[Nic] Today on How We Used To Talk, we're going all the way to Tokyo to contact my friend Tee. Everybody has that friend in college that not just studied abroad but those people that studied abroad here in The United States. I had one live with me for a semester. The last time I saw him was twenty years ago. He was leaving the university to go open an ice cream truck in Tokyo. So after twenty years, I'm gonna contact him on a beat up payphone at the back of a supermarket next to a pretty cool vending machine. And we're just gonna catch up as awkwardly as possible like we always do on How We Used To Talk. So go to howweusedtotalk.com for more. Alright. Let's get into it with our friend Watoto Torosaki.
[T] Hello? Hello? Oh.
[Nic] Hold on.
[T] There
[Nic] we go. That better? No. There we go. Oh, that's much It took a second. It it takes a second.
[T] Well, hey. Oh.
[Nic] I had everything everything set up. Everything set up. Hey, man. I went to light a light a joint and take a drink of water, and then I knocked everything over. Everything over.
[T] Oh, man.
[Nic] So I had
[T] a That's it.
[Nic] It's okay.
[T] Hey, man. I I I I I called you, but the... This phone seems didn't work, man. This public phone.
[Nic] Oh, really? That's interesting.
[T] And I I put in the numbers and the code you, but the... Usually it beeps.
[Nic] Yeah.
[T] Or something like that, but didn't didn't come up. And the... I called my hometown... My home home phone. Mhmm. But even it didn't didn't call. I think this Polycom is broken or something.
[Nic] Yeah. I've noticed it's very it's very unpredictable. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. It just depends.
[T] Oh, shit.
[Nic] Japan is good though for most of the time.
[T] Yeah. This is a public phone, so they they usually, they need to fix it. They... That's the... They... Legally, they have to take care of something like that, I think.
[Nic] Yeah. It's interesting because every country every country is very different. I talk to people all over the world, and even, for example, like, Puerto Rico, like, their
[T] Uh-huh.
[Nic] Payphone system doesn't exist anymore. But, like, Rwanda has a good one. India has a good one. The US Okay. Has a interesting one because there's some places like New York City that hate public telephones for some reason. But you go to other places in The US, you see public payphones everywhere. And they're
[T] Oh, shit. I didn't know that.
[Nic] You... Even in The US, you can buy them privately and make money off them.
[T] Oh, really?
[Nic] So I can buy, like, the pay phone at the gas station and make all the money off You of like,
[T] you you buy the public phone, you lease lease it to the the gas station, and you get like eight months more.
[Nic] It's like...
[T] Clip. Mhmm.
[Nic] Yeah. I have a question.
[T] Length of length of length of field or something like that.
[Nic] Yeah. In the picture you sent me, in... Next to the payphone, they look
[T] Uh-huh.
[Nic] Like something that maybe you call photo booth. Like...
[T] Yeah. I never heard.
[Nic] Maybe... It's hard in the picture. It looks like it could be a Like, photo you know, where people go in and they take pictures?
[T] Uh-huh.
[Nic] But maybe not. I don't know.
[T] I I don't know. I never heard.
[Nic] Yeah. Okay. I'll do some research....
[T] Points. Yeah. The public points, like, are kind... It's new to me, you know. They are... Mhmm. When we get the high school students, everybody using the cell phones. Right? Mhmm. And the... We stopped using it. Recently, I knew, like, Russian people... Pop people use this public phone because they don't... It's not, you know, recorded or something like that. But anyway, so...
[T] Yeah. I I, you know, we ask what happens, you know, in Japan, people make a big line to use the public phone in Japan. Yeah. But usually usually, we don't. So I even couldn't... Didn't know if it is. I don't know. I even didn't know there's a phone here. Yeah. I pass here every day, but
[Nic] Yeah. One...
[T] That's why I'm actually alive here. This one is dead, but... Yeah.
[Nic] I've... I I guess, my experience is that no matter where you are, it's with the payphone, it's always going to be different. And people's expectations are different. Like you said, we're... You and I are the same age. So we both kind of remember a certain time where things are different and all that
[T] Right. Right.
[Nic] That blah blah blah blah. Yeah. Old people stuff now. Yeah. Old old old man stuff. But, like, younger people... So I I started this project because I came back to America after spending this summer in Spain and Portugal. I went to Spain and Portugal. I came back...
[T] To to to teach English?
