Transcript
Richard: Welcome to the Bravo Chali Club podcast, making 12 and a half minutes more awesome each week. He's Ben, I'm Richard. Let's go. Ben, how are you this week?
Ben: I'm great. I'm looking forward to this episode, mate. Episode 53, special edition.
Richard: 53.
Richard: It's special edition episode this week, folks.
Ben: We're doing a deep dive.
Richard: Yes, Ben has just got back from Japan.
Ben: I have.
Richard: I'm going to Japan very soon. and so I thought we might do a deep dive into all things Japan. What do I need to know to maximize my Japanese experience?
Richard: Ben?
Ben: Yeah. And you'll have you'll have everything. I just want to i just want to define the circumstance. under which I was in Japan, just for just so that people know. This wasn't just a booking a holiday.
Richard: You weren't like...
Ben: yeah
Richard: If someone didn't smuggle you in, you weren't like hijacked or anything or...
Ben: Pretty much. I'm very easy to smuggle. i'm I'm petite. um So no it was work related. i i went for a convention, but I arrived for a couple of days before the convention, did the convention. My wife was with me. Tanya was with me. um But also during this time, i also had a side trip to Korea, which will certainly come up in the in our discussion.
Ben: And then when I came back to Japan, I had some additional time.
Richard: Fantastic.
Ben: um
Richard: So how much free time did you have like over the whole, over the journey, over the holiday?
Ben: So we were gone for 16 days. I probably had about eight days of of free time, about about half.
Richard: Okay.
Ben: Yeah, so it was – and six days of work and two days basically travel based on that.
Richard: Mm-hmm.
Ben: So there you go. Hey, before we start, I've got one question for you you know, when you travel, are you curious like to what people are taking photos of?
Richard: Mm-hmm.
Ben: like Especially when there's loads of tourists around and you see you turn around to try and work out what it is that they're capturing and then wondering why you didn't think to take a photo of that.
Ben: you know Because I feel like I don't take enough photos. My daughter will come back and she'll have 6,000 photos from a three-day trip. And I'm just wandering around checking things out.
Ben: And the photos that I've got are actually quite random. Like it's just things that I've noticed. there's There's no sunsets and mountains in there. It's like someone's a weird jumper or some something.
Richard: but picture of some food yeah
Ben: what do you like What do you like as a photo as a photographer? i Actually, i do take photos of food. Yes, I do like that.
Richard: Actually, you know what? I like to take pictures of people taking pictures of things. So like you go to Pisa or the Eiffel Tower or something and there's all those people trying to do that whole perspective thing where they look like they're trying to hold the tower up or something and you take the picture of the angle of like, you know, several or eight people all just standing there with their hands in the air in this stupid pose.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. like
Ben: it. Yes.
Ben: We'll try to hold it. Yes.
Richard: do You think that is hilarious. oh that's That's what I go for.
Ben: one of my very favourite One of my very favourite photos that I've taken is exactly that. i was standing at the back of the room where the Mona Lisa hangs and all of these people like holding up their phones just trying to get a photo of the Mona Lisa.
Ben: And I'm just – and I've got a – yeah, it's time
Richard: Yeah, because it's it's small, right? It's a really quite a small picture.
Ben: And I've got a photo of about 150 people, of phones in the air, and it just looks hilarious.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: like And then there's there's a picture right off in the distance. So anyway, that's enough about France. We're on to Japan. Hit me. Hit me with a question.
Richard: Let's go.
Ben: Let's go.
Richard: So wanted to start with temples because, like, Japan's got timan's scott is a very strong temple game. is it like when you go to the UK and the first time you see a castle, you're like, wow, that's incredible.
Ben: Hmm.
Richard: That's the castle that, I don't know, James III smashed with his cannon. And then you go and you have a look around and you're like two hours, three hours in the castle.
Ben: Yep.
Richard: You walk around the turrets. Yeah, okay, fantastic.
Ben: Soak it in.
Richard: It's got some big impressive garden. Then you drive down the road and you're like, ah, look, it's another it's another castle. And it it's kind of old and it's it's maybe in a bit better condition.
