00:00:01 John Daub: So I'm here in Shinjuku and I saw the Cross Shinjuku Vision monitor way up there. You can see it. I'm gonna zoom in. It's turning four years old. That's gonna flicker a little bit. This is the digital cat TV. It turned four years old this month. It's kind of crazy. They've been showing anniversary videos of the cat. This is the most recent one where he seems to be dropping objects on the people walking underneath. The cat back when it came out in 2021. This was a huge deal and the international community couldn't come here to see the digital Shinjuku cat because nobody could come into Japan at that time. There we are four years later and there are actually still tourists over here checking out the digital cat from in the shade, of course. I'm not doing that. I'd go right straight into the sunshine. How you doing? It's freaking hot.

00:01:06 John Daub: I wanted just to come here and show my respect to the digital cat for all the happiness that cats in general give us. Look at there. He's floating. This is hilarious. I wish we could have a cat, but Kanae is allergic to them. Brandani is not here, but this livestream is for her. She loves cats and bless her soul. She just rescued cats somebody had dumped a box of kittens out in front of a store and she picked them up and took care of them. So we've got a really lovely person in our community. I wanted to come out here and show some love back with some cat love, especially for our Hawaiian family here. If you're walking around Shinjuku, it's kind of neat to see it here.

00:02:01 John Daub: Now I'm gonna bring up the video they're showing, the four-year anniversary video. It shows the four years that the cat has been here. Happy birthday video from 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. They're already talking about the future, showing how the digital cat is going to be even more awesome. It's a great way to get people to come here, check it out, and see their other digital ads, which is why people pay a premium to be on this intersection. But it is still an innovative idea. This is the one that pretty much started it and it's being copied by a lot of places around the world.

00:02:48 John Daub: So where exactly are we in the city of Shinjuku in Tokyo? We're right down there, the east exit (Higashi-guchi) of Shinjuku Station. It's a very busy intersection, crossing over to go towards where that Godzilla statue is on top of the hotel. This street will take you there through this alley—no cars can go through there. That one business across the street used to be a fruit business and I'm kind of sad that's gone. It had like a hundred-year history and you can see the square watermelon there too, which looks like a watermelon but it's square. The first harvest is taking place right now and they'll be coming out in the stores in about two or three days, so you'll see them in Tokyo. Happy Friday to everybody. It's a pretty big deal.

00:03:48 John Daub: The fourth anniversary is something—I'm sure it's going to run for a lot longer. But if you take a look at Shinjuku Sanchome (Shinjuku 3-chome), which is this street right here, we're going to walk down there just a little bit. What would you guys say? Should I take you down towards the Godzilla statue? We can walk down towards there underneath the cat. Or do you want to go down towards Shinjuku Sanchome and go take a look and see how that side of the city is doing? Historically in the city of Tokyo, Shinjuku 3-chome, this street here was one of the first real shopping streets. All the big department stores anchored by Isetan, which is massive. Lots of stores left and right. It's a massive shopping hub decades ago, but nowadays there are shopping malls all over the place. But Shinjuku 3-chome is the place I will often come to.

00:05:04 John Daub: People seem to want me to go to the Godzilla. Really? Godzilla over 3-chome? Alright, well let's go in that direction. I can't promise you the signal is gonna be any better but we're gonna do this again. This is for our sister from another mister, Brandani in Hawaii, for her love of kitty cats. We're gonna walk underneath it. Studio Alta is gone and they're building another building here, which is sad to see. Here's the anniversary video being played and they're gonna be doing that I think until September. So if you come this summer you'll get a chance to see the kitty cat birthday. But it's not quite as intimidating from right underneath there. I always wondered if people were freaked out by the kitty cat looking down at them and the effects. It's not as pronounced from down here. It's still pretty cool. I'm amazed. Digital signage has come a long way even in the last four years.

00:06:09 John Daub: This used to be a vegetable stand with a very long history and now it's a kayak. It looks like it's been here for a long time. It's only been here for about five years. I remember my friends Dan and Lincoln from a channel called What's Inside—they cut stuff open. His son has gone off to college, great golfer. I think he got a full ride to the University of Utah, which is amazing. It's been fantastic to see Lincoln grow up. But we came here with Lincoln and his dad Dan and we were looking at the square watermelons. I think we bought our square watermelon here. Nowadays it's something else. This city changes so fast! The street right there is where the Godzilla is. More digital signage.

