イギリス各地を巡った夏休み
end of September. I, you know, I heard you take adeep breath before you said that and I was
staring daggers at you because I did not want tohear that. We just, we just finished talking
off script about how I have so much stuff to do atthe end.
You're like, yep, looks like we're real close,real close to the end. I don't know, I was,
I was thinking like, do you remember 21st night ofSeptember? Is it September or November? 21st
night. Oh, that's already passed. And yes, yes, itis. It is also passed. We're very deep in
September. It's almost over. We are. Anywho. Weare deeper than we should be in September.
It is a perfect time. Is that mean we have to linkthat song now? Huh? Yeah. I think we have to link
that song now. I don't know. They have enoughroyalty going on for all these years. I feel like
they don't need us. Well, no, I agree. But alsojust in case nobody knows what we're singing.
So okay. I mean, if you don't, where have you beenliving? Probably in a cave. I've done that.
It is now a good time to reminisce on the summermemories. Yeah, the bygone days. And I feel like
I spent enough time on this podcast and took overtheir airtime of talking about my fabulous,
glorious travel stories. You've had a lot. I'vehad a lot this summer, honestly, which was great.
Both for work and for fun. But it was great. And Istill haven't even talked about Cambodia here.
Oh, yeah. No. But today is not my day. It is yourday, Len. Your travel story.
It's mine. My day now. Mine. So tell us where youwent. Oh, I went. I went many places. I saw many
things. You know, I went on a journey, a journeyof spiritual exploration. Did you find your
spirit?
No. No. I you know what, I'll start from the end,though, in a particular, very, very small
anecdote. But you mentioned your spirit, right?Yeah. And it was, it was this moment when I got
back. Yeah. And I went and I went and I joined afriend at the climbing gym. And one of the first
things that they had said to me, they looked andthey said, Did your hair get darker? Okay. And,
and I, I paused, right? I honestly wasn't reallysure like how to react. But what came to me first
was a response I gave, which was, Oh, it'sprobably because the gray hairs went away.
Oh, so I start there at this end of the story,because I think that there was at least some
semblance of relief that occurred. Restorativeeffects. Right, some restorative effects. So like,
Wow, I'm jealous. My gray hair will not go away inone holiday. I, I mean, maybe it just has to
be long enough. But you've been on super longholidays. Also, yeah, it could have been something
else. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Look, gray hairsare something else. If you have gray hairs,
don't worry about it. It's fine. Like, yeah, Imean, if you're super stressed out, maybe it's
not fine. But like, if you just happen to havegray hair, it's fine. Yeah, even if your gray
hair is from a stress, just keep telling yourselfit's just age thing. And it'll be fine. Okay.
I didn't say that. Asami said that. That is Asamiadvice.
I've had gray hair since like, late 20s,basically. So I, it does happen. I mean,
I don't know. I'm not sure exactly what you'recalling gray. It's not like I can see gray.
It's just like the strands.
They kind of like, okay, sort of in like theunder? Yeah,
well, first of all, I think people need to knowthat I have a lot of hair on my head.
And oh, fair enough. Yeah, they could just beimagining we're both. Yeah. Yeah. We're just
lying. I have a lot of hair on my head. So even iflike 5% of them are gray, they're still like,
overwhelmingly dark. And fair enough. So like,it's not, it's not enough for me to
bother myself with basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah. Don't worry about it. Right. So
no, that's, that's fair. Anyway, anyway, gray hairrestored, you had rejuvenating holiday.
So where do you start? So I think so. So I tookoff and was over in the UK for quite a while.
I went there originally as a plan to visit family.And I extended it to also visit some
friends there as well. And I went to severalplaces. I went to London first, and then I
wandered over to northern Wales. And then I foundmy way into Scotland, both to the sort of northern
parts near Inverness and then back down towardsthe southern parts in like, if anybody knows where
Greenock is, it's it's sort of on the western edgewhere the River Clyde comes in. It's just to the
west of Glasgow is a much easier geographicallocation. Sure. And so I went out, you know,
up and down and all around in all of these regionsof the UK, which was great, because I didn't
really do there were there were moments where Iconsidered certain levels of work, you got a few
messages. Yes, yes. We're not gonna talk aboutthat. No, it was it was a good moment of like,
let's try a thing. I'm not going to put a lot ofeffort into it. I just want to see what I need.
