Welcome back to Tokyo Creative Play!
Today I'm your host Sarah and i'm here with Kanako, Jordan, Shiori and Alex.
So as you can see we're in a car today!
Where could we be going?
Yeah it is a mystery~ We're gonna drive through Tokyo, see the sights and get some McDonald's.
Literally join us for the ride, sit tight and let's go~~~~
Sorry guys about the horrible audio quality!
We’re doing a Q&A with TC Staff!
Thank you for submitting all your questions on twitter and instagram!
First question coming your way~ Right off the bat... who misses Natasha the most?
I think it's Kanako.
You took her until the gate right?
No until the airport!
It was the early morning flight at 5am.
Thank you so much, there's literally so many questions.
This is a question for everyone!
How did you join TC?
So let's start with Jordan since you're the newest.
Ah I am the newest, uh how did I join TC?I applied obviously and I got a message back
saying that there's no positions and that they weren't hiring.
so I emailed back to that email basically saying no worries here's my CV love you...
after that things happened I started working freelance for them doing modelling stuff and
they were like hey this guy's pretty good we need a guy like this one in TC, we need
an afro in TC, so you know because I did freelance for a while then eventually became a member
of the TC staff
All right okay how I joined Tokyo Creative is I actually registered the Tokyo Creative
company with Chris Okano.
I think I am one of the original members of TC.
Kenji recommend me to TC a while back I was dying to join a filmmaking company, doing
something where I could use my skills because before that I was teaching English and I just
want to get out of that.
Not to say I don't love kids, I love them but I want to do something related to filming,
so I took that opportunity and then went for an interview with them.
They were really nice and I got the job!
I didn't know we could mention names~!
I got to shout out Ian!
Thank you Ian!
He was like the one that got me in the door basically
I was working at some other company and then I was trying to change to a new career then
I applied to some agency company.
Then a recruiter called me and said I found an interesting company, unique company, and
now I’m here!
Kanako is the fourth oldest member - 2 and a half years.
So TC was like looking for people and hiring and they put an ad on instagram and I saw it
I kind of sat on it and I was like ah, it was like corona and I lost the job that I
had lined up and I was just doing some like freelance modelling but it wasn't going that
you know well because nothing was happening and then I was like okay i'm going to do it
and then I submitted like a really long proposal
Yeah it was like some requirement like you had to submit an itinerary for a trip that
you picked and I researched an area in Kyoto and I submitted it.
I was like this would be good for TC play because xyz and then I had an interview and
everyone was really nice. and I joined!
Everyone's quite different I feel.
Yeah but it was interesting because my interview was mainly in Japanese.
I don't know about you guys..
When I was talking to Ian it was like all in English, but with others half English,
half Japanese
Because I think it's important to have the bit of balance for the you guys in your positions.
Mainly we speak English right?
I feel like we need Japanese at certain times, translating.
with the client meetings and do some research etc...
Yeah I get a lot of messages in my Instagram, even before I started working with Tokyo Creative,
where people would ask like "oh I want to work in Japan as well how do I do it" and
the first question I always ask is "What's your Japanese like" "Oh I speak no Japanese".
I'm like that's an issue because you're going to think about it in the other way as well,
like if someone from Italy came to where I'm from London and they were like " Hey I want
a job in your big company" and you go "Do you speak English" and they go "No only Italian",
you all think about it that's like the same rules applying Japan.
It helps a lot.
Like you can speak with not fluent Japanese but enough to get by and still manage to get a job.
Yeah I think because English is the global language people just assume.
Exactly, but one thing I want to mention is even though we communicate in English a lot,
everything is in Japanese on like Slack so we consume and we listen to a lot of Japanese
in our work, so you definitely need to have a high level of Japanese to work with TC.
Ah Tokyo Tower is coming up on our right!
Is Ramen overrated?
Very controversial.
I don't think it's overrated yeah, I don't think it's overrated but I feel like people
put too much on it you know what I mean?
Like they go I have to go to japan, I have to eat ramen but it's like there's so much
more to eat in Japan.
I like certain types of ramen, I prefer Tan Tan Men, which is more like you have thick
noodles and you dip it into a soup.
Oh Tsukemen?Ah yes Tsukemen!
There’s Tan Tan Men which has a spicy flavour, but you can have tan tan tsukemne.
There’s also abura soba which is very similar to ramen but it's soupless.
That is also really tasty.
But if you think about how long did the it takes the ramen shop owner to complete one
ramen bowl for just 700 yen, if you think that way it’s not over rated I feel
you recently did a video on little giant shiori for ramen
I did it on Ippudo vs. Ichiran Cup Noodle.
That's still ramen
I always ask the question, what is the last meal you’d like to have?
I always answer gyoza, ramen, beer set meal!
That’s so Shiori!
How about you Kanako?
I like the spicy one, like tan tan men.
Especially the ones that make you feel numb.
Okay so we got a bunch of the chips, of course cheeseburger that comes with the happy meal
and then we got the nuggets of course, and then beans you can get beans.
This one is also the happy meal set.
Do you guys know this?
It’s Bacon Potato Pie!
It was revived and it’s been around for 30 years.
Oh i think that's double patty that might be Jordan’s
This one is for Alex!
Samurai MAC!
This is bacon and tomato.
Both of these are grilled soy sauce.
