Welcome back everybody to Episode 17 of this week in Japan presented by Ryu Tokyo coming to you live from Roppongi Tokyo. I'm your host, Julian Domanski. And joining me as always is my co host and founder of Ryu Tokyo Yasuharu Matsuno
Hey guys, welcome back. Tokyo is still in the long rainy season and the weather is really humid today, but I hope you're staying comfortable and enjoy the show as always.
Today is July 31, and in this episode we're going to be discussing the following big news stories. Visa holding residents will be allowed to reenter Japan, publicity YouTubers are becoming a problem in Japan. The Abe no mask is set to return in large numbers. construction begins on a studio Ghibli theme park and you can now reserve a public toilet from your phone. On Wednesday, July 22 Prime Minister Abe Shinzo announced that after months of being denied re entry, the government will be aiming to create a plan that allows for foreign residents to return to Japan, possibly starting as early as the end of July. While residents outside the country are happy to hear the possibility of returning to their homes, for many the government's actions are frustratingly late. Thousands of long term foreign residents in Japan have been separated from their homes and loved ones for months now, the ongoing rigidness from the government mixed with the fact that Japan has been allowing some tourists in for business related affairs has led to a large number of dissatisfied residents. Exceptions to the bands such as spouses of Japanese nationals, those with permanent residents or those on special permits are required to show a proof of exiting Japan before the ban was implemented to be allowed back in currently is the plan to allow foreign residents back in passes, the government is estimating a controlled quota of 500 people per day. returnees will be required to take a PCR test before they depart and upon arriving in Japan. So in the kind of gaijin bubble this week, this has been probably the biggest news because it's effecting A lot of us foreigners here in Japan
Yeah. So technically your spouse of a Japanese citizen, right? Your wife is Japanese.
Yeah.
Which means like, if you had left Japan a few months ago, you couldn't have come back to Japan until August.
It's crazy, right?
Yeah. And yeah, because I'm, I'm not a foreigner. I'm Japanese. Right. So I wasn't really aware of this issue until lately, but compared to other countries, what Japan has been doing seems a bit too extreme. so I read an article about like three major categories of foreign residents and the first one is PR permanent resident. Second one is like you, you know, spouse or a PR of a Japanese citizen. And the third one are the ones on the you know, working visa or a student visa. And basically, Japan has been saying, no entry, you know, no to people that belong to all these three categories. And you know, unless you have special reasons for it. Yeah, I was just looking at the diagram of like, which countries like, restrict, like which category of people from like re entering. and Japan is pretty much the only like developed country that restricts all these three batteries. yeah. And this is probably why Abe has been, or the, you know, current administration has been criticized from many foreigners and by other countries.
Yeah. If, like, if I take myself as an example, if I returned to England, for whatever reason, I at least have some family that I could stay with, you know, and they probably wouldn't want me staying there too long. You know, but, you know, if I really had to, there's probably some places like today and it would be okay, right. But a lot of people don't have that same privilege. You know, maybe they just went, they went back to the home country, maybe not to see their family member, they just had to take care of some business, you know, and the timing was just super bad. And then Japan is just like now you can't come back. Sorry. And maybe like, you know, the What about their job? They probably got fired because of it, you know, imagine just not showing up to work for three months. Because you can't get back to your home. Maybe you've got like a pet or something, you know, maybe you got a husband or a wife or kids or there's so many things that that people could have back in Japan.
You know, what's unclear about this is that if you have special reasons for it, for the re enter, then they allow you to come back. but I'm not sure like how like leaning The Japanese government has been on this rule.
Well, I only heard one of the main reasons was like if someone passes away like some of the one your immediate family, okay, if you need to go back for a funeral. Which I mean that that tends to be like extenuating circumstances in almost all situations, you know, for like school or work whenever someone passes away, then it's like universally agreed to that like that. That's totally fine to kind of bend the rules, whatever. And so, I mean, that's good. At least there's some leniency to it. But it shouldn't take someone to die for you to be able to, like returned home and back again. Yeah, I mean, I totally understand if they're worried about the virus, then, you know, the worst comes to worse. You have to go back and quarantine for two weeks. I when you come back to Japan you have to be in quarantine for another two weeks. So you know, you gotta be in quarantine for a month.
Yeah, I agree.
but yeah, like, that's the only logical way to do it safetly right?
