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112 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.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: And today I'm going to ramble on what's been going on.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I've been watching Oishinbo, which is this really old anime
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: relatively it's from the late eighties, but the images of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the food are beautiful, but much more importantly, they really
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: focus on the step by step instructions and the necessity
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: of fresh, well integrated ingredients, like if it's seasonal and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I think I just read about this shoon, I think
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: shun Shoon, and it's like eating the freshest foods for
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the season. This show Oishinbo is really focused on that
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: eating the best foods for the season and the most
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: complimentary foods with each other, and how each ingredient adds,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: how each ingredient makes the dish what it is. And
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: it's really interesting because the whole show. Each show is
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: about one point, so the entire show might be about
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: tomatoes and how you can get the best tomatoes or sashimi,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and how the cut makes a difference, when the fish
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: died makes a difference, the temperature of the water. They
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: just get super nitty gritty detailed about all of these
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: different things, and I really like that's really fun show.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of them. It only ran for
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: five years. Well that was a super long time, forty
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: years ago. And it's really interesting because now it's forty
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: years later than the show started, almost thirty five ish years,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: forty years and they have things like whaling that I
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: didn't know about that Japan had regulated the whaling industry
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: before this show even started, back in like eighty five,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and this show started in eighty eight, so before all
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to Save the Whales campaign was even a twinkle in
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: the eye of the activists in the United States, Japan
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: had regulated the industry so you couldn't hunt any endangered species.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: You could only hunt the completely non threatened species and
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: harvest a extremely small amount, like half a percent of
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: the population. And so every now and then they would
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: mention these things that I'm watching the show almost forty
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: years later. That is very interesting to see because they say,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: if this happens, this industry is going out of business,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: this local food or craftsmen industry something like that will
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: go to business if this whatever is built. And one
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: of the recent episodes I saw was about an airport
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: on an island Naha, so the Naha Airport, And when
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the show aired, there was just a local pushback against
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: this new airport being built because it was going to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: completely ruin the freshest clams in Japan, according to the show,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and the show ends with them successfully stalling or really
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: canceling the building of this airport. But I'm watching this
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: thirty five years later, and thirty years later they did
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: build this airport, the Naha Airport, and it is right
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: in the place that was in the show. So I'm
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: watching it the super delicate clam ecosystem, and I looked
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: up Naha Airport and the ramifications of building this airport
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: in Japan. They were like, there's a bunch of activist
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: groups that are complaining that it's ruining the seafood ecosystem.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: So the show is pretty prescient and eco aware of
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the ramifications of a lot of industrial building and technological
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: advancement impinging on like the balance of nature and all
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And it's talking about all this
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: back in nineteen eighty eight, nineteen eighty nine, and ninety
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: It's just fascinating to see, especially now that I'm a
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: generation later and a lot of these things they were
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: warning about did happen. They're like, if that airport gets built,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: this clam and the coral reefs, especially the coral reefs
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: off the coast of Naha, will be demolished or devastated.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: And then now it has happened. Now it's thirty It's
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: crazy seeing thirty five years later now and that happened.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: The airport finally got built, and it did devastate the
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: reefs off of these Japanese islands. So it's kind of
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: a bummer, but it's also pretty fascinating to see. I'd
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: rather not be fascinating and not have them devastate the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: coral reefs with a new airport that frankly doesn't seem
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: entirely necessary for the region of Japan that it's in.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I haven't talked about this incredible development.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: There is a grocery store in this town. I didn't
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: talk about this already. Maybe I did. If I did,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but I have to say it is insane.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: My host, the Airbnb owner of the house that I'm renting,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I asked him, is there a grocery store near me?
