00:00:02 John Daub: Hello again, everybody. So yesterday we had a livestream where I unboxed this. This is the Japanese lap pillow. It has an actual name to it, and it has a story. And I made yesterday's video as a two-part series. I probably should have done them both in one part, but this one is sort of wrapping our heads around why these two pillows exist. And in the second box — because of all of the, well, I'd say there's a few comments that we got which weren't exactly positive on the unboxing — I'm going to be explaining to you, and the question is: why does this exist in Japan? And this is the sort of journalistic stuff that I always do with Only in Japan — I kind of go to the root on why they exist.

00:00:37 John Daub: This pillow, which I'm gonna show you a picture right here — here's the creator of it. And I don't know if you remember this picture. This was pretty big on the Internet around 2004. It's called the hiza makura. Makura means pillow in Japanese. Hiza means knee. So it's the knee pillow. And this was available at Narita Airport in the end of the 2000s, around 2008. I remember seeing this in Narita Airport. This was a novelty gift that a lot of Westerners were buying to take back to the United States. And believe it or not, this was, I think, the best-selling gift at Narita Airport, and was also available at the Hakuhinkan Toy Park in Ginza. So a lot of people — well, you know, I don't want to say a lot of people, but there were a number of comments that when you see this pillow, you think of something.

00:01:49 John Daub: And before I get into it, I want to just give a disclaimer that I might be talking about things that are a little bit sensitive. So if you're watching with children, I might be saying words that might be a little bit sensitive. So I understand that. Because if I was a parent myself, I'd want that disclaimer. So if you are watching with a child or you are a child, please — things might get a little bit adultish around here.

00:02:22 John Daub: So there's that. All right, Japan has millions of toys for that. Okay, this is not erotic at all to me, anyways. It's just plain and simple — weird. This is weird. I get it. This is just weird. But it's not something that's sexual. And one comment I think was — and they actually got really upset and sent me multiple messages saying that they were offended by this, that I'm a bad guy for introducing this to the Internet. Excuse me. The Internet has been introducing this for like over a decade, okay?

00:02:54 John Daub: So there's that. Now this one's easier to open. Yeah, this is exactly what a lot of you thought this was going to be. Okay, good morning everybody. This is exactly what a lot of people think. So just give me a thumbs up and a like and I will show you inside there. Let's see if we can get to a hundred likes and we're going to take a look inside this box.

00:03:25 John Daub: I appreciate it. This is sort of an important episode today. Oh wow, look at that. They're going up. Thank you very much. And I'm gonna show you what the inside looks like here. Are you ready? Alright. Gimbal is down. Thank you, William. Alright, so this is what we have inside this box. So all the ladies were getting upset and saying if a pillow of a man existed, would this be awful? And guess what? It does. This here is the boyfriend pillow. I have not opened it. This is the first time to see it. It is just as bizarre, if not more so, than the lap, because it has an actual shirt on it. And that's just kind of weird. Is this — is this Gap? I don't know. What is that? Uniqlo? Maybe it's — it's softer. Well, it's different than the other pillow, but.

00:04:29 John Daub: Let's open it up here. So the mystery has been solved. It is the boyfriend pillow. It is the follow-up — the runner up to the lap pillow. Thank you, Check Engine. It is absolutely creepy. I'm not disagreeing with you. For everybody, I'm not disagreeing with you. These are creepy. But if you feel offended, Jed — I mean, this has been on the Internet for over 15 years. So I don't think you should be offended. I think the question is: why do these exist? So after I open these up and take a look at it, I'm gonna try to do that, because that's what we do on Only in Japan — we try to answer the question why?

00:05:05 John Daub: And there's an important answer here. All right. What is this? This is — arm. Okay, I see. So there's nothing, there's no elasticity to it. It's just sort of — it's sort of a bean pillow. Okay, you see? And this is — this is made out of cotton or material. More like felt. It's really cheaply made. This one's — oh, wow. You can actually use the pocket, though. That's weird. So it's basically just a pillow with an arm on it.

00:05:36 John Daub: Like this. It's nothing special. Yeah, so this is my room here. So I want to now take a look and show you. Here you go. Ah, there you go. Down, down, down, down, down. There we are. Okay, so this is the boyfriend pillow. And the purpose is — it's almost just like a boomerang pillow, really. And you could sleep on it like this. It does smell kind of funky. Look, Japan is just a weird place, okay? And you know what the funny thing is? To a lot of people in Japan, these are weird. This is not normal. It's just the same thing when you go to Harajuku.