Yeah. And that's basically what they're asking people to do it like before the re entry, right? So you need to have the negative test result within like 72 hours before your arrival. And also upon arrival, you will also get the the PCR test. So it's a very like sounds like a very rigid process to, you know, make sure that Japan won't allow anyone infected from the re entry.
Yeah well, I think just yeah, allowing people to come back that were out of the country before this happened, right? Because that was just completely unfair and unexpected. I would say like, in the interest of everyone that is currently in Japan, don't allow people to return if they've left during the pandemic, because that's your choice, right? I would not choose to go back to England now, even if I knew I was allowed to return. Because it's just stupid. Right? Like, everyone's trying to minimize travel. Minimize the contagion right, so it just doesn't make any sense. If you want to go Yeah. After the outbreak, then that's on you. You know, so if you're one of those people and you're still complaining, then I don't think maybe you have such a right to do so. Before, completely understandable. And I will definitely back you 100% It's a you know, it's it's it's a bit of a tricky situation, right? But yeah, I guess going forward, we'll get maybe get some more updates on the story for next week. Because they still haven't really outlined everything they're going to implement. Right? The government kind of talked about it. They said they want to get it implemented soon. But, you know, you know what the Japanese government's like, they're a bit slow to do these kind of things. So maybe we'll be able to give you guys a bit more of a clear clarification next week. Okay, so let's move on to our second story of the week. Recently, there have been several problematic youtubers popping up in Japan. These youtubers since named meiwaku kei or nuisance YouTubers have been causing various problems for the people they come across. The most recent nuisance youtuber goes by the name of Hezumaryu and has been on a rampage in an attempt to garner attention. His initial videos were somewhat typical and included travel vlogs, or food challenges. But when the views didn't roll in, his videos began to become more extreme. Recently, videos have begun to include things like showing up unannounced at a Popular youtubers house to harass them and their family to do a collaboration, or reportedly uploading videos of eating stolen goods on YouTube. Due to his has high amounts of travel Hezumaryu was recently announced to have contracted the Coronavirus. Despite this he continued to travel around his home prefecture of Yamaguchi and meet with people infecting two of which he had come into contact with. He also managed to infect seven more people he was in contact with in Aichi prefecture. The governors of both prefectures made announcements concerning the events, spreading his name and encouraging him to continue his attention grabbing actions, even after being banned several times for his inappropriate videos. Hezumaryu and other nuisance YouTubers like him, claim that it only makes them more infamous. He says that if he is banned, he'll simply continue to create newer accounts or go to other platforms, and that YouTube is simply a means to become famous. I think we can all agree that this is the worst kind of person for society as a whole right? I mean, they give like I guess like the term youtuber a bad name. But it's not that like YouTubers are problematic, right? I mean, they are in some ways, but
exactly yea
but this kind of person, they just recognize, like what's the best platform to achieve this kind of result? Right? And it just so happens that YouTube is like that at the moment. But this kind of person around for a long time right just being meiwaku for people.
Yeah, I agree. Like there are many there have been many various, you know, meiwaku type of people, you know, throughout the history. But yeah, it's just that they now have a, you know, digital, like a digital platform to leverage.
Yeah, that's it.
And yeah, kind of, like sell their name. You know, as a matter of fact, meiwakukei YouTuber has really been a trending word in Japan, especially this year. And as you mentioned in the article hezumaryu is probably the most notorious one recently. But it's not only this guy. But there was another guy that almost got arrested called a joburogu. Or joe vlog. He almost got arrested and guess guess what he did?
Uh, I don't know. He stole his umbrella.
Yeah, so this guy basically carried real bed to the famous like Shibuya crossing.
I was gonna mention this in a minute. But I thought it was like a crew of people, right? Yeah,
yeah, yes, yeah. He and his friends. And he was on the bed. And he tried to like sleep on the bed in the middle of the crossing.
So, I guess it's his channel, right. So he takes most of the responsibility.
He does.
Do you know what happened to the other people because it was like four friends. Obviously one on each corner that carried him into the middle of the road. I thought they all got like arrested.
Yeah, so they were basically reported To the prosecutor's office. Yeah, it's this main guy. joburogu who came up with the idea. But as to hezumaryu, like, do you know like, how he got arrested in the end?
I don't know actually no
So it's funny, though. He's done like many bad things. You know, he's harassed soo many people, like, you know, grabbing them and causing injuries and, you know, shouting in front of like, people's apartments, drawing like graffiti on their walls and stuff. Like, you know, they're all crimes, right?
