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Okay another, I call it a walk and talk, but it's a sit and talk, I'm sitting and chatting with you and I am now in the United States, I am in Indiana, which is in the Midwest, it's called the Midwest part of America, the Midwest is the middle of the country.
So my impressions, how was it, how was it coming over here, it's been five and a half years, five and a half years since I was in America, the United States, and you know what's it like, do I have any reverse culture shock, what was it like?
Well first of all, the flight, number one, big big big big big difference between Japan and America is the customer service, oh what a difference.
As most people probably know, Japan is famous for excellent customer service, and it is indeed excellent, oh it's so pleasant, you just get spoiled in Japan, you get used to everybody, it doesn't matter, convenience stores, you know, any kind of shopping, trains, airplanes, any hotels, it's excellent
customer service, the people are always polite, even if they make mistakes or there's a problem, they're just always so friendly and polite about it.
On the other hand, flying on United Airlines, which is an American airline, they're based in the United States, it's an American company, oh my god the flight attendant was, I'm going to use the bad word here guys, she was a bitch, she was freaking horrible, just a nasty attitude, terrible, terrible,
like that never happens in Japan, never ever ever have I had that happen in Japan, but yikes, so the whole flight just nasty and probably nasty because we had traveling with two young children, and one of our kids, you know, he is our boy, he didn't like sitting in a seat for 12 hours with the seatbelt
on, he just hates it, he likes to move around, which is, I think a lot of boys are like that, girls can be that way too, but boys especially, you know, our girl was fine, she actually was perfect, the whole trip, both long flights, the big long layover, she was perfect, but you know, he got antsy, he
hates sitting and just being stuck in one place, he's actually very good on trains because there's no seatbelts, he can get up, he can kind of turn around, he can look out the window, there's more to see, but on the flight he struggled, he didn't do anything horrible or terrible really, just, you know,
when the seatbelt site would come on he wouldn't want to be stuck in his own chair by himself, so for example he'd want to sit on my lap instead, and then this nasty flight attendant would come by, he can't sit on your lap, he has to sit on his own chair, and you know, maybe that's a rule, whatever,
you know, number one, they can just let the rule go, you know, they don't have to enforce every little tiny rule, but even if they're going to enforce the rule, like in Japan if they had to make you follow that rule, they would do it in such a polite way, I'm so sorry, but you know, we have to do this,
he has to sit in his own chair, oh I know it's difficult, right, they would just be very very polite about it, and this nasty American woman, she's just like, nah nah nah, like a little dictator, you know, they love the power, these flight attendants, the flight attendants in America, because of 9 -11
and they got a little bit of power from the government, they are nasty nasty nasty, there's some exceptions on our domestic flight, the guy was actually quite nice, but on the international flight, the flight attendants were just horrible, I hate flying on American Airlines, so American Airlines, the actual
airline, the name American Airlines, they're horrible, I will never ever ever fly on them, they're always delayed and late, I've had so many bad experiences, I'll never take a flight from them, but also United Airlines, and Delta Airlines, and any of the like more budget airlines, they're all absolutely
horrible, and the customer service is just, you know, let's say 80 % of the workers on all these airlines are rude and nasty, unfriendly, so that's, you know, that's the major shock coming from Japan, and not only Japan, I have to say all Asian Airlines, every Asian airline I've ever flown on has had
absolutely wonderful, you know, friendly, polite customer service, so that's Thai Airways, Eva Airways, China Airways, China Airlines, JAL, that's Japan Airlines, ANA, which is another Japanese one, Korean, ASEANA, ASEANA, which is another Korean one, what's the one based in Hong Kong, Cathay, Cathay
Pacific, all great, Vietnam Airlines, they've all been fantastic, Singapore Airlines, the famous are being great, and also Middle Eastern ones, Gulf Air, have I flown anything else?
