The Shintaro Higashi Show - Catching Up With Shintaro and Peter - Tokyo Grand Slam and PhD

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

In this episode, Shintaro shares his experience at the Tokyo Grand Slam, where he was one of the IJF commentators. From meeting Olympic champions to exploring the nuances of Japan’s Judo culture, Shintaro reflects on his growing role as a commentator and influencer in the Judo community. Meanwhile, Peter catches us up on his PhD journey, including passing his thesis proposal and attending the prestigious NeurIPS conference. He explores exciting ideas about combining Judo video datasets with AI research and the challenges of working with video-language models. Whether you're passionate about Judo or curious about the intersection of AI and sports, this episode dives into a unique mix of sports, research, and travel stories. (00:00:00) Introduction  (00:01:27) Commentating at the Tokyo Grand Slam   (00:03:23) Behind the Scenes with Olympic Champions   (00:06:50) Japan’s Judo Culture and Tokyo Grand Slam Insights (00:08:48) How the Grand Slam is Accessible for Fans   (00:10:58) Changes Shintaro Noticed in Japan   (00:12:24) New IJF Rules   (00:13:27) Peter Passes His Thesis Proposal   (00:14:29) Peter’s Research Idea with Judo Videos (00:19:54) What’s Next For Peter In His PhD Journey (00:24:50) Shintaro Makes a New Friend During Flight Delays   (00:28:31) Shintaro’s Daughter’s Dance Recital Highlights  If you're in business, then you have customer churn. Whether you're building a startup, growing a mom & pop shop, or operating in a fortune 500 powerhouse, Hakuin.ai measures, predicts, and improves your customer retention. https://hakuin.ai

And then they get on the announcement. They're like, all right guys, sorry You're not gonna have to book a hotel yourself and he's like what I've never been to Japan, you know Like what I was like I got you. Oh Yeah, so like I you know, I helped him like well There's another Japanese guy who was on the phone with all the hotels I got in with him and then we had to like scramble and get a hotel all these ladies are freaking out and yelling and screaming And then the airplane flew out the next day at 530. Ah, and I bet you know what that flight was full That flight was paid that and then I'm going you know going like this

And I made it I made a funny joke at on the plane. Well, no one laughed What if I was a joke? I don't even know if I should repeat this on a public platform, but you know, I'm like Hello and welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show, Peter Yu. Today we're gonna do a little bit of a catch up. I've been kind of away. I know the episode was supposed to be out on Monday, but it's like, I don't know what it is today, but we got a little delayed, right Peter?

Yeah, man. We, I was away last week. I, we basically have a lot going on right now at the end of the year. Like it's just a lot of traveling, a lot going on right now at the end of the year like it's just a Lot of traveling a lot of work cuts out. Yeah, so we thought yeah, sorry about the delay again But hopefully you guys will enjoy just kind of hearing us talk about what's been up what we've been up to Yep, well, I was in Japan just now

So I'll start with that because and then we'll get into what you've been up to. Interesting stuff with the PhD. But yes, I was in Japan for the Tokyo Grand Slam as a commentator. You guys could watch all that footage. Me interviewing like Sotaro and all those guys Fujiwara. It's on JugoTV.com. You could use discount coaching to access all those videos and competition footage. It's commentated. It's really amazing.

So Tokyo Grand Slam, man, what an event. You're now one of the big dogs, you know, commentating Grand Slams and all. Dude, I am becoming a guy, dude. Like I go there and Inoue walks by, he's like, oh, what's up, Shintaro? I'm like, what's up, man? No way.

Yeah, and then they wanted me to do an interview, like a translation thing for Aaron Wolf. Oh, yeah Yeah, he's an Olympic champ silver medalist and then the gase was a two-time Olympic gold medalist You know I was able to mess around with him and talk and shoot the shit and you know It's so funny cuz now all of a sudden all these little connections are starting to pop up like, you know Gunji that's been at my dojo. He's a two-time All Japan qualifier. They're making content Oh, he's making content. He's making tons of content now. He's on Instagram

He literally like comes to judo to like all the time at my dojo sets up his camera and destroys our beginners Destroys them to a point. I'm like, oh good G stop, you know, like stop beating these guys so badly, you know the You know what I mean? Anyway, yeah. I see him on your Instagram, but he also has his own and then makes videos on his own account. He's starting to, yeah. He's starting to.

That's fine. Let me tell you something. He went from zero followers to 8,000 something followers on Instagram real fast. Because he makes good content. You know, he has nothing to do while he's here. His wife's here for work and he doesn't speak English. So all he does is like come to judo and hang out. Oh But yeah, yeah, so I fork said that in America

Yeah, so then he played on the professional team Asahi Kase, which is like the best pro team in Japan. They have 20 slots That's it. Oh, if you make it on that team, you you're legit and then Nagase is on that team. Two time Olympic gold medalist. I'm interviewing him and I'm like talking to him and I'm like yo you know Gunji? And Nagase is like yeah no Gunji like what's he up to? I'm like he's at my dojo right now beating up my beginners. And Nagase couldn't stop laughing he's like oh my god that's hilarious why is he doing this? you know it was kind of this hilarious thing yeah yeah yeah

but yeah so like that Aaron Wolf I got to interview all the champions Aaron Wolf is so funny like I yeah there's a YouTube guy uh

I forget his name oh Kawabata yeah dude he was on Kawabata's YouTube yeah if you guys I mean it's you can kind of see if you speak Japanese I kind of speak it so like it. I mean these guys are funny like hilarious Aaron is a character man. Like we asked him a question like hey, who's your judo hero? And he goes I don't have a hero if I put someone on the pedestal. I'll never be able to surpass him

I'm number one. I'm the best. I'm no I love that And then but you know Japanese people don't usually talk I don't I thought it was kind of funny and he gained a lot of weight. Oh, he did it I mean to come on he he deserved it. He he can do whatever he's 120 kilograms now, so he's like 250 260 He looks humongous. You see is he still competing though. Is it kind of he's on his way up. Oh, okay, okay. I see, I see. But yeah, so it's pretty cool. I'm kind of becoming the guy out there now, even in Japan in the Japanese circuit.

And there's this guy who works for the All Japan Judo Federation, this kid, Koyo. Terashita Koyo. And we actually look very alike in terms of stature and the face, so, and he's very well known in all Japan Judo Federation. So people walkin' by and they're like, oh. Are you Shitaro? Yeah, you.

You Koyo? You look kinda like Koyo. And I'm like, yeah, I know. You know, like, yeah, you know what I mean? And these aren't like white people saying I look like another Asian guy and these are like white people saying I look like another Asian guy I know these people telling me I look like another Japanese guy So we really do have a very similar build and that's when you know you really look like look like each other Yes, I'm kind of entering into that circuit. You know USA judo better be careful

I'm gonna move to Japan and do it over there. You know it's I you're in the perfect spot because you live in both cultures, right? Yeah. And then you're not just like, oh, I'm a Japanese person who grew up in America, born in America. You actually went to Japan, trained with them. I think that's why you can kind of be the bridge. I think it's great to see. Yeah. why you can kind of be the bridge and then I think it's great to see yeah and I want to kind of be a little bit better about like like Shintaro Nakano

Nakano Shintaro yeah he's doing like judo tours for Japan now oh yeah no and then two of my guys went you know last year on this tour and then he's like you know he flies them over there takes him to all the different dojos Kodokan Yeah, like that. Yes. Yes. Yes. I was like wow that's amazing. I wish I could do something like that You know yeah, yeah, I'm sure you can yeah You can take them to Kokushi and all that I might be too much work for me though, you know you probably have to work with another like

You probably have to work with another company. Yeah, something. That's what you be influencers to. Yeah, so Tokyo Grand Slam, it was amazing. All the super high level international guys weren't there. Oh, weren't there? No, because it's like after the Olympic quad. So they're all taking a break. The number one guy from France wasn't know wasn't there France brought a few people

