00:00:00 John Daub: How you doing everybody? It is moving a lot faster than I even realized. Over the weekend, the Japanese media put the Japanese government high-ranking officials on the spot. Hihara-san was one of those members and he let loose that in the very near future they will consider changing no limits and reducing and getting rid of the visa requirements. Then another official came out and said something on Monday morning and then, you know, in the evening of Monday, which was about 16 hours ago, more articles started coming out, more higher officials giving, how do I say this, putting more writing on the wall that this situation is going to change.

00:00:31 John Daub: And I just want to say right now, if you consider booking a package tour because you think that that's your only option to come to Japan right now, stop. Wait until Japan makes a very formal announcement that they're going to be opening up the country to everybody. I think it's just imminent and I was very upset with the way they were handling this. They would go from one step to like the steps are so micro. The steps are so micro that of course no one is going to take the bait or very few people, not the numbers that they were hoping for.

00:01:01 John Daub: If they just followed the advice of the American embassy, American businesses, even the head of JR East, Japan Railways East, the busiest section of the public transportation in the country who said open the freaking country up so that these businesses can get back to economic viability because we've been taking hits without tourists for so long. These little micro steps make no sense. It's not based on any science. So apparently that pressure and something else in the news here in Japan is causing politicians to move a lot quicker.

00:02:01 John Daub: Just yesterday when the key hottest—Fumio Kishida was quoted as saying in the not-so-distant future. To me means about six weeks or so. And then we got this announcement in 24 hours. The article link is in the description of this video, by the way. I'm guessing that there's going to be a lot more news forthcoming in the next week or two weeks, if not a formal announcement. So please don't book your trips to Japan right now. Just wait a little bit.

00:02:31 John Daub: D.D. writes in here by yen now. That might be a good idea. I don't see the yen going over 150 yen to the dollar, but it's at 142-43 right now. So if you're thinking about coming to Japan, it might make some good sense to change some money now and try to get a favorable rate because I think the rate is still going to be pretty high, but you might get 10 yen per dollar more. And that can add up if you're changing like a thousand or $2,000 into yen.

00:03:01 John Daub: This opening up of the country is going to spell some chaos in the beginning. I don't know how they're going to do it either. My guess is that they're going to open it up initially to a few countries to Hawaii, Singapore, Australia. I mentioned this previously. I don't know if they're just going to open up to the rest of the world, which would make sense. But Japan being Japan and cautious, you would assume that there might be some other steps involved. And right now with the speed at which this is going, nothing surprises me anymore. This is warp speed for Japan, although they probably should have done this months ago.

00:03:31 John Daub: Now, it does maybe help that the government's getting pounded in the news. The Jiyū Minshutō (Liberal Democratic Party) for having a strong association or some association to the Moonies, a political religious cult group here in Japan that was associated with—you know, played some part in the assassination of former Prime Minister Abe. It's a horrible news story. It's not good for anybody politically. The opposition party can't take advantage of it because they're somewhat associated with another religious political thing. It's kind of a big mess in politics here.

00:04:36 John Daub: But yeah, the Prime Minister would like to move on from that and maybe taking on immigration now and putting that in the news might help drown it out. So I guess it could be a political decision. I don't know. But if I was a guessing man, and I am because it's fun to guess, I would say that probably played something of a role. Maybe I'm wrong. But changing the news cycle can be a pretty powerful thing. You know, just ask former presidents and other political advisors.

00:05:13 John Daub: But it was news to me that just hours after I did the live stream yesterday that the situation changed that rapidly. This is the news article that's linked in the description of this video. Japan aims to remove daily arrival cap in October to spur tourism. Now, that title is also capped with a desire to remove. This is just from 12 hours ago. Japan is aiming to remove the cap to revive the third. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's administration facing pressure from business circles to loosen the strict COVID-19 travel regulations.

00:06:01 John Daub: U.S. Embassy, that was intended, is likely to judge how to ease the border control measures as early as next week. In addition to lifting the entry cap, government is also expected to discuss whether to allow foreign tourists to travel without a tour guide. That's going to happen. Japan has drawn down criticism at home and abroad for failing to keep pace with the other group of seven major industrialized nations, including Britain, France, United States, and opening its borders, as well as requiring those who do visit to obtain visas and asking them to wear masks at all times during the trip.

00:06:33 John Daub: For domestic tourism, the government is meanwhile considering restarting its nationwide subsidy program called Go To Travel. So domestically, people are traveling. Why can't international tourists take advantage of it? The program expanded the scope of the domestic tourism campaign introduced by each. So you can get up to like 11,000 yen or you can get a couple hundred dollars off of your hotel, 50% off on your stays.

00:07:00 John Daub: The economy is like it's not doing that well, and we can't keep giving up free money to businesses to try to cope with Japan's fear of bringing you back. You know, I like and my whole reason rationale and the reason why I'm upset is simply because Japanese tourists can travel to your countries. They can get COVID. They can bring it back to Japan. And it spreads the same way as though if foreign tourists had come and right now, Japan is more dangerous for catching COVID than many other countries around the world. So it doesn't make a lot of sense.

