EP. 105 — Honne and Tatemae

[00:00:05] CHRIS: Hello to all my 3-D girls. It’s Beautiful Anonymous. One hour. One phone call. No names, no holds barred.

[00:00:18] THEME MUSIC: I’d rather go one-on-one. I think it’ll be more fun and I’ll get to know you and you’ll get to know me.

[00:00:28] CHRIS: Hey everybody, Chris Gethard here welcome you to another episode of Beautiful Anonymous. Thank you guys for supporting it and allowing me to do it. Chris Gethard shows also up and running now. Another one of my gigs. It’s up tonight, actually, if you’re downloading this on Tuesday when it comes out. Tuesday is like Gethard Day now. Beautiful Anonymous in the morning. Chris Gethard show at night on Tru TV and tonight’s episode is all call ins. I think I just like phones and maybe Beautiful Anonymous fans want to check it out, who knows? I’m not going to plug it too hard. We’re gonna get going. Talking about Beautiful Anonymous, you may notice the tone of both this intro and the call itself a little different than you’re used to. Not in the studio; Jared was nice enough to come to the Chris Gethard show offices to record a bunch of stuff because my life is crazy with all our launch weeks happening. Thank you to Jared for that. The stern taskmaster of the show, Jared O’Connel as the fans have come to believe, even though I have told you up and down, that’s not true. But people do in the Facebook group all the time say that they believe that which is an endless source of joy to us all here at Beautiful Anonymous. Last week’s episode, Whirlpool Galaxy, very heart wrenching episode. A huge amount of response in the Beautiful Anonymous Facebook community. Understandably, people were very touched, blown away by it. And I will say I was uplifted being in the Beautiful Anonymous Facebook group, just an outpouring of support and warmth. Jen left a comment that I don’t know why this one really got to me. There were so many like this. But Jen said: “She’s one of the strongest people in the universe and with each word, my heart broke a bit more. Caller, you are an inspiration to others and will make change in this world. I am truly sorry for all you’ve gone through and we’ll be hoping for more positive people to enter your life and the negative to stay far away. Thank you for sharing. And I guarantee you have helped many by doing so. You have this community behind you.” And I don’t know why that made me well up, I’m not gonna like You have this community behind you. I don’t know why. I don’t know why that one hit me in the gut really hard. But it’s true. Also, just want to remind you guys where later this week, any episodes of Beautiful Anonymous older than six months are going on Stitcher Premium, this is they’ll be behind a paywall effectively. Stitcher Premium is a great service. Tons of shows on there. All the Ear Wolf shows, I believe are having the same thing; any older than six months now will have to be paid for. Luckily, if you want to sign up free month, use the code stories. You get a free month service and check it out. See all the great stuff on there. And if you don’t want to sign up, I would just say you have three or four days after this is released, just download the old ones. Everyone’s cool with that. Just anything you want to keep for your personal collection go ahead and grab it now. Now is the time to do it. This week’s episode, fun one. Interesting one. This is a caller who is trapped between worlds in a very real way. When this caller started speaking, I was completely flabbergasted when he told me where he was from and you’ll see why. Right away. I think you’ll also let out a big huh? Like, like I did but it becomes very clear how the caller came to be who they are, both verbally, culturally, all these different things. This caller who really has insight into multiple worlds and is also maybe separate from any of those worlds in a way that’s very rare, very fascinating. I also found this caller just straight up be fun. I thought we had good chemistry. I had a good time talking and speaking specifically about a culture, Japan, that I think as Americans in particular, we often sort of like romanticize or even weirdly fetishize in certain ways and this caller was able to give us some insight from multiple perspectives. And I found it really cool. And I hope you do, too. Enjoy the call.

[00:04:15] PHONE ROBOT: Thank you for calling Beautiful Anonymous. A beeping noise will indicate when you are on the show with the host.

[00:04:22] CALLER: Hello?

[00:04:25] CHRIS: Hold on, I can’t, I can’t hear you in my headphones. I hear it coming through Jared’s side. Give us just one second here.

[00:04:33] JARED: Oh, you don’t hear it?

[00:04:34] CHRIS: No. Harry hears it. Jared hears it.

[00:04:40] JARED: Does he hear you?

[00:04:41] CHRIS: Does he hear me?

[00:04: 42] CALLER: I can hear you, Chris.

[00:04:43] CHRIS: I can hear the fact that there’s someone in Jared’s headphones. We are holding for technical difficulties. I apologize. Ahhh, there we go.

[00:04:57] CALLER: Hello?

[00:04:57]  CHRIS: Hi! some people would say edit that out. I’m gonna say, let’s leave that in, let’s leave that in, our old podcast. How are you?

[00:05:07] CALLER:  I’m calling in from Japan.

[00:05:09] CHRIS: Oh, wow! Well, that’s a way to kick down the door in the beginning of your call.

[00:05:15] CALLER: Yeah. This is an international call, I guess.

[00:05:18] CHRIS: I don’t think we’ve ever had. Have we had a call from Japan? I don’t think we have.

[00:05:23] CALLER: Really? So I’m the first? Haha.

[00:05:23] CHRIS: You are, I don’t even know if we’ve had a call from Asia.

[00:05:29] CALLER: Oh, really?

[00:05:33] CHRIS: Yeah. You might be the first on your continent. We’ve had Australia and Europe.  I don’t think we’ve had. I don’t know. I think you’re…

[00:05:37] CALLER: Hell, yeah!

[00:05:38] CHRIS: Hey, you’re breaking new ground. So what’s up? How are you?

[00:05:41] CALLER: That’s awesome. Hi. I’m great. I’m from Tokyo, Japan. You probably hear this all the time, but a huge fan of the show and you’ve definitely helped me out a lot. And I don’t know how like how people find you out overseas because we don’t get HBO and stuff in Tokyo. I found out you actually through the punk music scene.

[00:06:11] CHRIS: Nice. Jeff Rosenstock, I’m bettin you’re a Jeff Rosenstock fan.

[00:06:13] CALLER: Yes, I am.

[00:06:21] CHRIS: Yeah, I had a feeling. I think he goes to Japan on a pretty regular basis?

[00:06:22] CALLER: Yeah. Actually, one of the bands that I really like played on your show. Reviver, I think, you know.

[00:06:30] CHRIS: Yeah. Reviver out there from the Pacific Northwest. Cut the cord. Great, great band.

[00:06:36] CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. Love. I like their old band Latterman.a lot and the reason why I found out your show was actually through the fest(?) and you had the Chris Gethard show on the fest.

