Podcasts about Shinkansen

COVID changed something at work, and I don't know if it's coming back.On a recent Shinkansen ride from Nagoya to Odawara, I found myself reflecting on how much work life has changed over the last few years. Not just remote work or video calls, but the small things that used to happen naturally when people shared the same space.In this episode of Ohazassu, I share some thoughts from the train, talk about what feels different today, and wonder whether these changes are here to stay. Grab a coffee and come along for the ride.Wanna see the scenery from the bullet train ride? Check it out on my YouTube channel @ OhazassuBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ohazassu-podcast--5905520/support.

Japan's transport ministry on Friday showed new cost estimates for eight candidate routes for the planned extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train line between Tsuruga Station in the central prefecture of Fukui and Shin-Osaka Station in the western prefecture of Osaka.

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: From Tokyo to Kyoto: A Tale of Trust and Transformation Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/ja/episode/2026-06-18-07-38-20-ja Story Transcript:Ja: 東京の忙しいオフィスは、春の日差しに包まれていました。En: The busy office in Tokyo was enveloped in the spring sunlight.Ja: ヒロシはパソコンを見つめながら、次の瞬間の仕事に疲れを感じていました。En: Hiroshi felt weary as he stared at his computer, anticipating the next moment's work.Ja: 同僚のアユミは元気よく会議室に入ってきました。En: His colleague, Ayumi, energetically entered the meeting room.Ja: 「ヒロシさん、京都のビジネスカンファレンス、楽しみですね！」En: “Hiroshi-san, I'm looking forward to the business conference in Kyoto, aren't you?”Ja: 「そうだね」とヒロシは少し噛み締めたように答えました。En: “Yes, I am,” Hiroshi replied, somewhat pensively.Ja: 「でも、プレゼンテーションの準備はまだまだだよ。」En: “But I'm still not ready with the presentation.”Ja: アユミはニコッと笑い、「大丈夫！En: Ayumi smiled and encouraged him, saying, “It's okay!Ja: 一緒に頑張りましょう。En: Let's do our best together.Ja: きっといい経験になりますよ。」En: I'm sure it'll be a great experience.”Ja: アユミの前向きな態度に、ヒロシは少しだけ心が軽くなりました。En: Hiroshi's heart felt slightly lighter thanks to Ayumi's positive attitude.Ja: 出発の日、二人は新幹線で京都へ向かいました。En: On the day of departure, the two headed for Kyoto by Shinkansen.Ja: 東京のモダンなビル群から一転、車窓に見える伝統的な日本の風景が流れていきます。En: The modern skylines of Tokyo quickly gave way to the traditional landscapes of Japan flowing past the window.Ja: 桜が咲く季節で、京都の景色は美しかったです。En: With cherry blossoms in bloom, Kyoto's scenery was beautiful.Ja: 会議場に到着した後、雰囲気は一変しました。En: Once they arrived at the conference venue, the atmosphere completely changed.Ja: エリート社員たちがあちこちで忙しそうに話し合いをしています。En: Elite employees were busily discussing matters everywhere.Ja: ヒロシは少し緊張しました。En: Hiroshi felt a bit nervous.Ja: 「あの、アユミさん、緊張しますね。」En: “Um, Ayumi-san, I'm feeling a bit tense.”Ja: 笑顔のアユミが言いました。「リラックスしましょう。En: Ayumi, with a smile, said, “Let's relax.Ja: 私たちの仕事を信じて、楽しくやりましょう。」En: Let's trust in our work and enjoy it.”Ja: プレゼンテーションが始まりました。En: The presentation began.Ja: アユミが最初に話を進め、会場の注目を集めました。En: Ayumi started the talk, capturing the attention of the room.Ja: 次はヒロシの番でした。En: Next, it was Hiroshi's turn.Ja: 緊張しながらも彼は思い切って一歩前に出ました。En: Despite his nerves, he bravely stepped forward.Ja: 「今日はこのプレゼンを楽しみにしていました」とヒロシは自信を持って話し始めました。En: “I've been looking forward to this presentation today,” Hiroshi began, speaking with confidence.Ja: すると、聞いている人々の目が彼に向き、静かに聞き入ってくれました。En: The eyes of the audience were on him, listening quietly.Ja: ヒロシは、ふとした瞬間にいつもの自己疑念を忘れ、仕事の意義を再認識しました。En: In that fleeting moment, Hiroshi forgot his usual self-doubt and rediscovered the significance of his work.Ja: プレゼンテーションの後、会場には拍手が沸き起こりました。En: After the presentation, applause erupted in the room.Ja: 上司が近づいて来て、「ヒロシさん、素晴らしい仕事でしたよ。En: His boss approached and complimented him, saying, “Hiroshi-san, that was excellent work.Ja: これからの活躍を期待しています。」En: We're looking forward to your future achievements.”Ja: 帰りの新幹線で、ヒロシは窓の外を見ながら微笑みました。En: On the return Shinkansen, Hiroshi smiled as he looked out the window.Ja: 彼の中で何かが変わっていました。En: Something had changed inside him.Ja: 「ありがとう、アユミさん。En: “Thank you, Ayumi-san.Ja: あなたのサポートのおかげです。」En: It's all thanks to your support.”Ja: アユミも笑顔で答えます。En: Ayumi responded with a smile.Ja: 「お互いに助け合うことが大事ですね。En: “It's important for us to help each other.Ja: これからも一緒に頑張りましょう。」En: Let's keep working hard together.”Ja: こうして、ヒロシは自己価値を再発見し、新たな意欲を見つけました。En: And so, Hiroshi rediscovered his self-worth and found new motivation.Ja: そして、アユミも念願の昇進に向けて一歩進みました。En: Meanwhile, Ayumi also took a step towards her long-desired promotion.Ja: 協力と信頼、それが二人に成功をもたらしたのです。En: Cooperation and trust brought success to both of them.Ja: ポジティブな春が、新しい未来を開いてくれました。En: The positive spring opened new futures for them. Vocabulary Words:enveloped: 包まれていましたweary: 疲れenergetically: 元気よくpensively: 噛み締めたようにencouraged: 励ましましたdeparture: 出発embarked: 向かいましたskylines: ビル群landscapes: 風景bloom: 咲くvenue: 会議場atmosphere: 雰囲気elite: エリートnervous: 緊張relax: リラックスcapturing: 集めましたfleeting: ふとしたself-doubt: 自己疑念rediscovered: 再認識applause: 拍手complimented: ほめ言葉achievements: 活躍support: サポートrediscovered: 再発見motivation: 意欲promotion: 昇進cooperation: 協力trust: 信頼success: 成功positive: ポジティブ

ＪＲ東日本の東京ディズニーシー開園２５周年を記念した特別塗装の東北・北海道新幹線の出発セレモニーを行うミッキーマウスら、１０日午前、仙台市青葉区のＪＲ仙台駅ＪＲ東日本は１０日、東京ディズニーシー開園２５周年を記念した東北・北海道新幹線の運行を開始した。 East Japan Railway Co. on Wednesday started operating a specially painted Shinkansen bullet train themed on the 25th anniversary of Tokyo DisneySea, a theme park near the Japanese capital.

East Japan Railway Co. on Wednesday started operating a specially painted Shinkansen bullet train themed on the 25th anniversary of Tokyo DisneySea, a theme park near the Japanese capital.

El mito de la Baliza V16 japonesa para motos: el bazar de las tonterías Recientemente ha corrido como la pólvora en redes sociales un supuesto "invento revolucionario": una baliza de preseñalización al estilo de nuestra polémica V16, diseñada supuestamente en Japón y adaptada con un soporte universal magnético y de pinza para motocicletas. La realidad, analizada bajo el microscopio técnico es mucho más prosaica: «Eso no es más que una linternita con adaptador de bazar que un genio ha transformado en noticia de internet. Ni es un elemento de preseñalización, ni tiene homologación, ni aporta nada a la seguridad vial. Es un accesorio estético de chufla, como los cuernos de reno que la gente le cuelga a los coches en Navidad». La comparación sirve para recordar que la verdadera V16 en España nació de un despropósito normativo. A pesar de contar con la consolidada homologación europea R65 (que ampara luces de emergencia de alta visibilidad y calidad), la administración española decidió crear una regulación nacional aislada. El resultado ha sido un sistema de balizas cuya implantación técnica y de conectividad sigue arrastrando lagunas de seguridad y de visibilidad que dificultan la protección real del conductor en caso de avería. Conducir en Tokio: 40 millones de personas y un silencio sepulcral Si algo sorprende al bajarse del avión en el área metropolitana de Tokio —un coloso urbano que concentra a casi 40 millones de habitantes, una población similar a la de toda España— es la ausencia de ruido. Al contrario que en las grandes urbes españolas, donde el atasco se acompaña de una banda sonora de bocinazos, acelerones e insultos, el asfalto japonés destaca por su calma y orden. En Japón, las normas no son sugerencias; se respetan a rajatabla. Alberto de la Torre lo experimentó en primera persona al alquilar un keicar (los icónicos coches ultracompactos japoneses de bajas emisiones) cerca del mítico Monte Fuji: «Estuve conduciendo y es increíble la cultura del automóvil que tienen. Ves a señores de más de 70 años conduciendo clásicos o deportivos con guantes de cuero blanco. Pero lo más impactante es el civismo: nadie pita, la gente deja distancias de seguridad holgadas y, si alguien se equivoca, los demás cooperan». De la Torre relató una anécdota que en España habría acabado en conflicto: por la inercia de conducir por la derecha, llegó a meterse sin querer en sentido contrario (en Japón se conduce por la izquierda). ¿La reacción de los conductores nipones? Ninguna señal de agresividad. Al dar por sentado que se trataba de un error humano involuntario, detuvieron sus vehículos con total respeto, le cedieron el espacio suficiente y esperaron pacientemente a que subsanara la maniobra. En España, ese mismo despiste habría provocado una tormenta de bocinazos, agresiones verbales y situaciones de riesgo extremo. Del "Tren Bala" al "Tren Burrilla": la obsesión por las tolerancias mecánicas El contraste cívico se traslada directamente a las vías del tren. Quien viaja a Japón y utiliza el ferrocarril de alta velocidad descubre una precisión que parece de ciencia ficción para un usuario español habitual. Mientras en Valladolid o Madrid celebramos frecuencias de tren cada hora y media como un auténtico privilegio de conectividad, en el país del sol naciente la alta velocidad funciona con la dinámica del metro: Frecuencias constantes: Los trenes bala llegan al andén, detienen su marcha exactamente 2 minutos para la subida de pasajeros y parten con puntualidad de milisegundos. A los 3 minutos, otro convoy repite la operación en el mismo andén. Tolerancia cero a las vibraciones: El viaje en el Shinkansen es de una suavidad absoluta, carente de ruidos, traqueteos o balanceos gracias a un mantenimiento predictivo y a un diseño de tolerancias mecánicas que roza la perfección. La contrapartida la sufrimos a diario en España con el bautizado con ironía como «Tren Burrilla». Los nuevos trenes de ancho variable, por ejemplo, han protagonizado un rosario de incidencias técnicas, retrasos crónicos y vibraciones tan intensas que, como bromea el propio Lagunar, «parece que vas en una sesión de fisioterapia constante en lugar de en un transporte de alta velocidad». La diferencia no es tecnológica; es una cuestión de rigor, de tolerancias industriales y de mantenimiento predictivo. La tolerancia social: ¿nos hemos vuelto demasiado dóciles? El debate concluye con una profunda reflexión sobre la conciencia y la respuesta de la ciudadanía ante el declive de los servicios que financia con sus impuestos. En Japón existe una baja tolerancia social al error del sistema, pero el ciudadano canaliza su civismo cumpliendo escrupulosamente con el orden establecido. En Europa, la respuesta es dispar: mientras los vecinos franceses paralizan el país con protestas (como los chalecos amarillos) cuando sienten que sus derechos son vulnerados, en España parece haberse instalado una preocupante pasividad. Tras la crisis de la pandemia y las restricciones de movilidad, la sociedad española parece haber desarrollado una tolerancia alarmante al deterioro de las carreteras, a los retrasos del transporte ferroviario y a la ineficacia de ciertas normativas de seguridad vial. En Auto FM creemos firmemente que la seguridad vial no se construye únicamente dictando leyes desde un despacho oficial o recaudando multas; requiere un compromiso cívico de respeto mutuo en el asfalto, una administración corresponsable y una exigencia firme por parte de los ciudadanos para que las infraestructuras que pagamos entre todos estén a la altura de la vida que deben proteger. Escucha el episodio entero aquí: https://go.ivoox.com/rf/175003403 Escúchanos en: www.podcastmotor.es Twitter: @AutoFmRadio Instagram: @autofmpodcast Twitch: AutoFMPodcast Youtube: @AutoFM Contacto: info@autofm.es

みなさんがご存知（ぞんじ）かはわかりませんが、日本（にほん）では今（いま）、Mrs. Green Apple（ミセス・グリーン・アップル）というアーティストが大人気（だいにんき）で、町中（まちなか）にコラボ商品（しょうひん）があふれかえっているだけでなく、コラボした食（た）べ物（もの）、コラボした新幹線（しんかんせん）まであります。もう一（ひと）つ、みなさんもよく知（し）るアニメ『呪術廻戦（じゅじゅつかいせん）』のコラボ商品（しょうひん）も、町中（まちなか）のいたるところで見（み）かけます。人気（にんき）なのは分（わ）かりますが、ちょっとやりすぎじゃありませんか？という、いつもの私（わたし）たちの皮肉（ひにく）じみた会話（かいわ）になっています。（笑）ミセスファン、JJKファンのみなさん、もし気分（きぶん）を害（がい）してしまったら申（もう）し訳（わけ）ありません。それにしても、やりすぎじゃないですかね？（笑）You may or may not know this, but right now in Japan, Mrs. GREEN APPLE is absolutely everywhere. Not only are there endless collaboration products, but there are also collaboration foods, drinks, and even a collaboration Shinkansen train.And then there's Jujutsu Kaisen. No matter where we go, we seem to run into another JJK collaboration.We totally get why they're so popular, but... isn't it all getting a bit much? In this episode, we have one of our usual slightly sarcastic conversations about Japan's obsession with collaborations and whether some of these promotions have gone just a little too far.To all the Mrs. Green Apple fans and JJK fans out there—we apologize in advance if we offend you!But seriously... isn't it getting a little ridiculous? (lol)

Μιλάμε για τις εμπειρίες μας από την Ιαπωνία: γιατί εκεί τα πάντα είναι ανάποδα (το τιμόνι, το περπάτημα, ακόμα και οι βρύσες) μέχρι το Shinkansen στα 300 km/h, τον πιο πολυσύχναστο σταθμό του κόσμου, το Ramen και τις μπριζόλες Wagyu. Περπατάμε από το παραδοσιακό Κιότο ως το cyberpunk Τόκιο.Pre-show: Γιατί στην Ιαπωνία όλα είναι ανάποδαΟδήγηση, περπάτημα, βρύσες, κυλιόμενες σκάλες — και η εξαίρεση του ΚιότοΤο ταξίδι: ~10 μέρες στο Κιότο, Τόκιο και μια εκδρομή στη Νάρα με τα ελάφιαΠόσο ασφαλής και πόσο πλούσια είναι η ΙαπωνίαKei cars, ευρωπαϊκή πολυτέλεια και σταθμοί που είναι ολόκληρες πόλειςΟ Σιντζούκου με 2 εκατ. άτομα τη μέρα και το Shinkansen στα 300 km/hΚιότο vs Τόκιο: σογκούν, αυτοκράτορας, δυτικοποίηση — και τα Νόμπελ Φυσικής του ΚιότοΝαοί, Ακιχαμπάρα, anime και το cyberpunk vibe του ΤόκιοΗ γλώσσα: πώς συνεννοείσαι όταν όλα είναι ιδεογράμματαΦαγητό: το hot take, το Kobe beef, και γιατί οι vegetarian να το ξανασκεφτούνΚόστος και τα αεροδρόμια Narita/HanedaΓιατί η Ιαπωνία είναι το πιο διαφορετικό μέροςPost-show: Συναντήσαμε τον Χρήστο!Επικοινωνίαemail: hello@notatop10.fmInstagram: @notatop10Threads: @notatop10Bluesky: @notatop10.fmWeb: notatop10.fm (00:00:00) Pre-show: Γιατί όλα είναι ανάποδα(00:02:10) Οδηγώντας και περπατώντας από την ανάποδη(00:05:36) Το ταξίδι: Κιότο, Τόκιο, Νάρα — πρώτες εντυπώσεις(00:08:16) Πόσο ασφαλής (και πόσο πλούσια) είναι η Ιαπωνία(00:12:41) Αυτοκίνητα και σταθμοί-πόλεις: ο Σιντζούκου(00:16:52) Shinkansen: 300 km/h και ανά 15 λεπτά(00:20:00) Κιότο vs Τόκιο: σογκούν, αυτοκράτορας και Νόμπελ Φυσικής(00:25:06) Ναοί, Νάρα και Ακιχαμπάρα(00:28:31) Η γλώσσα: συνεννόηση με ιδεογράμματα(00:30:04) Φαγητό: το hot take, το Kobe beef και οι vegetarian(00:40:13) Κόστος και τα αεροδρόμια (Narita/Haneda)(00:44:03) Γιατί η Ιαπωνία είναι τελείως διαφορετική(00:46:51) Outro(00:47:30) Post-show: Συναντήσαμε τον Χρήστο στο Τόκιο

VOV1 - Do ảnh hưởng của bão nhiệt đới số 6 có tên gọi Jangmi, hệ thống giao thông tại Tokyo đang bị tê liệt khi hàng loạt chuyến bay, tàu điện và các tuyến đường cao tốc bị hủy hoặc đóng cửa. Các hãng hàng không hàng đầu của Nhật Bản cho biết, do ảnh hưởng của bão Jangmi, có khoảng 852 chuyến bay đến và đi từ sân bay Haneda, bao gồm 760 chuyến bay nội địa, và 92 chuyến bay quốc tế, đã bị hủy vào hôm nay (03/06).Trong số đó, hãng Japan Airlines bị ảnh hưởng nặng nề nhất khi có tới 292 chuyến bay nội địa bị hủy, hãng All Nippon Airways có 232 chuyến, Skymark có 70 chuyến. Cả 3 hãng hàng không này xác nhận sẽ hủy bỏ tất cả các chuyến bay khởi hành hoặc đến sân bay Haneda vào buổi sáng nay. Ngoài ra, hàng loạt các hãng hàng không khác của Nhật Bản cũng bị ảnh hưởng và hủy chuyến, như Solaseed Air 37 chuyến, Peach Aviation 32 chuyến, Jetstar 31 chuyến…Cùng với việc hủy bỏ các chuyến bay nội địa, hãng hàng không All Nippon Airways cũng phải hủy bỏ 55 chuyến bay quốc tế, trong khi Japan Airlines hủy 37 chuyến.Các hãng hàng không cũng cảnh báo, số lượng các chuyến bay bị hủy chuyến hoặc hoãn, có thể sẽ còn tăng thêm tùy thuộc vào hướng di chuyển tiếp theo của cơn bão, đồng thời khuyến cáo hành khách thường xuyên cập nhật các thông tin mới nhất.Không chỉ ảnh hưởng đối với hệ thống giao thông đường không, bão Jangmi cũng khiến nhiều tuyến tàu cao tốc Shinkansen và đặc biệt là các tuyến tàu điện thông thường cũng bị hủy bỏ, hoặc dự kiến bị hủy bỏ, hoặc chậm chuyến. Trong khi đó, nhiều tuyến đường cao tốc ra - vào Tokyo cũng bị đóng cửa từ sáng nay do ảnh hưởng của bão, như đường cao tốc Kisei, Tomei, Shin-Tomei, Chuo… Các công ty đường sắt và các công ty quản lý đường bộ cao tốc đang kêu gọi hành khách kiểm tra trang web và các nguồn thông tin khác để cập nhật thông tin dịch vụ mới nhất.Ngọc Huân/VOV- TokyoNhiều chuyến bay tại Nhật bản phải hủy do bão Jangmi (ảnh: Reuters)

Episode 79: Show Notes Note: Video of this is available on Youtube/Spotify Summary Join Trevor Mountcastle and Tom Kim as we welcome Joe Petrovic to talk Japan explore the intricacies of booking Japan Airlines award flights, navigating ANA and JAL websites, and maximizing travel rewards for international trips. Our guest, Joe Petrovic, shares expert tips on award availability, transfer strategies, and cultural insights for Japan travel. Key Points From This Episode: 00:00 Introduction to Japan Travel with Joe Petrovic 01:25 Exploring ANA and JAL Booking Strategies 06:30 Understanding JAL Mileage Bank and Transfer Options 10:11 Experiences on Japan Airlines: Business and First Class 12:19 Domestic Flights and Unique Cabin Configurations 14:56 Traveling with Family: Cultural Interests and Experiences 15:40 Challenges in Award Availability and Fuel Surcharges 21:18 Connecting Itineraries and Alternative Routes 23:28 Cultural Integration in Japan Airlines Service 27:01 Luxury Offerings: Wine, Whiskey, and In-Flight Purchases 27:16 Exploring Japan's Travel Options 29:09 Osaka: A Gateway to Japan 34:09 Travel Tips for Japan 39:00 Currency and Payment Insights 42:17 Navigating Japan's Transportation System 49:39 Maximizing Travel Rewards 50:59 Personal Travel Experiences and Insights Resources Japan Airlines (JAL) - https://www.jal.co.jp/en/ ANA (All Nippon Airways) - https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/ JAL Mileage Bank - https://www.jal.co.jp/en/jmb/ Finair Miles (Finnair) - https://www.finnair.com/us-en/awards Chase Ultimate Rewards - https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/ultimate-rewards Capital One Miles - https://www.capitalone.com/digital/points-miles/ Marriott Bonvoy - https://www.marriott.com/loyalty/rewards.mi SmartEX App for Shinkansen tickets - https://www.smart-ex.jp/en/ Japan Web Immigration Portal - https://www.japan.travel/en/us/information/japan-web/ 7-Eleven Japan - https://www.sej.co.jp/ Suica Card - https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/suica.html —---------------- Key Topics for Episode Discussion Post: Award booking strategies for Japan Airlines and partners Navigating ANA and JAL award availability and website quirks Transfer strategies for maximizing miles from Chase, Capital One, and Marriott Tips for booking domestic and international flights within Japan Cultural tips and travel hacks for Japan travelers Keywords Japan Airlines, ANA, award travel, miles, points, Japan, travel tips, airline awards, transfer bonuses, travel rewards

大勢の乗客で混雑する東海道新幹線・東京駅のホーム、２日ＪＲ旅客６社は７日、大型連休期間の新幹線・特急列車の利用実績を発表した。 The total number of passengers on Shinkansen and other express trains during the Golden Week holiday period from late April to early May rose 5percentagefrom a year earlier to 14,766,000, data from six Japan Railways Group companies showed Thursday.

