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  • So it's been a while

  • since we've done one of these

  • QnA videos,

  • so we asked you guys on Twitter

  • to send us your most burning questions

  • And I know that the number one question right now

  • is: Martina what the F@#k is up with your look today?

  • I don't-- Listen, guys---

  • You are a hot mess! What is going on, girl?

  • RuPaul, I'm sorry

  • I wanted to have purple lips,

  • but then I put it on and I changed my mind

  • because then I started to wear this really bright cute shirt,

  • and I was like, "It doesn't match my lips,"

  • but you can't take lipstain off because

  • it leaves, like, a mucky, dirty--it looks like you ate, like, a chocolate cupcake

  • SILENCE!

  • Wait, let me finish--my hair!

  • I've made up my mind Martina: But my hair!

  • It's time for you to lip-sync

  • **FOR YOUR LIFE**

  • The actual real number one question

  • that we wound up getting is

  • basically, choose between Korea and Japan!

  • Thanks a lot, guys!

  • Thanks for the super easy one that I'm sure is not going to piss off anybody with this answer,

  • Yeah.

  • But we've thought long and hard about this

  • we've spent almost a full year here in Japan

  • looked over all of the data that we've compiled

  • and I could easily say very quickly,

  • I'd pick Japan over Korea.

  • Now wait!

  • Wait!

  • Angry commenters! Stop! Give me a chance to explain!

  • We're gonna talk about our reasonings here and then

  • we're gonna give you our disclaimers afterwards,

  • but please hear us out before you get angry

  • and if at the end of the video you're still upset with our

  • answer, then please feel free to let us know in the comment section below.

  • Yes. Now despite this year and last year being

  • some of the worst years for my health,

  • slowly, slowly goin' downhill,

  • I can say this has been the happiest year of my life.

  • Happiest year of my life as well.

  • I've thought about this year,

  • all of the years that I've had in Korea,

  • and all of the years that I can remember in Canada,

  • This, by far, has been the greatest year of my entire life.

  • Mhm. You know what I find funny?

  • We often find ourselves coming home on our bicycles being like,

  • Lala-Lala-lala

  • I'm happy for no reason!

  • Martina: I'm just...happy Simon: I'm happy here!

  • Martina: I'm just happy.

  • 56 00:01:45,580 --> 00:01:47,580 Martina: I just like smiling; smiling is the thing to do! Simon: Smiling is the best!

  • Allow us to explain what has made us happy. I'd like to begin with

  • the first category, which I call: Neighbors and Sounds

  • We were worried before we came to Japan.

  • A lot of people told us that it is going to be very difficult for us here,

  • that Japanese people are very cold and reserved

  • and they won't be very welcoming to us

  • and we're gonna have a tough time here.

  • But when we came here to our neighborhood,

  • I am amazed at how warm and loving our neighbors are.

  • And it wasn't just one neighbor.

  • Like, our neighbor across the street,

  • whenever we bike home and I see her there, I'm happy to speak with her.

  • Our neighbors to the left and to the right, we chat with..

  • Actually, one of our other neighbors like, rang on our doorbell

  • and invited us out for dinner

  • and we went out for dinner with him

  • and it was so amazing and touching because

  • in all of the years that we've been in Korea

  • and all of the different places that we lived in Korea

  • Did we ever have any contact with the neighbors?

  • All of them were very cold and distant

  • They weren't warm as they are here

  • I did not expect our neighborhood to be so warm and caring

  • and I love it here and it makes me so happy.

  • Now I will say that it could definitely be because we're in an actual neighborhood

  • and maybe if we moved to like an apartment in Japan

  • we would experience the same thing.

  • Simon: Possibly. Martina: Maybe it would be like, people don't wanna talk to you and stuff.

  • It makes me feel immensely happy to come home,

  • I feel proud of my little house,

  • I'm excited to decorate the outside with Christmas lights!

  • My neighbors came over,

  • the neighbors right beside us that speak like, no English at all

  • and they're like, "Oh, Chrisamus!"

  • and I was like, super excited

  • so I'm having just, warm, wonderful feelings.

  • I feel warm here. I feel welcome here,

  • and I did not feel welcome in Korea.

  • And also, our neighborhood is very quiet.

  • and I can't emphasize enough how important this is for us

  • because what's great about having a quiet neighborhood like this

  • is that I can sleep an entire night without waking up. Martina: Yeah.

  • Pretty much every morning in Korea

  • no matter where we lived

  • we would wake up from honking of horns

  • we would wake up from people like talking or yelling outside

  • It was like a never-ending barrage of sound.

  • This sounds like an old person thing to say,

  • but I cannot emphasize enough

  • how important it is to get a good night's sleep.

  • And I sleep so well here.

