Latest / bit of a Rambler / 118 Ramble On

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118 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: stories and more has been going on in the land
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of Japan, So welcome to another ramble on episode. Keno
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Michi Island is Bunny Island or Deer Island. I think
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Keno Michi's actually deep. Nope, I just looked up deer
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and Rabbit Island. They're both not called Kino Michi, so
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know what Keno Michi is. Maybe I just
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: wrote it down wrong. But there's a deer Island and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a Rabbit Island that my friend Taka has recommended me to.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Still haven't been to them, but I might go to
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the Deer Island soon because it looks pretty accessible and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: easy to get too. Oh some more shooting stars. I've
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: been saying, just tons of them, and it was really
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I love starscapes, and I like the Japan such a
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: low light country, so I can see the shooting stars
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: so easily. So I went out with my new friend
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Taka song to some Eaza khayahs and yeah, we took
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a train out there and it was it's so interesting
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: how normal the train feels so culturally Japanese like it's
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: not super modern, but they work well. They're clean, and
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: they are well taken care of. But it's like they
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: developed them until nineteen ninety five and then they're like,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: this is the perfect transit train. Don't make it nicer,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: don't make it any more futuristic. Just keep it right here.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Don't put in like steel molded seats, keep the cushions
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and the a little bit. There has to be something rattling,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: just a little bit. It's great. I like it a lot.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: And so we took the train a couple stops to
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Eohojo and then we walked around. But we got there
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: a little early and the Ezakaia's were open. But but
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: what Takasan likes was the snack bars. And I don't
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: know what a snack bar is, so I was like, well,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I guess we'll just go later. But the way the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: snack bars looked, I was like, I hope this is
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: not a strip club because I don't want to go
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: there at all, but especially with an old man. And
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: we went to a izakaya after walking. So we walked
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: down to the harbor and he showed me the ferry
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: that would take me to Deer Island. That was just
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: right across, very close. It's like one hundred yards away
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Deer Island. You can take a little ferry over there
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: for a couple bucks. And after getting too there and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: looking around the harbor and seeing some people fishing, someone
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: caught a fish. We went to and open azakaya, and
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Taka clearly really wanted to go to these snack bars,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: and so I'm curious about them. But I want to
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: go to eazakaya because now I've been to a yaki tori,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: but now I can go to an ezakayah with a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Japanese guy. But I realized I've been going to an ezakaya.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: The ramen place I go to has a list of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: snacks that you can buy, and that's what the ezakaya is.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: It's like a pub and you can order snacks and drinks,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and we got some beer and they don't take cards. Also,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: no cards not very popular in Japan at all. I
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: heard that there were more places accepting cards, and there
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: are more places than I remember I think the last
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: time I was here, But many restaurants, more than half
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the restaurants I go to do not accept cards. They're
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: cash only. And izakaya's especially so anyway, we went to
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the zakaya. It's still awesome. It looks so cool because
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: it's all hardwood, and there was a waitress and one
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: cook or chef in the back. And we got some sashimi,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: which was pretty good. I'll say pretty good, but that's
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the thing like the supermarket sashimi I get is also
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: pretty too, really good, so I felt like paying a
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: premium for this zakaya sashimi. Maybe it wasn't worth it.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: But it was fun because we're both drinking taka has
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to high ball and I have my giant mug of beer,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: and it's great to share some sashimi with some beer.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And then I got a shredded scallop, but I thought
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: it would be cooked, but Google Translate was wrong. It
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: was not grilled. It's raw scallop sliced into strips and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: then in seawater basically, so you're just eating raw. But
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it was pretty good. It definitely wasn't bad. It wasn't
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get it again. It wasn't really exciting
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: for my palate. And I like grilled scallop and fried
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: scallop a lot, but the snacks and zakayas aren't separated
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: by fried food versus fresh. A lot of them are
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: just handwritten signs because it it is all fresh, like
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: local seasonal produce and food, so they don't have one
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: set menu. It sort of goes with the seasons and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: whatever is locally available, which is really cool and I'm
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: glad I tried this salty raw strips of scallop. What else? Oh?
