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Speaker 1: Pushkin. When I was a kid, my father would take

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Speaker 1: me to the Big Art Museum in Toronto. He would

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Speaker 1: go inside and I would stay outside the whole time,

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Speaker 1: sitting on the steps so I could watch the cars

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Speaker 1: go by. At the age of ten, I would much

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Speaker 1: rather look at traffic than Rembrandts. I'm not sure anything

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Speaker 1: has changed. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. I'm a Carnot.

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Speaker 1: When I go online in the morning, my first stop

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Speaker 1: is bring a Trailer dot com, where people like me

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Speaker 1: auction off their cars to other people like me. Just

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Speaker 1: so we're clear, I read the comments I'm bring a trailer,

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Speaker 1: which is one level of obsession beyond the standard bring

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Speaker 1: a trailer obsession. I have on a shelf in my

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Speaker 1: office every issue of Car magazine, the British Vogue of automagazines,

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Speaker 1: going back to April of nineteen ninety nine, with the

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Speaker 1: exception of the June and October issues of two thousand

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Speaker 1: and one, which for the life of me I cannot find.

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Speaker 1: And I'm almost embarrassed to tell you how many cars

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Speaker 1: I've owned over the years. A nineteen seventy two Mercedes

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Speaker 1: two eighty in original factory lime green, a bunch of

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Speaker 1: VW golf rs a push of Boxter gts and Immaculate

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Speaker 1: E thirty nine BMW M five And once many years

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Speaker 1: ago Alexis I s to fifty, a delightful little Japanese

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Speaker 1: sports Dan fantastic gearbox. I loved it, but then the

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Speaker 1: lease was up and I replaced it with a Golf GTI.

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Speaker 1: In my memory, I somehow filed away Alexis has just

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Speaker 1: another kind of luxury car, like an Audie, only from Asia.

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Speaker 1: Then one day Alexis called me up and said, Malcolm,

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Speaker 1: we'd like to prove you wrong. Lexus is its own thing.

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Speaker 1: My first thought was, oh wow, they're going to give

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Speaker 1: me a free car, which, by the way, I would

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Speaker 1: totally be fine with. But no, it was better than that.

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Speaker 1: They said, come to Japan because we think what it

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Speaker 1: means to be Lexus is something that you can only

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Speaker 1: understand firsthand in its home country. Go and see, so

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Speaker 1: I said what any self respecting carnut would say, twist

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Speaker 1: my arm from Lexus and Pushkin Industries. This is go

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Speaker 1: and see. My producer, Jacob Smith and I packed our bags.

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Speaker 1: We flew to Japan. Jacob actually went a little early

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Speaker 1: because he's also a car nut and he wanted to

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Speaker 1: spend a few days thrashing a sports car up and

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Speaker 1: down Japanese mountain roads. We met up in Tokyo and

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Speaker 1: took the bullet train to Nagoya, which is in itself

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Speaker 1: an experience. Checked into our hotel, which had I should add,

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Speaker 1: the greatest breakfast buffet in the history of breakfast buffets,

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Speaker 1: because this is Japan, a country dedicated to getting even

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Speaker 1: the smallest details perfect. And then we drove an hour

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Speaker 1: north to Toyota City, a town of about half a

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Speaker 1: million in Naichi Prefecture, where all things Toyota originate. And there,

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Speaker 1: in a discrete set of buildings, is the home of

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Speaker 1: Toyota's luxury division, Lexis HQ. Over the course of the

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Speaker 1: next six episodes, I'm going to tell you what we

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Speaker 1: learned there. Yeah. Yeah, that's great, fantastic. That was one

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Speaker 1: of the most fun I've had as a passenger in

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Speaker 1: a car, maybe ever, getting brief by race car drivers,

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Speaker 1: testing sports cars, making microscopic adjustments in a simulator, and

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Speaker 1: listening to the general manager of Lexus International hold Forth

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Speaker 1: on Star Wars and why he loves the shape of

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Speaker 1: the ones controversial Lexus front grill DA's bedder is an

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Speaker 1: atom the Batman and the first movie. People doesn't like

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Speaker 1: it Tout Beta, but finally he is a most famous

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Speaker 1: a hero in the Star Wars. The Lexus grill is

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Speaker 1: in the shape of a spindle, wide at the top,

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Speaker 1: wider at the bottom, and cinched in the middle. That's

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Speaker 1: the same story Lexus spindle. I hope, Oh it reminds

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Speaker 1: you mean the grill reminds people of Darth Vader's mask, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: though he was asked, you know, in an interview, some

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Speaker 1: people will say that it looks like I have the

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Speaker 1: idea of Star Wars. I liked because also Toast Beta

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Speaker 1: is inspired a Japanese although Sumlise so yes Star Wars

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Speaker 1: to Samuraize to the sound and engine Max and much more.

