00:02 John Daub: Greetings everybody! Welcome one and all! Well, basically just one and all of you. That behind me is Hana Victoria. She's on her last day here working with me for Only in Japan. In front of the scenes on the Only in Japan Go channel, especially over the last week, and behind the scenes on the Only in Japan main channel. She's been an instrumental part of the channel because I've been able to create even more amazing content which we're editing right now. Just takes a little bit of time.

00:34 John Daub: And before she leaves and goes back to the United States, we're going to ask her the question: Why? Why leave such a beautiful job with an amazing boss? Somebody I don't say boss, I say leader! We've had such an amazing time traveling Japan all the way to Sado-ga-shima (Sado Island). And then to Niigata, and then I think we went all the way to Okinawa. No, we didn't go to Okinawa. But we went a lot of places and we're gonna answer all of these questions. And after we answer this, she's gonna sing a song, one of her new songs on her channel, which is approaching rapidly 1,000 subscribers.

01:13 John Daub: She said to me, I can't believe that we got 300 subscribers in like two days. And behind each subscriber is a real person. It's true. She's right. And I've learned a lot from her too. Hopefully she's learned a lot from me. And in the land of the spaceship and the Tokyo Skytree and all these tall buildings, how could she leave this for the United States? And the answers lie within. Hello, Hana. We're gonna sit here on this dock thing. Yes, it is a good spot. We have the wide-angle lens for you, so you don't see all of the stuff on my nose and mouth. Not that there's anything wrong with that. And the sweat and all that.

02:07 John Daub: So tell me, you came here in June, in the first half of June, and now it's the first half of September. So you've got three months. Oh my gosh, so much. So much. What did you take away from this job, which was assisting me?

02:30 Hana Victoria: Oh, that's, I could write an essay about it because I've learned a lot. Working with John, he's just such a positive human and exactly how you see on camera, he's exactly like that in real life too. Very positive. And when things don't go as planned, which life throws at you at times, just kind of often this summer. It's hard with life to stay positive, but seeing John handling things in a really mature and positive way, it really inspired me to be the same and try to spread that to my friends, my family, also through my channel, hopefully.

03:15 Hana Victoria: But also being a part of your community, John, I just come to realize how you somehow managed to create a community that's very wholesome. Like milk. Wholesome. And because social media, you can't control what people say and people can say mean things because they're behind a keyboard, but you've somehow created a community and it's thanks to you all to keep it such a wholesome place and so much positivity and that energy really inspired me to be better. That's something that I'm gonna take with me forever, really, even when I go to the States. I'm gonna try to challenge myself going there. I love Japan. I love being here. I love this community.

04:13 Hana Victoria: But I feel like I want to try to push my boundaries right now. I want to get out of my comfort zone, and I want to challenge myself. And if it doesn't work out, I'll be back in a couple months. Fail! No, no, no, I didn't just say that out loud. I whispered it and said it out loud. Alright, but you know, I'm still gonna try my best and if I do come back to Japan, then that's fate. That's how nature works and I will be back and I'll put my best in that too. But I'm in a position where I'm very grateful that I have the option to go out of Japan and try to experience things and challenge myself. So I don't wanna waste that opportunity and so I'm gonna go and keep up with my channel and my music of course. I might comment on John's videos too but I'm gonna do my best out there but if it doesn't work out, I'll be back.

05:15 John Daub: We know. Thank you so much. I have a lot of feedback for you as well. More critical. No, no, I'm kidding. It's the last day. I try to treat all of my employees very nicely. I have very little experience in it, Hana being the first one. But I think though that I'm kind of encouraging her to go to the US because I think at your age, when I was that age, which is when I first came to Japan kind of, I had to get a little bit out of my comfort zone and go out and try something on my own and see if I could be that mouse that churned that milk in my mouth into butter. Catch Me If You Can reference from Christopher Walken when he tells that to DiCaprio as a kid.

06:08 John Daub: Anyways, you can go out there and you can be that mouse that churns the milk into butter and stand on top of the mountain of cheese. And all the mice will be jealous of you. But I want to be that kind of an employer who encourages people to try to do better. And it's inevitable that people will leave you. And you want to encourage that because if you set up a place, a wholesome place with like milk, where you can encourage people to do their best, you're going to have always the best people wanting to be a part of your community as well. So I think it goes both ways. And Hana has been a huge, I've learned a lot. You set the bar. Because you're the only one to set the bar. Everything that she did was I didn't really have to explain too much. She kind of got the idea of exactly what I was thinking and doing. And I like that.

