Mere Mortals

Share on social media:

Juan's back from the land of the rising sun.

In Episode #448 of 'Meanderings' Juan & I discuss: economic reasons for wanting to travel, Juan's impression after returning 5 years later, my recent thoughts on taking a break, focusing upon things that are easy and bring me joy, why living in a dog house is not as bad as it could be & the solitary appeal of cats.

Huge thanks to Petar, Nick Malster & Cole McCormick for supporting the show. We really appreciate your contribution!

Timeline:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:00:32) Japan is cheap at the moment
(00:03:42) And close/kid friendly
(00:07:33) 8 good chicken wings out of 10
(00:11:55) Questioning the podcast frequency
(00:17:03) Optimising for long term ease
(00:24:23) Boostagram Lounge
(00:36:02) Living the life of a dog person
(00:39:50) Cats vs Dogs
(00:44:20) V4V: Time/Talent/Treasure

Connect with Mere Mortals:
Website: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/jjfq9eGReU
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/meremortalspod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcast/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meremortalspodcast

Value 4 Value Support:
Boostagram: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/support
Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/meremortalspodcast

[00:00:06] Juan Granados:

Welcome back Mere Mortalites to a meandering session. Meanderings is a chance for us to connect with you, Mere Mortalites at home. It is a Wednesday, it is bang on   7 PM, just about look looking at my watch still 6:59, but basically 7 pm. You've got Juan on this side. And you get Kyrin. And he has me and drinks. We just chat. We just have a chat. We yap hopefully with a little bit of an effective philosophy around things that are happening in the world, what we're seeing around us, things that are of interest, things that are going on. I'm gonna get right into it. You put it in a title note. Why is everyone going to Japan? Yeah. So what's your thoughts? Why? Why is everyone going to Japan? Well,  

[00:00:39] Kyrin Down:

I mean,   economically speaking,   the is good. The yen has fallen pretty hard against basically everything else. So if you go there,   it it should be cheaper, cheaper for you. So you buy you buy, you know,  

[00:00:53] Juan Granados:

I'll give you some examples. I'll give you some examples for this is gonna be an Australian market. So obviously,   may may correspond to a few other places like in America or another, places where people listen to us. But,   if you go to, Willys or Coles and you wanna go buy yourself a little coffee, a nice coffee, like a break or something like that, that might be $4.50.   $5.   Currently in Japan, you get that for a dollar 30. All $30.50. The most expensive one you're paying is probably $2. That's as heavy as it   goes.  

Sandwiches so you know those pre packaged sandwiches you can get them for around $6 $7   If you get them on discounts you know when they're like about to go out and yeah which I'll opt to get $3.50   although they're $6 $7 generally   you're spending yeah $2 to $3 there in most   expensive places. If you go to a supermarket, it gets even cheaper. And then, yeah, alcohol,   very, very cheap. You're talking   $10 for a $100 bottle you can find here in Australia.   There's, like, for things like whiskey or gin,   or individual cans of drink. You can get them, you know, quite big cans for I think it was like a dollar 80, dollar 90. So it's very I I think I did buy a   6 pack of Asahi dry and that cost me $14   for a 6 pack. So that's to give you a bit of an idea of what current Japan prices are. However,   Disneyland in Tokyo is very, very, very expensive. Yeah. That's the trend.  



[00:02:15] Kyrin Down:

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So   I mean, that's got to have some   some play in the mind. But for example, my brother's going to Japan in December   and   he certainly has not looked at prices   of things and   the Japanese yen crashing hard against the Aussie dollar or anything like that.   So   I don't know. I don't know what worth it's it seemed to be   it's kind of funny because I would have thought post COVID   Japan had a strong reaction to COVID. It seemed they were pretty locked down. They were worrying about it. They didn't want tourists there.   There was the, you know, controversy over the Olympics being held there. A lot of Japanese people weren't happy about that. So   I didn't I didn't come from the whole COVID experience. I didn't come out of it going, man, Japan's got to be the place to go. Better. Yeah, this is this is where   I want to go and feel safe after COVID or something like that. I didn't particularly get that feeling from there,   but   I don't know. A lot of people don't. Yeah, honestly,  

[00:03:18] Juan Granados:

to summarize it for me, I would say   if you are economically minded,   especially like in Australia, I guess most like really young people might go to a Bali or   one of the islands just because it's quite close and it is expensive,   but depends like that.   Maybe next step up in terms of costs. However,   it's a very different experience. So you know, maybe it attracts that it is, I think just flight wise, it's one of those places that always has good sales and good discounts. I would have to say I'm sure there'd be some level of, you know, Japan helping to fund   to get cheaper flights to many places. So probably just easier for people to get there than to go to America or South America or something like that.  



[00:04:01] Kyrin Down:

For sure. But there's there's so many other countries that   you could get to with a 9 hour flight. You go to Mongolia, you you go to Thailand, you go to India would be about a 9 hour flight.   It's not that further to go to the Middle East if you wanted to go there, for example. Or   I mean, I guess, yeah, when you're getting to the Africa area, that's that's probably when it's starting to get pretty long. Yeah. So   I don't know. I was just thinking   what   not as many people are going to South Korea,  

[00:04:30] Juan Granados:

for example. But I will say this inversely.   I mean, yes, I would probably say, Yeah, that's probably likely, like not as many people are going to South Korea than Japan. And I kind of view those 2 as equivalents in my mind. Yeah. Although, although I would say I do know,   quite a handful of people at least just within like the circle that I see on social media and the like that I think I've probably seen more people go to South Korea than Japan Okay, recently. So I in the on what I've seen, I actually see more people go to South Korea, but I think overall, probably more like a Japanese trend.   But I was gonna   say something, you know, when I when I went over to the US when I've been over there,   and through Greek islands, and even when we went to Japan last time in 2019.  