So yeah, he's actually just like a criminal. He's not even like meiwaku YouTuber.
Exactly yeah, criminal, right. So police was kind of like, monitoring him and in the end, but I thought the last one was kind of funny. So he went into a random supermarket and, and then he grabbed sashimi and he started eating Like inside a supermarket, and he just carried the empty tray and then went to the cashier and he paid the money for it and but he just like, ate it, like, as he walks through to the cashier. I mean, I think that is self that act itself is a borderline of like legal and illegal because he eventually pay the money.
But he technically stole it before you paid for it right?
So yeah, that's why he got arrested and what makes matters worse is that Yeah, as you mentioned, he had Corona and infected many people around him
ah man what an asshole.
Yeah, there's no like better awards for him, right?
Oh, yeah, he just sounds like an awful person. But yeah, this is not a trend only in Japan, right? There's there's many people like this. YouTube brings out the worst in a lot of people I think money fame hungry people. They'll just do anything for people's attention. Right. So I mean, actually, we should probably just mention because I don't think we did already but the word meiwaku just means like troublesome or trouble in Japanese. So actually one of my favorite words I say it quite a lot. That's meiwaku. I like the sound of the word like waku. It sounds a bit like whack. Maybe that's Whack
mei whack
so if you're like meiwaku than whack, this guy is whack i think but this this kind of brings up Yeah, some other references I guess probably the most famous for foreigners out there. Logan Paul, do you remember this guy? Yeah, he came and just devastated Shibuya. What did he do? He put an octopus tentacle back of a car. A taxi. He was going around throwing Pokeballs at cars. he jumped on the back like those little trucks in the tsukiji market?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I saw it.
Yeah. He was just doing all kinds of shit. Like, he just thought he was like in an anime or something. I mean, the guy is obviously a bit mentally challenged anyway. I mean, he's younger than me, but he's like mid 20s and he behaves like a 14 year old boy. But he just does every anything he can for attention. That one particularly annoyed me though, because he was a foreigner. So a lot of foreigners are like, oh, god dammit, like, we already have a tough time trying to, you know, we want Japanese people to take us seriously and all it takes is one stupid guy to come here and just start throwing Pokeballs around so yeah, kids don't be a meiwaku youtuber means that whack
meiwaku kei
well yea meiwaku kei, but like it's just meiwaku right? It doesn't need the Kei i don't think
or we can just call them like hanzaisha, you know, criminal.
So speaking of things that are incredibly wack, let's move on to our next story of the week. Earlier this year, Japan shipped out over 130 million cloth masks across Japan. The two masks per family plan were suggested by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and the masks sooned became known as abe no mask. It now seems that another huge shipment of masks is in the works. The government is currently planning to send out another 86 million masks to daycare centers and nursing homes in Japan. The first wave of abe no masks had their own share of controversy. Many people received their masks very late if at all, and the masks themselves were very small and hard to wear. citizens were also angry at the massive amount of taxpayer money that was used to implement them. With this new round of masks, it would seem that the same problems are surfacing again. On Twitter the hashtag zeikin muda tsukai, which means a waste of tax money was soon trending along with the phrase abe no mask. Many users express their disagreement with a decision to hand out more masks, especially now that they are once again regularly available. One to two user wrote is prime minister Abe just not listening 10s of millions of feelings clearly not unified. That's a powerful statement here. Not unified. But I think this guy is right. Obviously the translation is lost a little bit there, But it's just tone deaf isn't it? People Don't need more masks. That's not that's not what anyone's asking for. the masks. They sent out were comically small. I can agree that you know if the same as sending them to daycare centers, and kind of like health care places, care homes. Then at least is more of a useful purpose for them. But masks are readily available again. And the masks, they said if they're the same mask last time, they're just not good. What did you buy boxes of regular masks and send them to daycares?
Yeah, as you imply, if this was done a few months ago, then it could have made a lot more sense But yeah, I don't I don't want to be sarcastic about everything the government does. You know, like, overall, I support Abe and I Think he's working hard, but certain things it's just hard to understand the rationale behind them. not just like these masks but we discussed go to travel campaign a weeks ago right? And it's it's crazy like why would the government want to subsidize the you know traveling in Japan now, You know what while we need to stay at home,
we can go traveling with our new masks.
It Just doesn't add up
it doesn't make any sense. Literally zero The hashtag right, zeikin is tax. Muda is kind of useless, but mudatsukai is like to just to waste money
or in this case waste tax.
