Welcome to a new work vlog of the year.

There have been a lot of changes since we last spoke.

One of the biggest ones would explain why

I'm speaking so quietly.

As of yesterday, a lot of schools across Japan have suspended their classes.

Boomer is actually doing tele-school...

His language school is doing online video courses

to make sure to people don't have to do any unnecessary travel.

For this video, I thought I wanted to show you more of my office life

and the bentos that I pack every day,

and like, I want to show not just my remote days,

but more of what my office days are like.

Um, but I can't really do that.

My work schedule has been...interrupted.

I've been told by many of my contracts

not to come in, to work remotely.

I have a meeting today, so I am going into the office,

and I think I am going in a couple more times this week to one of my other contracts,

but

we shall see.

I'm not personally worried. I'm not personally scared.

I'm just generally frustrated and kind of exhausted because

it's like everywhere you turn

all you hear is more about people getting sick,

people getting hurt, being scared, people cancelling plans

people cancelling travel...

This was supposed to be a big year for Japan.

This was supposed to be a big year for me.

And...people are stressed. People are anxious.

And a lot of people are actually being hurt by this.

Not so much even healthwise, just like economically, socially

I've been reading on Twitter a lot of people who are contract workers

basically said that

their contracts, because they can't go in this month,

their contracts for March are cancelled.

So, a lot of people are out a full month.

Me, personally, I'm okay.

This whole toilet paper this is ridiculous. But I actually ran out...

I was on my last roll, and,

when I heard the whole announcement that they may be canceling school,

I immediately bought like liters of water and a pack of toilet paper.

And it turned out it was good, because that 8AM delivery

was the last stock of toilet paper on Amazon that I can find, so...

eesshh

I'm good.

I'm just kind of grim and depressed and down because

every message from my family,

every conversation at work,

everything,

you know,

every sign you see everywhere, every announcement on the train,

everything, everything, everything.

The anxiety about it is really making it grim

and exhausting. So...

For today, I am going into the office. But I am kind of staggering my commute time.

I'm going in a little bit later.

I'm not bringing my bento this time

because I have been eating so much food at home

and I am sick of it.

So, instead, I'm going to show you guys one of my favorite things that like to eat by the office

since I can't show you my bentos. And...we'll go from there.

Made it to work.

I'm actually going to take you guys

on my lunch break now.

Ok. So, I'm taking a little lunch break.

I thought I would show what I was going to eat for lunch

while I'm eating it.

I got a message from Taylor

saying that she's actually coming to our closest gym.

So, I'm going to meet her at the gym

and go to the gym for lunch

and then eat my lunch at my desk.

Its a bit of a climb though.

One of the cool things I love about my gym

is that it is...anytime, anywhere.

So, I can just walk.

I need water though.

That's Sports Water,

normal water,

and tea.

I think I'm just gonna go for normal water.

No tissues... I just happened to notice that.

Hi Taylor!

Workout done! Time to get back to work.

I lost a little bit of eyeliner.

The one downside of having to carry all my stuff

is that I have to bring my shoes,

my real shoes, my real outfit, and my laptop.

I always end up looking like some crazy-like saddlebag.

At least I got to see Taylor.

It's a lot more fun to go to the gym when I have a friend.

Alright, let's get back to work.

So, I don't want this video to be all negative.

I'm going to tell you some good news that Taylor actually told me

that's going to make my life easier the next 2 to 4 weeks.

On a good note, today...eww...

On a good, note... today is absolutely beautiful

it's like 17 degrees?

Like, what is that like 20? 60? 65? I dunno...

Fahrenheit? I know Fahrenheit.

I'm glad it's not raining. Yesterday was really rainy.

Today it's not. So if I had to be out and about,

today is definitely the day.

I'm home!

Little confession: I never actually ate my salad.

I ended up grabbing a coffee and snack with Taylor on my way back.

So, I brought my salad home to have for dinner. Now I want to show you guys.

It's not technically a salad. It's a grain bowl.

It has kind of like a mexican flair to it,

which I think is why its called "Chihuahua".

Quinoa, grilled chicken, tomatoes, black beans, like

anything with black beans, I'm like "Whoa!"

Kale and jalapeños. Pickled jalapeños.

Sometimes I just want like a colorful bowl of spice, flavor, and bright and acid and

MMM!

