00:11
Okay, let's start. Okay. So, hello. Hi. Yeah, today we have someone else. Not just Masako.
Well, Masako is not here actually. Today we have my friend, Kaori. Thanks, Kaori, for coming.
And the reason why I have her here is because it's this time of the month.
科学系ポッドキャストの時間になりまして。 This month we have our host this month is 渋町さん from 渋町技術研究所かな、これは。っていうポッドキャスト、違うわ、ものづくりのラジオをやっていらっしゃいます。渋町さんです。
And well, I feel like I don't need to explain him because he has a ton of followers and a huge
audience. So I'm just gonna, you know, cut the introduction part. He, as many of you followers
know, he is an engineer for 工作機械, and so he has been a part of this 科学系ポッドキャスト
for the past few times. And I'm really excited to see what he has to say about this month's theme,
which he decided to be 変人. And you know, as usual, the host gets to decide the topic.
We interpret however we want to and share our episodes based on the same 共通のトピックで
so check out our playlist that will eventually come online where you can listen to everyone who's
participating into this 企画 and yeah, just listen to all the other people talking about 変人.
So yeah, that's it for the intro, I think. That's good. So let me introduce Kaori now. So
this time around when the topic was 変人, I figured out that it would be pretty standard
to talk about scientific 変人 as a science podcast. But that's not, you know, super interesting
because, you know, there are many historical 変人 that I feel like other podcasts would do
much better job on with proper research and proper historical background research. And
here I am showing up with no research, absolutely no preparation, just my friend.
03:06
So I figured it would be, it might be more fun to involve a non-scientist in our podcast. So Kaori,
you're our first non-scientist guest in our podcast. So welcome. Thank you. I'm very honored
to be here. Just briefly on how we met. We met when we were both in an undergrad,
and we were both part of this dance production. And we got casted in the same piece, right?
Mm-hmm. This was back in, I want to say 2013 or 14? 13, I would say.
Good idea, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I saw her in the same rehearsal room, and I could tell right away
that she is a properly trained dancer. And I also found out that she's Japanese. And you know,
in my school, there are not that many Japanese people. So I had to ask her, her name, and you
know, who she is, what she's doing. And we found out that our jika is super close. We also probably
went to the same, we probably would have passed by each other in a ballet studio.
But we met all the way. Like, we just met in New York City.
Yeah, we met in New York. Yeah, like why? I'm sure we crossed paths way before,
but we somehow never met until that moment. So ever since then, we became good friends.
And every time I go back to Japan, I'll ring her up and hang out with her. And yeah, I guess,
you know, thanks for being my friend for all this time.
Oh, thank you. And I listened to one of your podcasts, like past series.
Oh, thank you. And you said,
you need a friend, friend, city friend, kind of. And I definitely, one of those people,
you called us friend, friend, no matter where we are, we are, you know, friends on the long
distance relationship. So that was very interesting to analyze our friendship in that way.
Yeah, I mean, most, I would say 90% of our friendship has been long distance friendship.
Yes. We've been together only for like, half a year.
Yeah, in the same city. And all the other time, we were in Tokyo versus elsewhere. And even now,
I'm still not back in Tokyo. I'm a なかなか帰国できない帰国主嬢.
That's the truth.
Anyway, yeah, so she has a real job. She is not a scientist, you know, she's a contributing,
06:05
functioning member of society, unlike me, who does pretty esoteric research. So I figured I
would ask her, how do we scientists look like? Well, I guess specifically, how do I look like,
you know, do I look henjin to her? If so, what parts? So fire away, Kaori.
I mean, in our interaction, do you find yourself thinking, whoa, Asami is so weird.
I mean, it wouldn't be like henjin, henjin, but I can.
I mean, maybe first of all, yeah, like, let's let's talk about what do you mean by henjin?
Like, because I feel like there's a little bit of room for interpretation.