07:04 John Daub: I think you could find as somebody who is working for a company and if you're in the U.S., hire her because she goes above and beyond. She's very particular with the details, but not in her way. She tries to find a way to do it in your way. And that was just the little details and everything you did just struck me like wow. Well beyond her time. There was a moment in Niigata where I was fake sleeping in the car and you're talking to the client. Not the client, but I was fake sleeping. I could hear everything she was saying and she sounded like she could be president someday. That might have rubbed off from your mom. That's a compliment. But I like to think it rubbed off from me.

07:50 John Daub: I've never employed anybody. I've always done this show all by myself. And it was just this summer we kind of experimented and I wanted to see if I could bring in new people into the channel to try to improve it or grow it. I think that's important to grow what you do. In order to do that, you have to bring in people. And Hana is a budding creator. This is one of the reasons that I liked about her. Hana is a budding creator who is about to explode on the scene. And yeah, it's true. You have doubled your subscriber base this summer. Doubled. Thank you everyone. And Jim has just wrote in the link if you want to go in there and subscribe to her channel. During this livestream, she's going to surpass 1,000 subscribers. And for any creator, that is an amazing achievement.

08:40 John Daub: I remember my first thousand. It was really a hard fought battle of begging my friends and family, please subscribe to get at least to 100. And then after I ran out of friends, which was very quickly, I had to appeal to the world. And I had to appeal to the viewers and make really good content. And that's what you do. You put a lot of love. She puts a lot of love in her content. And she's like me in a way. It just, you can't just whip it up and throw it on the internet, which is what a lot of creators do. She puts her time and effort and a lot of love into it. And when you watch it, you can feel the effort that she puts into her music videos. But in order to survive on YouTube, you have to create more content more frequently for a longer period of time. And connect. And you're a good person, Hana. And I think people will connect with you.

09:27 John Daub: So you have to share more of who you are, not just through your music, but have the courage to do it through your words, talking. And just like this, I'm not really perfect at this live format, which can be explained in some of the comments. And I read all of the comments, even the critical ones. But again, they just kind of bounce off of me. I take it, hmm, that's interesting. Hmm, that has no basis. So that person's crazy. And I believe that I can fry. This is one of our things. We were outside walking at the hanabi (fireworks) festival a couple days ago. It was so hot outside. And we're all sweating. And then I just started busting out singing, I believe I can fry. I believe I can touch the sky. Or the hot oil. And I just felt like a piece of battered shrimp frying. And that's why the song stuck. Like the batter to deep-fried shrimp. Definitely a good inside joke that would last.

10:37 John Daub: There's also the Nina Cataldo. This girl that we met, very nice girl, pretty girl, she had a name that sounded like a beat to me. So we created the Nina Cataldo beat. When you could sing a song based on her name, you can't do that with my John Daub. How does the lyrics go? John Daub. John Daub. Nina Cataldo. It's like the little beats in the front. Everything is music. It just boils down to music and beats and sounds. So how would you rate me as a boss, a leader? On a scale of minus one to nine. Can I say beyond the charts? No, because there has to be a basis. No one is a perfect 10, but I will take a perfect nine. Nine. Of course. A nine. I would go like 50 million if I could. Stroke it. Bonus time. Definitely. You're like not just a boss, you're like a friend.

11:52 Hana Victoria: You're a great friend and I think that's why people like you so much is because you're so approachable and friendly and that's why people see a connection with you because you're like their friend. And I think that's kind of the basis upon which your community is based and that's why it can be wholesome. That's what I got out of it.

12:15 John Daub: Yeah. Well, the one thing that I learned as I studied English literature. I got two degrees because I couldn't pick one so I did two because it costs the same amount of money in tuition. One of them is economics, the other one is English literature. And I was really close to one of my professors who became my advisor at the university and he told me, when you write a story, you have to write what you know because the reader will be able to realize that you're not really authentic. People can relate to you by writing about what you know, which is usually your own life or experiences that you have. Because you can feel that and as a writer, that's very important. This also works with YouTube. And if you try to vlog and you're trying to copy someone else's style or copy another creator and go, hey guys, la la la, you're coming off as them and you have to find out who you are, meaning you have to learn who you are. I know who I am. Do you know who you are? Through my music, I do, definitely. Through your music. I knew who I am through and through because I have to live with myself every day.

13:23 John Daub: Oh, so Nasha Broad just writes in here that you've reached a thousand. High five. No way! You did it. That was one of my promises to her. I said, we're going to fight and get to at least 1000. You get it four digits. And behind each subscriber, there's a heart behind it. I like the way she says it. I'm learning from her. There's a heartbeat to every subscriber on the Hana Victoria channel. H-A-N-A is how you spell the name. And you're Hana. You're different than Hannah Montana, who's now the twerker. I don't know what's going on in the US. I'm stuck in Japan. Oh well. You're not missing out really.

