00:00:02 John Daub: Welcome to Maihama Station. This is the station where you would go if you're coming to Tokyo Disneyland or DisneySea. How you doing everybody? I'm here to give you another travel update on what the situation is like here in Japan. There's been a lot of breaking developments over the last 72 hours since the last update that I gave you. A lot of viewers are finding these very useful, especially the tens of thousands of people that are considering coming to Japan in the hundreds of thousands in the month of March, not just for the cherry blossoms but for all the other things that were going to be happening here. I came here for a reason. Alright, let's go take a look.

00:00:45 John Daub: If you were to come to Disney, this is what you would find. Now, thousands of you, tens of thousands of you who are watching this probably have come to Tokyo Disneyland if you've been here to Tokyo. It's one of the biggest attractions, maybe the number one. And yes, it's a lot of people. It's closed as of yesterday. And you'll be greeted with some very sad kids and a sign. The happiest place on earth is closed. And it's gated right here. You can't even get into the store. The store to buy merchandise is closed as well, as well as Ikspiari (shopping mall) which is the shopping mall here.

00:01:26 John Daub: I rode my bicycle 13 kilometers. This is why I might have started a little late. This is a live stream by the way. I noticed that a lot of businesses are closed. On February 27th, just about 48 hours ago, Prime Minister Abe asked that events, theme parks, places where a lot of people congregate shut down until March 15th. And the reason why is we want to put the brakes on this as much as possible here in Japan. And by just shutting everything down, this is in a controlled way. We're pushing the brakes. The idea is to reduce infection. And then after these two weeks, Japan will reassess this and see if the numbers have increased or decreased. Has this worked or not worked? And then take another step forward. I think this is the best way to keep slamming on the brakes and then just change the plan. This is the best way to control it. We all know that this can get out of control really quickly, as we're seeing now in our neighbors. A really tragic situation in Korea and in China. We're all neighbors here. So we're all really affected.

00:02:45 John Daub: Right now, the United States State Department puts this as a level two, meaning proceed with caution. And just yesterday, Korea and China are at a level four, which means do not travel. These are our neighbors. So we're very, very mindful of that. And we know that that could happen here as well. So I'm going to put the camera down here and kind of go over some of the information. Then I want to take you around this area and then give you an idea of what it's like right now. It is an extremely warm day, by the way. I came by bicycle. That's why I'm wearing this orange jacket for protection.

00:03:21 John Daub: Currently, right now, one of the best sites for updates is actually Wikipedia. And I'm going to be giving them a little donation too because they've been very, very helpful. Wikipedia reports that as of yesterday, confirmed cases are 241 and 41 people have recovered from that. And there are five deaths in Japan. Just so you have updated information. Wikipedia, you can also see the level of infections and how this has been increasing quite steadily. You can see the trend lines now. Since the 27th, the announcement and the 28th, some planning, a lot of businesses and a lot of museums.

00:04:02 John Daub: And this is the title of these live streams are balance sheets. And they're all going to change depending on the mood and how they go. But Japan is pretty much the country's open. But just about everything around here shut down except for essential services. Supermarkets are open. Convenience stores are open. But any type of activity, event, convention, almost all of them are closed. Just today, Kanae Daub and I were going to rent a car, go out to Chiba to Katsuura City in Chiba to go look at the massive Hinamatsuri (Dolls' Festival) display they have. It's incredible. It's closed. It's been canceled, the festival. And that's just everything that I wanted to film for the month of March, including location shoots for some TV shows that I'm doing and some projects that I had for Only in Japan series have been suspended because everything is just shut down. A tour that I was going to be doing up in Fukushima shut down. And Tokyo Disneyland, DisneySea, Universal Studios is shut down.

00:05:07 John Daub: If you want a list of this, I highly recommend that you go over to the JNTO (Japan National Tourism Organization) website. They are updating it. Again, this is up to... Sorry for the annoying music in the background here. This is the last updated on March 1st, which is today. And the JNTO is listing out all of the things that you need to do. This is a sanctioned site from Twitter, Twitter at Japan Safe Travel. So they've started all of this. And I actually had contacted JNTO for an interview, and they have not responded to me yet. And I'm still waiting for them. I would like to get them and talk directly from a representative to you so then you can make a better decision.

00:05:51 John Daub: I came here by bicycle. I'm staying away from people. I'm not on public transportation. There's no reason to wear a mask if you're not in a high-risk area. I'm not touching my face. I'm washing my hands if I do touch anything. And these are very safe practices that you're going to have to take if you do decide to make the trip here. Masks are a very, very short supply, and we're not using them unless we really, really have to. I rode my bicycle 13 kilometers to get here. Because of the construction and the highways and the overpasses, it took a lot longer. And the weather is pretty warm today. So that was a plus, I guess. But if you're riding your bicycle around areas where there's no people, then you're perfectly safe without that. Using hand sanitizer, just make sure that the alcohol level is 60% or higher. And the thing with using alcohol, I'm finding that your hands are starting to crack. If you look at my hands, they're very dry and cracked. It's from using alcohol a lot. And I have to use moisturizer. So I'm being very careful and maybe not even going to leave the house for a couple of days. I just don't see that there's a lot of reasons to do that.

