Alun Moves to Tokyo: Disgusting First Night in Japan

Alun moves to Tokyo but isn't greeted by the Japan he expected. After a long day travelling to Japan's sprawling capital city, and looking forward to settling in to his new sharehouse, he made a disgusting discovery... How very un-Japanese!
Support the show and access the Lost & Found section, as Adam relives a night out in Tokyo, where he snuck into a private fashion event. If your name's not down, you're not coming in!
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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Intro
02:00 - Alun's smart & casual
05:47 - Busan to Tokyo
11:29 - Alun arrives at his new sharehouse

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TRANSCRIPT:

Alun: 

[0:02] Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology. It's the only backpacking podcast

Welcome to Tripology 

Alun: 

[0:09] that's self-diagnosed as the greatest podcast in the world. I'm Alun and I'm here with the ever activated Adam. 

Adam: 

[0:18] Thanks ever so much for joining us for another amazing week of Tripology. Alun, I thought we'd take the time just to introduce any new listeners to the show. Can we sort of talk about what it is Tripology is about? 

Alun: 

[0:29] Yeah, basically it's two best friends who are both permanently travelling around the world and one of them calls the other one up every week. You never know where we're going to be. I'm in Japan. You're in New Zealand. We phone each other up on the blower and talk about what we've been up to. 

Adam: 

[0:45] Yeah, that's it, mate. You've only gone and moved. That's it in a nutshell, guys, in a nutshell. If you're a new listener, it's basically two best mates trying to make each other laugh and talking about vague travel topics, lots of storytelling and that sort of stuff. But did you know that we're now about 180-odd episodes in, mate? We've been doing this for well over three and a half years now. And I think that Japan, where you now live, is the 35th country that it's been recorded in. 

Alun: 

[1:12] Wow, really? Well, we should backpedal. Because last episode, I was in Korea. And I said that I was going to be in Japan this episode. And true to word, here I am. And the journey by which I came here was effervescent, I would say. Do you know what that means? 

Adam: 

[1:29] Effervescent had a slight sparkle to it, didn't it? 

Alun: 

[1:31] Yeah, fizzy. It was spicy. It was bubbly. It was unusual. 

Adam: 

[1:36] It wouldn't be activating a working holiday visa and moving to a different country, having dismantled kind of your backpacking life in Korea without some twists and turns. So, I mean, we

spoke. We actually haven't. I feel like we say this almost every episode, but we haven't spoken that much in the last few weeks off air. 

Alun: 

[1:54] No, and that's by design, Adam, because... 

Adam: 

[1:57] You say that as well. 

Alun: 

[1:59] Say that yeah well as listeners both keen-eared and keen-eyed might note two things about me one is auditory and one is aesthetic the first is that i sound a little bit poorly a little bit under the weather a little bit bunged up full up as if there's a you know let's not be around the bush snot in my nose that's true the aesthetic part is i'm dressed in a manner that's, I mean, it has to be described as someone else. I'm dressed as somebody else, not me. I'm dressed in unusual clothes for me that you might not ordinarily see me in. I'm wearing a polo shirt, Adam. 

Adam: 

[2:42] You don't normally wear polo shirts. You look smart casual. What's been going on? 

Alun: 

[2:47] Yeah, that. I've been told to dress smart casual in a manner. I like it when people tell me things that are oxymorons i want you to be both smart and casual and when they told me that i was wearing casual clothes already okay. 

Adam: 

[3:03] So you knew. 

Alun: 

[3:03] So i thought you know i was 50 right and i was hoping that we could just continue on from there you're. 

Adam: 

[3:12] Wearing like jogging bottoms and then you thought if you put on a shirt with a collar and some sleeves and some cuffs. 

Alun: 

[3:19] I don't know me for a long time now you know that i would never wear jogging bottoms you can find me have you ever seen me in a pair of jogging bottoms i wear always a pair of black jeans a v-neck t-shirt and some sort of jacket or shirt over the top that's been the outfit since maybe circa 2011.

