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0:35

Wow. Hello

0:48

and welcome to the Abroad Japan Podcast. Probably

0:50

the best way of learning about life in

0:52

Japan without actually being in Japan. I'm your

0:54

host Chris Baud, we're joined as always by

0:56

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

0:59

Pete, how the devil are you doing? What's

1:01

going on? A very good morning to you

1:03

Christopher. I am enchanted by

1:05

your visage. I'm enchanted by

1:07

your new hair. Is

1:09

this new hair or don't care? Or is this

1:12

a recent haircut that's just kind of grown out a

1:14

little bit? Chris, I have to say you were looking

1:17

very spunky at the moment. I looked

1:19

good. I don't know. People have been

1:21

coming up to me and being like,

1:24

you've lost weight. And I'm like, have

1:26

I? I've not done anything. I don't

1:28

know if that's like the haircut. I

1:30

like this. It's

1:32

weird how much a haircut can kind of change

1:34

the shape of one's face. It's good stuff. Indeed.

1:36

I'm trying to get fit. I've got like some

1:39

big silly fitnessy stuff coming up,

1:41

videos and whatnot. And I can't,

1:44

I don't know how to talk about that now. But

1:48

anyway, you'll find out soon enough doing a

1:50

big silly thing. And there's lots

1:52

of cycling. But

1:54

anyway, shaving lots of haircuts, just having

1:56

constant haircuts instead of working. about.

2:01

I mean you've

2:03

been quite busy recently just bashing

2:05

out video after video haven't you? Your

2:07

post kind of Christmas, you're in

2:10

a post Christmas crush at the moment, you're in

2:12

the middle of just editing late at night pretty

2:14

constantly. Pretty much and like it's one of these

2:16

annoying things where if you don't release a video

2:18

for a while I think I

2:21

kind of worry that all the viewers might assume that I'm just

2:23

sort of sitting in a room on a

2:25

beanbag playing Gacy Tsushima which I

2:27

have done quite a lot of February but

2:31

I have also been working and making

2:33

videos and I think it

2:35

should be out now for how expensive is it

2:37

to travel Japan video which is like 30 minutes

2:39

long and it took two weeks to

2:41

make and if you haven't watched it

2:43

go and check it out. But yeah

2:45

no things are ramping up though we've got

2:48

a lot of videos out in March. I'm

2:50

planning a wacky weekend trip with Connor coming

2:52

up. I'm filming in a few

2:54

days. I've got a trip to Hiroshima, I've got

2:57

a thing with Natsuki. Yeah man

2:59

things really pick up in March. February

3:01

is like depression the month and March

3:03

is like the flowers are in

3:05

bloom and so am I and I feel revived

3:08

refreshed and ready to kick some ass. Not

3:10

literally. I'm not that violent but it'll

3:13

be good. Yeah I'm excited.

3:15

Chris did you read about the

3:17

big Nintendo usual emulator issue? Oh

3:20

that's very specific. No I don't

3:22

know. What is the Nintendo Switch

3:24

emulator? Big news in Nintendo emulation.

3:27

Obviously Nintendo big Japanese company they're

3:29

spending a lot of time just

3:31

absolutely smashing shit out of emulators

3:34

left right and centre. The

3:36

3DS and the DS was

3:38

a hugely emulated and

3:41

pirated sort of system so

3:43

Nintendo have always got a stick in their bum about

3:45

anybody flirting with any kind of

3:47

emulation or any kind of reproduction of their

3:49

intellectual property. And they've this week put the

3:52

old hammer on a

3:59

emulator. called Yuzu who

4:02

put their emulator behind a paywall on

4:04

Patreon a little while ago. And

4:07

it looks like they have successfully

4:10

halted the development of an

4:13

emulator for the first time I think in a

4:15

long time which may spell a

4:19

real end to legal

4:21

emulation around the world. It's hard

4:24

to underestimate or sorry it's hard

4:26

to overstate rather how destructive

4:29

this move might be and

4:31

once again Nintendo protecting their

4:33

IP is going to leave

4:35

a lot of people rather unhappy. That's

4:37

a shame. Well Nintendo is ruthless

4:39

aren't they? There was a time where you

4:41

could play their video games or

4:43

you know public games. Well in Japan

4:45

there's no such thing as fair use,

4:48

there's no such thing as transforming things

4:50

so you can find yourself at

4:52

the end of a very large legal

4:55

writ from Nintendo of America

4:57

of Japan of Europe and

4:59

so yeah they're little sods

5:01

they really are. Not

5:05

as friendly as Mario might assume.