Right. For me, henjin is not like being creepy or anything, but like,
somebody who are so much into something and to, I don't know, to give you an extreme example,
it would be someone who was always thinking about one thing and cannot open eyes to anything else.
The world is like this small to the person. So those are my definition for henjin. It's not
like crazy, creepy people. Okay, okay. So maybe maybe the way you see henjin is someone who
has very narrow sets of interests, very, very specific, focused, very positive.
Well, it doesn't have to be like, you know, being focused or being obsessed
over something, right? Like that in and on itself is not bad or good. You know,
it's up to what exactly you're obsessed with. Right. If you're obsessed with, I don't know,
like trains, there's absolutely no harm in that. No. Yeah. And go ahead, be obsessed over trains.
If you are obsessed over, I don't know, hurting small and cute animals, maybe I'll be worried
about that. Right, right. Okay, but so okay, so this is a good to know, good to get that out of
the way. So you, for this, the purpose of this conversation, you're defining henjin as somebody
who has very specific interests that are well defined, and they pursue that interest.
Right, that's true. Okay, so based on that definition,
yeah, where do I fall in this this henjin category? Or do I at all?
09:00
Um, so I think it's already starting, like, no offense at all. But first of all, you define
the topic before you begin this conversation. And those things too, these small things,
like, you make the definition to start talking about something, or you analyze,
or sometimes you say very science words, like, cases, like, activity, something, or,
um, I cannot say right now, but like, it's, it's not uncomfortable or anything, but I can say,
oh, this person, um, uses her brain every time. And she's a smart girl, not like me. I'm more of
like, 感覚でやる人. But she is, you know, based on something people can explain in words,
or with some figures, and so on. So those were very organized. So that's pretty much scientist.
Okay, so you, you don't have other friends who do this?
Um, I can only think of like, one or two, except for you.
だからとっても珍しい。 I would say it's 新鮮。
Okay, okay. So like, at least amongst your friend group, I am kind of a unique one.
Okay, that's good to know. That's, that's flattering.
Yeah, you should be flattered.
Okay, another thing, maybe, you know, we are both, um, taking some dance classes.
And I think you were one of the few people who, um, put your thoughts after classes,
um, into your words, like you explained. So today, I did this is this, and you always analyze, like,
it's a little bit of anatomy, you say this alignment is getting better, or like,
I can feel this muscle. And those are all important things. And I think, um, everybody
has those kind of thought in their brains. But that is not happening every time around me.
So those are special, and it's very interesting to listen to.
Oh, okay. I'm glad you're not sick of it.
No, no, no, no. But like me, I take classes time to time. I'm not dancing every day anymore.
So I'm more of like, you know, playing with the music. And I try to guarantee my safety,
12:00
not getting injured or anything.
I mean, that's important. That's important. You know, we're not we're not like 15 anymore. You
know, we cannot bounce back from injuries.
But so for me, it's always risky. I shouldn't say play, but I play with the music I play,
I even enjoy jumping, leaping, turning.
I have to say, though, you know, since we recently took classes together in my most recent
trip back to Japan. I love watching you dance. Like, it's really a joy to watch. Because,
you know, there's so many technically amazing people, you know, there are some professionals
even in the classes that we take. But like, I guess it's different, you know, for them,
it's like, they do this every day. This is part of their daily routine. And it's their
condition check, you know, they don't have to do classes full out every single day.
I mean, maybe some of them do, but most of them do this as a sort of, you know,
how's my body today, right? But because for you, because you're working full time,
it's rare for you to be able to take ballet classes. And each time, it's a joy, right?
Like, I can tell that you're really savoring the time. And you're like, trying to make the
most out of that one and a half hours of class. And it really shows like it really translates
your movement. And you, you seem to have so much fun doing it. That is like very contagious.
Thank you.
Yeah, no, it's and like, it's also like, I mean, listeners who don't dance would never
understand this. But like, to whip out a triple pirouette after not doing classes for like three
months is, it's not a regular person's dance level. You know, you, you are really good at this. So
it's also fun to watch you.
