Latest / bit of a Rambler / 158 Ramble On

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158 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, my name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn, and tell stories.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And let's ramble on, because I'm almost back in the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: States by this point, because I gotta get to a wedding.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: So let's close out Japan here, I think? Oh, it
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: might take a while, I don't know. Many Japanese convenience
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: stores still have fax and copiers, and not just as
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a relic, people still use them. Japan's really interesting because
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: if you've ever seen anime or really even U.S. advertisements
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: about a Japanese product, the future aspect of Japan is
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: always emphasized. But it's an extremely traditional and conservative in
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: many ways country. So they do have a lot of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: relics of decades past and they still participate, they still
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: use Japan. Older technology and older customs in general. Like
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: at the restaurants I go to, they have specialized plates
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: for their flagship dishes of the restaurant. Like handmade, handcrafted plates.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: That's a very common thing in Japan. If you order
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the most expensive thing in a restaurant, often it'll have
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: its own special type of plate that they only use
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: for that flagship dish or couple of dishes. And apparently
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: they still use hard copies of a lot of documents because...
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I saw a lot of these copiers and fax machines
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: in not every convenience store, but not a few of them. Like,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: half of them had a full-size, like, stand-up copier and
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: fax machine next to it. And I thought that it
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: was just around in case someone needed to use it,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: but half of the time, they were being used for
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: copying and faxing, even. I saw people typing in phone numbers,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and then it gets faxed there. Japan's just an interesting place,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: as I'm sure you're aware of. There are a few
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: print stores in most other countries that'll have a bunch
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: of printers that you can print out from. That's still
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: common enough that you'll have physical printer stores, like copy centers,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: somewhere in a city. But Japan has them in every
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: major convenience store, and people still use them. I thought
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: that was so interesting, especially with all the other riding
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the not-quite-updated upholstery on the trams that they have. They
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: obviously update their transportation infrastructure frequently and other technology frequently,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: but the way the transportation infrastructure looks is slightly traditional.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It's a few decades old. And that seems intentional. It
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: seems like Japan likes to do a lot of things
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: a few decades old. Oh, it was difficult for me
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to find ice cream vending machines this trip, so I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: don't know if they're getting less popular, or maybe they're
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: just not big in Osaka, where I was. That may
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: be it, because I did walk around... Usually when I'm
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: in Japan, I'm backpacking between cities, and I'd find... these
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: ice cream machines between cities or at like rest stops
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: on the way to another city along the highway. So
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: maybe I just wasn't in the right place because I
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: was in the city this time. And if you're in
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the city, every store has 30 different types of ice
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: cream and ice cream snacks that you can buy. So
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I guess it makes sense that the ice cream vending
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: machines wouldn't be as popular, except that the Japanese ice
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: cream vending machines are so cool. They have Special flavors
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: that you can only get in those vending machines. Like
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a strawberry cheesecake or a matcha mocha chino, whatever the heck.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: They have very interesting flavors. Ube. Ube is becoming popular
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: in the United States now, so I can say that.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: That's the sour plum, the purple sour plum flavor. So
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: they could have like an ube confetti cake. They have
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: all sorts of like special flavors. ice cream flavors that
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: get updated very regularly in those vending machines. So I
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: think I would have thought they would still be around
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: just for the novelty because they're not expensive either. I
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: think they're one to two dollars generally. Three maybe for
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the super expensive fancy ones. I think the super expensive
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: fancy ones I got were still only two bucks because
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: they were like 300 yen. But that might just be
