By the way, update is that I thought this video was monitized but it wasn’t, sorry guys!

Disclaimer: This blog post is a response to something that happened recently at the start of 2018 in Japan and deals with a vlog. Please respect my thoughts and feelings and by the way, if you know someone who has suicidal thoughts please call the Suicide Hotline because it is not a great thing especially for the one who leave behind. The number to reach is 800-273-Talk. If the someone mutters the first words that give the warning, please call because it is no joke since we all have one life to live and should live it.

Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! I know I still have the rest of the Holiday Matsuri stuff to post but something took place the past two days that I want to touch upon and that deals with YouTuber Logan Paul. He is the older brother of former Disney star Jake Paul and he does vlogs and he has been in Japan and vlogging which I have watched one a few minutes ago that dealt with Pokemon related things and all I have to say it is pretty disrespectful but the video that got the internet hating him was where he went to the Suicide Forest and found a dead body and shown it and used it as a thumbnail. It was taken down but in his most recent video he did talk about he and his buddies still saw it evne after apologizing and I feel like it’s still not okay especially when Japan has a major suicide problem.

As someone who has taken Asian Humanities in college twice, once at the state college level and the other at the university level, along with a class about the undead, the cultural ideas of death is an important thing and when we look at the history of many places especially the Suicide Forest or the Sea of Trees in Japan, it is pretty dark. The thing is I have seen many other response videos and this got me thinking about doing this post because of how many people are disgusted by what Logan had done and that YouTube let him post it. He said he wasn’t expecting something like that but here is the thing about the forest that I have read, especially one page about the top fifteen things that make it the forest that the way it is in other words don’t expect the unexpected because you can find a lot of things in the forest such as leftover tents that were placed there, pill bottles because people tend to overdose in that forest which is the number two thing that they use to kill themselves while the first is hanging which in a place like that…yeah…it is dark! Besides the negative things you probably find, apparently the Japanese government I have read put up signs telling people, “Think about your family that you’re leaving behind!” and “You can get help!” and other things and there were some vlogs since someone made a compilation of five people who have done vlogs including Logan which lead up to his that they have ribbons to lead the people out who want to leave.

Which I want to touch upon that too. There are people who have gone into the forest and didn’t do as bad as Logan has done as in if they were to see something they would move on but I have seen one good video that one person did visiting the forest and that is Aki Dearest where she and her boyfriend I believe went to visit but shown the nature of the place and some of the tunnels too because Japan does have a ton of those. She did make a response video saying if you want to visit just look at the nature itself as in how peaceful it is and how beautiful it is which it can be but at the same time you do have the eerie sensation from the place and one other video said that is why not a lot of people suggest going there as a tourist place but the internet says it does have a lot of history even with the recession that took place in 2008.

Next, I would like to touch upon on Logan’s behavior though since this kind of brings up my post about “Not Being a Whheb” since I point out about visiting Japan. I didn’t get to watch any other video that Logan may have done but have heard what else he had done such as acting a bit immature while wearing kimono and a specific hat and not only that hitching a ride on someone’s truck like nothing. I watched Gaijin Gumba’s video about this and there are guidelines that you must follow while visiting Japan or even working there and watching stories about people who have visited Japan with a Wheeaboo it shows that Logan may cause Japan to think that all people visiting from outside or wanting to work there are like him and many others which is not true. When I was doing my post and also watching those stories, it had taught me about things I should and should not do and understood no cat ears in public and so on. Heck, if I were to visit I would have to take a look at dress code since Puerto Rico also, for example, expects their tourists to have a bit of business casual going on. Also, another thing, Logan and his buddies, from what I have noticed, are LOUD as heck! I am hoping they didn’t visit any temples because in those and even on the subway you have to be quiet and not always yelling everywhere. I have seen the girls of Beauty News have their Japan Vlogs and when they went out they were more respectful in a lot of the touristy areas and ang at karaoke bars and had fun in a very respectful manner. I know whenever I would visit with Gondras I may have a hard time to admit due to my visual impairment and may have to take a look in how I would walk or may have to rely on Gondras to sight guide me most of the time even in the temples because I don’t want to be disrespectful at all either.

