[Music]
coming up next on wonderlust tv is
another generic poorly researched series
about japan
so grab your kimonos and chopsticks and
let's go to the land of the rising sun
[Music]
tokyo japan blah blah blah 36 million
people
blah blah blah like a different planet
blah blah blah shiny
[Applause]
what will you do today special life
i bought this place mat today so every
morning when i sit down to eat my
burnt toast i can look at this bear and
think yes what am i going to do today
special life it's no secret that i love
eccentric japanese english
marketing whether it's an enthusiastic
bear or intriguing branding choices on
cans of beer like this one i bought
today it's goodbye
asahi superdry and kieran and hello to
gentoff
gent off the drink of real men gentoff
it sounds like a dance-off held by
aristocrats
but while i was off doing my standard
weekly shopping for placemats and
gentoff
i struck a goldmine in the world of
japanese english marketing
i found myself in the store's music
section when i stumbled across some
intriguing local punk rock bands
now historically of course punk rock
bands have pretty provocative names i'm
thinking the sex pistols the clash
the damned but it seems in japan punk
rock bands go for a completely different
angle as i came face to face with the
punk rock band known only as the
barbecue chickens
the bbq chickens i was pretty delighted
at first after all it's not every day
you hear of a band named after your
favorite dish but then i discovered that
the bbq chickens were under
a japanese punk rock label known as
pizza of death records
pizza of death it sounds like the last
thing you order the domino's pizza
anyway brilliant japanese punk rock
bands have signed it is time for another
q a where i answer your questions you
guys have sent in
about japan travel food culture as well
as talking about my own awkward personal
experiences
and deepest darkest secrets we'll also
have comment of the week
and hate mail of the week because not
everybody is nice
now all good q and a's live and die on
the opening questions hopefully we've
got something
good something profound and meaningful
to to kick us off what do we got
what does japan smell like
what's your opinion on the japanese
spider crab
i am never going in the sea again ever
if you could introduce one element of
western culture to japan what would you
choose
the concept of a work-life balance many
people are familiar with the word
karashi which means
death from overwork and any culture that
has to invent a word
that means that well that's never really
a good sign is it essentially when you
get a job in japan the line between work
and life
is not so much blurred as just rubbed
out all together there was a study done
in 2018 that showed that workers in
japan take only half of their annual
leave 10 days out of 20.
typically if you do take holiday leave
you'll be seen as letting down your
employees
you'll be passed over for that much
needed promotion you wanted
but honestly it's one of the most stupid
practices i've ever seen because people
are perpetually
stressed and burnt out labor
productivity in japan is the worst of
any countries in the g7
being present in the workplace and
looking like you're working hard
is actually way more important than
really being productive and certainly if
you're coming here to live and work
and you want to make a good impression
at your company and you want to impress
your colleagues just sit around and
pretend to look busy
long after your work's finished and
you'll rise to the top
in no time at all you'll be the ceo
trust me
what's the worst name you could give a
child uh spider crab
wow you're a thick boy now strawberry
cheesecake got you good
i don't even like strawberry cheesecake
creme brulee that's where the action is
what would be the one thing you didn't
enjoy in the uk but did in japan
i love knowing that every time i walk
into a pub or a bar in japan and strike
up a conversation with a stranger
i don't have to pretend to know what
football is in the uk
if you don't like football like me you
are a social outcast your life is
effectively
worthless because you can't have a
conversation with 50
of the british population so you can
probably imagine my horror when i moved
six thousand miles away to a field in
north japan
to teach english to a school where
nearly half the students supported
manchester united football club oh chris
sensei who's your favorite manchester
united football player
no one get out you failed the exam
honestly you can run from football but
you can't hide from it
what is it about ryotaro that gives off
a menacing aura
his face
what's something you really wish more
people would know about japan
i tend to find when most people think of
japan they all have the same kind of
image
crowded trains lots of people crossing
this road and everything being weird and
alien
and you'd be completely forgiven for
thinking that because that's how it's
portrayed in tv and film right
nine out of ten times lazy tv shows
featuring japan
always start with the presenter walking
over shibuya crossing saying the exact
same things blah blah blah
different planet i take my hat off to
james may he did a really good series on
amazon
and the opening shot of that isn't
shibuya crossing i was absolutely
shocked
it's him standing on a beach in the snow
in hokkaido
nothing even really interesting
happening but it was something original
it was something refreshing it was a
really well researched
series and i take my hat off to the
producers on that show they deserve
some well-earned strawberry cheesecake
tokyo isn't japan in the same way that
london isn't the uk or new york
isn't the us it's in the countryside
outside of the cities where you get a
real sense of japan's identity and
ultimately where you find the quality of
life is undeniably better than tokyo
not everybody in japan spends their day
walking over shibuya crossing
if a zombie apocalypse hit japan where
in japan would be the safest
and why that would have to be okonoshima
also known
as rabbit island the island is fairly
isolated in japan's inland sea
so secluded in fact that during world
war ii they turned it into a chemical
weapons facility
