Episode 677: So Let’s Pick up Right Where we Left Off
hey everybody it’s time to lol listen out loud that is time for anime jam session with DJ Ron MC and Ari Rockefeller hey everybody welcome to Anime Jam Session episode number 677 we are that podcast about anime games conventions the fandom geek stuff and everything in between i’m DJ Ron i’m Ari Rockefeller and I am John and Barry is off tonight she’s taking they’re taking some time off to kind of chill and relax so you know it’s all good and hey guess it’s back it feels good to be back on the old podcast I guess you know yeah it has been a little bit yeah just a scotch all right so now that we got that out the way how is everybody doing tonight i’m very tired yeah I’m very annoyed about work but I kind of calm down a lot about that so it is what it is so how about you Motron mc John hello yes we hear you we’re just making one we didn’t yeah how How are you feeling tonight i said eh oh we didn’t c We didn’t hear that apologies apologies i will have to try and move my microphone closer i think it’s time we upgrade that little mix box no I just I have to figure out where I’m putting everything now that I rearrange the office mhm like that uh I will be seeing it this weekend so I’ll be able to help you well at least the speakers are still good i just set them up today that’s nice are they on your personal or in your work one desk h mhm are they on your personal machine or your work machine personal machine uh I actually went out and bought speakers for for my lap for my work laptop well one of the um I don’t know if I I think it’s one of the monitors actually has speakers attached yeah my Oh most most HDMI monitors have speakers attached to them built in but they’re not that powerful but if you’re like in a small office it kind of works in a pinch well considering it’s right next to my regular computer if I need to play anything during work I’ll just play it on my regular computer and there you go my head still works just fine yeah see I actually have like this really nice Edifier headset i mean the quality on this is really good for 50 bucks so it’s Bluetooth and it’s synced to my work laptop and my work phone so if someone calls the desk if someone calls my phone I can just hit the button and picks up the call it’ll automatically switch over which is really great and but I also have the speakers because what I usually do like on Thursday nights no Thursday evenings and some Fridays when when my side office is dead I just ceue up a J-pop or anime or 80s playlist i just play it i keep it nice and low where I can hear it quite well so like if I walk away and I go maybe two desks down and it’s like doesn’t sound all that well then I know it’s at a good volume but the whole area is empty and I know when I walk in the light the the light the ceiling lights are off they’re s they’re sensor um they’re sensors so they’re based on motion yeah motion sensor yeah so if nobody’s over there by 10 o’clock oh I am blasting uh my music not blasting blasting but it’s enough it’s enough for me to be happy and contained till the lights come on i’m like and I’m thinking who the [ __ ] went over there then I realized housekeeping was walking by to collect dishes and cups and stuff and motion sensors activate yet again so anyh who now we got that out the way first things first um we’re back after a three-week hiatus two of those weeks was me being in Japan for my birthday and last week I just got back i just wanted to kind of chillax relax and just you know then bring everything together but I can see during the two weeks I was in Japan there’s been a lot of [ __ ] con drama i’m like god damn i uh haven’t been paying attention to that i was a I was focused on other things and I get that i’ll just say this real quick and we will move along during my two weeks of being out of the country that a fight broke out of anime Boston um a coner fought a staffer what next what else um at Colossal Con a bunch of people were scammed out of like $20,000 from the convention or just some rogue individual a rogue individual offering Crash Face ouch but I will from my understanding this is not the first time she’s done this she scanned people before yes your expression tells it all and I have to say as I mean did she reveal that was her like after the fact to like pull off the freaking mask like that like oh she she didn’t what the hell [ __ ] she didn’t have to pull the mask off everybody grouped together cuz when they got to the con looking for her and she wasn’t there oh wow [Music] jesus Christ yeah i mean as [ __ ] up as it is in a way I kind of respect that hustle in a way i mean I personally with as twisted as my family is I could pull something like that unless I was down and out I would probably but at the same time I don’t think I can see myself doing it you know i see what you mean and on and then on top of that the same [ __ ] that was banned from DerpyCon and Zen Kai Con got a free pass at Thai Geekdom Con oh boy hey check this out and as people complained the the convention was like “Well he has autism cut him some slack.” But the guy has a history of harassing and stalking women but he has autism so leave him alone that’s not That’s That doesn’t make it excusable that’s what they were doing they were That’s what they were doing and on top of that they allowed him to come back provided he had somebody to walk with him around to keep him in check oh god how did that go it only lasted less than an hour and then a cosplayer is accusing two of the cosplay judges of being racist and abbleist all because she missed her call time to check in for the masquerade yeah after all that I was like “Well [ __ ] i should have I should have stayed an extra week but um anyh who le let’s get back let’s get back down to business here so we’re live tonight week of June 10th 2025 right here on Twitch TV we’re live Tuesdays from 9 to 10:30 p.m eastern and damn where does the time go we’re halfway through the year january blink June what happened you’ll always find us here on Twitch at twitchtv/animejam session we’re also proud to be part of the Voice of Geeks Network at vognetwork.com and you can always find them at twitchtvognetwork they kick things off on Sunday with the Bobby Blackwolf show at 8 followed by Orange Lounge Radio at 9 and come hang out in our Discord vagnetwork.com every show that’s part of the Voice of Geeks Network has their own channel so come through and hang out and let us and let us know what you think and also just in case like I said this is our new setup for right now um I have everything running on one monitor i have a second monitor here but I have to find the power cord and the stand which I think is in a box over here and then I can throw the Discord screen to the second monitor so if you see any screen flipping as we’re doing the show let me know that I can try to uh make some adjustments but if you’re listening to the podcast if you’re listening through the podcast you ain’t got to worry about that so now that we got that out the way um let’s um kick things off with uh how was your week how was your day ari it’s mostly been work related stuff i know it’s hasn’t been anything all that fun i feel you on that being on uh afternoon or overnight shifts has uh you know really been a pain especially one night when I uh when I was unsure of I was convinced I was on a different shift than the one I was actually on and went to bed at a normal time and then got a call at 1:30 in the morning asking me why I wasn’t at work oops [ __ ] oops indeed i mean obviously they knew that uh you know it was a honest mistake and it’s not like I was just you know decided like yeah [ __ ] this i’m not going to work no I’m not calling or anything like you know a lot of other people do it’s like it’s like you have one shift the same shift for one week and then it changes to another shift the following week right it happens it’s sort of like you know like there