Just going recently,   you   know, why is everyone going to Japan, which again, I'm agreeing. I think there's a lot of who are going, but I barely saw any tourists when I was there. It's kind of like an inverse. But I saw,   again,   honestly, probably like 100 tourists in total. That's it. Even in Disneyland, Tokyo. It was basically just all locals. And by local, I mean, you live in Japan. So there might have been a lot of people who maybe lived in Osaka or somewhere else and then were traveling to Tokyo. But yeah, I didn't see a lot of travelers there. So maybe maybe it's one of those biases where I've seen a lot of people go in my social media or I've heard from people,   but it's actually not the case. Like maybe it is a lower number.  

So if you've if you've gone to Japan recently, maybe if you're on the chat, if you if you want to go, or you've been before,   no. Feel free to send to a boot screen as well. Why why did you go or why would you wanna go? Like, what's the actual reason? It's gonna be interested to see   why people go. For me, this summer around, it was   it's not like I wouldn't say it's like a widely known, but if you Google it, and from talking to people, there's a you can often find Oh, yeah, Japan's a really good place to take a young family. They're good with baby.   I've got a photo of know, in every toilet, just about every toilet, both male and female. They've got a little,   hold area for your kids so you can actually sit them down into this little   oh, so that wasn't in the parents room? No. That was in every single toilet. Yeah. So they have a parent's room, but then they have changing rooms in both males and females. And within toilets, they have little holding areas so you can put them into you essentially fight their legs through 2 holes and just kinda like sits them up like if they'd be on a on a high chair. And yeah. So it was quite, like, quite kid friendly in a lot of places.  

It   and I from what I could remember last time from talking to people, a lot of like, oh, but you will have challenges around, you know, they don't have too many elevators and a lot of stairs,   And I would challenge that.   I would challenge them in the sense that   at first glance, it looks like there's not a lot of elevators. But if you actually look closely,   they do have quite a, like, an ample   find of elevators for prams and the like.   You just have to walk quite a far distance to find them to get to the certain places. But   yeah, it'd be good. I've been to to understand, you know, what the reasonings are for other people. Yeah. So it's been 5 years since you were last back. Have you noticed any differences?  

No. Not really. Like,   it's kind of saying to you, food wise, it was basically like what it was when we were in 2019. So it just felt cheaper, even though it kind of remained the same. But   I can call about Nara   Osaka Castle on a few places in Osaka, some of the food places that we went to.   Should be crossing the Starbucks above should be occurring all those places that we went 5 years   ago, I was there. And it was almost like there was not a single thing changed. I was like, God, this is exactly the same, which   in part is probably what makes it really cool. Like, it is that that's the characteristic of Japan. That exact feeling, I got it once again. So there wasn't anything   new. There wasn't anything that I was like, oh, you know, they all do this. So there's a difference. No. It's like, oh, yeah. There's Japan. It was like a very trusted,   comforting experience that when I was there, it was I was kind of like almost   guiding around our family and be like, Hey, we can go do this. And that's going to be there. And it was short enough. There it is. Same thing with the train lines. It was a wasn't a surprise at all,   seeing the things. And the go karting still, you know, going around so you can see all of them. Yeah. Yeah. So quite a few of them got around and had brought back memories of, you know, pulling up to Shibuya crossing in, like, evening and me doing that wheelie and stuff like that. I'm like, oh, man. I was like, peak of my life. There's nothing's getting better than that. You did you did hear that correctly. 1 attempted a wheelie in a Yeah. I was I   tried to do a wheelie, chibouta crossing. The lights were red. All I could see around me was just like photos going off and flashes everywhere. It was just it was really, really good. So so what he what he does for his wheelie is because the go karts, there's there's no bottom, there's no floor on them. So you can just put your legs  

[00:09:15] Kyrin Down:

through and down. So one just, you know, heaved up. I don't know how much do those things weigh do you think?  

[00:09:22] Juan Granados:

I'll tell you like 20,   20, 30 kilos. No, I mean, half a year more. More than that. I would have said 80 kilos. Kilos. Maybe 80 kilos. And so I was picking up like half it'd be about 40 kilos. Yeah. Actually, it could even be more into the like low 100 or something.   There's a lot of metal someone tell me someone someone   can't wait because I have no idea. Yeah. It was good. There was a lot of reminiscing of our own trip in this trip. But then going with family. So it was like that kind of surreal but cool experience. But yeah, not not much has changed. Was there any effects from COVID that you saw or none? 0, it was nothing like I didn't see anything about COVID I didn't see anything.   There was   in one of the Airbnb that we say there was some notes of like, Hey, You have to do this with your mask, and you have to do that. But it was towards the tail end of the page, and I didn't see anybody that actually was regret   like they all wear masks but they've done that for for a very long time. And what was on the record? So nothing nothing that evidently changed   the way of life. So maybe it did change, but now it's been enough time that it's kind of reverted back now to what it used to be. Yeah, I'm glad I'm glad that we've done that for sure. So how would you rate your trip overall?  



