00:04 John Daub: Greetings and salutations from the United States. How you doing everybody? Welcome. We are in the United States. We've been here for about eight or nine days now, a little bit over a week. And I hadn't done a live stream in a while, so I thought I would update you, give you an idea of what we've been doing for the last 10 days and talk about the trip. Because the last time we left this off, we were at the airport doing a live stream just before we boarded the flight.

00:34 John Daub: A lot has happened since then. I wanted to also talk about the experience that we had at the airport coming in to JFK in New York. We have a beautiful day. In fact, the entire week has been really nice here in the United States. I think it just rained for a couple of days. The weather has been, I can't even remember Celsius anymore. I would say like 20, 24 degrees Celsius or something. It's a far cry from what we have in Tokyo right now, which is like 36 degrees Celsius, which is like 104 degrees or something ridiculous. So we've had it pretty good.

01:04 John Daub: We've had an incredible culture shock, I guess you could say. That's the only way to put it. The culture shock was incredible the first 48 hours that we arrived in the United States because of the pandemic. Here's Leo and Kanae Daub coming in to sit down. Leo just ate. He has a nice suntan because the weather's been so great. Have a seat just for a couple of minutes.

01:36 John Daub: So the reverse culture shock. The flight was really great. We took ANA and we sat in premium economy. They had a bassinet in the front of it and Leo was able to get pretty good sleep for about bursts of four or five hours in the bassinet. But he was a little bit bigger than normal. So he looked like a turkey. Like his feet were, he was a little bit too long for the small bassinet. But it worked out okay. I think next time we'll probably have to get an economy seat and just buy another seat for him and he'll be able to have his own seat to sleep in. Might be better than getting two premium economies and then getting the bassinet because they'll be too big for it. ANA has a limit up to 22 pounds or 10 kilograms and Leo's like right there.

02:27 John Daub: So we arrived in the United States. We had gotten a little bit of sleep maybe. Kanae didn't sleep as much. I did, I think at about three hours. And the first thing that hit us was like, wow, nobody's wearing masks here. This was pretty crazy to us because we were coming from Japan where there's no mask mandate in Japan, but everyone is wearing one anyways.

03:07 Kanae Daub: Right. What did you think about that? Yeah, about that. Now, right? Yeah, now. But how did you feel the first like, after we arrived, we went to Walmart and my father took us inside there. And how did you feel going into the store without a mask?

03:17 Kanae Daub: Yeah, it's different. It was different feeling. It was a shock. Not a bad thing, not a good thing. It was just a different thing because Japan has a way to do it and the U.S. has a way to do it.

03:36 John Daub: In Japan, the weird people are the ones that are not wearing a mask. In the United States, the weird people are the ones that are wearing a mask. And every instinct, because I've been wearing a mask in indoor places, was to wear one. But I went against that and now I'm so used to not wearing one. I don't know if I'll be able to go back to Japan and then wear one. I don't know. It's going to be difficult.

04:01 Kanae Daub: Can you go back to the old way of the things? Can you go back to wearing a mask normally, Kanae, like in Japan?

04:10 John Daub: In Japan? Well, we have to.

04:12 Kanae Daub: Really? We have to, right? Yeah.

04:15 John Daub: And that's the thing. And after learning, after coming here and then just experiencing the way that the different cultures are, it's not really, I don't know. It's just, they're just different cultures and different ways to do things. And I've been now going into the supermarket and going into stores, not so much, but when we do, we don't have any masks on and we're not thinking about that. But for us, this was a cultural shock. It was like a culture shock, right?

04:42 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Yeah, kind of culture shock. I don't feel in danger or anything like that. It's just not used to it.

04:50 John Daub: And I don't know if I can get used to wearing a mask again, to be honest with you, but you still have to take precautions and whatever. But everybody's different. Everybody has their own way to approach this. And for us, it was shocking. When we go back to Japan in, I guess, like five days from now, we have to get a COVID test and again, go back to those pretty strict precautionary measures that they have in Japan before we even get on the airplane. Coming here, we didn't need a COVID test or any kind of paperwork, no quarantining. When we go back, everything changes again. And that's kind of a shock to us.

05:30 John Daub: Reading the livestream comments, this is the livestream, everybody. It's pretty interesting to read about your own experiences and what you think about our culture shock coming here. Leo has been really enjoying himself. He's right now playing with his cousins who don't want to be on the TV. Coralie doesn't mind, right, Coralie?

05:47 Coralie: Yeah.

05:50 John Daub: Coralie, you want to say hello to everybody?

05:53 Coralie: Yeah.

05:54 John Daub: Coralie doesn't mind, but Lila's really shy. This is Coralie.

05:58 Coralie: Hi.

05:58 John Daub: You were in a livestream at our wedding four years ago, right?

