Abe Set On Tokyo 2021 Olympics

Welcome back everybody to Episode 16 of this week in Japan presented by RyuTokyo. Coming to you live from the Roppongi Tokyo. I'm your host, Julian Domanski. And joining me as always, is my co host and founder of RyuTokyo Yasuharu Matsuno.

Hey guys, welcome back. Unfortunately, the situation in Japan is getting a bit chaotic again because of the Corona, but I hope you're well and enjoy our show as always,

Today is July 24, and in this episode, we're going to be discussing the following big news stories. Controversies arise over the Olympics being held in Japan next year. Saizeriya readjusts its prices to reduce the spread of germs. A black owned Anime Studio, D'Art Shtajio animates the weeknds snowchild music video actor Haruma muira tragically passes away at the age of 30 and an 80 year old grandma Are fights off a wild bear. This Thursday, Japan set the single day record for new cases of Coronavirus with 981. The capital city Tokyo alone reached 366 cases in a day, which is the highest number since the beginning of the outbreak. This marks the 15th day in a row with over 100 cases, with cases rising once again, citizens and even some government officials are raising their doubts about the likelihood of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games being held next summer. In a nationwide poll conducted over telephones, data showed that less than a quarter of citizens are wanting the games to be held next summer as planned. 36.4% of those surveyed wanted to postpone the games and 33.7% wants to see the games canceled altogether. Tokyo governor Koike Yuriko has stated that the priority of Japan should be taken on the virus with all of our efforts in order to ensure an on schedule Olympics. While citizen support seems to be low. Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is remaining firm in support of the current schedule. Despite several proposals that would further extend the Olympics, Prime Minister Abe insists that there is only one year. with Japan's economy in a recession due to the Coronavirus, Japan central government seems to have no choice but to move ahead with the Olympics for the sake of the economy. So yeah, just reading through the story. It's kind of crazy to think that the Olympics would have actually started yesterday. Had the original planning gone ahead, right?

Yeah. Currently, the plan for the Olympics next year is to start on July 24 2021. Which is exactly one year from today. Do you remember what it was like a year ago? Like, did you apply for any like Olympics tickets?

I don't know. I don't remember anything pre, pre Corona. Seems like another lifetime.

Yeah, exactly.That's the problem. Right? So I was just like, you know, looking through some emails from last year. And I just found one email like which I exchanged with my my family.

Sure.

And It was just about the Olympics tickets. Yeah, exactly about a year ago, I apply for the lottery of the Olympics tickets. And I especially wanted to get the tickets for the opening ceremony. Many people did, obviously. And there are hundreds of thousands of people waiting before me on the, you know, online reservation system, so yeah, I had to keep the browser screen open for hours just to apply for the tickets. But, you know, even with all those efforts, you know, none of my family members won the tickets for the opening ceremony. Yeah, that's that's how popular Olympics was until the the outbreak of Corona, you know, everyone was anticipating. But now it's completely gone. And, you know, when you think about it, what a change in just one year.

Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a monumental loss for the economy, right? But yeah, I wanted to get tickets to the opening ceremony. I'm not really even into the sports to be honest. I wasn't really, there was nothing I really wanted to see. But the opening ceremony is always amazing. Right? So I was definitely down for that. But the odds of getting a ticket were so low. It was ridiculous. But I think I think having the lottery system was the fairest way to do right. Because otherwise rich people would just buy the tickets even if they were super expensive. So yeah, I can understand where the government is coming from, you know, from the start, I've always understood their main goal is to keep the country moving right. And the country needs money. And, you know, we spoke about this last week with such a drastic drop in foreign visitors come into the country. The last month, it was like 2600, something down from like the expected like 40 million they were hoping to get this year. It's a crazy loss for the economy. I don't know but doesn't there's no, I guess there's no other real way to save it is there. I mean, you're a businessman Yasu. So can you think of better way to save the economy than holding the Olympics.

I'm no expert in viruses but I would say maybe like, if they are really adamant to hold the Olympics next year. then maybe like do it without any like audience

Hmm, I would say that's the best way. I think I, think we mentioned this on a previous episode as well. Fly all the athletes here, social distance them, get them here two weeks early, they can quarantine make sure that that the athletes village where they are stay is quarantined. And then yeah, then they should be able to participate as normal, right? Because they've all been together for two weeks beforehand, you know, training and all that kind of stuff then what's the problem televising it, you know, you think like, statistically how few people actually get to go to the games in the first place. Most people were gonna be watching it on TV anyway. So isn't that much different? I guess from the athletes point of view the you know, the Crowd is quite demoralizing I'd imagine.

but even probably for them, it's better than like not having like, any of those any of those sports games, right?

Of course. Yeah. I mean, how many of them have spent, you know, years of their life training for this moment? A lot of athletes only get one Olympics, you know, it's not. I think maybe a misconception is that like, you think someone wins a medal, and they're like they're in the Olympics for the rest of their career, right? They have to like earn that spot every time. Right? Yeah. And it takes like an immense amount of physical mental concentration and strain to earn that place on the Olympic team for whatever sport that is, so yeah, for all these people know, they're obviously devastated that they can't do it, but I imagine they've just got their mind focused on it, you know, so it's a minor setback, but they'll just focus on next year. Maybe they're just going to pretend like it's gonna be fine, even if they know it's not because otherwise how can you stay focused, that long you know

Yeah, keeping the motivation.

It's crazy.

For the initial like plan for the Olympics this year, actually, the tickets were already sold before, like August last year, and I think they started selling like last April or May. So that's that's kind of the lead time you need, like, beforehand in order to like roll out this kind of, like massive like operation.

Oh, definitely. Yeah. I remember getting the emails from it was about May last year. Because I also set up an account to apply for the opening ceremony. And but yeah, that was a while ago.

Yeah. And, you know, from tomorrow, we have less than a year until the Olympics for you know, next year, right.

Exactly. Yeah.

And they haven't even started like selling tickets like they don't even know like how many seats they can sell. Or you know, how much like social distancing that they will need or what other like preventative measures they need to take? Like they have no idea yet.

Yeah, that's it. I mean, society is not back to normal yet. So like how can we hold the world's biggest event? Okay, so let's move on to our second story of the week. The popular Italian food chain store Saizeriya is well known in Japan for its cheap meals and is a popular location for many looking for some affordable pasta and pizza. However, the restaurant has just recently announced a complete change in all of their prices. Before you panic, though the price has primarily been changed by only one yen. The sudden price change it's actually not to increase Saizeriya's profits, but to reduce the movement of coins. The new price brings many of their menu items up to an even number ending in zero or five. Some items such as rice, garlic, bread and focaccia have even gone down in price to accommodate this change. The pizzas and passes that were 399 yen are now 400 yen, allowing them to easily be paid in full with just four coins, reducing the need to hand back a one yen coin to the customer because Saizeriya's prices are After tax, the previous listed price of 399 yen was the final price. by reducing the number of interactions with coins Saizeriya is hoping to counter the spread of the coronavirus. Coins are notorious for being some of the most passed around and generally the items that a person can carry by simplifying the pricing system Saizeriya has eliminated the need for having many small and potentially germ covered coins rattling around in your pocket after enjoying some pasta or pizza. Do you think this is the most effective anti Corona method we've seen so far Yasu?

I'm not sure I'm not sure if it's actually effective in terms of the you know, preventative measures. Yeah, for the Corona, but I do prefer the rounded numbers from from before, like, rather than like 399 yen, It's better if it's like 400

Yeah, I've always been against like 99 kind of process.

Yeah. I'm sure you've noticed after living in Japan for a while, but so many services or products are, like priced slightly less than the rounded numbers.

Yeah.

So like instead of like 400 and 399 instead of like, let's say like 20,000 yen it's priced at like 19,000 like 800 yen, or something like that. And we even have a special way of reading this these numbers as well. For example, if it's like 198 yen, or 1980 yen, we call it ichi kyuppa.

ichi koopa?

Ichi kyuppa

Kyuppa

Yeah, it's like kind of abbreviation of ichi, kyuu, and hachi. Like ichi is one. kyuu is nine and hachi is eight

but why pa?

