He finds Japan to be cleaner and safer than his home environment, noting that people can safely leave bicycles unlocked.

“it's cleaner and safer is the craziest thing yeah like there's like they just leave their bikes around free bikes it's crazy”

Japanese society maintains a unique and commendable social structure that elevates artisans and crafts people through collective respect rather than solely through financial gain.

“I think that having a social structure that is able to elevate crafts people, people who commit themselves to mastery of something, that's such an my god, just having that ambiently in society in a way that it's not about the money and it's really not about status”

Japanese culture is unique because of its ability to produce perfection and excellence in all things, driven by the philosophy that everything is intentional.

“I think one of the challenges we have in this world is thank you so much for being here brother thanks for having me man I really really appreciate it I uh I just told you that I watched episode one of show shun and absolutely loved it I've always been deeply interested in Japanese culture”

The ethos of courtesy and elegance was more pronounced in the imperial court of medieval Japan than in the Western Roman Empire.

“the ethos of courtesy and elegance and respect and deference and all of that was so much more pronounced in Japan than it was in Rome.”

The modern perception of the samurai as a global icon is paradoxically rooted in both ancient Japanese tradition and 19th-century Western influences.

“So you're saying the cult of the samurai is a and to some extent a modern invention informed by English gentlemen of the late 19th century.”

Samurai in the late sixteenth century were not averse to using firearms, despite myths suggesting they considered them dishonorable.

“And there used to be a myth, I think, that the samurai wouldn't use these weapons because they were too good. You know, you can you can learn to use one of these weapons in a few minutes, right? To learn to use a bow and arrow or a sword, well, it's a kind of a lifetime uh sort of task. So, there's ”