Richard: The grounds might be a bit bigger. It's got a few different trees, but it's basically the same kind of thing. And then by the time you get to sort of like the fifth one, like I'll just hang out the parking lot.
Ben: Yeah. No idea.
Richard: Dr. Strangers, you guys can go and do the tour. um i mean
Ben: Look.
Richard: yeah I know I'm underselling how glorious the temples are in in Japan, but like but do you get temple overload?
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: do you just like do you hit te Do you max out on temples on like day two and you're like like, I can't do another one?
Ben: I think you can.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: I think you can. um So my wife actually predicted this exact response and she took me to the best temple that she could. I think we pretty sure we went to the emperor's temple in, in Tokyo on the, on the second day.
Richard: big one, the Imperial Palace.
Ben: well first yeah Yeah, we went there. so um
Richard: Yep.
Ben: And I don't remember, she went to a couple more and um she went to a castle in the in the north, which she said was quite beautiful. But there's a lot of temple action going on, but also in particular, the Japanese gardens.
Ben: Yeah. You think you've seen the most beautiful Japanese garden you've ever been and then you walk 500 metres down the road and there's another one and it's just as beautiful.
Richard: Hmm.
Ben: um
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: So, yeah, it's it's it's hard to not sort of become a bit diluted in that view because they've all got a story too. um But I think you have to sort of follow, yeah.
Richard: Well, they're thousands of years old, right? So...
Ben: Yeah, the history the history behind those. And and look, the ones in the UK too, the the huge history as well. But um yeah, I actually only went to one temple.
Ben: So I can't say without a shadow of a doubt that they all sort blended together.
Richard: 100% of them were awesome.
Ben: yeah and it was and it was really really cool like and if temples are your thing and you could find a nuance in going to the next one then you should do it um i do remember a lot of walking though like because the the imperial um palace had like massive gardens of its own so i got to tick two things off at once because i wanted to see a temple and i wanted to see a beautiful garden i did go to more gardens
Richard: Yeah.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: One of them, honestly, a few of them just by accident because you're trying to cut through, like trying to walk. Yeah, I wasn't like I'd gone, oh, it's a beautiful gun. No, I'm just walking straight through because I want to get to that next spot over there.
Richard: That's excellent. So yeah, stumbled into some amazing gardens.
Ben: Yeah. So that was, yeah.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: They've got temples covered. You should go to one for sure.
Richard: Fantastic. So onto the food.
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: What was the weirdest thing you ate?
Ben: So ah know.
Richard: Japanese food will be very different to what we have in the West.
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: It's sort of like it it works quite differently, the the whole food thing there sort of too, doesn't it?
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: Like the convenience store kind of culture. Yeah.
Ben: Well, I mean, in terms of the weirdest thing, I mean, i eat a lot of Asian food anyway. In my role, I tend to travel into Asian areas and get exposed to that. And so, but, well, you know, they do eat whole of body. Like, they don't leave anything unprepared.
Ben: But the weirdest thing I actually ate was a fruit sandwich from 7-Eleven. And it was like, it was if you can imagine, white bread, crust cut off, filled with whipped cream, and then you know filled with strawberries and orange and kiwi fruits and like so served served as the triangle you know sandwich that you would pick up in a standard convenience store, which might have ham and cheese and tomato or something in it.
Richard: Awesome.
Richard: So fruit salad sandwich.
Ben: But it was like... fruit cellar sandwich and and it was a thing this wasn't sort of like this special like i saw them everywhere like and so in terms of the weird that was the most iron it wasn't weird it was just unexpected and i and it sent my blood sugars through the roof too for the record so
Richard: Right?
Richard: Yeah, there you go.
Ben: so But to to your point about the convenience angle, um I don't know what the stat is, but you could eat in 7-Eleven, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and you would eat well. ah you know
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: As one of our listeners said, you're not booking a table for 10 at 7-Eleven, but you're you're not going to starve either. So, yeah, yeah.
Richard: Because the food's pretty decent there, right? They have like those little rice triangle things and all that sort of stuff, don't they?