I think Gulf Air is the only one I've flown, but I've heard the others are pretty good too, so fantastic, fantastic, fantastic customer service, like really top level, just friendly and wonder, that's it, just friendly and pleasant and wonderful, so, and you know, this is, the airlines are probably
some of the worst customer service in the United States, but it's a lot of businesses, you know, same like, let's just say something like McDonald's, so just fast food, nothing special, you go in Japan, McDonald's is mostly women kind of working there, like adult women, not teenagers, adult women, and sometimes
they'll have some, you know, some other men in working there, usually in the back, super sweet, friendly, customer service, super quick with their orders, never get anything wrong, it's really great.
America, you go to McDonald's and it's, usually they got a nasty attitude, they're lazy, they don't smile, you know, there are exceptions, sometimes you get lucky and you get nice people, but a lot of times you don't, so that's America, in America, you know, the customer service totally depends if you
get lucky and you get a good person or not, in Japan it's, it's the whole culture, the whole cultural mindset, and it's the whole business mindset, is just great, polite customer service.
Yeah, they make mistakes still, they're not perfect, but their attitude is just always great.
In the United States, you know, it depends, I will say we got, we went to a hotel in San Francisco, so we did 12 hours flying, Japan to San Francisco, and then we had a 12 hour layover, so 12 hours in San Francisco during the day, so we got a hotel so that we could nap a bit, I took my daughter swimming,
she went to go to the pool, she was, she was the only one that was like, oh wait, she had a lot of energy, the rest of us were ready to sleep, so my son and my, my wife, they immediately took, went to sleep, and then I went swimming with my daughter and then we came back and we also slept, so that helped,
we got, we all got, I don't know, four and a half hours of five hours nap, which definitely helped us, and, and I will say it was the, what was it, the Hyatt, the Hyatt Regency Airport, I think is that, was the hotel, and everybody working there was super, super, super friendly, like very cheerful and kind
of like Japan, so it's just weird, it depends on business, it depends if you get lucky in America, it's, it's like, you know, might be great and it might be terrible, Japan it's always great customer service, so anyway, we did that, got some food and then back to the airport again, checked in for our
overnight domestic flight, so it was, I think we left at about 11 pm from San Francisco, and it was a four -hour flight to Indiana, the city is called Indianapolis, and we were wide awake because we were still jet lagged, we're still in Japan time, so for us that was daytime, you know, so we, everyone
stayed awake, again my son was really trying to, he's just trying to get out of his chair constantly, luckily the flight attendant on the domestic flight, he was pretty cool, he was pretty relaxed, he kind of ignored it a lot of the time, and he was just really always coming by, seeing if we needed
something, he was yeah, very, very nice, makes such a difference, you know, these kind of trips are, can be really tiring and difficult, and when you do them with children, it's extra tiring and extra difficult, so these little things like just, just a nice attitude, just a friendly kind attitude from the flight
attendants, or you know hotel staff, whatever, it makes a huge, huge difference, it really, really helps if they're relaxed and friendly and cheerful, or if they're, you know, so anyway, if you have a business, just keep that in mind, you know, customers feel it, whatever your business is, it is just
the attitude makes such a difference, so we made it, after that four hours, then we arrived and got our car, and then still had to drive about an hour from the airport to my sister's house, where we are staying, and then the kids, everybody fell asleep while I was driving, except for me, and then we
got here, and that's where we are now, now another contrast, and this is a positive one, this is, this is on the side of, I'll give this a plus for America, right, if customer service is the big plus for Japan, for sure, way better than America, really way better than most countries, but the nice side
here is we're live, we're out in the country, my sister lives out in the country, she's got this, quite a lot of land, with tree, all surrounded by trees, can't see any neighbors, right, just trees, so you feel like you're in your own little private nature center almost, and she's got a little guest
house, a separate little house, so we're staying in this little tiny cottage, but it's nice because we have privacy, it's super tiny, but we're used to that since we're, we've been living in Japan, where there's not much space, so it's just, this is, this is the part that's very nice, because Japan's
very urban, right, it's Japan has a lot of people in small space, and as I mentioned in my last podcast, therefore most people live in an urban area, even what they call suburbs in Japan are just concrete jungles, it's just concrete everywhere, there aren't many, there's not many trees, or there's not much