00:06:06 John Daub: Did you give a name for the lap pillow yet? No. No. Maybe we will by the end of this. So it is creepy. This is Japan, and people do innovate here. And sometimes innovations do get creepy. But okay, check this out. This is another pillow that's on the Internet. And the reason — and I'm going to build into what I believe is why these pillows exist. This baby is being cuddled by two even creepier pillows. I had a baby. I would not put my baby have these — these hands around them. But people do feel physical stimulus from being held. Okay, it is actually a scientific thing.

00:07:09 John Daub: And as creepy as this picture is, it is really, really creepy. I'm not — I don't know. I guess one of the comments was from somebody who seemed to say that having this lap pillow or unboxing it or even buying it makes me an offender of the Me Too movement. And I am a very dirty and bad person for buying this. For me, zero sex. There's nothing sexual about this lap pillow. This hiza makura. It's just — that's what it looks like without it. Okay, it's just a pillow. You can't undo the legs. It's just a stuffed plushie in the shape of two legs. And when you lay down on it, it does feel like two legs, sort of. And I put my ear in here. I can see why it's a little bit comforting. This isn't even a skirt. It's just — it looks like a big swimming cap. Really, put your head on there. And other YouTubers have done sponsored videos selling these things. So it's not like I'm the only one doing this. I'm not even selling it. I'm just here to answer the question: why do these exist?

00:08:16 John Daub: And the first episode that I did of Only in Japan — a lot of people who are telling me that I'm above this — this is the first episode of Only in Japan. I was naked running around a city, okay, in February. So I'm a reporter. I'm not above trying out things and looking for a story. This is just sort of the way I do things. You remember this one? That was a pretty crazy time. But you cannot do this job unless you take some risks and unless you get your body out there and get dirty. Sometimes you got to get your hands into the muck.

00:08:56 John Daub: So this — this yesterday's episode was pretty controversial, and it's my fault because I wanted to introduce both of these pillows at the same time. But it was getting kind of long. So this is the boyfriend pillow, and this is the hiza makura or the lap pillow. These products exist for several reasons. The first one is that Japan is a pretty weird place. And you'll find these types of things — just ideas that people come up with, and they make products like this. Thank you, Nathan. The construction workers were here this morning. They're at lunch break right now. So this is one of the reasons why I'm streaming at this time. If you watched the stream yesterday, the construction workers were looking in as I was laying on this pillow. Not the best time.

00:09:56 John Daub: But the point is, though, that these pillows exist for several reasons. The first reason is that Japan is a very unique place. I think this is weird. I asked my Japanese friends. They think this is weird, but there's a reason why this exists. The second reason is that because — you know, Tokyo — I'm going to use Tokyo as an example. Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, and I've been living here for 13 years. I've been in Japan for 20 years. But I have to admit that I don't have as many Japanese friends as I think that I would. I'm gonna get to a point here. People in Japan are pretty hard to get to know deeply. I think if you — they're very friendly, and if you come here as a tourist, the services are amazing.

00:10:30 John Daub: But to make deep connections with people, it's really, really hard. And a lot of my friends tell me that they feel lonely. They feel like they have nobody to talk to, and they feel like when they get depressed or they feel down, there's — it's really hard to speak your emotions and feelings. I'm getting to a point here. This pillow, yeah, it's a novelty. And you can see the dude. And it does come in two colors. The creator is actually laying on it like this. But the greater picture is that one of the reasons why — it's not the only reason, but one of the reasons why a product like this exists is because there isn't enough human contact, I think, in Japan.

00:11:03 John Daub: And I myself have felt pretty lonely at certain times because my family's in the United States. And there were times where I didn't have anybody to talk to, or I had friends that used to live in Japan. And then a lot of — in fact, most of the people that were foreign that I knew have already gone back to the country of origin. And I'm the one that's still here the longest. And there were times where I was pretty depressed too. Would I buy one of these pillows to suppress that loneliness? No. But there are people out there that this does bring comfort to.

00:11:39 John Daub: So first there is the novelty of it. Yeah, it's so weird. This was one of the top-selling gifts at Narita Airport in the year 2008. I remember seeing this at the airport. You could buy this, take it on the airplane, carry on, or you could put it in your luggage or in the overhead compartment. And people were buying this at the airport. This was available in toy stores. There's nothing — although you may see something sexual about it. This really is just a lap pillow that people use to relax. Because there's a lot of loneliness in Japan. There's a lot of loneliness in the world. And this is one invention that some guy came up with to try to stem that. He was also pretty smart and knew that it was probably gonna be a novelty. And he probably knew that a lot of people were gonna buy it.

