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  • I want you to imagine you've just opened your very own restaurant,

  • and you're thinking of ways to make it more visually appealing to passers-by.

  • Perhaps by having a nice display of flowers,

  • or a quirky neon sign.

  • Or even just a mascot sat out the front, with a warm friendly expression

  • --from your nightmares.

  • I was stumbling around Tokyo the other day in search of some much-needed coffee,

  • when I came across a noodle restaurant

  • with a questionable visual display out the front.

  • Now, I assume the owners had asked themselves that very question -

  • "What can we do to make our restaurant more visually appealing?"

  • "How can we improve its appearance?"

  • And presumably, the answer to that question had been,

  • "Let's put a dozen human centipede figurines out the front of the restaurant!!"

  • (*dramatic sfx*)

  • That's right, because nothing says "enjoy your noodles" quite like figurines

  • re-enacting an incredibly unpleasant scene out of a sh*tty horror movie.

  • Quite literally, a shi*tty horror movie.

  • But I see all the time in everyday life in Japan that

  • confuse me, but no longer surprise me,

  • because having lived here for four years now,

  • I'm starting to find it difficult to know if something would be considered to be strange or odd

  • if it was outside Japan.

  • For example, just yesterday,

  • I walked past an upmarket clothing boutique called 'Ropé Picnic'

  • Which, to me, sounds like some sort of suicide pact you'd undertake with a friend

  • which starts with a pleasant countryside picnic of sandwiches and biscuits,

  • before ending with a brutal hanging.

  • It's one of those phrases that you look at and go,

  • "well, there's technically nothing wrong with 'Ropé Picnic' -

  • it's not ungrammatical or misspelt -

  • it just sounds a bit awkward".

  • In the same way that Japan's most popular energy sports drink is called 'Pocari Sweat',

  • downing a bottle of fluid with the word 'sweat' on the side

  • probably wouldn't go down too well in most countries.

  • But in Japan, it doesn't seem to be a problem.

  • Then there's this box of chocolate stick biscuits I bought the other day, called

  • 'Sukky'.

  • It is called 'Pocky' normally,

  • but this is the 'romantic' gift version of Pocky

  • sold around Valentine's Day.

  • If you don't already know, Valentine's Day in Japan, on February 14th,

  • is a day when girls give guys presents,

  • and then a month later on March 14th, guys give gifts to girls

  • on a day known as 'White Day'

  • - a name which probably wouldn't go down too well in the West.

  • But it says here beneath the word 'Sukky' in big gold letters,

  • "anata ga suki desu", which means "I like you",

  • and there can be no doubt there's no faster way to a guy's affections

  • than by giving them some... some 'Sukky'.

  • When you first come to Japan though,

  • it's really easy to spot things that are maybe a bit strange or unusual.

  • After all, the early success of this channel

  • was built off of me just finding unusual things in everyday life

  • and then talking about them, whilst slumped in a chair with a greasy face.

  • But today I want to look at some ways living in Japan has changed me over the last four years,

  • and some of the cultural aspects that might have rubbed off on my personality.

  • And saying as this video is technically the 100th video on this channel,

  • it seems like the perfect milestone at which to do that,

  • so, let's dive into point number two.

  • Baahh.

  • I ate them all.

  • Typical, eh?

  • Now I won't be able to take them on the Ropé Picnic.

  • Since living in Japan, there's no doubt I've become more mindful in everyday life.

  • In Japanese culture, there are many fixed expressions relating to showing appreciation and gratitude,

  • thanks to its roots in Buddhism.

  • And it's impossible for it to not be engrained in you in some way after just a few months of being here.

  • For example, the most popular of these expressions that you'll here in everyday life is

  • 'otsukare', or 'otsukaresama deshita'

  • which have no direct translation into the English language, but none the less mean

  • 'Thank you for your hard work' or 'You must be tired'.

  • When I was working as an English teacher at school I would probably hear it a hundred times a day

  • just from colleagues in the staff room or people passing me in the corridor.

  • And it's a nice feeling when everyone's saying it to each other at the end of a long day

  • because there's a sense that everybody has played their part -

  • everyone's played their role in society in some way.

  • Another example, of course, is when it comes to eating -

  • there's two key ritualised expressions that you use every time.

  • Just before you start eating your meal, you put your hand together and say:

  • 'itadakimasu' to show thanks for receiving the food,

  • and then after eating the food you'd say

  • 'gochisousama deshita', which means 'It was a feast'.

  • And nice, short, simple expressions like these help you to appreciate the sacrifices

  • that have been made to get the food onto the plate in front of you.

  • And it really does make you a lot more mindful over a period of months and years.

