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get started. Wow.

1:48

Hello and welcome to the Abroad in Japan podcast.

1:50

Probably the best way of learning about life in

1:53

Japan without actually being in Japan. I'm your host

1:55

Chris Broad, and we're joined as always by England's

1:57

top Japan enthusiast, Mr. Pete Dawson himself. Pete Hal

1:59

the... devil are you doing I'm

2:02

great Christopher I've just finished

2:05

my coffee we're on the

2:07

second record of two today on the

2:09

bronch in my podcast and I've bought one

2:11

of these little cups can you see it I

2:13

bought a little cup that's got two little

2:15

doggies in it in the bottom of them

2:18

that's kind of you're drowning your dogs in

2:20

coffee yeah so I mean you

2:22

fill obviously fill the cup with coffee

2:27

and then you and it's got my

2:29

two little baby Bonterre's in there which

2:31

is you know very adorable but

2:34

it was from one of those companies that advertise

2:37

as if it's like this Etsy

2:39

sub Etsy kind of like mom-and-pop

2:42

sort of British or American kind of

2:45

operation these kind of crafts people making

2:47

these little cups and but

2:49

in reality it's like a big

2:51

Chinese like factory and they've got

2:53

about five or six different storefronts

2:55

each pretending that there are mom

2:57

and pop British or American company

2:59

using like a weirdly translated chat

3:01

GPT stuff but it's a lovely

3:04

and you only find out when you get a

3:06

very generic kind of AliExpress shop front at the

3:08

end of it and at the end

3:10

of it you still get the same product but you do feel

3:12

a bit like well you know I

3:14

fear that the people who are making

3:17

these adorable little products aren't probably getting

3:19

paid as much as they can so

3:21

I'm very much part of the problem

3:23

starting the show admitting that I'm part

3:25

of the problem inherently everything that's wrong

3:27

with globalisation and global trade yeah and

3:29

I was duped I was tricked by

3:31

some people who pretended to be local

3:35

crafts people doing local crafts that

3:37

where the people who

3:39

make these things are making money but to be fair

3:41

they do look like my dogs that

3:43

I am drowning in my cup of coffee I'm very

3:45

upset Chris it is a bit of an update

3:50

on on PT century oh

3:53

yeah the car it

3:55

went to MIT the

3:57

MRT man said I can't MRT this car

4:00

It is from the year

4:02

2000 now. No, I'm fairly certain you can

4:04

a motor your car from any age But

4:06

it turns out that's the case and

4:09

he said basically it won't pass anywhere because the

4:11

gas struts in the in the hood Are

4:14

broken so I was like well look No,

4:17

I'll order some new I'll order some new gas

4:19

struts I went on the internet and bought some

4:21

gas struts off the internet So I feel like

4:23

a really grown-up little boy So yeah, and then

4:26

and then I said look ridiculous Matey

4:28

moo just find an MIT guy

4:30

that'll do it I mean it's insane that

4:32

you've got an MIT that guy that won't do anything from the

4:34

year 2000 That's

4:36

crazy. Just just do it and let

4:38

me know because he's expecting me to

4:41

buy these gas struts He's

4:43

gonna fit into the car Then he's gonna go to

4:45

MIT and then they're gonna tell us the five or

4:47

six other things that are wrong with it That I'm

4:49

gonna have to order parts for so I said look

4:52

Just find an MIT place do it and we'll find

4:54

out what what is wrong with it all at the

4:56

same time and I can order All of the parts

4:58

at the same time. So it's just that really So

5:01

this is why

5:03

you don't buy and import a 24 year old No,

5:07

this is why you don't employ

5:09

people who just don't seem all that

5:11

with it Oh

5:16

But so long story short with

5:19

this new Device is

5:21

there gonna be any part of your car left by

5:23

the end of this so you got to change the

5:25

steering wheel The tires and the roof now. Yeah, is

5:27

it? Ship of

5:29

Theseus. Ship of Theseus triggers, whatever you want

5:31

to call it. Yeah, we nothing left mate

5:34

So the day will

5:36

arrive sometime in the near decade when

5:39

you can drive this vehicle I'm gonna

5:41

I'm gonna smack you know like that the

5:43

bonus stage of Street Fighter 2 I'm just

5:45

gonna kick the shit out of it with

5:48

a gastrop My

5:50

god, oh, that's terrible. Yeah, at

5:53

least it'll be operational soon. It'll

5:55

be operational. Oh Operational, all

5:57

right, like smashing up I've

6:00

had a more fruitful week everyone I've

6:02

known I haven't seen in a while People

6:05

I bumped into you caught up with said that

6:07

I look slimmer to which I've quickly

6:09

realized It's because I have long hair for the first

6:11

time ever and it makes your face

6:13

look so if it's a little life hack there Don't

6:15

leave. I don't get fit. Yeah longer hair and you'll

6:18

look better and you look a little bit like the

6:20

Yorkshire Ripper No,

6:23

I commented that your hair because about I

6:25

feel like last week You just

6:28

had a haircut and now it's

6:30

really like wild man hair. I'm ready. It's

6:32

like Natsuki. I'm enjoying it very much You've

6:34

got similar hair with her from Natsuki I

6:37

don't know why I don't know what to do with

6:39

it Should I embrace longer hair and be like America

6:41

hair who's never cut his hair in the last two

6:43

years or something? Yeah, I mean he

6:45

looks he frequently But I

6:47

love Pete and but his his

6:50

hair like proper like mechanic you

6:53

find in the middle of Arkansas Kind

6:55

of like howdy He's

6:59

just been walking up during a fire fire

7:01

drill And it's and it's

7:03

and it's good stuff. It's good thick hair. I

7:05

would love I would love to get my answer

7:07

that beautiful Well, it sounds

7:09

like you need a mechanic from Harkinsaw to fix your

7:11

fucking We've

7:17

got a story this week from Justin who says

7:19

hello Chris and Pete greetings from Long Beach, California

7:22

Wait a minute. Oh, what's at the

7:24

last week's message story also from Long

7:26

Beach, California? Why is it what's

7:28

going on it? It was yeah Dallas from Long Beach There's

7:32

conspiracy here. We have someone who

7:34

goes through and picks out your emails guys and curates

7:36

them and Something going on

7:38

it anyway. Let's dive in maybe it's the same person with

7:41

a different name Because this

7:43

is Justin hello guys greetings from Long Beach,

7:45

California My wife and I just returned from

7:47

an incredible two-week trip to Japan with big

7:49

coffee fans And always try to seek out

7:52

unique coffee shops during our travels are But

7:55

Justin do you have a cup with two dogs in

7:57

the bottom of it you can pull that way yeah

8:00

That's what you need. Well, that cup that people

8:02

in America really love, that kind of... They

8:05

had come out this week and said there is no

8:07

lead in our cups, or hasn't been any lead in

8:09

our cups for a good few years now. It was

8:11

like a famous... Is it a Stanley cup?

8:14

No, wait, that's when you win the hockey. Ignore

8:16

me. There was like a fancy

8:19

cup that everyone's got in America,

8:21

and everybody looks after this particular

8:23

kind of vacuum-sealed cup. And

8:25

then everyone was complaining that it had lead in it, and then

8:27

it didn't have lead in it. Oh, I don't. And it's basically...

8:30

It's a trillion-dollar business overnight. These

8:33

people are... It's like a stereotype

8:35

that women who

8:37

love their cup... Quaffy, love these particular kinds

8:39

of vacuum-flask cups. I don't know why they're

8:42

successful. I don't know why they're popular. They

8:44

just look like every other cup to me,

8:46

but I think... Keep the coffee. Keep

8:49

the coffee hot, right? Yeah, it's

8:52

a flask. It's a commoner

8:54

garden, hot hot hot glass. But

8:56

I think they're really famous for being quite durable,

8:58

but people buy loads of them, which I don't

9:00

really understand. It's just weird. I

9:03

never really got flasks in general, but I don't

9:05

do camping. Oh, they are. If

9:07

you experience a flask, if you kind of forget what

9:09

a flask is... If you experience a flask... And then

9:11

you... If you experience a flask... If you forget what a flask

9:14

is and then suddenly use a flask, and you're like, this

9:17

water is still hot, and

9:20

it's been like six hours, what the fuck

9:23

is going on here? It's insane, Chris. Forget

9:26

about everything you know about flasks, and then

9:28

remember them, and you're like, this is insane.

