We talk about how we entertain ourselves here in Japan and how that differs from the way we entertained ourselves in the United States.

Transcript

K: So lately I’ve been thinking a lot about entertainment.

C: Because you’re bored?

K: No, because I’m not bored. 

C: Oh okay.

K: But I feel like my entertainment choices have changed so much from the United States to Japan.

C: Yeah. We lived down the street from an amusement park in the United States, so that was our usual weekend.

K: No it was not. We lived down the street from a park called Great America at the time. And then it changed names to like… Paramount Great America?

C: Yeah, and now I think it’s the 49er’s football stadium.

K: Really? They tore down Great America?

C: I don’t know if they tore it down or just built the stadium in the parking lot. I’m so unclear about that. I know that it’s the 49er’s stadium.

K: Really?

C: Yeah.

K: It’s in San Jose?

C: Yeah.

K: What are you talking about? The San Francisco 49’ers are now the San Jose 49’ers?

C: Santa Clara.

K: Are you serious?

C: I don’t think they changed their name. I think they just changed their location.

K: What are you talking about? This is bananas. Are you serious?

C: Yes.

K: What? They’re the Santa Clara 49’ers?

C: No, I’m not sure. I think they’re still the San Francisco 49’ers, but they moved their stadium to down the street where Great America was.

K: But how can they be the San Francisco 49’ers if they’re in Santa Clara? It’s like the Oakland Raiders still being the Oakland Raiders while having their stadium be in L.A. That doesn’t make any sense.

C: But how can the name of the city be San Francisco when it should be like Saint Francisco.

K: What are you talking about?

C: I’m talking about California naming is just absurd.

K: Okay. So, anyways, right now we currently live down the street from the Nagoya Dome.

C: Right.

K: And I don’t think we’ve ever been to anything at the dome. We’ve been to things in the parking lot of the dome.

C: Right.

K: But I don’t think I’ve ever attended anything inside the dome.

C: I haven’t either. And they have like toy fests, they have baseball games, that’s their main thing about half the year, they’ve got baseball games. But they’ve also got concerts, they’ve got toy fests. I haven’t attended anything at the dome. I know Rasta has. He’s gone to a baseball game at the dome.

K: Yeah. So, in the United States, when we lived in the U.S. we went to concerts. 

C: Right.

K: And we went to sporting events.

C: Yup.

K: So I think it’s weird that we live right down the street from a major venue for both of those and do neither.

C: Yes.

K: So I don’t know if it’s my age or my chronic illnesses getting worse or what, but I don’t go out as much as I used to.

C: Yeah. I’m just gonna say it’s our age. We’re just mature enough now to entertain ourselves at home.

K: I blame it on the PhD man. Because any Sunday that I don’t have to do stuff for my PhD, I’m just like… I’m gonna sleep in, and I’m gonna luxuriate. And man when I’m not doing a PhD weekend.

C: You’re wild. You’re like “I’m gonna sleep in” and at 11 am you’re like “man, I slept in so late.”

K: And I feel like puzzling, changing our main hobby from things we do outside to puzzling. Because now I feel like “oohh, babe, let’s you know, let’s pour ourselves a cocktail and do some really cool puzzling”

C: Yup, there is that. And then there’s like “oohh, what’s coming to the dome? Okay, we can spend 300 dollars on tickets and entertainment for a couple hours, or we could buy ten puzzles.”

K: Oh yeah. Or I was thinking “or we could save that and go on an international trip”

C: Yeah.

K: Because in California, I felt really really spoiled because every weekend we would just get in the car and drive and go. And I was very much into Bay Area Backroads, and we went like everywhere. We’d go up to Sacramento sometimes, and we’d drive further down South sometimes. Just do all kinds of things. We just traveled up and down the state.

C: Yes.

K: Here in Nagoya, I don’t feel like… I guess I don’t know the backroads. So I have like no idea where to go.

C: Well, that’s your reason. My reason is that I’m financially responsible.

K: Oh please. And then the other big thing that I used to love, love, love to do win the United States was go to the movies.

C: Yes.

K: And now I just feel super cheap. Like, the movies cost the same as they did in the United States, but I just feel like… I think Netflix, I blame Netflix for this. Because like I could get dressed, leave my house, travel for twenty minutes to go watch a movie and pay for hella expensive popcorn. 

C: Okay, but the movies are not the same price. Because movie tickets are not yet twenty dollars apiece in the U.S.

K: I thought they were like fifteen apiece in the U.S.