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Taksan told me this funny story about one of his
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: guests because there's a girl who knew the first four,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: which actually I know. Also, he totes futats meets yoats
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: for ordering one order of blah blah, so like sashimi
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: o HETEs one order of sashimi or meetsu three orders
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: of whatever. But she didn't know the word for five,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: so meetsu yotsu and then she said gotsu, which is
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: wrong because they have a different word for that, but
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: go is the word for five. And she was like, well,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: if it's sue, then the word is gotsu. And he
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: told me that story and it was really funny and
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: we laughed a lot, because if you don't know what
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the correct word is for five orders, then yeah, why
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: why wouldn't you get go? Why wouldn't you guess go?
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: But it does sound wrong. It's the same reason they
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: like the numbers four and seven are either yon or she. Right,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: yon yon is four and she means four. But when
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: you're saying like four things or four o'clock yoon gi,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: you don't say shigi. It doesn't sound correct with how
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Japanese works together phonetically, it doesn't what's the word euphunny,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: it's not euphonically correct. It sounds weird to say shigi.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And with seven also, it's chi chi or nana nana,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and it sounds weird if you use nana where it's
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: not supposed to be used, and it sounds weird if
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: you use she she where it's not supposed to be used.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So it's shichi gi. But if you're talking about like
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: seven things, then it's probably nana nana. So it makes
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: perfect sense that she thought logically hesu futatsu mitsu yotsu gotsu.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: But yotsu gotsu gotsu sounds weird. It just doesn't. And
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not I'm terrible, terrible at Japanese, but I've been
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: studying it and the sounds are starting to make sense
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: to me. And I can hear it when something doesn't
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: fit into the pattern of Japanese, whether I'm reciting a
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: sentence or typing a sentence together on duo lingo or
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: gotsu or when he said that, I just started laughing,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and it does sound funny. It's a funny word, gosu.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: So he was really into that story. And then he
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: spilled soy sauce all over his pants and I cleaned
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: up with some napkins, and Taka played it off. But
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know how pisty actually was, because really it
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: seemed like he just wanted to go to the snack
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: bar we had. What else did we have? I think
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: we had some etemami or there was one other thing. Oh,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: you know what it was. There's this seasonal. Did I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: write that down? Nope? But I found a picture of
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a menu, and I believe it was near the bottom.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I think it's this one, Tukuji tsuku ji, Tukuji tsuku ji.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: It was interesting because it was like asparagus a little
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: but much more fragrant, much sweeter and mild. The flavor
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: wasn't very strong, so it was like a thick The
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: way he described it was it was a thick grass
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: and it's only around for maybe two weeks three weeks
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: tops each year, and that time we went, there was
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: peak season for this tukuji. So we got it at
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the first zakaya we went to, and that was the
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: best thing, including the sashimi that was delicious. I really
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: liked the tsukuji. It was really interesting, very unique flavor
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: and not very strong, but very satisfying, very good. So
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: after those three, and after Taka spilt soy sauce on
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: his pants, we decided to get out of there. He
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: wanted to go check the snack bar see if they
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: were open yet, and we said thank you, and I
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: think he paid, and I gave him money because before
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: we went, he said, we should go to ani zakaya.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I know one that you'll like, but we have to
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: pay half half because you're not young enough that I
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: can take you to dinner. You're supposed to take young
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: people to dinner, but you're not that young. And I laughed.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: We were drinking at his house a couple days before
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: we went, and he's right, I ain't that young. So
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: we paid half half. But when we got there, I
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: think he tried to pay and I gave him money
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: after he paid the waitress for that one, and then
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: we went to we'd been there like an hour and
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: a half, so it was seven thirty something like that.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: But so it's nighttime, like the sun is gone. But
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the snackbar door still didn't open, and he's like, I
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: might open later, might open at eight. I was like, okay,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and that was fine. I already asked him. I was like,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know about the snackbar. I like, izakias, Can
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: we just go to another azakaya? He said, yeah, I
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: really want to go to a snack bar, and I
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: was like okay, but the snackbar wasn't open, so I said, well,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: if we're just drinking, then we can just get drinks
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: at another he'sa Kaya. Let's just go to that firstiza kaiya.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: We saw that was so tiny. I like the small shops,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and we went up there and we were just talking,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: shooting the shit the whole time. But we got to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: the second He's a Kaya and it was even smaller
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: than the first, which was already pretty tiny. There were
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: maybe eight seats at just bar, no tables, and just
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: two people inside, and I noticed they had sukuji again,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: so I got more sukiji and they gave it freezukuji
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: when we sat down as a little taste, but I
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: wanted more. It was like a tsukiji egg mixture, sort
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of kishi. It was really really good, and talker was like,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: well you want more. Look, they just gave it to
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: us for free, and I was like, yeah, I know,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: it's really good. I'll get some more. They also didn't
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: take card ah and I just want to pay with card.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I gotta get a feelis ATM card because I'm it's
