The Big 97: Sometimes We Like Japan (w/Brian)

An hour-long celebration of JBRC's 97th episode!
We take a moment to catch up and make sure Ollie is actually surviving, roast some headlines, and have an extremely rare discussion about some things we love about life in Japan.

Ollie recommends a river cruise that thinks you should quit nursing that beer, pussy.

Bobby tells a group of people how they can get what they deserve.

Topics discussed on this episode range from:

• A service that provides MORE than everything you need to do nothing
• Ollie's fringe fiasco, and how he's benefitting from the fact that everyone else but him (maybe) has Covid
• How the Fringe is radically different from the last time it was held
• The vaccination/situation
• A weird biophysical phenomenon during performing
• The power of mind over body
• The construction of a comedy hour and how it differs cultural
• Fidelity to an ostensible theme
• Consistency
• The Russian Man who Swam To Hokkaido
• IOC Chairman's Bach Returns to Japan for the Paralympics
• The Yakuza Boss who was sentenced to death for ordering murder
• Why our show tends to skew-anti-Japan
• Our attempts to describe why we like Japan without getting into Japan cliches
• The difference between enjoying life in JAPAN and just enjoying life AWAY FROM YOUR HOME COUNTRY
• UNCLE OLLIE'S DISCOUNT RUGS
• The feeling that Japanese employees care about your employee experience
• How we've already failed with our terms for the show
• A debate about whether or not Japan is more cycling-friendly than other countries, including a discussion of the difference between cycling tourists and cycling commuters
• The splendor of Michi-no-eki
• The Ten-million dollar toilet
• The extreme rarity of tourist traps in Japan
• Why it's always important to remember that Japan is not defined by its major cities and vice versa
• Why doing the above can undermine your otherwise worthwhile take
• The ubiquity of cheap or free snacks
• The non-ubiquity of drugs
• Strict drug laws and what that means for the drugs that you do come across
• What it means in terms of parenting
• Is the lack of drugs the reason why alcoholism is so bad?
• Comparatively less pressure placed on the middle class to get a useless expensive academic education
• Comparatively higher value placed on a dedication to a trade/craftsmanship/art/athletics
• Better labor laws
• How hard it was to think of content for this show

You can get access to the extras (for OTHER shows) by supporting the podcast for less than $1 an episode by becoming a member at http://buymeacoffee.com.

Have something you'd like to say? Send us a fax at japanbyrivercruise.com - it works now.

or Tweet to us at @jbrcpod

Social Media Links:

Ollie Horn: Twitter | Instagram

Bobby Judo: Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Other things to click on

Some are affiliate links because we're sell-outs

• We record remotely using Squadcast and the podcast is hosted on Transistor.
• Bobby uses the Samson Go Mic and Ollie uses the AT2005USB mic