Adam: 

[3:41] I i have seen you in jogging bottoms or at least i can imagine you in jogging bottoms And the ones I can. 

Alun: 

[3:46] Imagine you. 

Adam: 

[3:47] In are dark grey or blue and we're actually walking around the basement apartment we used to live in on the farm in Canada and the waste is slightly lower than I would deem acceptable. 

Alun: 

[4:04] And you're not wearing a top. 

Adam: 

[4:06] I didn't mention this. You're not wearing a top either in my imagination. 

Alun: 

[4:09] Did this happen, really? 

Adam: 

[4:10] I think so. 

Alun: 

[4:12] I used to walk around the farm with my pants down. 

Adam: 

[4:17] I mean, it was the winter, but in that basement apartment, it got bloody hot, didn't it, sometimes? Because I think the thing that heated the house was in the basement that I was living in. And you spent a lot of time down there. We would often, you know, frolic and play pool and sit on the couches and have breakfast. 

Alun: 

[4:33] So yeah i very much took pity on you as a sort of basement dwelling guy during that time i lived in the main house of course because i am generally well liked by the animals and humans that lived there but you of course lived in the basement sort of like a creature that i would go and visit occasionally yeah. 

Adam: 

[4:54] There were windows but they had been locked and blacked out and i was fed, um sort of they placed my food at the top of the stairs and just shouted down and allowed me to crawl up uh

because of course it was when i first moved there it was covid and i quarantined for the necessary couple of weeks and then they just. 

Alun: 

[5:10] Yeah kept me down there covid covid had passed uh and basically we made an agreement that to still use quarantine measures in our interactions with you that was an edict that was passed down from the rest of the animals on the farm they said it was the best thing for my development yeah can we just pass adam's food under the door please because we know it's not covid but we're still not entirely comfortable feeding him by hand. 

Adam: 

[5:35] Um how on earth do we do this almost every time um tell us what the hell has been going on because you've done something incredibly interesting and something that we're all very excited about. 

Alun: 

[5:45] Let me tell you a story let me paint you a picture let me take you on a an anecdote all about the time i left korea moved to japan activated my working holiday visa and came to be here before you right now with a bunged up nose and a polo shirt. 

Adam: 

[6:01] You can't tell you're in Japan, if I'm honest. 

Alun: 

[6:06] Well, you should see the geishas below the desk. 

Adam: 

[6:11] Please leave that in. Please leave that in. 

Alun: 

[6:13] No, I can't leave that in. 

Adam: 

[6:14] You can beep it out. Please. That's what the podcast should be, isn't it? If you can hear this now and you think you found that funny, then just leave a comment and say, Alun, the editor, please let's have more of those because that's my sense of humor anymore. 

Alun: 

[6:30] We all understand what Adam was trying to convey. So, let me tell you the story, because I was... You can't tell you're in Japan.

Adam: 

[6:48] This is amazing. This is amazing. If that really was what was going on, obviously none of us would question that you're in Japan. We'd see the back of the kimono bobbing up and down and go, ah, we know where he is. it's the land of the rising. 

Alun: 

[7:03] The rising bon. 

Adam: 

[7:06] I was just leaving that as space, okay? You let the listener fill in the details. 

Alun: 

[7:12] All right, I don't know where my cut point is anymore. 

Adam: 

[7:14] There's no cut point, that's all staying in. Anyway, what you were saying was, you were going to take us on a little journey in Anecdo, and it was effervescent. 

Alun: 

[7:22] Yeah. So I wake up in Busan, Korea, having locked myself in a hotel room for an entire month, working ever so hard. And then it's 4am. I've got a flight in a couple of hours, so I catch a bus in the dead of night, all dark and go to the bus stop and ride a bus all the way to the airport. I go to the airport. I have a bag and a ukulele. So I think I'm going to have to check my bag in. But I talk to the person behind the desk and they say, don't worry about it. Take both of them on the plane because we believe in what you're doing here. So just take the ukulele and the bag on the plane. No troubles. It's all easy. I get on the plane. It flies quite some distance out of Korea and to a place called japan it lands i arrive in a new city it's all unusual and beautiful and vibrant and now i've got to activate my residency card it goes off without a hitch adam i go to the counter i give him my passport he looks at me he thinks you look almost exactly like the person in that passport and by that proxy alone i'm going to issue you with this visa and i get a beautiful little residency card with all sorts of important information on it. 

