K 

So lately I’ve been thinking about seasonal surprises in

C 

Surprise.

K 

In the U.S. versus Japan because the holidays just passed like a few weeks ago, like one week ago. I don’t know the holiday seasons are different in Japan and the United States. So I’m on vacation from my day job anymore. There you go. That’s a good way to sum up my confusion about the holiday because we’re in three time zones for holidays. Australia, the US and Japan. So for me this year, like major if y’all follow us on Twitter, you know, I love me some raspberries. And this year we had winter berries, which is so exciting, but also horrific because of climate change and all of that. But we had a warm snap this winter. So the entire month of December, we had winter berries, which are bonus berries, and we don’t get them every year. But then it snowed in December and snowing again in January, which is a little bit earlier than when it snows it usually was snow at the end of January, beginning of February. So we had two winter surprises. I was like really jazzed about this year.

C 

Yeah, we’ve had years where it snows in December and then continuously February, we had one year where it snowed for about 10 minutes. February and that was it. Yeah. So we’ve had different with different winters. This is a particularly snowy one for Nagoya.

K 

Yeah. And that’s exciting to me. That it’s been a very snowy Christmas life. Like that’s all wonderful winter surprise, and the snow doesn’t last more than a day or two. It’s not like we’re having continuous snow for weeks and weeks and weeks. But if y’all know how much I love snow you listen last week and I was like yeah

C 

I love it so much. I want it to love me back.

K 

Yes, I do. This year doesn’t seem like you’ve partaken in any winter surprises or what special winter availability of things?

C 

I don’t think I have I think I’ve pretty much got my regular things. Yeah, I eat a lot of packaged foods and such because food prep takes a long time. And I get achy when I do it. So

K 

yeah. And I eat the same thing on repeat. So I’ll go on what we call tears. And I’ll eat like right now I’m on pepperoni tear. Because I have hereditary corporate porphyria. And that really strongly dictates what I eat. I need protein in a certain amount of time, that after a while, if I eat too much protein, it starts to make me sick. So I really have to listen to whatever my food is. My body is craving. And right now it’s craving protein, fat, and salt. And so hello pepperoni. Has all of those things. Okay. pepperoni and cheese toast? What is the best ever? So I’m basically living off pepperoni and cheese, toast and apples. And that’s all I eat. But I eat a lot of it because, you know, I have to stay fluffy. Thank you. I like being fluffy. big and fluffy. It’s a decision. And I love it. I love I have a big round pot belly. And I just love it and you have a pot belly and I just love it. I think pot bellies are so sexy.

C 

Yeah, we’re watching a show. And you’re like, look at that. It’s not as good as yours, though.

K 

Yeah, we’re watching forgemasters or something

C 

forged in fire their sub series like

K 

fortune, or something or die.

C 

Yeah. Where they compete with these.

K 

They’re not paying us for and they’re not sponsoring. So we don’t have to get their name, right. No. But if you want to, like, have a paid spot up in the gig, we’ll say your stuff right and promote you. Well, here’s the 100 bucks. Yes. You got to put it out there. You got to put it about if you’re valuable. And people will not know that you’re available if you don’t put it about. Okay.

C 

So if you’re listening like if you’re listening, it does. Either one of you. Hit us up.

K 

Yeah. Anyone? I don’t care what it is. I have like no morals when it comes to advertising. I will say it’s sponsored. I’ll say it’s advertising then you make your best choices for yourself. That’s not on me.

C 

I’m not endorsing this. I’m just endorsing that check. Right

K 

holla but if someone wants an endorsement, they have to let us try whatever it is. Yeah. Because we did have like so this is a strange digression, but it was such a strange interaction that I have to talk about it. So this mattress company sent me an article on how sleep affects mental health. And could I? Could I promote their mattresses on my website for adjustment guidance? Right, yeah. And to my clients, and I said, Sure, I’m completely open to putting this as a blog post and promoting it, but you would need to pay me. Right. And they were like, no, but there’s mental health benefits. And that should be enough for you. And I’m like, not really, I can talk about the mental health benefits of sleep without promoting your mattress. Yes. And their article wasn’t 100% Correct. And it wasn’t peer reviewed. And because it was talking about their mattress, and so I thought it would be a great blog post. I’m not gonna put them, like forever on my website. And I don’t do banner ads. So there are people that have paid blog posts on my website. Right. But, you know, it is what it if I’m willing to put an advertisement on anything,

C 

right, that if you’re going to do all of that, like, you’ve got to trust that the thing is real. Yeah. And also that you’re not going to regret it. Like, you’re not gonna tell, tell a lie. Now. So if you don’t know, you don’t know. Yeah, I saw a lot of problems with conflicts of interest when I was editing full time, where they’d be like, okay, yes, we’ve gotten a million dollars in funding from this pharmaceutical company, but there’s no conflict of interest and reporting how great their results are.

