00:03 John Daub: Hello everybody! Long time no see! Welcome again for another live stream from Tokyo. This time we'll be taste testing a very unusual drink. Yes, this. And I have a lot to talk about, not just the water, but live streams in general because it's been a while. Yeah, I think I haven't done a live stream in over a week, which is crazy because usually I'm doing these all the time. There's a vending machine over here and I want to show you a little bit more about this water before I get really wet. It's been raining in Tokyo for the last few days. The temperature has really cooled off. All those live streams just a few weeks ago where I was wearing shorts and t-shirts—that's over. It's now fall. It's pretty cold, pretty cool. There's a nice breeze going. I even have an umbrella, but it's just raining just enough where I don't need it yet. Ah, what a day.

01:11 John Daub: So this thing—I want to talk a little bit about water. Bottled water has never really been popular in Japan until about a few years ago. Suntory is probably the biggest company making bottled water. They have two places that they make it, according to my research because I did a TV show on Suntory's bottled water last year. One is the Minami Alps, which is in Yamanashi. Suntory gets their bottled water from this area, which covers the north part of Japan including Tokyo. And then there's Daisen, where I'm going at the end of this week. That's where they make their second bottled water plant because Daisen has the cleanest and purest water in all of Japan. It's a fact, I think. But this one comes from Suntory—you can see right here on the label. Why do they flavor the water? It's because Japan is a trendy place. These flavors—I did a livestream on Pepsi's Halloween flavored cola a couple of weeks ago. It's something they do just to get attention, and I think that's what this is.

02:36 John Daub: If you look at the Suntory vending machine, it's right here. This is the regular water from Minami Alps—it's really, really good. I love Suntory bottled water. But then they have something like this: morning tea flavor. And it's not tea—it's water. Why do they do that? It's because it's a trend. And I'm going to now taste this thing. I bought it a couple of weeks ago, so I've been waiting to do this. The problem is that YouTube has had some trouble with livestreaming. We've had some problems with streaming on YouTube for a couple reasons. Thank you, Jim—thank you very much for the super chat. This one's for you, buddy.

03:34 John Daub: There have been a couple of problems, but YouTube has been on this. I'm really happy with the way YouTube has handled all these problems that we've been having with the livestreams. A month ago, the audio got crappy because they changed the codec and the quality just dipped so bad—it sounded like I was talking through a pipe. I don't know if it's any better; there've been two or three updates since then. But they've been listening to my feedback—the engineers, the team that designs the app. What YouTube needs is a dedicated app just for livestreaming, and then we won't have this problem. But they've made some interface changes to the app a couple of days ago, so I'm hoping the audio is a little bit better than before. And I'm not even guaranteed this livestream is gonna be there tomorrow because the livestreams I've been making—they're online for a day, and then for some reason YouTube says it fails in the processing. This is the only copy I have to show you because I don't have a backup. So unless YouTube can fix this problem, this might be the only time you see this video. It's kind of a shame.

04:52 John Daub: So without further ado, five minutes into the video, I finally get to how this thing tastes. Again, this flavor of water won't be around. Oh my god. Oh my gosh. Arnold, thank you very much. It smells exactly like royal milk tea. And royal milk tea is my favorite tea in Japan—I always get this on the train station platforms because it smells and tastes so good. That heavy cream they use in it—it's awesome. But it's clear, right? You see this? It smells just like tea with milk. How do they do this? Okay, here we go.

05:59 John Daub: They pulled this off. This is weird—it's like they're messing with my brain. It tastes so creepy. It's clear, right? It tastes just like milk tea. This has got to be all chemicals. I'm reading the label right now—this can't be good for you. It says natural mineral water, sugar—they put sugar in bottled water. Malt, oriza [?], some sort of milk essence, tea—how could there be tea? It's clear. Mint extract, salt. Alright, so yeah, it's a gag. It's a gimmick—they put all this stuff in it. Usually it's just water. You see the ingredients right there in the middle, in the blue. That's more than water—it's not water anymore. You know what? If you put sugar and salt and essence and stuff in it, is it water?

