, I'm quite a hungry man, so it was quite hard to do, but

(01:14:46):
I would just take him back to school and eat it.
But yeah, so that and wearing shoes inside.
Yeah, that's a big, big, big one.
And these are like mistakes thatif you fuck up, you have to
profusely apologize and you'll be judged harshly for doing it
kind of thing. You'll be killed the accuser of
back. That's what they are.

(01:15:07):
They're actually the polite police.
Yeah. I mean, The thing is, because
you're a foreigner, you are. You get away with more, right?
Yeah, necessarily. Because it's not.
Well, that sounds quite rigid though.
Then if you're Japanese and you're sort of not that way
inclined, you might sort of rebel against that.
Yeah, maybe. Maybe.
But I was. I was told to be quiet by my his
mother on a train, I mean, and I'm.

(01:15:29):
I don't like you're very polite.Yeah, so.
So I thought, God, I think I'd Imaybe maybe the train was going
over a loud bit of track and I wanted to ask the volume.
And I up my volume, yeah. Quiet, just stupid, man.
And so that was, that was fun time.
But yeah, so making noise in public, as I would say, the big

(01:15:51):
the big think we're all on boardwith this rule.
Good. If we have to rewrite the rules
of society, that's not a bad oneto put in.
Absolutely. Yeah.
I'll take that. I.
Am a grumpy old man. Japan.
Japan just made it worse and I love it.
I mean, made it better, but worse, you know, Yeah.
I do like the idea I'm getting amental image that people aren't
eating on the trains either. No that they No, no, they do

(01:16:12):
actually so. The you'll know the Shin Consen
which is the bullet train brilliant word.
It literally just means main trunk line.
So it's not a very romantic translation.
But the Shin Consen, I just lovethat word.
So the bullet train, the Shin Consen very very fast goes
between all the major cities and.
The eating on the Shin Kansan issort of a famous ritual.

(01:16:33):
So you know the concept of, you know, Bento boxes.
I love a Bento. Agreed.
Me too. Packed lunch.
So the word exactly the word forstation in Japanese is Eki and a
station Bento box is called an Eki Ben.
So not so they just cut off the thought of bent on when you go
to the main stations or even smaller stations of the of train

(01:16:55):
lines in Japan. You can buy an ecuban of varying
prices and qualities, but obviously even even the worst
quality is incredibly delicious.And spend spend a, you know few
100 or ¥1000 and then you take that onto the Shinkansen and you
eat because they do serve, but there's snacks.
On the shin cancer. But if you've got a 2 1/2 hour 3

(01:17:17):
hour journey, you're gonna want something to eat.
So you get your Ecuban with yourchopsticks and they give you a
wipe with every single food itemthat you buy that you'll need to
use your hands with. No, this is coming back to the
environment. Yeah, you want to talk with.
There's a single use disposable.Terrible for the planet.
Exactly. And they're very nice.
Because everything is comfortable.
Convenient, yeah. And then you'll eat them on your
on on, on the train. So yeah, you do.

(01:17:39):
That makes sense because the train train is like if you're if
you're commuting, if it's a longjourney, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Completely. So, yeah.
The Ecuben, we went to Bologna and Caitlin found this specific
place that was like famous for sandwiches for Bologna as you
would call it, mortadella. It's obviously the fancy name

(01:18:00):
for it. And it was between stop.
We were changing trains and Caitlin made the beeline for
this amazing place. We got this, you know, the
sandwiches that there. Is it ciabatta, You know, the
one where it's like for ketchup perhaps?
Yeah, cut char where it's like cut.
I love cuts from my cut in the middle bit of and some kind of
like bratta maybe or you know, some delicious.

(01:18:22):
Yeah, incredible. Yeah, which actually reminds me
when people say, oh, Japan, what?
If you fancy a pizza, go get pizza.
They have everything. Yeah, they have everything we
have. Plus Japanese foods.
Did you fried chicken? Yeah, exactly what I was gonna.
Ask so the fried chicken in Japan is Katagi.
And yes, yes I love, but I also went.
I went to. Soul for the weekend career and

(01:18:44):
Korean French. Oh, it's one of my favorite
foods. Have I never made you my Korean
French? No.
OK. Next time, next Europe.
No. No, I'm gonna.
Oh, no, Because you're going to.Yeah.
No, no, You'll come around and I'll make you.
So the cream fried chicken in Korea is Oh my God, it's so.
I mean, I love it so much goes young.
I could just spoon into my mouth.