K 

Yeah, so we don’t have any conflicts of interest. Because we just get on here and ramble and talk about any old thing. Yes, but we will be honest about whatever. So I mean, think about that, but 100 bucks, come on. 100 bucks med roll. Get out of here. That’s

C 

what the lingo

K 

so mid role is after the introduction, and at and before the outro. So we have our standard intro. And then we talk.

C 

Yeah, I’m not sure if we’re doing that anymore. Because our editor, our sound editor, I don’t know if they’re putting the intro on. I think at this point, people are just like, we know what you are. Just good.

K 

Yeah. So we start with standard intro and outro. I don’t think we’re using anymore, because we’re so awesome that we check these kinds of things. But yeah, because our patrons has helped us get a sound editor and help Tonkin your mic. And so we’re fancy now. Thank you for helping us be fancy. There’s still other things that we need. Like we need the chairs,

C 

right? We’re still fancy that if I eat after this, it’s a fancy feast

K 

was brings us back to season stuff. Because Hello. I feel fancy when I eat raspberries.

C 

You do feel fancy when he raspberries. So it’s really kind of

K 

twisted and messed up, though. Why I love raspberries. So I kind of have to share that. Okay, yeah, I’m gonna show it and don’t judge me. This is our this is a safe space by

C 

any of you out there are members of the fake kingdom.

K 

There might be Fay who follow us. Yeah. And they might be upset by this. And so won’t trigger warning if you’re a Fae. So for me when I was really little, there was a blackberry bush and a raspberry bush and a bunch of kids. And I was the one kid who didn’t mind getting scratched up. But I would eat them all myself, like I want to share. And one of the older kids was really great at telling me stories. I loved it. And so she was like, I’ll tell you a story. And I’ll tell you where raspberries come from. If you bring me some and I said, Okay, what about the blackberries, I want to know blackberries come from Tim. So we have to bring me raspberries and blackberries every day to get more of the story. And basically what the story was, is that raspberries grow out of fairies and their fairy dresses and so they shed them and get a new dress basically like hermit crabs that get different shells. Yeah. And it was very just male, female. There weren’t any witnesses like in the 70s we were not woke. And so girl fairies did raspberries. And boy fairies did blackberries because it was so gendered that the smaller raspberries came from more petite girls and the blackberries came from bigger guys. And so for me, I was thinking I was eating fairy clothes. And we ate so much that when it was done, the owner of the bushes got mad that we ate all the berries. And the girl told me no, no, don’t worry, they’ll they’ll revoke grow clothes are just mad because all the fairies naked. And they’re against nudity because I was raised nudist so that I wouldn’t take it personally get upset and I was like, Okay, you’re having a meltdown because the fairies are neatest. Like how horrible Are you? They want us To eat their clothes, were freeing them. So I was a freedom fighter for fairies. Okay, and they’re really in my mind and my little brain. Yeah. I was like four or five.

C 

So and where did the grapes fit in?

K 

I guess six, six. At that point in time we weren’t eating grapes because that was during during the

C 

Cesar Chavez led Yeah. strikes, boycotts. Yeah.

K 

So be meat breaks.

C 

Okay. I knew that. I was just verifying.

K 

Yeah, that was gonna support the farmworkers and didn’t eat grapes. So for me, food has always been, I’ve always been a difficult picky eater. And my whole life, people have told me really fun stories about food to get me to eat it. And if a food has a great story that’s happy and upbeat, and serves a social justice cause I’m more likely to eat it. Or if it has some fantastical origins, like broccoli being miniature trees that God made just for me. I was like, okay, even though we were atheist that was really meaningful to me. Yeah. That. So I when I was young, I think I was more agnostic and open to there being a god.

C 

And it’s weird how the narrative has changed because now the narrative would be broccolis are genetic engineered abominations.

K 

Yeah, they’re GMO, but they were. They were developed just for me,

C 

right? They were like, we have some cauliflower. We have some brussels sprouts kiss for loves both. What if we put them into one plant?

K 

Thank you. And that’s exactly how my mother explained it to me. And I was like, That makes so sense. That makes so much sense. Because I love brussel sprouts, because you can put them into things and cook them till they dissolve. Yes. And that to me is so yummy. You have like this. No one can figure out what the flavor is. But they really enjoy it even you even I don’t like brussel sprouts. But when I cook them down, and they disappear, you don’t have to manage them. And like this is just a really great flavor.