00:12:46 John Daub: Just like people might buy this as a novelty or a gag gift to give to your brother who has a new baby and freak him out, to show him how much you love him. Is this pillow for me? No, it's for us. Because I don't think you're gonna buy it. But we have to try it out. We have to see what it's like because it is an Internet sensation. And these pillows do make a comeback.

00:13:16 John Daub: Get away from me. These pillows do make a comeback in society. They go like this and boom. And I bet you these pillows make another comeback before the Olympics because they're just so weird. And they're available on Amazon.co.jp here in Japan. Do they work? I think that they do kind of work. I felt strangely — if you watched the video yesterday, which I think was kind of entertaining because there are construction workers watching me through the windows — this pillow did feel somewhat interestingly relaxing, I have to admit it. And I was pretty skeptical. But that's why I buy these types of things and make these kinds of shows.

00:13:49 John Daub: The final reason is it's not just loneliness. A lot of people have been asking me why I don't make a video on the suicide forest. They've been asking me for years because another YouTuber did it or because somebody else did it. "You should go there." Because that's actually a place people had added to their itinerary. And that's one place that I would never do. That's a topic that's very sensitive here in Japan. Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. And I'm not going to speak for all Japanese, I'm not going to be foolish enough to speak for everybody here in Japan, but the rate is pretty high. It's actually 71% of the suicides in Japan are males, which is — I think a little bit surprising. I didn't know that it was males who had such a big — had the highest percentage of suicides. This is data that I just checked from the government.

00:14:55 John Daub: Within that rate, half — if you have been divorced. If a male has been divorced, the rate of suicide doubles. So the percentage is double. So I think that there's just a lot of stress. People in Japan, as I said, don't have a lot of people to talk to. And when they go through really difficult times through, there's — it's really hard to find anybody there. I mean, once again, I know this as a long-term resident of Japan, I don't have a lot of Japanese friends because they're really hard to get to know deeply unless you drink alcohol, which is probably one reason why we all go out and drink a lot here in Japan. Because when you relax a little bit with alcohol, you can talk more openly. But society in Japan has a lot of stress for people living here. It does for me too, because I've been living here for so long.

00:15:58 John Daub: So I don't know if these pillows actually help, but there are people who buy these to try to find some comfort and relief from — maybe a wife who — these are examples that just come off the top of my mind. If you lost a loved one and you felt lonely and you couldn't talk about it with anybody, and you had one of these — when I used it, there was some sort of feeling to it. Is it healthy? Probably not. Is it weird? Absolutely. But if it can relieve stress to somebody, maybe just one person, I think it does have a place. As weird as it is, Japanese guys are working all the time. There's a lot of housewives that probably feel, you know, lonely. And that's why something like this has a market.

00:16:34 John Daub: Yeah. Is it a replacement for a husband? No. But sometimes we just want to be held, let's be honest. I mean, we just want to have some sort of connection. And these are gag gifts and novelties. And on the other hand, they probably came out of a place of loneliness. And I don't know what the founder of the company was going through his mind when he invented this in the year 2003, 2004. He probably came out of it from a place of loneliness and knowing that sometimes one of the — he probably was lonely and said, "You know what would make me feel better is if I had a lap to lie on." And he probably came at it from that point of view, because I'm telling you, there's nothing sexual about these things.

00:17:35 John Daub: And you may think so, but in Japan, this was sold in toy stores, okay, for children. So it's just the point where we're coming from a different culture in a different country. And yes, people think it's weird. No, people don't think that it's a sexual thing. Because I — as I said, I think one time before Japan, if you go to Akihabara, the amount of toys they have for that sort of thing, this is not even on the top thousand. Okay? This is not a toy. It's just a pillow. It really is for that purpose. And it's also going to be an amazing present for my friend Peter, who is going to get this repackaged, slightly draped on, but nevertheless in mint condition.

00:18:07 John Daub: So those two pillows — that's what I want to go — that's what I wanted to explain to you. I do think that the Japanese government is doing a much better job with — Peter's actually in here. Oh, sorry, Peter. Peter already has these, so I might have to find another friend. Hey, if you're interested in buying these, shout shout out to me, and I will be happy to package this up and send it your way, because these can't stay here because my girlfriend is a little bit freaked out that I'm actually doing this episode, and that's rightfully so, because if I need a lap to lay on, it's probably going to be hers.

