I call it the traveler's curse. Traveling

somewhere new brings something into your life that's amazing. It opens your mind in a way

that nothing else can and it's a priceless experience. But it also comes with a curse.

Because no matter where you go, you're always going to miss something from the places that

you left behind. I love living in Japan. I'm perfectly content and happy here and I plan

on living here for the foreseeable future. But I also love my home country, America and

there are some things I miss about it, too. Not too long ago I did a video about the things

I love most about Japan, which was 5 different things, and today I'm going to talk about

5 things that I love and miss about America. In no particular order they are:

1. FOOD

Rachel, didn't you say in your Japan video that one of your favorite things about Japan was food?

Yes I did because I love the food here, too. And when I'm in America I miss Japanese food

like crazy! But while I'm here I miss American food because

THE TRAVELER'S CURSE.

I haven't been back to America in over a year and I find myself craving the weirdest things. You

know what I'm craving right now?

I would drown a small child if I could eat a chili cheese

burrito from Taco Bell.

Rachel I don't know if you know this but there are Taco Bells in Japan.

Yeah but there ain't no chili cheese burritos here, I have checked. In fact, all

of my favorite American restaurants are different. They serve Japanese "American" food, just

like how in America a lot of our Japanese restaurants serve American "Japanese" food.

CAT

CAAAAT.

Foreign food is just never as good as it is in its home country, and it's

sad but SHOUGANAI. I want a box of these crispy fries. You know what these are? These cost

a dollar at the grocery store. They're in the frozen section and you put them in the

microwave for 5 minutes and then when I take them out I sprinkle them with shredded cheese

and I let the cheese melt and then I eat my crispy, delicious cheese-covered fries, and

it's amazing. And I crave that and I don't know why. I want to eat seafood from red lobster.

You know how America serves seafood? Grilled in butter and salt! I wanna eat a baked potato

that is half butter, drowning in cheese, and covered in so much bacon that I can't see

the plate. I want to kill so many pigs for my baked potato that Bashar al-Assad says

"That's fucked up." But you know what the most blasphemous thing I wanna eat is? I want

to eat American sushi. It's COMPLETELY different from Japanese sushi. It's its own thing and

it's delicious. Japanese sushi is delicious. They're both delicious, just in different

ways. And for some reason I want to eat some American sushi. I don't know what's wrong

with me. I want to eat a San Antonio roll from HEB and that makes me want to cry because

there are no HEBs anywhere near Cincinnati. So even when I go back to my country in a

month, I'm not going to be able to get to eat my favorite American sushi. And that makes

me very sad. THE TRAVELER'S CURSE Anyway, we're going back to America in a month and

I'm going to eat so much food. I'm going to upload a picture every single day on instagram

and I'm going to gain 15 pounds and I can't wait!

2. VAST SWATHES OF NATURE I'm not a

I'm not a city person.

I'm kind of like a hippy forest tree person. If I could live in a tree house

I totally would. Me and Jun both prefer rural Japan to the cities here. And I miss the vast

nature that we have in America. After all of the places that I've been to, I appreciate

my hometown of Cincinnati more than I used to when I was growing up because now I realize

how beautiful it actually is. When you're driving along the expressways, you're driving

through forested valleys with trees and hills everywhere! And when you drive along residential

roads you have tall trees lining the street on both sides and it's beautiful. And the

birds are chirping in the summer and there's a nice, beautiful breeze blowing through your

car window, and it smells like nature, and there's a little babbling brook running alongside

the road and it's amazing and I miss that. I like all the openness in America. I like

having space. Lots of space. Houses are farther away from the street, too, so I can blast

my music in my car when I'm driving around. That's my stress relief. Going for a drive

and listening to my loud music. I can't really listen to loud music very much here because

no matter where I am I'm going to bother someone else. So I can only listen to loud music here

if I'm playing it in my headphones, which isn't really good for my eardrums, but I do

it anyway. So... I listen to loud music now when I go out on my runs in the evening, and

that's pretty much it. I miss being able to play it in my car. So that's one of the things

that I have to sacrifice in Japan for the convenience of public transportation or being

able to walk or ride my bike everywhere. Which is also great! There's just pros and cons

to both sides.

