00:01 John Daub: I mean, it's not often that you'll start a live stream from this angle. Starting from this angle is a little bit odd, but I have to be honest with you, that is the topic of today's live stream. A lot of people have been commenting when I show that I'm wearing shorts, people will say that you're being very rude and inappropriate by wearing shorts. And the answer is, no I'm not. Who told you that? Who told people that wearing shorts was rude or inappropriate? Because people in Japan wear shorts as well. The definitive answer rests with my wife Kanae, who is Japanese and probably knows more than me. But after digging in and researching this, there are reasons why wearing shorts in Japan, even in October because the weather is fine—it's like over 60 degrees and I feel very comfortable. The reasons why might not be what you think.

01:02 John Daub: There's no specific dress rule, even in the cities. It's just, you will stick out a little bit more than other people because people will dress in the cities for work, so they're wearing pants. But when Japanese are on vacation or taking a break, they will wear shorts. They might not want to wear shorts in the city, but they're not going to look down on you for doing so. You'll just stick out, which is not great in Japan. So let's ask Kanae, what do you think?

01:29 Kanae Daub: Kanai is here. What do you think about wearing shorts? Should they be better? You can take a look. You can take off your mask here. What do you think?

01:37 John Daub: Actually, I have no idea. Right there, yeah. I have no idea. You don't have to put it close to your mouth. It's not a karaoke mic. I have no idea.

01:49 Kanae Daub: Oh, really? Yeah. How do you feel about your husband wearing shorts in stylish places?

01:57 John Daub: Actually, he doesn't care about you wearing short pants in the city. But for me, it seems like you look cold.

02:07 Kanae Daub: Oh, no, I don't look cold at all. I'm fine. Am I shaming my family? Great shame? Like, do you feel embarrassed? Like, other people staring at me? Look at that foreign guy wearing shorts. He's so inappropriate. You feel like this is kind of shitsukei (impolite)?

02:26 Kanae Daub: No, I don't care about it. I think in the business situation, you shouldn't be like that. Wear the short pants sometimes but in a casual situation yeah yeah it doesn't matter it's up to you.

02:41 John Daub: Yeah I can rates at Toby level shame no Leo do you think I am being inappropriate by wearing shorts. Leo am I inappropriate for wearing shorts how do you feel about dad act oh wait you kind of have he's wearing pants yeah how do you okay how do you how do you feel no he feels upset sorry Jason's got to eat takes Jason Jason's got any the Leo emoji going on here all right let me explain a little bit Kanae don't tell him to eat the mic they're the only ones I got so um are you gonna carry Leo I can carry Leo he wants to be carried all right.

03:33 John Daub: Alright, there's a couple of reasons why. Number one, Japanese are just a little bit more stylish than Westerners in the sense that when they wear clothing, they like to look good. And to them, looking good is wearing expensive pants and nice pants. You know, casual clothing is not so popular. You won't see people wearing sweatpants, for example. You won't see people wearing hoodies. I do, but you really don't see like adults wearing hoodies. They dress nice here in Tokyo and in the cities, in Kyoto and Osaka as well, and Fukuoka, you know. But yeah, shorts can be expensive too, but it's just not the style.

04:15 John Daub: Now, I don't understand what the deal is with shorts. Oh, it's only okay for young boys to do that. That's not true at all. Look, women can wear skirts. There's nothing wrong with the legs. And even by visiting temples and shrines, there is no rule in Japan that you can't go to a Buddhist temple or a Buddhist shrine and wear shorts. There's none. I checked. In Thailand, however, it's considered rude to wear shorts in Thailand, but not in Japan. As long as you are not purposely trying to be inappropriate, it's fine. There are other reasons, though, that you might want to wear long pants at temples and shrines, mostly because they're in the woods and there are mosquitoes there. So you probably want to wear some leg covering.

05:03 John Daub: You do not see... What is inappropriate is more than shorts. I think that those spandex or wearing yoga pants would be inappropriate in Tokyo. Do Japanese wear like yoga pants where they're showing their booty around? Because I know they do that in America. That's weird, right?

