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  • (Chris, in the background): Hello everyone.

  • (Natsuki): Hello everyone.

  • (C): You are the most amazing people in the world.

  • (N): You are... Amazing people... What?

  • (C): In the world. (N):--in the world.

  • (C): You are better than sunshine and chocolate stuffed together.

  • (N): You are...bet...on...sunshine and chocolate together!

  • (C): We look forward to making lots more videos next year.

  • (N): We looks mostly next year... Together!

  • (C): Have a fucking good Christmas.

  • (N): Have a fucking gulf Christmas.

  • (Laughing)

  • (C): Fucking gulf?

  • (C): ...And a Happy New Year.

  • (N): And a Happy New Year!

  • (C): Love, Natsuki.

  • (N): Love?

  • (N): Love, Natsuki!

  • (C): Oof. (N): Move? (C): That felt wrong.

  • (N): Have..have a wrong.

  • (C): No, stop saying what I'm saying!

  • (C): God's sake.

  • (N): Yeah, thank you!

  • Some wonderful words from Natsuki there.

  • And I do hope you guys all had a fucking gulf Christmas and a Happy New Year!

  • It's now officially 2017 and I've already begun drawing up my New Year's resolutions.

  • One new year's resolution I have at the top of my list is to be more grateful, more appreciative of the things around me.

  • Because as a British person I tend to always focus always on how shit everything is.

  • You know, a British person just looks at this

  • convenient portable multicolored thought-scribing tool and just sees a pen that isn't good enough.

  • Bleh!

  • And so before we plunge into 2017 I want to first look back and realize that

  • for this channel, 2016 was actually a pretty good year.

  • For many years now, lots of viewers have been asking me to make an end-of-year highlights video.

  • And, this year I have finally given into the peer pressure and decided to actually go ahead and do it.

  • Thousands of people took part in the questionnaire in December, sending in their favorite moments and highlights

  • from the 40 videos we released in 2016.

  • And so here they are the top 10 bestest moments of this channel in 2016 as voted for by you guys,

  • and ranked in order of... goodness...

  • Yeah...

  • Fantastically tedious and arguably the crappiest video ever made by humans.

  • In January this year I went out and bought some McDonalds limited edition chocolate fries,

  • and filmed myself eating them for 2 and a half minutes.

  • Double choco sauce. Because one chocolate sauce simply isn't enough.

  • The next morning I awoke to find the video had got 400.000 views.

  • And such was its importance to the general public.

  • Choco fries had featured everywhere, from the Gaurdian newspaper to some over excited people in a room in America.

  • (Broadcaster): Chris Broad from the YouTube channel Abroadin Japan reviewed it.

  • (Broadcaster): So he got his fries.

  • (Chris): Double choco sauce.

  • (Chris): The salt on the fries doesn't overpower the chocolate.

  • (Broadcaster): Looks like Chris likes the concept, he does he gives it a 7/10.

  • Almost a year later I still don't know why people enjoyed this video and why people voted have it featured on this list.

  • And for a time, strangers on the streets of Tokyo would even approach me and refer to me as the "Chocolate Fries Guy".

  • And quite honestly, it's the only video that I've ever made where I genuinely felt bitter about its success.

  • Fucking chocolate fries.

  • Ah, I finished it. That was quick.

  • (Chris' date): This is the worst date ever.

  • (Chris): Yeah, yeah, yeah, just hold the camera.

  • There are some places you shouldn't go on a date

  • and the Aokigahara forest, also known as the suicide forest, is probably one of them.

  • Passing through the area on the way back from Mount Fuji, I decided to take my date on an unplanned stroll through the forest.

  • And thus ensued an awkward few hours and a pretty unpleasant and creepy atmosphere.

  • (Chris): We went off the path a little bit and that's not a good idea given how dense it is.

  • It's quite easy to get lost.

  • I won't lie, I have always been annoyed by the way the forest has been exploited over the years.

  • And this video was kinda making a comment on that.

  • One visitor described the silence as "chasms of emptiness".

  • Chasms of emptiness!

  • She added: "I cannot emphasize the absence of sound, my breath sounded like a roar".

  • Huh, someone just liked my picture on Instagram!

  • But as per usual, went completely over the heads of many viewers and I was branded a "wankpuffin".

