Latest / bit of a Rambler / 152 Ramble On

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152 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 stories.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Let's get into Korea. Okay, I just checked. I started
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: doing this podcast and then realized that I had mentioned
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: a bunch of this stuff before. So, Mulligan, I told
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you I got my Shining hotel. I walked into the hotel.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: It straight up just looked like the Shining, and I
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: was horrified. But then I mentioned I went to bed
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and woke up, and I was like, oh, this is
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: kind of nice. I have a giant empty room by
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: myself in an empty hotel on a mountain by myself.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: It was a pretty good deal. So I can't remember
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: all the Korea stuff I already talked about, but I
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: had such a fun time in Busan. I got this
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: hotel on Jeju Island, and it was great. I know
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I must have mentioned the buffet earlier. I also arrived
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the week before the buffet was changing all their prices,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: so there were all these, we're really sorry, but we
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: can't do anything about the price of food. It's going
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: up around the country. So next week, the price is
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: going up. It was going up from like $ 6. 10 to
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: like $ 6. 50 USD. So I went to that buffet every
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: single day. I was in Jeju because it was the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: best buffet ever. They had like five different proteins, like
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they had Korean chicken. Sometimes they had pork belly.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: They just had all kinds of meat. They had different
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: kinds of rice. They had a salad bar and they
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: had a bibimbap bar. Just so amazing. I loved eating there.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I love Korean buffets so bad. It would be so
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: easy to just go to one buffet every single day
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: wherever I live. If I live in Korea, I'm 100%
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to go to all the buffets. And
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: then I'm going to the, my favorite, I'm going to
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: go there every single day. I like cooking for myself.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I cook almost every day. I make good food, but
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: it's so convenient and it's really good, healthy food to
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: just go to the Korean buffet every day. And it
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: was 15 minutes walk down the hill. I think I
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: did mention that. Anyway, it's amazing. So move on from that.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: It was very foggy my first few days, like very
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: silent hill in Jeju, and then it rained crazy it
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: was fun that's like the type of weather I love
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the most I planned to backpack just stay outside of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the city because I was only there for a week
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and I hadn't backpacked in a while but I didn't
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: make a rain tarp yet for my rain gear and
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I showed up like during a like typhoon week apparently
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: in Jeju so I just was like well I'll just
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: extend the Hotel stay, and I'm really glad I did.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I had a great time. Korea rocks. I am so
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: on board with Korea now, and it's so funny because
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: for like over a decade, I only went to Seoul,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and I was like, this city's so bleh. But now,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: with Busan and Jeju, I'm so pro living in Korea
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a while again. I want to go to another city,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: or maybe just go back to Busan. Busan was amazing. Okay,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I think I mentioned I played... a game, Dispatch. I
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: also played Resident Evil 9 on that giant TV, because
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I just had a week of typhoons, so I would
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: go out hiking during the couple of hours that it
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: wasn't raining, and then the rest of the day when
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: it was raining, I just went to the buffet and
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: then went back home and played Resident Evil 9. And
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: it was a great time. I had so much fun
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: playing video games. I hadn't really vegged down and completely stopped,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: not even doing any Audio work? I've been working on
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: so much of this audio. So this was a true
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: just straight up week of vacation, just chilling out. Oh,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: and I needed a hair dryer for something. Oh, because
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: it was raining for a week, so everything was damp.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: So right before I left Jeju Island, there's not much
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: more to tell. I ate a bunch of amazing food
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and I played video games for a week. Right before
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I left, I realized I washed my clothes, but it
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: was like half a day later and they were still
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: completely soaked. And so I went downstairs and rummaged behind
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the desk because I thought I saw one and there
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: was a hairdryer behind the front desk. So I borrowed
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: that because the hotel was empty and went back upstairs
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and dried my clothes so that I was able to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: get to the airport. The last day I was in Jeju, I...
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Went all around the city trying to get a bus
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: card because there was a bus that went straight from
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: my hotel to the airport. And when I'm walking to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the hotel, I'm like, yeah, I can just walk around.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: But when I'm getting to the airport, I always like
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to get to the airport early. And as such, I've
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: never missed a flight. So I went around, finally figured
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: out the bus card, ended up not taking it at
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the end. I think, did I just walk there? That
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: seems crazy. No, you know what I did? It was
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: completely pouring rain. So if I had walked to the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: bus station that morning, I would have been soaked to
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: the bone, even with my rain gear that I had
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: started making, but wasn't really, I didn't have a good,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't have an umbrella. I didn't have what I
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: did develop in Japan. Oh yeah, let's just get out
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: of Korea so I can get to Japan. Because then
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: after Korea, I went to Japan and it freaking was
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: also amazing. And The typhoon followed me. Okay, so I
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: ended up getting a rideshare to the airport instead, and
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: that was very convenient and was super cheap. I don't know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: $ 6 something for a... It was very cheap. It was
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: a good deal that made sense to me for the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: amount of time I got driven. Which, if I haven't mentioned,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I'm in the U.S. now, and the prices here are
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Shockingly crazy. I almost don't want to say shocking because
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: every time I come back to the U.S., it seems
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: like everything has gone up 25%. But I was here
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: like a year ago on the mainland or two years ago,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I think, on the mainland. And it really does seem
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: like everything is about twice as expensive now. as it
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: was before. Like, carrots are $ 4 for a bag of carrots?
