Well today is the first day of principal photography
Boy, it sounds like a movie...
Of principal photography for our coffee shop shoot,
And I'm going to go pick up Geordie, his equipment, get my equipment and we're going to go to the coffee shop
And hopefully today we're going to get some great shots.
Hello! Look at this!
Oh man, you are not holding back.
We're in trouble.
[Life in Japan Theme Song]
We’re coming up on the 5-year anniversary of opening Paz Coffee Shop
and we’ve decided to make a 15-second commercial for the coffee shop.
Here we go. Here we go.
Oh baby!
Out of control
I’ve enlisted the help of my friend Geordie to film and edit the commercial.
He’s got a clear idea of what he wants to shoot,
and I’ll be here to get alternative shots and slow motion shots in order to have plenty of good footage.
We want it to be a compelling commercial, and at the end of this video we’ll show it to you and you can be the judge.
Geordie wanted us to grab several takes of the same shot so we would have just the right shot.
Each take was a little different, but once Geordie got what he wanted, we moved on.
Making a commercial takes time and patience,
and getting just the right shot takes practice both on the performers end and on the operators end.
But the end result of getting it right feels and looks great.
Today we’re running out of time to film everything,
and we can already tell we’ll have to come back and film the rest.
Alright, we got some great shots today.
It's starting to get dark, so we're going to come back another time to get the last half of the shots
But today was a good first day.
We have a month to finish this 15-second commercial, very different from Life in Japan episodes,
which are typically 12-15 minutes long and launch every Friday.
This weekly deadline means that I make a point of capturing our lives here,
even the everyday moments that would otherwise get overlooked.
Oh my!
We did 15. It's a game where you can't make it fall down.
Now they're going to see what Momma chan captured.
The scenes often aren’t polished or staged, it’s just life as it happens.
Life in Japan is premiering and what's happening?! Earthquake!
Earthquake!
Still going, it's just shaking a little bit.
The way you can tell is you look at the light.
And when the lights moving, it's an earthquake I'm still shaking a lot!
With a commercial, you have to get everything just right, putting your best foot forward,
but with real life, you’re just trying to capture it as best as you can in that moment.
Those little moments are the essence of life.
Oh look at that! Thank you tia (aunt) Ruth!
You're welcome!
Do you like it?
I think she does!
You get multiple takes at a commercial, but with life, you only get one shot,
so you have to realize how important your life is, not just to you, but to others around you.
Big J and I are sitting out on the deck here this morning.
Drinking our hot drinks, right?
I have my coffee — what do you have?
Hot chocolate.
He's got his hot chocolate and we're reading our Bible stories. Oh yeah.
Right? Yeah.
Paz represents more than just a brand, coffee shop or even a church —
it’s a way of life with Peace at the center.
And that Peace affects every part of life.
He's working on it.
Ah! Did it!
Whoa, keep going! Keep going!
Whoa!
Oh Sarah chan! It's the queen and king area.
You have a view with your dinner tonight, huh? Look! There's the sun...
I can't look and see it, I'm too small.
She can't see over the top.
Oh you can't see over the top? Just imagine, it looks beautiful.
Working with our Paz team isn’t just a job — it’s a way of life full of rewarding challenges.
And Paz Coffee Shop isn’t just a place to get great coffee.
On Sundays it transforms into the meeting place of Paz Church, and people from all over come and join together.
It’s always free and open to anyone, Christian or not.
But for now my mind is focused on finishing the commercial for Paz Coffee Shop,
and the next day that’s exactly what we planned to do,
just after resolving one important little thing that many of you suggested to us.
What do we got going on now here today?
So this morning we're going to go try to get some of Rebecca's hospital bill refunded.
As many of you know, she is in the hospital a couple of weeks ago
And even though we have Japanese health insurance, our bill was quite high
But many of you mentioned that maybe we can get a refund,
And so we're going to go to the government offices today and see what we can do about that.
Alright. Here we go.
Rock 'n Roll.
Well we had good news, huh? Yes!
We get all of her medical expenses returned except for her room,
So that part we pay out of pocket,
but all the exams, all the lab work, we get all that money back.
Yea! Thanks everyone for your tips!
And with that, it was finally time to shoot the rest of the commercial.
Geordie had narrowed down the shots that he needed to get and made a methodical list of them for us to tackle.
Now it was go time.
