About to buy a sandwich from Lawson, which is like a big room

where you can buy things and take them home!

I'm gonna show you!

Oh my god guys there's so many sandwiches to choose from, I don't know which one I'm gonna get!

Cheese Dessert Vege?!

This sandwich looks delicious it's gotta be this sandwich, it's gotta be this one!

Just bought a sandwich from Lawson's in Japan

So I just bought a sandwich

I don't know what's in it because I couldn't read what it said on the sandwich package but...

I don't know what's in it but it's probably the best sandwich I've ever had!

I wanna kill myself

You know I've never been a good YouTuber

First off unlike lots of clever YouTubers, I've never given the viewers of the Abroad In Japan channel

some kind of community name like "bros" or "my best friends" or "the fuzzy wuzzy fun club"

As well as that I'm not the happiest of presenters, I find most successful YouTubers tend to have a positive smiley online persona

as if they'd simultaneously won a bucket of treasure and snorted a mountain of cocaine in the moments leading up to filming a video

Unfortunately, again, I can't do that I'm as cynical and grumpy on here as I would be if you met me in a bar in Tokyo

In fact in the past I've been described by Metropolis, Japan's number one English magazine

as "fairly jaded and snarky yet weirdly charming"

"Snarky"! It's ridiculous!

Majestic! Exceptional! Ravishing!

These words would have been far more appropriate!

Undoubtedly the biggest criticism I faced in my 4 years as a YouTuber though

is my irregular upload schedule

which admittedly not even I can defend

But I'll try!

For the first 3 years of doing the Abroad in Japan Channel I worked as an English teacher

Teaching the children of Japan what sarcasm is and how to pronounce words like "penguin"

So it was always a side hobby and I only had time to make one video per month

But this year, having finished that job, the Abroad in Japan channel became almost a full time job

And videos went from monthly to almost every other week

But it soon became clear in the absence of a stable source of income

Building a YouTube channel wasn't easy

It often seems that videos on the Abroad in Japan channel are very random

One week we're in an onsen, another week we're in Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo

or a love hotel or maybe we're just in the apartment rebranding a vacuum cleaner

"Vacuum-cleaner"

"Fucking...?!"

"...cleaner??!!

But the one thing all the videos have in common is a lot of time goes into producing them

Whether that's researching and writing, going off and filming, or the many hours spent hunched over

a computer editing long into the night

A lot of time goes into making them as educational and entertaining...hopefully entertaining as possible

Even if you're someone who hates these videos because they give you depression

I like to think it's still evident that a lot of time has gone into making them nonetheless

But it became clear even though the videos were performing well, YouTube ad revenue just wasn't stable enough to fund the channel

in the long run, particularly as everyone now uses ad blockers

And who can blame them given how much shit comes up on the internet these days

So last month I launched a crowd-funding page on Patreon where people who enjoy the channel can support it and the videos

and get extra stuff in return such as bonus content and articles and videos

And a Live Google Hangout every month

And even an exclusive video series called Abroad in Japan stories talking about experiences

that may be too personal, too embarrassing to feature on the actual channel itself

The first of which is up there now about why I came to Japan

I did this with the hopes that all the funds raised from Patreon will be used to fund more videos

and to help grow the channel in the long-run

And the response was absolutely fantastic!

I didn't anticipate so many people to take part in the first month and I can safely say

the future of the Abroad in Japan channel is looking very bright indeed and the funds are now there to

help grow the channel and create more videos in the long run

So a huge thanks to everyone for supporting the Patreon page

Another criticism I face is I don't make enough vlogging kinda videos showing my everyday life in Japan

But I think the time has come to try less edited videos, videos that are showing "life on the go around Japan"

And these are kind of videos that don't really fit the Abroad in Japan channel

and with that in mind there's a brand new second channel where I plan to upload more experimental daily life stuff

that is a bit weird!

If the Abroad in Japan Channel is like my first born son who I'm very proud of

who's gone off to become a lawyer then the second channel is kind of the more rebellious failed son

who I don't really want people knowing about but anyway nonetheless he is still my son

And I called him "Abroad Perspective"

And to subscribe to this channel it's absolutely free and the first video involves a horrendous drinking game

that I played with Natsuki that probably doesn't really fit this channel, I don't know what it does fit

In fact I hesitate calling it a drinking game at all

it's more of a just general fucking disaster!

Too heavy!!

One final thing, you may have noticed I'm in a brand new apartment

And i've just moved into here, it's the reason there has been no videos for the last month

Moving in here has been a stressful nightmare

But, it's done, and I can finally get back to making videos and better still, it's significantly bigger and

cheaper somehow than the last one!

And it looks like a Japanese apartment!

As opposed to the last one who was also a bit like a shipping container

So in summary, the future of the Abroad in Japan channel is looking pretty bright and

I just wanna say a huge thanks to everyone who's supported the channel over the years

and just enjoyed watching the videos regularly

I'm off now to watch my favorite Japanese superhero movie

Who needs Spiderman and Batman when you've got:

"Planting Tree Man"!

"Let's make the forest of life with dream, courage and hope"

You don't see Spiderman thinking up anything like that

Look at those pesky ninjas and that rather unpleasant Tongue...Man

If Planting Tree Man can fend off these villainous swine as well as plant trees then he's more than ready to join the Avengers in my mind

Move over Avengers, Planting Tree Man is in town!

...Is he?