00:00:00 John Daub: Foreign. That's pretty good introduction. How you doing everybody? Good evening from Tokyo, Japan. And in this episode we're just going to be doing ask me anything. Basically we've started the live stream. Welcome everybody. In this episode, because it's raining outside, there's no midnight snack run or anything like that. We're basically going to be watching me deja vu on the screen to the right now. Asked you to ask me questions.

00:00:31 John Daub: And by doing that we're gonna hopefully cover some subjects that might be interesting to you about traveling to Japan. Things that you might either share that you've because you've traveled in Japan before or something that you're interested in coming here to visit places to stay. What do you want to do here? I got that knowledge. It's all in here. I've been living here for 20 years, so it's kind of ask me anything day.

00:01:05 John Daub: I did. Well, while we're waiting for everybody to get online right now we have 192, that's pretty good numbers going up as the notifications go out. I have 192, that's pretty good numbers are going up as the notifications go out. I have right here Patreon page and I've asked people what questions do you have? So for the first couple of minutes, I'm going to answer some of the questions from our Patreon supporters. Estin Kiger writes in what is the hardest thing about living in Japan?

00:01:39 John Daub: I would have to say I don't know. I don't really think about that right now because I've been here for so long. I've been here for 20 years. I kind of just am so used to living here that I don't think of what's hard and what's not anymore. So I guess if I go back 20 years ago, the hardest thing was just getting used to the culture. When you come here, you are no longer in your home country. You have to assimilate to the culture that's here. You cannot expect this country to change its ways to do things your ways. And I think in the first six months everything was pretty new. And then most foreigners that live in Japan have something called like a six month blues, I guess where they just stop. The honeymoon period is over and now they really have to learn on how to be citizens or residents of Japan. So that was pretty hard for me about living in Japan. Recycling is also hard. You have to know what to recycle too. And I'm going to be doing an episode on that really soon. That's a great question, Shirill, AKA Mei Mei Ranglot. What is your sweetest memory from living in Japan thus far, apart from Kanai? And what's your most sour memory?

00:03:13 John Daub: Wow, this is like asking a guy you know 20 years of history to reminisce. I don't know. The sweetest memory probably would be completing the first hitchhiking trip and making it to the other side. And that's when I knew, you know, after that, that I wanted to stay here. That was way back in 2003. That was a pretty sweet memory. Pretty sweet memory. Starting my own business in Japan was a pretty sweet memory. And yeah, seeing the success of this channel has been pretty sweet. And the sour memories also. Is this channel in some ways, because it's really hard to manage a YouTube channel. It goes like this. There's sometimes you're like, yeah, look at this. We're going up, we're going up. And then all of a sudden the algorithm kicks in and things don't work out the way it is. It's like, what did I do wrong? And you start to self examine it. The first couple of years of YouTubing was pretty challenging to grow the channel. But I don't know. Sour memories, I don't really have any. I kind of look at the bright side even in the worst, worst of situations, because there's not much I can do about it. If something is really bad, I kind of go the opposite way to try to balance it out. And if something is too good, I'll live in the moment. And then my expectations come in and sort of balance that out a little bit. Because you can't be happy all the time. But it's those times when you're not happy that make being happy more worthwhile. So I don't know. That's a good question, but I don't. I can't recall any sour moments.

00:04:47 John Daub: Daniel Audie writes in how does a normal home meal and cooking table set look like in Japan? I've showed that in a couple of videos. But for typical Japanese, they usually put the. They have lots of different bowls on the table. And then there's. Everybody gets their plate or a little plate, and you just take the way to take what you want. So usually the chopsticks are set right in the front of you. Then you'll have a little thing, little saucer for soy sauce. And then you'll have. It also depends on what you know, your, your, what you're cooking when I cook. I typically don't cook traditional Japanese food like that. I'll make like donburi or everything is on rice kind of a deal. And yeah, Japanese families make more. The mother will cook several different things. Sometimes the father, the father should be cooking a little bit and then they will pick a little bit from each one and then there'll be a rice bowl as well. Sometimes the rice bowl is what you will put stuff on. At least that's what I do. That's a good question. And maybe I'll see if I can do a homestay and have like a home cooked meal just to give a look inside. That's a pretty cool topic.

00:05:52 John Daub: Danny writes in. Hey Danny, despite the fact that you did not speak Japanese, was it difficult to find and rented apartment, find an insurance company back? No. When you come to Japan, this is important for all of you about getting a job here or who will be moving here. The vast majority of you, you need to have a visa. There's a select few countries that can get by on work holiday visas and you are the blessed as so to speak. I was not one of them. So in order to come to Japan, you need to have the proper visa. First of all, you cannot just come here and look for a job and get one you have. If you find a job, you're gonna have to leave the country. If you get a job and get hired by a Japanese company, you will be taken care of. In fact, they almost baby you. My. The company I came into 20 years ago was an English school. They did my taxes for me. They made sure that my rent was paid through my salary. They kind of did everything for me. They took care of the health insurance. I didn't even have to think about this stuff. And the companies have these kinds of services that make your life so easy. Easy, it's almost too easy. And then, and then I left that company and started my own business. And then it just became really, really hard. And I had to learn the system. And then after you learn the system, it's not too bad. Japan is set up. And this is such a great question, Danny. Japan is set up in a way that once you, you learn the process, it's just so easy. You don't need lawyers to do your taxes or accountants. You can pretty much do all of that yourself. I think that in that way living in Japan is so easy. But if you're a freelancer or you're doing yourself or you have your own company, it's a little bit more complicated. And I own My own business here, and it's registered in Japan, and it's pretty complicated sometimes, but now after so many years in, it's a lot easier. But it's still very important because I have to get everything right.

00:08:10 John Daub: Attack season in February. I do not look that happy. In Hawaii, we eat something called opihi. It's the limpest that people die from. Yeah, I've heard about this. I've never had it in Japan, but I believe they eat it. But I've never had it in Japan. The most notorious food is fugu, but that's not that dangerous anymore. Yeah, I don't know anybody who's died of fugu, and if I did, they'd be dead. So I don't know. But opihi, I don't know too much about it. Joata. But thanks for bringing that up. It's something that I'll look into because Deadly Foods of Japan would be a pretty cool topic for or title for an episode in the future.

00:09:12 John Daub: Denny writes in. Hi, John. Which is better place to see autumn leaves for tomorrow? Tomorrow. So Denny's already in Japan. Kyoto or Kamakura? You know, I don't know. Kyoto is so crowded right now. It rained today, so I don't think the weather's gonna be very good. It's supposed to rain the next couple of days, but I would say Kamakura maybe because Kyoto is beautiful, but it's so crowded. It's like waiting in line at Disney. You just. It's like you're not going anywhere for hours. And it's not. I don't know. I was there in Kyoto for. For the autumn colors, the. For fall a couple of times, usually the third week in November. And it's really just too crowded, and it's more stressful than relaxing. But, you know, everybody has a different, different take on it. I would recommend Kamakura or Nico would even be better. Nico is beautiful.

00:10:17 John Daub: Haz Rizal. Hi, John Haas here. Hey, Haas. Is the jet program the best way to get into Japan to learn Japanese? There's no best way. It depends on how old you are. If the best way would be like work, holiday, visa, if you can find a job. There's no best way. A jet program is one way. And the jet program has some. Some great positives and some negatives and some pros and cons, too. Like you cannot pick where you're going to be. A jet, you could be stuck in the middle of nowhere. And the school that you go to, you might not know what situation you're walking into the last teacher could have been a disaster. And the teachers just hate whoever comes in. It's just sort of really. It's tough. If you're a jet, you could be walking into a fantastic situation or a really tough one. You could be living in the city or you could be living in the countryside. You could be living in a place with no other foreigners or a place there's too many foreigners, or there's disgruntled foreigners, or there's foreigners that only want Japanese friends. There's so many different things that make life really hard. So yeah, the thing about the JET program is you can't. You can't really control.

00:11:53 John Daub: Rosehip Tea, everybody. This is from my patrons. I really appreciate what you guys do for me supporting the show. I have to plug Patreon right now. If you join in the next two weeks, you'll get this Ogasawara postcard that I send out to people if you're part of the postcard club or the Daimyos. So I appreciate the support. Guys, let's go. Now. We have 460 people online right now, so Andrea on writes in here. Hey Andrea. John. We recently had a close family member pass on their pass and on their last night we stayed up with them while they faded. We played your videos to lift our spirits and your positivity energy brought us all comfort. Wanted you to know that.

00:12:30 John Daub: Andrea, thank you so much for sharing that. Yeah, I'm like, I'm conflicted with this because I'm really sorry that you first of all lost somebody close to you. But I'm also really happy that in a small way that the videos could help. Yeah, I get a lot of people ask me about that. My whole philosophy to life is pretty simple. Um, just if you have a choice on whether or not to be positive or not, it's pretty simple what the choice is. And you have to kind of change the way you think a little bit. Meaning that things are never really as bad. I've seen a lot of stuff in my life. I've traveled a lot. I think I've been to 70 over 70 countries. I can't name them, but I can tell you that I've seen people that were in really, really tough situations. People that will never be able to visit Japan, people that will never be able live the way that I have or have the same kinds of experiences. And it makes me reflect on my own life. The first world problems that I have is not something that I really. That really bothers me too much. I just Move on. And yeah, being. It's. I don't know, just everybody feels different inside. But I'm just really appreciative that. That you took. You took away something positive from them and. And that makes me very happy to hear. So thank you. Thanks for that.