06:03 Coralie: Yeah.

06:03 John Daub: You rode Space Boat. Yeah, she rode Space Boat underneath the Rainbow Bridge four years ago.

06:08 Coralie: Yeah.

06:09 John Daub: Yeah. She can do ballet. Yeah.

06:10 Coralie: She can do ballet, too, right? No. No. She can't do ballet, but maybe we're teaching her a little bit.

06:16 John Daub: But yeah, it's been pretty cool for Leo to be able to get a chance to meet his cousins. Our trip was canceled in December because of the Omicron outbreak, and Japan reacted by closing the country. We had the option to still go, but if we returned to Japan, we would have had to do a 10 to 14 day quarantine in a government hotel. Well, when we canceled the time, the Omicron hit. They wanted us to do a 10 to 14 day quarantine when we returned from the U.S. to Japan. We were like, yeah, I don't know. That's such a waste of time. My friend Greg from Life Where I'm From YouTube channel had to do a seven day quarantine. Three days in a government hotel, then the rest of the time at home. And it was really hard. And we're like, I don't think we can do that with Leo. So we had to cancel our trip for Christmas. And I'm kind of glad that we waited because things have settled down a lot. And we have no issues with quarantining anymore. Just we have to get one test that's approved with a paper that ANA sent us the document that we have to get the coronavirus test for. And then we can get on the flight as long as it's negative. We have to use what's called a MySOS app as well. And we can register that information into the app.

07:55 Kanae Daub: What's it like? You haven't been in the U.S. for like three years. What's it like to be back in America?

08:02 Kanae Daub: I'm so happy to be here right now.

08:08 John Daub: How's the food?

08:09 Kanae Daub: Food? Good.

08:11 John Daub: We're both eating a lot. Pancakes.

08:13 Kanae Daub: Pancakes, pizza, hot dog. We have barbecue right now.

08:18 John Daub: It's pretty crazy. But there's a lot more space. What do you think? So we're in my brother's house and my parents' house. And it's a house. If you compare it, I think Leo likes the bigger house more, huh?

08:30 Kanae Daub: Of course.

08:31 John Daub: Yeah, I think it makes us think about where we want to live if it's Tokyo. Nature. He likes nature a lot.

08:39 Kanae Daub: Yeah, he likes nature a lot.

08:53 John Daub: Yeah. I'm kind of glad that we're going to be here for the 4th of July, too. So we get a chance to see some fireworks, American style, which is a nice contrast to all of the... This is my first 4th of July in 24 years since I moved to Japan in 1998. So it's going to be pretty neat to be here. Usually if I came in the summer, we came later after the 4th of July. So it's really nice to be here.

09:19 Kanae Daub: Are you going to see fireworks?

09:21 John Daub: I think so. I hope so. I don't think they're going to be the same, but we'll be able to see maybe a local fireworks festival. It's really... I don't know. It's exciting to have a barbecue on a deck and things like this. We can't really do that in Tokyo so much. Originally, we were going to go and do a West Coast road trip. This is even before we had Leo and visit some friends on the West Coast and do meetups. That was right before COVID hit. We were going to do that in March of 2020 before the Olympics and the world changed. Hopefully, you know, maybe next year that's something we can consider because we would love to go drive from Washington State all the way down through California, through Oregon, California and Nevada and down to Utah and the beautiful Southwest. Love to see some more of the US. Kanae hasn't seen much of America. And to be honest, I've only been west of the Mississippi a few times.

10:45 John Daub: So we have a couple more days here and then we're going to go back home to my parents' house. Then we drive up to JFK and get on the flight with a negative test and hopefully we're back in Tokyo. The jet lag works better going to Japan. We'll wake up at 4 in the morning for a week or so. I'm really productive. The last 10 days I've been almost unproductive because I'm groggy and sleepy at this time right now. It's getting better. But Leo wakes us up at like 4:45 even though maybe our jet lag is better. So then we're groggy through most of the day and then we get sleepy around 6 and then we want to sleep. But by the time we get used to it, we have to fly back to Japan and then messes up our systems.

11:36 Kanae Daub: So you have to stay for more than two weeks in Japan.

11:39 John Daub: Do you miss the cicada sounds?

11:43 Kanae Daub: The natsu? Semi?

11:52 John Daub: I'm okay but when I hear that, I feel like I'm in Japan. Japanese summer. And we're missing the super hot weather so it's been actually very pleasant temperature here.