but even if the zombies did get there
somehow the thousands of rabbits that
make up the island's population would
certainly take care of them
i mean they certainly gave me a run for
my money the last time i was down there
oh my god what is your most
prized possession my most prized
possession is actually a more recent
purchase and it is this the original
1989 nintendo game boy
when i was growing up this is my first
console and i took it around with me
everywhere
and then about 15 years ago i think i
sold it for money
and i've regretted that decision ever
since but fortunately in japan
secondhand goods are phenomenally
good condition and i bought this for
about 8 000 yen about 80
at super potato the retro game store in
akihabara depending on the condition you
can actually get a cheaper one for
example
for two thousand yen less for about
sixty dollars you could get another game
boy that was stained yellow and looked
like it had been dragged through a
packet of cheetos one of the reasons i
got it though nostalgia aside was
because of this the original super mario
land game that was accompanied
with the game boy upon release in the 15
years that i played this game i was
never
ever able to beat it i was never able to
succeed
it's the sort of game where if you die
or if you switch off the console you
have to go all the way back to the start
and do it from scratch and i remember at
the age of 10 i spent two hours playing
through it once
and i was 80 of the way through when i
stepped on a
[ __ ] goomba i died and i went all the
way back to the start and the subsequent
anger distress and psychological damage
that did to me as a 10 year old child
the anger the resentment everything i am
everything i became was because of this
game and now finally
20 years later in my hands i'm gonna
beat super mario land
once and for all do it right now
will you and natsuki please do a harry
potter impression
i'm snap i'll get you
mr holly put
what kind of hotel or accommodation
would you recommend the most when
visiting japan
i can't think of many other countries
that have as crazy as wonderful
as diverse a range of accommodation
options as japan in the uk you've got
hotel rooms
and tents in the rain in japan you've
got capsule hotel
where you get to sleep at a glorified
coffee
love hotels where you can arrive on your
bed in style
you've got robot hotels where a
bilingual robot dinosaur
will check you into your room and best
of all perhaps you've got traditional
winds
you can dress up have the best meal of
your life and then boil yourself alive
in a hot spring land of the rising sun
more like land of the rising fun
i'd yeah i won't do that again sorry
my almost three-year-old has been having
trouble adjusting to his new sibling
any advice uh bribe them bribe them with
money bribe them with incredible gifts
or
for example why not buy them i have a
[ __ ] sake t-shirt from the abroad japan
merchandise range
it's the perfect gift for any discerning
two-year-old who feels left behind and
forgotten
at the birth of a new sibling no
seriously do you get them a game boy
though get them into retro video games
early and they'll grow up to be
the perfect son for one for my son in my
imagination
right this time let's do it
[Music]
go [ __ ] yourself chris seems to be
fat again oh god here we go i watched
several videos from his early days on
youtube and found out he's already a
chubby guy when he first landed in japan
but he's so young at that time and
looked quite cute with the boyish
roundness of his face
now he's slowly turned into a round
middle-aged man of which type
you can bump into a hundred times on the
streets of london
the contrast makes me feel sad welcome
to aging [ __ ]
it's true i look so young and boyish
look at that handsome rugged youthful
face it definitely doesn't look like
i've eaten a bucket of ice cream and
smeared butter
all over my face if any of you watching
this are planning to go into the
exciting world of vlogging i'll give you
some
useful advice one piece of useful advice
that is free
free of charge whenever you hold the
camera down here right at a low angle
people say oh
he looked fat you've been eating too
much strawberry cheesecake again i hate
you get out my face but
if you have the camera up here and then
wow it looks thin now it's magic all of
a sudden
10 the comments wow you've lost weight
you look good again i like you now
and that's because it makes your jawline
look slightly better right jawline looks
better
that's why people always take videos and
photos up here
but down here oh you're fat and awful
now and that
is the only thing you need to remember
in the world of
vlogging it's all about the camera angle
it's not that my weight
goes up and down every tuesday it's just
the camera angle
that and the love of barbecue chicken go
[ __ ] yourself
after eight years how has living in
japan changed you as a person
it's a good question i mean eight years
in a completely different culture
is inevitably going to change you in
some ways and i've thought about this
quite a bit because look
i've made notes on a notepad i've come
to about
six points six key points on how i think
i've changed
through living in japan number one i'd
say i'm more mindful of my behavior in
public in all my years here i've never
seen a fight
or an argument or an altercation in
public just because people are
way more mindful of how they're
affecting the people around them there's
how loud you're being in public as well
um you don't want to stand out in that
way
and certainly as a foreigner you do
become a little bit hyper aware
of what you're doing and you don't want
people looking at you right because you
already stand out a little bit and as
well as being more mindful i'm also more
polite
i think i say excuse me something like
that about
500 times a day so that's the first
point i'm more mindful
of what i'm doing and how i'm affecting
the people around me and i'm more polite
for it and i think generally it's a good
thing but it can be quite stressful as
well always having to be
switched on and always having to think
about how you're affecting
people around you second point is i have
a lot more faith