00:07:40 John Daub: These small micro steps and perhaps they're starting to listen. I've been reporting for the last couple of months at the United States Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce, Japan and a lot of other businesses have been putting pressure on the Japanese government, telling them, if you'd like us to keep investing in Japan and not move our headquarters to Seoul or to Hong Kong or to another country, you're probably going to want to get rid of this visa requirement. And you're probably going to want to get on par with the other nations because we have invested in Japan. We need these to drop because it's just based on what and they had no answer. And now they're getting an answer.

00:08:20 John Daub: So the power of business is more powerful than the power of the tourist dollar. And business wants this to end. And that's good for all of us. So there are times where business is good. What's not good is the reason why I started this live stream a little late. We're now talking with the Japan Post office on an iPhone 13 Pro that has never come. It's been almost a full year now.

00:08:43 John Daub: The police made a request for the code to be able to track it if it was stolen or not over six months ago. And Apple has not responded. Apple has not responded to the Tokyo Police Department in six months after they asked the police department to send in written mail the request to Apple. And Apple is not helping the Tokyo police with an investigation. And I'm still out $1,500 because I couldn't get a serial number for a phone that never arrived to get AppleCare that offers theft protection.

00:09:21 John Daub: So that's why I started late. We're now talking with the post office to see what they can do because I don't consider it to be my property until I receive it. And I never received it. So somebody has to come up with this. Insurance doesn't cover it. Credit card only covers 8% of it. American Express Japan is not American Express US. So yada yada yada. We've tried everything.

00:09:43 John Daub: If you're an Apple exec or you know somebody at Apple USA, Cupertino, who might want to help me, please let me know because I have a story to tell them. Or if you're in the national media and you'd like an amazing story, I'm happy to spill the beans and let you know all about this because I've never seen Japanese customer service as bad as this. Some of the stuff that Apple told me, it's like legendarily bad. You would never tell a customer some of the stuff that they said.

00:10:16 John Daub: Anyways, probably unlikely that I get the phone back, but I have an option to take Apple to Shōshōban (small claims court), because I didn't get a serial number, which is my right as somebody who buys an iPhone to apply for the AppleCare theft protection, which would have allowed me. I'd get that right for 30 days according to their policies. So I'm going to have to wait. And there's a very good case to be made in small claims court. And we do have that in Japan. It's a very unknown court. So you can sue people up to 60 man yen, $6,000.

00:10:54 John Daub: I'm still kind of weighing my options and hoping that maybe Apple comes around or the post office comes around or something. The post office shouldn't even be delivering this. It should have been Yamato, which is like the UPS or FedEx of Japan. It shouldn't have been the, you know, like USPS, right? They use some kind of cheap service, which they don't use anymore. So a lot of red flags in this situation. So I have a huge story to tell at the end of it.

00:11:22 Kanae Daub: I never get my phones through my phone carrier. I always get it directly from Apple because I never want to pay extra fees to the phone company.

00:11:31 John Daub: What I learned was that it's just more of a headache. You can blame COVID for it. But oh, we have to put it in a special box and we can't deliver it to your hand because of COVID. Like they have all these excuses here that make no sense to me. Even the post office is frustrated. So they're like saying, well, this is what Apple wanted. And they said, well, you know, if I don't have the phone, I can't apply for the serial number to get the insurance.

00:12:09 John Daub: No one wants to take responsibility for it. So sticking me with a bill. I mean, Apple said that their responsibility ended the moment they put the phone to the Japan Post office. They don't take any responsibility for the phone. They don't care whether the customer receives the phone once they give the phone to the carrier. They don't care about it. It's out of their hands. That's what they said to me. I've never met a corporation that was successful that had that kind of a customer service in Japan.

00:12:44 John Daub: So just because it's Apple Japan, the service is not better. All right. It's a very odd situation. Anyways, it's absolutely BS. The story that I will have. Hey, Samsung, get in touch. I would love to discuss a partnership or something with you. So I will have an amazing story to tell you at the end of this regarding Apple Japan. And it's either going to end happily or it's going to end mightily not good. Well, yeah, it'll end with maybe even a court drama.

00:13:14 John Daub: I don't know, but I'm not going to if it was $100, I'd give it up. But $1500 is a little bit too much for me just to give up, especially when I'm using Patreon and Super Chat money that comes in through here as support. That's money that I received from my community to get this phone. And I'm not going to give up on that. Not without more of an investigation. Tokyo police are frustrated with Apple. They expect the big companies to be slow, but they're not going to be this slow.

00:13:41 John Daub: Not we called Apple and they said they're going to 100% will support the police in finding a phone that went missing. But we have yet to see that. I on Twitter I had I sent a tweet to Tim Cook. I'm sure he's not going to see it. I don't know. But I kind of explained the situation how Apple Japan is not being cooperative with the Tokyo Police Department to find a missing iPhone. And that in itself is a very troubling issue. The police Tokyo police are waiting for Apple right now to get in touch with them.

