0:00

Have a catch yourself eating the same flavorless dinner

0:02

three days in a row, dreaming of

0:04

something better? Well, HelloFresh is your

0:06

guilt-free dream come true, baby. It's

0:08

me, Giggy Palmer. Let's wake

0:11

up those taste buds with

0:13

hot, juicy pecan-crusted chicken or

0:15

garlic butter shrimp scampi. Mm,

0:17

HelloFresh. Stop

0:20

dreaming of all the delicious possibilities

0:22

and dig in at hellofresh.com. Let's

0:25

get this dinner party started. Hey,

0:31

I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint

0:33

Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies

0:35

are allowed to raise prices due to

0:37

inflation. They said yes. And then when

0:39

I asked if raising prices technically violates

0:41

those onerous two-year contracts, they said, what

0:43

the f*** are you talking about, you

0:46

insane Hollywood a*****e? So to recap, we're

0:48

cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to

0:50

just $15 a month. Give

0:53

it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45

0:55

up front for three months plus taxes and fees. Promote for new

0:58

customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month. Mint

1:00

Unlimited slows. Wow! Sch

1:17

Matt slow Cookie Matters. While

1:19

while there's ONME prep, fast forward

1:21

fast forward fourth Hello

1:27

and welcome to the Abroad in Japan podcast. Probably the best

1:29

way of learning about life in Japan. I

1:43

think we're both languishing in a terrible

1:46

hair island of problems, I

1:48

think. Yeah, it's because it's very

1:50

early for me. I don't mind

1:52

admitting I'm not in a shower yet because it is six

1:54

o'clock in the morning. So it's difficult

1:56

to get... I'm

1:59

not getting up at like quarter... I'm not going to get

2:01

up quarter to six Chris, for the Rod

2:03

Fabb podcast. I'll get up at five to

2:05

six and then I'll have a shower afterwards. But

2:07

yeah, I just feel like I'm letting everyone

2:09

down with how

2:12

my appearance is rocking. But I think

2:14

you look pretty good. I'm

2:17

very much enjoying this kind of pompadour kind

2:19

of look at the front of your hair. I think

2:21

you could get in the old double denim and be

2:23

one of those greasers that you see in

2:26

Yoyogi Park. You could have a little dance

2:29

to some rock and roll. I

2:31

think that looks pretty cool. There

2:34

was a reason we never switched the

2:36

podcast to having videos on until a year

2:38

ago. That's because I could

2:40

look like crap and it would be fine,

2:42

right? You just wouldn't see it. And now

2:44

you know how bad the rabbit hole goes.

2:46

How awful my hair is. Birthday

2:49

hair nonetheless. Check this out there. A good

2:51

friend just came over from Japan, brought me

2:54

Nando's Perry Perry Sauce for those of you

2:56

on YouTube. Big bottle there. I'll

2:58

describe it for those of you that aren't

3:00

watching on YouTube. It's a big bottle

3:03

and it's got Nando's Perry Perry written on

3:05

it. And it's medium spice because I can't

3:08

handle my spice. And it goes very well

3:10

with chicken. And the

3:13

second thing are these cola bottle sweets.

3:15

It's called Cola Up. And

3:17

they're cola bottle gummy sweets. And

3:19

my friend bought these while he was here. And

3:22

they left them in the studio. And now I will polish

3:24

them off like a dog who

3:26

has been left hungry. I will finish the

3:28

cola bottle. In the sauce. In

3:31

the sauce. Perry

3:34

Perry cola bottles. Come on, get involved. And

3:36

what I like about Nando's is

3:38

like rich people go there. Like

3:40

rich like multi-million billion pound footballers

3:42

go. And

3:45

it's also me. You

3:49

know what I mean? Like it's not like

3:51

a fancy place that only fancy people go

3:53

to. It's kind of like,

3:55

you'll never see like a football in McDonald's necessarily. But

3:58

maybe it's because like Nando's are quite. healthy. There

4:01

are a lot of healthy options, there's a

4:03

lot of protein in there. But yeah, I

4:06

just think that it's so cool that like, everybody

4:08

goes, everyone goes to Nando's. It's pretty

4:11

good food. Everyone goes to

4:13

Nando's. It's good, yeah. Chris, I'm

4:15

going to stick a, I did a quick

4:17

screenshot while you were doing that intro. And

4:20

I found that what I like doing is

4:23

going on YouTube and just seeing your

4:25

reviews. My reviews. We were

4:28

talking about reviews on the last one.

4:30

And there's some certain people who like,

4:32

will just clip anything

4:34

that you or Connor does. If Connor

4:36

does like a live stream, someone will

4:39

be waiting with some kind of capture

4:41

software, Bandicam or

4:44

something. And remember Bandicam?

4:46

Like it's what dads use to capture

4:48

stuff on the internet. Bandicam, it's everywhere.

4:52

But they'll capture like little clips and stuff and then they'll

4:54

put it up. And we've spoken about these guys before

4:56

and they're like, they do little odd

4:58

clips and stuff. Yeah, little clippers and clip, clip, clip,

5:00

clip, clip, clip, clip, clip, clip, clip, clip, and presumably

5:02

make a bit of cash out of it. But I

5:04

very much enjoyed this shot of you and Pete,

5:07

probably to Pete, on the

5:09

road, finding out for the first time that

5:11

you just raised a million dollars. And

5:15

I'm going to put it onto the

5:17

screen here. There we go. Yeah. It

5:20

looks like you've been caught. It looks

5:22

like you've been caught in like a sting. It

5:25

looks like you've

5:27

been caught embezzling money.