00:07:06 John Daub: Now, is the Tokyo Disney Resort open? The answer is, I believe it is. Because I see the monorail is still running. We're going to see it coming through every five minutes. Next time the monorail comes through, we'll let you know. It is really sad because this situation has really changed since I started doing these updates over the last six weeks, I believe. Starting in January, I believe it was the end of January. We could see how this is really impacting travel. In the beginning of the month of February, I could say there was no reason to cancel your trip. And even now, I think you're on the fringe of it. But we're seeing flights starting to become canceled. And that's why 72 hours ago, I made the statement that I think you should seriously consider, if you can, refunding your trip. And if you can't, you probably will be okay. But I want you to understand the risks. This is extremely important. And this goes with all of the information that I've been researching here too. Because masks are very hard to find and because we just don't know where this is going, the neighbors have been turned to level four and we don't know if the measures that Japan is doing is going to work. There is a lot of risk if you decide to travel here.

00:08:23 John Daub: People have asked me definitively, can you say that there will be a quarantine? I cannot answer any of these questions because definitively, the governments don't even know. We take this as almost a day-by-day basis right now, analyzing the facts. And all of the agencies here in Japan are on super high alert right now, looking for answers, talking about it. The bureaucracy in Japan is legendary. So I know that they have people working on it. And I have a lot of faith that everything will be... that the government is working to protect the people of Japan. I know that because I can see it everywhere. I don't see them spraying the streets and doing some of the things that I've seen that's happening in Korea, the drive-through examinations and stuff. But I'm getting most of my news, almost all of it from Japanese media. And Japanese media is pretty on top of this, digging into it and coming up with animated graphs. Some of them are kind of cute actually. Like they're pretty creative of ways that you can protect yourself and help families, which are very worried here in Japan, can do that.

00:09:33 John Daub: Now, I'm going to run down some of the information. I have a list here. So I'm getting reports now. We have a Discord server. And on that Discord server, people are talking about the flights in here. Three days ago, you couldn't cancel your flights. And yesterday, some people were having success calling their airlines and getting a refund on non-refundable tickets. And some people are saying it depends on the timing. As I said to you, there's no reason to cancel your trip until you... this has moved to like a level 3 or a level 4. But in that kind of a situation, the airlines have really no choice but to refund your tickets, right? It just makes a lot of sense. So just... If you're not sure, try not to panic and just wait a little bit and then call the airlines. And you'll probably get a different answer one day to the next day. And some people are saying it depends on the representative. But I'm pretty sure that in Japan, although I've had my troubles with ANA and some of the other airlines like we all have with all their airlines, it just takes a little bit of time and it depends who you talk to.

00:11:07 John Daub: All right, here comes the monorail from Tokyo Disneyland. This is leaving the Maihama Station and the monorail is going to all the parks. You see there's a driver in there, but I don't see any... Usually I can see kids' faces in the silhouetted Mickey Mouse. I don't see anybody in there really. The reason you would ride that is because you wanna get to the Sheraton Hotel on the other side. You wanna get to Tokyo DisneySea. DisneySea, you gotta go all the way around the monorail to get there. But it's going pretty slow. Actually, riding the monorail might be the best way to get a look inside of the park. So that's something that I would consider doing. But right now, I made a promise to Kanae Daub that I wouldn't ride any public transportation, including the Tokyo Disney monorail.

00:12:06 John Daub: So as Japan shut down, a great many of the attractions are. So if you do come to Japan, don't expect many things to be open. The reason why you came here might be closed. JNTO has put together a list of places, attractions that are closed. So I'll put a link in the description or I'll pin it to the comments after this livestream so you can find it. Go in there and check it out. I think JNTO is on top of this and doing a really good job notifying people, including a hotline. If you do feel sick, don't go into the hospital if you're feeling unwell. What you can do is call the hotline and they'll tell you the closest place that's prepared to handle this. It's kind of important that you just don't rush out into public transportation. If you are feeling sick, give JNTO's 050 phone number a call. Give them a heads up. There's somebody there. It's 24-7-365. The hotline is meant for tourists, visitors to Japan who have any troubles at all. JNTO stands for Japan National Tourism Organization.

00:13:20 John Daub: As I said, masks are sold out. The best way to get masks if you are living in Japan, you're worried and want to get them, go there 30 minutes before drugstores or some of the stores open and you'll find that you have a chance. But I've seen fights breaking out because lines are closed. People are trying to cut in line sometimes to get a mask. Once they're sold out, they're sold out. And the supplies are very limited. The best thing to do is probably just to stay home and work from home. Schools on the 27th, Prime Minister Abe ordered—I'm not going to use the word ordered, but asked that schools be closed. And the majority of schools have closed now and will reopen on, I believe it's the 16th of March until the 15th. Not all schools have closed. There are places in Japan that are untouched by this still and they're open. The reason why is because families are still working.