Alun: 

[8:32] I go through customs, nothing to declare, baby. I've not even got one thing that I want to declare on me. You can see I've got a ukulele. You can see I've got a bag. But apart from that, nothing untoward. Let me through. I go through and from that point onwards, I am a resident of Japan. So if any other countries think maybe I'd like a bit of tax. No way. Just Japan from now on, okay? 

Adam:

[8:58] That's funny. Just out of curiosity, did you fly into Narita or Haneda? Is it Haneda? 

Alun: 

[9:05] I would only ever fly into Narita, and that is my airport of choice in Tokyo, and that's where I flew to. 

Adam: 

[9:13] Okay, slightly further away, in Chiba Prefecture, I think. 

Alun: 

[9:17] Yep, because, no, it's not in Chiba, actually. 

Adam: 

[9:19] Is it not? Are you sure about that? 

The Journey to Japan 

Adam: 

[9:21] No, I'm not sure. I think it might be slightly in Chiba On the screen. 

Alun: 

[9:26] Just have a look Is it in Chiba? Doesn't seem like it to me But it was a fair distance To where I was living I'm living in a wonderful little place Called Koto City Just east, just a little bit east Of central Tokyo And it's going to be a great location, I think, I'd been so organised Adam, in advance of my Arrival, I'd already organised A place for myself to live I've already organised a little shared house where I think I can get my bearings I can maybe meet some people I can have some fun, Listen, it's been a long time since I've shared a house with all the copious amounts of money that Tripology brings in each month I've not needed to share, I've been able to have palatial, mansion like properties because of all the wonderful Patriones and sponsors but on this occasion I thought maybe it'd be quite nice just to share, to meet people to have a little space of my own inside a wider space that's not my own. So... 

Settling into Shared Life 

Adam: 

[10:33] But yeah no no please continue this is so funny. 

Alun: 

[10:37] Thanks man yeah so i um i took a bus to this area of of tokyo and by this time it might surprise you because i told you that i'd arrived you know i took the flight so early in the morning it

might surprise you but the time i got on the plane flown to japan for a couple of hours done my residency card and taken the airport shuttle it was sort of approaching a time that some might consider nightfall it was already about 4 p.m pushing 5 p.m so i got a little glimpse of my surrounding areas but i wouldn't say it was a good first taste of japan i was just sort of going oh the street signs are in a unusual alphabet oh the people look like i imagined japanese people to look prior to coming here. 

Alun: 

[11:28] And then i arrive in this little shared house right i'm already imagining how beautiful it's going to be i think this is japan it's going to be so clean and laid out and wonderful and like beautiful and pristine i'm imagining going through the doors of the shared house opening my door, slumping my bags tossing my ukulele a wall and then like a rock star easy and free and wonderful and starting my beautiful life here so i entered the doors of the shared house as per the instructions provided to me ahead of time via email i've got my key i found it in a cupboard it was inside a little lock box he gave me the wrong code to the lock box but i managed to figure it out it was a little bump in the road but nothing that i thought was catastrophic just yet i go upstairs it seems should be very quiet the shared house very empty key was a little bit stiff in the door if i had to complain if i had to up to this point i'm not you know i've not got any immediate issues but if i had to give some constructive criticism maybe oil up those keyways a little bit because the key was a little bit stiff fair point i opened the door. 

Alun: 

[12:43] I'm met with a room that seems okay. It's spacious. There's no sheets on the bed, so I think that's going to be, you know, I'm going to have to get some sheets from the wardrobe and then put them down. I look to the left. There's a little table with some pants on it. 

