Travel Support Thursday

Welcome back to Travel Support Thursday, the first of 2024.

It's a new year.

Yeah, it's a new year.

It is good to be back.

So today we are kind of near Los Angeles.

We're hanging out with...

It's in Diego, actually.

Yeah, we're hanging out with my family for our late Christmas.

And I don't know if this has happened to you guys,

but it seems like every day our house turns into like a co-working space with my family.

And then at night it turns into like the fun family get together

because I remember that we'd always have as a kid.

But now that everybody's like working from anywhere,

including like, you know, us recording this thing right now,

it seems like, I don't know, it just feels like everybody is just working kind of all the time.

Yeah, it's like a cool, unique experience in that, you know,

we're just trying to find space and we can work wherever we want.

But then there's the question like, should we?

Yeah, yeah.

And it feels like, I don't know,

ever since remote work became this like much more prevalent thing throughout the world,

I mean, and especially throughout like, you know, my family,

it kind of feels like everybody's just kind of working everywhere all the time

and just fitting in work around the other life stuff.

And like, there's no separation anymore between work and life.

It's just kind of all intermingled.

Yeah, the number of laptops and such around is kind of fun.

But like, I think the nice thing about working kind of around each other

is that we just have built in coworkers and colleagues

that we get to like take breaks with, you know,

we take walks and have coffee breaks together.

The kitchen is kind of like the water, what do they call it?

The water cooler.

The water cooler.

We never really had a water cooler at our last jobs,

but that's what I imagine it is, the kitchen.

Yeah, so has this happened with your family as well,

that every time you see them, they're just like kind of working a little bit

and then at night you get to see them,

but they don't really take days off to see you anymore,

right, or to hang out with you, which nobody here did.

Nobody took any days off.

They just kind of work their normal thing from wherever they are.

And then I guess at night we just all hang out.

We get to be around each other.

Yeah, we get to see each other more,

but I think it's like a more distracted version of seeing each other all the time.

And we kind of have to all be on the same page

about when we're like closing the laptops, I would say.

Yeah, that's true.

That's true.

The co-working rules have very harsh 5 p.m. cutoff.

Co-working shop closes,

and then the video gaming slash board gaming world erupts into this place.

Okay.

Happy New Year.

That is enough talking about that.

Happy New Year to all of y'all.

We took a, we had a really nice, I would say we had,

we've been in this like two to three week vacation break,

which has been really nice.

Just like jam packing our days with seeing friends and family,

which has been really, really nice because when we're traveling and when we're,

we're generally at home doing post-production,

we don't really get a chance to like be around each other that often.

We're always leaving, it feels like.

So yeah, these last couple of weeks,

in case you haven't seen any videos of ours pop up on this channel or our main channel,

that's why we've been just like shutting down our things,

kind of doing work peripherally,

but also mainly just hanging out with friends and family.

Back in action.

Yes, yes.

But anyway, that reminds me.

Travel Thursday.

Travel Thursday.

Yeah, we didn't forget.

2024.

2024, starting the brand new year.

Yes.

Okay.

So what are we talking about today?

Let's get into this thing.

That was a long wind up.

That was a long wind up.

Like we usually do.

Yes.

Yes.

For those of you with ADHD, like I have,

you're probably sitting there like, get to it already.

God's time.

Let's go.

Except we do it to ourselves.

Yeah, that's true.

Sorry.

We're just going to get into it.

But one of the questions that we got from at underscore R-A-S-I-S,

RASIS?

No, probably not that second one.

Yeah, that's it.

Under score R-A-S-I-S.

Yep.

So they ask, one, what jobs did you both have

before making the decision to leave it all

and go on your one year honeymoon?

Guessing Josh was an IT.

Isn't that obvious?

Very good.

It's got to be pretty obvious.

I don't know.

Is it the beard?

I don't know.

And speaking of video games and time with our family and friends,

number two question was what games does Josh play

and how do you squeeze in game time while traveling

and on what platform?

Oh, man.

So first question.

Yeah.

Tell the people.

So, right, Bingo, you nailed it.

Yes, I did work in IT.

Most recently I worked for a startup and then before that

I worked for a hospital and then before that I worked

for like a really big system integrator company.

Doing all sorts of things from building out gigantic phone

systems to building out huge networks for like 30,000 person

companies to then like building out literal offices

including the construction of them and overseeing that.

They're kind of like IT all over the board.

Adjacent.

Yes, IT adjacent stuff.

And that's the way it works.

If any of you out there also work in IT,

you know what I'm talking about.

It's just you're kind of the guy where if they don't know

who is responsible for doing a job, it becomes your job

immediately.

And now you are IT for this YouTube channel.

That's true.

That's true.

I am YouTube channel IT.

And I don't know.

