00:00 John Daub: History. Breakfast cereals throughout history have changed and evolved according to the taste of the times. This is Choco Crispy, which is very much like Rice Krispies, but with chocolate. Here in Japan, we've got our own kinds of cereals, but some of them are the same, like Corn Frosty, which is pretty much Frosted Flakes. They're great. And of course, with Japan, flavors evolve to suit Japanese tastes.

00:29 John Daub: Like this Kellogg's Hershey's collaboration called Matcha White Chocolito. Oh, look at that matcha goodness oozing out of that crispy chocolate cookie. Is this a breakfast cereal? I don't know. Looks pretty good. But wait, there's more. This one made by a non-Kellogg's brand, Calbee. Matcha azuki (red bean) flavors. Look at that. My biggest question mark is, will this make matcha milk? Which would be pretty much a good side product. You can see the matcha powder there and the azuki beans. It's gotta be good.

01:00 John Daub: Grab your spoons because we're about to have some breakfast. That's right. This time we're inside the house. Usually I like to do these outdoors, but because of the situation and the fact that I kind of just woke up, I thought we could have breakfast together. This is the Only in Japan Go channel. Everything is a live stream, which makes it even more exciting. You're here with me. I'm really looking forward to this one because they're throwing in azuki beans. These are flavors that we just don't have in America.

01:34 John Daub: If you look on the other side here, I put it on the big screen TV. Kanae is supporting on the corner there. I don't know if you could see her. She's right there in the corner. So on the big screen TV, this is the cereal aisle in my local supermarket. It's kind of basic, right? I think in America, the supermarket aisle is ridiculous. I'm going to zoom in here. You can take a look at some of this stuff here. Some granola bars. Everything is in a bag. It's not in a box, which was also quite unusual for me. The prices are a little bit expensive. There's that matcha Hershey's right there. That's about $5 for one bag. And there's 280 grams. So it's okay.

02:35 John Daub: That's what it looks like here from a distance. That's it. That's the cereal aisle. And not even all of that is cereal. It's pretty small. Now, in comparison, this here that you see on your screen, this is the curry, packaged curry aisle. So all of this is packaged curry that you just throw on rice. It's way bigger than the cereal. In fact, the cereal was upstairs. It's not even a big part. Here's the instant ramen aisle. Now, this is a lot smaller than most other places.

03:39 Kanae Daub: A Japanese breakfast is what, tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), rice, natto (fermented soybeans). Nani taberu (what do you eat)? Like salmon bits on rice. It's pretty basic. I mean, but it's not what you would think. We don't like sweet foods in the morning. But in America, we love them. We love our sweet foods.

03:59 John Daub: What was it? Like a Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cap'n Crunch. A lot of crunch. We need crunch in the morning. So we've got a bowl here. Let's go ahead and try this. We're going to start off with Hershey chocolate bits. I'm going to be using what I always use is the Jersey milk. Jersey cows have, they're the brown cows. They got a pretty good taste to the milk. But we're going to go with the good old fashioned because this is the one, this is the Meiji milk, the Meiji Oishii milk. And this is the one that you'll find just about everywhere. They kind of use this brand the most.

04:51 John Daub: Let's rip this open and start the investigation. Wait a minute. These look like, where's the matcha? Matcha's inside. I know that. Oh, it's not. So maybe the, what I'm thinking is that the milk activates the matcha and turns it into mush. All right. That's good. That's a good sign. So cereals have to be dry, I think. Is it healthy? All right. We don't need to pour it in there. I think this would only be about two, two bowls of this size. You got it. Japanese typically will eat smaller portions. We'll eat smaller portions, but this looks okay. Let's just try this in Kanae's beautiful bowls. You happy I'm using your bowls? Yeah, it's from America.

06:13 John Daub: You know what? You can't find gallons of milk in Japan. They sell them in one liters and one liter is the largest. It's low fat. Is it? That's strange. I like the 4% milk. Grab your spoon. This is Hershey's matcha chocolate bits with white. This is matcha white chocolate. I don't know. The matcha looks like it's oozing. Jungle, thank you so much. It looks like it's oozing out. Choco, cocoa, uh, crunchy. That's what it's called. Cocoa crunch and matcha white chocolate.