was a time when I worked the worst thing that happened to me is that I got a you know got a ver consultation with my boss and I didn’t get paid that day so you know not that big of a deal see for us if we’re late like that we have to put it in as PTO yeah well there’s only You can’t like put in for a personal day on the same day as uh you know the day you want to take off that’s a new thing that they started no it’s more like if you show up late whatever you know like if you show up at 10 o’clock you have to put the first hour PTO i gotcha yeah at least you still get paid for your 40 hours but if you do overtime it doesn’t count towards OT you have to actually work 40 hours you know mhm but yeah that uh the you know you know bump bumbling aside on you know with that uh my fivey year anniversary at at work at my current position is coming up in the middle of July oh yeah that sounds great including a uh including a pay raise union mandated i I think for me I just celebrated three years with the company as a full-time employee thank you thank you thank you and um being with the company in general I’m at the I’m at the three and two/3 mark it’ll be four years come October yeah but uh you know the pay bump will definitely be uh lot be good for me though tomorrow I have a uh doctor’s appointment that uh I couldn’t really I couldn’t I had to take off work for because there was no way I could miss it did you get that i’m getting an Huh did you get that taken care figured out yeah it’s a EGD I’m getting done which is a what basically what they’re going to do is they’re going to sedate me and then they’re going to run a uh camera tube down my throat all the way down into my intestines you know that’s part of the uh thing for the beriatric surgery one of the things I have to do and uh the problem is you know I can’t drive to or from the place where it’s going to get done because you know I’m going to be sedated and they don’t want me driving no I totally understand that granted it’s a you know it’s a policy for anyone who does that not just you know me h but uh ju just trying to find someone to uh you know drive me over there at at a at the time because and I didn’t get the actual time of the appointment till like earlier today because they said that you know they have to make sure that you know it’s going to be codified so so if people cancel before that that it had to bump me back like forward i was like “Yeah this is the kind of [ __ ] that makes it more difficult to find a way to get there.” And they’re like “Yeah I know.” So I’m like “Okay that’s So instead of bumping people like that what they should do is keep the appointments as is and if somebody cancels they should contact somebody who has an appointment like two days ahead and see if they want to come in early or something like that that’s what they should be doing well there’s a lot of things they should be doing but point is you know I did I did find a buddy of mine you know local to drive me over there good good good the uh procedure itself will only take like 10 to 30 minutes but they’re going to uh like they’re going like it I might be at the at the uh place anywhere between one and three hours depending on you know their backlog and whatnot h gotcha gotcha oh I should say it’s actually like just just the esophagus like not down to the intestine just like like almost at the stomach at least yeah have a good good thing they have a good wide wide wide view lens on that bad boy hey love you buddy yeah yeah have fun trying to find enough uh you know sedatives to keep me from panicking from having a [ __ ] poop down my throat like that’s why they’re going to elephant tran your ass and then you’re going to wake up and be like what happened why is my throat scratchy oh you crazy son of a [ __ ] you did it how are you feeling Mr rockefeller about that good actually okay so yeah that’s how things have been going for me gotcha okay makochan how was your week how was your day what have you been up to since I since the last show show i started my new job yay hooray very much yay um still doing medical billing but for a brand new company and it’s like night and day um this company is so much different so much bigger but a hell of a lot more organized and I get to work from home so even better yeah and and you said and you sent pictures of of the of the work equipment and I was surprised um they sent you a desktop as opposed to a laptop get laptops some people get desktops um I think the people that are permanent work from home get desktops okay lucky you yeah the other half of the billing department is hybrid one day in office one day at home and switch back and forth ah see that explains for the laptop see that explains that and that I totally get yeah so now it’s just a matter of trying to reorganize everything because I have my new desk set up i just I have two towers under it now so I just I definitely have to uh rearrange some things to fit everything two two towers there expecting a I was expecting a laptop so uh two towers there oh Frodo funny not I have now three monitors on this desk uh two towers under it i have two cameras i have two headsets wow somebody has a mighty big EP so just the speakers for my regular desktop so I have those on the desk now too so just so you know I was keeping this as a surprise so right at the end of the show we’re switching over to uh Mako Chan’s stream and she’s gonna kick some ass in some Fortnite tonight after the show uh no that is the appropriate answer yeah one I’m not set up for that and two I don’t have that game sorry just imagine if it was Borderlands you would not leave no no if I was going to sit down and play a computer game I would be playing uh with some D and D characters i will say this i have been sinking a lot of time into schedule one yeah that’s I I have the demo of that i’m gonna play that and see if I like it and then I will probably end up downloading that one what is It’s a lot of fun they they they just released a new patch with a bunch of updates in the the Q fixes and uh you know it actually supports multiplayer what is schedule one couple of schedule one is where you’re a dude is where you’re a dude who’s just a small time drug dealer you’re growing it growing your own weed making your own meth you know and your own coke and whatnot eventually so that’s why Makochan wants the demo but seriously it’s a lot of fun you uh once you get a you know once you get you know the uh the drugs print made you can actually like mix them with things like for like different effects like one of them is you get things like chili peppers and makes them spicy which means someone who smokes it they’re they start you know burning they start bursting into flames there’s a athletic which mean which means they run faster calorie dense which means they get fat explosive means that like 20 seconds after smoking it they explode and die and some of the ingredients include things like puke you know coke spelled with a u uh viagore you know what that is and uh ethically sourced horse semen i am not joking yeah yeah there are some really weird mixins with that i’m done the effect that it gives is longfaced which means your head just you know expands like that a bit and on that note we’ll take we’ll see you everybody next week take care everyone bye-bye we’ve been on 10 minutes and I broke them yes you have an ethically ethically source it could be worse oh god it could be unethically sourced oh god what is wrong with you people we don’t have all night to go into that i know that’s right oh god and they go to our chat room here twitch TVJ session uh the Scott Luigi picking up pops in to say hi to us hey dude glad you can make it and city beer says he misses his desktop laptops with the disappearing ports make me upset yeah bro i I kind of feel you i kind of feel you i mean I have a Surface and I have a dock for it to travel with i actually have two and I also have a tablet which I