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1:03

Wow. Hello

1:23

and welcome to the Abroad in Japan podcast.

1:25

Probably the best way of learning about life

1:27

in Japan without actually being in Japan. I'm

1:29

your host, Chris Baudin. We're joined as always

1:31

by England's top Japan enthusiast, Mr. Pete Dawson

1:33

himself. Pete, how the devil are you doing?

1:35

What's going on? Hello, London calling, London calling.

1:37

How is everybody? Is everybody keeping safe in

1:39

their beds? Hello.

1:42

That's all I've got. World War II simulation. That's all

1:44

I've got. Hello, Johnny calling. Well,

1:47

look at this. If I was going to listen to Pete

1:49

Radio, I would hold this. This is

1:51

a Kenco cassette radio player that I

1:53

bought three days ago. Yes.

1:56

The coffee provider Kenco. What's going on

1:58

here? Don't you ever care? The

2:01

Kenco Corporation, they used to make like cassette

2:03

players and CDs. I remember the coffee people

2:05

doing Kenco. How did Kenco get away

2:08

with making coffee when Kenco, the electronics

2:10

manufacturer, look, put simply,

2:12

you've got a little Walkman there for those not listening

2:14

on video, not watching

2:16

video, you've got a little Walkman

2:19

there that seems to be a radio

2:21

as well, and it's got like

2:24

a big retractable and extractable. Indeed.

2:27

It's on without me realising it.

2:30

Still got a bit of FM in Japan

2:32

then. Yeah, do we not have

2:34

FM? We

2:36

do have FM, but we've got... My

2:38

Toyota Century has two channels, five live

2:40

on AM, and we've

2:44

got Radio 2 on

2:46

FM, so it's absolutely nightmarish. Cracking,

2:49

right stuff. Not much like finding a radio though. Come

2:52

on. It's FM. Everything's digital nowadays

2:54

though, isn't it? That's the great thing about

2:56

staying in Japanese hotels. There's always like a

2:58

little FM radio installed. If you've got like

3:00

a 1970s hotel, you'll always have a little

3:02

radio installed in your bed. Yeah,

3:05

they sort of phased those out. When I

3:07

first got here in 2012, like so many

3:09

business hotels in Japan had that kind of

3:11

unit in between the two twin beds, and

3:14

they had a cassette player, but they've gone

3:16

now and they've taken history with them. But

3:18

like, look at this, I've got a cassette, and I

3:20

don't know how to open it. There we go. And

3:23

it's a set of my favourite

3:25

Japanese artist, Tazuro Yamashita, which I

3:27

bought the other day at Tower

3:29

Records, for a video that

3:31

you may or may not yet see, which

3:33

is coming out on Sunday, June the 2nd.

3:35

So actually... Yes,

3:39

it's out, isn't it? It's out now. But we're

3:41

recording just before it comes out. We're recording

3:43

way in advance now, because we fell foul of

3:45

Chris having to do, I don't

3:47

know, cycling up a volcano or whatever he gets

3:49

up to. And so

3:51

we thought, you know what, let's get ahead,

3:54

so that Pete doesn't have what can only

3:56

be described as an aneurysm. That's a spirit.

3:59

You were saying about... You'd bought a cassette

4:01

from Tower Records mirroring the

4:03

fact that you bought I think a kiss did you buy

4:05

did we have Tower Records? in the UK I Don't

4:09

think we did did we it was

4:11

always like HMV or MVC or whatever

4:14

it's called and version records Virgin

4:17

Records are still around a little bit. I think although

4:19

they only left Japan not that long ago Kind

4:22

of the iconic Virgin megastores, but

4:25

yeah tower records are still good fun though. It's my

4:27

favorite shop in Tokyo I've got video coming out which

4:29

is out now which is your watch guys called I Tried

4:33

every Japanese station in Tokyo

4:35

every Japanese station every train station in Tokyo

4:37

nice And I spent a

4:40

long day again every single stop on the

4:42

Yamanote line all 30 of them right

4:44

it was it was hell on earth It's not

4:46

as fun as it sounds no, and I tried

4:48

to do one thing each stop and for Shibuya

4:51

I went to Tower Records and bought Tatsroyo

4:53

Mashtron cassette and then the second to

4:55

last stop you're a couture I went

4:58

to the electronics store and I bought

5:00

a cassette player to play my cassette

5:02

to play the cassette Oh, the cycle

5:04

of the circle basically Japan a circle line

5:08

It's closed. It's like the the snake

5:10

ate the tail of a snake fantastic.