Yeah, I learned a stuff from it. Moving on. Yeah.What then I guess I want to share is that
シェイクスピア・グローブ座の観劇体験
I went I must have, you know, I must have taken,you know, hundreds and hundreds of pictures,
right? Because at that point, you have a phone, Ijust take pictures of things I just, you know,
scan around. But if I just kind of sit back andthink what comes to me as the the most memorable
aspects. Yeah, the trip overall, I would say, inLondon, there was the Shakespeare Globe Theatre.
Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. The iconic Globe Theatre.Yes. So the iconic one and you say iconic, right?
For everyone who doesn't know what it is, it's theit's the old fashioned, right? Fully wood,
circular sort of theatre, in which the you know,first set of seating isn't seating, it's a big
standing area around the stage. So that you can,you know, be right up leaning onto the stage,
even. Is that original architecture from theShakespeare era? Or is it kind of like a
reconstruction of what it would have been? Right.So I actually off the top of my head,
I don't remember, but I would say it's definitelybeen, you know, refurbished,
perhaps rebuilt would be my guess. But and it'salso now like attached in a way, at least through
a kind of connective piece, right to a more modernbuilding, of course. But it itself, right, is the
I think, as close as possible to the originalconstruction, you can also see a model of it,
or at least you could at the time I was there.Like when you finish and you walk through the
building, and you can see like, you know, all thedifferent angles and stuff from the other
wooden structure. So yeah, so it was beautifulbecause of that. And awesome to just like be,
I was on the ground floor. And so I was I was upagainst the stage, you know, the friend I was
with had brought us that way. Yeah. And the otherbenefit when you're in the sort of audience like
that, is that there are also pockets and placeswhere the actors will pop up from and start doing
things within the crowded environment, elevatedareas, and then like, they pulled people up onto
stage. Oh my god, that is always my imaginenightmare. It was it was so okay. So nightmare,
I think is what perhaps a lot of people do. Ithink they it's still scary, I imagine for people,
but I think that the the cast here did a reallygreat job creating a warm enough environment
that it was like, you know, you're still kind ofdragging people in, they maybe don't want to,
they're nervous, but, but I do I do feel that theyspent some effort trying to make it clear
that they were, it was okay. Right? It's like safeenough to play with this. So yeah, yeah,
I feel like you were about you had like anotherquestion. No, no, no, I just remembered.
Um, with regards to the theater itself. If any ofthe listeners have recently watched Hamnet,
the film that came out earlier this year, and I'mforgetting the name of the director and
everyone who was there, but it was, um, uh, let'sedit this out. But I'm gonna have to look this up.
I'm helping. Okay. Did it only just come out? It'svery recent. Okay, I got it. So it it's the
film by Chloe Zhao, and play starring JesseBuckley, who did an amazing job, like she stole
the whole show. And Paul Maskell, who was reallygood at crying in front of camera, and he looked
very pretty doing this doing so. But anyway, so itis a story about Shakespeare himself and his
wife, Agnes Hathaway. And I'm sort of like there,there's a scene at the very end where he is,
like staging this play Hamnet, which is kind ofinterconvertible with Hamlet, like the famous
Hamlet. And, um, and it's, um, it's, it's a reallyemotional scene in the film. And it takes
place in a theater, where it's kind of imaginedspace, but also going back and forth with the
theater itself. And that is the old theater thatkind of Globe Theater today is kind of modeled
after. It's like a wooden circular stage with likeone entrance across from the stage. And it's
a two story sort of setup. It's like a tent. And,yeah, yeah. So. So if you've seen that,
that that was basically what you can imagine, sortof extrapolate that to the Globe Theater.
Right? Yeah. Okay. I haven't I haven't seen that.So maybe I should put that on my list of things to
only watch it when you're like, ready to sob.