00:14:09 John Daub: Now I've got this feed here. It's going by pretty fast. We have a new moderator in town. It's Ram Solind. He's been. Tim has been with us for a while and he does a really good job and he wasn't a moderator, so we've elevated him to the rank of moderator and I think it's well deserved. Our other moderators, nos abroad and Jim also approved. So we've got a very happy family. I'm looking for people in Europe that are. Would like to take on the task. Europe and other time zones. I might. It would be nice to have someone who is not a dude as well to be a moderator just to keep things balanced a little bit. But I'm cool. You know, it's always the best person in there just because I think sometimes I go on it at different time zones. And to have more moderators, different time zones keeps the stream friendly for everybody.

00:15:16 John Daub: All right, let's see what we got here. Questions? Tourist. Tourist. Hey. From Slovenia. Whoa. I. You know what? In 19. What year is it? 1998, I hitchhiked from Zagreb to Ljubljana with two Croatian girls. And we spent a couple of nights in Ljubljana where there's these three beautiful bridges. I don't remember too much about it, but Ljubljana and Slovenia is one of the most beautiful cities when it snows. Oh, man, we had such a wonderful time. I didn't. That was the first time I ever hitchhiked too, from Zagreb in Croatia to Slovenia. But why is the there no episode on Mount Fuji? And that's such a really good question. Mount Fuji has been done by so many different YouTubers. I don't really think I could do a better job. That's number one. Number two, I've already climbed Mount Fuji twice and I really don't want to climb it again. But I will do it for. For you. I will climb it for you. But I have to come up with something that's different than what everybody else has done. You cannot just keep making the same episodes over and over again. I don't really do travel videos, tourist videos. I try to look for a story. The last one in Kyoto was more of a. A travel video. I do. I do do them, but that's not really what makes the channel popular. It's mostly about the story. At least that's what I hope you take away from it. So that's why there's no Mount Fuji episode. But there might be, there might be moving along.

00:16:52 John Daub: Nobody ever goes fishing in Japan and streaming it. Robert that might be because nothing. There might not be a signal out in the middle of the countryside. Sometimes there's not a really good 4G signal for streaming. And the second one is I think there's a couple of people who do have really good YouTube channels on Lake Biwa Biwako that have fishing channels. They're quite popular and I would love to collaborate with one of them and do some fishing. So maybe we will. I, you know, maybe we will. I don't know how exciting it will be. I. I can't promise we'll catch something right away, but you'd have to watch for a while. You'd have to watch for a while.

00:17:28 John Daub: Let's see what else we got here. Will you be going on a sleeper train again? Darren writes in Darren there is a lot a new luxury train that opened up and I'd love to have access to ride that one and do a video on it. But right now there's no other sleeper trains that I know about other than the Sunrise Izumo and the Sunrise Seto. The Sunrise Izumo and the Sunrise Seto. The Sunrise train splits at Okayama. One train will keep going to Shikoku and the other train will split and go towards Izumo and Yonago. And I think a lot of people have gone towards that way. Not a lot of people have gone the Shikoku way. So maybe the Sunrise Seto I will go towards the Seto side and that might be something that I do as well. It's a good suggestion. I really love the night train. It was pretty cool experience.

00:18:36 John Daub: Is the car scene still big in Japan? This is Sinthasan. The car scene is pretty big. In fact, everybody that's watching this right now, I'd say maybe 90% of you really are, if you came to Japan would probably ride the rails. And Japan has the best, one of the best train lines in the world. I mean it's just, it's just extraordinarily efficient and with the Shinkansen it's super fast. But Japan is not connected everywhere with train and Japan makes. Has maybe just as many car makers as. As the USA and Germany maybe. I don't know. There's a lot of car makers in Japan. Major car makers that big sales. So Japan is a big Car country as well. The population isn't as big as the United States or Europe, but it's still. It's still pretty big. It's what we got, 130 million people decreasing. But there's a lot of people who, who buy cars and there's a big car culture in. And it's something. Now that I have a license, I'm going to be getting into more and more. Car culture is big here. We're just. Just scratching the surface. I'm not talking about drift and stuff like this, things from movies. I'm talking about like, there's a subculture, many subcultures and cars that. No, you don't even know about that I'd love to cover.

00:19:41 John Daub: I got. Look, guys, I got no end to ideas for this show. I will never run out of ideas. I just run out of time, resources. That's why, you know, in 2019, I'm hoping that I can grow the channel by. By bringing in some people living in Japan to help me out. So I will be hiring. I will be hiring, but it'll be from people who are already living in Japan because that just makes more sense with the flow of things. It's harder, you know, if you're not here, sort of. Actually, Toyota is the biggest car maker now in the world. Wow, that's pretty big because it's the biggest in the world. Let's see here. The next question.

00:20:42 John Daub: Oh, here's one. Lannister. I will be a month in Japan alone. I have never been before. What cities do you recommend? Lannister writes this in Lannister. That's a good question. First of all, traveling alone in Japan is a little. Can be fun, but I think it's a little bit tougher because Japanese are shy and it's hard to make friends right away. Sometimes you can feel alone. I'm just saying from experience, because I've been out there a lot. So being able to know a little bit of Japanese will be very valuable to you. But traveling alone is still a good experience because it's the biggest, biggest chance to meet people. What cities do you recommend? I'd recommend. You know, I always tell people if you have to choose between Tokyo and Osaka, this is an important question.

00:21:13 John Daub: And I'm surprised nobody asked this one. Maybe you did. I missed it. Tokyo or Osaka? I'm always going to say Osaka, Osaka. Kansai Airport is. It's pretty convenient. Usually the deals might be better there, I don't know. But Kansai has so much stuff to see and you can do day Trip to Tokyo. And, and. And just. You can do like a week or two weeks in just Kansai alone. It has Nara, it has Osaka. It has Kobe. It has Arima Onsen. It has Himeji. It has Lake Biwa. It has Mie. It has a ninja castle. It has. Wow. Matsuzaka Wagyu. It also has Omi Wagyu and Shiga Prefecture. It has. Not too far away. It's Kanazawa. It's. It's kind of. Kind of in that area. From Kyoto, it's a couple of hours to Kanazawa. Yeah. In this whole area. There's just so much to do in the Kansai area. I think. I think Kanazawa is the Hokuriku area. I could be wrong, but there's just so much to do there. And in Kanto that the area of Tokyo you might not even know. Like just Kansai and then there's Kanto. Tokyo is part of the Kanto area. And there's a lot of stuff to do here too. But just. Just Kansai stacked, you know. And so if you. I would recommend just to fly into Osaka and then do a day trip to Tokyo or something, or do a couple of days here and then just stay in Kansai. I always recommend that my friends in Tokyo aren't going to be happy by that. The second thing is that there's too many YouTubers in Tokyo.

00:23:18 John Daub: By the way, everybody is doing YouTube videos here. There's. Tokyo is a. Is a big part of Japan, but it's not. I wouldn't even consider Tokyo Japan. I think it's like Japan is. Is. There's Tokyo and then there's the rest of the country. Japan is just so unique in its. In its own sense that. In its own right that what's out there in the countryside, it's just such a different experience. To me. That's like saying with the United States, there's New York and then there's like everything else. I think Tokyo is kind of the same way. Tokyo's kind of the same way. These are some great questions here. Love from India. I'll be in Mumbai on December. December 11 to December 16. Yeah, I'll be in Mumbai December 11 and look on Facebook for a meetup if you have a chance to meet up. I'm actually looking for people to help me out with assisting with the meetup because I don't know places to meet up in Mumbai, so. Well, so if you're watching from India, send me a message via Instagram or on. On Facebook. See here.

00:24:26 John Daub: Would you do a video at Wakayama? Stay at a temple. Hey, this is Wengyotan. Yeah, you know what? I've been thinking about that. In fact, there's an American guy who runs one of the temples and he got so angry at some of the criticism. This is a big story in Japan last month, there's an American Buddhist monk living at one of the temples. And he. I guess the temple he worked in was criticized by a foreign foreigner who complained about the food or something. I forget. And he just went off on that review, like using the F word for a monk. And then he was criticized in the Japanese media. But the Japanese media let him off easy because he was pretty much right. And I guess he was just frustrated at all of the. That's not monkly. That's not monkly of him to do. But Wakayama is a place where a lot of people do that. And there's. I'm also going to be going to Oita. Oita City is also a place that. That's famous for having stays a temple or at least the cuisine. Buddhist cuisine is very famous there. So we're gonna. I forget the name of it. There's a specific name for it. But thanks for asking that question.

00:25:32 John Daub: You have already documented the Kishiwara. Yeah. See here. Nagoya Toyota Museum. Toyota Museum is one of the attractions. Sure. And yes, monks are still human. We cannot forget that. Although they're to be peaceful people, you're still human and feel. And feel a wide range of emotions that you must sometimes, you know, project. See here. Fajri, can you make a video about green tea culture in Japan? Yeah, I'm. I'm planning on doing this visit a Nihon Daira in Shizuoka. And can I help you? Because I live in Shizuoka. Send me a message. Send me a message via Instagram or Facebook or tag me. The best way to get in touch with me is to tag me in a photo. I always go and check those. But yeah, let me know. And get in touch with me because I. In the spring, thinking that's when the tea season and the green tea foods and desserts start coming out in the spring. And that's a good time to start to make an episode like that when it's warmer. Now we're already in fall, so autumn. So winter topics are coming up.

