00:00:03 John Daub: Hello everybody, this is Ariake Arena. This is where the Inoue-Fulton fight is going to be taking place in a couple of hours. You can see Inoue's son's flags right there. This is definitely a home fight. There's the Ariake Arena sign. This was built back in 2019, 2020 for the Olympics. I think it was completed in 2018 to be honest with you. Right now, it's being rented out until 2046 by Dentsu and a consortium which includes NTT Docomo and a bunch of other companies.

00:00:43 John Daub: So this is going to be a pretty exciting event. And if you live in Japan, it's hard not to notice what's going on. Now, yeah, Inoue is and it's always funny to hear how Westerners say his first name, Naoya, which doesn't make sense to me. But he's going to be in there preparing for this fight if he's not already. I'm not a big fight lover, but I love sports and I think this is going to be a really good one. Last year, I believe he had the fight of the year last December against heavyweights and all the other boxers. He's that good. I really didn't know too much about him until about two years ago when he started fighting because I think Kanae's dad always has boxing on in the background like dang, this guy's pretty good.

00:01:36 John Daub: So it's going to be a really interesting fight. I just wanted to bring you around here, show you a little bit about Ariake Arena because if you're ever going to do it, it's going to be a time when a fight like this is on. Here's the two at the weigh-in just a couple of days ago. The great thing about Inoue is that he's so good. He's so much smaller, but he packs a punch man. It's like dynamite every time he hits. I don't even know how many to watch this fight. I'll probably see everything else on YouTube in a couple of days. Here's some of the video of him fighting. Yeah, I again like small body. He's heart of steel. This guy. Even Mike Tyson said that this guy's a monster and he's crazy. So when Mike Tyson says that that's sort of a big deal.

00:02:28 John Daub: It's going to be a big event here. I'm already kind of looking, I kind of wish I had tickets. Ariake Arena seats 12,000, has 12,000 permanent seats and can be expanded up to 15,000. This is where the volleyball events were held in the 2020 Olympics as well as the wheelchair basketball events. I believe the finals were held here. Not quite sure about the Paralympics. But after that the arena now is home to Disney on Ice and a bunch of other events that take place in the city.

00:03:05 John Daub: I made a little video here. You can see exactly where we are in the city of Tokyo. This is the new land. This is kind of where most of the Olympics on the bay sides were held. There's Ariake Arena from the sky. Let's go 3D and you can see there's not a lot around in this area, which is pretty cool. It's perfect to build an arena like this. I think it was like a three billion dollar arena. The Ariake area is accessible by the Yurikamome line (ゆりかもめ，automated transit train). But the thing is you're gonna have to walk about 400 meters because the station is on the other side. That other bridge over there is where the Ariake line goes. The gymnastics stadium for the Olympics is right there across the street. And I think the BMX events for the Olympics were held at that blue tarp and in this area along the canal. Just pretty amazing. Finally, they're getting use out of something from the Olympics.

00:04:08 John Daub: Mike Tyson wrote in here. Heath a mother a mother right said David Brown. I believe that I was watching some, I was googling him last night just out of curiosity and watching some of his footage. Man, featherweight isn't exactly something that gets a lot of mainstream attention. But when you watch this guy fight, maybe he should. I think the real boxing is happening in the lower divisions maybe more than the heavyweights because heavyweights just get overhyped. But when you get into this bantamweight and I think the next one is super bantamweight. The great thing about Inoue Naoya is that he's got balls of steel. Can I say that? It's family friendly. Like tennis balls and I swear he's not afraid of anything and you watch him on YouTube, some of the highlights of his fights. It is just absolutely incredible.

00:05:07 John Daub: I'm going to take you now. Let's walk over there. See here, I have a video. Oh, here it is. The thing is the signal is not really good over here. So I walked and presented this five minutes ago. I was here. There's a line of people on the left and right. That's where the flags are for Naoya, who's going to be fighting tonight. Those are his home flags. So they should strike the fear into Fulton. Tyson also said that he's better than Manny Pacquiao. That's crazy. Over there on the right side is where his goods are. So I'm going to take you over there in a couple of minutes after this video runs here.