C 

Yeah, my mom was a super picky eater. So if she didn’t like it, she wouldn’t cook it. And nobody else could cook anything in our household. So it was always like until she died. It was always whatever she could. So I had brussel sprouts for the first time when I was like 17. And they’re pretty gross. And then I had them so often that I got used to them. And then you showed me that they could actually taste good. And I was like, huh, I thought they could just only be tolerable. There are other things like okra when I was seven or eight. We lived in Tempe Arizona for a summer and had fresh okra. So I was like, Okay, I know ochre can taste good.

K 

I love Japan has turned me on to Oak right and mess with okra in the United States. That’s

C 

why I’m saying it because I knew that you weren’t a fan of okra.

K 

I don’t like Southern Style oak traditions. But I do enjoy Japanese okra dishes. I love the way that the Japanese handle and blend okra like the Japanese will take okra and sweet potatoes and make like a thin. And it’s interesting because I don’t usually like sort of mucousy textures I think of it. Yeah. And no man you

C 

describe it that way because you don’t like it. Yeah. And so the thing it’s viscous.

K 

Yeah. And so for one of the winter vegetables special is okra and sweet potatoes made into this sort of like, almost a paste with okra rings and sweet diced sweet potatoes and, and it is so tasty. It’s so good. It’s fabulous over rice. It’s fabulous. And curry. It’s fabulous. I don’t do it as a side dish. And I don’t do it in pasta, but it is fabulous. On top of me. Like to put it on top of some chicken. It’s so good. Oh my gosh, I’m getting so hungry. So that was like another release.

C 

Seasonal surprise.

K 

Yeah, a really wonderful winter surprise is I never know from the curry place what the winter vegetables going to be. Yeah. And I’d love it. I wait all year round for the winter vegetable. And I’m like hoping dice Caboolture dice kokoshnik like finally dice small portions of culture, which I love. But if I get cabbage I eat too much of it. Yeah. Which is y’all know, Japanese pumpkin is so tasty. I find Japanese vegetables are more tasty than tastier and smaller than California vegetables.

C 

And I think this is like I’ve been thinking about this with all these things coming in unexpectedly. I think that these are excess produce, like if they have a bumper harvest from yeah thing. Don’t make an ice cream flavor. Like there are a lot of years we get like a sweet potato ice cream or like different vegetables, flavored ice creams. And I think in the United States, the same thing happens. It’s just more subtle. They’ll just use like the extra sweet potatoes if that’s the extra crop. They’ll just like extract all the starches and render it into chemicals that they use. Another things without it being the primary flavor. Yeah, here it becomes the primary flavor that like, Okay, we have a lot more of whatever crop than we’re anticipating. So that’s going to be the flavor of ice cream and also the flavor of mochi and also the flavor. Potato chips and also the flavor of drinks and

K 

yeah, it’s your winter flavor. Yeah. So I I love the the seasonal flavors. Something I’ve noticed in at least in California cuz I kind of pay attention I was I pay more attention to what’s going on in California than any other states. I can’t really speak about other states. But in California, I’m really bummed that like eggnog and peppermint candy canes, not the round peppermint that’s available all year through Brock’s again, not a paid sponsored ad Brock.

C 

Brock star like memes. Yes.

K 

And, um, I feel like candy canes been available all year round eggnog being available all the way all year round. And like the orange, the chocolate orange and the chocolate raspberry.

C 

Yes. You know, those have been non seasonal for a long time because I think they were non seasonal

K 

before we land. Right. Right. And that was a bummer to me because it felt I don’t know it felt like it was making the holiday more watered down. Yeah, because like pumpkin pie you can get it all year round. And sweet potato pie you can get all like ever there I don’t can’t think of and hit us up on Twitter if I’m completely wrong. And there are still things you can only get during the holidays. I think there are things that people only make which is something different that is something then you can only get

C 

you know what I wish there would be an extra harvest of that apparently never happens in Japan is new get like how are the new get farms not? Because, you know, I’m a huge fan of like the nougat with the dried fruit in it. Yeah. But apparently nougat farms are not popular here in

K 

Japan. Because what can you ever had nougat here?

C 

No, I haven’t.

