1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:02,600
Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, I know we've been

2
00:00:02,600 --> 00:00:04,520
Speaker 1: competing this week to see who could come up with

3
00:00:04,559 --> 00:00:07,720
Speaker 1: the best what's big in Japan? Thing? But I actually

4
00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:10,240
Speaker 1: have saved one for you. And did you know that

5
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:13,640
Speaker 1: adult adoption is actually a pretty big thing in Japan.

6
00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:18,000
Speaker 1: In fact, most adoptions in Japan are adult adoptions. So

7
00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:21,119
Speaker 1: I don't think I even know what that means exactly. Well,

8
00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:23,680
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it has to do with inheritance. So

9
00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:25,599
Speaker 1: say you've got a business owner who wants to keep

10
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:28,080
Speaker 1: his business in the family, but I don't know, maybe

11
00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:30,440
Speaker 1: he thinks his kids are too lazy or not smart

12
00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,080
Speaker 1: enough to take it over. So the owner might select

13
00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:36,519
Speaker 1: an executive from that company and just adopt them, you know,

14
00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,040
Speaker 1: like to keep the business in the family. That's pretty funny.

15
00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:43,000
Speaker 1: I mean I have heard of people joking about adopting

16
00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:44,959
Speaker 1: college grads so that you have someone to take care

17
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,000
Speaker 1: of you, you know, when you're older. But I mean

18
00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:49,959
Speaker 1: this is kind of surprising to me. Yeah, it is, well,

19
00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,080
Speaker 1: and and sometimes it's also just like this kick in

20
00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,560
Speaker 1: the pants that the business owners kids need to start

21
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,800
Speaker 1: working harder, and it gets complicated. I guess with this

22
00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,040
Speaker 1: new sibling rivalry, But you of Japan is such a

23
00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:03,760
Speaker 1: fascinating place, and we thought we'd just take a deeper

24
00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:06,200
Speaker 1: dive into some of the customs and culture you might

25
00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 1: not usually hear about. So let's dig ina. Hey there,

26
00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:32,919
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson

27
00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:35,080
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manges

28
00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:37,880
Speaker 1: Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass,

29
00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,000
Speaker 1: super focused on his latest origami creation. That's our friend

30
00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,200
Speaker 1: and producer Tristan McNeil. So, so what's he working on?

31
00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:47,360
Speaker 1: Mango was trying to look is that? Is that a bear?

32
00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:50,400
Speaker 1: I think it's actually a sailboat. Oh okay, well it's

33
00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,280
Speaker 1: a very interesting sailboat. Keep it up, Tristan, it's looking

34
00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,160
Speaker 1: really good. All right. Well, today's show is all about

35
00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:59,640
Speaker 1: Japanese society and culture. But rather than taking a deep

36
00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,120
Speaker 1: dive into the nation's long history, or maybe focusing on

37
00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:05,880
Speaker 1: a single aspect of its culture, we're going to share

38
00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:08,720
Speaker 1: some of the strangest, most surprising things that we recently

39
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:12,079
Speaker 1: learned about Japan. So where do you think we should start, Mango, Well,

40
00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,240
Speaker 1: I mean, something I think we should address up front

41
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,239
Speaker 1: is this incredible balancing act that Japan does between the

42
00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:18,920
Speaker 1: past and the present. All right, so give me an

43
00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,160
Speaker 1: example of what you're what you're talking about. Well, one

44
00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:26,160
Speaker 1: simple example is that their smartphones are actually waterproof, and

45
00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,799
Speaker 1: this has existed in Japan for over a decade at

46
00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,000
Speaker 1: this point. Really, I feel like that's such a recent

47
00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:33,440
Speaker 1: technology here in the US, Like all the commercials last

48
00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:36,000
Speaker 1: year were so focused on that. Yeah, it really is.

49
00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:37,880
Speaker 1: And I actually saw this guy at the beach last

50
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,720
Speaker 1: summer and he kept accidentally dropping his phone in the

51
00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,280
Speaker 1: water then like wiping it off and taking a picture,

52
00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:45,640
Speaker 1: And I guess he was doing it to like impress

53
00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:47,320
Speaker 1: the women around him were like some of the other

54
00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:50,120
Speaker 1: people he was with, and at first I was kind

55
00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:52,560
Speaker 1: of impressed too, But after like the third or fourth

56
00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:54,600
Speaker 1: time he dropped it, I was just rooting for the

57
00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:56,960
Speaker 1: ocean to take that phone away from Oh no kidding,

58
00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,640
Speaker 1: I would have done the same, But back to Japan. So,

59
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,880
Speaker 1: the first waterproof smartphone rolled out way back in two

60
00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:06,240
Speaker 1: thousand five, and according to a number of electronics companies,

61
00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:10,120
Speaker 1: the reason waterproofing was introduced so early is that manufacturers

62
00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:12,960
Speaker 1: quickly learned that Japanese consumers were fond of taking phones

63
00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,440
Speaker 1: into the shower or bathtub with them. Wow. You know,

64
00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:19,040
Speaker 1: you always hear about screen addiction and how people are

65
00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:21,960
Speaker 1: finding it increasingly harder to disconnect from their phones, and

66
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,760
Speaker 1: this kind of feels like the extreme of that exactly,

67
00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:26,639
Speaker 1: so that that's what I thought it was at first too,

68
00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,200
Speaker 1: especially when you hear like these reports of gamers and

69
00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:31,880
Speaker 1: how addicted they are to video games. But that's not

70
00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:35,240
Speaker 1: actually what's going on there. So waterproofing is really the

71
00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:40,200
Speaker 1: industry standard in Japan of all smartphones sold in the

72
00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:44,200
Speaker 1: country or waterproof and it's because of Japanese tradition. So

73
00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:46,840
Speaker 1: as you might have heard that time is really important

74
00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,840
Speaker 1: in Japan, like public bathhouses called cento. They've been pillars

75
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,400
Speaker 1: of Japanese society pretty much from the start, and thanks

76
00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:57,280
Speaker 1: to the country's many volcanoes, they also have like I

77
00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:59,880
Speaker 1: want to say, it's like twenty thousand natural hot springs

78
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,240
Speaker 1: on the country for people to soak in well, And

79
00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,160
Speaker 1: are their traditions around these or what? Yeah, I mean,

80
00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:07,560
Speaker 1: partially it's just the health benefits, right, like the warm

81
00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,920
Speaker 1: water improved circulation and it relieves stiff joints. But there's

82
00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:13,480
Speaker 1: also the social intimacy that comes from sharing a bath,

83
00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:16,240
Speaker 1: you know, with other members of your community. So today,

84
00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:18,920
Speaker 1: most Japanese people still take frequent hot baths as a

85
00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:22,719
Speaker 1: way to undwind, and the waterproofing was basically a compromise

86
00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:25,720
Speaker 1: to bridge the old traditions with the new ones. Basically,

87
00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,560
Speaker 1: most Japanese citizens were on board with having this new

88
00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:30,880
Speaker 1: type of technology, you know, something that you carry around

89
00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:33,039
Speaker 1: with you all the time, as long as they could

90
00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:36,359
Speaker 1: take them into the tub with them. That's pretty interesting.

