Transcript
Speaker: I'm like the Comedi, like it's a home Home Depot. Yeah, it's a Home Depot of Japan. They have a catalog. You can pick out any one of these nameplates, two to four pages just for Snoopy styles. I am also from Minnesota where Snoopy originated. And so we wanted it to say house 69. House 69 with a picture Snoopy, right? Yeah. And they basically said no. Anyways, I ordered the plate. Couldn't get 69 on it. They told me it was copywritten. Not the Snoopy part. Yeah. Yeah. Not yet. Anyways, I have a friend that has a laser engraver. So we're going to put 69 on it.
Speaker: Welcome back, everybody, to another exciting episode of the Buying House in Japan podcast. remember by We got Eric in the house. Oh, thanks, guys. Bruto-san. How are you doing? ah Yeah, great. Wonderful. Great evening.
Speaker: Thanks to you guys. Yeah, the agents. Met up with the crew. Where are we recording right now, guys? <unk>re in Tama Base Camp, yeah? Yeah, we went out with the our agents last night and some of the other crew we work with had a good time down in Tokyo. We did a little bit of a photo shoot, too. That was fun.
Speaker: All right, Eric. We have a couple topics to talk about today. I think first off, though, I've heard you've never had natto before. This is a statement of fact. I've confided in you guys with that secret.
Speaker: Lucky for you. Show it to the camera. Get the hand behind. Get the hand behind. and behind we're We are going to try natto for the first time. oo you're getting Not a model. You're getting some Hokkaido natto here. This is coming all the way from Hokkaido. Okay. What do you think makes a Hokkaido natto different than like any other Hokkaido natto? I mean, it's saying it's like a big bean natto. Big bean. and large So natto's either, they have small beans, they black beans, they have big beans, they have the cut up beans. And it's fermented?
Speaker: soybeans Soybean. Soybean. Soybean. And then what's the paste? Like, what are they fermenting? What's the catalyst? Talk to them, Joey. Joey has made some natto. Is it just a yeast that they ferment it with? I think it's a bacteria. I don't think it's fungal, which like yeast are are fungi. Yeah. I think if I had to guess, you but I think it's like a king a type of bacteria. It's bacteria, yeah. So I made it in Canada before and it's actually a long process and kind of just tasted it. You made this in Canada? Okay, yeah. But first you soak the beans for like a day and then you got to put them in like a yogurt maker with the bacteria for a day and then you got let it sit in the fridge for three days. Like it takes a while. And you're indifferent to natto.
Speaker: but you still made it. I thought it's probably good for your gut microbiome. I looked up, actually me and my mom, I think we looked up like, what's the thing in natto that people claim it's a superfood? Shout out Kathy. Shout out Kathy. And I think it was like, I could be wrong here, but I think it was like vitamin K. Let's just call it vitamin K. But like whatever makes natto special, let's call it vitamin K.
Speaker: So we're like, okay, people claim natto's good because of vitamin K. We looked up what vitamin K is, and the kind of research was just like, it's not bad for you. It's not particularly incredible for your body either. you need lot of it, even if, yeah. You more than a week's worth in one batch natto. that's why I kind of stopped making because like, well, what I forcing myself to eat this for? Anyways, but it could be a superfood. Japanese people live for a long time. My dad said it's good your body. blood health I think blood health but okay Eric this is his first not dough yeah yeah yeah make sure people can hear this
Speaker: I got this little packet wi of like sauce I got this sauce packet dashi sauce okay throwing that down I got this little mustard sauce it looks like yep karashi this tiny very tiny I was like Packs a punch. Packs a punch. And then you've got the natto with a little plastic film over it.
Speaker: Take off the lid, which you already did. yeah yeah Typically, you take these out. What I do is you pull this plastic film... Watch how he does it. Off. you know it's go You're going to have the trail. right See that trail? You want to reduce droppage on the table. Put the film top. You don't want filthy up your table is what you're saying? Absolutely. Check this out. I do it a different way than Take. I poke a little hole. You do it the TikTok way. You do it with the hole.
Speaker: TikTok way? Yeah. Nobody's got time for that, dude. How is that slower? Okay, try it. Go for it now. I'm going to do a talking way because I'm an uninformed American. Where's your lid? Where's your lid, bro? You got to get close to it. I got this boom mic in my way. There's shit stretching everywhere. It's going to get in my drink. You're stretching it too far. Yeah, you got to go like this. I went around the whole... Whatever. It's first time. Give it a smell. Give it a smell.
Speaker: Smells good, eh? Smells like tequila. Okay, it does smell like tequila. I was like, I had tequila last night. Good description. Next, you get the dashi pack. Okay, dashi pack. You crank that open.
Speaker: If it tastes anything like tequila, I don't think I'll hate it. I've just never had it because I've understood it to always be bad. So I was like, why why bother? Can you open this for me? I'm here incapable. You see this red strip right here? Yeah. There was no cut line, though. bro Perforated edge on the pack. Okay, here we It's torn open. I feel clumsy. So, take is more of a pure... I just wanted take to touch my food. Purist here. I like to drown out the natto flavor with something equally like potent, so I put a lot of wasabi on. I feel like...