Alright, we're getting ready to film, this is our 2nd day of filming here
And we know the shots we need to get, what we want to do...
It's going to be cool.
The super warm light of the coffee shop looks great in person, but is an absolute bear to work with for video.
Geordie added some key lights to help offset this
and then recorded the whole thing in super high quality in order to get the best look possible.
The ultimate arm workout! Oh man!
Oh! That's pretty.
We've worked our way to the money shot now.
Which is the cup — the full cup being offered to the customer.
Nah, that's not it.
3, 2, 1 go.
OK we finished all the filming and now Geordie has the fun part of editing it all together,
And we're going to see what we got, but I think we got something special here today.
Oh! Dinner time at the Reutter's — ok!
The sun just shining through there. Wow, that's awesome. Epic.
But it wasn’t just the kids that were having dinner…
What do we have here?
Dead fly, feeding it
Oh! We just caught this fly.
Oh! No, that one already has one.
This little one? Well why didn't it close it?
Oh wow, that was fast!
It chomped! Oh my goodness!
That's crazy! Did you see how it closed though?
The next day, I got some very exciting news.
Alright, I just heard from Geordie. He's sending me the final video.
I can't wait to see it. I'm hurrying back to the office to check it out.
Here we go, we're going to see it! I love it!
Oh boy, here it is!
Rock 'n Roll.
Here we go.
Ok — confession time. I don't like it.
I love it!
Oh my goodness, I just watched it like three times in a row!
The pacing is phenomenal
One shot just pulls you into the next shot,
The music just matches up perfectly with it
And I'm amazed how good the coloring is,
because I know how hard it is to get the right color with that lighting in the coffee shop.
This one is a homerun!
It looks great.
Getting the commercial done meant we could turn our focus to other upcoming events,
and one in particular has us very excited.
Dude, what do you think Ben? I love palm trees.
This is cool. I would take this right in our yard right here. That is just awesome.
Look at this leaf here Ben!
Ordered a leaf with your food, huh?
Look at how big this is!
It's going to be great. That's awesome.
Aw, this is so good.
Debbie and I got the same thing.
But Nate... Got avocado on mine.
Mmm. Girlfriend's going to eat it and save the day.
We’re not just enjoying an exotic dinner,
we’re finalizing planning for our upcoming trip to Singapore and Bali for our 20th wedding anniversary.
It’s the first time in 13 years that we’re traveling together without the kids, so we’re super excited.
Going over our itinerary right now, boy it is detailed!
It's awesome!
I see momma chan has completely taken over the dining room table. Completely!
I'm making Evie's unicorn cake. It's like a wedding cake, honestly.
Evie has the big orders, doesn't she?
She does!
This time I have to take it to Hiratsuka.
Oh! An even bigger challenge. It really is like a wedding cake.
OK, we don't look at how ugly it looks right now,
We will look at the finished product later.
When Paz Coffee Shop started 5 years ago, Ruth was in charge of baking.
Now she still enjoys baking special projects for friends and family.
My goodness!
It's a typhoon?!
But not even a typhoon stopped Ruth from finishing Evie’s unicorn cake.
Goodness girlfriend! Look at all the detail in this cake!
Ha ha! Don't look too closely.
That is awesome!
But the job wasn’t done yet—
we needed to deliver the cake in one piece to the birthday destination:
Uncle Paul and Aunt Pri’s house in Hiratsuka.
By some prayer and a small miracle, we made it.
We did done do it! We survived.
Did it survive?!
It survived the trip and it looks great.
The cake has been successfully delivered.
[Singing Happy Birthday]
Yes, the cousins love getting a cake from Aunt Ruth,
and they love having their birthdays on Life in Japan.
But whether at Paz in Noborito or the new Paz starting out here in Hiratsuka, one thing is for sure:
We love life, the Author of life and we’re all about celebrating it in big ways and small.
Cake! Cake!
Let there be cake!
I know, it's so quiet in here, huh?
Is everyone devouring cake or what?
Next week on Life in Japan,
before we go on our epic 20th anniversary trip,
we’re visiting the craziest Uniqlo yet, a 12-story flagship store in Tokyo’s famous Ginza area.
But is this store just Ginza-hype, or is there something more to it than a typical Uniqlo?
Interesting...
That's a nice material.
Subscribe and find out next week on Life in Japan.
Floor 10.
Floor 10! We're doing it.
Doing it!