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A day with Albo - EP.16
A day with Albo - EP.16
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About this episode
A day spent with Albo, a Canadian living in Japan, offers a unique glimpse into Japanese car culture and local experiences. The hosts recount their adventures, including trying melon bread, driving the scenic Togay in an S2000, and visiting a shrine where they learned about Japanese spirituality. They also enjoyed conveyor belt sushi and drift kart racing, showcasing Albo's knack for blending fun with cultural insights. The episode highlights the personal connection and knowledge Albo brings, making for an unforgettable day in Japan.
Topics:
japanese car culture
local experiences
driving the toge
shrine visits
conveyor belt sushi
drift kart racing
cultural insights
melon bread
In this episode we chat about our experience spending a day with Albo.
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Honda S2000
"... he has. If you don't know him, he has an amazing S2000. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's a sick car. Yeah. I m..."
Car
Nissan R34
"... for me personally, um, you know, I'm driving the R34 GTR. My first time driving it more than just like..."
Car
Acura NSX
"...er day. And then do we walked outside the sickest NSX. Yeah. Just chilling on what wheels. No, no, they..."
Car
Porsche 944
"Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, there's not. I mean, there's like, it's weird because there's like time to hang out, but like not a bunch of time to hang out. So like, it's a great mix. Right. You know, and there was, it was never lack of something to talk about because we didn't just sit around and talk the whole time. Right. So we finished up throwing our shoulders out. And we, at that point, we had thought about we were going to go to die. Coco. Right. But he got, yeah. And he had, he had gotten a message from someone that had said, hey, it was just shut down. I can remember that was at like 9.44 p.m. or something. Right. My different campers still park there. Yeah, the campers still park there, which you'll hear in the last episode about how that happened. But, you know, it's 9.44. And I'm like, oh, man, like, all right. Well, this guy's probably going to shut it down."
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[Music]This is right-hand drive guys.
Episode 16.
Today we're going to talk about our experience with Albo.
A day with Albo, actually.
Yeah, a whole day.
A whole day with the man.
So, I had been following Albo for quite a whileand I had noticed that he put up a little advertisementfor some experiences he was doing in Japan.
Did you ever see that?
No, I didn't.
I had heard of, like, just kind of seeing posts on YouTubeand Instagram here and there,but didn't really follow them or anything necessarily.
Yeah, for sure.
So, he had posted about, because if you don't know who Albo is,looking up on Instagram, it's Albo Media.
And he currently lives in Japan.
He's from Toronto, Canada.
And he moved over to Japan.
Do you remember how many years ago he said?
I want to say something around 10 years ago.
Yeah, quite a while.
So, he had moved there and he was doing some English teaching, right?
Right, right.
Yeah, so that's a lot of guys that we met.
Common theme with some people that we met over thereis that they went to Japan to teach English.
Yeah, which is pretty cool.
And so anyways, I had noticed Albo's experience, you know,post like a week before we went to Japan.
And I was like, wow, I was like, this would be a great wayto be able to experience Japan with like a guide,so to speak, that is like, you know, an OG over there as far as,you know, an English speaking guy that's done a lot of stuff.
Right, definitely made things more comfortable, you know,like going and does some of these restaurants or some of these spots.
It's like, okay, we got our guy here that,you know, he skipped like a bunch of stuff that we would have been hung up on.
Right.
So, I hit up Albo.
I booked the experience for a day that we were, you know,had like a down day when we were in Japan.
And he of course was all about it and was very promptin making sure that we understood what was going to be going onand where we'd meet and whatnot.
And so kind of the day came up and we decided we would stay at a hotelinstead of in the camper the night before.
Right.
So that we weren't all stinky and nasty when we were going to meet this guy.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we didn't want our first impression to be smelly and smelly.
Smelly Americans.
Yeah, so, yeah, it was, I believe it wasn't it.
It was a Thursday or Saturday.
Believe it was a Thursday.
Yeah, I think so too.
Yeah.
