Drunk Tourist Damages Legendary Kyoto Temple | @AbroadinJapan #182

Drunk Tourist Damages Legendary Kyoto Temple | @AbroadinJapan #182

it’s like Nazki coming into West Minister Abbey drunk and smashing a window or something you know
Wow
Hello and welcome to the Abroad Japan podcast Probably the best way of learning about life in Japan without actually being in Japan I’m your host Chris Border joined as always by England’s top Japan enthusiast Mr Pete Doulson Pete how the devil are you doing what’s going on
i’m very good Chris Um just before we started recording this show we were talking um about um your book your impending second book uh that you’re currently writing and um you very much are very keen on locking yourself away in your own personal villa in the in in Okinawa Uh and um you you basically just basically thought well I could probably just stay in the studio and write the book Um but you’re very interested in uh apparently going to Okinawa sitting in a villa for a week with a with your own personal pool Um and that’s all you’ve talked about really Chris Obsessed with me I just writing a book’s hard I’ve missed my um
It is
I don’t even know if I should talk about it but it I I missed my hand in date several times because I’ve been so
busy doing things right it’s hard to to write a book is difficult and to do it when you you’re running like a YouTube channel and a bar and other things It’s it’s hard Um and also the book that I’m writing it’s more it’s a more travel focused book and I have to fact check everything I’m saying I don’t want to be like the cure of Mr Dera Temple was built by Barry Chopsticks in the year 1562 I have to check the things I’m writing about Make sure what I’m saying is accurate
Why Chris there are no YouTube comments on a book Just make it all up in it Japan was invented by the sushi company in 1862 People aren’t going to be writing in bro at the bottom of your book going “Oh actually Chris it was built in 16.” People will be doing that now That will be happening in an abundance So obviously factecking and it will go through some some proof readers who have to fact check it as well But it’s a cool book I’m excited But every time you have to fact check and stop writing it’s like hitting a roadblock It’s like hitting a traffic light So it’s taking time to write Um and I need and when you write at home with a cat going and then coughing up some like hair balls and it’s like oh this is not good So I keep looking at this this image It was the um the uh the the journey across Japan episode where it was the Okinawa one It was it’s a stupid video It’s called like what does Japan’s $3,000 villa look like or some crap Yeah back when it was this era where people would showcase obscenely expensive things that was really popular Um but I hated doing it cuz it’s like cost of living crisis co it’s like look at this thing that none of us can really afford Yeah And so I stopped doing it quite shortly after Um but my god that villa oh it’s so good We did have to like film a Dr early commercial in it uh very quickly and it sort of took the magic away but for the 10 minutes I got to enjoy that villa swimming around splashing about I was magical Pete and I can’t stop thinking about it and that would be the place to write a book and that’s the only place get yourself just book yourself at a rapper
hotel and just just get and just get that book written you don’t need a pool you don’t need a swanky villa you just need a bit of peace and quiet you just need four boring walls for you to you know paint your book all over so to speak
It’s It’s annoying I I But it’s just so expensive And obviously going Okinawa is uh it’s time better spent writing a book So probably not the best thing to do And I do have this amazing studio and I find when I’m working in here I don’t get interrupted often Although there was a guy he like banged on the door and tried to promote some sort of religious cult to me not that long ago
Oh
And he stood there and he didn’t get the hint that it was time to [ __ ] off And he was like “Have you heard of XY Z Buddhist cult thing?” And gave me a pamphlet about how my spirit would be enlightened if I gave him like 500 quid
I was just like “Can you go away mate i’ve got a book to write [ __ ] off.” There was this guy I mean I’ve signed up for a couple of direct debits um recently And I don’t know why I did it I just felt when someone’s on your doorstep asking you to you know um donate donate to Great Almond Street you just feel
