00:04 John Daub: Welcome to JFK, John F. Kennedy International Airport. I'm going to Hong Kong, which is right in the middle of the screen there, departing at 9 a.m. Good morning everybody. So the question is, can JFK, which is America's airport—it's an airport I like to think of like Ellis Island, where a lot of people come as a gateway to the United States—can it compete with the likes of Narita and Haneda? I'm skeptical. What I see here, check it out on the other side—not quite the same. There are some stores on the left side. I heard there was a Dunkin' Donuts here, but oh, there it is right there. There's a Dunkin' Donuts, but it just doesn't have the same excitement. Not enough colors to it. The ceilings are lower, but I am digging that pink "I Love New York" hat.

01:31 John Daub: Hi, good morning everybody. I'm on a flight going to Hong Kong—it's gonna be a long one—and we came here so early we left Kanae asleep at the gate. So I'm going out to get her breakfast; I haven't told her that I'm doing that yet. In fact, if you stay tuned, I'm gonna take you and we're gonna go see if she's awake or if she's asleep. The end of this live stream, we'll see how Kanae is doing. We might have to sneak up on her and tap her on the shoulder—oh no, I would never do that—but we'll get some spy shots of her sleeping, maybe. This is the last chance for me to stretch my legs, walk around, and take a look at JFK Airport. I usually don't fly through here; I will usually go through Newark, Philadelphia, or Boston, but I try to avoid JFK. But surprisingly, it was really easy. We took a taxi from Times Square and it took us 27 minutes, which is insanely fast. Typically during the day with traffic from the city to JFK, takes an hour and a half.

02:47 John Daub: We got here before 6 a.m., I didn't expect that. Then we checked in—there was nobody there, checked in in five minutes. Then we went through TSA, the security check—that took 10 minutes. Then we arrived here with two and a half hours before the plane boards. Now I don't know what to do with my time, so I thought I would just take you through JFK. Over here is the duty-free shop; I might go buy something. My friend Peter von Gomm sometimes has top-shelf booze parties at his house—am I allowed to tell anybody that? So I might pick up something there. If I have to compare, are these walkalators or standalators? Can I just stand and do panning shots? This is a Brooklyn Deli—this is fun. Looks good, doesn't it? Smells okay, could smell a little bit better. So far I saw Dunkin' Donuts, a gift shop, a walkalator, a Beats—nose? You guys ever heard of Beats? Hey Anil Rivera, great to see you. I'm just looking at the food right now—look at the steam coming out. Oh man, I might have to get that one. Now I got two more things—let's go get the pizza. It's fresh. The one thing we didn't get was pizza. Oh, that dude just got a slice—is that New York pizza? It's still JFK; JFK is New York, right?

04:47 John Daub: There are a lot of people who came to the meetup yesterday, and by the way, the meetup—you can see that that's online on the video—it was pretty epic because we had a pretty good turnout, more than last year's New York meetup, which is great. It was good for me to see the people that I saw last year and put names and faces to usernames that are always commenting here. That was awesome. So I haven't watched the playback because after we got back from the meetup and had dinner with a friend of mine—is that Ms. Pac-Man? What? Hold on. Why is there Ms. Pac-Man here? All right, this Best Buy vending machine doesn't even compete. Why is there—look at this. This thing might have to get some play time just 'cause it's odd. Remember that sound? Sounds right. Here, is it a quarter? No, it's a dollar—four quarters to play one. Pac-Man is cool, but it's not that cool. These UFO catchers—that's not Japan style. Totally different, but I bet it's rigged. I don't trust it. And what would I do with that ball anyway? That's a security threat.

06:28 John Daub: But it was good to see you yesterday—we got so many wonderful gifts. Their names are on the chocolate, but we had two very nice people who came from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and brought Hershey's chocolate with them. Kanae and I have it in our bags, and we're gonna be eating that on the airplane on the way to Hong Kong. We've got a lot of time—it's like 15, 16 hours. So yeah, I might go back and play actually, 'cause it would be a good reason to get rid of any spare change I have. This is interesting—it's just like random retro games with Microsoft Windows. That's weird. These arcades are using Windows—this is Namco. This really does look like an authentic 20-year-old arcade. I don't know what it's doing here in JFK. This airport in itself has retro carpet—this could be the carpet from 1980s arcades that went out of business and they implanted it into JFK Terminal 8. Not sure, but it's still pretty cool to see this. I might have to play just for a dollar.