Ben: yeah
Ben: Yeah, and I've forgotten the name now.
Richard: Onigiri, is it?
Ben: Onigiri? Yeah, something like that. Yeah.
Richard: I'm probably murdering the language there.
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: Sorry, everyone from Japan.
Ben: yeah I was going to say Inari, but that's the egg that covers the rice.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, no. Go with onigiri. We'll run with that one.
Richard: Excellent.
Ben: look What could be wrong?
Richard: And did you go on the train, the high-speed train? Did you get some Shinkansen action?
Ben: see Yes.
Richard: Shinkansen.
Ben: Yes. We got on the Shinkansen, which is the bullet train, and... um I've got to say, though, it's to the Japanese, it's just public transport. So, you know, you expect this whole experience where, you know, the bullet train, know, it's like a plane and it's it's ready and waiting for you and you you go and find your allocated seats and stuff like this. Yes, your seats are allocated because they're just um being precise. But you better be ready when it shows up because, yeah yeah you know, we had we had one trip which we went 300 kilometres and it stopped three times.
Ben: you know So if you miss if you miss getting off and it happens, you could be 100 kilometers down the road before you've
Richard: Yes.
Ben: Being able to get off the thing. and in fact, we had people at our convention who missed an internal stop and they were 15 kilometres down the road. And this was like ah a really short stop, you know, because they weren't ready.
Richard: Yeah, wow.
Ben: They thought, you know, the plane, the plane, it feels like a plane, that the train would pull up um and they'd have plenty of time to disembark. But it's it's public transport.
Ben: i
Richard: you got like a couple of minutes to get off and then and then it's off.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Richard: And was it on time?
Ben: um
Richard: Like were they all sort of like run like clockwork?
Ben: Very, yeah. I think they they apologise if they're more than 12 seconds um over time.
Richard: Yep.
Ben: Yeah, they definitely were on time. There was no doubt about it. Like you knew that that was your train. It has space for luggage. and So as you get on, there's there's a space to put your luggage in there.
Ben: um
Richard: Yep.
Ben: was It was relatively popular. we We didn't have any trouble getting our luggage on. um And ah by the way, were there in Golden Week, which is, you know, in Australian terms, that's the equivalent traveling between Christmas and New Year.
Ben: Or in, you know, think of the most popular, for for listeners overseas, think of the most popular public holiday week in your country, and that's what Golden Week is for Japan.
Richard: Right. Yeah. no
Ben: So it was it was busy.
Richard: Does that, does that make it a difficult time? Does it make it just super busy?
Ben: Very busy. Yeah, super busy.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: super Like the volume of people, I don't think I'd experience something like that. i i think... Tokyo's 15 or 17 million um people.
Richard: Yeah. The greater area is like 35 or something, isn't it?
Ben: Yeah, but yeah but that that number again travel in to work.
Richard: Like,
Richard: Yeah, right.
Ben: and then you've And then you've got to tourists and even just domestic tourists, like people coming down, you know, or up from Kyoto or down from Okada or whatever to Tokyo. So, yeah, the volume of people is insane.
Ben: um I've been to some big cities, but this was next level, yeah.
Richard: Can you take a... Yeah. Can you take a bike on the Shinkansen? Does it have like a little bike racks near the door or something?
Ben: I didn't see it. Yeah, I reckon that would be frowned upon. um
Richard: Hmm.
Ben: But to be honest, you're allocated a carriage. So it may well be that that you can buy a ticket for your bike and there's a place to put it. Yeah, i don't I don't know the answer to that. I'd be making it up if I said I did.
Ben: But it was cool.
Richard: And did you get around everywhere on PT, like public transport? Was it like,
Ben: is so Is Uber public transport? Yeah.
Richard: sure, sort of, private transport, still PT?
Ben: yeah
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: There's ah an app called Go, which is the Japanese taxi app. And it's just a little bit more useful because that you know you can be quite specific and stuff.
Ben: But I ended up just using Uber to order cars. Yeah. And the Uber in Japan actually just orders a Japanese taxi anyway. But the,
Richard: Right.