9:30

It's a wonderful piece of engineering. This

9:33

is quickly descending into two men. A

9:36

man with the concept of rudimentary

9:38

physics. I

9:41

don't know how to feel about this, but

9:43

the story continues. There's no flask

9:45

involved. While in Umedda, in Osaka,

9:48

we stopped by a highly rated coffee shop, no

9:50

flasks, for a much needed afternoon caffeine

9:52

boost. It was a pretty cool setup with something like 18

9:55

different beans available and staff on hand

9:57

to walk customers through each variety. After

10:01

about 15 minutes waiting to get our coffee

10:03

tutorial the staff member pulled out two beans

10:05

telling us that these were their top Recommendations

10:07

the flavor notes sounded delicious. I then looked

10:09

at the price for each and noticed they

10:11

were both 3500

10:14

yen for a single cup of black

10:16

coffee cheese My wife didn't seem

10:19

to notice this so I tried to give

10:21

her a concerned look a wink with my

10:23

eyes Do

10:30

a concerned wink If

10:34

you're like if you're right you there's a

10:36

burning building and it's on fire and you're

10:38

going help and there's flames Licking around the

10:40

top of the window and you're and then

10:42

a fireman comes with this big ladder and

10:44

he goes I'm gonna get you out of here

10:49

Absolutely chilling stuff. I'm jumping in the fire

10:51

get out of here. Oh my god I

10:54

don't know what you still have to be

10:56

like the price tag the price tag something

10:59

like that But I go I try

11:01

to give it up From

11:04

I try to give her concerned looks with

11:06

my eyes while the worker continued to describe

11:08

the flavor of the coffee I noticed the

11:10

other beans on the counter were her 1000

11:13

to 2000 yen still pricey but

11:15

much more palatable from my wallet. I

11:17

asked the staff Member

11:20

about some of the other beans and he just

11:22

kind of ignore me and kept on talking about

11:24

the expensive beans We just

11:26

decided to go ahead with the

11:28

two expensive options two cups of

11:31

pour over coffee with a grand total of 7000

11:35

yen about $50 after I paid

11:37

I told my wife we just

11:39

paid 50 bucks for coffee and she was shocked

11:41

She said she'd been so focused on

11:43

listening to the worker Explain

11:46

everything at the price didn't really register with her

11:48

I told her I was too nice to insist

11:50

on purchasing a cheaper option So he based just

11:52

laughed and enjoyed the coffee. Did we get hustled

11:55

by this coffee barista? The coffees

11:57

ended up being incredibly delicious and we enjoyed

11:59

every damn drop But I do think those

12:01

were our first and last $25

12:04

cups of coffee Cheers guys in Justin. I

12:06

had a 700

12:08

yen cup of coffee the other day and I was a bit

12:10

like I was a bit on the on the

12:12

fence about drinking Just a joke

12:15

price coffee, but I was really good It

12:17

was like he took like 25 minutes to

12:19

make it did it hand-drip and whatnot. It

12:21

was very good Yeah,

12:23

it was still a bit pricey. So the fact

12:25

that they paid This

12:27

about three thousand five hundred yet.

