Our hosts talk Japan (again) and end with a story that leaves them pondering if they might never have met.
✍🏻 View the transcript for this episode
Our hosts talk Japan (again) and end with a story that leaves them pondering if they might never have met.
We’ve gone old school, so you can email us! toastroastpod@gmail.com
Georgie 0:08
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Toast & Roast. I’m your co host, Georgie and as usual, I’m here with Geoff.
Geoff 0:15
Ugh. I’m pretty beat. Beat up Geoff.
Georgie 0:19
Beat.
Geoff 0:20
Yeah. My partner has a, is it called global games or something like that something like that, something that the corporates kind of like engage in, like a bunch of employees would form teams and they join these, uh...
Georgie 0:37
Like team bonding?
Geoff 0:38
No, it’s more like, what do you call it? We call it the, they call it a global games. And it’s like counting steps. So everybody in the teams have to get like—
Georgie 0:47
Like Olympics?
Geoff 0:48
A good amount of steps and it’s like for charity and stuff like that.
Georgie 0:52
Is that why I saw that you did like a 3.9 kilometre walk today?
Geoff 0:57
(laughs) Yes. It’s, the goal—
Georgie 1:00
I wasn’t stalking Geoff. We’re talking about Apple Watch.
Geoff 1:03
Yeah.
Georgie 1:03
Like fitness updates.
Geoff 1:04
Yeah. So the the thing is, like, we’re not, we’re not big outdoors people. So set my partner set up some goals, right, set up like we should do, or she should do, because she’s the one participating—5000 steps a week day. And these 10,000 steps on the weekends. So we set up a bunch of hikes—
Georgie 1:30
Yep.
Geoff 1:31
To go on. And actually like the other day, oh, where was it? Was it the Bay Run. No, it wasn’t. Spit to Manly. Yeah. Have you done the, you’ve done the Spit to Manly?
Georgie 1:44
No, I don’t think I have.
Geoff 1:46
So I mean, for people who don’t live in Sydney, which is I think a lot of our viewership it’s it’s a, this is bridge called the Spit. And—
Georgie 1:58
Up north Sydney, right?
Geoff 2:02
No, actually.
Georgie 2:04
Oh.
Geoff 2:04
The Spit, Mosman.
Georgie 2:06
That is so north Sydney.
Geoff 2:08
Okay. Yeah, it’s north Sydney. Yeah, yeah. So you start on this bridge, and you kind of walk under the bridge, and then you go along the coast in order to get to this other suburb called Manly. How long is the Spit to Manly? It’s really it’s, it’s pretty casual walk. It’s about, oh, that’s just a direct walk. Spit to Manly walk... I can’t exactly remember, so the distance is 10 kilometres. And it’s about three and a half hours.
Georgie 2:37
Oh OK, yeah, so that’s, that’s like, the average hike.
Geoff 2:39
It’s quite nice walk.
Georgie 2:40
Like a walk, right?
Geoff 2:41
Yeah.
Georgie 2:42
Not a hike-hike.
Geoff 2:43
Not a hike-hike. It’s just a walk. It’s grade three, whatever that means. Suitable for various ages and fitness levels. Yeah. In any case.
Georgie 2:54
So it’s not easy. It’s like actually moderate.
Geoff 2:56
Yeah.
Georgie 2:56
I think grade one is, I think grade one is actually accessible. So someone using a wheelchair can use it.
Geoff 3:01
Ah, right.
Georgie 3:02
Yeah, grade two is, like, easy, but it’s not going to be as accessible. And then grade three, I guess it’s pretty average.
Geoff 3:11
Yeah.
Georgie 3:11
Average, but maybe a challenge if you’re not very fit.
Geoff 3:15
In any case, on these walks. We overhear some pretty, like, random snippets or conversations, like.
Georgie 3:23
(laughs) Yeah, OK, yep, yep, yep. Alright, go on, listening
Geoff 3:27
This couple the other, like this pair of people who were the other day, it’s just every, like random snippets, right. So one was talking about their health insurance. Like Medicare. And then then, and then, you get a snippet of like, oh, what was the, I remember someone talking about something about... tech, tech kind of work thing, and I’m like haha, I know what they’re talking about. Just like some office stuff. And one of them was like really weird where this guy—these are middle aged people—and, and, they’re like, “it’s a, it’s a nice day, say nice things”. And I really thought like, and so all she could muster, all she said after that was, “I love you”. And I’m like, wait—
Georgie 4:22
Woah. That’s a weird conversation.
Geoff 4:24
The only thing you could muster after being told to say nice things is I love you. And so my guess is that either she woke up on the wrong side of bed a little bit cranky. And he’s just like, whoa, it’s a nice day say nice things, but still, it’s a weird sentiment.
Georgie 4:41
You sure she wasn’t just like joking, like they were just having banter?
Geoff 4:44
No man, it was pretty serious. Yes is like this is a middle aged couple here.
Georgie 4:52
(laughs)
Geoff 4:52
So it really perplexed me, I’m like, in what way does a nice day imply that you must say nice things—
Georgie 4:57
Yeah.
Geoff 4:58
To each other. Um.
Georgie 5:00
Right, yeah.