14:09 Hana Victoria: I think it's good for you to go somewhere else because you grew up here in Japan. Yes. I grew up here for 18 years of my life. I was here in not Tokyo, but Yokohama. And so every time I come back, it hits me with nostalgia. And I love being here so much, of course, because I grew up here and every corner there's a memory I shared with family or loved one or a friend. But that's why I should go out into the world is because there's so much comfort here. And you know, they say you should seek discomfort. And I think it's cheesy, but I think it's true. I think you learn a lot from difficulties and not being surrounded by unfamiliar things. So that's what I want to do. And I'm so scared. To be honest, there's so many uncertainties. And the future is so blurry. And that's very scary. It's like some of our live streams. So blurry. Minecraft. We do it anyways. And we go with the flow. Do your best in the moment. So that's what I'm hoping for.

15:20 Hana Victoria: And thank you for all your support on my channel. It really means a lot. And it blows my mind that a thousand people actually click subscribe and watch my videos. And I've gotten so many lovely comments. And it's just really helps build my confidence. And of course, I should have confidence on my own too, without having the validation of other people. But it really helps.

15:42 John Daub: It helps when the community loves who you are. But you can't expect everyone to love you. And you can't expect to be perfect all the time. But you can't expect one thing. People will criticize you anyways. And you just learn from that. There's good criticism, bad criticism. There's some truth in some of the people trolling things. But one episode or one mistake does not define a person. And a lot of you who are watching have had mistakes in your lives as well. And that does not define you. Nor should it. Life is very long. Only in Japan main channel is a marathon, not a sprint. Everything I do is for the long run. You build it strong. That's why we have a really good community of people that surrounds this channel on the Discord server, on Instagram, all the social media. We really do have an amazing community of people. You see them in the live streams all the time that are watching. And that's who this song is for, I think. What's the title of this song?

16:44 Hana Victoria: This song is actually called I'm Home. And it's not really literally I'm home. It's more like a symbol because the main message of the song is kind of bringing back the child in me or preserving the child in me. And you know, as you grow older, it's kind of inevitable that you become very realistic. How old are you? I'm 21. You become very realistic and you don't really notice the little things. But that's what a child can do. They value imagination. And they have dreams to be something. And they can look at a flower or be on an airplane and see the wonder of that. So the whole point of this song is to sort of bring that spark of joy that you feel as a child back home. So that's kind of like the main message.

17:36 Hana Victoria: And the inspiration of this came from me wondering why as you grow older, time seems to pass quicker. Yeah. And so the first thing that I've experienced going to college is that every day just passes by, zooms by so fast and a year is just gone. Like I can't even keep up with time. And one theory suggests that it's because everything kind of becomes a routine and you don't have that fresh perspective as you do when you're a child. So you don't find joy in riding an airplane or as much as before. Time kind of just zooms by you. And so that's really the inspiration, the core of the song. And I just hope that in the video, there are also some little tricks that I've put in that would hopefully make you pause the video because there's some texts that I would love for you to read. And I've deliberately made it so that you kind of have to pause the video to read it. So that's pretty smart. Also goes with the message of the song. So just like slowing it down is so important.

18:51 John Daub: Life moves pretty fast, especially on social media. It's good to just slow it down. I read, you know, I haven't read a book this year because I've been on the move so much and on this smartphone so much. They just released new smartphones with new cameras and new technology. Sometimes we do have to slow it down. And I think this is going to be a pretty good song for all of us. I've learned a lot from Hana. And this is another reason why I've had other creators on the show. I've had Eric just in the last couple of months. Paolo from Surf Six. I think the reason is because you learn a lot from each other as a creator and your channel was small, but it's getting bigger and bigger. And for me, it was really important to go back to the roots of why and how I started Only in Japan. I never really forgotten it, but you don't really feel it because the bigger a channel gets, the more you know what the evolution is with the channel. And I am always trying to reset myself and never letting it get to your head when fans come out.

19:55 John Daub: That's why when fans or a viewer who notices me and go, hey, you're that guy on YouTube, I'm like just like anybody who I would meet, no matter if I was a YouTuber or not, would be the same way. I think you have to kind of keep that up. And it's really hard. It's hard because this job can change you. Whenever you're in front of the camera, the media can change you. So I'm hoping that this song sticks with you too, Hana, as you get your 1 million subscribers in a month from now, people lining up. Keeping myself grounded, I think very important thing. And so sometimes every couple months, I kind of look back to my first video that I made in the bamboo forest. Ah, that was a good one. And I remember what that was like, and just going in there not really knowing what to shoot, just going in there with my guitar and camera and really just believing in myself and believing in what I've created and just going with that. I think that core is so important to keep in.

20:56 Hana Victoria: And already with the comments, like obviously been so encouraging, but I know there probably going to be a couple of critical ones. And I'm afraid that might sway that core, but don't. So I will read them and ignore them.