C: But that’s not yet twenty dollars.

K: Okay, yes. But with the exchange rate, sometimes it’ll be… depending.

C: Yeah, depending, I guess.

K: Yeah, because it’s ni sen, 2000 yen, and sometimes 2000 yen can be as low as 17 dollars, or over 20 dollars depending on the exchange rate.

C: Right.

K: So for me they feel comparably priced.

C: Okay.

K: And I feel like I’m not up on movies, like I watch a lot of television, I own that, but in terms of watching movies, I don’t watch as many movies. Like I watch movies very rarely.

C: So you watch a lot of streaming services because we don’t have a television. We watch on the computer.

K: Correct. If you’re listening, NHK, we do not have a television.

C: Thank you, that was my thought.

K: So, explain to the people outside of Japan why we’re like “NHK stop sending us bills in the mail.” That’s the Nihon…

C: Housou Kaisha. The Japan Broadcasting Corporation.

K: Yes, and you have to pay a fee every month.

C: If you own a TV, right.

K: Yes, and we don’t own a TV. We own a lot of computers but not a television.

C: So U.K. viewers will be familiar with this because of the BBC license.

K: (laughter) Yes. We don’t have a television. But I’m looking right now, we have microwave popcorn, I guess I’m so suggestible. Now I’m thinking we really need to watch a movie today, pop some popcorn, put our feet up.

C: You know if you turn on popcorn while the podcast’s going it’s just going to have the hum of it.

K: Yeah, no. I’m not saying right now, but afterwards. Like, because…. I came across a movie “What We Do in The Shadows” which has now been made into a TV series. It’s a movie I’ve been wanting to watch since it came out, and I’ve just spaced watching it. It’s on Netflix. And it’s a mockumentary about vampires.

C: You space watching a lot of things. You’ll just be like “babe, babe, have you heard of this new thing? Babe, this new movie came out, it’s called the Transporter with Jason Statham.” And I’ll be like “it came out 15 years ago.”

K: That’s so not true. I am not that outdated.

C: You’re often a year out of date. You’re not many years out of date, but you take a while to notice.

K: Yeah, yeah I do. And you know, I think that’s because we don’t watch television, so we don’t get commercials.

C: I think so, yes.

K: Because I do watch tons of YouTube, but the type of commercials on YouTube, they don’t really advertise movies.

C: Well, because we get the Japanese commercials. So you get a lot of commercials for what, beer…

K: Yeah, beer, and skin-bleaching, which always offends me each and every time I see it. Don’t bleach your skin. If you bleach your skin, it’s yours, you can do whatever you want with it, but I just… I don’t know, it makes me sad, the thought of people bleaching their skin.

C: Yeah.

K: That just makes me sad. 

C: So it’s interesting on Twitter, I get like all kinds of… I don’t know, a while ago it did a thing about what ads are getting on Twitter. And it varies, but I get like… ads for semi-pornographic video games, so I’m like “just no”

K: See, I get straight up porn. So I think maybe because we’re on Twitter on different times of days, because I’m the night owl in the family.

C: Maybe because I’m usually on during the day.

K: yeah, but when it’s after dark, it’s so weird to me that they know when it’s after dark, but I’ll get ads for like Twitter After Dark, and that’s a thing, people use the After Dark hashtag.

C: I’ve never seen that.

K: Yeah, and I’ll be like “no, thank you, I don’t want to flash my boobs on Twitter”

C: I get these are promoted tweets, so this isn’t just random people tweeting things.

K: Right. We get invited to participate in Twitter After Dark quite often.

C: Okay, I’ve never seen that, but I get invited to get a job on a pretty regular basis.

K: That’s because you’re tweeting mid-day. In Japan.

C: Ah, I hadn’t even thought about the mid-day connection.

K: Yeah, you’re tweeting at like 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon Monday through Friday.

C: Tenshoku o sagashitai? Is like, “do you want to look for a job change?” No, leave me alone Twitter. Stop job shaming me.

K: Yeah, either you’re about to get fired (laughter) or you need to get a job.

C: Yeah, but the other thing is I get ads for job changes but I also get ads for “would you like to buy a helicopter”

K: Well because either you’ve got so much money you don’t need a job and can afford a helicopter

C: See, you’re making the connections I didn’t make.

K: Yeah, I found when I tweet at night that I get Twitter After Dark and sometimes I just get random pornography. Which is just like a random penis will hit our timeline and I’m like “Wow, I thought Chad had gotten rid of all the pornographers.”