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Like a super abundant, hearty, easy-to-grow vegetable? Really weird. Not
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: weird makes total sense with, like, destroying all of the U.S.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: allies that Trump has done, but it's just so crazy
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to see people buying, like, a $ 6 cabbage in U.S. supermarkets. Okay,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I'll get back to that, because I still gotta go
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to Japan, man. Oh, so heads up, if you do
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: go to Korea, they don't allow Uber or, like, American
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: ride-share apps to, you know, protect their local economy, because
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: they would just take it over. They use Kakao Taxi instead,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: but there's a, like, tourist-specific version. You end up paying, like,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: a dollar US more, basically. But it's super, super easy.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: You get the app. and then you just use it
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: like Uber, and if you use Uber, which you can
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: use there, it's just that nobody uses it because it's prohibited,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: but everyone uses Kakao. You will get, I got taxis anywhere.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: There seem to be taxis in every part and outside
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: of the city, so that was super useful, and I've
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: never used it before, so I was trepidatious, but then
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I put in click-click, and someone showed up 10 minutes
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: later up a mountain and took me to the airport
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: in 20 minutes. And I walked into the airport and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden it was loud. And Korea is
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: so quiet and Korean people are so quiet and Korean
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: babies are so quiet. So I saw this baby crying
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: when I walked in, an Asian baby. And I was like,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: probably Chinese. And because the parents weren't looking at the baby,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: they were just like letting it cry. But like pretending
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: it wasn't crying. And then they said something to each other,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and they were Chinese. That's just the parenting style that
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I'm familiar with, with my friends and Chinese parents I
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: know from school days. Okay, okay, come on, Kai, get
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to Japan. I will, I will, we're going there right now.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I got on the plane. All the foreigners were in
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: one section of the plane. I don't know, does anybody
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: else notice this? If you notice this, call me up.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I feel like, especially in Asia, if I get on
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: a plane... I am always put with the other non-ethnic
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Asian people in the same row with people. That's what
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: happened here. So three identical looking guys were sitting next
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: to each other and it was kind of funny when
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I sat down. Okay, I was very excited about going
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: to Japan because I had just been there, but I
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: stayed in a house for the first time and I
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: stayed there for six weeks and that was fun, but
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: The whole time I was in Japan, I was just
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: wishing I was sleeping outside instead of inside. It was nice.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: It was cool staying in a house. I've never stayed
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: in a house in Japan. I'm almost always backpacking through Japan.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I stayed once, like for a week or something. But
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: usually I'm backpacking, and I just wanted to be backpacking
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: in Japan again. I love backpacking in Japan so much.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: The trails are great. The nature is great. The air
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: is great. Everything's clean. Everyone's nice and everything's organized. It's
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: a finite landmass so I can get around. So the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: whole time I was in the house, I was just
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: thinking backpacking. So this time I was like, that's it, man.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Just get over there. Get to Osaka and then walk
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: as fast as you can east for 10 days. You
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: have 10 days to get to Tokyo and then you
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: can get the plane to the wedding in Oregon that
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: you're going to. That's why I have to go back
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: to the US. That's why I'm going east. If I
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: didn't have this way to go to, I'd be going west.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: But close friend. And I'm super glad I went. The
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: wedding will be a fun story. for me to tell,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I guess. Thank you for anybody who listens to me ever.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: This is, it's amazing that you enjoy listening to travel stories.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: So anyway, I am very psyched to get to Osaka
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and start going through nature east toward Tokyo. I land,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and right before I get off, I was talking to
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the two guys next to me, and they were supposed
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: to come to Japan from Jeju last week, but It's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: been a typhoon like all week in Japan. And I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: was like, wow, that's crazy. And they're like, yeah, it
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: just ended. So that's why we came today. And I
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, okay. So I got out and I
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: noticed it's still pretty rainy. It's still raining. And there's
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: a ferry that lets you go from Osaka to Kobe,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I think. Or what's directly north of Osaka? No, the
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: airport for Osaka is like south of Osaka. Maybe in Kansai?
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I swear, this is worth it. So, what's interesting, the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Osaka Kansai Airport is pretty far southwest of Osaka itself,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and if you land in Osaka Kansai and you're not
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: a Japanese citizen, you can actually get a free ticket
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: north to Kobe. Don't know why, but that's been the
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: policy for a while. It still is the policy. And
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I haven't been to Kobe yet. Obviously, Kobe beef, super famous.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: So I read this on WikiVoyage while I was getting
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: off the airplane and was like, well, let's just go
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: to Kobe then. Like, you're going to backpack anyway, so
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter if you go into Osaka or whatever.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: And then I walked over and I said, hey, where's
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: that ferry? And they pointed me and they were like,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: but there is the typhoon right now. And I was like, oh, what?
