00:00 John Daub: Hello, welcome to Tokyo on a really sunny day outside, but today I'm inside, I'm editing videos, so I thought I would take some time and have this really interesting tea that came on the market. It's funny because the cherry blossom season doesn't actually start in Tokyo, in Japan, until, I don't know, like around March 20th or so. But this came out on the market, when was it? January 20th, I bought this. It's been sitting in the refrigerator, and it's kind of a warm day outside, so I thought I would try this. This is Sakura Green by Itoen, which is a really big green tea maker, the biggest in the world. They're based in Shizuoka, although I think they get the green tea from all over the place. The second place outside of Shizuoka would be Kagoshima for green tea. You wouldn't expect that down the south of Kyushu.

00:52 John Daub: This is gonna be really, really good. So I wanted to start the livestream with this. They also have Sakura Matcha, and I'll try this on another livestream, but right now, I'm not sure if the microphone's even working at all. I've connected this to the podcasting mic, so it either sounds really good, too loud, too soft, I don't know, but it should be okay. Just let me know when, let me know, the moderator's just to double check on that. But with that, oh, and there's one other thing here. This is the time of year when it works great, right? It's in packed Northwest. Thank you. This is the Sakura Kit Kat. This is something, you don't see this a lot, okay? It sounds intense. Really? Like, in a good way, peso? This is a flavor that you only get, I don't know, like, at this time of year, of course, but it's funny that this came out in December of 2025, and I bought a bunch of these. They don't expire until October of 2026. All my Patreon Daimyo supporters are getting a bag of this in their boxes. It's on the way for January. I have one left, so I thought I would open this up and try it, but check this out. Like, inside of it, I don't know if you can see it, there are little pieces of Sakura cherry blossoms inside of, do you see that? Inside the white chocolate. I don't know, sometimes you can't even taste the, like, the little teeny things they put in the Kit Kat. You can't really taste it because it's just too sweet. But I'm going to talk about the taste of cherry blossoms in this episode. And I'm also going to take some of the questions. I have a glass here because if I just drink it from this, you can't really see the impact of the green tea. You can't see the color of it. So I'm going to do that right now. First is an aroma test. Oh my goodness. It says that they don't add, hold on, they did add in some cherry blossom extract and some vitamin C. So they added some stuff in here. Okay. The taste of, the aroma is crazy. It's, Japanese cherry blossoms are not the Soma Yoshino variety. They actually have an industry where they pick cherry blossoms. A lot of it is done in Shizuoka Prefecture. But over the course of the last 80 years or three generations, it's been declining as an industry because they can't get enough farmers to pick the cherry blossoms. Although worldwide demand for this flavor has gone up, Japanese farmers in this industry has gone down. And the majority of the cherry blossoms are from Japan. And the majority of the cherry blossoms being picked are being picked in China now. I think that's sort of a weird thing. So you have to check where your ingredients come from. But that's an episode that might be worth doing here. All right. I'm just going to do it right here on the camera. You can take a look at the color of it.

04:01 John Daub: I think last year tasted better. It's really good. It's not like, it sort of looks like champagne. But the flavor of cherry blossoms, it's got this floral taste to it that's really pleasant. And there's a lot of flavor. And there's a saltiness to it because the cherry blossoms are actually, when they're picked, they're fermented for a day or so. Then they're pickled in salt and maybe something else. I think mostly salt. So they're kind of sweet and they're kind of salty and they have an aroma that is so pleasant. It is so pleasant. If we look at the color of it, and of course I do this in the most scientific way. You can see the color. It looks like, but it also, you can see the greenness of it and the floral thing has turned it yellow. The color, it's like, you know, we're all adults here. I guess this should be a healthy color. But the aroma of it, I just cannot explain enough how amazing the cherry blossom confections are. But when they started, I first saw this last year from Itoen. And I bought three bottles of it. And then I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it anymore. And I regretted not buying more. So this time I bought seven bottles of it. They were 88 yen at the local supermarket. You could probably find it at Don Quixote. But they're going to be gone by the time the cherry blossom season starts. That's the way cherry blossom confections just go. All right. Kanpai. Itadakimasu. Oh, that's so good. I think they might have added too much of the extract. Last year it was more subtle. This year the aroma is right on. But the, I think the taste is a little bit too overwhelming. I bet you the third year is when they get it perfect.

06:01 John Daub: Michael Sassana is in the house. Aloha John. Finally caught you live. Been missing you, my bro. I could go for some sakura drinks right now. I should keep one for you. Michael, I hope you can make it this year. I'll keep one for you if you do. We can share it then, buddy. That's not guaranteed though. The way that Leo, he finds these things and Leo just, he will just eat it and open it. I tried to, I tried to hide his birthday, hold on a second. I tried to hide his birthday present. I start ordering stuff like in advance. So I got him this monster truck. He's been watching monster trucks on the YouTube and he found it before I could wrap it. It's like Christmas, right? So I got away with one, but I said, no, that's not, that's not for you. It's it's, and then I took it away and then Kanai distracted him and then he forgot about it. So now I got to really hide these stuff. Okay. So he's like almost five. That's the age where you started searching around the house for stuff. Like he looked into all my drawers and stuff. So I got, I got no way to hide stuff. I got to just get a separate, um, a separate place to put it or put it up real high. Cause that's the only way he's at the age where he can find everything. All right. Um, let's just go into it and then I want you to stick around because we're going to be doing some, um, some Q and a as well because the cherry blossoms are coming and uh, yeah, it's, it's really good to talk about.

