Traditional Japanese Gamazaiku Wicker Clothing and Bags – How It's Made

00:01 John Daub: Hello, everybody. Welcome. This is the Hiruzen area of Okayama Daisen Oki National Park. And there's a lot of snow. It is freezing cold. But I'm not outside. I'm outside a window. How you doing, everybody? We're now watching them do gamazaiku, which is the ladies of Hiruzen, actually, a traditional art that they've been doing for 650 years here, or even longer than that. And I want to show you and introduce to you some of the Japanese arts and crafts, including woodworking, which they've been doing in this area for a very long time. Very famous in this area. I'll show you a video on that. But first, let's talk with the ladies in front of us. Joining me in this episode is Dean Newcomb. How you doing, Dean?

00:46 Dean Newcomb: I'm doing very good, thank you. Yeah.

00:48 John Daub: And our beautiful ladies here. Yeah. Yes, we do. What are you doing now? I kind of. They call this gamazaku. It is actually made from reeds or kind of like a long grass, right?

00:78 Dean Newcomb: The whole process, from start to finish, almost takes one complete year. So it starts with them just in the summertime gathering the materials up, and they have to gather up all the materials that they're going to use to use and build it over winter.

00:93 John Daub: Right. I have right now some of the reeds — what they look like after they've been harvested. On the screen there, it's pretty interesting to see still do this craft after so many years. It's still preserved to this day. Here's a picture of them of a lady harvesting in the summertime or in the fall is when they do it. And it's interesting because they actually harvest this in the fall and they keep it until the winter.

01:22 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

01:23 John Daub: And that's when there's snow outside here, there's nothing you can do. All the fields are covered in snow. It's just so cold. So they take those reeds that they've been preparing for for winter to have this to do indoors during this time of year. That's really cool, isn't it?

01:41 Dean Newcomb: They have the plant hanging from the wall.

01:44 John Daub: Oh, yeah. There it is.

01:45 Dean Newcomb: It used to be. Or how it is when they pick it.

01:48 John Daub: Yeah. And you can see this is what the raw material that they're working with is called. This is the gama, or the reeds. And it's a very light material, but it's very durable after it's been dried. And now they're working it to make various items. One of the things that they can make with this are these baskets. They make a lot of practical things that we would use in everyday life in this generation that we could still use.

01:177 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

01:177 John Daub: But I noticed we went to the museum this morning and we saw some things that they were making back in the olden days, like about the giant backpacks that they used to have, which were really convenient. Really big baskets that you could walk along through the field and maybe collect vegetables in it or you could carry your tools in it.

01:191 Dean Newcomb: Oh, yeah. Here's a picture I took from the museum this afternoon. See if I can make this bigger for you. There you go. There's some of the things that they made back in the day, in the Edo period. You have these backpacks, shoes made out of it.

02:12 Dean Newcomb: They called zori.

02:13 John Daub: Yeah, zori.

02:14 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

02:17 John Daub: And you can see the hills and the mountains in the background there. Let's get a closer look at what the ladies are making here.

02:28 John Daub: Sandals. It's a men's size. That looks like a 26 maybe.

02:49 Dean Newcomb: I'm technically 29.5.

02:51 John Daub: I think I'm American 10 and a half. And that's a 28 — 28 centimeters. 10 and a half is 28.5 centimeters. About. Yeah. Dean had — Dean was very — how do we say, almost at the maximum here. My head, I thought my head was close. You could almost touch it here. So when we entered in here, the ladies are cracking up. That was so funny. We entered in here and they just looked at you and they started laughing, which is how I felt when I first met Dean. I just started laughing.

02:84 Dean Newcomb: Thanks, man.

02:91 John Daub: Foreigners have been here before, so —

03:04 Dean Newcomb: It's a big debate.

03:05 John Daub: It is a big debate. Have they had international visitors here before? Possibly. Well, not many.

03:19 Dean Newcomb: There was one a while.

03:19 John Daub: There was one a while. Yeah, I guess just us. So this is exclusive.

03:36 Dean Newcomb: Yes.