[00:06:54] CHRIS: Yeah. And Gainesville, Florida.

[00:06:56] CALLER: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I found you through that, watched all the episodes. I’m actually, I’m going through all your archives on YouTube and Swatch and all that too.

[00:07:09] CHRIS: I love it. I just want to say to any of the listeners out there, this is not a paid advertisement. It’s not a plant or setup. I do. I will say this caller has fantastic taste and everyone should go through the archives of the Chris Gethard show. Get yourself hooked in anticipation of our new season.

[00:07:26] CALLER: Yes. Yeah, sorry; sounds like that I’m sure you hear that a lot.

00:07:32] CHRIS: It’s nice. Very nice to hear, thank you.

,

[00:07:33] CALLER: Haha, yeah, yeah. I love your stuff and you know I love you. I watched the 40 minute video of you talking about Morrisey

[00:07:38] CHRIS: Me and Thomas Lennon. Hey. That’s cool. So. Yeah. You said you’re from Tokyo, Japan. So you were born and raised?

[00:07:50] CALLER: Yes, I’m pure Japanese. Both my parents are Japanese but I went to the American education system in Japan.

[00:08:00] CHRIS: Oh, one of the international schools?

[00:08:02] CALLER: Yes. Yes. Yeah. So it’s actually one of things that I wanted to talk about was that it’s really weird because I think you could probably tell that I don’t really sound Japanese if I didn’t say that I was.

[00:08:19] CHRIS: When you said you were born and raised there and are not like you’re not the child of expats, I’m actually shocked by that. You sound like you’re from Southern California.

[00:08:31] CALLER: Yeah, I get that a lot. But it’s very weird because, yeah, my lingo and the culture that I grew up in is purely…I grew up listening to American bands. I listen to Japanese bands too but it’s created this really weird dynamic where when I’m hanging out with people that are purely Japanese, that went through the whole Japanese educational system, they think that I’m a foreigner. They don’t really see me as Japanese and when I hang out with people from America or anywhere outside of Japan, they see me as Japanese. So there was a time, and I’m still going through it, but I don’t really know what my identity is.

[00:09:24] CHRIS: Wow, wow. Let me ask you this about that, because your kind of stuck between two cultures, how does it work as far as attending the international schools? I understand, I know, my understanding is that a lot of children of diplomats will go to Western schools when they’re in non western (??) that a setup for them. But I don’t know that I was aware that that there for anything but that. But I’m also an ignorant human being so explain it to me.

[00:09:55] CALLER: Ha, ha. So there’s a lot of people that have countries apparently for expats. Like people that have businesses overseas and they you know, they bring their families over to Japan. Then their company pays for their education because going to an international school is not cheap. So they pay for housing and also their education and they get to go to international schools. Some schools have a lot of military people in their schools.

[00:10:22] CHRIS: Right, right.

[00:10:22] CALLER: Our school didn’t as much because we have bases in Japan and those are obviously where all the military kids go. But yeah, it was sometimes celebrities or kids of celebrities or kids of people that had a lot of power and I guess were in my school. So but you know, for me it was really weird because both my parents are Japanese. The company obviously didn’t pay for my education so it was just my father who worked really hard and put me through this education and now I talk like this.

[00:11:07] CHRIS: And was it his thought that, you know, it would be good for you to be immersed in a different culture? Was that the idea of like, oh, you’ll learn English, which will be useful for you professionally later in life? Was it just an appreciation of the anti- culturalism? What was the impulse with your parents taking this leap?

[00:11:24] CALLER: Oh, he definitely was looking for, you know, business opportunities and just, you know, culture in general. He thought it was something that if he had the money to be able to put me through it, then there was good education, I guess. And it would make me into a more modern human being I think was the mindset.

[00:11:48] CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah. So he’s trying to set you up for like a modern multicultural future where you can have the career of your choice. And then you turn into one of them dirty punk rockers. How did he like that? Haha!

[00:12:04] CALLER: Haha! Not much! Yeah, right, very, very Japanese where when you try to have a real conversation with your father. Something I should say is that in Japan, a lot of times the mother is a stay at home mother and the fathers always working. And it’s kind of a stereotype that I hear a lot where the fathers always working never hangs out with the kids in Japan because the Dads are so busy that this do this now life. And there’s definitely some truth to that and so I didn’t know what my father did as a job until I graduated college.

[00:12:46] CHRIS: That can’t be true.

[00:12:49] CALLER: Seriously, I. Oh, you use English but I don’t really know what you do. So I had to sit him down and I was like, Dad, I’m 20. What do you do? I should know this.

[00:13:03] CHRIS: You never asked him before that? And he never told?

[00:13:07] CALLER: I did ask him before. Kind of like, oh, dad, would you do? But he just never gave me a straight answer because I think he didn’t think that I would understand even if he told me.

[00:13:19] CHRIS: What does he do that is so complicated?

[00:13:22] CALLER: Right, this is very this is a very Japanese part and it was funny because he was so awkward about me asking him what he did was he just kind of gave me the outline that he always said and he gave me his business card and said, this is what I do.

[00:13:42] CHRIS: And what was, what did you have to do? Go Google it yourself? What happened?

[00:13:48] CALLER: I was like still, what would you do? Before that, I definitely Googled him and I did find him but it was kind of weird for the son to not really know. And I just said, hey, I need to know. I should know this because people ask me and all I can say is oh, he works in an international company. But it’s like, you know, I can’t really give anybody specifics so I ask him and he said, this is what I do and he gave me his business card and, you know, really awkward after that but now I know what he does.

[00:14:25] CHRIS: Is it anything? Is it like anything mind blowing? Or were you just, oh.

[00:14:29] CALLER: It was, I was like, oh, wow, it made sense why he put me into a international school like, oh, he makes a lot of money. But it wasn’t anything too surprising just because he was always going to different countries. Never home and all and all, I barely know my dad.

[00:14:50] CHRIS: Yeah. I mean, that’s intense. Do you barely know him? I mean, do you guys get along or is it just like a cold relationship?

[00:14:59] CALLER: It’s really weird because in Japanese culture, there’s this thing called Honeck and (??) and that is kind of your outside face and your inside face. And usually in the family or with your friends, you have your kind of inner self you release who you are and all that, you know, stuff like that. But in the family, you kind of have it seem like it’s happy, but you know that there’s no feeling in it. And I feel like growing up with that and then the moment I noticed that was happening and we were kind of almost a caricature of a family. There was no real heartwarming moment and I realized, oh, my mom doesn’t really like my dad and it kind of created this independency inside of me from a pretty early age.