Oh that’s good That’s a good cause It’s like child poverty That’s a children’s hospital That’s fine
to a to a cult like some sort of weird sect of Buddhism It’s not it’s not a good idea There’s so many cults in Japan man And I I don’t like talking about them because the people that are part of them are kind of scary Yeah So I don’t like talking about it but there are a lot of cults and you will get to experience the magic of it if you live here long enough Um I should just go with him one day and actually attend it and like take a secret camera in my coffee and film it in it
Louis throw it
Throw
Why do you think we’re all going to ascend to heaven tomorrow why do you think that Jesus is going to come down etc etc
Do you think Louis could stop a Japanese bear though i saw a news story today
Oh yeah in Yamagata Good old the trusty home of Yamagata They shut down the airport cuz a little bear was just running around the runway He’s just strolling around having the time of his life
Good old black bear having a little wander around seeing the planes Maybe it was a a bear that was an aviation enthusiast The Sam Chewy of bears
Yeah
Uh oh god there’s a lot of bear attacks though I I see the numbers here Japan experienced a record high of 219 bear attacks on humans in the last year or so Six fatalities along the way as well It’s pretty bad
Those odds seem um good Do you know what I mean like uh maybe they remember the old adage um if it’s brown lie down If it’s white say good night If it’s black attack back or something
Dear dear Anyway I hope the I hope the bear got out okay Fingers crossed Fingers crossed he escaped But we have a story this week and it is from Ben from Perth Australia And he begins “Hello Chris and Pete Uh I love the podcast Uh listening to the podcast have me reminiscing on my about my first trip to Japan back in October 2023 Um and a rather strange dining experience I had while I was there A group of friends and I just wrapped up a day uh at Joy Palace in Oda There’s a big amusement arcade in Oda near Tokyo Uh and we were looking for somewhere to eat before heading back to our accommodation Given our diet until that point had consisted of mainly 7-Eleven pre-made meals we figured it was about time that we indulge in some proper Japanese cuisine As we were scouting out an appropriate restaurant we came across a Domino’s pizza and joked about how we should just abandon our search However as we started to walk away we were approached by one of the workers who was frantically trying to catch up for us uh catch up to us for some reason Excuse me English Japanese the worker yelled from behind us to which we replied “Yes English.” with some confusion “Oh so good Free pizza you want,” he said Did he say it like that much to our surprise we thought he might have just meant they were giving away free slices for some kind of promotion So we agreed and joined him back to the store However we were then drawn towards what can only be described as quite literally the leaning tower of pizza There had to have been at least 30 pizza boxes stacked on top of each other and even more scattered around on the nearby tables All the staff were surrounding it as if they were worshiping some kind of UNESCO World Heritage site albeit a rather shoddy one Not wanting to pass up on such a brilliant offer we quickly snapped up four large pizzas and ate them through fits of laughter in the nearby park trying to process what on earth was going on Is it common for restaurants in Japan to hand out dead stock or leftover food and if so what’s the best free meal you’ve ever had much love Ben from Perth That’s annoying I was in Oda near Joy Pollace literally two weeks ago with Natsky and I didn’t get a free pizza What’s going on i’m going to go back there and just stand out the front
The most I’ve ever got is like a hank like a packet of handkerchiefs in the street on a hot day That’s all I’ve ever had
We should do this for Lost Bar just stack like 500 kg of cheese in the streets of Shabuya It was um Brad Pitt was outside the front of Lost like yesterday cuz he’s promoting the F1 movie
and he was just wandering around the streets and being followed by like a thousand people like it’s the ‘9s and uh I should have been like “Oh look up there mate Quick get to Lost We’ll we’ll shield you
Get yourself some cheese Get you some cheese Brad for crying out loud I know you got the munchies.”