91
00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:38,720
Speaker 1: And you know, that's something I actually came across while

92
00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:41,719
Speaker 1: doing my research, and that's the idea of big companies

93
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,000
Speaker 1: having to bend to old Japan, you know, and and

94
00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:47,120
Speaker 1: find a way to operate within that existing social framework.

95
00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:49,200
Speaker 1: So how do you mean exactly? Well, one thing is

96
00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:52,479
Speaker 1: that Japan places a high value on hospitality and that

97
00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:55,120
Speaker 1: extends the company, is not just individuals. So you know,

98
00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:58,600
Speaker 1: there's this expectation among Japanese consumers that companies are going

99
00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:01,479
Speaker 1: to go above and be on just to accommodate them

100
00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:04,440
Speaker 1: and any of their needs. And there's a great example

101
00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:07,360
Speaker 1: of this, and that's the Japanese auto industry. So according

102
00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:11,440
Speaker 1: to the country's Automobile Dealers Association, Japanese brands account for

103
00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:15,400
Speaker 1: nearly nine of the cars sold there in Japan, and

104
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,159
Speaker 1: all of that thanks to the hospitality services. Well, it

105
00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:20,039
Speaker 1: actually is a big part of it. Yeah, you know

106
00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,280
Speaker 1: that the relationship between car dealers and their customers is

107
00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:26,080
Speaker 1: very different in Japan than it is here, and as

108
00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:28,760
Speaker 1: a result of that, Japanese consumers are used to this

109
00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:31,919
Speaker 1: high level of service that American dealerships have yet to

110
00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:35,560
Speaker 1: really invest in, either at home or even over there. Now.

111
00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:37,640
Speaker 1: The Atlantic did an article about this last year, and

112
00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:40,719
Speaker 1: it included this great description of a typical car buying

113
00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:43,640
Speaker 1: experience in Tokyo, and it really kind of explains how

114
00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:47,480
Speaker 1: deep this custom goes. So the author of the story rights,

115
00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:50,120
Speaker 1: the last time Shujiro Urada wanted to buy a car

116
00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,000
Speaker 1: in Japan, his phone happened to ring. It was the

117
00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,440
Speaker 1: local Toyota dealer. On the phone asked him if he

118
00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:57,880
Speaker 1: was thinking about buying a new car, and so he

119
00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:00,040
Speaker 1: replied in the affirmative, and the dealer and a co

120
00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,120
Speaker 1: workers showed up at Eada's doorstep an hour later with

121
00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:06,360
Speaker 1: two demo cars, which Urada and his wife test drove

122
00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,360
Speaker 1: around the neighborhood. Theorada has decided to buy a car

123
00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,800
Speaker 1: from this dealer. The dealer also handles their car insurance,

124
00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:15,279
Speaker 1: coming to their home whenever the insurance contract needs to

125
00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:18,000
Speaker 1: be renewed. Theorada is bringing their car to the dealer

126
00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:20,920
Speaker 1: every few weeks for a free car wash, or they

127
00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:22,960
Speaker 1: hang out and talk to the employees who kind of

128
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,240
Speaker 1: become their friends. Japanese customers also expect to receive services

129
00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:30,479
Speaker 1: like free maintenance from their dealers after they buy their cars.

130
00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,320
Speaker 1: When their cars need to check up, the dealer comes

131
00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:35,640
Speaker 1: and picks them up, does work on them, and then

132
00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:38,960
Speaker 1: returns them. I mean, I kind of want that service, right.

133
00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:42,760
Speaker 1: It's insane, But is that why American car companies haven't

134
00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:46,039
Speaker 1: taken off their like because of that service element. It's

135
00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:47,960
Speaker 1: a bigger part of it than you think. And if

136
00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:50,880
Speaker 1: these added services are just too costly and I don't know,

137
00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:54,000
Speaker 1: maybe complicated for American car companies to even bother with.

138
00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:57,360
Speaker 1: In fact, Ford pulled out of the Japanese market altogether

139
00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:00,320
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and sixteen. That's because they'd like

140
00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:03,160
Speaker 1: five thousand cars or so on average in any given

141
00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:06,279
Speaker 1: year then, and General Motors now has fewer than thirty

142
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:09,600
Speaker 1: dealerships in all of Japan. All of this despite the

143
00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,360
Speaker 1: fact that Japan is actually the third largest auto market

144
00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:14,760
Speaker 1: in the world, behind of course the US and China.

145
00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:17,240
Speaker 1: Oh that's crazy. I had no idea is that big?

146
00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:19,680
Speaker 1: So is this just a U S thing? Like, is

147
00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:21,080
Speaker 1: it a problem for the U S? Or is this

148
00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:23,600
Speaker 1: a problem for other manufacturers around the world as well? Well?

149
00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,040
Speaker 1: Not exactly. I mean European car dealers and Mercedes and

150
00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:31,040
Speaker 1: BMW in particular, they've made significant strides in the Japanese

151
00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:33,880
Speaker 1: market over the past few years. And as you might expect,

152
00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:37,880
Speaker 1: they pulled this off by embracing this idea of hospitality. Now,

153
00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:41,920
Speaker 1: BMW spent like seven hundred million dollars updating its dealer

154
00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:44,800
Speaker 1: network in Japan back in two thousand and sixteen. And

155
00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:46,760
Speaker 1: this was also that customers are treated to a lot

156
00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,640
Speaker 1: of the same services and perks that they're used to there,

157
00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:52,320
Speaker 1: and the company's sales are actually on the rise as

158
00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:54,320
Speaker 1: a result of this. So I've got to say I'm

159
00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,320
Speaker 1: pretty envious. And it's not just the service, Like I

160
00:07:57,400 --> 00:07:59,920
Speaker 1: kind of admire how the culture makes huge companies work

161
00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,200
Speaker 1: for them. I mean, can you imagine getting that kind

162
00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:04,720
Speaker 1: of service from like your cable bill provider or your

163
00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:08,560
Speaker 1: cell phone provider. Yeah, and it's pretty incredible. So the

164
00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:11,240
Speaker 1: American cars haven't been a hit with the Japanese, but

165
00:08:11,640 --> 00:08:13,800
Speaker 1: there is at least one American export that they have

166
00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,640
Speaker 1: taken to, and that's baseball. That Japan is not one,

167
00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:20,760
Speaker 1: but two professional baseball leagues, as well as countless high

168
00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,280
Speaker 1: school and university leagues across the country. So all sumo

169
00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,320
Speaker 1: wrestling might be the sport most closely associated with Japan.

