Trash Taste Podcast - JOEY'S GETTING MARRIED! | Trash Taste #259

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Trash Taste. I'm your host today. I'm your host for today, Gantt. Join me once again, are the boys. It's been a while. It has been a while. I can tell. And some big things have happened since we've

since we've lost life. When were we last in the studio? That's a good question. Don't tell them. Yeah, they don't need to know. Not to break your guys' illusion or anything. But it's been a while. You know, we were traveling, I was cycling,

and then, you know, we were traveling. And Joe was busy getting engaged. Yeah. Yay. Yeah, congratulations. Yes. Yes. I got engaged finally. You finally did it. He finally did it. All right, so Joey, it's, you know, I've kind of like waited to ask more of my questions

for like this podcast because I saw the news. We don't ask, as a friend. Yeah. As a friend, you know, I saw the news, send the messages and stuff like that. Try to ask me more questions, but I don't ask unless it's for content. Joe, so, so tell me everything, Joe. Tell me everything.

First of all, congratulations. Oh, thank you. Welcome to the club. Thank you. Tell me everything. Tell me everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When did you plan? When did you plan this? How did this? Yeah. Oh, how long have you been thinking about this?

Um, well, the motivation was the fact that, uh, I've been with Aki for like almost nine years. So I figured, you know, and I turned 30. So I thought, I figured like, yeah, it's probably about time. I should, I should seal the deal. Um, but. When did I start planning this? That's a good question. Probably like February.

Oh, wow. Yeah, around February. Like earlier this year, I was like, yeah, I'm probably gonna do it this year. And then- Yeah, I didn't, I actually didn't really have like a concrete plan. You were just like, I know it'll probably.

Yeah, I was like, I'll probably do it sometime this year. If you already know you can't get a beat together for like forever, presumably, you'll, you probably feel like there's no rush because you're like, well, yeah. It's like she's going anywhere. I mean, we basically act like a, fucking merry couple already in a way, right?

I got to ask, was there like a moment when you were just like, yeah, it's going to happen, you know? Yeah, so, okay, so the, so I knew it was going to happen sometime this year, but I obviously didn't want to just do it in like, you know, a random location, right?

That doesn't mean anything. So I figured like, all right, well, if I'm going to propose, I have to do it in a place that's like memorable, but also like kind of unique, you know? So we were already going to go to South Africa, at Comic-Con Africa. Shout out Comic-Con Africa. Legitimately one of the best conventions I've ever been to. So we were already going to go to that at the end of April. So we were like, all right, well, it's our second time in Africa. And the first time around, we only just went to

South Africa, because it was our first time ever in the continent, let alone in the country. Right. It takes quite a while to get that. Yeah. It was like door to door. It was like 40 hours. Okay. So it was pretty brutal. But like, you know, we enjoyed our experience in Hannah spoke so much that when they decided to invite us back this time to Cape Town, the capital, we were like, yeah, fuck yeah, let's go. Let's go again. And then I suggested to Arkeal was like, okay, well, we couldn't do this last time around because, you know, we were just too busy exploring South Africa. So I figured if we're going to go all the way over there to basically the other side of the planet, let's try and kind of explore the vicinity. So we were like, all right, well then

let's figure out like, okay, what other place in Africa are we interested in going to? And we had a couple of ideas. And then just as a joke, I was like, I kind of like want to see what Madagascar is like. Because one, I don't know anyone around me who has ever been to Madagascar. Yeah. And two, I fucking love that movie. So I was like, I think the movie is similar to the continent or not. What do you mean? It's a nonfiction, right? Wow. It's definitely a documentary. At first.

Okay, right, right, right. You'll never guess where they end up. But, so I was like, okay, well, you know, I don't know anyone who's ever been to Madagascar, and it just seems like, kind of, you know, you hear about it, but you don't actually know anything about it. Like, I didn't know anything about the country, let alone Arki. So she's always down to, you know, explore new places like I am. So she was like, yeah, okay, let's go. So when she finally said yes to that idea, I was like,

that idea, I was like, okay, that might actually be kind of a dope, unique place to do it. Yeah. So we decided on that earlier in the year. And so I was like, okay, well, shit, I need to get a ring. Yeah. So I, you know, I'm sure you went through this as well. But going ring shopping without your partner knowing is a fucking struggle. Brother, I'll share my story after you share your story.

So, you know, like, you know, out of like, I basically was like, you know, as I Arki was going out. You know, I've looked at a schedule. I was like, okay, she's out with her friends on this day. So this is the perfect day to go out and actually start, you know, like figuring out what she wanted. But I always knew what kind of ring she wanted. So she always obviously was throwing me hints being like, oh, I like, I like this particular gemstone. And it's this particular gemstone called Alexandria, right?

Which is this, like, beautiful, it's kind of like halfway between an amethyst and a sapphire. So it's this kind of purpleish blue. gemstone that is purple at first, but then when you shine like a light on it, it kind of changes from like red to blue. That's correct. This is really, really pretty gemstone. So I thought like, okay, cool, easy. I know the gemstone that I want. Thank God, because, you know, diamonds are expansive and Raki's like, nah, diamonds are kind of wax. I don't give me a diamond. So my wallet was like, thank God. So, but the problem is, is that, you know, I don't know anyone else who knows anything about Alexander. It's the first time I ever heard of that gemstone, right? Yeah. So I'm going around

to these like ring shops all around Japan being like, uh, Alexandriteo, animuska. And they're like, what the fuck is that? So I was like, okay, well, I'm probably not going to get it in Japan. So I asked Luke, uh, who's a friend of mine who's got married, I was, uh, I was like, where did you get your ring? Because I think his ring as well was like a different kind of rare gemstone. and he linked me to this Etsy shop, which I'd never used Etsy before. This is my first time using Etsy. Wow.

Yeah. And I realized like, oh wow, okay, this is like pretty legitimate. I found he linked me to this, uh, jeweler that's based out in New York.

Oh, that does these like engagement rings. And I found this perfect Alexandria ring. I was like, oh, this is exactly what I wanted. Yeah. And it wasn't too bad of a price as well.

So, but I was kind of nervous because I was like, I've never used Etsy before and I'm buying it from halfway across the world. So I'm, I really hope. This is my engagement ring as well. And it's like quite a bit of money to drop. You know, broke up the prime day deal.

Yeah, but yeah. I was like, this is quite a bit of money to drop on an Etsy purchase. So I was like, all right, well, you know, if Luke got it from there, I'll trust it. Luckily, it came out fine. But the problem was was that I guess it got stuck in customs for quite a while. Oh. So it arrived, I think it was like three days before we're about to fly out. Yeah, if they mark it's like being quite expensive.

Yeah. It's like a lot of custom shit you got there's so annoying. Yeah. And I was fucking. stressing out because I was like, bro, if like, if this doesn't arrive on time, then I have to think of like a new place to do it. But thankfully it arrived and the ring looked perfect. So I was like, okay, I'll shove it in my bag and we'll go. Yeah. But then, you know, I knew I was going to do it in Madagascar, but I didn't know where I was going to do or when I was good to do. I was just like,

I'll find like a suitable time. I'm sure there'll be some time. That'll be cool. And we, we stayed at two resorts. One of them, one of them was this kind of hostel. in Antoninano Rivo, which is like the capital of Madagascar, which is like basically the big city. Hostel? That's like a fancy hostel. That's how I pronounce it. Hostel. Isn't it just hostel? Is it hostel? It's a hostel. I say hostel. That sounds like the like the French boozy brochure. I stayed in a hostel. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's a hostel. Hostel. Hostel. Put a, put an accent on the ear. Hostel. The heck.

or hostel, whatever. You know what I mean. Yeah. Well, hostel's like you share, like a house, right? Or like rooms. Kind of, well, it was more like a, I don't know. When we even in Switzerland, we stayed in a hostel, but it was like, we all had our own rooms,

which I would really consider a hostel. Yeah, it was kind of like halfway between like, kind of that and a hotel. Okay, okay. Because, you know, it's Madagascar. They're not exactly a rich country, so they don't have like the big, big hotels. Yeah.

So we got there and I was like, nah, this ain't the place. But then the same the place. second place we stayed at was kind of far off into the east. Yeah, it was in the middle of this random, like huge rainforest in Madagascar called Mangiarano. And there was like, it took us like four hours to drive out there. And there's, there was legitimately nothing around it. It's just like this giant rainforest and smack bang in the middle. There's this beautiful forest resort. Yeah. And the moment I got there, I was like, yeah, okay, I think this is

the place we're going to do it. Um, yeah. So I was just like kind of finding the time and I was gonna do it like kind of after like this nice dinner that we had yeah at the resort which you can you guys can see in my vlog that I uploaded um but then the moment we got back to the room and I was like getting ready to like pull the ring out like he was like I'm sleepy I'm gonna go to bed I was just like god damn it this is the perfect time to do it it's like we just had a beautiful dinner and now we're back in our room and we get to see this like you know, beautiful night, you know, rainforest and everything like that.

And I was like, oh, this is romantic. Nah, the lighting would be bad for the video. Yeah, and she was like, nah, dog, I'm gonna bed. Was there any part of you that was like, I should do it at the dinner? Because sometimes I think people do, but then it's also around other people. Yeah.

No, I thought about doing it at the dinner as well, but I guess like, you know, already from the dinner, like, I felt like, nah, this is, I don't know. Like, I had that gut feeling where I was like, nah, this isn't really the vibe. You can always like tell with your partner a lot of times because I knew, that, you know, some people like being in, like, a crowded place when they get the engagement

and, you know, get the applause as well from other people. I knew, like, Sydney wasn't that type of person. Yeah, Archie's the same, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I knew she wanted something a little bit more intimate. Yeah, for sure. So I was like, all right, you know, whatever, I'll think about it in the morning. So we went to bed, and then obviously the jet lag was kicking her ass. So Aki got up super early in the morning to just, like, go out onto the balcony,

just, like, see the rainforest. And I woke up and I saw she was out on the balcony. I was like, all right, this is the time. Like immediately I knew this is the time. So I secretly placed the camera down and then, yeah. And it was to look over there. Yeah. I legitimately pulled the, yo, look, right.

All right, moment to moment. What was going through your mind? Like, okay. So I, I, we were cool. Yeah, yeah. I need a play by play of this because I have such a vivid memory of just like, this is happening, this is happening, and then it would kind of just be,

became a blur for me. Oh, legitimately, yeah. I thought I was prepared, but my heart was like beating out my chest. I mean, like, you know, in my case, I feel it was like even harsher because I was doing this first thing in the fucking morning. Like, I woke up, saw she was outside and my brain was like, do it now. So I was like, all right, so my, I immediately woke up. Yeah.

And I was like scouraging around for the ring. I put the camera down and then I was like repeating in my head like, okay, I'll probably like kind of do it in this way. I'll do the classic look over there maneuver. Hopefully she falls for it. Otherwise it'd be mad, awkward. Oh God. But you know, luckily she fell for it.

Did you actually say look over there or just like, oh, there's something cool over there? Yeah, yeah, because she was out on the balcony and she was bird watching. Oh, okay. So she had like her binoculars and she was, you know, bird watching, you know, because there was like quite a bit of wildlife out and about.

So yeah, I got out and, you know, I was like, hey, what are you doing? And she's like, oh, I'm just bird watching. And I was like, oh, okay, you're looking. yeah, that's cool. Oh, look at those birds over there. And it's just like, what birds? And then I was like, now, go. Got down on one knee. And I legitimately don't remember what I said. Yes, I was legitimately the same. So many people, like, when we told, you know, our friends that that had happened. Yeah. You know, a lot of the,

a lot of my, my, my, what did you say to her? You know, like, do you remember what you said? I was like, legitimately. It's a fucking bloke. Yeah. And I mean, Aki remembers, because obviously she heard her, but like,

yeah, I said something, you know, along the lines of like, you know, it's been long enough and I feel like it's time and,

you know, like, she's just, been a fucking wild. Yeah, she's probably just get it's played, you know. Yeah,

I, basically, the, the pre-written speech that I had. Yeah, the pre-written speech that I had just fucking went out the window. Yeah.

And I was just stumbling on my words and then I, I managed to, get something out. And then, yeah, luckily she said yes. And that's what happened. And then immediately after that, you can see it in the video, but I was like, oh yeah, by the way, I haven't told your parents yet. And she was like, what? And there's a good reason for that. It's because Aki, especially Aki's mom, is such a fucking blabber mouth that I knew she was going to spoil it. And like, in my head, I was like, well, okay, Aki's parents, I know they like me.

So I'm sure if I told them after it happened, they wouldn't necessarily be like mad about it. Yeah. So yeah, in the video you can see like I immediately called Arki's mom and she was like, oh my God, I'm going to have a heart attack. You know, she was like really cute about it. And then I obviously called Arki's dad after that as well and everything was good. And yeah. And then we enjoyed the rest of our trip together.

