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Episode four.

Okay, right.

Mhm.

Mhm.

Mhm, mm hmm, mm hmm.

Good morning.

It is November 11 today I am going to meet with some friends from Michigan.

So it's been a really long time and I haven't seen these people in a while.

Some of them live here.

Another really close friend of mine who was the one who contacted me I haven't seen in like years.

So it's going to be really interesting.

And then the other thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to meet somebody that is also a Youtuber who lives in the UK but is also living in Japan as well, like back and forth.

I don't know him that well.

I just follow him on instagram and all that stuff.

I will see you guys in just a little bit.

I'm so awkward on camera.

I'm so sorry.

I'm pretty sure since living in Japan I spend most of my life commuting by train.

The japanese commute by train more than any other means of transportation, including walking the japanese also commute by train more than pretty much anybody else internationally.

This is my main way of getting to people, but dang do I love it.

I love reading on the train or listening to music.

I don't have to worry about traffic or accidents, road rage, et cetera.

It's pretty much stress free.

Okay, so I just got to the station and I'm going to see my friend or find my friend and see where she's at.

It wasn't that far of a train ride.

So yeah, I've got to find her cause I'm kind of late, sorry Stephanie and I'm so nervous because I haven't seen her in like so many years.

So I'm excited.

All right.

I don't know where I'm at.

I'm the worst.

Like navigating like I have no navigation skills whatsoever.

Hi Hey, I don't know where that you said.

It was like a train.

Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

No, I just exited out of five.

But yeah, I came from the subway.

So I don't know.

I don't know where you're at.

I mean across the street there's like a 7 11.

I met Stephanie when I first started college at Msu.

We were roommates in a japanese internship program and grew close like sisters.

We are setting up for the barbecue.

It's very hot today.

Yeah.

Back in the day I tried my best to document everything.

I used diaries, photos and video.

This was before my Youtube days and I'm so glad that I did this.

Louisiana is cutting the pizza.

Hi, Hannah and such a good job because she has muscles.

She's like a superhero Superwoman.

Hi stan Yeah.

Is there anything you want me to say on camera?

Whatever you want to say.

We're here where cmu students and Japanese students and we're going to have an intercultural event barbecue.

Lots of fun.

You know, lots of people in the water over there.

Beautiful mountains.

It's important to take note of these moments in your life, you can look back on these experiences to grow and to learn so much about yourself if you haven't yet, even if you don't plan on studying abroad start something now.

You'll see how much of these documented moments change you in the future, Stephanie.

How are you?

Good.

How are you?

Oh my gosh.

We haven't seen each other in like so long.

5.5 years.

Yeah.

Imagine when we graduated right?

I know right?

It doesn't seem that long though.

Like I feel like I saw you like yesterday there's a handful of friends back home that have made a huge effort to stay in touch and I appreciate that wholeheartedly.

Not a day goes by where I don't think about them, Stephanie.

Okay, you have to introduce yourselves.

We haven't seen each other in five years.

She was just saying and I was just like, it hasn't been that long, but it actually has.

And I feel like I've just seen you not too long ago.

It's awesome.

I'm so excited.

You have to move here.

I will.

I'm lonely, will you?

Yes, but I realize that people who reach out to you despite you living miles and miles away are the people who truly care about you the most?

I'm lucky to have so much support even though I've lived abroad for so long.

I'll never forget that.

Mhm.

So we just finished our sushi.

It was good.

Where are we going cafe?

That was really good.

I'd come back here.

I got a sushi bowl for only 980 and 80 And so it was pretty affordable.

Now.

We're going to go to a cafe, a green juice.

Oh, that's really gross, healthy kelly healthy.

We had a good time and now she has to leave it.

She's probably going to move.

Mm hmm.

Alright, so I'm in Harajuku right now and I just finished um meeting up with my friends which was really nice.

So now I'm heading to Yoyogi Park and I'm gonna be meeting another Youtuber who I talked about earlier.

Um I don't know what's going on with that because I've been trying to contact him, but he hasn't been saying anything.

So we'll see about that.

I'm gonna meet with this guy that I've been kind of seeing for a couple of weeks, but I don't know if he's gonna want to be on camera or not, we'll have to see.

But anyway, I'm just gonna head to the park and just chill.

Yeah.

With all the crowds and the noise, I sometimes feel a rush of anxiety, but I find the more I put myself in environments like this, the less overpowering.

My anxiety becomes even vlogging in public by myself is something that I'd really like to overcome.

So I'm doing it.

There's so many people at this park that are practicing things for school, playing sports or doing their homework or talking to people, There's just so many groups and meetups here.

It's really interesting to see like these girls are like practicing their um play or something or speeches over here.

There's an accordion player over there, violin player on the other side, it's so nice, everyone's having little picnics, you can come here and have picnics and it's just so pretty, look at the trees, so nice, I see a bathroom in the distance, so I'm going to head over there, so pretty, yeah, I'm gonna go to the bathroom.