08:10 John Daub: I still kind of want to take a look at this airport. The sun has not risen—let me show you outside the window. The sun is just rising. We were in the dark for the last hour and a half. See, there's some color in the sky—there's some planes out there. That's JFK. This is where in that movie—was it the mobster movie where they stole like $2 million and put it in suitcases at JFK? I always get that gangster image of JFK—it's kind of cool. This is the other side; terminal's not that big. There's two sections—one above ground over there, the main building. And you go down and we're in a lower level—this is the second part of Terminal 8. There are about 13 or 14 gates here, and Cathay Pacific is using gate 47. A lot of really tired people there. Now we're making our way back to 47 and find one of them whose name is Kanae. All right, Hudson is one of the shops you'll see at many airports. Everything is outrageously priced—the water is like five dollars. Like what? In Tokyo airports, they have vending machines that are not overly priced.

10:01 John Daub: If I got the coins, I'll play Pac-Man. Oh, Combos! We don't have this in Japan—I just ate these as a kid. We would suck the cheese out of them and crunch the pretzel leftover. Most of this we don't have in Japan. Au Bon Pain! What's this thing in the middle? I bet kids try to hide in there and scare their parents. Oh, it's a little information booth—it's in Spanish; you can pick the language. How do I change it to English? Interesting. Hey, Photo Luke Hawaii, aloha—John's on coffee for you and Kanae. I'm going to sleep now. Hey, Luke, Austin, hey guys. I think we're going to be flying right over Hawaii, so I'll shout out aloha to you guys if we do. On second thought, we might be going over Russia. When you go back across the Pacific, the plane goes north of Alaska. If you have clear views and look down, all you see is snow and forests. I've done this trip so many times—when I look out at the north of Canada and Alaska, I'm always looking for someone stranded out there who needs help. Because in the movies, there's always a guy stranded and planes go over—no one notices. So sometimes I'll look out just for somebody flashing a mirror so I can ask the flight attendant, "Ma'am, I saw some flashing in the wilderness—there might be a man stranded down there." Do my part.

12:28 John Daub: Au Bon Pain—I think that's a European company; I had that in Europe 20-some years ago. We get croissants and coffee. This is the far end—there's another cafe; they're doing a pretty good job with the cafes. On the end where we are, there's a Starbucks. I like this information booth—there's virtually nobody here. Shopping, dining—what do you guys think before I play some Pac-Man? Duty-free. Look at that—you get information, locate on the map. That's pretty cool. Thank you, information board. There's an ATM—I took money out yesterday to pay the taxi driver, and it was $85 flat fare, including tolls and tip. I just gave him 100 and said keep the change. I still don't know about the tipping, but the ATM charged me $6 to take out cash. In Japan, it's at most 200 or 250 yen, like $2—$6 is like 800 yen from a Citibank ATM. Insanity. New York just finds a way to rip you off with little teeny taxes and fees. The prices are inflated—I have not been impressed. Maybe it's just because there's not enough people here—it is very narrow. That's it from left to right: two duty-free shops, Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, a few chain cafes, a couple local restaurants and stores. There's a United Airlines flight. This terminal seems mixed with domestic and international—no passport control when you leave the US; you don't get your passport stamped like in most countries.

15:27 John Daub: Yeah, I'm going to see if I got enough change for the Pac-Man—I think I got rid of it. If I get four quarters, we're going to do this. One, two, three—no, these are like Canadian money, 500 yen. Wait, is this a quarter? We got a hundred—okay, we got one dollar and quarters. Awesome—we're gonna go play that game. Should I do a UFO catcher or Ms. Pac-Man? We're gonna go play Ms. Pac-Man. SIM cards right here—let's take a look at US SIM card options. They've activated eSIM cards in my iPhone XS; I'm gonna try that in Hong Kong. Thank you to Ellis and David. Unlimited plans $60, $80 SIM cards in vending machines—this one is $20, the cheapest. Ready to use, $10 credit included, data, USA international calling, rechargeable. But it doesn't say if it's 4G LTE—oh, this one does. Two gigabytes—not a lot for live streaming, but you have to check or you might get 3G like in India. The card only cost about $10—unlimited data, pretty ridiculous. There's a flight taking off—whoa, where are they going?