And we legitimately thought we were like, should we let people know at the convention? Yeah. But then I thought like, it would be kind of cool, but at the same time, I kind of want to like enjoy just like the privacy for a little bit, at least for the rest of the trip.

So we didn't tell anyone at the convention. And then the moment we got back, we announced it. How was the afterglow? After you did it. Oh, dude, I was on fucking cloud. Like, it felt so good. Because like, I knew she was going to say yes,

but at the same time, I don't know if this is just like my slight pessimistic side. Yeah. One percent of me was like, what if she's like, nah? Like, what if? Like, it's not, it's not entirely, you know, zero possibility. Yeah, it gets to have a very fun and serious conversation.

Yeah, exactly. That'll be like, what? Turn the camera off. No, but luckily she said yes, and then we, yeah, just enjoyed the rest of our trip together to Madagascar and, yeah. What was the internet like? Fasted in Madagascar. I was just wondering.

No, it was pretty bad. It was really, really bad. The whole time I was like, damn. I was just, could I play games there? Nah. Like, we struggled to, like, we finally managed to call Archie's mom in the video, but I think that was like the third or fourth attempt of calling. Just because the internet, because, you know, we're in the middle of the fucking rainforest

in Madagascar. There's, like, no internet whatsoever. There wasn't Wi-Fi, but it was like fucking 1G. Like, it was, it wasn't barely anything. We could barely maintain the call. But, yeah, we managed to get it through. And, yeah, and then we enjoyed the rest of our truth together. And then we were like, well,

You know, this is all cool and all, but let's just hope we don't get malaria from this trip. Luckily, we didn't, hopefully. Was the hotels nice? I fucking love just being in a lazy-ass hotel. Oh, yeah. Oh, dude, this, like, this, like, forest lodge in Madagascar was just, like, it looks really cool. Insane.

And it was so cheap. Like, incredibly cheap because I later found out that apparently... Just going to get all the way to Madagascar. Yeah, yeah. Later found out that, I think Madagascar is, like, the fourth or fifth poorest country in world or something. Oh, like the GDP is like really, really bad. Wow. Yeah, I can't imagine there's a lot of industry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So tourism must be one of, yeah, tourism is like one of the big, big things. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's, it's not very, I, yeah,

there you go. It's not that great. Okay. It's in the top 10%. Um, but the, the hotel stuff were like so incredibly nice and, and just like the, the rainforest walks that we went on afterwards, uh, we got to see like, while lemurs and, you know, just, um, just like all this like insane, insane fucking wildlife. And you saw King Julian? Kind of. It wasn't the exact same lemur. We saw all the other lemurs, but we were like,

Arki was like, where's King Julian? And our guide was like, oh, the King Julian's down in the south. God, imagine having to like, you have this amazing wildlife. People just walk up, they're like, yo, it's King Julian. I want to move it, move it. It's just like, oh my God. No, you know what was really funny was that, I'm sure like all the guys, were like aware of just how many people come to Madagascar

because of that movie, because the first guide that took us around, he was basically like our driver for the entire time. It was super nice too. The first thing he said was just like, you like to move it? They know. Cancel the fucking vacation.

And I'm just like, oh, you're aware. And he's like, of course, it's like, half the people who come to Madagascar wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that movie. Including, including this man. Including us. Yeah. So, unfortunately, we didn't get to see everything because it like, it doesn't look it on the map.

But it's huge. Madagascar is a massive country. Yeah. I actually had another friend who went and he did a drive around it. He said it was like 12 hour drive from top to bottom. Yeah. The guide was actually like if you want a full, full experience of the entire country, then they recommend like two weeks.

We were only there for five days. Wow. Yeah, it's a huge fucking country. It looks beautiful though. Yeah. Absolutely beautiful. People there were super nice. The food was good.

How's the food? Food was interesting. It could be because, you know, because Madagascar is a, used to be a French colony. So, uh, everyone speaks French, which is really weird.

God. And the food is like, it's this weird combination of African, like traditional African food and with like a slight French twist to it. Okay. Um, yeah. So like,

uh, the sandwich is there, the baguette's there. Shit. Insane. Insane sandwiches. Okay. Uh,

I packed. so many fucking bagged sandwiches away while I was in Madagascar. But yeah, really, really cool, really lovely people. Yeah, just really interesting, like, history behind it as well. Like, again, knew nothing about it. Yeah. So just, like, going there and, like, actually, you know, getting in touch with, like, the actual nature and everything was, like, really, really cool.

Highly recommend. You just, like, the only issue, I guess, is that, like, you just have to be prone to just knowing that, you know, because it is like a, you know, a third world country, like, you need to be aware of just like the hygiene and everything like that. Because although we didn't get malaria, hopefully, um, I did like come out of Madagascar with like this really, really bad throat infection. Right. Uh, Aki reckons it's because, like, maybe the, we went to like a pub on the last day and I was like knocking back beers. And our guide reckons that the glass might have been like not

clean properly. Right. Right. So I ended up with this like terrible throat infection where the first couple of days in South Africa, I just couldn't talk. Oh wow. Because it was just like clogged up and really, really bad. Luckily I'm over and now, but and then obviously we had to take malaria medication every day. Yeah. Just makes you wonder how back in the fucking day. Yeah. Because you mentioned sending a random, like, British peasant.

Yeah. Just be like, yeah, just fucking figure it out. Yeah. They're like, how the fuck? How the hell did they survive? Or like when the French first arrived. Like, how the fuck did they like figure that out? I think Europe just trained us to be immune to like so many more diseases than. I mean, that's what made us op. Yeah, that's what made us op. We just go to places. And then we would bring the plague to them most of the time.

Not the other way, right? We had the natural immunity. Yeah, no, legit, legit. Yeah, so we were there for five days and it was perfect. And then we flew from there to Cape Town. And we were there in Cape Town for about a week. My one regret in Cape Town was that I couldn't get to go see the One Piece location. Oh, the Live Action One Piece filming location?

Because the One Piece Live Action was mostly filmed in Cape Town. Yeah. And they have the Going Merry. Oh shit. Like the real life going Mary, which is apparently in some like film studio, it's like inside of a film studio. And I tried so hard to be like, please get me into that. I want to see that.

But unfortunately I couldn't get a time to go see it. Right. Wait, so how long did it take you to get to Madagascar? Because presumably you have to fly from Cape Town? No, so to get to Madagascar, we took a flight from Narita to first Dubai. Oh, Emirates? Yeah, with Emirates, which is about a, what, 10 and a half hour flight, something like that? That flight's like 11, right?

Yeah, about that much. Yeah, it's like 10 or 11 hours. And then Emirates does one flight a day from Dubai to Madagascar. So you flew. It's like a lot everywhere. Yeah. It's kind of ridiculous. But it was interesting.

It's kind of like a big travel hub. Yeah. But it was interesting as well because this flight from Dubai to Madagascar, it's technically two flights in one because it stops over. It stops at Seychelles, which is this like island resort in Africa, which I knew the name of, but I didn't know it was like there. Yeah. And when we stopped by in Seychelles, I was like, shit, I should, I should have stopped by here.

This place looks fucking awesome. Because like, I think like 90% of the flight got off at Seychelles. And it was like, Aki myself and maybe like three other people that got off at Antonin Arivo. Like, damn, they should have made a movie here. Yeah. I was like, where's the Madagascar sequel where they go to Seychelles. So, yeah, so if we end up going back to South Africa, which we might, honestly, because we love that convention so fucking much, might go to Seychelles.

Nice. Pretty dope place. But yeah, highly recommend Madagascar. Really, really cool. Just such a unique experience. And yeah, I'm glad I went there. And now it's like, oh my God, it's like a core memory. Now it's a core memory.

Because, fuck, the Seychelles looks great. Yeah, I know. It's really, it's apparently, uh, we were asking the guide about Seychelles because we knew nothing about it. And they were like, yeah, Seychelles and Mauritius, which is another island country off the coast of Africa are like two really, really, really popular, um, honeymoon destinations for a lot of South Africans. Yeah.

Well, there's a, so there's an idea. Well, there's an idea for your honeymoon. That's an idea for our honeymoon if we were to say shell. 18 hour flight. It's only an 18 hour flight. Not bad. Not too bad. But also another great thing about Madagascar was that, I mean, obviously, everything

was so fucking cheap. Like, I remember we went to this like really, really nice bakery in Antonananariva, and I had this, I had the biggest fucking baguette sandwich that I've ever had in my life. It was legitimately like half a baguette. Yeah. And I paid for it. And I was like, oh, it's like $3. I'm just like, that's so fucked up.

Do you know how much this baguette would be in Japan? But you can't even get a baguette in Japan. And it tastes bad. Yeah, exactly. What about America? Yeah, right? This thing would be like $25. Can't even get an egg for that price. You'd have to clara that shit and pay an installments. Yeah, probably. Yeah. You can't even buy it up front.

Oh my God. Dude, that's awesome. Yeah. Fuck, I want to go so bad. Every time I think about going to these places and then I see there's like three layovers, I'm like, I'm good. Yeah, I mean, look, like, we went with business, but, But, you know, it was still a long, long flight. And you had a convention to go to as well. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You had a final destination.

Yeah, and the convention was super fucking. I don't know why. Like, taking a flight, I'm like, easiest thing in my life. Taking two flights in one row, I'm like, okay. And when it's like, when it's like, you're gonna have a layover twice, I'm like, I'm just gonna kill myself. I like layovers.

Fuck, what? I hate layovers. I don't know, it just lets, it just breaks it up because, I don't know, being on a flight for longer than like 12 hours. I'm like, I started to get like, I need to walk. I need to get out. We were discussing and I realized that Gant, when he goes to the UK,

he prefers to do the layover route. Yeah, right. And I prefer to do the direct one. Yeah. Like a 14 hour flight direct to the UK. And I'm like, why would you wanna take a layover? No, I think I'm on your side. Why would you want to layover?

Yeah. I just like the break in between. I don't know. What? Nah, because I'm like chilling. And then I don't have to like, then, because they need to be alert and awake when you get to get to the airport, right?

Because there's security and stuff. And like, I have to completely wake up basically for that. And then, And then then I have to get comfortable again on the flight and then, you know, plan out how I'm gonna- Also, I feel like I've conditioned myself to be like, the moment I get off a flight is where I'm at my destination.

Yeah. So when I get off the flight and I'm not at a destination, then my brain is just like. Although I don't mind if it's like, the first leg is like one hour. If it's like a one-hour flight, not up down, like whatever, because it doesn't even count it ever, but it's like a 12-hour into the one-hour labor, that fucking sucks. Yeah, for us it was a 12-hour flight

to a three-hour layover and then another 11-hour flight. With a slight stop at St. Shells. You're doing like circadian rhythm shit at that point. You know what I mean? No, I don't know. I don't know. I just, if I'm in like sitting in one place for too long, I just start getting like real stir crazy.

And, you know, even with like a comfortable seat, I just, I can't sit down my ass for that long without needing to just get up and walk. And just do something, even if, uh, even if it throws, off the rhythm a bit. Um, because I kind of like treat a long flight as, you know,

a mini vacation in itself when I'm just like out of contact of the world. Um, I kind of, yeah, I like traveling sometimes just because it's my excuse not to think about work. I don't know how your brain, your brains are wide, but I'm like,

damn, I can just watch a marathon everything I want to do. Uh, this is, this is great. I don't have to worry about work emails. It's my, um,

this time the fucking, I want to bring like a HDMI cable because, The seats always have HDMI cables. Mm-hmm. I wanna bring one and you can't do the setup. I bought a Kindle for this trip because I was like, we already have so much luggage and I don't wanna have to log around like a bunch of books.

Yeah. So I finally bought one and I was kind of, I've always been like weirdly kind of a hater of the Kindle. I don't know why because like when I, I don't know about you guys, but when I don't, I know with you, but because you don't, I like the book. Yeah. Yeah.

I like the physical page turn. Yeah, yeah. You know, so when I saw like My sister, like, you got to get a Kindle. It's like the best purchase I ever made. I was like, whatever, bro. It's a fucking screen. I don't want to read on a screen.

But then when I actually bought the Kindle and used it on this flight, I was like, all right, I'm converted. Like, this thing is kind of goaded. I mean, it's kind of convenient, you know. Super convenient. I read like four manga series on the flight. And I was like, wow, this would have been an absolute nightmare if I had it in physical.

Yeah, exactly. So second question. Did Raki know? What? Did Rake no? that I was gonna propose. Yeah. She had an inkling.

