a day in the life in Tokyo with my brother vlog
Thank you Sakako for sponsoring this video.
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It's me! Today, I've already had my breakfast and I'm currently doing my skincare. We're going to be getting ready very very quick and then we'll just leave the house. Today, I'm back with a vlog that my brother and I filmed a couple of months ago when we were in Japan. We decided to go to Shibuya with my brother and thought, why don't we bring the audience to Shibuya too? Our day always starts with a nice and healthy traditional Japanese breakfast, which my grandpa is super proud of. In Ohama family, the breakfast is at 7 AM. For that, we always wake up at 6:50 AM with my brother to not miss the last sleep opportunity.
Typically, a traditional Japanese breakfast consists of steamed rice, miso soup, a protein such as grilled fish—in our case, salmon—and various side dishes. Familiar side dishes may include tsukemono, which are Japanese pickles, nutty dry seasoned seaweed, natto (fermented soybeans), and small side dishes which usually consist of vegetables and a green salad.
These are my grandpa's koi. My grandpa has more than 100 koi, and he used to compete in various national koi fish beauty contests in Japan and he won various competitions. Yes, he is super cool! We hopped on a train with my brother to get PCR tested in a lab. We had a flight, so we got to get tested. I'm in love with Japan's public transportation system; it's always on time. Even if they're a minute late, they'll announce and apologize for that.
After getting out of the train, I decided to show you guys around. I think the Japanese underground transportation system is also fabulous. There are so many different cafes, restaurants, and various shops; there is always something that you can enjoy. Japanese people are really open to new things, like trying new trends and, you know, improving them. But at the same time, we can get easily sick of something; therefore, whenever I come back to Japan, I immediately understand the seasonal trend, and the next time I came back to Japan, I don't see it anymore. They're just like new trends, you know?
The thing that I really love about the public transportation system is that it's not smelly nor loud. When I was in Germany, I was pretty shocked by how smelly the underground transportation was. I was living in Berlin; maybe it's something that is special to Berlin? Who knows?
Here is me buying a drink from a vending machine. If you ever visit Japan in the future, I'll recommend you to check vending machines. There are various types of drinks that you can try, and also they always come up with a new flavor. Don't forget to give them a shot!
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I actually have a Pasmo, which is an electronic train ticket that you don’t have to buy a specific ticket for. All you need to do is put your money into that card, and you can just like do taps, and you know, you can use it. But since I wanted to show you guys the train tickets in Japan, I got myself a train ticket. How good girl am I?
After that, we hopped on another train. We moved quite a lot in a day in Japan and came to one of my favorite shoe brands, Allbirds. They have sustainable and very comfy shoes, and these shoes were designed in Harajuku style. If you don't know, Harajuku has a fancy kawaii type of fashion, which I like to see other people wearing it, but personally, I would not wear. As you might notice from what people are wearing, there are various types of fashion styles in Japan.
Japanese people really do care about how they look. My mother always told me that what you wear and how you wear it represents who you are. Beauty standards in Japan, like in Asia, are super high compared to western countries. Sometimes it can be really tiring and stressful; you know, you gotta care about how you look and stuff. But at the same time, if you enjoy this type of thing, it's really fun because there are so many varieties and so many Japanese as well as foreign clothing brands in every price range.
The good thing is I can find something that actually fits me. I'm really small; I'm only 158 centimeters, which is around five feet two inches. When I shop from western brands, it's either too big or too long, but since I'm the average height in Japan, it's super easy. If you're bigger in size, you probably can't find any clothes in Japan because when it comes to size range, most of the stores that I shop only have size one and size two. I'm size one; it drives my mom crazy because she is bigger compared to the Japanese average. When you compare it to the western average, she's probably normal. But you know, Japanese fashion is unfortunately not inclusive at all.
While watching this vlog, I'm sure that you felt, "Oh, Japan seems a pretty cool country! I want to be there too!" And the answer is yes, Japan is a cool country. But do you want to fill Japan at your home? Then I have a solution for you! Thank you Sakurako for sponsoring today's video.
Sakurako is an awesome authentic Japanese snack box subscription. They send you every single month a snack box with a different theme. So this month's concept is Hokkaido winter festival! This month, Sakurako brings you the flavors of northern Japan, from creamy butter and refreshing melon to local seafood and corn. Join us as we go on a winter culinary journey of Hokkaido!