18:04 John Daub: Let me take you to the other side of the terminal, then the last thing we'll do is play this game. I have all the time in the world, and lots of bandwidth 'cause I'm using SoftBank, and SoftBank has free Sprint in the United States. If you're a SoftBank user in Japan, they have America Hodai (unlimited America data plan)—just unlimited American data for free. Check that out—Coney Island hot dogs; that looks like breakfast to me. American food. We're going to see if we can find that arcade game. M&M's is on every duty-free shop. These New York t-shirts might be nice for Kanae's dad—"I Love New York, the Big Apple." Look at that hat—that's pretty; got some aloha spirit to it. There's some weird chocolate—do they have it here? I know they have it at the gate. There's a bizarre chocolate I found—it's only at my terminal. I'll take you to my gate now, then we're going to find the Pac-Man. Where's that flight going? Dallas-Fort Worth.

20:33 John Daub: We're going to play Pac-Man—I have one dollar in quarters. Why is there a retro Pac-Man game here? If you're watching playback, skip through this. We're taking about five minutes to see the rest of the airport—I want to show you Terminal 8. This is L'Occitane, like a French hand cream store—neat to see instead of just duty-free. On the other side, Soho Bistro—this is where we started the live stream 20 minutes ago. Hey, Gretchen's in the house—any Monster? I don't think so. Do they have Monster in the US? We'll go see. You find a t-shirt for John Pops? Yeah, I didn't go to any shopping malls—they were closed Christmas Day and too crowded. Gretchen sent me a teddy bear, but the t-shirt came off and the box was open, so we gotta get John Pops a black t-shirt. Somebody sent—if you get a ferret or dog t-shirt, it might fit John Pops. Here's Starbucks for Terminal 8—they have basic New York stuff. New York mug for collectors—yeah. Christmas blend on sale. The gate's gotten more crowded. That gift shop at the end has the most luxurious chocolate in America—I'm gonna show you that.

23:16 John Daub: Guys, I was tired—we woke up at four o'clock; I woke up at 3:30, she at four, and she didn't drink coffee yet—she's asleep. One foot down—let's ask her. I don't think she wants anything; let's let her sleep. Oh no, we have chocolate from the meetup yesterday—two bars of Hershey's and some coconut chocolate. We were chocolated up pretty good. Thank you for the gifts from yesterday's meetup and snacks from the Philippines. Here it is—the most premium chocolate. Look at this—they got presidential bars of chocolate. That's awesome—I'm tempted just 'cause it's unique, high quality. Statue of Liberty. But it's only at my gate—I should get one for Kanae; that'll freak her out a little bit. Kanae knocked out right there. Twenty minutes ago, there was nobody here at this gate. Who's ready for some Pac-Man? Retro style. This gets rid of the change.

25:13 John Daub: This is more like it—away from the gate, it's empty here in Terminal 8. Entertainment store called InMotion—they're selling wires, backpacks. Does that make sense? Wouldn't you already have luggage by now? Gretchen: Can Kanae have Monster? She'd love it. Okay, after Pac-Man, we'll check the shop. Who'd be a good announcer for JFK? PVG—our buddy Peter von Gomm is the voice of ANA. If you fly ANA into or out of Tokyo, you get PVG's smooth, silky voice telling you to buckle up with traditional Japanese characters in the background—pretty funny. I knew he'd done it, but when I flew out to Yonago for an NHK shoot a couple months ago, his voice came on—I cracked up. I filmed myself listening, making faces, sent it to him—he was laughing; first time he'd heard his work aboard. It's different aboard than in the studio. Oh, this is the place with the steamed pizza—looks like legit New York pizza. He's making one; "real New Yorker" on his t-shirt. A real New Yorker wears a New Yorker t-shirt. Slice is five dollars—is that reasonable?