The thing is that- She knew. Yeah, she- Let's be real. I think, okay, so here's the thing is that like, she told me like a little bit later when we got back that apparently she thought, I think in about three separate occasions

that I was gonna propose to her. Well, that's the, that's the, that's the, part about it. That's the technique, because now hearing this story, you didn't know when you were gonna propose. So if you just confuse yourself, you confuse your targets as well. Exactly. It's like last, the first time she thought was, I think it was last year,

we took a trip to Hiroshima. Yeah. And we went to Miyajima. Because we'd never been to Mirjima and I'd always wanted to go. So, you know, and I was like, oh, we, you know, just the two of us haven't really been on like a vacation in Japan for a long time. She thought that's when you were going to provide. Yeah.

And when she saw the hotel that I was booking in Miyajima, she was like, I legitimately thought, you're gonna propose me there. And I was like, I'm just rich. I'm kidding. I just got the bands. I don't know. I'm referring Jackie's a bitch.

I'm like, I know, I got the bands. I'm trying to give you a good time, dog. Hope that's an out of clip comment. I don't take a word for something at least. Yeah, so she was like,

I legitimately thought you were going to propose to me then. I was like, motherfucker wasn't even on my mind. I just wanted to have a good. You don't have the money I saved on that dam and ring. Exactly. We're going to 15 results. Exactly.

I am so jealous. And have I ever talked about my proposal story on this podcast? Yeah. I think you have. Yeah. How it was a disaster. It was a disaster with an asterisk. It is disaster with an asterisk way.

It still went right at the end of the day. Yeah. But, yeah, Sydney knew immediately. That's fair. Um, and I think the second thing I kind of miss, uh, which you explained where you, uh, you know, you didn't tell the parents here after the phone. Um, I had like, I really, I had almost like the opposite experience where because city's parents are very traditional parents, you know, I wanted to ask for her father's permission before the, you know, before the proposal. For sure, yeah. Because of us living abroad and us, you know, not having a lot of opportunities to meet each other, I wanted to do it in person.

Sure. I planned this proposal fucking like months and months in advance. I think the, I knew I was going to propose April 2019. Oh yeah. On her birthday because I was like that, that was it. So I made up that mind, I made up my mind like fucking ages ago. But I wanted, when I asked her parents' permission, I wanted to do it, okay, old-fashioned way, you know, in person, I feel like that it just means more to them. I could do it in call and they'd be fine with that, but I think I feel like it would mean more to them if we do it in person. But most of the time, I'm only in America for one time in the year. Yeah. Right. And the previous year, that year, it was August. So basically, I would be asking her father's permission in August. And then, you know, planning to do it in April of next year. That's a very long time. Sure. So I didn't make it known.

I didn't make it known that. That it would be a while before I was going to do proposal, but I explained that. I wanted to ask her, you know, your permission in person. Sure. It was, you know, teared up. We hugged. And it was very, very beautiful moments.

What I didn't know was we would. we would suddenly decide to visit her family that Christmas that year. Oh. Which wasn't in the books when I planned it out. Right. No, I'm so good for it. I'm good for it, Dad, I promise. Let me cook, Dad.

I just remember. I'll do it, I promise. I just remember this, the probably the longest car ride I've had with her dad where we get to, we get to the place. I remember we were, it was like a few days afterwards. And we were driving to go to a dinner or something. It was like, you know, men, dudes being in a car, just enjoying each other's company. For sure.

And then, you know? The way you said that was so fun. And then just awkward silence. And then he goes, so, still haven't proposed I see. And I was like, why do you have to say it like that? So what's going on with that? And I'm like, you know, I kind of feel like I'm in an FBI interrogation or something right now. You know, it's just like, I'm sorry, sir.

It is, it is still in the plans. I didn't, we did not plan to come back for, for Christmas. I swear to God, sir, it is, is this, it is still in the works. Do not worry, I haven't changed my mind or anything. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, so fucking happy for you. Thank you. And yeah, awesome, thank you.

Thank you. Welcome to the club. Hell yeah. So, I'm glad you didn't make my mistake of not knowing her or just like knowing, but not being confident in her ring size until. Oh, yeah. No, that was the other thing, right? Is that like, I had written down on my notes.

Like, I remember it was like fucking years ago that I had this like slumdog millionaire moment where like, I remember we went shopping one time and we were just casually looking at because we both obviously like to wear a lot of rings. Size of you, by the way. Yeah. And I was just like, and you know, no, it wasn't even that. It was just like, she was like, oh, I should probably like know my actual ring sizes for my fingers just to make it easier.

So we were all checking, you know, checking all of our ring sizes. And then when she got to the ring finger of her left hand, I was fucking locked in. It was just like, I must retain this to memory. And I specifically remember she looked at it and was like, okay, US size 8. US size eight. She said that out loud and I was like, oh, word. Yeah, yeah. Got on my phone. I mentioned she was set outside. In girl talk, in girl talk, this is please catch this out of you

that I'm giving you right now. Ah, yes, ring size eight. I'm sending you one for the talk. Catch it. US eight, UK 10. Yes, Japanese 15. Yeah, and she was like, I was like, oh, ring size eight. And I was like, oh, okay, word. Yeah, we quickly wrote that down.

You were like the actual one of the Alexandra and you were like, yeah, she gave hints. And knowing Aki, I was like, there's not a hint. She really went like, this is the ring. Because I would want if I was getting married. Hypothetically speaking, you know. This would be a great narrow ring. This and like this size, yeah, it'd be pretty lit. You're like, I think I got the hint.

Yeah. I was like, hang on, she's sending me signals right now. I think she wants me to buy her mom this ring. Yeah. So I had it down in my notes. I was like US size 8. And so when I put the order in, I was like, perfect. When I got to the ring size thing, US size 8, bam, got it in.

When you got it, did you think, huh, this is kind of big? No, I didn't think that at all. I looked at it. I looked at it. I looked at it. I would try it on. Oh, no, I didn't try it on. I would just be like, see if I could rock it.

No, I looked at it. The moment it arrived, I looked at it, made sure that, you know, the build was good. And it was like the right gemstone. And I was like, okay, cool, put it back in the ball. I note to self. If I ever get one, I'll try it on. Yeah, probably best to try on. No, it fits me.

So then when she put it on and it was like, not huge, but I think we realized, yeah, afterwards we were like, she was actually a ring size six. Now, you got a thumb ring. Yeah, I think I got her thumb. Legitably, I think it was like a thumb, it's for the thumb. And I was so confused because I was like,

no, I remember, I have this note from like years ago where you specifically said ring size eight. I have the same note to my phone. You get married and you start gaslighting. Yeah, yeah. I think you said this, like, to be honest. Either I remembered wrong or you lied to me. I remember I had the size chart on my phone as well,

where I had the alley-up moment as well. I think every partner has the alley-up moment. But it was like so long ago that I thought, you know, that's where my anxiety came in. Yeah. I go to the ring shop, I'm like, it's this ring size, and then I get it. I see it, and I'm like, maybe I'm overthinking this.

It doesn't feel right, doesn't look right, but maybe it's just my anxiety here. Duffy finger. Yeah, my dumb ass was so confident. I was just like, yeah, this is perfect. You didn't touch it? I didn't even touch it. I wrote that shit down.

I was like, nah, nailed that shit. God, I wish out that confidence, man. That came to bite you back. That's a Joey special. Yeah, yeah, just got it. No, but then she was like, oh, it's a, you know, I put it on her and then we both looked at him was like, oh, it's a bit big.

And then I was like, oh, I guess you lost weight your fingers. So true. I didn't quite nail the dunk, but I did receive the ball. I was like, I'll save this. But yeah, so now I have to look for a place that changes ring sizes.

And I didn't realize that apparently, I don't know, maybe this is just like me looking everything up, but apparently if the ring size is like more than one off, then it gets kind of expensive to fix. And you kind of get limited on where you can fix it. Because we went to a place near our house and we were like,

going to cost you about 30,000 yen to fix this ring size. And I was just like, it's not too bad. It's quite expensive. Yeah, but that's a lot for just change ring sizes. So we're still trying to find a place that, you know, is going to do it in a rate that won't, you know, costs like fucking a portion of the actual ring price. This is when I feel lucky for having such a fucking large family because the person that did my ring was just a family friend in Thailand in my extended network in Thailand.

Yeah, you know what? I might ask one of, you know. Just ask one of Gant's family. Yeah, or I could ask like, you know, one of 70 of Arki's cousins. And I'm sure one of them works in jewelry or something. I don't know. But yeah, we'll figure that out. But yeah. So like, with like wedding planning, do you start, you're like,

all right, well, we'll figure out now. Or do you know like before? Like, how do you do that? Oh no. So yesterday, actually, we just went to our first place. Oh, cool. Oh shit, you already like, oh, fuck, no time wasted. Yeah, because, uh, AKie was like, you know what?

I don't want to be one of- He's like, you know what, I've actually already planned it all. Yeah, I'm like, I don't want to be one of those couples that's engaged for like five or 10 years, you know? So it's just like, you know, we might as well just do it. So yeah, we went to our first place yesterday just to, and you know, not exactly to be like, this is the place,

but like more so because the two of us have no fucking idea what even the range is or like, you know, what you can even do. I mean, that's not cheap, that's for fucking sure. Yeah, I mean, we didn't, fucking Japan. Oh, yeah. I mean, we knew that going into it. So we're going around to like all sorts of different locations around like Japan and stuff like that.

So like yesterday we actually just went back to Saitama. Oh, nice. Yeah, because we're looking for one place in Saitama. And I don't know if we're necessarily going to do it there. But it was just a nice to get a idea of like what they can do. That's fun. That's fun. Yeah, it was super fun.

Apparently, I didn't know this, but in Japan, it's, they call it a bridal fair. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And it's like a full, like, convention. experience that you get where like they obviously show you the locations and everything,

but we also got to like try the food for free and, you know, get like a full experience. Yeah, yeah, they like sell you. They go all out on it. But so, yeah, it was really cool. So we went to our first location yesterday just to get kind of an idea of like, all right, what's the price range, you know, what can they do? What can't they do? All that kind of stuff.

And man, it's already getting stressful. I will say that. Just like, because, you know, you obviously want it to count. Yeah. So just find. And it's so expensive. Yeah, and it's so expensive. So I was like finding that right location.

And also, but here's the other thing is that like, I don't know, have you ever been to like a wedding in Japan? Uh, no. No, actually I haven't. Every friend I've had here has gotten married abroad. Overseas, yeah. Even if they live in Japan, they're like, yeah, I'm leaving. Yeah, so in Japan, in Japanese weddings, they do this thing, which is like very traditional,

even for like a Western style wedding here, where each guest who comes to the wedding has to give you money. give money. Typically, it's around 30,000 yen per person. I'm gonna start doing that. And that's mostly, that's mostly there to essentially help the, instead of like wedding gifts. That's like the help fund the wedding. Yeah, it's basically to help the couple fund the wedding. Yeah. We're probably not going to do that just because it just feels kind of weird to do it. Because it's like, you know, in my head, in our head, it's like, we're just happy that you're even

fucking here. Yeah. I can celebrate the wedding. Yeah. You want to spot? Yeah. I mean, look, I'll take 300 bucks for me. Oh, God, I owe you after the girl's boss. Can we pay on the trash taste card? Yeah. Do you take card, Joey? I said pay pay as well. Just pay pay me on the day.

I guess it makes sense, right? Yeah. I guess also you're inviting like your boss. Yeah. I guess I would be like, yo. Yeah. That's the reason why like so many Japanese weddings are like 300 people.

Yeah, well, I'm gonna ask what size? and stuff as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not gonna do that much, I think. We're probably looking at like, I don't know, 60. Yeah. No size. Yeah, like that.

Yeah. How many people were your wedding? About 64. Okay, yeah, it's probably gonna be about that. Yeah. I know the number. What'd you mean? He had to invite them all.

It's my list, Connor. I wouldn't know the exact number. Well, we did, we did like a quick, like, first draft of, like, the people were gonna invite. Yeah. You know, just to be like, because we had no idea. We were like, okay, a hundred seems like a lot, but it's like, do we even have like 100 people that we want to invite?

It's always tough. I feel like, because when I think about friends and then like, you're like, I got to invite this one friend. And then you're like, all right, well, if I invite him, I got to invite these other guys. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. The wedding politics that comes with. I mentioned there's a lot of politics.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it's going to be about 60 to 70 people, I'd say, because like the majority of Aki's family is probably not going to be able to go. because they all live in the Philippines. So we're probably gonna do like some kind of like, because I'm going to the Philippines later this year. So probably like some kind of like engagement party kind of thing.

So yeah, similar to what I had to do. I was gonna highly recommend that because I was like, the reason I split up my Thai family from like, you know, the original English wedding was because I was like, I don't wanna pay for. Yeah. This family, this would like quadruple the cost. Yeah, exactly.