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: So I went over to the ferry office. There's a
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: big sign that in Japanese said closed. until 2 p.m.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: tomorrow because of the typhoon. So the day that I went,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and I could have got a free ride to Kobe
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: on a ferry, and I love ferries, there was a typhoon.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: And I was like, is it like Typhoon Typhoon? He's like, yeah,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: it's pretty big. So I didn't end up going to Kobe.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I got the train into Osaka instead, which is like
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: a 30-minute ride, but really easy. What is cool, I
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: can use my, you can use your credit card directly to,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: to tap like a subway card in Osaka, which I
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: didn't know they had done, but apparently they're implementing that
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: in a bunch of cities now in Japan. You can
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: just tap your credit card and it deducts your subway fee.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: So I got up to Osaka and I was like, well,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: if the rain dies down by the time I get there,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: then this isn't really a problem. And then I walked
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: outside and the rain was crazy and the wind was
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: pretty crazy, but not like, I don't know, it wasn't
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: like Taiwan crazy. It wasn't the worst rainstorm I've ever been,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: but then I checked the weather forecast for the next week,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: which is how long I was going to be in Japan,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and it said from Osaka to Tokyo, it was going
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: to be raining for seven days straight. And I was like, okay,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: that's a lot. And the percentages were really high of
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: likelihood for precipitation. So I gave in and I didn't
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: backpack that day. I was like, dag it. So I
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: booked a week and that was incredibly lucky as well.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I got a super nice apartment for like 200 bucks,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: which is incredibly cheap for Japanese places. A private condo.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, it had a full kitchen, full bedroom, separate
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: living room, separate bathroom. It was really nice. And yeah,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: it was like a couple hundred. It was crazy cheap.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I was so happy that... And it was the only
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: private room available for anywhere near that price that was nice.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: It had a washing machine inside the... It was... It
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: had everything, man. So I went there, and I was
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: very happy. I'd never been to that part of Osaka.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't like Osaka the first time I visited it,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: but I had been backpacking for like three months, so
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: maybe I was just super tired. Because... This neighborhood, I loved.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: It was so cool. I couldn't believe how nice the
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: place I rented was. And then the next day I
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: walked around, I couldn't believe how nice the neighborhood was.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: And what a good part of Osaka it was in.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: It was just a bit outside of the middle, but
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I could access everything still really easy just by walking around,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and I did so. And what was also nice, the
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: reason I decided to get the apartment was because I
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: had been in plenty of rain situations, but I had
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: no rain setup. I didn't have my rain tarp yet.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I now had my rest of the camping setup. I
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: had my hammock and my whatever, my pillow. And what
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: do I have in my hammock setup? But I didn't
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: have a rain tarp and I didn't even have an umbrella.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And it said it was going to be raining for
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: seven days. That was not true. It stopped raining the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: next day, but then it started raining the next afternoon.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: It did rain almost every afternoon and sometimes during the night.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: So it was a good idea to get the apartment.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I figured I'll get the apartment and I'll just do
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: up my rain gear so that if I want to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: backpack later, I will have all my rain gear. I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: will have my full five season sleep set up again. Oh,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: bug net's the other part of my thing. So I
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: had Hammock, I had my bug net, but I didn't
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: have a rain tarp, and I needed one because I
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: was in some crazy typhoon in Osaka when I landed
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: for basically a week straight. I mean, some of the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: rain was, yeah, I walked around in it every day,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: but I got to go home to my dry, so
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: it probably didn't bother me as much, but it was
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: raining for like eight hours a day, and then sometimes
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: during the night. Okay, let's talk about my amazing neighborhood.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: go to Japan. It's so worth it. It's a little
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: more expensive. It's not as expensive as like U.S. housing prices.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: So if you can afford living in the U.S., which
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: is $ 1, 600 per month average right now, if you can
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: afford like half of that, you can find a decent
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: tiny apartment in one of the major cities. For $ 800
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: a month, definitely. It's not going to be bells and whistles,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: but you can certainly find a comfortable place to stay,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: at least a good private room. And you're going to
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: be in Japan, so everything's going to be great. You
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: can go to the public baths and get all the food.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: So the first day, the day after I walked around
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: and I was like, you know what, this is going
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: to be pretty great that I completely unplanned am spending
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: a week here in an apartment instead of backpacking. And
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: a sign caught me as soon as I went outside.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: And I was like, wait a minute, isn't that because
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the characters are the same and there's character for horse.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Horse sashimi is apparently very popular in the neighborhood I
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: was in because I walked by three different restaurants for
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: horse sashimi. And I didn't try it because there was
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: so much other food I was trying constantly. You can
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: only buy horse sashimi in like a big platter. But dude,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: I should have just bought the big platter and then
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: eaten a little bit because sound pretty interesting. But that