And so, we were supposed to meet up at like 9 a.m.
at one of our favorite parking areas.
Abina.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so we ended up being kind of late because we underestimated the time it would take.
Right, right.
Gold week traffic.
Yeah.
So, it's some points.
And he ended up also being late because of the same type of thing.
Right.
And so, we ended up meeting up at 10 a.m.
at Abina and then he introduced us to the melon pond.
Right, right.
He said, uh, yeah, let's go inside real quick.
We'll check out this little bakery and this place is kind of famous for these likethese sweet breads, I guess you could say.
Yeah, yeah, it's called a melon pond because it looks like a melon.
But it tastes nothing like melon.
It's like this sugary, sweet, like, I don't know, kind of like dessert bread, I would say.
Yeah.
But like they eat it all the time.
It's like their favorite snack.
It's their, you know, all the kids love it.
Like it's, you know, definitely have like marketing around it and like a little mascot.
That's one of those like things, but with eyes.
And if it is, it's like, it's pretty wild how they do stuff like that.
Yeah, yeah.
And it was good too.
I mean, whenever you're biting into something that's green and it's bread, you don't expect it to be like so good.
So good and sweet and whatnot, but like it was on point.
And I'd already had breakfast dude.
And I was still trying to shove that thing down.
Oh, me too.
Yeah, I had a bag full of other pastries that I had just gotten before he showed up.
Right, right.
And then he showed up and said, let's go in here.
And I end up eating the melon pond.
Well, instead of all the stuff I had bought.
Right.
So yeah, no, that was a pretty cool just he really introduced us to some of the like local stuff that we just would have skipped over.
Right.
I would have no idea, you know, and that's like what the hell is this green bread?
I had seen it right.
Right.
There are so many people in this line for this green bread, like what's going on here?
But the way he explained it is like, okay, that makes sense.
That's pretty cool.
That's just like their thing, you know, Americans wait in line for chicken sandwiches.
They wait in line for a sweet bread.
It's all good.
Yeah, right, right.
So, yeah, that was pretty cool.
I ended up actually in the days following our experience with Elbow.
I ended up having that like two to three more times.
Oh, yeah, I saw it.
That was a part of where we stayed at.
And every time I was like, look up, you're eating this melon pond.
I'm like, all right, dude.
I didn't even miss Elbow.
Yeah, yeah, it was good, though.
So, at that point, he was ready to like get it moving, which we were two.
We were excited to experience the day.
And so, he was bringing us over to Hakone to do some toge.
That was our first little thing for the day.
And so, it wasn't too too far of a drive.
I honestly can't remember the distance, but I didn't feel like we were on the road for...
It was no more than an hour.
Yeah.
We probably about 30 minutes.
We started getting into like the mountain area.
Yeah.
And then probably another 30 minutes up the mountain.
We were in the heart and dirt area.
Yeah.
So, one thing and see this is part of having Elbow where it's really quite the asset is,he's like, hey, what's your tire pressure at?
I'm like, uh, whatever top rank, what did that?
Right, right.
40 pounds.
Yeah.
That's like, what does that even mean?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because he's bar over there.
Yeah, he's eased to the bar.
So, he brings us to a gas station that has, you know, the whole air setup.
And, you know, I start checking him and then all of a sudden, the boys show up.
Yeah, yeah, there was, uh, you could definitely tell that we were around somewhere where some driving took place.
Because there was just random cool cars driving by and specifically when we were at this gas station,a group of catterhams pulled in, you know, if you don't know what a catter.
What's a catter, a catter, a catter, a rand, what is that?
It's, uh, it's like a, it's like a roadster, like an open wheel, two-seater, like no top, super light car.
I'm pretty sure they have some sort of motorcycle engine.
Oh, wow.
But yeah, they rip.
And these old Japanese dudes, three or four of them pulled in and they got, you know, semi-slicks tires on them and they, they've been out for the day already.
You know, they've been hit the toge probably all morning because they were coming down the mountain while we were going up.