K 

I haven’t I don’t think I’ve ever seen negate No, I saw nougat I would get you some say know how much you love nougat. Yeah. There’s tons of dried fruit. Yes, a fight. There’s all of the components except the nugget. Yes. There’s like fruit with dried candy. Right? Like they know how to combine dry candy in Japan know how to know how to do it. But it’s just there’s no nugget. Yeah, and just like, Yes, I think is disgusting. By the way. I don’t get your love of Nigut and I support it. I don’t have to get it to support you because I love you. Thank you. And I’m an awesome, awesome spouse you are today I’m an awesome spouse the other day I was a bad spouse. Like it varies on my mood whether or not I think I’m an awesome spouse in no relation to how you feel about my spouse, Frankie,

C 

my spouse doesn’t like nougat but lets me eat it 10 out of 10

K 

Hashtag relationship goals. Was there anything seasonal that happened that you enjoy? Because I we discovered a bunch of new restaurants. But that was just me going out into the world and not having been out of the house? And 18 months? Yeah, almost two years. I think we’re at 19 months when I went out to December 22 months, 22 months in December. Okay. They’re not going out of the house except for doctors and hospital visits. And the dentist for 22 months. Like all of downtown the downtown area not ecchi my not near Nagoya station, but in Sakai, which is I think of proper downtown. Like industrial to me.

C 

Yeah. So they’re both Central Business District and Sokka is the retail district.

K 

Yes. So for me downtown is the retail district. Right? That’s

C 

industrial, like there is retail stuff there for the people who work in office buildings.

K 

A lot of hotels too. Right? Right. So there’s just tons of like, all of these great restaurants that are opened up that are like, really cute. And for me, my experience was it was a winter surprise. Yeah. And so these 25 new restaurants are an amazing winter surprise. And now we have like for the next three years restaurants to try. Because if I try a restaurant and like it, I want it that’s the restaurant I want to go to for going to that area. And then I’ll have a mood shift where I’m like I’m sick of this restaurant I want to break up with this restaurant. And there’s another one so there’s like a rotisserie restaurant, camping outdoor restaurant where you can actually go and eat intense which I think is super cute. But I don’t know how the food is but I want the super cute experience the

C 

food is intense.

K 

And like the rotisserie plays I’m not a huge chicken or rotisserie chicken fan. Yeah, but you love a good rotisserie chicken. So you think this because when anytime you go to So normally you would have the rotisserie chicken

C 

and theirs was really good. And it was a meal for two and I was like, well, you split this with me and you’d say, Yes, I’ll split that with you, but I’m gonna be super picky and eat all your white meat so you better eat the other parts. Yeah, like it’s not mine. We’re splitting it now. It’s your it’s it’s your chicken until I take the white meat and then that’s my whitening.

K 

If you want to eat chicken with me, I only eat chicken breast. Exactly. That’s I could never be on hot ones. Not and I’m not famous.

C 

See if I went on hot ones. Again, not famous. I do the vegan wings. I’m not vegan, but the vegan wing sound good?

K 

Yeah, the vegan ones like delicious. The other ones. Like even Gordon Ramsay was like, these wings are crap.

C 

I’ve never been a fan of wings.

K 

I’ve never been I’ve never eaten a lean. I don’t like the concept of it. I don’t like the way they look. I don’t like the shape. I don’t know what kind of meat that is.

C 

Okay, see, I think this is an area where as far as eating wings, I think I’m a technical virgin. Like I’ve tried to eat them, but I just didn’t quite get in there.

K 

Yeah, and there’s a wing. There’s like a famous super famous swing shop here in Japan. Japan does wings.

C 

Oh, yeah. I’ve had that. So that’s okay, so then you’ve had chicken wings. That’s called heavy Aki. It’s a particular style of preparing them. But it’s chicken wings, chicken wings. So yes, I’ve had chicken wings, because that was all anybody at the university wanted to eat. Like the after workshops and things. If we had a guest speaker we’d take them out to dinner. I’m kind of collectively paid for them and then everybody else pays for themselves. Yeah. And everybody just always want to go this place that the only two things they serve are chicken wings and beer. Yeah, I’m like, Okay, there’s not a lot for me here but I guess I’ll eat some chicken wings.

K 

And I think tn on firstly, face again, not sponsored. Yes. I’m Hawking for sponsors. Yes, I’d love for the podcast to break even. I’d love for it to make some money. I’m not shy. I’m not shame closed mouth. Don’t get fed. I’m hungry.

C 

Okay. You think I need this mic for anything else? I don’t I just have a gamer headset that I use for all my meetings at work.

