Hello from Tokyo, Japan.
I had the pleasure of working at the Olympics,
my third Olympics.
Every games are unique in their own way,
But this time, I'm sure we're gonna remember forever.
[music]
At first, all the uncertainties,
but then we got here, and we were so well received
by the Japanese people.
They knew we couldn't go sightseeing,
so they made sure they brought a little bit of the culture to us.
Oh, my God! Wow!
Wow! Thank you so much [in Japanese]
I learned so much about Japan
Way more than when I just came here as a tourist
because this time I worked directly with the Japanese.
Every single day.
And they're the kindest.
Zunda in mochi.
I told them I enjoyed the shake, and they gave me the real zunda.
Not only once, but twice.
So good.
I filmed a little bit of my experience over the past few weeks,
and I'm joining everything in this video here.
And I'll take you all the way back home,
Oh, my baby!
I'm now in Tokyo, but the story actually starts in Sendai,
Miyagi Prefecture.
Sendai was my home for the first half of the games.
The daily drive to the stadium was absolutely beautiful.
Foreigners tend to think that there are only skyscrapers in Japan
and people everywhere,
but we saw miles and miles of just green.
[music]
That's because the stadium was outside the city,
Sendai itself has more than a million people,
and the hotel was in one of the highest buildings in town.
The view from the room is so beautiful
that I'm doing the time-lapse here.
Yeah, I'll just see Sendai from up here or from the car.
The ocean is right there.
Wow, I had no idea we're this close.
But the ocean doesn't bring good memories
to a lot of Japanese people.
Miyagi was the region that suffered the most
with the earthquake and tsunami of 2011,
and Sendai was the nearest major city to the epicenter of the earthquake.
The city was hit by a tsunami that traveled at 700 kilometers an hour
and the ocean water went 10 kilometers inland.
In total, almost 20,000 people died.
Male Reporter: And it looks like the tsunami has engulfed
several cities in Miyagi Prefecture.
So it was very meaningful to have some of the games in Sendai
because in Japan, it symbolized the "comeback."
Even the flowers received by the athletes
were from the region of Miyagi.
And people there were very, very, very happy and proud.
And we had spectators in the stadium!
Not many,
but as the pandemic is under control in that region,
they allowed people that had purchased the tickets two years ago
to still come to the stadium and see.
And it was so nice, they were so respectful,
just applauding.
Even the volunteers, they applauded every single player
leaving the stadium, regardless of the result,
and it was the cutest demonstration of genuine care and happiness
that I've ever seen.
Of course, I couldn't film any of that, as I had a different job to do,
but those are things I'm going to remember forever.
Just like some simple habits here,
or the way the Japanese do certain things differently.
How lovely!
Why just put a regular "Do not cross" fence
when you can make it cute?
Everything here in Japan is made in an intelligent way.
Look at this, you can connect the chairs,
and then move them together.
So smart.
Google Translate here to understand the remote control.
Look at this button here. English, right?
[Man speaks in English]
[He is dubbed into Japanese]
Japanese!
They dub the TV! [laughs]
BBC in Japanese now.
And I love this button here in the restrooms,
extra privacy when you're doing your business.
At the stadium, they announced the last bullet train of the day.
Remember, this is just 90 minutes from Tokyo station.
A true fan could come just for match day.
Driving it could take five hours.
If it's rainy, all umbrellas get organized on the plastic.
The garbage is fully separated into the minimum details.
And when it was time to say goodbye,
the Organizing Committee thanked all of us, like this.
They had no idea I have this channel.
And the volunteers surprised me once more.
They even tried to teach me how to put this back together.
- ...once I broke all of that.
- Oh, my God! - [laughs]
- We make four same pieces.
- Ah! Oh, my God!
- Please take a video, repeat it.
- Yeah, I don't even know if I can repeat with the video.
[laughs]
Of course, I went shopping, too.
The souvenirs that are more meaningful to me are these,
because they really represent the Japanese culture.
The mask, of course, these will be remembered
as the Olympics of masks.
Now, you may not know this,
but people here in Japan wore masks already
way before all this.
In some countries, you see people wearing masks
to protect themselves against the pollution.
but not here, here people naturally wear masks when they're sick,
and they want to protect the others.
It's always been like this, at least in recent history.
So when life returns to normal,
if there's one place in the world that these will still be used,
this place is Japan.
And nothing like Olympics masks as a souvenir.
Masks were mandatory everywhere,
but these tubes were also part of my routine.
I got tested every single day.
Luckily, the saliva test,
done from the hotel room first thing in the morning.