Geoff 5:01
Weather based conversations.
Georgie 5:05
Well to be fair I think like it is a science, scientifically proven that in poor weather like if it’s rainy or really cloudy it can get people’s mood down, so I understand that.
Geoff 5:15
Yeah, I think yeah mood being affected by weather, but yeah. It’s kind of to me it’s in the same vibe as like, “smile more”, like.
Georgie 5:26
Oh fuck off, man. This is the quintessential, like, “women should smile more” comment thing.
Geoff 5:32
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, it’s like why are you so sad? Or why are you so grumpy? It’s a nice day. Like so what if it’s a nice day?
Georgie 5:40
So what if it’s... it’s a nice day but my mum died or something.
Geoff 5:46
Yeah, dammit. So always hear like these these random snippets of conversations. We did the Bay Run which was a little bit more traffic heavy, like my god there were like people coming at us and going up and like riding bikes and it’s a four lane—
Georgie 6:05
Which one’s the Bay Run?
Geoff 6:07
It’s like a four lane... oh where is it.
Georgie 6:09
I feel like I’d hate it. Do you have to run? (laughs) That’s the part I want... do you have to run?
Geoff 6:17
It’s a mandate. You must run. So it’s, it’s around this this section here and you can go right around. So—
Georgie 6:28
Ah yeah, I vaguely remember this. Yeah. Okay. I think of being around here. Maybe?
Geoff 6:35
Yeah, at some points—
Georgie 6:36
Oh it’s near Birkenhead Point. Okay, I get it. I get it. Fucking Birkenhead Point.
Geoff 6:40
Yeah, at some points, it’s a four lane—
Georgie 6:41
My mum wanted to go to Birkenhead Point outlets all the time.
Geoff 6:45
Wait, there are outlets at Birkenhead Point?
Georgie 6:47
Yeah, there’s a Birkenhead Point shopping centre. So the entire thing is a goddamn outlet.
Geoff 6:52
Oh, that’s pretty cool. Birken...
Georgie 6:54
Don’t tell anybody. (laughs)
Geoff 6:56
(laughs) Don’t tell anyone. Birkenhead, oh, we walked past it. But we didn’t realise it was—
Georgie 7:03
It’s like there, right there, the whole thing is all like marked down shit. So get your 50% off or less Lululemon gear, everybody.
Geoff 7:12
So yeah, we walk along here, and then we go up onto the bridge and then walk over so, I really didn’t see that. Okay, well. There’s a shop called Material Obsession. Well, we’re very materialistic on this channel.
Georgie 7:28
Oh, wait, I know. I know. No, I know this bridge because I think I’ve driven over it. Yeah.
Geoff 7:33
Yeah.
Georgie 7:33
Yeah. Yeah.
Geoff 7:34
Yeah, we’re always driving over this one. Because technically, like on this... was it on this side? There’s like a bunch of lit up trees or something like that. And I’m always driving along it to get to the city. So in any case, this bend here, and the trees over here. Anyways, so much traffic. It’s like a four lane walking and bike path.
Georgie 8:00
Yeah.
Geoff 8:01
It’s crazy. Like sometimes it’s a four lane. Sometimes it’s a one lane. And the bikes have to go through where the people are walking. It’s crazy. It’s madness. But lots of people are like walking their babies and stuff like that, the prams—
Georgie 8:15
Oh the prams and stuff.
Geoff 8:16
And then like, I realised that this might be the only way to like, like, I don’t know, hang out with pregnant people sometimes because they have to go for a walks. So you just go for this long walk around this loop?
Georgie 8:31
I don’t know. I think I think it’s, like I live in an area where there’s a lot of families. So you do see—
Geoff 8:39
Pregos.
Georgie 8:39
People pushing their... don’t call them that! There’s a lot of people with kids.
Geoff 8:45
Yeah, okay.
Georgie 8:46
Or they’re, maybe they’re expecting kids, whatever. But mostly because they have their prams and stuff, they they have kids, and they... you see them, the active—the thing is, you can’t—
Geoff 8:57
Activewear.
Georgie 8:57
No, as in like they’re very active.
Geoff 9:00
Yeah.
Georgie 9:00
So you can tell that they’re fit or they take care of their health and they want to walk around a lot. And the I guess there’s a social aspect of like talking to other parents or whatever.
Geoff 9:08
Yeah.
Georgie 9:09
But I feel like that may not actually be everyone. Like I don’t think everyone is active, like every person has a pram and has kids who sit in a pram is. Yeah, so I don’t know how much percentage of the population that actually has—
Geoff 9:25
It’s a lot of percentage here.
Georgie 9:26
...of people with kids. Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the gathering point, right?
Geoff 9:30
Yeah.
Georgie 9:31
Yeah.
Geoff 9:33
So it got dicey at some stage because, uh, so there was just so many people going back and forth. Oh, at one point, we were worried. Because while we were walking, we saw people who passed us come towards us, like turn around at some point and walk towards us.
Georgie 9:50
Yeah?
Geoff 9:50
We were like holy shit. Can we not go across the bridge on the other side? Because we parked like, in a very specific, we parked at the car park. And if you couldn’t do the loop you basically have to walk back the way you came back to the carpark so we were very worried at some point, like that person, they turned around why? Why did they turn around?