  • I think the best way to describe living in Seoul

  • is basically living in New York City.

  • Martina: I used to visit-- Simon: Right, I think that's a fair comparison.

  • I used to visit New York all the time

  • and then we stayed with our brother in law, he used to live in New York as well

  • Simon: Yeah.

  • And it was like, you heard fighting and screaming and honking,

  • and like, people yelling, and--Seoul is like New York City.

  • Simon: Right. Martina: It is the city that doesn't sleep,

  • I would say that Seoul "does-not-sleep" even more than New York Simon: Yeah!

  • You sleep even less!

  • Martina: Yeah, when Jackie came to visit

  • (my best friend visited me, she lives in New York)

  • Simon: Right. Martina: She said said like, "I thought New York was the place that didn't sleep, but I was wrong, it is totally Seoul."

  • Simon: Right. Martina: I agree with that.

  • Simon: Yeah. Martina: So that is something that has grated on our 'old people' nerves

  • I like to sleep!

  • Martina: We're-- Simon: I wanna live in a city that sleeps!

  • *Old woman voice*: When we were younger-- Simon: *Laughing* When--yes!

  • *Old woman voice*: When we were younger, it was okay!

  • Simon: Right! Now I'm old and $h!t,

  • Simon: I don't wanna have--

  • Martina *singing*: I wanna sleep inside Simon: I wanna snuggle up

  • Martina *singing*: a city that goes to bed!

  • Simon: That's it. Martina (spoken): At reasonable-hours-like-maybe-nine-or-ten-PM.

  • Martina *singing*: And have a noise pollution rule!

  • *crickets chirping* Martina *singing*: You're goin' to sleep..

  • *crickets chirping* Martina: cute fake snoring sound Simon: I don't know what song that is.

  • Martina: 'New York New York'? Simon: Okay.

  • Martina: Frank Sinatra? Simon: Alright.

  • Martina: Oh my god! Simon: What is this?

  • Martina *singing*: I wanna wake up in the city that doesn't sleep--

  • Martina (normal voice): And I twisted it around *sigh*

  • I don't know old white people music. Martina: You don't-- *shattering glass*

  • Sorry.

  • I really thought you were just making up a really $!t#y song.

  • Martina: *disbelieving laugh and exclamation* Simon: And it was really--

  • That's like, what the hell are you singing?

  • Martina *singing*: And be the king of the--

  • *Chimes*

  • It's not just our neighbors that are welcoming.

  • One of the things that really bothered me in my experiences in Korea is that

  • there were many times that I would go into like,

  • coffee shops or stores or whatnot in Korea

  • and whenever the people would see me,

  • they would be afraid like, "Oh! Oh no!"

  • Or they would like, grab another person and

  • push them towards me.

  • Or, if I would try to order something in Korean, they'd be like,

  • "Ah, I don't understand!"

  • And my Korean is significantly better than my Japanese,

  • and I have never felt that here in Japan.

  • I have never felt unwelcome,

  • I have, like--Nobody was ever afraid of me,

  • they understand my terrible pronunciation of Japanese.

  • Martina: Which, by the way, I've found that really shocking. Simon: Mhm.

  • Simon: Yes! Martina: Because in eight years Simon: Yeah

  • Martina: We learned to read Korean, Simon: Right!

  • Martina: we could speak Korean, Simon: Right!

  • Martina: So we could go to a restaurant that had only Korean menus,

  • we could look it over, we could call them over Simon: Yeah.

  • and then we would start ordering

  • and the people would literally--and were, they thought it was funny--

  • But they're with each other, they'd be like, "Haha-haha" Simon: Yeah.

  • And I, I was like, "Okay, but we're not even speaking English." Simon: Uh-huh.

  • But in Japan, we butcher the language

  • Oh, it's so bad.

  • And people are like this: "Hai, hai, hai."

  • And they walk away. I'm like, "How did they understand my accent?!" Simon: Yeah!

  • I'm like, it's like they just seem to understand that I'm speaking Japanese.

  • In Korea, there are many times that I go into stores

  • and I felt like I had leprosy

  • I felt like I was like, a disgusting alien to a lot of people

  • And in Japan, I don't feel that at all.

  • In Korea, it really ate away at me,

  • here, I feel welcomed, not just by my neighbors but by every store that I go to.

  • Yeah.

  • *Chimes*

  • So right now, I would say this is my favorite job situation

  • that I'm in right now. Simon: Mhm!

  • I'm enjoying this much more than

  • being a boss back in Korea.

  • And I don't mean like, "Like a bosss," I mean like,

  • literally like a boss, who has an accountant

  • and has to pay people.

  • It was very stressful to run our own business.