03:36 John Daub: This is exclusive content that you're seeing. Only in Japan Go, right? One, two, three, four — one, two, three, four, five. Whoa. It's one level higher. And then — so after the fifth layer, this is a four-layer bag. So the fifth layer, the stuff — oh, and then she's making right here, the bottom part. I see now — the pieces go together.

03:85 Dean Newcomb: Ah, it's like a team. Did you see the string? The string is amazing. So they have — you've looked at these, right? So that's the main part of it. But this material here that they gather is the fiber from a tree. And then they — they split it. They split it like that.

04:09 John Daub: Wow. To make it really fine. Oh, this is what — it almost looks like kami [paper]. Very usui [thin]. Very, very fine.

04:19 Dean Newcomb: Yeah. So you can actually —

04:21 John Daub: You can see through it. It's translucent here. And they make rope from this.

04:25 Dean Newcomb: And then we split it.

04:35 John Daub: So it looks like this after they've split them all, and then they make the rope.

04:39 Dean Newcomb: You can see — obviously that's the same material, right?

04:43 John Daub: Yeah.

04:43 Dean Newcomb: But then when I come down to the string part — can you believe that's still the same thing?

04:47 John Daub: That is so — really? I'm gonna zoom in on this. It's hard to zoom in on it. Yeah, it looks incredibly strong. No, no, no — beautiful. More beautiful. Sorry, Dean. We were showing ugly — really not so beautiful rope here. That's way more beautiful than what you were showing us. Come on, Dean. Get with the picture. Yeah, very strong here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

04:80 Dean Newcomb: If you bought that in from a shop, you wouldn't have no idea that was made out of —

04:81 John Daub: It's handmade.

04:84 Dean Newcomb: Yes.

04:84 John Daub: They made this by hand. Two days.

04:95 Dean Newcomb: Two days.

04:95 John Daub: This only took two days. One kilometer of rope — no, I guess just five meters. Okay, I thought that would be like a kilometer. I was off by 900 — almost 995 meters off. She's very good at doing the rope. She's a rope pro. So each one of these ladies is — apparently has a specialty or something that they're really good at. And this is the rope pro. Rope master. Yes, no, no —

05:66 Dean Newcomb: I like her socks.

05:66 John Daub: Yeah, the socks are so kawaii. It's from Korea, so it's so beautiful. Korean socks. Nice. Wow.

05:89 Dean Newcomb: Wow.

05:89 John Daub: That is very fast. Well, so they're just —

05:97 Dean Newcomb: Just rolling it. Yeah.

05:97 John Daub: From that action, I showed your socks really close-up there. Yeah.

06:18 Dean Newcomb: Characters, huh?

06:19 John Daub: They are. We're going to — they're going to continue to make some. We're going to come back to these ladies at the end here. But I wanted to show you — this morning, Dean and I went to a woodworking place.

06:33 Dean Newcomb: We did.

06:34 John Daub: Yeah. The location was amazing, right?

06:36 John Daub: It was — that place is called — why I kind of mushed it up here — Momonotane. We went to. This is a place where they've been doing woodworking for three generations or longer. It's an amazing place. And Motoisan is the right — Motoisan is the one who's been doing it. Check out this VTR, I took some video of this this morning. It is such — yeah, we'll start off with the drone shot. It's so beautiful. The area that they're in, between a hill on the right side and then a river on the left side there. And that is an abandoned elementary school, junior high school. He said —

06:99 Dean Newcomb: Right. So what we're looking at in the foreground is the school building. And then behind that we can see a gymnasium there. There it is.

06:99 John Daub: Yeah, that's an old gymnasium that's been now converted into Motoisan's workshop inside of there. And they actually told me in two years' time they've got to have to tear this down. Yeah, yeah, because it's not earthquake-proofed inside. You can still see in the workshop the basketball backboard is —

07:24 Dean Newcomb: There's even a song.

07:31 John Daub: That is the building block of Japanese houses — like a cement block, but made of wood. But I'd actually lowered the volume on this, but I don't know if you guys can still hear us.

07:52 Dean Newcomb: This piece in the middle would otherwise be like a lower quality. So they sandwich it in between these nice pieces and then that becomes like the main block for building houses in Japan.

