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Language: en

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I think Japan might be one of those few countries 
in the world where

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you can sit and eat Ghana

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and drink Sour Calpis

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whilst simultaneously watching a man

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hypnotizing a woman into having 
a seizure on National Television

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in front of a very large man...dressed as a woman

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UK has Cadbury's, America has Hershey's

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Japan of course has Ghana

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which is the finest cheapest chocolate you can get, for about a hundred yens

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It's great, I don't know if it has any connections with Ghana, or somebody thought

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"Let's call it Ghana!"

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Really great! If you come to Japan, definitely buy this stuff!

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And there's no better way, to wash that Ghana down with a nice can of Calpis! Calpis Sour

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I guess that any drink..that claims to be filtered through vodka and charcoal

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will to same degree, taste like Calpis

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So I have been in Japan for about 2 months now

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I feel like I'm no longer on holiday, I really do live in Japan

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And this is quite weird for me 'cause this is the first time I've ever lived abroad

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So one of the things 
I wanted to talk about is Culture Shock

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As its something who affects people who move abroad for the first time

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And it's something that I've had now 
particularly as I don't speak Japanese

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And it's quite a weird sensation

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There are 3 stages to Culture Shock

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The first is Initial Euphoria

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This beer came with a free hand towel

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How good is that?

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Oh look, there are Buddhas...carved in the rock

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Oh my god those sushis

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What are all these colorful things?

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Woaw that is a mountain!

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Oh a vending machine!

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It's a vending machine

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Oh another vending machine!!!

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I just opened my bank account, and I got a free towel...a FREE TOWEL with my BANK ACCOUNT

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You would NOT get that in the UK!!

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Yeaaah....it's a.........water bill...

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The Second is Irritation and Hostility

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Literally, I'm running out of room 
for these f....ing towels

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I just got my Internet but I feel a bit of a snag

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I....can't read any of this...

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Where are the god damn muffins???!

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Hello I'm having problems with my Internet

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Oh I don't speak Japanese

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English...? No?.....Okay

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Yeah, well I don't need the Internet anyway

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What are they on about?

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The third stage is Gradual Adjustment

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And I think that's the stage I'm in now

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There are days where I feel like i'm in a giant theme park

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and there are days where I feel like there is a barrier between me and the Japanese people

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So at least Culture Shock 
is driving me to learn Japanese

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Pushing me. 
So in retrospects it's probably a good thing!

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There's a big theme of convenience in Japan

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And you're never far away from two things:

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Convenience Stores, and Vending Machines

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Vending machines sit pretty much 
on every street corner

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In the UK having a vending machine 
on every other street just wouldn't work

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Simply because they would get smashed up 
after only 45 minutes

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Here in Japan you can put one in the middle of nowhere

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Because of the almost non-existent crime rates

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It's not a problem

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Small convenience stores line every other street

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Opened 24 hours a day

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11 days a week, 365 days a year

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And you can do some pretty cool things 
at the convenience store

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From buying airline tickets to paying your water and electricity bills

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Unless like me...

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you can't read your bills so you just put them in this special Japanese cupboard designed to put your bills in

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Because you aren't gonna pay 
for something you can't read

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All the way up until you get deported

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One of the most convenient tools in Japan, is this:

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It's called a Hanko Stamp

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And basically it's your own personalized stamp

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which you use to stamp all the hundreds and millions of documents you get on a daily basis

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And I'd never heard of it before I came to Japan

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And there are entire shops dedicated to craft these personalized stamps

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and selling these cases

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And you can get some pretty pimped-up stamps made of like gold or silver...

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..depleted uranium..

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Little holders for your stamp it's pretty cool admittedly

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And I like using it coz I feel like a lazy gangster

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Because you do get so much paperwork in Japan as well, it's easier than doing a signature again and again

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It's a lot of fun to use

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And I quite like stamping things just for the fun of it

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As I mentioned in my last video

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My kitchen is quite small, 
designed to make you eat out every other night

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Because in my mind it's too difficult to physically prepare dinner or food in such a small space

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But to some degree this kitchen is once again a good example of Japanese innovation on foresight

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because by having such a small kitchen, 
I eat out every other night

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and in the process making me walk to restaurants, keeping me fit!

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So, to some degree, 
the Kitchen is keeping me fit and healthy

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Although I did just get a car

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BUT one of my favorite places is a chain of sushi restaurants called Kappa Zushi

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And it's popular with families or with people who like to stuff their face with raw fish, soy sauce and green tea

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All for a 1000 yens which is 8£ or 12$

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When I first started going I thought, 
like most things Japanese

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it had a real air of convenience about it, after all

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your food comes to you on a conveyor belt

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or you order it on the screen 
and it comes to you on this little train

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Which is amazing, it's honestly the future

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but now, in train form

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and you wonder why all your food 
isn't brought to you on a train

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It just makes sense

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But what I find is it's not the convenience 
of it all that's impressive

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but how it's actually designed to make you eat more than you'd actually want in the first place

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And maybe it's me just being greedy but...allow me to explain!

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You go in, sit down, pour your green tea

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and then you go up to the screen, 
ordering what food you want

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While you're waiting for 5 minutes 
for the train to pass by, you'll inevitably take some things off of the conveyor belt

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Just..just to get you started

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And when you finish those, the train will probably pull up

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with all your food

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and off you go again

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When it's time for Round 2 
you turn your attention back to the screen

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Go through a few pages

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And you come across something called...

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First bonito Concrete Floor

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And this isn't just any Bonito Concrete Floor, 
this is the FIRST Bonito Concrete Floor

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Err..assuming that there's...more than one

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Bonito being "beautiful" in Spanish, 
or at least I thought it was

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and when you see something 
that says Bonito Concrete Floor

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which is either a ridiculous mistranslation

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or just the world's greatest order at a sushi restaurant

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You inevitably get it!

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And sit there and wait!

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If you're someone impatient like me, you start taking more and more fish from the conveyor belt

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So when the Concrete Floor finally does arrive

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And disappointingly appears to be just some sort of fish

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instead of a bag of Concrete

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You feel a bit disappointed

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You know, when you order a Concrete Floor, at the very least you expect a Concrete Floor

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So, you start ordering more fish

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So the cycle continues, you'd order off the screen, 
while you're waiting
 you eat more food off the conveyor belt

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And when you've finished, the experience culminates with you

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walking out stuffed full of raw fish

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and with your monthly bank balance decimated

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Well that's the end of the video

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I'll be putting up my next video in a few weeks

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I actually spent most of the budget for this video

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on that shot of the windmills at the start

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So here's that shot again

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And, yeah, any questions, ask away

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See ya later

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There are three stages to Culture Shock

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The first is Initial Euphoria

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WTF is that?

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Shut up

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There are 3 stages

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There are 3 stages to...

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Oh my god that bird is gonna die

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There are 3 stages to Culture Shock

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Oh this is not happening

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Come on! Shut up!!

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There are 3 stages to Culture Shock, 
the first is Initial Euphoria...Oh my god!

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That bird..

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What is it doing

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Why is it so loud?

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The best thing about the 24hour convenience store is

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At 1am you can go and get some sort of roll

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And, I'm quite excited about this..

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Fried Potatoes with....Toothpick?

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I'm excited coz i've never had potatoes 
out of the hot cooker thing

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They have a really good hot food section and..
there we go! let's give it a shot!

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They might've been out a while

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They're pretty bad

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But generally the food is awesome

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I recommend it, get some hot food from Seven Eleven

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Fuck shit

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Just dropped a chip in the cooker