00:00:03 John Daub: Greetings! How do you do everybody? It is summer in Japan and once again Japan has exceeded its tourism goals for international visitors. Exceeding it every year since like 2013. Just more and more international visitors are coming here. But the question is though, all the international tourists will come to Tokyo, to Kyoto, to Osaka, to Himeji, to Hiroshima, the usual. But where do the Japanese go? That's what I want to know. And helping me out with this report is someone who would know because she's Japanese.

00:00:36 John Daub: She's in the corner there stretching. That's Kanae Daub. Welcome aboard Kanae. How are you today? Great. So we're going to be exploring where do people go? Because it's just really confusing to me. Now, I can tell you this. Kanae, where are you? You're on my shoulder. In the front here. So where do you go for your summer holidays? Where have you been going when you were a child? Where did your parents take you?

00:01:10 Kanae Daub: When I'm a child, I visited Nasu.

00:01:15 John Daub: Nasu. Yeah. Nasu and Niigata and Gunma.

00:01:26 Kanae Daub: They're more cooler.

00:01:29 John Daub: Right. So basically, in the summer holiday season, Japanese go home or they go to see their family during the Obon season. They don't go to the tourist destinations. They do the opposite. They go to their hometown. Right. Or they go to the mountains or the countryside to cool off because everybody knows how hot Tokyo and Osaka is during the summer. They escape the cities where the sweltering heat can boil up to a hundred degrees with humidity, which is like breathing in soup. That's how thick the air gets from humidity. And you go out to places like Nasu in Tochigi, which is a famous onsen town. There's also Karuizawa. That's in Nagano. Nagano, the Japanese Alps, as well as Niigata, as you said.

00:02:17 Kanae Daub: Yes.

00:02:17 John Daub: These are places that people in the Tokyo area will go. In Osaka, people will escape to like Wakayama, escape to Shikoku, escape to Kinki. To the mountain areas, to the islands. The islands that they have around Osaka. And Osaka does have a lot of islands around it in the harbor there, out into the sea. As well as Kyushu. People escape to the mountains in the center of Kyushu. They go out to the countryside in the summertime.

00:02:47 John Daub: The biggest tourist destination though that I saw, there were three. Do you know what the big three places the Japanese go on tours are? Kanae?

00:02:57 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Okinawa?

00:02:58 John Daub: Okinawa. That's maybe big five.

00:03:01 Kanae Daub: Really?

00:03:02 John Daub: Yeah. Hokkaido? Sapporo? No, no. Hokkaido is number one. In July, especially in July, Furano is in the peak season where the flowers are. And there's very little humidity up there. So people will go up to Hokkaido, Japanese world, in the summertime. Whereas more tourists will go there in the winter for the snow festival and the skiing. Japanese go there in the summer to escape the heat. So that's number one. Where's number two? Do you know?

00:03:29 Kanae Daub: You know.

00:03:30 John Daub: I know. I did research.

00:03:32 Kanae Daub: Oh my gosh. He knows well.

00:03:36 John Daub: Nagano?

00:03:37 Kanae Daub: Nagano. That's pretty close.

00:03:39 John Daub: For Tokyoites, the top place to escape to is Karuizawa, which is a very... It's like less than an hour on the Shinkansen to get there. So round trip is about 10,000 yen to get there. So Tokyoites, especially those in the entertainment industry, will escape to Karuizawa, which is... It's very close. It's in the mountains. And for some reason, it's always really... Even in June, I went at the end of June once, I needed a jacket. It was so cool. So that's a place where Tokyoites... But the number two place is Toyama right now.

00:04:14 Kanae Daub: Really?

00:04:15 John Daub: It's the Alpine Route. It's where I think I took you in a live stream two years ago. Where the walls of the snow are still there until the end of July. And the snows melt very slowly. But that side, the Nihonkai, the Japan Sea side, is always very cool. So people will escape to Toyama. And of course, I haven't been there. Kanazawa is also nearby, and people are taking trips to Kanazawa as well. Even though Kanazawa isn't as cool, the Alpine Route combined with Kanazawa has been a pretty popular trip for Japanese.

00:04:55 John Daub: And number three?

00:04:56 Kanae Daub: Number three?

00:04:57 John Daub: Not Okinawa, right? Okinawa is in the top five as well, but that's still hot down there.

00:05:05 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:05:06 John Daub: Kawaguchiko? Yamanashi around Mount Fuji. That's a pretty good guess. I think that area is popular. That's in the top ten as well, especially for Tokyoites. But right now, it's going down to Yakushima, down into the island. It has been the most popular tour for people in Japan to escape. Yakushima is, I guess, the place that a lot of people have always wanted to go to. So it's just so packed up in the summertime. People are making reservations months in advance for cabins in Yakushima, down there in Kagoshima. That was up there at number three. These are like the HIS JTB tours. Where do people go, the popular places. But Hokkaido is always going to be number one because it attracts tourists, domestic tourists from Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo will all go up to Hokkaido to escape. And there's so much land up there. It's worth it.

