If I left Japan, what would I miss? — Vending Machines, Konbini, Safety, Toilets

welcome to Tokyo Japan so what are some of the things that you miss when you leave Japan is the trains is it the public transportation or is it those jingles that you hear all over the city that the colors of it the vibe all of the bright lights the mascots the people the food there's so many things to miss when you leave Japan and in my experience I've left and come back and left and come back again and in this live stream on the only in Japan go channel we're going to discuss some of the things that we miss when we leave Japan and I think that some of these things will help you make a decision whether don't you want to come and visit because yeah when you do come in you you visit Japan for a while you get a little bit of attached to the things here for better for worse and then and we're never gonna go over that because I made a list so let's walk around change Shinbashi this is the Shimbashi area and talk about that list and I think a lot of people that are watching also have either lived in Japan or visited Japan and have their own list and in the comments below you might want to list them up and I think it's gonna be pretty interesting reading this is Shinbashi it's one of the one of the big hubs big terminus of Tokyo loads and loads of shops restaurants I thought this would be a great place because it's just it's also where I ended one of the last live streams and there's just so much to do here and there's tons of vending machines and that's the first thing that I missed when I left because in 2003 I went on a nine-month trip around the world and that trip took me wow so many corners of the world and at the end of it I went back to the United States for a month and when things slow down that's when I started to really miss little things little things like vending machines this one right up there the other thing that I've really missed were the convenience stores and the two of them sort of go together because it goes under this theme of convenience especially if you live in the cities Japan is just so comfy and you don't have to walk more than a couple hundred meters and boom there's a there's a convenience store boom there's a vending machine I think for every every five people there's one vending machine in the country that's crazy up here there's a convenience store and there's another convenience store like two three minutes down the street you can never run out of them especially in the cities there you go there's a couple of vending machines between the opening of a bank vestibule all right it's a red light but there's no cars coming let's go take a look at the vending machine vending machines in Japan are incredibly convenient and usually there's so many choices that you could stand in front of one of them and you'll never know what you want to get you just could stand here for ages just a sheer variety is it's beautiful to look at one of the things that I love about the vending machines are that they sell things like coffee and they'll sell it hot and cold right now it's summer so they're all sold cold but in the fall and the spring in the winter they're sold hot there's also unsweetened teas another thing that I really love about the vending machines coca-cola although this is a coke vending machine makes up a very small portion of the choices tea and vending machines that's no coca-cola energy what the next thing are the convenience stores and I think if you're somebody who when you first come to Japan are a little bit of shy going into restaurants you don't know what the cuisine is you're first you're the first place you experience it it's probably in convenience stores because they're so inviting so easy to go into and they have more than just you know like snacks and chocolate and drinks they got all sorts of things including services they have ATM machines which all the convenience stores do nowadays but back down it was just a place where you could go to get a decent cup of coffee or bento and the food is eatable you can eat the food here alright just a quick look from here and here the bentos were also something that I really loved bentos is one of the things that I miss when I went home just being able to go to a convenience store or supermarket and pick up a bento and have that variety of foods in one box I miss that a lot because you can't do that you would go to a fast food restaurant a drive-through get a bag or something but you could have a bento which was I don't know just for me it was something one of these things I really missed there's also restaurants like right here they're so easy you get the you get the ticket pay for it right there you get a ticket take it in they'll serve you you don't have to pay when you leave no tipping that's another thing I missed no tipping in Japan you never have to worry about that you don't have to worry whether your server is good or bad you didn't have to tip anyways and the service was always pretty darn good wow this is looking pretty good and I love the fact that just recently almost all of the restaurants have English on here for visitors they can figure out what what they would get soba sometimes they'll put the ingredients in here in case you have an allergy to it just so easy look they even have English menus on there this wasn't like this 20 years ago by the way 20 years ago it was a lot oh wow this is nice yeah and then you get it but you can pick how many that you want right cancel yeah so many things that I missed all right when I went back whoa check this out oh man I love the plastic display foods but I love how it's suspended like a like wallpaper on this display like this this is awesome the plastic displays look like the real thing I missed edamame I missed tempura tendon I missed soba I missed ramen I missed the food thank you Jason Wilson really appreciate that for the night-shift we might be doing by the way a midnight snack run very soon midnight snack brother that's it that's another Family Mart we just passed a Family Mart there's just two family Mart's you can see the sign look at this one here and one right there this is crazy right convenience convenience is one of the one of the big things that I missed when I went back to the United States of course of course there were things that I missed when I lived here of the United States like I always thought people were a little bit friendly or easier to talk to I thought that I liked the bigger portions for some things I missed the pizza I never really ate Reese's peanut butter cups but I missed having that option to eat them because we don't have them here until recently but then they sort of went away look at this tie a key place that smells so good these little things the things that you know you start to miss about Japan waiting in line was one thing I didn't miss you gotta wait in line for a lot of stuff in Japan oh wow I might have to get one of these this is called taiyaki they're in the shape of fish inside his custard or red bean paste always good always good all right let's keep going here the list is long everybody woody what are some of the things that you miss about Japan what are the things that you wish that you had in your country that we have here in Japan ah-ha-ha-ha-ha I got a list right here oshi booty do you know oshi booty they are the wet napkins that you get in restaurants or hot towels every time you walk into a restaurant even if it's if it's like a cafe right here they'll give you a wet napkin on your tray so then you can clean your hands so you never even if there's not a sink to wash your hands in you'll always have clean hands I love that I remember taking Japan Airlines like 20 years ago and they gave me a no she bought a hot towel they'd never had that before so this is an amazing thing feels good especially in the winter or the summer it's a way to cool off probably boarding no tipping I said Babs the culture of bats I guess the first two years I didn't really mind taking showers and I was very shy to get into the public baths but and actually I was a shower person in the morning and in Japan we don't shower in the morning well some mm what I do is I still do that but most people in Japan will only take a bath at night before they go to bed and they wake up and they'll go to work you know or take a bath in the morning but we take showers in the morning in