Zigging and Zagging His Way Through Japan - DWA! Podcast Ep. #912

The Driving While Awesome podcast is recorded live to SD card at the Beeline Motor Club in Santa Cruz, California.

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Welcome to Driving Well Awesome. My name is Warren. I am Lane and I am Art. We're back again reunited after many weeks. It feels like a long time, but I think we had thrown a holiday there, various trips and vacations and whatnot.

It's many moons ago, dude, but we were also, I want to say we were only all together for like one episode or two at the most after my trip to Japan, right? That's right. I think so, yeah.

And I had a stretch here, which was back to, so what was it? Big Sur, Austin, Japan were my three weekends in a row.

Oh, you had three? Oh, okay. Oh, that's a lot.

Also for the folks listening and local to the Santa Cruz region, December 20th. Morning Motors. Well, no, Drive Well Awesome is Seabright Motors.

Seabright Motors.

December 20th. Days Market on Seabright Avenue in Santa Cruz. This is going to be an afternoon show, correct Lane?

Correct. 12 to 4.

12 to 4 December 20th. You know, basically our Morning Motors vibe, but we're kind of taking over the area down at the end of that neighborhood.

And I think we could take over, you know, we're taking over the days parking lot and also the climbing gym parking lot area kind of.

And the Seabright social side. I mean, there's not anybody in there.

Exactly. But we could also like take over the, we could park on the street. Like we could take it all over basically.

And then we should go down by the, you know, Seabright deli and Betty burger and all that kind of stuff too.

Totally. We have a lot of room to kind of display some cars.

And you think it's like spread your wings and fly kind of dude. We're going to spread our links.

I was thinking more like down by the bay where the watermelons grow, you know, no watermelons grow down there.

Wait, wait. What song is that? You don't remember the bay where the watermelon grow.

I dare not go for if I do my mother will say you've ever seen a llama eating their pajamas.

Warren. Yeah, come on dude down by the bay. I think I'm I'm in the wrong podcast here.

That's pretty Rafi dude. By the way, Rafi Rafi to the cover and popularized it, right?

Man. Yeah. But oh, I don't know. But because I was like, I think I'm a pretty Rafi kid, right?

But I know that we all are. Yeah. We were singing that in school. Yeah.

Our Rafi really corner the market there for a minute. Yeah, totally.

Like nobody else knew how to do kids songs. Just have this one dude. Yeah, that's all you need.

It's like that one. Who's that girl right now? Who's that lady right now? That's all over everything.

Miss Rachel or something. Yeah, I my kids have never seen this Rachel stuff.

I don't I didn't know what that was until very recently. Actually, the best are those memes with Miss Rachel.

Like like it's like talking to car people. It's like, yeah, that's your car. Yeah.

Yeah. Those wheels go round and round. No, I have not seen that. Yeah.

But yeah, after after my time. I love it though. Yeah. So the different vibes after your time.

No, I'm talking about memes on Instagram more like right now current bro kids. No, it's it's going.

It's it's kind of like, you know, car guys talking to cars to their wife or whatever.

And it's Miss Rachel going. Yeah, it's a car. Yeah, I've never seen that.

I've never seen that. I don't know who Miss Rachel is. I'm sorry. Different algorithms.

Different algorithms. Yeah, you got you guys are you guys are what do you call young?

We have young children. Daughter dads or whatever girl that hashtag girl dad. Yeah.

Hashtag girl dad and a lot of like Porsche moments and other Disney stuff.

I don't know. I mean, I have I have Porsche moment it, but I've never girl dad it.

Oh, why not? I don't know. You're right in the demo, dude.

That's that's what they need from you. I've just never girl dad it. I know arts girl dad it.

Have a girl that probably have Kobe Bryant girl that girl dad it for sure. Yeah, he's girl.

Yeah, dude by the way, speaking of girl dad stuff. So I met someone here in town who has a couple cars at thermal

and he goes in place with his toys over there and his daughters who are the same age as my daughter,

my 10 year old soon to be 10 year old. One of them is apparently is like getting at a carting

and they have a few go carts on site at their house there and he's like, yeah, dude, let's plan a trip out.

And I'm like, that sounds awesome, but I need to put my daughter in a regular little K one go cart first.

Not even that. You need to go to like the flea market off place that has those little crappy bumper cars basically

and just see what she can do. Art shows up with no daughter. He's just him. He's like, no, I'm going to throw away

he's like, I'm way faster than my daughter. Dude, I'll throw my girl dad shirt on in a wig and I'm ready to roll.

My nails or whatever. I mean, dude. Yeah. So the cool thing about it though is that she's very interested in driving

and like where whenever I take her with me, she traces my she tracks my steering like my steering inputs on her own

and she started doing this like years ago entirely on her own. She tracks it. So like she watches. She steers

exactly. She follows what I do like as I'm driving with her hand with her hands like with two hands in an imaginary steering wheel

and and she does a really good job like she like just watching her how like smooth she is and like she follows it really closely

and mimics exactly the next Senna. I mean that's a more of a John Lezzi fan, but you know.

Sky yeah, maybe a Jill Paneet see perhaps on the tarmac. We don't know knows. Maybe a Sebastian Loeb

Brett Favre.

But yeah, I mean it's something that I definitely want to do, but I want to give her a little bit of exposure

because this dude was telling me that his daughter is like drifting his nine eleven GT three RS around the track

and she's ten. What and I'm like what like so I'm like I don't know are you sure he's like well

technically not at the track, but you know there's like an area and I'm like oh shit. Well yeah, your kid is way

advanced and has obviously been behind the wheel. Is she doing the like fat fat racing like girl go car series?

I don't know. I'll find out. You know they do that. You know Ferdy Porsche Porsche. Yeah, they have a girl go car.

Yeah, I didn't know it's like a whole series. It's like a feeder series that they created like oh

that's a whole new thing. All new series. Yeah. Yeah, I did hear about that. FAT Porsche, you know the old racing team.

Yeah, yeah logistics company, but they're doing it. That's it's headquartered at but the new but will all right.

Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. Where did I hear about that? Yeah, I kind of heard about that recently.

Probably a lot of places. Yeah, maybe during that, maybe during that, that big launch, the big button will

like party thing that went on. Yeah, maybe then, but I don't know if he is. I'll find out, but I just yeah.

I think it's it's one of those. It's probably the slipperiest of slopes though, like financially.

So it's like you're one of those things where like you can do a hobby one, but if like she's really good.

It's like shit. Like you want to support that and like it's like dude, you could do that or you could be on the soccer field,

like take your weekends, whatever you want to do. Dude. Yeah, I think you'd probably rather be at a track.

I'd rather be at a track. We're not being six figures a year for a competitive go cart.

Oh, you saw how Hamilton did it. He was pushing his cart with his dad. Dude, I guess I need a car.

I need a basically I just need two more jobs is what you're saying because Hamilton said at three jobs.

Yeah, you and you're looking right now. You're podcasting. You could be working. I could be I could be doing some yard work right now somewhere.

You know, trimming some heads. The thing they were talking about is each of those jobs were like five hours a week, but you know that's right.

Hey got to do them. Yeah, but I'm down for females and motorsport or whatever the hashtag is.

And that's all I've got. That motorsports. Exactly. Yeah, hashtag. Dude, we've done a lot of stuff recently.

I don't even know where to start. Dude, you get you whether it was morning motors warrant just got back from Japan.

I was doing all sorts of dad life girl that morning motors or Japan, which is more interesting.

But it's like where is it? Is it the zinger up front and are you draw people in or or is it morning?

At the end right for the morning. I was really and I don't think more than you didn't do that much car stuff when you were there.

I really didn't know, but I feel like it's like tangentially related to car stuff. Some because Japanese makes they make cars.