Holy shit. Yeah, I was like, I was like, okay, so, Aki, I've got, I've got two cousins who both live in Japan, so that's gonna be fine. How many cousins do you have? And she's like, oh, so on my mom's side, I've got like 60. I was like, stop. No more. We're gonna, we're gonna do something in the Philippines. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know about, I feel like cousins is such a tough one, right? Because like, I feel like, some cousins I just don't really know. Yeah. I feel like I should, I feel like I should, I have to invite you because we're like loosely related. Well, how many cousins do you have? Is it a lot? Not that many, like maybe eight. Because I legitimately only have two. Because on my dad's side, I don't have any cousins. Oh. And then again, like,

laughed in the southeast station. Yeah, right? Right, like, and then if we're talking like, we've got about like 30 cousins and like. I think I have more cousins than both of you can find. Easily. How many cousins do you have? That you remember. But yeah, I just feel like I wouldn't really want someone there

if I just like didn't know them. Yeah, right. You know, and I feel like that's fair. But then some, some family members get annoyed about that. They're like, How dare you not invite Timothy? I'm like, I've fucking never spoke to Timothy. Like, what do you mean?

You met him once when you were three years old. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, okay, yeah, sure. Oh, yes, of course, Timothy. Yeah, I'm not a big whole, I think some people put quite a lot of emphasis and like, but you're related by blood. I'm like, yeah, but I don't really care.

Yeah, but I don't know them. I just feel like, friend, like, if I actually, like, spend time with them, that's way more important. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, so there's a, there's a lot of planning, but we do, we do want to get it done, just like as soon as possible,

just because, you know, I feel like it's just gonna... Just get it fucking over with. Yeah. We just need a bit shit in it. Just having to get married. We just don't want to prolong it, you know? Are you going to get a wedding planner? Oh, 100%.

Yeah. Luckily in all venues in Japan, they give you a wedding planner. You get a wedding team in your hand. Yeah, exactly. God damn. The wedding planner we talked to yesterday was so sweet because I guess, like, she has done a lot of weddings in Japan with Japanese couples, but she'd never done, like, a proper, like, Western

in a way because I found out in a lot of Japanese weddings at Japanese venues is that the weddings are really short. Like they legitimately just do, they do the actual wedding and then they do the dinner and stuff like, yeah, the reception. And then after the- It's probably like, well, I don't have inconvenience people. Well, they do the wedding itself

and then they do the reception and then once the reception is done, that's it. Yeah, everyone just leaves. And it's like, and it's this style of like, well, okay, if people want to leave, they can leave, and if people want to continue, like, party on drinking, then they do it in a second location. Right, right. Yeah, the Nizhikai, right,

which is, like, not really a thing in the West. It's like, you just do it at the venue. Yeah, you do it all in one location, right? I feel like most of it venues that you drink till pretty late anyway. Yeah, exactly. So we told her that we wanted to do it in that style, and she was like, okay, like, that's definitely doable, but it's definitely not common.

And I was like, yeah, well, make it happen. Yeah. I don't care if it's calling them off. Make it happen. Yeah. That wedding care must have been quite intense. Yeah. Was it huge?

Was there like a lot of people there? Yeah. So the one we went to, it's this like big chain of wedding venues called Anniversary. You've probably seen it before. I mean the wedding business here is no joke. I know that they've like conglomerated it. Yeah. Like everything's owned by massive companies.

Yeah. The whole thing's wrong. So we decided to check out the like, the big conglomer at first, just kind of get a vibe before we start hitting up the more private locations. Right.

Just to get a vibe of like, you know, what they can do. And yeah, the one we went to in, it's up in Saitama. The location is like super nice, but the problem is that like, I don't know if this is the case

with a lot of wedding venues. There's not much else around it. Uh, no. Because, you know, it's like, it's not like in Japan. It's not like in the West where like, you know, there's like a restaurant nearby or like, you know,

it's like in the middle of the city. Maybe it isn't totally. but at least the one in Saitama, there was actually fuck all around. Yeah, that's just Saitama. That's Saitama in general. It was like, fuck all around us. I was like, it really much depends on what vibe

of the venue you do want. Yeah. Because if you have a city one, you're probably gonna have a lot more like anemitees like, yeah, around it. Do they try not offer you like a fake church? Yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that. They had the fake church.

Although the one we went to was like the most traditional looking church I've ever seen. That was like the full fucking pipe organ and everything. And they were like, oh, yeah, we have another one that has an actual stained glass window of, like, Christian things in it. I went to a, I was waiting for someone else.

I had like a two hour free. You know, it's awkward where you like go to meet someone and even another thing in two hours, but you can't really go home. Yeah. And I was in, I don't know where I was, somewhere in Tokyo, like the, like, businessy area. There was, in this building, they were just having like a house building fair. So I was like, oh, check it out. So I went to this house building fair.

And immediately I got like assaulted by, not assaulted. Like attacked by like five Japanese men that were like, Hello, would you like to buy a house? Yeah. And I was like, no, not really. But then they were like kind of showing me around. It was so fucking intense. And they were like, if you commit to building a house

of this right now, we will give you Nintendo Switch. I was, I'm serious. What? I have 100% serious. Wait, is there a switch two? No, it was the other switch. It was the other switch. This was like a year ago.

Right. It's like, they better come with the new Mario card. I'm like, I'm not listening unless you have a switch to actually. It was like a year ago. And like, they were like, they like, sent me down. And they were like, what did you give you a tour anyway? Yeah. And they were like, here's what we can do.

Here's the prices. And it was all like, it was all like very methodical. Yeah. And then they just gave me a tour of these like, it was a massive fucking building. Yeah. Of like these houses, fake houses and fake bathrooms and all these guard systems. And I was like, oh, fuck it out. This is like ridiculous.

And at the end, they were like, yeah, if you commit to building a house with us right now, which I was like, I don't want to do that. Who just does that? Yeah. Yeah, I was like, I'm, I just showed up because I was curious what was going on. Yeah, yeah. And they were like, if you commit right now, we'll give you a Nintendo Switch and you can enter the gacha. And I was like, okay, now hold on.

I'm like commit right now. Wait, what, one gontag. They had a giant wheel, like a giant wooden wheel. I'm not kidding. And there was a woman who a whole job was spinning the gatchel wheel if you committed to buying and building a house. Wait, what could you win? There was like, there was like, it was like, it was like a 10 grand off your house, potentially, or you could get like some cleaning products.

And then they had a Hazaret as well, like a prize where like you'd get some pocket tissues like some generic thing. But they were literally doing a free switch and then you got a gacha if you, if you committed to building the house. If the wheel doesn't say like buy one, get one free then I'm not. Yeah, I was like, you know, free house. It's like, what is the SSR rate here? Like, just tell me that and I'm, I'm locked in.

If this isn't like, wheel of fortune stakes, then like, I just be like a D and I'm like, Just throw away the fucking house. And then you're like, all right, I'll get the SSI. You're like, all right, I'll just buy another house. I'll buy another house. I want another spin. Yeah, give me another. Well, because the wall's worst expensive.

It was like, um, you just buy an entire neighborhood at the end. How much for a 10 pool? Yeah, right? I'm like, just give me the 10 pool. What kind of house do I have to build to get an SSR? I'll buy the neighborhood. Give me a 10 pool. What are the pity rolls looking like?

That's the Mr. Beast video. It's just like, oh. How many pity pools? Guys, I am doing a hundred pool. today. I was just like, why is there Gatcha when I'm building a house? Like, that seems weird. But like, yeah, so they were doing it and, um, because it was a, it seemed like the way they were, they were showing me. Yeah. Basically it was like if you had like some kind of land or whatever, they would just kind of build you a, uh, uh, like a prefab like you would just get a house that

would be built very quick. And it was really horrible. They should do a gotcha where it's like, it, it randomizes like what you get in the actual house. It's like, you get seven bathrooms. It was very odd. If I was going to build a house, I would build a house. I don't think I would be swayed by a fucking Nintendo switch. But I would like, I would like to know who that worked on. Yeah. Like, I would love to have the conversation of like who was swayed by the switch.

Yeah. Who has enough money to buy a house, but not a switch? 200 grand. Like, it's like not cheap. Why are you being swayed by the $300 purchase? Yeah, I can, I can purchase the house, but man, I can, I just don't have enough money for the switch, guys. I don't have an extra $400. The fairs they take seriously is what I realized. Fares in Japan are no joke.

Yeah. They lock in. I mean, look, like when we went to this wedding venue, like, you know, immediately we were like, we're not going to probably pick this place immediately just because, you know, we wanted to just get a vibe of the place. But my God, that woman who took us around did a fucking good job because by the end of it, we were like, I just want to buy three weddings. This might be a maybe. This might honestly be a maybe. She did a good job fucking convincing us. Right. Yeah. So, but yeah, we'll hopefully figure it out soon. The most important question, Joe, is, is there going to be an open bar?

I mean, it has to be, has to be. Boys, am I Australian? The answer is yes. Have you drunk with my dad? I think my dad would legitimately kill me if there was no open bar. When I went back in Christmas, I was one of my brother.

He was like, I just don't think I should get an open bar. I was like, what are you? What? I was like, what are you talking about? It's like no open bar. I said, you gotta make people come to your wedding and make them pay for a drink.

But then, you know, obviously in the British perspective, I can understand there's a bit of concern there because people get absolutely shit-faced. Yeah, right. It's like half the wedding cost is the open bar. Yeah, he was like, well, people are gonna, you know, just get a drink and not finish it, which I think does happen quite a lot, to be fair.

For sure. Because I feel like at your wedding, people who got a little too drunk, they would like go to the bar and be like, well, you want to drink? And they'd get a drink, have one sit, put it down, be like, I'll get another one. Yeah, where did my drink go?

And I'm like, poor God's paying for this mistake. Yeah, I think I remember one point. But I was like, I'll fuck that. I was like, I'll pay for your goddamn open bar if you ever have a wedding. And then like two weeks later, he got engaged. And I was like, you motherfucker, you swindled me. He swindled me.

I thought this was like two years from now, I thought this was, I'll forget about it. He heard that and he was like, all right. Honey? Honey? I've got the hand shake. We need to, we need to cement this deal

before he changes his mind. He slides the invoice over. I shouldn't make these deals while having three pines. So I was like, yeah, fuck it, I'll pay. Well, next time I'm drinking with Connor, I know what I'm gonna talk to me. No, this is not a thing.

I'm gonna be like, Connor actually on second thought, we're not gonna have an over bar, sorry, man. Here's the invoice. No, this cannot be a thing that I keep doing. I'll accept it on the trash taste card. It's fine. Yeah. Now that I've mentioned it on the pod, I was thinking, boys, how about I pay for it with

the trash taste card? It'll be a great story. Oh, man. Oh, my God. Yeah, so everything's gone well. Yeah. And, yeah, maybe I reckon... What did your parents say?

What did my parents say? Yeah. They were like, oh, fuck. They were like, oh, fucking finally. Yeah. I mentioned your dad would be like, fucking seriously, my. You already fucking engaged. Yeah.

It's like, good on you, son. He's like, you better fucking pay for my flight. He's thinking about the open bar that comes up. Yeah, he's like, it's like, one of the choices. Yeah, you kind of didn't really have a choice. Yeah, it's an open bar situation. It was, it was not a question of, oh, maybe, it's a, it's a yes or I'm not going. Luckily in Japan, an open bar, I feel like isn't as expensive as in like other countries.

I don't know, actually. I think the place we were looking at, the first place we were looking at, the open bar, yeah, wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. I don't know how much yours was, but it wasn't as much as I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, mine one was, we paid afterwards actually. Oh, okay. So, so what happened was-

You're paying like premium bar price drinks and like, yeah. Yeah, so in our open bar, the way it worked was you have two options. Basically, you have a budget, and then the bar is open until, you know, the drinks meet that budget. Right. Or what we did was we were like, maybe a mistake, maybe not, just give us the bill afterwards. And it was, not gonna lie, it was a hefty bill.

Yeah, but we, because we actually did the hour wedding on a budget, so we had quite a lot, quite a lot of budget to spare. So we're like, fuck it, let's just, and honestly, I don't regret it because people had a great fucking time. Oh, yeah. From what I could see. Oh, yeah. Alcohol does wonders in terms of making sure everyone's like nice and merry.

And yeah, I mean, I think our open bar was, holy shit. It was just over like a quarter of our budget in the years. But that's because our wedding was actually like, looking back, looking back, our wedding was actually pretty damn cheap compared to some of the, some of the budgets are here nowadays. Yeah. So we were able to get away with it. I think because we booked before COVID, so we got like super cheap prices compared to what

people are getting nowadays in this economy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was, it's definitely, yeah, going to be, it's roughly, the one we're looking at is roughly the price that I'm expecting, but it still doesn't change the fact that, uh, I'm, I'm going to have to do a couple more sponsors to cover this shit. This wedding is sponsored by. Ray shadow.