5:12

That's right I didn't know that the first

5:14

stop is Tokyo station actually they like numbered

5:17

the stations and take a stations number one,

5:19

but Yeah, it was really

5:21

it was cool. I discovered some parts of Tokyo I

5:23

didn't know existed like the nicest place we went to

5:25

was a Nezu shrine which

5:27

made it to the video it's beautiful shrine

5:30

And it's got like the Tori gates like you

5:32

find in the fishy Mianari Tisha Yeah, we got

5:34

like the snaking kind of Tori gates up the

5:36

hill There they got

5:38

that in Tokyo. It was quite nice. There was nobody there

5:40

good to enjoy it myself On

5:43

the day before I left Japan

5:46

Time before last I

5:48

did a similar trip I was like, you know, I'm just

5:50

gonna get on the Yamanote land just go around and see

5:52

what's around there and I think I was round in Guy

5:56

must have been near Akihabara, you know those kind

5:58

of weird stations Not

6:01

quite Akihabara on the old

6:03

Circle Line. It's quite Akihabara. And

6:05

the Pory and Kamenai. Kamenai, I'm

6:07

looking at the, now, Oji and

6:09

Kamenai. Is that on the Circle

6:11

Line? Either way, Otsuka, places like

6:13

that. The

6:16

only thing that really tickled me

6:19

was a massive chimney. That was

6:21

just a big chimney burning nappies

6:23

or whatever. Just burning trash 24-7.

6:27

But it really dominated the skyline. But it is worth doing,

6:29

just getting a bit of a scope for the

6:31

whole place. Because obviously you're going

6:34

to be going to your Imperial Palaces. You're

6:36

going to be travelling to Akihabara and Kanda and

6:38

Shimbashi and places like that. But

6:40

yeah, getting a little bit of a... Because

6:42

the first place I stayed in was around

6:45

Shinigawa, sort of, where?

6:49

In Tokyo, the first time I went around that

6:51

way. Real business

6:53

districts. Oh, Shirodome. Shirodome and stuff. Yeah,

6:55

Shirodome and stuff. Massive, massive hotel in

6:57

Shirodome. And then I moved over to

7:00

Shibuya and Shiniguka and I was like,

7:02

oh, yeah, this is better, actually, for

7:04

my interests. Drinking. Yeah,

7:06

Shirodome is cool. It's more like

7:08

Shirodome and the skyscrapers. It's more

7:10

like honeymoon couples. It's a sort

7:12

of honeymoon spot. Nice

7:14

place, nice place. Not Shiniguka or Shibuya there, for

7:17

sure. It was cool. I'm

7:19

looking forward to seeing, you know, looking forward to

7:21

sharing some of these places I went with viewers though.

7:24

I think people want to see more

7:26

of the unseen hidden Tokyo, right? And

7:30

not even, it's so hidden, not even I know where it is.

