Transcript

Big In Japan · Brainwaves

0:08
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Two Shot
0:11
Tuesday. I am super excited because 1/2
0:15
of the team was away for a while and while that may not be the
0:19
biggest deal, it was to me and to our audience, the city of
0:24
Toronto. Jason Riley, you are back from
0:26
Japan your second trip and this time was a lot shorter.
0:29
Welcome home and I can't wait for you to get into what you
0:32
were doing over there. Thank you.
0:33
Yeah. And for our audience, you know,
0:35
we had things ready to go pre recorded.
0:37
So really they didn't miss a beat.
0:39
But you, there was anguish. I could tell there was.
0:41
Anguish. A few beats.
0:44
As we texted because when you're 13 hours ahead, it was 14 hours
0:48
ahead last time I went in November that they don't do
0:51
spring. What is it called where you
0:52
spring a head forward daylight savings time.
0:55
Yeah, they don't do that. So we caught up about one hour,
0:58
so I was only 13 hours ahead. Pretty it.
1:00
Was still cold getting messages from the future though.
1:02
Wasn't it because yeah, I was far ahead and coming back?
1:05
Well, let's not even do coming back.
1:07
I'll start telling you about the trip right after we do a little
1:10
something on our show that doesn't change no matter what
1:12
time zone you're in. Shot #1.
1:15
Amen brother. What have you got for your
1:17
welcome back shot? I've got what did I have?
1:19
What's it called? The Whistler.
1:21
I'm trying to get through it. I'm almost through it.
1:24
We've had it on a couple shows and the bottles almost done.
1:28
So I'm working my way. Barry, what have you got?
1:30
Well, your commitment is nothing short of biblical, even when
1:34
it's something you don't necessarily care for.
1:36
Jay, I'm singing with something that we both know and love, and
1:38
I think you know what it is. Jameson Black Barrel, our
1:42
favorite. Cheers.
1:43
And you, it just kind of opens everything up, doesn't it?
1:48
It really does. It's really nice.
1:49
The Whistlers packs a bit of a punch, but I'm getting used to
1:52
it and like, I feel it. It's like you're scaling down
1:55
the side of a mountain. I can feel the mountain climber
1:58
going right down into my gullet and it's not so bad.
2:02
That's so bad. And this time your face looked a
2:05
lot less, I don't want to say screwed up because of the
2:08
flavourings, but you look like a normal guy this time.
2:11
Before you look like you were, I don't know, in the vacuum of
2:14
space for a brief moment. I recommend a little Bacardi and
2:17
Coke 0 to help. Yeah, loosen up the palate a
2:21
bit. It makes things a little
2:22
smoother going down South. Cheers to you on that.
2:25
Beautiful. I got a little beer and a glass
2:27
over here. Why are we drinking so much?
2:29
Because this is our big in Japan episode.
2:31
We both got a hand story. Barry, you've said yours.
2:35
Maybe not as exciting. I'm not so sure about that.
2:37
We're going. To not even close.
2:39
Why don't I talk a little bit spoiler alert about my trip?
2:42
Please. Yeah, I went to film the last
2:45
couple of days that I need to film for the show that I'm in
2:48
and that'll be coming out. I'm not sure when.
2:50
So I will be sure to let our listeners and viewers know as
2:52
soon as we're ready to be able to talk about it.
2:55
I've signed NDA's like that's, that's my big deal.
2:58
I've signed NDA's on this thing. That's a non disclosure
3:02
agreement for the. Latest What can I ask you?
3:05
But it doesn't matter. I probably could.
3:06
It's already a show that's actually airing right now and
3:08
I'm coming into season 3, so I'll tell you about that
3:11
already. So a little teaser.
3:13
Anyway, here's how we left it in November.
3:15
I was there for three weeks and I shot for about 8 days of those
3:19
three weeks. Executive producer Aldo Roma
3:21
came for two of those weeks, so we really got to see the sights.
3:24
He took on the enormous responsibility of being a tour
3:28
guide to map out where we were going to go on the days that I
3:30
was not shooting. And then he was able to go were
3:33
on its own on the days that I was shooting.
3:36
So going back again, it kind of felt like going home because I
3:39
was in the same hotel, same part of town.
3:42
I knew exactly where the pizza place was, where the freshness
3:45
burger was, where. Freshness.
3:48
Yeah, it's not the fresh burger, it's the freshness burger.
3:51
It tastes like Harvey's nice. It really does.
3:55
The Patty tastes just like Harvey's.
3:57
The original Patty or is the Angus Patty?
4:00
The original. The original OK.