00:05:54 John Daub: Now, if you look you can see the TV screen. They're playing some of the highlights to psych people up, a hype video. And then you get into the event poster. Take it to the limit, baby. Man, he was there. Inoue was injured when he was practicing for this training for this in May. So he had to recuperate. And now they set the date for today. Are you at the arena on the right side where the event's going to be held already? You can see people sitting down. Do you see that they're sitting down in the shadow of the arena waiting to get inside? It's that hot. Well, there's some street food down there. There's the entrance where everybody's going to go in there pretty soon. It is so hot out here. Not humid, but the solar heat and the reflection off the road. You can feel that just after 30 minutes. My skin is getting a little bit red and burning.

00:07:08 John Daub: There's a cafe on the side of the arena. And there's a restaurant on the other side. And down there you can walk along the waterfront here. There's Toyosu on the other side. And LaLaport is to the left side over there. Looking back at the arena and the big line of people waiting to get in there. I think it was like 4:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So just in a few hours from now. Yeah, I think Inoue-san's colors are black. Again, there's a video of him fighting right there. I don't have a lot of video of this. Just to give you a little bit of a taste. I don't know what it is about him, but he is able to find holes and move so quickly. And somehow his punches... You ever have a friend in high school whenever he hits you, even though he had no muscles whatsoever, it just felt like a ton of bricks. Some people have that and he has that. Which is crazy.

00:08:20 John Daub: He doesn't even really adjust to the weight changes. Now he's vacated his flyweight belts and he's gone right into bantam and super bantam. Which is crazy. And everyone who competes against him, these are people who say that they can't get knocked out. And then he knocks them out. This is why I'm kind of excited about it. And I'm sweating like crazy too. Again, the weigh-in was pretty intense. They just want to destroy one another. But he's got this little smile on his face. And that makes it so funny. Just a little smile on his face. The psychology getting into his head. It's like Rocky. Well, this is not because actually they're both champions. So this is a big fight.

00:09:14 John Daub: I'm glad that I could bring you to Ariake Arena because without this fight, it would be super boring. It's being promoted really heavily in Japan. You can see right there. I think it's on ESPN Plus or something because it's a bantamweight fight. The entrance starts in about an hour from now. So it might even be delayed. But it's a pretty big deal here in Japan, of course. It's been on the news all over the place. So it's hard to avoid. Now, let me show you some of the goods. So if you're a Naoya Inoue fan or not, and you just happen to be in Tokyo, you can come and get some of his official goods. He has better merch than I do because I only have a couple of stuff. Look at the hats. So you can learn about stuff that people might want by looking at other people's merch. The prices are pretty high. Like 50 bucks, 40 bucks for those hats and towels and stuff. But if you're coming to this fight, this is going to be the fight of the year. This stuff is pretty valuable.

00:10:40 John Daub: Here's the other side of the arena. Here's the map and the layout of it. It's where it is in Ariake, the region here. Next to it is the Olympic Gymnastics Center. And then the arena map looks like it's all empty because the main arena takes up 90% of it. You can see where the entrances are. And it's very accessible. That's the one thing they did really good. They made it accessible to everyone. And it was a highlight of the Paralympics that went on a couple years ago. All the multi-purpose bathrooms here. Tokyo is doing a pretty good job of it. And this is where we are right now. Down there there's like a food truck. Maybe we'll investigate. The thing is, if I go over here, there's no signal. Which is why I'm doing this from a distance. But there's a food truck there.

00:11:52 John Daub: He's going to run up against Mayweather soon. I think so. He might run up against Mayweather himself. Mayweather would not fight this dude. One, because they're different weight classes. And two, he's in his prime, man. Inoue Naoya is in his freaking prime. I don't know if anybody can beat him. Now he looked like he was rattled in the last fight. He had a broken clavicle bone or something. Man, it's exciting to see that. And I hate violence. And yet, I'm so drawn to this boxing matchup. I guess it's because it's not overly hyped like the other boxing matches. Like heavyweights. But there you go.

00:12:50 John Daub: Let's walk away from the riverside and just see if we can get the signal. I came from this direction. That's where the city of Tokyo is. If you just go in this direction, you'll eventually get to Kachidoki, which is the nearest subway station. It's about a one and a half kilometer walk. So it'll take you about 45 minutes to get here to Ariake Arena. But I'm guessing right now that it's not going to be really good walking in the heat. It's going to be really painful. That's where his goods are on the side here. And a lot of people are just coming and buying stuff and leaving. I guess it's really hard to get to. I'm going to have to buy tickets to this fight. I cannot believe that that guy is actually running in the heat. That's crazy.

