Should You Take Your Children to Japan?

Abroad in Japan - Stak

In this episode of 'Abroad in Japan,' hosts Chris Broad and Pete Donaldson humorously explore the idea of taking children to Japan, using th

Key takeaways

• Natsuki's youthful appearance despite being in his 50s highlights how perceptions of age can vary across cultures.

Main topics

• Parenting and traveling with children to Japan

Notable quotes

"I want a holiday. I want to buy David Bowie records." – Natsuki, highlighting cultural differences in travel expectations.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with playful anticipation for Natsuki's upcoming

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) Has anybody ever pointed out that you're an idiot in Japan? Uh... Wow! Hello and welcome to the Abroad in Japan podcast. Probably the best way of learning about life in Japan without actually being in Japan. I'm your host Chris Broad and we're joined as always by England's top Japan enthusiast, Mr. Pete Donaldson. Pete, how the devil are you doing? What's going on? Speaker 2 (0:19) Why have you just taken off your belt, Chris Broad? What Speaker 4 (0:21) do you mean I've taken off my belt? You took Speaker 2 (0:22) off your belt and you put it over there. What's that about? Speaker 4 (0:25) When you're sitting down in a chair you want to be able to breathe. Speaker 2 (0:28) Right. Speaker 4 (0:28) When I did the audiobook, I took my belt off. Because it changes the way you speak. Jeremy Irons wouldn't Speaker 2 (0:33) take his belt off. Speaker 4 (0:34) Sound like Connor. Speaker 2 (0:35) Just sit up in your chair. Get yourself a little bit of this. If Speaker 4 (0:38) I keep my belt on, I sound like Connor. Speaker 2 (0:41) We were talking about voiceovers last week, and I did actually, when I was looking for that man who'd stolen my job and the food out of my child's mouth. When you worked on the Speaker 4 (0:48) Discovery Channel? On the Discovery Speaker 2 (0:49) Channel. There are some perverts out there who will film. the film, record TV continuity and put it on YouTube because they're collectors or archivists. I don't know. They sort of want to say, well, this is what DMACC sounds like now or looks like now. I've no idea why they do it, but they do it and it's very helpful in putting together showreels. And I did, somebody put one of mine up and I was like, put your showreel up? Put one of my links up of me talking about ice road truckers or fucking, you know. The ice. You won't believe the ice. Building a cabin off grid. And, you know, deadliest catch so far. And I didn't listen. I was going, yeah, I can understand why they got rid of me. Oh, Speaker 4 (1:29) no. I Speaker 2 (1:30) was clearly just, I was full of cold. And I was like clearly sitting like you said you shouldn't sit. I clearly had about ten belts on like at an all set. Speaker 4 (1:37) And I Speaker 2 (1:37) was going, Speaker 4 (1:38) deadliest catch. Speaker 2 (1:40) Fisherman Mike's had a heart attack. I know the secrets of Speaker 4 (1:44) the Speaker 2 (1:44) trade. Speaker 4 (1:45) Take your belt off if you're doing a voiceover. Take your Speaker 2 (1:46) belt off. I never knew. And I haven't got a voiceover contract anymore with anyone. And I've been wearing Speaker 4 (1:52) my belt so tight. That's why you lost the job. I know. He just won't take his belt off for the Discovery Channel voiceover. He's not worthy. Deadliest belt. Get me in. Terrible. Oh, man. Three days in a room doing the voiceover. Three Speaker 2 (2:05) days, man. For the audio book. How many words is the book? 50, 60,000 kind of something? Speaker 4 (2:10) It's 450 pages. Yeah. So it's a lot of fucking work. Yeah. That's too much. And you notice things, you notice mistakes he made that you're kind of like, oh, fuck. Do you have to resist Speaker 2 (2:23) the urge to, you can't change them, can you? Oh, I did. I changed a lot of things. Speaker 4 (2:28) I'd say the audiobook. I Speaker 2 (2:29) bet you were a pain Speaker 4 (2:29) in the ass then. The audiobooks. Maybe better than the