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required. Terms and conditions apply if rated PG. Hello

1:20

and welcome back to the Abroad in Japan podcast. Probably

1:23

the best way of learning about life in Japan without

1:25

actually being in Japan. I'm your host Chris Baudin. We're

1:27

joined as always by England's top Japan

1:29

enthusiast back fresh from his holiday, Mr.

1:32

Pete Dolson himself. Pete, how are

1:34

you doing? You look thoroughly tanned. Oh

1:37

I don't feel fresh Chris. I

1:39

was up rather late last night knowing

1:41

full well I had to do this podcast

1:44

and also play an 11 side football match.

1:46

I was up quite late last night with

1:48

the neighbors watching Eurovision. Are you familiar with

1:50

Eurovision? Is Eurovision a thing over

1:52

in Japan? Do people talk about Eurovision?

1:54

I think the best thing about moving

1:56

to Japan is you never hear about

1:58

the Eurovision song contest ever. I

2:01

was never that big on it. I always felt...

2:04

No, me neither to be honest, but I

2:06

think when you get to my age you

2:08

really have to find the social occasions where

2:10

you can really and get

2:12

involved. Look, I don't understand

2:15

it. I don't understand why people

2:17

get excited about it. I find

2:19

all of the music pretty tawdry

2:21

and crap. But there's something

2:24

quintessentially. During the TV show in the

2:26

1990s called Going for

2:28

Gold, it was on 1pm

2:30

on BBC2,

2:33

one of our many five channels

2:36

back in the day that we had on

2:38

terrestrial television. It was basically a set of

2:41

people from the Netherlands

2:43

and Sweden and

2:45

Germany. They would answer questions.

2:47

It was all very polite and all

2:49

very pro-Euro and

2:52

positive and fun and

2:55

kitsch and kooky. That's

2:58

why I like

3:00

that side of Eurovision even though I

3:02

really don't care about the music or

3:04

the people or the

3:07

mania. If you watch any of

3:09

the BBC channels over here, people get very

3:11

excited about Eurovision. I don't really know why.

3:13

But I do enjoy the camaraderie and the

3:15

people being quite jingling and

3:17

fuking about the French. I'm bloody recent.

3:21

Surely good stuff. But no, I

3:23

remember the good old Eurovision contest.

3:25

I don't remember anyone

3:28

who's ever won it from the UK because

3:30

I don't think they ever did. I remember

3:32

being bitter that the UK was always like

3:35

people were biased in Europe and they never

3:37

voted for the UK. Yeah.

3:40

England. I tell you what, I

3:42

went to a Eurovision party. I don't actually know who won. I

3:44

went to bed. I was tired. It

3:46

was a long, long drive back

3:48

from my holidays. But yeah,

3:50

we managed to get down to... I can't remember

3:53

where we went. What's the bottom left

3:55

hand corner? Where's nuking? What's nuking? Cornwall?

3:57

Yeah, it's a bit of nuking. There

4:01

draw my way to new key and back and

4:03

yes think the car I imported from Japan was

4:05

absolutely fine It was even though there was a

4:07

couple of engine lights on and there has been

4:10

since I got it It

4:12

got me there got me back with

4:14

a with a modicum of fuss. So

4:16

well done the Toyota Incorporated

4:18

companies that created that car because it

4:20

got us there got us home No

4:23

fuss, but that's a good old 20th century keeps

4:25

on going I mean, you know if your cars

4:27

over 10 years old, there's always gonna be one

4:29

light on somewhere I mean, but I had a

4:32

my first car was a Fiat Pinto and there was

4:34

always a red light on for low oil or something

4:36

Right, just put the oil in the car some oil

4:38

and Chris. I mean that that one's a simple one.

4:40

I would say My dad

4:43

bought it for me It's like

4:45

my first car it cost a hundred pounds from

4:47

a scrap Scrapyard, and

4:49

we went in a scrapyard and the man was like there's

4:51

a thing over there. You can drive that I

4:56

like that you could I like that you've continued this

4:58

throughout your career. You were literally buying like a

5:00

boxy little care car Yeah That

5:04

I go over there, but I remember getting

5:06

it was a it was a fit punter It

5:08

was very rickety was smashed to pieces and it

5:10

was just dangerous It was a diesel engine from

5:12

like 1996 or something I

5:15

started up to start the car you had to

5:17

turn the key and wait five seconds for the

5:20

engine to heat up And like a

5:22

little light would come on It's like heating up

5:24

engine now And then you could turn the ignition

5:26

and it would come into life and it sounded

5:28

like a truck it was like It

5:31

was really like stupidly loud agricultural. I

5:33

think the word is yeah, it was a

5:35

bit like a tractor he used to Do

5:38

your fucking killer your land shouldn't be driving it

5:41

for fun and then meanwhile my girlfriend at the

5:43

time who was You

5:45

know who had a good dad He

5:48

bought like the greatest rental Cleo

5:50

a nice Swanky rental

5:52

which was really nice and pristine

5:54

and safe and had airbags I

5:57

don't think the fit print. Oh had an airbag so much as

5:59

like a broken uncovered that would fly open

6:01

if you break suddenly in the car.

