Bussin' With The Boys - JP Might Be Moving To Japan | Inside The Bus

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Welcome back to another episode of Inside the Bus. We finally have JP back after his trip across the pond to Japan. We take a deep dive into his trip and everything he did while he was out there. He was able to meet up with some of his friends from IMG Academy and they were giving him all of the local spots. JP gets into all of the different places he was able to visit as well as all of the incredible meals he had while out there. He talks about the US should adopt some of their practices but you'll have to tune in to hear those. Needless to say, JP convinced all of the guys that they need to go check it out for themselves. Come and hang with the boys on this Friday and as always, much love. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Japan pod. Yeah. Guys, welcome back J.P. Hovey. Let's get a round of applause. Woo. It's nice to have you back, man.

Typically, normally, it's probably not nice to be back. Normally I would say it's good to be back. But after the experience I just had the last seven days in Japan, I do wish that I was still there.

As much as I love the seat, as much as I love my coworkers, that country is special. And you see it, in the last few, weeks, dude, on Twitter, too. Maybe just the last week, but the Japan and America Twitterverse? The alliance is growing stronger.

I mean, it's the closest we've ever been with Japan pre-dating the war. So, have y'all seen this? Is it the steak stuff? Yeah, that's part of it. That kind of was like, I think, the first domino. I've seen to be like alluded to. I don't really know. Yeah, for context, I believe that the Japanese Twitter

kind of infiltrated American Twitter and all they were doing is bombarding comments for people grilling steaks and meats and barbecues. And truly just like a, it's just a, what surprise bombarded us? Yeah. Again. And that'll be all we have today.

Dude, but I was thinking about that, though, like that joke. I'm like, Japan easily could have just come back and been like, is that the game you want to play? If we want to, like. Yeah. I love that we're like super cool with them now. I know. I mean, there's reason.

I've been there. I'm the ambassador. They're good people, man. We were the bad guys. Yeah, we were the bad guys. And I don't know, Derek, I don't know if you saw the video after Japan played England yesterday and all the Japanese fans stayed after

and picked up all the trash from the stadium. And it's just like, dude, it's, they do, that was one of my favorite parts is they do all of the little things right in Japan. And some of it, I'm sure it would be frustrating if you moved over there and tried to live it because it's as small as goal. going across a crosswalk. There's zero j walking.

Street will be empty and everybody will just stand there and wait. And it could be a line of like 100 people, but they're not gonna go. Which is just awesome. Honking is basically illegal. So you don't gotta worry about road rage because everybody is on their piece of cues, not distracted, not doing anything.

I heard like maybe two honks and Tokyo is significantly bigger than New York. They're probably friendly hogs. Right, it's like their friend. The subways dude, one time I had a whole horrible moment because I was trying to call my friend that we were meeting up with. And, you know, it can be confusing because you can't really understand any of the signs. And I called him and the train was getting there. And he's telling me like, hey, get on this one and meet me

here. And I'm like, are you sure it's this one? Do you know where I'm at? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get on. And so I'm on the phone as I'm stepping on and I'm talking. And it was kind of loud. And then I just like fully stop and look around and everyone is just kind of looking over. I was like, oh my God, dude, they're not going to allow me back. Is it like phone etiquette on like public transportation is a big no-no? Yeah, I can't talk. I mean, dude, it's so quiet. Even just talking in general. Like us having a conversation on the subway would not be go well. If they, if you are like it's perfectly fine to be whispering and talking low, but you cannot have like nobody's dying

laughing telling big. There's no street performers like there are New York on these buses going crazy no street performers and it's a bunch of the things that make it cool definitely i could see it and a lot of the kids have the same complaints growing up there it's like they feel very kind of pressured to live up to a certain standard and they feel very boxed in and a lot of the kids that i was talking to when i was there that i knew from i m g i asked him like what's the thing you miss most about america and every single one of them and those was probably five or six kids all had the same answer and they were like just the freedom in your day to day life which i thought was pretty cool being american and how you know the biggest thing of the american brand is freedom and that's the number one

thing they miss from it but the world would be a whole lot better if we implemented just half the things the japanese people implement including the freshness of the food yeah i mean the meals we were talking obviously before like when you got back and like the yeah like how far the US dollar goes with the yen and like obviously you were saying that you were eating amazing out there but in like the entire meal comes out to like 10 bucks dude we went to the equivalent and y'all know how I feel about Barcelona like I'm not that type of topas guy we went to the equivalent of that in Japan and we got probably like six dishes eight drinks total because it was me and sitting and then another couple and dude the the final bill was like $42 eight drinks At least six dishes and a dessert, $42. And so much more high quality than anything we have here. First meal back in the U.S., I get sick. I don't think that's coincident.

I think it's your body. I think it's your body telling you something. It is, man. It's telling me to move there. But dude, just, it's going by all the knife shops, seeing all of that, the swords. I do. I did, I ordered a sword. Good.

But it just, it's a process of it getting here, but, dude, I can't wait. Did you? Dude, it's like, I know I should mount it, but like I kind of want it just ready to go. Stay ready. You're going to have to get ready. Did I see on your Twitter you got your dad some custom engrave? Yeah, we got hubby. I got hubby on the knife.

That's sweet. Which is cool because he loves cooking. So I know he'll be fired up and he doesn't follow me on Twitter. That's why I post on Twitter. So he, Paul ain't on Twitter. He's on Instagram. Stay supporting. But dude, like being in Kyoto.

because it's obviously a very big tourist place, but they do such a good job of keeping the traditions where, like, Tokyo can feel like New York, but Kyoto does such a good job with it, and it's just people walking around in kimonos everywhere. There's so many temples. And one of the thing I love about the Japanese people is they're so willing to, like, teach you their culture.

Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so, like, you don't feel out of place or dumb talking to somebody you're asking, which I feel like in other places you can feel like, ah, like, if you're in Germany or something. You're almost trespassing. Exactly. But they're like, they want to know everything about America.

They want you to know everything about Japan. And I'm just like, it does not feel real when you're there. You're like, how in the world is this, is a place this peaceful? Yeah. And it's so impressive.

And, you know, their crime rate is like the lowest in the world. And it's, dude, there's just so many, so many good things. Were you able to talk to, like,

is their second language is English? or do a lot of like people out there speak English? Yeah, in Tokyo there's definitely a decent amount. But in Kyoto, was it harder to like, were you able to go up and ask like a stranger industry like, hey, I'm trying to get here? Yes, but only because like Google translating stuff or you just, you know, I'll just show them my map and like, hey, and then they'll just tell me like just by pointing. Got you. They don't really know it too well.

I think they can understand it better than they can speak. Yeah. But there was one place. We went to this place called Amano Hashidate, which is like a small fishing village, close to a fishing village. And like the northwestern part of Kyoto, which is like,

I guess they call, I don't know how to pronounce it, perfectures, perfectures, you know. But it's super small town, so not very touristy. Like we didn't see any other white people or like any other,

any other country other than Japanese people. It looked like Japanese people were vacationing there. And dude, that was probably my favorite stop of the whole trip because the water was extremely clear. Their starfish have this like orange markings on them that make them look like samurai starfish. I'm like, of course their starfish are cool too. These jellyfish are rolling through.

You can see all the fish swim in. And it's one of the three most beauty spots in Japan. And you go up to this like ski lift and you get to see like, I guess these two different bodies of water coming together underneath this bridge. And it's so incredible. And some of the Japanese people there were like, I had them take a photo for us. I took a photo for them. They took a photo for us. And one of the kids was like, have a nice day.

And I was like, hey, have a good day. Your English is good. It was like a squad of four high school kids. And they just start geeking out. Like so hype. And I'm like, dude, if an American high schooler took a photo of, you know, like a tourist or whoever, you know they're probably just immediately clowning and doing whatever. And the Japanese kids are just the exact opposite.

And I'm like, man, they are. they're the best but I'm trying to think what was the weather like pretty similar to here it was definitely it was a little colder probably but it was like mid 40s to high 50s into the 60s and like on the sunny days which we only got like two full sunny days the weather was fine but just overcast a lot but it would probably felt like 65 or 66 so was it like they're fall winter it's spring okay yeah so they're on the same ones as up us and but I think their seasons are more extreme like they have you were saying it gets pretty hot and yeah I know they have like great skiing and stuff out there yeah yeah up in like hacon or um

what is the name of it there's like a Sapporo which is also the name of one of the beers but dude yeah there's this uh this little bar district in shunjuku called golden guy and i think i was telling you about it maybe but dude it's like it's just the melting pot of the bar experience where there's probably like six rows to this place and these bars are just stacked on top of each other. And it's only like four to seven, four to eight people that can fit in each bar. And so we went into probably four different ones. In the first one, it was like two people from the UK, two people from Argentina and one person, oh, and one person from Italy. And then the next one we went into this like foreign exchange crew of kids from Norway was in

there and like three Australians who were there for a wedding. And then the last one was these two guys, these two brothers that were from Portugal, or no, not from Portugal. They're from Spain, but they were born in Uruguay, but they have Italian passports. And they've never been to Italy. They had the funniest backstory their whole life. One of the guys is talking about how much he loved soccer but couldn't play. He's like doing all Google Translop. with me and he was telling me how injury prone he was in the phrase he wrote out was like like i'm so fragile i'm so weak i get injured when the wind blows and he's and he's just holding it and looking at me and he sees me finished reading he's like and dude it was just like i don't know it was

one of those experience where it's just like man this is like this is really what life is about people from all over the world in this tiny bar in japan communicating through google translate having the greatest time and it's just like god the real life is so much better than the internet and but that bar district is just awesome because so many of the different things are themed as well so so one bartender could be singing karaoke the whole time the other one it could be like a italian theme or superhero theme and it's just they have it all i before you went i i'd watch this like a motocross video about a japanese rider and they were saying like karaoke over there is like taken very, very seriously.

Oh, yeah. And it's like a, it's not like an embarrassing thing to go up there. It's like you are putting on and putting on a show and like they like bow to everybody once they're done. And just the culture over there seems so sick and just realize, makes me realize how uncultured I am. Oh, dude. How much different shit is out there and like the lives of people like that, the Portugal people like that seems like such a sick life to be able to do. I'm like, how do you? I, dude, I could not for life me figure out.

how they got an Italian passport without ever being there. I'm like, where'd you pick it up? Did they just send it to you? Does Italy just need residents? Maybe they're just affiliated. Yeah. Also went three and oh in Spikeball. I went to like, I guess maybe one of Tokyo's,

it's not near as big as Central Park, but one of their parks with one of my friend's sister and her husband. And she works for Google. So like a lot of English-speaking people are working at Google. so it was this massive picnic but it was a great vibe out there and they brought out the spike ball we played against this guy from switzerland his name was sunshine like his government name was sunshine and people are so cool man i know and the other guy was from sweden and i said to my friend sister erika i was like so what's the like what's the level of spike ball over here because

i feel like if i'm lining up against two japanese people it could get dice it's you definitely got to be preved it just feels like a japanese game in some sense i don't know if that's race but let's keep it moving. They're quick. They're quick twitch culture. But luckily we went up against a Swiss and a Swedish person and we went three and they were great, great guys, but sitting and I, sit and played her butt off. I was nervous because she hadn't played in a while.