You know what I mean? So they're not bringing their a team to a lot of these things because the year after the Tough tournament so it's like you don't want to lose if you're an Olympic bronze medalist like the number four guy from Japan And no one knows yeah, right so Japan did a clean sweep. They destroyed everybody. The judo was absolutely incredible. Yeah Yeah, yeah, and I think people who are listening they should really consider going and watching Because this one's accessible you could it's a Tokyo Metropolitan Arena Yeah, huge stadium and then you could literally walk up and buy tickets like the best seats are already sold out but like the free seating thing and they have a huge jumbotron in the middle like replaying and then you know my lady

was there with me not like on the capacity of the IJF I didn't like bring her into the VIP section anything like that she was just like bought a regular ticket because she was there you know yeah right yeah bought a regular ticket and then just like sitting up there and I like snuck up there and like kind of like bullshit with her a little bit and you can kind of see the mat you can see like the jumbotron and it's a great experience it's like a sporting event like a live sporting event it was amazing you know and anyone could just buy tickets and go so does she know judo a little bit like did she enjoy it? no and you know what everyone would try to

like hey you do judo she's like no have you ever done judo She's like no actually this is the first time I've ever watched Yeah, she's such a normie. Yeah, what's your think I? Mean she liked it. She you know she's pretty cool But like you know she's here talking about it all the time and you know It's good to have a little bit of separation though I see a lot of guys that are training with their wives or partners or girlfriends or boy whatever you know it's good to have a little bit of separation though I see a lot of guys they're training with their wives or partners or girlfriends or boy whatever you know it's nice to kind of have that like I agree I you know no my

wife is you know she's not in the same field as I am and I kind of like that yeah yeah no you want to go home be don't hear that. I know. I know. I know. Stop. Cool. Oh yeah. So you really, I guess in Japan, I know you told me about France and they put on a proper show and it's really accessible and well organized and all that. I would honestly suggest anyone to just try to even go and watch. It's really amazing. Oh, you know Danny Perez?

Yeah, yeah. I saw him up there. He lives in Japan. Yeah, he's been living there for a while. Yes, he literally went to Japan for vacation, just stayed. He's got a job and everything, right? A job and everything. He has a Japanese girlfriend.

He's so happy. He was at the Grand Slam just watching Judo. I'm sure he's Japanese great now. Pretty good probably, yeah. I assume so. Yeah, it was amazing experience. I think next year I'm gonna kind of suggest everyone go watch, man.

Maybe I'll put together a group of guys to like a little bit of a tour. Hey, come to the Tokyo Grand Slam. You know what I mean? Meet me there, meet and greet, all this stuff. It can be fun. It can be really fun. Maybe that could be like the what do you call the anchor events for your tour and then you can kind of go around and... That's what I was thinking. Maybe like, alright, Saturday, Sunday, it's a two-day tournament. You watch the Tokyo Grand Slam.

It's amazing. You fly in on Thursday, so you kind of acclimate yourself to the climate or the time difference. And then on Monday, Tuesday, we'll go do judo somewhere, you know? Yeah, and eat some good food and all. Some good food is incredible over there. Of course, I miss it, man. Yeah, Japan is another animal, man. It's...

What kind of food do you have? Literally everything. I was like, I want to try everything. Like not try everything, I've already had everything before. I have some Japanese but like It was great. Yeah, I food is like I'm talking like walking around. Look at this sushi store That's just like sushi shop like right. No one knows this place. It's just a regular place

Let me just walk in and the food is amazing. Yeah, you know, but it's definitely change things have changed since I last been there Maybe eight years ago. Oh, it's already been eight years oh okay what did you notice because i am my last last year yeah i went to japan last year with my family so i i'm curious what to what you thought was honestly the biggest change i saw in the last eight years was that everybody working low level entry jobs like cashier grocery store yeah waiter wait, waitresses, all foreigners. Oh I didn't notice that. Yeah foreigners. I'm talking like from Asia of course. Yeah, Southeast Asia. But they're like you could tell like oh hey what's up can I get this can I you know get a burger and they're like oh and it's like well these guys aren't

native Japanese speakers you know and I could tell right away and it's like that's a huge change I never would have ever thought in a million years it would be like that you know I see so big change there I think you know and there's a lot of issues over there but what uh everything is pristine yeah you know people have criticisms of Japan right but boy that place is clean special animal man Tokyo is the biggest city in the world. Did you know this? I know I Metro Tokyo it's just mind-bogglingly big and so many people live there 26 million compared to like 8 million in New York City Which is like insane. It's like, you know in such a small area too. It's kind of amazing

