Speaker 1: Pushkin. When I was a kid, my father would take
Speaker 1: me to the Big Art Museum in Toronto. He would
Speaker 1: go inside and I would stay outside the whole time,
Speaker 1: sitting on the steps so I could watch the cars
Speaker 1: go by. At the age of ten, I would much
Speaker 1: rather look at traffic than Rembrandts. I'm not sure anything
Speaker 1: has changed. My name is Malcolm Gladwell. I'm a Carnot.
Speaker 1: When I go online in the morning, my first stop
Speaker 1: is bring a Trailer dot com, where people like me
Speaker 1: auction off their cars to other people like me. Just
Speaker 1: so we're clear, I read the comments I'm bring a trailer,
Speaker 1: which is one level of obsession beyond the standard bring
Speaker 1: a trailer obsession. I have on a shelf in my
Speaker 1: office every issue of Car magazine, the British Vogue of automagazines,
Speaker 1: going back to April of nineteen ninety nine, with the
Speaker 1: exception of the June and October issues of two thousand
Speaker 1: and one, which for the life of me I cannot find.
Speaker 1: And I'm almost embarrassed to tell you how many cars
Speaker 1: I've owned over the years. A nineteen seventy two Mercedes
Speaker 1: two eighty in original factory lime green, a bunch of
Speaker 1: VW golf rs a push of Boxter gts and Immaculate
Speaker 1: E thirty nine BMW M five And once many years
Speaker 1: ago Alexis I s to fifty, a delightful little Japanese
Speaker 1: sports Dan fantastic gearbox. I loved it, but then the
Speaker 1: lease was up and I replaced it with a Golf GTI.
Speaker 1: In my memory, I somehow filed away Alexis has just
Speaker 1: another kind of luxury car, like an Audie, only from Asia.
Speaker 1: Then one day Alexis called me up and said, Malcolm,
Speaker 1: we'd like to prove you wrong. Lexus is its own thing.
Speaker 1: My first thought was, oh wow, they're going to give
Speaker 1: me a free car, which, by the way, I would
Speaker 1: totally be fine with. But no, it was better than that.
Speaker 1: They said, come to Japan because we think what it
Speaker 1: means to be Lexus is something that you can only
Speaker 1: understand firsthand in its home country. Go and see, so
Speaker 1: I said what any self respecting carnut would say, twist
Speaker 1: my arm from Lexus and Pushkin Industries. This is go
Speaker 1: and see. My producer, Jacob Smith and I packed our bags.
Speaker 1: We flew to Japan. Jacob actually went a little early
Speaker 1: because he's also a car nut and he wanted to
Speaker 1: spend a few days thrashing a sports car up and
Speaker 1: down Japanese mountain roads. We met up in Tokyo and
Speaker 1: took the bullet train to Nagoya, which is in itself
Speaker 1: an experience. Checked into our hotel, which had I should add,
Speaker 1: the greatest breakfast buffet in the history of breakfast buffets,
Speaker 1: because this is Japan, a country dedicated to getting even
Speaker 1: the smallest details perfect. And then we drove an hour
Speaker 1: north to Toyota City, a town of about half a
Speaker 1: million in Naichi Prefecture, where all things Toyota originate. And there,
Speaker 1: in a discrete set of buildings, is the home of
Speaker 1: Toyota's luxury division, Lexis HQ. Over the course of the
Speaker 1: next six episodes, I'm going to tell you what we
Speaker 1: learned there. Yeah. Yeah, that's great, fantastic. That was one
Speaker 1: of the most fun I've had as a passenger in
Speaker 1: a car, maybe ever, getting brief by race car drivers,
Speaker 1: testing sports cars, making microscopic adjustments in a simulator, and
Speaker 1: listening to the general manager of Lexus International hold Forth
Speaker 1: on Star Wars and why he loves the shape of
Speaker 1: the ones controversial Lexus front grill DA's bedder is an
Speaker 1: atom the Batman and the first movie. People doesn't like
Speaker 1: it Tout Beta, but finally he is a most famous
Speaker 1: a hero in the Star Wars. The Lexus grill is
Speaker 1: in the shape of a spindle, wide at the top,
Speaker 1: wider at the bottom, and cinched in the middle. That's
Speaker 1: the same story Lexus spindle. I hope, Oh it reminds
Speaker 1: you mean the grill reminds people of Darth Vader's mask, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: though he was asked, you know, in an interview, some
Speaker 1: people will say that it looks like I have the
Speaker 1: idea of Star Wars. I liked because also Toast Beta
Speaker 1: is inspired a Japanese although Sumlise so yes Star Wars
Speaker 1: to Samuraize to the sound and engine Max and much more.
