From the Archive: Tokyo’s Weird New Way To Sleep!

Abroad in Japan

This archival episode of 'Abroad in Japan' revisits a 2023 recording featuring hosts Pete Donaldson and Chris Broad as they reflect on their podcast

Key takeaways

• The podcast's transition to YouTube brought new anxieties for Chris, who worried about viewers seeing his food and drink habits during recordings.

Main topics

• Podcast history and transition to YouTube
• Tokyo's unusual public amenities (transparent toilets, nap pods)

Notable quotes

"It's like a little secret room that we have at the back of a shop. Come on in. We'll tell you about things."

Conclusion

The episode serves as a nostalgic and humorous retrospective, blending

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Look at Chris's calves, I don't think I've ever appreciated them before. Absolutely ridiculous. Wow. Speaker 3 (0:07) Hello, ohayakusai mas, konnichiwa and konbanwa. Pete Donaldson here from Broad & Donaldson Enterprises, aka the Broadish Man Podcast. I have returned from lovely sunny Warsaw. full of dumplings and full of pints of ziviettes. And Chris Broad is currently out and about finishing up his Rent Natsky adventures. So for this week's show, we're going to do things a little bit differently. We're going to be going back to the archives for one show only. And I'm also going to be bringing you, it's not just, you know, stuff from a few years ago. I'm also going to be bringing you some exclusive footage from mine, Chris and Natsky's trip into the mountains. Natsky, Chris and I's trip into the mountains. That sounds better, doesn't it? Yes, we went into the mountains a few months ago. And I've got a couple of offcuts that you might find a pleasing distraction from whatever you may be choosing to do with your lives Speaker 2 (0:53) right now, Speaker 3 (0:54) including a never-before-seen intimate portrayal of three men eating oranges on a mountain. Speaker 2 (1:01) It's not a bad orange. It's not the best orange you ever had. It's the only orange you ever had, Chris. Give me more. So Speaker 3 (1:07) that's coming up after the first section. I thought we'd go back to this time three years ago for that, since Chris's second book is very close to appearing on bookshelves all around the world, in all good ones near you, next month. I thought it'd be fun to see Chris's state of mind just around about the time of his first book. I think it just come out at this point. He was worried it might not make the top 10 in the Sunday Times bestsellers. It did, turns out. But here's what Chris has to say on the matter as we go right back to 2023 for a little abroad Japan time machine fun. Speaker 1 (1:39) Are you as nervous as I am about taking the podcast to YouTube? I Speaker 3 (1:43) love that we've been doing this podcast for five long... arduous, stressful years. But for the first time, you can see this podcast in full HD on that there YouTube. And Chris has got incredibly nervous, incredibly worried about what people will think. We've been doing this for five years. We've been spaffing out a lot of nonsense for five years and you suddenly seem very concerned about the content of the podcast. I love it. I love seeing you on the back foot, Chris. I love it. Speaker 1 (2:12) Well, it's because the podcast, because it's like audio only, right? And most folks don't understand how podcasts work. I didn't know how to listen to podcasts before I did it. It's like a little secret room that we have at the back of a shop. Come on in. We'll tell you about things. And now it's on YouTube. It's like we've opened a new store and anyone can come in. And more worryingly, people can see just all the food and drink that I consume while I do the podcast. Because we always talk about, oh, Chris, what are you drinking? What are you eating? Now you can see. You can see. the energy jelly you can see the ice coffee you can see the half consumed picari sweat bottle and this pete thought this was medicine this is uh the paul the paul bitan b sorry d right and it's kind of like it's in a medicinal bottle right and it's just like red bull on steroids i thought you'd i thought you'd uh Speaker 3 (3:00) i thought you'd uh got into what is it the rappers drink purple drank where they uh Well, they mix cough syrup with Johnny Ranchers and stuff. It sounds like the Flaming Speaker 2 (3:12) Homer out of Simpsons. Yes! Yeah, it's weird, man. Speaker 1 (3:15) It's weird to be here and doing this. I realise a lot of you are going to be listening to this anyway, normally. But you can check us out on YouTube, Abroad in Japan podcast YouTube channel. A lot of time went into thinking up that name, as you can tell. Speaker 2 (3:28) But Speaker 1 (3:28) I'm here. It's kind of cool. We're doing this in the brand new studio that literally just opened two or three days ago. And as you can see, it looks pretty much the same. It's pretty much the same except at the back. Instead of the Blade Runner projection, the electronic store's there now. And it feels a bit bigger Speaker 3 (3:45) and Speaker 1 (3:45) weightier, right? Speaker 3 (3:46) What do you think? So you're the person who's hoarding all those cathode ray tube televisions that are just so expensive these days. You're the one that's riding up the prices for crying out loud. I've also got a television behind me and one... Showing off. I'll probably just turn off because it doesn't seem to be doing anything at the moment. That's the thing with old 70s, 80s tech. It's lovely to look at. It takes you back to a more innocent times, but it's very hard to get working in 2023. It's difficult. Speaker 2 (4:18) There's Speaker 1 (4:18) one, two, three, four, there's six Speaker 2 (4:20) TVs over there. Speaker 1 (4:20) Only three of them work. One of them, American Pete broke. Like two years ago when I first opened the studio, I let Pete in right, which he should never do. He was like, oh my god, the snares! And he went in the electronics store, he pulled some cables and then three of the TVs just never came back on. So I'm not letting him in this studio, he's not coming in Speaker 3 (4:40) this Speaker 1 (4:40) time. Speaker 3 (4:41) I am going to be visiting Japan pretty