realize the dock works with the tablet so I’m covered with that and at work I went out and bought a dock to go with my work laptop to set everything up this is a dock that retails for $150 that I just stumbled across on Amazon for 20 bucks lucky you i know and I keep going back seeing if it’s still 20 nope i must have gotten lucky that one time so there is that so all right so anyh who my weekend has been good like I said for two weeks I was in Japan i’m going to get into that in a nice nice quick little 15 20 minute uh wrap up there i don’t have any pictures i didn’t I really didn’t have time to really grab some of my good photos to share but I will most likely be sharing all of my photos on my Facebook page so all I have them on on a on Google Photos one way or another because I wasn’t taking my camera to Japan to take pictures with i have my phone that’s plenty and I realized that my new Galaxy S25 shoots at 50 megapixels which I think is kind of overkill but I’m like let me take a couple shots at 50 yeah I can’t I can’t do different sizes and zoom i’m like let me I’m just gonna keep it at 12 megapixels and call it a day i think that is perfectly fine so there is that um we’re going through work reviews at work and so there is that so and that’s basically the long and short of everything so give you some uh housekeeping notes here uh let me pull up the list uh podcast VODs are available on our YouTube page youtube.comimejam session uh VODs are available to Thursdays at 12:00 pm Eastern um I don’t know what’s up with Fans View Friday i have to reach out to Wisteria uh uh VT she will usually have a list i’m gonna ping her see if we can know what’s up with the next two or three shows so we can let y’all know but still she does um on on Friday on her channel she picks a convention covered by the late great Kevin Lillard and talks about the con the photos he took and then some so it’s perfect if you’re an older cosplayer or con go and you happen to be at that con pop in the chat and talk and this weekend is Kameha Con so me and Maka will be buming through there on Saturday to hang out take pictures and have a good time uh friends of the show will be there like Kyle Abear so I got him something nice while I was in Japan i got him a couple things so there is that and and um we’re going to next part is a geek round table um this is the part of show we talk more about the geekier aspects of our life and stuff that we have been up to so what you been up to there Ari aside from the workrelated stuff you remember a while ago when uh I forget who it was we were talking about you know Funko Pops and it got to the con it got to the uh thing about us being Funko Pops well uh well [ __ ] you’ve popped yourself yep it’s uh it’s been in the I had it for you about a month and a half now i haven’t taken it out the box so uh let’s take a take a closer look at it looks mostly like me i couldn’t find a a short sleeve coat a short sleeve shirt to go with the vest mhm but the beard and the uh the hair are still pretty nice that is nice and yeah just uh something else to stick on my shelf there you go like and it says you are one of one which is nice because if it was one in a million we’re like “Oh good.” So there’s like 8,000 plus more of me running around that’s [ __ ] nightmarish some people can’t stand the one of me that’s around oh what are you talking about we love you all right MCO i see you got some Lego flowers yeah these um I think I’ve probably shown them before um but I don’t think I’ve seen these that I had made and brought to work with me that were on my desk um and since my new office is going to have shelves with nothing but Legos and brick builds and things like that um I figured I would show them off before I end up uh fixing everything and putting it away gotcha i at my job on one of the shelves I have a Lego Hulkbuster sitting up there because I saw it at CVS for like 15 bucks and I know I’ve told this story before and I said you know what I’m going to save two three bucks and order it off of Amazon and so I did spent like 20 minutes sitting there at my desk assembling it and putting it up on the up on the up on the shelf next to the mini DDR machine and stuff like that that was fun times all right so I have a lot of [ __ ] to show off for Geek Round Table but I’m not gonna h I said “Of course you do.” Well unfortunately due to my living situation which is not that bad it’s more like I don’t have room to show all all it all off i have a couple things i am keeping um a couple things here I will show off later on the show throughout the month the year the summer or something like um I have a bag of figurines in my closet here which is going to go into my storage unfortunately because I don’t have anywhere else to put it for the time being but I I do have this well one thing that’s really great about Japan Man it’s the myriad of Kit Kats that you can buy unfortunately the Kit Kat Chocoly closed down all three of their locations but what’s interesting is that if you go to Don Kyote you can basically find all of the the flavors in Japan plus exclusive flavors i didn’t buy any exclusive flavors because they wanted 499 yen which is like $4 whereas the normal bag of KitKats are now 300 yen which is about 280 275 m say three with tax because one thing that’s cool about Japan is when you see something priced you’ll see a They don’t do the whole sales tax thing like we do yeah they do it’s built into the price no not really you’ll see the price tag you’ll see the price on the shelf and then you’ll see another price underneath it or next to in parenthesis and it’ll either be the price with or without tax this is how you know that what the price is with tax is the higher price of the two so you know exactly what you’re spending when you put everything together which is kind of cool so while I was in Japan I went and picked up a bag of KitKat gold what kind are those caramel nice i accidentally bought two bags of them i took one bag to work which was and the people enjoyed it i actually have a couple of bags of candy and chocolate at work and it’s just there i will probably nibble on it here and there and share it with people as I go as I go through things so anyh who now that we got that out the way let’s talk about my trip to Japan now before I get into my trip here’s some tidbits you may need to know if you’re going to go plan about 10 months out in advance that way you can get the best deals on flights once you’ve done that take a list of all the medications that you take and contact the the health ministry because if your medication is a controlled substance you cannot have it in Japan without a waiver so that way they can say what’s good and what isn’t and if you need a waiver or not because once you have that waiver it’s all fun it’s all fun and games and make sure you keep your medication in the actual containers that they’re in instead of like a zip lock or one of those little caddies better safe than sorry and if you’re doing multiple cities when you switch to the next city you’re in take that day to go through your stuff and do laundry and other things and relax and then move along best thing to do is when you’re in when you’re traveling to a new city three to four days tops is all you basically need unless you’re in central Tokyo then you need about five so anyh who I went to Japan for my 47th birthday that’s my 47th why not and CC Grey Witch wanted to come along so I said “As long as you got the money I don’t care.” So the two of us went so we spent four days in Akihabara we got there relaxed went out for dinner and came back relaxed and then we went out and we kind of went out quoteunquote shopping now one of the things I I do is I think like I’m at a convention i see it here i mark it on my list and I come back to it later like there is one figurine I have they were selling somebody was selling it for 6,500 yen which is about $60 less than $60 like I’d say 30 $35 and um