That's like shortening the Hachi, And we just call it the pa, Right, ichi kyuppa

okay. ichi kyuppa. interesting

And also like, if it's, say like 398 yen or 3980 yen, or it could even be like 39,800 yen, we call it san kyuppa

san kyuppa. Okay.

Yeah. So here like so many prizes that and with either like eight or nine.

So the pa is kind of eight zero at the end, basically.

Yeah, or a eight. You know,

or eight hundred can that work as well.

Yeah, it can end with 800 or it could end with like, 8000

interesting. So if it's like, I don't like 30,800 Can you say like san man pa? Does that work?

No, because these words are to describe these like, you know, unique special like prices.

Sure. Are they use like it advertisements, like saying the price they say like, Oh, it's like Yes, yes. Like san kyuppa

right. So if you're watching the what to call like, television shopping show? Yeah, like they say like, Okay, so this item is you know only for today ichi kyuppa

Okay? Yeah, yeah. I've never watched one of those in Japanese before but that's interesting,

You know I always thought like this is kind of ridiculous is it's like a it's like a trick right?

Of course. Yeah. Yeah, mind games, isn't it?

And I think too many people in Japan they're tricked by these like manipulated numbers to say.

So yeah, it'll be interesting to see if this method in the future is effective to reducing the spread of coronavirus. I'm mildly skeptical. I would say instead of just using coins just tell people they have to use credit cards or contactless payment. And a lot of people have like, you know, Apple Pay, you know on their phones with Google Pay, especially in the last two years, I'd say like electronic payments have become really popular in Japan, or they're becoming much more common, right. I don't think it'd be out of a question to say to people, you know, given the circumstances, you know, we're not accepting coins anymore. Do you think that would be too outrageous for Japanese people?

I think most people would have no issues because we're used to using wireless payment cards or you know, riding a train or any kind of like public transportations.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I mean, one, one place I went through recently, which everyone's heard of McDonald's, right? They've got this app now. It's not like they have it in every country. But I was just in the restaurant. And I saw that they had the app. So I downloaded it. And actually, you can just order the food while you're on your way to the restaurant, and you pay on, pay through the app. So when you get there you just pick it up, which is great, so maybe some of these big chains can start implementing that. Seems like a more logical solution than just reducing the number of course

Yeah, but like, I'm personally more interested in like whether this would be kind of a wake up call more Japanese people to stop using the like san kyuppa or ichi kyuppa rather than go for like go for the rounded numbers? Because I think that's more like honest

I guess. Yeah, I see what you mean. But I guess it depends on the product, right, but I guess really only time will tell. So maybe we can update you guys in the future and see if people are willing to change their stubborn ways. Get rid of the cash. Okay, so let's move on to our third story of the week. This Wednesday, the artist the weekend released the music video for his new song snowchild off of his most recent album, after hours. The video shows the weekend Abel Tesfaye walking around snow covered towns, neon cities, and dark deserts in what is a retrospective on his career. The video was created by the Anime Studio de art studio. This studio is the first black owned Anime Studio in Japan. Originally founded by brothers Arthell and Darnell Isom, and Henry Thurlow back in 2016, the studio has since been able to work on several animated shorts. However, their collaboration with the weekend will mark their biggest partnership yet. The studio is based out of Shinjuku in Tokyo and prides itself on bringing Western ideals of storytelling and art to Japanese audiences through traditional Japanese animation. After hours is the fourth number one selling album from the Canadian born singer, and is currently the highest selling album in first week sales in 2020. So far, so I think the first thing we should talk about really is how ridiculously hard it is to pronounce the name of the studio. sutajio and uh, D'Art sutajio.

D'Art sutajio.

Yeah

yeah, it's it's tough because if it's just like sutajio, the pronunciations is more towards you know, Japanese. So it's not that hard for me. But when it's combined with D'Art, That's English words.

Yeah, that's easier for me, D'Art

Yeah, Yeah, if it's like either one it's easy but like D'Art Sutajio

doesn't roll off the tongue. Very easy. It's cool though I like the name. But you've got a little bit of a breakdown on the history, right this name the origin.