K 

Thank you use a mix of chicken wings and drumsticks. Yeah, I’ve seen a couple of drumsticks I’m like, that’s a drumstick. That’s my chicken wing. But whatever. I digress. So seasonal stuff. And Japan beyond clothing. I mean, beyond food. I don’t know why I don’t do clothes. So I do wear clothes when I go out. I don’t do clothes at home. I do jammies, which are kind of clothes like this. And you

C 

don’t do seasonal clothing. You’re not like ooh, this season’s clothes. I have to get some.

K 

Yeah, no. And if you follow us on Twitter, you know in December, I was racking everyone over clothes,

C 

because like 20 years ago, you were doing bags, you’re like, I want to get some of this season’s bags. Not all of them. Just a couple. But you still have those. So,

K 

yes. And I don’t have a large bag collection. No, you don’t. You’ve got like six. And more than that have about 20 or 30 bags. Okay, that’s my consider large bag collection. No. And I do still carry them. So I find them Fashionable, fashionable, I do have a favorite. But I do carry carry the other bags, and backpacks and such. So the seasonal thing that I didn’t partake of this year in December was the eliminations. And I feel like that’s something that’s still is parallel to the US where everything’s illuminated and lit up. And all of that.

C 

I find that interesting because most of the illuminations are free but there are like dedicated you have to pay to get in illuminations parks that will be up

K 

in the Wisteria illuminations is I’ve seen pictures of it I’ve never been. It’s just so looks so stunning to me that it has an overhang of Wisteria and the Wisteria hangs down and it’s all lit up and it just looks absolutely stunning. But I’ve never gone there

C 

yet, but Ross has gone on a few dates to the various illumination plays. Yes. And so those are paid. And I find it interesting that in the US like you get your Christmas lights for free cuz everybody’s putting them up. And you could go see an IMAX show or like something for this.

K 

I think we were super spoiled in San Jose because San Jose like Nagoya had the super long park that just ran the length of the downtown area and they would turn it into winter village every year. Yeah, I

C 

remember going and getting that kind of thing.

K 

Yeah, that one end was the North Pole was Santa.

C 

Yeah, which having been to Santa is workshop in North Pole. It was not an accurate recreation.

K 

Being Santa. Sorry, I had out your Santa

C 

seat. Now we’re gonna have to scrub this this video and everybody who protect Everybody who ever mentions that I’m sad that you’re on the naughty list

K 

I do miss the open air free winter parks. Because in Japan, they don’t do any sort of open air Park in Central Park in Sockeye. And it’s very sectional although now a cool winter surprise, I don’t think would have been. I don’t think it’s technically a winter surprise is that now they have it divided by sections. And they have a bus that just drives around in a loop around Central Park. Yeah, in Sockeye and so you can just get off at your number. And just get back on I don’t know how much it cost because I just walked it. Yeah. I didn’t walk the whole thing of

C 

it might even be free. It might be like the Vegas walkway where? Yeah, I

K 

don’t know. It was there was several maps they completely did. From the only part that I saw was from like Oasis 21. To the telecaller. Yeah. And I saw like the end of the Telugu towers in the center of what I consider one of the blocks that they use the talebi tower, the TV tower, the Nagoya TV tower to divide it into, yeah, which I thought was really was really interesting.

C 

A lot of places here, if you rent or buy, then you have to pay a neighborhood fee, which is kind of like a homeowner’s association, except it’s not. Like there aren’t any messed up covenants or anything like that US has.

K 

Yeah, I think in a couple of weeks, we’ll be doing a whole podcast on moving in Japan. Yeah. So I don’t want to step on that part. Okay. But my

C 

point is, I think when you rent an office, and a lot of those spaces, that fee is included, and it pays for things like that bus, or in azmol. It paid for the statutes like the and the association Commission’s these services that increase the value to the businesses around them. So I’m saying I think that bus is probably free. If it’s just a circle, the park bus?

K 

Yeah, you have no interest in the bus. So you have no information. You’ve never seen it. You didn’t look at it.

C 

Other people are hearing like how good I am at guessing things.

K 

Yes, hearing him predicting. You are psychic friend.

C 

I’m not psychic. I’m

K 

analytical. Okay, yeah, you are analytical from analyzing

C 

what the position of the stars will affect. So how

K 

did you feel this winter break? Because you had like three weeks off? Yeah. Were there any winter surprises for you besides the December snow?

C 

I don’t think so. So I had more time off this year than last year. But I’ve been at my company for three winter breaks now. Yeah. And so it’s not a surprise to have one. And then before that I had taken a year off. And so I’d had like an entire year of have no obligations. I’d still done some editing work on the site and various things. But this year was really busy at work. So I felt like the first week was just recovery, like, okay, drove myself super hard. And then the second week, I did some cinnabar moth stuff. I played, you know, some video games, I did some editing, I did some podcast stuff. And then the third week was just like bonus time, because the company decided to come back a week later than usual. So I guess I felt like some of it was bonus time.

