Proving We Are TRULY Trash Men | Trash Taste #96
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- Hello, you fabulous fun bags. Welcome back to another episode of Trash Taste Podcast. - Oh my God. - I'm fun bag number one with fun bag number two and three. - Are you feeling fun today, Joey? - I'm feeling super fun today. - I got to say, you kind of look like fucking Rocky Balboa, like about to like run up those steps right now. - It's a very sports like jumper. - Is it? - It does look like the stereotypical, I'm about to montage. - I walked in the office and Maylene called me a fuck boy.

And I don't know if I appreciated that at all. - It's just your short hair and no beard. - It's the short hair beanie and the rings. I don't know. - Did you shave your facial hair? - Yeah, we all did. - Yeah, we all did. - For the charity stream that we just finished. - People are gonna be like, "Oh my God, this episode is so, they recorded this so long ago." - Yeah, I know.

- Really dating ourselves. We were like, "Yeah, we just recorded the charity stream." - Yeah. - Which was probably- - For you guys, it was like a month ago. - Yeah, for us it was two days ago. - I think it was a month and a half ago. - Yeah. - More than that, yeah. - Probably. Yeah, we're trying to get ahead before we fly off once again. - But yeah, if you guys didn't know about it, we just finished a 24 hour charity stream for Doctors Without Borders and it was extremely successful.

- Yeah, I was very surprised. We raised 176, but we haven't added the amounts that we- - It's about 180, I think total. - About 180, adding everything that we collected in total. - That's nuts. - Which is absolutely fucking nuts. I don't know what we expected out of this charity stream. - There was a part of me when we were deciding, okay, what are we gonna make our goal? And someone was like, "100,000." I was like,

- In 24 hours, that's a lot of money. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like maybe if we are like doing a week long subathon. - Yeah, or something like that. 'Cause I don't know, I only did one charity stream once like years and years ago with Archean. Like we did not raise nearly that much money. So I think in the back of my head, I had that as my benchmark. So when I heard a hundred thousand, I was like, dude, we're not fucking PewDiePie or Jacksepticeye. We're not gonna hit those numbers. Turns out we kind of did because we were like number one on Twitch for like that night.

- Yeah, I think we peaked at 53,000 viewers, which is insane. - Quite a lot. - Personal best. - That's definitely the most I've been involved. - That's definitely the most I've had. - Definitely by far. Well, I'm not even a streamer. So that's definitely the most I've been a part of. - It's just ridiculous. - But how was the experience for you boys?

You know what? Even though I went into it with like zero sleep, it was probably the most fun stream I've ever been in. I would absolutely do that again.

- Part of me is just like, I would absolutely do that again. - Not anytime soon. - Part of me is just like, man, I remember those last six hours. - I'll do it again once I forget about how hard the last six hours were. And I'm like, yeah, this is fine. - I mean, at least I had you guys and like Chris and like Mouse there because like if I had done it by myself, I would not have lasted like 10 hours. - No, like I was, I remember the last two, three hours, I was just running on complete autopilot.

You know when you're just using like the part of your brain that isn't even thinking, it's just like habits you've built up. That was just me. I was just like, I saw bits and pieces of the board where you just like you alone on the couch and you're just like, thank you for the $20 donation.

- It kind of got to a point where I was just like questioning my own insanity. - Insanity? - Sanity, yeah. - Question my own sanity. - Questioning my own sanity. - My favorite clip though is where you two were on the couch and you just started going, "Oh, it's all the boys." And then Garnt in the most unenthusiastic way goes, "Get hype guys." It's like the most not hype, get hype guys

- It just had such like house party vibes. It's just like when you stay up too late and that there's one, that one guy that just wouldn't leave. - Yeah. - Yeah, that was exactly what it felt like where I'm just like, I need to go to bed. - Gone is that one guy who doesn't leave.

- Yeah, you are. You are like at every fucking like all night karaoke, Garnt is the last guy. - I mean, I was last guy on the stream as well. I'm just like, you guys, you boys, I mean, not, this wasn't a competition, obviously, obviously, but I wasn't the only one to stay awake the entire time. - If it was Connor that was in your position, he would have been like weak, you're all weak.

I won that competition. It was me. I carried. - I think 'cause I knew you guys were there and I was like, so I can sleep. And I was like, I will. But I think if it was just me alone, I would've had to, I mean, I would've just done this. - Oh yeah, of course. - And just been more miserable.

- I mean, like the reason I didn't sleep was because I knew as soon as I closed my eyes, they were not like going, I could not go to sleep and come back up to like stream again. - Yeah. - They couldn't stop yawning. - I just looked horrible. Like I remember the last 30 minutes when I came back, I looked half dead. - Yeah. - And I was like, oh God. - I think I used all my energy holding in the laughs.

- I used so much energy not saying anything during like the try not to laugh segment. That took a lot more energy than I thought it did. It actually took more energy than doing the quiz, talking or just like hanging out. - Also not to mention that I think we like greatly overestimated how much energy we were gonna have because we had like a schedule, like a preemptive schedule that staff made. And we probably did maybe 40% of what was originally scheduled.

- Yeah, I mean, it was a few things 'cause obviously Chris was scheduled for two hours, stayed for six hours, which I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. He was obviously having fun. But then we also had like a bunch of things that we were meant to be doing with Iron Mouse.

But by the time Chris left and Mouse came on, it was just, we were so out of energy that we were just like, we can only manage talking right now. - Yeah, definitely. - How did you guys manage to recover afterwards? Did you recover easily? - I mean, recover is a strong word. I went home and like, weirdly enough, I think because I was kind of like,

reliving the moment when I was on the train ride home. So by the time I got home, I was like wide awake for some reason. And then I was doing a little bit of work and then my body was just like, I don't think so. And I just, I literally passed out on my desk for like an hour. I was just like...

- Okay, I need to go to bed. And then I slept for like 14 hours, I think. - Oh my God. - And then I just completely fucked my sleep schedule for the next day. - Yeah, I don't know, like my body's so weird after a no nighter. I hate it, I absolutely fucking hate it. 'Cause like during the stream, I'm like, I'm going to pass out. As it's well-documented that how close we were to passing out. And so I remember,

The stream finishes, I do not even remember saying goodbye to anyone in the office, even though I know we were just like, "Hey, congratulations." And they were like, "See you on Tuesday, see you in two days or whatever." I think I said, "See you on Tuesday," but I think I just left as well. I don't know if it seemed like I was rude or something. I was just like, "I need to go to my bed." - So rude, Garnt. - Yeah. - So rude. - I remember going to my bed being like, "Finally, I've stayed up all night for this. Didn't nap, didn't sleep.

I'm going to finally go to sleep, go to my bed. And my body's just like, nope, you don't sleep now. You stay awake. You don't need sleep. It is sunshine now. - How long did you stay awake till? - I stayed up for like an extra like, it took me three hours to get to a point where I could sleep. And then I slept for- - So what, it was like 3:00 PM, 4:00 PM? - Yeah, that was around when I passed out. - I slept for two hours. - Oh my God. - My day was like just fucked, I guess. - When did you go to bed, then?

- Like two in the morning. - Oh my God. - But then I did sleep for like 16 hours. - Wait, so you woke up like 4:00 PM the next day? - Yeah. - Oh my God, Garnt. - That's why like I woke up and I woke up to like Conner stream Jump King. I was just like, fuck.

- How are these boys like awake and streaming right now? I'm like fighting for my life. - On Sunday I went home and then I had like three hours sleep. And then I went out for some drinks and a meal. - How the fuck? - I was like fine. - How? - I got tired at around 10:00 PM. So I went home and then I slept, woke up early and played Jump King.

- But I finished it. - You finished it? Yeah, you both finished it. - Finally finished Babe of the Ascension. It's like the worst thing ever. I don't ever wanna do it ever again. - Finally finished the base game. That was fun. - When are you gonna do the DLC, Joey? - You know what sucks? At the end of that stream, I was like, "You can't pay me to play the DLC. I want my happiness back in my life." But then the moment I turned off the stream, I was like,

I can't want to keep playing. - Yeah, 'cause you're like, but there's more. - Yeah, because it was the fact that there was so much encouragement online when I posted my time and people were like, dude, you're actually cracked. And I was like, you know what?

- Maybe I am. - Give me a little more praise. - The game has a way of humbling you. 'Cause I thought the same thing when I did like the third DLC. I was like, I'm cracked, dude. I'll be able to do this new one like easily. I was actually like worried. I was like, what if I like beat this DLC too fast? And it's like not a good stream arc. And then like the first eight hours of playing it, I was like, oh no.

- Oh no, this is hard. This is really hard. And it took me 48 hours to beat the DLC, the fan made DLC. - But now I know what it feels like to be an alpha gamer. And now I can finally say, "Hey Garnt, when are you finishing "Jump King, bro?" - Yeah, when are you gonna be Jump King? - I'll do it, Garnt. I fucking feel like, you know, fucking that scene in fucking "My Hero Academia" where like all my, it's just pointing at you. So it's your turn now. - It's your turn. - For fuck's sake.

- You gotta do it, you gotta do it. - I'm just here watching on TV, I'm not even like involved and here you are pointing at me being like, it's your turn. - You've done half of it, so you have to do the other half. - Is it half of it? Is it half of it?

- Nah, Garnt got to maybe like 40%. - Yeah, I got like 40%. - Where did you get to? - I can't remember. - He got to the fucking- - The polls? - No, he got not even there. Like before that, the town in the sky. - Bargainburg. - Bargainburg, that's it. He got to Bargainburg. - I mean, I will finish it just because I knew it's like one thing when I started it and I was just like, I have the same inkling feeling in me where it doesn't feel comfortable until I finish it. - Take your time on your own.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's been a few weeks since you last, you're gonna get rusty. You'll start from zero again. - I'll be fine, I'll be fine. It'll be like pure muscle memory. - It'd be like you never left. - It's gonna be like dementia the game with Garth. Every time he goes back to it, he's like, "Oh, I gotta learn this section again." - It'll be like 30, like my playthrough would be like 50 hours or something spread between an entire year. - If anything, you now have someone else to compare yourself to and that's Maylene because she also started it as well. - Oh my God. - And that stream last night was,

- I saw Mudan started it as well. - Yeah, Mudan started it. - Jesus Christ, it's like a virus. - But don't worry, if you thought, look, like "Malien" just got to the bottom of the sewers and it took her like a couple of hours to get there. - I just think it's like one of the best games to stream. It's just so intuitive. There's no explanation needed. You know, like some games is like power-ups, level-ups, you know, and then there's like, oh, you can unlock this thing. And then everyone's like, oh, what's going on? But "Jump King" is literally just,

- You can see. - One mechanic. - You understand immediately from watching that they're trying to go up and when they fall, you're like, "Oh, I get it. This is fun to watch." - It's also just a pretty game. - It's good, right? - It's a really pretty game. - Yeah, I love the aesthetic. I will say, I thought you were bullshitting when you said, "Oh, it's just a fun game. It's a fun game." But no, it is. I do actually genuinely think it's a fun game. There's a high that you get when you reach like

- You knew personal best? - Yeah. - You know what I mean? You're like, damn. - You're like, this is a good feeling. And then that lasts for like three seconds before you like fall for the first time. You're like, aw. - I know we spoke about Jump King so much on this podcast now. It's just like taken over my life. But on the first map, there's like a,

a very solid checkpoint. And when you get to that, you feel like I can do this. - The 70% one, right? Yeah. - Yeah, when you get to the- - The church. - The church. - Yeah. - And then you're like, oh my God, I can do this. - Yeah. - That's when it feels good. - That's when I was like, all right, I got this. You got this, King. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can do it then. If you can get that, you can do it easily.

So DLC for me is a hard maybe. - Then you should do it. - I think I want to like maybe put in a couple of like other games that I've been wanting to play. - Hard maybe, what does that even mean? - Joey won't ever commit to anything. So maybe is about the best you'll get. You know, it's better than Arcane. - Maybe is a hard maybe. - I am committed to my neutrality here. I could be yes again.

- Do you want to marry the bride? Maybe. - That's a hard maybe, dog. - That's a hard maybe. - My ass is firmly planted on the fence. - Was your viewership higher than normal when you were doing Jump King? - Oh yeah, for sure. But you know, it's like, what do I prioritize? Clout or happiness? It's a hard choice for every YouTuber. - You can have both.

I'm just waiting for when the Kirby game comes out, dude. That's when real happiness comes out. - I play games now, like when I'm playing like, when I play Pokemon, I'm like, there's just not enough challenge. Even though there was, there literally was. - There definitely was. - But the thing was is that I never once thought for a moment I wasn't gonna be able to do it.

Whereas Jump King has that thing where it's like, I don't know if you can do it, man. - Wait, but you did that last fight, right? - The Volo, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you struggled a lot with it. - I did, but at no point did I ever feel like this is too hard. - Yeah, because to me, that was easily the hardest fight

- It is, it is, it is. Even then I like, there's no point we're doing it where I'm like, I don't know if I can do this. Like I just felt like I just got to grind a little bit more. - I don't know man, Arceus was hard as fuck. - I'll tell you that. - Yeah, I want to see you do that. - Whereas like New Bay Plus, when I was playing that game of Jump King, it's the second map. There was like, I did it over three streams. So one stream, second stream, third stream.

- The second stream after it, and I went to bed, I had like anxiety. I was like, what if I just like can't do it? What if I can't do it? Like I'm never gonna be able to forget this if I can't do it.

And then I woke up the next day and just bossed it, just destroyed it. - Right, right. - Damn. - I think you have an addiction. - I do, yeah. - That is definitely an addiction, yeah. - 'Cause you know, there's been like, I kind of got out of like multiplayer games. That was kind of where I got the kick from, beating other people. But you know, there's a hard ceiling in multiplayer games where you're like,

if I wanna be able to improve at this game, I have to put an absurd amount of hours in consistently. - Wait, but is 45 hours in one Jump King map not an absurd amount of time? - Here's the thing. - You could finish 13 Sentinels at that time. - Think about it. An FPS, first person shooter multiplayer game, whatever, 45 hours is nothing. - That's true. - That's absolutely nothing. You're competing against people who do 45 hours a week. - Yeah. - How many hours have you put into all of Jump King right now?

- A hundred something. - That's quite a lot. - Yeah. - That's a persona play. - That's a persona play. - Yeah, Epex I have like over a thousand probably. - Yeah, that's true. - And even then, like I'm just like, I got to master once and that was me going insane grinding. - Well, why don't you get into more like challenging games then? 'Cause you said you don't really play like the Souls-type games or like-

- I'm gonna do Elden Ring. - But like, I feel like that's, it's a different type of challenge because with Jump King, it's just like one mechanic that you have to like hone and master. Whereas with something like Elden Ring or Sifu, it's like a lot of things going on at once. You know, there was a lot of different approaches, a lot of ways to master the game. - I just like Jump King 'cause there's no like, there's no bullshit. There's like, if you fucked up,

- Absolutely nothing. There's no other fact, single factor. - Yeah, because with games like Dark Souls or like Seafood, where you're like, yeah, it's like, you can blame it on like the enemy. - What the fuck, that one frame hit me with a- - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I know I'll make up excuses. - But at Jump King, there's no enemies to get in your way. It's just you, you're in the way of yourself. - You are your own enemy. - Yeah.