05:21 Kanae Daub: Yeah, she said. Sometimes you see... Yeah, listen. But many people doing the exercise in the morning. Yeah. So they're using the exercise costume. Exercise. It's a costume.

05:36 John Daub: Yeah. It's a costume, right? You said it exactly right. It's a costume. I don't know. I know what you mean, but you can tell who's right off the boat who just got here. Because the clothing that people wear, I know that the Aussie girls... I'm just saying because I'm not used to it. They'll wear the half shirts and have their gut hanging out with the short pants. I don't know what style is, but I know that everyone around is talking about them because it's unusual to see here in Japan because it's a little bit more conservative, which is the second one, right? Conservative culture.

06:17 John Daub: What happened? It's near his bedtime. Oh, he bumped his head. That's all right. We can keep walking. Let's go, Leo. Leo likes to wear shorts. Yeah, he's really sleepy. Yeah, it's a conservative culture here. So people like to wear shorts because... People don't want to wear shorts because they don't want to stick out in their pants. They want to stick out. And that's the third reason. You don't want to stick out in Japan. You don't want to be different than everybody else. And if everyone is wearing pants, you want to wear pants too.

06:53 John Daub: But that's people in Japan, all right? So you don't have to be exactly like that. You can dress in the way that makes you feel comfortable, but in no way are shorts inappropriate. They are appropriate just as long as you're doing it not like short shorts maybe or spandex, like Speedos or something. But there's an appropriate level for shorts. Just like miniskirts, probably not that appropriate. But skirts are appropriate. You can get knee high, I guess. But there's no rule. This isn't high school. This is life, all right?

07:25 John Daub: There is a point where Japanese don't wear jeans too. You see there's two tourists right there. But you see Japanese don't really wear jeans either. Well, you're wearing jeans right now, but you're on vacation. I don't see it that much. Yeah, you're breakfast vacation. We went to Eggs 'n Things up there, Hawaiian food. Aloha. My wife is surprised at women wearing long skirts.

07:46 Kanae Daub: Yeah. I like long skirts. But look, you'll see women wearing skirts all the time, and I don't understand why it's inappropriate for men to wear shorts. How did skirts be appropriate? How are skirts appropriate, but shorts are not appropriate, right?

08:13 Kanae Daub: Right? What do you have to say about that?

08:16 Kanae Daub: I don't know. But I... Yeah, but... Very short, short, short skirt. Oh, yeah, short skirt. It's edgy. It's not formal, I think. Did you wear... How come the high school kids wear such short skirts?

08:30 John Daub: Yeah, high school kids like short skirt. I don't know why. I used to wear like that before. You did that? Yeah, when I'm high school. Show me... Show me... Show us pictures.

08:47 John Daub: Yeah. What is this? Oh, there's this English bus here. What? This is pretty cool. I guess you can't jump in on the back like there. This is strange, this English bus in Tokyo, double decker. Well, Leo, bus! He's a bus fanatic. He waves to the drivers, and they go crazy.

09:15 John Daub: So I just wanna put that to rest. There are reasons why you wouldn't wear shorts, and there are reasons why you will wear shorts. I'm comfortable wearing shorts. I'm a runner, so I always wear shorts. In fact, Tokyo is not a cold place. It's pretty, even in the winter, it gets down to like 7, 8, very rarely does it drop below 0 Celsius, which is 32 degrees. It's usually like between 42 and 56, I would say. Those are the temperatures through winter, all right? That's fine to wear shorts if you're running. And I just keep doing it because I don't like to be restricted, all right? And I wear nice shorts. These are pretty good. And they're cutoffs too, so I can put the pants on. I can make them pants if people stare at me too hard and I feel guilty, but rarely do.

