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  • *alarm*

  • *whistling*

  • Now, I remember the good old days when I used to look forward to breakfast

  • with things like eggs, sausages, bacon, omelets;

  • now, now it's just oatmeal.

  • About four months ago, I decided to switch to a healthy breakfast.

  • It was part of my incredible plan to gradually lose weight throughout the year

  • so my breakfast routine has been comprised of oatmeal, black coffee and a banana.

  • Only problem is, I still haven't lost any weight; this breakfast routine has failed to bear any fruit.

  • Well, apart from the banana.

  • In hindsight it might be because, after preparing the healthy, nutritious oatmeal,

  • I have to drench it with at least one liter of maple syrup to make it edible.

  • Yeah, Canadian culture!

  • Only reason I decided to do a vlog today of all days,

  • is because I suspect today could be slightly above average day.

  • I'll get onto it in a minute, why that might be. Suffice to say, it might involve going to Tokyo and being on Japanese TV.

  • *Might* be, because I don't - even I don't know to be honest.

  • A day in my life vlog, until now - is - y'know, what day should you do a day in your life vlog?

  • You never know what life might throw at you in any - in any given day.

  • For example, yesterday when I woke up

  • I never thought, by the end of the day I would have bought a brand new oven glove

  • especially as one as flimsy and as tacky as this.

  • But its true value lies here on the back of the oven glove with this powerful philosophical statement, which

  • resonated with me on an emotional level. I'll read it out, it says:

  • This is me. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

  • And I read that and I thought, "Yes, that is me. That is how I define accomplishment."

  • Only thing that compromises that bold statement here is the question underneath, and it's a question that reads:

  • "What your favorit color?"

  • What your favorit color?

  • Uh, I don't know who thought

  • that was a necessary addition to the glove

  • seems like a pretty poor follow-up question to an otherwise reasonable statement.

  • You know, it'd be a bit like Sarah Connor in the Terminator turning to her son John and saying,

  • "John, there is no fate, but what we make for ourselves. Oh, and by the way,

  • what your favorit animal?!"

  • It's outside of having a shower, eating breakfast, and examining oven gloves;

  • The only other habit I have, the only other morning routine I do is

  • I write out one chapter from a Japanese textbook. In this case, the Intermediate Japanese Grammar Guide.

  • I don't have as much time as I used to when it comes to learning Japanese.

  • This is the one thing I pretty much do now, every day.

  • Like I really enjoy studying Japanese and even though my handwriting is atrocious, I really enjoy doing it.

  • I know when I've done this, I've done one good thing today, you know. Even if the rest of the day goes to shit,

  • I've done something that I could be happy about.

  • Oh my god.

  • Now that is what I call a Christmas tree.

  • Yeah, look at those lights. Look at that.

  • All ready to go for Christmas, all ready to go for December.

  • So, about to pack the bags, go to Tokyo, and while I'm doing it

  • I'll fill you in on why we're going in the first place.

  • So every year in Japan

  • they have a big annual awards thing

  • for the 30 keywords of the year. 30 keywords that summarize the year's annual events.

  • I think last year the keywords were "Shinzo Abe" (the Prime Minister of Japan)

  • maybe "Donald Trump", and "fake news"

  • but there's 30 of them, and somebody who represents that keyword will

  • come on stage and get the award in front of loads of cameras and stuff

  • and it's a really big, kind of event throughout Japan on the news, and this year one of the top ten keywords is "J-Alert".

  • Now J-Alert is the system which notifies you in an emergency.

  • For example, like an earthquake or a tsunami, your phone will ring and go off and vibrate to kind of notify you

  • about the emergency.

  • And J-Alert also happens when there's a North Korean missile.

  • You probably know where this is going.

  • They apparently - they saw my video where I got woken up by the North Korean missile

  • by J-Alert, right, they saw that and thought I would be

  • a good representative for the word J-Alert.

  • So I've got go to Tokyo and accept this kind of award for the keyword in front loads of cameras and stuff

  • and it's really weird, and I don't know much about it other than that, but I'm a little bit nervous.

  • I don't really know what to expect, it might be good, it might not be good, but we are gonna find out.

  • Fortunately I've got help on the way.

  • Ryotaro - my friend Ryotaro is gonna be joining me down there to kind of help me out.

  • I told a good friend of mine about this award yesterday, and he said to me that it sounded like a "Sick award, mate!"

  • Yeah, it's "sick", and I thought, why do people use the word "sick" in that context?

  • It really annoys me.

  • When did that become a popular word? If somebody says to me, "Yeah, that was sick mate!"

  • I literally just picture a puddle of sick in my mind. I don't want to, you know,

  • I don't want to, but it's just there - a puddle, a puddle of sick

  • and it's horrible, so

  • So we've got to ride the Shinkansen bullet train to Tokyo today, but I'm feeling a little bit anxious.

