True Stories from Running a Japanese Business (ft. some british guys) | Ep. 042 Lemonade Stand 🍋

26:10so you probably could yeah if you yeah like I think I think it doesn't change much right like I think your day by day won't change if you're a citizen versus a permanent resident I think yeah I don't think it's as much of an issue as it used to be anyway I think it's just you can lose your permanent residency through I think either like committing crimes or not paying taxes stuff like that can I ask about that I love committing crimes which I do often which I every Tuesday that's the biggest problem of yours is always the crimes that's my

26:36Atrioc:during your cyclophones I've seen you on the sidewalk a couple of times. That's never happened. That's never happened. There's actually dozens of hours of footage that we've been breaking that long. I've never done that. Well, I kind of wanted to ask you about that. The, you know, there's this narrative that there's been kind of a rising... Okay. I was like, what? My God. The color of the agenda. It's not really to you. It's not really to you. It's about this rising, like, anti-foreigner sentiment in Japan. And you guys are more on ground zero of seeing if anything is anything different than five years ago or since connor arrived here it's gone right it's exponential it's been exponential maybe that's why doug's would get so much heat here yeah they're thinking no i obviously it's not you guys but i'm just i'm wondering what uh or i don't think it's even found it maybe it's just a broader thing it's found it i mean you know there has been a noticeable rise in in tourism right you use 10 years ago i mean 2008 I think there was about 8 million tourists.

27:37This year, it's about 35, 40 million. Oh, my God. So if you go to Tokyo or Kyoto, you see the difference compared to then. And Kyoto is really suffering from over-tourism. And bits of Tokyo, but mostly Kyoto, actually. So it's easy to walk around with a camera, show mass tourism and the problems, and sort of go, oh, you know, it's a problem. And also, there's been foreign streamers doing bad things at some point. Two years ago, we had the infamous Johnny Somali dude. Bellend. Absolutely bellend. There's also crazy Japanese streamers as well that do this shit. Of course. I just had to explain. But it was all over the news every day for a month.

28:16He might break into lorries and doing all sorts of bad things. It was a national news story. And I think that really didn't help. And periodically, when a streamer or something, an influencer does something wrong, it's often in the media. this year we had the girl who turned a tory gate into a fucking gym piece yeah it was a ukrainian streamer who went to um fukushima uh the exclusion zone broke into a house and did a stream a couple of people have done this but of course we have to keep in proportion there's 35 40 million Taurus Taurus of course there's going to be a crazy one oh and it was the Australian guy oh no he went up to a when a grave site you leave alcohol for your loved ones passed away and he went up and went oh yeah I fucking drink it mate treated it like an all you can drink bar and it was oh you dick that's just so stupid he's just so crazy yeah I know it was free I mean it's free I know it's this sort of stuff and to film it to film it maybe the rules are good I like rules so you have you know and there's definitely a rise in folks that don't like foreigners here in general right as has been a rise in the right in the US yeah UK and so it's sort of you know so these sort of videos are circulated it's like rocket fuel for this sort of issue so yeah I don't think it's any understatement to say that but as you probably know Dogen made a good video on it called on the rise of anti-foreign sentiment.

29:52Right, right, right. And he talked about that because a lot of people see the rise of this San Sato party as being like, you know, the equivalent of Trump or reform in the UK when actually it's not just about anti-foreign sentiment. It's about the corruption of the incumbent LDP government and whatnot who did some silly things. Yeah, well, a lot of sleep. A lot of silly things. I think people are just unhappy because shit's getting worse for people who, you know, Everyday people who live here and work here. It's just getting more expensive and nothing seems to be being done. So I think people are just frustrated.

30:26So I think they just want something new. I don't think it often comes from racist intentions or anything like that. I think most people here even though you see the sentiment you never really feel it. I haven't felt it. People are very welcoming and very kind. Yeah and you never hear but you don't hear that story on the media as much. Connor and I were in Onamichi recently to do a cycle across the inland sea of japan we met a japanese guy there and we're like you know has there been a lot of foreign tourists here and he was like yeah but it's really good it's helped the economy of the town is like booming because of it which is kind of cool and he was very he'd be very pleased about that you don't hear that story told as much the smaller towns and cities around japan they're benefiting they're benefiting because that's what

31:09Atrioc:i was going to ask is just like at what point is it too much tourism right let's just say from a very callous economic perspective. Like, it sounds like Kyoto is kind of hitting a limit where maybe the thing that makes it interesting and relevant and culturally unique is maybe suffering because of it. But, you know, in theory, it's like, what if the Japanese government could press a button and get 100 million tourists next year? Would they press it? Well, they're trying to get 50 million tourists, I think, by 2030. I think it's an issue of they haven't found a good way of getting people to go all over Japan.

31:40Yeah. They're being funneled into Kyoto, to Tokyo, Osaka right mostly and I feel like there is we go all over and we like there's no tourists in most of the really cool places I mean Hokkaido with you was my favorite trip I've had here 100 % yeah that's still like relatively kind of popular for skiing but like everywhere else we went we drove around people don't want to drive in Japan you kind of have to drive to go anywhere outside of like the really major aspect places so I think like they've been trying to get people to go and to other places yeah it's a hard time i've always tried to show the more rural areas where i used to live you know tohoku is the sort of northern bit of this main island of honshi six prefectures that's really cool and uh i think like one or two percent of foreign overseas tourists go there it's a real shame because for me it's the best bit you know it's so easy to get around there because the port train at least they just need to do a better job at pushing people these places you know that's kind of what you're doing with your content yeah we try and do people But then Paris gets more tourists as a city than Japan in total.

32:41But the argument is often that Paris is different. The infrastructure. Yeah, the infrastructure. It's clearly just an issue of meeting demand and finding ways to make... I think Kyoto will adapt, though, and it'll be okay. I think so. But really, it's been a major success story, and I think that should be the focus of the narrative that all these overseas tourists have been really good for the economy of Japan. Like 12 % of the GDP or something? like so yeah the population japan is going down something like 900 000 people a year which is obviously going to hit the economy significantly and having foreign tourists turn up spend a few thousand dollars and then go home is it's great for the economy also half the tv shows are just foreigner experiencing thing in japan yes yeah yeah yeah half the tv shows what do you mean like like i mean the one of the most popular ones is you are nanny or what's it called you want any or shim yeah what you're doing it's just yeah they basically just wait airport and then like and when a foreigner comes through they just point a camera and like hey what are you doing and then they're like he'll be like uh i'm gonna learn how to make sober and they'll be like can we just follow you and they're like yeah they just follow it because i assume 90 percent of tourists are doing very similar things with yeah but they i'm gonna swim in the hotel pool

33:52Atrioc:we're gonna follow that week-long journey for you i love the hundredth to watch you reading this sign up. I will not take my underwear off. It'll be like, what foreign top 10 anime openings? And I'll just ask foreigners on the street. There's so many foreigner TV shows. And I was like, we don't have this in the UK. Can you imagine a TV in the UK standing at Easter Airport? What are you fucking doing here? Yeah, it just wouldn't work. It's so popular in Japan. It's like a genre of TV. There's so many. Do you know what Wag Kosovo is? That sounds racist. Wag Kosovo. It's like we eat like lots of little bowls of noodles.

34:28It's not a challenge. You have to eat like a hundred. They're like a little bowl like this. You have to sort of shop them. I did a video on it years ago. And before it sort of took off. And it's in this place called Morioka, North Japan, very remote. And on that show, a German guy turned up at Haneda. And they interviewed him like, what are you doing? He's like, I've come to try some Fankosaba noodles. Because I saw it on the European Japan channel. And they followed him all the way up to Japan. It's just this German guy eating, like, buckets of needles. And it's quite entertaining. It's quite fun watching foreign fakes turn up.

35:01Some of them do some really cool things or, like, odd things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really, really fun. Well, that sounds good. I mean, that sounds like a positive feedback. No, it's quite cool. It's like always positive. It's because they want to, like, I think Japanese people find it really fascinating to find how foreigners kind of interact with certain things. And enjoy the culture, yeah. Yeah, yeah. People, they love it when you appreciate Japanese culture. I mean, it reminds me when we went to New Zealand and the guy that we met that showed us around, like he loved his country. And like him seeing us experience it was so fun for him.

35:28Like he really enjoyed art. It was so cool. We saw that when Americans come to England and Wales. This is a beer.

