K 

So lately, I’ve been thinking about things that surprised me about Japan and the United States. And I think most of them are like old traditions and either country, but just like, with the advancements of technology and everything, the world has changed a lot in the last 15 years.

C 

So they’re not things like whoa, people speak Japanese in Japan.

K 

Now, he talked about that before in the podcast, the first time I came to Japan, I was surprised by the homogeneity, I was surprised by like, there’s so many Japanese people in Japan, like it’s primarily Japanese people.

C 

I think it’s like 98.5%, you know, ethnic Japanese.

K 

But yeah, and so that doesn’t surprise me anymore. But coming from the United States, were in California, it was like he could see the entire globe basically, in the course of a day. And then coming to Japan, like that used to be surprising. It’s not surprising. Now,

C 

when I was in school, I noticed that too, there were 300 people in graduate school that I went to, and add them to were foreign.

K 

Yeah. And they make you take your picture together. Yeah. They’re like, here’s our definers. Take a picture together, because your foreign

C 

and I noticed that a lot at academic conferences, too. I got used to going to math conferences here in Japan. And it would be like, men, men, men, men, men, men, men, men, men, maybe one woman and higher foreign proportion than at McGill University, but still mostly Japanese people, or Japanese and Korean if we were having a joint conference, and then I went to the AMS conference in the US. It was like 40% women there is like, Yeah, I had forgotten just how unbalanced academia is here in Japan. So that surprised me to see the contrast because I just kind of gradually gotten used to it, because there’s not a lot of split that I see among foreigners. Yeah. In terms of gender split.

K 

What do you mean, there’s not a lot of I think there. Are you saying like, there’s as many foreign women in Japan, as there are foreign men? Yeah,

C 

I think roughly. Okay.

K 

I think so too. I think so too. I would agree with that. For me, that’s not something that’s shocking. I look at me bringing it back around.

C 

Well, I was mentioning

K 

something that I find surprising our generational differences. And something that I find surprising is that the generational difference expresses itself differently in the United States than it does in Japan. And for me, because I was so I’m of the age that when I was in high school, they were still using pay phones and pagers were like, the new and exciting thing like pagers were the latest iPhone. And

C 

I was five years behind you in school. And that was still the case when I was in school.

K 

Yeah. And then, and easing, you weren’t old enough for this. By the time you were in high school, you could use a public phone for 25 cents for a quarter. And when I was in school, one of the hot songs was here’s my number and a dime. Call me any time because you could use a payphone with 10 cents a phone, local phone call was a dime, 10 cents. Okay, the equivalent of roughly 10 yen. So, when I moved to Japan, we moved to Japan, public phones were still a big deal. So much so that there’s a whole chapter in the Japanese background starting Japanese where it talks about how to use a payphone in Japan. And then you can still see them around. We can

C 

see one from our window. Yeah. And I’ve used that before. I forget why. But I needed to use that I think our phone went out. And I need to call the phone company and find out where our phone went out. Yeah. And it was like $9 or something. Wow. Oh, no, that’s why I was calling international because we hadn’t set up international calling yet. Okay. And it was like $9 to make the connection than $1 a minute.

K 

So that is like a huge difference having to set up international calling. Yes. Versus now on cellphones. You can just call internationally. Yes. You don’t have to do anything special to set it up. It’s still as expensive. So we don’t recommend that you do it. I think for me a big change is having international Skype. Yes. And what I find strange about that, in particular, is that the US has really I feel like the US has really embraced zoom. And I think the prior to everything all the madness of 20 20 and 2021 that people weren’t really into Skype or zoom. I feel like people are more into Skype. I feel like zoom hotton. Really? Yeah, come up yet. So now I’m surprised at how many because WhatsApp was, yeah was the thing that everybody wanted to connect with me on. I don’t have a cell phone, so I can’t connect by whatsapp.

C 

But I put it on my phone, which had like, seven gigabytes of free memory. And a day later my phone was like I’m full. Yeah, what bag? I had to delete it.

K 

Yeah, so everyone in my family uses WhatsApp. Yeah. And we’re in Japan. So we use line. Yes. And I’m surprised to see the inroads that line is making in the United States. That’s really surprising to me. Because it’s sort of like Skype and zoom, where like Skype had decades to like, catch up to zoom. And then zoom just blew them out of the water. And I think the difference between a Skype call and a zoom call, I really do think it’s the putting a highlight around the box of somebody who’s talking.

C 

Yeah, it could be little things like that. It can be institutional adoption, because Skype is free for consumers. But since Microsoft bought it, it’s like $20 a month per person to use Skype at work.