07:62 John Daub: If they make hundreds and hundreds of these, you can make like Legos. That's very solid strength as concrete. Wow. Doesn't burn —

07:80 Dean Newcomb: So it doesn't snap. So even if they have a fire, the building doesn't fall down, even if the fire —

07:84 John Daub: That's amazing. There's a lot of ingenuity behind the architecture, the building materials of wood here in Japan. They could be making skyscrapers made out of wood. I know, right? Just as a way — because these artisans are still around and we want to preserve what they've been doing for hundreds and hundreds of years to make modern buildings out of it. I think something really cool — now they also, at this workshop, they do order-made wood crafts. So you can order a table, but you can also go here and make things like spoons, chopsticks, children's toys. Dean, you actually got a chance to work on chopsticks, right?

08:23 Dean Newcomb: Yeah, they were showing me how to carve the chopsticks, how to shave them down — and here's my attempt to — it's, he was very good with it. And apparently I did okay. But you have to put just the right pressure at just the right angle and shave it down slowly but surely. This is the back of a spoon.

08:42 John Daub: Well, this is hinoki, right. Pretty good. You can see it almost peels like cheese.

08:53 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

08:54 John Daub: Butter with that knife.

08:61 Dean Newcomb: Nice and soft.

08:61 John Daub: And then you're going to be working with another piece of wood here.

08:63 Dean Newcomb: He was very kind to give me some wood to practice on.

08:69 John Daub: So now this is sakura wood, he said. Right. With cherry blossom trees wood. And it's a little bit harder, more like a cheddar cheese instead of a common brie, I guess you could say — meditation with medication. Oh, right. And you said that while you're doing this, it's very peaceful for the mind. You actually clear your mind.

08:93 Dean Newcomb: Yeah, totally. Because you can only really think of that as the shaving. And so really good for forgetting the rest of your worries in life. They said they have people come and —

09:11 John Daub: Him and his wife are there in the workshop. Have a look.

09:22 Dean Newcomb: In Japan, the plane pulls back and so does a saw — a saw pulls toward you.

09:29 John Daub: Right.

09:29 Dean Newcomb: Whereas in America and England —

09:39 John Daub: Yeah. It's not level. It's on an angle so that the chopsticks are narrower on the tip of it, so you can pick things up with. And I thought that was really unique — I'd never seen it, how they do that. See, there's a piece of wood that — it starts off with the wood that you would start with — economy. They also showed us that they made spoons there and also smartphone stands. And you can see they've sanded that piece of Pinocchio down. This is funny. This was made out of a rubber band — so it's a gun made out of rubber bands. Kids like this. So it's like a rubber band shooter, which is neat. Rubber band — go. That's neat. I wonder if we can do more than one.

09:100 Dean Newcomb: And these are some of his other creations.

10:00 John Daub: Yeah. And these are some of the glasses, the cups that you can make. When you're there, it's hard to hear because you're too far away from the mic. Yeah. This table was interesting. They said it was approximately $5,000 for the table. But the way that they make it is very unique. You can see here, there are these brackets in the center of it, which keeps it — because it is — oh, we kind of moved on from that too quickly.

10:25 Dean Newcomb: Wow.

10:25 John Daub: There's a lot of neat things. He made that for his son and his father. The grandfather made that rocking horse. You can see the quality of the wood is amazing. In between there, they have different kinds of wood, which makes it even harder. Here Dean is trying a rocking horse that's been around for 50 years, I think. Right.

10:47 Dean Newcomb: They did tell me it was auto-proof. I wasn't gonna bring —

10:51 John Daub: Yeah, that table is expensive, but it's also a very rare piece of wood. And they can take wood and recycle it and turn it into something that's really useful. But it's all handmade there, and it's all really unique. There's Motoisan and his wife here and their workshop. So I thought it was a really unique experience that we had today. Here we are. We're back.

10:76 Dean Newcomb: Yeah. For anybody that wants to be spoke —

10:78 John Daub: Table — that's the place you want to go, right?

