00:00:00 John Daub: Greetings from Miyazaki! This is Aoshima. Behind me is Aoshima Jinja (Aoshima Shrine). This is the Aoshima Hadaka Mairi (naked pilgrimage). This is a ritual that's been going on for 1400 years. It's crazy to even wrap your mind around it. And yes, we are all wearing fundoshi (traditional Japanese loincloth), which is the traditional Japanese nakedness. Because this is all they had 1400 years ago! And we still honor the gods by wearing the fundoshi.

00:00:49 John Daub: This festival is out here by the sea. That island is Aoshima, where the shrine is. It's a chilly one, as you can see. I'm not wearing much, but we're out here. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Oh! Sugu ni hairu? (Are we going in right away?) Oh, taiso (calisthenics). So we gotta do exercises first to warm up. Alright, I've never done this before. But people are, hey Nosh! It's kanjōshi (congratulations)! Oh my gosh! The fundoshi are very thin compared to the one I had last time. And it's daytime, so it's easy to see. Accidents can happen. I'm just saying, in advance, if it does, I will blur it out.

00:01:48 John Daub: Okay, I guess we're going this way. We're performing for the audience up there. There's two groups. You can see our group on the beach here. 500 people can participate in the Aoshima Hadaka Mairi every year. Only 500, meaning if you sign up late, you cannot participate. Once this festival starts, it's gonna be harder to hear me. Hey, Pop Horn, thank you very much! I'll give you some of the history and explain what's going on the best that I can. It's about 15 degrees Celsius. Thankfully a lot more bearable.

00:02:37 John Daub: With this festival, you do get an amulet which says "hadaka" (naked) on it. This says Aoshima. This says hadaka, which means naked. So, protect us. You are an experienced hadaka participant. So, you've been doing this for 10 years? Why do you do this every year? Respect for God. Prayer. Wow. But this year, it's warm, right? It's not warm at all. Well, this year we're lucky it's warmer. So, before, it wasn't snowing, right? There's no snow here. But it can get pretty chilly, like 5 degrees, 3 degrees. The sea is very cold. I did not ask how cold because I don't want to know. 10 degrees? More. Oh my gosh! Cold! Thank you.

00:04:01 John Daub: One of the reasons that I agreed to do this was because I actually did the Hadaka Matsuri (naked festival) for the first Only in Japan episode five years ago. We just hit 1 million subscribers on the main channel. That's a huge number. I can't wrap my head around it. So, this is a way to kind of go back to the beginning. The first episode was me running around like this. We do it for religious reasons. It's a ritual that has taken place since the year 600 in this area. People still give respect to God here, and God is in the sea.

00:04:38 John Daub: After we do exercises, we jump into the sea, which is ridiculously cold. We're supposed to stay there for like 10 minutes. The reason is because God is in the sea, and God is coming out to greet you. You have to go in to greet him, and you should do it naked. This purifies you. After we get purified, we take our purified selves running across this bridge where we purify ourselves again on the other side of Aoshima, the island. Then we go to Aoshima Shrine and get blessed. After the blessing, we run back and they throw massively hot water on us. I've been told it's near boiling. Then we run across the bridge again, and there's a surprise at the finish line back over here. All the naked man festivals are like this.

00:05:50 John Daub: Samui ne (it's cold). It's already the third time, right? Here we go. We're starting. He's got a megaphone. He's announcing about the rules. It's about 15 degrees Celsius, like in the 50s Fahrenheit. So we exercise as a group before we go in the water. Warm up. We're going to need it. We're getting a red band or something. The red band means they're over the age of 60. You see some people wearing red headbands. A lot of these people are in good shape for being over 60! You've got to be really genki (energetic). Not all people are interested in the warm-ups. Fathers will bring their sons out, and it's nice to experience with your family. As children get older, then they will take their children, and the tradition continues. I like to see when the kids are out here because that means something like this is not going to end anytime soon.

00:08:04 John Daub: Everybody's stretching. I would put the camera down, but you guys would get an angle that would not be pleasing. Everybody wears their fundoshi differently. You can see. Everybody has their own style. My style is cover as much as humanly possible and make it secure so it doesn't fall off in the sea. That's what I'm worried about. Women can participate in this Aoshima Hadaka Mairi. However, they wear full body clothes. It's not really fair, but it's great to see that women can participate. The iPhone XS is waterproof so I can go in with this camera. I'll be taking you into the sea with me live. Then we're going to have somebody to hold the gimbal for me. As soon as I dry off the phone, you're going back onto the gimbal for a smooth ride to the shrine.