The total number of passengers on Shinkansen and other express trains during the Golden Week holiday period from late April to early May rose 5pctfrom a year earlier to 14,766,000, data from six Japan Railways Group companies showed Thursday.

Sometimes going on a trip is better than no trip at all and our three nights in Kyoto proved it. We fit in so much, I have zero regrets, and I'm sharing everything: what we did, what I'd do differently, and why you don't have to do it perfectly to have an incredible time. In This Episode You'll Learn ✔ How we got from Tokyo to Kyoto on the bullet train using the Smart Ex app and what we learned about IC cards (Suica vs. ICOCA) for the whole family ✔ Why we stayed at the Hyatt Place Kyoto and how we booked it using free night certificates and points ✔ Our honest review of Nishiki Market what to eat, how much time to give yourself, and how it's cash only ✔ What the Samurai Ninja Museum experience was actually like (hint: throwing stars and blowing darts are involved) ✔ The Sakura Light Festival at Nijo Castle, a cherry blossom illumination event I stumbled upon that ended up being magical ✔ Why I switched our Day 2 plans and prioritized Fushimi Inari first, and why I'd do it again ✔ The VoiceMap app walking tour that made Fushimi Inari one of the coolest experiences of the whole trip ✔ The "secret" bamboo grove at Fushimi Inari, what I know, what I couldn't find, and what I'd do differently ✔ Our full Nara day: feeding the deer (it's a little chaotic, here's what to know), seeing the Great Buddha, and why both my kids said Nara was their favorite ✔ Ramen Row at Kyoto Station how to find it, why it's worth it, and what we ordered ✔ The kimono fitting and tea ceremony at Camellia Flower Tea House in the Gion district why I'd book it earlier next time and what I wish I'd known ✔ Why I didn't book dinner reservations that last evening and why that was the right call ✔ Seven-Eleven Japan breakfast the smoothie machines, egg salad sandwiches, and the whipped cream fruit sandwich my daughter was obsessed with ✔ How to think about early mornings vs. real rest when you're traveling with kids This Episode Is Especially Helpful If... You're planning a family trip to Japan and trying to figure out how to actually fit Kyoto in You want to use Hyatt points or free night certificates for Japan travel You're overwhelmed by "do everything perfectly or don't go" thinking and need permission to just go You're trying to decide between the big Kyoto sights, Fushimi Inari, Nijo Castle, Nara, the Gion district, and what to prioritize You love the idea of meaningful, immersive travel experiences (like a tea ceremony or a shrine walk) but also want practical logistics You're traveling with kids or teens and need a real, honest take on pacing Resources & Mentioned in This Episode Smart Ex App — for purchasing bullet train (Shinkansen) tickets online Suica Card / ICOCA Card — IC transit cards for trains and subways in Japan Hyatt Place Kyoto — booked on free night certificates and points, one king bed and one twin bed rooms could be adjoining Nishiki Market — cash only; great for Wagyu beef, mochi with strawberries, green tea boba, homemade donuts and so much more Samurai Ninja Museum, Kyoto — interactive ninja experience + samurai museum guided tour; add the ninja experience add-on if you have kids Sakura Light Festival at Nijo Castle — cherry blossom illuminations, outdoor market, and optional evening performance (seasonal) Fushimi Inari Taisha — free to visit; Dorothy highly recommends the VoiceMap walking tour Golden Pavilion— A single loop around Kinkakuji temple VoiceMap App — self-guided audio walking tours; ~$10 each, one account works on two phones Nara Park — deer feeding, the Great Buddha at Todai-ji Temple Ramen Row, Kyoto Station — 10th floor; multiple ramen restaurants, including a vegan/gluten-free option Camellia Flower Tea House, Gion — book via Viator; kimono add-on available 1 hour or more before your tea time (book earlyit sells out!) Gion District, Kyoto — pagoda, lantern-lit streets, shops, shrines; beautiful at night Seven-Eleven Japan — smoothie machines, hard boiled eggs, whipped cream fruit sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, protein bars; ATMs inside work with MasterCard debit Loved This Episode? If this inspired you to take the trip, do the thing, and stop waiting for the perfect moment, I would be so grateful if you'd leave a review! It helps more women find this podcast and get the inspiration and tools they need to live fully. Thank you so much, love.

Tout commence avec un livre de vulgarisation scientifique et la passion des phénomènes qu'on ne peut pas tout à fait expliquer. Cette fascination pour la science et l'espace guide depuis toujours Kevin Nocentini, Technology & Innovation Manager chez Capgemini Engineering. Dans cet épisode du Lab, il revient sur son parcours d'ingénieur et sur ce qui l'anime depuis l'enfance : comprendre l'univers et ses systèmes complexes. Il partage son cheminement, de ses premières curiosités scientifiques à son rôle actuel au cœur de la recherche appliquée, où il travaille sur des sujets variés mêlant spatial, ingénierie système et durabilité. L'épisode aborde notamment la question des débris spatiaux, un enjeu largement invisible, mais aux conséquences très concrètes, qui illustre parfaitement son approche de la recherche : explorer, modéliser et progressivement faire émerger des solutions ancrées dans le réel.Un épisode éclairant, pour découvrir le parcours d'un ingénieur passionné par la science et convaincu que la recherche est avant tout une aventure humaine.

検測機能を搭載した最新型車両「ドクターＳ」のロゴマーク新しい「新幹線のお医者さん」は「ドクターＳ」―。 Central Japan Railway Co., or JR Tokai, said Thursday that four N700S series Shinkansen bullet trains that are set to be used also for the inspection of related equipment are named "Doctor S."

Central Japan Railway Co., or JR Tokai, said Thursday that four N700S series Shinkansen bullet trains that are set to be used also for the inspection of related equipment are named "Doctor S."

The list of April Fools' jokes on official anime/manga Twitter accounts, The Super Mario Galaxy movie is still breaking records, and Artemis watches over the latest NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission! Also, TOKYOPOP offers public stock shares, Pokémon teams with IKEA for collaboration events, and Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi cheers on her husband with April-themed crossover art! Meanwhile in Japan, a new cafe's average staff age is 73, a man was arrested for walking on Shinkansen tracks, and a man died after biting a woman at a park!

Drop us a message with any questions you may have :)So… what's skiing Hakuba Valley really like?

Les tensions entre la Chine et le Japon mettent à l'épreuve l'approvisionnement de Tokyo en terres rares. Ces minerais sont essentiels à la production des technologies actuelles. Après une déclaration de la Première ministre nippone sur Taïwan, Pékin a décrété en janvier des restrictions d'exportation sur les terres rares. Le Japon cherche tant bien que mal à s'extraire du monopole chinois dans le raffinage de ces produits essentiels pour son économie comme pour sa défense. « Regardez comme il est puissant, s'amuse Daisuke Nakajima en montrant une règle en fer claquer sur l'aimant qu'il tient dans les mains. Il faut faire attention : une fois qu'ils sont magnétisés, la force est telle que vos doigts pourraient être écrasés ». L'activité de l'usine dont il est le directeur dépend à 70% de ce morceau de minerai. « Nous utilisons des aimants au néodyme, importés de Chine ; s'ils n'arrivent plus au Japon, nous devrons pratiquement arrêter notre production », souffle le superviseur de l'usine Sanyo Dengyo Ltd. Située à Numazu, au pied du mont Fuji, l'usine fournit des composants pour des systèmes de réfrigération et de climatisation à des clients prestigieux, au premier rang desquels figure le Shinkansen, le mythique train à grande vitesse japonais. Pour autant, à l'image du pays, qui dépend à plus de 60% de Pékin pour l'importation de terres rares, l'entreprise n'a pas d'alternative. La Chine possède les plus grandes réserves de terres rares, mais dispose surtout d'un quasi-monopole sur le raffinage de cet or du XXIe siècle. En clair : difficile de se passer de Pékin. « Importer ailleurs, c'est quatre fois plus cher ; nous ne cherchons pas vraiment d'autres options », explique Daisuke Nakajima. Pression chinoise Les tensions sino-nippones ont eu un impact direct sur son activité. Depuis la déclaration de Sanae Takaichi évoquant une potentielle implication de son pays en cas d'invasion chinoise de Taïwan en novembre 2025, les relations ne cessent de se dégrader entre les deux plus grandes économies asiatiques. En plus d'inciter les Chinois à ne pas se rendre au Japon – ce qui a un réel impact sur l'industrie touristique –, Pékin a décidé d'utiliser la dépendance japonaise aux terres rares comme levier. « Nous avons eu deux mois de retard dans les livraisons, ce qui a entraîné un important délai dans la livraison de prototypes à nos clients », explique Daisuke Nakajima. Déjà touché par les conséquences de la guerre commerciale sino-américaine, le Japon s'est vu appliquer des restrictions spécifiques par la Chine en janvier, puis en février. D'abord, les entreprises de l'archipel ont dû se plier à des réglementations supplémentaires de Pékin visant à limiter les exportations de terres rares pour les biens à double usage (civil et militaire), avant l'établissement de listes noires. « Il y a deux catégories, résume Tatsuya Terazawa, PDG de l'Institut de l'économie de l'énergie du Japon. Vingt entreprises japonaises devront subir un examen extrêmement rigoureux avant de pouvoir importer des terres rares, et vingt autres ne pourront plus bénéficier de matériaux à double usage. » Des règles floues Sur ces listes figurent des entreprises du secteur automobile, comme Subaru, de l'énergie, ou encore Mitsubishi et le programme spatial japonais. Des règles qui restent floues et dont l'impact concret demeure encore difficilement mesurable, plusieurs semaines après leur mise en place. En témoignent les chiffres des importations depuis la Chine, toujours relativement stables pour les premiers mois de 2026. « Il y a eu des ralentissements, mais l'impact risque d'être proche de zéro », prédit Hotaka Machida, ancien diplomate nippon en Chine et chercheur à l'Institut de géoéconomie de Tokyo. « ​​​​​​​Mais à mon sens, cela reste un virage stratégique, car Pékin considère désormais l'industrie de défense japonaise de la même manière que celle des États-Unis ou de Taïwan », poursuit-il. En clair : comme hostile. Mais pourquoi Pékin met-elle en place des mesures dont l'impact reste limité ? « ​​​​​​​Je pense qu'il y a des efforts intentionnels du côté chinois pour conserver ce levier avec une certaine marge de manœuvre, répond Tatsuya Terazawa. La tactique consiste à effrayer l'industrie japonaise pour pousser le gouvernement à faire des concessions. » Une stratégie pas vraiment payante, alors que la Première ministre reste très populaire tout en maintenant une ligne dure face à Pékin. « La Chine cherche aussi à se présenter comme garante des règles du commerce international, analyse de son côté Yoshikiyuo Shimamine, chercheur au Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. En 2010, lorsque les importations chinoises de terres rares se sont arrêtées net, le Japon a porté l'affaire devant l'Organisation mondiale du commerce, qui a jugé que la mesure n'était pas conforme. C'est pour cela que Pékin se limite aux exportations concernant les biens à double usage. » Une décision également en ligne avec les prises de position fréquentes des officiels du Parti communiste chinois sur la menace que représenterait la militarisation accélérée du Japon. Le précédent Ces restrictions, bien que d'impact limité, exposent à nouveau une dépendance que le Japon a clairement identifiée comme une faiblesse à corriger à tout prix. Car Pékin n'en est pas à son coup d'essai. En 2010, un navire de pêche chinois était entré en collision avec un bâtiment des gardes côtes japonais, et l'une des plus graves crises diplomatiques entre les deux pays conduisit à plusieurs trains de sanctions, dont un embargo sur les terres rares. Aux manettes du dossier à l'époque au sein du ministère de l'Économie : Tatsuya Terazawa. « Ils n'ont fait aucune annonce, rien. Du jour au lendemain, les licences d'exportation se sont arrêtées, se souvient le diplômé d'Harvard. Nous avons été totalement pris par surprise, et l'industrie automobile était hors d'elle. » Un plan d'un milliard de dollars est alors élaboré pour tenter de réduire la dépendance du pays, plus grand importateur de terres rares de la planète. Cinq axes sont mis en place : Augmenter l'efficacité dans l'utilisation des minerais  Développer des matériaux alternatifs  Généraliser et améliorer le recyclage  Trouver des fournisseurs alternatifs (notamment en Australie)  Renforcer le stockage pour alimenter les industries stratégiques  « Cela a fait baisser notre dépendance aux alentours de 60% », assure Tatsuya Terazawa. Objectif autonomie À ces cinq piliers s'est ajouté un sixième : le rêve nippon d'exploiter ses propres ressources naturelles. La zone économique exclusive de l'archipel offre des possibilités sur lesquelles compte le gouvernement. C'est à 2 000 kilomètres de Tokyo, dans les boues sous-marines autour de l'île de Minamitori-shima, que le Japon cherche son salut. « Nous avons trouvé, à 6 ​​​​​​​000 mètres de profondeur, des concentrations très riches en terres rares lourdes, comme le dysprosium et le terbium », raconte Shoichi Ishii, directeur du programme SIP qui supervise le projet d'extraction. Dans sa main, il tient un petit tube plastique rempli de cet « ​​​​​​​or marron ». Mais avant même de pouvoir filtrer, traiter puis raffiner les métaux rares contenus dans cette boue, aller la chercher relève d'une mission quasi spatiale. « Il s'agit de remonter verticalement des sédiments solides, explique Shoichi Ishii. Pour y parvenir, nous adaptons les technologies de l'industrie pétrolière et gazière offshore. » Un défi de taille dont la rentabilité interroge. Première mondiale Le projet, lancé en 2014, s'est accéléré en 2023, avec l'ambition de tester en conditions réelles toutes les étapes permettant de lancer une production. En janvier 2026, le Japon a réussi une première mondiale avec l'extraction de boue à 6 kilomètres de profondeur. Une opération impliquant plus de 150 membres d'équipage, des hélicoptères et des transferts par avion. Des investissements considérables auxquels s'ajoutent les dépenses énergétiques nécessaires pour extraire la boue à l'aide de gigantesques tubes descendant pendant près d'une semaine avant d'atteindre les fonds. Sans compter l'impact environnemental, que le directeur du programme considère comme quasi nul. Mais la série d'essais grandeur nature prévue doit permettre au pays de l'estimer, d'ici 2028. À cette date, le Japon aura aussi une idée précise de ses capacités potentielles de production. « Sur le plan des coûts, nous ne pourrons jamais rivaliser avec la Chine », tempère Yoshikiyuo Shimamine, qui y voit malgré tout un « ​​​​​​​game changer », une rupture, « car les réserves sont très importantes et elles contiennent des terres rares lourdes que l'on ne trouve presque nulle part ailleurs qu'en Chine ». Difficile d'imaginer malgré tout un réel impact pour l'industrie japonaise. « Le jour où nous utiliserons des terres rares produites au Japon, je serais surement mort », assure un industriel. Mais pour les autorités, la souveraineté n'a pas de prix, résume Tatsuya Terazawa : « Dépenser des milliards pour l'indépendance est un investissement de sécurité nationale, au même titre que l'achat d'équipements de défense. » Et dans le secteur militaire, où les terres rares sont essentielles, les deux ambitions du gouvernement nippon se rejoignent. À lire aussiTerres rares: Tokyo veut exploiter ses fonds marins pour sortir de sa dépendance avec la Chine

Send us Fan MailWhooosh! The three vessels of hilarity are back to bring to you talk of speedboats in Thailand, motion sickness, TV show ideas for adults and kids, sitting on the bus, vandalism, hovercrafts, helicopters, riddles about transport, the bullet train / Shinkansen, train driving, helmets, and SO MUCH MORE! Tom's Audience Intercommunication is where you have your say... get in touch on Facebook, Instagram, X (@YourselfJasmine), or send us a text (see above). You might get a Show Yourself Mr. Jasmine beer mat!You know it's the thing to do! Enjoy the show!

392 Japan Recap Godzilla Zipline Spider Man Trailer White Dragon UpdateDoom Scrolling IntroWe're back after a three-week gap, and it's for legit reasons: Joe got wrecked by strep throat, tried to power through a three-hour gig anyway, lost his voice, and then the Foos immediately went on their Japan trip—where the jet lag, nonstop walking, and full itinerary left zero energy for a hotel-room episode.Japan recap hits the highlights without turning into a travel documentary: derpy Godzilla hat and flappy Mothra wing hat reveals, why tourist areas are totally fine for a first trip, the pub stop on St. Patrick's Day, KFC-at-Christmas curiosity, and the most chaotic comfort-food tradition flex—finding a Shakey's in Tokyo for Joe's birthday.They break down the drinking and convenience store life (Strong Zero discourse included), compare Osaka vs Tokyo vibes, and talk about learning Japan's train system the hard way—eventually leveling up with digital Suica.Big trip moments: a preseason baseball game at the Tokyo Dome (chants, drumlines, beer girls with kegs on their backs), Universal Studios Japan (including the Donkey Kong add-on to Super Nintendo World), Tokyo DisneySea for a chill, nautical-themed park day, and the bullet train ride where they paid extra for the Mount Fuji side and almost slept through the view.The crown jewel: Awaji Island's Shin Godzilla Zipline—literally zipping into Godzilla's mouth—plus the museum, the mission-style attraction, and the absolutely ridiculous plush Godzilla backpack haul.They also nerd out on Japan's stamp culture (goshuin vs eki stamp books), the scavenger-hunt vibe of stamp rallies, and a weirdly fascinating rabbit hole: “mosquito” high-frequency anti-loitering devices that younger ears can hear.Geeking Out is a quick-fire catch-up: the Spider-Man trailer hype and Easter eggs (street-level vibes, Punisher, Hulk/Bruce Banner, Scorpion, and potential Man-Spider energy), the ridiculously long Rockstar breakdown video of a short trailer, and a long-awaited update—The Legend of the White Dragon finally getting a real release date after years of “coming soon” purgatory. They also rapid-list what they're watching again now that they're home: Shrinking, Monarch, Paradise, The Pit, Vladimir, plus chatter about another Mummy movie and getting back to Daredevil and For All Mankind.Chapters(0:00) Doom Scrolling Intro(5:16) Intro(5:55) Where We've Been Strep Throat Lost Voice Three Weeks Off(7:13) Japan Recap Godzilla Hat Mothra Hat Souvenirs-Tourist Spots vs Tourist Traps First Trip Logic-Osaka vs Tokyo Vibes Trains Suica Culture Shock-Strong Zero Convenience Store Life-Tokyo Dome Baseball Game Chants Beer Girls-Universal Studios Japan Super Nintendo World Donkey Kong-Tokyo DisneySea Chill Park Day-Shinkansen Bullet Train Mount Fuji Side-Shin Godzilla Zipline Awaji Island Museum Missions-Stamps Goshuin Eki Stamps Stamp Rally Quest-Mosquito High Frequency Anti Loitering Devices(1:01:55) Geeking Out Spider Man Trailer Rockstar Breakdown Video-Legend of the White Dragon Release Date Update-What We're Watching Shrinking Monarch Paradise The Pit Vladimir(1:14:18) Outro + Doom Scrolling OutroSpider Man trailer, Punisher, Hulk, Scorpion, Man Spider, Rockstar trailer breakdown, Legend of the White Dragon, Jason David Frank, Japan trip recap, Osaka, Tokyo, Tokyo Dome, Universal Studios Japan, Tokyo DisneySea, Shinkansen, Mount Fuji, Shin Godzilla zipline, Awaji Island, Strong Zero, Suica, goshuin, eki stamps, mosquito anti loitering device

How do you leave a message on the answering machine?[✐3.Moderato, 4.Allegretto] conditional form★★★★★“If the fever doesn't go down, I will take a day off.”[00:08]Hello, everyone. How are you doing? Today's topic is a conditional form. Please make a sentence in conditional form after masu-form♫.For example,“make a mistake” ♫ - “if I make a mistake”Ready？Repeat after me[00:27]1. go [masu-form – conditional form]2. take a day off / rest3. warm up4. cool / refrigerate5. go down6. become7. to be8. there is / I have9. throw away10. forget11. look / watch / see12. eat13. do14. come[02:02]Now, listen to the key words [KW] and then repeat the sentence.[02:08]1. [KW] hurry up, Shinkansen(bullet train)→ If you hurry, you can catch the Shinkansen.2. [KW] I have a navigation, fine / OK→ If I have a navigation, I should be fine.3. [KW] warm up, tasty→ If you warm it up, it will taste even better.4. [KW] the fever goes down, work→ If the fever goes down, I will go to work.5. [KW] turn twenty years old, alcohol→ When you turn twenty, you can drink alcohol.6. [KW] Bucho (manager) is not here, meetingl→ If Bucho is not here, I think s/he is attending a meeting.7. [KW] you have questions, anytime→ If you have any questions, ask me anytime.8. [KW] see it in the film theatre, gripping / punch / impressive→ If you see it in a film theatre, it is more powerful / punchy.9. [KW] order today, the day after tomorrow→ If you order today, it will arrive the day   after tomorrow.10. [KW] bring it tomorrow, can be replaced→ If you bring it tomorrow, it can be replaced.=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=「ねつがさがらなければ、やすみます。」[00:08]みなさん、こんにちは。おげんきですか。きょうはconditional formですね。ますFormのあと♫、じょうけんけいconditional formをつくってください。たとえばまちがえます♫ - “まちがえれば”いいですか。Repeat after me[00:27]1. いきます - いけば2. やすみます - やすめば3. あたためます – あたためれば4. ひやします - ひやせば5. さがります - さがれば6. なります - なれば7. います - いれば8. あります - あれば9. すてます – すてれば10. わすれます - わすれれば11. みます - みれば12. たべます - たべれば13. します - すれば14. きます - くれば[02:02]では、キーワード[KW]をきいてから、ぶんをリピートしてください。[02:08]1. [KW] いそぎます、しんかんせん→ いそげば、しんかんせんにまにあいます。2. [KW] ナビがあります、 だいじょうぶ→ ナビがあれば、だいじょうぶです3. [KW] あたためます、おいしい→ あたためれば、もっとおいしくなります。4. [KW] ねつがさがります、しごと→ ねつがさがれば、しごとにいきます。5. [KW]はたちになります、おさけ→ はたちになれば、おさけをのめます。6. [KW] ぶちょうがここにいません、かいぎ→ ぶちょうがここにいなければ、かいぎにでているとおもいます。(かいぎにでる = attend a meeting)7. [KW] しつもんがあります、いつでも→ しつもんがあれば、いつでも きいてください。8. [KW]えいがかんでみます、はくりょく→ えいがかんでみれば、もっと はくりょくがあります。(はくりょくがある = have a tremendous impact, gripping)9. [KW] きょう ちゅうもんします、あさって→ きょう ちゅうもんすれば、あさってとどきます。10. [KW] あしたもってきます、とりかえてもらえます→ あしたもってくれば、とりかえてもらえます。Support the show=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=Need more translation & transcript? Become a patron: More episodes with full translation and Japanese transcripts. Members-only podcast feed for your smartphone app. Japanese Swotter on PatreonNote: English translations might sound occasionally unnatural as English, as I try to preserve the structure and essence of the original Japanese.

