Mood Harassment

(upbeat music)

Whoa, black barrier, bam,
blam, and I can’t do that.

All right, anyways, the
big black barrier that we

talked about last week and
maybe even the week before.

It was found, like literally the next
day or two days later with holes in it.

The holes, suspiciously, are at eye level.

A spokesman for the town said, we
thought this might happen someday.

Just not this soon.

So they underestimated the sheer resilience

of tourists coming
to ruin their little plan.

A barrier, I didn’t actually think

of like a curtain barrier,
fabric thing was gonna work out.

My assumption actually
was people were gonna hold

their hands above the
barrier to take the picture.

Poking holes in it, I
wouldn’t have done that,

but I actually would have
assumed it was gonna happen.

So what do they need to do?

They need to make a Kevlar barrier
that they can’t easily cut through.

Now there’s a plan to repair the barrier

and then put a sign up
asking people not to touch it.

I think they might be, again,
underestimating people’s

respect for other things,
because if these are the kind

of people who are
willing to poke holes in a

barrier to take the
picture that they want,

they’re also the kind
of people who would be

willing to ignore a sign
to not touch the barrier.

‘Cause anyone who’s gonna
do basically vandalize something,

they’re not gonna care about a sign
that says, “Please do not vandalize this.

” They are talking about
putting up a new screen.

So that screen costs 1.3 million yet.

And they’re saying like, maybe
we should put up a new one.

I assume they’re talking about
a different material or something.

They didn’t get too much into the details.

They are talking about a different color.

They are thinking about
changing the color from black

’cause maybe the black
is a bit too intimidating.

It’s a bit not very aesthetic.

To a blue or, what did
ninjas use to pen say

when they talked about putting
out the barrier in the first place?

A green.

So they’re going to put up possibly
a green screen in front of Mount Fuji.

So my first thought was for the animators.

So you take a picture of
Mount Fuji with the green screen.

And then you can
superimpose an anime version

of the same Lawson and
then put yourself in front of it.

And now you’re in the dream anime.

You’ve imagined all your whole life.

And that’s pretty awesome.

I mean, let’s be straight up.

That’s pretty cool.

Then, of course, people
are going to get more

creative than that and
do weird and gross stuff.

I assume because let’s
face it, that’s what people do.

Man was arrested for stealing
cyanide from a university laboratory.

Now at first I was like, do
they keep a lot of cyanide?

But this is like a lab.

They do lots of stuff.

So they’re going to have lots of chemicals.

So cyanide does make sense for
it to be in a university laboratory.

Universities, not a big
surprise, they keep track

of how much lethal chemicals
they have very closely.

He took 25 grams.

So they noticed 25 grams
of cyanide was missing

and then started tracing
it back to him right away.

He took the cyanide
because he wanted to kill

his father who was
nagging him to get a job.

So this was a 30 year
old man still in university.

His father’s like, dude, I
can’t support you anymore.

You’ve got to get a job.

And he got really annoyed by that.

He’s like, you know what I’m going to do.

The most sensible course of action is
steel cyanide from the university I go to.

Take that home and kill my father.

No one will know.

No one will ever figure it out.

It’s the perfect plan.

The scary part, though, is that the
cyanide itself has not been recovered.

So there are still 25 grams of cyanide
out there in the world roaming free.

So be careful.

So you go to a famous Japanese restaurant.

Japan is famous for its food.

So the good restaurants
are really good in the food.

The food’s famous.

So it’s the good foods, even
more famous, even more better.

And Japan does have good food.

I’m not going to– I’m not
going to rip on it for that.

You want to go to a ramen restaurant.

Ramen’s very famous in Japan as well.

So you know the most famous ramen restaurants
are going to be really, really good.

Imagine you’re sitting
eating this delicious ramen

that you’ve probably waited
hours for outside the restaurant.

You’ve gone in.

And you’ve maybe even
made a trip here to get to it.

Wow.

You start eating it.