K 

Yeah. And when people would try and use business, Skype with me. I told them, I’m not on your network. I can’t use it.

C 

Yeah, it was for a while. I remember it being a huge pain for me, for you for like everybody who didn’t have business Skype. Yeah. And I think that made zoom more popular. Even though zoom bombing is a problem that doesn’t happen in any of the other systems. Let’s zoom bombing, Zoom bombing is where you’re having a meeting and just a random person comes in. And usually they start like shouting profanities and spamming people in such.

K 

Okay. Glad that never happened to me. Yes. That’s weird. No, I think a lot of things that surprised me are technology based. And the way that technology is used, I think is like, completely different. Culturally. And when I look, when I look at it, it’s culturally different for our generation. But culturally about the same for rosters generation Yeah,

C 

the young people here in Japan are like, Why do we still use fax machines?

K 

Yeah. So the fax is going by the wayside. In Japan? I think eventually.

C 

Yeah. But part of the reason that it’s not is because if you want to do paperless business, there are legal requirements. Yes, sir. That are super tough to meet. Like you have to have everything timestamp, which means like every email that you send, if you want it to be legal, cost you a quarter. Yeah. And so it’s incredibly expensive to go no paper right now. Even though the Japanese government is like, be responsible. Their idea of responsibility is printing everything out.

K 

So something else that surprises me about Japan, or the American companies that flop or succeed. And the American companies that don’t even try? I am wanting like Jack in the Box, get it together. I know you’re like a California thing. I don’t even think you’re like nationwide. But come to Japan, the Japanese with I think the Japanese would love Jack in the Box. I think they would like go on YouTube and watch. Japanese McDonald’s versus American McDonald’s. And I’m telling you, Jack in the Box, go on YouTube. Like whoever makes the decision. You’re

C 

saying like bring the teriyaki Jack.

K 

Right, bring it here. Japan would eat it, eat it up. Make those bad cheap April’s Japan would eat it up those chicken fingers. love everything about it. They would love especially those curly fries. Come on. Now. You have no competition for curly fries. Not real curly fries.

C 

Well, we have one restaurant here that does only French fries. There’s

K 

several chains that do only French fries. Yeah. It’s like one major chain that’s like probably as big as McDonald’s

C 

on the food delivery service that we use. There’s one that the only thing they do is french fries, french fries

K 

and shake. So this is something I find weird about Japan is Japan’s love of shake. Yeah, that’s so weird to me. I don’t get it. So shake is a powder that you put in your food and shake it and then it’s that flavor. Right? And I don’t know why that is so strange to me. Because for years in the United States whenever I would get McDonald’s I will put McDonald’s salt on the fries and it has to be McDonald’s salt, which is not the same salt in Japan they change the rest it’s not as sweet in Japan the sugar but and I would shake it but I just can’t get with the shake. Have you ever done it?

C 

Absolutely.

K 

Do you like shake? Yeah, I do. What’s your favorite flavor, because like, what are the shake flavors?

C 

But it depends on where you’re going. So I don’t know what they are at McDonald’s right now, because they don’t really do that for McDonald’s. And I haven’t, it’s been a while.

K 

Well, and like they do shake chicken, not just at McDonald’s, right? There’s a whole restaurant chain that does specialize and just shake chicken. And the French Fireplace specializes in just shake fries. Yes, it’s their shake makes that makes them so popular, fast food restaurant and they just do fries shake. Right,

C 

great. COVID I used to go to the convenience store nearly every day and get breakfast or lunch, which you’re aware of. And they had shake chicken at Family Mart family Chicky had the shake powder. I’m there. I like the chili powder. You know, I’m always a fan of anything spicy. Yeah, but they also had like salad powder. Yeah, that’s they seem to be like, basil and oregano and salt. Uh huh. Because that salad flavor.

K 

Yes, that is salad flavor in Japan. And if you get salad chips, it will taste dead on like basil, and parsley and salt. Yeah. Is it based on parsley? Right?

C 

I think it’s basil and oregano and salt. Yeah, I got a healthy dose of parsley just for bulk.

