October 23, 2023 • 31 mins
In this episode we discuss our love and wish to travel to Japan, but why it may be Doomed and will take the most popular Youtubers with it. We also talk about how to get a free house in Japan, the robot wolf that keeps bears away, and the Monkey busters.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You were now listening to the podcastfor Geeks and the Stuff they Love,
where each week we'll talk about everythingfrom anime to movies, games and prop
collecting, but the people who createand love it. I'm Jeremy, I'm
Vince, I'm James, and thisis your geek Fix. Lately, it
seems like there's been a lot ofpeople moving to Japan. There's a lot
(00:22):
more and more focused on Japan andour group. The reason why I kind
of bring it up too is becauseI think it's hard, especially if you're
into coseplay and anime and stuff likethat, not being interested in or wanting
to go out to Japan. Iknow I've wanted to go for quite a
while. I was actually planning thisyear to go to Japan because there was
(00:42):
a deal particularly last year. Youknow. So far, I think China
is still not open as far asbeing able to travel to Japan, which
is the largest group that typically goesto Japan, so as far as far
as the number of people they normallyget, as far as tourists go,
the biggest group hasn't been released togo get and imagine when they start to
(01:03):
go, it's going to be justcrazy over there because probably everyone that hasn't
been able to go from two yearsis something going to be going the kind
of like a lot of Americans areright now. But the deal last year
that was a good thing was youdidn't know when they were going to be
reopening Japan for sure, and soif you bought your tickets, which you
could cancel if they didn't reopen,you know, the tickets were cheap,
(01:26):
I mean like really cheap, andso at one point in time for my
daughter and I to go, itwould have only cost us like six hundred
dollars for the two of us,and now it was great. It was
I can't remember this each way,but even if it was each way,
that's pretty darn good. That's youknow, less than or about what it
would be for one person. Andso that was my initial plan and the
(01:51):
idea of too, I mean,we'd be there in the spring was my
plan, which is also a goodtime to go. But I didn't do
it. I didn't follow through,and sure enough they reopened, and you
know, there are there's tons ofpeople that have gone this last year.
And then on YouTube, I meanlike it's just like the thing, everyone's
releasing their information and stuff. Iwasn't planning out really spending a lot of
(02:14):
time in Tokyo. I wanted togo to like the smaller places and stuff,
but like the actual Japanese experience,yeah, like the true, yeah,
true Japanese experience. But and Ialso was trying to learn more Japanese
before it went, but at leasta little bit more so I didn't run
into some problems. And this year, honestly too, I think they were
brought up. You know, oneof the YouTubers that I follow and enjoy
(02:37):
is Chris Broad brought in Japan,and so I watch a lot of his
stuff and on. They have apodcast as well, which went to video
this year. They they actually readmy story of somebody that I because my
daughter is allergic to peanuts, andso my question was, well, what
do you do as far as ifyou have an allergy to pen how can
(03:00):
you make sure to do something?Because he had recommended, Well, you
have it just written down. Andalso the translation that the words for saying
that you have an allergy basically soundslike allergy. You know, there's a
lot of words that are basically Japaneseified versions of English words, but you
still have to say them right,which is hard. Like kochi, for
(03:24):
example, is a word, soif you drink coffee, you gotta be
able to pronounce it right. Andit's funny because you could say to them
coffee and I'll be like, Idon't know what you're but you know kochy.
Uh, So it has to besaid kind of thing very specific.
Yeah, oh yeah, there's alsowhat there's one for like toilet too is
(03:44):
something similar to that too. Soyeah, I mean I wanted to be
able to have enough to be ableto go and a lot of people that
are there. The way that alot of Americans, for example, go
to Japan is that they'll do itto live there is usually through like the
jet program, which is a programthat allows you within certain age range because
(04:05):
they also want you to be theirwhole idea is they want to get cool
Americans or cool people from England andstuff like that that that are you know,
the kids are going to really appreciateand we'll we'll learn something from to
teach English. Yeah, and thenthey send you to some really small community,
which is great. Also if you'retalking about full immersion, you know,
(04:28):
being forced to use your language,you know, that's that's a great
way to go. And then theypay for you know everything I mean,
and so you're able to actually livethere. You have a visa and everything
and and have a living wage andstuff like that and actually learn about Japan.
Although a lot of people do dropout of the program because you don't
realize how lonely you'll be until yougo there. But at the same time
(04:51):
that and then content makers we weretalking about, like trash taste and things.
You know, there's there's a groupcalled Tokyo Creative out there and they
really try to get as many YouTubersand you know, people who provide a
lot of content to come out andthen they kind of coordinate everything for you,
(05:12):
so you know, they they're theones to take care of all their
visas and take care of their abilityto be there and to work and get
a lot of your paperwork that's hardto do if you live there done.
So lately, a lot of peoplehave been going out so it's not just
you know, the groups that havebeen there. Now you got a lot
of people that don't even make Japaneserelated content. They're just going out there
(05:34):
because they want to be able tolive there and they have a job that
allows them to do it from wherever. And so you know, you might
be familiar that Pautie Pie went andmoved there this year. He actually because
they they have a dog. Ithink it was just for one of the
dogs wanted to be able to takethe dog out there can get a flight
(05:55):
that would allow them to take thedog. They actually had to rent an
entire plane to be able to flythere. But I think it was cool.
Is the dog, Yeah, Ihonestly can remember. Yeah, So
you know, I mean, andand a lot of others have have gone
out there recently. I know thateven Jack septekai Is is in the process
(06:19):
of I don't know if he's movingthere permanently or if he's just getting a
place that he can kind of likelive there for a periods of time.
But but yeah, I mean alot of people are going, which is
funny because it used to be theplace where you'd have a lot of YouTubers
living was La in the United Statesor we were just kind of talking about
(06:39):
Brighton, uh in England, whichused to be just this kind of small
Yeah, in the UK, there'sjust this kind of small I don't know
anything was there when I was there. I mean it was just it was
just this little jinky place. Itwas like a place that I think most
people live there were like wanted toget out kind of thing. And now
it's now it has like all theserestaurants and stuff. It's kind of a
(07:00):
kind of almost even a place togo visit vacationally. I mean it's it's
it's still low key, and Ithink that's the way a lot of YouTubers
went there is because it's it's likenot too big, but it has everything
that you want. And so andnow all those same people are going out
to Japan. And and I wasthinking about it recently because while I wouldn't
(07:21):
mind visiting there, are it's it'snot Japan is as a long term idea.