[00:16:01] CHRIS: Wow…I will say this is like a very surface level reaction, but it’s a true one. It’s really, I gotta say, it’s really amazing to me that there really is a western world in the eastern world. Unlike everything you’re describing to me, I’m like, wow, I mean, people are people wherever you go but there are just a set of different experiences that you’ve had.

[00:16:30] CALLER: And like another thing that I think is related to that is that the cheating on your wife in Japan is almost to the point where it’s not even looked down on. t’s kind of part of the culture and you see, that’s just something that I don’t really agree with. There’s a celebrity here that is famous for saying cheating is a culture. What it is, it’s not emotional cheating, it’s extremely superficial. A big reason why, like the whole sex industry in Japan is so prevalent and like everybody just goes like when they’re a salary man or even a college kid, I guess.

[00:17:17] CHRIS: Really? So that’s a that’s not just for tourists to engage in on vacation; that’s like part of the culture.

[00:17:25] CALLER: Yeah, I think Japanese people enjoy the happy endings more than the tourists.

[00:17:30] CHRIS: Wow. We’re gonna go there. OK. So if we’re just going, I’m going to say something blunt. Our viewers should brace themselves. Is it sounding to me, this is a sentence I never thought I would say, is it like almost viewed as like a form of masturbation in a way?

[00:17:51] CALLER: Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean people do go there. I guess like I’ve never been because I’ve grown up in the Western mindset. It was always very foreign to me but I think I had friends that were in college and stuff that would go.

Yeah, it doesn’t really seem like they’re having sex. There’s no communication. I think it’s just kind of do it and leave. And it would be like, hey, we’re gonna go do this for a bit. And I’m like, OK, let me go home once. And then when they’re done, you go out and then drink again.

[00:18:29] CHRIS: Wow. So you’d be out drinking with friends. They’d be like, hey, we’re gonna go down to the red light district. Have a little fun. And you’d be like, cool I’m gonna go watch some TV. Text me. And some of it, okay cause I’m a curious person and I’ve read, from what I’ve read, and I’ve never been to Japan and this is all just stereotypes, correct me for anything that’s inaccurate. Please let me know when I’m being ignorant but it is fun to talk about like here’s the stuff I’ve heard, what’s true, what’s not. I’ve heard some of this is like…ah…very fetish base, right? There’s a lot of fetish-based businesses of this nature?

[00:19:18] CALLER: Yeah, yeah, there’s some really dark stuff here that I do a lot of reading. Playing music that’s just another like whole subculture here where people do intense, extreme things during their shows. And that’s a lot of it is, you know, just extreme live shows. And I guess one of the most famous one, not famous, but what I heard that just blew my mind was there would be a punk show. We have an area in Tokyo that’s kind of known for where all the bad punk guys, the old punk guys are, and they do eccentric shows. And one dude apparently is singing and takes a knife and starts stabbing.

[00:20:08] CHRIS: Ho, ho, ho

[00:20:09] CALLER: Oh, I mean, that’s like the most extreme. That’s not like you go to a random venue in Tokyo and people are just like stabbing their stomachs.

[00:20:19] CHRIS: Did he die?

[00:20:20] CALLER: No, no…I think he just bleed and then they’re like, look how intense I am. This is so punk rock.

[00:20:26] CHRIS: So Japan has like multiple GG Allins?

[00:20:31] CALLER: They don’t throw shit at people, but yeah

[00:20:35] CHRIS: You and I should team up and explain for any of our listeners. You know, a lot of the listeners have heard me talk about punk a lot and I think a lot of our listeners do not partake. GG Allin is perhaps known as the most extreme punk of all time. He was known for going on stage naked and performing sex acts and vomiting on purpose and cutting himself and shitting, like he said, punching audience members in the face. He kept threatening that he was going to commit suicide on stage. He’s like old, notorious, like violent, clearly damaged performance artist. Punk rocker whose music is almost unlistenable also, by the way, which is part of what people who like him, like about it.

Sounds like you guys got a real, real element of that in your punk scene over there.

[00:21:29] CALLER: I guess, I don’t know if it’s GG Allins, but there’s definitely some people who do that. And I have to reiterate, the normal punk scene is probably the nicest scene when people are moshing or when people are stage diving, everyone’s so polite. So I don’t want people to come to Tokyo that like punk rock and that would shun away from venues because they think everyone is killing each other. But there are there’s definitely that extreme.

[00:22:03] CHRIS: Yeah, so it’s basically, it sounds like any subculture you find in Japan…sounds to me like what we’re maybe saying, cause you’ve brought up the music world and the sex industry, it’s like, oh, you can keep finding more extreme fringe versions of it, if you want to look.

[00:22:20] CALLER: Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. There’s some stuff that I don’t even know and I watch documentaries of, you know, foreigners coming to Japan and kind of looking into that and I didn’t even know that that’s how deep it goes and I lived here my whole life.

[00:22:37] CHRIS: So you just avoid this and a lot of this is because you went to an international school. So is it like are you listening to like a lot of like romantic American love songs and watching like Hollywood movies about like people trying to settle down and find each other and you’re like, it’s just that, is that just a different approach? Is that part of it? Like you’re immersed in a culture that I think..tell me about how it separates you. I just asked our caller about how things separate him and to you, dear listener, I will now separate you from the next portion of the podcast with these ads.

[00:23:18] [music transition]

00:23:19] [AD BREAK]

[00:23:28] CHRIS: [music transition] Thanks again to all of our advertisers who support Beautiful Anonymous. Now let’s get back to the phone call.

[00:23:34] CHRIS: Hollywood movies about like people trying to settle down and find each other and you’re like, it’s just that, is that just a different approach? Is that part of it? Like you’re immersed in a culture that I think..tell me about how it separates you.

[00:23:53] CALLER: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I grew up on American shows. You know, Friends is kind of my childhood and I always watch that. Any kind of American films, you know. And I guess music wise too, when I’m fifteen, sixteen, I got really into, you know, emo music I would just be listening to American football or, you know, (?) or The Get Up Kids and just be like, why don’t you love me? So it’s kind of my whole age. And then I found Death Cab and have had to hide it from everybody because they’re like, that’s you know, that’s good. You know, girls like or whatever it is at the time when you know, when you’re in oh, man (???) Well, growing up listening to that kind of music, very sensitive music and also the values that they have in Western TV or movies definitely shaped the way I see relationships with friends, family and, you know, just romantic relationships. And that’s that was hard because what I see in the families and these Western TV shows was so different from when I go home every day from school. It was just like it was a day like mannequins, you know, I mean, I love my parents, like I think they did a great job. I can’t thank them enough for putting me through the education that I was so blessed to have. But you know, just to think about all the times when I was down and when I could talk to my parents or people talk to their parents, I just kind of kept that in this whole time.