7:32

So I had to go and look for it myself. And I

7:34

did. And now I know where it is. And

7:38

it's at Nishinipori Station, if you're wondering where

7:40

the hidden Tokyo is. But checking out,

7:42

we've got a story this week from Chad, who says,

7:44

hello corrupt Chris and panhandling P. Corrupt Chris,

7:46

what is this? I've been living

7:48

in Osaka for a year now. I love punk rock

7:50

and actually made friends with a local band. At

7:53

the beginning of the night, the lead vocalist of the

7:55

band came up to me and thanked me for coming

7:57

to support his band's EP launch. He was wearing a

7:59

canary yellow. three-piece southern

8:01

gentleman type suit which was very eye-catching

8:03

so I knew he'd be quite the

8:05

character. As the evening went on

8:07

I noticed him getting more and more drunk

8:10

and I was thinking oh boy this performance

8:12

is gonna be interesting. Well I had no

8:14

idea just how interesting. During

8:16

his performance he was

8:18

flailing around managed

8:20

to wander off stage and after being

8:22

hauled back up by one of his

8:24

bandmates he proceeded to topple over again

8:27

yet he continued singing while spread out prone

8:29

on the floor. There was a

8:31

pause in between songs and I turned to talk

8:33

to a friend. When I turned back around after

8:36

what was a few seconds he was standing

8:38

full Captain Morgan pose with his leg on

8:40

a speaker totally naked. He then

8:42

proceeded to perform for another 20 minutes naked

8:44

and even jumped off the stage again fully

8:47

naked. Have you guys had any crazy things

8:49

like this happen to you Chad? No

8:51

Chad, no I have not had this happen

8:54

ever. What is

8:56

this? I would say that the

8:58

Japanese male there's something wrong with

9:00

them they love getting their meat

9:02

and tote potatoes out they'd love getting

9:05

absolutely Billy Box for no

9:07

reason and if you're in the punk

9:09

rock space one would suggest that you were only seconds

9:11

away. I think we heard from a couple

9:14

of people before where like we

9:17

saw like a punk band and

9:19

they were completely naked so I

9:21

like the fact in my mind I think

9:24

that he's not even releasing an EP he's

9:26

just like he's standing for

9:28

early problems I'm just gonna

9:30

drink and you're gonna have a good time and

9:33

yeah I just yeah brilliant it's

9:35

exactly what you want from a trip

9:37

to Japan just go watch a punk

9:39

rock band because people go a bit

9:41

insane it's great. You're

9:43

right as well like guys do like to get naked

9:45

here I don't know I went to a work gathering

9:49

once a log cabin in Yamagata

9:51

and with some teachers five

9:54

or six Japanese teachers and a fellow like

9:57

foreign colleague and yeah they just got They

10:00

just took their clothes off and started running around.

10:02

It was like what the fuck is going on

10:04

here? It's really

10:06

weird. It's very odd. Yeah, but I love

10:08

to do it. I don't know why it's

10:13

It's very liberating but I would say

10:15

that I Even

10:18

like when I'll go much Other

10:20

recent trip went to DDT the wrestling I

10:22

mean everyone's almost naked anywhere because the wrestlers

10:25

they got even more naked, you know

10:27

they had like those kind of jockstrap

10:29

trousers where it covers the Unmentionables

10:32

at the front the gentleman's agreement as a

10:34

podcast once said and Leaves

10:37

the buttocks completely, you know

10:39

out and about and they were jamming each

10:41

other's faces in their bums and stuff And

10:43

like there's just something funny about

10:46

bombs that the Japanese find

10:48

absolutely heartbreakingly

10:50

interesting Well

10:54

on this occasion, I still don't know why why why

10:56

they they did get naked Yeah,

10:58

what do you mean? Just just happens it and

11:00

it wasn't the first time at work party crazy

11:03

old work parties What a shame but yeah

11:05

Chad that's I didn't he didn't say

11:07

the name of the band either did he probably

11:09

fucking reason? Yeah, give us the details man. Let

11:12

us know Well,

11:14

we've had a story that's been ongoing for many

11:16

years now Actually, it's one of the first stories we covered

11:19

in 2018 we start this podcast and that was the story

11:21

of Japanese billionaire You suck my

11:23

Zauer owner former owner of

11:25

Zozo town a clothing store Online

11:28

shop they sold for billions. He was gonna

11:30

go to the moon on Elon Musk's Incredible

11:33

starship rocket and

11:36

it's sort of been this then he you know, he

11:38

did some test things He was gonna take some artists

11:40

with him. There's gonna be magical and

11:43

I think deep down we all need it

11:45

It was never ever gonna happen Believe

11:47

it or not. It's not happening anymore

11:49

He canceled his flight on Elon Musk's rocket and

11:51

you knew shit was going down When

11:54

neither of them followed each other on

11:56

Twitter anymore, Elon Musk famously was he

11:58

doesn't like someone he just unfollows

12:00

them and yeah they're not

12:02

friends they're not friends anymore. What's going on there Pete?