170
00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,760
Speaker 1: Baseball is actually the most popular by far, and it's

171
00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:33,280
Speaker 1: watched and played by more people in Japan than any

172
00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:36,440
Speaker 1: other sport, which is insane. So I I knew Japan

173
00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:39,520
Speaker 1: love baseball, but I didn't think it had gotten that big,

174
00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:41,760
Speaker 1: and I do want to hear about it, but I

175
00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:43,520
Speaker 1: can't pass up the chance to share one of my

176
00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:46,719
Speaker 1: all time favorite Suma facts, which I jogged down in

177
00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:50,000
Speaker 1: my margins with an asterix in my notes. I think

178
00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:52,040
Speaker 1: I have a feeling I know which one this one is.

179
00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:57,600
Speaker 1: Is this the crying babies thing? Mega spoiler alert? But yeah,

180
00:08:57,640 --> 00:09:00,160
Speaker 1: I've got to share it. So for listeners, there's this

181
00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,160
Speaker 1: four year old ceremony in Japan where once a year,

182
00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:06,679
Speaker 1: parents bring their infants to shrines, so that Suma wrestlers

183
00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:10,640
Speaker 1: can try to make them cry. It's amazing. But the

184
00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:14,320
Speaker 1: ceremony is part of the Naki Zumo festival and it's

185
00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:16,880
Speaker 1: believed to bring good health to the babies and help

186
00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:20,040
Speaker 1: ward off evil spirits. Well I feel like maybe I

187
00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:22,880
Speaker 1: blocked this out because I don't remember. But but how

188
00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,120
Speaker 1: do the wrestlers try to make them cry again? Well,

189
00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,280
Speaker 1: each wrestler takes a baby and ideally gets the kid

190
00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:31,240
Speaker 1: to ball just by kind of bouncing them up and

191
00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:34,600
Speaker 1: down in the suma ring. But everyone has their own technique,

192
00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:37,280
Speaker 1: so like a wrestler might make funny faces or even

193
00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:39,800
Speaker 1: growl at the baby a little bit, and then after

194
00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,560
Speaker 1: a few seconds, if nothing's worked, a referee will actually

195
00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:46,320
Speaker 1: step in wearing a traditional face mask, and that's what

196
00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:49,440
Speaker 1: does the trick like a referee. So is this more

197
00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,520
Speaker 1: of a ceremony or a competition? Well, I mean it

198
00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:54,480
Speaker 1: is an event that happens all over the country, so

199
00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:57,679
Speaker 1: the exact rules vary from region to region. So at

200
00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:00,880
Speaker 1: this one shrine in Tokyo they call it baby chry

201
00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:04,599
Speaker 1: sumo that it's strictly a ceremony. In some places, the

202
00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:07,040
Speaker 1: babies actually do compete against each other to see who

203
00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:10,560
Speaker 1: will cry first, and whoever cries first is declared the loser.

204
00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:16,400
Speaker 1: I still can't believe Japan has this competition where babies

205
00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:20,719
Speaker 1: are pitted against one another by suma arrest. I do

206
00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:22,800
Speaker 1: love that there is such a thing, but it's still

207
00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,160
Speaker 1: pretty nuts. Yeah, I mean it does make you wonder

208
00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:28,520
Speaker 1: why they even bother with baseball. M Well, I do

209
00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:30,800
Speaker 1: want to get back to exactly how and why baseball

210
00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,360
Speaker 1: has becomes so big in Japan, but before we do,

211
00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:48,400
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time

212
00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:51,840
Speaker 1: Genius and we're talking about some surprising features of Japanese culture.

213
00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:54,559
Speaker 1: So well, I know you're itching to explain the origins

214
00:10:54,559 --> 00:10:57,559
Speaker 1: of Japanese baseball, but first I just have to tell

215
00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:00,200
Speaker 1: you about a story I found while researching KFC in

216
00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:02,920
Speaker 1: Japan's Love Affair with It. But don't worry, because it's

217
00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:06,560
Speaker 1: actually a baseball story too. So you know how in

218
00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,480
Speaker 1: American baseball we have these curses that crop up from

219
00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:11,520
Speaker 1: time to time. Yeah, of course, you've got the Cubs

220
00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:13,480
Speaker 1: and their Billy Goat, and the Red Sox and the

221
00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:16,080
Speaker 1: Curse of the Ambino and all sorts of curses like

222
00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:19,719
Speaker 1: this exactly, and and Apparently that baseball tradition carried over

223
00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:21,960
Speaker 1: to Japan because they have the same kind of thing.

224
00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:24,960
Speaker 1: And probably my favorite curse of all time involves a

225
00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,120
Speaker 1: team called the Hanshin Tigers and a statue of KFC

226
00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:32,800
Speaker 1: founder Colonel Sanders. So the story goes back in the

227
00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:36,480
Speaker 1: Tigers won the Japan Championship Series, which is the Japanese

228
00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:39,920
Speaker 1: equivalent of the World Series, and to celebrate big wins

229
00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:42,720
Speaker 1: like that, Tigers fans had this tradition where they would

230
00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,640
Speaker 1: gather on a certain bridge in Osaka read the names

231
00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:48,199
Speaker 1: of all the winning team members out loud, and then

232
00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,080
Speaker 1: as each name was called, a fan who resembled that

233
00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:53,680
Speaker 1: player would actually jump off the bridge into the river.

234
00:11:54,520 --> 00:11:57,320
Speaker 1: I mean, this is already weirder than the Babe Ruth curse.

235
00:11:57,440 --> 00:11:59,520
Speaker 1: And and I'm a little confused here. So is the

236
00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:01,840
Speaker 1: whole fan base made up of guys who just look

237
00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:04,520
Speaker 1: like these players or what? Yeah? I mean, I think

238
00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:07,720
Speaker 1: it was more of a close enough thing. But the

239
00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:10,640
Speaker 1: problem was in eight five, none of the Japanese fans

240
00:12:10,679 --> 00:12:13,000
Speaker 1: looked anything like the team's m v P. Who's this

241
00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:16,200
Speaker 1: American guy named Randy Bass? And so this is where

242
00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:19,679
Speaker 1: KFC comes in because the fans were desperate to find

243
00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:22,280
Speaker 1: a Randy Bass look alike, and when they couldn't find

244
00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:25,280
Speaker 1: when they spied the statue of the KFC mascot. It

245
00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:28,160
Speaker 1: kind of looked close enough, so they snatched the colonel

246
00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:31,240
Speaker 1: dressed into Randy Bass jersey and chucked it off the

247
00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:34,760
Speaker 1: bridge into the river as they spoke his name out loud. Wow.