  • For us to be full time YouTubers in Korea,

  • we had to apply to make a business,

  • and in order to have a business, we needed

  • to have an office space, and we needed

  • to have a separate home

  • And there was all this paperwork

  • It was a lot of work.

  • And this is something that we

  • never really talked about with you guys, because

  • why should you have to hear this side? Simon: Right!

  • But it was a lot of stress. Simon: Yeah!

  • We had to pay people's salaries,

  • we had to hire an accountant,

  • we had to meet with the accountant, Simon: Yeah.

  • We had to pay our rent in our studio,

  • we had to pay our maintenance fees, we had to

  • buy stuff for the studio as our staff started to grow. Simon: Right!

  • We needed more tables, we needed more space Simon: Yeah!

  • This wore out, that happened! Simon: Uh-huh.

  • And on top of all that, we're trying to plan videos,

  • be in the video, Simon: Right!

  • be not-stressed-out after you came back from the accountant for like, half a day

  • Simon: Yup.

  • And then we'd edit the video. Simon: Yeah.

  • So it was like, a lot of extra work

  • that was going into it, and I think the

  • conclusion that we came to was that

  • it's quite hard to be a boss and Simon: Right.

  • a creative person at the same time. Simon: Exactly.

  • On top of that, it was really stressful

  • to be a foreigner running a business in Korea

  • because of immigration.

  • And there were actually moments in which immigration

  • knocked on our door

  • and demanded to see all of our paperwork because

  • people tried to report us to immigration

  • and to say that we were running an illegal business.

  • People literally didn't like some of our

  • videos, some of the jokes that we made,

  • and tried to get us kicked out of the country.

  • Martina: Because of K-Pop. Simon: Because of K-Pop!

  • Because of--because of K-Pop, someone

  • tried to illegal report us--which was wrong!

  • They showed up, and immigration's like, "Everything's in check."

  • Yeah! We showed them all of our papers,

  • but they were like, oh you need a landline.

  • So we got a landline. But otherwise,

  • everything was completely in order.

  • It was very stressful. Martina: It was so stressful.

  • Our working situation in Japan

  • is significantly easier Martina: Mhm.

  • than what we had in Korea.

  • I can't emphasize this enough

  • So we're under the Breaker Network now Martina: Mhm.

  • and a lot of you might know about like,

  • different networks for YouTubers,

  • and a lot of those networks are just Pure Evil.

  • They're scummy.

  • They're--they're scummy and bad.

  • So when we started working with Breaker, I was a little bit worried.

  • but these people are

  • so honest and great.

  • This is literally the best work environment

  • that I could've imagined.

  • They don't pressure us to do anything that we don't wanna do,

  • they understand our artistic vision,

  • they understand the integrity that we wanna have in our work,

  • they help us actualize a lot of these things,

  • and I don't have to worry about all the other

  • legal and immigration and the

  • accounting stuff Martina: paying the bills and doin' this

  • like, all these extra headaches that were

  • in Korea, I don't have those here in Japan,

  • and I just feel so much better as a creator

  • than before. Martina: Yeah.

  • M: Hey Dan, S: I like you Dan M: You're a good guy, Dan.

  • Sorry that you're always the third wheel. *Laughter*

  • We're gonna go make out in front of you Dan!

  • How 'bout it **exaggerated tongue/fake kissing sounds**

  • M: We never make out in front of Dan. S: We never--no.

  • *Whispers*: Only when he turns his back. *Doom music*

  • M: Dan's like, "Oh I'll just pick up that--" S: "Hey, Aaahhh, God!" M: And we're like, *exaggerated kissing/tongue sounds*

  • Aah, put it back in your pants!

  • We never make out in front of Dan

  • *whispers*: That he knows of. *doom music*

  • *Chimes*

  • Now, on to driving!

  • Now this is something that kind of really soured me about Korea.

  • M: Mhm. S: I just, I can't get over how aggressive the driving is,

  • I can't get over all the honking,

  • I can't get over like, the illegal parking everywhere,

  • M: Running through reds... S: Running through red lights, like

  • it--it just made me very uncomfortable

  • and even like, for the first few months after

  • we came to Japan

  • I was still afraid to cross the street.

  • I kinda felt, in a way, like

  • something that had just left an abusive relationship,

  • and they're just waiting for--for $h!t to go wrong

  • S: like, M: Like, you're constantly at the light like you're afraid to cross the street

  • And all of our friends like, "Don't worry about it, it's cool, just cross the street."

  • Mhm. This isn't something that we're making up. Like,

  • In our eight years in Korea, S: Yeah.

  • we actually knew a lot of people that were hit by cars. S: Exactly.

  • We had friends that were knocked off their bikes,

  • people that broke both their arms, S: Yeah. Uh-huh.

  • people who were hit by hit-and-runs, S: Right.