Is is scary because it would onlywouldn't take much. I mean,
if you think about it, ifJapan was to be wiped out, there
would be a lot of YouTubers thatwould go with it. And there are
(07:42):
reasons, I will say, thereare reasons. It's dark, doesn't it.
This is gonna be a dark episode, So if you want to wipe
them out, no, But atthe same time, the the thing about
it is on the On the flipside, Japan's also been working really hard
to try and get people to movethere. So, like I'll tell them
(08:03):
you get more about this in asecond. But if you were to move
to Japan and you work with Japanesegovernment who are trying to get you come
out there for a reason, theywill actually give you a house, give
you land free, and give youthirty thousand dollars each year to upkeep it.
It sounds like a good deal,doesn't it. Yeah, I'll give
you the caveats here in a second. So here's the thing about it,
(08:26):
because a lot of Japanese YouTubers.The funny thing is is while you have
all these people that are not fromJapan that are trying to move to Japan,
there's a lot of people that livein Japan and I have always lived
there, even whose content is purelyfocused on Japan itself, are trying to
leave. And there's reasons behind that, and so I'll tell you a little
(08:48):
bit about that. One of thebiggest reasons is the natural disasters. Japan
is the most in all the world, has the most natural disasters. So
Japan makes up only about point twoeight percent of the Earth's land which actually
(09:09):
sounds pretty high for one country,but at the same time they make up
Japan by itself makes up seven percentof the active volcanoes in the world,
ten percent of all earthquakes, twentypercent of earthquakes stronger than magnitude six point
zero, which is pretty strong.They have an average of twenty six typhoons
(09:31):
passing by each year, they havean average of two thousand landslide disasters per
year, and they make up eighteenpoint three percent of the world wide cost
for disaster damage, right right.And the scary thing is is that because
(09:54):
of the size of Japan and alsobecause of these types of disasters, because
these are all disasters that that tendto play off of one of another,
all it would take is just onegood major disaster to wipe it completely away.
And so which is scary if youlive there and and this isn't something
(10:16):
by the way, that people ofJapan aren't aware of, uh, you
know, most are, and andthey'll even tell you about it. It's
just that kind of thing in theback of your mind. Though partially also
because for some of these things it'sbeen you know, hundreds of years,
but at the same time, becauseit's been hundreds of years. We're now
at the time for some things tohappen. So I'm gonna mispronounce this is
(10:41):
that I think it's non Kai.The nan ke Nanki Nankai megathrust earthquake is
one of the things. Uh Soon the south end of Japan, you
have these tectonic plates right there thatare constantly shifting and and so they have
what they call non Kei trough earthquakes, and it's there. These things are
(11:07):
pretty hardcore and the constantly comes almostlike having constant tremors, almost like in
La or something like that. Buton the flip side, every so many
hundred years, then you have oneof these really major earthquakes magnitude of eight
to nine class. And so thelast one was about one hundred and twenty
(11:30):
years ago, and so they estimatethat the next one should be within this
twenty years period, So sometime betweentoday and twenty years from now would be
one of these really major ones wouldbe eight to nine class. Then the
capital inland earthquakes is just just alittle bit north of that, but also
along the coastline on the east side, they say that their next major one
(11:58):
is an also sometime between now andtwenty years from now, estimated to kill
one hundred thousand people when that oneoccurs. And then you have the Mount
Fuji, which is always the biggestthing that people look at. The Mount
Fuji is like is like the iconof Japan. It's hard to find something
that doesn't have Mount Fuji stamped onit. And actually just a little side
(12:24):
note, so Mount Fuji also hasbeen something that people I was training continuously
until recently. I have a treadmillactually that has through I fit. They
actually have a woman that takes youup Mount Fuji and in about I think
it's five five hikes that you doon this treadmill, which my treadmill tilts
(12:46):
up and all that. Across thesefive periods, you're able to complete the
mount the equivalent of the Mount Fujihike, minus the you know, not
having enough oxygen so if you know, you got your same elevation, so
you miss out on so that andthe rocks that are constantly falling underneath their
feet. But on the flip side, this year they are closing Mount Fuji
(13:09):
to tourists, not just tourists,actually everybody. The problem has been the
the government decided in their recent statementwas that there's just been there's been too
much danger with people hiking up atbecause there's so many there's just so many
people that go up, particularly onone face. I know, like I
mentioned Chris Broad earlier, he wentup the backside recently and said, even
(13:33):
though it was steeper, it wasyou know, there's a lot fewer people.
But you know, these are notthese aren't paved trails, and a
lot of them are going kind ofstraight up and down. But you're also
literally at certain times a year,you're kind of back to back, you're
walking and you're you know, you'reyou're stuck because nobody can move because there's
(13:54):
such a traffic jam just going up. And so you know, there's been
a lot of people that have faunthere's been a lot of you know,
major injuries and things. And thebigger thing that the government is saying is,
well, but we're not making anymoney off this, Like all we're
doing is losing money. And theyhave talked about and there is a good
chance that they're gonna be building arail system that actually takes that goes up
(14:16):
and down, not just for thepurpose of tourists, but also because they
need it. Would make it easierto get food up and down because they
have machines and restaurants all the wayup and down Mount Fuji. But any
rate that is a possibility, something'sgonna happen. But so right now they're
planning on just shutting it completely downversus starting to charge people tickets to get
(14:39):
to go up or something like that. You know, that would also help
in probably cutting back them amount ofpeople if you just made it a little
bit expensive and and would help topay for the whole thing. But but
any rate, nonetheless, they dothem to preserve like the nutral beauty and
like you not how too many peoplelike go up and go down to them.