So it was cool to see that and you're like, okay, we're actually in like where this shit takes place.
And that's like, we're in the spot.
Yeah, we're, this is legit.
He brought us to like an awesome place.
And so, yeah, seeing those was, was really cool, just like checking out the, the way that they put them together and how much pride they had.
You could just tell like, yeah, they probably just had a blast.
Right. And I've, I've personally never seen that many all together in one place.
You know, I might see one or so at a random cars and coffee or a picture of one online.
To have like a group of three or four of them.
It's pretty, pretty cool to see quite a few.
Yeah, so yeah, my tire pressure ended up being like 10 times too high.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like my tires were about to pop.
Right.
So we reduced the pressure, made sure we were all fueled up because he said that typically use like a tank on the toge.
On a good day, you're going to use a full tank of fuel and you don't want to get caught up there without it.
Right.
So we filled up and we continued to head up the mountain.
I mean, at this point, we're kind of like getting into it and there's still a decent amount of traffic where we are.
Right.
We kind of have to wait our turn slow down so that we have a gap.
You know, like all of the things you got to do when there's some traffic, but then we kind of broke through that.
Right.
We get to a point where there wasn't much.
Right. And also like at the same time, like when we were in those slower spots.
When we initially started, he had gave us a walkie talkie so we could talk back and forth with him in his car and whatnot.
And he would just give us these random facts about things throughout the way.
Like for instance, there was a family mart that was like at the base of the mountain.
And the family mart is like a convenience store and their logo is blue and yellow and or blue and green rather.
And this particular family mart, their logo was just straight green because it wanted to blend in with the environment and the surroundings and stuff.
And just like little things like that, he would always just you know, rattle off and I'm like, that's cool.
He doesn't consider himself a tour guy, but he definitely could be the way that he knows all these little facts.
Right. Right. Right. It's pretty cool. I'm like, this guy knows.
Yeah.
He just knows all these cool facts and like little things that most people don't.
Right.
Or wouldn't even realize.
Yeah. And if you didn't know him, you wouldn't maybe be missing out on anything.
But like it really adds to it.
Yeah. Absolutely.
So yeah, that was pretty cool. And I mean, the view following him was pretty sick the whole time because he has.
If you don't know him, he has an amazing S2000. Yeah. Yeah.
It's like it's a sick car. Yeah. I mean, it's it's definitely sweet. He's put a lot of love into it. He got it all stock.
Now it's like all decked out. Right. Right.
And you got to ride in it. So I didn't get to ride in it.
So like what was the car like from the inside?
It was it was it was a dope experience because it's an S2000 on the Togay.
It was some sticky tires, some good suspension and I think it was hooked up.
He was ripping these turns like you were ripping turns in your.
Yeah. Yeah. He was ripping turns on ripping turns. Yeah.
Yeah. He was he was getting it and like just feeling that and being on the Togay and like seeing the sides of the mountain and like the lakes and the views all while just ripping in this S2000.
It was just like kind of like a pinch me moment. Right. Serial.
Yeah. Yeah. Serial. Yeah. Yeah. It was so cool and like the sound of an S2000, you know, at nine K.
All motor. Yeah. All motor. Just. Yeah. What was it? Was it?
Yeah. No. I mean V tech and dude. Right. Yeah. I want to once you get to experience that right.
It's like not something that I would assume you would forget anytime soon. Yeah.
So we make it up onto the Togay and where we made a few stops.
We our first stop was like an overlook at Mount Fuji and right kind of wasn't there also like a somebody of water that we could see at that point.
Uh, none of that point that at that point it was just like fields and just maybe on the distance.
I think it might have been the ocean. Yeah. Like on the left. Yeah. Yeah. I think that was the ocean.
But yeah, out like wave or in the distance, you could see Fuji but discovered up in clouds and also they had like this little model of Mount Fuji at the lookout spot.
Just kind of. Yeah. It was a good view. It was windy. Very. Yeah. It was windy. And if you guys check out our YouTube channel when I post this episode, there will be some.