They do make cars. I think they even drive them. They make trains, all sorts of stuff. So morning motors, dude,

some cool nineties motorcycles there. That was cool. I saw that. I was going to say that the parking lot was.

It was like a really good mix of cars. We didn't get any overwhelming car club new stuff.

It was very, very eclectic mix and it was like perfectly full. It wasn't overly stuffed like some people after Thanksgiving.

Morning motors didn't follow that trend and it was a good hang. Most importantly, shout out to our buddy Phil Kroc,

as people know on the the Instagrams. It was his 75th birthday and he came out from Carmel and Monterrey,

wished us a happy morning motors. It was great to see him.

Did you reciprocate and then tell him happy birthday or was it just one way?

It was all happy birthdays. He was like a, it's like at a wedding, you know, reception line.

Yeah. He was a star.

By the way, I think he's known as Kroc GT4 on Instagram. Not just Kroc.

Sorry. Sorry. I'm so used to just the, I'm on the first Kroc name.

Yes. You guys are tight.

And he's looking pretty dope. He's all Mr. Cleaned out. Freshly shaved dome.

What did he do? Was he in the GT4?

No, no, it's long sold, but I thought he gets access to it like a, doesn't he, doesn't he keep it?

He was serving his, he was serving his GTI, his mark seven GTI,

which is like the perfect car for ripping around and daily driving and stuff. Nice little ride.

Saw a bunch of some other people I haven't seen for a while, but yeah, I don't know.

It was great. Good turnout. Really nice. We've been having amazing weather here.

It's 60 something degrees today and supposed to be like this for the rest of the week.

It's crispy. Yeah. Super crispy. Love it. It's good. It was nice, man.

But the sun starts going down at like one o'clock dude.

Dude, I was outside yesterday at two 30 and I'm like, oh gosh, I better get home.

It's getting dark. And I'm like, what the hell? Like these long shadows dude.

I hate it. I freaking hate it. It feels like the world is dying.

That's it. I just like all the leaves are falling. There's no light.

It's this weird like, yeah, the long shadows are super depressing.

But I mean, I don't know. I don't think it's depressing right now though.

I think it's pretty nice to because because it is so the skies are blue.

Oh yeah. No, that's right.

That afternoon feeling is like.

I feel like it's too early. It's too early, but I think it's pretty.

It's fall. It's like it's like the fall like it goes with all the fall foliage vibes,

the pumpkin spice latte worn, maybe because you hate the drink.

That's why you're not that's true. I do need some PSL my life, but the sun is weak.

Lips.

What the

guy. So anyways, I was I was I pick up my daughter at like 345 350 or something.

So we drive. We drive the coast home and the sun is like barely over the ocean

and pretty sweet, better, but it is kind of it is beautiful there because it is

beautiful lasting. The sun is blasting on the cliffs there and the light you know

it's that golden hour, bro. It's that's to my mind goes. Yeah, there was an epic

sunset last night. I'll give you all that, but the leaves are dying.

No, it's their beauty. You're beautiful in their death, man. You know,

that's the whole. It's there. It's poetic, bro. You know, I will say

this year of my life, the year of our Lord 2026 five probably have the yeah.

Well, it's the you know, 26th year or whatever, but we have been getting

really great fall colors this year between the rally and Japan and big sir.

Dude, but that's fucking horrible. All the leaves are dying is what you're

saying. It's like it's fucking well. It's like when they're falling,

it's like the whole time they're just going as they die to the ground.

It was really nice in Japan. We, I think we really nailed it timing wise.

I saw some reports, even satellite views were saying this was it peak fall

colors. So we got a little bit of the early fall when we were there,

but nothing like you got.

It was nice. Yeah. And then Art, you were at a cars and coffee.

Correct. I was. It was a Rancho Santa Fe cars and coffee.

It's something I've always wanted to go to, but just it's not

necessarily nearby. And like I've seen a lot of pictures of it.

It is really, really cool dude. It is.

Why do I feel like I've been to that? You might have been to it.

Dude, it is so cool. Like basically Rancho Santa Fe is like a very affluent

community that has this little downtown area and pretty much all of

the businesses are closed up either on the weekend or late into the

you know the day. So they start opening around 11 or 12 and it's

a photogenic space, you know, cool little architecture and all that stuff.

It's very like Carmel vibes. Like it feels like a Carmel kind of

downtown Carmel scene, but they because all of the businesses are closed

and also they're very tolerant of the whole car culture scene there.

The cars and coffee takes over the entire area.

So it's like at the four block radius and everywhere you go,

it's all of the little parking lots, like at the bank or the,

you know, whatever the jewelry store, all of the parking lots are

available for people to park in. So you just like as you cruise around,

like every little side street, every alley, all of the lots have cars in them.

And it's all people with pretty cool stuff for the most part.

Like I'd say that like 90% of the cars were really interesting and cool.

Like versus as we had talked about, right? Like there's variety there

versus like just, you know, your charger club or whatever.

Sorry to pick on your charges. But like it's a yeah, it was in a

lot of high-end stuff, like really high-end stuff too,

but a good mix of everything, like some race cars and

I don't know. It was, it was, it was so cool.

I thought it was really interesting and also it's photogenic

and the vibes are really awesome because you're basically doing a full takeover

of like just imagine like, I guess it's kind of like the carmel thing

that used to happen. Sounds like car week. What is the carmel thing,

the Tuesday? Well, that doesn't exist anymore.

But whatever that was called. It sounds like a car week in general.

Like driving around carmel, there's cars down the street.

It's basically like car weekend, but there's that specific event.

But not a lot of people. Cars on the avenue.

And it's a little bit out of the way too.

Going up the, it's like up this hill.

Kind of like the whole town is very like tiny and out of the way.

So it's not, I feel like you have to want to go there

and then it is very affluent, dude. Like when I went there,

they didn't have any, like it wasn't, it was pretty early on,

I imagine. So there wasn't like parking lots full of cars,

but it was all like, like career GTs and Diablos on the street and stuff.

It was like, yeah, yeah.

That's cool. There's a lot of, yeah, there's high end,

but also like just interesting stuff.

There were some like E 36 race cars and, you know, some JDM stuff

and some classic muscle and everything,

but definitely skewing more on the really high end.

So of course, 918 career GT, there was 300 SL going all the GT

three RS as you can shake a stick at.

And my favorite of the entire place didn't get a good photo

because I was walking with Tim on the move.

I meant to get back to it, but it was a maritime blue 964 RS

with color matched seats, which is the one that I would want.

And there was a 993 RS parked behind it in Miami or Mexico.

I can't remember which one's the lighter one of the two,

but it was the lighter one of the two or is it Riviera?

Maybe Riviera.

Can you even tell the it's yeah.

I know one of them is darker without one next to the other.

Can you tell?

No, no, but that's Joe a nice bright blue.

And yeah, it was rad.

I mean Lamborghini Diablo BT really, really clean.

Whatever is it?

What's the?

Is it a C 124?

Is that what the convertible coupe is?

I don't know what the chassis code is for that.

So just a good solid variety and also just like it's pretty chill

vibes.

There's two coffee shops with decent food and like people are

just cruising around.

I ran into Damiro and talked to him for a little while.

He was there with his new 993, but he wasn't standing in

front of his car when I saw him.

I didn't even know he had got one and turns out that he

finally found that arena red turbo he wanted, but he

wasn't standing in his car going and this is a 993.

Yeah, I mean it's just you know people like that.

They just get accosted everywhere.

Right.

So it's like I figured as soon as he stepped out of his car,

he wouldn't get to move, but like he actually he was

looking at a an integral type are sedan and we were

talking about that and then we ended up talking Radwood

and he's like a huge Radwood fan and really disappointed

there isn't one in San Diego.