12:04

Fill us in. Why didn't you cancel?

12:07

Yeah well on Friday night the Dear Moon

12:09

project applied to launch a Japanese billionaire and

12:11

10 other crew members on

12:13

a circumlunar flight aboard SpaceX's

12:15

Starship vehicle was cancelled. The

12:19

financial back of the project, Yusaku Mazawa

12:22

explained his decision on X, Elon's garden

12:24

so to speak. He basically said that

12:26

when he agreed to this mission in 2018 he wanted to

12:29

launch by 2023. Now my priorities have changed presumably

12:34

he wants to not be in space and

12:36

be in the world I don't really know.

12:40

So yeah he had a net

12:42

worth about three billion obviously the

12:44

in between 2018

12:46

and now the pandemic and stuff

12:49

like that his net worth is

12:51

halved so he also went to

12:53

space in 2021. He did yeah.

12:56

Soyuz vehicle for a 12-day

12:59

trip to the ISS so

13:01

it sounds very much like

13:03

he's had his taste of

13:06

the biscuit and he doesn't want any more can't

13:08

be asked he's like the Russians got me

13:10

there sorry Elon the Russians got me there

13:12

I'm not going to spend money on your

13:14

silly space adventures I've already been I've only

13:16

gone up and also I watched a lot

13:18

of your rockets explode recently. Yeah probably didn't

13:20

help either. I went up to

13:22

the ISS International Space Station you can go

13:24

up on it for about 80 million dollars

13:28

a pop and you can fly from

13:31

Baikonir Cosmodrome on a Russian rocket right

13:33

from 80 million quid and you

13:35

get to spend 10 to 12 days up

13:37

on International Space Station and a

13:39

few folks have done it. Imagine

13:41

coughing up that much money. I

13:44

think if I had a few billion quid kicking around

13:46

I might be tempted to do it but

13:49

I won't even dare to drain at this

13:51

point. There's all

13:53

these silly space there's like the Richard Branson one right

13:55

we pay like 500 grand or 250 grand to go

13:57

on his

14:01

one, what's it called? Virgin? Oh, I

14:03

don't know, the beard. Norbit. The big

14:05

space beard. Virgin Earth, oh fuck, I can't remember

14:07

what it's called. Virgin, silly bollocks rocket where you

14:09

get to go in space for like one second,

14:11

although it's not technically space because it doesn't go

14:14

like 100 kilometres into the atmosphere,

14:16

unlike the Amazon one which does.

14:19

But all of these things, it just seems like a waste

14:21

of money because you get to pop up into the sky

14:23

for a bit, waste a lot of petrol, and

14:25

look at a cloud, and then come back down. At

14:27

least this one on the International Space Station

14:30

which costs 80 million quid, at least you're

14:32

actually in orbit on the International Space Station.

14:34

12 days, that's amazing. That is money well

14:36

spent. Yeah. I'll pay for it.

14:38

Yeah. If you want to

14:41

let me say 80 million quid, Pete, I'll do

14:43

it. Maybe he just didn't, maybe he

14:45

saw something up there, Chris. Maybe

14:48

he saw something in space, Chris, he doesn't

14:50

want to go back. Maybe you're

14:52

someone, especially in some money, he doesn't want

14:54

to go back. That

14:57

sounds like a manga waiting to happen. He

15:00

started a space clubs business with an

15:02

alien and he doesn't want to go

15:04

back because it's all gone very sour.