All tangents aside, after all of this Logan Paul may make it harder for foreigners or not to visit or work in Japan. I did watch someone who is Japanese living in Tokyo’s response and he did say it was cringey especially the Suicide Forest and how he reacted and he did point out that a lot of people do make mistakes and I do agree that people make mstakes and not perfect but we have to see how other people are treated after this because not everyone is not as disrespectful. As in, I did point out if you want to visit some of the places do the research in the history behind it and any cultural research about the different islands if need be in case if things are different. Heck, if you want to visit the forest I would also research that too because I feel like Logan didn’t do much even though he did talk about how it is not okay and left the number in his description box before the video was taken down by him. I also do agree with most of the responses, he should have moved on and left the body alone or at least call the police so they could take care of it rather than blasting it on YouTube. That is still a shame in my book. If you are wondering about me, I wouldn’t visit the forest after reading about it and plus I am a bit claustrophobic so it is not a good spot for me and plus I can get hurt from reading about the roots on the forest floor can be a major trip hazard.

With YouTube, on the other hand with those thoughts, I think they should be more strict on the deep, dark content like what Logan has done. I know we had Adpocalypse on there and this video was monetized when deep topics like Isis and other things were de-monetized. YouTube should at least make sure their creators know that things like this is not okay to show especially when your audience is in the pre-teen age.I do also agree that Logan shouldn’t have posted it in the first place since he had the choice of not doing it and in my opinion if he wants to talk about it why not just blog about it telling his story and then talk about the Suicide Watch Hotline which would inform his audience that they shouldn’t end their life and that there is a hotline to help like I mentioned in my Disclaimer above. There are many other ways to approach this topic and showing death is not the way to go!

What do I think Logan should do or go to next? In my opinion, he should change is material because after something like this should change your mind in doing what you do since it makes us look bad to people that run tourist businesses. Also, another thing he should have done before traveling to Japan with his buddies is to research in how to act, the history since some people said he didn’t know what a kimono was which that can be easily researched, and the different spots to go to and also the camera policy in taking pics and recording video because they have a strict policy in that and would help know what he can record and what exactly can be recorded and move on from there. Should he get off of YouTube? I would say yes and to re-evaluate his material because YouTube is starting to become a dark place for some people especially the ones who are trying to make it their career even with people who are in the beauty community and YouTube should be the place where tutorials should exist, news exist, and even videos to teach cultural things should exist but not videos where you slander someone with photo shopped pics and calling them out on false things, that is not a platform it should be. All I have to say is please Logan, re-evaluate yourself and your material before posting anything else because man everything went wild!

Well, that is it! I know this was a bit deep for the blog since this was a topic that has started off 2018 with its first scandal. I am hoping Japan doesn’t think of us as Logan after he leaves because we aren’t all like that because there are a lot of people that respect the culture and history and willing to learn about it while visiting or willing to stay and work or even go to school over there. Heck, I even considered going to Temple University over there before attending the university that I went to. If you want to watch better vlogs by people who have visited or live there, I suggest Beauty News’ vlogs from last summer, CanadaJin3, and even Gaijin Gumba’s videos on Japanese culture and history in our media, which I will put his video in here to show the response and also Aki Dearest’s since she talked about her experiences in the forest itself. Again, if you know anyone who is going through a hard time and might think of ending it all, please call the hotline when those words are spoken for the first time because yes depression and anxiety do happen and I admit I have anxiety myself and have gone through depression after graduating but I am looking at the positives of life and not letting the bad outweigh the good even as a disabled person. I would suggest one podcast if you are a blind person and going through hard times after losing your sight and that is the Life After Sight Loss Podcast with Derek Daniel which he gives awesome tips about getting around things and he did have a blind therapist on his podcast and she was very helpful in giving me advice. So, that’s about it!