#22 Aeon mall and a spooky Japan night walk

Transcript

I was just saying how I'm going to try to avoid recording around traffic, but obviously that's not possible. I'm going to try to avoid recording around heavy traffic, really busy streets, but like even just this street I'm on now, random assholes side street, you know, there's still some cars. But wellie, wellie, wellie. I'm in a bit of a pickle. Yeah, this is a classic example of trying to just sort of reforge the past and recreate the past, and it's just very hard to do. And it's never quite right.

So I thought maybe I would start just by talking a bit about this area. I talked a bit about it last episode, but get a little more into what led me out to Akiruno, which is west of Hajima Station across the Tamariver. And basically I initially just booked Airbnb's on my first visit to Japan, just based on price really. So I stayed for a big whack of time in Nakaitabashi, and I got really lucky in Fukuoka. I got a really beautiful apartment that was not that expensive that was on the edge of town, but I ended up liking being on the edge of town more, and it no longer exists. I'm glad I mean it exists. It's no longer an Airbnb property, so I'm glad I got to try it. And then this place, by Akigawa Station, I just booked because, again, it was just the cheapest thing to finish out my last three weeks or four weeks in Japan. There were basically two similarly cheap options. So even back then, even before COVID, it's not like there was mountains of these things. There were only two, and I picked this one, and I didn't really have a sense of the scale of Tokyo yet. I didn't realize it was very far away. But that's okay, because slightly major street, let's get off of this street.

But that wouldn't have stopped me. I don't mind being far away as long as you can get there, as long as there's transit to get there. But the transit was pretty complicated. I've mostly got it down now. I managed to get here yesterday with only one mistake. That's not too bad. You know, it's still not the easiest. But when I was here in 2019, I thought while I was still near Ikibukuro, like, let's come out here and just try to get here. Don't save it for the day that I'm supposed to check in. In case something goes wrong, let's just head out here ahead of time and figure out where it is. And that first day I got very lost, took the wrong train, got all messed up. But that was a really cool day, because I don't even know where I was. I have no idea where I got off the train. But I was just in some random stop, somewhere. And that's when I learned that I didn't realize how rural Tokyo gets, kind of quickly.

I mean, I just didn't know anything. It's the same really kind of anywhere that you travel. There's all this stuff that is, like, really obvious to the locals. Everybody just knows it. But how would I know it? I don't know. You just got to go. You got to learn. That's the fun of it. So I got off at this random station and I was like, wow, this is so different than Tokyo proper. This is, like, just fields and countryside. And it just feels like one of those countryside anime. Like, this is so cool. And I just spent the afternoon just moseying around through, just like, be like garages and fields with like long grass, random back alleys and weird little pathways and just all this stuff. But still, it's remitting convenience stores and stuff. You know, everything's still, it's like this nice mix when you're on the edges where you still have all the conveniences, all the mod cards of Japan.

But all this nice countryside feeling as well. You know, it's not like one of the actual countryside places that have no convenience stores. Can you imagine for my shallow traveling, that sounds insane. It's like, how would I even survive? What would I eat? How would I do that? But yeah, that was cool. And then I just got on some other random train that I stumbled upon as it was getting dark. And even though that was 2019 and they were ramping up to the Olympics, they were putting a lot more English stuff in everything. This train was so far out in the middle of nowhere that it was still all Japanese signs and all Japanese spoken announcements.

So I just got on it and I was like, I think I'm going the right way, but I've been lost on the train several times at this point. So I really wasn't sure. It's like, I think, I think this is taking me into the center of Tokyo, but it's very hard to say, so it's across their fingers.

And it did work and I got back. So even though I didn't make it to the Airbnb, it was awesome. Now here's the little thing, quick detour, back to the present. Right by this place, which is the same building I stayed at in 2019. So I've been here before. I've walked by here a bunch of times because there's this little sneaky back street that takes you to a 7-11. I was watching the guy on YouTube do one of those walking around Japan videos.

And there aren't a ton for Akigawa Station, but there's some. And this guy walked up to a little shrine and I was like, what? Wait, what is happening? That's like 100 feet away from my Airbnb. What the heck is that? How did I not know about that? And yeah, I'm standing by it right now.