00:26:32 John Daub: GH from Norway. Hey, any tips on what to do as a couple in Tokyo during Christmas and New Year's Eve? It will be our fourth trip to Tokyo, but the first winter Trip. Wow. So, gh. That's a great question for couples. I'm going to tell you to go. I don't. Yeah, I kind of have. Have talked about this a little bit. Not. Not so much in particular, like, with couples. But this is the Only in Japan YouTube page, the main channel. And I made a video in January. This video. There's two of them. Actually, there's. There's three of them. This one's called Japanese Onsen Bath Experience. This is called Japanese Inn and Kaiseki Cuisine, the Ryokan Stay. These two are kind of together, and I would recommend watching both of them. And then there. There's one in 360. I highly, highly, highly recommend that you stay at an onsen, preferably in Tohoku, but anywhere that has snow. There's just something magical about being naked in the snow outside in a bath.

00:27:38 John Daub: It's cool and it's sort of. And there's also Konyoku baths where couples can be in them. Usually the women will be in a robe, and depending on the dude, you just hold a towel there and hope it doesn't fall. Or maybe it does fall. But people, you know, even the opposite sect don't really mind about the nudity. If you do something, you know, bad, then you're just gonna get kicked out or arrested. But nobody, nobody does that. Let's see here.

00:28:09 John Daub: The one I have one image of of this I want to show you. This came from a video, and a lot of people ask me where this is. It's called Japanese Public Bathing Exposed. The Naked Truth. And in this episode. In this episode, this is the one. I go to the store onsen, and people have been asking me about it. You can find it right here. All right. It's one of the most romantic experiences. This was in. This was years ago. It's absolutely beautiful. That's me waking up, opening the door, just watching the snow fall outside. You can see the snow and. And the water is warm. That's kanai. Just to say that's kanai, it's like years ago. And then you get, wake up. This is dinner time. You're eating Japanese Kaiseki ryori, which is really good. See here they. I show that while you're eating, they'll set up the futon for you. The service is impeccable at Japanese Ryokan or traditional Japanese hints. It's just. It's the best. They're not cheap. But if you're going for a romantic trip, spend two nights and then go to another one and spend two More nights. That's what I would do. Let's see here. At night it's really. You can go at night if you stay there. Look at the snow around me. It's just beautiful. This is in the morning you have access to like I go at five in the morning when there's nobody around and then if it's co ed like this one is Takara Gawa Onsen.

00:29:44 John Daub: I recommend this one in Gunma. You can go in with your girlfriend or your wife and if you're a woman with your husband or your boyfriend and soak together. See if I can get that image. Yeah, just. Just soak this up. It's beautiful. That's me down there. Naked in a hot bath in a snowstorm. That's me down there. People ask me why I used yodeling music. I just thought it seemed really fun. What's wrong with yodeling? You know. Nothing wrong with yodeling.

00:30:48 John Daub: Miranda Kogan. How you doing? Hi John. Would you ever come to Perth? Yes, I totally would. If so what would you document our culture or food? Miranda? I would go to Perth just to have fun and to be honest with you I don't know what I would document would do. I need to document anything because it's not really anything like only in Japan. Worthy. I don't know but that's one of the places that in the world I have not been to. I've been all over Australia. I've been to Darwin, I've been to Adelaide. I've been everywhere in between on that side. I haven't been to Tasmania but Perth. Yeah, yeah, I'd love to go there. I don't know what I would document. Maybe the food and the culture and everything. Only in Perth. That would be a series that could be.

00:31:19 John Daub: Let's see here. Naked in a hot bath in the snow. Francis, it is awesome. You have the child enthusiasm and curiosity which is rear. Rear and beautiful. Thank you. I don't know. I never really. Look, I used to teach kids. I think some of you know this. I used to teach kids that were between the ages of zero which is weird. They were. We called them prenatal stimulation classes where the mother would take classes and we would teach them how to sing in English and kind of teach their kids. It was an. It was something. It was good because it was something for the mothers to do with other mothers because mothers from others brothers. I don't know. I'm talking about. Jun Zeng writes in John Love your videos. Been to Japan five times in the last two Years. Whoa. And it all started with watching your videos initially. Whoa. Jun. So basically what you're saying is you. You, over the last five years, you've been watching the show and you came two times. So. Five years. That's a long time. I've been making this show. Let that sink in for a little bit. Wow. Thank you. I got a question for you, Junior. What? What was your favorite episode is Follow up question and maybe I'll be able to catch it in the live stream. You don't have to do another super chat. But what was your favorite episode number five over the. Over the two years. Oh, wow. Five times over two years. Jun, what was your favorite episode? Which one was most useful for you? And in your five trips, what did you see that I didn't cover in? Only in Japan that you think would make a good episode? I think Junior has a lot of. Could be doing this live stream instead of me five times. That's. That's a lot. I mean, I'd love to hear from Jun. Thank you. I am watching here, Toby. Oh. Anyone with the name Toby gets a special shout out. Any tip for disabled travelers traveling to Japan?

00:33:29 John Daub: Let's see here. Toby. That's a great question. I've been getting this asked a lot and I totally want to make an episode about getting around in a wheelchair. And I have some friends that, in fact, I know somebody who makes wheelchairs. So I'm gonna see if we can collaborate with the wheelchair maker and maybe I try for a day get around. I think that'd be a lot of fun. And this would. And by doing it, and I always thought by doing it, you will learn what are the weaknesses and the strengths and what are the good points and the bad points about the city of Tokyo getting around in a wheelchair. So that's. That's an episode I think is in the works. So thanks, Toby.

00:34:31 John Daub: Toby, for that. Hey, I see professors in the house. How you doing? Long time no see, Professor. Hey, John. It's been a month since I was in Japan. It was amazing. Spring 2020 will be my next trip. Where should I go next? Up towards Aomori and Sapporo or down to Fukuok and Kagoshima? Whoa. That's a good one. That's a good one. So you're coming, I guess you're saying spring 2020. Brofessor. You could do both. Crazy. You could do both. And you know why? Because there's so many low budget airlines popping up. You could just do whatever you want and just take a flight and then Go down to Kagoshima or mean right now you can go Tokyo to Kagoshima for $35 on. On a Jetstar or one of the other low cost area carriers. Jetstar or skymark, it's like $35. Like I don't know why people get a train pass because it's just so cheap to fly the low budget carriers.

00:35:35 John Daub: Wow. You know what, Professor? Let me. Let me think about that. I'm gonna have to say though, in the spring, I really love. I really love Tohoku and I love Aomori. I would say up towards Aomori. It just depends. If it's March, I would go down to Kyushu. If it's April, I would go up to Aomori. Because Hirosaki was just beautiful for the cherry blossoms. And Hakodate was. Is an amazing. If you haven't been to Hakodate, professor, trust me. Hakodate. Big, big recommendation. The seafood is beautiful. It's so good. It's cheap. The view, the night view is so impressive. The people are friendly and it's relaxed and the city is just so well planned. It's. It's. It's a wonderful city.

00:36:07 John Daub: Oh, I see Jun left a comment here. Heiner Weber, Yonago and Mount Dyson were great. Awesome. Heiner, thank you very much. Thank you very much. I'm glad to hear that. I highly recommend Mount Dyson and Yonago. I got a lot to say, Heiner. Also looking forward to going to visit Munich in. I'll be in Munich December 17th. I'm planning to do a meetup in Marionplatz in Munich and Kanai will be with me.

00:36:42 John Daub: Yeah. See here I saw Jun writes in Jun from before. My favorites were all the bento box unboxings. They were my favorite too because I got to eat them. But when I saw the. The Peach Fanta livestream, it made my mission to find it. Even when I was there, I found out they sell it at a time at the Sega arcades. Yeah, that. That Peach Fanta was the best Fanta that I've ever had. And I don't like soda, but that was one that I could actually drink and be satisfied. And Fanta is pretty good here I guess because they use real fruit juice or something. But I'm always that. That was. I actually bought that more than once. So do the sodas. I don't drink too much, but that Fanta was good. The peach one. I'm glad I did that episode. That's one of my favorites.

00:37:43 John Daub: Let's see here. Alex, can you go camping With a tent. Are forests public? Yes, you can go camping with a tent. I recommend camping grounds. There's some sites in English. Forests are not all public. You can. But there's an unwritten rule that if you put your tent up at night, if it's public, just get up by sunrise and you'll be fine. It's like an unwritten rule. I usually camped in parks like a homeless person because there's. Because there's also public baths, Sentos all over the place. So you can take a bath and be clean and just stay in a tent in the park. That I don't recommend for everybody. But you want to put up your tent late and then get out early because it's. That's polite thing to do. And keep the. Keep the noise down. It's a great question. I saw Ashley had a question. It's hard to see because I'm losing. Losing the feed. It's a lot of questions coming in.