07:29 John Daub: I, I, I read that the way to open up the way to open a potato chips in Japan, not like this, but in Japan you open up potato chips from the back where the seam is and you open it up like this. And I heard that that was the same with the Kit Kats like this. It preserves the paper, which you can turn into origami and it's easier to reach in with your hand like a tissue box. Right? So that's, that's how they do it in Japan at anyways. And it doesn't look, it keeps the package looking nice and neat. But if you do it like this, you can also preserve the paper. Do you see what I'm doing here? And you learn every, you learn something in every live stream. It is so Japanese. It really is. And then you have a, a perfect cheap. Did anybody know this that's watching and you have a perfect sheet of paper and I've noticed on. A lot of the Kit Kats, they've now put in the origami. How did like how to do origami or you could recycle the paper and make origami out of it. So I think that that's really cool and very Japanese and good on Kit Kat for finding a way to give these papers a second life other than just throwing it away. I mean, we try our best to be sustainable in today's today's world. Here it is. These are meant. Kit Kat. Kit Kat in Japanese. Kit Kats were meant to, um, they became popular in Japan because the way it sounds means like Kito like a sure. Katto like Katsu is to win. You will surely win. Kind of I'm trying to, I'm just translating this based on my knowledge of Japanese for 27 years. I'm conversational, but not fluent. So Kito Kito means sure and Katto like to, to win Katsu. Kata. And. And, you know, I won. So like you think about it as in terms of taking a test. So these are very popular with students. I think it still is. It was when I first came here. And that's why there's a place where you could write a name here. So you could write, you know, Takeshi and give it to Takeshi and go, good luck on your test Takeshi. And you would get maybe some little power up. But Kit Kat has also become popular overseas. And now you have like a bazillion flavors. Most of them I don't like. Some of them. Some of them I do. And this one is really, really good. Hold on. Oh, that smells so sweet. They do look a little bit smaller. Oh, my goodness. All right. Maybe I can turn the camera around. It's not. I don't know if it's going to really do any any good here. Hold on. Yes, it's you could see the cherry blossoms in there, right? The back of it. Little pieces of cherry blossom. It's the real deal. Let's give this a try here. I kind of eat it like a hamster. Who does this here? You kind of it's creamy.

11:14 John Daub: It's pretty. It doesn't really have much cherry blossom. It's subtle, sweet, crunchy, creamy white chocolate. So I could have flavor subtle at best. Seems boring by your face. Yeah, I'm impressed. I'm not that impressed. Unfortunately, I'm a pilot. Now, if you if you drink it with this. Now, I'm impressed. Now, it comes out. I wish they had smaller bottles of this because I would send it. It's just the postage has gotten super expensive, but this is not too bad. You know, I think it's worth trying. But there was one that had a blue package to it. You guys remember this one? Maybe some of you do. It was it was called Sakura Sake flavored Kit Kat. It had the flavor of the sake dasu, like the the leftover sake, which has a little bit. It has that aroma. But they put in a Sakura Mochi Sakura flavor into it. So it had like a Sakura Mochi kind of a smell to it. Very Japanesey was so good. That might have. Sorry about that. That might have been the best cherry blossom Sakura Kit Kat I've ever had. That one was really good. I think I have a live stream doing it in the streets of yeah, I do. The streets of Ginza about four years, four or five years ago. It was really good. That one was 2019, I believe, right before the pandemic. There's something missing with this. It's not quite it's not cherry blossomy enough. But it's good. It's not quite there. This one by Itoen is Sakura Matcha. You see the packaging right there. This one comes with directions. And this one isn't as popular as the other one because it's double the price. Matcha prices are out like extraordinarily high right now. But the directions are on the back here and how to do it. I'm going to tell you how to do it. This is the twist and shake powdered tea beverage. So I'm reading the English. Okay. Number one, twist the green cap counterclockwise. The powder and the inner lid drop inside the water. In this portion here is the matcha powder. Right here. That's quite a significant. That's quite a lot of matcha in there. All right. Choose close the green cap tightly. The inner lid floats on the water. Shake well. Enjoy green cap and open the green cap and enjoy. There's a little shake shake thing here right there. So there you go. That's that's how it works. I'll try this. The water is clear. You can see it's just it's just Itoen water. Itoen has pretty good water. Just plain water. We'll try this in another live stream because right now I'm I'm this is just already too much. I don't want to waste anything here, but if you are in Tokyo, you'll be able to see this at some stores. The Maruetsu chain of supermarkets in Tokyo was carrying this, but I didn't see it at some of the other ones. Maruetsu was like all over Tokyo. You probably find it at Don Quixote. They always carry this kind of stuff, but they always sell out real fast, especially in the tourist areas.