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: not that it's too expensive, it just really bugs me
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: having to pay so much money to take out money
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: from an ATM easily, because there's no reason for these
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: transaction fees in the modern world. So the tukuji was
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: very tasty, and I talked to the people around a
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: couple words, and then me and Taka talked, and me
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and Taka drink and I had a couple of beers.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: And they had a train station schedule posted right on
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the wall of it, so we checked when the last
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: train out was and we were good. We still had
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: a few hours left. It was still pretty early. It
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: was like eight a laughter eight. By the time we
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: left that place was probably eight fifteenish, and I'm sure
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: talking was just like checking his watch. He was like,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: are you done? Yeah, okay, And we went to the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: snack bar. So we went back down there and the
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: door was open this time, and we walk in and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: it's there's three sixtyish year old man and talk is
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: like seventy something, and then me went into thirty years
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: younger than everybody else, and two girls dressed up in
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: hostess made uniforms behind the counter. And I guess the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: point of these snack bars is just to talk to
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: young girls who have to pay attention to you, which
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: you know, is I guess the point of a lot
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: of bars in the US also, But this is so focused,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: like they have to dress up and outfits. It was weird,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: but it was the first time I was in a
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: snack bar. I've never even heard of those before, and
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: so now I have been one, and I probably won't
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: go back. But this one was very lively and loud
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: because they were doing karaoke, and they didn't get up
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: to do karaoke. There was no stage. It was just
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: sitting around the bar. They would pass around a bluetooth
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: microphone and then there were two TV screens and a
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: song would go up and you sang them, and I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: sang a couple songs because I said a couple words
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: to one of the bar tendresses and she was like,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: you can sing, and she put on an English menu
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: of songs, and I sang a couple and the old
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: people looked like they were confused and didn't like the
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: songs because one they were at English and two it
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: was new music and they were all singing like old
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: traditional Japanese songs. But I had a fun time because
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: both of the singers Taka doesn't sing, and I sang.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: And then there were three other guys in there, but
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: one left, so the two guys that were left saying
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a lot. Oh no, there were three guys. Yeah, yeah,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: all three of them sang, and one of them was
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: lackluster a bit, but the other two really got into
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: it and were guttural and wailing and yeah, just really
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: into the karaoke. So that was kind of fun to
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: watch and I participated, which is fun. Also I like singing,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: why not, But Taka doesn't like karaoke, And after his
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: first string he left. He told me he was going
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to go check the other snack bar because there were
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: two of them next to each other and see if
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: he liked the second snack bar better. And when people
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: finished singing the Japanese girls in their uniforms, the bar
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: bartenders clapped their hands very excited. It was bizarre, and
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Taka left. It came back like ten minutes later and
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: he was like, we'll go to the other one now.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: I was like, okay. So we went to the other
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: one and there was no karaoke in there, which I
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: did like because we were hanging out and talking, and
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: then we couldn't hear anything because the karaoke was constant.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: And I don't even think we got snacks. We must
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: have gotten something, because that's the whole point in the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: snack bar. It's a bar and you drink and then
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: they give you tiny little finger snacks, like a packet
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: of two crackers or something like that, like a little
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: basket of snacks inside. And then the girls behind the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: counter don't really flirt. I guess flirt flirt with the men.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: But a family came into the second one too, so
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: we were in the second one talking for a while.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: There was this girl with a couple tattoos behind the counter,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and Taka just wanted to talk. So at the first one,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: he kept trying to talk to one of the bartenders,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: but she kept interrupting him because she had to hand
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the microphone to someone or someone else was singing, so
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: he couldn't just talk to her and explain life. And
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: when we got to the second one, he could, so
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: for like twenty five minutes, he was just talking at
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: this bartender and she was just like nodding along, being interested.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: But it's difficult to say how interested she really was.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: But taka I asked him why his name was Mameida,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: and he explained that his nickname he chose as Mameida.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Mamida is a baby tanuki. A tanuki is like a
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: raccoon bear dog thing, kind of a local spirit in Japan.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: There's a real animal like a raccoon dog in Japan,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and it's just like a different species of raccoon. But
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: in folklore there's the tanuki and it's this bipedal raccoon
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: dog who I don't know, is just a weird shape
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: shifting little spirit for his spirit, I guess. But you'll
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: see statues of tanuki standing in front of shops all
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: around pan everywhere, really, and sometimes they'll be man sized,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and sometimes they'll be like half man sized, sometimes they'll
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: have beer. They always have like a thick mane and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: canonically have large testicles, which in the Studio Ghibli movie Pompoco,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I think it was they use their testicles to fly.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I gotta check, hang on, is this correct? Hang On?