in society as a whole which sounds weird
but
simple example i go for a walk every
night about 10 11 p.m no matter what
i've done during the day i'll go out for
an hour's walk i'll do it for my mental
and physical health but i'll do it
because i have nothing to worry about
out there on the streets when i lived in
the london area
i was a little bit reluctant to do that
i felt like sure london's not overly
dangerous but you still have to be
looking over your shoulder affair but
you still have to kind of be switched on
if you go into a coffee shop here
customers leave their laptops and
equipment and wallets and phones on the
table when they go to the bathroom i
remember
being in a starbucks in hiroshima the
first time i was in hiroshima and
i just left my macbook pro on the
[ __ ] table when i went to the
bathroom and it was there when i got
back it was magic
i just would not have had the confidence
to do that anywhere else third point
i prefer sleeping on a futon than i do
sleeping on a bed which is ridiculous i
never thought that would be a thing but
there's something about sleeping on a
futon it makes me sleep better
it took me a while to get accustomed to
that but for my first three years living
here
i did live in a tiny apartment where i
had a futon and every evening i had to
get out the cupboard and unroll it and
every morning i had to pack it away and
put it back in and i had to because if i
didn't there was no living space to sit
and eat or just relax but quite quickly
i found that i
fell asleep really well on a futon i
think maybe it's the hard surface it's
quite firm
or maybe it's also because the whole
floor feels like your bed
when you're on a futon right you can
kind of stretch out you don't have to
worry about falling out
so maybe that's another factor i don't
know the science behind it all i know is
futons equal sleep
number four continuing the theme of
living in japan
i found that i can live quite
comfortably in a very
small space i grew up in quite a small
house and i was always conscious of that
and my aim for the longest time was to
have somewhere big that i could live
or rent in but then i moved here lived
in that tiny space for three years
and i actually found it had everything i
wanted everything i needed
sure you have times where you think i'd
like a bigger kitchen i'd like not to
have to use my ironing board as valuable
kitchen space but now i've lived in
three different apartments
in japan all of them have been very
small and aside from the fact you can
sometimes hear your neighbors through
the cardboard
[ __ ] walls it's actually pretty
satisfying and makes you a lot more
mindful about the things you buy
and what you put in your apartment so in
that respect i buy less things because i
simply can't fit them
in my apartment so living in a small
space never thought i'd enjoy it but
surprisingly i actually do number five i
do eat healthier
i know my reputation basically revolves
around me
eating fried chicken and strawberry
cheesecake apparently
but in reality i live a relatively
healthy lifestyle whenever i go back to
the uk i'm always shocked at how much
processed foods there are you know
snacks biscuits crisps i'm sure japan
has that but
not anywhere near the scale of a british
supermarket in a japanese supermarket
you can find a lot more raw foods a lot
more vegetables pickled things
fish while ready meals are very popular
in the uk like say
a microwave lasagna which i pretty much
survived on when i was a university
student
over here you have like pre-made bentos
and things like the pre-made foods in
japan
are far healthier and far more balanced
i think and there's been subtle changes
to my diet instead of eating crisps only
rice crackers
and instead of eating meat i'll eat fish
just because there's so much more choice
when it comes to fish in japan
but i would say my diet is a lot
healthier contrary to popular belief
strawberry cheeks okay number six i'd
say i'm a lot more appreciative towards
things foods people first off within the
japanese language there's a lot of fixed
phrases for example before you eat you
always say
italic and at the end of the meal you
say gotcha sort of
to the person that's prepared the meal
even objects i'm a lot more careful
about how
i handle them i mean we talked about
this earlier this secondhand nintendo
game boy right
this is potentially 25 years old it
looks like it was
made last tuesday just because it's been
such good care
whoever owned this kept it in such
incredible condition
and and that is pretty common in japan
people take really good care of things
when i spoke to rioter about this he
told me that when parents are raising
children in japan they teach them that
every object kind of has a life force
in it does sound a little bit like the
jedi sounds a little bit like star wars
but
he said that if a child is kicking the
table the mother would say don't
hit mr table don't hit table stand and
sort of teach
kids that every object has some sort of
life force or some sort of energy in it
but given japanese culture's strong
roots in buddhism and shintoism
it wasn't a surprise to hear that and
generally i find people take good care
of things and that rubs off on you
so those are six ways i think japan has
changed me
and i think most those points are
largely positive
clearly the best thing that's come out
of me living in japan is i no longer
kick
tables for fun don't want to hurt table
sam
that is all for now though guys a huge
thanks to everybody who sent in their
questions for this video for more behind
the scenes content check out
the apron japan patreon but for now many
thanks for watching i'll see you
next time i am gonna do something i've
been wanting to do
the last hour does it live up to the
hype there is no hype it's just gentle
isn't it there we go moment of truth
if you're wondering what that means
apparently it means that there's less
wheat
in it um maybe there's less calories
typically if they have off in the
branding somewhere it means they've
knocked off some calories
smells like beer
it smells like beer but it doesn't taste
like beer it tastes like
tonic water flavored like beer i won't
be buying it again gent off
more like flavour off