00:07 John Daub: Greetings everybody! Welcome to Kentucky Fried Chicken in Japan. How you doing? Actually, I had some problems. I was in Akihabara and I'm going to tell you about that in a second. But I wanted to explain to you a little bit about the story of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Japan. It is actually a thing. I'm going to give you some stories here and give you a little bit of the background of the history if you don't already know.

00:35 John Daub: In Japan, many people will make a reservation for a bucket of chicken as a Christmas meal between December 23rd and 25th. They'll pick it up. Those reservations end 2-3 weeks in advance. So people are actually making these reservations 2-3 weeks in advance because they really want Kentucky Fried Chicken.

01:04 John Daub: I went to Akihabara. There's a Kentucky Fried Chicken over there, but I think because of the pandemic, they've gone out of business. And there were a bunch of maids in front of the Akihabara KFC and some guy—for lack of a better word, a maid cafe pimp—came out and said that filming in this area makes the girls uncomfortable. So I said, okay. So I got up and just went to a different spot and now I'm in Ueno.

01:55 John Daub: The thing I don't like about this Kentucky Fried Chicken is one, it's too new and two, there's no Colonel in front. Where is the Santa Colonel? You have the thumbnail of Colonel Harlan Sanders in Japan in a Christmas outfit. This tradition started in the 1970s and I can completely understand why. This is live folks. They got a line with three staff members outside. One of them is holding a sheet for the reservations so you can tell them your name and pick up your bucket of chicken. And the other one is to show you where the end of the line is. This actually starts from right about now. And says here, today is the pick up the chicken day. This is Christmas Eve everybody.

02:54 John Daub: The tradition started in 1974. In the 1970s there were a lot of expats living in Japan, especially in Tokyo. They would complain that there was no place to find turkey dinners. And this is one of my complaints when I first came in 1998. Where do you get Thanksgiving dinner? Where do you have Christmas dinner? I would have sushi on Christmas as a counter to what I would typically have as a kid. So there was a store manager who came up with the idea of Christmas at Kentucky. They started to sell the buckets and market the chicken as a Christmas dinner. This guy who came up with the idea ended up becoming an executive, if not the CEO of KFC Japan for a long time. He had a lot of marketing ideas by listening to the expat community. Because in the 70s the people buying KFC were expats like me that missed home. And now a lot of the brand has just soaked in. And that's why it's so popular.

04:06 John Daub: I started to get into Japanese culture where why do people buy Kentucky Fried Chicken for Christmas? So I asked some of my friends. None of them buy them. And then I asked them if they would ask some of their friends. And they came up with this: one time my father bought it when I was a kid. And then I started to buy it too for my family. So now when we think of Christmas, we do it. This tradition has been going on for almost 50 years now that it's just a nostalgic thing where families were doing it.

05:00 John Daub: Shane, I got something special for you, buddy. I actually went to Kentucky Fried Chicken before the maid cafe pimp came and got a piece of chicken. And I thought I would eat this in your honor. For those of you that can't make it to Japan this year to have your Christmas chicken, I decided to come here and eat the chicken for you. This is a piece of Colonel's Best chicken. The small size package, and I came before there was apparently a line. The manager said I came at the perfect time. So I think I came at 3 p.m. From about 4:30 from now, things start to get pretty interesting. So this is for Irvin and this is for Shane. Bon appetit. Itadakimasu. Not some good chicken. Hmm. It's a shame I can't order any. Reservations closed two weeks ago. So the chicken's really good. Here's a close up. Boom. Christmas chicken. Slightly juicy. Mostly salty. Pretty good consistency. Kind of looks like the chicken in America, but I believe that KFC has a farm up in Hokkaido, where Hakodate is, but up there on the main part of it. And that's where they source their chicken right here in Japan. At least that's what I've been told.

06:49 John Daub: Oh, wait, there's more. What? This looks like a donut. Oh, it smells like buttermilk. I guess this came in my little five dollar set. Biscuit. Oh, wait, there's something else in here. Hold on. French fry. That's really good. Whoa. This is so Canadian. Honey maple. Why not just maple maple? Why honey maple? I don't know why they had to put the two together. You know that there is no mashed potatoes in the set here. We'll put a little of that honey maple on there. That's pretty good. It's Canadian maple.