greenery until you get, you know, out into the mountains, you know, you really got to get out in Japan, so, so we live in the city in Osaka, a satellite city, but here it's just green, green, green trees everywhere, and it's like we have our own little backyard habitat, you know, we've seen, there's
a fox that we see in the mornings sometimes, we've seen a couple times, I think we saw a possum or something yesterday, it was a little bit far away, birds and squirrels everywhere, my sister said, deer come through here, come through her yard, sometimes, we just bought a bunch of bird food, we're gonna try
feeding some of the animals, so we can, you know, attract more of them, and the kids are so excited to see all the animals, and my sister has a little small pool, so the kids, we've just been swimming almost every day, we've been outdoors, you know, outdoors in the fresh air, with, you know, just surrounded
by trees and grass, and swimming in the pool, so it's really nice, I naturally prefer this kind of life, country life, instead of city life, city life is really high stress, and even, you know, I don't have a high stress job, obviously, or I don't have a high stress schedule, but just the noise in the crowds,
the crowds get to me, like just in Japan, everywhere you go, there are always people, even though I try to take the kids to the playground, there's always other people there, we're here, it's only our family, you know, my sister and her kids, my kids cousins, and us, and that's it, there's nobody else
around, my kids can just run free and go crazy in this giant huge yard in the land here, and just, they love it, they're having so much fun, and that brings me to, you know, to another thing, which is just the importance of family, including extended family, because, you know, it's like my children
just instantly bonded with their cousins, like just right away, just so excited to see them and play with them, and now, like every day, as soon as my kids wake up, they're looking out the window, waiting for their cousins to get up and come outside so they can play with them, and I realize, you know,
they've missed that in Japan, they have cousins in Japan, but they don't, they're not, we're not living in the same place as them, and they're all busy, the Japanese ones, you know, so, especially now in the summer, my sister's kids are not in school, so they're just home every day, and my kids follow
them around, like little puppies, constantly follow them everywhere, and they're, they've just instantly comfortable with them, you know, they've seen pictures of them before, and all that, it's just really nice to see, and you know, the other part of this is, I feel like for the first time in five
years, my wife and I are getting a little bit of a rest and break, because the last five years, you know, since the kids were born, she and I have been taking care of them, playing with them, doing everything with the kids from when they wake up to when they go to bed, with almost no break.
I get a little break in the mornings, because my wife will wake up with the kids, usually in Japan, and I sleep a little longer, and then my wife gets a little break in the afternoons in Japan, because that's when I take the kids outside, and so my wife can, you know, kind of relax or do some things
in the house a little bit, but other than that, it's non -stop.
Whereas here, since we got here, because the kids are so excited, and they're playing with their cousins, it's, we can kind of sit back and relax a lot more, and because we're here on her land, there are no busy roads, there's only one gate, and it's easy to block that, just tell the kids don't go over
there, so just make sure they don't run out to the road, but other than that, there's, there's no way they can really get hurt, or no other, no other people around, so we can sit back and just relax a lot more.
I feel like I'm on vacation.
I don't know, my wife tomorrow feels the same, you know, that she's like, oh, this is really nice.
They're spending all this time playing with the cousins, and running around, and we get a little break.
This is what it feels like to have a break.
Very nice, very nice.
You know, in the past, I think probably every culture and country in the world, this was kind of the normal thing for extended families to live together, like on the same, maybe in the same house, or the same land, or at least like very, very close, so that it was very common for a child to grow up,
and just to be around his or her cousins, and uncles, and aunts, and grandparents, you know, all the time, every day.
And that, indeed, those cousins would often be, cousins and then brothers and sisters, of course, would be their playmates, their main playmates, and that their life, their social life was very much centered on family.
And yeah, you might have some friends outside the family, but mostly family.
Now, I believe that is the traditional, the dharmic, the natural and the best kind of socializing for kids, and the social situation.
Of course, now, in so many places, because of urbanization, right, people living in cities so much, and because families tend to, you know, scatter and break apart.
First of all, there's the divorce problem, which is horrible.
And then there's just, you know, people move all around.