[00:10:34] Kyrin Down:

Was it a success? I'd probably say  

[00:10:37] Juan Granados:

8 good   chicken wings out of 10. Like, it was pretty it was pretty good it was pretty good. I was disappointed that this summer this summer around, there wasn't as much good food in the Lawson's and the 711s   and the family mart.   I don't know if it was the expectation that we had We ate so many good dogs. Yeah. I don't know if it was because that or we like tried every single possible dessert that existed in these places. But when I was going through   what's good and what's exciting, but I was like, oh, oh, is it more things like this being different? So it was a little bit of that. But overall, like, it was everything in the the other probably thing that takes it off from going towards more of a tennis. Yeah. Just carrying around baby stuff. That is not fun. So wherever you tell, you know, traveling with a baby, fine. You're experiencing   travels with a with a baby, you know, you're at a location,   seeing them walk around and you're seeing things either for the first time or together or you're like, you're sharing, you know, life like that. That's really cool.  

Carrying a cot on your back and suitcases and a crying baby at 11 pm.   That's not fun. That's that's yeah.   Not not gonna be a good time no matter what you say to me. So there was a bit of that as well. So that's obviously Yeah, it's a hard thing to deal with. But overall, man, it was good. A good chicken wings out of 10. Excellent. That's that's that's a great  

[00:11:53] Kyrin Down:

great success.  

[00:11:55] Juan Granados:

Now I've got   a piece I wanted to talk to you about which was monthly   note well, so we do monthly goals right and I want to get the feedback as well from the immortal lights at home if you think this would be a good idea. Again, if we wanna do it or not. I'm I'm thinking about doing it.   So you talked a bit about a few months ago of kind of   doing sessions where you're a little bit more just live   interacting with people if they come on, but you're talking either about fitness or you're talking about what you're doing in your day, etcetera, around just to kind of be more online for people to come and be available. So one of the extra things that I was thinking about potentially producing   for the podcast was   I already do my daily journal notes. Like, that's never gonna change. I'm still going to do that. I mean, that that absolutely changes structure, etcetera. But what I have been doing for the last   maybe 7 or 8 months is what I do is take all of those notes.  

I summarize it,   and then from that summarization,   I get for the month,   what were some of, like, the key call outs? What were some of the big learnings? What were some of the big mistakes?   What are, like, the effective philosophies that I could pull out from this and and move forward? And so I'm kind of already doing that and summarizing them up. I go, I'm already doing all this.   I wonder if it would be beneficial to just share it with people, aka, you know, we we're doing our monthly goals, but maybe at a at a similar time around that monthly   time frame, I might just do a, you know, a recap of June 2024, like, the learnings from June 2024,   which is,   maybe   nice. It's very different, actually.  

But, yeah, so it's just more of a case of, hey. I'm playing back the the lessons that I sort of picked out from the month I was. And it's very easy for me to create that because I've already got the content like I'm already writing it down. It literally would just be   get on the mic, talk through the things. That's it. See if it's valuable. So be more like to home if you you think that's a valuable thing.   Let me know. I'll definitely do it.  

[00:13:45] Kyrin Down:

So what were you thinking for that on YouTube on Instagram?  

[00:13:50] Juan Granados:

How would you go live? I was abnormal. Yeah. So well, that's a good point.   Maybe life.   Maybe maybe life. Yeah. So like just doing it in a similar fashion that you would do with your book reviews going live with that one. So it's very, like, low touch,   very just quick to market, I guess, it'd be out. And similarly,   doing that live on the audio platforms as well. So,   yeah, actually now that I'm thinking about that's probably the path that I would do with it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I suppose that  

[00:14:22] Kyrin Down:

transitions nicely just into kind of what we've been up to and, and,   the direction of the podcast. Yeah. You want to call it like that. Yep. And yeah, if you listen to the monthly goals,   you know, I basically just don't really want to do that much for,   you know, actually probably for the first time ever,   I had a thought this last month of being gone like, why am I doing the podcast?   It was it was probably the first time I've had a real one. I've had times where I'm just like,   I don't know if I could be asked creating this thing today, doing this thing. And that's usually just   a small thing here and there.  

But I suppose this one was just related to   larger life things that are happening for me and just pondering why am I doing this? You know, what what I really want from life because it's it's also   I don't know,   I used to say I didn't really have   plans or things for my life that I wanted to do   when I used to look in the future, it was this kind of just blur.   I, I, I didn't know. I didn't know what I liked and what I, what I like, what I didn't like, that sort of thing.   Yeah. Now that I'm 30, 32, I've got   a fair grasp on the things that I enjoy doing, things that I don't enjoy doing   and   having a look at some of   the I suppose,   you know, just in stuff related to   I really would have loved to have, you know, been able to have mom playing with a grandchild or something like that. That's obviously not going to happen. So what other things are there in life that I think I would like to happen aren't going to happen or decisions that I'm making that are related to all of this?  

And yeah, it was kind of it was kind of just thinking like, oh, okay, I could go really hard in the podcast or, you know, what if I, what if I   dialed it back a bit? How would I feel if I only did, you know,   a fortnightly   episode instead of a weekly one and or same thing with the book reviews or dialed it down.   I don't know. I'm going to mull over that stuff for a bit.   I was. Yeah, but I was even thinking like, man, what if I just took a break for a month? How would that feel? How would I enjoy doing that? Would I not?  

