K 

So lately, I’ve been thinking about how you might kind of live in two different Japan’s and experience two different Japan’s because the type of people we hang around, I guess, or Mel. And that got me thinking about like, the hobbies I’ve been exposed to in Japan, and the hobbies that you’ve been exposed to in Japan. And I’m surprised by how the different price ranges for hobbies. Yes, like so for, for example, tie dye, I come from California, and tie dye for me is you put a bunch of rubber bands around some shirt and some food coloring. And you just squirt different food coloring on different parts of the shirt. And then you take the events or the ties out and you’ve got this tie dye pattern shirt, or hearing how oshibori which is the ancient art of tie dye. And you can make a scarf I think, or I forget what else can I was to the scarf. And it is a date event. And it’s expensive. And they teach you how to do jack tradition, one or two traditional Japanese patterns that you can choose from, and then you do it, and they mail you your results in an envelope. And like, yeah, like three weeks later when it’s dry.

C 

So expensive is like $35 a person for a handkerchief?

K 

Yeah. Yeah. For one handkerchief that’s, I’m clarifying. Yeah. And so for me, I’m like, Okay, I’m used to like going to the dollar store and gaining, you know, three packet T shirts.

C 

Okay. And for tie dye, you know, I grew up Mormon. So I’m used to, we don’t have spray food colors, because come on, but you put the rubber bands on it. And then you dip it in, in the tub. And you dip it in different tubs. Because it’s like 80 people all doing it at once a youth camp. And then you talk about how awful it would be to be a hippie. But aren’t Thai That is cool.

K 

So I knew that I needed a tie dye came from Japan, I knew it was like this really luxurious thing. But I’ve never actually done it here. Because it’s expensive, right? And to go to the place to do it is inconvenient. So I send roster out to do all of these like typical. I’m doing air quotes, typical Japanese things to do. So like it Kibana it is it is a hobby. But it’s a very expensive hobby. Yes. It’s not like it’s I guess, floral arrangement in the United States. I took a floral arranging class in the United States. And I think it was like $10 to take it. And here in Japan, that won’t even buy you the flowers. You have to take like a course. Right? It’s not just you just pop in one time and do it. You have to sign up for like, a five week course.

C 

I feel like in California, we have the community centers and like, yeah, in Santa Clara. We specifically have a youth Activity Center, which was a community center for kids only. Yeah. And they had staff who had arranged this kind of thing. Yeah. And their community centers have two types here. One is the community center like you’d think of in California, but the staff only rent out rooms to people who arranged things. Yes. So that’s where the UK bhana like they don’t have a permanent setup for it. So the teacher wants like $10 a session, and then you got to buy the flowers and such and it can add up. Yeah. And then there’s the community colleges, here are the centers. Sorry, they’re called the citizens colleges, usually in translation. And those are sponsored by the government. And we’ll teach you things like how to form but not how to tie dye because tie dye is not considered a useful thing to have everybody have access to. Yeah.

K 

So there’s also fan making, yep. block printing. So these are things I thought would be like common Japanese hobbies. Yeah,

C 

come on are wearing, like wearing that particular Kimoto as a hobby.

K 

Yeah, actually is. Yeah. Like if you were if you see people wearing kimonos, some of them are just traditional Japanese and some it’s their hobby. Yeah, if they’re Javi de is to go and have like to go back in time in Japan and do like the seven layer chemo no and have someone dressed them a whole fun day, you can go to a store and rent a tomato, and they will put you in the seven layers. And I’m like, No, thank you.

C 

I got recruited to this networking event back when I was trying to network for unknown reasons. That was a Saki tasting slash watching somebody put on a chemo event. Yeah. And this woman, she’s like, in her 70s had developed a method that you can put on a kimono by yourself. And she had gone. Yes, she’s famous. She’d gone and demonstrated at Carnegie Hall and done it for the world for the, you know, imperial family. And so they were stoked

K 

over the old fashioned way is really, really hard. Right? So she figured out tie that thought that goes around. And that has the bow in the back. There are several different ways to do the bow. And she’s able to do tie her OB every kind of way. Yeah, independently. We’ve talked about it before, because she’s amazing. Yeah. So

C 

that because it’s like an amazing wow. It’s a hobby. And so I think there are these kind of hobbies that are to say what you do, because the first question that I learned in Japanese class was, what’s your hobby? Yeah. Everybody wants to answer it. So, you know, what’s your hobby? You want to have a good answer for that? Yeah. Oh, I, I practice chemo or, you know, I go jogging, or I go shopping.