  • There was an event last week that shook Japan to its core:

  • A train - a train left the station

  • 20 seconds early.

  • They were supposed to leave the station at 9:44:40

  • but it left at 9:44:20.

  • What happened next was a global media storm, and even though the train company apologized, the damage -

  • the damage was done, so I'm keen to get there 20 seconds early today

  • especially as we've got to do at least one swanky time-lapse of Sendai before we go, so let's get a move on.

  • Just did the time-lapse, it came out pretty well.

  • I would say - I would go so far to say it was *sick*.

  • But as I came out the building while I was doing it, I noticed there was loads of people standing around

  • I peeked at someone's phone, and they're all playing Pokemon Go. I thought that died out ages ago.

  • I didn't realize that was still a thing. I know I never got into it.

  • Thought it was a waste of time - time better spent doing time lapses, and actually there's people here:

  • They're playing Pokemon Go as well. Didn't even notice.

  • Right then. Onwards to Tokyo.

  • (machine) Ticket and coin.

  • So, we're on the train. Didn't leave 20 seconds early this time.

  • My little bento to see me through the trip:

  • I think it's chicken or pork or something. Should be there in 90 minutes.

  • So I'm gonna get some work done and have some lunch.

  • Looks alright, it's not gonna win any prizes for looking too nice, though.

  • Yeah, let's tuck in.

  • Second coffee of the day - much needed.

  • Especially as we're gonna be passing through Tokyo Station soon, the eighth busiest station in the world.

  • I hate it. Whenever I go there I feel so overwhelmed

  • and to go from like, Sendai, which is in the countryside, which is, you know,

  • there's not that many people here - to go from there to

  • all of a sudden be flooded with hundreds and thousands of people standing around.

  • It's just kind of a really intense transition, and -

  • so yeah, need to be prepared. That's where coffee comes in.

  • So now we've got to go to the Imperial Hotel

  • and I don't know where that is.

  • Whilst Tokyo Station might be pretty chaotic, the area around it is actually really nice.

  • It's very relaxed, chilled out.

  • In many ways, it feels very different from the rest of Tokyo. The streets are really, kind of huge,

  • there's trees, unbelievably,

  • and lots of coffee shops. It's just a nice place to

  • just chill out and relax.

  • If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed in Tokyo, this is the area: Tokyo Station.

  • Just got an angry phone call from Ryotaro: "I'm in the lobby by the Christmas tree. Where are you?"

  • We're here at the Imperial Hotel though. Looks rather grand, it's huge.

  • All right, let's go and find Mr. Grumpy.

  • (Chris) Hey!

  • (Ryotaro) What're you doing?

  • (Chris) Vlogging.

  • (Ryotaro) Vlogging?

  • (Chris) Gonna be a vlogger today.

  • (Ryotaro) Yeah?

  • (Chris) Say something profound, quick.

  • (Ryotaro) Profound?

  • (Chris) Yeah, quick.

  • (Ryotaro) Today's the day.

  • (Chris) Today's the day?

  • (Ryotaro) Right. For us.

  • (Chris) You got a haircut.

  • (Ryotaro) Yeah, yeah, I got a haircut.

  • (Chris) All right, let's go.

  • Have you been here before?

  • (Ryotaro) Yes, I have.

  • (Chris) Many times?

  • (Ryotaro) Yeah, many times.

  • (Chris) Of course you have. Luxurious, decadent man.

  • So, we're in the room. Ryotaro's gonna come and meet us down here in a minute.

  • Coffee's on the way.

  • It's the most important thing whenever you get into a hotel room.

  • Between you and me

  • I don't think I'd stay here. It seems a bit expensive for what it is.

  • It's more about the reputation, right, than actually being something that's good.

  • Still, we'll find out.

  • Oh, the coffee's ready.

  • (Ryotaro) Hey, brother.

  • (Chris) What'd you just say? "Hey, brother"?

  • From my room, actually I can look over the Imperial Palace

  • (Chris) You bastard.

  • (Ryotaro) Cup of coffee.

  • (Chris) Here's your coffee, your lordship.

  • (Ryotaro) Thank you.

  • (Chris) All right, they gave us the rundown on what's happening.

  • So, this - this award

  • it's like a TV show that they have every year.

  • (Ryotaro) From, like tonight and, in every single news

  • that you - that gets broadcasted in Japan will cover on that.

  • (Chris) Bloody -

  • (Ryotaro) Amazing.

  • (Chris) Bit scary, isn't it.

  • (Ryotaro) It is, it is.

  • (Chris) Will I be on the front cover of Time magazine?

  • (Ryotaro) I'm not sure about that.