Ben: The best thing that I loved is you could order the Uber, but you could actually pay cash to the driver. So, you know, there's multiple ways that they solve that.
Richard: All right. Okay. Yeah.
Ben: I'm being a bit flippant. I used Ubers a little bit because I just was, you know, time poor and compressed in terms of wanting to get around. But Tanya used the public transport extensively.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: She went everywhere. Yeah. And, she she found it quite exceptional to move around, but very, very busy.
Ben: That was definitely not lost on her. so And it's cheap too.
Richard: yeah
Ben: like So in terms of public transport, for anyone with an iPhone, if you've ever added a card to your wallet, there are actually transit cards already preloaded into the iPhone.
Ben: And I think that'd be on the Android devices as well. um And the iCoker or the Suica card is actually and a preloaded transit card. And so you add it to your Apple wallet and then you can top it up directly directly
Richard: You just tap it when you're going through the stations and stuff.
Ben: Yep, yep.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: In fact, you just you know you just tap your phone. you don't even have to have it open because it's got the FastPass or the ExpressPass.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: If that's activated, you just literally tap your phone and um and and it's cheap.
Richard: Yeah. Cool.
Ben: So i think we put like 1,000 yen on there and it got us three or four rides. And towards the end, we were getting really specific. Like my very last um top-up was like 239 yen so that I knew I ended up with zero left on the card um because you can't bring the cash back off it but you can top up the exact amounts and the thing that I was finding was if you put the destination into Apple Maps it actually told you what the cost of the fare was
Richard: Yeah, wow.
Ben: And so, so it says it's going to be 270 yen. And so I would put that amount on and tap and away you go. So yeah, it was, um, it was, pretty simple way of, of moving around.
Richard: Perfect.
Ben: So yeah, you don't need cash for that.
Richard: What was the three most awesome things you did or saw aside from the temples?
Ben: Aside from the tentals. Can only have three?
Richard: Just three, top three, top three highlights.
Ben: I've got to tell you one. Okay. I've got to tell you the the one highlight that just jumps out above above all else was I had my bag searched in a Japanese domestic store the airport or not a regional airport. And I'm, I'm talking like fully emptied in front of me.
Ben: And I actually thought that was quite awesome. I had to work really hard to keep, keep the smile off my face,
Richard: out on the table on the and went through everything.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. so So what happened was we went to the convention and then we went north. And so I flew from a regional um airport. It's called Sendai in in north of Tokyo to Korea because I had to go to Seoul for a side trip. And then a few days later, I flew back.
Ben: into a different regional airport in Japan. um And so I was gone for like two days and I was standing there trying to tell them I was on a 14-day holiday and I've got carry-on only, which I do. And when when they're emptying my bag in front of me, I'm like looking at it going, this must look so dodgy.
Ben: i've flown from sendai to seoul and a couple of days later back into a different airport i've got one change of clothes i've got my massage gun and like ah some ah souvenirs from the whiskey distillery that i'd been to It was just at night, they were emptying everything, just convinced that the only Caucasian on the plane who was a foot taller than everyone else was going have some sort of um you know
Richard: Contraband.
Ben: ah like a contraband. That's the word I was after. Thank you. and So that was awesome. That was a lot of fun. As I said, I had to work really hard to keep the smile on my face because I was finding it quite hilarious. And the person that was – you know, emptying my bag, was just being professional. And I was like, oh, good on you. You're doing your job well. I would pick me up if if if I saw the same thing.
Ben: So, and just a side note on Soul, fastest drivers in the world, hey? Like, no doubt. they they'll give They'll give way to buses as long as the bus can accelerate like a Formula One car.
Richard: Is that right?
Ben: like and And also, a career, I think, has banned overweight people. um And there was this one time when I was getting a caricature of me drawn. And I don't think the artist liked the fact that um you know I carry a few extra kilos.
Ben: So she drew me thin. And um it's it's awesome. It's my favorite picture of myself.
Ben: I've been edited. I'll put a picture of that into the inner sanctum for everyone to have a look. But look, the top three things, I think...