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: the exchange rate. Japan's going through a Tough economic time
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: at the moment. Oh, what else? Well, a huge difference
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: from the other times I've been in Japan. And again,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: maybe this is because I've never spent time in a city.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: But in Osaka and Tokyo, only one convenience store out
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: of 15, from my count, because I began being very
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: curious about this, had a sit-down area where you could
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: actually rest. And there was no outlet there. in it either.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I found one store that had an outlet and a
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: place to sit down, and that was on the very
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: west edge of... Oh no, that wasn't even in Osaka.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: That was back in Matsuyama. That wasn't even Matsuyama. It
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: was in a tinier town outside of Matsuyama. That's the
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: only place I found a sit-down area with outlets, which
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: used to be Completely normal all across Japan. And I
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: don't know if it's just not in the big cities
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: because I was only in Osaka and Tokyo this trip.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: But I was kind of bummed out. I'm sure I
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: keep hearing about foreign influencers like TikTok influencers and YouTube
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: influencers going to Japan and being total jerks. So maybe
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: they're taking advantage of the services too much. And that's
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: why Japan's removed these services from their convenience stores. Oh,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you know what? There was another one in Matsuyama. That's
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: where I got my fancy Japanese SIM card that works
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: in 70 countries. I sat there and charged my phone.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: So some places still have, maybe it's just major cities,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: or maybe it's just Osaka and Tokyo that don't do
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: it anymore. I know Tokyo used to have charging spots
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and sit-down dining areas in their convenience stores. But in
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: any case, this trip, it was just very apparent because
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: every now and then I need to charge my phone,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: walking around all day, seeing whatever there was to see.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: And I kept walking into different convenience stores thinking, well,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: this won't happen. Oh, that one's kind of big. And
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I could see the seating area where the dining area
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: bar used to be. And it was clearly recently retrofitted
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: to be magazine racks because they still like paper magazines
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a lot in Japan also. So the area that was
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: clearly recently the dining area was retrofitted to be another
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: part of the convenience store that sold magazines or snacks
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: or whatever it was. And the first time I saw it,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, okay. And then after five stores
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: had that, I was like, oh, wow, maybe they stopped
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: with the public dining areas and convenience stores. Which, yeah,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: obviously is a bummer because they were so nice. But
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: if they did get rid of it, it certainly seems
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: like the video influencers... We're a big part of that,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: because they put a fence around a town so that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: irritating influencers would stop standing in the middle of the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: sidewalk and being rude to people. So, yeah, not just Japan.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Wherever you go, if you do travel, just be a
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: positive influence when you show up. Also, if you're in
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Osaka and Tokyo, I know why there are no more
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: dining areas, if it's something other than what I think
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: is the obvious answer. Or if you've also noticed that, yeah,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: let me know. Write in. Oh, Kuma map. Okay, so
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: to get out of Japan, I had to get to Tokyo.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: The original plan was to walk from Osaka to Tokyo
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: because I had 10 days-ish, two weeks, something like that.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I gave myself just as a vacation in Japan. So
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I was going to land in Osaka, backpack to Tokyo,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and then fly out of Tokyo. I could take one
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: or two trams between a couple cities on the way
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: there just to make sure I made it on time.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: But there was that typhoon, so I ended up just
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: living in Osaka for a week and then taking a
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: bus to Tokyo, which luckily are still extremely convenient and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: everywhere and very reasonably priced. I took a Willer bus.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: That's the one I've been taking, boy, a long time.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: For the last decade, if I do need to get
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: somewhere quickly in Japan, I take the Willer bus because
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: they're very reasonably priced. compared to any of the trains.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Even the normal trains get pricey as soon as you're going...