5:29

A million dollars, really?

5:31

Because we're out

5:33

in front of like a Lawson store.

5:35

Yeah. It looks like we've been caught

5:37

right now. It's very enjoyable. Very much.

5:39

Very enjoyable. I like, I like you

5:41

being, I like, because obviously when you

5:43

do your screenshots and you do your

5:45

artwork, obviously you spend a

5:48

bit of time on it, but when

5:50

somebody else reinterprets your work, it's usually

5:52

dreadful. It is. One

5:54

million dollars off, no. So

5:57

many things got clipped on that journey.

5:59

Yeah. every day there was like 500 clips these

6:03

brain children with the water cannon at

6:05

lego land falling off the bike much

6:07

tenacity delight yeah lots

6:10

of fun moments clipped on

6:13

the cycle oh man that's

6:15

how i watch, that's how i experience most of your

6:17

content Chris i just watch the little clips and they

6:19

go yeah they've got the good stuff, they've got Conor

6:21

putting his mobile phone in a weird place yeah that's

6:24

all i need don't watch

6:26

the slick edited production watch the traffic

6:28

clips the little bits and bobs yeah

6:31

i don't envy Paul our

6:33

cameraman he's currently editing that cycle can

6:36

you imagine 40 days of footage to condense

6:38

into like 90 minutes of fun

6:41

don't envy him, don't envy him but good

6:43

luck to him, if anyone could do it it's Paul he's

6:46

the man, he could do it, we've got a story

6:48

this week from Zoe and uh... Kayle? Kayle?

6:50

or Carl A? Kayle

6:52

isn't it? alright good day Carl

6:55

A? Carl A? Kayle? good

6:57

day crocodile Chris and Prawn P here's a little recap

6:59

of something we experienced on one of our recent trips

7:01

to Japan we were on this cozy train to

7:03

the dinosaur museum in Fukui lovely old

7:06

place, as we were sitting there enjoying the sights i

7:08

could feel somebody staring at me and

7:11

i've got this feeling like some bird

7:13

is there, coming across this uh... sorry

7:15

there, across from us sat

7:17

a little old lady just staring right at

7:19

us just staring and just as we were

7:21

about to get off our station the lady

7:23

grabs me by the shoulder and opens my

7:25

hands and places places

7:28

a wad of small lollipops into

7:30

my palm i was

7:32

in complete shock or was politely

7:34

trying to nod my head and

7:36

stumbling out an arigato she just

7:39

smiled, nodded and walked away when

7:42

we looked at the lollipops we realized

7:44

that half of them were unwrapped and

7:46

more worryingly my husband's like, oh god

7:48

couldn't work out if they were half

7:50

sucked it was such a

7:52

hilarious and confusing moment for us we

7:54

stood there on the platform just staring at each

7:57

other at these puzzled looks on our faces Were

8:00

they just floating around in their handbag for 47 years?

8:03

Did some of the packaging just disintegrate?

8:05

Did she appreciate us visiting her beautiful

8:07

town to the point she wanted to

8:09

bestow upon us an odd collection of

8:11

sweets? It was just another

8:13

one of those random odd experiences we've

8:16

had on our travels to Japan. Kyra

8:18

with her guards, Zary and Kale from

8:21

Gold Coast. But did they eat

8:23

them? Did you eat them guys? Yeah. What

8:25

a clever man you had to end it on. That's the

8:27

bit of the story we're not getting. We spoke

8:29

about last week pretty much every new story

8:31

that comes in is like a side quest

8:34

from a video game. I wouldn't continue on

8:36

that side quest. I wouldn't 100% that game

8:38

sucking on a horrible

8:40

lolly that's been in someone's bag. I

8:43

would have loved a cheeky bill

8:45

and then Kale just popped

8:47

it in his mouth and it tasted

8:49

like Nando's puri-buri sauce and it raised

8:52

more questions. Oh, that's not normal.

8:54

It tastes like a little baby's bag. Actually

8:57

disgusting. Don't know

8:59

what was going on there. I

9:02

was walking through Tokyo yesterday.

9:04

I did a 20,000 step

9:06

walk yesterday, gave me. My

9:08

legs haven't recovered. Time to finish them off

9:10

again. They're a 20,000 step walk

9:13

and I was walking from Yanaka Ginza,

9:15

which is a retro nice little

9:17

street with lots of cats in it. And

9:20

I was going all the way to Owene, which has

9:22

a zoo. And in the middle,

9:24

I was walking through the cemetery, Yanaka Ginza Cemetery,

9:26

which is actually really nice. Last

9:29

time I was there was for the documentary Cat Nation,

9:32

where there were just cats. I

9:34

was tasked with spending two hours looking

9:37

through the cemetery for feral cats for

9:39

the documentary. I don't know

9:41

why I said yes to that documentary. Anyway, while

9:43

walking, this Japanese guy walked up to me and

9:46

my friend was like, why are you here? What

9:48

are you doing in the cemetery? Why would you come

9:51

here? And I was like, it's just a nice stroll

9:54

from Yanaka Ginza. And

9:56

he was like, I just don't understand why foreigners

9:58

would want to do that. to walk here. That's

10:01

a nice, nice stroll isn't it? William Shatner. It

10:03

was really weird, yeah, it was like, I

10:06

thought he was doing some genuine market research but I think

10:08

he was just a English

10:11

fluent Japanese guy who wanted to

10:13

ask why the foreigners

10:15

were stumbling through a cemetery. How beautiful. Why are

10:17

you in the cemetery, big man? Why

10:19

are you asking people why are you in the cemetery?