00:38:46 John Daub: Ashley. Andre writes in. Hey John, I'm such a big fan watching your videos for two years. And my favorite is the one with manga Cat Manga Cafe at Akihabada. Scene. When I speak English, they go manga. When I speak Japanese, I go manga. And it's just hard. Manga. Anime. Anime. Manga Cafe in Akihabara. Right. It's one of my destinations next year. You should definitely check it out. Manga cafes are pretty fun, especially if you can read Japanese. It's hard to find English manga at manga cafes, but it's a pretty neat experience. Usually the places, if you. If you, like, miss your last train, it's a place you can crash because it's. The services are pretty simple, but it's kind of a neat experience in Japan because they're very, very. It's. It's just part of the culture, the modern culture to crash your places like that. So one night is enough. I don't think I could do more than one night. Maybe I could. Maybe two. Maybe two.

00:39:53 John Daub: See here. John, have you visited Yonaguni's underwater pyramid? No, I haven't visited that yet. Did you sleep well as a homeless man? Yes, I did. It was in Kanazawa. I think. I told this story in a live stream. You guys can go back and check it out. I was in Kanazawa and when I was hitchhiking. And by the way, I have a message about the DVD. I'm gonna be selling the DVDs to everybody else next year, but I'll be talking to everybody else who's part of the DVD project real soon. In Kanazawa. On that trip, I set up my tent in the park, and a real homeless lady set up her tent next to mine. This tells you a lot about Japan. Okay. There are homeless people in Japan. Usually they're in tough situations where they cannot rely on their family. And usually the family's responsibility to take care of people that are not in good shape. The family helps or the community will help. But she. I don't know what her story was.

00:40:56 John Daub: Friends have told me that her situation could be that she lost. She didn't have any other family, and then she was divorced, or she lost favor with her husband's family or something. And then she's just on her own with no money. But she had a bicycle. On the back was a bunch of cardboard. It was just. It was beautifully, like, very neatly placed. She looked really clean, but in her late 50s. And she just started to put up cardboard and asleep on a bench. And I remember looking out there and I go, oh, my. Is she gonna be okay? It wasn't that cold. It was, but it was. I was following the cherry blossoms, but it wasn't warm either. So in the morning, early. Early in the morning, I got up early. That's what I do when I'm camping. And she was putting her boxes away, so I talked her for a little bit. She couldn't speak English, she said, but that was okay because I could speak Japanese. But I had some. I had some bananas. So I gave her a couple of the bananas. Wait a second. No, no, it was the other way around. No, I had Mikans. They're a little bit more expensive. So I gave her two Mekans, and she gave me a banana. And we. And for, like, I guess it was like 10, 15 minutes, I sat there just eating my other Mekans, and I ate her banana. And she sat there smiling, eating the Mekons that I gave her. And then that was it. She got on her bike and left. And I never saw her again. But she was staying in a park in Kanazawa not far from the station. And I didn't. When you don't know people, you don't ask personal questions in Japan. It seems like a bit much. So I didn't want to ask about a situation, but she was a very nice woman. And that left a pretty unique impression on me because I'd never, you know, been like, to see a female homeless woman who was still quite, I guess, 50.

00:42:30 John Daub: She was still quite young and seemed mentally okay. I didn't know what. Like, what. What could I do? To help her, but I was gonna leave town. There's not really much you can do. You don't want to offer money because that's also insulting. It's just a hard situation. I'm sorry to ramble on about that. It's just one of these things. Yeah, Jim, I'll give you. I'll give everybody an update really soon. I also have some other news that I can't tell you right now. Something that is not so happy that has nothing to do with that project. But there's. There's something else up, but I can't tell you at this moment yet.

00:43:33 John Daub: Betty Boop writes in, are there charities for homeless or soup kitchens? Not too many. I saw many in Japan last month and winter would be difficult. Yeah, you know, there's really not that much support. I don't know too much about it other than what Greg from Life where I'm from made an. The most thorough video series on it. You know, in Japan, families take care of the elderly. Families will take care of people that are sick. Family takes. Takes care of their family. And Japanese nuclear families often have the grandparents living with the parents. And that's just part of the way Japan is structured. So when the system falls or fails. This is just coming from my opinion now. I don't know for sure, but it just. People can get left out of the system. And Japan is such a polite society in the sense that they keep to themselves and not to get involved in other people's businesses. It's a good thing and it's also sometimes a bad thing. Maybe we can ask more questions. I don't know. It's not a topic that I know too much about, I have to be honest with you. But it's one that I've experienced camping in parks, in the city, and it's still safe.

00:44:33 John Daub: I plan on marrying in Japan next year. Whoa. This is from Jessica or hey, are there mentionable privileges gained after marriage in Japan? Will I be able to purchase a home? So Jessica asks a really good question. I don't know if you're Japanese or you're marrying somebody who is Japanese, Jessica, but you get a spouse visa, and that doesn't really give you. It doesn't give you that many rights other than you can pretty much do anything you want work wise. You don't have to work in a specific field anymore. You're a spouse, but you're sort of. It's. It's like you're being sponsored by your husband's family or your wife's family. And yeah, you know, you have some rights, but you can't vote. You're not a citizen. You're not. You don't have a green card, you have a work permit. It's a little bit different. If you become a permanent resident, which is Eiji Ken, then you have a little bit more rights.

00:45:37 John Daub: But still, unless you're a citizen, you don't have too many rights. Can you buy property? That's a great question. And I think, you know, wow. I think you'll need to have a Japanese co. Signer. I mean, it's not possible, but it's. It's not as easy as you think. In fact, even for Japanese to buy land, it's not that easy either. There's usually comes with all these. All these strings attached and lots. It's just these things like land purchase in Japan, it's such an old country. There's so much, so many little rules, but you can't. I believe you can. It's a good question.

00:46:40 John Daub: How much do you earn from YouTube? I'm not going to tell you that. Some people might guess at it, but you don't ask how much. You don't really answer questions about how much you make because. And you don't ask other people either. Because I don't see anybody. I'm not everybody. Everybody sees. I'm gonna answer this in an honest way. It's because it's a fair question. I think you should ask it. You can't ask it. I wouldn't ask it, but people ask it. I don't judge people by how much they make or how little they make. I don't judge people by what they look like. I don't judge people. I don't ask questions like, what's your background? I don't ask questions like what's your ethnicity? I don't ask questions like what's your religion? Because I don't care. People can bring it up and then maybe I'll ask questions, but for me, I make. I can do this full time, and that should be enough for you. I can do this full time, but I'm. I'm very far from rich. And despite being what people may think I do, I do enough to be able to do this full time. That's all I can answer. I think I don't make as much on the main channel as you think I do, and I don't make as much on the Go channel as you think I do, but it's enough to. It does pretty good compared to a lot of other people. It's a hard question. I don't know any other way to answer it. But when you do say that, then people start to see you in a different way and compare you like, oh, you must be this and you must do this.

00:48:18 John Daub: And I don't ask, do you still do TV work? Mark asked me. Yeah, actually, Mark, actually we sh. I should be checking. And that's another thing I wanted to go to. I'm gonna be in a show called Journeys in Japan, which I've done. I think this is my fifth one. I love this show because they make it so beautiful. Maybe it's the next one. I don't know. No, it's not. I'll be doing one. It's either gonna be this week or next week. And I did it in Yonago, which is right here in this area of Japan. Journeys in Japan is one of the most beautiful shows. It's an NHK show and there's not as many reporters and there's no host or anything like this, no studio shoots. It's just you go out there and you. And you do the story. And I've done five. This is the fifth one that I did. And it's always an honor to be able to go out and do do that. In fact, I think there's a. There's still a couple of them available. This one. Which other ones have I done? I've done a couple of them in Yonago. Most of them have been in Yanaga. What am I talking about? This one played. This one's called Mihonoseki John Dob. Kind of small, but that was a good. That was a fun one. I did one in Ibaragi Prefecture. I did one in. Wow. I was. I get asked a lot but I cannot do as much TV work anymore because as I said like my. My goal or my priority is only in Japan now. And I. We have 522 patrons right now. People are always coming and going. And I kind of like having a community of people on Patreon where I can kind of use as sounding boards and communicate with. Because they all seem to have a really great love for Japan and the show.

00:49:53 John Daub: So for me it's almost like a full time job to manage that and the channels. But it's a lot of fun. You know, I just. I do TV work. In fact, I'm gonna be doing it a Tokyo FM radio interview on about Japan and only in Japan. When is that? It's at the end of this month. So I'm gonna go to Tokyo FM and I Have to do the interview in Japanese live. And I've done that before. I used to do TV shows. You guys. Actually, you. You guys want to see it while we're talking and I'm taking questions? I'll see if I can find the. So I used to do this. This live TV show, and I don't want to talk about myself too much. Okay, maybe a little. One of the most things that made me the nervous. Nervous. The most nervous was doing a Japanese news program live in the morning. Then millions of people watch here in Japanese. I was freaking out. But you cannot not. You cannot say no to that experience. You have to do it. And they've called me a couple of times to do interviews or to be on the show, but I just. I haven't been able to do it because. Why is it coming up up? I'm telling you, Apple is really not good sometimes. I don't like Apple products. Okay, here we go. I'm going to show you. Clip. All right. Maybe I'm speaking Japanese. I don't remember. Oh, that's. That's only part of a clip. Oh, here we go. I don't know if I should show you this. This is embarrassing. Japanese toilets. That's right. Wow. It's really boring. I don't want to support you.

00:51:34 John Daub: It was like 500 people watching. It's crazy. Kind of. But, yeah, that was probably one of the most nervous experiences in my life because there's like 3 million people watching this show in the morning. And if you make one, it's live and you make one mistake, it's like. Yeah. People jump on you and start bashing you with, you know, bananas or whatever they got on there.