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: And he said no, there's only two convenience stores, and
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the nearest like grocery store supermarket is at least a
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: couple train stations away, And I said okay, And for
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a week I was walking around this town just like, well,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: it's really cool to be living in a tiny town.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I do wish there was a supermarket because I love
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the super market sushi and sashimi and eel and all
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: sorts of like just tasty prepared meals they have at
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Japanese supermarkets, but also just at least a supermarket is
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: a place to walk around, like a place to go.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: The neighborhood I'm living in does not have much. That said,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: then I'm walking off the mountain near midnight and I
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: see like shopping carts in a building and a public
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: restroom attached to the side of the building. And I
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: was like, wait, that looks like that that supermarket I
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: know about, but it's in my town. And I was
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: told there are no well, grocery stores, I should say,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: not really a supermarket, but there's a grocery store. And
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I went up and there's a grocery store, and they
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: had the shells for the sushi and sashimi, and they
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: had the shelves, and so I went back the next day,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and I mean I bought kim chi there. I bought
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: a billion things of sushi and sashimi. I've bought confectioneries
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and mochi, all sorts of stuff. What I am the
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: most excited about, of course, is the sushi and sashimi.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: They have salmon and tuna and seabream and squid. Not
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: a huge fan of the squid here. For some reason.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: The squid is really creamy here, which I guess is
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: part of fresh squid. Like the it's not even oily,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: it's weird, just like a cream that comes out of
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: fresh squid. I don't like it. But the salmon and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the tuna have been very tasty. I've been enjoying those
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a lot, and I think they've been incredibly fresh sometimes,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: especially the salmon. Uh. The salmon has just been really
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: easy to buite. Through the tuna. I've got like a
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: couple good ones. But then the magro gets like really
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: stringy and tough a lot of the times. But they
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: have sushi rolls that are weirdly big. They're like Korean
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: bebing bop. Oh wait, beban bop gimbob? Is that the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Korean sushi very large rolls, which I don't remember from Japan,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: so I don't know if that's a new thing where
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: they make large, flat sushi rolls instead of small, dense
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: sushi rolls. And I did talk to a local and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: he said it's weird that they're bigger too, So I
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: don't know. But there is a grocery store and it
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: has changed my stay because now I can just walk
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: up to the grocery store, I can get sushi and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: sashimi whenever I want. Often it's very good. I've tried
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: all sorts of different ones. Oh, and they have great beer.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: They have this really tasty seltzers too. I've been drinking
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of seltzers in Japan because every year I
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: come back, they've always had a couple seltzers, but they're
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: usually quite sweet. And finally this trip, I found a
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: few different brands that make seltzers without a bunch of
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: sugar in them. They're just like a little bit of
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: lemon and then some Vodko whatever. I got some whiskey highballs.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Those are incredibly popular in Japan, but they're not my favorite,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: just compared to regular alcoholic seltzers, and my favorite ones
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: have an actual fresh lemon wedge inside the can, so
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: they make it, then put a lemon wedge on top
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: of the seltzuri booze, and then can the top of
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the can, which is great. So I pop up in
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: the top. Oh and it's wide mouth, which I really like.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: So you pop up in the wide mouth. You have
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: just an open can, and then there's a fresh lemon
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: slice in there. So I'll get a thing of magro,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: a thing of salmon, and then maybe a piece of
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: sushi or some quail eggs and have a great lunch,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: have a great little picnic in different places with one
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of those lemon alcohol seltzers delicious, just fun soda, a
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: little bit of lemon, and then with like great sushi.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: So in Japan, if you don't know, Japanese supermarkets are
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: great with sushi and sashimi. It's not going to be
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the best you've ever had in your entire life, unless
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: you're not familiar, it could be. They're very good. That's
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the great thing about Japanese supermarkets. Each supermarket has sushi experts,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: like sushi guys, and they go to the Tsukiji or
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: other fish markets in the morning. They get the fish
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and then they truck the fish all over Japan once
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: or twice a week, and you can get if you
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: know the days they do it, which it's easy to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: tell because the discount stickers get a higher discount each
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: successive day, so it seems like there's like two or
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: three days. I know it used to be once a week,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure it's different for different supermarkets, but regardless,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: they'll get the sushi and sashimi freshly delivered at least
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: once a week, and then they freeze most of it,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: cut off the thing they're going to use that today
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: and put out pieces are trays of sashimi and sushi
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: in the supermarket, and after three pm four pm at
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: some places it's like one pm, they start discounting the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: sushi because they have to send it by the end
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: sell it by the end of the day. They can't
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: keep it and like freeze and then sell it again.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: It'll taste terrible. No one wants to eat that. Also,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Japanese people take a very huge pride in the freshness
