00:00:08 John Daub: Welcome to the city of Yubari here in Hokkaido. This in front of us is Meron Kuma's house. Meron Kuma is a ferocious Japanese mascot that scares the crap out of kids and adults too. One time at the Sapporo Snow Festival, I was just filming, minding my own business. I saw this very interesting mascot, went over there, took my camera, started to film a little bit, was waving, and then this mascot completely attacked me viciously, tried to rip my head off, and I found where he lives now. And unfortunately, he's not actually here right now. We're gonna go and raid his house. He's gonna be coming back in the summer, and I'm actually gonna be returning here to Yubari next month. And we're gonna get a chance to maybe interview or get a closer look at Meron Kuma's everyday nichijou seikatsu (daily life) lifestyle.

00:01:03 John Daub: I'm kind of curious because every mascot has their own way to live. But inside of here, we have a lot of really interesting stuff. And Meron Kuma is one of the more famous mascots here in Japan because when you see him, you kind of know why. Already from the logo, you can see he's represented in paint, but you're gonna see a lot more than that. In fact, on the door handle, you're greeted with Meron Kuma right there. Go in the distance. This is Yubari in Hokkaido. It's pretty close to Sapporo. You don't have to travel too far. Yes, there is snow still here in the mountains, so I gave up like a Japanese summer, which is what's happening in Tokyo for this, which is a really cool, very nice weather here in Hokkaido. It's not too bad. Let's go inside and check out Meron Kuma's shop.

00:02:03 John Daub: Wow! That's Meron Kuma. This one unfortunately passed away. But you can see the size of Meron Kuma is pretty massive. But what makes Meron Kuma so amazing to me is the realistic look in his eyes. Check it out. They look real and the melon looks like veins. But there's a purpose. There's a reason why Meron Kuma is a little bit scarier than normal. Here's some other passed away Meron Kuma. Hello there. Wow, he's moving! Meron Kuma. Meron Kuma is also on Instagram. I'll introduce you to the Meron Kuma site. He's ringing the bell. I've seen Meron Kuma take out Kumamon as well. So you have to be careful. Meron Kuma will bite, you know, playfully. Just like there, he's biting a branch in here.

00:03:09 John Daub: Let's take a look around Meron Kuma's house. This place is pretty cool. I'm digging it. It's open. Are you open every day? Or on holidays?

00:03:19 Staff: I'm on holidays on Saturdays and Sundays in the winter. But I'm open in the summer.

00:03:23 John Daub: Ah, so it's closed during the weekends in the winter, but during the summer it's open all the time. I love it. Yubari is very famous for the Yubari melon. Which, if you've ever been to Japan, you've probably heard of it. It is one of the most delicious and certainly one of the most pricey melons that you can get in the world. But there's a reason behind it and I'm here to make that episode, kind of introduce what makes the Yubari melon so special.

00:03:52 John Daub: Actually, I want that t-shirt. I want that t-shirt. Oh my gosh, I want this. The plushies here are incredible. And I don't know, do you guys think I should get one for Leo? What do you think? How you doing Rusty? Welcome. I see Joy is here as well. Joy, what do you think of these t-shirts here? Joy's into that umbrella. You can see a lot of the goods. I think you can get these online too, but it's just a little bit cooler to buy it when you're here. I don't know if this will fit on the airplane with me. But I think when I come back next month, I'm going to be getting this size. He'd be perfect in the office. This size. This is awesome. He's ferocious.

00:04:36 John Daub: One of the reasons that they have metal bears represented is because there are bears here in Hokkaido. And the bears are dangerous. And so they made it scary so that kids would realize that these bears, although cute, are actually vicious. So stay away from the bears, kids. And actually the one that attacked me had blood on his teeth. Maybe they took it a step too far. Or maybe they didn't. I'm not sure. Actually this size, I could take. I think I could take this one back to Leo. I'm going to be getting something here. There's some bags here. How cool is that? He destroyed that fish there. He really did. The fish went right through him.