4:02
I'm sure they did have an Angus burger I believe, but I didn't
4:04
try that one. I tried the original, it's hard
4:06
enough. The one thing about Japan, I
4:08
think I may have mentioned it before, is they do not generally
4:11
go out of their way to translate things to English.
4:14
They don't try to appeal to tourists.
4:16
They the signs are not really translated into English.
4:20
You have to use your translation app on your phone to be able to
4:23
even as I ordered, and I ordered off the touch screen because
4:27
they didn't speak English, I would hold my phone up to the
4:29
screen so I could see it translate.
4:30
So I knew which button to push because I'm a guy that likes to
4:33
remove every condiment. And so you have to minus the
4:37
this sauce, minus the pickle, minus the.
4:39
So I'm like, I'm like, I'm looking at everything through my
4:41
phone. Yeah, but the.
4:43
Last thing you should be doing is raw dogging and order of food
4:46
in Japan. Absolutely, Jay, you did the
4:49
right thing. It's a bad scene.
4:50
I went to the McDonald's every morning to get my egg and
4:54
Sausage Mcmuffin and beautiful. The woman got to know me and she
4:57
was there last time I was there, so she was very friendly.
5:00
We couldn't communicate at all, but I pointed to the same menu
5:03
item every time and I always got something different, which was
5:07
always, I think they were just playing with me.
5:08
It was never quite the same. There was one time without the
5:11
egg, one time without the sausage, one time it never had
5:14
cheese, though we all got it. By the end of my trip, I would
5:17
just go no cheese. That she knew exactly what.
5:18
That was the first time I showed her because I'd have my clawed
5:21
app translate things into Japanese so they could read it
5:24
off the screen, and they would do the same for me in some
5:27
cases. And when you do.
5:28
This plain about no egg or no sausage on some of these bungled
5:31
orders? Or do you just roll with it?
5:33
You can't, you just roll with it because they're smiling the
5:35
whole time. That's the thing that they don't
5:37
go out of their way to, to help, you know, with the English and
5:40
stuff. There's always a big smile on
5:42
their face. They even have a famous thing.
5:44
And I mentioned this last time this happened to us, where some
5:47
restaurants will not let foreigners in.
5:49
It's for locals only. And I've it's like, go on, show
5:52
me. It's like you get the XI never
5:53
got the X, but we got smiled and they were like, they just don't
5:57
let you in. It's not.
5:59
For you. They're not for us.
6:01
They're not here for our entertainment.
6:03
They're here for themselves. They're running a culture.
6:06
They've got plenty of citizens, they've got a lot of economic
6:09
stuff to go around and they don't need us.
6:11
And they're quite happy to say we don't need you.
6:13
You're here and we're happy to have you here.
6:14
And I was sort of working there, so I did feel a bit different.
6:17
I wasn't just a tourist, I wasn't just taking, I was there
6:20
to contribute to their the business that they're running.
6:24
If I may not just their business.
6:26
They're very culture. You were as part of the quilt of
6:30
their cultural fabric. Cheers to that.
6:32
Yeah, exactly. Cheers.
6:33
It's. 100% accurate. So I had a great time.
6:35
So I got there. I flew out of here Sunday, which
6:38
means I landed on Monday. Tuesday was my day off and that
6:41
was great. I was able to climatize.
6:43
I took a pod. I told you I was able to upgrade
6:46
myself to a pod on the way out. There was a direct flight coming
6:49
back. I got a pod to Vancouver and
6:52
then from Vancouver to Toronto I was able to I got the last
6:56
premium economy seat so I was able to upgrade for a couple of
6:59
bucks to a premium economy. So in every case I upgraded my
7:03
stay which was nice the. Pod was believable.
7:06
You got to you got to get the pod any chance you can.
7:08
And usually it's that last minute one that you're able to
7:10
get, which is at that point, you know, hundreds, sometimes
7:13
thousands, but hundreds of dollars more versus like if you
7:17
book a pod like to there it's like 10 grand or something.
7:20
It's ridiculous. You would never pay it, but by
7:23
the time it gets to the end and they haven't sold some, they're
7:25
now selling them for hundreds or in some cases thousands of
7:28
dollars. But yeah, you can.
7:29
You can get in there. I won't embarrass you by asking
7:32
you to disclose the. Actual amount, yeah.
7:35
You don't need to, but I'm happy that you were in a pod.
7:37
Can you just quickly tell me as a someone who's never been in a
7:40
pod? I'm a non pod guy, what was it
7:43
like? It is an entirely different
7:45
experience as someone who went from a pod to Vancouver and then
7:48
a seat from Vancouver forward. Like you can just you can lay
7:51
down. You could even and I can almost
7:53
stretch out flat. You're by yourself.