Some video and pictures of these locations and you'll be able to see it was for sure windy. Um, so it was the good views. Yeah. Good views.
And so he he took us on like, I don't even know how many runs up and down and around this like Togay area. And it isn't wasn't this Togay area the one from.
It was one of them. It wasn't. Yeah. It was forget which series. Yeah. It was but yeah. It was definitely a famous one where, you know, some of these some of these, uh, enemies and stuff to have taken place.
So that was right. Cool to get that history. Yeah. And especially riding in his car when he has like that soundtrack and like that music. Yeah. Oh, he was.
That's sweet. The full package. Yeah. It was cool. It was jamming out and just loving it. And so for me personally, um, you know, I'm driving the R34 GTR.
My first time driving it more than just like hammering on the wang on or something, you know, like never I hadn't really taken turns at our high rate of speed or, you know, at high RPMs or anything like that.
So it was definitely a little bit of an adjustment for me, but also like you're not doing it alone. You're like I'm like trying to keep up with this guy. Right.
And he's like does it all the time. So, you know, which it was all good and fine. I didn't crash it in that was really the big thing.
Dude, you did great. You know, you didn't even cross the yellow line. I didn't even cross the yellow line. Yeah. That's that's the, you know, many things there.
But I definitely had some all seasons on there. Yeah. I could feel that and or that. Yeah. So that that was still cool. Right. Like a little moment of accomplishment where I was able to
keep up with a guy who does this all the time. Granted, I'm sure he wasn't like trying to lose me. Right. So that's like, you know, maybe the difference. But still it was a fun day. Yeah. Yeah. It was fun and fun time.
So he really was able to give me quite a bit of experience on the toge and just, you know, made me want more of course. Right.
You know, but then we we made a little pit stop. I couldn't tell you exactly where it was like on the mountain. Right.
But it was like another overlook and it was in there was a cool ice cream shop. But there was also the helipad was right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Which was sweet. Yeah. I guess they give helicopter tours or something. And that's where they take off. Yeah. Yeah. So you probably must get a meet them up there.
And like, you know, that's where you leave from. And we kept seeing the helicopter all over the mountain when we were when we were driving around it. It was pretty cool. And that must have been cool for the people in the helicopter to see us ripping around the mountains.
Well, that would be cool. Like an S2000 skyline. Like you're just taking this tour and all of a sudden these guys are right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. You can hear him over the helicopter.
Literally, no, I don't know about that. But not with that super quiet silent exhaust that they put on my car. But yeah. Yeah. But so that was cool. And then he he takes us in. And you know, we we use the bathroom or whatever. But then he gets us set up so that we are ordering ice cream.
Yeah. Milk ice cream. Milk ice cream in Japanese. Yeah. So, you know, he didn't just let us try to struggle with the English communication. He taught us how to order this in Japanese. And that was like important to him that we were learning how to do these things. Yeah. And not just like struggling through it. Right. And I do. I love that. Like that's so cool. Like teach me how I want to learn. Yeah. Okay. So how do you order it again?
Claimal. Claimal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Claimal. Claimal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, we're probably wrong. But still that that was just a cool experience and really just showed his characters far as like where his priorities were at with this experience. It's not just like.
All right. Hurry up and get these guys through this. Right. So I can go do what I want. Right. Let me teach these guys so that they can continue to be successful while they're here. Right. Right. Yeah. That was. That was cool. It's good ice cream too. Yeah. It was super day. And then do we walked outside the sickest NSX. Yeah. Just chilling on what wheels. No, no, they're 30. Of course. Yeah. The only wheels they make in Japan.
Pretty much. But now this NSX was definitely sweet in elbow new some stuff about it. Right. You know, I think it was the owners. He said. Yeah. Something like that.
Because I'm ever seen pictures of it on the inside of that restaurant as well. Yeah, that's right. Oh, okay. Yeah. So ice cream ice cream taught man. Yeah. It's been for an NSX though.