06:59 John Daub: Oh, this does get it. I guess you got to mix it around, mix it around there. Sometimes you have to let it settle. I haven't eaten breakfast cereal in ages. This is what I do when I get back home. I go into the cereal aisle and then I'll grab like a few boxes. I never can finish it in time, but you have to try. It's like the nostalgia of being a kid again. When you pick up a bowl of cereal, it makes you feel like a kid. All right, let's give this a try here. I don't know. I need another bite to just to get a good grab on this. It's crunchy. Yeah, you want to try? But it's crunchy.

08:21 John Daub: If you like matcha you're gonna love this. Can I just say that if you like matcha you'll love Hershey's chocolate bits with matcha white chocolate. The chocolate is sweet but not overpowering. It's not too chocolatey because if it were it would completely obliterate the matcha taste. The matcha it's not sweet at all you can taste the bitterness of the matcha. It's insane. You could eat this as is as a snack. It's bitter. The chocolate is not too chocolatey it's not overpowering sweet and the matcha is bitter but it's got the white chocolate base to it so it's got that sweet creaminess in the background but it's still bitter, nigai (bitter), kind of nigai. It's not too much sweet. It's not too much. I guess you're in it now. It's not too sweet. Yeah I like it but it's not for breakfast.

09:25 John Daub: That's what I'm telling you in Japan people just don't eat breakfast cereals. We do. It's like mind blowing when they go to America people like why have they got so many cereals? Well people like breakfast cereals obviously. All right it's a snack that is so not a snack that's breakfast in like even all 50 states including territories I'm not sure about Puerto Rico and Guam probably maybe. I would hope so. All Americans eat breakfast cereal at least once in their life even the ones who don't want to admit it.

09:56 John Daub: Now these I'm kind of guessing that you know what these are. Now Kellogg's is a well-known brand in the United States. Post is another one but I don't see them represented here. Frosted Flakes and you can find Honey Nut Cheerios at Costco. Like the Costco has a lot of the box cereals and in massive packages but this is a recent phenomenon. Before 20 years when I came to Japan it was limited to Japanese varieties of usually oat based cereals and they were not the same at all they were really bad processed recreations attempts of American cereal. Just there's no market for it because Japanese mothers and some fathers will not be cooking breakfast in American way except from people who return from abroad.

10:55 John Daub: So when I was living 20 years ago in a city called Okazaki which is not far from Toyota, a lot of the kids had lived in the United States returned to Japan and they were hooked on cereal. So the company in Toyota um the which is a city they don't pay any local taxes by the way the company pays for the local taxes they uh the shops there would carry this because this is something that was requested by mothers and fathers because the kids returned from America and they were hooked on it hooked on Corn Frosty. This is called Corn Frosty and you get 10 more uh thankfully but um it's not as I believe it's not as sweet. Maybe we'll open this up and try it out because I love Frosted Flakes with bananas.

11:42 John Daub: Next up here is this this is matcha azuki made by Calbee which is they make um potato chips they're very famous for potato chips but I guess people in the potato chips business it's easy to get into this. This looks so good and then it's unusual to see on the package matcha powder and azuki beans usually you're seeing chocolate or something but uh not here in Japan we have I don't know it has in here like grapes. Grapes is not something I really associate with cereal. On the back it has strawberries so basically Calbee's cereal fame and there's a lot of cereal in here and they're all made from the same product so it's enriched like American cereals and of course there's this is actually pretty healthy looking.

12:43 John Daub: Calbee's claim to fame here is um granola they make a lot of granola products and the reason these are in bags is because probably it's based on European style of cereal. I don't remember when I went to Europe if they had them in bags or boxes. Americans have cereals in boxes and then bags inside but maybe it's just to have that in um in boxes. By the way, the Rice Crispy kids nobody knows Rice Krispies in Japan. Oh she knows it sorry I mean it's been debunked uh but it's not Rice Krispies is not very popular but they do have Choco Crispy. I never see Rice Krispies in the Japanese supermarkets.

13:26 John Daub: Let's give this a try here let's open this up now. I love it I love eating uh in front of the camera because it's interesting it's I'm curious to see how this tastes. Let's give the camera here put in the front and open it up and tell you what it looks like inside. Oh there you go so it does look like granola inside there it's green. It's green do you see that that's why I'm still shocked it looks herbal almost healthy. I guess it's no I got this at Don Quijote (Donki). The box it was about um a little bit over five dollars for this. It does look good breakfast should be good it's the most important meal of the day it is it's true.