21:14 John Daub: Stay on course. Stay strong. Stay on target. Remember that. Destroy the Death Star. Stay on target. All right, we're going to do this now. Without further ado, we got 750 people. Whoa! So basically, we filled up this entire amphitheater with you who's going to be watching. And this place is special to me because this is where Kanai did her dance when I introduced her to everybody. And now this is a special place for Hana Victoria because you said these places bring back a lot of memories. And when you come back to The Point, this is what I like to call The Point. This is one of the most beautiful locations in Tokyo. If you're looking from Eitai-bashi (Eitai Bridge), that's the name of this bridge here, looking back at this island. It looks like Manhattan in a way because this is some of the really big skyscrapers. This is an impressive spot to come and eat your lunch and relax, this point between the two rivers that divide.

22:05 John Daub: And I think this is a great place for Hana to sing because I like the lines right here. And also, Skytree is in the back. But we have a hazy day, so you can't really see the Skytree. I'm going to be moving around you, Hana. So you just play. Just do what you do best. You really nervous? Do you need a minute to collect yourself? Joshua Del Moral says you're a great guitarist, Hana. Edwin writes in, everyone, bribe Hana to stay. Nasha Broad writes in here, 1,000 reached. So your channel's growing right now. Cobra Bebop writes what up? Nice videos, both of you. Steven Tice, congratulations, Hana, on 1,000. Gil, it's always nice to hear from Gil. It's not much, but please pass this on to Hana. I will for her first meal to the U.S. So we're going to give you some money for your first meal when you get back in there. Journey trials, enjoy, all the best. And Joji Ikeda writes in, vibes. Thank you all for the support. And yes, we will be making sure Hana does not go hungry in the United States.

23:24 John Daub: In fact, we'll try to keep Hana behind the scenes doing stuff. You could be on the Internet, but really working anyways, anywhere. So we're going to try to retain Hana as much as we can for as long as we can. Yes, I'll be doing emails for John, definitely. I need help. Behind the scenes. If you don't do it, then Kanai has to do it. And she's busy with the counting. All right, let's do this, Hana. The microphone is this way. What's this called again? It's called I'm Home, which is Tadaima (I'm home) in Japanese. Tadaima. Okaeri (welcome home). Yes, and it's a fully Japanese song, but I hope you can get something out of it. It was just a feeling in the melody, so yeah.

24:25 Hana Victoria: (singing "I'm Home" in Japanese) Shizu mezameru sekai sora tobu doki doki ohisama hohoemi kokoro no hari dokei modoshi enoku tokei jiyuu ikikaeri odoru mahou no tokimeki kaze odori tsukama mori no uki sakura maushiroi kona haru saku fuyu egaku nishiyoshi to asobu michi soru fattachi fattachi so fattachi gieboshi to nigoko anokoro no jiyuu ikutsu ni natte mo wasurenai yoyu mugen no kiseki wa me no mae ni imado no soto hisasayaki mata mata...

28:50 John Daub: Much better than looking like a zombie so yeah there you go great awesome that's the song. All right the video should be out very very soon. Jem Defensor thank you he said he wrote in number one wow yeah thank you so much thank you yeah that means a lot. This song I've kind of incorporated also like a child's perspective world and also adults perspective world so I kind of try to symbolize that through the guitar as well when it gets kind of quiet and like a little scary. A lot of people might not know what you're saying though because you sang in Japanese of course but in your video you have subtitles. Yes. So when does the video drop? Before I leave which is like tomorrow. What you can drop this thing that fast? I would drop it tomorrow. I've promised you that so pinky promise. So all those people that are subscribing now make sure you do that and I'll see you in the next one bye bye. Notifications are on always not personalized yes every time and you're gonna see it and then you'll see the notification tomorrow because I think what you just heard is gonna be translated in English.

30:00 Hana Victoria: You're singing Japanese. Yeah so I think that's good the CC button because the subtitles will be there and I've also really thought about how to translate the lyrics, do it justice in English too.

30:19 John Daub: Yeah good I think you can really feel the music and in the tone whenever a musician is singing. The way that they sing it just the inflections up and down along with the tunes behind it you can really get especially something is that like a ballad or how would you characterize that song? Acoustic genre an acoustic masterpiece it's hard to say really because it's upbeat but it kind of has its slow parts too. Adam Kentor writes in here do you think you're gonna be able to sing any of the lyrics or does Hana know how to play any Happy Endings? What was beautiful though. Sometimes when I live stream like this isn't a happy ending or I make it Only in Japan Go channel I try to end always on a happy ending but music is different though you have to bring it down the way you want to. It's a very wholesome ending so hopefully you'll see that when you read the subtitles and you see the music video.