(01:19:04):
Yeah, OK. I'm only having the version here
like it. Obviously it's going to be much
better and. So no, we're short.
No, but so the version that whatI make is one with Gotch young.
And yeah, so yeah and actually they sell, they sell Gotch Young
in Japan as well. But the the Japanese fried
chicken Karaga is, is dry. So it's and they you might
sprinkle lemon on it. I quite like mine with a sauce
on. But yeah, I did a fridge, yeah,

(01:19:26):
everything I had was great. Everything I the food is just
extraordinary. Did you have Western food at any
point? I had a pizza and I and one of
my classmates he was Italian. It still is Italian actually and
sorry, I'm sorry that dad joke in there and and I sort of was
eating it and rather enjoying mypizza but didn't want to say
anything and turned to look at him and went how's the pizza he

(01:19:49):
went? That's actually pretty good.
Yes. Well done, Japan.
Well done, Japan. And so, yeah, and the sandwiches
are incredible. And well, yeah, I mean you know
they serve lots of lots of and we have in in Bali, is in Bali
the Italian restaurant we have one books that's like.
We're going to a restaurant called Some.
It sounds amazing. So they only serve Italian like

(01:20:09):
a family style and they only allow 18 guests per.
Slot so it's like a trattoria. It's not exactly what's gonna
happen is they're gonna give 18 courses, but at the table.
I know it's just gonna pick and then unlimited lament cello.
It's in Bali and I was like and it came up as a really amazing
restaurant and like really bonkers amazing experience and

(01:20:30):
I. Was like, OK, we'll, yeah, we'll
have Italian, then we'll do it. You know, what's the film that
meant? The menu.
So the menu, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Is it the only one of you will out make it out of life?
I haven't spoiled that film for anyone to see it, but yeah, that
sounds incredible. That sounds absolutely.
And obviously, other than that, we're going to eat all of the
barley stuff and this is. All the barley stuff, all.

(01:20:51):
The barley stuff, yeah. Why is it Nancy Lamac is it?
Yeah, we are going to another restaurant there called Locavore
and it's this concept is closingand they're making another one
and I'm so happy we're getting this concept.
They do it as a gallery style menu and so everything's going
to be given kind of in an art concept.

(01:21:13):
Yeah, wow. And apparently it's amazing.
And they keep trying, but it's all gonna be based in Balinese
cuisine. Just trying to make it more like
Michelin, if that makes sense, Yeah, I thought.
This is all Caitlyn stuff. If this was down to me, we
wouldn't be going to any of these places.
So. I'm not.
I'm into it. I'm just not very good at
organizing that kind of show. I do it on the see, but

(01:21:35):
thankfully Caitlyn is. So here's a well, this is well,
good thing that if you go to Japan and go together cuz the
Japan Rewards organization. Yeah.
Right. I was organizing a nine week.
I mean I yeah in genuine in February I spent the entire it
would yeah organize organize youcan you can be spontaneous but
the problem is you haven't done your research and know where to
go and what to do. It's quite hard sometimes to do

(01:21:57):
that. Yeah, book your hotels, get the
cheapest deals in the nicest places.
Just this is Japan I'm talking about.
Yeah, bodies. But but it.
I felt like it rewarded my. Obsession with organizing things
in advance. If I was thinking about this, if
I could organize every day of mylife until I died, yeah, As long

(01:22:20):
as I knew there were some nice things, I'd probably be fine
with that. Really.
Yeah. Wow, I know.
Isn't that awful? No, I.
Know it's not, it's. Not I love structure.
I mean, sure, I could maybe organize in some Spontane
Spontaneity type. Yeah, for this.
So yeah, we'll be organized Spontaneity.
Have some fun here. And then it's not here.

(01:22:44):
So yeah, that's fine. My yeah, yeah, I think I would.
Rosie wouldn't. No.
No. No, not at all.
Or would you mind if someone else did it for?
It's great, in fact. So you want a PA So Kayla know
you, Ross. Pierre.
Sometimes, not all the time. Not all the time.
And in fact, he'll he'll step upto be my PA.
Yes, good. Exactly.