[Nic] Walk across...
[T] You you are you...
[Nic] I I went to walk across Spain, and then I went to just hang out in Portugal. And I was maybe gonna stay, but I came back to America for my mom. But in any case, one thing that I did was I got a a job at a bar, like... And I worked with young people. And it was the first time I had worked with young people, like Gen z That's small. Yeah. That that I didn't teach. I was always the teacher. I was never the coworker, you know, like friend from work. So I got to hear what they really said, and I was very surprised by a lot of things. But the one thing that was really embarrassing was having to take them to get their public library card. I hired a girl. What? I I hired a woman. She's a woman now.
[Nic] She's 24 years old. And I told her... She she thought libraries were just for school people and fancy people and rich people. And I was like, no. You pay taxes, and every community has a public library that you don't... Everybody can go to. You know? And you can check out any book that you want, and you can read what... And she's like, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard. And I'm like, you're 24 years old. How do you not know about that? And so there there was one thing after another. I had to explain how radios worked because none of them understood how the Internet worked. So I had to explain how radios worked via how podcasts work via the Internet. And it made me realize how many younger younger people
[T] Uh-huh.
[Nic] Than you and me, you and I Uh-huh. Are are ignorant of a lot of really great things. And normally True. That that sounds terrible to say, but they were the ones that were the most happy. They felt like they were the ones that were most excited about it and that were the ones... And now you're not in America now, but the New York Times front page story, Gen z leads the anti AI charge. If you go on TikTok in America... Yeah. If you go on TikTok in America, if you're 20 years old, you built your own computer out of your purse.
[T] Right.
[Nic] There are younger girls now. The cool thing to do is to build your own computer that's disconnected from AI and disconnected from any sort of other cellular network, you're... And they build it themselves out of things like aquariums and makeup bags. It's amazing. But it's... So it's the younger people that want that want what we had. They want what we had, and they never got a chance to try it. You know? Now they're older. And, you know, it sounds terrible. I I I talked I talked to someone on spring break in Puerto Rico. So they were they were getting they were getting fucked up. They were they were really fucked up. I can't believe I got them to a payphone. But I got them to a payphone.
[Nic] They were so embarrassed. They were so embarrassed. I was like, hey. You're young. Go. Be happy. Be young. Be pretty. Be stupid. Be drunk. The guy fell out of a window. He fell out of a window. I couldn't believe it. And he was like, I'm so sorry. And I was like, no, man.
[Nic] If there's ever a time to fall out of a window, it should be now. You know? And so that was... If... They were so embarrassed. I was like, no. This is your chance. You should be... Party. Have fun. Do those things. So I I feel like younger people didn't get a chance to be young as much as maybe you or I did. Maybe we got to party more. I don't know. Maybe.
[Nic] I don't know.
[T] We got... We... Hey, Nick. Nick, I'm so happy to hear you are still super
[Nic] Oh, yeah.
[T] More get get... How do you say it? Like, more you got energy and doing what you want to do and the... What you did and so happy. I love to smile and we're doing great.
[Nic] It is nice. I'll... Not having kids helps. You know, every time Me Now that I'm older
[T] night that I I... I'm married about divorce, and then I tried to marry again. So he needed to find the first person I die for first. So
[Nic] Yeah. I swear, I... Now that I've been older, everyone I talk to, they say, how can you do this stuff? How are you still alive? Like, you you know, how is this possible? And I was like, I don't have kids. And I I do have I do have nieces and nephews, and I stay with I stay with my brothers sometimes. And their kids their kids, I don't know how they do it. Like, I don't I don't know how they... It's like 04:30 in the morning. They're up. They're they're up all night. Sometimes they say... You have no control over your life whatsoever when you have kids around. You know?
[Nic] And so... Yeah. I I think you and I are lucky is that we have a lot more freedom because we don't have children. So we get a little more luxury in life sometimes. You know? People ask me how can you afford to do this or that? Oh. I I always say, well, first of all, it's not that expensive. And second, when you don't have to pay for, you know, a family to come with you, you know, is pretty cheap. Like, I probably... To to walk across Spain, I think I spent maybe, I don't know, a few $100 when I was there.
[T] Oh, that
[Nic] was Yeah. I I spent... For that whole trip, I spent under under $1,000. It was like a $1,000 plus a thousand dollar flight. Yeah. For the whole summer.