15:00 John Daub: And I don't know. I don't know why they don't have this stuff when the cherry blossoms are out it makes a lot of sense to do they do this every single year halloween stuff starts coming out september 1st okay as soon as summer is done halloween stuff comes out this as soon as halloween is done the christmas stuff comes out this year halloween stuff was coming out in august christmas stuff was coming out before halloween was finished it was crazy so now you have cherry blossom stuff coming out now and it's not even we're not even really talking about the cherry blossoms i don't know why they do this the beer cans have cherry blossom designs on them but all of those cherry blossom designed beer cans are sold out by the time that the cherry blossoms actually start saparos asahi super dry has these pink cans it's the same beer but these pink wrapped cans but they're all gone by the time april 1st rolls around so what a lot of my friends do is that they will buy a case and save it for a month and then they'll use those to drink and they're a little bit more popular with all their friends because they did that just something that you might want to think about but usually this stuff is all gone and that's just the way japan goes because this is such a trendy place like everything is a is is trendy uh all right i want to go through some of the questions that i've received over the last couple of weeks on the live streams which is all really interesting here this one came from a live stream uh just a couple of couple of uh days ago here when you rent cars are there options for english translations on screen so you drive safely i saw that they put foreign driver stickers on the screen on the back window so others are where around you can make sure that know that you might make driving errors that you're gonna get into an accident they don't put that sticker on for me i think it's because they have a japanese driver's license a gold japanese driver's license which you get if you don't get into an accident or have a violation or anything like that for i think it's six years or so it's crazy i got my license six years ago right it's scary times um you all the toyota cars at the toyota rent-a-car place you can change the monitor which which is the navigation to english i've never had one that you could not do that unless it was really old and the last time that i had an english only one was a compact and i think i rented it like on one of the islands i can't remember but i couldn't change the menu there uh everyone at toyota rent a car was fine you can change it to a variety of languages actually and it's an english english lady who will navigate you wherever you're going i always bring i got to be honest with you i'm not a

17:30 John Daub: I have this attachment here. You see this one? This one, it goes into the vent and it locks in place and I put my smartphone on here. I just, boop, and then I can take the smartphone on and off and it's in a pretty good space where I can see the navigation on Google Maps. Google Maps is typically a little bit more up to date and better, especially with traffic and stuff. So I've been using that more, but that might be way to go. You can ask for that sticker, especially in the tourist areas. And I would recommend that you do that if you're leaving from the city, like Osaka or Kyoto. It gives people a little bit more patience with you. Without it, you're in trouble. And if you're driving for the first time, I would rent the car outside of the city center just so you can get your bearings a little bit, especially if you're coming from North America driving on the other side of the road. After 15 minutes or so of driving, you usually will get your bearings and get comfortable with driving on the other side of the road. But just making that left turn into the left lane instead of, turning into the wrong lane, it comes to you over time.

18:40 John Daub: Hello, going there next week, how cold is it? It is not that bad, actually. I'm looking outside, it's sunny. It's about a 10 degrees Celsius, 50 degrees Fahrenheit today. At night, it gets down to about zero, which is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It's really not that bad. But with that, I think Japan has a breeze, at this time of year. So there's wind. So you have to factor that in a little bit. Having some wind-blocking jacket is a good idea, along with a light-down jacket might be a good idea. But for Tokyo, it's not really that bad. If you go up to Sendai, or to Hoku, or the Sea of Japan side, it's certainly a lot cooler. So when you say, how do you dress for Japan? It's like saying, how do you dress for the United States? If you're going to North Dakota and Florida, I don't have the Japanese vibe. But when you say Japan, the United States- but they're two different places. If you're going to Hokkaido, if you're going to Tokyo, you're going to Hiroshima, if you're going to Okinawa, I think that those are four different weather patterns, or like the Totori on the Sea of Japan side, or Nagasaki. It's like different weather patterns completely, and you're gonna get different temperatures. On the same day, it's amazing, because Japan goes, we see it on the map, it looks like it's going north to south, but Japan is actually like this, going east to west mostly. That's why we have JR East and JR West. We consider Osaka to be west of Tokyo, not north and south, but we consider Osaka to be, it's a little bit south, but we would say east and west. So Japan goes like this, and then it goes north up to Tohoku and Hokkaido, so that's the way we see it. Like Okinawa is more west of Tokyo than it is south. Well, Okinawa would be like south-southwest, something like that. You can, I would, look, I think you can, I'm gonna get rid of this one here. I think if you're, we'll do another episode talking about the weather. I haven't done that in a while, but if you just, I always like to go into these discount clothing stores, some of the chains, and see what they have on offer, and that gives you a clue on what the temperature's like for most of the country. The down jackets are still around. Uniqlo offers this kind of a micro down, which is warm enough for Tokyo. And it's on sale for like $40, all right? It's really, really inexpensive. So if you have that, $40, it's a micro puff down, you're okay. You have a hoodie or something, which is also on sale for like $18. You have a hoodie and one of those down jackets, you're golden. And you don't need to pack your bags with contingency stuff. Just buy it when you get here. And if you don't, you can donate it, or you can even sell it. There's a used market for this stuff. But to be honest with you, it's not that cold. It's not that cold. Don't overpack for it.

21:47 John Daub: This comes from the Hidden Silvaneer. Every tourist misses the Eki stamps. I don't know if you guys know about this one. This one, not a lot of people saw this episode. Hey John, only in Japan, Eki stamp booklet would be a great idea. I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it. I just bought a lot of booklet just for Eki stamps and other attractions. Wherever you go to a train station in Japan, they have these stamps that you can get. They're souvenirs. So instead of buying something physical, spending money, you could just stamp your book and collect going from place to place. They have stamp rallies. But this is just, you know, the Tokyo station has one on the modern Uchi side. And I showed where it was in a live stream. It's pretty cool. But there were people that were going in there to collect that stamp. And at every single station around Japan, they have an Eki stamp. You could just ask the station master, the ticket guy, you know, Eki stamp book arimasu ka? Eki stamp rally aritai? You can ask them and they'll point you to it. And they might have it inside. But they'll make sure that there's ink in there. But you can write down the date and collect the stamps. And it becomes over your time living in Japan or traveling around Japan, that stamp book is pretty full. So if you haven't seen it, this episode, you can take a look at it. And thanks for asking that question.

