00:03 John Daub: Welcome to Niigata, the other side of Japan. We're about to get on a ferry which will take us to Sado Island, about 90 minutes on a jetfoil. You'll be joining us on that ride. So we'll show you how it goes. Hi, how you doing everybody? It's now 2:45 and they told me they're going to be opening it up so we can enter the ferry in just about two minutes. But before I did that, see that icon? Product placement. Because we're going to be enjoying a little ferry ride at high speed.

00:40 John Daub: Now I want to tell you a little bit about this ferry because some of you might have come here and clicked and searched because you too are interested in going to Sado, which is an amazing island. They're having a festival this week for Obon holiday with taiko drums. It's kind of an amazing time to be there. This is information that no one has told you because this stuff just doesn't exist on YouTube. Typically, if you didn't already reserve your tickets online, you have to fill out a form with your name and information. Then you go to the ticket place and pick up your ticket. It's about $60 one way, $110 round trip. There you go, the prices: 6,390 yen.

01:20 John Daub: But guess what? I just happen to have a ticket right here. Check that out: 6,390 yen. This is what a ticket looks like, and I'm second class. Second class, I'm fine with that. I don't know what I would do with myself in first class. Second class, number 27, seat B. These have seat numbers on it—very good to know. This QR code probably gets a swipe, but just like any airline, these wonderful people here at the desk will help you if you have any questions. In Japanese—some of them speak English. You can buy these online too. If you go to the Sado Kisen website, it's in English, like pre-buying sites everywhere in the world.

02:05 John Daub: You heard that here first, ladies and gentlemen—scooped it. So if you want to get the tickets in advance, you can do that. Now, why would anyone want to go to Sado? I mean, come on—Sado? Sounds sad. Sad is in the name: Sad-o. The island is shaped like a butterfly. It's called the Butterfly Island, and it actually has more than half of the nō (Noh) theater stages in all of Japan. So it's got huge culture. Half of the nō theater stages—that's the one where everyone sleeps during, right? A lot of people were exiled to this island a long time ago because they were politically incorrect or something. They got exiled to Sado, and all the people exiled came from Kyoto. They're like, "Dude, if we're going to be exiled, we might as well have fun." So they made all the nō theaters—you have like half of the nō theaters of all Japan on this tiny island. They also have some amazing sake because they're from Kyoto, and sake is very well known in Kyoto.

03:27 John Daub: Alright, let's go in here everybody—they're boarding. You've been told, you are joining us on this experience. You have a ticket too, as long as you're with me inside of my phone—you too will be joining us on a jetfoil. These are our fellow passengers, and we also have vending machines here. The girls got an ice cream—there's an ice cream shop here, just vanilla, but it's pretty good too. Oh, Japan Cola. I tried this—sorry, Pepsi, it's not that good. You can get coffee from this coffee vending machine; it comes out hot. Here's the Coca-Cola vending machine—they have a mango drink. Whoa, and they got some different stuff: peach Fanta. Nice. The Niigata Coke vending machine is different.

04:33 John Daub: Alright everybody, we get a lineup here—these are the people. Yes, Sado is a pretty cool place. It's a place I've always wanted to go to. I think I explained this in the last livestream, but the purpose of this trip for me is to just check out the local culture here—it's different than the rest of Japan. As Ruth said, that's rich—the people here were exiles, and they brought their culture to this island like the pilgrims. So it's a little bit different. Yeah, he scanned it. You cannot scan this QR code anymore—if you try, you'll not get anything; you'll probably break your phone. Oh, I see the jetfoil—whoa, I see the ocean now. Is that it? That's the jetfoil over there—what awesome! I need that. We just got off the Shinkansen and I feel the need for speed—more speed! This is gonna go fast. Yeah, it's quite windy because we do have a typhoon coming through, so the bands of the typhoon—you can see the windsock over there moving quite fast and violent.

06:04 John Daub: Follow our wonderful group of people—I've decided to tag along with the group going to the island because we're going to be able to film the Kodo taiko band, which is one of the most—probably the most—famous taiko groups, signed by Sony Music I think. We'll be able to do this for main channel episodes. I'm looking forward to this exclusive access—that's what I like. Ah boy, now that water isn't as blue as Augusta water—must be a little bit cooler here. You see some sake—it's time for sake, but oh, we're getting on. Okay, then we don't have a red carpet here—it's a green carpet to the jetfoil. Are you pumped about this if you're at home in your living room? It's nighttime there, daytime here in Japan.

