British Asian Autistic YouTuber – Savan in Japan!

By Savan Gandecha

My name is Savan and I am a British Asian Autistic YouTuber who loves creating content, photography, blogging and video editing in my spare time. I am currently focused on creating content on YouTube but want to train as a teacher which will hopefully lead me to working and living in Japan. I wanted to go to Japan because I have grown up with Japanese culture and since I was around 24/25 have been more in love with the culture. For the past couple of years, I haven’t felt London has been my home; so, Japan is somewhere I long to belong.

I have had Autism all my life and it was noticed when I was around 2 years old which they said was learning difficulties. I was officially diagnosed when I was 24 (I am now 27), but they managed to diagnose my Dyslexia when I was 17. I still find it hard to believe that they didn’t pick it up then in 2007 because it would have helped me find the right support and given me more time to accept what I had. My Autism is a huge part of my life and I have learnt to deal with it through many coping strategies.

I was surprised to find that there weren’t many triggers in Japan apart from the bright lights, noises and the large crowds of Tokyo. It was an entirely new experience for me because it was the first time I had traveled on my own officially without any friends or family. My anxieties did play up a bit and there were unexpected things like being pestered by the Sika Deer in Nara and getting anxious over finding vegetarian/vegan food (I had more luck in Kyoto than in Tokyo at the time). I do suffer with depression and OCD so had to deal with those triggers along with the triggers of my Autism.

I have so many different coping strategies which I have used throughout my life and new situations are handled much better than in the past. For Japan I had my music, headphones, an itinerary for my entire trip and the subway map (for Kyoto and Tokyo) to help me get back to my accommodation if things got too much. There was a lot of planning of what I needed before going but I did some spontaneous stuff like going to the Osaka Aquarium and doing an organised tour to Mt. Fuji (I was going to go on the Shinkansen to Hakone instead).

I have been on YouTube since June 2011 but my current channel is over 3 years old called SavanFilms.

SavanFilms started mainly to upload short films and I did occasionally vlog but since September 2016 I have vlogged a lot more and just dabble in short films. I have been uploading (almost) weekly for over a year now and there have been many videos I have enjoyed and it is really hard to choose which one to share! I feel this video is up there as one of my favourites: