00:00:01 John Daub: Greetings, welcome to the beautiful city of Tokyo on a very warm autumn afternoon. I'm liking this. Where has this weather been? How you doing?

00:00:30 John Daub: So yesterday, a lot of people asked me about a Japan-based live streamer here who was attacked on the street. Here's his channel. Some of you might follow him. Jung James here, he's a YouTuber. He posted a reply. I have yet to watch it. I actually just saw that he posted it about 11 hours ago, so I'll go and check that out.

00:01:10 John Daub: I didn't want to talk about it because inside of Japan, this is not a legitimate news story yet. This is something that happened during his live stream a couple of days ago. He went to the kōban (police box) and apparently he asked. He showed the picture of the guy, what happened. It was an assault.

00:01:35 John Daub: I'm going to try to follow and get more information on it, but we still don't know quite a lot of stuff. It's not an official news story here in Japan, which is a problem. I think it should be. Media should take this up. Somebody should contact him. I think it is a big problem in Japan.

00:02:00 John Daub: I think walking around Kabukichō in any area, there are these touts. And you know what? I can show you the video. I showed this yesterday as well. When I saw it, I did not like it either. He gets hit in the back of the head here while he's live streaming.

00:02:25 John Daub: This should not happen ever in any country. And the worst thing you could possibly do is to do it while someone's live streaming because there's a record of it. And he gave his response to it in Japanese. His Japanese is very good. I'll follow him on YouTube, I guess.

00:02:50 John Daub: But I'd never heard of him as a streamer. There's a lot of people that are coming here and doing this. But as a fellow streamer in this country, in this community, there's a lot of people I don't know. It really sucks to see that.

00:03:10 John Daub: And that is an issue and it brings into question... And you know what? The weirdest thing is that he was talking about how safe Japan is. He was talking about how safe Japan is, how the crime rate is low.

00:03:35 John Daub: How if in any other country, especially in the US, the downtown red... I wouldn't call Shinjuku the red light district though. I don't think there's... I don't think it's a red light district. I don't know. It's cleaned up quite a bit compared to the 1980s.

00:04:00 John Daub: Shinjuku being famously portrayed in a Netflix series called The Naked Director is really good. It's really good. The Naked Director... You gotta be over the age of 18, I think, to see it. But it's really good and it portrays the adult entertainment industry in the 1980s. Mostly in Shinjuku.

00:04:35 John Daub: And it was a very seedy place. But it's not really that seedy now. They've cleaned it up quite a bit. Especially when Governor Kōike took over. I always call her the Mayor. A lot of positive changes have happened.

00:05:00 John Daub: And reconstruction, redevelopment of the area for tourism has been the result. Kabukichō is greatly misunderstood. And I might take you on a video around there. And I might do an episode on this as well.

00:05:25 John Daub: Because I think it is extremely important now to kind of define the changes that Kabukichō and Shinjuku in general has undergone since the Edo period. Shin means new. Juku means like an inn. Like a hotel.

00:05:55 John Daub: And it was a new area where people coming in from Japan would enter into Edo. It was filled with a lot of hotels and thus a lot of entertainment. Thus, its reputation as being an entertainment hub. It really hasn't changed.

00:06:25 John Daub: I came to Japan just as they moved the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. What would be City Hall. Because Tokyo is not actually a city. It's actually a metropolitan area which is treated like a prefecture or a state here in Japan.

00:06:55 John Daub: Within Tokyo there are 23 wards which are considered cities within themselves. So it's... Tokyo is actually much bigger than people realize. But Tokyo moved its headquarters from Yurakuchō to Shinjuku in the mid 90s.

00:07:25 John Daub: When the new building was done. I think it was early 90s or mid 90s? When the building was done and I came to Japan not too long after it. The building was pretty new. The Metropolitan Government Building. Beautiful. They do projection mapping.

00:07:55 John Daub: I'm getting off the topic here. But they moved everything. The government all the way to Shinjuku. And the result of that was that a lot of investment and money and changes came to that area.