So we talked about why and you know maybe there's

some angles around Orange County as a possibility,

but yeah, it's a it's an interesting scene down there.

I saw Nick's Fiat Multipla that was at a SoCal.

Is it a Multipla?

It is right?

The really ugly one?

Who?

The Fiat.

Nick who?

Nick who's one of the cars and bits guys.

He's got the he just sold his manual swap mercy

and he's got a it's a it's a Fiat Multipla.

Right.

The wagon thing that's really ugly.

Yeah, I don't know.

But yeah, so so yeah, so he took that to Radwood SoCal

and I parked him between a Testarosa and the toilets

because that was like the right appropriate place for him.

Sort of like the design evolution is yeah

and he was really stoked on it.

He thought it he was very he thought it was very appropriate.

Yeah, so that's what I did there.

Yeah, the good old Rancho Santa Fe I went with

our buddy Tim Buckland who's been on a few rallies.

I've known him for a long time and he rolled out

with his wife who was driving her M fork cab

and it turns out she's been tracking it a bunch.

And so we talked a lot about kind of the next evolution

of her track stuff and she had never driven a light car

on track and I'm like, wow, you're in a four forty one

hundred pound M four like wait till you jump into a Miata

or any thirty six or you know or name your Cayman S

or you know name your those are four thousand pounds.

Yeah, that's a cab.

It's I think it was forty one hundred pounds.

She said she is.

Yeah, but yeah, it's a good time.

Highly recommend that place if you guys are in region.

It's a thirty minute drive from where I was.

I was in Encinitas on a family Thanksgiving thing.

Nice, nice.

Well, yeah, I mean Japan.

I could talk about the whole podcast if we wanted,

but didn't do a bunch of car stuff since I was with family.

I couldn't really break away to like I would have just been down to

go check out cars like car spotting and watch stuff go by

in good neighborhoods, but that didn't really line up.

Very few sightings.

Unfortunately, even like fancy car, you know,

the centuries of the world, I only saw a few.

I did catch this century SUV at the end of the trip,

which was cool.

Last day in Ginza, which I'd wanted to see one of those

and it was great.

It was a baller.

I mean, they look like a Rolls Royce or something.

They're just like proportionally really.

They're not huge.

They're like small ish and are very stately and like just I

don't care what you think about me kind of vibe.

They're not trying to like get attention,

which I obviously I really like.

So smaller than a cullinan.

I'd say yeah, it's it's smaller than a cullinan and

it has softer lines.

So it just feels like less imposing.

It's also like better proportionally,

I think than a cullinan.

Yeah, that's a weird like big top section.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

Well, totally definitely more imposing,

but my favorite thing that I saw,

which I had never seen one in person.

I don't even know where they sell these things,

but is the Lexus minivan?

It's the Alphard,

but they've taken it and gone complete like high-end Lexus with it.

I only saw them in this one neighborhood.

It's called Azabudai.

Oh, Azabujan?

Azabujudan?

Azabudai, as I said.

Azabujuban, I think it's called.

I need to look it up, but you look it up,

but that's where Team Labs was.

So we were already there and it's such a weird place.

Oh, Team Labs is in Odaiba.

That's on the island.

There's like four, and the one we were at was in Azabudai.

Oh, and whatever it's called.

Yeah.

Anyways, this is the type of place where you live in a tower.

You have like, we could see into the tower

where you would drive in as a resident,

and there were three valets standing perfectly

with white gloves on, just waiting for somebody to come.

It's just like, that's their whole scene.

But they had these minivans rolling around as just like,

I don't know, probably their version of a taxi,

but they're so cool-looking.

They're really fascinating to look at.

And to see one here in the States would be,

I think it would do really well.

You know, minivans are already expensive

and people, I think they would be like

an interesting proposition to have a really luxurious minivan.

And it's got kind of like sharp features and stuff.

I don't know, is this, is this cool to see?

Yeah, I think it's a different take on it.

And I feel like a lot of folks who own minivans in the US,

like it's because they have like a soccer mom or dad image

and it's like boring and lame and not luxurious.

It's comfortable and spacious and functional,

but where this carry status with it too, right?

With the new, with the, with the JDM ones.

So like it's basically your Ranger over S kind of thing

with all totally and like getting in and out of it

is so much less rigorous.

You know, it's so low and the big doors and stuff.

I don't know.

It just, it was a very cool looking thing.

I saw a lot of alfards, which were very common,

but the Lexus ones are, were still rare.

I'm sure there'll be a lot more around, but yeah.

And then you say it's the Cadillac of limousines.

I mean, of minivans.

See Cadillac should make, they should make like an escalate M

for minivan.

Do you guys remember get shorty?

That was the whole thing.

He had that. I forget what the minivan was.

It was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Remember, and he's like, I think it's like Danny DeVito

or something.

He's like, it's a Cadillac of minivans.

And he's pressed the button and the door opens up, you know.

That's it.

Yeah.

I got a ride in, in a couple alfards when I was there.

They're like really nice.

Yeah.

You know, full, like the fully loaded ones.

Yeah.

And then I think Gluckr or someone like that has been posting.

Maybe it's the Lexus one or something.

There's one in like SoCal rolling around.

Oh, shit.

And a bunch of people, it's like just over the last couple

of days.

It's like saw this and people are like, oh, I see.

Oh, maybe Dieter was like, oh, I see that all the time in

this neighborhood or something like that.

I can see if you had one, maybe or it's just like a

Lexus car that they brought over, you know, like Honda

does sometimes with like testing, but if you had one of

those that, you know, cars and coffee or whatever morning

motors, it's going to steal the show because it's so

weird.

We've had alfards at our shows and they're very strange

looking in person out of context when you're in Japan.

Yeah.

You used to them, right?

But the, that big old face, that, that helmet face.

It's horrible.

But you could like, I feel like that's just a, you

know, some design elements away from being fairly

okay, like give it a bumper, you know, and like an

air dam and stuff.

But yeah, the, there's so many weird cars in Japan,

like the, especially the K style, like vans and like

the weird delivery trucks and delivery vans that all

the time that you just get so numb to those

things.

Like when a little weird Suzuki, you know, bandit

comes by.

It's like all wheel drive and turbo and you've

never seen one before, but it's like, it also

looks like 90% of the other cars out there.

So it's just, everything's kind of weird.

It's like, it's hard to, I don't know how you feel

about this for you guys, like taking pictures of

cars like that where it's like, I know this

doesn't exist and it's forbidden fruit and all that,

but it's, there's so many of them.

You're like, I don't even know when something's

interesting.

Yeah.

I feel like you very quickly become like

acclimated to it.

Yeah.

And you're like, these are definitely not

special and I'm not taking a picture of this.

Like, you know, it's like within like five

minutes of being there, like, oh, this is

every car.

Yeah.

And then you'll see like an RS version that has

like red mirrors or something of like a

little car and you're like, oh, that's like the

kind of like hyped up version, but it's not

really hyped, you know, hopped up.

It's just kind of like a fake trim package

or whatever.

Yeah.

So I looked, I looked up the, it's a Lexus

LM, right?

That's the one you saw.

Oh, it's maybe.

Yeah.

I didn't actually look it up.

So there's like the Lexus LM 350H, which

is the base.

That's $160,000 and the high end

LM 500H is 220 grand.

Yeah.

So these are.

Wait a minute.

They make a Lexus minivan that's over 200.

Lexus LM 500H.

You can option, depending on the package,

the top of the line one is 220 grand

and there's three, there's three.

Uh, yeah.

So there's a sport that's two wheel

drive.

That's 160 and then the 350H all wheel

drive is 165.

And then the top of the line model

fully optioned is 220.

And it only comes in one package.

It says it's like some extreme, you know,

premier, whatever the fuck you call it.

I think that's only for people that live in

as a boot.