And then smoke starts to fill the room.

What do you do?

Do you abandon the ramen that
you’ve put so much work into obtaining?

Do you just give up on
this dream that you’ve

had of eating this very
specific kind of ramen?

No.

You keep eating.

There were no instructions
from the staff to actually leave.

There were about 15
customers in the ramen

restaurant when smoke
started filling the room.

No one said any.

Only when the flames got higher– this

was what the article
said– only when the

flames got higher where
people told to leave.

Apparently, staff started to panic.

So I’m betting what
happened was there was a fire.

And then the staff were like, well,
we should get everyone out of here.

And then a manager is something’s like, no,

we don’t want to ruin
their dining experience.

And then the staff
were like, dude, I am not

dying for what I assume
is a minimum wage drop.

Maybe it’s a high-end restaurant.

So you’re going to
get paid a little better.

But still, you’re a waitress
or waiter or something.

You’re not getting paid that much.

Certainly not enough to risk your life.

So what happens?

You’re like, I’m getting out of here.

And when you get these people
out of here, no one was hurt.

The flames did get high
enough to touch the ceiling.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So the situation– yeah,
this is quiz number two.

So this is all clearly very successful,
because we’re doing it again.

During a student council speech, a student
did an imitation of the vice principal,

including how they talked
and sort of their gestures.

So it would be like doing a Trump
imitation, not flattering, I assume.

So how do you think
the principal dealt with it?

And you have three options.

So this is a very uptight, I
assume, older Japanese man,

who’s used to being a position
of authority with children.

These are middle school kids.

Middle is our elementary school.

Yeah, they’re not old.

They’re not– he maybe
is at the upper end of 13,

because it’s a mixed elementary
junior high school of situations.

He might be.

I told you how one of the teachers dealt

with my daughter, a challenging
and better school council thing, right?

If you’re willing to put that on
the air, I’d love to hear it again.

Yeah, I’d love to.

I’m going to go ahead.

They had a school council
meeting, and all the kids

wanted to know why the
girls were only allowed to have

a hair above their shoulder
or hair below their shoulder.

They weren’t allowed to grow it,
if to make it below their shoulder.

So if they went to the school, and the
hair was short, had to stay short forever.

And the girls are like,
that’s a really stupid rule.

And they brought it up
at the council meeting.

And my daughter was the representative,
so she had to present it to the teachers.

And they said it, and then the teacher
in charge, who was like a veteran, veteran.

Yeah, I’m assuming, yeah.

He was like, it is 60s.

Awesome.

You know, he loves having rules challenged.

He teaches.

It’s best one.

Because almost all the
engineers Japan stories

about teachers, like
90% of them are P.E.

teachers who are hitting kids,
because they’re not Olympic athletes yet.

And then though you
know, those teachers are

just fat all of the
crap of pieces of shit.

My biggest complaint in judo
is you get this group of older

black belt dudes who just stand
around and shout out to people,

and they can’t physically
do anything anymore.

And I’m like, I understand you still
have the knowledge, but you could try.

You could try and spread
your knowledge without shouting.

I participate even though
I’m like one of the older guys.

To me, it’s like just
to maintain my ability.

So if I can show people things physically,
here’s how you do it, to done done.

But yeah, they bugged me.

I just stand on the side.

Yeah.

Anyway, yeah, so after
she presented this question

and wanted like from a human,
why instead of just a rule book.

Yeah.

He just turned to the whole school.

The whole school, yeah?

The whole school.

It’s like, can you believe
the stupid question

that the stupid little
girl just asked me?

Can you believe what a stupid question?

And then my daughter
just stood there like, what?

This just happened.

Yeah, that’s someone who
doesn’t have an answer who’s

trying to make the question
stupid and not the answer stupid.

Because the answer is, there is no reason.

It’s an arbitrary rule.

Yeah, I don’t know.

It’s the way it’s been.

It’s like the challenge it.