- Exactly. - Almost like fucking, don't trust anyone, not even yourself. - Each DLC gets more brutal though. Like on the first jump you can only fall like two screens max. - That's what I'm dreading, man. - And I fell like 20. - What if I like actually start raging? - I do. - I don't want that though. I don't wanna get angry. - Not like an actual angry though. Like an angry video game angry.

I mean, it's a different kind of anger. I don't know how to explain it. It's an anger where you're like, you shout, but it doesn't actually get you upset. It's kind of like, ah! All right, back to it. It's just like a slight frustration, a slight annoyance. Like stubbing your toe.

- Well, no, there's different kinds of video game anger. I don't know what that analogy is, but I'm not angry when I start my talk. - Not like a 13 year old on Xbox Live anger where I just test out all the new bad words I've learned. It's not that kind of anger. Like, you know, like a mild frustration. Like when the website, when you fill out the whole form and then it reloads for some reason, you're like. - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Really, that's the anger you feel?

- Dude, when I, when you try to, have you not had that? I get so angry when that happens. - That's like- - You've like filled out a whole signup form, put the credit card info in, the address in all in the right space. You're about to go to the checkout for some reason. - Time's out. - For some of you, time's out or it reloads. You're like,

- Like fucking guts theme goes through my head. Is it even worth signing up again? I don't know if this is worth it anymore. I don't even want the trampoline. - The worst part is when you fill out everything correctly except for that one field, but the websites are signed in a way that when you press send,

it goes, this one field is incorrect. - We've reset the whole thing. - But they reset the entire fucking thing, except that one field. - Like imagine that happens, but just it happens to every website you sign up for. - That's like, there's so many Japanese websites. - Every Japanese website, dude. Like I don't know if Japanese people are aware of UX designers, but they certainly need to know. - It's just like the amount of times I've been like fucking cucked by not using like half width. - Yeah, this is the-

- This is the biggest joke in Japan. And like, it's something you'll never experience unless you've either try to buy stuff on a Japanese website. But for some reason they have full width and half width katakana and hiragana. - Can you explain that by the way? What is the point of full width and half width? - I'll tell you exactly the difference. There is none.

That's what's so frustrating about it. - Someone explained it to me one time, had something to do with how they coded way back the initial internet. - Oh yeah. - And it was like a layover from that essentially that they kept using and they never like decided to sort out. - Yeah, I mean like I've told the story of how I interned for an IT company and I had to fix a bunch of like clients websites and I had to go like through the HTML and I had like,

almost had a stroke looking at some of these codes because it's like, oh my God, you said you built this website last year. You're using code literally from the 90s. I was like, what? Of course this... Like, of course this page takes like 20 seconds to load even though it's just text-based because it's so much bullshit code here. Because fucking...

- It's so weird 'cause there's so much like convenience stuff and stuff, crazy stuff you can do that you can't do in other countries. And then they're like, how about just websites? We just keep them shit. - Weirdly enough, the best designed websites are the fucking anime trailer websites.

- Right. - Yeah, the ones that are like, they use like fucking like pretty like Java and like CSS. It's like, oh, that looks fancy as fuck. - Yeah, like when that website of like when the last bucket mode, like Monogatari volume was coming out. - Yeah. - And it was just like scrolling down through the entire history of the series. I was like, damn, this is a beautiful looking website. - Oh my God, someone, an actual coder. - Yeah, I know. - An actual programmer made this, dude. - Why can you not add this to your UI design when I'm trying to fucking build it?

- I'm like, "I'm gonna go buy something." - Exactly. - Or sign up to a site. - Like, Rockton is just like a hell hole of a website because you don't know, you go to like, 'cause like on Amazon, for example. - See why Amazon's so good, they don't do this shit. - Yeah, because on Amazon it's like, okay, there's the fucking picture of the thing you wanna buy, there's how many is left, when it's gonna arrive, here's all the information,

perfectly laid out with every single item. Meanwhile, with Rock Den, it's just a fucking free-for-all. It's like, would you like 17 banners that have nothing to do with the product you're actually buying? By the way, where is the purchase button? Oh, it's buried deep beneath this fucking wall of text.

And every time I go on a rock tent, it's so handy because you get so much stuff on rock tent that you can't get on Amazon. But it's a fucking, it's just a struggle to try and like buy anything because it doesn't even tell you when it arrives. - That's not the final boss. The final boss is Yahoo!

where you can't even like immediate, you can't even sign up with an account that you want. You need like a special, you need a special Yahoo account. So you need to just sign up to Yahoo. And it just, it's not your normal Yahoo. It's Japanese Yahoo as well. - Yeah, so I have a Yahoo email account. So I'm like Duncan or something. I don't know if they chose the name for me. It's really weird. - Of course it's a Yahoo Japan account because no one outside of Japan uses fucking Yahoo anymore. - Exactly, right? Exactly. So you need to just sign up with a special Yahoo account to sign up.

to this Yahoo auctions account to then just not even like, I don't even know what the etiquette is in terms of like bidding stuff and how to buy stuff. - Dude, I've dead ass never even used Yahoo auctions just because I refuse to make a Yahoo Japan account. - I have a bad rating on it 'cause I forgot one time to say I got the thing. - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I got that on Meritari as well. - I got a really angry message from a dude who was like, "Why haven't you told me that you got it? "This has been an awful experience for me."

- I just figured if I didn't say anything, that means like I got it. - You'd think so. - But like, how'd you pay? Can you pay with like credit card or something? - Yeah, so it's really confusing 'cause there's like when you auto translate it in Google, there's like online pay and like,

that sounds like online pay. Yeah. And I remember that I was confused and I clicked one of them and then I had to do this whole weird kind of thing with my bank where I had to then like contact my bank to do the online payment. Oh my God. Where there's just another field that just let you put your credit card information in. And it isn't clear because it didn't say like credit card. It said something else. Yeah. Really annoying. Really, really annoying. I hate using it. I just don't bother. That's what I mean like

- As well, a lot of the websites that offer English, they're like, okay, you click English, send it to a brand new website that doesn't have half the shit that the Japanese. Whereas like Amazon, it's like you change to English, nothing changes except the language. - It's exactly like when you go to like a Chinese restaurant with your one Chinese mate and they're like, bring out the special menu. - Bring out the real menu. - I don't know why it's like Chinese restaurants in particular, but it seems like every Chinese restaurant has

the special menu that you can only get by asking in Cantonese or Mandarin or whatever. - And I bet they're not even saying like bring out the real menu. It's probably just like a code word, you know? It's like,

"Mandarin is an orange." And they're like, "I said the word." All right, bring it out right now. - It just blows my mind 'cause I go to a Thai restaurant and I can ask them in Thai whether they have a Thai dish that they only do in Thailand or only Thai, most Thai people would know. But it's just like, why is it that Chinese restaurant just have an unspoken understanding that there's gonna be so many people asking for a special menu that they're gonna make a special menu in every single Chinese restaurant. - Why are they literally gatekeepers?

- It's like literally gate keeping, be like, if you're not Chinese, you can't get the real shit. - Makes me feel sad though, 'cause I love Chinese food, but I never want to go to a Chinese restaurant without a Chinese friend. - I know, it sucks. Because it feels like you've just unlocked the starter, the starter kit, right? And you need to learn Mandarin to get like the actual good gear, right?

- Do you know what I mean? 'Cause like, I love Chinese food, but the best Chinese food I've had has not come from the normal menu. Like if I go to like a Chinese restaurant and I see like fucking, you know, orange chicken, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, all this stuff. I was like, this is no, no. Give me the real shit. - Yeah, come on. - Please, give me the real shit. But I don't know how to access it. - It's like, where is your Chinese friend, huh? - I do not know how to access it. - I don't see him. - Just speak Chinese, bro. Just speak Mandarin. - Exactly. - It's easy. - Exactly.

- Could you imagine if like McDonald's did that? It's like, oh, where's your American friend? - Wait, well I know Shake Shack does that. - Does it, do they? - Yeah, they have secret items. - Really? - Yeah. - I didn't know that. - You didn't know this? No, it's not Shake Shack, sorry. In-N-Out. - In-N-Out. - Oh, In-N-Out. I got In-N-Out, so it's fine. - What possible special menu can they provide? - You can get like the, you can, I don't know, it's like animal style fries. That's a secret menu.

- Oh yeah, I know that. - Yeah, and then there's like a- - Is that a secret menu? I feel that's like so well known now. - Yeah, but if you're a tourist from Asia, you don't speak English. - Oh, that's true. - And you're like, what's that guy got? What the fuck, how do I- - I'll never tell you. - I know you can get a flavor where they mix all the milkshake flavors into one. - Oh, sounds interesting. - I don't know if you want that.

I think there's something else. There's another secret burger or something as well. I know there are secret items at fast food chains. - There are secret items. - Items are not menu. - Why would that be secret? - I don't know. - Because they don't, because they're pain in the ass to make, but if someone asks for it. - Is it a marketing thing, you reckon? - Also that as well, yeah. - Yeah. - It makes you seem like you're like in a club. - Part of the secret society. - I got the real stuff. Give me the real stuff. - Have you been to those places that are like secret

bars or clubs or anything. - Oh, like the invite only ones. - Yeah, yeah. - Into those. - Yeah, one of my friends took me to one where it literally, it's in Tokyo. I'm obviously not gonna say where, but like it literally just- - I'll never tell. - I'll never tell. - I've been there. - It literally looks like a concrete wall. And he just like, I was with my friend and he's like, "Okay, we're here." And I'm like, "What do you mean?" - Where is this? - It's like,

- It's in Roppongi somewhere, I think. - We went to one in Shibuya, right? - Yeah, that speakeasy. - They said closed and it was closed due to corona. - Oh, really? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And then someone knocked on the door and they came out. - So it was literally, it wasn't even just closed, it was just scaffolding and like,

and like a wooden door, like the place was like being built and like boarded off and you just knock on the door and like an actual speakeasy, like the fucking thing opens up. - Yeah, my one had that as well. So like he knocked, like he's like, oh, I have to knock a specific way as well. I'm like, no bullshit you do. And he did like a secret like pattern. And then the thing came up and he was like, "Password, please." And then he said the password and he's like,

"Friend?" He pointed at me and he's like, "Yeah, yeah, friend." I was like, "Okay." And then he opens it up and it's just this tiny, like maybe three person bar. - Right. - And it was all right, I guess. - It was all right. - It was cool that I was in that. - The coolest part was just going to what looked like a secret bar. - The coolest part was just like the dude opening up like this. I'm like, "I've only ever seen that in movies." - I went to one where, it was in London.

I went to it and it was like a, it's like a breakfast restaurant or something on the top. Yeah. We went in there and I didn't know the password and neither did my friend. And then we were like, we don't know what the password is. Yeah. It was like, it's a, it's a Daft Punk song lyric. Yeah.

And then he was like feeding it to me. And I was like, it was something like I'm up all night to get lucky or something. So he said it, then he was like- - It's not even like an obscure dark punk song. You just go through the entire- - I was like- - Which album are we talking about? Okay, okay. Can't be too many lyrics. If it's dark punk lyrics that narrows- - Is it around the world? - So then we-

we're here and then some guy comes and greets us and we start walking through this restaurant that's closed. And then like in a movie, we go in the kitchen and there's people like working in the kitchen and we're just like walking through. Oh shit. And we go down into a basement in the kitchen and there's like boxes of fries and shit all around us going in. And then like, like, like in a fucking spy movie, it's got the fucking beads.

- Oh shit. - And it opens it up. And this is room, I mean, it's fine. - It's like a dimly lit room. - It's okay, but there's like no real like chairs or anything. It's kind of like a...

a very small room that's very dimly lit. And it didn't, it wasn't that good. The drinks are okay. And I was like, this is the coolest part was walking to this thing. And then I was like, now I want to leave. - I've always wanted to know what, why would you opt to make a business like that? Right? Like you, I feel, yeah, I feel clearly like if you're going to opt to be like, okay, I'm going to make this so exclusive that it's like near impossible for a regular person to find. Then it's like, you're clearly not doing it

as a sustainable business. You're clearly still doing it as like a fucking hobby or something. - The assumption is you'll be able to survive on word of mouth, I guess. That's the hope. - A lot of people are like, "It's so cool, you gotta go." And then the drinks are very mediocre. But the experience feels worth it 'cause you feel exclusive. - It's just bragging rights, right? - Yeah, you pay for the experience and not so much the bar or the business or the drinks itself. - It's like bars that are membership only. And you can only get membership by having someone recommend you.

That always seemed really silly to me, but there's so many of them. - Well, that's like half of like the golden guy. - Half of the as well is like that as well. It's like, if you don't know someone who either works there or goes there frequently enough, they just won't let you in.

- Yeah, but at the same time, like I can get it with the bars in Golden Guy because the bars are so small that I'm sure that their regular customers can keep them, keep their business up and running anyway. You just need like one or two patrons to keep get yourself going and then you're basically set. - That's true. - You're basically set. - It'd be pretty cool to own a like tiny little bar in Golden Guy. I've always thought about that.

- How hard is it to get a bar though? - Yeah, that's what I've always wanted. But like all those bars, even though they're so tiny, I'm sure they're paying out the ass to have that space. - What if we had a Trash Taste Bar there? - A Trash Taste Bar in Golden Guy? - Trash Taste Special. - Build a bar. - Build a bar in Golden Guy. All three of us build our own bars in Golden Guy. See who makes the most money at the end of the night.

- I don't even want to think about how much it must cost to like rent out a space. - I'd get really claustrophobic working in one of those bars. - I think it's cozy. - You think it's cozy? - Yeah, I think it's cozy. - It depends. I've been in some where it's like, I literally can't stand up straight inside of them. - It's literally a shoe box. - Yeah, it is. - And I don't even know how they get into the bar, let alone work.

- Well, most of them are like, you know, four feet tall, like Obachans, right? They probably don't have any problems. - It's not built for someone of my stature. If I stand up, I literally, my head like head literally hits the ceiling. - Like I feel like Gandalf in Frodo's house in a lot of these places, right? I'm just constantly like, can I get a drink?

- Normally if you're wide, that's the problem though. Not if you're tall. - Yeah, that's true. - But that's why like going in the winter time is the worst because you're like all puffed up with jackets and shit. You're just like, all right, out of the way please. Sorry, excuse me. - I think it's best to go winter though. In the summer it feels weird. I don't know why. - I feel in the summer it's way too hot. - It's really hot. Even though the AC is going, it's still there.