C: No because when we started Twitter, we were doing follow for follow because we were trying to et people. I think we still got a few of those and one of the things about it is that if somebody gets banned or gets their account suspended, then you can’t see them. And you can’t unfollow them. So, like, our number sometimes fluctuates randomly and I think “oh okay, so someone who was suspended got unsuspended and now they’re tweeting out pornography or whatever” and they’ll get resuspended in the future, but if we don’t unfollow them in that window when they’re unsuspended, then by the time they’re suspended again, we can’t unfollow them.

K: Yeah, so if we follow you and unfollowed you, it’s Chad. He’s the unfollower in the family. I don’t care, I just let like offensive stuff go, unless you’re saying something nasty to one of our tweeps, then I’m like “block, unfollowed” we don’t want you in our universe.

C: Well, often you’re like “Chad, why haven’t you blocked and unfollowed them.”

K: Yeah, that’s true. “Why are we still following them?”

C: And I say, “if you block them, it automatically unfollows them” That’s what a soft block is, where you block them then unblock them so it forces them to unfollow you.

K: Wow, you’ve got like a whole thing down.

C: I have the lingo down.

K: So with not watching movies, I do watch a lot of television, so I don’t really go out and there’s a multitude reasons of why I don’t go out. One of them is that I have hereditary coproporphyria and lupus, and what that means is that I’m highly sensitive to the sun and we are in the land of the rising sun for real, yo. Like, that sun rises every day and it is intense.

C: And there was a theory going around, and I think it’s been pretty well discredited, that vampires were based on people with porphyria. 

K: Mhmm.

C: I see your look and like, this was the thing for a while, this was the theory that like the vampire myth was based on

K: Because porphyria also causes your gums to recede.

C: Right, and it causes sensitivity to the sun and stuff. So I think now everybody’s like, no, it was just base don Vlad the Impaler. Which I don’t think you’re a descendant of Vlad the Impaler.

K: No, I’m not a descendant of Vlad the Impaler.

C: Just checking because I like learning new things about you.

K: Yeah, I don’t think so. No. So, what happens is that I’m allergic to the sun, and the sun makes me feel sick. It makes me feel like my insides are melting if I’m exposed to it for too long. But also lupus causes a lot of fatigue and depending on when I have a lupus flare, depending on how it inflames, it either attacks my joints or my internal organs specifically. And so, if it attacks my pancreas, then I’m recovering from pancreatitis for like three months after the lupus flare. If it attacks my lungs or my heart, then I have energy issues and I have circulation issues, and I have breathing issues, so I find the older I get the more challenging my lupus is becoming over time. And the more challenging my porphyria is becoming over time. And it really affects my energy, so I’m super duper low energy, so for me any activities that involve long walks, I’m like “uhhh, is it worth it?”

C: Yeah.

K: And, with Rasta being 25, I’m not longer responsible for his entertainment.

C: Yes.

K: And I’m no longer escaping him. (laughter) So a lot of…

C: Well, he’s lived down the street for a few years now.

K: Yeah, and so for me a lot of going out when I was younger was about one, hanging out with friends, and now I’m married to my best friend, so I always get to hang out with my friend, and the other one was entertaining Rasta. And now that, you know, Rasta’s grown out of the house, not so much. So for me, the motivation to get out into the world is really low, and I enjoy movies at home, and I absolutely love television, so I feel like I have everything that I really love here at home.

C: Yeah, I feel like teevo was the start of the decline in going out.

K: Yeah. Which started in the U.S.

C: Yeah because before that, even if you had cable, there might not be anything interesting on. But with Tivo…

K: And we had the full cable package. I had hundreds of channels.

C: Well, and we did the dish one where you could record two different shows at once.

K: Yes, and so we had like everything tricked out plus we would go and buy movies because we have, man, we have so many DVDs. So we bought a lot of movies as well. So I do think, yeah, in the United States, it was starting the decline in going out to movies and such, well we would go out to the movies, I think about once a month maybe?

C: Well, I think that’s also when your health started to get really bad, because we’d go out and buy movies after doctor’s appointments, which is how we ended up in so many. It’s because you were at the doctor at the time because this was pre-diagnosis, so it was, you know… “why do I have pancreatitis, why are my limbs in flamed, why is this going wrong, why is that going wrong” so

K: Yeah. So, that sort of, and it was interesting because my health started to decline after I had spent a summer in Japan. And so I think I just got in flare-state and then didn’t ever come out of flare-state.