Yeah. Cut to the ad. What is sponsoring us today? Probably Shopify. In our case, because a lot of the times, we're all very global. Like,

you know, we're all from different countries. So I feel like it's kind of sucks to have someone like pay for their own flight and hotel sometimes. And you're like, hey, man, can you pay for the $5 drink as well?

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's exactly why I didn't want to do like the 30,000 yen, like, you know, wedding gift thing. Yeah, people come from all of the world, right? Exactly. It's like, oh, we're just happier even here. So we're not going to do that.

Yeah, your presence. Exactly. Your presence is a gift. I mean, it's cheesy, but, you know, that's what the weddings are for. No, 100%. It's just a great day where you just celebrate two people's happiness. Exactly. You know, that's all that matters.

So, yeah. I'm very, very excited. And congratulations. Thank you very much, man. And congratulations to you as well, Connor. Why? For hitting for birthing a million dollars. Oh, okay.

I was like, wait, what? I was like, damn. I'm trying to wait to segue. I was just like for getting engaged to a million dollars. I think the phrase birthing a million dollars. I don't know why I was from wedding to childbirth. I don't know. I don't know why I went.

Connor, you look fat. You're pregnant. Yeah, man. You fucking crushed it. Yeah, crushed it yet again. Yeah. We went from all the way Nemero to Tokyo. That was fun.

God, Nemero is such a shit hole, isn't it? A Numero was actually one of the better parts of Hokkaido. Really? Yeah, East Hokkaido kind of sucks. Yeah, when I went with Chris, it was one of the most miserable experiences I've had. So when we are, we, we, um, so obviously cyclathon four happened.

Um, it was planning, you know, we started planning it in like January or December the year before. And, uh, yeah, it was, it was going to be one day longer than the last one. And we just were like, fuck it. Let's just, uh, do the same thing again. and hopefully people fuck with it and people enjoy it.

And luckily they did. But yeah, it was really interesting doing it again because now I feel like I've gotten pretty good at doing it. Yeah. I know the flow pretty well. Yeah. We always try to upgrade the tech a little bit. Yeah, I saw they had drone shots this time.

A lot of drone shots this time, which is so sick. Yeah. So a lot of like really cool scenery. We'd have drones. Where we could do it, of course. Because a lot of cities you can't do it. But yeah, no, we went to Namero. and it's always a logistical nightmare getting to the middle of fucking nowhere,

especially with... Especially Nambuddle. Especially we have so much stuff. Yeah. We have bikes. We have tons of batteries. We have all this kind of gear that we're like, you know, trying to get on a plane. But we had a Nabi who got a ferry from Chiba up to Tomocomai.

Oh my gosh. And then drove. And that ferry is like a day long. God. So he took all the shit. Nabi the goat. Yeah. He's a trooper, man.

He gets it done. And Nabi and Takka. went all the way there. And then we just flew to... Nakashibetsu Nemito or something like that. Some airport. Hokkaido has a lot of airports. Hokkaido has six airports.

That's a big place. Yeah. And it's surprisingly very well serviced by planes. Yeah, and Nakashibatsu, that's it. And when we were going to get our flight, on the morning they texted us, they said like, oh, the flight might be canceled due to weather. Oh, shit.

And we were starting tomorrow, and we were kind of fucked if this flight gets canceled. Because there are the airports, but our rental car was in this airport. And it's really hard to change rental cars. And if you don't show up, it just, it causes a nightmare in Japan. It's very, very unflexible with a lot of things. And we had a scare. And we thought, like, fuck, what are we going to fucking do of this flight? So I'm, like, freaking out trying to figure out other ways we can kind of get there.

And maybe we could go to Sapporo and do an eight-hour drive or go to, like, another airport called Kushiro. And then hopefully there's another car we can rent and other stuff. Basically, we would have been fucked if this flight got canceled. Yeah. And then they're like, okay, well, don't worry. And then now I will tell you if the flight's happening. And I was like, oh, great. So now I get to go to the airport and ship myself and wait.

The flight happens. And then they change it to, okay, we're going to fly. But if we get there in the weather, the visibility is bad, we're going to turn around. Oh, fuck. Which is the worst case. Now it's even worse. Yeah. That means if we if this happens, we have to fly all the way back and then figure out

some kind of flight to get on that same day and then figure it. Either way, we would still maybe be able to make it, but we would be, we'd be getting there at like three, four a.m. It would be fucking, worst, worst case in our, we'd just fucking say, fuck it, get a car and drive all the way up. Like, it would have been like, yeah, it would have been fucked. Yeah. But, you know, we get on this plane and it's the most nerve-wracking flight in my life because the whole time you're like trying to relax, but you know you might be done. turn around at the last second. And we're approaching the airport. It's about an hour and a half from Tokyo. And you hear the landing gear go out, but I still can't see anything out the window.

It's so bad the visibility. Right. Impossible to see anything. And the landing gear's been out for like five minutes now, 10 minutes. And I'm like, going on. And they're not saying anything. And the landing gear has been out for a long time. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, I finally see like a crumb of the ground. And we're like through all. the fog. We're so close to the ground. And I can only see a tiny speck. And then right as we're about to land, literally five seconds where we land, I can finally see. And we're maybe like 20, 30 meters off the ground. Right. And that's when I can finally see. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, this is fucked. We land safely somehow. Shout out to the pilot. My God. Although, to be honest,

that this airport was desolate. So even if he didn't know where he's landing, I'm sure he'd be right. Just fucking land it on the ground. There's lots of fields. Yeah. And it looks like a fucking hellscape when we land. It's miserable. It's like foggy.

The fog is ridiculous. And everything's like dead. It looks horrible. It looks like a waist like Chernobyl. Yeah. It looks awful. And it was just not... The weather in this place really dictated whether it looked good or bad.

And so we then go to Nemador City and we go in this hotel and everything's in Russian, which is like, what the fuck? is going on. But there was one good sushi restaurant, which I think you went to as well in that. Yes. That was absolutely peak sushi. Yeah, that was awesome.

It was like 400 yen for a fatty blue fin tuna that was like this big. It was huge. We went there for dinner and it made the whole place worth it. But the hotel was so strange. The vibes were very weird. Everything about that place was very weird vibes.

It was fucking freezing. Yeah. We started, it was minus three. Oh my God. No, two degrees, sorry, but it felt like minus three, I think. Right. And then we started at the most eastern point. Really cool.

A whole giant arch. Way cooler than the fucking most northern point thing. Yeah, definitely. What the fuck? Is that the one with the flame in the middle? The giant arch in the air? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The flame is like super cool.

They have this giant fucking arch. And then we went to the most northern one. And I was like, this fucking blows. It looks like comparatively. Yeah, Cape Nusapu. I was like, they need to step it up. Yeah. Because people go to Cape Nusapa, way more.

But, yeah, no, very cool. But the easternmost point is really cool. And, like, visually stunning. Like, really, like, looks so trippy. It doesn't look like Japan at all. And the first day was great. It was, like, kind of sunny. Very fucking cold, though.

And I was not prepared for how cold it was going to be. They did not bring any stuff for the cold. I just brought stuff for rain. Yeah. Because I just figured, like, oh, I'll get hot. But I did not get hot. Yeah. Had sushi.

Yeah, it was great. And then it just never stopped being. foggy. It was like fogging for like three, four days and it was insane. Yeah. And there was nothing. Yeah. Nothing for like three days. Yeah. I mean like I joined the last day of Hokkaido. You did. Yeah. You had like the more easy like terrain and scenery. Yeah. I mean, you went to like the most bomb fucking restaurant. That lunch place was phenomenal. Oh yeah. The fucking farmer's market lunch place or the like we it was like for like two two of the days we couldn't have any lunch because there was just no lunch places because there was like literally nothing. So if you bring up a map of Hokkaido, it was kind of like, Nemero had stuff and then from

Nemero until like we started getting close to Tomokomai, like, you know, like from... More to the east. Yeah. So. East, east, east. Yeah. So like Nemero, you can see, we cycled all the way over to Kushiro. And Kushiro was kind of cool. I like Kushiro. Kind of famous for a couple of things.

I can't remember what it's famous for now, but I know Obihiro is really close to it, it's famous with all the horses. Yeah. And we saw a bunch of horses, which is sick. Yeah, Kushido's like a really weird city because it, I don't know if you got this vibe.

It's pretty big. It's very European in a weird way. Yeah. Like the architecture is super European and it doesn't feel like Japan in a weird way. Kushido? Did you get that vibe from Kushido? I felt like Kushido look really eastern European.

Yeah. It looked very east. Dude, this train station in Kuschiro. sure look rough. Yeah. Can you show? I know exactly what you're talking about. Can you show the Cushido station?

It looked, not going to lie, man. It looked, because that's where you got the, you couldn't get the train from, right? The snow train that. Yeah.

See, that picture makes it look nice. Yeah. It was way rough of them. Because it was like grim and like foggy, it looked bad. It didn't not look good. And,

but there's a very nice bakery in there. But the whole town was like, there's something about a town that is built for the snow, that when it's not snow, It looks bad. Yeah, especially when it's just between that in-between period before there's color there. Yeah, yeah.

Definitely during the point in Hokkaido, I was like, damn, everything gray. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Everything's gray. Everything's dead. Yeah. It looked like shit. It just didn't.

I felt like it was a bad time to go because nothing ended up looking good. Except for when we scaled like a fucking mountain that had snow on it. And it looked so sick when we were cycling on it. Yeah. But there's like no signal. at all. So no one could see it. Well, so I did.

People could see it because we had like the fucking thing on the bike. So we didn't end up working. But yeah, it was very finicky, getting it all to work. And the whole Hokkaida leg was really nice because there's no cars. But the end of the day, like I was like,

man, I just want to fucking go to a restaurant like some kind of good lunch spot. Yeah. I realize what motivates Connor and that's just food. That's just food. If there is like, you know, compared to like all the donations,

and all the nice messages. That helps too, but the biggest thing is knowing that he has a lunch place to go to. Well, if I was doing cardio all day, that would probably be my most donation as well. It's so important, man. If you have to like a fire meal, it's just phenomenal. The lunch place we went to you,

it's called, is it been fought by the ocean? I think it's called. Fort by the ocean. Toma Komi. Yeah, dude. This place was so fire. Damn. Yeah.

Dude, the pizza, I had a whole piece. and a whole pasta. I'm getting hungry right now, looking at it. Yeah, right? And they did like amazing coffee. Yeah. And, oh my lord.

Yeah, it was just this gem in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how you found it, but it was fucking delicious. Yeah. Oh my God. And there's so many like fresh eggs and so many good pizzas. Fonomenal coffee. And it was just like we hadn't had that.

Oh, the cheesecake was unreal. Yeah. So I, I joined the cyclone. I sit down. And I'm like, I will just order a pizza or something. A meal for one.

Meanwhile, Chris and Connor beside me are like, all right, I'm going to get the fries, a pasta and a pizza each, and maybe, and Connor's like, should I get the cheesecake as well? And I'm like, most of what? I got the cheesecake. And then he did.

And I'm like, what is going on right now? I was really full after that. That fucked me up a little bit. Because then when we had dinner that day, we went for sushi and I had like two pieces. I was still full. Yeah. Like, I thought I just had to have a meal for one. Meanwhile, the two besides me, I forgot we're just both having a simple meal.

A simple meal. Just a simple meal ordering a gourmet fucking three course. And that was where you explained domestic girlfriend to Chris. Oh, he was horrified. He was horrified. I don't know why this happens. Yeah. I think someone donated and was like, explain domestic girlfriend to Chris.

Oh, my God. I think one of the favorite things we came across was that train station in the middle of nowhere. I forgot what the name of the train station was. There was a train station that was just like a train cart. Yeah, it was just a car. And it looked derelict. It looked like abandoned, but it looked like something

out of a studio Ghibli movie or something. Sick. Gone left the door open. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've forgotten because I, so we went to explore it and it wasn't an automatic door. It was like, of course it wasn't an automatic door. Of course.