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: of their ingredients and they like all consider themselves foodies,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: so you can't if something if they resold old fish,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: there would be a public outcry. So that's what's great
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: they have. Each restaurant sends out their guy to the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: fish markets. They buy the best fish at the best
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: price they think, and they then they truck it to
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: all that supermarket. So the one near me is an akopu,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a co op, and they receive their salmon and their
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: maguro and their seabream and everything magro is tuna, but
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: fresh tuna, so it's a bright red color. And each
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: day they cut off a little and it's served fresh
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and then thrown away at the end of the day.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: So even if you it's served fresh every year, it's
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: cut fresh every day, even if they have to freeze
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: it that day. I don't think it's always fresh every day.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I know it certainly felt like some of them have
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: fresh sushi every day when I used to go. I
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: don't know if it's just where I am now, but
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: in any case, I've had great salmon and maguro, sashimi
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: and seabream. But I'm living near the highway here, so
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: I can only record now, which is three am to
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: four am, like midnight to four am times. So I
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: go to bed and then I wake up and it's
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the afternoon, and I just walk over to the supermarket
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: at four pm at it a little with a little
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: bit of a discount, but that's fantastic because that means
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I get a little bit of discount, it's still fresh
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: from that day, and I get to eat sushi and
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: sashimi every single day that I want to. It's fantastic.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: So Japanese supermarket sushi and sashimi. I love it. I was.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I was floored. I was so surprised. I was walking
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: down this little street back to my house and I
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: was like, man, maybe this town is a little too small.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Maybe I should have got closer to the city, because
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: if there's not even a grocery store, I can't get
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: sushi and sashimi, and I can't easily go to the
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: public baths the cento, which I love. And then I
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: was coming off the mountain and I saw a freaking
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: grocery store and a beam of lightshan down from the
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: sky and I started ah, and I was so happy.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: And it's proved everything that I wanted. There's a little
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: bit beer, there's some baked goods, there's amazing sushi and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: sashimi every day. There's some kimchi and the noodles and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: all this stuff. Rice is expensive. I should bring this up.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Rice is super expensive in Japan now it I read
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: about this somewhere I can't remember, but I was shocked
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: at the price. It's like half a kilogram or about
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: one pound of rice is ten dollars in Japanese supermarkets
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: right now. And I heard about this rice shortage that
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: was hitting Japan and it's making it really difficult for
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Japanese people to eat rice. But I didn't know it
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: was this crazy, because for one pound of rice, that
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: should be a dollar. A pound of rice should be
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: like fifty cents a dollar or something like that. That's
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: what I remember. I remember the really fancy stuff being
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: like four dollars a pound for rice, and now the
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: economy grade rice, I don't even know if they have
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the nice stuff. Actually I saw one pouch of nice rice.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: But the economy grade stuff here is at least ten
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: dollars a pound. So that's a wild explosion in price,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and it must be hitting a lot of locals hard
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: because they they do. It's a stereotype for a reason.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Japanese people eat rice. They inhale that stuff. That's their staple,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: that's the main grain that they build The rest of
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: their dishes around, so all of a sudden, having to
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: pay five times ten times as much as they did
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago for the same main ingredient
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: to all of their dishes. That was truly shocking to see.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I stood in front of the rice aisle in the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: supermarket here for like a long time, for ten minutes,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out like I was translating everything. I
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: was like, maybe that maybe they mean like five bags
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: is seventeen US dollars, because this doesn't make any sense
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: to me, But that's it. It's just rice is crazy
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: expensive now in Japan. I talked to some locals and
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: they were just like, yeah, it sucks. It's Rice's way
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: too expensive now. Now it's still cheap, and in terms
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of like you can get a big bag of it
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: for those seventeen dollars whatever, that's going to last you
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: a long time. It's just way more expensive than it
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: was just a couple of years ago, or really like
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: three five years ago. But that's a very fast Imagine
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: if you bought all of your you went to subway
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: and got a sandwich for ten dollars, and you're used
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to that, and then two years later, all subway sandwiches
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: are fifty dollars each. It's just a quite an explosion
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and price, and I was pretty surprised to see that
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: in the supermarket. So Japanese towns, I've been climbing some
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: mountains and walking around a lot, and I love the
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: way Japanese towns look. And yeah, I just think they're beautiful,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Like I like the architecture. But it's funny. From far away,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: it doesn't look it doesn't look ama, it doesn't look spectacular,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: I should say, it's not so intricate and amazing. When
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: you're I don't know, one hundred meters away, you can
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: see the sloping roofs and you see the ridges, and