Every single month, they give you snack books that basically explain the history of these snacks, and you know, they explain the stories behind it. I find this really good because when I eat my food, I like to know better about it. What is it made of? What is the story behind it? How is it made? In Japan, we have a very long and nice story when it comes to food: how it's prepared and, you know, there are so many things to learn about.
Not only can you learn about Japanese snacks and a little bit of Japanese history, but you can learn about the culture, and also you can taste them, and they taste really, really good.
So this is Hokkaido cream pan, which is Hokkaido cream bread. It says this fluffy bread has a gentle sweetness and is made with milk from Hokkaido. Bakeries first became popular in Japan in the 1920s when many street stalls would sell freshly made goods to steam workers.
As you guys know, Japan is an Asian country, obviously, and Japanese people always had rice rather than bread. So bread history in Japan is obviously not as long as it's in Europe or in other countries. But in Japan, we have fluffy sweet breads that I truly enjoy. Most of the high schoolers eat them during the lunch break. It has cream inside, and this is like really fluffy. Let's try it out!
This is something that my brother would super, super love. He loves these cream-tasting Japanese sweets. I feel like this can really go well with a cup of milk, like hot milk, on a very cold winter day in Hokkaido. Hokkaido is like really, really cold. Hokkaido is famous for their dairy products, and since this creamy bread is also made from Hokkaido's milk, I really love it.
Let's try out this one. This is walnut mochi. We have our walnut mochi. So it says enjoy the smooth and chewy texture of mochi rice and sweet red bean paired with the texture of roasted walnuts. This traditional mochi has a hint of soy sauce flavor and is wrapped in a thin layer of edible rice paper.
As you can see, it's wrapped in rice paper, which is edible and also vegetarian. This is really good! Another thing that I really like about Sakurako is that they don't only show you the really classic Japanese snacks; they show also authentic and more traditional ones. I feel like you can explore more in that way, and I really love it personally. And every single month, you can try new snacks, which is really exciting! Every single month, they come with a new concept. Every single month, I'm like super excited about the next box!
You can check them on their website; I'll put every single thing down in the description below in the comments section. So don't forget to check them out! Thank you Sakurako for sponsoring this video.
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My brother and I were looking for a restaurant to eat. My brother was keep telling me that we should eat ramen, but I remember the day before this vlog, we had ramen. He really loves ramen and he is okay for eating ramen every single day. But personally, for me, my stomach is not that strong in order to digest ramen every single day. So I said, "No, let us have our lunch separately," and he was like, "Okay."
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So my brother and I said each other bye, and he decided to go to Ichiran, which is a ramen restaurant pretty popular in Japan. Personally, we love a poodle more than Ichiran, but the concept of Ichiran is super interesting, so I decided to show you guys around. You can enjoy your ramen without getting bothered by other people. You don't see other people when you're ordering your food. You buy it from the machines; therefore, you don't need to know the language.
To order your ramen, you have to buy a ticket from a vending machine, and after that, you receive an order sheet where you can choose your preference. Unlike my brother, I didn't want to eat ramen, but I wanted to eat something that is awesome noodles, so I decided to walk around the city a bit and decide where to eat.
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I came to a restaurant called Chinsuido. It's actually nothing special; I don't really remember why the heck I chose this restaurant, even though there were so many different types of restaurants that I could choose. But I remember that I wanted to drink my boba while having my lunch, so I picked there, and I ordered something called— I don't really remember the food, but I think it was something with soy milk and then chicken and noodles and coriander. I really love coriander!
And I also ordered a boba. I had my lunch in peace. It was really yum! I love this recipe; it's affordable, it tastes good, and you can drink boba while having your lunch.
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After that, we decided to buy sushi for our grandpa. My grandma, she doesn't really like sushi, so we decided to buy sushi from a pretty famous sushi shop in Tokyo. After getting our sushi, my brother and I decided to go back home, and yeah.
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Okay, so we came back home and had dinner. I changed my clothes. Now I'm about to shower, and I think I'll study for like a couple of hours and then go to sleep. I'm super tired. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Let me see you in my next video!