35:38This is drinkable beer. in the vein of like these things being different than the narrative that is being perpetuated uh is there any is there a positive shift in sentiment from people about people immigrating here like uh is there is there more of an openness of like people actually not just being tourists but like settling down moving here becoming a part of the culture of japan or because the story you often here is that people aren't really for that they might be happy with the tourism but i think they only only if you sort your trash properly i think it's anything they care about like i think they're pretty welcoming in general like yeah as long as you're just like integrating it's hard to know i've never seen a study done independently outside of devious posts on twitter about people being angry i don't know why i mean why do you know what people like about tourism is folks come spend the money go home immigration is a different kettle of fish i suppose because i mean this is just anecdotal but like the difference of coming here the for the first time i think closer to 10 years ago versus coming now even like uh primarily in tokyo as well seem like way more presumably foreign workers at places like 7-eleven oh yeah stuff like that versus like now it's way more than the 10 years ago 100 yeah yeah i think we obviously obviously this from a very like Western, like, Anglo perspective where we, you know, you think, like, most of the foreigners are just white Americans here, like, in the group chat.

37:10No, it's, like, less than... Oh, we're in a small proportion. It's, like, I think... Vietnamese, Chinese. I think America is, like, the 10th group of, like, foreigners here. Like, it's, like, yeah... British people aren't even on the list. I think it's, like... It's you two. Yeah, it's us two. I live in the top of 25 countries that, like, emigrate here. He is the unacceptable face of Britain. No, no. No, I'll take Wales. You know, it's mainly Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese, South Korean. So it's like a tiny, tiny group. So like from our perspective, it's like, you know, when we have this conversation, these podcasts in English, it's like we can't talk at all for like how it is to be Vietnamese living here, right?

37:49Or like Chinese. So it's like really hard to like talk on that aspect of it because I think they're also treated differently as well. Oh, we got stats. China, China number one, Vietnam number two, South Korea number three, the Philippines Brazil oh yeah Brazil is a huge history Nepal is above

38:04Atrioc:the UK and America wow it's not even close as well Nepal is a small country like if you go to an Indian restaurant here it's like nearly almost run by Nepalese it is yeah interesting yeah it is interesting but you know it's really everyone's really chill at least who I've interacted with I've never had a bad interview I mean like most things right it's probably very divergent of people's reactions there's some people who are extreme about it and others who are but I think sometimes people just don't talk to people as well a lot of people just don't talk so it's like yeah if you're on Twitter of course it looks bad everything looks bad on Twitter don't post a nice interaction don't use Twitter it's more exciting to post the headline of like people are racist and unaccepting and won't let anybody in but it seems disconnected from the reality of just like what I'm looking at I mean okay you guys will know better than me but I do I get the sense that even if that is true, there is some sort of like economic discontent in Japan that is causing Oh, for sure.

39:06these different like outcroppings that may not be related or like they're Well, yeah, yeah. The cost of living is quite bad. It's got worse. I mean, it doesn't feel good when people just come to you. I imagine like Japanese people are like, oh great, this guy just buys everything and he can afford everything. Or they're full of the restaurant that I go to or whatever. Or like the hotel I used to love going to once a year for my vacation has now tripled the price. Yeah. Yeah, and Japanese friends can't leave Japan because the currency is so weak now that it's basically twice as expensive to go overseas.

39:32Yeah, I think Hawaii has lost a lot of tourism because a lot of Japanese are like, can't go. That makes total sense, though. Because, you know, when I went to Hawaii, there were so many things that were in Japanese. I was like, what the heck? But yeah, apparently Hawaii tourism is down because it's just so ungodly expensive. I'm not sure what is driving the cost of living crisis, though, per se. Yeah, I'm not educated enough to know what's going on. Professor Connor. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it might be the Ukraine war driving up energy prices or something like that. There was a rice shortage.

39:59Japanese productivity has always been low. The rice shortage? I thought that was because of the foreigners. They were eating all the rice. All the foreigners eating all the rice. The most people were like, what was it, like NHK put that out or something, said that. I couldn't believe it. It was ridiculous. They said like, foreigners, there was like a video of like, the NHK guy was like, foreigners enjoy Japanese rice. It's pretty amazing. Shot of an overlay guy. It was done with a shovel. To be fair, he eats so much rice. I've seen this guy. I do eat a lot. He's the problem.

40:28Atrioc:And they thought, like, they thought we were the same guy. You were like, I'm Connor. I'm Connor. I'm like, no! Please! He comes and eat dinner twice in one night at our restaurant. He just keeps going. TV crew watching you? We brought it up briefly, but one thing I wanted to talk to you guys about, having actually, you know, worked with Japanese companies, made your own companies, is you hear a lot about the inefficiency of Japanese businesses, how there's just so much, not only from you guys setting up a business, but like, you know, I've just, I've read anecdotes of like in a company, you have to move the stapler here.

41:04Atrioc:And it doesn't matter if it can be moved over there and it'd be really convenient. Everybody has to go through these processes that you're just told you have to do. You have to stay late and work super late hours, even if you're not doing anything. It's a lot about optics of doing a lot. And then I don't know how much you can share, but we've talked about some of the, for example, uh i don't know sponsor type stuff you've done recently when you work with japanese companies as a content creator a voice actor that there's this huge amount of process that happens so i'm curious like what your guys's experiences with that if you come to japan don't move the stapler

41:38Atrioc:this is a youtube comment but he was describing how when he was an expat who worked at a japanese company and basically the just across the board there were all these ways that people would say hey we could run this office way more efficiently and from as little of a thing as the stapler to like how they send papers how they do reports that they were just like no this is how you do it we do not change way of doing things it usually comes to the person at the top and a lot of the reason why uh technological adoption was always a bit behind is older people running the companies are more sort of conservative and yeah not necessarily open to new ideas which is why we have stereotypes like the fax machine people using fax machine yeah that is the stereotype which we We still kind of do use a bit occasionally.

42:19In the property industry, it's quite common to use facts still. Because it works. It's quite good, isn't it? If it ain't bright, don't fix it. Well, I heard the phrase. I mean, tell me if this is cliche or not or not true. But there was like, you know, in 1980, Japan was in the year 2000. They were ahead. And now in 2020, they're still in the year 2000. Is there some truth to that? Yes and no. Some truth. Some truth. Okay. Like most things, some. I think, yeah, paper, using paper is a lot more commonplace than, you know, In the UK, you could do a lot of stuff online, documents. Whereas in Japan, you have to go to the government office, your town hall, and fill out a lot of documents and write and fill out stuff three times.

42:56So in that regard, yes. But they're trying to get it, the ward office stuff, they're trying to get it more technological. That's not working. Because they try to get rid of the stamps. A lot of people don't like it. They try to get rid of the handcage stamp. Especially older people do not want it. They're in a certain way. Yeah, because they reintroduced this thing called My Number, which is like this thing that essentially is like this card that kind of has all of your government information on one. And so whenever you go to the government building - That sounds convenient. That sounds convenient.

43:28Yeah, and like it is, I like it because I'm lazy. I never got mine and now they won't give me one. And so I'm like - Well, because signing up shows a ball lake. I had to go in person, like put like the secret pin code for it and do all the stuff. And I had like a machine that like looked like a, like a voting machine. It was really weird. Everything was really odd. But then the whole concept was that like for a couple of things, you'd always have to go to the ward office to get like a tax residency proof, like proof that you were paying tax in Japan. And a lot of things would ask for this occasionally.

43:58So you had to, every time you wanted that, you had to go to the ward office, wait, wait for the thing, and then just go to the person, they'll print it off. And then there you go. But it's a whole process. And the idea behind this thing was that you can go to any convenience store printer and it has a my number scanner in it and then you can do it and then print it off which i do it i like it but then other people complain that they don't want the government knowing their shit they don't want everything linked which is fair enough as well like sure and especially old people because they're like i got all the time in the world bro i don't i just don't want you having my shit like on one thing support for this show comes from odoo running a business is hard enough so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other.

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46:17Atrioc:So there's maybe some cultural resistance to modernizing and changing all of this. Maybe. I'd say Japan's built for sort of efficiency, though, and things that work, per se. And the UK might be more technologically advanced in the way we do documents and things online, but then things break and don't work all the time in the UK. In Japan, they want to make sure stuff bloody works, and that is the most important thing, over quick adoption of technology that could go wrong. Yeah, I think they're very, very hesitant to add things or mix things up, unless it's proven that it works, like you said. I know we have the five white guy Japanese expert pod going really well.

46:56But I actually did want to ask you guys a question about the UK. I don't know how often you go back. Oh, God. But we were talking at dinner about how there's this bubble of the UK is doomed YouTube videos. Every different channel has... It's going to collapse in 30 days? Yeah, it's like the UK is about to collapse in 30 days. Yeah. When I went over in September and it was like, there's going to be civil war. You see all that. You know, it's like Elon Musk is always trying to incite something, like the UK is coming to an end. What a bellend. Yeah. And there was like a big thing while I was there, the day before I was in London, where lots of folks had a rally, and Elon Musk gave a talk being like, there's going to be war.

