Living in Japan: Culture Shock! - YouTube

I think Japan might be one of those few countries in the world where

you can sit and eat Ghana

and drink Sour Calpis

whilst simultaneously watching a man

hypnotizing a woman into having a seizure on National Television

in front of a very large man...dressed as a woman

UK has Cadbury's, America has Hershey's

Japan of course has Ghana

which is the finest cheapest chocolate you can get, for about a hundred yens

It's great, I don't know if it has any connections with Ghana, or somebody thought

"Let's call it Ghana!"

Really great! If you come to Japan, definitely buy this stuff!

And there's no better way, to wash that Ghana down with a nice can of Calpis! Calpis Sour

I guess that any drink..that claims to be filtered through vodka and charcoal

will to same degree, taste like Calpis

So I have been in Japan for about 2 months now

I feel like I'm no longer on holiday, I really do live in Japan

And this is quite weird for me 'cause this is the first time I've ever lived abroad

So one of the things I wanted to talk about is Culture Shock

As its something who affects people who move abroad for the first time

And it's something that I've had now particularly as I don't speak Japanese

And it's quite a weird sensation

There are 3 stages to Culture Shock

The first is Initial Euphoria

This beer came with a free hand towel

How good is that?

Oh look, there are Buddhas...carved in the rock

Oh my god those sushis

What are all these colorful things?

Woaw that is a mountain!

Oh a vending machine!

It's a vending machine

Oh another vending machine!!!

I just opened my bank account, and I got a free towel...a FREE TOWEL with my BANK ACCOUNT

You would NOT get that in the UK!!

Yeaaah....it's a.........water bill...

The Second is Irritation and Hostility

Literally, I'm running out of room for these f....ing towels

I just got my Internet but I feel a bit of a snag

I....can't read any of this...

Where are the god damn muffins???!

Hello I'm having problems with my Internet

Oh I don't speak Japanese

English...? No?.....Okay

Yeah, well I don't need the Internet anyway

What are they on about?

The third stage is Gradual Adjustment

And I think that's the stage I'm in now

There are days where I feel like i'm in a giant theme park

and there are days where I feel like there is a barrier between me and the Japanese people

So at least Culture Shock is driving me to learn Japanese

Pushing me. So in retrospects it's probably a good thing!

There's a big theme of convenience in Japan

And you're never far away from two things:

Convenience Stores, and Vending Machines

Vending machines sit pretty much on every street corner

In the UK having a vending machine on every other street just wouldn't work

Simply because they would get smashed up after only 45 minutes

Here in Japan you can put one in the middle of nowhere

Because of the almost non-existent crime rates

It's not a problem

Small convenience stores line every other street

Opened 24 hours a day

11 days a week, 365 days a year

And you can do some pretty cool things at the convenience store

From buying airline tickets to paying your water and electricity bills

Unless like me...

you can't read your bills so you just put them in this special Japanese cupboard designed to put your bills in

Because you aren't gonna pay for something you can't read

All the way up until you get deported

One of the most convenient tools in Japan, is this:

It's called a Hanko Stamp

And basically it's your own personalized stamp

which you use to stamp all the hundreds and millions of documents you get on a daily basis

And I'd never heard of it before I came to Japan

And there are entire shops dedicated to craft these personalized stamps

and selling these cases

And you can get some pretty pimped-up stamps made of like gold or silver...

..depleted uranium..

Little holders for your stamp it's pretty cool admittedly

And I like using it coz I feel like a lazy gangster

Because you do get so much paperwork in Japan as well, it's easier than doing a signature again and again

It's a lot of fun to use

And I quite like stamping things just for the fun of it

As I mentioned in my last video

My kitchen is quite small, designed to make you eat out every other night

Because in my mind it's too difficult to physically prepare dinner or food in such a small space

But to some degree this kitchen is once again a good example of Japanese innovation on foresight

because by having such a small kitchen, I eat out every other night

and in the process making me walk to restaurants, keeping me fit!

So, to some degree, the Kitchen is keeping me fit and healthy

Although I did just get a car

BUT one of my favorite places is a chain of sushi restaurants called Kappa Zushi

And it's popular with families or with people who like to stuff their face with raw fish, soy sauce and green tea

All for a 1000 yens which is 8£ or 12$

When I first started going I thought, like most things Japanese

it had a real air of convenience about it, after all

your food comes to you on a conveyor belt

or you order it on the screen and it comes to you on this little train

Which is amazing, it's honestly the future

but now, in train form

and you wonder why all your food isn't brought to you on a train

It just makes sense

But what I find is it's not the convenience of it all that's impressive

but how it's actually designed to make you eat more than you'd actually want in the first place

And maybe it's me just being greedy but...allow me to explain!

You go in, sit down, pour your green tea

and then you go up to the screen, ordering what food you want

While you're waiting for 5 minutes for the train to pass by, you'll inevitably take some things off of the conveyor belt

Just..just to get you started

And when you finish those, the train will probably pull up

with all your food

and off you go again

When it's time for Round 2 you turn your attention back to the screen

Go through a few pages

And you come across something called...

First bonito Concrete Floor

And this isn't just any Bonito Concrete Floor, this is the FIRST Bonito Concrete Floor

Err..assuming that there's...more than one

Bonito being "beautiful" in Spanish, or at least I thought it was

and when you see something that says Bonito Concrete Floor

which is either a ridiculous mistranslation

or just the world's greatest order at a sushi restaurant

You inevitably get it!

And sit there and wait!

If you're someone impatient like me, you start taking more and more fish from the conveyor belt

So when the Concrete Floor finally does arrive

And disappointingly appears to be just some sort of fish

instead of a bag of Concrete

You feel a bit disappointed

You know, when you order a Concrete Floor, at the very least you expect a Concrete Floor

So, you start ordering more fish

So the cycle continues, you'd order off the screen, while you're waiting you eat more food off the conveyor belt

And when you've finished, the experience culminates with you

walking out stuffed full of raw fish

and with your monthly bank balance decimated

Well that's the end of the video

I'll be putting up my next video in a few weeks

I actually spent most of the budget for this video

on that shot of the windmills at the start

So here's that shot again

And, yeah, any questions, ask away

See ya later

There are three stages to Culture Shock

The first is Initial Euphoria

WTF is that?

Shut up

There are 3 stages

There are 3 stages to...

Oh my god that bird is gonna die

There are 3 stages to Culture Shock

Oh this is not happening

Come on! Shut up!!

There are 3 stages to Culture Shock, the first is Initial Euphoria...Oh my god!

That bird..

What is it doing

Why is it so loud?

The best thing about the 24hour convenience store is

At 1am you can go and get some sort of roll

And, I'm quite excited about this..

Fried Potatoes with....Toothpick?

I'm excited coz i've never had potatoes out of the hot cooker thing

They have a really good hot food section and.. there we go! let's give it a shot!

They might've been out a while

They're pretty bad

But generally the food is awesome

I recommend it, get some hot food from Seven Eleven

Fuck shit

Just dropped a chip in the cooker