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Speaker 1: We're going to cover a lot of ground in this series,

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Speaker 1: but this first episode is about something very specific, something

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Speaker 1: that happened right at the very beginning of our visit

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Speaker 1: to the Toyota City campus, which, even given my massive

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Speaker 1: jet lag, kind of blew me away. Are we going

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Speaker 1: to go to the Japanese worked for visitors. Every corporation

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Speaker 1: has a taikon. The kaikon is a big open showroom

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Speaker 1: on the second floor of a glass office building. There's

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Speaker 1: a Toyota Sienta in one corner, wrapped entirely in white

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Speaker 1: faux fur with two giant puppy ears attached to the back,

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Speaker 1: which is like Japanese car, not humor. We took like

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Speaker 1: twenty pictures in it. Next to it is a race car,

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Speaker 1: the famous Lexus LFA. This particular LA I'll point out.

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Speaker 1: So this LFA is one that we've raced in the

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Speaker 1: Endurance Racing Series in Germany. Our guide is a guy

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Speaker 1: named Paul Williamson, big bushy, white mustache. Alexis Lifer, our

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Speaker 1: president of Occultota drove an LFA in two thousand and

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Speaker 1: nine and I think they finished fourth in Plass, So

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of a big deal to have a

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Speaker 1: company president that actually drives. Toyota is actually what the

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Speaker 1: Japanese call a master driver. Oh here we are just

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Speaker 1: the centry. They don't sell the centry outside Japan. It's

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Speaker 1: a totally old school limousine, very Japanese circa nineteen eighty boxy,

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Speaker 1: understated white lace curtains on the side windows. The seats

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Speaker 1: are covered with a soft woolvlure used to have a

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Speaker 1: v twelve engine. They are basically handbuilt. We can build

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Speaker 1: about one hundred or so per year. It's always a

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Speaker 1: tough one to come out with a new one because

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Speaker 1: every CEO has to have one the first year, but

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Speaker 1: only one hundred can get him. The other CEO's got

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Speaker 1: to wait till the second year, you know. Paul then

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Speaker 1: pointed to what's called the C pillar, the panel just

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Speaker 1: behind the passengers window. I'll point out one of the thing.

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Speaker 1: The m the vertical panels get a lot of handstanding

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Speaker 1: before the painting. This particular panel gets most attention because

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Speaker 1: this panel is a mirror for the VIP who just

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Speaker 1: got out of the back door before he turns around

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Speaker 1: and faces the cameras. It's like, what Human Center designed?

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Speaker 1: This is CEO Centers Center design exactly. That's right, that's right.

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Speaker 1: Then we came to the LS, the top of the line.

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Speaker 1: Lexus starts at seventy five thousand dollars. Lexus is answer

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Speaker 1: to the Mercedes S class or to seven series BMW.

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Speaker 1: There is an LS five hybrid, so this is the

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Speaker 1: new flagship sedan for the corporation for Lexus in Japan.

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Speaker 1: You know. In the LS, a very artistic interior so

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Speaker 1: you can see the details of how the lighting is

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Speaker 1: designed on the pleats of the door, this effect of

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Speaker 1: sort of floating handle on the door, the herringbone. Would

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Speaker 1: we do a lot of artistry on the ls. And actually,

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Speaker 1: you've got to sit in the back of this car, Malcolm,

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Speaker 1: because this is the long wheelbased car, and you've really

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Speaker 1: got to appreciate the backseat. Did you hit the sound

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Speaker 1: of that car door? The clunk? People like me live

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Speaker 1: for clunks like that. Not quite as luxurious as a

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Speaker 1: century but pretty darn good place to spend a couple

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Speaker 1: hours if you have to. It's not bad. Yeah. And

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Speaker 1: then I reached up and I hit the button to

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Speaker 1: roll up the window, and that first time I have

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Speaker 1: to confess I missed it. I missed the small, subtle,

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Speaker 1: quintessentially lexasy detail about the windows because it's the kind

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Speaker 1: of thing that you wouldn't consciously notice unless you know

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Speaker 1: what to look for. But after a few days talking

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Speaker 1: with all kinds of people at Toyota City, I was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I get it. Now you will too. There's a concept

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Speaker 1: in Japanese called omotanashi. Amot means public face, the way

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Speaker 1: you choose to present yourself to the world. Nashi means nothing.

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Speaker 1: Amotanashi means public face, without pretense, without equivocation. Amotanashi is

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Speaker 1: the heart of the Japanese notion of hospitality, mindful hospitality.

