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Cultural Insights and Adaptation with Nikki van Ingen Schenau · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome in to a very exciting episode of The Scene.
• 0:05
  I am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is my friend Nikki, who is the founder of Tokyo
• 0:10
  Tours.
• 0:10
  Welcome to the show, Nikki.
• 0:12
  Thank you for having me.
• 0:14
  I'm happy to be here.
• 0:16
  Well and I intentionally left your last name out because we found out that I couldn't
• 0:20
  pronounce it properly.
• 0:21
  Yes.
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  My full name is Nikki van Ingen Schoenau.
• 0:25
  I'm a a poor Dutch nobility.
• 0:31
  How fun.
• 0:32
  But you are not not living in Europe anymore.
• 0:36
  Correct?
• 0:37
  Yes.
• 0:38
  I am.
• 0:38
  In 2011, I moved to Tokyo, and I lived there for ten years.
• 0:44
  And that's where I founded Tokyo Tours back in 02/2013 when I started to do guided tours on
• 0:53
  the advice of a friend of mine.
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  And then in 2020, my business was supposed to have the best year ever because of the
• 1:03
  Olympics.
• 1:04
  So I was like, oh, okay.
• 1:06
  There's this COVID thing going on, but, I mean, they've poured so much money in the Olympics.
• 1:11
  They're not going to cancel the effing Olympics.
• 1:14
  Come on.
• 1:15
  And then they canceled it.
• 1:17
  And then they did.
• 1:18
  Yeah.
• 1:18
  Yes.
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  So I was like, oh, okay.
• 1:21
  Well, I've been here for ten years.
• 1:23
  I'm kind of fed up with everything, and maybe this is a good time to go home.
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  I'm starting to get broke.
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  So at least if I go back to Amsterdam, there's still semblance of a chance that I might find
• 1:35
  some gainful employment and be able to dig myself out of this financial hole.
• 1:41
  So I did that.
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  And since 02/2018, I have a partner for Tokyo Tours.
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  I asked one of my guides that had been working for me since 2015, would you care to sell the
• 1:57
  business for me?
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  And she said, no.
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  That's terrible idea.
• 2:01
  I wouldn't dream about it.
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  But would you consider having me on as a partner?
• 2:06
  And then I was like, that sounds good.
• 2:09
  What do you have in mind?
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  So she lives in Tokyo, and she's married to a Japanese guy, has two Japanese kids or half.
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  And she does all the planning and all the admin and all of that.
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  So I don't necessarily have to be there to run the business because she does most of the
• 2:27
  operational stuff from Tokyo.
• 2:30
  So it's actually a benefit that I'm here because most of the travel agents that we work
• 2:35
  with are actually situated in Europe.
• 2:40
  So it's easy for me to hop on over and, like, how are things going?
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  Are you guys still happy with our service?
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  Is there anything we can improve on?
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  Or if I have new ideas or new business ventures, I can talk to them like, oh, now we
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  also offer private drivers.
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  So if you guys want that instead of taking the subway or train, then we can do that as well.
• 3:05
  So, yeah, it it works really well.
• 3:07
  I'm so happy to be back in The Netherlands where everyone is like, I effing hate you
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  instead of Japanese people just like, oh, And behind your back, you're like, look.
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  After ten years of niceties, you were over it.
• 3:33
  Yeah.
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  I don't ever wanna see a polite
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  person again.
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  Yes.
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  I hate you too.
• 3:43
  You sound American.
• 3:44
  Yeah.
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  Well, I'm more like, oh, we have the Dutch directness.
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  Like, we'll just I mean, you can go up to your boss, and he can say, you know what, Ben?
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  You're a fucking asshole.
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  And then he's like, well, you know, you have a point.
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  Let's talk about it.
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  No wonder I get along with the Dutch so well.
• 4:05
  Yes.
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  We tell it like it is.
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  We get straight to the point.
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  Like, in Japan, it's like, oh, the weather is slowly changing.
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  The skies are becoming gray.
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  I sometimes see a snowflake falling down, and they go on for, like, three hours.
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  And then finally, okay.
• 4:24
  Well, maybe we should talk about business.
• 4:26
  I think we have five minutes left, or maybe we should schedule this for another time.
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  Like, oh my god.
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  What have I been doing here?
• 4:34
  Just a different speed on that island, aren't they?
• 4:37
  Oh, yes.
• 4:38
  It's all I don't know if you've seen that series, Shogun.
• 4:43
  No.
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  I haven't.
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  Oh, it's really good.
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  It's on Disney plus, but it it the only thing I didn't like about it, there's one foreigner in
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  there.
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  And in one situation, he's talking in perfect Japanese with also good pronunciation, I must
• 5:00
  say.