Either way, it's very much a gamble. I've heard so many horror stories in Golden Guy and like Nichonmen and all that kind of stuff. Just don't go into a bar if someone tells you to go into a bar. That's the rule of thumb. Yeah. If somebody's trying to tell you to go into their bar, that's a good sign to not go into that bar. Probably a bad idea. This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Going online without ExpressVPN is like not having a case on your phones.

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Back to the episode. - Yeah, I've only been to like Golden Gai like two times. I haven't been that many times. And it's been a interesting experience every time. - Yeah. The last time I went was with you guys at that bar. - Oh yeah, that was fun. - Yeah, which was really, really fun. - That was a good time. - Yeah. - When was that? - That's the one that Jan came to.

- Oh, that one. - And he immediately went behind the bar and started- - Well, he just basically just took over the bar. - He just took over, yeah. - Was it because the woman who was at the bar got tired or something? - Yeah, it was like this, it was owned by this like, what looked like at least 70, 80 year old, like old lady. She was really, really nice. But she was like clearly standing at the bar all night. And the moment Jan came in, she was like, "Oh, that looks like a charismatic enough guy to take over my bar for the night."

And so she literally ushers Jan over because there were no seats left. 'Cause there was like us three and like two other Japanese people. And that was it, it was so small. So Jan comes in and he's like, "I got nowhere to sit." Old lady just like ushers Jan over and he's like, "Take over."

And this just goes behind the back and we never see her for the rest of the night. And I'm just like, we can just leave if we wanted to. Obviously we paid at the end of it. - It was like a thousand yen a drink, but it was like you were pouring the drinks. So it was like, you could just make it as strong as you wanted. - Exactly. - It became a self-service bar. I don't know how Jan has this effect, like basically everywhere he goes where he just sweet talks the fucking-

the fucking restaurant, the waiter or the bar lady to give us the special service or the special menu. The menu that doesn't exist. It's always something like Jan who is able to get- - Jan is the only man that can somehow pull out a secret menu from a restaurant that doesn't even have a secret menu. He's just like, "Oh, I guess we have a secret menu now. Fuck, bring it out this guy."

- Can you imagine like going to like a British restaurant or something and like get out the secret menu and it's just like toast sandwich. - Unfortunately. - Crisp toast sandwich, crisp sandwich. - Fortunately I think the UK is the one place where sweet talk doesn't do anything. - Yeah. - They're just like no. - Really? - No. I've never seen anyone sweet talk anything in the UK. Maybe in a bar with one guy, but like in a restaurant it will never work.

Or maybe it's because they just don't have secret menu culture, maybe? - No, we don't. - Yeah. - What would be on the Japanese secret menu? If you went to an abroad- - Something slimy. - Japanese secret- - Nato? - Nato? - Cognac or something? - I don't know. I feel like we don't have secret menus here either, just because we don't even have tipping culture here. Because we're so like, these are the rules, we can't make any kind of exceptions. - Why would you wanna hide something if you're proud of it? - Right.

- Well, like what I'm talking about is if you go to a Japanese restaurant, not in Japan. - Oh, I see. - What would be like the foods on there that would be something that you, a Japanese person, very accustomed to Japanese cuisine would know, but not is like, I guess not mainstream enough to be on like- - So you're asking what the most underrated Japanese food is?

- I would say it'd probably be something slimy. Like most of the shit that we ended up feeling in the box and the charity. - Like mozuku or like natto. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like shit like that. - Okra, yeah. - Probably something like that. Like maybe like, I don't know.

- Nato in curry maybe. - 'Cause I feel like a lot of izakaya foods would be on there. - Oh yeah, definitely. Like the blended squid and stuff like that or like takawasa. That shit's bomb. That shit's bomb. - Oh, no way, no way. - Hey man, you're part of my team now because you like natto. - Okay, natto was actually all right. It was all right. - The taste is fine, but the slime is dreadful. Really vile. - The slime is, it's not even the worst texture I've had in

In Japan, I feel like it looks a lot worse than it tastes and feels in your mouth, I think. Like, I think the beans taste pretty good. I mean, it just tastes...

- Like soy sauce, I think. I mean, it smells very- - It's basically what it is. - I mean, that's what it is. - It's just soy sauce on soy beans. - Yeah, yeah, right. - It's just like soy overload. - Right, right. I mean- - I feel though, because you guys ate it like straight out of the packet, you got like the full brunt of like the sliminess and the texture. But like when you put that on a bed of rice, because you're eating it with rice, it doesn't feel as slimy. - Yeah, I feel like- - Sure, like with a bit of rice, it would be perfect. - Yeah. - It would be absolutely perfect. - Fantastic.

- Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, you gotta- - Just give it a go. - Give it a go, give it a go sometimes. - If you don't like it, it's totally fine. - Maybe you'll like it, maybe you're not. To me, I learned that I just can't handle ketchup. I don't know why, I don't know why. Like that was the first time I- - To be fair, that was-

That was a lot of ketchup. - That was the first time. - Yeah, Gareth's referring to the Twin Fire livestream. - To explain, we all had forfeits to do. I had to eat pizza crust drenched in ketchup and mayonnaise because I hate ketchup and mayonnaise. - And you don't eat the crust. - And I don't eat the crust. And I remember like, I was like, I'm gonna give this the best go that I possibly can 'cause it's for charity. And it's the first time where I've put something in my mouth and I had like immediately

immediate gag reflex. - That's 'cause it's your mind. Your mind is telling you that you don't want it. - To me, like the natto, I was just like, maybe I'm gonna gag during the natto and I had it and I'm just like, ooh. - It's 'cause you expected to gag. I think you expected to throw up. So you were psyching yourself out the moment it touched your tongue. You're like, ooh. - Yeah, to be fair though, that smell was pretty dreadful, but I had to do the ghost pepper. That was dreadful. - How was that experience?

- That hurt, see, because like, you know, you guys were saying like, oh, you know, and everyone in the chat was saying, oh, look forward to the next morning. Like you're gonna be shitting through a straw. And I was like, oh God. - No, no, the ramen was way worse. - Yeah, the ramen was way worse that we had. But yeah, I was fine. Like I had maybe like one painful shit and then I thought that was gonna be like the beginning

- No, no, no, the first one. The one that's spicy is the only one you get. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I was fine after that. I just, you know, I look back on the clip of me like shivering for 15 minutes afterwards and I'm like, I literally look like I'm about to fucking die.

- Yeah, I was like getting slightly worried when you start shivering. I know it's because your body is just going into shock. - Yeah, pretty much. - And your body is rushing you with like fucking adrenaline and endorphins and all that kind of shit. And I just remember seeing you like go like this and I'm just like, are you all right, man? - I think the worst part about it is when you watch that out of context, you see a dude who looks clearly sleep deprived with like huge bags under his eyes, shivering. I just looked like a crack addict.

I just looked like I was having withdrawals. I was like sleepy dude. - It was not the best look. - I don't think the sleep deprivation helped as well. 'Cause I can't imagine trying a food that you really- - It was like seven in the morning. - Yeah, it was seven in the morning. We were up for like 20 hours at that point. And you're like, perfect time to eat a ghost pepper. - No. To be honest, I couldn't taste anything.

Yeah, there was no flavor. Was it as painful as you thought it would be? Yeah. I find that like sauce...

like really like heavy sauce based dishes that are spicy are the hardest to eat. 'Cause like, you know, like the hot ones stuff, I can eat all of those hot ones sauce, like the hottest ones on wings, like no issue. Like I don't need milk or anything like that. It just tastes good. Like the last stab, I like slather everything in that. And it's all good. 'Cause it's just a few bites, but it's very solid.

but like we did the ramen video for yours. - Yeah. - And that wasn't that spicy. Like it, I'd say like it's not as spicy as like a ghost pepper or a Carolina Reaper, but because it's just sauce, it coats your mouth.

- Coats your like esophagus, goes in your stomach and it hurts so much. And then it takes a while. So you just keep eating. - I definitely struggled more I think with that than the ghost bevel. - One burst of spice is not that bad. It's when you keep eating bursts of spice, like the pain just multiplies. - You don't give yourself a break. - That's why like eating one Carolina Reaper for me is like totally chill. I could do it now and we could still film the episode and it'd be chill. Eating like those competitions where they eat like

I'm like, that's fucked. - How has anyone not died from that? - That's fucked, I don't know. - Can you die from spice? - No, you can go into shock though. - You can go into shock, but I don't, has there been a recorded case of someone dying from spice? I'm not sure if there is. There has been? - You can burn a hole through your stomach.

- I don't necessarily think that's true though. I think, yeah. - You'd have to have a pretty weak stomach though, I feel for that. - Yeah, because like- - I think it's a factor of things. - 'Cause like for me as someone who like loves spicy food, like trying to explain why I eat spicy food or why like, you know, like Joey's said to me all the time, like, "Oh, I don't know how you can like get through that or something like that." And I think one thing that's really under, like underrated

underrated about why people eat spicy food is that the spicy food needs to taste good. Yeah. Because when we think of like spicy challenges, we just think about getting through how spicy this spicy meal is or getting through like this fucking pepper or something. But a big draw of spicy food is that if it's, even if you're in fucking pain and, you know, your mouth is hurting, if it tastes good with the spice, mm,

You want to finish it and you want to eat it because it tastes good. - I mean, that was it with the ramen video. Like I would not have finished that if it didn't taste as good as it did. And it tasted really fucking good. If that did not taste good, I would just been like, no, fuck this. - Yeah, like I've had like, for example, like the Coco Ichiban level 10 spice and it is spicy.

but it doesn't taste good at all. Like it just feels like you're making it spicy to make it spicy. - It's just artificial. - It's just artificial. Sometimes it just feels like this is just a flex at the end of the day where we can make it this spicy, but it doesn't even like the taste doesn't marry well with the spice at all. And it just like, if like proper good spicy dishes need to taste good

- It needs to compliment the actual base food, right? - Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like I have like, for example, I have like Thai food without the spice and it literally does feel like there's a component that's missing from the food. - Yeah. - So good. - Yeah. What are you gonna say, Asri? - Capsaicin does cause tissue inflammation. So a large enough dose could cause serious damage to your stomach and intestines. - I feel you'd have to have like an egregious amount though to hit that point.

or something really spicy and have it all in one sitting, you could do enough damage to potentially kill you. I just, my ex-girlfriend was Sri Lankan. I remember when I went to meet her parents and stuff, everything had chilies in it. Of course. It was amazing. I loved it. It was like breakfast, omelette, with like five of those peppers that you put in like Thai food. Fucking hell. And I ate them all. And then, I don't know if I told the story, her mom came in and was like,

"Why did he eat the peppers?" And I was like, "Am I not supposed to eat the peppers?" And she was like, "No, you'll get stomach cancer if you eat the peppers." I'm like, "Why would you put them in the food? "What the fuck? "They were delicious. "It was good." It was also like another restaurant 'cause she took me around to a bunch of the local restaurants and there's one thing where it was like deviled mutton it was called or something. - Yeah. - And it was like- - That sounds badass. - It was like the most delicious marinated mutton I'd ever had in my life. - Damn.

it was like doom level of spice. - Or if it's got the word devil. - Devil, yeah. - And it was like, I'm tearing up, but I'm like, fuck, it's so good.

And it was like, even though I was in like so much pain, I'm like, just another bite. It was so good. - That's the thing about spicy food. If it's really good spicy food, you're like- - You power through. - Oh, fuck me. Just one more bite. Just when you take the bite, you're in a pain, but you're just like, oh, it just tastes so good though. - I don't know how to explain it, but like when it's super spicy and super delicious, it's almost like it's searing in the flavor into your tongue. So I'm like, this is so much flavor.

- 'Cause it's almost like if you take the spice out, 'cause I was like, for example, I've had like very, you know, I've had unspiced Thai curry, I've had unspiced Indian curry as well, 'cause we live in England. And the best way I can describe it is that it just tastes flat. It tastes flat. There's something that's missing from the taste. - Right, it's a uncarbonated sort of like.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good analogy actually. The flavor's there, but there's like a texture or something. - The flavor is there, but the personality is gone. - Exactly. - In Jin Kari, if you have rice with it too, or you have naan, I feel like that's so nice to have like spice with it 'cause it kind of helps mellow it out.

out of it yeah yeah see because like i never for the longest time i didn't understand that concept of like spice enhancing food because you know up until i'd say maybe like three or four years ago i could not handle spice at all like if i went to coco ichi i would do like level one yeah which is like the most basic shit and i'd just be like no too spicy i can't do it and then i don't know what it was that like where just one day i kind of just flipped a dime and i was like

"You know what, it hurts, but I'm enjoying it for some reason." - Growth. - What is this? - See, I had like the opposite journey of Joey. Like someone who's grown up with Thai food and stuff like that. So like I would,

I remember as a kid, I really did not like Japanese food at all because a lot of Japanese cuisine revolves around the natural flavor of stuff. Savoring it. Savoring it and just bringing out the natural flavors of the ingredient. And me, a Thai person, being like,

there is not enough ingredients in this dish. Sushi? Sushi? That's just rice and fish. What was the spice? Where's the flavor? - Wasabi. - Three ingredients like rice, rice with a bit of vinegar in it, fish and wasabi. I'm just like, where's the 5 million spices to go with it? What you dip it in soy sauce? Where's the chilies and the soy sauce? - Where's the kick? - Yeah, where's the kick?

like Japanese cuisine was like my least favorite cuisine because to me that just wasn't, weren't enough like extra spices or extra ingredients to enhance the flavors. - Is this unseasoned sushi? - And then as I grew older, I'm just like, as I grew older, I learned to really appreciate the subtleties in the flavor of like Japanese cuisine where it really enhances, it really enhances like, you know, the good ingredients. - It's just rice, isn't it? - It's just rice, isn't it? - Also same.

- You know it. - Chefs trained for 20 years to get the perfect rice. It's all rice, isn't it? - It's all the same. - What is this, Uncle Ben's? What is this? - Did you put it through a colander? - Is this a microwave? - Did you wash this rice? - Did you wash this rice through a colander? - It's microwave rice, right? Five minute rice?

Minute made rice. I fucking love the golden rice in those microwave packets there. I fucking love that rice. Oh, the ready to make ones, right? Yeah. They taste so good. Yeah, they do taste good. Probably because it has all the artificial shit in it. Yeah, exactly. Fast food rice. How do we make rice unhealthy? Super unhealthy. We found a way.

- Honestly, like the fast food, the, the packet fried rice that you can buy is actually pretty damn good. - In Japan it's pretty good. - Oh, the one that you buy in the freezer. - I used to live off it. I was like, oh, well I make curry and I don't want to make, I didn't have a rice cooker at the time. And I hated making rice the way that my mom taught me, which was just boil a pan full of water. Which sometimes worked, sometimes didn't.