[00:16:36] Juan Granados:

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. And I think as well,   we we sit at the moment with the podcast as well. I think we started off the year by   there's a lot of energy as well to us. We did a lot of things a lot of interviews that we're going through which was a good time.   And   there was always going to be an inevitable like okay, well, it's going to be some sort of low   here it's it's traveled it's live happening so yeah,  

[00:17:00] Kyrin Down:

yeah, I mean to that and we've done a fair bit   finally, you know, moving podcast hosts,   I'd say just integrating the live   more   effectively, but it's the best word. Just just being able to do it easier, at least for myself   and finding how to do that, how we can do that whilst I'm overseas as well, that sort of stuff. Yeah. Just lots of changes like that. And yeah, I don't know. I think   it'll kind of probably just be business as usual for the next 3 months ish. Yeah.   In terms of   it's going to be interrupted.  

[00:17:34] Juan Granados:

Right. That's something that I will. I'll be traveling  

[00:17:38] Kyrin Down:

and Juan's got stuff going on in his in his own life as well.   There's there's probably going to be more times where we have a missed episode like we did last week. Yeah. And look, the reality the reality is for you know, if you listen to us at home  

[00:17:52] Juan Granados:

it probably doesn't apply for most people. Obviously, we're talking about podcasting, but it applies   in other ways for any activity run. At the moment, if if you were to ask me, what am I optimizing for podcasts? When people ask me or if we're talking about it,   it's not to get the most juice out of people and give me the most money. Right? I was not gonna earn the most money out of it right now. That's not the case. Nor is it the I wanna be ranked number 1 or I want to be known worldwide while I'm doing it. No, not really. I think   I asked myself that question. The answer is   I'm optimizing so I can do this in 15 years time because that means that in 15 years time, I've got this little kernel of idea that I might want to do with my daughter, or I've got this idea that I want to do with the book stuff. But, you know, it's going to take time to mature and to do it. It actually connects with another idea that I've got in terms of family suffered books and blah blah blah blah blah. But that's like, there's like years worth of things that I've got to, you know, prepare and do and do it meticulously and do it right. The only way that's going to come to exist and it's just I'm optimizing for this to exist for a really long time. Okay. And that might not be the best way to make it so that this podcast is number 1, or doing whatever because what that might mean is like, okay, I can't we can't do it, you know, next Wednesday for whatever reason or we need to shift it to Friday or maybe we don't get the book reviews out every time or, you know, maybe I did want to do   really, really high quality book reviews and do 2 of them. But maybe the time frames I mean, I can't do that. So that's okay. That'd be fine. But can I maintain   whatever I   denote as the the minimum level of quality of the stuff that I'm producing to get it out there for people to get value? Cool. If I'm doing that, then I'll do it in my   own path or my own time frame. We're very much I don't think we've ever   shifted our   volume of content that we produce   by any factor of what we'd see externally coming into us. Like, I don't think we've ever had someone say like, hey, you guys should be producing more content or do more posts or more videos or more book reviews,   nor have I listened to any. And I've listened to plenty where it's, like, you know, a Gary v equivalent of, hey. You should be doing as much as possible and then creating from this one big one, 70 small ones and post it everywhere. Like, we've done those things.  

But I'm also not driven to the point of, oh, yeah, we have to continue those things.   Very, very   early days for the podcast. We used to track all the metrics. We used to do metrics on, okay, how many Instagram followers? How many did we gain for a week beforehand? What about Facebook? What have all these things? Is it going well? Do we need to change something?   And look time and place, we could be doing that again now.   But that's optimizing for what growth or becoming more highly known or changes so we can, you know, economical places. Yeah. All those things are good.   Yeah, right now. I mean, it's   making sure that I'm around to be able to do it for a long time. It's happened my head.  



[00:20:39] Kyrin Down:

The idea   I want to get to the point where it's   the combination of what Chris Fisher does with Jupiter Broadcasting. Yeah, he's got a whole bunch of different shows, but   he uses advertising. But I think he could probably switch to full value for value and be able to earn a living from that.   Adam Curry obviously is the odd father where I found out about value for value and he creates a living for himself   is is,   you know, co host John C. Dvorak   and feeds their families. And so I was going, okay, man, I I think I'd love to get to that kind of point where it could be a   a job in a certain extent. And   because we've done so many of those things of kind of grinding away, creating lots of stuff,   putting it out,   and   we've had certain experiences where   they have kicked off or we have gotten what you would think is success. And then I've gone, I don't really want that. I didn't really enjoy that. So   I'm kind of   I'm still   that that idea in my head is shifting and   it might end up just being the podcast is not   I'm, you know, I just don't get it to that level or   follow the general rule of   it. It kind of should be easy   if I have to grind away absolutely grind   creating social posts, doing all of these things   to to get to that   you know, ground where I think I'd kind of like to get   maybe, maybe I don't want to get there. Maybe I just want those, you know, the   funnily enough, the easy success or win of,   starting up a fitness one   and   people just really enjoy it and it blows up kind of quickly in the sense of the, you know, 10 years in the making of the overnight success. That was 10 years in the making, that sort of thing.  

Yeah. Well, it, one of the things this is not I'm looking for looking for ease. I'm optimizing for ease at the moment.  