Shinkansen, Transsib aber auch Modelleisenbahn und Stuttgart 21 - Harald Kirchner hat 30 Jahre lang Zuggeschichten gefilmt. 2026 geht der langjährige Teamleiter der SWR-Reportagereihe Eisenbahn-Romantik in Ruhestand und auch die Reihe endet, mit Eisenbahngeschichten aus Japan.

In Folge 394 von Rolling Sushi geht es um Kupferdiebe, Wasserknappheit, Umzugswellen, den Stickerboom, das Lernen von Japanisch, einen japanischen Karnevalswagen, getrennte Fahrpreise in Kyoto, die Wahlergebnisse, ignorierte Förderschüler, illegale Straßengastronomie, kostenlose Shinkansen-Tickets für Touristen, eine Bar für unzufriedene Angestellte und Natto.

Os quiero ver a todos firmando contratos para lograr vuestros objetivos Shinkansen!

This weeks show starts with Sami's review of the 2026 Toyota Sienna minivan, which is apparently inspired by Japan's iconic bullet trains. Although our hosts struggle to see the direct connection, their discussion of the minivan covers all kinds of topics, ranging from the importance of max cargo room in a van, to whether shared media experiences are still valuable during a roadtrip. Then the guys talk about a few important news topics that came up, including the death of the Dodge Hornet, the arrival and cancellation of the new Chevy Bolt, and the arrival of new Chinese EVs on Canadian roads. Finally the show wraps up with an important reader question. We hope you enjoyed listening this episode as much as we loved recording it!

"Kultivuj si takový prožitek, který tě v budoucnu bude podporovat."Dnes to bude trochu něco jiného, celá přednáška z Melting potu Colours of Ostrava! Díky za pozvání!⁠⁠Registruj se na naší Půlroční BWA Akademii 2026! Do 18.1. SLEVA! Víc Informací ZDE.V tomhle díle se noříme do jednoho z nejzásadnějších, ale nejméně viditelných procesů v naší mysli: jak se tvoří naše „mapa významnosti“ - tedy to, čemu věnujeme pozornost, co považujeme za důležité a podle čeho se rozhodujeme.Bavíme se o tom, jak dopamin funguje jako architekt této mapy, jak ji moderní svět postupně deformuje a proč levné zdroje stimulu – sociální sítě, porno, notifikace, nekonečný feed - zužují naši perspektivu, místo aby ji rozšiřovaly.Dotýkáme se fenoménu informační obezity, kdy konzumujeme obsah bez filtru, zatímco algoritmy fungují jako „knihovníci“, kteří nám hází knihy přímo do obličeje. A ptáme se:Jak se v tomhle prostředí nestát pasivním konzumentem, ale aktivním tvůrcem vlastní informační diety?Velká část epizody je i o tom, jak si znovu budovat dlouhé cykly smysluplné radosti – skrze náročné, ale obohacující aktivity, které podporují stav flow, trpělivost a skutečné učení. Třeba i tak obyčejnou věcí, jako je… keramika.Mluvíme také o:proč pozitivní emoce reálně rozšiřují naše myšlení (a máme na to data)jak vděčnost pomáhá stabilizovat dopaminový systémproč je důležité kultivovat vztah k budoucímu jájak se učit být s nepříjemnými emocemi místo okamžité únikové reakcea proč by měl být reálný svět hlavním zdrojem naší zkušenosti, ne digitální prostorTenhle díl není o tom, že by technologie byly zlo.Je o tom, že bez vědomého řízení pozornosti přenecháváme volant někomu jinému.Minutáž:00:00 Úvod: Subjektivní zkušenost06:30 Evoluce a původ našeho chování09:05 Evoluční nesoulady: Shinkansen vs. motoráček12:44 Co je to dopamin a jak funguje15:43 Očekávání a klamání organismu18:03 Levný dopamin: Proč nás moderní svět "znásilňuje"21:08 Mapa významnosti: Filtr naší reality23:01 Naivní realismus a efekt červeného auta27:46 Dlouhodobé cykly: Náhrada levného dopaminu29:42 Příklad keramiky: Drahý dopamin a trpělivost33:37 Broaden & Build: Jak pozitivní emoce rozšiřují obzory37:20 Umění být s negativním afektem40:39 Informační obezita a dieta44:02 Historie lajkovacího tlačítka46:10 Bias prestiže: Jakou hru hrají tvé vzory48:39 Ne je celá věta: Trénink odmítáníPřechod do VIP- Ne je celá věta: Trénink odmítání- Hédonická adaptace a neuspokojitelnost mysli- Krize smyslu a vědomé cíle- Být dobrými předky pro budoucí generace- Vděčnost jako protijed

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: A New Year's Promise in Shinjuku: Love Conquers Distance Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/ja/episode/2025-12-29-23-34-02-ja Story Transcript:Ja: 新宿駅は人であふれています。En: Shinjuku Station is overflowing with people.Ja: 冬の冷たい空気の中、駅のあちこちには新年のお飾りが見えます。En: Amid the cold air of winter, New Year decorations can be seen throughout the station.Ja: ニューヤーイブの夜、たくさんの人が集まり、賑やかな声が響き渡ります。En: On New Year's Eve night, many people gather, and lively voices echo.Ja: ハルトは大阪からの最終の新幹線に乗りました。En: Haru took the last Shinkansen from Osaka.Ja: 彼は大学生で、大阪で新しい仕事を始めました。En: He is a university student and has started a new job in Osaka.Ja: 初めての長距離恋愛に彼も不安です。En: He is also anxious about his first long-distance relationship.Ja: 大切なアイコに会いたくて、驚かせようとしています。En: He wants to meet his beloved Aiko and intends to surprise her.Ja: アイコは東京の大学院生です。En: Aiko is a graduate student in Tokyo.Ja: 新年の特別な夜、彼女は恋人のハルトと一緒にいたいと思っていましたが、距離が心を曇らせます。En: On this special New Year night, she wanted to be with her boyfriend Haru, but the distance clouds her heart.Ja: ハルトの電車が新宿駅に到着しました。En: Haru's train arrived at Shinjuku Station.Ja: 彼は急いでホームを下り、改札を出ます。En: He hurriedly descends from the platform and exits the ticket gate.Ja: 人混みが激しく、道を探すのは簡単ではありません。En: The crowd is dense, and finding his way is not easy.Ja: しかし、彼は何としても、アイコに会いたいのです。En: However, he is determined to meet Aiko no matter what.Ja: アイコは新宿駅の中央広場でハルトを待っています。En: Aiko is waiting for Haru in the central plaza of Shinjuku Station.Ja: 彼の顔を探して、彼女の心は不安と期待でいっぱいです。En: Her heart is full of anxiety and expectation as she searches for his face.Ja: ハルトは走ります。En: Haru runs.Ja: 人々の間を何とかすり抜け、広場にたどり着きます。En: He somehow weaves through the people and reaches the plaza.Ja: 寒さに震えながら、彼は時計を見ます。En: Shivering in the cold, he checks his watch.Ja: あと数分で新年です。En: It's only a few minutes until the New Year.Ja: そして、彼はアイコを見つけます。En: And then, he finds Aiko.Ja: 彼女は彼を見て、唇がほころびます。En: She sees him, and her lips break into a smile.Ja: ハルトは彼女を抱きしめ、「明けましておめでとう」と言います。En: Haru hugs her and says, "Happy New Year."Ja: 花火が夜空に上がり、二人の顔を照らします。En: Fireworks light up the night sky, illuminating their faces.Ja: 新しい年の始まりとともに、ハルトは彼の気持ちをアイコに伝えます。En: With the beginning of the new year, Haru conveys his feelings to Aiko.Ja: 「離れていても、ずっと一緒だよ」と。En: "Even if we are apart, we'll always be together."Ja: そして、アイコは微笑んで、彼の手をしっかりと握り返します。En: And Aiko smiles and tightly grips his hand in return.Ja: この瞬間、彼らは新たな約束をします。En: At that moment, they make a new promise.Ja: 距離に負けず、これからも一緒に未来を歩むことを。En: To walk into the future together, not defeated by distance.Ja: 新年の夜、新宿駅で、二人は新しい一歩を踏み出しました。En: On this New Year's night at Shinjuku Station, the two take a new step forward.Ja: 彼らの絆は、さらに強くなりました。En: Their bond has grown even stronger. Vocabulary Words:overflowing: あふれていますamid: 中station: 駅decorations: お飾りgather: 集まりecho: 響き渡りますanxious: 不安descends: 下りdense: 激しくintends: 思っていましたclouds: 曇らせますdetermined: 何としてもsquares: 広場expectation: 期待weaves: すり抜けshivering: 震えながらilluminating: 照らしますconveys: 伝えますpromise: 約束defeated: 負けずbond: 絆graduate student: 大学院生relationship: 恋愛beloved: 大切platform: ホームticket gate: 改札new year: 新年watch: 時計hug: 抱きしめfireworks: 花火

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: Love Across the Miles: A New Year's Eve Reunion Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/ja/episode/2025-12-29-08-38-20-ja Story Transcript:Ja: 冬の夜、雪が静かに舞い降りる中、遥か遠く離れた街に二人の学生がいました。En: On a winter night, as the snow quietly fell, there were two students in a distant city.Ja: ハルトとユイ、そしてハルトの親友カズキです。En: They were Haruto and Yui, and Haruto's best friend, Kazuki.Ja: ハルトとユイは、長距離恋愛中のカップルです。En: Haruto and Yui are a couple in a long-distance relationship.Ja: 大学が冬休みに入り、それぞれの街で時間を過ごしています。En: With the university on winter break, they are spending their time in their respective cities.Ja: ハルトは元気で前向きな性格ですが、内心はユイを失うのではないかと不安を抱いています。En: Haruto is cheerful and optimistic, but internally he carries the anxiety of possibly losing Yui.Ja: 彼はユイとの関係を強く保ちたいと思っていますが、距離が障害になっています。En: He wants to maintain a strong relationship with Yui, but the distance is a barrier.Ja: ある日、大学の寮で悩んでいるハルトにカズキが話しかけます。En: One day, while Haruto is troubled in the university dorm, Kazuki talks to him.Ja: 「冬休みの間、ユイちゃんに会いに行ったらどうだ？」カズキが言います。En: "Why don't you go see Yui during the winter break?" Kazuki says.Ja: 「それでもし、サプライズしたら？」En: "And maybe surprise her?"Ja: ハルトは驚きました。En: Haruto was surprised.Ja: 彼は勇気が必要だと感じつつも、すぐに決心しました。En: Though he felt he needed courage, he made up his mind right away.Ja: 「そうだね、ユイに会いに行こう」とハルトは返事をしました。En: "You're right, I'll go see Yui," Haruto replied.Ja: そして、迎えた大晦日。ハルトは新幹線に乗り、ユイのいる街に向かいました。En: And so, on New Year's Eve, Haruto took the Shinkansen to Yui's city.Ja: 夜が深まるにつれ、雪はますます積もり、街は新年を迎える準備で賑やかになっていました。En: As the night deepened, the snow piled up more, and the town grew lively preparing to welcome the New Year.Ja: でも、ハルトの心は少し不安でいっぱいでした。En: But Haruto's heart was full of some anxiety.Ja: 「自分の気持ちを押しつけているのではないだろうか？」En: "Am I forcing my feelings on her?"Ja: ユイの住む街に着いたハルトは、駅の改札を出ました。En: When Haruto arrived in Yui's city, he exited the station gates.Ja: 雪が輝き、クリスマスのイルミネーションが街を彩っていました。En: The snow glittered, and Christmas lights decorated the town.Ja: 彼は、ユイの住むアパートに向かい、ドアをノックしました。En: He headed to Yui's apartment and knocked on the door.Ja: 「ハルト？」ドアを開けたユイは驚いた顔をしました。En: "Haruto?" Yui opened the door with a surprised look on her face.Ja: ハルトは微笑みました。「ユイ、サプライズだ！」En: Haruto smiled. "Surprise, Yui!"Ja: 二人はそのまま近くの神社に向かいました。En: They headed to a nearby shrine.Ja: 夜空には花火が上がり、カラフルな光が雪の中に反射しています。En: Fireworks lit up the night sky, and the colorful lights reflected in the snow.Ja: その下で、ハルトはユイと将来について話しました。En: Underneath, Haruto talked with Yui about the future.Ja: 彼は不安を打ち明け、ユイは彼女の心の声を伝えました。En: He confessed his worries, and Yui shared her own feelings.Ja: 「わたしも、もっとお互いの気持ちを知る必要があると感じてた」とユイは言います。En: "I also felt we needed to understand each other's feelings more," Yui said.Ja: 二人は手をつなぎ、「一歩一歩ゆっくりと、今を楽しんでいこう」と決めました。En: They held hands and decided, "Let's take it slow and enjoy the present."Ja: 来年、もっと一緒に過ごす時間を計画することにしました。En: They planned to spend more time together in the coming year.Ja: ハルトは、これからはもっと率直に気持ちを伝えていくことにしました。En: Haruto decided to express his feelings more openly from now on.Ja: ユイも自分の気持ちをしっかり表現することの大切さを実感しました。En: Yui also realized the importance of firmly expressing her own feelings.Ja: 新しい年の始まりに、彼らはお互いをもっと理解し、もっと強く結ばれることを誓いました。En: At the beginning of the new year, they promised to understand each other more and strengthen their bond.Ja: 夜空に広がる花火の下で、彼らの未来は明るく輝いていました。En: Under the fireworks spreading across the night sky, their future shone brightly. Vocabulary Words:optimistic: 前向きなbarrier: 障害courage: 勇気confess: 打ち明けsurprise: 驚かせるdistant: 遠く離れたanxiety: 不安troubled: 悩んでいるexited: 出ましたfireworks: 花火relationship: 関係apartment: アパートlively: 賑やかknocked: ノックしましたdeepened: 深まるdecorated: 彩っていましたglittered: 輝きpromise: 誓うbond: 結ばれるrealized: 実感しましたreflect: 反射するmaintain: 保ちたいmutual: お互いのexpress: 伝えていくembark: 向かいましたgather: 迎える準備station: 駅cheerful: 元気internal: 内心apprehension: 不安

Epic landscapes deserve an equally epic way to travel. We're diving into the romance and reality of rail: why trains make holidays start at the platform, how sleepers turn miles into memories, and which routes around the world are worth planning your next adventure around.We start with five reasons trains win: lower emissions and real sustainability gains, genuine comfort with room to move, dining cars and proper beds on night services, centre-to-centre arrivals that beat transfers, and the human connection that long-haul flights often erase. From there, we share our top 10 rides: Norway's Flåm Railway twisting from fjord to mountain, Scotland's Highlander leg of the Caledonian Sleeper, the Night Riviera to Penzance with a seaside breakfast, Vietnam's Reunification Express and its restful private berths, and Japan's immaculate Shinkansen that makes precision feel effortless. Add New Zealand's TranzAlpine across the Southern Alps, Switzerland's UNESCO Bernina route, Sri Lanka's lush Ella to Kandy journey with open windows and waves, India's Nilgiri Mountain Railway “toy train,” and Amtrak's unhurried yet soulful Coast Starlight.We also open our notebook of dreams. The Ghan across Australia's red centre calls with big skies and outback tones. Canada's Rocky Mountaineer tempts us with glass-domed cars through the Rockies. And South Africa's Rovos Rail pairs classic carriages with sweeping views to Cape Town and beyond. Along the way we share booking tips, comfort hacks, and how to swap premium expresses for local trains without losing the scenery. If you're craving slow travel, rail itineraries, sleeper train advice, or scenic routes that deliver real immersion, this conversation is your map.Got a favourite rail journey we missed? Tell us on Speakpipe and help shape a future episode. 

Was passiert, wenn zwei Reisejunkies, die früher mit Mietwagen durch die Wildnis geheizt sind, plötzlich mit Kleinkind im Schlepptau durch Japans Megacities navigieren? Genau: Es wird chaotisch, überraschend ehrlich, herrlich komisch – und unglaublich inspirierend! In dieser neuen Off-the-Path-Folge nimmt euch Sebastian gemeinsam mit seiner Freundin mit auf eine Reise durch Japan, die so ganz anders war als ihre bisherigen Trips. Statt einsamer Wüstenstraßen, Safari-Abenteuern und Roadtrip-Romantik heißt es diesmal Menschenmassen, Bento-Boxen im Zug, bananenbedingte Grenzkontrollen, Plastikverpackungen deluxe und der verzweifelte Versuch, irgendwo in Tokio einen einzigen (!) Mülleimer zu finden. Und doch steckt in all dem Trubel etwas Besonderes: Die beiden erleben Japan völlig neu. Mit einem Kind an der Seite verschieben sich Perspektiven. Dinge, die früher selbstverständlich waren – frühes Aufstehen, Sightseeing ohne Pausen, spontane Abstecher – sind plötzlich Luxus. Dafür zeigen sich Details, die einem ohne Kind einfach durchrutschen. Wie leise Tokio trotz 34 Millionen Menschen ist. Wie unfassbar höflich die Japaner sind. Und wie viel ein guter Flat White inmitten des Großstadtdschungels wirklich bedeuten kann.

This week, the Krewe is joined by Loretta Scott (aka KemushiChan on YouTube Channel) for a personal, insightful, and often funny look at what it's like raising kids in Japan as an American parent. We dig into birth experiences, cultural differences from the U.S., unexpected parenting moments, and tips for families living in or visiting Japan. Curious about family life abroad or considering a trip to Japan with the munchkins? This episode is packed with helpful insight just for you!------ About the Krewe ------The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy!------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------Use the referral links below!Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan! ------ Links for Tobias Harris ------Loretta on InstagramKemushiChan YouTube Channel------ Past Language Learning Episodes ------Inside Japanese Language Schools ft. Langston Hill (S6E3)Japanese Self-Study Strategies ft. Walden Perry (S5E4)Learn the Kansai Dialect ft. Tyson of Nihongo Hongo (S4E14)Heisig Method ft. Dr. James Heisig (S4E5)Prepping for the JLPT ft. Loretta of KemushiCan (S3E16)Language Through Video Games ft. Matt of Game Gengo (S3E4)Pitch Accent (Part 2) ft. Dogen (S2E15)Pitch Accent (Part 1) ft. Dogen (S2E14)Language through Literature ft. Daniel Morales (S2E8)Immersion Learning ft. MattvsJapan (S1E10)Japanese Language Journeys ft. Saeko-Sensei (S1E4)------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------JSNO Event CalendarJoin JSNO Today!

Thanks for finding our podcast! We are a family of 5 who does most of our travel using credit card points and miles and we share how we leverage credit card offers to earn a ton of points/miles so we can afford travel as a larger family.Follow us on Instagram @TravelPartyof5These are all the experiences we booked in Japan using Viator:Our Fave Japan ExperiencesThis episode wraps up our Japan series with a practical Q&A:  From eSIM setup and Suica hacks to Shinkansen tradeoffs and Japanese toilets, we share what worked, what didn't, and what we'd do differently next time.• choosing eSIMs over pocket Wi‑Fi for simple, low‑cost data• adding Suica to Apple Wallet and getting physical child IC cards• booking Shinkansen on short notice and budgeting for higher fares• reserving luggage space vs overhead racks for carry‑ons• live navigation with Google or Apple Maps and using Google Translate• Borderless vs Planets and why early time slots matter• views of Shibuya Crossing without paying tower fees• packing light with airline weight limits and carry‑on tips• paying with cards, IC cards at vending, and minimal cash needs• eating etiquette, where to sit, and the lack of public bins• clean, ubiquitous bidet toilets and what to expect• no‑tipping norms and rare cases we tipped• long flights with kids: downloads, snacks, and clear expectations• future wishlist: Fuji, Hokkaido, Okinawa, Kyoto's new TeamLabSend me a DM on Instagram @travelpartyof5 if you have further questions! 