Adam: 

[13:06] Pants? Well, underwear. Underwear, not trousers. 

Alun: 

[13:10] Difficult to know what they were used for, these pants. I'm not sure whether they'd typically be worn underneath another pair of pants or if they indeed were the outer layer, but I didn't want to really have so much of a look at them. I'll just describe them as pants. Next to them, sort of some ramen in a packet. 

Adam: 

[13:30] Oh, okay. 

Alun: 

[13:31] Next to that was a miswak.

Adam: 

[13:35] And, hang on, you know what a miswak is. I don't. 

Alun: 

[13:39] Thank God I knew what a miswak was. Yeah, a miswak is a sort of stick that a lot of people in the Middle East and maybe South Asia use as per the guidance of the Quran to brush their teeth. 

Adam: 

[13:55] Oh, okay. Is it something that you chew on or is it just, would you use it back and forth like a brush? 

Alun: 

[14:00] You can chew it if you want, mate. You can do what you like. Some people have a chew some people cut the end off with a knife either way you get these splayed bristles which you can use to rub all over your teeth and gums and have a lovely fresh mouth so that was on the side in a packet again so you know but just like i was just like this is a bit unusual because it seems like not much effort's been put into cleaning the room really yeah yeah sure you know i mean there's other people's possessions on the on the side yeah it looked Lived in almost? Yeah, it was very unusual. Almost lived in. So I had a look. I got in. I had a look to the left. I had a look to the right. I did the opposite then for those of you watching the video. But, you know, when you're telling a narrative, sometimes it's difficult to know you're left from right. I mean, what first hit me was, I don't mean to be rude to whoever was living in here before me, but quite an unusual amount of hair. 

Adam: 

[15:01] Oh. That's the first mention of hair. That's disgusting. What, on the floor or what? 

Alun: 

[15:07] I would say coating the floor, almost as if someone had sort of had a full shave. 

Adam: 

[15:15] What was the usual amount of hair? Just like the odd one, the odd strand? 

Alun: 

[15:18] Well, I don't know. It depends. I don't want to accuse my pre-habitant of maybe perhaps balding or grooming. I'm not sure which of those two activities he was more engaged in. But what I will say is this, in order for it to be just usual hair shedding, I would say he maybe had to live in the room for approximately a thousand years. So it was quite difficult to imagine it was. 

Adam: 

[15:47] A reptilian a reptilian shedding skin.

Alun: 

[15:50] Yeah but in hair form yeah so there was quite a lot of hair and then i quite a few toenails as well or perhaps fingernails depending on the size and shape of his hands and feet which again i don't want to cast aspersions on this person perhaps he had very large thumbs. 

Adam: 

[16:07] No but that you're i mean it's maybe been a couple of days now and you seem to have digested this i mean not just. 

Alun: 

[16:13] Digested i certainly didn't digest any of it because you ate the ramen if anything but i know i am a little bit like like i'm a bit poorly my nose sounds a bit clogged up but if if any hair and toenails were ingested it was involuntary through the airborne nature of all the dust in the room as opposed to me actually picking up a pair of chopsticks and having at it yeah. 

Adam: 

[16:35] Stop doing lines of his toenails um no i think it's uh it's it's just weird that you're able to talk about this like it's not absolutely disgusting it's. 

Alun: 

[16:45] Horrible you say that and i appreciate you driving the narrative of the show forward in that manner but i think we all know that the next day i called you and was quite upset one of the few occasions where i did communicate with you outside of the show hours and i also called my mother and several other friends because Because upon being thrust into this situation, for the first time in a long time in my adult life and certainly my travel career, I thought I was going to cry. 

Adam: 

[17:17] Yeah, I can imagine. It actually makes you, have I ever seen you cry? I don't think in the whole time we've known each other, I don't think I've seen you cry once. You might have welled up on one occasion, but it would have been something very serious. But let's just say, obviously, you were fatigued, and you had really high hopes. You'd done all the work beforehand, super proud of yourself. And then you're welcomed with someone else's body kickings. 