C: Yeah.

K: So I thought, you know, growing up in California, I would think that any sort of allergy to the sun, but it’s really more intense here in Japan.

C: Yeah.

K: I think. At least, my experience of it. So, for me, I really enjoy being at home, I’ve always liked my home. And in the United States, most of my friends came to my home when they visited me.

C: That’s true.

K: And would hang out in my house. And so in Japan… not so much, but I think mostly because our beds are in the living room. (laughter)

C: Yeah.

K: We’ve made the living room our bedroom. And we don’t really use the other part of the house.

C: That does tend to be awkward. “So your bed’s in the living room, what’s in the bedrooms? Don’t open the doors!” 

K: There’s clothes, and then we have a nice sitting room, so I mean we could hang out in the sitting room.

C: Okay, we need to make it not sound perverted. 

K: Yeah, we don’t have… I used to hint people in like a joking way, “it’s just not set up for company. It’s very adult.”

C: Yeah.

K: So what do you do for entertainment? Because I don’t really know what you do with your time. I’m gone, so I have no idea. What are you doing when you’re home alone?

C: Just pining for you. 

K: (laughs) Just sitting by the door, rocking back and forth, “when is my honey coming home?”

C: Joan Baez!

K: No, so what are you doing with your day besides tweeting? You are a prolific tweeter.

C: I’m a prolific tweeter. So, I tweet, I write. 

K: What do you write?

C: I write novels mostly. I write poetry sometimes, I write essays sometimes, I write nonfiction. I’ve been publishing pretty regularly in the ACCJ journal. I think three or four times a year now.

K: The American Chamber of Commerce Japan, which you should know if you listen to use regularly. If you don’t listen to us regularly, we hope that you will here on out.

C: I play some video games, I tend to get…

K: What video games do you play?

C: Well, I tend to get fixated on one video game, and I’ll play it for a few hundred hours, and then I’ll just lose interest. 

K: Okay, so do you finish it or do you just lose interest? Do you play games that you can finish?

C: Usually. So, some of them, if they get to a point where I’m just grinding for a few things, then I might not finish it. So if it’s got a storyline, I finish the storyline, but then… I like the Disgaea series, and I think Disgaea 5, I played like 400 hours, and it got to the point where I was just grinding for the last few items in what’s called the “Carnage World” and it was just like… one day I just couldn’t care anymore. That I was only at 86% finished, I was just like “I don’t care.”

K: So I feel for me, like with video games, I really only like Pokemon, I really only play Pokemon. I find that I’ll like… play two Pokemon games back to back and then about the third one I won’t be interested for a couple of years. So every couple of years, I’ll play two games, like… the last one I finished, so I have Sun and Moon, but I haven’t played them. And I always buy every version because I wanna catch every Pokemon that can be caught in whatever version I own. So, I always get two versions and then sometimes I browbeat you into playing, sometimes I don’t. Like I did Omega Ruby and Sapphire. I did two Omegas, I can’t remember. I did the one…

C: It’s Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. 

K: Okay, but then I also did two after that. 

C: X and Y?

K: Thank you, yeah. So, I did Y, and you did X.

C: Yeah.

K: And did you finish X?

C: No, I got bored. That’s what I was saying. I get to the point where I’m bored, I’m like “okay.”

K: And then afterward… how it started was I was bore done day and I went through our stuff, and we had like… old, out of date controllers. And we had the original Ruby and Sapphire in like the Black and White. And I was playing it. And then you were like “hey babe, you know I could get you a new game” and I was like “really babe, you can?” and I was so excited, and you went and gottem, and then we played those together for a while. It was fun, like, feeding them snacks and petting them now, and getting to know all the different personalities and hanging out and being friends.

C: So the way I went out and got them was I ordered them on the internet.

K: So I really enjoy Pokemon. I don’t’ do Pokemon go because I don’t go anywhere, and I wouldn’t be able… I’m not gonna go anywhere to like… go catch Pokemon.

C: Our apartment is not a pokegym. 

K: No, it is not. So, I do do Pokemon. I don’t do any recreational reading because I’m, hello, working toward my PhD. If I got time to read, it’s an article. I need to be reading an article.

C: Okay, you got time to read you got time to bleed. By bleed, I mean research.

K: Yes. So, all the reading I’m doing is research, and if I’m not doing research then I’m taking supplementary courses for the different statistical models that I’m learning.

