Our Parents Got Addicted to Anime | Trash Taste #242
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Welcome back to another episode of Trash Taste. I'm once again joined by the boys. Hello. Now, this episode is a little interesting because the first time we recorded this episode, the first half of the audio somehow got corrupted. So we're re-recording another hour. So halfway through, it's going to swap to another episode. Don't get scared.

- It's still the same great content. - I mean, audio listeners is gonna sound exactly the same. - Audio listeners, we're going to segue it in a way where you won't even notice. But if we somehow switch clothes all of a sudden, that's when you'll know. - Bart, how you boys doing? It's the first time we've been back before the winter break recording. - Of course. - That works at least. - Yeah, that works, that works, exactly.

It is interesting now that January is almost fucking over as it is. It feels like I just got back from winter break. That's so scary. It is so scary. That's why I was saying in my earlier episodes that January is just a nothing month. I fucking hate January. I'm bringing this back. It's long though. It's got like 31 days. That's pretty, that's on the higher end of mind.

Yeah, I'm ready for February, man. By month standards, it's long. I'm ready for March, man. I'm ready for March. No, I'm not ready for March because that's when Japan is like, oh, winter's over. Let's go right into summer. I fucking need that shit,

man. I like that it's currently cold. Yeah, I like wearing heavy hoodies and jackets. It's nice. Sweaters. Spending Christmas in Thailand this year was fucking amazing. Just being able to like bathe in the sunshine every day. No, I get you. I was the same way with the Australian summer like Christmas, but

I just like the wind. - You can also just recognize Garnt, the summer here sucks. And when we get closer to it, it gets worse. - It does, but spring is awesome. Spring is awesome. - Spring's good. - Spring's good. - Spring's great. - But then you get those like random hot days that get to like 30 degrees and you're like, this is an omen of what's to come. - That's what I hate. - The suffering that awaits us in another month. - No, because like I've been, ever since I've gone back to Japan,

- Yeah, like it's been getting harder and harder to get out of bed the colder and colder it gets, you know? 'Cause I, okay, do you turn the heater on or do you just have a fuck ton of layers when you go to bed? - I have the heater on. - You have the heater on? - I just have like a really thin blanket.

- Even when it's like fucking dead ass in the winter, you just have a really thin blanket. - Yeah, it's like, what? Like two degrees that we sleep? Yeah, I sleep with just a blanket. - Do you not feel the cold when you sleep? - No, doesn't your body like make like a cocoon of heat in the blanket? - Well, it depends on how thick the blanket it is. - It's very thin.

Your body doesn't make a cocoon of heat. It does. It heats up the blanket and the blanket keeps the heat in. The blanket traps the heat in. But the thicker the blanket, the more of like thicker the cocoon is, right? Yeah. If it's a thin blanket, then it's like. It only got like too cold like one day where I had to put like socks on because my feet were getting too cold. Wait, wait.

- That's the final straw. It's like, you know it's cold when man has to put socks on. - I wasn't happy about it, but my feet was so cold that I had no choice. - I like the fact that that's like Defcon 5. It got so cold. - That is. - Just out of context, it's just you and your boxes and socks. - You know what's a great way to avoid having to sleep with socks on?

- What? - Sleeping with a proper fucking blanket. - No, 'cause I don't wanna change blankets during seasons. That's too much work. And why do I, like, are blankets so big to keep around? - You can- - We just have one blanket. - We use those, you know those like plastic bags where it's like the vacuum sealed ones? - Vacuum sealed, yeah. - Yeah, we use that. And you can do it in like two minutes. - Do you not have a fuck ton of spare blankets just lying around? - Like two or three, but I never use them.

- I've used this blanket in the studio more than I've used in my home. - We have so many spare blankets at home. - I also think that even though it's cold outside, I think my apartment building is like heated. So I think I get like some heat from the building coming into my apartment. 'Cause I rarely have to turn the heat on. - Really? - Really rarely.

And I know that in like when I used to live in Saitama, shit was like the Arctic. Like I had to turn the heater on. I was like cuddled up in front of it, it was cold. - I mean, especially your place, the walls were so thin. - Yeah, those are paper walls in Saitama. But my office, right, the PC, that shit's a furnace. - Yeah, that's true. - That heats the room. - Bro, if you're gaming and you're streaming, you don't even need the heater on. - You don't, you don't. - That is more effective than the heater itself. - I've had to turn the AC on.

sometimes at this winter. - He's like, yo, let me turn the heater on, loads of GTA 5 and ultra graphics. - Well, yeah, if I play like, I don't know, like Marvel Rivals and I stream it, like my PC is like max load and it's like, I think it makes the room, it'll make it like 27 or 28. - Jesus Christ. - Yeah, it really heats it up. - Is it actually 27, 28 or is it potentially that you just emit more body heat than the average person? - I think I also emit more body heat than normal. - Yeah, I feel like you do. You're very good with the cold. - Yeah, cold is pretty chill with me.

Like even for me, because I remember when I got back, my house is like freezing because it's not an apartment, it's a house. My room was freezing and no matter how like high I turned the heater, it just like, I was like, I considered getting gloves when I was like fucking scripting because I was like, my fingers are freezing. I don't think insulation is like a big,

- Yeah, it's not. It's definitely not. - A big factor when building. I know it's a little bit, but I know 'cause the summers are so brutal. - Yeah. So I was wearing like three layers when I started, like I did a stream and I was wearing three layers and within like an hour I was like,

"Holy fuck, I keep taking off layers and it's still fucking hot. What's going on?" So yeah, more of the story, if you're cold, just be a gamer and you will never have a cold room ever again. - Damn. - True. - Yeah. - I mean, it's nice, you know, during the summer, I pretty much never turned my AC off. So it's kind of nice to just be like, not have that be on all the time. - Right. - But you know, oh, that's just bad. - Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. - It is how it is.

But yeah, no, I mean, I went on a Christmas vacation. It was fun. What do you guys did too? So it was nice. I saw the clip where I've been getting recommended your stream clips where you got your dad into gaming. I did get my dad into gaming. So when he visited Japan, I don't know how this happened. And my dad has expressed his interest in gaming a couple of times. But you know when your dad's like, I want to get into something. And you're like...

- He's short. - Come on, dad. He's like, "I wanna get into meth." Well, dad, it's Breaking Bad, okay? - Yeah. - I don't know, like, I, obviously if he's like, "I wanna get into something," and he's kinda asking me to help him, 'cause obviously he doesn't know how, sometimes I'm like, "I'm down to hell, but you, are you down to learn?" - Yeah. - That's the, 'cause the gaming's, you can't, it's not like,

if you don't know anything about gaming, I feel like it's actually really difficult to get into. - Yeah, it's because we've been pre-programmed with the language of gaming. - I think it's a lot of stuff doesn't make sense. A lot of stuff is inherently like not very friendly.

So, you know, I think there's a lot of easier ways to get into it. But when my dad was in Japan, he was, you know, he was in my living room. He was like, I want to get into gaming. And then he was like, I want to play this. And he picked up a PS5 controller in my living room. And he's like, I want to play it. And I was like, ah, PS5 is in my stream room.

Not here. He's like, oh. And I was like, but, but, what is here? I had the Steam Deck dock hooked into my PC. I was like, oh, you can play Steam Deck. Play whatever game you want. He said, what game should I play? I was like, oh, I don't know. Okay, Balotro. Easy. Poker. You already know poker. This should be like an easy...

When he first started, it was really hard watching him play 'cause he, like none of it made sense and none of it was intuitive. So I'd be like, "Press the X button." He's like, "The fucking X button? "What the fuck are you talking about?" And then worst part is Steam Deck has like the controllers all mapped to like an Xbox controller or a Steam Deck. But I handed him a PS5 controller. So I'm like, "Press X." And then he presses X. I'm like, "Nope, that's X on Xbox, circle." - Circle. - Circle, circle.

It's pretty much like the worst way to start learning it where, yeah, to my credit, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense when I explain it like that, you know? So he's getting into it and, you know, have you ever played Baltro, you guys? I haven't, but I've seen lots of footage of it, yeah. Okay, okay. I mean, you've got to play it. It's fucking amazing. But like, you know, maybe you want to pick your hand and you want to make a flush, right? So he picks the flush and I'm like, all right, press X to lock it in. And then he presses like, I don't know, whatever it was, Y or

and it like discards it. And I'm like, what do I do now? I'm like, you're burned. I'm like, you have to restart. Run it down again. Run it down again. Eventually he was having fun. And when he left, he was like, I really, really want to get one. I want to get a Steam Deck. I was like, okay. I was like, I think, you know, maybe you can get a PS5 or a Nintendo Switch.

But he was like, no, I want to get a Steam Deck. I really like it. I like that you can pick it up and use it. I was like, Nintendo Switch. I was like, yeah. I was like, you know, I think, I don't know. I also don't think Nintendo Switch is,

as easy as everyone like to learn gaming with. I don't think there's any good way to learn gaming nowadays other than to like just throw your head at it. So he wants to get a Switch and I'm like, sorry, a Steam Deck. And I'm like, okay. He's like sending me links. He's like, "Should I get this one? "Which one should I get? "The OLED with the 15, 12 gigabytes "or the one terabyte version?" Again, more stuff that doesn't make any fucking sense to anyone who doesn't understand gaming. I'm like, "Just get this one. "Get the one with like the smallest size." So he gets it.

And then he messaged me. He's like, hey, yeah, I don't know how to set this up. I was like, don't worry. I'm coming back in like two weeks. I'll come and set it all up for you. So I get there and I told him to buy Xbox controllers because they're quite big and they generally work with most things. I feel like less annoying to use than PS5 controllers in terms of like cross compatibility. So I get him these Xbox controllers and I go to use them with the Steam Deck.

And it's like just not connecting. What the fuck? Not connecting. I'm trying everything I can think of to get this Bluetooth to fucking connect to the Steam Deck. It's just not working at all. I'm like, what? I've tried every single thing I can think of. So I start Googling what's the problem? Has anyone else had this?

Turns out you have to plug the Xbox controllers into a PC first and upgrade the firmware, and then you can connect them to the Steam Deck. Modern consoles, eh? Which, admittedly, you wouldn't have this problem with a Nintendo Switch or any other console. It ain't got no chance. Any parent's got no chance. So I finally got it working, and then I had to then add him to my Steam family account. Yeah. Which...

To be fair, it's a pretty fucking awesome feature. I don't know if you know this, you can share your Steam library with family members or friends as long as their Steam account is in the same country as yours. So mine was sent to the UK and I haven't changed it. - Hey, Netflix accounts. Hey, Netflix could never. - I was like, there, you can have all my, and most games you can share. It's like some,

new games you can't share, but most of them, they can just play all the games. So I was like, there you go, 500 Steam games. Choose anything you want to play, anything that picks your fancy.

He's like, "Oh, I don't know what to play, scrolling." And he clicks this one game and it's just like an AI slop game that I'd installed for a video where I play every single game the company sent me. I was like, "No, actually no, you know what? I'll pick a game, I'll pick a game." - He probably has the worst stream library. - It's genuinely terrible. - 'Cause it's 90% like streamer games and then- - Yeah, it's awful. - It's meme games, yeah. - Yeah, meme games, streamer games, and then there's like the 10%

of the games he would actually enjoy. - Yeah, it's like probably like 3% of the games he might like actually wanna play. He's like, "I wanna play Call of Duty."