Speaker: If it came with it, I got to do it with it. So, ah go for mustard. Go for mustard. I definitely don't go for And you say it's a little spicy. It's quite spicy, so like but like in a wasabi way. You got the the chopsticks. so The goal is to stir it so it gets to frothy... How you use chopsticks chicken again?
Speaker: Frothy... Oh, my. All right. Frothiness. likee all right yeah Accelerate, accelerate, accelerate. you'll be You'll be amazed at how fast Take will eat this. can't give you the scoop of two gulps. Do you bring it you breath really even taste it if you do it like that? I like know what i i pick at it. Yeah. like It's like play with your one full slurp kind of thing. All right? My advice...
Speaker: is You don't pick at the natto and bring it to your mouth. You bring the natto pack to your mouth. You kind shovel it in. I'll try the talking way. You to face it okay slurp it in.
Speaker: mean, it tastes fermented. You feel like you're eating slightly yeasty food. eat two every morning. Dude, I can't eat this. You got to give yourself a reward afterwards. Get the cookie lined up for when this is finished. I don't need cookies.
Speaker: Or like whatever. Whatever snack you want to eat. Can get that Turkish candy? Just power through, dude. This is this is gold. let's Give us the rating. It's stanky beans. It's 4.5. 4.5.
Speaker: Joey? What do you say? Not out of 5. Right out of 10. Out of 10. Yeah, not of 5 there, Sean. I'm also like around a 5. 5 out 10. Yeah. 8 out of 10. easy just an eight i like this one two a day i feel like that's oh no for this brand specifically oh but not so in general 10 10 10 5 yeah okay that was a prolonged intro eric who are you bro um eric uh i live in niyata japan to the domari crab town you know shout out they got like uh all you can eat crab spots there
Speaker: There's crap crab spots, for sure. Like a crab izakaya or what's the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's like crab, like Joe's Crab Shack type places, you know, where you can get all different types of crab made all different types of ways. Like it's, yeah, it's it's a plethora of crab.
Speaker: You were one of our first customers through our Akiya Mart Direct program. Yeah. Lots happened, man. You've bought how many Akiyas to date? I've purchased three in Tera Domari. And in total. Yeah.
Speaker: And where is Teda Domari? About 90 minute bullet train ride from Tokyo. You zoom across to the other side. you're You're there. And you're you're honestly in like the best part of Japan. Eric got recently viral for his $69 home.
Speaker: Tell us about that, Eric. We're going to rehab it. We like, we, I enjoy rehabbing homes, my construction background. And I like to look at it as like these towns, these Inaka countries kind of just falling apart if nobody does anything about it. So I like, what will you contribute to society in Japan to make it better? Right. If you're going to be here, what will you do to make it better? So I look as if I can make one or two homes in my small area where I live less abandoned, you know, then I've made a positive impact in in that area.
Speaker: So I rehab them with no real expectation afterwards. But I hope that they will be a good host home for people that are looking to explore another side of Japan that isn't easily explored because there's a lack of...
Speaker: oversized hotels or five-star accommodations or how to get around and what to go go do and see. So you stay at my Snoopy house, Snoopy-themed home, house 69.
Speaker: Casa de 69, whatever you want to call it. Casa de 69. I think your story about getting the nameplate on the house is like a perfect little microcosm of like the type of maybe stubbornness that other people will run into when trying to renovate their homes or like, you know, register their car, like kind of trying to do any project here. I feel like you'll run into these situations where, you know, you just get these flat out no's and for...
Speaker: What we, I feel like we would consider from the West, like what? That's such a silly yeah reason. I'm like the Comedi, which is yeah the building center where you can buy anything for a home. Like it's a Home home Depot. Yeah, it's a Home Depot of Japan, right? And it's a national chain.
Speaker: And they you go to this desk. They have a catalog. You can pick out any one of these nameplates, all these different designs. But they have a whole, like, two to four pages in this catalog just for Snoopy styles, right? Which is hilarious if there's that much Snoopy ah things in Japan. If if people aren't aware, Snoopy is, like, I don't know, probably the number one anime from America in in Japan besides Disney, right? Yeah.
Speaker: So I look at it, Snoopy is a decoration. It's funny. It's it's ah it's a joke. I am also from Minnesota where Snoopy originated, Peanuts. Oh, really? Yeah. So the author... schtz child Charles Schultz. Yeah, Charles Schultz is from... We have a whole Snoopy thing going on there.
Speaker: So it made sense for us to do Snoopy. Okay, okay. It's not like I'm pulling it out of my ass entirely, right? i mean Minnesota is home. just So 69, the number is copyrighted? I bought it for Ichi Ma Yen, which at the time loosely sixty nine dollars was $69.
Speaker: It was is' a funny gaffe at you know number. So tell me what you're trying to get on the nameplate. And so we wanted it to say house.
