00:00:00 John Daub: Welcome to Tokyo on what feels like a summer, early summer afternoon. The sun is glistening off of Tokyo Bay right now. I'm on beautiful Toyosu. There's LaLaport, a shopping mall in central Tokyo here. Got a nice view of the city. Blue skies. It's wonderful out here.

00:01:00 John Daub: I wanted to tell you about something I'm taking part in again. It's been 15 years. 15 years since the last time I did this. I kept registering and was rejected from it. I never thought I would be able to do it again. An opportunity came my way and I can't pass that up.

00:02:00 John Daub: Does anybody even know what I'm talking about? According to Nagi, it's like hitchhiking. That's a really good guess, actually. That is. But, no, I did that last in 2017 and it was a huge success because I made it across the country with no incident, well none that was documented.

00:03:00 John Daub: By the way, you can get the blu-ray of that if you're interested in the Only in Japan store. I still got a bunch left here, but I'm talking about the Tokyo Marathon. I last did it in 2011. I couldn't do it in 2012 because of an injury. I remembered that now. I ran 3 hours and 12 minutes. I didn't do a lot of it. But that's why.

00:04:00 John Daub: Again, doing something you're not forced to do is a lot of fun and pinnacle. Didn't get in this past year and then I got contacted. I'm not going to reveal by whom yet, we're still talking about this but I intend to make a video about this experience and on top of that anybody who's in Tokyo at that time you guys if you're in Tokyo on March 1st which is the day of the marathon you're going to see me on the course get your cameras out film it send me the clips and I'm going to put this into the documentary and I think having different people film me along the route it's gonna be a lot of fun but I'm 52 years old now it's a different story than when I did it 15 years ago how old was I back then like 30 37 and I ran 3 hours and 12 minutes I don't think I'm gonna be able to do that again my first marathon I ran 3 hours and 29 minutes I think I just broke 330 so I know my limits if I can do that again that would be a blessing but I'm gonna try my very best just to have some fun and I'm gonna try my very best just to have some fun with this but there's a story behind the marathon and I'm glad that I get a chance to do that I registered last night I got onto the website I put in my name I expected time do I intend to send my bags along it was $11 on the if you have a MasterCard it's free but I can't believe I'm gonna be running she's not a bad thing I always wanted to be in the top one that'd be a dream come true but my body just is not meant to be doing 26 miles like that in a race.

00:05:00 John Daub: But I never thought I would do this again. This is crazy. What the heck am I doing? I'm not new to challenges. I think if you're not challenging yourself, you're not alive. I think that you have to push the limits of what you're capable of. You have to feel challenged. You have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Putting yourself in uncomfortable situations quite often is the best content.

00:06:00 John Daub: But how do you make running content and make it different and unique? I think there's a culture of running and there's a culture of running in Japan that has evolved since the start of the marathon. I was in the first Tokyo Marathon in 2007. And at this year, everybody who entered was able to participate. There was no lottery. You entered, you got in. In fact, there weren't enough people, I think, to get those spots. So they ended up with like, instead of 30,000, they had like 28,000. And then, they had like, 20,000 people sign up. The next year, there was a lottery. But I was able to get in for five straight years. And then, it's impossible to get into the Tokyo Marathon. You need to have a sponsor or you need to raise money for charity. Or you just have to be completely lucky. The chances of getting in was like 3% this year for citizens of Tokyo. But somehow, I managed to get in. I don't know.

00:07:00 John Daub: So if you are in Tokyo, let me know. Contact me on Instagram or Patreon. And we'll work it out. We'll see where you can go on the course. Maybe I'll do a stop and chat. Maybe I'll give you a You Found Me card or something. But I'll be running the course. I'll be doing it for story. And this is cool. You're not allowed to film on the course unless you're actually allowed to film. You have a permit. And apparently, I'm going to get a permit. We're still working out the details. But this is huge. I got a bucket list of things that I always wanted to do for Only in Japan. This is one of them. To bring you the story of the Tokyo Marathon. The greatest race in Japan. At least, maybe the Ekiden (relay marathon) is pretty cool. But this one as well. And I get a chance to do that. It's a dream come true. We'll see if it works out. But I officially registered for the marathon. So I guess we're already there, right? So Nagi, you're kind of close. But no cigar, so to speak. Smoking is not good for you.