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: I remember that movie and I was like, this is weird,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and I looked it up and I was like, oh,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: they are flying with their ball sacks. So I just
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: looked it up. Yes. So when Pompoco, the Tanuki, these
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: raccoon doc fores spirits are fighting against human developers, like
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: destroying the forest, and to get to the location, there's
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: this part where a whole bunch of Tanuki jump off
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: something the cliff or a roof I can't remember, and
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: they all float down using their ball sacks to catch
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the wind and float down to this area. It's a
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: very strange plot mechanism, but the reason for it is
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: because canonically, again I don't know why, Tanuki have very
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: big testicles in all of the myths and legends and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: on these statues, all these statues I'm talking about, their
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: balls are displayed like most of these statues have balls. Okay, well,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: that's enough talk about that. The reason I brought that
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: up is because Taka explained to me why his chosen
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: nickname Mameida was Mameida because he really liked Tanuki's and
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: a baby Tanuki is called a mameida, as Taka introduced
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the word to me as he explained it to me,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: and the bartender behind is still just like nodding along
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and can't speak any English, So I'm speaking my crapo Japanese.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: But I don't want to talk too much because it's
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: clear Taka just needs to unload. Yeah, I don't think
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: he has a lot to do. He every time I've
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: been with him, he just wants to talk and explain,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: just the lonely guy who wants to talk to somebody,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: wants some interaction, and he does like talking to young
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: pretty girls. After we left the snack bar, because we
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: left the a family came in while Taka was talking
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to this lady and they all started talking loudly, and
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: so after I ate a couple of the snacks with
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the drinks me and Taco were having, we weaved out
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: into the night away from all the loudness, and the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: bartender like followed us and said thank you for coming,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: but Taco was like not even looking at her, and
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I could tell he didn't like the girls at the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: first one either, and he was like, do you even
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: think those girls were pretty? And I was like, yes,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I didn't really, but it felt mean because we were
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: talking to them earlier and they were not hideous. They
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: were just not, I don't know, the prettiest girls I've
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: ever seen, but they weren't ugly, and Taco was sort
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: of making it sound like because they weren't the prettiest
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: girls ever, his night was not as fun, but he
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: has if I had fun. I was like, yeah, it
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: was fun, and it was. It was a good time.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I enjoyed the Zakiah's more, but it was interesting seeing
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: what snack bars were so that I know to avoid them.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And I paid I think at two of the places too,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: So I felt good about that that I wasn't mooching
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: off overbearing Japanese hospitality, which I will say with Taka,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't really have to worry about it. He was
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: very upfront about like, I'm not paying for everything. So
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Yaky Torri is like an upscale pub with kind of
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: fancier dishes and nicer stuff. Izakaia is just a regular
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: local pub with a bunch of snacks and beer, and
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the Yucky Tories have the snacks and beer, and then
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the snack bar is just drinks, and then there's very
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: tiny snacks like one piece of beef jerky in a
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: package or one cracker in a little package, and you
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: can eat that and then drink and just talk to
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the bartenders and get some attention that maybe you don't
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: have time to get in your regular life. It's kind
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: of the geisha role, like it's an entertainment sort of. Yeah,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: you're paying for the company of women, but literally the company,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: like not the sexual company. It's just so you can
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: have a pretty girl talking to you or listening to
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: you in the case of many of these people. Okay,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: let's move on to the fun or stuff that I
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: have been doing recently. The Sokra. The cherry blossoms. So
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I stayed an extra week after they said the cherry
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: blossoms would blossom because it never is the right date.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: It's always a few days or a week later. So
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I'm staying one extra week and the cherry blossom showed up.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I was kind of worried. I went on a hike
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: through the woods, and I was coming down off the mountain,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I was like, man, I still haven't seen any cherry blossoms,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and I'm leaving in a week. That would be terrible
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: if I stayed just long enough to miss them, which
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: is what I did the first time I was in Japan.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I left like a few days before all the sakara blossomed,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: and I learned that the predictions are always a few
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: days off. But I'm walking down off this mountain thinking like,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: oh my gosh, am I going to miss the sokra again?