6:03

It probably inflicted damage. It had air.

6:06

It had air. But

6:08

after a year, and I think it was kind of like

6:10

a test, a test to see if

6:13

I could keep the car and not crash it. Because

6:15

a lot of my friends, you know, I don't know

6:17

if it's just a UK thing, but a

6:19

lot of people crash in their first or second

6:21

year, like statistically quite a high proportion

6:23

of drivers, young drivers, crash in the first two

6:25

years. I knew quite a few people that did

6:28

crash their swanky boy racer cars. I didn't crash

6:30

mine. And then I got an upgrade to

6:32

a Vauxhall Vector, which you won't know what

6:34

that is to most listeners, but it's a

6:36

car that David Brent drives in the office.

6:38

And I felt like David Brent. And it

6:40

wasn't much better. It was released in Japan

6:42

as the English shitbag. But

6:45

to our Japan listeners. But interestingly,

6:47

we bought the Fiat Punto for 100 quid from the scrapyard.

6:50

And we took it back at the end of the year

6:52

and we're like, you can have it back now. And he's

6:54

like, I'll give you 50 quid for it. I

6:59

do like when dad sort of get

7:01

you stuff like that. They just want

7:03

to see you because you can kind of like

7:06

all he needs you to see you doing

7:08

is on one Sunday afternoon,

7:10

giving it a little wash, lifting

7:13

up the bonnet

7:16

and just pouring a bit of oil in

7:18

and taking care of it. Dad's are so

7:20

easy to please in that. If

7:22

there are any younger listeners listening, just

7:25

do something like that and your dad

7:27

will get you a better car, I'm

7:29

sure, because you are proving to him

7:32

that you care about things and you're

7:34

not, you know, you don't think everything

7:36

is disposable. They just need that little

7:38

bit of kind of thought and attention

7:40

to something they bought you. And it

7:42

will just play along for

7:44

a bit. Just play along for a

7:47

bit. It's great. This car. I like

7:49

how the windows don't go down and

7:51

how it has one gear, even its

7:53

manual. I quite like buying rickety old

7:55

cars and driving around. When I moved

7:57

to Japan, I got a Nissan Micra.

8:00

and rented it and it cost like $400 a month

8:03

and I was getting completely robbed by this transact.

8:05

I don't know why I agreed to it. Teacher

8:07

helped me get my car. It was nice

8:10

to drive for massively expensive and like a

8:12

quarter of my salary was going on this

8:14

fucking rental. And so my

8:16

friend sold me his Toyota

8:19

Starlet which was even more

8:21

rickety than the Fiat Punta. But

8:23

because it was a Toyota, dating back

8:25

to around the time you got your Toyota, like 1995

8:27

model, it just

8:30

kept going and it was indestructible. No

8:32

matter what you did to it, and again the oil light

8:34

was on the entire time, it just kept

8:36

going. And I eventually gave it to

8:38

my good friend Yuki, like a Japanese millionaire, and

8:41

rather than scrap it, he spent like 10

8:43

grand fixing it up and fixing the air

8:45

conditioning for the first time in 10 years

8:47

and making it operational. He loved it. He

8:49

thought it was like a toy car and

8:51

he took pride doing it up. So there's

8:54

something fun about a car at the

8:56

end of its tether, the end of its life, bringing it

8:58

back from the dead. And

9:00

using it every day. I know some people on

9:02

YouTube that still always enjoy me

9:04

talking about this bloody car I imported from Japan.

9:06

But it is a very, a quintessentially Japanese story

9:08

into the car that was never released in Japan.

9:11

But I would say that I

9:13

love watching guys and gals

9:15

on YouTube getting cars that

9:18

were destined for the scrap people and just getting them back

9:20

on the road because the

9:22

main expense of a car is building the

9:24

thing in the first place. So you can

9:26

talk about EVs and hybrids and stuff like

9:28

that. But fundamentally, if you're making a new

9:30

car, that is more destructive to the planet

9:32

than actually just maintaining a

9:35

car that was destined

9:37

for the scrap people. Surely. I mean like, how

9:39

much? I don't know, I think my toy vehicle

9:41

is pretty polluting. I was probably like the

9:44

smoke output of Bosnia just from my one

9:46

car. The smoke coming out. Within, within reason.

9:48

I don't know if that's actually. But

9:51

no, I, I. None of your cars. All right, none of

9:53

your. But,

9:55

no, it's fun. And I think you can take

9:57

that with any electronics or any device, right? There's

9:59

something nice. something that's destined for destruction.

10:01

It's been crafted with love and care by

10:04

Toy Ota and bringing it back from the

10:06

dead. And that's why I bought a K

10:08

car for a shilling in Sixpence for

10:11

Jenny Crocker. I love it. It's one of my favourite episodes

10:13

of you. I mean obviously next

10:15

to the last three episodes you've had

10:17

with Probably 2P and Ali Plum. You

10:19

know what, for one,

10:22

furious Chris that you've fallen in

10:24

love with a bigger boy that

10:26

has done more recent film. Another

10:29

old school movie, man. Interviews.

