What's Living in Japan Really Like? Q&A
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It's Q&A time! What's Living in Japan Really Like? Alun answers questions about life in Japan, with some surprising answers. We also discuss what people may find appealing or difficult about moving to Japan, including societal pressures, making friends, work culture, and common ideas about Japan that don't match the reality. Get your egg sandwiches ready!
TIMESTAMPS:
00:20 - Japan Immersion Begins
03:26 - Convenience Store Chicken Test
16:41 - Egg Sandwich Questions
17:58 - Japan Myths and Change
25:30 - Bureaucracy and City Quirks
30:28 - Tokyo's Big Advantages
33:58 - Culture Contradictions
35:30 - Advice for Tokyo Movers
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Welcome to Tripology
Alun:
[0:02] Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology. It's the only backpacking show where two best friends meet from other halves of the world into one central location to discuss all the things what they've gotten up to in the realm of traveling this week. I'm Alan and I'm here. With the ever immersive Adam.
Adam:
[0:24] We've got a really interesting episode this week, mate. I'm looking forward to it. It's kind of a concept. It is going to be immersive. We're going to take a little look inside your brain, inside your experience of living in Japan. So that anyone
listening at home who's thinking about moving to Japan, moving to Tokyo maybe specifically. We're going to tell them what they can expect. What they'll fall in love with. Maybe what they'll hate. And dispel any myths.
Alun:
[0:47] I'm excited mate because you have really taken the reins on this one like one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse you've grabbed that pony by the bolt and gone in a direction that i it's not yet been revealed to me, i've been working a full day of work that's why i'm coming across slightly jaded slightly sarcastic perhaps in the last episode some people think, oh good alan was um seemed like someone who had put in a stint at 7-eleven and indeed that was true and now the same because we're recording them back to back baby but here we are you've taken the reins you're guiding me down a path and i'm just ready to be a passenger.
Adam:
[1:26] Yeah well my heart sank when i told you the dates that i was coming i was going to be here for two two and a half weeks in tokyo with you and you said adam my manager at 7-eleven has given me so many shifts that i'm not going to be able to work on the
Alun:
[1:37] Show he's giving me more shifts than a manual transmission.
Adam:
[1:40] Um so i thought why not do an episode like this one that's hopefully of value to you listening at home because we like telling stories about our own lives and letting people into the sort of funny adventures that we get up to. But we also like to offer something maybe a little bit more informative. It's going to be good. I think it's going to be really interesting because you are someone who's discerning. You are someone who's experienced. You're well-seasoned. You've lived in many places. And you call out bullshit when you see it.
Alun:
[2:05] Yeah, if I see some bullshit, even fleetingly, and even glance it from the corner of the room, I'll be sure to tell everyone there's some bullshit over there.
Adam:
[2:13] Yeah so you know a lot of people love japan they're in love with japan they fantasize about living here I don't think it's all good. I am one of those. I'm a massive Japanophile. I've been in love with Japan for a long time. I've been here four times now, but only as a holiday maker.
Alun:
[2:29] Yes. You, if I was to think of someone who I know who loves Japan, you're the first person at the top of that list. You love it.
Adam:
[2:36] I do. I have a great time here.
Alun:
[2:37] You used to have a poster on your wall in Canada with pictures of Japanese people on it. Did I? No, no. It was the Japanese alphabet, wasn't it? It was a kanji poster.
Adam:
[2:50] I was so sure that you were going to go with the Hirogana Katakana writing scripts and then you said Japanese people.
Alun:
[2:55] I went, oh God. Yeah, I saw you predicting my, and I didn't like the fact that I was so predictable, so I thought I'd switch it up.
Adam:
[3:02] I thought I'd get that poster behind a cupboard.
Alun:
[3:03] He had a Hirogana Katakana poster up on his wall. That's how much this guy loves Japan. He loves Japanese YouTube channels.
Adam:
[3:11] Yeah, true. And a lot of Japanese customs and aesthetic artwork. Yeah. Food, obviously. Talking food, you must be hungry because you've had such a long shift at 7-Eleven.
Alun:
[3:24] Yeah, and we're not allowed to eat the 7-Eleven food.
Adam:
[3:26] No, so I've gone out.
Alun:
[3:28] Where did you go?
Adam:
[3:29] I thought, what could be quite funny? It's iconic. You went to 7-Eleven. I went to all three of the major...
Alun:
[3:34] Friends and family discount.
Adam:
[3:35] ... aforementioned, discussed convenies, the convenience stores. And we're going to, today, whilst talking, I'm going to give Alan seven questions, okay?
Alun:
[3:44] And I'm going to give 11 answers.
Adam:
[3:46] And you, whilst doing that, we're going to eat the family fried... You've been let down. Most convenience stores, they've got their own version of fried chicken. Yeah. So what I think could be quite interesting is to eat all of those and we decide which one's best. We can critique them. And I've also, for a little chaser, got you the very iconic egg salad sandwich from 7-Eleven.
Alun:
[4:12] Can we tell? Do you mind if I tell the audience what happened just before we started recording?
Adam:
[4:17] No, that's totally fine.
Alun:
[4:18] We finished the last episode and we just went for a brief toilet break because we want to be... Light on our feet during an act.
Adam:
[4:26] We want the momentum to continue long into the second.