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: And then right in front of me there's a huge
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: cherry blossom tree, and I was like, well, I turned
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: around the corner. I was like, oh, how did I
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: miss that? And then walking down the mountain, I looked
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: in across, like over some buildings to the next ridge
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: of mountains, I see dots of white and I was like, wait,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: those are cherry blossom trees too, that are blooming right
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: now on the day they're supposed to. And I looked
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: around and I realized a whole bunch of the cherry
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: blossoms were already blooming. They weren't all blooming, but they
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: had all started. So in a few days all the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: rest would so I was probably going to see them.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: And it was so funny because I was worrying about
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: it for I don't know, five or ten minutes walking
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: down this mountain, like, oh man, that would be terrible.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I don't want to miss the blah blah blah blah.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And then I walk out and there's cherry blossom trees
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: all within eyesight, like close by, and I walked up
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: to one that I thought, wait, is this cherry lille?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: And it is. There was a blooming, bright, blooming cherry
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: blossom with delicate petals falling down in the wind right
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: in front of me, and it was so cool. It
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: was great. It was exactly what I wanted. I wanted
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to go and see the cherry blossoms, and I have
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: and I haven't missed any of them, and it was
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: really It struck me so funny that I had just
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: been worrying about that, but I hadn't been paying enough
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: attention to the land around me to notice that a
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: bunch of the cherry blossom trees had blossomed that to day,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: because they weren't there a couple days ago at the most.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: They certainly weren't except in those few places I saw them.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: But now I could see them dotting everywhere. So I
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: walked up to this waterfall I had been to before
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: that had a ton of trees and they were all
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: blooming and there were sokoda everywhere and petals falling everywhere.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Was very I was so happy. I spent the rest
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of the day walking around that whole like three more hours,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: walking around to all the cherry blossom places that I
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: had marked down and looking at all the cherry blossoms
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and spending time under the trees. And I went back
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: to that. There's this great park. I don't even know
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: what the name is, but it has a huge, twisty
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: slide that goes down a mountain and it's big. It's
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: a big slide and it doesn't say it's only for kids.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: So I have ridden on it twice now. First time
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: there was no cherry blossoms, like nothing had bloomed. But
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the second time I went, just a couple days ago,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: every single tree was in full bloom. So I slid
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: down this hill on a hill slide through the cherry
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: blossom trees all around it. It was great. It was
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: so cool. There's a picture of it on Lemmy. Actually
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: I threw that up on the Lemmy Travel Community and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: it's a great picture because it looks out over the
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: inland sea off Shakoku, so you can see the ocean
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and the slide that I'm gonna go down, and then
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: all these sokkara trees all around it, and it's from
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: the point of view right before you get on the slide.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: So super fun. I had a great It was really fun,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and I had a great time that whole day walking around.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: And it's still going on because that was only a
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: couple days ago, so I'm still walking around every day
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and seeing all the beautiful cherry blossoms. It was raining today,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: but I think tomorrow it'll be clear, so I'll just
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: go around all day. And because it's brief, there's gonna
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: be a few days they're all blooming. Most of them
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: have already changed from white to pink, and then all
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: those flowers are gonna die and it'll you gotta wait
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: till next year. So it's really it's great. It's great
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: to be here at this time of year. But now
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I've done it. I haven't been to Japan five years
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: because I went there a couple of years in a
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: row to see the soccer and I did, But there
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: are so many spring festivals around the world that I
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: still haven't let alone taking part in. Like I just
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: learned about the Long John Jamboree, which is a big
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Canadian spring festival that I've never heard of, and I
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: should go to that because I still have about to Canada,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: which is bonkers. But it just happened a few a
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago or something a few weeks ago,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: so I gotta I guess I gotta go in March
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: next year. Okay, Yeah, So I was worried about missing sakkara.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Turns out there were soakara blooming all around me and
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I just hadn't been paying attention, and it was good
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: to laugh at myself. I was buying some beer from