00:14:23 John Daub: But this is just a short stream. I'll get into that a little later on the issue with the traveling. If you were thinking of coming to Japan, wait until an official decision is made before you book a package tour that you probably didn't want. Basically. Get the tour that you want. If you're not happy with it, don't book it. And please don't give up on Japan. This is moving ultra fast.

00:14:50 John Daub: I don't blame you if you want to go to Korea. It's a beautiful country. The food is amazing. If you're going to Thailand, take me with you. But if you're just holding it for if you really, really are thinking about coming to Japan, that's what you really want to do. Just hold out a little bit longer. And I think we're going to get some good news really soon because I would hate for you to have to alter your plans that you were hoping for because of the government.

00:15:17 John Daub: And it's of course the government wants people, you know, once tax dollars and what's that but who this hurts are the small businesses and the people that really need tourism to come back. There's a lot of people that get forgotten in this. I've seen too many businesses closed. I've seen too much heartbreak. People's lives I've changed as a result of the decisions of bad politicians who believe that they have good intentions.

00:15:49 John Daub: I don't want to see any more small businesses go under and I know that there's too many people hanging on by a thread that might not even be able to make it until October. So, you know, when Japan does open this up, please do consider coming to Japan and I make that appeal. I am biased. Again, I do love Thailand and Taiwan and Hong Kong and Singapore and those places have been deserving of your travel. But this channel is called Only in Japan. And of course, I'm going to be quite a bit biased.

00:16:18 Kanae Daub: Can I still talking with the post office right now? She was going to come in and say a few words to you to encourage you to come to Japan as well.

00:16:32 John Daub: I can hear them talk in the background. So let me give it a couple more minutes because I think I want to say something things to all of you. But where are the places now that we're getting closer to Japan reopening? What are some of the places that you're really interested in going? I just saw Nara Park. Oh my gosh. Will those deer be ecstatic to see you? The domestic tourists don't buy as much of the deer senbei (deer crackers) to give to them and they're kind of hungry.

00:17:07 John Daub: So I'm guessing that a lot of those deer are going to be pretty excited to see you back giving them the deer senbei and other snacks. It's been a long time. Talk to me. Like Hakuba [?]. Oh, that's great for the skiing season. That's wonderful. Oh, Kyoto. Yes, please. That's a I've spent most of my time there. Oh, that's a lot of islands. That's wonderful. That's a very good destination. You got to spend a week there, though. Kyoto, Arashiyama. That's all good.

00:17:44 Kanae Daub: Everything okay?

00:17:50 John Daub: She's still working out. I guess if the call is this long, it might be. It's good news or better news. I mean, wouldn't you think the post office would have some responsibility if we didn't receive the package? We've asked them for confirmation like a receipt on their end. Do they have that receipt? And they have yet to send that to us.

00:18:10 John Daub: So it's like, whose fault is it? Is it Apple for choosing post office instead of UPS? Is it the post office fault for not putting it in a box, you know, $1500 item into a storage box. Is it my fault for ordering Apple at all and I should have gotten Samsung? I don't know. Should I get the new iPhone? I'm lost. Can I use a hammer?

00:18:38 Kanae Daub: UFO Bob. She will let them and the words mean more in polite Japanese. It stings when you have a very polite person that's speaking forcefully in polite Japanese. That's that stings. If you yell and you use rude language. Then people shut down and it doesn't hurt as much. It's the opposite in Japan.

00:19:02 John Daub: Of course, just like why isn't Japan open up? The culture is interesting. So the politer you are in a bad situation where they know that they're in the wrong, the more likely they are to help you out. My experience.

00:19:16 Kanae Daub: Boba Cola. Don't give up the fight for your iPhone.

00:19:22 John Daub: The super chat to come in here for the iPhone. I'm not going to give up. Jersey Devs 2000. I lived in Kochi and want to take my sister family around. Shikoku. Oh, that's great. Thanks for doing so many videos from there. I'm going to be back in Kochi in December. It's already been decided. I've got an episode that we're going to be working on. There might be some live streams as well. And Shikoku some. I'm pretty happy about that. I love Kochi.

00:19:48 John Daub: The Jersey girl writes in here. Visit friends from not Osaka area and finally visit Tokyo. Hey from the graveyard shift in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thank you. Switch to Android John Samsung still has features that Apple hasn't even thought of. They're always a step ahead. That might even work better with YouTube. Actually, I don't know. I've never had an Android phone and you know, I'm not sure what to do.

00:20:20 John Daub: There's no panic for me to rush this decision to get a new iPhone. If I ordered it now, it would take six weeks before it would come. And if I get the opportunity to buy one device at the end of the month or one year like the iPhone 13 Pro, but yeah, it's just, uh, I didn't know that the post office had good news or bad news.

00:20:41 Kanae Daub: Oh, I don't know. She's just helping her. It's not the post office. Oh, it's not the post office. That's right. It's the National Consumer Affairs Center.