- But doing it in Japan is like blasphemous. - I know, I know, I know. But it's like, it's weird. 'Cause you'd think that like the first people to adapt an easier way to do it would be white people. 'Cause they love being lazy. - That's true. - So like, you'd think they, you'd think rice hookers would go down at like, especially for the UK where we love rice. - Yeah. - Like we love eating it with curry. So like you'd think that- - Dude, do people in the UK love rice? - With curry?

That's pretty much it though. But that's the only thing we eat half the time. Chicken tikka masala is like every week. That's true. You'd think that we would figure out like, hey, these rice cookers aren't so bad. Yeah. Because like, I remember growing up in the UK, whenever I'd like have my packed lunch or whatever, it would,

- You'd never make rice for a packed lunch, it's the dinner thing. - Yeah, no. - Sorry, tea, tea. No, fuck. - Supper. - Supper, whatever you wanna call it. - Tea is an ordinary thing. - Sorry, sorry. - Tea to me is the drink, you know? - I know, I know. - As with most of the developed world. - Tea for me is a twitlonger. - Awful joke. - Awful joke, I'm sorry. - No, but like, I remember having this conversation with my mates and they were like, "Wait, you eat rice?"

every day with every meal? And I'm like, yeah, yeah. Like you have it with every meal. - Yeah. - And they couldn't like wrap their heads around it. - You bougie motherfucker. - You eat rice with everything. You don't take a break from rice. It's everything. I'm like, yeah, it's Asian cuisine. You literally eat rice with everything. - I'm sure the Asians are asking the same thing, being like, wait, you use bread with everything. - But also-

- Every meal is with bread. - It's bread or potatoes. - Yeah. - Is that it? - Is that it? - Bread or potatoes? - Why not both? - Carbs on carbs. - I mean, I think it's grown a lot of popularity there in the last 10 years, especially. - Rice? - Yeah, definitely not when I was growing up at all. - Yeah, it's become way more popular like rice-based dishes in general. But you know, I think- - I say finally. What took them so long? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - But I think there's enough dishes where people are making them where a rice cooker,

People buy bread makers. People aren't making bread every fucking day. And those things are fucking massive. Yeah, right? My little rice cooker is like this big. The point was, before I did this, I used to just buy the microwave packets. They're amazing. Like 300 gram packets. Perfect portion. Tastes great. Slap it on the plate. You're good to go. Yeah. Amazing. I actually think those...

I also survived without a rice cooker in university for a long time because the microwave packets were good enough. And the problem with a rice cooker, I find is that rice goes off so fucking quick. So either you like cook a tiny bit of rice in this massive rice cooker, because I'm Asian. And of course, like if a mom buys you a rice cooker, it's like the biggest failure

fucking rice cooker you can ever imagine. - How many families do you wanna feed? - It's like this restaurant one where it's like this big. - Luckily there was a humanitarian crisis, but it wasn't for long 'cause Garnt had his rice cooker that his mom gave him. - Yeah, 'cause like my mom bought, my mom like bought me a rice cooker for university 'cause that's like one of the essential pieces of equipment that you need for university for every Asian kid that the mom provides. - Of course. - And they provide you a rice cooker that could survive a nuclear winter.

- I'm pretty sure you can like hop inside of a survivor blast. - Yeah, right? - But the problem is like, I would always cook too much rice or too little rice, right? That I would either like, it would be like either too much for the meal I was cooking and I would have some leftover rice or I'd have cooked too much rice and like the rice just goes off so quickly even if you put it in the fridge or something. Because unless you're,

- This is the Asian trap, right? Because with the rice cooker, you have to eat rice every day in order to cook, in order to eat all the rice that you cooked with the rice cooker, right? Otherwise it's just gonna go off. - Exactly. - So that's why actually the microwave packets were just like the perfect portion for like one meal and it was just like a lot less effort. - Yeah, because then you have to like start experimenting. Like you look in your fridge and be like, all right, what can the rice go with?

that I haven't tried yet. - I wonder, can you dehydrate the rice that you've cooked, turn it back into a rice grain? Is that possible? - Well, I mean- - If you had the technology? I'm asking, is it possible? - Well, I mean, like I put it-

No, it's like popcorn. You don't turn back the popcorn to its own. Oh, that form is completely different, though. The rice stays the same. I think if you took the water out somehow, maybe we could do it. Scientists? I mean, I used to... My family, actually a lot of Japanese families, what they do is if they make too much rice, then you put it into small, maybe microwave-sized packets, and then you put it in the freezer.

- Yes, that was also what happened as well. - But it's like not the same, like the next morning you wake up and be like, okay, there's some leftover rice. If I don't eat them, my mom's gonna fucking throw a hissy fit. So let's just get it out, defrost that shit. - But there was no space in my freezer to put extra packets of frozen rice. Do you know why? As a university student, what happens when your mom comes over? She brings you eight fucking, eight like Tupperware boxes full of takeaway food. And then you gotta put it in the freezer

and it just lasts you the entire day. - Oh, you're that asshole. - The entire fucking term. I was that asshole, I was that asshole. - You're that asshole. You know when you got to share a freezer and that some fuck takes up the entire fucking thing. 'Cause he decided that he was gonna meal prep like an entire month. And you're like, you're a cunt, you know that? Like we got to share the freezer. Where is my Ben and Jerry's gonna go? - Where am I gonna put my vodka? - I just wanted one Ben and Jerry's in here. Is that too much to ask?

You're like start playing Tetris with all the rice packets. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - No, 'cause like my mom would come to visit me once a month in university and every month she'd bring like two full like Sainsbury's bag worth of like takeaway boxes of food. - Holy shit. - And I'm just like, that is, I don't know. - How many people were in your like, were you sharing one fridge with?

- Like six or seven or something like that. - So at best you have half a shelf to yourself. - Yeah. - And then you have one, like a freezer's even smaller. - Yeah, the freezer was smaller. - So you had like what, two items to put in the freezer? God, you must've been hated. They must've hated you. - I probably was hated.

I would throw a fit. I'd be like, "Gah, mate, you're sharing this with me. "That's my real estate." Or, "I'm putting stuff in there, dude. "You gotta say bye-bye." - You're invading my property a little bit. - I'm like, I- - You're gonna have to pull a shotgun, man. - You're gonna have to haggle with me here. We gotta figure something out.

- Oh God. - What is like living with a Southeast Asian guy or girl? - That's real life. - Whenever their parents come to visit, they just bring a shit ton of food. I don't know why it's part of like- - I feel like it's just like an Asian in general. - Is it true with Japanese? 'Cause I know it's true like Southeast Asian

- I know when I was living on my own still, my aunt used to come over and just like buy me a shit ton of food. And that was when I was sharing, house sharing with two other people. And yeah, I was also the asshole that took up like 80% of the freezer. So I knew very well. - I can't believe I'm co-hosting with these assholes. These barbarians filling up the fridge selflessly. - Hey man, this is our turn to colonize.

- We're colonizing one freezer at a time. - How does it feel? - I'm Welsh, bro, what the fuck? - How does it feel now? - Welsh can't get a break, man, fuck. - One freezer at a time. We're coming for your freezes, okay? - Did your parents send you care packages when you went to university?

If I say no, they might say otherwise. They might see this episode and be like, we sent you things, Colin. I don't think they did. I want to say that no, I don't think so. I remember the last house I moved into in university. It was like, we moved in, it was a bit beat up. It wasn't like great. My mom was like mortified. She was like, oh my God, this place is a shithole. Oh my God, you can't live here. I'm like, it's not that bad.

I'll get over it. I'll be fine. I just remember her reaction. She was just like, I thought she was actually going to be like, you can't, you can't, you have to find somewhere else. This is too awful.

I was like, nah, it's fine. It wasn't even that bad. It was just kind of messy. - Is this the one in Swansea? - Yeah, but it was, and that one was the one that later had like rats. - Oh yeah. - But I don't think the rats were a part of the initial moving in thing. They joined later. They moved in with me. - They were the other roommates. They weren't part of the package. - No, I didn't pre-order those, unfortunately. Yeah, no, I mean, fuck.

- I'm trying to think now, I only ever had like white roommates actually. I guess in Swansea there isn't much diversity. I did have some friends here from Chinese schools, but most of them didn't speak like- - Like exchange students or? - A lot of foreign students come to the UK. The UK has a lot of foreign students. - Yeah, that makes sense though.

I mean, there's a ton of universities. I think there's one every city has too. - And yeah, you guys have like some of the highest universities as well, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's quite a lot of prestigious ones as well. Not Swansea, but you know, maybe another prestigious one. Maybe Oxford is full. So I had some friends that were Chinese, but they didn't speak much English. - Right, right. - And I can't remember his name.

I had did some projects with him in first year and he was like, didn't know what the fuck was going on. So we kind of just helped. We were like, we'll just help you. We'll just do it. And he was like, thank you, thank you. I'll return the favor. And then he never returned the favor. - We never saw him again. - Never saw him again, right? And then two years later, same engineering. I was like, oh my God, I saw him again. I was like, I did it, man. And his English was a bit better at this time. He spoke a bit more English. Still wasn't like great, but it was pretty good.

And he was really struggling with this thing. And we had a spare slot in our group and we were like, just join us because we're basically nearly done. You'll get a passing grade. And he was like, oh, shit, no way. And we were like, what do you do for fun? He's like, I'll show you. Deadass. We're in the computer libraries just working on this thing. This is when we invited him to join us. And we were just talking because he was sitting with us. And we were like, oh, yeah, what do you do? He's like, I'll show you, show you. So he takes us outside. You start the break dancing.

Just like insane. Like insane. Insane. Cause he didn't want to explain it or something. I don't know what it was. He just starts doing like insane, like flips and shit. And we were like, we're like computer nerds and like engineers. And we're just like, what? What is this? That's fucking awesome. It was so bizarre. The glow up dude. Yeah. And he was like, he's like, yeah, I love breakdancing. It's my passion and stuff. And I was like, I was like, nice dude. I'm nice. He's like, what are you going to do after this? He's like, I don't fucking know.

- He's like, "I'm just here until my parents drag me back." And I was like, "I have Fahrenheit." - Breakdance my way to a degree. - And so he was like, "By the way, I didn't forget. "I wanna return the favor for you guys helping me so much." - Oh yeah? - Yeah. - And I didn't see him for a long time. And then one day I was on the bus back to my house and he was there. He was like, "Dude, let me return the favor for you." And I was like, "Oh, okay, sure, sure."

And so we go into town, he's like, "Look, my friends owns this boba store." And I'm like, "Of course." I'm like, "Yeah, I don't wanna be racist." But I'm like, "It makes sense that you Chinese friends own the boba store." - Yeah, of course, makes sense. - My first time ever having boba and he's like, "Yeah, you gotta try this, this is amazing." - Oh really? - He's like, "You love tea?" I'm like, "Yeah, I love tea, I love tea." I'd never heard of boba before. This is like 20...

- Is this before it exploded? - Yeah, this is 2015. - Before the boba explosion. - And I've never even seen this stuff. And they were putting these, what I thought were balls into my drink, tapioca. He puts them in, I'm like, I don't know, man. It looks kind of, this isn't like tea I've had before. And it's cold? - Yeah. - I don't know about that. So I have this and he makes it for me and he's like, it's free of charge, free of charge. I'm like, oh, okay, okay, okay. I'm like, all right, I give you like, I don't know how much this work would have cost if I charged you, but all right, all right.

I'm very grateful. And I drink it. And immediately I like, I'm like choking on this fucking tapioca ball. I'm like, you got a Heimlich maneuver. It's awful. I like spat out the boba. I mean, this is so bad. I suck on it. I'm like the whitest thing ever. Like, ah!

- That is the wildest story ever. White man tries tapioca for the first time. - Literally spat it out and I was like, "I'm so sorry." He's like, "No, this was funny." And I'm like, "Oh, okay."

I'm like, but the milk part, the milk part tastes good. Can we get rid of the balls? And he's like, yeah, we'll just make you another one without the ball. I'm like, no, no, no, you don't have to. He's like, it's free, don't worry. I'm like, ah, okay. I got you, bro. I was like, ah, okay, okay, okay. That's nice of him. Yeah, he's very, very nice. God, I remember when the fucking initial boba explosion happened in Japan. How did that happen? Why did that happen?

- That's so weird, 'cause like, yeah, the month we moved here, it was like every boba store, you would tell which boba store, what was the boba store, sorry, if it had a line outside. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, right? - There were some boba stores near my house at the time where it was like legit, like on weekends, it was legit like a four hour wait. - Yeah. - And I'm like- - I don't get it. - What? - I don't get it. It's just a bit of tea with some jelly. - Man, did that die.

- Oh yeah. - Like fucking sped run death. - Dude, like I like- - Speed run death? I think it's still- - Oh yeah. - No, you never see- - You go to a boba store now, there's like maybe one or two people there. - That's true. - Well, there's still a thing in the UK from what I can see. They're still like exist. The stores still exist. - It's still around, but it's not the hype. - It's just the hype. Well, I mean, rightly so, 'cause I thought it was like overrated.

- I didn't get what the craze around it was. - I drank a shitload of it during uni because we had like a burger store near like where we studied. - I get it. - But that was before the explosion. - It lasts a while because it's cold. So you can kind of just sip on it throughout the day if you ever get a big one. - Also, if you're a uni student, it's a great sugar rush.

- I guess everyone after a while was like, and Juman at least, was like, "All right, back to Starbucks now." - Yeah, back to Starbucks. - Back to the way life should have been. - I just saw nothing but just iced tea or iced coffee. I don't know, maybe. To me it was like- - But it's not fun. There's no personality in that. - I'm a hot boy. I like my drinks hot. I don't really like cold drinks that much. - They had hot boba too though, right? I think.

- Hopper is just not the same. - It's not the same. Yeah, I think they do, but it's not as good. - I believe you can order it with like no ice sometimes. You know when you can customize your order. - That's lukewarm though.

- That's lukewarm. - It's like piss water. - Warm boba. - Yeah, it's like pee water. - Yeah, I don't know what maniac would order warm boba, but it was an option in some of the boba stores I've been to. - If it was like a specialty, I'd be like, "Okay, if you say so." - Was that a secret menu? Did you have to wait? - The secret menu. Did you have to speak Chinese to get that one? It's like, "I'm a Chinese friend, can I get the lukewarm boba?" It's like, "Oh, so you know your shit."

- Yeah, I don't know. Like, I don't know how or why it exploded, but I remember it just like, not just in Japan, but just pretty much everywhere in the UK, everywhere in Thailand, you just couldn't get away from it. - Even in the States, I remember it was huge. - It was like fashionable. I think it was just a fashionable drink. - Yeah.