But my brain was just like, cool place, open the door. And someone had left like some documents there or like check in. So I don't know how you buy tickets. I assume you just. Maybe on the train. Yeah, maybe on the train. But there's like it,

there was like a guest book of people who went to the station and it was like super cool, super old. Yeah. That's the problem with these like Inaka train stations is that like most of the time, we're so used to like tapping on or like someone being there. But then you're like,

rock up to some of these places and it's like, oh, I'm inside the city. Oh, and now I'm on the platform. Yeah. Like, where the fuck do I get a ticket? No one is here. Exactly. And the next train comes in four hours. Yeah. Yeah. And unfortunately, I've forgotten that it wasn't an abandoned building and I just left the fucking door open. They closed it. They closed it. Luckily, the staff members got my back and they closed the door for me. It was very funny because he was cycling and then it like cut to their camera and then just them closing it. It was cool. Yes, we had like two cameras this time, like two feeds. Yeah. Constantly changing between it. It was really cool. Nice. The tech,

yeah, it's been upgraded massively. Yeah. It was really, really fun. I made an appearance finally. Oh yeah, you did. That was so fucking funny. Because when Felix was with us, so Felix joined us on two really remote days actually. Like, right. Kind of was in the middle of fucking nowhere. He joined us, I think, joined us in Kushiro thing. Right. Around there. And we had, he was one of the windiest and foggiest days. It was horrible. Yeah. But he was, he was powering through. And during the whole time, I don't know why Chris is obsessed with being like, Joe's in his fucking hammock. It's all he would go on about. And then he was like, Joe's eating CBD gummies in his hammock. Motherfucker, you'd be here right now.

And like the whole thing and he's like, Joey doesn't, Jerry never calls me. And I'm like, do you call? Do you text Joey? He's like, no. And then for some reason he's like, I'm going to call him. And you call him out as well, it's so funny. Yeah, I was like, with my family.

Yeah. I was like hanging out with my aunt. And I just randomly get this call from Chris. And I'm like, the fuck, Chris never calls me. So I thought it was like an emergency. So I picked it up. And then I realized that he was on the cyclathon. And yeah.

And then he was like, he was giving me shit for no reason. And he was like, why don't you here? Why, why do you never call me? Why, why did you ever text me? And then I roasted him on stream. And then I guess Conant told me off. He was that he was like, he was like legitimately like, what the fuck the entire day?

He was like, no, I'm, I'm, I, I, I, I always mess showy. He's really annoyed by it. And that was really funny because the next day he was like, let's go to dinner. So when I get back from Cycleathon, we should go to dinner. And, you know, he did. He followed. It's such a Chris thing. He took me to like a 10 point yucky place

and it was nice. And I was just like, oh, this is like, this is very out of nowhere. Chris, like, oh, this is, you know, what happened? This is like something special occasion and then I remember the call that I gave him on this,

and I'm like, ah, I guess. Yeah, I just didn't know why he was so obsessed with him with like taking jabs at you. Yeah, right? Jerry in his fucking hammock. I was like, I'm spending time with my family and he just like calls me and just like starts talking shit. I'm like, what the fuck?

I don't know why. I don't know why either. He's so obsessed with just making fun of you. I don't know why. Yeah, he's just something about you. It's a coping mechanism. Yeah, I guess. I don't know.

You get upset with the head. He's like, fucking joy. Fucking bastards. In my hammock eating CBD gummies. I don't think I've ever done that. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why. He would always be like,

you snorting gummy. I don't know. Don't know why he keeps saying. Snorting gummies. That's what he kept saying. I don't know why. He clearly takes a lot of drugs. Yeah.

I don't know. Yeah, you finally made your appearance. That was nice. And then, yeah, we, we, yeah, so we, 15 days. It was, endless. But it was, it goes by really quick. It's so weird. It's like, the first day you cycle and you're like, oh, my God.

Yeah. 14 more fucking days of this. Yeah. And then you get to day seven, you're like, oh, it's halfway already. And day, you're like, oh, shit, it's going to end soon. And the last day, you're like, oh, man, I kind of wanted to end. You just get Stockholm syndrome with the chat. Is that it?

Maybe. I mean, it's just so fun. You can't get Stockholm syndrome with the bike. Yeah, I don't know. You get so into it. I don't know. Two days, I'm like, I'm good, bro. My ass needs a break.

It's kind of weird. Like day two is the worst day. Because day two, you're tired from day one. Right. Because you've just like exercised a shit time. I remember asking you this exact question. Yeah. Then you're like, actually know, day three is the worst.

Day three is pretty bad too. For me, for me, it's either day two or three. It depends. This one, it was day three. Last time I remember it was day, I remember day two was tough last time. Yeah. But it really depends on what happens on the day as well

and like how good it is. But generally, like if you haven't done it a lot, I think day two is the worst. Yeah. Because your body naturally, like it's so rare that you would exercise like quite a lot and then make yourself do it again the next day.

Yeah. Like that's pretty in frequency. Your body like is fucked. I did even more prep for this time than I did last time, which I'm thankful for because last time was hell on day one, but day two is pretty easy. This time it was like actually, where day two was the harder day.

And if I did have that prep, my body would have like just probably shut down. What did you do for prep? What did you do for prep? Just go to the gym, watch solo leveling and just go on the bike. Yeah. If I needed a mindless show to watch, well, also getting me hyped, but also keeping me on the bike, actually, solo leveling is pretty damn fucking good. Yeah, I'm glad.

This was the cyclone I was promised from last year. The revenge. You got it. revenge. I finally got it. I think Felix had the worst weather. It was just super foggy. Right. You couldn't see. Like at one point, we genuinely couldn't see each other. Oh shit. And it was very, very trippy and very scary and cold and wet. And you're just like, God, this fucking sucks. It wasn't raining, but when you were cycling, you would get soaked because there's so much moisture in the air. Yeah. But like, you were just running into it essentially. And it was just

really odd. Um, really cool. And, um, yeah, it worked really well. And we had so much tech stuff that'd been improved and I was really just having a lot of fun and it's it's yeah like like you said it's kind of weird because day two I'm kind of like ah man it's just kind of daunting but by day seven you're like man I'm kind of like I'm exercising so much I feel great yeah I'm doing an amazing thing like I get to hang out with my mates I get to raise money for a good cause get to streaming hours in it's kind of like the perfect Venn diagram of like hitting everything like I'm getting my work done so I don't feel bad about not working yeah I'm exercising so I feel great. I get to eat a shit ton of food and travel cool locations. Yeah. Hang out my mates all the day

all the time. So it's, it's kind of like the best. Like I kind of like, it is saying I look forward to every year. And so I'll probably end up doing it every year for who knows how long. Right. Until your leg legs give out. Yeah, probably until I don't know until Chris is just like, fuck off. No more. Yeah. Yeah. I think that then I'll probably have to be like, all right, I'll pack it in. I'll do something else. Yeah. But I just really like, I mean, exercise. is just fun. And being able to like, because even though I'm eating like

7,000 calories a day and eating too many pastures and I'm definitely like not losing weight. I mean, just the fact that you're doing so much exercise is just amazing for your body. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so being able to like find that excuse

to be able to do that because I do love exercising, but I also love playing video games. So I end up like, I need to like, it's good for me as at least have, I just really bounce it out, but at least have this one month of the year where I'm fucking on top of shit and I'm like in an insane shape.

It's just fun. I don't know. It's just really, really, really fun. And the vibes are just immaculate. Yeah. Yeah. Being able to have the finish line as well. And this time we had, we, uh, dude, trying to find a place. It's so hard, man. Because, you know, we're trying to get the dates sorted. And we generally do get the dates sorted pretty fine in advance, but not enough in in Japan to rent a venue far in advance. Mm-hmm. Because Japan to get a good venue, you need like six months in advance. Yeah. And we were trying to find a place that, you know, kind of had an iconic look or feel to it. And everywhere that we asked was just kind of booked out. And so I think

next time I'll try and do it a little bit earlier if we do this again. But it was just tough man trying to find a place and logistically a nightmare as well. Yeah. And each venue has its own headaches. Like that's another thing people don't see is that like I'm also trying to like get the bike stuff sorted and plan out the route and get all that stuff and get gone where you're supposed to be on which day. But then also the venue's like, oh man, if we put the screen on the grass, it's going to cost extra money. And I'm like, what the fuck? What is that? It also is going to take an extra month of approval. Yes. Yeah. And then, but this time we had a, it was really cool that I felt bad last time, even though I know I shouldn't feel bad because I know people just want to support and be there

and taking the energy because, you know, we're asking people to come out, but it's not really like a show. You don't get anything for coming out. It's just like, do you want to be a part of the vibe? Yeah. Yes. It's the credits roll. Yeah. Yeah. But I still, I still feel bad and I want people to have a good time. And so this time we had like a cafe that was there as well. And you can get like monkey latte artwork. And it was just like you could watch the stream. Yeah. From the cafe or on the venue.

So that was that was fun. And it was kind of like a, I'd like to think it was maybe like a fun like a sports thing. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a lot of cool. Oh yeah. So that was a lot more fun, I think, this time.

But I don't know. I wasn't there. But I should have. I only assume. Yeah. Well, because we're only there for like 30 minutes. And it sucks because there's a lot of. people there so we can't really stop and chat with people afterwards. I mean, that's the way

with like most meetups. Yeah, it does kind of suck. I wish there was a way where, you know, people are like, why don't you do like a little, like VIP meetup? I'm like, well, we just fucking cycled all day and we're kind of tired. I want to break. Yeah. It's also a big emotional thing as well. And I'm like, you know, it's a huge emotional thing for me. Because, you know, I'm obviously crying as well. It's so like, amazing. And, you know, so I don't, the last thing I want after I'm just, after this giant physical and emotional toll is, oh, hey, what's that man? Like, picture. Like, you know,

and not to say that I, you know, I can't do it, but like, yeah, that's understandable. I want to just, you know, and for us, we just kind of, we just wrap up and then I have to go and also unpack everything.

Yeah. So when we're done, I'm like in my cycling gear and I'm unloading the shit to my house. It's like, it's not exactly the fun after credit scene you imagine. No, I think, I think after, I think after all of that,

you deserve to have a little time to disassociate for a little bit, you know, it's understandable. It was really cool. You know, I, you know, and as well, there was a big conversation this year from a lot of the viewers who people worried they're like, what if we don't hit the same amount of money as last year? I'm like, that was never a concern

for me in terms of like hitting any particular milestone. Yeah. Any amount of money is good money. Yeah, man. Like I went into it thinking of it as like a like a, I've said this a lot, but like a GDP kind of thing of like I just wanted to be a cool thing that people can tune into once a year where they can just kind of, they know every morning they'll have this bank thing playing every evening they can tune in and they can join if they wanted to donate they can donate they don't they don't they don't want to it's fine um so i was never really concerned about like if we hit a mill or not or anything like that i just wanted to do the event yeah but obviously insane that we raised and and beat last year's record yeah yeah hell yeah it was uh yeah it was really it's

really uh really cool to hit it and it was a lot of new people who i because you know we've done this before and i've had a lot of the big same donors who always show up which is really cool to have a lot of the viewers donate and I like this event a lot in comparison to the auction. I like the in this event it's kind of built on a lot of people giving like five, 10 bucks. The auction was like a lot of we've tried and find the oil, oil daddies and get the whales. The whales. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just cool, man. I just feel like the events are really fun. It worked out great and hopefully, I hope of hoping the money can go and help a lot of people as well. So it's just been really cool. And It was really fun and really emotional for me as well.

For a lot of reasons, we had, we had like mouse join a lot more this year. Yeah, I saw that. That was a very nice touch. Yeah, because I think she was really upset. Not upset, but like obviously really emotional and sad that she couldn't be there. And last year especially. And so I really wanted to make her feel like she was at least more part of it this time. Yeah.

So that was like really important. And that was really cool. So it was really, really fun. I mean, I don't want to, it's the same thing as always, you know, just cycling. But it was really glad I got to do it again. I'm really glad I went well. Yeah, hell yeah. So it was a lot of fun.

forward to next years. Yeah, are you going to cycle next year? Maybe. We'll get you on the bike eventually. Yeah. We'll get you on eventually. Yeah. We had obviously Felix Dron again, Garn, and Rob, Rob joined this time.

Rob, Rob's a pro. Rob, Rob showed us up. Rob was crazy. Rob, Rob does a cyclathon every day. Rob stole my thunder as well, because I'm like, guys, I just came back from Thailand. And little did I know that Rob also just came back from Thailand the day before me. Oh, shit. Yeah, he just came from Song...

Songkran. Yeah. So, yeah, he was... And then he was like, yeah, mate, just gonna fucking run it. It's like, how many Ks are doing today? Oh, fucking easy. Yeah, well, yeah, he did.

He was like, what? We're only doing 80? I was like, 80's kind of a lot, man. Garth was doing 50. Yeah, I was doing 50. You know, that's a good amount. That's a very chill amount. I would love to do that every day.

But at the end, we had to do like 90Ks and 100Ks, and that was pretty brutal. Yeah, Rob's a fucking machine. Yeah. bro. Man, just cycling through cities, I always think,

it fucking sucks. Going through Sendai on a bike, not fun. But also, cyclophon's great. Okay. And raising money's cool. But so is Expedition 33.