[T] But we we but we know we know how to spend, you know, smartly. We don't spend much
[Nic] in here. Yeah. And I stopped drinking. So I... That is a big thing is is when you stop drinking, I think I mentioned that I stopped drinking, you stop spending money on alcohol every single day.
[T] Yeah. Yeah.
[Nic] And, like, when you travel
[T] That's me.
[Nic] I forgot. When you travel, you... I could not believe how much money I saved this summer by not drinking any alcohol. You know? Felt like I lived it up.
[T] Know about the drinking. It's about The Us... Arriving, you know? Yeah. We had to arrive at the no... Middle of nowhere in foreign country. It's not about drinking.
[Nic] Yeah.
[T] So you can save the money. I know what you mean. That's that's why I like living at the local area. You live in Tokyo. There's so many destructive things to do. Anyway, hey. Should we try the the the public phone? I search again and the... Try to find either the public phone close by.
[Nic] No. That's okay. I don't worry about it. Sorry. I just let you...
[T] May maybe maybe we try next week?
[Nic] Yeah. We could try to get in a little bit. I'd love to try another public phone, you know. For sure. We could turn this...
[T] You you sit up you sit up, and you you know, I wanna I wanna try. You know? I wanna see how
[Nic] it works too. And you are you are smart because the other people that I talk to, they don't have plans for the conversation. So most conversations end with, Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm out of my... The money. No. Oh, that's it. It's over. You know? They don't really make plans about anything, and so you're you're the first person to ever say, you know, before the money runs out, hey. We should do this again sometime. So... Yeah. Fine.
[Nic] I... You don't strike me as the type that would give up soon anyway. So... Yeah. I I think you'll find I think you'll find a working one soon because I've had two friends two friends that were not from Japan, and one of them was an asshole. And they both found they they were both finding them pretty regularly. But I don't know where they were staying. I I have to go back and look. But in any case, I met one of them in Portugal, and I I realized that sometimes sometimes when you meet people in Portugal, they're a lot more interesting than when you meet them is... Not in Portugal. Yes. It's right next to Spain. I did not know...
[T] Okay. Okay.
[Nic] Okay. I'm just gonna tell people this because... Or you this, because no one told me this until I spent my summer learning this. I walked all the way across Spain. I spent Oh, okay. I spent years honing down my Spanish. I got I get there, I'm not I'm not gonna get into specifics, but they were rough on me in Spain. They did not make it easy on me, and it was a good trip. However, when I got done, I decided to relax in Portugal. And when I got to Portugal, it felt like I was actually home because they said, fuck those people. We hate those people. We're so glad you're here. We're so glad you're not there anymore. What can we do for you? You know, they were so nice.
[Nic] It was honestly the opposite of Spain, which is embarrassing because I've been to Spain before, and I never went to Portugal. So Spain and Portugal have a very touchy relationship, and even though they're on the same
[T] been there.
[Nic] They're on the same peninsula in Europe right next to France. France and Spain are connected. The oldest civilization in Europe is Basque Country Spain. I know that.
[T] Spanish. I know. I only know Spanish people... Spanish ladies.
[Nic] Yeah. You only know Spanish ladies.
[T] Distract... Destructive.
[Nic] Oh, destructive ladies.
[T] Yeah. That... I know compliment, like compliment.
[Nic] Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. I actually... I I think Basque Country Spain is one of my favorite places. Have you ever heard of Basque Country? You
[T] you got... What'd you say? Sorry. I missed what you say.
[Nic] Have you ever heard of have you ever heard of Basque Country Spain?
[T] Oh, Basque. I watched a movie about that.
[Nic] Okay.
[T] My god.
[Nic] Yeah. I fell in love with them. The the largest the largest Basque community the largest Basque community outside Spain is in where you went to college, right next to where you went to college. You remember Missouri, right next to us is Idaho. Idaho is a Idaho. Yes. Boring Midwest state, but they have more Basque people there than anywhere besides Spain. I have a bunch of people who have just upped and moved Yeah. To It's so weird.
[T] Really, like, they try they try to set up some project or something up there.
[Nic] Yeah. I went there to kill a pig once.
[T] To do something big or interesting.
[Nic] Yeah. Yeah.
[T] They I like the I like the movie, but I don't know about them there. But anyway, hey, Nick. You gotta you gotta come to Japan. There's so many interesting things I wanna show you and the... You probably like it because there's so many things the different from the news, so many different from the... All the the YouTube thing.