physical book in some ways because I did one last edit. You're like Grand Speaker 2 (2:36) Theft Auto. You're like a video game company releasing a game and then giving a day one patch. You're a day one patch man. Indeed I am. Speaker 4 (2:44) And I think it's going to be a great book. Speaker 2 (2:47) You could keep on updating it. The audio book, Speaker 4 (2:50) couldn't you? No. Speaker 2 (2:50) Every week just add a little bit more. Make it better and better. Speaker 4 (2:54) And you should have Speaker 2 (2:54) offered that to Penguin. I've Speaker 3 (2:56) not given Speaker 2 (2:57) you any draft. I would Speaker 4 (2:58) still say the physical book's the one to get. It's a bit longer. It's got some extra stuff in that the audiobook won't. Still Speaker 2 (3:03) not Pete Donaldson. But it's still not Pete Donaldson. Still not Pete Donaldson. What a shame. I Speaker 4 (3:08) did think about getting someone with a voice like you or Connor to do the book at my behest. Connor should do Speaker 2 (3:14) his voice in it, I think, at the very least. Well, I could do Connor's voice. Speaker 4 (3:19) sound Speaker 2 (3:20) like a dog you sound like a cartoon dog I don't believe Speaker 4 (3:23) I don't want to do that blah blah blah easy easy for Natsuki and Ryotaro's voices I just did a racist voice a white man doing a Japanese no I just did Ryotaro I'm like hello is that really yeah Speaker 2 (3:39) and Natsuki's like Chris Speaker 4 (3:40) I want to go coffee I mean they both Speaker 2 (3:43) sound like they've had brain injuries so good on you good on you no one's ever watched any they must be like a fair proportion because when I was on holiday a couple of years ago when your first book came out Speaker 4 (3:54) there Speaker 2 (3:55) was a lot of men of a certain age that I wouldn't necessarily say were your demographic on the video side of things and I saw a few people just reading reading the old broad japan book and I was like geez like they're probably not aware of who Natsuki is who like they've probably never seen them so they probably do think they're worried Speaker 4 (4:12) actually one thing I'm worried about in the book I didn't really properly introduce who Natsuki is. So he just sounds like a little bit of a maniac. Because the opening line with Natsuki and I Speaker 2 (4:23) flying... Not even Japanese. Speaker 4 (4:24) Natsuki and I flying into Sapporo. And Natsuki's looking out the window like an excited school kid, like, oh, Speaker 3 (4:30) wow, I want to fucking get drunk. Wow. Speaker 4 (4:32) And I don't think I really elaborated on who this man was. Speaker 3 (4:37) Whereas Speaker 4 (4:37) Ryosho gets like a full, like two paragraphs. Right. Speaker 2 (4:40) Imagine if like you'd never explained that Natsuki's in his 50s and people think he's like... 12. Natsuki's my son. Speaker 4 (4:47) He's got the mind of a youthful 25-year-old. I think it's fair. But of course, he's coming to the UK next week. He is, yes. The Speaker 2 (4:55) big rentnatsuki.com business. rentnatsuki.com. Yeah. We Speaker 4 (4:59) actually got a really cool last-minute application just like yesterday. Right. Before Ian slammed the door shut so nobody else could buy it. It's never shut. And we got one last application that came through. It's really good. Right. Involving bees. What? Bees. Bees. Bees. Speaker 2 (5:14) Oh, yeah. Like Natsuki's only said he's coming for a holiday. So, yeah, I know. He's Speaker 4 (5:18) going to be Speaker 2 (5:18) just nursing anaphylactic shock scars. Speaker 4 (5:22) I had a phone call with Natsuki. I sent Natsuki like a... I translated the whole game plan into Japanese. It was like, oh, yeah, SAS training that day, doing a theatre performance, the fucking bees. And Natsuki, he rang me and he was like, Chris, I want a holiday. And I'm like, not... a holiday, Natsuki. This is the opposite. It's going to be fun. Speaker 2 (5:44) You always, you always, I don't think it's behind the curtain to sort of say there is a financial compliment to Natsuki being involved in your stuff. Well, obviously we pay