Yeah, so I didn't know about this studio until I saw the news. So I was, you know, checking out yesterday and found the interview video on our Arthell Isom, CEO and art director of D'Art sutajio and he was making some great points, but what was most interesting to me was the meaning behind the the name of the studio. and I think you noticed too, but it's actually not studio but like, sutajio

Yeah.

And he explained that sutajio is a made up word that combines the word sutaji in Japanese, which is a term used for underpainting and more generally, a base or a foundation. So when it's combined with the English word studio, it becomes sutajio, which means the foundation of art. So not just their name, but their tagline is sutaji ga daiji. And as you know, daiji means what?

Oh, important

Right, So he says that no matter a story writing or painting, you should always think about the base first. For example, like when you think of a character driven story, you first need to think about the base of this character, you know, such as, like, Where does he or she come from? Like, what she stands for? Before thinking about the design of the character, and when I heard him say this, like, I remember that, you know, the author of jojos Bizarre Adventure, and like hirohiko Araki. he said almost the same thing And Mr. Araki before he starts drawing anything He writes down a very detailed background of a character not just like name and age but also like what kind of like voice he or she has. How good is his like eyesight? Like any injuries he's got. Like any awards received? whom does he respect? What is he afraid of? Like how's the relationships with his friends or families? Where is his favorite restaurant? Like almost like everything that you can think of?

Yeah,

I was also like going through some comments on the YouTube video. And I found someone saying that it's either like him like Arthell or the sutajio as a company. They actually helped make the fifth season of the jojos bizarre adventures anime.

Oh, did they?

Yeah. Golden wind

Wow, I'll be pressed, because that animation is amazing.

Yeah, it was epic. Yeah, so maybe it's no coincidence that they have a very like similar way of like thinking or

yeah, just taking a brief diversion onto JoJo, because it's incredible. But yeah, that kind of like mindset of getting to the base of the character before even designing them. I would say that like jojos Bizarre Adventure has some of the best characters consistently good characters of any series. Of any series I've ever watched or read, because there's not new characters, every episode right. And they're always amazing characters. They're also even though they're always bad guys, right? Because you got the main protagonist every season, like some kind of Jojo character, right? And they're kind of like beating up all the other bad guys, but all the bad guys are so good. And you'd like you always like them so much rather than trying to stop the main the hero. And that makes sense. So it makes me kind of want to check out some work from this studio if they're of kind of going with the same vibe.

Yeah, I totally agree. Because I'm also a big like really big fan of like Jojo. Yeah. When you see the the antagonists, you also notice that like the way you know Araki san like depicts those those characters, they are portrayed as like real, like human being, you know, even though they're like bad guys, like they're still like humans and they have like strength and like weaknesses. And so yeah, like many like Jojo fans, I don't just like JoJo's or the protagonists, but also the antagonists.

Yeah. So it's great to see the first black owned studio Anime Studio in Japan is pretty cool, right? It's pretty big deal. And it's great to see you know, other kinds of people being able to break through in the scene, getting more recognition for their their talent, their hard work. I'm really interested to see where they'll go in the future. Maybe they'll be able to do like a whole series of something instead of just kind of assisting but you know, obviously All studios have like stepping stones right? Nobody goes straight to like a full season of JoJo, for example. So onto some more somber news next, this Saturday Japanese actor and singer Haruma Miura was found hanging by his manager in his Tokyo home in an apparent suicide. He was later confirmed dead at a nearby hospital. a suicide note was also found in his apartment. The longtime actor had just begun a music career last year, and were slated to have several upcoming television appearances as well. fans across the world shared their condolences on the web. For the young star. Miura san was no stranger to the acting world. The child star from Ibaraki had been acting in roles from the young age of seven. His first big hit came when he starred in the film koizora, in which he won the Newcomer of the Year Award at the 31st Japan Academy Film Awards. In his free time he was known to often share photos of his cooking to his Instagram story. media speculation has tried to make a connection to online harassment and bullying as a possible cause of his death. Similar to the recent incident with Hana Kimura, but close friends of the actor have denied those rumors. So this is an another shocking story in the entertainment world, especially coming on the heels of Hana Kimura, has there been any update as to kind of what led to his death?