00:19:09 John Daub: However, with that said, after I've been here for so long and I've seen this as an Internet sensation, something that was just so like, "What the heck, Japan" type of thing when you see it from — when you live abroad — I'm telling you, in Japan, it is considered weird here too. And they do have dolls — if you take a look at — I'm gonna put a link right here in the replay. Me and my friend Joseph went to a robotic festival, Robot Week, at Big Sight in Odaiba a few years ago. At that event, we found a toymaker who had made a little dog called Paro. Paro looks like a seal. It was the first time, I think, the world had really seen Paro. This was like a few years ago. Now Paro's getting big as a pet almost. It was a stuffed animal that was a robot, alive, and would make sounds and blink its eyes. Yeah, that was kind of creepy. And at the same time, it was pretty cool, because why would you buy a Chihuahua or a dog to give you an emotional connection with a living creature when you are too busy to take care of that dog?

00:20:22 John Daub: And I think that that's an awful thing to do. I would rather this person — instead of buying a Chihuahua or dog, to try to make a connection — and this is another problem. In Japan, people buy these lap pets. They can just buy one of these and they can get the same sensation for a third of the price without having to feed it or walk it or take care of it. And we wouldn't have so many abandoned pets. So I think you have to see that it's not something that is seen as a sexual thing because people are not all deviants like this. And yes, this is weird by Japanese standards. And it's weird by my standards. Apparently not weird by Peter's standards, but nevertheless, it is mildly soothing and makes me feel that I'm not alone.

00:21:33 John Daub: And I think that that's the bigger picture here. And that's why I introduced that lap pillow yesterday. And that's why I bought this and had a second unboxing today, the boyfriend pillow. Because in Japan here you can feel comfortable, kind of lonely. And having — having this or having okapi or a stuffed animal or pet is a good thing, or having or getting married. But not everybody is in that kind of situation. Not everybody has a girlfriend. A lot of people are too shy. A lot of people in Japan are single into their mid-30s or 40s, or never even get married or have never kissed a person. There's people like this all over the world. It's not just Japan. But my point is, what you think is weird sometimes has a deeper meaning.

00:22:42 John Daub: And you can be sure that if there is a way for people to innovate and find a way to make loneliness something that's not as bad and something that's a little bit more bearable, they're gonna do it. And as weird as this is, and as weird as this guy is for inventing the pillow — and as weird as this is, which is even — yeah, it's really creepy. And as weird as this isn't, although having a 44-year-old man have this on his desk is slightly weird, but I don't care because I like my okapi. This is stuff that has it does have a place here in Japan. And I don't see it the way as everybody else did. And that's the reason of the second stream.

00:23:14 John Daub: I didn't — I kind of was happy to see the comments coming in and see that it was somewhat controversial, and a lot of people were — I didn't see how I was connected to the Me Too and a guy who treats women badly because I bought this lap pillow as a reporter. You know, I also bought the boyfriend pillow too. So for all transparency — and this person pulled their support from Patreon. So they weren't — they didn't want to be funding this kind of content. And I can understand that. I respect everybody's opinions. But — and — but this person supported me on Patreon because I brought stories that were going beyond what other YouTubers were doing and trying to find the meaning beyond things. And all she could see was that I had this lap pillow. And that sort of made me sad.

00:24:19 John Daub: And I know that a lot of people are gonna be telling me that I cannot make 100% of the people happy that are watching the show. It's true. And that's one of the faults that I have, because here in Japan we do try to make everybody happy. We do try. This is why omotenashi. When you go to a hotel, you get amazing services. You don't have to tip. This is a fault of the Japanese in a way, where people try to make 100% of the people happy. That's a fault that we have. And I've actually picked that up, and when somebody is dissatisfied, I do feel like I have to try to find a way to remedy that or get better as a person to find a way to make something like this not occur in the future. This is a part of living in Japan, and this is a part of serving you, the viewer, and making sure that we make really good stuff on the Only in Japan channel.

00:25:22 John Daub: Yeah, it's gonna be weird. I mean, you all know that from the first episode. I went out there and got a massive wedgie for you just so you wouldn't have to — or you could get the full story behind it and understand why they gave me that big wedgie. Why the Hadaka, or the Naked Man Festival, is significant in Japanese culture. Not just the fact that I'm doing it, but the why. So why do these pillows exist? It's because people are lonely. People do buy it, and it's an awesome novelty gift. But it's not because people disrespect women, okay? People don't — because they also disrespect men. And this guy really works out. I mean, look at these biceps and forearms. Honestly, I've never seen a friend who had such massive — this must have been a swimmer. It's absolutely massive, the body on this thing. In fact, I'm slightly jealous. I'm slightly jealous by this.

00:25:54 John Daub: And yeah, I'm really happy to be doing this show, Only in Japan Go, because on these live streams, I can test — I can push it a little bit further because I have your comments right now that I see, and I can kind of be steered in the direction and I can relax and feel the vibe that's going out out there right now. It's really good for me as a creator, and I think that it's this kind of content that makes me a better person and understand what stories need to be explained about Japan to you.