07:09 John Daub: Oh my gosh, it's weird. My mind is warped—I've never had anything so bizarre. But it doesn't stop there. Suntory also has other flavors. They've gone a step further—they've taken the milk tea, which is weird already, and they've put in lemon: lemon tea water. But why? Tea is the most popular drink in Japanese vending machines—it's not cola. This is a Coca-Cola vending machine, but it's all tea and coffee and royal milk tea, the real stuff. So why does Suntory make a milk tea version of their water? It's because it gets attention and it's a trend. And I bought it—I even made a video about it because it's so weird. So there you have it: Suntory Premium Morning Tea, milk from Asam tea. For those tea aficionados, it's Asam. And they made it clear—I don't know how they do it. It's pretty freaky.

09:03 John Daub: Science is pretty crazy for beverages in Japan, but that's the way Japan rolls—you always have to have something that makes a product attractive. Even if you start to like this water and want to drink it all the time, in a couple of weeks it's going to be gone and you're left with nothing. You're just like, why? Why did you get rid of it? I loved it. It's because Suntory and all the beverage companies want to always innovate. Whatever they have—even if it's a hit—it's gone. They're going to bring it back later, and that'll double the marketing exposure. But things don't last very long—trends are here today, gone tomorrow, like cucumber Pepsi or salty watermelon Pepsi. Pepsi's market share in Japan is like 6% of the cola market, and Japanese don't drink a lot of cola anyway. The only way for Pepsi to compete is to innovate, and they do.

10:19 John Daub: Now that we've got that out of the way, I didn't want to make a video that just complains about YouTube and what's been going on because the videos have been disappearing on the Only Japan Go channel—this is the second channel. And by the way, tonight I'm releasing a new video on the main channel from Fukushima—you're going to love it. Peter von Gomm is the narrator of it. I wanted to do something different—I didn't want to make a usual "hey, I'm a tourist going to Fukushima" video. I wanted to make something really special for you. The main channel video is going to be released in about six or seven hours at 10 PM Japan time—it's going to be pretty cool. Peter's going to be narrating it and he does an awesome job; it just makes the video come alive even more. But the Go channel—I'm going to be doing a lot more live streams. I'm just waiting for YouTube to fix some of these problems and they've been really good at it.

11:20 John Daub: I was pretty critical with YouTube a couple of weeks ago and all this month because my content partner manager told me about a year ago—if you ever want to get something done, you have to complain. This is the American way because in Japan you would never complain—they would fix it because they'd be embarrassed by the problem and fix it before anybody complained. But if you stay silent at YouTube, no one's going to know about the problem. Do you think they wouldn't put out a product unless it was tested? But the technology is changing so fast—they'll change something that has nothing to do with live streaming and it'll affect it, which is why they need a dedicated live streaming app. The point of this rant is that YouTube has been listening to what I've been saying—what we've been saying. YouTube guilty hashtag for everybody who follows on Instagram. I had a pretty big rant about a week ago, but YouTube has been really good.

12:50 John Daub: YouTube is a platform—around the platform are some really amazing people that work at YouTube. They might tinker with something that affects me, but unless I'm really loud, it's not going to come back my way. And I love live streaming and doing this, so I have to complain—and they're listening. I've been getting emails almost daily from the team in the United States checking up on the account. They want me to test it in a few days—I'm just going to have to push through it because I have a record of eight of them and they want me to do it soon. Imagine making a video and then it's just gone—what's the point, especially one that's an hour long? People would watch half the video and want to watch it later but it was gone. For me, this was the most upsetting thing—people couldn't finish watching because YouTube had dropped the ball. All those smart people at YouTube can't fix the platform quick enough—that's stunning, but they're working on it and doing the best they can, just like I do with the channel.

14:54 John Daub: So there you go—the Only Japan Go channel, first live stream in a while. Feels good to be back. There's another vending machine—another Suntory machine with Mountain Dew, which I don't see a lot of, regular tea, regular milk tea. But Suntory doesn't have any of the gimmick waters in this one. Pretty crazy. I'm getting reports from Dave that the audio is good—this might be from the update a couple of days ago. That means if the audio is fixed, I'm doing a video like every day because I've been holding off on so many amazing topics—it's been driving me crazy. If the audio is wonderful—mochi count, awesome. Perfume444, you rock—thank you so much for the $50. The channel has been taking a huge hit because I haven't been broadcasting much, so I really appreciate that.