Gotta be efficient and all. Yeah, but yeah, Japan judo incredible They destroyed it. There was a little bit of a buzz because the IJF rules were coming out the week afterwards and right right right right right And then yes for that they had the Istanbul referee and coaching seminar you could watch it the whole thing Judo TV as well. Oh the whole seminar So they talk a little bit more in detail because they just kind of put snippets out there on the internet And everyone's resharing the same stuff. So unless you actually watch through the videos, you don't really get the intricacies of it, you know Like in their press release on the IJF site. It was like Yuko will be given for five seconds. They waza. Yeah Yeah, great. So you can't stand you can't throw someone for Yuko

But if you look at the the rules seminar video they talk you can and they discuss what criteria is Considered you go for throwing I see yeah. Yeah, you gotta go watch that use discount coaching time Yeah, yeah, we'll have an episode for that is I mean everyone's talking about it right now and so it'd be fun Anyway, that's my trip to Japan Japan What have you been up to Peter? man, but so last week I guess the biggest thing was I passed my thesis proposal if you listen to my our last episode about the VHG You you know that usually most programs. this is like the second to last step

before your final defense. So those kind of- You gotta do three of these? What do you mean? You gotta do three of these proposals? No, no, so one proposal for the whole thing. My department kind of has people basically wrap three or four separate work into one coherent thesis.

So I basically presented two of the work I already finished and then one more proposal project that I will be doing next year and then defend. Yeah, that's like I'm gonna make it into one basically coherent long-term project and you want to do video with IJF oh yeah so that's I so that's like a so I'll tell you why I came up with this idea yeah I really wanted to talk to you but I already texted him just for the listeners no basically I my thesis is going to be about, you know, combining video and language, how we can make an AI system

understand video and language together. You know, watch a video. And then there are a lot of technical challenges. I know people have asked me, I think I see the comments that people just, people don't know what, I really didn't talk about my work right in doing that episode so people are curious about what I do and that's the broad stroke we'll probably have another episode on my particular work but and then so after I passed my

proposal I went to a very big conference called NeurIPS, Neural Information Processing Systems. Yeah, that was held in Vancouver, Canada. Neural Information Processing Systems, NIPS. It used to be called NIPS, but they changed it because, you know, right? I mean, that's the reason why they changed it now. It's called NeurIPS now. It's NIPS. Some people will call it NIPS. Peter went to a NIPS seminar. to now it's called new reps now it's Nips some people some feels little calling nips but Peter went to a nips seminar yeah I kid you not that's why she they

changed a couple of years ago funny isn't that funny anyway it's a huge conference you can't even take this conference seriously anymore. I would say this is one of the biggest premier conferences. It's called NIPS. Yeah, that's called NIPS. It's a sick joke. It's a sick joke. Yeah, so I went to NIPS, whatever you want. And then I basically got to talking. I met a lot of people who are around the same area as me, like video and language.

And then there's one particular professor that presented his work from his lab. He's a professor, I think UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He's a big basketball guy. And he made a data set of basketball videos and then kind of like describing how, what's happening basically like in like more and more in a way that's more appreciated of the athlete's skill. Anyway, so that's like a different direction that I wanna take it, but I noticed that,

so I asked him, because one of the biggest challenge nowadays is to gain access to these videos, so I was like, hey, how'd you get these NBA footage? And he's like, oh well, he was kinda like being shy about it, he's like, yeah, we have to pay a lot of money to these content owners. So I'm like, I can't do this, so I was like, yeah, we have to pay a lot of money to these content owners. So I'm like, I can't do this. So I was like, but I thought judo footage would be a good test bed for a lot of these video