I think the IT life transitions well into the YouTube life

because you're very, very comfortable with just so much

uncertainty and having such unclear job like boundaries.

And I think YouTube is perfect for that because there are

no boundaries.

There are no restrictions.

There are no boundaries.

Yes, and you just kind of have to like do whatever needs

doing like, for example, yesterday, I was a tax accountant

for most of the day.

And then the day before that, I was a like network storage

architect.

Oh, fancy title.

Yeah, so lots of lots of very like varied jobs.

But yes, I was an IT before this.

It's a very good support role.

I think so.

I think so.

Yeah, just any technologically adjacent things are stuff

I like working with.

And as it turns out, everything is technologically adjacent.

Yeah, even this, you know, this microphone, the whole thing.

So what about you?

So in my previous life, my last era, I worked as a genetic

counselor.

So I was in health care and I still consider myself a

genetic counselor.

I'm so genetic counselors work as a part of the health care

team.

Essentially their role is to educate, provide information

and also recommendations on screening and recommendations

for genetic testing.

So there's a lot of different ways that genetic counselors see

patients.

So I worked, for example, in a hospital where I saw patients

who either were diagnosed with cancer or had a family history

of cancer and wanted to know if they had inherited or hereditary

risks for cancer, if there was a chance of passing it on.

And then I also worked in fields where I saw people who had heart

disease, inherited heart disease and whether that also impacts

their family and what they can do to reduce their chances of

developing the condition or to look for it at earlier ages.

And then I also saw, and then I also got to see patients who

were considering pregnancy or were currently pregnant and

wanted to know what their risks were for the pregnancy.

There's so many different ways that genetic counselors can

work with people.

And I loved the job.

It was an awesome, awesome field.

I loved genetics.

I love talking to people one-on-one.

So yeah, it's like a mix of counseling, psychology, but also

genetics, health care.

Yeah.

And I think that the interesting dichotomy between the two of us

is I think that you actually kind of miss that job.

Oh, for sure.

And I don't miss any of the stuff that, maybe the construction.

Actually, I loved building stuff with my hands.

So like the six to nine months I got to do that was awesome.

But you don't miss the actual office IT work?

No.

I mean, I don't know.

I like the people.

I like fixing problems, but I didn't like other people telling

me when I should do things.

So I think it was more that than the actual job itself.

I like having full autonomy now over the time that we spend

doing stuff and where we do stuff.

And I definitely, there are times where I still have my license

or my certification and it's still something that I think,

you know, if anything ever changes or I still keep in touch

with a lot of my genetic counselor friends and I still keep

and like keep up to date.

I still like to keep up to date with what's going on in the

field of genetics because I do think it's massively fascinating

because it just like genes.

That's who we are.

And it's what makes us who we are.

And it impacts every single part of our health.

That being said, I also love this lifestyle and this freedom.

Yeah.

Genetic counseling is a really interesting, fascinating field.

I won't go into too much detail other than I loved my last job.

I still think about it as like a career and it was what we,

I mean, I was doing it for like 10 years.

So it was a really hard decision to say, I'm not going to go back

to that, that career.

But it's for me, it's not like a, I'll never go back.

It's definitely something that I still think about and I still

keep up to date about.

I'm just loving this current lifestyle too, which is like also

one of the strangest things maybe about the pandemic and this

shift in traveling the world and starting this YouTube channel.

It's changed my perspective on how our life doesn't have to follow

that trajectory that we talked about before.

It doesn't have to like follow that one path.

Yeah.

When I was growing up, kind of the only way to win was to like go

to college and get this stable job, work that stable job forever.

Doing anything else, including something as kind of crazy as like

quitting to go and do a YouTube channel or travel around the

world for a year or whatever, felt very terrifying at first.

But now that I've been in it for a couple years, I think I would

do almost anything to not give this back, to keep doing this.

It's weird.

So we just, every year we do this year compass and maybe we've

talked about this before on our last channels, but every new year

we do this thing called a year compass and it's basically like a

free online PDF that you can print out or fill out.

And it's kind of like a reflection of like the past year,

the good, the bad, the most memorable and not so much

resolutions as it is.

Like what are you looking forward to in the next year?

And like in different parts of your lives, career, studies, family,

friends, relationships.

And like, I think every year it's been interesting to look back

at how that career part of our like year compass has changed.

I don't know.

Like when I think of career now, I think of, I don't think of

just one thing.

I think of this, but I also think of genetic counseling.

I think of like all the different things that we're interested in

that we get to do, which is a pretty luxurious thing.

Yeah, for sure.

I'm grateful for those jobs because they provided us the means

to be able to even give this thing a shot.

For sure.

At all and being able to save up a little bit of money that we

did to be able to go on that trip, which then led into the

YouTube channel.

All that stuff was thanks to those jobs that we had.

I don't want to go back though.

I don't want to go back.

