#76 Exploring Haijima and Akishima, Tokyo

Transcript

Well, I think I'm circling in on a mountain climb I can do. Considering how the first day that I went to Okutama, it seemed so fucked up. I was like, I don't know if I'm ever even going to come back here. What the hell's going on with this whole area? But I'm slowly piecing it together. So the station I went to yesterday, Matake station that has a nice little walk along the Tamar river you can do for a couple stations, starting a couple stations east of there. While I was at that station, they had how I was saying that it seems like almost every station on the Okutama line. It seems like they've all got sort of their local mountain. Like, hey, here's how you get to the mountain. But that one at Matake station was especially well described. I mean, already that station is kind of like what a cool station. You know, you get to do this nice walk along the river. And then I had to wait at the station for about half an hour or so for a train. But it's just nice. Just standing on this platform and the giant mountains all around with trees all over them. And it was just as the sun was going down. So it actually got pretty dark by the time the train arrived. And in both the daytime and the night time, it was just just beautiful standing on this the fucking station platform. There were power lines all around, which are funny because they're kind of like the visual equivalent of noise. You know, like noise in Tokyo is very noisy, but it doesn't really bother me ever when I'm just walking around with headphones in and whatever. I mean, a siren, I just had to pause just now because a siren, just the never ending sirens. But you don't really notice this stuff if you're not trying to do a podcast. You know, the power lines are like that too. I tried to take some pictures and I'm like, oh man, none of these pictures are working out because I literally can't get a shot that isn't just power lines in the foreground. But if you're just standing there looking around, the power lines don't bother me at all. Like they're just who cares? You just ignore them. There's a certain argument to be made for a not chronicling, not trying to chronicle Japan. Because yeah, there's just stuff in audio and stuff in pictures and video that is like, oh man, that's noisy or oh, that's visually noisy. But if you're just walking around in person, I don't know, you just don't notice any of that stuff. It's so much easier to filter it out. But they had a sign for their local mountain that was like really well described where it's like the trail heads over here. It's going to take you 90 minutes to walk up to this first peak. And then if you want to go to the next peak, it's another 40 minutes. And from just that first map, I couldn't see if there was any way to loop around or maybe come down a different way. They just had the times if you want to come back. It's the same 40 minutes to come back from the second peak. So presumably, that's a relatively flat terrain or an even amount of up and down each way. And then a bit faster. They said only an hour to come back down as opposed to the 90 minutes to go back up. But my plan, so as to not destroy my knees, would be to try to take approximately the same amount of time coming down as I did coming up. But anyway, the point is it's like, I'd say to be on the safe side, if I plan for three hours up, three hours down, that seems really cool and doable. And that's what I think I'm leaning toward. But of course, an early start will be important. Because even though I'm in Western Tokyo, it still takes some time to get to these places. Even just to get to that station, it's going to eat up a couple hours. I'm eating up a lot of money too. Because even though each of these rides is only a few dollars, it's a few dollars each way and I'm doing it every day. I'd realize the other day like, damn, I had $180 on my fucking transit card and now I got 30 bucks. Because you know, I use it to buy food too. So it really adds up fast. Speaking of, I haven't had a coffee yet today. I'm pretty sure if it's not this corner, it's the next one. Most of the machines in this neighborhood take coins and I only have 100 yen coin left. Yeah, here we go. But this one takes the card. Then I got to refill this card when I get to the subway. Haven't had a coffee at all today. You know, I might get the boss caffeine. It's a little gross, but it's like mocha flavored and it has extra caffeine in it. I think that might be the order of the day. Jeez, then it's only 100 yen. But I thought I had 100. I actually only have 10. I'm out of coins. So I still got to use from using the card though. Man, everything at this machine. I noticed 5:00 somebody last night when I came by here. They stopped in their motorcycle. This is from Keita Hedgehog Station on the way north. Just passed the overpass. I mean, it's random. You never realize this. But I saw somebody stop on their motorcycle last night deliberately at this this machine and I can kind of see why this machine is a good deal. I do love to. I love walking through this. I'm so glad I found this one part of this neighborhood where it's so quiet because walking to the other stations. When I first got here, it was like, geez, this neighborhood is really busy and loud and kind of sucks. And like, my mission is just to escape from here post-haste. But now I kind of like it. Like, so my plan today is I'm going to Hyjima and we're gonna walk around there and it's not that far from here. I could walk to Hyjima. But it's just kind of crappy. I just don't want to walk that way. Walk through the traffic and walk over the kind of ugly bridge across this part of the timber river that is not pretty.