00:14:14 John Daub: And we had a panic sort of yesterday and the day before. It was mostly the day before when after the announcement, supermarkets had a rush on them, meaning toilet paper was sold out and meat and supplies. And the reason why was because parents were freaking out that they had to feed their kids for the next two weeks because they'd expected them to eat at school. So when you went into the supermarket on the 28th, we went in and all of the meat and the eggs and the milk and yogurt and supplies, a lot of frozen goods sold out. It looked like the 2011, after the tsunami, the great tsunami, earthquake in Tohoku, a lot of the shelves were bare. But the supply chain here in Japan is not broken and the shelves the next day were fine. They were loaded up again. So it's just something that panic.

00:15:09 John Daub: For those joining us, I'm at Tokyo Disneyland in front of the front gate. And yesterday the park closed. And today people that are coming here are met with that sign. And it's become kind of a tourist attraction. People are coming here just to take a picture of Disney closed for today. Disney is open usually like every day. So it's very rare to see it. But they've closed it all the way up here at the station. So to walk over to the park is really hard to do over this walkway. For those that have come here, you know you've seen the gate to get in there. That's, I remember coming in 1998 for the first time and walking through that exact same gate to get to Tokyo Disneyland. It's a beautiful day in Tokyo today.

00:15:53 John Daub: A lot of people have been asking me about is it safe on airplanes? Now I'm getting into my opinion a little bit, but I don't think anybody should be traveling anywhere right now. I think you should use extreme caution and we just don't know a lot of stuff. But there is an interesting thing on the ANA website that I found on onboard air circulation. ANA has installed the latest filters on the air conditioning systems on all its aircrafts. Through these filters, purified air and air from outside the aircraft is provided into the cabin. The air is then expelled from the aircraft, meaning that all the air in the cabin is refreshed approximately every three minutes. High efficiency particulate air, HEPA filter, a high performance filter that removes 99.97% of the 0.3 very, very small particles. So if you're worried about circulated air on the airplanes, according to this, ANA does not do circulated air. It's every three minutes, it's completely refreshed and there's a filter in there. I think it's important for you to know that. ANA has laid this all out very, very well. So you can just take a look on their website. I know that they're refunding domestic travel. And for those that have flights on the Japanese carriers...

00:17:48 John Daub: The vibe here is pretty grim. Everyone has a mask on. And this is for a weekday on a nice, beautiful day like this. Just look at the station. It's completely empty. And that in itself is kind of eerie. They're playing Disney music in the background. Sort of, when you arrive at the station, you're greeted by the Disney music. But we don't have that kind of a feeling here at this time. Let me go through here to the other side. The trains are still running, by the way. This is the route I take to get to Costco. I go past Maihama. And yeah, all the people riding the train are getting this beautiful view of Disneyland. But you just can't, you can't get into the park. You can't go past this area to go even to the gate area. DisneySea might be a little bit different, but I don't believe you can go into the parking lot either. I had trouble finding a place to park my bicycle.

00:18:53 John Daub: What is it going to be like now? I've been getting, as I said in the last email, I get, I don't know, something like a thousand messages a day about people that are traveling. And I try my best to reply to everybody. The answer is that I don't know what's going to happen. But for those joining us, what I said previously was that Japan has kind of shut down. I say that because all of the events, all of the conventions, almost all of the attractions are closed, at least for two weeks. And the reason why is because Prime Minister Abe wants to slam the brakes on this because this kind of a disease is like, this kind of a germ, it kind of just, oh wow, so they really did, they really did gate this place. You can't go into Ikspiari. He wants to pump the brakes, meaning this thing can get out of control really fast. And you could see the trend line was increasing rapidly. So by shutting down all these things, we're hoping that infection will also go down.

00:19:54 John Daub: Public live houses, there's a lady from Kochi Prefecture that went to Osaka to go to a live concert in a bar that was really closed off, no windows. And a lot of people weren't wearing masks and several people caught it and took it back to their prefectures and become the first case in their prefectures. This is the first one in Kochi Prefecture from Osaka. So it's, you know, I think that the paranoia maybe, even though Japan is not in the same situation as its neighbors, is probably a very good thing right now because we really need to stop this right now before it gets on. You could see there's through the gate there, I guess it's to prevent me from jumping the fence, but there are officers here to make sure that nobody gets through. There's another official right there between the gates here. They're just standing there watching me watch you. And the Disney Resort Welcome Center is closed. There is a person inside there, but that's closed. The monorail, almost nobody's going in there. That's an eerie sight. Not a person.

00:22:23 John Daub: The Becker's Burger is closed as well as the NewDays convenience store is closed. The foot traffic here is like very, very limited. And the monorail is going by maybe once every 10 minutes. So I want to go over some more information that's come in before I go open it up to some of your questions. I really do hope that this is useful for everybody. If you think so, give me a thumbs up just so I know that this is something that you want to see updated again. For me, there really isn't a lot of things that I can do for the livestreams just because so many things are closed around here. So the best thing I can do, I think, is try to ease the mind of travelers that are coming here or for those that are on the fence of canceling, give them some information from right here. And that's what I can do live because this is what the channel is sort of for.