One thing though that was cool beforeis at night because there's so many
(15:01):
people, particularly and it takes along to hike, I mean, people
are still on the mountain when itturns gets dark, is you could see
lights going up the mountain, whichis kind of cool. But you know,
one of the things that everyone willsay too is they always know I
mean, if something when it goesoff, if you're on that mountain,
(15:22):
you don't have a chance. Butwe also know that when it goes off
based off of what we know fromthe history, when Mount Fuji goes,
it's going to take out a majorityof the area around it. There there
are plans on how to evacuate andget people out, but sometimes just the
cloud that is going to produce aloan, it's going to also produce a
(15:43):
lot of air problems that will causelong term problems for people. But and
if it blows the right way too, you've also got the risk of I
mean, it's almost like having abomb go off, I mean just really
wipe out the whole area. Andthe major things that would result in it
going off are earthquakes. So sothese earthquakes going off, you got you
(16:08):
got earthquakes, they're they're causing problemsthat are gonna you know, kill a
lot of people and that are gonnawipe out these areas. Then you also
have tsunamis, which have been reportedto be they are likely to be a
problem. And then you have youknow, then then you get this this
big volcano going off. It's it'sa lot to take in. And so
(16:30):
it is a stated that after threehundred years of Mount Fuji not going off,
that it's likely to go off atany point in time. So so
yeah, I mean, you gotyou got that factor, which seems by
itself right, and yeah, morethen more than the money I thought you
were going to say, like it'slike for safety precautions so that not too
(16:52):
many people do go up there,seeing as it seems that it's there is
worried about that. The only thingwhere that's come up is the to of
it's it costs the government a lotto get people up the mountain, to
to rescue people and to treat them, and so you know, so it's
that's an issue if for a majorityof people too in the country. I
(17:17):
mean course, you know, it'syeah, if you're if you're up really
high. One of the big thingsthat they have a problem with there is
also the oxygen problem. And soif you do go up or if you
have the opportunity and they don't closepermanently like they're planning to take oxygen with
you, most people get those littletiny ones that you're able to use.
(17:38):
It is a good idea or acclimateyourself by staying at the different levels.
There's stations along the way that youcan actually literally stay overnight in and uh
and kind of helps you to beable to get by. But but on
the flip side. The other thingthat's happening in Japan that's a problem is
you know, they used to dopopulation control there in order to you know,
(18:00):
make sure that they didn't become overpopulated. On the flip side, they
also you know, they had amajority of people that make up the population
are now old and dying and so, you know, and so as these
people are dying off and the populationisn't growing as fast as it should,
(18:25):
they're they're shrinking as a population everyyear, like like dangerously to the point
where they're trying to figure out whatto do. There's actually ah, there
is actually an incentive program right nowto have children in Japan and so and
they have funny commercials to kind ofsupport the But at the same time they
(18:45):
shrank, just as last year theystrength by five hundred and eleven thousand people.
And that's not like that many peopledied and you know there's kids being
born at the same time. No, it's just that's how many how much
smaller they are period, and soyeah, it's the largest aging population in
the world right now. And uhso for this reason, two things have
(19:07):
happened. One is you've got entirecommunities. Also, this is the other
thing. The older community, theolder population was okay with and grew up
in these small rural communities, whicha lot of Japan is. You know,
it's not all Tokyo and Sendai andthings. It's it's just you know,
there's there's all these great small communitiesthat forever he well, hello,
(19:33):
hello, we're talking about Japan.Okay, cool and and so and so
I just covered all the all thedisasters are gonna wipe it out with all
the YouTubers that have moved there everytime special way. Yeah. But but
(19:55):
at the same time, yeah,and then we're talking about the shrinking community.
The thing that's funny about the shrinkingcommunity or and where you can actually
benefit. So if you don't livethere and you've always wanted to move there,
and you're like, I don't knowhow you'd get a house or anything
like that, well here's your opportunity. So what's happened is on the upside,
or on that I should say,on the downside, is a lot
(20:15):
of these communities, a lot allthese little communities, entire towns are literally
becoming ghost towns. So there's nobodythere anymore. And uh, and so
The upside is the government has said, well, we want to get people
there again, we don't. Youknow, the hard thing in Japan is
that they do tend to tear downThey don't, they don't have people just
(20:37):
buy houses typically too. So howdoes this generally lose their value pretty quick?
If you move out of your house, most people just either a they
move out of the house or theytear it down and they don't resell it
because nobody buys used houses because generallyspeaking, you have to tear it down
and rebuild anyways, joke, Ighost everywhere, that's right, the circle
(21:03):
and ring problem. Some people thatdo that do do up houses day.
But I think I was I thinkthat was a Swedish person or something along
those lines that was like it.But that's the thing. So it's other
people that aren't Japanese though, thatthe typically in the Japanese culture. So
what what they're offering though is ifyou're willing to move to Japan, you're
(21:26):
willing to move into one of thesmall communities, they will give you the
land with the house on it.In fact, there's a couple of the
YouTubers that I mentioned, well,the ones that not the ones I've mentioned,
but a couple of YouTubers have goneout there got literally almost like the
equivalent of a mansion for free,you know, and and then on top
(21:47):
of that, you get thirty thousanddollars a year to fix it up for
so many years and so so yeah, I mean that's a pretty great deal.
Yeah, you move out there.Uh, the government even is offerings
incentives to get people, and theydo want people from other countries. Now.
They're really seeking because the problem istheir own population isn't repopulating, and
so they're hoping people will come inkind of bring their families and that they'll
(22:11):
also you know, hopefully be havingkids. So they're most encouraging people if
you're if you have kids, it'syou can do this in the US,
they somebody would have a problem withit. But at the same time,
yeah, they're Their incentive is,yeah, we want you to come and
have kids, and will incentivize youif you have kids and you have to
have kids within some of the yearsand stuff like that. But yeah,
(22:32):
you got free houses. The downsideis yea, And the downside to these
houses and the downside to these communitiesis with people moving out and with the
increase in number of bears and andof the boors. They are literally moving
(22:55):
in. So you know, overthe past years, more and more bears
are no longer up in the mountainsor staying in the woods. They are
coming aggressively into these communities. They'recoming into people's houses. Uh, the
boors just literally break into your houseand they destroy it. And in these
communities where there's nobody there to keepthem out, now they literally take it
(23:18):
over. So they don't recommend ifyou go into one of these communities.
