I think Japan might be one of those few countries
in the world where you can sit and eat Ghana and drink Sour Calpis whilst simultaneously watching a man hypnotizing a woman into having
a seizure on National Television in front of a very large man...dressed as a woman UK has Cadbury's, America has Hershey's Japan of course has Ghana which is the finest cheapest chocolate you can get, for about a hundred yens It's great, I don't know if it has any connections with Ghana, or somebody thought "Let's call it Ghana!" Really great! If you come to Japan, definitely buy this stuff! And there's no better way, to wash that Ghana down with a nice can of Calpis! Calpis Sour I guess that any drink..that claims to be filtered through vodka and charcoal will to same degree, taste like Calpis So I have been in Japan for about 2 months now I feel like I'm no longer on holiday, I really do live in Japan And this is quite weird for me 'cause this is the first time I've ever lived abroad So one of the things
I wanted to talk about is Culture Shock As its something who affects people who move abroad for the first time And it's something that I've had now
particularly as I don't speak Japanese And it's quite a weird sensation There are 3 stages to Culture Shock The first is Initial Euphoria This beer came with a free hand towel How good is that? Oh look, there are Buddhas...carved in the rock Oh my god those sushis What are all these colorful things? Woaw that is a mountain! Oh a vending machine! It's a vending machine Oh another vending machine!!! I just opened my bank account, and I got a free towel...a FREE TOWEL with my BANK ACCOUNT You would NOT get that in the UK!! Yeaaah....it's a.........water bill... The Second is Irritation and Hostility Literally, I'm running out of room
for these f....ing towels I just got my Internet but I feel a bit of a snag I....can't read any of this... Where are the god damn muffins???! Hello I'm having problems with my Internet Oh I don't speak Japanese English...? No?.....Okay Yeah, well I don't need the Internet anyway What are they on about? The third stage is Gradual Adjustment And I think that's the stage I'm in now There are days where I feel like i'm in a giant theme park and there are days where I feel like there is a barrier between me and the Japanese people So at least Culture Shock
is driving me to learn Japanese Pushing me.
So in retrospects it's probably a good thing! There's a big theme of convenience in Japan And you're never far away from two things: Convenience Stores, and Vending Machines Vending machines sit pretty much
on every street corner In the UK having a vending machine
on every other street just wouldn't work Simply because they would get smashed up
after only 45 minutes Here in Japan you can put one in the middle of nowhere Because of the almost non-existent crime rates It's not a problem Small convenience stores line every other street Opened 24 hours a day 11 days a week, 365 days a year And you can do some pretty cool things
at the convenience store From buying airline tickets to paying your water and electricity bills Unless like me... you can't read your bills so you just put them in this special Japanese cupboard designed to put your bills in Because you aren't gonna pay
for something you can't read All the way up until you get deported One of the most convenient tools in Japan, is this: It's called a Hanko Stamp And basically it's your own personalized stamp which you use to stamp all the hundreds and millions of documents you get on a daily basis And I'd never heard of it before I came to Japan And there are entire shops dedicated to craft these personalized stamps and selling these cases And you can get some pretty pimped-up stamps made of like gold or silver... ..depleted uranium.. Little holders for your stamp it's pretty cool admittedly And I like using it coz I feel like a lazy gangster Because you do get so much paperwork in Japan as well, it's easier than doing a signature again and again It's a lot of fun to use And I quite like stamping things just for the fun of it As I mentioned in my last video My kitchen is quite small,
designed to make you eat out every other night Because in my mind it's too difficult to physically prepare dinner or food in such a small space But to some degree this kitchen is once again a good example of Japanese innovation on foresight because by having such a small kitchen,
I eat out every other night and in the process making me walk to restaurants, keeping me fit! So, to some degree,
the Kitchen is keeping me fit and healthy Although I did just get a car BUT one of my favorite places is a chain of sushi restaurants called Kappa Zushi And it's popular with families or with people who like to stuff their face with raw fish, soy sauce and green tea All for a 1000 yens which is 8£ or 12$ When I first started going I thought,
like most things Japanese it had a real air of convenience about it, after all your food comes to you on a conveyor belt or you order it on the screen
and it comes to you on this little train Which is amazing, it's honestly the future but now, in train form and you wonder why all your food
isn't brought to you on a train It just makes sense But what I find is it's not the convenience
of it all that's impressive but how it's actually designed to make you eat more than you'd actually want in the first place And maybe it's me just being greedy but...allow me to explain! You go in, sit down, pour your green tea and then you go up to the screen,
ordering what food you want While you're waiting for 5 minutes
for the train to pass by, you'll inevitably take some things off of the conveyor belt Just..just to get you started And when you finish those, the train will probably pull up with all your food and off you go again When it's time for Round 2
you turn your attention back to the screen Go through a few pages And you come across something called... First bonito Concrete Floor And this isn't just any Bonito Concrete Floor,
this is the FIRST Bonito Concrete Floor Err..assuming that there's...more than one Bonito being "beautiful" in Spanish,
or at least I thought it was and when you see something
that says Bonito Concrete Floor which is either a ridiculous mistranslation or just the world's greatest order at a sushi restaurant You inevitably get it! And sit there and wait! If you're someone impatient like me, you start taking more and more fish from the conveyor belt So when the Concrete Floor finally does arrive And disappointingly appears to be just some sort of fish instead of a bag of Concrete You feel a bit disappointed You know, when you order a Concrete Floor, at the very least you expect a Concrete Floor So, you start ordering more fish So the cycle continues, you'd order off the screen,
while you're waiting
you eat more food off the conveyor belt And when you've finished, the experience culminates with you walking out stuffed full of raw fish and with your monthly bank balance decimated Well that's the end of the video I'll be putting up my next video in a few weeks I actually spent most of the budget for this video on that shot of the windmills at the start So here's that shot again And, yeah, any questions, ask away See ya later There are three stages to Culture Shock The first is Initial Euphoria WTF is that? Shut up There are 3 stages There are 3 stages to... Oh my god that bird is gonna die There are 3 stages to Culture Shock Oh this is not happening Come on! Shut up!! There are 3 stages to Culture Shock,
the first is Initial Euphoria...Oh my god! That bird.. What is it doing Why is it so loud? The best thing about the 24hour convenience store is At 1am you can go and get some sort of roll And, I'm quite excited about this.. Fried Potatoes with....Toothpick? I'm excited coz i've never had potatoes
out of the hot cooker thing They have a really good hot food section and..
there we go! let's give it a shot! They might've been out a while They're pretty bad But generally the food is awesome I recommend it, get some hot food from Seven Eleven Fuck shit Just dropped a chip in the cooker
