THERE IS A CURSE
I call it the traveler's curse. Traveling
somewhere new brings something into your life that's amazing. It opens your mind in a way
that nothing else can and it's a priceless experience. But it also comes with a curse.
Because no matter where you go, you're always going to miss something from the places that
you left behind. I love living in Japan. I'm perfectly content and happy here and I plan
on living here for the foreseeable future. But I also love my home country, America and
there are some things I miss about it, too. Not too long ago I did a video about the things
I love most about Japan, which was 5 different things, and today I'm going to talk about
5 things that I love and miss about America. In no particular order they are:
1. FOOD
Rachel, didn't you say in your Japan video that one of your favorite things about Japan was food?
Yes I did because I love the food here, too. And when I'm in America I miss Japanese food
like crazy! But while I'm here I miss American food because
THE TRAVELER'S CURSE.
I haven't been back to America in over a year and I find myself craving the weirdest things. You
know what I'm craving right now?
I would drown a small child if I could eat a chili cheese
burrito from Taco Bell.
Rachel I don't know if you know this but there are Taco Bells in Japan.
Yeah but there ain't no chili cheese burritos here, I have checked. In fact, all
of my favorite American restaurants are different. They serve Japanese "American" food, just
like how in America a lot of our Japanese restaurants serve American "Japanese" food.
CAT
CAAAAT.
Foreign food is just never as good as it is in its home country, and it's
sad but SHOUGANAI. I want a box of these crispy fries. You know what these are? These cost
a dollar at the grocery store. They're in the frozen section and you put them in the
microwave for 5 minutes and then when I take them out I sprinkle them with shredded cheese
and I let the cheese melt and then I eat my crispy, delicious cheese-covered fries, and
it's amazing. And I crave that and I don't know why. I want to eat seafood from red lobster.
You know how America serves seafood? Grilled in butter and salt! I wanna eat a baked potato
that is half butter, drowning in cheese, and covered in so much bacon that I can't see
the plate. I want to kill so many pigs for my baked potato that Bashar al-Assad says
"That's fucked up." But you know what the most blasphemous thing I wanna eat is? I want
to eat American sushi. It's COMPLETELY different from Japanese sushi. It's its own thing and
it's delicious. Japanese sushi is delicious. They're both delicious, just in different
ways. And for some reason I want to eat some American sushi. I don't know what's wrong
with me. I want to eat a San Antonio roll from HEB and that makes me want to cry because
there are no HEBs anywhere near Cincinnati. So even when I go back to my country in a
month, I'm not going to be able to get to eat my favorite American sushi. And that makes
me very sad. THE TRAVELER'S CURSE Anyway, we're going back to America in a month and
I'm going to eat so much food. I'm going to upload a picture every single day on instagram
and I'm going to gain 15 pounds and I can't wait!
2. VAST SWATHES OF NATURE I'm not a
I'm not a city person.
I'm kind of like a hippy forest tree person. If I could live in a tree house
I totally would. Me and Jun both prefer rural Japan to the cities here. And I miss the vast
nature that we have in America. After all of the places that I've been to, I appreciate
my hometown of Cincinnati more than I used to when I was growing up because now I realize
how beautiful it actually is. When you're driving along the expressways, you're driving
through forested valleys with trees and hills everywhere! And when you drive along residential
roads you have tall trees lining the street on both sides and it's beautiful. And the
birds are chirping in the summer and there's a nice, beautiful breeze blowing through your
car window, and it smells like nature, and there's a little babbling brook running alongside
the road and it's amazing and I miss that. I like all the openness in America. I like
having space. Lots of space. Houses are farther away from the street, too, so I can blast
my music in my car when I'm driving around. That's my stress relief. Going for a drive
and listening to my loud music. I can't really listen to loud music very much here because
no matter where I am I'm going to bother someone else. So I can only listen to loud music here
if I'm playing it in my headphones, which isn't really good for my eardrums, but I do
it anyway. So... I listen to loud music now when I go out on my runs in the evening, and
that's pretty much it. I miss being able to play it in my car. So that's one of the things
that I have to sacrifice in Japan for the convenience of public transportation or being
able to walk or ride my bike everywhere. Which is also great! There's just pros and cons
to both sides.