00:08:20 John Daub: Now we're 30 years later. I can't believe I've been here for that long. And Kabukichō really has shifted. It was kind of scary when I came here in '98. I got to be honest with you. Walking around Kabukichō at night. A little bit...

00:08:50 John Daub: Nothing ever happens. But it's still kind of seedy. There are some weird people. But you didn't see touts from... And I want to be careful here because I got friends that are from Africa. And they're good people. It's not everybody.

00:09:20 John Daub: But there's a lot of touts here from African countries that are doing not good things here. They have to make a living somehow. I don't know how they got into the country to be honest with you. Like everybody else I guess with a passport and they came in.

00:09:50 John Daub: Or they get married with Japanese wives. Some of them have Japanese wives. So they have resident status. So they can stay here and work. And I think that's their right. But it's a police matter for sure.

00:10:20 John Daub: They could not find the person who attacked him. I find that hard to believe. He might be in hiding now. I think there's a lot of live streamers on Twitch and YouTube. Really big ones that have talked about this issue as well.

00:10:50 John Daub: And I think that's really good. It's putting attention on this. But it's been a problem for a very long time. Minato-ku in Roppongi. This is... Minato-ku is Minato Ward. Minato meaning port. It's in the center of Tokyo.

00:11:20 John Daub: Roppongi has cleaned up quite a bit. I would say that the seedy area of Tokyo was Kabukichō and Roppongi back in the day. But Roppongi refined it. In particular, one area of Roppongi.

00:11:50 John Daub: I should be careful with that too. The Roppongi Midtown and the Roppongi Hills is quite a nice area. A lot of diplomats live there because there's a lot of embassies. It's right in the... Actually, the seedy area was not that far away from the Russian embassy.

00:12:25 John Daub: Just saying. It was like right across the way a little bit. Maybe about 500 meters. That's where Gas Panic used to be. The touts there were awful. And they had an awful reputation.

00:12:55 John Daub: That's one place... I've done maybe 2,000 live streams. I've only done one live stream around that area at night. You know why I don't live stream there? Because I know it's not a safe area.

00:13:25 John Daub: Because you've got drunk foreigners who don't know the rules of Japan. And when you've got drunk foreigners, anything can happen. Really. Actually, with anyone drunk... Don't overdo it, folks.

00:13:55 John Daub: But Roppongi in particular was an area... Like, you don't go around live streaming because people don't want to be live streamed. They don't want to stick a camera in their face or even be in it.

00:14:25 John Daub: They... Japan has privacy laws and all of that. But you just get in a lot of trouble in Roppongi. So I don't do a lot of live streams there or in Kabukichō.

00:14:55 John Daub: The Kabukichō episode that I do have is an edited video. So, I mean, he's taking it to another level by live streaming in Kabukichō to do a video on safety.

00:15:20 John Daub: And I can see my friend Oriya Del Pearl down there. She commented that she's sorry it happened to him. So am I. But there's a bigger issue here.

00:15:45 John Daub: And you know what? The comment section is going to be fascinating here. Invader Ren is here. Am I wrong in assuming that the African touts are associated with organized crime?

00:16:15 John Daub: If it's similar to Thailand or local organized crime, marry them off to older women for residency. The problem is we just don't know because it's not an official news report.

00:16:45 John Daub: None of the TV networks have picked it up. Maybe they did this morning. I haven't checked. Yesterday or the day before, it hasn't been picked up. It's getting a lot of attention online.

00:17:15 John Daub: So I'm guessing that it's going to get a lot of attention. This is going to get picked up eventually. But it's not an official news story. So we don't know enough about it.

00:17:45 John Daub: My guess is that these people could be here through various reasons. I have a friend. He used to be a tout in Harajuku. He's actually a good guy. He was married to a Japanese woman. And I met his wife. Very good woman.

00:18:20 John Daub: He swept her off her feet. As I said, he's a good guy. And they were very deeply in love. But he was doing stuff on the street like this too. So it's hard for me to judge because some of the people are good people.

00:18:55 John Daub: But this is... Anybody who hits another person, either probably fresh off the boat, so to speak, they don't know the Japanese language or the Japanese culture. And they're doing something pretty bad.