K 

See, and I never want to say the shopping right? Or anything. And then I always mess them up, because they’re like, What’s your most precious item and I don’t value anything. Material. I don’t really have any material things that are of great value. It’s for my wedding ring. And wedding ring is not a common word used in Japanese. Now, let’s say wedding ring a lot. A lot of Japanese folks don’t wear wedding rings. And say, is this always just a problem? Yeah. And so I was like, what if I just say, ring? And they’re like, Okay, if you just say, Ray, and then I would explain that was my wedding ring that I got on my wedding day. And I tell I can tell a story really well in Japanese the story of my wedding ring. And Japanese, like you set stories that I can tell, based off of getting out of what’s your hobby conversation? Yes. And what do you do on the weekend? Like when I was studying Japanese? We were so active on the weekends. Yes, you gotta go somewhere. Yeah, we got to go somewhere. Because on Monday, they’re gonna ask me what I do this weekend. And I have to have something to say. Because if you don’t have anything cool to say, if you’re not out exploring Japanese, at least two of the Japanese teachers I have, but just be so mean to you. But if you had something like cool you did, they were like, Oh, you went and did that. And then I got slick. And I had Rosta start doing stuff. Yeah. And then I was just like, Tell me about it. Okay, what did I do this weekend? And then some of the stuff that I would do they hadn’t even heard of. And so they were always like, Look to me, like, tell me something about Japan. I don’t even know.

C 

You, please amaze me. But I feel like that’s a very Japanese thing. To have a packaged external experience. Yeah, like when we went to NARA the first time before we had moved here. Went to the Todaiji, which is the big temple there.

K 

Yeah, the Giant Buddha. Yeah. And

C 

yeah. And saw a bunch of school kids who we didn’t know any Japanese at the time. And they came up to us very excitedly. Hello. We said, Hello. Said, how are you? We said, I’m fine. How are you? I’m fine to have a good day. And then they ran away because apparently this is the conversation they are told that English speakers will have with you if you say hello to them. Yeah. And ask them how they

K 

are. And they’re giggling and talking about it. I understand that Japanese. Okay, great. So I like to do is I like to tell them about strange hobbies that they have in America. And one of the things that like freaks them out, like, just No, this is not a fan like yes, it is a thing. It’s called noodling. noodling is hand fishing. And you mostly done in the south, and it’s mostly done in places that have catfish. And basically what you do is you dig around In the mud and you put your phones and the cat versus mouth, and then you pull the fish out of the water and put in the basket. Yeah, you can catch other kinds of fish. Millions. You have to be careful when you’re noodling, because you can get your hands really light, it can be really dangerous. I grew

C 

up in Fairbanks on my primary fish that you can catch on the rivers are pike and pike are two fish. They have like little razor blades for teeth, and then you put your hand in their mouth, they will you will be bleeding, let’s say.

K 

So you’re one of the people that I amazed with this noodling. Yes. And you’re like, What are you on about? I’m like, he can catch fish with your hands. Like, what are you talking about? I’m like catching salmon when they’re running upstream. I’m like, What are you talking?

C 

Just snatching them out of the air when they jump up?

K 

Yeah, like, What are you talking illegal? You’re

C 

not supposed to do it, but people do it.

K 

So I think one of the weirder hobbies in Japan that I think is just really, really strange, is doing nothing. And like, that’s a hobby. Nothing, I do nothing. And I’m like, okay, that’s my hobby, chill. I do nothing. And it’s felt really great to be someplace that doesn’t expect me to do anything.

C 

Yeah, a think that Japan, like video games were really common here. About 90% of population plays video games of all ages. But it’s so common that it’s not considered noteworthy.

K 

Yeah, it’s not considered a hobby,

C 

right? It’s just Well, yeah, of course, you play video games, just like, you know, of course, you read manga only about business

K 

strong demarcation between.

C 

But yeah, there’s a strong demarcation between playing video games casually on your phone, which just about everybody does, and getting really invested in a particular online game and getting mastery at it and such. So if if you’re into competitive gaming, that’s considered a hobby. But if you’re just casually gaming, that’s not considered something worth mentioning.

