Kai Cenat And Ray Recreate Their Viral First Meeting At The Same 7-Eleven In Japan

Kai Cenat and Ray recreate their first meeting at a 7-Eleven in Japan.© X/@novaraszn

Three years ago, Ray was a student on a school trip who followed Kai Cenat's livestream around Tokyo just to get a photo. This week, he was back at the same 7-Eleven, only now he was the co-host. During the Returning 2 Japan stream, the two stood outside the store and played out their first meeting again for a chat that remembered every second of the original. The trailer for the trip had promised "a little reset." Going back to the start was apparently what Kai Cenat had in mind.

Kai Cenat and Ray just recreated their iconic clip of meeting for the first time while at the exact same 7/11 in Japan ????❤️‍???? https://t.co/72uFcMfFZb

— ryan ???? (@scubaryan_) October 22, 2026

Ray first found Kai Cenat outside this 7-Eleven in 2023

It was the summer of 2023. Kai Cenat was streaming in Tokyo, and Ray, who was in Japan with his school, worked out where he was from based on what was showing on the broadcast.

He wasn't after content. He wanted a picture. Ray has said he was scared it would be his only shot at ever meeting Kai Cenat, so he walked up to him outside the 7-Eleven and asked, while Kai's viewers watched the whole thing live. Within months, he was in the US filming with him.

Ray has gone from fan to co-star since that first meeting

Kai Cenat brought him over to make content, and by February 2024 the two were streaming together from Taipei's Ximending and Xinyi districts. There was even a short film, "Global Pursuit," a cop comedy with Kai Cenat as Miller and Ray as Shadow.

Ray summed it up in a 2025 video about the things he can't live without. "My next essential, Kai," he said, before thinking back to the 7-Eleven: "here we are now." In an interview that same year, he said he saw Kai Cenat and the AMP crew as brothers, and that what fans saw between them on stream was the same off camera.

October has not been an easy month for him. Ray left the Clover Boys earlier this month after Reggie's outbursts against the group, and Japan is now where most of his streaming is happening. Kai Cenat announced the trip on October 18 with a two-minute trailer that poked fun at a character called "Bankroll Ray." The stream went live on October 21 at 9 am Japan time, on both Twitch and YouTube, and the 7-Eleven moment was being shared on X next to the original 2023 clip within hours. Kai Cenat has not said how long he and Ray are staying in Japan.