In this week's episode, Sorg and Dudders get geeky about AI in everyday life — from redesigning homes with ChatGPT to tracking calories with conversational AI. Then guest Brian Crawford takes us on a deep dive through Japan's advanced transit tech, immersive art museums, and cultural quirks. We also preview Pittsburgh's AI & Robotics Demo Day and catch up with Chachi's gaming news minute. Perfect for fans of AI tools, travel tech, and real-world innovation.

If one person on your team is off, your whole team is off. In this Japan Series episode, Jason unpacks the powerful lesson from Mr. Yabe, the leader behind the Shinkansen's "Seven-Minute Miracle." His message? If 100 people give their best but one person doesn't, the team's effectiveness drops to zero. Through stories from Japanese rail crews and real construction projects, Jason explains why great culture isn't built instead of rewards and swag, it's built through them. Talk to your people, care about them, give them pride in their work and cool tools, recognition, and shared wins. The key is total participation. Because if you have 100 team members minus one, you don't have 99, you have zero. Listen now and learn how strong cultures lift everyone, together. If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two

What if the secret to world-class quality isn't technology but pride? In this episode, Jason unpacks the Japanese concept of Monozukuri - the deep pride and craftsmanship that drives excellence in every detail of work. From the story of Japan's Seven-Minute Miracle cleaning crews to the engineering perfection of the Shinkansen bullet train, Jason reveals how love for the customer, pride in your craft, and acknowledgement of people create unstoppable performance. You'll hear: How one leader turned a team of burned-out cleaners into national heroes through Kaizen. Why “acknowledging your people” might be the single most powerful productivity tool. How friction, frustration, and lack of respect destroy craftsmanship on U.S. job sites. The simple daily practices that can reignite pride and quality in construction. And why every worker deserves to give their hands, head, and heart, not just their labor. If you want to lead teams that love their work and deliver excellence worth clapping for, this episode is your blueprint. Listen now and rediscover what pride in craftsmanship really looks like. If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode.  And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two

We have officially hit one episode for every day of the year. With more news and wandering stories than any other podcast. Send us a voice message https://www.speakpipe.com/ChunkMcBeefChest Linktree https://linktr.ee/chunkmcbeefchest

Fluent Fiction - Japanese: A Kyoto Love Quest: Harto's Delightful Surprise Journey Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/ja/episode/2025-10-13-22-34-02-ja Story Transcript:Ja: 秋の京都の街は、鮮やかな橙色と赤色に包まれていた。En: The streets of Kyoto in autumn were enveloped in vibrant orange and red hues.Ja: 木々の間からは柔らかな日差しが差し込み、落ち葉が道を埋め尽くしている。En: Soft sunlight streamed through the trees, and fallen leaves covered the path.Ja: そんな中、ハルトは意気揚々と東京の家を出発した。En: In this setting, Harto set off from his home in Tokyo with great enthusiasm.Ja: ハルトは、愛するアイコを驚かせようと考えた。En: Harto planned to surprise his beloved Aiko.Ja: 彼は自分で手紙を書き、直接手渡ししたかったのだ。En: He wanted to hand-deliver a letter he had written himself.Ja: しかし、彼の字は下手だった。En: However, his handwriting was poor.Ja: 住所を書いた手紙を封筒に入れる際、少し間違えてしまったが彼は気にしなかった。En: While placing the letter with the address into the envelope, he made a small mistake but didn't worry about it.Ja: 「大丈夫、大丈夫」とハルトは自分に言い聞かせ、京都行きの新幹線に乗った。En: “It's fine, it's fine,” Harto reassured himself as he boarded the Shinkansen to Kyoto.Ja: その間、アイコはハルトからの音沙汰がないことに少し不安を感じていた。En: Meanwhile, Aiko felt a bit anxious due to the lack of news from Harto.Ja: 「もう別れようとしているのかしら？」と不安になり、彼の親友にメッセージを送った。En: “Could he be planning to break up?” she worried and sent a message to his close friend.Ja: 一方で、ハルトは予定通り京都に到着した。En: On the other hand, Harto arrived in Kyoto as planned.Ja: しかし、住所が間違っていたことに気づかずに訪れた家には、奇妙なまなざしを向けるおばあさんがいた。En: However, unaware of the address mistake, he visited a house where an elderly woman gave him a strange look.Ja: 「どうしてここに？」老人は笑いながら、ハルトの手紙を興味深く眺めた。En: “What are you doing here?” the old lady asked with a laugh, glancing at Harto's letter with interest.Ja: 「若い人たちの愛は面白いわね。」En: “Young people's love is amusing.”Ja: ハルトは状況を説明した。En: Harto explained the situation.Ja: おばあさんは親切にも、本当の住所まで案内してくれることになった。En: The old lady kindly offered to guide him to the correct address.Ja: その頃、アイコはハルトの親友から届いた「今日、ハルトは京都に行っているらしい」との一文を読み、驚いた。En: Around that time, Aiko read a message from Harto's friend saying, “Apparently, Harto is going to Kyoto today,” and she was surprised.Ja: 最終的に、ハルトはアイコの家に到着した。後ろには手を振りながら応援するおばあさん。En: Eventually, Harto arrived at Aiko's house, with the old lady waving supportively behind him.Ja: 「ごめんね、住所を間違えちゃって。でも、これが俺の気持ちだよ」と彼はアイコに手紙を手渡した。En: “Sorry, I messed up the address. But this is how I feel,” he said, handing her the letter.Ja: アイコは笑顔になり、「あなた、本当にいつも私を驚かせるわ。でも、今度はちゃんと連絡してね」と優しく言った。En: Aiko smiled and said gently, “You always manage to surprise me. But next time, please make sure to contact me.”Ja: ハルトはうなずき、今後はもっと計画的で、はっきりとした通信を心に決めたのだった。En: Harto nodded and resolved to communicate more planfully and clearly in the future.Ja: アイコもまた、ハルトの不器用な優しさには価値があると再認識した。En: Aiko, too, realized anew the value of Harto's clumsy kindness.Ja: 秋の静かな風景の中、二人は手を繋ぎ、少しだけ成長を感じ、そして互いの存在を改めて大切に思った。En: Amid the quiet autumn landscape, the two held hands, feeling a bit more grown and cherishing each other's presence anew. Vocabulary Words:enveloped: 包まれていたvibrant: 鮮やかなhues: 色streamed: 差し込みenthusiasm: 意気揚々beloved: 愛するhand-deliver: 手渡しhandwriting: 字reassured: 言い聞かせanxious: 不安elderly: 老人strange: 奇妙なamusing: 面白いexplained: 説明したkindly: 親切にもguide: 案内してくれるsupportively: 応援するmess: 間違えちゃってresolved: 心に決めたplanfully: 計画的でcherishing: 大切に思ったpresence: 存在clumsy: 不器用なlandscape: 風景grown: 成長address: 住所mistake: 間違えsoft: 柔らかなfallen: 落ち葉waving: 手を振りながら

October 1, 1964. The first Shinkansen high-speed train enters service between the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka. This episode originally aired in 2024.Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Episode #160 of Everything Under the Sun! This week, we’re joined by the wise and wonderful Arief Rabik, a bamboo forestry advocate and founder of Indobamboo! He explains how plants grow!

Afsted med Shinkansen for fulde gardiner, 30 timer uden søvn, boots-on-the-ground, pas på hjorten, pas på aben, hvor meget Japanofil er du, vores mand Jacob Sommer Simonsen in action til VM i Atletik i Tokyo, ‘de ældres dag er en lavt hængende frugt i dansk politik', Toyota Crown Super Deluxe til Danmark nu, kør altid en morgen-ons, vi skal tilbage til dr-diæt-tiden, Shinkansen - vi kigger på jer DSB, det japanske udtryk for en ensom mund, et deep-dive i kommunalvalget, og hvem stemmer på hvem?, Esben i retningen af Altingets løbeklub, Claus Meyer og en sæk æbler på businessclass, kæmpe fly-gate i Charles de Gaulle, en Burka-lur i 13 timer til Japan, globalt perspektiv og en rejseguide, ‘liv er ikke startet her på jorden', og John Leif har teorien, alle kald og bøvl med Dubai-chokoladen, #Ugensdyr er den japanske abe, ‘nothing beats a jet2 holiday buffet', og den er fem minutter i Anders Agger på rejseprogrammet. Værter: Esben Bjerre & Peter FalktoftRedigering: PodAmokKlip: PodAmokMusik: Her Går Det GodtInstagram:@hergaardetgodt@Peterfalktoft@Esbenbjerre

Step foot into Kyoto with me this week.As we step foot off of the iconic Shinkansen and into the traditional streets of Kyoto - we come face to face with ritual and systems. Designing our business like a tea ceremony, this week is about finding consistent practises, things we do, systems we implement for the broken parts of our business. We are celebrating breaks and painting them gold this week. I hope you love it, and welcome to one of my favourite places in the entire world! let's build a system!

Kelsey interviews Jodie from the Learners & Makers blog and YouTube channel, who joined the podcast live from Japan! Jodie is an above-the-knee amputee who shares her love of family travel and how she navigates mobility differences while exploring the world. Together they dive into the ultimate family trip to Japan - covering Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, plus Tokyo Disney and DisneySea. From Pokémon, anime, and One Piece to karaoke, sushi, and must-try Japanese foods, Jodie shares insider tips that make Japan both magical and manageable for families. They also discuss how to navigate Japan's train system with kids in tow. Even if Japan wasn't on your travel list before, this episode might just change that!Show your support for the podcast by leaving a review or buying me a coffee!Follow Kelsey on Instagram!Mentioned in this episode:- Weak Yen makes for a financially reasonable trip- Two Tokyo airports: Narita (NRT) and Haneda (HND)- Klook: App for airport transfers and tours in Japan- Uber and GoTaxi apps- The Shinkansen bullet train in Japan- The Golden Triangle: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka- TOKYO: Ueno Park (playgrounds, zoo), Asakusa (Senso-ji Temple, Tokyo Skytree, "Kitchen Street" = Kappabashi Street, Tokyo Station, SUICA Card, PASMO card, Karaoke, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Shinto (Japanese indigenous religion), JUMP Shops (Anime, Manga), One Piece Mugiwara shops (straw hats), teamLab Museums (Planets and Borderless)- Tokyo Disney & DisneySea (Duffy mech)- KYOTO: Geisha, wander around Gion area (shops), Bamboo Forest, stay in a Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn), traditional Japanese breakfast, Japanese Souffle Pancakes- OSAKA "The Kitchen of Japan": Native foods to try = Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki ("as you like it"), baseball, Osaka river and Dotonbori, Don Quijote - Ebisu Tower Doutonbori Giant Ferris Wheel, river boat tour, Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine, Namba, Universal Studios Japan- Recommended Japanese chain restaurant: KuraTrip Tales is a travel podcast sharing real vacation stories and trip itineraries for family travel, couples getaways, cruises, and all-inclusive resorts. Popular episodes feature destinations like Marco Island Florida, Costa Rica with kids, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Aulani in Hawaii, Beaches Turks & Caicos, Park City ski trips, Aruba, Italy, Ireland, Portugal's Azores, New York City, Alaska cruises, and U.S. National Parks. Listeners get real travel tips, itineraries, hotel reviews, restaurant recommendations, and inspiration for planning their next vacation.

Doc Kane Life in Hikone And A Special Offer From Maplopo For Listeners Of Lost Without Japan Season 5 EP 118 Get CLEAR on Japanese grammar with Maplopo's Verb Pro Masterclass. Stop grumbling, stumbling, and fumbling your way through Japanese... and finally get to sounding confident and intelligent in the language this year. For a limited amount of time, Lost Without Japan listeners save 70% off the full retail price and pay only $60 through December 31st. PLUS get access to Maplopo's private Discord community for support on your verb-related conjugation questions. Head on over to maplopo.com/lost-without-japan and begin your transformation today. Website: https://maplopo.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@maplopo LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/dockaneinjapan/ Gaijinpot: https://blog.gaijinpot.com/author/dockane/  TokyoDev: https://www.tokyodev.com/authors/doc-kane As always, the link to our shows Google Resource doc can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WEVbRmvn8jzxOZPDaypl3UAjxbs1OOSWSftFW1BYXpI/edit#   

