Vibe Check #19 (April 2025)

Welcome to the 19th edition of our Vibe Check (fourth edition for the year 2025), where we talk about anything and everything that deals with Japan, Japanese culture, Japanese pop culture such as anime and videogames, or anything that's on top of our heads that happened during the month. I hope you have a happy reading~

Check #1: Nuisance Streamers

As always, there have been times when I searched through either YouTube or Twitter (X), and there have been people running amok in Japan (most likely in Tokyo or in super popular cities around Japan).

The main thing I've seen was this young German dude blasting Japanese bubblepop music with his portable speaker and blast it around the Japanese trains and dance around the train station (his moves wasn't even that good. Just a backflip and that's it...). Upsetting? Yeah, but it's a little more upsetting when Japanese guys (rarely seen Japanese girls) huddle around him like he's a D+ list celebrity in Japan.

It sucks for three things:

1. Because there are the same people who would not survive in certain countries in Asia (such as the Philippines or Singapore) if they do the same antics in Japan towards those countries. Because if they do even half of those antics in the Philippines and/or Singapore, they would've been arrested on the spot. The best example of that is Vitaly.
2. Some people genuinely love Japan and Japanese culture, they would have a harder time because of those nuisance steamers ruining the reputation of foreigners who are either visiting Japan or wanting to live in Japan.
3. Those same people who are genuinely passionate about going to Japan have some reason they can't go, but nuisance streamers have extremely low self-control by spending their money to either do disorderly conduct, harassing people, destroy property, or things like that outside of their home country.

However, with the videos I've seen from YouTube and/or Twitter, Japanese people are slowly starting to fight back and take some control of the country. It's their thought of "Man... I'm already really tired from my job, just taking my soul out or anything stressful in my life. Now, I would have to deal with this foreigner that don't have any house training. Empathy, or sympathy of others around them."

It's strange that in 2025, it tends to become a trend of spending money on an international plane ticket just to be a criminal or just an annoyance to the public. Would it get better in the future? Somewhat, if the Japanese law enforcement becomes more aggressive on their arrests, or the Yakuza would have their revival if the situation gets worse.

Check #2: Forza Horizon for PS5

As someone who just had an amazing experience with the PS5, it helps out with the gameplay of the same games I've played on Xbox One. One of the games that fit the category was Forza Horizon 5. It was one of those games that I loved to play whenever I turned on the Xbox One.

My gamer friends were talking about the game's release on the PS5 for several months. However, when I finally got the pre-order (first time getting a pre-order for any game), I was honestly blown away by the graphics firsthand. Plus, because the PS5 controllers are a lot smoother to control, it makes drifting a lot easier to control for supercars I usually drive (such as the NISSAN GT-R R35).

Because I pre-ordered the Premium Edition, I had the chance to get the Hot Wheels Expansion pack. Not a big fan of that, so I mostly use the GT-R to drift around the city.

Overall... Most likely to play the game almost every day since it's a lot more fun to explore and play around with it compared to Gran Turismo.

Check #3: Japan Bound!

After a good 7 years in the making, every penny has been pinched, and the timing of the year has been calculated. Finally, I can say I am heading towards Yokohama, Japan, in August 2025. It's the second time I've been to Japan, and the second time I've been to Yokohama.

The reason I chose Yokohama again is mainly that I am not a big fan of big cities such as Tokyo. Compared to Yokohama, Tokyo is too big for me to go alone. One wrong alley or one wrong street and immediately lost in a sea of skyscrapers and tons of people all at once. 

Yokohama is a lot harder to get lost in. Plus, I do remember a good number of spots in Minatomirai (surprisingly, despite being there once seven years ago). So, going to the same locations around Minatomirai would be the best bet. Do I want to go to Tokyo? Of course, but who knows? There might be a chance I can go to Tokyo during my time in Yokohama. Most likely going there for the daytime, but I am unlikely not go to Tokyo (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi) during the night. 

Overall, excited about going back to Japan!! I know I'll have a great time in August~

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That's all for April's Vibe Check. Tune in later in May for the May version of Vibe Check~