I think Call of Duty is going to be fun on this. And that's also going to be so fucking hard to learn. Learning how to move the camera while moving is so unnatural if you don't game. Oh, for sure, yeah. So I was like, let's maybe try and find something with a bit more of an easier control scheme to kind of get you into this. And I was looking, I was looking, and I was thinking, okay, maybe, yeah, let's just definitely get Battle Trial.

let's try Vampire Survivors. Let's download Vampire Survivors and see if he likes it. Oh, that's a good choice, yeah. So I downloaded it and I booted it up and he goes, this looks old. LAUGHTER

- I mean, I get it, yeah. - I was like, "Dad, it was released like last year, two years ago, three years ago." - It's an aesthetic, Dad. It's an aesthetic. - I'm telling you. - Retro's in right now. - I just realized I'm old 'cause I realize, Vamma Size is probably like four years old or something. I don't wanna check how old it is, but I know it's older than I think it is. - I think it is like four years old now. Was it like post COVID?

- I think it was during COVID. - During the backend, I think. - Okay. - Can we Google how, when did Vampire Survivors come out? - Oh God. - But I was like, you should try Vampire Survivors 'cause my main thing was like, I need to find a good game with as simple of a control scheme as possible that has a lot of replayability because- - 2021.

- Yeah, okay. - So four years ago. - Four years. - 'Cause I feel like for someone to get into gaming, they need to find a control scheme they like, replayability, and just a great game. Like it needs to be a game that they can keep playing over and over again to kind of

get used to like certain gaming things. - And Vampire Survivors is mostly just the Joy-Con anyway, right? - Literally just the Joy-Con. And then like maybe you have to choose, you click like A. - Yeah, a couple of buttons. - Yeah, so it's very, very hands off and like super simple. So started playing it and he was like, "Oh, I don't like it." And I was like, "No, no, no, no, just." - Trust me, Matt, this is peak. - Just give it a shot. Give it a shot, give it a shot.

And he was like, I don't really understand. And I was like, okay, so the attacks are all on a timer and you have to move around and it's all time. I can see it just going like, she's fucking going out. Just pick up the garlic, Dan. Just pick up the garlic. Yeah, so I was like, all right, no, no, no. All right, well, look, we'll get the fucking garlic and it'll all make sense. Yeah, yeah. And so we finally get the garlic and I'm like, now run into them, run into them.

He's like, "No, I gotta run away for that." I'm like, "No, no, you have to level up." - You have the going. You're stinky boy now. - "You have to level up, dad." And I'm telling, he's like running away. I'm like, "He'll survive for like 15 minutes, but he won't kill anything." - Oh, right, yeah. - So you just can't progress. - Yeah, yeah. - I was like, "You gotta think about it, dad. It's like investment. You gotta be making investment every day. You gotta get XP per minute. You gotta be leveling up constantly for the next wave."

- You gotta figure out the risk assessment. - So yeah, he's getting into it, you know? And after a couple of attempts, especially after the garlic, I think the garlic is such a good way of easing people into that game. - Oh, for sure. - 'Cause it's kind of like a nice little easy mode to kind of get you through the first five, 10 minutes to kind of get you like getting a bit more of the craziness upgrades. So he's finally getting into it.

And I then start, I'm like, okay, I should start showing him how to play. So I start like trying to teach him about the upgrade system, which is so fucking confusing. - It is. - Because it doesn't fucking make sense. 'Cause you're like, oh, to upgrade the axe, I need the limp wand or something. And you're like, what the fuck is that all about? Why does that? Or I needed candelabra to upgrade the axe. He's like, what?

Okay, to upgrade the Bible, you'll need a clover or something. It doesn't make any fucking sense to any sane person. And so I'm trying to explain this to him, but I can realize it's not working. So I'm like, all right, do you know what? Just focus on killing and leveling up and getting the gems. And he loved it. And so when we went to Germany...

on the flight over, he was literally just on his Steam Deck the entire time. And I was like, "Damn." - Hell yeah. - He's in it. - He's a gamer. - He's into the gaming. - Mission accomplished. - And then, you know, the whole break went through and it was all good. And he also liked the console as well, 'cause when my nephews came around,

they wanted to play like every single fucking game on it. And I have two nephews, but none of them could agree on which game they wanted to play. So I'd be like, okay, let's play, I don't know, let's play Garfield Kart. And they're like, one of them would be like, I love this, the best ever. And they would be like, I hate it, new game, new game, new game, new game. And I'd be like, okay, let's play, I don't know, let's play Cuphead. And they'd be like, oh, this looks so fun. And then they'd immediately die. And they'd be like, new game, new game. Boys.

You gotta get good. I'm trying to explain it though. I'm like, you don't want to change game. You're just bad. You need to get good. That's why you don't like the game. - Tough, tough lessons. - Don't change the game, change the attitude. - So they, after like three times, they'll be like, no, I'm not changing the game. You need to play this game. You need to get good at this.

I'm tired of you quitting. - Why are you putting this on like a boot camp? - Boys, I just couldn't believe it. Back in my day, you'd give me one game and I'd beat it. What is this? - We didn't have a choice. - Yeah, we didn't have multiple games. I was like, no, I'm not changing the game. You need to fucking lock in. - There was metal slug on our holiday and there was no other booth. We got what we got. - You're either playing metal slug or the shitty Garfield. - Back in my day, you had like two euros. You had to get good.

good. You didn't get to game. I was like, no, no, no, you need to lock in here. I'm not changing the game. And so after like, you know, 40 minutes of them whining, I was like, fine. I'll put on the game that I think you'll like. And I was just scrolling and scrolling. I was like, oh, maybe this one's good. It's called like stick fight the game. It's literally just like this episode is brought to you by Vessi boys. You guys should know by now

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- Have you ever played that? - Yeah. - Oh, for like a stream game or? - I don't know, I must play it like years ago. - Oh, I've always seen that on my like steam recommendations. - I think I have played it like really, really early on. - It's just like, it's like you both like fucking instantly dropped down to a stage.

beat each other up or shoot each other with guns that drop. And then it immediately loads a new stage right away. So they liked it. - I think it was really fun actually. - Yeah, it was pretty fun. - Is there just something universal about just stick fighting? 'Cause do you remember? - Yeah, you just kind of like shoot each other and they loved it. And I was like, fine, play this game.

I mean, this has always existed in like early internet, ever since the Xiao Xiao animations. - Oh my God. Do you remember the period of the internet where just like the sickest animations were just sick fight videos? - Yeah, it's like the animator versus animation period. - Oh yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's a classic. - Yeah, yeah. - Dude, this game is actually fire. - It's really good. - This is a really, really fun game. We should play this.

It was really fun. And they liked that one a lot. I think because it was just like a lot going on and they could kind of control a funny moving character, but they were very bad. And some of the stages are like stage hazards and they could just never understand what's happening. Oh, this looks fun. Yeah. This is like more chaos. It's really, really fun. Anyway, so my dad got really into Vampire Survivors and then I left. My mom called me and was like, yeah, it's kind of annoying. All he does is like play games like that.

Apparently that's like all he's doing. And then my dad comes over and he's like, "Hey, I got a couple of questions for you." I was like, "Okay." He's like, "I think I beat all the vampire survivors." I was like, "You did not beat all the vampire survivors." It's been like a week. You haven't beat it. I was like, "Show me, show me the screen." So he takes the laptop over and like angles the camera horribly. It's like facing the ground. Like, "Dad, you gotta, Dad, Dad, tilt the camera up. Tilt it up." So I'm seeing like a quarter of the TV.

And I'm like, all right, go to the map select and show me the maps. And it's weird about Vampire Survivors, I think, because it's like one, two, three. And then they're all just called like names or bonus stages, I think. They're like extra levels, right? I could be wrong. Yeah. But they're definitely like more levels. Yeah. So he had just beat one, two, three, and then been like, I beat it. I was like, no, no, no. You haven't beat it, Dad. You got to do all this other stuff, too. But you just didn't know. It's all like the achievements and stuff as well.

- Yeah, and there's like, I have like the Castlevania DLC. So it's like all that kind of stuff you can do. And like, there's just so many other things you can do. So I was like, okay, all right, yeah, you should go do those ones, dad. And then I saw on the top right, he had 30,000 coins. I was like, dad, you gotta spend your coins. 'Cause I remember last time when I was there, I spent the coins and he, it was like I'd like spent his real life money. He was kind of like, he was like, what have you done?

- You spend real money? What was that? What'd you do? I was like, no, no, no. It's like, you can get opponent upgrades if you spend this money. He's like, is that real money? I was like, no, no, no. It's like in game, in game. - Is that real money? - I was like, no, you gotta spend it. You gotta spend it. - Sometimes it is. - Very often. That's a good question. - That's a very good question. That's being on the safe side here. - And so,

I was like, show me a power-up screen because I was convinced he hadn't spent it because there's power-ups. I've played a fair amount of MSV. I have not unlocked all the power-ups. And he opens the power-up screen and it's all...

all just completed. He bought everything. And I was like, what the fuck? How much have you played? Because I've got like 50 hours in that game and I'm not close to that. He's like 500 hours. Yeah. I mean, admittedly, I play casually. Maybe he was sweating. I don't know. So he's locked in. And then he was like, yeah, but man, I've been trying to play. I'm trying to get good to this other game.

And so I watch him expertly navigate through the menus of the Steam Deck. It was flawless. I was like, damn, what a game. There was no wasted menu input. It was like, open the Steam menu, close the game, go to library, open the next game, flawless. Normally there would have been like four detours lost. I was like, damn, okay. Opens up Cuphead. And so he's like, okay, let me show you. I'm having a bit of difficulty. Maybe you can tell me what I'm doing wrong.

And so he loads up a cop head stage, which is mostly just boss rushes. You just have to beat a boss. And so he loads up this boss.

it's the fucking flower box. - The first one. - Yeah, the first one. - And so I'm like, okay. He's like, yeah, I just don't know what I'm supposed to do. And so he loads it up and I'm watching him on Skype through a webcam aimed at the TV. And I'm watching- - It's like old Let's Plays. - It's like a dark side Phil Let's Play. So I'm watching him and he's dodging the first ones. The first projectiles come out of it. Okay, he's dodging. And then another five seconds go by and I'm like,

Okay, and he's dodging again. I'm like dad. When are you gonna shoot him? He's like what? I'll get you you have to shoot him What do you mean I was like hold X and then so the bullets start coming out he's like oh I was again you need to kill him you have to shoot him away He's like wait wait. She's asking me. He's like I gotta dodge and shoot him at the same time. I'm like yes

He's like, "Oh, that seems really hard." I'm like, "It is." And then like, so there's points during this level where he dodges some stuff pretty well. And then he's in a position where he has to like shoot the gun upwards or diagonally. And I'm like, "Yeah, this is the annoying part. You now have to use the other joystick

to aim the gun. - Wait, so did he do the first like run and gun level? - Yeah, so he must've done the first run and gun level without killing anything. - Without the gun. - Yeah, which is actually a thing. You actually, there's a pacifist run. - Yeah, but it's way harder to do. - It's hard to do, yeah. - Unintentionally doing a pacifist run. - Yeah, I was like, that was pretty impressive. That's pretty impressive. So he, yeah, he's trying to get into Cuphead,

- That's a big step up. - I think as he sees the aesthetic and he thinks, "Oh, it must be somewhat easy." It's a pretty tough game. - If your dad, if the next time we hear about your dad's gaming journey and he comes back and he's like,

- I now speedrun Cuphead. - Stay up to date, I'll let you know. I haven't heard from him in about a week. So I'm sure I'll hear an update about how he's either conquered vampire survivors or completed Cuphead. - That would be crazy. - Which if he completes Cuphead, that's certified gamer. - That would be insane. - A lot of people I know gave up on Cuphead. - He's gunning for your speedrun record. - Yeah, we'll know that he's truly your dad. - I'll be like, damn, okay, pretty impressed, pretty impressed. Also like, but he like,

So he's retired, but he kind of like does some odd jobs in the side. I'm guessing he's just not going to do any of those anymore. He's just going to like... You've just ruined him. I guess. I mean, I guess...

