We Are NOT Alphas | Trash Taste #121
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- Hello and welcome to another episode of Trash Taste. Probably shouldn't have started with that. I'm your host for today, Garnt. And with me again are the boys. Joey really wants me to say the bussy, but I- - Can we actually not? 'Cause we're gonna get demonetized and then we're gonna be like, why do we get demonetized again? And it's gonna be some fucking stupid name. - If we get demonetized by saying that word, I don't wanna be on this platform. - You have no choice, Joey. Where are you gonna go, Vimeo? - De bussy.

- Let's go, I heard blips doing really, really well. Remember blip, remember blip back in the day? - I wanna be a blipper. That just sounds inappropriate. - Anyway, do you know what I found myself missing recently that I never thought I'd miss? - What?

- American portion sizes. - Okay, I wanna hear this story. - Yeah, so I went to eat at an Italian restaurant yesterday. And here's the thing about Japanese portion sizes, right? Obviously they're smaller than the rest of the world. - This feels like an AI generated conversation. - Is it? - From trash taste conversations. - Yes, okay. - It is totally-

- Every episode of Trash Taste into an AI. - Let me just start with the most AI generated Trash Taste topic I could think of. - Go for it. - Just food. - So we've complained that the portrait sizes are too big in America. And now we're complaining that they're too small here. - Yes. - It's not that they're too small.

You know how it is when you go to a Japanese restaurant. Some Japanese restaurants give you like good portion sizes, right? But if it's not Japanese food, then they are way, way smaller than what you can expect in other countries. Especially Italian food and especially, especially, especially pizza. Like I don't know what it is about Japanese pizzas, but like large size in Japan is like medium to small size anywhere else in the world, right? So me and Sydney go to this Japanese restaurant

And we wanted some pasta or pizza. Well, I was a fat ass. So I like, I wanted both. You know that feeling where you kind of like, you kind of want two dishes at once, but they're like two mains. And I'm like, yo Sydney, instead of like ordering starters, do you wanna share a pizza with me as a starter? And we'll just have that as a starter. And then we'll have pasta afterwards. - I'll start with a tub of lard for my appetite. - Followed up with a tub of butter. - Yeah, so.

Basically, in any other country, I don't think I can get away with this 'cause the pizza would be too big. But in Japan, I was like, this is a country I can get away with ordering a pizza as a starter. And so the waitress comes over

and we ordered the pizza and she's like, okay, waiting for us to get to the other mains. And then I was, and then we go, yeah, can we order two dishes of the large size of the pasta? 'Cause even the medium size of the pasta is small as fuck. We need to order- - Compared to America. - Yeah, compared to America. And she's like, excuse me, who's the two pastas for? And it's like, oh no, can we have the pizza as a starter so you can bring out the pizza before the mains? And there was like-

But she was like, and she looked at the pizza and she's like, "But that's not a starter. "Are you sure you want this?" And then we go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're sure, we're sure." And then she goes off looking confused. And then we see her talking to the manager.

She talks to her manager and then she like, she has this panic look on her face because obviously we're two foreigners in a restaurant that's full of Japanese people. She comes back over and she goes, "Anno, it's Mimosa." And she's like, "Can I just confirm with you the order?" Just so you understand, the pasta by itself, the large size, is normally shared between two people.

And you ordered two of them. So the portion sizes that you ordered would be normally for around three to four people.

And then you just slowly went, yes. - And we just went, yes. It is, we are sure, we understand what we have just ordered. - Thanks for confirming that we're a bunch of fat asses. - You got the real Matt Stoney ordering experience. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So she brings all the pizza and then she brings over the pasta and me and Sydney both fucking destroy this pasta. Even though this is the large size, I'll be honest, it didn't actually fill me up. - Of course, of course. - Here's my like,

- In Japan, right? That's how you visualize it. I feel like when I order a large pasta, I can always pick up all of the pasta in one hand. - Yeah. - It is like a perfect fist. - If I can pick it all up with one hand, you have not given me enough pasta. And I'm always tempted, I'm like, I just wanna, this is what you think is enough to feed me?

- Yeah, and so like we finish it. There's not even like a drop of sauce left on this bowl, right? And she comes back over and she looks at our empty bowls and he's just like, "Ah, I see you enjoyed the pasta." And I was just like, "Oh God, I feel your judging eyes, okay? I feel them, I feel them, okay?"

Don't judge me anymore, all right? - She wasn't even like subtle about it. She might as well just be like, "So how many days has it been since you haven't eaten?" - Yeah. And then she takes them away and then she comes back over and she's like, "Would you like any dessert on top of that?" I'm like, "No, okay, I'm a fat ass, okay? You can say it, you can say it, okay? I get it, okay? We're fat asses, okay? Okay, you don't need to say anymore. I don't want dessert, okay? - Shit, son, you want some fucking dessert with that? - Just give me the bill, okay? Just give me the bill, I'll get it, okay? I'll get it, I'll just cry. I'll just go home and cry. - I gotta say, overall,

- No, no, I was about to say like, I feel my personal experience with eating like Italian food, like pizza or pasta in Japan is that it's either way too little or way too much. - Yeah. - There's no perfect- - And always the too much is shit. - Yeah, the too much is always shit. - It's bad pasta. - It's like, no. - If it's the too much, they give you like 90% pasta and 10% sauce. So it's like mostly just raw pasta and there's just like 0.1% coating on each pasta sauce or something like that. - It's like essence of sauce. - Personally, I think the way

going back to what you were saying earlier, that when you say something in Japan that isn't the normal system that they have of, say, dining or whatever, it's

- It's so frustrating in Japan. It's like you can see the error codes in a debugging menu. When you say something where they're like, what? You want a main to come out before another main? Are you- - On top of ordering two extra large mains? - It's like if you explain this in any European country, maybe they'd be like, are you sure? Like whatever, but it would get done, right? In America, okay, we get it, sure. Okay, we'll bring it up first.

- But like in Japan, it's like you've asked if you could like wed their daughter. The reaction they give you is so weird. - They need time to think about it. - Again, it's that whole thing of like, it's the panic. It's like, why are you panicking? - Because in Japan, when they train employees like that, it's just like by the book. And if there's anything that's an exception to that book, then it's just,

first reaction, immediately panic. Ask the manager. It's like, bro, it's not that deep. - I'm like, in my head, I'm just confused at what thoughts are going through the head that their first response is, "Oh, what the fuck?" They're freaking out. - Yeah, I don't know why they think like, "Oh, is this allowed in this establishment?" Like, yes, yes it's allowed. - Or they think at some point that we're gonna be frustrated or annoyed at them and it's like, "No, no, no, if you can't do it, you can't do it." Like, I'm not gonna throw a fit, but like, I feel,

- Like I violated some law or I've done something wrong when they start freaking out. - I think what it is- - I'm sorry, I didn't wanna cause trouble. I just wanted my pasta before my pizza. I'm so sorry. - I'm trying to muster up all of my Japanese side to try and figure out what the thought process of it is. And I think,

big air quotations, I think what it is is that they don't want this idea of like miscommunication. - Yeah, exactly. - I understand that. - They're just like, are you sure this is what you want? Because we don't want to make all this shit. We don't want the chef to go all this through this hardship, bring it out and then you go, that's not what I wanted. - Yeah, I understand that. I can understand that. But to the point where it would drive you to have a little bit of a momentary panic about it, I feel like, come on. - Well, because I think the blame is gonna be pushed on the waiter, right?

- Maybe they've had some bad experiences that way too. I don't know what they've lived through. I don't know where they've waited. - Did they serve Papa John's or something? - I don't. - I want 30 pizzas. - It's like, are you sure about that? - And it's the whole other thing and you'll get this a lot in Japan, right? And this is a question that will happen if you're eating lunch, only lunch.

- You go to lunch, right? You order, again, let's just say a pasta. You order a pasta. - It's always pasta. - Let's say you order the pasta and you wanna drink with it. You want a berry smoothie or a coffee, whatever you want. I don't know why I said berries. - Fushi motherfucker. - Every single time, and this will happen in Japan, right? So if you're coming here and you don't know, they'll ask you and they'll say it in Japanese, obviously. They'll be like, "Do you want the drink before or after your meal?" And I've always found this really odd.

'Cause in any other country you don't get it after the meal. That doesn't happen. - Yeah, I've never understood that. - I've always been confused by this concept and the default is after. So if you don't- - I think though it depends on the drink, right? If it's a coffee, I would understand why they would ask it, right? Because to a Japanese person, drinking a coffee with a full on meal is a bit weird. - Why is that weird? - Is it? - Yeah, in Japan it is. - I don't understand this concept of why I would, if I'm ordering a coffee,

and I'm ordering my food now, that should tell you that drinks always come first. - Right, I did notice that 'cause I'm like, every time I ordered a coffee, I'm like, always I want the coffee first. - Yeah, yeah. - Right? - Every single time you order a drink anywhere, anywhere in the world, the drink always comes first. - Yeah, because I think in Japan, the idea of coffee is that it's like an after meal drink. - Yeah.

you know, like tea or, you know, some other, you know, like not exactly like refreshing beverages that go with the meal. So I think they kind of treat it like that. And so when you say I want the coffee before the meal or during the meal, that's kind of out of the book for them. - I would understand that for dinner because dinner you typically, but then afterwards they come after the meal and they're like, do you want tea or coffee? - No, in Japan. - It's only lunch they do this. - In Japan, if you order a coffee during dinner time, they just like start panicking.

- They're like, "This isn't even on the menu. "Where are you ordering from? "Why do you want a coffee now?" - So every Italian restaurant I've been to, they always at the end of the meal, you've had your dessert or with the dessert order, they're like, "Do you want to see your coffee?" Normal. No other time to ever have a coffee with my- - Yes. - So it's only with lunch.

- And then for some, yeah, I get it. It only happens with tea and coffee. And I'm like, just give me it. I've ordered it now. Give me it now. If I want another coffee after I drink my coffee, I'll have that. - But that's only you. 'Cause you go through coffee like it's nothing. - But I always tell them as well. Like I always say before, but then sometimes there's like this weird confusion where they're like, oh, oh, okay. - See, because it makes sense in a cafe setting in Japan. Like if you just go to like a regular cafe in the morning or at lunchtime,

and you have a coffee with say, you know, like a fucking panini or something or like a small sandwich, right? - Yeah, I always want the coffee. - Then they won't bat an eye. They'll be like, "Oh yes, of course, you want a coffee with that."

- Exactly. - But I think it's this idea of having a full on sit down meal and having a coffee with it. That's weird for some reason in Japan. I don't know why. - We drink hot green tea here with our meals, right? - Yeah, yeah. And like there was another Italian- - Society. - Society. - Japanese society. - There was another place that was an Italian place that did lunch things and it did the tea and the coffee. And they always asked me do I want it before or after, or they would just bring it out by afternoon.

after default. Yeah. And I always just thought, well, we can pester here. Give me the fucking coffee. Yeah. Yeah.

- Yeah, Italians are crying right now. - Yeah. - Yeah. I noticed there's no way as a foreigner to order pizza and not feel like a fucking fat ass. I mean, ordering pizza already you feel like a fucking fat ass, but like in Japan it's the norm to order pizza to share with everyone. - Yeah. - But me, I'm like the norm for me is ordering at least one pizza in Japan just for me. And if I'm feeling spicy, I'll order one and share another one with a mate, you know?

- Yeah, because like the pizza for one person in Japan is like the size of a large floppy disk. Like it's barely a meal. - Yeah, the large size that they recommend for three or four people, that's a medium size. I can destroy that easily. - Easily. - If you know, if I'm feeling hungry, I need a fucking large size pizza, all right? - Yeah. - Did you see that Domino's pizza went out of business in Italy? - Did it actually? - Well, they left, they left. So I presume, I mean,

- They got chased out. - They got chased out. - They're like, "You're not a real pizza." - They opened 2015, I think. And then they left. - Damn. - So, Italians apparently didn't want Domino's pizza.

- It sucks to have the option gone. - Right, right. - It sucks. - Is Olive Garden still around there? - They don't have Olive Garden, are you kidding me? I think Domino's Pizza was pushing their luck. - Yeah. - Did they have Pizza Hut there? That's a legit question. - I would assume not. Maybe Kai can check for us. - Kai, is there any American pizza joints in Italy? - I would assume if they do, it'd be like one or two in the city. You know what I mean? Like that kind of- - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, probably be-

like finding a Panda Express in China or something like that. I don't know, what would the equivalent be? - I mean, but when you think about it, it's like, it's such a fucking backhanded thing to do, to go all the way to like say Rome, right? And then be like, fuck man,

I really want a Domino's right now. - I think for a lot of countries, it's kind of banking on the, a lot of foreign people and also the ease of it. - Oh yeah, it's the familiarity of it, yeah. - And you know if you order a Domino's pizza, you know that shit's gonna be delivered. You know what I mean? - Yes, of course. - You don't have to call up, you can do it online. Like I think they bank a lot of the time on convenience and ease and name brands.