[Nic] Yeah.
[T] It's so exciting place here. I wanna... I take you many places you could come.
[Nic] I have... My only... I only hesitate because I know I know that I will fall in love with it. And also, I saw a movie when I was a kid about Hokai... About Hokkaido.
[T] Were you a kid?
[Nic] When I was pretty young. Pretty young. I was in high school maybe. Oh, yeah. High school.
[T] Oh.
[Nic] Yeah. And it was about Hokkaido, and it was beautiful. Hokkaido. Hokkaido, like the island.
[T] Hokkaido. Yeah.
[Nic] Yeah. Sorry about... That was a terrible pronunciation. Yeah. Yeah. So it was about that area.
[T] What was it talking about?
[Nic] Yeah. It was about it was about the area, and it struck me as a beautiful place to go to die. That sounds really bad when I say it, but it looks so peaceful. It looks so peaceful. So peaceful that it was almost untouchable. Like, it seemed like it it didn't exist on planet Earth. It was that sort of peace. And I thought if I got a taste...... About being there. Yeah? I thought if I got a taste of that, I would never leave.
[T] We we are... Maybe maybe we can we can go together. Yeah. Hokkaido. Never been there.
[Nic] Yeah. So where do you live now?
[T] Hokkaido. Hokkaido. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Hokkaido is among the place I really wanna go, but I just didn't have a chance to go. I don't wanna go alone, you know. Just like Hokkaido, it's it's, you know, it's accessible, but the... I don't know, man. Just you didn't give me a chance to go, you know.
[Nic] Where do you live now?
[T] I live near close to Tokyo, by the Tokyo.
[Nic] Yeah. Yeah. I figured
[T] you Ibaraki were Prefecture.
[Nic] Yeah.
[T] It's about forty minutes by train.
[Nic] Okay. Okay.
[T] Yeah. I I work I work here in the Tokyo, both of two places. I'm doing taking care real real estate. Okay. So no change.
[Nic] What'd you say?
[T] No. Since I came back to Japan Yeah. After I graduated the University of Missouri,
[Nic] I'm
[T] doing the same thing.
[Nic] Yeah. You just been going to... Oh, you're doing the same thing that you went to school for?
[T] No. I said real real estate business.
[Nic] Ah, okay. Okay. That makes more sense.
[T] Sorry about my pronunciation. I don't speak English very much, so I started forgetting.
[Nic] Yeah.
[T] I only remember dirty words. Yeah.
[Nic] Makes that makes sense.
[T] You you are my teacher. You you told me all the the bad words. Yeah. I know... People start learning the language, you know, from the dirty words. Right?
[Nic] Yeah. Yeah. Man, I... That makes more... I feel so terrible. I left you with such a terrible vocabulary, but yeah. Have you not...
[T] I loved it though.
[Nic] Have you not spoken English since you have gotten back to Japan?
[T] No. I I I do use, but
[Nic] You do use sometimes?
[T] Sometimes. Yeah.
[Nic] It sounds like it.
[T] Glad glad we we can still communicate. I catching up you... What you're saying. And... Yeah. I just... I pick pick... I remember what... You know, if I start using again. Yeah. Don't worry. Don't worry.
[Nic] I can I can I can tell your confidence is is changed just since the time that we started talking? I speak to a lot of people in different languages. I see. And so sometimes, you know, they always say, oh, I'm nervous. I'm nervous. And some people, you know, they really do have a hard time. But usually, once they get their confidence and... Then they then they they they don't care. They they they get very fluid. Very fluid. But usually, it takes it takes a second. It takes a second. But I thought with you I thought with you that you would you would jump into it pretty fast. You know? Like, the guy in Rwanda.
[T] I a I a good teacher. I had a I I a
[Nic] That's funny. Are there... I have another question for you that was... And
[T] Oh, what's
[Nic] Are there a lot... Did you notice a lot of people since COVID have moved to Tokyo from The US? No.
[T] What do you mean? They they they lift that? During the COVID there?
[Nic] No. For the last five years, a lot of...
[T] People change there. How they live and how they spend their time, and everything changed. No more people in Central Tokyo. I don't know where they go. I usually like to go on the park in Tokyo Yeah. To pick up some girls. Yeah. I mean, there's there's no ladies, girls.