5:08

I actually drove past

5:10

Nintendo's headquarters last week. It

5:13

is the most depressing looking building. It's

5:15

just this big blocky office building and

5:17

it looks really boring and there but

5:20

what goes on inside is

5:22

magic, pure magic even if they are screwing

5:24

lots of people over. But

5:27

no I like Nintendo I think they're cool and I'm anxiously

5:29

awaiting the Switch 2 which

5:33

why isn't it out? Yeah I can't believe the Switch has been

5:35

out for like how long now? 8,

5:38

9 years or something? Cracking on yeah it's really

5:40

sort of sneaked up on everyone I think. I

5:42

feel like the Switch came out yesterday and the

5:44

Wii U the day before that and the Wii

5:47

before that. It seems like

5:50

things are accelerating and you know

5:52

video game systems are what happens

5:54

when you're busy doing other things

5:56

as John Lennon said. I'm

6:01

keen to get my hand on one

6:03

but we shall see what they do

6:05

next. We've got a story this week

6:07

from Aaron who says, hello celestial Chris

6:09

and prompt Pete. My story is from

6:11

a recent trip that me and my

6:13

girlfriend took to Tokyo. One

6:16

day we visited Amiokochor Market in

6:18

Wenno and we had the same

6:21

whisky highball that you and

6:24

American Pete had in your walking across Tokyo in

6:26

a day video. Good stuff. I love that whisky

6:28

highball. After a couple of drinks we noticed

6:30

a drunk Japanese couple lingering around us.

6:33

I accidentally made eye contact and they

6:35

immediately began chatting to us in a

6:38

mixture of Japanese and passable English. We

6:40

used our limited Japanese phrases before quickly

6:42

turning to Google Translate for help, bringing

6:44

us all some good laughs and raising the

6:46

volume even higher. More and more drinks were

6:49

arriving at our table along with loads of

6:51

food and they were clearly enjoying

6:53

summoning the waiters and selecting items off

6:55

the menu for us to try despite

6:58

my initial concern over the inebriated state.

7:00

Things were going pretty well until I saw what

7:02

they wanted us to try next. I

7:05

didn't know what it was. It was grilled.

7:07

It was white on the outside and worryingly

7:09

deep pink in the middle. It

7:12

sounds like Pete and I gently prodded

7:14

it with my chopstick. I realised it

7:16

was very undercooked almost completely raw chicken.

7:21

How do we get out of this I thought. Try it,

7:23

try it. It's very good they exclaimed. Bet they did.

