[2025-02-24] It's been 5 years since i Divorced my Japanese Ex Wife [G-fBTT0O97Q]

It's been exactly 5 years now since I got

divorced from my Japanese ex-wife, and I

thought we would talk about it kind of

like a 5-year anniversary.

Talk about how I feel about getting

divorced, how my life has changed over the

years since I was married in Japan, and

whether I regret getting divorced with her

or not.

So when we got divorced, it wasn't really

much of a shock to me.

Ever since we got married, from the first

day, I always thought that getting

divorced was always inevitable and it was

eventually going to happen at some point

or another.

I never really pictured myself being with

her for the rest of my life, living in

Japan for the rest of my life, being

married and having that lifestyle forever.

It was always kind of a temporary thing in

the back of my mind, and I did kind of

agree to it impulsively without thinking

properly about the future and whether I

actually wanted to be divorced or married

in the first place.

And the main motivating reason behind my

decision to agree to getting divorced was

mainly because I I just kind of got bored

and fed up with the lifestyle I had in

Japan, and my YouTube channel was doing

very well, and I thought— well, I felt

like I needed to have a more interesting

life, to be able to have different types

of lives in different countries,

experiencing different things, and that

would generate better content for the

channel.

And I guess you could say I succeeded in

that area by being able to have multiple

different experiences in life in different

places, such as Rotterdam, Manchester,

Thailand, and now in Devon.

And I felt like I could either stay

married and have the exact same lifestyle

in Japan, which eventually would get very

boring, or I could agree to getting

divorced and have all these different new

adventures and meet all these different

people, and I could use that to create

more interesting content for my YouTube

channel.

And I think I did achieve that.

But on the other hand, sometimes I do

wonder if life would have been easier or

more profitable if I had just stayed

married in Japan.

Just can't help but keep thinking that

expenses would be extremely cheap in

Japan, especially with how weak the yen

has gotten.

And I might have been able to make more

interesting content with my ex-wife

because she was okay with being on camera

and helping me make content and do stuff

like vlogging.

So it would have been easier to make

content.

I'm kind of struggling right now because I

don't really know what to do for content

right now.

I'm just— I have a very expensive life

right now where my expenses are almost

£2,000 a month.

I'm having to work full-time doing

delivery work to be able to make ends

meet.

And I feel like my life's very difficult

right now compared to how easy it could

have been in Japan.

And I would have had much cheaper rent and

food and bills in Japan, and I would have

been able to make probably more

interesting content than what I'm making

right now.

And I would have had the novelty of being

in Japan to be able to use that as a way

to generate content.

So I feel like, hmm, I don't know if in

the end it was the right decision

financially to leave Japan and leave the

marriage, because it does seem like in

hindsight things were a lot easier, a lot

cheaper when I was married in Japan

compared to right now.

I think you could say that I did regret

getting divorced at several points in the

last few years.

For example, after I broke up with Mila

and I came back to the UK in 2021, I

actually really regretted getting divorced

and me and Chihiro started texting quite a

lot actually.

And if it wasn't for COVID, locking down

the countries and preventing us from

traveling overseas, I think I probably

would have gone back to Japan and she

might have agreed to meeting up because it

wasn't that long since we got divorced

back in 2021.

It had only been about a year.

Things probably were still quite fresh.

And then I kind of forgot about it for a

few years.

And then back in 2024, last year, I really

felt like, damn, I really miss my life in

Japan when I was married and I really wish

I could get it back.

That's kind of what drove me to do such

weird things like going and trying to find

her or try and meet her outside of her

apartment.

I wasn't trying to actually meet her, I

just wanted to like visibly see her, which

is what got me in trouble with the

Japanese police.

I just got this really strong— I had this

really strong burning urge and desire to

try and recreate what I had back in 2018

and '19 when I was married in Japan.

And I felt just so sad being back in those

places again where I used to live.

I booked a guest house, I was living in

this guest house that was just 10-minute

walk from where I lived when I was married

in Japan, and I thought that would make me

feel better, but it just, it made me feel

terrible.

I think the problem with making these

massive life decisions is that you can

never really tell if it's gonna be the

right decision, and you don't know which

life or which choice you're going to miss

or prefer unless you've actually

experienced both lives.

So if I had stayed married and I had never

made the decision to leave, I would never

know what it's like to leave and have a

different life and lose the married life

in Japan.

I would always just feel like I'm just so

bored in my current life.

I hate my current life.

It would be so much better if I had this

new life.

So then I go and try out the new life and

then I realize the new life's okay, I

guess.

But there were things and perks about my

previous life that I kind of miss and were

kind of better.

But now it's gone because I've made the

decision to leave it and I can't go back

anymore.

I kind of have this bad habit where I

convince myself into thinking that my

current life is rubbish and it's bad and

it could be so much better if I did this

and I did that, and then I sabotage my

current life because I try and chase this

new life that I have in my mind, and then

I miss the previous life, and then the

cycle repeats.

I always wondered what life would be if I

had just stayed married, stayed in Japan.

Maybe it would have been exactly the same.

I can't really imagine how much things

could have changed.

I think, for example, we would have gotten

a bigger place eventually, maybe even a

house, maybe gotten one of those abandoned

houses.

We could have fixed it up.

I guess at some point we would have gotten

pets like a cat or maybe even a dog.

I don't think children would have been on

the cards.

I don't really feel like we would have

wanted children or if we would even be

able to have children.

So I don't really see that happening.

Crazy to think if we never got divorced,

we would have been married for like 6

years by now if I had just stayed there.

Hello, welcome back to a new episode of

Cooking with Daniel.

Today we're going to be making the perfect

carbonara the Italian way.

So what you're gonna need is eggs,

pancetta, cheese, and fusilli or whatever

kind of pasta you want, and And also some

garlic powder or real garlic if you have

it.

So you only need those 4 ingredients and

you can make a delicious Italian dish.

First of all, boil some water, put it in a

pot, and you want 3 handfuls of pasta.

That's usually how much I have.

And then you also want to add in some salt

into the pasta water because that's what

all the other chefs say to do.

Don't really know why because it doesn't

really make it taste salty.

Next, you want to get your egg, and we're

just going to use 1 egg or you can use 2

eggs, and we're going to whisk it around

into a mixture of egg yolk and egg white.

I'm going to put cheese in there later.

So next we're going to cook our broccoli

in the air fryer.

I rubbed some sesame oil onto it and some

salt, and that's just going to go on top

of the pasta.

It's going to be really nice.

I cooked it in my brand new air fryer,

Chefman air fryer.

It's got this little window in the tray so

you can see exactly what's happening

inside.

And then we're going to put the pancetta

into the frying pan.

Pancetta is really nice.

It's kind of like bacon, but it tastes

better because it's smokier and it's got

more fat on it.

And then I'm just going to fry down the

pancetta and add some extra oil if you

need some oil because it'll be a bit dry.

And then we're going to add the cheese to

the egg and give it a bit of a mix around

like this.

And then we're going to add the pasta,

which is now cooked, directly into the

frying pan.

We're also going to turn the heat off so

it's not cooking anymore, it's just going

to be hot.

And we're going to put all the pasta into

the pan, add a bit of water— starchy

water— so it thickens up a little bit.

Some garlic powder, and then add your egg

mixture.

And as you can see, with the starchy water

and also the egg cheese mixture, it's

starting to thicken up and create a creamy

sauce.

And that's basically how you make

carbonara the Italian way.

And then we're just going to scoop it up

onto the plate and put the broccoli onto

the top of the dish as a finishing piece

of food.

And that is how you make Perfect

carbonara.