I mean, even me, we live in Japan, and my sister lives in Indiana.
So, realize how isolating it is.
It's so nice being here, right here on the same, in the same yard, right, right next to our little guest house is right next to my sister's house.
And so, just wake up and go play with the cousins.
And my sister has four kids at home.
She has five kids. One's at university.
So, four kids at home plus my kids.
So, there's six kids running around here.
It's really great. And, you know, if it's possible, I highly recommend doing it.
You know, I think we're going to try to start doing this more, spending more time here.
At least summers, maybe we can spend our summers here in Indiana at my sister's.
That's the best time because her and her kids are not busy.
And so, that would give us about two months if we came at the beginning of their summer break.
Give my, give all the kids two months together, just playing and having a good time.
So nice. I think that's one reason we have so much loneliness, isolation, you know, in the world.
So many people feeling that.
And I felt that myself many times.
It's because we are so disconnected from not only our direct families, our parents, brothers, sisters, but also our extended families.
You know, potentially, and certainly in the past, and still some in a few countries now.
It was just, you had this giant social group, the clan, you might call it, tribe or clan.
Just if you just looked at, you know, uncles, aunts and cousins and grandparents, you know, that could be a huge number of people for a child.
Or for an adult, for that matter.
Like, you know, for me, I've got my sister now.
I can, you know, chat with her and I can watch her kids a little bit, give her a break.
She can watch my kids a bit, give us a break.
Yeah. And then, you know, just, I had children quite late.
If I had had kids earlier, my mom would still be alive.
And, you know, she could be involved too.
And my dad is alive.
He's going to come visit.
But, you know, again, he's scattered.
He lives in another state.
So it's just unfortunate at all this, you know, urbanization and moving around.
I think we've lost a lot.
And I think we lost more than we gained.
Another aspect of country life that I like quite a lot here is that is the food situation.
Because probably in most countries at this point, and absolutely in America, the commercial food, meaning, you know, the food you buy at grocery stores, is poisonous garbage.
Poisonous garbage produced by these giant corporations, something like five or six companies own, like almost all the food that's sold in these, you know, in most normal grocery stores.
And it's garbage. It's full of poisons and pesticides and genetically modified crap and sugar and, you know, not even sugar, high fructose corn syrup, which is worse.
Just garbage, garbage, garbage is bad for you.
It's unhealthy. But here, there are some great, great farmer's markets.
And also online, I found a couple of services.
They're like you can buy directly from local farms in the state here in Indiana.
And they deliver so they deliver it all this food to your door, which is fantastic.
There's a it doesn't matter meat, milk, eggs, vegetables, fruits, berries, all kind of honey, just everything.
And it's all from local farmers, small local farmers that aren't using all that garbage.
You're supporting the local farmers, not the giant corporations and way, way, way healthier.
One of the things we're buying from these local farms is raw milk.
Now this is a rabbit hole I've gone down recently.
That's a nice idiom, by the way, rabbit hole.
What does that mean to go down a rabbit hole?
When we say that, you'll see it on the internet a lot.
Go down a rabbit hole means to research a topic.
A lot. So you do a lot of research about a topic, you might.
And it means you research it deeply.
And it means that you usually are finding maybe unusual information that kind of has that feeling too.
And it comes from Alice in Wonderland, the story where Alice falls in a rabbit hole.
And then what does she find in the rabbit hole?
A whole weird, strange world, right?
So this is the idea that when you go down a rabbit hole on some topic, you find all this weird, strange, amazing information that was maybe hidden that most people don't know about.
So anyway, I've been going down the rabbit hole on raw milk.
And it's quite interesting because a lot, a lot, a lot of people can't digest milk they buy at the store.
It makes them sick.
I also have kind of tried to avoid it.
You know, drinking a lot of milk, I put a little in coffee or something.
And you know, this may be one reason where I struggled to be vegetarian.
I was vegetarian for like 10 years, but started having all these mental and physical problems and stopped doing it.
But I found out and the more I've read about it is that, you know, milk in grocery stores is pasteurized.