00:23:13 John Daub: If you're traveling with families, I've been researching this quite a bit. Once again, if you're on the fence, I would say cancel if you can with a refund. If not, I want you to seriously consider your children and your family for a second. If your children are young enough where they cannot keep a mask on, all right, and you can't stop them from touching their face, try for a day to see if you can muck them. I would say monitor this. And if you can't, I would say cancel because the risk is just too high. Kids are touching everything all the time. And I want you to just consider that even if they stay inside of the hotel, there's going to be moments. No kid wants to be locked up in a hotel. This is a five-star hotel with a pool. And then in that situation, I'm not sure. I don't know. But it's just a very difficult situation with kids. So one of the biggest, most commonly asked questions I receive are from parents saying, is it safe to travel with kids right now? I would say I'm not going to say no, but I would say if you think you have that faith in your kids to keep a mask on, then wash your hands at all times. You touch anything, you wash your hands.

00:24:49 John Daub: So a lot of people were worried about the numbers. Is the Japan government... I'm just going to touch on this very, very, very lightly because it's something that people have been asking me a lot. Do I trust the Japanese government? I don't trust any government 100%. Of course not. We elect leaders to do this work for us. And we put trust into them to make decisions for us. That's sort of what a democracy is, right? Kind of government. But I think that there are some things that, of course, they're not going to tell everybody. It's not a completely transparent system in any country. I don't know any country that is. So do I trust them 100%? No. But do I trust that they're doing the best to keep us safe? And I would say yes. In terms of the numbers and them fudging the numbers, I don't believe that that's happening.

00:25:50 John Daub: Japan is probably the most bureaucratic country in the world where you need a stamp and a signature for everything. And the process takes like three to four times longer than it should. I can even say ten times longer and I wouldn't be too far off. So in that... With that type of thinking, I think you have to understand that maybe the criteria for what they considered sick enough to use these tests, which were... which they didn't have a lot of at the time, possibly that's the reason. Maybe it could be the numbers. I don't know. I don't want to speculate too much of it. But I will tell you, the numbers according to NHK have come out on the tests. So let me just read this from NHK. The Japan Health Ministry says it expects a medical... yen. Or about $166 per person with public insurance. Ministry officials give an estimate at a briefing Friday for representatives of medical institutions, inspection companies and universities. So people will only have to pay 30% of their medical fees with insurance. The test will cost 5,400 yen. So if you want to be tested, this is the price now. This was not known before. And now the public knows it's going to cost about $50 if you want to be tested. The government is also considering providing subsidies to further reduce the burden.

00:27:54 John Daub: This is another reason to call JNTO if you're feeling sick, and they will instruct you on the best place to go. It will probably save you money and save you time and help the people around you. That's the responsible thing to do. And we'll put the 050 number in... I'll pin it to this after the livestream so then you know what the number is. But if you just search JNTO Traveler Hotline, Japan Hotline, you'll get this number. You can contact it 24-7. If you are wearing masks, hearing you're wearing a beard, and you're a hipster, I can't wear a beard. I can't. I wish I could, but I can't grow a beard. Just make sure. I point out the CDC did this. Make sure that you shave your beard off or just make sure that it can do a seal. Having a beard looks cool, alright? Because I can't have it, so you think you're all cool and all that stuff. But the reality is that it decreases the seal on it and it doesn't help at all. And if you do come down with this, then you put other people at risk with your beard. It's time to shave the hipster beard. Maybe. Just gently putting that out there.

00:29:11 John Daub: The last thing I wanna discuss is if you do decide that you wanna come to Japan. I'm saying that it's probably better if you can cancel to cancel. But if you do decide that you wanna come, I wanna put this out there for you. Things that you can consider that nobody has talked about. If you do decide to come, I would probably not stay too much in the cities. Try to go to places that aren't infected. Tohoku is an area. It's a beautiful area. There's no infections in that area. Shikoku has just one, I think. There's areas of the country that's almost untouched. There's a lot of ryokan (Japanese inns) and Japanese hotels I would love to have you. A lot of them are... The prices have been reduced. A lot of them are on the verge of going out of business. I would get out of the city of Tokyo anyways and go straight to Japan. Jump in a taxi maybe and just get out of here.

00:30:17 John Daub: Second, if you do come here, I want you to realize that at any moment they can start canceling flights to Japan. You do not wanna be stranded here if you have to go back to work at a certain amount of time. Which is another reason why you should consider canceling. If you do come, have a plan B. Make sure you know how to get to the airport. You can drop whatever you're doing and just get to the airport. Most countries are giving a notice. But with this, getting more and more out of control, we just don't know if this notice will just happen immediately. Flights to China and Korea, to the United States, I believe, are now shut down or seriously reduced. Flights in and out of Japan are starting to see reductions as well. Some countries won't allow flights into and out of Japan. So there's been some flight cancellations. I expect that to probably be more affected next week.