31:29 John Daub: And then Eric caller on hey Eric from Vegas thank you very much and then Ando 1135 Hontani arigato this cheered me up because I've been having a hard time recently. Of course we all have those days how do you get over the tough times in your life? The experience of being in your own life I have it don't be depressed I even remember when you asked me what was the best thing you've ever done. About creating your own stuff and died yes yeah about that cause it's like I'm thinking of really positive things I make and probably enjoy those alive moments and the feeling of it is like something. For me I'll have an inlet first which is to eat lots of cheese and pizza and ice cream which is not good but you need an outlet. So I'm a massive inlet of food when I get sad. It's not alcohol it's just beer and wait is that alcohol? It's like mostly cheese. Anything with cheese is good. Ice cream anything with dairy rich cheesecake that's all in one. But like music and also for me making Only in Japan is an outlet.

33:01 John Daub: This is where I can I don't think about anything except for what I'm doing right there. So whatever it was on the outside that was affecting me just melts away and disappears because I'm focused on one task. This is why I think a lot of the jobs where you're just doing one or two things you could focus just on what you're doing in front of you and not worry about what was behind you or what's going on right now. You just focus on what's in front of you and that's a good way for me. That's how I reset and the older I get the more I realize it and the more easier it is for me to reset myself for better or worse. Yeah so the emotions are different because you're 21. And I think like video making and music especially is such a powerful way of expression because it can be shared. That's the best way to do it. Carrie Larson writes in it means Happy End the band. I didn't know that. Ray Steele writes in you have you will be missed young lady. We hope for your return.

34:20 John Daub: If Hana does return it doesn't mean that she failed. Just means that she loves Japan and Only in Japan. And that was guided this way. It's guided. Feng Olive writes in here for good Japanese singing. Thank you very much from New Zealand. Just very cool. So thanks so much. We're gonna do some Q&A. How often can you make a song? Like right now you have a thousand. This is the one thing. Now you've built up a subscriber base. You're in the thousands which means now the expectations have skyrocketed. No no no. It's not correct. I remember when I first passed 10,000 subscribers and back in 2013 there weren't a lot of subscribers at all back then. And all I knew is that the greatest YouTuber at the time for me was Kevin Tokyo Cooney was his name. And he had like a certain amount and I'm like wow that's one quarter of what he has. And I was just really in awe of each subscriber back then.

35:25 John Daub: And now I'm even involved that we have 153,000 subscribers on this live streaming channel. So I want to thank all of you in the community right now I'm seeing such an outpouring of love for Hana who's leaving us. But you know Peter has also given up YouTube. Hana is leaving but she'll be back to visit. Yes definitely. Yeah. It's my home. And it's not like people leave but people will move on and you have to take a positive. It's hard for me to be positive. I'll break down. I promised myself I wouldn't cry on my mascara but I think though that like I've had a pretty eventful life where I'm pretty good at just changing. So even though I have to adjust again and that's something that I have to do just I've been doing to survive as a freelancer. I've never really worked in a big Japanese company. I've always been out here on my own something I'm used to but for these three months Hana I haven't been out here on my own. I've had Hana. Yeah and that meant a lot to me. Public hug public display of affection. I really appreciate it.

36:41 John Daub: I just want to show here some of these birds. And maybe a tanka will arrive in my mind and I'll say a tanka. I met a 106 year old woman who was in she's now 108 I believe she was in an episode that I filmed on why Japanese live so long. While I was flying she just will come in mentally. Mentally she will just come up with songs sorry tanka (traditional Japanese poem, 5-7-5-7-7 syllable structure) which are like a Japanese form of poetry like sort of like a haiku (3-5-7 syllable poem). And she comes up with these tankas that just hit her like God in the sky came down and gave her words. I should put this up on the main channel I will in some outtakes but she came up with a tanka while I was flying the drone. She'd never seen a drone flown. She's a hundred and six and then here's a drone and I'm showing her on the monitor. This is you from the sky and she was just so emotional because she never thought that she'd see what a bird would see of her.

37:44 John Daub: So she felt the technology allowed her to see herself from the sky as though a bird was looking at her and just she closed her eyes. We thought she went to sleep. Then she opened her eyes and just started speaking. She just started speaking and she said a tanka and it was a tanka about the drone. Do you know what a tanka is? It's a short poem. And she keeps her mind occupied which one of her other secrets to having such a long life. She's always occupied with something. She never gets down. She's a very positive person and just opened her eyes and she smiled to her 106-year-old smile which is adorable. It's like when you get to that age you become like a kid again. And she just said these words and I would believe I filmed it and then after it I'm like what was that and then her daughter who's in her late 80s. Her daughter's like in her late 80s and then her granddaughters and her great-granddaughter in her upper 60s or something. It's really cool.