Otsuka Kofun, OTS-UKA, K-O-F-U-N. This ancient tumulus is located in the center of the Akiru Plateau. According to the survey in 1982, it was suggested to be a square shaped mound, about 33 meters in width and about 8 meters in height. Moreover, the partial excavation in 1993 indicated that the characteristics of mounting on the tumulus body was different from the burial mounds. This tumulus might be the medieval mound. I tried to clean that up a little, but that's, oh, and that's the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education Trian. So that's very, the English is very awkward, and I don't know what that means. So this is some kind of an ancient mound, though. Apparently, these are, I guess, tumulus mounds. I've never really heard that term before. Apparently, they're somewhat common, and this one is different from what would be used as a burial mound. Which I don't know anything about that either. This is, but anyway, you walked right up this thing through this little Tory gate up to this thing. And yeah, I'm standing in front of it right now, and this is just blowing my mind. What in the fuck? I must have walked by this thing.

Man, 30 times, and I never saw this. I don't know how that's possible. So thank you, YouTuber. I'm gonna walk up it now, and achieve my destiny. That was one of the things where it's like, man, when I go back to Japan, I gotta go right that wrong. What the heck? So there's these like stone steps, you and in, to the mound.

And here we are, up at the top. A little shrine. That is cool. I'm with some five and one-yen coins. Oh, and actually a couple of tenions. Impressive. Because yeah, I do get the feeling that a lot of these shrines, people are just trying to get rid of their change. So that would seem. And the main shrine is behind little padlocked door.

Oh, wow, big money over here. 100-yen coin, 50-yen coin. Don't worry, though. I'm gonna leave them. I'm not here to steal people's change from the shrine. However, though, I am gonna hang out up here for a bit. I mean, these birds are pretty loud, but my destination is just to go to a mall. I got the most low brow first to journey in this area. So let's stay up here while I ramble for a bit. Oh, man. Now that I'm up and about, and I'm looking at, especially, I love having the distance here. You can just see the mountains. And then behind the mountains are the mistier mountains. And maybe you can even see a little further than that. It's just these rolling mountains that just go back and back and back. And they're kind of in not every direction, but almost every direction. Oh, it just feels good. I always felt that way in Vancouver too. I mean, that mountain is super giant. But I always had a theory that maybe that's why people on the west coast are kind of chill and sort of relaxed. Because it's pretty hard to really get to fully yourself. When every time you look up, there's this gigantic postcard in the sky. This enormous mountain that just really just, it's like, hey, buddy, remember how small you are? Because look at that mountain, man.

The ad's beautiful. So that first attempt to come out here was instructive and interesting. And I'm like, man, I'm glad. I'm glad I accidentally booked a place, not accidentally, but that I didn't know what I was doing. Because these countryside parts, each stage in Japan was kind of like, I got so used to not get it. 10:00 I got to Bashi and Ikebukuro that once it was time to leave, it's like, I don't want to leave. I feel kind of like I live here. But then I went to Fukuoka and I started hiking up the Abrea M mountain all the time. And then when it was time to leave, it's like, oh, man, I like living by the mountain. I don't want to leave. But then I came out here and there's tons of these mountains all over the place. And it's like, oh, man, this place is great. I don't want to leave. I'm remembering that now. That feeling's coming back to me because I had a bit of a rough night last night, but I'll get to it. So my next attempt to come out here, I got to Hyjima Station, which last episode I was saying, how great that is as a station, and it really is. But I didn't go any further than that because this line, I don't remember the name of it, but this little train line that comes out here, it's only like five stops. And I was like, okay, I'm essentially there. This is good enough. And I spent that day exploring around Hyjima. And that was a little tricky because Hyjima, the physical station is awesome. But that surrounding area is one of the few parts. Pretty much if you just appeared somewhere random in Tokyo and just walked around, you'd have a good time. Hyjima is one of the few parts where I would not recommend that. I did find a bunch of cool stuff and like a weird little unlit path that goes like down around a creek and like you can sneak out the back of the station and take the secret path and end up over in this other place where there's just them all. But there is stuff like that. But if you hit the wrong stuff, that's when you start realizing you're outside of the city in kind of a bad way. You're outside of the city in the sense that there's highways and cars everywhere. And it's just not good to be a pedestrian out there. So a lot of really bland, large areas where I was walking around just feeling like I shouldn't be here. This isn't fun. This is kind of bad. It's a sort of sucks. So that made me slightly concerned. I was like, oh man, I hope my last batch of Japan isn't like this. But then I came all the way out. It's like, yeah, let's just do one day. It's like, alright, let's go the full distance. Let's go make sure I can find the real building. I'll walk right up to it. Be all prepared. Because I was also that was when I was coming in from Fukuoka. So I literally had to travel from Nareta to Akigawa station, like almost entirely across Tokyo. It's like that's going to be a hell of a day. So let's really make sure I know where I'm going. That is not the day to get lost.