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the convenience store in Japan again, and I was like,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: it is crazy how much I've spent. I've spent tens
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: of thousands of yen, probably hundreds of thousands during the
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: strip of fun times in Japan, just drinking beer and
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: walking around and recording these podcasts and eating ramen. Yeah,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: just a bunch of snacks and beer for six weeks
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: or whatever. It's been good. It's been a good time.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: But I've spent so much money because the stores around
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: me have all of this stuff I love. There's sashimi everywhere,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: but then in the convenience store specifically, they have all
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the selters I like, and they don't put a lot
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: of sugar in the best ones, so it's yeah, I'll
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: go out and get them. After i complete a podcast
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: with some snacks and I'm spending ten thousand, twenty thousand,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: thirty thousand yen here and there, actually think about now, Yeah,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: it's definitely hundreds of thousands of yen that I've been
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: spending in these shops. What a silly goofball. But it's
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: been a fun time. I can say that. Okay, some
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: exciting news. Firefly podcast. I was just like, oh, yeah,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the internet exists, and I like Firefly. I wonder if
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: someone has talked about it. I listened to a Deadwood
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: podcast once and it was interesting just going along with
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: their watching it. But I found out that Nathan Fillion
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and Alan Tudic, two of the stars, actually have a
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: podcast that was recently started, and they've been friends since
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the show twenty five years ago, and they just talk
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: about whatever talk about growing up and what they're doing
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: now sort of, but you can't talk about a bunch
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: of that stuff because Hollywood Secrets part of the podcast.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: And it's been really fun. I listened to all of
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the twenty episodes whatever that are already out. Is a
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: good time. They are interviewing all the Firefly cast members
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: and other people connected to their shows and that they know,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and sometimes just the two of them just swapping stories.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: It's fun if you like Firefly especially, it's great just
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: to hear these people. But what is wild is that
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the latest episode just announced they're gonna restart Firefly as
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: an animated show. They're going to continue Firefly from where
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: it left off in the series the fourteenth episode as
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: an animated show with the original cast. Everyone's coming back
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: except for Book, who passed away in real life, but
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: they're going to get a new voice actor for Book.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: It's going to be between the TV show and the
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: movie that they made, because there are tons of cool
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: adventures that Firefly has that Nathan Fillian says he wants
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to tell, and the entire cast are still friends, so
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: they all want to be a part of it, and
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: it changed all of their life so much, just such
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: an important show to so many people, and I'm super
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: excited about it. And the latest episode of the podcast
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: was a It was a recording of a panel that
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the Firefly Cast did where they announced the new animated show,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and I was just walking around with a big old
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: smile because I'm very excited for it too. But usually
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: when I'm listening to a podcast, I usually am listening
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: to like backlogs of old episodes, and so when they
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: announced something, I can just go look forward and get it.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: And this time it came out just now, so now
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: I have to wait with everyone else and we're just
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: waiting to see the show. And I don't know when
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: it'll actually come out, but I'm so excited that it
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: is coming out. I'm really excited to see how it
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: holds up as an animated show. The comics they did
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: are great. I read through the comics a few times.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: They're very interesting. I think they're actually new ones. I
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: might not have read through, but I should check it
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: out because if they can get an animation style like
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: that which I loved and which fits the Firefly atmosphere
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: so well they're aesthetic as a whole, that would be great.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I'm very excited to see what this animated show is
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: like and how how the crew feels back in these positions. Okay, well,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: it was funny. I wanted to go to this burger place.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: It sounded really good umi Iro Burger, and it sounded
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: really good. But I found out about it the day
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: before they closed for two days. They're only opened five
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: days a week, and they're only opened four hours per day.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: So I found out about them at like four pm,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: you know, seven pm actually one evening, and I was like, oh,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I can go tomorrow. And then I checked the schedule
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: and they actually weren't opened the next day or the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: day after that. So I've just been waiting and then