- Yeah, I guess so. And I think it's Instagrammable. - It's Instagrammable. - Let's be honest, 2014 was just the, was all the Frappuccino. That's what it was. - That's true. - That was the thing. Everyone just wants a photogenic drink. And Boba looked photogenic. - But I feel Japan took that, like the photogenicness of Boba and just like was trying to stretch it out to

- It's like everything in Japan though. Everything is about taking photos. Like afternoon tea. I love my afternoon tea. It's the most British thing I've ever said. I really, really enjoy going for tea and having crumpets or scones. - That is like a weirdly popular subculture in Japan, isn't it? - It is, but everywhere I've been just does it really badly. - Really? - Okay, I mean, not badly. It's hard to say. - Not as good.

Like I to me afternoon tea is just as much about like the food you get as it is the tea Yeah, right, right. I mean the food isn't great. It's it's the food here looks so aesthetic, but it doesn't taste good Yeah, that's literally all they do is they make they arrange it and they get these like beautiful colored things Then you take one bite of the quiche. You're like, why does it taste bad?

I actually agree. So this is like afternoon tea is one thing that England does the best that I've had so far because the afternoon tea food is actually good. Whereas in Japan, every time I've had afternoon tea, it just looks pretty. Also, yeah, it's got to be layered, right? So like the layers are to distinguish the types of flavors. Bottom is for sandwiches. Then maybe you get like the quiches or the more like savory kind of, that kind of,

the dishes, it's always sandwiched bottom. - Like pastries. - Yeah, you get, and so it's like savory, savory, and then sweet. But in Japan it's sweet.

savory and also sweet. But it's like, it's ridiculous. It's like, this isn't, 'cause normally afternoon tea, you kind of have it at like, we have it in the afternoon. But you know, if it's a good place, you can normally like skip lunch or dinner with it. 'Cause it's pretty, like it's quite a lot. Some places even refill. In the UK, they refill the sandwiches or stuff in some places. So you can just like, you can chow down. If you like the sandwiches or you like the whatever they're offering, dude, it's good. It's so good. You get money's worth. Expensive though.

- In London, it's very expensive. - Yeah, I bet. - It's good, it's really good. - But it's an experience you're paying for, right? - Yeah. - Yeah. - I get that. - One thing I've only seen really in Asia as well, going off like the boba thing before like, I guess the boba crepe. - It's the most privileged thing I've ever mentioned by the way, I just realized that. It sounds so privileged, me being like, "The tea isn't good enough." It's disgusting. - No sandwiches. - I mean, it's one thing I feel like Britain does well, so I think it's a good- - Snow Greggs, though, is it? - Snow Greggs. - Snow Greggs. - Snow Greggs. - But yeah, like,

- Dessert cafes. That's one thing like I only saw in Asia. - Oh yeah. - And I don't know if there is more dessert cafes in the UK now. - Dessert buffets. - Sorry? - Dessert buffets. - Dessert buffets, what's that? - It's like...

It's literally exactly that. Think of a buffet, but it's all desserts. - 'Cause whenever I'd hang out with my, like some of my friends in Thailand, they'd be like, "Oh, let's go to this dessert cafe." I'm just like, wait. Like to me, growing up in England, dessert was something you have at the end of a meal at a restaurant, right? You don't go to a specific place to eat dessert, right? That concept was just alien to me. And like, to me, it still feels weird, right?

I would like, if I want dessert after a meal, I would order it at the restaurant. But like you go to a dessert cafe and it's like,

it's like half a meal, you know? 'Cause like you never go to a dessert cafe after you finish eating at a restaurant. But you go to a dessert cafe at like really weird times of the day. - Three. - Yeah, three or something. I go to a dessert cafe, I have to dessert and then it just fucks with my eating schedule because then I just don't want dinner. And then it also doesn't fill me up as well. It's really weird. - So you get hungry at like 9:00 PM. It's like a really weird time where it's like, oh, it's kind of too late to eat

- But I know I won't be able to sleep 'cause I'm gonna get hungry. - Yeah, yeah, no, I get that. - Yeah, I don't want it. I don't know. I just don't feel satisfied if I've eaten a lot of something sweet. But when I eat like a savory meal, I just feel like happy. - I just feel sick if I eat too much sweet stuff now. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I was always like that though. Like I could never eat too, I liked sweets, but like I could never eat too much of it 'cause then I'd just get, I'd be filled up, but then that feeling of being filled up by sweet shit just made me feel really ill.

which just made me want to eat regular food anyway. - Man, I said this like a year or two ago, but man, I still don't like themed cafes in Japan. They're like collaboration cafes.

- Because of the food? - The food and drink is like a jerk. - It looks good. - That's the thing is that I hate the fact that we're turning like food impractical. We're like, okay, well we put a little, I went to the Square Enix one. - Oh yeah. - And then they made me a latte and I was like, this latte tastes really bad. - Yeah. - But they put a slime on it. So I guess now it's worth $9. - Yeah. - And I was like, what?

There's only been, I've been to so many themed cafes because Aki loves going to them. I know. Because she makes content out of it, so it's understandable. But I think the only good one where I would actually go back for the food is the Kirby Cafe. Oh.

And I know it's good because no, no, I know it's good because- - The biggest Kirby fan says the Kirby cafe has the best food. - It does. - What a coincidence. - It legitimately does and I know I'm not the only one who thinks that because it was a temporary thing at fucking Tokyo Skytree, but now they made it a permanent thing. So you know if a themed cafe turns permanent, that's how you know that the food is good. Because if the food sucks, then people don't come back.

- There's like a novelty to it that's really short lived. And once you've like experienced all the food and you've experienced that themed cafes, like, you know, style and everything, and you've grabbed all the fucking merch you can because there's always a merch shop attached to it as well. Then you're not gonna go back. - I don't know, 'cause to me it's like the food itself is the art.

- Don't draw all over my steak. Don't reassemble the carrots to look like a smiley face. - But I think that's why I like the Kirby Cafe because the Kirby Cafe, they don't fuck around with the food. They fuck around with the cutlery. So like the plates are like certainly shaped in certain ways or like the cups are shaped in certain ways, but the actual food itself,

once you put it on a regular plate. - I don't know if I'm like a Scrooge or something, just don't enjoy fun or whatever, but like, I just don't want people like making faces or shit out with my food. I don't want my food to be like a toy. - No, I get that. - I'm exactly the same way where if I go to a themed something of like something I'm a fan of, then I don't want them to fuck around with the food.

I'm here for a good time to enjoy the thing I like. - I'll buy the merch. - Give me like cool merch. Give me like cool exclusive merch that I can buy. - What better way to get one with the show than to digest the show.

Oh, dude, like fucking typical example is when we went to the Bucky exhibit, right? I saw this poster that was like, oh, just down the block, there is the Bucky cafe, like a Bucky themed cafe. And my friend and I were like, because, you know, it was like hitting around, you know, lunchtime, like early afternoon. We were like, all right, let's go check it out, right? Let's go see the menu. And I saw the menu and I was like, this is the laziest attempt at a themed cafe. But one of them was like Retsu Kayo's Neapolitan pasta. And I'm like, what?

When does Retsu ever eat Napoleon pasta in fucking Baki? - It's like, they are really fucking stretching it. They're like, they're really stretching it to make it on brand. - It's Mickey Mouse's world famous lasagna. - Yeah, it was like, one of them was like, one of them was like Yujiro's cappuccino. And it's like, it didn't even have Yujiro's face on it. It was literally just a cappuccino.

- $9. - I was like, what makes this use here? - That's the thing about so many themed cafes I've been to in Japan where they have a dish on the menu that's just like, you know, fucking Rin's special curry from Fate Stay Nine. And I'm just like, when did they

How did this happen? How is this on brand? Why did you just add it? You literally just added a character to a random dish. - Yeah, exactly. - And you call it brand. - I find it like insulting. It's like you're insulting my intelligence. - Yeah. - You're insulting my fandom. - Yeah. - By like, you think I'm just gonna buy this because you put this character on it? I'll take two.

- But if you had put the fucking like, Neapolitan pasta in front of me, I would have been like, oh, it's just the regular Neapolitan pasta. Do you think though, if they were like, but it's Red Sokaio's Neapolitan pasta, then I'd be like, well, fucking sign me up then. I'm gonna eat the shit out of this. - This is why when you go to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, he doesn't serve like fucking smiley faces on his steak. You know what I mean? I just don't want that. I don't want that. - It's just like the steak just has the initials. - If you went to a really nice restaurant, yeah, there's just initials burned into the steak. You'd be like, what the fuck is that?

Is this a horse? Are you branding it? Was he running away? What's going on? This is ousting. I just don't like that. To me, it's like it's such... If a food is done well, it itself is so beautiful and I'll pay for it. It speaks more... Just have the decor of the cafe. Have everything else be...

Like everything else but the food. Like don't fuck with that. - Have cool cutlery, have a cool vibe, you know, have a cool aesthetic, you know, make it feel like you're at the place. - If it's Kirby, make it so that the toilet is Kirby and I can lift up his mouth and I can sit and shit in Kirby's mouth. - I think that's what I appreciated about the Kirby cafe was that they didn't fuck around with the food. They fucked around with the cutlery, which you can then buy

at the fucking merch store. So I was like, oh cool. This is like a thing I can use in my kitchen and it's like kind of neat and dope and it doesn't have to, I don't have to make a fucking Kirby theme. - You'll get to know if you come to Japan at some point, I'm sure there'll be tons. - Yeah, please. Like Kirby Cafe is great. - There's always a bunch. - But like, you know, for like, for me, especially if when it's like cafes, especially that are like paired with like exhibits or whatever,

It's just like, just give me some good merch. - Didn't they have the Pen Pineapple Pen Cafe? - Yeah, I went to that. - Did they actually? - Yeah. - No fucking way. - I made a video on it. - Yeah, you did, right? - Yeah, I made a video on it. - How long ago was this? - When was Pen Pineapple Apple Pen? Like six years ago? - Six years ago. - I think it was like 2016. Yeah, they made a- - That's what Popper was, they made a cafe. - They made a pop-up of Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. I think it was at Tokyo Skytree.

or Tokyo Tower, whichever one it was. But yeah, you go in and all of the menu items spelt out PPAP, because that was the only- - That was it? - Yeah. They didn't even have any like pineapple or apple based products. And I'm like, I feel like you really missed the ball here. - Paprika, it's paprika, right? - It was like a pen pineapple, apple pen burger. And I'm like, what does that mean?

What does this have to do with Pen Pineapple Apple Pen? - With zero pineapple in the burger. - Yeah, no pineapple in the burger. No apple. - That's good though. I don't like pineapple burgers. - I don't mind it if it's done well. But like even then it's like they couldn't even put the effort to do that. And it's like, oh, the thing I felt the most sorry about was the fact that like I looked at, there was like two like clerks who were like standing behind the counter and they looked so dead inside because Pen Pineapple Apple Pen was paying on repeat in the store.

All day. I was there for like a couple of hours and I was like, by like minute 20, I was like, I want to get the fuck out of here. Just like, just shove a pen in my ear. Just like blur out the sound. They looked so dead. That's kind of how I feel like all of the truck drivers who drive around like fucking Harajuku or whatever and they have to drive around promoting these idols or whatever.

Oh yeah. Have we spoke about, I swear we've mentioned it. There's these trucks that drive around Japan where they'll play music

- Yeah. - Really loud. - They call it or decorative trucks. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And they're awful. - It's basically just like a moving billboard, basically. - It's weird in Japan how you can't make noise in your own apartment, but anyone can make as much noise as they want on the street. - It's pretty weird. - Yeah, right? - It's like someone can come around selling hot potatoes and intrude our like streams. - Stream, yeah. - And people running for government just scream in public. - Yeah.

It's just like, what year are we in? Don't you have social media you could promote on? No. No, I'm sure you're really connected with the youth of today by driving around a truck and screaming. What do they expect for everyone to come out of their houses? Guys!

- Guys, honey, wake up. The new politicians in town. - I mean, even if it's older people, right? They're not gonna get up to go outside to listen to you drive by. - Maybe that's why they're loud. Otherwise they're not gonna like hear it, right? So they just like broadcast. They broadcast all the houses. - Honestly, probably. - We gotta make it through the hearing aids somehow. - It's an interesting spot where like they have to,

political people have to try and go towards the older generation. So all the techniques they use seem like archaic as fuck, but it's the only way they can get elected. Because if you're not in someone's letterbox, they're not getting into it. Weird, isn't it? Weird, isn't it? The whole...

political system is just catered towards- - What I just don't understand though is like, yeah, I'm sure they're like, you know, being loud as fuck right on the street. So that again, as you were saying, like it can reach the old people's ears, right? Because a lot of people, you know, as old age comes naturally, you become hard of hearing. And yet these same old people can hear like the tiniest creak from upstairs and be like, oh my God, that's too fucking loud.

How dare they walk so loud in my apartment. Meanwhile, I'm having a really hard time hearing this fucking politician on 17 megaphones just drive past my house. I need them to turn up a little bit louder.

- Well, I don't know. Well, like, are there any laws around like how much noise you can make in Japan? - Is it past 10 or nine? - It's something like that. I don't know. - I don't know. - I feel half the time, like people just don't follow those laws. - Yeah. - And there's like always exceptions to the rule. Like, you know, you could have like a bunch of like, like how come, you know, all these like loud ass bikes that like drive through like neighborhoods and you know, not be fucking called on by the cops. - Does your neighborhood have like,

of old Japanese grandmas who are just like the real, the leaders of that fucking street or whatever. - That's 'cause you have a house. - Oh yeah, I have a house. - You're in like a neighborhood area.

- I'm in an apartment. - Yeah, I'm in an apartment as well. - Yeah, 'cause Meilyne like warns me about this before I was moving in the house and she was like, "Be careful about the posse of old Japanese grandmas." And I'm just like, "What are you talking about, Meilyne? "What are you talking about?" And lo and behold, like now I've noticed like there is this group of Japanese grandmas who like seem to run the neighborhood

I don't know how this happened. I don't know why this happened, but you do one thing wrong. Like maybe you take the garbage out just a bit too early. You see them eyeing you. You see them eyeing you, right? I can tell. Anytime me and Sidney come out, sometimes they're just like gossiping together.

And like, you know when you can feel someone gossiping about you? That's every time like me and Sydney go out of the house and they're always in the same corner. It's the same group of Japanese grandma. - We should wave at them and say hi.

- Yeah, yeah, you should. - No, I do, I do. - For those people, what I've learned is that you just need to be like ignorantly like happy and friendly towards them. And then they'll start to be like, "Oh, maybe they're actually right. Maybe we'll take them off the hit list." - I feel like, okay, I feel like I've been put, I was friendly enough, right? - It's the most moist thing. - Yeah, but I feel like I've been put on a hit list now because I just,

I did unfortunately take the garbage out on the wrong day. One day. - Being on a Japanese hit list is just like, I'll give you at worst a passive aggressive note one day. - Yeah, I got that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Did you really? - Yeah, remember in my old apartment, I got that English written note.