I don't think we know a lot of details yet. And it said that he has left a suicide note, you know, before his death, but it's not, like disclosed.

So that's what I was curious about, like, I mean, you know, obviously, these kind of situations. They're very personal for the family. There's a lot of emotions and, you know, there's a lot of processes that you have to go through. Not to like, you know, cause disrespect to people. So

right, of course

I'm sure the relevant information will come out when it's ready. And but it's still it's still quite new, right? This happened this week. So I'd imagine probably First, the police would have to you know, go over Everything first and, you know, kind of determine exactly what happened. I guess with these cases that are determined to be suicide, they still have to look into it. Even if it seems like an open and closed case, you know, there could be some kind of extenuating factors that caused, you know, things to happen. So,

yeah, it's hard to describe this sense of loss. But about a year ago, I had a meeting with a person who composed a song for Miura. And it's playing you know, millions of times on YouTube and music video looks super cool. And I heard some you know, stories during the recording how the music video was made, how nice of a guy Haruma was and etc. You know, I don't usually listen to a lot of Japanese pop music. But I downloaded the song on iTunes and I really liked it. And what's surprising is said he's not the professional singer. but his main job is an actor. But his singing is awesome to

oh wow. Okay,

so you know he's he's super talented everything. So all of a sudden like it's Yeah, it's like why

this kind of reminds me of Heath Ledger during the he played the Joker in the dark night. and before the movie was released, right he he may be killed himself on purpose or overdosed on drugs, it was a bit more than our skepticism about whether it was intentional or not. But it It feels like a very similar kind of story. Like they're both kind of the same age around 30 both up and rising because Heath Ledger he'd been in some big movies, but after that movie, he was like one of the most recognizable actors in the world. But, you know, he couldn't be any more movies, right? So I don't know like, if it might be the case of again, where you see somebody climbing ranks do really well for themselves becoming more and more popular. And you from the outside, you feel like they have everything in the world that they could want, but on the inside. That's just not how that's not how they feel, you know, and maybe in a way, they almost feel trapped in that world. You know, as a musician, I know a lot of kind of creative people. And I think people are in like music acting, they tend to be more sensitive, you know, to like emotional issues. And I know a lot of people with like anxiety or people who feel often feel like trapped for certain reasons that they can't change for fear of disappointing other people. So that's kind of something I am curious about, in Miura sans case is it appeared successful, but he he wasn't himself happy.

Yeah, I'm not sure if it's true, but he was telling like some of his like close friends that he wants to quit acting. And I saw somewhere that he wants to like become a farmer or something. In a countryside of Japan

Oh, wow. That's cool that's respectable.

Yeah. I mean, he seems like a very like simple, simple minded, like nice person. very down to earth.

Yeah that's a real shame. I mean, maybe he felt like he couldn't achieve that dream, being as famous as he was. Imagine if he just started a farm, then people would just be like, coming to his farm all the time. And being obnoxious and invading his privacy. I don't know. Maybe he thought he could never return to a normal life. Maybe I guess he never really had a normal life. Did he if he started at age of seven. So it's, it's it's tragic news. And, you know, our thoughts go out to the family of Miura san and to his fans. And, yeah, I hope that we don't have to talk about news like this again, in the future.

Hope so too.

So onto something slightly more uplifting for our final story of the week, last Thursday in an incredible feat. An 82 year old grandma in Hiroshima Prefecture successfully fended off a wild bear by punching it and then knocking it down. Rumiko sasaki was busy doing her yard work on the evening of July 16 when she stood up to suddenly see a black bear in front of her. According to her once you stood up, the bear attacked her immediately going for her face. In the ensuing struggle, she said she thinks she managed to strike the bear in the face and send it flying back. The bear then fled after being defeated. Asian black bear populations have been decreasing over years due to poaching and conflicts with farmers. According to Rumiko's local hunting Association, there have been over 250 black bear sightings, but this is the first case of an attack. The association recommended having a cell phone or even a bell close by when walking through the habitat of these bears. So this woman is amazing. She defeated a bear. I like to think she like absolutely obliterated the bear. I don't know exactly what happened and it sounds like from her recollection, she's not really sure I'm sure she's like, just like rattled from like adrenalin and shock. She's just glad to be alive. But what a bad ass This woman is

Yeah, this is definitely most random like funniest news of the week. And remember a while ago we talked about gamer grandma on our show.