47:37You've got to fight for what you believe in. He doesn't sound like it. No, he sounds like it. More easily than that. It's all a bit sinister, isn't it? But it's all bollocks. When I was there, I was like, oh. pretty normal. That's what it feels. I mean, it feels very exaggerated, right? It feels very, I don't know. Much like what your video described where it's like taking a few things out of context and, but there's a lot of unhappiness, I think, and a lot of things that are wrong with the UK. But I think generally when you're there, it's like, as long as the pub's open, everyone's kind of okay.

48:06There's never really unhappiness in civil war. Yeah, exactly. We're quite far away from that. But there are a lot of influences that have sprung up in all these countries. They go around countries and they sort of try and find problems and they're like, Like, oh my God, there's some rubbish on the floor. Western civilization's over. And it's just like, oh, fuck off. I swear, I swear half of them are bots, though. It gets a lot of clicks. I swear they're bots. You think so? I feel like so many of these counts are bots. That's what the internet feels like lately. It's so insane. I just think all this shit on mine is bots.

48:34If someone doesn't agree with me, bot. I know, but that's the thing. That's why I don't want to call it out, because it's like, well, I don't want to call someone a bot for disagreeing, but man, it just feels like Reddit and social... I just see so many posts, and I'm like, this is... There's so many posts that, like, pop up. boom, like 500 likes instantly. And I'm like, that's just not normal. There is something at play, definitely. And I see that in the US, UK, and Japan online. There is something going on there, I feel. But it's like people talk about Japan. It's like, they've never been here.

49:06They may be coming for like a vacation one time and they've decided how Japan works. It's like, bro, what are you saying? I think there's a general, to go back to your video, the sentiment that you're talking about at the end of that video where there's a lot of animosity on the internet and it feels like we're kind of in this weird spiral of making increasingly intentionally negative content that gets people riled up and more people seem to be engaging with that in the recent year yeah it's so easy to make people angry about things they never knew about until they saw that video but i think the theme across all of these places is like i think there is a shared experience of economic strife pretty much everywhere of my life feels like it's not going in a great direction i'm struggling i and i'm just generally in a bad place so i i'm i'm i'm more likely to like snap and say something negative latch onto something negative yeah and play into whatever negative narrative might be playing about someplace and i feel like a lot of people are being taken advantage of without realizing it by sort of being subtly manipulated to the right for that reason right yeah it's like we've got to find someone to blame that the economy is fucked yeah you're molding your unhappiness in a certain direction who's the easiest target you know in all those countries who can we call out as being the main reason we're laughing we're laughing about how you know one of the things that has come up recently is blaming some problems in Japanese politics on foreigners and the idea of issues in Japan being substantially blamed on foreigners when you have effectively so few foreign born people living in the country.

50:49Exactly. It can happen. And I was like this is, it's truly a timeless strat. It shows that no matter how few immigrants you have you still can blame them.

50:59Atrioc:The map can change. But it always works. This one strat has consistently worked. Because in my head, right? In the US, it's like, okay, well, I guess like, but surely, surely, like you couldn't use this. Like if we had 20 % less immigrants, you couldn't still be saying that. And Japan's like, let me show you. Absolutely. But no, when I dig into this rage bait across the board, across all these channels, it does feel like there's some sort of subtle way of trying to nudge people over to the right politically. and find something to be angry at that they didn't know existed. It's a good word for it because it's not just in serious political subjects.

51:37It's in gaming. It's in every aspect of... And it doesn't have to be political ends. It's just you can make money by pissing people off. I think that's the truth of it. Yeah, the fact that Twitter gives you ad revenue is the single greatest mistake of all of this. Yeah. It should never have been incentivized that you get money to have opinions. To have the most controversial, most... If you have the most interactable opinion, you get paid the most. It's insane. It is kind of like being able to post. Like you can now experience like pull from fortune, but with monetization for your post. It's crazy.

52:09It's fucked up. Like I can make a rack on my post about how like the Jews are ruining America. And that's like, and that's fine on the platform now.

52:20Atrioc:Well, all right. Why do you guys feel that's, let's see. We're all YouTubers of sorts. Why do you guys feel YouTube is different? It's not, right? I mean, that's the point. I think. in terms of that doesn't exist. Well, I just mean like you're mentioning, you know, that on Twitter, it's like this was this terrible decision. But the same thing is actually bots though. I think it's a lot harder to make someone - You can't make a bot YouTube video as easily. Yeah, I feel like you have to put so much of your personality on there and that's why you have to be so willing to like be that person that I think is tough.

52:47And also you just demand more time and attention, which is tough. With YouTube, you mean? For YouTube, for YouTube. Yeah, I can see that. You get more money. I don't know. I feel like the same - That's why like we do have a lot of people - It happens. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it happens, but I would say less, a lesser extent because you can't just be a faceless person from a bot that's like, I think there was an anonymity. On Twitter, I feel like you can't reasonably make money making, reasonable content. Reasonable content, but you can on either. I don't know why it's different because it's both monetized.

53:16If you have to click read more on Twitter, bro, get the fuck out of it. It's over. It's like, you can. Yeah, like you guys, I mean, you guys are making great, compelling, like reasonable, nice content and you can make a lot of money with that. I think it's because you need trust in a platform to be able to do that, though. The reason that I clicked on your video is because I have an understanding of you and your content and the consistency of it, right? So even though your take is combating a very angry narrative at its core, right? And you're basically taking a pretty mellowed-out approach to like, this shit's just not that crazy.

53:55and that's kind of the the core message right but if i'm a person who doesn't have trust and a following behind that i'm less likely to engage with it absolutely well that's what scares me the most as well though as a you know i've got one a few million people that follow me about japan and over the last decade i've built up a sense of trust and community of people that sort of learn about japan through my content and that gives me a massive amount of responsibility and power almost and how i shape opinions about japan yeah i it's quite a level of responsibility almost to a not so fun degree, people analyze what I say and think.

54:28Imagine if I went out around Shinjuku and I went, oh, Japan's fucked, guys. It's so bad. And I curated a series of images. It pindurated. Yeah, I could manipulate millions and create this image of Japan that doesn't fundamentally exist because of that position, right? And sure, some people would be like - But you could get a one out of 10 YouTube videos. Sure, some people would be like, Chris, you know, Kabukicho or Shinjuku is not illustrative of Japan. most people might not have been to Japan they won't know that they trust me I'm a reliable source you know and so how I present Japan is extremely I have a burden of responsibility in how I project and present the country you know and when I called out the video that I did I felt that was fundamentally not reality what I was seeing especially as the content in question was literally on a radar walk down several times a week but I think yeah i think it is a burden responsibility on all creators to call out things they see that they believe to be fundamentally wrong otherwise the bad guys win because nobody's combating it right yeah the whole fucking platform's being flooded with sewage i think we have to combat that we have to come up against it otherwise it's tough it's i think of that sometimes because you don't want to get involved in drama and you don't want to get involved with drama and then also it's like on some base level it's it's what they want because it adds attention you know it gives them I had that conundrum when I made my video.

55:50A lot of friends were like, don't do it. And I was like really at war with myself. But then I was like, it's important. I have to do it. In this subject, I have to do it. But yeah, I don't like drama. It's horrible having to waddle through all that. Of course, you get views and stuff. It becomes like a pissing contest sometimes as well, which is also a frustrating aspect of it. And when I made my video on that subject, and this is a video called What's Happening to Japan, right? And I showed my friends the script, and many of them were like, don't do this or whatever. But then when I made the video and I showed them, they're like, actually, this is quite good.

56:23You've made your point. But, yeah, I think it's important to combat things like that we see online. Fundamentally wrong. Yeah, you never want to look petty. No. Yeah. You did a good job. I thought it was a broader message. It was broadly applicable. I had to extract all the humor from it, essentially, going quite seriously. But, yeah, there's a lot of shit online, isn't there? There's a lot of shit. Can I ask you guys about a specific genre that I've been seeing proliferate on YouTube about Japan? Exciting. So this is, I don't know if this is just my algo or if this is actually new, but I've seen a wave of shorts and long form videos that are from the usually first person POV of like salaryman working in Tokyo or like young woman working in Tokyo.