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know, as soon as you're going more than
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: 40 minutes-ish, you're going to start paying $ 20, and you
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: can pay $ 20 to get from Osaka to Tokyo on
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: a Willer bus, and they have USB chargeable outlets and
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: reclining seats and a bathroom on board... and seatbelts and curtains,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: all the bells and whistles, and that's a long way.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: It's like 500 miles as the crow flies-ish. So if
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: you do need to get around Japan, I do still
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: recommend those Willer buses, because mine was perfect. It was
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: right on time, and they have them all through the night,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: so the red-eyes will be cheaper. I got a red-eye,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: my schedule's whatever. But it's probably $ 10 more expensive if
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you get it, like, peak hours. So it's still only
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: $ 30 to go 500 miles. It's still totally worth it. And,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: of course, very reliable vehicles on very safe roads. You're
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: in Japan. So I got to Tokyo. I was very
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: excited about that. And it was about that time when
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: I was about to land in Tokyo and... I had,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly how long, three or four days
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: around Tokyo, and I would just camp out for three
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: days until my, or three nights until my plane back
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: to the United States day arrived. Because I had urban
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: camped around Tokyo so many times. Well, maybe not so
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: many times, but one time for like a month straight.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: There's so many easy spots to urban camp around Tokyo. Tokyo,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I didn't think it would be a big problem, and
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: it wasn't a big problem. It was pretty easy. But
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I remembered reading this article about how there was an
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: increase in bear attacks last year in Japan, so I
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: started looking into that, and there was a huge increase
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: in bear sightings and bear attacks, and fatalities by bear
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: attacks in Japan relative to recent years. Like, while I
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: was there, the year before that would have been 2011, 2025,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: it was three times the normal amounts of bear attacks
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and fatalities that Japan was used to. They always had
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: like a dozen because they have a bunch of bears
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and they're a very nature-walky people, so there are a
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: lot of bear encounters. And I came across the Kuma map,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: which is an interactive map of all bear sightings in Japan.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: And I thought I would check it, and it is
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: crazy amazing. For me, because I live outside in those
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: forests all the time and haven't seen a bear. I mean,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I've heard stuff, so maybe I was right around a
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: black bear and didn't realize it. But the Kuma map,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Kuma means bear in Japan, or bear map, has one
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: dot for each sighting in the past three months, six months,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: one year. You can choose the time duration. And even
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: for six months... The entire island of Honshu, the main island,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: was covered in dots, except for Tokyo downtown and Osaka downtown,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: but pretty much the entire rest of the whole island,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: which are big, the size of several large U.S. states.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: There's a great map that shows... Japan all of like
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the main islands that you're used to seeing on a
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: map compared to the U.S. and it's way larger than
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the U.S. east coast like the entire east coast there
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: yeah their islands are big and every single inch of
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: all of the islands was completely covered with a dot
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: which is a recent sighting of a black bear in
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the area and there are stories of black bears so
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: it's not just People are reporting them. Like I said,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: there's way higher bear sightings and attacks that year. But
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I still figured I would be fine. And I still
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: decided to go hammock camping because I wanted to. I
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: had finally made my rain gear. I was very excited
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to hammock camp around Tokyo again. That Kuma map, though,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: when I saw it, I did definitely second guess. Oh,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: is this a good idea? Since there's a bunch of
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: bear attacks and bear sightings literally everywhere in the entire
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: giant country. So you can just imagine the entire size
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: of California, which is a giant state, covered in bear
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: sightings every square mile. It was crazy to see that map,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: and you can go up and look it up right
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: now if you want to. Kuma, K-U-M-A, map. It's a
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: cool map. Go check it out. And I didn't run
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: into any bears. I took the bus, I got off
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: in the suburban area of Tokyo, and then I walked
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: around and slept in my hammock in a few places,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and it was as great as it ever was. Japan
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: is also one of the very few countries that I
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: will take a nap in my hammock, but leave my
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: rucksack unsecured under my hammock instead of taking it into
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: my hammock with me. Japan just feels safe, so I took,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I think the first thing I did was take a
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: nap after I got off the bus, and I just
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: passed out for a couple hours with my rucksack under
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: my hammock, and yeah. recuperated. It was nice. And then
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I walked toward center Tokyo, really slowly and really meandery