So yeah, I came out to this actual station and I walked down by this river, which is the Aki River, a K.I. And I did walk by a Coco Curry. I was like, okay, it's not so bad. It's not that, you know, it's still again. It's got all the mod cons. But I did smell like cow manure and like the farm smell. And I was like, alright, I mean, hmm, you know, this is actually, like again, it's surprising how much things can change. When you think, like, oh, I'm basically there. I guess I basically see what's going to happen. Even if you only go, in this case, three more stops. It's surprising how much things can change. And then it was in fact this same line where I never did go all the way to the end. And all the way to the end is a whole different thing too. It's surprising how much stuff can change. And in this case, it was the difference is that high jima on that side of the tamar. That is, whoa, fuck. That shit out of me.

Again, where did that come from? I mean, there must be speakers in these trees or something? It's just crazy. It just sounds like the sound is coming from the heavens. That is the weirdest thing. I never see the speakers. I have no idea where they are. Anyway, it is exactly noon. That's interesting because the other song that plays, it played it like 427 the other day and I was like, maybe my time is off because you think it would be 430. But no, that was exactly at noon. So the other one is meant to play apparently just before 430. I don't know. I just don't think to look these things up when I get home. I should look up these jingles in these songs. What do they mean? I really don't know.

Over by hi-jamestation, there are big trucks and big highways and it is like, that's the kind of neighborhood it is. It's like, we're trucking stuff. But you just cross the river, cross the Timor river and it's just boom, the whole vibe changes. Suddenly, it's like you're in, I mean, my favorite example that I didn't know at the time, but the anime non-nonbiori that is set in the countryside. You just get like a little version of that. It just, you know, again, it's still Tokyo. It's still got way more stuff to do. 15:00 And they have in that anime. But it has that feeling of countrysideness and just calmness. Oh, the other thing that surprised me is that there was this YouTube channel, Texan in Tokyo, who she was from Texas and she moved to Japan to get married to her Japanese husband. And one of her videos mentioned that if you live in the countryside, there'll be these little stands set up with vegetables and an envelope. And you just take whatever vegetables you want and you leave the payment in the envelope. And there's just no worry that someone's going to steal the vegetables or not pay for them or come steal the money because you're just in the countryside. And you just, it's just not that way. I mean, even in central Tokyo, it's surprisingly not that way, even in big department stores and stuff, but especially in the countryside, it's totally like that. And I saw one of those, the whole deal, the stand, the envelope. And I was like, whoa, I'm like, okay, so I am in the Tokyo version of the countryside. This is fucking great. This is awesome.

And this apartment that I stayed at was a taxi dispatch company called the Legal Mind Building. Maybe I'm upsetting these birds. I mean, they really are squawking. In fact, let me get walking again while I wrap this up. But yeah, I stayed here for three or four weeks, just walking around all over the place, having a great old time, just loving it. This is an awesome area. A very different vibe from when I was in New York, a booker road, but again, it's hard to say which one I prefer, but probably this. Oh, there I can see in the distance. There's this ferris wheel that I would always see. And I was like, I wonder what that is. I should go check that out. But of course, these things are always further than they seem. It turns out it's called Tokyo Summerland. And it's closed right now. I don't know if it's just closed due to COVID stuff or closed due to it getting to be toward the end of the year. But I looked up some video of it. And man, it is just people packed in, shoulder to shoulder. It doesn't seem that fun to me. But that's, I guess, the famous landmark around here is Tokyo Summerland.

