00:00:02 John Daub: Hey everybody. I just wanted to start the live stream by showing you the stingray. I called them manta a few days ago. They are actually stingrays. I've been here for about eight or nine days now, so I'm getting to know the people here. It's pretty interesting now that I know why they come here, why they feed the stingray, and a little bit more about the background of the story.

00:03:12 John Daub: Now, it's been on Japanese TV, and tour buses are actually coming here. When I came here the first time, there was nobody here. It was just me and, well, my one friend here calls him Shiso-san, and he didn't seem to agree with that. I think it was a joke on me, but he's the one who's feeding the fish. He comes here every couple of days, and what I've noticed after observing the stingray for the last couple—and this is my fifth time here—the stingray are very much like puppies. They have personalities that are very much like dogs, and they kind of play and fight and look like they're attacking one another, but it's just sort of like dogs that do that. You can see that. You can see them coming out of the water like this. I've never seen stingrays like this in North America back when I was at home, or anywhere else for that matter.

00:04:11 John Daub: Look at them coming out of the water. You can see Shiso-san is going to feed one of them. He puts it right in their mouth, and then they line up just like doggies. Look at that. Here comes another car. It's pretty interesting to see the tourists coming here, but the background story on this is that Murai-san has been coming here. He's been here for years, and he would just feed the stingray, and then eventually it caught on, and people now saw this on TV, and now they come here, and it's become something of an attraction. He comes here, the two of them, maybe once every couple of days, and because it's become a tourist attraction, and there's been sometimes up to like 30, 40 people here, Murai-san brings a life jacket just in case somebody falls in, and he's got it right there.

00:05:14 John Daub: And a lot of people who come here as tourists don't even know that it's there, but he's there to protect the people. And Shiso-san is there to feed, and Murai-san is there to protect. And you don't really notice it. So it's pretty cool. The longer you stay in one place, the more you start to learn about the background stories, and that's what reporters are supposed to do, right? They're supposed to find out the story and report on it. But you can see just, this is a lot more, a lot more than there were a few days ago. And every time it just increases and increases.

00:05:52 John Daub: The water is so warm. We had a shark here. We had a fugu (pufferfish). We have a couple of other, like I think there's like four or five different varieties of fish here. Probably, oh, there's the shark. It's just a small reef shark. Look, and then the shark's trying to get into the action. Yeah, the shark's not getting any of the action. Hey, Joseph. Yeah, he's going to end up being Shark Burger if he keeps up that behavior. There he is right there, the guilty party. Watch yourself. Shark Burger shop down the street.

00:06:37 John Daub: The water is very clear. And I actually, I just wanted to do a live stream just for a couple of minutes. I've already been to this spot before. But now that I know the background story, it's kind of neat to share with you once again this experience. I want to say thank you. Happy birthday to Nathaniel in Singapore. Today is the day. Just wanted to give a shout out. Yeah, it's a white tip. I don't know if it's a tiger shark, but it's a white tip shark. Could be a tiger shark. It's just a baby. They're more dangerous after 5 p.m. when they start to feed. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

00:07:27 John Daub: Yeah, it's just a baby. If it were to be, it wouldn't be here if it was full size. Oh, look at that. He's coming out of the water. It's so cool to just like, you just come here and just chill out for, you know, like 30 minutes. You hang out with people. You talk, you learn about them, and you make friends with people. Just hanging out, watching the feeding. And it's become something of a tourist attraction. Hey, photo look Hawaii. Austin, if Austin were up, he would say, cool. Thanks for showing this, John. You're welcome. Aloha. Austin can catch this tomorrow maybe.

00:08:30 John Daub: Water is so clear. There's the shark again. And you can see, it's because this light, this street light, when they built it, it started to draw a lot of wildlife here. It would bring smaller fish, which brought bigger fish. And since you could see them, the water is so clear. Murai-san just started to feed him one day. And then I guess he made a friend. And then now the two of them come out here and entertain the tourists. And it's kind of neat to talk with people. And I've been coming out here because there's not that much other stuff you can do at 8 p.m. But it's pretty cool to just to come out and hang out here.

00:09:37 John Daub: So they do this for about an hour. They call me teacher now. And then everyone calls me teacher. It's really like an aquarium. The tourists come in waves. They'll just walk by, they'll be here for 10 minutes, and then a bus or a car will pull in, and 20 of them will come out. So I think a lot of the tours also bring people back through here after they've done night hiking.

00:10:36 John Daub: Wow. What is this? Aori ika (bigfin reef squid). Aori squid. It's one of the most delicious squid in the world. Oh, you can eat it? Yeah, it's about this big. Oh, it's moving. It's changing color. It's almost translucent. Oh, everyone's leaving. Tourists are fast. They take photos and leave in about 5 minutes. So the tourists come, they take their photos, and then they leave. And we stay. Oh, look at the big one coming.