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  And then the next scene, he's like, you, not go, not write.
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  And, like, what?
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  You were just talking, like, full sentences.
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  Get the other voice over guy back in here.
• 5:12
  Yeah.
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  And suddenly, you're like, no go.
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  No go.
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  I'm like, what?
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  That doesn't make any sense.
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  But other than that, they really showed, like, one guy made a fool of himself.
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  Sorry.
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  This is a spoiler alert.
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  And his entire bloodline had to be erased, which is a thing in Japan.
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  So nowadays, they will not tell you to commit seppuku, so cut your stomach, pull out your
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  bowels, and then someone chops your head.
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  But instead, you need to shave off all your hair, and you need to bow down and, like, oh,
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  post trades.
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  I'm so sorry.
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  Oh my god.
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  Please forgive me.
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  Oh.
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  So yeah.
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  I would never make it in that culture.
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  I little backstory on me, Nikki.
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  I did a couple years in prison for selling pot.
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  You should have gone to Amsterdam.
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  You never would have been arrested.
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  Where are you,
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  Well, the problem there, Nikki, is that I never would have left.
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  Probably.
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  Yeah.
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  A friend of mine who's French told me that, apparently, a lot of French people, especially
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  guys, come and live in The Netherlands for a while because it's part of the EU, so they
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  don't have to apply for anything.
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  And they do stupid call center work that just pays the bills.
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  So on the weekends, they can be stoned the whole weekend long.
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  And then come Monday, they try and sober up.
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  And if not, they call in sick because you don't have sick days here in Netherlands.
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  You can just say, oh, I think I have burnout and just stay home for six months.
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  What a world.
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  A world.
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  Yeah.
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  If you haven't had a burnout yet, you're not part of the club.
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  Come on.
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  My well, I guess I did have a I did have a burnout, and then I spent two years in prison
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  just kinda hanging out, reading books.
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  So it got me better.
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  Oh, well, yeah, that works.
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  Whatever is your process.
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  Well, the year before that, Nikki, I was in Mexico on the run from going to prison and
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  living essentially in a third world, playing my guitar to feed my family, making more doing
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  that than I was doing construction on the highway.
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  I was very humbled.
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  Before I came back and went to prison, I was humbled further.
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  So but it gave me a lot of perspective.
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  It it allowed me to travel internationally.
• 7:42
  Right?
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  I I can say that I've, you know, played music and I've traveled, and my son was actually born
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  there.
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  He's the palest, blondest haired, blue eyed Mexican you'll ever meet in your life.
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  But I love it.
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  I love all the people there were so nice to us and so and I mean, part of that was probably
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  because we're the only white people they've ever seen in their lives.
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  We were pretty far in.
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  We weren't on the border or anything like that or in a touristy area.
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  And it was an incredible experience that I would never, you know, trade for anything, but
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  when it was time to go, it was time to go.
• 8:17
  Exactly.
• 8:18
  Yeah.
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  Right?
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  But that's what I feel about the whole Latin culture.
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  You know?
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  I've been to Brazil, and there were people that were working at the hotel.
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  And they asked me, like, you wanna go out with us?
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  I said, okay.
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  Fine.
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  So we went out.
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  The we were just outside.
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  They bought one bottle of beer, and there were, like, eight people, and we were all sharing one
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  beer and just went around, and you take one sip.
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  And I was like, oh my god.
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  Please allow me to buy you all beers.
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  This is crazy.
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  Come on.
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  He goes, no.
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  No.
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  No.
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  You're here.
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  You're our grass.
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  You're not going to pay for anything.
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  I'm like, this doesn't make any sense.
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  I love you guys so much.
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  It's beautiful.
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  And, yeah, it's nice to hear that it extends through the whole of Latin America as well.
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  Where that was just empty.
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  How did you refill that?
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  You didn't even move.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  I'm a total addict.
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  I mean, that's my only vice.
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  I rarely use drugs.
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  I don't drink much, but if there's no Diet Coke in the house, the horns come out.
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  I I definitely got addicted to coffee when I was in Mexico.
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  It's the first time I really had good coffee.
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  And then when I came back to prison, I mean, that's kind of all you got.
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  Right?
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  And it's all just, like, the ground up freeze dried stuff, instant coffee.
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  But, man, when you're sober, right, and nobody's doing well, I mean, they shouldn't be.
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  I didn't do any drugs in there.
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  Other people may have, but that coffee's that little bit of something where you're like, I
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  kinda got a buzz right now.
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  Oh, wow.
• 10:00
  Yeah.
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  I know what you mean.
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  I mean, I was breastfeeding my daughter for three and a half years before.
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  I was like, get off me.