Yeah, it’s like all the other
rules that have been like getting

basically overturned over
the last couple of years.

Like, for this like, sock business
underwear, but it’s just everything, yeah.

Like, they’re not allowed
to wear like long socks

that my daughter was
school either, but they have to.

So they have to have
bad legs through winter.

Yeah.

Which I think is really old.

There’s a lot of schools
now that the cool thing

is they’re doing unisex
uniforms so they get pants.

They all just get pants.

It’s like so bad for so many
girls and the schools there.

Yeah, absolutely ridiculous.

They did do a survey as good as if they
could wear like, like, tights or something.

Well, there’s a lot of girls
you see when they go to school

or wearing track pants under
their skirt, which I think is smart.

But the shortest skirts, they
did a survey and it’s Hokkaido.

The coldest place in Japan.

Jesus, what?

Those are hardy women who are beefing
themselves up for the upcoming Ice Age.

Yeah, right.

I don’t know what’s going on there.

Because yeah, I do remember coming to Japan

and seeing the school
skirts and just nothing.

Like just bare legs
and I’m just like, that is.

I’m wearing like an overcoat and, you know,

I’m like considering long
johns later on, you know.

Yeah, you’re Canadian.

Yeah, no, it’s, it’s not even cold.

It’s wind and the wind cutting
straight on your skin is really bad.

Okay, so you have firsthand
experience almost of authoritative

teachers, just not except,
yeah, teachers being thickheads.

That might be the title of the episode.

Okay, so how did this man deal with it?

Three choices.

A, okay.

He hit the student.

B, he made a speech
and copied the students.

So he made a speech
and imitated the student.

So he basically did it back.

Imitating himself.

Yeah.

No, no, no, he imitated the student

and like started doing
the students gestures

and stuff, basically
making fun of the student.

Oh, go down, okay.

Or C, he demanded an apology.

Now you know demand an apology
actually has like extra steps to it,

but yeah, and why don’t I just
want to say all of the above?

Oh, no, this is, I am
willing, I, the student copied

them and then tonight
I’m doing a lot of money.

Oh, what order would you do it in?

I would, I would make fun of the student
then hit them and then demand an apology.

If I was going to do all three of those,

I think it would be because
you get the joke out

first and then whack them
when they’re not ready.

And then be like, now you.

I’m the G and then hit them.

(laughing)

Oh, you actually though it
makes a demand an apology

when you don’t get it
right away, smack them.

That would actually make sense to me.

All right, I’m going to go with B.

B made this speech and
copied the student is incorrect.

He demanded an apology, but his
apology consisted of, I couldn’t sleep.

If I have to take leave of
absence because of this,

you’ll have to pay the
damages for my absence.

And you may be sent to a
juvenile delinquent detention center.

You may not be able to finish high school.

The boy during this time was
apologizing profusely and crying.

Yeah.

He then, the mother came to the school,
I think the same day of the next day

for an unrelated issue and
then the teacher talked to her.

Then he found out the mother
helped the student with the speech.

He then said to the mom, I may sue you.

We may end up having
to settle out of court.

So in some weird way, he’s already
decided he’s one and they’re settling.

Like, not we’re going to actually
go through a whole court case

where this could get
thrown out because they’re

just like, dude, you’re
being unreasonable.

No, I’ve already won and
you’re going to have to settle out

of court and give me whatever
amount of money I demand.

So he, he did some cool shit afterwards.

So the kid won the election.

So he removed, he took
down the election results,

remade them and took
that kid’s name out.

So he just like messed up the election.

And then he was ordered
to stay home by the

school board because
he’s going a bit too far.

He’s like, because he’s a psycho
because he’s going way too far.

I don’t know.

Like, I guess you just live this life.

It’s a weird kind of like,
you just are the authority

and these kids can’t
push back and they can’t

argue with and you get
into this mind from move.

Anything I do is okay.

