00:00:00 John Daub: Tokyo! And of course one would be fashionably late, and yes, I am in a raincoat with an umbrella. And it's very bizarre because in this episode I'm not just going to be taking you down the shopping street of Ginza during the weekend, which they shut down and allow us to walk in the middle of the street. You can see there's no cars. But I'm also going to be talking about: did Japan make a massive mistake in declaring the end of the rainy season in June, which would make it the first time since records have been kept that the rain season ended after only 14 days, which is kind of bizarre. It seems like a mistake, considering for the fact that for the last like five days straight, it's— it feels like it's been raining the entire time. And this just happens to be the only crack in the clouds which looks like they could pour again at any moment. It's been bizarre, and it's been cooler weather, a little bit humid. We have the air conditioner off, which is also bizarre for July. And I have a little bit of a problem with the air conditioner because it's been raining for a long—long sleeve shirt, which is also really bizarre. But you can see the people look a lot more comfortable than they would in the heat of Japanese summer. How you doing everybody?

00:01:10 John Daub: Evan, actually, it's not a clickbait thing. It's a real thing. They called the end of the rainy season, and it's been raining for five days straight. Come on, give me a break. Um, so basically the rainy season in Japan lasts for about five to six weeks. Typically it'll start around June 10th to June 14th, and it goes on until the 20th of July. Usually it'll rain— at least it has for the last few years at the Sumida River fireworks festival, which is the big fireworks festival here in Tokyo. Uh, we've had wet weather for most of this. I think it's been suspended for the last couple of years because of the pandemic. But a lot of them have been— have been ringing during that, considering like that's the fringe of the rainy season. And then as soon as August 1st hits in Tokyo, it's like almost always sunny for the first like week and a half. And if there are any showers, they're like they're like popcorn showers, like something from Florida. It would shower for about 30 minutes and then it's over. But for the last five days we have had like really really wet weather, and it's been pretty miserable. And I guess that's not a bad thing considering that we are in the middle of the seventh wave, which doesn't mean a lot anymore because— there's not that many people sick in the hospitals, and this pandemic is kind of trickling out. People are getting sick, it's getting more like it's influenza than anything else. Um, you know, everybody has been— who wants to can get vaccinated, and we're past that. Um, but you know, I— I— it just— when you have rain coming down like this, it makes you question whether or not the right decision was made in calling the end of the rainy season. They did have a heat wave. The weather at the end of June was like in like 35, 40 degrees Celsius, which is above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and you can understand why they might think okay, summer has started. But then this happens, and it's fairly comfortable, and it feels like I don't know, June, but it's not— it's July.

00:03:08 John Daub: All right, so I'm gonna walk around here. I'm in the middle of the street. Social distancing in Japan— we still wear masks. Mine's pretty flimsy. The purpose is just to make other people feel safe and not infect anybody, because who knows. I might be— I might be sick myself. Because big so I might— my location shoot yesterday was even canceled. I was going to be filming um outside on the SkyTree. In fact, I'll be outside the SkyTree up on the roof for anyone who's here on July 20th. You guys can can come and see me outside on the roof, 450 meters up. If you have a long— you'll need a very very long telephoto lens in order to catch me, but I will be wearing um a jacket, which is pretty cool. That you'll be able to see. They make you wear a helmet too up there.

00:04:08 John Daub: Since I came back to the United States uh from the United States to Japan, um we've been suffering through the jet lag, and I think a lot of you who who do travel across the world, East or West, you know what I'm talking about. Um, we'd be getting up at three, four in the morning, and then uh getting really sleepy around seven, eight PM. It was only the last couple of days that I have maintained or gotten back to a normal schedule of sleeping. Now I can do that, and I feel a lot more rested than I did the first two weeks. But I gotta be honest, I'm not getting a lot of sunshine these days, and that's kind of depressing. We're getting near Yonchome. I hope the signal's okay. One of the reasons that I did— I needed to go live too and I wanted to do that the last couple of days. Everything just got rained out. I wanted to do a midnight snack run, but I looked at the window and it was downpouring all the way from 11 to the morning time. So there wasn't a chance to do that. But I wanted to launch the Kickstarter project.