And I also got these hand towels here
because I thought it was so cute seeing the Japanese women
bring in their own hand towels when they come to the restrooms.
Normally, you don't find paper towels in public toilets in Japan
exactly because people bring their own.
So I thought it was very symbolic of the culture,
and I also want to be ready for the next time I come to Japan.
And here in Tokyo, it was nice seeing the support on the streets,
and learning that all the regions of Japan
were represented in the Olympic Village.
Their Media Center was built with pieces of wood
from all regions of Japan.
[music]
Konnichiwa, Tokyo Tower! [hello in Japanese]
Sayonara, Tokyo Tower! [bye in Japanese]
I'm now in Yokohama for the big football final.
And look at what I got!
This is a very famous bento box in Yokohama.
It's the shumai bento,
very traditional from the 1950s.
I accidentally discovered this in my very first trip on the bullet train.
This was selling like water there.
They even had it on top of the counter,
and everybody was arriving and buying it,
so I got one, too.
I remember it was so good, I can't believe I'm gonna try it again.
Wow!
It's got rice balls,
shumai dumplings made mainly of pork and onions,
fried chicken, omelet, shredded ginger...
As good as I remembered.
It was a month of amazing experiences.
[music]
Yeah, time to go back.
Sayonara! [bye in Japanese]
- Sayonara!
- Arigato! - Arigato gozaimasu [thank you]
"Thank you for coming to Japan
and impressing everyone all over the world."
Oh!
"Please write down your wishes and messages."
[music]
[Congratulations, Japan.]
Congratulations to everybody. Thank you.
[music]
Oh, my! Look at this view of Tokyo!
Definitely fly to and from Haneda if you can.
That's the Tokyo Skytree. We have a video there.
I just discovered this is actually the tallest tower in the world.
Two very unique things about this flight here:
One, it is full of athletes.
The captain has just announced that a gold medalist in athletics
from team USA is right here.
That is so cool!
And two, this flight is two hours shorter
than the exact same flight I took to get here,
between Atlanta and Tokyo.
Coming here, it was 13 and a half hours,
Going back, 11 and a half.
[music]
Again, you could preorder the meal using Delta's app.
This is a Delta flight.
The options were beef, pasta, pasta being the vegetarian,
or Japanese meal.
This time I chose the beef,
and it's beef with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and carrots.
And it comes with more salad, bread,
there's a soup and ice cream.
The beef is so tender, perfectly seasoned.
It's delicious.
I'd love to tell you about this soup.
It's absolutely delicious,
but my palate is just not helping.
I have no idea what's in here.
[music]
Oh, my God, this scene is almost magical.
It looks like dozens of fishing boats.
The map doesn't even show exactly where we are.
For breakfast, I just chose the cereal.
For a detailed flight review of this Delta business class flight
between Tokyo and Atlanta,
take a look at the other video linked up here and in the description.
To enter the U.S., you need a negative test,
but nobody checked here.
Only the airline checked in Tokyo before boarding.
Now in less than two hours, I should be back in Orlando.
[music]
- Hello. Hi. - Thank you.
Oh, my baby!
Hello!
- She's back.
- You missed me, didn't you?
[laughs]
- Yeah. - Oh, come on, you did.
Look at my shirt.
- Tokyo 2020.
- I got a challenge for you from Japan. - Okay.
- How fast do you think we can assemble this?
- Oh, in 3.2 seconds.
- Yeah, I'm showing him the video.
- Here it is.
- How many pieces? - Yeah.
- It's crazy, huh? - Wow.
What is this called?
- This is an origami. - Origami.
- Japanese art. - Japanese art.
- Different colors, and make a triangle.
- There's the key right here.
- Uh-hmm. - There you go
[music]
- Fold, yep.
Blue. And the blue, you're doing it right.
Fold it, yes.
- And this comes here.
- Yes.
Oh, you want to have the pleasure of it.
- I did it! - [laughs]
I did 90% of it.
- I did it. It's a finisher.
- [laughs]
That is so cool. Good job.
- One more.
- [laughs]
- What did you do all this time by yourself?
- I planned our next trips. - Yes!
We'll be back on the road.
So we're gonna visit some of the top American cities:
New York, Boston, Miami, L.A., maybe.
- Are we? - Yeah.
- I heard so. [laughs]
So make sure you activate the notifications
because from now on, it's the two of us again.
- ♪ Just the two of us ♪
- A lot of people missed you, you know?
- Oh, yeah? - Did you see the comments?
- Yes, I did. - [laughs]