00:00:00 John Daub: I'm hiding the identity of this particular tourist here, but you can see on the top of it—let me bring this up—you can see the police officer here. Her post on the social media threads was, "Some lady called the cops on me today because I was using a wall outlet outside to charge my phone. It was dark, cold, and rainy, and I was just trying to get back to my Airbnb on my bike. I hate people so much." And the Japanese police were called on this. This is an international tourist, I believe from the United States. You can see the police officers—he was there doing his job. Somebody did call. Not a lot of people are seeing this. He just posted it randomly. I don't know why it popped up in my threads. And I'm just going like, not another one.

00:00:54 John Daub: But this kind of thing seems to be happening so often right now in Japan where common sense stuff is completely being missed by tourists coming here. The thing that made it really odd was that she posted this on social media. That is weird. And then I went through her threads and found that she breaks the law quite a bit. And in Japan, this is quite bad. Here, check this one out. I want to show you, first of all, to put it in perspective who exactly this person is. She's right now driving in one of those Mario Karts with her smartphone, which is a crime in Japan. Quite a big crime. She's driving and filming. This is a huge no-no. Not only could you cause an accident, you're driving a motor vehicle. This is not an amusement park in Japan.

00:02:10 John Daub: Again, this is not something that made the news. This is something I saw on Threads. Like, what the heck are you doing? You can't use a smartphone. And she's holding the smartphone while driving. Alright, there's laws here. In 2019, Japan tightened penalties for the use of smartphones and other mobile handhelds, tripling the fine. The number of serious distracted driver crashes fell as a result. Tougher penalties came into effect in December 2019. You can go to jail for it. Maximum fine for such behavior was raised, but you could also go to jail for up to 10 years or something, especially if you cause an accident. This person has no common sense. And this is posted on her Threads account on social media. I'm like, okay, wait a minute. How dumb can somebody be?

00:03:02 John Daub: I hate doing these videos, but it's important for you to know that people are watching what you do. Coming from the United States, I'm pretty sure this tourist came from there. You cannot put your smartphone out there while driving. Now, let's go back into the original post. Where she's getting questioned and she just hates people. What disturbed me most was that some people were on her side. I'm hiding their identities because I really don't want to get in the middle of this, although I think this story is worth it. These replies are insane: "Have you ever been stranded? Have you ever had no phone battery in a foreign country? Sometimes a little juice in your phone is a matter of life and death. It's called being understanding, empathetic. Look it up."

00:04:19 John Daub: The vast majority of people don't want to break the law and put themselves in such a situation. And the response here is, how could you hate people for your own wrongdoing? What you did was theft in Japan. You have stolen electricity from someone you don't even know. If you needed help, you could have just asked nicely. I understand it's raining. Folks, if you need to charge your phone, go to the convenience store. They sell portable batteries and wires to connect into your phone at every single convenience store in Japan. You got to pay for it. You can't go on the side of the street. And there's no loss of convenience stores in Tokyo because this is in Tokyo. Trust me.

00:05:25 John Daub: There's no more excuse. You can go to a cafe, but if you're stuck in the rain, you go to a convenience store and you can charge your phone there. You pay. You can't steal electricity from the street. You can't just take your wire and plug it in. You can't plug it into an electrical outlet because I think this is like a law. Shouldn't this be a law like in other countries? I think it kind of is. Like I have here as a prop an electrical outlet charger for a smartphone. I cannot just put this in the electrical outlet and stand on the street. Someone somewhere is going to see you do it and they're going to call the police because it is theft. It doesn't matter if you're a tourist. They don't care if you're stranded. Rules are rules. And this is the reason why you come to Japan and have a safe experience. People follow the rules.

00:06:29 John Daub: When I was hitchhiking like 20 years ago, I might have been in the same kind of situations. I didn't know if it was stealing or not. If you're in a public park and you see an electrical outlet, is it stealing if you plug in? There's a lot of grey areas with this. But I asked my Japanese friends why stealing electricity is such a strict thing. It's because people live very close in Japan. You can see the apartments are really close together. There have been instances where people don't have money and they will find a way to use a neighbor's power outlet for weeks and months. And so they criminalized it very strongly. But usually if you just ask, you go into a cafe or restaurant that's open 24 hours, nine times out of ten they're going to be okay. Or they'll direct you to a convenience store where you can pay $10 and get a portable battery.

00:07:52 John Daub: WRX Turbo is in the house. Nice to see you. Faisal FM from Singapore. Midnight Snack Run. This kind of snack is one that you eat with your ears and not one with your mouth. And I know about Johnny Somali in Korea who has been arrested. He hasn't changed. He hasn't learned. Just don't come to Japan. They got a case on him like this thick. There's a reason why he's keeping his distance. They should extradite him back here to serve the rest of his sentence. Let's talk about Korea and Japan having a friendship and extradition treaty. They should bring him back where he can serve the rest of his time in jail for what he's done.

00:08:50 John Daub: A lot of it's like just basic common sense. Unfortunately, using someone's outlet without permission is considered stealing in Japan. Use your common sense. Although this person doesn't seem to have it because she's driving a Mario Kart while filming it with her smartphone, which is also against the law. I think you all know that. A lot of people have that feeling like, oh, I got to take that picture. What makes you assume that it's okay to use private property without permission? In some countries in Southeast Asia, you could be beaten to death by people if they caught you stealing. Here's a tip for you if you get in a similar situation in Japan: go to the police box or convenience store. Explain your situation. Japanese police are actually helpful. They might even lend you some money if you really need it.