Asami, I'm always ready.
That's true. Yeah, you cry more than I do.
Proud of it.
When when there is emotion to be had, I do my bestnot to run from it. Usually when I run from it,
something is gonna go horribly wrong.
This is very emotional, very, very heartbreaking,but beautiful story.
Okay.
劇場でしか味わえない舞台芸術
Anyway, enough. But okay, so you went to GlobeTheater and that like theater experience. Was
that like the memorable part?
Yeah, yeah, no, it was it was fantastic. I mean, Ileft that theater going like,
if I lived in London, I would I would just getlike their monthly whatever and I would come here
like every week. Like this was just I'm so happyyou got that experience.
Yeah, yeah, it was fantastic for reference foreveryone. Right. I mean, like those standing
seats are five pounds. Yeah, for conversion islike, I don't know, 600 yen. So like,
very, very reasonable, maybe too reasonable. Arethe actors getting paid? I hope so.
So the rest of the seats are more expensive.Right. So like, that's I imagine, that's what
balances that out. Now do I know how much isgetting paid? Yeah, no. Yeah. But, you know,
I hope so. Yeah. But I think there was also like,you know, anyway, they had deals, right? I saw
some, I would I would get something like that justto be able to like pop in whenever I like,
you know, make time regularly. Yeah, it was sogood. The actors were so good, right?
I'm really, really glad that you had thisexperience with performing arts because I think
in the like, we live in a age where digitalcontents are abundant. You don't have to leave
your house ever to consume something creative anda pretty good creative things to you know,
but I survive in my cave, I think. But I thinkthere is something special about performing arts
that like really starts and ends in that theaterspace. And I, I luckily grew up with it from
ballet, but many of us don't have this connectionwith public performing arts scene. And if you've
never really experienced it, you don't reallyunderstand the point of it because it's like,
well, I would just go see a movie, or I will gowatch Netflix. And you know, that that might be
sort of easier and more accessible. But there issomething really hard to describe that really
only happens in a theater space. And it's like,it's very transient. It's over when it's over.
But it's like, for a moment, you really arepresent in a way that you would never in Netflix,
like,
Mm hmm. I completely agree. I was, I, you know,maybe not as much sort of
experience when I was younger, as you'redescribing, right with like the arts, but I would
say probably more than most, perhaps even aroundmy area. You know, my sort of relative, you know,
economic class show. Yeah. You know, my, myparents really did a lot to try and bring us to,
you know, museums all the time. And we'd also gooutdoors a lot. There's a lot of this trying to
bring places, right? Yeah. But also, you know, Ithink my my school or the schools I've been in,
not a lot, but there's definitely a few times Iremember going to theaters, like,
you know, in sort of the main city or something.Yeah, yeah. You know, just seeing a play or doing
plays for like Christmastime or something. Yeah.You know, my, my folks, one of their birthdays is
during Christmas, basically, or the New Year's.And so, you know, there's a good time to like,
do the holiday film type stuff, you can go to aplay or something. So a variety of these, right
times during birthdays and other things we try togo, which wasn't, you know, not everybody was
doing
it. But I, I think, even then, I found myselfenjoying them. But I don't think I truly
understood,
maybe a full appreciation of them. I was stillworking on what I was seeing in those spaces.
But I always loved like, literary works and stuff.So I had this, this connection piece where I'm
like, I can kind of get it. And like,intellectually, I'm looking at it and going, Oh, I
see that this
is how that works out. Later, like, you know, itwas like, wow, these are really powerful
emotionally,
which came about maybe more in, I don't know,maybe, maybe a little bit more as, as like,
grad school had went on, but I'm having a hardtime specifically picking them out. But like,
what was the the smaller theater, Trinity Theater,I think, down the hill, right? So that theater was
a cool, like, close, you'd go in, and you know,they're all kind of moving to black box theater.
And like, they always had something funky goingon. Right, exactly. So these, I had like, you
know,
bits, but there was probably more than others. AndI kept that sort of enjoyment through. And when I
was looking into London, I mean, that was some ofthe stuff I was looking for. I was, yeah, right.