14:38 John Daub: All right all right I get to do it I get to the camera this way here let's put it in the bowl. I hope you're as excited as I am I'm using a clear bowl let's do that clear bowl because um I want to see if this makes matcha milk and if it does I don't want all the way up so I'm make matcha milk this is a game changer. Oh oh my oh my this is I gotta dig in this for a second hold on is that a piece that's a piece of strawberry hey come back here piece of strawberry like freeze-dried strawberry it's awesome look at this you got chunks in here. I bet you you can use this in baking or cooking or something let's see all right let's give this a try um just on its own what do you think this tastes like yes I guess that looks like no those aren't raisins that's azuki beans do you know the red bean paste that's very famous in Japanese cooking that's what that is it's red bean paste and not the paste they mash up the azuki beans so it becomes a paste and they use that in a lot of confections like donuts ampan (red bean bun) you know that's what this is it's just the bean so right now it's been freeze-dried it's a wow that's sweet it's got a natural sweetness to it azuki bean is wonderful.

16:03 John Daub: Not a lot of Westerners like azuki beans but let me see here I can get this um to focus not a lot of foreigners like the azuki bean but the azuki bean looks like a bean of coffee is uh naturally sweet it's got a lot of sugars in there this one's been freeze-dried so when you chew on it it activates the sugars that's naturally sweet. I shouldn't have done that I've ruined it now all right we got this is a milk test now milk test are you ready does it make matcha milk got some floaters this looks good all right I don't see matcha milk being made yet it could be just a case where it takes some time but the grains are starting to get a little bit let's let's try a bite before it gets uh soggy you want to try this one there you go for science coconut.

18:04 John Daub: It's got coconut I can't really taste the matcha I have to be honest with you it's hard to taste the matcha compared to the white chocolate bits by Hershey okay there it is interesting granola taste of course you can we can taste that but what is really curious about this is there's flavors in it here that I've never tasted in cereal ever before um not like this. Anyways before hey Toby (crow)'s in the house not like this before but you see on the on the package here on the back they have azuki beans kind of unusual strawberries yeah you see it but usually artificial but these are real bits of strawberries they have grapes freeze-dried grapes in there oats rye um all sorts of wheat there's corn almond powder and coconut and I can really taste the coconut it's pretty strong with this.

19:26 John Daub: Corn that's right and all corn comes from the United States by the way almost all the there's no domestic corn like sold in processed products this is uh yeah corn from uh United States um almond powder this is 700 grams cost me about six I think it was six dollars from Don Quijote it was on sale uh in a booth and I said this is pretty cool it's pretty cool is it better you know what I'm gonna have to give give the the nod to to the um Hershey's white matcha white chocolate matcha flavored chips which should not be for breakfast it's way way too chocolate and rich sweet for kids for breakfast this is probably a better breakfast item like responsible breakfast item.

20:35 John Daub: Mmm matcha overtones but it's pretty cool but the Christmas sweets I said I studied to example a couple things but I haven't studied something w it's not an overpowering matcha so I guess if you like really want the matcha taste just put some more powder on there and you'll have some matcha milk the good thing is it has made matcha milk do you see this this is brilliant it's green the matcha milk what do you think you got matcha milk there's a bit of strawberry in there it does it does do pretty well um standing up the crunchiness after a couple of minutes is pretty good now can I can I turn to test it out is it great you feel it I was feeling it more than the Hershey's what are you sure yeah I don't know.

21:45 Kanae Daub: I think take all right take a bite of this again try this one again I think I think you're wrong I don't know I think so because it's chocolate.

22:14 John Daub: Do you ever eat breakfast do you ever eat cereal for breakfast it's chocolate yeah you eat cereal for breakfast yeah yeah when when I live in New York oh yeah I know that but like in Japan I tried but I I don't want to eat sweet breakfast in morning oh yeah so I don't eat a lot but you put honey in your oatmeal yeah that's sweet it's different for me see it's different and that's right.