Alun:
[4:28] I came into the kitchen on my way to the toilet and Adam had set fire. He started a fire in the kitchen trying to heat off some of this food. So I came in. It was like, you know, a burning piece of paper. Yeah.
Adam:
[4:46] I put them in one of those little grill oven things with the drawer.
Alun:
[4:49] A grill oven that no one ever has used in this house above you.
Adam:
[4:52] Well, they must have because it was still hot. That's the reason I used it. It was warm. So I knew that someone had used it recently. I put this food in there.
Alun:
[5:00] No way.
Adam:
[5:01] And whacked it up, full whack. And what I think had happened was the paper had touched one
Alun:
[5:07] Of the filaments.
Adam:
[5:08] And set a light. But it was a quick fix,
Alun:
[5:10] Wasn't it? Yeah, he just blew it out like a birthday candle. Made a quick wish and here we are.
Adam:
[5:14] There you go. So we got the family mark chicken, we got the Lawson's fried chicken and we got the 7-Eleven fried chicken.
Alun:
[5:20] Oh wow, three different types of fried chicken.
Adam:
[5:22] Yeah.
Alun:
[5:23] Now, I know what you're thinking, Alan, are you on contractual obligation to prefer the 7-Eleven chicken because you work there? Quick answer to that is, that's a comedy conceit joke. I don't actually work for 7-Eleven. So I can tell you exactly what I think.
Adam:
[5:40] Cool. Let's just start with one to get this rolling. What's it going to be? Which one do you want to start with?
Alun:
[5:45] I'll start with that one in your hand, the 7-Eleven.
Adam:
[5:46] It's already open because I ripped it because it was on fire.
Alun:
[5:49] Exactly. Perfect. I'm going to get tucked in here. oh it's nice and warm from the.
Adam:
[5:53] Grill yeah you don't need to see a close-up you know what fried chicken looks like guys no
Alun:
[5:56] I'm a vegetarian so smells like oh guys it smells like the like the packet like the burning packet yeah.
Adam:
[6:02] Yeah so maybe you know don't worry about that yeah don't
Alun:
[6:04] Factor in olfactory misgivings.
Adam:
[6:08] Yeah and it's a good size bite i think you're gonna you'll be able to tell whether it's any good or not now the meat is a little bit gray i will say it's probably not breast
Alun:
[6:19] It really tastes.
Adam:
[6:20] But it probably is chicken like
Alun:
[6:21] The packet though.
Adam:
[6:22] Does it just describe what you're going through
Alun:
[6:25] Hold on because okay you need to.
Adam:
[6:27] Talk okay i'm gonna talk i'll just describe it it looks like a big chicken nugget it's fairly packed with the meat it's uh not a big size really i don't know what it's the same so maybe half a loaf of bread not half a loaf sorry that'd be great value for money half a slice of bread it was 250 yen which is the most expensive by two yen really the other two are 248
Alun:
[6:51] Yen okay now i don't want to rub it on about the burning incident because i want it to be an objective test but you tell me if you think did the did you get a whiff or taste a burning packet then.
Adam:
[7:04] Not at all maybe
Alun:
[7:05] It was just on the top yeah the top of the chicken.
Adam:
[7:07] You've eaten the part that's melt
Alun:
[7:09] Right so i'm gonna ignore that in my taste assessment um it tasted, like i'd imagine a little bit greasy yeah a little bit greasy on it.
Adam:
[7:22] Yes it's quite chewy
Alun:
[7:23] Quite chewy quite greasy quite flat quite two-dimensional.
Adam:
[7:27] Yeah it's quite dry as well i mean if this is ripping hot this is piping hot and it's coming out of the oven
Alun:
[7:33] A lot of that's going to be masked.
Adam:
[7:35] Yeah i think it would be okay it it doesn't taste quality no you know it's lacking crunch um it's quite well seasoned i wouldn't say it's too salty no
Alun:
[7:45] That's true that's.
Adam:
[7:46] True so what are we giving as a is this middle of the road do we think
Alun:
[7:50] Well let's say we're giving a score out of 10 and five is what like as good as you expect average for the money.
Adam:
[7:58] Okay so out of 10 10 out of 10 would be exceeding expectations for what we expect zero has made you sick right well we don't know this well on camera but five
Alun:
[8:08] Is that is average what i expected to receive for money i'd.
Adam:
[8:13] Give from a convenience store and
Alun:
[8:15] I think that was a five for me okay cool for you.
Adam:
[8:19] Um yeah i think five's pretty safe i don't know if i'm saying that because we've got two others um all right
Alun:
[8:25] Well we can reassess the scores at the end but right now the 7-eleven fried chicken is getting a.
Adam:
[8:29] Five yeah can you just rip that open with your finger
Alun:
[8:31] Because this is.
Adam:
[8:32] Now lawson's which is famously my favorite
Alun:
[8:36] Lawson's chicken is your.
Adam:
[8:38] Favorite yeah i think so that's interesting i'm just going to go in there with the bare hands
Alun:
[8:41] I don't know now immediately it looks more appealing it looks slightly more like breaded more a little bit more subtle in its coating um, and i think the meat inside looks better as well that said.
Adam:
[8:58] It's heavily seasoned heavily
Alun:
[9:00] Seasoned okay let me get.
