I Just Shot 4 Videos in 1 Week | *BIG NEWS* The Brand NEW Abroad in Japan Studio 🎉 (Patreon)

One week, four videos.
- Kill me.

Once in a while the stars align and instead of shooting one video, or even two, I end up filming a whole month’s worth of content and nearly breaking myself along the way.

But amidst the sea of upcoming videos, I’ve also got some exciting news (good news!). Here’s what I’ve been up to.

The Shooting Schedule from Hell

So this week I’ve been everywhere from the mountains of Akita and Aomori, to Tokyo’s Nakagin Capsule Tower and even the Trash Taste studio.

It sounds glamorous and adventurous, but it was so intense I’ve barely looked up from the camera viewfinder these last 7 days. Here’s what I’ve been working on in order!

Asakusa

Given Asakusa, Tokyo is one of the first locations most Youtubers in Japan are drawn to, on account of it being perhaps the no.1 tourism hotspot in the country, it’s crazy to think we’ve never shot an Abroad in Japan video there until now.

But rather than do another bland tourism video, Ryotaro and I teamed up to do a retro style tour of the districts more hidden establishments. From a murky underground complex straight out of Blade Runner, to a ryokan overlooking the Sensoji temple, it was surprisingly fun to head back to the area that defined my early visits to Tokyo, when I came down on weekends (because cheap accommodation, yay).

Nakagin Tower

Straight off the back of the Asakusa video, I fled Ryotaro to the other side of Tokyo where I met up with Alex (the real estate guy from last year’s videos), and we went on a tour of my favourite building in Tokyo, the Nakagin Capsule tower.

The building is comprised of 140 capsule - each containing a tiny apartment of only 9 square meters. And while I couldn’t imagine living here, it’s easy to see how the location has captured the hearts of architects and filmmakers over the years.

Tragically, this 1970’s architectural gem doesn’t have the brightest future and is set for demolition next year. Amongst the bland towers of Tokyo’s skyline, it will be sorely missed and I’m grateful that we were able to get inside and hear the story behind the building, before it’s replaced by another generic utilitarian building.

Trash Taste

So while technically there’s been no videos on Abroad in Japan this week, I did appear in a two hour long show with Joey, Connor and Garnt on Trash Taste, where I was bullied for my fashion and where I recounted the 100 ways I’ve almost died in Japan over the years.

It was hilarious, chaotic fun and hopefully it’ll keep you entertained until the Journey Across Japan finale in Nagasaki later this week.
🍿Trash Taste: https://youtu.be/jFIKDHetyFw

Akita

Just as I escaped Tokyo back to the relaxing atmosphere of Tohoku and north Japan, Ryotaro and I met up once more and went on a two day trip around Akita prefecture.

Over the years we’ve covered every corner of north Japan in our videos, but somehow we’ve always neglected Akita. There’s no doubt it’s an odd prefecture, huge in scale, with the population scattered across numerous mountain ranges (making it very difficult to travel around).

But it’s a beautiful region and we covered the hot springs, the local free range chicken, the terrifying Namahage demons and of course, the Akita dogs. We’re looking forward to taking you guys on a tour of this stunning part of Japan! 

Patreon Exclusive Episodes

On a quick note, one of the highlights of this season of Journey Across Japan has been the behind the scenes episodes, sharing with guys various outtakes, bloopers and deleted scenes, as well commentary revealing what really went on during filming.

One of the hardest parts of this job is deciding what goes in and what gets left out of the videos. But now that we have an editor, we’re delighted to announce that with every release of an Abroad in Japan video we’ll be releasing an additional behind the scenes Patreon exclusive episode.

I’m very proud of this community and I love sharing insights with you all, and the response on the last four behind the scenes episodes has been incredibly positive. It makes sense to turn this into a full time series for you all here on the the Abroad in Japan Patreon (and expose how may takes I actually need to shoot before I can string together the simplest of sentences).

The ABROAD IN JAPAN STUDIO

And finally, I’ve saved perhaps the best news until last.
As I mentioned I recently visited the guys at Trash Taste to shoot an episode in their brand new studio. And as I marvelled at their two storey setup and well lit studio with envy, I wondered to myself “Why the f*ck haven’t I done this?”

In many ways over the years, we’ve not needed a studio, given most Abroad in Japan videos are shot in the great outdoors. Shooting in the apartment has always been adequate enough.

But in recent times, shooting the fried chicken video with Connor in the apartment, or the live show with my good friend Pete (Premier Two: https://youtu.be/T0o2-zMEg0Y?t=6677 ), it was absolute hell trying to shoot with two people in my tiny cramped set up.

In many ways, this cramped setup has held me back a bit from shooting indoors more, or doing collaborations with other creators or live streams.

And so after returning from Tokyo I began searching for studio space, and I think I’ve found the perfect place in Sendai where we could have a huge studio space for filming videos and building sets (for short films).

I’m bloody excited about having a large professional space to film in, invite people over, and produce more videos and live streams. It’s a very big deal for me, and if all goes well we could have the keys in the next 2 weeks.

And the moment I do, you can guarantee there’ll be an obligatory video on setting up the studio and kitting it out with the finest Ikea furnishings.

Hell, I’m sure we can throw in some cardboard cut outs of Natsuki and Ryotaro as well.

SO lots of amazing news and videos inbound guys. And I want to thank you all for believing in what we do here on Abroad in Japan. The dream of having weekly content is finally almost here.

The final episode of Journey Across Japan will be out later this week (most likely the weekend) and it’s a fitting end to the series, complete with Nagasaki, Battleship Island and of course Dr Jelly. As you’ll see, Nagasaki is an incredibly underrated city and one I highly recommend visiting when Japan re-opens.

That’s all for now though guys - SEND me your ideas for what we could do with the studio space. It’s just one pretty large room and I plan to segregate it into different areas for filming different kinds of videos. We could even have Natsuki corner. (God knows what that would entail).

As soon as I’ve signed the papers and actually got it, you can expect to be the first to see the photos! (Fingers crossed for the end of this week).

Thank you again to you all for making all of this possible. I'm looking forward to surprising you all and taking you on more incredible journeys together in the second half of 2021!

Chris