Speaker 1: We're going to cover a lot of ground in this series,
Speaker 1: but this first episode is about something very specific, something
Speaker 1: that happened right at the very beginning of our visit
Speaker 1: to the Toyota City campus, which, even given my massive
Speaker 1: jet lag, kind of blew me away. Are we going
Speaker 1: to go to the Japanese worked for visitors. Every corporation
Speaker 1: has a taikon. The kaikon is a big open showroom
Speaker 1: on the second floor of a glass office building. There's
Speaker 1: a Toyota Sienta in one corner, wrapped entirely in white
Speaker 1: faux fur with two giant puppy ears attached to the back,
Speaker 1: which is like Japanese car, not humor. We took like
Speaker 1: twenty pictures in it. Next to it is a race car,
Speaker 1: the famous Lexus LFA. This particular LA I'll point out.
Speaker 1: So this LFA is one that we've raced in the
Speaker 1: Endurance Racing Series in Germany. Our guide is a guy
Speaker 1: named Paul Williamson, big bushy, white mustache. Alexis Lifer, our
Speaker 1: president of Occultota drove an LFA in two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine and I think they finished fourth in Plass, So
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a big deal to have a
Speaker 1: company president that actually drives. Toyota is actually what the
Speaker 1: Japanese call a master driver. Oh here we are just
Speaker 1: the centry. They don't sell the centry outside Japan. It's
Speaker 1: a totally old school limousine, very Japanese circa nineteen eighty boxy,
Speaker 1: understated white lace curtains on the side windows. The seats
Speaker 1: are covered with a soft woolvlure used to have a
Speaker 1: v twelve engine. They are basically handbuilt. We can build
Speaker 1: about one hundred or so per year. It's always a
Speaker 1: tough one to come out with a new one because
Speaker 1: every CEO has to have one the first year, but
Speaker 1: only one hundred can get him. The other CEO's got
Speaker 1: to wait till the second year, you know. Paul then
Speaker 1: pointed to what's called the C pillar, the panel just
Speaker 1: behind the passengers window. I'll point out one of the thing.
Speaker 1: The m the vertical panels get a lot of handstanding
Speaker 1: before the painting. This particular panel gets most attention because
Speaker 1: this panel is a mirror for the VIP who just
Speaker 1: got out of the back door before he turns around
Speaker 1: and faces the cameras. It's like, what Human Center designed?
Speaker 1: This is CEO Centers Center design exactly. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: Then we came to the LS, the top of the line.
Speaker 1: Lexus starts at seventy five thousand dollars. Lexus is answer
Speaker 1: to the Mercedes S class or to seven series BMW.
Speaker 1: There is an LS five hybrid, so this is the
Speaker 1: new flagship sedan for the corporation for Lexus in Japan.
Speaker 1: You know. In the LS, a very artistic interior so
Speaker 1: you can see the details of how the lighting is
Speaker 1: designed on the pleats of the door, this effect of
Speaker 1: sort of floating handle on the door, the herringbone. Would
Speaker 1: we do a lot of artistry on the ls. And actually,
Speaker 1: you've got to sit in the back of this car, Malcolm,
Speaker 1: because this is the long wheelbased car, and you've really
Speaker 1: got to appreciate the backseat. Did you hit the sound
Speaker 1: of that car door? The clunk? People like me live
Speaker 1: for clunks like that. Not quite as luxurious as a
Speaker 1: century but pretty darn good place to spend a couple
Speaker 1: hours if you have to. It's not bad. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: then I reached up and I hit the button to
Speaker 1: roll up the window, and that first time I have
Speaker 1: to confess I missed it. I missed the small, subtle,
Speaker 1: quintessentially lexasy detail about the windows because it's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that you wouldn't consciously notice unless you know
Speaker 1: what to look for. But after a few days talking
Speaker 1: with all kinds of people at Toyota City, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I get it. Now you will too. There's a concept
Speaker 1: in Japanese called omotanashi. Amot means public face, the way
Speaker 1: you choose to present yourself to the world. Nashi means nothing.
Speaker 1: Amotanashi means public face, without pretense, without equivocation. Amotanashi is
Speaker 1: the heart of the Japanese notion of hospitality, mindful hospitality.
Speaker 1: It means can you anticipate the needs of your guest
Speaker 1: and address them without your own ego getting in the way.