00:06:05 John Daub: A couple of things to point out. You've been to Hokkaido, Kanae?

00:06:08 Kanae Daub: Yes.

00:06:10 John Daub: Ah. I've seen you. Kanae went up to see me when I was hitchhiking in 2017. Hakodate. It's my first time. But she hasn't been up to the very, very north. Some things that you need to know about visiting Hokkaido in the summer, though. You have to make reservations like three months in advance. The other thing that you have to do is if you're going to rent a car, you have to do that as far in advance as possible. Cars are sold out. Like you can't rent them anymore. Transportation is this is Hokkaido's high season is July. July and the beginning of August. And right now it's getting to the end of the high season. But Hokkaido is a place. And it's also because there's so many budget airlines that fly to Hokkaido. New Chitose from every domestic airport. You can get to Hokkaido for like as low as like five, six thousand yen, like fifty, sixty dollars.

00:07:12 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:07:13 John Daub: This is LaLaport, which is a shopping mall in central Tokyo and Toyosu. And you get this beautiful view. Look at this, everybody. The glasses are on slightly crooked. I know. I'm aware. I got these in the US just to reduce the glare. It's not a fashion statement. And here's our summer bicycles. These are the bikes that we ride around the city when we want to take a break for a little bit. These small 20 inch bike tires seem to be in style. Everyone. Well, you like them. So that's all that mattered.

00:07:51 Kanae Daub: That's all that matters. Right.

00:07:54 John Daub: Now, the question is that where are we? Where are we going for summer holiday?

00:08:04 Kanae Daub: Where are we? Yeah. Where did you want to go for summer holiday?

00:08:07 Kanae Daub: Okinawa.

00:08:08 John Daub: Kanae wants Okinawa. Why Okinawa?

00:08:10 Kanae Daub: Because beautiful sea.

00:08:13 John Daub: Beautiful sea. But in October, it's very cloudy. So we better go in September or beginning of October. That's another thing. I think this is really good. What she just said. In Japan, less people are taking the summer vacations. They'll go back to their hometown if they can't afford it during Obon. And then they take what's called Silver Week in September.

00:08:38 Kanae Daub: Yes. Yeah. Silver Week.

00:08:40 John Daub: When is Silver Week, Kanae? Do you know?

00:08:42 Kanae Daub: 23rd of September.

00:08:44 John Daub: Yeah. I know it's in like the second half of September. And there's more. The prices go down on everything. So people will use their extended holidays to take their vacation. So it's like during Silver Week. And the weather is cooler domestically. And the prices are lower to fly internationally. So that holiday has become quite busy for Japan. So the airports will be even more busy at the second half of September because of it. And it's also if you're staying domestic, you might want to not take your summer holiday in August to Japan. Because it's just ridiculously hot. You might want to take your summer holiday in September. And then in the beginning of October because it's still pretty warm and you get the lower prices, less crowded. It's just more relaxed, kind of like chill like right now that we see in Toyosu. It's just really relaxed at the end of summer right now. And I can see a lot of the international tourists are starting to return as well. The city is starting to, it's elastic and starting to spring back to the way it was before the summer tourists came.

00:09:54 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Yeah.

00:09:54 John Daub: And the tours, Japanese usually will take tour packages, right?

00:10:00 Kanae Daub: Yeah, I think so.

00:10:02 John Daub: Why?

00:10:03 Kanae Daub: I think half and half.

00:10:04 John Daub: Half and half? I know I would, I don't like tour packages, but that doesn't mean that they're bad. It's a chance for you to meet. You can save money by taking tours. Because you're a backpacker.

00:10:13 Kanae Daub: Yeah. I got the backpacker spirit in me ever since college.

00:10:17 John Daub: I've always just gotten a big backpack and going out for months at a time because it was just more affordable just not to come home. Just stay out there. But some people who doesn't know about travel a lot, so they can pick package tour. It's easier and safer and it's better. Before you met me, did you take tours?

00:10:42 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:10:43 John Daub: Okay. Yeah, my mom likes tour.

00:10:46 Kanae Daub: Always my mom check on the internet. She can pick cheap one. She can pick one. Oh, we gotta go to Guam. It's very cheap. I think. On February like this.

00:10:58 John Daub: So that's another thing. If we go into this shopping mall, what you're gonna see are so many magazines promoting tours. If you go past HIS, which is the Japanese travel agency or JTB, you'll see brochures going all over the place. It's so colorful and so much fun to just look at those and dream about where to go to next. And then you go online and you see the prices and then you start price hunting for tours. It's fun for people in Japan, especially the oba-chan and the ladies who have all the money and the power in the family. They will be very mindful of the prices. But they have a bus tour too. A bus tour. So your mom would be like bargain hunting, right? Looking for the best price for the international and domestic vacations. What was your mom's favorite tour? Which one did you like?