Adam:
[9:01] In here i think it's got much more flavor and um for that reason i like it more i actually wanted a second bite so that probably tells you everything you need to know it feels less greasy Whether it would have had more crunch or not, we don't know, because I have been storing these in the fridge. The thing is, with these convenience store things, right, there's quite a high turnover in terms of the products. So I had to take my chance when I saw that I went into a convenience store with the fried chicken still in the oven. I couldn't just go out, you know, two minutes before recording and hope that it's in there, because it might not have been in there. And then the whole episode would have fallen apart.
Alun:
[9:38] I would say that's objectively a much better piece of chicken.
Adam:
[9:43] Yeah, I agree. I agree. you can see it's fibrous in there it's stayed somewhat moist it's still got a bit of a bounce to it though but it smells better it tastes better
Alun:
[9:53] It's there's a lovely aftertaste that's just pure seasoning that i think is gonna it's gonna shoot me straight up to an eight out of ten, i'm gonna give that an eight i think it's a really solid piece of uh it's a really solid piece of fried chicken for your money that i didn't know we were doing this today you know so I'm just, I'm enjoying it from a, I was starving coming home from work perspective as well. But I'm, I think I'm going to add an eight out of 10.
Adam:
[10:16] Yeah. You wouldn't be surprised if that did contain some MSG or some sort of additives or preservatives. It doesn't taste completely natural.
Alun:
[10:23] I'm allergic to MSG. Are you?
Adam:
[10:25] I had a martini in it recently with MSG in it instead of brine, a dirty martini with MSG. It was awesome.
Alun:
[10:31] Really, really cool. People also, I want to say, people think of MSG as a bad thing. It's largely due to an erroneous, fraudulent joke letter written to a science magazine in which, a guy making a bet with his friends said, I bet I can get something published in a scientific journal. Wow. he wrote a letter saying i've noticed that lots of people get like feel like crap after msg, and it was picked up and run with so much that it became a cultural thing that people have in their heads like msg is bad for you it makes you feel like like you have this hangover msg thing that say totally not true it's like a completely fraudulent idea, which is popularized by this letter written in the science of a magazine.
Adam:
[11:16] And so it's it's
Alun:
[11:16] Not any worse for you than anything else of that kind sodium yeah.
Adam:
[11:20] And in asian and specifically chinese cooking it's used all over the place yeah
Alun:
[11:23] And they live for almost forever so.
Adam:
[11:26] Right now we're moving on to the fami cheeky fami cheeky maybe the most famous of the fried chickens
Alun:
[11:30] Yeah it's the original i actually think that this is the one i'm not sure about this but i'm going to say anyway i think probably family mart did this first, maybe 7-11 lawson's copied them.
Adam:
[11:40] Yeah go on have a little bite of that and tell us what you're getting involved so fami cheeky just the the word itself is an abbreviation of family family mart and then chicken so family cheeky i think
Alun:
[11:52] Doesn't look as good as the lawson's one it's.
Adam:
[11:54] A funny shade of orange it's almost
Alun:
[11:56] Fluorescent too orange isn't it yeah.
Adam:
[11:58] But family cheeky i think might be the best abbreviation of anything in the world ever because it's it feels good to say family cheeky it's nice isn't it it feels naughty it makes me feel like a small kid what are we thinking so far
Alun:
[12:11] Very difficult to parse out. I mean, get involved.
Adam:
[12:14] Okay, here we go.
Alun:
[12:16] Very difficult for me to parse that out between the Lawsons and that one. I will say, I think texturally, that might be superior, but flavorly, I think that the Lawsons is better. I think the Lawsons had a more complex seasoning taste. So I'm going to say, for me, that's a seven. The Lawsons is an eight. and the 7-11, by far the most inferior of five.
Adam:
[12:46] Which one's the most inferior the 7 11 yeah yeah i agree lawson's
Alun:
[12:50] Eight family family cheeky seven 7 11 5.
Adam:
[12:54] Yeah so the family cheeky for me is if you didn't try the other two yeah you might think it was okay but there is this kind of weird bizarre almost synthetic 6.5
Alun:
[13:04] 7
Adam:
[13:05] Yeah but the lawson's we
Alun:
[13:07] Agree hey that's good that we agree i like it when i agree with adam on food stuff because like we know he is a food expert he knows what things he knows what good tastes like he knows what the size of a jorian is he knows when wine is of quality he hates cheap cheese, and um so it's good when when i agree with him on food it makes me feel like i'm batting above my weight in terms of my professionalism basically.
Adam:
[13:34] Oh good good well we can put a poll we can see if anyone's ever had these three or they've had the lawson's one maybe they don't maybe it's not their favorite
Alun:
[13:41] Well don't even i think if you come to japan and you've only got time to eat one chicken go straight to lawson's go to.
Adam:
[13:46] It's not the it's not your favorite convenience store but it does the best chicken maybe
Alun:
[13:50] So it is my favorite convenience store lawson's is by some by some distance.
Adam:
[13:54] Oh well there we go
Alun:
[13:55] Good we've talked about that in a previous episode it's.
Adam:
[13:57] Very on brand i i was under the impression that 7-eleven was
Alun:
[13:59] Your favorite no no why were you under that impression because it's the one that's closest to my house i didn't choose my house based on the locations of the convenience stores there's.