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: so that I would, you know, I had three days
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: to kill or whatever it was, hammock camping around Tokyo.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: So I just made my way there as time allowed.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I saw these birds flapping their wings on the rope
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: leading down to a boat to dry themselves, so they
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: must have just dove in and got some fish and
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: That's a cool thing about Japan, too. I think because
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: it's so quiet, birds seem to act pretty naturally close
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to shore. So even very close to shore, you can
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: often see ducks and other fowl hunting for fish and
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: straight up grabbing fish out of the river or ocean.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: It's pretty cool seeing all these birds hunting and then
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: drying themselves off on the ropes. I had a giant
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: dinner from a 24-hour supermarket that I just happened to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: be walking by. I walked all day. I really wanted
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: to rucksack around, too, because living in a city, I
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: get lazy. Because no matter what city I'm in, it's
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: really convenient to just walk to the supermarket, get the
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: food I like, watch a movie, go to bed, whatever.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Not a lot of exercise. And carrying a rucksack, carrying
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: something heavy on my back while I walk around is
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: amazing exercise and burns a ton of calories. So, except
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: for that nap I mentioned, I figured every waking moment
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: would be a good opportunity to burn some calories because
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: after Japan I was going to go to this wedding
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: and I didn't want to be full of delicious food
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and buffet stuff. I wanted to look good for the wedding.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: When I showed up, met all these This was a
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: very old friend, but he moved to a new town,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: and I didn't know pretty much anybody else who was
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: going to be at the wedding. So I was like, well,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I can do this rucksack thing and trim down while
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: I'm walking around. But then, you know, I walk into
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: this 24-hour supermarket. I've been walking from basically dawn to dusk,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and I was hungry. So I ended up getting some
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: crab surimi, onigiri, a couple hard seltzers. Some sushi. I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: was surprised they still had so much in relatively good
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: order still. So much sushi and fresh fish. But it
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: was great. I went into the park and I had
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: a big old dinner. And then I put up my
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: hammock between a couple trees in the park and passed
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: right out. Now I did get woken up by a
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: park janitor. And that's kind of weird. But again, I
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: feel like the influencers have... maybe contributed to a lower
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: tolerance in general. I was out of the way, and
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: so I don't even think anybody really noticed for eight hours.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I had a great sleep. And the janitor seemed genuinely apologetic,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: like in the tones of Japanese that he was saying,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: not just the regular Japanese politeness. So I was kind
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of confused why he was asking me to take down
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: my hammock. And then I, so I looked around, and
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: there's this angry-looking old lady who, in all-in-white clothing, just
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: glaring at me. So I'm guessing it was maybe just
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: a Karen instance where Japanese Karen reported me to the
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: park janitor. And since he was the only one around
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: there working, it was his responsibility to ask me to
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: take my hammock down because I upset the old Japanese Karen.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: This was also a super rich neighborhood, which was leading
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: me to the entitled person conclusion. It's like one of
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the manufactured islands or artificial islands that they put up
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: around Tokyo. And there's big skyscrapers and fancy condos. So
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: she might also just, you know, be an entitled rich
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: person thinking that she's the only one that gets to
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: use public parks. But I still got eight hours of sleep.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: When I woke up, I checked my phone when I
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: was taking down the house. I said, yes, of course,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: no problem. And I took down the hammock because if
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I want to sleep, I'll just walk to the next
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: park a block away. And, you know, you can nap
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: right there. And I checked the time and I was like, wow,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: eight hours. Perfect. Anyway, packed up my hammock and kept
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: on walking around. So that was actually the last day
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: in Japan, just walking around Tokyo. It was just a
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: bunch of walking in a city. So I don't have
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: that many things that stood out. I found outlets, you know,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: through the city. that's still easy enough to do, which
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: was good. So whenever my phone died, I would just
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: keep an eye out. And there's always an outlet wherever
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I've been, but especially in Japan, like for road crews
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: or maintenance people, whatever, there's always an outlet somewhere on
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: a column under an overpass or something like that. And
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: so I was able to charge my phone pretty reliably
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: during those few days I was getting to Tokyo, nearer
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: to the airport, circling closer. So on that third day,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: I was now, I think I had to get to
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the airport, and I was like a two-hour walk away