00:13:45 John Daub: Alright, I'll take some questions as we walk to the other side of the arena. And possibly getting cut off with the signal here. Happy birthday, Brandania. I see Garrett's here. How you doing, Garrett? Is Fulton a Mayweather student? Oh, I feel silly. Boxing is so barbaric. Be that as it may, it's still pretty exciting when it happens in your neighborhood. What can you say? That's the Yurikamome Line. That's how far away it is on the right side of the stadium of the gymnastics arena. So if you get off at Ariake, you'll have to walk this direction.

00:14:54 John Daub: Boxing I don't think it's as popular as it used to be, thankfully. Thanks to the K-1 and the Ultimate Fighting and the Octagon Arena and all that other stuff, which is even more brutal in the world of sports these days. But boxing is still mano y mano. And as Rocky the movie showed, you can put your differences aside and let two people box it out. And in that one, America beat Russia. Actually, the Soviet Union. And Rocky may have beat Drago, but boy, did he take a beating.

00:15:42 John Daub: These are the highways here. So this will take you to Wangan Dori, the expressway. This is how I get to Costco, actually. Wish I had a car. Lot of security here. WRX Turbo is in the house. We need some music for this. I gotta get home in a couple of minutes. But I thought this was worth taking 20 minutes out of a summer day to go over this location. Look at the new apartment buildings. These are so nice. Wow. So clean. Big windows. There's nothing around here. Actually, that's not true. There's a shopping mall not too far away from here. A lot of things have been coming into the area over the last couple of years. I think the shopping center is just down the street here. So actually, not a bad place. There's a restaurant called Moon River here, which is interesting. And then you have some fight fans coming right now. Man, they look tough.

00:17:03 John Daub: Alright, let's cross the street and go over to the gymnastics area. Here's the backside of Ariake Arena. And here's the front side of traffic. Yeah, Jeff, that's like a $300,000 a month kind of view. I think that's more than that. If you look at the cars going by, some of these cars cost over $300,000. People living in this area, these are like a million dollars each kind of units. The average price of a new apartment opening up in Tokyo was 9000万円 (9,000 man yen). Basically, like about $900,000 for a condo in Tokyo, a new one. About between $800,000 and $900,000. That's insane for central Tokyo, including these places here. No, I will never be able to afford something like that. Not that I would ever want to. I want to live out where there's trees and stuff. Chiba is much cheaper. In fact, anywhere is much cheaper than Tokyo. It's just because there's everything here.

00:18:53 John Daub: Alright, there's my bicycle right there. This is where the gymnastics events were held in 2021. Still weird to say. Can't believe the Paris Olympics are a year away. Yeah, $900,000. Not $90,000. No, you're wrong. About $900,000. 9400万円. Which is about, if it was 100 yen to the dollar, it would be $940,000. Or with the exchange rate right now, probably more like $800,000. But still, that is insane. And in the distance there is that shopping mall I was telling you about, Ariake Garden. Which is an amazing shopping mall. Not connected very well by subway or train. But if you are in this area, you must go there. They got some really good burgers. That Umami Burger that's on the west coast of the US. They have a branch inside there.

00:20:12 John Daub: Alright y'all, enjoy the fight. I hope this was informational and you got a chance to look inside and see what's going to be happening in a couple of hours. Because tomorrow, the world will be abuzz. Postcard Club, if you want a real fight, get this. Join my Patreon and I'll send this to you from Japan. This is the Flamethrower Chef of Osaka. And to end this, because I have to. QR code is on for our bus tour going September 10th and 11th to Niigata's Katakai fireworks festival. Where they shoot off the world's largest annual fireworks shell. The Yonshakudama (四尺玉，4-shaku ball). It is massive. Please sign up if you're interested. Just get that QR code. Even just check out the site. Appreciate it all. Here's the poster for it. The Yonshakudama. Katakai is a massive fireworks festival. See you everybody. Thanks for watching. Thanks to WRX Turbo.