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: just means I get to go back to Osaka and
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: try it again. Or maybe it's popular in other places.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: But yeah, there was a bunch of horse sashimi restaurants.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And I like horse jerky. I had that in Italy.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: And I like horse meat. I've had that, I don't know,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: in a few places. I was just in Mongolia. Had
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: some Mongolian. I was just in Mongolia. Had some horse jerky.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: So I'm totally fine with eating them. I wish I
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: had tried the sashimi. I will next time I'm in Japan.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'll just go to Japan again. But I want
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: to go to Korea again. And I want to go
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: to Africa. I keep talking about Botswana, but I just
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: looked up where Botswana is and it's really far away. Okay,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: so I saw the horse beats sashimi while I was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: walking around. I saw that after I went to the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: first restaurant, which is right around the corner from my
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: super nice little apartment. So since I realized I wasn't going,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: now that I didn't have 10 days to walk, I
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: was going to be living in Osaka for seven days.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I I can't run to Tokyo, so I booked the
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Willer bus. If you don't know, there's pink Willer buses. Well,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: usually pink. Now they're different colors. It's the bus transportation system,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and it's a very good deal. I think, especially if
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: you order ahead or if you order on, like, off
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: hours or off days, I think it was $ 27 from
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Osaka to Tokyo. It was, like, yeah, it was under $ 30.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: It might have been even cheaper. It was very cheap.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: That is... I don't know, like 400 miles easily by car.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: It's six hours driving, costs 20-something bucks to get from
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: place to place, and they're super comfortable. They have the
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: USB chargers and regular outlets, and yeah, it's a very
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: nice bus system. If I do need to get across,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I haven't taken them a lot because I'm usually just
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: walking across, but I think I've taken them, I've definitely
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: taken them twice now, and both times have just been
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a really easy experience. You go to the terminal. At
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the time you're supposed to be there, the bus arrives
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: on the dot. You get on there, they scan your
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: QR code, and you're on your way to wherever you're
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: going for a very reasonable price. Five bucks for each
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: hour of car riding or bus riding. Pretty good. The
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: initial prices were $ 125, and then I realized I was, like,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: reading the wrong thing because it's all in Japanese. There's
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: an English site, though. The only thing that's difficult about
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Willer is I always don't know which site is the
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: correct one. There's so many... like reselling of ticket sites.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: But the official one is pretty official. It says it's
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: at willer.com and it has big pink. There's the logo there.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: It looks different than all the fake sites. So as
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: long as you get on the real Willer site, and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: you can ask any like tourist agency around, everybody has
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Willer flyers everywhere. You'll, yeah, as long as you get
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: on the real site, you'll get a good deal to
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: where you're going. So I booked my Willer After one week,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I would have three days left from Osaka to Tokyo,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and I figured I could just backpack around Tokyo for
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: a few days, because I've done that plenty of times before,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and it's a very comfortable place to backpack around. I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: don't think... yeah, I didn't talk about that restaurant yet. Okay,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: so I walk around the corner, and this restaurant catches
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: my eye, as many Japanese restaurants do. Oh wait, the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: first thing I did when I walked into Japan last
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: night during the typhoon... I was like, well, I'm here
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: in a typhoon, so I guess I'll just eat something
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: until it is light enough I can walk to my apartment.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: And right outside the train station, there was this katsu,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and the katsu, pork katsu, it looked amazing, so I
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: got one, and rice cabbage katsu. It was very, very good,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: but I didn't eat it because it was kind of
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: fatty for me. Japanese people, a lot of Asian countries
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: cut katsu pieces of fat on the cut of meat.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: And this was pretty fatty. This was like a good
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: 40% to 50% fat. But the lean meat was cooked perfect.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, the whole thing was cooked, fried perfectly. It
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: was delicious, which is great, especially right outside of a
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: train station. And the sauce they put on it, I
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: got some special sauce one, I can't remember, some black sauce.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And I was like, that's pretty good. But then I
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: found behind it the house sauce. And I put that
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: on it, and the house sauce is one of the
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: best sauces I've ever had. And I ate every bit
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: of lean meat I could off the piece of katsu.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: And then the rice, which I hadn't even touched, I
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: just put that amazing house sauce on it and devoured
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the rice. Because that house sauce was insane. It was crazy. Okay,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: let me talk about the next restaurant, though. So that
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: was the first night, and then the next day, I
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: was walking around the neighborhood, and this little place caught
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: my eye, and I thought it was cool. So I
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: went inside and it was super cool. It was very chill.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: The music was not too loud. There was this large,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: like wooden, what do they call it? Live edge where
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: it's not like a cut. It's just a big slab
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: of wood on a stump. So it is a tree
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: table and, but totally flat and clean and all that.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: And there's a couple people, a man and a woman,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: husband and wife behind the counter. And we talk a bit.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I try my crappy Japanese, and they understand me, but
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: then she speaks, like, English way better than my Japanese,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: so we switched to that. And it's like a Vietnamese-Japanese