Speaker 1: At Toyota City, this idea amotanashi kept coming up again
Speaker 1: and again, Like one time we were talking to Yasahiro Sakakibara.
Speaker 1: Sakakibarasan works on the lexus es and is obsessed with
Speaker 1: eyesight and with driver fatigue. He's an engineer, so he's
Speaker 1: super technical. But then in the middle of some complex
Speaker 1: engineering speak, he started talking about how he's thinking about
Speaker 1: design revolved around the five senses and their relationship to omotenashi.
Speaker 1: You do it also, you gokantka, And my study is
Speaker 1: actually um you know, focused upon those five senses as
Speaker 1: well as um the Japanese omotenashi spirit, the hospitality spirit.
Speaker 1: And for me to deepen that knowledge, I immersed myself
Speaker 1: in traditional cultural experiences. Casing point was a flower arrangement.
Speaker 1: I went to a master of a flower arrangement and
Speaker 1: learned the spirit of omotenashi culture in flower arrangement. Now
Speaker 1: let's be clear, Sakaki Barisan is an engineer. My favorite
Speaker 1: engineer joke is the optimist sees the glass half full,
Speaker 1: the pessimist sees the glass half empty. The engineer looks
Speaker 1: at the glass and asks, why is it two times
Speaker 1: larger than it needs to be. The engineer is supposed
Speaker 1: to be rigorous and unsentimental. I guarantee you that automotive
Speaker 1: engineers in Munich and Stuttgard do not go and consult
Speaker 1: with masters of flower arrangement. A German engineer's idea of
Speaker 1: flower arrangement would be to line up the flowers in
Speaker 1: a straight line and number them one through ten. How
Speaker 1: did that impact the way you think about cars? Well, um,
Speaker 1: flower arrangement really roots back to about seven hundred years
Speaker 1: ago here in Japan. So then Sakakibarasan starts talking about
Speaker 1: the three tiers of flower design and its connection to
Speaker 1: esthetics and omotanashi everywhere we went to Toyota City that
Speaker 1: same words, Yeah, what does that mean to you? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not because we had jumpan is a kind of
Speaker 1: a nature our behavior It depends on personal of course,
Speaker 1: but you know when we make up some product, we
Speaker 1: already think about cut customer's life. There's a famous story
Speaker 1: from the beginning of Lexus's time in America. Late summer
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, Lexus had just launched the original LS,
Speaker 1: the LS four hundred, to great fanfare. Cars were flying
Speaker 1: out the door. But in late September, Alexis owner called
Speaker 1: with a small complaint about the housing for his center
Speaker 1: rear break light. Then another new owner called to say
Speaker 1: that he had an issue with his cruise control two cars,
Speaker 1: maybe three, out of the eight thousand that had been
Speaker 1: sold by that point. So what should Lexus do. The
Speaker 1: easiest thing would be to fix the three cars with issues,
Speaker 1: because chances are these were isolated problems. This happens with
Speaker 1: new cars all the time, one or two have and bugs.
Speaker 1: But no Lexus recalled every one of the eight thousand
Speaker 1: cars they had sold to that point, send every new
Speaker 1: owner a detailed letter of apology, said that Lexus would
Speaker 1: come to their homes, pick up the car, leave them
Speaker 1: a loner free of charge, make the repairs for free,
Speaker 1: and then return the car washed detailed with a full
Speaker 1: tank of gas. Oh and when you got your car back,
Speaker 1: there was a gift waiting on the front seat. That's Amatuanashi.
Speaker 1: So the Lexus LS, the flagship Lexus luxury sedan. You
Speaker 1: look at it in the showroom and you walk up
Speaker 1: to it and sit in the front seat, and you think, oh,
Speaker 1: it's just like a Mercedes S Class or a BMW
Speaker 1: seven Series, the Outi of Asia. No it's not, because
Speaker 1: it's conceived in the spirit of Omatanashi. Okay, we're in
Speaker 1: a a brand new Lexus Ellis. This is the flagship
Speaker 1: of the Lexus brand. It costs like a kajillion dollars.
Speaker 1: It's safe to say this is the nice Lexury guard
Speaker 1: that I've ever driven. We are just to be appropriate.
Speaker 1: We decided Jacob and I to drive around Brentwood, the
Speaker 1: Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, one of the most expensive
Speaker 1: neighborhoods in America, the kind of place where very discerning
Speaker 1: Hollywood types drive their Lexus is. We're not out of
Speaker 1: place here in this car. We're not out of place.