248
00:12:34,800 --> 00:12:36,480
Speaker 1: And if you were trying to just make up, like,

249
00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:39,560
Speaker 1: what is the most American name you could come up

250
00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:44,120
Speaker 1: with just like Randy Bass away. So so I don't

251
00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:46,760
Speaker 1: understand who put the curse on the team. Is it

252
00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,440
Speaker 1: the owner of the KFC or Randy Bass? I mean, actually,

253
00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:52,959
Speaker 1: by the way, I just googled and sadly, Randy bast

254
00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:55,480
Speaker 1: does not look much like the colonel at all. I

255
00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:58,400
Speaker 1: mean that makes it better actually, But the curse was

256
00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:01,520
Speaker 1: from the colonel himself. So the real Colonel Sanders, I

257
00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:04,679
Speaker 1: want to say, like, passed away five years earlier, and so,

258
00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,520
Speaker 1: according to the legend, his spirit was so pissed about

259
00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:10,680
Speaker 1: the Tigers fans desecrating his statue that he cursed their

260
00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:14,520
Speaker 1: beloved team to never win a championship again. And it

261
00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:17,080
Speaker 1: must have been a potent curse because thirty three years later,

262
00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:19,679
Speaker 1: the Tigers have yet to win, despite making it to

263
00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:23,520
Speaker 1: the playoffs multiple times. Wow, So has anybody ever tried

264
00:13:23,559 --> 00:13:26,000
Speaker 1: just putting the statue back, you know, just to a

265
00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:29,640
Speaker 1: peace Sanders, I guess yeah. So, once a few years

266
00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:32,120
Speaker 1: had gone by and it became clear that, you know,

267
00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:33,960
Speaker 1: the team had been cursed by the ghost of an

268
00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,880
Speaker 1: American chicken salesman, fans tried all kinds of ways to

269
00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:42,360
Speaker 1: affuse them, so they apologized to the KFC manager. They

270
00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:44,920
Speaker 1: they mounted a few failed dives to the bottom of

271
00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:47,280
Speaker 1: the river to try to find the statue, and then

272
00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:50,719
Speaker 1: in two thousand nine, divers actually found and recovered the

273
00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:54,720
Speaker 1: Colonel statue. I mean, his glasses and left hand were missing,

274
00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:58,280
Speaker 1: but otherwise he was pretty intact. So so the Tigers

275
00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:00,880
Speaker 1: were hopeful once more, and it fact, the manager of

276
00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:03,840
Speaker 1: the team held a press conference where he told the press,

277
00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:06,360
Speaker 1: when I heard the statue had been found, I felt

278
00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:11,080
Speaker 1: that losing history had ended. I do think if the

279
00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:13,240
Speaker 1: Cubs could win a series, I have to believe the

280
00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:16,559
Speaker 1: Tigers will get there sooner or later. But all right, Well,

281
00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:19,760
Speaker 1: if the KFC curse tells us anything, it's that baseball

282
00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:24,280
Speaker 1: is this unexpected source of overlap between Japanese and American culture,

283
00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:26,480
Speaker 1: of course, And so I did some digging to find

284
00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,160
Speaker 1: out how the Japanese first fell in love with baseball,

285
00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:31,560
Speaker 1: and the story actually goes all the way back to

286
00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:35,080
Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds. And now this was during the Meiji era,

287
00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:37,480
Speaker 1: and this was this period when Japan was moving away

288
00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:40,880
Speaker 1: from its isolationist roots and trying to adopt these more

289
00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:44,480
Speaker 1: western customs as a result of this. Now, one person

290
00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:47,680
Speaker 1: often gets credited for introducing baseball to Japan, and that's

291
00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:51,160
Speaker 1: Professor Horace Wilson. And he was an American who taught

292
00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:54,240
Speaker 1: English at the university in Tokyo, and at some point,

293
00:14:54,360 --> 00:14:56,920
Speaker 1: I think it was in the eighteen seventies, he started

294
00:14:56,960 --> 00:14:59,880
Speaker 1: introducing his students to baseball because he decided they needed

295
00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:02,320
Speaker 1: to get more exercise in their lives. But I mean,

296
00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:05,520
Speaker 1: isn't there plenty of sports opportunity in Japan, like martial

297
00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:09,560
Speaker 1: arts and winter sports, and you know, we talked about sumo. Yeah,

298
00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:11,520
Speaker 1: I have thought the same thing, But there was one

299
00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,280
Speaker 1: part of this that I had not really thought about. So,

300
00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:16,720
Speaker 1: so here's the thing that sports native to Japan or

301
00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:20,080
Speaker 1: super popular in Japan, or that sumo or karate or

302
00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:24,080
Speaker 1: several others. You know, they're mostly one on one activities. So,

303
00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:26,800
Speaker 1: despite the fact that Japan is a pretty highly group

304
00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,160
Speaker 1: based culture, for whatever weird reason, the country actually hadn't

305
00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:33,120
Speaker 1: developed that many teams sports of their own. That's crazy.

306
00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:35,960
Speaker 1: I'd actually never thought about that. So is that one

307
00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,040
Speaker 1: of the things that helped baseball catch on? Definitely? And

308
00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:41,720
Speaker 1: like I said, so much of Japanese culture is built

309
00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:44,560
Speaker 1: around this idea that the group is the central unit

310
00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:47,680
Speaker 1: of society. So whether it's your family, your neighbors, or

311
00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:50,760
Speaker 1: your classmates. So a team sport like baseball was naturally

312
00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,520
Speaker 1: appealing to many people once word of it spread, and

313
00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:56,840
Speaker 1: actually spread pretty quickly. So in eighteen seventy eight, just

314
00:15:56,880 --> 00:15:59,440
Speaker 1: a few years after Horace Wilson taught his students how

315
00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:02,920
Speaker 1: to play by baseball, the Japanese railway engineer organized the

316
00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:07,800
Speaker 1: very first Japanese baseball team, the Shinbashi Athletic Club Athletics.

317
00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:12,120
Speaker 1: That's an amazing name. Yeah, well, Japan did get better

318
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:15,600
Speaker 1: at naming things than today. There are several professional baseball

319
00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,240
Speaker 1: teams there and it's not that different from the American

320
00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:21,040
Speaker 1: mascot name. So to go along with the Tigers, You've

321
00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:24,520
Speaker 1: got things like the buffaloes, the hawks, the carp as

322
00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:26,680
Speaker 1: well as you know a few mythical creatures like the

323
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,320
Speaker 1: dragons and the giants. But there is something interesting about

324
00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:32,400
Speaker 1: the naming there. And we mentioned earlier that the team

325
00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:36,840
Speaker 1: was called the Hanschen Tigers. But Hanchen isn't actually a city,

326
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,480
Speaker 1: so I mean, is it a village or a hamlet

327
00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:42,840
Speaker 1: or something. No, So that's one difference between American and

328
00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:47,040
Speaker 1: Japanese baseball. Hanchen is actually a railway company. So while

329
00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:49,840
Speaker 1: American teams are privately owned and named for cities that

330
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:53,440
Speaker 1: support them, Japanese teams are named for the corporations that

331
00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:56,440
Speaker 1: own them. So while we have the San Francisco Giants,

332
00:16:56,560 --> 00:16:59,360
Speaker 1: Japan has the Yamiuri Giants, which are named for the

333
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:03,360
Speaker 1: Yamiori newspaper company there. That's pretty interesting, though, I do

334
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:05,200
Speaker 1: feel like I'm missing a piece of the history here.