What's our next question?

So the next question was what games does Josh play and how do

you squeeze in game time while traveling and on what platform?

This game, Yakuza like a dragon.

I have been playing so much.

This is like a hilarious turn based RPG based off of the super

long series of games.

You're in Japan and you're like part of the Yakuza in Japan.

You're like trying to like break your way back out of it, but

also solve a bunch of problems in the middle of it.

And then all sorts of crazy stuff happens.

Then all of a sudden you're doing karaoke and then you're like

doing batting cages and you're racing cars and like, there's

so many different games inside.

I love this game.

So obviously this has been a game that you've been obsessed

with for the last few weeks, but I feel like it's not a game

that you can really play while you travel.

Is it?

No, I mean, not easily, not easily.

No, but it is an amazing game.

We've been playing a lot of that.

Super Mario Wonder.

We've also been playing recently.

I just recently played one game of League of Legends.

And then that reminded me again why I absolutely should never

play another game of League of Legends, because it's just

just a heart wrenching experience.

Playing Baldur's Gate 3 with my brothers.

Currently we've got this big campaign going on right now.

There's a decent amount of gaming in my life.

Certainly not as much as I would like.

How do you do it while traveling and what platform?

Yes.

So now with the new like game porting toolkit on Macs,

that means that a ton of games that could only be played on windows

can now be played on a Mac, which is what we use for editing

and what we use for all of our work stuff.

So that means that I got a pretty powerful gaming machine

that I bring with us everywhere.

And that's how I play like Baldur's Gate 3 and things like that.

And then a lot of times, not all the time,

I'll bring the Nintendo Switch with.

And this is like super important for me personally to be able to have

is because this is like my connection point to my brothers.

How we stay in contact with each other, not like phone calls

because we're, I don't know, we're dudes and we can't just like

directly talk to each other about real life things.

But what we can do is like play a video game

and then in the background talk about what things are going on in our lives,

but only if we're like playing a video game at the same time.

And some of these games do get pretty heavy and emotional.

Like the Yakuza game, I wasn't really playing it.

Oh, I cried at the ending.

I'm not embarrassed to say I cried at the ending of that game.

But I think as we've been traveling, even like one year

Honeymoon that we took were full time traveling.

I feel like you made it a point and we tried to like schedule in time

where you were like, I'm playing video games with my brothers.

I'm signing in and chatting with my friends or dancing Hula.

So like we scheduled in select days of the week so that it became a routine.

Yeah, like I think for us, especially with how often we're on the road,

you have to, we have to have touch points back to our home

in some like tangible, repeatable, scheduled way.

And video games are that for me where like my brothers and my friends,

they all play it so it's like this common language we all speak

and we can do it together from anywhere in the world.

And every single week we just have like an hour or two that we set aside

and it is sacred time.

I love that.

And it's so fun.

I don't know, even though I don't always participate in the video games,

I love just being around and hearing you guys like talk and play together

because it feels like we're all in the same room together.

While you're playing.

Yeah, right.

It's like a big hangout and like occasionally we're talking about

like what's going on in your love life and occasionally we're talking about

like just yelling at each other and talking shit to each other

as is also very important for playing video games.

That is true.

Thank you for asking this question.

This is one of my favorite things to talk about.

If there's any awesome games that you have been playing recently,

put them down in the comments below.

I want to hear all these good things and the more portable the games,

the better.

On to the next question.

We got a great question from Janelle R6321 who is heading to Japan in February.

That's coming up.

Very exciting.

That's a great time to go.

And they ask would love recommendations for best flea market or vintage shops

flash neighborhoods because yeah, last time we talked about multi-night

and the thrift shops in Japan are remarkable.

I think I'm fully out of this topic.

I think this is the Lisa show here.

I think, I mean, first of all, I don't even know how we had where to where to begin.

So if you're looking for like thrift shops that are like in a mall that are just easy

to get to almost invariably like everywhere scattered throughout the city,

I think they're all throughout Japan.

Baz Store, BAZZ Store was this awesome shop that had all different kinds of like clothing.

They had, they had jackets, they have, they have jackets, they have t-shirts,

they have pants and high-end things, but also not so high-end things.

Like I was this close to buying this puffer jacket that I really regret.

I still, I still think about it to this day.

Every single day she tells me, oh, I wish I bought that puffer jacket.

It was eight dollars.

I knew, I knew I was going to need it for the winter, but I just didn't want to carry it around.

Anyway, Baz Store was a really good option.

My method of just finding the different thrifting stores or vintage shops

were just honestly looking at used clothing stores, secondhand stores and op shops in Google Maps

and then there are tons that path, there are tons that pop up.

But the like thing that was the most exciting were finding flea markets actually.

Yes, all that one like...

The Multinye flea market.

Yes, and then the big one that was like under that parking garage.