- He's in proper retirement now. - I mean like- - He's a full-time gamer. - I think there's no better time to get into gaming than when you retired. - Of course. - 'Cause you've got the entire, you can play fucking the best ofs for like the next 10 years. - Yeah. - Right? - That's basically what a fucking Steam library is now. It's just a retirement list. - I mean like, yeah, I feel like if I could go back, shit. I mean, that's kind of what I'm doing now though. - Yeah. - 'Cause I kind of like only played COD when I was growing up and now I'm finally going to like the fucking best ofs. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, kind of makes me think if I were to like try to get my parents into gaming, what would I recommend? - Honestly, I think Vampire Survives is a phenomenal first game. - I mean, it is, 'cause there's like a lot going on and the control scheme is like pretty simple. - And it has the, obviously 'cause the guy who made it used to be, I think he had something to do with, he worked in the gambling industry.

the guy used to make. - Oh really? - Which is why a lot of the mechanics are very fun and very addictive. Like when you open the crate, that's why like- - Sometimes it's like three or five. - Sometimes it's three and the music starts going like, oh, oh, oh, oh. - Big money, big money, big money.

- That makes so much sense. - Which honestly makes opening the chest always kind of hype. Even though you know you're probably just gonna get one, but when you get a five, you're like, "Oh!" It's pretty fucking hype. And so I think that game is perfect because it has so many addictive elements, which,

I think you kind of need that for a first game. You need to be addicted to really get into that grind. - Also, I think 2D is just easier than 3D in terms of like introducing someone into a game. 'Cause I'm trying to think like how many, how long did it take us to get used to like a 3D plane? 'Cause it kind of felt simple because we went from like, I guess,

you know, Super Nintendo to like Mario 64. But I remember like playing like Super Mario World on Super Nintendo and you know, that's a 2D platformer game, right? So it's like, oh, okay, you know, left is left, right is right. And then the first time I played Mario 64, I was like, hang on, up is forward? What the fuck? It's pretty confusing to start off with. I don't remember reprogramming my brain to like,

be okay with the 3D space. I think isometric games are also really good to get people into because it's kind of like, it's a pretty simple movement system, but you still get the nice kind of, nice, ooh, 3D-ish. Yeah, it's like 2.5D. Yeah, which I think is really good. Yeah, the only game, like, I don't know about my mom. My mom wasn't like never really into gaming, but my dad, he's played two games in his life.

He's played Wolfenstein and Doom. - Based, I mean. - That checks out so much. I'm like, of course. - And that's only because he was working at Logitech at the time and Logitech were making the specific controllers for Doom and Wolfenstein where it's like two knobs and like one was to strafe and one was to like turn. So like he's played those games, but like,

I don't know. Maybe he might be into Vampire Survivors, actually. It's kind of the same. I think it's a really fun game to get people hooked on gaming because you, you know, and it's it only really when you first start off, it only you'll only ever last like max eight to ten minutes. Yeah. So you get a very short gameplay loop that's super satisfying. Sure. Yeah. But it has a lot of depth. So once they do get hooked, there's a lot there is to do. So I think it's a really good way to get those gamer juices flowing of like,

how to kind of optimize a build or, you know, the kind of fun stuff that's like really, really exciting about gaming, I think. - Yeah, I know a game my dad would be fucking addicted to if I could get him to that level. 'Cause my dad, so I found out this Christmas holiday, my dad gets addicted really easily to puzzle games. - Okay, okay. - For his Christmas present, I bought him this little like puzzle game that I saw on like YouTube shorts where it's kind of like,

It's kind of like a physical puzzle system where you can move like blocks around and it has like 500 different levels and it comes with like different blocks that you set it up. And then you have to get one big red block into the final destination by just like moving it around. - Oh, okay. - Like the car mobile app games. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Move your buses out of the way. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like that shit, but it was like a physical board. And I thought, you know, my dad,

My dad, I got it from my dad 'cause I was like, oh, he does the Rubik's cube every now and again. He does like, you know, puzzles in the morning. He got really addicted to Wordle. - Nice. - So I was like, oh, my dad is like that kind of guy. He likes puzzles. So I get him that.

thinking this will occupy him for like a good month or so. Within like two days, he gets to like the hardest fucking difficulty by grinding the shit out. He gets like level 250 out of like 500. And I kind of, I was like, what the fuck have you been doing? And then I realized I went downstairs and all I heard was boop, boop.

And then I go to my office, I'd go up and I'm like, all right, I'm going to bed now. And I still hear boop.

- It like makes a noise? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you get like the one, you can hear like the tiles being moved and you can also hear the beep when the- - Oh, so it's like electronic? - Yes, it's electronic as well. And then I realized on the second day, my dad's older gentleman now, he normally goes to bed early-ish. Something normally has to be really wrong for him to not go to bed early. My mom told me, my mom wakes up,

And it's like 1:00 AM. My dad normally goes to bed at like 9:00 PM, 10:00 PM. And my dad's just not in bed. My mom starts panicking thinking, "Shit, what has happened?" - Something's happened. - She fucking rushes downstairs. And what does she see?

- Yeah, that was locked the fucking. - There's gotta be some real fucking like gamer brain. - Oh, he does, he does. - Bro's like L. - So I think if my dad ever gets to the point where, okay, so this is like a very simple game, but like I think the perfect game for my dad, if he were able to get mechanically to that level, I think Portal would like destroy him. - Portal would be cool. - Portal would be,

- I just like bend his mind so much. - Did your dad ever get into like Candy Crush or like any of those like mobile puzzle games? - My dad watches this, do not. Dad, do not Google that. - Because my dad, I just remembered the third game my dad got way too into was Candy, I think he's on like level 2000 on Candy Crush. 'Cause he's made it a thing now where every morning he'd make a coffee and he'd sit down with a coffee, open up his iPad and just play Candy Crush.

or like something equivalent to that of Candy Crush. And I remember I looked over one day and I was just like, oh, I wonder, you know, 'cause I played a little bit of Candy Crush when it first came out, as did everyone. And I was like, oh, I wonder what level is that? I remember seeing it was like 2000 and something. And I was just like, I didn't even know this game had that many levels. - Yeah, fine. - He's on like the fucking like Tetris kill screen of Candy Crush. - Your dad was like, what's it called? Like Cut the Rope? That was a good game back in the day. That was a fire game. - That was a fire game. - What's Cut the Rope?

It's like an old mobile app, right? Yeah, it's a mobile app and a game where you have to cut the rope. Normally, it might be two or three ropes all attached to a thing. Oh, my God. I remember this. Your dad would love this. Holy shit. My dad would love this. I want to do a stream where I go back and beat it all in one go. This game was fire. I beat this back in the day. It was fucking awesome. Oh, really? Yeah. I remember I...

This is back when apps were like good and they weren't macro transactions. They were just like 99p or something. 99 cents. And I remember I bought all these ones when I saved up money and I fucking played. Yeah, that's what your dad can get into. These like old school like mobile games. I think it's a really good puzzle. I think the puzzles are pretty good on this too. Yeah. Yeah. My dad loves, I think he just loves solving puzzles and I'm happy with that. Anything to keep. Keep the brain juices flowing. Keep the neurons still firing. You know, I think it's honestly. His fruit ninjas.

Dad. Test your reflexes. Yeah.

- I'm trying to remember like the other games I've played back in the day, like- - Doodle Jump. - Doodle Jump. I was going, holy shit. - That game was fire. - Oh my God. - They made like an arcade game of that, like a physical one. - Oh yeah, I saw that. - Really? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - When we went to America, I saw it and I was like, what the fuck? - It was like a giant one, right? - It reminds me of fucking Doodle Jump arcade machines and like Angry Birds. - How far did you get into Angry Birds? 'Cause obviously that was like the big thing. - I always hated it. - Really? - Yeah, I just thought it was fun. - I played a little bit of it.

I was definitely obsessed with Doodle Jump though back in the day. - Yeah. Isn't this so fucking- - What a fire game. - So fucking lame. When it's like in Japan, the fucking arcade games and in America we get fucking Doodle Jump, the arcade game.

- Japan, you got like, get in your fucking Mac, pilot the Mac. - Yeah. - Fire the people in your Mac suit. - Doodle jump, jump, jump on the doodles. - I mean, hey, don't bad mouth doodle jump, man. - Yeah, do it. - I am bad mouthing it, I am. - This is the OG. - I know it's OG, I was there, but come on, this shit shouldn't be in an arcade.

This is so uninspired for an arcade game. One of the fire arcade machines is the multiplayer Pac-Man. That is actually a lot of fun. But I find myself with that game. I'm always like, that's it.

After we all put like a dollar in each and it's like over in like two minutes. Well, that is the big difference between Japanese arcades and arcades everywhere else in the world. 100 yen can get you like 15 to 20 minutes of gameplay on a Japanese machine. I'll know inflation has truly hit Japan once...

it's no longer a hundred yen for three songs. - Once we get Doodle Jump on. - Once I can go to, if I ever have to go to an arcade machine and I have to put like 200 yen in for three songs, I know it's over. - Damn. - I'm like, that's it, arcade is dead. - Yeah, it's GG. - Well, the problem is that, you know, arcade machines just take a fuck ton of maintenance. - Space, maintenance, electricity. - Yeah, sure. - I do wonder though, like three minutes,

a song, you get three songs each. You get like a minute in between to like, you know, it's 10 minutes per machine. It's kind of a lot of time. I don't know. - That is a lot of time. That's why there's like 50 of the same machines in most places. - Yeah, like I've never been to an arcade, at least in the West. And I've always seen like the Guitar Hero fucking arcade. I've never seen one with like every control working. There's always like one button off.

- Yeah. - Or one- - They were kind of trusted to take care of things. - No, no, no, exactly. - Yeah, I remember there was like another one. It wasn't Guitar Hero, but it was like Drum Hero. - Oh yeah. - Where it was like the drum pad machines. I remember one to one, just one of the drumsticks, half of it was just missing. I'm just like, cool, thanks. - Of course, of course. - Yeah, who steals half a drumstick? - Probably some fucking drunk dickhead. - Yeah, just smashes it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Fucking hell. - That's how it normally is. But that's why arcade machines work in Japan because

At least in the culture, you got to take care of your shit. Exactly. And I'm sure even then, at least there is more of a infrastructure for maintenance if you need some like specialized material or specialized equipment.