[00:25:43] CHRIS: Have you ever been to the states? Ever come over?

[00:25:46] CALLER: I’ve been to, I think, wow, it’s like five, almost six years ago. I went to California for about four days to check out the Vans Warped Tour.

[00:25:59] CHRIS: That’s it. You came once for the Warped Tour. That’s it? Ha, ha, ha.

[00:26:05] CALLER: Yes, I did. My parents took me to Hawaii a couple of times when I was younger, but yet for me it was the Vans Warped Tour in California. It was kind of when I was conscious or I could actually see things. And it was really weird because we had some friends on the tour so we were kind of on the tour van with them. And after three days of kind of same lineup, I was just like, hey, I’m in America and I should go venture out so then I kind of escaped. I think I was in either in San Francisco and I just left and I just went to just to explore the town, I guess. And I went into like, I think what’s the most California thing that I could do right now? And I found a random burrito or like a Mexican restaurant. I mean, this is what I if you go in here.

[00:27:05] CHRIS: HA, HA, HA!

[00:27:07] CALLER: And so I just go in and I start ordering and they just think I live around there. So they start saying things like they don’t know if it’s you know, they just kind of act like I’ve been there all the time. But I can speak English, but I’ve never really ordered in English for food in my life.

[00:27:27] CHRIS: What a weird day of your life. What a weird day! It’s like you’re a spy! It’s like you’re a spy that got dropped in the middle of this culture you’ve studied your whole life.

[00:27:39] CALLER: And I’ve been put to the test and I’ve come to say, yeah, I think Ill have the burrito with this, this, and they’re like, how about this? How about that? And I’m like, I don’t know, but okay, yeah, sure. And then so I get this burrito just pretty much like everything on it. And it’s pretty much 4 times bigger than anything you can get in Japan.

[00:28:00] CHRIS: Ha, ha, ha, ha.

[00:28:03] CALLER: And I’m just sitting there alone and there’s all these, you know, people that are going to the Warped Tour with their friends and stuff. And I’m just there alone thinking how do I do this? And then I’m just like should I eat it? Yeah, I am just eating it and I can’t finish it at all.

[00:28:16] CHRIS: HA, HA, HA, HA!!

[00:28:18] CALLER: And in Japan, I don’t know how it is like in America, but like in Japan, you don’t leave things, you have to eat the whole thing like that kind of the rule of thumb.

[00:28:28] CHRIS: And so it would be rude. It would be rude to leave leftovers.

[00:28:30] CALLER: Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So I’m just stuffing myself with this burrito and I kind of get lost because, you know, I don’t have Wi-Fi and I’m just walking around and I’m feeling sick and I’m just I get back.

[00:28:43] CHRIS: HA, HA, HA, HA!!

[00:28:45] CALLER: And I was like, I don’t want to do this. I just go back to the trailer and I’m you know, sleeping and I just miss pretty much the whole day. And, you know, the other people come back and like, what are you doing? I don’t know. I try to make an experience. Is this America and am I experiencing it right now? Like, I don’t know.

[00:29:03] CHRIS: I mean, giant portions, yes. Your experience, a burrito bigger than your own head, yeah, that is an American experience. I love that story. That’s nuts. That’s like you’re in the burrito shop and they’re like you want pinto beans with that? You want brown rice, you want white rice? You can’t with the way with your accent, you can’t go, hey, like, slow down, bro. I’ve never been here before. I’ve never been. Because you sound like you’re from the Bay Area. So you can’t be in San Francisco like, hey, now, hey, it’s my first time, literally it’s the first day I hung out in the United States. Everyone look at you like you were insane.

[00:29:40] CALLER: Exactly Now it’s like a line behind me. And, you know, I’m getting all nervous and anxious and I don’t know what to do.

[00:29:47] CHRIS: What a weird day. Cause those other three days, like you said, so you’re in a band as well. You said you play music. You’re with your friends in the van. But that’s a specific life and it’s a very insulated experience being on the van. That’s also you know, I’ve never been a touring musician myself. Warped tour, I have to imagine, that’s the scale like your food’s being provided. You’re backstage, like you’re not out and about. So you grew up immersed in American culture. Sounding like an American and had about just a small handful of hours in America where you ate a burrito, gave yourself gas, and had to go sleep it off.

[00:30:32] CALLER: That’s America for me. I guess.

[00:30:36] CHRIS: I gotta say, I mean, if you’re only going to take a few hours. Eating a big ass burrito in San Francisco and then passing out because it was too much food. Pretty good, pretty good.

[00:30:46] CALLER: Ha, ha ha. Did I do America ok?

[00:30:48] CHRIS: I would say, I got a lot of friends from San Francisco and I bet they would say, hey, go, go get a burrito. If you only have a few hours to be in America. We like food in America. We do. We like our regional food. Were you in the Mission? They like their mission burritos out there.

[00:31:06] CALLER: Terrific burrito, by the way. Tasted amazing.

[00:31:09] CHRIS: Good. I’m sure everyone listening from the Greater Bay Area of Northern California is beaming with pride because they take burritos seriously. Wow. This is, yeah, go for it.

[00:31:23] CALLER: I actually went to New York a couple years ago for a couple days for a business trip and that was my first time in New York. It was actually a lot similar to Japan, how busy it was and how intense Manhattan was.

[00:31:42] CHRIS: Yeah. I bet there’s a handful of cities, right? It’s funny, I’ve actually mentioned on the show recently, London is that for me where I go and this places as fast as New York and is as like overwhelming as New York. And I hear Tokyo, I mean the American vision of Tokyo, is that it’s like a fast paced, like vision of the future.

[00:32:06] CALLER: Yeah, it felt comfortable that it was like that for me and then so I went there for a business trip. And, you know, because I said that I went to America and I wanted a burrito. I wanted to eat pizza when I’m going to New York. Right?.

[00:32:24] CHRIS: Yeah, you gotta get a New York pizza.