Adam:
[14:06] Two very good ones but other ones like mini mart also an option oh it's in one of those nowhere near as famous don't bother their chicken didn't even make the cut i won't so i'm going to give you this now okay just while i ready the questions because today we are going to ask alan seven questions about his experience in japan we've got the iconic egg salad sandwich yeah which if you haven't had one of those um
Alun:
[14:28] They are potent.
Adam:
[14:29] Yeah we'll open it and we'll just eat it while i'm asking you the questions
Alun:
[14:32] They taste more like egg than anything you've ever had before to the extent that I was sat down today just before going into work and someone opened one next to me behind a divider I couldn't see them but I know that they opened an egg sandwich by the smell that came over wow.
Adam:
[14:47] Yeah it's um it's something that's highly sought after in
Alun:
[14:53] In um japan they open at the back the sandwiches almost like you're unzipping a dress.
Adam:
[14:59] They are also a pleasure to eat as well but a lot of things in japan i don't know how they do it but it's maybe it's the quality of the ingredients but i wonder if they tamper with the flavors because they they taste almost like an exaggerated concentrated version of themselves the proverbial
Alun:
[15:11] Lament that's been tampered with that.
Adam:
[15:14] Has yeah it's like a caricature of itself isn't it some of the food in japan yeah um or maybe in the west they're just dulling things down, diluting it, force growing things. Who knows?
Alun:
[15:23] Is this nice to listen to us eating an egg sandwich whilst talking down microphones?
Adam:
[15:28] Probably not, which is why I was holding the microphone away, but we'll find out in the edit, won't we? Sorry if you don't like us eating.
Alun:
[15:34] What can you do?
Adam:
[15:36] I've got the questions ready, mate. You can tuck into that. Enjoy it. Actually, they've cut the crusts off, which I quite like. Some call it wasteful.
Alun:
[15:45] Where did the crusts go, do you think?
Adam:
[15:47] No idea. Maybe they give them to 7-Eleven. just uh we recycled them in some way yeah not in the bin because you can never fucking find one
Alun:
[15:55] All right go um.
Adam:
[15:56] Question number
Alun:
[15:58] One is it about the egg sandwich.
Adam:
[15:59] No no not at all what's
Alun:
[16:00] This just set dressing then.
Adam:
[16:01] It's just for you to eat because i know you're hungry it's just for you to eat it's a little chaser for the chicken because we don't eat unhealthy food that often no we like to
Alun:
[16:11] I i assumed that i was not going to talk about this but really what's happened is that i'm just i feel like i've just got it yeah in in many ways passport please podcast they have a passport on their desk.
Adam:
[16:22] Right
Alun:
[16:24] Jason moore's podcast what's it called zero to travel he has uh a fancy microphone.
Adam:
[16:31] Yeah we've
Alun:
[16:32] We've got an egg.
Adam:
[16:32] Sandwich got an egg sandwich you can describe it if you want i mean why wouldn't you god it is like egg mayonnaise on steroids it's crazy
Alun:
[16:39] How eggy it is i don't like the word eggy if i'm honest it's.
Adam:
[16:47] I mean it it tastes good it tastes great so number one here we go what's one thing you thought you knew about japan before moving here that turned out to be completely wrong
Alun:
[16:58] One thing i thought i knew about japan.
Adam:
[17:02] Now if you want me to just talk a little bit about what i think the answer would be yeah
Alun:
[17:05] Do that and i'll have a think whilst you do that yeah.
Adam:
[17:07] So this is directed at you audience one thing that i thought i knew about japan before i went on holiday here four times um is the sincere politeness and respect that we all believe in the west that japanese people have for everyone else and each other which is true a lot of the time but i've also been quite close with japanese people and got japanese friends and had conversations with certainly the younger generation at length about this sort of stuff and there is an undercurrent there is a resistance there is sort of an expectation of how you should behave in society in japan and just because we see japanese people we're told through you know soft power or popular media or whatever, that Japanese people are like that. I mean, there's a lot of people in Japan, and not all of them feel the same. Not all of them like that they have to bow really low or say the same things over and over again in this kind of really polite form of Japanese. Some people rebel. Some people just want to get on with their lives and just be completely fucking normal and not have to live up to this sort of stuff. So... Yeah, it's definitely something that does exist for the most part, but there are huge numbers of people, especially the younger generation, that don't really subscribe to it, but still have to do it. Otherwise, they'll be penalized by society.
Alun:
[18:20] I think for me, I was told and I sort of had the belief that maybe as a non local person who doesn't speak Japanese, it'd be quite difficult to make Japanese friends. But in actual fact, I think Japanese people on the whole have revealed themselves to be perfectly easy to get to know and quite personable. Yeah, lovely. And like a lot of them speak English as well. So particularly the younger generation, it's quite easy, isn't it? To find people who either speak English or make a damn good effort using Google Translate and what they know from that goddamn green owl on Duolingo.
Adam:
[18:52] Yeah. So your experience, of course, quite localized.
Alun:
[18:56] Yeah. Working on 7-Eleven, I'm meeting a lot of people all the time.
Adam:
[18:59] Yeah. In Tokyo specifically, I mean, there probably is the highest number of English speaking Japanese people.
Alun:
[19:04] Right.
Adam:
[19:05] You know, as you go further north and to the rural areas out in the sticks, less and less people speak English.
Alun:
[19:11] Good, because my social battery's running low.
Adam:
[19:14] Okay, there we go. So number two, do you believe that living in Japan will change you in any way? How will it impact your future?
