Italian: hello my participant number is c two p one

Italian: hello my participant number is c two p two

Italian: this is c two p one starting to read the passage please call stella ask her to bring these things with her from the store six spoons of fresh snow peas five thick slabs of blue cheese and maybe a snack for her brother bob we also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids she can scoop these things into three red bags and we will go meet her wednesday at the train station

Italian: and this is c two p two reading the passage please call stella ask her to bring these things with her from the store six spoons of fresh snow peas five thick slabs of blue cheese and maybe a snack for her brother bob we also need a small plastic snake and a big toy oh and a big toy frog for the kids she can scoop these things into three red bags and we will go meet her wednesday at the train station

Italian: yep that's good it's a very weird passage isn't it

Italian: quite

Italian: i think it's designed to you know stretch your pronunciation skills okay so

Italian: maybe

Italian: um we decided we would talk a bit about where we would want to go

Italian: on holiday

Italian: on holiday or yeah uh wh what what yeah what what would you like c two p two

Italian: so i would love to visit africa because it is the only continent i've never visited

Italian: i've actually been to africa and i've been to tanzania and i've been to malawi

Italian: oh

Italian: it was yes it was just before the pandemic so and it had it it was a trip that had been planned for quite some time it it was with my parish and the they have a project there so they wanted to you know sort of uh how should i say strengthen their ties again with the project and uh we went there for a uh actually it was two projects it was two uh different uh things one was with a parish the other was with a home and uh they combined them together we went to tanzania first we spent i think it was a week and a half or something like that then we spent a few days in zanzibar and then we went on to malawi yeah and then uh a few months later covid struck

Italian: and how how were tanzania and malawi

Italian: that was very interesting it was uh a very different lifestyle very different way of living very different uh and even the environment in this side is very rural uh it reminded me a bit of how uh malta was you know ages a go possibly uh although you know i i barely remember it like that but yeah um um

Italian: in what sense different lifestyle

Italian: well it it it was much more relaxed it was much more in the evening for example uh everyone is just outside you know there it's not like now where everyone is just sitting in front of their tv

Italian: mm oh that's beautiful

Italian: so mm

Italian: that's beautiful

Italian: yeah and then there were the savana the the not savana it's not savana it's the the safaris

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: um in the in their you know jungles or savana yeah actually um uh and that that that was really amazing

Italian: what animals did you see did you have a chance to see

Italian: yeah yeah we actually so we spent i think a whole day trying to chase lions in the sense trying to see lions and we didn't manage but um uh we saw elephants we saw giraffes uh monkeys one monkey almost attacked me but anyway uh <laugh>

Italian: oh

Italian: yes um

Italian: how come

Italian: yeah i i was feeding them which is not supposed to be done but anyway it's my fault so yeah uh it's not it's not and you're not supposed to it's you know it's at your own risk and in fact it was at my own risk

Italian: yeah

Italian: because i was feeding one and then all the others came

Italian: yeah

Italian: so that is the thing

Italian: yeah

Italian: but yeah it was it was interesting what about you what what uh where would you like to go so you you said africa um where where where are some sort of places you've been

Italian: i've been outside of europe i've been to japan i've lived in japan for for six months and actually i would

Italian: oh wow si six months that's

Italian: it's a very interesting place i would like to go back i i have very good memories from my time in japan i spent

Italian: why were you in japan

Italian: i was

Italian: for six months

Italian: i was living in tokyo and while i was there i visited kyoto hiroshima and osaka and

Italian: osaka

Italian: and

Italian: i've i've heard of that i think i i know okay now i was gonna visit tokyo now not osaka no

Italian: no they're quite different

Italian: anyway continue

Italian: they're quite different

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: so okinawa is in the south of japan

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: in of japan and it's an island and it's uh it's tropical uh it's quite far away from uh mainland japan i mean from the main um the main islands and um it it is tropical the we the weather is hot always warm and uh apparently it's a ve it's very beautiful because it has white beaches and and it's a huge tourist attraction and uh osaka is a city in the place of jap in the south of japan actually next to kyoto is not the the best um from the point of view of history and monuments but um the food in osaka is very good

Italian: ah the food

Italian: yeah

Italian: so what what's the food like actually i know that you know sort of the most famous food in japan is sushi but i think they actually have a lot of other things that people

Italian: yeah

Italian: don't really

Italian: i think that

Italian: take right

Italian: i think sushi and sashimi are just the cliche but uh japanese don't spend the whole time eating sushi and sashimi as in the same way as italians don't spend the whole