00:11:50 Kanae Daub: Guam. And fruit picking.

00:11:54 John Daub: Fruit picking. Where? Fruit picking. Yeah, fruit picking. That's another thing I discovered here in Japan. Fruit picking. People in Japan will go fruit picking, which means that they'll go to like Yamanashi and pick all you can eat peaches or all you can eat grapes. We went two or three times to a fruit picking. And they would throw in, it was cheaper to do the fruit picking. They would throw in the Shinkansen tickets and it would just be a one day trip, right? But you would eat yakiniku at a hotel. And then they would give you a bus trip back to the Shinkansen station and then you'd go back to Tokyo. Yeah, and an onsen. They would throw the onsen in there and it was just so cheap. So I can see why like looking for these little summer bargains that extend into the fall is something that is fun for people in Japan to look for bargains in different locations. Hokkaido is always going to be one that is the most popular. So at this time it's harder to find. It's harder to find the bargains. But they do exist. You just have to, you always have to look online. You know, they'll be there for like time sales and stuff now because they want you on impulse pick that family vacation like this.

00:13:03 John Daub: Do people drive? Like, how did you get to Nasu?

00:13:09 Kanae Daub: When we went to Nasu, maybe we drive, my dad drive to Nasu.

00:13:18 John Daub: Yeah. I know a lot of people. A lot of fathers don't want to drive so that they can drink. Right? I want to drink sake. So they don't really, they won't take the car. They'll leave the car behind and say, we're taking the train. Why? Because I want to drink and relax. But once you get there, you have to take a taxi. So the price is, I was surprised if you do drive and camping is another thing that's getting more popular in Japan. People are buying tents and going out and staying out into the countryside. More camp spots are starting to pop up in Japan. Glamping. Glamour camping has gotten more and more famous. In fact, Kanae and I are going to go glamping for a location shoot in September at that hotel. They contacted us and we're like, okay, we'll go. But the driving and then camping has become quite popular. But the problem is with that is that gasoline prices are quite high. And when I drove to Niigata two days ago, the highway, the fee for a three hour drive was $60.

00:14:19 Kanae Daub: $60. One way.

00:14:20 John Daub: When we got off of the toll booth, it was 6,000 yen. And then when we came back, it was another 6,000 yen. So it's quite expensive to get onto the highways in Japan. So there's an extra $100 to ride the highway on top of the rental car on top of the gasoline. So sometimes the Shinkansen can be a better option. Price wise. No traffic jams.

00:14:43 Kanae Daub: No traffic jams. That's right.

00:14:45 John Daub: Let's turn it around this way a little bit. If you have any questions, it's hard for us to see because of it's so bright out here. But Ramsey Silent writes in here, something spontaneous for Kanae on your bike ride.

00:14:58 Kanae Daub: I was never there.

00:15:00 John Daub: Yeah, but we can see you, Ramsey Silent. Thanks a lot for that. Well, I'm always getting stuff when I come back home. So I appreciate, appreciate very much. Right now, gas, how much is gasoline?

00:15:12 Kanae Daub: It's like, I think it was like 150 yen. One liter was, it's about $1.40, $1.50 per liter.

00:15:19 John Daub: Which puts it at, was it 3.2 liters to the gallon or something? So that would put it at like about $5 a gallon. So it's pretty expensive in Japan. It's basically the cheapest. Yeah, but the cars are typically smaller in Japan and they don't guzzle as much gas. So the gas mileage on cars in Japan are a little bit better than in the US. I noticed that, I know that because I rented a convertible Camaro, I never drive, I never drive a car in the United States. So I wanted to get something special. So we got to.

00:15:46 Kanae Daub: You are so excited. I know. I've never driven a convertible before.

00:15:51 John Daub: So that thing guzzled some gas and it was, yeah, I was still surprised. It didn't do as, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But the gas prices in the US are typically cheaper and it's not, and renting a car is not, that's the first time ever in the US. So just probably the last time too. If you have any more questions, you can write it in the comments below if you're watching this in playback. Or if you're live, you're watching the live stream. We have a lot of people that are asking questions and I'm happy to answer them. Because Kanae is a professional. She lives here. Are hybrid cars getting more popular in Japan?

00:16:22 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:16:22 John Daub: I was talking with, I know that Tesla is making small inroads here. Tesla is more popular in China. And it's kind of weird because now with all these trade problems we have, so many companies were making inroads into China when this happened, which is kind of sad. When I went to, when we went to Beijing, one of the professors that we were with was driving a car. And he was driving a Tesla. I was like, how did you get Tesla? He goes, oh yeah, it's very popular in China now. We've got factories in several places. So Tesla makes the cars in China. The hybrids here, Toyota and Nissan are the Leaf. They're just some of the innovators of the hybrids. So they're very popular. There's a train going by. It's a train. I can see Nosh on there chugging along. Yeah, the hybrids are popular here. And more and more I'm seeing at convenience stores. Places where you can plug in and charge them at convenience stores. I can see Jim in the caboose there at the end waving everybody. There's Ramsay's in the middle. Making sure everyone's in order. Toot toot. Yeah, but I guess if I ever got a car and it was a convertible, I would get a, do they make hybrid convertibles? I just want an open car. I like the freedom of it.