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: fusion restaurant, and they had Vietnamese beer, so I got
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: one of those. And then I got an unbelievable dish.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: This chili shrimp dish, which is super popular in Southeast Asia.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Not as big, not chili shrimp specifically in Japan, because
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: they don't like strong flavors as much, I find, as
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of Southeast Asian places, or China, of course.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: But this chili shrimp friggin' rocked. And it was not
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: a ridiculous amount of shrimp, but it was a lot.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: It was like 10 pieces of shrimp. Food's also expensive,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: and you don't get giant portions in Japan. They're very portion-controlled, wisely.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: But this had plenty of shrimp, plenty of delicious vegetables
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: cooked perfectly, so they're still a little bit raw and crunchy,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: but cooked so they're savory and delectable. With a small
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: fried Vietnamese noodle cake on top. It's like this disc
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: of thin fried rice noodles. And you just take a
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: little bite out of it like a cookie. Oh my gosh.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: And the sauce was out of this world. It was, yeah,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: it was so good. I think I got a second
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: dish that first day. I can't remember what it was. No,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: that was a different day. Actually, I got two things.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Let me shout out that Japanese restaurant. What is it? DD, D-E-D-E. Yeah,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: if you type in D-E-D-E Vietnamese restaurant Osaka, you'll probably,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: that should pop up. Or maybe just DD, probably, yeah.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Type in DD restaurant Osaka. That restaurant, you go inside,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: it looks like this cozy little house. There's soft lighting,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: there's great music playing and very soft. There's like, it's
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: like a reggae fusion thing going on. And it's just chill.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: There's a little beer fridge on the left and then
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the kitchen's right behind the counter. And such nice people
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and such good food. That chili shrimp knocked me on
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: my tuchus. And that was like a five minute walk
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: from my place, maybe a little more, but like it
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: was really close. It was just a couple blocks away.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: And as soon as I went in there and had
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the chili shrimp, I was like, oh, this is going
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: to be a good stay here. This restaurant by itself
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: has like 20 different things I want to try. And
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I did end up trying also their ribs and their brisket,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I think. There was two big like beef meat dishes
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I got. And then I also tried their fresh spring rolls,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: which totally were amazing. Just as good as a Vietnamese
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: fresh spring roll, which are hard to top. You got
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to get you got to be real strict with fresh ingredients.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: And the rice paper has to be super thin that
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you wrap them in. The sauce has to be balanced.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Didi rocks. If you're in Osaka, go to Didi. And
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: they're so nice, and the food's so good. And the
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: decor is so comfortable and cool. I wanted to go
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: there the day before I left, but they were closed
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the day before I left. But that's okay, because, in
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: addition to, like, one of the best restaurants I've ever
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: been to in Japan, and reasonably priced, by the way,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I think it was like 12 bucks for that chili shrimp?
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Something like that? Wait, in addition, I will get there.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: It's in the list here. Okay, so I was very
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: happy and now I felt like I'm in a good spot.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: This is going to be a good week. I got
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to work on my rain gear because I want to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: go backpacking and I just, I used to be able
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: to just walk out. I had rain gear. The only problem,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the rain gear worked perfectly. Well, see, it worked really well,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: but I had to adjust it and all this kind
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: of stuff. So I was trying to think of better
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: rain gear because my rain gear was too thick before
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I Like, the plastic itself was a little thick, so
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: it took up... In a guy with one rucksack, not
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: huge rucksack, any extra space is important, and especially weight
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: is also very important. So I did not want to
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: get as big a tarp as I got last time.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: But if I don't have a very big tarp, then
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I don't really have rain gear, because I need a
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: large tarp to cover the hammock. It has to cover
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: with about a foot and a half to two feet
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: on either side, of extra coverage to keep my hammock
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: dry through the night in a heavy rain. Okay, so
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: what I have got and what I have tested and works,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: but not in a Typhoon yet, and I doubt it'll
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: work in Typhoon to be honest, is a Daiso, a
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: dollar store, shower curtain. They had the same plastic sheeting
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I used last time, and I was like, oh, that
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: works so well because it's clear plastic sheeting. I can
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: make little holes in it for the tie downs, the
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: lines going over the hammock to the sides. But it's
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: heavy and it's big. So I wanted a really compact solution.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: And then I found the perfect gray shower curtain. And
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I was like, boom, that's it. And then I was like, well,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: it's not quite big enough for my hammock. So I
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: got two of the shower curtains. How do I attach
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: them together wisely? So I put them together. And I
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: folded the two edges together so that it became one
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: piece with just a folded hem in the middle. And
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: then I bought these snap buttons that are supposed to make, like,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: snap buttons that you can open your jacket with. There
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: are two pieces. You can snap each piece on one
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: side of fabric, each on the other side, and then
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: it's a regular snap button that you can use for clothing.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Daiso sells packs of those, so I bought a couple
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: packs of those. And I just used the snap buttons to...