08:04 John Daub: Through the years, it's gotten more and more and stronger and stronger. And believe it or not, crazy statistic: between December 23rd and December 25th, Kentucky Fried Chicken sells 5% of its chicken in those two, two and half, three days. It's pretty crazy, considering, too, that they pretty much close a lot of the insides of the shop just for pickup because they don't want people coming in. They've got so many reservations. I think it's just nostalgia. The reason why they continue to come to Kentucky Fried Chicken. But to be perfectly honest with you, it's kind of a neat little tradition, isn't it? I'm sad that there is no Colonel Sanders Christmas guy. But let's walk by there. And just to show you inside, they have coned it off. Do you see this? And already on the floor. In about an hour or so, they expect... This is in Ueno. They have set up these spots on the ground. So when the lines do come, people will be social distancing. So then you know to stay two meters apart, which it looks like one meter. But inside, because of the pickup for Christmas, you can see that the store has been cleared out. There are no seats. There are no stools inside of here. Do you see that? The reason why? They don't want anybody coming in here to eat. They're literally just doing pickup. And you can see there's a Disney type of line there. So people will just keep on hopping to the next hopscotch all around here and up to the cashier's register where they're going to go and pick up their bucket of chicken.

10:04 John Daub: The buckets of chicken actually cost like forty to fifty dollars. And you had to make the reservations two to three weeks in advance because it sells out. They only have a certain amount of chickens that they can hold. Apparently, again, none of my friends that I know have ever gotten a bucket of chicken. This phenomenon is 46 years old. I'm proud that America has something like this.

11:04 John Daub: Because that's also another Christmas tradition. Christmas cake. And Kanae is making up something for dinner. I told her she didn't have to make turkey or chicken and I'll help if I can with the potatoes or something. This is Christmas Eve. I don't know if it's Christmas Day or Christmas Eve that the Christmas cake comes. But I'm going to go pick up a really good one in Ginza on the way home.

11:45 John Daub: I know Japanese people don't celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense. But what are their thoughts about Christmas? Japan has a declining population, right? Of this declining population, 1% of them identify themselves as Christian. So Shintoism and Buddhism are the biggest religions here. Not a lot of people will go to mass and celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense. However, the commercialism of Christmas, you better believe that in Japan they love that. Everywhere you go. They soak up Christmas. Just like they do Halloween these days. Just look over there. Because we're in Ueno, pandas are very famous at Ueno Zoo. And you have a panda with a Christmas outfit. We'll go check that out in a second. But the consumerism, the capitalistic part of Christmas. Yeah, Japan is really good at that. They use that in every marketing campaign. Coca Cola probably makes most of its sales during Christmas time as well. Because people don't drink Coca Cola. They drink tea out of it. In fact. When I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken to get the drink, I didn't get Coke or Pepsi. I got oolong tea, which is a Chinese tea, which they say is better for digestion and helps to process the food. Keep the weight off.

13:10 John Daub: Let's see if Lawson's has something with Christmas. I'm going to stay here for about ten minutes just to see if anybody starts to come into the line. Oh, this is interesting. Look at right across from this. They have Lawson's is selling chicken, too. Look at that. Do you see that? I got to go inside just to take a quick look. So I guess there are alternatives to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Apparently everybody gets a leg of chicken to eat today. Does it bring luck or something? I don't know. Harlan Sanders, tell us. You know the history here. All I know is that Japanese know that Christmas is a Western holiday, so they want to eat Western foods. And in order to feel that in Japan. And foods is a way to connect with different cultures for Japanese. And I can see why people would come to the Kentucky Fried Chicken.

14:18 John Daub: Now, I'm definitely going to be social distancing here because this is a crowded area. I'm not heading towards Ameyoko Market (あめや横丁，open-air market), which is there in the distance. That is too crowded. And that's crazy to go over there. But I just thought it was kind of interesting to check this out. This is just a short live stream, but I wanted to say thank you to everybody for an amazing year. And for the next week, I'm going to be doing live streams mostly at home. I'll be going outside a little bit. But tonight I've decided to do some indoor camping. So you'll probably see this in the morning if you're on the East Coast of the US. So I'm going to do some indoor camping to celebrate Christmas. And I'm going to camp out and see if I can see Santa Claus and stake him out. So put up the Christmas tree and I'm getting the tent ready. So tonight expect a really special indoor camping Tokyo version Christmas Santa stalker version. I've always wanted to do this as a kid. I've always wanted to stalk Santa. And since we don't have a chimney, I don't know how he would enter anyways. But I have a feeling that if I set up my tent, I might see him.

16:21 John Daub: Are you going to Super Mario World at Universal Studios Japan when it opens in February? Depending on the situation. I might just do that. This year has been a tough year, but what has really made this year a lot better is you. It has been this channel. It's not a perfect channel. Not every episode is going to be a home run. I try to go for hits, but little teeny episodes where I can go live and connect with you. I mean, it's a way where I don't feel isolated, to be honest with you. This is my fun time when I go live here and share a story with you, and that to me is what Christmas is all about, like sharing and giving. And we as a community, as you can see, is very generous. And I can't say thank you enough, because what has been a really tough year, we have as a community come together and done the fireworks project where we brought some sunshine. The first month of the memberships we gave to a really good charity that I'm going to be featuring next year that I've been talking about. The pandemic has made it really hard, but they do a lot of things with children that are disabled, and we want to shine a light on places where we can help. That's one of the great things about having a platform like YouTube, right?