00:17:46 Kanae Daub: She doesn't like the open car. I'm cold. Put the top down. It's very windy. Yeah. And I got the tan. Oh yeah, she got a tan. For me, that's normal.

00:18:05 John Daub: Being half Indian browner in the summer. Just because of the winter. All right. So, so you want to go. So Kanae prefers to go to like islands. Which, which is another thing. Let's talk about, we've talked how Japanese like to go into the mountains to cool off. They like to go to places like Karuizawa, to Toyama, to the Sea of Japan side, the Japanese Alps. And then into Hokkaido. But there are also some places that they like to go like Okinawa, which is always going to be a popular tourist destination because, come on glasses, because there are so many cheap flights domestically to Naha. Once again, there's budget airlines, LCCs, low cost carriers that are as low as $50 one way to Naha. And then you can jump on a ferry or another cheap flight to another one of the islands. So that's good. But the thing is though, Hokkaido, Okinawa is kind of, it's kind of hot, isn't it?

00:18:58 Kanae Daub: But we want to see beautiful ocean.

00:19:01 John Daub: That's true. Yeah. This isn't the most beautiful in Tokyo. So we're back. The signal, the signal is going in and out. I think it was just because we were underneath that tower of signal death. There, do you see that? This area called Toyosu used to be a port. The gas processing plant, you can see that round building there. That's Tokyo Gas Museum. That used to be where natural gas was processed and they cleaned it up. It was contaminated, which is one of the reasons why Tsukiji Market was delayed in moving to Toyosu. But it's now been cleaned up and you can see the history of this area was as a port. And they still leave some of the things here in front of the shopping mall just to remind people that, hey, this came from a port history. We don't need any reminding. We don't live too far away.

00:19:52 Kanae Daub: So let's go back. Let's go back.

00:19:53 John Daub: Wait a second. What were we talking about? I forget what we're talking about. Because I was trying to get the stream back in.

00:20:01 Kanae Daub: Okinawa Islands. It's very hot.

00:20:04 John Daub: I went to last year to Ogasawara, which should be on everybody's list of places to go in Japan. Because if you, I think just take an extra week off from work and get on that ferry and go there. But if you make that trip to Ogasawara. I think the videos speak for themselves.

00:20:28 Kanae Daub: Because she wants to go.

00:20:29 John Daub: You want to go, right?

00:20:30 Kanae Daub: Of course. I know. She's so...

00:20:32 John Daub: Come over here for a second. Like I would do FaceTime and show her the beach. Look how pretty the water is. And she's like, she got angry. You're angry. Ogasawara is kind of dream. It's a dream. For people in Japan to visit Ogasawara is a dream. And you need the time to go there. It's Tokyo. It's Tokyo. But it's not Tokyo. You need to have time to go there. And the time that you invest to go there pays you back. In the beauty and the solitude and in the long views of the sunset and the ocean. It reminded me a lot of Easter Island at the time. Easter Island is one of the most remote islands in the world. I was there in 2003. In January of 2003. And I spent 10 days on Easter Island. Walking around. I hiked around the entire island. It was just a place where you were alone most of the time. Even with the moai. There's no other tourists there. Ogasawara reminded me a lot of that in places where you're just on your motorbike or you're walking around. You're on a beach and you're by yourself. And just it's so beautiful. The marine life underneath the water. I definitely have to go back there to see Hahajima which is another island there. But that's another ferry ride. So that's 26 hours to get to Hahajima. But you're so rewarded with that. That's a summer trip. It's best in the summer. Actually I think the problem is in September and October they have the typhoons. And that's something you have to remember. Japan is a country with earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides. We also have typhoons that hit in usually end of August until about the beginning of November. Is the typhoon season. So you have to be careful. But the waters out to the Tokyo Islands. They're less turbulent. In the summer. And in the winter the waves are incredible. And people get seasick making that trip for 24 hours. So I highly recommend summer for that. September was perfect for Ogasawara when I was there. Just perfect. I kind of wish we were going there. Maybe next year we'll go there.

00:22:39 Kanae Daub: Wait Olympics.

00:22:42 John Daub: That's another thing right? Are your friends going to stay in Tokyo when the Olympics come? Your Tokyo friends stay here? Or are they going away?

00:22:53 Kanae Daub: I'm not sure. But I met my uncle a few days ago. He said it's going to be very busy next summer. So he said I won't escape.