335
00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:07,919
Speaker 1: So how did Japanese baseball go from being a college

336
00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:11,040
Speaker 1: sport to a national pastime that has these massive companies

337
00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:14,200
Speaker 1: bankrolling the teams? Well after eighteen seventy eight you started

338
00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:16,520
Speaker 1: to see these other teams popping up in Japan, and

339
00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,840
Speaker 1: for the next ten years, baseball continued to gain popularity

340
00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:23,720
Speaker 1: at these Japanese universities. The game mostly stayed on campuses

341
00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:26,480
Speaker 1: until well after the turn of the century, but then

342
00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:30,000
Speaker 1: in the early thirties, and American ballplayer named Lefty o'duel

343
00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:33,320
Speaker 1: started touring these Japanese universities with a small team of

344
00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:37,280
Speaker 1: American players. How baseball of a name is that left odual.

345
00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:41,080
Speaker 1: So they were giving lessons to Japanese players and holding

346
00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:44,280
Speaker 1: these exhibition games every year from nineteen thirty three to

347
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:48,240
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty seven. And these exhibitions could be massive, so

348
00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:52,000
Speaker 1: sometimes they played the crowds of more than sixty thousand people. Wow.

349
00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,200
Speaker 1: And so y four in particular was this very important

350
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:58,080
Speaker 1: year for Japanese baseball, and this was the year that

351
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,040
Speaker 1: left he brought over this all star American team. That

352
00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:05,200
Speaker 1: this team included players like Luke Garrig, Lefty Gomez, Earl Whitehill,

353
00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:09,080
Speaker 1: Babe Ruth himself, and so Japan organized its own dream

354
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:12,000
Speaker 1: team to face them, but left his crew handily defeated

355
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:14,399
Speaker 1: them in all eighteen of the games that they played.

356
00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,000
Speaker 1: I mean that sounds awful, right, like, like why would

357
00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:19,720
Speaker 1: you want to take up a sport after that? Sort

358
00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:23,280
Speaker 1: of humiliation. Well, so there was a moment during those

359
00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:26,840
Speaker 1: eighteen games when something truly special happened. There was a

360
00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:30,119
Speaker 1: Japanese picture named Agi Sawamora, and he managed to strike

361
00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:34,120
Speaker 1: out Charlie Garringer, Babe Ruth, Luke Garrick, and Jimmy Fox

362
00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:37,359
Speaker 1: all in a row. So, even though the team ultimately lost,

363
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:41,720
Speaker 1: Sauermember became this national hero overnight, like the country saw

364
00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:45,280
Speaker 1: what was possible, and baseball became more popular than ever.

365
00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:48,919
Speaker 1: In fact, organizers rode that wave of public enthusiasm and

366
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:52,600
Speaker 1: just two years later they formed Japan's very first professional

367
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:55,600
Speaker 1: baseball team. And as I thank you to Lefty o'duel,

368
00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,240
Speaker 1: the New York Giant who helped spark the baseball fire

369
00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:01,720
Speaker 1: in Japan, the newly formed team named itself the Giants

370
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,840
Speaker 1: in his honor. I love that. And there's actually another

371
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,160
Speaker 1: unexpected big in Japan craze that I want to talk about.

372
00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:09,440
Speaker 1: But before we do that, let's take a quick break,

373
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,200
Speaker 1: all right, Mega, So it's my turn for a quick tangent.

374
00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:27,560
Speaker 1: So we both heard the phrase big in Japan, but

375
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:29,359
Speaker 1: I just wanted to take a second to talk about

376
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:32,680
Speaker 1: where the phrase actually comes from. Yeah, I mean I

377
00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:35,119
Speaker 1: think it's like a music industry term, right, Like I

378
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,720
Speaker 1: remember bands growing up who didn't hit the charts in

379
00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,280
Speaker 1: the US, but I would always point to their number

380
00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,479
Speaker 1: ones in Asia saying they're big in Japan. Yeah, that's right.

381
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,000
Speaker 1: But there's actually an origin story here, and so the

382
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:48,479
Speaker 1: idea goes back to the fifties and the sixties when

383
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:52,760
Speaker 1: Japanese youth started getting hooked on British and American music. So,

384
00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:54,800
Speaker 1: for example, there was this rock band from the States

385
00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,960
Speaker 1: called The Ventures, and by the early nineteen sixties, the

386
00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,520
Speaker 1: band was less fashionable in the U US, so they

387
00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:04,440
Speaker 1: tried touring Japan, and to their surprise, the country went

388
00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:08,480
Speaker 1: crazy for them, quickly becoming the group's most devoted fan base.

389
00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,560
Speaker 1: In fact, the Ventures continued to tour Japan every year

390
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 1: until two thousand and fifteen, and today their albums have

391
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:19,679
Speaker 1: outsold the Beatles two to one. There isn't that crazy crazy?

392
00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:22,800
Speaker 1: So I mean, I guess big in Japan started out

393
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,639
Speaker 1: as kind of a compliment. Well, I don't know about

394
00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:27,760
Speaker 1: a compliment, but it definitely started out the way you

395
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:29,800
Speaker 1: and I have been using and it's just to acknowledge

396
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:32,720
Speaker 1: the fact, like this band is big in Japan. But

397
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:34,960
Speaker 1: you know, by the seventies and eighties, the phrase was

398
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,680
Speaker 1: just being used more mockingly, and it kind of came

399
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:41,520
Speaker 1: to represent the snobbish perception that Japanese consumers were maybe

400
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:45,000
Speaker 1: attracted lesser artists or something like that. But there's actually

401
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,960
Speaker 1: even a joke at the end of this is spinal tap.

402
00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:49,000
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember this, but the Washtup

403
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,760
Speaker 1: band reunites for a second chance at fame and goes

404
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:56,199
Speaker 1: on this Japanese tour. You know, I've forgotten that, and

405
00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:58,640
Speaker 1: I've always thought of that line is more of a lie,

406
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:01,000
Speaker 1: like it's the guy who claims to have a girlfriend

407
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:05,000
Speaker 1: at camp in Canada. You know. It's like, I guess

408
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:08,920
Speaker 1: I never even considered all this cultural condescension. That's pretty interesting,

409
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:12,360
Speaker 1: And maybe that's partially because they're all these great musicians,

410
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:14,760
Speaker 1: especially jazz artists, who are a little overlooked in the

411
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 1: States but have been super popular in Japan for decades.