18:12 John Daub: I want to go buy some good stuff. I'll get like a sixer. I'll go get some snacks. Maybe we're going to make some cookies, and then I'm going to turn off all the lights in the tree and see if we can stake out Santa at least for a little bit. And maybe Kanae will read us a Japanese story. She's going to have to wear pajamas. Is there eggnog in Japan? No, Trevor. I've been living in Japan for 23 years, and I've never... That's not true. One shop had eggnog. It was canned eggnog at Meidi-Ya (メディヤ，gourmet store), which is a place in Ginza. And I actually ride my bicycle back there. Trevor. Thank you so much for reminding me. I will stop and see if they have it in there.

19:01 John Daub: So there you have it. That's the Kentucky Fried Chicken story. Just for 20 minutes. I wanted to come and say hi or so. And on Christmas Eve, show you that this thing is kind of real. They are actually waiting for this, and you're not going to see it for another couple of hours. I think we're a little bit early, but they're waiting for a line there, and there are people coming to ask about it. And you saw that they set up the social distancing markers. I kind of want to go and check this out. I remember when I lived in other places around Japan over the last 23 years, people do wait in line. I don't know why. And I remember going one Christmas and said, yes, I'd like to get a bucket just like everybody else. And they rejected me. And they said, look, you had to make a reservation two weeks in advance, sir. Please do that next year. And I'm not going to reserve a bucket of chicken because I don't know what I want. Look, Japanese cuisine is some of the best in the world. Karaage (fried chicken), just yakitori (grilled chicken skewers). There's so many ways to cook chicken that's maybe better than Kentucky Fried Chicken. The reason why Japanese don't take karaage is because on Christmas they want to connect with that Western tradition and culture. And for many people through the marketing, KFC is the way that they do that.

20:19 John Daub: I think it might be the same in other countries, too. When you want to connect with America, you might go to McDonald's. When I first came to Japan, it was the same. I went to McDonald's a little bit more than usual. When my friends, other YouTubers that come to Japan from America, they also will hit McDonald's. They'll order Domino's Pizza. They do little things when they feel, hey, Merry Christmas, little guy. I got a biscuit for you. I'm not supposed to feed the pigeons, but this is from the YouTube community here.

21:16 John Daub: It's nice to make friends with the locals. I'll take for another minute before I got to get back and get the cake. Any last questions here? That was for the first month of memberships. Yeah. For that question, we gave over $1,000 to MPO Florence that used the money to help single mothers and kids that needed help during the pandemic. And I thought that was a very worthy cause. And we did that for the first month. And I'll probably do that once a year. Every year.

22:01 John Daub: See, they never forget a face. He's chasing me. Get away from me. He's chasing me. Look at this. Hey, I'm helping you, Birdie. I'm getting you away from Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is where they serve your kind. He's following me. We made a friend. All right, come into the corner. I'll give you another piece. But you got to come to the corner. He can smell it. Come to the corner. Oh, my God. He's following me. All right, I'm not going to throw it to him. I'm just going to just lightly drop it and walk away. Okay, I'm going to lightly drop it and walk away. I dropped it and I walked away. I dropped it. All right, he got it. All right, that's what we call a drop. A successful pigeon drop. No, he's still following me. All right, I think I confused him. But look how fast he's moving. He's so happy. This is Christmas. The Christmas spirit has hit that pigeon. Look at him. He's on a mission. He's lost me. I guess that's because you're bobbing your head so much, buddy. The force is strong in this one. I'm just happy because I got him. I'm away from Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is where they serve chicken. I just saved a life and we fed a pigeon. That's kind of nice from our community to you, pigeon, sir.

23:46 John Daub: All right, folks, I want to say Merry Christmas. I'll be back again in like six hours or something. But I just thought that this was a pretty cool story to hit. They were live in Japan. They've actually set up the line and they're getting ready for the mass customers to come and wait in line and get a bucket of chicken to take home to their family. Families for chicken dinner. It's pretty cool, right? I attract the wrong kind. Usually it is crows today. Pigeons. He's way down there. I lost him. That's fun. We share. Always share with your feathered friends. That includes Big Bird and sometimes even the crows. Got to throw him a bone. Those things love bones. All right, everybody, stay safe. Merry Christmas to everybody around the world. We'll be back as we stake Santa for a couple of hours. Thanks, everybody. I got to go get some cake before Kanae starts calling my phone and yelling where I am. I'm here, honey. I'm in Ueno. Merry Christmas. Ho, ho, ho. Or as we say in Kentucky, probably ho, ho, ho. Where did that pigeon go? I guess that pigeon is gone. There he is. That's just some trash. Make sure you subscribe for more fun stuff. Bye bye.