00:20:47 John Daub: Yeah. Yeah. She recommended to ask the lawyer. It's free. The free lawyers? Yeah. It's a pub. We can ask only 20 minutes. Oh, yeah. A short consultation. I'm up for that. Can we bring him presents like juice and stuff? Pay him in bribes? I'm so tired about it.

00:21:21 Kanae Daub: Yeah, Kanae's been on the phone to Apple back and forth. If anyone works at Cupertino, anyone can help us out with this. I think Apple Japan and Apple USA are just different. We've already called Apple USA, and they wanted to send us a phone on the spot after I explained what had happened. They couldn't because it was through Apple Japan, and all the messages were in kanji. So the request went to Apple Japan, and Apple Japan apparently canceled that request.

00:21:47 Kanae Daub: We were even thrown to Apple Ireland, Apple Australia Pacific. We've been talking to every single Apple. Apple Japan is the most, the rudest and the most unreasonable company that we've ever dealt with in Japan for an item that was $1,500. Absolutely gutted and exhausted by talking on the telephone. The amount of hours we lost, man hours and Kanae hours is awful. Yeah, I'm so tired. I'm really upset. I was really upset last night.

00:22:23 John Daub: Yeah, but it's not worth it. It's not worth getting stressed out over. The police have been helping as much as they can. Yeah, but it's a difficult problem. It's a difficult problem because it's into the post delivery box. Yeah, that shouldn't matter. Yeah, it might not Apple's fault, but my point is Apple is not good for us. Their customer service is not good. Yeah, they're rude for us. They're rude. So the point, I didn't like it a lot.

00:22:53 Kanae Daub: One of the representatives told me on the phone in December, she read, she started off reading the terms of service. The terms of service had changed. All right. They change the terms of service every few months. This when they change the terms of service, you read that to me. So I said, that's not those aren't the terms of services when I ordered the phone way back in October because you can go on archive.org and you can see the terms of service going all the way back to like 2010 or something.

00:23:23 John Daub: So I thought that. That was rude that a customer service manager would read the terms of service to you to a customer. If you didn't receive the phone or the product, you don't have the serial number to register for the insurance that has theft protection. If you don't have that number and you never received it, is it you if you didn't receive something, can it be your property? So why am I spending all the time with the police to find the phone?

00:23:44 Kanae Daub: Yeah, the phone should the phone should be resent to us and Apple should be working with the police to find it. Why did the cut? Why does the customer suffer? It doesn't make any sense, right?

00:23:55 Kanae Daub: By the way, Japanese people, they love Apple products, but they pro-American or what? I think it's just because of one style. It looks good to it's just easier to operate and three. It's true that Japanese follow what the trends are and if a lot of people have Apple iPhones and actually we using FaceTime and stuff. I can call for free from one Apple phone to another. My whole family uses Apple. Kanae has Apple. I like Apple USA. I like Apple America. I don't mind the brand. I just don't like Apple Japan.

00:24:33 John Daub: Kabushiki Gaisha Apple Japan Apple Nihon is like the Mafia. They are not the same company as Apple USA. They take the rules seriously like verbatim like this is the rules we won one of the customer service representatives. She told me in December. After two months of dealing with this. I talked with the other division heads in a meeting and we agreed that we're not going to give you a new iPhone and I said, I don't want a new iPhone. I just want the iPhone that I ordered. I just I don't want a free phone. I want the phone that I paid for right?

00:25:12 Kanae Daub: So that once the company heads made the decision, she wouldn't go back and and I have to go over this person's head, but Apple won't tell you who's in charge. Right? Apple won't tell you who the contacts are. You can't make an appointment to meet with an Apple executive. You just hit a brick wall and you have to bust through it through social media or even the mainstream media, which are good for a lot of things. And the story that I have to tell is amazing. And it's a true story. Yeah, I have notes. I want to forget. I want to forget it too. I've got notes. We have documents. It's crazy. The amount of material we have terms of service. Changes. How do you run away from this Apple? I didn't. How do you run away from your own terms of service? It's crazy.

00:26:10 John Daub: You can hire a private eye to look through the deep web for names or I can ask the community of thousands to help me out. Because it's just because sometimes people. Are the people watching sometimes are much brighter than than I am and definitely brighter than some private investigators and then there's some private investigators that are brighter than others. So I don't know any PIs and I would be hesitant to hire one.

00:26:40 Kanae Daub: I'm waiting to visit Japan for Nihon Shokkan (Japan fever?). Okay. Yeah, we are waiting long time. Yeah. So you want tourists to come back to your country? Yes. Of course. You okay if they bring coronavirus here? But it's everywhere right now. I think in the world. That's a pretty that's exactly what I'm saying. Yeah, we can't do we can't do anything. Yeah, just be careful. Yeah, if you don't want to leave your house, you don't have to but you still have to have tourists coming here to this country.