Neither have I, but I know like if I'm competing internationally, I have to step up. And I didn't know if sitting felt the weight of the situation, but she did. She rose up and she even had the two guys. They were like, oh, they out. You guys lied to us. Like, you said you'd never, never play. Dude, it was, it was great. The sushi, incredible.

The fish market had some Mondo oysters that were insanely good. Like, the biggest oysters I've ever seen in my life. And just going by each of the fishermen. And it just feels, you feel like you're contributing because they're still in their sailor clothes. And you're like, I'll take six. I would feel like I'm in a TV show or a movie. Dude, that's what it looks like when you're walking around.

walking by and they have every kind of fish you could imagine and just like their sashimi plates and their pokey bowls dude it's a joke what was your favorite thing you ate and almost more importantly what was your least favorite thing that you ate the least favorite thing I ate was I got this like snack pack which I will call it like the Japanese equivalent of checks mix even though it wasn't that at all they're doing something completely different. But they had these pretty good little rice crackers in them, but they had these kind of baked, I guess, like sardines. They were just like small fish and just whole fish.

So like their eyes and everything. And I got it. I was like, oh, this would probably be fun to have. And I just immediately opened and the smell crushes my nose. And we're on the bullet train when I'm trying it. And I'm already like, dude, I'm so loud opening this thing. And every, I'm probably ruining everybody's trip. They're commuting from work and just a dumb American tourist opening this snack, like this checks mix with sardines in it.

And I took a bite of the fish to taste it and it just wasn't. It wasn't all that. I'd still crushed a bag out of respect. But that was probably my least favorite. And then my favorite thing, dude, it's probably two things. Just the nagiri across the board. We went to this one place that similar to the golden guy setting, a lot of the restaurants in Japan are super small. because they're trying to get people in and out.

And their menus will be pretty short too. You have to say how they do the ordering and stuff too. Yeah, like if you're waiting to go in, they'll take your order outside. They'll say, hey, what do you want? Yada yada. So then by the time you're in there, your food is at your table within like three minutes, which I'm like, that's so smart to do. I don't know why U.S. restaurant culture doesn't do that.

At least take the like that first five people that are waiting in line. No tipping. So I think that's probably the reason. Yeah, yeah. That's fair. No, no, yeah. Derek said part of the reason for that is because in Japan they do not tip, whereas in the U.S. tipping is massive,

so the servers are getting majority of their money from the service they're providing from the experience. In Japanese, I'd say the food is more of the experience than the service. But we went to this spot when the Nigeria was just incredible, and the dude was crushing the like the wasabi root in front of you and he we had this one roll that was a normal sushi roll wrapped in the rice but it was also like he put the rice like in the wasabi and then rolled it so the it was like a wasabi roll with just this perfect tuna inside of it and they the pieces of tuna they put in there and salmon are just so much thicker than what they do in the u.s and it's just like all the different cuts of it as well like i feel like we're given one option. for a tuna roll. And there it's like you got fatty tuna. You got the millions of different variations of this fish.

But that was a great one. And then we did this Wagyu on Makase. That was incredible. Like there was these two off-menu items that were so good. And I don't even know the part of the cow that we're eating. But half of it you can eat raw, which is just like, they can eat raw chicken in Japan. That's how fresh it is. That just seems scary.

Yeah, yeah. I don't even eat raw fish, and like that's kind of how you're supposed to eat it. Yeah. Like, eating raw chicken and beef is like, they're doing something right out there. I know, like the beef tongue, the cow tongue was so good. We did like two of the kind of omacases where they, one of them they cooked it in front of you, the other one, my friend, she cooked it for us because that's, we don't know how to do it. But I would say those two things, like the Wagoo scene is just incredible. On the line of tipping, if you try and tip, are they like, no, no, no, no, no.

Dude, honestly. I can just see it being like almost offensive to tip. Honestly, I'm more so laughing at the, you asked something else before it was racist. That's just normal, man. Dude, honestly, I have no idea because we didn't try and nobody else was trying either. But from what I've heard, it is just like they refuse it. I'm pretty sure when broad. and Slamy went two of my buddies went to Japan two years ago they said they tried to do it like

when the first couple nights yeah and they realized very quickly the tipping culture is not like America and it was very much like head down like please sir do not like we will not accept that dude it's the respect that they have for everybody and just like every single job we were walking on the street one day and the trash guys were coming by and dude these two guys they hop out the truck and they don't have like the big trash compactors like we do so a lot of it is manual wool labor and they you know fly off the truck grab the bags throw them over then they grab their brooms and their dust pans and sweep it up and it was just a machine and they did it with such intention that you're like holy crap if i attack my job like this i'd be so much more successful

and uh we watch a class cross the street and then they like all bow to the crossing guard thanking them for their service and then when we flew away from japan the grounds crew all stands there your flight goes and they all line up and they bow and they're like saying thank you and I'm just like I saw that video you posted and I know just the emotion that was going through your body at that moment just like I have to go I have and I will be back though dude all of my validation came when each of the kids I saw when they were they were talking to sitting about meeting me while we were at iMg and they're like dude we always said that or sitting we always said that jp in another life he was 100% Japanese and I was like to you guys have no I have no idea I'm

much that means to me. And, dude, just to see them in their environment, all the kids that I knew, and to see them out of college, like with their jobs or navigating whatever they're up to now

was really cool and really special because it's like how many times you get to form relationships that spread across the, literally the earth. Yeah. And it's like, I don't know,

there's nothing better than that. I feel like it makes it even, it made the trip 10 times better because you knew people and they probably took you like, hey, we got to go to this spot. rather than this spot.