There were no theaters around. So there were otherones I got to see. But that was that was the most,
like, uniquely sort of involved and like movingperformances that I that I saw while there.
ロンドンで行けなかった場所と次の目的地
So I think you did London correctly.
Thanks. I was I was looking to gauge whether Isuccessfully London.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. There is, for reference, thereis a wrong way to do London, as well. But
okay. No, like, there's another right way, whichis probably the people who go around
just bar hopping everywhere. But I would not thatis that is another correct way possible.
But if you don't want to damage your liver, thereare alternative ways. And because for me,
basically going to London means visiting friendsand going to as many free museums as I can
in a given time. And for whatever reason, I'malways only in London for like three days max
at a time. Transition spot only. Yeah. So I haveto cram everything. And so I, you know,
I haven't been to Globe Theatre, even though Iknow this place to be sort of, yeah, like
culturally
iconic place. I haven't even been to West End. Andlike, I like, I like performing arts. But
I guess I've only been to Royal Opera for ballet.And then yeah, a bunch of museums. I'm too busy
museuming around in London. Yeah, yeah, you gaveme some good recs. I ended up going mostly to
plays, I think, you know, but like the, themuseums, I did wander by the one you had
recommended to me
explicitly. And it was the Hunterian. I think Imentioned that. I think I sent you the text.
Yeah, that's right. I was like, I was like, Nope,I did the same thing you did. It's closed on this
day that I have. This makes it to people who arereally trying hard to go to Hunterian Museum.
By the way, this is a museum with like a bunch ofanimal and human specimens of like, you know,
formaldehyde. Yeah, jars of formaldehyde. Yeah,live specimen. And it's kind of creepy and
fascinating. And yeah, both times I've been toLondon, and I've only been there twice,
I have tried in advance to check if they are openwhen I'm there. Yeah. And they're either
closed for holidays or closed because it's Tuesdayor like, or closed because somebody
decided they were closed. Or like for liketemporarily like or like they're in between
exhibition rotation or something and I'm likenever able to go. And yeah, it sounds like the
same curse is on you too. So I guess you know,it's contagious. If either of us get to go to
London next, we really need to make sure. Yeah, wehave to break the curse. Did you go to
the grapes? The pub that Ian McKellen owns?
Oh, right. So I don't think I remember I rememberthis being on my docket as well. And I don't
remember if I didn't make it because of where itwas located. Or like because I there were certain
spots and pockets that I did get to. And otherones that I had trouble kind of like
wandering around to it's it's the grapes. Where'sthis one? The grapes? Okay, I see.
Yes, I know. I think I know about where it is. I'mpretty sure that locationally it was kind of
out of the way. So I might be it might be but howdare you? I know. Have you been?
No, because I went there. How dare you? No, I onlygot this knowledge that Gandalf owns this pub
after I left London. Oh, yeah. No, this is butthis is way over there. Yeah, I did.
Is this? Is this Greenwich? No, this is notGreenwich. Where's Greenwich? There's Greenwich.
So it's it's over by Greenwich. It's by CanaryWharf in Greenwich. So they're off to the east
side, which is like, it is a trek to get overthere if you were not in that region. Okay.
I was there. I was there once. I know, but Gandalfisn't paying my fare. Now is he?
Um, like, so I did get over to Greenwich, which isalmost but it's also on the other side of the
river, like nowhere connected, you have to thenlike whip back around and do like a loop to get
to the other side. So I was spatially close, butrealistically far. Yeah, that's basically my
next target for my next visit to London, hopefullysoon. Yeah, that's a good call.
Because I rumor has it that Sir Ian McKellenhimself drops by at the pub once in a while.
Hang out, he lives nearby, apparently. I mean,that's, I assume he doesn't know I want anybody
to know which house that is. No, but like, I lovethat. Like, you know, this is like,
he probably has enough money to do whatever thefuck he wants to do. And what he decides to do
is to own a pub with his friend. And like, youknow, yeah, it's great. It's the most English
thing one can think of. No, that is that is reallycool. It's, it is the most English thing. You
know,
it'd be like, an American thing would be like, youknow, two guys, you know, putting together a
diner. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know, or, youknow, you want to get into the
particular gleaning of American style living, andit would be them putting together a hunting club
or something. So, but diner, diner versus a bar.What would Japan's be a ramen shop?