00:52:04 John Daub: Miranda Kogan writes in here. I got onto you by what's inside. Whoa. Hey, Dan. And Lincoln and Dan. Oh, those are. They're two of my. Two of my really good friends. Did you did a video with Mark Wiens? Not yet. Do you still stay in touch with him and Ying? I haven't done anything with Mark. I think we did communicate, like, years ago when the channels were a lot smaller. I remember. Yeah. And I've been in touch with. I think I got a message from Food Ranger years ago. One of the other ones. I know that they watch the series and I watch theirs, too, because they do a lot of stuff that'd be fun. If they ever come to Japan, all they need to do is let me know. Mike Chen from Strictly Dumplings. We did an episode together, and I don't know, maybe I can show you the thumbnail for that. That's gonna be coming out soon. And that was a lot of fun because this is what I think it's gonna be. The thumbnail. That's Mike, and this is this me right there. Stay right in the middle there. That's like, probably what the thumbnail is gonna look like. We ate maguro and he. His was eating sushi for the first time at my favorite place, which is a lot of fun. Yeah. Hopefully, you know, this comes out. This comes out soon. And I like collaborations, but I don't do too many of them. I just wanted to do it because, you know, the channel is gonna hit 1 million subscribers soon, and I'm so thankful for that.

00:53:38 John Daub: And one of the. One of the things that people request or they like to see is then when. When people work with other YouTubers that they like, and it's kind of neat to. For the viewers to do that. It's not that great for the channel, I don't know. But I like. I like being friends with other YouTubers, but it's neat for you, I think. And that's why I did the collaboration with Mike and I did one with Scotty and I did one with what's inside. Because they're like, just nice people, you know, I love that those guys, Mark and Dan and Lincoln are just. They're so, so nice in person. They're like family when they're here. I like that.

00:54:40 John Daub: AG writes in here. Hey, John, we saw you in Wayno the other day. Oh. But my husband Chase chickened out saying hi. What? Chase, what are you doing, man? Thanks for the tip on the creme brulee donuts and Akihabara. Ah, those are so good. Next time, say hi. Don't. Don't be. Even when I'm live streaming and you see me, just say hi. It's kind of fun. And even for the other viewers, you. You don't know what's going to happen. It's okay to break my train of thought because that anything can happen in a live stream, and that's what makes it fun. Like right now, Kanai can come out here and say, keep it down. That'd be kind of fun.

00:55:10 John Daub: Robert writes in Tokyo Drew. Tokyo Drew. It was nice. He. He kind of enhanced the live stream in Ueno because he gave us somebody else to talk about. And Tokyo Drew shared his point of view, and that was neat. You know, it made the. Made the stream more memorable for people. That's always a good thing. Simon and Martina from Eat your Kimchi. Very, very nice people. I don't like to talk too much about other YouTubers, I guess, but. And I don't watch a lot of YouTube, believe it or not. I'm a creator, so I'm always trying to research new topics. But I do watch my friends, and, yeah, they're nice people. You guys know who my friends are?

00:56:13 John Daub: What's Jennifer's secret to keeping some young and energetic? This is Jim Bailey. I don't know Jim. You're gonna have to ask Jennifer. I don't want to give away her secrets, and she wouldn't tell me anyways. I might have asked already, and she wouldn't. She's not. There's some things that Jennifer won't share with me.

00:56:44 John Daub: One of the most things I want to thank Heiner for these. Thank you, Heiner. These are so good. These are called marzipan. They have almond. Almond in them. And they're so good. These are from Germany. I've been enjoying. Heinrich gave me a whole box full of chocolate. I gotta say, Heiner, it was a lot, but I will finish it. Hirosaki park is wonderful for the cherry blossoms. Oh, you're right. Hinosaki Park. Yeah. I don't know that one.

00:57:19 John Daub: Now, Peter does not live near me. As a result, there's. He'd have. We'd have to, like, crash together somewhere, either his place or my place, to do a midnight snack run. He does have a motorbike, but Peter's. Look, he's a really good friend of mine, but he's also very, very busy, and YouTube is just, like, a hobby for him. He's one of the most. He's one of the busiest. One of the busiest people with his job, narrating voice artists that I've ever met. And the guy is so good. He's always working.

00:57:51 John Daub: Let's see here. A n A commercial. I can tell you this, though. My mom. Peter. Peter is now the voice of a A. So if you fly. If you guys fly. Ana, you will hear Peter's voice saying, fasten your seat belts in case of emergency. I'm. I'm not joking, guys. If you. If you ride. Ana. I. I believe it's. It just started. You're gonna hear Peter's voice. It's gonna be pretty freaky. I'm gonna be flying Anna sometime soon. And when I do, I'm gonna freak out when I hear Peter's voice. Like, I'm probably gonna start getting angry and disagree with everything that. That he says. And I'm not Gonna buckle my seat belts. But Peter is the voice of a. As well as many, many, many, many other brands. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that. Am I allowed to say Peter, Am I allowed to say that? I don't know.

00:58:55 John Daub: Airline. Do they have a channel? Oh, here it is. A global channel. Maybe we can hear. Hear some of his work. Let's see here. Inspiration of Japan. Inspiration of Japan. That's not Peter. But if you do come in with in Ana, he'll be doing the flight. Buckle your seatbelts. That's pretty cool. But he. Look, he's got his own channel and he's got his own thing. So if you guys miss Jennifer, Peter or Kevin, check out their channels and one day we will do another live stream. But I think that's one of the reasons they're not on it. Too much scheduling. And also I think my friends, a lot of them have come to a point where they have to start to grow their own identities. And I guess there's a lot of people would go into Jennifer's stream after watching this one and then talk about me. And then people were talking about her on my streams and like, you know what, we're happy about that. But I think Jennifer has her own identity and she needs to grow her channel herself.

00:59:57 John Daub: So it's also important for me to give you viewers of this channel different kinds of points of view. And Jennifer and Peter and Kevin's points of view are awesome, but there's also other people and there's also different opportunities. I don't know. We'll see what happens in the future. Hierarchies are good. Thank you for this next question. I'll take a couple of more. Will you ever make it only in Japan Podcast? Yeah, it's in the works.

01:00:28 John Daub: These are easy to answer. Okay, speed round. Do you plan to make and sell only in Japan Merch. Yes. Munich is far from here. To travel to meet up in greetings for Berlin. Oh, I know people in Berlin and. And Hamburg and Hanover. Everybody in. In not Hanover, in. In the north of Germany is complaining that I'm doing it in Bavaria. I'll be back to Germany. I would love to meet everybody though. They're not complaining. I just know it's hard.

01:01:06 John Daub: John, what do you. What do you feel about seeing yourself on camera? How do I feel? I. I never really watch back what my work, but I don't think about it. When I watched myself speaking Japanese there, I was a little bit embarrassed, but I don't really. I don't think about it too much anymore. It is good though, to look at your work. And when I edit the videos, I look at myself over and over and over again that it's when I now when I make the shows, I kind of have an idea of the way I should do it better because I edit the videos a lot myself. I've edited them all myself, but I don't know.

01:01:36 John Daub: So this is not lightning. Round is really getting cold. All right, I'm gonna speed this up. Are you prepared for a two state solution? World War? No, I'm not prepared for any war. That's easy. Question Mount Takao. There's a question mark. Yes. I don't even know if there's a yes, no question. Only in Japan. Do you have any recommendations for those learning Japanese? Yes. Study hard. Move to Japan. Learn katakana and hiragana first. I think learning the Alphabet first. Memorize katakana and hiragana and the sounds and the syllables. AI, uao, kakiku, keiko. And then it will cut the time for you to learn in half because you know the flow of the language. Do not learn Japanese by romaji or Roman letters. You will. It will drive yourself crazy and you'll learn. It'll take you four times longer to learn that way. I'm just making up that number. By the way. Could be half.

01:02:38 John Daub: How often do they ID for alcohol? Never. I've never been. They just ask me if I'm 20 and I say yes. But I look like I'm 40, so yes. Card. Who's asking me that? Like a high school kid. Are you scared for the Article 13 EU Copyright Directive. I don't even know what that is. Am I scared? How do I feel? No, I'm not scared.

01:03:08 John Daub: Will you ever do a video in Hiroshima? Maybe about the tram system. Gordon. I've done a lot of videos in Hiroshima. At least. At least two or three on the main channel and at least two or three on the on go. And I'll be back in Hiroshima. I used to live there. I lived there for about two years in a little town called Yokogawa about 18 years ago. John, Best place to stay in Tokyo for an American expat. Asakusa. Asakusa. Asakusa. I don't. It's quiet and cultural and you'll have a better stay than. And if you want to go to Shibuya, you could just go there by Ginza Line. No change this trans. This should transition to Midnight Sakura. It could. It won't. I got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow. I might have missed them. I have a look. Alright. Gordon. Oh my God. I have to hear Peter's voice on my flight to Japan in April. You will. If you fly a. You will. And. And no, no. No offense to Ana. I prefer jowl. I prefer the colors. I like red better than blue. Just saying. Not that there's anything wrong with it.