Maybe it's the guy with the white gloves,

people waiting for him.

It has to be.

And honestly, that whole neighborhood is so funny

because it's, there's no like neighborhood.

It's just Chanel, uh, product.

Oh, that's like Ginza kind of.

It's like Ginza.

I talked to one person that are like, Oh,

that's the fanciest neighborhood in Tokyo right now.

Like if you want to be a baller, like that's where you live.

That's where you like, you are.

And that's, yeah, I could see it.

I wonder our buddy, uh, John Abismire,

who was on the last rally in his GT four.

He's like a Toyota dude.

And, uh, I know he lives in some tower somewhere

because he, he said I could, he's like, dude,

if you have time, like go borrow my Maritza

edition, whatever.

It's so cool.

And he's like, you just need like a code and it comes out,

like it'll like dispense for you or whatever.

Yeah.

It's one of those situations.

Yeah.

It's like a, like a, what do you call it?

Like a gumball machine.

Yeah.

Basically, like you just like put the code and the car

like comes out on the turntable for you or whatever.

Well, Clark was telling me that some of these residents

you drive like underground and then you end up in a garage

or condo, like, and it's like completely private.

You don't deal with anybody like through a tunnel or something.

Yeah.

And then like Alfred comes and he gives you like a new

belt.

Alfred.

Not Alfred.

Um, dude, by the way, just wanted to let you know,

let you guys know that we're missing out.

Uh, the Alexis LM is sold in 60 countries,

but not Canada or the USA.

So I wonder if they sell them in Mexico.

Like this has got to be like one of their biggest

markets to be America.

But it's also super ultra.

It's like an ultra baller minivan is such a flex.

It's like the price point is tripping.

You have to be price.

Yeah.

It's a very interesting.

We've never seen minivans as cool.

They're just like a utilitarian like soccer.

By the way, I bet they never in China because in China

they love many bands and by default,

many bands have always been baller like that's

like a thing.

And so I think I told you guys a million times like

what when I was doing business there, like, I mean,

do you like minivans where like one of the most

baller thing you can have like Buick has a,

they carry a ton of like brand cachet there for some reason,

which is bizarre, but for sure.

Yeah. Yeah.

No, that's definitely the move is the Chinese market.

But you think, I mean, Sienna's if you get into a new Sienna

today, like a top of the line Sienna, they are really nice.

They're not like a crappy.

They're only a hundred.

They're not a hundred.

They're not a hundred grand though.

No, they're like 70 though.

Yeah.

Sounds right.

Which is ridiculous.

So anyhow, you know, car spotting wise, I saw some,

some interesting stuff here and there.

It was definitely rare.

I did see though.

And man, I wish I could have gotten a picture of it.

It would have been epic.

But as I was coming back from Hakone, there's this cool

train that zigzags its way up the mountain and it's the,

they claim second steepest railway in the world.

But I saw some conflicting reports on that.

Well, yeah.

The most steepest street is more steep.

Thank you.

The most steepest train.

The straightest, the straightest.

So as we're going down and I have a video of this ride,

but I don't have a video of the car, but we're going down

and like I mentioned, fall colors, the train goes up

and it hits a dead end and then it zigzags up

the next way backwards and then it goes,

it does that a few times.

So it's very cool.

And it's the main way you'd get to Hakone,

which is like a hot springs town that's been there

and like a total touristy place that you would go for like

the weekend from Tokyo.

And then you can go to the lake and there's Mount Fuji views

and all that.

Is Hakone turnpike a thing or something?

Yeah.

That is a thing.

Yeah.

That was a thing.

And so on the road below the track,

I see a white brand new prelude and it looks awesome.

It's like the road is like, it just sprinkled that morning.

There's the fall colors, white prelude.

I get my camera out and then we never see it again.

It's like the road veers off.

But then as we were the train station at the bottom

of the mountain waiting for the main train,

there was another one.

It was like a grayish like silver.

They look so good.

That is interesting.

Okay.

That is like a perfectly designed car.

Yeah.

In person.

Okay.

I think they look horrible on photos.

Oh really?

Yeah.

No.

They're like, they nailed it.

They're all, they're not going to be a real performance car.

200 horsepower, like Prius basically.

Yeah.

And they're expensive for the R2.

Yeah.

All of the above is just not great.

If they made a, you know, a hot four cylinder manual,

like Miata competitor.

That's what they should have done there.

On the last podcast, we talked about them a bit

and our complaint about the styling was like,

like straight on the side,

like the shots they show on the website.

It's like very cab forward.

Yeah.

Kind of like awkward looking and then it looks a little tall

and like haunched, like haunched.

But I was saying like, I think in person,

maybe from standing up at like six feet, you know,

whatever, like looking not like on your knees,

looking at the car, it would look a lot better.

And that's funny.

You mentioned that both times I thought I was on like a

platform above the car as it drove by and it looked

amazing.

So, and you know, also I'm going to add into the,

you know, there's the fall lighting.

There's pumpkin spice.

Somewhere death lighting as we say the death trees trees

are all dying and I'm I'm emotional because of that.

Yeah.

So like I have tear, misty tears in my eyes and I'm

looking at the prairie.

It's like reviewing a movie on a plane, dude.

Oh, right.

Extra emotional.

Well, I mean, yeah, you're like it was the best movie

ever.

And it was at elevation on top of that.

But I think there was sulfur.

That's what I said.

I have yet to see one in person and I said,

I hope that it's good in person because I just the

way that it photographs, it's like, it's so weird.

Like the proportions look very awkward.

It's like it looks like a toad or something.

It's like very wide and flat and like a big face and

it looks awkward.

But just as you're saying, maybe in person and at our

50 millimeter focal length or whatever it is,

like it's it looks better and also just that

vantage point, right?

Like looking down around it.

It looked great.

And you know, there's not a lot of cars like

that in Japan.

A lot of them are very utilitarian boxes and

such.

So it's like, oh, dang, that thing looks and

apparently it's doing really well there with the

with like 50 plus demo.

Like they're they're selling really well to people

that are over 50 years old.

So again, tapping into the nostalgia and also

don't need space.

Like the utilitarian pieces are relevant.

They're either single or they have a one a spouse,

you know, or whatever and no children to deal

with.

But also like, yeah, the prelude cache.

I don't know.

I mean, I'm trying to think like realistically,

like how that carries that.

That big prelude.

I don't know.

That's what I'm wondering.

Like, you know, it was here because here it was

not like a major success, but maybe yeah,

it's a weird one.

And there I always thought it was a American

market car.

I never knew.

I didn't know it was a yeah, they were definitely

JDM and but it's it's yeah.

It's an interesting one there because the way

it's perceived, it's like it's a proper GT,

right?

Relative to like what the little right,

you know, right and one box is wherever

they recall.

Totally.

Yeah, absolutely.

It has presence and it's less expensive than an

LC Lexus, I guess.

But yeah, really quick.

The trip to Hakone is cool because you,

we stayed near Shinjuku station and there's

this train called the romance car.

It's all super romantic guys.

The train is red.

It's got some special seats and whatnot.

It's kind of a cross between a subway

and a Shinkansen or bullet train somewhere

in between.

But it's way nicer than a subway and they

basically tout themselves as this like great

views and vistas.

They have two observation cars you can select

as well at the end of the trains with big

windows and stuff.

Those tickets sell out immediately.

I don't even know how you get them.

But we knew that if you sit on the right

side, you can get some views of Fuji.

So we did that and it was an amazing day.

Super clear views of the mountain and that's

like an hour and a half, two hour drive.

And then you get to the last stop there

and you get on the zigzag train.

So that goes up the mountain back and forth.

It's way smaller and older.

Super cool tunnels.

It's been there over a hundred years.

Really neat experience doing that.

And it goes stops, then it backs up

and stops and backs up.