7:25

But oh God it's horrible. I could

7:28

warn her. My girlfriend enthusiastically

7:30

dove in and ate

7:32

a piece. Just for a millisecond I

7:34

could see the confusion sweeping across her

7:36

face, either the taste or the texture

7:38

of the meat. I was able to

7:41

employ the classic move of rubbing my

7:43

stomach and going oh yeah, two full,

7:45

two full deaths to escape the same

7:47

fate. Thankfully they gave up quickly in

7:49

favour of finishing their drinks but I

7:51

wanted to ask just how common is

7:54

eating raw chicken? Surely the risks

7:56

are not worth the reward. Luckily

7:58

my girlfriend had no ill effects. and

8:00

actually claimed to enjoy it. So we were both

8:02

nervous for a couple of days. We're

8:04

heading back in March, they raw chicken won't be on

8:06

the menu this time. Loving the podcast, all the best

8:09

guys. Aaron, who did not

8:11

eat the raw chicken. Disgusting. I

8:13

hate raw chicken. When

8:15

I did the cycle with Connor last year

8:17

in Kishu, we went to a Yaki Niki

8:19

restaurant and the menu

8:21

was all in Japanese. It was very odd kanji, but

8:23

I can make out the word chicken. And

8:27

I was like, oh yeah, chicken. Can't go wrong with that. And

8:30

they brought out like a fucking platter

8:33

of raw chicken, like a

8:35

mountain of raw chicken. And

8:37

we just did not touch it. And I

8:39

felt so bad. Like, you know,

8:41

you feel guilty. As we had last week, the

8:43

guy that ordered too much on a Geary, he

8:45

ordered a thousand pieces on a Geary, and

8:48

he enlisted the help of the internet to try and eat them. I

8:50

felt we should have done the same thing with that mountain of

8:53

chicken sashimi. It's so bad

8:55

though. It's so slimy. There's

8:57

no like quality that is

8:59

good in raw chicken. You

9:02

never had it, right? I've never had

9:04

it, no. And there is something about,

9:06

I don't know, to the Western palette,

9:08

having raw chicken. We

9:10

just don't have the food safety

9:13

standards that

9:16

the Japanese clearly think they have. Though

9:18

I know a lot of people have

9:20

fallen foul of the whole raw chicken

9:22

thing. It's, yeah, you just don't want

9:24

brain worms. You just don't want brain

9:27

worms. That's the last thing you need, to be honest.

9:29

So yeah, let's stay a clear of that. I mean,

9:31

what do you actually have with it? Is it just

9:33

a bit of soy sauce? Just a bit of, to

9:35

make it less slimy, vinegar? How would you kind of

9:38

make it in any way? Because I mean, I

9:40

guess it's probably the same texture as salmon, but

9:42

something about our brains go, nope. It

9:46

doesn't really taste like salmon or

9:48

tuna or anything like that. They basically

9:50

dip it in soy

9:53

sauce and ginger sometimes.

9:57

It does nothing. If you have it

9:59

without that, it's. straight up just

10:01

one of the worst things you could put in your

10:03

mouth because it has a slimy texture and then it's

10:05

kind of chewy and Just doesn't something wrong It's

10:08

like I remember sort of when I was at university I

10:10

used to eat a lot of Blood

10:15

sausage black pudding But

10:18

I used to eat it raw like the French do and

10:22

And yeah, people found that quite

10:24

offensive. I mean, I mean

10:26

it's already boiled. It's already like black pudding is

10:29

already cooked When you get it in the mane

10:31

if you get it from a nice place But

10:33

so that's worth doing to leave what's fine once

10:35

in your life. You can still you can still

10:37

you can eat it Uncooked. It's not as nice

10:40

uncooked But if you're if you're in a

10:42

pinch you need the black pudding fix just you know, just pop a

10:44

cube in your mouth Fuck on it.

10:46

Oh, God. I do like black pudding. You're like

10:48

a fry up. It's really nice there, but raw

10:50

I had You are in

10:52

my mind and it's tricky to be linked and

10:54

inexplicably linked to the very best black pudding

10:56

I've ever had when you did your living

10:59

show Late year and a

11:01

half a year ago When

11:03

you did your Christmas show pre-christmas. I I

11:07

had your I

11:09

had some pudding in I had Pudding

11:12

I had some delicious black pudding over the

11:14

road for a breakfast over the road from the hotel

11:16

We were staying in and my

11:18

god Chris. It was the best black

11:20

pudding I had tasted and it

11:23

was transcendental. It was just the best black we're

11:25

gonna have a taste I don't know where they

11:27

get it from. I don't know how they fry

11:29

it I don't know how they cook it But

11:31

there is a restaurant quite just over the road

11:33

from where we stay in the hotel that did

11:35

the best black pudding And I want to go

11:37

back there. He didn't invite me You didn't think

11:40

I should invite Chris to come along the only

11:42

person I saw was was team leader Ian who

11:44

was going for a run And

11:47

I was going for black pudding and I felt bad about

11:49

myself. So I didn't tell anyone Jesus

11:52

they know raw chicken horrible stuff.

11:54

Don't Just don't eat that.