It's like, no, you know, I actually want to walk through this little neighborhood to Keita Hedgehog which is a very slow station too. It's on holiday hours also because it's New Year's Day. Happy New Year's, by the way. Whenever you hear this in the future, I like this little quiet neighborhood and I like standing at the quiet station. I like all of it.

Oh, is this getting a... All right, cool. There's my boss caffeine. I think these are like a little probiotic yogurt. I don't know what the difference is between the red and the blue. Let's try blue.

Oh, I see. It's kind of like that lactic... Yeah, yogurt-y, yogurt-y water. I don't quite know what this stuff is, but it is kind of good. Ooh, jeez though, the coffee is hot. So I think the yogurt-y one first. But yeah, that is my plan. My main mountain plan. And I mean, I got a little over a week still out here in West Tokyo. The man is going to go by so fast. I really want to stay here more. The end of my trip is going to be at Yokohama. And I don't know, I just hope I can find a way to get to the shore from there. A lot of my choices were just based on price of just this place in West Tokyo is actually pretty expensive. One of the more expensive places. I think it is the most expensive place I've stayed besides Fukuoka. So I just, you know, I was really pushing it with two weeks out here. It was pretty pricey. So that's mainly why. I found this little place in Yokohama that again is like, I don't remember exactly, but pretty cheap.

$22 a day or something, you know? Maybe less. I didn't all figure out when I get there. Because it's a little teeny place. So small, in fact, that the person recommended, like, hey, if you're going to stay here for a couple of weeks, that's kind of not recommended. It's really small. And I was like, don't worry about me, dog. I don't care if they're just small. Because I mean, yeah, like this place I met now. It's one reason why it's a bit pricey is it's like a bunk and a loft. And you could squeeze three people in there. But I just wanted the location. There just weren't that many options. But yeah, even though this is seemingly a fairly approachable, straightforward, not that difficult mountain hike plan, obviously earlier in the days better, better safe than sorry. And I was up real late last night partially. I mean, I don't know, just because I've been bed sleeper in general and whatever, various things. But part of it was definitely that the worst thing that's happened on this trip is definitely snoring. You know, I've had little problems here and there, but the only legit problem were like bed bugs. And amazingly, that, I mean, I don't know about that property, but at least I personally managed to escape, bringing none of the horror with me. So that could have been bad. And luckily, for me was not. Beyond that, just little teeny, little teeny things except snoring. Snoring is truly awful. I know if you're a person who snores like you can't help it, you don't know you're doing it somehow, even though you're like literally the decibel level of traffic. You're a motorcycle somehow. So this isn't nearly as bad as being into the bunk above a snorer. But it's just still like amazing. How crazy snoring is that somebody checked into the Airbnb room next to mine. And I can only hope that they're here for new years and that they're getting the fuck out of here. Because from the next room, they snored enough to keep me awake. Just this incredible, because like, 10:00 there's definitely levels to snoring. A little gentle snoring. That's not so bad. But the sheer degree to which people can snore, it's truly fucking astounding. It is so loud. I guess I won't bother belaboring it. Who cares? There's nothing I can do about it. But I mean, oh, I wanted to go kick that guy's door down and shake him. Just like, will you stop? What is wrong with you? How did we evolve to do this? How come you and all of your ancestors weren't eaten by tigers? What is going on? That being said, obviously, it's not hereditary. My dad snored like crazy. Thank the fucking Lord that I did not pick that up from him.

