Japan By River Cruise

Vancouver-based Japanese comic Yumi Nagashima joins the boys to talk about a Japanese company in the US that has "no brand," and also "no money," plus explain how sometimes, the purest form of love is worth dying for.

Show Notes

Vancouver-based Japanese comic Yumi Nagashima joins the boys to talk about a Japanese company in the US that has "no brand," and also "no money," plus explain how sometimes, the purest form of love is worth dying for. Ollie recommends a cruise that hearkens back to Mickey Mouse's earliest boat piloting roots, and the Disney tradition of profiting off of someone else's creativity. Bobby reports back on a river cruise innovation that simultaneously offers a sleeping chamber and a night soil foot bath.

This week's Japan Foundation advertisement features voice work by the exceptional Saku Yanagawa.

Topics discussed on this episode range from:
  • Cheesecake. AGAIN.
  • Similarities between Ollie and white girls
  • Ollie's baking chops
  • The vibe of different kinds of crackers
  • Definitive PROOF that you've fully acclimated to a different culture
  • What not to do when your kids have bad dreams 
  • The similarity between applying for Permanent Residency and Getting Pregnant
  • Reasons to apply for and the value of Japanese Permanent Residency
  • How far Bobby is willing to go to get in the news
  • A severe failure in Ollie's self-restraint
  • How far OLLIE is willing to go to not take responsibility for his mistakes
  • MUJI USA filing for bankruptcy
  • You Will NEVER GUESS what YUMI's favorite MUJI product is
  • The benefit of being a Japanese brand/comic in the West
  • How Japan is the straight white man of Asia
  • Weird Japanese naming conventions
  • The branding of non-branding
  • JAPANESE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT LAW WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
  • Whether or not you CAN copyright a blank t-shirt
  • Why Disney is re-opening and why people are actually going
  • Disney attendance during the pandemic in HISTORICAL context
  • Character costumes as prevention measures
  • Potential downsides of an otherwise super fun sounding Disney Character Hospital
  • Character costumes as death chambers
  • The difference between Ollie and Yumi, romantically speaking
  • How Ollie got dumped at Disney Land
  • Yumi's assumptions about a certain Disney Princess
  • Japan's domestic tourism stimulus initiative, the Go To campaign
  • Bobby's experience using the 50% off travel tickets and how the tourism industry during covid makes EVERYONE involved feel like they're doing something shameful
  • How masks and plastic partitions exacerbate the assumptions around gaijin-nihonjin communication  
  • Bobby's narcissism
  • Corona-discrimination and Tokyo Sabetsu
  • Options for anti-tourism messaging
  • Which one of the boys is a hypocrite this week
This week's extras are full of very very funny bits of conversation that we really wanted to include in the full show because Yumi is absolutely hilarious. This would ALSO be a GREAT week to subscribe for the extras.

Topics covered in the Extras include:
  • An even MORE boring way to ask bilingual people THAT question
  • How does Ollie measure progressiveness
  • Who did the homework this week
  • Some exciting things that Yumi got during quarantine
  • A window into the comedian code
  • Ollie's favorite Muji Product, and when and how he was able to use it
  • Yumi's acting range, from "patronizing" to "impressed"
  • Disney's NO DEATH policy
  • A story about Yumi's 98-year-old grandfather being hospitalized with pneumonia recently (it's a real rollercoaster)
  • What Yumi thinks about the difference between Canadian and Japanese health care
  • How Yumi NARROWLY escaped being the fate that befell Ollie
  • A BIZARRE THING that comedians do with microphones a LOT more than you would expect
  • How to use Covid-racism for your own private space
  • The possible benefits of a BYOMicrophone policy
  • How "My mic" mods could distinguish you as an act
  • Another one of Ollie's side gigs
  • How Yumi deals with doing Japan material for audiences outside of Japan
  • How Yumi's on-stage persona has evolved along with the length of the sets that she gets
  • Exactly how widely known the "used-panties vending machine" thing is

Get access to the extras by supporting the podcast for less than $1 an episode by becoming a member at http://buymeacoffee.com

Have something you'd like to say? Send us a fax at japanbyrivercruise.com

or Tweet to us at @jbrcpod



DONATE TO:
Black Lives Matter
Official George Floyd Memorial Fund
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Runnymede Trust
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust

Social Media Links:

Yumi Nagashima: Instagram | Yumi Tube (Youtube)

Ollie Horn: Twitter | Instagram

Bobby Judo: Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Other things to click on
Some are affiliate links because we're sell-outs
★ Support this podcast ★

What is Japan By River Cruise?

Stand-up comedians Bobby Judo and Ollie Horn purport to report on the Japanese river cruise industry each week.