Natsuki. You pay Natsuki. You pay Natsuki. He is going to earn his fucking coin this time around. He is. We pay Speaker 4 (5:59) him a good amount and that's one of the coolest things about doing a Royal Japan. Natsuki gets almost a living out of it and, you know, that's why I want to do more with him. going forward. So I'm sort of pressing on him the importance of if this goes well, we can do more. You can travel more. It'll be fun. Speaker 2 (6:16) And Speaker 4 (6:16) he's Speaker 2 (6:16) like, Speaker 4 (6:16) I want a holiday. I want to buy... That's what the Speaker 2 (6:19) money's for. Speaker 4 (6:19) I want to go Camden and buy David Bowie records. And I'm like, you can fucking do that in Speaker 2 (6:23) Tokyo. You'll get time to buy... There'll be better records from David Bowie in Tokyo. And cheaper ones in Tokyo. Speaker 4 (6:30) Yeah, literally. In the last video I put out... Natsuki and I rummage through like an empty warehouse in Shizuoka in a field and find like Beatles first pressings and stuff. Sergeant Speaker 2 (6:39) Pepper's fucking... They'll be better looked after. They won't be scratched to shit. Yeah. And he's like, I want a holiday. Camden. Speaker 4 (6:45) Camden. Pete Dawson will take you around that day. Yeah, I'll take you to Camden. Speaker 2 (6:49) We'll meet that horrible Brazilian punk that sits on the bridge. Speaker 4 (6:53) I don't know who that is, but Speaker 2 (6:54) very good. He's just an adorable Speaker 4 (6:54) man. Speaker 2 (6:55) But... Oh, we've just Speaker 4 (6:57) lost a listener there. The Brazilian man. The Brazilian man. I've been listening to the podcast for eight years. Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:02) I'm going to stop now. There's a lot of pit low cues in my last hour. Okay. Speaker 4 (7:05) So I have to sort of get an ask. I think he's scared because one of the days it's like SAS training. Speaker 2 (7:14) And Speaker 4 (7:14) to be fair, if I read you're Speaker 2 (7:16) going Speaker 4 (7:16) to do that, I'd be like, oh, he's got to do some like crazy shit. There's like a helicopter. Mmm, he comes in and he's got like do a breaching charge on the door blopper It's like it literally says like a bus has been hijacked by terrorists. You will storm the bus, right? Okay, neutralize the terrorists Yeah, and you probably read that in Japanese after a long day cutting hands like fucking hell. What's this? I want Speaker 3 (7:37) God cow I want to go cabinet and buy a Speaker 2 (7:39) T-shirt says normal people are scary Speaker 4 (7:43) We're telling the the team that helping me produce this like he did a few others and And I was like, Natsuki, he said he wants a holiday. And they're like, Speaker 2 (7:52) fucking what? Speaker 4 (7:53) Do you know what we've done to Speaker 2 (7:55) prepare this, to get the wheels in motion? I'll take Natsuki out in Camden. That day, you can Speaker 4 (8:01) take Natsuki out. Yeah, I'll take Natsuki out. Speaker 2 (8:03) But Speaker 4 (8:03) there's all sorts of cool stuff. There's a magic show happening. There's like, he's going to run a Speaker 2 (8:07) hotel in Speaker 4 (8:08) Somerset into the ground. When's he dropping? Speaker 2 (8:12) When's this? When's this... When's Speaker 3 (8:14) it Speaker 2 (8:14) coming out? When's he arriving? We're recording a little bit in advance. Speaker 4 (8:18) Second half of August. Right. Which is like next week. Nice. So, yeah, you can get him at Heathrow Airport. Lovely. Get on the Paddington Express. Meet the man himself. But... He is like Paddington in many ways, isn't he? Paddington Bear. Yeah. Assaulting terrorists on a bus. Speaker 2 (8:33) Coming Speaker 4 (8:33) down a helicopter. Speaker 2 (8:34) With a marmalade sandwich under his hat. Speaker 4 (8:36) Oh, he's got to like rappel down a wall. One of the episodes is going to be like James Bond for like a day. And so that SAS stuff ties into that amongst other things. Nice. It's like training him up to, because like, you know, James Bond, it's, we still don't know who the next James Bond is. Yeah. And that's,