- Yeah, I mean like part of the, especially with traveling around, I valued way more now just having big name brands that I recognize. 'Cause of course, yeah, you know, you wanna go out your comfort zone, you wanna try the local cuisine, but sometimes you just want something where you know what to expect. - I love that there's a McDonald's everywhere in the goddamn world. - Exactly, exactly. - When the countries are like, "Yeah, we didn't fucking let McDonald's in." I'm like, "All right, well, I mean, I would have liked it." But I guess I'm like,

That's my capitalist brain that has been trained to be a slave to Ronald McDonald. - I actually like going to McDonald's in every country just to taste the difference. - It's cool, I like seeing the menus. - It's one thing that you go to everywhere you go. Just to see. - God, we've been brainwashed so well, haven't we? - Well, no, because to me it's like, 'cause it's like, I know I've been to enough McDonald's in different countries now where I know every McDonald's in every country tastes different.

in some regard. - But it still tastes- - And I could put like a tier list of like McDonald's of different countries. - It still tastes familiar enough that you can point to something and you're like, okay, I kind of know what this is gonna taste like. - Oh yeah, of course. - It's not like going to a restaurant and ordering something and you're gonna get like fucking a chicken heart or some stuff, which is a thing that can happen if you're a tourist here in Japan, you just order something and you don't know what you're gonna get sometimes. - I mean, I remember when I went to a McDonald's in France one time, just because I kind of felt like it and I felt so invigorating when I finally ordered

order the Royale with cheese. - The Royale with cheese. - Yeah, I was like, it actually says it. I'm like, oh. - Do they put mayonnaise on everything, Joey? Can you confirm? - They do, they do. They put mayonnaise on everything, dude. - It's a good moment when you go to McDonald's in America and you realize, wow, this is the worst one. - Oh, absolutely. - This is the worst McDonald's. - Absolutely. - And they made this shit. - I know, I know. - This is why you can never bank on the home of something being the best version of it.

- I mean, look at football, right? Just, you know, the British invented it and everyone did it. - Did we? - Yeah. - Are you sure about that?

- Yes. - And cricket as well. - How sure are you about that? - I'm pretty sure about that. - How sure are you about that? - I'm pretty sure. - Let's get a fact check on that. - I'm almost 100% sure that we invented it. - Which country invented football or soccer, God forbid? - Soccer, whatever. - God forbid you say it. - We got an international audience. We have to say soccer. Even though it pains me. - Did we make that? - Yeah. - I feel like we didn't. - Why? - I feel like every country made football.

- What do you mean every country? - Every fucking country figured out that you kick a fucking thing around into a goal. Like no, you know what I mean? Like you can say that, oh, the UK made it, but I bet they're like Babylonians were kicking heads into some fucking- - I'm so glad we have a fact checker. - English.

- Oh, it is England. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, I refuse to believe, right, that England made- - Instant karma compilation. - England is the country that saw a spherical shaped thing and was like, "We should start kicking this around and turn it into a sport." They probably like legitimized it and made it into like a fucking- - No, no, did they invent the sport? Yes, did they invent the concept of kicking around objects,

- Probably not. Probably like the fucking cavemen were kicking beheaded heads around probably at one point. - They have multiple sources. Some say China, some say Italy, some say Greece. - I feel like every country could have a claim to you like, we're the first guys who invented kicking around things. - Well, that's like saying like who invented baseball and who was the first human to ever get a long object and hit a fucking spherical thing with it. - But there's like this,

there's a very like primal, not primal, primitive versions of sports where maybe a place where the group of people played this game and it was a tradition where they played it, but it was never officially like a sport or anything. - But now the real question is what's the oldest sport?

- What was the first sport? Who invented sport? - I'm gonna be honest, fighting to the death. - Yeah, probably UFC. That's probably the oldest sport. - Fighting to the death. I mean, come on, let's just be straight. - Yeah, yeah, that's true. - I mean, was it a sport or was it just an activity? - It was just some bands, wasn't it?

- I mean sport goes really far back. I mean, you have the whole Greeks, right? - The Olympics. - The Olympics. - They would have the Olympiads trained and then they, I mean, I think that was the first ever documented people who just trained

for sport, not for like war. - Yeah. - As far as I remember. - Yeah, I mean, I feel like a lot of sport was born out of activities that were probably life or death activities back in the day. And then when society evolved to a point where they don't need to fucking kill each other, they're like, but we kind of still want to like hit each other and you know.

and do all this fun stuff, you know? - I think we have some facts. - Yes. - Yeah, I mean, that's pretty correct. The first one was wrestling. - Oh, wrestling. - That makes sense. - I mean, are you telling me that like, it just seems so right for the primal brain, for our monkey brains. Like the first thing we wanna do is just start seeing, it's like, I don't wanna fight, but I wanna watch the big two guy. I wanna watch the two big guys fight. Like that sounds good. I mean, that's the whole fun, like to this day.

- Yeah. - That's still really popular. - I mean, you see a fight and there's just something primal about it. I've made somebody go, "Oh, oh, oh, oh." - Yeah, yeah, yeah, kind of. I mean, kind of, right? - That's the reason why the subreddits of fucking people fighting in the street is super popular. - World star. - People love this shit. They love it. - I mean, I don't think it's a coincidence that back when I got clubbing or whatever, back when lads' culture was a massive thing,

you'd see so many guys- - As in dancing, I thought you meant like clubbing. - No, yeah, yeah, clubbing, club. - Dancing is one drink away from fire. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like look, basically you see a load of lads out, you know, and either they'd try to get with girls and if they didn't succeed, then,

and you'd like most of the time you'd see a fight somewhere in a club. I think that just goes back to what's, there's just something primal about that, right? - Yeah, that's what like the cavemen did as well. - It's either sex or violence. - Well now we have the beta male generation where nobody wants to fight each other and we have these docile brains and we've been brainwashed by 5G. - These herbivore men. - By 5G.

- We're the bottom of the food chain now, you know? - That's my favorite new term. Herbivore man. - Bro, you're emitting some herbivore energy right now. - I'm a carnivore right now, baby. I want that meat.

- That's such a better word than beta. I just wanna call people herbivores. - We are probably the most- - It's such a fucking herbivore. - Of all the popular podcasts, we're probably the most beta podcast. I think we are. We never like relish in fights or-

enjoy the masculinity of men. We just kind of just been like- - Bro, I've been eating salads every day. I'm definitely this close to being a fucking herbivore, man. Are you kidding me? - I don't think we've ever had like an alpha conversation. - What constitutes as an alpha conversation, Connor? In your mind. - Okay, when you play clips of our podcast aside Joe Rogan, Joe's like, "There's a man who can crack a skull open up in Ethiopia."

and he drinks the flesh of the brain stem to claim that he's the chief of the tribe. That's like the conversations they have and I watch ours and I'm like, why is everyone watching our podcast? - I don't like oranges. - We're so boring. - Good iconomy. - We're so boring. - Pizza crust.

- I like my chicken without bones. - I'm in my high chair talking about boneless. Like I watched that and I'm like, why is anyone watching our podcast? - That's what the real Sigma males talk about. - It's 'cause there's a lot of herbivores out there. - Hello fellow herbivores. - Maybe it's 'cause it's like our podcast doesn't try to be fake. I'll try to be this kind of manly ass. It's like, wait, listen, we're all made to sit. - I have a wife. I don't need to attract.

- It's not about ensuring that even when you're an alpha, that you're still an alpha. You're not like tied down to one beta woman. - Well, also we don't have a course that we're trying to sell. We don't have the alpha course. Actually, now we would like to announce the herbivore course.

- It's about eating well. - Tuck your testicles away gentlemen. You won't be needing those. - It's about just getting a really good score on Scrabble and making sure that like your brain age is- - Making sure that your 401k is up to date. - Honestly, make sure you just made- - Are you keeping up with your daily wordles? - Yeah, make sure you stay in touch with your parents, have a healthy relationship with them. Just kind of everything really. - Find your mom. Find your mom. When's the last time you talked to your mom?

- You don't need a Sigma body. - Maybe that's the appeal. In a world with these alpha wannabe podcasts, it's nice to have a beta boy podcast. - Beta boy podcast. - Maybe that's the appeal. - Herbivores. I prefer the term herbivores. - I like beta boys. - Beta boys. - Beta boys. - We're not gonna fucking mark ourselves as that. Don't make that a thing. - That's like a double negative. - Or maybe it's Sigma that we don't care about being alphas.

- So we're the Sigma beta boys. - I feel like you could turn any mindset into being a Sigma mindset because all you need to do is make a meme and just put like the Giga Chad chin next to an image of whatever like mindset you want. - I want an edit of the Giga Chad guy eating a salad. That's our podcast. - This episode is sponsored by GameSupps. - Attention gamers, the council of gamers has arrived. - Guys, did you know sugar isn't good for you? - What? Really? - Play the resource music.

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And did you know guys, good friend of the show, Shibuya Kaho, had the lead animator for Bleach draw the front and back of her brand new waifu cup. It goes for sale from the 7th of October and will continue until the 17th of October, so get in quick guys. So guys, become a true gamer today and get some new awesome cups by clicking the link in the description and using code TRASHTASTE at the checkout. Thank you to Gamers House for the sponsor, back to the episode. - Do you listen to other podcasts or any of those? - I don't have time anymore, man. - Yeah, true.

- I had time for trash taste and I realized I'm on one. I listen to you guys enough. I don't need to listen to more guys talking. - Yeah, same. - Do you have anything for us, Kyle? You look like you want to say something. - Oh, okay, okay, sorry. - He's just intently listening. - I used to try and listen to other podcasts. I used to try and listen to the Joe Rogan one when he'd have a really exciting guest. And some of them were fun. - I've listened to a few Joe Rogan ones when he has good guests. - Yeah, when he has some guests that I really were interested in

- And you know, say what you will, he does sometimes have a good way of getting conversation to flow in a certain way. - I mean, there's, you know, there is- - Do I agree with his opinions? Fuck no. - No.

but is he sometimes a good host? I mean, there's a reason why he's so popular. - I was gonna say, there's a reason why he's as successful as he is. - It sucks sometimes that we have to preface like, I don't like his views. And it's like, I can't just be like, the man's a good host. There's a reason why he's doing well. But that doesn't automatically mean that I agree with everything he says, which I agree with barely anything he says. - No, no. - Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with listening to

another viewpoint that you might not necessarily agree with. - No, I agree. I agree. - I think in fact that helps you keep a more open mind and have a healthier mindset. 'Cause I do it all the time. Like it's weird because there's been

- There's been times in like my, let's say internet history where I've got like the odd comment of just like, oh, why is Gigguk subscribe to this person or following this person? He must follow their views or something. And I'm like, no, like I think sometimes I just want to see what that guy's saying just to see how the other side thinks sometimes or how that view of that person is like put forward.

put out there because I think it's important to at least know what everyone's saying. Otherwise you're just going to be stuck in your own little bubble. - If anything, like a lot of the YouTubers I like watching like podcast or not are the ones where I barely ever agree with what they're actually saying. But the way that they frame that opposite opinion that they might have to me is so interestingly presented that it just makes me listen. And like at the end of the video, you know, I might not,

- I don't agree with it necessarily, but I'm like, well, you know, it was still a good video because now I got a better, more, you know, I guess nuanced opinion of the other side. And it's, you know, yeah, as you said, it like, it opens up, you know, like I love watching needle drop for that reason. Cause like I barely ever agree with the opinions he has on music. - Right. - But it's still interesting to hear his opinion. - Yeah. - It's like, oh, okay. You know, I might not agree with that opinion necessarily, but.

the way that he phrased that particular opinion makes me think about all of my other opinions on other shit that I might have because it just opens me up to a new idea, if that makes sense. - Yeah, I guess so. - Yeah. - Yeah. Speaking of alphas though, this is a complete fucking tangent. - Right. - 'Cause like one of the coolest pieces of culture I think about and I just talk about alphas for some reason remind me of this. - Yeah. - Just like,

- The New Zealand, what's the New Zealand dance called? - Haka. - Bro, that's like- - That is alpha. - Like I'm thinking about, okay, what piece of culture from your home country are you proud of? Because I think out of everything that I can think of in terms of like every country, Haka is probably

by far one of the coolest pieces of culture I have just seen. - I agree. - Just like being broadcast in the world, right? - My favorite is like when the New Zealand rugby team, they do a haka before every single match, right? Because it's tradition. But at the same time, it's also fucking hilarious seeing the opposite team just watching that and shitting themselves. - Yeah, because like you try to like keep your cool, but how do you even react to that? - It is one of the most intimidating things. - It is. - Especially when it's like,

250 kilo built bridge shit house rugby players. They're just like, I am going to destroy you. - Yeah, they could get fucking destroyed in that match. And I don't care because all I'm gonna remember is that first like- - They went into it with an alpha mindset. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were the real alphas. They came out the alphas, man. They don't need to win to prove how alpha they are. - There's this really cool video as well. 'Cause I remember there was a moment where I was just like obsessed with the hockey 'cause I thought it was just such a fucking cool thing, right?