10:07 John Daub: I'm wearing, you know, I'm wearing shorts. I'm wearing, you know, upper, got a sweater on. It's okay. Luxury shorts are fine too. I don't know. Just what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. If you look around at the people around you, you'll get a kind of an idea. But when it comes to shorts, especially for guys, I have no criticism for people who do. I have a bad opinion about fashion, especially from other women visiting from abroad. I guess it was the Lululemon yoga pants and showing your booty walking around. I've heard of comments, but there's no rules that's saying it's inappropriate. People in Okinawa wear shorts every day. Well, yeah, that's because they're in Okinawa. But I'll wear shorts until November. And today's October 31st, so technically tomorrow. This is my last day. But it's not that cold.

11:08 Kanae Daub: You're right. Isn't it? It's a little chilly. Chilly for me.

11:14 John Daub: So am I weird for wearing shorts today?

11:18 Kanae Daub: No, because it's your style. I used to wear it. Your style. Oh wait, so before, did you think it was strange when we first met and I was wearing shorts in November?

11:30 John Daub: No, but I feel like you look cold.

11:36 Kanae Daub: Okay, I'm not cold. Kanae is very accepting. Very accepting. Shorts are not bad. If you're not sure what to wear in Tokyo, I guess look, don't worry about it too much. Wear what makes you comfortable, even if it is Lululemon, booty yoga pants around town, but it's weird. And you're just gonna stick out a little bit more because people don't show their booties here.

12:04 John Daub: Actually, you stick out because all the guys are looking at it. That's probably what's going on here. Yeah. But you can tell who is a tourist and who's not.

12:15 John Daub: The last thing I want to talk about with dress here are the colors that you wear. If you look around Japan, people wear dark colors. You don't usually wear bright colors, so you don't see any fluorescents. You rarely see pastels. Sometimes you'll see a pink. But mostly black, gray, beige. I don't see navy blue that much. It's mostly dark colors. Especially for business, everybody wears black or gray suits. Because I'm in Ginza, maybe. Harajuku is different.

12:50 Kanae Daub: Right. Harajuku or Shibuya is gonna be a little bit different.

12:56 John Daub: Right. That's exactly right. You'll see more colorful people on the streets. Like Harajuku girls. But Harajuku girls, they're sort of like tourists too, right? They're not really real.

13:10 Kanae Daub: Yeah, it's real for some people. I think. They like fashion.

13:21 John Daub: Yeah. I feel tired. We can keep walking. I can push the cart. Here, hold on. So the colors, you probably want to subdue them. Maybe no red. Just wear what you want, but if you don't want to stick out, you would wear jeans or pants and a jacket and a shirt. I don't have to explain this, but I kind of sometimes do. If you want to wear shorts in November, that's totally fine. It's a sunny day today. Check that out. Look at that. It's warm. You know. It's up to you. Any questions? This is a very serious live stream. It needs to be discussed.

14:13 John Daub: Motivation right in here. Here, I'll turn it around so you can see something better than me here. Alright. Motivation right in here. I lost it. Oh no. Here it is. You only wear shorts because you can wash them in a hotel sink. That is so true. They're very easy to wash when you're traveling. Just keep in mind though that Japan does have mosquitoes. Even now, I was getting bit because of the shorts. Like here's some guy who's wearing shorts. But he's a tourist. It's like very obvious. There's nothing wrong with that. It's really good to have people back here. So if you're wearing shorts, I think it's your own prerogative. It's comfortable. It's a nice day.

14:59 John Daub: The only thing unacceptable to wear in Japan is a bad attitude. What? Wear it on your face. Let people know. But you know the thing is, no one's gonna talk to you anyways. Everybody is non-confrontational. So nobody comes up to say hi. Everybody wants to talk to you in Japan, I think. But nobody will because they don't want to be confrontational with you. Will it be cold in the last week of November? Probably. You can take a look on Wikipedia. It's got a really good Tokyo weather chart. But for the most part, Tokyo's weather is something like southern Virginia. I guess. I don't know. North Carolina. It's pretty warm. It's not too cold in the winter. Although it does snow sometimes. Maybe it'll snow once every year that accumulates. The rest of the time it never even sticks.