Yeah, and I think if you just like Google flea markets in Tokyo or wherever you are in Japan,

you'll find that actually there are a ton of flea markets that are happening either every weekend

or sometimes, you know, every other day in different neighborhoods.

Multinye flea market was one that we found on the outskirts of Tokyo.

It's basically like garage sales.

Everyone brings their stuff and they just set up shop on this, on this rooftop.

It was so cool.

And they're selling different kinds of things out of their suitcases.

It was awesome to see.

And then what was that other really big flea market that we went to where you got this T-shirt?

I got a ton of really good T-shirts.

It was this huge flea market that was kind of near Haneda Airport that I cannot remember the name of.

Yes, it was the Ohai Weekend, so OHI Weekend Flea Market and it was massive.

Like just rows and rows of all these different things.

Like some of these are antique, some of these home decor things, but.

Okay, we're going to put links down to Multinye as well as the Ohai Market.

We'll put those down below.

And then some of the names of like the flea or some of the names of the thrift shops that are like chains,

but I thought we're worth visiting as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right.

What do we got next?

Love that.

Love that.

Okay, so our next question comes from Trevor Yerkes who has asked a lot of good questions about their

upcoming trip to Japan.

So the first question is given just five days in Japan,

is it even worth making any stops along the Tokyo to Kyoto corridor other than those two cities themselves?

That's tough.

Worth is such a hard word to, because I mean, I don't know.

I love Nagasaki, Japan, for example.

And it's worth it for me to be able to fly all the way to the other end of the country to go and see this thing.

Five days.

But for five days, no.

If this is your first time going, no.

And then the next question, which I think is a really good question and one that we've talked about a lot in the past before,

is just basically the idea of like, how do we handle these kinds of trips when you have limited time and limited budget?

So they said, are you of the opinion that the trip would be more enjoyable with a less ambitious roster of multiple countries

instead of just focusing on like two countries or even just Japan?

It feels difficult to balance because I know my wife and I won't have the means or time to return to that part of the world

for probably another decade or more.

Yeah.

So I think I'll pass along the best advice that I ever received about this from Anthony Bourdain's memoir.

And I don't remember the title of it.

In it, the advice he gave is that you need to forget about the word should when it comes to travel planning.

Like you'll read all these things online that say, oh man, you should do this.

You should do that.

You have to do this.

You got to do that.

And you'll see all that.

You can't come here without visiting that.

Right.

Yeah.

And it's like, it's just building up this like gigantic amount of FOMO that no matter what you do on your trip that you're going to feel like you didn't do enough.

And that sucks.

That's like the worst feeling in the world.

And I think the only way to kind of turn that off and to ensure that you have like such a good time and that you go home feeling like, yeah, I did the thing that I wanted to is to turn all that noise off and just do the stuff that you're hyper interested in that you're super into.

If you're into, for example, thrifting, probably spend a lot of time at the Ohai market in Tokyo because you're going to have a blast there or you go to Chiang Mai and go to one of those gigantic clothes shops that are everywhere.

Yeah.

If you're really into food, you're going to go to all the like hawker stalls in Singapore.

Yes.

Yes, exactly.

And I think it's more about, it's more about narrowing down the type of thing that you're super interested in.

Like if I flew to Tokyo and I spent like seven days exclusively playing their crazy complicated arcade games that they have down in Akihabara, I would be extremely happy with that trip.

I believe feeling good, but I think the only reason that I'd leave feeling good is because I had the opportunity to see a whole bunch of other stuff everywhere else, right?

It's hard because, you know, we even like we make these three days in series specifically for this specifically to like see and hit all the like main highlights and the things that we're really interested in.

And the average person is going to go visit, but we recognize that like it creates this like feeling of like I need to keep moving if I'm going to see everything in a jam packed way.

Yeah.

And I think our videos are more, I think of them more as like a buffet where you come in and in 45 minutes, you're going to see like 50 different cool things you could do.

And then you for your trip, you're going to be like, I like that one.

Oh, and I like that one.

Oh, and that dessert.

But I don't maybe need the like the extra like sprinkles on top of the ice cream.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

And that's what I that's what that's the way that I see our videos is it's not a like it's not a you must do this itinerary.

It's a here's here's like a whole bunch of stuff that you might be interested in and you should pick out a handful of them to do.

Definitely.

But I think to your point, so like if we were going to Tokyo, you know, and Japan for the first time and maybe the only only time five days.

So like the first time that I went to Japan, I only had I think a week because right I was working the nine to five I only had I think 10 days of PTO in the entire year.

So I had to use it wisely and I jam packed my Tokyo trip I think in like three days.

It was like nonstop.

I got in at night in the next day.

I just like bam, bam, bam, bam.

And then the next few days I spent in Osaka with some friends and we took day trips from Osaka.