I found it somewhere else for 3,000 yen then I found it for 2700 yen then I found it again for 2400 yen and then at Na at Nakano Broadway I found it for 1,680 yen brand new in the box and I’m going to tell you something about when you go and figure hunting figure hunting shopping in Japan it figures are cheap expect to spend three times less on the figure so this is how you know you’re getting a good deal on the figure that you’re looking for um if the figures that you’re buying at a convention are under are within the 30 to $35 range that’s a really good deal 35 to $40 range maybe depending on the figure then you have the more expensive ones which are like the 4 foot tall like bare leg bunny figures that go for $2 and $300 which is about the same in Japan so any We went out did a little shopping and I and I checked stores for figures that I was looking for and then I went up and we went shopping and I bought a few uh we end up going to Nakano Broadway where mistakes were made what kind of mistakes um I bought about $200 worth of figures that day and that was about 10 figures give or take because I went shopping at this one stock called Little Anime House or Little Anime Shop and the guy goes “If I go to his other shop I can get 200 yen off the anything I buy.” And I saw a Maren Kitagawa figure and I bought it not realizing I had just bought it from the other from the from the from the bank shop not even 10 minutes ago because I did not see the full figure but it’s okay the duplicate is going to a friend who is a big My dressup darling fan and also staff member so there is that one of the things that we did well Ari you probably won’t be too big on this we went to the Sukiji Fish Market yeah I understand i have never had fresh sushi like that before in my life it was delicious i think one of a a red letter moment for me was eating a large king crab leg that was grilled or roasted with lemon on it and a beer and I’m talking the type of beer can when you pull the pull tab the entire top lid comes off and it’s like an actual cup that that was awesome then we went to Team Labs which is a really fun interactive museum one of them is is a is like a is water where you’re going where you’re walking through water and there are these lights where you see the fish running around and stuff like that that was cool there’s a section called I think garden or forest where it’s nothing but orchids and and I you learn that orchids can grow basically anywhere so they’re upside down and there’s like you see the root of one orchid plant and then there’s another bunch of orchids growing out of that and so forth which is kind of cool and when you get close to them they go up and they go down it’s like on these um rope rails you know mhm um there was one where you walked in a section where there’s all these lights well it’s not lights you go you look at the walls and you see like all the the like light characters like a jungle and you see animals running around and stuff that was really fun after that we went to Diver City where we did see the Uber Gundam on display it wasn’t no death sky but it’ll do and we went uh troll uping through the soup through the the mall there which was nice um I didn’t really get a chance to try like quoteunquote American food there like a McDonald’s and this and that i did try Moss Burger it was good i did not get a chance to try Burger King as I wanted to because they had the creamy Whopper and the Mexican Whopper and I wanted to try those but that’s next time i’m sorry the what they have what’s called the Creamy Whopper and the Mexican Whopper i took a picture of that it’s It’s in the gallery i don’t think I’ve seen it it’s there if I find I’ll I’ll I actually have the picture on my phone i’ll send it to you later okay so after all of that uh we actually did a tour um a ramen tour which was really cool so we tried different types of ramen and one I like to call Italian ramen it’s the broth is pesto based and has and it comes with um parmesan uh grated parmesan cheese topping it was really good definitely sounds good yeah we also tried and I’ve had curry ramen before this was CC Grey Witch’s first time trying it and she enjoyed it and it was also uh brothfree curry ramen where it’s just they just marinated the noodles and everything in in and curry which was really good and then later that night uh I hooked up with Evan from Boston Ambassador Brigade as so y’all who don’t know he actually moved out there about three four years ago and he’s an English teacher there and I hung out with him he got me into this uh concert it was a couple of local bands and it was fun a couple of his friends were DJing and they were playing a lot of anime music and we were singing and dancing along with it there is video of me dancing around boopping around i was having really good fun with that and really good highballs highball is a type of alcoholic drink it’s basically like a whiskey sour with a shot of lemon in it and what’s great is the drinks there are a little bit pricey but you don’t pay there’s no tip like instead of paying $5 for a beer and dropping a $3 tip you’re just paying eight bucks for the beer and you’re calling it now we didn’t stay out too too long cuz CC wasn’t feeling was getting a little tired and also in Japan the trains do not run all night so if you missed the last train you are hoting it to a hotel or something like that that’s what’s going to happen so we made it back and after that we went to Kyoto now we went to Gon we did um we did see a couple of gaos uh we did a walking tour of Gon which was nice and we were able to walk through one of the largest uh temples there which was fun and then we did a I think it was called a Makai or Kiskai I forget what it’s like a 10 course meal and it was really nice and one thing about Kyoto is that where we were I guess like I said we were like 10 15 minutes walking from Guon and most of the anime shops or like within like a two three four block walking distance which was great as opposed to when you’re in Tokyo there’s all these prefectures where you travel to to find stuff like yes when we were in Akihabara I found a lot of Ronma one half stuff at the donote but if you go to the other donkeys all you’re going to do is find mostly is Pokemon and Hello Kitty stuff go to the one at Akihabara you’re going to find Pokemon oh no wait outside of the Akihabara one you’ll find Pokemon Hello Kitty Gundam and figure arts of but it’s popular stuff you go to Akihabara Donkey or Donkeyote you’ll find that you’ll find Vonma 1/2 uh the quintessential quintuplets Attack on Titan Windbreaker you’ll find a lot of different titles because it is Akiba so now Kyoto was fun um I went out and had breakfast at a local bakery like breakfast spot which was nice um I hit up the Nintendo Kyoto store which was fun and one of the things was interesting is I found an anime store now one thing about Japan nine times out of 10 if there’s a specific store you’re looking for it’s within a mall if it’s not within a mall it’s within a store within a store now we’ve all been there have you like like nowadays if you go to Best Buy they have a Apple store within the Best Buy and there is a Samsung Galaxy store within Best Buy and it’s their people running it whereas here like I went into this I went up to the sixth floor of this shopping mall it was like a Macy’s and up there was the Nintendo Kyoto store but on the fourth floor was a large uh anime store within there and I was and I saw a lot of rare and cool stuff i bought a couple of things out of there we did some decent shopping uh we did um Shaboo Shabu it was uh Cece’s first time doing it we went to this food hall and we had good times with that then we went to Osaka where they have their version of Akihabara called Denden Town and I went I went there and when I was there last there weren’t as many anime shops and when I got there I was like where did these shops come from did I not know that