K 

Yeah, and I find that people try to have really impressive hobbies. Like, Ross that had a former boyfriend, who her hobby was going to musicals. Yeah. And I told Ross, that’s not our hobby. I was like, No, that’s our hobby. I said, Okay. Um, does she go to musicals in English or Japanese? And English? She loves English. musicals. absolutely loves them. That’s what she loves to do. So okay, so then has she done The Hunchback of Notre Dame? No. Has she seen my fair lady? Now? Has she seen like, I listed like the Nutcracker Has she seen? just listed all of them? And I was like, what one Has she seen? Well, in college, she was in a production of Beauty and the Beast. Last Man make your heavy American musicals?

C 

No. But you got to pick something. Yeah. So

K 

like in Japan, if you’ve done it once, you can sense. It doesn’t really mean like, What do you enjoy doing? So asking somebody, what do they like doing is better than asking somebody what their hobbies are? And I find that what’s interesting to me, it’s the exact same way in the in, in American English, right? If you ask me what my hobby is, I feel high pressure. And doesn’t feel like something that you’re asking me that you want to do with me? Right? Right. If you ask me what I like to do, then I thought you’re wanting to get to know me. You’re wanting to do something with me.

C 

I feel like very few people will say my hobby is watching TV. Yeah. They’ll say my hobby is skydiving. Like, really? That’s your hobby. How many times have you been? I’ve only been twice but I love it.

K 

Yeah. So for me, I’ve been thinking. So I’m back into studying Japanese because I’m at the point in my PhD, where I’m in limbo, and I can’t do anything. I’m waiting for approval. So to feel like I have value and because I’m too anxious to work. Because these are my so fun time changes to work. My I just need to be on your music notes, work family. So if I start doing work on the days, and times are set aside for schoolwork, it jacks up my workflow because it creates unrealistic expectations of the people I give deliverables to. And so I know that for the next week or so, I’m going to be completely focused on my own presentation. I randomly practice it and I randomly work on it, but I have days set aside for it and I’m guarding that very jealously. And then my backlog of reading is gotten really, really long. A book that was supposed to read last month, and I started short stories coming in for easy. So my schedule is hurried, but not. And so I don’t actually have any time. For hobbies, I’m actually too busy for hobbies. So when my friends contact me and such, it’s like, how many of you actually have an activity based friendship? Roster has activity based friendships? I think you’re so weird. Yep. Because I have compatibility based friendships. Like, are you some timing are unavailable? Are you gonna pop up out of the blue and not care if I’m not available? Are you going to know some random interesting thing that happens once every five years and contact me three months in advance? So I can clear my schedule to go with you. Then you’re like, perfect friend material for me.

C 

Okay, if so give Christopher a call, but do not expect anybody to pick up. Yeah, I mean, send an email afterward.

K 

Yeah. Have you managed to get my line or my email? Like, you’ve got my line? Right on, you must be really special. If you have my line. If I’ve accepted you online, you’re super special. If you’re in music now, please do not try to get him to accept you online. And so lines a texting

C 

app that was made for emergency situations.

K 

Yeah. So I have only two people on my line. I used to have a lot more killed that line. Yeah, too active. And so now I have a different line. So I have a line that looks like me, it says my name. And it has a picture of flowers on it. And if you connect to that, you won’t be able to get in touch with me because I made the mistake of just accepting everyone who was asking to be online with me. Yeah, it was a lot of my clients.

C 

Yeah. I think you had a link to your phone number. So they could just type in your phone number. And they’d be like, do you want to have it? At the moment in appropriate relationship with your therapist? They’re like, Yes, please.

K 

And they were just like me, like them the saddest, most like rescue stuff. And like, call me at like, 3am. I still get phone calls at 3am. On all, every device they know how to reach.

C 

Yeah, there was a thing that went around Twitter a couple of weeks ago about somebody saying that the therapist, their new therapist had said they had trauma dumped on them. And I feel like is true that your therapist should not tell you, Whoa, that’s a trauma dumping. If it’s happening in session, but when it happens out of session, like that line was, I think you had it for a couple of weeks, but I would hear it going off at 2am. Three in the morning all the time.