K 

For me, there were some negative Christmas surprises or winter break surprises. And that was everything crashed for my school’s website. Oh, yeah. Well, I was in the midst of doing my analysis. So my analysis were not done on the school’s platform. But I couldn’t report anything. Right. And that was really frustrating for my chair, my PhD chair. Yeah, you

C 

have an academic license for SPSS through your university. Yeah. And I think you, you mentioned this, because when I did my masters, because for doing PhD, not masters masters already done. When I did my masters, all the all the staff software was only available by using the university servers I had like login to a virtual desktop. And so if they that crash, I couldn’t work on it at all. Whereas you you worked on your analyses, but you couldn’t upload them to get the feedback from your methodologist

K 

No, you’re wrong. You don’t know. You’re, you’re like saying a completely wrong thing. Okay. But I’m thank you for sharing your experience. Thank you. Yes. So it’s interesting to me, because you’re sitting right next to me and helping me with all of these things, but it seemed to have no memory of the event.

C 

And that’s that’s often true and I work like the other day I was editing and you asked me how Was it? I don’t know. It wasn’t that I didn’t have an opinion is that I have no recollection of that.

K 

Yeah. So when, and we’re going to talk about why you don’t read the cinnabar. Moth books and the tape too. Yeah. So. So here’s the thing with Chad, I really don’t like telling you what we’re going to record in the future, or even the take to because then you’re like, excited and you want to talk about it during the made episode.

C 

I won’t talk about it now. Please don’t.

K 

It’s the take till Okay. Help me out here. Yes, I’m the creative person behind this app to think of all of these topics. It’s challenging.

C 

Okay. It’s hard. You’re the engine?

K 

I am. I’ll

C 

stop trying to be the nozzle.

K 

Now it’s like Satan is my moto. So does that make me Satan? It’s a cake song. Yeah, it is one of your favorite songs.

C 

Yeah, they have the one lyric that they got totally wrong. But other than

K 

that, share the lyrics with the folks well they

C 

have one about internal combustion power and a Satan is your motor. It should be infernal combustion power is just like one consonant different. But it would have been a much more popular song.

K 

That’s the reason nobody likes it. I think it was a popular thing. It was one of their chart toppers. No, I don’t think it was one of their singles. Right. But in terms of being part of the of that, that album, I don’t remember which album it is, again, cakes not sponsoring us.

C 

I think that’s motorcade of generosity. But I’m not sure.

K 

I think so too. And for those that may not know, cake is the name of the band. Yeah. And they’re one of our favorite bands. So it was

C 

one of the bands that we’re both like, you like cake. Nobody likes cake. Yeah.

K 

It was before cake was really popular.

C 

Yeah. Only fashion nugget was out. Yeah, first.

K 

And so like, I think it was we were ahead of the curve on the second album. Yes. I mean, like, we, you might get all like the entire album. You’re not just listening to this one song over and over again. Yeah, I’m not just listening to the single Yeah, we’re not just listening to the distance over and over again. So yeah, that was that was really fun. So some of the negative so talking about my PhD, the negative surprises my PhD, is they use a system called Blackboard. And that’s the classroom. And anytime I achieve a milestone, or meet a goal or target, I have to upload documentation of that to something called groups. And my chair gets really frustrated, if I email them something that hasn’t already been uploaded to groups, and they send me emails back. Don’t forget to upload this to groups. Even if I include when Blackboard is up and running again, I will upload this to groups, which is a pet peeve of mine. So it idiosyncratic of me that I hate the reminder and idiosyncratic of them that they hate that I didn’t do it. Right, and that they need it done. They need it done. They need it done. And I think because so many people don’t document their process, but I’m on top of my documentation. Yes, you are. And I don’t like being treated like I’m not. And so it’s personally offensive to me when it shouldn’t be this is just the way that they communicate. So I found it really frustrating because they like, Have you contacted tech support this, that and the other and I’m like, tech support on vacation.

C 

Yes, there is no time for it is like you shouldn’t be doing this right now. We don’t care that it’s broken.

K 

Right? It’s going to be broken until the breaks over but and

C 

this is Blackboard tech support. It’s not even your universities because your university pays Blackboard to host these things.