- I feel like asking people to like touch the screen in Western, not generally not good. In the UK we get broken. - Yeah. - Hit the screen. - It's like, don't smash the screen. It's like, okay, bang. - Yeah, I remember in the UK we had this when I was growing up

when I was living in London, we had this like one arcade. I'm sure there's way more in London right now, but there was this one arcade. I think it was like LV arcade or something like that. - It's still there. - Is it still there? - It's still there. - 'Cause the highlight of that arcade was like Bishi Bashi, this random fucking Japanese. Did you ever play Bishi Bashi?

- They've made so many versions of Japan. - Yeah, I didn't realize they had made so many versions of it in Japan. - After all of the new and fancy arcade machines that come out like in the West and Japan. - Vichy Bashi is fine. - You always go back to Vichy Bashi. - It's fine. It's basically like the Mario party of arcades in the best way. Except every game, every gameplay is about bashing like three different- - Except if you had two brain cells. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

- The original was like around like pressing a button. And there's like tons of different mini games involving pressing a button, but the newer ones they have like, you've seen it right, the key hole where you like pull out, it's like a circle and you pull it in and out constantly and do other stuff with it. - What, no. I don't remember the last time I played this. - I think it was like Bishi Bashi variants or something, I don't know. There's so many different versions now. I swear there's another one too, but there's like a,

- Which one? - Oh no, maybe Bishi Bashi. - Bishi Bashi arcade. - Arcade machine. - Yeah, that one's the default, but there's definitely- - It's a PlayStation game? - Oh yeah. - I guess. - Oh shit. I had no idea. - Just keep scrolling down. - I haven't, yeah. The ones I always see are these classic ones. - Yeah, but there's one where they have a different version I've seen. Maybe it won't show up. I don't know. Maybe if you keep scrolling endlessly, Kai will find it.

- Yeah, but there's definitely a different version as well. - Yeah, what a fire game. - Yeah. - Oh yeah, you get red, blue and green each. That's right. - Yeah, you get red, blue and green in every game. - Oh, that's a different one. - And the gameplay is basically revolved around bashing different buttons, you know? - Yup, Yubishi and Yubashi. - You just go full monkey brain. And the thing that surprised me was that this arcade machine was like,

- It lasted in London. And I did not expect an arcade machine where you literally bash buttons would last more than like- - It's an engineering marvel. The fact that this thing gets the absolute shit kicked out of it every single day. And it somehow is the one that survives the longest. - Right, right. - I don't even know how you, how do you test that to make sure it can like withstand a bashing every day?

- Just throw it into like a gorilla pen and see if it like lasts a day. - But yeah, you weren't the only one to get your parents into something this Christmas actually.

- Okay. - Because I also had my own little adventure with my own parents. It wasn't gaming though. It wasn't gaming. - Okay. - 'Cause it's me. Of course it wouldn't be gaming. - I ain't no gamer. - I ain't no gaming. - No, no. - But for like fucking years, I've been trying to get my mom to watch like, to like sit down and watch an anime. - Okay. - Right?

And you know, my dad is like simple. He'll watch anything I put on. I think like, he doesn't matter. Like I've watched like Black Lagoon. - What is this, "Iramanga Sensei"? - No, seriously. There'll be times when I'm just like going through the seasonal anime and I have to watch some of the most like degenerate shit. - Your dad's like, "I'm down." - My dad just like sits down, watches, complete silence. There's like the most degenerate shit going on. And my dad's like,

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- Interesting. - What do you do for work anyway? - They're not blood related. - Yes. But my mom, the only thing I've been able to get my mom to watch is basically anime movies and getting her to sit down to watch like a series has just been impossible. But this Christmas holiday, we had some extra time going on.

And there is one thing that my mom will definitely, definitely sit down and watch. And that is these old, badly Thai dubbed Chinese soap operas. Thai dubbed? Thai dubbed. Interesting. Like she can sit down and watch these Chinese, like Chinese or Korean palace soap operas for like hours and hours and hours on end. So...

- Recently, last year, Apothecary Diaries finished and I was searching up on Netflix and I saw that it also had a Thai dub on it. So I was like- - What? - Ooh. - Since when? - Yeah, yeah, I didn't know this either, but it's- - Netflix is pretty good at dubbing. - Yeah. - Damn. - Netflix has dubbed in like so many different languages. If you go on Netflix dub, it's not just English dub. Somehow it had Thai dub, so.

I was like, okay, maybe my mom will get into this. Maybe my mom would like this, who knows? So I think we were going to fly off to one of the Thai islands for a big family holiday. So we had a little bit of downtime the day before that. It was Boxing Day, so just the day after Christmas. And so after we'd all finished packing, we had some downtime and I'm like, mom, I think there's a show you might like. I don't know, I don't know. You might like this one, it's anime, it's anime.

But give it a chance, you know, give it a chance, mom. You might like this one. So I put on this first episode of Apothecary Diaries and I explain it's a palace, you know, it's a China, not China, palace soap opera mystery detective show. And my mom's like, oh, okay.

"Oh, okay, that looks interesting." My dad, as usual, sits down with us, locks in. My dad locks in anytime I do anything. My mom is like a bloody cat sometimes, right? Because like she, it's hard to get her to focus and stuff. And so, you know that feeling when you put on a show you want your mate to watch and you can just tell.

that they are- - They're into it? - No, no, no. You can just tell that they're just not into it. - Oh, not into it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Longest three minutes ever. - Oh man, you know, you know- - You gotta do like the awkward like side eye like that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Come work with me here. - Yeah, yeah, so I put on the first episode and my mom tells me she's interested.

- But her body language is, "Oh, I'm just gonna pick up the phone. I'll just go, oh, I got it. This person's replying." And I'm like,

- Oh, she's missing all the exposition of like everything. - You pause it, you're like, are we watching this, mom or not? Are we watching this? Are we watching this? Commit, fucking commit to watching this. - No, thank God, thank God. - Put the phone down. - Thank God, the goat, my dad. My mom like, in the first episode, my mom's like, so what's going on? My dad's like, all right, let me give you the play by play.

Her name's Mau Mau. She's gotten kidnapped. She's now working in the palace now. And my mom's like, "Oh, that's what's going on? Actually, that sounds interesting actually." So she, my mom out of everything catches like the last five minutes basically. - Right. Pretty much after all the exposition. - Yeah, after all the exposition. And my dad is the one who is explaining to her everything that's going on. So apparently the five minutes was enough. So the day after we go,

So we go over to this Thai island and we arrive right in the morning. And it's not just my family, it's Sydney's entire family as well. So everyone's very excited to just go out and do stuff. It's our holiday after all. We're squant some family, so they wanna start drinking immediately after lunch or whatever. So we all plan to go out, have a day just exploring the island, getting some food and stuff like that. And my mom's like, "Eh,

- Would it be rude? Because I'm like a bit tired. I'm a bit tired. Would it be rude if I just stay back? You know, if you guys go off. Would it be rude? I'm like, no, no, no, mom, mom, it's holiday. You can do whatever you want. - Yeah, rest up. - And my mom's like, okay, so how do I work this TV? And I'm like, so it's the TV works exactly the same as a home mom. And you know, they have Netflix as well and they have everything. - How do I load up Netflix? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- How do I play where I left off? - Has Netflix you say? Has Netflix. So we all leave for the entire day. We're not at home the entire day. So I'm out with the family showing them around. We have lunch, get a few drinks, go to the beach, have dinner. My mom is just nowhere to be seen, uncontactable. We come back in the evening.

And my mom is sitting there and I go in and she's on episode 20. She's on episode 20 of like 24 of Apothecary Diaries. I was like, mom. - One day. - What? - Your mom was binging Apothecary Diaries all day. - Mom.

And she's like, - Based. - Yeah, it's pretty good. - Pretty good. - It's pretty good. - Pretty good? 20 fucking episodes in, it's gonna be a masterpiece. - It's like 10 hours. - What the heck? - And then she's like, I'll join you guys in a second. Let me just finish this. - There's a couple more episodes left. - So she finishes it. She reaches the end. And then she's like, that's it? And I'm like, what do you mean that's it, man? She's like, yeah, that's it. She's like,

but it was only 24 episodes. I was like, mom, what'd you mean? It's only 24 episodes. Do you know how rare that is in anime? But I need to see what happens with mom. Yeah. But she's like, but, but,

but the episodes are so short. And I'm like, yes, mom. Now, you know, the pain of being an anime fan. But I was like, okay, mom, it's okay. It's okay. The next season is coming out literally next month. And she's like, but that's too long. I want to know what happens now. And it's,

And so she got completely addicted to Apothecary Diaries and she is now patiently waiting for the next episode. - I mean, look, if there was any anime that she could have gone into, this was probably the best one to get into. - Oh, it was fantastic. I knew she would like it. I didn't know she was gonna like it that much. You know, I just...

Just living like a college student. I mean, it's good when they get into something that you actually think is good. I remember a Reddit post about something. I don't know what it was. It was something about how someone's dad had gotten into gaming, but only fucking Scooby-Doo games. Okay. Apparently, he was giga locked the fuck into Scooby-Doo games and nothing else.

- No interest in anything else except for Scooby-Doo video games. - And how many Scooby-Doo games are there? - Like seven or eight. - God damn. - It's a fair amount. And I just remember reading it like, that's like a new fear I've unlocked that my dad gets into something so fucking bad or like weird that is adjacent to my hobby. - Yeah, what's to say that like, you know, even though you're like, hey, don't play any of these like shitty AI games on my Steam library. What if he's just like, you know what?

- I mean, that'd be fine. - He's kind of fire. - But yeah. - You've already introduced him to like good games. - Yeah. - I think the problem is, is when they don't have a- - Like a frame of reference. - Yeah, a reference of what is a good game. So they just play any game and they're like, oh, okay. - Oh, this is what gaming is. - This is a game, I guess. I can get into this game. - I mean, look, I don't know. There might be some Scooby Doo games that are like unironically fire. I don't know. - Have you played any of them? - What if you're like, mom was like, man, I fucking love Black Bullet.

- Like the anime, like just an anime. Like you were like, what? Why are you into that? - I heard about this thing called light novels. Should I start getting into those? - I think she could get into like low light. I don't know. I feel like my, if there's something to my mom's taste, she is exactly like me where she will watch, if she's into a genre, she will watch that entire genre no matter how shitty the writing is. You know, in her case, it's just,

soap operas and I've seen some of the soap opera she watches and God damn. To say that it is like top tier, I'm like, no, I'm like, I think I understand why I can handle a shit like "Domestic Girlfriend." - Yeah, do not get your mom into "Domestic Girlfriend." - Because I've seen some of the level of like what she watches and I'm like,

Is this where I got it from? Shit. Is it the gene? Fuck's sake. Yeah. I also watched Orb though. Orb is amazing. Yes. Yes.

- I'm so glad. - I think I'm up to date right now. It's peak, it's peak. - Oh God. - You're recommending it, Garnt. - No worries. - I'm a couple of episodes behind on that, I think right now. - Yeah. I heard you've been watching anime again recently, Joe. - Yeah, dude, I watched all of Apothecary Diaries. - Oh shit, no way. - I'm up to date right now on that shit. I've watched like, just in this month, I've watched five anime.

- Fuck, okay. - From start to finish. - Five anime? - I've watched more anime in January than I did the past several years. - Who is this man? - The anime man is back boys. - Who is this man? - Do you enjoy it?

Yes. Okay. I was so scared. I was like, man, what if I'm just not into it anymore? Because tastes change and something you're into when you're younger, maybe you're not so much as an adult. So I thought, oh man, is this an actual burnout or am I just done with it?