07:25 John Daub: There's a siren going on. Are we on the second floor? Yeah, okay. Do we have to leave our baggages here? Oh, that's very nice—that's the omotenashi (hospitality) spirit. Stay there. Alright, upstairs we go. That's kind of a creepy looking... Why is she so pale? Alright, let's go upstairs. Hear that humming? That's the engine warming up because it's about to go Shinkansen speed. Can we go outside? We're trapped in here. Alright, let's see—I'm taking you to the other side here. See if we can get a view of something. Alright, this is Niigata outside this window, which is tinted for your pleasure so you don't get blinded.

09:01 John Daub: Jason's right—I think the trip takes about 90 minutes to get to Sado. I'm almost positive we're not going to have a signal out there, so this livestream probably won't be going out much further into the sea. But it does give you a taste of what the seats look like—they're quite comfortable. This is seat 31H if that's your ticket. Let's do a little test here—very comfortable, bouncy test. Alright. So if you do have waves, you have a seatbelt in case the waves are too much. These do not come up if you want to snuggle with your girlfriend—oh, this one comes up. So if you want to snuggle, you can do that. It's good to know. Kanae, are you watching? There's an audio control button in these things, and then the typical rack with a drink cart. Nobody's ever done information on it like this before.

10:17 John Daub: As Ruth was saying, Sado Island is pretty amazing. It's a butterfly-shaped island with a lot of history. It's also a place a lot of Japanese want to visit, but they don't have time. So I made some time and I'll be there on the island for four nights—15th, 16th, 17th, 18th. Kanae, I'm going to be gone—I'll be back on the 19th. Okay, Kanae? I think I told her the 19th. That's fine. But the island should be a lot of fun. We have a typhoon coming, so I heard the rain will be here tomorrow and we'll have to do some indoor activities. I'll be filming a sake brewery—probably livestream that for you. And if I can get some food restaurants, I'm going to make maybe two or three episodes on food and hotel for the new Eat and Stay channel. Probably two episodes on the main channel—one is definitely the taiko drums, and any other interesting things with historical background.

11:40 John Daub: One of the residents of this island was one of the American defectors from North Korea—that was an interesting story about 10 years ago. He was always in the news, but he recently passed away. I was interested in talking with him—apparently he worked at his shop. Are we getting blasted into space? We didn't see the lifeboats in here because this is really loud. The good thing about sitting in this seat—which is not my actual seat—is that I'm right next to one of these safety boats. So if things go wrong, I would have a boat to myself and come back to save the other people—but first you have to clear yourself from the boat, I believe is the protocol.

12:25 John Daub: Oh, by the way, there is also a cheaper boat than this one. So if you don't have $110 and just want to get to Sado Island, you can save a few thousand yen by taking the cheaper boat. Look at it coming in—you see that? Niigata is one of the big ports that does a lot of business with Korea and China—I don't think too much with Korea right now because there's some sort of embargo. So this festival, the Earth Celebration festival, is huge—it's one of the big festivals of Japan. It's mostly by the biggest and most famous taiko band called Kodo—you should definitely Google them. Their music is outstanding; I think they're signed by Sony Records. But I have permission to film them, interview them, and talk about their experience. So I'm looking forward to this for the Only in Japan channel.

13:37 John Daub: They also have extremely good sake, wonderful fish of course because it's an island on the Sea of Japan. They have a unique culture. I'm going to rent a car and drive around the island, so I'll be able to find some parts of it. They have very harsh winters—it's very famous because on the Sea of Japan side, the winds are high, it's cold, and it's just not nice in the winter. But the summers are very mild and pleasant, and I'm looking forward to that. If we get some beautiful sunsets, wow—this is a place to see it because the sun sets in the west and we're staying on the west side of the island. As well as the ryokan (traditional inn) we're staying in is one of the top ryokans on the island. It was a little pricey, but I think it's going to be featured on the new channel. I might do a quick room tour on the Go channel as well. I plan to do five to six livestreams on this.

14:30 John Daub: I actually asked Hana to bring her guitar to do some kind of song—she didn't bring it. But if we can find a guitar, I'm sure somebody has one on the island, we'll bring a song to you. Who doesn't like live music, even via YouTube? I love it. So we're on the way—what else can I tell you? So far it's smooth. Jetfoils tend to go quite quickly, and I believe they have two extensions that pop out of the front to get the bow out of the water and make us go really fast. I used to watch this cartoon called Jonny Quest from the 1960s—his dad, Dr. Benton Quest, had a jetfoil. And then Race Bannon would usually captain it, and Jonny Quest and his friend, his Indian friend Hadji—who sometimes people said I look like, but I don't see the resemblance—Hadji would help out with magic because in India we're good with magic.