00:27:24 John Daub: Yeah for those joining us right now. And you're wondering why this live stream ends up being long. It's because of the live stream people getting the notifications right now and just joining us. This whole channel is multiple live streaming. We like to discuss this tour total focus here is sadness for your Kanae's Apple stress.

00:27:36 John Daub: I bought her an apple pie and she got angry. I went to the Skytree to deliver the postcards for Patreon because I like to take the postcards to the place where I took the picture whenever I can and I brought back these apple pies. She was I hate apple and I said what you don't like these apple pies. These are awesome apple pies because no no I hate apple. I couldn't understand because we're talking about two different kinds of apples.

00:28:07 Kanae Daub: Yeah, I'm just joking. Yeah, she doesn't really hate Apple because she has Apple phone. Yeah, I have Apple phone. We just want to we just don't like Apple Japan. Yeah, we hold that against Apple Japan's hierarchy. I just don't like the customer service bad. It's so bad. They even have a push this button for English support and then they take you to a Japanese speaker who can't speak English.

00:28:36 John Daub: I love that you gotta you have to appreciate that. That would be pretty happy. Yeah, I guess the strap for cash in Japan, which I find that hard to believe. Okay. Thank you.

00:28:48 Kanae Daub: Can I yeah, you can please come to Japan. All right, that's encouragement. Can I is waiting waiting? We are waiting. We're all waiting for you in Japan. So there are some good people here that are waiting. We're waiting for you.

00:29:02 John Daub: All right by Apple in USA. I want the SIM card. See they don't say this but in Japan, they still have the eSIM card or the SIM cards and I kind of prefer that. You the Apple Japan is only eSIM or Apple USA is only eSIM. Bottom line is that if Apple Cupertino Apple USA headquarters knew the story that I'm telling them about. Their brand here in Japan and how you know this situation they would probably question it but in Japan the higher ups they really don't have any desire to take it to work with the consumer one-on-one.

00:29:40 Kanae Daub: They're into like business corporate clients and making cash and I think that in the U.S. They're more worried about the brand because Apple is a U.S. Brand and they're more helpful. I love Apple US. You know, I haven't had any problems with Apple U.S. Customer service. They're very helpful. They even told me that their their procedures would be to send a new iPhone out or to work with the carrier which in this case would be Japan Post to work out as a deal because they want to get the phone to the customer Apple Japan told us literally that we are done.

00:30:18 John Daub: We gave the phone to Japan Post office our relationship with you. The customer is done. They told us. That that's when my jaw dropped. We had a meeting with the department heads and they decided not to give you a phone. My jaw dropped like it's why why obviously I didn't receive the phone. I couldn't send in the trade in the phone because then I would have no phone. They wanted this phone. I kept on saying you have one week to send in your trade-ins. I can't trade in my phone unless I received the old phone.

00:30:53 John Daub: They said no, no, no. It's all okay. Obviously, it wasn't okay. If I traded in. This phone, I would have gotten a really crappy price for a phone. That is now my lifeline. Imagine the other I would encourage you all before you buy on Apple's online shop and I'm not bashing Apple at all. I'm just telling you my experience which has been bad.

00:31:11 John Daub: If you before you buy online from Apple or anybody read the terms of service because Apple very much pointed out to me the terms of service in it, you know, it first of all print out the terms of service. When you ordered because they change that also, I noticed that and try to be sneaky. So read the terms of service. If you're ordering directly from Apple through the online store, you're at risk of this happening to you.

00:31:40 John Daub: All right, and I'm not the only person that's has happened to where if you order an expensive good and it doesn't arrive or stolen you have very limited help from anybody. You're in this great this gray zone. You didn't receive the product. So it's not yours. But the seller sold it and it's not theirs either. The carrier doesn't claim responsibility because they delivered it to a box or something and they believe it's out of their hands. The apartment that I live in doesn't assume responsibility.

00:32:14 John Daub: They have security cameras, but they delete them after three weeks. And by the time that we could get the police to check them, they deleted the video. Can you like you see like it just never worked out did it? So end. In the end, I end up swallowing $1,500 loss, which is like our rent money. It's crazy.

00:32:34 John Daub: Google points you Google points. You can exchange points for games and Play wallet. There's a lot of good stuff with Google. I'm not bashing, you know, the competitors. We just have a lot of Apple products. We'd love to stay with them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Maybe it maybe an Android phone works better with the Google app too. I don't know.

00:33:05 John Daub: Gary Chan writes in here. Did you know your old NHK Gachapon video is used in Sydney, Australia to plug Gachapon at Market City shopping center. What do you mean old NHK? You mean an NHK video I did or do you mean like a YouTube video on my old channel? Because if it's a YouTube video on my old channel, that's weird. I should probably I'm supposed to. Tell the Gachapon office whenever the video is used in with another media outlet outside of Japan and I can't do that if people poach the video, but that's the way it is.