00:23:09 John Daub: I think there's going to be an exodus of locals. Because he saw Tokyo Olympics when he was a child. In 1964. The people who were here in 1964 were like, yeah, we're not staying. We've seen the Olympics. There's nothing special there. We're just going to move on. Nothing to see here. Right in front of us. Nothing to see here. Move along. It's just a kid in a bubble. It's just Bubble Boy. That's all. We're going to go over there and check it out. If you like this livestream definitely click the like button. If you do, we get the 200 likes. I'll show you Bubble Boy in great detail. It's up to you. Audience participation. I love it when our livestreamers do that. I've never seen anything like this before. You have to click the like right now. Look at that girl. She's going at it. She's like a hamster. You better click the like button everyone. It's up to you. 200 likes. We want it. Don't hit it twice because that un-likes it. It's like, wait, what's it going down? Yeah. Okay. So the islands are pretty cool. There's one other place, Kanae, that was in the top 10, which I thought was really interesting. Top 10 places to go in the summer. Up near Wakkanai, there's two islands. Rebun.

00:24:26 Kanae Daub: Rebun. Rebun Island.

00:24:30 John Daub: And Rishiri.

00:24:33 Kanae Daub: Rishiri. Rishiri.

00:24:34 John Daub: Those two islands are very popular as well. If you make the trip up to Wakkanai, you can fly into there. You can get a ferry over to those islands that are just impossible to get to in the winter, but in the summer, oh man, it's like such an amazing island. Oh, that girl's getting, she's getting wet. That's such an amazing island. We're so close to 200. Come on. We got 300 people watching. You can't get the 200. What are you guys doing? Dr. Zark, show us please. Dr. Zark overrides. Okay. All right. Thank the doctor. Here you are, doctor. I'm going to give you in clear details of Hamster Boy. How cool is that? And there's two in there. Kanae, can we do it? Is there like an age limit? I totally would like to live stream from in there. Look at that. This is so much fun. It's one kid for 800, two for 1400 yen, so there's a discount and you get to do it for five minutes. So yeah.

00:25:52 Kanae Daub: Kanai, you going to go in there?

00:25:56 John Daub: Yeah. You think it's only for kids? Can you check? What is the age limit? Is there an age limit? Why aren't any parents have the guts to go and do it? Boy, if we had kids, I'm going to go in there. I'm doing this. This is definitely summer fun. Yeah, but I would want to, like that kid's having so much fun. And his parents like, we need this one. We need one of these for the house. This is like a child prison that they want to be in. This is a child prison that kids want to be in. Oh, that kid fell. Oh my gosh. Look, he's falling all over the place. He's falling on top of himself. Now she's just being a bully. Teamwork. Teamwork. Oh, there you go. There you go. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Oh, yes. Do it again. Do it again. They had this, they had this two years ago. No, last year I came here and they had bubbles. They only do this in the summer. Yeah, that's right. Now's your chance to, now's your chance to make your sister fall. Do it. Now's your chance to get your sister to fall. Do it. Do it. Yeah, the mom said, you, you, right?

00:27:20 Kanae Daub: Be love and peace. Be kind to each other. Be kind to each other.

00:27:29 John Daub: I totally got, we gotta do this. Yeah, Corley Lila would like this. Would they be able to work together as a team? This should be a, they should make it bigger and have battles and then get DJI involved and make it like, and the parents can, can, can give a little nudge like pachinko. You don't have a lot of control in pachinko, but just enough to nudge them, nudge the balls in your direction. Give the parents like a DJI knob. They can nudge them. Kind of make the fight a little unfair. That's what I would do. They, they deck themselves. This is too good. This is brought to you by Dr. Zark. Dr. Zark, a man who will override any time to see the good stuff. Thank you, Dr. Zark. If you have any other questions right now, as we watch the bubble people ask away about traveling in the summertime, where would you like to go? What are some places would you like to be off of the beaten path? Would you like to go to places where the Japanese go? Anything we will answer for the next two minutes.

00:28:50 John Daub: Well, as you and we both, all of us enjoyed the bubble people, the bubble kids, everybody, everyone just watching the bubble kids. No questions. That's hilarious. Come on down. If I'm telling, we got to get this. If we have kids one day, we're getting hamster balls for them. And then we're going to, yeah. And then we're going to charge the other parents to play in the hamster balls.

00:29:23 Kanae Daub: I think you will like it.

00:29:26 John Daub: Kenneth Lee writes in, are there any touristy places to avoid in Japan? That's a good question, Kenneth. We're at Toyosu's LaLaport right now, which is kind of out of the way from, just a little bit out of the center of the city. The touristy places to avoid are the normal places that everybody wants to go to. If you want to avoid international tourists, stay away from Tokyo in the summer. Just spend a couple of days here and get out and go to the countryside. Find a ryokan with very little around or rent a car.