[00:22:42] Juan Granados:

It's like paraphrasing as much as possible. I can't even remember exactly how he said it, but I know Chris Williamson,   over the last couple of months, one of the things he sometimes talks about is   he to to get the podcast to be like, you know, the best podcast it could possibly be or be ranked   the top one.   How much effort or you know, is it   he's kind of asking himself, is it worth   the the suffering,   and kind of moving away the happiness? Like, you know, is it is it worth it to actually fuck the happiness   and put in whatever pain and you need to achieve that   top ranking because maybe from that, you're gonna get this,   you know, great,   feeling from it or you're gonna get a great achievement. Yes. Cool. You, like, landed.  

But I mean, you know what I'm saying? Then I'll go, man. That's like full Aaron. Like, no. But would you do that? Like, if you've already got the happiness,   why would you go about being like, well,   fuck that I'm just gonna go on hard as possible and make it maybe if you make it I go even   I don't know. I'm not sure. I guess I don't I don't I wouldn't put in that same position like what you're saying now.   Hey. Maybe if we could grind really hard for another year and by the end of that year,   we're going to be really well known or, you know, insert here successful criteria that you want to apply for it. Okay. It's just not worth it. Like, it's just not worth it over other things I've ever gone in my life, or even having to   put what is needed the effort over whatever sustained period of time. I go, No, I'm willing to put in   probably a lower amount of effort, or trying to still put out value, but as long as I can do that   over a really extended period of time. That's where I can lay them. Yeah,  

[00:24:21] Kyrin Down:

sure. Sounds good.   Some boostograms.   Yes. Any questions at all from folks? I didn't see anyone in the chat asking a question.   I can quickly   look as we speak right now. Let me bring it up. So for those who want to know,   so it looks like those go karts are about 100 kilograms on quick Google check. Oh, they are 100 kg. They've left in  

[00:24:43] Juan Granados:

a cage like it's not easy. Easy. I was running on adrenaline.  

[00:24:48] Kyrin Down:

So a boost ground for those who don't know is a message. Well, it's a it's a payment that comes to us to help support the show because we do not have advertisers, we do not have sponsors. Everything we do here is free for you at home. And we just ask if you've gotten some value for this from this, you return it to us in some shape or form.   And this is one of the ways you can do this monetarily. You go to meremodelspodcast.com/support.   I've got   a section outlining why you would maybe want to do this, how you can do this, and a couple of apps that you can use, some links, some some handy little things.   And one's going to read off some,   some support that we got with the messages that we were attached to. Mhmm. So we got 3 since the last time we've actually done this. So 2 2 weeks,  

[00:25:34] Juan Granados:

gap. Correct. And it's very evident as well when I'm looking at it. You know, this is like May 21st May 22nd. But as soon as you have stopped, you know, posting, that's it. It kind of goes because you have to be   present in this space, which as I'm looking at it as a guy, you know, even more the reason to do things that are being available and trying to get value and making it as easy as possible. So you're always just consistently there and present.   But one we got one from Peter,   that I've always wanted to see a sumo match in person to that 222 sunset using fountain.   So I didn't get to see 1 in person, but I was watching 1 on TV. Okay.  

And someone who was there at the time,   Aldrich Aldrich was there in Japan at the same time that I was   with the family. And he was at the Sumo   match that I was watching on TV. Okay. And the stuff that he was posting, I was like, oh, it's really cool. So   it   it did seem like it had a lot of good energy, that sumo like stadium. So I was like, Ah, if I'd really thought about it, maybe that would have been a cool thing to try to attend while I was there. So   seeing it at least in TV was kind of cool. Just a lot of little things that pop up and the matches and stuff like that. So   maybe there was another time where I went back.  

Maybe I'd have to really think about doing a super match. And that was 2,200 and 20   2,222  

[00:26:51] Kyrin Down:

sets that you found that quite this road. I promised that I would get you to tell the story of your sumo match.  

[00:26:58] Juan Granados:

Yes. Okay. So that was in Melbourne.   In Melbourne. So it was an individual in Melbourne. This is what 2019,   2019 as well.   And   he was one of those street performers.  

[00:27:10] Kyrin Down:

He was kind of a trainee at one of these. Yeah, he wasn't a huge guy. I don't think of a massive super guy. He was you know, I think of I would say maybe he was taller than you I'm pretty sure so 5510   511 guy he was strong He had big arms  

[00:27:27] Juan Granados:

and solid trunk. Yeah. He was like a solid he was solid guy. Don't don't think like he wasn't rotund. Yeah. No. Sumi wrestler, but he was he was solid. He wasn't fat. Yeah. He wasn't fat, but he was like There was a lot of solid. On him. Yeah.   And yeah, so that   I can't remember what it was. Was it like $20   or $50 $50 $50 $50 to verse him in a match of basically just a sumo match. And I remember   we're walking around I was like oh come on I gotta try this out I do remember there was enough people like around us who I think the one person actually put up a $50 they're like oh I'll pay it I'll pay it yeah   so ended up going in the ring with him now my mistake I was wearing socks   if I wasn't wearing socks I think I would have bested him okay I reckon I would have gotten them so you were just wearing socks I was just wearing socks I took my shoes off but I kept it was only socks I was like that's a rookie mistake but basically I first I burst off this  

[00:28:16] Kyrin Down:

this man in a sumo match. I lost I lost for sure. Yeah. So so just they were just pushing each other. There was a ring of, I don't know, diameter of what,   3, 4 meters. Yeah. 3 meters. It was pretty small. Yeah, it wasn't wasn't too big. And it was really cool watching him because you could see the technique where he's he's he's pushing against 1 and he's he's kind of comment. He wasn't commentating, but   he was he was making the noises   where the referees normally  

[00:28:54] Juan Granados:

And then yeah, it was very, very quick dodging onto the side. Now I didn't realize this.   And maybe this is not correct. If someone actually knows about Sumo wrestling.  