the US and we some people I would take showers at night before I went to bed as well but in the u.s. not everyone takes showers at night but the culture of baths was something that I really missed and these this culture of eating look at that the culture of drinking out on a Friday or Saturday night with your friends I missed that because here alcohol and the public transportation make it so easy to go out with friends and have a roaring night and not have to worry about getting into a car or having a drive home public transportation in the cities is very convenient not everybody was living in the cities though a lot of people who come to Japan Westerners come as jet teachers or or working out in the countryside I don't smoke so I didn't miss the tobacco vending machines but if you lived out in the countryside there were other things that you liked I think that are different but I think for the most part everybody has been to the cities and the convenience of it all is just too too good one thing that I did discover though and this is something I guess just in the cup last couple of years when you travel abroad not everybody gives you free water on the table everywhere you go in Japan they will give you a glass of water I know it sounds like it sounds like some countries might do that but not all countries give you a glass of water for free or a glass of tea for free you do not have to buy a drink it's not necessary to buy a drink and in the United States you always had to buy a drink you could ask for water but it felt somewhat discouraging it's normal in Japan not to ask for a drink and it's okay I kind of missed that I like that and then there's the cleanliness all right one of the things that shocked me was going back to the United States after being in Japan for so long and then I felt dirty if I didn't take my shoes off all right I felt the need it's like you know you get so used to brushing your teeth you can feel so it's time to brush my teeth I can't go on with life if I don't brush my teeth it's just one of these habit things but you did before you had a bed when you wake up after you eat a meal taking off my shoes was a habit I could not not take my shoes off so even though in my own family family's house everybody would walk with her shoes are on in the living room and in the kitchen if I didn't take my shoes off I felt just wrong so I missed I missed that feeling where we had like a gank on or an entranceway where you could take your shoes off put them on a rack and then that's what everybody did it was normal but you know in America we even will put her feet up on the sofa we put her feet up on the sofa with the shoes on or I've seen people get on their bed with their shoes on I guess it's the old cowboy boots boots on type of culture I don't know like but it's really a nasty thing and in Japan we don't do that so cleanliness is big and I'm not just talking about shoes in the house look at the city here I'm in the center of the city there are no trash cans anywhere and it is really really clean people have kind of a feeling of responsibility to make sure that the streets are clean and they don't leave any of their own garbage behind they take it home and you throw it away I did a live stream on this why there are no trash cans in in the cities people take their trash home I don't I'm seeing east see to it is pretty nasty when you start walking around your house with shoes on because you know you've been walking around the city and public restrooms and stuff shoes should be taken off it's just one of these things that I missed about Japan after being abroad because the floor is so dirty because people don't take the shoes off you kind of have to take your shoes off or you have to kind of keep your shoes on that's weird the lion roar is so loud they need a decibel meter here it's pretty cool it's a way for the construction workers to tell how loud the noises and if they're disturbing the city and if it's too loud you can call a phone number and they'll try to keep it down I love that about your pan in the communities you you really want to try to be accommodating to your neighbors so neighbors feel a responsibility or need to keep it down at certain times to follow societal rules that I think maybe the more polite that's is that's something that I sort of missed but then if you if you're here too much I kind of miss people doing bad stuff too you know sometimes just breaking the rules a little bit so that's one thing that people can go crazy here in Japan because sometimes customer service can be so polite it makes you just break down expats like just tell me what you're really thinking you know I mean that's it that doesn't happen here no staff member at our office is gonna tell you what they really think no one's gonna take you to the sizing hey that's shirt it's gonna be on sale in two weeks no one will ever say that to you here in Japan they never break the rules all right I think if you if you've ever been to Japan and you stay in a hotel toilets the wash lit is something that you don't you don't have in a lot of other countries that you have any toilet is awesome it is absolutely it's it's like how could how had I been how have I been living my life without without a Japanese toilet for so long and we're passing up a vending machine for another lunch lunch spot here's a ramen place how have I been living my life without a Japanese toilet for for so long and once you once you have one how can you go back it's a normal just regular toilet paper or in India you know your hand I I don't I just very very hard to go back after experiencing a wash ilat something that cleans you and you never have soiled anything ever again it's just it's it's too too perfect and the funny thing is that that technology the death technology came from the United States Japan took the medical toilets from the 1950s and they brought it back and made it for every every everyday life for everybody and yet America still has not brought that technology back and I don't know why like why wouldn't you just want why wouldn't every home want to have a wash lip toilet with massage function just to me it doesn't make sense but it's so clean here you can use the public restrooms I will hold it in this is just me I don't know maybe you guys are different I will hold it in if it's a if I have to use a public restroom in the United States I don't want to use a public restroom and usually they just smell of bleach right the the staff that cleans public restrooms they just start bleach on the stuff that's how they clean it they mop throw bleach and mop it here they do it pretty pretty good it never really smells like bleach but it's super clean people make sure when they leave restrooms that it's it's clean as it was when they entered or cleaner that is to me mind-boggling like how is the toilet after you use a cleaner I don't know so there's that personal responsibility but just toilets in Japan you I have no problem using a public restroom for a longer stay if you think about just saying and the stalls and the walls on the stalls they go all the way down to the floor total privacy total privacy and I don't even mind the squatters it just seems to be a natural thing to do I miss that in Japan that's a really nice a really nice restaurant here oh this is a kadhai gay restaurant I missed cut ah gay I love cutting deep-fried Japanese chicken bits ah man there's too many things that I miss when I leave Japan the list goes on as we walk from Shinbashi towards Akasaka Japan Post is one of the things that I really missed see there's one of the post box here post office in Japan is doing really well they make money unlike the United States Post Office which is bleeding money because people aren't sending things in Japan because we have a culture of paper we still send stuff we have postcards higaki we send them at new years huge huge amounts of money made for the post office still lots of jobs post office on every corner prices are cheaper to send something they have small package rates so you can send something for two kilograms for like what is it like $15 anywhere in the world it's an incredible rate you don't have those rates in the United States anymore because they don't do enough business to make it profitable I do miss Japan Post when I leave an Tuck Yew be me ah US Post Office is not losing money alright I don't I don't really