22:53 John Daub: Kanae is never wrong she's never wrong so the answer is I think it's pretty cool though like if you are coming to visit Japan uh in better times or now uh they have like really unique cereals and if you're like me somebody who grew up eating cereals this like the bizarreness of these flavors is pretty cool to take back home as gifts I think I think like if a little bit heavy this is almost a kilogram this is 700 grams this is 700 grams this is almost a kilogram is 700 grams 300 grams short of a kilogram which is pretty heavy um this is a smaller bag it's good for like two and a half American size bowls probably like 10 Japanese size bowls they probably eat it in little rice bowls we I eat it in like massive bowls for me the chocolate goodness with the sweet matcha the matcha mixed in with the white chocolate is awesome all right it's a little expensive this was almost the same price as this for half the amount so I'm gonna have to say um cost performance this is probably healthier and better but if you really want matcha taste yeah you're better off um with uh just put matcha in a bowl and eat that how about that that's real matcha milk.

24:06 John Daub: All right I'm just curious about this I want to see is this as sweet as Frosted Flakes in the United States this is just pure science in order to experiment my hypothesis is that this is a very expensive product and I'm not sure if it's worth it but my hypothesis is that it's not as sweet as American Frosted Flakes this is called Corn Frosty and it it's a great I know Tony the Tiger is very famous for saying it's great and he does not say that on here uh if you are if you are curious about this they do have an Instagram for Japan's Kellogg's and maybe you can get more information just a shout out to them watching second time live from Deko Y 77 uh I'll be uploading that video not too long from now so that that's a video from Hokkaido I ran around thanks for asking about that I ran around in a fundoshi (traditional loincloth) in minus like 10 degree weather in Hokkaido uh last month and I'm editing that it's pretty crazy out there.

25:14 John Daub: Um hey Katayama's here curse you you're making me hungry I just ate an hour ago sorry I just ate can I made oatmeal too um but for breakfast but I decided that I have to eat more because I think this is really interesting uh Jane Shimamoto writes and John thanks so much for all the commentary about the current state of this difficult situation I'm wishing you can I all the best best wishes stay healthy stay safe thank you so much um I've been giving updates on this I I'm trying to you know it's it's hard to find let me turn this around here i can pour the cereal in the bowl while I'm talking multitasking.

25:58 John Daub: It's hard to find um topics that are just positive right and food brings people together and I always thought that um you know I can't do just updates every day so I have to find things that is interesting and you know what breakfast cereal and my I have to cut my fingernails is very very interesting very interesting all right let's try this here but I will I will give another update um I believe um Prime Minister Abe is going to be doing another speech and that means I i have something to report but I'm not gonna nothing has really has changed too much um let's just try it straight without the milk uh this will probably affect my judgment a little bit breaking news the kind that the kind that doesn't stink Frosted Flakes is as sweet as America kids everywhere put your hands in the air and go yay we have a sugar rush sugar rush achieved thank you this is awesome.

27:08 John Daub: Now let's get into it and pour the milk into the cereal because we must have sugar let there be sugar oh it's a beautiful sight yes Tony the Tiger be proud even in Japan you make people run around you make kids everywhere run around and and do hyperactive things thank you I consider because we don't have any kids here all right let's try this here we're gonna get a little bit crazy too because I'm gonna try to mix this in with some of the other cereals because an experiment is an experiment you can't just eat it straight oh no any of you people out there were also crazy like me like when you had a drink fountain as a kid who else was doing like mixing all the drinks together and seeing like two parts Coke three parts Mountain Dew one part Fanta orange and then you came up with a bit of the original flavors anybody else do that because I did that all the time itadakimasu (let's eat) oh yeah.

28:37 John Daub: This expats rejoice if you come to Japan and get Frosty Corn Frosty it is Frosted Flakes recipe confirmed to be the same hallelujah I'm so happy if you're you know when you live in another country as an expat you do get a little bit homesick and you need that soul food perhaps this could be something similar to that I guess possibly it's really good um it's getting soggy fast which is fine because it's still sweet now let's mix like an evil scientist mix matcha azuki bean granola in with the Frosted Flakes Tony the Tiger does battle with matcha azuki bean mind blown let's do this because it's it's all we can do to stay focused on fun things in Japan during a difficult time because we are getting slightly crazy somebody wrote in that ever since I came from Hokkaido I've been slightly insane I concur it's okay.