23:05 John Daub: This one's about the tourist tax that's going up 200%. I originally said 300%. But like live streams are great because they can be fluid through the comments and through the live stream. I can get your feedback in real time. So I did. And I changed it from 300% to 200% because it's going up. Just I was a little bit over, over-estimating. It says, is April 10th to 20th very crowded? Also, what is it like in person in a wheelchair there sightseeing? April 10th to 20th is what would be considered high season because the cherry blossoms are still around, especially in Tohoku up in the north. They're usually done in Tokyo around that time. So if you say crowded, it's like, where are you going? So if you're going to Kyoto, it's like always crowded. All right. If you're going to Tokyo to ask us, it's always crowded. If you're going to Shibuya, I don't think there's a time where it's not crowded anymore. Maybe in the middle of the night. So in that case, it depends on where you're going. But I would say it's, it's kind of high season still. From around March 15th through Golden Week until about May 10th, I would consider that to be the high season for spring for sure.

24:19 John Daub: What's it like in a wheelchair? It's gotten a lot better to travel around Tokyo in a wheelchair. Before the Tokyo Olympics were announced in 20, around 2016, they started to really fix up the city, especially the ramps and the access points. But before then, it was not easy. The taxis weren't as accepting of wheelchairs. Now because of the bigger taxis, the drivers can help those, even if you're by yourself, into the taxi if needed. And the backside of it is made where it can, it can take folded wheelchairs, which is really convenient. So I've seen some people use that. The trains have stations, a lot more of them have elevators now. A lot more of them have ramps now. It's such a good thing. In particular, not just wheelchairs, but those that are visually impaired. We have the tactile braille, tactile pavement, is what they're called. The yellow lines that allow people that are visually impaired to know how to turn left and right or when to stop at traffic lights and stuff. Tokyo is one of the cities that's done such an extraordinary job with it. It's a lot easier, but there are still challenges, of course. But I think this city is much better than a lot of other major cities. I'd say it's much better than London, Paris, New York, for sure. If you're comparing the world major cities, this one's in really good shape for visiting in a wheelchair. Of course, it helps to have a friend, a wife or a husband or family around you. But if you come as a solo traveler, you're gonna have some challenges. But the good thing is that if you call ahead, usually you'll get a VIP treatment because of the way Japanese service is.

26:01 John Daub: My friend and viewer here, Saya, was in a, it wasn't a wheelchair, right, Saya? It was like a mobile cart, which was really, Leo was obsessed with it. He wanted to ride it around. But she was scooting around in the scooter for mobility, and she got around just fine. She came from the outside of Tokyo into the center of Ginza by herself. So, Saya, who might be watching, probably would have more to talk about that. But we have a Discord server where we talk about this kind of stuff. And I'm sure if you tag people in there, maybe we should have an accessibility category. Because then I'll also learn a lot from that too, from other people's experiences. But thanks for asking that question. I hope I answered it best I can do there.

26:50 John Daub: I'm looking at the comments here. Did I have anything? No. Shinkansen Coffee, this is from the Gifu Hashima Shinkansen Station. This is like one of those stops that you never get off at. But I did. So I took you around there about two days ago. Shinkansen Coffee doesn't taste great. I tried it just once at Osaka Station. Just once. But having the coffee machine sing to me while waiting just warmed me up. I know, right? It's so cute. It worked so hard to bring me the best coffee it could make. Whatever it tastes, I have no complaints. It might sound like I was a little bit harsh, but my response was like, only once? Well, the one thing that's great about the Shinkansen vending machine and I did show it to you in this livestream. I've done it before. You can customize the cup of coffee that you get. You can get coffee that I think is dark roast or light roast. It even tells you a balance sheet of the different... There's like a Nozomi blend and a Dr. Yellow blend and a Hikari and a Kodama blend for the Tokaido Shinkansen. Using the names of it is really creative. So I always get the Nozomi blend or I get the Dr. Yellow because it comes in a Dr. Yellow. I think you have to pay more for that. But in general though, yeah, it's not the best coffee, but it's pretty good. And you can customize it. Cream or sugar. You can say how much cream and how much sugar usually. But no complaints. I think it's about the experience more than it is actually about the coffee. Thanks for asking that question. Couple more here. From the old Higashiyama steps, this is the side where Kiyomizudera is, going in Ninanzaka. No foreigners or you decided not to film them. So this is a comment here. Yeah, I woke up for this at, I was up at six. I left at six o'clock and I walked out there. And I think I did the live stream around six, or 740 or 730. I can't remember. There's not a lot of foreigners out there. Because they're eating breakfast. They're just not awake yet. So it's not like I'm not trying to film them. They're there. But you're also looking around and you're seeing the foreigners that are there, there's more Koreans, more from Taiwan. Some from China. But most of the western tourists aren't up yet. The western tourists usually have a later start. The most, most of the tourists were Taiwanese and were Korean. And if you're not sure, I can tell that they're not Japanese by the fashion, the style. But sometimes western people can't tell the difference. I can tell from the style, from the glasses and the hairstyle and the cut, especially for younger people if they're from Korea. I think in Korea they might be a little bit more stylish, like pop stylish. Especially Japanese are a little bit more subdued with their fashion. I can tell. I can tell. And as soon as they say something, you can tell right away. But it just depends on the time of day. But western tourists usually, if you mean by tourists, just keep in mind that most tourists that come to Japan are from the neighboring countries, not from western countries. That's another thing. So you'll see, wait, there aren't so many foreign tourists here. Yeah, there are. Korea has the most tourists coming here to Japan right now than any other country. So most of them are Korean. And that's our neighbor. So western tourists might see similarities between them, which is interesting. It's interesting. So thanks for that question.