K 

Yeah, I was turned off. I don’t think your therapist ever say someone’s calmed down.

C 

No, they shouldn’t. They should set better boundaries. I’m saying like there’s a difference between what happens in session which the therapist should be a professional and just handle it.

K 

Well and incessant, I can’t handle people coming to me for other people’s karma. Yeah, like if you know, something happened to someone and a traumatized you. I can do that maybe one or two sessions. But if that’s like the whole root of your issues, and I struggle, and you know, not every therapist is good at everything. I’m not good with addiction. Addiction is not my thing. With addiction at all. I have

C 

people who technically work for me who are way better at things like keeping track of schedules than I am, like how you do that. That is amazing. I have a picture of the overall direction in my head, but you’re like on it. You have your own checklist. you’re completing things. Thank you. But how do you do that?

K 

So would you prefer that someone asked you what’s your hobby? Or what do you like to do?

C 

I’d prefer they asked me neither. Because I feel like both of them are pretty presumptuous questions. And I know that I am not unique in that, but I know that’s a minority viewpoint. I would rather that they asked me. What’s something that you want me to know about? You?

K 

What?

C 

Tell me something you’d like me to know about you.

K 

Tell me something they’d like me to know.

C 

Exactly.

K 

What would you like me to know about you? But you know everything about me? Now that’s the question you want them to ask? What would you like them to know about you? You would freeze like a deer in headlights of somebody Just randomly in conversation. What would you like me to know about you?

C 

Yeah, but I would feel like Hey, I should have had an answer for that. Not like, How dare you ask me?

K 

You like, how dare they ask you such an intimate, personal private question.

C 

Okay.

K 

I’m asking what your intimate thoughts are. I’m

C 

trying to be a little bit normal here. A little bit neurotypical

K 

anyway to know what your wants are.

C 

I don’t know.

K 

Like, what are you saying you prefer? Do you prefer that someone asked you really deep?

C 

No, I prefer they asked me question I prefer they asked me nothing. Okay. And this is how you and I became friends on you know, this, I’m that I didn’t ask you anything. And you didn’t ask me anything. And after we’d been friends for like three months, he asked me, Are you ever going to ask me anything about myself? So it’ll come out eventually.

K 

My whole thing is what you need to know about will become relevant. Yes, you will find out when it’s relevant. And so y’all know the specific things chaton asked me nothing about my hair, nothing about my heritage, nothing about where my family came from. And we were

C 

talking about where your family really came from.

K 

Yeah. And we would just sit around and we would just talk. Yes. So it’s so weird how we became friends. We just sat around and talked.

C 

My hobby is talking.

K 

I think it is, I think our hobby is talking. Yeah, I think both of us like to just sit around and talk because we just sit around talk for hours at home, we do. No devices on nothing. And sometimes we’ll have devices on and we’ll be doing other things I’m talking about. We spent a lot of time, like giving your face.

C 

And I feel like we have a lot of phase hobbies. Like the latest phase we’ve been through is not having any time for hobbies. But before that it was jigsaw puzzles.

K 

We have a jigsaw puzzle that is halfway done on and we have put stuff on top of the pieces. That’s I’m saying like right now then on the table for I think, I think two years,

C 

I think two years because I think it was it was like when I got my new job. Which was two years ago. Yeah.

K 

Nice bring two months.

C 

Hey, okay. Yeah, cuz I talked about it. It works.

K 

Yeah. 18 months? Yeah. You didn’t work on it at all. I worked on it a little bit. Right. But it’s a third maybe a fourth? Yeah, I think maybe like a fifth way down.

C 

Yes. The Tote. It’s a jigsaw puzzle, the Tokyo skyline. So there’s like a third of the puzzle is all the same color. Because the sky like why did we pick this one involved?

K 

Yeah. They think if we picked a different one that would have stayed puzzling. I think we had the time. Yeah, I don’t think since we changed our beds. I think since me having I think having the surgery really threw us. Yeah, for loop. I agree. And now that I have my idle lap table, has my bed set up like a hospital bed. So for me that’s ideal. Yes. So now my hobby is working from bed and my my hobby is wearing pajamas. Yes, not wearing clothes. I am wearing up to put clothes on and like a few days. That’s gonna be a rough weekend for me. Because I’m getting a lot of go to work done and then during my presentation, and then we stopped record. Yeah, y’all. My mouth is gonna be jacked up next week.