processing methods. So you know, that's the idea. I don't know exactly how I'm going to use it, but I think I'm creating a data set or like a benchmark yeah and then I think because my guess is that these videos have a lot of annotations already like when things happen and that's the amazing thing about G2TV man, you can scrub through every match and be like alright when was this score had and what time and you could just scrub to it you can click to it and then they'll go oh score minute 37 penalty minute 48 yeah it you can click to it and then they'll go oh score minute 37 penalty minute 48 yeah and you can click

to it and then you kind of see it yeah probably it's really amazing and useful and you wouldn't even know how like you can't even imagine how valuable that is in AI research very valuable yeah yeah that kind of so that yeah that's the idea so I got this idea from I just just had a thought and I like oh my god I got excited. So I like it. I texted you right away when I know 100% can do it I know all the guys at the IGF that can kind of make it happen and give you access and they did give me access to the database from videos that you know for for content use. Yeah. Yeah. I never really took him up on it

Oh, yeah, we'll have to go what I have to I'll have to talk to them and then yeah Make sure that they're okay because I'm gonna have to release some of these videos right? Yeah That's scientific researches happens in public. So well, yeah, I know a couple guys see this is the thing right being out there I know the guy who does judo inside who's an unaffiliated with IJF, but he's a data guy Data he's from the Netherlands actually ah He's the guy that kind of gave me the feedback. Hey, man. I love your commentary, but you're too enthusiastic But he's a statistician, but yeah, yeah, so he's that guy he crunches data He puts everything in a thing judo inside all the the stuff. He's done. He's built it right

So I know him and then I know all the guys at IJF who could grant you access To the stuff yeah, I'm trying to kind of yeah, I our broker in that judo scene now. I mean Exactly science happens like this to it's like kind of I mean it's kind of like everything Any human endeavors like this ready to all about who you know because you got to work with people you know I? I would love to talk to the judo inside person you know, I love to talk to the judo inside Person, you know, this is never his name actually. Yeah Yeah Yeah, it's pretty cool man. So you're now get a little bit of breathing time

So what is your next thing for your PhD? So I my plan is to defend in May next year that they'll be done then I'll be a doctor Wow, I'll be a doctor then. And so my next thing I, of course, I'm, I'm, I'm on the job market now too. So I actually, my, the primary purpose of me going to the NIPs, New Rips, was to talk to companies to look for jobs. So I and this, like I said, this is a huge conference. So a lot of juggernauts come.

A lot of these companies. So were you able to make some good contacts and stuff? Yeah, man. I met a lot of new people. Was there like a Princeton segment for it? I actually didn't meet any Princeton people. Yeah. Because Princeton sucks.

I know But I yeah, you know like you I talked to like companies like Apple Google deep line You know all this a test a Tesla was there I saw like their optimus Yeah, that must be so cool. Yeah, was that cuz that's gotta be relative really cuz chat GBT Everyone's using now language model. What is it called? Large language model? Yeah, large language model. Yeah. But then you look at a thing like the Optimus robot, it takes visual cues and then has to kind of make sense

of these visual clip-on. So that's kind of like your video and language kind of a thing that makes together. That's exactly why I chose it. Because when chat GPT came out, had to like really sit down and exit it was an existential crisis for a lot of people in the scientific field and that's what yeah. You spoke to Terela right at the Dojo? Yeah yeah yeah of course. He's another one PhD professor he does

mathematician. Yeah he does math and language and how those two things derive meaning from each other or something like that, right? He like you he uses like completely different approach to things I I tried I read some of the papers he recommended it just it over my head. It's like such a different It's like a different math construct. Yeah, then Anything I hadn't seen anything like this You know, I remember having this conversation like what are you studying? Like what is your research about and he told me I was like make it dumber He told me again. I was like, I still don't get it make it dumber

I was like explain it like I'm five years old like Eli five and ready. Yeah, I like I'm five he goes their words Why do those words mean things and what's the math behind the meaning of words? And I was like, all right, I guess that's pretty cool. But you know. Yeah, it's like that's exactly what large language models and his method is called tensor networks. So basically, yeah, it's like the view is that words are basically a sequence of things that combine together if arranged in a specific order, it just means

something, right? So these large language and model uses something called transformers. And that's another mathematical construct. And it basically figures out the meaning behind the sequence of words. And his method is another thing called tensor network. I'm not really familiar with the details. I read the paper, but it's just like way too much. But it does the same thing. That's the purpose.