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I finally went to this place, Umiiro Burger, and I'm
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: so angry at didn't find out about it earlier because
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I've been here for five weeks. I only have one
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: week left. And they have great food and they take
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: credit cards, so it's a little pricey. It's like gourmet
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: burger stuff. They have regular burgers, but they their focus.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Their flagship burgers are gourmet and they have them on amazing.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I really like this restaurant. They had a Hojo brewing
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: season and you order on tablets. So I got the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I got the what is it called umi Ittero White
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Sea burger, and they bring it out on a wooden tray.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: And on the wooden tray there's a wavy black plate
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: that kind of looks like a large tile. It's a
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: very nice, very fancy plate. You get this really nice
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: hand towel to wash your hands. They bring it out
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: with the tray, so you wash your hands right before
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: you eat, or you don't wash, you just scrub, wash, clean,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: clean your hands. You clean your hands with the cloth
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: before you eat your burger. And they have burger bag
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: so you can put it inside there and smash the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: burger down to eat it. It feels extremely luxurious, and
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: it's all hardwood, so it's very classy decorated, and there's
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: plugs outlets everywhere so you can plug in. There's free
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Wi Fi. And it overlooks the ocean, so there's a
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: bar set up at the back of the room with
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: floor ceiling windows. And the only problem is that they
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: have a lot of potted plants, so it's kind of
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: difficult to see the ocean, but not super difficult. You
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: can still see it. I would just want a less
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: obstructed a less obstructed face level window area, but it
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: was fine. You can still see it, and I just
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: i'll it's great. It's great. I've been there three times now,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: and every time I sit at that bar and I
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: have a beer and drink my and eat my amazing
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: bur Oh the burger is so good. Okay, let's talk
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: about this white sea burger. So there's a white sauce
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: that I think is a bechamel sauce. The bread is
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: fluffy but dense, so it's easy to bite through, but
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: it does have a texture to it in the best
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: way for a hamburger bun, which are so often dry
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and rippy, rip apart and crap. Oh allsh I should start.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I don't like hamburgers. I don't eat them a lot.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: If a hamburger is not made really well, I'm not
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: interested at all. I don't get them much. There the
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: meats off in chewy, which I don't like. There's bits
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: of gristle in there. The buns suck all the time.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I don't like eating a lot of bread anyway that
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I don't like burgers in general. I very rarely eat hamburgers.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: But this place, the burgers looked so good that. I
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: was like, well, give it a try. You're in Japan,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: maybe it actually is. And it came out and the
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: burger looked as decadent and luxurious. It looked exactly like
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the picture they had taken, like the width of the patty,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: how it was cooked, the cheese dripping off the burger.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Everything looked exactly how it looked in the photos on
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the Google Maps listing of this place, which is amazing
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: because obviously that's very rare that a restaurant actually makes
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: a makes their burgers every day to the standards of
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: their advertised food. That's more common in Japan, certainly, but
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: even in Japan, I have had plenty of burgers there.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: I've had the fast food ones, the most burgers or whatever.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: But I've also gone to really nice restaurants. And I
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: had one super no two good burgers at Martini Burger.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: So I know that they exist, but that I think
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: that one was like twenty bucks at Burger. It was
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: pretty pricey, you know it, It was pricey for me at
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: the time. I don't know if I should check, I
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: don't know, let's see. Yeah, there, so at the time
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I went one hundred yen was one dollar and all
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: these are nineteen hundred yen, so almost twenty bucks for
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the burger, and I got martini's too. We kind of splurged.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: I was traveling with a friend at that time. We
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: just splurged and each got a burger and a couple
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: of martinis and it was really fun and they were good,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: but I think these ones at Umiiro are better, I
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: think for me, and every bit of it. Like I said,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: the bread was perfect, the Beschemel sauce was really good
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: on top the patty. The meat. The meat was really
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: important because super easy to bite through falls apart. You
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: don't have to pull or anything at the meat. You
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: don't have to bite very hard to just you bite
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: into and the meat separates from the rest of the meat.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: And it was grilled well on both sides. Actually they
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: might have fried it fried well on both sides. And