[00:29:04] Kyrin Down:

Maybe correct me here. But at least when I was watching the matches, you can pick them up. Like you can actually pick people up. So I imagine it's also slap them as hard as you want in the face. Oh, really? Yeah. Yes. A lot of times, though. So they'll have the knuckles on the ground and they kind of you know, the fighting stance to start with. So kind of crouched over knuckles on the ground like a gorilla. Yeah.   Yeah. Gorilla.   And then 11 guy initiates it by,   I think he's   he's squatting and he has 1 on the ground. And when he touches both knuckles is when   they can, they can go. And so what you'll see sometimes is they'll they'll touch and immediately just slap the dude across the face. Yeah.  

Yeah. They have, they'll have the battles where they're,   they're both kind of upright and pushing against each other and just slapping the shit out of each other. It's crazy. I've not seen that. That's why I got to find a video. Yeah. Go look at some of the Japanese   Yeah. You know, highlights, sumo highlights, and there's there's some pretty good stuff. Okay. Okay. We gotta do that. But but you didn't know you could have lifted that guy. Well, then they could look like I'm assuming you can't just full wrestle like  

[00:30:07] Juan Granados:

toss the freaking person onto the head. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you can. Okay. Well, because I was like, if if I'd known that, I would've just picked him straight up. I would've just been like, dude, I can pick you up, but I didn't know. But perhaps, I'm I'm even saying that and maybe he knew like a tech the technique that was gonna get me that if I did that, then he was gonna pull me across. Yeah. Anyways, yeah, I lost I lost this particular super wrestler. Yeah. Honestly, I wasn't trained up enough. So it was it was it was rather funny. I think there's a video somewhere. Yeah. I don't know who has maybe I've got it. It's in a WhatsApp group or something like that. But Yeah. If we can locate that video, we might throw it up onto just some socials just and this gorgeous is a huge watch. Yeah.   So thank you very much, Peter. We've got Nick   send you through just a couple of love heart 3,303.  



[00:30:48] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. He's found it. He sent a really lovely message.   Just. I know. Yep.   Thank you. Thank  

[00:30:58] Juan Granados:

fountain. He says, why is Japan the mecca of cool things? There was a lot of cool things there. Like, yeah, we stumbled upon, we didn't go into many stores at all. You know how like when we went, we went to all the stores. We went to an up and down. We went to the claw machine place we went to the yeah we went to heaps of places   so I went to basically like no shops at all there was like no shops really because you know, they're really quite tied to either we have the pram or I'm carrying Vienna. I've got a backpack   Going in there. So it's hard to do a lot of things in there. So we we weren't a mini shop, but there was one particular shop   we went into just because there was a   I was like a gaming one and I thought oh, maybe they have like some Pokemon cards to go up to the top level to go see it. And just by mistake, we ended up going to a few of the floors as we try to get there.  

And everything it was just like lots of little cool things from   gadgets or just very specific, like ramen noodle soup. So it was like a soup spoon for ramen but it had little fork ends at the very end of it. So yeah. It's like very cool stuff like that.   Just different. I guess it's just more   very, very Japanese. Like when I think when you say something like, yeah, that's like very Japanese. You understand that? I don't think you can   when it comes to items,   I don't think it applies to us very Australian.   I wouldn't say that. But it definitely applies to me. So it's like a very Japanese. They craft their craftsmanship is good. They know their way around.  



[00:32:20] Kyrin Down:

I don't know if you've seen any of those videos of the Japanese locks where   they basically they'll have 2 wood pieces being inserted and they form a hole in the middle where you drive in another smaller piece of wood and it basically just locks everything in place. So you can write, you can create all these awesome unique joints. And   I mentioned they do this with a lot of them, have more older houses made of wood and stuff   that they don't need nails. They can just create this   structure that is super rock solid. And without the use.   Of them. Yeah. And it's and it's just all these intricate joints and, you know, the finest craftsmanship of getting it millimeter perfect to be able to line up. Yeah. But and even there was  

[00:33:02] Juan Granados:

outside of the   Tokyo Zoo and I see   there was a market that was being set up and we were just walking around just to have a bit of a look and feel. And then once it fully opened, it was a it was a book market. So there's just lots of books. But even like, every single book that was on this market was just like all of them looked beautiful. It was like beautifully lined up. Mhmm. Everyone, every single one of them looks like, oh, that'd be like a cool book. So that and then next to the side of that, they also had   like, heaps of bonsai trees that either was on   display or they were doing like a championship on the best one and all of them were beautifully attended to and the people who were taking care of them were just like meticulously cleaning them and giving them the water and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's got a lot of cool stuff. There's a lot of things that you walk around Japan, you're like, Oh, that's cool. That's cool. This is cool. That's cool. There was a lot of things that we want actually, I remember before going to Japan, I wanted to do I was like, I wish you go to the   the cat   cafe or the capybara cafe and we just didn't even do them because what one I forgot. But there's just enough cool things going around. They're like, oh, yeah, it's got it's got lots of things. Yeah, for sure.  