C: Yeah, you sued to read a lot. Even stuff I didn’t read. Like you read all those Dune books even after Frank Hurbert died, you read ones done by his son. I was like”I don’t know how you keep up with that.”

K: Yeah, I read all of those, I read the entire Clan of the Cave Bear series.

C: Again, I don’t know how you…

K: (laughs) You know I’m a completionist.

C: Yes, yes.

K: I like to finish what I start, dagnabbit.

C: Yes.

K: So if I start something, I’m gonna finish it. That’s kind of my personality. Except, interestingly enough, I started Sun of the Sun and Moon Pokemon series, and I just haven’t… didn’t get into it. I’m like… I know eventually it’ll be there for me, and someday I’ll pick it up and finish it, but…

C: So usually, your attitude is “don’t start none, won’t be none?”

K: It’s “don’t start what you don’t intend to finish” but I find that instead of doing video games now I so much prefer the puzzling. And I think that the video games were a lot of fun when you were playing it with me. It’s not as fun when you’re not playing it with me.

C: Yeah. 

K: So I really did enjoy Omega because they had a bunch of new Pokemon, and enjoyed Alpha because they had all of these islands, there were so many things to unlock in the game, and so it was really fun and I unlocked them by myself. You didn’t play either version. And so yeah, I completed both of those, I think. Oh wait, no, I haven’t even done the Elite Four in those. (gasp)

C: (gasp) Shame on you.

K: Dang, Kisstopher. So maybe that’s why I can’t get into Sun and Moon. Because I haven’t done the Elite Four. 

C: So you know you don’t deserve it.

K: Yeah, no, the Elite Four is just, ugh. Like, the least fun thing in the game for me. I’m not into the gym aspect of it.

C: Mmmm.

K: Because you have to like bulk up and get super strong, but then I have my Marowak whose level 100 just go in and decimate everybody with a bunch of super potions, hello, it’s like there for me whenever I want it. Because I love the freaking battle maison. Oh my god, I love the battle maison. Because you can go in, you pay some cash, you fight battles that are gonna raise you up quickly so that you can raise and evolve your Pokemon quickly. So I’m really really happy that I can trade into Y because I trade into Y, bulk everything up, because I don’t have any Pokemon that are under level 50. 

C: Yeah.

K: (laughs) Okay, so that was like a major Pokemon digression. But we are talking about entertainment, and this entertains me. Pokemon entertains me. I think I might go on a pokeventure. I don’t know. See how suggestible I am? A minute ago I wanted to watch movies, now I think maybe I need to go on a Pokemon adventure, but we are working on a new puzzle. What do I do Chad? What’s going on?

C: You do all of them at once. You put on a TV show, you set it to the side of the puzzle, you play Pokemon, and then you tell me “I think those two pieces go together” then you’re doing everything at once.

K: But that’s not how we puzzle.

C: No, it’s not. We’re serious.

K: Yeah, we’re serious puzzlers. Everybody works their own part of the puzzle.

C: Yeah.

K: What I find interesting about a puzzle is if I get going on a section, if I get going laying a bunch of pieces you like to jump on and start laying pieces there too after I’ve sorted through all the pieces, gather all the ones that go together, so usually I like to throw pieces at you that I think go with whatever you’re working on to keep you entertained and away from my section of the puzzle. Did you know I do that?

C: Yeah, I did know you did that. Because you’re usually wrong about what pieces go. 

K: No I’m not. I am a good puzzler, don’t say that. Take it back. (laughs)

C: The Musicks in Japan and the Lies We Tell podcast.

K: (laughs) No, I am an amazing puzzler.

C: You are. It is amazing.

K: So, I find that we’re doing about one puzzle a week. 

C: Right.

K: And I have… when we were more active on Instagram, there was a couple of people in the puzzling community that we were a part of that could do a 1000 piece puzzle in a couple of hours.

C: Yeah, good for them.

K: But do you think we’ll ever have puzzle eye like that. Because I think of that as having like next level puzzle eye.

C: I don’t know that we’d have puzzle concentration like that. I find it difficult to physically to sit for that long. My back starts hurting, just things start going wrong. My body starts reminding me “hey Chad, psst, did you remember that you’re disabled? That you have bone problems, that you have spin problems? That you have like…”

K: Problems.

C: Problems.

K: You’ve got 99 problems, don’t make puzzling one.

C: Okay.

K: For me, part of the fun of puzzling is being able to walk away and come back.