10:22

You're always here, I've only visited once. Why

10:24

are you in the cemetery son? I mean,

10:26

what was he expecting? I've come here to dig up a

10:28

grave, isn't it? Just go and dig up a grave. Yeah,

10:31

I'm going to just put a little

10:33

book in there. I've come here to

10:35

distribute my books on, in

10:38

and around the cemetery. What

10:41

did I think I was doing? Honestly, I

10:43

was strolling clearly. I

10:46

was, I was, I'm always in a

10:48

cemetery and with my dogs. My, one

10:51

of my dogs, the little Baba, one

10:54

year old, Bonetaria, will, if there's

10:56

a puddle, he will

10:58

start drinking out of it because even

11:00

though I give him like pure crystal,

11:02

beautiful water in his doggy

11:05

bowl, he very much decides that he

11:07

just wants to drink the dirtiest puddle

11:09

around. But it is sometimes on, on

11:12

and in the graves and you're

11:14

like, body soup. He's

11:17

so disrespectful and he'll, he'll

11:19

weigh against the gravestone. Come

11:22

on, have some respect. But it is

11:24

a nice, but then I always sort of think, yeah,

11:26

it is disrespectful, but then also there will be a

11:28

lot of dog lovers in that graveyard. And if

11:30

I was in a graveyard, I would like

11:32

a dog too. We are my gravestone. I

11:34

wouldn't care. I'd have loved it. Why

11:37

are you in the graveyard? I've come to lick the

11:39

puddles. Yeah. We could

11:41

drink the, the, the hops

11:43

puddles. I'd

11:45

love to go back and find all

11:48

these kind of stories there of these most

11:50

bizarre encounters and just make a book like

11:53

101 bizarre encounters in

11:55

Japan. I just wonder

11:58

what the lady was thinking. I know what they want. I

12:00

know what those two Australian foreigners need.

12:02

They need a lollipop that's been half

12:04

eaten in my purse for 52 years.

12:08

Anyway, they were going to Fukui,

12:10

they were going to the Dinosaur

12:12

Fossil Museum, they got to eat

12:14

some fossils. Swings around about.

12:17

4D experience. New story, what's

12:19

going on though, this week in Japan, Mr.

12:21

Donaldson Philison on the news of the week.

12:24

We spoke about the AI pin

12:27

that helped you solve problems, oh

12:29

she made it by the YouTube

12:31

guy Marcus Brownie. But can

12:33

AI help solve Japan's labour

12:35

shortages? No. Shrinking

12:38

population, no one's fucking nate, no

12:40

babies arriving. Which means that

12:42

Japan has a shortage of workers now. Many are

12:44

hoping that artificial intelligence can help pick up the

12:47

slack in a country that's known to be

12:49

obsessed with perfection. Damaged or

12:51

misshapen vegetables and fruits are

12:53

hard to sell. One geosa

12:55

manufacturer named Osaka Osho

12:58

found a huge surge in demand during Covid

13:01

but struggled to keep the quality up. The

13:03

idea of selling a damaged pack is unthinkable

13:05

to the Japanese company. To help them

13:07

maintain the quality whilst still keeping up with demand,

13:09

they turned to technology using AI powered cameras

13:11

trained to detect any faulty geosa on

13:13

the production lines. Today this

13:16

facility makes two dumplings per

13:18

second. Whoa. Two dumplings

13:20

per second, sorry my stomach's rumbling. As

13:23

soon as I talk about my misshapen geosa,

13:25

the misshapen geosa that is my stomach started

13:27

making a noise. This facility

13:29

makes two dumplings every second. That's twice

13:31

the speed of their other

13:34

non-AI based production sites. By

13:36

implementing AI, says Keiko Handa, that

13:39

we have reduced the manpower on the manufacturing line

13:42

by almost 30%. The

13:44

firm has also recently launched an AI

13:46

powered cooking robot called iRobo at one

13:48

of its Tokyo restaurants. As it

13:50

takes time to turn the chefs, the company says

13:53

the technology will help with the labour shortage issue.