Exactly. Yeah. Some of you guys might know me from Jojo. It's my mission to slip Jojo into every episode of this podcast. He's basically showing like useless, useless, useless. But again, this is another word they use quite a lot. And I like this word. But it is it's just it's completely muda, right? It's just such a stupid idea. Right? And there's so many other areas of, you know, society that could use this money. I wonder how much these masks might cost to make? Because
Yeah that's what I was wondering too
They're not paper are they, they're cloth. And they're stitched. So
it's not that cheap. And especially to send them out to like each household, or in this case, like nursery or whatever. But, I'm definitely more than like 100 yen per mask, I imagine.
Probably Yeah. Which is quite a lot, right?
Yeah. So let's say like they're, you know, making 86 million masks and in this case, that will be like over like 8 billion yen, or it's about like 80 million US dollars. it's quite substantial
That's a big chunk of change, isn't it?
And I have a feeling that it's actually more expensive than just like 100 yen is usually including like transportation costs, it will be like hundreds of millions of dollars. So, you know, it makes me think that if I had a factory, and I could produce all these masks, then I would take the deal, you know, as a businessman, you know, the government, like working with the government is should be great, right? They always pay you on time. And the amount of order is like massive. Yeah, like, you know, we're talking about like, 10s of, or, you know, if not, like hundreds of millions here.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it's, it's a big, it's definitely a big amount.
So I think another problem here is that, how are these like makers chosen by the government?
Well, I would imagine it's all based on proposals. But like, Not a long time ago, but I used to work for an engineering company. And we did some work for the MOD, which is the Ministry of Defense in England or the UK unspecified work, but we did some work for the mod
you are developing like missles and stuff
Basically yeah.
Oh wow. Or it's not viruses right?
It was it was something to do with aviation. I don't want to too much detail but it's not nothing weapon based. Anyway, but this this company I work for. Yeah, we basically just had to put a proposal in the government and basically bid for the work. I think that kind of that kind of thing is quite normal. A lot of instances.
Well, I get that and I think totally that's totally rational under a normal like circumstance. But what some people are saying is that these like bidding information are not like disclosed to the public, like no one knew that, you know, the government wanted the You know, like proposals from the companies? So it seems like there is no authority nor unfairness
could be the Yakuza. Underground mask production?
Well, yeah, I'm pretty sure they're super careful about it, because that's the last thing, you know, like literally the last thing they want. But But still, like, it's a bit like shady, you know?
Yeah, I guess so. And it's kind of concerning here when it is so much money. So we won't be getting any of these masks ourselves Yasu, right? Because they these are not just regular citizens, this time there won't be sending them out.
Right. But as you said, We don't need those masks anymore so
Exactly the ones that I got were comically small, but they're sending these to daycares, which, you know, after wearing mine, they only fit children. So that makes a lot of sense.
Anyway, yeah, I hope, you know, we just hope that the government stops zeikin no mudatsukai
right. Hopefully, hopefully soon Yeah. so on some entertainment news next, construction is finally set to begin on the highly anticipated studio Ghibli theme park. Once complete, it will feature five different areas based off of the works of animation director, Hayao Miyazaki including Spirited Away Howl's Moving Castle and my neighbor Totoro. The Park, which was originally planned to open in 2020 has now been pushed back until 2022. The park will be located in NagaKute city near Nagoya in Aichi prefecture. There is already an area for the film my neighbor Totoro located in the park where visitors can see an exact replica of Satsuki and Mei's house from the iconic Ghibli film, While the park is planned to open in 2022. The prefectural government says that only three areas will be complete to begin with the remaining two areas based off of the Princess Mononoke and Kiki's Delivery Service will be finished by 2024. Once fully complete, Aichi prefecture estimates around 1.8 million visitors a year. Well, I'd imagine at the moment that estimate right A little bit lower than 1.8. But you know, by 2022, we might, you know, be returned back to a normal, normal life. Who knows? I mean, I imagine that's probably the part of the decision to delay this part. Have you ever been to the original park? The one that's just theTotoro and the house? Because that's quite, that's quite popular.
Are you talking about the one in mitaka?
No, no, no, no, that's the Ghibli Museum. Like we mentioned in the story, Satsuki and Mei's house in Aichi. There's actually like a replica house.