The fourth and final episode in our series on the Jinshin no Ran: we cover the campaign in Afumi (aka Ōmi - 近江).  Prince Ōama and Prince Ōtomo (aka Kōbun Tennō), have drawn up their forces.  Last episode we covered the fighting in the Nara Basin, around the ancient Yamato capital: Asuka.  This episode focuses on the defense of the Karafu and Fuwa passes and the eventual march to the bridge at Setagawa. This is a name heavy episode, and we'll be noting some of it here: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-132   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 132: The Jinshin no Ran, Part 4: The Afumi Campaign The Afumi soldiers on the western side of the bridge looked across the open expanse of water towards their Yoshino rivals on the eastern side.  If it weren't for the banners and the red tags barely visible on the sleeves of the opposing forces, it would be hard to know which side was which.  Both were equipped in similar ways, and a few of the soldiers could even make out familiar faces on the other side.  That is the nature of civil wars—especially in a conscript society, where the soldiers often had little choice which side they were fighting for.  Not that it necessarily mattered much to them which side came out on top, whatever their commanders might have told them. The bridge across the Seta river was large and wide, and normally quite well traveled.  Now, however, the central boards had been pulled up for a span of about 30 feet or so, leaving a gap spanned by only a single, narrow plank.  That plank was, itself, tied to a rope, which was being held by the Afumi troops.  The soldiers knew that should any of the enemy try to cross, they could pull the plank out from under them and they would fall into the river, their metal armor dragging them down into the dark depths of swirling water below.  Even should they somehow make it across without being peppered by arrows, there would be no reinforcements coming: they would be slaughtered, and the trap would be reset. It seemed like the Afumi forces held all the cards in this battle, and yet they were still tense. Archers could still shoot across the distance. The front rank of troops held wooden shields as a defense, but there were still openings in the formation and the armor, and in the chaos of battle, nobody was truly safe. And so the Afumi forces waited.  Confident, but wary. A commotion on the eastern side of the bridge grabbed the spotlight.  The Yoshino forces had approached, and they were clearly preparing for something.  The Afumi soldiers strained to see what was going on.  Suddenly, the front line of the Yoshino forces parted, and a strange sight confronted the Afumi soldiers.  It took them a moment to fully comprehend what was barreling towards them at full tilt: a soldier that looked almost like two soldiers put together, wearing armor placed over armor, in an attempt to protect from harm.  It must have been heavy, and as he stepped on the beam, it visibly buckled under the weight.  The Afumi archers let loose with their arrows and crossbow bolts, but to no avail.  They simply stuck in the armor, adding to the bizarre and otherworldly appearance of their opponent. The spell was broken on the Afumi side as arrows came cascading in.  The Yoshino forces weren't just sitting idly back, they were making sure they were doing everything they could to keep the Afumi forces distracted.  And for a split second it worked—and a split second was all they needed.  Before the soldiers could gather up their wits about them enough to pull the rope there was a terrifying sound of metal on wood.  The Afumi soldiers pulled the rope, but it came all too easy—the Yoshino soldier had dashed across and cut the rope tied to the plank.  Behind him, the Yoshino forces were now pouring across the bridge.  Soon they would establish a foothold, and behind the front line they would be able to have other soldiers place more planks so that the number of Yoshino soldiers on the Western side of the bridge only continued to increase. Realizing that their trap had been circumvented, the Afumi forces fell back, but their strategic withdrawal soon turned into a full on retreat.  While pockets of soldiers resisted, many were suddenly all too aware that perhaps it was better to live and fight another day, instead.  Despite threats and even attacks from their own commanders, the Afumi forces fled the battlefield, leaving the Yoshino army victorious.  With the Seta bridge now secured, there were no more major obstacles in their way:  They would march to the capital at Ohotsu and finish this war.   Welcome back!  This is Part 4, and so if you haven't already done so, I recommend going back and starting with Part 1.  That said, we'll briefly recap here. Over the past three episodes, we've talked about the causes of the war between Prince Ohotomo and Prince Ohoama as they vied for the throne.  Prince Ohotomo seemingly had the stronger position, as he was actually running the Yamato state from the Afumi capital in Ohotsu.  He had the various ministers and all the official organs of the state on his side.   He was also 23 years old. Ohoama, on the other side, was Ohotomo's paternal uncle.  His own son, Prince Takechi, was 19 years old and helping to lead the army.   Upon learning that the State was gathering forces against him, Ohoama had quickly moved east, gathering forces as he went, and now he stood near Fuwa, modern day Sekigahara, prepared to begin his march on the capital.   This episode we are going to cover the conclusion of the war.  Warning, though, this is going to be a *lot*.  A lot of place names and people names.  Apologies if it is hard to follow.  I'll have a rough map and info on the various players on the podcast blog, so you may want to bring that up if you are having problems following. In Part I of this series we covered the causes leading up to the conflict.  In Part II we covered Ohoama's mad dash to Fuwa, at modern Sekigahara.  Last episode, Part III we covered the fighting in the Nara Basin. This episode we are going to talk about the last two fronts of the war: the defense of the Iga area and Kurafu Pass, and the march from Fuwa to the Afumi capital of Ohotsu. Before we go into the details of the next battles, let's look at what each side of the conflict was doing, what they are concerned about, and where they are on the board.  We'll then go into how the rest of the war played out, and its conclusion and aftermath.     Ohoama's Yoshino forces had largely been drawn from the countries in the east—the very same countries that Ohoama was denying to the Afumi court.  In response, the Afumi court had drawn their forces from where they could.  There were those that they had already called up under the pretense of building Naka no Oe's burial mound, but they had sent others out to raise troops in Yamato and out the western side of Honshu, all the way to Tsukushi—modern Kyushu.  However, not everyone in the Western region of the archipelago was friendly to the Afumi court—especially the regions of Kibi and Tsukushi.  This was significant.  Kibi was an ancient rival of Yamato, and likely could contribute a sizeable force.  Tsukushi, on the other hand, was quite large, and besides the conscripts from among the regular inhabitants, Tsukushi also was in charge of defending the archipelago from invasion—they were the first line of defense.  They had constructed numerous castles and fortifications to defend against a possible invasion, and those castles and fortifications were no doubt manned by troops that had been raised for that purpose.  If they could now be turned inwards, that could be enough to really turn the tide against Ohoama and his Yoshino army. The only problem was that neither Kibi nor Tsukushi were exactly sympathetic to the Afumi court.  The governor of Kibi and Prince Kurikuma, the viceroy of Tsukushi, both had ties to Ohoama, and the ministers suspected them of sympathizing with their Yoshino rivals.  As such the envoys that were sent out were authorized to take whatever drastic steps they felt necessary to secure the troops. So how did that all go down?  Well, last episode we talked about how Hodzumi no Momotari and his crew had been stopped from raising troops in Asuka by Ohotomo no Fukei, whose bluff of pretending to be Prince Takechi and a host of cavalry soldiers caused the conscripted troops to flee, and ended up in the death of Momotari and the capture of his compatriots. In Kibi, things took a turn in Afumi's favor.  When the Afumi government's envoy arrived at the government center in Kibi, he tricked the governor into taking off his sword.  Once he had done so, the envoy drew his own sword and killed the governor.  Without the governor to get in his way, the envoy then went about securing the land and troops for the Afumi court. Prince Kurikuma, the viceroy in Tsukushi, at the Dazaifu, was not quite so easily fooled, however.  Kurikuma knew how the court operated, and was apparently well informed of what was going on.  When the Afumi court's envoy met with Kurikuma, the Prince was flanked by two of his sons, Prince Mino and Prince Takebe, each one armed.  When Prince Kurikuma heard what the Afumi court wanted—for him to send the troops from Tsukushi to help quell Ohoama's rebellion—Kurikuma responded that he needed those troops to hold the border.  After all, the Tang dynasty was still a potential threat, and what good would it do to send the troops from the border regions to fight an internal war, only to then have an invader come in and destroy the state entirely?  No, he reasoned, he would not be sending the troops as the Afumi court requested. We are told that for a moment, the Afumi envoy thought about grabbing his sword and killing Prince Kurikuma, as the Afumi court had suggested, but with both of Kurikuma's sons armed on either side of him, he realized that he didn't have great odds, and so he eventually left, empty handed, but alive. This is significant.  While we don't know exact numbers, it is likely that there were quite a few troops stationed in Kyushu and the islands, all in case of foreign invasion.  By not supplying them to the Afumi court, Prince Kurikuma dealt a huge blow to the Afumi's ability to make war.  Add to that the fact that Ohoama had likewise blocked the court's access to the eastern countries, and that further narrowed the troops that Afumi had access to.  Nonetheless, they still had enough to be dangerous, and it is impossible to say exactly what might happen in a war. So we know where the Afumi and Yoshino forces ostensibly came from, but let's talk about the battlefield.  All of the fighting that we talk about was happening in an area between Naniwa—modern Ohosaka—and Fuwa, modern Sekigahara, northwest from the modern city of Nagoya. There are three main theaters we are talking about.  The first is in the Nara basin, which we talked about extensively in the last episode.  The Nara basin itself was not necessarily of the most strategic importance, militarily, but it was of huge symbolic importance.  After all, that was still the ancient capital, even though the governmental functions had been moved north, to Ohotsu, on the shores of Lake Biwa.  The second is in the Suzuka mountains.  This includes the areas of Iga and Kouka, and it is bordered by the Nara basin on the west, the Mie coastline on the east, and Afumi, the area around lake Biwa, to the north.  This is the same region that Ohoama had to naviagate through on his way from Yoshino to the east, and the mountains and valleys make it so that there are only so many traversable routes through.  For our narrative we are going to be primarily talking about the Kurafu Pass, between Kouka and Iga, at modern Tsuge city.  This pass  was an important route between Kouka, Iga, and Mie.  The road followed the Soma River which eventually flowed into Lake Biwa.  This made it a route out of Afumi, and if the Afumi forces could secure the Kurafu pass and the fields of Tara, just on the other side, they could split Ohoama's forces and cut off any help that he could possibly send to the Nara basin, and possibly even take Ohoama from behind. Finally, let's talk about our third theater:  Afumi itself.  Specifically, we are looking at the southern and eastern sides around Lake Biwa.  Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, and it is almost entirely surrounded by mountains except for where the Seta river flows south, eventually winding its way to Naniwa.  Today, the area of Afumi is largely co-located with modern Shiga Prefecture. Back in 668, after finding themselves on the losing side of the Baekje-Tang war, Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou, had moved the capital to Ohotsu, or Big Port, in Afumi, on the shores of Lake Biwa, likely for the protection it gave.  From Afumi, there were three major routes out of the basin, and a few minor ones.  All of them were through defensible mountain passes, like Karafu Pass, Fuwa Pass, and Suzuka Pass.  Three such passes:  Fuwa, Suzuka, and Arachi would become prominent barriers, or seki, along the ancient roads, and were known as the Sangen, or Three Barriers, protecting the capital region.  Suzuka no seki, at the pass of the same name, was in the south.  To reach it from Afumi, one crossed the Karafu pass, and then turned east through a pass near Mt. Miyama.  At the northern tip of the Suzuka mountains was Fuwa pass, future home of the Fuwa barrier.  The Barrier, or “Seki” would give its name to the area in another form:  Sekigahara.  This was along the Tousandou, the Eastern Mountain road, and even today it is the path through which roads and even the Shinkansen traverse between eastern and western Honshu.  Finally, though less important to our story, was the Arachi pass. Arachi no seki was part of the Hokurikudo, the Northern Land Route, and led to the ancient country of Kochi and the port of Tsuruga, which had a long history as an alternate port, especially for ships sailing from Goguryeo.  Later, Arachi no seki would be replaced in the Sangen ranking by another pass between Afumi and modern Kyoto, which would be known as the Afusaka, or Ohosaka, Pass.  This was the pass that would have been used to get to Yamashiro and, from there, to Naniwa and the Nara Basin. These three passes would come to define the island of Honshu, and became the dividing line between the Kanto region, in the east, and the Kansai region, in the west.  By holding the Suzuka and Fuwa passes, Ohoama effectively denied any travel to the eastern regions.  Sure, Afumi could have tried going through the Arachi pass and into Kochi, but then they would have had to traverse the Japan alps—no small feat, especially without modern conveniences like the trains and busses used today. From Fuwa Pass, where Ohoama and Prince Takechi had set up their headquarters, it was largely a straight shot to the Afumi capital of Ohotsu.  Between Lake Biwa and the Suzuka mountains is a wide, flat plain, divided primarily by the rivers and streams running out from the mountains into the lake.  Immediately west of Fuwa is the area of Maibara.  Following the shore of the lake one traverses through modern Hikone, to Yasu.  Yasu would also have been the location where the road to the Karafu pass broke off into the Suzuka mountains.  Beyond that was the bridge across the Seta River. The Seta river was one of the largest obstacles that would have to be negotiated, and the Afumi forces knew this.  Just as Ohoama would set up at Fuwa pass, a large number of the Afumi forces were set up on the western bank of the Seta river.  If the Yoshino forces could get across, however, it would mean that they had a more or less unimpeded route to the capital at Ohotsu. So now let's talk about what was happening in each of these places. Ohoama had set up at Fuwa—Sekigahara—and had begun to call soldiers to him.  Not only did did this allow him to block the rival Afumi troops from accessing the Eastern countries and possibly raising troops to use against him, but he was also able to maintain a line of communication with ancient Yamato, in the Nara Basin.  In order to keep his communication lines open, and to ensure that the Afumi forces couldn't sneak up behind him, Ohoama split his forces in two.  He knew that Afumi forces were trying to take his stronghold in Yamato, and if successful, from there they could move in to Uda and on to Iga.  thereafter that, they could march up behind him through the Suzuka pass.  Alternatively, the forces in Afumi could come up through Kouka and the Karafu pass, and then try to divide and conquer So the first group of Ohoama's army were to go south, through the Suzuka pass into their mountain namesake.  Once there, Oho no Omi no Honji was to hold Tarano, the Plain of Tara, where the routes to Suzuka, Kafuka, and Iga met.  Tanaka no Omi no Tarumaro went with him, with orders to guard the Kurafu pass, which is to say the road to Kouka.  This first group was headed by Ki no Omi no Abemaro, and also included Miwa no Kimi no Kobito, and Okizome no Muraji no Usagi.  Along with what we are told were tens of thousands of men, this first made their way south from Fuwa  through Mie and Ise and over the Suzuka pass.  Once there, they took up their positions at Karafu and Tarano.  It was a good thing, too, because only a couple of days after they arrived, the enemy struck.   Now as soon as he got there, Oho no Honji had fortified Tarano with some three thousand men, and Tanaka no  Tarumaro was sent to guard the Kurafu pass.  Prior to this, Tarumaro had been the official in charge of the Hot Springs in Ise, but he had joined Ohoama and the Yoshino forces when they first arrived over the Suzuka Pass.  Now he was in charge of a military force, encamped along the road through the Kurafu pass, waiting for the enemy. Unbeknownst to him, a deputy commander of the Afumi forces, Tanabe no Wosumi, was approaching from Mt. Kafuka.  Presumably he'd been sent out from Ohotsu and had followed the road along the Yasu and Soma rivers towards the pass.  Wosumi had  sizeable force with him, but he was not looking for a direct assault.  Even if he would win, he would suffer casualties, especially trying to attack an entrenched enemy in a fortified position.  He needed to be sneaky.  He had no way of knowing that, centuries later, the lands of Iga and Kouka would be known for their sneaky warriors—their legendary ninja—but I digressed.  What Wosumi did was this.  First, he rolled up his banners and muffled the drums.  He even had his men gag themselves—a continental custom where soldiers were given a stick to hold in their mouth, like a horse's bit, to discourage any talking amongst the ranks as they approached.  Presumably, they kept them in until just before attacking, because they also devised a watchword “kane”—transcribed as metal or gold.  Wosumi knew that it would be hard enough to tell who was who in the daytime—after all, it wasn't like these were regimented forces with uniforms.  The soldiers were likely all wearing whatever they had available, and clothing and armor would have been similar across the two armies.  At night, even some kind of mark or flag would hardly be enough to tell who was who in the dark.  As lines broke and melee ensued, it would be easy to get turned around, and find yourself facing a friend.  By saying the watchword you could distinguish friend from foe. Sure enough, this tactic worked.  The Afumi forces broke through the Yoshino fortifications in the middle of the night and swarmed into the encampment.  Men who had been asleep were waking up to chaos.  Tarumaro's Yoshino soldiers were thrown into confusion.  Tarumaro himself, escaped, but just barely.  we are told that he noticed that the enemy kept shouting the word “kane”, and so he started doing it as well. The Afumi forces, assuming he was one of their own, left him alone.  Still, he only escaped with difficulty. His escape was no doubt critical, however.   He presumably would have headed to Tarano to try and warn Oho no Honji, but this may not have been possible, as we are told that on the following day, after the attack at Karafu pass, the Afumi commander Wosumi continued his advance, and came upon the Yoshino encampment at Tarano unexpectedly.  Still, General Honji did not back down.  With a force of hand-picked soldiers, Honji counterattacked against Wosumi and struck him.  We are told that Wosumi made it out—the only one who did—but that he did not try and make another attack.  The Yoshino forces would ultimately hold the pass and the critical juncture of Tarano.  The Afumi forces would not get a second chance. By the way, a quick note here:  I can't help but notice a bit of a trope showing up in these stories:  At Narayama, General Fukei is defeated, and is the only person who makes his escape.  Then Tarumaro is the only person to escape his defeat.  Finally, Wosumi is the only one of his forces to leave the plain of Tara. I am more than a little incredulous that these generals are the only ones who actually survived, and that the rest of the army was slaughtered.  In fact, you may recall that at the battle at Taima, General Fukei told his men not to pursue the fleeing common soldiers.  As I've tried to point out, the common soldiers were not likely as invested in the cause.  In fact, it is just as possible that the common soldiers may have changed sides and joined the other army if they thought it would serve them well.  Or maybe they were escaping and just blending into the countryside.  After all, the elites weren't really spending the time to get to know them, let along record any details about them.  So I suspect that it was more about the fact that the various armies would be broken, and the soldiers flung to the four corners, rather than that they were necessarily slaughtered.  After all, if you had the choice, would you have stayed there? A few days after Wosumi was defeated, the Yoshino general that Ohoama had sent to Iga along with Honji and Tarumaro, Ki no Omi no Abemaro, heard that their ally, Ohotomo no Fukei was in trouble in the Nara Basin.  He'd been defeated by the Afumi general Ohono no Hatayasu at Narayama,  and without reinforcements, the entire Nara Basin could fall, along with the ancient Yamato capital at Asuka. So Abemaro sent Okizome no Muraji no Usagi with more than a thousand cavalry to go assist.  They met Fukei at Sumizaka, and suddenly, things were looking up in the Nara Basin.  For more on how that turned out, check out last episode, where we covered the events in the Nara Basin. Once the events in the Nara Basin settled out, then both the Nara Basin and the Karafu pass would be well and truly in the hands of the Yoshino forces.  But there was no way for those guarding those locations to know that the fighting was over, and they would have to hold their positions until the fighting had definitively stopped.  Which brings us back to Ohoama and the Yoshino troops gathered at Fuwa, where things were about to kick off as well.  The troops at Fuwa, while being led by Ohoama and his 19 year old son, Takechi, were placed under the command of Murakuni no Muraji no Woyori—who, , as things progressed, would be noted as the primary general for the campaign that would lead Yoshino troops from Fuwa, on the offensive towards Ohotsu. The only reason that they seem to have waited before going on the offensive was that every day, more troops were coming in.  So even as the fighting was going on in Nara and at the Karafu pass, the Yoshino army at Fuwa gathered men and made their preparations.  As they did so, the Afumi court Was going to do whatever they could to try and break them, hoping that they could stop the threat posed by Ohoama and his men before they began their march. For the Afumi forces first attempt to break the Yoshino defenses at Fuwa pass, they picked troops to try and make an incursion into the village of Tamakurabe, which appears to have been in the pass itself; it was probably modern Tama district of Sekigahara.  They were repelled, however, by Izumo no Omi no Koma, who drove them off. Later, the Afumi court ordered another force of several tens of thousands of men to attack under the command of Prince Yamabe no Ou, Soga no Omi no Hatayasu, and Kose no Omi no Hito.  Soga no Hatayasu and Kose no Hito were both part of the inner circle of the Afumi court, or so it would seem.  When Prince Ohotomo had taken the reins of the government in a ceremony in the Western Hall of the Palace, he was attended by the ministers of the right and left, as well as Soga no Hatayasu, Kose no Hito, and Ki no Ushi.  They were at the very heart of this whole matter.  Prince Yamabe is a little bit more of a mystery.  We know he was someone of note, and when Prince Ohotsu was brought to his parents, they were apparently traveling under the guise of Prince Yamabe and another prince, Prince Ishikawa.  But we know little else. The three men and their Afumi troops headed out and camped on the bank of the Inukami river, near modern Hikone.  There, however, trouble broke out. The Nihon Shoki does not record exactly what it was, but there must have been some kind of falling out.  Prince Yamabe no Ou was killed by Soga no Hatayasu and Kose no Hito.  We don't know if this was due to some quarrel or what, but either way, it threw the army into a state of disarray and there was no way for them to move forward.  Soga no Hatayasu appears to have taken responsibility for whatever happened, as he headed back from Inukami, presumably back to Ohotsu, where he took his own life by stabbing himself in the throat.  There would be no attack on Fuwa Pass, however. Finally, the Nihon Shoki also recounts the story of another Afumi general, named Hata no Kimi no Yakuni, and his son, Ushi.  Together with others, who remain unnamed, they surrendered themselves to Ohoama and the Yoshino forces, rather than fighting.  It isn't clear if they were deserters, if they had been part of one of the other two attempts to take Fuwa Pass, or if there was something else going on.  Either way, Ohoama was so pleased that he welcomed them in and we are told that Hata no Yakuni was “granted a battle axe and halberd” and appointed a general.  This is probably stock phrasing, but it does seem he was given some measure of trust.  Yakuni's men were then sent north, to Koshi. We aren't quite sure what those forces' ultimate objective was.  It may have been that he was to take the northern pass and make sure that none of the Afumi troops tried to escape and head to the East along that road.  Many of the accounts of this war seem to suggest that he, or at least some part of the forces, were to head north and then come around Lake Biwa the long way.  This would mean that if Ohoama attacked, there would be no easy way to flee.  From Ohotsu they couldn't turn north without running into more troops, and their only escape would seem to be through the Afusaka pass towards the area of modern Kyoto.  And of course, whoever was victorious in the Nara Basin would then be able to control the route to the coast. It is unclear how much Ohoama could have actually known, though, about what was happening across the various distances.  Messages would have meant riders on swift horses carrying them; they couldn't just text each other what was going on. And so, with one attack repelled, another aborted, and a turncoat now on their side, Ohoama's Yoshino forces were finally ready to head out on the offensive themselves.  According to the Nihon Shoki this was on the 7th day of the 7th month—Tanabata, today, but I doubt people were paying much mind to the Weaver and the Cowherd.  Murakuni no Woyori, with the group advancing from Fuwa to Afumi, set out, and met with their first resistance at the Yokugawa river in Okinaga.  As far as I can tell, this is likely the Amano River in modern Maibara, which anyone who takes the Shinkansen between Kanto and Kansai probably recognizes as one of the usual stops.  Once again, we have a situation where, while they would have had banners flying, in the crush of battle it could be quite easy to mistake friend for foe, especially with large numbers of troops who were pulled from vastly different regions.  You had to have some way of knowing quickly who was on your side – that's why the Afumi commander Wosumi had his troops use the password “kane”, for example.  Ohoama's approach was to have his men place a red mark—possibly a ribbon or similar—on their clothing so that one could tell who, at a glance, was on their side.  As a note, later samurai would sometimes attach flags to their shoulder armor, or sode, and these “sode-jirushi” would help identify you even if people didn't recognize your armor.  Ohoama's troops may have used something similar. And so Woyori's Yoshino forces attacked the Afumi defenders, and the Afumi troops were clearly outmatched.  Woyori's men killed the Afumi commander and defeated the opposing forces. But that was just the beginning.  Afumi forces had been stationed all along the route from Fuwa to Ohotsu.  Thus it was that only two days later Woyori and his men made it to Mt. Tokoyama, probably in Hikone, by the Seri river.  There they met more Afumi soldiers, but once again they were triumphant and slew the opposing commander.   Woyori and his men were on a roll. I would point out that these battles aren't given much detail, but we do see how it progressed.  There are names of various individuals and commanders—certainly not much on the common people.  From what we can tell, this was not a rush to Ohotsu, but rather a slow march, probably doing their best to fortify their positions and make sure that nobody was sneaking up on them.  After each battle, it is some days before the next, probably spent spying out ahead and formulating plans. Woyori and his men next fought a battle on the banks of the Yasukawa River, presumably near modern Yasu city.  Here, Aston's translation claims that he suffered a great defeat, but more likely I suspect it means to say that he inflicted a great defeat on the Afumi forces, because if he had been defeated, how would he have pressed on only a few days later.  We are told that  two men, presumably the Afumi commanders, were both taken prisoner. Since we don't have anything more about them in the narrative all we can really do is assume that they must have therefore been on the side of the Afumi forces. By taking Yasu, that would have likely cut off the Afumi forces from any future considerations about using the Kurafu Pass.  The noose around Ohotsu was slowly tightening. Four days after that, on the 17th day of the 7th month, Woyori attacked and repulsed the Kurimoto army—presumably a force loyal to the Afumi court under a general named Kurimoto, or possibly raised from a place called Kurimoto, perhaps over on Awaji.  Either way, it was another victory on Woyori's belt. From there, Woyori and his men arrived at Seta, where they would have to cross the Setagawa—the Seta River. The Seta River is a wide river, and the only one flowing out of Lake Biwa.  It winds its way south and west, eventually becoming the Uji and then the Yodo rivers, which flow all the way to Naniwa—modern Ohosaka.  At the Seta river, there was a major bridge, the only way across, other than to swim.  Prince Ohotomo and his ministers, along with their entire army, were encamped on the west side of the bridge.  Their forces were so numerous that it was said you could not see all the way to the back of them.  Their banners covered the plain, and the dust of their movement caused a cloud to rise into the sky.  Their drums and songs could be heard for miles around.  We are told they even had crossbows, and when they were discharged the arrows fell like rain.  Of course, some of this may have just been more poetic license by the authors of the Nihon Shoki, but you get the picture:  There were a lot of troops on the western side of the river. The bridge itself was defended by General Chison.  We know very little of this general, as he only appears in this one part of the record, but his name implies that he may have been from the continent.  We aren't given a surname, and it is possible he was one of the Baekje refugees, now fighting for the Afumi court.  He led an advance body of specially selected troops, and in the middle of the bridge they had removed planks for about three rods or thirty feet.  Across that span was a single plank, daring anyone to try and cross it.  Of course, if they did, they would be a sitting duck in front of the enemy archers, and the plank was attached by a rope so that it could always be pulled out from under them.  It seemed as if it were impossible to advance. Finally, one of Woyori's soldiers, Ohokida no Kimi no Wakaomi, got up the courage to cross.  We are told that he put on double armor, put down his long spear, and drew his sword.  He then charged suddenly across the plank and cut the rope on the other side before the Afumi troops could pull it back.  In spite of the arrows that were raining down on him, he entered the ranks of the Afumi troops, slashing with his sword as he went.  The Afumi forces were thrown into confusion and some of them tried to leave, but General Chison drew his own sword and began to cut down anyone who tried to flee.  Still, he was unable to check the rout.  Woyori's troops secured the bridge and soon were pouring across it.  They cut down General Chison and advanced into the Afumi army, who broke and ran.  The Afumi sovereign, Ohotomo, aka Koubun Tennou, along with the Ministers of the Left and Right, narrowly escaped with their lives. Woyori and his troops marched to the foot of Awazu hill, and we are told that Hata no Yakuni, the Afumi commander who had earlier defected, and whose men were sent north to Koshi, set a siege to Miwo castle along with Izumo no Koma, who had defended against the attempted seizure of Tamakurabe.  Presumably this is Mio, south of Ohotsu, and it was likely guarding the southern approach to the Afumi capital. The only thing here that gives me pause is that we were earlier told that Yakuni's men, after he defected, were sent to Koshi.  So was Yakuni not with them?  Had he returned?  Or had the troops made it all the way around Lake Biwa already, taking the longer route up and around the lake? Regardless of how it happened, Yakuni and Koma were able to take Miwo castle.  As a reminder, a “castle” at this time would have likely been defined more by its walls, which were probably rammed earth and wood—not the elegantly sloping stone walls and  donjon base that would come to typify castles of the Warring States period. The following day, Woyori and his men continued their pursuit.  At the Awazu marketplace, Woyori ran into the Afumi generals Inukahi no Muraji no Isokimi and Hasama no Atahe no Shihote.  We mentioned Isokimi last episode—he was the Afumi commander attacking the Middle Road in the Nara Basin.  His deputy, Kujira, had been defeated, and it seems Isokimi had retreated back to Afumi and rejoined the main force. He would not be quite so fortunate this time.  Isokimi and Shihote were both slain, and Ohotomo fled once again.  He didn't get very far, hiding at Yamazaki, thought to be near the site of the modern city hall, in Ohotsu. Despite his best efforts, he knew he would be discovered, and he eventually strangled himself, rather than facing the humiliation and punishment that would come with capture. With Ohotomo dead, the other ministers of the Afumi court dispersed and fled.  Woyori and his men, meeting up at Sasanami, hunted down the Ministers of the Left and Right—Soga no Akaye and Nakatomi no Kane—as well as others who had fought with Ohotomo and who were considered criminals. They were all marched back to Fuwa, where, on the 25th day of the 7th month, Ohotomo's head was presented to Ohoama.  The war, it seems, was over. Or at least, the fighting was over.  There was still a lot to be settled.  First off, it would hardly have been practical to wipe out every single person on the losing side.  For one thing, that would have devastated the Court even further, likely creating a huge power vacuum.  In addition, many of the supporters on both sides were not necessarily there out of purely partisan reasons.  I would point out that many of the family names that we see in the record are found on both sides of the conflict.  Inukahi no Isokimi may have fought for Ohotomo, but we also see an Inukahi no Ohotomo fighting on the behalf of Ohoama.  Fumi no Nemaro was a major commander in Ohoama's army, while Fumi no Kusuri had been sent by the Afumi court to raise troops in the East Country.  And Hasama no Shihote was killed with Isokimi at Awazu, while a Hasama no Nemaro was working under the command of General Fukei, in Nara, to guard Tatsuta. There wasn't necessarily a simple divide along family lines.  It is possible that these individuals were all fairly well removed from each other, and from different parts of their respective families, or clans. They are often given different kabane, the family rank system used at this time, though I suspect that may have more to do with later changes, with those on the winning side being promoted over those who supported the Afumi court.  However, it is also the case that Japan has a long history of family members supporting both sides in any major conflict.  That way, no matter who wins, the family itself finds itself on the winning side. But there did have to be some accountability.  This is something that one can point to time and again—if the losing side is not held accountable for their actions, then what is to prevent them from just regrouping and trying again?  And yet that need for justice and punishment must be tempered with some amount of humanity. Ultimately, about one month after the end of the war, eight of the Afumi ministers were found guilty of truly heinous offences and they were condemned to suffer what the Nihon Shoki says was the “Extreme Penalty”.  The Minister of the Right, Nakatomi no Kane, was executed at Tane, in Asai.  Meanwhile the Minister of the Left, Soga no Akaye; along with the Dainagon, or Grand Councillor, Kose no Hito, as well as their children and grandchildren, along with the children of the late Nakatomi no Kane and Soga no Hatayasu, were all sent into banishment.  All others were pardoned. And of course those who had supported Ohoama, and who had come to his aid, were given public favour and reward.  In many cases this likely meant receiving high office and corresponding rank, along with increased stipend payments.  There is a notable shift in the makeup of the court, going forward, and it seems clear that families would want to associate themselves with those who fought on Ohoama's side, rather than Ohotomo's, if they could help it.  That was no doubt a part of works like the various diaries and house records that would have been used to compile the Nihon Shoki, recording the deeds that any house did for the throne. Along with all of the punishments and plaudits that were meted out in the 8th month of 672, there was one more event—something of an outlier.  We are told that Chihisakobe no Muraji no Sabichi, the governor of the province of Wohari, went off into the mountains and committed suicide. Sabichi had originally met Ohoama at the Kuwana district house—the local government office—when he had first arrived from Yoshino.  He had a large number of troops—20,000 by the Nihon Shoki's count—which helped Ohoama to ultimately defeat the Afumi court.  So why he would go off into the mountains and commit suicide was anyone's guess.  The Nihon Shoki suggests that it was possible that his allegiance had changed, and he may have been trying to plot against Ohoama.  Perhaps he had been convinced that Afumi court was going to come out on top, and so had begun some plot.  Or he just had a falling out or became disillusioned for some reason.  Whatever it was, it remains a mystery, even today. With the war concluded, it was time for Ohoama to make his way from the field to the Capital so that he could transition to ruling the State properly.  But Ohoama was not interested, it would seem, in setting himself up in his brother's capital.  Setting up in the Ohotsu capital may have raised a few eyebrows.  It had not been a completely popular move to begin with, and it was also the home of the Afumi court's legitimacy.  To take up the throne there, I can only imagine that it would have further reinforced the idea that Ohoama was the usurper, taking the throne that was meant for his nephew.  Instead, he made the decision to travel to the ancient capital, in Asuka, but he was not in a hurry. They headed out on the 8th day of the 9th month of 672, making it from Fuwa to Kuwana.  Here he likely met up with his wife, Princess Uno, and his ten year old son, Prince Ohotsu.  The following day they headed out, traveling back along the route that they had taken from Yoshino, but at a much more leisurely route.  The royal carriage stayed the night in Suzuka.  From there, it was another day to Abe, likely referring to modern Ahai county, in Iga, near Ueno city.  They then continued on to Nabari.  Finally, on the 12th day,they arrived at the Yamato capital—that is to say Asuka—and Ohoama took up residence for a time at the Shima Palace.  This was only, it seems, to give people time to get the actual palace ready, because three days later, Ohoama moved into the Wokamoto Palace.  And with that, Ohoama began the work of running the state—but there was still plenty to prepare.  For one thing, there were foreign embassies—Kim Ap-sil and others arrived.  It was still going to take a while to get the capital ready for guests, though.  From what we can tell, they were probably building a grand new palace, and it would take some time for it to be prepared.  So the Silla embassy was entertained in Tsukushi, where Prince Kurikuma would have been in charge of hosting them.  They were likely filled on the new developments and provided a ship. Meanwhile, Ohoama made sure that all of the appropriate rewards were given out.  On the 4th day of the 12th month, we are told that all those who had rendered services were given higher cap-ranks, based on what they had done. And as the year 672 closes out—and with it, the first of the two Chronicles for Ohoama, the soon-to-be elevated Temmu Tennou. But there is one final entry, marking the death of Wina no Kimi no Takami in the 12th month of the year.  We know that Wina no Kimi no *Iwasuki* was working for the Afumi court, sent to rally troops in the East, but he fled when they encountered Ohoama's troops at Fuwa Pass.  Takami, on the other hand, we know little about, but I suspect may have been on the side of Ohoama.  It is an odd entry, and, like so many, unexplained.  Perhaps it meant something to the people of the early 8th century, but if so, that meaning is likely lost to us. And so we close the book on the Jinshin no Ran—the Jinshin War, or possibly the Disturbance or even Rebellion, depending on how you feel about it.  This account is one of the most detailed we have of this kind of event, and yet it does not seem that it was entirely unique.  There are plenty of indications that previous sovereigns had to fight their way to the throne, or else had to repel others who would try to take it by force.  This was almost a tradition among the royal house of Yamato.  But now that the matter of succession was well and truly settled, it was time to get on with other things. Who knows what an Afumi court may have done and how they could have changed things.  What we do know is what Ohoama—and his queen, Uno no Himemiko—did.  They built upon, or in some cases possibly even fabricated, the legacy of Naka no Oe.  They would set in stone many of the things that had been put in place, and at the same time make certain changes, as well.  The Yamato state was getting started. And we'll start to dive into that next episode.  Until then, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  