00:05:08 John Daub: So Peter might be here in the chat with us, but the link is open, and we've already reached 20— before I even did this live stream to tell everybody that we started, we've already exceeded 25% of our goal in the first like 15 minutes. And I want to say thank you to everybody who's backing these— this is the fourth Kickstarter that I've done. Um, we've raised already almost 300,000 yen. I believe somebody bought a uh we have an anti-Toby seat now. Toby is a um Toby is the crow that I met in my first Kickstarter hitchhiking across Japan in Noboribetsu, which is where Peter and I will go back uh in— riding through there on July 29th, I believe, will be in Noboribetsu. That's where I saw a crow swoop down and steal a piece of salmon that I'd thrown to a bear that was imprisoned in a bear park. And from— and I dubbed that crow Toby, who was an annoying troll in our way to do something, or something. I can't remember. You can even see— that live stream was hitchhiking out of Akita, I think, and I said, "You're the most annoying freak of nature." Well, actually that Toby ended up being a pretty good guy, and I sent him a copy of the Blu-ray. That's all moved. But now whenever we see a crow, evil creatures of the day time and night, uh we call them Toby's on this channel. So we have a Toby position, and this is— this is pretty. We actually have two. We have the 50 Toby. It's completely, and it's spelled T-O-B-Y, I believe, because that was Toby's name. All right, is that— is that WRX— WRX servo is in the house, and Michael Susano is here. I'm so happy to catch this live. So please share more info about the Kickstarters. I want to provide continued support to everything you do. Michael, you're such such a good friend. Thank you buddy. I will do that. Um, you don't need to— to see me to— for me to talk about the Kickstarter project. Let me just go straight here to Yonchome. But what we're gonna do with this is we're of— course we're gonna make a documentary, and I've never done anything like this because I just got the motorcycle license, and Peter's been riding motorcycles for I don't know, over 20 years now. So it's very important that I go with somebody who's experienced um so I don't do anything dumb. But it just makes me feel more comfortable, and somebody will be able to give me pointers, and I'm gonna learn a lot from Peter, but which is new. But uh, I think that having two of us go on an adventure to Tokyo— making fun of each other, and having— in fact right down the street— but you haven't seen us in Hokkaido on motorcycles, and we've gotten uh all this set up before we even launched the Kickstarter project. So you know whether or not it's funded, we're still going to be doing live streams here on this channel and bringing you with us. But for those that back, we're going to get a little bit more extra um extra information. We're going to be doing end of the day updates on how the trip went and sharing that via Kickstarter project updates. Uh the link, and sometimes we'll do it live. But we want those that are backing us— because that's how we can afford this trip— to go in to be a part of it and follow us on the map, which is gonna be pretty awesome. Um yeah, we have a tenugui, which are the um— what do you call them? Well, they're basically Japanese woven cloths, and if anyone has ever seen the Karate Kid, that's what Daniel LaRusso was wearing. So we're gonna make up about 500 of them. And I don't know if we're gonna be able to sell them all on the Kickstarter, but we're gonna have them. Uh, we're— you know, well yeah, Daniel— I mean, I kind of look like the Karate Kid, so people tell me. And uh, we're gonna have uh these tenugui for sale to help raise money for this project, as well as um— Peter's idea was really good. It was a um an Echo— an original design Echo bag, which is something that's super useful these days. And we're gonna put the design um— actually uh shared some pieces of the design that's not updated in the video. We're gonna put on Instagram as well as the Kickstarter project updates. Here I am on Yonchome. This is this main intersection of Ginza. Live right now, I don't know how good the signal is. There's the Nissan building in the distance, and uh the infamous Wako department store, 10 stories, I believe it is, of luxury goods. Anyone who's ever been in there, raise your hands, because it's probably— I think Echo is spelled ECO. Eco bag or Echo bag. They say Echo in Japanese, but they're bags, so— because in Japan they don't have plastic bags at the supermarkets anymore. You need to have a bag to carry with you. And and Peter found a really nice place that makes uh bags with our design on it, and we're going to be making about 500 of those as well. We're going to make about 500 of those as well, and uh so that is part of the project, and I hope that that's something that that's useful. Echo is an ecology. Yeah, that sounds about right. Hey, I can is pledged. I— I recon— you'll be— I reckon you'll be great on a bike, John. You already— and you already have life critical skills. It's true. Scuba diving master. Yes, I am a dive master. I can take you on tours and get paid for it. It's professional license. Peter has a great has great writing skills. I can confirm that I've ridden on the bike and have never crashed. Um— me courage.