00:19:25 John Daub: You can hit people perhaps in France. I've seen the ones where YouTubers have gone there exposing the scams. Those are pretty good videos actually.

00:19:55 John Daub: But I don't think Tokyo is ever going to be a place that is anything like France or Rome with the tourist touts that are making it dangerous for people visiting here.

00:20:25 John Daub: My advice to you is... Like if you're staying in Kabukichō, you probably have a reason why. You like to drink, which is probably the place to be for that. I did a video on the capsule hotel.

00:20:55 John Daub: Accommodations can be cheap in Shinjuku's seedier areas. But it's also... The other side of Shinjuku is a place where there's a lot of luxury hotels. And if you livestream around there, you're not going to have any problem at all.

00:21:30 John Daub: But if you do it in the depths of Kabukichō. Anything is possible. My guess though... The police saying they can't find the perp is a lie. I think it's the police saying we got better things to do.

00:22:00 John Daub: First of all, they're probably not really thrilled that someone's walking around livestreaming in a highly trafficked area. I don't know how the police actually feel about it.

00:22:30 John Daub: But I've livestreamed with the police walking by. And I've actually smiled or waved to them. And there's no problem whatsoever. It's only when somebody complains.

00:23:00 John Daub: If that tout had a complaint, he probably should have went to the police instead of attacking them. Because once you attack somebody, then it becomes a police matter. At least it should.

00:23:30 John Daub: Assault is not something that police officers should just lie down on. I think also exposing him in public probably... I don't know what the law is like this. Legal mindset might be able to explain this better.

00:24:00 John Daub: He's very much into what the streaming world is into these days. But look... If you're a Japan-based livestreamer, if you're coming from abroad, you're going to go to the place where you think you're going to get the most views. Am I wrong?

00:24:35 John Daub: Shinjuku is one of the places that everybody knows. You put it in the title. There's a lot of stuff going on there. A lot of people focused on Shinjuku because of the graffiti recently.

00:25:05 John Daub: Because of a dust-up between two creators which has now settled, thank God. No problem with either one of them, too. It was just a tough thing. But it brought attention to the graffiti issue.

00:25:35 John Daub: Which is actually something of an issue. I think that Kabukichō has cleaned up a lot. But there's got some problems there. Alright? This is one of them.

00:26:00 John Daub: And this YouTuber getting hit... I should show his channel because his Japanese is incredible. So I think I wouldn't mind meeting him. He seems like a really good person.

00:26:30 John Daub: But you stream me in Shinjuku. I probably wouldn't do that. But you shouldn't have any fear of streaming anywhere in Japan, to be honest with you. Unless it's private property.

00:27:00 John Daub: Or you're literally focusing in on people. That's the criteria. It's a grey area, though. And that's why if somebody complains, usually you gotta deescalate and then just turn it off.

00:27:30 John Daub: But for the most part, filming in Japan is okay. It's when you focus in on somebody... That's something that's really bad to do. That's illegal.

00:28:00 John Daub: But if you're not... It comes up to the person's preference here. And again, I've talked with police officers. I've talked with people who know this. I've actually researched this.

00:28:30 John Daub: I say actually because you might not believe me. But I've looked into it because this is what I do. It's a grey area, folks. I gotta be honest with you. You have to be a little bit careful with it. With live streaming.

00:29:00 John Daub: But that does not excuse what happened. Any questions? I'll keep it short and sweet. There's not a lot that I can say about this. But as a live streamer here, I haven't seen his response.

00:29:35 John Daub: So what we do know about the attack... Well, I'm waiting for some questions. Let's see here. There's an online post from ex-Twitter claiming that November 20th, two drug dealers assaulted a streamer in Kabukichō breaking his smartphone.

00:30:15 John Daub: I think it was his smartphone. This comes from AI, so it's gonna be sloppy. Another post on ex alleges at least six people. So there are... This is why it's really important for traditional media to talk about this.

00:30:50 John Daub: Because there's so many facts here that are... He said... We saw it though, right? So... Like... I'm just... Two drug dealers... I'm not even sure if they were drug dealers or people trying to...