10:78 Dean Newcomb: We — I really wanted, in this day today to focus on the arts and crafts, because in each regional area of Japan, they have their own unique style and culture going back hundreds and hundreds of years. Japan is such an old country — getting to learn the arts and crafts, I know it's not sexy and not a lot of people watch videos on leather making or woodworking and wicker. But in reality, if you really want to know Japan, you have to understand a couple of things. One, Japan is a very regional country still to this day. It's still very different within the foods, from one prefecture to another. The foods, the dialect, the history — it's all very unique. So it's certainly a reason to get off of the beaten path, get outside of Kyoto and Tokyo and Osaka and Himeji and Hiroshima, even Okayama, and go out to Hiruzen. That's one of the reasons why we're here. We're here in Daisen Oki National Park. Yeah. There you go. And you can see the ladies here are still hard at work. Now, this is their job, right? They do this well.

11:49 Dean Newcomb: They're more doing this to preserve the history than their job.

11:53 John Daub: So they all have —

11:54 Dean Newcomb: Well, I believe some of them have other things that they do for work. Some of them are retired, but their purpose here is protecting this culture.

11:62 John Daub: All right. Oh, and just for people that were wondering about that table, it was made out of chestnut wood, right? Chestnut — yeah.

11:73 Dean Newcomb: I saw somebody comment, "Wow, holy moly, $5,000 for a table." But it's a moment —

11:73 John Daub: Chestnut wood — this is very popular because —

11:79 Dean Newcomb: They're cutting it out of just one single slab of wood.

11:79 John Daub: Right.

11:79 Dean Newcomb: And so it obviously came from a really big tree, and you can only get so many slices out of that tree. So yeah, it demands a high price.

11:87 John Daub: This is the Hiruzen Gamazaiku Seisan Shin Kai. Okay, I said it right? Oh, wow, awesome. It's so — it's so long. Hiruzen gamazaiku seisan shin kai. That's a tongue twister. We got applause from the ladies here. Everybody can say it together. Ready? Say that 10 times and you get applause. If you can say that 10 times, the ladies will cheer you on. There's eight people in their group here and they've been doing it for — mostly they do this to preserve the art, and so we don't lose touch with it. Oh no — you and I hoga unit [did our best], you and I did — about 50. Dean, you're the youngest one here.

12:76 Dean Newcomb: Am I?

12:76 John Daub: You're just a baby.

12:77 Dean Newcomb: Yeah, but she looks very young. I think she said she was — enough.

12:81 John Daub: She's got — I got more gray hair than her. Yeah, I'm all gray hair now, so —

12:90 Dean Newcomb: But they're saying it's very hard for people to start doing this when they're younger because, you know, most lifestyles now mean that both parents are working. So a lot of the ladies have jobs and they can't commit to doing something like this. So most people can only do it when they retire.

13:04 John Daub: Yeah, yeah. I guess you have to have the free time for it. But I was talking with people about in the olden days — like, how did they — were men also doing this? And back in the olden days, I'm talking like Edo period, men and women would do this together and the men would get a bunch of booze like sake, and they'd all get drunk and do this through the winter. That's what the museum proprietor told me. The men would come and do this together and they would just get plowed because they didn't have like, you know, Sunday night football and stuff.

13:48 Dean Newcomb: I mean, the hacking in — hi, to do it —

13:48 John Daub: You need some oo, you need some guys in your group. We need some guys in this group for sure.

13:69 Dean Newcomb: The men have gone off to play and left the ladies to work. Oh no.

13:79 John Daub: Oh, is that what they go? Ah, they're going to go skiing or something? Yeah, and the ladies are at home working. Yeah. Preserving. That's not fair. The women are preserving the culture. The men are just going skiing and having fun and partying. What's going on here? Back in the olden days, they were preserving their culture.