  • For talking about Harry Potter and Earth Wind and Fire whilst in the forest.

  • Whenever I feel a bit uncomfortable or on-edge

  • I really want to play a song like... "September" by Earth Wind and Fire.

  • Because for some reason that's offensive.

  • And some people were equally disappointed that I wandered through the forest without trying to find a dead body or an abandoned tent.

  • Like you're supposed to

  • if you're cool and adventurous.

  • Above all though, it really just was a tedious day in an over-commercialized forest.

  • It says here: "You may not be able to call for help, as the forest is rich with magnetic iron."

  • "But some believe this feature is proof of demons in the dark."

  • Who writes this stuff?

  • At number 8 is the Akihabara Ramen Challenge when Natsuki and I battled to the almost death, but didn't die.

  • To finish a mountain of ramen in 30 minutes.

  • For 10.000 yen at stake and our pride on the line, there was everything to play for.

  • I won't spoil who won, but suffice to say, one of us got completely destroyed.

  • And to top things off Natsuki also me gave a brand new nickname.

  • And one which I am not particularly enthusiastic about.

  • Say hello to Mister Snuggles!

  • Look at that!

  • He practically oozes charisma!

  • In a desperate bit to increase the number of subscribers to the channel,

  • I discovered the secret of success on YouTube is to stick an animal in your videos.

  • And to my delight, the animal didn't even have to be real.

  • Enter Mister Snuggles!

  • A charming little stop-motion cat who walks around the apartment and knocks bread out of my hand.

  • Since his debut, Mister Snuggles has increased audience engagement on the channel

  • through hundreds of extra comments,

  • thousands of extra likes

  • and an actual genuine increase in subscribers by about 15 percent.

  • It's just a shame he bears a worrying resemblance to Hitler.

  • Something I didn't even notice until about 10 minutes after I'd uploaded his first video.

  • Bugger.

  • I don't get any hate-mail these days; everyone loves this channel!

  • The Abroadin Japan brings joy and laughter to thousands all around the world.

  • "Your humor is so bad it gave me depression"

  • What?

  • At number 6 the highlight is you! The viewer!

  • Or at least... The not so nice ones.

  • "This guy is so fucking gay, why does Japan attract bottom of the barrel white guys?"

  • Ah, for f-- come on now...

  • I'd like to think that I am at least middle of the barrel.

  • One of the benefits of being a YouTuber are the comments thrown at you from people all around the world.

  • Who don't enjoy what you're doing.

  • "Hate British Joke"

  • "'Your hair makes me depressed... Why can't mine fly so good"

  • Unfortunately though they're surprisingly rare, although here's hoping we get more hate in 2017.

  • Because it's always jolly good fun exploiting people's bitterness and stupidity for entertainment purposes.

  • "just go somewhere, anywhere. get out of your silly country and expand your little mind"

  • (Natsuki): Go fuck yourself!

  • If you're visiting Japan, one of the must-do things is visiting a Japanese hot spring, and this year, for the first time, we were able to capture two on camera.

  • I'm making them sound like animals, they're not, they're just puddles of water.

  • (Chris): We're in the mountains, I'm not even sure where we are, to be honest.

  • But I can spend all day sort off sat in here.

  • Hot springs or onsen as they're known in Japan are notoriously difficult to film in.

  • But we were lucky to get permission to go in and film in them. In full high definition video.

  • Although to be fair, the sound quality could've been better.

  • Whilst it's not easy to capture the relaxing atmosphere of a Japanese hot spring on camera,

  • we gave it a bloody good try and we almost dropped the camera in the water in the process.

  • But it was worth it!

  • And whilst I was passing through the underwear section, a questionable brand of underwear caught my eye.

  • Namely "Black Man" underwear.

  • After stumbling across some questionably branded underwear on a shopping trip.

  • I decided to dedicate the rest of my day to travelling around in search of bizzare Engrish.

  • Or Japanlish, depending on what you want to call it.

  • And we didn't have to try particularly hard to find it.

  • One of the shops caused me some concern though.

  • There was a discount children's clothing store called "Starvations".

  • Starvations...

  • Again, I don't know what compelled them to use that as their name.

  • Honestly, it's one of the bonuses of living in Japan or even Asia.

  • And I plan to dedicate more time in 2017 to uncovering some more linguistic gold.