I think this is the thing
I hit most regularly now

is these guys have
lived this life and got

to a point where
anything I do is reasonable

and it’s weird that people
would react negatively to it.

I had a conversation
with the Japanese women

about what she thinks of
the worst neighbors to have.

She said, retired police
officers and retired teachers.

Yeah, retired police officers are bored

and looking for infractions that
they can then cause you trouble with.

Yeah, they want to create drama.

Yeah, just do it around their neighborhood.

Yeah.

And then I retired teachers
make sense because again,

they’ve lived this
life where they’re the

authority and everyone
should listen to them.

Yeah.

And they can’t accept
you like, no, get off my lawn.

Yeah, someone pushes back,
because you have no authority over me.

It is funny when, like,
as an adult, you go into,

there’s a point where
you may be going into

a school and you see
the principal and stuff.

And for a moment,
you do feel the principal.

It goes away when you realize,
no, that’s just like a dude.

And then it goes away even faster
when you’re like, he’s younger than me.

But there is a moment.

I remember the first time
as an adult going to a school

and then like seeing the principal
and being like, ooh, the principal.

And I was like, ooh, I make
more money than that guy.

So I read a lot of Japanese news.

That’s how this podcast came to be.

And one of the things you find
out in Japan is that everything,

literally everything is some kind of
harassment at the end of the day.

And there was a new
one that I hadn’t heard of.

And it’s called mood harassment.

And I was like, this is
getting a bit ridiculous.

Maybe I’m just one of
those people who’s just like,

at a point in their life
where everything, because it’s

becoming so extreme to my
view is seeming sort of ridiculous.

They are saying that
if you create a negative

mood in the office, that
is a form of harassment.

So if I’m in a bad mood
and that mood affects

your mood, that is a
form of mood harassment.

And the example they were using was siding
is a form of psychological harassment.

So you’re talking to me
and I go, that’s harassing you.

If I have a grumpy looking face,

which I think I naturally have a
grumpy looking face, that puts you off.

And that is a form of mood harassment.

Unintentional siding is a
form of power harassment.

So let’s say I’m a supervisor
and someone’s talking to me

and I go, geez, I don’t
want to deal with you.

That is a form of power harassment.

They also pointed out lip
smacking and face making.

So the lip smacking like something like
that, I guess you’m just like smacking.

That sort of disc sound.

Face making, again, I run into a problem
with that because I have a grumpy face.

I think if I’m not smiling,
I look really unhappy.

I’ve gotten to an age where
I started to get wrinkles

and face lines and stuff and
they all draw everything down.

So I look more unhappy as I get
older, which I guess is also true.

People tend to be
unhappy or as they get older.

I don’t know.

The problem with this,
so like sexual harassment,

you know you’re
doing something sexual.

Maybe you even know you’re crossing a line.

Power harassment, you
know you’re being aggressive

towards like an underling as a
supervisor, something like that.

Sighing lip smacking and face making,
the perpetrators are often unaware.

And it’s very hard to
get some sort of legal

thing on this, like
how do you define it?

And I think one of these things, they’re
casting the net so broad that literally,

if I come into the office
and I breathe too much,

I’m now harassing my
coworkers and they consume me

or they consume the
company or something like that,

that seems problematic
and I think personally,

maybe this one is
going a little too far.

A YouTuber was arrested.

So we did a couple of stories.

It was Johnny Smolley doing stuff in Japan.

He ended up getting arrested.

And I don’t know if he
was actually deported

but he left and he’s probably not
coming back to Japan anytime soon.

There was these people who tried to
like cheat the train system and you know,

steal food from hotels,
breakfast and stuff like that.

So there was a lot of bad behavior
from live streaming YouTubers.

And that seems to have moved
on to either other countries

or it’s just not happening
here as much as it was

and probably because these things
are punishable in Japan for sure.

It was interesting a lot of the
streamers I read about before

went to countries where
they are essentially more strict

and more harsh in their
punishments than Japan.

I think Japan was attractive because
it was sort of a first world nation.