00:31:14 John Daub: So have a plan B if you are here or you're thinking of coming on how to get to the airport quickly. And be aware that you might just have to drop everything to get onto a plane. And have the phone number already in your phone to give the airlines a call for information. As well as the embassy. Japan has a... Sorry, the US embassy, if you're an American, has a phone number that you can register that you're traveling abroad with them as well. Might be something that you wanna do so they at least know where you are. In case there are emergency flights out of here. Just something that you'd wanna keep in mind. Things that you haven't thought about. And this is something we're already discussing on the Discord server that we have. The link, the moderators will put that in here now. And you can only read it unless... After you agree to the terms, the rules. Because we have people posting a lot of spam. Our moderators are doing a good job to making sure that the information is filtered and on target. And is helpful to you if you're considering traveling to Japan. This is not a political place for you to unleash your political feelings and things like this. This is a place to discuss travel in Japan. Things that's on your mind and concern.

00:32:49 John Daub: If you have to get back to work, you can't afford to lose work or you have any fear of any kind of a quarantine. Let me just say definitively, there has been nothing announced on this. And we do not know if this will ever happen. But it should be something that you... If you decide to travel anywhere at this time, consider. Not just Japan, anywhere. That this... The country you're going to could just have an out... Something could happen very quickly and then all of a sudden, you can't get back or upon arrival back in your country, you have to go through a mandatory 14-day quarantine. It's something that you should consider as we get further into March.

00:33:29 John Daub: Will the cherry blossoms be canceled? I don't know. But my gut feeling is some displays or illuminations have been canceled. I said this in the last one. Japan cannot control nature. They will bloom, folks. Spring will spring. And spring will come. And flowers will bloom. And bees will sting the flowers, take its pollen, steal it, and make honey. This is just inevitable. And... It's about the public gatherings and will they light these up at night? The answer is probably not. If I learned anything from the 2011 Great Tohoku earthquake when I was here, this happened about two weeks before the cherry blossoms. And we had earthquakes happening every five minutes aftershocks for a very long time. It was an extremely scary situation to live through, even here in Tokyo. And one of the bright spots in my mind was I will be able to go out and celebrate the cherry blossoms at that time. The reality was that we were discouraged from going there. We could walk around and see them during the day. But any public displays of celebration was just not in the mood of the country. And I think that with what's going on now and with the Prime Minister's words of canceling events, I believe he's going to discourage us in the next update in two weeks not to everybody get together and drink alcohol and pass that underneath the trees. I think that the public... It's safe to say that a lot of celebrations will be quite subdued this year.

00:35:07 John Daub: The thing to do is to go to... What I'm going to do is go to my local area and have a nice walk with my wife and walk around and enjoy the cherry blossoms. And I live here so I can do that. If you are hoping to come here this year, wait and see. But there will be another announcement, I'm sure, from the government within two weeks to assess how this pump the brakes measure, which is what we're doing in Japan, is shaping up. So will the cherry blossoms be canceled this year? I don't know. But my feeling is it'll be a lot less than what we were planning it to be or hoping it to be. When it comes to the Olympics, I'm not even going to speculate on that. I think it depends a lot on what these brakes that... Like pushing the brake measures that Prime Minister Abe has been pumping, pushing out there. And I believe that if these measures start to work, there's a very high... A higher probability that the Olympics will still be held. I don't want to speculate on it, but this is a decision that affects lots of people. So if there's any risk, or the risk is too high, then I'm sure they're going to make the right decision. I think the responsible decision is that we don't want anybody to get sick.

00:36:45 John Daub: I'm going to take you for everybody who's joining me over and out of the stadium. I'm going to sign proclaiming that Tokyo Disneyland is closed today. No, the soap lands are not okay. All right? I'm pretty sure that they're closed. This is a place where people get together. In all seriousness, though, are onsen (hot springs) okay? I think that that's up to the onsen and the hotel will make the determination. I'm sure that there are agencies that are mandating whether or not you can go or not go into public baths. But I would say it's on the fringe of yes and no. Okay? I'd say it's on the fringe.

00:37:25 John Daub: So we're at Tokyo Disneyland. For those that are joining us, the reason why these live streams are over an hour sometimes is because people are joining us at all times of the day, getting the notifications from this live stream. Check out the live stream chat if you want information on watching on the playback. It's kind of interesting to see that. Here's the Tokyo Disneyland sign that says it's closed. I'm not going to jump the fence, although I'm sure some people might have tried it. But there are security cameras everywhere. It's just not worth going to prison. And by the way, there's a lot of people in there and you're probably going to catch something there. So I'm better off not jumping the fence. This is very sad. No meetups. Everything is closed. Universal Studios Japan is closed. Sanrio Puroland. I would say just about every theme park is closed today or will be this week.