It's super cool.

And then you get to the end of that.

Then you're in Hakone proper.

And now you can get on a funicular.

Anyone?

Oh, yeah.

Funicula.

Yeah.

Lane, if you've been to the Shadowbrook,

you've been on a funicular.

Oh, no, sure.

I've been.

So it's a slanted train, but it's built

almost like stairs inside.

So you're sitting normally in the train,

but the train is on an incline.

And that's pulled by a cable.

They have two trains and you get basically counterbalanced.

And there's one big sprocket at the top of the mountain

and they just pull up or push down.

So two trains, one track.

And it's really neat to watch that work.

So that you get on that, you go to the top of the mountain

and then from there you get on a gondola.

Jesus Christ.

The ropeway.

And the ropeway is a tourist thing for sure.

You go over this extinct volcano,

which is still spewing out like sulfur clouds

and it's very dramatic looking.

And it also looks like it could erupt at any second,

but for some reason they've built this whole fricking.

You're on top of it.

Yeah.

Totally.

You're literally going over it.

And then you get to the station,

which is like a massive ski like gondola.

And for some reason out of the 50 cars,

the gondola cars, two of them have glass floors,

but it's totally random.

If you get them, you get them as they break.

Yeah.

You just, why don't you do that with all of them?

Anyways, it's a bit of a tourist trap up there.

There's tons of people.

You have to wait in line to get on the thing

and all that stuff, but whatever.

Then you go down the mountain on the other side on the gondola

and you go to another stop.

And then you get on the next one

and then you go down to Lake Ashi.

Then you row a boat across the lake.

You're supposed to do the zipline

all the way down to the lake.

Then that station at the bottom of the lake

glets you out into the pirate ship.

What the fuck?

No, it does not, dude.

Two massive pirate ships waiting.

What the hell?

We said no, didn't do the pirate ship

because it was such a tourist trap kind of thing.

And I think it's fine.

Like it's easy and whatever.

They just basically go down the lake and back.

It's like a 30, 40 minute round trip.

It's very like take pictures and all that stuff.

Fall colors, did I mention that?

Dude, so much stuff.

The pirate ship.

Dude, skulls.

Jolly Roger on the flags.

Scaliwags and whatnot.

And then we walk to lunch on the lake.

That's one thing I've said it before.

I'll say it again.

Japan doesn't know how to do like waterfront stuff well at all.

Like California is really good.

Italy is like best of the best.

But like they just don't get like a nice lake.

It's just shlubby old boats

and crap on the ground and like just, just not good.

They can make that.

They don't put the restaurants like on the like on docs or anything like that.

Like they were like on the on the lakefront.

But then like there's just a bunch of junk around the bottom of the restaurant.

And like, you know, rusty old stuff.

It's just like why this should be like your most beautiful part of this area.

And it almost seems like an afterthought anyways.

I digress.

But that was the one place we ate that required, you know,

crisscross applesauce under the table.

Oh, yeah.

No shoes and about, you know, six inches between the table and the floor.

That's your fault for having a short torso.

I don't know.

Are you flexible or flexible ish?

Oh, because so you did.

You mean sat on your feet, not under the table, like not feet under the table.

I mean, if you go feed under the table, you might as well be a Lego man.

Like your your legs are straight.

Well, well, no, six inches, dude, six inches.

There's a. Well, there's something called a kotatsu, a kotatsu,

which is like it's not the it's a heated.

You know what I'm talking about where you like you sit down on the tatami,

but your feet go down like a.

We did eat there. That conversation.

Those are awesome.

That's just a seat that like you drink over you and the heaters underneath

like it's amazing. Well, we don't. We didn't get off a blanket.

That's awesome. He's sitting on the floor dog. You're your floor and

you're eating on a coffee table. I'm chilling dude. I love that stuff.

You love that stuff. What's all good. Where do you go? I'm like

sideways like my leg behind the person next to me.

You look like you look like as we know where I was drawing you

like yeah. I'm like a fucking. I'm like mermaid stance at one point.

Yes. Yes. That's it. And so luckily we picked a table that had the wall

behind it. Oh, yes. At least that dude. I was hurt and yeah. Check

your shoes at the door. I will say really quick the the place

we stayed at and Hakone was very cool. It was like a high

end Ryokin spot that had on each balcony of the hotel room

that had its own hot spring. Nice bath, which is really cool.

And when you get to the hotel, check your shoes at the door

into a locker hell in the lobby. Wow. Oh yeah. We did that

actually at the one moment. Okay. And then the rest of the hotel

is heated to Tommy floors. So good. And it's it's shoes or

socks or barefoot. I want barefoot barefoot hotel guy

barefoot. That's a rare one, right? Yeah, about half the

people are allowed to do that dude. Half the people were

allowed to do it. Okay. In the restaurant, but they give you

but don't they give you little slippers to wear? That's usually

they don't want to wear. They give you slippers, but they're

like made of recycled paper. You know, they're not. I mean,

but at least you're covering up your little grippers, dude.

So but they also give you the full on robe and like the

jacket that goes over the robe. Yeah. Recycled robe. You

didn't wear any of that either. I wore that nude. He

was a sock. No, I went Sumo. Sumo diaper. Sumo diaper.

It's legit. Sumo diaper is pretty legit, but yeah. So did

the public bath and the private of course. That was great.

That was super fun and the food was amazing because there

was all inclusive and they were, you know, very good

Japanese hospitality and dimension the fall colors out the

window. I mean, it's very dirty leaves. Yeah. Yeah. And

then we went straight from there to Disney, which was an

experience. How different is it? I've never been in Tokyo

Disney. Tokyo Disney school. So they offer a five PM past.

It's open till nine. You can go at five PM for like 30 bucks.

So we did that the first day we got there was like, we'll

knock out Tokyo Disneyland first and next door is Disney

Sea, which is like their version of Disney World. But

so Disneyland is just like Anaheim, but it's everything's

like whiter and cleaner, not whiter, but like the roads. They

just had more space to build it, but it's like the same

layout, but like Main Street when you walk into Disney is

all indoors, like a huge metal roof and it's all decorated

for Christmas this time of year, which my wife loved and

it's the same like Western style architecture. Yeah.

Down same main street. They have like the river boat

Yeah, it's all that stuff, but you get Disney. You get to

say it's all Western style architecture. It's like

copying European streets and stuff sometimes, but yeah, it's

like that that like nineteen hundreds. Yeah, whatever

you want to call it like turn of the century, Americana

kind of feel, but what we didn't realize and I

should have thought about this, but all the preambles

announcements and like performances are all in Japanese.