know all I know is that the stamp prices keep going up and up and people are sending less and less so maybe they aren't losing money but I know that it's there's there's stopping Saturday service or something there's a lot of stuff it's not exactly in the best it's not like it was 20 years ago when a stamp was like 20 cents now it's like 50 or something it's kind of Japan's pretty pretty expensive for stamps I can tell you that but they have small package rates which I used to send packages to people and we don't have that in the United States but my mom sent me this hat it cost her $25 to send a hat because they don't have a small package rate so you sent it first-class mail $25 I send something of the same weight cost me four dollars so I do miss the Japan Post I missed the staff it's just it's Japan post office experience is always really nice tacky bean is amazing you can send packages at the convenience stores because it packages to at Lawson's at 7-eleven at Family Mart just get one of the papers write the address and boom slap it there it sits at the destination one or two days later sometimes a better condition that I sent it very weird is that even possible Chuck even is something that I definitely missed I had to move a lot in my first job in Japan I would just take the boxes I would put my new address on there take you to the convenience store at the day before I left on the Shinkansen to go to the new city when I arrived the packages were were on their way and they arrived usually the day or the next day after I had arrived it was amazing amazing service now you can do that in the US you can call UPS they'll come and pick it up but I don't know I always thought that tacky being here is is very convenient the service works just a little bit better and was something that I missed when I left here wow I got too many things public transportation but that's not always for everybody if you live in doubt US Post is losing money with Amazon yeah but I don't think I don't know if like letters and postcards are one thing but packages I don't I think a lot of it goes through ups doesn't it with Amazon a lot of other private private delivery services or maybe people just evolve I remember the US Post Office talking about putting attacks on emails like they would charge one cent for an email stamp this is back in in 1995 I guess that didn't work yeah that Yamanote de Lyonne is very convenient I do miss the trains I missed this culture of commuting by train that's one of the great things about Japan you can commute by train everywhere in the cities and there's a station usually within walking distance and sometimes you know you can just get off at a station nearby and be able to walk to your destination and it's usually just a couple of minutes difference it's just the city of Tokyo so well connected by trains and subways it's it's so convenient is something that I missed because back in the United States I always had to get into a car and drive somewhere you don't have to do that in the cities in Japan you do in the countryside though don't don't think that Japan is a train culture it is very much a car culture outside of the cities a lot of the country they love their cars and there's so many global big car corporations that are based or Nissan Toyota Honda Mazda Mitsubishi Japan is a car culture although the trains are so convenient many people still have cars as you could tell by looking around the streets here they do have cars they do have cars called tatsu's kotatsu do you know what achill Tod says I miss when I left Japan in 2003 I missed how the seasons were celebrated in Japan like winter spring summer and fall every season has their own cuisine every season has their own things that you do with it and people are excited about the seasons changing it is not a big deal back home but it just is celebrated more here not just with the cuisine but like with activities and traditions kotatsu is one of the things that I missed in the winter we have these heated tables where you can sit under and watch TV and relax the whole family will get under there the family cat will get under the kotatsu I did home stays in Japan kotatsu was like yeah it's like the water coolers where everybody would go because that was the warm place it saves on the on the heating costs a little bit but it was just having that that heated table was just something that I missed now you can import them in but is this you know like if you're the reason why we take off our shoes in Japan isn't just because it's dirty it's because we we use the floor for sleeping japanese sleep on the floor with their futon we use the floor for sitting we'll use the floor we touch the floor so it doesn't make a lot of sense to wear your shoes in the house that's sort of where it comes from the United States we where's our shoes inside so the floor it's always kind of dirty that's why we have chairs and sofas and things like this it's sort of different now Japan today has these things but we still take off our shoes but cleanliness definitely I just it was it was hard to get acclimated to get back to get used to life in the u.s. again for that month that I had left I think gonna be hard for me to do that again I missed words I don't know this is a weird one and maybe XPath two people that have lived in for an extended period of time will be able to to chime in on this one somebody writes it they missed the traffic cones I don't know really we got tons of them right here the city of Tokyo with the 2020 Olympics coming is just it's one big massive traffic cone there's a lot of tree construction going on as we pass another convenience store this is Toronto moon tonight Oman is famous for having some new skyscrapers Tunnel Mon Hills some of the big ad agencies have moved here the gay DK's office moved here the Tokyo 2020 office is here for the Olympics words words like when you go into a store and you hear it I shame I say you don't I mean you don't hear that anyway well of course and that's something you would only say in Japan but you just hear it so often when you don't hear it anymore you kind of miss it I missed when hearing store vendors or shops or stands yell out when a customer would come in and actually I must say like welcome to the store I want to be welcomed and I never really I kind of missed that it's not that I didn't feel welcome walking into a shopping mall in the United States it's just it was different here you know I missed that Wow what are some of the things that you guys miss well I've been rapping on for 25 minutes a Uniqlo every five seconds there aren't that many unique clothes outside of the cities they usually have one or two but you have to drive there and they're not so convenient and believe it or not there's some cities that have no Uniqlo cheap McDonald's yeah McDonald's is a place in Japan that defies I don't know they've been able to keep prices really really low while everybody it's it's more difficult to do now an onigiri is a hundred yen but you can go into McDonald's and get a hot cheeseburger for a hundred yen that's it's pretty incredible what McDonald's has been able to do in Japan to make food so affordable you can always count on that everywhere where am i I've just been walking miss the ex of excellent customer service Jake AoE adventure yeah you can always get very good excellent customer service in every store the customer is God and I love that that's that it's a good feeling but also it could be a little bit annoying because it to me it's good but it's also I don't know I like the friendliness of the u.s. system maybe a fusion of the two I kind of miss the friendliness of the staff people didn't smile when they smiled it looked plastic to me in Japan this is the service when you buy something that's very expensive I always felt that level of respect was too much for me if you were to buy something let's say that was I'm what was it I remember buying a TV when I first came to Japan 20 years ago and I'd spent about 60,000 yen and the owner of the shop followed me outside of the door and it's just like buying a kimono as I walked with the TV and I didn't live that far away even even bundled it up with these these plastic holders to make the TV like a suitcase which I'd never seen before my life I thought that was awesome but he's he was just standing outside the door and as I walked away he was still there I look