10:32

But I do love

10:34

Ali's interviews on the BBC because the good

10:36

thing about him is he's been doing it

10:39

for quite a while now and he has

10:42

repeat business, if you know what I mean. The

10:44

best thing you did back on

10:46

the radio was when you would interview someone

10:48

and then a year later they'd have another

10:50

film out and you'd interview them again and

10:52

again and again. And so you

10:54

sort of start to build up a little bit of

10:56

camaraderie and that's how good

10:58

Ali is that he fosters these relationships

11:00

and stuff. I mean obviously I'm fuming

11:03

about the Jennifer Lawrence story but that's

11:05

very natural for me to be angry

11:07

about it. That

11:09

was so good.

11:12

He shook his hand but not yours. But

11:15

you're back with me now so sucks

11:17

to be you. What I like about

11:19

Ali's experiences in Japan was he's

11:22

probably been home for like a week.

11:25

He's going to be like, right, I've done everything in Japan, I've done

11:27

everything in Japan, I don't think he'd go back again. And

11:29

right about now there's going to

11:31

be a little family chicky bird in his head

11:34

going to Japan. He's

11:36

going to be planning his next trip I

11:38

think. That's right. I gave him the Family Mark

11:40

Chicken. He made me take a photo where

11:42

I was handing it to him like a sword

11:44

outside the front of a Family Mark. I

11:47

was curious. He sort of butchered the

11:50

wrapping because with Family Mark Chicken you get like a

11:52

wrapper and you sort of tear off the top and

11:54

you can hold it in the paper wrapper so you

11:56

don't get the gallon of grease Will

11:58

have your fingers. The so of split

12:00

the paper in half but left is still arms

12:03

and turned the chicken on it's side and try

12:05

to eat it with the paper. Luck.

12:07

I guess or on a given any way

12:09

to order like everyone up a success as

12:11

you saw it. mess space enjoy that He

12:13

did enjoy the family my chickens are was

12:15

vindicated but he had a great trip and

12:18

and it's a me the best of his

12:20

hearing all this all the secret stories behind

12:22

the scenes I sound now. The. Act

12:24

as he doesn't like he does like big

12:26

that the gossip stuff they'll never bow to

12:28

talk about to be costly be say set

12:31

was also very very fond of our a

12:33

way that at this point we are storing

12:35

some nice him. A says

12:37

L A Chrysanthemum Pay Chris and Punishes Paint

12:39

my friends. Nice losing Say T A and

12:42

had an odd experience with a pedestrian and

12:44

an ambulance. The contacts with both from the

12:46

Us was standing across. hope that the Pocono

12:48

sanctions were me. Some an ambulance sirens blaring

12:50

quickly approaching us while we waited to the

12:52

amulets to pass one of the other pedestrians

12:54

took a look at the ambulance always is

12:57

is to assess the situation. Then after taking

12:59

a second to think he stepped out in

13:01

front of the vehicles which was forced to

13:03

wait for him to cross the street. He

13:05

took his sweet times. And can actually

13:07

walked across the road. My friend a nice

13:10

looked at each other in disbelief and started

13:12

cracking up a how absurd the situation. most

13:14

of either. Have you seen similar reactions to

13:16

the emergency services around Japan of good good

13:19

it and found at least one other person's

13:21

document? This any idea why the seems to

13:23

be more common her or the best nice

13:26

and. Bloody. Hell, I'm not on

13:28

the way. He was robbed and studio mysore

13:30

a fire truck. Screaming and

13:32

I have Sirens and. I

13:34

did that. We have this in the Uk

13:36

but the emergency vehicles in Japan the have

13:38

like a member of the team of the

13:40

vehicle as much as loud halo what it

13:42

really sounds how the window I really out

13:45

alive our our death. Ah and so I'd

13:47

love to Been there for this moment. That.

13:49

This this this pedestrian was lights on I

13:51

were all day as less causes sir. and

13:54

saucier like of over the road. I'm.

