This... Coca-Cola Clear, it's been everywhere recently descending upon Japan like a plague of locusts.
Uhh, except having eaten locusts twice in the last two years, because there's actually a dish in Japan.
Uhh, I suspect locusts are better for you, than this, because as far as I know, locusts don't give you diabetes.
Clear drinks are a big thing in Japan at the moment as consumers here typically,
subconsciously associate clear drinks with being healthy.
I mean, if it looks clear, if it looks like water, it must be healthy, right?
Uhh, with some notable exceptions.
But as people have been asking me about this, every day 50 times for the last two weeks.
I thought I'd try it, I thought give it a little, little taste test and see... that's fizzy, it's very carbonated.
Uhm.
Smells like, smells like Sprite, anyway, Cheers
Imagine over carbonated Sprite, with a dash of lemon and a hint of despair, and that's what this tastes like.
Uhm, I don't know why it's so fizzy. I don't know why they've over carbonated it.
I'm pretty sure, if you to shake this bottle up and throw it against the wall, it could take out half a city block.
And if you want to experience Coca Cola Clear in a country that doesn't yet have it.
Just pour some Sprite, just pour some Sprite into a Coca-Cola bottle and you've essentially got the exact same thing, if not better.
What have I done, oh shit.
Hi, I'm Bryan Cranston and you're listening to Abroad in Japan
Wow
And people say the special effects on this channel on up to scratch, that was sick, sick it was.
Anyway, uhh, welcome back everyone to the Abroad in Japan channel long time no see.
Uhh, my name's Chris, I make videos about Japan generally, and yes, that was an actual shout out from Bryan Cranston.
One of my favorite actors, pretty awesome, fairly random and I'll tell you how it happened in a minute.
So today, I'm here to announce something relatively big,
it's the largest challenge I've ever faced in my entire life, uhh, and it's a project that will simultaneously
lead to lots of new daily videos here on this channel for you guys, as well as the chance for me to become, the fittest I've ever been, physically.
Uhh, if well, should I survive, but hopefully by the end of this video, you'll be as excited about this crazy upcoming project, as I am.
Or at least as excited as I was this morning, when I bought this, uhh, this French stick, this French bread and I found this little label on the back here.
Describing in perfect English, the characteristics of a bakery.
Bakery.
Uhh, wonder what Bryan Cranston would make of that.
So first of, the reason I've been away for two months is I made, uhh, a film about my eccentric Japanese friend, Natsuki.
Uhh, that came out a few weeks ago here on this channel, for those of you that haven't seen it, I won't spoil it.
Suffice to say, it's a film about a Japanese guy, whose daughter is kidnapped while on holiday in Paris.
And to get her back, he has to break into the Louvre and steal the Mona Lisa.
using nothing, but an indoor skydive.
The works of Karl Marx.
And the Chupa Chups lollipop, or at least that, uhh.
That's what it should have been.
Thank you to everyone for your positive comments, uhm, generally, I'm happy with how it turned out.
I think it turned out, all right, and I learned so much along the way from, from producing it.
I learned how to be a better cameraman, I learned how to tell a story and above all, perhaps,
I learned that, a lot of people really don't like Karl Marx.
They hate him so much, that some viewers equated that Natsuki's spontaneous, unscripted act
of placing a rose upon the grave of Karl Marx, as some kind of endorsement for the deaths of a 100 million people that died,
under the banner of twentieth-century communism.
When in reality, I don't even think Natsuki really knew who Karl Marx was.
I think he got Karl Marx confused with Charles Dickens, because, uhh, to be fair,
Both of them do have cracking good beards. Now that we have the movie out the way.
I've now turned my attention to the next big thing, the next big project.
I know, I often talk about wanting to get fit in these videos.
Something I've more or less consistently failed at since, forever, such as the price you pay for regularly consuming deep bread.
But one of the reasons is; I've never got fit for a specific reason.
Uhm, other than wanting to be fit, and I realized if it was ever going to happen,
I needed some kind of challenge or aim to go for, and so I've decided to get outside and hit the road
And undertake a 2,000km 1-month journey across Japan, by bicycle.
A month, on a, on a bike. Yeah. Whilst we haven't decided the route yet.
I'd like to kick things off in Yamagata prefecture, my kind of spiritual Japanese home where I lived for three years.
I'll do my best to illustrate the route with this incredible animated man, from Yamagata, we'll cycle down along the sea of Japan.
Across the plains of Niigata, and down into the ancient streets of Kanazawa,
where the animation will randomly go to shit, before going round and down across Lake Biwa,
which, I don't know a lot about and into a little-known city called Kyoto.
Before going into Kobe and crossing the Akashi (Kaikyō) bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world.
From there, we'll go through Shikoku, where I'll do my best to avoid mountains, because that will finish me off.
Will then cross the (Seto) Inland Sea of Japan once more across the Shimanami Kaido cycle route.
With half a dozen bridges to conquer, turn into Hiroshima down through Yamaguchi
and across the straight into Kyushu, where will inevitably end up in Fukuoka, to eat some Tonkotsu pork ramen.
And then the animation will randomly speed up, we'll go through Kumamoto and finally down, into the southern tip of Kyushu island to Kagoshima.
Where we'll gaze upon the city's majestic volcano, completing our 2,000km journey, where I will lay down and die.
Am I ready to undertake such a challenge? No, have I exercised once in the last two years?