- Yeah, that's the worst you'll get. They say they'll kick you out and they'll tell the housing company. - And then I need Hongo Josu reverse Uno card and then they shut up. - The housing company is not gonna kick you out. - No, of course not. - Unless you are actually taking the piss. But if you're just walking, the housing company is not gonna give a fuck. - They'll be like, "Okay, granny." - They'll be like, "All right." - Simmer down, come on now.

- So yeah, so one day, like normally we take our garbage out either like the night before or like the morning of, I don't know what's custom in Japanese neighborhood. - It depends on your area. - Yeah, normally it's like, I think the morning of, but I remember I think I woke up like slightly late that day. So how it worked in my place is that the garbage is one day and then like the recyclables is the next day.

- I think that's most places. - Yeah, yeah. So I thought like I was just on the cusp of like getting like getting the recyclables out on the right day. - Yeah. - Because it's garbage, recyclables, then garbage again.

And so I thought I was just on the cusp, maybe the garbage truck hadn't come yet. So I go out to the garbage spot and I see like some bags there. I was like, oh great. I still made it in time. And so I put the recyclables out, went back in my house and just continued about my day. And then I get a ring on my doorbell. - Oh no.

- I get to ring my doorbell and I'm just like, oh, it must be a delivery or something. And it's, I opened the door and it's three old Japanese grandmas just staring at me. - Are you serious? - Yeah, I am serious. - Oh my God.

and I see my bag of recyclables right in front of my door. And they nicely enough explained to me that I had missed the time and it was the wrong day to bring out the recyclables, but it kind of felt like some fucking loan sharks outside my door being like- - It'd be a shame if this would have happened again. - Yeah, yeah. - It's like repo man.

You do it again, we're taking everything. - They are basically like the gangsters that run the neighborhood. I felt like I just like missed out on the day, on like paying the protection money of the day. It's like, shame, shame on what happened. - America has the Crips and the Bloods, we have the grannies.

- Fear them, they control everything. - Yeah, they're the real, it's like the fucking Sopranos, right? It's the Japanese Sopranos, right? The old Japanese grandma. - Did you take the recycling out today? - Yes. - I heard some really strict crazy grandmas even get pissed off when like, you know, on like cardboard boxes.

Like the Amazon labels and stuff. They get like pissed off you don't take those off. I've heard of some grandmas that get like, they're like, how dare you? Even though it doesn't make a difference. This is why I love, love living in an apartment building.

I just take it down whenever I want. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No recycling day, no garbage day. It's like whenever you have garbage, take it down. Cardboard's the worst because when you're moving in, it literally is like Cardboard City. Oh, yeah, yeah. And it's just like stacks upon stacks upon stacks. I'm waiting for the day when you're like, well, what's that in the corner, Connor? Well, it's the wall of cardboard, actually.

It's one of the main attractions of the apartment. And I have so much cardboard, in fact, that I could probably house everyone in the half of Japan. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing where I remember when I was moving in, I felt like if you missed the day of the cardboard collection, then you were just fucked, right? Yeah. But also you feel like, am I taking the piss with this much cardboard? Like I have like...

like a two meter high stack of cardboard. Am I taking up too much cardboard? Is that allowed? What's the limit on how much recycling I can recycle? - I remember the only time I had like a granny experience

when I was moving into my current place was when it was like the first week I was moving in and you know it was like the shitload of cardboard thing and cardboard day comes around I'm just like finally here we go this is where the cleansing starts so I take out like way too much cardboard like probably fucking half the Amazon rainforest worth of cardboard naturally and then the next morning I come out you know to leave for the office right and a grandma like stops me

And I'm like, oh no. - Uh-oh. - And she points at the mountain of cardboard and she's like, "That's all your cardboard, right?" And I was like, "I mean, not all of it, but yeah." - Oh, come on, Lava's like 90%. - It's like, yeah, most of it. And she's like, "I think that you're really causing the rubbish people a lot of trouble with that much cardboard." And then I just reverse Uno card and I'm like, "I moved in yesterday."

puts on sunglasses and walks off. But legit she was just like, "Oh, I'm sorry then. I'm sorry about that." But that felt good. That was the one time where I trumped the granny. I was like, "You don't control it. Silence, silence woman." - You can actually, some movie companies are like,

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did that, but even they, I had so much cardboard that the moving company could only take so much cardboard. 'Cause I bought like, 'cause I bought, 'cause you know, I moved into a much bigger place and I needed to buy all this new furniture to fill up the space, so yeah.

but it felt good. - Felt good to reverse in her car to granny. - Basically, you know, they think like organized crime in Japan is the Yakuza. No, just it's the Japanese grannies in your neighborhood. Watch out, make sure you don't them off. Otherwise you're gonna be having a bad time. - I've been living here for 60 years. I know every nook and cranny of this street. - Literally the day after they came, like I came back home and they'd slipped this in my letterbox. Just like the schedule of the garbage for like the week and the garbage collection.

- So passive aggressive. - And I was just like, oh, this is, they're sending me a message. They're literally sending me a message. - You turn over the note and you're like, get this wrong again, you're dead. Don't fuck it up again, God. - Gonna wake up in my bed with like a decapitated horse head or something. Like, don't get the garbage day right next time. Don't fuck up. - A group of dead salmon at your front door. It's like, you better take this out on the right day.

What day does oily containers go, Garnt? - The ultimate test. - A shampoo bottle is not recycling, Garnt. - Oh my God. - I love it. You have this like spreadsheet of like items that very specifically cannot be recycled and stuff. - I have an app for it, dude. - Oh my God. - Yeah, like Al Ward created an app being like, if you put in a certain item, it tells you exactly what day to bring it out. - You know what sucks is that there's like,

some items you're like, what the fuck is this? It's like, you know, like styrofoam, right? Where if you had the packaging that's like thin, it's like a paper styrofoam. You're like, what the fuck is this? Is this burnable? Is this paper? Is this plastic? I don't know what this is. This is a mystery. And every time I ask anyone, they're like, I have no idea. I think it's burnable, but no one's like 100%. They're like-

everyone's like, dude, it's not gonna matter. Just put it in the binnable. - That's the thing. It's like, there's all these rules that are laid out that like the grannies will enforce you on, but like when you put it all into a fucking bag and just then put it out. - I heard that apparently the recycling, even though they make you sort of very strict, that actually when it goes to the plant, apparently, I don't know how true this is, that it's not actually like they don't recycle it as well as you think they are. - Yeah. - I would believe that. - I mean, fair enough. - Yeah.

But, fuck, dude, one time I went down to my recycling thing in my current place. I thought, hmm, I was just, I was putting out my bottles in the bottle thing and I noticed that there was like 10 plus Bombay Sapphire gin bottles. Right. And I was like, who has drank this much Bombay Sapphire? Yeah.

This is a lot of- - It wasn't you, right? - No, it wasn't me. I was gonna say- - I thought that was like- - As another person who enjoys Bombay Sapphire gin, I was like, huh, I wonder who's bought this much Bombay. Well, I'm gonna keep saying it. It's very satisfying. Bombay Sapphire gin. - Clearly there's another British person in your building. - I was like, either somebody's-

running a bar secretly in their apartment that specializes in Bombay Sapphire cocktail. - Or someone had a good night. - Or there's a really depressed British person somewhere in this apartment building who is really, really spending a lot of money on gin. I just thought, why would you have this many? They're all neatly stacked. And like almost like a Jenga-esque stacking style. I'm like, this is definitely one person who brought, I wonder did they collect them for a long time? They thought, no, this is ridiculous. I can't collect this many bottles.

'Cause some people keep their alcohol containers afterwards. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's like a memory, but I guess when you drink too much, you're like, okay, this is just- - How many Bombay Sapphires is too many? - I just thought, I was like, this is a lot. I'm like, what's going on here? I wonder, I was like, what a weird trash. Do you ever see people's trash and you think, what's going on? - Oh yeah. - What's going on with that? - Many times. I remember the weirdest one I saw was, it was a vacuum cleaner that had been perfectly cut in half down the middle. And I was like,

- How did that happen? - Someone's like, damn man, I just wanted to see what's inside. - It was like a Dyson. It was like the body of a Dyson, but it had been perfectly split down the middle, but there was only one half. And I'm like, where did the other half go? - Sounds like some serial killer shit. - Yeah. - Just one half. - It was only one half. And I was kind of, I was like, for like five minutes, I was kind of like looking around and seeing like, I wonder where the other half is. I couldn't find it. So he's either kept the other half or,

or I've witnessed some crucial evidence of a crime scene or something. I don't know what. - It's so specific. - It was the weirdest thing. At least I was like, oh, well now I know what's inside of a Dyson. - It's like something you see for like a YouTube channel. - Yeah, right? - What's inside of a Dyson? - What's inside of a Dyson? What if I cut this Dyson in perfect? - I just wanna know how they did it.

- It's either someone has a laser cutter inside of their house or they just went ham with a saw. I don't know what it was. - Either they have a saw in their house or it's somewhere else and then they brought half a Dyson to your apartment building and then they decided that they are done with half a Dyson and they're gonna throw it away. - That was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. - So annoying having to get rid of big stuff in Japan. - It is. - You buy those stupid stickers from the convenience and then you can't throw out

- If it's bigger than I think 30 centimeters in my apartment. - Something like that. - Which is nothing. There's so many things that are 30 centimeters or bigger. And if you want to throw it away, you have to book. And it's normally like three weeks away, if you're lucky. - Yeah, usually it's like a month. - So normally now I figured out a genius strat, which is just break the thing down to below 30 centimeters. And then you're good.

Yeah. It's like, you know how like in the prison movies, right? When they escape from prison, that they start dumping the soil like one by one in the courtyard or something. Yeah. It's like, you got to break this cabinet into like small pieces and slowly recycle it every week.

- That's actually I saw that the other day actually. - People do it because they don't wanna deal with, 'cause this shit is so annoying. - Someone had disposed of an office chair one part at a time. - I get it, I get it. - That's so genius. - I remember seeing like, I would go take the garbage out

And one day I'd saw like the bottom off, so like the wheels part. And I'm just like, why is someone just getting rid of like the fucking wheels part? And then the next week I go to put the garbage again. And it's like the seat. And then it's the seat. And I'm like, oh, someone's just playing Jenga with office chairs. And the next week, it's like the backrest. - It's slow, but it's effective. - That's the exact reason why I bought a saw.

- I'm not kidding. I bought a saw just to saw shit and I don't have to deal with this. - I like a lot of wooden shit and I'm just like, I'm not paying to get rid of this fucking wooden plank. I'm just gonna saw this bitch off. - It's also annoying 'cause you have to measure it.

- Exactly. - Yeah. - And if it's even a little bit off, they won't take it. And then you'd have went another three weeks and buy those stupid sticker things again. I don't wanna do this. - I had like a metallic like coat hanger or a coat rack kind of thing. And of course it was like way too big even if I took the parts off. So what did I do? I put it back up, I put it on my balcony and just let the weather wear it down as much as possible to the point where I could just snap it

- I just let it rust to shit and then it grabbed the saw or like just snap it in half to the size. I'm like, perfect. - Just let nature take its course. Erosion. - Like three months later, I was like, all right, I can finally take this out. - This is the worst way to recycle something. But I respect the effort you'd go to to not deal with the bureaucracy. - Yeah, dude, it probably would have taken just as long to fucking book a time to throw this fucking coat hanger out.

I just don't want to deal with it. - Or I just wait for someone to come over and be like, do you want this shitty thing I don't need? Just take it. - Dude, they made me feel like such a bastard for using batteries. Like I just want to use some double A batteries and they make it seem like I was like using like some kind of radioactive material the way that they get rid of it. I'm like, what's wrong with me? - I don't think I've ever like properly gotten rid of my batteries, right? Because I'm just like, okay, I'll get rid of them next time. The other time. So I have like a fucking drawer just full

full of used dead batteries that I've not been able to get rid of because I've always- - That is the most troll drawer in existence. - Yeah. - Oh, I'm sure we've got a whole drawer full of batteries, Sydney. Go and grab a pair. None of them are working, Garnt. - That's what you should do as like a joke. Just be like, just get one actually working battery and put it in that drawer and be like, there is one working battery.

- I'm gonna get rid of it someday, but just like, I just keep forgetting the day to get rid of the batteries. - It's like the most fucked up saw trap. There is one working battery, you have 15 minutes. Find the working battery. Oh my God. - I don't really use a lot of batteries, but for a lot of the,

filming stuff that we have. - Yeah, it's basically all for the filming stuff. - It's all for like mics, camera accessories, it's all batteries. It's really annoying 'cause you have to get batteries for that and it kind of sucks. I was like, "Get rechargeable ones." It's like, "Yeah, but I always forget to recharge." - Yeah, but then if you get rechargeable ones, you forget to recharge before the shoot, which is like a change of the reason. - And luckily you can buy AAA batteries like everywhere in Japan, so pretty good for that. It's pretty good. Always done well.

Anything else you guys been up to this week? Just trying to think. I watched Enemy. I finished Odd Taxi. Oh, you finished Odd Taxi? That's surprising. Did you watch it in subbed or dubbed? Subbed. It was good. I liked it. Yeah, nice. Very fun show. I don't know how they're going to make a movie.

- Oh yeah, they are making a movie, aren't they? - Yeah, I was surprised when they announced that they were making a movie just because it felt like it just wrapped everything up. - I was like, we're done, aren't we? - Also, it weirdly seemed like, I didn't think it was as popular on the surface as it made it out to be. - Did you watch it? - I watched it, yeah. I ended up watching it. - You finished it? - Yeah. - Have we never talked about it? - I don't know. - I thought I told you I finished it.

- No, you didn't. No, I would remember. - It's because it's so rare. - I would remember if you told me you'd finished an anime, Joey. What the fuck? - I liked it. - Yeah, I liked it. It was good. - But yeah, again, like I was surprised not only because yeah, as you said, like the show wrapped up nicely where it was like, how are they gonna make a movie out of it? But also it's like, I don't know. I feel "Odd Taxi" was one of those shows where like it got really popular from word of mouth. - Yeah. - Where like,

I was like, did it really get that popular to warrant a movie? - I don't know how popular it got because I remember when I made my video on it, I was just like, I made it 'cause no one was talking about it at all.

- I thought it was kind of like the underdog. - Everyone who watches it, I know likes it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's a great show. - But that's the thing, it's like, it's one of those shows where like, I feel you start watching it because someone who gave it a go was like, it was really fucking good. - Yeah, I feel like it had a similar arc to "Made in Abyss" because when "Made in Abyss" came out, it just, no one was watching "Made in Abyss" at all 'cause everyone saw the art style and everyone was just like, oh, this is a children's show. - Children's show. - Children's show, which couldn't be more further from the truth, honestly.