38:51 John Daub: I think it was amazing and her daughter who's in her late 80s said that was a tanka. Oh I just wrote a tanka for you about your drone. And for me it just struck me as like for the first time this lady is seeing herself as a bird would have seen her. So every single creator a lot of people will ask me who my favorite YouTuber is who my favorite creator is? I don't know who my favorite food is in Japan when you say favorites. I can say this definitively I don't really have a favorite of anything because it's always changing and it's always evolving and that's the kind of person I've always been. Meaning I might like one neighborhood but probably in two months later I'm gonna like another neighborhood more and I'm a product of my environment meaning I will just live off of the changes the energy of the change.

39:43 John Daub: And that's what I feel when I go on location shoots and see different people with different stories I live for that. I live for the Only in Japan main channel to look for stories and you've experienced that too because we have for the last three months we have been doing just contacting a whole bunch of people doing a whole bunch of interesting creative projects. And you know we've actually got to go to one of them which was the Katakai Festival that you were at that was a hard time. That was hard to set up. That was really hard. It was hard but it was entirely worth it because you get to experience it's something that you have to go there really to experience but it's such a great position we are in that we were able to put that on video and have that into the world so that you can experience it too. Yeah that was the biggest firework in the world and we got a chance to see them loading it into the cannon making it. So I'm really excited about that episode.

40:46 John Daub: But the thing is I wanted to go and see the process too. And again like all this travel is made possible by Patreon so I got to say thank you to Patreon. I wouldn't have the budget to hire anybody without the support from everyone on the channel so all the effort that you're gonna see over the next couple of months is a result of support for the channel and what I'm doing which is trying to do something a little bit different than other creators trying to bring more background and substance to the content. I just can't produce it as fast even with the help I can't produce it as fast as I would like but I'm always gonna be trying to evolve. I'm gonna keep this going for like another 5 or 10 minutes. There's a couple of things I want to say because it is a great time to do it because I'm right now I just love this boat. Mr. Das is in the house. Is it ethical John for you to drink with Hana? It is totally ethical. Mr. Das knows that. See Mr. Das chime in I think I saw he's super dry.

41:53 John Daub: I know what he's talking about. And we're going to be doing we'll be doing a walk up in a second. But just it's time for us to pay our respects to another marvel. While you see spaceship pass by it's not really called spaceship that's what I call it because it's just so cool. I'm not sponsored by spaceship but I see the innovation in things. I see the hard work that people put in the little details and I want that to not go unnoticed. And two days ago I watched the largest firework in the world go up into the sky and then it did actually it exploded on the ground and it was it failed right? The first one. It was a failure. And last night they did it again on TV live TV and it was a success. But what it reminded me is that you have to have the courage to go out and do crazy things. It is crazy and he said it was like bakamono (fool) like it was foolish to go out and try to make.

42:47 John Daub: This is the creator of the biggest firework in Japan and in the Guinness Book of World Records was Mr. Honda Honda-san like the car but there's lots of Hondas in Japan. He told me it was just foolish. They had the shakudama which is 10 times bigger than the normal firework okay? 10 times bigger and then they have the nishakudama which is 20 which is 30 and then the yonshakudama which only he makes I believe. He only makes it and it's insane. But if you don't have these really big and this is advice to young people like Hana who's 21 I'm 45. If you don't have big dreams and you don't try to do things that are a little bit crazy within the laws maybe not the laws of physics like him but within the laws you don't ever really innovate or do anything bigger. So he had a crazy idea to do what his father had done which is crazy the sanshakudama so he created the yonshakudama and has a higher fail rate but if you don't try you never really succeed and break out.

43:56 John Daub: And in this world it's all about innovating and coming up with something different a new angle a new way to see things and he did it with size and other people might do it with technique and that just really impressed me. Despite it failing when I saw it I was still like wow this is the background of something. That is what you connect with not just what you see in front of us because the moment is so fast. Right and I loved what Honda-san said after we got to meet with him a little bit after the yonshakudama failed and he said well it's made by hand so of course it's going to be imperfect and I found so much beauty in that because we as humans are imperfect to begin with and so whatever we make of course it's going to be imperfect but you never know it might go off it might not and so having that mindset and knowing that it could fail but still doing that every year is mind-blowing and really inspiring to me.