00:10:14 John Daub: Hey, hey, hey! I'm warming up. Some more stretching going on here. It makes you warmer. Getting some people telling me that the iPhone might not withstand the salt, but I'm gonna do it anyways. Try to keep it out of the water as much as possible. It survived the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. The women are here. Do you see the ladies over there? They've got full body stuff except for their legs. I guess that's fair.

00:14:06 John Daub: We're going into the sea. I'm taking you live with me into the water. Get ready. I'm gonna run. There's fireworks. Oh my gosh. I think I made a big mistake. I'm hand held guys. We'll be back on the gimbal as soon as we can get out of the water. I think I've made a big mistake doing this. Why is nobody else? People are banging their chests. Lord of the sea, I'm coming in. Just keep us warm. Oh there's the fireworks. I'm shaking. People saying run. Now the older guys are reluctant to go in. It's cold. Even the ladies are in. You can see the ladies in here. Did you see the wave? Every time a wave comes. I'm ready to go in. Am I doing this? As always there's no wave. There are people going shoulder deep. I'm getting in to my shoulders everybody. We're gonna do this.

00:19:24 John Daub: I've got to cover the goods because there's women and children here. But nudity is important. In Japan, this is nothing bad. I'm actually surprisingly warm because the outside now is much warmer. Just there was a shock. They are see-through. Sensor, please. Okay, the phone didn't get wet at all. Alright guys, we're back. I just dropped it in the sand. There's helicopters here. They're filming us. That was, I'm a lot warmer, believe it or not.

00:21:23 John Daub: Everyone working on the bridge is dangerous, so please line up in 6 rows. It's cold. It's better to stay in the water. Ah, I fell. My stomach hurts. If I don't take my shoes, it'll be difficult to run. Did you guys like that? Because I didn't like that at all. I don't want to do this again. People have been doing it every year. Now we're going to run. I like running. But I was in Europe and America eating pizza and beer and cheese and sausages and cake and cheesecake and strudel. My family in India fed me like every ten times a day right before bed. Everything's going to be bouncing around. I was sort of self-conscious about it, but what are you going to do?

00:23:24 John Daub: In Japan, at first, the first year, I was really shy about getting into sentō (public bath) or public bathing. Then after a while, I noticed that nobody really cared. Everybody is in the same situation naked. What difference does it make? Except this time, we have people in the front row taking our picture. We have international TV here. Now that our fundoshi are wet, it's not the same. We're going to cross this bridge and go over to Aoshima. I believe we get into the water again to purify on the shrine side. The second time can't be as bad, right? Nobody has tattoos. If you have tattoos you can get hit. You cover it up with a patch, usually it's okay. If you have big ones it's gonna be really hard. We're getting ready now to go. I cannot believe how cold that water was. Every time the wave hit it was painful, like needles.

00:25:08 John Daub: Here we go! Washoi! (Let's go!) What's joy? Washoi! We're now crossing the bridge to Aoshima. This is so beautiful! Give you guys a good view. Washoi! Washoi!

00:27:48 John Daub: I can see the shrine, there's a torii (shrine gate). Second wind. You don't give up now. Washoi! Please go to the back. I have a sandal problem. Gotta make sure that my sandals, the tabi (split-toe socks), are on. We're here at the shrine here in Miyazaki. Oh, the sun is so warm on my back. This feels great. So here come the rest of the group behind us. We were really trucking. Guys, if you liked this, click the like button. Come on, give us some love out here.

00:30:53 John Daub: For those joining us, I am at Aoshima Jinja in Miyazaki. This is the Aoshima Hadaka Mairi which has been taking place for 1400 years since the year 600. The reason why we go into the water is because it's a tradition. God is in the water. So people go naked to the water and purify themselves. I could feel warmer the longer I sat in there. People do this because it's part of the culture and the tradition. Fathers will bring sons and sons will continue the tradition where they have kids. Now the elders will guide us. People with the red headbands are over the age of 60, and they're in pretty good shape. You can see the ladies have started to come in now. Konnichiwa (hello). It's so warm today. I'm glad.