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: it's a mushroom burger, so there were mushrooms, but it
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: was very clear that they took care to thick, slice
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: the mushrooms and saute them separately from everything else so
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: that the mushrooms have their own distinct flavor. Even in
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: the midst of all this cheese and meat and bread,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: and so much other flavors, and there was some very
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: fresh lettuce, which I don't usually like my burgers, but
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: tasted good here because it was fresh, fresh lettuce. And
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: then the cheese. It's a four cheese combination and I
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: loved it, and I don't usually like cheese, but it
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: was not heavy thick. It looks heavy and thick, but
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: when you eat it, it's very It's light and airy
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: and easy to eat, and it doesn't sit like a
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: weight at the bottom of your stomach. And it doesn't
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: taste cheap. Tasted like very fancy mixed real cheese. They
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: must mix some kind of feta into it or something.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: It's a very interesting combination. It was delicious. So this
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: burger rocked. And their French fries were cooked absolutely perfectly.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: They were a very light gold but very strongly crisp.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Totally great, and the season was perfect. It was a
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: little bit fruity and pale, but a strong flavor and
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: fun to drink. It was a fun to drink. The
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: beer was expensive. I keep getting them, but there that
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: was like six bucks for a beer. I guess it's
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: like five point fifty something like that, So it was
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: not the cheapest burger you can get, but it is
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: probably the second best burger I've had. I think the
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: guy in Portugal who had his own food truck and
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: used to be a professional chef. I think his are
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: still better, I would say, but I can't remember, you know,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: it's been so long since I had that, But I'm
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: just in my gut. I feel like his were still transcendent.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: But that first one I had here at umi Hiro,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: I was like, holy crap, I have not had a
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: burger this good since. And I tried to remember, and
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I kept going year by year, and I was like,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: nothing since the Portugal guy. So it's I mean, it's
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: it's as good as his, probably because it's the only
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: one that hit me with this this depth of it
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: felt like a fine dining experience, how carefully each ingredient
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: was individually crafted, Like they clearly spent a lot of
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: time working on the patty by itself, but they spent
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of time working on these sauteed mushrooms, and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: they were perfectly prepared the sauteed mushrooms. And they spent
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of time working on this cheese clearly because
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: it was somehow airy, as if they not blended what's
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: called summersed blender, that thing that spends around and puts
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: air and stuff. Maybe they did like a little bit
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: of that and then full, Oh that's probably. They probably
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: just folded the cheese so that there was some air
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: in it. It was amazing. And I sat there after
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: I finished everything. I had clean plate, it was clean,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: and the wooden tray and the black clay fired tile
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: with their name of the restaurant etched into it looked
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: so nice. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience. And I
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: stared out at the ocean, totally content with what had transpired,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: and I just watched the waves, being like, look at this,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: look at this good stuff here. And I can tell
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: you right now I've already been back twice and I
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: will be going back again, but that'll take some time
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: talk about. So let's get into it on the next
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: ramble on, and I'll tell you about the umiiro Red
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Burger and the Demi Tama and then they have a
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Weak Day special. Oh my gosh, But it's so funny
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: because I had no idea it was right here, because
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: everyone told me there weren't any restaurants or supermarkets near me.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: But there's a supermarket near me, and this restaurant is
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: less than a mile away. I can walk there in
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, and it's so good, so it's probably good.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's good. I didn't know about it. No, No,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: it's it's the perfect amount of food too, Like I
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: don't really gorge myself on it. So maybe I wouldn't
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: spend way too much money, but maybe I would because
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: the beers are expensive at this place. Anyway, I like
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: this new restaurant. I'm here for a week. I'm gonna
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: try as much as I can of their menu because
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: it's great. It's simple, and I'm probably not gonna eat
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Hamburger's again for years after this glorious experience. I hope
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: you're having a great day. Thank you for listening. I
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: will talk to you soon. Talk to me a bit
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: of a rambler at gmail dot com or a bit
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: of a rambler and Blue Sky and Lemmy have a
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: great rest of your day.