44:53 John Daub: Yeah I was really impressed with Honda. After it failed we went back to his he's an extremely busy guy the guy's like a king in the town really because he's got a statue of his father at the shrine and he's a very much respected person and then he gave I said I gotta go back to it. I'm going to Tokyo tonight or tomorrow morning early so I want to see you again and he gave me a hug and I didn't ask him to explain but he explained himself and he goes look when you make stuff by hand matei-de (handmade) right when it's handmade like this sometimes it fails but the way he said it was positive and I think that he's learned a lot by trying to push his boundaries right and I think that's what you're going to do even though you might fail in the U.S. and come back. Exactly no shame. If I come back I know I'm going to fail. No regrets at all. But you tried. I will be proud of myself. You made a yonshakudama. Exactly I'm trying to make a yonshakudama out of me. Yonshakudama is 40 times the size of a normal firework. Exactly but you know if I end up coming back here I will still be proud of myself equally. We're proud of you.

46:01 John Daub: And we'll be proud of you when you come back and we'll have even more subscribers and more base to hire you full-time as a director of whoa! As a director of something. That sounds awesome. Director of something sounds good. Our company is still growing. Actually I've owned a business in Japan since 2005. Wow. Yeah so I've had an actually established business because I knew that if I was going to stay in Japan I can't do that without establishing myself. And in Japan you can't just have a business like in the United States that takes off. You need to build a reputation. It takes a decade before you start to make money which is true. Because I didn't make it. I lost $30,000 creating this business. But you just keep going and you keep going and stay positive and then you start to see some results. And I think that everything that you see with Only in Japan is just a result of very very persistency through failure. And being humble. You have to be humble and you have to realize that you're not going to be able to do everything that you want but you still set really lofty goals. It's a leap of faith. I believe I can fry. I believed in myself.

47:16 John Daub: And when other people including TV networks Japanese TV networks even NHK they didn't really believe in me. I still believed in me. I said that's why I created the channel because I thought I could do better than NHK. I was like oh you directors you won't hire me as a director. But guess what? I'm going to go out and I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to prove you wrong. I can go out and I can make a pretty darn good episode too. I could do what you do. You think I can't but I can. I knew that I could do it. I kind of I think I did. I did a pretty good job. I can always do better. Always evolving. I want to stay right here for a second in the sun so we can get sunburned and you can go to the USA and they're going to look at your passport. He goes this year you're so brown. Any questions for Hana here? Any questions before we let you go into the world? David Kimura's here. Good luck Hana from David. We love David. David's always here. Thanks David.

48:14 John Daub: Are you coming back? She is because her mom is here. Yes. So she's always going to come back to visit family and now she's part of the Only in Japan family. Which state are you going to? I'm going to the District of Columbia which is DC. Good. Say to the politicians and make them feel like they should do their job. Do you have a Patreon? I do not. You should probably set that up. And people will help you because I would like to see you update your equipment. Last year she got a MacBook Pro to edit on. And then hopefully you can update your camera. There's some new cameras that came out. Some better audio. And get the gear and then be able to make shows more frequently. Because I think you have a different point of view. People who are 21 I'll be honest Hana they don't make really quality. Most people don't make really quality content. They're in it for a cheap view. But you're not. I think that's something unique that people of all ages would watch.

49:42 Hana Victoria: So yeah find some connections. I'm very very excited. It's an adventure. I'm seeing it from a child's perspective. A child will see this as a huge adventure. Not a scary overwhelming thing.

49:53 John Daub: That's life. So I think if you go to California there's a lot of people that can speak Japanese and have a Japanese background. Yeah you should maybe do some performances. See if some places will book you. Open mics or even more because you got a thousand subscribers. Now it's power. You have created a community. Hana you're creating your own community now which is great. So yeah see if you can get see if you can open up your world that way too. Entertainment business in California is rough though. It'll beat you up but the lessons you learn are important. I've learned those lessons here working with TV. I learned that people are very pessimistic and they'll kick you to the curb. But people either quit or they get tougher right? I like to think I got tougher because you have no choice. You either quit or get tough and I got tough.

50:44 John Daub: She is on the Only in Japan Discord server so we can talk to her about her own Discord server. What do you like about Japan Hana? She's Japanese so she likes her citizenship. You can vote. That's a very difficult question. Of course I love the food. Of course I love the people. But for me it's the familiarity. It's cool language. I really miss it. When I go to the States or go outside of Japan when I can't speak Japanese because it's what I use to communicate with my friends. And so it's my way of speaking informally.

51:54 John Daub: I'm interrupting a little bit but I think that's an opportunity to make like a Japanese speaking channel for people who are interested in Japan. To make a channel teaching the words in which you sing through lyrics. Maybe you can break down. She loves music. She loves to create herself. I'm also a creator meaning I make my own songs like I believe I can fry. Because I like to make up my own songs. So when I go to karaoke I'll just sometimes I won't play any music and just start singing. But for me it's about the creativity and seeing what you can create instead of imitating what other people do. Like karaoke I'm not really big on it because I'm not really a fan of some artists but I don't see a lot of originality in the world. But you can take a lot of the lyrics and then teach from that. I'm trying to think of ways using music where you can build a channel. I think that'd be really great and interesting. And whenever you make content for people you have to add value to it. You have to learn something from it. Or else you're wasting the worst thing you could do when you make content is to waste somebody's time with watching it.

