00:00.00 archaeoteacup Hello and welcome to episode 19 of tea break time travel I am your host Matilda Zeb right today I am s savoring a Roy Boss midt chocolate tea because it is pretty much like two days after Christmas I realize when we're recording this that it's going to be released like two days after Christmas so I'm still in the holiday spirit. 00:15.63 Tehya _TK_ But. 00:19.23 archaeoteacup Ah, little bit with that and joining me on my teabreak today is taya nakaura aka tk who you may recognize the name because she was featured in my newsletter recently as the host of the amazing podcast for the love of history. Thank you so much for joining us today. AhTk and are you also who. 00:29.72 Tehya _TK_ Ah. 00:36.85 Tehya _TK_ I'm so excited. 00:39.40 archaeoteacup So where so of and you also want a hot beverage today. 00:40.35 Tehya _TK_ I Do I have a hot beverage. It's been a crazy week. So I am imbibing in Camo mile tea with a splash of honey. 00:51.18 archaeoteacup 1 of those weeks I I get it I get it but and and because you are ah based in Japan is Japan a large tea drinking culture. It's one of those things I I don't actually know if. 00:56.87 Tehya _TK_ Um, yes. 01:02.43 Tehya _TK_ Yeah, yeah, it is. It's a super big tea drinking culture. Most people I think are familiar with like matcha tea. Um, which yeah yeah, and yeah should just Japanese I. 01:08.32 archaeoteacup Oh that's jeardy how I mean yes of course that's Jaer says me alleged t expert. Ok ok, ok, good to know good to know. 01:19.24 Tehya _TK_ You know, but we'll just cut that part out. It's totally fine. Ah so yeah, that's ah 1 of the most famous teas. Um, but actually people here don't drink it every day. Um, the most popular tea. 01:30.40 archaeoteacup Oh. 01:34.80 Tehya _TK_ In Japan I would say during the summertime is Barley tea and when I was on the train I was drinking some barley tea. Ah green tea is super popular here. There's all sorts of different kinds of greed and tea and if you go to any little small town. 01:39.14 archaeoteacup Baliti. 01:50.65 Tehya _TK_ Ah, in Japan they will always say we have the best green tea here in blah blah blah and yeah exactly 01:52.69 archaeoteacup Right? Yeah and you could get the little bug to prove it says best tea in Japan. Yeah, fair enough it's barley tea I mean is that just a way of saying that you're drinking a nice hot beer or I mean what does that taste like. 02:08.15 Tehya _TK_ I wish ah so ah, it's the most interesting flavor of tea that I've ever had when I first moved here I did Kendo which is like a japanese sword fighting kind of and. 02:11.97 archaeoteacup Um, just curious. 02:23.24 archaeoteacup Ah, which okay were coming back to that. But yes course. 02:25.20 Tehya _TK_ That's okay so I did japanese sword fighting and usually for like sports things people drink this barley tea and at first I absolutely hated it. But as it's like super stink and hot like °c um I don't know how many degrees fahrenheit that is I am a terrible american but I'm sweating in this like heavy heavy gear with this helmet and these gloves and basically any sort of cold beverage was preferable to dying. 02:46.20 archaeoteacup Be neith to be failed. 03:04.13 Tehya _TK_ So I quickly came to love this barley tea that tastes like if you smelled a bag of but like Barley but took out the alcohol does that make sense. 03:06.47 archaeoteacup Who. 03:16.61 archaeoteacup Ah, her hu I think so like hoppy almost sort of not really hopp though, but it's like yeah, no, just a. 03:24.59 Tehya _TK_ A little bit hoppy. Yeah, a little bit hoppy but then it's like grainy at the same time like wheat almost yeah. 03:35.49 archaeoteacup Like those biscuits I think we get them here. We get these like biscuits here like wheat barley I think they might even be barley biscuits actually so I guess it's like that. But in a tea that's so interesting very drink. Oh if I ever if I ever make it over to Japan I will make sure to look out some barley teeth. 03:44.90 Tehya _TK_ Um, yes that it's really good but please. 03:53.79 archaeoteacup Well and okay, you just happen to to slip in there casually that you do Japanese swordfighting So um, is this something you still do? How do you? How did you get into that. 04:00.41 Tehya _TK_ Yes, I so I don't do it anymore. Ah because I don't have ah I say I feel so silly saying this, but this is what it's called a dojo close by to me. Um, but when I was when I first. Moved here I you know was young, 22 all ah just turned 23 year old ah brand new teacher and I was trying to like make friends with the other teachers and also connect with my students and I decided to pick ah kendo. Which is japanese swordf fighting because I thought it looked really really cool and the teacher was really nice and it also helped me practice my japanese so I did I practiced for about 4 years and then I made it to a level called it's called Shoan which is the level right. 04:37.10 archaeoteacup Love you know the. 04:47.60 archaeoteacup 12 of. 04:56.61 Tehya _TK_ After the beginner level. So. 04:56.62 archaeoteacup No, no, no, it's fine. You made it to show show up Whoa shot. Okay well you made it to that level. Oh my goodness but right after the we get the important word there is after. 05:01.83 Tehya _TK_ So that Wow I know right? Yeah, pretty crazy. 