00:38:37 John Daub: I like to have a lot of fun with these live streams and take you on an adventure. But there's really not too many adventures I can do. I'm going to be monitoring the news here in Japan and kind of give back to you. What is the feeling of the city right now? But what you can see is that there's for a weekday in Tokyo Disneyland. It's really, really, really empty. Some of the resorts, I believe the hotels are still open. The office was open. There was a representative at the door, maybe just to tell people not to come in. Ikspiari is closed over there. There's guards standing in front of it. They want to discourage people from going out, including YouTubers. So probably I'm going to be going home soon. It just was a 13 kilometer bicycle ride to get here because my wife said not to take the public transportation and I don't blame her. Here's the intersection where the buses will take you to your hotel as well. Yeah, there's not a lot of people here going to a Disney hotel. Not a lot of taxis. Oh, here they are. So there's a queue of taxis, but I don't think it's moved the entire time I've been here for 40 minutes.

00:40:04 John Daub: If you are going around Tokyo to the public transportations, please do take all the precautions. Don't underestimate this. Wear masks, wash your hands. If you have them, wear goggles. I think we're at the stage now. Japanese TV this morning was telling people that maybe goggles is something that we should consider because we're going to be in Tokyo for a while. Because transmission can happen through the eyes. So if you have goggles. I do have a scuba diving mask. I've seen in China, I've been inspired by the creativity of what people are doing. It's almost humorous. It's hard not to think of the images of some of the people. One guy went to a store. You are required to wear a mask in order to go shopping in some areas. But he didn't have a mask anymore. You just can't buy them. So he went into the shop wearing like a Halloween costume that had a mask. The entire costume. He looked like a dragon. And they wouldn't let him into the shop. I guess you have to have a medically approved mask. Not just any mask. So the mask of Zorro. The Three Musketeers mask. These masks don't qualify. A fishbowl probably would not qualify. But in all seriousness, the creativity that we're seeing from our neighbors over in China is inspiring.

00:42:01 John Daub: The purpose of me doing these live streams is to give you, people who are thinking of traveling to Japan, a feeling of what it's like right now. And give you a clear indication of whether or not you should be here. Yeah, goggles. Transmission through the eyes was one thing that came up in the news. It's something that you should consider. They're making announcements. I don't see anybody. Let's see if anybody gets off this bus. This isn't the best time. Yes, there's some travelers. Two people got off the bus. It's crazy. This is not the best time to be traveling anywhere. And even though Japan said to travel to, warning. I don't know if it's going to stay like that.

00:42:44 John Daub: Now I printed out. For those that are probably curious a little bit. I was curious myself. So I printed out some things here. This is interesting too. This comes from the Wikipedia. And I want to go over this with you. This is the cases in Japan. You can see the progression and the trend line. You see that going up here. And continues here from the 10th. This is why Wikipedia is getting a donation from me. They're doing a very good job of tracking this here. And the numbers are. It's a very gradual. Nothing breaking out. The numbers are not breaking out. But every day it's an increase of about. They wrote the percentages here. So the percentages of the increases are going down. See that 9, 7, 11, 9. But plus 9%. So it's not like a massive thing. But it's worrying here in Japan. And we had a US travel advisory number 2. Avoid contact with sick people. I'm doing that. That's why I ride my bicycle.

00:44:01 John Daub: And this is what the US travel advisory levels mean here. Level 1, exercise normal precautions. 2, exercise increased caution. That's where we are in Japan right now. Number 3, reconsider travel. We are not at level 3 by the way. And number 4, do not travel. Our neighbors Korea and China are at that right now. And so we're not at a level 3. Which is to reconsider travel. We are at an exercise increased caution. But I expect that could change at any time.

00:44:38 John Daub: I've been asked if I'm going to evacuate. The answer is no. During the Great Tohoku earthquake. We had an awful situation where we had aftershocks. It was one of the scariest moments in my entire life. And we're coming up on the anniversary just 10 days from now. The most traumatic thing that ever happened in my life besides birth. I don't remember that. Thank goodness. Coming out into the light. But that day will not ever be forgotten. Just I thought I was going to. It was the end of me. Like you didn't know what to do. You're deer in headlights. My entire apartment was shaking. And probably on the 11th, I will give you another update on this. Because I want to sit down and tell you the story. Of what it was like for 3-11. We call it here in Japan. But one of the scariest moments in my entire life that was. And that's coming up this month too. But we, Japan had travel advisories. I believe at level 4. Because of all the problems that we had in this country. And you just did. People were not coming here. That's why I started Only in Japan. It was after the Great Tohoku earthquake that I said. A couple months after that. Nobody was coming here. And it was such a shame. There's so much misinformation. That it broke my heart so much. Because this is my home. And there's no way I'm going to leave.