Oh yeah. Like I didn't even know about the house. So I've never visited
Yeah, it's quite popular, I've never been because Aichi is a little bit far away from Tokyo. But if you go on YouTube, there's tons of videos about it. it looks super cool. You know, and I assume you've obviously seen the movies, right?
Yeah, of course. Yeah.
So it's just that house recreated. But from what I understand, yeah, this park is gonna be like an addition to that area, and the Totoro but they're gonna kind of spruce it up. Add some new stuff. And then also build these are the four sections, but yeah, I'm pretty excited to go and check it out. Yeah, I want to go and check out the house for a while but um, you know, make sense for me now just to wait until you know what, wait for a couple more years and just go see the whole thing together. Yeah, it looks really cool.
To be honest, like, I didn't even know about the construction of this amusement park until recently. But yeah, it rather made me think like, why haven't they built it earlier? You know, considering like, how popular in Japan and in the world, right. So he's almost like, you know, Walt Disney of Japan.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
yeah, like, you've been to Ghibli no mori bijutsukan, the museum in mitaka.
Right. I've been twice actually. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. I've been there once with my family and it was like Really great.
Yes. Cool, isn't it?
But yeah, there's no doubt that this amusement park Is going to be like, you know, really successful like attracting, like so many people right?
Yeah. I mean, maybe the brand compared to Disney isn't as big, but it's pretty huge right? So I would say that Yeah, once it's kind of up and running if it was nearer to Tokyo, it would just be like unstoppable right. I think it's location is the only thing that is letting it down. But saying that I think more people need to stop coming to Tokyo only when they come to Japan.
I agree.
There's so many great places in Japan that's a good visit. So I think the more kind of interesting attractions we have spread out across the country your you know, it's a good place you know, I guess not that far from Aichi You've got like usj you know Osaka right? So that's like another big theme park. But from what I'm aware Aichi doesn't really have anything that big of like on the international scale.
Yeah, in terms of the amusement parks, for sure.
I'm sure it has like local amusement parks, but like everybody knows like Universal Studios and Disneyland, Disney Sea
It's not as international or globally known.
Yeah, it's just full of locals. Right. Everyone knows about it if they're local. Yeah, well, I guess what you really want to do to make big bucks is to attract tourists, you know? Well, you know, whenever they're there, they're allowed to return to Japan. so this kind of runs on from we've seen a couple of like themed theme parks so like there's that really cool looking Naruto ninja village in Hyogo, where you basically go on like a ninja quest. You have to find these scrolls and stuff. And there's also massive Nintendo World Park being planned as additional to the USJ in Osaka. Which I'm super psyched for. Have you not seen it?
Yeah, I didn't know but like when is it opening?
It was supposed to open before the Olympics is Yeah, it's almost finished. I keep seeing pictures like because it's obviously closed off. But people are like trying to go up and like high buildings and like they use like super like zoom lenses and take shots, but it looks it looks just like mario world on the Super Nintendo, looks awesome. I can't wait to go there but yeah, like Japan's got loads of these like kind of very specific themed theme parks I guess you can call them Really? So yeah this doesn't surprise me that they're going with the Ghibli theme park because one of the biggest brands to come out of Japan and yeah I'm pretty excited to check it out maybe we can even go there and make a video Yasu for the for the YouTube channel at some point,
right? I hope so.
So yeah, blow briefer segue there. But if you guys are listening and you want to watch some Japan related content, then check out Ryu Tokyo on YouTube. So on to our final story of the week, a new technology is coming to Japan that may revolutionize the way we go to the bathroom. Starting this Thursday, the 30th of July, Yokohama station will be implementing the first toilet that can be reserved remotely. This service will be called QREA and is developed by the venture company Duchamp reservations can be made via line The most common messaging app in Japan. Once reserved, the door will auto lock for around 10 minutes until you arrive, directions to the bathroom and directions for unlocking it will be displayed via your line app. Not only will this provide a sense of security for those rushing to the bathroom, but it will also reduce the number of people trying to open the door when in use, which can be quite distracting for those inside. One in 10 people in Japan suffer from irritable bowel syndrome and a flare up can happen suddenly, being able to reliably reach a nearby toilet can be a monumental help. Representatives of this project are hopeful that this technology can become widespread throughout the country. Following is experimental trials which are due to run until August 30. Every day from 2pm to 7pm. Did you ever think that we needed a reservable toilet Yasu?
fortunately, yeah, I never had this kind of like serious issues. As far as I remember. Maybe when I was a little kid.