11:56

It's it comes. There's no redeeming quality

11:59

one those thing I don't mind the basashi, raw

12:01

horse, I can do that. But,

12:04

and I can, another one that's a

12:06

bit sketchy is raw eggs. I eat that

12:09

willingly with like rice and things, but you

12:11

know, you have to have something with it.

12:14

It's pretty flavourless but it's nice with beef. You

12:16

kind of like, I think that's a daunting

12:18

thing for folks coming here when you have like sukiyaki beef

12:20

hot pot, right? You get the raw egg in a bowl

12:22

and you have to sort of whip it up and then

12:24

you dip the beef into it and whatnot. And

12:27

I could see that for the first few times being

12:29

a bit like, ehh, this is a bit wrong. Can

12:31

I get sick with this raw egg? But

12:34

it's good. And that's the one thing I'd say

12:36

that might take a bit to get your head wrapped

12:38

around but it is good. Same with nan

12:40

kotse, chicken cartilage. When

12:43

you go to a yakitori restaurant, you

12:45

know, chicken cartilage sounds daunting,

12:48

but what

12:50

if battered and put with a bit of

12:52

ketchup is pretty good. Pretty good stuff. But,

12:55

as we're talking about food, actually our news

12:57

story this week revolves around

12:59

food. Tokyo's three

13:02

Michelin star ramen restaurants all

13:04

lost their stars in 2024. Pete,

13:08

what the hell happened? What's going

13:10

on? What

13:12

the hell happened? Well, they

13:14

just lost their stars. When

13:16

the prestigious Michelin guide unveiled its 2024

13:19

Tokyo audition in December last year, the

13:21

beloved city was awarded 23 fewer

13:23

stars than the previous year. All

13:26

three of Tokyo's Michelin

13:28

starred ramen restaurants lost their one star

13:30

status in the new guide. This means

13:32

there is currently no Michelin starred ramen

13:35

in Tokyo. Or the world, for that

13:37

matter. Up to 2023, only

13:39

three ramen specialists had been awarded one,

13:42

naki-riu, sorry, naki-riu for

13:45

its beloved dan dan men. for

14:00

its sublime consolate ramen broth in the

14:02

2024 Michelin guide all

14:04

three ramen restaurants no longer hold

14:07

a star. So you've

14:09

just I mean the food's delicious let's

14:11

take nothing away from it apart from

14:14

Michelin star and yeah you can't get

14:16

Michelin star ramen in Tokyo or anywhere

14:18

because there is no ramen that

14:21

befits the Michelin star which is astonishing.

14:24

So look for that. Actually I went

14:27

on a bit of a rant on Twitter a few weeks

14:29

ago because I went to a three Michelin star

14:31

restaurant. It wasn't a ramen shop it was

14:34

like a meeting I had and the

14:36

person wanted to go there and it was rubbish.

14:39

It was shit. I've eaten at quite

14:42

a lot of Michelin star restaurants over

14:44

the years and I say Michelin was

14:46

probably Michelin right and of

14:49

the many I've eaten at I think you know

14:52

maybe 20% or

14:54

less. Have I gone okay it was pretty

14:56

good. That was value right. For the most

14:59

part it's literally oh we'll

15:01

just take a fucking you

15:03

know take some mushrooms. What's the what's

15:05

the really swanky mushroom? What's the nice

15:07

sake? No no oh

15:10

god what's the really expensive one?

15:14

I ranted about it Mario.

15:16

I don't know. No. Truffle.

15:19

Truffle. Truffle. Oh right sorry

15:21

not a mushroom then fine okay good

15:23

yeah all right. Clever clog. I mean

15:27

yeah you basically they take a food

15:29

a bit of celery and they rub

15:31

a truffle on it and it's like and

15:34

there we go three Michelin stars and thrice

15:36

the price and I just I

15:39

came out that three Michelin star restaurant I was just like I

15:42

don't remember a single dish I

15:44

ate. I don't see how anything that

15:46

was done was sort of unique or

15:49

you know high it was just it was

15:51

just truffles. It just truffles everything. It was

15:53

rubbish and I got really angry because the

15:55

price tag was formidable for what it was

15:57

and it kind of taxied up.