And this is yet another thing we've been lied to just like vaccines, just like, oh, I don't know any topic you choose, we've been lied to about it.
So this when they boil and cook the milk at high heat, it destroys the enzymes that help you digest it and destroys a huge amount of the nutrition.
And so what you're left with is a kind of, you know, hard to digest semi poisonous drink.
Right? That's pasteurized or ultra pasteurized milk from a grocery store.
It's the same thing they do to juice, by the way, fruit juice, like natural fruit juice, if you go buy some apples, and just, you know, squeeze them and buy some oranges and squeeze them and drink it directly from the fruit.
That's great. Nothing wrong with that.
Yum, yum, yum. But you go to a store, like a grocery store, and you buy fruit juice.
Again, what do they do?
They cook it, they cook it, and they cook it at high temperatures.
So again, they destroy a huge amount of the vitamins and, and nutrition, they destroy the enzymes also that are present in the, in the juice.
And so what you end up with is just a super sugary drink that doesn't have much nutrition.
And now it's not healthy anymore.
So there's a big difference between, let's say squeezing your own oranges and drinking that orange juice, that's healthy.
Buying juice in a in a carton, or a bottle from the store or a vending machine, not very healthy, mostly just sugar.
So this is the pattern.
And it's the same thing with milk.
So raw milk is extremely healthy, and bodybuilding, and it has all kinds of great properties.
And now I understand, I think this is the key to how, for example, whole societies in India were able to be vegetarian.
Because they were not vegan.
Not vegan. Acharya G talks about this.
Absolutely not vegan.
Vegan is is not a traditional natural diet in any way.
And there are no long term civilizations that have been vegan that I know of.
So I don't recommend being vegan at all.
But vegetarian, okay, if you're vegetarian, and you're eating stuff from the store, this is the problem.
I think I tried to be vegetarian.
But I was eating garbage food from the groceries.
And I think it just messed me up.
And I couldn't really digest it very well.
And it wasn't good.
On the other hand, you know, traditionally in India, for example, you've had larger groups of sinnat than other armies who were vegetarian.
But they were drinking milk they you know, this is why the cow people think, Oh, it's so funny, ha ha ha, it's weird that no, the Indians, they think the cow is sacred.
Well, this is why. This is why they were vegetarians.
And they were getting, you know, 80 % of their nutrition, their protein, their fat, everything their body needed from milk, but what kind of milk, raw milk, natural, not boiled to death, not full of hormones and chemicals injected into the cows, not all that garbage.
So that's how they could do it.
And then that's why then they protected the cows because this was a source of, you know, health and nutrition.
So just plain stupid to kill or harm the cows.
You know, it's like it's the same, exactly the same as the story of the goose and the golden egg, right?
There's that fairy tale that the goose lays the golden egg, right?
So if you keep the goose alive, feed him and treat him nicely.
And you keep getting gold, gold, gold, gold eggs, gold eggs, gold eggs, you become super rich.
But in the story, you know, the foolish person gets hungry and just kills the goose and eats it.
So they get one meal.
But then they don't get any gold, right?
They could have been super rich and bought all the meals they ever needed.
But they're stupid, foolish, they didn't think long term.
So they killed the goose to eat it and they lost all that great benefit.
So that's essentially the same with the cows in India, is that the same mentality.
It's like, although you could kill the cow and eat it.
But you get, you know, you get a bunch of meals from it, but still limited.
But if you keep that cow alive, treat it very well, you get milk for you know, the entire lifetime of that cow.
And then of course, that cow will have babies and you can on and on and on.
So makes sense. Makes sense.
So I'm started this experiment.
I'll let you know how it goes.
You know, I always just experiment.
The first step is I love to research go down the rabbit hole.
And there's all kinds of amazing and interesting information about raw milk and its benefits.
And why and why it was has been outlawed in so many places.
Why is it outlawed?
That's a good question.
It's not because they care about your health.
We know those bastards don't care about our health.
They wouldn't have pushed the vaccines if they cared about your health.
They don't care at all about your health.
Never believe that anytime they say that.
Oh, it's for health benefits.