15:58 John Daub: I'm kind of going this way so you can get an idea of how people dress. Well this is Ginza after all. You kind of want to be a little bit more upscale. When you go out to eat, that's another issue. So if you're going out to a restaurant in the evening, maybe shorts might not be the best take. If you're going to McDonald's or fast food or a casual restaurant, then it's okay. The Hawaiian places are pretty popular now. It's okay. But if you're going to a sit down meal, you might want to have a jacket. You might want to, you can pick one up for a few thousand yen at Uniqlo as well. It's not like it's overly pricey to get a jacket or something. So you can do that. Or you're going to want to wear pants.

16:46 John Daub: The last thing I guess, besides the color, I thought the color was going to be the last thing. Sandals is one thing that people have been a little bit critical about. It's okay to wear in summer I guess. But a lot of people have closed toe shoes. Even in the summer. I wear my Birkenstocks and I don't care that much. But if you're casual, it's okay. But I would be very um, yeah. Just be, just know about it I guess. There are situations where you probably don't want to wear open toe shoes. It makes people look at you. But there's no rule saying that you can't. So, hey I'd do that too.

17:26 John Daub: I'm going to put my mask on. Because I washed it and it smells like shampoo. Ah, it's so nice. Crocs are okay. I mean, here's the thing. Japan is a very stylish place. And they're very fashionable. And they're very conscious about it. Especially the shoes. People wear nice shoes here. So when you wear Crocs around you, you know, it's okay. But maybe you're going to stick out. That's my point. And if you don't mind that so much, then yeah, go for it. I like Crocs. They're pretty comfortable. I mean, I don't like the way that they look. But I like the way that they feel. Crocs on. Leo, he had Crocs on. Yeah, they're not the most attractive shoe. But you can wear them.

18:22 John Daub: You could always tell who were the tourists from China. Because they wore such different fashion. Like it was just so out of the blue, weirdly different. Like really weird sneakers they would wear. You could tell who was not from around here. That's a real... You could tell when you've been in Japan long enough, you start to realize who's Japanese and who's not by the fashion and the style. And, um, you know, I think it might be a little bit too hard to... I don't know if it's appropriate... Hey, Brandania! Aloha! We just ate Hawaiian. Because we were thinking of you and Michael and everybody in Hawaii. Cheryl, Luke, and Austin. How you guys doing? Um, yeah, you know, I can tell pretty much by fashion who's from Korea and who...

19:21 Kanae Daub: Can you tell who's from Korea by their fashion? Like Korean fashion is very different than Japanese fashion. I can tell. Sometimes by the shoes, by the glasses, right?

19:37 John Daub: Oh, right, recently. Yeah, yeah, especially young women. Yeah. Like the Korean style makeup, Korean style hair and fashion. So it's getting harder. But there was a time where you could tell who was Korean and who was Japanese mostly by the fashion and the way they wore it. The way they walked and the body language. The longer you stay here, the more you can get accustomed to it. So you can... You can tell. There are stereotypes. Maybe I'm stereotyping, but Koreans love round glasses.

20:12 Kanae Daub: I... I love glasses. I almost wish that I had bad eyes so I could wear glasses. I don't have to wear glasses. Because they're so fashionable. When I went to Korea, I fell in love with the frames that they had. They had... Koreans love this is a generalization, but many of them love to just wear glasses because it is very fashionable there. And I love the patterns and the frames there and I was almost wishing... I think I actually did get a pair of glasses with just glass in them. I used to wear that all the time. It made me look smarter. But anybody who does that is kind of dumb. So I'd make you look smarter maybe, but you're kind of ridiculous for doing such a thing.

20:58 John Daub: Yeah. I love wearing t-shirt shorts in the nice weather. I love wearing yellow Crocs. Right, so Jared, you would stick out like, where's Waldo right there? Boom, it'll find you in a crowd. Which is not a bad thing maybe. Not if you're running from the law. Japanese people don't wear glasses.

21:20 Kanae Daub: Yeah, I don't wear... Japanese don't wear glasses often and I don't know why, but that's one of the things that can differentiate between Japan and Korean fashion. But Korea is also very fashionable as well. I think.