57:06And it's them going through their day over and over, usually with like full English subtitles and... Mostly with a tone of like, this is how harsh and draining life is in Japan. Yeah, I've seen some of that. And I've seen a ton of these channels. You know, I saw one of them and I thought it was something fishy about it. Yeah. I saw one where his commute, because I recognized where he's going. I was like, this is the weirdest commute. It was like a commute from literally the center to the outside of Tokyo. And I was like, why would you pay rent to leave the center to commute out where it's presumably cheaper?

57:44It was like an hour and a half commute. What was the joke? He wanted to go to the bar. He was like, it wouldn't show you. It was like, do you know the one I'm talking about? I have an idea of what you're saying because I had this exact creeping feeling of this, something feels off about this content. It's something to do with like the presentation and the choice of English words. All of these channels are faceless. Yeah. There's something that feels sinister about this. like they're not presenting an actual honest view of, I don't, part of me does not believe this is an actual. It was like an AI thumbnail, had like 10 million views.

58:20And then like, it was just a studio Ghibli, AI.

58:24Atrioc:Well, studio Ghibli, but it's not just one. There's a lot now. That's crazy. There are people out there who've worked out how you can print money on YouTube by gaming algorithms and getting people to click on certain topics. I don't, I don't think like, like I'm not saying that this person isn't working this job or whatever, but all I was, all I was thinking, I was watching, I was like, this is a bit, odd like everything about they were doing they would have didn't say okay it was just like that they were kind of going over the commute and then they went to um did you ever see their face no no you don't see their face but then they go to shinigawa station which is quite a famous looking station for looking that's the one with the giant big crowds of people it's got a giant hall i think it's shinigawa station yeah they've got this very iconic looking thing and it's a massive uh commuter area because it's one of the biggest stations got a bullet train attached to it and so yeah it does look kind of crazy when you see the station uh because this is the like a very famous like spot where i mean that's like it's it's definitely full i haven't seen these videos but i don't understand how this is sinister it sounds like a guy commuting to work in it yeah sinister is the wrong maybe maybe insidious i don't like i don't even understand i mean tricked it feels like i'm not being presented a real person's commute of japan it feels like they understand the algorithmic appeal of this content and have edited together a bunch of clips of somebody walking through japan and are creating a fake sob story about how shit their job is yes and then putting that on youtube and there are some of these channels like there's one or two where the guy making the videos actually shows himself and like he also happens to be the person in this group of channels i've watched that has like the most reasonable day and all the people that say they're working 15 hour days, seven days a week, and have the shittiest commute, all never show themselves.

1:00:09So it's probably a real person had a nine hour day or whatever, and then someone started copying it and making a fake 10, 11, 12, 14 days. Yeah, and I've just been seeing a lot of these channels, and they all have weird names and like branding for their channels. And I just, so I wanted to know if you guys were on the beat of like how real or not this was. I've seen a few, yeah. I've seen a few. I just don't know what real people is. And they're making content. They probably made one video. it took off and they keep going. But yeah, I think I don't, there probably is channels out there like that that have sussed you can make good views through doing that.

1:00:40I could do it if I had to. I'd go out and make a channel like that, not show my face, so I could curate the sort of day designed to evoke emotions and get people clicking and tell a story.

1:00:50Atrioc:It's weird that people want to hear that foreigners are bad and Japan's being ruined, but also that being a Japanese person is bad and shitty. How do we know they're Japanese? I could present such a video without showing my face. Yeah, you're right. Rent out an apartment in Tokyo for, you know, four or five thousand. Yeah, here's my time. The thing that's strange to me about this genre, because I've only seen a couple of them, but it never shows or talks about the details of the job. It's here is I wake up and here's my commute. It's so long. Here's, okay, skip ahead. We're at lunch. Look at how shitty my lunch is.

1:01:22Atrioc:Skip ahead. I'm at home. Oh, this is the longest day ever. And so there's no substance about what their life is. It's essentially my commute blows. It's so strange. And my hours blow. You can do that in Los Angeles. Everybody's so sad to be in LA. I'm so sad to be in LA. Me saying it's my commute and I walk through Skid Row every day. You get on a bus. Imagine me in traffic watching these videos to feel better at myself. I'm in a two-hour commute. What do you even call that kind of content? Reality bait? It's commute bait. It's about the commute. But working in Japan is bad. Sure, yeah. So it's weird to kind of...

1:01:57Yeah, it's all just an odd. It's odd. You can make money from doing it. Yeah, true. You can make money. It's really easy. And that's all there. Once you monetize a platform, you can do anything to get away with it, you know. Yeah. I did want to ask you, because I know you have experience working in a more traditional company, Japanese company structure. McDonald's. He's the best. I used to work for McDonald's. Did you really? Yeah, when I was like 16. The burgers never tasted so good. You get the new chart. I saw gambling on stream. I used to work at Dairy Queen. Oh, yeah. We've been in the trenches.

1:02:31But in working with the, I think it was the first agency you worked at? Yeah, so I'm very lucky. I just kind of came over with an agency as it was formed. Maylene, who is an American who's been living a long time in Japan, working in a Japanese company, she kind of pitched an idea to start a talent agency to Kadokawa, a really big subsidiary. And they were like, okay. and we had done some sponsorships for another branch of the company that did digital manga for foreigners. So that's how we kind of got in. So me, Garnt, and Joey came over. Wait, so sorry. This was starting, so you were in the UK.

1:03:07In the UK. Me and Garnt were in the UK and Joey was in Japan at the time because Joey's Japanese. Did this show start in the UK? No, no, no. So we all moved over.

1:03:16Atrioc:In the UK, is it voice acting work that you start doing with them or is it more content creation? YouTube, YouTube. I was promoting the digital manga on my YouTube platform. And then that was how they were like, oh, you should come on over. So Maylene brought us over. At the time, it was just all new. Because I think also, it's still like all the visa laws and everything. I haven't really considered YouTubing as a job yet because it's so old. So it was all like, what do we do? What visa do you come over on? And all that stuff. So we kind of just went through that process. And I mean, the Geeks Plus as a company, Maylene started it.

1:03:48And so it was just Maylene, us three, and one of the HR staff person. That was it. So it was like 2019, 2020? 2019, yeah. So Malian really built it all up. Just before COVID. And now it's like a bigger company. I don't know how many employees Geeks has now, but quite a lot. I mean, from stories that you've shared, the thing that you have some experience with the quirks of doing business within a traditional Japanese company because of this, like little traditions that people wouldn't expect. Not necessarily bad things, just like funny things. Yeah. interacting through that company, whether it be a company party or company culture.

1:04:26Yeah, company parties were fun. I like those. Those are hype. But then they stopped doing them after COVID. Wait, really? Kind of. I feel like in Japan in general, they've kind of stopped nomikais now. Yeah, I think the drinking after work culture sort of tapered off a bit. After COVID, that changed? Yeah. And then people don't like drinking as much in general. Young people don't drink as much in Japan. Well, that's America too. Well, that was like when they had that big news story when they were trying to do ads to get young people to drink alcohol. because the alcohol sales were down and then they did like a government push let's enjoy alcohol and like trying to encourage people yeah the government encourage people you guys should drink for it it's fun stimulate business I just saw the CEO of Heineken that same problem he came out and said he was like trying to pitch Gen Z on drinking he's like it'll make you more social you'll have more friends like he was like you know we had a great night drinking bro I was like you're not wrong yeah I saw that I saw those articles and stuff about people who drink more get more opportunities or something.

1:05:20I don't know how true it was. They're really pushing it. That's so funny. I think I've been trying to really, like, push that lately. I think it'll bounce back the way that, like, smoking was almost dead in the game. I think Gen Alpha's going to be drunk, bro. They're going to drink like Curtis Gen. They're going to drink some more sort of new, like,

1:05:35Atrioc:distilled, easy-to-drink format like a vape, right? Apple juice with... Right, yeah, I think. Yeah, I mean, but, like, overall, like, I had to do a lot of, like, forms, and I had to clock in and clock out and stuff like that as a YouTuber. Really? Yeah, initially. You had a clock in with a form for YouTubing. I had to clock in. For visa requirements, I'd clock in. You make your commute video, it's like you're waking up at 4 p.m. We had a better system for doing it, luckily. But now we don't have to do it as much. It depends. It's all been shifted now. So we found a better way. But it was all new, right?

1:06:05So everything was just so... That's interesting. And so it was all... At that time, YouTubing and coming over from Japan to do YouTubing was very new. And Chris was like a rare occurrence. Someone had been doing it before. He's watching. Yeah, my expression. You've been doing it through a more traditional avenue and doing it differently. But it's, yeah. I mean, but that, yeah. And then the company parties are cool. Do you ever do Kagami Biraki? What's Kagami Biraki? It's like the turning of the mirror. And it's like at the start of the new year, you get like a barrel of like sake and you smash it.

