hoodie I bought in Thailand it's actually like the only thing I can wear

on days like this because we're now at the part of fall in Japan where it's

like when the Sun is out it's really really warm and then when the wind blows

it's like freezing cold and when the Sun Goes Down you die so personally like I

like the hoodie up I think it's really cute but I think that's not how I want

to make this whole video so I'm gonna take it down that's better anyway if

you've been following me on social media the past week or so I've been hinting

that I had an announcement to make and I think that today it's going to be the

day that I I finally let you know what that is so the thing that I have been a

little bit nervous and excited to announce is that as of last week I

became a published author it's weird right so at the beginning of this year

the Japan Times approached me with this idea they wanted to create a social

media English book for people who wanted to write captions or you know write

short sentences and put them out there online and yeah we work together to

create this cute little Instagram based caption book so the book itself is

pretty straightforward it has a photo and then it has a caption just like

Instagram would and the caption is very easy but its native fluent English and

then down below we have other words that you can replace in the sentences to

customize them and make them more relevant to you so every page is a

different photo and a different sample caption because that's how books work

and when I thought of these sentences and when I thought of the examples I

thought about how when studying a foreign language a lot of phrase books

tend to shy away from like negative opinions or negativity and I think that

self-expression is really important so if you went somewhere and it wasn't that

great you should be able to be like oh you know this spaghetti was disgusting

or you know like this restaurant was overrated this one wasn't this one was

great but for example if you like to a restaurant that wasn't that great you

could be like oh it was overrated it was pretentious it was okay you know

I just want to give people options self-expression is really important

there are a lot of Fukuoka related photos because that's where I

and obviously I have a bias and I love coca so there's a bunch of that there's

a whole chapter dedicated to kitten lawn and pet photos but that's not all I also

have you know lists of hashtags that you can use per category I have the apps

that I use to edit photos on my phone tips for taking photos tips for learning

English apps that I recommend for learning English and a bunch of stuff

that I don't know hopefully Japanese people are going to find useful oh and

there's a hashtag so for language learners who want to study and actually

use these captions or make their own captions and practice their English

through Instagram there's a hashtag in this book and if you use that hashtag I

will be able to check the post and I can like them I can comment I can interact

with them and see them for myself and if you want me to check them you know I can

send suggestions or corrections or I can ask you questions about your photos if

you want me to directly interact with the photos that you upload in English

you can use the hashtag any way it was a really cool project and now that it's

like a real thing and it's like in my hands and it's so smooth to touch and

the colors are vibrant and popping and you know they've done a really great job

with the design it did not look like that at all when I submitted it to them

so they really cleaned it up and made it look beautiful and I'm very thankful for

that but yeah it's out and if you're in Japan you can find it in I think I found

it in the English learning section at the bookstore that I went to the other

day if you do see it in the wild take a photo and let me know because I actually

don't know how many copies are out there and I don't know like how it's being

displayed everywhere I have found it in Fukuoka at bookstores in tangent and

stuff and that's really exciting um but yeah for those of you who don't

really want to look for it and you just want to buy it first of all thank you

that's really really cool of you umm second of all is yeah it's

definitely quicker and easier to find it on Amazon so check the link in the

description if you want to order a copy that's that Instagram English my first

book my name is on it my photos are in it my dog is in it my cat is in it I'm

very very happy about this thank you to the Japan Times for collaborating with

me on this project anyway so that's one thing that has been happening lately

that is citing the others I've been traveling a

lot lately finally again as you guys know I went to Kochi with Sharla and

that was a lot of fun we had a great time exploring Shikoku and I had never

been to Kochi and I had no idea that it was so beautiful and I ate so much

consul that I had to like go on no fish diet for like two weeks before I could

eat fish again not because the consul was gross but because I had it literally

like three times a day and by the end I was just like next week I'm gonna have a

video up with Kim Dao in Tokyo lens and that's very exciting we went and

explored greater Tokyo which I realized is ironic considering Sharla and I also

made a video where we talked about why you shouldn't go to Tokyo but yeah that

was also very fun and it was very fast-paced and hectic I finally got to

go to mount to kaol which I know about from Sharla's videos and I've always

wanted to check it out and it was really nice that video will be up next week I

think I don't know I haven't made it yet but I will after this goes up I promise

that's that's gonna be on next on my list of things to do next week I'm going

on a trip around Kyushu so that will be fun

and after that I don't know I think I might be doing a little bit more

traveling before the year is up and I'm really excited to kind of like get out

there and take more photos and you know see more of Japan cuz I feel like a lot

of this year I spent at home kind of being a shut-in being a mopey shut-in

because uh I don't know uh why I don't know sometimes my feelings get the best

of me and I don't feel like doing anything at all this is Sarah and you

might remember her from a few videos ago and if you haven't seen that video you

might be surprised to know that we have a new dog but this is sad and she's

wearing a sweater because I tried to cut her hair myself and I did a very

terrible job and then I had to shave it all off and now her hair is quite short

and I'm worried that it's a little too cold now for her to be as hairless as

she is I know that some people don't like having dogs with clothes but I feel

like in this case like this nice little fleece is keeping her warm because I

made a mistake and I will not try to cut her hair myself ever again anyway I'm

gonna take these guys for a walk and there's a coffee

place that I like to go to what I'm walking them so I'm gonna stop by there

and get a coffee and then I'm gonna edit this and I'm gonna put it online and

I'll see you guys tonight all except if you're seeing it you're

seeing me now and then I'll see you again next week when I upload the

greater Tokyo video with Tokyo lens and Kim Dao and that will be exciting too

and if you live in Japan and you see my book let me know send me a photo on

Instagram and tag me put it in your story I don't know just like show me I

want to see it cuz it just it doesn't feel real to me even though the thing is

it's here and it's in my hand and it's a real like tangible thing it doesn't feel

real to me so yeah if you do see it in the wild send me a photo let me know

anyway thank you so much for watching and I will talk to you guys again soon

bye

you