15:40 John Daub: But again, this Sado experience is something I want to bring to you through this livestream. And the way to get there is by ferry—now you know, right? You gotta get there. Do you have any questions? This is Stephen Clark: "Safe journey"—I appreciate that. If you have any questions, let me know right now because we're gonna lose signal pretty soon. Hit the like button if you like Sado. Would you say driving in rural places is a good way to explore? I think so—actually, driving in rural places is the only way to explore because public transportation is too infrequent, and unless you hitchhike, driving is the only way. There's no snacks—sometimes they have snack bars on the boat, but I didn't see anything down below. So you might want to pick up some snacks before you get in.

16:34 John Daub: Will you get on a tarai-bune (tub boat)? I think so—those are like the buckets in the water. That would be a really cool experience—I think that might be a pretty good one, Benji, so I'll see about that. It's about 90 minutes to get to Sado on the jetfoil—pretty quick, which is good because there's a typhoon coming our way. Tsurukame sake—Jim, Tsurukame is from the mainland, so they don't have that on this island, but I do like Tsurukame sake. It's from Yuzawa—Ichigo Yuzawa—which we went by on the Shinkansen. I would like to go there—Jim, I was actually thinking about that because the Shinkansen goes right past it, and that's where I had the vending machine sake.

17:19 John Daub: Sado was the home of one of the Americans that lived in North Korea—yes, he was a defector, and he married a Japanese woman who was kidnapped. While he was in North Korea, they started a family, and they settled in Japan because he would have faced a court martial. So because he was married to a Japanese national, he settled in Sado. Apparently you could go up and talk to him—his family would sell gifts or confections to visitors. He told some amazing stories I heard, and I kind of wish he was still alive, but he passed away recently. I'm not saying what he did was right—you know, he shouldn't defect, especially to North Korea. But everybody has their own stories—I think of it on a personal level. He had his own reasons, maybe.

18:16 John Daub: No typhoon yet, Linda. But she's been able to join me in a lot of these livestreams and trips, which is great—she went to Beijing with me, then to the US, and to Miyazaki this year. So that's good that she can be part of the channel. Actually, the third channel, this new channel I'm making, one reason is so that she can be a bigger part of it. So you're already losing signal—I guess this is a good time to say goodbye. I'm going to turn the camera around so you can see a pixelated version. Jim says to refresh your browser, but whether or not it's refreshed, this is what it looks like out the window—in Minecraft quality or not.

19:19 John Daub: We're moving fast, but it's going to get even faster—I'd say three times faster. There's a lot of factories in Niigata as well—it's a very industrial place with amazing fish. Niigata prefecture is very famous—on the main channel, you might want to check out that place that had like 100 sakes on tap. You could drink one shot for 100 yen—it was an amazing experience. It's very windy right now—we're under the influence of the typhoon, but it's not enough to keep us off the sea yet. Tomorrow probably the ferries will be canceled. Tonight we're going to have to be careful as the typhoon comes towards us, but maybe I'll be able to bring that live: surviving a typhoon on an island—that'd be pretty cool.

20:16 John Daub: I want to thank everybody for the support. If you aren't getting the notifications, go onto the Only in Japan Go channel, click the notifications, and make sure it's on always. I'm telling people to do that because according to the analytics, only 12-13% have notifications on, and almost none have always on. So go in and turn on always, and then you won't miss any livestreams—the notifications do work if it's on always. Or be a Patreon supporter—that'll work. Make sure it's not personalized—just put it on always, and then you'll get it. That's especially important for livestreams. They do have a TV on here with a map that'll show you a little bit—oh, it's showing caves. I'd love to scuba dive here—I would love to scuba dive in Sado. Who knows? If I can get one or two dives out of this, this would be awesome—I haven't dived in the Sea of Japan.

21:20 John Daub: Salman writes in: do a collab with PVG. He's not in Japan right now—he's on vacation in the US, I believe. He'll be back in a few weeks, so we might hook up then. I love looking out the window and seeing the sea. We just saw the Shinkansen pass through the countryside—absolutely gorgeous ride through Niigata, through the mountains when you're not in a tunnel. And now we're on the sea. So going from Tokyo to Sado is a pretty unique experience: mountains, land, fields, plains, seas—and next we'll see some islands.

22:06 John Daub: If you haven't seen the PVG channel, he did a pretty cool episode where we were riding in a sidecar on a motorcycle—of course, I was in the sidecar. You might want to check that out. We're going to be losing the signal soon, but the jetfoil is pretty cool. I'm really happy to be here on this trip, and it's going to be a lot of fun sharing the Sado experience with you. So I said five to six livestreams—I've already done two today. Maybe we'll get up to like ten—I don't know. I'm willing to do something crazy like this. But if you have any ideas, Google Sado Island and send them to me—leave them in the comments below in the YouTube stream. You too can do some research with me—this is a good opportunity for you to learn about Sado's history, and then we'll learn together.

23:18 John Daub: Hey everybody, I think we might be live—just wanted to say it's time. We're out of distance. So see you on Sado Island.