No, and do I own a bicycle?
No, no, no I don't, but I do have 4 to 5 months to prepare...
Actually, it's less than that now, it's more like, 3 months, yeah. Don't, don't, don't look at me like that. Yeah, I-I can do it.
I know I can do it. Yes, I'm completely out of my depth on this, but that, that's what makes it so much fun.
I think, right? so I've got a few months to get into shape, if I were to attempt it tomorrow,
I probably would struggle to cycle 2,000m, let alone 2,000km
I mean, at the moment I can barely make it up the stairs to my apartment.
Uhh, with that in mind you might be thinking.
And to that I say, don't worry. That's where Kim Kardashian's Appetite Suppressant Lollipops come in
mmm, Appetite Suppressant Lollipops.
Humanity really is completely fucked.
But why do I want to cycle, though? I guess there's two reasons; first and foremost,
I just want to get outside and have a bit of an adventure, I've spent the last month or 2
inside editing Natsuki the Movie.
So I'm keen to get back on the road, meet people, discover new places and just explore rural Japan above all,
the 2nd reason I'm doing this trip is, I wanted to really push myself creatively,
because every single day of that trip, every single day of that month-long journey across Japan.
I'm gonna be making a video and putting it up on the channel.
So the idea is, you guys are there with me going on the trip across Japan.
In many ways, that will be a bigger challenge than the cycle, to make
to make videos that are compelling and not just some sort of shitty vlog, where it's me, on a bicycle with one hand and a selfie stick on another hand.
Uhh, I mean, that would probably end with me facedown in a ditch somewhere in a rice field.
Which wouldn't be a very good end to this channel.
so with that in mind, I've putting together a small production team to help me film it and edit it.
so we can actually make a decent month-long series that you guys can watch and enjoy.
Now I have already started trying to get fit.
So I've got this weight and I've been working out with this everyday doing that, doing, doing that, you know, whatever that's called.
But what do you think? Can I cycle 2,000km, will I end up in a ditch?
And how do you feel about deep bread? Let's face it guys.
These are the sort of questions the YouTube comments section was made for.
Now there is one more exciting announcement, that kind of doubles as a productivity tip, I guess.
For 6 years now, I've tried to show you guys as best as I can, life in Japan.
Whether that's the people, the culture, the language, the food, robot talking dinosaurs, it's all there.
But over the years, I've built up a lot of stories and experiences and advice, uhh,
about Japan that I know will be useful to people coming here to travel, or work, or study.
And I felt that there had to be another way of doing that of sharing these experiences alongside video.
And with that in mind, it led me to do the first big thing that I've done a long time.
Which was to start a weekly podcast, which I've originally named the Abroad in Japan podcast
Original isn't it?
Now until 6 months ago, I had never really given any thought to doing a podcast. I mean, listening to things, boring, isn't it?
How can you see Bryan Cranston's face, or a CGI explosion, or fast paced jump cuts, when you're listening to something, you can't.
So how can it possibly be good, and yet after I began listening to podcasts at the start this year?
I realized, that they're actually bloody brilliant, because all those boring moments during the day all those wasted moments, when you're commuting to work.
When you're sitting at your desk, when you're walking somewhere. You can turn those moments into pockets of learning.
You can sit there, put your earphones in and learn about something that you're interested in.
The second reason I never started the podcast though, was I knew if I was gonna do it, It had to be good.
It could just be me sitting in my bedroom talking into my phone alone.
I needed to do it professionally and I needed a co-host as well to help me extract ideas and thoughts from my mind, coincidentally though,
I actually met the co-host, while we were filming Natsuki the Movie last year in London, because he invited us into his radio station
He is Pete Donaldson, DJ one of London's biggest radio stations, Absolute Radio.
And when he's not sitting down with me every Wednesday to discuss life in Japan.
He's off doing other boring things, like interviewing Ed Sheeran, or Chris Pratt, or yes
Bryan Cranston, and, uhh, that's how that happened.
But Pete visits Japan every year, he's got a deep obsession with the culture and the country.
and we found, that I was able to answer a lot of his questions about Japan and we realized,
that this kind of insider outsider perspective makes great listening for the podcast.
Now we've been going every Wednesday for a few months now and we've covered everything,
from myths about Japan, to detailed itineraries for your trip, to just current wacky news and affairs that are going on around the country.
Our most popular segment though is just answering questions sent in by listeners.
So if you have a question about Japan, it's a great chance to get it answered, every single week.
Obviously, it is free to listen to if you are Mac user, an iPhone user you can listen on iTunes, if you use Android there's lots
of good free apps, which I've listed somewhere here, uhh, or you can just stream it straight off the internet.
I've put all the links to it, in the description box below. But, uhh, yeah, please do join us guys.
It is one of the biggest podcasts about Japan now, uhm, but above all it's just a lot of fun to do it, right?
Especially as I don't have to worry about my appearance, uhm.
I'd have to put all my makeup on, before I do a podcast, although to be fair when I say makeup,
I mean hair gel and let's face it, hasn't really done a whole lot here, anyway, has it. Anyway, that's all for now guys.
It's great to be back here making videos again and there are some fantastic new videos on the way.
But for now as always, many thanks for watching guys. I'll see you next time.
It's goodby deep-bread and hello ruthless exercise regime.
Yeah! Let's do it!