05:12.86 archaeoteacup Begin a level C so you're above, You're above the amazing, very cool. Oh that's very cool I used it I did sword fighting at unique, not Japanese sword fighting I did like it was Medieval European sword fighting. It was really fun but also it's such a workout like you do it. 05:14.11 Tehya _TK_ Um, exactly exactly. 05:20.40 Tehya _TK_ Um, ah you ah but so so cool right? truly in a really cool. Ah. 05:31.94 archaeoteacup You think oh this is going to be really cool and really well really cool that shows how nerdy I am but um, yeah, when is going to be really like cool um, doing sword fighting and everything but my goodness lifting. Ah I mean I don't know how but they probably only weigh like a kilo or something but still lifting and swinging around and doing things and you have to do it at arm's length and do all these other things and it. 05:50.47 Tehya _TK_ Um, yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. But it's great for your posture. So yeah. 05:51.90 archaeoteacup Yeah, my als the day after were killing me it. It is yes yeah, and core course strength. So maybe I should try and do it again. I mean that not sure they have 1 in the tiny little german village that they don't don't have a sword fighting group. Maybe I should start one. They have a table ti this club so she. 06:09.70 Tehya _TK_ Um, you can do it? yeah. 06:11.87 archaeoteacup Similar right? but ah and and you mentioned that you are trained as a teacher. Um, but and you you worked as a history teacher for a while as well. Then because I imagine you are interested in it history of the head of seeing as you have a podcast. 06:20.11 Tehya _TK_ Um I am. 06:26.51 Tehya _TK_ Ah, you know, hate it so much. No. 06:30.17 archaeoteacup How how did that start? How did the the the interest in that particular topic start. 06:35.21 Tehya _TK_ So I I was like a history hater because my dad um is an absolute history lover just a history buff and every family vacation that we ever went on. It was always. 06:42.34 archaeoteacup Hello. 06:48.51 Tehya _TK_ Always history themed and so we'd get dragged to these Battlefields and we'd get dragged to these memorials and things like that. My brother and I are always like dad can't we go to a theme park like everybody else my dad. No, it's good for you turns out he was right? It is good for. 07:01.38 archaeoteacup Um, yeah. 07:09.53 Tehya _TK_ Yeah, so ah, my dad is really fascinated with military history but he also loves pirates. He loves pirates and once I think I was in Junior high school and. 07:16.90 archaeoteacup Oh just say. 07:22.93 Tehya _TK_ I I finally made the connection that pirates are a part of history and I was like dad. Why did you not tell me pirates are history I thought War was the only thing about history. He was like no no, no. 07:38.70 archaeoteacup Um. 07:40.18 Tehya _TK_ And at the time we lived in Virginia and so he took me to the blackbeard festival and I was like why why? Ah, this was amazing. So that that started my my love of history was was pirates and my dad. Yeah. 07:43.94 archaeoteacup Um, oh Wow yeah. 07:55.82 archaeoteacup Firates hu which yeah, it's funny if they had a I guess yeah I for some reason I always think of pirates as being quite a european. Thing because I guess I think of all those films where they have the like strong somerset accent of like or yes laie you know and it's like yeah well that he obviously was a farmer from the like East country. Um, it ended earlier life. But I guess actually there's the pirates of the caribbean famous famously set in Central America and there's. 08:06.76 Tehya _TK_ Um, movement. 08:09.43 Tehya _TK_ Um, yeah, so many? but yeah. 08:23.43 archaeoteacup Probably lots of pirates based in based in America that's why. 08:26.65 Tehya _TK_ American pirates there's Japanese Pirates chinese pirates so many different types of pirates. So pirates were my historical gateway drug. 08:30.49 archaeoteacup Know who fair well and how lucky we are that he were introduced to pirates because otherwise we might never have your wonderful podcast which indeed I think I've listened to your episode about Japanese is a Japanese pirates I can't remember. 08:44.10 Tehya _TK_ I did 1 episode I have yet to do an episode on japanese pirates which I really need to but I did do an episode on a chinese pirate who is arguably the greatest pirate of all time and she's a lady. 08:52.56 archaeoteacup Yes, all right? yeah day which funnily enough I'd listen to that one of them I listen to another podcast you're dead to be and they featured the same person and I was like I hope Reggie to this because I listen to Dk's Podcast it was not. It was hard to hear. Thanks. 09:04.13 Tehya _TK_ Um, but yeah. 09:10.70 Tehya _TK_ Um, and yeah. 09:12.30 archaeoteacup But ah and as of course this is a time travel podcast if you could travel back in time apart from to the fire. Not fire be Festival Blackbeard Festival If you could travel back in time. Where would you go and why. 09:20.91 Tehya _TK_ Okay I would go back to the yayo period in Japan which is around the like 1 to four hundreds and this is the period like. 09:32.86 archaeoteacup Okay. 09:38.76 Tehya _TK_ This is the period after the like prehistoric period of Japan when there are kingdoms forming and it it. There's an empress called Empress Himico who is kind of like an arthurian character who. 09:52.40 archaeoteacup Oh. 09:55.19 Tehya _TK_ Maybe she was a real person. Maybe she wasn't a real person and if she was a real person. She would be Japan's first centralized ruler and that has ah many a historian. Up in arms because ah the japanese history is quite patriarchal as a lot of history is so having the first empress of Japan be a woman be like. 10:21.63 archaeoteacup Marvelous. 