00:32:25 John Daub: I love these live streams. I'm bringing you this totally uncut. This is what we do at Only in Japan Go. You see this uncut, so you get the whole experience from start to finish. It looks like we're going to get started here. Tadashi o kisega (wear it properly?). He's kind of waiting for everybody. Are you guys seeing it okay? Hey, hey, hey! Thanks guys for telling me about this. That gesture, kind of shake it out. It feels better now. Everybody's doing it too. I can feel the power of the group. We have 500 people here, and you can feel the power of all of us together. I love these kind of events because of that.

00:36:38 John Daub: All right, kind of shaking it out now after that exercise. This is on the sea, right? So it does give you the feeling that we're out here on the sea. Shake it out. The media is here. Asa! Asa! (Hurry! Hurry!) Shake it out again. Get in that pose. If you guys are watching this side, you can do the same thing. Just put your hands together and shake it out like this. See the sandals they come in with little tabs that go inside the string. They're easy to come out. Smart people tape it. If you do this or any Hadaka Matsuri where you're wearing tabi sandals with the little metal things that go into the rope, make sure you tape it because they will fall off. We got to go back into the sea one more time.

00:39:52 John Daub: I'm going to go back to the beach. You need these because of the shells on the beach. All right, I'm going in with the gimbal this time. We're doing it. We're gonna get stabilized video. This is how far I will go for stable video. Once again for those joining us, we're in Miyazaki City at Aoshima. Aoshima is a shrine that's over 1400 years old. The ritual that you're seeing here, the Hadaka Matsuri, the technical name is the Aoshima Hadaka Mairi. These people come out here every year, some for the first time like me, and we do this to purify ourselves. Only 500 people can do this. It's limited to just 500. God is not forgiving to the ones that are late. You just have to wait until next year. We got here pretty early because I was definitely going to do this. It is really cool to be able to participate in my second ritual like this. For me, it sets up the whole year.

00:41:43 John Daub: We're ready to go inside. It's not as bad, but it's cold again. It's not as bad as the first time. We have to be careful. There are rocks here. Just be careful where you step. I got a gimbal, so I got a lot to lose. We're going in slowly. Oh. It's just as cold as the first time. But it's different. There's no waves here. And these things are famous in Aoshima. They call it the Devil's Washboard. These rocks, they're like striations, lines of rocks. They're naturally occurring and add to the beauty of Aoshima Shrine. This is my second time here. I came here in 2003 when I did my first hitchhiking trip. I haven't been back in 15 years to Miyazaki. After this, my second time, I've now been to every prefecture in Japan at least twice.

00:43:24 John Daub: This isn't a ritual without serious religious meaning. We've got to get down into the sea. All right, I'm praying for you guys here. Oh, this is so cold. You guys, you're praying with me because I'm holding the gimbal in both my hands in prayer. Oh, how do you do? Did I do it enough? Pray. Ah, wave. There's a drone up there. They're filming this for a PR video, I think. I am praying. Praying for my life. This one kid, he's more like swimming. He's really good. I'm going to go deep. This is not summer, guys. This is January. Pray, pray. Shh, I'm just going to be quiet now.

00:46:13 John Daub: Show your respects for the god of the sea. Every wave, it feels like God is coming to greet us. All the guys are making sure their fundoshi are on tight. We could see some accidents. It's very cold! Shii! (Cold!) How many times? 7 times. His 7th time! Wow! 7 necklaces! That's amazing! World debut! So every year, you get a different color and a different amulet, and that shows your strength. Like a hunter taking a tooth. You can see that the ladies are coming out slowly. We're getting out here. Now we have to go and get careful, look down guys. There are rocks in the water.

00:48:20 John Daub: We're going to the shrine now, right? Yes. I feel like cleansed. The water is really cold. There was a moment where you have to be really serious. This is a ritual. You have to be strong sometimes. Every time a wave would come, it got cold. But to me, it symbolizes like God in each wave coming to tap you on the shoulder. So in that sense, you can kind of feel the spirituality of this. That's really what we should take away from this. So now we're going up to the shrine for a blessing. I'm taking you with me, live. Wow, what a day.