00:10:57 John Daub: I need to wear long pants and and jackets, long sleeve shirts, which I haven't done until I went to motorcycle school and learned that it can be to your benefit to do that. So don't worry, I am— we are both not kids anymore, so we're both pretty responsible people, mostly, and we're going to not be showboating or anything. The purpose of the trip is to show you the scenery and just soak it in going 30 kilometers per hour. That kind of excites me. I don't— I don't see myself myself exceeding needing to exceed the speed limit, because we're not in a hurry. In fact, it's just the opposite. We are in the anti-hurry, which like the anti-Toby, which somebody already signed up for, which is crazy. So we already have two of the highest tiers. One of them is gone, so the next person is going to be the Toby. All right, look, you know what, Peter, let's see if we could sell this to— is Peter here, and let's see if we if we can get somebody to bite on the Toby level, and maybe there's a possibility if there's a demand we'll do one more. Because we're going to be riding an RV for the last four days, and for part of the drive we're going to bring you in live and share with you the view in the car like via FaceTime or Skype or something. And this is the Toby seat. So basically you're riding with us in the RV for uh you know like 30 minutes or something. So it's going to be a lot of fun. And then if you want you'll be in the documentary uh writing with us, and you'll be on the screen like you're sitting in a seat. It's gonna be— so we have a Toby and we have an anti-Toby, and then we have one more position called the Toby seat, which is the bad guy. Yeah, yeah, it's all debatable. And uh you'll get a package as well as their certificate, and uh yeah, you'll be infamous, and it's going to be a lot of fun and it helps to support the trip. Well, the anti-Toby level was pledged. Yeah, that's pretty amazing, and I'm really excited about that. Hello, hi eight two one is two being half crow. We're going to have a blast. Right now and PBG, who's watching here on the live stream. Tomorrow we're going to be doing a live stream together, right? Is that right, Peter? Tomorrow or Sunday, and we're going to talk about the Kickstarter project as well. Leave a message as well or a comment on the project, and we're going to read some of your comments uh as well, and that'll be pretty fun to do. Um, to share in that experience. Yeah, right. Tomorrow we want to hit this goal. Our goal is to hit the goal in five days again. We're asking like one million yen was the minimum that we needed for for the motorcycles, the camper, the food, the reservations. We have uh Emmy, who's my assistant, who's making all the reservations and helping us uh um get all the production done for the tenugui and the uh a little bit with the tote bags, I guess. I think Peter's on top of that. Uh, she's gonna be um looking into some of the restaurants and booking at, so we're gonna have to— we're gonna pay her really well, and as well as Dakota, who's an artist who's making an original design for us. Um, he's doing an excellent job of that. So we're putting people to work. Our goal is to show you Hokkaido in a new way. We're going to be showing you more than crows. I really— personally— on a personal note, I want to show you a little bit— not a little bit, but as deep as we possibly can with the time that we have— about Ainu culture, which are the indigenous people of Hokkaido. And I got to touch on it in the hitchhiking trip and the times I've spent um traveling around Hokkaido. You always are slightly exposed to it, because a lot of the towns that you ride through have Ainu names to them. Even now they're a little bit odd, and sometimes even written in katakana, because they're not Japanese names. They're Ainu names. There's a lot of history behind that, so I want to dig into this a little bit more and feature that in the documentary. There's a brand new Ainu museum near Noboribetsu that we're going to stop into and see if we can get them to talk to us a little bit. This is part of the journey, and I want you, if you travel to Hokkaido, to understand that the soul of this island is very much connected with that indigenous Ainu culture. The food, I don't know much about that. The history, I really would like to learn a lot more, just like a lot of you. So we're going to make we're going to make this part of the video and the adventure to learn about the local people, the local businesses, as well as the local foods. We want to really dig into the stuff that's not on the tourist route. That's where we're on motorcycles, right?

00:15:28 John Daub: So I'm super excited. Toby Kaido, what joy. That's pretty funny, Joy. I just sent you a postcard as well. So this one's postcard is the uh uh Yubari melon harvest up in Hokkaido. The uh uh 200 melons or sorry, they once went for 50,000 in 2019, a pair of them. I went to the auction a couple of months ago now, and I'm working on that video right now. Um, so that should be uploaded as soon as I can catch my breath.