00:05:21 John Daub: Alright, this might be the most popular item here because I have this at home. It's something that you can put on your bag for the side to represent. So each one of these represents Yubari, which is the city here. I like this one. It's just a melon with legs, ears, and a mouth. Ferocious. I'm digging everything here. I think when you look at Meron Kuma with the nice green colors and the ferociousness of it, I think it goes with anything. Oh! This is so... Kanae, if you're watching, I'm getting one of these for Leo. Imagine Leo walking around with one of these. He needs one of these. We call them, I guess, straps. This thing here, I'm going to show you right now, is... I thought was super cute too.

00:06:09 John Daub: Do any of you have dogs? Because this is a Meron Kuma dog hat. Look at this! So you'd put this around your dog's head and it turns him into a ferocious Meron Kuma. If you go to their Instagram, you will see some of the pictures of it. It's so cute. Here's one right here. Look at this out here. It turns your dog into a ferocious Meron Kuma. These ideas are brilliant. I guess I wouldn't want one too. I guess they have a ningen (human) hat as well for humans. But you can get all sorts of stuff.

00:06:52 John Daub: Can I buy all of these products online or should I go to Meron Kuma's home?

00:06:59 Staff: You can go to Meron Kuma's home.

00:07:02 John Daub: Oh! So if you search for Meron Kuma, you can find it. You can find all his stuff. Can you send it abroad?

00:07:09 Staff: No.

00:07:11 John Daub: Probably not going to be able to get it internationally. But if you're in Japan, you can also order on the net. But you might as well just... If you're coming up to Hokkaido, why not just make a stop here in Yubari, right? You can visit Meron Kuma. He's here in the summer. Meron Kuma is here in the summer. He's busy, right?

00:07:34 Staff: He's busy. He's on TV shows all over the country. Recently, he's calmed down and has a lot of time off.

00:07:44 John Daub: Yeah. So Meron Kuma, he's becoming more and more popular. You see him all over the country. But this is his house so you can see him doing daily chores. I want to see that on Instagram. He's actually washing things and working. They put Meron Kuma to work here. So, Meron Kuma should do YouTube as well. That'd be pretty cool. Like, I wanna... Look at this zipper mouth! What is this? This is a backpack. This is a backpack? Oh yeah! Look at this! Can I put it in here?

00:08:29 Staff: You can put your favorite things in here. Like your smartphone.

00:08:33 John Daub: You can put stuff... That is awesome! Oh, that's so perfect. I think it's for kids. Or for women.

00:08:52 Staff: It's for kids.

00:08:57 John Daub: Kanae, what do you think? Should I get that for Leo? Oh, these socks are really cool too. So there's lots of different kinds of things that you can get here. Oh, these masks as well. For eye masks. I can get one for the airplane. So then it blocks out all the sun. You can get some good sleep. But if you're wearing that, I don't think anyone around you is gonna be sleeping. They're gonna be freaked out. Look at these Meron Kuma trying to escape! They're behind a cage. Look at this! That's a sight! To keep us safe, you gotta put them in plastic behind a cage.

00:09:37 John Daub: Phew, thank goodness. Imagine if they were released into the wild. Leo would... It might be a little bit too scary for Leo. I'm not sure. Some of them are cute. So what do you think? What do you think of Meron Kuma? Are you digging it? Do you wanna meet him? Do you wanna meet Meron Kuma? I'm gonna be back here and we're gonna get a chance to meet him. I'm not sure exactly when. I'm gonna try to time it with the harvest and everything. But we'll be back in here and I'll get a chance to get my revenge. I'm gonna get my revenge. Trust me. Look at these underwear! They got Meron Kuma. This is giving me ideas for Only in Japan. Maybe I gotta start getting some merch stuff too. Oh, there's some Meron Kuma stamps. Oh, that's pretty sweet. That's pretty cool. You don't know what you're gonna get if you open it up.