30:04 John Daub: Whoa this is so awesome this is my laboratory and you are my watching from from behind the glass, protective glass. You guys are watching from the other side. Ah, look at this, just mix it in there. Yeah, do it, that's right. Little bit on top there. Get it inside of the milk. Depth perception way off. Sometimes the spoon is going in the wrong direction. It's hard to control the spoon looking through a video screen. If you were to eat it, this is what you get. This looks really good. Wait a second, experiment success.

30:49 Kanae Daub: Kanae, you gonna try my experiment?

30:50 Kanae Daub: Yes, sure.

30:52 John Daub: You gonna do the crazy eyes? You gonna do crazy eyes?

30:56 Kanae Daub: I don't know.

30:57 John Daub: If you do the crazy eyes, I'll give you five bucks. Here we go. This is mixed matcha, cow beet with Frosted Flakes. Do they battle and destroy one another or do they come together as friends? Only time will tell in like five seconds.

31:46 Kanae Daub: What? This is no joke.

31:53 John Daub: Eat it. Please. Feel the rush.

32:01 Kanae Daub: Good?

32:02 John Daub: Good.

32:04 Kanae Daub: What's not to like? Matcha? Good. Frosted flakes? Good. Azuki bean? Good.

32:16 John Daub: Turn that frown upside down. The fact that she's not giving me the bowl back might be all that you need to know. Okay, now she's giving me the bowl back. Kids gonna like it. Kids going to like it. Thanks a lot for demonetizing. Ah! Ah!

32:43 John Daub: And now for the final answer. You know what? They probably should stay apart. Let's be honest. You know, they were separated by bags, so they probably should not mix. However, that should never stop you from taking the next step, which is to just get completely crazy with your breakfast cereals. The best thing you can do to make kids eat the leftovers and the cereals that they didn't like is to mix them all together and say, look, I wouldn't eat this. And if you do say that they probably will so just do the opposite and it works I'm not saying this as an experienced parent myself but if i were psychologically as a man with a mental understanding of people a tenth of my age that would work on me work on me.

33:34 John Daub: All right if you have any questions definitely leave a comment uh give me a thumbs up if you do like these experimental foods episodes because i i think that this is a series i got a feeling that deep down inside i want to mix more foods and just make it insane all right like next level like what did you just do kind of things so perhaps if you like this you're encouraging me to do more of that yes um if you want to see more breakfast cereals i will be putting um on our Instagram which is my Instagram right there and if you go here you will be able to see more breakfast cereals because I'm going to go back to the supermarket and just take pictures of breakfast cereals because i just did a breakfast cereal episode it's what you do it's insane right it's crazy right whenever you get the crazy eyes it's good.

34:24 John Daub: Um I want to say thank you to everybody who's been supporting on Patreon because we had a massive amount of people um like 25 new signups this is the postcard for this month and I'm do and I'm putting on here I'm geek I'm putting on the Tokyo 2020 torch relay stamp you'll get one of these stamps and they're really cool i have a about 20 of them left this is for the stamp relay and um you see the torch there on the left side of the stamp that's going to be on your postcard it's pretty cool they're limited edition they're only making a certain amount and i i got a friend at the post office we all do and i work here in japan and i said hook me up with uh 300 stamps and that's what i got and you know what like using the psychology don't don't buy one i want to keep all the stamps for myself seeing if that works probably not and just buy one buy one yes thank you.

35:30 John Daub: This is our Discord server um the vanity link works if we have 30 boosters um we had 29 and it didn't work it works now we have 31 boosters if you're a nitro booster we love your boost and i give uh that postcard to nitro boosters once a month i'll pick um two boosters and send them something so um we're talking about travel to japan um there's japanese lessons there's uh pictures of sakura (cherry blossoms) and uh we're doing crazy stuff on discord it's cool because you can talk about it we have a really good community of people we have about 7,500 now in the discord server um there's always a thousand people chatting in there talking about japan and we have some really dedicated moderators doing an amazing job thank you moderators for all that you do to keep it clean unlike this bowl.

36:26 John Daub: The reason why i wanted to let this go until 30 minutes was just to see if the matcha milk was real um if we get the 500 likes i will drink this right now like almost all of it i'll just chug it if you get to 500 likes in one minute i will chug this well we got like postcard club sign ups who is that ben hey thanks ben just saw I missed the other one. I think it was a Marty. I'm not sure. Thank you so much. That's awesome. I see the notifications coming here. If we get to 500 likes, I will chug this and I will finish the experiment that we started together. This is matcha. For those joining us, this is matcha azuki bean cereal. It was pretty good. It was pretty good. But my main goal is to see if matcha milk has been achieved. Matcha milk is a much prized drink in Japan. Matcha coffee, matcha latte. Matcha is healthy, but is it good from cereal? That's what I'm waiting for.