00:15:59 John Daub: We are walking down uh Ginza's Chuo Avenue, which is shut down on the weekends. It's beautiful, and this is a crack in the weather. And again, if you saw the title of this episode, I think they made a mistake. I think they prematurely called the end of the rainy season, but they saw a crack in it. The weather has been pretty funky lately. But I gotta— I get a long sleeve shirt on a jacket that doesn't breathe, while and I feel pretty comfortable. But I do think that they— they maybe called it a little bit early or— there's a second. I don't know why I'm saying that, but I think they called it a little bit early. Or rainy season, which is odd because we just have one. This is the biggest Uniqlo in the world. I've already shown to you a couple of times. I'm panning up here. I won't be going in. Peter and I are kind of sort of locked down of trying to take it easy, so we don't get sick before the trip.

00:16:56 John Daub: Why are you all walking in the middle of street, no cars? That's a good question. On the weekends, almost most weekends, Ginza shuts down this main street. It's been doing it for a very long time. Uh, the first McDonald's that opened up in Japan was at that Mitsukoshi where the lion is. We'll walk back down there in about um five minutes. The first McDonald's opened up there um a little bit over 50 years ago now, I think. I did a video on the anniversary, and they showed pictures of the street shut down then. So for a very long time, this neighborhood likes to encourage people to— to go to the street and they're going to— to come here to shop. It doesn't have the same vibe as the AEON malls or the shopping malls that are all inside, but people will still come here. And there's something really cool about the vibe of this street being shut down— a major avenue in the city of Tokyo. I love it. And this is um, I don't know, like a seven or eight minute bicycle ride from my house, so it's very convenient. Just to— you know, get outside, go for a walk, get back on my bike, and then ride back home and go back to work. I kind of like this neighborhood too, riding around. It's not as crowded as Shibuya, Shinjuku. That side of the city, and it's pretty stylish. I love Shimbashi, which is just over there. You can see that bridge on the other side. Beyond that starts Shimbashi, more or less. And on the other side there's Kyobashi, and that starts uh another area of the city of Tokyo. And Ginza, sandwich on this street, pretty much between those two bridges. Pretty cool.

00:18:36 John Daub: Huh. I'm getting close to that— to Tokyo Street, and I'm going to go to the next one, which is the Tokyo Street. By the way, it's so close to the Tokyo City now. Though the Tokyo Street at the corner is a very nice construction and has been renovated and wear— renovated and worn for quite a while now. The Tokyo Street of Tokyo City is more little Barbie doll who's in human form, um, but he looks like a shouldn't. He looks like a fan of Tambi, who's in human form, literally had a head on like Mickey Mouse. It was pretty creepy. But Peter nonetheless went up and made conversation with Rika-chan. I believe he got her phone number to a plastic phone in the plastic castle, which is actually in Fukushima. There's an amusement park for in in Fukushima, and it looks like a ghost town. There's been some not great reviews recently because I think it needs to have a little bit of renovation. Rika-chan is the Barbie doll. Some of you don't know Rika-chan. What? You don't know Rika-chan? I— I knew— I know Rika-chan, and a lot of the kid culture because I taught children the first seven years that I came to Japan. I had kids like shove it in my face. "Rika-chan! Rika-chan, Johnson!" Rika-chan is a uh is the Japanese equivalent to Barbie dolls. Here she's cuter, she's got all the accessories, and I think she has a band of friends. I don't know what Rika-ch— what's Rika-ch— I don't know what Rika-ch— what Rika-ch— is there a Ken version of Rika? I'm not sure. But we will find out. Maybe. All right, I'm going to turn around. We got some complaints on the quality kind of dropping. So there's— there's a lot of tall buildings in the area here, so they could be cutting down on the on the signal strength.