That's you know, if you're ifyou're a what's what's it called, where
you go in and if you're anurban explorer, if you're a witch,
if you're a witcher, you're welcomethere. Be aware that you're probably gonna
run into some bears and you're pallingto run into Yeah. Yeah, So
(23:44):
so you know, there's there's thoseissues of of what can happen. But
but I mean, yeah, it'sit's it's a crazy situation. I've I
know, Vince has been there,right, Vince Japan A couple of though
just ones on aneymoons for three weeks, which was plenty before. While still
miss it, but I also Iseriously looked into that that that they call
(24:06):
them akiyas, right, those houses. Yeah yeah, And I originally saw
a couple that did the same inSicily, Like there's another Oh I did
too, ye too. Yeah,but that one you have to you have
to do. You have to investsome that one you actually have to be
investing in, putting in so much, and it has to be progressing otherwise
you lose it. But yeah,I think to be honest, that's that's
(24:29):
all the hidden stuff that is alsoin Japan, because I looked at the
takias and also born in Japan,did a small video about it, like
there were in actual like dangerous areaswith mold and and and really bad stuff
a big spiders, yeah exactly.But also the fact that in Japan,
I believe also you have those littleposts that they nominally how far your land
(24:52):
is, oh yeah, and ifthey are gone or missing or not really
sure or accurate with the with thezoning community, you have to pay up
for that to have to rezone.Say oh yeah, and that those are
hidden costs that and you have tohave like citizenship and all that kind of
stuff. I mean, it's it'sstill don't mean more will more or less
(25:14):
less than what you get for adon' gole house, but it's gonna be
a lot of bureau credit. Yeah, I mean there's a reason those things
haven't been sold in the best yearsfor example, uh, because some some
things are prehivative. I think whenwe have celebration in Japan that they're going
to be sold out really easy.And I think I think the whole requirement
(25:37):
is you do have to maintain thelike you can't tear it down. You
do have to maintain the actual housethat is there, or you get you
don't know what what it is.I mean, if it's all forboards,
I mean there are the Tammy Metsmost likely yeah, and wouldn't build.
So if the wood all you haveto keep it into the radial state,
wello like finding that kind of woodthere. Yeah, back when it was
(25:57):
built there there were probably forces outthere and now it's all just were All
Tommy Matt's are expensive to replace.It's it's part of the reason why you
walk barefoot through you know, youwhere you walk without your shoes through your
house if you have it to TommyMatt. But because the story about Tommy
(26:18):
Matts that I heard from a Japanesecollig of mine, is that's because you
like the story. And so apparentlythere was like this the showgun or whatever
and you'll buy this enemy to hiscastle or he was in the castle and
basically executed a lot of people onthe Tommy met and uh To just to
demonstrate that he means business, heput those floor to Tommy Metts with the
blood of his enemies up on theceiling at the entrance. Nice idea for
(26:44):
people to do right there, youknow, it's pretty normal. Yeah,
so if if it's if it's areally correctly to Tommy Mexican say well,
this disappartment is ship look look up, it's it's an interesting I mean I
I honestly I did look into itbecause I've always wanted to go to Japan
and stuff and when I'm like,oh, a free house and things like
(27:07):
that. But you know, atthe same time, yeah, it's it's
I don't know, no, no, and and like you said, you
know, we I mentioned earlier thatyou had this huge group of people between
l A and and Brighton. Youknow that that used to be there for
there were these were the places whereYouTubers where if all the YouTubers start moving
(27:30):
to Japan and something happens, well, our channel should get a lot of
inker like that. But also thinkabout the fact that that you're very interested
in a certain culture. I meanI always think that Japan has a very
good country to go there as atourist. Yeah, because because you leave
(27:51):
leave the existential core issues of societythere side, and you see them when
you're there. Uh uh. Iwas this guy in an elect a little
little uh like a very small notthe mobility scooter but just about warm like
with with the with the roofs andeverything. It's like it's like there's two
(28:14):
huge speakers and like the Japanese warflag and he keept shouting. Didn't know
there there was I mean, Idon't know if you guys have heard about
the there there were a couple ofguys that there were unaware after the war
(28:37):
that the war had ended, andyou guys heard about this that that we
stayed hidden and we're like killing peopleand stuff like that. And finally all
of them were caught. I thinkit's three of them, and yeah,
one of them died naturally, andthen then the last one finally got caught
recently. But at the same time. The thing the thing that I didn't
bring up though about this whole bearthing. The thing that was interesting.
(29:00):
I don't know if you guys gotto see pictures of it, but uh,
and kind of going along with ourchannel being inventive and building things and
stuff. So so Japanese people therewere farmers, we're having problems with these
bears coming in and you know,and either a coming off the you know,
the animals they had or just cominginto their fields and they you know,
if you don't know about it andyou run into a bear, you're
(29:21):
kind of it's over with. Sothey they their their solution was a robotic
wolf. Did you guys see this. It's a robot wolf and it has
they have eyes and there the lightup they turn, they turned red and
the big bright red lights and thenthey make a noise. That a problem
(29:44):
ever, just make a robot wellthey're a little bit high to they're a
little bit higher and so all nightlong they like make noise and they move
around stuff and it scares away thesebears. And they show you can watch
the video proof that it works.And so they were selling these all over
Japan. So the you can seevideos of these of these themselves creepy,
(30:06):
these these wolves. Yeah yeah,well if you see it, yeah yeah,
they look pretty good though. Butit's better than the the other problem,
you know, in a different area. It was the monkeys that they're
having problems with coming into a villageand attacking while these old women decided that
they would get baseball bats and theywould they would old women that would chase
(30:29):
down these monkeys. So they wentand attack the kids and stuff and beat
them and they called them monkey busters, the biking busters of Japan. But
anyway, but yeah, if you'replanning on going to path, you know
some of the stuff you if you'reif you're trying to get a house,
or you're you've got other things totell us about from cultures that you've got
to visit. Let us know ifyou've enjoyed this podcast and want more to
(30:52):
stay tuned for that, but alsocheck out our channel, join the community
on YouTube that goes by the samename and your geek fix. Be sure
check out Vince on Twitter at massivedmg Underscore and on his YouTube channel Massive
DMG. Check out James at misterMalta Fur on Instagram and the Replica prop
forum We also want to hear fromyou, so be sure to send your
(31:12):
questions, stories, and other projectsto your geek Fix at gmail dot com.