And she got salad, she's the healthy one!
How dare you!
Ooh so she already is going to open up her present yay a toy we got the three toys today
We got 3 toys today
That's cute! I can put this in it.
Nice potato!
And then I got a comb.
That's so cute!
I've never combed my hair so that's good
Oh god no
I can't touch
and the last one is Doraemon somthing
Or they just gave us a random one
It looks like inappropriate stuff
Just like that
Out of all the toys which one is your favourite?
This one!
Let's eat!
oh no we spilled the beans are we gonna spill the beans!
Alright this one is directed to Shiori.
Okay~~!
How much beer does consider on a weekly basis?
Let's all guess!
And has she become a beer power human yet?
Oh wait let's make a quick guess..
I'm gonna guess at least two a day a week yeah so 14 cans.
16! I’m gonna guess eight to nine!
Three! No way you're out man, that's like one sitting
The answer is
12!
I was 14 so 2 off!
12 is the average, but I always fight with my husband about this. He’s like, “what a second can?!”
It's so opposite, right? I sound like the husband he is the wife
The funny thing is he gave me the Father’s Day gift of a 6 pack of beers.
That's so cute
I don’t think my husband is watching this so I can say this,
I drink over the weekend. I drink one can of the beer while I'm making the brunch or lunch
and then I pretend I didn't drink yet and then when lunch comes
I kanpai with my husband that's my second one. And dinner time I will have one more.
That's already 6 over the weekend!
Yeah, 6 over the weekend then 1 or 2 beer on a weekday after work
Might be more than 12
But I’m trying to have one ‘liver rest day’.
It’s like the gym, you have one day to rest the muscles.
What do you guys think, am I an alcoholic?
Okay so we get a lot of questions about our jobs and also Chris Okano.
We cannot avoid this question we all get it all the time.
Yeah, maybe I should answer this question.
Yes, please!
I think a lot of people are assuming there's a huge drama happen.
We cannot deny that so many things happen previously,
because it's so obvious that we couldn't keep the same team we used to have,
there are so many other cool staff we have but we need to give up the department that
was not monetising enough for the company because
Tokyo Creative was established as a partner of Odigo and we still have the website.
Please check it out, Ian is still working on that!
So we have a website called Odigo, so Tokyo Creative influencers management and inbound marketing company,
the 2 companies merged and Chris Okano along with more than 20 people working at the time.
But unfortunately, we couldn't monetize enough
but that's nothing to do with our previous projects like Journey Across Japan, that's very good
We got a lot of traffic from you guys and then we could partner with local governments because of those projects,
so every single project we did has a meaning to gain our awareness as a company
but unfortunately, after the financial crisis happened Chris Okano couldn't stay as our CEO.
I feel that being CEO is a big deal, of course, it's not just for fun, it's not just for you know enjoyment
like yeah, i want to be the CEO kind of thing,
so, unfortunately, Chris needed to leave.
I was good friends with Chris, that's why I could be part of this company
so I think each person has a different feeling and thought about what happened to TC.
But now we have Jordan, Alex, Sarah new members already!
We should be honest that we needed to cut our salary down to very low
to survive as Tokyo Creative for a long time and then after we recovered a bit
we decided to hire the new members, which is Alex and then Sarah, and now Jordan.
Now little by little, it's getting better, so hopefully, we can monetize and stay okay together
with no more drama and no more losing the people.
So I wanted to answer this question because so many people are asking "hey where is Chris Okano, what happened to him"
Like personally I was a good friend of him,
bad thing happened to us and then maybe whatever he did it wasn't the best way he did
but still where we are is okay for now so and it's in the past
so we're moving forward positive thank goodness. Good vibes only
I think it was good that you answered it because even though we're not involved
we still get asked about it a lot, yeah and this should hopefully give some you know insight into how we feel
Editing, can you shoutout the name?
3 2 1 SANDY 0:15:40.679,1193:02:47.295 And then there was a big financial crisis,
Thank you so much
Sandy used to work for TC and he started his own company.
He is the best boyfriend of Natasha.
It was like a sibling relationships.
He’s so great to work with, he’s really chill and he's really flexible and just like
a great person.
Yeah I feel like the thing with TC is like everyone who works here is actually really
nice.
Sandy’s career is crazy, because he just moved to Japan for TC!
Did you hire him while he was overseas still?
Before he got the job!
He started with an internship.
His dedication is amazing and he learned so quickly.
Either USJ or Disneyland?
None!
I have never in my life been to any Disneyland.
Why?
Let’s raise your hand how likes Disneyland, who likes USJ?
Japanese versus Foreigners
I had a year pass for USJ, so I went like eight or nine times in one year, I lived in
Kyoto so it was like the thing every uni student did.
We just went there it was so good, I recommend it so much since the value is so great - because
it's only like 200 bucks for a year pass seriously that's so cheap like compared to Disney.
I think Disney is like a thousand dollars or something
There’s Disney!!
That was our drive through Tokyo!
Yay thanks for joining us on the ride and thanks for driving us Kanako! <3
So let us know which spot, I guess we didn't really show you in detail... but which spot
was your favourite and maybe which McDonald's food you'd like to try the most!
I guess we can have this format with the other influencers and drive around japan, get through
the some drive through food.
More Q&A’s!
See you in our next video!
Thanks for tuning in.
BYE BYE