No, it's not. So why, why instead have they banned it in so many countries, so many states, even here, like they have to sell it, they have to say it's for pets, they can't tell it say it's for humans.
Crazy. So anyway, I've decided after researching it, I'm convinced pretty well.
But always you have to experiment with these things.
You can't just start drinking raw milk and trying it with the kids a bit too, to see how we respond.
So far, the kids are responding to it very well.
I think their digestion has improved.
They seem like they're doing pretty well on it for me.
I'm not sure yet. Maybe a little more energy I have, but I think I need longer to try out the raw milk and drink it every day.
And I'll let you know if I notice any changes, positive or negative.
I'll be honest if it's I mean, if it if it's if I have negative changes, if I have problems with it, I'll just stop it.
So I won't. We'll just try it.
So what else? What else?
Well, for the next month, we're basically and we have a cardiologist, a doctor, you know, heart checkup appointment next month in August.
And after that, things probably get quite serious where we're going to have to do eventually surgeries and things.
So we have one month before that.
My plan, our plan is to just have a really fun, relaxing summer vacation, basically, with family for the next month.
Give the kids just a great, relaxing, fun time with no worries, no stress, nothing.
Do my best to build them up, build up their health and strength because, you know, with the surge of very serious surgery coming up, want to make them, you know, strong and as healthy as possible so that the, you know, has the best possible outcome, the best recovery.
But in addition to that, just on the mental and emotional side, just have really low stress and, you know, feel great because things will get more serious next month.
And I'd like them to, you know, it's been a big change for them, but they're doing quite well, really enjoying it.
And I want that to continue just a very happy time.
Because of that also, basically taking a break from homeschooling this month, since the trip started, we've got, you know, we always read a little bit.
We've got some books here that we bought some books and, you know, we read a little bit to them, but not really doing anything too much with homeschooling.
I think, well, I've got a new, some new reading stuff I want to try out and do, but I think I'm just gonna wait on that until probably next month, give them a real vacation.
Because that's something else I remember from, as a kid, I think it's a little different now.
I don't know, because we homeschool, but when I was a kid, we had a full, I think it was three months, 12 weeks, a full summer vacation.
So like a real, real break from school and all the nonsense that goes with school.
And I just remember that being just some of the happiest times of my childhood were summer vacations, because it just felt so relaxing and free.
You know, because of course I just spent like the whole summer outdoors, swimming and running around playing and my parents relaxed about our bedtime, so we'd kind of stay up later and stay out.
It's lighter, longer, the days are longer, so we would stay outdoors kind of late and then get to bed a bit later.
And I just remember it being this great time of just playing in outdoors and fun and freedom and time with family and, you know, barbecues and things like that.
And I'd like to give that experience to my children too.
I think we all need that.
And especially kids that are in school need it because, you know, school is so regimented, so controlled.
These poor little guys, you know, they sit in your chair and look forward and be quiet, don't talk when the teacher's talking and take this test and not open your page, open the book to page 36 and do this worksheet.
And it's just this constant, you know, do this, do this, do this, do this, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that.
Constantly controlled and micromanaged, right?
Managing every little behavior.
Poor, and they don't get to be free.
That's the whole point of school.
Train them to be uncomfortable with freedom.
Train them to be comfortable being told what to do all the time.
Be comfortable sitting in a little chair in a little room indoors all day long, right?
Train them to be obedient.
Worker drones. And summer goes against all of that.
No school, outdoors, all that.
Especially summer in the countryside.
Cities a little different.
In fact, this is probably the thing I hate most about raising the kids in Osaka.
And again, while I like, while I'm enjoying this so much, the thing about the city is it naturally forces you, as a parent, to be kind of too controlling.
Super controlling. And why is that?
Like with young children, and my kids are a bit wild.
You know, I constantly, because there's constant dangers everywhere.
There's there are roads everywhere we go, right?
It's the city. So everywhere you go, there's a road and intersection with dangerous cars and motorcycles going all over the place.
So I'm constantly have to monitor them.
I can't let them get too far ahead of me.