32:27 John Daub: Super Chat came in here. What are your thoughts and suggestions on the new Kyoto accommodation tax starting March 1st? Timing isn't great because they have, when I got there, they had a vacancy problem. A lot of the hotels weren't filled. And now they're adding a tax onto it. Let's be honest here though. Kyoto is going to be full. Kyoto is not going to have a problem covering the hotel vacancies. They're going to be full of hotels. But right now with the tourists from China not coming and being low season, especially for western tourists, as soon as the cherry blossoms come, Kyoto is going to be buzzing. They don't have any problem at all. I think it's a good idea. I think Kyoto is already overcrowded. I tell all of you, especially if you've been to Kyoto before, spend less time there. Maybe one day, two days. Maybe stay in Nara instead. Or stay somewhere else and do a day trip into Kyoto. There's no reason to really stay there. A lot of the attractions are tired of tourists. You can feel that the locals feel kind of tired of having all the tourists there. So don't give them your money if you're not, you know. I think they kind of are appreciating tourists right now because a lot of tourists from China have cancelled suddenly. Again, the hotel I stayed in was part of the IHG chain. It's the part of... Maybe I'll show it to you in the live stream. The room was real budget. It's real small. It looked like an oppa hotel. IHG is the answer to oppa hotel. This is the Holiday Inn and Intercontinental Group. Okay? And I stayed there for free because I used my points. It was 5,000 points for a room. But it was 3,000... What was it? 4,950 yen or $35 a night. I had a single room. The bed was brand new. Super comfortable desk. Everything was new and clean. Bathroom kind of smelled funky. I think it was the pipes might have been dirty. They got to do something with that. But it was a really nice boutique hotel. Available. $35 a night. It's... What is it? A 20-minute walk to Gion, central Kyoto. 25 minutes walk to Kiyomizudera. That's really close. It's right next to the area where all the geisha walk by at night. That's crazy. $35 a night. Right? So, there... Kyoto's accommodation tax isn't coming at the best time. But once the cherry blossom season ramps up, you know, they need the money for the extra services, I think. I'm glad that they made the new bus. They added in a new bus system, which was definitely needed. Express bus for tourists and the local ones for locals. That made a lot of sense. It just took them a long time to come up with this.

33:25 John Daub: This one on the Kyoto steps in the Pagoda, which I showed you about 48 hours ago. This is my most favorite spot in all of Japan. Not least of which is due to the... coffee shop that's there. Right? There's a bunch of coffee shops. This place is really good. There's one with just a percentage sign. People seem to really like that one. There's a ton of places to get food around there. Tourists love this spot. I'm sorry I introduced it to everybody, but I think everybody knew about it anyways. This is where you get that shot of the Pagoda and the old street. And there's always a bunch of tourists. But again, you gotta get there really early to really appreciate it, I think.

33:56 John Daub: Okay. This one's on the Tokyo Marathon. Congratulations on getting your ticket. Congratulations on your entry to the Tokyo Marathon. I wish you a great training prep and awesome run. Thank you. And wish I could be there to cheer you on. I won't be there until April. I'm going to... I've always wanted to go to Japan since high school, but the yen was very high. This is my third trip. But the yen's very low now, so you might be able to make it. Or at least come to Japan. Yeah, you know, the training's going well. I had a calf strain, which slowed me down, but I think I'm gonna be fine. I just got over it. I did my first 10K run in a month. I did a 23-kilometer run, and I was really strong in that one. And then when I went to the US, probably from dehydration, I hurt myself a couple days before I came back to Japan. So everything's going okay, though. I'm gonna be fine to run, though. I've done it before, so I'm sure it's gonna go smoothly.

35:00 John Daub: Ziono Rent writes in here, do you have a favorite place to visit around Tishima Island? Zensoji and Naoshima. These are the inland islands. They're so beautiful. I would say my favorite place to go is not any one particular place. I really like Shodoshima. It's Kagawa Prefecture. You can get a ferry from there from the city. What's it called? Takamatsu City? You can fly into Takamatsu on Jetstar from Tokyo. It's so much cheaper than taking the Shinkansen. From Narita Airport. To Takamatsu. You can fly in there. There is a bus that meets the airplane and takes you into the city center to the station. From there, it's a three-minute walk to the ferry. And then you can go to Shodoshima, which is where the olives are grown. That's where olive wagyu beef is, the most prized tasty beef in all of Japan. I always rent this really small Hyundai car. It looks like a James Bond sports car. I think it's about 5,000 yen a day or something like that. It's a convertible. You can drive around the island. It's so nice. It's really easy to drive around the island. The beaches are fantastic. Actually, all those islands that you named are really fantastic places. But I love Shodoshima. That's my favorite island in that area. I wish I had discovered it earlier. But the olive oil is amazing. That's where they harvest a ton of olives. You have not had olive oil until now. But eventually, you've had olive oil there. Because I think most of the olive oil that we eat is watered down or something. Because that olive oil had so much flavor. And it's expensive. So I guess that's how you know it's real. But I really appreciated Shodoshima. I highly recommend it. I think you can get there by ferry from Okayama as well. Okayama. Yeah, I think you can get there by ferry from Okayama. But it's probably best to take from Takamatsu. Again, Jetstar. And there's some cheap flights like $30 from Narita going to Takamatsu. So you can get there real cheap. And then once you get there, you're in Shikoku for $35 or something. It's crazy.