13:56

a set of is the very definition of

13:58

of of iginla is ready dick energy

14:00

or small dick energy it's one of the two

14:02

isn't it the dick involved somewhere I think kind

14:05

of like him thinking about well should I crush

14:07

should I I mean there could

14:09

be anyone in there they could be evil I

14:12

should be maybe Hitler is in the

14:14

back of that I should delay his

14:16

route to the hospital but yeah I

14:18

mean an astonishing bit of bit

14:20

of how could it delay an ambulance

14:22

getting to a hospital I mean the

14:24

ambulance just not absolutely plowing into the

14:27

guy should have run away but I

14:29

mean I I suspect what I do

14:31

know is ambulances in Japan travel really

14:33

slowly and I don't overly know

14:35

why that is like I think like

14:37

fire trucks they move pretty fast but

14:39

ambulance they take their sweet time and I

14:41

guess it's because they are worried about

14:44

people in the back in a way that we

14:46

don't really care and the UK and yeah sort

14:48

of speed run the traffic lights because we want

14:50

to get to the hospital to save the person

14:52

whereas in Japan maybe they're so old they have

14:54

to drive slowly I don't know but it's a

14:57

phenomenon that I've noticed where ambulances do go really

14:59

like a worryingly slow and I wouldn't want to

15:01

be in the back of one in emergency because

15:03

we're being to arrive on time so

15:05

maybe that's that's the only thing I could think

15:07

of the pedestrian was like oh they're going quite

15:09

slow I can make it kind of thing yeah

15:11

but still dickish

15:13

move nation maybe in particular nothing

15:15

special there you just met a

15:17

dickhead in Japan that's all

15:19

the way to it the law moral

15:22

fighter and speaking of

15:24

dickheads let's dive in to this

15:26

week's new story involving a restaurant

15:28

in Tokyo charging higher prices for

15:30

foreign tourists than Japanese locals what's

15:32

going on Pete tell us what's

15:34

going down well obviously

15:37

the yen is that an

15:39

all-time law I think at

15:41

the moment I was hearing sort of Ali

15:44

and a couple of other people's stories about

15:47

their time in Japan and being

15:50

furious because I you know

15:52

I'd break over it I

15:54

was experiencing the the very highest

15:57

yen to GBP. A

16:00

break money at transaction A translation but

16:02

say yeah I mean I mean a

16:05

is. Atrociously affordable, amazingly

16:07

affordable article about said Japan

16:09

at the moment I'm very

16:11

very jealous. But and she

16:13

buoy a seafood restaurants ah

16:15

l One particular should be

16:17

a seafood restaurant which no

16:19

one should go to a

16:21

third of. Visiting Japan clearly

16:23

as start offering and discounted

16:25

prices for domestic customers i

16:27

am a tobacco is a

16:29

new restaurant opened last month

16:31

and Cbs not far from

16:33

the subway a scramble as

16:35

a seafood. Restaurant in rather like Care

16:37

and and the Gop and rather than our

16:39

caught out as they basically give you like

16:41

an oldie can eat buffet at which obviously

16:44

if you are traveling on a budget. Smashing.

16:47

All you can he budget only can

16:49

eat. Simple thing is he could stomach

16:51

them as the month the oh that

16:53

is the widely variable at Call A

16:56

when it comes to i'm hand washing

16:58

and the cleanliness of has an affect

17:00

us as the it Ieds have a

17:02

typical as star. It's basically the if

17:05

you are coming to a restaurant with

17:07

locals all being a local you get

17:09

charged less and foreign tourists get charged

17:12

a little bit more. It's around about.

17:15

A thousand yen. Mall and

17:17

in pretty much every single situation the

17:19

weekday launched them and as as a

17:21

death the weekend holiday lunch or the

17:23

Japanese get charged about say one thousand.

17:27

Yen less sugar the in in less than

17:29

know what the for for ministers and I

17:31

don't usually a human being. it is

17:33

our about what it is of the moon.

17:35

eight dollars rights. I mean like a you

17:38

kind of them seeing this more and more.

17:40

Is this like a big deal in Japan?