K 

Yes. And then on top of that, there were two days that both my chair and coach did not have access to their email. Right. And I have, I had a stats question that stopped my research in its tracks on December 24. And I was just so upset as someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, right? It pisses me off to no end, that people can’t do things on the 22nd through the fourth, that makes no sense. I get that people need downtime and time off. It just really bothers me that this is the particular time because I never take it off. Yeah, I’m really selfish that way. I’m just being selfish.

C 

I think that’s kind of like, sad.

K 

I think everybody deserves a week off at the end of the year.

C 

I think so too. Or at some point. I think that’s one of the things that was

K 

I gave everybody as cinnabar moth, two weeks off. So like, I’m not hypocritical because I don’t benefit from this. But it’s ironic that as a boss, I’m doing the thing that irritates everyone else and subjecting our authors to that because authors contacted me and said, Hey, this Saturday the other and unlike the teams on break, you know, like, oh, I wasn’t expecting anything. So after the first anyways, and I’m like, but you were okay. But I’m still doing stuff like I’m still working on. I still did stuff rather, I worked on the taxes and I work bike, and I’m still working on the taxes, like doing all of our interfere accounting, I work the entire time, I took maybe one or two days off my normal.

C 

Yeah. Like every three months, we’ll take a day off.

K 

So I wish that the world function in sync with me.

C 

Yeah, but they were working when you needed them to be working, and otherwise you don’t care? Yeah, I think this is one of the strongest articulate arguments against simulation theory. Like the idea that this is just a simulation is that the world is not convenient to you? And who would program a simulation in which the world was not convenient to you?

K 

Maybe the programmer, maybe they’re making it convenient to them. But if they’re not in the sun, why would they care? Right, in the simulation? Are the programmers in the simulation?

C 

No, they’re not.

K 

Okay, that makes no sense to me, then.

C 

Yeah, it’s a whole thing. And most of the proponents of it don’t have a point. So like, I know what simulation theory is about, because somebody I work with is very into it. I am not.

K 

So in talking about your work, I think that how everyone left you alone during the break was a nice window of surprise for you. Yeah,

C 

I logged into my email, because I needed to get to my other email, and for ease of use. So all of my emails are through Google. Again, not a paid ad, which has drawbacks, but on benefits. So I logged into my Gmail, I was like, here’s your work email. And I only got one email. And it was an automated one from a service. Like literally, nobody emailed me over vacation. And I appreciated that because as i Okay, here, if you want something right away, send me a message on Slack. If I’m around, I’ll get it. I haven’t been on Slack, the entire vacation. And then if you need something, but it’s not urgent, email me, and nobody emailed me. And if you need something super urgently call my phone. Nobody called my phone. So I appreciate that. Because I’ve worked other places where they’re like Scheffer business, nobody’s supposed to be working. And somebody is secretly working and calls me up with an emergency because they broke something like, Yeah, this is why I asked you not to work.

K 

So how much chat I got was a nice winter surprise for me, because we’re able to go on several dates. Yes. And 20 months of no dates is a lot. Yes. So we did. We did date some, but it wasn’t the same as being able to go out together and enjoy things together and be together. And that was really nice being out in the world with you.

C 

Yeah. And we’re still very cautious going out even though Japan is right now. Very low.

K 

Yeah. So we’re so sanitize wear face masks. Yeah. Even though we’re Bakst.

C 

Yes. It’s not at all things have returned to normal. Like, okay, but we’re both, you know, disabled chronically ill. So normal is staying in for long periods of time. But, yeah, yeah, it was very nice to go out.

K 

So for me being able to go out was a really awesome winter surprise for me, because I didn’t think that we would be able to go out this December. And I didn’t feel safe enough to go to a hotel like we normally do in December.

C 

We normally plan that back, like in September. So yeah. And then that was when there was the post election post Olympics bump. So when we looked at planning that things were looking bad.

K 

Yeah. And scary. Yeah. And so, like, I feel really comfortable and confident going out in safe ways. And for me, that’s wearing a mask sanitizing my hand. I don’t just wash my hands, I sanitize and wash. And it felt really good to see everybody else masked up. Yeah, so in Japan, there’s not closely in Japan we wear masks anyways.

C 

Yeah, it’s common to wear master in the winter. And it’s considered impolite to not to not wear a mask if you are sick.

K 

Yes. So there’s a culture of mask wearing already here in Japan. So I think telling people to wear a mask. It’s not a big deal. And I was surprised because, okay, in the summer getting people to wear masks is hard because it’s so hot. So in August, people weren’t doing as well, so unsure how it was going to be in December. And I was really pleasantly surprised. Because I was out a lot in December for me and out to random places and everybody was masked up, I didn’t see anybody without a mask. And that was quite reassuring. I did see people in places of business, like take their masks off. And of course, at restaurants, you would take the mask off. But people weren’t sitting close together, there was like, distancing, all the tables were set distance and stuff. So it was nice to me that we could go out and be safe and not be crowded or worried.