37:14 John Daub: Artists with cameras, thank you for that. Nice to see you here. Do I have any more questions here? This is from the Tokyo Scenic Alleys in Asagaya the other day. If they would cater for me, they would build new buildings that looked like the old ones. Yeah, we're starting to lose more and more of the Showa-era buildings. Love the stroll. As always, I would love to see you in the NHK show Dive in Tokyo, which to me is a crossover between Journeys in Japan and Tokyo Eye Edit. I'm not okay with paying more because I'm a tourist. Yeah, the dual pricing. I hadn't seen Dive in Tokyo until you mentioned it. And before I started the livestreams, I watched it. And it still looks like a college production. I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what they're doing. The reporters have some sort of practice script. They stand in front of the camera and they look so tight. And everything is scripted by Japanese. The reason why I love Tokyo Eye because I just love the people. We would get 50,000 yen for maybe three or four days of work. You don't do it for the money. That's like $350 for three days of work. If you did the studio shoot, you would get, I think it was like 20,000 yen. And you would get 30,000 yen for a location shoot, which could be multiple days. I did a nine-day shoot and they paid me 60,000 yen. I guess they got a little bit extra for it, but nine days. So you don't do NHK or these shows for the money. My problem though with this is that they can be a lot better. I don't know if it's the producers or the directors, but it's usually a Japanese director who has a script. They find a reporter who is not really a reporter. Usually it's a local resident. And they give their impressions on something that they don't know much about. They're more of a prop to go around and walk around and then show something. And I think it's a great way to show the city. And what is really great though about NHK is they show places that YouTubers wouldn't normally do because they don't get a lot of views going to show these types of places. I did it because I really kind of needed the money at the time. But I also enjoyed the experience. And I love the people. And I would do it again completely. But it's really hard because it's not... It doesn't feel like an authentic show. You know what I mean? It's because it's too scripted. And it's not the reporter actually picking these. But the reporter is... These topics... It should be the other way around. I think that the reporters on these shows should have more input on it. But I just haven't been asked. Maybe because I'm somewhat critical. But I think that every single person who does this stuff should be critical and a positive way to make the show better. The one thing that I love about Chris Pepler, who was the host of Tokyo Eye, we did it for 14 years. It's a really long run for a TV show. The thing that I really loved about him, he was very particular. He made sure that everything was done in a professional way. Because if not, it would have felt like a college production, sort of. I didn't like the green screens and the blue screens and all this other stuff. I like being on location. But sometimes it felt like... I don't know. Not professional enough. And what Chris brought to it was this very experienced eye to production of the Tokyo Eye series. He was so important in making that show. Don't get me wrong. The producers and directors were great. But he was really a linchpin to make that show successful. Because without him, I think that the professionalism, the feel of the professionalism wouldn't have been there. And maybe when I watched the dive in Tokyo, I just kind of... I don't know. Do I need to do it? I kind of feel like that. It's like, yeah, I'd do it because it would be fun. You don't do it for the money. You do it for the experience. But I... I don't know. I'd want to write the script and do it my way, right? So that's just sort of maybe why you won't see me there. Journeys in Japan is a different type of a series. It's more slow, documentary-like. But if I can get to participate in stuff, and the topic has a synergy, I would do it. So, yeah. If it doesn't, they just need a... I don't know, an actor. They can go hire somebody. You know, I don't... I don't need to be in it. But... And I'm with you on the dual pricing. That's my take on it. My honest, unfiltered take. I really don't... I don't... You know, if I'm not on NHK anymore, I'm okay with it. But I do love the people there. I love the experience. And it's a... It's always... It's always an honor. You know, they could ask anybody. When they asked me to come back over and over again, it really is... It's an honor to do the show, even if, you know, it sometimes was a little bit silly. But that's sort of the way it should be, right? You should have some personality to it. But it has to feel... It has to have information that is useful for you. And if it does, then it succeeds.

42:35 John Daub: Shinbashi or shimbashi? Either way, I want to go the area. This is one of the things that people tell me about. I would say either one is okay. But honestly, nobody really cares. It's like, is it... I don't know. Is it... Is it Pakistan or Pakistan? You know, is it, you know, Asakusa or Asakusa? And in my defense, when I say Asakusa, that's the way they say it on the announcements on the subway in English. It just is the way when you change your language, you don't say it like a local. Either way, people know exactly where you want to go. I've seen it written both ways. The train stations, the old way seems to be shimbashi. And shimbashi, I can't really tell much of a difference. The N and the M, the thing I think you should consider, probably shimbashi with the M would be correct, but shin means new, and it means new bridge. Phonetically, though, romaji, the language, the alphabet romaji, is not a good representation of the Japanese language. You should learn hiragana and katakana, which is the phonetical language, which is a phonetical language, and then you'll never get the pronunciation wrong. When you... If you learn katakana or hiragana, either one of those alphabets or both, you'll never get Japanese pronunciation really wrong too bad. Maybe the intonation might not be natural, but you can understand a, i, u, e, o. Once you get that, everything is, you know, tachi, tsu, tato, ha, hi, hu, he, ho, mami, mu, me, mo, kaki, ku, ke, ko. Once you get that, you can understand the flow of the way the Japanese language goes. So, you can learn katakana on the airplane coming. If you have a 10-hour flight, you can learn it and then hit the ground reading menus, which is crazy. It makes your trip more fun because you kind of decode Japan in that way. At least that's the way it's been in my experience. My friend Tom, who... Hold on a second. My friend Tom, who was in my wedding video a couple of years ago, my best friend from high school, he learned katakana and hiragana in six hours, both languages, both of the alphabets. And when he arrived to Tokyo, he was ordering off of the menu. Like, he got the... We didn't have English menus back then. I'm going like the first time he came to Japan in 2001, I think. He got the menu and he was able to order food. He only had six hours learning the alphabets. He like made flashcards or something on the plane. He got here. He could read menus and stuff. He went to Korea. He picked up Hangul so fast. There's some people who are just really good at it. He's one of those people. But you can read... Kanji is... Kanji you'll pick up, but if you learn hiragana and katakana, you will learn kanji much, much faster because then you're learning it from a phonetical point of view. Once you learn that, then you've basically decoded the flow of the Japanese language and the way the Japanese think in terms of the language. If you just learn Roman letters, you'll never be able to really get into it. You're just memorizing it. So that's my advice for those of you that are here watching live.