53:17 John Daub: Either you get a cheap laugh or a giggle or you make them forget about something that's entertainment. Or you could do that and they learn something and that's when they subscribe. So I don't know. There's lots of things that you could do. If you have any ideas advice for Hana as some of these riverboats go by leave them in the comments below because I think it's really useful for Hana to learn from. As well as on her own videos. You have 1,080 subscribers now. Are you serious? Whoa. Let me pinch you. It's not really a pinch. I'm afraid because that could be considered a workable offense if I don't want to get in trouble. I'm awake. Good. Wow. Yes but please if you have any ideas please. I'm trying to brainstorm how I could build a channel too and how I could create more consistent work because the songs really are very unpredictable and they're based on my experiences. And you don't know what's going to happen in life. So to have something that I can create consistently.

54:08 John Daub: Let's watch her walking this way. I think there's a song you called Ripple where you came up with your creative process. And she explains a little bit about how the creative spirit is ebbing and flowing. Yeah. And sometimes you feel like it's not there and then sometimes it hits you. But whenever I got I never really get in a writer's block or creative block anymore. Because I learned this. You fight through it. You just create something and then the next thing will come to you. The moment you stop and go nothing's coming to me. You failed. It's like a marathon. I've run about 10 marathons. And the one thing I learned is if you ever stop after you get into like the 25 or 30 kilometer mark you'll never be able to start again because the muscles get tight. So you always have to keep running. Always put one foot in front of the other and then you get to the goal. But the moment you stop is when everything starts to tighten up and it gets worse. Creator has to always create. You always have to do something. That's how you get over a writer's block and creator's block. Just open up a book and just start writing the words of a master. And then it'll start coming back to you. Just as long as you don't stop and then get sad go to the dark side lose your hand Luke Vader is your father.

55:24 Hana Victoria: And I feel like I have to embrace that not every video is going to be beautiful and perfect. Because that's where I think I struggle a lot because I put so much energy in this song. So I feel like I have to do it complete justice in the video and then it has to be perfect. Every detail has a meaning to life.

55:41 John Daub: No it doesn't. It's the part that makes people question that they learn the most from. So not everything has to have a meaning. Just learn from Nirvana. I don't think half their lyrics had meaning but it made me think about other things. I'm not a writer like of music but everybody will interpret something their own way. So there's no one way to interpret something. The way you sing it and the way you hope that your audience will learn from it is not actually what's going to happen. They're going to find their own voice within your music and it's about that. You can explain it but sometimes that ruins it. Like oh no I meant it for the people to think this way. You can't ever do that. You let people it takes a life of its own and that's when things go big. Sometimes people will see things in your music that you didn't know existed. That's what I like.

56:38 John Daub: I came over here for one reason. I just wanted to show you the point that we were singing at. And this is a good place to say goodbye to the people who have been here. Jim writes in here hello hi 821. Good luck Hannah. We miss you here. All the best. Thank you. I'll do my best. Jim she's coming your way. East coast west coast across the pond to the United States. So she'll be working hard. But yeah she'll keep on working with me digitally. But we won't see her until she comes back to visit probably at holidays or something. Probably hopefully beginning of the year is my ideal. So that's only a couple months away. We'll see what happens. We'll go with the flow. Just ride the wave of life. There's actually a supermarket over there. But we're going to keep the livestream on Hana's music and not my desire for an Asahi Super Dry. Because Mr. Das it is very very hot. It is very very hot today in Tokyo. It's kind of an unusually hot day.

57:43 John Daub: So there you go everybody. I want to say thank you once again to Hana for the hard work she put in this summer. You set the bar once again. And I will be now looking to hire a new assistant here in Tokyo. But remember you have to be as good or better than Hana which will never happen. So just saying that in advance. That means a lot. Thank you so much. It means a lot to the next person that replaces you. But nobody but you're irreplaceable. The Skytree is also irreplaceable. And despite the haze it's starting to make its way out a little bit over the Sumida River.

58:18 John Daub: Sincerely though Hana thank you so much for all that you did for us and the community. And the last few days of live streams have been epic. And people have really enjoyed your smile and your positivity. Every time you produce something it makes people feel good. So don't give it up. I won't. Never! Music is something I really want to continue forever really. So I'm confident enough to say that. Good. Because it just means so much. So I hope you stick around. Subscribe to our channel. The link is in the description and also in the chat and also in the comments below. And watch our new song coming out tomorrow 24 hours. Bye from Tokyo. Goodbye. See you next time Hana. See you next time. Probably tomorrow.