  • (Chris) I've been let down by the media time and time again. About two months ago I was told I'd be on ITV News

  • and I was, for like ten seconds, then there was the BBC live interview where my iPhone died

  • and it's just like, yeah, there never seems to be -

  • Close, but no cigar.

  • (Ryotaro) Yeah, see, like you don't - you shouldn't put, like too much expectation on that

  • But, the fact is, they have chosen 30 words, and we are chosen within those first ten.

  • (Chris) First ten? First ten?

  • (Ryotaro) First ten.

  • (Chris) Do you know where?

  • (Ryotaro) Don't know.

  • (Chris) Could we be number one?

  • (Ryotaro) Nah, nah, nah. J-Alert? Nah.

  • (Chris) Can't be number one. Although it could get political, with the whole North Korean thing.

  • Maybe they want to be like, "Ah, war with North Korea! J-Alert! Whoa!"

  • Shame we're not first though. People say it's taking part that counts, it's not. It's coming first. Everyone knows that. Taking part, load of rubbish.

  • If you don't win, you're nothing. Write that down, put it on your wall.

  • That's the quote of the day.

  • So, go up on stage, do I have to say anything?

  • (Ryotaro) I don't know - oh, yeah, yeah, yeah!

  • Yes, they will.

  • (Chris) What do I say?

  • (high pitched voice)

  • (laughs)

  • They'll be like, they'll be like "Welp."

  • In that voice.

  • Just scare everyone.

  • I've got the Fuck Sake t-shirt, can I wear that on stage?

  • (Ryotaro) I don't know. I don't know.

  • (Chris) Something like that could be good.

  • Free million dollar -

  • Ryotaro, we have a situation

  • My t-shirt, look how crinkled it is,

  • wrinkled, wrinkled, crinkled.

  • Can't go on a TV show with like, a few million people watching it, with a

  • t-shirt that looks like that.

  • (Ryotaro) Yeah, that's a Youtuber. So we dress like a Youtuber.

  • It just tells what it is, you know? Tells the reality. How you live.

  • (Chris) But I'm better than this.

  • (Ryotaro) I didn't know that.

  • (Chris) I'll show him.

  • Hi, could I have the ironing board, please?

  • Thank you very much.

  • Aha, so I got the ironing board.

  • The only problem is, I've only ironed clothes like, once in my life.

  • I tend to just get them out the washing machine and then hang them up in a nice way

  • and they didn't get creased anyway, but

  • how does this - what do we do?

  • Shit.

  • Genuinely no idea how this works.

  • I don't really know - oh, the light? No?

  • I like to think I'm pretty good at technology: computers, tablets, phones, whatever

  • Give me an iron though, and it's game over. I haven't a clue how to use this fuck-

  • Look, there's a light, but then -

  • Do I -

  • Then, and how do you put that in there?

  • Doesn't look right.

  • See, this is the reason I don't do day in my life vlogs,

  • because stupid shit like this happens every day.

  • I had to give a talk last week to some students in high school about

  • careers and the life of a Youtuber, and lots of people ask me what it's like,

  • would I encourage other people to do it, and I don't know if I would, really.

  • When I started doing YouTube stuff,

  • I didn't anticipate all this, you know.

  • You just, I started off in an apartment holding a camera

  • and talking to myself, in fact pretty much like I'm doing now, but in a hotel room.

  • And for me, the real kick I get out of doing YouTube isn't the presenting bit.

  • I'm not that good at that, and I don't really enjoy it as much as you'd probably think.

  • I like the writing, I like the editing. I like the overall creation aspect of being a vlogger and filmmaking.

  • It's just, I never had anyone who could present the videos for me.

  • So I could kind of hide around to the back of the camera.

  • So sometimes I find it more difficult than you'd think,

  • to be enthusiastic about it all

  • but generally, you know, I'm very grateful, very lucky

  • for the opportunities that come about through doing this, and

  • Yeah, I think tonight is gonna be quite fun and quite interesting.

  • At the very least, it's nice to be in Tokyo at the Imperial Hotel learning how to iron things.

  • I failed, I completely failed. I'm gonna have to just cover myself with the black jumper and wing it.

  • What an idiot.

  • We go up in stage in half an hour.

  • You ready?

  • Yeah.

  • You're not?

  • You look nervous.

  • Way more nervous than usual.

  • Oh god, I'll have to wing it.

  • I haven't had enough coffee for this either.

  • Pretty nervous. Why happens if you fall over on stage in front of all the cameras?

  • (Ryotaro) Yeah, you do that.

  • (Chris) We'll do it. Try and trip you up.

  • (in Japanese)

  • J-Alert!

  • (in Japanese)

  • Yeah, it was, it's pretty scary having that kind of attention.