[00:32:26] CALLER: So I’m there with my boss. I just kind of have to go with the flow and then we get to the business place or whatever and they take us out for lunch and dinner and they’re like, oh, yeah, we know this really good place. We go because I think their offices are in Queens and we went out to Manhattan from Queens and we stopped in front of the store and the name of it was Osaka. And I’m going, man, it’s gonna be great so we go inside and they’re like, you know, a Japanese restaurant and they give us noodles. And I’m like, you know, I think it’s really great that the Japanese food has made it over to America and then I eat it. And you know, I don’t want to be pretentious or anything, but I couldn’t eat it. It was just something that, you know, I grew up on Japanese food, like authentic Japanese food. And then it’s like not the same thing.

[00:33:30] CHRIS: No, that’s trash. What a careless, thoughtless token effort. Oh, someone traveled halfway around the globe. Let’s give them the watered down in authentic version of what they can have every single day of their life. Outside of this one. Yeah, very inconsiderate. I apologize.

[00:33:53] CALLER: No, not at all and then for dinner, we also went to a Japanese restaurant, which was…So on the last day, we have in Japan, we have these pubs called Izakaya and that’s kind of the Japanese pub. It’s pretty much just like, you probably get a beer and everyone just has fun. There’s a bunch of these in Japan and there was a New York version of that and they were like, we should go there for the last day. I was like, well, if I can drink Saki, then I don’t care. So we went to this place and everything was fine. Everything was great. My friend actually lived in New York at the time and he came to hang out with us and said, hey, I got to go, I got to work tomorrow. We go outside and I take him to the station. I’m coming back to the bar and this guy comes up to me and starts talking to me. Very nice guy and in Japan, that’s never happened.

[00:35:04] CHRIS: Ha ha, yeah, in New York that never happens either. What’s this guy’s what’s this guy going for?

[00:35:09] CALLER: So he’s like, yo, like, where are you from? And I’m like, oh, I’m from, um, I’m from Japan. And, oh, yeah, you know, you look Asian. I was like, yeah thanks and so we’re walking and I’m not really used to it. It’s kind of nice that people are talking because people don’t really talk to each other in Japan. In the Japanese language, we don’t have a word; we don’t have a phrase for have a nice day so we never say that.

[00:35:37] CHRIS: Oh wow.

[00:35:38] CALLER: And that’s one of the biggest things that I realized is when you go even to any restaurant or any store at the end of the conversation, people will say have a nice day. That’s so nice and that’s great. Yeah, so we’re going down and he is just talking to me and he goes, all right, my car’s parked over there. Can I suck your dick?

[00:36:06] CHRIS: I knew there was going to be a swerve on that one. I knew there was a swerve coming. I wasn’t sure if it was money or sex but I knew it was on its way.  As a New Yorker, for anyone in your position who is international, never been to New York City. As a New York resident, I could say do not be fooled. No one is that nice. No one is as nice as that person in New York.

[00:36:29] CALLER: Ha, ha. Yeah, those are a hard lesson learned. But I was like, I don’t know how to react to that. What do you to say to that? I was just like, oh, you’re really handsome and thank you. I’m really happy that you feel that way about me but I’m sorry, I’m not, you know, like I need to go. So I politely kind of reject him but I think he took that as kind of like, oh, this guy’s really nice maybe if I ask a little bit more. He got kind of aggressive: come on, man, I’ll let you fuck mine. And I was like, that’s not what was not the problem is here.

[00:37:12] CHRIS: Yeah, it’s not a bargaining to the level of which I’m about to engage sexually with a stranger on the street. In your parked car. That’s not my thing in general. Thank you.

[00:37:22] CALLER: Yeah, exactly, and we are just having this conversation as I’m walking and then everybody that was, all the people that were at the bar were leaving. And my boss is there and in Japan, I mean, I’m pretty close to my boss. But it’s really still awkward. And he’s taking like pictures of me and like movies of me interacting with this guy and nothing weird but I was just like, the last time I went to America, it was the burrito thing. And then now I’m in New York for the first time and this happens. I’m getting pretty, this is amazing experience that I’m getting right now.

[00:38:04] CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah. You’ve only been here a handful of days but you’ve really lived. So you’re a punk rocker but you also work in business at a at a caliber where they’ll fly you to a different country. You split your time between two worlds in that way as well.

[00:38:22] CALLER: Yeah, I mean, that’s kind of the toughest thing is that, well, I work as a translator and I translate films. We try to bring independent documentaries into Japan. It’s kind of like our big business thing and it’s a very small operation. That’s kind of my day job so I do that in the day and then at night until midnight, I go into the studio and do, you know, band stuff. Then on the weekends I’m on tour kind of things for which it wears me down a lot. It’s kind of the biggest problem that I have right now actually is balancing that.

[00:39:02] CHRIS: Yeah, that’s a that’s around the clock. That’s a hustle. It’s a grind. Does your band have a chance at busting out?

[00:39:11] CALLER: Yeah, I think so. I mean we’ve been working at it. The band that I was in when I went to the Wilco, we broke up and I’m doing a new thing now. But yeah, I think it’s good. I really like my music. I think that the band likes the music and it’s just that, you know, that spark, you know, you got to keep working at it. We’re just hoping for that spark and then, you know, hopefully you can go from there.

[00:39:40] CHRIS: That’s cool. I wish you great luck with it.

[00:39:43] CALLER: Thank you. And so that’s kind of where we are with music. Yeah, in Japan it is, this is what I want to talk about, I totally forgot about it. Is that I think in Japan, mental health is non-existent. People are definitely going through that, but it’s not really acknowledged in Japan

[00:40:08] CHRIS: Yeah, I’ve heard this.

[00:40:11] CALLER: Yeah, I’ve heard somebody else talk about this in a different call that you had, but it’s just get over it. You know, you sleep on it kind of thing and it’s having a bad day or your week. So when people actually are going through depression or anxiety, it’s just a sign of weakness.

[00:40:33] CHRIS: Yeah, I know that feeling and I come from New York where everyone in therapy. We still get that. I think the sense I get just from pop culture and again, if it’s a stereotype that’s inaccurate let me know. It seems from what you see from the outside, it seems like a very work driven place where a lot of people working until they’re on the brink of collapse.

[00:40:57] CALLER: I mean, it’s very true.

[00:41:00] CHRIS: That can’t be good. They can’t be good for the head.

[00:41:04] CALLER: I mean, I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but the suicide rate in Japan is extremely high.

[00:41:11] CHRIS: I have heard that. I’ve heard there’s a suicide forest. Isn’t there a famous, famous place where people go to commit suicide?