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: hold this new rain tarp together. And that was probably,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, 20% of the weight of the old rain
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: tarp and probably 10% of the size. The old rain
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: tarp took up, I don't know, for Imperial people, like
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: a foot by five inches, pretty easily that large. It
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: was a large tarp, but it was sturdy and all that.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: This shower curtain that does work great for rain. I
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: used it when I was in Osaka, or really when
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I got to Tokyo and was walking into the city.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: It folds down small. It's like, yeah, maybe 10 centimeters
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: by 3 centimeters. It's a shower curtain. It's incredibly thin fabric.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: It's not going to hold up in a typhoon, but
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: for regular rain gear, for probably 9 out of 10 times, well,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: not the way I travel. I love the typhoons, but
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: this works really well for regular rain. I stayed dry
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: in my hammock, and it rained the whole, it rained
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: every single day I was in japan and i was
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: only backpacking for three days after i got out of
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: osaka or out of my little apartment but the rain
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: tarp worked and it fits compactly it's crazy how well
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: it fits to be perfectly honest i couldn't believe how
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: small i could get it with two shower curtains too
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: yeah maybe not no it can't be 10 centimeters because
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: it's six it's like six inches so what is that? 15,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: let's say 15 centimeters, 15 centimeters roughly by a few
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: centimeters wide, but that is way less bulky and it's
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: light as a feather. And it's a rain tarp for
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the hammock that fits and just clips right on. I
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: just put two grommets on either corner and then I
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: have the carabiners so I can just clip that to
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the hammock sides and that's it. It's very easy to
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: set up, even easier than my last one. And that
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: one was pretty easy. It took me I think the
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: time was like three and a half minutes to fully
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: set up the hammock and rain gear. This is probably
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: two minutes because I don't, I just clip it with
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: a carabiner onto the corners. Okay, so boom, I have
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: my first rain setup. I put snap buttons on the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: hammock so I can close it also, but that doesn't
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: stop any rain. So yeah, I'm not going to do that.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: But it's cool to close it just for privacy when
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I'm in my hammock. That's nice. I put on a
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: ridge line, which is, it's a line connecting the two
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: ends of the hammock, so that when you're in the hammock,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: there's a line going across the top, so when your
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: bug net or your rain tarp is up there, it
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: drapes down on the ridge line and not all the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: way down on you in the hammock. The thing is,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: my hammock is, I think I have enough clearance that
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: it doesn't bother me, the ridge line, so I used
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: it for a week, but it just wasn't worth it, honestly.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I just got rid of it. I had it for
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: years on the old one, but this time, I just
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: realized I didn't really need it. The bug net was
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: a foot above my head in the hammock, and yeah,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: so was the rain tarp. So I was perfectly comfortable
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: without the Ridgeline that I considered essential the first time,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: maybe because I was playing my phone so much. I
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: got the Ridgeline because in Taiwan, I only had a
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: foot of clearance, so when I was playing with my
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: phone and holding my phone up, it would be against
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the bug net or against my rain tarp, and um,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: So maybe that's why I was so insistent on the Ridgeline.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: It gave me that extra room to be in a
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: comfortable pod and still play on my phone. But I
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: don't play Pokemon Go anymore, so I don't play on
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: my phone as much. No, I was definitely on my phone.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Never mind, I was on my phone in the hammock.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: I just have enough clearance now. I don't know what changed.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: But I tried the Ridgeline. I got rid of it.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Didn't need it. I got another one of those amazing
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: SIM cards that work in 70 countries perfectly, except for
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the U.S., which I guess I'll talk about later. But
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I got another one for my friends in China so
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: they can get around the old great firewall. Because my
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: friend wanted to know about this news story where this
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: bulldozer happened. And I was like, if you get this
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: SIM card, you can just see these crazy news stories
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: all you want without any censorship. So the Daisos I
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: went to weren't super close. Well, actually, one was close,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: but I wanted to go to all of them because
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: they have different stuff a lot, the different Daisos. Like
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: they'll have different elastic or different types of those snap
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: buttons that I was really into and still am now
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: that I use them and they work so well. So
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I walked a lot around the city. While I was
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: in that apartment in Osaka, I was like getting ready
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: to backpack maybe because I was walking at least six
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: hours a day. Up to the Daiso would be an
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: hour plus walk and then back would be an hour
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: plus walk. And I would walk around They're all the
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: neighborhoods in between. Japanese neighborhoods are just, they're pretty. The
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: architecture is nice, like, everywhere, and it's interesting to walk through.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, the ice cream. They have such, they
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: have good ice cream in Japan, and I was in 7-Eleven,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: which is better than many other 7-Elevens in other countries,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and there was a mint chocolate ganache ice cream bar
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and I hadn't had it before and I tried it
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: and then I had one every day until I left
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Japan because it was crazy. It's like a chocolate coated
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: mint ice cream bar with chocolate ganache in the center.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: And some days I would have two of those. Those
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: were insane. And as I got further into Tokyo, it's
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: like the rural 7-Elevens all had them and none of
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the other convenience stores. They all have, each convenience store
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: has their own brand, so they have different styles of
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: ice cream. So no one had quite this exact one
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: that 7-Eleven had. 7-Eleven wins! It was my favorite ice
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: cream in Japan and one of my favorite ice creams ever.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: It was so good. Like I said, I got one
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: or two a day. Some days I got three, let's
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: be honest here. Because I know I went in the
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: public baths and it's hot, so I get outside and
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'll get a little ice cream and cool off.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: And it was funny too, because after this week, I
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: would be going to my friend's wedding like a couple
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: weeks after. And I was like, this is good because
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I can backpack for 10 days and really slim down
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: because I've just been gorging myself in Korea and Mongolia
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: and China. And then I got to Japan and I
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: basically just kept eating because all the food's amazing. And
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: then I found my favorite ice cream. So that ice
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: cream rocks. If you're in Japan right now, go to 7-Eleven,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: look for a light green, like a mint green packaged
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: mint chocolate ganache ice cream bar. It was unbelievable. And
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: I usually just eat the mochi ice cream because that
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: stuff's good. But holy cow, this was so good. Okay,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: rain gear. I got some interesting stuff going on. So
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: I got my shower. I'm very happy. I just made
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: it in a public park. Took me like, I don't know, 15,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: 20 minutes pretty quickly. And then I was like, well,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: that's great. I have to get an umbrella now. Because
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: an umbrella or the other thing I was thinking was
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: a rain cover for my rucksack or my backpack. Because
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: I didn't mind being rained on. I have a great
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: hat that dries quick and protects the rain pretty good.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Unless it's pouring, I'm not going to get super wet.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: But it was pouring. I was still in typhoon week
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: in Osaka. So I was trying to think of how
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: I could fix that. And I figured it out... I
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: was in Korea, in Jeju Island, and I got this umbrella,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: and I used that to make a stuff sack for
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: my jacket, because I lost my old one, and the
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: other one was incorrectly sized. I made it too small,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the first one. Second one, I somehow lost, and that
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: was well-sized. So I made a third one, and it
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: fit perfectly, and it's great, but I had a lot
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: of extra material of umbrella left over, and it was...