[Nic] Yeah.
[T] I have no idea where they go.
[Nic] That... That's that's interesting just because, since... I don't know. For the last five years since COVID, I I I went to Thailand for a while. I moved there to teach, and then Spain and Portugal, and then Mexico. But everywhere I went, I had to deal with more Americans that were moving their money there, were planning on living there, were planning... Were basically buying the people that live there out of their own culture. That sounds terrible. Do you know the word gentrify?
[T] Interesting.
[Nic] You know the word? Gentrify? Gentrify. It basically is when rich people Yeah. Decide that they like something, so they want it.
[T] Oh.
[Nic] And they just use their money to get it, and it's used when people talk about neighborhoods. This neighborhood is gentrified. It meant a bunch of cool, hip, young, maybe ethnic people live there, but then a bunch of cool rich people decided that they wanted to live there, so they bought everything and then overtook it with their money. And I've seen that happen to a lot of cities. I will specifically call one out that I've been to, Mexico City. There was a lot of protests. In Spain, Santiago, I saw a lot of protest. They're not anti they're not anti American, but they're just not happy with the money that the Americans bring with them. But a lot of Americans, I noticed, moved to Tokyo, and a lot of Americans I know moved to Japan. I didn't know if you noticed a change.
[T] I know the... This big change, man, they... We... Ten, twenty years ago, some Americans came, but they they are snow vision. Yeah. I'm rich people or whatever, but the people come now recently, they they different, man. They they like a like a Japanese man. They supplied and they try to learn language and culture and... Yeah. It's different. Yeah.
[Nic] I... But it's it's funny because you talk about things being different. The closest place where I can buy food besides the gas station besides the gas station, the closest place I can buy food to my house is Japanese snack store. It's called Daiso. Yeah. There's a Japanese snack. So I can buy like noodles. I can buy whatever. Whatever. It's all good. But I love it. I love Mochi and they have thousands of flavors....
[T] Like a super big big company in Japan. Daiso is usually in... Daiso. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Daiso Daiso is usually in supermarkets. Okay. Yeah. They they say a variety of things. All kinds of things. Okay. I think most of the things they import from China. Yeah.
[T] No?
[Nic] I... That's what it looks like. I have never bought anything besides the food because I like me some Japanese snacks. So I buy... I bought some snack food. But all the all the stationary...
[T] No. I'm not... I'm I'm not saying like Chinese... I don't like China, but it's just like Daiso It does. Like, they they made big money and the... Because they they use a lot of the foreign products.
[Nic] Was talking to... They
[T] They they struggling because Japanese ain't super weak now.
[Nic] Yeah. Yeah.
[T] I saw it's in a struggling. They are... Right now, maybe worst time, but Japanese ain't going to get stronger soon. Yeah.
[Nic] I spoke to I spoke to a a young man. He looked 20 years old. Worked at Daiso, maybe younger, 18 years old. Oh. Okay. And he said, you're older now, but do you remember a store called Forever twenty one when you were in high school? And high school is like primary school. And I was like, wow. That's like thirty years ago. But yeah, I I I that I remember that store at the mall.
[T] Isn't he still there?
[Nic] And he goes he goes, yes. It's still there....
[T] Or something?
[Nic] Yes. Oh, okay. It's still there. But he said all the stuff that we sell, he said all these Japanese snacks, that's what you'll see there. All the clothing is all, like, little Kwai clothing and stuff. He goes, it's not like punk rock, like, when you were young. Now it's just a bunch of Japanese stuff. He goes, it's just like this store, but in a
[T] I didn't know that. I didn't know that.
[Nic] Yeah. So even in America, it's weird how Japanese culture changes in some silent way. You know? I don't know.
[T] I wanna I wanna I wanna show you. Yeah. Have you been in Japan?
[Nic] I had once for three days.
[T] Oh. Oh. That's not enough.
[Nic] That's not enough. It doesn't count. It does not count.
[T] Oh.
[Nic] I took acid one day too, so that doesn't count. Well, I I I took acid. I... Well, I only had three days, so one day I slept. One day, I woke up, and I got in a cab with my friend, and we both took acid and told the cab driver to drive wherever he wanted to take us for the whole day Yeah. No matter how much money.
[T] That's that's that's the tour touristic thing to do.