But so we checked that bad boy out and kind of got back on the toge and just kind of kept hammering. Yeah. Like just kept on going. He's like, how about another? How about another? Right. Right. We really grabbed it. It seemed like we'd go up to a spot and then kind of come back down and then go up further and then come back down and then go further and further.
And then yeah, just kept on going. The turns just kept coming and just I feel like I peeled four seasons off those things. Probably close to it.
Yeah. Maybe six.
So it was like. And I, you know, I don't know. My memory is a little foggy, but was the shrine before the high speed or after the
disaster. So he took us on the, you know, kind of they're not low speed toge, but it's not considered like high speed. Right. It's tight turns. It's too lane road. It's it's pretty tight. Yeah.
Only thing that I could really compare it to in America would be like the tail of the dragon or something like that. Yeah, where it's like constant reaction and needing to really be in tune with the car.
So then he's like, well, you want to try some high speed toge and I'm like, okay, yeah, sure. Why not? Right. When with elbow. Right. Just do it. I guess so. Yeah. It takes us out. And it's high speed. It's like top of fourth year. Like, yeah. Like as fast as you could pretty much go. And so for me, that was a little less comfortable. Then like the tight stuff because there's a little bit more room for error.
You know, when you're coming as fast as you can up to this corner, right. And don't know what's on the other side of it. Right. Right. Yeah. Just follow this other dude. Yeah.
It does it all the time. Right. Right. But it was, it was still a blast. We, you know, it was an experience I definitely would not have done on my own. Right.
Like I wouldn't have known that that stretch was the spot to like, he's like, all right, let's turn around here. All right. There's no traffic. Hit it. And he just like takes off. And I'm like, okay, hey buddy.
It's the flasher's takes off. Yeah. Literally. Yeah. So, you know, but again, like cool experience and for anyone that was around there right then, that must have been so cool to see.
Like, like you said, like these two dope cars just all of a sudden just hammering as fast as they possibly can. Like I wish we had seen that from the opposite perspective. You know, just to experience it.
But so at this point, we were kind of done with the toge. Like we, we were there for hours, hours. And we also had made one other stop for like coffee until like just to chat and yeah, you know, kind of.
Yeah. And then for him to understand who we are and like where we come from and what we do. And so that was a really good experience as far as just being able to get to know each other. Yeah.
After literally driving on the toge and like hammering, you know, and like doing stuff that a lot of times like friends would do. Right.
And it's really sad that we've been getting to know each other. Yeah. Yeah. Which is maybe the way it should be. Right. Yeah. Like hey, if you can keep up with me on the toge, we can chat. Yeah.
But, so, you know, this is when it kind of turned to a little bit more traditional Japan. And he, and he really kind of taught us more about the spirituality of the Japanese culture. Right.
He took us to a shrine. I honestly cannot remember the name. I can't do that. Yeah. But that I don't like. Yeah, it was on it. It was so cool. But that really doesn't matter. The name of it doesn't matter. It was the experience that we had there.
And so we pulled in and we found some parking and he just started kind of taking us along the different parts of the shrine and explaining him to us. Right. Right. Like don't walk in the middle of the walkway.
That's for the gods or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Which I never want to know. Right. I would have been tromping up and down the middle all day. Yeah. So he, he kind of just brought us through these different parts and really broke them down for us. And then.
So to rewind a little bit, the week prior, we had gone to Kyoto and you know, gone to those shrines. Right. And we saw people giving offerings. But we didn't really understand. Like we didn't understand exactly what was going on. Right.
And so when we went to this shrine, Alba really, really broke it down for us and helped us understand what's going on when these people are giving offerings. And then in turn helped us give an offering. Right.
Which was like, yeah, which was super cool because now at this point, we're participating in the Japanese like religion.
I mean, it's not a religion though the way that he explained it. So for us to participate where in a place that we like didn't know, I don't know, just wild. Like that was for me, like just a wild experience to participate like that with Japanese people.