00:26:25 John Daub: Because I'll be honest with you. When I first came to Japan and I went to a convenience store and I'm going in to buy some lunch, which you probably shouldn't buy food at the convenience store — it's not really — apparently what I've been told is they put a lot of chemicals in it. But I walk through the aisle and I look at the magazine rack, and I see women have their bosoms out. And there's a lot of what would be considered inappropriate being seen by children walking by there, and including the manga that children — that boys read — have very sexualized images. And this is just a part of Japanese culture, for better or worse. And who am I to tell them not to do this? Or who am I to judge them based on something that they've been doing for years?

00:27:36 John Daub: People in Japan, if they don't like it, they will change it themselves. And they don't need a YouTuber like me to tell them how to live their lives. It's up to me, as a resident here of Japan, to be tolerant and try to understand and ask the question: why do they do it? Not really — is it me? No. But I think it's something that if you do live in a foreign country, you are living with everybody else, and you have to find a way to melt into that society. There are so many positive things about Japan that I love about living here that I can tolerate any of these little teeny things that you might think that are weird, and I can — I can say, "You know what? It doesn't hurt me. I think it's pretty cool because it's so weird, and it's something I wouldn't see every day."

00:28:11 John Daub: And I did buy it, but I am giving it away. And that's the bottom line. And I hope that you didn't get too offended at the video yesterday, like a couple of people did. And if you're offended by it, I think you need to take a deep breath, like I probably do at the end of this live stream, and just say, "Look, there's probably a reason for it." And there is. And you don't have to like it, but you do have to laugh at it, because it's really weird. It's really weird. So there's the end of the PG version. So if you take your kids and you put them outside of the room, you can bring them back in.

00:28:44 John Daub: I will take the hiza makura away. By the way, this is a counterfeit. And I do apologize to the owner — I cannot find the real one. I don't know if he still makes it. The quality of these are much higher. But this is a — it's made out of a plush material that you can see. It's almost like a stuffed animal. And it does just — it just sort of simulates what — oh, the Internet's gonna love that — the scrunchy legs of the lady. But it does simulate the feeling of lying on a lap, and that might help some guys.

00:29:15 John Daub: Deborah, thank you. But why does it take one person to make a person feel they have to change since so many rules come about? So why does it take one person to make a person feel — I don't know, Deborah. You know, I mean, I think this is a pretty good question. This is a super chat that came in from Deborah. I'm trying to wrap my head around the question: "What does it just take one person to make a person feel they have to change?" I'm not sure about the rules, but are you talking about the rules of Japan? The rules that — which is an amazing video by my friend Greg from another YouTube channel. Second part. Okay, I'm glad you're going to stay. You will not change — you just one person when you take a chance of losing so many. Yeah, I think so. I think I understand the question, but you know, when I made this episode, I really wasn't sure what the reaction was going to be, but I knew that I'm not afraid to confront a lot of the things in Japanese culture that are considered weird. Okay, and I introduced this stuff.

00:30:56 John Daub: Okay, I'll go and do like everybody else — like takoyaki — and I'll introduce a location in Tokyo or go to Tokyo Tower. These are tourist stuff. That's not really what I do. I've been living here for a long time. I don't really do tourist stuff. What I like to do is try to challenge what the other YouTubers are doing and try to find a reason behind it. And I don't know, I'm just one person, and I'm hoping that maybe other YouTubers will — when they do a video. I'm talking about the other YouTuber who went to the forest and filmed somebody who had killed themselves. I'm talking to other YouTubers like this — I made a video that was considered controversial on this on a lap pillow. And really, if I had just, in that first episode, spent a little bit more time and explained why such a thing exists, which is what I plan to do with the second one. I think that's the responsibility of people who make YouTube videos — to make sure that you have all of the proper information and that we've done enough research.

00:32:01 John Daub: Well, it is hard to edit and everything, but what the hard part is is to check yourself and to make sure that what you are making and what you put out to the people is something that is responsible to the community. Is introducing this pillow introducing — okay, put the kids away again. Sorry for confusing you. Rare do I speak for the show's purpose. Deborah, don't worry about it. And in fact, if you want to talk about it later on, just send me an email. And I try to respond to everybody. It's getting a little bit harder because especially yesterday after I got a lot of messages about this pillow. But the bottom line is that when I make these episodes of Only in Japan, I believe deep down that I have a responsibility to make sure the information is right. And I have a responsibility as a resident of Japan, a country that I love really very much — because it's been very good to me — to give you information that might correct a misunderstanding or a miscommunication that other YouTubers are doing now.