C: Yes. It does wait.

K: Yeah, because I feel like YouTube is messing with my concentration. But I don’t think I was ever good at concentrating because like every time we watch a movie, I like to pause it halfway through and do something else.

C: Yeah, it’s uncanny because you can usually pause it within ten seconds of it being exactly the center of the movie.

K: Yes.

C: Without looking at the time. You’re just like “it’s time to pause the movie.”

K: Yeah. So for me, even like TV shows, because I find that like even TV shows that I love and that I’m really into, about halfway through I need to walk away, I’m bored. And so, I really like puzzling because I can walk away, go puzzle, and then come back and watch my TV shows. Or what I usually do, is I watch TV show, pause it, watch some YouTube or have YouTube playing while I’m puzzling, when you’re out of town, I do that.

C: Okay, I was like “you’ve got YouTube playing when you’re puzzling, that’s almost blasphemous.”

K: Yeah, you don’t like that at all. So I find that I keep the house much noisier when you’re out of town than when you’re in town.

C: What?

K: yeah, for reals.

C: No, I mean “what, I didn’t hear you.”

K: I’m the one with hearing loss, I’m hard of hearing. So, in Japan there’s a ton of things to do. And I was telling Rasta the other day that I feel so lucky to live where we live because literally the way that he drives to work, it’s like I get changing of the seasons. Because at the end of the weird little alley that the car park side is on, at the end of that are some beautiful cherry blossom trees. And what that means is that they bloom beautiful white gorgeous blossoms during cherry blossom season, but during Momiji, during turning of the leaves, they’re like beautiful fall colors. So I get to see them all throughout the year in their many different phases and different ways that they look.

C: WE have so many different climates. WE have a tree down the road that blossoms three weeks before any other tree.

K: Yes.

C: Even on the same road, when the cherry blossoms were coming into season, there was one tree that was just like… “Here I am” at the train station. “Here I am” and then three weeks later, everything else blossomed. 

K: Yeah. And so, when we come around the corner, we go down like this little back alley, and then at the end of that back alley is like these gorgeous trees. But then when we turn the corner and go to the main thoroughfare, there’s like another row of trees, and then the way we turn off of that road, there’s another row of trees. And then we turn again, there’s another row of trees. Like, all of the streets are tree-lined on my way to work. And then right across from my practice, there’s a shrine. 

C: So you’ve just got all the good stuff.

K: I do, and so I feel like anytime I want to visit a shrine…

C: Down the road from your practice, you’ve got a kinmoku tree, and I actually had to look it up, because I wanted to write about it. I had to look up “what is kinmoku in English” so apparently it’s called the “fragrant olive tree” in English.

K: Oh nice. Can you describe those blossoms for us, please?

C: They’re just really tiny and gold, but they have a really really strong scent, you can smell them all the way down the street. 

K: Yeah. So I’ve been to the Tokugawa Art Museum, and I’ve been to most of the things to do, but like we used to go to Trienalle.

C: Well, that only happens three times a year [once every three years]. It’s the Trienalle.

K: Yeah, and last time they came, we didn’t go. And like, when the Gougin exhibit came, I came home and put on Gougin on YouTube, and we watched that.

C: Yeah, and then the exhibit Go-went.

K: So we used to go to art museums quite a lot, and we used to travel to castles quite a lot. But now we just don’t travel. I think the last time we went out, we went to Bikkuri Donkey, which is like our lcal place to go.

C: Yeah, which is funny because, you know, Bikkuri is “surprise” so it’s literally the “Surprise Ass” restaurant.

K: Yes. And so there are like places that I mean to go, but I just don’t seem to get around to going. Because I really feel content, I really feel like intellectually entertained. And I really feel intellectually engaged. And I know people like to hate on TV as being, like, a low form of entertainment, but I don’t know. I find some of the shows to be really good. And really amazing to watch. Like “Killing Eve” that’s just the show is so good, so well-acted, so well-written, with really smart, strong female leads. 

C: Well, you know, we don’t hate on entertainment that doesn’t hurt anybody here, so you kno if your entertainment is hurting people, then yeah. We’re not for it.

K: Well, if you have consent, if those people enjoy being hurt.

C: No, no, I’m not saying if your entertainment is to hurt people, I’m saying like, if your entertainment…

K: Causes harm without consent.

C: Yeah, then that’s one thing. But if people like TV or books or audiobooks or video games, or whatever, we’re here for it.

K: Yeah.