C 

Ain’t that the truth?

K 

No, no. Okay. No, it’s not the T. Okay. At all. I hear you. Just hard shut down.

C 

I hear what you’re saying.

K 

So if I invited you to game a badminton? Would you play badminton with me? Do you have a shuttlecock? I know where to get.

C 

I maybe I was thinking about this the other day not about badminton. But like, Can I play anything anymore? And I think I would play low energy badminton with you. I would play badminton when those two national teams were both trying to lose because that was what was best for them overall. And they got scolded by the referee for trying to lose, but they couldn’t like just let it fall because it’d be obvious so they were playing super slowly.

K 

When did that happen? I was like,

C 

four or five years ago, is a big scandal. It was a big scandal here in Japan because like Japan and Korea is Yeah, yeah.

K 

And they both need to lose, right. So it was one of the slowest and like the referee kirsta Mountain stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Would you play ping pong?

C 

See, that’s the specific one I’ve been considering. Because at some point, I know that I’m going to end up going to Australia to go to my company’s main office. And Ping Pong is

K 

suck at ping pong. Do not let them talk. You know, playing ping pong, you’re sore loser. You don’t like being read. And they have. They have a culture of banter at your company. I

C 

took ping pong for two quarters in high school. And that was only 30 years ago. So,

K 

so now,

C 

I think I will put on my glasses. I’ll get my cane. I play ping pong and I’ll be like, do you feel good? Do you feel good beating me?

K 

Yes. Tell me you don’t play any games before you go. Yeah. You could play backgammon with them. But don’t play cribbage with them. Because if they if they beat you at any game, you are not a good you are a sore loser.

C 

I am. Yeah, you get pissed on me because people are so mean. They’re taunting me. You lost. You lost your loser.

K 

No, no, no, no, no, no. The reality that you don’t like to lose anything. Like as soon as doctor got good at good enough at chess to beat you consistently. You wouldn’t coach him anymore.

C 

I felt like my job here is done.

K 

I would have to coach him and I’m worse at chess than you are. Yeah, I would have I would just I wouldn’t be looking at the book of the coaching bog standard. Yeah, doing the standard moves for him to counter and when the pieces move. So I know like, okay, he’s not cheating on this. Right. And I know what they would say that half like flip to the page. Hold on. What’s the name of the movie? Just dead?

C 

Okay. He’s not cheating on this. Yes. He’s our son. Not your dad.

K 

Yeah, my daughter just trying to. And then after we just she and he was just like cheaters chess. Okay.

C 

And then I went met your grandpa. And he cheated. Like, yeah, we I think my family probably cheats too. And I look around and yes, they do.

K 

We don’t cheat. No. I cheat. Everybody knows I had to get why can’t be lost at anything. Oh, yeah. Were you t to lose? Yeah. And I just can’t. I can’t beat him anything. He thinks it’s hilarious. He won’t play anything with me because it’s not fun. Because he knows. So just do every now and then to see. Can you beat me? Can you do? And he’s like, Mom, can I just stop and can just please mom just count. I’m like, Huh? But card though I can be my cards. One card game that I love to play. I can be everybody at Kings corner. That’s the only game that I want. Let some I won’t just let someone win. Yeah, I think it’s so highly chance. I think it’s like playing solitaire with someone else.

C 

Yeah, it is. I know the game you’re talking about. Next. I

K 

taught it to you. You did. So I think my hobby would be playing card games and board games. If you were not such a poor sport. Yeah. Because we own a lot of card games and board games, everyone tomorrow, you and I will do a game day. Yes. And we have to rotate through the games so that you haven’t lost anything.

C 

Right? Like there’s a few games that I don’t mind losing. Like, sometimes, like Yachty I don’t want to play a whole bunch and just get beaten over and over.

K 

Like yatse A few in the first one. Yeah. Let me have her attention around. Exactly. That’s why I’m saying if I get yatse then we will not be playing another game. Like if anyone gets yatse in the game. We will not be playing another game of Yahtzee, no, unless you get yakkety as well, right? And then you’re suspicious. And you start you start examining the dice. And I’m like,

C 

I was just thinking are these dice loaded?