15:09

What he did up there though, he made like some

15:11

YouTube videos. I think I speak to a Japanese

15:13

friend and Yuzak Mizawa's not actually very

15:15

popular in Japan because he's very ostentatious

15:18

with his money, shall we say. Not

15:21

very Japanese, yeah. Well, I have

15:23

met Japanese billionaires and you wouldn't know it,

15:25

they're very frugal, very nice, small people. And

15:27

Yuzak Mizawa's very much like, I'll

15:29

buy the biggest apartment, I'll fly in private jets

15:31

and I'll vlog it on my YouTube channel and

15:33

show it off. And I think he

15:36

spent like 100 million quid on a painting once and

15:38

it's all very not what you

15:41

do in Japan, right? This is all very ostentatious

15:43

behavior that's frowned upon. So when he

15:45

went up to the moon, when he went up to the space

15:47

station, made his YouTube videos, I think a lot of

15:49

folks weren't too impressed. He did

15:51

something silly up there, I can't believe he did. I

15:54

think he just like spun around in a circle or

15:56

just, I don't know. He stuck

15:58

his chopsticks in his rass. Oh

16:00

God, it spoke on the space train.

16:02

Oh, very

16:04

not Japanese. He was talking on the Soyuz

16:06

rocket when he should have been quiet. No,

16:09

drop him on the Soyuz rocket. I

16:13

can't say I'm surprised. No. But

16:15

I think he, I wonder if he gets his money

16:18

back. Because he actually had to put

16:20

down like a deposit, I think, of like 100

16:22

million quid to do this, right? And I wonder

16:24

if the reason they're no

16:26

longer Twitter friends, Elon and

16:28

Usak, is because he's like, I want the money back.

16:30

And Elon's like, no. I believe if you put money

16:32

down on the old, there's

16:36

a new Tesla that's like, it was promised about

16:39

three years ago and you could put a bit of money down

16:41

for the, it's like a racing Tesla sort of

16:43

thing. It's not been released yet. And

16:46

they keep saying it's gonna be released. I believe

16:48

that's deposit may not be

16:50

refundable. So maybe that's the business model of Tesla.

16:52

Maybe it is just like, put your money down.

16:54

If you've got stocks in Tesla, you get the

16:56

front of the queue. But there's no promises that

16:58

you're gonna get anything. So I don't know. I

17:00

don't know. I don't know enough about it, but.

17:03

I will say, I don't know. It

17:05

is odd that he would cancel now because it was

17:07

abundantly clear for the last few years that this

17:09

was not gonna happen in 2023. Yeah.

17:12

I assumed you would just sort of like stick it out to 2025, see

17:15

how it goes. Because 2025, it's

17:19

a lot more doable. Like it is actually

17:21

doable potentially. Right. But

17:24

2023, when it's still, they've

17:26

not had a manned mission yet. It

17:28

blows up an awful lot when it's going into orbit.

17:31

Yeah, it's not happening, is it? I don't know why it can be.

17:34

It's probably all the, what do you call it when

17:36

you bounce around a plane? Turbulence.

17:39

Turbulence. Probably all the turbulence he's seen. He's like, I'm not going

17:41

through them. The turbulent clouds.

17:43

Sort that. But fair

17:46

play to SpaceX. One

17:48

of you think of Elon Musk, and he's

17:50

certainly gone down a lot of people's estimations.

17:52

I do think SpaceX is a very impressive

17:55

company or what he's managed to do there.

17:58

And yeah, I kind of, I'm cheering them on,

18:00

I'm cheering them on. Not really cheering on

18:02

Twitter at this point. That's not so good. X,

18:05

whatever it's called. If you put that amount of

18:07

money, you know when you pre-order something, you'll get

18:09

like a founder's edition kind of version of the

18:11

product. Do you reckon for like that billion

18:14

quid or whatever he gave to Elon, or however

18:16

much it was, do you reckon

18:18

he got like a lovely little box, like

18:20

a lovely white box with him bust painting,

18:22

going, you're Zach, you are going to space, and

18:24

you open up and it's your space suit or

18:26

something. I just hope he got something out of

18:28

the deal, instead of just like, yeah, see you

18:31

later. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll go on the spaceship

18:33

next year. It's

18:35

like that story of Terrence Stamp,

18:37

we know the actor Terrence Stamp, who's

18:39

in Star Wars, The Phantom Menace, and

18:41

he plays like the head of

18:43

the, the emperor of the universe, whatever. He's like

18:45

the main ruling guy. And he didn't

18:47

want to do it. He was a bit like reluctant, but his

18:49

agent was like, all right, Star Wars, it'll be amazing. Yeah. And

18:52

he didn't have a good time. It was all on a green screen backdrop at Pinewood.