7:56
It's you and ATV and basically your own little private room.
7:59
Now, the, the Air Canada pods are not like the last time I
8:03
went, I was in the Ana. They're called the it's a Japan
8:06
Airways and they have pods that are around.
8:08
You can put dividers up so you can see.
8:11
It's a basically nobody can see you and you can't see out except
8:14
on the roof, which is open. Air Canada is very different,
8:16
but it's like, it's like you're sitting in a recliner, but
8:18
you're staring at ATV. They're bringing food to you.
8:22
You're everything's in glass, I swear.
8:23
Like everything's just an upgraded experience and it's
8:28
worth it. It's not worth 10 grand, I don't
8:29
think, but it is definitely worth the ability to get there.
8:32
You've got, you know, the private use of the Washington.
8:34
There's not hundreds of people using the washroom.
8:37
There's like 20 people that are using a washroom up there.
8:39
So things are. Yeah.
8:40
It holds itself together, especially after a 14 hour
8:43
flight. Those things take a beating when
8:45
there's hundreds of people using them.
8:47
So it's just every, the whole experience is just nicer and
8:50
it's just well worth it. I recommend Barry for you.
8:53
I don't want to see you go on a long trip without getting into a
8:55
pod or at least attempting to get that last minute pod upgrade
8:58
if you could. Well, that's what I wanted to
8:59
ask you. Yeah.
9:00
How do you get the last minute pod upgrade?
9:02
Are you actually standing at the counter at the gate and speaking
9:06
to the person and saying, hey, what have you got left?
9:09
I'll buy it right now. That happened to me on the way
9:12
out when I was in Chicago and I was flying on the Japan Airways.
9:16
I was able to do a cash upgrade right at the gate and then on
9:19
the way back they wouldn't do it coming out of Japan.
9:21
So I had to take a seat on the way back.
9:23
I had nobody next to me. So it was kind of nice.
9:25
This time through our Canada, it was all done at check in, so I
9:29
made sure I was when, you know, 24 hours before you book your
9:32
check in. I was there minute 1 and minute
9:35
one I'm checking in and I was offered the opportunity to
9:38
upgrade for a price on the way out.
9:41
On the way. Yeah.
9:42
And then on the way back, same thing.
9:43
On the way back, I was on set. I couldn't upgrade at the time.
9:47
I was offered the upgrade and I was trying to press it and then
9:50
I got called to set. I had to go be in my scene.
9:52
And so I I ended up screwing up the check in.
9:55
There were two check insurance. I had to call Air Canada after
9:57
to get reset and then I was still able to get it.
9:59
Nobody had taken it by and this was a day later.
10:01
Nobody had taken it. And then same thing in when I
10:05
was going to Vancouver, at some point in the check in the
10:07
Vancouver thing opened 24 hours before, even though you check
10:10
into the whole flight at once, it opened again.
10:13
And I was able to Add all of a sudden there's one seat and in
10:16
the premium economy and I was able to upgrade to that very.
10:20
It was harrowing tale, but you have to do it whenever you can.
10:23
You have. To do it that.
10:25
There's a lesson for the kids out there.
10:26
It's that if you have the opportunity to upgrade, it's a
10:29
couple bucks out of your pocket, but you just enjoy it and
10:32
there's some satisfaction of watching everyone else go behind
10:35
you on the plane. You get to get to board, you're
10:37
on first, you're off first, which means you're in customs
10:40
first both times. And customs in Japan was crazy
10:44
and I was able to cruise on through as all these planes were
10:46
configured. You and I would have been in
10:48
lockstep moving at high speeds because we would have known we
10:50
had to get there. But but yeah, so anyway, that
10:53
was that was key too, because you front of the plane means
10:56
front of the pack when you're getting through those important
10:59
things like customs and your bag is priority.
11:01
So it will typically come out on the belt first.
11:03
I love that last question about the flight.
11:05
Were you able to use your Nexus status at any point during your
11:09
journey? Yes, On the way back to Canada
11:12
in Vancouver when I came through, I was able to use the
11:15
Nexus line and I was able to cruise on through wasn't very
11:18
busy anyway. I was first there's one guy
11:21
ahead of me the whole way. He was like a super traveler
11:24
like I congratulated him when he got to security because he was
11:27
first He got we got down the pathway I'm following.
11:30
I can't catch up to he's a small guy and he's it he's got it his
11:33
thing on wheels. I just had my backpack.
11:35
I checked my bag and I'm going I could not catch this guy.
11:38
He was a master all the way through all the way through.
11:41
Then we get to security and he took a wrong turn.