  • Compare this to the UK, where by the time most people in Japan

  • have put their hands together and said 'itadakimasu',

  • the plate of food in the UK has already long gone.

  • And instead of hearing a phrase like 'gochisousama deshita',

  • in the UK you're more likely to hear "Oi! Where's the TV remote?"

  • "I want to watch Top Gear!"

  • "Oh wait. No I don't."

  • There's also a great deal of appreciation shown to physical inanimate objects as well.

  • For example, business cards in most countries are merely just a bit of paper with some ink on,

  • but in Japan, being handed a business card is like being handed the Cup of Christ,

  • as business cards are seen as a physical extension of the person themselves.

  • So when you're being handed a business card, you hold it meticulously, you study it for a few moments,

  • and you never put it away until the person is out of sight and the meeting is over.

  • But this level of care people show to physical objects and possessions

  • is also the reason why going to second-hand goods shops in Japan is so much fun.

  • You can easily get hold of second-hand items like a SNES that's almost three decades old,

  • but still looks brand new.

  • If I contrast that again to nine years ago when my Xbox 360 broke,

  • after showing the red ring of death,

  • I still quite clearly remember running it over three times in my Vaxhall Vectra.

  • Such was my frustration.

  • Bastard had the last laugh though -

  • it punctured my tire and cost me another £70!

  • Since then I've never bought another Xbox.

  • I also find I'm more considerate towards others as well, since moving here.

  • Japan has a collectivist culture where the emphasis is on the group rather than the individual,

  • and one way this manifests itself is the awareness you get of the people around you at all times.

  • I'm a lot more thoughtful now of how my behaviour affects the people around me,

  • like when I'm being noisy, for example, in public.

  • And it's a well known fact that talking on trains in Japan is looked down upon, and often forbidden.

  • I didn't truly appreciate how good this rule is until I went back to the UK over Christmas,

  • and I was on a train going to London, and somebody sat in the chair behind me,

  • and for forty minutes they were regaling their

  • f*cking life story

  • incredibly loudly down the phone.

  • At one point I almost turned around and told her what happened to my Xbox,

  • but then I remembered it's normal to be loud and annoying in the UK,

  • often to the detriment of the people around you.

  • So in summary, living here has generally made me more mindful and appreciative in everyday life

  • and more considerate towards other people.

  • And those are some of the best things that have come from living in Japan.

  • Well, that and the ability to easily acquire a games console from the 90s

  • that still looks like it was built yesterday.

  • That, is just really cool. You know.

  • Heh heh.

  • But God forbid, if it should break.

  • (*dramatic sfx*)

  • In a few moments, my hair will magically get longer

  • - that's not because I'm a wizard, or anything (probably) -

  • but because I've filmed the next few scenes earlier this morning,

  • so, I'm not sure which I prefer,

  • pre-haircut, post-haircut - dunno, what do you think?

  • Anyway, without further ado, let's go back in time to this morning.

  • People often ask if living in Japan has affected the way I communicate or my language, the way I speak,

  • and it definitely has changed.

  • Because I've been dealing with students and colleagues and locals all day, every day

  • who weren't that great at English

  • I had to change my accent and stop using lots of colloquial British expressions.

  • But it has really affected the way I use idioms. For example, if I say to someone:

  • "Oh I'll eat that squid..."

  • "when pigs fly!"

  • Or, "the ball is in your court, Takeshi,"

  • then the odds are the listener won't know what the hell I'm talking about.

  • And that's particularly the case for sarcasm.

  • If a colleague said to me, "Oh, Chris-san, do you want to part in the annual North Japan marathon?"

  • and I said, "Oh, you know what Mr Saito,"

  • "I'd rather slam my fingers in the door,"

  • then my sanity would be brought into question - he'd wonder what the hell I'm talking about.

  • Do I really want to slam my fingers in the door? Am I mental?

  • Is it a British custom?

  • So many difficult questions would be raised that it's just easier for me to go,

  • "Oh no, I'm ehh, not going to do the marathon."

  • British humour in particular which relies heavily on irony or subtlety

  • is going to cause a great deal of uncertainty,

  • and your remarks will probably come off potentially as offensive,

  • so it's best avoided.

  • One spectacular example of where my humour backfired

  • was in a class that I was running with the Japanese teacher of English,

  • and the subject of the class was on future careers,

  • and we're trying to get the students to talk about what they wanted to become when they became an adult.

  • And as an example, the teacher asked me, in front of the class:

  • "Chris-sensei, what did you want to become when you were a child?"

  • And I said: "Well, when I was a child, I wanted to be a pirate."

  • Which I did.

  • I mean, who wouldn't want to live a life of swashbuckling adventure?