17:42

This the Japanese it because of the end

17:45

because the Yen and presumably. quite a lot

17:47

of inflation hand and goes going on the non

17:49

with us are you in a situation where i'm

17:51

a lot of them japanese are getting charged a

17:53

little bit less than than saddam the success or

17:56

just i presume the south and kind of took

17:58

place but it wasn't quite as in

18:00

Sippid it wasn't quite as out there as

18:02

you'd see elsewhere I suppose. I mean the

18:05

times I've seen it usually at bars and

18:07

places they're very touristy like Golden

18:09

Guy, I mean I was in a pub with Connor

18:12

and Pete one night and we looked

18:14

there's two menus, one English one Japanese, you

18:16

can see the drinks are marked up like

18:19

a few hundred yen more for

18:21

foreign tourists. I'm a little bit sympathetic

18:23

to some Japanese establishments, there's a Izzakaya

18:26

the other week that sort of said if you

18:29

can't speak Japanese don't come

18:31

in kind of thing which is a bit of

18:33

a dickish move. No

18:35

looked into it and his restaurant's in an area

18:37

of Asakusa where there's a lot of tourists and

18:39

he claimed that

18:41

tourists were spending sort of

18:43

50% of what a Japanese

18:46

local would normally pay

18:48

for at one of those restaurants. It's unfortunate he's

18:50

in the area with a lot of hostels and

18:53

the sort of folks that are probably staying hostels are traveling

18:55

on a budget they go into his place they're like I'll

18:57

have a piece of fish and usually

18:59

a Japanese customer would spend a lot more

19:02

and get a lot more food and things

19:04

so I can kind of understand

19:06

his exasperation a bit. Well

19:08

there's so many stories that we hear here on

19:10

this podcast where people go to go on nights

19:13

out and they're on a budget and stuff and

19:15

then suddenly a Japanese benefactor

19:17

decides to take you under the wing and

19:19

they spend like so and they're always like

19:21

astonished about how much money this guy, it's

19:23

usually a guy because we're idiots, guys

19:27

spend and it's always

19:29

like in the hundreds and that's like a normal

19:32

you know rounded drinks or

19:34

kind of drinking or eating situation for

19:36

the Japanese and that's really not our

19:38

especially if we're like we're especially if you're used to

19:40

sort of eating I don't know fast food or whatever

19:42

I don't know if you're if that's if

19:45

that kind of makes up most of your most

19:47

of your diet I think sometimes you

19:49

can be shocked as to how you

19:52

know how much a good old bloody

19:54

meal that costs a

19:56

fair whack of cash really runs

19:58

to. Yeah, I mean,

20:00

I don't, but I just don't know what the solution

20:02

is really. I guess they're just

20:04

going to put their prices out right. This restaurant though,

20:07

you know, it's what,

20:09

$36 weekday lunch for Japanese

20:11

or Japanese resident customers. Well, hey, that's

20:13

me. Or it's 6,500 yen,

20:15

sort of $45 or something for foreign travellers. And

20:21

like, it's quite an expensive

20:23

lunch, even if you're Japanese paying that price. But

20:26

also like, the problem with this is, I mean,

20:28

how does this work? If you, Pete Donaldson,

20:31

has a Japanese dad and you look

20:34

Japanese and you came to Japan as

20:36

a tourist, would you get

20:38

the Japanese price? Would they?

20:40

I think you could probably get away. Yeah. How

20:43

do you prove that you're kind of- Exactly. And this is the

20:45

fucking stupid problem. It doesn't make any sense really. It's a nightmare.

20:48

This is why they get around it by having

20:50

the English and Japanese menu because most foreign tourists

20:52

won't be any the wiser when they can't read

20:54

the menu where the prices are different, right? That's

20:56

the genius of it. I'm sure they've experienced it so many

20:58

times and not even noticed because I've been reading the

21:01

English menu, definitely. It's

21:04

just a right old problem and I don't really know what

21:06

they could do. I think

21:08

that if the only way around this is

21:10

to charge sort of a greater

21:13

landing fee. I don't know if you already pay

21:15

a fee as a tourist, come in Japan, in

21:17

the price of your airline ticket, come in Japan. But

21:20

they should probably have like a 500

21:22

yen fee to just enter Japan, full

21:24

stop as a foreign tourist maybe and

21:27

then use that money to help fund

21:30

bits and pieces of the country that are suffering

21:32

from all sorts of issues like

21:34

over tourism. But

21:36

I don't know. I think it's more of

21:39

a problem for inflation

21:41

in general because nobody's putting the wages up in

21:43

Japan. Although I think they have recently. But

21:47

yeah, I'm not sure if this is a

21:49

good idea. It's too- Yeah, people are just

21:51

forced to put, you know, reduced services and

21:54

put their prices up so the Japanese are

21:56

getting squeezed out. I would posit that it's

21:59

not made- making the prices any cheaper

22:01

for Japanese residents, it's just making it

22:03

more expensive for foreigners. So it's

22:06

a difficult situation and I wouldn't want to

22:08

be a small business owner or

22:11

any business owner in Japan right now

22:13

because the yen is so weak and

22:15

you've really got to be very careful.

22:20

I get the sense that kind of independence, hostelries

22:23

and restaurants, they're not fly by

22:25

night but they do disappear very,

22:28

very quickly and change

22:31

format, change ownership quite a lot. If

22:35

you go to any sort of built up

22:37

area in Tokyo or Osaka

22:39

or whatever, you can be in one

22:42

bar and then you come back about three

22:44

months later and it's doing something completely different.

22:50

The argument you hear with these places is that

22:52

by having foreign tourists come in, they're

22:55

losing their repeat customers or they're sort

22:57

of forcing out their repeat customers which

22:59

are the sort of lifeblood of the business. So

23:03

I think rather than having a two

23:05

tier pricing model, the solution is to have

23:07

more like a point card system where

23:09

if I'm a Japanese local going to the Iza

23:11

Kaio or going to this place, I have a

23:14

point card, I go and I

23:16

get a discount as a regular returning customer.

23:21

I think that would solve a lot of issues for

23:23

everyone. As a regular customer, you get

23:25

a discount for the point card. As a

23:27

business, you get the repeat customers coming back, keeping

23:29

the business going and that way you don't need

23:31

a two tier price system and

23:34

you can develop some loyalty and whatnot. Do

23:36

this on a drink by drink level. I

23:39

have been so part

23:41

of the red eye

23:44

beer and tomato juice franchise for such a

23:46

long time that I should

23:48

really be getting a discount because I'm the

23:51

only foreignably drinking that muck to be quite

23:53

frank. You are and you should get a

23:55

special discount at Bar Rockaholic in Shibuya, given

23:57

how much you've funded it over the years.

24:00

your integrated... I can have a shower in

24:02

the evenings. But

24:05

I think that's a better solution than this

24:07

kind of model. And yeah,

24:09

I remember there was a... they called

24:11

it like inbound Dom because

24:13

Dom like domburi, an inbound inbound tourist.