So it's possible like we went to Osaka, used Osaka as our home base and from Osaka, we went to Nara on a day trip and then we went to Kyoto on a day trip.

Looking back at it now because we have been able to go back.

I think I would have chosen to stay more in Kyoto versus Osaka, but it's definitely possible.

You can definitely do day trips from Nara and Kyoto, especially on a limited time frame.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

I don't know how to best answer this question.

That's such like a small amount of time to do presumably a lot of different stuff.

But I think if I only have five days, I'd get in and I know that I would just be just jet-lagged out of my eyeballs for the first day, maybe the entirety of the five days.

And then I think I'd spend day one exploring Osaka, the nearby neighborhood where I like to stay.

And then I think I'd spend day two going a little bit wider out.

I would make sure probably to not miss team labs because I think that's an incredibly unique super cool experience.

Go to, I don't know, go and eat all the delicious food that I possibly could.

And then day three, I think I'd go a little further west and go to Shinjuku and Shibuya and spend the day out there.

And then I'd probably hop a train either that night or the next morning to Osaka, taking the bullet train.

Hopefully seeing Mount Fuji on the way past as you go.

Spend a day in Osaka, spend a day in Kyoto and then probably fly out from Osaka.

I think that would be exhausted by the time you'd be done there.

But I think that's how I would think about a five-day trip.

And if I had one more day, I'd probably fly or take a train to Hiroshima and go to the Peace Memorial.

Yeah, it's tough.

I mean, I think we hear this question and it's not like there's no one size fits all,

which is one of the cool things about traveling.

It definitely depends on the kind of trip you want to have.

Do we want to maximize and do everything?

Are we in a relaxed kind of let's see what happens kind of mood?

Yeah.

I definitely know that when it was like before this was our jobs and before we had a lot more time,

I was in the like, I got a plan to see everything because I don't know when I'll be back.

I think the only way that you're going to have a bad time in this trip is if you let FOMO dictate what you do in the trip and how fast you go.

True.

I think that's the only way that you're going to have like a time where you come home and you'd be like, that sucked.

Yeah.

Even now, like even now when we plan our trips and our like our filming trips and our work trips and our vacation trips,

I think we like make a list of like one of the things that we're most excited about.

What are the things that we definitely have to do?

And then these are like the that could be nice, but I wouldn't be sad if we missed it.

And that helps us like kind of narrow down and like let let go some of that pressure to say like we got to see it all.

Yeah.

And we make sure that that must do list.

Each of us only get three things, three total things.

So six total between the two of us.

And those are things that we would just be so disappointed if we left the trip and didn't do it.

And then as long as we're hitting those six things, mission accomplished.

And I think it just lowers that bar of stress of feeling like I have to do all of it in five days.

And that's both unrealistic and it's just kind of setting yourself up for failure.

So I don't know if that answers your questions, but we would love to hear how your trip goes

and we'd love to hear what you guys decide on.

We know that there's a lot of different opinions out there of like fast versus slow travel.

But we know also time is one of the huge, the biggest constraints.

So let us know how the trip goes.

But I think your question is a really good one.

And and a topic that we've been talking a lot about like how do we how do we be more present on our trips?

How do we like not feel like that FOMO constantly when we're traveling and in general in life, right?

And not that like we're super into New Year's resolutions.

I mean, I think we do this New Year compass, but it's not so much like what we resolved to do.

It's more so like how do we how do we how do we look forward to the New Year and what do we reflect on the past?

I don't even know our resolutions.

Even a thing I heard recently that Gen Z said that resolutions are no longer a term.

It's like ends versus outs.

So wait, like did all of Gen Z like the Gen Z council get together and decide on this?

I just heard this recently passing that the term is now ends and outs.

What are the ends for the year and what are the outs for the year?

That sounds a lot like a resolution.

And so that sounds very similar to the things you want to keep doing and the things you don't want to keep doing.

But that being said, I found this really fun.

When I saw it at first, I was a little skeptical, of course, because I am who I am.

Because we're millennials and we are skeptical of everything.

The CN Traveler website has this article called The Travel Resolutions Our Editors Are Making for the New Year.

And right, I saw this and was like travel resolutions.

Why do we need that?

But then I actually kind of got on board and it kind of speaks to what we were talking about.

Some of them were like, they want to engage more in solo travel.

Yes.

I think that's a great.

I think everybody should go on a long solo trip at some point in their life.

I think it's such a beautiful, like changing experience.

I fully agree with that.

It makes you feel independent, confident, but also appreciate your partner or your friends and your family more.

Another one was not buy a whole new wardrobe before vacation, which I love this idea.

Do people actually do this?

Yes.

Like you're flying to Cancun and you're like, I need a whole new Cancun wardrobe and you buy the whole thing.

I don't know.