00:33:52 John Daub: The law dispute charge. You can't dispute the charge. I've already tried that with the credit card. Usually Bank give you the money. You can't dispute the charge. The charges is done. How are you going to you can't defeat a big corporation. We American Express won't dispute it. I told him I didn't receive the product. We told him the story. There's insurance. I get eight percent of the value back. So we we sent in the police report and we get like 10,000 yen back which is pain and suffering or a nice dinner out to pay the boss.

00:34:27 John Daub: Time to rally the troops of the phone fundraiser Boba Cola. I think that we're doing that. With I you know with your Patreon. I just have to I don't know if I've done everything that I can do to try to get this back that I can live with myself, but I'm not sure if I've done that. We have Shōshōban which is small claims court and I believe strongly that I have a case based on the fact that I didn't have the same consumer rights.

00:34:48 John Daub: I didn't have the serial number to apply for theft protection, which every iPhone purchaser should be able to get because I didn't receive the phone. Because they didn't use Yamato, which is a reputable service to send it. That's the one that they have on their terms of service that they only use Yamato. But for some reason I had my sent from a place called JP toll, which is Japan Post toll from a warehouse in somewhere in Saitama and I can't understand why we weren't delivered with the infected notification that it was being is coming to me.

00:35:35 John Daub: It came the same day that it arrived, which also I believe is against their terms of service almost after the time that the phone arrived. They sent it a week early too because I wasn't here. We were going to we were definitely going to be here when the phone was to arrive. It's like a lot of red flags, right? Would you want the phone or the credit at this stage? I would want the credit who wants an iPhone 13 Pro that you paid $1,500 for that's now obsolete to a point.

00:36:06 John Daub: I mean, I'd take the phone. I'll take anything I can get but actually I would just like to have my money back for the product. I never received that makes a lot of sense, right? Just reverse the charge. You can't take money from us a customer. If you don't if they don't receive the product a trillion dollar company should know that imagine if that happened to Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett or somebody ready. I mean, I'm just a I'm just a low a small YouTuber. I'm not I'm not anybody special. This could happen to you.

00:36:40 John Daub: You know, this could happen to you and and I would like to believe that we have a system in place to protect consumers. I can report Apple to the Better Business Bureau. I can report Apple to my local government. I can report Apple also left and right. I can give them bad reviews, but I'm a positive person and I want to try to find a happy ending because when you go negative and turn to the dark side you do that for a lot of stuff that you do in life and I kind of don't want to do that.

00:37:08 John Daub: That's why I say like I don't hate Apple. I just don't like Apple Japan right now. Everybody can redeem themselves. Have you already updated or iOS 16? I don't know. I don't maybe maybe with Amex in the US when you purchase on the credit card, they will actually fight the battle for you. Not Apple not Amex Japan Amex Japan won't fight the battle for me Amex Japan likes to get the points and then your credit and they won't fight for us.

00:37:38 John Daub: I asked we asked them. They don't want to fight their lovers not fighters. It's I was shocked to add how bad Amex Japan is. Amex Japan is the one that told me, you know, you should get Apple care and I said, yeah, I could if it arrived it didn't I can't get Apple care. Everybody who pays a ridiculous amount of money can get Apple care, right? You have that option within 30 days 60 days in the US 30 days in or is it 90 days in the US? 30 days. In Japan, but that option exists. I didn't have that right.

00:38:14 John Daub: That's why I believe I have a small claims court battle that I could possibly win you like in this top this talk. I don't know John in search of happiness make love not war hate sometimes war is necessary arm, but I would hope I would hope that arm wrestling might be better hire a ninja a ninja will cost more than the phone and what would I tell what would it tell the ninja to do? What? So I would hire the ninja if I had commands for the ninja for something to do who what would you like the ninja to do for me.

00:38:52 John Daub: Sean writes in here if I lost $1,500, I'd be going scorched Earth probably and that's why I'm taking this. That's why I'm upset and that's why since this was you know money from supporters to buy a new phone for these live streams. That's why I'm taking this very seriously Lee Richards. I will see you next year. I think Japan will be a better situation for sure by that hire the ninja and then take his I've what? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I can take the ninjas iPhone. It's a ninja. Do you understand that he would be able to feel them? Hey, the iPhones probably connected to his body. Do you steal the ninjas iPhone? Wait, I don't get that.

00:39:40 John Daub: So I hire the ninja and then take the ninjas iPhone, but I still have to pay the i the ninja the his payment right? And still. That's wrong. So I have to shut have to turn that down make an offer. They can't refuse which is somebody could tell me John. This is wild. I literally just finished Cobra Kai season 5 and I can see you I was in the filming of Cobra Kai season 5 main character Daniel Russo. I'm a hothead got friends in Okinawa best Japan phone is Sony.

00:40:28 John Daub: I think Sony might be a year away from having good phones. The ones that I saw overheated very bad, but you could connect your cameras to it, which would be cool for live streams. Larry, you're just making my day brighter. I appreciate that hire a ninja to steal the iPhone or the money. Well, I don't want to hire a ninja to steal the money unless no, I can't hire the ninja this to be a thief. If I'm going to be a thief, I'll do it my at myself, but I wouldn't steal to sin.