24:15

So they had like these seafood bowls

24:17

that were getting really expensive because of

24:20

foreign tourists. But then they weren't giving

24:22

the Japanese a cheaper price either. It's

24:24

everyone's game screen for these stupid prices.

24:26

But yeah, it's a problem. It's

24:28

a problem. But point cards

24:30

for all solves the problem. And

24:32

thus I must admit though, I also hate point

24:34

cards massively because you need one for

24:37

every single restaurant or shop in Japan and you

24:39

can't fit them in your wallet. And I had

24:41

this debate with Connor recently about how much I

24:43

hate them and I refuse to get point

24:45

cards. Anyway, it's a story for

24:47

another day. Well, I mean, I would say that

24:50

the main crux of World Cup position I

24:52

saw you guys having was

24:54

the whole Japanese trash in the pocket

24:56

situation. So at any point you could

24:59

be thrown out points cards not knowing

25:01

that it wasn't trash. Because all of

25:03

your rubbish is in your pockets. It

25:05

is true. I remember the best point card

25:07

I ever got was the hub British pub

25:09

chain. Oh, beautiful. When I used

25:11

to go to a hub like nine years ago and

25:13

then have this little scratch card thing and you'd go

25:16

in and they'd like rub it or whatever and you

25:18

get some extra points. And after like, I think like

25:20

10,000 points, you'd get like a free drink. It was

25:22

magic. It was a simple time,

25:24

Pete, a simple time. Yeah. And then I

25:26

didn't go to hub ever again. But anyway,

25:28

we're back. We've never gone back since. We're

25:30

back in just a moment, guys. We have stories,

25:32

comments and questions over in the fax machine. A

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27:26

we're back with a fax machine.

27:28

What have we got this week from our listeners,

27:30

Mr. Dawson? We've got a message

27:32

from Mads as our first fax machine entry

27:34

for the week. Hey, you both. Hope you're

27:37

doing well. When traveling from the UK to

27:39

Japan, do you have any particular recommendations in

27:41

terms of airlines? My girlfriend and I have

27:43

managed to accumulate enough miles to cover a

27:45

round trip with Business Class, which

27:47

she's never tried before. Being Norwegian, we're not too

27:49

familiar with the airlines going between the UK, mainland

27:51

Europe, and Japan. Which

27:53

to bet on? Asks Mads. ANA,

27:56

Thai Airways, British Airways, Air China,

27:58

etc. Thank you. events and

28:01

warm wishes from called and

28:03

overcast Oxford Mads in Oxford

28:06

and Norwegian away from home for a

28:08

bit and think of heading to Japan.

28:11

Oh point cards again back to

28:13

point cards already after our last discussion.

28:17

I mean I when I go between

28:19

the UK and Japan I fly British

28:21

Airways, ANA and Japan Airlines and they're

28:23

all good yeah but not British Airways.

28:26

Although the staff and I some British Airways

28:28

they are always late, something goes wrong. Literally

28:30

one time I was at NARRI

28:32

to go back to the UK and

28:35

I got on a I looked out the window at the

28:37

plane on the runway when we're sort of in the lounge

28:39

waiting to board the plane and I

28:41

saw lots of scary hand gestures that

28:43

look like crashing planes and

28:45

I was like I don't want to see this and sure

28:47

enough over the loudspeaker they

28:50

were like sorry guys we can't get the

28:52

plane started. Sorry guys the plane looks a

28:54

bit crashy today so we're gonna run to

28:56

the hotel and we'll have a cracking end

28:58

tomorrow morning when it looks a little less

29:01

crashy. Essentially that was that

29:03

was what they said it was something like these

29:05

these new high-tech planes sometimes they just don't want

29:07

to switch on. I was like that's not good

29:10

enough reason. My feet put and tail

29:12

away switched on. They've fucking gone on and

29:14

that. Put some oil in it. But

29:17

like ANA and Japan Airlines have never said

29:19

that. Oh we can't get the plane switched

29:21

on today guys. They don't tell you that's

29:23

why. That's it in Japanese. But I mean

29:25

ANA Japan Airlines they're a lot more punctual

29:27

a lot more comfortable just a

29:29

lot better and if I could choose between

29:31

the three they would come on to. ANA is

29:33

the best though no doubt about it. ANA is the

29:35

flagship carrier of Japan and they've

29:38

always just got the tippest to toppest

29:40

best service. Littlest, topplest. Comes at a

29:42

bloody price though. Whatever. Yeah I am

29:44

still paying off the the

29:46

remnants of my october. No it's August.