00:33:11 John Daub: This is weird. This is weird too. Japanese people think it's weird, but even Japanese people don't know why this might be useful. This might be useful to somebody. And as someone who's lived in Japan and I felt as lonely at times as some of these people — not enough to buy a pillow, but enough where I could see why this would be something that is important to somebody. And some — this might actually prevent people from getting too depressed. It's weird. I know it's weird. You don't have to tell me it's weird. You don't have to tell me it's even gross, okay? I get enough mail from people giving me screenshots of me lying on a lap. The bottom line is, though, that if one person can understand why these exist and maybe it brings them some comfort, then I think that — then I really don't mind about the images, because, you know, you've seen my butt. I don't think it gets any worse than that.

00:34:13 John Daub: Everybody, you've seen my butt. I think it's — what, like 700,000 times people have seen my rear end running in the winter. So I really don't mind about that. I do appreciate everybody giving me the — the shout outs and the love. Thank you very much. Who's Sue Pixton? Thank you so much and thank you for the messages. They're — they're coming pretty quickly. Hold on a second.

00:34:44 John Daub: I think that the whole unboxing took a strange left turn. It's — it was only for — yeah, I can't say those, but yeah, it was just for fun. I think so too. It did take a weird turn. And yesterday was probably my fault. I had the intention of doing both unboxings in one video, but that video was getting a little bit longer and I felt maybe I should have just did it all in one video. But the second video was supposed to explain why I bought both these pillows. It was for journalistic reasons, to try to see if there really is a way to feel some kind of comfort out of buying this thing that's available on Amazon. That is a huge novelty. That's just weird. And of course, as a YouTuber, people have already made videos on both of these. But I wanted to try to do it in a way that would explain to you why they exist, not just for giggles, but also as a reason.

00:35:49 John Daub: I want people to try to understand why — why this was why I did this, and why it wasn't just for entertainment. Because I like to add both of them in there. It's the John's way, as Wangyu says here. Yeah, it's my way. So Hugh also says the Me Too is creating a highly sensitive — okay, I see them. Jim got rid of that one. But I think it's not just on this Me Too thing. Just to put a ribbon on it. Look, I think it's an important movement that's happening in the United States. I don't think it's right for me to make any comments on it. I'm somebody who lives in Japan. I see things differently, and I might even be somewhat out of touch of what's going on in the United States. It's not for me to make any comment of it. I know who I am. I'm very comfortable with who I am. I was accused of being a very sexist person. And, yeah, you know what? People have their opinions, but I'm a pretty happy person with the way I do stuff.

00:36:54 John Daub: And I don't see how what's happening in United States is connected to the hiza makura pillow that I reported on yesterday. I just don't see the connection. I'm sorry to lose that person's support, but if I offended anybody out there, I don't really apologize because that was not the purpose of it. And I think you need to maybe be a little bit less offended, but that's okay. Once again, the hiza makura lap pillow is the official English name.

00:37:26 John Daub: The owner, of course — he made these pillows close to the — I just want to put a ribbon on this. He made these pillows and marketed them as a way for men to overcome loneliness. But he's smart enough to know that this also — the message was: "Are you missing that special someone? Looking for the feeling of comfort and warmth?" That was his pitch. I wrote it on the back here, so I would get that verbatim. That was his pitch in English.

00:37:56 John Daub: And I think he had two reasons. One, he himself was probably lonely, and this helped to stem that loneliness. And the second one, he's probably just a brilliant marketer, and he knew that he could get probably both markets. But I'm not going to judge that person who's been recently divorced and missing his wife, or someone who lost his wife. Considering that the suicide rate is 71% for males between the ages — the highest between the ages of 20 and 44 — and double the rate after divorce or even higher after they've lost somebody, I'm not gonna say that's bad for them to buy one of these pillows. I think it's — if it makes them happy, I'm cool with that. I'm cool with a lot of stuff that a lot of people aren't, because I'm a pretty happy person myself, and it doesn't affect me. And I don't know why people were so offended, but that's just me.

00:39:12 John Daub: So I'm gonna end by saying, Peter, I'm sorry, you already have these presents. I think you just say that because you don't want me to give it to you, but I can't keep these. And if you are really interested in these, just send me a message. And I might just box them up, because I have the original box right here, and we'll have some fun. And maybe you can do a video about this somewhere else in the world. And I want to thank Marcel as well. Marcel is sending some German beer to me and Peter. Peter, if you're watching this, by the way, from the oldest brewery in Germany, and he went to great length to send this beer to us. I don't know if it's going to make it through customs, but I'm really thankful for Marcel. And we're going to try to do another unbottling of some amazing German beer, because a lot of people had said that Japanese beer is very similar to German beer in taste, but I'm not sure if that's really the case. So with Marcel sending the real beer, and I think that's really cool of him to do that, we're gonna be able to compare directly, because he's sending it straight from Germany. That's pretty cool. And I went — yeah, I can't wait, right?