Right. It was super cool. And the way he broke it down, like made it make sense to me. Yeah. Whereas like, you know, in America religion, you have to be religious.
Japan, you don't really or with that religion, you don't necessarily have to be religious. Yeah. In that sense, but it's not like this gripping thing. Right. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I thought that that was cool to it really made me see like a different perspective on the whole thing because right, like you said, maybe in America, it's like you're the religious or you're not right. And there's like a dividing line pretty much.
Whereas over there, it's just like, it's just part of their culture and it's just this thing you do, but it's not like this overpowering overbearing thing where you have to be somewhere so many days a week and like give. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now. And so yeah, that that was definitely cool to to fully take that in and and have him there to just again guide us.
Even though he's not a guide, but he guides you for sure. Yeah. And so we gave our offerings, which was really sweet. And then we kept it moving and we walked down to as you mentioned, it was like a lake.
Yeah. A little lake area. Yeah. And he made sure to get our picture, you know, in front of the lake.
What are the, what is it called? The big orange things, the gate. Yeah, there was a gate in front of the lake. Right. And so that was really cool. It was like you were walking through the gate to the lake. Yeah. Yeah.
So you got our picture there. And we, we kind of just checked everything out and we're like, hey, let's like keep it moving. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we got the charms too. Oh, yeah, the charms. Go ahead.
We got the charms to protect us in traffic safety traffic safety charms. You keep in your car and keeps you safe. They had various other ones. You know that yeah, what'd you get? Come on.
I got the one for the car. I got one for playing to win. I believe there's what the translation when playing to win. And then the other one was evil spirits. Oh, you're warding off the evil spirits.
I had to, you know, you never know. Is your house haunted. I think so. Maybe my car is. I don't know. Oh, shoot. Yeah, your car probably is. I got them all stacked up in there. So yeah. So I grabbed two of the traffic safety ones one for the car in Japan and one for the R 33 years. So that was cool because that was what he was like really excited about was like, yeah, you guys getting charms. What you didn't get any charms. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Like we got to get you guys. So that was really cool. And again, just like tied us into the Japanese way of life even more. Yeah.
Like it was just one more step of like tying us in. So that felt really good. And so you know, at this point, we're looking to probably get some food, right?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. We headed back down the mountain. Yeah. And that was a sweet view. Yeah. Like it was beautiful. You head back down the mountain. And at one point, you can just see everything. Right.
We were looking up to be in traffic at that point. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. So we kind of could be slow seeing it. Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention how I made you like feel kind of car sick in the toga because I was driving like such a hot boy.
I wasn't going to mention that. I didn't want anyone to take it the wrong way. But yeah. Yeah. The few rides with Albo smooth me out and we were good. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, listen, you know, when you're in an all-wheel drive car from hell. That's what happens. You get sick.
But yeah, so we were trying to find some food and Albo had a few places in mind. The first one ended up. It was going to be like a super long way. Yeah, I think it was like all you can eat waggurus like that. And it was it was backed up.
So yeah, we headed to the next one. And it happened to be a conveyor belt sushi. Yeah, the conveyor first first experience with that. And yeah, well, in seed, when we were talking about him, like kind of cutting time.
And all that like he walked in there and he knew exactly what to do. He knew how to reserve, you know, everything right. And it took like no time. Whereas if we walked in there for the first time, we literally would have stood there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I wouldn't have no clue. Like what? Yeah, what do we do here? What's the screen here? Let me pull out my Google translate. Let me really. Yes. Look like dingolings. But instead he just kind of cut it all short for us.
And that really again was like a huge benefit. But so yeah, we're conveyor belt sushi. Something we had heard of hadn't had yet. Yeah. And so he was like, yeah, usually me in my home. He's like try to see how many plates we can eat.
Like, well, what do you mean? You know, like, yeah, okay. And this dude was stacking plates up. Like I had never seen. Yeah, because you make everything.