Right, right. But thankfully, I wasn't. I was just burnt out as fuck. So what were the five shows you watched? Okay, so I watched Apothecary Diaries. Yeah. I re-watched Free Ren from start to finish just because I want to catch up with the manga. I watched all of Darn to Darn, obviously, because it's fire. I was reading... Oh, I re-read the first...

I think 10 volumes of Kaiju number eight. - Oh shit. - Which has gotten really, really good recently. And I started reading the new Prince of Tennis manga. Just 'cause I didn't even know it was a thing. - That's so random. - It did, I wanted to get into it again. Unironically, have you guys read or watched Prince of Tennis? - No, I've watched Prince of Tennis. - Okay, so you know like how absolutely stupid the show is, right? - Oh, it got really fucking stupid. Especially during the end. - I know about like Kazuka Zone and all that.

- Yeah, the Tezuka zone. - So Tezuka zone is like one of the more tame powers. - What? - Especially when you compare it to this new one, right? So like, if you don't know, it's a Prince of Tennis is a manga from like, fuck, it's like early 2000s, I think. Where it's essentially, it's like the best way to describe it is like, you know the ridiculousness of Jojo powers? - Yeah, it's just- - It's like that, except if every stand user played tennis.

- Okay. - That's the only way to describe it. So the original Prince of Tennis was all set in Japan. So it's like this region versus this region. And it was like, you know, Tokyo versus Okinawa or like whatever. The new Prince of Tennis now goes international. So they get all of the characters from the first Prince of Tennis. They pick like the best off through this like tournament arc near the beginning. And then they go and fight international teams to see who's like the world champion. And I'm up to the point now where they're fighting the team from Germany.

And there was a point- - Like JoJo? - There was a point where like, it's starting to get so ridiculous. There's a guy in the German team who's literally like 10 feet tall.

- He's like an actual Titan. - What? - Look at that. - Surely that would be like detrimental to like play tennis. - That's not Photoshop. That is actually the panel. And you're almost there being like, damn, I knew Germans were tall, but this guy's a little bit too tall. - What is this a fucking Titan? - That's a real thing. And this is what I love about Prince of Tennis is the fact that they do ridiculous shit like this.

and they act like it's a super serious thing. It's like, man, I knew the international team was gonna be a formidable foe, but this was the last thing I was expecting. - Surely you just wouldn't be good at tennis at that size? - Yeah, right? - Yeah, how could he hit the ball? I suppose, how big is his racket? It's half the size of the fucking court. - It's like the size of a helicopter.

- So yeah. - Five foot 10. - Yeah, and of course they've somehow able to play tennis against this motherfucker. - Oh my God. - I just had a fucking blast reading this. It's so funny. You gotta read it. - I'll read you an hour. - Yeah, so just this past like few weeks, I've just been like, but you know what? It was kind of gratifying for me as well because for the longest time I was like, oh man, maybe I just like don't like anime anymore. - Yeah, yeah. - I was crying watching it.

- I still like it. - I was like, thank fuck. I actually still like this shit. And I think that just goes to show just how much of a,

I was on when it came to like anime and manga because I had a fucking blast like watching and reading. So yeah. - We had a great couple of last seasons. I think last season was stacked. - Yeah, yeah. - For sure. - And you picked, I remember something had gone wrong where I was at like Christmas day or the day after Christmas or maybe it was new year's where get a random message from Joey and he sends me the trailer of a new anime coming out and he's like, it looks like the anime man's coming back. And I'm like,

- What the fuck's going on Joey? Excited for anime? - Oh yeah, 'cause they're making anime for Tucklebee, right? - Yeah, Tucklebee. - What the hell happened in Australia? What did his dad, his dad pulled him aside after a conversation. - He's like, "You can watch anime again." I'm like, "Okay, man."

- Hell yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - 2025, the year of the anime man. - I'm coming back baby, coming back. - I'm coming back. You just had to give me a three year break here, but I think I'm back. I think I'm ready. - Finally, my brother is returned. - Yeah, yeah. So prepare for more horrendous takes that will make you probably want to kill me. There you go.

- Yeah, outside of anime though, I had a real life Ratatouille moment. - What's that mean? - Explain yourself, Con. Explain yourself. - This has never, ever, ever, ever happened to me before. But we were having a celebration dinner for New Year's basically.

So it was me and Sydney on a date before the New Year's and we thought, ah, let's treat ourself before the New Year's comes. Let's go to a nice restaurant. So we go to this restaurant and it's a lovely meal. It's kind of like a course meal, which is, you know, there are a lot of places here in Japan that do like course meals. And now in Thailand, a lot of them are popping up as well. So we thought we'd try this one that was close to where we lived.

And it was a fine meal up until like, for the most part, we mostly just did it for the vibe and just to try something new. And then we get to the desserts where we could like order different desserts. And there was like this fucking milk dessert. And I'm like, ah, I don't know how you guys feel about milk desserts, but I'm like, nah. - Slop or pudding. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Not my first choice. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Not my first choice. So I go for the coffee flavored dessert because as you do, as you do.

And so when we ordered the desserts, this time the actual chef comes out himself. - Oh, okay. - The actual chef comes out himself to give us these desserts. And I can't remember much of what he said, I'll be honest. All I remember was he gave Sydney like the milk dessert and it's like a lovely kind of like

Lovey like kind of pudding in milk with some like crunchy bits on top of it. And he's just like, this is like a play on some of the stuff that my mom used to make for me. I'm like, oh, okay. The chef really cared about this dish and he came out to present it. So then he explains my dish, which is more like a coffee kind of cake. And so, you know, I have my desserts and it's fine.

And then Sydney has a bite of her and she's like, "This tastes weird. I don't know what this taste is." And I'm like, "I don't really like milk desserts." And she's like, "No, no, please, please give it a try." I'm like, "Ah, okay, I'm really full. I'll have one bite." And I remember taking a spoonful of this pudding, right? And taking a bite and my mind literally just went,

And I instantly recognize the taste. I instantly recognize the taste because my boss man, chef, boss man chef, anyone living in Southeast Asia, you'll understand what I mean when I say, he made somehow high quality play on a Milo dessert.

And I have never had this moment before where I've had one taste and it literally, I was just like, I tasted the Milo and it just brought me back to being at my fucking grandma's house eating Milo for like the morning. And I'm just like silent for a bit and Sydney's like,

- Are you okay? - I'm thinking woman. - And I'm like- - He's in his mind house. - And I'm like, can we swap desserts? - And bro, I'm just like a fucking kid again being like- - Like tearing up. - Just like fucking tearing up. No, it was such a weird experience where some, a flavor just like unlocked my memory. 'Cause I've never, 'cause-

- Me when I eat beans. - It was like a memory that I'd forgotten I had and I'm like, damn.

- Food's fucking awesome, man. I get it now. - It's the best thing in life, man. - I fucking get it now, man. - You get it finally. - I already get it, but now I just have this extra layer of appreciation for like how fucking amazing food can be. - Yeah, of course. - Food is everything. - Yeah, yeah. - Food is everything. - Of course. - Fucking awesome. - It's kind of like, I've never had that experience before outside of just like music where listening to a song just unlocks that. - Brought you back. - Yeah, just brought me back.

Dude, when I went to Germany, it did reaffirm my opinions that I still think that like British food is better than German food. Not that like... I'm not saying it's bad.

I just think that like British food gets too much hate. - Right. - Yeah. - Yeah. - The gym and food was phenomenal. 'Cause I love salt and meat. So I was happy. - Yeah. - And I was eating, you know, every single restaurant I went to, I fucking love sauerkraut. - Oh dude, it's the best. - I love, I could just, you could hand me a giant fucking bowl. - Give me a salad bowl of sauerkraut and I'll chomp it. - I would eat it, gobble it up. So every restaurant I went to, I was like, can I get a set of sauerkraut with this? And I was eating it and I was thinking, I was eating it and I was like, huh.

This is just white people kimchi. Save on Cox Internet when you add Cox Mobile and get fiber-powered internet at home and unbeatable 5G reliability on the go. So whether you're playing a game at home... Yes, cool! ...or attending one live...

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- Right? - Holy shit. - I laughed and then I thought about it and I was just like, "Shit, he might be cooking." - This is just like white people kimchi. Or I guess kimchi would be Asian sauerkraut. - Asian sauerkraut. - I don't know, but I was eating it and I was like, "This, one of them's spicy. One of them's a lot more sour." But I was like, "This is white people kimchi." This is what it is. It is.

- Right? - Yeah, kind of. - You're kinda cooking with that. - I think you're right. - It's pretty old. Sauerkraut is phenomenal though. - It's so good. - What a fucking amazing, dude. And it's like the perfect dish to go with all this like heavy meaty potatoey food. - Oh, kimchi definitely came first 3000 years ago. - That's crazy.

- Yeah, dude, it was great. And I had sausages every fucking day. - Of course, you have to. - Every single meal, I would get sauerkraut and I'd be like, every place would be like, "Do you have pretzels as well?" Like, "Yes, I'll take a pretzel." So I think I ate, counting the beer, I think it was like 5,000 calories a day, every day. It was just so much, but it was fucking phenomenal. - Yeah, how many kilos did you all put on during Christmas? - I don't know, I don't count. We don't count it. We don't count during Christmas. That's not the point. - That's fair. - But I ate a lot. I also,

- ProCD gave us some recommendations for board games for like family members who maybe don't, you know, they don't want to sit down and read a bunch of rules. - Sure. - Yeah, yeah. - And he recommended three games. I bought all three.

All three of them, phenomenal. They were amazing. Family loved them. Every single day we'd play these board games. - Hell yeah. - One where we do like the numbers, it's called the mind. - Oh yeah, yeah. - We put one to a hundred. Dude, we were getting heated over it. 'Cause my, maybe my, you know, it'd be like 10:00 PM. My dad might've started on the beers early and he's, you know, maybe he's a little tipsy. It was infuriating playing that game with someone who was not locked in.

'Cause like, you know, the whole game is that like maybe we'd have two cards each from zero to a hundred and we have to go ascending. So if I put like one, you know, you can discern that maybe the next card, if there's like eight cards in play, it's probably gonna be like a 12 to 15 difference, right? - Yeah. - So he'd have like a, you put down one, he'd have like a six and he wouldn't move. And we're all like, we're all thinking like, no, I'm gonna lower card. Okay, I'll go. And then he'd be like,

- I had a six. - You were like, what do you mean? Oh, I'm sitting here toiling. I have a 20. I don't know if I should go. And then one time I got so angry. I genuinely tilted at a family board game. I think my brother put down 55. We're all waiting, we're all waiting. We've got like one card each, we're all sweating. I've got like 17. I'm like, okay, shit. Okay, this, I think it's my turn. So I'm like, okay, I put down 70. And he goes, yeah, he goes, oh.

He had 56. I was like, "Dad, dad." - 56 comes after 55. - No one else could have gone better than you. You were not lucky. And then sometimes you go, "Is it my turn?" I was like, "There's no turns. You just go when you think you have the next lowest number, dad. Go." Bless him. I was getting tilted. I was getting tilted, but it was great. And then we played another game called Just One. That was really fun. It was really good board games. Thank you, ProCD.

for giving us fantastic board games. - Yeah, my sister brought like a bunch of like, I guess like card games and like, you know, family games. She brought over a Monopoly card game. - Dude, my brother loves this game too. - Dude, it's fucking- - Monopoly card game? - Yeah, I'd never even heard about it. - It's pretty good. - It's pretty good. - It's pretty good.