00:41:06 John Daub: You know who would steal Daniel Russo. He would steal. He's one. He's the bad guy. I'm disappointed in Daniel Russo. Sometimes I think he he turns to the dark side without Miyagi-san. There's no one to keep him keep him from himself. Why have we never seen John and Ralph at the same time? Ralph Macchio looks pretty good at age 60. I'm only 40. Yeah. I I could do a crane kick on an apple.

00:41:46 Kanae Daub: Is that would that make you feel better? Because it would make me feel sad because I want to eat that apple, but it might make Kanae feel better? Because again, I bought her an apple pie and she got upset because I imagine the apple Corp sent you a box of apple fruits.

00:42:08 John Daub: I should return to Apple headquarters a box of rotten apples with a note and their headquarters. Is in Roppongi. I believe I you know apples are expensive in Japan too. I'm not getting this phone. Am I get Toby (crow) to get the money crows are known to steal things. Well, okay, if I command the crow to do it, then it's on me. So if the crow reads my mind, then it's a different thing because the things that we think and the things that we do actions be louder louder than than words.

00:42:55 John Daub: Okay. So if I jokingly tell. The crow to steal something is a joke and the crow takes me seriously, then I'm off the hook. It's the only way because I don't want to be thief or hire somebody to Thieve for me because that makes me thief. Hello from Australia. You should have gone to the store directly. There was because of the coronavirus. There's no option to go to the Apple store. This one trying to tell you I wanted to go to the store and buy the iPhone. You can't do that in Japan.

00:43:31 John Daub: You need to make a reservation just to go. Into the Apple store last year. They can't they won't even send it to the Apple store for you to pick it up. I don't even know how you get inside the Apple store. I don't know how you talk to anybody at the Apple store either. So I tried to before I ordered it. I tried to pick it up at the Apple store because it was like two months later a month after it already launched and they said no you have to order it online. I said, can I pick it up here at the store? And they said no, you have to have it sent to your address.

00:44:06 John Daub: So all of this is just pointing in and you look at the terms of service. We will not be delivering it to your hand. Like if you're sending a $1,500 object, it must come from the carrier to your physical hands on. If you don't then it is not your property yet and it's at the responsibility of the carrier or the vendor. It's not my property because I don't have a serial number to get the insurance on it. So I end up losing. How can I lose? I didn't receive it. Technically. It's not even my property. I can't even I couldn't even write my name. On it. I couldn't even activate the phone. How can it be my property? How? How can how can the law say that it is mine legally, which is the law strange, right?

00:45:03 John Daub: All right. I don't want to talk about Apple anymore. Let's put this put this aside here. Shout out to Peter. Peter's car broke down on a highway today. He was going to the beach. Peter. I'm glad you made it home. Okay, and I hope that you can get a video about this because I think the experience of getting picked up by Japan JAF (Japan Automobile Federation). Sounds pretty fun. So I'd like to hear more about that story.

00:45:32 John Daub: Peter Greg Bay writes in here. Me and my wife are going to Japan on the for the first time in next October. What would your number one recommended place to visit be that isn't a tourist trap and Angel forever. Thank you. Um, that's really hard because if you're going for the first time you're going to want to go to the tourist traps because that's what tourists want to do. Every tourist place is a tourist trap. I don't think there's a tourist place that said we're going to make our tourist trap not like a trap because they're all tourist traps.

00:46:07 John Daub: Kyoto is a tourist trap. If you want to avoid tourist traps. I'm not a big fan of Kyoto. Okay. I've been there like 28,000 times. So it's not. It's not high on my list. I would recommend going to Kanazawa instead of Kyoto and then you would avoid the crowds spend less time in Kyoto spend more time in Kanazawa or Takayama, which is a small town spend more time in the countryside. Go to places like like I love Kyushu Shikoku spend spend some time up in Hokkaido spend more time at the onsen (hot springs) the hot springs because you feel like you're in Japan when you had a traditional.

00:46:49 John Daub: Japanese onsen if you compare that to Kyoto, I don't mean it's just Kyoto's just got a bunch of temples and it's kind of a city. You have to take a bus really to get around. It's crowded. You can walk the Higashiyama route and if you want to you can go see the bamboo forest, but there are bamboo forests all around Japan. There's more than one. There are a lot of really cool places. I don't feel like I mean if you're in central Kyoto. I never really felt like I was in.

00:47:19 John Daub: I'm sure I mean never was really it was cool. Like the first five times I went maybe I always thought that you're better off going to Kanazawa or one of the other places. If you want to get like temples and shrines, I never I don't really like can I say I'm not a big fan of Kyoto culture the people there. There's some don't get on to that. I think this it. It does feel a little snobbery like we're Kyoto and we're better than you.

