My First Trip to Japan

dudes up even a fantastic Tuesday welcome back to the philip defranco show hey guys DeFranco and i wanted to let you guys know that we finally have the highly requested I'm here for the chaos in gold foil available on my merch start you can get it for a limited time using the link in the description below all the money made directly supports me and my channel thank you so much wait a second Jayden just went to Japan and Jayden just made a video about going to Japan there's only one logical explanation for this but before you get your noodles in a knot my boyfriend Chris and I planned this trip months ago the reason we went actually was to celebrate his dad's 80th birthday so ha on Christmas Eve Eve Chris and I flew from Los Angeles to Japan well we couldn't get a direct flight so first we flew from Los Angeles to San Francisco then San Francisco to South Korea then South Korea to Japan this obviously wasn't our plan see on the day of the trip we realized our flights and seats had been changed without our knowledge so in the 11 hour flight to South Korea Chris and I couldn't sit together we asked people if they'd be willing to move but they were either already seated with their family or didn't understand English this is probably a good time to mention that I have major plane anxiety this was my first international flight my first time outside the country and of course my first time going to Japan nice Chris however spent a lot of his childhood in Japan he and his twin brother Nick went to elementary and middle school near Tokyo so of course and thankfully he's fluent in Japanese and knew the area so despite not being able to sit with him during our super long flight I felt a lot better knowing he'd had this whole trip under control but when we landed in South Korea my brother texted me this you it wouldn't be a nilly mation video without something sad happening would it I know this is out of left field to talk about and maybe it's not important to you but this was devastating for me my family woke up on Christmas Eve back in North Carolina to discover cheeto my cat I had since third grade suddenly didn't have the energy to eat or drink or move when I left North Carolina to go to college in California four years ago I always told myself that if anything happened to cheeto I would fly out on the first plane home to be there and I really thought I'd be able to do that but when my family took cheeto to the vet they found out she had severe kidney failure and she had been suffering in silence for quite a while the only thing they could do now was put her down and they had to make that decision without me because I was on that 11 hour overnight flight to South Korea and even if I was in my apartment in California there was no way I could get a last-minute flight across the country home to North Carolina on Christmas Eve the best they could do was get ahold of me as soon as they could try to tell me all that just happened and hope I would still have a good time in Japan and somehow Merry Christmas Chris and I arrived in Tokyo later that day it was really cold so Chris got us a warm milk tea from the vending machines which was pretty cool and it tasted really good Japan has a lot of vending machines they're everywhere Chris taught me some basic phrases that would come in handy like I hope I say these right suma san I think I thought gozaimasu and I'm gonna say Nichole gosh inna the clerk's are really nice and understanding that I was obviously a foreigner and Nyong'o what got him a sense I was rushing to put my money back in my wallet when a really nice clerk said it's fine you don't have to rush it's okay take your time with things and I really appreciated hearing that since we were staying with Chris's family outside of Tokyo we took a bullet train there we met up with Chris's twin brother Nick and his good friend Kara who was also here for the first time and then we all met up with their dad for sushi has me much day eighty two days I don't know I hope I'm saying this right Chris isn't here to tell me Oh yah-tchi Dana Midas yeah door Genki Muhammed or die hahahaha hi his dad didn't speak any English and I didn't speak much Japanese so Chris did a really good job translating for us the next day we celebrated Chris's dad's birthday our day started off walking his dog Sarah exploring their hometown and going to a local cafe after that we picked up food for his birthday party and made hamburgers for everyone I met all of his work friends who were so happy that I was trying to communicate with the little Japanese that I knew one of his work friends played the song from spirited away on the piano Kara did some amazing ballet like right on the spot his friends sang happy birthday and played ukulele and even though I couldn't understand anything anyone was saying my heart felt warm and it wasn't the Hello Kitty wine on day three we walked around the city to do some touristy things and I started writing this script on my phone I told Chris how I was trying to figure out how to write about Japan considering my cat just died I couldn't