Alun:
[19:21] Everywhere that you live changes you. And if it doesn't, then you're...
Adam:
[19:26] You ain't doing it right.
Alun:
[19:27] You've done something really wrong, though. I think that every year that goes by of your life, even if you're not living somewhere different, you should be trying to learn something about yourself or doing something. I really, I can't stress enough how vehemently I feel that slipping into passivity in your life, stopping living an active, stopping being an active participant in your own life, it's a trap that so many people fall into. And my goodness, I think it's like, a really, really dangerous trap. So Japan will change me in a number of ways that aren't exclusive to Japan. I'm living a year of my life as an active participant in my life, somewhere new and somewhere interesting. Of course, I'll change in unexpected ways, because I'm showing up for myself every day, as everyone should, regardless of whether you can afford to travel right now, regardless of whether you're traveling somewhere I've never been or somewhere I've been before or somewhere that's new to you or new to someone else. I think you should always always always be developing and changing and pushing yourself to do new things that develop and change you.
Adam:
[20:36] Agree have you got like an inkling in your couple of months here can you see some things from the culture from the people you might absorb you think oh that's a good idea i wish i was a bit more like that or maybe that's going to compound over time and that will kind of shape me in some way
Alun:
[20:50] What i'll say is that there's a very very strict and, it really is real this whole idea in japan that there's very little in the way of work-life balance yeah there's like a real you should, live to work kind of vibe yeah in many ways, i'm kind of looking at that and drawing parallels with the way i've sort of approached certain things in my life and it's making me sort of see that none of that's worth it really and you should just try and, show up and do your best but everything's just fun at the end of the day isn't it like you should try and create a sense of play and fun and and you shouldn't, put all of your energy into work it's particularly not for someone else so i'm really about trying to find a sense of play in my day-to-day life. So nothing revolves around work. The only work that I put everything into is the work that gives me something else.
Adam:
[21:54] Out yeah not just financially we at the west in the west we look at japan as kind of one extreme and think oh my god you know they're so committed and devoted to their companies and they work such long hours and if they're not working they're commuting and if they're not commuting they're sleeping but are they that far away from a lot of people in the west who still devote you know five days of their week at least to a company just to get a paycheck you know maybe something they're not super enthused about they're just doing it to pay the bills it's amazing it sounds
Alun:
[22:26] Ultra privileged doesn't it but i i think that the second you're devoting all your time and energy, to make someone else a bunch of money because you've made decisions and made circumstances that mean you absolutely need the little bit of money that they give you in exchange for making them a lot of money to pay the bills that you already.
Adam:
[22:50] Have. Yeah, you're obliged to earn a certain amount of money, which is very restrictive.
Alun:
[22:55] I'm not going to say something's gone wrong, because people's circumstances are such that that's inevitable sometimes.
Adam:
[23:00] Yeah.
Alun:
[23:01] And depending on where you're from and who you are and what's happened in your life, I think, it's a real positive thing that you can do to try and change those circumstances and try and build something for yourself that doesn't force you to be on the treadmill.
Adam:
[23:20] Yeah, I think something that we've done or been able to do, whether it was through happenstance, whether it was luck, whether it was through very deliberate decision making, we didn't make any huge financial or emotional commitments when we were young. And for that reason, we are not obliged to earn a certain amount of money or live in a certain place. And I think that's probably it. My advice to any young people listening to this would be before you do enter into something that is very serious, both financially and emotionally, think about it long and hard.
Alun:
[23:51] I know people that get upset when you talk about, the circumstances that led to us traveling yeah and and often the knee-jerk reaction is well i would have done that if i could have done that but the vast majority of those people were in situations where they could have done they could have elected not to in favor of, whatever it is maybe it's a payment on a car yeah.
Adam:
[24:12] Getting a car on finance or buying a house all that stuff a relationship at a critical moment in time or anything
Alun:
[24:18] So so.
Adam:
[24:19] You know they're never framed like that at the time and maybe at the time you're making the decision that is really what you want to do
Alun:
[24:23] So yeah work-life balance is part of the culture in japan is becoming more and more a part of the culture in the west partly because people have to work so damn hard in order to do things yes previously were more accessible like a house.
Adam:
[24:34] Let's keep moving it's number three what's been the biggest challenge or most difficult aspect of getting set up in japan
Alun:
[24:40] Just the administration like getting your address registered there's this weird triumvirate thing where you need a phone number to get a bank account to get you need a bank account to get an address you need an address to get the bank account it's like really difficult you end up having to queue for a long time in the like city office, and uh it can be really annoying it's quite it's like something that has to happen before you get your first paycheck so it's quite prohibitive right yeah like you need to do all this stuff before you can get paid i had to do a medical certificate, it's it's pretty long yeah.
Adam:
[25:16] What came first the chicken or the egg you just feel like going around in
Alun:
[25:18] Circles yeah In my case, it was the egg. I have high cholesterol.
Adam:
[25:23] There's just a lot of admin. Sometimes it feels like you're going back in time in Japan, which is probably news to some people.
Alun:
[25:28] Yeah, in some areas, yeah. In other areas, it feels like you've got so far forward in time that the toilet's wiping your ass for you.
Adam:
[25:39] Number four, what's the most Japanese thing you've witnessed in Tokyo that would be almost unimaginable in a typical Western city?