00:31:20 John Daub: We don't even know who the heck they are. But the problem is I don't like to go to Shinjuku. Let's just get down to brass tacks here. I don't like to go to Shinjuku because it's a dirty place. Alright?

00:31:55 John Daub: I'm married. I got a wonderful family. I got no business in Shinjuku unless it's going out to eat at a restaurant to meet up with some friends. But I'm not gonna be going to the bars drinking or going to the nudie bars or trying to pick up chicks and stuff like that.

00:32:35 John Daub: That's not... Why? So I have no problem with people who do that. I'm not gonna go there though. And I think most people... You don't need to go to Shinjuku's seedy areas really.

00:33:05 John Daub: They want you to. But I'm telling you, there's a lot more beautiful places. But it's interesting, you know? You shouldn't be fearful to walk around with it. But there's this problem with these touts.

00:33:35 John Daub: The last time... Let's see here. Chris was about to make a video about you hating on Shinjuku. I don't care if he does. I don't think he will. I'm not hating on Shinjuku at all.

00:34:05 John Daub: I'm just saying my personal opinion. I got no business in Shinjuku, okay? Unless I gotta go to the Metropolitan Government Building or there's some performance going on there.

00:34:35 John Daub: The classical music or a concert or meeting up with friends for dinner. But I just don't go out and drink anymore. That's just not what I do.

00:35:00 John Daub: Golden Gai has jumped the shark and it's really touristy. There's a couple of places that are nice. But it's like, you know, a lot of them have these ridiculous cover charges.

00:35:30 John Daub: If you want to go out and drink, go to the small prefectural capitals around Japan. And you get to rub shoulders with locals that are much more hospitable.

00:36:00 John Daub: Tokyo is just... These areas that have become really popular are really big tourist attractions now. And for good reason because they're interesting places. They are and they have a history to it.

00:36:30 John Daub: But for me as a resident, they've jumped the shark, so to speak. You guys know that expression coming from Happy Days when Fonzie in his leather jacket jumped the shark.

00:37:00 John Daub: And that's how you knew that Happy Days was over. So we say, jumped the shark. That's pretty interesting. I love that.

00:37:25 John Daub: But they've redeveloped Kabukichō with the Godzilla, with the Shinjuku Tower. It has a lot of entertainment inside there, a lot of restaurants. They made it easier for Western...

00:37:55 John Daub: It's an interesting place at night to walk around. Because they got all those signs, the neon lights and the dazzling colors and the Japanese language. And it makes a great picture.

00:38:25 John Daub: Lost in Translation, remember we had Bob going through there in the taxi in the beginning. And at the end, he ends in Shinjuku. Most of the video is... I think it's at the Park Hyatt, right? A lot of it's filmed in Shinjuku.

00:39:00 John Daub: So back then it was pretty seedy. And it's pretty seedy now still apparently. But I don't know where these touts came from.

00:39:25 John Daub: All I know is this. Right now, and yesterday I talked about this. I had to reupload the video. Right now, the government has become more strict and with good reason.

00:39:55 John Daub: I think they were just too lazy on this kind of stuff. Somebody didn't have their eye on the road. They were just... Everybody was... You're going to see a lot of content on this. It's not just me.

00:40:30 John Daub: So I'm just touching on the stuff that's going to be coming out a lot more. But Japan was allowing everybody to buy land anywhere. They were next to military bases. These are episodes that are coming out now.

00:41:00 John Daub: Japan was very lenient on giving out residence permits. They didn't really confirm or check because they thought people were honest.

00:41:30 John Daub: And to be honest with you, yesterday's livestream I talked about how the numbers went from under a million foreign residents in Japan to four million. It's more than quadrupled since I got here.

00:42:00 John Daub: And they just don't have the funds to manage this kind of stuff. So I think that's why they had the kind of hands-off approach for the last 11 or 12 prime ministers.

00:42:30 John Daub: Because most people don't lie in Japan. So they don't assume you're going to lie on official documents. Yeah. If you're a good person, you don't lie on official documents, okay?