So you you get to a ride like there's some rides in like

especially at the Disney Seaside where you go in like the

haunted mansion. There's a room you enter before you get

on the ride where it's like here's what's happening and

there's a curse and you're going to be you know in this

whole thing and they talk for a while and it's like part

of the experience. We're just like glazed over like

all right. So and then that's out and then on the ride

there's all these like announcements and things

happening and music and songs and it's all in Japanese. So

it's like funny to go through that, but at the same time

we're like, I don't know what that was all what was going

on back there so that we that was fun, but Disney

Sea is unbelievable. That place is like I mean the

amount of detail and like the work they put into the

world walking around is so crazy. I just yeah it's like

everywhere you go every land you walk through is just

like the most insane detail like they have a fake so the

whole thing is ocean slash water base so it's like

Venice and the gondoliers and then old New York with

a big steamship which is like like almost the full

size steamship in the water and then you go over

to this Cape Cod zone and it's like it looks exactly

like a miniature Cape Cod complete with vegetable

gardens and you know you can walk through all the

buildings and it's all like super clean of course, but

even to the point of you go to a regular amusement

park and they'll be like, I don't know someone

scratch their initials into the fucking tree right

like that's just stupid people in places that

happens not in Japan. There's none of that going

on. There's no like trash. There's no but I

feel like our Disney's like that too. It's so

I think our Disney is really good too but like

I'm a pop card and we turned around the guy was cleaning

it up. Totally. I think Disney's probably one of

the exceptions to the rule but just like everywhere

you go it's like that right like there's just no

like yeah just no yes perfect yeah it's kind of

perfect yeah the only thing I'll say though and

I think we kind of all all agreed as a family

is that the rides not great Oh at sea or the

Disney at sea at sea really long wait times very

short rides and a lot of them were those like

get in a boat go through a world and you're and

it's done it's like they kept talking about

like you gotta go in the frozen right it's the

only one in the world you gotta go in the

Rapunzel right it's the only one in the

world we're like alright so we you know get

the fast pass or whatever and go through the

thing and it's like yeah it's not much of a

ride was it no and so then the other thing is

there's not that many kids it's like mainly

20 something's mainly women who have gone

with their friends two or four people and

they coordinate their outfits completely

interesting and they are just there to see

and be seen yeah I don't even think they

care about the lines or the rides yeah

yeah here too but it is to the next level

like I Sarah and I try to get some pictures

of these people it's it's like crazy dude

crazy like they're dressed up as like

Dalmatians to the head to toe like with

just little chachis and then they're all

walking perfectly together and then they

like take pictures and get the food and

so you're not allowed to do that at our

Disneyland you're not allowed to dress up

like a character or anything what yeah

well as a character right like as a

because did you're not to dress it

allowed to dress up like a whatever

right you can wear normal clothes with

like snow white colors but that's what

people do but you can't dress up like

snow white I never dress up like a

Dalmatian you can't yeah did you get

banned for dressing up like snow white

yeah well yeah me and Joe Joe

De Patista went there and we both got

banned because we were dressed up like

snow whites well I won't say that

they were wearing no like I won't say

they were like wearing a perfect like

costume but it was like their whole

outfit or just like winter it was like

they would wear just like puffy jackets

all matching by the way

everything was like so curated and I

felt like they're you don't go there as

a kid you go there as like a young adult

well it's kind of like the Harajuku

like street fashion scene but Disney

specifically is that exactly so it's

like Disney inspired but it's all there

it's a cosplay once again which

Japan is like the best and it's just

cosplaying like a amusement park

attendee attendee and like I don't know

how to say it and it was Christmas so

everything's Christmas themed and you

know all the stuff it was cool that was

definitely cool and Andrea had fun it

just there weren't like a lot of the

best ride we went on was journey to

the center of the earth which is

really cool it's like Jules Verne

inspired and you go underground and

like you know how they do like you're

walking through his like laboratory you

know and you can just like look around at

stuff it was so detailed like I don't

even know how they did it just

different like little experiments going

on and lights and like the depth of

everything you you look at like the

ceiling and it's like rather than just

do like some popcorn style like

whatever it's like boards on top of

boards on top of boards with like

you know what I mean like yeah over

the top like great America would be like

a black ceiling and then it would have

like track lighting up there and the

boardwalk would be car cardboard with

exactly yeah and it would be like yeah a

harsh blue light this is like they've

taken everything into account like the

noises and it's just really cool to

see and very inexpensive that's the

other thing it's like I mean Japan is

you guys know it's just unbelievably

cheap the value is insane right now

food I tell everyone I'm like

dude just go over there it's like the

biggest hurdle is that it takes 11 hours

to get there yeah the flight sucks but

it's at a five year low yen to the

dollar wait is it really yeah wow and

we would buy stuff at Disneyland like

food was like eight bucks you know like I

just saw a thing came on Instagram a

large pepperoni pizza Disneyland is

eighty six dollars oh my god feeds

four yep yep so anyway I could talk

about it forever if anyone wants to

okay what's your favorite meal you had in

Japan that's a great one so two things

we did we did ramen and sushi really

well I tried the brothless ramen which

was awesome colder or warm that's like

warm and that's like the cool thing

these days but we were set up a few

places by a friend who just moved

back from Japan and he's a chef and so

he set us up with a restaurant called

shirubi and it's it was like out of a

movie it was like going to do it it was

like a movie dog movie it has a

center kitchen so it just felt lively

right off the bat like the kitchen's

in the middle of the restaurant open

and you can sit at bar stools around

it and then you've got the tables

like you were describing art where you

sit on the ground but you have a

recess for your feet or your legs so

you're all you're sitting on the ground

but you're in the floor I don't know

what I'm trying to say yeah

anyways it's a bit you said it's a bit

sitting in that pit check your shoes at

the door we had reservations the place

was popping it was Friday night it's

just like it couldn't be more popular

and it was all like kind of it almost

felt like entry-level salary type

workers with their boss so it's like

huge table with like boss at the head

of the table and then like 20 some

things all around like white shirts you

know even women they're like just

dressed very like professionally but

off of work and having a great time

sorry man there's were flying food

coming out everyone's having a great

time so we did that and we ordered

everything but one of the things was

a mackerel which I really like and

it was sliced and then blow torch

on the table so just one of those

like performative things you're like

this is great like there's we had you

see Yabisu beers going and so Warren

you described that environment and

restaurant is called an is a kayak

that's a yes you went to a

so is that just like a restaurant

bar it's like it's more like tapas

ask like where you have like little

dishes and it's all a la carte and

then also like the fact that you have

those groups like with with the boss

and all that like that's very traditional

like going with your employees or your

coworkers in big groups like that sort

of setting but yeah that sounds awesome

man and it was great that like the

places just so hop in the the staff

was like younger all the people there

were just yeah it was great and I'm

really glad like there's no way a we

would have found the place be we

wouldn't have had a reservation and

could never be in there you know it's

like all those stuff like we just

we would never have known where was

that one I have to look it up I think

it was not far from Shinjuku but

and then after that we did karaoke

which Andrew had never done oh yeah

really fun so private room karaoke

is so fun and he had a lot of fun

with that so that was like our best

like night out dinner but

yeah we ate really well and those

those we only did conveyor belt

sushi we didn't do anything fancy

which is like equal to the

decent restaurants here anyways and

quality dude I saw the stack

of place you guys dude I mean

we went unlimited every time it's

hard to not just like if you had the

one with the screens next to you right

where you just like and it all comes

to your table we went with we doing

three different styles and one with

Clark and Jen and family

the style that I like the best is

each person has their own tablet

and you're just at a bar and you

can just go crazy go crazy you have

your own tablet hit hit toro

nice yeah but they had

another one which was

everyone shares the tablet and that's

fine but it had your own conveyor

belt on the top which is what you ordered

but then just below it is a conveyor

belt with a little bubble

of whatever they've

made and you can open the bubble and

take it and that's that's fine