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: from the airport. My flight was six hours away, perfect
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: for me. No, I guess I would have been like
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: eight hours away because I woke up at nine in
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the morning and the flight was later in the afternoon,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I think five or six. So yeah, I had plenty
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: of time. And a family march showed up 10 minutes
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: after I started walking, after I packed up my hammock
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: and left the rich person park. And it had an
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: outlet outside. And I was like, okay, this is also perfect.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: So after 10 minutes of walking, I stopped and took
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: a break for an hour and just charged up all
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: my stuff. And then I would be good to walk
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: to the airport. Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about this.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I have this in my notes that I took. A
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Japanese guy hit me on a bike. That is wild
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to experience for a couple reasons. First of all, it
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: got hit by a bike. But especially in Japan, they're
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: so cautious and aware of what's going on around them.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: And this guy was riding fast and fast. I was
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: walking on the side that everybody else was walking in
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the direction I was walking. And he whipped around the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: corner and kept going. And I thought, oh, man. And
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I stood sideways so I wouldn't get completely knocked over
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: because I'm wearing a heavy rucksack. There wasn't really time
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: for me to dive out of the way or anything
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: like that. And this was not at a corner. I
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: just looked up and I could see him barreling straight down.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: We were on a bridge. And there were several people on,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: and he just decided that he would ride straight into
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a pedestrian. So I turned sideways, and I didn't get
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: pulled over, and he saw me like a meter away
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: from me, so it wasn't going full speed when he
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: hit me. He slammed on the brakes, but he still
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: smacked into me pretty hard, and then he started apologizing.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: But he hit my face because I didn't I had
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: like a couple seconds to react. So his head hit
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: my head like he even though he saw me right
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: before he hit me, there was no time to actually stop. And. Yeah,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: it was pretty crazy. I've never gotten even close to
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a point where, oh, no, a car is going to
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: hit me or, oh, no, this bicycle rider is going
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: to hit me, even in the busier cities in Japan.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: I did get hit by a moped in Thailand, stepping
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: off the street, and it looks like he hit a Terminator,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: so that was very satisfying when that happened, and I
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: didn't get too hurt. I had, like, a bruise on
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: my knee a couple days, but in Japan, never even
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: considered I would be hit by anything, and I'm cautious
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: there as I'm cautious everywhere. I'm sure that contributed to
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: it as well. I was now in Tokyo, the most
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: populous and busiest city. But he was looking at his phone.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I saw him not seeing me because he was looking
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: down at his phone on his bicycle handlebars. So that's, yeah,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that's what happened. It was just shocking. Like, my nose
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: hurt because he smashed into my face. But it wasn't
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: full of, I was like, well, this will be all right.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to look crazy at the wedding, hopefully.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I won't have like a smashed up face. But more
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: shocking for me was just that A Tokyo denizen wasn't
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: paying attention on his bike during a on a bridge. Well,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: there's a bunch of other people around. And I was
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: not like I said, I was in the correct area
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: where everybody else was walking. I didn't notice, you know,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I didn't notice also, though, this time I feel like
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and I don't know if this is accurate. You can
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: tell me if you live in Japan. I feel like
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: people are not walking on one side anymore like they
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: used to. I feel like when I used to be
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: on a bridge in Japan, people would walk forward on
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: the right side, and then there would be a stream
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: of traffic going the opposite direction on your left side
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: if you're walking forward. And most people would conform to that.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: And at least in Tokyo, everyone was walking on both sides.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and riding bicycles on both sides, and I didn't really
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: notice that until that guy hit me, but I don't know,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: maybe because there's so many people moving to Japan? I
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: have no idea. It was weird to see, but I
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: haven't lived in Japan in over a decade, so I
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: don't know why that happened. But everything was surprising about
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: that encounter. So I'm just going to stick with the
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: surprising thing real quick. I don't often mention... the smell
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: of Japanese cities, especially larger cities like Tokyo, because it's
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: somewhat unbelievable to people who haven't been there. There's this
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: image of Japan that it's a completely sterile, hygienic, perfect country.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: But it is a country like any other. And like
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: many other countries, Japan doesn't always smell perfect. And in Tokyo...