But like, there's this really cool video that I saw and like, I looked into like, you know, what the haka is and like what the significance of it is and stuff like that. And it's this traditional dance that's done by the Maoris, which are the indigenous New Zealanders.

But there's this really cool one where they do it at weddings as well. And there's this really cool video of this like a Maori woman marrying a white guy, like from New Zealand. And the Maori woman, her family does a haka

for her to be initiated into this marriage. And it's really bizarre, but also really fucking cool. - I've seen that video because out of context, you're like, because they're doing this Haka dance, right? Which is- - In these like suits. - It's like, isn't the Haka, didn't it come from like a war dance that they would do before going to fucking war to intimidate the other side? So like you imagine this kind of war dance

at a wedding, right? And this girl, because the dance has so much meaning, she's like crying because it means a lot. But if you don't know the context, it's just like, "Oh, stop yelling at me!" Out of context, it's just a bunch of buff dudes dancing to this bride going, "Ah!"

- And just like shouting and you're just like, what the hell is going on right now? - But it's so cool because like that particular video, I wish I could remember the name of it. It's on YouTube. - Like it wouldn't be hard to find. - It wouldn't be hard to find. But like it also shows like the translations of what they're saying in the Maori language. - Yeah.

really fucking poetic and beautiful. Because it's literally just like the family being like, you are grown up now, we are ready to let you go, but we are also ready to invite you back in kind of thing. And it's really cool 'cause like the white guy as well, he's intimidated at first, but then he joins in.

- And it's like, it's such a cool, like it is such a cool fucking bonding experience that I don't think many other cultures have. - I'm jealous 'cause I wish like, I wish we had a culture that was like that cool instead of just like getting fucking piss head drunk and just passing out. - In New Zealand you can do both. You can shit face and do the haka. - If you do a haka beforehand that just makes it 10 times more cool. - Dude, a boys night happens before everyone starts going drinking.

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- I'm trying to think, I mean- - I feel like I've spoken about this. - It doesn't have to be as intense as the Harker, but- - No, not as intense as the Harker, but I'm trying to think off the top. I know we have like a lot of cultural stuff. I'm trying to think of like cultural activities that as just like really that,

- It's cool, I guess. What would you say is like the British thing? - I don't know of any British. I know there's like the, I can't remember if I spoke about it on the podcast before, the Welsh one with the Marie Llywyd. It's the one with the horse head. - Oh yes, yes, yes. You've talked about it. - Have we spoken about it? - I think so. - Yeah. - Do you remember that one? It's the one where like there's a horse skeleton head. So just the skull. - Right. - A skeleton. Just the head, the skull. And on like a stick and then a white robe.

and someone underneath it and you knock on someone's door, they don't do it anymore on the doors. It's not where I grew up. We do it all self-contained, but typically the whole tradition, I can't remember why we do it,

you would go around, knock on doors and then you'd have like a poetry battle. And if you won the poetry battle- - Poetry battle? - Yeah, if you did like- - Bro, that's bad ass. What is this, eight mile? - Well, 'cause like poetry singing is all like a very, very like- - DJ, spin that shit. - It's like a really big part of the culture. And so if you won the poetry battle as the person knocking on the door, you get to take all of their, or like a good chunk of alcohol, I think.

- Something like that, I need to check it out. - It's like, damn, he just spit some bars, take my vodka bro. - That's so cool. - I think it was, and when I did it, it was never like that. It was different to that, but there was poetry involved. - It's like herbivore eight mile. - Yeah, so.

- So poetry is like a really, really big part of Welsh culture. - God, poetry in Welsh must sound so fucking bad. - That's what it looks like. I think you've seen this before, right? - Put it up on screen, Mudo. - Yeah. - You've seen this? - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's fucking weird. - It's so cool. - Yeah, I think you would. - I don't know if we have anything like that in Australia. 'Cause I don't think, well, I think the problem is that our culture just isn't really old enough to have established traditions. So I think a lot of our traditions are just,

that have lost it all kind of maybe changed a little bit or just traditions we've borrowed from other countries. - 'Cause I'd say like the one thing like the Americans have definitely done like very successfully is we talk about what, you know, we wonder what America's biggest export is, but I think America's most successful export has been their culture. Because everyone in the world knows about American culture, whether it's been like through TV shows. - The soft power of-

- Hollywood is immense. - It's insane. And it's like, you go here to Japan, you go to China, you hear songs in the Billboard 100. Even if no one here understands what they're saying, you still hear it here. - See, that's interesting you say that though, because I've heard from a lot of Americans

that claim that America has no culture. - Oh, America does definitely has a culture. - Yeah, I think they're just kind of like blind to it. But I think, yeah, as you were saying, like, you know, the fact that you can hear fucking Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber anywhere in the world. - Yeah. - When your culture is one of the most dominant cultures in the world, it's easy to think that you have no culture because,

- Because you're seen as the norm. - Yeah, the normal is yours. It's not the case. Also, yeah, it's not poetry, I forgot. The householders would be expected to, so you go into someone's house, you ask to enter to drink and you sing to each other and then the person has to sing back and just keep denying you. And if you just keep asking to go in and they eventually just fold, you go in and you drink their alcohol.

- So wait, so what if it just goes on forever? - I assume it can just keep going or they'll move on to another house. - Like 12 hours later, they're just like, "No you." It's just a no you. - I know nearly all of the traditions in Welsh are like song, poetry, or some kind of dancing and folk dancing. - See, that's cool though. We don't have anything like that in Australia. - I did folk dancing in school. - Really? - Again, when you're doing it in school, you don't think of it as weird. Now that I'm growing up, I'm like, "Okay, that's weird." We dress up in these kind of, if you would imagine,

I guess 1800s, 1700s dresses and clothes and you just fucking dance around in circles and go in and out. - Yeah. - It was, I hated it. - But that's so much cooler than like what we, like we only have like a singlet shirts and thongs party and you listen to ACDC while drunk. Like that's the only culture that we have. - Thongs being flip-flops. - I mean it's still fun.

but it's not exactly like something you want. You don't go up to someone else and be like, "Hey, do you know what we have in Australia? ACDs." - No, 'cause I definitely like, I've definitely like found more of an appreciation of just culture growing up. 'Cause I remember as a kid, you'd be forced to do all of these things, you know, in your home country or whatever. And then as a kid, you're just like, "Why do I do this? Why do I wanna do this? This is weird. I just wanna play video games and go home and just talk to my friends on the internet." But I think like, especially, you know,

especially having a wedding as well. There's so many like traditions around having a wedding, right? And some of those traditions, you don't even know what the origin of that is. Like taking a piece of jewelry from the father-in-law or the mother-in-law. We didn't do every tradition at our wedding, but I know that there are a lot of traditions we've,

- Many different cultures and many different weddings. - Is there one where you like stomp on a wine glass or something and you break it? - That's in Judaism. - Oh, Judaism, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - But then I thought about it and I'm just like, damn, this got invented probably a hundred years ago and like,

your ancestors and your parents chose to like keep this tradition going on. So basically you're like kind of taking part in history and you might not even know what that history is. You don't even know what the origin is, but even just by having this tradition, even just by doing this tradition, you're like taking part in like a lineage that you can't even see the beginning of. And I'm like, damn, that's. And when I think about it like that, that's pretty damn cool. - When you phrase it like that, it's pretty fucking cool. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's why I've definitely grown more of an appreciation of different

different world cultures and different worldly activities, which is why I look at the haka and I'm like, damn, do

- Does my heritage have anything that cool? 'Cause I want something that cool, man. - I'm sure Thailand has something, right? Like it might not necessarily be like an interpretive dance or whatever, but I know like a lot of Southeast Asian countries have a lot of like, I mean, there's a shitload of history behind it. - Yeah, we have like traditional Thai dancers, but I guess this is like the downside of not growing up in this home country, which is I wasn't exposed to a lot of this 'cause I grew up in England. So I'd only see this, I guess,

- On a like tip of the iceberg. - On a tip of the iceberg thing. - Do you ever think about, 'cause there's some people out there who when you say, "Oh, I'm Thai and this and this." And then they'll be like, "Well, I was born and raised in Thailand. "You're not real Thai 'cause you didn't grow up there like I did."

- Well, this is actually, this is gonna get into like a pretty deep conversation. - 'Cause I've seen this comment, not towards you, but towards other people that have been thrown around a few times with that like, well, I grew up there and you didn't. So you aren't part of it. - I get that a lot with Japan. - I imagine, yeah, yeah. So it's like, how do you, I mean- - Okay, no one's ever said that to me.

You know, no one's ever said you're not Thai. And I think I would probably get offended if someone said you're not Thai. - Well because it's just incorrect. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Hello, if you look at my bloodline, I'm literally 100% Thai. But it's a weird case because

because I didn't grow up in Thailand, no one would ever say that I'm not Thai, but it's kind of like the same thing in Japan where there's this soft boundary where you'll be treated a little bit differently. People will talk to you a bit differently and people will view you a bit differently. But on the opposite end of the side of things, I've always been always viewed as an outsider in England as well. I've never felt like, I've always felt like, okay, my parents emigrated to England. I am...

I'm a child of an immigrant, basically. I'm a first generation. But does that make me not British? No. But does that mean that I had a different kind of upbringing where I acknowledged that I had a different heritage? Yeah. And it's weird because I've met kind of like a lot of Asian Americans and they have like a totally different

than I do, right? 'Cause like I was having a conversation with some Asian Americans and I was asking them, do you find it offensive if people ask, oh, where are you from? 'Cause I don't find that offensive. 'Cause when someone asked me in England, for example, oh, where are you from? I assume the context of that is where is your heritage from? Where are your parents from?

But I think in America, that's like a very much more sensitive topic and sensitive question. 'Cause I've heard, I've talked to plenty of Asian Americans that would get very offended if someone asked them where they're from. - But like, if you're, okay, I shouldn't say someone. If someone's Asian, right? - Yeah. - And you're like, oh, what's like,

where in Asia is like your lineage, your bloodline, I don't know, whatever you wanna call it. That's something like an interesting conversation to have. - Yeah, and I think the nuance to that question is that because America is basically a country of immigrants, right? It's kind of like a slightly different starting point to being an immigrant country.

- To be honest, I think like it's all about the nuance. Cause it's like, I, yeah. Cause I mean- - How rude are you asking? - Yeah, exactly. It's like, no, because I remember there was one time in America where like this American girl asked me like, oh, where are you from? And I said, you know, and I said, I'm from Australia. And then she said, no, but where are you from?

- Okay, so that- - Okay, no, no, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. - I'm like, are you asking about my heritage? If so, then you could have just said, what's your background? So I think it's all about the context. - Right, right, right. - And it's like- - Bloodline sounds really fun.

- Bloodline? What is your bloodline? That sounds badass as fuck. - That makes it sound like it's a fucking Naruto, got a fucking sharingan or some shit. I'm from the Uchiha bloodline. - All these DNA tree things are marketing it way off. It's like, you should be like, find out your bloodline.

- What's your bloodline? - And you have like some epic narration, you know, do a DNA test in this vial. - We need to start normalizing that. When you want to know where someone is from, just go, what's your bloodline? And immediately you know what you're talking about. - Yeah, I actually, go on, go on. - Yeah, no, but like, I mean, I had the exact same thing in Australia as well. Like, you know, 'cause it's like, I'm not first generation because only half of me is, but like, you know, I still grew up with a lot of like Japanese traditions at home. - Yeah.

and I don't look like your typical Australian, whatever a typical Australian looks like. So, and I don't look like your typical Japanese either. So it's like, in both countries, I had this like identity crisis of like, what the fuck am I? Because no one else around me knows what I am until I specifically say what I am. And then that made me confused being like, oh, am I,

or am I Japanese? Because I mean, now I know I'm just like, I'm just both. Like that's just what I say to people. - No, same here. - But like now, you know, but then that's why like I'm starting to get a little bit like jaded when people ask the where are you from question in like a really fucking nuanced way. Because it's just like,

Just, I know what you're trying to ask me. Just don't beat around the bush about it. You're not gonna offend me by asking what my background is. - 'Cause I think a big difference is to these Asian Americans I've talked to. They are very much, okay, I'm a proud American. America is my home. America is my nationality. And then they separate that from, okay, I'm American and

This is my heritage. Whereas I think of it as I'm Thai and British. It's weird. The trade-off I have for this is that I don't really have a home country, because I've never felt...

I've never felt so strongly in one camp or the other. I've actually just feel like I'm in both, but by being in both, I've never felt a hundred percent accepted in either, but I've never felt a hundred percent home in like either, either. - Yeah. - Do you feel like it's impossible for you to ever feel like a hundred percent British in a way?