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: pretty high quality and it worked well, still the fabric.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: And I was like, I feel like there's something else
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: I can use this for. So I took the material
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: with me to Japan and I almost never do that
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: because you can always scavenge more material. Like you can,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: especially umbrella material in a rainy place like Japan, people
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: leave old umbrellas out. So you can always get them
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: discard on the side of the road and I can
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: make them into something. But I took this one with
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: me because I liked the material and I felt there
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: was something on the edge of my mind waiting to
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: be made, and there was, and it is why I
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: never have to use an umbrella again. My problem with
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: umbrellas is that I have to carry them, so I
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: only have one hand to do stuff with, and it's heavy.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: It gets heavy after a while. I like to walk
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: for hours, so holding my hand up for hours at
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: a time is very tiring. Even if I switch hands, like,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: I get tired after 30 minutes, gotta switch and all that,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: and I'm holding it, and the wind is blowing the
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: If you're in a typhoon, the wind will be blowing
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the umbrella like crazy and you got to control it.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: And if the, you know, a piece of it breaks,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: then you're in trouble. So, so I thought, you know what?
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: What do I even need an umbrella for? So I
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: removed the metal frame and all of the metal ribs
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: from the umbrella. I just had the fabric, took that
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: to Japan, used one of those snap buttons at the collar.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: So normally where the top of the umbrella was, I
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: cut a semicircle out of that, and it became, the
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: rest of this Ralph Lauren umbrella became my rain cloak.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: So I have a small rain cloak that goes down
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: to almost my wrists, I'd say, and completely covers my shoulders,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: the backpack that I have on in the back, and
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: that's all I need. My pants are quick-dry. When you're
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: walking in the rain, the top of you is getting
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: more wet than the bottom of you. So I walked
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: around for four hours the first time I tried this.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: My little like half cloak that goes down to my
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: my wrists, really. Yeah, it goes down to almost my
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: waist all around. And it looks cool because it's a
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Ralph Lauren umbrella. So it's like fancy, not embroidery, but
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: like little dots. It's a fancy design, but understated because
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: it's black and like a muted gold. So it looks
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: like a real it looks like a real piece of clothing,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: I think. And it's great because it's a poncho, I guess,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: or a poncho. but it's specifically a rain cloak. It's
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: super light material. I made a stuff sack for that, too,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: and that's like, I don't even, maybe eight centimeters by
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: two centimeters, this small little pocket of rain cloak. And
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: I pull it out, and it's this full top body
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: covering of That looks cool to me, and other people
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: said it looked cool, but I think it looks great.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: It's very comfortable to wear. I can carry it forever.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Super tiny. It doesn't take up any room. It's such
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: a great solution. All I did was put a snap
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: button on the place I put my head through. Okay,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: so that was great. I walked around for three hours,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: and I really liked it when the wind wasn't strong.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: As soon as the wind got strong at all, it
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: blew open the front half, and I was like, shoot,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: So I put on, I think, two more buttons. So
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: now I had three buns going down the front so
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I could button the whole front of the cloak together,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: not just the neck. Because, yeah, you know, iteration. So
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: I have three buns together and then it was better.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: And I was like, this is great. But when the
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: wind was really strong or it came up from under,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: it just whipped it up and would blow it in
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: my face or it would it would clump around my neck.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: And then the back would like flap around. So it
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: still wasn't perfect. And then I was like, aha. And
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: I put in two snap buttons and around, I put
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: two snap buttons, maybe, I don't know. What is that?