00:43:00 John Daub: But coming from the West, people might do that more than Japanese do. Don't get me wrong. Japanese do that too. But not in the numbers like in the West. It's very rare.

00:43:30 John Daub: They just didn't have the resources. And now they do because they're going to tax the visas at a much higher rate starting in 2026 for international tourists coming here and 2027 for residents, it appears.

00:44:10 John Daub: If you're thinking about getting permanent residency, you probably want to do it now if you can qualify. But they're also looking at this kind of stuff right now. The Diet, the government, they're looking at this stuff now.

00:44:45 John Daub: And I really hope that the media picks up on this, on what happened. He speaks great Japanese. They should bring him on. I think it's risky. They should bring him on TV. Get in touch with me.

00:45:20 John Daub: You know, I know a lot of these producers of the news programs. I think this kind of stuff happening, it should be. People should be discussing this inside of Japan. Foreign on foreign attack.

00:45:55 John Daub: They already talk about how the crime rate is higher. And it's spiking. I don't know. But I'll tell you this. Johnny Somali did not do much good here for livestreaming even though we're like two years removed. He did not do any good.

00:46:30 John Daub: Long memories of Logan Paul. People don't forget easily. But I try to change that perception. I really do on this channel. Any questions? Again, I'm asking again.

00:47:00 John Daub: That's a lot of prime ministers turning a blind eye. I think they just didn't know. It's like the police not saying that they could find the assaulter. The guy who bludgeoned him. Who decked him.

00:47:35 John Daub: They just can't be bothered to look for him. It's a small petty crime. They got big stuff. You know? I don't know what. Does police matter?

00:48:05 John Daub: But they looked at it and said, I don't know. I don't want to get into it. It's political maybe. I don't know. But the police should look into it.

00:48:35 John Daub: And I think if he files a police report. The problem is it's so hard to file a police report in Japan and get cooperation on stuff. As someone who has done that before in the past.

00:49:05 John Daub: It takes a lot of effort on your part to do it. And it could require cost. You should do a GoFundMe. I want to see some justice here as a live streamer. I want to see the guy brought to justice somehow.

00:49:45 John Daub: I don't know. I don't think you can punch somebody in Japan and let that go, man. Mugging is a small crime. Was he mugged though? I think he was just hit by.

00:50:20 John Daub: I don't know what happened afterwards. But he was hit. And guess the touts went away. We didn't see too much from it from social media. It looked like it was a really hard hit too.

00:50:55 John Daub: And we know that. Nobody would have seen him. What a genius this guy is. Nobody would have seen him. Nobody would have talked about him.

00:51:25 John Daub: And he puts himself right in the center by attacking a live streamer. That will happen to you. Probably not a good idea to do that. Community rallies around our own.

00:51:55 John Daub: The conviction rate might be high because they pick cases that they know they can win. I've been told this by people. Most people confess.

00:52:25 John Daub: A lot of it has to do with the criminals are smart enough to know that they can't get away with it anymore. And the police only arrest them when they have a case.

00:52:55 John Daub: Look how long did it take for them to finally arrest Johnny Somali. They had a case because he live streamed it. They didn't deport him. They let him keep doing it over and over and over again.

00:53:30 John Daub: They know what's happening. But I think this is one of the reasons why. See, I live here. I get a different perspective than you guys here.

00:54:00 John Daub: But I think right now. And I don't know if it's going to last either. She's got a 72% approval rating. Yuriko Kōike. I'm 100% behind her and her efforts.

00:54:30 John Daub: I don't think they're going to try to deport me. But it's been to a point where it's just been left with nobody. Everybody kind of ignoring it for a long time.

00:55:00 John Daub: I think what Japan's work in Japan is when there's an issue. And it comes to the attention of the authorities. And especially the Diet. The representatives.

00:55:30 John Daub: They take it up and they take it up hard. Alright. They crack down on it. Well beyond. And then they loosen up. It takes about a year. Then that loosens up.

00:56:00 John Daub: I believe this is the time where there's going to be that hard crack down. It happened last time in 2008. A lot of you don't know this because YouTube was still new in 2008.