12:29

Have you ever paid that much for a coffee? You probably

12:33

Actually, I mean I mean Japanese are

12:36

known for being absolute pervs for really

12:38

expensive coffee I'm on to sand or

12:40

coffee in in Oxford Street. That's quite

12:42

an expensive Drink, I think

12:44

I spent about eight quid on a cup of coffee before

12:46

there But but

12:48

I mean, I mean the

12:50

Japanese are known for Proper,

12:52

you know craftsmanship and they

12:55

are they they're very good at you

12:57

know They're obsessed about the

12:59

quality of everything in the in the bean to

13:01

cup process So I think if you're gonna drink

13:03

great coffee and you're gonna spend a lot of

13:05

money on it I would do it in

13:08

Japan definitely because they're just really

13:10

they're absolute perverts for process Perverts

13:12

for process the Japanese coffee

13:15

industry. I mean, yeah

13:17

I mean I can start this like

13:19

this poor price people would definitely buy

13:21

it in Japan like coffee connoisseurs But

13:26

I don't think I could ever justify that cost

13:28

and if I'd been Justin I might

13:30

have been like Oh choto Puck

13:32

I know fucking Overpriced

13:34

shit, but anyway, he probably wandered

13:37

into like the the Ferrari of

13:39

coffee shops and he had no

13:41

choice But I do I

13:43

do love the coffee culture in Japan. There's so many good coffee

13:45

shops You want to get coffee chain or she

13:48

nor coffee pretty good. They do a good lasagna as

13:50

well. Check them out You

13:52

did not go for lasagna in a coffee shop you

13:56

This lasagna is so so

13:58

good for the price point. He's

14:01

got 800 yen and it's quite hard

14:03

to find lasagna in Japan actually so you get

14:05

a good coffee, lovely atmosphere and you get a

14:07

lasagna. Well what would you want from a day

14:09

out in Japan? But speaking

14:11

of days out in

14:13

Japan, the number of foreigners

14:15

working in Japan has hit

14:17

an all-time high which is

14:20

impressive and 25% of the

14:22

foreigners come from

14:24

the same country. Yeah

14:26

so we've talked about this

14:29

recently I think, oh we haven't, I can't

14:31

remember, but it's no

14:33

secret that the number of foreigners coming to Japan

14:35

is on the rise in terms of workers here.

14:38

And certainly when you go to a convenience store

14:40

now you notice that behind the counter it's

14:43

becoming less and less that it's actually a Japanese

14:45

national. It's actually like foreign

14:47

workers and it's quite a cool thing to

14:50

see. Much

14:52

needed given the decline of population but Phyllis

14:54

and Pete tell us about the numbers, tell

14:56

us what's going on. We

14:59

have got a, it's

15:02

an interesting story I think is fair to

15:04

say. The number of foreigners

15:07

working in Japan hits an all-time high, 25%

15:09

come from the same country. Japan's

15:13

Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare has

15:15

raised the results of its latest study

15:18

on the number of foreign nationals working

15:20

in Japan and statistics show that the

15:22

demographic has reached an all-time high. The

15:24

prefecture of Aichi has the second highest

15:27

number of working foreign residents in Japan.

15:29

Tokyo had by far the most foreign

15:32

workers, 26% followed by

15:34

Aichi at 10%. For

15:37

the first time ever Japan's foreign worker population

15:39

has climbed past 2 million. Roughly

15:41

1 in 4 of these foreigners hail from the

15:43

same country. Now you've read this story Chris so

15:45

I can't surprise you but Vietnam.

15:48

Yeah I was quite surprised by this story. 25%

15:51

of the total. It's really interesting out of all of,

15:53

like bearing in mind like you know China's there, the

15:55

Philippines are there, like you know all

15:57

these kind of countries that historically travel.

16:00

quite well for work. Yeah, Vietnam.

16:03

The fourth year in the world for

16:05

Vietnam to be in one country in

16:07

terms of foreign nationals working in Japan.

16:09

What's so fascinating about the Vietnamese diaspora

16:11

and how that all kind of fits

16:13

together? What support networks for the Vietnamese?

16:15

Where is it? Where is it?

16:18

I think Vietnam and Japan

16:20

do have a good relationship.

16:23

But I'm not sure the mechanism behind this,

16:25

if it's a Japanese initiative or if Vietnamese

16:28

folks are more proactive in

16:30

seeking out jobs here. Obviously,

16:32

I think Vietnam has

16:35

a much lower income than Japan compared to even

16:37

China and

16:40

certainly other. I

16:42

don't know where they are in terms of the Philippines,

16:45

but I think maybe that's a big reason that Japan

16:47

has such a higher, better

16:50

income than Vietnam. I

16:52

don't know why it's specific to Vietnam. You

16:56

do see quite a lot of Vietnamese and people

16:58

over in the Arab states as

17:00

well, Saudi

17:03

Arabia and Qatar and places like that.