so like stuff will come across and be like

that looks amazing boom I want that

I didn't know that existed let me have

that and then you can on the side be like

toro salmon belly like let's do this

so yeah we went

pretty hard on the sushi on those

those days but it does feel like

they're basically paying you to eat it's

like a dollar fifty for a

freaking nigiri a pair of nigiris

which are here would be like I don't know

six you like walk out of those

places like family of four we'd walk

out and you'd be like oh man we spent

so you know or whatever and you pay

like it's like fifty dollars for

everyone honestly that dinner I was

going at the izakaya spot

was so we had

five drinks probably between us including

Andrew's drink he was hitting the shots

pretty hard but we

so

drinks all the food

everything it was fifty bucks

and it basically felt like we bought

the beers and drinks and the

food was free yeah like

that's what it would have been here and

you don't feel bad about this

but no tipping is a

fucking lie you love it

you just do a good job because it's your

job and you're

and you're kind of pissed if someone tips you

because it's like you're saying like what

that I'm you know other

people are doing a bad job and I did a better job

or what is it

but so tippings out there's that

there's no you know insane

prices for all this basic

stuff so yeah that was

crazy and

before all that we went to this

we went to another spot this

sake bar which is a whole other

story but again my friend

Callan set us up with this

place that it's a sake

distributor and like you could go there to buy

special sake that's all it is it's

like a liquor store back

streets but in the back of that

is a standing bar which I

guess was way more popular back in the day

this is like the oldest one in Tokyo

and it's only

old salarymen dudes

or retirees that are in there right and

we were there happy hour

and again we had a reservation they had

like a table reserve for us which is so cool

and we brought Andrew and he was

like a fucking god

oh really

I think to have a kid in there a

is like a celebrity dude yeah

to have a kid in there at all is like

what the hell's going on to

to have a white kid in there it was

like nine years old and just like wide-eyed

looking around like what is happening

it's so funny dude this guy came up to us

and talked to us for a while had pretty good English

gave us these killer

tamago like cold tamagos

that he got from

a Tsukiji

some hundred year old place that like

is like you have to have this like

you're going to be the leader of the

free world to Andrew

and then another dude comes over

and he goes here I got you something to drink

to Andrew and it's like an apple juice

or like a sprite he's like holding which one do you want

and Andrew's like I guess the juice

he's like you have both dude

no Andrew replied 6-7

6-7

that's all Andrew would say to him

at the end of the night we had

amazing sake and of course it's like

there's this one special sake that they have

that's only available tonight you guys pick the best night to come

and I'm like okay I'm sure you tell it to everybody

but at the end of the night I told Andrew

well go over to that table the guy that brought him the drinks

and there's like six guys drinking

and in their fifties

probably and Andrew went over and said

you know have a good night and

they're like you know like to walk them out

it was pretty cool

so yeah we had a great it was a great trip

can't recommend it highly enough

Japan I can't wait to get back

that's amazing don't you feel like

you're like I felt like every time we stay

at a wreck and you felt like a celebrity

to like you'd walk in the door they're like

oh welcome and they remember your name

and like it's like totally you know

totally yeah this one was like

really I mean it's

it's like

just like so different

that's what I love about Japan is everything's just a little different

like the fact you're

to go check into the hotel I got to take my shoes off

and go you know like

that right there you're just setting up this whole level

this is going to be an experience

and it was it was great

and that is the fun part about vacationing

and going to different places is like

well different kind of things

you do and having it that much

you know different

it's like such a new experience yeah well

there's the adventure but it's also everything

is excellent so it's like

you know the service the architecture

the food the cleanliness the safety like all of the

things are so they're so good and like

when you go to a place and you seek

adventure and you're in Egypt you're

probably going to get into some dicey situations

and it's going to be pretty or like history

and all that uncomfortable right but yeah

like uncomfortable at times right so it's fine

that's fun too and I mean you can't be

comfortable I can see because of the language barrier in Japan

especially for a lot of people right like that's a thing

and it's confusing and like just like

the subway system can be overwhelming if once

you get outside of the main stations

like there's nothing you know yeah I think it's

in English so it's like

Warren did you notice

that like the graphic design

is horrible there everywhere man

the websites couldn't be worse

also it's it's a geocity

stuff yeah

and Todd our buddy Todd

had mentioned this to me and I kind of

remembered it but man they are like

the 1990s websites and nothing really

works right

yeah there's a bunch of little things

that drive me crazy about Japan and

it's more like I just

am not as acclimated

you know I would just need time to like get used to it

like Ali had asked me on

Sundays like so are you moving to Japan

and I'm like no

because I can't speak Japanese like if

I could speak conversationally that's one thing

but I think in order to learn that and do it

well you have to live or go there a lot

so it's like cart before the horse stuff

like I would love to go more

if I knew the language better

but I won't know the language better

unless I go there more you know like that's

probably what it takes I mean are you could

speak to it better but that's that's basically

you have to immerse yourself yeah you have

immersion is the best way but also you want a foundation

right it's gonna take some studying

I mean like Clark's been there a long time and we

love Clark and he's a very intelligent person

he's not he doesn't dominate the language you know it's

like you because it's so different like you

have fundamentally different to the point

where you have to learn that you have to study

it and then you can apply the the

rest of it right like it's it's

it's just that's just the way it is you need

the foundation but no doubt of

you know living there I mean it's an absolutely

if you don't use it you lose that situation

that's why I talked to anybody that speaks

Japanese whenever I can because like you forget

shit all the time and like

and it's unfortunate that you know this

is one of those details in life that it's

just a fact and it's not not judging it

one way or the other but like the majority

of Japanese restaurants especially in

California are not Japanese owned so like

a lot of times it's Korean people or Korean

families or Chinese family so I don't

get to practice it when I go even to a

Japanese restaurant so there are some

instances where you get that opportunity but

it's very rare I I have a heart out in

like 20 minutes so I'm not going to

go into this too far but I went to a

the San Diego Safari Zoo

and I was waiting in line to get on the

tram or the whatever the tram and

there was a Japanese family to one side

of us and and I made a joke

about the candy that they were eating and

so I talked to them for like 10 minutes

in line and my my sister

in law was like laughing at me and she's like

she basically called me out she's like you will

take any opportunity to talk to a Japanese

person and I'm like yes because I need

to speak it you know so it's

important that's funny

yeah the other

thing I'll say about going to Japan

is that I wish

I was wealthier because I would just get

first class

every time oh yeah it's one of the plate

times that it's very very keen

it is that's a brutal

brutal flight I mean travel in general

sucks and we were on Japan Airlines

which is probably as good as it gets as far as like just a regular

economy ticket but

11 hours in a seat

that doesn't go down

you know I

man I really just was like

I want to lay down so bad yeah

up when I flew the first

time I went over I flew both ways

in business

nice which was

only I want to say it was only I got

$300 upgrade per way

okay and I felt

that was well like I

felt so good about that

that's it was like it was for sure

very comfortable

tons you know I could I could put my seat

way back and I had a big barrier

between me and the person next to me with

like a peasant blocker thing

yeah I love that

I mean I also was talking to somebody that

was able to you like bid

on an upgrade

seat like through Lufthansa

and it was like 300 bucks as well to go

like to first class because they have empty seats

and it's like if they can cover some costs

like great

but I think it was 3x

or something for our flight you know it would have been really

pretty bad

so that was brutal

jet lags brutal all that

and then

Japan doesn't do mornings

they're not into mornings

coffee doesn't open till like once

pancake restaurant opens at

10 Starbucks world that's all you got yeah

Starbucks and Lawson's

I mean even 711s weren't open early like

you can find some little coffee shops dude

but like I found some that

in general don't you agree but in general

it's 10 at the earliest

and a lot of coffee shops

still don't until one o'clock in the afternoon

they close at midnight but still

I know close at one in the morning

it feels like their breakfast stuff is like a dessert

thing or something they're doing later

because we were roaming around 8

839 nothing was open

I was up every morning like a fucking

zombie dude just like

you know I was like in this weird world