00:46:16 John Daub: The tourists that left Japan. Which was a lot of people. We called them flyjin. Like gaijin. You know foreigners. We called them. They had a name. Flyjin. And there are a lot of flyjin. Most of them were European. Because they got free flights to go home. The Belgians. The French. And I don't blame them. I probably would have left if I'd gotten a free flight. The US was charging over $3000 for flights via Taiwan. I wasn't. And there's. You know what. There was no way I was going to leave. Not even for a free flight. Because this is the time where the country needed volunteers the most. To go up there and help people up in Tohoku. And I had some amazing friends that did that. And I helped them. I'm not even the level they did. They were using their own money to rent trucks. Buy food. And drive up to Minamisoma for example. With their own money. Rent trucks. And drive up to Minamisoma. You can't contemplate how. The kindness of some of the people. That I'm so proud to consider my friends. To be surrounded by them. Taught me a lot. Going up there and seeing what was happening. It changed the way I see this country. And the way it came together. After that. Yeah. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done up there.

00:47:16 John Daub: This is the sign in front of Tokyo Disneyland. And today it's closed. Yesterday it was closed and it will be until the 16th and then probably in two weeks they'll make a determination if it will be closed again we don't know so if you're coming to Japan right now and we just do not know if you're gonna have much to do except you know eat which is never problem.

00:47:50 John Daub: Can hear in the background the music. Any upcoming midnight snack runs I think I will do one. What is the content for this channel gonna be like over the next couple of weeks I don't know there's not a lot of stuff that I wanted to do is closed I do this for a living this is my job I've been reporting for programs on NHK World for 12 years this is what I do so I'm gonna find stuff to do probably every three days or so I might do an update like this because people are really worried and me myself and I just want to like researching this and I want you all because many of you are coming here and this is why I'm doing this I might have said it already but many of you are coming here because you've watched a YouTube show that inspired you to pick Japan and now the most heartbreaking thing for me is to read the people telling me that they've canceled their trip as a result of what's happening right now and to see cause I know how hard it is to make that decision where you've invested a lot of money and time to do this. And the risk is just maybe right now too much, especially if you have a family member that's elderly or you have children, you might be okay during a trip, but then you're going to come home and if you do catch it, you probably had transmitted it to your family. And I don't know how you can live with that. So I couldn't. So that's why I'm not leaving until this is over. I'll be here the entire time.

00:49:46 John Daub: Look at the princess. Can't take people's dreams away, man. You will not take anyone's dreams away. You may close the happiest place on earth, but to take someone's dream away will not happen. Not on my watch. It's cute. I like that. Little teeny things give you a ray of hope. Even in the worst situations, even in unimaginable horror, you can still find a flower somewhere sprouting out of the ground and giving you hope. If you just look for it, I know that's there. And I've been here for about an hour and we see one princess. That's a pretty good feeling. Usually you're going to see tons and tons of people here that are dressed up in Disney ears and things like this. And we only have one princess. Oh man, that feels good to see that. That feels really good.

00:50:54 John Daub: I'm going to keep giving you guys updates. If that's what you really like. So give me a thumbs up. Let me know what you think. Leave me comments below, hit our Discord server. And I want you to stick to reputable sites like the WHO, the CDC, and even the CDC website at our website. I believe that I'm one of the sources to give you an idea of what this area of Japan is like right now. And I will probably rent a car anyways and go out to the countryside if not just to see the mountains and to get out of the city for a day. So we'll take you with us as this event continues to unfold. I'm still at a worried phase. I went from concerned to worried, but there's not even close to panic. Japan is being extremely responsible. People are just staying home.

00:51:52 John Daub: I parked my bicycle over here to the right. The bicycle parking lot is ridiculously empty right now. Usually it would be completely full of bicyclists coming here to hit Disney. That's not happening today. This channel is about enjoying Japan. If you can't make it to Japan, I'm going to continue to enjoy it for you and bring you with me through these live streams. That's what I do. That's what we do. You're coming with me. I'll probably do some neighborhood walks around Tokyo. Got an update from Kevin. He's off of work because the schools in Kyoto have been closed. So we might drive down to Osaka. I don't know. But I'm pretty sure that Kanae Daub and I won't have a lot of things to do except edit videos and plan stuff and watch Netflix. Most definitely Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime are doing pretty well in Japan. Oh, and YouTube too. Yeah. I think we're doing pretty well with everybody staying home. Kids staying home and not knowing what else to do.

00:53:10 John Daub: If you have any questions, I will answer them. We're getting close to the one hour mark. The reason why I do it longer is so that you all have a chance to ask questions. Go to Himeji. That's kind of far. But I'm staying away from the Shinkansen as well. Yeah, I'm very thankful how Japanese society has groomed to always think of others. People are always looking at the other person. You're always filling your neighbor's sake glass if you're drinking it. You're always kind of thinking about that. You're thinking about your community. And if you were to go out and be sick and not wear a mask, everyone would be very on top of you, very upset. And the guilt that you would feel by doing it would be so powerful that that keeps people from doing the wrong thing here.