  • But obviously there was a bit of light-hearted humour thrown in there as well,

  • but, she turned to me in front of the class in shock and surprise, and said,

  • "But Chris-sensei, why would you want to be a pirate?"

  • "Why would you want to kill and rape people?"

  • (*sudden dramatic sfx*)

  • "Ehhh..."

  • "Ohh, heh heh..."

  • "Because..."

  • And I just stand there awkwardly in front of thirty-five 16 year-olds

  • and justify why I wanted to be a pirate,

  • and my interpretation of what I thought a pirate was -

  • an image that surprisingly didn't involve rape or mass murder

  • Two years ago during Christmas, I went back to the UK for a holiday

  • and on the holiday I took my good friend Natsuki with me

  • to show him around London for the first time.

  • And while we were passing through a train station in London,

  • Natsuki's train ticket got stuck in the machine - it wouldn't work.

  • The gate wouldn't open.

  • Which was strange because it was exactly the same as mine.

  • So we went and asked one of the train station staff what was wrong with the ticket,

  • and they put it straight into another machine, and the doors opened without any problems.

  • And so we asked the staff: "What was wrong with the ticket? Why didn't it work?"

  • And the guy looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, and just said,

  • "Well, it's England innit mate."

  • And I thought,

  • "Yeah, that's fair enough."

  • "That's a legitimate excuse."

  • And Natsuki was incredibly confused because that's something that doesn't really happen in Japan.

  • It wouldn't cut it as an excuse.

  • In the UK, things just don't work sometimes, and we can let it go.

  • When you use a vending machine in Japan, you're doing it to buy a snack or a drink,

  • whereas in the UK, using a vending machine is like going f*cking gambling -

  • you never quite know if you're going to win or not.

  • And certainly after a few years of having everything just work, effortlessly, without a problem,

  • you come to expect it to always be the case.

  • Particularly when it comes to food, because you find wherever you go to eat food in Japan,

  • it's always going to be pretty good.

  • Take ready meals, or microwave food from the convenience store:

  • As a student in the UK, I used to eat a ridiculous amount of microwave food

  • because, although it looked like diabetes and tasted like disappointment,

  • I had no choice - it was cheap, it was quick to prepare,

  • and above all, I was f*cking lazy.

  • But ready meals in Japan are not only often cheaper than in the UK,

  • but also frighteningly edible.

  • For ¥480 you can get something that looks and tastes like a real meal.

  • I mean, it's even nicely presented!

  • What is this microwave witchcraft?!

  • There is a reason behind all of this though,

  • and ehh, yes - hi. It's me from the future again. Good to see you.

  • Japan is classed as a 'high uncertainty avoidance culture',

  • which means situations that present uncertainty cause a great deal of stress and anxiety,

  • at least a lot more than they would to a culture on the opposite end of the spectrum.

  • But after living here I find I carry a lot more assumptions -

  • I expect things to work all the time, I expect food to always be really good quality,

  • and I expect there to be less spontaneity in general daily life events as well.

  • Which isn't necessarily a good thing,

  • as I do find I have far less random fun encounters in Japan than I do back home.

  • People are far less likely to talk to you if you're just sitting there, idly, in a coffee shop.

  • But those are some of the ways living in Japan has changed me though.

  • There are lots more ways, of course, but those are the main ones.

  • Has living in Japan made me a nicer person?

  • No. Probably not.

  • Has living in Japan made me a better person?

  • Uhh, no. Probably, not... again.

  • But has living in Japan been one of the best decisions that I've ever made?

  • Yes, absolutely. After all this time,

  • there's not been a single day that I've regretted that decision.

  • And I do stuff that I regret all the time.

  • In the same way I've never regretted doing YouTube.

  • Given that we're 100 videos in, I would just like to take the time to say,

  • thank you, to all of you who have followed this channel over the years, though.

  • I really don't say thank you enough.

  • Whether you're someone who tunes into every video, or leaves a nice comment or likes the video,

  • or whether you're one of the awesome people who supports this channel through Patreon,

  • and keeps it alive, and keeps it going -

  • I'm very grateful to all of you, I really am.

  • Just sometimes it's difficult to get that across,

  • given the personality I choose to present these videos.

  • I can't believe there's 100 videos. And it's strange to think,

  • you could pretty much chart my entire existence in Japan over that 4-year period by watching them.

  • That said, we've still barely scratched the surface.

  • We've still got so much to see, do, and learn.

  • But for now, guys, a huge thanks for watching the video, as always.

  • I'm off now to celebrate my new haircut by watching Muppets Treasure Island

  • and enjoying some Sukky.

  • Seriously though, Sukky?

  • Who... who thinks this sh*t up?

  • Ohh, god.

I want you to imagine you've just opened your very own restaurant,

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