14:14 Dean Newcomb: It didn't matter guy or girl back in the days, right? When as soon as the snow came in and the fields were covered in snow, there's nothing you can do. Yeah, you have to keep working and you have to keep doing stuff. So the winter would be making this kind of gamazaiku, which is a wicker made from reeds here. They would make this through the winter, and then they would have clothing. You know, it was really interesting — these things that they made shoes out of this. They made clothing out of this. They also made a lot of baskets. In fact, I could probably use one of it for my drone or my gimbal. Some of the things — the things that they use hundreds of years ago now are impractical because of the time that it takes. We just have other materials that are easier to work with. But I think it's important to protect this kind of craft. And as the population of Japan continues to go down, we need more people to get involved in things like gama zaiku and some of the traditional crafts of Japan. So this is really good to see — to come in and visit a group that is a group of eight ladies in total that are preserving this culture. And hopefully when more younger people have more free time later in life, after their kids have grown up and gone off, they join the group. Yeah, and pass on the traditions, because that's sort of how things work. You get passed down from one generation to the next. There's no textbook on how to do this.

14:94 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

14:95 John Daub: Right. You learn by the masters.

14:98 Dean Newcomb: Hope that it continues. I love things like this.

15:00 John Daub: Indeed.

15:00 Dean Newcomb: You spoke a bit about the practicality. I don't know if you heard, but it is a really great material for what they're making, because it's slightly padded. It feels almost like — you know, to protect them.

15:18 John Daub: Oh, it's so soft. Almost like you could chew it.

15:19 Dean Newcomb: It's very soft and spongy, which means when you have something in your bag, it's slightly protected by this sponge cushioning.

15:26 John Daub: That's true. The bags are —

15:27 Dean Newcomb: And it's extremely light.

15:29 John Daub: Yeah, it's like a wicker, really.

15:32 Dean Newcomb: It stays light. And then lastly, they told me that it also has, because of the oil in the material, it remains a slightly waterproof property as well.

15:45 John Daub: Yeah, so that's why they were using this material.

15:47 Dean Newcomb: That's why they were using this material.

15:47 John Daub: Bobby Hawk asks, how much is this basket? Kono basketu — how much is this basket?

15:56 Dean Newcomb: Good question.

15:56 John Daub: How much is this basket? I don't know if they sell this one. Maybe 15,000 yen.

15:69 Dean Newcomb: About $120.

15:69 John Daub: About $120. And maybe the bigger one — maybe — but these are all handmade. And they spent days making. Amazingly cheap.

15:86 Dean Newcomb: When you hear that they spent like a year making this —

15:86 John Daub: Well, you know, like, I think we take for granted sometimes how much it costs, not just to make it, but the materials themselves come handmade. I mean, the ladies will harvest it themselves. They wash it and dry it themselves.

16:00 Dean Newcomb: She's gonna spend days just making the string for this basket.

16:03 John Daub: And it goes even months ago when they had to harvest it. So I have to think of it like that.

16:11 Dean Newcomb: The best $100 or $150 you'll ever spend, isn't it?

16:20 John Daub: You can — but you can use this for up to 40 years. It's okay. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So if it gets wet too, it's waterproof. All right. So you can wash it off. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? That's real. She said that that bag's 50 years old. This bag is 50 years old.

16:49 Dean Newcomb: Wow.

16:49 John Daub: And she said homa [truly], which is for really — that bag's 50 years old. Brand new. This is new. And that's 50 years old. I can't tell the difference. That's incredible.

16:63 Dean Newcomb: I mean, it's just taken some shape, right? It just becomes supple over the age. But other than that, no marks. Right?

16:70 John Daub: That is unbelievable.

16:71 Dean Newcomb: That is unbelievable.

16:72 John Daub: That was made Senkihaku Nana Junan [1977]. This was made in the 1970s. Oh my gosh. That's older than me. What? That looks way better than I do. That bag is aged better than me. They say you — you have bags under your eyes again. I'm gonna say now — I wish I had her genes. She uses the stuff.

17:03 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

17:04 John Daub: That is incredible. It hasn't aged at all. So obviously, for that amount of money, you're getting something that is going to last. They'll say they're not gonna sell it, though. You have to come here and convince them to buy it.

17:31 Dean Newcomb: One more zero.

17:37 John Daub: It's turning into an auction. But obviously the quality of it, of the workmanship is just astounding. Look at that. There's the rope around it — around other rope. That's really incredible. I have so much respect for the artistry behind this, but also the practicality of — I don't know how stylish this would be. I wouldn't take this to a club in Roppongi. But I could see myself walking around and making — maybe just tweak the design — I can see this being something that could be in fashion for sure.