[00:41:18] CALLER: Recently, an American YouTuber came here and caused a lot of trouble. But that is, that’s serious business there. You go there and you see letters that people write to loved one and they say if you find me here or if you see this post, please don’t come find me. I’m done. And I think they go by car because you can’t really walk there. But people just leave all their stuff in their car as a kind of something to remember them by; the kind of plan it all out.

[00:42:00] CHRIS: Wow. Are there not police or you know, medical professionals that are tasked with maybe safeguarding it or to try to stop that?

[00:42:14] CALLER: There are actually. There’re people patrolling the forest, but the forest is so deep and it’s so wide. And also, one of the reasons why it’s so good for, t’s bad to say good, but why it’s an optimal place for these people is that once you go inside, you lose. There’s no cell towers so you can’t get any reception in there.

[00:42:36] CHRIS: So even if you want to call for help, it’s not really an option. Your in there with your thoughts.

[00:42:44] CALLER: Yeah, so people can go in groups. Let’s say a patrol group goes in like a group of 10. If they split up, there’s no way they can contact each other.

[00:42:53] CHRIS: All right. Right. Right.

[00:42:56] CALLER: t’s just a very, a lot of the times is just after the fact they see the new body.

[00:43:04] CHRIS: It also seems like there’s more of, you know, again, from the outside looking in, a history of sort of honor-based suicide that is maybe more pronounced than in most places. Is that true?

[00:43:19] CALLER: I think that the whole honor thing is definitely, it’s fading away in Japan. Now people just commit suicide because they are extremely depressed. Nobody understands them. Also, people don’t really get into it. It was on the news, but people aren’t dating so they don’t have a significant other in a lot of cases. So it’s mostly that now. The whole, the honor base suicide is kind of a little bit back then.

[00:43:53] CHRIS: Yeah, that’s good.

[00:43:57] CHRIS [music transition]  Well, that got intense, that got heavy. I need a breather. I like to take a breather, get a sip of water, ponder the heavy parts.

00:44:11] [AD BREAK]

[00:44:13] CHRIS: [music transition] Thanks again to everybody who sponsors Beautiful Anonymous and allows us to bring it to you every Tuesday for free. Now let’s finish off the phone call.

[00:44:21] CALLER: Also, people don’t really get into it. It was on the news, but people aren’t dating, so they don’t have a significant other in a lot of cases. So it’s mostly back now, the whole honor base suicide is kind of a little bit back.

[00:44:43] CHRIS: Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. Why aren’t people dating?

[00:44:47] CALLER: A lot of times they’re like, oh, it’s too busy or they don’t have time for it. Or like I said, they can get, they can release their sexual tension in so many different services, You know, I think when you are in a relationship with someone, their sexual connection and communication is so important and they don’t need, they can actually get that from other services. For a price. So they don’t go out to find, you know, not everybody, but a lot of them are just; they stay single.

[00:45:27] CHRIS: Right. Your relationship with intimacy becomes warped, I would imagine, if you if you fall into that lifestyle.

[00:45:39] CALLER: And in Japan, you know, anime is very big and people are, a lot of them not, I wouldn’t say everybody, but there’s a specific group of people that just don’t believe in 3D girls. That’s kind of like their motto.

[00:45:57] CHRIS: What?!? What does that mean?

[00:45:59] CALLER: Yes. So it’s they say 2-D is better than 3-D

[00:46:05] CHRIS: Which means if they opt in to having all their relationships with females be through the fictional?

[00:46:12] CALLER: Yes. Like a 100 percent.

[00:46:16] CHRIS: And they just don’t interact with. These are straight males who just choose to never interact with females because they don’t believe in it.

[00:46:25] CALLER: Yes. And I mean, OK, a lot of it comes from the fact that they believe that girls don’t like them or they do something nice. And the girls don’t know that they’re not good enough for the girls. It’s a lot of self-esteem issues. And also, the fact that in Japan, they’re people that are really into anime, I wouldn’t say anime because a lot of people like anime, but kind of the extreme is kind of called (??). I’ve heard, you know, people in America use that term to me, but there’s a lot of that and a lot of them are communicating through the Internet. Something like Reddit is what they use.

[00:47:13] CHRIS: Yeah, is the Internet the worst thing we’ve ever invented? The worst or the best? It might be the best unifier of humanity that we’ll ever know and that could ever be possible and it might also dehumanize. I don’t know. I’ve probably gone on this in this podcast. I’m getting progressively more worried that the Internet is making us all subhuman and not in a way. I feel very bad, sometimes that can be a phrase that’s used in like racist circles. But I mean, we actually behave in ways that lack humanity compared to generations that did not have the Internet. In ways like you’re saying, where we isolate ourselves from actual human connection or we take on personas that aren’t totally true to us. And then we don’t know how to live in the real world without those personas.

[00:48:04] CALLER: Yeah, exactly. It’s anything that people always said that the Internet is something like you can say whatever is on your mind. But if you’re just throwing out any passing thought in your head, then that’s not really you. I think there’s a lot of vile things said on the Internet but that’s not really that person. I think those people are actually, you know, great people. But if they’re just typing out what is the first thing in their mind without thinking, it becomes really vulgar.

[00:48:37] CHRIS: Yeah as someone who knows the thoughts that go through my own mind, I don’t need to say whatever is on my mind in a public forum or even out loud, even in a room where no one else is. I don’t need to say everything in my mind. No, thanks.

[00:48:51] CALLER: Yeah, exactly. And that I kind of grew up. I think then it also really affected me like in music that I listen to because a lot of the artists were talking about how introverted they are and how it’s very hard for them to get out what they really think. And they do it through song and just kind of growing up on that. I was always, I embraced the Internet for how convenient it is and how easy it is to see music videos and live videos. I definitely use the Internet all the time. I’m definitely scared of what it could do to people.

[00:49:36] CHRIS: I mean, I talk a lot of shit about the internet for a person whose phone never leaves his hand. I am part of that. Now there’s something I need to bring up on my end. It has been fascinating. I have to say Japanese culture is one that I think Americans romanticize and wonder about and sort of find a little maybe at times confusing or impenetrable. And you’ve explained a lot of things in a way where I’m actually super fascinated. On my end I will tell you, the Japanese culture I have delved most deeply into and I wonder if you have any interest in it, is by far Japanese mixed martial arts fighting and to a degree, pro-wrestling.

[00:50:17] CALLER: All right. Yeah, that’s huge in Japan. I’m not really familiar with it, but yeah, it’s it’s definitely a big thing.

