Another fine morning, indeed, that was a close one high abroad in Japan.

Abroad, in Japan, I can't tell if that's a thinly veiled insult or a lucrative branding opportunity.

Your videos aren't bad, but they need more special effects to level up.

In my opinion, more special effects to level up.

Well, I don't see any other vloggers in Japan featuring a highly elaborate and unnecessary CG plane crash.

Once you've had a CD plane crash, you don't need to put the effort in again, like ever.

So, no, take your special effects and get out.

Oh, and thank you for that branding idea.

You might.

Yeah, you might be onto something there.

Welcome, Thio.

Ask abroad the show, answering questions sent in by you, the viewer about Japan.

This week's topic is everyday life in Japan, so most of the questions in this video will be about that topic, with a few random once thrown in, including comment of the week on most annoying comment of the week.

Before that, though, I realized there's been a noticeable black videos the past few weeks, and I think it's time to offer some kind of explanation.

However, to make things a bit more ambiguous and fun.

I thought I would present three reasons as to why that would be on.

You can guess which one it is.

Reason Number one.

After growing impatient waiting for Star Wars, the force awakens.

I cryogenically froze myself in order to jump ahead to the third week of December.

Reason Number two.

After growing impatient for Star Wars, the force awakens to release, so I cryogenically froze myself in order to jump ahead to the third week of December.

But after my attempts were met with failure, I sat and cried for four weeks instead, Why isn't it working?

It's so fucking cold.

Regional number three in the run up to doing abroad in Japan full time when I moved to the beautiful city of Sendai in the second week of January, I've been sorting out my visa, planning your videos, buying the equipment I can't afford on testing out some groundbreaking chat up lines.

Check out my shirt.

No, that's made out off boyfriend material.

Good luck guessing which one, but the answer will be revealed in the next few weeks unless you look in the questionnaire in the description box below.

Have you ever been asked to leave a place for being a Guijin?

No.

And I honestly think this is another myth about Japan that got out of hand online these bars where foreigners aren't allowed in.

I talked about quite a lot on the Internet, though I'm not denying they exist.

In my three years of living in Japan, I think I've seen a bar saying No foreigners, maybe once, and that was in a really touristy area.

The fact that I rarely see them should be reassuring, considering I visit maybe 10,000 bars or restaurants every month.

If it does happen, it will likely be in a small bar where the owner probably can't speak English on, gets anxious or uncomfortable being surrounded by customers can't communicate with rather than some kind of racist crusade against all foreigners still has happened to you.

Let us know in the comments section below, I'll be king to here of any experiences, but I haven't come across it.

It's not something you should really worry about.

Have you got unaccustomed to the squat toilets?

No, but I don't know many foreigners who have admittedly, after three years, I'm still not even sure how to really use the damn thing.

It's ridiculous, given the contrast to the other half of Japanese toilets, which look like they've been sent from the future to make toilets fun.

There are few things worse than desperately needing the toilet, rushing into the nearest one of discovering it's your only option.

You know, honestly, I would sooner listen to a pitbull song, and he's a squat toilet.

Actually, no, I don't think I would.

How difficult was it to feel integrated into Japanese society?

In my first year?

It's true.

I did feel like a glorified tourist.

I wasn't confident.

As a teacher, I couldn't speak any Japanese, so there was a constant language barrier in my way.

More importantly, I spent most of my time with other foreign English teachers, so I didn't really socialize with my local community in my area.

I also made a conscious decision that I was going to lock myself away for most of the first year on study Japanese in order to set myself up for the next few years.

It sounds like a stupid thing to do, but in hindsight I don't really have any regrets, because after that first year, things really did get amazing.

In my second year, I stopped studying Japanese as much and started using it.

I went out.

Maura made friends in the local community.

I got a Japanese tutor.

I started volunteering at the local international center and running com English conversation classes, so I just kept saying yes to things.

A meeting more and more people.

By the third year, I had befriended loads of local businessmen in my area and even be boxed in front of a local politicians.

So I felt very much integrated.

The most important component to feeling integrated into Japanese society is relationships.

Just having good relationships with colleagues with people in your local area and just getting involved with more and more things, meeting more and more people along the way.

What's the most awkward situation you've encountered whilst living in Japan?

It was probably during my time as an English teacher.

I was running an English lesson with the Japanese teacher of English one time on the subject of the lesson was occupations and jobs, so he wanted the students to talk about what their dream job was and what they wanted to become on.

My colleague asked if I could talk a bit about what I wanted to be when I was growing up, what my dream would always being on, I said, Well, growing up was a child.

I always wanted to be a pirate.

I loved that sense of adventure and discovery on the promise of treasure on.

She looked at me suddenly and said in a serious voice.

But Chris Sensor, why would you be a pirate?

Why would you want to kill and rape people?

Uhh on I just stood there in front of the class in awkward silence, not quite knowing what to say.

Thankfully, I also remembered I wanted to be a pilot, so I use that instead.

But that was pretty awkward.

I mean, pirates killing and raping people.

That's ridiculous.

I don't know what version of Muppets Treasure Island.

She's been watching.

Okay, Damn.

If you were to put on a pair of shades, you would look exactly like Doctor Octopus from Spider Man to laugh out loud exactly like Doctor Octopus, Right?

Are there certain things that make everyday life difficult in Japan?