In the meantime, this has beenyour geek Fix.
You were now listening to the podcastfor Geeks and the Stuff they Love,
where each week we'll talk about everythingfrom anime to movies, games and prop
collecting, but the people who createand love it. I'm Jeremy, I'm
Vince, I'm James, and thisis your geek Fix. Lately, it
seems like there's been a lot ofpeople moving to Japan. There's a lot
(00:22):
more and more focused on Japan andour group. The reason why I kind
of bring it up too is becauseI think it's hard, especially if you're
into coseplay and anime and stuff likethat, not being interested in or wanting
to go out to Japan. Iknow I've wanted to go for quite a
while. I was actually planning thisyear to go to Japan because there was
(00:42):
a deal particularly last year. Youknow. So far, I think China
is still not open as far asbeing able to travel to Japan, which
is the largest group that typically goesto Japan, so as far as far
as the number of people they normallyget, as far as tourists go,
the biggest group hasn't been released togo get and imagine when they start to
(01:03):
go, it's going to be justcrazy over there because probably everyone that hasn't
been able to go from two yearsis something going to be going the kind
of like a lot of Americans areright now. But the deal last year
that was a good thing was youdidn't know when they were going to be
reopening Japan for sure, and soif you bought your tickets, which you
could cancel if they didn't reopen,you know, the tickets were cheap,
(01:26):
I mean like really cheap, andso at one point in time for my
daughter and I to go, itwould have only cost us like six hundred
dollars for the two of us,and now it was great. It was
I can't remember this each way,but even if it was each way,
that's pretty darn good. That's youknow, less than or about what it
would be for one person. Andso that was my initial plan and the
(01:51):
idea of too, I mean,we'd be there in the spring was my
plan, which is also a goodtime to go. But I didn't do
it. I didn't follow through,and sure enough they reopened, and you
know, there are there's tons ofpeople that have gone this last year.
And then on YouTube, I meanlike it's just like the thing, everyone's
releasing their information and stuff. Iwasn't planning out really spending a lot of
(02:14):
time in Tokyo. I wanted togo to like the smaller places and stuff,
but like the actual Japanese experience,yeah, like the true, yeah,
true Japanese experience. But and Ialso was trying to learn more Japanese
before it went, but at leasta little bit more so I didn't run
into some problems. And this year, honestly too, I think they were
brought up. You know, oneof the YouTubers that I follow and enjoy
(02:37):
is Chris Broad brought in Japan,and so I watch a lot of his
stuff and on. They have apodcast as well, which went to video
this year. They they actually readmy story of somebody that I because my
daughter is allergic to peanuts, andso my question was, well, what
do you do as far as ifyou have an allergy to pen how can
(03:00):
you make sure to do something?Because he had recommended, Well, you
have it just written down. Andalso the translation that the words for saying
that you have an allergy basically soundslike allergy. You know, there's a
lot of words that are basically Japaneseified versions of English words, but you
still have to say them right,which is hard. Like kochi, for
(03:24):
example, is a word, soif you drink coffee, you gotta be
able to pronounce it right. Andit's funny because you could say to them
coffee and I'll be like, Idon't know what you're but you know kochy.
Uh, So it has to besaid kind of thing very specific.
Yeah, oh yeah, there's alsowhat there's one for like toilet too is
(03:44):
something similar to that too. Soyeah, I mean I wanted to be
able to have enough to be ableto go and a lot of people that
are there. The way that alot of Americans, for example, go
to Japan is that they'll do itto live there is usually through like the
jet program, which is a programthat allows you within certain age range because
(04:05):
they also want you to be theirwhole idea is they want to get cool
Americans or cool people from England andstuff like that that that are you know,
the kids are going to really appreciateand we'll we'll learn something from to
teach English. Yeah, and thenthey send you to some really small community,
which is great. Also if you'retalking about full immersion, you know,
(04:28):
being forced to use your language,you know, that's that's a great
way to go. And then theypay for you know everything I mean,
and so you're able to actually livethere. You have a visa and everything
and and have a living wage andstuff like that and actually learn about Japan.
Although a lot of people do dropout of the program because you don't
realize how lonely you'll be until yougo there. But at the same time
(04:51):
that and then content makers we weretalking about, like trash taste and things.
You know, there's there's a groupcalled Tokyo Creative out there and they
really try to get as many YouTubersand you know, people who provide a
lot of content to come out andthen they kind of coordinate everything for you,
(05:12):
so you know, they they're theones to take care of all their
visas and take care of their abilityto be there and to work and get
a lot of your paperwork that's hardto do if you live there done.
So lately, a lot of peoplehave been going out so it's not just
you know, the groups that havebeen there. Now you got a lot
of people that don't even make Japaneserelated content. They're just going out there
(05:34):
because they want to be able tolive there and they have a job that
allows them to do it from wherever. And so you know, you might
be familiar that Pautie Pie went andmoved there this year. He actually because
they they have a dog. Ithink it was just for one of the
dogs wanted to be able to takethe dog out there can get a flight
(05:55):
that would allow them to take thedog. They actually had to rent an
entire plane to be able to flythere. But I think it was cool.
Is the dog, Yeah, Ihonestly can remember. Yeah, So
you know, I mean, andand a lot of others have have gone
out there recently. I know thateven Jack septekai Is is in the process
(06:19):
of I don't know if he's movingthere permanently or if he's just getting a
place that he can kind of likelive there for a periods of time.
But but yeah, I mean alot of people are going, which is
funny because it used to be theplace where you'd have a lot of YouTubers
living was La in the United Statesor we were just kind of talking about
(06:39):
Brighton, uh in England, whichused to be just this kind of small
Yeah, in the UK, there'sjust this kind of small I don't know
anything was there when I was there. I mean it was just it was
just this little jinky place. Itwas like a place that I think most
people live there were like wanted toget out kind of thing. And now
it's now it has like all theserestaurants and stuff. It's kind of a
(07:00):
kind of almost even a place togo visit vacationally. I mean it's it's
it's still low key, and Ithink that's the way a lot of YouTubers
went there is because it's it's likenot too big, but it has everything
that you want. And so andnow all those same people are going out
to Japan. And and I wasthinking about it recently because while I wouldn't
(07:21):
mind visiting there, are it's it'snot Japan is as a long term idea.