- Yeah, I mean, I guess so. But I guess that's why I've lived in so many different countries because I don't really have an attachment to one home country. That's why that's,

that's the perception I've been given where I find it so easy to move to a new country or a new place because I'm like, well, I don't really have any, I mean, I feel like my heritage is here, but I don't really have any ties personally towards my feelings about this is my home country or X is my home country. Because to me, anywhere can be my home country. - Am I wrong in saying in America, isn't it like a big thing as well for like,

of first generation immigrant parents to also give their kids like very American sounding names. - That's what I was about to say. I think it's like almost from my understanding, it's, I don't know how common it is, but from the people around me that I know,

kids with first generation immigrant parents, I think a lot of the parents almost choose not to, I guess, feed their children their culture in America because it's like, they almost like kind of oppress

their own culture towards their kids so that they can like fit quote unquote fit in more with America. Because like I've heard like a lot of my friends in America who are, you know, first generation Asian or whatever like immigrant parents, a lot of them can't speak their parents' mother tongue. - It's quite normal. - It's quite normal. I feel it's quite normal in America though.

- And only in America for some reason. - No, I think it's pretty normal in the UK as well. - You think so? - It's normal in the UK. - Yeah, I've known a lot of people in the UK who their parents made the decision to not teach. It wasn't even like laziness. Their parents made the decision to not teach their child their mother tongue just because they wanted to be able to, I guess, assimilate into- - See, that's fascinating 'cause in Australia it's the polar opposite.

It's like almost every Australian I know that has immigrant parents, they can speak their mother tongue to some level of capacity and they're proud of it. - Yeah, exactly. Well, I think,

- I don't know why. - One thing that really surprised me about Sydney and Australia is that there are, it's so multicultural. I didn't realize it was this multicultural. Like when we were at Sydney Smash, I was like, there are so many Asian Australians and just a lot of Southeast Asians. And I'm like, damn, I've never seen this many Southeast Asians in another country since I was last in Southeast Asia. I was like, what the hell?

- What the hell man? - Yeah. - And again, it's like fascinating that because Australia is such a multicultural country and yet for some, and you know, America is as well, I would say just as much, if not more than Australia. And yet there is just this like almost polar opposite dichotomy of,

or embracing your parents' cultures that aren't American or aren't Australian. - Would you teach your kids your second language or your first language? - That's way harder for me to answer. 'Cause it's like, if I'm not in that country, it makes no sense to teach them that language.

just because of how small and very niche the language. It's not like, "Hey, I can take, if it's Thai, right? Oh, hey, I can take you to Thailand, you can use it." It's like, "Hey, I can take you to Wales, maybe we'll find someone one time who might be able to use it." You know what I mean? If we don't live in that country. And also if I didn't, it's my language. There's a lot of difficulties that come with a dying language.

and preserving it. And when you're outside of the country where they're trying to preserve it, it becomes like 20 times more difficult to preserve the language. - It is, it is. And it takes, especially if you wanna teach your kid a language that they don't use in this country, it takes effort because it's,

- It's like, do you wanna teach your kid English in Japan? Easy. Do you wanna teach your kid Japanese in Australia? Very doable. Do you wanna teach your kid any Asian language in London? Very doable. It's like, it depends on like where you are. And like, if I was in Japan, the odds of me being able to be like, "Hey, go talk to all these other Welsh kids." It's like, oh wait, there are none. - Because like the reason I asked this is because I've like,

I've made the decision that I'm going to teach my kid Thai as much as possible. Even if they- - Yeah, I think that's a good idea. - Even if they never use it. 'Cause the thing is, the only person who ever spoke Thai to me growing up was my mom. And because of this, I'm not like 100% fluent in Thai, but if I really wanted to go out on my way to study it like Joey has with Japanese, I could get fluent, you know? Because the base level is there. I just feel like,

I want my kids to have the same upbringing as me where I feel like the reason I have such a big attachment to Thailand, even though I didn't actually grow up there is because I can speak Thai. And I think just knowing the language is such,

it's such a big barrier of entry of just appreciating a culture, just appreciating your heritage. And I think if you don't know the language, you have to work way harder to appreciate going to this country and being like, "Oh, this is where my parents are from." - So that's a really interesting point you raised there. 'Cause again,

this happens again with dying languages. What about like Wales or other countries in Europe where there are languages that are, obviously English or another language is taken over, but there was a language before, which was the ones connected to everything cultural and historical. Are you then, if you're not, like let's say, 'cause there are a lot of people in like Wales and Scotland and Ireland, for example, who are raised, generations and generations of Irish, Scottish or Welsh were raised in their country and none of them ever spoke

the language of that country. - The original language, yeah. - How would you argue that that would affect then your understanding of the country's culture in a sense?

- Well, I think that if you have this base level understanding of a language, even if it's dying out, how much of Welsh culture do you think you understand more because you understand Welsh, right? I mean, playing things like Elden Ring and shit like that, seeing just little pieces of Welsh, like native Welsh culture everywhere. I mean, that's a cool feeling, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say it's, you know, you can't ever be like someone who's just,

generations of families raised in a country that doesn't speak language. They don't really understand it. - That's not what I'm saying at all. - Yeah, I know that. I know that's what you're saying. - At the end of the day, I think like, it's just like, if you're interested in it, regardless of how useful it is, then, you know, and you have an appreciation towards it, I don't think there's any demerit in trying to learn it, especially at a young age when your brain is just a sponge that can ingest anything. It's like,

you might not necessarily get say, in the case with Welsh for instance, you might not necessarily get a full on understanding of the culture surrounding it and anything. But at the end of the day, you can still say, it's a cool party trick at least, at the end of the day, you can still say like, I can speak Welsh, I know that way. - That's what I would like for it to be, a party trick. - How do you say fucking Welsh? - Yeah, I feel though, I feel, but like when it comes to a dying language, right?

I still think it's a cool, like if you, I would be impressed at anyone who knows how to fucking speak a dying language. - Yeah. - Right, because it's just cool. And it's like, and I feel regardless of how useful that language ends up becoming, you just naturally grow more of an appreciation towards language, towards culture, towards linguistics of any country.

I also another fun point, well, not a fun, fun point or a fun question. Let's say there's a, an American historian who wants to learn about Welsh culture or say Thai culture. Yeah.

if you've never lived or grown up in a country, can you get a, as good, if not a better understanding of a country's culture through studying and reading and whatnot? Because I'm sure there are a bunch of people who are not from Thailand or not from Wales, not from Australia, who've studied it way more than we ever even have considered it. Yeah. Who probably have a deeper historical cultural understanding of your country than you do. Yeah.

- They might have a deeper historical understanding, but they may not necessarily have a deeper modern understanding of it. - Yeah, modern wise, but then you could argue that some countries lose a lot of their cultural values in the modern world. So it's weird 'cause I thought about this and I was thinking, well, I have this very specific understanding of my culture, but what is it?

it only goes so far. And I'm wondering how biased is that? Like based on the area I grew up with, the people I interacted with. - Yeah, yeah. - 'Cause I'm thinking, oh, this culture is like this for sure. But then someone else from the other side of the country might've had a completely different experience of the culture. - Yeah. - And I always wonder about that kind of stuff. And I'm like, oh man, this is like such a,

- So even, then it makes me just think, what is the fucking point of even arguing about who knows more about a culture or what experience is right about a culture? It's like, I feel like almost on another level. - I mean, there is no right experience. - No, I know, but it's like, I found that with sometimes people would get an argument about what is the correct thing of X culture. And I always found it interesting where it's like, yeah, you have to recognize that culture is also biased.

- Oh, absolutely. - It is. - Culture is even historical accounts of culture are somewhat biased. - Yeah, yeah, of course. - So it's like, it's just such a worm's nest of, and then this all comes back to the whole point, the initial thing I brought up of people being like, you don't know the culture.

And it's like, well, it's like, no, you've had your experience with the culture. This is such a whole rabbit's nest. And it all came from this one comment that pissed me off. I saw this one comment and it pissed me off 'cause I was like, fuck you. There was someone argued, he was like, well, I don't think Connor's Welsh 'cause he left the moment he could

and his dad is English, so fuck him, he's not Welsh. And it's like, well, fuck you. I grew up in the country for 19 years. I speak the language. My mom is Welsh, but I don't even think I need Welsh parents to be Welsh. If I'm born in a country and I'm raised there and I speak the goddamn language, I think you're the fucking, you're of that country. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - What are you talking about? And it's like, did this dude just wake up today and just feel like he wanted to feel better than me for some reason? - I am the alpha Welsh. - Fuck you. - You are merely the beta Welsh. - And then I'm like,

I'm like, do you have to stay in a country to be like, the moment you leave America, if you've lived there for 20 years, you're not American anymore. Are you fucking stupid? - No, that's dumb as fuck. - Imagine wanting to then broaden your horizons and experience another world. - Yeah, God forbid you want to experience another culture. - I mean, not all culture will stay the same. Our experiences are going to change. I mean, I don't know, maybe you go back to England and the Tesco meal deal is no longer the price it was. You're just like, okay, I was talking shit on Trash Taste.

- I was. - It's not a sheepish more, okay? But I mean, in terms- - Inflection. - Yeah, yeah. But like, I think especially in terms of like understanding culture, it's when you, have you found that when you go back to your home country or place you haven't visited for a long time, your personality also like subtly shifts to what it was like before you moved out? - Oh, it doesn't even subtly shift. It like full on shifts. Like people were telling me, my sister was telling me while I was in Australia for like the past two and a half weeks,

that every other day that she saw me, she was like, "Your accent's getting thicker again." - Yeah. - And I was like, "Is it?" 'Cause to me, it just sounds like the same. - I noticed my accent getting like, my British accent like getting way, way thicker just going back to the UK. - Yeah, the frequency of in it was definitely increasing. - Mine went way more American, I feel like. I feel like I got more American.

- Oh really? - You definitely did. - Yeah, I was definitely getting more American. - In America? - Yeah. - Oh yeah, yeah. No, I mean, you're 100% you're influenced by the people you're surrounding with regardless of which country you're in. - Well, it was like that, there was a study I think they did in one of the stations where they fucking Antarctica. What are those remote fuck places where there's snow?

- Antarctica? - What other fucking places? - Antarctica, Iceland. - I don't know, there's so goddamn many of them. - Greenland. - They did a study. - Canada. - Because obviously a lot of the times they're scientists from different countries all shoved into one place. I can't remember where it was. - Probably Antarctica. - This is very anecdotal, don't take this as in like all different countries. I think after weeks of them all staying together,

like one of the accents became like the more dominant and a lot of the other accents were starting to kind of shift towards, I think it was German in this study. People slowly started becoming towards like a more German accent weirdly. You'd think maybe it'd be American or something. And yeah, it was just kind of interesting. - Clearly the German guy spoke the most. - Maybe. It's just like you are 100%, 100% influenced by accents around you. - Oh, absolutely. - And it will, your accent will change. - Yeah.

depending on where you're staying. And it's not like a, how dare you? You've forgotten your home accent. Connor, you fuck. It's like, no, it's just how it is. - It's just how it is. Everyone works that way. - We want a copy 'cause that's, we're animals and we're social animals and we're designed by,

- Fucking Darwin, I guess he decided that all, that we're gonna fit in. - Thank God, Darwin invented humans. - The Darwin patch. - That's what makes us herbivores. If we were alphas, we would remain true to ourselves. - Well, you know why we're herbivores and betas is 'cause we need other people's validation. So that's why- - Do I sound okay? Do I sound okay now? - Our whole brain is designed that we need to fit in. We gotta fit in. That's why sigmas exist, like me, who don't wanna fit in.

- Take my course right now, $100. - This is what we call a herbivore in denial. - I'm cripplingly in need of attention. - Do you know one of the stupidest fucking like, one of the stupidest trends that, you know, this whole alpha movement of like how to tell- - Did you go to AlphaCon? - I didn't go to AlphaCon. - Is that a real thing?

- But one thing I was- - It's actually? - Yeah, it is. - It's as bad as you think it is. The post is just like a bunch of white dudes. - I can't remember who told me about AlphaCon. I don't think it was you. - I told you, I told you. - Did you tell me about it? - You should look at the poster for it. It's very funny. - Yeah, I'll look at the poster for it. - Yeah, it's when you look at photos and you see a girl and the guy and there are like people that are breaking down the angle that the guy's- - I love these things. - The angle that the guy's leaning in. - It's like if you lean in, you're the beta. - Oh yeah, look at this photo.

- This is real? - Yeah, that's real. AlphaCon 2022, be great or be nothing. What a fucking tagline. - Yeah, that's just like male denial of the convention. Just admit that you're pathetic and you're liking this joke. - Oh my God. This is just macho insecurity of the convention. - No, it is. It was like a scam. - Oh my God.

- Yeah, I love that angle thing. It's like the beta leans in. The woman better lean into the man or the man's a beta. - Sometimes like a random picture will show up in my timeline of just a guy and you see like the angles, like it's a red line of the guy being like, okay, he's standing up this, he should be standing up in an upright position, but he's at a 80 degree angle. - The woman is not bending. He's bending to the woman, he's a beta.