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Speaker 1: It means can you anticipate the needs of your guest

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Speaker 1: and address them without your own ego getting in the way.

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Speaker 1: At Toyota City, this idea amotanashi kept coming up again

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Speaker 1: and again, Like one time we were talking to Yasahiro Sakakibara.

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Speaker 1: Sakakibarasan works on the lexus es and is obsessed with

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Speaker 1: eyesight and with driver fatigue. He's an engineer, so he's

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Speaker 1: super technical. But then in the middle of some complex

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Speaker 1: engineering speak, he started talking about how he's thinking about

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Speaker 1: design revolved around the five senses and their relationship to omotenashi.

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Speaker 1: You do it also, you gokantka, And my study is

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Speaker 1: actually um you know, focused upon those five senses as

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Speaker 1: well as um the Japanese omotenashi spirit, the hospitality spirit.

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Speaker 1: And for me to deepen that knowledge, I immersed myself

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Speaker 1: in traditional cultural experiences. Casing point was a flower arrangement.

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Speaker 1: I went to a master of a flower arrangement and

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Speaker 1: learned the spirit of omotenashi culture in flower arrangement. Now

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Speaker 1: let's be clear, Sakaki Barisan is an engineer. My favorite

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Speaker 1: engineer joke is the optimist sees the glass half full,

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Speaker 1: the pessimist sees the glass half empty. The engineer looks

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Speaker 1: at the glass and asks, why is it two times

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Speaker 1: larger than it needs to be. The engineer is supposed

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Speaker 1: to be rigorous and unsentimental. I guarantee you that automotive

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Speaker 1: engineers in Munich and Stuttgard do not go and consult

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Speaker 1: with masters of flower arrangement. A German engineer's idea of

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Speaker 1: flower arrangement would be to line up the flowers in

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Speaker 1: a straight line and number them one through ten. How

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Speaker 1: did that impact the way you think about cars? Well, um,

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Speaker 1: flower arrangement really roots back to about seven hundred years

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Speaker 1: ago here in Japan. So then Sakakibarasan starts talking about

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Speaker 1: the three tiers of flower design and its connection to

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Speaker 1: esthetics and omotanashi everywhere we went to Toyota City that

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Speaker 1: same words, Yeah, what does that mean to you? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's not because we had jumpan is a kind of

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Speaker 1: a nature our behavior It depends on personal of course,

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Speaker 1: but you know when we make up some product, we

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Speaker 1: already think about cut customer's life. There's a famous story

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Speaker 1: from the beginning of Lexus's time in America. Late summer

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, Lexus had just launched the original LS,

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Speaker 1: the LS four hundred, to great fanfare. Cars were flying

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Speaker 1: out the door. But in late September, Alexis owner called

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Speaker 1: with a small complaint about the housing for his center

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Speaker 1: rear break light. Then another new owner called to say

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Speaker 1: that he had an issue with his cruise control two cars,

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Speaker 1: maybe three, out of the eight thousand that had been

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Speaker 1: sold by that point. So what should Lexus do. The

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Speaker 1: easiest thing would be to fix the three cars with issues,

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Speaker 1: because chances are these were isolated problems. This happens with

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Speaker 1: new cars all the time, one or two have and bugs.

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Speaker 1: But no Lexus recalled every one of the eight thousand

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Speaker 1: cars they had sold to that point, send every new

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Speaker 1: owner a detailed letter of apology, said that Lexus would

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Speaker 1: come to their homes, pick up the car, leave them

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Speaker 1: a loner free of charge, make the repairs for free,

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Speaker 1: and then return the car washed detailed with a full

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Speaker 1: tank of gas. Oh and when you got your car back,

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Speaker 1: there was a gift waiting on the front seat. That's Amatuanashi.

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Speaker 1: So the Lexus LS, the flagship Lexus luxury sedan. You

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Speaker 1: look at it in the showroom and you walk up

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Speaker 1: to it and sit in the front seat, and you think, oh,

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Speaker 1: it's just like a Mercedes S Class or a BMW

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Speaker 1: seven Series, the Outi of Asia. No it's not, because

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Speaker 1: it's conceived in the spirit of Omatanashi. Okay, we're in

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Speaker 1: a a brand new Lexus Ellis. This is the flagship

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Speaker 1: of the Lexus brand. It costs like a kajillion dollars.

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Speaker 1: It's safe to say this is the nice Lexury guard

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Speaker 1: that I've ever driven. We are just to be appropriate.

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Speaker 1: We decided Jacob and I to drive around Brentwood, the

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Speaker 1: Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, one of the most expensive

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Speaker 1: neighborhoods in America, the kind of place where very discerning

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Speaker 1: Hollywood types drive their Lexus is. We're not out of

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Speaker 1: place here in this car. We're not out of place.