Get in there Get in there Have some cheese Have some cheese Um there great promotion for the for the place for Dominoes right
that’s all it was I imagine
Have Have you ever been given anything sort of for free cuz it’s always for me I’ve had like odd free drink here and there from some generous um patrons of bars and stuff but I’ve only like they do give you like uh like handkerchiefs in the street when on a hot day so you can mop your brow
I’ve had uh Monster Energy They were just handing out cans of Monster Energy
Um and cigarettes get free cigarettes Sigies Yeah you do have people coming around bars with cigarettes don’t you yeah
Back I don’t know if they still do it but back in the day you’d be in a bar and then the cigarette man or lady would come in with a bag and they’d be like “What flavor do you want?” And you’d be like “Menthol or something.” And then they’d throw you a packet of cigarettes and off you went to get lung cancer It’s quite a bold move really You know in rest of the world trying to phase out cigarettes and here in Japan they hand them out for free It’s it’s quite uh quite a phenomenon Um and not as good as a as a large Domino’s pizza unfortunately Um but while some tourists get free pizzas others terrorize Kyoto What’s been going on in Koto this week Pete with the legendary temple that’s been uh slightly broken by an intoxicated tourist
I wish that um this this person had had some free pizza Then he wouldn’t have you know had so much alcohol coursing through his bloodstream Might have been soaking up some of that booze Um at around 6:20 a.m on June the 24th uh an intoxicated American tourist entered a centuries old Zen temple in Kyoto and broke part of it The man whose name has not been released wandered into Shodden Aen in a sub temple of Kenji in uh jeez these words Oh my god Um rather than using the main entrance he decided to enter through a kitchen door on the south side He stumbled through the gardens Then for reason known only to himself he attempted to climb a wooden railing enclosing enclosing the main hall That railing along with the hall itself was designated as a Kyoto Prefectural cultural heritage site in 2015 The structure is fragile historically significant and irreplaceable The damage was immediate The wood split and scraped under his weight A nearby wooden door was also broken The temple called the police but didn’t file a damage report Um the man uh record uh came back um sober that morning through a translation app He told the chief priest “This was the biggest mistake of my life I’m truly sorry.” When asked why he did it Zamper his answer was simple I just wanted to see the temple Um the chief priest Ken McGami 48 told reporters he accepted the man’s apology There was no permanent uh damage to the resins attached to the temple The railing will likely be repaired with traditional methods quietly without fuss Um so not irreplaceable but certainly fixable
Well I mean all the temples in Ku have been built in the last 2 years or rebuilt in the last it’s more the principle right uh like the wood of a lot of these temples isn’t thousands of years old or hundreds of years old It’s quite modern but it’s the principle isn’t it going
it looks old though don’t it all of the wood is brown dark like all wood’s kind of brown but it’s dark brown It looks like it’s been forged in fire a lot of it
It’s like Nazki coming into West Minister Abbey drunk and smashing the window or something You know it’s it’s the principal religious right it’s a religious spot It’s a place of worship a place to be respected And
we’re definitely not on the side of the um apologetic drunk man But at least it’s impressive that he came back Although I guess he was still drunk when he came back uh or hung over I’m fair play of the chief priest for forgiving him as well Um
but uh I think it it this story comes as a part of the wider uh narrative doesn’t it of of Kato being under siege by tourists and who are disrespecting the city Bad timing And I saw a lot of comments online saying he should be put in a prison or he should be fined tens of thousands of pounds or whatever Um do you remember the guy who like rang a bell what was it there was a guy he did tours last year or the year before He did tours in Kyoto one of the people on his tour who was foreign and he himself was foreign British
Uh rang a bell loudly Somebody told them to stop Uh uh u argument ensued which she the woman filmed and then uh it became like a big news story and the guy had to like leave Kyoto due to due to death threats and whatnot It’s it’s like a tinder box old Kyoto at the moment Um and you understand why if you It would be sad if you lived there 20 30 years and all of a sudden this this sort of city that you loved was slowly being overrun with drunkards smashing things people taking photos of geisha people ringing bells very loudly Uh it’s just the way it’s just unfortunate you know It’s not ideal There’s just too many tourists for um a quite small town I think Yes But Um there you go Another another drunk tourist doing a thing