21:34 John Daub: Anything else about Japanese fashion? Can I... Japanese fashion?

21:36 Kanae Daub: Yeah. You like New York fashion, Anthropologie.

21:43 John Daub: Yeah, I like Anthropologie, but I'm not expert about the fashion. But Megumi is, your sister, right? Because she likes Mori fashion.

21:53 Kanae Daub: Yeah, my sister better. No, I think she changed. Because she's getting old. Because clothes change by your age as well.

22:05 John Daub: But there are also trends in Japan where, like, there was a cowboy trend in 1999, there was a cowboy trend and all the girls were wearing cowboy hats and boots. I think all of them.

22:19 Kanae Daub: It's true. I'm not good about fashion, but in Japan, many young people like oversized, you know? Yeah, wearing a little bit bigger. Yeah, Japanese like the bigger size. Like T-shirts and all that. T-shirts and shirts, like my love. I thought it was just because you couldn't find that size. I just thought you couldn't find your size. That's why. Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah, we don't need to show our shape with oversized and more comfortable to move. Oh, right.

22:53 John Daub: Yeah, I didn't. I noticed that. Well, guys don't... I guess guys wouldn't care so much, but I noticed that a lot of businessmen will wear shirts that are too big. When they tuck it in, it's really kind of not... It doesn't fit them well. I'm not sure what... What are they hiding? That's another question, isn't it? What are people hiding? So, I hope this helps you a little bit. If you're kind of worried about that, I know it's good to follow local norms, local culture, local rules, but wearing shorts is not one of them. It's just something, depending on the situation, maybe it is, but would be like that anywhere. You don't want to wear shorts to a fancy restaurant in the United States either. So, you just have to kind of feel it out, but if you want to wear shorts in Japan, by all means, wear shorts! Even in December. But it's going to be a little bit colder. Just keep that in mind.

23:44 John Daub: And in the summer, I would bring some pants with you, just because there are mosquitoes, and you will get bit. She's wearing shorts, but she's got boots. Boots and shorts are okay. Can men wear boots?

23:56 Kanae Daub: Women can wear tights. Women can wear tights? Interesting. Can men wear boots and shorts?

24:06 John Daub: I don't know. I don't know. I would like to wear cowboy boots too. Well, if you wear cowboy boots, I don't know, I have never bought boots before, but they look like they'd be pretty cool. Boots and shorts. Do you need to wear pants with the boots? You can ask the fashionista. I don't know any fashionistas. I only know you! And Peter! And Peter's kind of a fashionista, but he's kind of like Euro fashion, all black and leather and stuff. I'm not sure.

24:37 Kanae Daub: Yeah, boots. Fashionista can't all coordinate. Yeah, makeover of your hair. Yeah, boots and jeans are pretty cool, but boots and shorts, no? Yeah, it may be nice. Maybe nice.

24:52 John Daub: Alright. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I definitely have very little fashion sense, which is why I wear shorts. But it's okay to wear. You don't have to be a certain age or anything like that. You can just wear shorts. It's cool. There's no rule. Basically, the point is there's no rule. And anyone who says that I'm rude for wearing shorts, you know what? You can take that comment. You can take that comment and you know, put it in that taxi and drive away. There you go.

25:20 John Daub: Alright, everybody. Have a good day. Have a good night. Leo is asleep. Alright, mission accomplished. Leo's asleep. Alright. So you're going to... Oh, not yet. Almost. Almost asleep. Alright, you better get to the next shopping place. I gotta get back to work. We came here to eat breakfast, and now that we've eaten... This is good exercise, too. If you have any questions, we have a place on our Discord community, Only in Japan Discord community, where people are discussing this after the livestream. So if you want to jump in there, you can share some pictures of inappropriate fashion. Maybe that'll keep our moderators very busy. Sorry, moderators. They're going to kill me later. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Happy Halloween. It's the 31st here. Yeah, no mischief night. Pankai. Hashtag pankai.