Hello.

Hello.

My name is Norman.

- This is my little brother Alexander. - Hi.

And today we're talking about culture shocks in Japan.

Mostly, Alexander's culture shocks.

I've been here 10 years.

Alexander's been here five weeks and this is your second time in Japan, right?

Yes, it is.

Today were actually in the middle of shooting another video, an entire food video.

But we wanted to get these culture shocks out there.

So overall, would you say you felt more or less culture shock in your second visit than you did in your first visit?

More culture shock, definitely.

More culture shock in his second. We made a list.

Let's take a peek at the list.

I see garbage cans over.

There wasn't one of your first culture shocks like garbage can related.

Yes, it was.

It was the fact that the recycling and garbage went into the same hand it was.

Cans and bottles were separate holes for cans and bottles, but when Alexander looked inside, both went into the same place.

Both the to the same spot.

I guess it's all about the feeling.

So the sounds of this temple in the background this seems like a pretty good spot for the second one.

Do you remember when we were in that I got she shop and you found that kids beverage that you weren't expecting?

Yes, I do.

Remember what it waas kids, beer, kids, beer.

What did you think of that?

I thought it was just the strangest thing after, Yeah, the idea of beer designed specifically for kids.

And it's not just you mean by little bottles called kids beer, so that the kid can sit down and have beer with Daddy during dinner.

Or there's little tablets that you can drop in water that will make the water look like beer.

All right, Japan Fun fact.

While right now beer is the number one consumed beverage in the country.

When it was brought into the country, Japanese people actually had to be bribed just to drink it.

All right.

One more super quick.

One was Alexander's reaction to the size of loaves of bread.

I would say average Japanese loaf of bread is about the width of my face.

That's crazy I don't know.

I think there's two schools of thought on it.

Either the Canadian loaves air too big or the Japanese loaves are too small.

What do you think?

I think the Japanese lobes are too small.

Personally, I feel somewhere in the middle would be nice.

So bread.

So for any of you who watched Alexander Zaki Habit a hall video, you know how much he loves the area of AKI habit.

But there was one thing that he didn't love.

Do you remember what that was?

Yes, I do.

It's the fact that the stores opened really late and closed really early.

That's always been one that bugs me is well.

Do you remember the opening times for the average shop about 11 o'clock in the morning?

Yeah, about 11 or 11 30 in the morning is the average opening time, and some of them closes early is like seven PM You don't expect to come into the metropolis of Tokyo, especially in area like Akihabara, and have shops on Lee be open from like 11 11 30 until 7 p.m. I had the same struggle when I was building my video editing computer.

Really?

Yeah, it.

Ah, but if you think hockey habit as bad, the Japanese banks are famous for their closing times.

You know, timing clothes.

No.

Japanese banks close at three PM Jeez, that's wildly inconvenient.

Yeah, yeah, it is much A T.

M's are always there, but if you actually need, like, speak to a bank teller, it's just and I don't know what country you're watching from.

Maybe leave it down below.

But in Canada, things air typically open fairly late like 10 PM Another really minor one kind of related to shops.

But you were surprised by the gas station.

They were just gas stations.

There was nothing else.

Alexander's really accustomed to gas stations being like a gas station.

Slash convenience store slash rest stop.

Yeah, it's a little different in the countryside sometimes, and it is different along the highway.

But in Tokyo, gas stations air just gas station.

There's no snacks, there's no drinks.

There's no concession stand there or anything.

It's just a gas station.

Also, I know this one wasn't on your list, but because of the absolute absence of it right now, with it being like the end of August, do you notice what we don't hear right now.

Sick eight.

Us.

Yeah.

Alexander has been taking pictures of cicadas like crazy this entire trip, and I've never asked why.

Why have you been getting so many pictures and videos of the cicadas?

Because we don't have him back home.

Really?

You live like right in nature in Canada?

Yeah.

You're sick a day?

No, not at all.

That's weird.

Northern Ontario, Canada and doesn't here suit cadence.

I've never really thought about it, but they're just so obvious in Japan and they're everywhere.

And then when you come into a green space like this and you hear nothing and you hear nothing, it's a strange feeling.