Look at these big bites

texture

cheesy

Say, "Ahh"

Look at that, its like party.

Mmm.

Mmm!

Mmmmmmm!

This "salad", from this spot

is from one of the first jobs that I got here in Japan,

originally, actually, through a friend that I knew in New York.

A lot of you guys are asking about my job,

and what it is specifically that I do.

It's a little bit as colorful as this salad, um

but, basically, what I do in Japan isn't all that different from what I did in New York.

The work that I used to do is basically, like Biz Dev (business development)

and, also...ah...a lot of design elements as well.

If you were buildling a website

or if you were building an app

branding, wireframing, designing

graphic designing, marketing

you know, the user interface, the UX, the design

checking on, like "does it actually work?"

Ah, when you working on that small of a team

It's hard to say what you do, because, really

you kind of do everything.

Now in Japan

in addition to website and app design development

I now, also, kind of do services as well.

So, that has been, kind of interesting for me

learning how to build a service that's not built around a single app

or built around a single product.

I mean, at the end of the day everything has a web page

and... most things have an app so, it doesn't change much.

But,

really cool to do the same stuff.

but... that's my update.

Ahh! Foot cramp! Foot Cramp!

"and here's the mail it never fails..."

"...and when it ... I ... yell 'Mail!' "

~shout out to Blues Clues~

Ok, nobody needed to hear that.

Mail time.

So, I spent a good chunk of time preparing,

traveling to, staying in and filming at the Akita Inaka School in Akina Prefecture.

You'll see in the video

it was going to language school

in like a foot of snow

Just seeing all this snow

This was actually the only snow I saw this year

and I was like, "oh, you're so beautiful!"

I'm going to spoil the video,

but I will say

I lost my lens cap

in the front yard of the school

while trying to film

this... ankle-breaking scene

~laughs~ in like a foot deep of snow

so, I ordered a new lens cap.

Ohhhhh, baby!

We're back in business.

This week, I have three days where I have to be

in for a meeting

one of which was today

but the rest of which will be tele-work

so, for now I'm going to get back to work.

Good night.

Hello everyone! It is a new day.

So, yesterday, I actually went into work

It was a rainy day, and

there really wasn't anything to show.

We're still kind of staggering work schedules and figuring things out

Quick update

I did get some new news

now, some good news that Taylor shared with me,

and I'll show you that in a second.

If you haven't guess yet today is another day at home

I was supposed to go in today, but last minute, we switched things up

Most of my stuff is pretty modular,

so if one thing slows down or shuts down, I can just pick up something else instead, but

Let me shows you a bit of good news...

One of my biggest worries recently was that right about the time

when they annonced the whole school closing thing

in Japan, right at the time when all that was happening

was about two weeks before the tax deadline

in Japan.

This is my first year doing

this type of Japanese taxes on a work visa

with multiple income sources.

So, I want to, just like I do in the states,

I prefer to have my first time done by a professional

to study it and then, from then on do it myself.

But, for this first year

you know, I really wanted to have a professional's eyes on it.

And I got an email from the guy saying,

"You know, nevermind. I'm not going to do the Japan taxes. But I'll do your U.S. ones."

And I was like ...??? I don't need that.

For Japan specifically, that's the one thing that I needed.

and I was like, "Wait, what am I supposed to do?"

You know, alot of people aren't going into the office.

alot of projects, even if you send out an email

people are starting to get really slow to respond and in

whoops!

What's with this focus thing?

It was a worry for me, because I was like,

great, now I have two weeks to figure out how to do my own taxes

and or find another accountant

but, no one is going into the office anyways...

Its tax season, but I was like, is anyone still working??

Is anyone still there?

I don't

I ... I need to be able to renew my visa.

When I was talking to Taylor,

she pointed me to this little tidbit of information

that I didn't realise, is that, the tax deadline was postponed.

It was pushed back like a month.

That honestly was like the biggest relief

because I last minute lost my accountant

and didn't know what to do, and

whambambambam

That's my bit of good news, sounds pretty drab, but

Yay!

Things being normal

being able to do my job

and being able to keep things going is all I want.

That's all I want at this point.

There are alot of resources out there if you do want to do taxes by yourself.

Even in Japan.

The blue ... 色申告...thing

there have been ads all over youtube and

oh, my god...

As much as we do like to give Japan crap about being in the stone ages,

in the last year, its really been stepping it game up.