16:00

one of my little rants. Sounds like it was a

16:02

business meeting. I mean, yeah, I don't think I paid

16:04

for it either, so that was good, but anyway. It

16:07

left a sour taste in my mouth,

16:10

not the truffles. And it's

16:12

sad though, like the Michelin-style

16:14

restaurant, the Ginza Hachigou, I saw a

16:16

video on this place recently, and

16:19

it does look very good.

16:21

He cooks the pork so

16:23

well, and there's some good YouTube videos on it, and I do

16:25

wanna go, and I looked into it, but

16:27

you've gotta like, you can reserve seats, or

16:30

you can get there at 7 a.m. and

16:32

wait for like six hours. And

16:34

I can't wait six minutes for my food, let

16:36

alone six bloody hours in

16:39

the middle of Ginza in the street. So

16:41

you can reserve, I think every week on

16:43

Sunday, at midnight, they open it up so

16:45

you can reserve your seats right, and it

16:47

gets sold out instantly. And even then,

16:49

once you've reserved it, you still have to turn up

16:52

really early and wait for a few hours, I

16:54

think. So it's just like, how much do I want

16:56

my Michelin-style and am I willing to wait, you

16:58

know, three to four hours to

17:00

eat some noodles? Is it gonna be that

17:02

good? I don't know if I can justify

17:04

it. And you're not allowed to take photos or film it,

17:06

so I can't really film it and make a

17:09

tax deductible trip. Did it really happen? Yeah, if

17:11

you don't film it, did it really happen? Exactly

17:14

right. I always talk about how I

17:16

met Elon Musk and Prince Andrew, and

17:18

nobody cares, because it's not a photo. So you

17:20

gotta make sure if you meet your celebrity, or

17:22

you get a photo, otherwise it literally didn't happen.

17:25

We don't want that Prince Andrew. Probably

17:27

don't, no. You don't want that to

17:29

happen. Yeah, get a photo with Prince

17:31

Andrew, that's what everybody wants. It's what every kid

17:33

wants under the fucking tray, good God. Oh God,

17:36

oh man. But like, I don't know. So why did they

17:38

get rid of the Michelin stars? Is there any indications to

17:40

why? Was the French guy just taking

17:43

a bath that week? I

17:45

don't know, I mean, why would you get,

17:47

yeah, it just seems like, does familiarity breed

17:49

contempt when it comes to the Michelin system?