Yeah, I mean sometimes you know, I don't realize how much I need the toilet and to me Kind of dawns upon me. And then you know, it just got a rush. But this statistic kind of surprised me one in 10 people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. Right. seems quite high.
I think that this number is a bit off. Um, I mean, like, it's just seems like too many.
Yeah, that's what I thought. I mean, it was the the statistic quoted in a couple of articles that we referenced. Right, but maybe the severity of people's disorder could vary quite a lot.
The thing is that for example, I am lactose intolerant. And although I think I don't have this syndrome. You know, because of that, when a you know, drink or you know, having dairy like products, then like, you know, I have some like digestion, digestive problems.
Okay. So you think maybe that some of these people they're not, maybe don't have irritable bowel syndrome, but they don't realize they have an allergy.
Yeah. Like, if you if we can call like lactose intolerance a kind of like allergy, but but yes,
yeah. Oh yeah, maybe the phrasing is bad. I guess I don't have any of these intolerances. So I don't really think much about how they're referred to. But it's not really so it's not really an allergy is it? But yeah, could be maybe they got this number just from a survey. And it's just asked, you know, like, how many times you go to the bathroom or, do you ever feel like you just suddenly need to go to the toilet? But yeah, the root cause could be many things. Right. It's an interesting concept, though, I guess. You know, just trying to solve problems for people that have them.
I agree. Yeah. And I think for for some people, like, I'm not sure like, how many of them are in Japan. But um, you know, I was reading some some comments from the CEO of this company. And in his case, it's quite severe because he himself has IRS. I mean, he's suffering from IRS and in his case, He needs to go to the bathroom like, at least several times a day.
Yeah. Well, I mean, it would make sense that the person who invented this system suffers from this issue.
Yeah, right. Yeah. And I also saw their website and their corporate tagline is that daremo morasenai seikai de. And which means like, creating a world with no pooping in your pants. And
morasenai?
Yeah, morasu means like, you know, moreru means to like leak like out.
Oh, I get it now.
So you know, if you say oh, you you morashita then you kind of like pooped in your pants.
I've never heard in that context before?
yeah. Yeah. It's it's not not only for pooping, but peeing as well
Yeah, I understand. it's not funny, but the phrase is funny.
Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of funny that we're, you know, having this discussion on on our show.
This is big news of the week.
But yeah, this this founder is quite serious about solving an issue for many people who are suffering from this syndrome. Yeah, so in his case, he can't really even travel far because of this syndrome. He's always afraid that he may like morasu Ah, you know, because of the syndrome. And so yeah, I'm more curious what the system is actually like.
Yeah. I mean, I guess for something like this to work you need to have a lot of toilets spread out quite evenly, right?
I think so.
So for someone like him, yeah, if he feels that maybe he can't. Yeah, goes such a great distance, then you'd have to, you know, along that distance, you'd need to have several of these you know, toilets available. I mean, he can still use use regular toilet. So it's not the end of the world. That's true.
It's just like kind of an insurance.
Yeah. But I do find that public bathrooms in Japan are really quite available in quite a lot of places. Because I feel like I've never had to rush the toilet because I know where one is I can get to one. But maybe that's the difference between me and him that he has to be like right next to it. Possibly. yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I feel sorry for him in this situation. So it's a good it's a good idea for people that are kind of suffering with this, I guess. It's interesting experiment as well. One thing that I just wonder is like, if you could lock the door locks for 10 minutes, then there's only like, six times an hour. And for this trial, they're only open for five hours a day. But technically only like 30 people can go in that one bathroom in that one day. But even when they're open, like if there was to be open, like all time, minimizing the time to 10 minutes makes it less usable, right? So it's not a problem, because I guess people with this syndrome are not as common. But as long as as long as regular people don't start using them again, not not regular people. But as long as people that don't need to use them, don't use them. But that might cause a problem, right. And when they haven't been reserved, I'm wondering, we should be able to walk in and use it, like a regular bathroom. This is some kind of details that are still not specified.
Yeah, I think this is more complicated than it sounds.
It's weirdly complicated,
as you mentioned, for it to actually, you know, help people with this syndrome they would probably need many places that have, you know, this system installed. So yeah, but I'm very curious to check it out. You know, when I get to chance To visit Yokohama
Yeah, possibly. Maybe I'm passing through there on Saturday. Maybe we'll, I'll go through.
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Make a video.