00:30:07 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:30:07 John Daub: Yeah. Renting a car is the best way to get away. The Shinkansen though, if it's your first time to Japan, you probably want to get a JR rail pass. If it's your second time, rent a car. And if it's your third time, get a bubble. The two of you just ride. Roll down the street. There's no end to where you can go in a bubble. Because you can just, you can also take your bubble into the sea and cross. You don't even need bridges anymore, right? With you and your bubble, you can roll down streets and then you can roll into the sea. You can go across Lake Biwa. Honestly, somebody should do this. I will do this for world peace and connect Japan and Korea by going between the two in a bubble. Is that possible? Can I do that? And maybe both countries will worry about my safety so much. They'll come together in peace.

00:30:56 Kanae Daub: Sounds like a plan.

00:30:59 John Daub: Or I'll just get eaten by sharks because these things look like they'll be popped the first time it hits a fish or any object. But I would have a lot of fun doing it. I was like, well shark, if you want to eat me. This is like putting bait. It's like putting bait inside of a toy and challenging the sharks. Just come and eat me. It'd be a lot of fun. Have you seen snow monkeys in the Ainu Hokkaido? I've seen. I did a video on the snow monkeys not in winter in Oita in January. I worked at a snow monkey park and that was really a lot of fun. Not a lot of people saw that video on the main channel, which is a shame. But it's one of the it was a pretty good video about the snow monkeys and how they live. The Ainu in that's a topic that's a little sensitive, but I could see myself going up there and doing something on this maybe in 2020 or 2021 or maybe even in the fall. I haven't really decided my autumn filming schedule. There's another bubble. Can I? There's another bubble. The old bubble is over here. Can I? There's one more bubble zone. Oh, wait, there's even more rides. We're looking at this at the at these complex tubular hamster wheels. We totally missed these. Man, I love these. I could I could just spend all day watching kids in bubbles as they just destroy one another and themselves. And then and parents pay for this. It's pretty crazy. They're called Zorbs. Thanks, Jason. Zorbs. Yeah, the monkey park episode is pretty cool. Going to see the snow monkeys is really nice. But the one in Nagano and Arashiyama is such a touristy place. You actually it can get kind of crowded over there and everyone's trying to take pictures. You have to get there first thing in the morning if you really want to enjoy the monkey park. Meaning like wake up at dawn and take the first train or rent a car and get out there before everybody else.

00:33:09 John Daub: I think she's worn out. She's worn out. She's wearing herself out. Where are the places like Japanese avoid? Japanese try to avoid taking the train to Obon as well. You kind of want to wake up early and everyone tries to avoid Obon holiday. Right? It's like a sakura.

00:33:27 Kanae Daub: I don't know.

00:33:32 John Daub: It's like a place you shouldn't go. You shouldn't go. Like in summer. Like it's too crowded or too touristy. Where would you say it's not?

00:33:41 Kanae Daub: I don't know. She's thinking deeply. Many people go to beach.

00:33:47 John Daub: Yeah, a lot of people go to Zushi, the beach. Atami. Hayama. Atami. Izu as well. Yeah. Yeah, it's crowded. This one where the parents can ride. Yeah. Hakone as well. Carrie writes in. Yeah, thanks Carrie. Yeah, Hakone is a popular place especially with foreign tourists but less and less with Japanese. How many people are going to Hakone from Japan lately? There were some warnings that there was a volcano there and there's a chance of an eruption. So more Westerners were going to Hakone and because of that, less Japanese were going to Hakone as a result. So it became a foreign tourist hotspot.

00:34:37 John Daub: PJ of Ice and Fire. When would be the best time to come if you want to see the autumn trees, autumn leaves turn also? That's a great question. That's going to be a live stream at the end of summer. I was going to do that in September but I will tell you this. I'll tell you this. The best time to come is in November. October might even be too early, right?

00:34:57 Kanae Daub: I think November.

00:34:58 John Daub: Japan is long. It depends where you want to go. If you're thinking about Hokkaido, the leaves start to change at the end of September.

00:35:08 Kanae Daub: Really?

00:35:09 John Daub: Yeah. In Asahikawa and up there. They started to turn at the end of. They started to turn in September and they were really beautiful at the end of September. Because Japan is really long. It goes all the way down to Okinawa. But Kyoto is the end of, the beginning of December?

00:35:25 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Kyoto is in the beginning of December. The end of November.

00:35:29 John Daub: End of November. I'd say the middle, the 17th and 18th of November is always the peak. And here's the thing. Kyoto is beautiful. This is the highest of the high season. The autumn leaves are even more popular than the sakura. Because everyone wants to go and after summer see this.

00:35:48 Kanae Daub: It's not good. Oh yeah. What?

00:35:51 John Daub: It's okay. It's okay. This is the place with the dead zone. Avoid. Okay, let's walk around back to the bicycles. And then we'll get you, we'll get some, a bite to eat here.