K 

And I found that out because I like the plain one of those round wafers. I eat I can’t. I’m having brain fog to me. Yeah, I love Sam Bay. And Sam Bay is around cracker like just melts in your mouth. It’s such a it’s so good. It’s really not No, I love survey. But one time I accidentally bought solid flavors. Sunbae. And it was it tasted green. Yeah, it just it tasted like a solid. And it was not good for me. I didn’t enjoy it. But I love like regular flavors. So me. So good. So so good. So I don’t get the culture of shake. And that it surprises me that I don’t know, in the US if shakers is popular or not. But it’s weird to me that it’s not like the things that are popular. Like read, like what’s popular in Japan versus what’s popular in the United States? is strange to me. Yeah. And I don’t understand. So I understand that your palate develops locally based on on actually, like, family wise, I think that when you’re young, your base palate is created by what you’re exposed to at home. But I see in our son that your palette completely evolves. And this is something you didn’t trust moments talked about before, is that Ross is a totally picky, totally picky eater as a kid, but now it’s a wide array of foods. And it’s all very Japanese taste base. He doesn’t enjoy American style food anymore. Except for the corndog. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Corn dogs are global. And that surprises me.

C 

Well, and here they’re called American dogs. Yes, please.

K 

So I know corn guys are hella good. But why are corn dogs popular here? I don’t understand what makes a food. That’s something that shocks me. Like, I could not predict what will be popular except for Jack in the Box. I’m 100% certain about that. Nagoya first.

C 

I’m not sure. Because every once in a while I’ll go and I’ll order corndogs for you or for me or for both of us. And it’s seven lemon. They’re just called corn. They’re just called American dogs. Yeah, but a family mark. They’re called big American dogs. I feel like

K 

my mind’s are bigger, though. Yeah, they are. They have way more corn on them.

C 

And I feel like every time I buy one, they look at me and they think yep, living up to its name.

K 

So I was surprised that TGI Fridays is here in Japan is nothing like the TGI Fridays in the United

C 

States and Denny’s where the name has been franchised and licensed, but it’s not the same. So Denny’s does not really serve breakfast food here.

K 

No, it does not if you go at three, because, and I think it’s because Japan has so many. Sorry, so many specialty breakfast food, right? The Japanese pancake is a thing. Yes. Small and as crispier and I’m not into them, but I’m not really into American pancakes either. But there’s small and crispier. And they have a specific they’re almost uniform in the rise.

C 

Yeah. Well, now there’s some places that are different, like Kameda coffee, which is popular here in Nagoya has bigger hotcakes. Yeah, um, they’re way better than Denny’s pancakes everywhere. So I think if Danny’s went up against them head to head. Like they’ve missed out. Yeah. But when when we first arrived, they had more more toward the American side on foods. More pancakes and things

K 

had taken in a little intermission. But we’re back. So we were talking about pancakes but an intermission something popped into my head that I find really shocking. His I find Westerners obsession with Japanese toilets to be odd. Like I don’t get why every day is so shocking because like a good third of the world has been a toilets. And so when they’re like, oh, Japanese toilets have so many buttons and such and I know we talked about it before. But I now that I’m used to it as the standard, like if I walk into the bathroom, I’m like, and I don’t use the BA. But I’ll be like, nobody. Like, are we not civilized? What is going on here? As I really like this seat warmer in the winter, so there’s a seat one, I wish there was a seat chiller, that would be nice to sit on. So Chad doesn’t like this. I would love to sit on an ice cold toilet seat in the summer.

C 

I would just love it if there was something that could be like be chill with very low electrical power and small enough that you could like wear it during the summer. Because we looked at chilling suits because it gets so hot and I respond so poorly to heat. And chilling suits are like expensive and take a lot of power and like expensive to run and and heavy, heavy, bulky, like you are making a commitment to keep it on because otherwise you’ll overheat.

K 

Yes. So for me, I like when people say what’s the most surprising thing about Japan? Everyone always says the toilets. And I feel like if you’re going to talk about a surprising Japan toilet don’t talk about the high tech ones. Talk about the juxtaposition of the bidet toilet, which is like the Rolls Royce Lexus of toilets, where you can heat you can have different BDA settings to hit different parts of your body. You can have changed the strength of the water, the timing of the water like you can

C 

set up you can tell it to run your bath.

K 

Yeah, you can pimp your toilet seat and you can pimp your bathtub. Yeah, cuz we’re,

C 

we have a button in our kitchen that we can push and run a bath for us.

K 

Yeah, that talk about that. And then the other side of it. Where it’s a squat toilet. Yeah. And it’s literally just a porcelain lined ditch that you squat over to do your business in the men’s and the women’s. Yes. So there are places that have only squat toilets. And even like the really nice high end places will have one squat toilet. And for me, it gets trippier there’ll be signs in the bathroom instructing. Not to squat. On the regular toilet. Yeah,

C 

don’t put your feet on the rims of the regular toilet. Yes.