Alun: 

[17:44] You know, you start thinking that's true because I'm not like a crazy planner. But in this occasion, I thought I'd done so much planning to like my merit, you know. I'd gone, oh, I've got like a job and an apartment and all this stuff. And it's just like, it's going to be amazing and seamless and beautiful. And then I was met with such a catastrophic condition. And you sort of have two options in this. I mean, it would have been great if I did this as a tripological reasoning. But unfortunately we simply don't have the time or energy adam it's but what we do have is a question what do you do in that situation because to my mind the choices are thus you either go this isn't this is unacceptable i can't live in here yeah you go and book yourself a hostel you leave and then you deal with the fallout with the management or the landlord or the house share owner later or you buckle down and do something about it. 

Adam: 

[18:43] Yeah so i mean i remember saying to you at the time on the phone it's very un japanese like for that for the room to have been left like that so. 

Alun: 

[18:51] Yeah there's. 

Adam: 

[18:53] A mistake somewhere um did you i probably would have checked i guess because you had the key there was only going to be one room that was yours right so you already knew that you were in the correct room. 

Alun: 

[19:05] Yeah, it was the room that I'd applied for on my application. So it was the room I'd paid for, a deposit for, you know? 

Adam: 

[19:13] Yeah, yeah. No, but I mean, there could have been another room in the house, couldn't there? If it's a share house. 

Alun: 

[19:16] There's several rooms in the house, yeah. 

Adam: 

[19:18] Yeah, that was destined to be yours. Maybe, I mean, there would have been a little voice in my head saying, oh, maybe this is someone else's because it looks lived in and it's absolutely not clean at all. 

Alun: 

[19:27] So it may be in the wrong room. It looked hastily vacated because there was 

A Disturbing Discovery 

Alun: 

[19:29] no sheets on the mattress and no possessions other than pants and ramen.

Adam: 

[19:34] Yeah i mean i would also question just how much hair and the toenails and the pants and all that sort of stuff because that isn't just not cleaned that's like not vacated. 

Alun: 

[19:47] Yeah it's like someone had lived there for so long in those conditions like for them to have lived in it in that state is mind-blowing to me. 

Adam: 

[19:56] Yeah yeah completely so i would have um i would have been on the phone sharpish for sure for sure once i had confirmed that it was definitely the right room um, i think i think i would have just seen what they said really i. 

Alun: 

[20:13] Messaged the guy mate and no response. 

Adam: 

[20:17] Oh and what time are we at now what is it like 6 p.m 7 p.m something like that. 

Alun: 

[20:23] It's encroaching on about 6 p.m yeah i'd say maybe maybe five. 

Adam: 

[20:28] So you've already paid for it from that date as well there's lots of other hostels in the area i'm sure a bit long now in it when you've got a room that you're paying for with a bed. 

Alun: 

[20:37] Yeah you know what i made a decision i i made a trip to convi 7-11. 

Adam: 

[20:44] Oh you did and. 

Alun: 

[20:46] I got a mask because we know that masks don't work against viruses but they do work against dust. 

Adam: 

[20:59] Um cool and and then what then returned or did you get some cleaning supplies or maybe an egg sandwich. 

Alun:

[21:06] No because i was feeling so disgusted you know trust me the last thing you want to do after you see this guy's hair and toenails um is eat so i got you know like 150 50 antibacterial wipes. 

Adam: 

[21:24] Wipes with the Maori pronunciation WH. Nice. 

Alun: 

[21:27] Yeah. I got 50 dust masks. I got some bin bags. And I came back here and I sat to work. 

Adam: 

[21:40] After the day that you had as well. 

Alun: 

[21:41] And I rubbed over every inch of this thing with an alcohol wipe. I filled two bin bags full of stuff. I used all 150 wipes. The amount of shit that came off like the skirting boards and the windows. 