Speaker: if I registered it as a Minpaku and had a rental home... Yeah, a name for the house. Yeah, Snoopy theme, house 69. Just be a fun house. When it's 10,000 yen, you don't really have any expectations. You're just having fun with this project. So house 69 with a picture of Snoopy, right? Yeah, Snoopy with a little dog bowl.
Speaker: It's a black background. he's holding like a little red dog bowl. and um yeah And they basically said, no, your name is not 69 or house. And I said, oh, my middle name is house.
Speaker: Oh, so they they were like, it has to be. They're like, well, should be your name. should be your name. It should be your name, which is not true at all because I know plenty of people that will get Zen House and other random things on their other Minpaku homes, right?
Speaker: Yeah, like ours doesn't say our name. Yeah, it doesn't say your name. So I was like, I know it doesn't need to be my name. And so I convinced them that house was my middle name. And then they're like, well, it needs to be last name. And I was like, ah, no, that's what I go by. Like, whatever. Right. My nickname 69. Like I knew that I was going to get this resistance once they said, you know, once once that started. So I was like, all right, now I got to be more creative. It's hard to come up with the reason for the 69. Like, it's not my name, obviously.
Speaker: And I was just like, oh, it's a, and I started explaining to them. Yeah. I bought this home. blah, blah, blah, it's a rental, blah, blah, blah. And the number, you know, the address, 69, like whatever. I don't care, just put 69 on. Anyways, I ordered the plate, couldn't get 69 on it. They told me it was copywritten, which is,
Speaker: The number 69 is copyright. The numbers 69. Like not the Snoopy part. Yeah. Yeah. Not, yeah. And then they all, they they were very adamant about this is not decoration. This is home reov like home renovation item. If you want decoration, we have fake American license plates. And they went in the store, grabbed some Americana like fake license plates. And they're like, this is this is like decoration. but whatever you want on here. I was like, this has Snoopy on it. This is a definition of a decoration. Anyways, I have a friend that has a laser engraver.
Speaker: So we're going to put 69 on it. So we got ours on an online store. Like we had, think it Yoshi actually. Yeah, Yoshi did my first one. Yeah, I feel like on the online system, I can ask questions. They don't have the Snoopy. Okay.
Speaker: They had the traditional granites and medals. Could you have just gone to another home center, you think? Oh, so I actually told Beth that. I was like, you they don't give it to me, I'll just go to another committee. And then I'll start with, I'll write down in my name in the slot as house 69. And then they won't even question it because they'll see my name as that.
Speaker: They don't verify your name or the address or anything. Yeah. But I was like, whatever. I got a friend with a laser engraver. So jokes on them. You do have that placed up now or not yet? I received it, but I haven't gone back to the house to install it. I do feel like it's like these small like frustrations in Japan that kind of come out of nowhere. Like you're trying to get out on with your day. Like I'm going get these three things done today. And like something throws you for a loop. I think I took three or four trips to Kometi for this. And it's a 30-minute drive one way to Kometi. And then I have to barter with them back and forth for another. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think this collectively probably took six to eight hours to get this name played. Yeah, that's the joys of trying to do stuff here. I don't get frustrated at all. I understand that it's trivial, it's fun, it's it's part of the process, and now you have a story when you're all done.
Speaker: If you look at it that way, you will not get You've got to roll with the punches here. Our tips for buying Anakia, if you're looking to buy, you will have these frustrating but fun adventures at a lot of these home center stores, right? Yeah, you you will.
Speaker: if If you don't have any of these encounters, then you're a hermit, right? Or just super crazy lucky or... I'm not sure. I think it's impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible. like Yeah. if you're spending any extended amount of time in Japan, you will have this encounter and understand that it's, that's what makes Japan, Japan. Like, honestly, like that, that experience makes me appreciate Japan because that means like all their checks and balances are in place and every other way. Rule followers.
Speaker: Yeah, and you're like, ah, you know what? That's why everything works when you're in Japan for the most part. Speaking about frustrating, I know you got a couple cars recently. Yeah. Tell us about that. How's the DMV of Japan? Man, he's just going to go on tear. I'm just going straight up. Number two frustration story. I helped a client recently.
Speaker: get two cars at the same time. He was getting a white plate, like full-size car, Toyota Alphard and Ooh, Alphard? Nice. Yeah, a KG Doshita. And the Alphard was in my name. was registered in my company name. So I can do all the paperwork myself, hand it to him with the power of attorney. with my my company Honko stamp on and everything. I know the paperwork is locked, ready, solid, right? Plus I helped him with all of his ah paperwork for his parking certificate.
Speaker: All those things are good. He's got all of his paperwork in line. The K car, I make sure all that paperwork is in order. I'm working with a dealer that's a friend as well who secured the K truck.
Speaker: That paperwork is identical. He's going to go register these. This is in Joetsu. And each land office. Sorry, same client, two cars, right? Same client, two cars in Joetsu. And and every land office is can be very different.