18:55

And he was like, but if you do this

18:57

part, George Lucas gives you a special, special gift.

18:59

He's like, oh, okay, I'll get a special gift.

19:02

And then he goes into his trailer after the

19:04

shoot's finished. And he's like, George

19:06

Lucas has left you a gift on

19:08

your table. And he goes in and it's

19:10

just a Star Wars stencil set. It's

19:13

a fucking stencil set. Ah, yes. And

19:15

he's like, what the fuck is this?

19:17

I would have preferred a turd on

19:20

the table, probably. George has

19:22

left you a little, he's shat in the trailer.

19:25

Every year, my mate gets a

19:27

cake from Tom Cruise. Oh,

19:29

really? He's part of the Tom Cruise coconut cake.

19:32

Part of the Tom Cruise cake. I don't

19:34

know what the whole deal is there. But

19:36

if you've kind of, if you've fallen. If

19:38

you've won favor. One is one Tom Cruise's

19:40

favorite, you get a coconut cake. But yeah,

19:42

he gets constant cakes from Tom

19:44

Cruise. And like, I don't like cake. I

19:46

would probably, that would keep me in cake

19:48

for years. Like,

19:51

give me two cakes a year. And that's the amount

19:53

of cake I'm eating. I'm not a big cake guy.

19:55

So yeah. Just the logistics of

19:57

shipping. I think it's made in like Hollywood.

19:59

So it's made like Beverly Hills or something, this

20:02

coconut cake. And he ships it around

20:04

the world to 100 people. Fair

20:06

play, fair play. Where's the one

20:08

Japan? It's Tom Cruise's cake, it's the cake. The Pete

20:10

Dawson cake, what would that be? Just

20:12

a half-eaten Koolish in a wrapper. It would be one

20:14

of those cakes you get in a dog food shop.

20:18

Enjoy your big cookie. It's

20:21

a mate. I've just picked a half-opened,

20:23

desecrated Koolish in a bag, been shipped

20:25

to hundreds of people. There used to

20:27

be a TV show called Johnny, not

20:29

Johnny English, good God. Anyway,

20:32

the theme tune was played on the trombone. What,

20:34

what, what, what, what, what, what, Johnny

20:36

Briggs in the 80s and 90s. And

20:41

one of the, the only episodes I or

20:44

my friends ever remembered was the time where

20:46

they had a wedding cake, I think, for

20:48

his sister in the basement. But

20:51

him and his brother was so hungry, they simply had

20:53

to eat a slice of cake. To

20:55

replace the cake that had been eaten, they

20:58

basically made kind of like half the cake

21:01

out of toothpaste and cardboard to pretend it

21:03

hadn't been eaten. So yeah,

21:05

Johnny Briggs, that's what, basically what my

21:07

cake would taste of, toothpaste and cardboard.

21:10

Like a blue pizza project. Like a

21:12

blue pizza project. Salitate for together. Yeah,

21:15

exactly. Just like a SpaceX rocket. Yeah,

21:19

don't ask me what my SpaceX rocket would look like.

21:21

It would be awful. But no,

21:23

I am kind of sad. I am sad that this

21:25

isn't happening deep down. And yeah, apparently

21:27

Yousak-Wise-Aou is also lost a lot of money because his

21:29

money, well, the Japanese yen is now

21:32

worthless. And so they've halved his net

21:34

worth. They've just chopped it in half.