I was lucky.
Well, if that's the case, I have not been lucky for all of my life.
No, no, no. But like, this is a good example. If I made a successful triple pirouette,
the turning, for example, I say I was lucky. But you would, I think you would say, okay,
I was lucky. But maybe this shows that I'm strengthening this muscle and this is getting
better. No, thanks. You can analyze the whole sequence. But me, I feel like, oh, that was
very lucky moment, kind of. I wouldn't say this is henjin, but I purely like, admire what you're
doing in your brain. And I think that's, you know, I'm consciously you're doing it.
15:00
So those were the, yeah, not henjin, but like special point, I would say.
Unique, unique part.
Unique.
I think, though, that's definitely more of a recent development in terms of my character.
I mean, I think I always liked to think or analyze, but I do this in a more systematic manner
ever since maybe college. Like before that, yeah, like when I was training
for ballet before I moved to Singapore, so like 13, 14, at that age, I can't believe how little
thought I put into every single class. It's just like, you know, did I feel good or did I feel bad?
And it's like, was it fun or am I tired? Like that's all I got from that ballet class. Most of
the time, I never tried to put two things together. I just always blamed, oh, my body sucks,
my bone structure sucks, or like, that's why I cannot do it, rather than how can I
make it work for my body. And that might be just part of the training. Like maybe
my teachers were more like, this is not working, this is not working, and didn't really tell me
how to make it work. Because ballet teachers are busy, right? Like they don't always have time
to do that for every single student. So, but yeah, I like really just
So I like never used to think that hard about ballet, and then
never since I started doing science a little bit more seriously, I have a tendency,
yeah, to sort of like, like you said, like a definition. Are we on the same page?
Right. It's easy to follow though. I naturally don't do those things. I, you know, speak by my
own, and I don't know if others are following me or not. But I think you were good at like,
um, communicating your ideas to everyone who probably never met or who never shared anything.
But you can explain things to new people, you know, making the definition, and, you know, get
everything ready to speak. And you can even talk about something very difficult. I cannot follow
what you are doing in your research. That's, you know, wow. I don't think I ever took time to
describe what I'm doing in research to you. Like, I always just tell you like,
18:05
Yeah, you always extracted some like, fun parts so that I can enjoy. Like, you sent me like,
but it actually, um, highly technical machines you're using it for your job.
And after reading your text, I learned, oh,
I never understand either in Japanese or English, no matter which languages you're using.
I don't think I can understand. But still, I know what you were aiming for. You're doing science,
but you eventually want to, you know, combine those knowledge with something art. So I would
be interested, but that is very difficult for me. But I would never say that's henging.
But it's like very specific. And your focus.
Okay, yeah. I mean, like, I feel like we've already established that henging in this
context is like, not necessarily negative. It just like, were you you think of it as
something that is characteristic or unique about? Well, in this case, being
compared to your other friends. But do you have anything else? Do you have other like,
weird things you find about me?
That's it for part one of our henging episode for kagakukei podcast hosted by shibucho-san deshita.
Thank you so much for listening. We have part two, where we go even more sort of
out of course, I guess, in our conversation, you know, you have to understand we don't have any
daihon. I just asked her to, hey, like, just talk about how weird I am, or how weird you think I am.
And that's all. That's all I asked her to do. So, but I think I think it's always interesting,
right? You know, even as close friends, you don't always sort of talk about face to face
talk about face to face in real time, you don't really talk about,
you know what, I really think this part of you, this side of you is very unique. And I really
like about that. I feel like we don't do that. So if you're listening to this, this late in the
21:02
episode, still, I encourage you to find your friend, whoever that might be, and tell them how
special and unique they are, and how much that means to you, and your friendship with this person.
Just do that. I had, you know, I really had fun doing this. It's also a good sort of reality check,
you know, for us scientists, especially who tend to surround ourselves with other academic, nerdy
type of research minded people. So good, good reality check. Just just do it. All right. Bye!