Oh yeah, yeah,

like she's like 90 year old lady playing Call of Duty or you know, Resident Evil and all other gun shooting and horror games on a daily basis and you know, uploading her the playing videos on YouTube. Sure, sure. And I just, you know, kind of like, so kind of, like resemblance in this story. Like badass grandmas. Yeah, but in case of this lady, she fought with a real bear.

That's it yeah it's not video game. she wasn't like going across the Wild West in Red Dead Redemption. She like actually got attacked by a bear. that's crazy isn't it?

And no matter what, like it's true that like she was her face was scratched my by the bear but Somehow like

yeah,

whether she punched her you know screamed or did everything she could you know, the the bear. It wasn't her but the bear which fled

Yeah, I mean obviously she didn't damage the bear because bears are huge right

yeah I think so.

But I think a lot of animals like that a lot of mammals have very sensitive noses because they could they have a very good smell right but on The downside is that if they get hit in the nose hard it shocks them quite bad. So I mean even for humans, right we don't have a very good smell but when you get hit in the nose It really hurts right compared to like being punched in the arm or something like that. So maybe she just got lucky here in you know, maybe she hits it somewhere else it will just carried on attacking her possibly, you know, but you know, she could be like a black belt, karate master she she landed that punch. She knew exactly what she was doing.

Yeah exactly, do you know a legendary like American karate martial artists who had a nickname Kuma guroshi

no I don't

and but it can you guess like what Kuma guroshi means

kuma guroshi I guess like, it's like kurosu, gurosu

Yeah, and you know kuma

bear killer?

Yeah, yeah

bear killer?

bear killer. So yeah, I think the the guy's name was like Willie Williams. So yeah, this guy's got like six feet like seven inches high. he's huge

he's a bear himself.

Yeah and as a matter of fact on the Japanese TV show he once fought with a black bear.

Oh, wow.

And he didn't lose. I don't think he killed a bear. but He didn't lose.

I mean, I would consider not being killed by a bear a victory. Yeah, you know, I mean, like, If I fought a bear I would be dead instantly.

I mean, I I didn't watch the show. So I'm not sure like exactly how it went, but after the show his nickname has become kuma guroshi

Wow. I mean that that kind of feels like something you couldn't really do nowadays. It's like bait a bear on live tv to fight a karate champ

it's horrible.

Yeah, but I mean, since it did happen, so you know, you know, it's already been done. Very interesting to hear

but for this grandma, she was attacked by the bear. it wasn't a TV show or any kind

And a wild bear.

Wild bear. Yeah. And so maybe like, we should grant her a title of kuma guroshi or something like that.

Yea true, yeah. Yeah, or like kuroshi. Grandma, killer grandma.

But yeah, I saw the news footage of this woman and yeah, she she wasn't big or anything.

Yeah I mean most. I mean, Japanese people as a whole tend to be shorter right? especially women,

of that age especially.

yeah Compared to Western countries, I guess average height and stuff. But yeah, most like 80 plus year old Japanese women are tiny. They're like hobbits usually. So this is makes me even more impressed. She's from your hometown. Right? Hiroshima.

Yeah, but I just checked the exact like location. And it's a northern part of Hiroshima, which is very like countryside. I've never seen a single like, wild bear in my life.

Yeah, but she's still like Hiroshima-jin, right? You feel proud that she's like your blood?

She is. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I am honored. Yeah.

So for anyone that's not aware of kind of Japanese countryside rules. And bears are actually not super rare. They're not super common, but you can run into them from time to time. So I was I was I was hiking on the Nakasenda last year in Nagano. And it's an old kind of trade route that goes through the mountains. And there's lots of signs that Warn for bears actually along the route. There's actually like bells hanging up. There's a big, big sign that says kiken, kuma so like danger for like bears. And it's like a school bell and it just says like if a bear comes near just ring the bell really loud and you know that's supposed to scare them off. yet maybe she can get a bell installed in her garden to keep themaway for next time. Alright, so that wraps it up for all the news stories this episode. Now let's jump into the final segment of the show Word of the Week.