00:11:03 John Daub: Hey Michael Sassano. Nice to see you here. I'm glad that you're enjoying it. Here's the umbrellas here. You can see. These would be great for the rainy season. This one's kind of clear but it has a green clearness to it. And then of course there's some gachapon. We have some Meron Kuma gachapon. So of course I'm gonna get something for Leo. I'm not coming back empty handed. But these umbrellas are cool. You can see through them. Just like a melon. That's a pretty cool t-shirt.

00:11:45 John Daub: So Meron Kuma, a little bit of the history here. Meron Kuma was born in 2009. But he's been just growing in intensity. Because you can see it in his eyes. Since then. And probably one of my favorite Japanese mascots. Of course there's you know Kumamon. Everybody knows Kumamon. And every mascot has a story as well. So I also want to see if I can cover in more detail about Meron Kuma's story. Because again like every mascot comes from somewhere. And every mascot is more than a mascot. They're a ferocious bear. You have to believe in it. You really do. So when I come back here next month, I'll try to get that story for you, and we're gonna see how Meron Kuma lives his daily life. How do you like that? We're gonna see what does he do every day. What does he eat? What does Meron Kuma eat?

00:12:55 John Daub: So that's what he eats. He eats Kumamon. So a steady diet of Kumamon. Oh, look at this thing. This one looks too realistic. Sugoi (amazing) realistic. It's like the melon was baked into the fur. What? Look at the mouth, it's so real. This is a nightmare. Imagine having this come at you in the middle of the night from the closet. No, thank you. But yes and no. It's both cute and frightening. That's a, whoa! This is a... This one's a little bit cuter. I can see having this around the house. Whoa! It's both cute and frightening. A walking melon. How awesome is this? Ah, I gotta get one of these.

00:14:23 John Daub: So this all comes from this one idea. And this one ferocious bear, Meron Kuma. Melon is melon in Japanese, and kuma means bear. So you put them together, you get melon bear. But his name is Meron Kuma. So you don't forget that. I think this is the Meron Kuma that actually might have a tongue. You can see there's blood. Chi desu ka? (Is it blood?) Chi desu ne (It's blood). Chotto (a bit). Yeah, he ate many humans apparently. So that's... There might be some people still in there. Still digesting. That's really crazy. Awesome. So what do you guys think of Meron Kuma? Is this a mascot that you can get behind and want to come and meet in person? Meron Kuma's M.O. is to bite your head off. He doesn't handshake, he bites. Literally. So just watch your back. And front. Watch everything. He doesn't really go to the dentist.

00:15:54 John Daub: So there you have it. This is Meron Kuma's house. There's so many really interesting things here. I don't know how you could leave Hokkaido without buying something of Meron Kuma and then taking it home and scaring your friends. It just seems to be like one of these things that... I just love this green color, right? Kind of looks like maybe matcha? No, it's a melon. It's a melon. All right. So I'm going to come back here and actually buy some stuff. Thank you. See you next month. See you. So I'm going to come back here in May. I'm actually, I get a drive now to Nemuro, which is about a four-hour drive to the east, far east of Hokkaido, where you can see the islands that Russia is on right now. So I better get on the road. But just wanted to stop here and just show it to you because when I come back here, I'm going to spend some time and get to know Meron Kuma. Maybe we can even be friends. Maybe, maybe. I think anything's possible. What do you think?

00:17:02 John Daub: Click that like button if you're interested in Meron Kuma and you want to see some more action. But I'm glad that you guys could share this moment with me. Weather's pretty nice up here in Hokkaido. Flight was good. That was pretty good. All right, everybody. Have a good day. Have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to do another live stream from the very east of Hokkaido in Nemuro and Shibetsu, which is another city. And I'm going to see if I can, if there's a signal, take you to the easternmost point of Hokkaido and Japan, which is, it's kind of cool. It's pretty cool. All right, bye. See you, Meron Kuma. Thanks for the time.