Speaker 1: No one's gonna no security guards are chasing us a
Speaker 1: way in our ls and we're gonna head up into
Speaker 1: some of the when Jacob and I got back to
Speaker 1: the States. We borrowed an LS from Lexus, took it
Speaker 1: for a spin in some fancy neighborhood in Los Angeles, Brentwood.
Speaker 1: We wanted to test out something in the wild, that
Speaker 1: thing i'd first noticed back into Kaikon, I'd Toyota City
Speaker 1: the way the car welcomes you. When we walked towards
Speaker 1: it and opened it up with the key fob, the
Speaker 1: car rose to meet us. We got in, however, so gracefully.
Speaker 1: Then it gently settled down again. The wheel itself, the
Speaker 1: steering wheel comes out and up into your preferred position
Speaker 1: for where you want your hands to be and your
Speaker 1: high level and all that. And the car itself, now
Speaker 1: that we have the adaptive variable suspension turned on, has
Speaker 1: lowered itself into the appropriate the entire chassis of the
Speaker 1: car has lowered itself into the appropriate driving most like position,
Speaker 1: because it was raised when we got in, to make
Speaker 1: even just a few inches just that much easier for
Speaker 1: us to enter the car and sit down and not
Speaker 1: have to kind of PLoP down. Now, the technical reason
Speaker 1: for that is that if the car raises itself, it
Speaker 1: makes it easier to get in and out of the car.
Speaker 1: Your hip point should be aligned with the height of
Speaker 1: the seat. But all I could think about was, oh man,
Speaker 1: Olma Tanashi. Then we pulled over in front of one
Speaker 1: of those big mansions. We let's do some clunking. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's hear the doors. I'm gonna I want you to
Speaker 1: stem Can you do your door at the same time
Speaker 1: we're gonna do in unison. This is what a door
Speaker 1: is supposed to sell. It ready? One? Two, three? Oh?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, let me get them just mine. Also, can
Speaker 1: you hear the difference in the noise like you hear
Speaker 1: all the sound of the world. It's gone. Oh the windows.
Speaker 1: Remember back when I was in the Kaikon and there
Speaker 1: was that little thing with the windows. We hadn't yet
Speaker 1: heard everyone talking about Oma Tanashi, so I didn't yet
Speaker 1: understand what I was looking at as I rolled up
Speaker 1: the window. Now I do. The traditional Japanese tea room
Speaker 1: has a door called the nagiri Gucci, a sliding panel door.
Speaker 1: It's so small you have to crawl through on your
Speaker 1: hands and knees. Understand that what takes place in the
Speaker 1: tea room, the Japanese tea ceremony is the essence of omutanashi,
Speaker 1: an elaborate ceremony designed to anticipate and address every aspect
Speaker 1: of the guest's comfort. Everything is choreographed, including the way
Speaker 1: you're supposed to open the Najiri Gucci. You use the
Speaker 1: hand closest to the door to open it a few inches,
Speaker 1: then you switch hands and slide the door the rest
Speaker 1: of the way. You enter quietly and softly on your knees,
Speaker 1: closing the door behind you in a way that draws
Speaker 1: the least attention to yourself. There are literally books of
Speaker 1: etiquette on how to perform this movement with grace and balance.
Speaker 1: Because at the cruise moment that the door is almost closed,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to slow down so that it makes impact
Speaker 1: with the door jam as elegantly and silently as possible.
Speaker 1: So how do you suppose the window on the ls closes?
Speaker 1: So I've now opened the window. Okay, Now I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm clicking at once and the window's gonna close. So
Speaker 1: it goes up up, it slows Outshi, it's the tea ceremony.
Speaker 1: Even just the little funk of its ceiling is okay.
Speaker 1: And you know that someone spent like you know, good,
Speaker 1: probably fifty just on that little noise. Yeah, every other
Speaker 1: car window goes except Lexus. That's mutanashi. Go and See
Speaker 1: is produced by Jacob Smith with Emily Rostek and Carl Migliari,
Speaker 1: edited by Julia Barton. Evan Viola composed our theme music
Speaker 1: and mixed and mastered our episodes special thanks to Jacob
Speaker 1: Weisberg had a fame, Paul Williamson, the Mark Levinson engineers,
Speaker 1: and all the Lexus executives, engineers and designers who participated
Speaker 1: in our recordings. Go and See is a production of
Speaker 1: Lexus and Pushkin Industries. I'm moltain Ba