10:31.10 Tehya _TK_ Freaking crazy. So yeah I Really want to go back. 10:32.24 archaeoteacup Ah, ah, but is it. But it's but it's still like a matter of debate like as if people haven't looked into it much or or are they just not many records. 10:39.95 Tehya _TK_ No, no, no people have yeah people have looked into it. There's not um, at hardly any records from um the japanese perspective because Japan at that time their only written records were on like. Shells and rocks and stones and stuff like that. But ah China was doing a lot of trade with Japan and in China's ah like primary sources their their records at the time they talk about the kingdom of law being the the land of the this one. 10:56.00 archaeoteacup Ah, okay now. 11:13.83 archaeoteacup How do I. 11:14.78 Tehya _TK_ Queen so it wasn't it wasn't ah an emperor. It was an empress and also she's in um, Japan's semihistorical semi ah mythological records. 11:31.35 archaeoteacup Okay. 11:33.45 Tehya _TK_ Called the nihan shoki and it's like the oldest written record in Japan so she's also in there. But there's no like archaeological evidence of her and that's the thing that people are like gotcha. No archeological evidence about her just written evidence but it was like. 11:39.14 archaeoteacup Right? and. 11:49.30 archaeoteacup Oh, which obviously means it doesn't exist. Yeah, exactly well if we haven't found it clearly. It didn't exist. Well no, that is really interesting and also if she was empress of the whole of Japan at that like what we know of as Japan at that point that's a pretty big actual. 11:52.39 Tehya _TK_ Ah, few thousand years ago um 12:06.88 archaeoteacup Area to be especially at that time period to be kind of in control. 12:08.91 Tehya _TK_ Yeah, well she wasn't she if she was real. She wouldn't have been the empress of the whole of all of Japan so sorry I ah for that confusion. But um at the time. 12:12.93 archaeoteacup Okay, that's probably my ignorance to be honest I would I know absolutely nothing about the history of a lot of asian countries especially Japan. So yes, exactly. 12:25.80 Tehya _TK_ Ah, that's okay, that's what I'm here for yeah so it was like the um, the biggest group that had formed in Japan at that time. So. 12:37.61 archaeoteacup Okay. 12:40.16 Tehya _TK_ And were like there were little little groups and she would have been in charge of the biggest of the little groups. Yeah. 12:42.92 archaeoteacup Ok, no, that makes sense that makes sense. Oh interesting. Well yeah, indeed that's I be. That's a great answer that sounds like a fascinating person to go back and then you know make sure to take a camera with you take a picture and say wait here. We go here's your archeological limit evidence or just see ask her to bury like a little time capsule or something like. 12:51.18 Tehya _TK_ Um, of course yes hear hear and yeah on a small rock Kimio is real. But. 13:03.36 archaeoteacup I was here. But oh thank you? Yes, yeah yeah, exactly a little selfie engraved selfie well thank you so much for joining me on my ah Tbreak today. Very excited to have you here and before we look in more detail. 13:09.87 Tehya _TK_ Yeah, but. 13:16.47 Tehya _TK_ Folks I would be here. 13:20.50 archaeoteacup At today's object let's first journey back to the seventeen hundreds. This is I think the shortest journey we've ever made last month we went to the eleven hundreds and I was thinking wow this is so short now we're going to the seventeen hundreds that mean goodness um to that cluster of violence that we call Japan it's spring. 13:32.38 Tehya _TK_ Um, you. 13:37.16 archaeoteacup The hills are covered with the soft pink color and the sweet perfume of the cherry blossom we're in a small town walking along the dusty main road admiring the flared roofs the hanging murals the sliding doors opening into wide friendly rooms. Several people are walking past we take a moment to watch them. Admiring the colorful drape of the clothing the loosely knotted hairstyles 1 of the men pauses reaching down to his belt and patting the sash around his waist with a sudden expression of mild panic his figures touch a small simple box hanging by a chord which is tucked into his sash and kept in place by what looks like a wooden ball on closer inspection. However. We see that it is not in fact, a ball but a very sweet intricately carved curled up rabbit looking relieved the man touches the box at the rabbit one last time gives a nod then hurries on after his companions. So today we are looking at something called now let me see if I can pronounce this correctly netsuka netsuki who. 14:31.37 Tehya _TK_ Um, good job. 14:32.88 archaeoteacup And so we'll get it to the details soon. But first we're going to have a very quick break. So talk to you in a minute.