There's just this screen in front of you and whatever you want, you just click through and you know, you can just keep going and keep going and keep going.
And as you can just keep ordering you can just keep ordering dude. Yeah, I went pretty hard. There was a few plates where there was like eight pieces of tuna or something on there.
And I just I ordered two or three of them because it was just so good. I'm like, yes, another. Yes, another. Yeah, it was pretty wild. Why could I not?
But it was like a good time because again, like the guy definitely has a good personality. So yeah.
And he knows how to make an experience fun, but not like overwhelming, so to speak. So yeah, that was really cool. Our first conveyor belt sushi experience.
And yeah, I mean, I think at that one him and I both ended up with 13 plates or something. Yeah.
And you had a few less, but it's because you got the combo. Yeah, yeah, the big, big ones. Yeah. So we're just going to say that we all tied.
Right. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was it was a lot, but dude, my favorite part was when we went to leave and the bill was like 20 bucks. Yeah, I know that's it. That was crazy. Like, we're expecting to like drop some dough, right?
Because all these plates are stacked up and we have no room to eat because there's plates everywhere. And yeah, 20 bucks or so. Whatever, you know, maybe 25. Yeah, not much at all.
And that was cool because right like three dudes can go out for whatever 75 bucks. Yeah, for three of them and eat and tell their stuff. Stuffed.
Yeah. And so the cool part with Albo is that wasn't it. It wasn't over. At that point, he's like, hey, you want to like you want to go to big bang and drive some drift carts and we're like, sure, we're there last week.
Let's hit it. Yeah. And I know like maybe we got enough practice that we'll be able to like keep up with you. Yeah. Yeah.
And so, hey, much love to Albo, but I got to be real. We went and it was it was a blast. There was not any time that it was not. Oh, yeah, it was 100% fine. We were in the the janky carts for sure. Oh, yeah. And if you listen to an earlier episode, you know, you'll hear about the Americana and how they still have like, you know, 15 inch tube TVs.
Pictures of Ricky Rod on the wall. Yeah, Ricky Rod and Rusty wall is or whatever. Yeah. And so, you know, we get out on the track. And like I said, I'm like, all right, maybe we're going to be able to keep up with Albo because like, you know, just seeing his driving on the Togay. He's a friggin Togay master.
Yeah, you know, but we get out there and know he must have had the cart that just the wheel was on back. I think it did. Yeah, because definitely did because listen. Albo is not joining any drift cart leagues. I promise you that he's got he's got some work to do. But we all do. But I just found him spinning out every every few seconds. It was a good time. Yeah. For sure. And he made it all fun. You know, it's not like because he was spinning out. He was being salty.
We were making bets on sodas and stuff. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, we made a bet where it's like, hey, whoever wins, whoever loses this race buys everybody a drink, you know, and not alcoholic strictly like CC lemons and things and stuff.
Yeah, you know, so we're like bank on that. Yeah, we did. He had this man everything in his pocket. We ran a train on him. No, but we did. We beat him and it was it was just funny because we tease them and he could take a joke, which is cool.
Yeah, yeah, I was like, was this your first time there? I was going. He's like, no, I've been here before. Come on.
Yeah, no, it was cool. But we had a blast and we did like five races or something and you know, at that point, we're like, oh, well, you know, there's probably not much here to do.
You know, and he's like, no, let's go upstairs to the batting cage. And we're like, huh?
Having swung a bat since I was playing T-ball. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No doubt. Like, and so we're like, yeah, okay. You know, and we go up there and pretty cool setup.
But like, there's one cage per speed in like, you know, didn't really realize until after the fact on and all three of us really needed like the lowest speed.
But I was like, I'll jump in the second one. You know, whatever. And that one's like 90 something miles an hour.
Clawers. I don't know. Still faster than I'm hitting anything. So I'm like swinging my shoulders out, just trying to connect with one of these.
But it was cool because again, it was something that we hadn't done before that we now had done. Right. And he, he like introduced us to that instead of just moving on to the next thing.