Ben: I went to a distillery, a Japanese distillery, and this is probably no but yeah that i love I love Japanese whiskey.
Richard: Japanese distillery. Yep.
Ben: So that was an absolute highlight. um I'm a big fan of knives. like I can't tell you why, but I love you you both everyday carry knives and also just chef's knives and stuff.
Ben: And so I went to a knife shop and and that was amazing.
Richard: Got chef knives or like what is your souvenirs?
Ben: Amazing. Yeah. actually I actually, bought a folding knife um there.
Richard: Mm-hmm.
Ben: So that was really cool. And and I went to a what was basically considered the radio control car mecca, um Super Regicon, which was, you know, I'm just a big kid.
Richard: Oh, nice.
Ben: And um I went to this store and just geeked out in there. And luckily I had a friend of mine who spoke Japanese and he did all the negotiating for me, trying to find all the parts that I couldn't locate.
Ben: Cause it's so big. because like two levels and, and Tanya was with me and she went up to another level.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: She goes, you got a whole track. They got a racing car track up there as well. Well, it was, yeah, it was.
Richard: Wow.
Ben: And I didn't even go up there. I was so busy looking through all the, all the stuff they had. It was, yeah, that was cool. That was awesome. That actually really was awesome. So there you go That's my three things. Yeah.
Richard: Fantastic. when when you're traveling and you're in another culture, right, often there'll be some things that just work different there
Ben: Yeah, um I think, you know, everyone talks about Japanese efficiency and Japanese politeness. and And I don't think I was actually prepared for how efficient they actually are.
Richard: Hmm.
Ben: um Like, you know, and I love efficiency, don't get me wrong. but i And I'll give you an example. I went into one um public toilet and I think they they were so efficient, it was playing running water.
Ben: you know to make the the queue move quicker, to make the guys, you know, do their business do their business and get out, you know, because we don't want to cause a queue.
Richard: Like ah through the speakers, like over a PA sort of thing.
Ben: Yeah. It was playing running water.
Richard: Yeah, okay.
Ben: So that was, you talk about efficiency and then you talk about next level. um By the way, what's the deal with heated toilet seats? Like, they're everywhere.
Richard: it' ah It's a thing in Japan, is it?
Ben: They're everywhere.
Richard: Really? I guess it snows.
Ben: Yeah. Yeah.
Richard: Maybe it gets cold. so that's good it Does that encourage you to stay in the bathroom for longer than you should? I don't know.
Ben: i could do but i i hate that whole warm toilet seat feel and then suddenly you're permanently having it even if no one's been in there yeah it was all like that um you know we'd heard about how they push people onto the train carriage and
Richard: And then they're all like that. Yeah.
Richard: Train stuffers. Yeah, I've seen it on YouTube.
Ben: Yeah. And it's a job, you know, and but Tanya, so I never experienced this, but Tanya did.
Richard: Yeah, yeah.
Ben: She, she actually witnessed and was part of being crushed onto a train. And she found that quite, um, she found that quite, um, intimidating, I think like she's a
Richard: yeah.
Richard: Maybe be full on. Yeah.
Ben: she's ah She's a well-travelled person, but even there she was sitting in the carriage watching all these people get forced on you know on and just like, oh, I'm not too sure if I could put up this on a daily basis.
Ben: So that was during the peak.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: It wasn't every time. i travelled with her a few times. Clearly we were off peak and it didn't happen. but It was full in so in some cases, but she actually saw at peak time at being people being pushed on.
Ben: Yeah. and and um i think the size again she's a well-traveled person she got lost in shinjuku station she said it took her 30 minutes yeah took a third took her 30 minutes to find the exit um and um i i went to tokyo station like central station which i assumed was um
Richard: In the station. It's supposed to be huge. Yeah.