12:06 John Daub: We'll take one question. We got to go on. We're kind of getting ready for dinner here. Barbecue chicken. So if you have any questions, you can ask us on the live stream. John Michael writes in here, can you and Kanae go to Nashville, Tennessee? Maybe one of these days. I think we'll go do a road trip across country for sure. You didn't come to US on a guided tour or chaperoned everywhere. I haven't even heard anyone who's been on one of those Japan tours. So as soon as I do, I think maybe I'll spend some time in Haneda and look for people. Did Leo give you grief on the flight due to the air pressure? It wasn't too bad. He was okay. I think he was drinking and we were giving him little snacks, chips to bite on. So he didn't have any problems with it. Not as bad as we thought he would, but he did cry. He was sleepy. He ate quite a bit. He cried a little bit, but it's hard to play. He can't really walk around too much, but we staked out the front of the premium economy. So he had more space than normal. I'm glad that we didn't get business class because we wouldn't have been able to afford it anyways. But next time I think having three economy seats might be better than two premium economies and having a lap child, which is what he was.

13:31 John Daub: Will you visit Ohio Stadium next time? Michelle, I so wanted to go this time. Two weeks is just... I think if I had two more days, we might be able to drive over there. They do have eki-bens for airplanes. Kuko-bens, I think you call it. Soda-bens. Sky bentos. We go back home in about five days from now, five or six days from now. We actually bumped into one of my Patreon supporters, Richard. We're going to do a video, which is really awesome. And we're going to drive up to visit friends in North Jersey in a couple of days. But nothing big. How rough was the jet lag? Pretty bad. We're still kind of suffering. But having Leo has kind of rocked us a little bit because he gets up. But his jet lag is starting to get better, which is scary because it's going to be worse when we go home. It took one week and we're still kind of... We don't have a rhythm going.

14:42 Kanae Daub: Kanae had sushi a couple of days ago.

14:48 John Daub: Was it good?

14:49 Kanae Daub: Yeah, it was not bad.

14:50 John Daub: You're so lying. They have like dried onions on top or something. It's American sushi. I can't compare with Japanese sushi. Yeah, it's pretty weird. I tried the shrimp tempura. Maybe we'll do that when we go back to my parents' place. Maybe we'll get some supermarket sushi from two or three places. And then do a live stream on it. And then we'll see. Then you can tell by her reaction. She can't use words. She has to react. And then you can tell she's lying by her face. That'll give it away. Like, it's really good. That might give it away.

15:33 John Daub: Peter and I are just putting the finishing touches on our Kickstarter. We just got the microphone. We have a Bluetooth microphone. And a third unit that'll be able to record our conversations. So we'll be able to use that in the video, which is cool. We're gonna launch that Kickstarter, I think, in a few days. We're pretty close to it. Hey, there's Danny. We're in New England, in Vermont. You can probably hear me right across the border. That's why it's so green. Because it's such a beautiful area. We gotta go and eat. I just wanted to do a quick livestream because it has been a long time. There's a lot of stuff going on. I'm so unproductive right now. But I'm sort of just enjoying the time that I have here because it's gonna be over quite sooner than I realize it. But I do have a little bit of time to edit. And I have a video which is basically done. I just need the narration of the Yubari melons, which were about $30,000 at auction. It's a really interesting video of the farm and how they grow them. It's gonna be the next video on the main channel. And I have three other videos to edit. I'm so far behind. But I'm gonna try to soak this in a little bit because I know it's not gonna last forever.

16:51 John Daub: We're getting ready to eat. I'm trying to get back into shape. Trying to get as much sleep. Reading a book. Trying to reset because this summer, folks, is gonna be crazy busy. I'm gonna be jetting around all over the place taking you on this channel to some really unique places in this country. And I hope that y'all stick around for the ride. By the way, the fireworks video for those that are looking at how fireworks are made is doing really well. Check that out. How Japanese fireworks are made video. It went from like 400,000 to 1.2 million views or something in like three weeks. It's crazy right now. And I really appreciate it. If you take a look at the Melody Road video which I uploaded about a little bit over a week ago, that video could use a little bit of love. It's super interesting to drive over the countryside roads in Japan. East Hokkaido which is the place that a lot of people will never go. And here, the origins, the first Melody Roads. These grooves that make music when you drive over it at 60 kilometers per hour. I think it's pretty cool. You might want to check that episode out. Leave me a comment there.

17:55 John Daub: And I will give you a full report when I get back to Japan. Again, we might do a live stream of some of the supermarket sushi in Japan in a couple of days. But until then, we're gonna just kinda chillax and enjoy the ride. And I'll see you guys in the next couple of days. And we'll be back really soon.

18:12 Kanae Daub: Love you, John, Kanae, Leo.

18:14 John Daub: Love you too, guys. Take care. Stay safe and happy 4th of July to those that are in the States. And you can see over here, Kanae and Leo saying goodbye. Leo, do that flip that you've been practicing. No, he's not gonna do the flip. I'm so impressed with all the English words he's been learning. Gosh, I got so much to tell you when we get back to Tokyo. Bye, guys.