(01:23:05):
It's just that in terms of like what we both think about in
terms of holidays and fun, sometimes your own brain goes in
One Direction and mine goes in the other.
Yeah, meet in the middle, which is quite good.
But that's in terms, in terms oftastes of things that you might
want to do. So yeah, so we're fine with what
we want to do. It's just at the style and the
approach. Oh, I see more on the orbital
side, and he's more on that. Because of that, we were able to

(01:23:33):
extend our stay in a place that was really special.
I do things on a whim and we've done both.
At first I was terrified when wedid a trip to Costa Rica and
didn't book absolutely everything.
Of course there are advantages. My thing is always could have
like saved a bit of cash there and that means I'll be able to
do that thing. Yeah, yeah.
Rather than or missing out like for example if you like Studio
Ghibli, there's a there are there's a well there's a theme
park now but there's also a museum in Tokyo and they release

(01:23:55):
it's very cheap so about £6.00 but they release very limited
number of rights and they are they come on sale on the 10th of
the of the month for the next month and they've gone in 12
minutes or whatever and. But they open at 10:00 AM Tokyo
time, which I think was 1:00 AM,so I stayed up.

(01:24:17):
It's the only time I've ever sort of stayed up and I felt
like click click click click click.
And I got one for. Myself, right?
But there were people who said to me, I'm going to Tokyo, can I
go to the Jubilee Museum? Yeah.
Yeah. You're already too late.
It was like, I mean we did that for the David.
Yeah. When went to Florence, it's a
similar type thing. It's incredibly difficult to get
it. And they sell out like that and

(01:24:37):
you get a tiny little window absolutely in which to do it and
that's it. And even then we had our
ticketed slot. We were an hour late.
We weren't late. We were waiting in line and
they. Were an hour late?
Sure. So fine, right?
Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that's how packed it is, is that you'll be waiting in this
crazy line and you're like, well, my ticket slot has passed.
But glad we had it because the people who wanted to buy it on

(01:25:01):
the day, no. But that they.
Did wait. There was a line that snaked
around so many blocks. Maybe I'll modify that.
Do your research before. Yeah, that's the thing, right?
Do extensive research. Just call me up and I'll take.
There we go. But it's there's a lot of stuff
that is makes your journey really wonderful if you know
what you're doing. Yeah, you don't.

(01:25:22):
It just makes it really inconvenient.
No, and I really do appreciate it more and more like the place
again back to Florence, but the place we stayed in Florence had
a. An underground pool in a natural
cave under as part of it. And there's no way we would have
been able to get that because it's booked up the whole time.
Right. But because we pounced on it and
found it. Exactly.

(01:25:42):
We got it. Yeah.
Right. So that is an element of sort of
planning. But then you can stumble into
those things sometimes. And then that's all the more
interesting. Cuz you're like, oh man, I would
never guess that we'd end up here.
So obviously I would do that when I'm walking around new
cities. That's why I like to do just
walk without planning. Yeah.
Because you love a wall. Yeah, yes, but it's it's I
suppose it's the research. Like I would done the research

(01:26:03):
and this is a great place to walk around and you can find
some hidden spots. Great.
Right. Exactly.
It's not going in fully blind. I'm a bit more like that.
I'll be like, well, we're not just gonna walk anywhere.
We're gonna also know that this is the district where they have
these kinds of shops. This is where there's that
museum that's over the river or whatever it might be.
Yes. It's not complete blind.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just different styles, I

(01:26:25):
suppose. Yeah, and sometimes.
I'm But mine is right I'll say, Mom.
It's actually. Yeah, yeah.
No, this, this trip we still have.
We're going on Friday and we sort of have everything booked.
Yeah, so rare for me. What?
What is it? We don't have booked, so we have
all the travel booked and we don't have a tour booked.
But there's one where we realizeit's going.

(01:26:47):
They're going to be tours like everywhere.
Yeah, there's one place we're going where we could visit
Komodo, but you can't stay on Komodo.
Oh, you can. But it's like there's one small
guest house. Well, I mean, not the Dragons
kind of thing. Yes, like the Dragons.
We're going to see the Dragons, although it's mating season, but
the the place. Are you going to wear in my
motor dragon? I mean, that's to.

