00:07 John Daub: Hello everyone, welcome to Sakaiura Beach. Had to look over my shoulder to check the sign. You can see there's a bunch of snorkelers and a couple of sea kayaks down there exploring the Hinkomaru, which is a shipwreck sticking out of the beautiful emerald green blue water. I still don't know what that color is. The deeper water, that deep blue tone is called Bonin Blue, but this is just beautiful emerald water. We got some sunshine and the water looks so much more beautiful when the sun is out. This is Sakaiura Beach, one of the many beaches in Chichijima here in Tokyo.

01:14 John Daub: And if you just look off the road, you get this incredible view, and in the middle of it is the Hinkomaru. This ship has some pretty interesting history. It wasn't sunk here on purpose. The Hinkomaru was built in 1935 and launched in 1936. It was in the invasion of Saipan and received heavy damage. They took everything out and stored engine parts or something in it. But in 1944, the U.S. sank it with aerial torpedoes right there in the bay, and it's sat there since.

02:16 John Daub: It's pretty amazing to see with the beautiful water around it, that this ship had seen so much action and now it's just out of commission. When you know the history behind the stuff that you're looking at—it's all available online—it makes it even more interesting. I remember the first time I rode my motorbike through the island, I went around the corner here, looked over and said, wait, what the heck is that? I stopped and searched on Google Maps and found Seiko Maru. Then I asked the locals about it—they told me some stories, which was pretty cool.

03:18 John Daub: This live stream has a couple of meanings: one to show you the Seiko Maru, and then to show you the bus schedule. It's the Ogasawara Village bus, Ogasawara-mura bus. The next bus is at 11:36, in like 20 minutes. Buses leave once every two hours, common out in the countryside. Last bus is at 6:41 p.m., costs 200 yen or like $1.80. I'm just too tired to walk the 30 minutes—it's been a long day. Last night I went out to Yankee Town, the local bar, where I got a lot of info about the trip and met people.

04:25 John Daub: The fifth generation of islanders is probably the best—they were here when the U.S. was here before the handover. They speak pretty cool English and are super laid-back. The sixth generation is like mine. They all used to have guns—they're kind of Americanized in many ways. Then it all changed when they handed the island back in 1968. Chichijima is celebrating its 50th anniversary since it was handed back. When it was part of the U.S. occupation, it had an address in San Francisco, California, 96606—which is pretty amazing. I found some mailboxes with that address on it.

05:24 John Daub: You see a snorkeler making her way back to the beach. Just so clear, the water. We had a torrential rainstorm, one of these tropical showers that came out of nowhere. I posted an Instagram story if you want to check it out. This beach looked different when it was all cloudy without the sun—harder to see that water color. Another snorkeler has gone the other direction. There was a nice guy down there from Australia snorkeling around the Hinkomaru. He said a couple of fish bit him—they're not poisonous, but some breeding fish are territorial and take nips at you.

06:42 John Daub: The ship, the ferry back to Tokyo leaves at 3:30 p.m., so I have one more lunch in me. I'm going to do the closing of this episode on board the ship. Oh, there's the guy from Australia—he's taking a video. He's staying where I stayed, at Townhouse Mitsui. So I'm going to walk over and show you a couple more things before the bus. There's a tunnel—it takes about ten minutes to walk through. There's a panoramic of the bay, and you can see some sea kayaks beached. You can hire a guide and kayak around the bay—it's pretty fun, but I didn't have time.

08:03 John Daub: The waters around the Hinkomaru as a snorkel site are three to five meters deep, so you can snorkel in the center. There's a lot of marine life and fish swimming around it—really cool dive site. If you've never dived a wreck before, it's neat to see all the rusted bits. I loved reading about the history of the Hinkomaru—when it was built, bombed, sank. Now it serves snorkelers—there's a lot of marine life.

09:15 John Daub: You're not allowed to launch drones from land, but if you're on a boat, you can. It's a World Heritage site, so you need a permit to launch from the island. Best to go on a boat. Rules: 30 meters from houses, people, automobiles; no higher than 150 meters. From the sky, you get amazing aerial footage. I got the drone right over it hovering, then went up—the outline of the ship is still very clear. It's not a small ship—takes at least 20 minutes to snorkel around.

11:21 John Daub: PMX writes in: yeah, you could build a raft and fly your drone, but be careful or you'll lose more than your drone. I went out on a dive boat for four days and flew my drone during surface intervals. On an island like this, you want to fly over the sea to get water with the land. This is gonna be pretty tropical and cool—looking forward to editing it. Fay, hope you eat something good for lunch—this is my last lunch here. I've been here ten days—really magical. Kanai is super jealous.

12:43 John Daub: Ferry departs at 3:30 p.m.—I'm filming it for the main channel, so might not live stream. If anyone is in Chichijima, meetup at the pier at 3:30—we can grab a bottle of water. Those bikes out there are battery-powered—more expensive to rent than scooters, like 30% more. Don't ask me why. Alright, bus, where are you? They got whales on the side of the bridge—pretty neat. They really respect marine life here: statues, signs, manhole covers. Every 20 meters or so on the sidewalk, there's another one—like this Nanyo Budai [?].

15:30 John Daub: I tried to hitch a ride—couple people stopped but weren't going the right direction, so I walked from my hotel, 45 minutes, wasn't too bad. But I had to check out, so no shower—gonna be stinky after sweating all day. The last thing before the bus comes is an island map right here at Sakaiura Beach. The town is up north—it kind of looks like the UK, except Scotland is drunk and bends here. Town called Omura, Higashimachi, Ogamiyama Park, Ogasawara Visitor Center. I walked through the tunnel around the bay—nice walk, saw a lot of people.

16:57 John Daub: This is a two-hour walking trail—I ran out of time and it rained, so glad I didn't go. This part of the island is uninhabited, complete jungle. Yesterday I was on Chuo-san, the middle peak, largest on the island—just jungle, a dam, waterfall. There's a JAXA downrange station and a national astronomical observation station.

18:01 John Daub: Alright, the bus is coming. [To Australian guy]: Hey, you're live—yeah, I saw you swimming. Did the fish bite you again? You got inside the ship? Cool. Introduce your channel: "Let's Do Japan," just starting out, based in Australia. Bus is on its way—they don't take Suica, the electronic money card. We still got 20 minutes—wondering if I should walk. Point of no return. Once I enter the tunnel, no signal—Dempa (signal) inside. Can't hang out with the construction dudes—island life, building in the heat.

20:41 John Daub: This has been fun. The Hinkomaru at Sakaiura Beach has a neat history—was in the invasion of Saipan, more misses than successes in the Pacific War. Amazing snorkel site. Final happy view of the Hinkomaru—you see some snorkelers. Hotels are pricey, no chains, no convenience stores, three ATMs. You can rent a house but gotta know people. Most tourists come three days or ten days—no in-between, since boats stay three days.

22:42 John Daub: Beautiful final scenes from Chichijima, Ogasawara—an island with a violent WWII past but bright future. Sun is amazingly hot, most beautiful beaches I've seen. They call it the Galapagos of the East—the wildlife and marine life is natural, innocent, curious. Spectacular place to visit. You'll leave relaxed with amazing pictures of water like this. Have a good day—hit like and subscribe. See you later, bye bye.