these were there or did they pop up in the last year and a half which is how I was able to secure a rare but little expensive Johane figure which I’m glad I picked up because the conversion rate it ran me about $135 if I bought this figure two years ago when it first came out it would have ran me 250 bucks and that’s with the shipping so that was great and that was that was fun um while we were in Osaka we did a food tour of Doburi which is really nice doburi is like a small neighborhood and there are streets within streets if you’re one of those people that like to explore down small streets and look for food this is a thing for you also Doten Bori is basically Time Square around the time Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York City before he went crazy we found we went to the Sailor Moon Petite popup shop i didn’t get just to go to America which is like America Town i have a couple of friends who’ve gone there but I did not get a chance to go this time around but going through Dendon Town was pretty fun one thing I kind of sucked was we got there early and I think know and and I one of the things I wanted to do was I wanted to go to this ramen shop that that I went to when I was in Osaka last time when I went in I had a beef ramen bowl and he gave me stickers to post on the map where I was and I couldn’t find it that place is gone i’m going to have to go through my history and see where it was because I know I walked past it but it was a different store in there so that’s fine i did pick up some raw I did order some ramen while I was out there some of the ramen shops um what you do is some of them you go to a machine and you punch in what you want and you print it out and you hand them the ticket and they just fix the ramen the way they should way they want to way you want it to be which is really nice i like that just Yeah but there are some restaurants that do have English menus and stuff so also there are some places that you would think that it’s all Japanese no they some they do have English menus you have to ask if they don’t that’s what Google translate is for so we made all that down and then we decided to come back up we hit Nagoya my friend um Cheyenne lives out there and I hung out with her the last time I was in Japan and I said next time I come through I’m coming to your neck of the woods so we had a and for a day and a half she hung out with us and she took us to her weeb neighborhood uh I think it’s called Canon Road or something like that and it’s really nice i picked up a what did I pick up all right i picked up a kimono which was nice and I picked up a couple of jinbees now if you don’t know what a jinbe is a jinbe is an outfit that’s it comes with shorts that come down to your knees and a top that’s kind of like a martial arts top like a ghee top if you ever seen my dress up darling you see what Gojo wears that’s a jinbe and I’ve been wanting one ever since so I found a couple at Don Kiote but it wasn’t in my size because I need like a three out and while we were there after we came out of the uh kimono shop there was a spot right there and it was I bought two and and now that I know where that is uh I may ask Cheyenne to check it every so often for different colors and patterns and be like “Yeah can I get these?” We also stopped in for pizza we went to an awardwinning Japanese pizzeria on the wall you see all the awards he won for pizza making in Italy and I thought that was really cool and the pizza was really good one of the things we did they tell you about Nagoya is their chicken wings and I had their chicken wings if you ever had Old Bay wings and if you like Old Bay wings you’re going to enjoy these so there is that so then after that we came back to Shinjuku and we stayed there and we stayed in the Godzilla hotel but we could not go out to the patio area to take pictures of the Godzilla head because of the weather but that sucks yeah but I did stop off at Shinjuku Ale and I had like this white ale beer ale beer and it was really delicious after that I was like you know what i want some curry so I’m looking up curry spots on Google Maps i’m like I don’t want to walk three four blocks i happen to check a couple of like Family Marts and Lawson’s see if they had like something that’s microwavable but they didn’t i happen to come out of a family a Lawson’s and I turn the turn the corner i’m around the corner from the hotel there is a curry shop right there and they had pork rib curry so I got that it was a little spicy and it was great but now one of the things that me and Cece were eating almost every night were these ice cream sandwiches now I found out about them through somebody else’s Facebook reel it’s think of it if think of the ice cream cone not the sugar not the weight not the waffle cone the original like cones that you get at at I the ones where you buy 10 to a box you pull them out the box cake cones yeah cake cones six are damaged you know imagine that and a waffle style and inside is a layer of vanilla ice cream and then a layer of chocolate like a chocolate bar another layer of vanilla ice cream and the cake top and the cake waffles out on top like a sandwich think of it as like a filled vanilla ice cream waffle it was so delicious yeah it does sound good it was now I’ll tell you this there are tons of convenience stores out there and they’re called conveniences not because of the price but because of it’s right there so you can go grab what you need especially if you don’t want to go all the way to Don Kyote and that’s basically the long and short of the trip did I have a great time yes were there some issues here and there yes it’s mostly me because I’ve never really traveled that far with somebody else so there was a bit of a clash between me and Cece but we still got it to work nonetheless it’s more like I’m there for merchandise food culture she’s there for food culture merch you know or culture food merch depending on where we’re going so there is that and I and one thing that sucked is I did miss out on hanging out with a couple of friends that moved out there so I’m think seriously thinking about going out there in October of next year uh probably after AAC I might even do November right before the weather gets a little cold because actually when I went out there in December it wasn’t bad i was walking around with my hoodie and the weather was nice it’s just that when I got up into the mountains that’s why I had to have the jacket on top of the hoodie but it wasn’t so bad but overall I had a great time definitely 10 10 will do again and fun thank you like I said there are a few photos up on my Facebook page uh Instagram threads mastadon and blue sky i just posted a few photos earlier today i will post a couple more this week and then I’ll get back into finishing posting um cosplay photos from Zeng Kai Kon and you’ll start seeing some from Kameha all right so now that we got that out the way let’s get into some news tonight we don’t have a lot in the ways of news and we are going to run a little late because we basically playing three weeks of catchup here so I’m sorry and now that we got that out the way Ari what’s going on with web tune uh let’s see uh neighbor web tune introduces stricter hate speech guidelines after controversy in response to mounting criticism over hatefilled content neighbor webune announced on May 29th it’ll introduce its revamped content and community guidelines aimed and preventing discriminatory or offensive material and this will take place on June 30th uh the move follows backlash over the amateur web tune otherworldly pong pong man that sounds uh which was accused of containing misogynistic contract a widespread boycott last year the term pong pong man carries misogynistic connotations in South Korea pong pong is a widely used slerter for dishwashing detergent and in this context refers to a woman with a so-called promiscuous pass who hides it and ends up with a kind and