00:20:35 John Daub: Hey, Champagne Sumo. Any haunted sites in Tokyo? That's a good question. Yeah, there are. You know, Peter was telling me about a couple of these buildings, and he's trying to— he was encouraging me to do an episode on them. There are several really old that look like abandoned houses of of people who don't want to sell their property out, so these massive skyscrapers can't build. And and then you have this jungle in the center of the city of Tokyo. There's one right outside of the TBS Akasaka— TBS building. The owner doesn't want to sell the house, so all these brand new shops and malls and the TV station has buildings around this very haunted-looking house, and there's dozens of this around the city of Tokyo. And there's always a story behind it, but usually those owners— if they don't want to sell, they probably don't want to talk, so I haven't had any success getting anybody to talk about it. But yeah, they sure look haunted to me. Actually, Ginza at night is kind of scary on Sunday. I've come out here for midnight snack run. I think last year um during a state of emergency, and the rain is starting to come down, but it's going to take a lot more than that to get me to put my umbrella up. There are some haunted sites in Tokyo. There's— I wonder where the— I remember the movie called The Ring. I believe that was filmed in Tokyo. The house has got to be somewhere around Roppongi or something. Right, so there are some haunted houses, and there's some houses where heinous crimes have occurred, and and you know, the best person to do that is the person who's going to be the founder of the Homicide Inc. podcast, available wherever you get your great podcast. I'm helping. But there are some some houses just one um, gosh, I don't even want to talk about it. I'll let him do it, because I— I— I hate bringing people down, but there was one where you know, I— you know what, never mind. It's just thinking about it. They even have a Wikipedia on some of these really bad ones, and there's some bad stuff that happens here. Nobody talks about it. That's what you know— PBG's podcast is for, and my parents love to listen to it. When we went home two weeks ago, this is what was playing in the car for most of the time. I'm like, damn, I thought I escaped this guy, and here he is in the US on the radio. I forget which one you were talking about. I guess there's one a crime in India that happened sort of— I might have fallen asleep. Jet lag.

00:23:34 John Daub: Speaking of creepy faceless people turning around. How'd they do it in sync? Hey, Ramsay. The Rams? Ramsey Silents is now solo writer. Awesome. We'll be sending it to you to the Cheese State pretty soon. Disabled Gamer, JH? Right in here. Hi, John. I've been a fan since the old channel. Um, always been curious how you think a tourist who's wheelchair-bound would do visiting Japan.

00:24:00 John Daub: That's a great question. I— you know what, I've been doing these walks, I've been trying to look at how the city of Tokyo has changed its accessibility for people, and it's done an extraordinary job. I would say you'd fare fairly well, come if— especially if you compare it to before 2018, the city of Tokyo before the Olympics underwent I don't know like a huge restructuring of things, because as you know, the the Paralympics was held here uh last year, and they wanted to make sure that the city was more um uh accessible. Most of the major stations and a lot of them— the minor— ba— which they did not have before. There's a lot more ramps going up to it, and I've noticed that— let's— I want to show you here. They didn't do a very good job of the curve. You see how that now goes all the way down to the street. They do a very good job of making sure that the street at the crossings and the curb are really low, so you don't have a bump. I— I don't like it as a bicycle, and I noticed that people with wheelchairs sometimes struggle with that the curbs here— of course they're very high. Done a very good job of making them flush. The elevators are good, and this is the assistance— if you call ahead, you can get um VIP service, which is kind of cool. I know a lot of people um when they ride on the subway and need a little bit of help, especially especially during rush hour. Just— just let me put a little bit on this here. At rush hour, it's very hard if you have a wheelchair, and there's thousands of people um rushing around. You know, hurry. So if you call them in advance and each train station has a phone number in Google Maps, I don't know if they'll be able to speak English. It might help to have someone who can speak some Japanese. But if you let them know the times that you're going to be there, a staff member will help you navigate this, because it helps the station with the flow of traffic. It's not just to give you VIP service, but it helps the station. And I've noticed that a lot of people in wheelchairs calling ahead and making it a lot easier— making it a lot easier um on everybody. And it's it's kind of neat. They get out um. There'll be two staff members that will get out a uh a metal ramp that connects the train uh with it. And you just tell them which car you're in, and they'll wait there for you for the train. They're so good. The people on the trains here— I lost them. I left my motorcycle helmet on the train. I figured it out 30 seconds after the door closed and it started to speed away. I went straight to the station master. I walked into them. I told them what train it was, where it was— two, three stations down. It at Mitsukoshi— Mitsukoshi Mae, which is uh I don't know about a kilometer and a half down this down the road here. They actually— station manager ran to that train. He picked it up and said, "You— we found your helmet. It's uh at Mitsukoshi Mae. You can pick it up at the station master there." I was like, wow, that was so fast. So service in Japan is second to none. They've been lacking in accessibility for a very long time, but I think with the Paralympics here, the city of Tokyo was well well made. And for that, and I don't know about Osaka and the other places. You can see Tokyo has put in new— here in Ginza, they put in new uh entrances. There's new elevators here. When Leo comes— because Leo is in a baby car or a stroller— we don't want to take him out of that, and we find that it's been pretty accessible here to bring him around. So I think it's a lot better. Speaking of rides, sweet sweet rides in there. That's just Sony's Sony Building. It's still under renovation, but you can go up here and try out all the camera gear. Oh, let's get something to eat. I love the Akibono mochi shop here. Hold on. I'm trying to stay on the main roads. I'm gonna get a bunch of change. Let's see if we can— they got great mochi here.