I stayed at this building called the Legal Mind Building, that is Legal Mind Taxi. I also, I guess, so it's a taxi dispatch in the bottom and in the top are apartments. And it was so cool because it was not converted in any way to be an Airbnb. It was just an apartment. The other people were just normal Japanese citizens living in normal apartments and I just was in one of the apartments. So it was just neat because you just get to feel that feeling a little bit of not necessarily being catered to. But I always had this, I don't know, it was like this, there's these little moments, these little areas in Japan that I especially remember, not just in Japan, just wherever I've traveled, that are like the little power moments, the little power areas where I just remember them so extra clearly. Like there was one on the walk from OG Station to Ikebukuro. All it is is just a big intersection that has a family marty 7-11 in a loss and down the street a bit is a McDonald's. And just when I was there the other day walking by, I just stopped there, just stood there. And it's like, yeah, I just remember this intersection so clearly, I remember like going into the family mart and buying these little, these little cream puff things. They're in like the the chilled refrigerated section. So it's like this little tray of little chilled cream puffs and just eating them and just like, yes, it's so good. And so again, they're not like great spiritual areas, like I'm just a super shallow person. So the stuff that's important to me or that I remember is just, it could be the dumbest thing, it could just be that intersection with all the convenience stores. Just getting back to it, I just felt good. And I found a new one the other day when I was coming back from that scary park when I went on the Tobu Line and I went to the terrifying park. As I was walking back, I got off at a branch station, but I went back on the major station, which was called Kawagoa Station, K-A-W-A-G-O-E. And it was a surprisingly enormous station. I was really surprised how big it was because the walk there from the terrifying park passed the guy who was burning a great big bonfire in his yard. It was just like walking along this semi highway on one side and a big open field on the other side with no lights at all. 20:00 Anytime someone went by in a bicycle, they had a flashlight on and I had to turn the light on on my phone just so people could see that I existed, that I was there. It was so pitch black, it was so dark. And halfway there, just because when you're on foot and you're cars, it feels like you're in a different world. Even though they're there, it feels like they're not near you. You really feel alone. So just being on this pitch black area, this big open field behind me and just these cars on the other side and it was so dark and I just stopped and stood and looked up at the sky. And similar to what I was saying about mountains, you know, you just have that moment of like you just feel so small and it's like, where the heck am I? It's like I'm floating in space. It really feels like, man, I am traveling. Where the hell am I? But it felt amazing and it's like a power moment, dude, it feels so good. I'm going to remember back to this moment.

So one of those was coming out of this apartment here, just coming out of the apartment door in the morning, standing on the balcony, looking out over the field here.