back and still there I didn't know what to do I thought he wanted something I started to walk back hey hey you should know what to do we started looking weird and I figured it out it's kind of a cultural thing even when you go and get gasoline at a gas station the guests the guests attended will come out stop traffic for you and bow as your car's pulling away and sometimes to me this is just me it just seems too much because I feel not worthy of such service I don't know I just I just think it's a lot we got Tokyo Tower up there and me and PVG we're on a motorcycle a motorcycle sidecar you might want to check that out about 48 hours ago and we ate lunch underneath the Tokyo Tower sometimes they do they do go too far and they're too polite or they're too generic and it feels too plasticky and not everybody some people are good at customer service some people aren't and don't think don't think that just because it's in Japan that all service is good people that are on vital like part-time part-time job workers university students sometimes really stink at customer service I remember going in to Tsutaya which is a blockbuster of Japan renting DVDs awful awful service I never I don't think I ever got good service at Tsutaya and I don't know why I don't rent DVDs anymore but at the time I always remember the service was not as polite and it's just something you know with Japan it's not always gonna be perfect it's not always gonna be perfect but that's the that's another problem when you do encounter bad service in Japan you always wonder is it because I'm foreign is it because I'm different are they treating me different no it's they're just bad at their job here are two of the mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics does anybody know their names let's see if the Tokyo 2020 s is doing a good job do you know the mascots names I'm saying that because I forgot I completely forgot what their names are yeah yeah we're in the middle of the rainy season here there are some neat things in here I also missed the hundred yen shop die so being able to go into one a lot of these places that sell all kinds of things or to go into supermarkets that have what is that the Tokyo Cup I guess they do all kinds of reward here this is pretty cool what to get Rugby World Cup pins that'll be taking place in a few months Don Quixote is something that I missed as well the shops the super stores Don Quixote is one of them Daiso is another one can do is is a Daiso competitor another 100 yen shop it just depends on on where you lived I missed that I missed that convenience you know being able to go to a dollar store and get stuff that I can actually use a lot and I know I had a lot of Western friends that would decorate their house almost exclusively with hundred yen stuff it was pretty amazing the house did not look that bad like what I mean we go to Ikea or akia we say in Japan but you could decorate your house from 100 yen store that's pretty credible I do like the taxis here Japan has one of the most expensive taxi taxi system in the world they only have uber black but the taxis here the service is always good before the navigation system with GPS came the taxi drivers were really bad they were old and didn't know their way around it was up to the driver to know where to go if you didn't know where to go then often they would have to stop and call they'd have to go to a payphone before the cell phones were around called their office and then find the directions and write it down and draw a map before the internet and navigation system Japanese taxi drivers were usually retired guys from from corporate life that were just doing something to make some extra cash but nowadays the taxis are equipped with so much technology you don't have a problem getting around that like you used to whoa okay I see the police are over here this must be near the American Embassy feels like this is near the US Embassy tonight Oh mom kram phillips Wrightson are you gonna see some rugby I'd love to know why rugby is played in Japan anyway although it's popular in the Pacific Islands nations no other Asian nation plays rugby only in Japan I think Japan Japan is a country that has a hundred and thirty million people there's a lot of people here so and Japan is also another country that promotes a lot of its sports people play all kinds of club sports in high school and junior high school one of them is there's always been a rugby club especially in mmm cities outside of places outside of big cities rugby has always been not always rugby has been one of the options so it hasn't been popular likes like soccer football hasn't been as popular as baseball because baseball I would say is the national sport in Japan rugby's it's getting up there and we do have a good team after they beat South Africa in the last Rugby World Cup just some excitement with rugby and I think Rugby World Cup is being played here because Tokyo 20 Olympic 2020 Olympics is next year so rugby is soup might have come here to try to get some of that Thunder I don't know if it's working though but it's pretty cool I think it's a good chance for rugby to maybe grow a little bit in this area of the world if you're experiencing lag issues with the live stream you might want to press your refresh button on your browser any other things sports is one thing if you are a baseball fan or even if you weren't Japanese baseball games are just more exciting I think even though you might not know who the players are when you go in there the food is pretty good at stadiums they cheer in a different way each player has his own chant there's just a lot of energy to Japanese baseball games that's different than in American baseball it's just different and that's that's that's the that's the whole point of it right Japan is just different and that's probably besides the convenience stores and the vending machines it was the difference that I kind of just missed this is more on a personal level now but in Japan you could be sitting on a bus or a train and people would be talking and and because English is my native language I could tune that out I could tune out the world around me and be almost anonymous even though I was different people would look at me but I could I felt apart I like that feeling whereas in the United States I kidding I can understand everything very clearly and I don't know it was just nice to be different I guess and I missed that that's another thing when you do come and you get to Japan especially outside of the cities these days you are sort of a really special part of of of that community you're different and that's not oh there's a Komatsu building now I know where I am Komatsu is a big construction company and they have a garden on the top of their building that's pretty cool let's cross the street here I've been kind of wandering I'm wandering okay I guess this is the road going towards Roppongi and the u.s. embassy is down the street the g20 summits happening in Osaka right now so there's a lot of security I better be careful don't get around well it really is quiet here really is quiet but there's a lot of things there are a lot of things that that I missed but one of them was when I did go back home and yeah you know look I was an expat here I've been here for 20 years I know I'm not Japanese and my value to Japan is that I am NOT Japanese this is something that everybody who does become an expat here might want to consider your value to Japan is that you are different that you are not Japanese that you can understand Japanese culture but you also understand your own culture and if you have a way to bridge the two then that's a huge value to Japan I think so I missed that yeah when I was when I left here I was just John but here in Japan you can be big or bigger you did that possibility does exist you can be something different here and it's such as to Japan when you're an expat anywhere you can be different or you could blend in and be the same but you have more more things open up I believe I believe I'm not leaving Japan but this is one of the things that I always think about if if I did leave Japan what are the things that I would I miss and I have left Japan before and every now and then I like to stop and sort of appreciate what I do have and you know people ask me the question why did you come to Japan I always think the best question is why do I stay in