Weapons Kids are creepy right? We can all agree on that? Well, you know whats even creepier? When there are meant to be kids and they aren’t there. Or even worse… there’s just one. Weapons is the new horror from Zach Cregger starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin and Alden Ehrenreich, whose first break out hit Barbarian scared the hell out of us… and guess what? It’s got a whole bunch of creepy not-there kids! But is it actually good? Or is this just a bunch of kids “naruto running” towards oblivion? Dion, Jill and Quinny are all in or this review, with Quinny being the only one who hasn’t been traumatised by Barbarian yet. Synopsis When all but one child from the same classroom mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance. https://youtu.be/Mw57elDUcdQ As always, a midnight thank-you to all you crazy kids join in with the conversation on the Twitch stream, live each Tuesday night at 7:30pm AEDT. And an especially huge thanks to any of you naruto running grade schoolers who are kind enough to support us by casting a tip into our jar via Ko-Fi, or subscribing on twitch… every bit helps us to keep the lights on… because we’re scared of the dark. If you feel so inclined drop us a sub we really love them, The more subby mc-sub-faces we get, the more Emotes You get! https://youtu.be/OpThntO9ixc?si=_x20ryvp1bDvS9Mx WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK! Send in voicemails or emails with your opinions on this show (or any others) to info@theperiodictableofawesome.com Please make sure to join our social networks too!  We're on: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TPToA/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/TPToA Facebook: www.facebook.com/PeriodicTableOfAwesome Instagram: www.instagram.com/theperiodictableofawesome/ Full text transcript Dion  Oh, well, hello and welcome to the periodic table of awesome. I’m unsure of who I am at the moment. I could be a weapon, I’m not sure. But you know who I know is absolutely a weapon. Jill. Jill is absolutely a weapon.  Quinny  Look at those ******* guns. Boom.  Dion  And and Quinny is potentially a weapon.  Quinny  Look, I I had to register my entire body as deadly weapon as, as, as legally one is bound to when one is as hard as ******* as I.  Jill  Make a gun.  Dion  Am I was actually going to say if you. If you commit to it quinny, if you if you, if you you put yourself on a regime, if you go to the gym, you could build yourself into a weapon. And.  Quinny  Buddy, I I am a weapon. It’s just like I’m a 10 LB ******* gun. I’m like, you know, you you you’re thinking of like a a fast kind of swishy weapon. I’m more like a like a a fat man bomb that gets dropped off, you know.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Quinny  So technically, still the weapon.  Dion  I wasn’t gonna. I wasn’t gonna go there.  Quinny  Yeah, well, I know. And as telling us, there’s better being a weapon than being a tool. What are you?  Dion  Yeah, yeah. Now you’re a ******. Don’t don’t tism me. This is that will go down a rabbit hole. We’re not going to do it. Yes. OK. Weapons. We went and.  Quinny  I know, right?  Dion  Saw weapons. We did, we.  Quinny  Can’t get a water bomb is a weapon too.  Dion  All of that what is a weapon? Yeah.  Quinny  Is that my physique? Is that what? Speaker 7  We’re saying no.  Dion  Philosophically. OK, so story time now. A while back, Jill and I went and saw a.  Jill  Little film we trauma bonded over, but Marion.  Dion  Yeah, we trailer bond, we weren’t. We didn’t know what was going on. We weren’t. It was like, ohh this film. It’s called barbarian. OK, whatever. We’ll go do that. And they were good. They gave us some alcohol. I’m like, oh, yeah. Let’s get on this and started watching a film. And then. Don’t know, maybe. 3045 minutes into it, we started going wait, where the **** is this going? And and it just proceeded to get even ******* more terrifying and crazy all the way to the end. And then we walked out going. That was ******* cool.  Jill  Yes, it was ****** **, but it was cool.  Dion  Yeah, it was.  Speaker  Quinny  You’re not normally a huge horror fan. No, but like you, you will watch it. If it’s in front of.  Dion  I mean, you know, like I’m not the sort of person who’s like, oh, is it gory and horror, sure. Or go and laugh. I’m just more like, I don’t really need to see that. It has to be a good horror, elevated horror. Elevated horror is a discerning horror. Which, you know, like the traditional stuff like nightmare on Elm Street, you know and.  Quinny  13th.  Dion  Friday 13th and I don’t really go into. I don’t need to see Gore for the sake of gore.  Jill  Those are like a sub genre though those are.  Dion  Yeah, yeah. And slasher. Yeah. And but a good.  Speaker 6  Slasher films, yeah.  Quinny  Horror. Torture. ****. Not it’s like, you know, that kind of stuff where it’s just watching people be.  Dion  Nice.  Jill  Like so.  Quinny  Exactly.  Dion  Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like all that kind of stuff can kind of get a bit confused in. But you know, I can’t say I’m a fan of it because, you know, given the choice, I’m not sure that I’d go and see barbarian or weapons again in that kind of sense. But was it a good film? Yeah.  Speaker  But.  Dion  You know, it was just that way that it kind of went through. So sure, I’m not a huge horror fan. Jill. Jill though. Yeah, she yeah loves it. Except for.  Jill  You love it. Clowns. No, no, it I’ll never watch it.  Dion  Yeah. So. It.  Quinny  Ohh, but you’re you’re not looking forward to welcome. To Derry then.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Quinny  The the prequel to it.  Jill  Good, because I would have thought it was something to do with dairy.  Dion  Yeah.  Speaker 8  Girls and I would have gone and seen it. And I would have been very upset.  Quinny  Why would you would have? It’s a TV series coming out soon and I’m actually really pumped. I’ve.  Speaker 6  Yeah, no.  Quinny  It was one of those books that ******* creeped this **** out of me as a kid and you know, I’m like, yeah.  Dion  Sure.  Jill  I couldn’t stare at a drain for a very long time because my father would say ohh it lives in the trees and it’s little children. So here I am in the shower, not making eye contact.  Dion  Sure.  Speaker 6  Yeah, yeah.  Jill  With the brain.  Dion  With the train.  Jill  Thinking it was any kind of drain that this ******* clown lived in.  Dion  Which which technically it did. So it does live in every drain and it is a clown.  Jill  Yeah. Yeah. And I’m like, don’t look down there cause you’ll see something staring back and. I was *******. He’s terrified.  Quinny  Hi, Georgie.  Dion  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like if if I go down that rabbit hole, I could still easily terrify the **** out of myself.  Quinny  Yep.  Dion  Yes, so.  Jill  I do kind of tend to watch horror as a form of. Therapy. Because I’m in a constant state of fight or.  Speaker 8  Flight with anxiety and if.  Jill  I were to ah. Film. Then I I know that that is something that I can’t control and it’s I just have to go along for the ride. So I just kind of like purges the fright.  Dion  Sure. I mean it’s.  Quinny  Out and also. Yeah, it gives you that, that, that moment of tension and then release, whereas having a life of anxiety means there’s no release. Yeah, exactly.  Speaker 6  Yes.  Quinny  Just tension. Constant ******* ongoing tension.  Jill  Yeah.  Quinny  Yeah. Yeah, no, I get that totally.  Dion  Quinny, do you consider yourself a fan of horror?  Quinny  As a kid, **** no. Like I was terrified of anything that looked even remotely like horror, you know, like, even seeing a cover of a VHS of something like extra or fright night or something like that was enough to make me, you know. You have nightmares for ages, so it took me a really long time till I ever went anything near horror and I came to horror through so if I.  Dion  Sure.  Quinny  So right, you know, the first horror that I watched was aliens. And yeah, because that wasn’t really a horror. That was, you know, an action film that had horror elements.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Quinny  Then I went back and rewatched or watched alien and was scared ********. But then I started to kind of get into it. No invasion of the body snatchers and. Like that and now I have a thing that I’m not in a huge rush to go and watch a horror.  Speaker 6  Sure. Yeah.  Quinny  But I will watch a good one.  Dion  And so back to this whole sort of story when weapons came out and it’s by Zach Krieger, who Jill and I have had the Zach Cregger experience with barbarian. And while we were like, this is gonna be like I I remember I was looking at.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Speaker  We have.  Dion  Oh great. Ohh wait. OK. Like I’ll go see what this is, but I knew what I was going into. The funniest thing was watching it with Quinn, who had not. Had this experience at. All just going. What the **** I’m like, yeah.  Quinny  No. That’s in fact there. There are multiple times in the film where characters exclaim loudly what the ****? Sure, and I agree wholeheartedly with them.  Jill  Yeah.  Dion  Because there is a part of this where I feel like weapons is communicating with the audio. Once in a really interesting way and it doesn’t spoil anything. I just feel like there are parts of the movie and beats of the story and things that are going where it the the film makers are communicating with the audience going. We’ve just shown you a bunch of ****** ** **** and we’ve had a character on screen and saying what the **** and the whole audience is like. Yeah, what the ****?  Quinny  Yeah, yeah.  Dion  And it really it was an interesting as you were saying, the release of tension and I felt like that came through at the end too where it. Diverged a little bit, but allowed the audience to have that tension released, which has been built up for the whole thing, so I consider this one not particularly a horror, but it is. Let’s be honest. Yeah, it is. Yeah.  Jill  Ohh it is.  Dion  But it is.  Quinny  It’s it’s a proper horror, but you know.  Dion  It’s a it’s a really good tension film.  Jill  Yeah, Arena asked. Is it more of a thriller? But I would say no, it’s definitely.  Speaker 6  And.  Dion  No, no.  Jill  Not not thriller.  Dion  No, because and the horror.  Quinny  It. It does good tension building and it is it has that kind of thriller kind of thing, but no, it’s very definitely.  Dion  Yeah.  Speaker 6  Yes.  Dion  Yeah, as you say, like, oh, I’m not going with jump scares. I’m like, well, maybe this is not for you.  Quinny  In fact, this has moments that are not jump scares, but like there are there are some of the most effective moments of like, skin crawling horror that I have seen in a long time, and hearing a whole.  Dion  Horror. Just dread. That contained no.  Quinny  Audience yeah, react to them and ohh wow.  Dion  With like and they have no blood. It’s just really good ******* creepy ****.  Speaker 1  Yeah, and like.  Dion  That you’re waiting for something.  Jill  I I love all of that stuff. And when one of. The big jump scares happened and I screamed.  Dion  He did.  Speaker  It was great.  Quinny  A big way.  Dion  Yeah, and. And look, let’s be honest, we all knew it was coming. Like that’s one of the great things when you still have that result like ohh ****. Even though I knew it was coming.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Jill  Yes. Yeah. Like, I’m like, oh, my God, I know this is coming. And then it did. And then I screamed. And I’m like, I haven’t screamed and. It jumps Gary and ages. Yeah. So it was it. Was a good pay off do do you wanna know?  Dion  And the.  Quinny  What the film’s actually about? No, no.  Dion  Not yet. One one second, one second. Can I, can I ask you one question because I don’t actually have any music and you’ve caught me off guard.  Quinny  I think. It. Yeah.  Dion  The last movie that I saw that did the same kind of thing that I really actually didn’t enjoy was smile too. Ohh yeah yeah. So watched that. Yeah, and I mean.  Jill  Never.  Quinny  Ohh you should get into that Joe.  Jill  Yeah, it’s on, it’s on telly. I’ll watch it, yeah.  Quinny  Yeah. That for the for the discomforting side of it, Dee or the.  Dion  No, the the way that it like, I mean smile, which I haven’t seen and I saw smile to going in blind which is a bit funny but I understood the craft and I thought they did it really well but they jump scares became a point where it was. Just this is the building to a jump scare. Whereas I liked weapons more because it was like is it a jump scare? Maybe you know? And it was some sort of smarter done and then sometimes was like, hey, it’s not a jump scare. It’s just something absolutely ******* terrifying that doesn’t really do it. Yeah, it’s it’s. And it’s not about some. That is terrifying. It’s the idea of it is built and constructed in such a great way that the audience is filling in their brain about how terrifying and what bad things could happen, and then it doesn’t really happen that way. It just puts the the situation goes, hey, how would you react to this situation? And everyone in the audience is going *******. No, I don’t want to be in that situation. I don’t want. To do this, I want to leave. Anyway.  Quinny  Absolutely. OK.  Dion  Sorry, synopsis time. Do you know what I’ve got? I’ve got on the boards for the music to go behind. It is stuff.  Quinny  I don’t know.  Dion  From Kpop Demon Hunter. So do you want that? Why not? We haven’t had enough.  Speaker 6  No.  Quinny  Why? No, I mean, hey, by the way, the the golden from K pop demon hunters went to number one of the Billboard charts today. Wow.  Dion  Excellent. Hear it again.  Speaker 7  Yeah, well, let’s go with.  Quinny  We’re just increasing its plays.  Dion  Sure.  Quinny  Jill  You’re gonna give us, like a Anna Delphi.  Quinny  Ohh but I can because you’re a poor.  Dion  Yes, do it.  Quinny  OK, when all but one child from the same classroom mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time because they’re porous.  Speaker 7  Right.  Quinny  A community is left questioning who or what is behind the disappearances. Sorry that just turned into the chick from SBS.  Speaker 8  This is going.  Jill  I was like, it’s like Christoph Waltz and Christopher Walken met Christoph Walton.  Quinny  First off. I apologize. I apologize to everybody that was, that was the absolute peak of **** accent.  Speaker  Yeah.  Jill  Wait, was that the whole boxes?  Quinny  Yeah. When all but one child from the same club, I can.  Speaker  Oh.  Quinny  Do a slightly longer. 1 So it’s a a horror film about a community grappling with the disappearance of 17 children from the same class, all vanishing at the same time on the same. Night and it follows. The aftermath, exploring things of trauma, grief, and the unsettling nature of the events of the townspeople, tried to understand. What happened and who is responsible?  Dion  Double s in officers. OK, one of them was backed by K pop and the other was. Just a flat scare. So. OK, yeah, good.  Quinny  Sorry.  Dion  Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good so.  Quinny  Right. Yeah. That’s how we should do it. That’s that’s how we work there. Yes. And there was a little gesture.  Dion  Now very.  Quinny  In there I’m.  Dion  Sorry, very, very, very importantly, there was a notice in front of the screening. Which was, hey, don’t spoil it for people where people go in and I thought, OK, it’s a bit naff. Let the thing stand on its own. You know, there’s no need to go through it. But it went on upon reflection.  Speaker 8  Yes.  Dion  Having it’s it’s been out for a while now. I actually kind of go. Yeah, I don’t. Really want to. Do a big spoil because not that I think you’d lose anything from it. I just think it’s a more interesting film to not know. Sort of the last third going into it, I think it has a better effect, not not giving a **** about it. Like, don’t really listen. To. People reviewing it and and spoiling stuff because. You kind of lose.  Jill  It. Yeah, I mean, the trailer was enough and then kind of like discovering what is actually going on is I think lends more to the suspense and and keeps it interesting.  Dion  Yeah.  Speaker  Yeah.  Quinny  Yeah, I do want to talk like a little bit structurally about what happens at the end of the film, but I don’t want to talk about.  Jill  Oh yeah. OK.  Quinny  The the the facts of it like you know. But anyway, let’s not talk about that bit. Let’s talk about the beginning of the film. So a base concept, a bunch of kids run away one night. But it’s not just that they run away.  Speaker 7  Yeah.  Quinny  They Naruto runner.  Jill  Naruto run, they’re going to storm area 51. Yeah, at 2:17 in the morning? Absolutely.  Dion  At 2:17 and it’s all through grainy camera footage. And I love the little child like voice, voice over narration of, like, this is a true story. This is the stuff that happened and blah blah blah and I’m like.  Speaker 7  Which is.  Jill  Yeah, it gives it a little bit of found footage vibe.  Dion  Bit Nash.  Jill  Which is yeah. It’s like a bit creepy.  Quinny  Yeah, yeah, this this does that whole found footage and like, different cameras and stuff like that. So much better than that war of. The world’s ********.  Dion  ****, don’t. Don’t even. It’s it’s an interesting one too, because what I really like about it is it is. It is an easy to understand story. It’s set in suburban Americana. Sort of. There is something creepy going on in a space that generally wouldn’t be considered creepy, and I think you did it also in barbarian like and I and I really enjoy that. It doesn’t necessarily need. Rich people, poor people. It’s not about, you know, X&Y. It’s like, look, this weird thing happened. Hmm, that has probably been going on for a long time. In this and everyone is unsettled by it, but in the end. Life will keep going. And I really, I really like they explained at the start, they’re like ohh this really strange thing and in the end everyone just sort of accepted it. And moved on because it was too upsetting for people and I really like that it gave it a good basis and a good foundation to sort of settle in and go, OK what the?  Quinny  **** did happen but, but also it it does that that very smart thing of going OK how do people in you know, small towns react to bad things happening? They’ll turn.  Dion  You know clue.  Speaker 7  Insect.  Quinny  And and the the most obvious person to turn on is the the the school teacher. So if every kid from the class Bar 1. You know doesn’t show up who’s the first thing you’re gonna look at the school teacher. You’re gonna ask questions there.  Jill  See, I’m the opposite. I’m like, why is this one? Kid left on, yeah.  Quinny  Oh yeah, 100 percent, 100%.  Jill  What’s going on with this kid?  Quinny  And the the the good thing is they actually show you like they they interview the kid, they do a lot of like they go to great lengths to really show you that due diligence has been done. Yeah. You know, and this is just there is no answer. It’s just ******* weird.  Jill  Yeah, it’s it’s puzzling.  Dion  And and like I love that they used quite well in this, like the vignette sort of style, the way they chop it up and they follow, you know, you get introduced to kind of some of the characters and then you get like as you get introduced to more, it starts replaying their stories. And I like the way that they use that quite effectively, which is like here’s. This person, and this is their story. And then we’ll follow someone else and it overlaps and it overlaps and it overlaps until you finally get to the.  Jill  Yeah. And chill, there’s a point where it’s like, hang on a second. Something really *******.  Dion  Yeah.  Jill  Weird’s going on?  Dion  And until it gets to the point where it’s like, OK, we’ve given you enough back story about how all these things are kind of overlapping and then we’re just gonna follow this one. And explain exactly what happened and you were like by that time you’re like ohh ****. Like, how do you resolve this? What the **** did happen?  Quinny  Yeah.  Jill  Yeah, it was a good point to reveal it as well because like, it was a very kind of slow burn intro to the movie. And I was like, ohh, where is this going like?  Dion  Yeah.  Jill  It’s maybe, yeah, becoming a little bit dull until like you do get that pivot point and it’s like, ohh ****. OK now strap in, cause I’m ready for.  Dion  So.  Quinny  Yeah, yeah, yeah. She’s gotten real ****** **. Yeah, it it’s interesting because I was watching it and my immediate thought was the film rush him on, which is the one where they they tell the same story, but from different perspectives. And you see the way that interacts. It’s like that. But it it’s sort of.  Jill  The rest of it.  Speaker  Hmm.  Jill  Yeah.  Quinny  Just showing you different parts, but then continuing the story on. Yeah, which I thought was really smart.  Jill  And thank God you you made the cultural reference and didn’t go with like Pulp Fiction.  Quinny  Sure. Well, you know, because I’ve all filmically ******* knowledgeable.  Dion  I mean, look, you know.  Jill  It was like, where did that reference come from? Russian.  Dion  Barbarian great one much shorter like Barbarians. Only 100 minutes. Yeah, right. This one’s 128 minutes. So we got almost an extra half hour of, you know, additional weirdness, which I think was deserved in this. Like I really like the pacing and the punch of barbarian because it just kind of like starts off real slow and then starts hammering through this one. Get it? Has the same sort of thing. It starts off real slow, but it gives you time to build that tension. And then I think at the end, a little bit more. Time like. When you start explaining things. I thought it would move a little bit quicker, but I have to admit by the end of it I was like, Oh no, I’m fine with how you. Decided you wanted to go with this and by the time you get to that big turn or the big understanding about what is going on, which I say is like 2/3 of the way. Through the film. It does delve into stuff where I’m like, is this funny? Is this not funny? But also, how are you gonna resolve this? And the only way to do it is. Kind of with a little bit of ridiculousness. But I thought it. Was it served it quite well?  Quinny  I think the thing that worked for me about it was the way the characters each sort of had their their very clear part of the story. 3 and when it intersects with one particular place, that’s where **** starts to go badly wrong for everyone you know you’re you’re trying to. Everybody’s trying to work out. Something and they’ve all got their their challenges. So you’ve you’ve got our our Julia Garner. Who’s been Justine, who obviously school teacher Josh Brolin is the dad of one of the. Benedict Wong is one of the the principal principal of the the school. Alden Ehrenreich is one of the cops, and Austin Abrams is is a a junkie for I mean, for lack of any better description.  Jill  He’s.  Dion  Just cop.  Quinny  And each of them.  Speaker 6  They’ve.  Quinny  Their their thing, their story, their interaction, yeah.  Speaker 7  Sure.  Jill  And each of their encounters with what is going on. And so you kind of get their perspective on. Ohh man, how do we trying?  Speaker 8  It’s hard not to spoil it, but.  Dion  Isn’t it you? You get there? It’s, it’s. Yeah, they they put out like, I mean the the, the film posits a strange occurrence, and then all of these different people come into it at different ways, like their their approach that they’re in, they’re affected by it in different ways. And the way that they approach it is. All 100% what everyone knew and I would do like. Yeah, there are no, there is no stupid situation. I have to admit there’s nothing stupid about each of these characters and decisions they’re making along the way. It’s just that there is something else affecting them and we as the audience know that there is something real bad. Happening and we can’t stop them, even though within their characters like, you know, the problem with horror and like that kind of stuff. You’re like, don’t go into there. That’s stupid. You never do that. Stop splitting. Up. I don’t think there’s one character in this that makes a dumb.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Dion  Every single character is like. This is weird. But I need to find the kids. And I’m just going to do something that’s seemingly innocuous but suddenly ends up in a world. Of hurt. Like and, that’s what I thought was great about it. Isn’t one of those things like watch out for the slash? Are they going to get you? It’s like, no, they don’t know they’re. Going to be gotten. Because they’re doing something really boring, like going to a house. In the middle of the day, yeah. And then, you know, bad **** happens not because they made a dumb decision, because something else is affecting them.  Quinny  Yes. Yeah, it’s, it’s smart and it doesn’t treat its audiences in any way stupid. Yeah, it takes some weird turns. Ohh.  Dion  100%.  Quinny  Like, yeah, there’s, I don’t know whether we talk about it afterwards or what, but there’s stuff to in the last act that I was just like, what the ****? And it really there was in some very strange directions. But up until that point, you’ve also had a bunch of pretty ******* weird moments. And there’s a point where.  Speaker  Yeah.  Quinny  Like you said, Joe, it’s gone fairly slowly for a while. Yeah. And then there’s a point. Where it just suddenly ramps up and it’s no longer creeping dread. Now it’s running ******* screaming, running, screaming, terrifying.  Jill  Naruto running.  Quinny  This is ******** terror.  Dion  And. Look, I I. Liked it because they set everyone up as an unreliable narrator or character, but everyone is in is is unreliable in this you immediately start following Justine, who’s the school teacher, and they go to great lengths to explain why. Maybe she.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Speaker  It.  Dion  You know, and they do all of that like maybe the father, like is Josh Brolin’s character is maybe he’s got something to do with it because he seems. Overly crazy at certain points of time, but. Ultimately it’s it’s it’s very sane reactions to a very insane situation, and I think that was the success of how it worked.  Speaker 6  For me, does that make sense? Yeah. Here’s one roll. Sorry.  Dion  Hmm, also shot beautifully. Also shot. Beautifully.  Quinny  Shot beautifully and a lot of it in the very, very, very dark.  Dion  But that’s what worked, man.  Quinny  Absolutely. Like there are a lot of sequences moving around through dark houses and at night and stuff like that, which you know is one of those great tropes of all things horror. I do remember watching something recently only in the last couple of years where I was blown away that they did a horror, but in full daylight.  Jill  Oh, OK.  Quinny  And I’m bugged if I remember what it was, but it it it really impressed me that they managed to do. In full light, this one does a bit of it here and then the really.  Speaker 7  The character I.  Quinny  Wanted to call out that I thought was really impressive. Was James the our junkie buddy, really?  Speaker 8  OK, well, I was impressive.  Quinny  His character, like in terms of performance wise. Not likable, not likable at all, but the energy that he came at that with.  Speaker  No.  Quinny  Like the the really nervous ****** ** energy and the like. The complete sort of. Unreliability of the character I was like ****, that’s a really good performance. I don’t like the guy. I don’t like him at all, but that’s cause it’s a really good performance.  Speaker 8  Yeah.  Jill  Yeah, that’s true.  Dion  You know? Yeah. I mean, yeah, that was like, I mean, to be honest, halfway like by the time we got to that character, I didn’t know how they were going to make him scary because he is just a junkie. And they did do some pretty good, scary, scary scenes with that just really boring situation. Technically, when you look back at it after the jump scares and after everything has happened, you’re like ****. That was so tense. For something that was really boring.  Quinny  There is a sequence and I the possibly the sequence that the whole cinema reacted to the most.  Speaker  MHM.  Quinny  And. I don’t. It’s what I love about it and I’m not going to try and describe it because it it would be doing it a disservice to describe the sequence. But what I loved about it was that it was. Fear created almost purely through sound. Like there’s a visual element to it. Something that is this growing danger.  Dion  Yeah.  Quinny  But then the use of sound was the thing that made the whole audience go **** no. Like literally the guy behind me when you heard a particular sound that door open just went oh, no. Oh, no, no.  Speaker  Yeah.  Quinny  No. And I heard.  Jill  The dream sequence.  Speaker 6  No, no, no. OK, it’s.  Dion  It’s this like this, like stalking sequence.  Quinny  In a car.  Speaker 7  Ohh.  Dion  Yeah. Yeah, right.  Speaker 7  Yep, Yep.  Dion  See this is this is what I’m talking about the the the ability to create tension based around very boring, very banal, very normal ****.  Speaker 6  Mm-hmm.  Dion  In this is great. By doing you know great things. I was like, great. It’s gonna be in the middle of night. It’s like 2:00 AM. She’s creepy anyway. Yeah. And now we’re going to make this creepier by, you know, making it sound like there aren’t many sounds like you can hear things, but you don’t need to see it. Like, if you hear, don’t show.  Quinny  Yeah.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Dion  It can be very creepy and I like that too when there are inside certain other houses and they’re doing the low light stuff that you kind of do.  Jill  Not just sound, but like lack of sound.  Dion  And yeah, lack of sound is a great. A great way to do that.  Jill  I think one of my favorite sequences was the dream sequence of Josh Brolin’s character because it was shot from like first person perspective. So really felt like a dream. And because it was like, you know, semi dark and like the cameras turning as if like. A person is walking through a house and you know doors are opening, but you’re not seeing it because it’s as if you’re doing it. Was absolutely terrifying because there’s like. If anybody has ever had a nightmare where, like you can’t control what’s going on and you’re like, fighting with yourself to even accomplish something within the dream, it felt just like that and that. Was that was. Really incredible bit of movie making, I thought.  