- And I'm like, maybe- - Why would they not just change this to misogynist conflict? - And I'm just like, maybe the guy's just tall. I don't know. - Maybe he's tired. I don't know. He just needs some support. - He's a beta guy. - Okay, I get it. I get it. - The alphas don't get tired. They just don't. - Oh my God. I can't believe that's real. - This episode of Trash Chase is sponsored by PC Specialist. Happy Halloween from PC Specialist, guys. - Yay!

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- And guess what guys? All of their PCs are powered by Windows 11. Playtime anytime. - For a limited time only during the Halloween period, you can get a larger discount off your next purchase. Exclusive to Trash Taste listeners by using the link in description down below and using code TRASH at the checkout. - Thank you to PC Specialists for the sponsor. Back to the show. - Fellow herbivores rise up. - I fucked myself that term, herbivore. - Wasn't that just vegetarians? - Huh? - Wasn't that just vegetarians? You just described vegetarians.

- No, herbivores. - No. - Yes. - No, it comes from a Japanese term. - What? - Herbivore, Soshokuke. - Yeah, it literally means herbivore. - What? - Like guys, like Soshokuke means like guys who are not, like they're very docile and like not aggressive and they're always like ladies first type of thing and they never advance on girls and stuff like that. And in Japan they're called herbivores. - Okay.

That's where I got the word from. - It's like, cause I fucking love that term. - I don't know why herbivore just sounds so funny. - It's such a perfect term. - Literally Wikipedia when you put sausage cookie is like herbivore men. - Yeah, herbivore men. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Herbivore men.

- Well, I think that's because Japan, I don't know, how deep into vegetarian culture and vegan culture is Japan in right now? 'Cause I remember when we moved here, there wasn't really much. - I think five years ago it was like nothing, right? - No, nothing. - Vegan, maybe vegetarian. - Vegetarian I think is easier. - Vegetarian might've been like one in a hundred restaurants in Tokyo maybe. But yeah, I definitely think now,

Yeah, since the pandemic, I think, and even like a little bit before that as well, like I did start to notice a lot of vegan places as well as like vegan and vegetarian. Like now it's not...

to see menus that have like the vegetarian symbol or like the vegan symbol on something. - There's a few really good vegan, I go to actually quite a fair amount of vegan places. I sound so beta now. What a herbivore. I'm not even like vegan, I don't care. I just think that like sometimes I just want food that isn't gross feeling and vegan food is normally like really clean. - There's a vegan ramen place I know

I think in Tokyo Station? - It's a chain. - You know what I'm talking about, right? - What is it called? Ifu or something? - Something like that. - They do like a cognac. - Yeah. - Cognac noodles. - It's actually really good. - I hate cognac. - And konnyaku. - I hate konnyaku. I think it's shit. I think it's disgusting. And I don't stand for it. But the noodles are pretty decent actually. 'Cause I accidentally ordered it.

I was like, I hate Konnyaku and normally, 'cause you get it in like some soups and you get it in like- - Like a lot of hot pots. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like a potato, but shit. And I normally just- - It's like a gelatinous potato. - It's like slimy potato. It's so gross. But the noodle was actually really good 'cause it was like not slimy. It was just kind of like a little chewy, but it was good. - It's Ito Konnyaku. It's like the thin Konnyaku. - Yeah, so if you want ramen,

it doesn't taste like normal ramen, but ramen that is very low calorie and pretty healthy for you, you can get a vegan ramen. - I was pleasantly surprised by it. Yeah, 'cause I went to it 'cause one of my friends is a vegetarian. Yeah, I think we're talking about the same place. - Let me get the place so we can recommend it to people. - Yeah. - It's decent. - Yeah, I went there because I was with one of my vegetarian friends and we couldn't find any other like vegetarian place. So we're just like, oh, let's just go to this like vegan ramen place. - Afuri? - Afuri, that's it. - Afuri? There's a bunch around in Turkey. - Yeah, and I went and I was like, oh, I wonder, 'cause you know, like,

a lot of ramen is the polar opposite of vegan or vegetarian. It's just like, it's very oily, very, you know, meat broth based and stuff like that. So I thought like, it's going to be, this is going to be like the feather is fucking ramen ever with like no substance whatsoever, but it was, it surprisingly fills you up. And it's, and again, it like it's ramen without the gross feeling it's ramen without the food coma. - Yeah. - Basically. - Yeah. So it's,

- I think they did, they have like weird broths as well. I think the one I had was spicy yuzu. - Spicy yuzu? - Oh yeah. - That's how it is. - Nice. - Very refreshing. - Very refreshing. - I know there's vegan burger places that are apparently very good, never been. - Like Impossible Burgers and stuff? - Yeah, they're apparently really good. I know there's a bunch of vegan cafes, so many of them that are really good. There's a few in Shinjuku

that are really good. - And there are like some just like traditional Japanese foods as well that are technically vegan, but I don't think until recently were labeled as vegan. So I think it's just like the fact that this is obviously before the pandemic, but like when a lot more foreigners were coming over and obviously with that, there's a higher population of vegans and vegetarians outside of Japan, because it's not really a thing in Japan.

And I guess like a lot of restaurants are like, oh, there's a lot of these vegetarian and vegan people that are coming to this country. We should probably cater towards them, especially since the Olympics are coming up. - I wonder how they're doing after the pandemic. - Sort of a lining of the vegan places, they normally always have English menus. - Yeah, that's true. - Which I don't need an English menu all the time, but it is just nice to have sometimes you're just like, ah, fuck yeah, I didn't wanna read today, this is good.

I just think. - Yeah. - Yeah, some really good options now in Tokyo. But I think the reason why a lot of places get held back from being vegan is eggs and stuff. - Yes. - Eggs is normally the killer. - Oh yeah, yeah. - There's so much stuff with eggs. - That's true. - A lot of stuff with eggs, a lot of stuff with fish and stuff like that as well. - Yeah, fish oil and fish sauces. - Broth, like a lot of like, you know, like,

animal bone broths and stuff like that. - Oh yeah, of course. - That's very common. - The ramen one. - Yeah. - When's yuzu gonna be more popularized around the world? - Okay. - It's too much. - Oh my God. - I like yuzu. I wanna preface. - I don't like oranges or yuzu. - Let me preface. - I like yuzu. - Let me preface, okay? 'Cause I was a clown when I first came to Japan. - Oh my God. - Okay. - You're still a clown. - No, no. - You are still a clown. - I'm less of a clown.

- No. - I took the eh eh off. Just a little part of me is gone. - I took one of the shoes off and it only squeaks when I- - Replace them with a Vessi. - It only squeaks when I take one of the steps now. - There's a meme, like a Twitter meme, like a reply image that's just someone putting on clown shoes. It's gone.

- Getting ready for work every day. - Just the shoes. - No, no, we give the fucking clown shoes to each other every week. We rotate, we rotate. But like when I first moved to Japan, I'd never had, for some reason, I'd never heard of yuzu before. Had you heard of yuzu before? - Well, it's a very Japanese fruit. - Honestly, no. I wish I want to lie and say yes, but no. - Yeah, so Sydney told me, okay, can you go to the supermarket please and get some yuzu? And I'm like, okay, great. Googled yuzu and I'm like, oh, that's a lemon.

- What? It looks like an orange more than, like a hybrid between orange and lemon. - It's like a lemon and an orange put together for those of you who don't know. - Yeah, yeah, I mean, I looked at it. I thought my brain went, "Ah, yuzu must just mean lemon in Japanese." - Well, when you take one look at a yuzu, you're just like, "Wow, that's a big lemon." - Yeah, exactly. That's what I thought, okay? 'Cause at least with limes, limes,

different, completely different color. But you know, there are like some Japanese like fruits and vegetables that have the same name, but like- - What other fruit is yellow? What other fruit is yellow that's shaped like that? - Yeah, exactly. That was what I was thinking. There's no other fruit I know that's yellow in my mind aside from lemons. So I was like, great, it's a lemon. So I didn't know that yuzu and lemons

- Well, a completely different thing. And Sydney was just like, how could you be so fucking dumb? This is obviously a lemon. This isn't yuzu. I was like, what's the difference? What's so great about yuzu? I don't get it. But like now that I've lived in Japan for two years, yuzu fucking slaps, man. Yuzu is like S tier citrus fruit. It's S tier. - Low A, high B. - What's S tier citrus then? I mean, you just hate citrus in general.

- Lime's the worst one. - What? - Dude, you're blinded by the gin and tonics. - What the fuck? - Lime is God tier, dude. - No! - Mexican brothers, rise up! Lime is the best! Put it on everything! - Lime has always been the beta lemon. It's been like the- - What the fuck? No. - It's been the beta lemon. - It's the herbivore lemon. - No, it's the exciting lemon.

- Oh my, okay, okay. We're not having this argument. - Yeah, okay. - Okay, so here's my thing with yuzu. I think it's great. It's got an amazing flavor. - It is. - But you put it in anything, you cannot taste anything else except for yuzu. It fucking takes over everything. And you can't deny this, it does. - Well, what's wrong with that when it tastes good? - Because like some dishes they're like, it's yuzu, hint of yuzu. And you're like, all right, you taste it. You're like, I just taste yuzu. And it's like, I don't want people to start putting yuzu in everything 'cause as a dominant flavor, it fucking sucks.

- It doesn't suck as a dominant flavor. I fucking love yuzu. I will fight to the death. - Yuzu drink is like, it's like, so when you get like a, sometimes you get like a little, they sprinkle a little yuzu in it and then it's like, now all I can taste is yuzu. And same with food. They sprinkle a bit of yuzu on it and all I can taste is yuzu. And I'm like,

I'm so juiced, why? It's like bacon on the burgers. You bite into a burger with a bacon in it and it just tastes like bacon. - Dude, yuzu is not as potent as bacon. What the fuck are you on? What are you on? But like, it's got such a unique flavor profile. - No, I agree. - That's what I love about it. There's not many things in the world that, you know, that taste like yuzu. - Dude, yuzu ponzu is, oh my Lord.

- The thing about yuzu is that it always tastes like yuzu. - How do you describe yuzu as a flavor to the audience? - I don't even know. - It's like the only way I can describe, someone described it to me once as eating a lemon and an orange together. But like even then it's like hard. Like that's probably the closest, but like- - It feels like a vinegary lemon.

- No, vinegar is way more overpowering. - No, no, like if you added a dash of vinegar to lemon, that's how I would imagine it. It's kind of like a very like bitterish kind of lime. - It's not bitter. - Okay, wait, wait. How would you describe limes then? - I guess bitter. - Beta lemons. - Bitter. More tasteful lemon. - Tasteful?

- Lemon with a bit of, ooh. - But that's why Yuzu is just so fucking good because it has such a- - I'm gonna Google, how does Google describe it? - It has such a distinct flavor profile in terms of like the citrus fruits. 'Cause like, you take, let's say a lemon and a lime and yes, there is a difference in flavor, but it's not massive, you know?

I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't even be able to taste the difference between a lemon and a lime. Same thing would say, orange and tangerines or clementines. There is a difference in their flavor profiles, but it's not massive. But I feel like Yuzu has such a distinct- - Nothing else tastes like Yuzu. - Yeah, nothing else tastes like Yuzu and it tastes, I mean, subjective how amazing it tastes. - So everyone seems to agree that it's a hybrid of

either lemon, lime and a bit of grapefruit. - Which I would kind of say is right. - Oh, okay, yeah. - You know when you take a sip of grapefruit and it makes you like for a second, where you're like, oh. - It's like a sweet grapefruit. - It's got the good properties of grapefruit without the afterwards. - No, it has a little bit of that. - Grapefruit is the worst citrus fruit, it is. - Okay, we all agree on that? - I kind of like grapefruit.

- I used to hate it. - Grapefruit is the one citrus fruit you just cannot have by itself. - Oh no, no, I can't have it by itself. - Then that's cheating. That makes it an awful fucking citrus fruit because if you need something else to have- - Well you can't have lemon juice by itself. - I can. It's actually like- - Without any thinners. - Without any thinners? - 100% lemon juice.

- If I got a full on lemon right now, cut it in half, squeeze all of it bone dry into a glass and gave it to you, would you be able to finish it? - Yo, I only have my lemon bone. - If you gave it to me all in a glass, I would prefer the lemon juice over the grape juice.

- Grapefruit juice is wine. - We like wine here. - Grapefruit juice, yeah. I would prefer it. - Really? - Yeah. But yes, I would. I would. I mean, I think grapefruit is like every worst citrus fruit flavor profile just in one. And the only thing that offsets that is having like some sugar or something with it. - But do you like bitter things? - Yeah, yes. - I love bitter things. - So then why don't you like grapefruit? - No, 'cause it's like, just because it's bitter doesn't mean that we're gonna like it. It also just tastes bad.

And then it's bitter. Like it just tastes bad. - I'm not saying it's the best tasting fruit in the world, but like I can still eat it. - I'm saying it's the worst tasting fruit in the world. - Really? - It's one of them. It's definitely down there. - Durian. - Okay, well durians is in- - No, durian fucking slaps dog. - That's just in the carry. I don't even count that as fruit. That's just like- - It is literally called the king of fruit. - Who called it that? - Something went wrong with that. - Look it up. - Who called it that? - Everyone calls it that. - No, everyone is wrong.