[00:34:06] Kyrin Down:

I can't remember if I've said the story, but I once was looking into buying a bonsai tree, so I was still playing soccer. So I must have been 18, 19, something like that.   And   it was actually a bonsai place right near a soccer field that I was having an away game at and it was kind of out of the way. So I made my extra special plans. I'm going to go there, let's stay and this.   So I was   really excited.   I don't know what it was. I just thought, man, having a bonsai tree would be cool. This was when I was in a period where I thought   that having some cool stuff would make me cool as well or something like that. Okay, there was a there was a website.  

It was something   similar to A Thousand Cool Things or   that that was roughly the name of it where it was just there'd be   decanters   of a for whiskey and a skull shape. Oh, no. I could get that thing that looks really that looks really cool. Yeah. And then by assimilation, then people will think I'm cool. Yeah. Or a an umbrella with the handle as a samurai sword. Yeah. And,   so bonsai trees were part of this. And, I went there and the ladies just really selling it to me. She's like, these trees are so immaculate.   Yeah.  

You have so much time to spend   crafting it, doing these things, you know, you. Sounds terrible. Yeah. And then she sold me out of it because I just went, oh, I didn't realize this was effort. I just wanted a thing that would look cool. Yeah.  

[00:35:32] Juan Granados:

Yeah. Honestly, I would have I would have no idea what the maintenance would be for   those like mini trees. It's 5 intense. I would imagine it would have it would have to be a lot. Yeah. You're watering. You have to be so careful with the watering. You have to really pay a lot of attention. Yeah. Sounds exactly like what I would kill very, very quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Peter,   Nick and Comic, thank you very much for those boosts coming through as well. Thank you. Much appreciate. Is there any other notes or pieces? Yeah, just the last one I had in the title was I'm  

[00:36:03] Kyrin Down:

living the life of a dog person. Living the life of a dog person. Has been quite the experience for me. So   you probably heard me before on the podcast say I'm not really an animal person.   I got bit by a dog when I was young. Very much. And   that we've always   had a an EFI relationship, me and dogs.   My brother got 1 golden retriever puppy, and that was cool because it was a puppy. So you couldn't really harm me or doing do anything to me.   And   I got to help raise him for his first 6 months, something like that. Then I was in Brazil for a month and then came back and I'm staying with my brother. So I'm living in the house with a   8 month old   golden retriever   still puppy I guess but he's pretty big. He's 20, 28,   20 something kilos now. And   I   thought I wouldn't like it. I thought   the hair everywhere.  

Oh, that's gross and dirty. That'll put me off having a dog lick me   in the mornings and getting my my hands all dirty because every time I touch him, I thought the experience of   having to take him out,   help him, you know, feed him, all of these sorts of things.   My brother's largely been doing it, so I've just been living there, but   I'll look after Butters when he goes out sometime in the evening.   I had taken him for a walk once before,   and I didn't really enjoy that. But you know, I didn't have to go where it's a really crowded place   like I did. So   it's, it's been interesting doing all of that and going, you know, I could, I could handle this. Would I want a dog for myself?  

Yeah, I don't know. I don't think I've got the personality type to   really,   really   enjoy it. So my brother loves having a dog. He spends so much time teaching him tricks   playing. So he just sent it through a video. I haven't watched it yet of a new trick. I would not do that.   He'll have him in the bed. He'll have him   He what do you do the other night? He   was helping my dad   water blast the driveway. Butters was with him for 4 or 5 hours   that were just water blasting and doing butters was playing around. Yeah, playing around getting wet   and they get home and then Prentice goes, I'm going to take them out for a walk. And so they go for a 2 hour walk through Southland. Yeah. And I just went, man, I would not have the energy to do that after a day, a full day of basically working water blasting and just being gross and grimy. Yeah. No.  

So he still stays out of the room. I don't allow him in into into my room. So   has a little bit less dog hair in there, but there's still a tunnel there's so here in the house   and it's just been okay. I haven't,   I'm comfortable,   you know, having him lick me now. He bit my head.   You bit your head? Yeah, yeah.   I was I crawled into his cage and I was just playing around with him. And then the first time ever, I'm like, I'm going to let a dog lick my face. I've never let them lick my face. I don't want their, you know, jaws anywhere near me in vulnerable decision. Vulnerable areas. I went, Okay, I'll let this happen because I was I just had a workout, so I was sweaty and salty. Yeah. So like, yeah, so   he was, he was licking my face and man, he went   crazy. He got so excited that in his licking, he basically   scraped his fangs across the top of my head and   basically bit my head. So   and whilst   I reprimanded him for that, I was like, bad boy, don't bite my head. It was kind of okay. You're okay. Yeah. Yeah. I went, yeah, know, it wasn't it wasn't too bad. So I can put my hand in his in his mouth and all sorts of things. So   am I a dog person now? I don't know. I think I, I think I identify more with cats and the solitary   lifestyle there. They don't need as much attention. But in saying that   would you get a cat? Maybe, maybe if I Yeah, if I had a daughter or son who really wanted it or even perhaps a partner who who's, you know, ideal partner and they, they say I want a cat or I want a dog,   I'd, I'd consider it because of this and   I need to make sure, you know, I'm not going to do all of the work if you want this thing, you know, it's got to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of it's got to be your responsibility. But,  

