why i HATE Abroad in Japan - My problem with Chris Broad

Today I want to talk about this YouTuber

that I kind of don't like.

He goes by the name of Abroad in Japan, or

also known as Chris Broad from Abroad in

Japan.

And I actually started off as a pretty big

fan of his.

I used to watch his videos all the time as

someone who was really interested in

living in Japan and learning Japanese.

Obviously his channel is and was one of

the biggest channels when it comes to the

topic of living in Japan, and I used to

watch him probably from about 2018 or

2019, not knowing that I actually used to

go to school with him when I was a very

young kid.

So from the ages of about 5 until 10 years

old in England, we call it primary school.

We go to primary school and I went to

primary school and had a bunch of friends.

And I did not know that a year below me

was actually Chris's year.

And Chris went to the same school as I

did.

I only found out this about 15 years

later.

I think it was back in 2018.

I found this out just by talking to this

girl that I used to go to school with.

I noticed she was friends with Chris.

Broad on Facebook.

And I was like, oh, that's funny.

How come you're friends with him?

Do you watch his channel?

And then she goes and tells me that

actually we went to the same school as he

did.

And I was like, what?

Are you actually joking?

I thought he was from London or some other

part of the UK.

I had no idea he's from the same part of

the UK as me and grew up in the same area

and went to the same school.

So my mind was kind of blown by this

revelation.

And I made a video very excitedly to tell

everyone about this news that I went to

school with Chris Broad when I was a kid.

And I made a video and guess who messages

me shortly after I make the video?

Yeah, Chris himself messages me, not in

like a, oh wow, Daniel, it's nice to chat

to you finally.

No, it's more like a, um, hey Daniel, saw

your video, it's great and everything, but

I'm not overly keen on people knowing

where I'm from.

So he messaged me only because he wanted

something out of me, just like everyone

else does.

No one ever cares about me and like hits

me up because they actually want to know

how I'm doing or care about me at all.

It's always because they want something

out of me and want me to do something, or

I've done something to annoy them.

So we have a little chat.

He starts it off by being friendly, and

then he gives this hint that he's not

happy with my video.

So I took the hint, and at the time, you

know, I wanted things to be good between

us because I was aspiring— an aspiring

young YouTuber at the time.

And I thought if I could have a friend

like Chris, it would really help my

YouTube career.

So obviously I took the video down, I

apologized to him, and I tried to make

things right.

And then he also told me about The Anime

Man.

He also said that Anime Man knows about

me, and if I had not made a video bashing

the Anime Man, maybe we could have

collabed and he would have reached out to

me earlier.

But because he was friends with the Anime

Man, it made it hard for him to be friends

with me if I've already bashed one of his

close friends because he's such good

friends with Joey.

It turns out, because I watched a recent

stream where Chris, PewDiePie, and CDawgVA

do a cycle stream, and there's a clip

where they're like chatting in a

restaurant and Chris messages Joey and

he's like Oh, actually, last time I

messaged Joey was like 2 years ago.

And then he phones up Joey, the Anime Man,

and the Anime Man's like, wow, you don't

even message me in years and now you hit

me up.

So Chris definitely is the type of person

who says, oh yeah, so-and-so is my friend,

I'm good friends with so-and-so, but then

he doesn't actually talk to them in years.

He's like extremely business-focused,

transactional-focused.

He doesn't seem to care about friends

unless they're like YouTube friends who

can help him get views, like PewDiePie.

He obviously sucks up to PewDiePie because

PewDiePie is like a legend in the YouTube

industry, so he wants to like collab with

him so he can get more views.

If he can't get views off you because

you're not a bigger creator, or at least

on his level, he doesn't give a damn about

you.

Even with his so-called real friends like

the Anime Man, they're not really friends.

They're just like basically business

partners that they use each other for

content.

Like they go on each other's podcast, they

do a cycle stream together, they're

YouTube friends.

They're not real friends.

They don't even talk to each other apart

from when they're like collabing and

talking about some video idea that they

got in mind.

So even with his actual friend Joey, it

turns out hasn't even talked to him for

years.

So it's so stupid of me to think that he

was actually gonna like talk to me because

he was like interested in friendship or

something.

So then I delete the video that I made

about him and he says thanks, and then he

ends it with, next time in Osaka, Uh,

let's go get drinks.

And I'm like, oh my God, that'd be so

great.

That'd be amazing.

And then guess what?

He does come to Osaka eventually.

Doesn't message me though.

Doesn't even hit me up and say, oh, I'm in

Osaka now.

Do you want to go for those drinks?

No, nothing.

You know why?

It's because when he said that, he never

actually implied or meant or he never

actually had any thoughts or genuine

intention to actually go for those drinks.

It's just like a stupid nicety that stupid

British people say all the time.

Oh, we're going to hang out next week.

Oh yeah, let's meet up again soon.

Oh, let's go for drinks in London.

British people say this all the time.

I recently have had a British girlfriend

who's like pure British girlfriend, and I

realized she will say all this stuff like

niceties but not actually mean any of it.

And I haven't really realized this before

because I haven't really hung out with a

lot of British people, to be honest.

I've always been a loner, never had any

friends, and I wasn't fully aware about

how British people will just say stuff

that they never mean.

And even when you date a British girl,

they'll be like, oh, I don't mind if you

do XYZ, it's okay.

And then you do XYZ and then they get

pissed about it and they're like, oh my

God, you did XYZ.

I can't believe it.

Yeah.