Ben: going to be bigger than shinjuku and she's like nah you got no idea um and she's right because i didn't go um but shinjuku i think is next level because of all of the levels that it has whereas tokyo is fairly clear yeah you know you're one level fishing cans and the next level for the jr and the next level for the local trains and stuff um i think the
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: The funny thing that I saw, which I loved, it just this will stick in my memory forever. It was in a train station. um The Japanese are so polite that I watched a guy – pull up behind a couple of girls and then wait for the oncoming pedestrians and then pull around them. Like he actually did an overtaking manoeuvre, but he was walking.
Ben: And so it was, like, it was, you know in other, like certainly in Western cities, like that person would just walk down the left and run into whoever was, you know, coming towards them.
Richard: Yeah, going the other way, yeah.
Ben: But he he literally pulled an overtaking manoeuvre while he was walking and that – I wish I could have videoed it. I didn't obviously didn't know what was going to happen, but it was um that was that was fun. um In terms of the bad, like i mean, you can find the good and bad in everything. the The one thing which sort of made me laugh, um there was an announcement that,
Ben: on the train like a recorded announcement asking passengers um actually it was on the bus that that i took out to the distillery there was an announcement on the bus asking um passengers not to talk um And it was actually more annoying, I thought, than people and and then people were just talking.
Richard: that they played on repeat.
Ben: Like, it just it just came on this loop every 60 seconds asking you not to talk.
Richard: Yes.
Ben: And I'm like, oh, I'm going to try to just listen to people chat about their day. um
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: So that was it. I mean, as I said, you can find the bad and everything, but that that one that one was pretty funny. And I kept hitting my head on those hand rings in the bus. Like, cause I'm like, again, I'm foot taller than the average, um, national. And so those hand rings were like at my chest height. Um, so, uh, yeah, I went to walk off and I was like, donk, donk, donk. Like it was like a cartoon a couple of times.
Ben: Um, And i couldn't I couldn't help but notice, and this isn't a bad thing, this is probably a reflection of why they've got some of the biggest longevity in the world. um The elevator payloads in Japan, 1,000 kilos allows for 15 people in an elevator.
Ben: So what's that? An average of 66 kilos.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: I'm confident that if I walked into ah an elevator in here in Brisbane, it would be more we'd be allowing more than 66 kilos per person. um So that was that was not a bad thing at all.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: i just It caught my eye because I kept seeing it. So there you go. there's a There's a summary of a few things.
Richard: That's fantastic. And so did you do any sort of random exploring? I know i know that you're quite structured with your um with your holiday itineraries, but did you do any just kind of like ah casual roaming or wandering about?
Ben: we So you'll you'll love the fact, you're right, I am structured, and and especially given that the time compression I was on, I i so had very specific places that I wanted to get to. But there was two times um that I was able to do some random exploring. One, when I flew into Kanazawa and eventually got past customs, I was,
Ben: I'd arrived there quite well because Tanya stayed in Japan, right? So she she just kept traveling and she was going to meet me over at Kanazawa.
Richard: Mm.
Ben: So I got there a few hours before her and I knew the general direction of the knife shop that I wanted to go and I was like, I don't need to pull out the map for the whole time.
Ben: So I'll just wander along in this direction. And I found a ramen bar there And again, I couldn't sit up at the actual bar and there were some booths. and There was a ah couple of American men who'd walked in behind me and um they were actually um giving me grief for not being able to operate the vending machine that was in Japanese.
Ben: And um so I finally got the order through with help of the of the person serving. And then they came to have their turn and they couldn't operate it, which was hilarious.
Richard: Yeah, nice.
Ben: turned around and said, you want some help from the person who's learned how to do it once? um And so i ended up sitting with them. um And so that was one of those cool little travel things where like, I was uncomfortable at the bar.
Richard: yeah nice
Ben: So I went and sat with them in their booth and we just, and then I told them I was going to this knife shop. And so they came with me. um And then we found a whiskey bar across the road.
Richard: Oh, cool.
Ben: So it was like, it was just a really cool experience. And Shohei Itani, who's a very famous Japanese baseballer, was playing a game live, not in Japan, but it was on television.
Ben: And so I was watching, watching it was like ah one of those, oh, you couldn't have planned this kind of moments.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: So that was pretty cool. And the second one was actually um initiated by Tanya. She knew that the that there was a samurai district in Kanazawa. And um she said, oh, why don't we just walk?
