Hello Everyone! Hey guys!
I've always loved how people send out
Christmas and New Year's cards to friends and family
And this year we wanted to do the same,
but in a video version to our friends and family
So we wanted to share with you
all of our favorite moments this year
Especially those of you who don't watch both of our channels
Paolo from Tokyo and Tokyo Zebra
and let all of you know what we have planned for 2021
But first, let's take our family photo
Smile~
So I think this little elf is getting a little bit sleepy,
so he needs to take a little bit of a rest
- Right? - Yeah
♪music♪
We couldn't start this video without
thanking all of you for helping us get to
1 million subscribers earlier this February
It still blows my mind
that we get to share and create everything
that we love about Japan with you every week
And we are almost hitting 2 million subscribers
- Yeah, that's pretty freaking crazy - It's crazy right?
Thank you for sharing this journey with us
And don't forget our second channel
Oh yeah
And we started a second channel earlier this year, Tokyo Zebra,
and we're even at 100,000 subscribers
So thank you for that, we are so blessed
It is freaking amazing
Also quick note,
this will be our last video in 2020
We wanted to spend a little more family time kind of doing stuff together
and kind of just enjoying the end of the year
We hope you guys can do the same
We'll be back with the regular schedule
Saturday morning 9AM from mid-January
With that said,
let's talk about what happened this year
and I'm not gonna lie, it was a bit challenging
Probably more challenging than our previous years
Not only because of the pandemic,
but we also had a baby this year
And trying to create content on top of all of this every single week
was quite challenging
So it was really really tough this year, right?
Yeah
If you pick a theme, what would it be for this year?
I would say it would have to be maybe creative perseverance
And this is why
First of all, at the beginning of the year
we announced that we're having a baby
So with the baby on the way
we started to look to buy a house and possibly renovate
P: For example, this place was about $400,000
which we thought was just a bit too much for what we got
We didn't have a lot of options
and Wolfy was coming up really soon
so we decided to rent instead
P: But we still had issues
We applied to rent this place, but the owner decided
to rent to another person
Super nice view though
So our initial apartment search brought us to
a few pretty good option that I was pretty sold on
- But I wasn't - Yeah
P: And thank god that she wasn't sold
because if we had moved into one of the places
we would have to be moving out right now
because it only had a two-year contract
Even though I loved it,
it was just a little bit too short of a contract
I'm glad you stuck to your guns
because I love the place we're in now
Me too
P: First time entering our place
Yay!
P: Are you excited? M: Yeah!
M: Yay! We finally have a house!
P: Here's the apartment before we moved in
So happy
P: Are you? M: Yeah
But first we had to move out of our place
Then we showed you how we set up our house
Alright so this is the main living, dining and kitchen area
In fact we live in a 2LDK
which means in Japan two bedrooms, living, dining, and kitchen
One thing that was quite important to us
was to keep the workstations here in the main living area
So that when the baby comes
we can also watch over the baby while we're working
And just after we moved in, I went into labor
Is it happening? What's happening? (x2)
So we don't know yet
She just suggested just come to check
Oh my gosh
I can take a shower
Oh my gosh (x2)
Well I just got a call,
looks like she's checking in
Oh wow, I'm gonna be a dad soon
I'm so excited I can't wait
Because of Corona they didn't let Paolo into the clinic
So I spent six days at the hospital all by myself
I was pretty tired after birth
and still can't believe I did it all by myself
But somehow I managed to record some stuff there
I've been like sitting on this doughnut cushion our entire time
Or I can't even sit
It hurts
Then on May 25th 2020 our son
Taiga Wolverine DeGuzman, aka Wolfy,
came into this world
Although I missed my son's birth, the nurse was kind enough
to take some video for us
Every time I see that video my heart just melts
Yeah I can watch that again and again
Hey, little guy
Oh so cute
I can't believe he was in your stomach
M: And we figured out why he was having trouble
his heartbeat gets weak once in a while
P: Yeah
M: The umbilical cord was pulling like three times on his neck
P: And finally six days later I got to see my son for the first time
I think he's here
This is my son
M: Aren't you excited?