- If you hate like how long a Monopoly game is, Monopoly deal, that's it. - But you have to fuck each other over. - You do. - So it can be very fucking annoying. - Oh, but dude, our family is like pros at fucking each other. So like by the end of it, my dad just gets so tilted. - It's pretty good. You just have to get like,

you basically just draw cards and the first person to get three full sets wins. And it's over in like 10 minutes. - 10, 15 minutes at most. - It's actually surprisingly a pretty good game. - Yeah, we can play it. It's very, very good. - We should play it on Patreon. - Yeah, on the Patreon we can play it. - But we got so heated playing this game just 'cause this game is all about fucking over other people. - You can fucking steal everything. - There's like a card where you can steal an entire like finished game.

- Yes, yes. - Of properties and just like when you get it in your hand, you just do that look of like, I'm about to ruin one of your guys' days. - Someone else can draw a card that's like, negate all effects. And you're like, no, no, no.

- Yeah, we called it the hell nah card. - It's good, it's a good game. - Yeah, it's a really good game. - Yeah, board games just hit a niche that sometimes you can't get with other games. - Absolutely. - One thing I also learned about Germans is that

they don't fuck around with kebabs. They take kebabs very seriously. - Oh, okay. - 'Cause I knew that like kebabs are a really popular dish in Germany. And so I posted one to Twitter. I was like, damn, I've been eating kebabs nonstop. And then everyone was like, you call that a kebab? - No. - No, no, no. I was like, what the fuck? Everyone's roasting me in the comments. That's not a kebab. Fake German kebab, that can't be real. They'd be like, based on the location, this is South Germany kebab. I was like, what the fuck?

And he was right. I was like, what the fuck is this? What is this? - The rainbow kebab. - I don't get it. Everyone in Germany loves kebabs. - I mean, based. - I was waiting outside of this one place getting the kebab. And I was talking to this German guy and he was waiting. And I didn't know if he was waiting to order or he ordered and waiting. And so I asked him, I was like, "Hey man, have you ordered?" He's like, "No, no, go ahead, go ahead." I'm doing my order and we're standing there waiting and he goes,

"So you like kebabs?" Classic German dialogue. I was like, "Yeah, yeah, it's good." And I was like, "Do you like this one?" He goes, "This is not the best in Germany." And I was like, "What kind of response is that?" - Yeah, I'm like, "Thanks for waiting after I finished ordering." - And I'm like, "You ordered from here, right?" "I ordered from here, why did you order from here?" "This is not the best." "Where is the best in Germany?"

Why am I ordered from here? German dialogue utterly confused me at times. - I think that's actually a compliment in German. - I think so. I think he was saying it's okay. - It's good, but there is better. - Yeah, I understood. I was trying to understand in the German way of speaking that this is like his way of saying it's,

- Yeah. - Yeah. - 'Cause he didn't say it was bad. He just said, "It is implied." - There's better. - And to be fair, this is not the best in Germany. It's kind of like, okay, so there's only one kebab that is- - I realized this, when a German tells me something is good, this is like me saying, "Bro, this is the fucking shit. This is the best spot I've ever had in my life. This is phenomenal." They're like, "Yeah, it's good."

- Them saying it's good is saying it's not bad. - Yeah. - It's always the opposite. - Germans watching, can you translate for us please? What is, wow. - They know. And the thing is, is those bastards in Germany, they know it. They know that they're confusing to us. They know that it makes no fucking sense when they talk like this, but they can't help it. But they're very nice. I love the Germans, very sweet people.

- While Joey pees, I'll tell, should I tell a story or wait? - I'm listening, I'm listening. - Garth's listening to me. - I'm listening. - I'll hear it at the end of the episode. - True, true. So I went to the like tourist trap, although it's a kind of a cool spot. It's like the main beer house in Munich.

It's been there since like the 1500s. Obviously it was destroyed during the world war, but it's rebuilt, rebuilt. - Okay, okay. - But it's like a huge touristy spot, but it's kind of fun to go there, you know, and kind of have that atmosphere of like an insane hall where everyone is just chugging giant beers. - Yeah. - And we went there and sat down and I don't know, I can't exactly tell you the tells,

But you could just tell when someone's Japanese instantly. I feel like I can spot someone who's Japanese in a foreign country. Maybe it's the clothing, maybe it's the manners. I think it's a bit of everything. - It's the energy. - You could just, I'm instant, bro. I can tell when someone is Japanese. It is mainly, I think, fashion sense, mostly for me. - It's fashion and the way they carry themselves as well. - It's so obvious when they're Japanese. - When they give off that like reserved energy, I'm like, "Japanese, Japanese."

- So I'm sitting on the edge of this bench, like an eight-seater bench with my family. And he happens to sit on the bench next to me, which is like, it's literally like this difference. And I'm sitting there and I'm with my family, and I'm occasionally like stealing a glance, seeing what's going on, 'cause I can see that he's struggling a little bit, 'cause this table,

that he's on, 'cause it's like a big hall. You kind of just sit on a table and you're just with people. And they're trying to help him with the English menu. 'Cause that's like the universal cry for help in any language. It's like, "Oh, it's the English menu." And it's like, "Bro, he doesn't speak a little English either." And so I'm like, "You know what? Fuck it." I whipped him and I'm like, I just asked him in Japanese, "Do you need any help?" And he's like,

like spooked, he's like, "What the hell is this?" I'm like, "Oh yeah, by the way, I live in Tokyo. "I speak Japanese, so I can help you out if you need any help." He's like, "Oh, awesome, what do you recommend?" I was like, "Beer, you have to get a beer." - As you do. - "You have to get a beer in a beer hall, so get a beer." I was like, "That's the big one. "The normal one is what you would call a large in Japan." And then the only thing that I felt super bad about, and he's gonna hate me to the day he dies,

is that he's asking like, , like what food should I get?

And I'm like, oh, okay. What should he get? - Sauerkraut. - So I'm sitting there and I'm like, what is a solid recommendation for a Japanese guy who really wants to try something traditional? They had the white sausage, which is like a, I don't, Germans, I'm sorry, that white sausage is ass. - A vice verse? - I've got what it's called. You might be right. It might be a vice verse. Type in like German white sausage name. I don't know. - Vice verse.

I'm not a big vice versa enjoyer. He was considering getting it. I was like, that's better. That's better on the menu here. I was like, I recommend, even though I know it's not a very traditional dish, 'cause I'm thinking like, what would a Japanese guy like? I'm like, he'd probably fuck with goulash. They had goulash on the menu. - Okay. - Which is not a thing. I was like, get goulash or get the sausage platter so you can try like six different types of sausage. Not just like one type. And I guess I misunderstood what he said.

I thought he said, "Are the portions pretty big?" I said, "Yeah, they're pretty big, but should be fine." What he actually asked me was, "Is ordering both of these too much?" We're in Germany, right? And these are all like, these both are like 20 euros each. I didn't realize he ordered both.

So he orders his beer and then this goulash comes out, which, you know, 'cause my thinking was like, it's kind of like a curry in the sense of like the closest comparison a Japanese person has. It's like curry, Japanese curry with more flavor. And the meat is phenomenal. Like it's tender meat, very easy to eat, kind of light. And so he eats all this goulash and I'm like, damn, I got him a good recommendation. I felt good about myself. He's drinking his beer and I'm chatting with him a little bit and we're talking about what is he doing here and stuff. And he was like trying to see all the touristy stuff.

And then I'm feeling good to myself. And then a second I turn, I see another giant plate come into view. It's the fucking sausage platter with a bed of sauerkraut. It's massive. And then like, he looks at it and then he looks at me slowly and I'm like, "Oh, she's all there." And I felt so bad. And the entire time in my peripheral, I keep seeing him go,

- As he's trying to, he's forcing himself to eat this whole thing. Like a beard means food YouTube video. He's getting through it. He gets to like one sausage left and he finally taps out, but he fucking gave it a good effort. He got nearly all the way through all of this food. And I was like, oh, I hope you enjoyed it, man. He's like, thanks man. And I was like, I felt bad. I was like, I should probably go and just pay for all of his food.

but I didn't know how he would respond to that, how that would look. I was like, you know what, hopefully I helped him enough and didn't fuck him over too much. But I just felt so bad about it. - He just did a speed run, that's all. - Listen, he got to try two dishes, which was my real intention. - Except one of them wasn't German. - The last is not German. But it is phenomenal in Germany. - Yeah, I know. - It's phenomenal in Germany. - You gotta try some European cuisine. - Yeah, exactly. - Some proper European cuisine. - That was fun. - Yeah. - It was fun.

- Look, beer is the only meal you need in Germany. You don't need anything else. Beer and bread's all you need. - Also, you got to speak Japanese outside of Japan. - It always feels like you're like some kind of like, you know those IRL polyglot videos? - Yeah. - It's like, you feel like you're like that for like one, 0.1 seconds until you realize you're a normal human being and you know. - Yeah.

- Watch me speak a foreign language in a foreign country. - Konnichiwa. - Shit. - God damn, no way. - No, it's great. I mean, 'cause you always feel like whenever you learn a language, it's always, I think so awesome whenever you get to use it in a country it's not really applicable. - Especially when you are able to least expect it. - When you least expect it. - Especially when you can help someone out.

as well. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Although in this case, it might've actually made his day worse, but the thought was there. - Yeah. - He's like tourists even in the foreign countries are ruining my experiences. - I'm sure he will remember just this random bloke that could speak Japanese that came up to him.

- In Europe. I'm sure he wasn't expecting that at all. - Yeah, no, it was great. He was really sweet there. I spoke to him a bit about what he was doing and how he ended up in Germany of all places. So it was really, really cool. He was studying in the UK actually. - Oh, okay. - Just recently started and then wanted to come see Europe for Christmas. - Right, right, right. - I was like, "Awesome, man." - Yeah, right on. - "That's so cool."

what like only like 14% of Japanese people have a passport. - Yeah. - So whenever I see another Japanese person out there, I'm like, damn man. - It's like a shiny Pokemon. - Yeah, hope you're having a good time dude. Like enjoy it dude, we're super nice. Come on, have your time, drink some beer. - Exactly. - It's like so- - Welcome to the rest of the world. - Yeah, I mean like genuinely, like I think- - 20%. - I mean, especially man, it's so fucking expensive now to travel. - Oh yeah. - Absolutely. - Especially Europe. - Travelling out in the country. - Europe is pricey. - Pricey.

Bro, I hate the service in Europe. I hate eating out in Europe. The service is miserable most of the time. It's just not a fun time. And then you've got to tip sometimes as well. I hate this.

- It's so bad. Dude, it feels like in Europe finding a waiter is the hardest task of all time. Specifically, only when you need to pay and leave. It becomes somehow every staff has left the building. You're like, "Where is everyone?" - Or if they are there, it's like they're trying everything they can to avoid looking at you. - You'll be like,

And then they'll like walk past you. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Only when it's the bill. Only when it's the bill. And you're like, "I'm trying to escape. I'm trying to get out of here." It's like a fucking Mr. Beast. I spent 24 hours. I'm trying to not, I'm trying to get the fuck out of here.