28:24 John Daub: I might be back—I didn't have New York pizza; it was ten dollars a slice at Times Square. There's the Pac-Man machine—we're going in for our mission. Pac-Man is good 'cause you can one-hand it; don't need to push buttons so I can hold the gimbal. I have a feeling this game's gonna go really fast 'cause I stink at Pac-Man—those ghosts always got me as a kid. That's why I never bought it again—you gotta be really good to get your money's worth. They're playing royalty-free cop music in the background. Here we go—Ms. Pac-Man. One dollar to play—this used to be 25 cents; most expensive. Look at these quarters—beauty of America on them. National park in the background. American Airlines gate 27—I can play once. Did you hear that? It's accepting coins with bloop burp sounds. Start game—one player. Ready, guys? Three, two, one. Oh, here I am—don't go down, pick the pellet. She's on turbo—moving too fast. I can't even see the end of the screen—this is so retro. Yeah, I knew it—you think you're gonna get me? I'm getting it—I'm gonna clear this level. Suck that. No, get down there—where's the other pellet? Now come after me—I'm gonna take the pellet—all three of you. Oh yeah, you're mine—eat that. Cherry! I got all of them—1,600. I've never done that before.

31:52 John Daub: I'm on a mission now—there's two pellets up there. I am not giving you 50 cents, but for that one minute, that was pretty cool. Thanks, guys—that was pretty cool. I died and didn't clear a stage, but on the bright side, I got the cherry, 1,600, ate all four ghosts in one pellet—and that's something. But I didn't get to put in my name—JDA. Should've checked for PVG. Onwards to the final stage—do they have Monster in the airport? How do people stay awake without Monster? Gretchen, do you exclusively drink Monster? If no Monster, would you pick Red Bull? Questions as we walk through Terminal 8 of JFK. What is the charge? They should tell you before you put your card in—I don't like that ATM. This is for anyone doubting—I'm at JFK International Airport; true story. There's whiskey—that's the M&M's we saw. Gretchen, we're going in here looking for Monster. Everybody be quiet—don't know if I'm allowed to film. We didn't get a chance to see it this trip, but now—beautiful full spacious sky. Full amber waves of grain—it's four a.m. somewhere. We're not above the Empire State Building. Monster—don't get distracted. God shed his grace on thee... and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

35:22 John Daub: Monster Ultra—I've never seen this one. Gretchen, these are almost half a liter—there's no way someone drinks half a liter of this? That's a monster Monster. Aloe drink—Monster's better. Sometimes people buy it for the pulp—pulp fiction. I like Chex Mix, but too salty for morning. Kanae wanted a Haruki Murakami book in English to study—do you guys see it? Under M or H? I'll check later. Oh, Haichu (Japanese chewy caramel candy)—had no idea they had Haichu in the US. My nieces would love these unicorns. So there you go, everybody—New York JFK. I can't drink energy drinks anymore due to kidney problems—sorry to hear that, Gretchen. It's 6:39 a.m. here. Hope this lifts your spirits. A pink Statue of Liberty would lift anyone's—except maybe Lady Liberty herself.

38:27 John Daub: What do you guys think? Was this better than Narita or Haneda? Is JFK the airport of the future or the past—and is that bad? They had retro Pac-Man, although for a dollar—50 cents adjusted for inflation from 1983 would be better. I like that they have cafes, duty-free—nobody's going yet; it's early. Can't complain—we're going to Hong Kong. Next up is Hong Kong—we're staying one night for a 16-hour layover. One thing I want to show you—I'm gonna try to live stream and get one of these eSIM cards. My New Year's message to you will be from Hong Kong, the last day of our trip. I want to show Kanae Hong Kong 'cause New York skyline is beautiful like Tokyo, but there's something magical about Hong Kong skyline over Victoria Harbour—especially the laser show. I'm gonna take you to the Bruce Lee statue and give an inspirational message that inspired me—my theme for 2019. In about 20 hours, I'll try to live stream again—maybe later so you US folks can be awake. We'll be at the Bruce Lee statue. Oh, she's awake—she went back to sleep. Once again, ladies and gentlemen—this is John Daub signing off. See you guys—bye.