1:06:36We didn't do that. We didn't do that. But I'm sure maybe the higher. Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's like, you know, you start the new year by breaking this barrel of like sake. And I did it with the school principal. You'll see these like little rope looking barrel things. They fall for a second. Do you break at the beginning? You drink about the end? One, two, three, bang. And I did it with me, a new teacher that I worked with and the school principal. And I did it so hard, it like exploded all over the principal. It was like a Mario fucking level. Bang, like fucking the barrel of fucking sake.

1:07:03It was like my second week into being in Japan, Maylene was like, oh, you got to come to this company event. I was like, oh, okay, cool. So I went there and it was a giant concert hall that the whole company had rented out. And there was tables. and then I got put with like five Japanese people from a different company that I didn't know I didn't speak any Japanese and it was like for the next two hours you guys have to build like a car and a ramp and if I can build the longest wins did your engineering degree pay off? yeah and then they were like sitting there and they were all like making this thing and I was like oh by the way like an hour and I was like oh engineering degree and they were like what?

1:07:37why didn't you say something? you've been silent for an hour I'm just like you were mute then I tried to do something it didn't even work so I was like they were like fuck this guy British engineer they were like Boeing desk Boeing Boeing they were like this guy fucking blows but then they would be like afterwards they would like rent out a giant ferry and you'd just drink on the ferry it was like crazy it was really fun there that sounds fun yeah and then you would have these little you got a ferry and I got a barrel I hit a barrel yeah but it was like a giant conglomerate that was a part of it was really cool though It was really fun.

1:08:12And it was like, to me, when I was like, what was I, 23? I was like, this is so sick. And I got to speak to Japanese people all the time, and it was really cool because I was trying to practice. And it was really fun. It was exciting. I didn't see a lot of the downsides, luckily, because I didn't have to work crazy hours either. I just did that voluntarily because I was a YouTuber. I was like, I'll just really, I'll just do it. The work parties in Japan are really trippy because people get drunk and they speak their minds. They open up, yeah. In Japan, you know, what is it? Tata-hone, tata-hone, tata-hone.

1:08:39And you have like a public stance and a private stance. And at work, people always have this guard up and they never speak their mind. And then at the party, they'll drink one beer. They'll be like, I fucking hate Takeshi-san. And literally, you know, it was really, teachers would come up to me and tell me like insane things. It was so fun. But then I would mostly interact with these guys through parties and you probably did too. I mean, not teachers, but mine parties. And then I'd see them in the office and they were like so cold. They pretended like you were. Yeah. I think you told me like some party or get together, you'll have a situation where maybe somebody gets too drunk and they'll kind of do something that is kind of over the line or embarrass themselves.

1:09:19And then everybody shows up to work the next day and just collectively agrees to not talk about it. And then everybody just moves on. I was at one work party and like three guys just went completely naked and ran around going, and then eight hours later we're in the office and they're like on the laptop. Can I have his father please? Well, yeah, it's like the agreement. In the UK, you'd be like, ah, it's fun when it lasts like that. Yeah, it's so funny. In Japan, they're like, nothing. Yeah, what happens in the party you're not allowed to talk about during a while. It's quite an interesting dynamic.

1:09:47It was quite trippy. It's going to be pluses and minuses, right? If you were like 12 hours a day, you want to at least be able to get drunk and not be worried about what you do. No, I don't know. But it is funny that you could make friends with someone only in that moment and it's like a different person. It genuinely tripped me out the first year or so. It was hard to wrap my head around. Because then at work, you're like, can we talk about this? Yeah, you opened up to me last night. We were naked running around like a, you know, and we couldn't. It was really weird. That's interesting. Yeah, it is funny how it works.

1:10:17But you get used to it, like everything in Japan. You just get used to it. It becomes the norm. Well, I think maybe a theme of this episode right now is maybe more so criticisms than praise. But it's nice to hear good things. No, Japan's awesome, man. I mean, that's why we live here. Why would you stay here if you didn't love it? But after living here for so long and having companies here and hiring people, doing all these different things, what are, I don't know, some other standout or favorite things about being here? Like, what are the best things in your guys' mind? I mean, quality of life here is just so high.

1:10:51Yeah, and I mean, just being on a walk around at night and not to ever look over your shoulder. I think, yeah, safety, I think that's something you take for granted. I was talking to a Japanese friend the other day that went to the UK and got like robbed eight seconds after arriving at Heathrow Airport and it's like, for God's sake. You can't have your phone out like in the street of us. a good friend of mine is going to the UK soon and I had to sort of be like, be careful at like Westminster Bridge and don't leave your bags down. Yeah, I mean, Pete was telling us his wife got robbed by her bag.

1:11:19Yeah, I'm very fortunate. 4 ,000 pounds or whatever, that's crazy. So you've got to keep, yeah, that's something I, you can walk through the deepest, darkest stretches of Shinjuku and Kabukicho and it's like, oh, it's safe, it's fine. As long as you don't follow the street towels into a random bar. No, just don't follow the towels. But other than that, it's fine. Yeah, like everyone's really nice and, you know, sometimes people complain that people are like fake nice and just putting on, you know. But like a lot of the times people are just generally really nice and welcoming. I've seldom had bad experiences here or conversations with people.

1:11:51It's always really friendly. People are so excited that, you know, you speak Japanese always. There's just a sense of harmony across the country. I've never seen people shouting or fighting publicly or anything like that. you know there's just a nice sense of harmony around the country and I it's there was there was definitely utopian qualities to Japan that the world would yeah I think people think Japan right is a big like meme and I think people are also pushing back against that online a lot now and they're trying to find bad things about Japan so they feel like yeah like there certainly are bad things it's a I mean I should just be able to get in the fucking pool man I should be so bitter I should be so bitter about it but it's also like a fucking amazing country like it's really cool like it makes sense It's such an amazing place.

1:12:30Like, I think I feel very lucky that I'm allowed to, you know, live here and contribute, hopefully. For your content, you know, you do a really good job of showing interesting, cool things all over the country. Have you thought about what that looks like 10 years from now? Is it eventually going maybe like you could spend another 10, 15 years in a different country and do the same thing all over again with a bunch of new possibilities? Or do you think it's Japan for the rest of your life? I don't know. I'm still not bored of traveling Japan, making videos. I've been to every single prefecture in Japan, the equivalent of going to every state, I suppose.

1:13:08Although, I suppose every state in America is like the size of Japan, so maybe not. But, you know, I'm still not bored. There's one more than everyone. There's still so many fascinating stories to be told and people to meet. I don't know. I don't know if I would do another country. I think because I've been here 12 years, I sort of have a... it is my specialty, right? If I went to Brazil, I wouldn't, I'd need years to accrue that cultural knowledge before I could make a video and feel comfortable about that. So I don't know. I think I'd probably maybe next year get more of a balance between Japan content and doing more commentary stuff or more humor stuff or commentary stuff.

1:13:47We did some UK videos as well. And we've been to UK. I'm sure Connor will do some more stuff in the UK. We talked about doing some stuff in Europe maybe. Maybe it'd be an exciting video you can make when like Wales finally builds a road. I'll be there for the opening, bro. I'll cut the river. The first road? I'll cut the river. I rode the first road in Wales.

1:14:05Atrioc:So, Chris, I think for you, it's very interesting that you did the bar route, and then you also have another business, right, that's been nine months in or something like that. I had a V thing. I mean, I had, two years ago, I had a book come out, which I spent a lot of time bloody writing, and that did really well and became, like, the best-selling book in England for, like, a few weeks. Oh, nice. Which blew my mind. What was the book? I was just called it Born in Japan. It was an original title. That's what you saw. I don't remember that name. That's like my book. We just used the title of the channel.

1:14:31You guys are both authors.

1:14:33Atrioc:That's true, yeah. Okay, so as somebody who, you know, has been doing YouTube for, what, seven years full-time now, I think it's interesting to see more and more, let's say, content creators expanding into other businesses that are often, like, more physical or more traditional thing. Our best friend is, you know, we know a guy who makes chocolate now, but then, you know, for example, you making the bar, I think, is a really interesting way to, like, leverage this online space, but a lot of people just want to play video games forever and so I'm curious like how you see your future I mean there's lots of you can be quite cynical and be like oh you started the bar for money I just don't think we've even made a profit from it yeah I don't even realize how unprofitable it is to go try to make to run a bar it's like I'm so much harder genuinely like with the bar I could all the you know the year of preparation and planning and everything if I just made videos I would have made a lot more money this podcast I would make so much more money didn't do this and I think that's the thing annoys whenever I do something new people like cynical he's doing it for the money you know or to write a book took a year to write the book I love writing it at no point did I think this is about money yes I had to do it from a place of experience and passion and took a year and it's not easy writing a book and with the speak for yourself my book was quite easy he's a natural he wrote himself he's a fucking ghost writer you'd a ghost writer you should've used a ghost writer innit wait what You'd a ghostwriter for yours, right?