29:48

August trip. I'm still dealing

29:50

with the financial repercussions of my choice

29:53

of getting my partner in the air

29:55

near the room their business

29:57

class package. It

30:00

was Sarah's first time to Japan. I'm

30:03

gonna do it properly. I'm gonna save up

30:05

and yeah, I mean I don't mean good

30:07

god. I'd give that That's all bums ever

30:09

It's one boy's friend spenders, but em, but

30:12

yeah in the room is their business package

30:14

is very very good indeed And but it

30:16

is incredibly expensive. I mean you are I

30:18

mean it's cracker of like five grand I

30:21

think now it's it's really super expensive now,

30:23

but but share with is obviously always the

30:25

cheapest direct fly Probably say And

30:28

especially we've got points and stuff. I've got an MX card that

30:30

I throw on where I can and

30:32

air China Fire Beijing,

30:35

I think they're probably the very cheapest

30:37

but you have to go via Beijing

30:40

and you know air China I mean they

30:42

don't don't do in the past don't do

30:44

it Don't know air China are not got

30:46

flame with the one you kind of if

30:48

you can I've done I've

30:50

done I think A&A via Frankfurt if you

30:52

can get if you get change in Frankfurt

30:55

if you coming from the UK If

30:58

you can get via via there or

31:00

air France do I think a similar

31:02

package as well from Paris Charles de

31:04

Gaulle But yeah, if you can get

31:06

like a short, you know one hour

31:08

stay somewhere like Frankfurt or or Paris

31:10

That's usually pretty good as well. You

31:12

usually serve a bit of bit of

31:14

money there on a business class package

31:17

Yeah, it's I think my I think my days

31:19

of doing business classes are over so

31:21

I have responsibilities and you know

31:24

Crack out the violin he's blowing all

31:26

his money on a rickety toilet Yeah,

31:30

British Airways are the cheapest though That's

31:32

why I fly them We got a

31:34

story from a question from Brandon who says LA fellas

31:36

I recently came back from a very fun trip to

31:38

Tokyo and I decided it was time

31:41

to continue my Japanese lessons After a

31:43

strong start I found I had problems when I

31:45

started learning kanji characters as you know kanji can

31:47

represent many different sounds depending on Where it's placed

31:49

in a sentence and such how am

31:52

I supposed to memorize all the sounds and all the rules? Is

31:54

this something that just comes with time and exposure to the

31:56

language? What's worked with you guys? Please send

31:58

help. Love the channel guys. What am I?

32:00

my favourite parts of the week is listening

32:02

in. Keep up the good work Brandon from

32:04

Carson, California. We now turn to Pete Dawson

32:07

who's mastered all the kanji for the secrets

32:09

on learning Japanese. Yes, I

32:11

know all of the wiggly lines and

32:13

I've been studying them for a very,

32:15

very, very long period of

32:18

time. I've got a bloody clue

32:20

Chris, I mean in

32:22

your first couple of years of living in Japan you sat

32:24

down and you learnt like a

32:26

thousand kanji or something like that. How many

32:28

of them do you still remember and how

32:31

do they change in between sentences? Is this

32:35

something that you just

32:37

vibe it out? Much like English

32:39

you vibe a lot of it out as

32:41

well but it just seems very

32:43

in a world of, in a country

32:45

that's obsessed with rules and regs, a

32:48

lot of it does seem quite vibe based sometimes. I

32:51

mean it's not easy. I'm actually working

32:54

on a video talking about learning Japanese

32:56

right now that's forced me to go

32:58

back and revisit the nightmare and the

33:00

undertaking that is learning Japanese because it's

33:02

not easy. And literally the only thing

33:04

I can say Brandon is time, time

33:06

will be your ally because there's no

33:09

shortcut to learning Japanese. Especially

33:11

when it comes to writing, reading kanji characters

33:13

you know. I mean always try and

33:16

learn them, I like learning them separate so I

33:18

learnt how to write the characters and

33:20

what they meant but not their pronunciation. So like

33:23

you know I could write the kanji for food

33:26

or to eat, tabadu or whatever I could

33:28

like but I couldn't pronounce it, I didn't know how to

33:30

read it. But

33:32

then I learnt, while learning characters you're learning like

33:34

words at the same time right and I learnt

33:36

the word for tabadu means to eat and

33:39

then I sort of connected them up a few months down the

33:41

line and I sort of did it that way. So I recommend

33:43

learning the meaning and the reading

33:45

and the writing sort of separately. But

33:48

there's some good things, there's Hey Sig Remembering

33:50

the Kanji, the book that I swear by,

33:52

there's Onee Kani which is a really good

33:54

online app that a lot of people swear

33:56

by, it's more kind of modern and

33:58

the new way of doing it. doing it but

34:01

just takes time honestly it

34:03

just takes a lot of time patience but

34:06

good luck with it it is rewarding it is a lot of

34:08

fun and I can't recommend

34:10

learning Japanese enough it'll change your life.