11:43
He went to go to one of the I took a wrong turn.
11:46
One point I got on one of those moving belts that it took me
11:48
past the the I was supposed to turn out.
11:50
So I had to get off, come back. I was still behind him ahead of
11:53
everybody else. And then we're at security.
11:56
After we go through Nexus, it's the last checkpoint.
11:58
He's going through the security bit.
12:00
He tried to go immediately to the front and they didn't have
12:02
it open. You had to wind your way through
12:04
all of that. So we got in, he cuts off, he's
12:07
stuck with the belt. Like you got to go back, Sir.
12:09
I'm winding my way. I got to security and I looked
12:12
at him. I turned around.
12:13
I said I win. But you, Sir, are the master of
12:16
the airport. He was like, I've, I've done
12:18
this many times. Nice.
12:20
That's cool. It sounds like you had a
12:21
positive interaction. It was great.
12:22
I talked to even my seat mate on the way back was a really nice
12:25
guy. He was up, he was a board member
12:28
in none of it at a, at a, at a business up there.
12:31
So I chatted with that guy and somebody else as I was boarding
12:34
on the plane who was in the very first row from Japan to
12:37
Vancouver. He knew the pilot.
12:39
The pilot was retiring soon. The guy just spent five weeks in
12:42
Japan. We're just chatting in line
12:43
waiting for the boarding time. And he's like, he gives me his
12:46
card. He works for the government.
12:48
He's like, because we were talking about how I was in the
12:49
Christmas movie with Terry Hatcher, like send me that.
12:51
I'd love Hallmark movies. Send me that.
12:53
I sent him an e-mail with link to the name.
12:55
It was great and I knew that we'd be in good hands.
12:58
The pilot had friends, so he was going to be real careful that
13:01
flight. Yeah, totally.
13:03
Wow, that sounds like just a little bit of VIP experience all
13:06
around. That's what everybody has to do.
13:07
And when you do get the pod, try and be a little social, try and
13:10
meet some of your, you know, they're not going to be
13:12
seatmates, but they're they're part of the business class
13:15
crowd. And you want to get Yeah.
13:17
They're part of the ecosystem. Yeah, there was a woman on the
13:19
other pod right over with me and the the flight attendants were
13:22
falling all over themselves to make her happy.
13:25
She was somebody either important or like work for
13:28
candidate or something, but they clearly knew her.
13:30
I wanted to ask, but I did. I just respected her.
13:33
She. Didn't recognize her as like a
13:35
no she wasn't liberty or something.
13:37
No, not anything like that, but I think she was, maybe she was
13:40
working a lot. I can see she was on her phone a
13:42
lot and then so I think she like this route from Japan to
13:45
Vancouver was a common one for her.
13:48
So maybe she was like part of the government, maybe part of a,
13:51
you know, whatever we call them special envoys.
13:54
I don't know. I'm making that out.
13:55
Yeah. Sounds the tracks though.
13:57
Barry, that's my Japan story. I'll have more as our the show
14:01
comes out. Before we wrap.
14:02
We got to do shot #2. Yeah, let's get into it.
14:04
That's that was quite a tale. I'm thirsty.
14:06
Who? Jason Riley.
14:08
I said at the top of the show. I'm going to say it again.
14:10
Welcome home. Glad to have you back and here's
14:13
to you. Cheers.
14:16
Yeah, there's been some things happening over here too, while
14:19
you've been away. Yeah, not nearly as exciting.
14:23
Let's just. Everyone come down and.
14:24
Preface it with that and just say that it was not nearly as
14:27
exciting. I got some new undershirts from
14:30
our friends at Hanes and I. I wanted to talk to you a little
14:32
bit about this. They have finally cracked the
14:35
code on blocking sweat from the old under part Impossible.
14:40
And what have they done? It's basically like having a
14:42
couple of folded pieces of thick paper towel in that area, Jay.
14:47
It works like a charm. I'm a guy who tends to sweat a
14:51
fair bit, so this is like a gift from heaven.
14:54
And I'm tossing on all my old undershirts.
14:57
So buy with confidence. Hanes.
14:59
You can get them on Amazon. Pack of 330 bucks.
15:02
And they got that extra padding OK.
15:03
I got to tell you like 10 years ago I saw something like this
15:07
really and I bought one. It was at undershirt because
15:10
again, I also it was not as much as I did then, but I would sweat
15:13
through like dress shirts and I got it and it was it was like it
15:16
was not Hanes. It was like some off brand.
15:18
And it was like, that's the problem.
15:20
Well, it was like 2 diapers were sewn into these sleeves.