- You can wear your crown of durians if you want, because I ain't wearing my crown of durians. - If I bought a rotting dead corpse on a plane and a durian, airport security would ask me to throw away the durian. - Yeah. - They do anyway. - Only the durian. - That is, it's equivalent. - I don't see sign saying, "Hopping on a dead body." - As someone who's been in Thailand, I've been to stores. I don't know if I've told this story on the podcast, maybe I have, but I'll repeat it just in case. I've seen, Thailand's like,

I've been to places in Thailand. I've seen stores and places that have a sign that says you are not allowed to bring guns in this place. And also along with guns, no durian. So in some places in Thailand, guns are in the same level as durian somehow. - I can get that. I can get that. I mean, it tastes good, but it definitely smells like shit. That's for sure. Like until it touches your tongue, your brain is just like, am I eating a turd right now?

And then the moment it touches your tongue, you're like, okay, it's not, it's durian. - This is why I will never be truly seen as Thai. - That's what it is. - Talking about culture. This is the real reason. - He's not a real Thai, he doesn't like durian. - That's the real reason why they don't see me as one of them. - You're a great big phony. - It's like, oh, you can speak our language, but can you eat durian? - Yeah, it's like an undercover cop who just refuses to try drugs, you know? It's just like, oh, you're clearly a pig, of course, of course, you're not one of us.

- One thing that surprised me is that I'm calling it out. Yuzu is going to be the next big fad. - I'm surprised it's still not yet. - I'm surprised as well. - Because this- - In America. - In California. - If there's a fruit that screams privileged California, it's yuzu.

- It's like, it's going to be the next fucking Starbucks infused flavor. I swear to God. I'm like calling it now. - Yuzu tea? - Yuzu tea in California is gonna pop off. - Yuzu cold tea? Honestly, that sounds really fucking good. - You know what's a mid flavor and that is just like not good? - Sakura? - Yeah, Sakura. - I knew you were gonna say that. - Sakura just doesn't taste good. Like you can't change it up. I don't know anyone who actually thinks Sakura is an amazing flavor. They just love the theming.

That's it. Everyone just loves it. - It just looks good. - It was like, ooh, cherry blossoms, ooh. - Yeah, sakura doesn't taste like anything. - And then you drink the fucking Frappuccino or some shit from Starbucks and you're like, just use a fucking actual flavor. - Wait, we're talking like sakura flavored or like ume flavored? - Sakura flavored. - Right, do you like ume flavored stuff? Ume is like plum. - I mean, I love umeshu.

- Yeah. - And everything else we made is kind of mad. - Well, the thing about Sakura is that the trees just marketed themselves perfectly. They're just like, we're gonna bloom for like one time of the year and you've only got a few fucking days. There's your scarcity guys, all right. - Scarcity? - Yeah. - Scarcity? - Scarcity. - Scarcity. - Scarcity. - Sakura is literally the hype beast of flowers. - It's like this is like, yeah, it's a stream.

- It's like we're only around for a week. If you miss it, sorry bro. - Sorry bro. - Yo, yo, people like, yo, I'm waiting for that sakura drop. - I am waiting in line for this sakura drop. - Is there a reason why? - That's literally hot on me. It's the sakura drop. It's the fucking sakura drop everywhere. - It's the supreme drop of flowers. - I love it.

- Is there a reason why we haven't genetically modified the sakura tree to grow all year round or have we? - Scarcity, man. It's all marketing. Marketing. I'm sure they could. I'm sure they could. - Is there a reason why? - I don't know.

- I don't know. I think maybe it's because the Japanese probably see it like historically, they probably see it as like the scarcity is like a very like poetic thing. - Yeah. - You know, 'cause like it's been like that for fucking thousand. - Yeah sure, poetic. - Yeah, it's like, oh, you know, it's beautiful. It's like a firework. It's only momentary, but while it's there, it is the most beautiful thing on the planet. - Is there any Sakura trees that have been genetically modified to bloom all year round, Kai?

- Well, I know for a fact that all sakura trees in Japan are all clones of each other. Like as in the trees and that's why they all bloom all at the same time. - Are you sure? - Yes, I'm 100% sure. - Are you telling me that there is an alpha sakura tree? - The alpha. - They literally all share the same brain cell. - They can't, surely, maybe they're descendants. They all can't be the same otherwise like one pest will kill them all. - Well, yeah.

- Is that really true? - I'm fairly certain. And that's the reason though, why they all bloom all at the same time. And then they all fall all at the same time as well. - Give us an answer, Kai. - So they haven't been able to do it all year round, but they've been able to do it again in autumn. - Huh? - Oh. - So they have been trying? - They've been trying. - Oh, okay, so they've been trying. So they can do it to bloom in autumn, which actually would be sick. - Dude, are you kidding? I would not want to go Hanami in autumn. Why not?

- Oh, sorry, autumn. I thought you said August. - I was like August, how do I be August? - Could you imagine when it's all like, you know, really red and yellow and this fucking chair, dude that'd be sick. - Okay, yeah, that'd be sick. That'd be sick. I'm sure like, I'd laugh if there was like a soccer tree committee that just goes around like fucking breaking every science project that tries to attempt to- - That seems very on brand for Japan. - Oh no, no. If Japan is full of one thing, it's Puritans.

They love, they're just like, no, don't tamper with it because it's thousands of years of culture going down the drain. And it's like, and then there's a bunch of people just be like, yeah, but it's pretty. - But more Sakura. - More Sakura. - Then people will realize that Sakura tasting stuff is awful. - And then Starbucks comes around the corner and is like, better make some dough again, baby. - Do a fact check on the old cherry blossoms are the same. - Yeah, all cherry blossoms are the same. - They're all replicated.

- Yeah. - But that's, hmm. - Yeah. I remember I saw that on like a bunch of different Japanese sites. So I know that for certain and like TV and stuff. I don't know how they did it, but it makes sense. - Did you see that the amount of weddings had dropped like massively because of COVID? - In Japan? - Yeah. - Really? - Yeah.

And then people were freaking, the government was like, "For fuck sake, we're already having a hard time getting goddamn babies. We didn't need people not getting married and fucking for two years. This is awful." - Wait, wait, people not getting married or people not having weddings? - Well, people don't have- - Because you can get married in Japan, but not have a wedding. - Well, getting married. - Oh, getting married. - People weren't going out and meeting.

- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - People weren't going out, people weren't going to bars to meet their co-worker who they eventually fall in love with, have two babies, good, yay, government likes that. So now they're like,

- Like for fuck sake, what is happening now? How do we get people to go out? 'Cause people, now people, even though you can go out and have a fun time, I think there's still a lot of people who aren't going out. - Yeah. - So now Japan has another battle. It's like, now we've got to get them to go out. - One reason, VTubers. Just kidding.

- The VTuber apocalypse has begun. - I told you I was right. - That's not fucking true. Not everyone is watching VTubers. - Well, but I mean, would you not say that that is a mass part of it though? - No. - No, no. I mean, if it wasn't VTubers, it was idols.

- Yeah, idols, VTubers. - As someone who used to watch a lot of VTubers, I would say I think a global pandemic was a much bigger factor. But I mean like- - I'm not saying it's the number one reason. - Jeff Bezos had made VTubers to make Japan not have babies. - I never said that was the number one reason. I'm aware that there was a pandemic. - Are you, Joey? Are you? - I didn't come out of a rock and be like, "Damn, VTubers really fucking ruined the world, huh?"

- I'll never forget the VTubers. - What do you, okay, this is fun. This is a fun little thing. Okay, so your Japanese doesn't count. What do you, you can do there. From the foreigner perspective, how do you think Japan has to fix their not having babies in one simple solution? Not immigration 'cause they're never gonna do it.

- Fuck, you knew what I was about to say. - Because literally the UN- - Because it was the obvious one. - Because the UN was literally like, "Oh, hey Japan, you know there's this really easy cheat fix that will solve your declining population, right?" And they're like, "Yeah, what is it?" They're like, "Just let immigrants in."

- No, what is it? - They're just like, did you know there's a lot of people outside Japan that really want to fuck Japanese people? Just saying. There's a lot of people outside of Japan that think Japanese people are kind of hot.

- I mean, yellow fever is kind of a thing. Just saying. - He could say that. - I can say that. I am the result of one. - I was just like, he's the only one out of us three that can say it. - I am literally the result of that phenomenon.

If my dad didn't go, "Japanese people kinda hot," I wouldn't be here. So I think I have the liberty to say that. - Is your dad into Japanese women? Is that why? Or is it just happened to be? - Oh yeah. No, he was like, "I went to Japan one time and I got yellow fever."

- That's trad school. The man took what he wanted. He knew what he wanted. - That's why though there are so many halfus out there because my dad isn't the only one. Japanese people are hot. - Japan has made it very clear that they do like, cause that solution has been proposed to them many times. - Yeah, of course. - And they've constantly been like, we'll find another way. - It's like, yeah, but what's the real reason? - Initially it was like, we'll just make robots.

And like, turns out that robot technology is like, you know, 'cause they've been making these robots since like the 90s. - Like companion robots. - Yeah, since like the 90s and they just don't fucking work. They don't solve a problem. And it's been shown time and time again, this is not gonna happen anytime soon. So you need to think of something else.

- I literally can't think of a way. - You know what's interesting actually? - I think they're fucked. Like I think they're down this plan and until they let immigrants in, it's not gonna change. - The problem is- - Sorry, you said something was interesting. - No, no, I was gonna say like coincidentally, I started watching this show on Netflix called "Love is Blind." Do you know this show? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - The Japanese one, have you seen the Japanese one? - Yeah, I've seen the Japanese one. - It's like, knock on, I'm a fan now. - What do you like about it?

- It's just like, okay, so here's the thing. I watched back to back the American version of "Love is Blind" and then I watched the Japanese version of "Love is Blind." So to explain the show, "Love is Blind" is this TV reality show where

a bunch of guys and a bunch of girls who are looking for love, they come over, they all come to this house and the males are separated with the females. And basically you go into what they call pods basically. And you talk to, if you're a guy, you talk to a bunch of girls. And if you're a girl, you talk to all the guys, but you never see their face until you propose.

- Very radical show, right? So you go from not seeing each other to proposing. - And so basically the whole concept is you don't fall in love with the person because of how they look. You fall in love with the person because of who they are on the inside. - So what's the key differences between the American and the American? - Big key difference, right?

watching the Japanese one is like watching the best fucking romance anime you'll ever see. Because it's so, it is 100% just wholesome shit. The moment the doors open and this guy and girl who has fallen in love with each other's personalities see each other for the first time. And they're just like, it just lights up and they, you know, like awkwardly hug and shit like that. And it's like, oh, now we're husband and wife. It's so fucking wholesome. The one American episode I watched,

- Clearly this guy just came back from AlphaCon because he fucking walks up and just like grabs the girl's ass and is like, "I can't wait to get in that ass." I was like, "Oh my fucking God." Just that one statement has just completely ruined this build up. - This is why every romance anime ends when they kiss. - Yeah. - Right? This is why they never go further in romance anime. - Yeah, and then in every American rom-com, they go to the fucking.

And it's just like, so like when I saw that, I was just like, that might be a good thing because I feel, and this is just completely from how I see it. I think a big problem with,

Japanese dating culture is that the Japanese society has kind of, and especially a lot of like TV and media has kind of built up this weird stigma around how someone looks, right? Because like the whole thing of like how Japanese people need to be like really skinny and like very fashion oriented and they all need to look like pretty and stuff like that. It's all a lot of like outside looks, right?

which if anyone has ever dated anyone would know that can only get you so far. And I think because, but for a lot of people, the first step to finding a partner is, unfortunately for a lot of people, it's like, if you're not hot, then I don't even wanna try kind of thing. And I feel that mentality, that toxic mentality is really sunken in deep in Japan because of things like idol culture, because of the high fashion standards, because of the high,

Just high standards for people. The soy boys. The soy boys, basically. I just think like it's...

- Like I was trying to say, like the problem is so deep rooted that you can't just point at one thing. - Of course. - Like the first barrier I think of is that where do people find time to meet people? - That's the other thing. - That's just one of the barriers because well, people are gonna have to find time out of their work. So the first thing you're gonna have to fix, like one of the things you're gonna have to fix is just the overwork culture in Japan because no one fucking has time to meet people here. And then on top of that, there's like,

seven different other barriers that are just within the Japanese society that you have to go past. And unfortunately making one anime about a dad and a cute daughter is not gonna fucking fix all that. You can make fucking 10 spikes families, but that's not gonna fix the underlying problem, unfortunately. - I just find it depressing that they think of every other solution except like,

- The obvious ones? - Yeah, they always just do it like, you know, make a robot that loves you instead or, you know, go make a call line where you can just call someone to love you or go to a host club and talk to a guy. - Go to a brothel. - It's like literally like they just, it's baffling that even though the lengths, like the whole rent a family things, right? Even that, that's an extension of that.

it just perplexes me how they will explore every avenue that is not just like, hey, just let people have like an extra hour off work.

