Pizza sand hmm delicious
For years now whenever I've got into Family Mart
there's something that's always caught my attention. An ominously branded product known only as Baked Sand
and yet I've never actually bought it until today. So I went down the Family Mart to grab it only to discover
They've rebranded it as Pizza Sand which to be fair is marginallmm
Now I know what you're probably thinking a pizza covered in sand sounds absolutely delicious
But I'll be a disappoint you by revealing that this actually means sandwich the word for sandwich
Japanese is SANDO, but because they wanted English branding on the products
they dropped the 'O' to make it sound more English and the end result is
an awkwardly named products that we're about to try, for the first time.
It has been microwaved down the store and it's a little bit soggy.
That's- that's not good. Anyway, here we go.
[Food noises]
No, not bad not to be good either
all I can think about right now is a pizza filled with sand
And so I just don't really buy this again. Just just forget about that.
It's a four out of ten product at best
So today I'm answering questions you guys have sent in about life in Japan
travel food,
Culture will also be reading out comment of the week and hate mail of the week because not everybody is nice
And as always together,
We'll uncover the answers to all the big questions about Japan the good the bad and the ugly. So without further ado lest I be
Would you rather have feet for hands or hands for feet?
Every time for fu-
"They said the giant Japanese Hornets have finally made it to this side of the world and... they're here to stay.
Can you tell us about all those encounters you've had with those beasts? Have you seen one inside your home?
For those of you that aren't familiar with the giant Japanese Hornet? It's an absolute horror show.
Imagine an angry-looking bee, the size of a fist
with a deadly six-millimeter stinger that's been described as being the most painful in the world.
It's a good thing I didn't learn about Hornets in a pamphlet about Japan before I moved here, to be honest
Otherwise, it could have been abroad not in Japan
But I did once have a frightening close encounter with the Hornet, not in my house, fortunately.
But I did have one in my car once which to be fair was equally as bad.
I was driving down the road with windows down on a nice sunny afternoon
the afternoon wind brushing through my hair
and then a hornet came through the window and hit me in the side of the head
and started buzzing around the car
[Humming]
Fortunately, I wasn't in a built-up area
So I hit the brakes, pressed all the buttons, all the windows went down it managed to fly out the car to safety
it was pretty unnerving
It could have ended quite badly if it stung me in the face while I was driving
But they're pretty amazing creatures to witness from afar
and providing you don't get too close to a nest or make any sudden movements when they're nearby, you'll be fine
Do girls ever run up to you and say, "I love you Chris"
You bet they do happens every single day in my imagination
What is one of the most underappreciated?
Dishes that's been featured and what some dishes you'd recommend for people to try at least once when they visit Japan
I'll give you two and the first one is Genghis Khan. No, not the Mongolian ruler but a juicy lamb mutton barbecue dish
I like the dish for two reasons. The first one is it's called Genghis Khan. How cool is that?
Imagine if all dishes were named after a famous historical
Dictator what will you be having today, sir? Yes, I'll have the Colonel Gaddafi with a side dish of ideo me a good choice
sir, thinking apparently the lamb mutton dish is called Genghis Khan is because here in Japan they typically associate Mongolia with lamb and
Mongolia equals Genghis Carlos as simple as that brilliant right fundamentally
It's a bloody delicious dish cooked on an iron grill in a way where all the juices from the meat
Marinate all the vegetables at the bottom of the grill
It's also one of Japan's only dishes involving lamb and it certainly doesn't disappoint
The second thing is a really a dish but a sweet cooled Bon Ton Ahmet literally citrus fruit candy
Or as I like to call them leap of faith sweets because they require
Something of a leap of faith to put them in your mouth given they are wrapped in edible plastic
At least I hope they're edible. Otherwise, this might be a very short video
At first it is undeniably unpleasant. It does just taste like you've stuffed a plastic bag in your mouth
But after about five six seconds the plastic melts away and you get this lovely
Juicy citrus fruit flavor coming through and pour the point out. It's not actually plastic. It's some sort of gelatin made by wizards
Well, there's something quite satisfying about them and you can get them in any supermarket across Japan Genghis Khan would have loved it
Have you ever had an or encounter with a viewer?