Dude. And like getting to meet their families and stuff like that probably made it 10 times more special. Yeah. They made it. They made the trip. Without them, it would have been awesome.

But to have them showing us around and be our translators for a lot of it, changed things too. But especially in the restaurants, like very few times it's sitting and I ever order. Like they always ordered everything, which makes it so much better. Because I would not have no. Like not,

the menus aren't really in English. We had an app that can translate stuff, but I'd have had no idea. Yeah. But yeah, man, it was... Were there many other, like, Americans out there that you saw, or were they all, like, other whites? I'm trying to think. I feel like there wasn't a lot of Americans, but there was definitely a lot of, like, people from... Like, I feel like a lot of the European countries were there.

Like, a lot of people from England. A lot of... Actually, there's a lot of people from India there. and we sat next to this one Indian couple and this bar we went to it's called Club SG and I guess it's on the top 100 bars in the world or something because you're supposed to have a reservation to get in there and somehow we walked in

and then we got led to the downstairs which is a separate bar that's like even better than the upstairs one and the Indians next to us they were like you know how long how far in advance did you guys get this reservation we're like oh we just kind of walked it and they're like no way and I was asking them where they had been just traveling around and they've been to so many places and we're like

which one do you think we need to go to next yada yada and they were like well i don't know if you would like the things that we do like when we go to different places and i'm thinking like what what could this possibly mean and uh and i asked him like wait how come like i feel like i'm pretty uh i'm pretty fluent with a lot of these things like well we do like all the disney stuff They're like because we don't have any Disney in India. So like any chance they get to go to a Disney World or Disneyland, they like seize the opportunity. But it cracked me up. And I guess a lot of them maybe are like moving there as well.

So yeah, I mean, Tokyo is there's a lot of different cultures, which is cool. There's being in that park. I'm like, that's when you're in that park and in that setting, it's like, okay, I could definitely live here and make friends and kind of immerse myself in the culture. So when are you going to live there? We'll see, man. There's some medical logistics that we have to figure out for sure. And obviously work logistics. Yeah.

So, but never say never. Never say never. That's so sick to hear. It just makes, I don't know about y'all, but it makes me want to travel like ASAP. For sure. I've got one more question too, just on the Japan realm. If you're going to go back or recommend one thing that you did on your trip, what is it? and then what's something that you would also X from the itinerary?

Something I would X. Such a hard question. Yeah. Dude, so much of it was so fun. I think what I would have exed, I'm wearing the shirt right now. And it is an X.

It's an XL. But it was like the, I don't know, I was just, you just feel so rushed to like, this is the shirt I'm referring to is Uniclo. And Uniclo is a, Japanese brand and it's a nice brand like in the U.S.

it's all the stores are only in bigger cities, bigger shopping cities and it's pretty expensive but over there it's super cheap and I feel like my last day I just I was like man I want to go get some uniclo stuff but then I completely missed like getting a great last meal and I literally was in uniclo and I looked over at sitting I said what the heck am I doing like I don't shop for clothes like I still have some of the same shirts that I was wearing in high school that are in my weekly rotation like why are we here right now and dude i was kicking myself like because i'll my self-talk was horrible that day i was like somehow i find a way like the trip is perfect and somehow i will always find a way the last minute just ruin it and she's like

it's just one like it's only been an hour like we can still i was like no i'm like you don't understand like i could have we could have went to this place we could have bought another sword like now i got these clothes that i only who care about clothes um so yeah like the shopping aspect and we didn't really even do that much shopping but for somebody that could care less about clothes i'm like i don't know why i like even went in half these stores somebody was like yeah you got to go to this uh little district in shibuia for all these clothes and i'm walking in and it's like the nicest type of like people that are into clothes would love it but i'm walking through these stores and not like just everything that's not a t-shirt and

short so I'm not interested really um to probably the shopping and then it's the one thing we did do dude just like getting up early and going to like a lot of the temples and shrines I wish we even would have got up earlier because it is a madhouse and by the time you're finished you you can get a glimpse of it because it's slammed but there's something so peaceful about getting to these places early and you feel like you're transported in time like you're walking back with those early age Japanese era people as they're going through and going through all their daily rituals and walking up to some of these temples and shrines when it's peace and quiet is like it's really cool really special. So I was just saying hitting, I wish we could

have hit more of those in Kyoto especially. Are a lot of those temples, are they like inhabited by like Buddhist monks or is this way different part of like region? No, it's truly just like I don't know how much of it is just for like I feel like a lot of it now is just for tourism sure but like one of the guys that I was that we met up with he kind of explained what you do at the shrines why they're there and it's really cool like you know like the the prayer aspect of it and they like you clap twice and then you like kind of say your prayer you bow twice and yeah it's I wish we could have done more kind of like I the one thing I wish I would have done is probably like a guided walking tour through them with a with a Japanese person like fully dedicated four hours is there the way