Quinny  And and the the every time you round a corner or whatever, you’re expecting something to. Be there to to, you know, wanna hurt you or whatever. Cause you know vaguely where what we’re kind of doing here. We’re in horror territory. Yeah, but.  Dion  Yeah, yeah. And on top of that, I also love the the interesting ability here to allow the audience to really use their imagination while they’re watching this because.  Speaker 6  Mm-hmm.  Dion  Setting up a camera. Like we we had in the end of the trailer there or not at the end of the trailer, but like there’s scenes of like an open doorway, it’s pitch black. You can’t really see anything inside, but can you because your mind starts to fill things in?  Speaker 8  Yeah, I know. Cause it felt. It’s exactly like nightmares that I have where you’re like you’re looking and you’re looking. And it’s like you’re trying to make out something and it’s like is that.  Dion  Exactly.  Speaker 8  Something? Or is it just like?  Dion  Is it a shape? Is it a shape in the room or is it just your? Your chair group has come alive, or those those other ones, so I thought was really good, which is moving around the house and everything is normal and fine. But wait.  Speaker  Yeah, my God.  Dion  What is that like when you when your brain finally kicks in and goes, that’s not actually supposed to be there. That is not what you expect in that sort of thing. And you have to come back to it and you realize ****.  Speaker 6  Mm-hmm.  Dion  That’s terrifying. Like, these are the successful things about it, which is why I really hated watching it. But I enjoyed the. **** out of. The movie, like it was just fun and it was really fun. It, like really, as I said, it was really fun taking quinny along. So I recommend someone take someone who hasn’t seen their **** before.  Jill  Hey.  Dion  Hey, sorry Jill.  Jill  Yay on the titz off scale.  Dion  Yes, titz off none left **** all gone flying everywhere.  Jill  None left. That’s a big fat 0 on. The **** off scale.  Dion  They, they they, they were like, you know, Shinkansen hanging out the window. ****, they’re just gone.  Quinny  Love that we both.  Speaker 7  Had the same age. I love that they’re.  Dion  Connected though. I just thought that they’re like.  Quinny  Well, they connected for a while and then they go. Right. I I don’t know how many tips are off for me because I was scared titless.  Speaker 8  Ah, well, there you go. That’s zero as well.  Quinny  Yeah.  Speaker 7  Yeah, like.  Jill  I don’t know, just like in the last couple of movies that I’ve seen this month, I’ve just have not had. A reaction like I did. With this one MMM.  Quinny  Yeah. Yeah. Well, and and you, you come out of it with a very distinct sense of man. I’ve watched something. Yeah, like. You know, it wasn’t safe. It wasn’t normal. It it. It didn’t feel like just your average ******* horror. Like, oh, God. What was that movie we watched a couple of years back for? None. Like, based on The Conjuring thing.  Speaker 8  Yeah.  Jill  Yeah.  Quinny  And it was just like, yeah, it’s a horror film. Yes. There’s a spooky nun. Cool. Like, in some ways, smile was a little bit like that, though I did find it was creepy as ****. But this, I don’t know, this was doing something different. This was really going into a different level of. Scary.  Dion  I I feel like collectively. Everyone was like in the film that I was sitting there going. And yes and. Everyone just kind of decided not to talk about it anymore, cause too many people died and it was too freaky. And I’m like, yes, kind of like barbarian. Kind of like weapons. We’ve watched it now and ****, you know, a lot of stuff happened and things are good, but like. Just collectively not gonna watch it again. Or not gonna talk about it because you’re still processing stuff about it. Umm. Yeah. Anyway, look. But also, you know, I can see why some people were unhappy with it.  Quinny  What? Where do you think? It didn’t work.  Dion  It’s interesting because, well, I don’t think it it’s. I can see how some people were a bit unhappy with it because they might have wanted to go more into the slasher horror kind of stuff at the end because I feel like there was the turn that happens and it goes into more explanations. You don’t really understand.  Speaker  Oh.  Dion  Exactly what’s going on, but came to me. It became more comedy and I was like ohh, I’m getting this now. You just have to go with it and you know the ending isn’t as satisfying. I think that some people were really after because it has no resolution for the characters. But. You know, I feel like after the tension of the 1st. Aaron, Aaron. A bit. I was like, I’m happy for it to just help me relieve the tension.  Quinny  Yeah.  Dion  Yeah. And also, you know, people could be sitting there going. Ohh, I didn’t. You know, everyone thought it was great, but I didn’t like it. Like, yeah, OK, I did.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Dion  It was fun.  Quinny  I’d I’d like predicate because thing I went in after hearing a ton of fat, and though I enjoyed it, I’m still firmly bitted.  Dion  Still, yeah, sure.  Quinny  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like I can see why. So there is a massive tonal turn. Like. Yeah, and there’s a point where, like it goes. We’ve already talked about where it ramps up, the action, kind of the the like, the threat becomes a lot higher. Mm-hmm. But then there’s another point a little bit later on where it takes a fairly sharp left turn. Into what could be seen as comedy.  Dion  Yeah.  Jill  Yeah. I mean, I think it’s a comedic moment, but it kind of like washes all of the drama and the the evil away and kind of leaves you with. OK, this was a really ****** ** situation and you know a number of horrific things happened, but by the end of it, we’re all able. To walk away. Like and put the situation behind us and I think. If it hadn’t have ended, you know very finally like the way it did. Then it kind of leaves you open to explore that situation maybe happening again. So I think like, yeah, I think I feel like the comedic twist of the ending. Was to relieve all of the tension that we built throughout the whole movie.  Quinny  Absolutely now.  Jill  But to do it in a way that wasn’t necessarily with a scare.  Quinny  Yeah, though I I would say that they I felt like we started to get elements of comedy earlier. Ohh, OK. Like essentially when we’re introduced to one of the characters that we haven’t talked about that does. Kind of push the film into a different space. It goes from being kind of. Of. This uncertainty about what? Is happening too. Suddenly there is a. Focus for it. And the focus is. Or could be. Are let down 4 people and I. Yeah. So I had that that moment where I was like that’s that’s a weird ******* choice and I’m still creeped out. But yeah.  Dion  Should.  Jill  I I’ll stand by that choice because I think it was. It’s a good way to catch you unawares.  Quinny  Yeah, yeah, very true. Very, very.  Dion  True. So, Jill while. Try and find your **** to. Reattach them.  Speaker  Shouldn’t.  Quinny  Somewhere in the fields of Japan and all. Through the.  Dion  Quinnie, do you have a rating for for weapons?  Speaker 7  Yeah.  Quinny  Oh yes, that’s a good question. OK, I’m going to go.  Speaker 6  Adding.  Quinny  I was genuinely creeped out by most of the film, and I think it works. Incredibly well as a. Really. Proper, good, scary ******* horror. Your your mileage is going to vary as to whether or not the last bit like the the last. From a certain point onwards, works for you. For me, it did kind of make me go. Huh. But it still kept the tension pretty high. So yeah, that’s where I’m at. It’s 84. If you’ve got a number, drop it. Dion  Jewel. Right.  Quinny  In that chat. I look for them.  Dion  I was going to go 85. Ah, but I’m not. I’m gonna go 86 because I like round math. So, dude, Jill, you could totally frustrate me but.  Jill  Even number.  Dion  Getting an odd number.  Quinny  That prick dangers jumped to 93, so **** you.  Dion  Yeah.  Jill  Well, then I’ll bring it back and. I’ll, I’ll go. For a 91 so that we can.  Speaker 6  Oh ****.  Jill  Even it up.  Dion  All right.  Jill  We’re going to go 90, but because of the odd number, I’ll go 91 even it.  Dion  Yeah. Out again. Yeah, 86. I really. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was just, like, kind of watching barberry and like, what the **** is happening? But it’s really good. Can I recommend it to people? Yes, with, with, with ******* guard rails as in. You know, Peter didn’t come. That’s OK. She’s not going to see this. You know, she’s going to be like, Nope.  Quinny  Not the kind of thing that.  Dion  Beck’s gonna like. No, no, all of those kinds of things like it. It’s not for everyone. But I do think it’s great. So, yeah, that was my 86. And, Jill, you’ve already got not 91.  Speaker  No.  Jill  At 91, I I have a horror friend and I immediately went to her and said hey, I watched weapons and she said Ohh good, I’m going to go and see it on Friday. And then when she came back to me, she.  Speaker 8  Said what the ****? That was so good.  Jill  Like that ending was So what the ****? And I’m like, yeah, but it was great. And like, yeah, we were just, like, dissecting, you know, the way that they built tension and all that kind of stuff and the pay offs were were all really good. I got to say the creative.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Jill  Format for the storytelling was was great. I thought that was very inventive for like a horror film. Yeah, the.  Speaker 8  Anything that made me ******* scream, I’m like, yes. Big ticks so.  Quinny  Yeah, it takes a bit to actually get you to scream. I I heard you scream and I thought that wouldn’t have.  Jill  There were so many moments throughout the film where I actually had to stop eating and drinking because holding on to the chair and I’m like, crawling back into the chair, like with my arms crossed thinking Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God. And yeah, it it made me out loud scream, not just like shock. No, I screamed. And thank God it was like a loud. Tension release in the. Audio of the film as well to kind of cover up. The embarrassment of me screaming in a horror movie, but yeah.  Dion  And. I had the yeah.  Jill  Really thoroughly enjoyed.  Speaker  It.  Dion  I had The thing is like I I like weapons as a journey. Of a film. Like.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Dion  I don’t think that there’s like there’s no point talking about A twist or a turn or this thing and this other what the **** I’m like. I like the journey of the film. Yeah, I mean.  Jill  I feel like you don’t get to have all of this fun in the end of the movie if you don’t put in the work at the start of getting through the build up.  Dion  Yeah. And by chopping it up and following.  Quinny  Yeah, you’ve gotta get to know the characters.  Dion  Yeah. And chopping up and following people with different experiencing not the same time from a different perspective, but also like different times at different perspectives. Once you understood the establishment of the character.  Jill  Yeah, but you kind of start to get little other pieces in within these people stories so that you can, like, try to build what’s happening before it’s just revealed to you in the movie. So like you as an audience are actually doing work in the film.  Dion  Yeah.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Quinny  Too. I like that. I really like the feeling that it was showing me things. But I wasn’t. Being spoon fed them exactly and there are certain things that they showed and implied, but never actually said. So you have to make the assumption that that character did that. They may not have, but did fairly heavily implied. I live with that. I love being asked as an audience to put a little bit of thought in.  Speaker 6  Yeah. MHM.  Dion  Crazy concept. Look, Speaking of James, I actually have a James Heavy trailer for this. Just goes on about that. We’ll do that and then come back and try not to spoil, but still talk about.  Speaker 7  Oh, OK.  Dion  It a bit more depth, OK.  Speaker  I’m calling about the $50,000 reward. For information about the missing kids. Because I know. Where they are. Filter. Help me. Help me. Come on. Please help me.  Dion  Oh yes, we. Yeah, that was James. He was the the junkie, and he had tent and a very bad experience in a tent.  Jill  Sure. Just sure, we’ve all had a bad experience in the tent.  Quinny  Yeah, yeah. Mine was really intense.  Dion  Ohh George yes, and thankfully for people who haven’t seen it. And you’re like, no.  Speaker  ah  Jill  You up for that one?  Dion  Thank you. I’m like, yeah, yeah, but. It’s a really it’s. It’s so good how it makes you go. ****. I don’t wanna know about that, but it gives you an understanding back when you like, I feel like. Having watched it and then you look at all of the tents and and spooky scenes that were through earlier in the movie, you’re like, ohh, that’s not that spooky when you really think about it. It was our own imagination making it spookier than we thought. But again, of course no like.  Speaker 7  No, sure.  Quinny  Like it’s scary.  Dion  Yeah.  Quinny  It’s it’s interesting, I think I said to you guys afterwards, I I thought we were going perhaps to go in a different direction with it. So there’s a there’s a Stephen King short story that I love super short, like, only like 5 or 6 pages or something like that called suffer the little children. It’s in one of his short story collections and it’s about a teacher. Who starts seeing out of the corner of their eyes their their primary school kids? As like little demons like you know that they’re they’re wrong. They’re twisted. There’s something ****** ** about them, but only out of the corner of their eyes. So when they turn and look at them.  Jill  Ohh, I see kids like that all the time.  Quinny  Yeah. So that’s just being a teacher. But then, yeah, one day teacher goes and 1 by 1 calls all the kids at her office. Cool. Yeah. And I thought maybe we were going to go into that direction and I was like, because that’s one. Of my favorite stories, but it’s still ****** **.  Dion  Yeah, the welcome to. The thing about the unreliable like characters that we’re we’re following here and like I think yes, Karina, I’m not. I don’t want to talk about the spoiler of the twists, that of why is it like, why is this all happening? Mainly because I don’t think it’s it. It doesn’t do anything to give you. A reason to go see the movie.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Dion  I’d rather talk around it and let people go and see it and say, hey, did you like that? Cause it’s ****** **, isn’t it? Like I don’t really.  Jill  Yeah, like, don’t be like my mother who told me that. Bruce Willis was dead the whole time, so that I don’t even bother to watch 6th sense. Yeah. And to this day have not watched it.  Dion  You know, Jill, I gotta say I’m. I’m. I’m with you on that because it was spoil. It was spoiled for me in the break room at at a work thing. And I was like, ohh. And they’re like, oh, you haven’t seen I’m like, no, because it came out yesterday.  Jill  What’s the point? There. Yeah. Thanks.  Speaker 6  Thanks.  Quinny  Yeah, yeah, I remember.  Dion  So I’ve never actually watched it.  Quinny  Trying to watch like Battlestar Galactica, the the 2000 series, and then somebody said to me, oh, I can’t believe that such and such and such and such and such for the final styles. And I was like. What the ****? And they’re like, ohh. It’s a joke. And I’m like you weren’t ******* joking.  Dion  Thanks.  Quinny  That’s cool. Well, I got to interview them this ******* weekend. So great.  Dion  Well, look, the the I think the the the non spoilery things I can say about it is that I was disappointed with. Was that the whole mystery is all about the kids. All right.  Speaker 6  Dion  And then you really don’t get a good resolution with the kids.  Jill  Yeah.  Dion  And it’s just a little bit you, you, I understand why they did the things that they did, but there isn’t. There isn’t a great resolution really.  Jill  Yeah, I feel like you don’t always have to have that in a film.  Speaker 7  No, and there is something.  Jill  It’s like we said, like it was. It was really. The journey of the movie that was the reward.  Dion  I got to say by the end of it, like the the kid who plays Alex, Carrie Christopher, he like I didn’t give a **** about.  Jill  Gorgeous little kid.  Dion  I yeah, I I was really disappointed with that kid right up until towards the end. And then I’m like ohh, that that kid did a really ******* good. Like having to do with a lot of adult themes and adult concepts by the end. And you’re like, holy ****, that kid is either gonna be a freaking St. or the devil.  Quinny  And I do like that whilst it’s avoiding tropes all over the place, you know, and it’s doing everything it can to try and not be the obvious or whatever you do still end up in a haunted house in a way. And you know it, it’s becomes.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Jill  Yeah, with your don’t go in the basement moment.  Quinny  I know you. You’ve got 100%, you’ll do not go in the basement moment. And I was like, yeah, cool. We’re we’re. You know, we’re hitting on those things because I do think there is something like really archetypal about certain ideas and horror concepts. And being chased around your own house. Is terrifying, and people that you know not being themselves is terrifying. Yeah, yeah.  Dion  You know, and now you’ll never look at a kid in a playground running like that with their arms out. Being a plane without going whoop.  Quinny  Have you ever Naruto run? Dion  Didn’t you? You asked that question.  Jill  God, I I. Have dignity.  Quinny  I asked it off microphone.  Jill  I have dignity I.  Quinny  Thank you.  Jill  Run.  Quinny  I have seen so many people Naruto run around conventions.  Jill  I bet you.  Quinny  Have you know I’ve seen so many *******.  Jill  Yes. Yeah, they don’t do it ironically either.  Quinny  You. This. No. And I just wonder, I I I look at this and I was like, was that intentional? Did they know that they were doing that? Oh, isn’t it? No, no.  Jill  This is not a Naruto. Arm is like the arms have to be out back behind you, yeah.  Dion  Out. Yeah, they’re gonna be.  Quinny  Ohh. OK, right. Sorry, right, right. Just like.  Jill  This was like.  Dion  Yeah, this is just.  Jill  Just to the side.  Dion  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sort of straight down kind of thing, but I mean don’t take anything you see on anime and try and replicate it and realise you’ll just hurt yourself.  Quinny  Yeah. Or someone.  Dion  Else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all parties.  Quinny  Teapots. Right. OK, yeah.  Dion  Fair enough. Kind of planking. If only they were yelling, skippity rears when they ran around.  Quinny  Yeah, like there are. There are so many really good, very quick jump scares. Like, you know, there are there’s moments in a bed, there’s moments, you know, all over the place where you just like, really good. Momentary jump skis, but it also does that very clever thing of going we’re building up to a a jump scare and then we’re going to give you something that isn’t the jump scare. But. That can be really obvious. Like we all know that if you’re gonna build up to a jump scare, you’re not gonna give us the jump scare. You’re gonna add in a a thing. This one I was like actually that were pretty good. Like they weren’t fake outs or anything. These felt like something that still maintained the tension.  Speaker  See.  Dion  See, I really wish we’d had been able to arrange it earlier for you to have seen, barbarian. I get before this.  Speaker 6  One going on about barbaric.  Jill  We keep talking about it. We keep talking about it, but only.  Dion  Like.  Jill  For a very good.  Speaker 7  Reason. OK so so.  Dion  I warn you, I. Don’t you, Connie? It’s not a fun watch. I’m not recommending this to you because I think you’re gonna have a good time. I’m recommending it for you because all of the tense and scary things that you kind of felt from weapons, you’re going to get in barbarian again.  Quinny  OK so. Can you give me a like give me a vague synopsis of what barbarian is about.  Dion  It’s about the dangers of Airbnb.  Jill  Yeah.  Quinny  Oh, right.  Dion  Sounds boring, huh? Definitely not.  Jill  Yeah, but Justin Long is in it, but. And he’s the red herring.  Speaker 6  Eh.  Quinny  Right, so This is why you were all very excited when. He showed up in this.  Jill  Yeah. We’re Justin long shows up in a horror movie. Yeah, right.  Dion  As the thing like. It’s it’s done it it, it does a little bit of vignette things where it sort of takes the the two things it’s like it’s following Justin Long and it’s following another character. And they’re both standing at the same Airbnb and then it’s following one.  Jill  Yeah, there’s like, a really good fake out in the beginning because you’re like, ohh, this is very much going to be this thing and then it’s not. And then you’re like, but wait, what the **** is actually happening?  Dion  Yeah. Yeah, it’s like. Yeah. And by the time you find out what the **** is actually happening, you’re like. What the **** is happening?  Jill  Yeah. And you’re like, why and why and why?  Dion  No, no. And then it.  Speaker  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Dion  Just turns out it was just really, really ******* creepy.  Speaker  Yeah.  Dion  Yeah. Anyway, but it is more. It is more your traditional horror.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Dion  You know.  Quinny  Right cause I I looked at that and I thought it sounded a bit more like the torture pointy kind of things like.  Speaker 6  This.  Jill  Body horror elements in it, that’s for sure.  Dion  There’s a little bit of torture **** because I’ve gotta also say there was just that thing of like, I don’t want to be in that situation and it’s a bit too graphic for me. Yeah, but you don’t like, you know, it’s. It’s just a good. It was the start of the way of building tension and and confusing you by going. We’re going to present you with a thing that says you’re going down this road, but it’s just going to kind of keep going. And then it’s actually like, wait. I was on on a road at all. I was actually on a lake. How did I get in this lake? And I’m not in a boat. What is going on?  Quinny  Sorry, I just I wanted to look up torture **** films cause I’m trying to think of it and particular one.  Jill  What kind of results did you?  Quinny  Just get well. Yeah, it was not a. Good time hostel. That was the one that I was trying. To. Find the name of hostel and hostel too.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Quinny  But I love it.  Jill  Ohh, not not hostile you’re saying hostel?  Quinny  Hostile. Sorry. Yeah. Like that was one of those ones where it’s just like, you know, bad things happen to people. Human centipede, that kind of thing, bad things happened to people. It’s about the the torture.  Speaker  Oh.  Jill  Yeah, yeah.  Quinny  Salo. 120 days of sort. Sort of I was. I’m looking down this list, and I’m like, oh, yeah, I remember that when I run into that one. Yeah. Yeah. OK. And then I get. Justin Bieber never say never like. Well done to whoever ******* wrote that.  Jill  Well done.  Quinny  List because that was. Comic timing, like you wouldn’t believe.  Speaker  Ohh dear look.  Dion  There’s, you know, like, weapons isn’t a perfect film. There are some beats, I think didn’t quite. Planned and some decisions, as you said like it it goes a bit strange in the end. You’re like you’re going to go with it or you’re just going to be like oh.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Dion  That’s sure that’s. Stupid. It’s like, no, I was. Yeah. No, I was 100% there for it too.  Quinny  I I yeah, I actually thought and I said to a couple of people, I thought it let off the the accelerator a little bit when they introduced the.  Dion  The reason?  Quinny  The reason? Yeah, like the to me when we started to get a few answers as to what was causing this, I felt like the tension ratcheted down a little bit.  Dion  Yep. I feel like they’ve they’ve followed that through with the comedy though, but they did ramp back the they did get back to the tension as they try to resolve everything as you get to the resolution.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Dion  You’re wrapping. You’re ramping that sort of thing up again. Yeah. I thought they did it quite well. And, you know, the the end of it was. Fun.  Jill  I think it’s just like we’re going to blow off all. Of the steam that. Yeah, you know. Yeah. Of this movie? Yeah. And we’re going to do it in a comedic way, just to kind of like, yeah, that all out, you know.  Dion  Yeah. I mean, I feel like by the end of it, the audience was all kind of like, oh, ****, that was weird and ****, and I don’t know, but it was much more. Or interesting to to see that whole audience who had who had. Spent. You know good hour and a half tense as ****, absolutely sitting there going. What the **** is happening? I don’t want to be in this audience or thankfully, we’re all experiencing this together to then have a bit of a OK, well, OK, ****. OK. What was that all about? And I love confusing a confused audience. Not a confused.  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Dion  Audience like why was Ice cube in an ad for Amazon for 80 minutes? But more like that. Was that good like I had that the thing when at the end of it I was like, is that was that a good movie?  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Quinny  And I think people will take away from it what they what they will, you know, they’ll they’ll either enjoy bits of it or they want or they’ll find that some of it worked for them and some. Of it didn’t. Yeah, but. It’s done very well. That’s something that I do, you know, I’m happy to report that it’s. Done a lot better than most of the other films were released this weekend.  Jill  Quinny  Like based on its budget and everything, it’s kicked the **** out of a couple of much bigger films.  Jill  Good for.  Quinny  Them. Yeah, one of them being freakier Friday.  Dion  Look, I’m. I’m.  Jill  The Disney cash grab.  Dion  I’m happy that Zach Cregger, you know, survived the bidding war for weapons.  Speaker 6  Yes.  Dion  And that Jordan Peele fired a couple of people over not getting it.  Jill  Ohh, Jordan Peele movie coming out soon. Him.  Dion  Oh yeah. Yeah. Yes, but he was. Yeah, he was trying like Jordan Peele was trying to get Zach Craig as, Umm, spec script for his production company and did not get it. And then fired two of his management people for not getting it. OK. And I’m like, OK, but the really interesting thing I think for the next project that has been announced for this director is the Resident Evil reboot. Oh ****. And he’s writing directing. It. Ohh so it was like OK. Interesting. Yeah. Hmm. I mean, you never like a franchise with an established fan base, and many temps is fraught with peril. Yeah, absolutely.  Speaker  Yes.  Jill  But it means we don’t have to see *******. Milla Jovovich wheeled out again.  Dion  You’d leave Miller alone. She’s the supreme being.  Quinny  I mean. I love that they even attempted another reboot a few years ago and just nobody paid any attention to.  Dion  It. Yeah, I love that even one of them was a 3D1, which was like, you know, your franchise is in trouble when you’ve gone through an era of 3D coming and going again. Like jaws, jaws through the return jaws, three Jaws 3D. Like what the ****?  Speaker 6  Hmm.  Dion  Anyway.  Quinny  Trying to remember what that ******* ohh yeah. Resident Evil. Welcome to Raccoon City, you know? Yeah, the one that nobody paid any attention to at. All. But it mean.  Dion  Yeah, you know, look had no Miller in.  Quinny  It.  Dion  It’s.  Quinny  Oh well, look, I’m. I’m keen to see what he does next. Absolutely. And if he can make Resident Evil work? Cause like to me, I think that’s that’s not actually it shouldn’t be that hard. Like resident evil’s.  Jill  Yeah, it’s really not. It’s such a straightforward premise.  Quinny  Yeah, if you do a good solid zombie film and you use the characters that are in the in the games, it’s not that hard. I would ******* love to see this guy have a go at Silent Hill.  Jill  Yeah, that could have been.  Quinny  Like.  Jill  Silent Hill would have been better than Resident Evil. For this guy.  Quinny  Yeah, I think he’s his. Disturbing.  Jill  Because this guy is like, so good at, like, suburban. Dystopia.  Quinny  Yeah.  Jill  So I think like silent. Hill would be perfect for.  Quinny  Him absolutely.  Dion  Is am I the only one who didn’t mind the Silent Hill film that came out with rider? Mitchell, like I thought it was alright.  Quinny  No, I quite liked it. If the.  Dion  Freaky and the and the Borg Queen as the evil witch woman.  Speaker 6  Yeah.  Quinny  That was another one where I was like, OK, it it started really well, did some really good creepy stuff and then ended poorly. But yeah, I quite like that.  Speaker  Sure.  Dion  I mean, I’ve I I’m I I think with in return in in the idea of Zach Gregor. I’m kind of like just let him cook. Don’t give him a franchise. Don’t let him don’t make him do other **** just like no let him do his stories he’s doing quite well at the moment.  Jill  Yeah.  Dion  Of just. That’s true. Going barbarian? Yeah, that’s a good one. Weapons pretty good. You know what’s the next one? And I don’t pitch quinnie. Go for him and say, like, can you make a the same horror film, but everything you shot during the? Hi.  Quinny  I would love to see somebody ever go. On. It I haven’t watched Midsummer so.  Dion  Really.  Quinny  Yeah.  Dion  It answers the question who would you like? Would you prefer a bear or a man?  Speaker 8  Yes.  Dion  In the wheel.  Quinny  I don’t know because I always looked at that and I thought it looked a little bit, Wicker Manish, but now I’m completely confused as. To what that may actually be that.  Dion  Yes, but it’s a woman, so it’s a Wicker woman.  Quinny  Ohh.  Dion  Sorry, there are no. Ease.  Quinny  Good, because they weren’t me in the ******* original.  Dion  Film No, but there was in the Nick Cage one.  Quinny  Don’t don’t say it.  Speaker 7  Not. Why would you mention? ******* ohh. You broke my legs.  Dion  It’s very bad, it’s. Yeah, Speaking of Speaking of bad, what are we doing next week?  Quinny  Oh, oh, well, well.  Speaker  Oh.  Jill  Hopefully it’s not a bad show, yeah.  Dion  Two shows having a bit of. It