45:29 John Daub: All right. That's all that I got for you. I'll take one more swig for those that are watching live. This is the sakura green tea infused with an amazing aroma. It's really good stuff and probably on sale for another week. And then it's gone. It's gone until next year. Any last questions before I get back to work?

46:05 John Daub: It's spelled shi-n-ba-shi, but the n changes sounds to join the following consonants. Since you make B with your lips closed, it's pronounced like shi-n-ba-shi. But again, if you said shi-n-ba-shi or shin-ba-shi, it doesn't really matter because if you say it naturally, you can't really tell too much of a difference with the pronunciation, the way it's spelled. The new shin-ba-shi building is with an S-H-I-N, B-L, shin, S-H-I-N. You see both of them, but really it doesn't matter because for the Japanese, you see it in kanji and you don't have to worry about the N, N-N. Or the M in that light. It's just shin-ba-shi.

46:44 John Daub: All right, that's all I got for you. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I like to look at them and I might highlight them too. So it's a good reason to ask. I'm always happy for that. Somebody asked me about Patreon and Super Chats from Holland. I think there might be some issues with payment on there. I'm not really sure. But if you have any answers for our Dutch viewer, is there something wrong with Holland and giving Super Chats, let me know. I don't really know. But the way I look at it, and I thought it was a great question on Patreon he asked me. He said his teacher tells him that if you're already supporting on the postcard club, you shouldn't be giving Super Chats. Isn't the postcard enough? And my answer was, yeah, your teacher's probably right. The way I look at it. And I think the way a lot of creators look at it is that Patreon is support. This is more consistent. This is support every month. I like to make sure that Patreon, Patreon's going to be fine now. But in the beginning I was worried that Patreon might not make it. But they've got enough people to support that. So Patreon is monthly support, which is great. And Super Chats are a gift. And it's just kind of an in the moment type of a thing. And it's supposed to be fun. And when a Super Chat comes in, I think everybody gets kind of like a little curiosity. So what does it say? Who gave that? How much was it? There's a little bit of... For Holland, you can use a VPN and that might unblock the payment gateway. All right, that's good advice. I didn't think of that. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm looking into it to see, try to problem solve it. But I give Super Chats every now and then too. And the reason why I give Super Chats is because it feels... First of all, usually you'll get noticed by whoever you're giving the Super Chat to. Even if they might skip it, people in the chat notice it. And if it's me and somebody in the chat knows who I am, it's funny to see all the other people going, Hey, it's John. I give him the Super Chat. So I paid forward to... I give the Super Chats to other YouTubers. A lot of them though aren't Japan-based YouTubers. So I don't know. I live here in Japan, so I don't watch too many of them. But that's the way I look at it. Patreon is support. And Super Chats would be a gift. And I started the memberships on this channel because for those... There's some people that didn't want to support on Patreon. It was just easier to do things on YouTube. So I started the memberships here. So there's an insider group and there's the cheapest group. I just wanted to have a... You know, be able to give people emojis because we do like 20 live streams a month on this channel. So there's customized emojis that you can see in here if you want to. I might try to update these with some cherry blossoms. But I'll put a bunch of them in for you now. I think that the green tea one is kind of cool. There you go. So that's for anyone who's signed up for... As a traveler. Super Chat... Wait. Super Chat, Super Chat, whoop, whoop. It's the Illuminati. See? The little teeny Super Chat kind of warms things up and makes your day when you see it. So it's kind of a fun thing for everybody. Not just me. But I think for everybody watching in the chat, it gives it a little bit of energy. And the thing that I love about live streams in general is that when I started doing this in 2017, I did this channel as a way to stay connected with people when I was on the road. Like when I was hitchhiking, I did the live streaming. And I would just... I'd be live streaming while I'd be holding up a sign. Hold on a second. Some of you might like this one here. While I'm holding up a sign, I would be live streaming, right? And you would be watching me live. Just to make sure that I'm safe. This one says Wakanae in Hokkaido on the backside. Nihongo okey. So they know that I'm... I found this in my closet the other day. Along with an orange jacket. But at the time, it was a way to keep company. But what I learned by doing that was that I wasn't alone when I'm live streaming. Which is really cool. You can connect with people in a different way than when you upload the videos. That's what makes this so good. But then I remember, it's not for everybody. And one of my friends, Paolo, maybe you guys know of his channel. Amazing creator. He joined me in a live stream. I think it was 2018. And I said, hey Paolo, let's go live. And he said, I don't know. Because that's not something I'm quite used to. And I said, just be yourself. Just be yourself. Show people who you are. You're a good person. It's not like you're going to say anything wrong. People are pretty forgiving in this format. And he did great. He did fine. But certainly it's out of his comfort zone now. Then, maybe he's a lot better at it now. But I think it's something that just takes a little bit of time. But you have to... Good people who do the live streaming, usually they don't make verbal mistakes. Because it's not something you would normally do. But it's hard for you... For those that are live streaming, it's hard to not show who you are when you're doing a live stream. And do it like... I think I've done it like 2,500 times or something. 2,000 episodes on here. So it's a record of everything. I've done pretty much. I don't delete much of anything on here. But you can't change who you are in 2,000 episodes. It all kind of shines through, right? That's the way it is. People know sometimes I am grumpy. Sometimes I am not happy. Sometimes I'm boring. Sometimes I'm overly excited. Sometimes you see that childish curiosity come through. Sometimes you see that I'm not doing too well. I didn't get a good night's sleep. Sometimes you see I got a great night's sleep. It all comes out in the live streams. And that's kind of what's really cool about it. Because in this world... And this is my problem with NHK content in a way. In this world where everything seems too scripted sometimes, live streaming was a way where you can't script that really. It's just authentic. And that's why it succeeded as a platform. And that's why maybe it's overdone a little bit too much now. And it's harder for my channel to get noticed when I go live because there's a hundred other live streamers doing Japan. When I started, I think I was like one of three. You know what I mean? So that's why the channel's grown so much. Because I was like one of a couple of live streamers. Because the data was so expensive in the beginning. And you didn't make Super Chats. You didn't make money. This is before Patreon. I started this before Patreon. So you live stream because it was fun. But if you weren't making money, you had to pay that $200 or $300 Cadillac plan for bandwidth. You know? And nowadays, when they gave it in Super Chats, you can make money off of it. Now everybody wants to do it. So it's just changed quite a lot. It's changed quite a lot. But you can't fake it on a live stream. You can't. Sometimes I interrupt people. And I've been able to see some of my own flaws through doing the live streaming. You know, when I have a guest, I try to bite my tongue a little bit more and not try to interject and let it play out. And you can shift and learn from the experience of doing this.