1:15:58Oh, yeah. But there was a lot of influences that used ghostwriters. And I was like, why would you do that? Oh, it's for money. If you can't sit down and write your own book, maybe don't bother. Go and do something else.

1:16:08Atrioc:I mean, that's what I think is so interesting is like, you know, as much as it might sound silly to somebody who doesn't do this job, it's actually, it's pretty hard. And there's a lot of skills we have to develop and build to do this job. And I think that's the challenge, isn't it? There's a personal growth and the experience of getting to do all these things. Yeah, yeah. I look back and I go, oh, the bar probably shaved two years off my life due to the stress of it all. But it's been really cool meeting viewers and the experience of starting a new business and seeing how, what it takes to run a bar on the operation side of things.

1:16:34On a purely educational level, it's been quite fascinating.

1:16:37Atrioc:Do you think you would do more stuff, whether it's more physical places or, you know, I don't know, like a bigger documentary or film or something? Do you see yourself definitely expanding beyond the... I think that's actually a problem there. I think too many influencers expand and do too much shit and dilute their brand. Yeah. I agree with that. when I had a meeting with Mr. Beast's manager years ago and they were trying to bring me on their company. It was like night meeting, I think it was called. And he was like, they're trying to get me to do, they're like, what do you want to do, bro? And I'm like, documentary or film.

1:17:10He's like, yeah, you want to be like Mr. Beast. I was like, what really? No. He's like, we can help you with that. He was like. I want to make a film. Oh, like Mr. Beast. Famous for films. He was so a bit like. I want to see the abroad in Japan theme park in Riyadh.

1:17:25Atrioc:It's going to be fucking amazing. Okay, I will say, though, abroad and Riyadh. That's a good sound. Abroad and Riyadh, you come to the bar, no alcohol, you get to shoot a journalist. It's a recreation of the bar. Oh, God. Little prefectures in Japan recreated, you get to walk through them. But yeah, I mean, that meeting, it was very cynical for me. It was like, at no point it was like, you know, the passion side of things. Telling a story was more like, how can we make money? And I get that that's, you know, important. and money's important to some organizations but yeah i do it because it's like an experience and it's fun and it's exciting you know or it's a problem that's being challenged like the e-sim company we set up a e-sim company took like a fucking year to sort all that out it was really long and stressful and that came from like numerous friends just didn't know what e-sim to use or e-sim when they came to japan i had a friend who i hung out with and his phone was broken and rubbish and then my family came and they're like what should i use and i thought well this is clearly a problem when you've got these companies and nobody knows which one's good, let's try and make one that's good.

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1:19:43We're all feeling it. Getting pulled in a million directions. In a world full of distractions, focus is increasingly hard to find. And when you're needing to reset and refocus, you'll want something revitalizing. Pure Leaf Mental Focus is a new line of sparkling, real-brewed iced teas made with naturally occurring caffeine, from black tea and added L-theanine to help support attention and focus, without the sugar or calories. And it's available in two delicious flavors, peach and raspberry. time for a tea break time for a pure leaf try it yourself check out the product locator at pureleaf.com slash find dash us when you're running that i was curious with that business or the bar are you guys hiring uh japanese employees oh yeah yeah yeah we only have one rule they must be perfect just as an example right like my experience is coming here mostly working with you guys and then uh you know i only hives people from wales only hives wales people and kai's over there kai's kai's from australia am i doxing you kai i'm sorry and his address is and his greatest fears are but uh and and this you know maybe that makes sense for this sort of like content environment but i was curious what your guys's experience is like hiring people locally and yeah i like to get balance um i think for the e-sim company there's like three japanese people and two american guys and yeah so it's a bit of a balance but the bar i think it's about half and half as well um but yeah no it's really cool hiring japanese people locals did a documentary last year and that was all a japanese crew so basically so yeah no absolutely i don't there's no like i don't kind of look at yeah i think not intentionally dividing it or excluding it i was just curious that you had experience with at all.

1:21:39But you hire people that you think are going to be good. It's the number one rule, I'd say. It's people that are good at their field.

1:21:47Atrioc:It's also so interesting what you mentioned about the Mr. Beast company, who also reached out to me, but I think they blast out to a lot of creators. But I think they're one of many folks for whom they talk to people like us who have this degree of success and could leverage that for something more. And they go into the conversation with the assumption of like, you should make this as big as possible. Even setting aside money, you know, it's setting aside the money. It just should be bigger. Like, why aren't you, you could do this big a business. So that's why I'm actually, it's interesting to hear that your headspace is actually, you just want to tell stories.

1:22:18Atrioc:And the bar is an interesting way of doing that rather than that being part of like an expanding empire. It certainly does not sound like your interest. And for me, I have a similar thing where I'm like, if, you know, I want to expand into other areas, but I'd want it to be tightly coupled with what I think is my core interest and competency. If somebody was like, you could open a wildly successful burger chain in Japan. I was like, no, I don't care. It's not important to me. I don't want it just for the sake of it. You have to get some personal enjoyment out of it, right? You have to really enjoy the process.

1:22:48And with videos, I think a lot of YouTubers get big, take the step away from the videos and they can suffer for it. Whereas I realized that maybe I outsource too much editing and too much of the filming process of my YouTube channels to other people. and I realized, oh wait, I actually really, this is the thing I love the most, making the videos. Right, right, right, right. So I sort of stepped back into filming myself and editing myself a bit more often, which is obviously going to compromise how much revenue I can make because the first rule of YouTube is - Yeah, you only have so much time. Yeah, you guys don't sit around editing this video, right?

1:23:20You've got other things to make. I added them all personally, actually. It's going to come out in six years. Are you, like, how does it look for you you right now do you have other projects in the future other companies ideas that you have sitting around in your head that you want to turn into businesses or just new types of projects that you haven't pursued before i think video games are just ruining my life can i can i i want to i've had this thought about yours and because you're not going to expand on that or i'm going to ask about that this is about what he's saying

1:23:59it's about what you're saying it's about what you're saying and i want to jump in is okay so you and squeaks are like the two creators that i watch okay and i was thinking about um you know because i i used to do more variety gaming stuff and now i'm doing more new stuff yeah and i when i did that i was like i think this is important i should talk about this stuff but i've been more thinking lately that i feel like you guys by just doing really positive consistent good gaming stuff and making this space that's safe you're doing more good for the world than anything else like i truly actually right interesting i actually think this so i want to know what you're like are you just doing because you love games or do you feel like you're creating something there i don't know i don't feel like i'm creating anything okay i feel like i'm just i like games i like games that's a humble way to look at it but i i don't know like especially i mean like it's it's cool you know i got a lot of i'm sure or you've all got people that you employ as well or have people on your team that help.

1:24:55And it's cool to just be able to like, be like, yeah, man, I got this cool guy who just helps make the videos and he gets paid really well and he gets to do whatever he wants. I don't tell him what to do. He just does it. That part's unusual to see it where. Yeah, yeah. If your books are terrible, your business is falling apart. You never checked. What did I say? I don't know. I know everyone's very different, but like if I have to like micromanage, I can't do it. Like I'm fucking degenerately gaming for 12 hours a day. It's like ridiculous. I can't sit there and like - But you're playing to your strength, which is that you're a natural sort of performer and you enjoy the performance aspect of it, right?

1:25:31It's degenerate gaming, but it's positive. It's not like, I'm not going to name any names, but there's like degenerate gaming that is a more negative tilt to it. And I think that you're not - Games are so good. If you can believe it. But games are so good. How can you be negative? You know, I don't know. It reminds me of your video. It's like - It's also, I think, I don't know about, I know Squeaks plays a variety of games, but I try not to play like games that are only current as well. I try to play like a little, a little, a little, you do play some weird ones. Honestly, I played Bioshock recently.

1:25:58Like I just play a game that I'm like, I really always, always wanted to play this game. And I'm like, all right, let's film it. Let's do it. Let's just stream it. And then I, hopefully it's good. And I try to find, because I realized, you know, man, I'm sure maybe you've had this point in your life where you start to consume a lot of things and you realize that often either you were just consuming it to consume, like just to have an opinion on it or just to like watch it. because you've heard like someone said it's good or that you watched it and you weren't like trying to find enjoyment from it, but you were just watching it.