3. LOUD AND OUTGOING PEOPLE

Whaaaat you miss loud people?

I know, it sounds really weird, but I kinda do miss loud people!

I didn't used to. When I first came to Japan

one of my favorite things about being here was I was like, "It's so quiet in Japan! All

the people leave me alone and it's so nice and peaceful. I love it here!" And that's

how I genuinely felt before. But now I kinda like interacting with people more. I like

talking to people. I like having conversations with strangers. That's just really interesting.

I like connecting with people. I just think that connection that we have with other people

is a huge part of what makes us human and what makes us a society. And while I used

to prefer just being left alone in my little hermit room and letting me do what I want,

which I still want sometimes, now I kinda like talking to people a lot more than I used

to. Of course it still happens here in Japan. Sometimes strangers will just start talking

to me. But it doesn't really happen as often as it does in America. And the energy level

of people in America is very high. Japan is a country that is a little more subdued. You

have your excited people here, of course, but I would say the average level of excitement

in Japan is a lot lower than the level of excitement in America. And when that excitement

is positive, it's really infectious. One of the biggest compliments that I see foreigners

giving America all the time is they say that Americans are surprisingly friendly and warm

and open and will just randomly start talking to them anywhere. And it's true! We do that

in America. I know some of you cynical Americans watching this are like "PEOPLE HERE ARE STUPID

THEY'RE NOT FRIENDLY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT" But actually Americans are really friendly

and we talk to strangers a lot. There are jerks, too, of course, and jerks are more

readily noticeable in America because they tend to be louder so you can see them a lot

more easily. But there are a lot of really great people in America and I've interacted

with a ton of amazing people, even strangers, in America.

4. CHEAP STUFF

America is freaking cheap!

It's not that Japan is expensive, it's just that globally America is a really cheap

country. Things are cheaper in America and they're bigger, so it's like things are

DOUBLE cheap in America.

Granted, a lot of stuff is cheap for a reason and one of those reasons

tends to be the quality. I've noticed that a lot of things that are more expensive here

in Japan are really good quality, so that is one plus side to buying things that are

more expensive here. But there's plenty of stuff in America that's perfectly fine anyway,

it's just cheap. And the variety of stuff that you can buy in America is pretty much

limitless. Jun and I are taking two large empty suitcases back to America, which we

are going to put inside two even larger empty suitcases so we can bring a ton of stuff back

to Japan, and I'm super excited about it! We can show you guys what we bring back if

you're interested in seeing what kind of stuff is a little more difficult or more expensive

to get here in Japan.

5. MY FAMILY

Of course my family! I miss my family a lot. I really

like my family. My family's awesome. We have a really unique sense of humor. It's called

ruthlessly make fun of each other's insecurities until someone gets upset, because it's hilarious.

And I miss that. That's probably the hardest thing for me living here, is I don't like

being so far away from my family. I wish they were here with me, or I had a portal so I

could just walk through the portal into my mom's house and say, "Mom can you make me

a jello cake!!" and then play with the dogs and then come back through the portal into

my safe and comfortable home here in Japan where I can go out in public wearing short

shorts and then everything would be perfect! I wish I could take the best parts of all

the places I've lived and put them on a giant tropical island where it's 80 degrees and

sunny all day everyday, and it would be amazing and I would be the happiest person in the

world! Real talk though, I'm happy wherever I live. I think being happy with your environment

has a lot to do with your mindset and how you react to negative things that happen.

I'm an optimistic person. I think both Japan and America are great countries and I think

they're only getting better with time. I know I'm in the minority for people who think this

way, but I do. And so I really like both places. Anyway, like I said Jun and I are going back to

America next month and I get to see my family and eat lots of food and I'm so excited!!

I'm curious what you guys' favorite parts of your home countries are, so please let

me know down in the comments! I would love to read them. Thank you guys for watching

and I'll see you later! Bye!

Hi~

HI~

HI~~

ACKKKHHHH

It's sad. It makes-

Aw Jesus

Do you have to do this right now?

Stop fucking getting in the way!

AGHHH

Can you like cool your shit?

You are going in the hallway.

The cat has been banished.