Hey, welcome back to Crosstalk podcast.

I'm Tom ya.

Hi, I'm Andrea.

Today we are sharing some personal updates with you losers, OK?

So this is a personal episode.

Oh yes, alright, things happen around us lately.

So Andrea sound, Yes, can we can you start from you?

Sure.

So like update what I've been doing recently.

Yep.

OK, so the most exciting thing was my sister and her family and also her husband's extended family came to Japan to visit and I got to, I didn't stay with them for their whole trip, but I stayed with them for three days.

That's nice.

Yeah, it was really nice.

We had a great time.

Yeah, a family reunion.

Yeah, like a mini version.

Not everyone, but some people.

But the most, probably the most exciting thing we did was we went to the World Expo in Osaka.

Yes, she went there.

World Expo Bampacu.

Yeah.

I haven't been there yet, you know.

Right, not yet, but we're going to go later.

I hope so.

I hope so too, yeah.

So so people say many thing about Word Expo, but what was your first impression of it?

Like my first actual impression or before I went.

When you have arrived at Expo.

OK, my first impression was oh shit.

What do you mean?

We have to wait in that line.

Oh, because the line to get in was massive.

I thought this was no lying Expo.

No, no.

No, no.

There's a huge line to even get in.

So there's but, but there's a huge gate.

Like there's a multi entry gate system and they have the entry kind of divided by time slots.

So 9:00 time slot, 10:00 time slot, 11:00 time slot.

And then depending on what time you reserved, you go to the appropriate area.

So when we got there, we, I think we arrived at like 954 or something.

And my sister said, oh, we got here early.

We're five, we're 5 minutes early.

And so we were sent to the 10:00 group, 10:00 gates, and there were already lots of people there.

So that's why I was like, oh shit, we have to wait behind all these people.

And there were more people coming behind us too, lots of people.

So I thought it was going to take a really long time to get in, but it did not.

It only took about 15 minutes 15.

Minutes.

That's not so.

Bad.

Maybe 20 minutes and we were moving the whole time.

We weren't just standing there.

It was fine.

OK, so that was that was my first impression was like, Oh my goodness, we're in trouble.

But it was actually fine.

Yes.

So have you enjoyed some of our pavilions?

I did.

We did not make any reservations.

So the reservation system honestly sounds very complicated.

So you have the option to make a reservation and how?

How far in advance?

One month in advance.

I don't know or.

Three weeks in advance I forgot, and then one week in advance you get another chance and then the day of you can get there.

And after you arrive, after you go in, you can reserve some pavilions.

We didn't do any of that because we had so many people in our group that it would have been probably impossible to get everyone in together.

OK, so we just basically chose a few and we stood in.

Line haphazard.

Yeah, kind of haphazard.

Yeah, I know.

Like my family, they were busy.

They didn't really want to spend time planning, so it was fine.

OK.

But yeah, we went to, we got to go to five pavilions.

We went to 1st.

We went to Philippines, the Philippines, and actually that was really nice.

It was actually a really good pavilion.

We went to South Korea, which was also really nice.

I love that one.

That was a longer wait.

Philippines, we only waited 30 minutes.

Philippines, we waited 70 minutes.

70, Yeah, 70.

Wow.

And then where did we go next?

Maybe we like in the afternoon we just kind of messed around and like looked at the Commons areas, which are buildings with all of the smaller countries.

And we walked around, we walked around the ring.

We had lunch.

We didn't try to really do any pavilions and that time slot.

And then towards late afternoon, we went to the Yoshimoto Comedy Pavilion.

I think that was like a 20 or 30 minute wait.

It's a smaller pavilion.

But it was cute.

And we sat and had a break again.

And then after it got dark, we went to the other side of the park and we went to China.

And that was also really nice.

China's was very good.

OK.

And then the last pavilion we went to was the Kuraga Kuraga Pavilion, which is kind of like a music pavilion that was 00 wait time.