And just, I don't know why I can't really explain it. It just felt really good. I just loved coming out of that doorway every morning and just standing there and soaking it in. So I tried very hard to come back here, you know. I couldn't find anywhere to stay near here. The old place wasn't available anymore. I couldn't find any places even really not even remotely close. You know, like Ome station and stuff, I had to take a loop around on the train, which wouldn't be the worst I'd do it if I had to. But not optimal. And even the local hotel was booked all up. It feels like dang. How am I going to get back here? How am I going to get back to that neighborhood? I mean, again, it's not the hardest thing in the world. I could just take a train here. But that does feel different. It's different than just waking up in the morning and stepping out your door and having your power moment of like I'm here. I'm right where I want to be. Boom, I'm already there. So then I found, after much searching, that the same guy who had the last Airbnb, he runs the taxi company and he seems to have a bunch of different properties. He had some place that was like $70 a night, really expensive. But then I found this one, which was still pretty pricey. $47.50, I think it was a night, something along those lines in Canadian. But I was checking on the map and you know, it doesn't, it's like you'll get the exact coordinates after you book whatever, but it has to be the same place. It's so close to where the legal mind building was. This is the same guy. I think I can do it. I think I can get back to this building. It's expensive. But that's fine. So this was my, you know, I've been leaning towards blurging more and more. The price I'm willing to pay for an Airbnb keeps gradually going up because post-COVID is just how it has to be. And more and more I'm realizing like it's, it's worth it. It's not that much more to get a whole unit to yourself than it is to be crammed in with people. So it's just worth it. It's just worth it to do that. So I was like, all right, this is definitely the higher end of what I've spent on places. But give me a week, you know, I would do a month if I could, but hey, I'll take a week. But then I got there yesterday. And just weird stuff started happening. So right away, I realized why it was so much more expensive because this place is brand new. He made this unit brand new. Everything in it is new. It's the newest thing I've ever seen in Japan. Every single appliance, all of it is just super new. But it's also obviously just like a storage room he had or like a little tiny area under the stairs. Because it's also the smallest place I've ever stayed. It's like hilariously small. But I thought that was kind of charming when I first got into it. Instead of being up on the second floor, I'm on the first, I'm on the bottom now. And I open the little door and there's the bed takes up the whole room. There's a sink and a stove like right behind the bed. Then a little side room with a toilet crammed underneath a stairwell. And a shower room, which is actually pretty large, all things considered. And that's the best part. But yeah, it has a little fridge and a microwave and even a rice cooker. It has everything. So I was like, this is actually pretty rad. I don't need space. I think this is kind of amazing. This is like about as small as an apartment could be and still have all this stuff. This is cool. And I think I have a place coming up in Yokohama. It's even actually smaller than this because it just has a communal washroom. It doesn't have its own thing. We'll see when I get there. But I was like, all right, super tiny, but super new. And I'm in the building I wanted to be in and like, whatever, dude, this is actually pretty neat. This is cool.

But it turns out being on the bottom floor of a taxi dispatch, which did I mention that it's like next to the train line. The train line goes exactly next to this building. And the location of my little under the stairs Harry Potter room is significant compared to the other place. Because the other apartment it went the whole length of the building. So the train was on one side. Then I had the wall and the big heavy metal Japanese door, the Gengkon, the little kitchen, then a bedroom, then a balcony on the back. So all of those layers blocking the sound of the train apparently really helps and being on the second floor because this place was right by the train very close to where the train goes by. And just this tiny little thin wall that I don't know if it was ever intended for anyone to ever live in there in the first place. When the train goes by it is just the train going by. It's like you're asleep next to a train going by. And you know it's less than five seconds. It goes by really fast. It's a short train. But it's just so loud I can't imagine ever sleeping through it. I mean I guess I can't say for sure if I have or not because that's the point I guess of sleeping through something as you don't know that you did. But I'm quite sure I didn't. And then some trains. I think this might even just be which side of the track it's on. Some trains just go by and they're loud but some trains rattle the whole place. And it's like a fuck. It's not a very, you know it's a train that doesn't run very much. In the morning it runs a whole bunch. Between like midnight and 530 it doesn't run at all. I noticed in the later you know later morning coming toward noon it was barely running. I wasn't noticing it very much. But it's just, oh I mean I could never recommend this place because it's just the train. It's like instead of the power of stepping outside and my power stands on my balcony and just like yeah this is great. Instead I'm like bleary eyed and all fucked up feeling and it's like there's no end in sight. This train is fuck. It's like so much worse. Oh yes so one thing I do to block out sound. I put in headphones at night and I just play rain noise. So I got the rain noise usually on a two. If I'm anticipating a little noise I put it on a three. If it's like a crazy situation like the airport I'll put it on a five because you know airport announcements and stuff. I had this thing on a seven. I've never gone up to seven. It's like I have a waterfall rushing around my head. And it was like so much so that this blast of white noise like it was enough to block out that sound of the impending train. You know the ding ding ding that a train is coming I can barely hear that but it just did nothing against the train. The train just cuts through and then sometimes rattles the whole place and it's like shit like I just don't know what to do about this. It's just sucks. You can't get the pass back. It's not coming back.