Ben: And we'd actually chosen accommodation quite near. So we just walked over there and we got into the general area and then we turned off the map and just walked around it. And it was it was quite interesting.
Ben: You know they had the...
Richard: So what's a samurai district?
Ben: the
Richard: what what what is
Ben: Well, it was where the – so the samurais used to live all together in the same same area and it was a protected area.
Richard: What does that mean? Does that mean like everything?
Richard: So it's themed or something or it's like, it's
Ben: So it's not themed so much, but it's just – it's all well kept because the samurais are so well regarded. And, um you know, it was – and it's still, you know, hundreds of years later kept, you know, in a pristine state.
Richard: Hmm.
Ben: But the yeah even like the – the the gates and the fences you know like they're made of clay and hay you know and and stuff like this it was yeah it was quite a interesting walk through there the cobbled pipe paved stones and um reading about how they use the canals which are still running to to move wood around to build the the houses and stuff it was yeah i found that quite interesting um and that certainly wasn't something that i had planned to go and see tanya knew about it
Richard: Yeah, wow.
Ben: But we sort of just rolled over there. um And I think the other one, Akihabara, and I mentioned I went, I specifically wanted to go to Super Ragicom, the hobby store, but Akihabara is like a suburb of just electronics and collectibles.
Ben: Like you could get lost walking around that for
Richard: yeah. yeah
Ben: And there's one street called Kitchen Town, you know, and there's um yeah it's there's stuff there stuff everywhere that you could just get lost in a day.
Ben: know, there's a fair bit of retail therapy going on in Japan, I think. Yeah.
Richard: Yeah, I love it, all those sort of laneways and alleys and stuff.
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: Yeah, good vibes, I can't wait.
Ben: yeah
Richard: any yeah Any funny lost in translation stories where you sort of, aside from trying to order the ramen, like anything when, you know, you sort of like something just just didn't line up or ah you were trying to mime the words in English or something?
Ben: Yeah, all everywhere.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: if i um If I pulled out my phone, they would the other the photos that I take, hey, you know, like the, um I think I told you about the 24-hour vending machine, which was called the No Sleep Shop.
Richard: ah
Ben: um But there there seems to be a compulsion to translate everything, you know, big and but it's almost like they should just get someone else to do the translation for you.
Ben: Like, The global liquor store called the World Liquor System, you know, I can live with that. That's that's not far off, you know. um Doctor Drive for a cat- car mechanic, that that works, that works.
Richard: Yep, yep.
Ben: the The local hairdresser called the Smiley Cut House, I think there's some bad business going on behind the doors of that one.
Richard: It does sound a bit dodgy.
Ben: Now, I don't need need a hairdresser too often, but I'm not walking into a Smiley Cut House. I, um, i um I did actually go, speaking of Lost in Translation, I actually went to the bar that's featured in the movie Lost in Translation.
Richard: Oh, the hotel bar, like the one at the top ah up in the building.
Ben: Yeah, right at the top of the yeah yeah the Bill Murray movie, Scarlett Johansson.
Richard: Yeah, yeah.
Ben: It's the first time, hey, if we mention Scarlett Johansson, can we tag her in our socials and then she'll want to come on the show?
Richard: Sure, totally.
Ben: that if That'll happen. um ah It's the first time I've paid a cover charge to go into a bar in a long time, if ever. And the colour charge was an eye-watering amount.
Ben: I think they just know that they're a popular bar, so they they just charge that because they can.
Richard: Oh, of course. Yep.
Ben: And and off and off they go. And interestingly, in that bar, I left my jumper and I walked out and then I walked back in and it wasn't a sort of polite, you know, um here's your jumper thanks for coming it was like a please don't forget your jumper like it was almost an admonishment for for leaving you know inconveniencing the next guest uh so yeah so the mate the there are lost in translation stories all over um
Richard: Yes.
Ben: But in in all countries. And, yeah, I found the humour in most. So it's something to look look forward to finding. And I'm sure there's Lost in Translation ones here as well.