C 

Now, I remember in the early 80s 1980s, for those of you weren’t alive in the 80s, that backlash against seatbelt laws. Yeah, I remember it too. And it feels very much like that people were like, the seatbelt is crashing my organs. Did you know that seatbelts are associated with greater rates of organ failure and infertility? And like, just all of these things, and now it’s Did you know that masks are associated with hypoxia? And like, no, they’re not surgeons wear them all the time?

K 

Yeah. And I feel that’s what’s going on in the US. And I, I was really surprised that in the US, everything was 100%. Even with everything that’s going on in the US. The negative Lennar surprise for me was how everyone carried on as if the pandemic was over. And in December, the US had the highest infection rate of any country in the world. Yeah, the world like the US is doing horrible.

C 

It was so high that on Christmas on the 24th, there were like 200, flights canceled because the airlines were like, it’s not safe enough to fly.

K 

Yeah. So that was a trip to me watching like the chaos in the US, and then talking to people in the US that it didn’t feel chaotic. It felt like the normal holiday, crunch, and strangeness and oddities. And for me, again, being on the outside looking in, it felt very hectic and chaotic. And I think that’s a winter surprised I really like about Japan is that everything slows way down. And I feel like in the US, everything speeds up and goes really fast. And I’ve never enjoyed that about December. That mix of we can’t do anything except revel. Right? We will revel in the holiday season and it just felt so high pressure to be a reveler and to be in contact with family. And like there’s just felt like there was a lot of expectations. Whereas in Japan, because I’m counterculture, I don’t have there’s no expectations of me. And I don’t have any family except for you in Moscow. So there’s no familial pressure.

C 

You know, in the US when I had a blue collar job, I didn’t feel like there was any extra pressure around the holiday to do extra.

K 

I felt like there was.

C 

But then when I got a white collar job, I felt like, Okay, this Christmas, break this, and then they’d be like, it’s a holiday break. We’re not saying Christmas, because we don’t want to get sued. And like, nobody is suing you for saying that. Stop it. Yeah. But it felt like they’d say, Okay, we’re going to have a one week break. So you should do an extra week of work before and an extra week of work after that. Just pack it into a regular week. Yes. And something that’s been nice to me is that I haven’t felt that pressure in either Japanese companies or the Australian company I’m working for now.

K 

I think it’s different when you own your own company.

C 

That’s I’m saying I think it depends on industry and situation and all of that. I don’t think it’s a universal even by country.

K 

I agree. So if you had to highlight your biggest winter surprise, what would it be?

C 

How relaxing my vacation was? I feel like last year and the year before even I had a vacation. It was not as relaxing.

K 

Mine is so it feels so trivial now. Okay. Just like his berries, winter berries. That’s a big thing. Yeah, raspberries in December. And they’re grown in Nagaya. So they’re locally sourced locally grown from the farmers here the strawberries and raspberries that I eat and say and they say it on the package. Make sure to get the my boys strawberries and they’re so yummy. They’re just so good. And I love them. I just love them. And so it’s the highlight. And then of course, seeing you relax was really beautiful too.

C 

Thanks for throwing that in.

K 

Berries and then seen my beautiful husband relaxed because I had my priorities together. I was very relaxed Now we’re very relaxed. On that note, if you want to keep chillin with us, you can follow us on over to the take t. And we want to thank everyone who Mike is keeping us in the top 10 on player FM, we’re just solidly every week in the top 10. And I’m so excited. Because every now and then we bump up to the top five, and I’m really striving I’m hoping and play 22 commands to be top five of our podcasts about Japan. That would be super exciting. That would be that’d be super, super exciting, super, super thrilling. And I’m like, yeah, yes, but we can only do that with your help. And we’re only maintaining what we have now and climbing the charts and everything because of all of our beautiful music notes. Thank you so much for listening every week. And if you’re part of the Patreon, you can follow us on over to Patreon and which we’re talking about. I don’t even think we’re talking about why Chad doesn’t read the books are talking now. We’re talking about frustration with authors not promoting their books. Okay, yeah. Under my No, that’s not it either. Okay. Oh, no, that that is it. Oh, my gosh, follow us on over to the take to to find out. We’ll sort

C 

it out before we start there.

K 

Have a good week. Thank you. Talk to you next week. Bye bye.