That we have a sequence of things and they mean something, so like what's what is it you know that's what it is yeah pretty interesting man look at us just studying you're talking about math language and video and i'm like what is it taiyotoshi you know what makes taiyotoshi a taiyotoshi a you know as hard as you know any of this AI research honestly Yeah, it's this but yeah, so that's I so I thought I was talking to actually a lot of the self-driving companies, too I know I know some folks there and I caught up with a lot of people met a lot of new people You don't talk to Lex Friedman because that's what he studied right? Yeah. Yeah, I think he did Yeah, a lot of the work and video and

Like detection from videos and stuff. Yeah, I think he did a lot of the work in video and like detection from videos and stuff. Yeah, I think. Yeah. Jesus. Yeah. It's a new frontier. I mean, there's a lot of work to be done. But yeah, I was able to eat a lot of good Vancouver is very known for there's a lot of Asian immigrant population. So a lot of good Asian food. Japanese, Korean, Chinese all that. I had a lot of good food and it's a beautiful city walking around. So now I have some breathing room so yeah I'm gonna just kind of I'm going to Korea to visit my family over Christmas.

So I'm spending a week in Michigan and then just kind of like get ready for that and then just yeah, yeah, that's Some breathing room. I made a new Korean friend on the airplane. Yeah Korean Korean or Korean American? I mean Korean American, but he has a place in Korea He's a professor at the University of Guam. Oh Economics and he works he worked. I think for UBS. He was an investment banker for years and years. He's retired now so he's now teaching. But yeah we had a whole debacle. My flight was delayed six hours. Oh. Yeah so my flight was supposed to leave at 5.30 and then it got pushed back to 11.30 but Japan, Narita airport closes at midnight. So if the flight

doesn't take off by midnight. Oh yeah. It again next. Yeah, it gets brought back to the gate and then you're done. It gets canceled for the next day, right? So we get to the airport 1130 we get on the plane. They're about to take off We get on the thing the tarmac or whatever it is and then they're like, oh we have to fuel so we fuel and then Oh, we have maintenance issues and it's like 12 1155 I got they're like up. We're not taking off. Sorry, and I'm really them around for six hours We have to go back and then this Korean guy sit next to me. There's all the guys like oh, you know This is bullshit. You know what they're doing is like this flight isn't full if you look around There's like 80 guys on this flight. So if they give us a $300 credit, that's you know, yeah

$24,000 or whatever is yeah And then you compare that with the fuel cost which is quarter million dollars for the fight to take off It's a huge loss for these guys. That's why they probably did it Oh my god, that's pretty interesting and then they get on the announcement. They're like, alright guys Sorry, you're not gonna have to book a hotel yourself and he's like why I've never been to Japan You know, like what I was like I got you. Oh Yeah, so like I you know, I helped him like well There you oh yeah so like you know I helped him like well there's another Japanese guy who was on the phone with all the hotels

I got in with him and then we had to like scramble and get a hotel all these ladies are freaking out and yelling and screaming yeah okay stressful I would have panicked if the flight was full because we're like stuck on the plane oh yeah yeah and I would have been claustrophobic but because there was no one on the plane it was wide open but yeah I made a friend, he's a Korean guy so you did have to stay another night

oh yeah we had to de-board the plane and we had to go through customs and we had to get out, it's like 3am and then we had to take a taxi to a hotel stay there and then the airplane flew out the next day at 530 And I bet you know what that flight was full That flight was paid that and then I'm American. You know go like this

And I made it I made a funny joke at on the plane. Well, no one laughed What if it was a joke? I don't even know if I should repeat this on a public platform, but you know how like Luigi Mangione had the thing One a United fight. I was like, oh man United screwing us over someone called Luigi. Ah Then everyone just looked at me like like I was a psycho Yeah, I was like, oh Maybe Japanese people don't know that joke people don't know that joke. There were Americans

within the vicinity because we're all like sitting around you know at the thing like waiting for instructions and then wow like. Always a shock jockey Shintaro. I thought it was funny. I thought it was a funny joke. Tough crowd. Tough crowd.