Alun:
[25:48] Those maid cafes.
Adam:
[25:52] Right, yeah. That's pretty Japanese, actually. Yeah. As well as the animal ones.
Alun:
[25:56] There's like both catered towards females and males. Cafes where the niche is that whichever gender you're attracted to serves you in a maid or a butler's outfit is... And it's not necessarily sexual. They're scantily clad, and they usually attract to people working there. Yeah. But it's like the subservient maid butler aspect that people get their rocks off to.
Adam:
[26:22] And they're very, you know, these are professionals who know how to be good company.
Alun:
[26:27] Highly trade professionals. Yeah.
Adam:
[26:28] So that is quite strange. Yeah. And I can't really imagine them existing in the West, certainly not in the capacity they do here. Would you be interested in going to one?
Alun:
[26:38] Not particularly.
Adam:
[26:39] I think it'd be quite a hollow experience.
Alun:
[26:41] I find that there's muscle cafes as well, where the whole niche is that, like, really muscly people lift you up.
Adam:
[26:47] I've never heard of that at all.
Alun:
[26:50] I actually think that's my answer to your question, is just the litany of themed cafes. There's a Capabora Cafe, an owl cafe, a pig cafe. God. And a muscle cafe and a maid cafe. Cafes.
Adam:
[27:02] Really weird, really weird. My answers for that question were pedestrians obediently waiting at red lights before crossing the road. Yeah. which is strange to witness.
Alun:
[27:11] It's upsetting, isn't it, to someone who's so grown up with jaywalking being part of their culture.
Adam:
[27:15] Well, also because you can see that there's no danger and there's literally no issue. You know, there's like 30 people waiting for the light to turn green, but there's been no cars for a full minute. I'm like, guys, it's fine. It's actually fine to just cross. We could have all crossed ages ago and be on with that day.
Alun:
[27:29] Yeah, it's inefficient, isn't it?
Adam:
[27:30] Yeah, I get when it's busy, it's important to have order so you reduce the risk of people getting bloody t-boned by a bicycle happened to me
Alun:
[27:41] Yeah sometimes it's mad because there's like zero cars anywhere all the way and like everyone's waiting and then by the time a car gets there the light goes green yeah everyone.
Adam:
[27:51] Crosses from one perspective it looks a little bit of brainwashing you might say um but that's just me and also the clean the clean streets because there's no and there being no trash cans is weird you would expect this you know the result of having no trash cans would that the streets would be more dirty and have litter in them but they also don't which i think is quite japanese if you start removing the trash cans in the west i think there'd be more litter on the street
Alun:
[28:12] Well to rehash an idiom that you used before chicken or the egg isn't it because, also that question doesn't make sense because if anyone ever asks you chicken or the egg if you're talking from evolutionary terms of course the egg was first, obviously obviously it's not like a little conundrum if you believe in creationism, whatever but if you believe in evolution the egg was first two things that weren't quite a chicken reproduced, a genetic anomaly a mutation occurred to create the egg of something which we now understand today to be the chicken so if anyone ever says that to you again the answer is the egg then get on with your life um.
Adam:
[28:51] It's a travel
Alun:
[28:52] Show but you know you find the streets annoying there's find the pedestrianized the jaywalking thing annoying but you can't have that, and you can't not have that and have the streets that they're both two signs of the same mindset right yeah the reason like i get to walk to work through a beautiful park that doesn't have a single piece of litter on the floor yeah is because, people wait at the traffic lights when they're red.
Adam:
[29:17] Yeah you're probably right Yeah, there's slightly different things happening from the same source. Talking of source, what do you think Tokyo gets right that Western cities consistently get wrong?
Alun:
[29:31] Uh what did the tokyo cities get right what's your answer for that one my answer is.
Adam:
[29:35] Public transport infrastructure and order so ironically i'm kind of contradicting myself there um i just think the public transport is incredible it is wonderful like you can you can plan your day to the minute because you know the trains are going to be on time and even though there's a thousand exits or whatever there's 160 odd exits or something crazy at sunduku um maybe not that mini but there's a lot anyway 100 and something and but there's no stress it's effortless you know there's a lot of people totally but it's not chaos
Alun:
[30:05] The public transport is as good as people say and like there's heated seats yeah on the on the trains and stuff.
Adam:
[30:12] It's really good you do feel like you can't talk which maybe you shouldn't um
Alun:
[30:15] No but that's that's in service of everyone yeah like although it might be annoying that you can't, be a bit like you can't talk to your mates on the subway or whatever there's also no one playing music on their phone speakers yes you can't have one without the other and i think another thing to add to that list is green spaces, okay there's a lot of nice parks and green spaces i love that i can walk to work the majority of my journey being through basically a what it was like a side street of green isn't it yeah along.
Adam:
[30:47] Along a river as well yeah tell me your journey which is really nice
Alun:
[30:49] I spoke to a friend who lives in japan a japanese person and they said oh there's not that many green spaces in tokyo i was like, compared to other cities there is.
Adam:
[31:00] Yeah there's a lot they're often they might not always be that big
Alun:
[31:03] There's a park every couple of blocks often with like public use exercise machines a child's playground walking places yeah yeah it's really the order thing again you know it makes a big.