Is is scary because it would onlywouldn't take much. I mean,
if you think about it, ifJapan was to be wiped out, there
would be a lot of YouTubers thatwould go with it. And there are
(07:42):
reasons, I will say, thereare reasons. It's dark, doesn't it.
This is gonna be a dark episode, So if you want to wipe
them out, no, But atthe same time, the the thing about
it is on the On the flipside, Japan's also been working really hard
to try and get people to movethere. So, like I'll tell them
(08:03):
you get more about this in asecond. But if you were to move
to Japan and you work with Japanesegovernment who are trying to get you come
out there for a reason, theywill actually give you a house, give
you land free, and give youthirty thousand dollars each year to upkeep it.
It sounds like a good deal,doesn't it. Yeah, I'll give
you the caveats here in a second. So here's the thing about it,
(08:26):
because a lot of Japanese YouTubers.The funny thing is is while you have
all these people that are not fromJapan that are trying to move to Japan,
there's a lot of people that livein Japan and I have always lived
there, even whose content is purelyfocused on Japan itself, are trying to
leave. And there's reasons behind that, and so I'll tell you a little
(08:48):
bit about that. One of thebiggest reasons is the natural disasters. Japan
is the most in all the world, has the most natural disasters. So
Japan makes up only about point twoeight percent of the Earth's land which actually
(09:09):
sounds pretty high for one country,but at the same time they make up
Japan by itself makes up seven percentof the active volcanoes in the world,
ten percent of all earthquakes, twentypercent of earthquakes stronger than magnitude six point
zero, which is pretty strong.They have an average of twenty six typhoons
(09:31):
passing by each year, they havean average of two thousand landslide disasters per
year, and they make up eighteenpoint three percent of the world wide cost
for disaster damage, right right.And the scary thing is is that because
(09:54):
of the size of Japan and alsobecause of these types of disasters, because
these are all disasters that that tendto play off of one of another,
all it would take is just onegood major disaster to wipe it completely away.
And so which is scary if youlive there and and this isn't something
(10:16):
by the way, that people ofJapan aren't aware of, uh, you
know, most are, and andthey'll even tell you about it. It's
just that kind of thing in theback of your mind. Though partially also
because for some of these things it'sbeen you know, hundreds of years,
but at the same time, becauseit's been hundreds of years. We're now
at the time for some things tohappen. So I'm gonna mispronounce this is
(10:41):
that I think it's non Kai.The nan ke Nanki Nankai megathrust earthquake is
one of the things. Uh Soon the south end of Japan, you
have these tectonic plates right there thatare constantly shifting and and so they have
what they call non Kei trough earthquakes, and it's there. These things are
(11:07):
pretty hardcore and the constantly comes almostlike having constant tremors, almost like in
La or something like that. Buton the flip side, every so many
hundred years, then you have oneof these really major earthquakes magnitude of eight
to nine class. And so thelast one was about one hundred and twenty
(11:30):
years ago, and so they estimatethat the next one should be within this
twenty years period, So sometime betweentoday and twenty years from now would be
one of these really major ones wouldbe eight to nine class. Then the
capital inland earthquakes is just just alittle bit north of that, but also
along the coastline on the east side, they say that their next major one
(11:58):
is an also sometime between now andtwenty years from now, estimated to kill
one hundred thousand people when that oneoccurs. And then you have the Mount
Fuji, which is always the biggestthing that people look at. The Mount
Fuji is like is like the iconof Japan. It's hard to find something
that doesn't have Mount Fuji stamped onit. And actually just a little side
(12:24):
note, so Mount Fuji also hasbeen something that people I was training continuously
until recently. I have a treadmillactually that has through I fit. They
actually have a woman that takes youup Mount Fuji and in about I think
it's five five hikes that you doon this treadmill, which my treadmill tilts
(12:46):
up and all that. Across thesefive periods, you're able to complete the
mount the equivalent of the Mount Fujihike, minus the you know, not
having enough oxygen so if you know, you got your same elevation, so
you miss out on so that andthe rocks that are constantly falling underneath their
feet. But on the flip side, this year they are closing Mount Fuji
(13:09):
to tourists, not just tourists,actually everybody. The problem has been the
the government decided in their recent statementwas that there's just been there's been too
much danger with people hiking up atbecause there's so many there's just so many
people that go up, particularly onone face. I know, like I
mentioned Chris Broad earlier, he wentup the backside recently and said, even
(13:33):
though it was steeper, it wasyou know, there's a lot fewer people.
But you know, these are notthese aren't paved trails, and a
lot of them are going kind ofstraight up and down. But you're also
literally at certain times a year,you're kind of back to back, you're
walking and you're you know, you'reyou're stuck because nobody can move because there's
(13:54):
such a traffic jam just going up. And so you know, there's been
a lot of people that have faunthere's been a lot of you know,
major injuries and things. And thebigger thing that the government is saying is,
well, but we're not making anymoney off this, Like all we're
doing is losing money. And theyhave talked about and there is a good
chance that they're gonna be building arail system that actually takes that goes up
(14:16):
and down, not just for thepurpose of tourists, but also because they
need it. Would make it easierto get food up and down because they
have machines and restaurants all the wayup and down Mount Fuji. But any
rate that is a possibility, something'sgonna happen. But so right now they're
planning on just shutting it completely downversus starting to charge people tickets to get
(14:39):
to go up or something like that. You know, that would also help
in probably cutting back them amount ofpeople if you just made it a little
bit expensive and and would help topay for the whole thing. But but
any rate, nonetheless, they dothem to preserve like the nutral beauty and
like you not how too many peoplelike go up and go down to them.