54:19 John Daub: The whole thing with life is you have to put yourself in... Now I'm giving my 50-year-old life advice. You have to put yourself in uncomfortable positions, uncomfortable situations every now and then. And that's where you grow. If you stay in a comfortable position, always going to your office job, never doing anything that you're not comfortable doing, you don't grow. You start to shrink, I think. So that's why I do the Naked Man Festival where I wear a thong and I run around naked, almost naked in February in the snow. That's why I do the Tokyo Marathon. That's why I do stuff that makes me feel uncomfortable because I feel so much more alive after it's all done. And that's what life is kind of about that I think a lot of people might miss. You have to do stuff that makes you uncomfortable or something new. Go take dance lessons if you suck at dancing. Right? Go do, you know, take... Take, you know, pottery lessons or Ikebana, something that's new or something that might make you feel uncomfortable. Learn something new. And you'll start to grow from that experience and you become a happier person because it shifts the way you think. Start learning a language, you know. It's uncomfortable when you start making mistakes in another language. That's why I go on... That's why I sometimes go on live TV in Japanese. I don't know what I'm saying half the time. If... The host will come to me and, you know, ask me a question. And then I'll just go, そうですね. I don't know what I'm saying. Like, if I didn't... I get millions of people watching me live on Japanese TV. I understood the question 80%. Just kind of a script. But I do it because I like being in the elements. I'm not thinking about a million people watching me. I'm thinking about I want to have a good time. And I want to, you know, have fun interacting with the people around me and make the show better. And I find fun things to say. And they kept asking me back, even though I didn't fully understand everything that they were saying. But I had a pretty good idea. I was real nervous. But you don't see it. Having fun out there. But I'm somebody who's used to being put in... And Matt Ault might be another person like that. I'm okay being put in uncomfortable situations and somehow coming out okay. And that's not... Not everybody's like that. You have to be part of the Karate Kid family.

56:37 John Daub: I see the comments. All right, guys. That's all I got for you today. This is the first time I'm actually plugged into the microphone doing this as something like a podcast on my smartphone, which is crazy. It's so much easier than doing it on the computer. But if you have any questions, you can leave them in the comments below. I'm going to see if I can attach Discord in here. And maybe we can get phone calls. Peso, let's see what we can do with this. This is cool. If everything is going through this Rode podcast, Rodecaster Duo, then maybe we can get everything connected through here. And then it just comes into the smartphone, right? I can just control it by pushing the buttons on the Rode Duo. This is crazy, right? So it makes it a lot easier if I don't need a computer to do this kind of stuff. And if the sound quality is good, then that's definitely an improvement. Although, you know, I thought that these microphones are okay. This is a lot better. This is a pro microphone with all the stuff right there. So there you go. All right, take care. I'll see you in another livestream. Probably take you out on a walk tomorrow. Kanae and I have a shoot to do tomorrow morning for 30 minutes in the Ginza area. But yeah, I'm sure I'll take you around maybe Ginza tomorrow. I don't know. Maybe somewhere else. But if the weather is like tomorrow like it is today, I want to be outside, not inside. You know what I mean? All right, take care. Mata ne.