00:00:16 John Daub: Sorry, that was Siri. So I'm now live. Yeah, YouTube. Yay. Thiago, right? This is Thiago, my friend from Brazil who's living in Japan. He brought me here from Yamaguchi to Hiroshima about two hours ago. We drove here and now we're looking at the Genbaku Dome (Atomic Bomb Dome) here in central Hiroshima with the sunset and the lighting on it. It's really... I have no words. We've got some hey Thiagos. I guess there's some Brazilian fans. People from all over the world are tuning in. Wonderful.

00:01:16 John Daub: I just wanted to take a minute and talk with you about my past with Hiroshima. I used to live here 1999 in the year 2000 and the year 2001. I lived here twice. I moved... wow. I used to see this building all the time and it's been a couple of years since then. But every time I see it, it just leaves an impact on you, doesn't it? I mean I had to bring this to you because of the sunset behind you. Anyways Thiago, do you have to go?

00:01:56 Thiago: No? I'll walk around.

00:01:57 John Daub: Okay, I'll see you. See you man. Okay.

00:02:03 John Daub: Alright, so Thiago's gonna walk around but I wanted to talk to you a little bit about my past here in Hiroshima and what this Genbaku Dome means to me. First I want to thank Thiago again. I was just waiting at that interchange for a long time before anybody picked me up and the wind and the rain came. Then two people actually stopped at the same time and we were deciding who should be the one to take me but he was going to the city center and I said that's cool because I want to see the Genbaku Dome, the Atomic Bomb Dome before I go to Miyajima.

00:02:48 John Daub: It's really hard. I'm going to put this right here for a minute, but I'm staying here with you, okay? So now that the video won't shake, I'm gonna get out the Osmo and then I can walk around with it. Again, this is the Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima.

00:04:04 John Daub: Hold on a second. I'm gonna walk around with the Osmo. I'm sorry, putting the phone into the Osmo. Sorry, folks. Give me a second. Okay. All right, here we go. All right, done. I'll edit this out. I'm going to walk around one time for you guys using the Osmo.

00:04:35 John Daub: So just a little bit about my history with this. I used to live in Hiroshima. On the weekends, I would go out drinking. I would drink a lot and then I would come back here. I would sit on the riverside on the other side and I would cry because of what happened. And it's just a big reminder of that. I was drunk at the time. But I'm going to walk one time around the Genbaku Dome for you.

00:05:35 John Daub: I left my bag. I'm going to go back to the spot. I hope nobody takes it. It's a little chilly. So I lived here twice over three years. And the entertainment district is behind the Genbaku Dome. And I lived in Yokogawa, which was the other way around. And I would walk home past this maybe a hundred times. And now here I am again in front of it. And it really is something.

00:06:56 John Daub: I remember I used to sit here on the river right there. And I would be drinking and I would reflect on what happened, what you're seeing right now, which is the Genbaku Dome. Oh, that's one time around.

00:09:16 John Daub: Deep, isn't it? I mean, the museum going in there. It's only 50 yen to enter. But that museum takes your breath away. It's shocking how graphic and how much detail they have on what happened on that day. I think it was August 6th, 1945. But for me, having lived in the city and walking by this hundreds of times and it's been years since I was back here. I did an okonomiyaki episode two and a half years ago. And to see it again, it brings back a lot of memories.

00:10:16 John Daub: Because back then, as I was saying, I would go to the entertainment district. There's some bars down there. And I lived that way and I'd walk past this building hundreds of times while I lived here. And now I'm back again. And it brings back a lot of those memories of all the things that I was thinking about 17 years ago. 1999, 2000, and 2001, I lived here on and off. And when you see this, it does take your breath away. You can't imagine what happened that day.

00:11:04 John Daub: I think it's around 7 or 5 p.m. in Hiroshima. The sun is just setting. I arrived about 10 minutes ago with Thiago. Really nice guy from Brazil who dropped me off here. I think he came here to take some pictures of the Genbaku Dome. I think the Genbaku Dome was an observatory. You can see the dome on the top there. The dome was the observatory, I believe. But the history is all on Wikipedia. It is stunning. It's a stunning reminder of that day. And that's very deeply rooted in Hiroshima's history. It is an old city that goes longer than World War II. But in modern day, this is a big mark in the city, of course.

00:12:12 John Daub: I just thought I would take some time and bring this site for you of the Genbaku Dome because I don't know if I'll have another chance to do this for a while, to come down to Hiroshima. And I just happen to be right here so I pushed the live button and wanted to show you this and tell you a little bit about my feelings on it. My feelings are, it was a place that I reflected about life those years, 18 years ago. And it's a place I'm reflecting about like right now as I do this trip hitchhiking up to Hokkaido. This is like a pit stop really. I had to camp at the interchange last night. So I'm glad that I made it at this time, at sunset to bring you the view of the Genbaku Dome just in time for this.