But then like- - There's a lot of children in the show. - I mean, yeah, it is a children's show in some sense of the word. - It's one for the kids. - One for the whole family. - They can relate, the children can relate. - The children can relate. - The children can relate. Which is, but yeah, I mean like,

It kind of like, that was another show that really spread through word of mouth. And then eventually like one like anime of the year, the year it came out as well. Odd Taxi, I feel had a similar thing where it didn't really have much promotion or anything like that. At least not that I could see outside of Japan. In Japan, it actually had some,

kind of decent promotion because every time I remember when it was airing, every time you go in a taxi, they would have an odd taxi advertisement playing. - Did they really? - Yeah, yeah, did you not see? - No, I didn't really. - They always have it like playing in like, you know, the little TVs that they have on the back of the taxis. - Did they? - Yeah, at least I did. I saw a bunch of them. - I didn't go on enough taxis to know. - Did we, did I talk about Tokyo Avengers? I watched that.

You have not talked about Tokyo Avengers. Have we not? Maybe not on episode. I was trying to watch all the animes of the year that were nominated. When did you get time to watch anime? I mean, an episode here and there. It's very sporadic. I was like, oh, Sunny Boy looks...

- Yeah, you're not gonna enjoy Sunny Boy. - I looked at it and I was like, oh yeah, it's for those anime fans that think that they're really intelligent and want something deep. - Your IQ wasn't high enough. - But at the end of the day, they're just anime fans. - I'll tell you who would enjoy Sunny Boy. I think you would really enjoy Sunny Boy actually.

- What? Okay, you are not the first person to say that. I don't know if I should be offended. - There's this category of shows and to me, I took one look at Sunny Boy and I was like, oh, this is what fucking Reddit anime fans are gonna be like. This is the best anime of the year actually. - I listened to two soundtrack songs from it and I was like, okay, if the soundtrack is as good as the actual show, I think I'm gonna enjoy it.

- I just cannot stand shows where I feel like people like it just to be pretentious. And that's like one of those shows that like, I felt like the fans make me wanna not watch it and despise it more than the show. - Yeah, I get that. - I mean like, I don't even know if I enjoyed "Sunny Boy." It's a really fucking weird show and it left an impression on me whether I enjoyed it or not. - Oh, that sounds like something I would enjoy. - I watched it and I'm just like, this is such a Joey show. - What would you give it out of 10?

- I don't even fucking know. Like to me, it's still sinking in. It could be like, it's one of those- - What does that mean? What does that fucking mean? - Okay, okay, okay. I got the perfect analogy. Have you watched like Donnie Darko? - Yeah. - What did you think of it? - I like Donnie Darko. - What did you like about it?

- God, it's been so long. - Exactly. - I remember I liked it. It's been a very long time since I watched "Dani Arco." - Yeah, that's like one of my favorite movies. - Okay, so it's kind of like that. - Can you watch it so then I don't feel bad about shitting on it? 'Cause right now I just feel like I'm shitting into the void. - What, "Sunny Boy"? - Yeah, it's like 86. When I shit on 86, I thought, "Oh, no one's gonna contest me on this."

- Meanwhile the entire internet. - Everyone got really fucking angry that I didn't like 86. But to be fair, I watched eight episodes of that and it was boring as shit. That's 86's fault for being boring. - Sunny Boy is just 12? - Sunny Boy is just 12 episodes. It's like, what actually like, 'cause I remember watching the first three episodes of Sunny Boy, I thought it was boring as fuck. I thought it was like boring as fuck. - If you think that, then holy shit, I'm gonna be like, "Geek and Bull." - This is like fucking,

- Hot house, fucking pretentious shit. And then like the soundtrack got recommended to me and I'm just like, holy fucking shit. This soundtrack just like is everything I want. It's like a lot of soft rock, alternative rock in the soundtrack. I mean, you listen to some tracks and I'm just like,

I kind of want to watch this show just because of the soundtrack. - I found it because I was buying a bunch of vinyls and on the front page of the store, the online store that I go to buy my vinyls, it just would not leave the front page. And I was like, what is this Sonny Boy thing? So I went onto YouTube real quick, looked up one song and I was like, yep, sold.

- Yeah, right? - Yep. - Right? And that's like, the best thing I can say is like the soundtrack just sets the vibe of the anime. - Okay, yeah. - Where it's less about the plot points and it's more about the feeling that it gives you. - Did you end up finishing it or are you- - I did end up finishing it. I mean, like I finished it and I didn't know what to think about it, but I like, I knew like some of the ideas presented in "Sunny Boy" it's just kind of like, it's one of those shows that,

You don't know exactly what you think immediately, but...

I just remember some scenes. - So it's kind of like fully coolie in that sense? - Yeah, kind of like fully coolie. Where it's just like fully coolie, Donnie Darko, that kind of thing where you watch it and you're like, I don't really know what I watched, but some parts of it just really stick with you and just refuse to leave. That's how I feel with Sunny Boy. - Do you think it deserved to be nominated for an anime of the year? - I don't think it deserved to be nominated for anime of the year. - Didn't it win like the Reddit one though?

- Yeah, yeah, no. - Of course it did. - No, no, no. It won the- - On house pretentious type of anime. - It won the Reddit, not the user, not the user award. - Oh, the critic. - The critic award. - Oh my God. - Which doesn't help, which does not help its image at all. The Reddit armchair critics gave it the award for like anime- - You know, I hate bashing on low hanging fruit, but yeah, I mean, that is sometimes normally an indication of what I'm like.

- Yeah. I mean like- - Whenever I say like "Donnie Darko" is one of my favorite movies, I'm waiting for it. Like I'm like dangling the low hanging fruit. - I mean, not necessarily Joey. Joey's normally that guy in our podcast who's like the pretentious- - Yeah, I am. - With "Donnie Darko", did you like it immediately? - No. - Yeah. - No. I only liked it maybe after like my second or third viewing of it. - I was so young when I watched it. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - Yeah, that was the problem. Like when I first watched it, I was like maybe like 13, 14 years old, right? And when you watch,

when you watch those kinds of movies at 13, 14, you don't know what the fuck's going on. All you think is, oh, creepy bunny, wow. But then I watched it again when I was like 17, 18, which is like the peak of pretentiousness when it comes to consuming media. - I definitely had that phase as well. - Okay, okay. - Yeah. - Do you understand Donnie Darko? - Only after I watched like a fuckload of like analysis videos on it. But like I had a friend who recommended me Donnie Darko during like high school.

like high school or like middle school, who was like a massive fan of it. So like he would tell me like his theories on it and we would kind of like bounce off ideas. And I'm like, I found that, I think that's the reason why I like a lot of those kinds of media because it's like, especially when you have another person or like a group of people to like discuss it and like kind of like,

and I hypothesize like, oh, this might be this or this might be that, whatever. Like that's kind of fun. And then once you actually like sit down and like read into what it's actually about according to the creator or whatever, then you just realize, oh, it's not as deep as all these fucking pretentious critics made it out to be. - My favorite thing is when people like speculate about media and stuff and then the creator is like, no, that's not it. And then they're like, no, no, no, no, I don't think you understood what you did. I think it's actually true.

- Literally the E-vanguard. - It's literally like, no, no, no, no, no. My theory is right, please. - I think there's anime that don't appeal to me as much, unfortunately. - And I totally don't blame people. - It doesn't even appeal to me. It's just like, I have to be in a really specific mood

that comes along once a year or once every two years where I'm just like, I just wanna watch something and just not understand it and make me feel things that are- - I mean, the thing I like about this podcast is that the viewers can like align their-

who they trust's opinion on a show based on what type of media they like. So if you get, if you're like more to me, I'm like, and I'm like, I don't like 86. And I'm like, you shouldn't then trust my opinion for other anime. Because that show, weirdly, is like, people are obsessed with it. Right?

And I just didn't enjoy it. And I didn't know anything about the series. I didn't know anyone was talking about it. I just didn't like it. - But I think it's like, I think part of being a good critic, at least or like, or talk like on the online, at least, or part of being a good critic is acknowledging that you have taste. 'Cause people look at like people who talk about media online and they should be like, you should be able to judge

every single piece of media objectively, equally, you know, you could, you should be able to be able to judge them with no bias. And I'm just like, that's complete bullshit. Like, like you're not a fucking robot. - Yeah, like when I look at, you know, for example, like Dunkey, for example, when I look at one of his video game reviews, I know exactly what his taste is. And that gives me a better perspective than a lot of fucking IGN reviewers, right? Because at least when, when Dunkey, like, I think recently, like I saw his review of like "Horizon Forbidden West" and like, he like, he didn't like,

- He shat on it. - He did shit on it. - Okay, he like, he shat on it. Not completely like compared to some JRPGs, for example. But like, I saw his criticisms and I was just like, wow, that this is like, I can completely understand why he feels this way. And like, but,

Me knowing what kind of gaming game he is, I understand. And that gives me a better perspective of what this game is like compared to a lot of other critics. - Yeah, I would say like the best critics online are the ones where you continue to keep watching even though you disagree with most of their opinions.

Just because like they, because their opinion holds, like, even though you don't agree with it, they explain it and they're articulate enough and they're honest enough with what they like. And the fact that, you know, there's no way to completely get rid of bias with anything. And they own that. And you're like, well, you know,

I knew before coming into this review that you were probably gonna think a certain way about it. And I might not agree with it, but I respect the fact that you can still stick to this. - Yeah, 'cause it's just like probably everything I like in a game Connor's gonna complain about. - Yeah, exactly. - It's just like I, you know, I- - And vice versa probably, right? - Yeah, and vice versa, you know. But that just comes with our taste in games. - Yeah, and that's fine. - The same could be said about anime and stuff. I think I cut you off there.

- No, no, no, no, no, I didn't want to know what I was even gonna say. Yeah, "Tokyo Avengers" is okay. I really liked the first half and then it got really shit. - And now he's gonna have "Tokyo Avengers" fans on his throat. - "Tokyo Avengers" was like, I saw the first four episodes and I'm just like, this is a read the manga show.

- I definitely felt that. - You know what I mean? - There's like a fight at the end. Have you watched all of any, anyone watched all of it here? - I watched the first like two episodes. - There's this fight that goes on for like nine or fucking nine or eight episodes at the end. And it is like the dumbest fight I've ever seen in my life. - That sounds like some eyes and shit. - It's like,

It's like just constantly, it is literally the fight of wait, there's more. Like if something happens, wait, there's more. Wait, there's more. And it's like, this is stupid. Just, just fuck.

fucking resolve it. This is ridiculous. This isn't Dragon Ball. - It's like every Dragon Ball fight. - This story has been somewhat concise. Yeah, they drag on a little bit here and there. They have had some long fights, but never more than four or five episodes, I think. It just felt like this last fight in particular just took the absolute piss to the point where I was like, this is just stupid. And yeah, it had a good cliffhanger, but like the last, I was so bored for like four episodes. - But it doesn't matter, man. All the characters are hot as fuck.

- According to the fan base. - They make these characters and like, yeah, I like some of the characters in the show, but my God are so many of them insufferable. And like, I just, oh God. I mean, I liked the show. I thought it was good, but fuck man. I felt like it just, it like blew its load. And then it just like- - Is it even over? Is it even over? - No, no. - It's not over, is it? - No, it's not over. - It's not. And I feel like where they left it was pretty good and it might pick up, but like,

It just felt like every single time something happened, it was like, oh my God, there's more. Oh my God, there's more. I don't know. Like, I know this is going to sound really unfair and this is totally my bias, but like, I think I only managed to make it through like the first two or three episodes because I immediately saw what-

kind of theming they were going for with the story. Just like a bunch of dudes just like fighting. - It's weird as well. - Good stuff, but I hate the fact that the moment I knew where the story was heading, in my head I was immediately just like, I'd just rather read Bucky to be honest. - I was kind of pissed off as well that like all of these kids are like 13, 14. I was like, why not?

Why? Just make them 17. It would make the story so much more- - But isn't it weird that you felt that- - It would make so much more sense. - But here's the thing, isn't it weird that you felt that about that show and yet you see Hanayama Kota who's 14 years old and you're like, "Perfectly understandable, have a nice day." - Because it makes, for some reason, it checks out.

- It's so weird how it checks out though. - I don't doubt it, right? 'Cause backing never asks me once to like actually believe this world is a real world. It just completely is like, listen, bro, this is literally like the equivalent of an internet forum like debate where you're like, can Goku beat Saitama?

Like that is back you. Like it never once asks you to be invested in this world. - That's true. - Whereas like Tokyo Revenge for me felt like it was trying to get me to get invested in the gangs and the culture and stuff. But at the same time, how are you gonna make me believe that this is how 13 year old and 14 year olds react that they like, that they drive motorcycles, they do all this shit. And it's like, they're willing to like rob and kill each other.

if you made these kids 18, they can still be in school. All of this would still make sense. And it's like, just do that. Why? - That's like basically 90% of anime where it's like, they don't need to be that age 'cause nobody actually, their age actually acts like them. - This is one where I actually felt like it was to a massive detriment that they were like super young.

And every single plot point in this story- Because it just made it unbelievable, right? Not so unbelievable, but it made it so to the fact that you're like, it's constantly asking you to just have this level of disbelief. Right, yeah. To give it like, okay, I guess this is how 14-year-olds would react and respond to this situation. And it's like, just-

just add on four years, they're still in school. This can work in college. It all still works. The universe totally works. - It can work when you're an adult as well. - And now they can ride motorcycles, no question about it. This is in Japan. No one is breaking the law in Japan. People don't even like, the only law they break is stealing umbrellas. That's literally it. That's all they do. They don't do that, that's all they do.

- Yeah, pretty much. - No one is gonna, how the fuck are they gonna get a motorcycle at 13 years? - I feel like when I, like the last time I felt that, like when I felt like the characters just weren't acting their age at all was when I watched "Erase." - I was gonna say, I knew you. - "Erase" was just like, man, these five-year-olds,

- How old were they, like five, six? - They were like nine. - They were like nine year olds, actually like three. - They were like, "Yeah, she's in the forms of relativity "and quantum mechanics, we can actually predict "when we will re-enter into space time continuum." - They were like more capable than like veteran detectives in the force and all this shit. And I'm just like,

- Bro, these are like nine-year-olds and they're acting like grown adults. - That's why I just couldn't get into a race. This is the exact same thing where I'm like this nine-year-old like girl is like solving mysteries that like fucking 30 year veterans couldn't fucking crack. - I know we've ranted about this before and stuff and we've talked all about the age and stuff. And I do understand that like a lot of shows I don't give a fuck. Like it's totally fine. - It's fiction, it's whatever. - It doesn't matter. But like, again, there are some shows like "Erased" where I feel like

doing this is just completely to the detriment of the show. And it makes you suspend belief beyond reasonable doubt. I don't know. - There's a lot of examples like that. - And this is one of the shows where I'm like, this is just stupid. - I mean, like there's also like "Yuly and April" as well, where a big thing that took me out of the show is like, I feel like they were in middle school or something, right? I think they're 14, 15. But like everyone talks like a fucking poet.