37:31 John Daub: We're still a little short there. We're 10 likes short. Likes, it's all about likes right now. You in the community can encourage me. All right, did it. Here we go. Chug. You can't chug. You can't chug. It's chunky. You can't chug and chew. That is so good. Now, matcha milk has been achieved. And the azuki beans in there have come hydrated. And when you bite in, you get this burst of sweetness, natural sweetness on the side of your tongue. And that bitterness of the matcha milk is so good. And it's like a sweet matcha milk. So it's palatable to Americans because even people that I know that come and visit, they say they got to put honey in their matcha. Which is insane to us, but I understand. It's palatable. It's sweet. It is an explosion of umami.

38:51 John Daub: Thanks, everybody. I do appreciate the support and the craziness. I don't know. This is live. This is what I do on the Only in Japan Go channel. Yeah, we'll have some more updates on other things. We're thinking of going tomorrow. I'm going to go to eat, not just eat, but to rent a car. So we'll do another live streaming. Hey, Diego, thank you. Just saw the notification from Diego. Very cool. I really appreciate that. The postcards are going to go out today. If you go on Instagram, I will put your postcard in the mailbox and you'll see it go in to the mailbox. I think if I was going to be in the postcard club enjoying like this, I want to see where it's leaving from. You're going to see that on Instagram. So I'll put it in a stories, Instagram stories. uh interested in seeing where your postcard's going from yeah and i will announce your name too so you know it's your postcard um yeah thanks we're gonna doing some crazy stuff tomorrow driving we did a really good driving live stream when we went to uh Fujiyoshida which is near Mount Fuji what a beautiful location that was we had a perfect view of Mount Fuji.

39:58 John Daub: Um we're heading up to go see a friend of mine um Jaya who does a channel called Tokyo Lama and he's renovating an abandoned house so maybe i'll take him a boat i'll take him some cereal i'll take him some can we bring this to Jaya Jaya you want this i don't know if he's watching Jaya we're coming with cereal oh yeah so maybe they'll like it but i'm keeping this Jaya i'm not going to share this this one's too good i don't i'll probably be gone in the car we're gonna we're gonna do a live stream from the car i set it up where um we can be streaming and we can talk and you'd be able to see outside the front window and we're gonna be driving up north towards Fukushima and you can join us for that it's it's kind of cool to be able to do to go onto the highway and then you can join us i think we're going to go to the rest stop if we can uh into the service area (SA) and and take a look in there it's it's interesting Japanese service areas um are definitely they're different it they're places that you want to stop like really not just because you have to use the restroom but beyond that they're really really cool.

41:06 John Daub: And um we'll probably stop off at the restaurant and uh uh do a couple of live streams the the main reason is that we just can't right now at this time a little bit of an update we just can't really go out and travel much public transportation we've avoided that for almost three weeks now um we've been riding bicycles there's a two weeks now it's about three weeks now we've been riding bicycles and the stronger than my legs get i can i can go with the flow of traffic and get from from one side of the city to the other side in like 40 minutes which is pretty good get the tokyo station in 10 minutes by bicycle and that means that i don't have to wear a mask um hey eric thank you see eric just signed up the postcard club so uh we're gonna be wearing um we're gonna be uh doing that drive tomorrow on thursday and probably on friday we're gonna do a cherry blossom walk because the blossoms uh were budding yesterday if you look at that live stream so the quality wasn't so good in Yoyogi Park uh the signal but the trees are just budding and they are so close to breaking out.

42:06 Kanae Daub: Are the cherry blossoms like 100 percent yeah not 100 percent uh bloomed yeah but we can we can find many blossoms yeah we can find many blossoms uh but they're not it's just budding but i think by friday because behind this window is is sunshine it's pretty warm here in japan so i think we're gonna have a really good friday.