00:28:58 John Daub: Foreign— uh— foreign— foreign— foreign— foreign— foreign— alien— all right, let's go to the main street. So let's see what we have right here. So we have Oron. This is a grape— a Shine grape, which is the best of the best. Well, one of the best of the best. It's a high-quality premium grape, which costs like $50 for a bundle of them. They put it into mochi, which I've never tried before. So let's go over here, and we're going to eat one. We've got to eat something. I love the mochi shop here, Akebono, and I've been going there for years. Every season, they've got something unique. In the winter, the ichigo or strawberry daifuku are today food. Today, this. It just looks like a ball of mochi, but inside is all happiness.

00:31:11 John Daub: Yeah, it's raining. The rain is picking up. You can see everybody has umbrellas here. I like how they put the expiration date on there. It looks real official with this, but it costs 399 yen, which is like $2.80 for one mochi ball. Which is pretty pricey, despite inflation. And if the exchange rate was even worse for you, this thing could be like $4 for this. That's pretty amazing. It's so soft. I believe that's rice flour that doesn't stick. So we're going to give this a try as the rain hits it. It's pretty nice. I love mochi here.

00:32:13 John Daub: Ah, but what's inside? Yeah, it's— totally overpriced. When you have something like a snack or something like this, paying a little bit more for it once in a lifetime.

00:32:47 John Daub: Oh, it's so sweet. And you know what? Did they take the skin off that? Did they take the skin off the grape? I think they did. It's crazy. Shine grapes. They're made in a couple of prefectures. I asked a lady which prefecture is this from, and she couldn't tell me. She said she wasn't really sure. But they get it from a bunch of other prefectures, and I don't mind too much. But I like it. I like to know where it comes from. It should be 50 cents. Yeah, I don't think you understand what this grape is. Whenever you get the best of the best, don't expect to pay— like— maybe it's supposed to be this if you had an ordinary grape, but Shine grape? Okay, maybe 250 yen, but come on, it's a Saturday.

00:33:33 John Daub: Thank you. Thank you very much. That's such a wonderful— you know what, that one daifuku. It's kind of filled pretty good. So here's the thing. Use your money. I'm in agreement with a couple of really good friends of mine that are food bloggers here. And we talk about: what do we use our money on? We don't buy a lot of stuff. You know, I don't buy designer clothes, and I don't take extravagant holidays. And even when I take a holiday, you think it's a holiday. Trust me, this Hokkaido motorcycle trip is no holiday. We are working our butts off. We've been planning this. It's been really hard work. And when we get there, we're filming the whole thing. It's going to be fun, but it's a job. So when you do use your money, what do we use it on? We use it on food. I don't mind spending a couple of hundred dollars on a really nice sushi dinner. Maybe once or twice a year. I think that's a really effective use of money, because food is something that doesn't accumulate. It supports a business owner or chain. But we like to— I tried my very best to— look at that little Porsche. It's a little cute car. It's cute. Yeah. So food is something worth spending your money on. And I think in the US, for practical purposes, food isn't as important. People don't want to spend much on food. Whereas in Japan, people will pay a lot more for food. I think people eat out more here. More because it's— you know— in this Japanese cities, you don't need to drive as much. Most of the population living in urban areas. Wait a second here. So yeah, food is very important to me, and to get not the best of the best, but to get nice, well-sourced food here. It's a lot easier than I think in other countries, and they do a pretty good job of it. And flavors. I've never had a bad peach. I've lived here for 20— actually, three days ago was my Japaniversary. Middle of August— middle of July— my 24th year. I've never had a bad peach in 24 years. I can't even— actually, when it comes to fruit, I can't recall when I had a bad piece of fruit. And yet when I went to the US, I had bad fruit all the time. Not all the time, but I had— there's always like bad— like, I get blueberries from the Nagano store here. I've never had a bad blueberry, or a blueberry did not explode with flavor. It's crazy. All right. You get what you pay for. Which, I don't know, is that important to you? Something to think about. For me, it's kind of important. And we love to support the farmers who make these crazy, crazy tasting fruits as well. There was a show on TV here a few years ago. I remember watching with my jaw on the ground. The strawberry millionaires of Japan. The strawberry farmers, a lot of them are like millionaires that drive Ferraris. And Japanese TV picked up on it and went to the countryside, and they saw the strawberry farmer millionaires, which are crazy. They sell a pack of six to eight strawberries for like, I don't know, like six or seven dollars. And they sell out everywhere, because they're just so good. So when it comes to Japan, this is what I learned when I started a business here: the cheapest price doesn't win. The best quality product, people pay for the quality here. It's such a different market than the United States. You can't put a product out and expect just because it's cheaper, it's going to sell. It's almost the opposite. If it's a new product, you might even want it to be more expensive than the competitor to make a statement. So people look at it and ask what makes it better instead of cheaper. People saying what makes it worse. It's just a different way to think about things. Japan does it differently. The mindset is different.