Speaker: Okay. Thus far, all the land offices I've dealt with have been different. um At least slightly. And joet this was the first time dealing with Jiuetsu, though. And anyways, he goes, he registers the KG Doshita, the K truck, no problem. Boom, flying colors. Actually, he started to try and do the regular plate car and he got resistance. So then he went to do the KG Doshita. It went great. And he was already frustrated, I would imagine, right, from being told no on the other one. And I'm like, i just go to the other one. I bet you the other one's good, right? The other one's good. And so now he's really confused, like, wait, if I can do that one, why won't the other one, why won't they let me register the white plate? yeah
Speaker: And the land office wanted all of his paperwork to be redone. They told him it was wrong. They made like us as a company look like we didn't know what we were doing. Mm-hmm. But it's identical paperwork. It's in the same city, just two different offices that handle yellow plates and white plates.
Speaker: And they wanted him a Yellow plate versus white plate. So they had to go to two two different offices. Two different offices. Same land office, but two different. okay okay They process it differently. Which one gave you the issues? The white plate? The white plate. And you have to do a parking certificate for a white plate. And they were trying to say that on all of his paperwork, it should have his U.S. address. So for people listening, the yellow plate is for K cars, the smaller size cars here, and the white plate is a normal license plate. And I do know that the rules are a little bit more relaxed for k cars. You don't have to prove a parking spot. Yeah, you think that could be the issue? Like maybe it's not just proving the parking spot, maybe just like in general the atmosphere around. Registering K-Cars is like a little bit more relaxed. Maybe little bit more relaxed, but the rule that they were trying to implement on us was wrong. They were they wanted him to restart the process. You have to wait a week after you have you submit your application for a parking certificate to the police station. You wait a week for them for you to go back and get your certificate.
Speaker: So he had already had that police signed off on his parking certificate with his address where he's going to park in Joetsu, right? Outside Joetsu, but So the land office is saying, though, on all that paperwork, it should have his U.S. address.
Speaker: I'm like, that's not where he's parking. It has no relevance in this. As far as they're concerned, the U.S. has has no relevance to this car because it's staying in Japan. It's registered in Japan. He lives at a house in Japan.
Speaker: Car registration as a foreign non-resident is like so new, especially in like, you know, rural parts of Japan. I just don't think like, you know, up until probably the last five years, it probably had maybe just like a handful of cases nationwide. yeah And so I think you're kind of doing something very new for these rural like you know offices. We're bending the Japanese rules that don't like to be bent. yeah right um And so I guess the biggest lesson is I would tell people, like you want a little bit easier process getting a car in Japan, and with our help... We'll make it a little bit easier with our help. Number one, we help with all the you know creating all the paperwork. and getting it all submitted stuff and making your appointments. But if you want it even easier, go for a K car.
Speaker: Yeah. Speaking of car frustrations, just a kind of like so maybe a little bit bureaucratic story as well. But I rented a car recently and I got the insurance and I scraped it on a wall. Side note, Joey hits everything.
Speaker: Actually don't, it's only been twice, okay? My 4Runner? Pristine. Never a single scrape on it. In Japan you scrape the same area though. You have weak point and we need to figure that out. You have a scrape on every corner on that thing.
Speaker: yeah Not all from Jerry. we oh right okay though But the same scrape on the left rear door is I think common. think it's missing a body panel. Anyways, what I learned, if you rent from one of these large rental car services like a Times or Budget, And you get the insurance. The insurance is conditional on filing a police report when you get into an accident. And they consider any scratch on the car like a car accident. Right. when You can bump somebody in a parking lot with your door. It's an accident. yeah or Or rub the hubcap against the curb. That's a car accident in their mind. So like...
Speaker: Picture this scenario. You know you you you have to rent the car. It's like midnight. You're driving home somewhere. And like say you park and you scrape the hubcap. You do you need to call it police but in but in that moment and get file a police report. You're trying to home. yourself.
Speaker: For yourself so's so that the insurance will kick in, which is kind of crazy. But just, you know. On the plus side, there's co-bonds everywhere. But you're not going to want to be like, ah man, okay, scratch this scratch the hubcap. Let's call the co-bond on myself. You would definitely never think to do Yeah, yeah, Okay, And so if you don't do that, then you're just on the hook for the the cost. Yeah, they might say your insurance, well, you paid for the insurance, but like we're not going to honor it. But it's not valid you don't report with it. All right, DMV in the U.S. or DMV in Japan? I've i've dealt with the California DMV, Florida DMV, Washington DMV, and Minnesota DMV. And I will take any of them over Japan. Over Japan. I'm in a Brooklyn DMV. It's pretty bad. In my land office in Nagaoka that I work with, everybody in one building, yeah super nice. okay They see me. They know me now. I've done enough cars. and They light up. right They help me get custom plates. I can do all of that.
Speaker: But... There's one desk that you have to go to. Like they'll give you a list of different desks that you have to run to. right Yeah. Sometimes it's like, go to this desk, do this paperwork. Then they're like, then you got wait. and I actually, so there's one desk that I start at that I pay 3000 yen to and they organize all your paperwork for you.