Right. Took it one more step, which again, like his experience, you know, his experience is awesome because he does little things like that. Right. Right. And he like definitely packs it all in.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, there's not. I mean, there's like, it's weird because there's like time to hang out, but like not a bunch of time to hang out. So like, it's a great mix.
Right. You know, and there was, it was never lack of something to talk about because we didn't just sit around and talk the whole time. Right. So we finished up throwing our shoulders out. And we, at that point, we had thought about we were going to go to die. Coco. Right. But he got, yeah. And he had, he had gotten a message from someone that had said, hey, it was just shut down. I can remember that was at like 9.44 p.m. or something. Right.
My different campers still park there. Yeah, the campers still park there, which you'll hear in the last episode about how that happened. But, you know, it's 9.44. And I'm like, oh, man, like, all right. Well, this guy's probably going to shut it down.
Yeah. Like it's 9.44. We've been going out this sense, you know, 9. Whatever. Yeah. 12 hours like decent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was all day of fair. All day. And then he's like, hey, like you want to hit the C1 loop? Yeah. I'm like, the C1.
Like, what's that? Like, I'm like, I don't know. You know, and he's like, oh, it's like a high speed loop through downtown Tokyo. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah. Right. And if you play Gran Turismo, special stage Route 5 is modeled after the C1 loop.
And I could definitely see that right around the place. Yeah, just going through downtown like in between all the buildings, like through these tunnels and like through these like interchanges and stuff. It was, it was cool. Yeah. And for sure, again, especially at night, check out the YouTube channel because I have videos of us going through this that I'll put over the podcast so you can see them.
So we hit the C1 loop. It's like high speed. He gives us a heads up where all of the cameras are. Right. It was like set up. It was cool. We did like a bunch of runs through there, like four or five laps around the C1 loop. Yeah. And then we pulled over underneath like this bridge. And you know, at this point, it's like 11 something. Yeah. And he's like, well, I mean, I don't know. I mean, he kind of did everything.
Like, you know, like he wasn't really like necessarily trying to end it, but also didn't want to overdo it on our behalf. Right. Right.
You know, so it was like really cool. Like again, like I hate to overuse the word, but it was like super surreal at the end. Like both of our cars sitting under this bridge. Yeah. With the four ways on with us just chatting, taking some photos and like saying thank you. You know, because he really did like put in a ton of effort.
You know, by the end of it, like we just felt like friends. Yeah. Just felt like the home. Yeah. It's cool. He's such a cool dude. His experience over there is. Yeah. Dude. Second to nine. And I am my eyes because yeah.
I don't see anyone else really offering that type of experience. It's not so personal. Right. That's the thing. Like personal with him and like just showing you all the little secrets. Pretty much.
Yeah. Exactly. And so yeah, the education was worth it. Let alone the experience. You know, just because I left that feeling a little tiny bit more integrated into the Japanese culture. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So yeah. So if you're going to Japan, hit up Albo. See what a schedule is. See if he can fit you in.
You definitely will not regret it. No, it's not free. But it's well worth it. Yeah. The money that you spend is you could not spend the same amount of money anywhere else in our experience and get that same type of like care and personality.
Like the whole thing. Right. Yeah. I mean, if you're into the Japanese car culture and like you're into that, it's well worth it. Yeah. Especially if you can't speak Japanese. Yeah. Because that alone. Like you got your personal translator. Right. Right. That alone was like, okay, this dude knows everything. Or, you know, in that sense, he knows he can talk to anyone. He can read all this stuff. Like it's. Yeah. Yeah. It was well worth it. On point. And so yeah, we just want to make sure we say.
Thank you, Albo. And. And yeah, we look forward to next time. You know, getting back together. I know he is about to have his first child. Congratulations to him. Yeah, that's cool.
And yeah, I mean, this pretty much wraps up episode 16 of the right hand drive guys a day with Albo. Yeah. All right. I'm Bobby. This is Aaron. See ya. Adios.
[Music]
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