- Do you find that you keep some of your Japanese mannerisms when you go travel abroad now? - Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah. - God, I cannot stop bowing. I can't stop doing it. - Yeah, I remember having something like the slight bow. - It's a slight bow. - Also, I kind of realized how OP

- Just the word jar is. - Like when we were in Thailand, I couldn't stop saying it when you're ordering something and they're like, "Oh, you don't have it." Then I just.

- I do this with Welsh. I think it might because you don't use Thai as much as English. You kind of, your brain is like main language and then it's like everything else. And then it's kind of like, so whenever you need like a, same in Welsh, I do as well. I'll say something and I'll be like, "Ah, dem all." I'll be like, "Ah, ah, ah, no, not dem all. That doesn't mean anything. Let me talk properly."

- Yeah, I had to get Sydney to stop like fucking doing the equivalent of like, "Semi-ma-sen" because- - You just kinda look weird. - Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. It's just like ingrained into my habit now, like so many. - Fair enough.

- Yeah. - That's so funny. - Are you the same in Australia? - Yeah, except I don't give a shit. - Yeah, you don't give a shit. - Yeah, I'm just like, . Sorry, I'm Japanese. - Sorry, I'm just- - Sorry, I just live in Japan. - That's like a whole thing, sorry. - Sorry, I'm just so used to it. - I'm a really interesting person, by the way. - Yeah, sorry. - I'm actually like, one of the most interesting people here. - Yeah, keep talking to me, please. - How was your Christmas in Australia?

- I just got shit first every day. - He doesn't remember a single thing. - I just got shit. I literally would wake up, I'd go downstairs, my dad's pouring a gin and tonic and I'm like, "Dad, it's 10:00 AM." And he's like, "Yeah, you gotta get started early." I'm like, "Okay." - It's allowable on Christmas. - Yeah, it's allowable on Christmas. - And then of course, you know, we'd get absolutely fucked by like 2:00 PM. We'd pull out the Monopoly deal, rage quit, and then my dad would be like, "All right, fucking load up the Wii, let's go."

- Play some Wii bowling. - I played a lot of TFT. - You played a lot of TFT? - I played a lot of TFT. - You played TFT? - Well, 'cause like, I feel like on holidays, I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but specifically like Christmas holidays.

- 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM is a no doing anything kind of time for me. It is a specifically, we will do nothing. We are gonna chill, drink a fucking coffee, watch some shit on the TV, talk shit, do nothing. - Yeah. - That's how I like it. So I'll just be like, all right, have my morning coffee. Let's play two games of TFT. - Yeah, see, it was the opposite for me because- - I do it in the living room. They'd be like, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "Don't worry about it." - Yeah, it's the opposite for us because my dad falls asleep at like 7:00 PM.

- Yeah, because he's drinking from like 11. - My dad would fucking turbo into my games and ruin the mind. He also falls asleep. - Yeah, my dad's like two bowls of wine in by like 5:00 PM and he's like, fuck son, I gotta go to bed. I'm screwed. - I did feel like I was in like a world competition of drinking when I went to your house. Cause I was like, your dad was like, your dad was impressively good. - Both my parents, my mom drinks a lot as well.

- That wine was so good though, your place. - It was, it was. But like, yeah, it was like, so everything we did with the family would be up until maybe around 8:00 PM, you know, at most. And then by the time like 8:30 hit, like everybody else is in bed, I'm just like,

- Fuck man, it's still 8:30. - What am I gonna do? I guess I'll load up my Switch. - Yeah, play some games. - Yeah, I'll just play some games until I fall asleep. - It's sad that we've gone to Melbourne the past two times 'cause I wanna go to Sydney again purely just to- - Just hang out with my family. - Just hang out. - It was great. - Your dad made a phenomenal meal and then we just fucking got shit faced and played Wii Sports. - It was a fucking great vibe. - Arguably one of the best nights.

- Honestly, I love Sydney. - I don't remember a whole lot in Sydney specifically, but I remember that day very vividly. - Oh, I remember that day. - That was peak, that was peak. - That was a lot of booze. - And now we can play Monopoly Go. - Yeah, yeah. We can play Monopoly Deal and bust out the wee afterwards. - That was a lot of wine that was being drunk. - Oh yeah, oh yeah. - The commitment to a charcuterie board has to be commended in jail.

- If you do charcuterie whenever, you gotta commit to it. - My sister has a down to like an art. - That's like three types of pates. - Yeah. - Oh my goodness. - It's just like, that's just the beginning. - It's like when the pate is gone, we have room for all the other stuff I couldn't fit on this giant board. - My sister is the only person I know who will make like a charcuterie board course. It's like here is the charcuterie, is the entree charcuterie,

- It was like one of those detective cork boards. They just flipped down and then just laid out. They were like, this is the charcuterie board.

It was a commitment and I respect it. I respect, there's nothing more I respect than a commitment to a charcuterie. - Yep, yep. - I'll tell you, you feel welcome. - Yeah, for sure. - Oh my God. Except in Japan, charcuterie is so expensive. - It is, yeah. - Oh, it's imported. - Do you remember when I came to your house that one time when I came with like, it was like 12 pieces of salami, like three different types. And I was like, this is 50 bucks, Garnt.

- You were like, "What?" - I'm like, "Where did you get this from?" - Every time I go to like Caldy and I see like the charcuterie board sets that they have and it's just like, "Oh, here's 12 slices of like tiny salami for like a thousand." - And it's like the stuff that in like maybe Australia or Europe would be like bottom of the barrel.

- Yeah, it'd be like Tesco selects. - Yeah, for sure. - It's like the cheapest of the cheap. That's what I feel about all like the fucking cheese selections as well. Where you get like, sometimes you get the packs where it's just like, here is just a bunch of cheeses. - Here's a bunch of like Lego bricks of cheese. - Yeah, yeah, right? - I don't want that. I want a slice. - I think that's my new year's resolution. More charcuterie this year. I think I just didn't have enough last year. - Just treat yourself. Make yourself a charcuterie. - I just didn't have enough. I want gout actually. I think it's a good thing.

King's disease for a reason. - Oh my God. - If anyone's gonna get on this podcast, it's gonna be me.

- Probably Chris first. - Chris first before anyone. - Chris is speed running down. - I was gonna go for a generational ride. The summoning song music is playing whenever we're at the restaurant with Chris, with the charcuterie board. - Sea dog was doing well on the leaderboard until a new face showed up. - A new time saved. - And his name was Chris Braun. - Oh my God. Yeah, but it's just fun being around family. - Yeah. - And going,

I'm getting to the age now where just going for a walk is a thing. - Oh, yeah. - Do you know what? Me and Sydney have been doing this, it's gonna sound so old, but just waking up and just having a morning coffee and just like, just talking about, yeah, yeah. Just chilling out with, 'cause we did it in Thailand a lot because obviously we had like a great view and everything like that. So we would just wake up a little bit earlier than we would used to, just get a coffee, just look at the view.

- And just chat for a bit. - Like your raw dog in the morning. - I don't believe in breakfast as a daily concept, but when I'm like vacationing, I love when you get to like share breakfast with someone. It's just such a cool vibe. - Yeah, of course. - Usually when it's great breakfast or coffee, anything. It's just so good. - Definitely. - I'm just never hungry enough for breakfast. - Me too. - Me too.

- If it's good enough, I'll make it work. I'll make it work. But yeah, I used to think like a walk had to serve a purpose, but I think I've- - Like going a destination. - You need to go somewhere. Like you can't walk to a coffee. You can't just walk and come back.

But now I'm getting to that point where I'm like, I will go for a 30 minute walk. - You're doing that here? - I'm doing it in Japan. - Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the best place to do it. - But yeah, and we went in the Wales. But I realized I'm not quite at the level that my parents and my brother, my brother's like,

every minute has to be doing something. When he wants to walk, it's like three hours. I'm like, this is- - That's a hike. - This is a bit much. Can we shave it down to one? - That's a pilgrimage. - I'm in the middle of one. After one is when I have to consider what I'm wearing. You know what I mean? Like pretty one hour walk, I can kind of get away with anything. - For sure, yeah. - But it's nice. But we did a walk in Wales and I was like, oh, Wales is just Silent Hill.

It was so foggy every day in Wales. And it was genuinely like Silent Hill. I took a picture and I thought it was so funny 'cause I went for a walk at night after Christmas 'cause I'd eaten so much food. And I was like, I have to have a walk, like physically. I think my body yearns for a walk. So I went for a walk and I was walking and I thought, yeah, this fucking country is just Silent Hill.

- Look at this shit. - Oh my God. - Oh my God. - And then I, where did I go? And then we went for a walk. - Yeah. - We went for a walk in Wales. It was sunny. An hour later. - Jesus. - Suddenly you couldn't see like 10 meters in front of you. - Far out. - Oh my God. - And that's, we were walking on the biggest aqueduct in the world.

It's cool. Not built by the Romans, which I thought it was. - Oh wow. - It's in Wales. Yeah, North Wales. I didn't know an hour from my house. I never heard of it. - I don't know how. - 'Cause you never went for walks. - Yeah, I never went for walks. Can you show it? World's largest aqueduct. It's really cool actually. If we ever do like a- - When you can see it. - When we do a trash taste special in Wales, we'll go here. - Yeah, for sure. - It's cool. Yeah, it looks fucking badass. You can kayak across it. - Whoa, that's cool. - It's massive. - Wow, that's really high up.

- Very high up. - That's cool. - There's a couple of them, but that one is huge. And it's stunning, really beautiful. - That's lovely. - If you're ever in North Wales, go check it out. It's phenomenal. Yeah, it's great. Just awesome. Yeah, it's kind of trippy on the water, how close you are to the edge. - Yeah, to the edge. - That is very scary. - You look like you can just fall off. - Yeah.

But yeah, it's awesome. So cool. I forget how cool Wales is there until I go back and I'm like, ah, yeah, it's pretty fucking cool. She played a lot of games, played a lot of different games. - Yeah, I just, I don't know. I've been watching just a lot of like TV shows. Oh, I started a Squid Game season two. - Oh, I finished it. - You finished it? - Yeah. - I'm up to episode three right now. - Oh, you gotta finish it. Let me know what you think. - The scene where the dude pops a molly.

- Oh yeah. - During the red light, green light. I was like, what? - Yeah, it was interesting. - What the fuck's going on? - Yeah, it was an interesting interpretation of drugs. - Yeah. - I was like, I don't know if this is exactly how a person on drugs would behave, but sure.

But it's fun. I was expecting "Sofudim" season two to be beyond terrible just because it felt like forced, but it was actually not bad. - I've been really enjoying it actually. - The actors do such a good job. So I think it can carry the weak moments of the story. - Oh that first episode when they're playing the Russian roulette. - The actor was phenomenal. - Oh my God, that actor is so fucking good. - Although there was one scene in the start where I was like,

I was like, okay, it's weird. It was the scene where, there's a scene in the season two Squid Game where there's this guy who's kind of like the recruiter for the Squid Games. And they're trailing him because they managed to find him. And they go to a park and he's a bunch of bread and a bunch of scratch cards. And-

it like insinuated that like poor people or homeless people could only go for the scratch cards, which I understood in the world and the context of the message, but I was like, this feels like a kind of damaging thing to like, I feel like if you did it in real life, it would not be,

- Other people would not unequivocally choose the scratch card. - Yeah, yeah. I mean, I got the message that they were trying to say. It's like, oh, you know, people who are in need, like would rather go for the big potential win than to go for the small guarantee win. - I feel like in a time where homeless people are so demonized already as is, having one of the most popular shows in the world be like, look at these dumb homeless people. All they know is scratch cards and gambling.