00:40:17 John Daub: I'm pretty excited about this too. Send it to Nosh abroad. I want to thank our moderators. I always like to do that. The end. Jim and Nosh have done an amazing job. It's better to have moderators and not have the moderators. There was a stream that we had a couple days ago when I cut the cheese — we didn't have a moderator and it got pretty bad in there. We missed Nosh because Nosh does such a really good job and Jim as well. And I want to thank Jim too in Washington, and I want to try to get Jim here to Japan sometime as well. And I believe that Nosh is coming to Japan. So that would be really cool to meet both of them and then maybe we can do a stream together and we can all show our appreciation for the people who moderate here and the people who comment. Even the controversial ones like Rob's. Rob, I don't know if it was controversial, but Rob, you know, shout out to you. I know that you always leave comments and you always — yeah, but you're an alright guy, so don't worry about it.

00:41:27 John Daub: Do a pillow giveaway. That's also a really great idea. Pillow giveaway might be pretty cool. Any lonely people out there, we got a pillow for you. But in all fun and game — in all seriousness, don't take life too seriously. I think that there's so many not-so-great things happening around the world. This is the least of our worries. And if it brings relief and pleasure to somebody who's lonely, who am I to judge? I'm just a reporter that wanted to try these out, and I did. And now we know a little bit more about Japan, don't we? So thank you very much for watching this livestream.

00:42:30 John Daub: Would I buy this one is actually a little bit cheaper in quality. Here, listen. It's got the beans that are in like bean bags, and it smells like the plastic that's on a new ship, like a sailboat. I think it's — I don't think this is really healthy, but I probably wouldn't buy this. This is a counterfeit one, I'm sure it is. But this one, this one smells a little bit better, but it still smells like brand-new clothing and I wish you could wash it, but there's no way to wash it. And to be perfectly honest with you, I don't think this is something you want around your house for a very long time. And washing it would be the least of your worries — just throw it out. If this gets dirty, just throw it out. It is a little bit weird to have these feet, but I found that after a while I would scrunch these and it felt good, like a squishy toy.

00:43:09 John Daub: So thanks everybody. Can you hand wash it? I think you could. You know what, that's actually not a bad question. I think if you get a towel, I think you probably could hand wash it with a little bit of — so we're going to name in the comments before I leave. You send me a name if you want to name the lap pillow, and we can do a lap pillow giveaway. I guess if you're interested in it, let me know. I'm not just going to give it away to anybody. It has to go to a deserving home because we want to treat our pillows — Toby might be in person. We want to treat these pillows with the respect that they deserve. So we're going to give these away to people. If you're lonely and you need the love, let me know and we will try to get these pillows to you one way or another. But thanks everybody for joining me on these livestreams. I did want it to be an important lesson for everybody, or have a lesson with this associated, and I think we pretty much did a pretty thorough job of it.

00:44:18 John Daub: If you have any questions, once again, do leave them in the comments below. I'm gonna do another livestream tomorrow. This is the last week of me living in this house and I'm gonna be moving to another neighborhood. So the midnight — you know what, you guys are gonna like this news. If you like the midnight snack streams, which has been a pretty successful concept for livestreaming, they're going to get even better because I'm moving more central to the city. I live — where I live right now is on the border of Chiba and Tokyo. I live in Tokyo. And when I move to this new area, it's going to open up a lot of options for midnight snacks. I can just jump on a bicycle and within 10 minutes I'm like in the middle of everything everywhere. So it's going to be really, really cool. And that's sort of a really exciting thing about moving. Although I'm sad because it — they won't — the new apartment will not have a tatami room, which is kind of depressing because I like having a tatami room. It's the soul of Japan, the Japanese house, I think, to have a room like this. But we will do a house tour when I move out of this apartment. You'll get a chance to — Linda! Linda's wanting that, the boyfriend pillow. Linda, do you want it? We can find a way to wrap this up and send it your way. But I am a little bit sad to be living in this place after 13 years, despite the building under construction and people coming out of my balcony unannounced and looking in the window to say hi. That's cool with me. Send it. Okay, Linda, let's talk. But you don't want the lap one, do you, Linda? No, no.