I'm assuming you're going to want to go back at some point oh yeah what point like what spots are you going to want to check out next time dude all the place is similar to that amana hashadate place like all the smaller villages or like smaller towns like there's a place it's not even that small because it's probably an hour away from Tokyo but it's called kamikura and it's a beach town and I would love to go there one of of my other friends he teaches at an international school uh like in the northern part of japan where a lot of people snowboard yeah and he's like he teaches a sports business class and he's like dude i want next time you're back i want you to come up and uh come speak for that class i dude you have no

idea how epic that would be his his name is yoshi and dude yoshi is a he's an icon so i would want there's so many small towns i want to go to and then okinawa for sure which is like japan's hawaii There's a U.S. military base there, but I would love to go there. The photos are incredible. For the baseball fans that we hopefully attracted last week. We had a big baseball pop. I saw the clip with the banana ball. Yeah. Well, you're explaining, you can quickly explain how big Shohayotani is there.

Dude, every billboard, every, like any time there's even space for an advertisement for something, it's going to be Shohayatani. and he's one of the first people that like if you're talking to Japanese people they'll ask you about or just like a great bridge to communicate with Japanese people on. We're like, how about Otani? And they just freak out. Like they love him so much. And what's the other pitcher's name? Yamamoto.

Yes, they love Yamamoto. Like he was getting, and obviously he's a great, great player here. But it's like in the U.S., we kind of, it's really just focused on Shohei. Yeah. And, but dude, they're all about Yamamoto. And it was opening weekend when we were there, so baseball buzz was big. I would have loved to be there during the Ichero Suzuki days. I was about to say, Ichero back down.

He was massive there too. Dude, I made a fatal error. I asked the bartender because there was a bottle of whiskey and it was like Ichero whiskey. And I was like, is that an Ichoro from like Seattle Mariners? They're like, oh, no, like there's a lot of Icheroes in Japan. I was like, yeah, that's a stupid question. I was like, you know, like in North America, like a lot of the athletes, like, they have their own liquor. Like, I promise it's normal.

But I was like, God, so stupid. I would have done the same thing. I'm like, Andrew Suzuki. Any connection point I could make. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's got to be them. Right. And that's just the best part. Because they're about it, dude.

They're about it all. Like, you don't have to worry about looking like an idiot. She handled it perfectly because she's like, oh, you know, we love Ichero. Oh, I'm like, oh, man. I would want to check out Japan, one for everything that you've said, but also like all of the dirt bikes are made out there. Like Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki. Each other's Suzuki?

They're all like, that is the hub for motocross out there. And their town, like Kawasaki is like a city. Yeah. And like each one of them, I think is like a city, which is cool. But yeah, that's so sick. I know. Yeah. It makes me want to go to Japan so bad.

Yeah. It went by way too fast. And my, my sister and her. future husbands, family, like just went, like, in the fall. And I was jealous. They brought me back this, like, nice kitchen knife that it's got its own sleeve. It's got, like, little Japanese design on it.

I use it on my steak every Sunday. That's what I want. They brought, like, all these cool things and stories. I'm like, I know. You know, like the long blade knife that you're supposed to use for the meat slice? I was, like, showing the dude the photos of it. And he was doing his best to, like, explain to me basically that like, hey, it doesn't sound like you're there yet.

You're not ready. And I'm like, man, I want to be ready. And I wish I would have spent more times, like more time with the knives and bought more knives. But they are still like prizes are great over there. But I mean, the knives are still expensive. It's like we got one for sit and parents, one for my parents and two for ourselves. And you're already running like decent bills.

It's like, I wish I could buy. I wish I could get everybody in. knife and bring it back. But maybe they're nice. Yeah. And a lot of Australians, dude,

there was like in two knife shops I went into, it was two Australians working it. That's, we were talking about it earlier today. You said Japan was like really far away. And I'm like, no,

it's not. They're like right next to each other. And they're 10 hours away. 10 hour from Australia? Yeah. The only thing Japan's really close to is China and South Korea. And I guess some of the Philippines

would be like, the most doable flights but because i when i was in australia like almost 10 years ago damn decade um there were a bunch of like japanese people like everywhere yeah and i don't know if it was because like we were in like we were in the gold coast and it's like a touristy town or my girlfriend at the time was at a university that i don't know if a bunch of japanese people just studied there but like i felt like i because there were so many japanese people i'm like oh it's probably like a three hour flight they just pop over right but then it's 10 hours i'm like no way fucking way we got to get some sort of non like violent earth or like a tsunami that happens

that just shifts Australia closer to every to more things because it is just to it's impossible to get there yeah and I guess unless you're the Philippines I I think that we're we're going to Italy and Greece in September but like my next stop and I want to go back to Australia and I want to live out there for like a year or two. Yeah. I think it'd be so sick. And just the lifestyle out there, just a lifestyle anywhere but the U.S. seems like cool. It does.

I mean, I'll say this, though, like, because I will, I mean, I would love to live in Japan and it'd be a dream come true. But, and I've only ever been to two different, two other countries. But the U.S. is like, most of the people you talk to in these countries is like their goal is to come to the U.S., which always gives you a sense of pride. And I get it. I mean, it's like, dude, we truly have everything. And the opportunity for these people, like, because the suicide rate in Japan is super high. And so much of it is that culture.