00:56:35 John Daub: This is why you guys watch the channel because I can bring you 27 years of knowledge. In 2008. The English eikaiwa school called Nova.

00:57:05 John Daub: Which I worked at a competitor called Eon. And everybody at Eon. Well a lot of people said Nova stood for no vacation because the workers there got no vacation time.

00:57:35 John Daub: It was like a sweatshop for learning English language for Japanese. The eikaiwa industry. Not something that I think... I would say it's usually the gateway job into Japan. Right. I worked in it. I taught kids though.

00:58:15 John Daub: After that company went bankrupt and failed. There were thousands of foreign residents here that no longer had a job. And the police went around just checking people who look like English teachers.

00:58:50 John Daub: That had no job that we're just walking around in the afternoon. Tourism was not massive in 2008. Okay. But most likely if you're in a city, a small city and you're walking around aimlessly.

00:59:25 John Daub: You're probably an English teacher with no job. And they would... Some of them got deported. Some of them had to leave the country. We're more pressed to leave.

00:59:55 John Daub: Get registered as... You know your visa is over bro. You got to go at this time. Little nudge here. I wasn't stopped. But I knew people that were stopped.

00:30:25 John Daub: And had their passports and visa checked. Which is perfectly legal in Japan. If somebody has committed a crime. They need to check. It's sometimes a good idea for you to do that.

00:31:00 John Daub: So then they could check you off the list. For example. But yeah. It looks like there's another crackdown coming. And it loosens up.

00:31:30 John Daub: But it's good for them to talk about it. It's good for everybody to discuss the right way. Maybe they raise the fees. I don't know.

00:32:00 John Daub: But there's four times more residents here than there were when I came. And probably 20 times more than in 1990. 1981. Which was the last time they raised the price of fees for extending visas etc.

00:32:35 John Daub: 1981. They did it this year a little bit. But before that 1981. The bubble era folks. The Japanese miracle. They didn't need to raise the fees.

00:33:10 John Daub: And they didn't have enough foreign tourists or residents. And they were trying to get people to come and live here. Because it was a harsh society to assimilate in.

00:33:45 John Daub: You had to learn the language. And the culture was much stricter. But these days things have really... Globalization. And the argument can be has kind of ruined the culture in that way.

00:34:20 John Daub: But is it really? In my opinion inevitable in a way. Because you got to do business with the rest of the world. Yeah.

00:34:50 John Daub: Next episode. I'll talk about the currency. Right now it's at 156 to the dollar. It got up to about 158 I believe a couple of days ago. It's so nice outside. I'm out here getting some sunshine.

00:35:25 John Daub: Let's see. Any questions on this topic? Nothing? Nothing? I'll talk about the yen tomorrow. We aren't content creators. I timed them out.

00:36:00 John Daub: John. Ever felt unsafe yourself after many years. Aloha from Hawaii. Mahalo. Not really. I'm sorry. I had an incident once at an airport.

00:36:35 John Daub: I didn't focus in on anybody. But it made some person feel uncomfortable. I deescalated it. And that was the end of it. That was a tough situation.

00:37:10 John Daub: But that's where you know you have to pick the places where you live stream carefully. Get permission if you can. And be careful and mindful of the other people.

00:37:45 John Daub: Talk quieter. Use a quieter voice. And it's the way. For example. So these are things that really I had to consider and do better on.

00:38:20 John Daub: You know. I apologize to him afterwards. I told him I didn't get him in the live stream. I said the only time you were in the live stream is when he told me that you were in the live stream.

00:38:55 John Daub: He doesn't know that though. But there was a period when... Ishmael was here. Should we call him that? Not Johnny? I don't know. Call him by his real... Ramsey's. Ishmael. Is that his name? Ishmael.

00:39:35 John Daub: Hey Eddie Booth is here. Can't add much to the topic, but hope you just stay safe. Thank you so much.

00:40:05 John Daub: I felt a little bit like when it's in the news a lot, I know that people are looking at me and it feels a little bit uncomfortable in that case. But I didn't feel unsafe.