17:05

But proportionally, the largest increases compared to

17:07

the previous year were in workers from

17:09

Indonesia, Myanmar as well, which were up

17:11

to 56.49% compared to

17:15

a year before. US and the

17:17

UK were not really up

17:19

there, to be honest. An examination of

17:22

a Japanese private sector work plan. The

17:24

study does not include US military personnel

17:26

and contractors working in Japan. But you still

17:28

imagine that that would be relatively small compared

17:31

to the amount of people who are turning

17:33

a paycheck every week. Sure.

17:37

It's the same week as well, though. Military

17:39

contractors. It's the same

17:41

week that some foreign-born residents

17:43

sued the government for alleged

17:45

racial profiling. Swings and

17:48

roundabouts. Imagine that goes on quite a

17:50

lot. Yeah. There's like

17:52

three folks who are trying to

17:54

sue the Japanese government for three

17:56

million yen in damages. The first

17:58

such lawsuit in Japan as well. for

18:01

this sort of thing because they've

18:04

been consistently questioned

18:07

by the police based on their appearance. So

18:12

yeah, it definitely changes a

18:14

foot. The

18:16

LDP, the ruling government over the last

18:19

decade, has been

18:21

kind of sneakily bringing in

18:23

more and more people. Because

18:26

back in the day, I think most Japanese folks

18:28

were reluctant at the idea of having foreign

18:31

workers on that scale come in. But

18:34

Shinzo Abe, the Prime Minister at the time, realised

18:37

that Japan needed them regardless of

18:39

what most of the population thought. And

18:42

they did a pretty good job bringing in sort

18:44

of a quarter million foreigners a year to

18:47

fill the gap and

18:49

try and fill in the void of workers.

18:51

Because there just aren't enough young people in

18:53

Japan to fill all the jobs, the vacancies

18:55

that are popping up in convenience stores and

18:57

restaurants and whatnot. And even

18:59

though your favourite family restaurants in Japan

19:02

have got all these automated robots popping

19:04

up, they're still not anywhere near as

19:06

efficient or effective as actual real-life humans

19:09

with limbs. I saw

19:11

a video yesterday of a

19:14

family restaurant in Japan these days. They

19:16

have this robot's big clunky

19:18

looking Star Wars-esque robot on

19:21

wheels. And it's got

19:23

three racks and the workers come to the kitchen,

19:25

they put the food on it, press a button,

19:27

it drives off to the table and it's like,

19:30

Minasan, take your fucking food and you take

19:32

the food off, hit a button and it

19:34

drives off. It's quite cool, it's simple and

19:36

it's efficient and gets the job done. But

19:38

there was one video of these two robots

19:40

just pausing in front of each other

19:42

and not being willing to move.

19:44

And one of them is like, please could

19:46

you move? And the robot's like, please

19:49

could you move? And there's like

19:51

a Mexican robot standoff in

19:53

like a K-A-M-A-S restaurant. And it's exterminated

19:55

salvation, that's how they all took

19:57

over. That's why they've gone... gone

20:00

back in time to kill Connor, I mean

20:02

not Connor, the one we know. So

20:07

yeah, robots aren't quite as good as we'd like

20:09

to think just yet. So

20:12

that's why they're filling the gap with

20:14

such a big foreign workforce and

20:17

you'll notice it at convenience stores and whatnot

20:19

around the country but still

20:22

got a long way to go to plug the population gap and

20:25

I don't think there's much they

20:27

can do about that unfortunately. But

20:30

we're back in just a moment guys, your stories come at

20:32

an ominous point to end it on but there's still

20:34

hope. Yeah, hope. The machines are coming. I

20:36

always end the chapter on a bit of hope but

20:39

there's hope and the people of Vietnam will

20:41

come to Japan and it'll be lovely. Have

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betterhelpageelp.com/Japan. We're