17:81 Dean Newcomb: You know, somebody younger that also really enjoys this craft and art needs to make this modern in some way.

17:81 John Daub: Right.

17:81 Dean Newcomb: Make it usable again, like this type of material.

17:84 John Daub: It's just really hard work because, again, you have to harvest it yourself from the field, and you have to wash it. And — how many months, weeks will it take for the — from the harvesting all the way? So it takes about half a year just to get the raw materials. So six months to get the raw materials to start to do that last year. So these are — these were harvested last year around. So that was four months ago. So — okay. So it takes about three to four months for the preparations before they can use it into something. And again, they wait until winter because that's when they have the free time to do it because they can't work in the fields anymore.

18:61 Dean Newcomb: And then in Hiruzen, because of the altitude and it being a snowy place, they have to — the winter will continue January, February, into March as well. So they'll probably be able to keep doing this activity all the way until the spring comes in, actually.

18:76 John Daub: Absolutely. You can see up here, there's some really cool stuff. Dean, do you want to try to do gamazaiku? We were told that he might be able to make this. Dean's gonna try it out here — which is like a pine cone, right?

18:95 Dean Newcomb: Well, apparently it's a —

18:95 John Daub: That's what Dean's gonna try to make — like a firefly.

19:01 Dean Newcomb: Oh. So I never experienced this, but apparently in Japan, as kids, you would make these from rice — not this gamazaiku, but with the straw from the rice fields. And you would make a little case, and then you catch a firefly, and you'd put it inside, and it would —

19:19 John Daub: Yeah.

19:20 Dean Newcomb: Have you ever heard about that?

19:21 John Daub: So — so it would be a little light because you trapped a poor little firefly, you devil.

19:26 Dean Newcomb: Borrow him as a lantern for a while.

19:28 John Daub: So you'd have a little lantern. So if you catch it in there, the light from the fireflies would come through and you'd be able to light up. There's a lot of fireflies in this area because the water is so clean here.

19:50 Dean Newcomb: No way.

19:51 John Daub: It's just you. We asked the ladies, did you ever put fireflies in here to try it out? And they're like, no way.

19:56 Dean Newcomb: She said, "I feel sorry for the fireflies."

19:58 John Daub: But you did it.

19:60 Dean Newcomb: No, I haven't. Oh, I just heard the story about.

19:62 John Daub: So you're innocent. Sure.

19:66 Dean Newcomb: You have to go to —

19:72 John Daub: Nobody puts the fireflies in there. We have to come back in the summer to do it.

19:78 Dean Newcomb: It's slightly confusing. So they make them to put fireflies in, but you don't actually put a firefly in.

19:83 John Daub: How do you put them in? Wait, I want to know how — where exactly does the firefly go in? How do you put it —

19:94 Dean Newcomb: I think we're having a trick played on us here.

19:95 John Daub: I think it's a trick.

19:97 Dean Newcomb: Yeah, they're teasing us. Okay.

19:97 John Daub: Never mind. I believe anything that they say.

20:05 Dean Newcomb: You stretch it —

20:12 John Daub: Put it in, then you put the firefly in there. Then it'll close automatically.

20:20 Dean Newcomb: But nobody — ready?

20:20 John Daub: But nobody does that. Okay. Wow. Just an urban legend. Okay — mochika ri ite [wrap it in] — cake it in. Is telling us. Just an urban legend. I called you Leo, son. Go in there, son.

20:44 Dean Newcomb: Well, my old — my old legs.

20:46 John Daub: It's hard to sit. Right. That's how I'm sitting.

20:67 Dean Newcomb: I feel fairly confident with wood.

20:67 John Daub: Oh, wow. Okay.

20:73 Dean Newcomb: But less confident with —

20:73 John Daub: Okay, here's some of the stuff that they can make. Just I want to show you here. You have the sandals, the baskets, and like backpacks that you can put stuff in there. I thought that was kind of neat. And there's the information on the back. If you want to screen capture it, give them a call.