innocent man the idea is that the man cleanses the woman much like detergent this derogatory implication made the title of the web tune otherworldly pom pom man controversial from the start drawing strong backlash the web tune passed the first round of a public it passed the first round of a public contest in October 2024 before being pulled amid public outrage previously that it applied operational rules only to serialize works and amateur web tunes under its best challenge and challenge sections now the platform monitor all user generated content including reader comments and creator homepage posts under the new policy accounts responsible for posting inappropriate content may face restrictions in addition if hate related content causes financial harm to the neighbor webune the company may seek compensation uh inappropriate content includes content that promotes or justifies discrim discrimination use of hate symbols out of context supportive satirical or glorifying depictions of traumatic events experienced by individuals and graphic depictions of real life tragedies that may disturb some readers in announcing the changes neighbor web tune announced a issued a renewed apology although did not mention otherworldly pong pong man by directly so yeah they’re putting in the [ __ ] around and find out face so good for them hey I I look at it this way everyone’s had a checker p most people have a checkered past one way or another and some people have had a wild past if they want to put it past them to live their life do whatever that’s fine it ain’t your business to go digging into their past unless you think they’re trying to pull some scam [ __ ] but you know just let it be all right Marco what’s going on in the wonderful world of panty and stocking oh those good for nothing angels so um while the anime is set to return it was announced that a new single will be coming out in August oh nice uh so the opening and ending theme song for the new Penny and Stocking with Garter Belt will drop on August 6th and will feature three brand new tracks um Taku Takahashi from Mflow yes previously announced to be returning as this show’s music producer collabs with returning EDM unit Teddy Lloyd for opening song theme of new Panty and Stocking quote unquote uh Ashley and multilingual rapper EVP will feature on the track in addition to the show’s ending theme which will be revealed at a later date you can look forward to Teddy Lloyd’s brand new track Angels and Demons track is described as a mashup of Fly Away and theme for Scanty and Nissox which both featured in the previous series uh the single will also include a long version of the opening theme as well as instrumentals of the opening and ending of course i just like the fact that in the poster for new panty and stock you gard it says on the side the [ __ ] are back oh wow i I’m I’m kind of hyped for this [ __ ] what like Penny’s like I live [ __ ] ah you’re good for nothing angel gonna give me a with your [ __ ] all right let’s see what we ended up getting most of the cast members back in the Japanese dub right yes okay that is good i do hope u Monica Real and Jamie Marky do come back for for the dub yeah so Panty Stocking Garter Belt Brief Chuck and Scanty are all going to be voiced by the same voice actors uh knee socks and fastener will be uh replaced the thing that the sis the uh anarchy sisters have uh twink brothers but given how they’re doing this show this anime I’m not surprised by it i think doesn’t surprise me i think one is gay and one is non-binary or something like that i’m just like wow y’all just going to town on this one huh i’m all for it and speaking of all for it looks like Tsunami is back at it again they’re changing their lineup again they’re going to add uh Dragon Ball Da which I think is kind of cool which I’m not surprised by it i just hope this anime is not just 12 episodes so so what’s going to happen is starting um June 14th I believe is this Saturday yes uh Dragon Ball Da joins the Tsunami lineup at 12:30 in the morning so you’re going to have Lazarus at midnight Daima at 12:30 Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War at 1:15 Blue Exorcist Kyoto Saga at 1:45 215 One Piece 245 Naruto 315 Sailor Moon and Cowboy BBop at 3:45 no there is no Cowboy BBop but if there is we’d all stay up to 3:45 and watch it anyway and there’s no Inuasha either which means we don’t get to uh get woken up at 4:00 a.m here in the uh you know that sort of thing i think that happened to me at least once once so the uh Dragon Diamond anime premiered on October 11th on a new anime programming block on Fuji TV which is uh Fridays at 11:40 p.m which is 10:40 a.m eastern time crunchyroll started streaming the anime the same day uh Netflix is also streaming it the English dub is available on Crunchyroll and it return and has the return of Young Goku’s original voice actress Stephanie Nad Nadali the anime ran from October to February 28th in this series Goku Vegeta Bulma Piccolo and other characters throughout the series become younger than usual however this is different from the sim plot line in Dragon Ball GT in which Goku reverts back into a kid at the end of the original series yeah the problem with the one in GT was his bad writing yeah yeah and it’s been retconed thankfully or did they officially make that canon now i don’t know i don’t know but it might just be alternate reality or something because supposedly with Dragon Ball Super GT was retcon but with Da it became canon i some [ __ ] but um so anyh who Goku and his friends travel to the demon realm to restore their bodies and rescue Earth’s guardian Dende who has been transformed into a baby there they meet new allies and enemies although diamond does not mean anything the kanji could be interpreted as evil in English seems legit see what else do we have here ah it goes right back to Ari with our last story of the night about Tom and Jerry the official YouTube channel Warner Brothers Kids starts streaming on May 26 an English trailer for Warner Brothers Japan’s Tom and Jerry Goko short anime teasing the anime that is coming soon to YouTube it’s described as it’s your favorite cartoon Captain Mouse as you’ve never seen them before uh Warner Brothers Japan premiered the anime in November 2022 and currently releases one short a month mumi Aritake voices Tom in a Japanese series aya Noakura voices Jerry and Nana Kugumaki voices Tffy a cute little mouse always wears a diaper uh Fan Works is in charge of the animation production in Studio nahoshi is credited for animation production assistance i will have I will say when I was in Japan I saw a lot of Tom and Jerry merch which was kind of surprising i knew it was popular in Japan but not this popular like wow there are some uh Japanese like have you seen uh Tom and Jerry cartoons [ __ ] dubbed in Japanese no they’re out there and uh they’re kind of strange like obviously they keep in the the uh you know the screams and whatnot but hearing Tom and Jerry scream like you know talking in Japanese is just like what the [ __ ] it’s just you know it’s just it’s just very uh you know jarring well I mean if you think about it like like imagine watching the Simpsons in Japanese or like Bob’s Burgers or King of the Hill or something like that i mean when I was in Japan not this time but the time before that I when I was in Takiyama I had turned on the TV and I started watching uh I Dream of Genie which was dubbed in Japanese and I thought that was really cool um when we were at the airport they had um all uh okay what was that detective show from the 70s which one all right he would always go oh yeah one more thing yes Columbbo was dubbed in Japanese interesting yes because I’m we’re both watching this looking at like what is Oh my god this is Col she pointed out it was Columbbo i was like that explains why it looks so familiar hang on what is like what’s the Japanese equivalent of Oh yeah one more thing that I don’t know