Oh, and it's one of the signature pavilions.

So you can choose any of pavilion you want go.

Mostly like the signature pavilions, even if you wanted to, they won't let you in without a reservation.

I think like the Gundam, even if you stand there and wait 8 hours, they're not going to let you in.

You have to have a reservation.

And then it is a lottery system.

Yes, it's a random lottery system.

Yeah, so.

How many times you can try?

I don't know.

We didn't try it, so I don't actually know.

OK.

Maybe 3 or something.

I don't know.

I don't, I don't remember.

I did kind of read about that online before I went and I was waiting for my sister to tell me what they wanted to try to get the lottery for, but we didn't.

So I don't really know how the lottery system works.

So sounds like you haven't really prepared efficient route for 0.

Yeah, zero.

We just literally showed up and walked around.

But we still had fun is the point.

Yeah, OK.

I think, I think like it's kind of for me, it's a mindset issue for me.

I was thinking, well, you know, the for me, the main point is to hang out with my family, OK, Doing something.

We go, I don't care what we do, just as long as we're doing something.

And we went to this fabulous, fabulous park.

The World Expo is really, really cool.

Actually, as a as a structure, as a park, it's really wonderful.

OK, so you like.

It yeah.

And so even though we didn't plan, we still had a great time because A, we were together and B, we were in this great location.

But I think you had we tried to plan and like time everything perfectly and make sure everyone's there, and it would have been like too stressful and we probably wouldn't have enjoyed it.

OK, so haphazard is the.

The best for large groups.

Yeah, for the OK, what's the best way to enjoy for me?

Yeah.

But you know, that said, if if I wanted to go again and go, for example, if I go by myself, I would definitely plan which countries I want to go to and I would definitely have a strategy.

But like with 13 people, it's just it's not going to work.

So we didn't even bother, you know?

See.

Yeah, it's, it's kind of.

Mess.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But we had fun.

The the park itself was fine.

It's just our family was a little disorganized.

Yeah.

I'm glad you enjoy it.

Yeah, and while you were there, you have sent me a picture up lunch you had.

Oh yes.

And then the cost of a lunch was really expensive.

I'm surprised.

Yeah, it was expensive.

Could you tell a listener how much was your lunch?

Sure.

I had a Korean cold noodle soup with a Kankukure man, and then I also had an order of the Korean spicy fried chicken, which is like little 5 pieces, five small pieces of chicken.

And I had a bottle of water.

Yes.

And that cost ¥2950?

Yeah.

So it was expensive.

This was, yeah, this is very expensive.

Wise, yes, it was expensive, yeah.

And everyone, like everyone has been complaining that it is expensive.

And yes, honestly, it is.

Later in the day we stopped and had an ice cream at the Indian shop.

Inside of a Expo.

Inside the Expo, but not inside the Indian pavilion.

It was just a food shop, and that was ¥600 for an ice cream.

It was really good though, and you know, the Korean food was really good.

It was very authentic and tasted great.

So no complaints actually.

OK.

I think all of the food is probably more expensive than it is on the outside of the park.

But it's not like we, you know, everyone was buying their own food.

I didn't have to buy food for everyone.

I bought my own only, and it was one meal.

It was lunch.

So I thought it's not a big deal.

You know, I can pay that.

It's fine.

OK.

Have you seen any of the customers brought their rice bowl or sandwich?

Yeah, there were people around us.

There was an older couple sitting next to us who had brought in Oventos.

OK.

And yeah, some people, like we brought in snacks.

We had our snacks, too.

We had drinks we had brought in.

And you can refill water for free.

You don't have to buy drinks if you if you're OK with drinking water.

OK, So you know, there are ways you can get around.

You don't have to spend so much money.

You can bring things in.

OK, so there's a cheaper way to enjoy export?

Yes, that's but, but like there's, there's a lot of countries there and I think someone said there's 70 of the countries have menus.