Adam:
[31:15] Difference and i do like the staircases that go down to the water side you know there's some areas of the city that are serving the pedestrians as well as the cars which which is great um the other thing i said there was the availability and affordability of fresh or freshly cooked food which you know for a city like tokyo is amazing it's just absolutely everywhere and i've listed here for anyone who wants to just get a gauge a little index on how much things cost here coffee 500 yen which is about three bucks and it's a decent coffee if you get in a coffee shop it's going to be decent ramen about a thousand yen six six bucks
Alun:
[31:48] You took us to an amazing ramen place yesterday that had i mean you if you had just that all day you'd be all right it was a huge bowl of ramen for about a thousand yen.
Adam:
[31:58] Yeah we came out the other side stinking like looking each other thinking fucking hell we've just consumed a monster i
Alun:
[32:04] Ate so much that the guy looked at me as if i was a demon and went.
Adam:
[32:09] Bravo well we ate so much that we immediately went to a convenience store and tried to get something to you know mitigate the risk of us exploding some liver function thing um sushi plate from one of the eateries up and down
this market street or even the supermarket you know 600 800 yen it's just three dollars five thought it's amazing really value and the metro is about 180 to 330 yen per journey which is one to two dollars for probably the best
Alun:
[32:35] I've never had it as cheap as 180 is that not a boss.
Adam:
[32:38] Potentially 250
Alun:
[32:39] Usually is like my standard price on the.
Adam:
[32:41] Subway but it's still pretty cheap very cheap you know there's people in the UK that are paying £21 or whatever it is to get a travel card for London and the train never fucking turns up. So we're getting shafted. Number six. Have you noticed any contradictions in Japanese culture that outsiders might find surprising? Something maybe that we think of in the West, that we think, oh, Japanese people, they're all like this. And, you know, my answer, just to give you a little platform to jump off, is the eating and drinking culture, but to excess.
Alun:
[33:13] Go on, talk about that.
Adam:
[33:14] So we've spoken at length about people from Japan being quite orderly, certainly polite, having manners, restraint, reserved, all this sort of stuff, shy, timid. When they've had a beer, my God.
Alun:
[33:27] Oh, but I knew that coming in. You did? Yeah, I did. so for me that is something i.
Adam:
[33:32] Expected but it's not exclusive to salary men which is what i think a lot of people think the japanese businessmen they work themselves to the bone seven or eight o'clock leave the office with their colleagues and then get off their tits until the early hours yeah but i mean even if you just go into a lot of izakayas there's a lot of drunk people on a just a random tuesday
Alun:
[33:48] Night yeah that's.
Adam:
[33:49] True they do love to booze and the food and the drink goes really well together hand in hand
Alun:
[33:54] There's more smoking than i expected as.
Adam:
[33:55] Well yeah actually yeah so they're health conscious exactly there's a lot of smoking
Alun:
[34:00] I was thinking like green zone everyone's going to be pretty health conscious yeah no there's no one obese really and that's true there's like very few overweight people vaping and smoking quite a lot.
Adam:
[34:11] Yeah yeah so there are i mean maybe the reason why they do go out and like to have a good time and they're so good socially is because of the work-life balance or lack of yeah you know it is um weekend warriors It was a reaction too. And then finally, number seven, what's the one piece of advice you would give someone who's looking to move to Japan and perhaps settle in Tokyo?
Alun:
[34:34] I would say that it's very, very hard as someone who doesn't speak Japanese, to get a job that will make your life here fulfilling. And I think a lot of people move to Japan and they end up doing one of very, very finite amount of things. They end up like doing one-to-one English kind of private lessons, or they end up trying to do that remotely or online. they end up working in these you know they're not qualified teachers so they end up working in, really like hobbyist positions where they're basically just conversation english i think it's very very hard to move to tokyo do one of those jobs and live a fulfilling life yeah so, in my personal opinion, i think you'd be better off going on a platform like work away finding a really cool volunteering position somewhere of which there are many in Tokyo I had a look yeah, there are loads of exciting workaway opportunities oh like things where you can live with a family and like help teach their kids English in exchange for your room and board, yeah I would sooner do that than get some minimum wage here is is at 1200 something yen right which is how much is is that in per hour yeah, using your little board around yeah it must.
Adam:
[36:03] Be seven quid something like that
Alun:
[36:04] Less i think actually really yeah yeah well it's less than seven quid i think it's more like six or seven pounds right, yeah you'd be better off volunteering and having a fulfilling life than you would i think you get your room and board right.
Adam:
[36:21] Yeah and it could even be a language exchange you could use it for a few months to learn a bit of japanese and therefore go on
Alun:
[36:26] To working six hours, seven hours, eight hours a day, making a thousand, 200 yen an hour. you're barely going to cover rent and food you're going to burn up all your time and you're going to leave Tokyo thinking like that was a challenge that was hard yeah and for what really like what have you really gotten out of that experience so I would say, if your skill sets are such that that's the only thing you're going to be able to do in Tokyo, volunteer and explore Japan a little bit go up to Hokkaido do a ski season volunteer down there there's a lot of Japan to explore Tokyo is a great city if you can, do cool stuff here you know if you've got experience it's developing video games or voice acting or doing there's a bunch of things you could do in Tokyo but, I think it's four specific things if you're really passionate about teaching you're a qualified teacher you've got a TEFL do it um but don't just come here, with no ideas you know maybe volunteering in that case is a bit better.