[00:50:25] CHRIS: It is and if you’re not familiar, there’s just one thing I want to say that I actually really love. So mixed martial arts, which, you know, a lot of people know as the UFC, there used to be a league called Pride in Japan. I was obsessed with pride fighting, obsessed with it for years. And the one thing I love about Japanese and their relationship with pro-wrestling is they are aware that pro wrestling matches are staged. But they must view them as staged exhibitions and view professional wrestling as a legitimate fighting art.  And the pride fighting championships, a lot of why it was created was to showcase professional wrestlers in real fights to prove the legitimacy of pro wrestling as fighting.

And I think that’s the coolest shit I ever heard of in the world.

[00:51:11] CALLER: Yeah, Pride is so big. I don’t know if they still do it, but every few years is the Pride fight.

[00:51:18] CHRIS: The massive pride and K-1 fights for the big New Year’s thing, I have heard. Pride got taken down. I think they got busted because they were very tangled up with the yakuza. They got publicly shamed for that and taken down.

[00:51:35] CALLER: And I guess I didn’t see the pride. Was that recent?

[00:51:41] CHRIS: That was probably 10 years ago. But there’s a bunch of other leagues that have kind of filled in and emulate Pride. There was Dream for a while. There’s a new one now; Risin. There’s a few that are kind of continuing the tradition and still do the New Year’s fights and stuff like that. Let me ask you a personal question. Can I ask you a personal question? So you are a romantic. You’re a romantic. Specifically, in a sense, as defined by Western culture. Does this actually make your dating life, does it make your dating life easier or more difficult? Because I’d have to imagine that if you tell a partner, hey, actually, I actually get weirded out at the idea of cheating or paying for sex. Is that something that people all like: “Oh, my God, you’re a total catch.” Or are they “Wait, what’s up with that?”

[00:52:33] CALLER: Yeah, I mean, I’ve never dated a purely Japanese person just because the people that I’m around is also a mixed culture and they kind of have the same values as me. But I think if I was to date a purely Japanese girl, then they, if I said I think it’s weird, blah, blah, it’s cheating, they would be definitely impressed, I guess. But I wouldn’t fully be able to trust them because maybe you did that, too. Well, I have a girlfriend right now and she’s a mix of different cultures and we grew up in completely different places. But um, she lives in Japan but she also lives in America (I never did that). But we just share the same values so I’ve never even thought about that. So it’s. Yeah, it’s very I’m very lucky. But here’s the thing about these Japanese girls and this is something that I see a lot in the bars in Japan. There’s Japanese girls who fantasize, not too much, but a lot of them really, really like foreigners. There’s a specific chain of men bar pub thing that girls go to get hit on by foreigners.

[00:54:08] CHRIS: This, that’s what it’s known for? Ha, ha, ha, what’s this place? For any of our listeners who listens, what is this chain called?

[00:54:20] CALLER: It’s called Hub.

[00:54:22] CHRIS: Hub. So there’s a chain bar, this would be like an Applebee’s or Fridays in America, but the point is for foreigners to go hit on native Japanese women.

[00:54:33] CALLER: Yeah. It’s I mean, it’s not the point. It’s not like you’re selling point. That’s kind of the place that everybody goes and it’s not just foreigners but you see a lot of them. And when you ask me where should I go? I’m here for a couple of days. Where should I go at once? Go to the Hub. You’ll find a girl there. And the girls are, and the girls know that, too. Yeah. One time I went to a pub with a friend and they were talking to this girl. And this girl is super. But she had no money. She goes there because she knows that she can get a free dinner.

[00:55:12] CHRIS: Wow, that’s sad.

[00:55:14] CALLER: Oh, wait, wait. There’s something else. In Japan, we have these crazy restaurants where the guy goes into the restaurant and sits with a girl. And for the girl, it’s all free and this is like, this is it. The girls just go there for free. Guys come, they get to sit and eat dinner with them and the guy pays. And that’s it.

[00:55:41] CHRIS: Wow. It’s the whole thing.

[00:55:45] CALLER: It’s like the privilege to be able to sit next and these girls aren’t employed by the restaurant, they’re normal customers. But they can they just go there to get free food.

[00:55:55] CHRIS: Wow, do you feel, because as you mentioned it and it’s becoming clearer and clearer through our conversation, like you are Japanese but you are also, in a way, positioned as an observer of Japanese culture. Because you are also immersed in Western culture but then you tell a story about how ordering a burrito became like a very overwhelming process. Is that something that you like, treasure or value? Are there times where you resent it? Is it both?

[00:56:26] CALLER: Oh, it’s a constant struggle. At the very beginning of the call, I was you know, I said I didn’t really know my true identity was and I’m still trying to find it. But I’m starting to think that there is actually a group of people that are just like me where they don’t know, the fact that they don’t know their culture is a culture.

[00:56:49] CHRIS: Right.

[00:56:50] CALLER: And once I kind of figured that out, I think I felt a lot more comfortable. But yeah, there are times when I’m in a very Japanese setting and my Japanese isn’t completely to the standards of someone that, you know, in their late 20s. In Japanese wise, like the mannerisms, because in Japan we have two separate types of Japanese. When you talk to somebody that’s older, you have a whole new set of Japanese compared to someone that’s your own age.

[00:57:26] CHRIS: As far as the actual language you’re using?

[00:57:28] CALLER: Yes. It’s like I mean, they’re both Japanese, but the end of each sentence or the way you say things is. There’s a whole other thing, it’s called Kagel and that’s extremely difficult. It’s kind of old school and that’s really hard. And when you get a little bit of it wrong, like you end the sentence wrong in a certain way and it kind of turns into informal Japanese, then it’s extremely rude.

[00:58:01] CHRIS: I remember hearing a story and I don’t know if it’s just like a myth, but when the Second World War ended and the emperor went on the radio to speak about it, which apparently was a thing he’d never done in his language, was actually pretty impossible to understand for a lot of average people because it was so old school. Is it, does this relate to that? I don’t know.

[00:58:26] CALLER: I don’t know if it relates to that, but it is true. After the World War Two, that was like the first time people heard his voice. But yeah, to this day, when you see kind of like the royal family talk, It seems like they’re from a very apparently from different era and they haven’t moved on from that. And so it is really hard to understand, but that Japanese is nothing compared to like I mean the whole informal and formal Japanese is a lot easier than that than the really old Japanese. Well, you can’t read it or you seriously can’t understand it. If you know either the formal or the formal Japanese, you don’t need to know a whole new set of, I guess like characters and stuff. But the old Japanese is like, you can’t even read it or like you can’t even read it out because it doesn’t make sense.