I found it's quite common to be recognized in the street
But people just don't know where from or where they've seen me last year
I was in ski G fish market in Tokyo making a video with realtor E and a viewer I think for America came over and
Said way mate. I know you from somewhere and I was like, well, maybe I felt kind of smug because Rialto is standing there
I thought you know it made me look good. And then he said you're on YouTube. Are you making making videos?
Yeah, that's that's me. And then he said wait a minute. Are you Dave in Japan? You're Dave in Japan. Oh
Yeah, yeah, that's me Dave Dave in Japan dude. I love your videos Dave in Japan. Yeah Dave in Japan
That's that's who I am. That's what we do. Terry Otero laughing his head off all the while. I wouldn't have minded
I didn't really mind
I felt kind of funny, but we ought to I bullied me for the rest of the day as we walked around Tsukiji market
Is it embarrassing to ask someone where the love hotel is? No not if you've had a lot to drink
What is your favorite product that you originally only purchased because of bad English. Well, I wouldn't say it's bad English
It's bloody brilliant English. Check this out. This is my new hat and for those of you that seen recent videos
I have started something of a hat collection
I haven't had much today. Haven't really got out much
But when I do get out I buy hats with weird English on like this one that says are you excited less adventure?
special every day
but that hat is so last week because this one is my new favorite hat and it simply says
Factors to protect by might let things take their course an act of Ramage
Let things take their course an act of ravage. Yeah, wait a minute reading that out loud
It does sound a little bit dodgy. Doesn't it? Let things take their course an active ravage
That's the sort of thing you'd hear being read out in a courtroom
I don't feel for where that are in public forget about forget about a hat
If your first tattoo isn't Family Mart chicken, then you're a knob
My first tattoo isn't going to be a piece of Family Mart fried chicken is what it looks far. It's gone
Now it's a well-known fact
There's a lot of animosity between South Korea and Japan
For various historic and geopolitical reasons and just by virtue of being here
Sometimes you get caught up in the crossfire leading to bizarre and incredible nicknames like this one, for example
Hello, Japanese spy, man
never come career forever
Japanese spy man. Finally a title that I can wear with pride. I can never cut it as a British spy, man
I can certainly make it as a Japanese spy, man. Unfortunately, though it simply isn't true
We all know who the real Japanese spy man is with his multilingual skillset
Charismatic persona and uncompromising Lee 20 smile. I've been to South Korea absolutely loved it
And now I'm gonna make a special effort to go again just to spy you and to conduct industrial espionage on an unprecedented scale
What's your favorite train station of why most stations in Japan are all the same
Modern convenient ultimately dull and then there's four curry station, which is dinosaurs
Life-size
Animatronic dinosaurs. It's like a low-budget Jurassic Park
I cycled past Fukui station on journey across Japan and of all the stations I saw on that 2,000 kilometer journey
That was easily the coolest and the reason is the Curie is home to one of the biggest dinosaur
Archaeological sites in the country and the runner-up award goes to Niigata station for having 200 Saki vending machines
Honestly the most fun you could ever have at a train station
Only they could combine the Saki vending machines, but the animatronic dinosaurs to create the world's best station get drunk ride around on a dinosaur
Possibilities would be limitless
When will you get me out of the basement? I didn't eat anything for two weeks now the real crisp broad
You knew the rules, you know, what's gonna happen you only have yourself to blame I
Need to get here
Yeah, wait some Peter Sam
Please
What's the largest animal you think you could single-handedly cling film to a lamppost
Yeah a
porpoise
You always seem uncharacteristically
Positive about Japan in general. Is there anything about the country or culture that really bothers you?