01:04:40 John Daub: John, are you planning to come to Bhutan? No. But not right now. Are you planning to come to. Wait, have you ever. Have you watched Japanese pro wrestling? I have. See here. Will you visit Taiwan in the near future? I almost went through Taipei to go to India for this trip. Instead I went through Sri Lanka. I should have gone through Taipei. Yes. Taiwan is in the. Is a destination I might go to in 2019. Maybe. I think. I think I would love to go. I've been to Taiwan twice, by the way. And. Sony. Hi. If you can say hi to my friend Sheetal. Hey, Sheetal. Yeah, Okay. I think you. You brought this up before. Sheetal. Hey, Sheetal. She's traveling back to the USA Today. Sheeta, what are you doing? How long have you been here? Why am I using this voice? I feel like I should appeal to Sheetao not to go. And we love your program.

01:05:11 John Daub: And what's your favorite kanji? Whoa, whoa. What's your favorite kanji? I don't know. I would say. I just love. Maybe because it's, you know, it's love. For crying out loud. Sora. I like Sora, which is Sky. Yeah, I like Sora. Sora is. It's also a nice name. I have one of my friends, he has a daughter whose name is Sora. S O R A in Roman letters. And it's kind of a neat name. Means Sky Key is also good, right? The kanji for ki.

01:05:42 John Daub: Yeah, Sura. That's right. You guys got that? What's your favorite shrine? Shrine? I don't know. Oh, in Mihonoseki in Shimane, near Yonago city. It's in Yonago's Tottori, but it's also on the border of Shimane Prefecture. This is on the Sea of Japan side. There's a place called Miho. Miho Shrine Miho Jinja I really liked Miho Jinja. And it could be because my Japanese family, so to speak, that I. I guess did home stays with. They live in Yonago, so I have a big connection to there. But they love Miho Shrine. Miho. Miho Jinja. So if you go to Miho no Seki and you should. If you Go to that area. I like. I like Miho Shrine. It's a fisherman's village that hasn't changed for hundreds of years. And the shrine is really well preserved in the center of the town. And I like that it's my favorite shrine. Don't tell anybody though, because I want to keep this to myself.

01:06:49 John Daub: Anything wrong with that. If you need more 711 late night snack runs, I might. I might do that. Not tonight, actually. Actually, I think for the next one. I'm trying to get. I'm trying to get. I'm trying to get Kanai to go on the snack run next time. All right? If you guys like that idea, click the like button. And if we get like a thousand likes on this live stream, then I can just say, look, a thousand people said they want you to do the midnight snack run. Kanai, you got to do it with me. Then she'll do it. She doesn't like to stay up late. I know we're never. Universal peace. We're never gonna get to a thousand. But, you know, I think people gonna watch this later. So just keep. Keep liking. You can't like twice, by the way. Someone's gonna ask that. Yeah, but UFO bot. Hey, but UFO. That's a great idea. 1,000 likes, everyone. Yeah, but you can't like twice. And don't make fake accounts and like it too, because Google knows this stuff.

01:07:54 John Daub: Probably watching right now. Big brother watching YouTube. Are you watching Algorithm? Are you watching? If you are, I just tell people to do their thing. Click once. Are you planning to do any more hitchhiking trips to Japan in the future? I might. Max, I have a project that is seriously delayed just because I've had so many different challenges with it. And I might do a short hitchhiking trip to try and make some buzz for that next year.

01:08:26 John Daub: One of my biggest regrets in life is that project. And I'll tell the people who backed it more. But it's. It's. The video is good. It's just one of the biggest challenges I've ever had in my entire life. It was not the actual hitchhiking, but the actual physical making of so many DVDs with so much data. With 45 days of data, it was. It's. Yeah. But I think I will do a short hitchhiking trip in 2019 to try and psych people up for that to be released. But I'll let. I'll let you know. But hitchhiking is just fun because you don't know what's gonna happen. And it's usually, it's. It's good stuff that always happens.

01:09:32 John Daub: Will you make videos about places and attractions in Japan known for science and or technology? Yes, Anjum, this is great question. Thank you for asking that. I met a guy named Scott. Scotty. His channel is Strange Parts. Awesome. Awesome guy. We did one collaborative video, and we're going to be doing more in the future, I think. So whenever he comes to Japan, I really want to help him. I don't even have to be in the videos, but I just like him. He's just. I think what he's doing is such a wonderful idea, and I just want to help him in some way. There's. There's. It was like with what's inside with Lincoln and Dan. I just wanted. I didn't even care if I was in the video or not. I just wanted them. They're just so nice, and I wanted them to be able to make a good show. And that was. Yeah. And then they came back and did the square watermelon this summer. Like, literally, I said, hey, guys, we got square watermelons. And they flew from America to come here for just like one night to cut open the watermelon. That. That's what friendship is, man. So, yeah, I love those guys. And I. I do hope. I do hope I can see them again soon because they're just. Just one of the nicest families.

01:10:35 John Daub: Can we still buy the hitchhiking dvd? They will be on sale next year for sure. It's. Yeah, it's. They'll be on sale for next year. I'm. I'm making like a thousand of them. Okay. So everyone will get a chance to buy one.

01:11:11 John Daub: Have you read about 5G tests that will happen? Yeah, I'm. I'm very up to date with the technology of what the cell phones. What's happening? Because we do live streaming using 4G LTE and I, you know, I upgraded to. Where is that phone? I upgraded to the iPhone xs, and this has been a big, big mistake. The iPhone XS, where is it? Hold on a second, guys. I can't even find it. But the iPhone xs, it's a beautiful phone, but my problem with it is that it has an internal stabilizer. Okay. And the internal stabilizer, when you use it with the gimbal, it counters the internal stabilizer so it looks like you're walking like this. It goes like this when you walk because it. You have to turn the internal stabilizer off and the iPhone doesn't let you turn off the internal stabilization. It creates really awful video. So I've had some problems with. The XS has stronger stabilization. So when I'm using it with live streaming, sometimes it's awful video. It's smooth, but it's. It's like you're on a boat. The iPhone 7 Plus is much, much better than the new phone that I bought. And I regret buying the iPhone XS, but it's still a good phone. It's just. It's not good for live streaming. Because of that you use the magnet trick.

01:12:12 John Daub: Nosh. I saw that too. But look, you know, whenever you get into having to do 10 steps in order to live stream, it just. Just takes the fun out of it. This is something I talked with Peter a long time ago. If I got to put magnets and I have a wide angle lens here, I have a counterbalance. If I have to also like magnets and do it kind of take. The spontaneity of it is the attraction to me as someone who makes. Does this kind of stuff.

01:12:43 John Daub: And by the way, nice to see you again, Notch. Nice to see you here. Like Ramsalin's taken taking care of some of some of the comments, which is cool, but I don't know, I like to keep it real simple. You also introduced me to another gimbal. Nosh helps me out with. He. He's very much in touch with a lot of the technology, the new stuff. And I got my eye. I got my other eye on. On it too. So it's. I got it all. I'm all over the place.

01:13:14 John Daub: So we'll. We'll. I'll. I'll figure it out. I do want to. I do want to wait. I use what's called an OLO clip for this lens here. This OLO clip, it's not bad. It's not. The image is not that clear because sometimes dust will get into it. It's not an expensive lens by any means, but the OLA clip is probably the best affordable solution. That's not too heavy. That's another weight is also a problem. But the problem is the OLO clip does not have. Or the OLA lens, I don't know what it's called, does not have one for the iPhone XS because the XS has a bigger, more protruding lens. So I can't attach the 10 wide lens to the new phone that I have because they haven't released it yet. So I cannot recommend that lens.

01:13:57 John Daub: An episode on. On cycling. If it does happen, it'll just happen. Cycling is something I've been thinking about doing. Doing something. As soon as I can, I release, finish up this project to do something like that, where I go off for like four or five days and just livestream somewhere, but do it on this channel and not on the main channel. So I'll be doing something like that.

01:14:33 John Daub: What is your favorite city in Japan and why? Ryan. Wow, Ryan, these are big. These are broad questions. You want me to paint with, like, a roller paintbrush and not one of these fine precision ones? That's a tough one. Favorite city is Hiroshima. Why? I lived there for two years. Food is awesome. People were friendly. Beautiful sea there. Just like the vibe. Everything was close together. If I needed electronics, if I needed shops, there's one street, Hondori, which had everything. For me, it was perfect. Miyajima nearby, a little bit cheaper. Rent was cheaper. John did biking on the island recently. Yeah, I was on Ogasawara. There's another video on that coming, maybe before I leave for the U.S.

01:15:05 John Daub: What is your favorite city in Japan? Let's see here. Come on, guys. You got some better questions. What's your favorite type of noodle? Soba. No, no, no, no. Udon. Udon. Udon. I take it back. Udon. What's your favorite spot in Tokyo? Amiyoko. That just came out. Amiyoko, I guess.

01:15:40 John Daub: Did you plan on raising a family in Japan? No. Which places do you recommend to go in? Do you plan? Yes. Did I. Did I plan? No, it just sort of. I didn't. I didn't plan to be here for 20 years. Leon. William, which places do you recommend to go to in Shibuya? I don't recommend going to Shibuya at all. It's just too crowded. This is a guy from. Who's been living for 20 years. I avoid Shibuya, but if I had to go, I would say Shibuya Station is being renovated. I kind of definitely want to go there. There's also across the street from Shibuya Station, behind Hachiko, underneath the Yamanote line, there's a little area. Oh, gosh, I forget the name of it. There's a little area that has these little teeny restaurants, and I don't know how long. How much longer they're gonna be there. Because I have to be honest with you, the situation in Shibuya is always changing. All right? You don't know because there's so much construction going on for 20.