But anyway, I didn't get the most sleep of all time. And yeah, and I just can't sleep in. Whenever I wake up, you know, it's like the late morning. I wake up around 930 or 10, but I just cannot sleep in more than that. It's weird, because like, in North America, if I have days like this where I don't sleep, then you know, maybe the next morning I'll wake up. But after two or three days of it, then finally my body kind of gives up. And I just have a day where I sleep until like 3 p.m. And it's like, well, that day's fucked, but hey, at least I got some rest, you know, it's worth it. But I just can't do that in Japan. I wake up and my brain starts warring. And I'm like, oh, it's so beautiful out there. And it's only going to be sunlight for a little longer. And you can just go get some coffee and walk around and like, you'll feel fine. And it's true. I feel fine now. I mean, it was like, geez, you know, I could go for hiking up a mountain today. But what time is it anyway? I mean, it's way too late. Yeah, it's almost 1 p.m. now. A great day for just wandering around. You know, I got plenty of time before it gets dark. But not a great day for going up in a mountain. I do have to do that in the morning. So not today.

But yeah, I get going. I get walking around. I drink a coffee. I stopped by the first 7-11. They didn't have my favorite barbecue macro. So I'm going to the next one. And if they don't have it, I'll just get something else. But yeah, I mean, it's like, I can't stay mad at you. World. The only thing I was mad about anyway was snoring. I think that counts, though, as being mad at the world because it is just a phenomenon that no one's doing on purpose that can't really be helped.

But yeah, today instead, I'm just going to go walk around Hajima. And I guess I'll just describe that when I get there. So a slightly, slightly odd plan. Because in a way, I'm kind of heading toward a plan that I think might not work out. But anyway, I'm off to 7-11 to get some food. Then to Kita Hajioji to stand around, soak in in the vibe. And Hajima's only two stations from here. So very easy trip today. And I love Hajima. I'm going to have stopped through there every day, basically. All the trains around here pass through there, generally. And it's just the little new days. New days has these, geez, I could just eat at the station. His new days has these little, whatever. Who cares? I'm already at the 7-11. I need to stop rambling about this. There's plenty of time to ramble when I get there.

Alright, I'm at Keita Hegeoji, and I figured out, yeah, yesterday I actually did figure out how to read the subway timetables. So 13-13 is when the next bus is coming or the next train. I mean, 113. So I only got like 10 minutes to wait. Geez, every time. Yesterday there was a siren here. Today there's a siren. Like, yeah, I mean, like I was saying before the sirens. You'll never notice them if you're just walking around. It's only relevant when you're recording a podcast, but it is like quite crazy. I don't think it is just, you know, like that I am biased to think that there's more sirens because I'm trying to do a podcast all the time. They really are. Just all the time. You're gonna hear two sirens an hour in Japan, no matter where you are. You could be on a mountain. And you're gonna hear it. It's just fucking weird. There's so many of them. I mean, I guess there's just a lot of people.