21:36

It's like, ah, some yen in it. So

21:39

maybe it's not, it's a big assumption. Maybe it keeps

21:41

his money elsewhere. Maybe he's cleverer than that. Anyway.

21:44

Maybe he's de-banked. And I, enough. In a big

21:46

shoe. We'll never

21:48

hear about Yousak-Wise-Aou again. Unless

21:50

we meet him. I was gonna interview him for a board

21:52

in Japan at one point, but no point now, was there?

21:54

That was the one fun thing he was gonna do. Anyway,

21:58

he's blown it. Not only is he getting no SpaceX. rocket

22:00

he doesn't get a slipshod

22:02

documentary in a brawn japan

22:05

that he gets to appear in. Too bad you suck,

22:07

too bad. We'll be back in just a moment guys,

22:09

we have stories, comments and questions over in the facts.

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how far we are into the year? Time flies

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when you're busy, but it's important to poke your

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to celebrate your wins from the year so far. I'm

23:57

super proud of this year marks the sixth anniversary. of

24:00

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24:02

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24:04

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24:06

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Wow. And we're

24:53

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24:55

our listeners, Mr. Dawson, fill us in. We got

24:57

loads of messages. Thank you very much for getting in touch, everyone.

24:59

Hi, guys. My wife and I go to Japan at least once

25:01

a year. We love the place. And our dream

25:03

is to one day buy a little Apato or

25:05

Manchion somewhere in the wider Tokyo

25:07

region. Property prices seem to be really reasonable compared

25:10

to a lot of places we've lived in Australia

25:12

and the US. So what's the catch? Japanese

25:14

property is cheap compared with the rest of the world or are

25:16

there a bunch of hidden costs, renovations, owners,

25:18

committee issues that come with

25:21

buying? Cheers. JB from Melbourn

25:23

with plans and dreams in

25:25

their heart. I

25:28

mean, there

25:31

is no issue with buying it really. It's just that,

25:34

why would you? You know, I think we

25:36

people have glamorized the idea of renovating a

25:38

house. I think if you're really into renovations

25:40

and go for it like Shala and her

25:42

friend Ushka just love renovating things.

25:45

Even if nobody stayed in Neko Neko house,

25:47

they'd still renovate it for fun. Well,

25:49

actually, I've got to have you, Chris. That's the ultimate

25:51

renovation project. I will fix him.