There's a lot of international food there.

So it's a really great chance to eat another country's food that you don't normally get to eat.

Uh huh.

Right.

So why would you bring in, you know, onigiri when you could have, you know, something really fabulous from, you know, Turkey or Italy or, you know, in my case, Korea or America had, you know, nice hamburgers and stuff.

So Philippines had like, like proper authentic Filipino food.

So I, I wouldn't, I mean, I'll bring in snacks.

Yeah.

But if I go again, I won't bring in open till OK, I'll, I'll eat there.

I want to try something different.

The only thing I would say about the Expo is it's too much to see everything in one visit.

You really need to go like 3 days in a row.

Or you know, 3 days.

Or three times.

Yeah, if you want to see everything.

So like it could get expensive if you actually do that.

I mean, if I didn't get to go again, I that would be OK, but I would like to go one more time and see some of the pavilions on the other side of the park that we didn't go to so.

Do do you have in your mind the Papillion you want to see the next time?

Yes.

It's all the ones that are hard to get reservations for though, OK.

So yeah, I would have to try to get reservations if I did go again.

OK.

Are you interested in going?

Of course.

Yes, OK.

Yes, OK.

Have you done any research like on on pavilions that you might be?

I haven't done anything.

I just watched TV news about Expo and then all of that news said a bad thing about Expo.

OK.

But I'm sure it's not a big deal.

No, like everyone you know, I had been not on the news per SE, but I was on social media, on Facebook.

There's a Facebook group for the Expo and also Reddit has an English platform for people that can share their experiences.

And it's about 5050.

Like some people had a terrible time and hated it and about 50% loved it and had a great time.

OK.

And so the stuff you know, when before you go, it's hard to know what's true and what's not true.

And also of course, it depends on you.

But like, for example, I had read that there were lots of bugs.

Yes, I didn't see any bugs when I was there.

Absolutely no problem.

OK, yeah, many people actually asked Andre Son about bags.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the food prices we just talked about too.

Yes, it's expensive, but you know, you're not eating, you know, you're not eating lots of food there.

You're having one meal, maybe 2 meals.

So, OK, you know, it's not that expensive in the long run.

OK, so I'll.

Take it with a grain of salt, OK?

So I want to ask Andreas, out of five, how many stars would you get to this Word Expo?

Maybe 4?

OK, 4.

Yeah, well, I've never been to an Expo, so I don't really have anything to compare it to five stars, but I just took one star off because, and I didn't talk about this yet, but like when you go in, it's really hard to see like where everything is.

It's so big.

And it's like, you want to know, like when you're hungry, where are the restaurants, Where is the food section?

There's no information about that.

Or like if you have to use the toilet, where's the toilet?

You have to like really search for it because it's hard to hard to find.

And we spent a lot of time actually like looking for a restaurant.

So we walked around, we thought, oh, the app says there's restaurants over here.

So we went and there was nothing.

We were on the wrong side.

Of course.

It's really hard to understand once you have a system.

Don't you kind of understand It's, it's OK.

But also, you know, I mentioned I didn't make a reservation, but it just seems like this kind of too many people in because the lines are so long.

It could, it seems like it could be done somehow more efficiently, like where more people can get through and see more things.

This is too many people standing around doing nothing for long stretches of time.

I don't know if it's just over overpopulation like too many people on on the Island or the the bad planning for the reservation system.

I don't know.

But like, that's that was kind of frustrating in a way, yeah.

I think they took so much overhead for everything.

Oh, OK.

Like they have a 200 parking lot slots for handicapped people but they only open I don't know how many but at 20 or 30 slots for per hours.

Oh, really?

So they don't often.

200 spots for everyone from the morning 0.

Really.

So yeah, it's it's they have a these kind of a regulation everywhere.

OK, OK.

And that probably includes like able bodied people too, like how many people can go on at a time.

Yeah, OK.