This was jokes. This was jokes. So guys you know, this was jokes yeah yeah yeah I'm not saying anything crazy here the wheel of justice always turns so wait, so you had to stay another night and then did you got to hang out

with the economists, it was just that you guys just chatted then yeah yeah yeah, so we were just messing around I almost missed my kids thing I flew in last night oh that's why you were like scrambling yeah okay I was scrambling and then the very next day right I had to go to my daughter's dance recital and it was like 5 p.m. so I was like sitting there like maximum sleepy like almost

that's when you get the most sleepy yeah that's when you get the most sleepy yeah it's a devil how do how was a recital it was good very good it was it was very it's interesting yeah they did a good job with the production this year you know compared to the year before yeah my daughter crush it you know she's uh throwing in some extra moves up there in the choreography I love that about her she's so she's so creative and like yeah has her what you know she knows what she likes and she's six now so she's getting

pretty wise about certain things she was like yo how come when I was on stage I had to be up there with 30 people and then some of these other kids are up there with five I was like because you do the Saturday morning class, which is the most popular That's why there's a lot of kids on the stage If you would have signed up for Thursday at 3 p.m. With six people in that class you would have been with six people Yeah She's like there's too many people they're crowded me. I can't do the jumps whatever it is and I was like, yeah You know, maybe we'll sign you up for another day. And then she was like, how come that one woman

was dancing by herself? I was like, that's because she's a soloist. And then they denoted on the program, like YAGP, Youth American Grand Prix. That woman's a competitor. She's special, she's very good, she works really hard. So she has the right, not because she's taking a class with nobody in it, but because she's a soloist.

If you wanna be a principal ballerina and you want to be a soloist, you got to work extra hard, you know? That's a good answer. Yeah, so we're chit chatting about that. And then, you know, of course, her teacher, I gave her a nice little Christmas gift with a card or the cash in it. Yeah. You know, to kind of... Sometimes you got to buy the attention. You know what I mean?

Yeah, appreciation. Appreciation. Appreciation. And we're going to do a lesson together. So I was like. You know what I mean? Yeah, appreciation. And we're gonna do a lesson together. So I was like, you know what? If you wanna go that route, you know this teacher really likes you already. She gives you extra attention in class.

We could do a private lesson together. You know, and then that way, you know, it'll put you on another path. It'll put you on a different path. And then I could kind of impress the lady. You know? You know how to you know how to dance yeah I know all this stuff man come on yeah you put on a show too you probably know about show production too anyway that's that's why

we've been up to um yeah so stay tuned guys this was I you know what we've been up to and we're gonna pump out more content honestly. Thank you to our sponsors. Yeah, that's right. Drew, Jason, Levan, JiloTV, Shintaro for Discount Code, Higashi Brand. A lot of interesting things happening with Higashi Brand. What are you guys up to? Combining efforts with a much bigger group.

Okay. What does that mean? I can't really talk about it yet, but it's, see the shirt that I'm wearing? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, Fuji Sports, maybe there might be a big collab thing coming. So, stay tuned for that. And then do we have to read Drew's?

Yeah. So I'll do that. So, Drew, it's from Drew. If you're in business, then you have customer churn. Whether you're building a startup, growing a mom and pop shop, or operating in a Fortune 500 powerhouse, Hakuin.ai measures, predicts, and improves your customer retention.

Link in description. Yeah. Thank you, Drew. You're the best. Yeah. Yep. All right. Thanks for listening, guys.

And we'll see you guys in the next episode.