And there's a lot of other little noises just being down by where all the cars park and there's some garage-y stuff going on. And if any of these taxi guys are walking around at 3 in the morning, chatting and smoking, you can hear all of them. But none of that's as bad. It's the train. The train is just a disaster. But it was such a non-issue last time. It was kind of like the highway at the last place I stayed. It was just kind of a nice gentle rumble. The train's going by. It's almost nice. It's not nice no more. Fucking blows. So I guess unless something else opens up around here, I have a feeling I won't be staying directly in this neighborhood anymore. Because that's just like damn, damn it. However, to look at the bright side, the shower room is the best shower I've ever been in. In Japan and maybe ever. Because Japan, the way their shower rooms are, is that the whole room is like a shower. So you have a bathtub. But if you set up a shower head, you know, I tend to kind of stand in the bathtub. So most of the water goes in the bathtub just so I don't, because I don't know. I mean, I guess it's safe. It feels so weird to me. Because in North America, if you just blasted water all over the floor, that'd be insane. You'd ruin your whole house. But you can. You can do that in Japan. The whole room is a big shower room. And it's just like so fun and so cool. And like, man. And after I guess my last week of my cold showers, I don't know that shit today. I just took the most futuristic, amazing, perfect shower. And the world. And yeah, now that I'm out here. Another beautiful day. I'm in the neighborhood. I am here. I'm here. You know, I haven't done any hikes into the mountains and shit yet. But I'm actually feeling pretty good. And I mean, I think as long as I really make sure once the train stop at night, just go right to bed. Don't dig around. Then in the morning, they're going to be bad. But then maybe if I just sort of try to sleep in a bit after that, you know, it's like weird. Because it's always going to be interrupted sleep. There's, I don't know. 30:00 But maybe it won't be that bad. I'm a bad sleeper anyway. So maybe because I mean, right now I feel fine. I feel okay. But man, I was worried. I was like, Oh, God, is this just going to be a nightmare? This train is next to my head. This is the worst.

And there has to be an option. I can't not go back to Akikawa station or that rough neighborhood. I have to. But it is a cursed monkeys paw. I mean, I'm even in the same building. I was like, this is going to be the greatest. And instead of a nice power location, it is, it is the opposite. It is an energy draining location. But anyway, instead of hiking toward the beautiful scenery in the distance, there's a mall here. It's just an A on mall that seems like in these outskirt areas, they tend to be the main mall. The closer into Tokyo, you get the smaller they are, the further away you get the bigger they are. So this one's pretty big. And this is another YouTube guy who used to live in this area. So he would post videos walking around here. Then he moved to Akikawa and he switched to YouTube shorts. So no more walking around. But I watched his videos and this is like the lower brow version of how I found out about that shrine. In his case, he was walking through the A on mall. And there's a new Starbucks. And he went in and got a drink with his kid. And I was like, this is fucking awesome. This was like 2020-2021. I'm trapped in Canada. And it's like, nice. I get to learn about the updates to my favorite mall through the magic of the internet. And that was some boutique shit. I mean, I'm familiar with boutique shit. Listen to this fucking podcast. You know, this is obviously not for a huge mass audience. But this guy, it was like he was making YouTube walking videos just for me. It's like, who else could possibly care about this mall? Me and whatever, whoever else clicked on that video?

But that's where I'm going for now. I suspect this will be a little bit of a double day. I'm going to go to the dumb mall and hang out at the Starbucks.

But then I suspect for the second half of the day, I'll actually walk somewhere cool. But yeah, this mall certainly not a, I don't have any power memories of the mall. In fact, a little bit the opposite. Because as much as I like visiting Japan and stuff, I do remember feeling last time on this final stretch as my 90 days was wrapping up. I definitely had some days where it's like, man, I've really been out here a long time. Maybe heading on home is not the worst idea. So a lot of times I would go to that mall, the A on Mall by Akikawa Station. A sort of similar thing happened in Amsterdam, but on a way quicker timeline. The first time I went to Amsterdam, I burned out very quickly.

And in that case, I would go to Central Station and just hang out there. And I think subconsciously I was like, I managed to dissect my own brain enough to realize like, you know, I think I'm hanging out here because it suggests travel. It suggests leaving. It suggests getting on a train and going to the airport. It's got to be a reason why I feel comfortable hanging out here. So that's actually kind of one of my major memories of this mall. It was just kind of the, as I'm running out of gas, let's go hang out at the mall feeling.