of me just like running around taking pictures

no one around dude I know

we were in coffee dude

so I hit up a machine has some sugary ass coffee

what's that what's that street in Harajuku

like Shinagawa

Shinagawa I don't know

anyways it's like though the main

drag I have a name maybe the main name

totally wrong anyways it's a yeah

the main drag we're like all the shops are and

it's a Takashita street

isn't it oh yeah yeah Takashita

do what you say

Takashita yeah so it that's a

Takashita Takashita

Ryokan

Los Gatos

anyways

that we walked through there early

we thought we were right on time but man

like is it desolate or not

it was just no not even one shop open

by the way killer crepes there on that

street that the Japanese style crepes

they're so we got those puffy

puffy pancakes the souffle pancakes are so good

really fluffy ones they had

a macadamia

like sauce that wasn't that sweet

it was so oh my god it sounds amazing

I don't know why those haven't caught on here

a lot of stuff like that but

yeah so flight over I would love

to like if you just baller then

you're you're good all in out of control and

then knowing the least you guys had a whole

row right yeah

but still it's like I mean at least

you have your side to side you don't have to worry

that's true nice that's true

I just do do a neck

pillows I yeah

I'll go in and out dude they

sometimes

like on a zipper they give you

the neck pillow when you like get

the meal plan or whatever dude

okay all right are you a neck pillow guy

not a neck pillow guy I'm a

fold the head rest into

I lean into that yeah

that doesn't do much I mean you know me

I'll sleep on a domestic two-hour

flight so I I know

I know because you can't see you don't get to sleep

at home this is true you take any

opportunity I'll sleep anywhere I

saw this lady she was all set up she had

a it was like this

contraption you you snap

on to the head rest

and then you connect that to

your neck pillow or

maybe even like their head just like

basically just strap their head to the

seat like they weren't able

to move which is

really funny yeah so

all good I mean

travel but you know we travel

something travel yeah it's not

yeah that's what I would love to go

though like for the rally or for some

other more like are you

know with us and be able to do the car

stuff because yeah we really

didn't capitalize on that I

went looking for watches and then we

went with Clark

Akahabara

that's with all the electronic

stores are video games and

Akihabara and he's like

oh we'll go to this model store

and so we walked in and it was all

like you know remote control

trains what do they call

the power trains I don't know whatever

little models and they have

every single model of

every subway that's ever existed in Japan

and all the bullet trains and all the little figurines

and stuff and it was like cool tiny little store

and he's like yeah but

it's this is just the first floor

yeah this whole building

this entire building

each floor is

more of this there was even a track you

could bring your own train to

and put it down

and dude dude

the one of the ones that I say he was that

but for cars Liberty

it's like Liberty floor I think and that's

it's seven stories of just

scale models I couldn't I didn't get

there I wanted to so bad and then

we he said that that wasn't even the only

train building like that in the

neighborhood for sure wow

which is just you know that is

a whole but yeah trains are a whole

level of spectrum there you're dealing

with a whole layer of nerd

that you have no idea like it's it's there

and it's like old guy it totally and talk

about the cosplay shit like these people live it

like they're like they've got the tire

they've got the whole thing going down yeah it's

like a whole lifestyle it's crazy

what's your heart out two forty two thirty

or two forty I'll get into trivia

we have questions but I think we just save

them so for the listeners

sorry but we will we'll get to him next

time promise promise

pinky sorry how do you like that

sounds good let me see what I can do here

so did you get to watch one or no

I did I

so I went to your recommendations are

awesome by the way and it was super fun

to walk through all those shops but they were

mainly pretty high end I mean they weren't

they weren't a lot of used

interesting one

that does

primary like Jack and Betty or whatever

is like super famous

and then there was another one that's all

like a lot of used Seiko

yeah I didn't

see so I was looking for like two very specific

watches I never found them

and then I was enticed

by like the new stuff like new omegas

and stuff but I ended up buying a Seiko

in Ginza which is just

very simple it's an automatic

like I can show you but very simple

watch that you could buy here except

the days are in

kanji so

I thought that would be kind of a cool moment

is like something that

I don't think you can buy here maybe can I'm sure on eBay

or was it the cool thing like

I was going to say when you go to like

big camera or what's the art

store loft like

they loft has a whole watch section

as well and they'll have like

citizens and Seiko's and it'll say like

Japan only model that's

cool which and there was

some pretty rad like citizens and

stuff that we never see here and

like and Seiko's as well

at those places even

Casio's and stuff like that too so

yeah that's I don't know if you went

to a loft or no I

never never made it that's what I'm saying is like there's

so much we were in Nakano

Broadway and then in Ginza

and their amount of watch shops

at least compared to America is

staggering you can't even believe

that they can all stay in business

in Nakano there was

I don't know 15

watch shops it within

a mile that all had similar

stuff you know I

mean you went to like the third floor right

or fourth floor with all those yeah yeah

and that one shop had like

every if you want to Rolex

go to Japan there are so

many Rolexes like anyone who

says they're hard to get like hard to get a Rolex

like no you're just not in the right spot

condition over there and stuff like incredible

yeah and I posted that like you know

they they had that attack

that was like hand-painted like

unbelievable movement and then

they had those like the rainbow

jeweled Rolexes just like whoa

was you were in Ginza for a while

it sounds like was there anything at the Nissan

storefront thing the showroom

that they have there no I didn't

see it usually have cool I was

that window I was by that Seiko building

and then we kind of loop back and had

our final conveyor belt sushi

which was fun but that's

where I saw the century SUV

and and bought my watch but

yeah so more work to be done

that's all I have to say about that

all right

do do do do do do do do do do do do

do do do do do do do do do

trivia

how

many paint to sample

colors

in blue

this Porsche offer for the 9 11

currently how many

how many blues

not like it matters but this isn't

including like the stock blues

no

these are the named

like they have their own names

we all know some of these but not

most of them

in just blue if you buy

a new 9 11 you say hey Porsche I want to

paint it 60 I don't know that's

just a number that

came to my six zero that's a

lot of a lot of special

cars

over 22

33

that's a good number 33

I have a post here I'm going to try

to go through it really quick I'll see if I can go fast

but there's 33

and we know some but

uh

Lugano 914 olympic

gulf blue

mice messin blue

etna eponima Riviera

Mexico south sea blue

metallic voodoo blue

arrow blue maritime

turquoise

nashi blue oslo blue

club blue negaro

golf blue like the sport azure blue

yachting blue metallic

manouse 944 cobalt blue

metallic aqua blue metallic

albert blue

bally blue bally hoot now just get

xanmarino blue metallic iris blue

metallic dark blue metallic dark sea

night blue x blue

dude did I even get through all of them

I want to look I want to look at eponima

I've never heard of that color before

dude nashi blue

dude nash touch

I think gave nashen is

inspired them

so yeah

that color as high as fuck

dude eponima blue is sick

it's like it's super it's like a pale

blue it's like a blue metallic with

like a bit of a jade in it like a

turquoise it's really cool

that's right I've never seen

it before

we all know that volkswagen

makes their own

sausage yeah there's a party

and all that curry bakwurst part

number and all but what other

food item do they make

beer for sure right

and drinking and driving

Germans yeah to drink and

and drive by the book over

there

bratwurst what other german

things are there

this this food

there's or something

that's a really good guess later

you're wrong it goes

it yeah

haribo it goes with

the

ketchup that's right

is that a curry catcher number curry

worst part number one nine nine three

nine eight five zero zero be

is the Volkswagen ketchup

nice so check it out

art wouldn't touch it dude

yeah

Kessling yeah

he's a Kensington man

so I can curry ketchup dude

they have curry ketchup that's the

one get on it

get on it hey

by the way you guys watch four in the

ones just going crazy guys I need

to catch up I'm dude I

mean it's going to the final

race max 12 points behind

Lando and Oscar

16 points behind Lando I hope max

max is my favorite driver ever

to I hope

he wins it'll be such a fuck

dude no no no no no

we're stopping wind please

why I don't want so good

dude it's fine he's he's

so comical he's this

art still open Leclerc makes it

clear he's coming back to this race everybody's

going to crash out and somehow the

there's going to be a point multiplier

and no dude you guys are dumb

dude it's Hamilton remember the doors

and stuff like walk through the windows

and the doors and it's a seventh

eighth title or something you're right

hang on dude

yeah this is an interesting one we'll

see how it goes all right

all right boys talk to you later

thanks for listening bye bye

bye

Zigging and Zagging His Way Through Japan - DWA! Podcast Ep. #912

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