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: My friend just went, and I didn't tell them this
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: before they went, but when they came back, they mentioned
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the good things that they liked. They liked the sushi,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: they liked going to a public bath, and they had
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: a fun time in general. But then they asked me,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: does the city just smell like farts sometimes? And I said, yeah,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: it does just smell like farts sometimes. It smells like
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: sewage sometimes. There are a lot of sewer grates in
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Tokyo and other... Japanese towns and cities and I do
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: not know why but it's left uncapped so that the
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: sewage smell comes up from the sewer and it seems
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to be random I haven't noticed any pattern and it's
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: not super common but if you're walking around the city
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and there's so many nice things to smell there's bakeries
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: and there's you know ramen shops there's stuff all around
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: but if you're walking around for an hour Odds are
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: that you'll pass by a sewer grate, and it's very brief.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: It's basically going to be just right above that sewer
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: grate and in a few foot radius around it. You're
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: going to be like, ew, what is that? And then
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: you'll keep walking, and the smell will be behind you.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: But yeah, that is a thing that Japan has. And
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: she asked me why, and I was like, I don't know.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: I never figured that out. I don't have any Japanese
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: sewage maintenance friends. So, Japanese sewage maintenance friends listening to this,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: please write in and let me know why... Don't you
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: cap that smell because the city I was in in India,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: which has a terrible reputation for hygiene, had none of that.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: So actually, I found one. I was living there for
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: almost three months and I did find one place in
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the city once that had the sewage smell. That's pretty
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: common in all countries. But it's usually way more than
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: one grate in a city where there will be any smell.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Like in Japan, there are probably dozens. In Tokyo, there
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: are a lot of these open sewage lines. And in India,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: there was far less, which was interesting. The U.S. has
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: that to a much lower extent than other countries. But
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of countries just don't cap their sewage runoff
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: pipes for some reason. And you'll get a smell sometimes.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: everywhere that I've been. I mean, Western Europe and Japan
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: and pretty much everywhere. I'm wondering now if I'm going
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: to try it. I don't know if I can remember
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: having one that smell in Korea. Anyway, my friend asked me,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: does it just smell like fart sometimes? I said, yes,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: they have sewage. And that got me thinking about India
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: because it has a bad reputation, but I noticed how
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: clean it was and how there was zero smells in Bhubaneswar,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the city where I was staying anyway. And that really
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: surprised me. And then I was like, wait a minute,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: it has such a poor reputation. And Japan has such
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: a great reputation for hygiene. And India doesn't have these smells.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Japan has these smells. So I started, I tried to
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: think of anything else. And I was like, oh, wait,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: they both make food with their hands. Because one of
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: the things that I hear about all the time with India,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: when someone says it's really dirty, never a person who's
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: been there, But people are like, yeah, and they make
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the food, you know, they use their hands to make food.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Kind of gross that they don't use any gloves or utensils,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I will be told this. And then I was like,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: oh wait, that's what sushi is. You use your hands
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to make sushi. Japan also makes their food with their hands.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Raw fish sitting in a cabinet, and then you use
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: your ungloved hands to slice up and take the raw
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: fish and put it on rice that you are molding
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: with your hands. a smear of wasabi that you put
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: on your finger and wipe on the fish. Well, I mean,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: this is what the sushi chef touches. He touches everything
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: with his hands. Now, I think on the surface, Japan
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: is cleaner. Like, they have newer pots and pans to
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: cook out of. When they cook, it looks cleaner. They'll
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: definitely always use a new dish at a restaurant, whereas
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the street vendors in India might have the same I
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: was going to say they have the same bowls, but
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: they really don't. And Indian people in the state I
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: was in anyway were obsessive about cleaning. They basically just
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: cleaned all day. There were even... There was a lot of, like, sweeping...