00:07:03 John Daub: I wanted to see the Southwest of the U.S. with Kanae. We were going to rent a car and drive around but it just didn't happen because of, you know what... If we had left Japan, we would never have been able to come back. But we're still hoping to get down there to see the Southwest of the U.S. It's a beautiful place. Wow, look at that shop. The goth is back. I've always wondered about the goth fashion. I guess in a way, it's kind of warped into the maids. Those girls said it's kawaii. I haven't seen this store before. It's new. Demon Slayer movie's coming out July 18th. I did not know that. There you go, live view of Godzilla. It's pretty intimidating.

00:08:26 John Daub: Yesterday, I took it on the chin a little bit from some viewers. I'm not a partisan person. I'm not a political person. I've talked about Grant. I'm not planting a tree in front of Tokyo Tower 150-plus years ago. The diplomacy and the friendship between Japan and the United States is unparalleled. It goes much deeper than a lot of other countries. Right now, we're in a tough time. If you even mention the current president's name, you get so much hatred. It was like that when I made the video. I took it on the chin when I made a video in 2017. I visited a city—I spent a few days in Obama, Fukui. I took it on the chin from the other side. You all know I'm not a partisan person. I'm not one side or the other. I have a lot of respect and love for the country that I come from.

00:09:41 John Daub: But I take it as I see it and I'm going to be honest with you. And if you're so outraged and triggered by one comment, there's nothing really I can do about it. I've been doing this for a very long time. I can take the heat. I'm not somebody who's going to get really upset if you disagree with me. That's fine. But the negotiations are very interesting. And if you're an American, you're probably going to come out on top on this one. We do have a rice shortage. And by making it public, the president is also helping Prime Minister Ishiba deal with the rice lobby. It helps him save face and say, look, I can't do anything about it. I'm getting pressure from that side. We have to grow more rice. They don't want to grow more rice because it keeps the prices high. Japan has doubled the exports of Japanese rice, which doesn't make a lot of sense. The reason they're doing it is because they're making more money selling Japanese rice in Hawaii, in New York City, in Paris, than they are selling it here domestically. If the rice shortage was so bad, why did they double the export of Japanese rice? It's also a business, ladies and gentlemen.

00:11:07 John Daub: Japan is a very tough negotiator. So is the United States. In the end, in a month from now, no one's going to be talking about this. And I know what I'm talking about. I'm somebody who's been on both sides of this. I go to Obama. I take it on the chin from the right. I think it was a fair video. I talk about yesterday. I think it was a very fair assessment. In the end, we actually had more subscribers and joined because of it. So I really don't know what the outrage is about. Just take it in stride. In the end, we want Japan to win. And we want America to win. And I think that's going to happen. But the public display of the politics rubs a lot of people the wrong way. And I get that. So that episode is done and I'm moving on. But you do not know who I voted for. So let's keep it at that. All facts.

00:12:16 John Daub: It's pretty cool. I love that they did this. Shinjuku is considered the Godzilla town for a reason. You know what they need to do? They need to put manhole covers here and it needs to be Godzilla crushing the city of Shinjuku. That kind of stuff goes super viral. But there's a lot to love with Shinjuku. I don't come here very often. I'm coming here actually to look for hiking gear. Rain jacket for the four days I'll be living at the summit of Mount Fuji with the Japan Post Office team. So Shinjuku is a good place to buy hiking gear. Joy, if you're watching, I did not know there was a Demon Slayer movie coming July 18th here. That's kind of cool. Last time I was here taking a picture it was the Pokemon movie and they had Pokemon signs here. But now they have Demon Slayer movie signs. That's cool.

00:13:28 John Daub: So everybody who wants to get angry at me for it, I get it. It's fine. You can be angry. But I'm not going to change who I am. I'm going to be talking about the friendship that Japan and the US have and the seemingly difficult relationship at times that gets ironed out. Because in the end it just works out pretty good. No one's talking about this in a month. The US is the country that opened up Japan to the world. Commodore Perry came in with the threat of violence, blasting a cannon with black ships over 150 years ago. And he said, I'm going to come back with the black ships if you don't open up Japan and trade. And he did that. And then they opened up and traded. So by coming in he forced Japan's hand, which helped some people save face because they were up against people who didn't want to open it. They didn't have any choice. Therefore, in the end, what America did was quite helpful to Japan. One can argue. And with the public tweet that came about the rice, it's sort of the same thing. It's a shot fired that sometimes can open things up. And it definitely needs to speed up.