It’s relatively safe and you assume
not much is going to happen to you.

Realistically though, you
can only go so far in any

country before something’s
going to happen to you.

This YouTuber was Japanese.

So it’s maybe shifted from foreign YouTubers
coming and behaving badly in Japan.

That’s actually sort of
relates to the first one.

So this is maybe a shift from foreign
people doing bad things to Japanese people.

Now emulating those foreign
people who did get famous

and get a certain amount
of money for doing the stuff

and copying them or it’s probably
been happening all the time

but the foreign YouTubers
are a better story.

This is a forcible obstruction of business.

I’m going to ding that one.

Car alarm, sorry going off.

Doesn’t look like the mic’s picking
up so I’m going to keep going.

He was drunk.

He’s decided to get up
and stand on the tables

and while drinking he would spit it
out and spit alcohol onto the table.

So this was of course ruining his
night disturbing other customers.

That’s forcible obstruction of business.

When he was arrested he said I got
carried away because I drank too much.

A man had a restraining
order placed upon him

by a woman who had rejected his
advances and he had continued to it.

(laughs)

What, he shot, he took a shot.

He just didn’t know when to give up.

She’d rejected his
attempts at communication.

He had been hanging around outside her
office, trying to talk to her again and again.

She said too much, got
a restraining order on him.

He showed up at her work.

When he was arrested, which
thing did he say to the police?

So A, I didn’t know she worked there.

B, I went to her work place, but
I didn’t go there to see her or C.

I thought if she saw me,
she’d changed her mind.

So he’s clearly been on her
case if there’s a restraining order.

It was seen primarily he was texting her

but then he was hanging around
and that made her nervous so she

contacted the police and had
a restraining order put on him.

Then he went to the workplace
after the restraining order.

He shows up at her workplace.

So did he say, I didn’t
know she worked there.

Did he say, I went to her workplace,
but I didn’t go there to see her.

Or I thought if she saw
me, she might change

her mind ’cause you
don’t look at this package.

Yeah, they look like I’m in check
this check on what I’m offering then.

She’s not gonna refuse this.

Ah, I think we come on.

Like anybody that is that
exists has to be that blind.

The excuses are always really.

This is basically where
the quizzes are coming are.

How do these people talk to the police?

Because there’s almost
like a set of answers

that you get regularly,
which is the bit I enjoy.

So, oh, man, I think it’s C.

C, I thought if she saw me, she
changed her mind is incorrect.

Yeah, he’s really.

Yes, he said.

So persistent.

Yeah, he was doing that.

He must have been like, she just doesn’t
realize how much he loves me, yeah.

Well, what’s the correct answer?

I went to her workplace, but
I didn’t go there to see her.

But it’s such a lame
excuse because like you have

a restraining order so
you know she works there.

You know you’re not supposed to go in.

He’s like, but I had other business.

They didn’t say where the workplace
was, ’cause I would have liked to know

if it’s like a place where
individuals actually go in.

Yeah, like if people could be there,

or if it was just like we sell
industrial drills to countries.

And like individuals don’t
walk in off the street for that.

So that would be like,
yeah, it does not make sense.

But if it was like we sell products,
then you could almost make an excuse.

Like I buy stuff here, yeah.

This is just the closest one in my area.

I’m kind of just playing
it by that answer though.

Yeah, I most vanilla answer of those ones.

I did like that he’s like, I just
happened to know where she were.

I’m trying to develop the game as it goes.

I was trying to think like, should I
stick to just three or should I just,

the other way we could play
this game is I give you the

scenario and you just try
to say what the answer is.

And then we see how close you can get.

Maybe a hint system almost.

A hint system.

I don’t know, let’s, there involves
a jacket, sorry, and a boot, yeah.

Yeah, that’s, I’m working on evolving
the game now from just multiple choice.

A Chinese YouTuber came to Japan.

Since we have two stories about
YouTubers, I thought it was nice again.