Georgie 10:11
Maybe they parked on that side. The opposite side.
Geoff 10:14
Yeah, if they parked on this side on the opposite side then yes, they would they would run up and then and then walk back and then turn around but like yeah, lots and lots of those kind of like, because we we saw people halfway, quarter way, third of a way like at every point in time we saw someone just like turn around and come back towards us. So we were worried—
Georgie 10:35
Cos are there multiple places to park? Like it’s not—
Geoff 10:37
Yeah. There are lots of ways to park, like on the end, end of the of the walking and park midway you can park all sorts of places. So by the end of the walk, we did surmise that they probably just parked midway and they didn’t want to do the whole Bay Run but it did get us worried at some stage because we couldn’t see them turn around that they did and we’re like, oh crap. Is there no loop? But it is indeed a loop. We went out to Lane Cove today... Macquarie, yeah Lane Cove?
Georgie 11:15
Like Macquarie Shopping Centre...?
Geoff 11:17
No, Lane Cove Park, National Park.
Georgie 11:20
Oh, yeah, I’ve been there once. I didn’t spend a lot of time there though. I need to go back there. And like actually...
Geoff 11:27
Yeah, there is a glamping area here. If...
Georgie 11:32
Haven’t we talked about this? We’ve talked about this. Dissed on it.
Geoff 11:36
Yeah, there’s a glamping area around here. I would go glamping if that’s the, if you wanted me to go camping. The closest thing I’ll go to camping is glamping.
Georgie 11:49
Are the walking tracks good?
Geoff 11:51
I think the one we went on was all right. Yep. On a road a little bit then in the bush a little bit. Wasn’t too difficult. There’s the Riverside walking track, which is much longer than the one we did. What else is here? I’m sure there’s a... Yeah the thing is—
Georgie 12:08
Lots of picnic areas.
Geoff 12:10
Lots of picnic areas. Oh my god. Like that was the only milestone I had. Like I was just we’re just walking and I’m like, okay, we’ve reached this picnic, picnic area. And then we keep walking, like okay, we reached this picnic area. Oh, we got gypped though. So there’s this weird part where you’re walking along. And the idea, the idea for this hike was like you would be able to go up and then come back and then like, kind of a loop but more like an eye shape. So you start straight, you take one path to the left and go all the way to the top.
Georgie 12:44
Oh and then come back down and parallel?
Geoff 12:45
And then you go around to the right hand side. And then you can fork, the fork and you go around the right hand side. Could never find the fork like there’s a fork, supposed to be right here. And we go all the way up here. And then we’re like, okay, cool. And then we come, come way back and like there’s there’s couldn’t find the fork. So we ended up just walking back the same way we came.
Georgie 13:05
Oh, this is like a problem with hikes and like I don’t, like someone asked me like what What app do you use for hikes? Or do you use any resource? I’m like, I just like research extensively. So I use a variety of sources like, yeah, like maps, maybe just look it up on people’s blogs, like YouTube or whatever, depending on how hike-hike the hike is. Sometimes, like when we were in Scandinavia and we looked at a few things, it would say there’s a fork here according to Google, but then Apple will be like no, or you can’t gauge the sort of the nature of the fork. Like it might just be like you’re going right into the bush and it’s probably not a good idea and you get like bitten and stuff or you’re going up a really muddy trail or an extremely—you can’t tell.
Geoff 13:49
Yeah.
Georgie 13:50
So sometimes it’s just really tricky.
Geoff 13:53
I mean like even the even the trail, even the national parks like map thing was like, there is a fork here because it’s a loop but they, they it was still, still very questionable. Anyways. So that was a bit of a bummer that it wasn’t a loop but we made it back and forth and managed to survive, once again, another hike. The blog thing actually, you know it’s the you went to the super curly bridge?
Georgie 14:30
Offersoy—oh right, oh the—
Geoff 14:31
Oh crap I forgot what it’s called.
Georgie 14:34
Oh my god I’ve forgotten. Sea Cliff.
Geoff 14:37
Sea Cliff. Yeah Sea Cliff. So so I don’t know if I mentioned on the podcast, as well because—
Georgie 14:41
You have. It’s the one that’s treacherous and shit and is now closed.
Geoff 14:45
Yeah, yeah, that part.
Georgie 14:46
Or are you talking about a different one?
Geoff 14:47
Like, we looked up a blog when we’re like, up on the top of the bridge, looked up like the blog and the blog’s like, oh, because we don’t know where to exit. Because—
Georgie 14:57
Yeah.
Geoff 14:58
You basically climb a dirt, a dirt wall ish slope to get up there in the first place. And you don’t want to go down the same way because it’s really steep.
Georgie 15:08
Yep.
Geoff 15:09
So the question of how do you get down? And we looked up a blog—
Georgie 15:14
Is this where you found the train tracks?
Geoff 15:16
And then the train tracks. Yeah, so the, we read it on some random person’s blog that told us, hey, you just got to break into the train tracks. Which is illegal, by the way, you can’t walk next to train tracks. If anyone was wondering. So, yeah, the blogs are very... they’re like, it’s unmarked. And it’s probably illegal. But that’s how you—
Georgie 15:40
Your own risk?