Okay, so I'm going to give you a quiz today. Are you ready? Julian?

I'm always ready Yasu

I thought so. So you know that we like to shorten words into like two letters or four letters in Japan,

ah only too well yes

And so I'm going to give you five abbreviated wasei eigo or Japanese English words and See, you know if you can guess the original meaning

sure. okay

Okay the first one is Appo

appo? Not apple?

something longer.

Yeah. Okay. that's you, couldn't start me off with an easy one. Okay, okay. Appointment

correct!

ah yeah

but this is very like common really in yeah business scenes. So for example like senpo to appo totta ka. Which means like Hey like how have you got an appointment with a with that like company? So it's used quite often

okay, but it's more like casual right? You wouldn't say it like you won't call the doctor and say like, I have an appo, or you would?

it's a it's using like any like formal or informal occasions.

Oh, that's good. I kind of an appointment kind of guy. I don't really Go to like the doctors and stuff or have business meetings so maybe that's why I've never heard this word. But hey, all right, first point down. I'm happy.

Okay, so the next one is infure

infure infrastructure.

infure

infure, Oh, infura is in infrastructure

Yeah, I mean, you're right. I mean or wrong. I mean, like in fouda is the wars for infrastructure?

Yeah.

And what is infure?

inflamed?

inflation

inflation. ahh close. Oh, yeah. so obvious. God dammit. Is that like, market inflation is it like a business term, or you could like inflate a balloon or is not the same meaning?

It's it's only used for Yeah, business or, you know

Yeah. Good to know. inflation. infure.

Okay, the third one, interi

interrogation.

interi

No? Is that wrong? oh okay, Not my final answer. Intelligence.

Yeah. That's correct.

Oh yeah, I guess it's always just like the first sound of the word. That's all I'm thinking. What English word sounds like, interrogation intelligence. Yeah.

And the fourth one, dema

Dema. Now, so I was gonna say demolition but it's demo, right? dema. demographic.

de.ma.

Oh demographic right. Wait do I speak English I can't remember? demo otology. dermatologist dematologist.

Wrong. It's a shortened form of a demagogue.

demagogue. Oh, that's a tricky one. Yeah, that the word even crossed my mind, demagogue

right. And at the same time it's very common we we say something like, oh, like that, that news is like it's dema. sore wa dema da yo. Things like that. okay, so you got like two

two out of four so far.

yeah, two our of four. Okay, the last one. Nego

Nego? I feel like you're playing a joke on me Yasu. I want to say negative but that must be nega Right?

nego.

nego. oh negotiate.

correct.

ah Yes.

Except that it's more used as a noun than a verb.

So like we had a negotiation. As opposed to like I negotiated. So you don't sound like nego suru.

Oh, yeah. But if you put like suru, then it becomes a verb.

Oh, yeah, but that's the case with a lot of nouns. Right?

true true true you know well. Yeah, you know, well, yeah. Either nego suru or if you want to, like make a sound a bit more casual, you can also say like, negoru for example, like when your boss asks you like how much you spent for the service, and he thinks that the price you paid is too expensive then he may say like, omae motto negoranaito dame da yo. You know, negoru

Yeah, I got you. Well, that's three out of five. Not bad. I guess I didn't know any of those. When you said quiz, I thought maybe I'll just be lucky and know some of them already. But I actually didn't. I never would have got demagogue though. That was impossible.

Yeah, that was I'm sure that was a tough one.

I hardly ever use that word in English. So it just didn't even cross my mind.

Oh, yeah. But at the same time, for some reason. It's like very often used in Japan.

Hmm. I'll be sure to keep an ear out. Okay, so that brings us to the end of this week's episode. Whichever platform you're listening on, make sure that you're subscribed for a new episode every single week.

Thanks for listening everyone. We are releasing new videos on our YouTube channel RyuTokyo, so find us there.

So stay healthy, stay safe everybody and next time in the shops make sure you do some nego and get yourself a good deal. Be sure to check back next week for the very next episode of this week in Japan. Transcribed by https://otter.ai