00:00:00 John Daub: Hey everybody, this is the Noboribetsu Onsen Festival opening. You have to wear a mask this time because of concerns about the coronavirus, but enjoy this. This is really special. These are oni (Japanese ogres or demons from folklore), and they're playing and dancing. Folks, this is the opening ceremony to Noboribetsu Onsen Festival, which happens in the beginning of February.

00:01:53 John Daub: That over there, you see all the steam coming out? That's a geyser that spouts boiling hot water several times a day. Right now it's completely boiling itself to death. This is awesome.

00:02:34 Announcer: Thank you very much. From now on, we will be holding the opening ceremony for the 49th Noboribetsu Onsen Festival.

00:02:48 John Daub: So he's not talking about the opening ceremony to the festival. And tomorrow I'm going to be participating naked. We'll talk about that later. Here's the president of the international organization opening.

00:03:28 Announcer: Thank you very much. This time, we will be holding the opening ceremony to the 49th Noboribetsu Onsen Festival opening. Despite the coronavirus, some of the events are going to take place. Actually, since the pandemic has made the festival a bit more difficult, we've decided to have it on several occasions to celebrate. On top of that, the festival is being held at the construction site of Noboribetsu Onsen, for the occasion of its new project. This is part of Noboribetsu's history of onsen, so the festival must continue despite the virus.

00:04:12 John Daub: I would like to ask all the people in the public to bring back their new masks and to have the festival. Now, I would like to announce the opening of the 49th Noboribetsu Onsen Festival. But we're taking all precautions. Everyone's wearing a mask. This is awesome. Opening ceremony. Yes. He's now filling these buckets with onsen water.

00:06:21 John Daub: Because of the coronavirus, we have to wear masks. We're taking all the precautions. But this is the opening ceremony for those who are joining us of a very unique festival. All right. Applause, please.

00:06:49 John Daub: So these are the hotels. Wow. Look at the steam coming. Guys, it's like minus five degrees right now. I'm putting on gloves. My hands are too cold. See, these are the names of the onsen all around Noboribetsu. See, everybody's required to wear masks. Demon dresses are part of the tradition of Noboribetsu.

00:09:09 Announcer: I hope you will be able to enjoy the water for a long time. That's it for the opening ceremony. I would like to end the ceremony with your applause.

00:09:54 John Daub: Why are they wearing the dress like this? This is part of the tradition. This goes back centuries. Most people don't even know, I bet. It's that old. Despite the 2019-2020 coronavirus worldwide epidemic, they're going to keep this on. They considered canceling it. I'm glad that they didn't. It's a wee crowd just because it's pretty awesome. Tourism here is down because of the virus. A lot of Chinese tourists have canceled their hotel reservations. A lot of these local hotels are hurting right now. I'm really glad that I can still be here and bring this to you.

00:10:44 Announcer: Thank you very much. We will now end the opening ceremony. Tomorrow, at this opening ceremony, at 6:30pm, we will perform the Noboribetsu Onsen Kodakara Mochitsuki Mai.

00:11:05 John Daub: Hi. Narita-san is helping me with the camera. He's got my camera. Tomorrow, when I'm running around naked, he's going to be taking my video. Actually, we're going now to a restaurant where they're serving Japanese cuisine that he wants to introduce to me. Maybe I'm going to go live in about an hour. I'm going to show you some Japanese food from here in Noboribetsu. So this is just one live today. We're going to do another one in about an hour or so. Is that it? I thought there were going to be people fighting and stuff. I thought the demons were going to take off their masks and start biting and eating people. But that was it.

00:11:59 John Daub: All I can tell you is we can take the masks off outside of here. But the rule is, because of what's happening here, it's kind of a piece of history, really. Despite the coronavirus, they're still going to hold this festival. That's so cool. I'm glad that they do that. I understand that they have to take all sorts of precautions. I came here without a mask. And then right here, when I entered the plaza, somebody gave me a mask and said to put it on. But I think that's a good thing. They're taking all precautions and don't want anybody to get sick. I feel like there's no chance of getting sick here. There's not as many people. Look at the plume of steam behind me. Again, it's like minus 5 degrees right now, which doesn't mean a lot to Canadians and Norwegians, but means a lot to me. It's pretty cold.

