Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Gina's Fear of Making Japan Reservations from April 28th, 2026

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Gina's Fear of Making Japan Reservations from April 28th, 2026 · The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to Japan there.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: In June.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: The reason we decided to go to.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Japan is because at the time, this was before the
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: worst we're at war.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: By the way, we're in the war with no no
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: with Japan.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: But before that, festus my sailor son said, Uh, I said,
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: I want to meet up with you somewhere so we
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: can see you and UH. The easiest place for him
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: to get to from where he is stationed he's in
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: the Navy is Japan. I'm like, well, cool, that's an
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: excuse for us to go there and UH and check
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: out a place we've never been before, Tokyo, Tokyo specifically.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: And UH.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: In the interim we started a war and and nobody
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: is getting leave now, so.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: We're still hopeful that maybe he'll be able to meet
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: us there.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Going anyway, but we're going.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Anyway because we've planned it and and it's somewhere different, Yes,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: yes it is, and it's very different, and like you know,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: we've been all over Europe and places, but this is
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: very different. And so I'm trying to plan our trip.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Well, what what, what's what's staying up or are there's
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: some problems?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Well, so usually we try to have some dinner. Well, what,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: well is that funny?
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: I'm just wondering if what it is in Japan that
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: you'll eat all kinds of stuff that well, they got KFC,
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: that's true.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: They like their KFC.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: All kinds of stuff.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Apparently they have some of the best pizza in the world.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: They have rice. Do you like rice?
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I like rice. There's some famous pizza joint.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: There no idea.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: That that Joe read about in the New York Times.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: There was a whole art of about the best pizza
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: in the world is in Tokyo, and about the guy
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: that you know spent ten years developing the right it's
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: an ormination of flower.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: It's Pagoda pizza, but nobody, nobody pizza's like Pagoda.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: But so I thought, Okay, I want to start booking
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: some some restaurant reservations.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, And I go.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Amusing Instagram for a lot of this, getting some ideas
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: for places to go. And you go there and they
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: say we only take reservations over the phone, and so
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I am immediately intimidated, like okay, I'm I gonna call
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: and they don't speak English and I can't make make it.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: I'm so I've so I have consequently not made any
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: dinner reservations because I'm afraid to call and be dumb
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: and go.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: I need to make a reserve and listen, listen if okay,
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: you call, and if.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: American the calls and goes, can I talk to somebody
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: who speaks English?
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: I want to make a rest Why why don't you
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: want to be that person you're stressing Bill?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Out of these Why don't they want to be that person?
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: You call and you say, and you say hello, they
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: answer the name of the restaurant, Hello, this is Pagoda Pizza,
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: and and you say, Hi, I'm calling from America and
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: I'd like to make a reservation. Now they'll either respond
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: because they understand that, or they'll respond in Japanese and
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: and you then you will say, I don't understand Japanese.
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: Is there's someone there who speaks English? And I could
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: make the reservation? And then they will say no or yes,
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: and then you that's it.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: See, that's the thing.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: I Americans just expect people to speak English everywhere, and
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: I don't want to be that.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: You're not American, You're not.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: If you're now here's what what do you mean?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: There's nobody there that speaks English. I demand that you
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: put somebody on the line right now. That's not what
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: you're doing. You're just asking polite you see what I'm saying.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: It's no. I just don't at all.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: I also don't understand why why everywhere can't just have
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: online make a reservation here, and I want to come
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: this day at that time with this many people and
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: it's done.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I want to call the place. I'm not going to
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: figure out what time.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: You're being the ugly American by doing that. You know,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: our friend Heroko is offering her help.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Oh that's perfect.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Natasha's son speaks Japanese as well, Austin.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: I I just don't. I want to go and experience it,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: and I don't want to be the ugly American.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: You want to go and experience it and just hope
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: magically that somehow people will understand you.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Now, Festus has gone before, because he got Lee even
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: went and he said, most places he went, you just
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: walk up and are you waiting? So Carrie, you were
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: there most recently.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you just wait.
