I'M STAYING IN JAPAN!

大 阪 港、 天 皇 門、

右 側 の 扉 が 開 きます。 ただ

い ま プ リ ント 準備 中 です。 し ば ら く お 待

ち ください。 Bum

bum bum bum bum bum bum

bum bum. It was so

easy. I didn't know it would be that easy.

I didn't even have to do like an interview

or anything. They just looked at my

application form. I paid ¥4,000. I waited

for about 10 minutes, and then they said,

it's done. Here's your visa extension.

Thank you very much. I can't believe I was

worrying about things like, do I need a

good reason? I need to make up some

elaborate story to make them— to convince

them that I'm going to go to a Japanese

language school. I was so worried about

all of these different things, and they

just extended my visa just like that,

just in 10 minutes. They didn't even ask

me any questions. I can't believe it. It

was the best result that I could have ever

hoped for. I don't have to go to Korea. I

don't have to waste money on a plane

ticket to Korea or staying in Korea. You

don't know how much money I'm saving

thanks to this visa extension. This is the

best day ever. I don't know why I was so

worried. For some reason, I thought they

were going to be really strict and there'd

be like this grumpy old Japanese guy

going, why do you want to stay in Japan?

Why don't you go home? Why are you here

for so long? But actually, that's not what

it's like. They're not strict at all. As

long as you satisfy what they ask for,

then they won't question you, they won't

interrogate you. They don't even ask for

proof. They didn't ask me for any proof

that I was going to apply for a Japanese

language course. Maybe it was easier for

me because I'm from England. There's this

special rule where there's about 6 or 7

countries, and England's one of them,

where you can actually get your 90-day

visa waiver, visa-exempt status, extended

to 180 days. And not a lot of countries

can do this, so maybe I'm just lucky for

being born in in the right country. Well,

if I was born in the right country, I

would have been born in Japan, but being

born in United Kingdom's not a bad thing

either. You get, you get a lot of

benefits. Oh, and you won't believe what

happened. The funniest

thing happened. The funniest thing hap—

the strangest thing happened. I walked

into the immigration center and I climbed

the stairs And I went up into this little

shop area they have where you take photos

for your passport or application form.

And there was this white guy and an Asian

girl sitting at the table. And the moment

I walked in, the white guy looks up and he

goes, hiding in my room! And I was so

surprised. I just stood there staring at

him, trying to figure out who he was,

trying to remember if I knew him from

somewhere. I don't actually remember what

I said to him. I think I said something

like, Who are you? And I said hello,

and then he said, I watch your videos on

YouTube. I can't believe it. Someone

actually recognized me even though I have

a really tiny channel. 7,000 subscribers

sounds like a lot of people, and it is,

but in YouTube channel size terms,

7,000 isn't a lot of subscribers.

7,000 subscribers is still a very small

channel, and I definitely wasn't expecting

people to recognize me. It's such a

coincidence. Same day, same time

at the immigration center, and then he

looks up and he recognizes me straight

away. I don't think you understand how,

how much of a big thing this is for me.

This is like a huge point in the history

of my channel. The first time I've ever

been recognized in public. It's crazy,

and it was a bit scary at first. The first

thing I asked him was, are you a hater? I

got a bit worried that He was one of those

crazy guys who absolutely hates my guts

and he was gonna punch me or something.

But he wasn't. He was a really nice

person. He said he was from Canada. It's

strange, people from Canada seem to be

extremely friendly and nice. All of the

Canadian people I've ever met in my life,

and I've met about 5 or 6 Canadian guys

before, they've all been extremely

friendly and pleasant to talk to. I still

can't believe someone recognized me. It's

just so surreal. And at the same time, I

feel a little bit worried. I felt a little

bit worried because what if I went to the

immigration office with my girlfriend and

the same thing happened? I walk into the

immigration office with my girlfriend and

then that guy from Canada stands up and

just shouts, hiding in my room! to me.

What's my girlfriend gonna say? What am I

gonna say to my girlfriend? What am I

supposed to say to my girlfriend if one

day we're walking around outside and some

random person comes up to me and says,

hey, I watch your videos. Then the cat's

out of the bag, isn't it? The secret's

out. I'm going to have to explain

everything to her. Because my channel's so

small, I wasn't really worried about

people recognizing me in public. But after

that experience— it was a positive

experience, I really enjoyed it— but

there's still— there's still the, um,

the danger of someone who hates me

randomly bumping into me and then punching

me in the face. I don't know what to do.

I feel kind of worried that my girlfriend

is going to eventually find my YouTube

channel. She might find out by herself,

someone might tell her about it, someone

might recognize me who knows her and then

tells her about my channel. I feel like I

need to start cleaning up my channel a

bit. I need to start hiding those, um,

dangerous videos where I talked about you

know what. And, um, you know what.

But if she does find my YouTube channel

and she decides that she doesn't want to

be with me anymore, if she decides that

she wants to break up because I've said

something that's disgusted her or upset

her, then I'm prepared for that as well.

I'm prepared for being dumped because of

my YouTube channel. At the end of the day,

I feel like my YouTube channel is probably

the most important thing to me right now,

even more important than relationships or

even having sex. I'm actually thinking

about telling my girlfriend about my

channel tonight. I might just say, um, I

have other jobs apart from translating,

and one of them is making videos on

YouTube, but it's kind of embarrassing,

so I don't want to show you my channel.

Is that okay with you? I'm pretty sure

it'll be okay if I ask her not to try and

find my channel, or if I tell her that I

don't want to show her my channel because

I feel embarrassed about it, I'm pretty

sure she'll be cool with that. I think

it'll be better if she finds out about my

channel from me instead of from some

random stranger. Also, I want to tell her

about what happened today. I want to tell

her about the experience of, of randomly

meeting up with someone who watches my

videos. It's an interesting story. It got

me excited, and I really want to talk to

her about stuff like YouTube or things

like that. For the application form, I

thought you had to get a photo because

there's a little square box at the top

where you put a photo. So I went into the

cafe area where they have this

photo-taking machine, and I went in there

to take my photo, and that's where the

Canadian guy and his girlfriend were

sitting. I didn't actually have to go in

there because when I gave in the

application form with my photo, the lady

said that you don't need a photo. You

don't actually need a photo. So I wasted

¥1,000. But the funny thing is, if I

didn't go into the cafe area to get my

photo taken, I would have never seen that

Canadian guy. Well, I might have seen him

in the, in the main waiting room,

but I don't know, it felt like it was— it

was like a weird coincidence that I just

happened to walk in there at the same time

that he was sitting there. There's a guy

sitting in that white van, and I've been

walking up and down in front of his white

van talking to myself to my camera, and

now I feel kind of embarrassed. But, um,

back to the application process. Yeah, it

was pretty easy if you're from the UK or

from one of the 6 countries that can do

this. Then you just need to go to

immigration, ask for the visa extension

application form, and you just fill it

out. You have to write a reason why you

want to stay. Just say that you're going

to go to a Japanese language school, and

most of the staff there speak English. I

spoke English to 2 of the ladies there,

and then the 3rd guy, he actually asked me

if I could speak Japanese or not, and I

said yes, so I spoke to him in Japanese.

You don't even need to pay for a photo.

You don't need a photo. And then you pay

¥4,000 to, um, to get your

visa extended. And that's it, it's done.

They say thank you, and then you say thank

you, and then you say goodbye.