C: But I think that both of us are kind of slowing down and accepting our limitations. I think when we were younger and Rasta was younger, both fo us kind of pushed ourselves to make sure that our illness, our disability, didn’t limit his childhood. 

K: Yeah.

C: Because I know for me my mom was sick most of my childhood and died halfway through it, and that kind of really put a damper on things. 

K: Yeah. 

C: You know. Like, “do you want to go to the amusement park” “well, my mom is dead…” “okay, but do you want to go to the amusement park?”

K: (laughs) You are so lying right now. Musicks in Japan and the Lies They Tell.

C: (Laughs)

K: You are just telling so many lies. Telling lies and eating pies. See, now I want pie.

C: (laughs) You are so suggestible. 

K: Oh my gosh, last night I had a dream that you came home and asked me “But what do you want from 7/11” “I told you I want a lemon pie” and you told me “You don’t like them anymore because Hostess now puts zest in their lemon pies” and I was like “Lies, go get me my pies” and that was the whole thing of it, it was weird. I don’t know why it just came back to me. 

C: Those aren’t even sold in Japan, so that’s like…

K: I know, right? Strange. But even weirder, we lived in my apartment on 10th street, except this was our bedroom, so it was so weird.

C: That’s so weird.

K: Yeah, it was so weird.

C: I remember the first time I dead mother’d you, though.

K: Yeah.

C: We’d just met, and you were like “do you wanna do something?” and I was like “my mother’s dead” – you were like “when did she die?” and I was like “ten years ago” “So, is that really the way you wanna go?”

K: Yeah, like “really, you’re gonna dead mother me now?” and that’s how it became a phrase, like “are you seriously dead mothering me?” and you were like “what, it works on everybody, you don’t feel bad my mother’s dead?” “No, I didn’t killer” You know. Like, she died.

C: You were like, “no, I didn’t kill her. Mine’s dead too” 

K: Yeah. My mom died when I was pregnant. Beat that.

C: I was like “ugh, are you dead mothering me?”

K: Yes I am, thank you. So we’re not sensitive about the fact our mothers are dead. And some people get really mad when I say this, but I’m gonna say it anyways and start controversy. I am happy that both of our mothers were dead before we met. 

C: Yes. 

K: So, I don’t know, I feel like it worked in our favor. 

(laughter)

C: Yeah, there was no argument about like, “are gonna make them wear the same wedding dress” none of that.

K: Ew, did your mother have her wedding dress?

C: No, not like… you wearing her wedding dress or me wearing her wedding dress. Like the “mother of the bride” dress.

K: Mmmm, mmkay. Yeah, we didn’t have to worry about any of that.

C: No,

K: I didn’t have to worry about anybody’s input into our wedding.

C: My mom got really fat later, but she was skinny when she got married. I wouldn’t have fit in her wedding dress.

K: I was fat when we got married. I like being fat, though. I enjoy it. I do. Sometimes, I wish I was thin, but then not really though. Because for me, I was always meant to chub out, I think.

C: Mmm.

K: Because I really love food, and for me, the amount of calories it takes for me to be thin really does require me to eat one meal a day. And that’s all I can eat. Just one meal a day. If I want to eat every day. Like, I can eat a couple meals a day if I fast every other day to maintain a healthy weight.

C: And this is not that entertaining, but if you’ve listened to us before you know digression is half the point of the show. Because of your porphyria, fasting is medically dangerous for you.

K: Yeah.

C: So, most people with porphyria, if they don’t get diagnosed early, end up overweight because they don’t…

K: But my porphyria is not why I’m overweight. I’m overweight because I enjoy food. 

C: Mmm.

K: I’m overweight because I like to eat.

C: But I think for you to be underweight, it would be just like… bad.

K: Well, I was underweight when we met, and I wasn’t… and I was drinking, both of those things are against porphyria, and I wasn’t doing that poorly health-wise. I mean, my pancreas wasn’t happy, but… I was drinking like a fish. I was drinking too much, drinking way too much. Because I was drinking three or four days a week.

C: Not when we met. Just two days.

K: I was down to two days? Yay me. Now I drink maybe once a year.

C: Because you had childcare, so

K: Yeah. But now I drink maybe once a year. I don’t find drinking to be entertaining, and I don’t find bars to be entertaining because to me bars are only fun when I’m drunk, I don’t enjoy drunk people unless I’m also drunk.

C: Yeah, so I mean, just for comparison, like I’m looking over right now, and you have a full bottle of Campari next to your bed. 