One thing though that was cool beforeis at night because there's so many
(15:01):
people, particularly and it takes along to hike, I mean, people
are still on the mountain when itturns gets dark, is you could see
lights going up the mountain, whichis kind of cool. But you know,
one of the things that everyone willsay too is they always know I
mean, if something when it goesoff, if you're on that mountain,
(15:22):
you don't have a chance. Butwe also know that when it goes off
based off of what we know fromthe history, when Mount Fuji goes,
it's going to take out a majorityof the area around it. There there
are plans on how to evacuate andget people out, but sometimes just the
cloud that is going to produce aloan, it's going to also produce a
(15:43):
lot of air problems that will causelong term problems for people. But and
if it blows the right way too, you've also got the risk of I
mean, it's almost like having abomb go off, I mean just really
wipe out the whole area. Andthe major things that would result in it
going off are earthquakes. So sothese earthquakes going off, you got you
(16:08):
got earthquakes, they're they're causing problemsthat are gonna you know, kill a
lot of people and that are gonnawipe out these areas. Then you also
have tsunamis, which have been reportedto be they are likely to be a
problem. And then you have youknow, then then you get this this
big volcano going off. It's it'sa lot to take in. And so
(16:30):
it is a stated that after threehundred years of Mount Fuji not going off,
that it's likely to go off atany point in time. So so
yeah, I mean, you gotyou got that factor, which seems by
itself right, and yeah, morethen more than the money I thought you
were going to say, like it'slike for safety precautions so that not too
(16:52):
many people do go up there,seeing as it seems that it's there is
worried about that. The only thingwhere that's come up is the to of
it's it costs the government a lotto get people up the mountain, to
to rescue people and to treat them, and so you know, so it's
that's an issue if for a majorityof people too in the country. I
(17:17):
mean course, you know, it'syeah, if you're if you're up really
high. One of the big thingsthat they have a problem with there is
also the oxygen problem. And soif you do go up or if you
have the opportunity and they don't closepermanently like they're planning to take oxygen with
you, most people get those littletiny ones that you're able to use.
(17:38):
It is a good idea or acclimateyourself by staying at the different levels.
There's stations along the way that youcan actually literally stay overnight in and uh
and kind of helps you to beable to get by. But but on
the flip side. The other thingthat's happening in Japan that's a problem is
you know, they used to dopopulation control there in order to you know,
(18:00):
make sure that they didn't become overpopulated. On the flip side, they
also you know, they had amajority of people that make up the population
are now old and dying and so, you know, and so as these
people are dying off and the populationisn't growing as fast as it should,
(18:25):
they're they're shrinking as a population everyyear, like like dangerously to the point
where they're trying to figure out whatto do. There's actually ah, there
is actually an incentive program right nowto have children in Japan and so and
they have funny commercials to kind ofsupport the But at the same time they
(18:45):
shrank, just as last year theystrength by five hundred and eleven thousand people.
And that's not like that many peopledied and you know there's kids being
born at the same time. No, it's just that's how many how much
smaller they are period, and soyeah, it's the largest aging population in
the world right now. And uhso for this reason, two things have
(19:07):
happened. One is you've got entirecommunities. Also, this is the other
thing. The older community, theolder population was okay with and grew up
in these small rural communities, whicha lot of Japan is. You know,
it's not all Tokyo and Sendai andthings. It's it's just you know,
there's there's all these great small communitiesthat forever he well, hello,
(19:33):
hello, we're talking about Japan.Okay, cool and and so and so
I just covered all the all thedisasters are gonna wipe it out with all
the YouTubers that have moved there everytime special way. Yeah. But but
(19:55):
at the same time, yeah,and then we're talking about the shrinking community.
The thing that's funny about the shrinkingcommunity or and where you can actually
benefit. So if you don't livethere and you've always wanted to move there,
and you're like, I don't knowhow you'd get a house or anything
like that, well here's your opportunity. So what's happened is on the upside,
or on that I should say,on the downside, is a lot
(20:15):
of these communities, a lot allthese little communities, entire towns are literally
becoming ghost towns. So there's nobodythere anymore. And uh, and so
The upside is the government has said, well, we want to get people
there again, we don't. Youknow, the hard thing in Japan is
that they do tend to tear downThey don't, they don't have people just
(20:37):
buy houses typically too. So howdoes this generally lose their value pretty quick?
If you move out of your house, most people just either a they
move out of the house or theytear it down and they don't resell it
because nobody buys used houses because generallyspeaking, you have to tear it down
and rebuild anyways, joke, Ighost everywhere, that's right, the circle
(21:03):
and ring problem. Some people thatdo that do do up houses day.
But I think I was I thinkthat was a Swedish person or something along
those lines that was like it.But that's the thing. So it's other
people that aren't Japanese though, thatthe typically in the Japanese culture. So
what what they're offering though is ifyou're willing to move to Japan, you're
(21:26):
willing to move into one of thesmall communities, they will give you the
land with the house on it.In fact, there's a couple of the
YouTubers that I mentioned, well,the ones that not the ones I've mentioned,
but a couple of YouTubers have goneout there got literally almost like the
equivalent of a mansion for free,you know, and and then on top
(21:47):
of that, you get thirty thousanddollars a year to fix it up for
so many years and so so yeah, I mean that's a pretty great deal.
Yeah, you move out there.Uh, the government even is offerings
incentives to get people, and theydo want people from other countries. Now.
They're really seeking because the problem istheir own population isn't repopulating, and
so they're hoping people will come inkind of bring their families and that they'll
(22:11):
also you know, hopefully be havingkids. So they're most encouraging people if
you're if you have kids, it'syou can do this in the US,
they somebody would have a problem withit. But at the same time,
yeah, they're Their incentive is,yeah, we want you to come and
have kids, and will incentivize youif you have kids and you have to
have kids within some of the yearsand stuff like that. But yeah,
(22:32):
you got free houses. The downsideis yea, And the downside to these
houses and the downside to these communitiesis with people moving out and with the
increase in number of bears and andof the boors. They are literally moving
(22:55):
in. So you know, overthe past years, more and more bears
are no longer up in the mountainsor staying in the woods. They are
coming aggressively into these communities. They'recoming into people's houses. Uh, the
boors just literally break into your houseand they destroy it. And in these
communities where there's nobody there to keepthem out, now they literally take it
(23:18):
over. So they don't recommend ifyou go into one of these communities.