Geoff 15:40
Yeah. You do it. You, you gotta get down somehow. And you should, you should go to the train tracks. No trains came along. Nobody picked us up for it. So it just silently had to go under the closed gates at the end, because we weren’t sure we could actually exit.
Georgie 15:59
Yeah, you did tell this. Oh, my gosh, I feel I feel like the thing is, like, I like reading blog posts that are detail hikes. And you know, supplementing that with like YouTube videos, if someone’s recorded some key points on video is very useful. But somehow, it’s still very difficult to sort of translate that to when you’re looking at it in real life. You’re like, what did I see in the blog post? Like, which part? And you’re obviously like, terrain can change over time because of weather and stuff. So I don’t know if there’s a better way to like, do that. Like, do you need a 360? Do you, I don’t know.
Geoff 16:34
You what you could do?
Georgie 16:35
Maybe you need to start marking the trail, you know how some trails are unmarked? Maybe you need to be that person, like start painting onto the some of the rocks so that people know the right way to go.
Geoff 16:44
No. Now that you have an iPhone 15 pro, you can record in stereo vision. And so you should record your hike instead. And then when it gets uploaded to the Apple Vision, you can have the point of interest—
Georgie 17:02
(laughs)
Geoff 17:02
...virtually, and someone could hike with your Apple Vision.
Georgie 17:06
Oh my god, you know this probably something that someone might actually do.
Geoff 17:11
HikeVision, Pro.
Georgie 17:15
Watch this come up on Shark Tank.
Geoff 17:17
Oh man, just go up there with the concept and a slideshow and say I’ve not built anything. Just like—
Georgie 17:24
But please.
Geoff 17:25
Please invest.
Georgie 17:25
Please fund. Yeah, please.
Geoff 17:26
Please fund it. Oh man, going hiking with your Apple V... I would not recommend a headset whilst you’re hiking but.
Georgie 17:36
No man, like especially if it’s a really like strenuous hike, it’d just fall off your head. You’d just get tired and hot.
Geoff 17:42
Yeah, and your battery pack has to be huge.
Georgie 17:45
Yeah, of course, of course.
Geoff 17:47
Huge battery pack. Oh, speaking of—
Georgie 17:52
Why don’t you just use a drone?
Geoff 17:54
But the drone wouldn’t have 3D vision. Unless you give 3D vision to the drone, I suppose.
Georgie 18:02
Like what if you hike, and you get somebody else to like not do the hike but to operate the drone? Is that gonna work?
Geoff 18:11
To do what? What’s the drone do?
Georgie 18:12
To move the drone behind you like so it’s it’s following you but you don’t have to wear anything or whatever.
Geoff 18:18
Oh to record and then put that on a virtual—
Georgie 18:21
Fuck that’d be annoying. I cannot do a hike with a drone behind me going “hngggg”.
Geoff 18:27
Yeah, anyways, we, oh. We booked all our Japan stuff actually technically, we’ve booked all the accommodation I guess.
Georgie 18:35
Glico Man is waiting for you.
Geoff 18:38
Yes, Glico Man. It’s not that’s the only one on the list.
Georgie 18:43
Well, I just said it because like someone I know is there right now and I was like, I don’t know, it was just the first thing I thought of, I was like, go and see Glico Man.
Geoff 18:54
I mean it’s hard to avoid Glico Man, to be honest. As long as you’re going to Osaka, there is no way you would miss Glico Man.
Georgie 19:03
Like I don’t know why, hang on. I actually don’t really know why exactly like Glico man is—
Geoff 19:08
Glico Man? Oh, he’s he’s the he’s the company that makes Pocky.
Georgie 19:13
He’s a mascot though?
Geoff 19:14
He’s a mascot for Pocky. I’m pretty sure. Glico Man, wiki? I’m pretty sure Glico is the company that makes Pocky.
Georgie 19:27
Oh, yeah, wait. Yeah, but I mean the man himself.
Geoff 19:31
Oh, you want to know why they use as a man as a—
Georgie 19:34
Yeah, like why is the mascot like this man running?
Geoff 19:39
This is a Wiki on Dotonbori for some reason. Giant athlete on a blue track symbol of Glico candy, the sign has been altered and several occasions. Okay, let’s go with Glico wiki.... Why is your mascot a man running? Oh my god. All right. Glico...
Georgie 20:08
Meaning. Glico Man meaning.
Geoff 20:10
Man meaning. Originally...
Georgie 20:14
That’s it. It’s just like, it’s just this, but why?
Geoff 20:17
Is the Glico Man. It’s the unofficial mascot of Dotonbori.
Georgie 20:21
(laughs) So it actually is, okay.
Geoff 20:24
Wait.
Georgie 20:25
Who is it based on?
Geoff 20:26
So oh, it was first erected 1935 is an advertisement for Glico, the Japanese food company that which is Pocky and Pretz. So it’s not actually the, it’s not actually the the mascot for Glico, it’s an ad.