00:15:01 John Daub: On the surface, Japan looks like it's a very simple place to understand. But deep down there are so many layers. It's so much more complicated than the United States. It doesn't always work the way you think it does. And that's why I'll take some heat for it and I'm okay with that. Because we've got a lovely cat here who will unify us. So when you have a tough stream, come back and celebrate with cats. Because everybody loves cats except for my wife who has an allergy. Sophisticated is the word. It's very sophisticated. It's still such a cool sign. But honestly, I'm quite upset that Studio Alta is gone. You know how many times I met up with people? Hey, where do you want to meet up? Let's meet up in front of Studio Alta.

00:16:14 John Daub: She's allergic to cats. She's allergic to a lot of dog fur. And I have a love-hate relationship with poodles. And they're the ones that are non-allergenic. So I don't know if we're going to get a dog. Maybe a hamster. But I love these digital signs here. This didn't exist about two years ago. Now you have Wi-Fi hotspots. You can touch with your NFC to get tourist information. That's so cool. Like I always thought that this was the answer. People are giving you flyers, a lot of information. And you can now just touch and get the tourist information like a PDF instead of getting a piece of paper. And that's sort of the wave of the future. Because I got so many pieces of paper, I'm just tired of holding it. I've got an office full of brochures that I never look at. If it was digital, I could index them. So I think it's a good idea what Shinjuku has done there. And actually, they have those same signs in Akihabara and a bunch of other areas around the city.

00:17:15 John Daub: A lot of people looking back to see the cat. Thoughts on the 3D panda in Ueno? Copycat. There's another controversial episode that I could cover: panda diplomacy. Oh, I feel so bad for the people in Wakayama. There's a zoo in Wakayama that's very popular. And I believe that this month, they're already on a plane back to China. That's really harsh. So there's a whole episode on panda diplomacy. And there's a good chance that the pandas at Ueno Zoo might be on the way out. Imagine Japan not having any pandas. China basically owns the rights to all pandas. It's a gift when you get one. Only two pandas have ever been given without that restriction. They were given to the United States, the Washington DC Zoo. And both those pandas died and they were the only ones.

00:19:04 John Daub: I'm going to try to find a vending machine. MXP2000, staying in Shinjuku November, I'm craving a banana Kit Kat. Let's see if we can find one. I've got to go to the other side to the hiking store. So I might as well just keep this going for a little bit. The heat is destroying my mind. Boy, Bic Camera's got the sun umbrellas out. And they also have these battery-powered fans. You can get these on Amazon.co.jp sent to your hotel for a third of the price. But you kind of want them now because you're melting. I'm sure they sell a lot of those. If the two pandas in the US had bred and the US was able to make pandas, the US and China would be two countries that had pandas. But after those two unfortunately died, the result was that China now has a monopoly on pandas. So panda diplomacy is a real thing. And everybody loves pandas, including yours truly. Just want to grab one and hold one like I did with the koalas.

00:20:53 John Daub: It's so hot. Subway stacking up subs. We're walking now on the side of JR Shinjuku Station here. And this area used to be where a lot of younger people came. A lot of game centers inside here. But nobody really comes out to game centers anymore. Subway tacos? Really? That sounds pretty good. I go to my burrito place Tokyo Station once a week called Freehole. It's the Chipotle of Japan. They've been around for about 15, 20 years now. Freehole—keep that in mind. They now have about five or six of them in Tokyo. I'm taking you now past the information center.

00:22:20 John Daub: I went to China's Panda Base near Chengdu. And I stayed in Chengdu for about a week. We had a 30-day visa. And I went on from Chengdu on a flight to Lhasa. Me and seven other backpackers rented a four-star hotel. And we drove across the border of China. We had to wait in Chengdu to get our permit from the government of China. And we got it in about three or four days. But while we were in Chengdu, we got a chance to see the pandas. And that was one of the highlights of my time in China. It's such a beautiful country. I wish we were in much better relations with all the countries. But that's not always the case. I was very fortunate to travel when I did. Down here you see underneath the bridge is a brand new tourist office. This Don Quixote used to be a game center.