in Japan
It It is truly endless
It was just a Thursday Just another Thursday in Kyoto Um but there you go I mean it’s you sort of I’m sort of waiting though for the inevitable Something even bigger to happen in the near future You know you always wonder when when someone’s going to do something really bad that will lead
drunk bear Drunk bear
We’ll get the bears
drunk the the bear from the uh from the airport comes and smashes up a temple Simple
Oh man God they’re going to like let loose the wild balls that roam the mountains of Shimanari Let them lease on the tourists Sold
Well you know I’ve been last few times I’ve been to Kato it’s been pleasant It’s been nice Yes there’s busy bits but it’s still a great city uh that I love dearly But I will be strategic with when I visit I think Cuz when I went in March it wasn’t fun It wasn’t good for anyone No at least of all my my family Though my parents still said it was their favorite spot which kind of shocked me to be honest
Yeah Sarah’s the same to be fair Yeah but it’s very alluring I imagine watching me eat an entire um pickled cucumber God God Just always be mindful if you go to K as I’m sure you are cuz nobody listening to this is an idiot That’s scientific It’s fact It’s physics They’ve already made terribly good decisions by listening to the podcast Exactly And you’re gonna make a terribly good decision by carrying on listening to what’s coming up in the fax machine Just a moment
Wow And we’re back with the fax machine What do we got this week from our listeners mr Donaldson fill us in
We’ve got a message from Derek from Tokyo Dear consistent Chris and Punchy Pete in a moment of madness to ring in my 50th trip around the sun I’ve entered the Spartan race at Suzan um Shaw Walker next month I partially blame you Chris for having watched and enjoyed your video on the race a few years ago in Nigata and making it look all so manageable The gentleman getting sick at the beginning of the race notwithstanding Aside from don’t do it what advice can you pass on to someone soon to take on this challenge keep the great work All the best Derek from Tokyo He’s going to do a bloody Spartan race for crying out loud
That’s I mean do it It’s [ __ ] amazing
Just do it Yeah
I uh to this day I do not know how I succeeded It was brutal
And I was I was like very nearly sick in the opening 10 minutes because it started with a sprint up a mountain like just a direct takeoff Uh quite a steep incline
But after that I was fine I took the mountain the climb and the ascent at a reasonable pace Um and I did I think I did like 16 out of 20 obstacles So it’s not about getting every obstacle it’s about doing your best and I was pretty happy with that Um it’s a cool video I really like that video actually It’s underrated
Check it out And uh best of luck with you there on the race I drove through uh that place where it is in um Ichigo Yuzawa in Nigat I drove past it just last week and I saw the mountain and that I raced up and I was like [ __ ] hell how did I get up that cuz I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it right now Something tells me I would struggle Um I think I used to live in a apartment block that was quite high up and I would train by going up the stairs You know we’re talking like 10 15 floors up this apartment block and going up the stairs every day I’d like run up them as fast as I could and then by about 10th floor I’d like pass out and that really prepared me for it So find some stairs and just go upwards and keep going and then do it every day You’re worse than the drunken man Imagine living in that Um you know people trying to sleep and they can hear like better son
and then they just hear as I Oh I’m having a bad time in your stairwell Oh
we got one here from Tim He says “Ale Chris and Pete.” Over the last two years I’ve acquired a slight addiction uh to Japan I’ve been five times Um trips six and seven are already booked In November I’ll be going to ride the I’ll be doing the ride over the Shimami Kaido cycle over two days I’ve been building up fitness by riding 70 to 100 km every week Um given both of you have cycled in the wet rain is there any advice you could share please are things like shoe covers worth it uh or is it better to just carry extra dry socks i’m one of those annoying Australians who doesn’t have to contend with jet lag cuz Perth is only 1 hour behind All the best Tim from Perth
Um lucky bastard 1 hour jet lag coming I can’t even imagine that Not bad is it