This peak. Oh, you want to talk about it. This peak. I want to play it so bad. This peak. I want to play it so bad. Why do you want it?

It pains me to give a W to the French. I get. Me too. It does suck. It does suck. It does suck that the French have done it again. We've already given a W to the French with my Madagascar trip. We're giving them a novel one today.

Never happening again. No, it's, it's, dude. I know, I know I'm going to love the shit out of this game, but I legitimately have just not had time to play games. It is my obsession. It is, I don't know, I kind of half regret starting on stream because I just kind of like, it took every bone in my body to be like, no, do not play this now.

Yeah. You need to wait to be on camera and I'm like, fuck, I just want to load it up right now and just grind it a little bit more. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, it's doing very well, very successful. It's made by a team of 30-ish people. Damn. I think freelancers they hide. But yeah, I mean, it's just, it's just genuinely fucking peak. It's like reinventing turn base, right? That's what I've heard. Pretty much. I mean, it's kind of... It takes elements of... I've seen very little of this because I kind of want to just like go into a blind eventually. So it's a little bit like, I guess, the Mario RPG where it's like turn-based combat,

but there's like you have inputs you need to do in order to, you know, either dodge, parry, or strengthen your attacks. But it is that system on absolute crack. Right. Yeah, it's so sick. So I don't know if this is a controversial take. It might be a controversial take. But Final Fantasy system. Final Fantasy 7 remake system. Okay. So I am about eight hours into it. And I know you're a big fan of it. So I wanted to ask because I am waiting for that aha moment with that combat system.

Because it's kind of like a mix between a turn base system and a real-time combat system, right? Yeah, it's kind of like a mix between. Yeah. So far, it just hasn't jelled with me. Right. It just, I have tried and I keep trying, but that system, I can see the vision and maybe I just haven't played enough of it, or maybe I'm just never going to get that system.

But that is a system where it activates the turn-based part of my brain and it activates the real-time battle part of my brain without fully satisfying either part. Yeah. Right? And I've said this on stream and, you know, and a lot of people really, really like the combat system. That is my experience. That has been my experience with the system. I think it doesn't look far on the battle system. Right.

That has been, that has been my, that has been my, that has been my, um, feeling with the battle system. And as much as I try, because I keep trying to get back into it. And every time I go back, I'm just like, ah, it just doesn't, it just doesn't, ah, just, it just hasn't jelled with me. Yeah, yeah. Maybe it's a me thing, right? With Expedition 33, this is like a different take that somehow,

They say it's a turn-based system, but I'd say it's way more active than it is like turn-based in a lot of ways. It is something that fully satisfies the active real-time battle part of my brain and the turn-based part of my brain. And there has never been a game that has been able to achieve that till now. Yeah, I mean, it is just like turn-based, though. Like, you do get your turn and you wait. But like, there's so much stuff going on that it really feels active in your head. because you never feel like you've a moment to breathe in these battles. Like, you're like, shit, what are going to do?

You're like, fuck. And if I miss this parry, I'm going to die. And so the main mechanic is parrying and dodging in fights. Like, you can hit them. And normally hitting the boost on your attacks is pretty easy. That's pretty easy. But a lot of bosses, they'll have like, you know, the first enemy you encounter, they'll do a big telegraph swing.

But the sound effects and visuals are so meaty. And it feels so good to parry something. and if you parry a whole attack successfully, you can counter attack. And so like there is a massive edge you get if you're able to parry. Obviously later on, the bosses, they start doing like nine hit combos

that you can perfectly parrash. And it's basically a rhythm game. Right, right, right. Because it's you can listen to like just the audio cues. It's probably better with the audio cues. Yeah, the audio cue is way better than the visual cue. Right, right. Really cool, though.

Yeah, I mean, I hate to use this fucking analogy. I hate to use it. I'm gonna say it. I gotta say it. I gotta say it. Very similar to dog souls. It's just very similar to dogs. No, because like, here's the thing that changes it

from like being a turn base to like an active real-time, like combat system. Yeah. Which is you cannot get by this game purely on turnbase. You need to learn how to dodge your parry. There is no way to get around there. Because if you don't and if you are unable to get this system, you are not beginning to be able to clear the game.

Okay, right? I mean, there may be a way where you can build like a tank system, but for 90% of builds, you need this system. Yeah, there's someone who was like, oh, like, if you put it on these difficulty, you can do a whole play-through without dodging or paring. Yeah. But obviously, like, yeah, difficulty. Whereas on the expert mode, if you get hit once, you just die. Yeah, I feel, by doing that as well, you take away like a core element of what makes the game fun. Yeah. Yeah, London the pairing and stuff is very fun and satisfying, to be honest.

It's just so cool. And the music is, oh my God, my God, like, the music is godlike. Yeah, I've only heard, like, the best things about it. So I know I'm going to love the shit out of this game. Acting is phenomenal. And then they found, like, a SoundCloud composer. Not kidding. Hell yeah.

And then, like, the writer, it's their first time writing, and the writing is phenomenal. Damn. Like, all the characters. And I said this when I was playing the game, but, you know, sometimes in JRP's, there's a little bit of a tropeiness that we lean into. Cheeziness. You know, I think a lot of us who, a lot of us who like JAPA G's,

Bells, am I right? Bells, am I right? Who like Javis. Yeah, I like them. Like, I think that there is that campiness or sometimes unrealistic dialogue that is really fun. Yeah, really, really nice.

It's actually kind of nice to have a bit more dialogue, a bit more grounded in something. Yeah. And a bit, like, sometimes the characters would say things. I'm like, shit, that's what I would have said in this situation. Which is, I've never said in the Final Fantasy

game in my life. I've never said I would say that. Well, it's, it's kind of like the writing just feels so fucking natural. Because I don't know if watching like some modern blockbuses that just reprogrammed my brain to be like, they're going to make a joke in this moment. They're going to make a quippy quip. And then they just like act it out.

And I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, this feels real. What's what's going on? There's no joke. But like, there's still jokes in there. But it's something that occurs naturally from the situation rather than funny character saying funny line. Yeah, it's not like an Arnold Schwarzenegger one liner. Yeah, no, no, no, it's really good.

And there are a bunch of goofy characters in it that are really fun. Yeah. And, like, they just very funny. It really just feels fresh. I think that's, like, the main thing and why I think people are so excited about it. Yeah. I know for a fact that I've seen, like, so many people being like, oh, you know, with this game and how it's like a system that actually, like,

everyone is, like, really vibing with it. And, you know, it's a fresh new take on the turn-based, system, it's just going to add a lot of pressure to like, you know, Square Enix and Atlas and all these, like, big, like, JRPG makers to, like, potentially rethink. I mean, the moment you, you fucking open the first battle, the menu looks like persona. Yeah. It is. Like, it looks, which, you know, I think, which I think is just like, that's just a natural evolution of how you present information. And I don't think that's fair to be like, this is the persona start. It's like, yeah, yeah, I think maybe you should have a more dynamic thing as opposed to having just a box

on the bottom. I think it's a natural progression, definitely. Like, don't get me wrong. There are, there are, you know,

and like, when there's a new game that comes out that's really good and really innovative and really fun, you know, you can't say a bad thing

about it because we get really upset. But like, you know, some of the menus are kind of ass. Like when you're, you know, when you want to find the, like,

the Lumia points, getting to the Lumia is so weirdly placed. It's like, you have to go in the menu, click the character you want, go down into the corner, then click this little

menu that doesn't show you information, even though it's like arguably the most important thing for your character to know. And so like, and it's very like a minimal complaint. Like, you know what I mean? But like, even when I would say that, people would be like,

what the fuck? How dare you say anything like about this? I don't know. Like my experience with JRPGs is or least RPG in general. That's just, that's just part of the experience. And I always have this thing where it's, it's so weird streaming RPGs

or like just RPGs in general because you start up a game, right? Yeah. And then people like, you've got to do this. You've got to do this. And I'm like, Like, you are saying words, funny man. Yeah.

And what I feel like what I miss from doing these things on stream is this natural point where I'm like 20 hours into the game. And I have done the tutorial, but nothing's actually come in. But it doesn't matter because you don't need to know all the systems. No, no. Until like halfway through the game. And then you hit like this weird war and you're like, fuck, this is, this doesn't feel right. And then naturally you start going to the menus and you're like, oh, that's why this thing, this system is here. And oh, I can do this as well.

Oh, I could have done this earlier to do with that boss and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that to me is a much more effective way to internalize the systems and learn it. And it's so weird being like flipping that round where I have being on stream, it's almost like the chat wants you to learn the system as it's immediately taught to you in tutorial, which is something I've never done. I've never entitledized the system. You naturally, we just learn it as you go a bit more. Yeah, you got to experiment with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but, dude, streaming this game was miserable. People are so annoying in the chat. Trying to backseat everything and try to... Yeah, another reason not to play RPG on the stream. Well, so classic RPGs and even now I've been streaming Dark Souls, like that's been really fun because I feel like the communities around those games, because they're a bit older, they really fucking love the game, and they just want people to experience it.

Like, anytime I played a Final Fantasy game, I've never had a problem with people being annoying. Yeah. Like, people are so just excited. Yeah. Like, oh my God, someone's playing fucking Final Fantasy 6. Yeah. Like, that's like, dude, let's fucking go. I think when a game is very popular in the moment, a lot of people, like, feel like they want to be, like, super knowledgeable about it.

And it's just like, shut the fuck up. Just let me play the goddamn game. Yeah. Especially with something like, like Eldon Ring, for example, where there is a back-seasing in that is... Oh, my God. Backseating in Ler is crazy. Very, very. And you know what?

It's like, I don't real gamers. I understand it. I understand it because sometimes, because I know how annoying it is, but then sometimes you watch someone play and just. No, I know. And just, what are you doing? There is something guttural in you just to be like, I could fix this.

I could fix this so easily. We just going to shut the fuck out? Yeah. Yeah, just let people have fun with the game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the big thing about me is when I was playing elderly, I was like, I want to do one thing. I want to do one build.

I don't care about any other build. And people are like, no, you've got to try this. This is stupid OP. And I'm like, no, I just want to parry. That's it. That's all I'm interested in. This obsession with making like the most OP thing in a single player game blows my mind.

So I'm like, have you never had fun? Like, let me introduce you fun. Yeah. Like I just feel like you don't need the most OP thing. Yeah. You can enjoy a game without necessarily min-maxing every time. And like, the fun thing is like making your own kind of like,

what you feel is like an OP build. Yeah, yeah. You know, maybe there is a combo that can one shot every enemy, but like, you know, I made it, unless you discover that organically. Yeah, like, I made my own, like, kind of like quadruple basic attack, like, combo thing. And I, I felt like, man, this is like a really fun build I made. Because I came up with it. I'm sure someone else had made it, but you know what I mean?

Like, you put the pieces together. But you put the pieces together. And that's really satisfying and see that plan work as opposed to being like, go into YouTube and this is the most broken build in Expedition 33. And then it's like, put this on. And you're like, okay, well, good. I've used no thought to make a, uh, thing that Steamrolls a game that's just to be fun.

Like, it's not fun for me anymore. Maybe when I get to like that insane raid boss and I need a bit of help and I'm struggling and none of my builds are working. Okay, I can, yeah, that's good to have that. But I'm still going to have a challenge. Yeah, because I remember early on I just, I found this like OPE, like my L build. Oh, yeah.

I had that too. Yeah, you had that too? I was like, wait a minute. I'm reading, I'm reading your abilities. And then this thing and this thing just comes together. to make it so I can basically one-shot enemies from turn one. What is this? How is this allowed?

And yeah, it was, you know, just really fun to discover that organically. It's been really fun, an amazing game. Obviously, don't talk too much about it. I'll get to it eventually. It is very spoiler-heavy as well. Yeah, yeah. That's why I haven't seen anything about it. All I've heard that, it's like a new fresh take on a turn-based RPG,

and that's all I need to get it. And what I will say is that if you like the vibe of something like Hell's Paradise or the dark continent in Hunter Hunter, you're gonna love this. You know what I eat that show. You are going to love this story, Joe.

Hell yeah. Do you think it'll make it at some of these studios to rethink turn-based combat and maybe think like, okay, hold on, there is a world where turn-based combat is... I think it's going to make people rethink just big studios in general.

I mean, the fact that this was made by a small team, I'm as interested in the storyline behind the making of Expedition 33 as I am just Expedition 33 in general because it was made by a very, very small team does not feel like it was made by a very, very small team. No, it feels like fucking, yeah. It feels AAA.

