00:01:00 John Daub: Welcome to Tokyo. It was reported a few days ago that this incident happened. Three junkyard dogs—a Doberman, a German Shepherd, and a Rottweiler—escaped into a town in Chiba, causing all sorts of trouble. These junkyard dogs were hunted by 20 police officers, and a mystery ensued. It's kind of a funny story, and I hope it brightens your weekend a little bit.

00:31:00 John Daub: A mystery that's gripped Japan for the last 48 hours or so. A story broke on News on Japan, one of the news aggregators here—there's a great app for all this stuff. Three large dogs missing in Chiba returned home. These are the junkyard dogs, folks—this is part of the mystery. All right, three large male dogs, including a Doberman, went missing from a yard in Yotsukaidō City, Chiba Prefecture, and have been found. All three returned to the yard.

01:22:00 John Daub: The dogs—a Doberman, a Shepherd, and a Rottweiler, all adult males—had been missing since the early hours of the 13th in Yotsukaidō City. The police mobilized about 20 officers to search for the animals around 5:30 p.m. All three dogs returned to the yard and were secured by an employee. The dogs were reported to be uninjured, with no signs of any changes in their health. Boy, they're very detailed about this. Twenty officers—isn't that overkill? But hey, it's a dog hunt, D-A-W-G.

01:53:00 John Daub: Additionally, there have been no reports of anyone being bitten or harmed by the dogs in the surrounding areas. The Doberman, Shepherd, and Rottweiler had all received rabies vaccinations. The police are investigating the circumstances of the dogs' disappearance. This is big news here in Japan—people are wondering. Here's the mystery: I'm going to show you the clip.

02:23:00 John Daub: As we show you, here's the junkyard—I can bring this up so you get an idea. The police are there investigating. These three junkyard dogs are breeds you don't really see much in Japan: Dobermans, Rottweilers, German Shepherds. There they are, the culprits—I think they went on strike. They left the junkyard, and somehow all three got out of their chain collars. This report shows it was like chains—not something you could just get out of easily. Forty to fifty kilograms—so like 100 pounds each. They're pretty big working dogs protecting the place.

03:20:00 John Daub: The mystery is they eluded 20 Japanese police officers and made their way back to the junkyard undetected. Where did they go? According to the story—I was looking at this intensely on Yahoo News, which is still big here—the dogs went missing on the 13th and returned the next day on the 14th before 6 p.m. For 24 hours, these three big, powerful dogs disappeared in the town. Where did they go? What did they do? Did they not leave mounds of poo? Were they hanging out in an alley, drinking and smoking? The country's wondering: how did they elude 20 officers?

04:22:00 John Daub: Of course the officers were looking out for public safety—these dogs are known to bite. But they didn't bite anybody. They're good guard dogs—they know bad people from good and didn't disturb Chiba citizens. But we want answers. They'd been chained all their lives, finally get off the collars, go out into town, walk around, and say, "Nope, nothing here—no food, nothing to hunt. We're going back to our junkyard." Oh my goodness, it's just a funny story.

05:01:00 John Daub: And it's been in the news quite a bit. Here's another story from Bima News—you can see the police investigating, the same clips, and the chain they escaped from. How do you get out of a chain collar? Those things look like chokers. There they are after returning—innocent-looking good doggies. That's the Rottweiler in the middle. Aaron writes: they will remain silent and demand a lawyer. Did they have a canine unit searching? Other dogs hunting dogs? You can't hunt dogs, right? D-A-W-G.

06:10:00 John Daub: It's a perplexing mystery: why couldn't they find the dogs? Why did they return? What did they do that day? Did somebody feed them? Did another dog talk to them like Lady and the Tramp, saying go back to your junkyard? Great movie, the 1950s version. It's Sunday weekend—time to relax. In the US it's politics nonstop, but here no one's talking presidential election. Just where's the next restaurant, which soba shop for lunch. Nice time to get out.

07:19:00 John Daub: Give it up to these dogs—they're smart, didn't bite anyone, didn't cause trouble, found a spot nobody could find. I want that location to hide from cops—maybe right behind the police station, since all 20 cops in town were searching. Last place they'd look. Did they leave paw prints? Nobody saw them? I've got questions. Police said no crime, nobody bitten, so nothing bad happens to the dogs. They knew their way back—maybe didn't really leave the area. Remember Prison Break on Netflix here? Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows didn't leave prison grounds at first—just hid outside where cops wouldn't look. Canines eventually found them.

09:01:00 John Daub: It's in Yotsukaidō City, Chiba—the whole nation gripped. They need to hire Ace Ventura to talk to the dogs. Set up an experiment: release them and see where they go. They're escape artists—got off chains into town. Maybe a beautiful poodle walked by. Who's the boss: Rottweiler, Doberman, or German Shepherd? Probably the Rottweiler fell in love, and they broke out for one day with her. That poodle owner will have weird-looking pups soon. Lady and the Tramp—I'm just saying. No cameras around, but they don't need 'em with that trifecta of guard dogs.

11:18:00 John Daub: I own a Rottweiler—can confirm they think they're the leader until trained. Pit bull would complete it—Yamino Games says so. That's next, maybe.

11:50:00 John Daub: This is a bridge in Hachōbori—I like to come here, run over the canal. Part of the Kanda River. This is Shinkawa, Tokyo's first man-made island from the Edo period. Then Tsukishima across the Sumida was second—used to be just a rock called Tsukuda [?]. Love the little shrine on the corner—these are everywhere in interesting spots. Very peaceful. I've prayed here: give five yen, wish good for everybody on bad days. Good karma.

12:57:00 John Daub: Be happy those dogs got back—no jail, no crime. Back guarding the junkyard—maybe we'll hear more. I'm curious; leave comments below. Thanks for 600+ on the last video about a viewer saying Japan isn't paradise. If you haven't seen it, check it out—hits key points for movers. Maybe they're doing it wrong. Japanese citizens and long-term residents chimed in—fascinating, even trolls.

14:20:00 John Daub: Detective's on the move—have a good Sunday. See you in another livestream soon. Search the story—fascinating. Huskies are poofy, innocent-looking escape artists. Informal meetup later: Akihabara Gachapon Kaikan around 4:30 p.m. with Laura, then Kanae joins before dinner. Me and Leo [?] will be there. Matane.