1:26:26You know what I mean? Have you ever done this? Just to fill time? Just to like your brain is used to it? Yeah. So like when I would play a game, it's like I know that there are a lot of people who enjoy this game. I know people had an aspect of this childhood that's tied to it. And it's like, I'm going to go into this and try my best to like enjoy it. Like try to find everything that's good about it. Even if I like hate certain things and I will fucking complain when I don't like something. And people always get mad at me for doing that. I'm gonna get tilted. They're like, no, it's great. It's great that the menu has 15 layers and then you've got a fucking gun.

1:26:53I'm like, no, you fuck, this is dumb. So I got, you know, but I just found myself trying to like really be more conscious about appreciating media that I consumed. Maybe that comes off in the videos. I don't know. I try to. I think it does. Yeah. But big projects? It's just refreshing. I think I appreciate that. It's cool. But I wish I had big projects. I mean, Chris is doing some cool stuff and I like what Chris is doing. It's great because I get free e-sins. What the bloody hell am I doing? I get free drinks of bars.

1:27:20All I have to do is be like, it's the best. And it is. It's free. No, no, no. You're just going to focus on the aspects that you enjoy the most. As a natural performer, I enjoy the filming side, holding the camera, actually, and the cinematography. It's my favorite bit. But I've been doing a lot of hosting for panels and company, like videos. It's like a Bandai Direct. Hosted that. That was really fun. did like I hosted something for the British Embassy recently that was really fun just hosting is so fun I mean I know you're telling the truth because you think he made up the hosting thing? no I mean he does it for no money he does it for the love of it a lot of the stuff I don't get paid very well for let me lie let me just preface as a YouTuber you have a lot of avenues where you can make a lot more money from doing certain things and it's like voice acting I do a lot of voice acting still Voice acting in comparison to YouTube, at least the level that we're doing it on, it's very different pay.

1:28:19And even most voice actors that do it, most of the voice actors do it because then they go to conventions and make the money. Right. Because the voice acting you get maybe$250 an hour, which sounds great. It's awesome. $250 is amazing.

1:28:29Atrioc:Sure. But then you're only in the booth for three hours maybe for that whole main character. And if you're a side character, you're in there for one hour or two-hour minimum. Sometimes it's standard. And$500 if you're in LA is nothing. You can't do anything with it. So you often have to do conventions. and some of them will do 25 conventions a year, which means they're flying to like, you know, Minnesota every weekend or every other weekend. It's crazy to make their money. But I love doing voice acting. It's so fun. No, I didn't even know you when we asked you to do voice acting for the Get to Work game.

1:28:57And again, the budget was really small and you just did it. I'll do it for like five pence. I think that was crazy. Can you do my videos for five pence? Yes, I will do it. You can do my next book. You looked away on that one. All of your content were dubbed over in Connor's voice. When I wrote the book, I had to do a bloody audible, you know, book. And I was like, I can't do this. He would have been great. Well, it's like when I did recently, I directed Garnt's English dub for his anime. And I just assumed I was doing it for free. And Garnt was like, I'm going to pay you, by the way. I was like, oh, okay.

1:29:32Nice. That's cool. Okay, cool. You can get Doug now. He's basically, he's you. You can just... Hopefully when Doug can get one of these AI things going for me, so I can... I'm joking. No, I won't replace you. Yeah, I got you. You just want to be replaced. You see, Michael Caine sold his voice to 11 Labs. Really? Yeah. Well, I mean, he's old. Yeah. He's probably... They probably just gave him so much money, he couldn't say no. But yeah, I mean...

1:29:56Atrioc:If you want a day off, I can... I can clone your voice on 11 Labs. This is how it starts. I will sit there mouthing like this on your stream, and it's your AI voice. We can easily replace you. Just let me know. It sounds like a funny stream. That would be a funny stream. I did a TTS though. I recorded loads of lines for TTS. For like Iron Mouse, there's a booby character that I definitely don't do the voice of. And I had to record like the script for a TTS voice for it. So like if you go on channel, you can hear me doing this like funny voice. That's funny. But it's definitely not me. It's like, so I had to read this eight script that was gibberish because they just want you to make all the sounds in English.

1:30:37Oh, I see. Wow. So I'm doing these sounds for it. Does it sound good? This one sounds freakishly good. Apparently when I speak in foreign languages, I sound really good. Because apparently they all love it when the TTS speaks Spanish. And apparently I sound like really good in Spanish. But it's also mogging the shit out of me because I'm listening to that. I'm like, I sound so fucking good in Spanish. It's a natural language. I can't speak fucking Spanish. I sound so hot in Spanish. That's funny. This is like the schlatt AI clips of him speaking Chinese, but it's Schlatt's voice. Oh, that was so fucking funny.

1:31:14But yeah, it was interesting. I had to speak these Chinese words in this script that I didn't understand why I was doing it. But when I said the word, I was like, oh, it's trying to get me to make this very specific sound so that it has it in the bank. Interesting. Oh my God. But it's only used for Iron Maus' channel. I was like, I don't want to use anywhere else. But also, I've had people take my voice and make AI ads anyway. I can't, I can't. Yeah. I mean, that's a big thing, right? And I've heard there's a rising amount of, you know, like bank fraud. Like they get a snip of your voice and then they call your bank.

1:31:42I'm fucked. That's bad for sure. My phone's channel is like fucking one billion hours is my voice. I think it was, it was slime when he was managing stuff for Ludwig and he call, he's responsible for a bunch of Ludwig stuff at the time. He's trying to figure out how to make his company and get his taxes paid. Cause Ludwig hadn't taken care of any of this at the time. Right. And slime's on the phone with somebody and they're like, well, you're not Ludwig. like you you can't do this and slime was like if i call you back and i say i'm ludwig on the phone what happens then and then the person didn't like that because because i think the security level with whatever this institution was it's like that's all it would take he's broken the system and she was like I'm hanging up I'm going now oh my god that's so funny oh god you should have done it just done a voice I pretty you probably did do it known slime yeah probably probably you probably did it we got it all under wraps now I think that's interesting that's so funny fuck

1:32:49Atrioc:we've got three minutes left let's fully cover AI voices and all the implications for society let's really dig into this guys we're so cooked we're so cooked I think it'll be like it'll be like I don't know some fancy ham it's like they'll just they'll be like I'm loving where this is going it'll be like the party that's like no no for this production we got the real thing we got the real voice they're uh Jack Dorsey is relaunching Vine as of this morning and it's supposed to be their big selling point is it's AI-free. As of this morning, a month ago. Oh, is this a month ago? I'm sorry, I'm not on a date.

1:33:31I saw a post this morning. The joke is that this episode will be

1:33:36Atrioc:anyway.

1:33:40As of a few months ago, they were launching Vine. I don't even know. It's probably dead by now.

1:33:47You guys remember three weeks ago when Vine died? They announced Vine 2 like five years ago. They've done it a bunch. Is this just fucking TikTok? The selling point is there's no AI at all. That's going to be impossible to regulate. Yeah, I guess. But I do think there's something of what you're saying with the ham, the crazy ham analogy, is that people are going to want more like, this is human. It's going to become a luxury. Yeah, that's my fear. With anything now, right? There's already a market for bespoke products that are made by, you know, it's made the same way it was 500 years ago and that's the reason you're buying it.

1:34:24But ultimately, that market will always be significantly smaller than the bulk produced gets the job done thing. And I'm worried that AI voice or AI acting or whatever is going to trend in that. Did you see Coca-Cola's advert? The Coca-Cola Christmas advert was a way out. That was terrible though. That was absolute shit. And the market was like, the genie's out of the bottle. We've got to use it. You don't have to use it, you better. You don't. and uh whereas apple released uh an ad for their logo and they showed it was all shot practically they filmed they had the logo and they had like a guy with the light and it looked really good and it's like you don't have to use ai slot it's scary yeah but companies will do it yes and it will get better yeah it'll take all your jobs and we're all stuffed thing is like eventually it's going to be you know it's going to be connor's tts voice it's going to be indistinguishable we don't We can need you.

1:35:14Well, I will say. Trash jam will even meet me. It would be creepy. I handed the keys and the deed. Willingly. You just want a game. You're gaming offline, man. If they let me game in peace, I'm happy. I caught her playing the same game offline. You'll be able to type in a prompt like, I want Trash Taste to talk about pie. And hit enter. And then you'll get a two-hour podcast. And it'll be the three of them talking about pie. We do that now. This is the big reveal. I want the ham and pie special. I don't know what that analogy was I was just thinking about how I was hungry I was really weird this made me quite hungry boys is that it?