That's probably for safety.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes, I think so.

But I just wondered like, if because the season for the World Expo is quite short, it's only in the summer, which is, you know, terribly hot in Japan and terribly dangerous.

I just wonder like if they were able to extend the term until let's say like December, like everyone who wants to go wouldn't be like concentrated in like two months, you'd have more time to kind of visit.

So less people on the island at one time maybe would be better.

OK, yeah, I hope they would do something with this system.

Booking system.

Yeah, someday.

Yeah, OK, so that was my exciting update.

If anyone's interested in the World Expo, you're welcome to ask me questions on our social media or our YouTube, but I would like to hear about Tell Me His update.

OK.

What have you been doing recently that's exciting?

It's not a really excitement, but I have gotten a small project OK from someone.

It is a content writing job.

OK, I think that's not a small project, it's a pretty big project.

I don't know the size of a project, but yes, I have done it.

It's about Japanese sake, which I have a little bit of experience drinking sake.

Yes, because Andrea Son introduced me.

A little bit by force.

So sorry, actually she is an expert of Japanese sake.

No, I'm not an expert.

I'm an aficionado.

Yeah.

So this time I had to be an expert.

So I have wrote some of our articles and you know, for the client and I have already, I almost done that.

OK.

And I'm while I'm writing this article, of course I needed to do some research.

Yes, I pushed up my knowledge of sake.

Good.

So I got really interested in drinking sake again.

Oh.

OK, I did too actually, for different reasons and different projects.

But I'm glad to hear that because I feel like when I was studying sake a few years ago and I kind of forced you to come with me on some trips to like brewery tours and things, I didn't think you were very interested.

You did come you, we did it.

But I'm glad that now that that experience and that knowledge that we got is paying off for you.

Yes, the reason why I'm so interested about sake is because A rice and E to fungus and water.

These are the only ingredients that you need to produce sake, right?

Right.

So it's actually pretty pure.

It is.

There's no chemicals, you know, there's no like sugar added, there's no preservatives or anything like that.

It's really quite amazing if you think about it.

It's such a simple thing, Yeah.

So it's all depending on I guess yeast fungus.

The flavor, The flavors on what kind of yeast is used.

Yeah, every ingrant.

Has to be the finest.

Right.

And I think like for example, there's different rice varieties and there's different water, like different parts of Japan have different, you know, water quality.

So that affects it and that's that's why it's so interesting.

I think it's such a simple thing, yes, only, you know, three or four ingredients, but then those things at the rice, the water, the type of water, the type of rice, yes, the the number of yeast, like what number it is, is it a number six?

It is a number 9 or whatever.

That really affects the the taste drastically.

Yes, you know, maybe many people know Japanese sake need a come rice.

Yes.

And I didn't know much about type of come.

OK, you introduced me to pretty body from Okama Prefecture.

Yes.

And those kind, those booty words using Omachi.

Omachi Rice.

Yeah.

Omachi yes.

Omachi Rice and I have AI have a read a review about Omachi Rice.

It's kind of a some people say it's kind of a wide card.

Oh really?

Yes, Why?

I've never heard that.

They said it's it has like a bulky taste.

Oh, I don't know what that really means though.

I don't think it's bulky, Not clean, not clean.

Yeah, right, right, right.

Yeah, I mean, it can, I guess, but I tend to feel like it's more of a fruity, A fruity sake.

Oh, OK.

And that that bulky quote UN quote bulkiness kind of lends to that earthy fruity flavor.

I.

Think anyway I since I have only tasted out some of the umachi rice based sake, I wanted to try out in other sake that used to different kind of rice.

Good idea.

So I have ordered.

I mean, I went to Ricard shop and I bought something.

It's just it's just a regular sake.

And then it's it's popular on on this Ricard shop.

OK, So it's it's good.

It's a nice experience to try out new sake.

OK.

Could you tell the difference between the almachi and then the other rice?