412
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:20,000
Speaker 1: And I looked into this a little and it's kind

413
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,040
Speaker 1: of amazing. So unlike rock music, which was this late

414
00:21:24,119 --> 00:21:26,920
Speaker 1: import to Japan, jazz actually came up in the country

415
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,080
Speaker 1: around the same time and emerged in the US well

416
00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:32,159
Speaker 1: I knew Japan had a thing for jazz. I mean,

417
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:35,199
Speaker 1: it comes up all the time and Murrakami's novels, and

418
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:37,240
Speaker 1: I think was a big inspiration for him to become

419
00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:39,720
Speaker 1: a writer in the first place. But but I actually

420
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:41,840
Speaker 1: figured it's had something to do with like World War

421
00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:44,560
Speaker 1: Two and it catching on after that. Yeah, so that

422
00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 1: would have been my guest too. But I've read this

423
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,840
Speaker 1: great interview that NPR did with the jazz historian named E.

424
00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:53,600
Speaker 1: Taylor Atkins, who explained that the music actually made its

425
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:57,160
Speaker 1: way to Japan as early as the nineteen tens. Oh wow,

426
00:21:57,200 --> 00:21:59,200
Speaker 1: that early. So so how did it get there? Well,

427
00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:00,800
Speaker 1: so you've got to remember this is the decade of

428
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:03,359
Speaker 1: the Titanic, right, and so they are these luxury ocean

429
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:06,440
Speaker 1: liners that are already taking wealthy passengers back and forth

430
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 1: across the Pacific, you know, from West coast ports to

431
00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:13,600
Speaker 1: places like Manila and Shanghai and of course Japan. And

432
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:16,159
Speaker 1: it was common for these ships to have orchestras on

433
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:19,560
Speaker 1: board as entertainment. So when a Japanese ocean liners stopped

434
00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:22,400
Speaker 1: at a port in San Francisco or Seattle, the musicians

435
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 1: would hop out and check out the local music scene.

436
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 1: They'd buy sheet music or records and even visit clubs

437
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:29,960
Speaker 1: to hear the locals play. And so what you had

438
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:32,160
Speaker 1: were all these Japanese musicians who were learned to play

439
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: music that was popular in major US cities. And at

440
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:38,639
Speaker 1: the time, nothing was more popular than jazz oh wow.

441
00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:40,400
Speaker 1: And so so how did the music make it off

442
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:43,040
Speaker 1: the boats and into the country. So a lot of

443
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:46,440
Speaker 1: these cruise musicians also worked in hotel lobbies or restaurants

444
00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,560
Speaker 1: in the off season, and that gave them plenty of

445
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 1: opportunities to practice what they've picked up abroad. So you know,

446
00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:54,399
Speaker 1: they'd play in these locations and and then they were

447
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:58,639
Speaker 1: simultaneously introducing the country to this new sound. That's pretty cool,

448
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:00,600
Speaker 1: all right. So I want to switch years and go

449
00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:02,520
Speaker 1: back to something we touched on at the top of

450
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,360
Speaker 1: the show, and that's this idea of Japanese culture as

451
00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 1: this balancing act. So far, we've talked about in terms

452
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 1: of like new technology versus these older traditions, as well

453
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:14,960
Speaker 1: as like the western influence and the country's own culture.

454
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 1: But another place we kind of see this balancing act

455
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 1: is about the young and the old, and so we

456
00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:24,360
Speaker 1: alluded to this earlier, but Japan potentially has a crisis

457
00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:26,440
Speaker 1: on its hands because more than a quarter of the

458
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,040
Speaker 1: countries a hundred and twenty seven million people are sixty

459
00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: five or older, and that proportion is actually only expected

460
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:37,280
Speaker 1: to rise. Some researchers are predicting that forty of Japan's

461
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 1: population will be over the age of sixty five by

462
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:43,119
Speaker 1: the year twenties sixty. So, just to put that in perspective,

463
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,640
Speaker 1: a Japanese diaper maker name Una Charm reports that adult

464
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:50,679
Speaker 1: diapers now out sell baby diapers. That's crazy, and you've

465
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 1: got to think the impact on the labor market alone

466
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 1: is pretty scary. Yeah, it definitely is. But you know,

467
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:58,600
Speaker 1: it also provides this rare chance to see how an

468
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:02,399
Speaker 1: industrialized nation addres us is that kind of population shift. So,

469
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 1: for example, in late two thousand and sixteen, Japan began

470
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:08,920
Speaker 1: launching programs aimed at coaxing elderly drivers to hand over

471
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:11,920
Speaker 1: their driver's license. And that's because even though the overall

472
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,520
Speaker 1: number of traffic accidents in the country has actually gone

473
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,880
Speaker 1: down in recent years, the number of accidents involving drivers

474
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,240
Speaker 1: over the age of seventy five has seen a dramatic increase.

475
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:24,680
Speaker 1: I think it went from about seven percent to thirtent

476
00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 1: over the past decade. Now that's almost double. And of course,

477
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:30,879
Speaker 1: Japan being Japan, they're not about to forcibly strip the

478
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:33,560
Speaker 1: elderly of their licenses. So instead they've had to get

479
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:36,679
Speaker 1: a little creative. So how they convince people to stop driving,

480
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 1: well by doing something that would probably work on us too,

481
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: and that's to give them discounts on ramen noodles. I

482
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 1: mean that sounds kind of like a joke, right, It

483
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 1: sounds like a joke, but it's not. So this is

484
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:51,360
Speaker 1: coming from a district in central Japan and and basically

485
00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:55,240
Speaker 1: this restaurant chain it started to provide these lifelong fifteen

486
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: percent discounts at all one hundred and seventy six of

487
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: their locations, and the of course to anyone over the

488
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:04,119
Speaker 1: age of seventy five who's turned in their license. But

489
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,200
Speaker 1: this isn't the only one, so there's similar incentive campaigns

490
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,400
Speaker 1: that have launched all over the country. Some offer discounts

491
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 1: on public baths or haircuts, or bus or taxifairs. And

492
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:16,880
Speaker 1: the plan seems to be working. So they've had over

493
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 1: a quarter million people in Japan that have given up

494
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:22,479
Speaker 1: their licenses and two thousand sixteen alone, and this is

495
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:25,639
Speaker 1: all thanks to this Ramen noodle discount, which I'm sure

496
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 1: more of these will follow. Well, I mean, I found

497
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 1: another way that chefs are helping Japan cope with its

498
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:35,399
Speaker 1: aging population, and that's what's something called choke proof food.