Adam: 

[21:58] Oh my, oh, so you hang on. It sounds like you cleaned it sort of maybe better than you needed to. 

Alun: 

[22:04] Oh, it's now one of the cleanest places I've ever been. 

Adam: 

[22:08] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because in my head I was thinking I would probably just do the bare minimum. Maybe I would go down to the local convenience store or, you know, another one of these shops where you can buy loads of different bits and of um you know cleaning supplies and what have you and then i would have done the bare mins and waited for the response and said right now you've got to get a cleaner in to absolutely gut this place. 

Alun: 

[22:32] No i completely expunged all memory of him from the walls floor and bed of this place and you know really thinking about it now if he'd done a murder or something what an amazing coincidence and beautiful happenstance for him because i completely removed all dna evidence of his existence from this place, be a hell of a stroke of good luck for him. 

Adam: 

[22:56] Oh god that's so funny um is the ramen still around the bonus ramen.

Alun:

[23:03] Actually funny you should say that's one of the few things i forgot to throw away so i can just see it there peeping through the corner of the wardrobe oh nice one if uh anyone would like the ramen as a sort of prize. It's not going to be a competition as much as it is. Just send us a message at Tripology Podcast on Instagram and ask for it and I'll send it to you if you'd like a packet of ramen or a miswak or indeed, the pants have been thrown away, unfortunately. But the ramen and the miswak are anyone's game. 

Adam: 

[23:33] Yeah, God. You had gloves on like marigolds or something, did you? 

Alun: 

[23:37] Actually, it's funny you should say that. I just raw dogged it. 

Adam: 

[23:40] I just raw dogged it. 

Alun: 

[23:44] Because I thought, I can wash these hands, you know? God knows they've seen worse things. I mean, for example, I hate to bring up the prolapsed you on the farm. But I'm not, you know, I don't... 

Adam: 

[23:58] It's not funny. It's not funny. 

Alun: 

[23:59] I'm not overly attached to the idea of these hands being cleaned permanently. And as we all know, they can be washed. 

Adam: 

[24:07] Yeah, flipping hell. What an entry into Japan. You were feeling a little bit deflated, were you, by all that, I imagine? 

Alun: 

[24:13] Incredibly deflated mate incredibly deflated defated I was and uh so that's why I called you and had a little chat and I was like what's happened mate I feel like this isn't the Japan I was sold this isn't the Japan I saw in TV shows and in popular culture I was expecting sort of to be met by 

people in kimonos and perhaps a few pocket monsters and uh a kaiju roaming free but instead i was met with the least japanese thing of all which is uh copious amounts of skin dust and hair yeah. 

Adam:

[24:48] Shit i'm really sorry how to live through that and um i mean at the time i remember feeling a little bit sad for you because we do, especially places like Japan. I know you've been so excited about this for a long time and moving to another country, even though it feels like we can take this sort of stuff in our stride, it is still incredibly exciting and a massive moment in your life. 

Alun: 

[25:08] It's just taken a little while to feel that way about it. But all jokes aside. 

Finding Humor in Chaos 

Alun: 

[25:12] I think there's things that happen to you in life which sometimes are less than ideal. 

Alun: 

[25:16] But the difference between whether they are funny little experiences that you can make jokes about or actual disastrous things are what you make of them afterwards and i think in this situation i basically just did something about it as a result of it the landlord did eventually get in contact with me and like gave me some of my deposit back and apologized profusely it was like an admin mistake they didn't think i was going to be arriving on that day completely their fault i got some money back for it but then once it's done it's taken care of sure it's like a little bit of a nuisance and a less than ideal start in a country that you're ultimately going to spend a year in but it ain't the end of the world in it would have been worse if perhaps i just slipped on some hair hit my head and then spent the rest of my days in japan sort of in an hospital or something like that that would have been worse so objectively turns out no harm no foul and i spent the next couple of days roaming around tokyo went to shibuya to that street where everyone crosses it and films himself doing so going wow this is the busiest crossroad in the world let's all do what everyone else is doing and film it and put it on instagram and then i went to shinjuku which is uh another very busy populous area i had some nice beef noodles and some lots of little ramen dishes and i had a little bit of sushi i've been sampling stuff um i went to uh i had um you know flame grill meats on that little dream street that goes down the side of shinjuku area so it's been really fun and wonderful very. 