Like let them try and meet people. Hey, maybe when they're kids, we should maybe focus on making them have social skills or talking more instead of ramming exams down their throat to death. - I think with the kind of change you would need to do this, it's kind of like a generational change. - Oh dude, like way more than that, I think. I think it's like multiple generations of change. - I think at this point it is probably multiple generations. - It's just a cultural thing at the end of the day. - 'Cause yeah, it is like a lot of this is not,

a lot of this is ingrained within Japanese culture. And it's not that in Japanese culture to not find a partner, but a lot of the effects I've seen within Japanese culture, this is one of the results of that. Yeah, that's a whole fucking web to untangle. And I wouldn't even know where to begin with that. Aside from just, let's just let more people come in the country. - It's fairly simple. Japan is just full of a bunch of herbivores

So let the carnival foreigners come in and just take them to town. - Did you see that? - Let the alphas come in, dude. There's not enough alphas in this country. - Another interesting thing that I read online, apparently now,

Because a lot of kids in Japan have had to wear masks for the pandemic. Apparently there's like, and you know, they've been forced to wear masks. Like a lot of kids now that are like 10, 12, 13, Japan that are really young. - Yeah. - Don't feel comfortable taking off their mask at any point. - Yeah. - Right. - So they never take off their mask. - Yeah.

And it's an extension of also like being shy and it makes more timid. But also there's a really interesting thing that they pointed out where being like, when you're growing up, apparently something for social development, like your brain is not seeing people's faces all the time is apparently quite detrimental to your- - I believe that. - And so if you're just all the other kids are all wearing masks, it's like, this is kind of bizarre.

- Yeah, everyone just looks like an NPC. - Yeah, and it's also a lot of kids have reported that they just like, they feel very uncomfortable and like shy and just not great without wearing a mask. And that's just like, whoa.

- As if we needed any more problems. - That's bizarre. - Even me, even just the two years we've gone through the pandemic, going abroad and seeing people not wearing masks, I'm like, "Oh yeah." - That's what a human face looks like. - That's what a chin looks like. That's what mouth movement looks like when people are talking. Oh, I forgot.

- Oh my God. - Obviously mask culture has been big, but not to this extent. - Oh, no, no, no, no. - I don't think kids ever really wore masks in Japan, like at school before. - No, they did. - Yeah. - But not only when they were sick though, right? - Yeah, only maybe during like influenza season. - Right, right, right. - It wasn't an all year round thing.

- No, it's like some kids chose to wear masks all year round just because it makes them feel more comfortable, but it wasn't like a society. - It was interesting as well in this thing, there was anecdotal, I don't know, reports of like certain PE teachers that had to like,

like shouting at kids, like, "Hey, take off your mask during pee. "You're not gonna breathe outside properly." - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's like 40 degrees, just take it off. And they were like, apparently they were just so uncomfortable with the idea that they wouldn't take it off. - I mean, I don't blame them 'cause even I felt uncomfortable taking my mask off when we first went to England and saw everyone not wearing a mask, you know? And that's me having to,

having lived most of my life- - Doing sports? - You know? - The moment you start running though. - Yeah, yeah, true. - The moment I'm even getting remotely physical, bro, I wanna rip that thing off. - Oh, absolutely. - Are you kidding me? There's nothing worse than fucking exhaling and having to breathe in your own just exhale sweaty air. - Yeah, but you felt guilty for like feeling that way, right?

- No. - I mean- - Well, for what, to take off my mask? - No, no, like in a gym, you know, if you needed to take off your mask, right? I felt, even though I knew like, of course I'm gonna need to take my mask off at the gym. There were still some gyms deep during the pandemic, or even like after, not even deep during the pandemic that, you know, didn't allow you to take off your mask off in the gym. - Oh, my gym still says to not wear masks, but a lot of people don't wear the masks in the gym. - Yeah. - I know there's some gyms where they ban masks in Japan.

- Really? - Yeah. - That's the- - Right, right. - Well, I know, I definitely can see that, especially recently, ever since we got back, like definitely it seems to getting, start getting a little more lax when it comes to masks. Like I've seen every time I've gone into a company, there's at least one person that's not wearing a mask. - I think we want to preface. We're not like that kind of group of anti-maskers. - No, no, no, no. - "Take that freaking muzzle off your face, son." Like, I'm not like that. Like I just,

I think that as the pandemic is easing and as the temperature is like 40 fucking degrees outside, I'm like, I don't want to wear this fucking thing. It's,

- And it's crazy 'cause the government has said like, don't wear the mask outside if you're feeling a little woozy and like don't worry about wearing a mask outside, but everyone is still wearing a mask outside here. It's crazy. - Well, it's because even if the government says that, people look around and it's just like, are you gonna- - This is the thing though, right? - Are you gonna do it? - I'm not gonna do it. - It's a problem with a collective of society. - It's a Mexican standoff, right? Everyone is like,

- I think it was something, there was some surveys I read about, 'cause I got really interested in this, 'cause then I started thinking like, when is this ever gonna stop? Is this ever gonna end? - I don't think it is. - It was like 40% of people wanna wear masks and want others to wear masks, and the rest were kind of different variations between like, I'll wear a mask, but I don't care if anyone else does, and I don't wanna wear a mask, and I don't want anyone else to wear a mask. So it was like 40 to 60%.

but everyone's still wearing them. Even though like 40 to 60% of people don't want to wear masks. - Well, no, no, no. That's 40%. 40% to me is the majority 'cause that's 40%. - No, yeah, that's what I'm saying. - 40% is the majority in just one of those options, right? Where everyone else might be on the fence. But if you're on the fence and you see 40% of people wearing masks, you're gonna wear a mask. - No, that's what I'm saying is that like, and again, because like you said, Japan is a collectivist society.

everyone follows what everyone else is doing. - Yeah, so it's like- - A lot of people don't wanna wear it, but then no one wants to be the first one to take it off. - Yeah, and then when they see someone that's not wearing it, they're like, "Wow, what a fucking delinquent." And it's just like, "Oh, of course it's the foreigners not wearing a mask." Of course, the media were right. They're the reason why. Yo, they got a pen in front of them? Yo, okay, okay. - If the government says, "I don't have to wear a mask outside," I'm not wearing a mask outside. - But they have said that.

- Yeah, and I'm not, 'cause I don't fucking want to. I will follow the guideline when they tell me to do it, because I'm not an asshole, because I don't wanna be an asshole to everyone.

- I don't want to be a burden. - Because it's like, okay, if I'm like on a train, like public transport full of people in close proximity, I'll wear a mask, right? Because you know, it's gonna make other people uncomfortable and I'm in an air conditioned room, so whatever. But like I've recently, like every time I get off my local train station, right? Because it's a smaller train station with not that many people, on my way home, which is like a five minute walk,

I take my mask off. - Yeah, I do that as well. - There isn't people around, right? And if there are people, it's scarce enough where I'm not gonna be in close proximity with anyone. And yet I still get weird looks from the one guy that walks past me being like, "Wow, I can't believe you're not wearing a mask." I'm like, "Bro, the closest human being other than you is fucking 200 meters away. I think he's fine." - But that's why you were her before, man. You just like...

If you're an alpha, you wouldn't care what others think. - I don't care what other people think. - If I cared, then I would be wearing masks all the time. I'd be wearing a mask right now. - There are more people I've noticed that aren't wearing masks, but I think it's just so gradual. - It's very, very slowly. Like everything in Japan, it's moving in a fucking snail's pace. - Japan was like one of the few countries that had a mask culture before the pandemic. - Yeah, of course. - Yeah, but it was more seasonal.

Like I remember when we first moved here. - Not in the summer. - It was like people did not wear masks in the summer. - No, yeah. - I just remember that it was, like you would see it, but it was nowhere near like what it is now. - No, never. - The ones wearing the masks were the weird ones. - Yeah. But I feel like if there's one country that I can see just persisting this behavior and one country that,

would be, I guess, comfortable with even wearing mask deep in the summer, it's Japan. I mean, like, I don't even know how people are walking around in business suits in this fucking heat, you know, and like full on business shirts. - I look at people like that, I'm like, how do you survive the winter? How are you not like, how do you not have frostbite during the winter? - I don't think any, it's gonna change for a while as well, just 'cause like,

- All the fucking politicians here, they all just appeal to old people. - Well, yeah, of course, 'cause it's the voting population. - And it's like, you can't lose your elderly voters. So, you know, it's never gonna change, 'cause everything in Japan is controlled by old people. - Yeah, that's why the borders are still closed. - Nothing in this country is even remotely catered to anyone under the age of 40.

- Which is so sad. - And that's because they don't teach the importance of that to young people. And it's not, I'm not gonna say, and yeah. - Not enough young people. - Not enough young people, let alone not enough young people caring. And so what do you have left? You have an older generation that does all the voting and they make all the rules, even though they're clearly not thinking about the future beyond their life expectancy. So it just stays,

all in the past. And then young people complain being like, well, this is kind of what we grew up with. So I guess we'll just keep going. - Yeah. - And then it just never changes.

- Yeah, and people used to, sometimes we used to kind of be like, oh, and I used to care about this 'cause I was dumb and stupid. And now I don't. People used to be like, well, you're a foreigner in the country. You can't say anything. I'm like, motherfucker, I can't vote and I pay so much goddamn tax money to this country. I think I have an opinion on it, I think.

- Imagine having an opinion. - I'm like, I don't, if someone's like you're a foreigner, you don't get to say, I'm like, I actually don't care. I'm like, fuck you. I pay so much goddamn tax money to this country. - We don't get to say. - And we don't get to say. So the least I can do is I'm gonna complain like a motherfucker.

- That's the British view. - You are truly British. - That's the British view. - If I can't vote, I'll complain. - Why not? I mean, I don't see why not. I think that this country does so much fucked up shit and everyone just wants to be like, "No, don't say anything bad." And it's like, well, nothing's gonna change unless you make people care. Obviously, no one who's watching this video is probably gonna be able to vote in Japan, but I just wanna be able to let you know some of the complaints that we might have. - Shout out to the one 60-year-old Japanese woman

- Shout out to people who live in Japan and have citizenship and can vote. - Rise up alpha males. - There's nothing more alpha than changing the Japanese government. - Yeah, I mean, it was funny when you said initially how this started was like, oh yeah, we're not having any weddings.

recently in Japan. And I'm just like, wait, I thought this was the year where it was all weddings because every wedding has been pushed back this year. I mean, I know several people who have gone to like, who are going and are going to like several different weddings and people were just like, can people stop getting- - Not Japanese ones, right? - Not Japanese ones. - Your honor. - I'm going to one. - Well, he said, Joe's going to one. - Yeah. - Joe's going to the only one. - I'm going to the only one this year in Japan. - This is the one of three Japanese weddings this year. No one,

- No one else is getting married. - It's gone to the point where I've had people be like, "Can people just stop getting fucking married "because I've spent so much money going to weddings." I am people, by the way. - Yeah, I am people. - Cheers, guys. - I'm one of those. - Meanwhile, in Japan, the wedding officer's like, "John Travolta." Where is it? Where is it? - Where is everyone? - Yeah, 'cause- - It is definitely the tip of an iceberg that I think is just,

- Yeah, getting bigger and bigger and bigger. - It's just, you know, until Japan stops catering to just old people, this stuff isn't gonna change. 'Cause even like the tax benefits they give for kids are decent, like they're good, but I don't think they're enough. I don't think what they're doing is just not enough to like incentivize people. - Damn, how are we gonna change that? Oh, I know, maybe letting immigrants in. - No, 'cause that's like the instant- - So we can vote. - Like if you just, oh, that won't get that far, Drake, come on.

- No, no, no, how many rights? - Hold on now. It's fair. It's like if you want an instant fix that will definitely fix a population, you can just let immigrants in. But a lot of people don't and they wanna find other solutions. Every country has the right to do that. But Japan has had this problem now for like,

a very, very, very like multiple decades. And it has to come to a point where Japan's gonna be like, yeah, we're fucked now. I mean, you see it now. Like you see it really coming into causing problems with Japan. The economy is- - I mean, we've seen the recently in the past few months, the yen just kind of like- - Oh, bro. - The yen just got just like- - It's running down mid lane.

- Just went on a cliff and just committed jump king. It's just like fucking all the way down there, man. - I did a video of it on the second channel, but like the whole fact that Kyoto is going bankrupt, it's just like insane to me. - I don't think it's actually going bankrupt. I think that was like, I think it is just, I remember there's a video that was like, "Kyoto is not going bankrupt, that's a lie." And then I talked about it and it was something like- - 'Cause I read like multiple articles saying, "No, it's definitely going bankrupt."