499
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:38,160
Speaker 1: So this is something I hadn't really thought about before.

500
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:41,240
Speaker 1: But swallowing becomes harder and harder as you age, and

501
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:44,399
Speaker 1: obviously this becomes an even bigger problem when such a

502
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:47,879
Speaker 1: large portion of your population is elderly. In fact, according

503
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 1: to a report in The New York Times, more Japanese

504
00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: people now die from choking than they do in all

505
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 1: those traffic accidents you mentioned earlier. Oh my gosh, that's crazy.

506
00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:58,480
Speaker 1: I mean, I can definitely see why there'd be a

507
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:01,880
Speaker 1: market for choke proof food. How exactly does it work

508
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,920
Speaker 1: and and what is it? Yeah, so it starts out

509
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 1: as regular food items, so you're thinking about things like

510
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:10,640
Speaker 1: grilled salmon or dumplings. But once the food is prepared,

511
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:14,120
Speaker 1: it's thrown into a blender. And I know what you're thinking.

512
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 1: This is way less gross than the story I told

513
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: you about Lizzie's grandmam who was having like a toothache,

514
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 1: so she blended her salad and pizza into a shake

515
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: and just kept telling everyone it's all going into the

516
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 1: same place, so don't worry. She's not wrong about that

517
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 1: to taste gross. But here the food is kept separate

518
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 1: and mixed with a new kind of jelling agent, so

519
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,159
Speaker 1: the gel actually allows the food to be reshaped so

520
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,000
Speaker 1: that it resembles the way it originally looked. So basically,

521
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,160
Speaker 1: choke proof food is this new way of making puade

522
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:46,119
Speaker 1: food more appetizing. It isn't like flavorless mush. Instead, you

523
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 1: got something that looks and actually taste normal, with the

524
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 1: added bonus of being easy to swallow. And if it

525
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: catches on, like the hope is that Japan's elderly will

526
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 1: be able to hold onto their meal time independence for

527
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,439
Speaker 1: a little bit longer. Like they can simply head to

528
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,199
Speaker 1: a restaurant on and order their good food prepared in

529
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:04,600
Speaker 1: this style, and it's called ange i guess, which is

530
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:07,879
Speaker 1: Japanese for swallowing. That is a pretty great idea and

531
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:10,159
Speaker 1: I hope that that works for them. But you know,

532
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,439
Speaker 1: one of the things I like about these campaigns and

533
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 1: how Japan looks out for its elderly is that it

534
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:18,440
Speaker 1: reflects the group based mentality that we were talking about earlier,

535
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:21,120
Speaker 1: you know, that kind of all for one approach to society.

536
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:24,119
Speaker 1: That's something that's instilled in Japanese citizens from the start.

537
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:26,960
Speaker 1: I was actually reading this interesting article in the Atlantic

538
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: about the high level of independence that Japanese kids seem

539
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:32,760
Speaker 1: to have, and apparently it's really common to see kids

540
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 1: as young as six or seven out on their own

541
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: in Japanese towns and cities. Yeah, so we talked a

542
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:40,200
Speaker 1: little bit about this in our education episode, where there's

543
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 1: a system to help kids walk alone to school from

544
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:45,119
Speaker 1: I think it's from first grade on and they're actually

545
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:47,919
Speaker 1: walking a few miles, right, Yeah, that's right, And you know,

546
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 1: sometimes they're heading to or from school, but other times

547
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: they're actually out running errands for their parents, and it's

548
00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:56,640
Speaker 1: kind of this right of passage in Japan. In fact,

549
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:58,840
Speaker 1: you know how the country is famous for its outrageous

550
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,160
Speaker 1: game shows and all these weird reality shows. Well, there's

551
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,480
Speaker 1: actually a popular show that translates as My First Errand,

552
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,240
Speaker 1: and it's basically this hidden camera show where kids just

553
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:11,680
Speaker 1: as young as like two or three are sent out

554
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,120
Speaker 1: to run an errand for their family. That sounds crazy,

555
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 1: so I'm guessing the kids have no idea they're being

556
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,159
Speaker 1: recorded at that age. Oh, of course not. They have

557
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:22,680
Speaker 1: no idea, And I mean they cameramen are right out

558
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 1: in the open at some points, but the kids are

559
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,160
Speaker 1: so frantic or anxious that they never noticed the supervision.

560
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:31,439
Speaker 1: And so I actually watched an episode and sometimes it's funny,

561
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: but it can be brutal. But the one I saw

562
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: this little boy and his younger sister out on an

563
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:38,959
Speaker 1: errand to pick up groceries, and they had to go

564
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 1: to a few different shops and already you can see

565
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 1: how hard this is right for these kids, and they

566
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,200
Speaker 1: can barely remember the names of the items. I mean,

567
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: they're tiny. And this little boy that was watching, he

568
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:51,160
Speaker 1: was so cute, and he had this melt down once

569
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 1: they were like a block away from their house. He

570
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,200
Speaker 1: actually had to stop and compose himself in an alleyway

571
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:59,880
Speaker 1: and then keep going. And meanwhile, there's this laugh track

572
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: in a panel of not judges but commentators, I guess,

573
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,640
Speaker 1: and it all feels like some kind of surreal psychological experiment.

574
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 1: But my first are and it isn't some new reality

575
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: TV thing. It's been on air for almost thirty years. Now, So,

576
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 1: I mean, this sounds equal parts hilarious and bizarre, But

577
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 1: how does it relate to being group minded? Like, if anything,

578
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:24,480
Speaker 1: these kids seem independent, right right, Well, that's the thing.

579
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 1: I mean. According to Dwyane Dixon, who's this cultural anthropologist,

580
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 1: it's it's not self sufficiency that we're seeing, but group reliance.

581
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,880
Speaker 1: As he puts it, Japanese kids learned early on that

582
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:37,960
Speaker 1: ideally any member of the community can be called on

583
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 1: to serve or help others. And as you see on

584
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:43,760
Speaker 1: the show I watched, they are grocers and shopkeepers, even

585
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: regular people on the street, and they're all eager to

586
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 1: help the kids with directions or counting coins. And the

587
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: idea is that whether you're a family member or a stranger,

588
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,520
Speaker 1: young or old, we're kind of we're all in this together,

589
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 1: you know. I like that. I can actually see why

590
00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 1: it's popular. So I guess we saw that in the

591
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,440
Speaker 1: school's episode two, right, like where students take turns serving

592
00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 1: lunch their classmates, or that there aren't any janitors there

593
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:10,080
Speaker 1: because all the kids devote twenty minutes each day to

594
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 1: cleaning up. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, And I love that

595
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 1: there's this personal responsibility for shared spaces, and it's one

596
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 1: of the most pleasantly unusual things about Japanese culture and