- What are we talking about? - Squid Game. - Squid Game season two. - Squid Game season two. How is it? Is it good? - I'm three episodes in and it's pretty good so far. It's actually like every episode, I feel like it's managing to,

build onto, I guess like the background lore of everything while also keeping things like still fresh and interesting. Like the end of episode three, I was just like, yo, when the guy, I mean, I don't wanna give too much away, but when the guy, when a person reveals himself in the game and I'm just like, okay, this is going in an interesting direction. And the acting is so good.

It's so fucking good. You gotta watch it. - Yeah, yeah, I'll watch it eventually. - 'Cause season three is already coming out like end of this year, I think. - 'Cause they filmed like two seasons in a row, didn't they? - Yeah, yeah, they did. They've already announced season three. - Unfortunately, I watched a few episodes of "Real Life Squid Game."

- Oh my God. - The Beast Games? - Yeah. - You watch Beast Games? - Yeah. - Why do you watch Beast Games? - Because it was actually the Christmas holiday, we were really fucking drunk and we were like, what would be a good show to put on as we are fucking just so fucking drunk? And then Beast Game pops up as we're browsing and we're like,

- I'll buy it. - I'm drunk enough. And let me tell you, I would not want to watch this show sober at all.

- How bad is it? - But fucking drunk? As a fucking drunk thing you put on on Christmas when you're just fucking talking shit with the fam, it was a fun experience. - I saw all the reviews were absolutely rinsing it for being so bad. - Really? - Yeah, like the "Guardians" review was so funny. - Yeah, yeah. - A lot of the reviews are very funny. - I legitimately, I saw a trailer for it. I'm like, this is just like a "Mr. Beast" video.

I mean, it is. The thing is, is that it was kind of interesting because normally a MrBeast video is never ever like critically analyzed by normal critics. So it was the first time where like normal critics who are used to watching like, you know, well-produced TV shows, movies, like finally kind of had to force to like sit down and watch a MrBeast thing and have thoughts on it. And yeah, the...

- It was great. It's just so funny 'cause the reviews were so scathing 'cause they accurately like summarize how you feel about like MrBeast videos in general. - Yeah. - And I saw this one thing that where someone said, it's like, why would you wanna feel like you're the billionaire assholes in Squid Game? Because that's what you are when you watch it, right? You're the billionaire assholes who are like the pieces of shit who are watching all this. - Oh, I 100% was. - Yeah, right? - And I would say watching it, it was kind of like,

I don't think it's too different from just the trash TV game shows that you've seen sometimes. It gave off that vibe, just kind of like...

I don't even know if it's higher scale, but the reason it was like a fun watch when we were watching it was just because it was just like trash TV. - But like further exacerbated by the scale of it all. - Like a fucking "Survivor" or fucking "MasterChef", but like the- - Which are always the best shows to watch while drunk. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But the stakes were just like a lot higher. The stakes were a lot higher.

- I love this quote. "It's more Titanic than Titanic, a slow motion luxury cruise ship disaster crashing, exploding and sinking slowly below the waves." God damn. - That was another one that was pretty brutal. They were like, yeah, Jimmy as a host has like no appeal and is just obnoxious. Like, yeah, they were pretty, they were very brutal about him as a host being like, he's just not a good host.

- Right. - Which I think out of all of the criticism of MrBeast, I think is pretty fair. I don't think he is a great host on camera. - Yeah, I actually think like, I thought like the biggest part that made it like feel YouTubery was they would, it would feel like it would, there would be points where it felt like a, you know, a reality trash TV show. And then it would cut to one of the hosts just making like commentary and stuff. And I was like, this is weird. 'Cause they literally,

I don't think they add too much to it. And then, you know, Mr. Beast comes in and like has a conversation and it's just like, the vibe felt like really, really weird when they were just cutting to like these YouTuber hosts who just don't have the same, in my opinion, the same kind of like presence as like a professional TV host or other hosts that have had a lot more established in the industry. But,

- But I'm not gonna say it's a good show 'cause it's not, but- - It's a fun watch if you're inebriated. - Yeah, five glasses down watching some trash TV. It was an insane watch. - This quote is brutal. True, there's something weirdly compelling about "Boost Gaming" but it is compelling in the same way that picking a scab is.

- It exists solely to show us the worst of the human condition as obnoxiously as possible. In other words, it probably wasn't worth getting sued for. - Jesus Christ.

- I actually agree with that statement. - It does seem like there is this aspect of like, why do we celebrate these absolute monstrosity and grotesque showings of scale and wealth that we don't need? Is that good? - It's not good, but- - He did it because he could.

He did it because he could. And right now the system, that's just what the world is like. To be fair, I will say, not heard a single person talk about the show after the first week.

I mean, you're the only person I know- - I've not heard of- - That's actually watched. - Yeah. - First episode went up, people spoke about it, we're laughing about the reviews and stuff. - Yeah. - Since then, I've not heard a single person talk about it. - Yeah, I mean, I haven't watched it since then. Honestly, sometimes you just wanna put on some trash TV and get drunk. And that's like, this was like the perfect thing to put on a Christmas. - Well, it requires nothing from you, right? - No, no, no, it is. - It's like how like recently, I think Netflix, they said that they want,

for the show runners to purposely have the characters say what they're doing because most people who watch Netflix or a lot of people who watch Netflix aren't looking at the screen. - Yeah, they want it to be like second screen. - Which is so frustrating because I, as a person who do this,

I sometimes don't watch it. I pick those shows. I know the shows that I can watch. - Yeah. - And I am comfortable and okay with the fact that I will sometimes get a worse experience of said show because I'm doing that. Because it was never gonna be something I was invested in. - Yeah. - So them making shows worse just for that fact is like, no, don't do that. Don't do that. Just let the shows be shows. We're smart enough as people to be able to discern which shows we can do that with or not. - Yeah.

- I mean, are we though? Are we? - Yes. - I feel like you have to make like the conscious choice. - Do you think it's a good thing? - I don't think it's a good thing. - Very good. - Which is why it saddens me that this is becoming a thing that more and more people are basically our brains are cooked. - Oh, so cooked. - Our brains are cooked.

or streaming sites or they have to cater towards viewing habits. And unfortunately viewing habits is, all right, I'm gonna have this thing on the background. This is like second monitor stuff. I'm gonna scroll on my phone as I'm watching this show. - I've personally never understood the whole like second monitor thing. - Second monitor content? - I don't do that.

- If I need something playing in the background while I'm doing something, I'll just put some music on. - Well, you love music. - Yeah. - I sometimes don't want music 'cause I feel like

I don't know, I just can't get in the zone to just like enjoy it. - Right, 'cause like if for me, it's like if I need something on in the background, like if I'm putting on some music while I'm doing something, I know the exact music that won't interfere with whatever I'm doing, but it can still be something playing in the background. But if it's like a show, even a trash TV show, I would get too distracted. - No, so I think for a lot of people, it's like, it's just the right amount of stimulation from something like secondary. - Yeah.

but for some reason just scratches niche for a lot of people, me included. Like I will put a YouTube video or I'll put a live stream on and I'll put the volume pretty low. I just wanna hear speaking. I just wanna hear speaking. - Really? - Yeah. - I can't do that. I've never understood that. - It's like having the radio on in the background, I think, which I don't think is, we would say, wow, you're so fucking stupid. You listen to the radio while you work. It's like,

- Shout out to everyone right now that has got this on the second monitor. 'Cause this is the perfect content that would be on the second monitor. - It's like the same way maybe a,

I guess if a taxi driver drives and listen to the radio or truck driver listens, it's like when I'm doing my work, I listen to the radio. But in this case, it's a YouTube video or a fucking live stream. For me, it's just the noise that I need. - Were you always this reliant on just having something on in the background? Because I feel like there is a big upshot. - Probably a taught thing. - Yeah, there's a big upshot of YouTube content that I've seen, which is just, some of the best performing content, some like now is just,

I would say second monitor stuff, you know, something that's not 100% too deeply engaging, but just engaging enough that you can like put it on in the background.

- Yeah, I mean, I think it makes it more popular. I've actually noticed if anything that sleep content is way more popular now. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Videos that are very long, you fall asleep to. - Yeah. - Become very, very popular. - Like eight to 10 hour long, like compilations. - But like, that's why like most YouTubers are like longer the better. 'Cause if someone's watching your video and they fall asleep to it, great. You get all those ads, ad revenue for a three hour video or someone's just watching it or YouTube thinks they're watching it. - Yeah. - Win-win. - Easy clap.

So that's the one thing I've noticed. But I think it's whatever. I think there's too much dooming involved with

- I don't think kids are fucked. I think we are fucked. We as adults. - I think like, if anything, like the only thing that's probably like fucked us all up is like social media, if anything. I don't think like having too much content has fucked us up. - No, no, not that, not that. It was, it's more of like, it's not even content. It's just how,

- Social media itself has rewired our brains. I find myself, I think I can feel

I physically feel how different my brain like processes things when as opposed to like 10 years ago, you know? - Yeah. - Yeah. And I, you know, I'm sure everyone thinks the same thing, but we're like, ah, whatever. - All right. Before we start wrapping up, I want to know what is, you got any goals for this year guys? You got any fun goals for this year? - This is a new year. What are you guys looking forward to? Goals, anything you want to do this year? - Survive.

- Real shit. - Real shit. - Eat food. - I'm making a goal. We have a family reunion this year, which I'm sorting out. I think I've talked about this. - Yeah, you have, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. My goal is to be the coolest uncle there. I gotta assert dominance. - I think you're pretty, you gotta leg up. - I've gotta, I'm,

I'm gamifying this. I'm gonna try and make as many core memories as I can for my nieces and nephews. - Pokemon plushies. No matter what age it works. - Just get him some ditto plushies and you'll be sorted. - Just bribe them. - Hey, it's worked. Historically gone, it works. Bribes work, okay? Yeah, I don't got anything. - You don't? - I just thought you guys might. - Yeah, I don't know.

- Yes, just eat food and survive. - Genuinely, eat some good fucking food with some friends. - Yeah, just be happy. - Generally eat food and spend more time with my mom and dad, which I- - Yeah, you wanna spend more time with friends and family. - Yeah, yeah, which I achieved last year and I don't want to stop that just because I achieved it one year. I actually want to normalize it.

- Gotta keep it up. - Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna keep it up. - For sure. - Probably will be out of Japan sometime this year, mostly just to spend more time with mom and dad. - How dare you go. - Yes, I'm sorry guys, I'm sorry.

But yeah, that's pretty much it for our catch up for our winter break. - Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and new year. Let us know your goals down in the comments below if you have anything. And hey, speaking of which, look at these patrons. They're still here. - Yeah, so beautiful. - I hope you guys have a wonderful, you know what your goal should be? Is to go over to the Patreon.

and support the show. - That's not a good goal, Jerry. - That's a great goal. - That's not a goal. - Because you'll also be able to get access to exclusive Patreon only content that we do every single week. In fact, we have a brand new one for you guys to go check out right after this episode. But hey, if you want to check that out and support the show in the process, head on over to patreon.com/trashtaste. Also follow us on Twitter, send us some memes on the subreddit. And if you hate our face, listen to us on Spotify. And we'll see you guys next week. - Bye.

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