Japan and the answer is that maybe it's because of all those things maybe it's because of all those things that I've been talking about that I I would miss if I did go okay so that's where the the US Embassy is that way that's where my Embassy is down that road so those are some of the things that I would miss and that's probably one of the reasons why I stay all of those things I would miss Joey writes in that he would miss in family owned restaurants I agree with that too loads and loads of family-owned restaurants most ramen places are family-owned restaurants I like that and I'm somebody who always tries my best to support local businesses so you would definitely yeah more and more in the u.s. we're getting chain restaurants everything is becoming corporate being bought out family restaurants are losing to the big corporations in Japan as well in Japan as well hey Gretchen's here do you they have root beer in Japan I believe that they do I will go and see if we can we can find one yeah thanks everybody for their super chat so I'll try to buy it let's let's let's turn the livestream now this place is eerily quiet is it because where this is around where the US Embassy is let's see if we can we can find a vending machine and then pick a drink out of it see if there's some root beer I don't know if they have root beer but I do know that a lot of them have Dr Pepper in Tokyo and I don't see Dr Pepper outside of Tokyo much what's this coming up it looks like a knob a restaurant ramen and I've got a knob a oh there it is not bad that looks really spicy that looks really spicy dr. pepper and rootbeer completely different but in Japan it's sort of the same because dr. pepper often is as close as you can get to finding it in a gate in a Japanese vending machine and I don't even know why dr. pepper is big here in Okinawa it's not dr. pepper it's um a and W I've jumped in here what Fanta sake I know I see fruit food a ba flavor so so cata what's so cata that's a weird Fanta some weird weird drinks I don't see anything Remco Wrightson I missed the food from my own country do you miss any foods from the US it doesn't that the Japan doesn't have yeah we're his kids Japan 20 years ago in 1998 I I didn't eat any Japanese foods I tried to live like I like a college kid would because it's I was basically I just graduated college so I was I was going to the supermarket buying pasta and 100 yen bags or cans of tomato sauce and I didn't really know how to cook too much I'd learned how to make pizza dough and was making my own pizza but it wasn't the same we didn't have many foreign foods and 20 years ago the only options and I lived in Nagoya in a city called Okazaki not not too far from that's too far from Nagoya in Okazaki we didn't we only had a McDonald's near the station and that's about it so I missed I did miss Western foods and I didn't know how to live Japanese but it wasn't until I got a rice cooker and started making rice that I could change I'm his pizza big time and burgers like a good burger not McDonald's but like a good burger and nachos I missed nachos but in Nagoya there was one places you could go and it still exists I believe one place in Nagoya that you can go if you if you were missing western food and that was Hard Rock Cafe that was the only place that they didn't have any TGI Fridays they didn't have any rich American restaurant chains they had McDonald's and they had Hard Rock Cafe and every and it was expensive it was like $50 every time I went to Hard Rock Cafe so I wouldn't go there very often maybe once every three months but you can get nachos you can get burgers and it didn't taste quite as good but it sort of got that fix out of the way and now when I see Hard Rock Cafe I see it differently than everybody else to me Hard Rock Cafe was a place where I could go and and feel at home a little bit where of course it's a touristy place right but at the time Hard Rock Cafe was my salvation that's where I would go to get to get American food when I was homesick it's a good question mas burger was but most burger would has always been really good but was it's not the same right ok this is going towards Roppongi let's walk this way so let's walk towards your pungi and that's pretty good we've had a pretty good walk it's been this has been a pretty good walk Moss's your savior when drunk the problem with all right look the problem with most Berger is that it's not fast food because you order the burger and you have to wait for sometimes 10 minutes and it's and I think that's that's that's why most burgers is not doing so well believe it or not most burger is not doing as well as it used to because it's now it's now it's like politics right you either have really delicious expensive burgers for $15 or you have McDonald's Moss burger is is in this in between market that is not really attractive to a lot of people not like it used to be it's still popular but I haven't gone there in ten years I can't remember the last time I went to two Moss burger except to make a commercial for them which is on YouTube if you go to what is a Moss burger I believe you'll get the commercial that I produced for them about six or seven years ago that was the last time I eat a Moss burger and you can tell them sue I don't I don't care but most burger was one of the first places that I would go into when I came here I had training in a place called Okayama and in Okayama in Okayama we didn't have a lot of options I went there for the first week to train to be an English teacher and the first the first thing that I ate was Lawson's convenience store food and then mas burger and then some guy who is the the know Adele I've lived in Japan before there's always one he said oh let's go in and get some soba and that's when I started to get some real Japanese food but it took a while and and it took me a couple of years before I stopped being so intimidated to go into Japanese restaurants because I was always afraid to make a mistake and I just didn't know what the cuisine was we didn't have the internet to check on but that's not root beer that's not root beer we didn't have the Internet to check on stuff or ask questions so we had a very very close expat community in Nagoya in Okayama and Tokyo wherever you live there was you always knew the expats and now because of the internet you don't need to get expats to be your resource for stuff did you just go on the Internet so it's a little bit different than it was many many years ago yeah drinking on the streets I never really I never really missed that there's a lot of beer vending machines smoking vending machines I never missed that I missed vending machines in general but drinking outside I'll tell you what I remember there was a beautiful day and I went back to the US for a month in 2003 if there was a nice day and I kind of was wishing that I could just open up a beer outside and drink it and then I remembered the laws are different you can't do that there's no open open containers of alcohol are illegal in the United States whereas in Japan we kind of just can crack open a beer or drink anywhere on the street can't do that in the United States I kind of I missed that a little bit but I don't drink enough words I'm sad about it but I did I did miss convenience of convenience the convenience of convenience stores the convenience of combini and how different it is compared to the United States that I missed we're coming up to another convenience store right there you see it's another Family Mart they give you a brown paper bag chris says hahaha Chris I thought you're in Holland you can drink outside in Holland right you can drink outside in New Orleans New Orleans is also I think eight teams for drinking until I don't know not too long ago UFO Bob has just written our discord server it's a place where you can talk about Japan stuff for 24/7 anytime the discord servers open then it's free in the general chat to join it's pretty cool we have two thousand people in there talking about Japan wait you can't drink outside in the US I believe that's true you could drink outside as long as it's fenced in or it's a private area you cannot drink outside in public you can't go to a park and drink you will get arrested if they catch you if they catch you but yeah I guess people in Japan when they drink they still have friends have personal we have sponsibility over there other friends if