A lot of people, man, dense population, something always requires a siren. Also to tie up, I guess, yesterday's plot threads. I did, in fact, remember. I realized why I'd kept forgetting my umbrella because this bunk bed that I've got in this room. I took the mattress off the top bunk bed to put it on my bunk so I could have extra cushion. And I put all my stuff just on the top bunk bed. It's really handy, actually. Just all my stuff is right at perfect grab level, just all my... I just laid out everything that I own on that bed except the umbrella. It's literally the only thing I left in my bag so I never saw it day to day. 15:00 And that's why I never thought of it. But I yamored about umbrellas so much yesterday that I actually remembered through some miracle when I got back to the Airbnb. I remembered, oh yeah, get your umbrella. So I now have an umbrella tucked away in my inner pocket. May it never leave there again. Though today, incredibly clear, not a cloud in the sky. Bit windy, but still temperate, still beautiful. But yesterday, the clouds came out of nowhere. I only got rained on for 10 minutes, but you just never know, so I'm prepared now. But yeah, I did decide because I've had a pretty good track record with finding those barbecued mackerel dishes at the 7-11s out here. It's about 50-50 every second day. They seem to have them. However, that means when they don't, I just can't get excited about buying anything else. It's so much better than everything else. It's so delicious. Start the day off with some fish oil. I got some on my hands the other day. It just would not come off. And I'm like, this is the real deal, man. This is fish. So I am, in fact, going to just eat at Hyjima Station because Hyjima, I do think if I had to pick a favorite station. I think it's my favorite station. It's so good. There's like one, two, three. I think only three lines that go through there, maybe four, but I think three. So it's just the right size. You go in and it's just so easy to sort out where you're going. You know, you go Ome line to Ome. The Itzukashi line for Musashi Itzukashi. Or it turns out if you go to Ome, you can also loop down to Musashi Itzukashi from Ome. The one I'd never taken until now, the Hachiko line. That's the one I take to come out here. And that's it. But it's this really nice station with really good washrooms, despite the fact that I guess maybe because we're kind of in the west, we're a little out of the center. There is a little more dishevelment in the bathrooms as far as maybe finding like a beer can or something. But even the local drinking beer at the station guys, they just don't fuck shit up. It's like not a problem. I actually have a really nice super bidet toilet with the heated seat and everything at this Airbnb. But when I stayed in Akiruno before and I just had like the nothing boring toilet, I always looked forward to going to Hyjama station using their awesome toilet, which I know I've said this before, but it's still remarkable. I don't know that there could there be any other country in the world where you prefer to use the toilet in the subway station than the one in your apartment. That's fucking insane. But that's how Japan is. And in Hyjama station, there's a little bookstore, there's a little bakery, there's like a ramen restaurant. And generally I just go to the new days. New days is the convenience store chain that I believe is owned by JR, because they just have cool stuff. Like they have these Onigiri that are kind of like extra rice. Like the way it is, it's like folded over. It's kind of like a big Onigiri taco kind of. So you kind of get extra rice, but there's extra filling too to make up for it. And I looked it up once and apparently it was a style that was popular in the 60s and 70s. They've brought it back. I don't remember what it's called, but they have those. And they have like, I think I'm just going to get the chicken and spicy mayo one. But they have one that's like, it's like egg, chicken, and fish all together. It's like all three things. Actually, maybe I'll get that one. I don't know. But then they also have the Unbaked Blueberry Cheesecake Craype thing. I don't know why it's called Unbaked, but it's basically just like a little crepe thing with a little cheesecake daily inside. I guess that's what the Unbaked means. It's like, it isn't like normal cheesecake. It's not better or worse. It's just kind of different. But I guess that's why they have a term to let you know it's a bit different. It's not like baked, I guess. It's just white sort of. If it's not this sort of yellow, golden brown color of cheesecake anyway. And then blueberry sauce. That's it. But it's so good. So even just those two items alone, like if you got a convenience store food, it's fucking great. It's so weird that the chain that you basically only find in subway stations is so good. So I know it's just a nice little station, nice little size station. It's got everything you need in it. Pleasant, pleasant little place. And it's your gateway to West Tokyo. But all I've done is passed through it. I haven't walked around that neighborhood at all yet. 20:00 And it is one of those neighborhoods that it was kind of the first place in Tokyo that I was like, maybe I don't really care for this. Like the first time I came out there in 2019, just to explore to make sure I knew how to get there so I could get to my Airbnb later on. That specific neighborhood right around Hijima, as much as I like the station itself, it is really industrial and truck filled. And it's just kind of like blah. I was like, oh man, maybe this is going to kind of suck. But then I learned that if you just crossed the Tama into Akiruno, everything is fucking gorgeous and beautiful. And it's like my favorite place ever. I gotta go back out there too.

But even around Hijima, I guess I have 50-50 memories where there were sometimes just exploring that neighborhood where I just kind of get caught in big traffic circles and stuff. Must be a train coming and just have kind of a bad time. And there's a big air force base or something out there. So if you walk anywhere near there, you get fucked because you can't get anywhere near it. And it's this big, just this big thing stuck there that is constantly stifling your ability to walk. But on the other hand, I do remember some cool little paths, down little ravines that I found and just random neat shortcuts through neighborhoods. And even, I guess mostly all of the set there is malls, but I found a couple of malls that were just nice, very nice malls.