00:46:41 John Daub: And to Andrew Cousins, I will put an update today as well. There's a new video on the — while I have you here, I think the only people that are still watching. Oh, there's Rob right there. Leave it. Make sure it's an up for Decker if you want to — if you're gonna be watching the main channel, I'm gonna upload a video by tonight, which is probably 12 hours from now, on the Tokyo Retro Game Center that I went to visit. And I've been working hard to edit that. And now once I finish that Retro Game Center, I'm going to shift completely back to this DVD project, which has gone on way too long. I've gotten a couple of questions from people and I just have not had time to update it. So people who are interested in buying the DVD, that's going to be cool to have something to sell to you because around the Christmas time, I want to have Only in Japan like T-shirts and stuff, because there seems to be an interest in having these kinds of products, which is pretty cool because I'd like to — I'd like to wear one first. You gotta make one — the DVD, one year ago — just to make this livestream go longer than it really should. One year ago, I was — at this time, I was around the center of Honshu. I was hitchhiking across Japan, one of the most amazing adventures that I did. And I learned humility, and I learned that Japan is a really safe place — if you go out there and hitchhike, you can camp outside in parks. Strangers will pick you up. There's always a risk.

00:47:53 John Daub: As people have asked me, is Japan dangerous? And I did one on Roppongi, a livestream in Roppongi the other day. Japan is — I mean, you should always take precautions no matter where you are in the world. But in general, Japan is one of the — the safest country that I've ever been in. Hands down. You can walk through the most dangerous section of Tokyo in the middle of the night and be fine, and no one is going to attack you. And that's a really good feeling. And it was a year ago that I was hitchhiking. And every day I get reminders on Facebook and other SNS that "you were here a year ago." And it was pretty interesting to see how that trip changed my life. And it made me humble, because if people are so kind and strangers are to pick you up, that means maybe I should reciprocate and always be kind to other people who are in need. And that's something that I learned while I was hitchhiking for those 45 days. And I hope that that message comes across in the DVD project, which is taking way too long, I realize, but I will get that all to you. I have not stopped that project. It's just — I cannot — you know what? I'm gonna do another livestream and then in the next week with some big news, which most of you probably already know, but I have to introduce this because you're not gonna — you can find out anyways, so I'll do another livestream on this and leave it out there. And I think you're gonna understand a little bit more about — my life's been pretty crazy the last half a year.

00:49:25 John Daub: Yeah, but I appreciate the support. This livestreaming has been awesome. The second channel is one year — I am — this Only in Japan Go channel has been really awesome because with the push of a button, maybe the push of like a dozen buttons, because it's kind of hard to start a livestream, I can directly get in contact with all of you and bring you Japan. And the result has been that a lot of people who can't come to Japan have watched this to try to get a sense of what the country's like. And they'd like to — they travel with me. Like my friend Gretchen in Arizona, she can't — well, she's trying to come to Japan, and I hope she can. That'd be really great. I think she's doing a Kickstarter to try to get funds to go to Japan right now. More pressing, she needs a kidney. And if she can get — if she can get better, I think she can get on an airplane and maybe make it to Japan, which is one of her dreams. But she watches this show and it makes me really happy that when I go live and I bring you a part of Japan, that I can kind of give that feeling like we're doing this together. And this is what — why this Only in Japan Go — this livestreaming channel has been pretty important to me. Even if the content is a little weird, we still have some fun. And you might even get censored by the moderators every now and then. Right, Rob? But in the end, it's still pretty fun. And all of you who are joining me in these livestreams, I do appreciate it. Wherever you are in the world, and you are from all over the world.

00:51:08 John Daub: You guys, if you want to, before I leave, just write in where you're from. This will become a permanent part of this episode record. And don't say Uranus. I've always heard that one. If you're from Uranus, which is the eighth planet after Pluto, or sometimes Uranus is beyond Pluto — the Internet's gonna have fun with this. But right, right where you're from, and it becomes a permanent record. And as you can see with everybody who's writing, it's the entire world. Well, I'm talking like every single time zone around the world. And it's — just Iraq. Wow. It is. Somebody wrote it — Uranus, the flat Earth. It is pretty incredible the amount of locations that everyone who's watching the show — that with the push of a button, I can share Japan with you. And as a creator of the Only in Japan series, that's the power of this channel, and that's the power of our community. So thank you very much for supporting it. I got nothing else more to say, but I can wrap on until the end of time because that's sort of what I do — I talk.

00:52:42 John Daub: So the last thing I want to leave you with is the scenes of the most controversial episode that I might have ever done — the hiza makura, which has an actual name, and the boyfriend pillow, which is a counterfeit. But — wow, they really. How do they make this shirt? I mean, do they make the shirt special just for this, or what? You know, I have more questions than answers for you, I guess.