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  Go away, demon child.
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  Three and a half years is a long time.
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  Kudos to you.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  I thought, oh, at some point, she's going to say, like, oh, I don't need it anymore, mommy.
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  But, no, she kept coming until I was like, no.
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  No.
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  Don't touch me.
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  Those are my boobs.
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  Give them back.
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  Yeah.
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  Get your own.
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  And then finally, I drank coffee for the first time after, like, four years, including the
• 10:35
  pregnancy, and I was like, oh my god.
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  What is this crazy, guys?
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  Have we all been getting this high on this stuff the whole time?
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  Yeah.
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  Exactly.
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  How incredible.
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  How I don't even know where we're at in this conversation, Nikki.
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  I am enjoying this so much.
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  Yeah.
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  Me too.
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  It's like ADHD on coffee.
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  Like, ah.
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  How nice.
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  Well
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  Adderall is this.
• 11:00
  Yeah.
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  Right.
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  Well, yeah, you you forget.
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  And that's what people you know, we have another show called Get Better Together where I
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  share a lot more of, you know, the personal things that I've been through and kind of that.
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  It became an outlet because a twenty minute conversation isn't enough to kind of tie it all
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  together.
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  Right?
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  It takes a long time.
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  But we forget that, you know, especially as Americans, we're so addicted to everything.
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  Right?
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  If it's not coffee or soda or beer, it's this stupid thing.
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  Right?
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  And it's, you know, it's it's just wild how and it's just the brain chemistry.
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  Right?
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  And and I don't think anybody understands that more than people who are, you know, especially
• 11:44
  in Amsterdam specifically, that you're surrounded by kind of a culture of that.
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  And that's not necessarily you know, I'm in very rural South Dakota.
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  I live in a town of about a thousand people.
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  The next town over is a few hundred in in all directions, and it takes you a half hour to get
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  to a town of 15,000 people.
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  Right?
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  Wow.
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  Where if you're in Downtown Amsterdam, that could be 15,000 people on your block.
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  By by bike.
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  Right.
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  Trying to run you over.
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  Well, you guys have bicycle day, so bikes are very popular.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  There's more bikes here than there are people.
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  Wow.
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  There's more cows than there are people in South Dakota.
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  Oh, wow.
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  Do you tip them over, or is that just a legend?
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  Cows are big, Nikki.
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  You don't wanna go messing around with those.
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  We got enough dangers.
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  Yesterday, it was minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill.
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  What is that in normal speak?
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  I have no idea.
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  What do you mean normal speak?
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  Like Celsius, like the rest of the world does.
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  Oh, I can tell you.
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  Paradigm.
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  That was the hardest part about traveling internationally.
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  Right?
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  Everything was in everything was in metric.
• 13:01
  And being American, right, we're so up our own ass that we don't even bother to learn it.
• 13:07
  Right?
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  So you're having to convert in your mind everything, kilograms, the pounds.
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  Luckily for me, I had been in the drug trade for a little while, so I
• 13:14
  don't how many one k.
• 13:18
  So funny.
• 13:19
  Oh my gosh, Nikki.
• 13:21
  I'm having so much fun talking to you, but I don't wanna keep you forever today.
• 13:26
  You said you have some new stuff coming up.
• 13:29
  Why don't we talk about your new ventures that you're hoping to have out this year?
• 13:34
  Yes.
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  So I have two different projects coming up.
• 13:38
  Well, three, actually.
• 13:39
  So I'm almost done writing a guidebook for Japan.
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  But what I noticed with the clients that come to Japan, even if their whole trip is planned
• 13:51
  out, is that they have no idea how long it takes to go from a to b even within Tokyo.
• 13:58
  Like, what can you do in one day?
• 14:00
  What's feasible?
• 14:01
  What makes sense?
• 14:04
  So we have this service where it's called meet and assist.
• 14:09
  And we pick them up at the airport, and most people have a Japan Rail Pass.
• 14:14
  So you have unlimited travel in Japan for, like, one week or two weeks, but you still need
• 14:20
  to reserve the seats.
• 14:22
  You don't have to pay for it, but you need the tickets or you might end up standing.
• 14:28
  So we go and help them to exchange the RailPlus voucher and then buy or reserve the seats, and
• 14:36
  then I have to translate for them.
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  Like, okay.
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  They're asking you what time do you wanna take the train to Osaka.
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  And they're like, oh, I have no idea.
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  Should I stay longer in Tokyo, or should I be early in Osaka?
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  Like, well, that is all up to you.
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  You know?
• 14:56
  Like, what kind of day do you want?
• 14:58
  Have you thought about what you want to do?
• 15:00
  So I saw so many people that were just in pure misery because they had no idea.
