00:00
Okay we have entered the Unaju place.
Yes.
And I don't know if you guys can hear this, there's a TV on and the store is a little
bit loud so I don't know if you guys can hear them but we're in the store, we made it.
Quite good atmosphere here.
Yeah, quite good.
I can't read any of the...
Holy shit, this is the Unaju.
Okay.
And the price is much higher than I thought actually.
Yes.
But we've already entered.
Yes.
Which means we cannot get out.
Right.
We cannot say no anymore.
Of course.
I would like to have...
Chu.
You're gonna have a chu?
Right.
Oh.
It's 2700 yen.
Right.
Let's go with chu.
You sure?
I'm sure.
Because it's my last time.
Right, right.
You should go for it then.
Okay I'm gonna have a Nami.
Right.
I'm actually going to a Friday's today.
TGI Friday's.
Yeah.
I'm going to a Friday's.
Yeah.
I'm going to a Friday's.
Yeah.
TGI Friday's.
Dinner?
Yeah.
Oh, alright.
So I'm gonna...
I want to save up my appetite.
Of course.
But I'm gonna go for the Nami.
Yeah.
That's enough.
Are you sure you don't want to go for like the salad or anything like that?
No.
You don't want to go for like the beer or anything like that?
No, no.
No thanks.
Alright, let's go for the Unaju then.
Okay.
What?
The Unaju?
Unaju.
Right?
Unaju, right?
Yes.
I'll have two Unaju.
Which one would you like?
One Nami and one Chuu.
One Nami and one Chuu.
Okay.
Alright.
Okay.
Have you ever had Unaju like this?
I've had Unaju like but only like in the supermarkets.
Right.
You know how they sell out like the already made bentos?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've had Unajus there but like no.
Not anything else.
Okay.
So this is the first time like the real Unaju place.
Right.
That's a traditional Japanese Unaju place.
Yeah.
I mean the atmosphere is like really traditional-ish.
Right.
Right.
The way they, you know, the clothing.
Yeah.
The tiles of the walls.
Right.
Right.
You think this is like a family-run place?
What?
This is a family-run place you think?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Or maybe.
Maybe, right?
Yeah.
But you know, think about this town.
03:03
The quality of this restaurant is very high, huh?
Right.
I understand.
Like the town is, we have no rush funds here anymore.
Right.
This is like the kind of place you find it like Asakusa or something like that.
Right.
Right.
Like just the interiors, like so sophisticated.
Yeah.
It's really Japanese traditional way.
Mmm.
Like I feel like an American tourist being taken into like the Unaju place.
I'm sure that's how you feel because I'm speaking like hardcore English right now.
Right.
I'm feeling like I'm, you know, guiding the United States people.
Right.
Have you ever visited Asakusa?
Yeah, I've gone.
Yeah.
Really?
I've actually went to a lot of the domestic places in Tokyo because I love Tokyo so much
I go there like every weekend.
Every weekend.
Yeah, like Asakusa, I've been there.
Akihabara, I've been there.
Tokyo.
Shinjuku, Shibuya.
Yeah.
Harajuku.
Oh, Harajuku.
Omotesando, I've been there before.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
I think I've been there more than you.
Really?
I think I know more about Tokyo more than you.
Oh, come on.
Like have you went to Gotanda?
I did, yeah.
Okay.
I did Gotanda.
But only once.
Only once.
I've been there twice, motherfucker.
But what's for?
For like walking around.
Around Gotanda?
Yeah.
For what?
Do you know?
Okay.
Like me, it's a fantasy of mine.
Like walking, like being in Tokyo is such a dream state for me because I've dreamt of
being in Tokyo for such a quite a long time.
Right.
That walking in like the buildings.
Right.
Walking in the cities is just a special time.
Okay.
I still feel it even 10 years after being here.
Really?
Yeah.
Hmm.
So, Gotanda is a huge city with buildings?
Well, yeah.
I did.
It's like if it's inside Tokyo, if it's in like the Yamanote Line area, it's huge.
Okay.
Right.
You know, if you're speaking about Shinagawa, I do understand that.