K 

Because there are elderly people in Japan that have that come from the countryside that have never seen a western toilet. They’ve only ever used squat toilets. Yeah. And I met someone that had only ever used a squat toilet and they were like, it’s really disgusting. The other toilets are just disgusting to them. Like why would you want to sit where someone else’s like they made like a really good argument for it. Why would you want to sit with someone else set? And what if and the splash from like, because the BA can sometimes cause flashing? There’s like a whole thing. I’m not gonna get into it. Thank you. Yeah. Chatter like we get into I was so good into it. If my chat wasn’t so like, yell.

C 

I like to be funny, and I don’t really have any toilet humor.

K 

You don’t you really don’t. That’s another thing that’s surprising is the difference in what’s humorous. Yeah, I’m funny in Japanese. Oh, my gosh, that was just so desperate. And please take my site on the funny issues. You

C 

see how I’m looking at you in a pleading manner. That’s what makes the desperate of the audience I’m funny in Japanese. Now in Japan, like rhyming isn’t considered clever.

K 

It’s not considered clever in the United States either.

C 

But it’s not even considered wordplay because everything rhymes.

K 

Yeah, it does. So like even in the children’s books, there’s no rhyming, right? But there’s no rhyming poetry. Yeah. Everything ends in Deus. Or call.

C 

Everything ends in either one of the five vowels. Yeah. Or, or the sound? Yeah. Yeah. So that’s why, like, there’s so many Japanese homophones. Yeah. Which we talked about before. But what surprised me is about the sense of humor is just the utter lack of understanding of sarcasm.

K 

Yeah, that’s interesting to me. There is no sarcasm intervene, like people just generally aren’t sarcastic.

C 

Yeah, which animated enemy Light to me. I feel like anime had people occasionally being sarcastic. And I think was that a good translation?

K 

Yes, I don’t think that I wish that anime lovers who are going to say that anime is Japanese culture, I feel like they don’t understand the distance between the original anime and the translation of the anime. And that’s surprising to me. The fact that people do not understand that Japanese does not translate verbatim, just really shocking to me. And that surprises me about America, because I think at least the Americans I know, know that America is unique. And America has there is like, I don’t like when people say America doesn’t have any culture. I feel like, that’s just not right. And they’re completely wrong. And there are regional differences. It’s like there are regional differences in every country. Yeah. So for me, I understand that America is unique. And I love a lot about American culture. I love our openness to try new things, our adventurous nature, and all of those types of things. And it’s surprising to me that Americans don’t, a lot of America’s not every American, don’t give that to other countries. And don’t give that to other languages. And they presume that like every, every language is based on Latin, right? And Japanese is not a Latin based language. And so it doesn’t have that, that correlation. So you can’t do any direct translations, I feel but even when you do, like the Latin based languages, like Spanish does not translate one for one. And it really, like, cover on that word has several meanings, based on where you’re saying it, who you’re saying it to. And even like the way I just pronounced it as a regional pronunciation of it,

C 

even within English itself. I was talking to somebody and I said, I was quite happy. And they were like, oh, what’s wrong? Yeah, what do you mean? I’m quite happy? Like, right? You’re not happy? Why aren’t you happy? Cuz you put the quite there, right. And in the UK, that means the opposite of what it means in the US. Yeah. So I do feel like there’s a lot of variation in language that can be surprising. An anime is an intentional export from Japan. It is it’s like an intentional cultural export, they sit down and they say, how can we make other countries buy anime? Yeah, as something that we export just like the wagyu or the Kobe beef? Yeah, our intention exports, people eat them here in Japan. But far more of it is exported, then is eaten here in Japan.

K 

Yep, about Japanese culture. It really fucks me up. They want to be appropriated. Yeah. And so it messes me up when I see it. And I have to remind myself, this is an intention of the Japanese people and the Japanese nation. So the Japanese do a lot of cultural appropriations. Like the lowrider culture in Japan is really hard for me to not be offended by it. It’s so hard for me. But they have like they if they’re doing the cultural appropriation, they view it as appreciation, but the way that they do it as a costume, it’s appropriation, and the Japanese just do not understand that at all. And it blows my mind. And then,

C 

yeah, it’s like, is it a secret? No, it’s not a secret, then how could we steal it?