This is my son
Hi, son!
Yay~
It's me and you from now on little dude
Then Maiko and Wolfy finally came home
Let's go pick up
Maiko and our new baby boy
M: We're home
Awww!
Aw, you bought flowers
Thank you
P: Yeah
My butt hurts
We celebrated Wolfy's one month birthday in traditional Japanese fashion
We even partnered with new sponsors this year
like 'Bokksu'
who provide a gourmet experience of
Japanese snacks delivered to your front door
A perfect gift for the ones you love
near and far during the holiday season
Bokksu works with traditional Japanese factories
some over 100 years old,
to provide you with unique snacks
And each monthly box has its own unique theme,
so you get new snacks every time
First time users get a 'Seasons of Japan' box
and after that they'll get a theme box like this one
Right when you open up the box
you get a booklet taking you through each snack
as well as extra information about Japan
You get 10-25 snacks in your box
depending on the package you choose
And they're all handpicked from all over Japan
to deliver you unique and local Japanese flavors
Get 10% off your own authentic Japanese snack box from Bokusu
and save up to $47
Use code PAOLO10 link in the description
All this time
still finding a way to create content despite the pandemic
Even with the 'Day in the Life' videos
they were so hard to schedule and coordinate,
but I still found a way
The Japanese delivery worker was a bit of an exception
because we filmed it just a little bit before coronavirus,
but we still released it this year
and it was quite memorable
M: Yeah but the funny thing was
I thought a lot of people said that she's was an actress
P: No, so yeah it was the real deal
M: I thought it was cool when editing
that people in the neighborhood knew her
The pachinko worker was also pretty amazing
I loved how Kento would change from his suit into a uniform every day
M: I liked how he changed into the same shoes
- Yeah - It was funny
P: I even got to film a Japanese butcher
this year which is pretty cool
But one of the funny things from that video is
if you see Teru going to work in the morning
he's carrying a helmet after he arrives
and a lot of people were like
Why's he carrying a helmet? He didn't ride a bike
People were really confused
and the story behind that one was
usually every day he does some of his
deliveries with a scooter, with a motorbike,
but that day he didn't just because
it was going to be easier for us to film
That was why he was carrying a helmet
But you know what,
this video wouldn't be right if I didn't
talk about some of the favorite food spots that I had this year
Of course
I shared a sesame and matcha parfait in Harajuku
I had a fried Wagyu onigirazu style sandwich in Daikanyama
It's still a little bit rare on the inside
but crispy on the outside
Wow this sings to my inner soul
I also got to have a tonkatsu with maple syrup in Azabu Juban
M: It sucks I couldn't
be at the old filming though because of Wolfy
Yeah, that was kind of one of the reasons why we started this channel
It was so that we could enjoy food together,
but because of the quarantine we did get a little bit creative
and we had to stay home for some of the videos
- And we still had fun, right? - Yeah
They almost look like tampons, right?
These are like tampon size, Maiko?
Oh really?
And that was our year
pandemic and all we got pretty creative
We persevered and we got to create some pretty cool moments
Yeah
We hope that you are able to do the same
and find your silver lining
And what's been a pretty crazy and scary year
Coming 2021 we have a lot of stuff planned
Given that everything calms down a little bit
and restrictions are lifted
In fact we had a lot of 'Day in the Life'
planned for this year,
but because of everything going on
we had to postpone
So a lot of those collaborations will continue from next year
which I'm super excited for
Also with the channel's growth this year,
because of all of you guys,
I'm getting more opportunities to show you places and things
in Japan that are rarely seen;
which is gonna be pretty awesome this coming year
And Wolfy's gonna be older! That means I can come with you!
Oh that's gonna be so awesome
So that's our Christmas and New Year's card to all of you
Thank you again for joining us on this journey
Thank you so much,
this channel wouldn't be the same without all of you
And like always if you want to see more Japan videos
and join us on our 2021 adventure throughout Japan,
hit that subscribe button and bell button
And we'll catch you guys in the next one!