13:55

I guess Chris you've talked about

13:57

like over employment quite a few times. few times

13:59

and there are like a lot of jobs where

14:01

you sort of go you don't need

14:03

to do that a light could do you observe

14:05

you don't mind me saying like people just sort

14:08

of like alert people that

14:10

a truck is coming out of a underground

14:12

car park you know I mean those kind of guys

14:15

with the with the lights on the sticks and stuff you

14:17

do sort of go right that could probably be done by

14:19

computer and so you do sort of

14:21

think that maybe just that those guys with the sticks

14:23

and just be moved on to the geos or production

14:25

line I don't know I don't know wonders

14:28

I still I mean this is that

14:30

AI used in computing yeah Sean that's

14:33

a great use I'm still not sold

14:35

on like physical robots outside of like

14:37

manufacturing things like cars and

14:39

like on a mass scale I yeah

14:41

whenever I see like a robot chef

14:44

I'm still like no it's not there

14:46

yet it's not happening no I don't

14:48

want it don't want I'm not convinced

14:50

but exactly because you want you want

14:53

your chef to be tasting stuff don't you you want your

14:55

chef to be kind of like trying stuff

14:57

to make sure it's okay I'm

14:59

not convinced and and the

15:02

geosa AI solution I mean what does

15:04

it what does the geosa AI solution

15:06

when it sees a misshapen geosa what

15:08

does it do does it like it like attack it

15:11

with a laser or something I'm worried that there'll be

15:13

a person who looks so much who's got a disfigured

15:15

face who look more like a

15:17

geosa and he'll be attacked by the AI

15:19

geosa identifying drones I'm just I'm just

15:22

I'm worried I'm worried Chris it's a

15:25

genuine the whole shrinking workforce

15:27

scenario is a genuine problem you know

15:29

I can't believe the current populations 124

15:32

million when I first came here I think it

15:34

was 128 million

15:36

so it's dropping quite quickly and

15:38

you certainly know this

15:41

yeah like convenience stores and things that

15:44

most convenience stores in Tokyo now or in

15:46

big cities are run

15:48

and sort of operated by foreign

15:51

workers maybe from Southeast Asia

15:53

actually yeah yeah so you've got there's

15:55

been some big changes and yeah I

15:58

think Do

16:00

you think Japan needs to be better

16:02

at self-checkouts? Like, I feel like we've

16:04

adopted that in the UK in

16:06

a way that's a lot more effective and

16:09

efficient than they have here. I don't know

16:11

why self-checkouts aren't as

16:13

widespread here. There was a...

16:15

speaking of self-checkouts, I was using the self-checkout

16:18

in a shop near Tesco's near

16:20

my place. And the security

16:23

guard kept looking at me

16:25

and I was like, oh, can't

16:27

do any shopping. You look like

16:29

Colonel Sanders. Of course he was looking at

16:32

you. That guy's buying chicken. The

16:35

security guard was looking at me while I

16:37

was in the shop and I was like,

16:39

ahh, what have I done, what have I

16:41

done, I'm not dying, I can't steal anything.

16:43

This time. But

16:46

it was a person called Yuki who

16:49

listens to the show. I think listens or maybe

16:51

watches your stuff. But yeah, we

16:53

had a lovely conversation but it just made me laugh

16:55

that it was like, oh, I thought you were following

16:57

me around the shop because I was stealing.

16:59

I was stealing. Ali,

17:02

let you off. Let me off.

17:04

Come on, give me some free petrol. I

17:06

need some petrol. Daddy needs petrol. I've got

17:08

a V12. It's very expensive. Yeah,

17:11

so that was quite funny. To

17:13

be fair, your Toyota probably gets

17:15

you more petrol than a VA

17:17

engine. Correct. I

17:20

would say that on that same day

17:22

as well when I met Yuki, before I

17:25

was in a cafe in a

17:28

park and this lad said,

17:31

oh you Pete. He was working behind

17:34

the bar in this cafe and he said,

17:36

yeah, yeah, yeah. I

17:38

said hello. And then I left and

17:40

then Sarah said right after, completely unrelated

17:42

me meeting him. He'd fed

17:44

it. Oh my God. I was

17:47

like, Sarah, am I the Beatles? Am

17:49

I Elvis Presley? You

17:51

made somebody funny. Unrelated

17:53

to meeting me, but I think

17:56

it was a hot day, but it just

17:58

made me laugh. I was like, Sarah, am I? Am

18:00

I the Beatles? Because the thing about Sarah

18:02

is like Sarah's got like we both had we

18:04

both like I had a radio job and

18:06

Sarah has a radio job. And

18:08

so everybody wants to hear about Sarah's job and

18:10

nobody wants to hear about mine. Oh, second field

18:12

option. And I get and I get and I

18:14

yeah and I sort of go oh I used

18:16

to have I used to have a

18:18

same job as Sarah and no one's to talk to me

18:21

about my job. But on moments like that when

18:23

I technically make a person faint I think

18:25

I'd have to make. I didn't make anyone

18:27

faint. They get heavier, making

18:29

people faint. I'm a

18:31

very old mate. The barometer for success,

18:33

how many people are fainted at my presence. I

18:37

mean when I was actually straight after the cemetery

18:39

running with the man he was perplexed

18:41

by my presence in the cemetery. I

18:44

ran into a lovely North American

18:46

couple and they looked a bit, they

18:48

were like, is that you Chris? And

18:51

they like froze and like just looked

18:53

like they'd been hit by a truck

18:55

and it's like something. It's

18:58

amazing people approach you and then when you

19:00

say hello they sort of freeze up and panic. It's

19:03

like don't worry. I'm not going to eat you. Not

19:05

yet anyway. You aren't family. But

19:11

yeah I worry about these geoser inspector AI

19:13

robots. What if they become sentient

19:15

and they see us all as misshapen geoser?