Of course, as they get older, they'll learn better not to run out into the traffic.
They probably wouldn't do it now, but it still makes me nervous.
I'm always having to be, you know, on guard with them about that.
And then the other aspect of it, the other thing that makes you too controlling as a parent in the city, is that is all the other people because then you have to constantly worry if your kids are bugging other people, right?
If you're here, here in the, you know, my sister's yard out in the countryside, the kids can run wild, they can just run wild, they can scream as loud as they want and they can roll around in the mud and they can just go crazy and do anything they want.
They're not bugging anybody.
There's no one else to bother.
Just there are other cousins who don't care and they're doing the same thing.
But in the city, you got a playground and there are other kids and then all these other mothers and sometimes dads and then I always constantly have to worry about it.
Maybe my kid goes up to them and starts trying to talk to them and then some of them are fine and some of them don't want to be bothered or they're playing on the playground, the slide, and the Japanese parents especially, but probably Americans too, you know, they're uptight.
They want to have all these rules, like, you know, you got to get in line and one child after the other goes down the slide.
My kids like to climb up the slide and, you know, I know they don't, you know, I don't want them blocking the other kids, but I let them, if there aren't other people there, you know, to block, I let them run up and down the, you know, go up the slides and do all kinds of crazy stuff, take off their
shoes and run around wild and get all muddy and dirty.
And many times, you know, the Japanese parents look at us like we're crazy and, yeah, so then I'm always having to be concerned that, oh, that my kids might be bugging the other Japanese kids and the parents and always, it just feels like they're always having to, I'm always having to tell them, no,
no, be careful. Don't do this.
Stop doing that. I'm always doing that in Japan.
Here. I don't have to do it at all unless it's something dangerous.
Like one of the cousins, the teenager was mowing the grass today.
So I had to get, you know, tell the kids to come inside so they didn't get too close to the mower.
They were trying to chase him around.
But, but other than that, I almost don't have to say anything.
So they can just run around, do what they want.
It's great for them not to be, it's not good, you know, for parents to be on top of the kids too much.
So this is another aspect where country life is way healthier and better for children, for parents, for families.
The more I think of it, I think it's been, it's one of the greatest tragedies of the world over the last, well, let's see what, 100 years, 150 years has been urbanization.
It's a tragedy, you know, this transfer of the population from countrysides and tiny farms and, you know, land out, you know, out in nature and out in the country to into crowded cities.
It's happening everywhere.
You know, it's, you see it in like, say, Hong Kong, China, and it's extreme.
So, you know, all, all people coming out from the countrysides cramming into places like Hong Kong and Shanghai.
And yeah, you know, the cities are amazing when you visit them for a short time.
Oh, wow, look at the skyscrapers and all this.
But as a lifestyle, you know, living day to day to day, that's garbage.
What are you getting?
You get some restaurants, big deal.
Who cares? You know, it's just crowds and noise.
And with children, it's a nightmare.
The kids can't be free at all.
And there's hardly any, even if they want them to let them run free, where can they go?
It's just cars and traffic and crowds of people everywhere.
You know, this is happening all around the world.
The United States is the same, Europe is the same, you know, everywhere is the same.
But I think that's one of the great tragedies.
I pray that maybe we'll see a reversal of this.
I mean, with, you know, with internet now, go getting out, you know, internet and cell phones, high speed internet, getting out into the countryside more and more, I hope that more and more people will be able to kind of return to the countryside and work as I'm kind of doing now.
Right? Like they're actually supposed to get high speed internet here at my sister's house.
I don't know, in the next month.
Again, this is America.
So never things are never on time.
Japan, if they said a month, it would be done in a month.
But here, who knows?
But anyway, eventually, we'll get high speed internet here right now is very slow, which is why I'm doing audios only and I'm uploading them at Starbucks.
But eventually, there'll be high speed internet here and I could just run my whole business and do do all my work out here in the country in this little in this country house in this country cottage.
How awesome is that?
And I hope that more and more people will be able to do that.
And maybe we'll see at least somewhat a return to the countryside.
And you know, some reversal of this trend of packing into cities tighter and tighter and tighter.