00:36:01 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:36:01 John Daub: The middle of November is probably the best time for Kyoto. But like, you can go down to Kyushu at the beginning of December and it looks really beautiful. When I filmed the Snow Monkey Park, my job down in Oita, they were turning at the end of December. And the leaves were turning in Kyoto in the middle of November. So you're always going to have to try to time it. There are websites that will have this information where you can catch it. But that's the thing. If you do not book your hotel two to three months in advance, you won't have a place to stay because that's the most popular time to go to Kyoto. Not the cherry blossoms, but autumn. Because of all the temples and shrines in mountains in Kyoto and how beautiful it is, there's more of that than there are cherry blossoms. So Kyoto is more popular in the fall, in my experience, than in the spring. So just something that you should note. The middle of November hotels are booked solid and they're premium. And then once the leaves are off, the prices go down again in December. Yeah, that's a great question. I hope that helps. The best places to go for the autumn leaves, I guess it would be like Kyoto because you do like the foliage around with the temples and shrines, which is really stunning. But I don't know. I'm going to have to say just just you and I like this is going to sound weird. Maybe I like to get the local trains, get the Shinkansen to Morioka and Iwate or Aomori or even Miyagi. There's a train from Morioka that goes across to Kyoto. And then it goes to Akita. And I remember I took that train once in the autumn, a local train. And it was the most spectacular foliage I've ever seen in my entire life, including and also in Kyoto. There's a train that I featured this scenic train on the main channel. That is also very beautiful. The Keihan line. That is also something you can do in Kyoto that is that has big windows that shows off the Japanese maple leaves. It's just really stunning. And they light them up as well. They light them up. Oh, my gosh. No, Nosh, don't run us over. Slow down. Oh, is there coming this way? Kanae just jerked me, pulling me away. Could be dangerous. Are they going to toot? Yeah. She's like very protective of me. She's made a line. Do you see? John, you stay behind this spot because she sees possible danger. I want it like this. Oh, they got a song. John John John John John John. That's that's pretty cool. Cool. I like still there. I love I love the key in there. Somebody could have snagged these. Oh, you took my key. Oh, see, she's smarter than me. I left my key in there. Yeah, I hope that that helps. The autumn leaves are. And it's like I don't know why people come in the summer at all. I don't know why people come. It's just so hot. I guess the days are longer and that's a good time to come. Just no real bad time to come to Japan. Really. But in the summer, Japanese go to places that are cool and they escape the hot areas. Work slows down a little bit and people dress down. I guess the cool biz started around after the tsunami and earthquake. We had Japan started to wanted to use less power. So people in Japan started dressing down, wearing very light shirts. And no necktie to work. And since 2011, cool biz has been sort of a norm where people people don't wear a lot. It's just hot. And next summer, I will make a video on what to wear in the summer because you have to pick your clothes wisely. You have to pick them wisely.

00:40:32 John Daub: And you know what? I'll tell you a little bit. All right. I wear black T-shirts like I look like Beavis and Butthead. I wear the same thing every day. I have like seven or no, about ten black T-shirts now. And I just wash them all the time. The best thing to do.

00:40:45 Kanae Daub: Yeah, I like Uniqlo.

00:40:45 John Daub: And you just wash the T-shirts in the in the sink or they they usually have laundromats all over the city. So you just can do laundry once in the evening, you know, every couple of days. But yeah, you don't have to bring a lot of clothes. Just go to Uniqlo and fill it in, especially in the summer, because it's pretty cheap to buy clothes in Tokyo. The only problem is for Western dudes. Our shoulders are bigger than the Japanese and sometimes the shirts don't fit an extra large. It's not length. It's actually width. So I take a medium T-shirt in the US, but I'm extra large in Japan. And sometimes I can't fill it out with my gut. I got to eat more, maybe fill it in. But this is something for you to know. And socks here a little bit smaller. I have a ten and a half American, twenty eight point five inch foot. And the socks run to twenty seven inches, twenty seven centimeters typically. So like nine, nine and a half. So the socks are always a little bit too small for me in Japan. Shoes as well. But yeah, you can buy just about anything like shorts and T-shirts and socks here in Japan. Pretty cheap. So you don't have to pack a lot in your suitcase. And then you go back home with stuff that you bought in Japan, which is always nice. Shoes are also you can get everything on Amazon. I try to I'm trying to actually cut down on my Amazon usage, but you can get anything. And it's usually delivered to your hotel within twelve hours. Twelve to twenty four hours. Whatever you order, especially before you go to bed, it's there the next day. So you can find any size on Amazon and it'll be delivered to you. The deliveries, if you're in central Tokyo, are so fast. It's it's incredible. I remember I ordered an SD card in Fukuoka and Kumamoto. By the time I got to Fukuoka, I had arrived at the hotel when I was hitchhiking because I left my SD cards in Kagoshima. So just postage in Japan is so fast. If you forgot something, it's not a problem. Order it and then have it sent to the hotel and it'll be there before you leave. It's always just a little piece of advice.

00:42:54 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:42:55 John Daub: Anything else you want to say, Kanae, about summer travel?

