Narita Flooded in Generational Flood in Chiba +JT Returns | STJ 308

Small Talk Japan

The hosts discuss a series of recent events in Japan, ranging from devastating floods in Chiba Prefecture to the disappearance of a British

Key takeaways

• Unprecedented rainfall in Chiba Prefecture has resulted in at least six deaths and significant power outages.
• A British middle school student is currently missing in Tokyo; the Kamata police station is conducting a search.

Main topics

• Chiba flooding and weather alerts
• Missing person investigation in Tokyo

Notable quotes

The Florida man of Japan is Saitama man.

Conclusion

A diverse look at current events in Japan, blending serious news regar

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hey everybody, welcome back to Small Talk Japan. On the show we talk about all things Japan in English. My name is Mitch and I'm here with the wonderful, the famous, the infamous, the, the, the, the Speaker 1 (0:11) confused and hungover, Speaker 2 (0:14) JT. Speaker 1 (0:18) I'm here. Where am I? Where is here? If Speaker 2 (0:22) you guys don't know, JT is my childhood friend. He Speaker 1 (0:25) was Speaker 2 (0:27) born and Speaker 1 (0:27) raised in Las Vegas. Same Speaker 2 (0:29) with me. He's 100 % Japanese. And special. Very, very special. Speaker 1 (0:39) Yay! Speaker 2 (0:43) We actually have some serious news to talk about. So can you be serious for Speaker 1 (0:46) a Speaker 2 (0:46) second? I Speaker 1 (0:46) don't want to talk Speaker 2 (0:46) about Speaker 1 (0:46) serious stuff. Speaker 2 (0:47) Can you just be serious for a second? Okay, how about you be quiet? Be quiet. Let me do the serious news and then we can get out, okay? Speaker 1 (0:53) Just going to stare at the microphone really, really hard. Speaker 2 (0:59) Unprecedented rain in Japan kills six people in Chiba Prefecture. At least six people have died. Five others were wounded in eastern Japan. There's record rainfall in Chiba Prefecture near the capital, Tokyo. There are nearly 20,000 households without power and 7,000 travelers were stranded overnight in Tokyo's Narita Airport. Speaker 1 (1:23) Damn. Speaker 2 (1:25) This happened Speaker 1 (1:26) yesterday. Speaker 2 (1:27) Well, yesterday I was filming of this podcast, which will probably go up tomorrow. So, if you're traveling around the Chiba area, please stay safe. There's still a lot of stuck cars, according to the news. And please watch out for landslides. Okay, we're done. We're done Speaker 1 (1:46) with the Speaker 2 (1:46) serious news. Oh, thank God. Oh, Speaker 1 (1:49) thank God. Speaker 2 (1:50) Actually, no, there's one more. Oh, no. There is a... I don't have this girl's photo. Maybe it's here. Speaker 2 (1:58) oh oh i found it i found it there it is i found it oh god there are so many ads on this freaking site Speaker 1 (2:04) can Speaker 2 (2:06) i close i don't want to click the next one okay so there is a girl uh let's let's see her name Well, let's see. I'm just going to say a British female middle school student went missing while traveling in Tokyo yesterday or today. Yesterday. She was missing from a private lodging facility. They found out yesterday morning. And she's currently, they're currently looking for her. We have a photo of her. This young woman. So if you guys see her. You guys see her. The Kamata police station is looking for her in the Tokyo area. Those are two serious stories. Speaker 1 (2:55) That was sad. That's sad. Speaker 2 (2:59) Yes. So let's get on to a fun story. Speaker 1 (3:07) Ooh, are there boobies in it? No. Speaker 2 (3:09) So you know how in Japan they have self-checkout registers? I just got to destroy my hopes and dreams like that. You know how Japan has self-checkout registers? Speaker 1 (3:17) What? Speaker 2 (3:19) Self Speaker 1 (3:19) -checkout registers. Oh my god, that sounds amazing. Where can you find these magical self-checkout registers? Everywhere. In Japan? That's because we're awesome in Japan. Where are we right now? In Japan. Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:38) So. There's been some problems with the rollout of these. One has been like shoplifting. Not in Japan. Sure. I'd suggest probably more than shoplifting, probably people not properly scanning their items and getting confused. Speaker 1 (3:55) Yeah. Actually, I've done that myself once. I forgot to scan the bag itself. Like I grabbed a bag and just. putting my shit in it. And then I'm like, oh yeah. Then the staff was like, no, you got to scan the bag. I was like, oh, Speaker 2 (4:10) I almost stole a plastic bag. Two cents. Is it two or is it five? I don't know. Whatever. Five yen. Two cents. I have no idea how much the dollar is now. Let's check. What is the dollar versus the Japanese yen right now? Speaker 1 (4:25) Awesome. And the Japanese yen is a shit. There we go. Don't need no Google for that. It's back Speaker 2 (4:32) up to 160. It's 159.14. Speaker 1 (4:35) It's still kind of shit. Speaker 2 (4:36) I mean, it was peaked at 163 a few days ago. Like a month ago. A few weeks ago. Do you think that the US dollar... Wait, I'm getting back to my register story. Just shut up and listen. We'll talk about that in a second. So, they have a new problem with self-checkout registers. Speaker 1 (4:59) a new problem. So they've become sentient and they're stealing our groceries from us. Speaker 2 (5:06) What's happening is boobies. No, also not. What's happening is that especially old people are bringing in like jars of change and just dumping it into Speaker 1 (5:20) their registers Speaker 2 (5:20) to Speaker 1 (5:21) pay for their groceries. This machine looks like it likes coins. I'm going to get All my coins. So they've been jabbing. Oh, that is such an old people thing. In fact, I want to try that now. Everybody, give me your change. I want to go and jam some machines. You know, actually, I used to fucking do that shit. There was a... Coin star, a literal machine that you just dump your change into and they would Speaker 2 (5:56) give you. But those machines