I'm the wrong person to, I guess, think about this considering I wear the same four T-shirts over and over forever basically until they fall apart.

It's true.

But I do remember this sentiment like every time, because like a trip, I mean, we have to remember sometimes a trip is like this monumental thing that you've been waiting for for so long.

So you feel like you have to like, you want to look forward to it and you want to prepare for it and part of that means buying a new wardrobe.

But this article and this editor was saying, you know, how do we do that less?

How do we focus more on like the wardrobe that we do have, the basics that we do have without feeling like we need to buy extra and add more luggage?

And you could do that JAL thing that they're offering where you fly with absolutely no additional clothes and then you hire someone to pick out and rent clothes to you for your trip to Japan.

Yeah.

I still, I'm very interested.

And if anyone has tried that, I'd be fascinated.

I want to like, I want to know how others would dress me.

And just some other ones that I thought.

Because I think I would want that more because I have no idea how to dress myself as an adult.

Oh, that's also my feeling.

I don't know, do adults just wear suits?

Maybe that's just like incorrect.

We are adults.

Yeah, I know.

But like, are we though?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I feel like my parents at the same age that I'm at right now, they felt very adulty at that point in time.

And I feel like I'm much closer to kid-y than adulty at this point.

Yeah.

I mean, look at what we're wearing.

Yeah.

I love whatever.

It is what it is.

I'm in a t-shirt that's at least 100 years old.

And I'm wearing sweatpants recording a podcast in a bedroom.

And our parents are in the next room.

Speaking of our parents.

Someday we'll grow up.

I hope not.

Actually, I really hope not.

The next resolution that was on this, which I love, is book more multi-generational trips.

Take more trips with your family.

Take more trips with your parents.

I actually really, really love this.

I mean, we traveled with your parents a lot in the last year.

We recently traveled with my mom to Taipei.

And that was, it was just like a totally different dynamic now that we are adults.

We're all adults.

Big quotes around adults.

I love that.

Like as a travel resolution to not just focus on like the what we want or like the soul travel,

but how can we include the people that we love in our lives?

And I'm of the belief that yeah, like it adds a different kind of fun dynamic.

Sometimes challenging, but fun too.

Yeah.

I agree.

Anyway, those are just like, we'll leave this link in the, we'll leave this link in the description.

I thought it was a really fascinating read.

And I think a lot of these resolutions, I wasn't so skeptical about after reading it

because I think they're really meaningful.

Like some of them was stop assuming that my passports get me everywhere.

Sure.

Yeah, they don't.

That one makes you think.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, they don't.

What do you think are your, what do you think is your travel resolution?

Oh man.

See, even just the, but the word resolution makes me feel stressed out a little bit.

I think mine is, I want to take like, I want us to go on a big adventure this year.

Like a big multi week quest to do something.

I think that's the thing that we were missing last year.

We always want to go on a quest of sorts.

Yes.

Yeah.

We want to go on like something crazy.

Oh.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's any ideas?

No, I haven't figured out.

Okay.

I haven't figured out which yet, but that.

My resolution, I think, I think this is the year that we're going to visit other continents

because we have like, yeah, we've, we visited a lot of places that we love and we go back

to the places that we love.

But I'd love to like visit completely new in different areas.

I haven't really seen much of South and Central America.

I think this is the year that we will or some of it we will.

Okay.

Yeah.

That sounds good.

I don't know.

Maybe Antarctica.

I don't know if we can afford that yet.

Heck yeah.

But that would be really cool.

I've always wanted to go to Antarctica.

Maybe this is the year.

Maybe.

Oh, that'd be so cool.

I don't know.

So, okay.

That, that, that wasn't so bad talking about resolution.

It was more just like, maybe we should just reframe it.

Why does resolution sound so bad?

Because I think it like implies like fitness basically is what I think about when I think

of resolutions and it's like, I'm never going to eat anything again.

And I'm going to run 25 miles every day.

And then like three days later, you're like, yeah, screw all that.

I'm not doing any of it.

Maybe for me, it's less.

I mean, there are definitely those because we're always working on those.

But for me, when I hear resolution, I think either success or failure.

There's like no in between.

Oh, sure.

And I think, I don't know if this is your experience, but basically every new year's

resolution I've ever given myself has always, I've, I've, nope, haven't made it.

I failed.

And maybe we should just reframe it as like, what do we hope for this year?

New year's intentions.

Maybe that's why they created the new ins and outs.

You know, maybe that's why they-

What are my ins and what are my outs?

What am I trying to get rid of?

What am I trying to like keep more of?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know.

If you guys got any new year's travel resolutions and or ins and outs or whatever

the hell we're calling it these days.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just throw them down in the comments below.

I love to hear what you guys are thinking about for doing this year.