17:53

I mean, I imagine novelty

17:55

plays into it as well. I don't really know what

17:57

the kind of, how you kind of go, oh, the

17:59

very dirty, lost your Michelin star on like do

18:01

they have to do they is there a Michelin star

18:03

do they take this star out of the window do

18:05

they sort of or do

18:08

they just release their guide and the chef opens

18:10

it up one day and goes oh oh

18:13

shit we've lost that Michelin star

18:15

happens yeah there's a good documentary

18:18

fucking cowards it's a documentary

18:20

called boiling point on I

18:22

think it's Scott Ramsey in the 90s getting

18:24

one of his stars at his restaurant yeah

18:27

and he's like livid when he's not got

18:29

his three Michelin stars they literally wait I

18:31

get a book he brings up his friend

18:33

he's like open a book turn to page

18:35

65 what we got oh

18:37

no stars fuck and it's like you know a big

18:39

deal for a lot of people right I don't

18:43

imagine I don't know you know how

18:45

these Japanese ramen shops would feel I

18:48

imagine they don't care so much because they're

18:50

not actually sort of their aim

18:52

is not to make Michelin star ramen necessarily right

18:54

it's not like a French restaurant that's like trying

18:56

to take all the boxes right with the serving

18:59

and preparation and the cutlery and the staff and

19:01

all the factors that go into getting a Michelin

19:03

star I always felt the Michelin stars were kind

19:06

of rigid and very French and

19:09

you've got to be you got to do the French playbook

19:11

you know you've got to have a certain way of doing

19:13

it but they you know some of the good Michelin star

19:15

restaurants I've been to there was one in Hong Kong I

19:17

went to just did dumplings that

19:20

were very reasonably priced you know like

19:23

ten dollars having a top Michelin

19:25

star dumpling it was really good

19:27

that the dumplings are exceptional and

19:29

this Ginza ramen shop

19:31

the reason it's got a Michelin size clearly

19:33

a lot of thought goes into every stage

19:35

of the the process like I know

19:38

he right you know developed these special noodles and he

19:40

takes a lot of time with the broth

19:43

and he you know braises the pork very

19:45

slowly and cooks it with like a blowtorch

19:47

because blowtorch is equals good and

19:49

then finally of course there's truffles there's

19:51

truffles in the ramen Pete and

19:53

that's you'll be you can

19:55

always find them that's

19:57

right I should I should cook for Charlotte like

20:00

spaghetti bolognese and just get a

20:03

truffle. Just grate it. Michelin

20:05

star now, isn't it? Michelin star dinner. But

20:09

yeah, it's a shame though, but I'm still

20:11

gonna swing by this ramen shop. God

20:14

damn it, I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna eat this

20:16

ramen. I'm gonna try. And at

20:18

the very least, I'll make an

20:20

Instagram reel, and that will make

20:22

the trip tax deductible, because that's all

20:24

I care. And prove that I ate there, because that's all that

20:26

matters now, isn't it? You don't film it,

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you don't take a photo. It simply

20:30

did not happen. We're back

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Now we're back with the facts machine. What have

22:47

we got this week from our list is Mr.

22:49

Donalds. Hill acid. We've got a message from

22:51

Nick. Hi Chris and Pete. I'm

22:54

going to be moving to Japan for three

22:56

months. During my last visit to the country

22:58

I greatly missed the chain Chipotle and craved

23:00

Mexican food in general. What are the dishes

23:02

you miss from home when travelling in Japan?

23:05

What would you guys suggest for a last meal before

23:07

heading to Japan? Nick from LA. Ooh

23:10

that's probably not a bad shout is it? Like

23:12

getting just as much kind of like really deep.

23:14

I mean I didn't realise that Chipotle

23:16

had that good representation

23:18

of the food. But yeah I mean

23:21

just absolutely piling in on all those

23:23

kind of like those forbidden south of

23:25

the border sorters and delicious

23:28

food. We're getting hungry. Yeah that would absolutely

23:30

like proper put yourself into a food column

23:32

which will help you sleep on the flight.

23:34

That's true actually yeah that's a good point.

23:38

I personally miss Greg's sausage

23:41

rolls and pasties and pastries. Like

23:43

pastries and sausage rolls just can't really get

23:45

them here. You can get pretty

23:48

much everything else now I

23:50

found. I found places that do fish and

23:52

chips or Sunday Race and all that British

23:55

stuff. But sausage rolls are

23:57

still like a no go zone it can't

23:59

be done. And I think I

24:01

should set up a restaurant, the sausageery, the

24:04

sausage, I don't know, think of a better name

24:06

than that. You're good at this. Think of a

24:08

name for my sausage roll restaurant, Pete. Help

24:10

me out. Pete We're on

24:12

a roll. Steve On a roll. I

24:14

like that, yeah. On a roll. Perfect.

24:17

I like it. On a roll.

24:19

Better than the sausageery, which sounds borderline x-rated.