Speaker: Oh, they organize their paperwork. They organize it, put a paper clip on it. Okay. Make sure you have everything, check off on everything. Yep. And then they give you a little slip of which desk number to go to in the order. So you show up, you hand them, and it it goes way better like that, right? yeah But there's one desk that I have to go to along the way, and she hates me. Oh, no. I mean, but the funny thing is, I kind of made like, just a when they when I have to go to that desk, I'm leaving like the one building to go over to the other building, to the other desk, and i mentioned I'm like, oh.
Speaker: ah, Mizukashi. know? like You learn that from Jordan. And they laugh. They're like, yeah, we know that desk sucks. They know who works at that desk and she's not nice. What does that desk do? Is that like a part of the purchase? ah I think she prints my new like paper, where like Shotgun Show paper or something. like She gives me a new piece of paper. Okay. Oh, get the final document from her. Yeah. Final boss. Because then after her, I go back and I get my plates. And I get my seal. Shot can is ah registration. Yeah.
Speaker: right. Eric drove down from Teradomari to Tokyo in a K car. In my little K truck with lowered suspension. You lowered the suspension and you got like a body kit, Yeah, a body kit, suspension. we got lights coming for it. Okay. But why did you bring that K car when you have so many other cars? and We upsized the wheels so it's even rougher. Yeah, you got the Subi. I'm a really sleepy driver because I'm like, I constantly need that stimulus. Yeah. Like on a long drive. thats If it's too comfortable, I'll fall asleep. How hard done. Yeah, yeah exactly. so So I knew if I drove the K truck, there's no falling asleep. What's up with the speed limits in Japan? Like, why does it always seem so low? Like cars are going 90, 100, but then you look at the sign, it says 50 or something. Like, is everyone just constantly speeding here forever? or like asked Yoshi this, right? so there's three things. I've got...
Speaker: at least two, maybe three, Japanese do not follow the rule. Yep. Speed limits. Okay. They're suggestions. The speed limits are way too low, first of all. They're way... You can't... There's some places, you're going through like Myoko area, it'll be 50 kilometers if it's like raining or something. And you're like, nobody's gonna go 50 kilometers. Joey follows the speed limit. On the actual door. remember when it's reasonable, but I've been on like, this is like a real highway and it's like 50 and no one's going 50. They're going 100. Nobody's going 50. In those circumstances, I'm i'm going with traffic. I'm just trying to figure out the why do they have 50 up there? But like if it's 90, like I'll do 90 and I won't go 100. I've asked Yoshi. was like, yo, what why does nobody follow, you know, like the speed limits? You guys are rule follower Japan. Why is it that you don't? Because he's like, you're in that that shell and... Nobody really will feel the shame. gunam Because you're protected. You can't be shamed. Whereas if you're in public and making a scene, oh said shame brought on you. There's a bubble of that car that allows you to kind of like do whatever you want, in a sense. That's what I was... that's what i was yeah kind less the The second thing that Japanese people do not do not follow, jet in generally these are generalizations, they do not pay an NHK bill.
Speaker: Really? Is that like out of protest to NHK? If you don't have a TV, I don't think you have to. but No, but if you have if you have an antenna, you're supposed to be an NHK girl. Because you're receiving the same one. talking to my boys, and I'm like, oh yeah, I want an antenna so I can work on my Japanese and like watch some sumo and whatnot. And he's like, yeah, we'll put up your antenna. And I'm like, all right. And he's like, the NHK a man might show up to your house after we put your antenna up. I'm like, oh, okay. I'm like, no big deal. It's like each money in a year, right? 70 bucks a year for TV. But it's public over the air TV. So in places like America, you would never pay for over the air TV. But here you you do. But they're like, oh, yeah, nobody pays It's like people don't pay it. And he further explained to me, if you don't pay it, the fine, the maximum fine is five years worth of NHK bills. i mean, it's probably like the census. Like it's illegal not to fill out the census, but like it's unenforced. Yeah. yeah And honestly, a guy showed up to my house trying to collect Ichimanin, I'm happy to pay it and be done.
Speaker: All right, man. I want to know about your drive down in the K car. I heard there was some experience you had from ah a fellow Japanese driver. You're still listening to the podcast. You're a hardcore listener.
Speaker: I'll tell you that. And so you deserve this story. Everybody else that signed off, they missed the story. That's good. um' let's Bring it to the front. I'm driving down, four hour, you know, on my K truck going about 100, maybe 90, you know.
Speaker: um um Flow of traffic. I'm actually in the slow lane, right? and Which is the left lane in Japan. The far left, yeah, like the entrance lane to the to the freeway. i just get off I just get back on from a Kamisato...
Speaker: Station. Yep. Restway. Restway, yeah. Yeah. Which are dope, by the way. Super nice. Kamisato. They're so nice. If you're going through Kamisato in Saitama. Okay.