00:40:40 John Daub: Last, was it earlier this year, a live streamer was murdered on a live stream in Takadanobaba and I felt a little bit anxious, but I think it's more my wife felt that way not so much other people.

00:41:20 John Daub: But like when you walk around and you make people feel uncomfortable people have different mental levels so to speak. It could be something that just rocks a person off the edge and they do something to attack you.

00:41:55 John Daub: When Google Glass came out, the culture's changed a lot. When Google Glass came out, you remember they had a word called glassholes. People would wear these and they'd be filming people all the time with their glasses.

00:42:35 John Daub: The glassholes. And these glassholes were getting punched in the face. What's the frequency Kenneth? You guys remember? I think that was Dan Rather. Sometimes I get my streams crossed.

00:43:15 John Daub: But similar. Some people just, oh you're wearing Google Glass, I'm going to punch you in the face. Culture wasn't ready for what they got now.

00:43:50 John Daub: Now, everyone's doing TikTok. Everyone's doing live streams. Everyone's doing, well a lot of people, there's enough people doing it where people just get desensitized with it.

00:44:25 John Daub: And in the United States, anything in public is fair game. In Japan, it's a lot more grey area. You have to be more perceptive of your surroundings, I think.

00:45:00 John Daub: And you have to be more respectful of the people around you. And you have to know what level to talk. And I've learned a little bit of this from experience, but I've also learned this from living here for a long time.

00:45:40 John Daub: See, I want my community, I want the people around me, and I want everybody to understand that I'm highlighting and showing a beautiful place. But not everybody's going to feel that way.

00:46:20 John Daub: So I have to be mindful of that because I'm the one who is making somebody else feel uncomfortable.

00:46:50 John Daub: How do you deal with Karens in Japan? A lot differently than you deal with Karens in the United States, okay? It's different here. It just is.

00:47:25 John Daub: Yolo Lolo, be careful out there. Thank you. Bye. I'll do my best. And Personality of a Brick Wall, have a lunch coffee time. Thank you. I appreciate that.

00:48:00 John Daub: Tomorrow I'll be doing another livestream talking about the currency and the exchange rate, where I think this is going. I've been digging into this a lot.

00:48:35 John Daub: I'm like you. I make Japanese yen. It's not been a great couple of years for me. So if you do give superchats, the dollars do make a difference. Patreon does make a difference.

00:49:10 John Daub: But in terms of Japanese salaries, my wife makes Japanese yen. I make Japanese yen. Whenever we go abroad, it's like it's pretty harsh.

00:49:45 John Daub: And Japanese YouTubers make a lot less revenue than foreign YouTubers. But I'm lucky because a lot of my audience is Western. So I do better than probably some Japanese YouTubers.

00:50:25 John Daub: By the way, this episode dropped. If you haven't already, go check it out. This is an incredible edited video that takes you to Nagano and Niigata, the Japanese countryside.

00:51:00 John Daub: This is the experience so many of you are looking for. Staying away from places like Shinjuku. Maybe you're in Japan. Maybe you're in Shinjuku. Maybe you spend less time in Tokyo and more time out here.

00:51:40 John Daub: You've got to stay at that Katakuri no Yado, that abandoned school turned hotel. It is one of the most unique places with a story, a history.

00:52:15 John Daub: That whole village was rejected by society a hundred and some years ago. They couldn't establish a school with the government. So they made their own school. The residents hired their own teachers.

00:52:55 John Daub: Now that school, which has been renovated over the years, is now a hotel for hikers. It's got an onsen inside. The innkeeper is a chef who prepares food with local ingredients from the area.

00:53:35 John Daub: It's an amazing episode. I think you guys got to go and check it out. It's edited so the story is good. It's a lot better than the live streams for some of you.

00:54:10 John Daub: But you'll see me walking around the countryside really enjoying myself. I didn't even know about Japan Long Trail. There's 30 long trails in Japan.

00:54:45 John Daub: Each one of them well established and maintained to be hiking like the Appalachian Trail. I had no idea Japan had a culture of long trails.

00:55:20 John Daub: I knew we Japanese walked during the Edo period. But I just didn't know that they