K: Yes. (laughs) That sounds so deceiving.

C: Which you use to roll on your muscles when they’re sore.

K: Yes. Oooh, good tip for sore muscles, nothing works as good as a chilled bottle of Campari because then you’re getting that cold compress.

C: Or wine, or water, it doesn’t have to be Campari.

K: It doesn’t have to be Campari, but I just like the size of the Campari bottle. It’s like the exact width of my, little bit longer than my thigh, but I can get a good roll up and down on it. And it really just rubs out my muscles so good when I’m having thigh pain, or calf pain. And then because, you can’t always be relied upon to squeeze my legs.

C: No, I have arthritis. It hurts my hands.

K: Yeah. I haven’t found anything for the feet, though. You give the best feetrubs.

C: Yeah, these days I’m kinda lazy. I just settle for getting all your bones in the right places.

K: Yeah. And so that happens probably once a week?

C: Yeah, probably about that.

K: When you crack my feet and realign them. Which I find entertaining so I feel like tat’s sticking with the theme here.

C: Oh, good way to bring it back.

K: (laughs) That is something I used to do in the United States regularly. I used to get manicure pedicure, and a weekly massage.

C: Yeah.

K: And a facial. I used to get a weekly facial, weekly body massage, but I also used to go and do pilates on a regular basis. So I used to workout more and pamper myself more in the United States I think.

C: Well, and getting a weekly facial and massage and all of that was a lot easier when we owned a salon.

K: Yeah, it was, but we did it even after we sold the salon. 

C: Yeah.

K: and we did it before we owned the salon. And so, woah, trip on this. To get a manicure in Japan… ichi man, ten thousand yen, roughly 100 USD. And I’m talking like, that’s not counting polish. 

C: Yeah, that’s a basic manicure.

K: Yes.

C: That’s not like putting goldfish in your fingertips or anything. 

K: No. I was like “what the heck you say? To soak my hands, clean my nails, and massage them, you’re gonna charge me a hundred bucks? No.” I don’t get manicures in Japan. Because in the United States, I could get that for twenty bucks, so… and that was considered an expensive manicure. Because I don’t have fake nails, I just have natural nails. So for twenty bucks, I could get, like, each thing was twenty bucks. Twenty for the nails, twenty for the face. I think it was thirty five for the massage. So it wasn’t, like, a lot of money compared to in Japan. Because in Japan, it’s a lot of money. And I don’t get massages in Japan because massages, outcall massages, is code for sex. 

C: That’s not true.

K: Outcall massage is code for sex.

C: No, there’s ways to… no.

K: (laughs) No?

C: Just, no.

K: Okay, so how do you get a masseuse? Just a normal masseuse. Because all the outcall ads, they say “outcall” and then she’s half-naked. And it’s always a woman, like come on.

C: You have to not start with the outcall, you have to start with the therapeutic massage. The keyword is therapeutic.

K: Okay.

C: So if you look up therapeutic massage, you’ll find places, and you could tell the difference between because the ads will have like, both a man and a woman represent it, and they’ll be dressed in white, and it’s like… physical therapy massage.

K: Mmmkay. And I really do, so every time we go to a hotel in Japan, I usually get a massage.

C: Yeah.

K: Because I really do enjoy the Japanese massage.

C: Yeah, so I guess I don’t really know for sure about outcall. Outcall massage might just be code for erotic massage, but I don’t’ think so…

K: Every ad that I’ve seen was really clear that it was erotic massage.

C: But they can be clear because that’s legal. So I think that if it’s not clear, you’re pretty safe with just booking it and assuming it’s a regular massage.

K: So in the U.S. I got massages as part of my, I don’t know, entertainment? Health-care? Self-care?

C: Self-care, yeah.

K: Okay. So in Japan, I find that most of what I do is puzzle, watch TV, and play video games. What do you do for entertainment?

C: I mostly write and watch TV and play video games.

K: So that’s cool, so you get to do what you love, do what entertains you for a living.

C: Yeah.

K: That’s nice. So, thanks for listening to this week’s digression. (laughs) Hope you check us out again next week.

C: Yeah, next week we’ll be talking about something random.

K: (laughs) We’ll start with a topic.

C: We’ll start with a topic.

K: We’ll give a decent ramble on it.

C: And then we’ll go from there. So come back and listen to our… what in mathematics we call it the “random drunken walk”

K: (laughs)

C: Bye-bye.

K: Bye.