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: there are decorations in the corners in the center, and
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: it looks interesting, but it doesn't look awe inspiring or
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: it's not something you're like, wow, that must be an
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: amazing town. But the closer you get, the more details
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: there are, and more than that, rather than just the details,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: the more well put together everything seems. The closer I am,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: so from far away, when I'm hiking these mountains and
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I'm getting into town, the towns look nice but look
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: mostly normal. They look like how you would expect a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: town to look. But the closer I get to the buildings,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: then I'm like, oh, the wood paneling is locked together
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: very well, and the roof tiles there's not a single
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: roof tile missing. And at the corners, at the middle
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: part the onigawa, the sort of special guardian tiles and
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: statues they place at important parts of the building. Those
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: are intricately carved and they're extremely well maintained, and they're clean,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: very importantly, they're not covered in bird crap and whatever.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: They're clean. And that was just that struck me when
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: I was climbing a mountain recently, that how as organized
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: as everything is in Japan, the towns look very pretty,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: but they're not. They don't really stand out until you
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: get a little bit closer and you can see, oh wow,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: every single tile is in place, and every single corner
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of the house has an onigawa or the fish guardian
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: preventing a house fire. It's really nice being back in
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Japan again. I'm having a good time. But I thought
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: that was so cool that I had been walking around
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the town just looking at all how cool and together
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: all these houses looked, even though there a lot of
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: them were abandoned. And then when I went up, when
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I got farther away, I thought, oh, it just looks
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: like a nice town. Nothing's really standing out. But when
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: you get closer and you see all of the details
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and all of the precision that goes into the cultural
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: traditional precision that goes into how they build their buildings,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I think things get a lot more interesting when all
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the organized details come into focus. Okay, I got to
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: go back to the supermarket because it's crazy. How does
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the owner of the house I'm renting not know there's
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a grocery store in this town. I have been thinking
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: about that, like does he not live here at all?
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Which I am thinking that is it. He has not
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: lived here in years and doesn't realize what is even
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: in the town anymore, and he's just renting it out
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and maybe pays utility bills, but other than that, he
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: just never lives in this town. Because it's clean, it's
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: very well taken care of, but the closets are stuffed
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: with crap and it looks like they packed everything up
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and hitched a ride out of town. Like it's just
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: it has this abandoned feel to it. And when I
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: showed up in this house. I was like, Oh, this
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: is why they have movies about the Ring Girl, because
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: it's terrifying to be in one of these incredibly quiet
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: houses with steep stairs and like all this stuff. But
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I thought it was so weird because I checked after
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I found the grocery store, and I'm so happy I did.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I was so surprised that my host had told me
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: there wasn't one, and I checked the message like multiple times,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: just like he did. I mis read did he mean something?
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: But he was speaking English and his English is pretty
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: so he just weirdly told me that there's no grocery
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: store in this suburban neighborhood when there totally is like
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: not a long way, maybe a ten minute walk away
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: from the house. But he's very clear there's no grocery store.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: There's only two convenience stores, but there's a grocery store.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: There is one, So I thought that was bonkers. And
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: then recycling. He sent me this thing a few days
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: later by recycling, and there are the recycling cages, so
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: they have like a metal cage because there's like raccoons
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and whatever. There's critters in there's tons of birds in Japan,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: and they let the animals they don't cull animals anymore anyway.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: They're very respectful of nature in Japan. But so they
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: build like trash cages, and the whole neighborhood puts their
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: trash in the one trash cage, and then the garbage
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: truck can just go by there and pick up, you know,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: twenty is worth of garbage instead of going to every
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: single house, which when you think about, is incredibly inefficient.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: But I didn't know where to throw away my trash,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and I was going to ask my host, but my
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: trash wasn't full yet, so I hadn't And then he
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: sent me a message just as my trash was getting
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: full and said, oh, I forgot to tell you put
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the trash here. And he just sent me a map
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: with an X marks the spot on it and then
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: a picture of the place I was supposed to put it.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: And it was really weird because there it was just
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: a parking spot, like it wasn't one of these trash
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: cages or anything. It was just a parking spot of
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: a house. And I don't think he's messing with anyone,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: but I don't know. That's where I've been leaving the trash,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and I guess that's what you're supposed to do. He
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: also told me not to throw away any cans, like,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: not even to worry about recycling the aluminum cans because
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: recycling is very difficult in in Japan. So just leave
