Hi there, welcome along to another episode of High Performance. I'm here alongside my co-host,

Damien Hughes. Hello, Damien. Hi, Jake. How are you, mate? You're right? I am very well,

thanks. I've just got back from a few days in Madrid. Before we go any further, though, let's tell everyone

that you've just got back from Japan. How was that? Absolutely amazing. What a culture. What a culture it is. You know, when you see all the things like, it's always the small things, isn't it, that stand out? You know, when you see World Cups where, like, the players tidy the dressing room afterwards and the fans do it on the stadium. Like, nowhere in Japan do they have public bins because you just

expected to take responsibility for your own rubbish, take it home and recycle it.

It's small things like that stand out to me as a sign of a healthy society.

I remember when I used to go to Japan often for the Formula One, the thing that stood out

to me was when you're sitting on the train

and the ticket inspector walks into the carriage to check your tickets, the very first thing they

do is bow to the carriage and everyone bows back to them. It's like there's a level of respect

in Japan for other human beings that I think we've lost a bit in other parts of the world.

Do you know the phrase Sonder and what it stands for, Damien?

No, of God.

So Sonda is a neologism coined by a guy called John Koenig in 2012 for a project he was doing called the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

And if I was to define it, I suppose it is this kind of profound realization you have at

some point in your life that every random passerby is living a life as vivid, as complex,

as chaotic as your own, right?

They've all got their own ambitions, their own friends, their own routines, their own worries.

And this understanding that kind of we're just a background character in their

story in the same way that they're a background character in our story and and this this

kind of mindset that we need to stop treating everyone in 2D because they all live a life in 3D

and I think that's something in Japan that still exists.

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