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: Well, I think they made the reservations once we arrived,
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: because I know there was a couple of places that
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: we had to make reservations, but Sue took care of that.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: So maybe I'll talk to her. Yeah, but I would
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: take Heroko upon her offer.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I'll just give her a list. Could you call these?
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: No, No, that's not what you know. No, take her
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: with you to yeah, or that that's what you need
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: to do.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Better.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: That's even better because then you've got to translate.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: And and people will really not think you're an ugly
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: American if you have someone who speaks Japanese with you
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: and you walk up and you say here.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And push them out in front of you.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Heroko, I want to be I want to be respectful,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: and I want to be a good a good guest.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: So any why does that make you sigh?
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: Because you just you just don't trust, you know, you
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: go and in in good faith, you try to talk
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: to people. The only time I've ever had a problem
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: with that was one time in Paris where I tried
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: to speak a little French to when Carrie was when
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: carry was with me, and she looked like she was
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: gonna throw up.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: And shoot me away.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: You wanted nothing to do with nothing to do.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: Now, probably if I had tried to speak, if I
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: had asked her a question in English. She probably would
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: have not been, but she didn't like the way I was.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: It sounded all.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Kind of mangled the language.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: But most people, like in Japan, you know, you just
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: the most people understand a little bit of English, and
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: if they don't, they're very happy to try and communicate
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: with you in some way.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I just I don't I don't want to be insulting.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: It's not insulting.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: And think of it this way, in the back of
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: your mind, saying listen, I'm here to spend money.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: And if you give me any crap.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: My American dollars, I'm here to spend money.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: That's what you do. Just wave money in front of them.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: A lot of them do speak English, and Heroco says,
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: she will email you. Great, so you're going to get
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: her contact info and she can help.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you. You can just say we want to go.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Here, Yeah, we're suggestions of where to go.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Kerry and I are trying to talk to this
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: guy and this guy who owned a bar in Nagano
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: and uh, he and we were and he didn't he
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: really didn't speak any much at all. And that's where
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: we got the from. That's where he came from because
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: he you know, I kept trying to say, there was
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: this bottle of liquor and there were there were dead
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: bees in it intentionally, and I kept trying to say,
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: what is that in Japan? And I'm pointing and he goes, uh,
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: there's b B And I said no in Japan Japanese,
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: oh hachi, And he was delighted with the whole thing.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: You know, it's just you just talk to people.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: You're gonna be fine.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: It will be good.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Pushy and rude. That's another thing.
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: The question is is you know, are you really going
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: to Tokyo to eat pizza?
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: That's that's my big question, you know, cause.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: You find this article that I read that Joe read about.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: I'm sure it's amazing pizza. I'm sure it is.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: But because isn't that the thing with Tokyo?
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Not only is it good Japanese, they just have good
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: restaurants no matter what the food.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Pretty much you have to go.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: You have to go eat that one of those places
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: where you eat sushi off of a naked woman. There's
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: a name, there's a name for it, and I can't
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: I don't remember what it is, but.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: You don't know.
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: I think there was somebody told me a few years
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: ago there was a place in Ogden that was actually
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: doing that.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Not sanitary, well.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: Not eating okay sushi off a naked woman.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, you wouldn't eat sushi anyway.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: That's a separate issue. That's I wouldn't eat French fries
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: off a naked woman.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: This is not even coming up. You know you wouldn't.
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: Again, it's the My question is why are you going
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: to Tokyo to eat pizza? There's so much great local
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: cuisine while you're there. Your fresh seafood, you know, just one.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Of the many things were there for a week.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: So with the pizza, pizza, you wouldn't.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: You wouldn't eat French fries off of a naked woman.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: And you also wouldn't eat french fries if you were
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: you were a naked woman.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: No, would you eat French fries off of Jason Momoa?
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Well, different question altogether,