[00:40:31] Juan Granados:

yeah, Help helping out and and sharing responsibility is hasn't been too bad. Yeah. Because I'm I'm very I'd be very similar if I don't think I ever, felt on my own. I would never just purchase a dog to have for myself. No way. There's no way. I'm okay with having it with, you know, with a partner or because you have a dog. Yeah. That's a good sound. I'm fine when you know, you're sharing responsibilities.   And, you know, there's a there's more than just yourself looking after them. I've just never had the thing where, you know, I wanna have a dog and I want to teach him tricks. No way. Or as you say, like, you know, you have a whatever day full of things. And it's like, oh, yeah, I've actually got to go and do this for like, another 2 hours. Like, no, that's just not happening.   And I think that's just a   is it selfish?  

Not really. I think it'd be more a case of I don't have that much of a love for Yes. Animals in general. But other people do. Like, they have, like, real real love. I know I've known lots of people who put a lot of their time to go, like, RSPCA and help out at the RSPCA.   Because they find a passion and emotion for animals. And, yeah, I get it. But I mean, I'm just don't have that. Are you more of a cat person than a dog person? My way, I'd fucking just flick a cat out.   No. No. I don't hate cats. I just don't care for cats. I've never had cats in the family. My sister has a cat.   But I've never been anything like   I find them like attractive in like a fun way. I don't find them that they fun at all to like to play with. Yeah.  

Yeah.   I'd be like, you know, what's what's the use of a cat in this world? Not sure. Dogs, I could see. I'm very much like, am I a cat person or a dog person? I'm a dog person. Absolutely. Okay.   But it's like I'm gonna give myself a dog if I evolve on my own, but I get a dog. Yeah. But   in amongst, you know, a family or something like that. Yeah, yeah. It's quite nice.  

[00:42:10] Kyrin Down:

I'd get a red panda. If I was on my own. Get a red panda. I mean, if you  

[00:42:15] Juan Granados:

could just get anything,   I think   elephant.   Me too. Way too.   You know, I'm thinking of the flying line versus flying buddy   experience.   But if I if I could have anything, honestly, probably an octopus.   Yeah. If I could get an octopus,   that would be really cool. Just in the sense of   it would be   really interesting because one they're super intelligent but 2 just all the dramatic things they could do like change color or you know shooting. Yeah all sort of stuff I'd be like yeah this is cool.   Yeah. But even if you could, though, like, that's what I would say. But I,   I would feel and I think I have the sense with a lot of animals. It's   and maybe might be the reason why I don't, like, wanna have pets, like, normally if I was on my own, because it kind of feels a little bit,   I'm keeping this octopus or I'm keeping this fish in like this little tiny tank that they can't like get out of or I'm keeping, you know, a dog just in this balcony or just in this little area. Yeah. And I go like,   man, you know, I wish I wish I could give them bigger space or walks and all these I can't I don't want to. So that's my cats are kind of cool. You can just let a cat do its own thing. You can make a lot of time. Maybe.  

I mean, just come by. You're selling me. Yeah. You sell pic for the cat is at part I guess I wouldn't have considered that you know you don't have to do any of that. They'll take care of themselves. Yeah.   But still   dog dogs. 1 100% I guess. So yeah. Folks at home. Are you a dog person or a cat person? Yep. So tell me send it send it in. We all leave it there. Yeah. Well, that's me and Karen are pretty dead. We're tired. We're tired. Hungover.   There's been a lot on lot of. In traveling. Yeah. Sydney and back. Plenty on. Within 24 hours. Exactly. So Which I look interesting. I was gonna earlier point around the podcast and, you know, what we're doing it for and stuff like that. The only reason we were down there to, you know, partake in, you know, the launch of a Bitcoin ETF here in Australia was because of the podcast. There is no other Yeah. Interesting. No other things that would have propagated because the individual that we we like saw him, we've seen him, but we wouldn't have really been connected unless we No. No. We should have had the podcast path. So   in any case, being immortalized, you can support us obviously in many different ways. Time, talent, treasure, time, obviously, you're listening in for the people who are listening in live. Share this podcast and stuff that we're doing with other people obviously helps out in that front.  

Talent, you know, we've asked a couple of questions. I was asking a little bit earlier around   the monthly summaries and the learnings and the effective philosophies around that. Would you find that   interesting? Let me know. Do you have a better ideas to do it? Let me know. Obviously, that helps out. And Treasure, we read out those boostograms,   from Peter, Nick and Comic Comic. It's a way that you can support us. He's sending through essentially a payment with a message attached   that we can read out. Obviously, it supports us. You'd also be streaming through some of the. Yes. All the good podcasting apps out there. I really appreciate that as well. Yeah. So all of those come through. We we we do see them come through and it's what helps us to continue the podcast. And we're looking to do that obviously for in the long term. So what you can support is very much appreciated. The show. My models podcast.com/support.   Want to learn more about that? Correct. For now, Memorial Eyes gonna leave it there. Thank you very much for tuning in wherever you are in the world. Immortalize 1. Out. Kairan out. Come bye.  

Go prost.