But Gotanda is, you know, a little bit not that sophisticated place.
No, man.
You don't understand.
It's the, it's not, it's not the height of the building.
It's the atmosphere of like the buildings.
Dude.
Atmosphere.
Okay.
So where do you prefer?
Dude, like in Tokyo.
Oh, I mean, each place has like this special atmosphere.
Like the Oshiage has a special atmosphere itself.
Right.
The Shita Machi atmosphere.
06:00
Toyosu has like this special atmosphere.
Like the Taoman.
Oh, right.
The Harumi area.
Right.
Harumi area.
I mean, Harajuku has its own pop culture atmosphere.
Right.
Akihabara has its own culture.
Right.
An electricity town.
I like, I prefer, okay.
So the one that I like is probably like, I would say, Shibuya.
Shibuya?
Shibuya.
Why is that?
The most crowded.
Okay.
The most culturally sensitive place.
Okay.
Besides Harajuku, right?
Harajuku is a cultural.
It's a different culture.
Right.
It's a different culture.
It's a, it's a, it's more of a fashion kind of young trend kind of culture.
Pop culture.
I think Shibuya would be like the Japanese central, the most ground, the common denominator
kind of culture.
Right.
In Shibuya.
Mm-hmm.
All right.
Do you have any typical place that you favorably place in Shibuya?
The Shibuya station.
Station.
Yeah.
This, like, I'm the cliche kind of American guy who loves Japan.
But like the, the crosswalk, the main crosswalk in Shibuya.
Right.
I love to look up the, the displays, the huge buildings that's surrounding it.
Right.
When I was in the United States, I used to look at all those pictures of like Shibuya
and I was like, I wish I could be there.
Uh-huh.
And like, yeah.
So I have a fantasy of being there.
And every time I go there, I'll be like, oh, I'm in, I'm in here right now.
Right.
I made the dream.
So that's my, that's a good story.
Yeah, it is.
Well, this, compared to Shibuya, well, this town is, it's too small for you.
Yeah, exactly.
But you know, this place has its own kind of culture.
Mm-hmm.
And I get that.
But preferably, I'd go for the more urban area.
Preferably.
Right.
Well, hearing this kind of episode from you makes me realize that you are American people.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah.
You know, they, you know, daily basis we speak in Japanese, obviously.
Uh-huh.
But you know, there's not many times that I realized that you are American.
Uh-huh.
Like, you know, it's already, it's Japanese conversation.
And you've got so many Japanese culture.
Uh-huh.
So it's quite rare for me to realize that you are actually like born and raised in America.
09:01
Yeah.
Like I feel the same way, actually.
Uh-huh.
Like I don't, I never could compare this with anybody.
Like I never, I don't really share this with people.
I don't really like, I don't actually know how the Japanese people feel.
So I don't know in what ways I'm different.
Oh, okay.
So I guess, you know, me talking about these kinds of things in public as a Kevin's English
Room guy.
Yeah.
Makes me realize I am kind of like different.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Oh, the ocha.
Really ocha-ish.
Yeah.
I've never tried the ocha here.
Yeah.
It's really good.
The nigami is good.
This is the Japanese green tea.
Are you okay with that?
Sencha?
Ryokucha.
Ryokucha.
Yeah.
How did you find that?
What do you mean?
How is that?
Oh yeah, it's very shibui.
Okay.
But very good.
Very good you mean?
Yeah.
Very good.
Okay.
Very Japanese ocha-ish.
Okay.
Yeah.
Do you feel tasty?
Yeah, I do.
It's enjoyable.
Enjoyable.
I'd rather, like I sometimes go for the ocha, the nigori ocha in Kabeen store rather than
like Kanta.
Okay.
Sprite and stuff.
Because I feel like the shibuiness is like very good.
Okay.
Do you have any words that they can express shibui in English?
I think there is.
Okay.
But my vocabulary is not there yet.
Okay, okay.
I wonder how many businessmen are here.
Like in this town.
Yeah.
Well, you know, there's not many companies around there.
But there are some suitmen, right?
Well, probably bank.
Maybe.
Bankers.
Or salespeople.
Right.