16:25 John Daub: Look at these little Cokes—in America no one would pay for that. You can get a 100ml Coke for like a dollar twenty or a half liter for a dollar fifty—it doesn't make sense. But this is the reason it makes sense in Japan: the philosophy term mottainai (don't waste). Mottainai means what a waste—if you're not that thirsty or just want a little Coke for the taste or bubbles, you're not gonna buy a big one because you'll waste most of it. You'll buy a small one, drink what you need—it'll stay cool. Nobody wants a warm Coke. They'll give you a little discount—30 yen—but it's a third of the content. I bet more people buy the smaller ones. The big bottles of Coke don't sell too well in Japan—it's the small ones and cans. People just want a little bit of the sweetness—they don't want to overdo it. I'm so stoked if live streaming is back—this changes everything.

18:02 John Daub: 7-Eleven—wonder if I can go in there. I'm kind of hungry. I hate going in there with a camera—it's like I'm back in my hitchhiking days. I spent so much time at 7-Eleven. A couple of people saying they miss the 7-Eleven—it's awesome. There's a comment about demonetization and I don't want to beat up on YouTube because it's just a platform and the people are always trying to improve it. Parini! Thank you so much for the super chat!

19:03 John Daub: They've demonetized some videos and I've had three on the main channel. One was the Naked Man Festival—you can understand that because my butt's hanging out. Who would want to sponsor that? But as soon as I saw it, I pushed for manual review and within 24 hours they monetized it again. I don't know if I lose the money, but I don't make the videos just for the money. Imagine I'm going to sit down on this wet thing here and we're going to have a little powwow on the street. Oh, that water went right through my pants—that was not a good idea. Alright, I don't make these videos just for the money—if I did, they would suck. I do it because I like to tell a story. If I didn't have YouTube, I'd be really sad. YouTube gives me enough money to make a living at this level—full time.

20:25 John Daub: Christian, thank you very much—I'm always so thankful to super chats. When I saw Perfume give so much money, it really made me feel—I don't know how to thank somebody. I can't jump through this camera and give you a hug—that's how I feel with all the support. My response to YouTube about demonetization: it's just a platform. I was making videos before YouTube existed—on iTunes, which has zero monetization. I spent a lot of money on bandwidth giving my show away and lost about $30,000 before finding a sponsor. YouTube does that for me and protects their sponsors to make sure the content is good. I don't swear, I'm not negative—I want to give you a happy ending. I'm just a YouTuber. The fact that you can monetize on YouTube is huge. The Go channel allows me to do weird drinks, but they demonetize every other video—I ask for manual check and they put the money back. In two or three weeks, the whole system might change again. I understand creators complaining because that's how you get change.

22:47 John Daub: Are they jumping into the water? The mother's yelling at them—it's one of these live moments. I can understand YouTube demonetizing and YouTubers complaining, but I'd never complain to such a degree because I'm thrilled to have this platform and live streaming. JCOM, if you're listening, speed up my internet because it stinks—the upload speed is awful. Okay, I won't complain about YouTube, but when it comes to ISPs, JCOM is like the Verizon of Japan. They're not that bad, but it's funny seeing their car go by while I'm trying to get them on the phone to improve my upload speeds—it takes forever to upload a video.

23:55 John Daub: Tonight I just wanted to thank you and give an update. I'm going to Hakuba on the 18th, so live streaming in Nagano, and on the 20th to Tottori on the other side of Japan—more live streaming. Make sure you're subscribed and get notifications because it's going to get really interesting. If the audio quality is good, this is going to be amazing—I'm going to be on the road like a madman with fantastic episodes. Tonight on the main channel, Peter von Gomm narrates the Fukushima spy story—it's a spy adventure about tourism. I wanted to do something extremely creative that nobody's ever done before. Believe you me, it's going to be pretty cool. I don't know if anyone's going to watch it because it has Fukushima in the title, but I made it to have fun—and that's what we do here. Thank you so much for the super chats—I want to jump through the screen for your generosity. I'll be back with live streams this week after checking the audio quality. This is going to be awesome. Thank you everybody for watching. I'm going to end the last 20 seconds walking through my neighborhood, which has gotten eerily quiet. See ya. No more rain.