K 

The same guys, you’ve had the same data game,

C 

but you could have melted down and loaded them or stayed dumber for like,

K 

oh my god, like 20 years ago, the same Yahtzee game?

C 

Yeah, we took it on our first anniversary trip. So

K 

we have a NASCAR game box. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Game Box has two decks of cars. cribbage backgammon? chess and checkers. Yeah.

C 

Tiny. Yeah.

K 

Buy that one game. Yeah. And I I bought it for you as a I think either Christmas or anniversary gift. One of those. I’m not sure. Yeah. I mean, took it and then also, you like to do metal puzzles. But yeah, I do. But put strain on right. puzzled and you can’t do

C 

so take them apart puzzles like the two line carts. I like those as long as they don’t have a string on it. So I

K 

think one of our hobbies is we’d like to go to toy stores or we used to Yeah, like to go to like gaming and toy stores and find games and stuff. But I just feel like we’ve kind of aged out of a lot of our hobbies. And then to the remnants of the hobbies because like the puzzles. We have a ton of puzzles here. You only like to do them once did not know that about you.

C 

I didn’t know that about me either. And then

K 

we weren’t gonna frame them and put them up. We’re gonna buy like really beautiful puzzles.

C 

We have a few of them framed Actually, yes. Beautiful puzzles

K 

that we put together. Then we glued them. Yep. After we put them together and framed them. Yes. And we bought puzzle frames. And we’re gonna hang them up. And they’re really pretty. They’re really funny cuz they

C 

sell puzzle frames where they sold puzzles that fit them. Exactly. So they’re not like custom wood framing, you know, hundreds of dollars. They’re

K 

specifically Yeah. Puzzle friends. And so it’s a big it’s like a big hobby in Japan to do puzzles, friend them. And then I guess cover your house in them? Yeah, I think so. I’m just like, where are we gonna hang these? And we do have space? Like, we have a? What’s the call of balance? Is that it’s called over our windows? Yeah, that is what it’s called? Can we have balance outside? We can cover in there, like 10 of the puzzles of the size we do. We cover the entire balance. And then you’re like, we could do the whole wall and like, or not?

C 

Okay, and then everyone, so I think no, that’s right, because we should frame our diplomas and put them up. I’m not we haven’t done that.

K 

Yeah, so just know. And we tried to give them away for free and someone said they wanted them but then they never can pick them up.

C 

No, that’s not true. That’s what you’re because you’re actually looking at Brian Tao. That’s only half of them because the other half went to your other office. Yeah, and we gave a lot of those

K 

away. The owner the building took, okay, but the person that we took the other half over for they never took

C 

them up. That’s puzzling.

K 

Yeah. So our poll puzzles or hobbies, or whatever we want to do.

C 

Yeah, cuz we did knitting for a while. And then we’re like this, right?

K 

Neither one of us learned how to knit No, no. And I have a bunch of crochet stuff. But like I said, as soon as Ross is not getting married, since I can appreciate things for Rosta. But why? Well, they’re like crochet anything for him. And this is the reason why I said, Hey, babe, do you want me to talk to Ross? Hey, enjoy your crochet scarf. And like to me shrugged and said, why? Oh, like, okay, because I know how to do it.

C 

So your neck won’t be cold. Like I have other scarves. And

K 

like, but I guess if I got into crocheting gloves, he would appreciate that. He goes through gloves really quickly. Yeah, every year he has to get new dreadlocks money on high pressure gloves. Yeah. And

C 

you need to learn how to crochet little wires in it so that he could use his phone when his gloves are on.

K 

Those you just got to stick on thing. Do you know, okay, you can stitch those onto the fingers. They sold them at the crochet store. You didn’t go with this. So you can buy it and you have to stitch it on. Okay. But it’s still let static electricity

C 

through capacitive touch screens.

K 

Yeah. Or you could just make flip taps.

C 

Yet. Some the top

K 

flip for the ferret goes flips off.

C 

It’s not so bad. Now I’ve learned how to how to limit it. But when I first got a smartphone, an iPad, that’s forever burning my fingertips on them. Yeah. And you never were and I was like, it doesn’t burn your fingertips. It’s not like incredibly painful. And look, here’s blisters.

K 

You are playing games on your iPad. You have constant contact with the iPod.

C 

Yeah. Like Fruit Ninja and such. Yes.

K 

I don’t play any games on my iPad. And I have a flip phone. Yes. And they keep calling me harassing me trying to get me to switch to a smartphone. It’s gotten to the point now where they’ve told me that they’re gonna cut off my phone service,

C 

just because they’re not gonna be broadcasting that right type of cell signal anymore. It’s not about making you buy a new phone.

K 

It’s my phone. So when that happens, I will not have a phone.

C 

Yeah, that’s my understanding is always with you. I’m always

K 

either with you or asta. And y’all have a phone I feel like prams everywhere, like was sweating prints like why didn’t prints on the phone? Like, do you have a phone number like this? I have a phone and then I feel just like them. Why do I need one?

C 

With my let me use it if I needed to. Everyone around

K 

me has a phone. Why do I need a phone? Yes. It doesn’t make any sense. Because I’m with a person I would want to call or I can call the person using that person’s phone.

C 

Yeah, when we travel you’re like, hey, I don’t know what my phone is. But did you pack the pack the pocket with you pack it up? Show it to me. Yeah. Cuz that’s different.

K 

Yeah, I want Wi Fi. And I use my iPad to talk to everyone.

C 

Yes, you do.

K 

I use line. I only talk to you and roster. And we’re still on lockdown. So we’re always in the house together. So like, I might have to raise my voice at you. I will do the commute to your office. I’ll walk down the hallway, and make sure you’re not in a meeting.

C 

And sometimes I am and I see you and I’m like, dang, I’m in a meeting. Thank just this morning. It was like 7am. I saw you peeking into the door.

K 

I could tell by your violating would you like you had woke up this morning? To talk to me. Early warning me you started something now because daylight savings time? No, I do not. Know I do not. I remember all of that when I saw that on the back of your neck. And that’s how well I know. I can look at the back of your neck and know what you’re on about. So when you found out that dominant, and I’m looking at my list, I have a list of surprising hobbies. So I was surprised that this surprised me because it’s not something that I think is done well in Japan. Okay. That they have beard contest. Like, yeah, having a beard. Yes. And I think if people have everybody across the world, every nationality, every race, every creed, every ethnicity has a group within them that cannot grow good facial hair. And so in Japan, they have like, the scraggly beard. They have like the same in the US. All right. And like any Yes, they have natural long beard and I’m like, what an unnatural long beard like a beard extension.

C 

Yeah. Or, like it’s considered cheating if you hang little tiny weights off of each of the beard hair so that they’ll be pulled slightly to grow faster

C 

did i Okay, cuz I have a very clear image of it, but I have no idea where it came from.

C 

Okay, yeah, now.

K 

Yes, we watched a movie called swingers. larious it’s hilarious to me.

C 

That someone like Jason Schwartzman, right. heard how can these guy

K 

know what it was like real swingers? Okay? Like just everyday people. Okay. It was hilarious. So something that I think is really cool is the Japanese archery competitions. The boasts what looks like straight up in the air. But it’s not to hit a target. And you like competitive country? Yeah. It is backed by the ones just meet him. Okay, back

C 

when I was in junior high.

K 

80s

C 

Okay. When I was 10 years old, because yes, that’s when I was in junior high. I was a competitive shooter. You’re a competitive rifle shooter. So I would go to the rifle range with my team and we would shoot targets and take scores.

K 

And were you any good? Yeah, I

C 

was good. I wasn’t the best. I was you. I would usually get like second or third place.

K 

Did you enjoy it? Yeah, I

C 

enjoyed it.

K 

So how did you get the rifle squad eyebrow?

C 

Okay, so our rifle Club, which was a competitive thing, we shot 22 caliber rifles, which is very small, is a very weak caliber, like, you can still kill somebody with it. But most people who got shot with a 22 did not die. Okay. And so I was used to using an open scope but the 22 and you fire it and the recoil is like somebody bumping in the grocery store. I went out with a guy I knew who was super into guns and hunting. He’s since become like a really well known wildlife photographer. And has a whole thing about shoot picture, shoot animals with cameras, not guns. Okay. But anyway, and we were out at the gun range, because public gun ranges are a thing in Alaska. I don’t know how many other places they are. And he had a 36 which is a high powered rifle. And so he was like Hey, yeah, there’s this thing 300 yards away, I’ve got a scope on it, go ahead and see if you can hit it. And so I put it up to my shoulder. And I aimed and just as he was saying, y’all want to brace because it got quite a kick, like fired. The gun kicked and slice my eye open with the scope because the scope just like ran backward and left a double cut on my eye. When I got this car.

