WELCOME TO 2020 | What Have We Got Planned? | New Video Out Tomorrow on Abroad in Japan!

Hey guys,
I hope your 2020 is off to a great start so far!
(Also, 10 points to Gryffindor if you can work out what we're holding in the above thumbnail).

January is one of my favourite months; it’s a time of reflection and planning - which is easily done when it’s too f*cking cold to go outside. So what am I doing, what’s coming up in the next 3-4 weeks and what do I need your help with? (Don’t worry, it’s something actually good).

So I’m currently in the UK for another few days, where I’ve spent the last few days studying cinematography from a book (“Cinematography” by Kurt Lancaster if you’re interested), going through literally dozens of applications for the assistant editor role for Abroad in Japan, and drawing up a wish list of videos for 2020, liked some sort of crappy General about to go into battle.

Which brings me to my first favour of 2020; after January this year, I literally have nothing planned. It’s disturbingly refreshing.

Sure, I have a dozens of exciting ideas, dream projects, people I’d like to interview, sketches I’d like to film, places I’d like to explore. I’m even keen to do some “choose your own adventure” stuff this year - Aka. get viewers to choose where I go and what I do in a vlog, on the spur of the moment.

BUT I wouldn’t be much of a creator if I didn’t listen to you guys once in a while, and hear what you’d like to see popping up on your phone screen in the next few months.

- Simply put, I wouldn’t be much of a creator if I didn’t steal all your ideas.

And so to help make that happen, I’ve got a favour to ask.
“A FAVOUR!” you cry!
 “I didn’t come here to do things.”

Alas, I’ve thrown together a short questionnaire, where you can share your ideas and thoughts for the stuff you’d like to see in 2020 on the Abroad in Japan channel. Then one morning in about 2 or 3 days, I’ll sit down with a hastily poured cup of coffee and read through each and every one of your ideas. And at the end of it all, there’s a bloody good chance quite a few of them will actually happen. 

So help shape destiny, click on the questionnaire below and turn some ideas in your head, into a thing that could happen on a screen one day soon. After all, this is pretty much how Natsuki: The Movie and Journey Across Japan started.

Abroad in Japan 2020 | Your Ideas & Stuff You’d Like to See
► https://forms.gle/SoUQTzhxH6M7p1f48

Tomorrow sees the first video of 2020 and the first Japanese language learning video in over 2 years; 25 Everyday Japanese Words You Should Know. A video in which Natsuki and I spend the day wandering around Tokyo, discussing the 25 words as they come up naturally in various situations we find ourselves in. Unsurprisingly, as you’d expect from a Natsuki video, it includes a rather bizarre ending and a questionable beverage.

Then next week, we’ve got an amusing countryside journey with Ryotaro in search of illegal Japanese sake. We got to make our own batch, drink it, and then wake up at 5am with a hangover to see a spectacular view.

After that, there’s yet another episode with Ryotaro where him and I go drifting at the infamous Ebisu Circuit. I’d always turned my nose up at drifting (aka. skidding around corners in fast cars), but having seen it and now done it, I was blown away by how intense it was and I have a lot of respect for the drivers. Although I secretly suspect it was yet another one of Ryotaro’s attempts to finish me off in disguise. I mean, we nearly did drive into a wall at 100mph.

Then in late January/early Feb, I’ll finally unleash a video on teaching in Japan - where I take a good honest look back at my time as a teacher on the JET Programme. It seems odd to do it now, given I finished back in late 2015, and yet, I recently uncovered some old diaries and memories from those days that made me recall it all, and how I felt at the time. And given how commonly requested the topic is every year, it seems about time to give everyone some long awaited answers.

Beyond that there’s a full blown road trip with Ryotaro across a remote region to find some of the rarest beef in Japan (so damn rare, it’s literally called “Phantom Beef”). If that wasn’t enough there’s also an overnight stay in a haunted inn with a ghost boy. Suffice to say, I’m looking forward to the beef - not so sure about the ghost child.

AND THEN in February we’ve got the Sapporo Snow Festival - which apparently is under threat from a lack of snow this year! Fucking typical. But that promises to be one hell of a trip because not only are we going to be joined by Natsuki, but also Pete Donaldson is randomly turning up - and Sharla in Japan - AND EVEN my good friend Chiaki. It’s going to be absurd. I just need to work out how I can turn all those people into some entertaining video(s).

I won’t lie, just talking about all the videos we’ve got coming in the next few weeks has got me weirdly excited. And if you know me well by now, you’ll know I’m not the sort of person to get excitement about anything - unless it’s Family Mart Fried Chicken - so it’s certainly an encouraging start to the year.

But I hope you’re looking forward to what's in store - that’s all for now folks - the new video should be live at 10:30pm Japan Time - in about 6 hours I think. Keep an eye out!

Chris