Speaker: Recommend that. That station. Is that the really big one? It's decently. I mean, it has everything. Okay. Food. I had ah tonkatsu with like, you get to crush your own sesame. And ah yeah, I love that. Okay. When you get to really sit down and rest and enjoy lunch. Okay. Back to the story. Sorry. yeah Wow. Tangent. Yeah. Tangent and a half. um Anyways, I'm cruising along. guy I'm not paying attention like to people around me because I'm just driving normal. There's nobody to interfere with. and ah And I'm slowly passing a guy on a left, but I don't actually intend to pass him. I'm just going slightly faster than him. Anyways, he speeds up.
Speaker: I think nothing of it like, oh, he realized he was going slow and sped up. So I tuck in behind him. Now I'm in the middle lane of a three-lane freeway. Mm-hmm. And I see him flip me the bird through his rear glass. And I'm like, but it's vague because when you see somebody that, like a finger. Did he pull? He didn't pull off the window? like that, you know? And I'm like, that didn't really happen. That's never happened to me before. He's not like doing the lights or something. I think that maybe he was, yeah, he was doing something like that. Maybe he was. That's what I thought. Okay. Right, right. Because was like, ah.
Speaker: There's no way. Right. And I'm starting to like, but I saw it. So I'm starting to think to myself, but I'm like, whatever, just go back to driving. Yep. Um, he's in a K car as well. Okay. he's also, yeah, he's going slow whatever. yeah And then, um, you know, I realized that his pace is slower than my natural pace. So I move over to the far right. I'm in the passing lane. I go to pass. I pull up.
Speaker: As I'm passing, see stuff in my peripheral. And he makes sure to hold, like lock hold the bird. Side to side. Side to side. As I'm passing him.
Speaker: And I'm like, oh, he it was definitely not an accident earlier. okay He flipped me off earlier, and now he's double double downing on the bird. The double bird. As if i did something. I'm not swimming in traffic. I'm not driving erratically. I just got back on from the road. I don't know what I did. What did he look like? Do you remember what he looked like?
Speaker: He's like a typical maybe 45-year-old. J-Dude with a K car. Maybe angry at life because he's driving a K car. I don't know. He was in a K k truck? or ah Like an N-Wagon or something like that. Like an N-Box or maybe a Suzuki everywhere. didn't like your face, man.
Speaker: He didn't see my face when he was in front of me, though. like Maybe. You look at the rearview mirror. i don't know. He didn't like my car. I don't know. What's the hypothesis there? Joey wants me to get to what happened.
Speaker: I pull alongside the guy, obviously. As I'm passing him, I'm like, well, I can't let that slide. I'm a freak. So um i don't I don't appreciate weird. flipped off. Yeah, getting flipped off. It's just rude. it's not I like how you first described this to us when you told us the story first. like you're and You're going into de-escalation mode right now, right? this To me. In my thought process at the time, you have to imagine, I do not know why I've been flipped off now twice. And I mean, the full tuck, you know, he gave me the full tuck on the hand, made sure I saw it.
Speaker: And now I'm looking at him. rowing by side. I slow down my pass speed and I look over and he locks straight ahead. Does not want to make any sort of eye contact. And I'm like, I'm not intimidated by a K car, okay? If anything, I have the nicest K car on the road. All New K car. Brand new. I...
Speaker: and i Proceed to yell in my K truck. like the other Did you roll the window down? or i I started with window up just to see if you would look at me. and like You're like hand gesturing like this. I was hand like, ah what?
Speaker: What? Nani? Doste!
Speaker: and He does he's still locked. He looks like he's seen a ghost lock straight ahead i realized that he knows that he was in the wrong because if you don't want to make eye contact with me and tell me what I did wrong not come be a window-to-window then clearly you did something wrong right all right in in my logic my This is Eric's de-escalation loose American brain. Yeah, and so then I roll down the window De-escalating further Because I'm thinking, maybe he doesn't hear me that I'm asking him why he did that. Right? yeah So I roll down the window and I get a little bit higher octave audible.
Speaker: So he make I want to make sure that he he knows I'm asking him why. Why? As you're going like 100 down the highway. Yeah, he's really going to... He's probably 90 if I'm passing him. All right, all And so no no resolution to the story, unfortunately. just No resolution except for, yeah, it locks me with him for a good... I don't know. Did you pull ahead or you tucked behind? eventually passed him, and I could tell that he very visibly like slowed down and had no intention to catch back up to me.
Speaker: And I was like, go ahead, man. This crazy motherfucker over here. like But I saw it as very... like I'm just asking him why. okay And the only reason I'm yelling is because we're on the road. you have to You have to yell over the sound of the road, right? He was in his bubble. He was in his shell. You should have followed him to the next rest stop to apologize. If I didn't just get off the rest stop, if I didn't just get off, you know i would I probably would have asked him. you know Further de-escalate. Do you want to smoke?
Speaker: Do you want to discuss what I did wrong? Everything right, buddy? you know like Maybe he's having tough day. i want to you know I want to rectify the situation. Yeah, follow him. All right, so you drove you drive all the way here. yeah Your car is sick though.