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back with the fax machine. What

23:28

have we got this week from our listeners? Mr

23:30

Dawson, Phyllis. We've got a message from Hannah

23:33

from Canterbury, Kent, a

23:35

town we do love. Hi

23:38

Chris and Pete, I love the podcast and

23:40

all the abroad Japan videos. My fiance Joseph

23:42

and I have been watching for years. We've

23:45

been watching you for years. Threatening,

23:48

if you say it a certain way. We

23:50

visited Japan for the first time in March 2020. Bad

23:53

timing I know. And we only managed three

23:55

days before we had to travel home due to the

23:57

pandemic. But those three days we spent in Osaka and

23:59

Nara were everywhere. We wanted Japan to be

24:01

and more we are getting married in March

24:03

and we're coming back to Japan for a

24:05

month-long honeymoon We want to visit lots of

24:08

places and have lots of ideas, but what

24:10

would you suggest to make our honeymoon extra

24:12

special? Thanks so much Hannah in Canterbury, okay?

24:15

Mmm. I'd say Your

24:18

cans get old real calm traditional in Get

24:21

one with a private bath. We can just chill out like

24:23

whatever shard and I want to go on a break We

24:26

only like a day or two a nice real calm

24:28

You're nice food you got a decent room and your

24:31

own private outdoor bath You just chill in splash around

24:33

in and just relax like it's nice as a couple

24:35

just Feel a nice

24:37

bath looking out over a mountain that

24:39

for me is The best

24:41

bit of any trip and the bit that

24:43

I always remember the nice warm feeling of

24:45

the warm hot spring water bubbling over Like

24:47

yeah for me. That's that's the best bit

24:50

so do that do that once and

24:52

you won't forget it I promise we

24:54

got one here from Ben and Jamila he

24:56

says good day fellas my girlfriend I from

24:58

Brisbane Australia And we're just about to embark

25:00

on a month-long trip to Japan this will

25:02

be our second time visiting this beautiful country

25:04

But we've never been to Tokyo before what

25:08

you've been to Japan, but not Tokyo I only know

25:10

one person that's done that and it

25:12

must be really weird like Seeing

25:14

half the country he's never gone. He has

25:17

like a homestay. He goes to near Him

25:20

a G. So he's only ever been to him a G.