24:22

Yeah, sausage rolls, they're missing big time. Bring

24:24

them over. We've got a story this week,

24:26

or a question rather from James, who says,

24:28

Dear Cool Chris and Perverse Pete. Yeah,

24:31

in a recent podcast, you talked

24:33

about the film All of Us

24:35

Strangers. This film was based on

24:37

a Japanese novel, and my microphone

24:39

is collapsing around me. Whoa. It

24:42

doesn't like that film. You can tell it's a Japanese novel. In

24:46

a recent podcast talking about All of

24:48

Us Strangers, the film was based on

24:50

a Japanese novel by famous Japanese novelist

24:52

and screenwriter, Taichi Yamada. This

24:54

leads me to ask, what Japanese stories,

24:56

whether folklore or literature, would you want

24:58

to see realised as a film? Personally,

25:00

I believe there is a lot of

25:03

untapped potential in your guy-based horror or

25:05

slasher films. Thank you guys, James. I'm

25:07

in a mood to... I've

25:10

always wanted to write and direct my own film,

25:12

but I'm thinking, maybe I should

25:14

start by taking somebody else's idea, like

25:16

a good idea, and then giving them the money

25:18

and buying the rights to it and then making it. Because

25:21

that's probably better than something I can think of, and

25:23

that could be a good way to do it. Although I

25:25

might butcher their work. I can just steal it. I

25:28

can just steal it from folklore, which

25:30

is being suggested here. There

25:34

is a character that I would love

25:36

to see you direct a horror film

25:38

about, Momotaro, a

25:42

little baby who came to Earth inside

25:44

a giant peach, which is found floating

25:46

down a river by an old

25:48

woman who was washing clothes there. The

25:50

woman and her husband discovered the

25:52

child when they tried to open the peach to eat

25:55

it. The child explained that

25:57

he'd been sent by heaven to be

25:59

their son. and the couple named him

26:01

Momotaro from Momo meaning Peach

26:03

and Taro meaning the eldest son in

26:05

the family. Years

26:07

later Momotaro left his parents for an

26:09

island called Onigashima to destroy the marauding

26:12

demons that dwelt there. More

26:14

roots! Momotaro met a

26:16

burnt and befriended a talking dog, monkey and feather

26:18

to agree to help him in this quest. At

26:21

the island Momotaro and his animal friends penetrated

26:23

the demon's fort and beat the demon's leader

26:26

as well as his army into surrendering. Momotaro

26:28

returned home with his new friends and his

26:30

family left comfortably from then on. Baby

26:34

Peach killed a lot of fucking

26:36

demons and then comes back and is baby Peach boy

26:38

again. We don't pay

26:41

Peek enough do we? I

26:44

was really impressed there when he started wheeling off

26:46

Momotaro facts. I was like wow Peek no good stuff.

26:49

Slowly but surely became clear it was

26:51

being read off for Wikipedia. There's

26:55

another one that I think would really adapt quite well.

26:58

Bunbuku Chigama. Any

27:00

idea about what that might mean? What

27:03

was it again Bunbuku

27:06

Chigama roughly translates to happiness bubbling

27:09

over like a teapot. The

27:12

story, the four cross story tells of a

27:14

poor man who found a raccoon dog her

27:16

tanuki caught in a trap feeling sorry for

27:19

the animal he set it free. That

27:21

night the tanuki came to the poor man's house to thank

27:23

him for his kindness and the

27:25

tanuki transformed himself into a

27:27

teapot. And

27:31

basically told the poor man to sell him

27:33

for money. So the

27:35

man sold the teapot, the tanuki teapot to

27:37

a monk who brought it home after scrubbing

27:39

it harshly, set it over the fire to

27:41

boil some water. Unable to

27:43

stand the heat the teapot sprouted

27:46

legs, the tanuki teapot and basically

27:48

half transformed and ran away. And

27:51

the tanuki returned to the poor man with another idea

27:53

about the man setting up a circus

27:56

and charging admission for people to

27:58

see a dancing or you know,

28:01

a teapot doing

28:03

tricks. It sounds like basically this toky

28:05

is just more trouble than he's worth.

28:07

He's coming up with his hairbrush schemes

28:09

and this poor man is just, you

28:11

know, embarrassing himself. Trying

28:13

to sell his teapot. I

28:16

would pay good money to hear you read out

28:18

your Kai stories with. Yeah. Well

28:20

my favourite one was that one where, like,

28:22

you know, like, in a bathroom the ceiling

28:24

gets all wet. Isn't there one that's like

28:27

climbs through the window and licks all the

28:29

condensation off the ceiling? Now that's a

28:31

goddamn fucking folktale, isn't it? Hey?