Speaker: Thanks. Really really cool K car. How much did that car cost? ah It was about 1.26 million yen. So like $10,000. under and Oh, yeah. Well, and it was $8,000 or so. Brand new, nine kilometers on the clock. It has a TV. yeah Apple CarPlay. looked good.
Speaker: Truck bed is awesome. Can you fold down those like things? All the sides fold down. Just straight flatbed? Yep. Oh, that's yeah awesome. Let's do furniture. sure Let's get a big load of dirt. I'm going to head back to Gata today. So would you recommend people who are moving to Japan, buying an Akia to go K-Car? I mean...
Speaker: after your DMV registration or? Well, and it's proof that you can drive four hours in one stint solo, yeah take a rest stop. like it might And I lowered it so it's a really rough ride. But without the lowered suspension, yeah it's it's not bad.
Speaker: Overtake some people too? and you Yeah, you're not the slowest car on the on the freeway. there's other K cars on the freeway. Also, this K truck is only like 56 horsepower, 55 horsepower. okay The other K trucks or K cars can come turbo and you can get up there in in power range. What if I get a boat, bro? I got to be able to tow the boat. Oh, yeah. Right?
Speaker: yeah Don't get a boat. Well, you get a boat slip, so you don't have to tow the boat. If you get a boat, because I've had a boat. I didn't have a boat slip, and I never used the boat. What's boat slip? The trailer? No, boat slip is like when you rent the spot in the water. Oh, yeah. Okay, a slip. Yeah, a slip. So if you do that, you will actually use your boat more often. Because it's ready to go? Because it's ready to Because for Every time you've got to hitch it up, back it you've got to unload it. You don't have somebody to help you unload it tie Got to the slip. I agree. So you don't need the car.
Speaker: So you can get ah ah any car because you just have what you save you can spend on your slip. Yeah. Not getting a boat anytime soon because they do look like junkers there, but I don't know. It looks like the place to get a boat.
Speaker: There's no place to get a boat. Don't do it, man. Don't do it, man. Worst mistake that I've ever had. Eric, you've been in Tokyo a couple days. You came out. Appreciate you being out here. First impressions. Or not first impressions. like yeah Well, first impression of Tama. Okay, here we go. and But same impression of Tokyo overall. the you know this it's not my It's not my pace of life. you know I don't like looking for parking for 30 minutes at midnight when I get back from Izekaya.
Speaker: True. When I paid for parking at my hotel. That sucked, actually. That was whack. Yeah, why did they make... Because it's... You pay for parking at the hotel and then they they double booked the same spot. Yeah, like, I think they booked as many people as they want and then I would say, though, parking in Japan is more plentiful than in states. That being said, when I agree. It depends on what state and what area. Yeah, California. Minnesota, we don't run out of parking. Okay. Because there's no street parking. Texas doesn't run of parking. on there California, though, it's like parking is cheaper. in like We went to central Tokyo. We drove ah couple spots. We found parking near the Kuma Cantina. Actually, we'll talk about the driver back in a little bit, but it was not that expensive. Oh, you found parking.
Speaker: a 10 minute walk away less than 10 minutes five minutes no okay it's 10 minute a walk okay and so in in my head that's not parking like that's not a but so what what is it what is it 10 minute walk away imagine if you had to park and you had groceries you had to haul a bunch of stuff in you to make multiple trips to kuma cantina yeah with with a bunch of and you're walking that 10 minutes over and over and over yeah shout out great great mexican food yeah yeah I consider that a good parking spot. Yeah. compet Yeah. And that's why you guys like Tokyo and I am opposed to spending too much time here. Well, the parking situation actually wanted a little segue here. Yesterday we drove our car to Tokyo. We obviously had a little party. We drank. We hired a dude to drive our car back. It was, how'd you feel about that, Joey?
Speaker: Yeah, so i feel like the – so we're in time of western Tokyo to get downtown. It's about an hour, and sometimes rush hour traffic when you're in a car or on the train can be a little bit gnarly. But in general, I do feel like driving into Tokyo is a way better experience than taking the train in. So I feel like the optimal – like if you are going to do something later that night in Tokyo, like go to restaurant, have some drinks – It would be magically great if you could drive it drive your car in and then somehow magically get that car back after going out after having drinks after having drinks and so Versus you know leaving the car there overnight and then you gotta go take a train and ride So we actually found a driver who drove the car back for about the same price as a taxi Maybe just like I took a taxi so I can tell you that how much is a taxi?