25:22

In Osaka. I think so Tripping

25:25

he's been like six times. They've been Tokyo

25:28

as we'll be spending close to a week Exploring

25:30

Tokyo we've decided to dedicate a day to visit

25:32

Mount Fuji Do you have a recommendation for a

25:35

nice place to visit? Nice

25:37

place to view Mount Fuji sorry if

25:39

traveling from Kottle City in Tokyo cheers keep

25:41

up the great work Ben and

25:43

Jamila I Was

25:46

literally there actually not that long ago. There's two places

25:49

Kawaguchi Lake which has lots of

25:51

cool hotels and real cons Around

25:54

the lake and you can look across the lake towards

25:56

Mount Fuji or go to Hakone which

25:58

is maybe a little bit easier to get to

26:01

and then ride the sort of

26:04

not the tram the fuck

26:07

what's it called what's the thing called ski

26:09

lift like a lift chair lift right not

26:11

a ski lift ride across the Bambri cross

26:16

just ride the lift ride the lift ride

26:18

the lift up

26:23

the mountain I did a video called how

26:25

to spend 14 days in Japan and there's

26:28

a moment where Charlotte and I are on this like

26:30

volcano overlooking Fuji and it's just the

26:32

most incredible view and that

26:35

is where to do it so yes

26:38

but kara-guchi's nice and

26:40

if you're going in when again if you

26:43

go in like at a nice warm time you get

26:45

some bikes have a nice cycle around the lake it'll

26:47

be beautiful and we've got one last question here from

26:49

Amy who says hello cyberpunk

26:51

Chris and postmodern Pete I'm hoping to apply

26:54

for the jet program at the end of

26:56

this year so I guess this question is

26:58

directed more towards Chris well don't Pete applied

27:00

as well so he can answer to yeah

27:02

don't you going whether it was a vessel

27:04

or not in your book

27:07

you mentioned it was taboo to be

27:09

asked to place in Tokyo yes I

27:12

was wondering if there's any other cities this applies to in

27:14

other words I'd love to be placed in Kyoto oh

27:16

god but one of this may cause my application

27:18

to get an eye roll I'd love to hear

27:20

if there's any other cities or

27:22

towns he'd recommend as someone who's seen much

27:25

of Japan climate guards Amy don't put Kyoto

27:27

Amy or application will go straight in the

27:29

bin because everyone puts it there and

27:32

just put the

27:34

trick is think like an applicant

27:36

like like an

27:39

interview right you get a thing like a rec and see

27:41

like a replica 500 applications coming for

27:44

the jet program right and everyone's

27:46

like I'm gonna get a cure or Tokyo we'll just

27:48

chuck him in the bin and for because everyone wants

27:50

those places and they don't really exist

27:52

there's a handful of places in Tokyo

27:54

and Kyoto they usually give them out to

27:57

certain places where there's

27:59

audio relationship there like

28:02

for example in

28:04

the town near where I used to be Soroka I

28:07

was in Sakata there's a town nearby called

28:09

Soroka. Soroka had a relationship with New Jersey

28:11

I don't know how I don't know why

28:13

but they did and so everyone in Soroka

28:16

is from New Jersey and there's a lot

28:18

of towns and cities across Japan that have

28:20

those sister relationships with different countries and towns

28:23

in Canada the US

28:25

and the UK so that's a big factor

28:27

as well. Long story short... Like double

28:29

denim looking like Bon Jovi. That

28:32

is exactly what they were. They were

28:34

not like that at all.

28:37

As lovely as they were. No

28:39

just don't put it down. If you want

28:41

to get on the jet program stay flexible and

28:44

say you know you'll be happy to go

28:46

anywhere or pick an obscure town

28:48

or city that people wouldn't think

28:50

of like you know Metziamo or

28:53

Yamagata or Sendai you know but

28:55

yeah the most important thing is

28:57

having a real tangible reason for wanting to go there

29:00

don't ever say oh sorry on abroad

29:02

in Japan I look good in it don't say

29:04

that you've got a tangible relation

29:06

maybe if you've even traveled there before you

29:08

could use them but that's my

29:10

advice that's what I look for. Think

29:12

tactfully. Think tactfully. If you can't find if

29:15

you don't have a reason to be at

29:17

the place you really want to go to

29:19

just choose the place really close to it.

29:22

Yeah yeah I mean I

29:24

chose Corbir I think my number one place

29:26

was Corbir or it was either first

29:28

or second you get to write to two or three places

29:31

and I just said Corbir or like anywhere

29:34

and then they asked like why do you want to go in Corbir

29:36

I said beef they're like that's a shit reason we're gonna put you

29:38

a million miles away as

29:40

far away from Corbir as we

29:42

can for wasting our time yeah

29:44

so that yeah the trick

29:46

is just be flexible the people that

29:48

enjoyed jet the most of the ones that don't have

29:51

expectations about where they're gonna end up I work with

29:53

somebody in Sakata who came along and

29:55

she thought she was gonna get placed in a city

29:58

and she had been on some sort of English

30:00

teaching thing in Hong Kong beforehand and she

30:02

was like oh Hong Kong was magic it

30:04

was party town and then she ended up

30:06

in Sakata which is not Hong Kong and

30:08

she hated it so much and she

30:10

was gone in a year come with expectations and

30:12

you'll be disappointed come with an open mind let

30:15

fate take its course to see what happens the

30:17

way you end up with half the fun keep

30:19

the stories questions comments coming into Brawn Japan [email protected]

30:21

or comment on YouTube down below we'll be checking

30:24

those out but for now guys the matter where

30:26

you might be out there in the big wide

30:28

world we'll be seeing you right back here to

30:30

do it all over again on the abroad Japan

30:32

podcast so

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