You can hear kids screaming.

Also, mosquitos are eating us alive.

Let's keep going.

Couple that in the background there.

I'm trying to keep the kids out of focus, but kids that age walking home from school by themselves, what do you think it's not safe way would walk home on her own.

I think it's just more shocking to see it in a big city like Tokyo, right?

A little like 67 year old kid on their own on the train.

We grew up in Toronto, and we did go out on our own from time to time.

But we never took public transportation.

No, on her own.

So, to me, seeing the little kids on the trains is still something that I could never get used to.

I really like this next one because I wasn't expecting, and I'm gonna set it up with a story.

So Alexander and I went to 100 yen shop called Die.

So we're into fairly big one, actually.

And we did a bunch of shopping, and I put three things in his cart.

And when we got up to the register, he gave me this, like, dirty look like, Do you think you actually said something like, Do you plan on paying me for these?

And I think I got it like, three bucks, and I gave it to him and he gave me another dirty look like $3.

Who do you think you are?

It was at that moment that I realized that he didn't know it was a dollar shop.

And when I told him that it was a dollar shop, he was like, after this whole thing.

Alexander took a minute to like reassess the entire store and he said to me, Maybe four or five times this thats whole Everything's 100 yet Cos dollar store, my mind is blown.

I could see it in your face.

But was it that was so impressive that you couldn't believe that it was a dollar shop?

Some of the quality of the stuff and you don't you don't really feel like it's dollar store word like it seems way more expensive.

They actually have, like hand glaze like plates and cups and stuff like that, too.

But we all know that Japan has some really weird vending machines.

But there's one vending machine in particular that Alexander really attached himself to.

I screamed Vending machine.

He insisted on having that in the culture shock list.

Ice cream vending machines.

Why was that one so big?

I've just never seen it before, but there there are weird or vending machines in Japan that we've seen.

Remember when we were in Kyoto 10 years ago?

We saw that vending machine that had like, like like work shirts and stuff.

Yeah, and yet ice cream is what stood out to you.

If I find one all toss in a clip here filming this scene at the airport.

Because what do we find?

We found some Dr Pepper.

No, no.

Oh, I scream.

You get to try it.

After all, you finally get your ice cream vending machine.

Yea.

So what's your final verdict on the vending machine?

Ice cream.

Really?

Now, I'm wondering if we actually found Wonder if I'm just standing here awkwardly like we didn't find one.

I think we've got one more.

I think we have one more.

One last, really simple culture shock.

And this last one was more of a question from Alexander than a culture shock to remember the question you asked me the other day.

Yeah, it was why people were wearing masks all the time.

Yeah, there's like 1000 videos on why Japanese people wear masks everything from health to privacy reasons.

But it made me realize that we don't really do that in Canada.

Not at all.

It's kind of an anticlimactic one to finish on that I'm gonna wrap this up with one of mine because you know what?

You did that whole like AKI having a hall thing on drag me along All those shops that I had never been to.

I did not realize a how many shops there were and be how many shops had, like multiple floors full of anime stuff.

I know it's obvious, but, like a lot of those shops are a lot more than what they look like on the surface.

Agreed.

It's like one of those things where it's like a tiny little dog house.

But then you open the door and there's like this mansion, Yeah, a lot of the shops were like that and that that was just amazing.

Anyway, guys, Alexander is going home tomorrow.

I'm still on the fence about whether or not I'm gonna do that whole, like 10 years in Japan.

Culture shocks that still remain video If it's something you're interested in, leave it in the comments below.

If you have any questions or culture shots of your own, leave them in the comments below.

I've been kind of enjoying this whole instead of like comment, subscribe thing, the whole go watch two or three more Tokyo Lens videos and let me know which ones you like.

But don't forget to give that like button some love and if you are new to the channel.

I would love to have you.

This is Alexander's last vein, Tokyo.

So we're gonna go get some more food and I will see you guys again real soon.

I don't know when Alexander will see you next.

Hopefully two or three years.

Hopefully we'll maybe I'll go to Canada before that.

Yeah, Let me Nice.

It would be nice.

See again real soon.

It was a pleasure shall way.

You go that way.

You go that way.