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Speaker 1: No one's gonna no security guards are chasing us a

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Speaker 1: way in our ls and we're gonna head up into

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Speaker 1: some of the when Jacob and I got back to

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Speaker 1: the States. We borrowed an LS from Lexus, took it

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Speaker 1: for a spin in some fancy neighborhood in Los Angeles, Brentwood.

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Speaker 1: We wanted to test out something in the wild, that

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Speaker 1: thing i'd first noticed back into Kaikon, I'd Toyota City

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Speaker 1: the way the car welcomes you. When we walked towards

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Speaker 1: it and opened it up with the key fob, the

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Speaker 1: car rose to meet us. We got in, however, so gracefully.

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Speaker 1: Then it gently settled down again. The wheel itself, the

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Speaker 1: steering wheel comes out and up into your preferred position

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Speaker 1: for where you want your hands to be and your

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Speaker 1: high level and all that. And the car itself, now

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Speaker 1: that we have the adaptive variable suspension turned on, has

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Speaker 1: lowered itself into the appropriate the entire chassis of the

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Speaker 1: car has lowered itself into the appropriate driving most like position,

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Speaker 1: because it was raised when we got in, to make

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Speaker 1: even just a few inches just that much easier for

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Speaker 1: us to enter the car and sit down and not

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Speaker 1: have to kind of PLoP down. Now, the technical reason

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Speaker 1: for that is that if the car raises itself, it

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Speaker 1: makes it easier to get in and out of the car.

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Speaker 1: Your hip point should be aligned with the height of

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Speaker 1: the seat. But all I could think about was, oh man,

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Speaker 1: Olma Tanashi. Then we pulled over in front of one

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Speaker 1: of those big mansions. We let's do some clunking. Yes, yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's hear the doors. I'm gonna I want you to

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Speaker 1: stem Can you do your door at the same time

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Speaker 1: we're gonna do in unison. This is what a door

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Speaker 1: is supposed to sell. It ready? One? Two, three? Oh?

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, let me get them just mine. Also, can

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Speaker 1: you hear the difference in the noise like you hear

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Speaker 1: all the sound of the world. It's gone. Oh the windows.

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Speaker 1: Remember back when I was in the Kaikon and there

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Speaker 1: was that little thing with the windows. We hadn't yet

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Speaker 1: heard everyone talking about Oma Tanashi, so I didn't yet

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Speaker 1: understand what I was looking at as I rolled up

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Speaker 1: the window. Now I do. The traditional Japanese tea room

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Speaker 1: has a door called the nagiri Gucci, a sliding panel door.

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Speaker 1: It's so small you have to crawl through on your

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Speaker 1: hands and knees. Understand that what takes place in the

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Speaker 1: tea room, the Japanese tea ceremony is the essence of omutanashi,

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Speaker 1: an elaborate ceremony designed to anticipate and address every aspect

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Speaker 1: of the guest's comfort. Everything is choreographed, including the way

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Speaker 1: you're supposed to open the Najiri Gucci. You use the

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Speaker 1: hand closest to the door to open it a few inches,

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Speaker 1: then you switch hands and slide the door the rest

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Speaker 1: of the way. You enter quietly and softly on your knees,

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Speaker 1: closing the door behind you in a way that draws

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Speaker 1: the least attention to yourself. There are literally books of

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Speaker 1: etiquette on how to perform this movement with grace and balance.

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Speaker 1: Because at the cruise moment that the door is almost closed,

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Speaker 1: you're supposed to slow down so that it makes impact

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Speaker 1: with the door jam as elegantly and silently as possible.

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Speaker 1: So how do you suppose the window on the ls closes?

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Speaker 1: So I've now opened the window. Okay, Now I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: I'm clicking at once and the window's gonna close. So

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Speaker 1: it goes up up, it slows Outshi, it's the tea ceremony.

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Speaker 1: Even just the little funk of its ceiling is okay.

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Speaker 1: And you know that someone spent like you know, good,

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Speaker 1: probably fifty just on that little noise. Yeah, every other

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Speaker 1: car window goes except Lexus. That's mutanashi. Go and See

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Speaker 1: is produced by Jacob Smith with Emily Rostek and Carl Migliari,

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Speaker 1: edited by Julia Barton. Evan Viola composed our theme music

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Speaker 1: and mixed and mastered our episodes special thanks to Jacob

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Speaker 1: Weisberg had a fame, Paul Williamson, the Mark Levinson engineers,

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Speaker 1: and all the Lexus executives, engineers and designers who participated

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Speaker 1: in our recordings. Go and See is a production of

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Speaker 1: Lexus and Pushkin Industries. I'm moltain Ba