K 

Yeah, there you go. And if you if you’re not aware of like the Chicano cultural appropriation in Japan, you should watch videos on it is a Tourette. It is a trip because they get the Cholo vibe down. And they have like cruising parties and everything. And so I grew up being a Chola. And so for me, and I was like, Y’all know, if you listen to the podcast, y’all know, I used to be in a gang, I have my local dot and all of that my local dot tattoos still and all of that. So for me, it’s a trip, seeing them appropriate a culture that I was intimately involved in and a part of, even though I’m black, like they accepted me and such. And I was like, Okay, I know this culture, and I know what these things mean. And they even appropriated like the different gangs and such. And then they threw the mix in a little bit of like, because the only gangs they know are the Crips and Bloods, they don’t know any of the Latin Kings. So they mix the overlay, like Crips and Bloods over Chicano gang culture. And then there’s so for me, that is where it gets bumpy, like, Chicano culture is not gang based, right? And it’s specific for me Chicano culture that I grew up knowing is so different than the Chicano culture that I see them representing. And I have an appreciation of where Chicano gangs end and start, and Chicano culture ends and starts. And there is some overlap, just like where black culture ends and starts and where black gang culture ends and starts. Those aren’t the same things. But the Japanese don’t make that distinction. And they don’t see anything wrong with it. And even if you explain it to them, they can tell you exactly what scene and what movie that they’re doing, like poetic justice, for some of them is just the Janet Jackson movie. Yes, it’s just the rhyme. And they have their box braid wigs. And they have like, they can quote, the movie and everything. And so they take movies, and they take Pope popular culture, and they just embrace that, yeah, and lean into it. And they don’t speak anything but Japanese, except for these phrases that they’ve taken from movies. And so they have Spanish Phrases that they’ve taken in, they have phrases from black culture that they’ve taken. And it’s, it’s a trip to see the mashup is a trick. I’m like, okay, that’s not Chicano culture.

C 

And I feel like it’s very much age based, like poetic justice was what Janet Jackson and Tupac. Right. And I think that’s a particular age band of people who write.

K 

So super dated, it is like 90s, it’s very much 90s culture.

C 

Yeah, and I think people in their 80s here, which there’s a large number of people in their 80s, that 10 years ago, it was their 70s. I was sitting at the train station waiting. And this drunk Japanese guy comes up and start selling me. Like how much he hates Americans. How awful we were for dropping the bomb and everything, like, sitting down just like yelling this at me, like I’m his pal. And we should go out to drink. And I’m like, No, I’m just gonna get on my train as soon as it arrives. Yeah. But I found that, above about 80 now has a lot of culture about the war, even though they were born at the end of World War Two.

K 

Yeah, but there’s still repercussions. There’s still stand there still be the land where is still affected. And all of that,

C 

I think every, every generation, like every decade, and in Japan, they they do call them by decades, like the 50s. And 40s, like, by age has its own distinct kind of subculture. Yeah. And the youngest subculture is very international. A lot of them do not speak English, but they know how to use Google Translate well enough to participate in English stuff online. And they eventually learned English that way. Guys, my age and their 40s are very much like, you work for a non Japanese company. But you need to work for a company. Right? I do work for a company. Yeah, no, don’t really work for a company. I’m like I do.

K 

I find what I struggle with, I find it interesting how much the United States is evolving in terms of their identity politics, and I find that identity politics has a dirty name. That’s like a dirty word to say it’s identity politics, and I feel like but identity is inherently political, right? But my view is like when any two people are in a room. That’s political. Right? There are politics and policy that’s in place. And so when people I guess, identity, acceptance, identity, diversity, whatever people want to call it, I find it really interesting that the United States is simultaneously leading the world and demanding identity, equality, and also being the worst at it. Yeah, it said that juxtaposition is so weird to me, because everybody is so vocal, and so able to express all of their thoughts all of the time about anything, and it’s so culturally accepted. And people are so quick to say, I’m being silenced. I’m being canceled and all of that, but they still go on. And they still like, you know,

C 

they’re being listened to by 10 million people. Yeah, I complain about being canceled.

K 

Right. So that’s interesting to me and cancel culture in Japan. Like if you get cancelled in Japan, you are seriously canceled. Like everybody in the United States was really shocked when the member of aka before he had to shave her head and penance. But that’s the price that she pays for fame. But if you look at

C 

lions specifically to stay in the idols group, yeah, because a lot of the idols girls go to grab your or like soft porn after? Yes. And that’s considered and totally acceptable career path. And there are, you know, people in Parliament who have that background. Yeah, just like in Italy, there were like a porn star was elected to Parliament in Italy.

K 

Like, Nina.

C 

Yeah, it’s not unusual here.