So I thought since I'm limited, I mean, again, I feel fine now, but because I didn't sleep much last night, I mean, I know four hours from now, I'm going to start feeling it. So I don't want to go too far off on a wild adventure. Hyjima is so close from here. And I just want to walk around it at least once because it was one of those places that would run through my mind during COVID times, of just walking around the different neighborhoods where it was the neighborhood I thought about kind of least because a lot of it sort of sucked. But there were still parts that I really liked, so I'm just going to go give it a shot. I'm just going to go walk around Hyjima. And this time, importantly, I'm not just walking around blind. Because last time, I tried to refind places I'd been to before and I couldn't find them. There's this one mall that I really liked out there that was when I first realized how temperate the weather is around here because it was this combination indoor outdoor mall. Half the stores were inside, half the stores were outside. And you can just never do that in Canada because in the winter, the outside stores would be destroyed by the weather. Anyway, I tried to find it again in 2019 and I never could. However, this time I have an actual proper map on my fucking phone. I got the blue dot. It's just remarkable to think that I didn't have that in 2019. How the hell? What a weird, just such a blind. I mean, it's already weird enough that I have no internet connectivity or anything. But it was severe in 2019. But now I got the map. And that'll help guide me in wise directions. And here comes the train. A head of schedule, perhaps? Yeah, it's only 111. Oh, yeah, two minutes early. You're on top of things today, Mr. Train. So, okay, I'm going to get on this train and go to Hajjima. Get some fucking food.

All right, standing outside a convenience store. Watching the world go by. So I'm at the family mart that's just behind Hajjima station. There's one in front, also. I mean, I guess either side could be the front depending on how you look at it. I realized, too, what I just said earlier about like, oh, I should go back to Akiruno. Like, I totally could. Because I don't know where the heck I'm going from here. I'm looking around. I'm like, you know, like I was saying, this could go bad. If I just picked the wrong way to go. I'm thinking of this one specific cool little route near like a little ravine or something. That's here somewhere. But if I don't find that, I could just bail out of this and go to Akiruno. It's right there. That's right across the river. That's my backup plan. It's good to have a backup plan. But anyway, with my early exploration, especially when I got here, of just trying to find a bitter coffee. And I don't know, I guess I just kind of gave up. Now I'm just like, I don't know whatever. I'll just drink whatever coffee who gives a shit. But in this family mart, I saw a bitter chocolate drink. I'm like, interesting. I mean, I'd always prefer to have caffeine. But I got to try this. I got to see what this is like. What do they consider a bitter chocolate drink? Because this reminds me. I don't know if any of you coffee nerds remember this. But when Starbucks had drinkable chocolate for a while. And it was interesting. Because it was like just a really thick, kind of like Turkish coffee. You know that really thick espresso stuff they make? Except it was just chocolate in a little cup. 25:00 And you drink it. And it was good. But it wasn't good enough to buy twice. You know, like I bought it once. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And I never was compelled to go get it again. Again, it importantly did not have caffeine in it. A big problem. So I assume also I will never try the bitter chocolate drink twice. But I will try it once. So let's see. Let's see what a bitter chocolate drink from family mart is like. Is it a family mart brand? It doesn't say family mart, but it doesn't say anything. So I don't know.

Stabby stabby.

Oh, that's really good. Oh, man, that's good. I mean, yeah, it's a little bitter. Not too bitter.

A little bitter is a good Alison Chainsong, by the way. Oh, man. The only thing that makes this better is if I mixed it with coffee. If it had caffeine in it, this is really tasty.

It's not especially bitter, but not especially sweet. It's very, very good level. Very good level. Oh, my God. I can't believe a good that is. Maybe I will buy this again.

Yum, yum, yum.

So I got something interesting that happened in the station to talk about. But before that, let me talk about something boring. I thought I was done talking about razors and shaving, but I'm not. It just keeps coming up because it's just a part of travel in life. What do you do about your hair? It's a thing. It's an issue. So I gave up on electric razors. I just decided to use little handheld Gillette little razors. You know, pick my head. Just shave my head. It's just easier. Fuck it. Oh, it's tasty.