Language barrier aside, as it's too obvious, there is another cultural aspect that can complicate things somewhat on that is ambiguity.

Or I might, as it's known, in Japanese in Japan.

It's very polite to be indirect and ambiguous on your opinion.

On often this community could be difficult to work out if someone means yes or no or what they actually think.

For example, as an English teacher, if I made a lesson plan and then took it to my colleague toe, have them check it over.

If they disagree with it, they might say, Hmm, mm, it's difficult.

Whereas in the UK, we would say This is awful.

So the Japanese way of doing it is certainly more polite, but it can be really frustrating when you just want to clear yes or no answer.

Instead, for 10 minutes, you get mm mm difficult.

I've even been to a hotel where the staff would too polite, too ambiguous to even tell me the hotel was full.

Instead, they sort off cocked their head like this and looked at the screen going E oh for 10 minutes, waiting for me to acknowledge that the hotel was full and say, Oh, okay, sorry.

I understand.

Instead of giving a clear directive, a colleague may indirectly hint at something, and you have to try and work out if it's an off the cuff remark or they're telling you to do something.

For example, outside of summer, if I had my top button undone at work, colleagues would come over and say, Well, you must be cold and I had to work out If that was just a general remark or if they were actually telling me, Do you button up?

That's not appropriate.

But it's a huge part the culture on did, I must admit, Although it can be frustrating for a blunt, direct, straight talking foreigner to deal with, it's still quite an interesting on fun part of the cultural experience.

Once you've got your head around it is Japan seriously, as far forward and technology as the country is made out to bay?

Make no mistake.

Japan is up there as one of the world's most innovative, technologically advanced countries, and it probably has the greatest transport infrastructure in the world.

But it's not this magical, futuristic robot wonderlands that everyone seems to think it is quite the opposite.

In many ways, personal computers, a rare many of my students and colleagues don't even have a computer at home.

And equally disturbing is the everyday usage of something called a fax machine, a device which could be found in nearly every office.

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things is ATMs, many of which closed after a PM Japan is still very much a cash based society, and most people walk around with the wallet filled with tens of thousands of yen.

I find most foreigners who lived in Japan tend to express similar surprise that the reality is somewhat different from the image conveyed overseas.

What is your favorite time of year in Japan?

Winter summer, etcetera on why my favorite time of year is autumn.

So from September to early November, the temperature is just right.

It's neither too hot nor too cold on the autumn.

Colors look spectacular.

Also, there aren't many big national holidays, so students are at school people at work, meaning if you travel around places on too crowded cherry blossom season is nice, if not slightly slightly slightly overrated.

Truthfully, the autumn colors are far more impressive.

How to defeat the final boss of Japan, Two glasses of red wine consumed in quick succession.

Go fuck yourself.

God, I hate the English.

He literally has his nose in the air and he's looking down it at the camera.

Can his eyelids be anymore lazy here?

Yes, they could be considerably more lazy.

Go fuck yourself.

Do random people stare at you because you're foreign?

Yes, particularly in rural areas.

But it's to be expected, living in a town with 100,000 people being one of a dozen Western foreigners.

Even if I see another foreigner, I'm surprised and I stare, probably more than anyone.

Even if people do stare, it's not.

It's not annoying, with one notable exception that I wrote an article about a few months ago.

You can check the article out in the description box below.

It can be a bit weird standing out at first, but you get used to it after a few weeks.

What is the best English you've ever seen printed on a Japanese product?

I think my favorite would have to be the T shirt I bought that says, Are you enjoy spring not just because I always read it in my mind in that unnecessarily aggressive tone, but because I wonder At what point someone thought, Yes, this is the question that people want on the front of their shirt, and I so badly, long for the day that I walk down the street and see someone else wearing it other than myself.

What was your favorite moment in the entirety of your time you spent in Japan?

I think it was the first time I realized I was having a conversation in Japanese with my friend Nesky without consciously being aware that I was using it.

It was during my second year of living in Japan on I've been learning Japanese for about ah year at that point on, during my first year of learning and using Japanese, I was always very consciously aware that I was using it because I had to think really carefully about what I was saying.

Especially is the grammar between Japanese and English is incomparable.

It's completely alien, and you have to always change your way of thinking.

But I remember sitting in this pub and talking to my friend Noski for hours on end and then getting home and realizing, Wait a minute.

I've just been speaking and listening and Japanese for hours on end without even noticing it.

For me, that was a real breakthrough moment.

To sit with your friend, eat and drink and talk in this whole new language was completely amazing experience.

I felt like I'd overcome a major hurdle in my quest for learning Japanese, so that was a really big moment in my time in Japan so far.

So we find ourselves at the end.

Once again, the next ask abroad video will be about learning Japanese, so please leave your questions in the comments section.

Also, there's a questionnaire in the description box below.

If you filled out earlier in the year through Facebook or Twitter, thank you for doing that.

It really help to give a sense of direction going forward into next year.

Your efforts were not in vain.

This questionnaire is about what kind of videos people want to see next year, as well as allowing people to decide their top five favorite videos on this channel off which the results will be announced in the next few weeks.

If you enjoyed this video, please don't forget to hit the like button.

If you want more on, I wish you all a merry Christmas.

For the record, the force awakens.

I would give it an 8.5 10.

It was pretty good.

Definitely worth watching.

So you will seem to take care.

Yeah.