- I think there's a few cities in Japan that have actually gone bankrupt, but I think Kyoto is not at like a risk. I think it was just- - It's in the red. - I think, I can't remember what it was. I remember it wasn't actually going bankrupt, but it was like doing some things that were, you know. - But one thing that I, in that video that I did find, which I was just not surprised about, which might have been a big factor into that, whether Tokyo is actually going bankrupt or not, was like, I think it was like,

'Cause technically speaking, Japan is letting foreigners in right now. Technically speaking. Technically they have eased their borders. But I think there was a report that said between June and July, 8,000 foreigners have come to Japan.

- Yeah, and also it decreased. - In two months. - There was also one month where it decreased even after they loosened the regulations. People just don't wanna come here right now because the rules and regulations- - Even though Japan said, "Oh, why aren't foreigners coming? We've eased the restrictions." I'm like, "No, you fucking haven't." - Because there's still too many convoluted and confusing rules and people just don't wanna come 'cause they're like, "I don't know what the fuck is happening."

Just like, it's not worth coming. - Also, I don't want to go on a tour guide. - No, no, that's just- - No one wants to go on a tour guide. - I think you, the viewers can tell we're so over this now. - We're so over it. - We used to be so more like, "Well, actually there's some- - No, this is fucking stupid. - This is bullshit. - This is fucking dumb. - I think why we're over it is because we have been traveling a lot in the past few months and we're just like, "Wow, why is Japan still in this state "when the rest of the world still has, you know,

figured out their own solution to it. - I don't know if this is good or bad, but the one thing I realized where I'm like, oh, okay. In Japan on the thing every day, they still say the daily COVID cases every day on the main TV show. They still report them every single day. And I was like, oh.

- Okay, yeah, because like I realized every other country we went to, no one cares. No one talked about it. Is that good or bad? I don't know. But it's just a noteworthy difference. - It's putting it into the spotlight. - Yeah, I'm just trying to give you an idea of where the Japanese like overall mindset is at, where they still care about the daily cases. - That is true, yeah. Like I feel now at this point, it's just fear mongering.

- Did you ever hear anyone talk about the daily cases in the UK, US or Australia? - No. - No, I didn't, right? - No. - I just, and I just like when I came back- - Meanwhile in Japan, that's a conversation startup.

- It's like, man, lovely weather. By the way, did you know 200,000 people got COVID yesterday? - I don't even know what it is. What is it? Let me have a look. - Those COVID cases though, it's the gas prices of- - How to get every Japanese person on your side. - Yeah, the COVID cases recently, am I right? - Yeah, am I right? - Holy shit, it's actually the highest it's ever been. - It's the highest it's ever been, yeah. - Yeah, it's like 200,000 a day.

- But the Japanese would be very quick to being like, "It's because we let the foreigners in." And it's like, "No." - Okay, that's so fucking annoying. - It is annoying. It is incredibly annoying. Maybe there might be a factor into that, but it's not only the foreigners fault. - You cannot get 200,000 COVID cases from just foreigners. The math doesn't add up. And the thing that is very frustrating is that they'll say these daily COVID cases and then maybe right after it, they'll be like,

- So we've started letting more foreigners in. And it's like, they won't say it. It's like some places are like implying it. - And the thing about like, for example, the trains run normal hours. They didn't mention that at least. - Yeah, right. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Well, what can we do? - I don't know. Like sometimes about this, I don't know where people stand anymore on like talking about it. Like what's the public consensus on this stuff? - I don't think many people do talk about it anymore. - I don't think anyone cares. - That's it, right? Yeah. - And it's like,

- Yeah, I don't know. - The thing I find funny is that the pandemic has kind of like made people forget that other,

like other illnesses exist. And I don't actually mean forget, but I remember just like, you know, going to an anime convention and like when you get sick, if you get sick now everyone assumes COVID. But then I remember that conflict was a thing even before COVID was a thing. Like you'd go to an anime convention, you go to any convention,

You just assumed you'd get some kind of illness, right? But now I'm just like so paranoid that every time I'm ill, okay, I've just gotten COVID. - I mean, in Japan, like every year around like November-ish, we have this like wave of, I mean, this is before COVID, we used to have this like wave of influenza that's just would rampant in November and December, right? And you know, it was so bad in Japan where like now it became common practice to go get your influenza shots.

- For the past two years, I haven't heard anyone who's gone to get the influenza shot. - Everyone, it's the biggest baddie of the month, right? It's like COVID is the big boy right now. No one cares about- - COVID is the alpha right now. - The beta. It's the big boss. - Yo, those other influenzas, yo, they're the betas, man. - Yeah, they're the beta diseases. - Well, recently in other countries,

- Again, and you might have a good or a bad opinion on this. I don't know. It depends what you like. Like I think America just announced, why do they say America? America just announced that if you have COVID, you no longer need to self isolate.

- Yeah, I think England announced that as well. - Yeah, which I'm- - Which I don't know if I agree with that. - I don't agree with that. - I mean, I feel like if you have any illness, you should, it's just common courtesy. - I mean, this was before COVID as well. It's like, if you have a cold, don't come to work. - If you have the flu, don't come to work. Just like-

- I don't know, like, I guess- - It's weird. It's weird. You're like, maybe, but maybe not, but oh, but- - Yeah. I guess like if you have any illness, you probably shouldn't expose other people anyway, but I guess it's just like the feeling of having someone tell you that you should stay at home versus just having the courtesy. - Unfortunately, a lot of people work jobs where like they just won't give them the sick day as well, where you have like no choice. So it's kind of like, actually we're very lucky that we can, if I want to self isolate, that's just my normal working hours.

- It's a lot harder for other people. - But then it's also weird that like, because if you say in this day and age, if you caught a cold or you got influenza, you would just out of just common thinking, you would just be like, oh, I probably shouldn't come into work or I probably shouldn't come to school. - Yeah, no, 'cause it's like- - So why is it that when it suddenly gets to COVID, it's like, you can't tell me what to do.

- Weird as well, 'cause like maybe let's say you're a teacher or you're gonna get sick every goddamn week. Like you're getting, 'cause I mean those kids are dirty. They bring everything in. - I just corn flu every week, man. - Right, so it's like, okay, I think a lot of teachers, I think even when they're sick, they go into work a lot of the time. Unless they're really, really sick. But I think if they have like a flu or something, they just go into work. And also, yeah, like I said earlier,

a lot of jobs do not allow people, and a lot of people can't afford to take time off work, which is a big one. - Yeah. - Well, that's true. Well, I think in a situation where now that home working has become much more of a popular thing, that if you're in a position where you don't need to expose other people, whatever illness it is, you probably just shouldn't take that chance. I think that's a good habit. I think it's a good habit to promote. Just don't get other people there. Is that a hot take? I don't know.

- I don't know. - God forbid, God. - I don't know. - That you care for other people? What a herbivore movie. - But then there's always that like, the COVID has that really fucking annoying part to it where it's like, all right,

I feel I am no longer sick. I am totally fine. I am still testing positive. Do you guys feel comfortable with me turning out? And I'm always like, yeah, whatever, turn up. I don't care. 'Cause I'm like, I don't live with anyone. I don't interact with anyone who is elderly or immunocompromised. So to me, I'm like, if you feel fine, I don't care. - Well, I think it's just the case of

I don't like every case is different. Are you still infectious? Well, some people are, some people aren't. There's no hard science that says, okay, five days in or six days in, you aren't infectious anymore. Some people might still be. - No, I know. - But there's still like a safety period, I guess. - Yeah, I mean, I guess it's just like that.

the placebo kind of feeling of like, well Garnt isn't coughing everywhere. So even though I know that you could still be infectious, but also I'm like, I don't know. Like if we have shit to do and it's really important, I'm like, I'll be like, Garnt if you're sick, I don't care. Get me sick, get fucking coughing my mouth. - I think you're able to say that 'cause you're the only one in this office who hasn't gone again.

- Yeah, I also, I just haven't got it. So I don't know what's happening. I've gotten to the point now where I've been exposed so many times and I've never gotten it. So I don't know what the fuck is happening. - I just found it funny that it was just like you, everyone who- - Everyone I met at every point during my trip got COVID.

Literally everyone. - There was this conspiracy theory going around that Connor was like the epicenter. - For two months. - Connor was the alpha strain. He was the alpha strain. - I don't know, I'm not trying to be irresponsible or be like, you should do this too. It's just like, I personally felt I didn't feel uncomfortable. If we had a film Trash Taste and it was just the three of us and Garnt was sick, I would be like,

I'm happy to take the risk. That's on me. If Joey is too, that's on Joey. I feel like we can make those decisions as reasonable adults. - Right, right, right. - I don't know. Maybe I'm being dumb. Maybe I'm fucking crazy. - No, I'm sure there's people who agree with your stance on that. - I don't know what the normal thought is in terms of COVID. - Yeah, 'cause- - I don't know what it is anymore. - Not anymore. - It's like when Aki got COVID, right? Joey was like,

"Do you guys feel chill with me coming in, "even though I'm testing negative?" I'm like, "Yeah, fuck yeah, come on in. "You gotta do shit. "You can't take two weeks off. "What are we gonna do? "Can't do anything." - Yeah, but that's because we're on a tight schedule now, but if we were on our normal schedule, would you have said the same thing? - Probably, 'cause I'd still be like, "If you are testing positive, I don't care." I'm like, "Whatever, come in." - Right, but I do care.

- What? Oh yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's why like I wouldn't, okay. I want to, yeah, let me make that- - If I truly didn't care, I wouldn't even take a test. - Yeah, let me make that 100% clear. I would, if I was, thought I was feeling sick, I would test and then I would ask you guys, are you comfortable with it? I would never just show up. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I feel like that's not my decision to make. - Yeah, of course. - You know, 'cause I don't, if I'm sick, it's not my call. Like it's up to if you guys are comfortable. That's why like I was just saying, if you asked me or you asked me, I'd be like, I don't care. So you don't need to ask me, just fucking turn up.

- Unless you have like some kind of a ligma, I mean. - I don't know how infectious that is, you know? But like, yeah, I mean, I think this has promoted, I guess like a good kind of habit of just at least asking people.

- If you're sick, you should ask everyone. - Yeah, because I swear before- - Common decency. - Yeah, I mean, I think people before just kind of like just toughed it out. And they felt like they should tough it out. And I know a lot of people where they were in a position where they felt ill, but they were like, well, you know, I kind of should just tough it out because the mentality is, bro, why are you not coming to work? Why are you asking about this?

The answer should be yes, but I feel like the better mentality is just asking people, are you comfortable with it? Because I could be sick because yes, in my life before I have got sick from other people being sick, not just this happened before COVID and yes, it is annoying. So I think in that sense, it's like it's promoted like good habits. - I think so, yeah. - Definitely. - Yeah, I hope I don't come off as a fucking crazy person who's like, "Oh, you fucking."

Everyone should fucking be sick all the time. Cover each other's mouth. - It's like, "Are you sick? Try me, try me." - That's not what I was trying to get at. Just in case people, I know some people are gonna say that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - No, 'cause you know, I mean like even in Japan that got reflected, I remember there was like a report that came out during the first year of the pandemic where like the rate of influenza in the first November went down by like 90% or something. It's just because now people are just used to being

more hygienic. So like we definitely, yeah, like a lot of, definitely a lot of shit things happen because of this, but also a lot of like people, yeah, gain a lot of good habits from it. - I have not got a conflu yet. And I see that as a fucking positive. - Yeah, exactly. I used to get conflu every single time before the pandemic. - It was always the default. I am going to an anime convention. I am going to get ill and there's nothing I can do about it. But now, yes, people still do get ill after anime conventions.

- Of course. - It doesn't spread as much anymore because people are carrying around fucking hand sanitizer. - But people are at least more aware of health issues. Maybe we've shower like 10% more. I don't know what the exact number is, but I feel like people shower more now. - It took a global pandemic for weaves to finally shower. - For one thing. - Thank God.

- We can be proud of that at least. - Yeah. - Oh my God. - I think that is a positive that people are just more health conscious and more conscious about the people around them. - Yeah, definitely. - Yeah, definitely. I think everyone's become a bit more of a germaphobe. - Yeah. - Oh yeah. - Just 'cause you had to.

- Yeah, or Maylene's like, "Finally, finally." - My people. - My people. I finally see more people like me. - Yeah, Maylene's finally not as weird as she used to be. Still weird, but not as weird. But hey, look at all these alpha sigmas on our Patreon right now. Look at that. - Look at these fellow alpha herbivores. - Alpha herbivores, alpha voles. - They are alpha herbivores. - Alpha herbivores.

- If you'd like to become an alpha herbivore and support the show, then go to our Patreon. Patreon.com/TrashTaste. Also follow us on Twitter, send us some memes on the subreddit, and if you hate our face, listen to us on Spotify. But yeah, keep being alphas. - That's it Joey, that's how you're ending it? - What was the AlphaCon tagline again? - I was like, "Don't be a pussy." - "Be great or be nothing at all." I think it was something like that. - "Don't be stupid." - "Don't be stupid." - "Be alpha." - Bye guys. - Bye.