28:33

Oh my god. It's

28:36

pretty cool though. Like, yeah, I need to... There's a

28:38

really good book I saw recently on your Kai that

28:40

I wanted to buy. And it tells you about what

28:43

they do and what they are. Because there's so many,

28:45

right? There's so many bizarre ones and, like, I had

28:47

never heard... Was it Bun Bun

28:49

Bun Buku Bun? Bun

28:52

Bun Buku Jugama. It just sounds

28:54

like Jugama's. I can't remember. That's

28:57

a good story. Where do you find all these stories? Where do you find

28:59

them? I think... Honestly,

29:01

I think Googling

29:03

something at 6 o'clock in the morning, you're never gonna get... There's

29:06

never a paper towel, Chris. I can't remember. Beautiful

29:10

stuff. Have you seen a... I mean, while

29:12

it's a bit out of my depth filming something like

29:14

this, have you ever seen... Have you been watching Shogun

29:16

yet? I've not, but it's

29:19

heavily advertised on

29:21

the old Amazon stuff. I'm still trying

29:23

to get through... Is it one day? I'm

29:26

bashing through one day at the moment

29:28

about two kids

29:31

who are just living their

29:33

life in London. No,

29:35

I don't want to watch Shogun. It's really

29:37

good. We'll talk about it in another

29:40

podcast. I'm only two episodes in. But,

29:42

yeah, check it out. It's really good.

29:44

I think people are excited. There seems

29:46

to be a lot of relief, I

29:48

think, because Shogun... The

29:51

original Shogun, in hindsight, doesn't

29:53

look so good now, because it's the

29:56

story of like a white guy just setting up in

29:58

Japan. Yeah, white guy. Yeah, white guy. single-handedly

30:00

right? Which is what I've done now

30:02

for 12 years and we're like it's

30:04

that you know White Savior, segoy and like

30:07

but this one is a

30:09

bit more, is very mindful of that and

30:11

yeah put the Japanese cast front and center

30:13

really good check it out. We'll talk about

30:15

another episode we've got one last question here

30:17

from Angela who says

30:19

Ellie Chris and Pete last time I was in

30:22

Japan was in 2018 for two weeks so I'm

30:24

planning to go back in the next year or

30:26

two for a month my question is since the

30:28

yen is so low right now is cash still

30:30

king and should I seriously consider picking

30:33

up some yen now while it's still low? I

30:35

don't know how acceptable credit cards are and the

30:37

last time I traveled there I bought just enough

30:39

yen to cover my expenses. I'm

30:42

sure I feel like many others

30:44

out there who would love to take advantage of

30:46

such an amazing exchange rate. All the best guys

30:48

Angela from Los Angeles and

30:51

I mean I think

30:53

the yen won't get better

30:56

necessarily touch wood for

30:58

travelers but I don't see it sort

31:00

of getting stronger anytime soon but yeah

31:03

it's like a joke price right now.

31:05

Yeah so is it worth sort of

31:07

I don't I think you

31:09

know I don't know finance so I don't know whether so I

31:13

don't know whether it makes sense buying some now or

31:15

would you make as much kind of hair if you

31:17

just kept the money in your bank account I don't

31:19

know I don't know how it works. I

31:22

personally I don't think the yen is gonna it might

31:24

get a little bit stronger it might go up or

31:26

down but I don't see any dramatic shifts on the

31:28

way in terms of the currency this

31:30

could be like a sound clip in a year's time

31:33

when the yen is the world's strongest currency and

31:35

Japan is back to take over the world but

31:37

I don't think that's gonna happen I think don't

31:40

don't bother my

31:42

inclination but yeah make no

31:44

mistake now's a great time to visit Japan if you

31:46

are thinking of doing it do it now I know

31:49

a lot of friends who have who have

31:51

been sitting on the fence about where they go Japan and

31:54

now they've seen the yen and how much their money

31:56

gets in Japan they're like all hopping on the plane

31:58

and I've got to show lots of people around and

32:01

that's half my year now just showing

32:03

people around the Sensaiji 10-4 in Asakusa

32:06

and bloody Shibuya Crossing. We'll be back in the

32:08

week guys. Keep the stories, questions, comments coming in

32:10

to [email protected] or comment down below here on YouTube

32:12

if you're watching. But for now, have a great

32:14

few days and we'll see you right back here

32:17

to do all over again with the great Pete

32:19

Doles very soon. Bye for now. Do not buy

32:21

a game off from a month. Abroad

32:37

in Japan is a stack production

32:39

on part of the Acast's creation

32:42

network.