Could you really taste the difference?

Not really.

Really.

OK, that's interesting.

I don't know, I'm not a sake expert.

Yeah, so and I need to try out many kind of a sake.

Yeah, I want to do tasting.

Experience.

Experience.

Well, you can do that actually.

There's a few bars like sake bars in the city and you know other cities too have this where you can go and you can compare a couple of different sockets.

They call it a flight.

Usually you get 3 or you know, more kinds of suck it.

You can just taste test and compare different things.

There's a couple actually near the station in the downtown area here.

I have not been drinking for a very long time, but yes, you can do that if you ask a lot of questions to the bartender or the staff.

Like most people are really happy to tell you about what you're drinking and what you know about how the sake was made.

Most people that work in those kinds of bars are very knowledgeable and they're very happy to educate you.

I think once you know, once you know more about what you're drinking, you can appreciate it more.

Like once you have a back story or you know some information it makes it more interesting.

You brought up a good point.

The story for the sake is very important.

Yeah, yeah.

Some Brewers, some toji have a unique experience or some owner of a sake Brewer have a, you know, some difficulties to be a owner.

Yeah, and I'm thinking like, I don't really know other places.

I really only know sake from our prefecture, which is OK.

I'm a but because I was also doing not content writing like you, but I was doing more like some basic translation work for some of the Brewers.

When you visit their breweries and they tell you that they that each, each place is different.

Like for example, 1 Brewer, they grow their own rice.

Like that's how particular they are about their qualities.

They want to control the, the rice quality.

They grow their own rice.

You know, most of the Brewers around here are older people.

They don't have often they don't have sons or daughters who want to take over the business.

So a lot of them are unfortunately going to die out soon.

But if you visit the traditional Brewers and they're just really lovely buildings, yeah.

So yeah, traditions.

Also, the story from the Brewer is a very important factor for me to choose a sake.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

And then I'm thinking like, we need her also a story to get yeah for us.

We have stories to get.

More listeners, you know, we can differentiate our podcast from us.

Yeah.

We have stories.

A little bit.

A little bit.

We have lots of stories, but I won't tell the story unless someone asks me about it.

You have to ask me about it first, right?

Right.

Well, just like, just to give you a teaser, one question we often get asked is how?

How come we're working and why are we working together?

Because, like, Tommy and I are actually very different.

We are from different countries.

Obviously.

We are from different cultures and languages, but also we're in different work industries.

Like I've always been a Kiowa person or Eagle, Gakano Eagle.

And then you do marketing and like digital services.

So like, how did we get together?

Right?

You know, And also there's a little bit of a generation gap.

Like he's, you know, he's much younger than I am.

So people look at us.

So like, well, you guys are really weird.

How did you, how did you start working together?

So yeah, we have stories a little bit, yeah.

OK, yeah, OK.

We talked about our small updates today and we love to hear our listeners what your thoughts on this topic.

Yeah, especially like World Expo, because that's only happening this year.

I'd like to know, have any of you guys been yet?

And if you did go tell me about your experience.

Which pavilions did you go to?

Which ones did you like?

Which ones did you not like?

Did you have a good time or a bad time?

You know, any, anything would be great.

Thank you.

And I want to ask listeners, are there any sake enthusiasts out there?

Good question.

I would like to know your favorite sake or you could recommend me another kind of a sake, alcohol such as wine, whiskey or something else.

OK, so not just sake limited all.

Right.

Also, just if anyone has any other personal updates that you want to share with the community?

Yeah, you're welcome to write about that too.

Anything that you've done recently that's really exciting, we'd love to hear about it, yes.

And we are always looking for new episode ideas.

What would you like to hear us talk about next?

OK, that's all for this episode, but don't forget to catch your next one.

Also, you can watch this episode on YouTube, please check it out.

Alright, this is Crosstalk signing off, bringing you English your way every week.

Keep listening and keep shining bye.