  • For example: above the section for sashimi, for raw fish, there's a drawing of a girl saying: "I think I fit well in sake. Please daddy!".

  • You what?

  • Hey guys, it's ya boy Chris here!

  • Back to buy a sandwich from Lawson which is like a big room where you can buy things and take them home.

  • I'm gonna show you!

  • After receiving some criticism from a friend who thought my videos weren't energetic and happy enough,

  • and after watching some other vloggers, realizing how I was doing it all wrong,

  • I started vlogging in the correct way.

  • Haha! Oh my god guys! Monkey basketball!

  • Look at this monkey!

  • Some viewers assumed I was poking fun at vloggers like Casey Neistat who I actually quite like.

  • But it was more of a satirical take on many self-absorbed vloggers

  • who deliver nothing of real value to viewers whilst lacing their videos with over-enthusiasm and bullshit quirky timelapses.

  • And above all I felt frustration at YouTube as a platform for actively promoting these fucking shit videos in my YouTube news feed all the time.

  • With gossipy, clickbait titles and misleading thumbnails.

  • It's not what I wanna see and it really annoys me.

  • Still, that sandwich was good though!

  • I don't know what's in it but it's probably the best sandwich I've ever had! Haha! Ah... I wanna kill myself.

  • When a friend got me access to film in a love hotel, I could never have imagined just how spectacularly mental some of the rooms were going to be.

  • From some sort of disturbing Teddy bear cave

  • (Laughing in disbelief)

  • (Chris): This is terryfing!

  • to a random hole where you can sit in and have a mental breakdown.

  • It was all a pretty bizarre, crazy experience.

  • This is...

  • I am having a bit of an existential... fucking... crazy moment.

  • The video went viral and even ended up in the UK's Daily Mirror, who accused me of uncovering Japan's saucy secret.

  • Making me look even more seedy than usual.

  • This is certainly one of the best videos out on this channel in 2016 and definitely worth a watch to understand what goes on behind closed doors in Japan.

  • (Chris): Let's play sex.

  • You can have so much fun here.

  • At number 1 it's the unanimous highlight of the year as chosen by you guys.

  • Having moved into a tiny new apartment in Sendai,

  • I invited Natsuki over where we held his montly English lesson.

  • And by English lesson I mean pointing at various crap in the apartment and asking Natsuki to give the English word.

  • (Natsuki): Refrigerator? (Chris): Refrigerator. (Natsuki): Refrigerator!

  • (C): Nice one.

  • The situation quickly got out of hand with Natsuki incorrectly guessing items in English.

  • And re-branding various household items.

  • (N) Electric...

  • (N)...Box...

  • (C): Electric box! Uh, no, microwave!

  • (N): Microwave?

  • (N): Microwave??

  • But his greatest mistake couldn't have been much worse than it was.

  • (C): Oh yeah, what's this in English Do you know?

  • (N): Cleaner?

  • (C): Not a cleaner.

  • (C): Vacuum cleaner.

  • (N): Eh?

  • (C): Vacuum cleaner--

  • (N): Fucking?

  • (Laughing)

  • (N): Cleaner??

  • (C): Vacuum!

  • (N): Facuum?

  • (C): Va-- (N): Facyuu??

  • (N): Fa..fa..

  • (N): Facyuu???

  • (Uncontrollable laughter)

  • (C): No..

  • 2016 was the best year this channel has ever had but for me it was a bit of a transition year.

  • Because I turned from being an English teacher over to being a full-time YouTuber person.

  • So I felt a bit in between worlds. But going forward into 2017, I can do YouTube full-time, and

  • I can go ahead and keep sharing these crazy, unique, wonderful experiences with you guys more than ever before.

  • So if there is something you wanna see in Japan, a person, a place, a thing, go ahead and let us know in the comment section below.

  • And it could- well happen. I'm open to all ideas--well, most ideas. Many ideas.

  • For now though, Happy New Year guys and I'm off to finish writing my new year's resolutions.

  • Which I'm probably gonna talk about in an upcoming video because if I talk about them

  • then maybe they'll actually come true and I'll actually stick to them for once. Although that's wishful thinking, isn't it.

  • But fuck it!

  • Gotta start somewhere.

(Chris, in the background): Hello everyone.

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