1:35:56I mean I don't know if this is too forgive me if this is too big of a question but one last thing I wanted to ask you guys on the narrative versus reality part again is you hear that there is this uptick in realization of work culture in japan maybe being a little out out of date maybe a little dysfunctional and maybe not so good that people have to work like 12 hours a day and for for the company they work for uh and i've heard that things are changing or shifting yeah and i also have heard from people that it's not changing as quickly as people think it is i just wanted your guys's thoughts on that i think it's changing i think the overwork overtime thing has improved.

1:36:39I do think it has improved from what I know. And there's always talk about having a four-hour work week, right? Sorry, a four-day work week. Yeah, yeah. A four-hour work week. That would be great. So I think it is getting better. Yeah, it is getting better. It is getting better. You know, there's a lot more companies that allow you to do remote on some days, in the office other days. Remote work, yeah. Yeah, it is changing. And, you know, it's like everything in Japan. It's slow, but it'll happen. It's happening. Like, people want change, so it'll happen. it's just sometimes it takes three fucking long you know but in a sense COVID did speed up a lot of this stuff for Japan because it kind of forced them to go online for a lot of aspects and adopt Zoom as an alternative to just always doing in-person meetings yeah Japan loves a good Zoom meeting we were talking about meeting days meeting like the formality of meeting days you always have to have so many meetings before you do anything yeah and they're very long and boring people always have to sort of go around I'm talking circle.

1:37:34Yeah, every meeting I'll have with an LA agent or whatever, or whoever in LA, it's always 30 minutes. But in Japan, it's always an hour. That's the key difference. And they fill the full hour. Sometimes they'll fill the full hour. Sometimes they'll go over. It really depends, you know? Because if we do like a, if there's a lot of like a partnership or something, it's like, or I'll do a live stream for a company, they'll ask for the script. How can you, what? Yeah. They'll ask for the script for the live stream. The script for like two hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. sometimes we had you guys know who asa butterfield is yeah the actor right yeah so we had him on the yard a long time ago because we had a weird connection to to him through smash and like esports so he's coming on and he's the first guest we have that we're talking to an agent there's a bit more of a formality of the process and they were like can you send over all the questions that you're going to ask him ahead of and we're the yard like where we where we talk about She's like, shit and cum.

1:38:32And we're like, I didn't know we had to prep anything. And you type that out. It kind of make this up. How much shit in your cum?

1:38:41One of the questions I got asked in the audience was like, circumcised. Are you cut or untucked? No, no, no. Oh my God. Okay.

1:38:52Atrioc:I need to know all the questions. How's that been changing over time in Japan? What's the shift on circumcision? You guys know about that? You have to build a forum. So they want a live stream. But a lot of the times what they're asking for is, yes, they want a script, but what they really want is something to be able to say that this is what you're going to say, and they're going to give that to the higher-ups and say, look, we are not irresponsible. We didn't just let this guy loose. And so often we just send talking points, and they're like, that's normally okay. Sometimes they want a script.

1:39:21It really depends on what it is. But if I do a panel or something, I've done a lot of panels where we'll host it for a Japanese game company, and they'll have a panel, and that will be scripted, like a full hour panel, fully scripted. That's crazy. And so I'll have to go through the beats with them. That's crazy. And then we'll always have to have a pre-meeting for the panel. And sometimes they'll even have a pre-meeting and then a rehearsal and then the panel. And this is all ass covering from the bosses. Like it's all people getting... Well, a lot of, I would say in Japan, there's often the, I don't know if you agree, Chris, but like people want to not be the one responsible if something goes wrong.

1:39:56And so there's a lot of checks and bounces. so they'll always check with the higher up and then that guy will check with their higher up and so instead of it just being like your project I've done marketing for some things where they own the full rights to the thing and even on the day I'll be like can I say this and I'll be like oh we gotta ask the shareholders it's like if I can say this line the shareholders that's great this is what some people thought us signing with Vox was gonna be like that's what some people thought and I'm like no man I'm just showing up and I'm kind of spitballing this today in Civil War let me check with the vlogs where we put that in yeah so it's you know this is the aspect of it but you know it's you know you just get used to it and some things are crazy some things aren't you just you get used to it that sums it up that seems to be the theme of the episode is get used to it it's not like as crazy as you think when you go through it a couple of times because you're like okay it's just to like to make everyone feel a lot more comfortable what's happening I will say I've tried to work with Japanese companies a lot less over the years though I had one shoot that was sponsored and after I'd shot it, they were like, we didn't like you wore shorts.

1:41:02And they made me crop my legs out of every shot. Yeah. And I was like, and it was 42 degrees Celsius outside. The big thing is that you normally don't want to give editing rights to everyone if they don't need to. I got a spreadsheet with 120 changes on it. I was like, oh my God. And I wrote, I'll give you 120 reasons to go fuck yourself. Yeah, no, I have had a shoot one time at a building and the shoot was like barely like in that building. It was like one 10th of the video. And they want, they gave me notes on what to change outside of their shoot location. They were like, we don't want to be associated with that because we like drank a beer or something on this other place.

1:41:40And so they sent us like a ton of things to change. I've also done press events where I thought it was a press event where you just get to go. But the press event, everyone at every press that went had to agree to the editorial rights that went through the company. Oh my God. and I was not I was not very thrilled about that because what they ended up changing was literally everything wow like I couldn't have any opinion on anything they absolutely butchered it I would love to watch you have no opinion about anything I can show you the video I can show you the video it's just I like it yes like what would they there was one I think I said I was like I had a preference I was like I don't really like these types of designs normally I said something along those lines it was like very non-committal and they were like you must cut that out oh my god because they were like you might offend people who do like it.

1:42:28How would you talk about oranges? Because you hate oranges. You famously hate oranges. How would you discuss oranges if you come to your opinion? I can't support you anymore. Yeah, it is extremely restrictive. And I think everyone has this trial by fire. You just get these moments. You're like... Yeah, I just start working with Japanese companies. Okay, so normally what happens is Japanese companies, they pay you a lot less because obviously the yen's weaker and the marketing budget's less. And then on top of that, they have oftentimes maybe three to five X the amount of asks and restrictions.

1:43:00Yeah. So it's like you do pick your battles. Wait till you see the cut of this episode. We're going to, you're talking to me. I'm going to, by the way, it's like the whole time you're in the party, like you have company. I don't have a company in Japan, by the way. You don't? No. I'm just a part, like I'm on the board of a company. What? Yeah. I thought, this is, this is shocking. Kick him off. This is a business show. You said it and I was like, Chris does I don't. Pretty much every YouTuber I streamer I know has a company that their business goes under, but you don't. No. That's wild. You don't deserve to be in here.

1:43:37Yeah. Yeah, because it's just if you have a company in Japan and you own the company, it changes visa restrictions. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a little complicated. That makes sense. So I just pay the full income tax and oh boy. Oh boy. Oh. that's another thing okay I mean thank you guys for coming on we really really appreciate it I appreciate

1:43:59Atrioc:both of y 'all on top of joining the podcast that I think both of you are putting more like optimism into the world even if it's not explicit like I don't I assume that wasn't your goal going into plants versus zombies but I just think but you explicitly acknowledge that and I feel very sensitive to that and I've been thinking about that a lot this year so I appreciate very much there are people out there intentionally or unintentionally just being like, hey, there are good things going on in the world. There's good vibes and there's good... I appreciate that a lot. Not even just in the content, in the community you build around.

1:44:28I feel like you're... The people in your comments section and what you're putting on the internet is a more positive space. And that's just cool. It's nice. It's nice to see. I think we both have banter very well and are able to show Japan in a very realistic but fun way. I mean, the title of this is going to be the UK is failing in 30%. We left the UK worst parts of Japan. Civil war is coming. Just be ready for that. But thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much, guys. It's been awful. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. We'll do it at the same time. When you finally find your thing, you want the whole world to know about that thing.

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1:46:14Trying to locate news sources that reliably separate fact from fiction can seem like looking for a needle in a haystack. That's why The Guardian is launching Stateside with Kai Wright and Carter Sherman, a conversation with experts who slow down the news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's actually happening in the world. Three times a week, hosts Kai and Carter utilize all the reporting resources The Guardian has to discuss the news, international affairs, climate, culture, sports, lifestyle, fashion, and wellness. And The Guardian is not billionaire-owned, meaning they're free to report the whole picture without interference.

1:46:52Go to theguardian.com slash stateside to learn more. And listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube. That's theguardian.com slash stateside.