Italian: hmm

Italian: time eating pizza and

Italian: what's the reference between sushi and sashimi

Italian: so so sashimi is the raw raw fish and

Italian: okay

Italian: uh is used in uh is one of the ingredients of sushi

Italian: oh okay

Italian: so sashimi is the raw fish on its own without rice while sushi is uh it's sashimi on rice

Italian: okay

Italian: and

Italian: so what what other food do they have then

Italian: uh and even concerning fus sushi there's different kinds there that we can't find in europe because the there's much more variety of fish

Italian: hmm

Italian: so my my favorite one is the a particular kind of seal but i've never found it in europe um and

Italian: but you tried it there

Italian: yes i tried it there it was really good and apart from from sushi i mean okay sushi is one dish one of their one of their dishes but then there's um uh they have a million ways to cook fish also they they have um a lot of ways to cook meat mostly griddle griddle meat

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: and um they uh what struck me is that their cuisine is very light and

Italian: light in what sense light

Italian: in the sense that uh um when a lot of it it you don't feel it heavy in your stomach

Italian: okay

Italian: in the uk it happens to me many times that i um i feel it heavy on my stomach

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: while there um when eating out very very rarely i i felt uh i felt it on my stomach

Italian: mm hmm could it be that they don't fry a lot then

Italian: it could be although uh they they have templar which is again

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: a fried fish but even that it was uh it felt light in the sense probably

Italian: hmm

Italian: the i i think they have very high standard of cook uh food quality very very high quality standard for food

Italian: okay well i mean i mean i've never been to japan i mean the the the the closest i've been is i've been to hong kong which was also amazing um uh and yeah the food there againwas was wonderful i used to go to the university canteen i was there on a university placement and i used to go to university canteen and i think my most favorite dish was very simple just rice

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: um what we here call bok choy if i'm pronouncing it correctly i'm not sure what it's exactly called and

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: uh chicken sorry no not chicken duck on the bone

Italian: ah nice

Italian: and they just chop it in front of you with a cleaver and serve it on on just white rice and with some soy sauce and it was mm delicious

Italian: sounds really nice

Italian: and then i went to sho

Italian: how long

Italian: yeah yeah

Italian: oh sorry how long have you spe spent in hong kong

Italian: uh it was a month um i i went there on a work placement kind of and uh it was over it was just in the run up to christmas so uh and and the thing is that struck me it's also quite not sure if it if it is classified as tropical but it is it was quite warm you know um you see a lot of palms the university for example is gorge 'cause it is built along the side of the mountain so the the the

Italian: oh

Italian: the campus of the university is basically you know in steps almost because it's it's it's going up to towards the mountain

Italian: oh

Italian: basically so so you know there's a lot of stairways they have a lot of stairs huh everywhere and it was also the first place i think that i saw an outdoor escalator like a very long outdoor escalator

Italian: an outdoor escalator

Italian: yes as opposed to one that is in a shopping mall for example

Italian: oh and that is in the university campus

Italian: well no no not just at the university campus even in in the streets that's what i meant like in the streets

Italian: oh

Italian: that's what i meant in the university campus that's expected i mean you know

Italian: uh are they very common the outdoor escalators

Italian: ye yeah yeah yeah because because you have to because it's a lot of ups and downs um

Italian: and

Italian: so it's it's it's the the the the island the main island is very hilly so uh yeah it's it's everything is you're going up and down up and down and

Italian: and oh sorry go on

Italian: yeah yeah yeah ask

Italian: are there a lot of skyscrapers

Italian: there are um depending on which island you go to yes uh eh the the harbor especially you see a lot in the harbor area um and even even where all the buildings are quite high so

Italian: mm

Italian: you know ten twelve fifteen stories at least

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: um ironically the the the streets reminded me a lot of malta to be honest because it's you know very narrow roads and high buildings obviously

Italian: very high

Italian: much higher buildings much higher

Italian: yeah

Italian: buildings but sort of the same kind of you know construction and what have you um but yeah hong kong hong kong was was beautiful um i did also manage to go a bit to see some of the adjoining uh islands that formed part of the the you know the what was you know uh

Italian: archipelagos archipelagos

Italian: you know

Italian: or many

Italian: well it's not something like archipelagos it's yeah archipelagos kinda way but yeah

Italian: how many islands are there

Italian: i have no idea there's quite a few i mean i think there's about three or four main islands and then there's the part that is connected to the mainland to mainland china