Georgie 20:41
It’s just an old ad. It’s just been like—
Geoff 20:45
Oh, Glico was the main sponsor of the anime series Tetsujin 28. which I’m assuming is why it’s a sports thing.
Georgie 20:59
I don’t know?
Geoff 21:00
This is weird. The giant neon sign has been revised celebrate events such as World Cup. So basically, it’s just a really weird ad just like every other ad in Japan. (laughs) So yeah, go see Glico Man? Probably. We basically like researched a bunch of like things to do in Japan. And then like divided them—
Georgie 21:30
Did you ask ChatGPT just to get—
Geoff 21:32
I tried, but ChatGPT’s just not very good.
Georgie 21:35
Misses the mark.
Geoff 21:36
Have you have you tried? Getting it to do your itinerary for you?
Georgie 21:41
No, I can’t trust it. Don’t trust automation.
Geoff 21:42
Japan... Yeah, I think it was like 15 day Japan itinerary. So, one to, day 1 to 3, Tokyo, you—three days in Tokyo, dude. Okay?
What’s wrong with that? First time I was there I spent like 10 days there.
Exactly. I mean, like, they didn’t even ask how, how many times you’ve been but, but let’s go with, okay. Three days you arrive, you explore neighbourhood, recover from jetlag, day one, so you don’t even—okay. You visit Asakusa? Sure. Asakusa. You explore Shinjuku and then you’re off to Hakone. This is a very expensive trip. Look how many times you have to change, bloody, oh it’s a day trip, to Nara?
Georgie 22:32
Okay. So why didn’t you like this doing it? For, what, what did it not give you?
Geoff 22:37
Well, I mean, it’s sort of... I don’t think it take takes into account like the proximity of all this stuff. It’s kind of just says like, go do them. But you could be all over the shop. I think.
Georgie 22:52
Like it could be done better.
Geoff 22:54
Yeah, it’s like, and it only says explore Shinjuku and Akihabara. And they’re on opposite sides of Tokyo. It’s not like, I mean, it’s easy to get between them. But it doesn’t, doesn’t like, you could do Shinjuku and Shibuya, which makes a bit more sense. That’s what we’re doing is because it’s on the same side of Tokyo. And you can do Akihabara and an Asakusa, I think are on the same side. So why wouldn’t you do those two things together? I don’t know where Harajuku is compared to Asakusa. But you know, I think that’s, that’s the thing that I kind of find weird sometimes. In any case, it’s a lot of things. It’s a lot of different places, travel, day trip, travel, visit.
Georgie 23:45
Yeah, there’s a lot of like travel. And I’m like, I’m not sure if like, that’s enough time to get to the thing and also spend enough time there.
Geoff 23:52
Yeah, how many? How many hours of travel? Are you on this? And, like, can you like reasonably spend a whole day doing this stuff? I think time is just a little bit strange. But I guess it’s just to give you a good—
Georgie 24:07
It’s a guide.
Geoff 24:08
A guide thing. And then you can say like, include a bunch of anime things. Let’s see if. There you go.
Georgie 24:20
Yeah you did, you did this last time.
Geoff 24:22
Did I? Oh yeah, we already did this topic.
Georgie 24:24
Yeah you totally did.
Geoff 24:25
We already did this topic.
Georgie 24:27
But like you said, so you said you didn’t, you don’t really have specific things planned.
Geoff 24:33
The, now we do. So we went and got a bunch of just stuff to do. And then we like estimated how long each of those things and then to how, to read, to put them reasonably in like a day. How many things we could get done in a day. But yeah, I think it’s even like Japan to me is a bit more complicated than, than other places. Because of its transportation system that, you, like I guess it depends on how much you care about it. But to me, it’s like planning where you’re gonna go and how many and what trains you take it’s like, gives you a sense of what what kind of passes to buy, because in Japan there’s lots of different passes as that will, that will make travel either easier or cheaper because you can get like a 14 day pass. And everything you do on that train line will be free. So that’s great. But you have to know that you’re going to use that train line—
Georgie 25:39
Not free, included.
Geoff 25:40
Included. So you you pay, I don’t know 100, 100 bucks for the 14 day pass. And if you travel enough on it, then it makes it worth it. But if you don’t—
Georgie 25:51
You kind of got to know everything that, or roughly where you’re going to be, and what you’re going to—
Geoff 25:56
Yeah.
Georgie 25:56
Places you’re going to, to see if those like multiday passes are like worth it
Geoff 26:01
Yeah, I think shinkansen is also really expensive. So you want to make sure that, like you’re utilising a pass of some sort, a bundled deal of some sort. And if you get the bundle deal, is it worth it? If you don’t actually go that, take it too, like often enough.
Georgie 26:26
There’s also train lines that are not included, because they are owned by different companies.
Geoff 26:31
Yeah.
Georgie 26:31
So that’s something you have to consider as well.
Geoff 26:36
So yeah, I think because of the transportation system, and if you really want to get the best bang for buck, then you’re kind of, kind of had to plan a little bit more. To be fair, in the past I’ve never planned this much. Around around Japan. I just like went there just spent all the money.
Georgie 26:58
Went there and explored?
Geoff 26:59
Just went there, spent all the money.