every time I come here I’m dead Like coming to or from Japan I’m a train wreck Um so on the many times I’ve cycled and it’s rained my socks get soaked and I stop being happy very quickly and it’s depressing And the solution is to get waterproof shoes which I did and that stopped the problem from happening actually Yeah So just get waterproof shoes
Um you’ll have to can your cycle shoes for a bit and get them But my god it is so nice not having to cycle with soggy socks Uh other than that you’ll be fine I’m always surprised like waterproof looking stuff jackets shoes are never waterproof Like never completely waterproof It’s absolutely wild
You look so bad
It sucks man Um cycling in the rain is like my least favorite thing I think we got quite lucky on the um the most recent one Cyclathon 4 because I think there’s only two days of rain that I can recall Uh so yeah but just just get some waterproof shoes and wear those Um doesn’t have to be expensive There’s um a Japanese chain called Workman that does uh like goods for work people that work outdoors a lot outdoorsy stuff Um and they’re really cheap I think I spend like $ 20 $30 on these waterproof shoes and they save me on the two or three days it rains So get those Best of luck to you I have a great time though Tony says “Hello Chris Pete I live in a wonderful little seaside town called Eastborne I know Eastborne well Uh I walk along the lovely seafront every morning before going to work But there’s an increasing number of ebikes and e- scooters doing their thing in the pedestrian only zone Filth often at frightening speeds Is there a similar problem in Japan do they terrorize ordinary citizens or are they better at obeying social norms and pedestrian etiquette uh very best wishes Tony We do have um e scooters have really kicked off in Tokyo Um I’ve never ridden one myself but uh they got extremely popular recently but they have to use the roads here So they’re not allowed on the sidewalk Uh not allowed on the on the pavement However cyclists are allowed on the pavement and you’ve got to sort of keep an eye out at all times cuz they will come and hit you so be careful Um but I imagine it’s probably not as bad as as Eastborne
I don’t know why this is Eastborne is it i I last time I went to Eastborne I was uh 7 years old and it was my it’s about 2 or 3 years before my dad did the Robot Wars thing where he built like a
silly killer robot and fought it out on British TV and he built another thing before then There was a competition in Eastborne on the pier where you had to build a wing like a a literal wing strap someone to it and they would jump off the pier and you would see how far
like that Red Bull sort of thing they do
Yeah Yeah But [ __ ] like a shitty icorus Don’t I love your engineering It’s really exciting
So his friend from work I can’t remember his name but he he had to like strap this big like polystyrene [ __ ] wing to him and he jumped off the pier and he just face plant He went like 1 meter then just face planted into the sea and it was so much fun I don’t know They should still go on He was fine He was fine It went further than a [ __ ] Boeing plane did I’ll tell you that much Um but no that’s my my resounding image of of Eastborne And the second memory I have of Eastborne is I was uh kissing my first ever girlfriend there and a Scottish man saw me and got very angry like “Don’t do that on the beach What are you doing over there
daddy do it’ll be no passion on the beach Thank you very much.”
He went mental So Eastborne scares me And it also got flooded that day so I won’t be back there But have a great time with the cyclists and scooters Tony And thanks for listening and good old Eastborne the town that traumatized me more than any other Keep the stories questions comments coming in to abroad Japan podcast at gmail.com We’ll be back later in the week guys Do it all over again But for now have yourself a great few days We’ll see you right back here on the Abroad I keep saying the same thing Back like a broken [ __ ] tape recorder
Good That’s good though isn’t it you know your your top and your bottom have to be the same That’s how it works We’ll see you back Get yourself to Eastborne Until then have a good one Bye for now guys Get a wing

Bad News: Flight delayed.
Good News: Adorable bear cub outside window.

🇯🇵Get your superfast Japan eSIM: https://jjesim.com

⭐ PREVIOUS EPISODE:

Feat @AbroadinJapan

00:00 Progress On Chris’ Next Book
05:52 Free Pizza Is Best Pizza
09:38 Kyoto Temple Damaged By Tourist
15:02 Spartan Race Advice
17:17 Shimanami Kaido Tips

AbroadInJapanPodcast@gmail.com for all your messages – and remember you can listen to the show in audio form wherever you get your podcasts – https://shows.acast.com/abroadinjapan