Ben: You know, seeing the crocodile crocodile signs and the don't swim um ravines.
Richard: Fantastic.
Richard: Yeah, totally.
Ben: You know, Catherine. Yeah. Yeah.
Richard: So it sort of sounds like you you kind of had a pretty strong game of booking a hotel and then sort of having the areas that you wanted to see or explore around the hotel area. Was that roughly your sort of strategy for for for booking hotels
Ben: Yeah, look, I mean, the public transport is so strong that I don't think you can go wrong. like if you're If you're asking, is there an optimal area to stay?
Ben: I think just fit your budget, you know.
Ben: We stayed first in Shinagawa, which is south of the city, but not not far. And then in Shinjuku, which is northwest, um... And I assume Shibuya, which is that famous scatter crossing, which they use in a lot of the movies. Like if you've ever seen an end of world movie and they bomb Tokyo, it's the Shibuya scatter crossing that they've bombed.
Ben: So maybe don't stay there. um But yeah, ah I think they're all popular spots.
Richard: yeah
Ben: I think as long as you're walking distance to a train station, and we and we always seem to be, like the Shinagawa, we were probably 10 minutes, but there was a shuttle as well.
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: I think I walked it once. It was like a 15 or 20-minute walk. But there was a shuttle from our hotel. So, yeah, they've got you covered there. But there's so much to do.
Ben: like you
Ben: You could probably stay in Shinjuku for a week and not really need to move around too much. ta Honestly, Tanya's the one we should be interviewing on this.
Ben: She she did everything.
Richard: left her on the pod.
Ben: Like, I was... yeah she would be much more interesting um but she she definitely got around like i would see her the that that night she went i went off to this and that and know harry potter and disneyland and i've been and done kintsugu which is the uh gold threading when they repair the the plates and and um there was there's so many things that she did and i was just like okay that's and that's not anywhere near our hotel but she was just happily getting around in um in public transport so
Richard: o
Richard: awesome and uh and final question um would you go back would you go back did you feel like you had enough of japan or or do you want more
Ben: Yeah.
Ben: ah I'll definitely go back. But, I mean, to put it in context, I'm not a person that goes back to many places. So like I'm not rushing back. I've got friends who just love Japan. They would holiday in Japan every year.
Ben: um I've got other places that I'd like to see and and take my family. um But I definitely go back. There are circumstances where I would would enjoy going back to Japan. The only thing I'd probably say is I might not go back to Tokyo.
Ben: Like, we're very lucky.
Richard: Oh yeah, okay.
Ben: It's such a, yeah, it's it's such a big, you know, population that there's major, like, for even from Australia, you can fly into Osaka and, you know you can fly into many different directly, you know, so it's such a big nation. So yeah, to Tokyo for me was probably a bit too big.
Ben: And I think spending a significant amount of time there would probably be a little bit overwhelming for me. And also I'm not that maneuverable, like walking to public transport and that kind of thing would probably wear me out. So it's not my kind of holiday. i enjoyed it.
Ben: if I went back, I'd probably go looking for – because I think Kyoto was the original capital city before Tokyo sort of became, you know, the mecca for Japan. And I think that sort of old school, you know, vibe would probably interest me a little bit.
Ben: So, yeah, I'd go back, but it's not my next trip. Does that make sense? Yeah.
Richard: Yeah, cool.
Richard: one
Ben: I just found the breadth of cost so wide that you can go on any budget. Like you can spend big dollars and stay in the fancy hotels, no doubt, but you can also eat very cheap and very well and travel on, on a very limited budget. So, you know, and the yen is, is quite to devalued at the moment. So,
Ben: anyone who's got taken our advice in past episodes and has a wise card or something transferring a few um across to the yen or or pounds or whatever it might be right now is probably some smart thinking if you've got a trip coming up so there you go get onto it enjoy your trip
Richard: Awesome. Fantastic.
Ben: see you next week bravo charlie club out
Richard: Thanks everyone for tuning in.
Richard: And that's the pod.