Adam:
[37:22] Yeah yeah I think you're probably right right I think we've
Alun:
[37:24] Always I think I'm probably white as well we've got this um but I'm trying every day to be a bit more japanese.
Adam:
[37:30] We've got um i think we have this idea in our head sometimes especially a country like japan which is like a mono culture right and it's got such a strong identity things are so typically japanese and obviously japanese and we've had exposure to it growing up for for years and years and i can understand why people might pull the trigger too early or just want to get over here and live that experience whatever that looks like But yeah, Tokyo specifically, I mean, it's cheaper than a Western city, capital city, probably.
Alun:
[38:01] Yeah, I'd say so.
Adam:
[38:02] But it's still an expensive city and you should still try to live a decent life. I feel like there's a lot of people here making sacrifices that they otherwise wouldn't.
Alun:
[38:09] It depends as well what you're willing to do, right? It's cheaper than a Western city, probably, but I'm here, we're in a house share. We are. We're in a house share because the rent is affordable in a house share. Rent's affordable all over Tokyo, but getting an apartment, securing an apartment, costs a colossal amount of money up front. So, I'm paying here 70,000 yen a month, so like $500, 350 pounds, something like that. Affordable rent. I could find an apartment, a small studio apartment, for a similar monthly cost, but the upfront cost might be $4,000.
Adam:
[38:53] Yeah, which is prohibitive.
Alun:
[38:54] For a backpacker, for someone traveling through, it's really prohibitive. And then I'm signed into like a two-year lease, so obviously you're not going to do it as a backpacker. So you're going to have to give up some, if you want a private space, you know, you're going to have to do short-term lets, which then of course the monthly price rises up. So you're going to have to economize on things like privacy.
Adam:
[39:13] Yeah, very good piece of advice. I like that answer a lot. Just to finish off my answer to that question, which was maybe a little bit more obscure and not something you would necessarily know if you've never been to Japan or don't follow lots of people who live in Japan, is that you should be prepared for countless surface level interactions that almost feel scripted. This is in things like train stations, convenience stores, restaurants, etc. Obviously, the language barrier plays a role. I mean, neither of us speak Japanese to the level where we can bond really or connect with the locals unless they speak good English, which does happen. But breaking through that layer can be difficult and it becomes a little bit repetitive. So when you go into convenience stores, they just say the same thing over and over again. And maybe in Japan and Japanese culture, you don't necessarily interact with people that you meet in those scenarios.
Alun:
[39:54] Whereas I like to do that. It would be very, very possible to fall into living a very lonely life here.
Adam:
[40:03] Yes.
Alun:
[40:03] I don't because I go to like comedy night, I go to the cinema, I have work colleagues, I go on dates I have friends over, all these different things, that allow me to live a social life, I talk to other people in the house chair, there's lots of things that I do to make sure that I'm not lonely but if you were like, focused on work didn't do those things lived alone.
Adam:
[40:29] Didn't speak high-level Japanese
Alun:
[40:30] Thank you so much uh then it would be very easy to to get lonely I think.
Adam:
[40:36] Yeah I agree and it is it's weird when you say the same things over and over again in in all these establishments that I've just mentioned and probably more of those that I just haven't interacted with because I've been here on sort of vacation as opposed to actually living here uh it can it can be strange because you want people to open up but they're closed because there is this culture of just saying the same thing repeating the same thing over and over again so you just go into autopilot you say your thing i say my thing you say your thing i say my thing then i go and um that's not not really sort of what i want out of an experience so i need to learn more japanese is what i think is the answer but to
Alun:
[41:14] Round up there's far far more positives than negatives i'm really enjoying my life here It's one of the most, I mean, in many ways, it's the most unique working holiday visa I've ever done.
Adam:
[41:25] Yeah.
Alun:
[41:27] Once I'm finished in my role here, I'll talk more about that job role. Yes. You know, we're being all cryptic and joking about me working at 7-Eleven. I'll talk more about what I'm doing here in Japan a little later on. But I will say it's been an incredibly unique opportunity. It's been a really wondrous time. I've worked in many countries, but I've never worked in a country in which English isn't the language. And I've found my time here so far to be so bafflingly enjoyable. I'm just so grateful that it will be a story that becomes part of the narrative of my life. Remember the time I lived in Tokyo and did all the crazy things that I'm doing here. And just another testament to the fact that, If it wasn't for going on a backpacking trip in Southeast Asia when I was 21, I wouldn't be here now doing this and talking to you about it. Don't let anyone gatekeep traveling as a broadening, amazing, beautiful thing. It doesn't have to be sipping a beer on a beach in Thailand, but sipping a beer on a beach in Thailand can be the kicking off block from which you kick off into the world and do ever expanding, beautiful things. So, with that, we'll leave you and go over to the Patreon section where you can spend a little bit of money.
Adam:
[42:53] Yeah. I'm going to tell you a story about a little public bath, a hot bath, an onsen that I went to last night where I was dipping in the same waters as a Yakuza gang member.
Alun:
[43:03] Has to go in the Patreon section because if it doesn't... Problems are bound.
Adam:
[43:09] We'll get a knock on the door. We're so proud of you, mate. well done i'm proud of you actually are you what have i done
Alun:
[43:15] Just stuff that makes me.
Adam:
[43:16] Proud that's a different episode anyway guys you're amazing thanks ever so much for listening we hope you found that useful and we'll see you on the next one bye bye