Adam: 

[26:46] Very cool and so it sort of met expectations after that first day did it it's um i remember you saying because i was quoted to have said that everything will look very japanese, And I would like to know whether you agree. 

Alun: 

[27:00] No, totally agree. It's almost striking and unusual how exactly representative of the

impression that we have of Japan in the West, Japan actually is. It really does feel, look and be the exact way that you imagine it will feel, look and be. And in a world where that's so predictable and so like consistent i do quite like the fact that there was a cheeky little morsel of japan stuck somewhere in koto city that dared to be completely different that's. 

Adam: 

[27:39] Amazing mate we're all so happy for you what can we expect in the next few weeks because now you are working you actually are working is it for the first time in. 

Alun: 

[27:46] Tripology's life no no but hang on let's. 

Adam: 

[27:49] Just try and let's try and just think about this live on air is it the. 

Alun: 

[27:52] First time. 

New Beginnings in Tokyo 

Adam: 

[27:53] That you have had a job since we launchedropology. 

Alun: 

[27:55] Well look you know me i don't like to talk about myself but i'll reveal some stuff here now for you because i am working i've got a little job so my start in tokyo has been unusual for me it's been very very work-based very very work-oriented i've had very little time to myself i've been incredibly 

thrown into the mix doing a job that I feel is going to be a lot of fun and it requires me to dress like this and I can only apologize for that but apart from that it's really a good place for me to be and I'm really excited. Since I started Tropology I've really thrown myself headfirst into this whole podcasting malloc. I was working building ukuleles when we first started the show and since the show's genesis I've done various little jobs like you know listeners will remember the time I was looking after a tiny baby howler monkey in the Belizean jungle. 

Adam: 

[28:47] Oh, wow. 

Alun: 

[28:48] I've not done any consistent part-time or full-time paid work since the podcast started just because of just how much money we were making doing the show. I never needed to. But

sometimes it's nice to do some work anyway, despite not needing to. And that's what I've decided to do. So I'm excited for this to be a new adventure. 

Adam: 

[29:15] Oh, God. Well, if you're listening to this you can choose uh to believe that or or not to believe that uh we're going to go over to the patreon section now where you can spend your hard and money money you can spend your hard earned money see i can't even bring myself to say it it feels like an advert for your own show um but yeah the lost and found section you've reminded me Alun i'm actually gonna i'm gonna do it i'm gonna tell a story about when i was last in tokyo and i managed to get into a nightclub by convincing announcing the staff that I was in fact on the guest list, even though they had the guest list on them and my name wasn't on there. And I snuck into a private event that was being run by Nike, the sports brand, and it was amazing. And I'm going to tell you that in the next section. So get over there if you can. 

Alun: 

[30:01] Yeah. I can't be hesitant to promote, do some self-promotion anthropology. You might struggle to self-promote, but I think if you're listening to this and you've got this far, It's a given that you're going to enjoy the stuff we do over on Patreon. I already know that. You just need to discover that. And the best way to discover it is to go over to Patreon. There's a link in the description. Or if you're old-fashioned, just go over to Patreon and search Topology in the little search bar. You can do it that way as well. And you'll unlock for very little money, really, if we're talking about in today's world. It maybe is the price of a small banana or maybe five packets of crisps. You can get access to just more of this and it gets a little bit cheekier and a bit more unusual and a bit stranger and listen i have a lot of faith that you'll really enjoy it so think about that the next time you're having a banana maybe it could have been money better spent and i'm saying that from the heart. 

Adam: 

[30:56] Thanks ever so much guys you're amazing hope you have an amazing week we look forward to seeing you on the next one we'll see you there.

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