And man, shaving is just a pain in the butt because I've got really thick, bristly hair only on my mustache. So I need like a really sharp razor for that or else it's like I'm yanking the hair out of my face. It's fucking horrible. And shaving my neck is annoying because the topography of it with my big stupid Adam's apple just sucks. It's just annoying. Knicking myself, cutting myself. So I really need kind of a good sharp razor for my face. But what I learned today is I do not need that for my head. My big, smooth, egg-looking head. Man, I have a smooth head. It's great. It was so easy to shave my head. So while I was at the wonderful hydramestation which just has everything you might need, I bought a little Gillette backup razor thing with some extra cartridges because I was almost out. Because what I'm going to do is I'm going to use my brand new razors for my face. But then when they get dull, I'm going to switch them over to the other little stick. And I can use the dull ones just to shave my head. I don't need to use the good ones because razors are kind of expensive. You know, for this little thing in like six razor cartridges, it was like 40 bucks. But yeah, this is kind of cool. So now I've got two. I've got my new razors that I'll use for my face to not cut myself. And then as things wear down, they're on head patrol. They're on big, smooth, egg-head patrol.

Again, I don't think it's a great visual look. I definitely look better with a little hair on my head. But for pure utility, it's really working out. So that's a boring story. But I may finish my bitter chocolate, which is delicious.

Oh, geez, I like that so much. That's really good.

Is this going to be like the gasada that I never saw again? I've never seen this before. Am I never going to see this again now? Is this the first and last? And I'll just be thinking about it for the rest of my life. Is this going to be one of those? Okay, let me go wander around. Something interesting did happen. And I can yammer about once I get a moving.

Alright, I found the little ravine that I remembered. It's just north of Haijima Station, really easy to find. And I just checked on the map and I'm like, oh, this actually goes a lot farther, because I was just again wandering around at random back in 2019. This goes a lot further than I thought it did. And maybe, maybe this one's a river, but I can't find a name for it on the map.

So maybe this one really is a ravine. It's quite small. And it doesn't seem like it really goes anywhere, per se. But hey, it seems like a good target. I'm just going to walk east along this thing and just see where I end up, just see what happens.

Yeah, I don't know. I'd be surprised if it's not a river, because again, I feel like everything tends to be a river around here.

Bam, just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, it definitely splits from the Tama to the northwest up here. But it does not seem to have any name of its own, at least on the pre-downloaded Google map.

But yeah, it's always kind of neat, just to walk. Just to have a reason to walk, even if you're not really trying to get anywhere. And particularly, because I did spend some amount of time wandering around this neighborhood, who knows? Who knows what I can run into? Maybe I'll bump into something and I'm like, oh yeah, that thing. I remember that thing.

Or maybe I won't. And I'll just walk for no reason. It's not like the prettiest thing, because there's a big fence along the entire length of this particular stream. Yeah, I don't know. This has got to count as a river. It's like, again, it's very small, but it's very distinct. It's a very distinct body of water.

Anyway, the thing that happened in Hyjama Station that I found interesting is something that I haven't bumped into at all on this visit. Or at least I haven't been aware that I've bumped into it. Probably similarly to how I somehow convinced myself that I hadn't seen any homeless people in Japan. And then I started thinking about it, and it was like the sixth sense. I'm like, oh wait, I actually saw a bunch of homeless people that I'm just like not paying attention. This was my first very clear, distinct observation of transgender stuff going on in Japan. And it was just because I went into the washroom at Hyjama Station, and there was someone standing at one of the urinals who was very clearly dressed like a woman. And the delineation is very obvious in Japan. She was wearing the winter coat and the kind of boots. And just everything was just the way women dress around here, because there's honestly not that many types of ways that people dress in Japan. They tend to fall into like six to eight different archetypes and everybody sort of dresses in one of those ways. And I tried not to be creepy about it, but I did have to glance over just like, I just want to take a gander. And this is something I never thought of, is they were wearing a mask. And wearing a mask I think really helps you pass. If most of your face isn't visible, it's easy to pass. I would never in a million years have realized that this person was trans.