00:08:00 John Daub: Just a couple of things here. I like to do while we have the chance here. If you don't know, every couple of months, Sakurajima in Kagoshima erupts. And when the news hit for me, it erupted. This was yesterday. I think this was yesterday morning. That's a pretty big eruption. But I didn't see any lava. Leo's like, where's the lava? We didn't see any of that. But it was a pretty big eruption in Kagoshima. You always have to be careful of that. And then like three hours later, it was just smoke again. But it was a pretty cool eruption. They have live cameras that you can get the video. And I was able to do a little time lapse from that. It was nice there.

00:09:00 John Daub: I don't know how we're going to work it out with the camera. I'm trying to get somebody to run with me that can hold the camera. That might be able to run the marathon quite well. I think we might be able to do that. That would be pretty cool, right? If we can get somebody to follow me with the camera, that would be ideal. We can have people placed at certain spots. But as I'm running, my idea for the episode is as I'm running the marathon, like every now and then, as I get more and more tired, which is inevitable, and I hit the wall around 38 kilometers, if the training goes well, each several kilometers I'm introducing and I'm giving you an update on my feeling, but introducing you to something with running culture in Japan.

00:10:00 John Daub: And the suspense, of course, is the finale. Because I want to tell you guys something. I got a competitive streak in me that you have maybe not seen so much, but it gets out there when I'm running and I'm challenging myself. And whenever I am dead tired, everybody marathoners run, but when you get to that last 200 or 300 meters, you start to sprint. And I got this feeling when I'm running a race, like take no prisoners. I got like this radar and I just start taking people down. Everyone's tired. That's where you got to search your soul and dig deep. And you get in there and you pull out whatever you got left in the tank. Fumes, nothing, metal, whatever. And you just grind it. You push into the limit. And that finale of this video is going to be amazing. I'm going to see if we can get cameraman. I don't care what the budget is. I got to do this right. We're going to add some suspense in there because I don't know if I'm doing another. I probably will do another marathon. I probably will. But I don't know. Who knows? I'm fortunate enough to have two good legs and a ticker that says I can keep doing this for now.

00:11:00 John Daub: So I had my heart checked out with EKG and I looked pretty good. The echo scan. And they said you got a heart of a teenage boy. I was like, okay. I don't think they said that exactly, but no problems. That Von Chick, when's your next hiking adventure? Oh, so I'm working on it right now. I just, it's a sponsored video, but I went out to the Shin'etsu region of Niigata and I sent out the preview to them to check it over to make sure I got all the facts right. Everything looks good. I'm going to give them another update because I'm adding in the maps. It's a lot of information. It's about 20 some minutes long. It deals with bears. I saw something on the trail. I thought it was a bear or a ghost or something. You'll see that in the episode. But that I'm hoping to get that out this week. But I'm not going to relisten until then. I'm going to wait until it's right. And it also depends on the check of the video. But that's a good video. It's, you know, one of those 99.9% of tourists don't go to this area, which is such a shame because Japanese culture is out there with the soba and the tempura is the mushroom culture where you can go out and forage that in the woods. It's such an amazing place to eat. Thanks, that Von Chick. Nice to see you here.