19:18

Will they come for us? Will they take us away? Will

19:20

they discard us? I mean there must be

19:22

someone in the world who looks more like geos than anyone else. You

19:25

know what I mean? It's like someone said there must be

19:27

someone in the world who's eaten more crisps than anyone else.

19:30

I'd be sure to be. I'd just polish them up by

19:32

a whole pack of kettle chips. I was

19:34

all first in line for that. Someone's

19:36

eaten more crisps than everyone else. Someone's eaten

19:38

more chips than everyone else in the world.

19:41

There must be someone who's done that. So you

19:43

sort of think well there must

19:45

be one person who looks like a

19:48

geo as well. Come on

19:50

then. I want

19:52

to meet them. I want to find them. I'll

19:54

be yellow skin. Bloody

19:58

hell. We'll be back in just a minute guys. Follow

20:00

her, girl. How do we get away from that?

20:02

We've... Let's make, you

20:04

guys, your stories, comments and questions over in

20:07

the fax machine. Wow!

20:16

Flexibility is great. That's why there's

20:18

yoga. Flexibility for your insurance coverage

20:21

is great too. That's why there's

20:23

UnitedHealthcare Insurance Plans. Underwritten by Golden

20:25

Rule Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Plans

20:27

offer flexible, budget-friendly coverage for medical,

20:30

vision, dental, and more. One

20:32

of these plans may be right for

20:34

you if you're, say, between jobs, coming

20:36

off your parents' plan, turning a side

20:38

hustle into a full hustle, or even

20:40

missed open enrollment. Want more flexibility? Find

20:42

out more about UnitedHealthcare Insurance Plans at

20:44

uh1.com. This is Paige, the co-host of GigglySquad, and I

20:47

want to tell you about a company that

20:49

I've been loving, Olive & June. Olive

20:51

& June gives you everything that you need

20:53

for a salon-quality manicure in one box, and

20:56

if you break it down, it really comes

20:58

out to $2 a manicure, which is absolutely

21:00

insane. It's also so easy

21:02

to get salon-worthy nails at home with Olive & June.

21:05

The difference between how your nails used to look

21:07

when you did them yourself and now with the

21:09

mani system is a complete game changer. The best

21:11

thing about Olive & June 2 is it's a

21:14

quick dry. It dries in about one

21:16

minute, lasts for five days, and

21:18

full coverage in up to one

21:20

to two coats. Visit oliveandjune.com/perfect mani

21:22

20 for 20% off

21:24

your first system. That's oliveandjune.com/perfect mani

21:26

20 for 20% off your first

21:28

system. Let's

21:55

get this dinner party started. Discover

21:57

all the delicious possibilities at hellofresh.com.

22:02

Hey. Ryan Reynolds at Mid Mobile. We

22:04

like to do the opposite of what

22:06

big wireless does. They charge you a

22:08

lot. We charge you a little. So

22:10

naturally when they announced that be raising

22:12

their prices due to inflation, we decided

22:15

to deflate our prices due to not

22:17

hating you. That's right, we're cutting the

22:19

price of Mint Unlimited from thirty dollars

22:21

a month to just fifteen dollars a

22:23

month. Give it a try it, Mint

22:25

mobile.com/switch. Forty Five dollars up front for three month plus

22:27

taxes and fees promoting for new customers for them into Time Unlimited:

22:29

more than forty gigabytes per month. Floats filter. And that Mint

22:31

mobile.com. we're

22:35

back with the Facts Machine. What have we got this week for our listeners?

22:38

Mr. Dawson. You look

22:40

a yoser, man. Get in touch. Dear

22:42

colorful Chris and pastel Pete, this is

22:44

Nick from sunny San Diego. Excuse

22:46

me. I recently returned from my

22:48

first solo trip to Japan, and while the trip

22:50

was amazing, there was one issue. My anxiety was

22:52

through the roof. Now, I've never been an anxious

22:55

person before, so this is very surprising to me.

22:57

Seeing as the reason for my trip was that

22:59

I wanted to eventually teach English in Japan, what

23:02

has been your experience dealing with anxiety like this?

23:04

I know you mentioned being terrified when you first

23:06

moved to Japan, but you never went into

23:08

much detail. All the best, Nick from sunny San

23:10

Diego. Chris, anxiety.

23:13

Tips? Any

23:15

kind of ways

23:18

to alleviate any stress? Well,

23:21

it's a tough thing, really. I mean, I

23:23

find I mostly

23:25

got over anxiety. Just

23:28

before the cyclothon, I

23:31

started feeling really anxious. I had quite a few

23:33

panic attacky moments that were a bit scary.

23:36

I haven't had that in years. I

23:38

was trying to wonder why am I having it now, and

23:41

it was staring me in the face. It was like,

23:43

oh yeah, I'm going to cycle for two weeks across

23:45

Japan in front of 30,000 people.