If I saw them out walking around, she looks exactly feminine, totally feminine. But again, I do feel like that's the mask thing, that's an interesting aspect of it.

Because that is an unfortunate reality of being a trans person. Is some people are passable and some people just really are not. They just are not passable as the other gender and they never will be. And it's like, man, that's kind of like, I don't know what to, I don't know what the solution to that is. I guess you just sally forth, you know, you just go ahead with it. But wearing a mask, man, I never thought about that, it's like, geez, that really, that makes it a lot easier.

And I'm pretty much fully down with trans stuff. If anything, I think it's like really interesting. I watch a whole bunch of trans YouTubers mainly male to female, but some female to male.

And I find that I'm like very easily convinced about all the stuff about wanting to be trans or changing your gender. I'm like, oh yeah, okay, that makes sense, why not?

Like just recently I watched a British male to female transitioning person. I guess she's fairly transitioned at this point. But who got a female birth certificate? And it was one of those things that just as a weird hetero outsideer who doesn't understand shit about anything. At first I does sound a little odd. I'm like, that's strange though, to have a female birth certificate. Isn't that a little strange to kind of like, doesn't that skirt, you know, biological reality? But I found I was extremely easily convinced of like, yeah sure, I guess if a future paleontologist is like researching your skeleton, you know, maybe they'd be a little confused by this birth certificate. But the reality is that none of that is relevant. You know, it's not like we're partaking in scientific tests on the regular or whatever. What's relevant day-to-day is just if you get pulled over by a cop or if you just go to pay your power bill or just all the day-to-day stuff, when you present completely as female and you have this ID that says your male, it's just an unnecessary problem that needs to be constantly explained at every stage of your life that is just like there's just no need for all of that. 35:00 And I was like, oh yeah, you know, I think I agree. Like if you can get your birth certificate changed, I understand why initially that seems like a weird thing to do. But it's not like you're trying to go back in time and pretend that you were never male at any point. You know, it's not what it's about. It's just about the practicalities of day-to-day, the administration of your life that just is like a terrible problem. If your birth certificate and your ID are the wrong gender or not the way that anyone perceives you.

So yeah, I mean, I like to think I'm hopefully a relatively progressive person. I like to think I'm a trans ally, although I mean, I guess I don't, it never comes up though. I just don't know any trans people. I don't really have an opportunity to prove it.

But I'd like to say on paper, I believe I think it's all pretty cool. It's very cool that we're finally kind of opening up a little. I say finally opening up, you know, in the sense of accepting that people have different gender identities and stuff. But I've heard stuff too about like ancient tribes and things where there were a lot of civilizations in the past that were a lot more open to this type of thing. Or like if you had the conventional, the men go out and hunt, the women stay home and look after the village. But they just had an understanding that there are some of the men who don't want to fucking go out and do the hunting. And they would prefer to stay at home and it was just accepted and okay. I guess it's like history's not just a linear progression. But in the recent past, people certainly have not been open to this idea. And it's nice that it's getting a lot more understood.

But from a practical standpoint, it really must be tough. That's why I thought it was so interesting to hear about getting birth certificates changed and stuff. Just the day-to-day of being trans must be extremely tough, just at all levels. And this was such a perfect example of that is that there was a woman at the urinal. And I know it's like a huge debate in North America and in England. The idea of like who gets to go in what washroom? And it really is tricky because the people that are like you can't let trans women in the women's bathroom because you're just letting a man into the bathroom, that's not safe. It's like mostly a fairly bigoted mindset. It's like really come on, you really think that's going to happen? You really think that's a problem that like predators are going to go in the women's washroom? In reality, it's just making life a little easier for trans women. However, as much as I don't generally agree with that, and I think they need to just calm down and just let trans women be women. Then you just, though, you get like that one or two bad fucking actors that do fuck shit up for everybody.

That are taking advantage of situations like that and ruining it for everyone. And it's like, God damn it, you know? It makes it so hard to really pick a side because it's like unfortunately both sides have an argument because someone is going to exploit this situation. And even if it's like the tiniest one percent of one percent of one percent of one percent, it's not nobody. And it's like, God damn it, fuck. Like what do you do? It's very difficult.