When they literally just said you didn't

mind if I did it, idiot.

So the thing is with me, when people say

stuff to me, I take it very literally.

So if you're going to tell me, let's hang

out next weekend, I'm going to be

expecting that we're going to hang out

next weekend.

Otherwise, why would you say it?

But I've had— it took me a long time to

realize that British people just do this

thing where they say stuff and they don't

mean it.

All the time, and it's just being polite.

So they just say it as like a polite way

to say something.

They don't really have any intentions of

actually doing it.

So as you can imagine, I got really mad

that these drinks never happened, and I

felt used because I did something nice for

him.

I took the video down that I made about

him when I didn't have to.

I only did it because I respected him as a

bigger creator, and I was hoping to leech

off him.

I mean, I was hoping to collab with him

because I wanted to grow my YouTube

channel at the time.

That was at the time before I completely

destroyed my reputation.

And maybe there was still a hope that I

could become a bigger YouTuber.

But now it's like completely over.

I've destroyed everything.

So I don't really care about how many

bridges I burn at this point.

People sometimes say, why didn't I reach

out to him for the drinks?

He's a busy man.

He probably talks to a lot of people.

My messages have probably been buried

under 100 people since we talked.

And yeah, I guess I could have like bumped

mine to the top and said, oh, hey, Chris,

drinks.

I wouldn't do that because that'd be kind

of desperate, and he was the one who

offered the drinks, so why would I have to

chase up on his offer?

If it was a genuine offer, then I wouldn't

have had to chase up on the offer.

It would just make me look very pathetic

and weak if I'm like, hey Chris, remember

those drinks you mentioned?

Oh, please, please come have drinks with

me.

I need views because my channel is stupid

and dying.

That would be extremely pathetic if I had

to like chase him up for drinks like a

loser.

And honestly, I wish I never deleted the

video.

I actually deleted it.

I didn't set it to private.

I erased it from existence.

So I don't have the video anymore.

I wish I just set it to private, and then

as soon as I realized he was just punking

me, I would have just put the video

straight back up.

Also, another annoying thing is it turns

out— turns out basically all my friends

from primary school knew Chris Broad and

actually hung out with him and went over

to his house.

His dad was on Robot Wars, which was at

the time a very popular TV program.

Program where everyday normal people would

build a robot, a remote-controlled robot

with weapons on it like chainsaws,

flamethrowers, pickaxes, pneumatic drills,

stuff like that, flippers, and they would

compete against other robot teams.

Chris's dad was the builder of a robot

called Killatron, I think, and they were

one of the top finalists in the show.

And Chris was actually on the show.

You can search up Robot Wars.

I think his dad's name is Richard, so like

Richard Broad Killatron robot team.

So yeah, all my friends from primary

school used to go over to his house and

they would like see the robot.

None of my friends have ever invited me.

I never got invited to Chris's house when

I was a kid.

And these people were supposed to be my

friends, like my best friends.

And they never said anything about, oh,

Daniel, do you want to go over to Chris's

house?

He's got a really cool robot.

Just can't believe that it's only 20 years

later that I find out about all this,

about how one of the coolest kids at my

school was friends with all my friends and

I didn't even get an introduction or

didn't even get an invitation.

And apparently Chris knew of me.

He said he remembered my name, but I never

knew of him.

So how come we never got a chance to meet?

It's so irritating.

So I kind of had no choice but to take it

upon myself to make a meeting happen.

And yeah, I did meet him last year.

I guess it wasn't really a meeting because

I basically just followed him from behind

and made sure he never saw me.

He was doing his cycle stream last year, I

think, and as he passed through into Osaka

and hit his stop, I was watching stream

and I tracked down where they were.

It wasn't hard.

I mean, they were just basically at the

biggest train station in Osaka and they're

pretty— they stand out quite a lot.

So it's pretty obvious where they were.

And I tracked them down.

I followed them from behind.

I didn't really want to approach, approach

Chris because, you know, he's a bit of a

scary guy and I don't think he would

really be too happy if I tapped him on the

shoulder and I was like, hey Chris, it's

me.

Remember those drinks you promised back in

2018?

Here I am, motherfucker.

But I did decide to go up to CDawgVA and

Pete and say hi because they're usually

pretty friendly and they don't know who I

am.

And Chris might have mentioned me to

CDawgVA and Joey, I'm not sure, but they

probably definitely don't remember or

would recognize me if I just went up to

them on the street because to them I

probably just look like every other Asian

guy in Japan.

So yeah, I followed CDawgVA and Pete and I

went up to them, said hi, had a funny

little exchange which I filmed on my

stream, which was quite cool.

I was quite excited to meet them, you

know, it's always exciting to see someone

in real life if they have like a massive

following on YouTube.

I don't know why, it's like

starstruckness, I guess.

Connor, do you think I could get a

picture?

Oh, sorry, I'm not doing pictures.

Okay, well, could you tell me to fuck off?

Because you don't like stream snipers,

right?

Uh, yeah, mostly not, but that's— that's

right.

All right, fuck off.

Thank you, Connor.

You made my night.

Okay, Pete, can I say it?

Yeah, Pete, can you tell me?

I'm not done talking.

All right, can we just fuck off?

Okay, that was so— that was great, that

was great.

Thank you so much, it was nice.

Sorry, sorry, my hand's sweaty.

We'll do this.

Oh, here we go.

Like, say hi to Chris for me.

All right, we will do.

Thanks, have a nice night.

See you, take care, buddy.