exactly tell one story without the other I think you're rushing to a conclusion it's only been three days and you're trying to come up with the lesson you learned you haven't even let yourself grieve yet hey uh you know those cat figurines you wanted to find there's a Museum of them right up ahead you want to check them out we ended up going to the wrong Museum at first but I managed to find exactly what I was looking for later that day I had the opportunity to go to a Japanese bathhouse the best way to describe it is like a public pool but bathtubs and everyone's nakey I decided not to go for that reason also because I have a tattoo and honor of my grandmother and Nick told me tattoos in Japan mean you're part of the Yakuza wait Chris what's the Yaquis Oh Japanese mafia oh hey for Chris and I had a heart-to-heart about stealing blankets at night so we had a bunk bed but the top one was smaller than the bottom one and we couldn't fit but the heater the heat would get trapped up there and then we couldn't we weren't warm it was really cold so while we were looking for more blankets in the closet Chris found his middle school sports jacket and some socks and I took them and then I made a nest on the top bunk day five or might still be day four I time zones are like really confusing this might've been the same day I don't know on our last full day with Chris's dad I wanted to show my appreciation by taking us all out to his favorite restaurant after that we went to the expo park and had some tea inside a little cafe and then we took the train home wait a second day6 I think the next morning I left Chris's down a note saying thank you so much for having us I'll see you next Christmas I've obviously never written anything in kanji but I tried my best we went back down to Tokyo and met up with one of Chris's childhood friends taka he had actually visited us last year in the States for the ultimate American Thanksgiving experience so he returned the favor by giving us the ultimate Tokyo tourist experience I'm talking Pokemon Center soba how did you COO whatever this beautiful place was streets temples more streets fancy dinner with friends cotton candy and long potato of course part of this trip includes traveling home and thankfully our flights were not changed however we did have an 18-hour layover in you guessed it South Korea which meant sleeping in the airport another thing I've never done before and that's when Chris discovered a place called the napped zone now you may think nap refers to sleep but don't like those weird beds and dim lighting fool you nap stands for no need to watch your children also don't forget to talk on the phone and open the loudest bag of potato chips anyway 18 hours later we boarded our flight back to Los Angeles thankfully Chris and I were able to sit together the whole way this time but we did promise each other that if something unexpected happened again we would figure it out together for all that happened in the last week of 2018 I've come to this conclusion flights change and cats die which might sound morbid but bear with me nothing will prepare you for the things you're afraid of nothing will keep you from falling apart when something awful happens no books no magazine articles no words of advice will keep you from experiencing those irrational reactionary emotions and that is okay when my family told me Cheeto died I fell apart right then and there right in the middle of a South Korean airport at 7:00 in the morning I was sobbing I was shaking I was cursing and I wasn't hidden away in a bathroom stall no this was at the gate in front of hundreds of people I didn't get to choose under which circumstances to experience grief let alone where in the world no one gets to choose that there is no perfect time or way to process grief my family felt so bad telling me this right before my amazing vacation and on Christmas Day they were worried that it would ruin my time in Japan but honestly it didn't after I was done crying after I wiped my tears I thought of a way to combine the sadness of losing you know and the excitement of this awesome trip so at the Meineke Necco Museum I hope I said that right I got this for my mom this one for my brother these for myself and these two matching ones one for me and one for my family I know it's a lot of cats and I know this is all lots of process but like Chris taught me to say - okay I'm gonna get I'm gonna get really good at sitting in trash cans after this someone please adopt me I like cats and long walks indoors I think I got looked at funny by a few people so please buy my shirt all the money made directly supports me and my channel thank you so much I touched the mic again okay

Channel: illymation

Views: 6,569,318

Keywords: illymation, illymations, illyanimation, illystrations, japan, cats, dealing with grief, first pet, travel vlog, japan travel vlog, japanese, tanimayto, animated story, animation storytime, storytime, storytime animation, storytime videos, illymation boyfriend

Id: cbz4JKDxnRw

Length: 10min 5sec (605 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2019