The local born native live
streamer getting in trouble

and now the international
live streamer getting in trouble.

He went to Yasakuni Shrine,
which is a memorial for World War II,

which means it is also a war
memorial for war criminals.

That is problematic for Chinese people.

Every year, members of the government will
go and pay their respects at the shrine.

And what they’re doing is in a way saying,

“Thank you war criminals for doing
all the work “you did in the past.

” The Chinese government,
the Chinese people,

one of the places that
was invaded by Japan,

things like this is something
maybe you should not do.

It’s very difficult water to
tread, but the Chinese have

got a firm stance and I
don’t actually think it’s wrong.

I don’t have an answer
to this one for sure.

I think if I was a politician,

I probably wouldn’t go there
just to not upset other countries

’cause it’s not just
China, it’s any country

that Japan’s invaded probably gets
annoyed by the South Korean stuff.

And they’re trying to build relations.

This YouTuber goes by the name
Ironhead, which I have a pretty cool name.

I can’t make fun of him since my
name’s he chunked my beef chest.

He decided the best thing to do
would be to make a little speech about,

and he said this
was in protest of the

Fukushima water treatment
of the water release.

So the Fukushima power
plant had a meltdown.

They have all this irradiated
water and they have a plan.

They’re releasing it
bit by bit into the ocean.

And it will dissipate enough, hopefully,

that it doesn’t actually
negatively impact anything,

but they still can get
rid of the irradiated water.

China has been against this.

They’ve clearly reported to their people,
this is a bad idea, we shouldn’t do this.

Their alternative was to
shoot it into the atmosphere,

which maybe works the exact
same way, but in my head I was like,

that seems just as bad
if not somehow worse.

I mean, I don’t know enough
about the science behind it.

The scientist said the amounts they’re
doing and the way they’re doing it is safe.

I don’t know.

I know bananas are radioactive, so that’s
another whole other thing going on there.

So he wants to protest the
release of the Fukushima water.

He’s come to Yessakuni Shrine,
which is essentially a warm memorial

enshrined for World War II soldiers,
and therefore includes war criminals.

He filmed himself doing this.

This is the issue, so he’s getting caught,

because there is actually
footage of security footage

of him doing this, but
the way he got caught

is he posted it on the
Chinese version of Instagram,

so China has their own version of all
the apps that we know and love so much.

Instagram, and then he took it down
when it started getting some heat.

That video was taken
down and shared outside of

China, so actually it
got captured elsewhere.

So he gives a little speech
and he says that this

place, he wants to treat
the world like a toilet,

he’s going to treat
this place like a toilet.

So he climbs onto a
pillar and begins to urinate,

and then spray paints
the word toilet on the pillar.

If he gets caught, so it seems like
he’s escaped and gotten back to China,

so he’s probably not
on the country anymore.

But if he comes back, he could be caught.

You could get three years in
prison, and a 300,000 yen fine.

His protest, again, I think this is
an ineffective way of protesting.

That’s something that maybe
people need to think about.

Like if you want to protest stuff,

it needs to have some sort of impact
beyond 10 seconds and getting you arrested.

You need to have some
sort of something in place.

Like I don’t think most
protests are particularly valuable.

I don’t think they’re
particularly effective.

But this one, peeing on something, I
mean, I think he chose yes, Kuni Shrine,

because it was going to
get a lot of traction in China.

But at the same time,
since it started getting

traction in China, it
means it got really popular,

and once it got really
popular, everyone was seeing it,

he had to take it down because
he was going to get in trouble.

There is no extradition treaty, but I’m
betting the Chinese government’s like,

you made us look bad, and in
China, you can actually get in trouble

from making the country
or the government look bad.

Like you can lose your
social status and stuff.

So I think maybe he thought
this was going to work out.

This was going to make it more popular,
and then it did, and then he realized,

oh, it’s maybe popular
with this base group,

but also the people who would
feel obligated to punish me for it.

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