Mhm okay, so I'm kind of sitting under a tree right now, I just kind of wanted to talk about one thing that I really, really hate about living in Japan, the one thing that I really hate is the fact that I don't get to see a lot of my friends, a lot of my friends have gotten married and I wasn't able to be there.

A lot of my family have had birthday, you know, you miss those things when you live in Japan, that's such a hard thing to deal with and the fact that I got to see my friend today, Stephanie, like we've been friends since the beginning of college and we haven't seen each other in five years.

I feel like we message each other from time to time, but it's just not the same when you don't see somebody all the times if you're in a relationship and you meet somebody here in Japan and then you move back to, you know, your own country, like you don't get to see that person, you have to make long distance work, you, you just, you have to sacrifice those things, you have to sacrifice time with family, I'm very close with my family.

So sacrificing time with them is really, really hard, luckily, you know, there's messaging and there's Skype and all that stuff, so thank God for that, but if none of that was around, I think that would have been really, really hard for me to do.

I feel like long distance is such a big part of your life.

When you live here, you make friends with people that have lived in Japan foreigners mostly and then they end up going back to their home countries and it's really, really hard to say goodbye.

So I'm always constantly saying goodbye, you have to be used to, you have to get used to saying goodbye, that's going to be a part of your life when you live here unless you make some japanese friends, which I have, but unfortunately like my schedule is so different from a japanese workday, Like a lot of my japanese friends work from like, you know 9 to 10, you have to prepare yourself for those goodbyes and I think that's like the hardest thing about living in Japan, it's such a beautiful day, look at these trees, there's always events and stuff going on over this, this bridge.

So okay, I kind of want to show you guys what that looks like, why is there snow a little piece of michigan, so I don't know what the festival is about, but it looks really fun.

I think it was like some kind of fundraiser or whatever.

It's getting dark so early now and it's like the temperature is dropping so hard, really fast.

So the Youtuber I was supposed to meet never responded to my message at this point.

So I messaged a guy I've been seeing for a little bit.

We aren't together anymore, but I think he was probably one of my best dates as of today and now.

A good friend.

You're crossing the other way like that.

Wait, what?

What?

Yeah, where are you?

Are we eating here?

Mhm.

Okay, so we're at chili's, I've been here before 100 times and I'm going to order a chicken ranchero burrito.

Like I always do.

If there's one place I recommend for a date, it's Harajuku.

The window shopping will get some conversations going for sure.

Power puff girls.

Okay, I'm at one of my favorite stores right now and we see power puff girls stuff because it's new.

Look how cute it is.

Oh my God, do you like to look at this store?

It's like insane.

Later on in the night we met up with ash for a drink and the night and I also needed a hard drive from him.

I got my hard drive.

This is what I needed today.

This whole video is all for this.

We went to a place called commune second, which has a lot of outdoor kiosks of food and alcohol.

It's probably my favorite place to chat and hang out with friends.

We have hot wine, there's apple in it.

Okay.

I'm going to get some wine and have a drink because today was a really long day was supposed to meet that person that I was talking about earlier and he didn't message me until two hours after the time that we were supposed to meet.

So cool.

This lighting is awful.

I look like I'm like, I just woke up and you want me to hold the camera Okay.

So it's the next day and um, I just want to say sorry about the close behind me.

They're doing construction so I can't really put them outside.

I did go on a date, but like I'm not, I'm so much more focused on my other stuff that it's not really my priority right now.

And as much as I want to find somebody and I want to find someone mostly in the creative fields because I feel like a lot of people like that understand more of what I do.

I guess I think somebody that's like into like design or photography or video.

Honestly, like I'd rather be single than be with somebody that doesn't really support or understand what I do.

The guy that I went out with in this video was so nice and so kind, but honestly, like, I feel like we're more friends and that's totally fine.

Honestly, like I just wanted to kind of show what it's like to be single in Japan.

I think there's a lot of Youtubers that are coupled up or married or whatever.

I don't really know many Youtubers here in Japan that are single.

I hope that's like, okay to show obviously, like I'm not, obviously I'm not going to show all my dates actually don't date that often.

This is like the first date in a while.

So to be honest, I'd prefer to meet somebody a lot more naturally and in person, I'm busy.

So that's why like I use some dating apps and stuff.

So, but like I said, it's not my priority and I'm enjoying my life right now and I'm so excited because I am, I have so many projects that I want to work on and I'm excited to get going on that.

And I think down the line when you focus on the things that you love and do, you'll meet somebody and you won't expect it and I think that's the way I want it to happen.

I'm sure I'll have more stories and more videos about this, but I just wanted to clear that up.

I have the most amazing, most supportive friends in the world and I, I'm so happy that I have them in my life.

Um I hope that you guys will continue watching my videos and support me as well because you guys keep me motivated as well.