15:23
It was absolutely ridiculous. You couldn't put your arms down.
15:26
It was like 2 diapers sewn into the armpits of this dress shirt,
15:30
of this undershirt. So you're saying?
15:32
Sounds like a prototype. Sounds like what you bought was
15:35
a prototype, Jess. A prototype.
15:37
But now you can rest easy. A decade has passed and they've
15:40
they've gotten rid of that. So what what you get now is just
15:43
thinner. But still you got the
15:45
absorbency. And I'm telling you right now,
15:47
I, I'm a, I'm a changed man. I can wear lighter colored
15:51
shirts now without worrying about looking like I got pools
15:54
of sweat under my arms. OK.
15:55
Why don't you just wear them on their own?
15:57
Like, you know, that might be. Nice too.
15:59
But, you know, I think I'll save them for shirts that I really
16:01
want to wear out, OK, you know, when we're hanging out and so I
16:04
don't have to worry about that. It's incredible.
16:07
That's exciting. It really is.
16:08
What? All right, so I told you I tried
16:11
them years ago, so I'm glad to hear the technologies improved.
16:13
I want to hear you did the Japanese movie review.
16:17
So I'm talking about Japan. You're going to talk about
16:19
Japan. This for our big brief episode.
16:21
Yeah, briefly. Yeah, yeah, it does all tie up.
16:24
Our movie guy who's not with us today, he and I wouldn't saw on
16:27
the day you were flying out. Coincidentally.
16:29
Now we didn't plan that. That just happened to be you are
16:33
in the air. We are at the theater watching a
16:35
movie called Exit 8 and it's based on a video game and I I
16:39
didn't know anything about it. It's kind of like Groundhog Day.
16:43
There's a character trying to make his way through the exit or
16:47
getting out of a Tokyo subway, but he keeps getting looped
16:54
back. It's kind of strange.
16:56
And the only way to to get past to get past these checkpoints is
17:00
if you notice something that's different.
17:03
You either have to go back or you have to continue forward.
17:06
And based on those decisions, that will allow you to get to
17:09
exit 2-3 and four. But if you screw up, you're back
17:12
to the first exit. So that's kind of what it was.
17:14
It was like Groundhog Day, but you're in a subway.
17:16
You're just trying to get home. I mean, it was OK.
17:19
It was I I mean, I was under the impression it was supposed to be
17:22
scary. It wasn't overly scary.
17:25
But there is one highlight for you in particular.
17:28
Runtime. One hour and 29 minutes.
17:31
Beautiful. But I will say, and if if Rob
17:34
were here, he may would he would disagree, but I would, I'll say
17:37
this. You feel every one of those One
17:39
hour and 29 minutes. Yeah.
17:41
OK. That's that.
17:42
I know what you're saying. OK, well so exit 8, maybe skip
17:45
it unless you. Skip it.
17:48
I think just you saw it at the. Theater.
17:50
I did yeah and it's subtitled so it's legit not a lot of
17:54
dialogue, thankfully, but yeah I mean I mean it's not bad.
17:57
It just I wouldn't rush out to see it.
17:59
Maybe play the video game, because apparently the video
18:02
game is exactly like what we saw.
18:05
Sounds like you're watching like a recorded version of the video
18:08
game like he kept. We might have been watching a
18:10
live stream of somebody playing, You might know, I have no idea.
18:13
But, you know, that would be a fun reveal of at the end, it was
18:16
just, you know, some guy in his basement.
18:19
Well, thanks for coming to the theater to watch me play my
18:21
game. Barry, I'm so glad we both had
18:22
Japan stories to share. Yeah, me too.
18:26
I want you to keep us posted on how things are going with your
18:29
sweat production. Thanks, so far so good.
18:32
Hanes undergarments. That's great.
18:34
Right. OK Hanes.
18:35
A trusted name. They're like cornflakes.
18:38
They've been around for 150 years and they finally got it
18:41
right, Jay. Nice.
18:42
They're padding the armpits. It can only be so long before
18:45
they start padding other places. It's well, I think some do, Some
18:48
do. Yeah, they do.
18:49
We'll talk about that on a whole of the future episode.
18:51
Very always good to see you listeners, viewers, thank you
18:55
for tuning in. We will see you again next week
18:58
with another fresh episode and not a sweaty episode.
19:01
Of two shot Tuesday. Amen.
19:03
See you then. Thank you for listening to Two
19:07
Shot Tuesday. The show was produced by Barry
19:09
and I and edited by me. If you have yet to rate and
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to do so now. It helps us grow and it helps
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If you have a question you'd like featured on the show, you
19:30
can send us a text at 647. 4864848.
19:34
Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.