21:01 Dean Newcomb: Okay.

21:01 John Daub: Okay.

21:03 Dean Newcomb: Did you — are you following?

21:04 John Daub: Yeah.

21:22 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

21:59 John Daub: You can see Dean doing it here. Kondo — hi. Wait, hold on. Okay. Okay. Then it's up here. Oh, I see. I see — softer. Oh, wait —

23:22 Dean Newcomb: How's it going, John?

23:35 John Daub: [Speaking Japanese: very long, with labored breath] This is actually —

24:19 Dean Newcomb: Yeah, it's like — I guess it's like knitting.

24:21 John Daub: Yeah, a little bit. Yeah.

24:22 Dean Newcomb: You get into the —

24:24 John Daub: Yeah. So we want to push this inside.

24:57 Dean Newcomb: Wow. What's your hand, mate?

25:18 John Daub: So you keep the same pattern, but now you — you cut it, and then you push it in where it's very hard to get out. Once it goes in there, it locks in place on the inside there. See how Dean is doing over here?

25:52 Dean Newcomb: They seem to be wowed by my —

25:52 John Daub: Yeah. Your skill is very quick. Level — very nimble with your fingers.

25:57 Dean Newcomb: I didn't think I was a crafty type of guy. Again, interesting.

25:80 John Daub: Cutting it into two — the two pieces that were on the end.

25:83 Dean Newcomb: Wow.

25:83 John Daub: Cut them into two. Oh. Oh, wow.

25:87 Dean Newcomb: String. Okay, one more, one more.

25:95 John Daub: Whoa.

25:99 Dean Newcomb: Wow.

26:01 John Daub: Dean, can you do it that fast?

26:01 Dean Newcomb: No, no.

26:05 John Daub: Stop playing around, Dean. Just do it. Really? I'm teasing. I'm teasing. A good job.

26:40 Dean Newcomb: It's very tricky. John, you have to hold one.

26:43 John Daub: Yeah, it's very hard. I'm gonna give it — I'll give it a try here. Right. Okay.

26:57 Dean Newcomb: This is really hard. Right?

26:58 John Daub: Hi.

26:69 Dean Newcomb: Okay.

26:69 John Daub: Okay.

26:70 Dean Newcomb: Okay. Hi.

26:87 John Daub: There. It's not easy. More entertaining.

27:42 Dean Newcomb: Oh, no. It's so hard.

27:44 John Daub: Yeah, it is really hard.

27:45 Dean Newcomb: Man. I thought we were pros. And then we got to this stage. Hunter —

28:12 John Daub: Check it out. I kind of did it, but it's not quite —

28:20 Dean Newcomb: Hi.

28:23 John Daub: Okay. Now you have to do the other side here. So it's really — roll it and then one over. Roll it and one over. Roll it and then over.

28:67 Dean Newcomb: She has these magical hands.

28:69 John Daub: Yeah, I know.

28:70 Dean Newcomb: Look — just slides. John, I got it.

29:24 John Daub: Yeah. Yours is maybe better than mine, actually.

29:34 Dean Newcomb: Getting smaller.

29:36 John Daub: I did it. Oh, wait a minute. There's a complication. Oh, no. Was this a race, Dean? Because you still didn't do the other side.

29:47 Dean Newcomb: I think I lost the race.

29:48 John Daub: You lost the race. I know. My legs — my legs are killing me. Oh, my legs hurt.

29:59 Dean Newcomb: Okay.

29:68 John Daub: I was maybe too strong with the — the — Dean, did you give — Dean, did you give up on your second look? Dean passed it over to his teacher. You finish it. That's Dean — you gotta finish it.

29:87 Dean Newcomb: I was pushing it so hard that I got sweat on, so —

29:87 John Daub: Oh, you're sweating. Oh my gosh. You got sweat popping out. This is hard work.

29:93 Dean Newcomb: Come on.