23:48

Of course I'm a bit nervous. I

23:51

mean, I don't want to give out professional advice

23:54

to folks dealing with anxiety. I will

23:56

say, if you can, get

23:58

help from a professional. something I

24:00

never did in Japan because I just don't

24:02

think they really know how to deal with

24:04

anxiety over here. I

24:07

remember a friend of a friend was

24:10

having depression and they all went to the

24:12

doctor and the

24:14

doctor was like, you should be

24:16

more happy. And it's like, oh,

24:18

yes, it's a problem it's solved,

24:21

thank goodness. So yeah, Japan's

24:24

not great for it. I mean,

24:26

I always maintain that finding

24:31

stone stone philosophy always helped me. And

24:34

yes, stone philosophy really did help

24:36

me. I should make a video on it. I

24:39

haven't done it much. The first, the first

24:41

rule of stonicism is you don't really talk about

24:43

it much, because you're not there

24:45

to preach about it. It's something you just process and

24:47

you deal with it and you find

24:49

ways to fit it into your life. And

24:52

it's not like a religion. And that's why

24:54

stonicism died out 2000 years

24:56

ago. Because all the people

24:58

that learned here, Marcus Aurelius,

25:01

all these famous incredible people

25:03

just sort of kept it to themselves,

25:06

because you don't preach about it. And

25:08

Christianity swept in and buried it all.

25:10

And yeah, it's unfortunate, we really should

25:13

preach about it more. Maybe I might give it a day,

25:15

but yeah, get professional help. Try

25:17

and just remember that anxiety

25:20

is worrying about things 90% of the

25:22

time that don't happen.

25:24

I think 99% of the time. I

25:27

was the last time I was really anxious was

25:29

at the end of the cycle, going up the

25:32

hill to the crowd of waiting people, 400 people,

25:35

I was quite nervous. And I

25:38

don't even know what I was nervous about people,

25:40

you know, Connor and people

25:42

like, why nervous? Why do I have

25:44

this? I'm like, I don't know. That's

25:46

the thing, right? Maybe I was nervous

25:48

about walking up the hill, this big

25:51

moment of victory, 60,000 people

25:53

watching online, 300 people there waiting.

25:55

And we just go, yeah, then falling over

25:57

and smashing into the ground. That's

26:00

the thing, I don't know. I don't know what there is. It's

26:03

worrying about things that don't happen and it went

26:05

perfectly well. So just remember that. That's

26:09

the secret. But we got

26:11

one here from Connor who says, I'm

26:13

not Sea Dog VA, very good. I

26:16

didn't know there was more than one person with

26:18

the name Connor in the world. Dear Chris and

26:20

Pete, I'll be visiting family in Okinawa in 2024

26:23

and I'm excited to return as I haven't been

26:25

back to Japan since my first trip in 2007.

26:29

My question is, have either of you eaten any

26:31

traditional Okinawan cuisine? And if so, which

26:33

dishes are your favorite? Thank you for

26:35

continuing to make the podcast. All the

26:37

best Connor, again, not Sea Dog

26:39

VA from California. Okinawan

26:42

food is bloody good. Have you had any? Have

26:44

you had like the pork feet? What? The luff-tig?

26:46

What? Earl, pork? For some reason,

26:48

I always get like Okinawa mixed up with Hawaii

26:50

a bit. You say, oh, I've made it off.

26:53

Definitely similar. I've eaten a lot of delicious fruit. Fruit

26:56

and rice. Yeah, the climate, the

26:58

laid-back people. Yeah,

27:00

but no, Okinawan food is really good. Luff-tig

27:02

is one of my favorites. It's like boiled

27:05

pig feet, which does sound fucked up. But

27:07

it's actually quite good. And it's not as feet,

27:10

feet heavy as you think it would look.

27:12

I don't know. Not as proper heavy, right

27:14

in the soul. Right. Okay. There's

27:17

also the Okinawa

27:19

sober, Okinawa style ramen. It's

27:23

probably the snake sake, which you

27:25

don't need to try. Okay. Just go with this.

27:29

Didn't you get given some from Jackie's dad or

27:31

something? I did, yeah. Doesn't that, yeah? No, it's

27:33

oral. Ehehe. It's

27:36

supposed to be an aphrodisiac and it's

27:38

not. It's just shit. And Spam. Spam

27:40

is popular in Okinawa. Spam! Oh,

27:43

fantastic. Yeah, but we think Spam is one

27:45

thing, but the way that they make their

27:47

Spam is just delicious. It's good.