00:42:57 Kanae Daub: Summer travel? Yeah. Don't forget water.

00:43:01 John Daub: Oh, yeah. Don't forget to drink a lot of water. Bring a lot of bottled water. Bring a lot of water.

00:43:07 Kanae Daub: Everywhere in Japan, the tap water is drinkable.

00:43:10 John Daub: All right. You don't need to buy bottled water. You can save money. There isn't a place in Japan where they'll drink. I think it's the only Asian country where you can drink the water anywhere in every town. Japan, that's one of the reasons why Japan is such a popular destination. It's so safe. The water in Japan everywhere is drinkable. Any place that a tourist is going to go, you're not going to have any problem. That's one of the famous things about Japan. The water is always good. But we went Miyazaki, right?

00:43:44 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Miyazaki is famous for its water. The water was very clear and very delicious.

00:43:49 John Daub: Yeah. When I go to Yonago and Tottori Prefecture, that tap water is as good as the bottled water. And anyone who buys the bottled water is usually the tourists because they don't know that the tap water is so good. So good. You got to say it twice. It's so nice.

00:44:07 Kanae Daub: I don't know. I don't know anything else to say about summer. I don't know. I don't know. I have to but I'm going to buy lashes.

00:44:26 John Daub: We're here with a transfer. You can take it. Yeah. OK. OK. Well that's matcha. Good? Hmm. I'm waiting for it to cook water. Let's go take it. Okay. under a hundred dollars for five consecutive days for five un-consecutive days that you just decided that you want to go to i love this Seishun 18 Kippu ticket what people are going to search it if you say it they're going to google it yeah did you ever take seishun jippu keeper yeah with you oh yeah with me sorry that's true i like that you just sit on the train and read a book and and let the let the stuff go by i haven't done it in a long time because i've been pretty busy pretty busy well thanks so much for the questions um yeah we i wish i could have had the time to be a tour guide too kevin riley does that though if you go to osaka look kevin riley up he does tours uh how much is sunscreen sun lotion different prices like daikai maybe 800 yen yeah 500 it's between five dollars and eight dollars yeah sometimes thirty dollars thirty dollars if you want like spf 1000 where you give light back to the sun yeah you can they have like spf i've seen like spf in the hundreds here um and i don't know how that works like i said you're giving sun you're giving back to the sun you're rejecting the sun and giving back to it that's that's how bad that's how serious spf is in japan spf 2056. um i'm looking here any more questions how much is the sunscreen and which one is the best I don't know which one is the best

00:46:19 Kanae Daub: DHC maybe? I'm using AXEA. Japanese brand. I like it. How do you say that? AXEA. It's for women. It's good for delicate skin. Yeah Japanese have delicate skin I know I I don't wear too much sunscreen I might wear like SPF 4 but I did typically just wanted to cut down on the ultraviolet lights but I don't my skin usually adjusts pretty good but I still don't want to. I bought Trader Joe's sunscreen. She always buys Trader Joe's stuff she likes the big sizes and will milk that for like a year as well yeah so there you go I hope this is useful. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please subscribe. I'll see you in the next one. Bye!

00:47:09 John Daub: for you and you learn something right now we're gonna go and have some meal maybe grab a coffee enjoy a little bit of the end of the summer before I get back there's a new episode coming on the main channel this year maybe you to this week the one that I'm working on right now is kaiten sushi conveyor belt sushi I did I have edited I'm editing a video on the non sushi items which is gonna be pretty cool that should be up maybe tonight or I'm gonna say probably by Tuesday Tuesday it'll be up online and then the next one is about driving in Japan I had an episode some of them because it always is right right right also I put up some new emoji on the discord server if any of you use discord nosh has been putting he put some amazing emoji but last couple of days I had a little bit of free time to experiment so if you want a link to the discord server one of our moderators will put a link right there anybody can go it's free and you can go it's free and you can enjoy voice calls and 24-7 only in japan any questions that you have about japan it's a forum where you can discuss these types of topics and we have about 10 moderators that keep keep keep it clean for the most part and if you don't you'll be banned we even have an emoji that says banned I believe hey mo moeb thank you so much we're gonna actually moe B thank you so much we're gonna actually that's where we're gonna head headfirst to that coffee place around behind us and there's Ramsey silent added in thank you Ramsey's there you go guys have a good day have a good night wherever you are in the world I'm showing you on the other side where that crane is in the center of your screen is just behind there Toyosu fish market and I highly recommend you make a trip there they have good sushi sushiki G's outer market is still probably the place to go rainbow bridge is behind that the two newest bridges in Tokyo you can see just cresting over them and then that right there coming into the center of your screen is the Olympic Village which is like 90% done which is so cool and I'm trying to get access to go in there and show you some of the rooms before they start which would be pretty cool the third the nude only Japan channel be coming out sometime I think by the end of September we've been filming several episodes for that so that's gonna be pretty exciting alright guys see you more news on patreon and discord bye bye