00:11:28 John Daub: But I love the connection with nature that people have here. It's that connection with nature, I think, that makes this island really special. He just said that that is really big. Stingray whisperer. Kento, are all the names on there? Oh, really? Are they all named? They're almost all on there. What's the name of this picture, Shiso-san? It's named after the individual. Or is it... It's the name that Shiso made. The name that Shiso made? It's embarrassing, so I'm going to say it. You're not going to say it? He won't tell us what the names are. There are only 30 names. He has names for them.

00:12:37 John Daub: So you can actually go and touch the stingrays if you want to. I've touched them. I'm okay. It feels rubbery. These tourists are going to try to touch one of them. But they're afraid of the shark. They're afraid to try to pet it. The shark's going to come out of the water and bite their hands off. It could be possible. Anything's possible. It's almost 9 o'clock. Let's go eat dinner. Safety first, everybody. Always have a life jacket. It's always there.

00:13:51 John Daub: Alright, guys. I've actually got to film dinner before they close. The last order is soon. Now, Shiso-san has names for all of these. And I really don't know what they are. He won't tell me. He's shy. He said he's too embarrassed to tell us what each one is named. Guess we got to bring alcohol. So we get the... Okay, they're kind of fighting there. This is what I was saying. They're like puppies. They line up. They kind of line up and fight like puppies. They're like puppies trying to get fed from the master. It's pretty funny. But stingray... I never knew this, but stingray are very much like puppies.

00:15:23 John Daub: These are stingrays, not manta. Stingray is ei (stingray) in Japanese. Are there teeth? Yes, there are. Oh, they have teeth. So if they bite, it will hurt. Just like dogs. There's a light-colored one. It's a little bit smaller than the others. There's the fugu. You can see Fugu-chan right there. It's a little puffer fish. And apparently, there used to be a tiger shark. And I don't know if this is a tiger shark. It very well could be. There was a tiger shark that they took from here. And they took him to the aquarium, I believe, at the Tokyo Skytree. I guess they kidnapped it. I'm not sure. I can't confirm nor deny that story. Actually, I just can't confirm it.

00:16:59 John Daub: I heard you can talk to the fish. I believe so. You know, fish, the manta ray, the stingray have personalities. They really do have personalities. And the longer you stay here, the more you get to see. That's a shark there. The longer you stay here, the more you get to see their personalities. It's just, you have to give them time. And you have to build trust with any animal, with any person, really. And stingray are the same thing. And that's Shiso-san. And over there is a very low-key Murai-san. And they've been coming here for years so they know these stingray very well. But I like the connection with nature.

00:17:42 John Daub: All right, guys. I have to leave this so we're going to walk to the distance and I'm going to say goodbye. The water is so clear, even at night. And after they installed this light, that's when you started to see a lot of the wildlife. The marine life start to come more closer to the people. And it's pretty cool to see stingray. I saw their manta the other day. I just never seen them that close before. But it's a pretty unique experience to be able to pet marine life. And they come up to you like dogs. And I don't mean that in a negative way. It's a very positive because dogs are very friendly. Almost to a fault. They trust anybody. And these stingray are so used to being petted that they just come up to anybody and be petted. And that's pretty cool. They're like domesticated stingray.

00:18:40 John Daub: Hey, are you going to Yankee Town? Yeah, I'm going. Are you going? I'm going to eat patty first. Patty? Okay, see you. See you. That's my Yankee Town bar friend. Yankee Town is a local bar where all the locals go and hang out. And the longer you stay on the island, the more you get to know the people. And the more you get to know the people, the more you get to know the stories. And the more you get to know the stories, the more you can make a pretty good episode. Which I believe is going to be a pretty good episode. It just takes a long time to make one of these. This will be my 10th day tomorrow on the job here. And that's pretty much enough.

00:19:31 John Daub: So thanks for watching the stingray puppy. I hope you enjoyed the episode. It's completely pitch black. So I hope you have a good day and a good night, everybody. I will see you tomorrow with another live stream. Happy birthday to Nathaniel Nate from Singapore who came out and met me at the Singapore meetup. I appreciate it very much. We'll be celebrating. I'll be celebrating at this Patty if I can make it on time. They're going to be serving me American food on the island because the history of this place is America. This used to be San Francisco, California. 96606 had its own zip code and now it was returned to Japan 50 years ago this year. So I like that history. All right, guys, have a good night. Good day. See you on the other side of, you know, the day when it's night, whatever. Bye from a dark marina.