  • and I think the biggest one for us S: Right.

  • was Rose.

  • When Rose was run over

  • by that drunk driver

  • and she almost died in front of us,

  • something in us died as well.

  • And that's an emotional trauma that Martina: Mm.

  • I just, I can't forget. M: No.

  • And like, Korea right there, like, at that moment

  • I know that's not all of Korea, but

  • at that moment, something really broke in my heart.

  • It was too much to handle, it was too much stress. S: I--

  • And I know that does not represent all of Korea, S: Uh-huh.

  • but when you have a really, I think, traumatizing experience like that,

  • it really just sits very poorly with you, S: That's a traumatic moment and I really just wanna get out.

  • I don't feel that way in Japan. S: No.

  • M: I don't feel concerned in a taxi, S: Yep.

  • M: I can get in a taxi in the rain or the snow S: Yeah.

  • M: and I know that they're not gonna drive like this S: Right.

  • M: and have the car spin out, which is what happened to us. S: Yeah.

  • You know, people will slow down on the side streets

  • and let you go, there's a calmness S: Mhm!

  • with the driving that makes S: Yes.

  • me feel a lot safer and happier.

  • There's a calmness here in Japan

  • there's an angry energy in Korea,

  • and I prefer the calmness.

  • Yes, me too.

  • Now, if you were angry with us at the beginning of the video,

  • for choosing Japan over Korea,

  • I think now we can give our disclaimers,

  • and I think you've kinda come to the same conclusion

  • that we have. And the main conclusion is,

  • that our version of Korea

  • is different than your version of Korea,

  • and our version of Japan is different than

  • your version of Japan.

  • So I know that Korean people

  • won't have the same experience that we had.

  • And, in fact, a lot of foreigners

  • in Korea won't have the same experiences we had

  • because there aren't that many foreigners in Korea

  • that run a Youtube business slash

  • studio. Like, it's a very bizarre situation.

  • And there aren't that many YouTubers in

  • Japan also that do YouTube for a living.

  • So our situations are very unique

  • and both perspectives. And if I had

  • to choose between Korea

  • or Japan, you see all of our reasons

  • Japan makes a lot more sense for us.

  • Now one thing I wanna add onto this is that

  • we would never take back Korea. S: M-mm.

  • It's not like I regret going to Korea in any way. S: Right.

  • Absolutely not. I loved our experiences there,

  • working with my Buchan-Yeougo high school

  • S: Yeah! M: I loved them.

  • S: Yeah, those are are some special memories. M: Special memories, it would be like

  • what if I came to Japan instead?

  • Maybe I'd have a school that I hated.

  • Maybe I'd have a terrible experience. S: Uh-huh.

  • And then maybe I'd be like, "I hate Japan."

  • And then I'd go to Korea and be like, "Wow, Korea's amazing!"

  • And in fact there are some people that we've spoken

  • with who have been in Japan first,

  • and when they visit Korea, they say that

  • they love Korea's rawness

  • and it's energy, and they don't like how stifled

  • they feel in Japan, so for every different

  • person, you're gonna have different perspectives on this. M: Mhm.

  • But for us, I think that this decision makes the most sense.

  • I think we arrived in Japan at the right time. S: Yeah.

  • At like, the right age, the right 'oldness factor' S: Yeah.

  • We had such a great time in Korea.

  • Korea has a lot more of like a raw,

  • kind of disorganized energy

  • that can be really fun, and Japan definitely S: Yeah.

  • has a very, kind of, rule-oriented society, S: Uh-huh.

  • and that can be great for some people .

  • and not good for others

  • So bottom line, our lives in Japan here

  • are better, both personally M: Mhm.

  • and professionally. And I think a lot of commenters

  • have noticed this as well. There have been

  • people that have said that we seem a lot

  • happier here, we seem more invigorated,

  • we seem seem to have more energy, and that has M: Mhm.

  • a basis in reality. We

  • definitely feel a lot happier here and I'm glad that you

  • could see that in our videos. M: Yeah.

  • So we have two questions for you guys: S: Mhm.

  • The first one is: What is your version of what you're experiencing?

  • So, for example, are you a student living in America

  • and you're american born? What are you doing?

  • Are you a foreigner visiting Korea

  • and you're a student, or a teacher?

  • Let us know in the comment section below

  • where you are right now and what you are experiencing in your life.

  • Otherwise, I really miss these

  • Q and A segments in which you ask us questions M: Mhm.

  • and we answer them, so if you have anything else

  • you want us to do a video about, hopefully something a little bit

  • easier and more lighthearted for our next

  • time, please let us know in the comment section below

  • or on Twitter or on Facebook and we'll

  • see if we can get more of these videos goin'.

So it's been a while

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