but what was interesting is um I had found a book off like a couple of blocks from the hotel I was saying in Kyoto and I was walking through there and I actually saw and one of the things that stuck out of my mind probably because I’m listening to the podcast f to it is um full house the complete box set somebody it was in there for sale i thought that was interesting are you looking up oh yeah one more thing i’m looking up a like like I went from Tom and Jerry Japanese dub to Columbbo Japanese dub and you found it didn’t you no I’m just uh I don’t want to you know you know accidentally you know flashbang you guys with words or something like that the way life has been for us I don’t think you could do that type of damage uh I don’t know i I’ll try looking at for something later okay cool well now that we got that out the way we’re going to kick things over to uh the reason why y’all stick around with us uh meanwhile in Japan uh all right pick your stories um I take the second one I guess all right Maka which one do you want it doesn’t matter to me i hate it when you do that that means I have to sit there and decide on which story yep you [ __ ] yep all right I’ll take the first story okie dokie all right let me cue up the mute all right um let’s see oh this is supposed to be muted this is That’s good um all right i think this is the right one so anyh who we’re going to talk about how Nagasaki police got into a high-speed chase with Nagasaki police it’s a police chase in the truest sense of the item one day in February of this year a patrol car belonging to the Nagasaki Prefecture Police was working a national highway with a speed limit of 50 kilometers per hour which is 31 milesPH when a car tore past him at speeds well beyond the limit the patrol car quickly went into pursuit but other vehicles showed no sign of slowing down clocked in at 102 kph which is 63 miles an hour eventually the car managed to shake off police but not before the officers could take note of the license plate number and much to their surprise the license plate led them to another member of the same police force not only that the camera video showed that the offduty officer in her 20s had committed 13 violations of the road traffic act such as running a red light on that same day you know what this reminds me of what that one story that popped up a while ago that said a group of undercover Detroit police officers posing as drug dealers tried to arrest another group of undercover police officers posing as drug buyers that sounds like a plot point in Super Troopers super troopers would never do something that dumb you don’t say meow romeo do I sound like a kitty cat to you anyh who following the full investigation the officer in question was handed down a six-month 10% pay cut by the Nagasaki Prefecture Police on May 1st and her case was submitted to the prosecutor’s office to determine if the criminal charges she facing will be pursued the officer told police that she was going home for visiting her parents during the holiday and that I didn’t notice the patrol a patrol car chasing me i just wanted to get home and get some sleep she also admitted to the charges and resigned on the same day maybe I’m reading a little bit too much into this but how do you not notice the patrol car chasing you how do you not America would probably be something like “Oh [ __ ] I’m sorry i didn’t see you i was texting.” I mean if she really didn’t notice the sirens the lights and the person shouting over a megaphone for her to pull over she must have been appeared as all F you know but the joke self-absorbed [ __ ] be like like pull like this pull over you like god what the [ __ ] is this [ __ ] yapping about well I mean depending on what type of music she was listening to it could have just been in the background you’re killing me Marco well it’s not like she was listening to [ __ ] the police well General Netisonens had a thing to say about that like she’s better off as a race car driver i don’t buy it she clearly had something to hide that day don’t the police have 3.5 L V6 crowns what was she driving she got away from a police car while doing twice the limit what a waste of a good driver it wasn’t mentioned in the reports but it ought to be but it ought to be more than simultaneous violations for to warrant her license being suspended which means she’ll have lots of time to play Mario Kart but let’s show our appreciation for the police in Japan who work tirelessly to keep us safe from other police in Japan which reminds me I fire trucks are ridiculously small okay they’re slightly bigger than your car MCO i have to show you pictures and also most of the regular taxi cabs are Crown Vicks anywh who it’s on you Mari a Kyota man was arrested for forcing an appliance store clerk to shave his own head in apology there been there have been a lot of reports of a growing problem of customer harassment in Japan which can range from rude language to threats of physical violence perhaps because it appears in so many different forms is a diffical problem to tackle and only seems to be getting worse see just how varied acts of customer harassment can get let’s take a look at a recent arrest in Kyoto a 49year-old unemployed really well we never guessed man living in the Manami w of Kyoto was picked up by police on sufficient coition having forced the clerk at an electronic store to shave his head the incident began on April 4th when a suspect said to have called an electronic store in the same ward to complain about the electric hair clippers he brought there that didn’t work he demanded that a new one be brought to his home and a 42year-old clerk agreed to do so when arriving at the home with the replacement the suspect is said to have shown his tattoos to the clerk suggesting he’s not so much unemployed as much as he is differently employed the suspect then told the clerk “If you’re really sorry shave your head a repentance is shaved.” And he said “If you are in my gang you do it right away.” Uh the the clerk then shaved just the right side of his head using the new clippers he had bought and was made to clean up his own hair trimmings before leaving a report was filed with the police who made the arrest the suspect is said to have admitted to the charges but I’m not sure if this counts as a admission a quote “If that’s what the other guy said then oh well.” And in a chilling twist to the story police found that the original clippers the suspect complained about were perfectly operational all along well [ __ ] unbelievable throw that me just [ __ ] kill me already you know mhm that’s wild all right MCO bring it home thought it was kind of interesting um so it’s always been suggested before that the use of VR devices could have a potential positive effect on eyesight um but it’s largely been anecdotal evidence um however a recent study done at Quan The Gakwin University’s Graduate School of Science and Engineering has shed a little bit of light on it um their paper presented at Intaction 2025 showed that playing a specifically designed VR game made significant improvements in vision under certain circumstances um now this was only a group of 10 people so obviously it’s not a huge study but the 10 people without any you know any crazy eye diseases played the game over six weeks at different intervals and measured the effect it had on their vision the game was a simple target shooting in which players use their controllers to aim and shoot at circular targets that get pushed back further when they’re hit this makes players practice looking both up close and far into the distance um so even some participants playing as infrequently as once every three days showed improvement in vision compared to their ability before the study more interestingly the test subjects with moderate to severe myopia which is short-sightedness prior to the test saw a more significant improvement in line with their frequency of playing but those with