00:13:22 John Daub: There's a lot more people than I thought there would be here too. There's just a lot of things go through my mind. For tourists who come here, you probably have a different emotion than I do. The first primary emotion for me was like, oh good God, I can't believe that happened. And just a couple hundred meters away from here is where the bomb detonated. But then after living here for a long time, twice over three years, just my opinion of it changed a little bit. Why weren't people angry at Americans, for example. Most people understand that I had nothing to do with it. If anything, it's something that happened and something that people move on from. And that's why no one's angry at anybody. This is just something that happened, something that's very sad. A lot of people died. Thiago said in the car how many people. That's why I'm getting a little emotional. He knew how many people had lost their lives. And you think on that scale, it's really... it's not just a building, is it?

00:15:08 John Daub: So I'm going to go to Miyajima now and set up my tent there. Before I do that, I'm going to walk towards the station and there's an old friend that I'm going to go and meet. His name is Shin-chan. He owns the okonomiyaki restaurant in the okonomiyaki episode that I made about two and a half years ago. I'm going to go see if he's there and surprise him. He let me film in his shop and make an okonomiyaki at his shop. And I haven't seen him since, one time between then. But I'm going to see if he's there and surprise him. And a lot of viewers who've been watching the show have been to Shin-chan's and said that they watched him on my Only in Japan. So hopefully he remembers me. It's a little bit cold.

00:16:11 John Daub: So I'm going to walk towards there. I want to go through Hondori (shopping arcade). So maybe I can stream for a little bit longer. Ah, see, they used to be right over there behind me. It was Hiroshima Carp Stadium. And they built a new stadium and it no longer exists there. When I lived here I used to walk to the baseball stadium, which is super cool. And now you have to take a train, which stinks. Oh there's a parking garage. I always wanted to do an episode of Only in Japan with Japanese parking garages. I wonder what's inside, like how does it work. That's Thiago's car. Thank you Thiago. If you're watching this, thank you for bringing me to Hiroshima. That's so cool of you man. I'm here because of Thiago power.

00:17:50 John Daub: Oh there are the bars. That's the bar I used to go to. Like I'm partially thinking maybe I should go to the bar, have a drink now. I'm just gonna walk towards Hondori instead. Hiroshima's a pretty quiet time. I guess it's Sunday night. On Sunday nights the city is pretty quiet. It's hard for me to think because it's actually kind of cold in the city right now. Get me some okonomiyaki.

00:18:42 John Daub: So how you guys doing? Thanks for following me live. I've been working on a vlog. I have this thing where I have to edit it but I just don't have the time to travel and then to edit the video at the same time. I'm so behind that I'm wondering. I'll just make some catch up episodes I guess but when I'm live like this I'm gonna stream live because I want to bring you the story now. I want to bring you some content right now because it really is kind of amazing. I'm walking by a Matsuya. I can smell it. It smells so good. Good, I'm hungry. Okay, this is Hondori, the shopping street I'm going to walk on.

00:19:49 John Daub: What the heck is that doing there? Oh my gosh, there's beer. Stop it. Hondori is this way. At least I thought it was. Crap, where did Hondori go? Is that Hondori? I thought it was this way. Whoops, look, Hondori was there. Okay, anyways, I don't know if you're so interested in eating it. Do you really wanna watch all the way from me walking across Hondori to Shin-chan, see okonomiyaki? YouTube. Guess they watched the show. You said YouTube, I said, that's right. True story. So this is downtown Hiroshima.

00:21:15 John Daub: Okay, I totally mistook Hondori. Hey, hey. All right, I'm losing battery on the Osmo. All right, folks, I've lost battery on the Osmo, so remember those smooth, clear shots of me walking? Those days are over, so I'm gonna show you Hondori and then I gotta turn it off, because the video is not... this is no longer Only in Japan Go. Earthquake! That's what happens when you don't use the stabilizer. The battery is dying on the stabilizer. So I'm going to show you Hondori which is the main shopping street that I used to always walk across. Natsukashii (nostalgic)! Long time no see Hondori. And then I'm going to cut off.

00:22:23 John Daub: So thanks everybody. I'm way too hungry to deal with this Osmo. Just wanted to say thanks and thanks for tuning in and hopefully I will catch you on the road. I'm going to cut it short. Get me some Shin-chan. I don't know maybe I'll stream that live. I'm not sure. But keep following the episodes. Oh by the way the Kickstarter project that I set up, it got funded in two days. So thank you. Many of you watching it might have gone to the Kickstarter and funded it. It's getting cold. Thanks for funding that. I'm going to be putting together a really awesome DVD and sending some postcards to people. So see you on the road everybody. Bye bye from Hiroshima.