shortly and I'll have to sneak in. Maybe I can get one of the tellies working because I've become very good at this sort of thing in a very short period. time because i had to because i'm alone and i don't have any help Speaker 1 (4:55) ah ah i mean come in there's also a um A big 1970s TV. Obviously, if you are watching this, guys, you haven't seen the other side of Speaker 2 (5:05) the Speaker 1 (5:05) studio yet. It is spectacular. And I was going to do the podcast over there, but it's all a bit of a mess. Lots of cables and things. I figured, like, maybe I'll start this whole month. We'll just do it like this in this room. Yeah. Speaker 3 (5:17) And then Speaker 1 (5:17) maybe we'll move over there next time. But it's also because it's like an enclosed room set. The air conditioning doesn't get in. and it turns into like an oven which is one major flaw in the height of summer having a set like a 1970s house the Speaker 3 (5:30) great thing about japan is that like most of it is um very well air conditioned but it's just those pockets where you actually have to get out in the streets at times it's so goddamn close is the word i'd use just very very close hot Humid weather how Speaker 1 (5:46) British are Speaker 3 (5:47) you? I know about the weather planning talking about a Speaker 1 (5:49) little bit of rain I've got to fly back to the UK in a few days and it's like a typhoon coming The plane will just get like blown out the sky. You're worried about eight days of rain. Yeah, get out. I am get out But seriously guys really exciting to be here on YouTube. Yeah, I look this up earlier cuz I don't know the stats We've done 445 episodes. Oh wow of the Abroad Japan podcast Isn't that Speaker 3 (6:12) insane? So we're coming up to our 500th. And I presume I've probably deleted a few by accident when I've been uploading a new one. So, yeah, that's amazing. So we're coming up to our 500th anniversary. Brilliant. Speaker 1 (6:24) Absolutely. And, Speaker 3 (6:25) you Speaker 1 (6:25) know, I think we're about to get a few new listeners who don't know anything about the podcast. We do have a little bit of a format. It isn't just too... annoying white guys turn up and chat about well there was a well well well that's i mean a that's Speaker 3 (6:38) the Speaker 1 (6:38) formula of most podcasts and this is a rather successful one i don't know about that but we the format is pete and i catch up pete talks about the weather i talk about how i've eaten some cheese fucking chicken and cheese then Speaker 2 (6:51) we Speaker 1 (6:53) uh after a brief catch-up we have story of the week where you read out a story sent in by you guys usually something crazy and horrendous then we have the news of the week we talk about uh current affairs and things going on here in japan and then sometimes if you're lucky you might get speedy japanese where we teach pete some japanese skills because he's coming to japan in just a few weeks time for the first time in three and a half years he might need all the japanese he can get and we finish things off with three questions from the fax machine And I do actually have a fax machine that I should try and dig out because now we can physically have it. Yes, you can turn it on. And Speaker 3 (7:25) we can Speaker 1 (7:25) print it off. We could do it. Speaker 3 (7:27) A lot of effort though, isn't it? It is a lot of effort. I don't think we'll do that. Let's make it very clear. This ain't going to happen. But you do have a fax machine. I'm very proud of you. It's not going to happen. But Speaker 1 (7:37) yeah, a bit of a wild week. But the book's just come out as well. Yes. So really. bundling a lot of things into a very short space of time here podcast launches on youtube launches there's quite a few Speaker 3 (7:50) quite a few people sort of message me uh with pictures of their pre-order of the abrogyman book saying i'm supporting the podcast i was like this isn't supporting the podcast it's not even in it i'm not even in it i'm not even mentioned the uh yeah this isn't smaller podcast this is supporting christopher's uh attempts to become a top 10 bestseller Speaker 1 (8:12) Sunday Times bestseller it's happening. It's gonna happen. We find out in like a week. It's gonna be quite I'm genuinely like nervous because I really want that as I'm not gonna write another book again Let's face it. It's like a hundred things you shouldn't do in Japan could be a good book to be fair Show me the Speaker 2 (8:26) money penguin. That's what I'd be saying. Speaker 3 (8:28) Yeah, show me that if you are Speaker 2 (8:29) successful you show me the bloody money But Speaker 3 (8:33) if it Speaker 1 (8:33) sells well, they might be back there. I'm under the same publisher. It's got penguin then there's trans world and I they publish you know your favorites like your prince harry book and your richard dawkins books then abroad japan bit of a step down a big one Speaker 2 (8:47) i Speaker 1 (8:47) don't know i think no i'm not as good as richard dawkins i'm not no prince harry but anyway let's not go there but but uh it's uh yeah it's kind of nerve-wracking because only one shot at the sunday times bestseller title really it's it's it's the first two weeks of when a book is launched and then all the pre-orders so if i haven't got it I'm fucked. I'll never be a bestseller. And my dream is dead in the water. I'll have to Speaker 3 (9:12) write another book. I'm sure you've shifted a few copies. I know of at least three copies that have been sold. Fantastic. And I got a freebie, so. Speaker 1 (9:21) You did. You should have bought one. Should have helped me Speaker 2 (9:23) on Speaker 1 (9:23) my goals. But thank you to everyone that bought the book. And I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I like the bits. I hate when people say that. I like Speaker 2 (9:31) the Speaker 1 (9:32) bits Speaker 2 (9:32) about the breastfeeding. Speaker 3 (9:35) If you're unfamiliar with the previous episode of the Abroad with Mum podcast, Chris, some enterprising, were they Chinese, I think? Enterprising Speaker 2 (9:45) Chinese company decided to... I think American, actually. Oh, Speaker 3 (9:47) American, right. They took Chris's cover