(01:27:08):
They're pretty. I don't know if I want to get
involved. The one that has so is.
That's how you die slowly. They're the one that ones that
have so much bacteria in their mouths that they bite.
Get poison? Yeah, exactly.
But the place that you have to stay, which I don't know how to
pronounce, but it's spelled lab one bajaw.
That's the only reason that thatplace exists is to feed the

(01:27:28):
tourist industry that goes there.
Yeah. So there'll be a billion places
trying to sell us a boat trip, of course, and they'll all be in
that. They'll all be around the same
so. We'll be in that business.
But we should book the hotel andwe haven't booked because
otherwise that's the thing. We're gonna for that book soon.
Yeah, before we get there. And there's one other thing that
we have to book. Yeah, yeah, it's strange.
I want to do a cooking experience.

(01:27:50):
So I did a few cookery courses in Japan.
Do it. It's such fun, yeah.
Yeah. Although actually I, because I
didn't know my schedule, I booked those, but I still booked
them in sort of right. And again that's worth booking.
That's the kind of thing that. In a month I will be doing that
because I was there two months, so I could.
So yeah, but book booking cookery courses is really
lovely. Because of course you then get
to eat it. Yeah.

(01:28:11):
And in this particular place, like they're working with the
entire village, it's an Uber when we are actually doing a
farm to table concept. So it's a so out.
Of and you go to the market, it's an actual.
Nice. They take you to the market, but
also they have a farm and so youpick from their farm to do the
cooking and that seems a bit different from the other ones
that seem to be offered in Bali at the moment.
Yeah, well, there'll be some super Westernized.

(01:28:34):
Like Bali is so catered for making life too easy.
Kind of. Things this is, there's always
going to be an element of sort of touristy.
Yes, to what you're doing, Yeah.And well, This is why I stayed
in the host family, because, butthat's fine.
You sort of. Have part of the game.
Yeah, you're aware that you are a tourist in the country and

(01:28:57):
maybe someone who is from there wouldn't be doing what you're
doing, right? But.
If you enjoy it and it's an enriching experience, then you
know, yeah, why not? Yeah, that's worth it.
Yeah. The reason why I mentioned the
cooking class is because we havethe choice if we want to stay
with them to stay with the family.
Nice okay. Which I wanna do, yeah.
So we're just trying to figure it out because I don't want to
because we could have two classes and then you stay and

(01:29:20):
then they. Didn't, Yeah.
There's one option where it's like you're here for 17 hours
type of thing. You're like I might have cooked
enough before then, but. Maybe I just thought you could
e-mail them in Austin. Yeah.
So I started a conversation. I just need.
To just need to nail that one down, yeah.
Yeah, that's well. I very much look forward to
hearing all about. So in conclusion, Japan sucked.

(01:29:40):
Don't book anything and the cuesare cool.
I mean, if I got all of the right, can we please hear your
haiku? Police, I don't think.
I've I don't think I've got. I haven't.
Got Alex. Stop lying to me, I.
Haven't got it. It's in a.
It's in a notebook at. Home.
Outrageous. It's in.
It's ashes in a big fire. Yeah.

(01:30:01):
In Japan. Exactly.
Exactly. No, it's in a notebook.
I bought a notebook, so I'm gonna.
Fill it. But that would be such a good
way to close the episode. If you could do it, just make
one up, we wouldn't know. Tend to read from your.
Phone. Read the Japanese.
The What was it called? The butterfly?
It wasn't a butterfly. It was the dragonfly.
Yeah, give us the Dragonfly. No, no, no because.
I don't. I don't know.

(01:30:21):
Wonderful, Alex. Oh, here she goes.
She's joining us. Wait Thank you for joining us.
Here. Here.
Uh huh. Last line.
Oh, now go to hell, Dick. So actually there are comic
Kaiku, so that could be classified as one of those.

(01:30:44):
Could be. No, it wasn't that funny.
It could be. Thank you for your time.
It's. Testing it in.
Advance. It's been a real pleasure.
See you soon, you Dicks. Wonderful.
Wonderful. Beautiful.

(01:31:29):
The. Thanks for listening to the
show. If you've enjoyed it, please
give us five stars and consider becoming a subscriber and maybe
even supporting us on Patreon. Really, really, really helps me
continue making this show. If you haven't enjoyed it, then

(01:31:51):
you can. Many, Many thanks to Nils Henna
Steer for the amazing music and to Dave Fox for the cool
artwork. Please keep coming back every
week for more Bliss of the Abyss.

(01:32:27):
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