34:12

One last question. By the end you

34:14

can learn how to program an air

34:17

conditioner on a 2000 total

34:19

century if you learn all your

34:21

Kanji and you're very good. And

34:23

switch on a British Airways plane. Hello

34:27

my name is Pafidius Pete and Claire Voinke-Chris my

34:29

name is Bryce I'm a long time listener to

34:31

the podcast I'm a current jet living in Kitakyushu

34:34

and having a great time. Oh

34:36

Kitakyushu the kind of what

34:38

else it's kind of like the grit and grime

34:41

of kyushu it's this very like rough around the

34:43

edges city it's where we kind of started

34:45

our cycle from in April

34:47

really cool place. I feel that my lifestyle

34:50

is not as healthy as it could be I'm finding

34:52

it all too easy to skip a proper breakfast and

34:54

grab a box or two a famy

34:56

chicken on my way to work oh

34:58

dear that and I'm definitely not

35:00

exercising like I should. Guys I

35:03

seek your wisdom and a land where fried chicken

35:05

is found on every street corner how would you

35:07

recommend maintaining a healthy lifestyle in Japan?

35:09

Best wishes Bryce. Well

35:12

Bryce stop getting the chicken is step

35:14

one phase one of the master plan

35:16

stop buying things that are bad for

35:18

you. Step two buy a

35:21

lettuce leaf I don't know you're asking

35:23

the wrong person because I literally just

35:25

buy fried chicken myself even now

35:28

Pete. Get really stressed out I

35:31

find I lose weight when I'm really stressed out just

35:33

get really stressed out for a few weeks and

35:36

just do that really. How does one get stressed out? That's

35:39

a good point actually yeah you've got a care you've

35:41

got a care Chris that's the first step. You

35:43

can't be footloose and fancy free the

35:46

life of a young youtuber you've got to be stressed

35:48

out about something yeah you got a

35:50

flyboat a few ways that's the secret

35:52

to stress. Oh my flight got

35:55

cancelled for no reason because somebody tripped over

35:57

a cable and fucking Heathrow Airport. I

36:02

mean, yeah, you're

36:04

asking the wrong man, the wrong man.

36:06

Just eat more salad, isn't it? Eat

36:08

more salad. Eat more protein. I

36:10

mean, I guess the thing is with Japan

36:12

as well, in work, a lot of like

36:14

the social events are built around alcohol as

36:16

well. And it's quite hard

36:18

to not drink if you are in

36:21

a working for a Japanese business. I

36:25

think even you must have been surprised as

36:27

a British binge drinker, classic British British binge

36:29

drinker that you go to Japan and a

36:31

lot of the social events are just built

36:34

around a lovely foaming yellow

36:36

ale. That's true. That's true

36:38

a lot really. Absolutely. The

36:41

work part is the Enkai are definitely

36:43

a reason to, definitely something

36:46

to avoid. Or if you go just drink vodka

36:48

or something that's not beer. Right. But

36:51

I mean, Don Quixote have like really good

36:53

cheap workout items from the gym, like gym

36:55

stuff you can play, like rubber bands and

36:58

skipping ropes and hula hoops. Do

37:00

that. Get some hula hoops and standard hoops.

37:02

And obviously, I guess if you're like a

37:04

runner and stuff, if you're

37:06

running any point during like May

37:08

and September, tonight you can't do

37:10

it. It's awful. Yeah.

37:13

It is like being wrapped in one of those like

37:15

sweat bags, you know, one that Rocky wears because it

37:18

is a joke temperature outside. I

37:21

mean, I thought I would be fitter and

37:23

slimmer after the cycle from cycling

37:25

two weeks every day, 100 kilometres a day, whatever.

37:28

And I really didn't lose weight. I think

37:30

I put weight on because I was throwing

37:32

so much stuff into my stomach to power

37:34

the fires that kept my legs going. And

37:38

I think I actually put on weight. I know Connor put on weight. So

37:41

I'm not convinced exercise is the key. It's what

37:43

you eat, what you diet on the most. I

37:45

had this conversation with. Yeah, you can't

37:48

work off a bad diet, can you? Yeah.

37:51

I mean, Ian taught me the secret is to cook your

37:53

own food at home and eat

37:56

healthy. But I just don't have time

37:58

to do that really, honestly. So,

38:00

I don't know. What's

38:02

up? It's a debate for another day. But

38:04

just stop eating the fried chicken. Eat whole chicken

38:06

without the fried batter. And that is the

38:08

key, Bryce. Best of luck, though. Hope you have

38:11

a good time. Kitakushu. God forbid the summer

38:13

in Kitakushu, Bryce. God forbid it'll be hot. Keep

38:15

the stories, questions, comments. Coming into a Brawn

38:17

Japan podcast@gmail.com. Either at the email or down in

38:19

the comments below here on YouTube, if you're

38:21

watching along. For now, though, guys, have yourself a

38:23

great few days. We'll be back later the

38:25

week till later again. And yeah,

38:28

stay hungry, stay foolish, stay

38:30

hungry. Why am I quoting

38:32

Steve Jobs? Get away from me. I need to go

38:34

and eat some chicken. I haven't had chicken today yet.

38:37

Leave my fried chips and chicken. Let's

38:40

have some chicken. The slogan for a Brawn

38:42

in Japan. Let's

38:45

have some of that. Leave Brawn in Japan

38:47

podcast. A

39:10

Brawn in Japan is a stack production

39:12

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shrimp scampi. Now that's music to

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