You know what? That's because nothing here does bother me nothing at all because
Oh
There might be one thing
Firstly I don't mind living in an apartment the size of a shoe. I kind of like it. It's kind of cool
it's a simple way of life even in my first apartment where I used my ironing board as valuable kitchen space on account of the
Fact I lacked an actual kitchen. It was kind of fun. It made me feel like I was in a
low-budget
post-apocalyptic movie to be honest and I get the need for small apartments given Japan's population density and walls made of
Cardboard because bricks are vulnerable to earthquakes
but if you are gonna build apartments off
Why is essentially thick paper why not insulate the walls just that little bit better to make them?
Soundproof because I can hear my neighbors on all sides whether it's arguing cooking cleaning fire doing random things
You know, I hate it. Absolutely horrible. It's like a radio that can never be switched off
It's also made me very self-conscious about how noisy I can be in my own apartment
Typically in the evening if I'm watching a film or TV or something
I have to use headphones. So it doesn't feel like a shared cinematic experience
Maybe I've just been unlucky but the two or three apartments I've lived in haven't had great walls
I don't know if you're somebody that lives in Japan do you of this problem? Is it just me? Am I going mad?
Probably certainly being stuck indoors for the last two months has made that problem a whole lot worse
It might not be a japan-only problem
but I do know that if you are gonna pack so many people into such a small space some
Soundproofing or better insulation would make all the difference and make the quality of living here
just a little bit higher, but I don't think
Construction companies are gonna do it just because they make more money if they don't that's all there is to it
That's why hey why is the true meaning of life to get Twitter verified, but I haven't got it
So my life is utterly worthless
Have there been any times that a stranger in Japan has talked about you behind your back not knowing that you understand Japanese
If so, what did they say? I remember in my first year here
I went to a local festival and you know, it's really busy people just sitting there
drinking having fun and I walked past a couple he must have been in their 30s there about a foot away from me and the
going turned to his wife and said I
Should my eyes a foreigner and he said it in a way that clearly he has seen that I didn't know what he'd said
So I spun around and went. Oh, yeah, and he was quite taken aback by this
He dropped his ice cream all over the floor and just sort of sat there in shock and horror, but honestly
That's the only thing I've ever really
encountered people just expressing surprise that there's a foreigner, but you know
Japan is one of the most homogenous countries on earth and it's extremely rare to run into someone in the countryside here that it's not
Japanese so you get used to it pretty quickly and you learn not to get offended by it and the merely I'm equally as guilty
Whenever I see a foreign around here, I also dropped my ice cream in horror and disgust
He look like a fat jake gyllenhaal
Fat Jake, I don't see it
I don't see it at all when I
suspect sometimes that some of my viewers need to wear these
But I'll add it to the list with Elon Musk and Frankie Muniz. And in the meantime, why don't you go fuck yourself?
What are three or four things that no one tells you about Japan they're surprised you when you moved there
alright
So there's three things that I learned about Japan through just being here stuff that nobody told me and the first one is this
Signatures aren't really thing. Japan uses a
Traditional and ultimately flawed method called the Hanko stamp and it comes with this little funky case check that out as cool
Isn't it whenever you do serious paperwork at the Town Hall or deep banking or buy a car?
You need to use your own personal seal when I first got it
I was like, wow, that's cool my own stamp. You can get the ink in there and then stamp things was brilliant
I couldn't stop stamping things. It was so much fun. However, I quickly grew to hate it every time I needed it
I've never actually had it because it's just a bit weird carrying a stamp around with you all day
Well, you've got a perfectly good signature
No only that but if something happens to your stamp, it could be a complete and utter nightmare
I've actually had to hanko stamps in my time
The first stamp just had my name Chris on it and I was told after a year of using it that it wasn't good enough
Just wasn't good enough stamp. I don't really know why I've still never understood that several years later
I went to my bank with my pencast to change my address and everything was going well woman was very nice
And I did my stamp and then she suddenly realized that my new stamp was different to my old stamp
And she said why have you got a new stamp?