And the lack of opportunity right now, I think there's a stat out there. They have more dogs than children. Whenever there's these, like, population declines, it's just bad news all around for everyone. So so many homes are empty in a lot of the smaller villages, especially. And it's like, so just a lot. so many of them are trying to get to the U.S., and I'm like,

I would want to live in these places for a year, but I would 100% the number one place to live my life, U.S. I feel like you got to get out there to then realize what you have back home. Like, when I went to, when I was in Samoa, 100%, like Samoa's very third world. Yeah. So it's like a lot easier to do that. But then like you come back and like, yeah, this place, like America does rock. Right.

It is like awesome and it is like being able to, like, the freedom and whatnot. But just I think to be able to be able to. say you lived in Japan for a year. Right. You live in Australia for a year. It's like that's something you can reflect on and think about like if you become friends with somebody out there like be like lifelong friends and it's just, I don't know, it just really seemed attractive.

Yeah. There's so many lessons I would want to instill in my kids from the Japanese culture. Yeah. Which would be one of the number one benefits of living there. It's just being immersed in it because I'd love to work in like school there or even just do videography for school. Yeah. Because the kids are so grateful for any type of content.

or they were the same way at IMG and I just know it would make their day and knowing that they have all those pressures to like be able to kind of play a role and like hyphen them up. They're not about, they do zero self-promotion on anything. They don't really have

much for themselves. I think it would be like the coolest thing in the world. But yeah, awesome true. Where is the next place y'all would want to go? Obviously you said yours. Where out of the country? Where would you want to go? Well, that's about, I want to go Europe I don't really know exactly where I feel like you can kind of hit a lot when you're over

there as I've heard from other people visiting uh Japan's been on my radar since my sister and her fiancee went just because I think they just come back bragging yeah uh and I've already been when I was 13 to Canada but me Addie and then my family my brother's wife my sister and her fiance all them were going to Canada in August which will be really fun because where are you all going Like Whistler, Vancouver So up in the like Northwest Northwest, yeah

Longest runs in the world Are in Whistler And I've been to Whistler Like I said I was young And we did like white water rafting And like Olympic village and all that But a lot that I couldn't do when I was 13 A lot that I don't remember when I was 13

So It'll be exciting to go out there as an adult So like that's August And that's I mean I go to Mexico all the time Or I've been to Mexico a lot so like that's i do travel to other countries so to speak but i'm excited to get to like a new like one experience something fresh but i've always banned from there uh honestly i really don't know

i don't think it's horribly far like uh yeah i'd i'd absolutely like cal like whatever the one on the east is calgary is like in the center yeah i think calgary yeah banff is closer to calgary but i'm excited to go to canada i really want to get because i've been blessed to travel like a lot and i haven't gone across like to Europe or like Asia any yeah any of that so I'd be happy to do any of it but Japan like Japan sounds sick and the no talking on the subway that's a right up my alley you have to worry about it half the things you got to worry about here I know I mean I think I'm right in the same line Japan and Australia would be awesome I if I go to Japan it will definitely be for some sort of a snowboarding trip because

Japan gets some of the most snow on the planet. And there's some really awesome documentaries that are filmed in Japan centered around snowboarding that have inspired me in my early ages before I start working here. So love to do that. Obviously, yeah, Australia, hit the Gold Coast, do whatever there is to offer out there, see some crazy animals. More like internal Europe, like a Switzerland area. I'd love to go to Amsterdam.

And I just went to Greece last summer. I know JP did as well. Mitch are going. I would love to revisit Greece. There's just so many islands you can go to and not enough time on just like a week or two weeks. I love to get back to Greece. But yeah, I'm going to fall in line with this pod for sure

and probably put Japan up there as number one. And then, you know, Australia is close to. That'd be fun. Yeah. Dude, another one is, again, my sister and her Vyathe's family, they travel a lot, so they go to a lot of places I get jealous of. Iceland and then and then my my parents from Nashville really and my parents went there as well and it's just

like you know they bring back videos and pictures and it's incredible it's all the word of mouth and the story I'm just I'm so jealous because I didn't even like I don't even think that one was on my radar really like what's in Iceland right but it's like beautiful and fun and yeah that that's a big one the whole like I learned about it in my high school why Iceland's named Iceland and why Greenland's named Greenland. Did you have you guys know? No, or maybe we did but I don't know if this is true or not but I it's like in high school and I still believe it to the opposite of each

yes for so for like when the Vikings would like sail the seas they called Iceland what it is but it's like as to like fuck up the other Vikings in the sense of like don't go there it's all ice when it's like beautiful and the vice versa for Greenland and I'm like that should that just seems so cool Dude, do you imagine just navigating the world in that era? And just pretty much have to trust them that they said that and like...

Then you show up in a barren tundra and you're like, well, it looks like most of us are going to die. Yeah. The Viking era, dude. Oh, Vinland Saga. I swear. That'll be your next one, Derek. I'll watch live action one piece. You watch Vinland Saga.

Is there, it's like... Is anime like a big thing? Obviously it's a big thing, but like was it everywhere out there? It's everywhere, but dude, there must be something unique with the licensing rights from these shows because merch is kind of hard to find, which really bummed me out because if we're talking about shopping, I would have done some shopping on a bunch of anime graphic teas and everything. I was only able to secure like one. But there's a play. It's like the anime district. It's called Akiabara.

And they have like, they're really. It's the figurines and everything. So there's tons of stores, but it's really cool because they have a lot of the manga, so like all the comic books. And it's so funny to see the Japanese people on the subways and stuff reading manga on their phone. Like, they're not really scrolling Twitter. Obviously, some of them are on TikTok and everything. But I caught a few people reading manga.

