This week's episode is brought to you by Wink.

Now, I hesitate to reveal this to you all, but I am a distinctly unclassy person.

Wine in particular has always mystified me.

But thanks to the fine folks at Wink, I no longer have to be such a de-classé fellow.

They will curate fine wines for you based on your responses to a simple questionnaire and

ship them right to your doorstop at fantastic prices.

Now I can pretend to be a far classier person than I actually am and impress all my friends

with my sophisticated wine tastes, and you can too.

Wink is offering listeners for the podcast a $22 discount.

Just use offer code History of Japan.

That's one word, History of Japan at checkout,

or use the link at my website, isaacmyer.net.

Check it out, have a bottle, and crack it open while you listen.

We can be classy folks together.

Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 273, The House of Cards, Part 1.

I've decided to rearrange the schedule a little bit. We're not going to be doing an episode on Vietnam today.

I want some time to clean up that episode a little bit more before I put it out there,

and also, a few months back, I got a lovely email from a listener suggesting a topic.

And for the record, that always makes my day, even when I'm too swamped to respond,

it really does mean the world. This particular one is worth highlighting because it came from someone you may all be familiar with.

Daniela Bulele of the excellent History on Fire podcast, which, if you haven't listened to it before,

I highly recommend you check it out.

...