only mild short-sightedness did not see such impressive results uh the reason for this is not certain but one possible cause is pseudomyopia which has the same symptoms as shortsightedness but is caused by straining the eyes often due to staring at screens too long now this can actually progress into actual short-sightedness if untreated but it is reversible with eye training like alternating between staring up close and far away or looking at stereoscopic images so it’s possible that the subjects who saw the biggest improvements were only having the pseudommyopia components of their bad eyesight reversed whereas those with only a modest improvement were suffering from the more permanent version of the condition um it’s also possibility because of the fact that the subjects were all young students taken from the school’s information science courses and likely spend a lot of time in front of computers that this is what the whole issue was makes sense however it still worked um so even though there were only a couple of you know people that this was affected on it generated a fair bit of optimism um so online comments going “Uh what the This is amazing i’ll buy VR if this is released.” Um a doctor on YouTube said that it can’t be reversed so what’s going on uh this won’t help people with genetic short-sightedness because their eyes are naturally misaligned um this makes sense since it forces you to focus they say even the 3DS had benefits um it sounds like people who only recently became shortsighted have a chance uh so the researchers obviously say that more work is needed to further verify the results to determine if it’s simply a remedy for pseudomyopia or if benefits to regular myopia are occurring as well um however it’s a pretty good indication that if people are going to be actually healing their eyes whether it’s just from stress or strain that this is a really good idea um and you know it saves you from surgery i think that’s really cool so I’m I’m definitely looking forward to seeing additional information on this agree all right now that we got that out the way I think we should wrap it up and we are able to do everything within the time limit and before we get out of here let me say hey Makochan makan yeah I did go to a maid cafe and I got the omo rice good and it was delicious and I got my picture with one of the maids nice and and like the little membership card they what did they draw cute ketchup hearts on it yes they did yeah we went to um we went to At Home Cafe which is really nice so I’ll probably go back to the next one um when we go back out there and yes I did buy four more bags of my favorite coffee and I’m explaining to one of the people that worked there who’s translating it in Japanese wondering who is this guy coming in for four blends of their four bags of their mild blend you know what I’m saying you know and I So now I have like their um their point card so I’ll definitely keep hold of that and I have three different tap cards um there so you have the JR trains and then you have the local trains and then you have like this the private city lines but each different like area of Japan has their own tap card like Asmoa Suika and it doesn’t matter which one you get because they’re all interchangeable no matter what so I think that’s really cool so I wanted to I wanted to bring that up earlier but I totally forgot but there it is um I do have pictures of the food and it was really delicious and yeah I think I averaged about 15,000 steps a day so I did do my fair share of eating and what was cool is we went to this one seafood restaurant where you had to fish your own dinner out i thought that was kind of cool and then they prepare it however you want it so we had sushi style sashimi style the last fish we got I said “Let’s get it grilled you’ll love it that way.” And it was delicious seabbream is very good all right enough about that i think it’s time for us to hurry up and wrap it up and call it a night read yeah and I just want to say we had a couple of raids on tonight’s show so thank you to Orange Wright and Racer X for the raids we really appreciate that y’all are awesome so we got that cool stuff out the way um if you like the show tell a friend they in term will tell another friend and so on and so forth we’re independent bloggers independent podcasters so what we like and don’t like we’re going to tell you straight up if you have any questions about the show please drop us a line at podcastanimejamsession.com again that is podcastanimejamsession.com we’re here to believe you don’t forget to check out this week’s podcast and older podcasts on our feeds you can find Anime Jam Session on Apple Podcast Spotify iHeart Radio Anchor FM YouTube anywhere where podcasts are available some sites allow have the option to leave f reviews if you could please leave a review we greatly appreciate that so there is that please don’t forget to check out our website atanimejamsession.com on our website you will find our weekly podcast but you will also find cosplay tips and trips cosplay interviews anime reviews editorials you’ll find links to our YouTube page and Facebook page of convention coverage and cosplay coverage all that and a lot more you can find at anime jamsession.com and please follow us on our social media pages it’s anime jam session on YouTube Twitter Facebook and Blue Sky so to everybody that follow us on our different uh sites thank you so much we really couldn’t do this show without you and we want to definitely hear from you and down below was our tip jar so if you click on our links to our stream elements our streaml or our code you can send us a few dollars we really appreciate that it’ll keep the lights on for another month uh you can also cheer us on with bits in the chat room which is great we appreciate that and you can also sub to the channel and also give out gift subs as well every little bit counts and we really appreciate that so now we got that all out the way uh last words Arty can’t hear you buddy i said “Yeah I’m looking forward to getting a tube shoved down my throat tomorrow.” That’ll probably be me next month i something like that um cuz it’s time rack colonoscopy oh yeah that’s going in the other direction anyhoo Bakan last words uh I will be going to my room to read more smut huh uh no it’s actually not smut i’m just as shocked as everybody else is on the show [Music] uh my last words um I bought a new laundry bag so is this what adulting is like yeah and that that is it end of list we’re getting out of here uh see you all next week we’ll be back with a brand new episode we’ll tell you about Kameha our one day trip out there all that and then some so I’m Rona i’m Ari and I am Makan great fight great night see you next week good night everybody good night say good night Makan good night Makan perfect awesome we’re out of here see you all next week [Music] this podcast has been a production of Anime Jam Session and AJS Productions no fanboys and fan girls were hurt maimed shot electrocuted or pistol whipped in this episode for now the views opinions and thoughts expressioned on this show do not reflect the staff or the network as a whole but we’re still right damn it for transcripts of this episode start typing check us out at animejamsession.com and vlognetwork.com for more information about us and other programming jamatan [Music]
The squad is back! DJ Ranma S discusses his trip to Japan, so get ready! Also, LINE WEBTOON tightens hate speech guidelines, New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt anime theme songs get single release in August, Toonami to air Dragon Ball Daima, and The Tom and Jerry anime shorts get an English release on YouTube! Meanwhile in Japan… Police in Nagasaki get in a high-speed chase with Nagasaki police, a man arrested for forcing a store clerk to shave his own head, and a small study finds VR may actually help eyesight!
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