00:10:05 John Daub: This person is from the United States. From the way she was dressed, probably Las Vegas, maybe working in one of those casinos. I don't judge. But when you come to a foreign country, use common sense. When you come from the United States to Japan, I've never had any issues with American police. I support our policemen. We need law and order. In Japan, the police don't actually have a lot of stuff to do. Crime is solved pretty good. People don't commit that many crimes. They're mostly helping people. Usually you can get directions from the police box. That's what keeps them the busiest. If you're stranded or lost, or you lose your wallet, they'll allow you to sleep in the police station or police box until morning. They'll help you. Sometimes the police will give you money out of their pockets if you really need some help.

00:11:51 John Daub: The kindness of the police officers in Japan should not be taken for granted. They're super kind. They're very helpful. They do more than just protect and serve. They are like tourist information from time to time, but they give directions to Japanese people as well. So you can count on them. You're not going to get beaten by the police. This is stuff that probably does happen, but you have to do a lot, just like Johnny Somali had to do a lot before the police came down on him. She probably was just questioned and let go. Typically, if you break the law but it's nothing big, they make you sit in the police station for 12 hours and waste your time, which is more valuable sometimes.

00:12:49 John Daub: I find it funny going through people's trash cans is considered stealing even though it's thrown away for some reason. Privacy, when you put it in, even though it's in a trash bag. If it's in a public trash can, I think it belongs to the city now. Once objects are put in a public trash can, it belongs to the city or whoever is the custodian. But in Japan, if you throw it away in a residential neighborhood, that's still the property of the person or the apartment complex. So you can't steal trash in Japan. Personal property laws in Japan don't make a lot of sense to a lot of people outside of Japan, but they're really strict. After the Great Tohoku Earthquake in 2011, I remember that tsunami washed so much stuff inland. A lot of that stuff, months after the tsunami, they couldn't move it because of personal property laws. Unless they can find the owner, they can't move it from the position that it's in.

00:14:52 John Daub: Personal property also is the electricity. You can't go into somebody's house just because you see an electrical outlet. If you're in a restaurant, you better ask the manager. Most of the time they'll say yes. If they say no, go to the convenience store. Or if you're in a tough situation like this person says she was in, go to the police box. What we can learn from her stupidity is the greatest point from this livestream. It is midnight. I couldn't sleep. There's a storm coming. I'm wearing shorts. There's a cold front coming as well. October is about to turn cold. So tomorrow my shorts are gone. I thought I would enjoy this windy day for just a little bit more. I take some of your questions. This is a livestream.

00:15:53 John Daub: I hope that you all kind of learned something from this livestream. And what made me really happy was like this girl who stole the electricity. The police came and questioned her. She must have been there for quite a long time for the police to come and find her. She wasn't just there to get her phone charged. But there are people out there who obviously don't understand that either. So that means there's maybe 5% of the tourists coming in here that have no common sense at all. I'm shocked you're out at this late. It's true. I want to hit different time zones for you guys as well. I noticed that I always stream like around 11 to 2 p.m. recently. Great for Hawaii, not so great for the rest of the world. Welcome to the nighttime. I could take you around a little bit perhaps. What do you guys think about this? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below as I walk around Tokyo.

00:17:06 John Daub: Talking about bad behavior and lack of common sense by tourists coming to Japan. Just one of many. And this person is not like a very popular Instagrammer. It's those people like the one from Chile yesterday that I was talking about. She did this only two days ago and it's major news. It's like the big TikTokers and YouTubers are the ones that are getting caught. But what about the little people like this person? She's here driving with her smartphone. She posts this on social media. She's in Japan breaking the law. There's a cop right there. Obviously she's not very bright. This is common sense type of stuff. You don't drive and use your smartphone, especially in a foreign country. They will arrest you. They will fine you. Even if they don't arrest you, you're going to waste like a day or two of your trip.

00:18:24 John Daub: There's 7-Elevens everywhere. And the point is if there's a convenience store everywhere, there's also a power supply or a place for you to charge your phone. I'm kind of glad to do this livestream because this is an issue that a lot of people probably run into. Like if your phone dies, why aren't you carrying a portable battery? Everybody has one of those if they travel, right? You go to the convenience store. Talk to the police. Ask people. But the one thing you don't do is steal power. And like you don't start looking at people's apartments and look for outlets to plug in. You're probably going to find it, but now you're trespassing. Or she was drunk. But then why would you film it and put it on social media? Probably one of the stupidest things.

00:20:20 John Daub: If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I started this livestream a little bit raw. I was like, is the mic plugged in? Because I've had some issues with that in the past. But I want to hear from you. And tomorrow maybe I'll take you on a walking trip around Tokyo or something like that. Hopefully the weather is nice on a Sunday. But if not, I'll do something indoors. Take care everybody. Good night. I'm going to go to bed. There's a lot of drunk people on a Saturday night. I'm usually inside in bed at this time. But I'm noticing there is a lot of drunk people on a Saturday night. Should that be common sense? Why don't I know this stuff? Alright, see you guys. Matane.