[Nic] Yeah. And then it's... I wanna I And then it felt a little bit too... Yeah. It felt like a Japanese Vegas. I don't know. After a few hours of it, it was a lot. It was just like I wanted to get out of the car, and I wanted to experience it in real life. And I just knew that I'd come back. I knew that I'd come back. Like, that's why I was okay with only going there for three days and not making plans, because I knew that I would go back before I die.
[T] Yeah. Thank
[Nic] you. Especially when I got sober, like You There were things... Like, when you get sober and your life get... Like, I'm not gonna talk about how terrible my life got because of alcohol. Oh. But it did get bad for a while because of alcohol, and I had to stop drinking it. And there's some things that you think about that you're just like, okay, I have to do that. And that is on the list. That was one of those weird things I never expected when I got sober was, well, I I have to go to Japan now. Now that I'm sober, I have to go to Japan. I don't know why I thought that, but it went on the list.
[T] This is no no... You know, you even know I have to drink much because there are so many things that they're here.
[Nic] Oh, yeah.
[T] No one speak no one speak English much. So you you are like more more you're focused on how to arrive here. Yeah. Not drinking here. Yeah. That's good. You can be healthy here.
[Nic] Yeah. It's funny because I still go out, and people still... Because I hang around a young... A lot of young people, and I work with a lot of young people. And they just think because I don't drink
[T] I like that.
[Nic] They think because I don't drink that I don't party, but everything else is open for business. You know? But that's... I say that... Alley's saying that that's different to us than to them. When I say something like, I'll do anything but alcohol, that's very scary to them in their mind, they were talking about how kids they knew used AI to So design new they would just ask AI to design certain tweaks on drugs that are illegal to make them illegal or legal, and so on and blah blah blah. And that's very scary. But with me, the only scary thing that ever happened to me was alcohol. It was the one thing that, got out of control. So I I still go out though, and I still party and have a good time. And I think it surprises a lot of people because they say, how do you do this without alcohol? How do you do this without alcohol? I was like, practice. Practice. I have so much practice.
[Nic] I did not need alcohol to party. Had so much practice.
[T] It's not easy, though, to to control myself, you know. It's just not easy, but you you have a strong self control thing, you know.
[Nic] Yeah. Maybe.
[T] That's good. Good. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe. I totally understand that, you know, there's so many drugs and the drinks and there's so many bad things in Tokyo. So I try to stay away from there, you know, it's destructive, you know, sometimes. So just try to be a healthy guy, recently.
[Nic] Yeah.
[T] You know, too much too much party doesn't last my life so long, you know?
[Nic] Yeah. I mean, no one told me how terrible it was to get old because, oh, man, it happened really fast. Like, at the beginning of COVID, I I had not turned 40. I remember getting tear gassed by the National Guard in Portland. I was on ecstasy, and I was fine. All of this was fine. Like, my body could handle it just fine. And I woke up the next day, I went to the next protest. I took more drugs. More More drugs. More protests. But in any case, now I turned 40, it's like Oh. Everything totally changed. Like, I I Yeah. I I don't know So tired.
[Nic] Yeah. And everybody's like, your body stopped healing. You know? That's all good. You know? So you gotta take care of what you got now. You know?
[T] Right. Right. But, you know, we are we are lucky, you know, we notice before we die, you know. Some some friends Yeah. People die, you know. Yeah. Too much, you know? Yeah. But, you know, we are... We we learn how to control my... Oneself and, yeah, brings our life back and we have more motivation to do something new, it's good. You know, we are lucky.
[Nic] Yeah. We are really lucky, man. We are really lucky. And I'm really glad that you agreed to a second check, because I'm gonna wrap this up, and I'm gonna go to bed. Okay?
[T] Alright. We keep in touch then.
[Nic] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll talk to you soon when you find one that works. Okay?
[T] Thank you.
[Nic] Alright. I love you, man. Bye.
[T] We're gonna have another beer, man. Bye bye. Bye.
[Nic] Okay, so it's safe to say that that episode went just as awkwardly and as graciously as our living situation went for the year that I spent with that man. And we will definitely be catching up with him in the future because this burned an obsession with him because the payphone didn't work. He considered in a matter of national pride that every payphone should be in active use or working order in Japan. And so he was going to call the numbers and take it upon himself to take care of the broken payphones in Japan. So we're going check on him in a little bit and see how that goes. Alright, more on how we used to talk. Thanks for being patient.