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Like 12 centimeters apart or something. And then I can
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: snap the edges to the side of this little rain
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: poncho around my wrist. And that stays in place because
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: my forearm gets bigger as it goes back. My wrist
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: is right there. So I have these wrist snaps so
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: I can snap the poncho to my wrists. So now
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: even if the rain comes up from under me, it
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: doesn't blow the poncho into my face. It stays down
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: where it should be because my arms are holding it
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: down and it works perfectly. I mean, I would probably
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: make the back a little bigger so it could go
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: over the entire rucksack, but this was just a concept,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: and it worked out so beautifully. I still have that
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: one I made and will 100% use it for any
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: typhoons that come up, whatever country I'm in. It's so
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: much better. My hands are completely free. They have full mobility.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: My arms, because it's a poncho, so there's a lot
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: of room under there, and it takes snap, snap, snap,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: snap each wrist, and then I'm indefinitely out. My arms
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: won't get tired carrying an umbrella because I'm not carrying anything.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: It's completely lightweight. It covers my little backpack perfectly, like completely.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: So when I go out and put stuff in my
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: day bag, I just throw that poncho on if there's
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: a huge rain. When I put on those wrist snaps,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: I walked around for, I think that day was six
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: hours because I went to the faraway Daiso and then
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I went to a second Daiso. I was gone at 10. Yeah,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: and I didn't get back till like 6, so I
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: was out for like 8 hours, and it was raining
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: the entire day, and I only had my top half
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: covered by this. I had my fabric shoes on, like
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I always do on my day, because they're lightweight, and
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: my pants, I was fine. I walked around in Daiso,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: and my pants would be mostly dry, and then I'd
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: go out. It just, my top half was the one
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: getting rained on, not my bottom half, and the top
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: half was Some of the, it wasn't completely waterproof. I
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: have my wide brimmed hat. So that covers the part
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: of my neck that isn't covered because that's the opening
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: for my head for the cloak. But it's a, you know,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: it's an old umbrella fabric. So it wasn't completely waterproof,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: but I walked around for eight hours. And when I
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: got home, I had some drop marks on each shoulder
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: and that's it. They didn't even like my sleeves weren't
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: soaked or anything. I just had a few drop marks
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: on each shoulder. And the rest of it, I was
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: walking around for eight hours with this tiny rain cloak,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: completely dry. And I can pack that rain cloak so
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: comfortably and so well. So, look, guys, I highly recommend this.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: If you are a traveler and... You don't like the
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: idea of holding umbrellas and you like rainy weather like
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: I do and you like to walk around. Guess what?
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Get an old umbrella, cut out the top of it
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: and put some snaps on it and you have a
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: rain cloak that will keep you dry. Put on the
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: wrist snaps and in typhoon crazy weather, it's going to
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: stay exactly where it should be and be perfectly comfortable,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: lightweight and waterproof. I was overjoyed at how well it
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: worked and I have it with me. I have it
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: right next to me right here. Actually, I'm looking at it. Oh, wait, no,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: that's actually the shower. It's also super small. That was
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the poncho itself. The poncho was in my pack, actually,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: because it was raining like crazy. So I figured if
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: it went crazy, I would put on. And then, you
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: know what? It was raining and I totally forgot to
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: put it on. But it is a great little poncho.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: I like the rain anyway, so I forget a lot
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: unless I'm soaking wet. It works so well. All you
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: need is an old umbrella. And these snap buttons that
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: you can just put onto the fabric itself by hand.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: I'm very happy with that rain poncho. I recommend it
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: to everybody. And I couldn't think of a cool name
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: for it, but I'll work on that. Because this little half-cloak,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: this little rain half-cloak, is out of this world, folks.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I hope you are having a wonderful day. You can
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: talk to me at bitofarambler at gmail.com. I am gonna
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: continue talking about Japan, fo' sho'. Oh wait, I guess
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: I should end on a cool little story. Here this
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: little schoolgirl was walking home and there was like this huge...
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: They were doing a ton of construction one day or
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: two days or something down the street. Of course they
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: finished it in two days, Japan. And there were like
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: movers and just large machines and a whole bunch going on.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: And this little girl with the little backpack was walking
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: down the street and... the guy who was set to
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: like watch people walking down the sidewalk, make sure they're safe,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: walked up and asked her something. And she looked up
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: and answered him. And he held up this big earth
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: mover and like pushed a cone aside so she could
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: walk through because her house was that little apartment building there.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: And like, it was very organized and great. It was
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: just like, oh, that's your building. Here you go. And
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: she just walked up to her building amidst all these giant,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: machines and noisy jackhammers and all this stuff going on
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: it was just nice to see her get into her
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: building so she was so unworried about the crazy commotion
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: going on and the guy immediately like politely asked her
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: where she needed to go and he directed her and
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: held aside the barrier it was great So yeah, if
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: you have anything to share or talk about, write in
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: at bitofarambler at gmail.com. I will be answering people. You
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: can also get to me at bitofarambler on Blue Sky
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: or Lemmy. The travel community there is still picking up.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's 220 people in it now,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: something like that. And there's more engagement with each post.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: I still get people sending private messages. That's a great
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: place to contact me. Because I scroll a lot. But
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: there's tons of cool information on there. More episodes are coming.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: And I... Oh, you already heard the interview. That's right.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: I put it before this episode. I forgot. I wanted
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: to get the interview episode out as soon as possible
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: because I want to do more of those. And there
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: are more coming. So thank you for listening. And I
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: will talk to you all soon.