01:16:45 John Daub: 20 locations are being torn down all the time. Time. Let's see. What is this so here's Shibuya Station. I know just looking at it, it's hard. Here's Hachiko. Here's Hotchko Scramble. And then it's. Here's the tracks. And it's right here, right? It's right here. It's called Shibuya Nonbe. Yokocho now is always like an alley. And this alley has lots of little bars, and there's one called Kinoko that I did for NHK. Like, 10 years ago, I did. I was in NHK, and I did this bar called Kinoko. I know it's still here. The owner was so friendly. I think they can speak a little bit of Japanese, a little bit of English. It was expensive, though. It was. It was about 45, $50 a person with alcohol. But if you want to have, like, a really Japanese experience. Experience, you want to go maybe to Nombe Yokocho. It's still kind of. Oh, was it nagomi? No, I don't think it was nagomi. I think it was closer to the center. It might have gone out of business, I don't know. But I'm pretty sure it was called Kinoko, which means mushroom in Japanese. Mushroom. I don't see it. I don't know. It's a good place. I recommend that.

01:17:51 John Daub: All right, one or two more questions. This is great. Thank you for the answer. You're very welcome. Do you dream in Japanese or English? Whoa. I started dreaming in Japanese about. About three years after I was living here, and I didn't even know what they were saying. I just kept dreaming it. I dream in both. I dreaming both. And when Kanai speaks to me, she's speaking in Japanese, but she always speaks in Japanese to me. We speak Japanese, like, 85% of the time. And recently, she tries to speak English, and then she. And then. And then I speak Japanese, and then it becomes a match of wills. Who will break first? Is my Japanese better than her English, where she just gives up, or is her. Her English better than good enough that I will just give up? And she always gives up, and. And she relents, and we just continue in Japanese. Not that that's any better.

01:18:56 John Daub: Any tips for traveling in Japan in December? That's a good question. That's a legitimate question because it came with Super Chat, so I could see it real clear. This is from Coolfire719. Thank you. Tips for traveling in December. December. I'm gonna say go back and look at the episodes I made on at this in January a year ago. This one's called Japanese Ends and kaiseki cuisine. This one's called Japanese Onsen Bath Experience. And there's a 360 video. Watch these two and in December, it's a great. It's the perfect time to go to a Japanese onsen. It's the perfect time to go to a Japanese ryokan and spend some time inside. Because ryokans themselves are almost like museums. Because we have hotels in the United States and in the West. They're nice inside, you know, five star hotel. They're very nice inside. But they're very Western too. They're not. They're our culture. When you go to Jokan, it's Japan's culture, man. And it's cold outside and the days are shorter and you're going to be inside more. You want to be inside of a ryokan. So I think you should at least plan, depending on your budget, at least two nights in a ryokan at a nice onsen. The question should be, which no one asks is like which onsen should I visit?

01:20:35 John Daub: Never mind Kagoshima or Aomori. Which onsen should you visit? Which area has the best ryokan and onsen? You should be asking that. But since you didn't ask, I'm asking myself. I'm not going to count that as question. You guys have to ask that. Does it snow in Tokyo? And it's like Anjum is asking all these really good questions. I don't think it's ever snowed during. During Christmas. Last year I wasn't. I'm not always here for Christmas, but usually will snow once or twice and it always melts the next day. Like almost always.

01:21:11 John Daub: JD writes in. Really enjoyed the Nebuta Museum in Al Modi. Good. Any chance that you'll be revisiting the area for content soon? I was in talks with. Hey, Sasha is here. Greetings from Ireland. Hey. You know, I wish I almost flew through Ireland to go back to New York for Christmas. But we found Icelandic Air. But we were this close from. From flying through Dublin, which would have been awesome because then we would have been a couple days there and then we could have hung out in Ireland. But thank you for that. Wait, what was I talking about again? Oh. Oh, it was the question. Let's see here.

01:21:44 John Daub: Have you visited the Instant Ramen Museum before? Yes, I have. Twice. Do you like Dr. Slump manga? That's from Shueisha's Shonen Jump. And yeah, I don't not like it. But I. I don't. I don't read it very often. I Think I've read it twice. To be honest with you. I do not not like it. I like it, but I don't follow it.

01:22:15 John Daub: What time do you go to Germany, Philip? I'll be on Marionplatz with Kanai on December 17th at night. We're staying in a hotel in the area and we're going to be going there for the market and on Facebook I will be putting event pages for all of our meetups and I would love to meet as many people as possible. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah. Which onsen is great in? Sapporo. I don't think Sapporo has some onsen, but there's none. When you don't go to an onsen in the city you can Leo's World. But when you go to an onsen, the onsen is the attraction. There's. You can't have. It's very rare to find the best of both worlds. A really good ryokan onsen inside of a city is like. That's like the dream man. But it doesn't really exist. The best places Heiner from Germany went up to Suiso Onsen, which is in this. In this which one video. Maybe he's in the Onsen bath video. He went up there. He went up to Sansui Onsen. Let me see if I can find a clip from there.

01:23:21 John Daub: One of the most beautiful. Here it is. Here it is. A scenic onsen town that is just perfect when the snow is falling. This is in Fukushima. Surprise. It's one of the most beautiful places for onsen in Japan. And it's far away from that other stuff. Look at how clean is located right next to the scenic. Heinrich stayed here and he said he had a pretty good experience. And you get an amazing view of it from the bath. Although the water is a little hotter than what I'm used to. The bath has one of the most relaxing views. I would say. You know, Sapporo doesn't really have Onsen culture. I. I mean they do. They have a bath culture but it's not really. I don't know, you want to stay in a Ryokan and onsen town is the attraction, not the city. That's my advice to you, Nezumi.

01:24:25 John Daub: 66. £5. Oh, that's your question. Actually if you turn the pound sound you could get kind of a question thing. Thank you. Thank you for that Nezumi. I appreciate it very much. John. If you're going towards Munich, try visit Salzburg in Innsbruck too. Really made this ah so difference engine wants me to go To Austria. I've been to Salzburg and Innsbruck a couple of times before Vienna. Many times, say like a dozen times. I've been to Virginia, Vienna. I had friends in a town called Graz and Graz and he moved now to different, different country. He's Austrian. So I would go and visit my friend in Graz. So I've been to Austria many times. I've been through Austria too to go to Budapest and to Hungary and visit my friends in Romania. I had a lot of friends in Cluj Napoca in Romania. But I'd love to go to Salzburg and Innsbruck. I. One of the reasons we're going to Munich is because it was just convenient to fly from India through through to Munich. It just worked out that way. Berlin was a little bit harder. And Munich has Marienplatz, which has a really nice Christmas market. But I'm kind of going to see the Christmas markets. So if you guys know any, if you know any good Christmas markets around Munich that could be day trips, we could do that on the 18th. Then that'd be pretty cool to go. Maybe Nurnberg up north is good. Or Salzburg is a possibility as well as even down in the south. There's some places in Switzerland, Basel, Bern, I don't know. We're looking at it.

01:25:35 John Daub: Let's see here. By the way, definitely click the like button because I said if we get a thousand likes on this, then Kanai will. Will do a midnight run with me. She said, I said, I said that. I can't say she said that.

01:26:10 John Daub: Anything you recommend to do in Shinagawa. You know what? There is a really cool Nikon camera museum that a lot of people will miss. If you ever had a Nikon camera, this museum probably has it inside there and it's free and it's really cool if you like cameras. And I was fascinated because Nikon had one of the first cameras ever. And just some of the crazy lenses that they made over the years were in there. To me, I was fascinated by that. And that's it. That's right next to Shinagawa Station. Shinigawa is a place mixed feelings for me because that's where immigrations is to renew your visa. And it's always, yeah, not a happy place. Shinagawa means immigration. And immigration is like a boring building where people don't look happy. You know any off leash dog parks in Sumida? If you go along the Sumida river, there are actually on the banks you'll find several dog places where you can release your dog. And they're open. The hours might be inconvenient Sometimes I think they close early, maybe 8pm But I've seen when I run, I run along the Sumita river now I see a lot of these little dog with Astroturf in there. And dogs can run off leash. It's kind of gated off, but they're on the riverbank where there's more. More open space for this kind of stuff. They're longer, of course, than they are wider.

01:27:48 John Daub: I said I was gonna do one more question 15 minutes ago. This is crazy. Do you recommend doing Tokyo in December? Yeah, there's. There's Four seasons. There's no bad time to do it. There really is no bad time to visit Japan. Four Seasons, each season has its own unique cuisine, has their. Has its own unique aspect to it. So you probably have to visit Japan at least four times to get the full effect or just stay for 20 years and then you get it. Sapporo versus Kirin versus Asahi. Go right now. I like Sapporo Red label Sapporo. Sorry. Sapporo with the red star in it is my favorite. So there you go. But I'll go for Asahi right now. But I used to drink Kirin all the time 20 years ago.

