How you doing?

Everybody welcome.

We are in the United States, we've been here for about eight or nine days now, a little bit over a week and uh I hadn't done a live stream in a while so I thought I would update you, give you an idea of what we've been doing for the last, Last 10 days and talk about the trip because the last time we left this off we were um where were we?

We were at the airport doing a live stream just before we boarded the flight.

A lot has happened since then and I wanted to also talk about the experience that we had at the airport coming in to JFK in new york.

We have a beautiful day.

In fact the entire week has been really nice here in, in the United States.

I think it just rained for a couple of days.

The weather has been, I can't even remember Celsius anymore, I would say like 20 20 4°C or something.

It's a far cry from what we have in Tokyo right now, which is like 36°C, which is like 104° or something ridiculous.

So you've had it pretty good.

We've had an incredible culture shock.

I guess you could say That's the only way to put it.

The culture shock was incredible.

The 1st 48 hours that we arrived in the United States because of the pandemic, here's leo and can I coming in and sit down leo just eight.

He has a nice suntan because the weather has been so great.

Have a seat just for a couple of minutes.

Um, so the reverse culture shock that the flight was really great.

We had, we took a and a and um, we sat in premium economy, they had a bassinet in the front of it and leo was able to get uh leo was able to get look leo, you're on tv, hey Brandon, he is here, leah was able to get pretty good sleep for about, I don't know, like bursts of four or five hours in the bassinet, but he was, he was a little bit bigger than normal.

So he looked like a turkey.

Like his feet were, he was a little bit too long for the small bassinet.

But um, it worked out okay.

I think next time we'll probably have to get an economy seat and just buy another seat for him and he'll be able to have his own seat to sleep in.

I might be better than getting to premium economies and then getting the bassinet because they'll be too big for it and a has a limit up to £22 or 10 kg and leo's like right there.

Um, so, so we arrived in the United States, we had gotten a little bit of sleep maybe because I didn't sleep as much as I did, I think in about three hours.

Hey Darren, how you doing?

And the first thing that hit us was like, wow, nobody's wearing masks here this is was was pretty crazy to us because we were coming from Japan where there's no mask mandate in Japan but everyone is wearing one anyways right?

What did you, what did you think about?

Yeah about that, that was well here can ice impressions in a minute.

I feel more comfortable with that mask now right but how did you feel the first like after we arrived we went to walmart uh and my father took us inside there and how did you feel going into the, into the store without a mask?

It was different feelings, it was just shock, not a bad thing, not a not a bad thing, not a good thing, it was just a different thing because Japan has a way to do it and the U.

S.

Has a way to do it.

Let me break it down for you in Japan.

The weird people are the ones that are not wearing a mask in the United States.

The weird people are the ones that are wearing a mask.

And every instinct because I've been wearing a mask in indoor places was to wear one but I went against that and now I'm so used to not wearing one.

I don't know if I'll be able to go back to Japan and then wear one.

I don't know it's gonna be difficult.

Can you go back to the old way of the things where can you go back to wearing a mask normally?

Can I like in Japan?

Yeah.

Really we have to write and that's the thing.

And after learning after coming here and then just experiencing the way that the different cultures are, it's not really, um, I don't know, it's just, it's just, they're just different cultures and different ways to do things.

And I've been now going into the supermarket and going into stores, not so much, but when we do, we don't have any masks on and we're not thinking about that.

But for us, this was a cultural shock.

It was like a culture shock, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kind of culture shock.

Um, I don't feel in danger or anything like that.

It's just, I'm not used to it.

I don't know if I can get used to wearing a mask again to be honest with you.

But um, you still have to keep your, take precautions and whatever, but everybody's different.

Everybody has their own way to approach this.

And for us, it was shocking when we go back to Japan um, in, I guess like five days from now we have to get a covid test and again, go back to those, um, pretty strict precautionary measures that they have in Japan before we even get on the airplane coming here.

We didn't need a covid test or any kind of paperwork.

No quarantining when we go back, everything changes again and that's kind of shock to us.

Um, what I'm reading the livestream comments.

This is the livestream everybody.

It's pretty interesting to read about your own experiences and what you think about our culture shock coming here.

Leo has been really enjoying himself.

He's right now playing with his cousins who don't want to be on the tv.

Corley doesn't mind.

Right?

Corley Corley, you wanna say hello to everybody?

Yeah, Chorley, Chorley doesn't mind.

But lila is really shy.

This is Cora lee, you were in a livestream um, at her wedding in four years ago.

Right?

You wrote space boat?

Yeah, she rode space boat underneath the rainbow bridge four years ago.

Yeah, she can do ballet to write.

No, she can't do ballet, but maybe we're teaching her a little bit.

But yeah, it's been pretty cool for leo to, hey, thanks.

Jonathan has been cool for leo to be able to get a chance to meet his cousins.

Our trip was canceled in in december because of the omicron outbreak and Japan's reacted by canceling all of the flights.

Um, I don't know if they canceled the flights just, they closed the country and We had the option to still go, but if we returned to Japan we would have had to have done a 10-14 day quarantine in a government hotel.

We canceled that time.

Right?

Yeah.

Omicron hit and they wanted us to do a 10 to 14 day quarantine when we returned from the US to Japan were like, yeah, I don't know.

That's such a waste of time.

My friend Greg like from from Youtube channel had to do a uh with seven day quarantine three days in a government hotel then then um yeah the rest of the time at home and it was really hard.