00:37:52 John Daub: Crazy rich farmers. But they— you know what, in their defense, and they need none, they need no defense. They work hard. They work pretty darn hard. And I know that a lot of— you know— there's a lot of farms that are subsidized by the government and whatnot as well. There's ancient laws that protect farmers as well. Farming in Japan right now is though, despite all the money that is potentially in it, it's actually dying out. In Yubari, I believe, gosh, they don't have enough farmers making melons. It's decreasing. And the age of the farmers is much higher now. The sons are not taking over. Or they're not having enough sons, maybe. I don't know. But there's going to be a farming crunch, I believe, in Japan, unless something turns around in the next 20 years. In fact, there's going to be a lot of crunches, because there's not enough people to take it in. So I'm hoping that immigration might change, or something. Most likely the outcome is a little bit of that and a little bit of robots doing a lot of the work. Japan's strawberries in USA are not as good. Japanese strawberries cannot compare. Japanese strawberry season is in the winter to the spring, normally, because they're all in the greenhouses. And they grow them in the winter, because it grows slower, which increases the sugar content and makes them sweeter. So if a strawberry grows slower, you can't produce as many of them, but they're super sweet. In the US, the strawberries come out in the summer, and they grow much quicker, so they're more bitter. So you need to dunk it in condensed milk. Like— that's not something we see. You don't see here in Japan the condensed milk dunking, because the strawberries are so darn sweet, you don't really need to dunk it in sugar. Whereas US strawberries to me were a little bit tart. But you could find sweet ones as well. So I think they're starting to— some farmers are understanding that if you can make a really good strawberry, there's a market for it. There's a market for everything. Do your research. I'm hoping there's a market for, you know, motorcycle supporters.

00:40:09 John Daub: John Kwan, thank you. Thank you so much. I'm glad that you're here, John. And the Mayor Pete. The only bad fruit John has had in Japan is Apple. It's a true story.