somebody gets drunk there's usually a group of friends to make sure he gets back home and people are usually they very they become more shy or inward they don't want to fight when they're drunk in Japan it's the opposite they try to avoid fighting they'll be more open but they're singing songs instead of wanting to fight or in the US I don't know I haven't gone to a United States University at Ohio State people seem to fight a little bit more when they when they're went out boozing hey Kiki's in the house get something for Kenai you got it you got it I was gonna buy her I was gonna buy her a plant for the house so there's a florist up ahead thanks Kiki that's another thing that's something that I missed somebody just brought it up in the chat in Japan we don't people aren't too political meaning they kind of keep to themselves with their with their politics every now and then they'll have a rally with a guy with the megaphone that's on an extreme left or right but we don't discuss politics 24 hours a day seven days a week and then get angry about it so much in Japan I and and over the last I don't know several the last time I lived in the US with a US president was when Bill Clinton was in office and you know things just started we're pretty political in the u.s. back then but Japan has always been I don't know I never I don't get all the political ads or the conversation and that's sort of refreshing I can focus on food and other things that travel and things that matter outside of the political world for better or for worse the Japanese don't make fun of American politics they just tried their best to understand it though that's one thing about Japan that I've always I've always really respected um I'm doing an episode about in Hiroshima next weekend it's gonna be the most difficult episode that I've ever tried to take on a challenge because it's about the the bomb and about what happened and about a guy who's who wants to to give tours to Westerners to teach about what happened during that day August August 6 1945 I believe I think I'm I'm right on that he wants to give tours on that and there's a reason behind it and I'm going to hit her Shima to film why he's so passionate about wanting to introduce this history but he told me something when I was talking to him to get some background to write the script for this he said that in Japan the way why I asked him why aren't Japanese upset about the bomb why why do why do they like Americans and hit Oshima after what happened why don't they hold that like anger and he said after the war was over so was the anger there wasn't really people just let it go because in war it's supposed to be bad but when the war is over things get things are over and you move on that makes sense to me but what he said was there were some situations where the in the u.s. people didn't move on they still had the anger and they couldn't let it go and said just the cultures are different in that way after you get through a challenging time it's over you move on and you don't hold on to it you don't hold on to grudges does not much you can't do anything about it what's done is done and you move on and that's one of the reasons why people moved on he also said in the text books when they learned as kids was the same thing they didn't blame America for dropping the bomb they blamed war all right they blamed war for dropping the bomb they didn't blame a country and after the war was done people moved on and there was no anger at the United States and that's different because we still remember Pearl Harbor on December 7th and people are still angry at Japan well it was because I grew up in the 70s maybe not so much these days and I always I always wondered about that on August 6th when we when we remember what happened in Hiroshima it's different than how we remember Pearl Harbor and they're not the same but just different cultures do things in different ways that's the but that's the best way can I think get so deep for Kenai Tiki and Charles just wrote in here hey Charles Charles Emboar and I have fallen in love with Japan because of you John thanks for changing my life and making me feel so comfortable with this community of yours Thank You Charles I'm so glad to hear that appreciate that we do have a good community another reason to join the discord this port server it's free we opened it up for everybody and there's some really nice people in there it's like family it's like family one thing that I when I first moved to Japan and I think some other youtubers have talked about it this is where the sushi Saito is I remember I came here with two other youtubers that featured sushi Saito and I was lost for the longest time and I ended up getting to the restaurant late but it's I believe up the stairs to the left it's very hard to get there Wolfgang Puck so weird name all right to get around we got to go up to up the steps that's Roppongi over there so we're going towards Roppongi station that's quite a walk Shin Bush shim shim boshy to Roppongi yeah there there there are times when you first come into Japan that you you especially if you don't live in the city that you might feel lonely and you feel isolated or you feel I don't know because people don't speak your language you can feel you just feel lonely and the best way that the best way to overcome that is to just keep going out and talking to people it's not easy to make friends in Japan on the surface this is the one thing that was challenging a bunch of it that one of the biggest I think on the surface people are your friends but you never really know because I would ask friends hey let's go out and get it let's go out and get a beer and they would say ok what are you available two weeks from now really I don't know I was thinking like right now it's sometimes hard to make friends when you first come to any country and I had I had problems to where I felt a little bit lonely but it's also a place you know you can also people will leave you alone like they they respect your privacy they will leave you alone and that's also not that's also sometimes very welcome not everyone is getting into your business you know mark misses the mochi donuts ah yeah mochi I have to tell you mochi is something that everybody misses it's just so good and they put mochi in pizza ha ha ha they put mochi in the pizza dough gives it this really springy nice consistency to it with the cheese I'm starting to see that more and more our mochi and ice cream mochi and all sorts of foods and bread I have a bread maker Panasonic is the company that made the first bread maker bread machine and we got Panasonic because they have the most options Japan Japanese love to have machines that have like 100 option buttons on it right and the rest of the world's like why do we need these buttons in Japan we need these buttons in Japan they have something called Gohan pon rice bread and I always take I haven't you maybe I don't know 20% of maybe like Monday and Wednesday twice a week I'll make I'll use the bread maker for breakfast and I take the rice from the night before usually about a hundred grams and I'll put it into the bread machine with with a little bit less flour and it makes a mochi bread it is so good it's heavier but it's got that springy mo genus to it from a bread machine and you wake up smelling the bread it's so good yeah and the pressure cooker big shout out to katayama for that life-changing all right so those have been in Tokyo before can see and probably know where I am just up that hill is Roppongi gotta stay to the left what the heck is that what somebody please comment leave your comments on this what is that alright alright yeah we're gonna get a closer look you got that right I this could be its own livestream what is that that's right you come to the right stream only in Japan all right of course it's an advertisement for good output all good out could all all what's she looking at oh she's looking at the that's an old smartphone look at the bezels on that very cool this is something that I miss about Japan it's just so out there all the sheets that was worth it he's probably gonna be going around Roppongi there's a driver I love how random Japan is yeah very very very unique everything changes it's trendy something that's really cool is here today gone tomorrow replaced by something that's as equally cool or if not cooler sometimes not as cool