30:00 John Daub: Dean is in absolute pain here. This is a great time. If you're watching this, let us know where you're watching from right in your town and state and country. It's kind of interesting to see where everybody is right now. This is a live stream, everybody. So please feel free to leave a comment and participate. Do you think you could do better than Dean? Probably not. I don't know. It's a lot harder than it looks. It is — in Texas, Pirate Queens in Tokyo. Awesome. Jason's in B.C., Canada. Love Abby in Singapore. Awesome. Night Shade Giggle in New Jersey. Okay.

30:53 Dean Newcomb: It's one of the hardest things I've done.

30:53 John Daub: I know. It is — it's not so easy.

30:57 Dean Newcomb: Not now. You feel —

30:58 John Daub: But you can see — we can see the rope out. We can see you doing the rope. But it's so cool how you — they just took a tool, split it, and then they make a rope out of it. And that becomes the handle for your lightning bug prison.

30:75 Dean Newcomb: I'm making rope.

30:75 John Daub: You're making rope, Dean. That's pretty cool.

30:79 Dean Newcomb: This is a skill. Do you ever be like — you know, lost in the forest or on a desert island —

30:85 John Daub: You need the skill — how to make rope.

30:87 Dean Newcomb: I can make rope. Yeah.

30:88 John Daub: Yeah. If you don't know how to make rope, then you're in some deep trouble. Just watch that movie Castaway with Tom Hanks and you'll understand. Making your own rope. He's getting applause. Yes, Dean, you did it — you rolled some rope, Dean. Good job. Wilson! Wilson! Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. My leg is — my legs are out straight — trying to get the blood flow back.

31:32 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

31:33 John Daub: Oh, that's so cute. You're not finished yet. Oh, wow, wow. So my rope isn't quite as pretty as Dean, but look at that — that's awesome. And that took about 20 minutes. It's not as pretty as Dean's either, but you can — you can take it and make it long like this. And then you can put the — you open it up, and then you can put the firefly inside. Then you lock the firefly in, and then you make a lantern. You can stick it in your tent or whatever, and the firefly will light up the tent. But nobody does that actually anymore because it's cruel.

31:81 Dean Newcomb: Well, yeah, it would be, wouldn't it?

31:81 John Daub: Yeah. Cool. I made something from gamazaiku. We did gamazaiku. Yeah. High five, buddy. We did some gamazaiku. Awesome. Yeah — trap the fireflies. Thank you. Dean, yours is really pretty. I went for speed. You went for skill. Look at that — that's just really — that's really pretty. That looks beautiful. Dean, get that. Oh, yeah, yeah — diamond. Put a diamond in there. Great, teach. Yeah, some very good teachers. Awesome. Thank you so much.

32:42 Dean Newcomb: That's what it's meant to look like, huh?

32:42 John Daub: Yeah. It's supposed to look like that. We're pretty close. Mine — mine's more of a larger variety. Yeah. Which one is mine, do you think? Okay, this one. They know which one is Dean's. This one, right?

32:57 Dean Newcomb: Yeah.

32:57 John Daub: This one looks really nice.

32:58 Dean Newcomb: It's very beautiful, isn't it?

32:60 John Daub: This is sugoi. Well, you have to keep doing it. It's the first try. You can only get better.

32:70 Dean Newcomb: They think we're hilarious.

32:72 John Daub: Yeah. Good, sensei. Yeah, very good at it. Thank you. This is gamazaiku. And if you get the chance, keep — to try it to protect — mamoritayo ne kono bunka [I will protect this culture]. We really want to keep this bunka, this culture, part of Japan going. So it's nice to — I'm really happy to have introduced it to everybody. So thanks for watching and understanding a little bit about this culture and the area we're in, Hiruzen. The map is in the description. If you want to learn some more, leave a comment below and we'll answer it in the first couple of days. Dean, anything you want to add?

33:17 Dean Newcomb: You find any of these wicker crafts on your travels in Japan? Now you know the true value of them?

33:18 John Daub: Maybe.

33:18 Dean Newcomb: Maybe make a purchase, support the culture.

33:22 John Daub: This is only Hiruzen — dakettosu. They only make this in this area of Japan, in the Hiruzen region of Japan, which is pretty amazing. So I'm happy that we got to do this live stream. Thanks again everybody. See you in the next one tomorrow. Bye bye bye bye bye bye.