And I'm just like, you have no idea how cool that is. But yeah, I mean, it's massive. And they all know, like I was able to talk to so many of the people we ran into. Like whether it would have been, if we weren't able to take the subway and had to take an Uber, I'd like ask an Uber driver. Like, what shows do you watch? And once I was able to drop a few that I'm into, they kind of, I could feel the respect they had for me. Like, oh, he's actually locked in. Yeah, he's got there.

That's what it was. You know how I was saying somebody called me an old head? Yeah. Dude, this one guy, he was asking. You got unked in Japan? By the porch, like the Spanish, Italian, Uruguayan guy. and what'd you say? Ung San,

Sempai. He was asking me which anime's I liked. I always kind of start out with the new gen ones because the people love to give you a look of like, oh yeah, classic, like you're a new anime guy, which I am, but I've watched some of the OGs. And I mentioned the one I'm watching right now, which is Hajimeo Noipo.

And I said that, and he, he, me with the same damn and uh i said what you mean he said you old head for sure huh i was like god i was just trying to earn respect yeah and he was 27 i'm like man come on he was like jama no he and especially like with his spanish accent too it's even funnier but yeah man being in the land where everybody watches everybody watches anime i just felt like i belonged finally What else we got? Y'all are going to Texas Tech this week. I will not be.

J.P. is. Basically just like Japan. Everyone will be in Texas one way or another. Yeah. True. I'll be there. I'll be there for a wedding. Jack will be in Texas.

So it is in Texas. Who's pitching when y'all are there? The Rangers. Probably Kumar Rock or Vandy guy. Oh, yeah. How old is he? He's still young, right? He's still young.

Yeah, he's still young. He's not good last year. So hopefully this year. he turns it around. He's supposed to pitch today and then I was going to see someone good, but... Is that out of going with you?

No, she won't be there for that. She's celebrating with her sister. Who was moving here? Who moved here, actually? Has she been to home? Oh, yeah, a couple times. Okay. We went to a wedding,

we went Christmas, Thanksgiving, so... Hey, you stole both holidays? We did two Christmases. We did Texas and then Florida. Thanksgiving will probably be Florida next year. But yeah, she's been there. Well, yeah, the Rangers game, I'm pumped about that one. I didn't get to go to one last year.

Two years ago, I went to the opener and then not another one for the whole year. What's the pulse on the Rangers this year? That's supposed to be good? Yeah, I mean, they're getting their ass kicked right now, but they started... It's a long season. It's a long, there's a lot of games. They started four and one. They lost the first game.

Clump was talking shit. Then they smacked the Phillies two games in a row. And now they're going to be four and two here in a few minutes, which is... That's not bad. It's not bad. When four out of six, six. games all year. It'll be pretty good.

I said last week, I think they're going to be good this year. But I don't need to get into it. It'll be good. Just believe me. Only 157 more to go. If I'm being positive about them, you know they might be good.

Right. Although if I was being negative, they're probably, they're still good. Dude, you got to go to this one bar. I got to find the name of it because it's where I met my first friend in Dallas when I lived there. And on maybe,

nah, I wouldn't have been on a Thursday because that'd be way too busy of a night. But like on Wednesday maybe, it's like you flip a coin with the bartender. And if you win, the beer costs 25 cents. And so, dude, it is, it was one of the most iconic things ever. No, if you lose, you just pay. I'm fine with that. You know, if I can gamble for a beer, I'm in.

But yeah, preferably I would like market price. Yeah. Yeah, find that because I will go and flip the coin just for content. Like a bar in Nashville, like maybe in East Nashville on Tuesday, they should incorporate that somehow. It's such a good idea. I love that. Coup, have you heard there?

I can't remember the exact name, but when I was at this Bachelor party a couple weekends ago, they were talking about a place called Something's Ice House, I think. Oh, yeah. I've never been, but I know you're talking about. The Katie Trail Ice House? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Katie Trail Ice House. Dude, it's a vibe.

Yeah, they said it's like an awesome outdoor patio scene. That seems like a good Friday, kind of like maybe post lunch, go check it out. We'll see. That'll be way closer to where you're at, but as me and Sherman were, I'm begging Joe T. Garcia's. It's probably a little trek. Not too bad, but probably the best restaurant of all time. And it is what kind of food is?

Mexican food. Yeah. It's like an outdoor patio. It's really nice. I'd have to pull up pictures. Yeah, it's supposed to be a hot one, I know, this weekend. Everywhere here in Nashville, too. You got to go to the ice house.

Great vibe. It's like right on their Greenway, too. You've been there before? Yeah. And then, dude, also on Greenville Ave. Did you ever spend much time on Greenville Ave? Classic. of course right

dude but they have some they have this place and I like I feel like there's a few in Texas in general and other places but it's called the truck yard oh I've been in the truck yard dude truck yard's awesome okay it's yeah so I guess it's lower

Greenville actually is the name of it but yeah it's basically like you walk in and it's just all these pieces of old trucks that are like stuck in the dirt and a few bars are like some food trucks out of them there's food trucks it's a great vibe There's like a centralized bar area.