And now to wrap things up, kind of with this idea of like ins and outs and resolutions and

like general, I don't know, lingo, I don't, I'm just going to get to the question.

I don't know what I'm even saying.

Yeah, just read the question.

So this question comes from, this question comes from UOFW who asks, what are your observations

and or opinions of others in the field?

If you know what I mean.

Oh, like our coworkers?

I think so.

Yeah.

How often do you encounter others creating content where you are?

And with all the tech available these days, phones, body cam, selfie stick, helmet, dash

cam, drones, et cetera.

Is everyone out there making videos where they are, you included?

And how intrusive slash off-putting or insert word here, maybe cringe.

Cringe?

Yeah, we're talking cringe.

Is this to you?

No.

What are our thoughts about, yeah, this concept of filming and traveling?

I even think last week, or the last podcast, we talked about how some people definitely

see documenting your travels or putting YouTube videos up of your lives as cringe.

So yeah, what are our thoughts?

I am excited whenever I see another person because the camera setup for what we do is

so specific that you can kind of see another YouTuber from miles away.

You can recognize the mic, the big old mic, fluffy mic in the background.

Gigantic DSLR camera.

Generally someone like talking to a camera like this, making some sort of big over-enthusiastic

expression, being like, have you ever seen a burrito before?

Today we're going to eat some burritos.

And it's like, there's like a YouTuber tone of voice that I think everybody uses for

at least a little while in their YouTube career.

Or they try to.

Yes.

And I love seeing it.

Honestly, it makes me really excited to see because I think one, there's like a reasonable

chance that we've either watched this person's video or that we know them in some way.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's interesting because I do like, I feel that sentiment when I see other people

documenting their travels or like taking pictures or vlogging as they're traveling wherever

in the world that we are, it kind of makes me feel like, oh, we're not alone.

Right.

Yeah.

And then the same thing that being said, I do, I think I hear like in the background

of this question that like feeling of like, is it also annoying though?

Is it, is it off-putting?

Is it like intrusive?

Because I think you're right.

We've had experiences though, especially in places that we think or we hope will be a

little bit more quieter or a little bit more calmer or maybe off the beaten path.

And then we see like masses amount of people.

Like, like we were in Ninben and we were on a hike and there were hundreds of people

and then at least three drones being, being put up.

And then I was like, oh, this is a little bit not what I was expecting, not I was hoping

for.

And also drones are really loud and dangerous.

And these guys are just, I mean, there was, there was a guy who was catching a drone on

top of a mountain surrounded by like 50 other people all closely packed in.

And this like thing spinning at 9,000 RPM coming down, he just grabs out of the air,

which is how we used to catch it.

But man, if anything had gone wrong, you would have like given people cuts.

You would have hurt someone.

And this is coming from like our experience when we were in the middle of nowhere.

I think we were traveling through Mexico and we were kayaking and there was a boat coming.

The battery was dying and Josh was like, catch the drone and I'm freaked out.

The wave came and I, my finger just got sliced off.

It was, it was like a terrifying moment.

So like I feel those moments and sometimes I think this whole YouTube life, while it's

like very wonderful and very, um, while it's very wonderful and we, I think hopefully we're

being helpful, I can see that it can feel off putting to other people.

For sure.

I mean, we, we look weird as heck when we're out in the world filming, right?

Like we are recording almost everything and by almost everything, I mean like we'll see

the most boring mundane thing in the world and we'll be like up close to it, zoom in

all in on it.

Cause we're like, oh, we need that little transitionary piece.

Like going to the grocery store, one of my least favorite places to film because who

films they're, what they buy at a grocery store normally.

Oh man.

And I'm sure that we look just ridiculous a lot of the time when we're making these

movies.

I think it makes me feel more aware, unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know, more aware

of how we come off and what the energy filming brings to an environment doing this.

Because I think like in a grocery store, for example, we try to just make it very quick.

We try not to like interrupt people and we try not to film other people in the process.

Cause yeah, like when I see a big camera, I'm freaked out, like, am I being filmed

right now?

Right.

Yeah.

Like privacy is important.

And I think on the one hand, I think it's awesome that anybody can pick up a camera

now and just document their travels and share that with the world and maybe even make a

business out of it.

But then like it does have an impact on other people.

For sure.

For sure.

The thing I love seeing is people out there trying to make these super cool movies that

makes me really excited to see, I'm like watching them film it and I'm like thinking

in my head of like, oh, they're going to use this scene for that.

And I can like kind of, I don't know, it just feels really exciting to see other people

doing the same thing.

And we'll almost always go over and talk to people if we see them like very obviously

making a YouTube video or a Tik Tok or an Instagram creator or whatever.

The thing I hate seeing is people who ambush other people with a camera.

And this has become so fricking popular on YouTube is people just like walking up to

other people with a big camera in their hands and be like, Hey man, how do you feel about

this thing?