00:49:22 John Daub: The water is cold, but the body adjusts and I'm not that cold now. The good thing about going into cold water is when you get out, it's not that cold. There's a torii at Aoshima and I highly recommend visiting this area if you come to Miyazaki. It is just a beautiful tropical place. There's palm trees lining the beach. This is where the baseball teams in Japan come for spring practice because it's warm. You can even see around the shrine the tropical trees. In Miyazaki, you bow twice, clap twice, then bow once, and leave. Even though I'm filming, we all have to be very respectful. This is still a ritual that's bigger than me, bigger than everybody who's here. That's something that we don't want to forget. Now we're going up to the shrine to get a blessing from the high priest who will bless us after we've touched God in the sea. Then afterwards, we're running over the bridge again.

00:51:13 John Daub: Washoi! Washoi!

00:52:49 John Daub: Move in a little closer so everybody can get in. Sorry about the signal. We're in the middle of a shrine. We're going to be out really quickly. We're now going to receive a blessing. I'm going to talk very quietly. Okay, now we're going to get blessed. Thank you. We're turning to the other side now. We're going to exit now. Thanks for sticking with us despite the pixelation, guys. Washoi! We're now exiting. The signal should get a little bit better. I believe I'm the only one with a pocket to carry a smartphone. I don't think anybody is carrying a smartphone in this group. We're now going to exit. And there's another part to this. So stick with us. I'm bringing you the Aoshima Hadaka Mairi or the Aoshima Miyazaki Naked Man Festival Live. It's been going on for 1,400 years.

00:58:20 John Daub: So there's 500 people plus 750 people watching this live stream. So we have 1,250 people in this ritual. That's kind of neat. We're now outside of the shrine. When we entered the shrine, maybe kami-sama (the gods) blocked our 4G signal. Technology is not always loved inside of shrines. Outside here, you can get omamori (protective charms) or omikuji (fortune slips). But we're not here for that. We're going to keep going. It's not over yet, right? Put it on. Ah! Very hot water! Ah! I forgot about this! I thought we were done! Hot water! So cool! No, it's not cool! It's hot! We are cool guys! How many times? Seven? If he can survive seven times, I can survive one. Oh my word! There's steam coming out!

01:02:04 John Daub: Oh, there's the beauty of Aoshima right there. I thought the hot water was the most scary thing. Look at his face! Oh, man! I was right in front of you! He didn't look happy seeing me. Basically, I'll figure out what the purpose of that is. Why do you use hot water? I don't know. I guess it just wakes you up, gets you out of the trance. You can see just how beautiful the rock striations are.

01:06:17 John Daub: We're crossing the bridge now, leaving Aoshima. Hoshio! Hoshio! (Let's go!)

01:08:45 John Daub: Now running down the streets of Aoshima, this area of Miyazaki. Let's shoot! (Mizu kake! Water splash!) Wow there's a lot of buckets. Oh this is the last part. This is what I forgot about. We're all the way at the end there. I'm with ya. This is what we look like running down the street? It's like a big wedgie. Running is not good. It literally is up there now. You have the best view. You don't want to see what the people behind us are looking at. They're laughing. There's probably a reason why. They're supposed to say this is where the sun never shines. It's shining very bright right now my friends. But what an amazing experience.

01:10:34 John Daub: Now everyone's starting to come and filling in. I'm going to go get my stuff. They're filling in all these buckets. We moved quick and got here fast. Here come the ladies. She fell on the rocks here. Yeah she's okay. And there's people up there watching from the second floor. What is this? I need hot water. Is it warm? Maybe ours is in the sun. It's still cold to me. Look, I think some of the buckets that have been in the sun for a long time are a little bit warmer. Ah! Why did you do that you devil? That looks good. This is welcome. It's about 15 degrees Celsius, upper 50s Fahrenheit. It's not that bad, but it's not that warm either.