Yeah. And then two sides, all the trucks like he's talking about and different food trucks. There's like the trucks like a table or is it just kind of like they they turn. There's some of them that are like it's like tailgates and there'll be like benches with the table in between. Like it's kind of hard to explain. But it is that place is sick. Dude, there's, the house has so many fun. I'm so fired up because like as an adult and we're fortunate enough with work that we've got to experience a lot of cool cities like big and sort of.

small. And this is one of the first times in the last few years where I'm going to a very major metropolitan area that I've never been to except for commuting through an airport. So just to like get that first taste of it and like really develop like how I feel about it, I'm pumped. I feel like the older you get, you kind of realize you only get to visit X amount of cities for the first time again. And, you know, inside the U.S., like I said, you know, we get to see a lot of them. So I'm, I'm excited to come back and hopefully with some good news that Dallas is is them or him or her whichever one you want we're going to figure it out i love i think dallas is him there's a to go back to like the tailgate or the truck place there's a bar and uh i think

san diego brook was telling me about like you rent out i don't know if you rent or you just kind of get placed you get in like a motor home or like a yeah kind of like a motor home and like that's your section for the night and like you just kind of you're kind of hanging out like your own little room by yourself just nephew would hate it yeah Yeah. Or no, Matt. Yeah, yeah. Wait. I looked at Coogh.

Mitch said hate or heard hate and looked at Coogh. I heard hate and I'm like, Coup hates everything. So except the Rangers and the Cardinals. No, I hate the Cardinals. But like Brooke went there for like a bachelor at party and said it was like the most fun. That's really cool. Fun bars are very fun.

No, it sounds really dumb. but really like underrated and there's not enough of like those cool type bars like you just have like your stereotypical bar and it's like you're just as shame as every other one here i'm with you as a person that doesn't really enjoy going to bars that much when there is a fun one i feel it just i will go back to that one yeah it puts it over the top for me where we at Derek perfect sweet spot next week we have a very very special guest is it going to be a a one-on-one? No, it'll be a couple of us, but

unfortunately, y'all two won't be here. I know. I hate that. Are you going to announce it? Are you the guests is? Has it already been announced? It hasn't been announced, but I'm going to... Yeah, I feel like you got to tell the people. You got to. Next week, we have a very special guest, Supercross is in town, and therefore my family comes down every year

for it, and my brother, Nate Carsley, is flying in Tuesday night, and he's strictly coming in that early, just so he can come and sit on the inside the bus set. Coming in a week early, just to be on the bus inside. And what sucks is that y'all two are not going to be here. Just me me.

What day do you leave? No, no. I'm going to go. But if y'all have any questions you want to ask him? I might have to create a couple just because your brother geeks me out. Me and him at a good time the last time he was in Nashville out too far. This means I'm going to have to step up and actually ask questions. And like we can like he's really looking for like when we first started he's like,

bro, you need to get me on there. I'm like, you got to come down. What do you mean? And he's like, all right, all right. And then he's like, I'm thinking I'm coming out Tuesday. Like, why that early? He's like, to come on inside the bus. What do you mean?

So I did. Talked about this, Mitch. It'll be us too. And then probably Matt interviewing my brother, which will be a geek. Last time he was here, he fell asleep on the couch, right? Everybody got his friend. When was you here? He was here April of last year.

him and his one of his buddies who's working down here and like just somehow or ended up being down here at the same time he'll he'll be in I don't know if he'll be coming in the shop but Nate and him last year

just fell sleeping there because they were just out until three or four every every night and I'm sure it'll be the same thing this time around but yeah it'll be he'll be shacking up with us for a couple days which will be interesting but a couple weeks

Luke call man I'm trying to I'm trying to get Nate to move out of PA because he needs to get out of there. But he, uh, how old is he again? He is 20, I'm 27. He's 24 turning 25. And wait, does he work concrete? Yes. And I'm like, bro, Nashville just keeps pouring concrete everywhere.

Not the butt concrete. Yeah. Like, come. Opportunity everywhere. Come join the concrete jungle down here or something. But, no, that is my roommate from college. Sorry, got to go. Which we will get.

into closer to Christmas time. I thought you're about to do an early poll. No. But yeah, we have a special guest next week. It'll be cool. And you know how he was, how him and his boy were napping on the couch last time they were here? There's something about like the, because your brother, he works in concrete, like hard work. There's something about like the blue collar nap that I just, part of me envies. And I'm like, man, I wonder like what my life would be like if I was living.

And like I would probably be sleeping so much better. And it's just something about seeing a guy jeans on, belt buckled all the way tight. Boots on like. And it's probably the worst thing you could think of to sleep in just in full R.E.M. Probably got a can in the back pocket. Cid in the back pocket. And but like 100% that wasn't a blue color nap. That was a hungover nap.

Right. But he had the blue collar look. Yeah. He, him and I, him and I'm wearing like a t-shirt shorts and like these. shoes. Hey, show off in my tops, bro. Yeah.

Come on. Him and I could not be more polar opposite. And it's going to be funny when he's sitting right here. Like, this is my brother. And he's going to be, he's going to have his hat on. He's going to have his mustache.

He's going to have like just a shit kicker shirt, belt, jeans, and boots. God. First, family member on the pod for anyone, right? Yeah. Got to believe Camp's next.

Got to get back. God. I'll start recruiting. Cam left the juicy comment on my post this morning. all out. I love this guy, yeah. We got to get Jimmy on. Yeah, if he ever comes back, I guess we could do like a Zoom interview. It'd be like 8 a in for him in Hawaii.

But whenever he comes back, he's actually, he's mentioned that too. But I'm a little bit harder on him. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Yeah. Nate, he listens to this shit all the time. So shout out Nate. Let's go, Nate. Look forward to that next week.

And we will catch you next week. So 43. 43 with my brother. JP, you want to sign us off? sign us off. Just give one last thank you to Japan. A bow. All righto gozum. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin.

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