[00:59:30] CHRIS: You got an interesting life. You got an interesting life.

[00:59:35] CALLER: And it is so many things that I guess I take for granted. And then once I, you know, have the opportunity to talk to you about it, oh yeah, that doesn’t apply to anybody else besides Japanese people.

[00:59:49] CHRIS: And then, I mean, there’s a ton of things that only apply to Americans to, you know. But you’re like positioned in this very specific way to sort of be like a Rosetta Stone for me to understand a lot of things. It’s also you know, it’s also one of these things, too, where you hear about, you know, workplace culture or the sex trade in Japan. And you assume like I’m hearing like the big broad strokes of that and it’s very cool for you to call it and be like, oh, no, here’s someone on the ground who grew up around it. Here’s what it’s actually like to be of this culture. It’s cool, it’s cool to hear.

[01:00:30] CALLER: And I hope, I thought it would be more interesting to kind of go in deep with the, you know, the dark stuff of Japan. But the other side of it, is that because it’s so strict, because, you know, the regulations are so strict. People are working so hard. It’s probably, you know, compared to America, which I really like the casualness of America. But everything is well, starting with the public transportation, everything is so punctual. Everyone is extremely polite and it’s to the point that people say that they’re cold. But as professionals, I think, you know, that’s something that we can have pride in, is that Japan is, you know, extremely professional about everything.

[01:01:13] CHRIS: Oh, I’ve heard the legends of the public transportation as someone who’s dealing with what can only be described as a quickly failing New York City subway system. You guys have those bullet trains where you can get like, oh, yeah, you need to go a thousand miles yet it’ll show up perfectly on time and take your seven and a half minutes. I hear these legends about the Japanese public transportation.

[01:01:37] CALLER: Do you guys have like you know, like Google Maps? It tells you if you if you want to get to point A to point B, it tells you like if you take a public transportation from here to here, you get on this train at this time. Is that accurate? Can you use that that in America?

[01:01:56] CHRIS: It’s touch and go in New York City. And most places, you know, most cities and most places in America don’t have public transportation. It’s very much a car culture. But in the cities, especially the major ones we do, it’s touch and go.

I’ll put that in at my house. Sometimes it’ll be like, oh, you’ll get there in 35 minutes. And then two and a half hours later, two and half treacherous hours later of being stuck in a tunnel under a river, praying that this isn’t when the infrastructure fails. Ultimately, in trying to decide if I can get into the last car to open a door, if I need to swim with the river in a last desperate attempt to survive. Then I’m like; Google lied.

[01:02:43] CALLER: And you can definitely count on it. You can count on it. If they say get on this train at this time, it will be there. It will never be late unless there’s something, you know, it’s snowing or something that you can, you know, 99 percent of the time if there’s not a natural disaster. We’ll get there in time.

[01:02:59] CHRIS: That’s so awesome. Jealous? It’s awesome. What do you play? What instruments you play?

[01:03:05] CALLER: Right now, in my band I play acoustic guitar and I sing.

[01:03:08] CHRIS: Nice, that’s pretty great.

[01:03:13] CALLER: Yeah, and in my old band, I used to just sing that punk band, I used to sing. But now we kind of do indie rock.

[01:03:22] CHRIS: Movin on to the indie rock? As always, it’s nice to hear that as punk rockers grow up, no matter where you are in the world, you switch from punk to indie rock. Haha.

[01:03:29] CALLER: Haha, exactly. It’s just like hot water music. You know, got to go through the whole punk thing. And then, you know, you grow up.

[01:03:38] CHRIS: Yeah, you can’t be slapstick forever. You got to turn into the Lawrence Arms at some point. I think that was, I think that’s the big band, right?  Do I have that one right? That’s cool. I feel like we’d be pals. I feel like we’d be pals if we grew up together.

[01:03:56] CALLER: That’s what I think. Every time I listen to your podcasts, every time you know, when I’m watching the show, I’m like, oh, we can be such good friends but I’m guessing pretty much everybody that calls feels that way. And crazy that you could actually probably be best friends with most of them.

[01:04:11] CHRIS: I’m more awkward in real life than I am on this podcast. Hey, we only have a few seconds left and I think there’s only one appropriate way for me to end it. I want to thank you for calling. Thank you for sharing. And most importantly, have a nice day.

[01:04:29] CALLER: Haha, have a nice day!

[01:04:30] PHONE RING

     THEME MUSIC

01:04:35] CHRIS: Caller, thank you for calling. It’s super cool. Thanks for letting me ask all my ignorant questions and not get mad at me. I really do think we’d be pals. Sorry that you had such an overwhelming time during your trips to the states. I hope you come back here some day and enjoy it even more. Get that pizza that you’ve always craved. And not just eat crappy Japanese food. Who would do that?! Who would do that?  Anyway, thank you for calling. Thank you to everybody for listening. Thanks to Jarred O’Connell. Thanks to Harry Nilsson, especially for coming over here towards the Eastside and recording this one, it means a lot. You guys helped me out while we’re taping the Chris Gethard Show. Allowed me to not leave the office for this one. Thank you, Shellshag for the music. Want to know more about me, especially dates that I’m out on the road. Chrisgeth.com is the web site for all of that. And if you like Beautiful Anonymous, one thing you can do to help go to Apple podcast. Rate, reviews, subscribe. I can’t tell you how much that helps. That’s all the business. Thanks for listening. And we’ll see you next time on Beautiful Anonymous.

[MUSIC TRANSITION]

[NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW]

[01:05:46] CHRIS: Next time on Beautiful Anonymous.

[01:05:52] CALLER: I had you on speaker next to my computer. I was trying to work out how to explain consent to high school kids.

[01:05:59] CHRIS: Consent? That’s your job? Yes, I am familiar. I assure you, I assure you

[01:06:03] CALLER: Good! I hope so!

[01:06:08] CHRIS: Yes, that’s a pretty important gig these days, huh?

[01:06:10] CALLER: Yeah. I feel like I’m contributing something positive to the world. I really like it. It’s actually new, I only started last year, but my previous skillset applies quite well to this job.

[01:06:21] CHRIS: That’s an interesting tidbit you just dangled that there. What’s your what’s your previous skill set?

[01:06:26] CALLER: Yeah. I spent most of my career as a circus performer, actually. as a circus performer.

[01:06:33] CHRIS: As a circus performer?!? Next time on Beautiful Anonymous.