K 

I think it’s really sexy. It’s from my sniping days. Yeah, like the fact that your scars and your brokenness for why it bothered me that I thought.

C 

Okay, and yes, yes, I hit the target.

K 

I think the more important part of the story is you have a sexy scar. Okay. That’s the important part is that you’re sexy. Okay.

C 

I’m a man of mystery

K 

and entry, there’s anything that they do in Japan that you think is weird. So here’s something I think is weird. If I think it’s weird that there’s specialty restaurants that the only dish that they serve are not though omelets.

C 

I think that a lot of specialty restaurants that serve different things and you stand out by doing something perfectly but

K 

not the omelets are just like no fermented soya beans and and half cooked a as folders to that kind of looks like an ice cream. Yeah, the nocturne looks like an ice cream on top of a cone. And it’s really like it’s beautiful to look at. But no,

C 

yeah, I’m not a big fan of on rice, which isn’t omelet combined with rice. Because they usually have like ketchup and just you know,

K 

if you can if you have a chance go on YouTube, and check out on what I see. Or Japanese omelette rice. Yeah. I mean, OH EM you are i Su might get you it. And get it’s where you’re watching them make it from scratch. It is so elegant when they pour it over and they slice it and just falls apart perfectly. Really pretty to look at Yeah, but I don’t want to eat it. It’s really just barely cooked. It is.

C 

But I’ve gone other places like I went to one restaurant that specialized in soba noodles. That was the only thing they served with soba noodle stuff.

K 

Yeah, that’s pretty common. Yeah, just like a ramen shop or silver shop.

C 

Yeah, this is when I was in school and our little seminar group had the whole restaurant because the whole show only had 10 seats.

K 

So I think we’ll talk about all private thing your offseason cooking. Okay. Craving, I’m craving I think I’m craving the smell of feed more than the taste of food. Because I don’t really enjoy a lot of holiday foods. We talk I think we should do like our top favorite holiday foods and our least favorite holiday foods. Oh, yeah. I’ve never done that. Like, I don’t think so. Yeah, we’re both countries. I should write that down. I’m gonna write that down. Okay.

C 

So the hobbies that I think are not weird so much is when you said well, you know, tie dye is really expensive because $35 a thing. Yeah, I know people have hobbies that just seem to be their hobby because they’re expensive. Like, I don’t ask them this, but other people are like, what’s your hobby? Oh, my hobby is motorcycling. Oh, cool. So you go places and rent a motorcycle? No, I have a shipping crate for my motorcycle. And I have it shipped to different islands around the world. And when I fly there and ride my motorcycle around the island.

K 

Yeah, like,

C 

yeah, I don’t think that qualifies as a hobby anymore. But

K 

there is a bicycle. It’s really, really, really popular here. The thing that trips me out is to bicycle all the way across Honshu and Hokkaido because there’s a bridge that you can cyclocross, right and like be on your bicycle riding your bike in the United States as well for like days and weeks at a time who wants to do that?

C 

I know quite a few people there are quite a few people at work like to bicycle I know one guy had been a bicycle for a while because of restrictions. I said, Oh, you know when you get back out? Are you going to take it easy and like are you just going to go for straight 50 miles? Is like 50 Miles is easy. I usually write 300 miles in a day. I less now 300 kilometers, which is still still too long.

K 

peloton I wouldn’t mind having a peloton physique. No, like you could buy me a peloton it would just be an expensive basketball Rock. Oh my box equipment and all that stuff. Yeah. So that was our groundwater no water today

C 

hobbies, okay, and we pretty much stayed on topic.

K 

Okay. Yeah, that’s what we’re talking about today. See, I don’t even know that the tape to is going to be our least favorite aspect of the production process for the press. Okay, so like our least favorite part, each of us for you as an author and for me as a chief of the business, and we appreciate all of our new patrons. Thank you for joining. We appreciate everyone who listens and thank you for keeping us in the top 10 on player FM Wow. That is so awesome. makes us feel so good. We love each and every music now. I will talk to you next week. Bye bye