42:31 John Daub: And i don't know if i'm gonna do it as a strobe which is a i upload this later because i want to get i want you to see this in hd or 4k i think they'll be better but if we can do a live stream it'll be in the morning and then maybe i'll do a strobe at night from another location because it's pretty cool and on the weekend we'll take you to another location or if can i can't go i'll take you to see some more cherry blossoms because i think when you see the cherry blossoms it kind of gives you a little bit of hope because this time is tough for everybody and if you're at home in the united states or in europe um or just about anywhere right now there's a lot of unknown and the one thing about japan is that we haven't we feel like we maybe things are going to be okay if we keep social distancing we can go outside and spring is a sign of hope but that maybe you know things will get better in april um and that's my that's what the cherry blossoms bring to me like there's there's something good is happening basically and it's a cherry blossoms are blooming here in japan.

43:36 John Daub: And if you couldn't head to cancel your trip i'm taking you with me because i understand that you wanted to be there too and when we're live it feels like we are there like i feel like you're there tasty chronicles i'm like you're here right now that's how i feel um wish the quality was better because it's a live stream but um i can only control so much like i can't control the color of the milk anymore uh nathan thank you nathan wow this is cool like people are setting up right now that's awesome david wants more strawberries! um i don't know julian i don't know i don't know about the olympics um it's something that they're talking about but uh it's just too far in advance to really tell i think it's it's four months away uh march march april may june july right the end of july so it's so far away that i don't think that we can make a decision it would be irresponsible to make a decision actually.

44:37 John Daub: Because i know that the olympics have suspended or canceled it but um they'll be rescheduled it'll go pretty quickly but i don't see the situation in japan being so bad and if it's so bad that it doesn't turn the corner within five months all right so i i'm getting the feeling that if it's still bad at a certain point let the ioc and the people who are invested in this make that determination but if we have to change the dates then i you have to do what we have to do for the public safety and that here in Japan. I know that Prime Minister Abe and Mayor Koike, who is the mayor of Tokyo, is very committed to making sure that this goes on. It's just not the same if it goes on to 2021 and delaying it is, it's really, really complicated for the city because they're also doing so many other things. I think that I'd rather see city officials dealing with this issue on hand that we have right now and not dealing with something that's five months away. Deal with the now, all right?

45:37 John Daub: And I know that everyone's bringing this up. I want to see Tokyo deal with this now, like deal with what we have, the situation. And then I want to see the city deal with this maybe in a couple of months down the road. Just we're focused on something that's in the future that we shouldn't be. I think it's too far away. I don't want it to be canceled, of course. I love this city and I'm a big part of it. I want to be a bigger part of it and that's what this Go channel is all about. Hey, John. Thank you, John. That's really nice. Any questions before I leave? I'll take one question. I like doing that too. I take one question. Just got in. What did I miss? You missed the insanity. What? Hey, Florence, thank you.

46:26 John Daub: Florence, I'm going to be going to the, I'll go to the shrine a little bit later, Florence. Actually, if I go there to see the cherry blossoms, I'll take you with me and then we can do an ema (wish plaque) for you. That'd be really cool. You're very welcome. And yeah, we're going to go to the supermarket and stack up and we're still looking for masks, but we have, thanks to Florence and Singapore, we have a supply and much, much appreciate, much love. Even though the trip was canceled, we're here for you. We are here. We're connected, Florence. Florence, yeah.

47:01 John Daub: When will we get the daimyo (feudal lord) on Patreon again? They're sold out. I just sent too many packages out and I know that some of the packages that I've seen are sold out. I sent out. I haven't arrived yet. And I did send it on the 13th, I believe. So I know that the post is still moving, but there could be some delays and I'm hesitant to open it up to any more. We send already quite a lot of packages. So if I do open up the daimyo again, all right, you know what? I'll open up one spot and whoever gets there first gets it, I guess. I'll open up one spot. I can do that. That's a lot more free time because so many things have been canceled. It would make me really happy to send off some packages to people because just the situation has been, it gives us something really positive to do.

47:58 John Daub: I know when we send this, send the postcards out, we send the packages to people, I know it supports the show, but makes, makes me feel really happy because it connects what I do here with something physical, like a piece of paper and a stamp, you know, like when you receive this in the mail, we're like, connected by it and that's that's really cool and this is the stamp for this month it's it's really cool it's a limited edition Olympic torch stamp because the torch is on its way to japan right now i don't know how they do it in the airplane i'm really curious i hope they they make a video on it put it on youtube.