Wrestling Omakase returns for a special episode! John is joined by returning guest and longtime friend Bryan Quinlan (@Not_Quinlan on Bsky) for our podcast all about traveling to Japan to watch pro wrestling! After taking some quick little sideswipes at NJPW for their latest attendance bomb, we give a comprehensive look at all the elements involved in planning for a trip to Japan! John & Quinlan (who have 8 trips between them going back 9 years!) start by going over all of their own past trips and some of the major differences in all of the different seasons they've gone in, which then transitions into a longer discussion on the different times of year you can choose to go and what some of the pluses & minuses of each are. Once that's done, they cover everything else you could ever want to know for planning your first wrestling trip to Japan (or just planning a better one if you've gone before!), including:-Overall trip budgeting and what the minimum amount you can get away with is-Different accommodation options for different group sizes: solo travelers, couples, big groups, etc.-Some of the various neighborhoods you could choose to stay in-Various options for buying tickets (including John finding out that one has gotten a little more complicated than when they just used it a few months ago, live on the air!) and how they work, including how to pick up your tickets when you get there- and which is the only option that actually lets you pick your exact seat! Plus a little bit about the various sections in Korakuen Hall specifically.-Specific Wrestle Kingdom ticket options by section and where each actually locates you-Venue locations and other quirks about them-Other major wrestling-related landmarks in multiple cities: restaurants, bars, and stores!-Leaving Tokyo to see other cities: how to buy Shinkansen (bullet train) tickets, some cities besides Osaka/Kyoto that you might want to check out, and more-Some brief thoughts on language barrier and what you could pick up relatively quickly for a better experience-Food recommendations, especially budget onesBut honestly, this is just everything I can remember off the top of my head that we talked about in a sprawling three and a half hour podcast, so check it out for yourself!Follow Wrestling Omakase on Twitter: @WrestleOmakaseFollow John on Bluesky: @justoneenbyAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode, Jess takes us step-by-step through her family's spring break trip to Japan—a points and miles masterpiece that cost just $200 total out of pocket for four round-trip flights and multiple hotel stays. From first class flights to washer/dryers in hotel rooms, this trip had it all. Whether you're dreaming of cherry blossoms, bullet trains, or Hello Kitty cafés, this episode is packed with tips for making Japan happen—without breaking the bank. Flying to Japan in Style with AA Miles Jess booked her family's flights using American Airlines miles, flying on Japan Airlines from Chicago to Tokyo, and shares her tips for snagging first-class saver award seats, business-class seats, and also premium-economy seats.  Staying in Tokyo, Family Style For the Tokyo leg, Jess chose the Hyatt House Shibuya, a new property that has quickly become her top recommendation for families.  Kyoto on a Budget with Hyatt Place After Tokyo, the family took the bullet train to Kyoto and stayed at the Hyatt Place Kyoto, a Category 2 gem offering amazing value.  Activities included exploring Fushimi Inari Shrine, tasting local snacks at Nishiki Market, and spending several hours with deer at Nara Park—Molly's favorite part of the trip! Luxury Final Night at the Conrad Tokyo For their final night, Jess used Hilton free-night certificates to stay at the Conrad Tokyo, a luxury property with top-tier service. From Hello Kitty water bottles at checkout to executive-lounge cocktails, it was the perfect way to end the trip. Jess doesn't recommend it for the location alone, but if you've got free night certificates, she says it's 100% worth it. A trip to Japan for a family of four with flights and hotels for $200? This is the power of points and miles. Hit play now and hear how Jess pulled it off—and how you can too. Links: Points Talk Premium: https://pointstalk.supercast.com How to Get Your Next Vacation for Nearly Free: How to Get Your Next Vacation for Nearly Free - https://travelmomsquad.lpages.co/freevacation/ Hyatt House Tokyo Shibuya: https://www.hyatt.com/hyatt-house/en-US/tyoxs-hyatt-house-tokyo-shibuya Hyatt Place Kyoto Review: Hyatt Place Kyoto Review - Travel Mom Squad - https://travelmomsquad.com/hyatt-place-kyoto-review/ SmartEx App (for Shinkansen tickets): Tokaido Sanyo Kyushu Shinkansen Internet - https://smart-ex.jp/en/app/download/index.html Reservation Service | Tokaido Sanyo Kyushu Shinkansen Internet Reservation Service - https://smart-ex.jp/en/app/download/index.html Voice Map app: Walking Tour App » VoiceMap - https://voicemap.me/walking-tour-app Cat rescue cafe: Home | 宿木カフェ＆レストラン - https://www.yadorigicafe.com Links For All Things Travel Mom Squad: stan.store/travelmomsquad Episode Minute By Minute: 00:30 – Flights to Japan: AA miles, upgrades, and flight tricks 07:00 – Booking first class seats and handling premium economy changes 12:00 – Transportation in Tokyo and using transit cards for kids 16:00 – Hyatt House Shibuya: why it's perfect for families 23:00 – Favorite Tokyo experiences: TeamLab, shopping streets, latte art & cat cafés 29:00 – Kyoto stay at Hyatt Place + must-dos like Nara Park and local markets 36:00 – Final night at Conrad Tokyo with Hilton free-night certificates 42:00 – Recap of highlights, family takeaways, and why Jess is ready to go back

Less than awesome development, that!Get your superfast Japan eSIM at https://jjesim.com and you can email Chris here: AbroadInJapanPodcast@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.