So I don't think I'll be spending too much time at this mall, but for today, that's where I want to go. I want to go see the new Starbucks because I'm, I mean, I saw a shrine this morning, right? It balances out. Oh, and there's the hard off store, which I'm starting to realize more and more of what a pipe dream it is that I find the perfect power cord that's missing from my electric razor. There's no way. But I remember that hard off store, which is just like a used book office, the used bookstore and hard off means like hard goods, like stuff, not books. I remember it being really big and it's one of those situations where I, it's kind of cool to walk around it. See, like retro video games and stuff, but I, I couldn't buy anything. I didn't need anything. I didn't have space for anything. 35:00 So at least in this case, I can still go look at all this stuff. And there is a goal. If I can find this one specific power cord, that would be amazing, but I don't fancy my chances. Yeah, that's another, that's another local adventure to go on.

Man, I don't remember these mountains behind the Aeon Mall being that big. They're fucking huge dude. They're fucking enormous. I wonder what those are. I'm gonna have to do some mountain research. That shit is fucking nuts. They're big.

That's fucked up. I don't remember that at all. I remember all the mountains being like, you know, numerous, but on the smaller side. So the fall temperature swings are still hitting because on the way here, it was oppressively hot. It was just unpleasantly warm. And I was in there for a couple hours, two and a half hours in the mall. Now that I'm out, the sun's still pretty high, but it is chilly. But since I dug out my hoodie and put it on, who knows, maybe 20 minutes from now, I'll be sweating to death. It's really hard to tell what's gonna happen. But yeah, that was cool to see the old mall where there's a couple of key things I wanted to see. There's a Mr. Donut in there. And I always think of Mr. Donut because I only tried it once at that particular Mr. Donut. Didn't seem that great, but I mean, you know, I'm from the land of Tim Hortons. It's not that great either. Just because you have kind of a famous chain of donut places doesn't mean it's good. It's just the one. But Mr. Donut sticks in my mind because I wanted to try it, but I remember I was at some Mr. Donut, just somewhere random in Tokyo when I was walking around. I literally stood outside for a minute and I was like, just come on, just go in. Just go in and try to order some donuts. But it's just so, it's not so bad like at the Starbucks that was just dead when they have a menu. And you can just like, you know, probably if I just say the name in English, that's fine. But you can really like point. You can put your finger right on it, right on the menu. And you know, it's like this one, please. Where even pointing, when you were just pointing its stuff in a glass case, I'm always surprised how poorly it goes. You know, look at a convenience store or something trying to get like a steamed bun. I haven't done that yet on this trip because I don't know what to call it. I don't know how to refer to what I want. So I mean, I'm just like pointing essentially right at it. You know, my finger is right there like that one and it's just not enough. It's just like the communication breakdown is still like surprisingly hard. Again, once again, reiterate is all my fault. I'm the illiterate one. But it's just like, I don't even want to put myself in a position of pointing its stuff because you'd think it would work, but it doesn't. Pointing is still an awkward transaction. I mean, this podcast could easily just be called Weirdo's holiday. Weird idiot travels. I'm like, I don't want to go to Mr. Donut. I'm afraid that it's going to be awkward trying to order donuts. And no doubt it would have been. But this Mr. Donut was the Mr. Donut. I finally went to and I actually ordered some donuts. So it always is a nice place in my mind that I managed to try a donut.