00:23:52 John Daub: This used to be where Gap was. And it was one of the only Gaps in all of Japan at the time, 25 years ago. I remember going in here and I would go into the mega Gap. Oh, it still is. So the Gap never gave up its location here. This is the Shinjuku Tourism Information Center. They speak English, Chinese, Thai—like every language under the sun Shinjuku has put together. This is new. And they will help you plan your trip. If you give them a challenge, they like that. They've got a lot of brochures. There's a map of Tokyo right there. So just walking through here, you'll probably get five or six ideas for things to do inside of Tokyo. But they also speak English and they will help you make reservations, plan your trip, all this other stuff. And I did a Reels about a year ago showing you that there are free volunteer Japanese guides that will take you around Tokyo for free. You just have to make a reservation. Free. Two hours. Some things require just the payment for the activity that you're doing, like if you're going to a tea ceremony, you just have to pay for the tea ceremony. But the guide is free.

00:25:39 John Daub: Now we're underneath the bus station inside of Shinjuku's underground walkway. There's the Marunouchi Line, the Fukutoshin Line, and the Shinjuku Line. Fukutoshin still seems new to me because I was here before waiting them out while they were building it. Here's the Mitsukoshi, or now Newoman. This used to be Mitsukoshi, the Times Square building. And up on the top floor was the Tower Records—or was it HMV? I think it was HMV. And the bathroom across from the HMV had the best... I would stand at the urinal and you'd be able to get this amazing view of Shinjuku. I said, this has got to be maybe the best toilet in all of Japan.

00:26:33 John Daub: I've noticed also the escalator problem. You're not supposed to stand on the... You're not supposed to walk on it anymore. But you can't tell people not to stand on the right. People still stand on the left and walk up the right. And down, and vice versa. The rules have changed. And you're not supposed to walk on the escalator at all. But it's very hard to change the way people do stuff. You'll see signs all over the escalators. Inside of here is the hiking store. Right here. I've got to try to find a waterproof jacket because I already know it's going to be raining on top of Mt. Fuji. If I'm going to be for four days, I'm going to be in a couple of downpours. It's inevitable. So I'm going to need some good gear. I want to say thank you to my Patreon supporters for making that possible, to buy maybe a little bit better gear than I probably would have. So I appreciate it.

00:27:41 John Daub: You're not supposed to walk on the escalators. It's mostly because a lot of people have luggage. People are getting older in Japan. They want to reduce accidents to zero. But in the end, it's actually more efficient not to walk on the escalators. Because people will line up. Japanese will line up. And there'll be a line that takes one minute to get to the top. But if everybody used both sides and utilized the entire escalator instead of just the walkers, then that line would be gone. So it's more efficient for people to just stand on the escalators. It moves more people than creating a lane for the walkers to go up. But that's a very hard thing to battle for Japanese culture. And something for another episode to talk about.

00:28:26 John Daub: Alright guys, take care. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. Tomorrow is the last day—I'm going to climb Mount Fuji. And I'm taking the postcards for my Patreon postcard club. We've gotten about 45 or 50 new postcard club members. Thank you very much. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up to the postcard club and have your postcard come up with me to the top of Mount Fuji. You have about 24, 36 hours before I have to close it. Put the labels on there, put the stamps on there, and get that packaged up. Because I've got to hike it up to the top of Mount Fuji and deliver it to the post office. I've already told them that I'm doing this. And they're waiting for me to bring a bunch of postcards. And I'm going to film them. And then on the back of the postcard is a QR code to the video of them posting the postcards for the postcard club. So you're going to get to see me sending your postcard from the top of Mount Fuji. Which is cool. The more people we sign up on the postcard club, the more incentive for me to do something really cool with that. The more interesting it becomes.

00:30:09 John Daub: Alright guys, take care. I'll see you in another episode really soon. I'm going to go and try to find a vending machine. Bye guys, take care. Leave me a comment. See you. Matane. Stay cool. Bye.