but usually cooler what are some of the things that you guys miss let us know in the comments below the pet shop recently hedgehogs have been becoming pets chihuahuas small dogs you see them all over the city now ramen yeah I do miss that culture of soup being a meal Suki man or ramen I miss that a lot New York is a place where you can get a pretty good bowl of ramen it's usually a little bit now I'd say it's like 20 percent more expensive than in in Tokyo but you can get a good bowl of ramen and in cities in the u.s. now and in Europe as well it's not too bad but of course in Japan everywhere you go really really good really really good bowls of ramen just about anywhere Wow where is my famous favorite ramen place it's hard to say I'm not somebody who has who has liked ones particular favorite ramen place I think it's something that you go by your mood and something you're always trying new ramen places and popular ramen places sometimes will go out of business ramen can be trendy to where something is featured on TV everyone wants to go there and then six months later it sort of dies down and then a year later it's out of business so ramen places don't often stick around too long I'm not a fan of the chain ramens like Ichi don and and you puto I don't really I think that they're good but to me they lack personality yeah Wi-Fi everywhere in the city of Tokyo Internet is great here I don't have too many problems but when you get on a train in Japan this is something I love the fact that Japan still holds on to some of the older traditions that we have everywhere in the world like reading newspapers we still have newspapers in the US and people still get it as I walk by it passed another vending machine I'm sorryi professor they could be in Stara 7/11 people still read newspapers Japan it has the I think in the world the largest population of new still newspaper reading people you see it on the trains you could get it on a smartphone but people love paper in Japan it's all recycled but they hold on to that the fax machine Japan holds on to that why I don't know really I don't know I was just asked two days ago if I could provide a fax number for a client to send me an estimate on something and that's he wanted me to sign it and send it back by fax say wouldn't a PDF be easier but they wanted it by fax so I had to go to the supermarket the send a fax convenience stores also have fax machines but Japan holds onto these fax machines because people are the population is a little bit older fax machines provide hard copies that you can put in your hand right away and they still have cell fax machines if you go to the electronic store there's a section on fax machines that you can buy walking past a supermarket right now yeah but all in all the longer you stay here the more you start to miss it when you do leave and as I said about 20 minutes ago these things that I know that I'll miss because I have left before I know that there are also things that that keep me here and the things that I did miss about the United States I can kind of get these days we have pizza we have chains that have moved in it's not a different it's not the same world as it was 20 years ago in fact it's it's so much more convenient 20 years ago and that death sort of destroys one of the other reasons that I love Japan because it was so different if it still is but it was back 20 years ago it was so separated there was very little Western stuff here and the Western stuff that was here was all Japan affine it had this this twist on it that made it cool and now we have Taco Bell we've got Wendy's is back we have more Western foods at supermarkets Philadelphia Cream Cheese is in the supermarket's it's like what where did it come from Philadelphia 20 years ago we didn't have that in fact 20 years ago there wasn't that much cheese in supermarkets now cheese is popular everywhere who doesn't love cheese all right welcome to Roppongi everybody up on the top of the hill I will be where a lot of you may have stopped by for some entertainment yourselves some tourists going to be hotel checking in from London [Music] I kind of liked Japan not being a popular destination for tourists to go to 20 years ago defend all right look none of my friends came to visit me from college only only one one friend came to visit me when I first came to Japan it was not a desirable place to go and visit or it just seemed too expensive so nobody visited me and now in the last five years everyone's coming to visit me it's like that Japan changed that much over the last 20 years that people all of a sudden want to come to Japan I don't know but it's very cool that they do it's very cool that I'm still here because now that they want to visit I got a place for them to stay it's very cool we have just walked from Shinbashi to Roppongi that's quite a walk now if I turn left here are you gonna get a new view of Tokyo Tower chris is right Chris Chris brings up another one safety is big and I didn't realize it and I take it for granted when I went to Malaysia I was taking a picture and I put my camera against the wall as a tripod and my Malaysian friends instantly said don't do that someone's gonna take it and run away and I said I thought about it and I said you know in Japan we don't worry about stuff like that you know the safety no one's gonna take your personal belongings when I walked around probably the guy the the guys that I that looked like someone who might mug me probably had more cash in their pocket than I did so why would they want to take that why would they want my money if they got more money than me and there was often the case so you often feel very safe in Japan you don't have to worry about as a door automatically opens for a family getting into the taxi right there I love those auto doors let's see if he closes the door it'll auto close I think don't touch the door don't touch the door it'll close automatically I'll it's so cool [Music] yeah safety even on the weekend a single woman getting drunk can walk down the streets and be okay I don't like I don't like that situation though but you probably would be okay and if your single lady don't do that I just don't do that but if you're going to do that I would do that here because you would probably be okay OCD stick to hunt hey you're not invited to Japan now but the in in Japan people I don't know it I think it might be an Asian thing I don't know in India people there's crime of course in India too but people will call each other brothers and sisters and there's a sort of connection no matter how much money that you have I didn't I might my experience in India is limited to just much my trips there but yeah there's a big gap in the socio-economic levels of people but everybody is pretty down-to-earth people that have a lot of money usually don't look down on people who don't and vice versa I don't know my experience has been that people call each other brother so I like that you know it seems safe to me but you know even though Japan is safe I would still take precautions and just know the limits of your safety no place is ever 100% safe 7-eleven truck hey brother it's true it's true that you can find an Outback Steakhouse here I've never eaten there but this did not exist 20 years ago Oh at this intersection one place that I did go was you see this building here this black building on the with the Rolex sign up on the top they had a Johnny Rockets on this let's see one two three four five six seven I think it was on the fifth or sixth floor of this building and I was like a Johnny Rockets because I went to Ohio State and we had a Johnny Rockets there with the staff would sing like a 1950's diner and that was in this building and I went there a few times just to kind of feel like I was back in Ohio but that he no longer resist that chain went out of business pretty fast there's no more Johnny Rockets in Japan but they were here you can see the Tokyo Tower do you guys see that between the buildings right in the center of your screen the shot of Roppongi shot up to a guitar from Roppongi is really nice Mexican food big time missed that I missed Mexican food oh you can't get you could not get decent Mexican food in Japan and you probably and Mexicans are going you can't get decent Mexican food in America either but in Japan you don't even have that I wouldn't call Taco Bell Mexican food it's just it's Taco