3. LOUD AND OUTGOING PEOPLE
Whaaaat you miss loud people?
I know, it sounds really weird, but I kinda do miss loud people!
I didn't used to. When I first came to Japan
one of my favorite things about being here was I was like, "It's so quiet in Japan! All
the people leave me alone and it's so nice and peaceful. I love it here!" And that's
how I genuinely felt before. But now I kinda like interacting with people more. I like
talking to people. I like having conversations with strangers. That's just really interesting.
I like connecting with people. I just think that connection that we have with other people
is a huge part of what makes us human and what makes us a society. And while I used
to prefer just being left alone in my little hermit room and letting me do what I want,
which I still want sometimes, now I kinda like talking to people a lot more than I used
to. Of course it still happens here in Japan. Sometimes strangers will just start talking
to me. But it doesn't really happen as often as it does in America. And the energy level
of people in America is very high. Japan is a country that is a little more subdued. You
have your excited people here, of course, but I would say the average level of excitement
in Japan is a lot lower than the level of excitement in America. And when that excitement
is positive, it's really infectious. One of the biggest compliments that I see foreigners
giving America all the time is they say that Americans are surprisingly friendly and warm
and open and will just randomly start talking to them anywhere. And it's true! We do that
in America. I know some of you cynical Americans watching this are like "PEOPLE HERE ARE STUPID
THEY'RE NOT FRIENDLY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT" But actually Americans are really friendly
and we talk to strangers a lot. There are jerks, too, of course, and jerks are more
readily noticeable in America because they tend to be louder so you can see them a lot
more easily. But there are a lot of really great people in America and I've interacted
with a ton of amazing people, even strangers, in America.
4. CHEAP STUFF
America is freaking cheap!
It's not that Japan is expensive, it's just that globally America is a really cheap
country. Things are cheaper in America and they're bigger, so it's like things are
DOUBLE cheap in America.
Granted, a lot of stuff is cheap for a reason and one of those reasons
tends to be the quality. I've noticed that a lot of things that are more expensive here
in Japan are really good quality, so that is one plus side to buying things that are
more expensive here. But there's plenty of stuff in America that's perfectly fine anyway,
it's just cheap. And the variety of stuff that you can buy in America is pretty much
limitless. Jun and I are taking two large empty suitcases back to America, which we
are going to put inside two even larger empty suitcases so we can bring a ton of stuff back
to Japan, and I'm super excited about it! We can show you guys what we bring back if
you're interested in seeing what kind of stuff is a little more difficult or more expensive
to get here in Japan.
5. MY FAMILY
Of course my family! I miss my family a lot. I really
like my family. My family's awesome. We have a really unique sense of humor. It's called
ruthlessly make fun of each other's insecurities until someone gets upset, because it's hilarious.
And I miss that. That's probably the hardest thing for me living here, is I don't like
being so far away from my family. I wish they were here with me, or I had a portal so I
could just walk through the portal into my mom's house and say, "Mom can you make me
a jello cake!!" and then play with the dogs and then come back through the portal into
my safe and comfortable home here in Japan where I can go out in public wearing short
shorts and then everything would be perfect! I wish I could take the best parts of all
the places I've lived and put them on a giant tropical island where it's 80 degrees and
sunny all day everyday, and it would be amazing and I would be the happiest person in the
world! Real talk though, I'm happy wherever I live. I think being happy with your environment
has a lot to do with your mindset and how you react to negative things that happen.
I'm an optimistic person. I think both Japan and America are great countries and I think
they're only getting better with time. I know I'm in the minority for people who think this
way, but I do. And so I really like both places. Anyway, like I said Jun and I are going back to
America next month and I get to see my family and eat lots of food and I'm so excited!!
I'm curious what you guys' favorite parts of your home countries are, so please let
me know down in the comments! I would love to read them. Thank you guys for watching
and I'll see you later! Bye!
Hi~
HI~
HI~~
ACKKKHHHH
It's sad. It makes-
Aw Jesus
Do you have to do this right now?
Stop fucking getting in the way!
AGHHH
Can you like cool your shit?
You are going in the hallway.
The cat has been banished.