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: outside on their patio, which was surprising. Oh, but they
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: don't have any of those sewer smells. And if you
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: go to Tokyo and you're walking around for a while,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: you're going to walk by these grates with the sewer
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: smells that they haven't taken care of yet. And I
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: was glad my friend went and brought it up to
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: me before. I never mention it to people because that's
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: one of those things where I'm like, am I just
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: super sensitive to smells? And that's why I notice it.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: But it was one of the first things she told
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: me when she got back. And I think it's also
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: since it's so brief, it's an easy thing to rationalize
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: because Taiwan has that, too. And I just rationalized it
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks. I was like, just city smells,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I guess. But then I finally, after a few weeks,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: and every hour I'm out, because I walk around a lot,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I'd be like, oh, there's that smell again. I tied
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: it to the grate. It was. It was coming up
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: from sewage runoff from a grate. So, yeah, for some reason,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: a bunch of countries still have that, even though there's
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: technologies to cap those smells. Or install a sewage pipe
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: rather than a sewage canal. And then... It was a
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: few hours later, I got to the airport, and I
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: was like, holy cow, I'm going back to the States.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: And a kind attendant at the airport very clearly told
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: me I needed a residential exit card, which I've never
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: filled out before when I leave Japan. And I said, okay.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: So I filled it out and brought it to the
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: immigration officer, who was like, no, you don't need that.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Of course not. I was like, yeah, because I'm not
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: a resident. I feel like that was just... polite miscommunication. Like,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the attendant was just being super kind, and I was like,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: do I need this? And he was like, you definitely
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: need that. Yes, very good, okay. And I was like, okay.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: But it wasted, like, five minutes, so whatever. And I
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: was hours early for my flight, as I usually am. Oh,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: there were some angry people at Narita Airport. There was,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: there was this woman, one woman kept getting angry that
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: she had to scan her purse because she said one
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: attendant told her she could take her purse through without
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: scanning it, but the guy was like, sorry, you have
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: to scan it at the end of the thing, so
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: she was really angry, and she kept, like, saying something
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: loudly and then looking around hoping people would support her,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: and I was like, sorry, just scan your stupid bag.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: And then this couple, the wife especially of this couple,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: a different couple, was getting really angry because they weren't
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: allowed to bring bottles of wine with them, but I mean,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: it's in every airport that you're not allowed to bring
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: bottles of wine onto the plane anymore. And especially in Japan,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I noticed literally like 10 signs in the five minutes
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: getting to the security line where you're about to scan
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: everything that says you cannot bring unopened bottles of anything, basically,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: on a plane anymore, especially not through Narita Airport, which
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: is a strict... airport already, and all airlines around the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: world and airports have gotten more strict over the years.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: So that's just not a thing that you can do anymore.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: You can't bring unopened bottles of alcohol. And they had
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: so many signs saying you cannot bring unopened bottles of alcohol,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: and then in parentheses, sake, plum wine, and like it
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: was right there. But this couple tried to bring two
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: giant bottles, and the guy was like, I'm sorry, you
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: cannot bring these. And the woman was furious. She's like,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: but they're unopened. They're gifts. She's saying this next to
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: a sign that says no unopened bottles of alcohol are allowed.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: And I got one satisfying little we caught each other's eye,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: me and the guy explaining to them for probably the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: 15th time that they're not allowed to bring an unopened
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: bottle of alcohol. I was like, yeah, I get it.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I get it. Some people just want to do whatever
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: they want to do. and not follow the rules. So
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: kind of an odd end. I'm glad I didn't stay
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: in Tokyo longer than I did. I still want to
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: backpack between cities again much more than I want to
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: stay in a city again. If I go back to Japan,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: which I probably will. Oh, and then on the plane,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I was, there was like a wait, and I looked back,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and someone put their, they had taken their shoe off
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: and put their foot on the back of my chair,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: like the back of my armrest. So it wasn't in
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: my space. It was just on the back of my
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: armrest that curbs down. And I was like, okay, like
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: sort of rude, but at least they're not like shoving
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: their foot onto my armrest. And then they shoved their
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: foot onto my armrest. Like five minutes later, the back
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: of my arm was pushed by their foot and they,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: I look to my left, and there's a socked foot.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: And I didn't even look to see who it was.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: I reached over, and as hard as I could, I
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: flicked their toe super hard. Like, smack dab on the toe,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: and they flinched and recoiled from the hit, but didn't
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: say anything, and that foot did not come on my
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: armrest again. Folks, what are you thinking? It was some...