But then I start to think about it as if I were that person, if I were the trans woman who had used the men's washroom. How would I approach this? So obviously everybody has a different personality, so I have no idea. This person in particular that I saw today, you know, there could be a, like a defiance to it. Like, I'm just going to go use the urinal and everybody can just get used to it, you know? Maybe that's the approach. But I know that's not how I would approach things, you know? I mean obviously with this podcast, it's obvious that my style of life is like, hey, I'm just going to walk around like a ghost and you don't have to pay attention to me and that's fine. I feel like I would likely be the same way if I was trans. So if I did have to go use the men's washroom, I think I would certainly not stand at the urinal. You know, I would go into a stall and I would just use the stall. So you'd still see a woman going into and leaving the men's washroom. But it's such an unusual image to see a woman standing at a urinal. You know, it really does stand at. And maybe I would change my mind. Maybe after a little while I'd be like, whatever. No one seems to care. Everyone just is ignoring me anyway. Who cares? I'm just going to go do it. 40:00 But I think I would do the stall thing, the urinal thing. It's just a little seemed weird. I couldn't quite put it out. That's a choice. That's a choice. All right. And then I was thinking like, I guess one of the better solutions to this situation of who gets to go in a wet washroom is a third washroom. But Japan does have a third washroom almost always. There's a accessibility washroom. For if you're old or infirm or you're a mom with their kid who maybe just needs to go in and change a diaper or something.

Or you're in a wheelchair. There's the third washroom. Not all the time, but quite a bit. So I was thinking that's also a solution. You could use that washroom. I think that sounds fair. If you're a trans person who you're just trying to navigate a world where suddenly things have become incredibly binary. There's a little pink lady on this washroom and a little blue man on that washroom. And I'm not allowed to go in the pink lady washroom. Just go in the third washroom and circumvent the whole thing. It's not like that washroom is so busy that it matters if you go in there for a minute. Those are the things that I would do. But I thought it was interesting that this person, she was like, no, fuck that. I'm going in the washroom and it's going to pee in the urinal. And I mean it just really is no big deal. Nobody cared. It's like whatever. But I did think it was interesting because it isn't the choice I would make. It's not how I would approach things.

I wonder too how that works in different languages because that's like the only thing that really trips me up is social transitioning. I definitely feel like I'm on board with. I definitely understand. Physical transitioning, that gets a lot trickier. Again, I feel like I would personally try to find ways to live life in the style of the gender that I identify with more. But just try to find ways to be that way with the body that I have. But obviously I don't know what the situation is like. I don't know what it's like to be these people. There are some people that they just cannot, they just can't go on as things are. And physical surgeries and stuff are what's necessary in hormone replacement therapy. But like I said, I think in my own basically ignorant way, I like to think hopefully I'm more or less on the right mindset about things. The one thing that trips me up is that the English language is just not good for this. The term they always messes me up because it suggests multiple people. This has nothing to do with transitioning. It has nothing to do with gender politics. It has nothing to do with anything. We just are missing a word. It's so confusing. Because even beyond gender politics of the real world, like I have a friend who's working on a sci-fi novel with a genderless species. And it's still just the term they is the only term we have. And it confused me when I was reading it at first because I thought the story was referring to multiple people. And it took me a little while to figure out what was happening here. And I know there's like certain words people have pitched in different ways, but none of it is stuck. So that's literally the only thing that I'm like, man. I just wish we had a word better than they them. I'm more than happy to use they them. I don't want to make people uncomfortable. I think we should let people be who they want to be. They them though. It's just man. What an awkward term. English was not ready for this, unfortunately. It's like the one thing. We have so many words. And we just got nothing for this. We got they them and that's it. It's like, damn, man. How strange that we just can't figure out a better gender-neutral term than that. But I don't know. Maybe somebody will. In the meantime, whatever. It's the tiniest of little problems. It's a very surface level problem as opposed to all the actual problems.