Like I don't think we can do that with leo.

So we had to cancel our trip for christmas and I'm kind of glad that we waited because things have settled down a lot and we have no issues with quarantining anymore.

Just we have to get one test that's approved with a paper that a and a sent us the document that we have to get the coronavirus test for and then we can get on the flight.

As long as it's negative.

We have to use what's called a my S.

O.

S.

App as well.

And I believe every country has this, I have it in english and she has it in japanese and we can um register that information into the app.

So what's it like you haven't been in the US for like three years.

Can I what's it like to be back in America?

I'm so happy to be here right now.

How's the food for good.

We're both eating a lot pancakes, pancakes, pizza hot dog, we have barbecue right now.

It's pretty crazy but there's a lot more space.

What do you think?

So we're in my brother's house and my parents house and it's a house if you compare.

I think leo likes the bigger house more.

Huh?

Yeah, I think it makes us think about where we want to live if it's Tokyo or major.

He likes nature a lot, he likes nature a lot.

He's over here.

Leila went away, he's over there playing okay.

Yeah.

Um I'm kind of glad that we're gonna be here for the fourth of july two.

So we get a chance to see some fireworks american style, which is a nice contrast to the, to all of the, this is my 1st 4th of july in 24 years since I moved to Japan in 1998 so it's gonna be pretty neat.

Um to be here usually I was, I was, if I came in the summer we came later After four July so it's really nice to be here to see how it works.

I think so, I hope so.

I don't think they're going to be the same, but we'll be able to see maybe a local fireworks festival.

Um it's really, I don't know, it's exciting to have a barbecue on the deck and things like this, we can't really do that in Tokyo so much.

Um but hey Ranjit is here.

Elvis camera.

Welcome to Usa have been waiting for a livestream, enjoy your stay.

Hope I hope you can come to san Francisco from Elvis and mel how you guys doing?

We wanted to go originally we were gonna go and do a west coast road trip.

Um This is even before we had leo and visit some friends on the west coast and do meetups.

That was right before Covid hit, we were gonna do that in March of 2020 before the olympics and the world changed hopefully you know, maybe next year that's something we can consider because we would love to go um drive from Washington state all the way down through California, through Oregon, California and um Nevada and down to Utah and the beautiful southwest.

Love to see some more of the U.

S.

Can.

I hasn't hasn't seen much of America and to be honest I've only been west of the Mississippi a few times.

Yeah, here's one for you.

Can I join Michael john and can I can be Michael, thank you john Michael appreciate it.

Yeah so we have a couple more days here and then we're gonna go back home um to my parents house and then we drive up to JFK and get on the flight with a negative test and hopefully we're back in Tokyo, the jet lag works better.

Going to Japan will wake up at 4:00 AM for a week or so.

I'm really productive the last um 10 days I've been almost unproductive because I'm I'm groggy and sleepy at this time right now.

It's getting better.

But uh yeah but leo wakes us up at like 4 45 even though maybe our jet lag is better.

So then we're groggy through most of the day And then we get sleepy around six and then we want to sleep, but I don't know by the time we get used to it, we have to fly back to the U.

S.

And then messes up our systems.

So you have to stay for more than two weeks of Japan, I'm telling you right now.

Do you miss the Cicada sounds not to?

Uh not to you.

I carried semi.

Can I send me send me?

Yeah, okay, but when I hear that, I feel like I'm in Japan this summer.

Yeah, and we're missing the super hot weather.

So it's been um actually very pleasant temperature here.

We'll take one question.

We gotta go, hey Tony piece here, We're kind of, we're kind of getting ready for dinner here, barbecue chicken.

So if you have any questions you can ask us uh, on the livestream, we'll try to do another live stream um in july, this is the last day in june john Michael writes in here, can you and can I go to Nashville Tennessee?

Maybe one of these days?

I think we'll go do a road trip across country for sure.

You didn't come to us on a guided tour or chaperoned everywhere.

Big Wonka, I haven't even heard any one who's been on one of this um, Japan tours.

So as soon as I do, I think maybe I'll spend some time in Haneda and look for people.

Uh maybe no midnight snack runs here.

Did leo give you grief on the flight due to the air pressure?

It wasn't, he was okay.

It wasn't too bad.

I think he was, he was drinking and we were giving him little snacks chips to bite on so he didn't have any problems with it.

Not as bad as we thought he would, but he did cry.

Yeah, he was sleepy.

Um, He ate quite a bit, he cried a little bit but it's hard to play.

He can't really walk around too much, but we staked out the front of the premium economy so he had more space than normal.

I'm glad that we didn't get business class because we wouldn't have been able to afford it anyways.

But next time I think having three economy seats might be better than two premium economies and having a lap child, which is what he was.

Will you visit Ohio Stadium next time Michelle, I so wanted to go this time, two weeks.

It's just, I think if I had two more days we might be able to drive over there.

Um do they, do they behave airport and they do have Stephen, they do have a Benz for, for airplanes.

Coco bands.

I think you call it.

When do you guys soda ban Sky Sky banters.

We go back home in about five days from now, Five or six days from now.

Um, big shout out to Richard.

We, we actually bumped into one of my Patreon supporters Richard, uh, which is really awesome.

And we're gonna, we're gonna drive up to visit friends in North Jersey um, in a couple of days, but nothing big foot over the barbecue.