00:12:00 John Daub: It's an incredible day in Tokyo. I got short sleeves on. We're like two weeks away from December, which is crazy. But we're doing pretty good here. Marathon. Lee Richard writes in here, a marathon takes a lot out of you. Much respect for anyone who can do it. It does. I think the training is essential. Yesterday I had a fever. I was sick. I couldn't do anything. I missed my friend's comedy routine. He does, I don't know if you guys know, the Pirates of Tokyo Bay. I love them all. Such great people. Mike and Roger and Bob. I wanted to go see them last night. They had their 16th anniversary, I believe. I couldn't go because I had a fever last night. I had to apologize to Roger, who's a good friend of mine. If you are in Tokyo, check out the Pirates of Tokyo Bay. They're pretty funny. It's a bilingual comedy group. They do really good improv, man. Off the cuff stuff, too. They know each other pretty well. They've been doing this for a long time. Traveling not just Tokyo, but the world, I think. They've been in several other countries. But I couldn't catch up with them yesterday, so that was a shame. I talk a little bit louder. The wind is in my ear. It's really loud in my ear.

00:13:00 John Daub: Marathon is not an easy thing. If you train well and you train right for it, you can do it. But I did 10 kilometers a couple of days ago for the first time. I did it at a slow pace to build up muscle around the knees again. The quads has always been kind of a weakness. And once I get that built up, I know I'm going to be okay. I got a lot of good muscle memory and doing the marathon. I don't think it ever goes away. And in your mind, I think most of it is mental. But I've been able to complete 42.195 kilometers before. It really is freaking hard. The last three kilometers, all I could think of last time was pizza and beer with pepperoni, a cold one, and going to an onsen (hot spring bath). And at the end of it, I don't know what was wrong with me, but all these hormones hit me and I started crying. I crossed the finish line. And I had so much energy because I trained really good. I was dancing at the finish line. And then as soon as I stopped, about two minutes later, I started crying and I didn't know why. And then I wore the medal and I got a picture biting it. It's not real metal. It's like, I don't know, it's not gold. And then I got home and I couldn't move for like a day.

00:14:00 John Daub: No, actually, you know what? That last time in 2011, I could move. I think I placed, yeah, it was in the top 4%. Let me see here. It says 3.14, but that's the time the gun started. But I didn't cross the start line for two minutes. So my time was actually 3.12. Right, 3.12.40 is the net time. And I came in, in my age group, 255 out of 4,000. That's pretty good, I guess. It's not bad. Anyways.

00:15:00 John Daub: But the thing that's pretty cool, and crazy is that I got faster. Because I was trying to be conservative. I was too conservative in the beginning. I had too much in the tank maybe at the end. I probably could have run a 3.10 or under in hindsight. But I'm not going to try to do that this time. I'm just going to drink plenty. I'll be drinking plenty of Pocari Sweat. Scientifically proven to keep you fit and ready. But in this episode, it won't be just the marathon. I'll be introducing you to Japanese running culture. To the food that runners eat. Japanese diet. Hot springs. How do you recover. And also, this is really cool. More and more visitors to Japan are coming here to run. I think that's great. Like running vacations. If you have a purpose besides just eating, to come here to run. Not just a marathon. In Japan, every single prefecture I think has a marathon now. Okayama Marathon. I think that ran recently. And Osaka Marathon. Kobe Marathon. All of the places have a marathon that you can enter and run in. It's really great.

00:16:00 John Daub: So if you have a marathon that you can run in, and you can surround your vacation around that. And an onsen visit to go soak in the hot springs afterwards or before. And then do some training here. Maybe a few days before to get used to the time difference. I think the marathons usually start around 9 a.m. So if you're coming from the United States, that's probably when you're at your peak. Because it's like 9 p.m. for New Yorkers. So you're kind of still awake then. And by the time you finish the marathon, it's like midnight or 1 a.m. So you're probably still okay with the jet lag. But it's nice to arrive a little early and train here in Japan a little bit. Get some good food in and get over the jet lag. But more people are coming for vacation to run. And that's really cool. So I think that this is a really good episode to talk about running vacations in Japan.