00:12:58 John Daub: So I was here about two and a half years ago and did a live stream down this street. You can see that in the springtime. But right now in the winter, it is really cold. Here's another oni. This is just right on the street here. Noboribetsu is famous for these. There are a ton of oni all over Noboribetsu. In fact, if you walk behind this hotel here, to the other side, you're going to see Jigokudani (Hell Valley). And Hell Valley is pretty interesting.

00:13:37 John Daub: I think I could take this off. Wow. I can breathe again. How are you doing, everybody? So I think that was really smart. For the event, they want everybody to wear masks and everybody to be safe because we're all getting together. But outside of the event, I guess I'm a free man again. That's a piece of history. Despite the coronavirus, they still are holding this. I'm so happy that they are because tomorrow I get to participate. And I love these kind of festivals that are bigger than life. They're bigger than me. And I have a feeling that if I participate, I'm going to feel really healthy and really lively. And I'm going to feel really happy for the rest of the year. There's a spiritual element to all of these festivals that I think is very essential to understand before you participate. But if you only saw a bunch of guys in fundoshi (loincloths) like thongs running around the street in the snow, that's pretty weird. But if you understand the meaning behind it and why they're doing that, it's not that weird anymore. And I think these old local traditions are very important to protect, very important to keep going.

00:14:46 John Daub: Check this out right here. This is right off of the main road in Noboribetsu going down to the old town. There's another oni, O-N-I, which means folklore ogre or devil. Man, he's on fire. Look at that. I'm not afraid of catching the virus in the entire country right now. Only 20 people have it. And of those 20 people, they were all mostly from mainland China or dealing with people from mainland China. It's not widespread enough. There's worry, but as I've done in live streams before, by the way, this is the main street. You can see it snowed this afternoon a lot.

00:15:35 John Daub: How you doing? Good. How are you? Pretty good. Did you miss whatever was going on? Yeah, the festival. Yeah, it's finished now.

00:15:44 John Daub: Oh, hello. How you doing? Good. We're from the US actually. Hi. Hi, how you doing? Yeah, she likes me a lot. It's crazy. We were just watching your video this morning. Oh, yeah. We're here for the festival. Tomorrow, I'm gonna run around naked to celebrate winter. I guess something like that. It will be cold. It's gonna be even colder tomorrow, they said. But you only live once. And tomorrow may be the end of it.

00:16:11 Passerby: Where are you from?

00:16:13 John Daub: Malaysia. I'm at the airport. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Okay, you made it here. Awesome. Yes. So did you miss the opening then? I just missed the opening. I ran up from my hotel down and I didn't quite make it. I think because of the coronavirus, they've cut it really short. Yeah, it was fun. You guys remember yesterday from the airport? I did. Yit, right? Yit, that's right. Yit. Yeah. Very cool. There you go. How long are you staying here for?

00:16:38 Passerby: Oh, just today.

00:16:39 John Daub: Yeah, just one day for here. One day for here, then snow festival. Yeah, snow festival. Sapporo Snow Festival. I canceled that to stay another day here. Whoa! That's awesome. To stay here for— I figured either the snow festival or watch John. Oh! I apologize in advance for showing my butt on live TV tomorrow. I'm going to film it for main channel episode. That's really good. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thanks for saying hi. I've been watching your video since like 2015. Whoa! That's like, 4 years of watching your video. Yeah. Wow. Okay. You found me live. You get another one if you want. You can collect them. So here's some You Found Me cards. Here you go. So have it. If you find me in a live stream, you get a card to commemorate. Okay, I'll collect them and wait for the next time. Yeah, sure. And you're the first to get two. I guess if you get 10, you get a present maybe. I think that's it. Yeah, there you go. Can I get a selfie? Yeah, sure. In the snow this time. All right. Thank you very much. Yeah. We'll get one tomorrow. I'll have less clothes on though.