27:49

It's good. I need

27:52

to go back to Okinawa really. I'm trying

27:54

to convince various friends and people to come

27:56

with me to Okinawa and for some reason,

27:58

nobody's like, yes, they're just like... uh... it could

28:00

be no come on let's

28:02

go it's like fucking paradise

28:04

on earth but to

28:06

be fair from jean to sort of august

28:08

don't get a okanawa i'm gonna be like

28:10

a sauna jake's shit in the

28:12

sea all day you just get up and you

28:14

just crawl into the sea like returning to the

28:17

sea exactly although jackie when i was there last

28:19

time i remember we were on that yacht it

28:21

was like we rented a yacht and we sailed

28:23

around really cool time no wonder i want to

28:25

go back and i remember there was a moment

28:27

in the video where i talked to jackie i'm

28:29

like there's no sharks in uh... okanawa

28:31

right jackie because the guy running the yacht was

28:33

like yeah don't worry no sharks and

28:35

jackie was like no sharks no but my cousin had their

28:38

arm ripped off by a shark and i was like what

28:41

it was like the story out of

28:43

nowhere this terrible terrible story popped up

28:46

if you're if you're gonna get your

28:48

arm ripped off it's gotta

28:50

be up there as the best one though isn't it you

28:52

know what i mean like if you're gonna if

28:55

you're gonna lose your arm because i'd lose it

28:57

in like a vending machine or something but i

28:59

think getting it getting it ripped

29:01

off by a shark like it's not great

29:03

whatever happens but it's better than getting caught

29:05

in machinery or getting it run over or

29:08

just losing it because you've had too much

29:10

delicious crocodile here here

29:13

and a lucky escape as well if that does

29:15

happen he managed to get away for god forbid

29:17

from the shark yeah uh... yeah i

29:19

definitely and then we went into the

29:22

sea after hearing that story and i was a little bit like and

29:25

in ocunawa i like the the sea in the uk

29:27

where it's just opaque it's just like

29:29

a muddy swamp of shit uh... and it is

29:31

literally shit now from what i understand in the

29:33

uk because all the sewage companies are pumping into

29:35

the sea awful uh...

29:38

in ocunawa the sea is transparent

29:40

and you can see like half

29:43

a kilometer into the distance which

29:45

is very awesome but also a little bit frightening it's

29:47

something it's a little bit like oh i

29:50

can see the shark coming towards me or the giant

29:52

kraten or something i don't know it was

29:54

a bit psychologically terrible this place has famously

29:56

been on like it's pretty unmapped

30:00

Anything could be in here. It's like returning

30:02

to caveman times, isn't it? They're going, oh,

30:05

someone's gonna eat me. Something's

30:07

gonna eat me. There

30:10

you go, Connor. But just be careful. Eat your way

30:13

through Okinawa, but don't be eaten by Okinawa,

30:15

whether it's a snake or a shark. And

30:17

finally, Mauia

30:19

from Moritana. Is it pronounced

30:21

Moritania? Moritania. Yeah,

30:24

Moritania. Hello, Cold

30:26

War Chris and Pearl Harbor

30:28

Peak. Pearl Harbor Peak. My

30:30

question is, are conspiracy theories

30:33

widely believed in Japan or do people trust

30:35

information from news outlets or people in authority?

30:37

Keep up the good work, Mauia

30:40

from Moritania. That's

30:43

a good question, actually. There are, yeah,

30:45

people here do believe in conspiracy theories

30:47

quite a bit, actually. But

30:50

then some of them are grounded in reality. It didn't

30:52

help that recent one, you know, when

30:54

Shinzawa Bear, the former prime minister, was

30:56

assassinated. It was

30:58

because of this, the

31:01

guy that did it, because his mum

31:03

had given money to a cult and

31:05

a really shady organization that he claimed

31:07

had infiltrated every level of Japanese political

31:09

society. And it actually had. It was

31:12

like a conspiracy theory that was real.

31:14

And I think that only added fuel

31:16

to the fire. But people do trust

31:18

the media here. I wonder

31:20

to what degree, compared to, let's

31:24

say, the UK, US, where everything's very

31:26

polarized right now. I wonder.

31:29

There's no doubt freedom of speech in Japan

31:31

has gone down in the last decade though, ever

31:33

since the aforementioned

31:35

Shinzawa Bear replaced NHK,

31:38

the guy that oversaw it, with one of his

31:40

friends who very much ripped

31:44

away NHK's credibility. A bit

31:46

like the BBC, yeah, on

31:48

steroids. And yeah, it's unfortunate.

31:51

It's unfortunate. But

31:53

that's a good question. Honestly, I don't know. I would

31:55

say it's just not to the degree of the UK

31:57

or US where we're very distrustful unless we hear something

31:59

we've been hearing. want to hear these days. Yeah

32:02

and maybe over in America and the

32:04

UK I mean I guess you can

32:07

sort of monetize conspiracy theories

32:09

more easily and perhaps

32:12

in Japan that's not really the

32:14

culture and I mean that guy

32:18

only couple of days ago committed

32:20

suicide, self-immolating basically

32:24

outside the Trump trial. Interesting,

32:26

very interesting sort of character. He

32:29

did a podcast about Laura Dern

32:31

from Jurassic Park. It

32:33

was like 4 yms or something. Laura

32:36

Dern, a weird subject for a podcast

32:38

but he was a very online chap

32:40

who was obsessed with The Simpsons and

32:42

stuff. It's a sort of bloke you'd

32:44

sort of see in like Brooklyn and

32:47

it's sort of so rare to sort of see such

32:50

extreme acts from kind of people

32:53

who I suppose would

32:55

who would that

32:57

online and that kind of like

32:59

comedic, seemingly comedically kind of tainted

33:01

I suppose. I don't know a

33:05

huge amount about that. I found it

33:07

fascinating. It was a very interesting how

33:10

that man was completely

33:12

radicalized by the right and

33:15

to the point where these kind of like when these kind

33:17

of political either pro Trump or

33:19

anti Trump stuff these

33:22

guys could sort of appear with the

33:24

manifestos. Like the rabbit hole

33:27

has gone so much further than even

33:29

you know your common or

33:31

garden dying in the wall kind of

33:34

like underground pedos on all kind of

33:36

conspiracy dearest guys would go and it's

33:39

almost like become its own language I

33:41

suppose. It's like it's very very strange.