  • For example, I was on the television in the UK and many websites, and they treated me

  • like a specialist on North Korea even though I was just a

  • Youtuber who got woken up.

  • My Mum thought it was very crazy, very crazy experience.

  • That was crazy.

  • We got the award, and then we had to sit on a table

  • in front of about, there must have been about two to three hundred cameras there,

  • from news sites all around Japan and I got there, this little award, which is kind of cool and funky and

  • Yeah, pretty - pretty scary, but not too bad - not too bad and

  • Don't really know what to think.

  • While we were having our photos taken, there was a huge banquet - a huge sprawling banquet

  • the likes of which I've never seen. I was so excited to get stuck into it, but

  • by the time we got there, all gone. All of it!

  • (Ryotaro) No meat, no fish, not even the salad.

  • (Chris) Yeah.

  • So after all that,

  • doing whatever that was, there's no food, so

  • (Ryotaro) Made us hungry.

  • (Chris) We're now going out into the streets of Tokyo to try and find something to eat.

  • Whoa.

  • (Chris, deep voice) Through the fires, but champion will rise.

  • Oh, oh wait. I genuinely can't see you through this steam.

  • How many times do you eat out a week, do you reckon?

  • Five times a week?

  • (Ryotaro) How many times do you?

  • Three or four? Not by choice - usually because I'm on the go

  • My dinners aren't quite as luxurious as this, usually. Still, it's a special occasion, right?

  • Ryotaro got a haircut! Yeah!

  • So, finally got shot of Ryotaro, and

  • I've got the award here, thought would have a closer look at what's in the box?

  • What's in the box??!

  • Always wanted to do that.

  • All right, so this is the award that I got on stage

  • And it says *gendai yougo no kiso chishiki*, which means "general basic terminology of modern language".

  • That's what it means.

  • The relevance, of course, is that the whole thing was about keywords, like modern-day keywords.

  • And in my case the keyword was:

  • J-Alert. J-Alert - there it is.

  • There's a little clock.

  • Not sure what the relevance of the clock is,

  • but the fact that it's ten to 10:00 is an indication of why I look so tired

  • and crap at the moment.

  • The only thing that worries me is, when I was on stage

  • I had this very dry mouth and I was kind of doing this weird thing where I was kind of going

  • and I really hope they didn't pick that up. I definitely would have done, but let's have a look. Let's inspect the damage.

  • The Mission Impossible soundtrack. Oh my god.

  • All right. Watch there.

  • Aw, fuck, there it is.

  • Look, aw.

  • In hindsight, I probably could have done it in Japanese

  • and I quite wanted to, but we needed an excuse to get Ryotaro on stage

  • and so he came on as my "translator", and

  • Yeah, but fuck the mouth thing. What's all that about?

  • So the fun is officially over,

  • and I'm about to do some editing for an hour before I go to bed, but first:

  • Let's raid the fridge and see what complimentary food and drinks there are.

  • Ohh.

  • I don't normally do this, as it's quite expensive,

  • but seeing as I didn't have to pay for the hotel, I feel like I can let myself off this once.

  • Apple juice, yeah, and

  • peach juice, yeah, and

  • Chocolate. Job done. Yes.

  • Merlot?

  • No, no alcohol tonight. I already had my fun for one day.

  • So it's 11 past midnight, and finally tucked in bed. Don't know why I ate those chocolates,

  • it was a stupid idea, especially before bed. Don't do that.

  • I don't think much will come from the award thing today, but you know what? I had a good day.

  • It was quite fun. It's always - it's always nice to have an excuse to come to Tokyo, and

  • I think it's led to a slight surge in views to the North Korean missile video

  • Here's a comment from Aaron Chung who says, "Don't say bad words like 'fuck', you lose subs that way!"

  • Yeah, you're probably right Aaron. Probably right, mate.

  • But you know what?

  • I don't give a fuck anymore.

  • Thing is, after getting a few hundred thousand subscribers, I've started to become

  • really self-conscious about the way

  • I act on video, because you think,

  • well, lots of important people could be watching this.

  • You. You could be an important person.

  • So, you know, you do become self-conscious,

  • but I'm trying to learn to let go of that feeling and not not give a shit anymore.

  • Maybe in a way that's why I did this day in the life video.

  • To kind of go behind the scenes and show

  • what I'm like when I'm not really thinking things through, and I'm literally just filming myself doing something

  • on an average day or slightly above average day.

  • But for now guys, as always guys, many thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.

  • That fucking iron is looking at me.

  • I can feel it smirking, mocking me. It is pretty shocking

  • that I don't know how to iron after all these years. Probably gonna have to learn somehow, one day,

  • someone will teach me, no doubt, the way of the ironing.

*alarm*

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