Or, Hey, what are you doing?

And it's just, it's so uncomfortable, which is why in a lot of the videos that we create,

we'll see comments down below or be like, Hey, you should talk to more locals.

And we do all the time, we just don't film them because we consider that to be a little

bit rude.

And I don't think they truly understand like the scale or the scope of us getting them.

Also not everybody wants to talk to people, you know, like or be on camera.

And I don't, I mean, half of the time don't even want to be.

So like, I do think, yeah, it's interesting as much as we want to like make our videos

as realistic and as like non scripted and very relatable as possible.

It is challenging sometimes to like, it's not a challenge.

I think it's a challenge that we welcome.

I think we're very, we try to be very mindful of what this setup does for other people,

how it impacts other people.

Like when we'll go into like, I mean, it's mostly me that I'm like, Oh, we're about to

go into a quiet restaurant or we're about to go into like a spa.

We shouldn't record.

We shouldn't like bring a big camera.

Maybe we should ask first or if we know we're going to be like, I think in our Bangkok video,

we knew we were going into a very, very small, like that secret bar.

It was supposed to be this really tiny bar with like 10 max people.

And I was like, I don't want to be that person that just like comes in and films without

asking anybody and without like, it might change the vibe, it might change the feel

of the place, it might change the intimacy of the like experience for people.

So we usually, usually that means we have to film multiple times or we have to like

get in there first to see what it's like and then decide if we're going to film it.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

There's a lot of conversations and almost always asking permission, like in that tiny

bar where just like, can we film in here and then we guys like, they guys like, Oh yeah,

that's totally cool.

But I think, I think generally, I think generally I love seeing other people creating these

videos out in public and I love seeing other people like sort of filming their travels

and lives.

I really don't like seeing people who are interrupting other people's normal lives with

the thing that they're creating or even worse who are like playing stupid pranks on people

that didn't sign up for that.

That's kind of like the very rare bad side, right?

Like we only see that every once in a while and then there's all this like really good

other side, which is people just sharing snippets of their life or showing off cool things

that people wouldn't be able to see otherwise.

And I think there's way more good than bad.

For sure.

The bad is so bad that I think people remember it for a long time, like these like creators

that used to like go into places that they shouldn't go on, the nuisance of it and this

feeling like I have to do whatever it takes to get the shot.

And I feel like that's so prevalent throughout YouTube.

Yeah, it's challenging.

We struggle with this all the time.

Like we, it's a, it's a balance for sure.

And I don't think that we've figured it out just yet.

I mean, I think the cool thing, the cool thing about YouTube is that anyone can do

it and anyone can do it anywhere, right?

But that also is actually one of the bad things too, is like anyone can do it and you can

do it anywhere.

Right.

It doesn't mean that everyone should do it everywhere.

Yeah.

I mean, that's, that's not implicit permission to film anyone and anything at all times.

I mean, just...

And the truth is like we know too, like when you're filming something, it takes you

and when other people are filming things, taking photos or taking selfies anywhere, it kind

of takes you out of the place.

It like, it makes the place kind of about you, right?

It kind of makes it about like us in the location versus like the location itself.

And that, and that I think, I do think sometimes is a hard part about YouTube and something

that does bother me a little bit that I have.

I think we have to think more about like, how do we make our videos less about us and

more about the place that we're in and how do we, when we're in the place, think about

less about what we're doing and what we're filming and just like enjoy the place for

what it is.

Yeah.

Or provide value to the person that's watching the video, right?

Like that's always our primary concern.

I don't know.

I mean, it's a complicated subject and the only things that ever make the news really

are just like creator went to this place and they did something totally boneheaded,

stupid, and screwed up the thing for everyone.

And that's all you see in the news.

And I think those, it just doesn't happen all that often.

But I think overall, like we said a couple of times, whenever we see anybody else filming

or anything, it's not a nuisance at all to us.

I just think it's really cool.

It's like we get to meet someone new and we maybe have some semblance of understanding

of what their lives are like and maybe they understand what our lives are like.

And I think even for me, as someone who just like gets anxious and feels nervous about any

attention, especially while filming, I think of what you always say, which is, what do

you think they actually said to one another or thought when they saw us filming?

Oh, they're filming something and then they carry on with their day.

And that's actually usually what it is.

Yep.

Yep.

That's it.

And then just move on.

Carry on with the day.

Move on with the day.

Oh, there's a YouTuber.

Yeah.

Yeah.

As those of you who consume YouTube, maybe some of you who create YouTube videos or create

art or share photos on social media would love to know your thoughts and how you balance

this like constant desire to film or take photos of everything and just, and or just

be in the place that you're in.

Yeah.

Okay.

That is it for today's Travel Support Thursday.

Thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next Thursday.

Time to get back to some board games and video games.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Years.