00:17:00 John Daub: It's a beautiful day. Do you see that bridge behind me? That bridge, they just opened it up. Check it out. So this used to be an old railway bridge. And they've been renovating it for about two years, three years. And they finished it. You can see the railroad tracks are still on the bridge there. But they put in some glass bottoms so you can see underneath it. They did a great job with it. See the boats go underneath you. This is in Toyosu, not that far from Tokyo Station. It's about two stops from Ginza on the Yurakucho Line, I believe. But the trains used to go through here. It's really cool, right? Pink on one, here's some food for your marathon. Oh, you better believe I'm going to be eating that. I'm going to need that for the marathon training. I've already, my diet's already started to, well, you just need a heck of a lot of food. There's the bridge over there. It's a pretty little bridge. If you have any questions, you can leave them in the comments below. This is a live stream. I'm going to need a lot of food. So, you need a lot of food. You need a lot of energy. That is for sure.

00:18:00 John Daub: The postcards are out. This is the postcard for this month. Anyone who wants to support the channel, support my marathon diet now, thanks. Thanks for that. We have a lot of viewers in Australia. Yeah, I'll send this to you right now. This is the hike that Von Chick was talking about. I hiked it and I got some drone shots in the autumn. It's beautiful out there. That'll come your way. I'll send it to you, put it in the mailbox today. If the notification comes in on Patreon, I'll put it in the mailbox to you today. I sent them from Tokyo Station, the International Post Office on the Marunouchi side of it. You get the postmark that says Tokyo on it, on the stamp, which is cool. So, it's always about the details.

00:19:00 John Daub: My goal for the marathon is to run 3 hours and 30 minutes. And if I can't do that, I'm good. But if I don't do 3 hours and 30 minutes, I've got to run it again. That's my promise to myself. I think... This is a serious thing. Back in 2011, this marathon was right before the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. When I ran that marathon. And after I ran the marathon, the earthquake happened, I think it was about 10 or 12 days after. And it was a big one. Everything changed. So, that marathon that I ran in, that was like normal everyday life. Okay? After this, everything changed for years. And it takes me back to... Running this marathon is taking me back to an era before I did YouTube. I didn't... The marathon gave me purpose. I didn't have YouTube. I was doing NHK. I was doing something on iTunes called Weblish. And I wasn't getting any money. You couldn't find sponsors or videos couldn't be monetized. It was really hard going. I'd get jobs from... Dentsu and some of the ad agencies for sponsor work. Which I've been doing for years. But I didn't really have great income. I was living off of savings sometimes, teaching English.

00:20:00 John Daub: But my purpose was running that marathon back then. I think that having a purpose like running the marathon kept me regimented. And I think it saved my life in a way. You know? You need to have a job, a purpose. And when you have a... You're doing stuff for yourself. Sometimes you can feel lost. Especially when... This is actually before smartphones really. The iPhone was out there but we didn't really... A lot of people in Japan weren't using smartphones yet. The internet was still kind of... It's not like what we have today where we're ultra connected now. But you really felt out there, right? You didn't... I had... Japan was not a tourist attraction yet. I think it had like a million visitors compared to 40 million now. So back then I felt a lot more isolated. And the marathon gave me... A lot of purpose. Because I had to be regimented. I had to do sprints and training. I had to go out there. I was in such great shape too. My body was in great shape. I was able to run... Every day I was running 17 or 18 kilometer runs. Just for the hell of it. Because I was in good shape. I would do... My pace was 4 minutes and 40 seconds per kilometer. And I would be doing 18 kilometer runs like every day. I was doing... 100 kilometer a week. One week. I was really in great shape. But I didn't really have a lot to do with that shapeness. You know? And now that I'm doing YouTube and I have... You know, we have a community and everything. I have a lot of purpose. But back then I really didn't. And the marathon is just something that was really special.

00:21:00 John Daub: So now I'm going back 15 years to a really hard time in my life. And we've come full circle. So the marathon has a really deep meaning for me. Personally. It takes me to a time before Only in Japan. It takes me to a time before the great Tohoku earthquake. The tsunami where everything changed here in Japan. It takes me to a time before tourism. Before people were interested in Japan. And now I'm doing it in a different era. It really feels that way. But more than that, I want you guys to share in the joy of me finishing this. And I want Leo to see me on the course and say, Hey, there's daddy. And he could do something. I still got some gas in the tank, man. After this I'll be