00:18:21 John Daub: I'm glad that he made it, but I feel bad. Yit came here because I told him about this amazing festival and because of the coronavirus, they've kind of canceled a lot of the events, but the opening ceremony was a little bit short, but it's still pretty cool. Look at this shop here. Again, I introduced this shop about two and a half years ago in a live stream. And it's really neat to be here. But this time, there's snow. You guys can see that there. It's about minus five. It's supposed to be minus seven or eight tomorrow.

00:19:11 John Daub: Why am I participating in this festival again? A lot of tourists here are not from mainland China. They may be speaking Chinese, but they're from Taiwan. They're not from mainland China. So I think it's important to differentiate between Taiwan and mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Just because someone's speaking Chinese doesn't mean they're from Wuhan. Okay. But most of the people here that I've talked to are from Taiwan or from other places. Nobody would say this area is a very famous onsen in Japan. I'd say it's one of the top ten in the entire country. The water has a very sulfuric egg smell to it. Today, Narita-san took me to the ashi-yu (foot bath), right? The ashi-yu has where you can just walk in this river of bubbling hot water. And it has that feeling to it. And the sand is all black from the minerals in the water. It's pretty amazing. Just this natural water piped up from the ground. I really like these kind of foot baths. Even look, it's minus five degrees. But check it out. Out of the gutter. Do you see it? Steam. Because all the water going in there is so hot from the onsen. And hitting the cold air when it comes up from the gutters. It's awesome. I don't think I want any ice cream today.

00:20:49 John Daub: So we're going to walk to the car and go to a restaurant. So we're going to do another live stream in about 30, 45 minutes or so. I'll try to start it a little bit earlier so you can join us. I always want you to watch this live. Hey, Goku95 there from Germany. Hi, John. It's not that much snow but still need more than we had here in the whole winter. Yeah. Actually, this year there has not been a lot of snow in Hokkaido. When I came here from the airport, I put it on the Discord server. But you really, when you looked around, you could not see a lot of snow. I was kind of worried. Then today, starting from last night, it just dumped snow everywhere. This is the local Hokkaido convenience store chain, Seiko Mart, which is actually pretty good. It pretty well competes against 7-Eleven. The Discord is discord.gg/onlyinjapan. It's free for everybody to use. It's cold.

00:22:01 John Daub: Can I do this naked festival tomorrow? It's going to be even colder. My hands are numb. What's the rest of my body going to be like? Oh my gosh. And check it out here. This is the public onsen is down here. And I've been here several times. It's very good. Only 450 yen to go in there. But when you do come to the statue, let me just show you a little bit. You can smell the sulfur right away. But this is hot water. And you can see the minerals in the water. You see that? In there, you can see the minerals? This is all onsen water. So take this and dump it on his head. I'm doing this for all of you watching. Keep him nice and warm. He's happy. You want to keep the demons happy.

00:23:09 John Daub: A lot of history. 17 years ago when I was hitchhiking, I also came here as well to pay my respects. And there's the local sento (public bath). 450 yen. Awesome water. It makes you smell a little bit. But it's very, very good for the skin. All right, guys. So I'll be back here tomorrow. Do another live stream. But join us in about an hour or less. We're going to be at a restaurant. And I'll show you some of the food that they have there. Should be a pretty interesting time. We got permission to film in there. That's one heck of a plushie. That's a big plushie. Respect to the oni. Wow. In Noboribetsu, they don't have Christmas trees. They have devil clubs. These oni's clubs. Look at that. It's pretty massive.

00:24:22 John Daub: So the opening ceremony. I'm going to change the title to just opening ceremony of the Onsen Festival. But that's it. So thanks for watching, everybody. Join me in about 30 minutes to an hour down the road. I'll let you know more of it in advance. This thing just sort of happened suddenly that I just went live. So not even the Patreon supporters got a notification in advance. I apologize. But just happened so fast. So see you in a little bit. Have a good day. Have a good night for now. There's the bus station in front of us. Oh, my gosh. My hand is frozen. I'm never going to make it tomorrow. I think I've made a big mistake. You don't want to see this. This is getting pathetic. I have a frozen hand. See you later.