33:43

It's a weird space

33:45

to be in and people have got... I

33:48

hate people who say you've got too much free

33:50

time. Those people are too much free. I

33:52

don't have time to talk

33:55

about New World orders. I've

33:58

got to do work. I've

34:00

got an edit podcast I'm afraid. I want

34:03

to hear Pete Dawson's new world order coming

34:05

soon to YouTube. Pete

34:08

rambling about his dog food problems, going

34:11

to the cemetery, new world order. It's

34:14

not anti-Semitic but it is anti-dog

34:16

food. Alright? Man, I don't

34:18

know. Yeah, but it's

34:20

an interesting topic though. I really should

34:22

dig a bit deeper into it all,

34:25

into how they perceive it. It's

34:28

a topic for one of those YouTube channels where they go up

34:30

to people in the street and ask them questions

34:32

about something I've yet to do. I'm

34:34

not worthy. Oh yeah, those guys who just start

34:36

to stop people. They're like, he's a pen man. Do

34:39

you like foreigners? Why do you like foreigners? You're fighting

34:41

the babes. Get out of my face. Get out. There

34:44

was a wonderful, you know those guys who

34:46

like stop people in the streets like New York

34:48

and go, hey man, what do you do for

34:51

work? You know, those kind of like people. And

34:54

there was this British bloke. And

34:56

he's walking down the street. And

34:59

I can't remember exactly how he phrased it. But

35:01

the guy goes, hey man, like he just pushes

35:03

the camera in his face and he goes, hey

35:06

man, what are you doing today? And he's like,

35:08

and he just goes, is, is, actually I've got

35:10

a smash in the face. He just goes, fuck

35:12

I'm gonna eat you. He just

35:14

like completely out of nowhere. It's

35:16

so British. It's so wonderfully London. And to

35:19

be fair, he does apologise afterwards. But it

35:21

was a very British kind of response. I

35:23

don't even know what you call that kind

35:25

of YouTuber. Boy,

35:29

you do that. Dickhead. Dickhead YouTuber. Dickhead

35:31

YouTuber. Well, I don't want to go to YouTubers.

35:34

Well, guys who like stand outside

35:36

for spring break, who just stand

35:39

outside just talking to girls just

35:41

going, are you, where are you

35:43

making a guy? Are you a 10? I

35:47

think it's all meant

35:49

to be six and five. And

35:52

it's just, oh, God, everyone's

35:54

like, oh, please. Dickhead You'll tell us a

35:56

waste that you should be out there doing

35:59

just that. and what do you

36:01

look for in the car? I feel

36:03

like you're the worst. Oh,

36:07

Donaldson's New World Order coming soon to you. Check

36:10

out, keep the stories, questions,

36:12

comments coming out to abroadinjapanpodcast.com.

36:15

I forgot it there for a moment. I remembered

36:17

at the final second. And also,

36:19

let us know in the YouTube comments below. Also, did you hear

36:21

at the end of the last episode, Pete, not

36:23

the one we just recorded, the one before,

36:25

in the closing credits there's a weird sound,

36:28

and all the comments about it. What the

36:30

fuck is it? I

36:32

think it's... Is

36:34

it Onomshiva that they say in

36:36

the Jones? I don't know

36:38

what it is. It's kind of

36:41

scary. I don't know.

36:43

I think when we stop talking,

36:45

we'll sort of say goodbye or I'll do

36:47

a little mumble, or you'll do a

36:49

little mumble. But I think sometimes the computer

36:52

interprets it as something else. I don't

36:54

know. It was a ghost in the machine, Christian.

36:56

Ghost in the abroadinjapan theme tune. But

36:58

for now, guys, have yourself a great few days. Check out

37:00

the theme tune, see if the ghost and machine are still

37:02

there. And we'll see you later in the week to do

37:04

it over again right back here. On the abroadinjapanpodcast. Bye for

37:06

now. Have a good one. Oh,

37:09

what do you look for in it, too? Oh, no.

37:26

An abroadinjapan is a stack production

37:28

and part of the ACAS creation

37:30

network. Elevate

37:38

your travel style with Quins! Quints has

37:40

all the jet setting essential you'll want

37:42

bigger next getaway. Like European Lennon, Premium

37:44

luggage options, buttery soft Italian leather bags

37:47

and so much more and is all

37:49

price of fifty to eighty percent less

37:51

and similar. Brands. you'll

38:00

be wearing for vacations to come with

38:02

Quince. Go to quince.com/pack for free shipping

38:04

and 365 day returns. Hey,

38:09

duck, what was that? Boring.

38:12

No flavor. That was as bad

38:14

as those leftovers you ate all

38:16

week. Kiki Palmer here, and it's

38:18

time to say hello to something

38:21

fresh and guilt free. Hello Fresh.

38:23

Jazz up dinner with pecan, crusted

38:25

chicken, or garlic butter shrimp scampi.

38:27

Now that's music to my mouth.

38:29

Hello Fresh. Let's get this

38:31

dinner party started. Discover all the

38:33

delicious possibilities at hellofresh.com.