K 

She had great policy. Yeah. And the way in Italy and I don’t know the politics of the ones here in Japan,

C 

I don’t know. But I know that it’s not unusual because, like it’s legal to work in that industry. And so people are like, if it’s legal, why would we care? Yeah. Whereas if you’re working in a in a bad industry, it can be really hard to get out of it.

K 

Yeah. And I find it interesting that when, and this happens a lot on Twitter, people will tell me you shouldn’t tweet that. Like, it’ll affect your ability to get a job. Right? No, it won’t, it would affect and these are usually academics. So academia is really hard to get into in Japan, it’s like it is everywhere. And I find it shocking that people in academia think that their their rules apply to everyone. I think that’s weird. I think in it’s weird that in the United States, people wouldn’t try to censor me as much. And I think that the United States is more sensitive. This isn’t shocking to me. But in terms of talking about the United States, the fundamental right to say whatever you want to say, anytime someone says you can’t say it, Americans become very upset. And I’m very American. And that way, I don’t like being told what I can and cannot say, I can appreciate you saying I’m going to not follow you. And I’m not going to communicate with you because I don’t like what you’re saying, right. But I don’t like to be censored at all. But here in Japan, we’ve talked about before the censorship is real. And people will tell me you share too much. You’re on team too much. And I feel like like, because I tweet very openly about my health, I tweeted, I’m in the hospital, and they’re like, No, being chronically ill needs to be a secret or you’ll never be hired. And that’s not true. That’s things that they’ve been taught about Japan, that’s not true. And how much people don’t know their rights in both countries is surprising to me. Like in the United States, a lot of people don’t actually know what their legal rights are, what’s illegal and what’s legal. Across the board. And in Japan, it’s the same thing. A lot of people don’t know what’s legal, and what’s not legal. And that’s always shocked me. I’m always quick to find out like, what what does the law say? I think

C 

it’s enforceable and what’s not enforceable. Yeah. Like, technically, here in Japan, it’s illegal to discriminate based on nationality.

K 

But still, like, no foreigners allowed. Yeah.

C 

And then practice, if you go to a real estate company, and they’ve got 400 listings, as soon as they see you, like, 300 of those listings are gone. They’re like, yeah, no, we can’t rent these to foreigners

K 

in the process of moving roster, you’re banned from talking about anything until afterwards? Because we’re gonna do a whole episode. Okay. You know that. I know, that’s not what you’ve been thinking about lately. So for real, y’all know, I’m always telling Chad, don’t talk about that. That’s coming up. So how we do the podcast, I’ve told y’all before I make a list, and every time before we start recording, I tell Chad, what the topics gonna be. We don’t do any research or planning. And so Chad sometimes wants to pop off and just talk about whatever’s on Chad mine. Sometimes. Yeah. And that’s the whole roles

C 

for What surprises me is how different the rules are based on your status in life.

K 

Yes. And on this podcast, that is, it’s whatever Christopher’s been thinking about lately.

C 

No, I get that. But a lot of the stuff that you say that you’re like it won’t or my ability to get work to say you’re absolutely correct.

K 

No, you’re not bringing us back round. So I want to talk about this now, cuz I’m thinking about it. So I’m on a podcast,

C 

okay. I’m the boss, the podcast boss, the podcast, the reason

K 

and so don’t feel sorry for Chad. Don’t do it. I know a lot of you. Or any of our music knows, it’s because I have to think of the topics. And I have to set the time to record. Yeah. And so because I have to do those two things. I’m in charge of the podcast. That’s right. I just show up with the voice. You do you show up with all that beautiful sexiness. And that beautiful voice of yours, which you know, I absolutely love the sound of and the music notes know that I used to like call up your phone just to listen to you. And then he told me, Don’t call him hang up, leave a message and say, I’m just listening to your voice and hang up. Yes.

C 

And then I could call and listen to my messages over and over.

K 

We love each other. We enjoy each other. Now I wonder in the United States. And this is something I don’t know, would be because I see people telling other people to not clap back and worry about their public image. But that’s only for public figures. I wonder if, because a lot of our friends have fake names that they use on Twitter, because they don’t want their company to find out. And I don’t know if that’s paranoia or fact.

C 

That’s fact. So yeah, yeah, I know too many people who have worked in the, like, reference checking,

K 

do you think for disability? Yes. Okay, that’s shocking. I didn’t know anything about that, tell me about it.

C 

Companies will look to see if there’s anything negative, and being disabled is definitely considered a negative. And if they can deny you employment, before they have to do accommodation, then they will, if they can do it, in a way that’s deniable because you can’t prove they went on your social media and denied you because you’re disabled.