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: um uh but then there's quite a few islands uh you know it it's and in fact there's a lot of ferry tours to individual islands and i i think i spent one or two days just going around some of the islands

Italian: nice

Italian: obviously during the weekend i could go there do things because i was mostly uh you know we were working towards a uh a competition so we had you know some very tight deadlines so sometimes i was even working saturdays

Italian: uh

Italian: and but but it was a it was a fun trip yeah i've got phone memories there

Italian: and how um were you able to get by speaking english

Italian: yeah yeah yeah hong kong is very english friendly it's it's it was a former colony so it's very englishized but at the same time you see a lot of the chinese culture

Italian: mm

Italian: it was it's very very strong actually the chinese culture there uh there's lot of temples lots of you know their ways of living and what have you but it is very egli englishized so almost all the young people especially speak english

Italian: mm

Italian: um i was obviously in the university setting so

Italian: yeah

Italian: there is a lot of english there actually yeah how was it in japan with regard to english

Italian: uh there's not it's not that easy uh in the sense that in uh uh in the university everyone spoke english however in uh well and in tokyo you could find people who who speak english but uh outside of the main city it's quite difficult to find an english speaker

Italian: i mean it was similar in in hong kong uh as in in the main city you get by with english and when talking to youngsters but as soon as you go into the outskirts it's the same thing but the science at least were also mostly in english as well so because of that you know you get by

Italian: yeah yeah they did have english science or

Italian: okay

Italian: science wri written in the in the latin alphabet

Italian: okay okay um uh

Italian: and then after hong kong you went to shanghai

Italian: well not not after but i did i did go to shanghai as well um i went for a friend's wedding and that was actually quite interesting as well uh the food in shanghai was much more oily much sweeter

Italian: mm

Italian: um it was a bit too much for me in fact for example the hong kong cuisine i uh i it agreed more with me

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: but yeah it it it was no no shanghai was beautiful as well i mean it's a very westernized city as well shanghai

Italian: hmm

Italian: i did climb the the one of the tallest towers in the world the

Italian: which

Italian: the shanghai the shanghai tower and you can go up to the top floor and get the whole view i think it's i think it is the highest observation deck in the world

Italian: how many meters is it

Italian: i have no idea i would need to look it up um but yeah it i i i think it's not the highest tower in the world but it is the highest observation deck

Italian: okay

Italian: if i'm not mistaken in the world or at least it was when i went i don't know if there's anything changed since then

Italian: all right and would you like to go back to hong kong

Italian: yeah i mean i mean all these place i've i really enjoyed them and you know you can only see so much in in when you're there i mean it's it's it's i mean hong kong i had a month okay but still there was so many things i didn't see

Italian: yeah yeah yeah there

Italian: and sa same with shanghai i was only there for a few days

Italian: there were uh a lot of things in japan i didn't see i would love to go back

Italian: so what what would your most favorite part of japan be

Italian: well i um i loved kyoto because there's a lot of um temples and a lot of history there

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: and uh um tokyo is nice because it's huge and there's a lot of um every quarter in tokyo is different so uh so you you can basically find everything you can find the temples you can find the westernized quarter uh you can find the the fish market

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: um so you can find anything um nature is really beautiful especially in the autumn they have the they there're there're if you get a bit away they have a lot of maple trees and they all turn orange in the autumn and it's

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: wonderful and uh unfortunately i missed the cherry blossom in uh in spring cause i i went there in may when uh when

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: uh it was too late for that i i would love to visit okinawa um which is the the south of japan the very south at the southmost point and i'd like to visit hokkaido which is the northmost point

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: and uh yeah japan is very long so the hokkaido at the north is very cold apparently while okinawa is uh is tropical while tokyo was uh was was very very mild summer was quite hot but uh um autumn was extremely mild

Italian: is the city walkable or do you have to take public transport

Italian: no it's huge so you you

Italian: okay

Italian: you can't walk around you you need to take public transport

Italian: and is it efficient or

Italian: it's very efficient um and there's uh eh you can get basically everywhere by metro or by train the only problem is that the metro shut between midnight and five so

Italian: mm hmm

Italian: you have those five hours where there's no public transport or well no metro uh probably

Italian: hmm

Italian: there are local buses but i didn't i never tried because uh uh it it's uh less easy to navigate for um for me who i didn't speak japanese but um but yeah the uh the trains are very efficient they're always on time and uh and there's train stations everywhere

Italian: okay i think with that we can wrap up

Italian: yes

Italian: this is c two p one uh turning off the recording