Bell but in Japan there weren't any Mexican restaurants Mexican chains and when you did find them they usually didn't stay in business these days Mexican food is starting to get more popular in Japan which is great it's so good but we didn't we in Japan we never had options and when you did find any Western foods they were usually like Japan a fight it was different even spaghetti had meant ICO like spicy Japanese fish eggs in the pasta and it made the sauce so good but just so different too you know it's just not the same this is one of my favorite views of Tokyo Tower through the urban streets of Roppongi once you clear that sign in this post to get a nice view you see it it's pretty cool there you go I love that shot because mini Gomez yeah that wasn't here 20 years ago though that and that's Australian that's an Australian surfer surfer burrito store this is pretty good by the way they're pretty good but that's too surfer burrito store visit there's a place down the street here um called frijoles I believe their Western owners people who saw on a spot in the market and and made three or four restaurants there's more competition now but it's also a place that you could sneak into frijoles and they make a pretty good burrito it's a little pricey though but it's not something you eat every day it's every now and then just because you miss it right just because you miss it gotcha pong yeah I miss got Japan that's your poem though I think it's starting to grow internationally because people can you can now get rid of your change and put fun stuff in capsule and it doesn't matter what country you're in the idea just works if you want to get rid of stuff put it in a gotcha poem all right I'm going down the side streets of Roppongi I did a live stream called is Roppongi safe which is very interesting you might want to check that out that was like two or three years ago I'm surprised that this only Japan oh I'm still doing it I didn't think I would still be doing it what this is just weird Mountain Dew violet what is it good we tried some of this stuff before on the channel strawberry and milk that's that's kind of a weird one I don't know I'm part of me is like just try this but but I tried some a drink yes two days ago that was really bad jungle man it was called wasn't it's not on my top ten soon Ione gomennasai love and peace don't fight listen kids don't fight say sorry and be friends again I love the little community messages you don't Sokka Sokka means a hill a steep road this area of Tokyo's got a ton of them yeah lots of things I missed it's funny I didn't really miss Tokyo I don't really miss Tokyo I miss Japan and that's that's something that I think is very different I don't I doesn't matter what city you are in Fukuoka Nagoya Osaka Kobe Niigata even told pootie you know Matsui on the other side Jaco day Sapporo it doesn't matter how Almaty it's it's it's there's a feeling that's consistent with all of the places around this country and when you do live here for a while you start to recognize those little things that you did miss a lot of with life here the safety the community there are some bad things of course you know in every place that you live not everything is going to be ideal there's something that expats who live in Japan must go through called the six-month blues in the sixth month of them living here all of the newness of Japan sort of melts away and you're stuck with you start looking at the differences and focusing on what's different from your home life back in in your other in your home country and then you start to hate the place that you're in and almost every Westerner goes through this period and then once you start to get used to life in Japan again that those Blues go away and you either stay or you go and I stayed and I know if I left I would miss a lot of these things like like just being able to jump into a restaurant like sukhiya and getting a you dawn or curry I had a really reasonable price eating a delicious lunch quick and then getting out and going on with my life I will miss stuff like that I won't miss maid cafes I don't I don't make cafes are not my cup of tea they're not but you know some people might I'm not one of them that's interesting what was once a payphone is now a free Wi-Fi place so no longer do you have to pay to get your phone calls and I used to have I still have a very nice telephone card collection you can get them at the convenience stores but you can just take your smart phone and get free Wi-Fi so hey I guess these boots do have a purpose for free Wi-Fi that is a pretty neat restaurant I've eaten there once Ohama this free Wi-Fi inside of every subway station every train station near convenience stores at payphones many city places and the reason why is because Japan is not great with English it's hard to find resources having free Wi-Fi it just makes sense free people to get information on things in their own language some of the vending machines are not turning into Haifa Wi-Fi hotspots yeah what we got here Oh sting I've never seen these energy drinks I don't I don't like them this is one of the drinks today I remember when I first came to Japan fell in love with because it had chunks of the grapefruit in it it was so good Goku D it's been around for decades but one of my favorites yeah Oh Cuddy okatee sweat tastes like Gatorade it tastes like a sports drink yeah there you go so what we had thousand people watching this is crazy I'm just some dude walking around the streets of Tokyo talking about what stuff that I miss I want everybody now to to click the like button if you like this kind of stuff I will ask myself questions and walk around the city aimlessly showing you stuff as I answer that question over the course of an hour and a half hit that like button I really do appreciate it this has been a lot of fun if you do if you do go into the comments sections of this video stop for a second this video will be video on demand and playback able so in the comments leave your list of things that you missed when you came to Japan and went back home what are some things that you said Hue I wish I wish we had that in my country or gosh I can't wait to go back to Japan to do this or to try this those those things are really important to me because I think I might be making an episode of the main channel about it mr. das thank you I will actually I think I will because there's this some places down there that have pretty good beers I also have to stop Kiki thank you I will get Kenai up a plant for the house she's been wanting a plan there's a florist down the street there that's towards Midtown Roppongi Midtown but leave the list I'm actually really curious about that some of the stuff that that you guys will miss as I say goodbye to Roppongi thanks everybody so much this has been an amazing June hey there's a copper cop cars are awesome why is he stopping I like I do like the police here they're serious about their jobs but in Japan if you get lost one of the jobs that the police is to give you directions every police box or coban it's called as a map and if you ask they will guide you and tell you where to go if one of these Wi-Fi spots aren't working for you you can always go to the police station there's one right there there's one on the corner you see with the red light look for the red lanterns and the police you can see him he's got his vest on he just walked into the police box are always helping tourists and and they're very nice I like the police here I'm saying that so police if you ever do arrest me I like you guys be easy with those handcuffs it wasn't me honestly I didn't do anything wrong I don't think anyone's watching yeah thanks guys thanks everybody have a great weekend I might be back with another live stream tomorrow it's the end of the month so I tried to get as many as I can we're in the middle of the rainy season depends on the weather I got some pretty good ideas until then have a great weekend and see ya goodbye from Roppongi hey I'm gonna miss Roppongi yeah you

Channel: ONLY in JAPAN * GO

Views: 85,945

Rating: 4.9206586 out of 5

Keywords: Only in Japan, Japan, tokyo, japanese, vending machines, safety, bento, toilets, konbini, trains, miss about japan, respect, personal respisbility, japanese culture, life in japan

Id: _GpL8Y_ANl8

Length: 83min 45sec (5025 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 29 2019