K 

So I know that companies globally around the world, check social media, and I do advise clients to have clean social media. And I guess I’m very lucky, because at the end of the day, I’m always my own employer. Yeah, that’s right. And so I, for me, a lot of my ignorance will come from. So I guess I would, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Because I think about what do I do? What do I say to my clients,

C 

and this is exactly what I was saying about, it’s your position in life, you and I are in positions in life where we can be open about who we are, are our real names,

K 

that you’re, you work for a company?

C 

I do. And one of the things that on Twitter, in particular, as I chose to be open about being disabled, because I didn’t want to work for a company that would be shocked by it. In the interview, I said it in the interview, I was like, Look, I have autism and epilepsy and arthritis, I’m like, not gonna be able to do these things. And they’re like, We don’t care. We’ve seen what you can do, you’re really good. We don’t care about that. Yeah, I think companies get the idea that it’s always going to be super expensive to accommodate any disability. And that’s not the case, like my company accommodates mine. And what it is, is, sometimes I’m going to tell you that I can’t wait for the rest of the

C 

hour in the middle of the day, take a nap. It doesn’t really cost the company any money. It’s occasionally slightly inconvenient. But the attitude is, I’m a person just like everybody else.

K 

interesting about that is because of my own employer, I have to look at what do I advise my clients versus what do I say, right? Because I, I’ve switched over my business, my therapy practice to accommodate me, and I’m currently in the process of switching over. But I’m just doing I’ve always done coaching, and professional coaching. So if I look at what I tell my therapy clients and my coaching clients, and the difference between career coaching and during therapy is just the focus, one’s work focused one’s personal focus. There’s a lot of overlap. Executive Coaching is really different than they’re all slightly different and slightly the same.

C 

Well, having had it not from you, I’ll say that was just like more of a sounding board than anything else. And I think you do,

K 

you’ve had it from me, and you’ve had it in the style. I do it and it’s not a sounding board when

C 

I do it. No, but your secret sauce is better.

K 

Thank you. My secret sauce is me. Yes. And real talk. And I’m well read. And I’m an expert. So all of those things, all that. So my point in bringing that up is I think we’re super privileged. Yes. And I think we’re a little bit out of touch. Absolutely. Because that shocks me right now. My privilege. I’m shot in

C 

2016. I didn’t say I was disabled, publicly, because it was still legal to fire people for being disabled. Like I was a regular employee, it was basically impossible for me, unless you’re disabled unless I’m disabled. And then it was like, no problem.

K 

Yeah, we talked about that. Yeah, Fly on, on the cast. So something that’s currently surprising me in the United States is Hollywood, cuz I watch a lot of TV. Because Hello, I’m in the hospital lot. So I binge watch a lot of things. And I’m surprised at the gap. There’s a year gap in TV show seasons. Yeah. And there’s a year gap and things that were launched, things were pushed back, because Hollywood actually shut down during during all the wildness that was 2019

C 

when there’s still shutdowns going on. I thought thing that Picard has shut down filming because 50 of the people who work on the show had COVID and they were like, Don’t worry, Patrick Stewart doesn’t have COVID PP ons.

K 

Well, I think to that that has to do with like masking and I think because the extras don’t mask now There’s that but we don’t talk about masking because this is not we’re not doing anything heavy. Something I find shocking is how people view puzzling. Yes, we did jigsaw puzzles.

C 

And how do you think people here view it? Because we we sometimes order online and sometimes go to the dedicated jigsaw puzzle shop that is a couple blocks away?

K 

Yeah. So people is flossy. Yeah, it’s hella floss outta puzzle. And I’m like, It’s not that expensive. It’s like if we go to the dedicated puzzle shop is super expensive. Yeah. And so we only go there if there’s like a specific puzzle I want to do that we can’t find. And we’ll go to check it out. Or if we’re on a date, and we’ll buy like one puzzle from them, because they’re, they’re really expensive. Yeah. But it’s a really nice, they’re located in azmol and Nagaya. If you live in Nagoya, and you haven’t been to asthma, you have to go. It’s near ozonic station, check it out. It’s worth it’s a really cute date, date place to go. And you can if you go early, you can get a fruit sandwich. And it’s shocking that free sandwiches aren’t more popular in the United States, because you cannot beat a banana sandwich.

C 

And you can get that at specialty restaurants here at convenience stores at the grocery store.