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: western old lady who did it, I found out later.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: In what world can you think that is okay? In
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: a world where you put your stinky sock foot on
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: somebody else's armrest and actually push their arm out of
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: the way, you're gonna get your foot smacked. Okay, that's happening.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: I don't care if you are an idiot child or
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: an entitled grandma. You put your sock on my armrest
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: and smack, right in the toe. Right away. I did
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: it instinctively. I didn't even think about it. I looked over,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: saw that it was a foot that pushed me out
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: of the way, and smacked that toe. And it recoiled,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: and I felt very good, like I had fought for
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: justice and righted a wrong in the world. And I
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: bet you'll think twice about foot-socking anybody's armrest in the future.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Don't you foot-sock my armrest. Smack, smack. Smack, smack, smack.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: That's me smacking toes left and right. In a world.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Has anyone seen How To With John Wilson? It's this
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: very particular TV show where a guy chooses a topic,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: how to preserve your furniture in plastic, and then he
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: just walks around New York City and sort of follows
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: where the story goes. It's a great story. It's very
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: weird and very surprising, and you might like it. Just
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: thought I'd mention it. I hadn't watched it in a
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: long time, and I was like, is that as good
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: and crazy as I remember? And I watched it, and
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I watched all three seasons, and it is as good
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: and crazy as I remember. Oh, I have some things
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: in the list way out of order from, like, Mongolia.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Did I mention this? There was a weird poster, and
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: it said, these are the eight medicine buddha. That was
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the caption under the picture, but there were nine Buddhas
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: in the picture. I thought that was funny. And then
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: there were eight cold hells. That was just a cool
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: place to visit. They had a lot of statues and
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: cool paintings and stuff. There was a thigh bone that
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: was a trumpet, and a hoof that was a trumpet.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: This is in this temple in Mongolia, which everyone has
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: the 8,000-piece coral mask. It was in that same temple complex. Well,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: I guess I'll sign off because next is the wedding.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: And really, the stories with the wedding began in Mongolia.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's why I put some of this Mongolia stuff.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Later on, I just included extra stuff. But that's kind
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: of a funny story. I guess I can start with
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: that since I read the other Mongolia stuff. Okay, so
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: I was in Mongolia walking around one of the malls.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I was checking what movies were playing. And I got
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: a text from someone I didn't know asking me who
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: I was. And it turns out that was another person
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: from the wedding. And I asked, what's going on? Because
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know anybody else at this wedding that I'm
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: going to accept my old friend, the groom, because he
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: moved to a new city. And the person who had
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: texted me didn't answer. And then like a couple of
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: minutes later wrote, call me. And I don't want to
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: talk to somebody I don't know. So I said, thanks,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I'll see you at the wedding or something like that.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: And then he texted me a photo of his leg
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: cut open is the only way to really say it.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: There was a big gash in his leg and part
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: of the leg was off. And I said, wow, what happened?
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: And he was riding a dirt bike and the dirt
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: bike peg ripped part of his leg off of his leg.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: To be accurate, he wasn't actually riding it. He was
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: just kickstarting it to start it and just happened to
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: do it wrong. So the bike went and took part
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: of his leg with him. A big strip of leg
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: got pulled off by that dirt bike peg. And in
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: my head, I'm like, what is he doing texting me?
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know him. And oh no, how is the wedding?
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Will this affect the wedding? Because it was in a
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: week or so. And then he sent me more pictures
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: of him getting sewn up by doctors in the hospital.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: And I had gotten, this was a few longer text
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: messages like he had sent me more weird cryptic text
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: messages and i was like oh he's probably super high
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: on painkillers right now and that's why he's typing weird
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: cryptic messages to somebody he doesn't know who is also
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: in the wedding party and i was like who is
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: this guy And that is the best man at the wedding.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: So we'll get into the wedding on the next Ramble
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: On because that's the next part of this story. I'm
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: going back to the States. While I'm there, I'm going
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: to renew my driver's license, see some friends in different states,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: and try to figure out where to go next. I
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: will talk to you soon. Have a good day. And
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: as always, you can write to me at bitofarambler at gmail.com
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: or bitofarambler on Blue Sky or Lemmy. I will talk
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: to you soon.