25:57

Yeah, maybe she can always flee and go and live in

25:59

that. the house if she actually hates

26:01

people under but it's

26:03

yeah the houses are cheap but you

26:06

could still got to renovate it and that still costs

26:08

like a hundred thousand dollars so you know it's not

26:10

the be all and end all is it? A lot

26:12

of houses have a lot of houses are not

26:15

up to code with the old earthquake business

26:17

so and also they a

26:19

lot of houses are cheap because they've got

26:21

a lot of debt tied into them so

26:23

if you take on that house you take

26:25

on that debt as well but I'm sure

26:27

there are bargains to be had the cheap

26:29

houses in Japan Instagram page that me and

26:31

Takahiroze from the band feeder both

26:33

follow I've noticed he'll

26:35

occasionally like a house in Japan I'm like

26:38

oh that's a good one that Taka really

26:40

good but he but yeah

26:42

the that site's great because it

26:44

is just like oh my god look what you

26:46

can get in a bar here look what you could

26:48

get in a Takata look what

26:50

you can get in Osaka it's great it's

26:53

a cool account the cheap houses Japan whether it's cool

26:55

right yeah I'm always amazed what you can get they

26:58

don't get me wrong I've thought about getting

27:00

somewhere at some point but it's a lot

27:02

of effort in it I'd rather just not

27:04

run about a house just woodworm I'm just

27:06

I just I just worried about woodbaitles

27:09

and stuff yeah it's a real issue here as well

27:11

yeah but I think you'd find if you'd bought a

27:13

house here there's a lot more cost that would be

27:15

involved down the line that would make

27:17

it less tantalizing hello Chris and Pete I'll be

27:19

going to university in Japan for four years says

27:22

Said from Singapore embarking for

27:24

my undergraduate degree in computer science in

27:26

either Tokyo or Yamanashi my family is

27:29

not the most well-off and though I have

27:31

school fees sorted out other necessities such

27:33

as phone lines or transportation are for me

27:35

to figure out I'm planning to work part-time

27:37

jobs there so my question to you both

27:39

is do you have any trips for a

27:41

student sorry any tips I for

27:43

a student to save money while staying there and

27:45

do you know many part-time occupations that will accept

27:47

foreign students to perform them

27:50

thank you keep up the good work stay

27:52

safe side from Singapore part-time

27:55

occupations sounds

27:57

very clinical and very World

28:00

War two. What

28:03

I'd fuck. This is a tough one.

28:05

Save money. How do

28:07

you save money in Japan Pete? How'd

28:09

you save money? One dollar ramen.

28:12

The Giro Ramen that we

28:14

spoke about in the last

28:16

episode. I mean,

28:18

presumably it's just instant noodles and

28:20

veg I suppose in it. Hit the markets. Get

28:23

your cheap veg. Get your market. Giro Ramen.

28:25

Let's cook. If it's not burnt down. Last

28:28

week we covered Japan's cheapest ramen. Ramen Giro.

28:30

It's a chain where they have

28:32

lots of bean sprouts in the ramen and

28:34

cost like 500 yen. Very hearty meal. You

28:36

got a Q and you have to

28:38

eat it in like eight minutes, but it's very cheap and

28:41

that's why all the students get there. So eat

28:43

that in it. Ramen Giro. Could you sort of bash

28:45

out if you're skilled in something,

28:48

could you sort of set up a little fiver helping

28:50

people out with their computer issues saved

28:53

from Singapore? Like is there or I

28:55

imagine there's probably some a great

28:58

market work that could be gleaned

29:00

in Singaporean diaspora. If you sort

29:02

of, you know, joined

29:04

up with them. I mean, I presume you can speak some kind

29:06

of language that isn't quite as popular

29:08

in Japan. Maybe that could help you out somewhere.

29:10

Yeah. As

29:13

the most English monolingual

29:16

useless man in the world, I

29:18

have no skills that could be transferable. If you put

29:20

me in Japan, I could only do Tefl. You could

29:22

teach them in all the and they even wouldn't let

29:25

me do that. So teach them a whole pool accent.

29:28

Could do. Yes. Destroy them. Gosh, I can dance.

29:33

That is terrible. The idea people wouldn't

29:35

pay for that. People would not pay

29:37

to watch you dance. They'd pay to

29:39

read the rules. My dances are epic.

29:41

They range from hands in the

29:43

air, pumping. I've got

29:46

this one. This is my signature move that nobody can

29:48

steal to the beat. Yeah.

29:50

Oh, well. Slap a hand on the.

29:52

You're watching too much Martin Scorsese. You're

29:55

watching too much Wolf of Wall Street. Win

29:58

Rudy's favourite film, apparently. Is

30:00

it really? Oh, what a surprise. Yeah,

30:02

and Aruni. Keep the stories,

30:04

questions, comments coming in, guys, to Abroad Japan Podcast@gmail.com.

30:06

We're back, learning the weeks all over again, but

30:08

for now, the Malway might be out in the

30:10

big wide world. I'll be yourself a great

30:12

few days. We'll see you right back here to Do It All

30:15

Over Again on the Abroad Japan Podcast. Bye for now. Goodbye.

30:18

Abroad in Japan is a

30:21

stack production and part

30:23

of the Acast Creator Network.

30:51

Hold up.

30:55

Hold up. What was that? Boring.

30:58

No flavor. That was as bad

31:00

as those leftovers you ate all

31:02

week. Kiki Palmer here, and it's

31:04

time to say hello to something

31:06

fresh and guilt-free. HelloFresh. Jazz up

31:08

dinner with pecan, crusted chicken, or

31:10

garlic butter shrimp scampi. Now that's

31:12

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31:14

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31:16

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