K 

Yeah, so I like my fruit. This is really blasphemous. But I like my fruit sandwiches plain. I like bread and fruit. And so good. So we can sometimes we get up early and we go over to our small site and get a free sandwich even like making my like going to the place and then we’ll go pick out a puzzle. But anyone I tell in Japan that we puzzle, like, oh my gosh, your house must be huge. No. And they’re like, you must know they’re like, No, you can’t for me. Because if you can dedicate a table to a puzzle 2000 piece puzzle because like, like, what size? And then like we get 1000 pieces that I oh my god. Your house must be huge. And I’m like we do on our kitchen table. How big is your kitchen table? Big enough for 1000 piece puzzle and to still hold our mail? Yeah, probably. And so that was measurements.

C 

Yeah. May be big enough for 2000 but definitely not big enough for anything.

K 

I can’t commit to 2000 pieces. I feel like you’re trying to up our puzzle now. No, I’m

C 

not trying to for a while you were for a while that was

K 

like we could clear off a space and do them on the floor. Yeah. I’m like, How does that sound appealing to you?

C 

I’m like, Babe, we’ve saved up enough we can afford this 32,000 piece puzzles the biggest number you’re like, No, no, we can’t No, never

K 

be trippin. Wildling No, not gonna happen. When I tell people in the US that we post like, Oh, that’s cute. What kind of puzzles do you do? Yeah, it’s like nothing. And I’m like, we do Tenyo and still just flatline. But if I tell people in Japan, we do Tenyo Tenyo you know, tenure? And like, No, I don’t. I love that phrase. And gafisa, you know, cuz, you know, is the same as you know about Yeah, you know, tenure. And I’m like, Yeah, we love tenure. They make some of the best puzzles. They should totally sponsor us. If you work for tenure. Let us know. And we will hook you up on the sponsor, because we love, love. Love your pill. I love your puzzles. Yes, we do. They’re plastic. And they’re awesome. They snap together tight. And I love that they can be recycled, they can go in recyclable. Yeah. And that’s really important to me, recycling our puzzles, some of them we have framed, because they’re really actually beautiful pieces of art. And I find it interesting that in Japan, it’s shocking to me that in Japan, they understand that it’s a fine piece of art. So I thought everybody would have the bias that it’s not, but they saw frames and glue. And you can get this in the United States as well. Right. And I like the 10 year puzzles because you can actually pick them up, and they lock in a place and they

C 

won’t fall apart. But you can get frames at the grocery store here. Yeah,

K 

puzzle frames, because they know they do. You know, check out your puzzle, check out puzzles, jigsaw, puzzling, because the reason we started puzzling is to help me with my pots, because my blood pressure will just randomly shoot up to a hypertension crisis. And I usually have like, when it’s not flared up, I have normal blood pressure. So I don’t I’m not on any medication and none of the medications work and all contraindicated for me. But doing a puzzle lowers my blood pressure. Like if I’m in crisis. I go and I puzzle for a little bit my deal with this deal with the spinning and all of that, and it lowers my blood pressure gets me out of crisis.

C 

And it’s quite astonishing to see it because we have a speak moment. ometer Yeah, you take it before and I’d be like whoa, you take it after that.

K 

You’re surprised I was you accuse me of Same because if Chad touches me It elevates my blood pressure. So Chad doesn’t

C 

good touches I’m not doing bad touches. Yeah, if Chad

K 

does just put like just touches my shoulder, then my blood pressure will go up. And I’ve shown this chat. And so if I’m having blood pressure, if I’m in hypermiling hypertension crisis, I’ll just check it over and over again and chats like that. Those very pointed. I’m like, I’m not seeing you talking to me as raising my blood pressure. I feel like it’s stopping. I’m like, we’re puzzling. I’m in a hypertension crisis. I have to monitor it. Because you have to monitor every five minutes. So you take it and then do it again. So it’s shocking to me the child’s not used to that. Yeah. I’m not shocking them. So looking at thank you so much for listening. We appreciate every single click he hears. I don’t know why I do stuff right next to my mic, but I do. Be patient. That was

C 

your reading glasses opening up.

K 

Yeah. So I’m spacey today. But I do know I’m looking at butter. Take tears. Oh, my child doesn’t read our author’s books. Yeah, what’s up with that? Whatever doesn’t read our authors books.

C 

We’ll talk about that.

K 

Right? Follow us on over to the Patreon you can find out the answer. Because now we’re doing cliffhangers. Yes, we want you to become a patron. Thank you so much for listening. And you can hit us up on Twitter and tell us what surprised you or leave a comment about what surprised you about America or Japan. We love the interaction and we’ll talk to you next week. Bye bye.