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: all of the cans in the recycling can bin and
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: then he'll take care of it after I move out.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: And I was like, Oh, that's so nice of him
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: not to think that I'm drinking thirty cans of beer
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: every day. Jokes on you, buddy. Also, this lends credence
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to the theory that the owner of this house has
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: not lived here in years, because twice a week or
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: three times a week, the grocery store I mentioned that
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: he doesn't know about has a recycling has recycling can
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: like recycling net bags, woven nets, pouches, big recycling bag
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: center that you can throw your cans and bottles into
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: and get rid of it quite easily at the grocery store,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: So you just take your cans up there and you
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: can throw them in there. There's also vending machines all
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: over the town, and all most vending machines in Japan
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: have little circular like little trash can specifically just for
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: cans and if you have a couple, you can just
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: throw them in there. That's what they're for. But yeah,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: that yeah, So I just don't think this guy has
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: lived in his house for a long time because it
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't know about the grocery store. And then he doesn't
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: know about the fairly straightforward recycling center near the grocery
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: store or right outside the grocery store. How crazy is that. No,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: there's no grocery store. And then I'm walking around town
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: and I find a grocery store. Oh whatever, let's just
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: look at the good side. I get fresh, tasty Japanese
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: sushi and sashimi every day now, and boy has that
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: been great. So one of the first it might have
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: been the first day actually I found it. I went
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: back the next because I found the grocery store at
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, so most of like all
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the sushi was already gone and sashimi. So I went
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: back the next day and I got sushi and sashimi,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and I went out and just ate it right in
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: front of the store. And there's a little cigarette like
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: trey or they have like cigarette cans where no trash
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: you can throw into it, but you can throw your
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: cigarette butts and I sat down. I had already opened
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: started eating things because there was a lady. So there's
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: a okay, Basically, there's like a small table and a
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: couple chairs set up outside the supermarket where I got
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: my asushi and sashimi, and there's this old grandma sitting
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: at one end of the table. So I politely sat
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: at the other end of the table. But then I
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: realized she was probably sitting there because I was now
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: sitting next to the cigarette trash can. And we talked
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: a little bit, and then I talked There was that
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: recycling can center or little recycling can bags outside of
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the supermarket, and there was a helper there and the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: grandma that I was sitting next to, she wanted to
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: talk to me in Japanese, and I was like, oh God.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: And then the helper near the recycling cans like she
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: wanted to try and help me in Japanese, and it
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: was very nice and she was very sweet. But I
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: just kept trying to expres like Japanese bad. Soon sen
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Nio and I hid that they uh tasha no nihol no,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: and I just kept like saying like it's really bad.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: But I did end up talking to the old grandma
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but I was eating this really good
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: sushi next to a cigarette trash can, and Japan does
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: not have many places that are offensively odored, so the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: fact that I was next to the cigarette traff can
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: was really messing up my tasty breakfast. And the one
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: thing they were like, sushi nihong no sushi, oh nihongo sorry,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: but they were like niho no sushi, suki diest ka,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: like do you like Japanese sushi? And I was like,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: dii suki dist It's my favorite, I love it. And
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: it was still good. But I never ate at that
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: table again because it's next to a cigarette trash can.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: But man, I talked to that Japanese grandma for a
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: long time, for probably like forty minutes because she kept
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: asking me questions, and then I couldn't eat because I
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: was trying to translate and remember the like four words
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: I know that I can put into order so I
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: could answer her. And then she'd be like, oh, I'm sorry, eat, eat, eat,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and I'd be like okay, okay, and I would eat,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: and then she would say something else and I'd have
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: to translate all over again. But it was fun talking
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: to her, and I have got better because I have
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: been studying every single day Japanese, and I feel pretty
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: good about what I've been speaking lately, which is nice.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: And then I helped that old gramma. A taxi finally
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: showed up for her way later than she thought it
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: was going to She said it would be like ten minutes,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: but I ended up being I don't know, forty five
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: minutes or something. And I carried her boxes to the
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: car and put them in and helped her out, and
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: it was just a nice little interaction. And then the
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: help heerr next to the recycle cans area of the supermarket,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: like I talked to her a little bit, but she
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: no idea what she was saying except salmon is very good.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: She said that a bunch, and the grandma kept saying
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: sub rashi suber rashi because I translated like I usually
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: backpacked through Japan. I really like Japan. I like the sushi,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: and like hammock camping across the country. It's very beautiful environment.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: And she kept saying like, oh, suber rashi, super rashi,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and I was like, I know that word, and I