Right? And I think that's what killed America, why America, you know, the Republic, the so called democracy, the Republic of America is gone, gone, gone.
But you know, when you look at the let's say the peak of America in terms of freedom, back in the very beginning, because America was a was a country of independent farmers, something like 90 plus percent of the population were independent farmers, they could grow their own food, they lived out in the country,
they, you know, they were quite independent, homeschooled.
Now America is, you know, mostly cities and suburbs, so it's completely different.
So this I highly recommend, you know, a return to the countryside, you see this everywhere.
You know, just just another example, say it was when I traveled in India, my, my trips to India, and people go to India, and they'll say they'll tell you all these horror stories of India, right?
Oh, it's India, and all this horrible stuff happened is terrible.
And, you know, the, the horrible slums and all this stuff.
And but the thing is, that's the cities, it's the giant cities.
What a difference because I you know, yeah, that happened to me, I went to Mumbai, it was my first ever time to leave America, and I went into Mumbai.
And yeah, I got cheated by these people.
I got robbed by a gang of kids.
I got sick, like from the food.
Yeah, it was pretty, it was super high stress, right?
But then you get out into the countryside of India, you get to places I went to, you know, Udaipur, which, which is still a decent sized town, but I went out went through around Rajasthan went up into the Himalayas, and you get into these smaller towns.
And it's a very different feeling.
It's a way, way more relaxed.
And you, you know, there's still problems, there are problems everywhere.
But it's way more pleasant, much more pleasant, much more pleasant, quite a big difference from, you know, the super crowded cities.
In fact, I would say, really, Japan is about the only place where I'd say the cities are truly livable.
I don't know, maybe so a few European ones, I'm not sure.
But in Japan, you know, at least you don't have crime, there's all of Japan, even the cities are super low crime, and people are still very polite.
So they don't have the city attitude that most city people do and around the world.
But it's still crowded, it's still concrete everywhere, it's still super busy.
So there's still problems.
And then in most countries, it's crowded, but and busy and concrete.
And then you also have problems of crime and people cheating and dirty and nasty and slums and on and on and on, right?
Like, we all know this.
And many times when people say negative things about different countries, they're usually talking about the cities, like they visited some, you know, the biggest city, like if you go to New York, even America, you visit New York City, you might say, Oh, Americans are so rude, and aggressive and loud.
And you know, you have all these ideas about America.
But that's not America, that's New York City.
It's very different.
People, let's say in the south, or here in Indiana, are totally different.
And in fact, in places like Indiana, and in the south of the United States, they don't like New Yorkers, we don't like them.
Because yeah, they're rude.
They're rude, and they're loud.
And they're, they're, they're, they're super aggressive.
You know, there's a lot that you're much more likely to get cheated.
There's a lot more crime and all kinds of crap, garbage in those giant cities or San Francisco, similar LA, Chicago, New York.
But that's not the rest of America, you get outside the cities into smaller towns and places, and you find, Oh, wow, people are actually much more relaxed, much more friendly, much more helpful, less crime, all of these things.
And that's true. I think for most countries I visited, it's the same thing, right?
Like, Thailand is not just Bangkok, for example, you know, Bangkok, I like Bangkok, actually.
But you know, it's a super busy, hectic city.
There's some neighborhoods that are pretty, you know, crazy, few places.
But, you know, then you get out outside of Bangkok, and you find that oh, Thai people are so relaxed and chilled out and friendly.
And even in Bangkok, they are pretty well.
But still, you'll notice quite a big difference between the city and the rest of the country, the giant city and the rest of the country.
All right, guys, my kids are running around, look, I'm running around like crazy right now, they want to swim.
So they're trying, they're looking for their dad, because they want to get in the pool, and they want me to join them.
So I'm going to do that.
Lots of love to you all.
Great talking to you.
I'll be back with another one of these.
Another audio podcast soon.
As always go to Effortless English Club.
The club's important effortlessenglishclub .com.
Get my Power English course and add on the VIP program too.
I love you and I'll see you again soon.
Bye for now.