00:40:24 John Daub: I still haven't gotten my iPhone, but the police are on it. You want an update? Alright, from the Super Chat, here's an update on Apple. I've been working with the Tokyo Police Department. And Tokyo Police Department finally got an application from Apple to get the— the serial number of the stolen iPhone. I just never received it. So the missing iPhone. So they now can track it, possibly. So they're waiting. The police officer in charge is going to contact me when they get that. And then they start to search for the perpetrator. I don't know why Apple just doesn't send me a new phone. They're the ones who picked a horrible— not even Yamato. They picked a horrible shipping option. They sent it by a cheap shipping option. And who couldn't even confirm the package. And I never got my product. Customer service in Japan said that they had a meeting about me. And they said that they wouldn't send me a new phone. What? Awful customer service. Like, I took it? I'd be streaming on the darn thing. Alright, there you go. Look, Ginza. It is a luxury, high-class neighborhood. Filled with mochi and overpriced items that you will love to buy because of the experience. Or because you just like the finer things in life. Like this music playing in the background. It is a wonderful place. Even in the rain. But you can see it is raining. And obviously, the rainy season is not over. It's just getting started, maybe. Gosh. But I do love coming out here. I do like spending, you know, 30 minutes walking. Walking around the streets. Kind of unwind, relax. Then get back to work, because I got a video to edit. Now that we've launched a Kickstarter project— how waterproof is the gimbal? Waterproof enough. I think it's water resistant. It can get wet. This one is a DJI OM4. Which I think is superior to the OM5 for what I do. Travis, you're very welcome. The Groove Mall has an Apple Store in it. It looks similar to Japan's. Really? I don't know where that is. Apple US wanted to send him a phone. That's right, Raymond. I called Apple USA. And they actually said, "We will send you a new phone." But Apple Japan blocked it. And the Apple USA wanted to help. But they couldn't read the notes that Apple Japan had written, because it was in Japanese. And they couldn't get authorization to have it translated without Apple Japan authorizing it. So Apple Japan just has a hit on me. I have no idea why. And yeah, I might have screamed in the phone for a couple of minutes. After 60 minutes. After 60 months of waiting. And that's worth noting down in the notes. It's like a doctor's file. I'm sure they have on me. I did scream possibly for a short amount of time. But I think it was warranted. Because sometimes nothing gets done if you don't show any anger. But if you show systematic, controlled anger— like hot and cold— perhaps maybe you can move it in your direction a little bit. But that didn't happen. So what are you supposed to be? Just be a punching bag? No, you can't do that either. You have to be a little aggressive. It's probably in my records. And Apple won't even show me the notes that they've written about me. And they keep notes on all of us, by the way. Because they told me. In that order number, there was like a page of notes that they couldn't read. Apple USA being very honest about it. I don't know. I'm on a blacklist. For buying a product and never receiving it. Asking where it is. Like I lied and stole it or something. Come on.

00:44:35 John Daub: Alright everybody. Have a nice day. Look what you've done. But that might be the worst fruit that I've had in Japan. Congratulations on 24 years in Japan. Thank you. I didn't do a Japaniversary livestream. But I will next year, because it will be 25. That's a sweet anniversary to share. But if you want to see my 20th anniversary— that's on a livestream that has I think over 100,000 views. And small note before I leave. In that livestream, I showed— some of you might know this story, or you might have mentioned it. I showed pictures of when I backpacked for the first time in 1997 and 1996. And I went to a place in Liverpool. A youth hostel. And there was a group of Norwegians. Four guys that were on a vacation there. And there was an Aussie girl named Sarah. I still remember this. And we took all the bootleg Beatles tours. And we hung out and drank for a couple of days in Liverpool. And we went to the hotel. And one of the Norwegian guys saw that livestream. Just popped up in his YouTube queue. And he contacted me. First in Instagram. Patreon. Like email. Every ways. And I got the message. But then the pandemic hit. And I wasn't going to Norway. And we were seeing if I could meet up with them in England. And it didn't work out. Yeah, it would be really cool to see those guys after so many years. But connecting through a livestream that I did five years ago— about my past, 27 years ago. Before social media happened. It was pretty cool. And it's the same guy, because I kind of remember. We could talk about some of this stuff on the trip. And I'm glad. I think Oleg was one of the guys' names. And he was pretty crazy back then. I'm sure he's married with seven kids or something now. Maybe not. But I'd like to find out when his date. All right, everybody. Sayat. That is pretty amazing. All right, everybody. Stay dry. I hope it's as cool where you are as it is here. Because it is kind of chilly with the rain coming down. But I'm going to head back and start editing again. And check in. And if you do decide to consider the Kickstarter project— motorcycling around Hokkaido, which is going to be an epic adventure, which is prepaid for. Thank you to our Patreon supporters. You're still going to get livestreams and stuff from here. But we wanted to do it— a full-length documentary, which is different than YouTube. And we're going to be sharing that just with our community backers. And I'm so thankful for that support. If you have any questions about it, you can also write to us. And leave us a comment. And we're happy to talk about it. Bye, everybody. I got to get home. The rain is coming down even stronger. More umbrellas. Peter, what's the total at now? I'm kind of curious now. See you, everybody.