• 15:06
  Like, what should I do?
• 15:08
  I only have one chance in Japan, and I wanna make the most of it, but I don't know.
• 15:13
  So I decided to do something different.
• 15:16
  So this is going to be a three week itinerary.
• 15:20
  So from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep, everything is planned out, and
• 15:25
  there's, like, a time slot for everything.
• 15:28
  So this is how long it's going to take.
• 15:31
  This is how much it's going to cost.
• 15:34
  This is how you get there.
• 15:36
  This is why it's fun.
• 15:38
  Here is where you can reserve the tickets, and then you go to the next one.
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  And this is where you have lunch, and this is where you have dinner.
• 15:45
  So, of course, you don't have to keep to the plan exactly.
• 15:50
  And I also have some other recommendations, like three of the best cooking workshops in
• 15:55
  Tokyo or three of the best rooftop restaurants in Osaka or three of the best places to go
• 16:06
  dancing in Roppongi.
• 16:08
  So you can mix and match if you prefer.
• 16:11
  Right.
• 16:12
  You have options.
• 16:13
  Yeah.
• 16:14
  Yeah.
• 16:14
  Yeah.
• 16:14
  Exactly.
• 16:14
  But, I mean, the normal guidebooks are like, okay.
• 16:17
  So this is Tokyo, and these are all of the areas in Tokyo, and this is what you can do in
• 16:22
  each area.
• 16:23
  But then you still have no idea.
• 16:25
  Like, what am I going to do all day?
• 16:26
  Right.
• 16:26
  It's almost too many options.
• 16:28
  You so you you're a curator and a facilitator of people's vacations because
• 16:34
  Yeah.
• 16:35
  The last thing you wanna do when you spent all this money to get to this place and now are
• 16:41
  there a lot do people do Japanese people speak English there?
• 16:44
  Like, in Europe, pretty much it feels like everybody has English in their back pocket and
• 16:49
  and can meet you somewhere and at least kind of, you know, deliver a message.
• 16:53
  Right?
• 16:53
  Mhmm.
• 16:54
  I was in Mexico and nobody really spoke English.
• 16:56
  Right?
• 16:56
  So is it more like, you know, though where you show up and if you don't have Japanese in your
• 17:02
  back pocket or a tour guide, you're you're kinda lost.
• 17:06
  Well, it depends on, where you are in Tokyo.
• 17:09
  Because in Tokyo, there's, like, 36,000,000 people living there.
• 17:14
  So every area is kind of like a city in itself.
• 17:19
  So if you go to Shibuya or Azerbaijuban or Roppongi, there's a better likelihood that
• 17:26
  there's going to be people that can speak English.
• 17:29
  But in other cities like Kyoto or like Takayama, then sometimes even at the hotels,
• 17:37
  they're not even able to speak any English.
• 17:40
  I went to Koyasan.
• 17:41
  That's, the birthplace of Buddhism in Japan.
• 17:46
  I had two groups with me, and they couldn't speak any English.
• 17:49
  So I was just translating the whole time that the we were staying at this monastery, and this
• 17:54
  Buddhist priest was explaining all about Buddhism and about the food and about the
• 18:01
  morning rituals they do there.
• 18:02
  And I was just, oh, okay.
• 18:03
  Go.
• 18:04
  Go.
• 18:04
  Please let me explain.
• 18:07
  Slow down, man.
• 18:08
  But
• 18:08
  yeah.
• 18:08
  Slow down.
• 18:10
  How incredible, Nikki.
• 18:12
  I could keep you on for hours and hours and hours, and I feel like we could just talk and
• 18:16
  talk and talk.
• 18:18
  But why don't you go ahead and tell everybody where they can find you and how they can have
• 18:23
  you help them plan their next trip to Japan?
• 18:26
  Yeah.
• 18:26
  So, basically, on every social media platform, you can find me under Tokyo Tours, and Tokyo
• 18:35
  Tours is spelled the Dutch way.
• 18:37
  So Tokyo is T O I O, not with a Y, and tours, T O U R S, as one word.
• 18:46
  And I have my website, www.tokiotours.nl or tokiotours.com.
• 18:52
  And you can also follow me on Instagram on my personal page or my business page.
• 18:58
  Both is okay.
• 19:00
  That's Nikki, n I c k I, underscore Amsterdam.
• 19:05
  Well, Nikki, thank you so much for coming on the show today and really giving us some
• 19:11
  culture.
• 19:12
  Oh, thank you.
• 19:13
  Thank you for having me on.
• 19:14
  It was a blast.
• 19:15
  Yeah.
• 19:15
  Thanks for being part of the scene.
• 19:17
  Yeah.
• 19:18
  Thanks.