Or you know, just go up the street, you know, the yakiniku restaurant street.
You can go up.
You know, there's another supermarket up there.
I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, Fuji supermarket.
Right.
Right.
And that, you just continue to go up after seeing the supermarket.
There is some, there are some big or even huge company.
12:04
Company.
Yeah.
I think I know what you're talking about.
Right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe that's the place.
Maybe.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
There are huge companies out there.
Do you ever feel like working for a company again?
Me?
Yeah.
Well, it could be.
It could be happening to me, but not now at least.
But you know, I was not having the really, really bad time working at a company actually.
It's not that I hated it.
It's not like you hated it.
Right.
You had to escape it.
It wasn't kind of like that, right?
Well, no, it wasn't just I want to escape from that.
I prefer this life.
You know, but that was not that.
That hating thing.
It was fun work with another people, meeting with new people.
Yeah.
Having projects with another person.
So it could be, it could be happening, but very unlikely.
Unlikely.
Not now.
But you know, we are meeting new people like we did today, two days ago, right?
Yeah.
At a dinner together and try to build a new project.
Yeah.
That's kind of fun to me, like meeting new people, know something new.
So that's fun to me.
Do you?
Well, like for me, I figured out at this point right now that like it's about the people.
Yeah.
So, so it's like, it's all about serendipity.
Like it's about being lucky.
Yeah.
Like in your company, like if you were able to like lucky enough to like find a company
where you're comfortable being in with the people that you work with close by, then I'm
probably okay with that.
Right.
But that's only a lucky chance.
It's a luck game.
Yeah.
Right.
I figured, yeah, yeah, I figured it's a luck game.
And I, I know what I also figured out was that, what I also figured out was that the less
people in the company, the better.
Oh, the, okay.
The human relationships work out better for me if it's a less, less people environment.
Okay.
So I'm thinking like, if I were to go back to another company, I would do like a venture
company or something.
15:00
Small company.
Small company with maybe five people.
Yeah.
Where it's expected to, where those people are expected to have like a similar mindset
as I do.
Like a little bit entrepreneurial kind of.
Right.
Yeah.
That fits you too.
Yeah.
Like maybe.
Maybe.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
Nature calls me.
All right.
So you're going to call by nature.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Welcome back from a nature call.
Yeah.
Thanks.
Yeah.
I'm back from the nature world.
You're really excited for this.
Yeah, I am.
Like I'm feeling like this could be like the eye opener for the new Unaju world.
Right.
Like I've always felt that Unaju is never worth the price.
But today I'm feeling like this could be it.
Yeah.
This could be like the game changer day.
Hope so.
Hope so.
Hope so.
Yeah.
You know, actually I went to the toilet.
Yeah.
And met with a brand new, bright machine.
What?
A new machine in the toilet?
Yeah.
What was that?
That the toilet itself.
Uh huh.
It was so new.
What do you mean?
No, I'm thinking about this restaurant.
It's quite traditional and old.
You know, it's quite Japanese style.
But the bathroom was so brightly lit up.
Oh.
With the nearest technology.
Like I entered the place.
Uh huh.
It opens.
The automatic opener.
Not automatically.
Wow.
They probably like reinstalled the toilet maybe.
Because it was like too old maybe.
Right.
What's your favorite Japanese food?
Um.
I really like pizzas.
Like ramen.
Yeah.
Like Ieke ramen.
Okay.
Ieke ramen is a Japanese food, don't you think?
Well, yeah.
It's Japanese food.
At this point.
Yeah.
Right.
Other than that.
Uh huh.
Like, you know, traditional things.
18:01
Then I would say like sushi.
Oh yeah.
Sushi, right.
Or like curry.
Curry is an Indian food.
Yeah, but it's, you know, because in Japan it's Japanese food.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a little bit different.
Okay.
Well maybe from today.
Uh huh.
You're gonna say.
It might be a good inaju.
Right.
Right.
I think we should end the podcast somewhere around here.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
All right.
Well maybe we could split this into two.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Yeah.
We might upload the picture on Instagram.
Possibly.
Right.
Right, so heads up.
All right.