That's all me. Yeah, probably. I don't know, wouldit?
Because some izakayas are food forward. Yeah,okay. If we're thinking like, because because
with the, with the sort of Ian McKellen one andthinking like, British style, you know,
getting together with the with the boys and makinga thing. Oh, okay. Okay. Not not that. Okay.
That's what I was thinking of. But like, in termsof bar versus I would say, you know,
bar food, that's izakaya. What do Japanese brosget together to do?
I don't know. Oh, you think? Okay. I mean,nowadays, I don't think it's traditionally
サウナ文化とウェルネス談義
so but I feel like it's something that it's like ait's it seems to attract a certain type
of pros. And not just any bros like it seems likeit attracts like a pretty high power,
sort of like men. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, becausewhen you said that I started thinking about like,
oh, you mean, I forget exactly where but rightlike in the southern northern regions of like
Europe, you know, the Denmark and Norway. Yeah,Finland. Finland very big.
No, but the sauna culture there is very differentfrom that of Japan, right? But the tech bro
version of that sauna culture is the one thatyou're describing, which is the one I know.
So it's the same that in Japan, which isfascinating, or it's becoming it's a funny
mixture. Like sometimes it's like, because we havea culture of central right, like communal
bathhouses. Yeah. So sometimes sauna is like anextension of that. And like, you know,
no other intentions besides that. But somethingfunny about sauna is that when enough testosterone
are concentrated around sauna quickly into thisblip measurement, you know, festival of like,
who can stay the longest kind of thing. Sorry,you're your self censorship. The blip was good.
I am.
Of course, Asami, the perfect, the perfect amountof lady dumb, the perfect class.
One could never say such a, a horrifying word, aclassless word. We're gonna have to explain this.
The listener should realize. Do you want to do it?
Oh, no, no. It's just like, it's easy enough. Theycan infer. Our listeners are intelligent.
Yeah, guys tend to measure particular body parts.
Yes. And they're very obsessed with that. Andthen, yeah, we use that metaphor as a way for
men just turning everything that doesn't have tobe into a competition of some sorts.
And like, how long can you stay in the sauna typething?
Yeah. Or like, how high of a temperature can youwithstand or like something and then like,
I okay, I don't know. Because I've never reallygone to saunas in Japan. So like,
this is not my primary source information. Butyeah, I think it's just like,
um, it's nowadays, it's seen the resurgence,because it's now coupled with this like wellness
clique of, you know, like, muscle recovery, like,you know, good for your nervous system,
like that sort of things. And it's like, now, itused to be just like bro bro activity. And now
it's like a wellness conscious bro thing to do.And it's just like a fascinating thing to see.
But I think this is where a random businessnetworking happens. Because it's quite a
self selective group of people, you know? Yeah,yeah, yeah. Well, do this is totally
not related to stuff we're doing here. But we'vetalked on this before. The idea that,
you know, if you do the things that you believein, and think are the things to do,
you will find people doing the same things. So Ithink it's a but I don't know, do like,
you know, to to, like childhood blokes, would theyget together to like, make some money and
put up a sauna? I feel like that that has a waymore innocent and wholesome vibe than
a tech bros building sauna to make a new cult. SoI don't know what would be the equivalent.
I can tell that I'm biased, I think, because the,you know, the folks I do know here,
Japanese and foreigner, but in the sense of like,kind of that, like, yeah, you could imagine
getting
together with a couple of your buddies and making,you know, a place or something, right? Yeah,
people
I have in mind, would be like, let's make a smalllittle cafe by Yeah, you know, a cafe,
a bookstore, like, yeah, this is what I butthat's, I think, biased to me and my groups,
right? So like, Okay, okay. I don't know. Butthat's like the calm version that I think would
match the energy of Yeah, yeah, Helen's thegrapes, or like, you know, a couple of, you know,
American,
you know, friends or something being like, Hey,you know, I really like food. Yeah,
you make a diner, right? Like, yeah, make a, theywould do a cat. They do a pizza place to
that might be. Yeah, I don't know, hot dog stand,like, whatever dog stand, make whatever you want
to food. Yeah, have a good time. I feel like Ifeel like the Japanese equivalent of that is like
food business, but like, one specific type, like,they will hone into the craft of Yeah,
I don't know. croissant making. Yeah, I was gonnasay one specific coffee bean.