So anyway, that's still there. There's a Burger King now. That's new. But there's also the smoking room. I was curious about, you know, I didn't think the smoking room would be gone already. But just that I have been seeing, even in the past four years, seems like less smoking culture already than there used to be. But out here, still the smoking room. And it's got that thing as you walk down the hallway past the smoking room. Just that residual smoke smell that people have been smoking in the area is extremely nostalgic. It brings me back to the 80s. I just had to duck under a spider web. That's one thing I noticed on my way in. I walked out in this little path on the way to the mall. And that's one of those things that's been hibernating in my brains since I was a kid that I had never realized the relevance of as being Japanese. But because I had a Sega instead of an Nintendo, they had those light guns back in the day to try to sell systems, make it more like a toy. So for the Nintendo, they had Duck Hunt. And for Sega, their game was called Jungle Hunt. And the spiders in Jungle Hunt looked exactly like these spiders. I just walked past on this path. 40:00 These like red and black spiders. I don't know what they are. Maybe they're poisonous. Maybe I should be afraid that I would die. But I was trying to take a picture of one. And I just couldn't get the camera on my phone to focus on the spiders. It was all blurry. But just stuff like that is neat. You know, it's just a shooting game. I had as a kid. You're just shooting different stuff in the jungle. But one of them is a spider that had never occurred to me is not visually how spiders look in North America. But now here it is. Here's the jungle hunt spider. Cool.

Anyway, my nice surprise in the Aeon Mall is I knew there was the new Starbucks. And it turns out it's part of a big bookstore on the second floor. But what I presumed is because there's a new one, I just presumed it was going to replace the old one. But the old one on the first floor is still there. So I was like, thank you. I'll take that please. I went to the first floor one because I just... Especially today where I'm just wiped. It's like just give me the nostalgia, please. Just let me step into the slippers of my previous travel here. Oh my f**k, look at the size of this f**king spider web. Jesus. There are some really big spider webs in this neighborhood. But yeah, I just wanted to slip back into that warm bathtub. F**k, another one. Oh my god, look at the size of that motherf**king spider. That thing is so f**king big. That's insane. I gotta try again. Come on, surely we can get a picture of this thing. The thing is just because my camera, you know, it's just on a phone. So I'm pretty much at the mercy of it. It's just automatic processes.

And with the web and stuff, it just defuses it. It doesn't know what to focus on.

Because man, that's the definition of... Yeah, it's just not working. The definition of something that is frankly a little terrifying in real life. But in the picture, it just looks like nothing. God, f**king dammit. This spider is like green with a red belly and black and yellow stripes on its body. And it's really f**king big. I've never seen a spider that big in my goddamn life.

F**k.

But anyway, my Starbucks slash spider talk. Yeah, I just went back to the old Starbucks that I'd been to before and got a drink there and just sat down and do some laptop shit. Because it's just like, ah, that's nice. That's nice.

So it's 3.30 now. Is this the 3.30 jingle? I just become more and more confused about these jingles. I don't know what they're all about. Anyway, a delightful trip to the mall. Now though, I'm not quite sure what to do because I've been noticing on this trip that about once a week, I have a day where I'm a lot more tired than I realize I am. And as the day drags on, I start to realize that I'm a lot more cranky than I realize. I just have a shorter fuse. I'm just getting annoyed at things like my phone and just dumb crap. But it's weird because I don't really feel tired. I just, I'm showing the evidence that I clearly am. Today, that is not the case. Today, I keep getting hit with these intermittent hammers to the mind. Just like this thing will bob up out of nowhere and it's just like gong hitting me in the brain of just like, man, you need to sleep. You got woken up at 5.30 in the morning because you are sleeping next to a train line. And that's not enough. That's not enough sleep, my friend. But I'm not quite sure what to do because I was just going to push through. I was just going to like drop off my stuff and then just keep hiking around and go somewhere else. Because what's the point? What's the point in trying to sleep? The trains ain't going to be done anytime soon. But maybe it's better to try to fight through and try to catch some kind of weird nap through the train because this is just, this is just not okay. I am really fucking tired. Man, so this is amazing. So I was also going to say all my talk about the countryside seems ludicrous when I'm in that mall. The dichotomy around here is pretty pretty remarkable because yeah, in the mall, hey, there's a burger king, there's two Starbucks' 45:00 and there's a bunch of foreigners and stuff. Nothing about this feels like the countryside, even a little. It feels completely modern. But when you leave and just walk a little ways and then I crossed over a railroad track and it's like the other side of the track type of stuff. I'm just in the countryside right now. All of a sudden, you can't see them all from here. It's like behind some buildings. You'd never know it was over there because here, yeah, it's all just farm stuff, greenhouses and lines of different things planted, big flat fields.