Good morning Vietnam! Ray rings in 2025 with a trip to southeast Asia; the 72-hour Misery Gauntlet; holiday gatherings and Jim Belushi; the weather outside is fright'ning; the monolithic Vingroup; the perils of internet telephony; Alex falls for Fantasian; the CRITICAL HIT video game library is officially for sale!; UI complaints old and new, and mapping the course of Alton Brown's insanity! Take this podcast with you to your first shrine visit of the new year and receive a FREE blessing!

====MUSIC==== Noriyuki Iwadare - Carbo

Making the yuletide gay! This holiday season, casual Thanksgivings; acquisitions on the cheap; flipping burgers during the end of the world; cleaning out the husk of the bar; adapting to the freelancer lifestyle; Star Trek: The Horny Series; stories and songs need good writing; the new version of a game called Dragon Quest III; reacclimating to the loud & foreign; one phone phun, and our embarrassing forays into fiction (fan and otherwise)! Replace this podcast in your disaster survival kit every two years!

====MUSIC==== 171 - Lenticular Anna Makino - Love Song Sagashite

The spooks came a little late this year! This ep: NMW outlives Critical Hit; the world's longest pneumatic tube; can Alex fix his rods and/or cones?; our valuable English lessons; Switch¥; attempts at reason; crowin' 'bout Carlin; loud and proud about Silent Hill 2; you wouldn't calculate a damage stat, and voicemalis aplenty, for once! This podcast is moving to Canada for real this time.

= = = MUSIC = = = Karakuri Kiden Hiwou Senki - Scenic Journey Karakuri Kiden Hiwou Senki - Scenic Journey part 2

J-j-j-jittery Juugatsu! This month, Alex burns the midnight oil; the pitfalls of finding the right freelance voice work; Unity partially backpedals; pronunciation hang-ups as a matter of course; the Nintendo Museum is open for business; the bizarre reverence of the Zelda fan; Snack Food Copy meets Drink Food Copy!; the rare J-Drama talk; how's that Avatar?; UFO 50 talk devolves into NES insanity; social anxiety in the bar sphere, and learning how to use a camera the hard way! Not liable for lost or damaged time!

We found a way to get to 250 episodes, and now you gotta live with it! The adventures continue with talk of a little bit of typhoon in my life; doing English bits in Japanese; vlogging cameras; the story circle; the 7-Eleven insanity rolls on; Suikoden I & II might actually come out!; cold shower summer; droning on about making a website, and we really should screen our calls! This podcast should not be returned to place of purchase.

It's lunch time for your head! This August, Alex's frustration with Japanese corporate jobs; how do retakes work?; dealing with bizarre neighbors both real and imagined; Herman Miller & The Secret Sale; Ray finally pulls up to the window; the inscrutable CaliBunga; Japan solves autism with this one weird trick; wasteful corporate culture continues unabated; America misunderstands 7-11; Alex administers another very special quiz to Ray; transformative Phone Phun, and trouble on the Tokaido-sen! Do not make eye contact with this podcast!

=== MUSIC ===

• Masayoshi Soken - Bee My Honey
• DJ Cutman - Trekkin'

You wanted a podcast? You got one of these instead! On this great 248: Ray's got Japan Fever!; shopping bags: they're good to have!; Transformers!; pink shirts!; a Dragon Questified Nintendo Direct; a phone call on the dangers of lawns, and an educational tale about a chair. This podcast acknowledges no wrongdoing.

In the same room for the first time in five years! This episode, Alex is taken to task for Super Family Computer crimes; the animated footballer at the airport; the Barnholt family takes to the skies; shopping and dining in beautiful Japan; Alex's brainlord delivery guy; getting burnt at the Higashiyama Zoo; Nintendo Store goodies; accosted by corvids; an entire land built of Lego; running down the hot new trailers from Summer Game Fest; the infuriating quest for permanent residence; tourism's amplification of Japanese xenophobia, and Twitter is still awful! Bring us up in therapy to receive $5 off your next order!

(This episode is a free public preview! Catch the rest of the series at our Golder Subscriber tier on Patreon! patreon.com/nomorewhoppers) We end with highlighting the final years of Crunk Games, and what it all meant.

It's Spray and May! On a platter for you today: Guess Who's Coming to Nihon; unprepared Drink Food time, and struggling to pronounce "alcohol;" the Komeda Chronicles; Alex assumes the throne of English textbook guy; a long talk on what the deal is with cartoons these days; 3 Body Problem sounds like a You Problem; Alex apologizes to the UK; god forbid you make an Underoos joke; what's up with Dragon Quest? And smashing prices on mashed gadgets! This podcast has a duty to protect the mountain on which its shrine rests.