Georgie 27:02
It’s good to have a bit of both. I think.
Geoff 27:04
Yeah, yeah. Any case, I think it’s pretty interesting to see a bunch of stuff that I didn’t see before because I had never planned to see very many things in Japan. I just like going, to be honest. I just, I could—
Georgie 27:17
Yeah, you just like being there.
Geoff 27:19
Yeah, I could sit there.
Georgie 27:21
Having so much sushi for only 20 bucks.
Geoff 27:23
Oh my god, the fried chicken. A lot of people don’t know.
Georgie 27:26
Yeah?
Geoff 27:27
Fried chicken in Japan is really good and really cheap.
Georgie 27:31
Pretty sure it’s good in Korea as well.
Geoff 27:34
Yeah, but I think a lot of people think that Japan like is all about healthy eating. Like it’s a bit strange.
Georgie 27:43
Have you seen their snacks?
Geoff 27:44
Yeah, yeah, and I know it’s a bit strange. I’m like oh, the diet, like Japanese is so small and thin. They must be on a really healthy diet and must be all the sushi—
Georgie 27:52
It’s like a societal—
Geoff 27:52
The sashimi and stuff like that.
Georgie 27:54
I’ve heard it’s a societal pressure to kind of stay active and stay thin, not, and basically not eat not eat too much is their kind of thing. So whether—
Geoff 28:03
That’s interesting.
Georgie 28:03
...their foods are actually nutritious or quote unquote healthy, like what do you mean by healthy? That’s, that’s another question.
Geoff 28:08
Yeah.
Georgie 28:09
I’ve heard that it’s more of societal pressure to be small.
Geoff 28:13
Yeah, that’s another thing I appreciate all their food, all their servings sizes are the size that I eat. So—
Georgie 28:24
They’re not like this double cheese but like massive like with so many fry, and you’re like I got a doggie bag this.
Geoff 28:31
Yeah.
Georgie 28:31
Which, by the way is called “take this home” I think. in any other country.
Geoff 28:35
Take away?
Georgie 28:37
Nah like yeah, yeah, can I take this, get this to go?
Geoff 28:41
To go. Yeah.
Georgie 28:42
Yeah, yeah, we what do we say? Yeah, can I get this in a doggie bag.
Geoff 28:46
I honestly haven’t heard the phrase doggy bag in so long.
Georgie 28:50
In a long time? Yeah. But it’s also Aussie, right?
Geoff 28:53
Yeah. So yeah.
Georgie 28:56
Oh. Did you ever watch The Chaser’s War on Everything?
Geoff 28:59
I’ve heard of it, but I don’t think I actually watched any of it.
Georgie 29:02
Oh my god, I feel like, I feel like it know so many people like that who have said that they heard of it. They know of it. They know the people from it, but they never watched it. So it was this, how do I yeah, let’s go to the Wikipedia.
Geoff 29:15
This picture is so damn small. I can’t see anything.
Georgie 29:19
Well, there were some some people on the show who had like journalism experience. And the show was kind of satirical about like current affairs and other such things. And it was, it was Australian. But the reason I brought it up was they did this one sort of skit on doing like getting, getting the stuff to go like when you couldn’t finish it in a restaurant, “doggie bagging” it, was the language that they used in the skit, and they were trying to see how much they could get away, or how little, they could get away with taking home right? If you leave like an entire piece of chicken and a bunch of rice and you say can I get this to go home? Yeah, no questions asked. But what if you just had like, a spoonful of rice, you know, what if you—so, the most extreme one that they did was one grain of rice. And the guy was like, can I, can I get this? Like, can I doggy bag this? And it was like, what, get what? Like this? It’s like, there’s none left? It’s like yeah, look, there’s like one grain of rice, and they were just like, oh fuck off. I don’t know, it’s probably on YouTube.
Geoff 30:29
Well, these days they charge you for the boxes. So—
Georgie 30:33
Yeah.
Geoff 30:34
I wouldn’t try, I wouldn’t spend 30 cents or 20 cents or whatever amount of money just to, like take a single grain of rice. But yeah, I mean, generally, a lot of a lot of Chinese servings are always too big for—
Georgie 30:54
Yep.
Geoff 30:54
Me, even with my partner there. I think the last time we went to Chinese restaurant we just ordered like five dishes because we knew that we weren’t we weren’t going to finish them, but we knew they were going to take them away. So we did it on purpose. It’s kind of. So.
Georgie 31:11
Ah, because what Nick does is like, does is he will order sometimes he’ll order Chinese takeaway. And he’ll just eat it over two dinners.
Yeah.
Because yeah, because there’s always like so much rice, and a lot of food.
Geoff 31:26
Exactly. So we ordered like for variety. We ordered like five different dishes and then, with the purpose, with this goal of take—
Georgie 31:32
You didn’t take it home?
Geoff 31:32
Yeah we did.
Georgie 31:33
Oh you did.
Geoff 31:34
Yeah like the goal of taking it away.
Georgie 31:37
That’s your dinner for the rest of the week.
Geoff 31:39
Exactly. But yeah, in any case, so I’m looking forward to the food portions. Gonna be good, except the ramen, I think I still I can finish—
Georgie 31:52
Not enough?