00:47:56 John Daub: I think that I the longer I stay here the more I kind of get that feeling like oh, we don't need tourists and now they want tourists. So I'm like, okay. Well then don't take the tourists, you know, you're Kyoto. You're better than us. So I always get that feeling. I think Osaka Osaka people also might fortify that thought. So I'm not a big fan of Kyoto. I think you can put your tourist dollars to Kanazawa or a place that probably would. Enjoy it more.

00:48:26 John Daub: Unchurched spots. A lot of small towns Daigo Machi in Ibaraki. I think it's a pretty cool place. They grow matcha. They grow green tea there. They have a lot of like that like an old town vibe. Some really good cafes. The thing is though that if you want to get out of the off of the tourist beat, you're gonna have to rent a car. So you're gonna have to learn to drive on the other side get off of the train the Shinkansen and get into a car. And then you'll be able to find some some pretty cool places. So you might want to do that your second time.

00:49:05 John Daub: Don't forget melons. Yeah. John take the free phone involving a lawyer's settlements are coming. If you get better see legal stuff in Japan is different. Okay, it's just it's it's so expensive and it's never works out. But the worst thing you can do in Japan is to go to court. Okay, that's like things break down and you know, Apple Japan leaves us almost. No choice.

00:49:23 John Daub: There's a small claims court and then it's I think if I make a case I have a very strong case because of all the change terms of service changes that Apple has done and as what I just said, I didn't have access to Apple care or so. How can this be my product? How can Apple consider our relationship complete unless I don't if I don't receive the phone like I and be able to activate Apple care. So I think that there's a. Good case to make for small claims court, but I'm not I'm not sure if I'm going to do that.

00:49:59 John Daub: I hate legal routes and I hate having to do that. It doesn't work out the way you want in Japan. It's always better to find a way to work it out together and but sometimes it's unavoidable as someone who had to go to court had to work with lawyers recently and the reason why I have a new channel which is it's just such a pain. It's just such a painful thing. You don't want to do it.

00:50:26 John Daub: Kyoto is great. If you really reserved and you're a morning person who is up at 5 a.m. That's true. If you're up that early, you will have no crowds are very few. So you get a little bit of the benefits but after about 10 a.m. Kyoto's all on crowds. Maybe not now. But again, that's not like there's so many better places than Kyoto. Kyoto is not Japan. It's a city in Japan with a long history. But this country Japan is I you know, Japanese culture is way beyond just Kyoto. Okay, so yeah, as you guess I'm not I think you should we should spread it out.

00:51:11 John Daub: Anyways. Thanks nightbot. Hey guys, that's all I have to say. It's supposed to be like a 10-minute stream but the Golden Pavilion is not worth it either. That's the most overrated place. Thanks everybody. This must be a really short stream and I didn't want to mention Apple. It all but it's almost unavoidable because this livestream started late as a result of this issue, but I'll keep you up to date and you know, sometimes it's better just to put put it out of mind and get back to work on other things.

00:51:42 John Daub: Like I want to finish this next video for the main channel. I'm pretty excited that the melon video just passed a hundred. I think it's just about passing a hundred thousand views, which is pretty amazing. I released that last week. So that's pretty good. If you work hard you do a good job on a video. Sometimes they do pretty well. Far cry from what I used to get but it's all good.

00:52:08 John Daub: Hey Kyoto, day trip. Go stay in Osaka or Kobe or Arashiyama. I'm sorry in Akashi or Himeji. Stay in Himeji, do a day trip to Kyoto. Don't stay in Kyoto. It's all good. All right, everybody. Midnight snack run sounds like a good idea too. All right, everybody. Have a good day. Oh, tomorrow is...

00:52:31 Kanae Daub: Are we doing Leo's birthday party tomorrow, Kanae?

00:52:36 John Daub: Okay, so tomorrow is Leo's birthday party. Ah, he's 18 months old. So we're going to Tokyo Disneyland tomorrow. I don't know if I can livestream there. They're cracking down on people like me. But you know, we might buy a cake and celebrate that with a lot of you. There's a lot of aunts and uncles here. Who, when Leo was born, were really super supportive. And I can't say thank you enough. So it would be fun to share some key moments. And we're very aware of the love for our family. So thank you everybody for that.

00:53:24 John Daub: And yeah, we're going to be staying in one of the hotels outside of Tokyo Disneyland tomorrow night. So that'll be something that will probably bring you there and take you on a tour. Or the room or something. Kind of neat. And yeah, I got a lot of content coming. I better get back to work. Thanks everybody.

00:53:43 John Daub: The good news is that I think it looks like we're going to be back to normal travel in October. Or at least very, very close to it. And this is all good news. Like there's just all good news coming. And I'm glad that I can share something positive. Never mind the Apple thing. But I'm glad that I can share something. Apple Japan thing. I should be careful. But it's good to be able to share good information finally with all of you who want to come here. Take care. See you in the next live stream.

00:54:14 John Daub: And the article if you want to read it is the link is here in the description. It's just a super, I think it's 13 hours ago. It's just a super encouraging article on the direction that Japan is taking. And yeah, it'll give you some hope. Bye guys.