597
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: and definitely when I wish we'd emulate more in our

598
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:26,080
Speaker 1: own lives here. Yeah, although that that discount on ramen

599
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 1: noodle sounds pretty good too. I would do whatever it

600
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:33,760
Speaker 1: takes to get that, but including trading in my driver's license. Yeah,

601
00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 1: but before you head down to see if the restaurant's interested,

602
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: why don't we work up an appetite with a quick

603
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: fact off. Yeah. So, one thing that's cool about Japan

604
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 1: is that they have all sorts of escalators. Right there

605
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:57,120
Speaker 1: are massive and beautiful spiral escalators. There's the world's highest

606
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,960
Speaker 1: escalator there. It's it's a little terrifying. It's between two

607
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 1: skyscrapers and Osaka, I believe. But my favorite of the escalators,

608
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 1: and the one I traveled to use, is actually the

609
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: Pucci Culator. That's what's called it's the world's shortest escalator

610
00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:14,320
Speaker 1: and it's just outside Tokyo. But due to some weird

611
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 1: construction flow, it's only about four or five steps tall,

612
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:22,720
Speaker 1: so it's super short and it's uh, I guess it's

613
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 1: like half a short flight of stairs. But when I

614
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 1: looked into why they even bothered to build it. It

615
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 1: was because of this concept of service, So like helping

616
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,600
Speaker 1: people not have to walk down four stairs even if

617
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: it's only four stairs, is still important to the culture.

618
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 1: That is so weird. I've never heard of this thing before.

619
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 1: But yeah, well here's the thing that feels unimaginable. So

620
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 1: do you know what happens when teachers are sick in

621
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: Japanese secondary schools? The school actually doesn't bring in a substitute. Instead,

622
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 1: the kids are just expected to stay there and quietly

623
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,480
Speaker 1: spend the day studying. And it works. I mean, the

624
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: kids actually do this. Can you imagine that ever happening

625
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:05,840
Speaker 1: in US school? Absolutely not so so I think you know,

626
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:08,560
Speaker 1: I love the bullet train, and I didn't realize this,

627
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 1: but it's actually been around for fifty years now, and

628
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 1: part of the reason I love it is that's so efficient.

629
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:16,120
Speaker 1: It's rarely more than I think twenty six seconds late,

630
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 1: like it makes the whole country super accessible for tourists.

631
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:22,959
Speaker 1: But I especially love how safe it is and it

632
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 1: never seems to crash or have any fatalities like the

633
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 1: trains in the US. And that's partially because of Doctor Yellow.

634
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:32,959
Speaker 1: Have you heard of Dr Yellow. So it's a yellow

635
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 1: train that travels at full speed, but it actually monitors

636
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 1: the rail conditions for safety. And because it doesn't have

637
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:42,600
Speaker 1: a published schedule, people just love seeing it. They go

638
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,080
Speaker 1: wild for it. It's like a lucky charm and and

639
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 1: sometimes they'll actually cheer for it or just smild wide

640
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 1: when they see it passing by. That's pretty great. All right. Well,

641
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:53,360
Speaker 1: here's a quick one I think you might like. So

642
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 1: did you know that scientists in Japan have come up

643
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:59,600
Speaker 1: with a banana with an edible peel? If you love bananas,

644
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: I know we've both like bananas but hate all the

645
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 1: time it takes to peel them, this is perfect for you.

646
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 1: Apparently the process involves freezing and thawing the plant, so

647
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 1: you do need to have a pretty cool climate there,

648
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 1: of course, but the benefit is that there aren't any

649
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: natural predators, so you don't have to spray the banana

650
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 1: with a ton of pesticides. That's pretty amazing. So, speaking

651
00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 1: of strange fruit, did you know that they sell individual

652
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 1: strawberries and Japan. It's a really popular gift to give

653
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 1: someone for Valentine's Day and they come beautifully packed in

654
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: these individual cases. But they'll set you back ten or

655
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:33,560
Speaker 1: eleven dollars for a single fruit or a lot of

656
00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 1: like forty or fifty dollars for a cardon. So you

657
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 1: might be wondering what kind of strawberry is worth that

658
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: much money? And at least one of the varieties is

659
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 1: a kind of strawberry peach hybrid that kind of looks

660
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 1: like a giant strawberry, but it has notes of peach

661
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:50,080
Speaker 1: and the bipe. And there's actually another one that's completely

662
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:53,040
Speaker 1: white but supposedly has kind of a pineapple taste, Like

663
00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 1: I kind of want to taste all of these, Oh

664
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:57,480
Speaker 1: me too? All right, well, I think you're going to

665
00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 1: like this when I know both of us love following

666
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 1: what comes out in the Ignoble Awards every year. But

667
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: did you know that Japanese scientists want of two thousand

668
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 1: sixteen Ignoble Prize for realizing that when you get this,

669
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,800
Speaker 1: when you bend over and look between your legs, objects

670
00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:14,960
Speaker 1: look further away. I mean, this is this some real science,

671
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 1: but apparently your perception changes even though you're at the

672
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 1: same distance. But what's funny is that Japan has embraced

673
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:24,879
Speaker 1: this scientific victory and there's some tourism platforms in front

674
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:28,120
Speaker 1: of mountains and scenic areas where their handrails for you

675
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:31,280
Speaker 1: to bend over and look at the landscape through your legs.

676
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:33,759
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding about this. I mean, I guess it's

677
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:35,759
Speaker 1: so you can appreciate it from even more of a

678
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 1: distance or something. I don't know, but I've got to

679
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:40,560
Speaker 1: go check these out. That is amazing. And you know

680
00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 1: I love anything that embraces real science, So right, I've

681
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,239
Speaker 1: got to give you this week's trophy. All right, well,

682
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 1: thank you very much, and listeners, if you think we

683
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 1: need to know any great science as ridiculous as this,

684
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:54,040
Speaker 1: or any facts that we forgot to share about Japan

685
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 1: today that you love, feel free to share those with

686
00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: us part Time Genius at how stuff works dot com.

687
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,879
Speaker 1: We always love hearing. You can also call our seven

688
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 1: fact hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius, or

689
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:07,799
Speaker 1: hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much

690
00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 1: for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is

691
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:26,240
Speaker 1: a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible

692
00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:28,920
Speaker 1: without several brilliant people who do the important things we

693
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:32,359
Speaker 1: couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.

694
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the MIXI

695
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 1: mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gave.

696
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 1: Louesier is our lead researcher, with support from the Research

697
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:44,399
Speaker 1: Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve.

698
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:46,920
Speaker 1: Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.

699
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:48,960
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,

700
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:50,839
Speaker 1: And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe

701
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,120
Speaker 1: you could leave a good review for us. Could we

702
00:35:53,200 --> 00:36:01,360
Speaker 1: forget you? Jason? Who to keep the b