48:30 John Daub: Um is there a supermarket problem in tokyo that's okay this will be the final final question this is a really good one um so when i went to the supermarket to buy these i was in there um in an off peak time usually when people are not going to the supermarket like Kanae says from like after 5 p.m it's very crowded right around 5 p.m the supermarkets are very crowded so i tried to go really late at night before they close which is when i bought this or i go um all right early in the morning everybody who's over the age of 75 is there and it's so slow no offense but it's like i can't even get around them to get to where i want to go and it takes me three times the amount of time so if you go at this opening it's just like buses of of elderly come and it's hard to get through they're very good at shopping too.

49:30 John Daub: And actually i use if i do get stuck there i talk to them i can't right now because the social distancing but i talk to the uh older generation and they give me advice on things to to shop for and brands which ones are better so i kind of like that um but yeah it's don't go in the morning wait until a little bit until the afternoon like like 2 p.m yeah yeah i will wait okay Kanae goes at like two or three two or three p.m yeah and i go late at night and so anything that she forgot like bananas i will go and get that at uh like 10 or 11 before closes.

50:03 Kanae Daub: My sister said she found the toilet paper she found toilet paper boop boop boop she's alert toilet paper found where she found around five or six five six rolls did you buy them all that's what people are doing because drug store put the toilet paper on five or six because some people can't go to the store okay yeah because they are working so they come to the store after job so drug store maybe decided to put some toilet paper afternoon that's smart yeah that's so they're getting there.

50:52 John Daub: So we got we have in japan a face mask team they're called the mask team it was when the prime minister announced it i i started smiling i'm like that's the coolest name it's like the a team except for masks i want to join the mask team where's the sign up i will i will go around to the town looking at stores and and scolding people who are who are buying them them as part of the mass. I will report people. I want to be part of this mask team doing good, not evil, and destroying evil. So the mask team is an actual government group inside the Japanese government that is regulating sick masks and surgical masks. And it's actually a good thing, I think, because there's been some price gouging.

51:32 John Daub: A politician in Shizuoka, I like to bring him up because what he did was awful, had made like tens of thousands of dollars reselling masks. Masks. A politician. It was just disgraceful. And of course, he's going to get a big fine and probably do some jail time. But now that people are getting fined and up to a year in jail if you resell masks and gouge. So that practice has stopped. And I'm hoping by this week we have some more masks and tissues and alcohol. Toilet paper, we couldn't really understand why, but you can find it in Japan now. And stores are not putting it out. They're putting it out in the afternoon. Now or at non-peak times. So people can get it at other times now. That's smart. They don't put it all out in the morning anymore.

52:18 John Daub: Costco. I talked to Costco when I went there. And Costco's got some really good cereals, by the way. They get some stuff from the U.S. that other stores don't get. Costco representative staff member told me that when they opened it up within less than five minutes, a pallet of surgical masks was sold out. Just people had take the limit. I think they limited it. To two boxes. They should limit it just to one box, I think. But there's no reason why you need to take two boxes of a hundred masks. A family of five, that's enough for like three weeks. So I don't know. We got enough, thanks to Florence, sent us some. And I'm pretty sure we're going to be okay. We don't ride and go into any crowded places.

53:03 John Daub: In fact I'm telling my friends to buzz off. I think Peter von Gomm wanted to meet up. And I'm like, I'm not quite sure. But that's where it's at right now. We're actually I'm like, dude, no. And it's heartbreaking. My friend Andrew wanted to do a hanami (cherry blossom viewing) party, and I said, no, I think it's just not a good thing. Like, I'll go with Kanae because if she gets it, then we're both screwed. Right? If someone in your family gets it, you might as well just kiss them and then say, let's get this over with. Because seriously, it's like, it's really, it's a tough time. Stay safe, everybody.

53:40 John Daub: I just wanted to bring you something that we didn't discuss this, but the questions just always seem to go back to it because of the times. Japanese cereals are pretty cool. If you do come to visit, maybe, just maybe, taking a bag of Corn Frosty will make people really happy. And if you find it at Don Quijote, matcha, azuki bean, granola. Because you can. And that's all you need to know. See you, everybody. Have a good day. Have a good night. Did I do this? Did I do this for 54 minutes? That's insane. Was this one hour? See you. All right. Bye, guys.