01:12:03 John Daub: People are coming in now. They've got taiko drums playing. I like this. You can feel taiko. We've got the dance going on. I'm doing the same dance. Nice. Keep the beat. I keep readjusting this just to make sure that the curtain is drawn. And I did a pretty good job. Not once did the curtain become undrawn. You can see my tabi have become unconnected. My curtain is drawn. If not, things can get a little bit... you fill in the blank. So now, this is the last part. Everyone's starting to make their way around. This is kind of the finale. Let's see if we can get to 500 likes everybody. Click that like button. Thanks for watching. I really appreciate it. If you like this, hit that like button and I'll try to do more for you guys. I'm not gonna do more festivals like this. I love participating and being a part of it. There's a feeling that you get when you're part of something like this with so many people. You become part of one, like a group. And that feels really good. That's one of the things I love about Japan. We have things like this. We're all together. It creates a bond. So all these people are kind of like my friends because we've all gone through the same experience, which is the Aoshima Hadaka Mairi.

01:13:56 John Daub: This bucket is the final cleansing. I'm guessing that you use this for the final rinse off. We passed a million subscribers. The first episode of Only in Japan was the Naked Man Festival. And this is almost five years ago that I was doing this in Saidai-ji in Okayama. This one is in Miyazaki. I'm so fortunate to be here. I'm glad that we got a chance to share this live. You get emotional after you finish a ritual like this. That's what happens with the fundoshi when it gets wet. This is quite an experience. He's like ice bucket challenge. I'm so excited. I'm alive.

01:16:01 John Daub: I get excited over the Japanese manholes. Manhole covers are a way in Japan to show some of the local culture and history. They do it in a manhole cover, this metal cover that separates the clean outside world with whatever is underneath there. In Japan you gotta look down. Which means you gotta look up too because you might miss something. Wow. That job stinks. Hey man. I love your videos. Oh hey thank you. Yeah. That was nice. Alright so we had some people coming out to watch. Thank you. It's starting to warm up. I've been naked for such a long time that I no longer feel cold nor warm. You just absorb your surroundings. And then your personal feelings sometimes just melt away. Especially when you hear taiko drums. There's something about the sound of taiko. It just goes deep into your soul. Kind of sinks inside of you when you hear it. So let's take a listen to this taiko performance for a minute on the beach here in Miyazaki.

01:17:44 John Daub: Nice. Good job. So got my fundoshi. I need to take a hot shower. Aoshima. This is the shrine that we went to. This is where the Aoshima Hadaka Mairi takes place. Right here. It's a beautiful island that's connected by this bridge and it's a holy place. We're going now out to the seaside where it's a little bit quieter and we can kind of bring this all together. I'm so thankful to be able to share this with you live. Look at the sea. Aoshima. Ao means blue and shima means island. So it's a blue island but blue and green kind of are similar. So you see so many beautiful trees on that island with the torii. It's such a lovely sight with that torii. The gate there kind of reminds me of Miyajima. But this one is also such a beautiful sight. This is live right now. Hope you guys are enjoying this.

01:19:19 John Daub: Just a couple of things. This is just one day trip. Yesterday we had some daikon. Then after that we tried some Miyazaki-kyu and chicken nanban which is one of my top five dishes. Deep fried chicken with tartar sauce. Go back and watch that live stream. Today was about this. This is my second time doing the Naked Man Festival. This is my first time wearing something less than last time. What's next? A piece of dental floss and hope for the best? But at first I was really shy. After a while I realized it's part of the culture. Nudity in Japan is not such a big deal. Especially in a cultural ceremony. You have to think about the context. The context is this is a deeply religious ritual that's been taking place for so many centuries. When you're in the middle of it, we can kid about it but there's times where you have to remember this is such a serious thing for people that they do it every year to cleanse. In that sense, I'm really honored to be a part of it. I think to have the opportunity because we had permission to film this, to have the ability and chance to introduce this to you was really special to me. Thank you so much to the people of Miyazaki. I will be back again here. I love it. I'm heading back to Tokyo but I'm going to have some more chicken nanban and eat some more ramen. They got good ramen here too. I'm going to eat my way back home to Tokyo.

01:21:00 John Daub: Alright guys, thank you so much for watching this livestream. Only in Japan. Go adventure here naked. I want to say goodbye to you in style. For those of you who are joining us late, this is what I had to wear. I thought I'd just say goodbye to you so you get a good view. Enjoy it because that will be the last for a while. It's been five years since the last Naked Man Festival. It might be another five to the next one but thanks everybody for the 1 million subscribers on the main channel. Thanks for clicking the like button, subscribe and I'll see you next time. Bye from Aoshima.