Speaker: 12,000 yen. 12,000. 70 bucks. so ours was one one point eight man twenty 18,000 yen. So it's 12,000 yen versus difference. 6,000 yen difference. So the guy, so we show up and he's got a suit on. He's got white gloves. White gloves. Our car had a bunch of junk in it because we'd been you know using it for the meeting with the agents and photo shoot all day. Shows up with the suit on, the white gloves, and his business partner or wife or somebody else. Probably wife, yeah. drove in the car behind us so it was two cars two people plus their commute to you and the commute back and then somebody has to follow them and pick them up when they drop you off so you're paying there's a lot of logistics going into this and it's 30 40 bucks more yeah than a taxi yes that was sick i'm gonna do that all and you can schedule it so you' know you're not hunting for a taxi you're not calling a taxi exactly Yeah, pretty planned. Pretty good service. I mean, if you take a train in, obviously you don't have the car, there you can take taxi back. But I thought he was a better driver than the taxi drivers. Like I find sitting in the back of a taxi, like, you know, they're hi hitting the brakes hard. Five times out of ten. Yeah, five times, ten times out of ten in my experience. This guy was a good driver. i liked his his driving.
Speaker: I also say stay away from the older taxis, you know, like the ones that look real old. Yeah. I have worse experiences than those ones. Than like if they're driving a Prius or like the ass rides. Like with the white kind of frilly kind of things over the headrest. Yeah, those guys are real twitchy on the feet.
Speaker: yeah They're like always... They they have they drive with both feet, gassing, right? I think so. But anyways, you can drive your car into Tokyo, party, and then have someone drive it back for you.
Speaker: All right, but Eric, you're excited to go home. Yeah. You got your Tokyo fill. You went out yesterday night, stayed out pretty late. thought were going to come back with a fire car. Yeah, I'm i'm excited to... whatchamacallit, have delicious food in Niigata.
Speaker: Damn, we're not going to get lunch. I get my kimono tomorrow. oh I get to go hang out with my... name my ah my the The people that sold me my home, yep that own my home, yep um they helped me get sized with Beth for our yukata. okay And so we get to go get fitted and learn how to put them on all the time. We got sandals. All right last Last story night. Eric...
Speaker: engaged in an icing battle with us yesterday where you hide the Smirnoff ice and if someone finds it, they have to bend the knee and chug it, right? Side note, his rules are whack. wow If you present somebody with the Smirnoff ice, they have to c chug it unless they can reverse ice you. So Eric eric did ice me yesterday. If someone presents you an ice and you have an ice on yourself, it's called an ice block. I thought you were going to come at me with a block because you mentioned do this thing about it. yeah I just didn't have time. And well and I had two more.
Speaker: strapped to my legs I take them to my cankles Yes legs like I was waiting for you to reverse ice So I could triple ice And then if you tried to if you tried again, ah you would have four ices and then talk it would have been gone He was waiting I was ready to sink the Titanic you you I mean hats off to Eric you you came up to me but instead from 9 a.m. Till about What? Midnight? I've got Smirnoff Ice's taped to my gankles. He came me like 11 p.m. and he just like ripped it off his leg and had tape on it. He was like, I've had this on my leg for all day. I've been walking around. And he handed me, you have to drink. I'm like, no, no, it doesn't work like that. Remember how that parking spot was only 10 minutes walk away? Yeah, I'm walking with those things up and down the stairs at our photo shoot. I'm having to pretend that I'm okay taking the stairs and not the elevator. Lucas knows the whole time and he's like, man, I feel so bad for you. I'm like, they hurt, man.
Speaker: Hats off to you. that well we'll just We'll do the real ice battle. He did get me good on that first one. Hats off to Carly, Danny Wilson. Sounds like this. I refuse to play the game. I got ice, and I just don't play this game. I tried give it to Joey, and he was... Sounds like local rule. What's the thing about you can't present it to somebody? You're supposed to be creative and hide it in place. There needs to be an aha moment. Like, oh, shit, I just got ice. It's an aha moment when you get ice because you weren't expecting it in the first place. No, but you were walking. I've got gift for you, and I unzip my pocket. Oh, look at what I found in my pocket. That's...
Speaker: No, no, you got me so good you got me good the first time where you I reached into the bag and looked for the cookies. But when I reached out for my shoe and I looked up my pant leg, oh, what's this? That's an aha moment. That sounds like you iced yourself. Exactly. oh you like I have to find it. When you dropped it in the cookie bag and I reached in, i was like, all right, you got me. So that one's valid. but I invite anybody if they do end up meeting me in Niigata.
Speaker: umm I'm happy to accept an ice without these ridiculous protocols. If you ice me, I will take it. All right, Eric. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. It's always good to have you, brother. Thanks. I hope you have a safe drive back to Niigata.
Speaker: Cheers. Crap town, baby. Crap. Crap out.
Speaker: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Buying a House in Japan. If you find the show helpful or at least entertaining, give us a five-star rating. Takes five seconds and really goes a long way. If you or someone you know is looking for a Japanese home, check out Akiyamart.com, our English-friendly site that lets you browse over half a million listings. That's A-K-I-Y-A-M-A-R-T.com to find your dream home in Japan. If you've got questions or feedback, drop us a line, email contact at akiamart.com. You can also find us on Instagram as well as TikTok, where we post properties, tips on the home buying process, and updates on our own purchases and renovations. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.