and I said I got rid of that one like four or five years ago and she was like
Do you have it still when I was like, hey, it's long gone
You know dustbin somewhere and at that point the entire bank broke
well
The whole Bank just came to a standstill
No less than ten members of staff huddled around my document trying to work out what to do. Cuz ISM is awful
I got the supervisor. They've got the manager. They've got the regional manager one point even God came down to try and sort this fiasco
Finally after 40 minutes they went. Okay. Well, there's nothing we can do
We're just gonna have to let it go and that was the end of that
I left the bank longing for the days that I used to just use my signature and I cursed this damn outdated system
fortunately
The good news is they are looking at getting rid of Hanko stamps once and for all on account of the fact that it's not
1856 and the day they are you can be sure to find me sitting here with a party hat and a smile
point number two after the great Hank Oh Stamp, Fiasco
I needed a drink can either beer and you'll find that bars and restaurants in Japan don't have any
Outdoor seating now in the UK can't be sitting outdoors in the Summer Sun and a good pub garden in Paris
You can't be sitting out on the streets with a baguette and a glass of wine
But in Japan outdoor seating is phenomenally rare. There are a few good reasons. Number one. The weather is pretty erratic
It's either bloody hot or bloody cold. And neither of those conditions are particularly ideal for sitting outside having a drink
Secondly, perhaps a bigger factor is the lack of space if you look at a street in Japan
There's never much room to put chairs or tables
And to sit outside and drink and then there's the noise then convenience that heavy drinking outdoors would create so at the end the day
It's probably for the best but the end result is many streets feel a little bit barren and cold
Where all the real action is happening behind closed doors?
And that takes me to point number three when you do go into one those bars and you sit down have a drink and start
Chatting with the locals you'll always find those
Conversations start at some point with somebody asking you what your age is then there is a good reason behind it
Now at first I always thought it was a bit of jokey banter people just asking you your age
You know
It's just quite fun guessing people's ages when I came here at the 22 people used to always guess the high was 38 years old
bastard, but as the years rolled on I learned that there was a pretty good reason for it and that is age plays quite a
large role in Asia
Due to the values of Confucianism and people like to know where they stand in terms of hierarchy where they are
obviously most people know the terms core high and thus Empire and age is the most important factor in determining which one you are when
dealing with someone
So if you're chatting with a stranger in Japan and your ages are somewhat ambiguous the sooner, you know
How old each of you are the quicker you can establish your position better
And that's an oversimplification
Of it all but hopefully the next time you're on a bar crawl out in Tokyo and ten people in one night ask you what?
Your age is at least you'll now know why if you could unwatched one movie besides et. What would it be and why?
God not et
Thank you to all of you guys who stood by me and voiced your support and dismay for the horror show. That is et
The only other movie I wished I could un-watch is the human centipede and I don't think that requires any
Explanation either as to why that is and rather ominously
there's a district in Tokyo called Shiro dome where you can actually find human centipede like
Sculptures on full public display out the front of a bloody restaurant on a scale of 1 to shit idea
That's quite literally shi- ehh. It doesn't need to be there didn't need to be done
Do you have any more planned travels across Japan like your journey across Japan? Yeah
I mean, I've been sitting indoors for about two months now and I've been growing increasingly anxious to get out and escape somewhere
There's only so long you can sit in your apartment listening to your neighbors argue
Aw no not again
But the other day I was looking at the Abroad in Japan map on the website where you can see all the videos that we filmed
Over the years where they are and there's like four or five noticeable hotspots that we seem to have evaded such as East Hokkaido
central Japan Shikoku and Kyushu
So I am thinking of doing like a road trip series later this year think journey across Japan
But without bicycles and with with a car, which finally should have been originally to be honest, but I am open to ideas
Let me know where you'd like us to go and explore later this year, but for now guys, that's it
Thank you to everyone who sent in their questions for this episode. For more behind the scenes videos check out their bro in Japan patreon
But for now guys as always many thanks for watching, I'll see you
next time I'm off to
Take back this act of ravage hat want to get my money back
So I get my hundred yen back or I might chuck it to the person in the basement, can't made my mind up