Or that, you know, or like specific coffee beans.Yeah, they only sell like, two types of onigiri.
And like, that's all they do. Right. And like,there'll be people queuing out
outside. Yeah, that's the kind of unique specialtything. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Um, if I can quickly add to the sort of transitionof saunas to a wellness thing,
and I'm not going to get into my Okay, this isthis is how we end the podcast. What about it?
This is, this is, this is how we end the Londonepisode. So this, this mention of wellness
attachment to it, right? Yeah, it's like, youknow, it's turned into a wellness thing. Like,
you want to you want to you want to know thesecret to things like, you know, recovery,
and yeah, like well being? Yeah, it turns outrest. Yeah, rest is the answer. It's not it's
not 220,000 degree sauna. It's not negative 47degree pool, hot and cold are useful temperature
changes, adjustments, keeping yourself warm, youknow, cooling down, like these are adjustments we
make the extremes, I think are a little high. Andyou're probably looking at the wrong variable.
When it's just you relaxing and being physicallyforced to relax sometimes by the amount of heat
in that room. It's not relaxing anymore. It justtorture. No. And I entered for instance,
you know, me over here, I entered a sauna once,flopping once here. And I went in and I sat down.
And I said, this sucks. My eyes hurt. Like I'vegot smoke and shit like going on in here. I don't
know what's happening. No, maybe it's a bad sauna.But like, I like I'm just hot all over. I already
feel warm all the time. Why? Yeah, you run warm.Like I so I was like, nevermind. I'm out. Like,
I'm gonna just I'm gonna go to like the the bathsare nice, right? They're like, yeah, it's a it's a
evenly distributed temperature feeling of warmth,and or coldness. And you can kind of
alternating get a feeling for what that is. Andthen you move on. Right? Yeah, like, that's,
旅の締めくくりとおすすめ
that's called relaxing. Anyway, and I say all ofthis, I kind of enjoy this ice bath sauna thing.
It's a relatively recent discovery for me. I enjoyit. But I don't guess it's what I don't do
is to try and outcompete a bro sitting there. Youdon't have a bleep measuring contest with
everybody. I don't compete. I'm there for myself.I don't talk to anybody. Just leave me alone.
And let me do my relaxing activity. You focus onthe relaxing part. Yeah, yeah. So so so that's
that's that. But okay. Len went to London as wellas all the other different parts of northern
England and Scotland. And reverse this gray hairwithout going to sauna. That's the gist.
I yeah, I didn't go to a sauna at any point onthis trip. And I was much better off. I did so
many other things so many cool things, which Idon't know we could put in another episode. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. So it was good. Everybody go and enjoyand if you go to London,
obviously try to go to the one that was closedevery time we've gone which I've forgotten
the name. The Hunterian Museum. The HunterianMuseum. Try to get to Sir Ian McKellen's The
Grapes. But also, if you do have a choice, or youonly can do one thing, I highly recommend
the Shakespeare Globe Theatre because it's afantastic experience. Just go in, get there
reasonably early so you can get in line. You canyou can get up close to the stage like it's it's
very worthwhile. And if you are even feeling a tadbit brave, try to get up there on the stage
during their warm ups if they're still doing that.I think that it would probably be enjoyable. I
actually regretted not jumping onto the stage whenthey were offering. So it was cool. It's
very cool time. All right. All right. Thanks,Lynn. Yeah, you're welcome. All right. Thanks
for listening. Bye. That's it for the show today.Thanks for listening and find us on x at
egode science that is e i g o d e s c i e n c. Seeyou next time.