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: couldn't remember it, but sub rashi just means awesome or
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: that's so cool, that's so cool, awesome something like that.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: And when I poked it into Google translant and found out,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, suber rashi, Yes, yes, yes, Niho subrashi,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: like Japan's awesome and nihono sashimi subrashi, and yeah it was.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: It was good because I knew that word, and it
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: was good to get it back in my head because
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: it's it's still like a A lot of people say
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: that suber rashi. It's I don't know, it's a very
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Japanese word. It's like if you imagine an old Japanese
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: grandma like clapping her hands when you tell her you
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: did something, and she's like, oh, that's awesome, great work,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: but not mocking, like genuinely like amazing that you can
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: do that. Uh, Subarashi is kind of like that. She's like, ah, suberrashi,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: that's so cool that you're doing that. You know. The
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: only weird thing being back here, like Japanese old people
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: in general seem much healthier than US American old people.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Like every single country in the world almost that I've
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: been to, but being in Japan now compared to Southeast
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Asia and China, Japan's old people well, China's kind of
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: included in that. Yeah, you know, there are some debilitated
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Chinese people as well. But the thing is, now i'm
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: in Japan, I don't see any old people exercises. And
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: in China and especially in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia, there's
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: no disabled, invalid old people in public. They're not going
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: around in public. And there's really not many of them
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: in China either. And they dance, they do tai chi,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: or they do the square dancing circles or yeah, they
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: do some kind of exercise. And in Japan, I've seen
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of old like in the US, super bent
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: over spines, old people tottering around old Japanese people, and
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: they're so reserved and quite and polite. Here I'm wondering,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering if that's actually not letting them exercise as
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: much as they should, because there are also not many
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: exercise machines in Japan, and that's true across all of
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Honshu and Chikoku that I've seen, the two of the
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: main islands Injapan, Whereas if you're in Southeast Asia, especially
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: but also China, now there are exercise parks everywhere, like
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: there's always an exercise machine around. And I do love Japan.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: I love so many things about it, but I think
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: it might be healthier if they somehow integrate exercise into
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: part of their public culture as well. It's certainly a
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: part of their private culture. There's kendo, and there's meditation,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: like for health. There's a lot of healthy practices in Japan,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: but there's not a culture, a public exercise culture as much.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Outside of running and cycling. There's no push ups, sit ups,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: pull ups exercise equipment at every park in Japan, and
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: there never has been as far as I've seen, and
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I've been in a lot of Japan. I mean, I've
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: seen a couple I'm saying that, but I honestly can't
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: remember any. But if you go to China or anywhere
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: in Southeast Asia, many of the parks have specific exercise equipment,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: so you can do some exercise in the park, like
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: if you happen to be in the park, just do
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: a couple sit ups that day, or pull up or
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: just hang from the bar. And there's not a lot here.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: And there are a lot of what looked like to
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: me very physically incapable people here in Japan. And I
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: didn't notice that the first few times I've been to Japan,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: but it's really striking me this time how many Japanese
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: elderly look like US elderly, very bent over, swaying side
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: to side, very difficult for them to walk and move around.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: But you know what, let's end on an up note.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I've been watching that show I talked about, Oishinbo, and
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I've watched it a lot. I like halfway through now.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: I think I've watched sixty or seventy episodes of one
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: hundred forty or fifty episodes something like that. But the
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: they always have the same theme song, and they go
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: don dun du and she sings dung dung, but she
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: says dong dong between several of the lines. And it's
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: really fun late at night when I'm drinking beer after
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: recording this podcast or something, and I'll watch ann Oishinbou
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: and the theme song dun dun, and I've been watching
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of them lately, so I've been walking around
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: my house just shouting dong dung and then kind of
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: giggling to myself. It's also funny because it sounds a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: lot like the Rick Roll song never Gonna Give You Up.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: The first, like five or six chords of the ending
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: credit song, it goes like da dun but didda, never
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Gonna give you up. So every single time I watch
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: it Shinbow episode, I hear I think, I think I'm
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: gonna hear I think I'm gonna get Rick rolled, And
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: of course I don't because that was made decades earlier.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: But it's really fun to hear it every time. And
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: now I've been also singing besides Dong Dong. I've been
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: singing never Gonna Give You Up, like walking around my
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: house singing that song, which has been a whole lot
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: of fun. And this has been a whole lot of fun.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. I hope you're having as much
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: fun as I am having. There is more to listen to.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: I will talk to you very soon. Have a great
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: rest of your day, and yeah, thank you again for listening.