Geoff 31:52
...a bowl of ramen. I used to be able to finish a bowl of ramen. But I think nowadays I don’t. I don’t, I’m not able to finish. I think their bowls of ramen are quite large. Because they love ramen.
Georgie 32:03
You can, you can get more noodles if you do want.
Geoff 32:05
Yeah. Yeah. Have you heard of the wasabi thing? Where—
Georgie 32:10
What’s the wasabi thing?
Geoff 32:11
The like, I think a restaurant in Japan or something. Maybe I’ve told this story multiple times. But like, this restaurant in Japan realised that every Caucasian would come in and ask for more spice, more wasabi because they loved it. So they started just giving every Caucasian more wasabi. Like no matter who it was—
Georgie 32:34
Oh, I vaguely remember this.
Geoff 32:35
So they got called out for being racist. And I was thinking, isn’t that just good customer service? If like a huge demographic walks in every time and asks for the same thing. Like giving them more of it. It’s—
Georgie 32:49
Maybe?
Geoff 32:50
It is slightly racist. Because not everybody, not—
Georgie 32:53
Yeah, you’re just assuming that every white person—
Geoff 32:55
Yeah.
Georgie 32:55
Yeah, likes wasabi.
Geoff 32:57
To them it’s just good customer service. But hey, that’s Japan. Okay, everybody, if everyone didn’t know, they’re famously known for being super racist, so.
Georgie 33:10
I thought you were gonna say that they’re very nice.
Geoff 33:12
Yeah, they’re two faced about it. But.
Georgie 33:15
Euuu yeah.
Geoff 33:16
Yeah. The facade. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos about how like, they, like interviewing... they interviewed a Caucasian that actually was born and grew up in Japan, but still doesn’t get anywhere with people. Like they they can’t breach the polite. like, they can, they can’t make friends, like deeper connections.
Georgie 33:41
It’s like subtle racism like comm—communal racism. Like, yeah, I’ve heard, yes, I’ve heard of this.
Geoff 33:47
Yeah. And they get asked where are you from? And they’re like, I’m from like, Japan. And then “where are you frooom?”
Georgie 33:55
Isn’t Isn’t this like, what’s her name, Naomi Osaka, maybe the tennis player. So she’s like, Haitian Japanese. But she plays for Japan. And...
Geoff 34:07
Oh.
Georgie 34:08
She is Japanese. And I think she wrote a memoir, or she, I think she wrote a book I’m not sure about which obviously would have detailed some of her experiences. Of like being treated differently because she has dark skin and like curly hair but she is Japanese.
Geoff 34:25
Yeah, it’s rough. So it’s sort of like the he speaks the language perfectly. He has all the cultural cultural background because he’s lived there for his entire life but yep, still still not, still not inclusive. And I think even like the Japanese themselves, like I don’t, I think they just okay with the with not, with the, it’s cultural difference, I guess. Like how deep is a relationship with a friend supposed to be depending on what culture you’re from. It could be everything from hey, all I do is catch up in talking about the weather with this person. And you don’t really talk about anything much else. But yeah, some people want to know your dirty laundry and things like that. It’s just not gonna happen.
Georgie 35:14
Want to? Or you just tell them?
Geoff 35:16
You just tell them?
Georgie 35:17
Without any warning.
Geoff 35:19
Oh my god. Yes, I know people like that too. It just like, out of the blue.
Georgie 35:25
They just overshare.
Geoff 35:26
And then they ask you about it to make you over share. Let’s see...
Georgie 35:32
I mean, I think I’m an open person. But, and I do agree with the fact that if someone opens up to you about some personal thing, and you don’t know them that well, you might be like, you might trust them more. So then you might be like, okay, I’ll share you a little piece of like, yeah, my story with you. But yeah, I know some people who are just like, well, that was like too much like, it would depend on your dynamic with the person I would say.
Geoff 35:56
Yeah. Was that how we became friends?
Georgie 36:02
Yeah, actually, yeah. No, I was thinking of like, okay, I don’t know if you believe in fucking fate or whatever.
Geoff 36:07
No.
Georgie 36:07
I was joking with my friend about, yeah, about the whole, like, I came across this—this is how this started, I came across this Reel. And I got really bogged, I got really down in the comments, reading people’s what people said in response to this Reel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the real again, because Instagram is really annoying—
Geoff 36:27
(laughs) Reely annoying?
Georgie 36:28
Reely! So it was this woman who I believe was an author. And unfortunately, I forget her name. I think she was of Asian, southeast Southeast Asian descent. And she said, she never told anyone this story. But there was a big tsunami somewhere in Asia, and she wanted to go and take the speedboat with her family. She and her brother really wanted to go in the speedboat to travel to the place where the tsunami ended up happening. But their dad was like, no, let’s take the ferry. It’ll be like slower, and they were just like, No, we just want to take the speedboat. But they wanted to take the ferry. And thus be like six hours on the sea, like a really long journey.
Geoff 37:06
Yeah.