Yeah, so certainly interesting. Well, 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 have an interesting old Japanese expression today. And the Word of the Week is Kitsune no yomeiri.
Kitsune no
yomeiri
Yomeiri
So you know what kitsune is?
kitsune is fox. Okay.
And yome is what?
Yome is, I don't know actually.
Yomei is a bit like traditional sounding word for your wife.
Oh, okay. And I feel like learned reading for the kanji but never used it. it is somewhere in the deep pits of my mind.
Yeah, I'm sure. And iri uses a kanji for to enter. So basically, yomeiri is like to get married, as a woman, you know it's not used for men, you now. So when it's combined it means something like a fox getting married, right or a female Fox getting married. so the question is what's what's the meaning behind it?
What's the meaning? Okay I'm gonna go for a stupid answer first. Because you know like English we say someone is Foxy when they're like attractive. I say my generation but yeah, you will know the the Jimi Hendrix song right Foxy Lady.
Yeah, I like that song.
I won't sing it due to copyright reasons, but you all you know, you all know the song. The actual meaning. Oh, man, this is tricky.
Yeah, this is very tricky. So I give you a hint. Yeah, so it's something weather related.
weather related.
Do you need another hint?
Possibly, yeah. Don't make it too easy. But,
um, you know that in Japan like Fox, and or racoon um, they have some, like magical power to trick people, um, you know, changing their appearance. and things like that. so it's, it's not like related to like, you know, changing appearance, but the fact that they have like some, you know, bizarre like magical power,
and it's to do with the weather. The second clue just made it more complicated.
Okay.
Yeah. Okay, let me let me let me break this down. Okay, so you're a woman. You're going to get married, and you're also a fox. And you can change. You can shape shift And foxes are quite sneaky, right? They're quite cunning. So is it something to do with like, pretending to be someone that you're not to in order to get married? Or like, after you've got married, reverting back to your true self?
Yeah, that's an interesting guess. And there are different like interpretations as well. But let's say in the context of like, weather, you know, this is used to describe a certain like, weather. Definitely not a sunny day, right? Not like cloudy day. Not a rainy day. So what is it?
Snow. it's windy? Humid? How many types of day are there?
You've tried right? So the The answer is sun shower.
Sun shower. Interesting. Okay, go on.
So they are different theories. As to the origin of this saying but traditionally, in Japan as I said they they have like magical powers. You know, when it's sunny and raining, it does look a bit like illusional, doesn't it? Like it's very bizarre, right?
Yeah I mean it happened to me last week? I think we were filming a video right?
A few days ago. Yeah, yeah. So I almost said oh, this is the Kitsune no yomeiri.
Oh, I remember that's why you said that. Oh I remember.
Yeah, 4because it was it was sunny outside. Yeah, but still like raining. Yeah. So, some, you know, people in the past like attribute is such illusional weather to the magical power of foxes. Yeah. And they thought that like, foxes are trying to like trick you, you know, so that's one of the theories or the origin of Kitsune no yomeiri. But some other people thought that a new Fox couple is having a wedding during the sun shower.
Oh, that's quite Cute, right? I like that meaning. it's quite Sweet.
So although you know there are several like different theories as to the the origin of this word, most people in Japan known this expression
Interesting. I like that though it's like, yeah because when you when you see that kind of thing it definitely feels somewhat magical yeah, no, that's cool especially like, you know, back in the olden days of any country right whenever weird things happened. People just had no explanation. So they just made up these stories, right?
Yeah. that's it. I think that's a reason.
Yeah, that's really cool. Well, you truly bamboozled me this week, Yasu. so I guess I kind of make up for last week. I kind of I did all right. Last week, I think.
Yeah, you passed You got what three out of five?
Yeah but that was too good for you. Right? You wanted me to fail? So you had to just crush me.
It's always fun, you know, you're trying to figure out what like some random Japanese word mean.
Yeah, always fun and I'm always learning something new every week. Okay, so yeah, that brings us to the end of this week's episode. Whichever platform you're listening to at home, make sure you're subscribed for a new episode every single week.
Thanks for listening, everyone. So we are releasing new videos every week on our Ryu Tokyo YouTube channel. So check them out.
So stay healthy, stay safe, everybody. And next time you're out for a nice socially distance walk in the countryside. If you see some rainy sunshine, think Kitsune no yomeiri. Maybe there's some foxes off somewhere in a magical place getting married. So be sure to check back next week. The very next episode of this week in Japan. Transcribed by https://otter.ai