It does. It feels, absolutely AAA. Because I feel the same thing happened when, like, Holonite came up, for example, right? Like, that was also made by a tiny, tiny team. Yeah. And it was just such a polished game for an indie game that it just made everyone rethink like, oh shit,

like maybe triple, maybe we don't necessarily need to be tripled. This also really looks like a AAA game as well. It's got like the acting, the cutscenes. Oh, the motion capture as well. The motion. And then you hear about the staff members. Like Connor was saying, he didn't even discover the composer from SoundCloud.

It was even like more niche than that. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He made, so he was just looking for our composer. And he put out a post on a forum, a forum. Who the

fuck uses a forum anymore? On this like really super niche game development forum. And this one composer was like, yeah, I got some spare time. And then from that, he looked at his SoundCloud and his SoundCloud had one song. SoundCloud had one song. And that was it. Damn.

That was it. And... Kind of nuts. Yeah. It's kind of fucked. how good the music is. I mean, whoever was like, whoever looked at that one song was like, we'll take him,

must have, like, seen something. And it's got one of the best modern video game soundtracks, like, oh yeah. Yeah,

it's, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's, pretty fucking insane. Oh, shit.

I, yeah, I just kind of blown away by it. And it was really, really fucking fun. And, uh, definitely if you're thinking about it,

please play it. It's so good. Yeah. I'll get to it. I'll get to it. I'll get to it. Um, I don't see anything topping that.

I mean, well, we'll see how the new Mario card is, I guess, when that comes out. I just hope we get more like modern takes on turn-based combat now. Yeah. I really want more modern. I want turn-based combat. You know, it's fun. It's a blessing in this, guys,

because I'm so glad I got to play Expedition 33, but also I think it's ruined every other turn-based combat system for me now. Because I'm like, fuck, man. Nothing's going to give me the same rush as the combat system in Expedition 33. Hell yeah. I mean, yeah, that parrying when you hit it. Yeah.

Oh, it felt good, man. Ectacy. Yeah. Dude, some of these parries were hard to hit. Some of the bosses were fucked up. Yeah. Yeah, I'll get to it eventually. And I'll give you my thoughts on.

Me and Connor had an unofficial speed run race. Okay, that doesn't count because you were 10 levels fucking higher than me gone. It doesn't matter. It does. I actually built my characters. Connor was still like. No, my characters have built a shit. Yeah, yeah.

You didn't build your characters. Well, we were both on stream and they were all, uh, The chat was like, oh, Conner's been stuck at this boss for an hour. I was fighting a boss that I definitely was underlevel to fight, like, by a mile. Right. Because if you, but if you can just parry everything, you can kill any ball. Yeah. I mean, it was like one-shotting me as well.

So the levels, for a boss like that, the levels did matter a little bit. What the fuck? Your build was so shit. Your build was so fucking shit. Yeah, because I didn't need a good bill. I just need to parry. And I did beat him eventually. You did.

Was God the one that was back seating you in the chat? He might have been. He might have been. He might have been. It took me three hours. It took gone like one. It took me like 20 minutes, bro. Yeah, if I was O.P. gone.

I would, I would destroy all the bosses easily. Okay. I got so much XP from that that I kind of fucked up the rest of the game. Oh, really? So, over-leveled for like everything. I realized that game is like, and I kind of, oh, man,

I kind of wish. that JRPGs had figured out a better way to handle the last boss scaling problem. Because in like most, I feel like there should just be, there should be adaptive scaling on the final boss. If you've done all the side content, I feel like the boss should be way stronger. Because in this game, I didn't do any of the side content than went against the final boss.

And it was a pretty tough fight. Like I was really struggling. Yeah. But I did get it done. But apparently people were saying, like, if I'd done any of the side cons, I'd done a couple of it, I would have steamrolled it.

People were like, yeah, I actually won shot X. They did all the side content. You know, it's a great game for that? You know, it's a great game for that? Metaphor. What really? Yeah. I feel like metaphor, it not only does it force you to do all of the side quests,

but also by doing it, it perfectly gives you, like, just enough of an edge to potentially win. Like, I feel the level, I feel the level curve in that game was like, almost perfect. The old JRPGs used to do this. You could not beat the boss without doing side quests first. Oh, hell not. It was like, fucked. Actually, the only RPG I've seen it do correctly, which I have never experienced again since. One of the hardest boss battles I did, as a kid at least, tells a vesparia.

So if you do a certain piece of side content, which is a very, very hard boss fight, instead of making the final boss easier, it will just straight up add another phase to the final boss. And that made it so fucking hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like it, and it, like, you do it because you're like, shit, I want the true boss battle experience. It went from a two-phase boss battle to a three-phase boss battle. Holy fucking shit.

Did it kick my ass? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because like, I don't know what happened between six and seven. Because seven, I like one shot, Safaroff. Like, because I did all the side content. And six, when I was playing it. Pete was like, man, I really think you should do the side quests. And I was like, okay.

And I got like the most OP shield in the game. And that final buff fight was fucking hard. It's so hard. If you don't do all the side quests, get all the opi shit, you get fucked. And it's the same with the Chrono Trigger. Yeah. Chrono Trigger. If I got, I did all of the side quests, got all the OP, legendary weapons.

And I was still struggling. Yeah. Right. And I was like, this feels like how it should be. Like I should go against the final boss, get fucking trounce. And you're like, all right, I'll go to do the sidequess. But I understand as well for brevity that like if you want to end it now, go ahead. If you want 15 more hours, go and play it.

Yeah, I just wish there was a better way. Yeah, because I like doing the side content before the final boss because I'm like, I'm too, you want to be done. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it feels awkward. Like they, I feel like there needs to be a better system. I don't want to do credits roll and being like, all right, I guess I'll go see this fucking side quest.

Yeah. Which is why I was, the only gripped with the game is that I feel like that I would love a way where I would need to go and do the side quests. Yeah. Yeah. But I also, if I did just go straight to the boss, that I guess like maybe some kind of scaling thing where... Those of Vesparia.

I don't know the face of the boss. I thought that's smart. That's a small way. It's the only time I've ever experienced it and generally was a fucking hard boss battle. And made me, yeah, I mean, it compelled me to do more of the side content as well. That's what you want, right?

side quest should be optional, but also add to whatever you're building towards. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think obviously there is, like, you know, there's tons of different ways of doing it. Like, I know that, like, like, like, Eldon Ring, they just have random fucking God characters to the side that you can just beat if you want. It's like, it's even an Elder Ring, it was a problem just because, um, I mean. The final boss was so weak compared to the side bosses. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I mean, the final boss was nowhere near as hard as, uh, millennia. Yeah. But sometimes in Eldon Ring you discover a boss and then you realize, oh, I'm just really fucking over-leveled for this. Yeah, when you four hit a boss in Illinois, you're so sad. You're like, all right. Oh, you had your own fucking cut scene and then I just fucking one-shot you because I was doing all this side content.

Yeah. So yeah, I'd love a bit more way to maybe figure that out. But like if, for like future RPGs, because I feel like this has become more common in RPGs where the side quest stuff is actually just fully optional. Yeah. And it's like, I don't want to be O.P. When I fight the boss. Fair.

I want to have to fucking sweat. Get on at game designers. Yeah. But yeah, no. I mean, that's, that's good. Dark Souls been playing for the first time. Peak fucking game, bro. Where you actually?

Yeah, I'm playing Dark Souls 1 right now. Since when? I started like, I'm like 30 hours in. Oh, shit. Okay. About to finish it. But, dude, everyone was telling me that the Mac.

Well, you haven't finished, you haven't done the DLC for Alder Ring, but you've done Dark Souls? Yeah. Because I'm doing co-op. I'm doing co-op with, with mouse. Oh.

A really talented mod made a seamless co-op mod. Oh, cool. And it works so good. You literally just like join your friend's world and then you can literally

do the whole game together. Oh, cool. Because the games do technically have co-op. Yeah. Eldon Ring has co-op. But what it is is like you go into the boss room,

summon your friend, he leaves. And like he doesn't get any of the story or any of that stuff. It's really like, I also feel like they should just add co-op. People clearly very much want co-op

in these games. People are very finicky with messing with Dark Souls. The Dark Souls formula. You know, sometimes you're like, well, there's an achievement to doing it by yourself, you see. I feel like that's like, it should be like that's the way it's intended. But I feel like it's just fucking fun

to take on a fucking giant boss. And you just see your friend being flung around. And it's just kind of sick. I don't know, it's really fun. Well, that's the best part about Monster Hunter. Yeah, right? I guess it's just monster hunter at that point. It's just like, you could take on this giant

fucking rathlers by yourself, but watching your friend can't fucking come into the rescue and help you out. That's what's best. And like there are some bosses where like clearly having co-op kind of trivializes it. Like there are some bosses where like more of the humanoid bosses that are maybe doing really high attacks but not massive AOE. It's super kind of busted to have someone take agro and someone keep, because the bosses will immediately swap agro. Yeah. Yeah. But against like the giant bosses, it's, it feels fucking. It's just monster hunter. Because yeah, You're kind of all getting AOE hit by everything. And the mod scales the enemies.

They have more health. Okay. Oh, cool. Based on how, and up to like four people who can join. Oh, shit. It's literally most of us. It's so sick.

And it works really well. We've been doing the whole game. And it's so good. And man, the map design of Dark Souls 1 is kind of nuts. It's kind of insane how this is, it might be like the coolest map layout I've ever seen. I never finished it.

dude, everything's connected. Yeah. Every single world you go to, you're like, damn, this is, it's like way more impressive than Alden Ring in terms of like how well compressed everything. And so there's this kind of main keep area. And every single time you go to an area, you're like,

there's a door and you're like, oh, I wonder where this door goes to. You somehow come out in the castle. You're like, what the fuck? Everything is connected in this castle. So can you show a, I think some people made a diagram of the Dark Souls map layout, like 3D. It's so, so cool. and every area you're like,

how is this connected so well? Oh, that second one. Oh, yeah, I've seen this, yeah. Maybe you can right click the, if you just, yeah, open a new image. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of crazy how it all connects so seamlessly.

Right. And you'll be in an area that you're like, I'm so far away from where I started, but then you immediately come out and you're like in the same area. Yeah. It's really fun. The only thing that sucks about it

is you do so much backtracking. Yeah. Because they didn't give you many bonfires and you don't get fast travel until like two thirds into the game. Yeah. And so you end up doing a lot of backtracking. I mean, the one thing that I'm glad that has been optimized in Eldon Ring, which I played a little bit of Dark Souls 3, never completed there,

but sometimes one thing I've really liked about Eldon Ring, anytime you go to a boss, it's a hard boss, there's always a bonfire near it, or right at the entrance. Yeah, yeah. That's not always the case. No, they didn't start doing that until like Eldon Ring, I think. Yeah. And I'm like, some of these boss runs, I'm like, why do I need to run? Dude, I have to walk like five minutes.

Yeah. I have to get past all these enemies just for the boss to fucking one shot me. And then you, like, your souls are in the room with the boss, right? So every time you're walking back for five minutes, there's a chance you die on the way and lose all your souls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're like, this fucking sucks. Yeah. I think that's what originally made me rage quit. Dark Souls won actually. Yeah. And also like, it's a little troll in the fact that like, they don't really tell you where to go in the start. And you could just accidentally go to like the hardest area in the game very easily. Because I remembered when I opened this game, I was like, oh shit.

I played this game like 10 years ago. And I remember I went immediately to the catacombs. And I rage quit after about five minutes. Because I was like, this game fucking sucks. Because the moment you go to the catacombs, you just get your shit handed to you. And none of the enemies die. Yeah. And then you're like, what the fuck is this game, man?

And you've this dog shit weapon that the game doesn't fucking tell you anything about. And you're like, this fucking sucks. But yeah, I've been really enjoying it. It's really fucking good. Really impressed with just how insane this game is. So you're going to go through all the games now? Probably at some point. I'm in no rush to jump into two.

Yeah. I'm very, very excited. I'm probably going to do Sekiro after I finally do the El-Sengra. D-L-Chi-R. Sakura might be next to me in the Souls, I think. Yeah. I've done the DLC for the Alden Ring.

She can't be bothered. You can't be bothered? Get back into my character and stuff. I'm so excited. The only reason I haven't done it is because I just I went a marathon it and I haven't just had three days. I'm going to do it.

Yeah, that's the thing. It's fucking three days. It's like a whole game. Yeah, I got to just wait and cook. Yeah. But I'll get there eventually. I will get to it eventually. Yeah, I will do it.

And Joey will going to, Joey's going to play Expedition 33. I'll get to it eventually. Eventually. I'll get that eventually. Yeah. Yeah, but Dark Souls Peak, man. The remaster, it's amazing.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, a lot of fun. Yeah. Well, there you go. That's been us. That's been trash taste. That's what we've been up to. Yep.

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