- The writing needs to match the age. I don't give a shit if you put them in the school. You gotta write 13 year olds like 13 year olds. - Corsair was talking like fucking Mozart was back then. And it's like, dude, you should be, you're 15. When I was 15, all I was thinking about was poo poo pee pee. - That's all I think about now.

- That's all I think about now. So you are way more sophisticated than you should be for a 15 year old. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Same level. - This guy came out of the womb speaking in sonnets and all this shit. He was studying Shakespeare by the age of three. My God, that took me out so much. It was a small thing, but it was just like, you could have easily made them,

at a higher age to make them feel like they were, you know, they had the ability to speak like this, but it was just, they were 14 years old. And that was the biggest thing that worried. - It's annoying. 'Cause sometimes it shows where like they write the characters like 17 year olds, they act and talk like 17 year olds. They behave like 17 year olds. Why not just make them fucking 17 year olds? - That's why I think to this day, the most perfect example of like a perfectly age and you know,

a character's acting age appropriate in a super realistic way was "Golden Time." Because it was like, they were in college and yet they were super immature, like most college students are. Like that's a realistic character. - I love "Golden Time." - And that's why that show was so good. And it was so immersive because it's like, yeah,

I know people who are like this in college. - You're such a breath of fresh air to have something in college. - Yeah, but they were acting more like high school students than most high school students were in other shows.

And it's like, it's so fucking ironic. - Yeah, like that's what I feel like that's why to me even now, "Golden Time" is like one of my favorite romances in all of anime. Just because it actually felt like these were believable characters set in a world that felt like it was based in reality and not in this anime world where 15 year olds are like- - 15 year olds are doing quantum physics. - Yeah, 15 year olds are doing quantum physics.

Like fucking, I mean, you look at fucking like Naruto and Sasuke, like they- - Honto Honto was another one where I felt like they got the characters ages, like actually reflected their personality, you know? - Yeah. - Like Gon was an idiot, but like a fucking idiot.

Like he would like be convinced to do stuff by strangers. - Right, right. - Like a 12 year old. - Like a child. - Like a 13 year old, unfortunately. No one over the age of 18 is hanging out with Hisoka. You know what I mean? Like, let's be honest. - For good reason. - For good reason. - For good reason. - For good reason. - Everyone can tell he's a creep. - For their own protection. - But God's like, oh, he's talking to me. Okay, I'll talk back. You know? I mean, like I appreciate it when shows like actually treat the characters like their age. - Yeah.

- Because like a lot of people, like for example, Naruto, like a lot of people forget that like in the OG Naruto, they're like, - He's like 10. - They're 11 and 12 years old. - Yeah. - And like you look at some of the shit they go through, like Sasuke's like trying to revenge his entire fucking clan at the end.

at the age of 11, 11. He's doing that. - This man's listening to too much My Chemical Romance. Get off that shit. - I'll avenge my fucking Big Mac if someone slaps it out of my hand when I'm 11. So I believe that actually. I was a very petty 11. - Most realistic character.

I don't know, man. I just kind of wish that it would change a little bit. And that was one of the main reasons why I was a bit harsh on Tokyo Revengers. And that's why I got more annoyed at it because it felt like it was just getting stupid right now. I mean, I don't know if I'm just like fucking... I've just seen so much anime that I'm just like immune to this shit. But just like...

It's very rare that a character's age really comes into any kind of specific plot point or any bearing on the plot itself. Because there's no... It's so hard to tell a character's age in anime based on just their looks and their actions. Because the range...

the range of anime characters from like 13 to fucking 28. They all look the same and they all act the same. It's almost like kind of like Japanese people in real life. Maybe that's why. - They turn into adults. - Like you look at it like a Japanese girl and you're like, you can be 12 or 30. - Did you see as well? - And I'm kind of afraid to ask. - As well for the Tokyo Revengers, they made an uncensored version.

where because they use the temple symbol a lot. - Oh! - Which is unfortunately is, you know, a source of concern. - Oh, Manji? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, and really unfortunate. And then they just- - They had to censor that? - They made a censored version where like they just don't use the symbol much. - 'Cause it's in the title.

Yeah. It's weird. In some ways, I'm like, I mean, I feel like they didn't need to do that, but I also kind of get it why they wanted to be careful. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I can see why they did that. It's unfortunate, but I mean, with how international anime is now, a lot of people could have taken it the wrong way, which triggers. Also, maybe a good moment to learn about another culture. Yeah, right? Be like, why are they using that? Yeah, you'd be like, what the fuck?

I'm gonna Google, is this okay? And then you see it. To me, when I first saw it, I was like, whoa. And then you Google it, you're like, oh, okay. - It's only been a symbol that's been around for like, I don't know, 3,000 years. - It's been a lot longer, yeah. It's very unfortunate. - Did they censor it in Naruto as well? 'Cause I remember like Neji's like clan symbol that he had on his like forehead or something was originally based on that, I believe. - I don't know. - There's a lot of shows that I think use those symbols and- - Well, yeah, 'cause it means like- - It means peace. - Yeah, peace, right? Oddly enough.

- Yeah. - Yeah, it's a Buddhist, right? It's very unfortunate that it's the dichotomy of- - Yeah, yeah. - Oh, no, no, wait. - Yeah. - Neji has like a cross. - Oh, it's a cross? Okay. - Unless that's the censored version. - Wait, wait, is that the anime version? Is that the anime version or the manga version? - It was the anime version. - Okay, so- - So the manga version might have had- - So what was the manga version of that? - Let me check.

- They made a whole version where they added it and then a whole nother version where they just went through and got rid of it. - Yeah. - Really odd. - Nevermind all the violence. - I feel like if you're just gonna get rid of it, just get rid of it. - Yeah, exactly. - I mean, it's not gonna be that big of a deal. - He's the uncensored one for you cultured individuals out there. - Cultured? - Actually cultured in a different religion.

Yeah, yeah. So like in the manga, it was literally the mani side. Yeah, yeah. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. So yeah, it was- Sensitivity, yeah. I get it. If you want to avoid the misunderstanding- I get it, yeah. Guys, we promise. Look it up. Not a Nazi. It's the same thing with the Google Maps issue, but they changed the mani side. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because on Google Maps, they use that symbol to mean-

- I have that on mine. I'm on English Google Maps. - Oh really? - Yeah, it's there. - Yeah, yeah. - Maybe in other languages. I swear to God, on my Google Maps in English, I still see the symbol. - Because it was an issue a couple of years back because I was like, "What is this on the Google Maps?" - Maybe if you're not in Japan,

- I feel like it's on the person who comes to Japan to educate themselves. - Kind of. - Yeah, because they're the ones that are gonna throw a hissy fit and look like an idiot. - I understand it's a very unfortunate thing, obviously with whom Japan allied themselves with. I can understand why the mistake might be made. - It's scary how 45 degrees changes everything. It's just a slight shift. It just completely changes everything. - The power of 45 degrees. - The power of angles.

- The power of angles is scary. - You either want peace or you want something that's definitely not that. - Definitely the opposite of peace.

In fact, Buddhism, I took a class on this, Buddhism doesn't actually distinguish between the orientation and which direction the swastika is facing, so technically all of them mean the same. Right, right, right. But yeah, I mean, most people wouldn't know that, though. Yeah. You know, obviously when I saw it, I didn't feel like, I was like, oh my God, what is this? I was just like, oh, what don't I know?

- Clearly I'm missing context. I would like to be educated. - Yeah, exactly. I felt exactly the same way. I was just like, it's weird seeing that symbol, but I'm sure they would not be- - There's a good reason for that. - I'm sure they wouldn't be putting that symbol if there wasn't a reason for that. - I'm sure these 13 year old gang is not into that. I mean,

- I mean, I know it's a gang. - See, if only everyone on the internet thought, you know, had rational thinking like that, you know, and instead of immediately like, "Oh, how dare you!" - We've said it a number of times, people aren't willing to give the benefit of the doubt to people anymore. That's gone out the window in the year 2022, so.

- Also they forget that different cultures have different backgrounds and histories a lot of the time. - Well that's what's strange is that people really wanna give benefit of the doubt to the country or even hide behind the country's flaws when it's convenient for them. But when they don't understand something, they're like, "Oh, well, you know what I mean?

- I don't know. - They should have explained it better. - Anyway, keeping on anime, I guess. I guess since I finally get to talk about anime. - Go on. - I guess it's like, I didn't actually watch much anime this previous season because I don't think there was actually much good things. - Oh God, don't say that. Everyone would get angry. There's no good anime. - Yeah, you don't learn my lesson. - 2021, well, I think 2022 has been a pretty weak year for anime so far.

- But I guess like the only real recommendation I would have since you were going through like last year

is "Ranking of Kings". - That's literally the last one I've been meaning to watch of last year. And then I've done with last year. - I mean, it's continuing on to this year. So last year was, I mean, it's a 23 episode show. So last year we only had like 12 episodes. - Oh, I mean, I guess I'll just wait then. - Wait till it's finished. - I mean, it's almost finished, but I feel like it's only gonna be a part one of the story. But yeah, "Ranking of Kings" is fucking incredible. - I've heard it's amazing. - Yeah, it's like,

- Unironically, a lot of people like, you know, made in best didn't watch it 'cause it looked like a children's cartoon. I also didn't watch it 'cause it looked like a children's cartoon initially, but it's kind of like a good,

it's kind of like the closest thing to like a Ghibli movie, I guess, in terms of like aesthetic. - Yeah, it looked a bit longer. - And I really don't like Ghibli movies, but it kind of gave me that kind of, you know when you're like watching an anime fairy tale that kind of feels like that's like, I can only point to Ghibli that gives you that same kind of feeling, but that's the kind of feeling it's giving me.

But it also is written really, really fucking well. Like, it's been a while since I've seen just an anime just this well-written and with characters this interesting as well. Damn. It's like...

It's like, to me, like the spring season, sorry, the winter season was like basically Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer. Everyone was like talking about that. But like to me, Ranking of Kings is like close to that level of quality in my opinion of just like how good the show is. - Well, I mean, there's also My Dress Up Darling as well. - There's also My Dress Up Darling, but that like, that occupies a different space in my opinion. - That's a different faction, I feel. - That's a different faction. - Yeah, true, true, true.

- There's the attack on Titan demon slayer like core and then the fucking all the way over here. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is like, it was surprising to see like in Japan, my ranking of Kings is really like shot up in popularity. I think it's like the most watched anime right now. - It's because there's a lot of voice actors who are saying how good it is. So like they're like, they're all like, yeah, this is really fun. - There's a lot of power here.

Yeah, they do. I mean- They're top tier celebrities here. I mean, yeah, they're just like, they're not even just voice actors here. They're just actors with- Celebrities. They're just like, gone to celebrity status as well. Goddamn. And that's why they can make questionable decisions like Hanazawa Kana selling NFTs, you know? Oh.

which I saw that and I was like, this has to be a joke. And then I watched the video. - Please say Psyche. - I was like, please say Psyche, Hanukkah, please. - I know, I saw a lot of people that were like, no, no, no, I'm sure it's just her management. I'm sure it's just her management. - Yeah. - But she agreed to it. - Yeah, someone has to give the go ahead. - Yeah. - Even if it is her management's idea or whatever. - She might have a better idea

but she's allowed to say no. - I love that. It's like, you know, no one ever uses that excuse for Western celebrities or anything. It's always with the Japanese celebrities. - Also, I feel that only implies to like, you know, kind of low ranking talent, right? Who may be where the management has a little more power because like we're giving you this. - Yeah, the big ones. - Hannah is literally top 1% of voice actors. Like she can say no to whatever the fuck she wants. - You don't need no NFTs. - And yet she said yes to the NFTs. - She takes any role she wants, you know.

- She can do any role she wants. If she says, I wanna be in this anime, the directors will be scrambling over themselves to be like, yes, let's get Hana-Kana in this. So the whole management thing is just bullshit. - Yeah.

- That is just Hana Kana fans in denial of the fact that she's promoting NFTs. - That is just like her fans snorting pure copium. It's just, I've never seen so much copium. - I saw so much copium being huffed, dude. - Oh my God. - It's insane. Insane amounts of copium, dude. - I think there's never been like, one of my favorite memes is just like, I think it's like a Kuma image of just like thing.

And it's just like a depressed guy. It's just like Japanese thing. And it's just like lighting up, you know? We've seen that in Michigan. - Yeah, I love that. - And it's just this- - It's so true, though. - Never been a time when an image is more pertinent than this time. - The other version of that that I love is like every Instagram post, it's like somewhere and it's like really dark and it's like somewhere Japan. - I mean, that's basically just the Trash Taste podcast in a nutshell. - Yeah.

But no, like I remember seeing that post and I was just like, oh, why did it have to be you? Why did it have to be you? - Right, it's like, if it was like some like D tier, like, you know, I voiced like one fucking passing by a person selling an NFT, I would be like, whatever the fuck ever. But like, you're literally one of the most notable voice actors today. - I'm just like, is this how idol fans felt when their favorite idol gets through like a controversy or they find out they have like a boyfriend or something? Like, I think I get it now, man. Like, I'm just like, I felt betrayed, you know?

It's like, why did it have to be you, Kanahana? - I'm not even like mad. I'm just like disappointed. - Yeah, right? - I was like, oh. - I'm just disappointed. I was like, oh. - Come on, man. - I thought we were better than this. Yeah, it was disappointing, but yeah, I haven't seen anyone talking about it since. I just saw it on my timeline and I'm just like, well, that sucks. Time to get out of here. - There were a lot of even Japanese people on Twitter just being like, no.

- How did Japanese Twitter react to it? - They're basically the same as how Western Twitter was. - Really? - They were like, "Dude, why? Why you?" Of all people. - Bra moment. - Yeah, it was a bra moment. - Well, that's been your weekly reminder that NFTs suck. - You know who else doesn't conform to NFTs though? Our patrons. - Oh my God. Wonderful. - They could use that money to do all sorts of NFT stuff, but thank God they don't.

Instead, they're using it to support this show. - The boys. - The boys. - Wallets out for the boys. Thank you very much. Hey, if you'd like to pull the wallets out for the boys and support the show, then go to our Patreon, patreon.com/trashtaste. Also follow us on Twitter, send us your memes in the subreddit. And if you hate our face, listen to us on Spotify. But yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That's been your yearly anime discussion. - See you next year. - See you next year, boys. - See you. - 20 minute anime discussion. - All right, see you next week. Bye. - Bye.