That's you know, if you're ifyou're a what's what's it called, where
you go in and if you're anurban explorer, if you're a witch,
if you're a witcher, you're welcomethere. Be aware that you're probably gonna
run into some bears and you're pallingto run into Yeah. Yeah, So
(23:44):
so you know, there's there's thoseissues of of what can happen. But
but I mean, yeah, it'sit's it's a crazy situation. I've I
know, Vince has been there,right, Vince Japan A couple of though
just ones on aneymoons for three weeks, which was plenty before. While still
miss it, but I also Iseriously looked into that that that they call
(24:06):
them akiyas, right, those houses. Yeah yeah, And I originally saw
a couple that did the same inSicily, Like there's another Oh I did
too, ye too. Yeah,but that one you have to you have
to do. You have to investsome that one you actually have to be
investing in, putting in so much, and it has to be progressing otherwise
you lose it. But yeah,I think to be honest, that's that's
(24:29):
all the hidden stuff that is alsoin Japan, because I looked at the
takias and also born in Japan,did a small video about it, like
there were in actual like dangerous areaswith mold and and and really bad stuff
a big spiders, yeah exactly.But also the fact that in Japan,
I believe also you have those littleposts that they nominally how far your land
(24:52):
is, oh yeah, and ifthey are gone or missing or not really
sure or accurate with the with thezoning community, you have to pay up
for that to have to rezone.Say oh yeah, and that those are
hidden costs that and you have tohave like citizenship and all that kind of
stuff. I mean, it's it'sstill don't mean more will more or less
(25:14):
less than what you get for adon' gole house, but it's gonna be
a lot of bureau credit. Yeah, I mean there's a reason those things
haven't been sold in the best yearsfor example, uh, because some some
things are prehivative. I think whenwe have celebration in Japan that they're going
to be sold out really easy.And I think I think the whole requirement
(25:37):
is you do have to maintain thelike you can't tear it down. You
do have to maintain the actual housethat is there, or you get you
don't know what what it is.I mean, if it's all forboards,
I mean there are the Tammy Metsmost likely yeah, and wouldn't build.
So if the wood all you haveto keep it into the radial state,
wello like finding that kind of woodthere. Yeah, back when it was
(25:57):
built there there were probably forces outthere and now it's all just were All
Tommy Matt's are expensive to replace.It's it's part of the reason why you
walk barefoot through you know, youwhere you walk without your shoes through your
house if you have it to TommyMatt. But because the story about Tommy
(26:18):
Matts that I heard from a Japanesecollig of mine, is that's because you
like the story. And so apparentlythere was like this the showgun or whatever
and you'll buy this enemy to hiscastle or he was in the castle and
basically executed a lot of people onthe Tommy met and uh To just to
demonstrate that he means business, heput those floor to Tommy Metts with the
blood of his enemies up on theceiling at the entrance. Nice idea for
(26:44):
people to do right there, youknow, it's pretty normal. Yeah,
so if if it's if it's areally correctly to Tommy Mexican say well,
this disappartment is ship look look up, it's it's an interesting I mean I
I honestly I did look into itbecause I've always wanted to go to Japan
and stuff and when I'm like,oh, a free house and things like
(27:07):
that. But you know, atthe same time, yeah, it's it's
I don't know, no, no, and and like you said, you
know, we I mentioned earlier thatyou had this huge group of people between
l A and and Brighton. Youknow that that used to be there for
there were these were the places whereYouTubers where if all the YouTubers start moving
(27:30):
to Japan and something happens, well, our channel should get a lot of
inker like that. But also thinkabout the fact that that you're very interested
in a certain culture. I meanI always think that Japan has a very
good country to go there as atourist. Yeah, because because you leave
(27:51):
leave the existential core issues of societythere side, and you see them when
you're there. Uh uh. Iwas this guy in an elect a little
little uh like a very small notthe mobility scooter but just about warm like
with with the with the roofs andeverything. It's like it's like there's two
(28:14):
huge speakers and like the Japanese warflag and he keept shouting. Didn't know
there there was I mean, Idon't know if you guys have heard about
the there there were a couple ofguys that there were unaware after the war
(28:37):
that the war had ended, andyou guys heard about this that that we
stayed hidden and we're like killing peopleand stuff like that. And finally all
of them were caught. I thinkit's three of them, and yeah,
one of them died naturally, andthen then the last one finally got caught
recently. But at the same time. The thing the thing that I didn't
bring up though about this whole bearthing. The thing that was interesting.
(29:00):
I don't know if you guys gotto see pictures of it, but uh,
and kind of going along with ourchannel being inventive and building things and
stuff. So so Japanese people therewere farmers, we're having problems with these
bears coming in and you know,and either a coming off the you know,
the animals they had or just cominginto their fields and they you know,
if you don't know about it andyou run into a bear, you're
(29:21):
kind of it's over with. Sothey they their their solution was a robotic
wolf. Did you guys see this. It's a robot wolf and it has
they have eyes and there the lightup they turn, they turned red and
the big bright red lights and thenthey make a noise. That a problem
(29:44):
ever, just make a robot wellthey're a little bit high to they're a
little bit higher and so all nightlong they like make noise and they move
around stuff and it scares away thesebears. And they show you can watch
the video proof that it works.And so they were selling these all over
Japan. So the you can seevideos of these of these themselves creepy,
(30:06):
these these wolves. Yeah yeah,well if you see it, yeah yeah,
they look pretty good though. Butit's better than the the other problem,
you know, in a different area. It was the monkeys that they're
having problems with coming into a villageand attacking while these old women decided that
they would get baseball bats and theywould they would old women that would chase
(30:29):
down these monkeys. So they wentand attack the kids and stuff and beat
them and they called them monkey busters, the biking busters of Japan. But
anyway, but yeah, if you'replanning on going to path, you know
some of the stuff you if you'reif you're trying to get a house,
or you're you've got other things totell us about from cultures that you've got
to visit. Let us know ifyou've enjoyed this podcast and want more to
(30:52):
stay tuned for that, but alsocheck out our channel, join the community
on YouTube that goes by the samename and your geek fix. Be sure
check out Vince on Twitter at massivedmg Underscore and on his YouTube channel Massive
DMG. Check out James at misterMalta Fur on Instagram and the Replica prop
forum We also want to hear fromyou, so be sure to send your
(31:12):
questions, stories, and other projectsto your geek Fix at gmail dot com.
In the meantime, this has beenyour geek Fix.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.