Georgie 37:06
But it turns out that had they taken the speedboat they would have been on the beach and arrived at the time the tsunami hit, but because they were on the sea, they ended up living because everybody who got on who was on the beach, that they died because of the tsunami, you know, we all would have been dead, and I wouldn’t be here. And so people were sharing lots of stories of where they had that moment where it just felt like their life changed forever, quote, unquote.
Geoff 37:30
Yeah.
Georgie 37:31
And yeah, that got me thinking about things like fate and like, what what people believe, like, when they think, oh, if this didn’t happen, then I wouldn’t have, whatever. And like the way that we met, I think it was like some person came to Sydney, and wanted to just hang out and meet some people, because we only knew each other—
Geoff 37:47
True.
Georgie 37:47
Through this, through this Slack, what do we say, like community, front-end developer community.
Geoff 37:52
Oh, yeah. True. Yeah the Slack front end community.
Georgie 37:55
Yeah. And someone was like, I’m in Sydney, like, who’s here and who wants to hang out?
Geoff 37:59
And we were going to meetups—
Georgie 37:59
And I dunno, I guess—
Geoff 38:00
Right? Like, I think...
Georgie 38:04
We went to Din Tai Fung.
Geoff 38:06
After a meetup, wasn’t it?
Georgie 38:07
Oh was that after a meetup?
Geoff 38:09
Or was it purposefully? That’s really weird.
Georgie 38:10
I think it was purposefully and we were just like, let’s go to this food court, easy.
Geoff 38:13
That’s really weird. Right?
Georgie 38:15
Why? You think it’s unlike you to have just said, “yeah, I’ll show up”?
Geoff 38:18
I think that was my yes-vember. I think I just said “yes” to everything that this dude wanted to do so...
Georgie 38:25
So then if you didn’t do your yes-vember we wouldn’t have actually talked in person. And I wouldn’t, maybe have not. I honestly would maybe not have bothered to say “Hey, Geoff, I see you’re in Sydney. Wanna meet up some time?”
Geoff 38:35
Yeah. No, I don’t do that. I don’t even do that for work. We have a Slack specifically for like the city community. And I’m like dead silent in there.
Georgie 38:42
(laughs)
Geoff 38:45
Yeah, okay. So I vague, vaguely, I remember that part. And I think I didn’t realise it was a specifically like, Hey, you, you, you, you you do you wanna just come to Din Tai Fung and have dinner? It’s like, it was really weird.
Georgie 39:03
I thought I, did they ask you? Did they actually start a DM? Was that what it was?
Geoff 39:07
I don’t know how that happened. To be honest.
Georgie 39:09
I’ve forgotten now.
Geoff 39:11
Is there, save the chat? We can, every now and then Slack gives you Slack premium. And you can go through the history of all the chat. So next time—
Georgie 39:22
Oh really?
Geoff 39:22
When that—
Georgie 39:22
I’m sadly like not active in that group anymore.
Geoff 39:27
Eh, it’s all a bunch of Perthians. Anyone who’s not in the Slack channels... So, but I mean, that’s not, that’s not when we became friends. That’s just when we first met.
Georgie 39:44
Oh, that’s just when we met. Right. (laughs) Okay, now I know I can’t remember.
Geoff 39:49
Yeah.
Georgie 39:49
I don’t know what happened. Then we did code, I don’t, I don’t know, we did codebar.
Geoff 39:53
Yeah. How did I get suckered into codebar?
Georgie 39:56
Yeah, you were the last—
Geoff 39:57
For people who don’t know, codebar was something that Georgie and I used to um, co host I suppose with a couple of other people to help, mainly minority and minorities transition to tech, or anybody really—
Georgie 40:15
Learn how to code, yeah.
Geoff 40:16
Learn, learn to code.
Georgie 40:18
I was focused on people in minority groups. So yeah.
Geoff 40:21
Yeah. And I don’t even know how I got suckered into doing that, because not even our mutual friend like ponied up.
Georgie 40:31
No, it was, wasn’t it, Mike?
Geoff 40:33
Yeah.
Georgie 40:34
Oh no, it was Charlotte.
Geoff 40:36
Charlotte?
Georgie 40:37
Charlotte.
Geoff 40:38
I don’t know how people convince me to do these things. I feel like—
Georgie 40:40
No, you’re right. I, I’m trying, I think what I think what I remembered is, I think, I think Charlotte talked to me.
Geoff 40:48
Yeah.
Georgie 40:48
Independent of stuff.
Geoff 40:50
Yeah.
Georgie 40:50
That was what happened. And she said she’d already talked to Mike.
Geoff 40:53
Yeah.
Georgie 40:54
And then. Oh, my god, I actually forget.
Geoff 40:59
I bet I bet. I bet it’s you who then con, try, convinced me to do this.
Georgie 41:04
It probably, could have been and now I don’t even remember. (laughs)
Geoff 41:09
Anyways, that was a long time ago. You know what else is a long time ago, the start of this episode. (laughs)
Georgie 41:14
(laughs)
Geoff 41:18
So you can’t follow us on any social media, but you can email, email us on toastroastpod@gmail.com.
Georgie 41:27
And you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts and the big doggie bag.
Geoff 41:34
Ooh. And new episodes every Monday so...
Georgie 41:39
See you next week.
Geoff 41:41
Bye.