01:28:18 John Daub: John, here is a little help for you guys. Next food run. Hey, thank you. Please get something awesome. Thanks, Cat. And when we do the. When we do the food run, you'll know the first thing I get will be dedicated to Cat. Okay, I'm gonna do. No, I guess I'll do another food run. I don't know if it's gonna be a midnight food run, but I could do it an afternoon food run sometime this week. I'm thinking of some locations and seeing if somebody, another YouTuber will come with me to come and eat. You know, Matthias helped me at the ME. Oh, there's a big festival? I can't. I can't tell you yet because I don't want other YouTubers to go there. But there's a big festival, a food festival I'm going to later this week, I think. So stay tuned. I think it'll be in a couple of days, but you will see the live stream there. I'll be one of the first people. So, Cat, we're gonna put. Put it to good use in a few days. Okay. That's gonna be fun.

01:29:23 John Daub: Go collab with Ramen Adventure. I've seen some of his episodes, actually, when I was researching things on Ramen. His stuff always comes up. I don't know why his channel doesn't grow bigger because I can't Think of anybody more. More knowledgeable about the topic than that, I guess. YouTube is a weird place. We discover so many awesome channels or so many awesome creators that don't break out. And I can't really explain why. And that makes me wonder, like, how did my channel grow so much? And the only thing I can think of is when you make. When I make content, I make content that I think I would like, like people to watch more than once. And I want to tell a story that brings people in to it or feel something. And when I edit it, I know, I know, I know if I know if I've done it or not. If you show beautiful images and you narrate something that just sort of floats off the tongue and can give you feeling with sounds, what makes the Fukushima onsen experience so amazing. But I kind of want to give you a feeling or challenge your senses or introduce something to you. And that's why. That's why I make the show and now I do it for, you know, to live as a career. But those are the. Those will always be the factors in why I do this. So I'll never. It'll never get old and I'll never run out of ideas.

01:31:00 John Daub: Any favorite tea your love your videos. Thank you. Any favorite tea? This is from K. Oh, gosh, I don't know. I've been drinking a lot of Uji matcha from Kyoto and it's just because that's what Kanai has. I like. Wow. The royal milk tea is what Mr. Seiichi liked. And wow. The 16 judok cha. I forget. I guess I don't know why. Just maybe it's because it's like one in the morning, but I forget there's a lot of really good teas. In fact, Japan has so many teas. Not like China, but there's so many teas out there, it's like just blow you away.

01:31:30 John Daub: Nosh is donating. Gosh, Nosh, I don't know. Thank you. I cannot say thank you enough for Nosh. Nosh. I should be donating to you, brother. I should be donating to you. See here. Manny writes in here. You, Charlotte, Chris, Rachel and June are some of the biggest. Yes. Look, I'm gonna say something about Rachel and June. I'm gonna say something. June is. He might be one of my favorite YouTubers. That Jun's Kitchen. What he does with that is just incredible. And I've. Jun's Kitchen is. I can see so much of Japan and I. I'm not going to Talk about other YouTubers channels ever? Not really. I don't want to do too much of this, but I want to tell you something about Jun's Kitchen, and it says, this is something that I learned about Vermeer. And I'm comparing Vermeer, the artist, to Jun's Kitchen because right now I'm making a video about Vermeer. Let me see if I can get this here. Is there. Is there a title sequence I can show you on this feed? Okay. So right now I'm doing a video on Vermeer. You can see this is Professor Fukuoka. Let me tell you something about what I learned watching Jun's Kitchen and what I learned about Vermeer. I wanted to know why Vermeer, this artist, was so popular in Japan. He's a Dutch artist. This is considered the Mona Lisa of the north of northern Europe. And when I watched Jun's Kitchen, I saw no ego in his work. That means he doesn't really put. He. I mean, he's in his work, but his work is very much like Vermeer. He doesn't put his ego into his work. He doesn't project himself into it. You don't see his face. It's very. It's very neutral, and I like that it draws people in, especially. And especially for Japanese.

01:34:27 John Daub: That's a Japanese way. It's. It's very humble. It's very. Yeah. Liz is writing in. Jin's Kitchen is very humble. It's very simple. It's so successful in the storytelling through food. I cannot say enough when I watch it. I'm just in awe because of how simple, how beautiful, and how much, like, what I've been learning about Vermeer. Jin's Kitchen is like. And in that sense. And there's no ego in it. Right. I like that. And that's why Jin, you know, and when I. I didn't. I only met him once, and when maybe twice. And when I met him, it's like. It's like talking to a genius. You're in the presence of greatness. But I. I don't. I don't want to talk about people too much, but I guess if you have good stuff to say about them, then it doesn't hurt. But I can't. I cannot. I can't say enough nice things about the work that goes into each one of his episodes. And the lack of ego and keeping it simple that he puts into it is such a trait here in Japan that I learned about not being Japanese by watching his show, which he shows to people who are not Japanese. That I thought was pretty ironic and funny because I don't think his target is exactly just Japanese, but most of his audience is probably non Japanese. But he has so many Japanese traits in the show that for me, I can. I'm learning back from him the things that I've learned about Japan over the last 20 years. And it is incredible, all of the stuff. If you don't know Japan and by living here, you'll miss a lot of the stuff in Jun's kitchen. And maybe you won't. I don't know. Maybe you won't.

01:35:30 John Daub: Mindless Marty, buy yourself some beer. Gosh, I wish I had one in the refrigerator to drink. It's been 90 minutes. I can't. I can't stop. I hope we can meet again before I leave in December. That'd be great. Keep up the good work. Thank you very much. It's awesome. Yeah. I'm almost tempted to go to the convenience store, but I got. I have so much stuff to do. Let's put a ribbon on this and end it. I want to say thank you to everybody. Definitely. Click the like button if you're. What? If you're still watching this, give yourself a hand. A round of applause. That's impressive. I don't know if anyone can watch this for 90 minutes, but if you have reached in the playback at this point, give yourself a round of applause because that's. You just marathoned yourself into history. Because who watches 90 minutes of a live stream?

01:36:34 John Daub: I don't know. I do hope that there is some useful information here and that you guys learned something from this and we'll do more of these. The only reason I'm doing this because it's been raining today and I couldn't do anything live stream tonight. And I think this is pretty good where you can just ask me questions. I do this with. With everyone on Patreon twice a month. By the way. Hint, hint. These postcards are still available from Algo from Ogasawara on the Patreon Postcard Club. And Ramsalint puts it in. Wonderful. Look at that.

01:37:36 John Daub: All right, last. Last question. This is it now. Whoa. And Sony, that's a good question. How do you spend your weekend with Kanai? How do I answer this without giving you clues on what we're doing together? Because sometimes I just want to. I just don't want to do anything except just hang out together, you know? It's a good question. So Kanai likes. Kanai likes. We like to go to like. She likes to go out to eat. Of course. This is Japan. Everybody does. But we go out to restaurants for dinner and to go on dates. I think I should do more of those. And. And, yeah, I like to take. We like to take walks, to go around the neighborhood at night. But we live in the center now, so it's kind of neat. We can just go out and get ramen or do something. But to get out of the house and to go out. Yeah. Odaiba is not too far away. And I really like Odaiba, but there's Toyosu is a nice place. They have a little beach there. Not a beach, but you. You can watch the boats go by. Shinagawa. The. Some of the places in 1010. 1010 Isle is nice and on the water restaurants. She loves cafes. I try to do stuff that she likes to do. She wants to go see this movie. I guess it's the Freddie Mercury movie that's just started in Japan. So we might go. Might go see that. But yeah, we try to do, you know, dates and stuff. I try to take her out to, like, hotel breakfasts. I like to go to the different hotels and try the breakfasts sometimes. And it's just like, we cook a lot, but when we go out, it's like you want to try something nice. And the one thing that I think I totally agree on with my friend Simon and Martin is that when you go out and you eat, and when you go out eating, look, you should spend your money on certain things, but people sometimes don't spend enough money on the. On eating. And when we go out, we like to spend money on eating good food. I think food is something that you can't take it with you, but it's an experience. And, you know, I don't like to skimp too much on food. I will pay a little bit more for good food, and I'll skimp on haircuts and buying clothing and shoes. I can skimp on these things, but I can't skimp on food. Food is 90% of the budget, as Max appropriately writes it. That was a great question.

01:39:44 John Daub: What do we do for dates? And that might be an episode, I think. I think that is a great episode idea because. Yeah. And by the way, guys, I'm happy that you've been really kind to Kanai and encouraged her being on the show. I think she's starting to grow and like being a part of the live stream. So thank you for that. Oh, Bohemian Rhapsody. That's it. Yeah. This is from Edwina. Thank you. Bohemian Rhapsody. Thank you for that. Favorite convenience store. Favorite convenience store. Oh, my gosh. 711 right now. 7 11. It could change. Thank you. I'm going to bed. But I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for being part of this channel. And yeah, this is fun. Let's do some more of this. You can leave a comment in the comments below and I usually try to go and look at it probably tomorrow morning and I might answer the good ones. And if you leave it, the best comment, I will pin to the top and you'll become famous with other commenters, which could be, which could, could potentially give you like, maybe someone will like your comment 25 times. So ask good questions.

01:40:29 John Daub: Will you do Christmas episode on kfc? Turkey Cat? I won't be here for Christmas. I'm gonna be in the United States. I'm gonna do a Christmas episode underneath the Christmas tree with my Christmas family. So that'll be fun. So everybody, good night, Have a good day. Good night wherever you are in the world. Thanks for watching watching and see you next time.

01:41:03 John Daub: Uncle P is right there. Ellis. Ellis, you can't, you can't give me a super chat when I'm saying good night. Ellis. Happy there's dry one. Have a good night. Thank you. I'll see you in New York, buddy. Thanks, guys.