00:53:55 John Daub: Are shrines and temples closed? Good question. Let me just put it in perspective. I think that they're open, but they're discouraging people from coming for festivals. The Katsuura Hinamatsuri Doll Festival has been canceled, and they're discouraging people to travel to go there, to go and see it. I think they might even have put it away. So in that sense, yeah, they are. But I think temples and shrines, even in tough situations, the priest or the monk there is always there to help others through tough times. So in that way, it's always going to be open. But in another way, as a tourist attraction, it's open, but it's discouraged. I don't know what the situation is in Kyoto. That's probably for the next update. I'll ask Kevin and some other people, what is it like to be in Kyoto right now? What I've heard, and Instagram is a good place. Just go into hashtag current posts, hashtag Kyoto, and you'll see probably the situation, what it's like in Kyoto right now. What I've heard is that like foot traffic is 50% or less than what it used to be. And many of the attractions have reduced hours or they're closed. You just, they're not selling tickets for entry and they're discouraging people to crowd together, asking people just to stay home.

00:55:28 John Daub: If you are in Japan, probably best not to go out and go to these attractions. Despite hurting the economy, right now, I think Japan's goal is to, the reason why they've closed Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios is to slam the brake really hard that and to keep transmissions like as low as possible. Whether or not this translates to the Olympics being saved or not, I don't know. I'm not going to speculate, but it does not hurt to slam the brakes really hard and close almost everything where people come to, and this is where it's been spread the most. And I'm very hopeful that we'll see some positive details, because I'm one of those optimists that this will work and we'll see numbers decline and then Japan being an island will be saved. I don't know how this is going to turn out. That's the reason why if you ask me for specifics, I will say I just do not know. And anybody who tells you that they know just does not know. They're lying to you. We don't know how this is going to be.

00:56:38 John Daub: Any more questions, guys? Wear gloves. I don't believe we're there yet, but it doesn't matter if you wear gloves or not. Just keep washing your hands or unless it's, coronavirus is not something that bores through your skin. Let's just say trains are closed. Do part time workers get compensation? My friend who's an English teacher said that he's getting, he's going to be receiving some compensation from his company for two weeks for classes that were scheduled and paid. He will be receiving payment for it, but classes that were not scheduled, he will not be paid for. So many businesses are asking people to work from home. I think that they're very mindful that not paying them would hurt the economy in another way. So I'm sure the government's going to step in with some plans. I'm talking not just the US, but not just Japan, but other governments. I don't want to speculate too much on it, but my gut feeling is that as products are not being made in China and getting to people in other parts of the world, prices and demand going up, supplies will go down, prices will increase. People will be laid off as well a little bit. It just depends how bad that this gets. The ripple effect is real. So we will see that happening if this keeps going.

00:58:02 John Daub: So Japan slamming the brakes now and suffering some economic hardship now makes a lot of sense now because what would happen if they didn't make this kind of an effort would be even worse. And I seriously consider, I seriously ask you to consider travel to Japan at this time. We don't know if this will be raised to level three, which is don't travel and level four, like do not definitely travel there since our neighbors are at level four. Japanese government will stop auction sites with masks. Probably. I know that people are taking advantage of that. They're hoarding. Is the virus dead but we don't know. We just do not know if it's going to be here in the summer because we just can't tell. All I know is that the numbers are not going down. They're still rising. There's an increase every day. And unless we see like three days of it going down, then I don't see a trend line. And as someone who has a degree in economics, which really means nothing unless you're an economist, but I do know that the importance of good data and trends. And if the trend line is not consistently going in one direction, you cannot say that it's a good sign. It has to be consistently going into a direction. And it's been consistently since January going up.

00:59:36 John Daub: Does kids, Okinawa, great choice. Okinawa is having a tough situation now because the cruise ship had gone through there. Don't travel people. Tourism has spread yet. I can't say travel to get back home and don't travel anymore. Maybe travel until you like, if you can't get a refund right now, you're on a fringe, right? This is what I'm trying to say. If you can't get a refund and you have to travel right now, your flights leaving tomorrow, you're on the fringe of something that could go wrong. That's what I'm saying. Have a plan B have a, have a big, seriously consider the risks, have a plan B and be able to get back to the airport and get back to work. In case you want it, you have to catch that last flight back. Cause the last flight means like you're here for a while. That Airbnb is going to become your home. You're on the fringe right now, I would say. So if you can get a refund, do so if you're, if you wait a little bit longer, airlines might be a little bit more liberal in giving their policies another look. I'm seeing that they're starting to budge a little bit. What they said three days ago is a little bit different than what they're saying today. And what they say tomorrow might be different too, because tomorrow's Monday. They might have internal meetings and say, we have to give people their money back because we're going to have to cancel flights. Eventually, if they don't want to come, it's good to be nice. Now they'll fly with us in the future because they can trust us. Maybe they'll say that it doesn't sound like an airline thing to do, but ANA has surprised me and JAL has surprised me a lot with really kindness, really kind things as well. They understand the business.

01:02:00 John Daub: But right now the numbers don't look so high. That could be deceiving because we don't know from these people from two weeks ago that have it and don't have symptoms if they have it now and they're spreading it. So just be careful if you are traveling, it's no longer just a one country thing. Now, the country where this started, it's still not, it's still an awful situation, but it's no longer isolated to that one country. And I see more and more. It's not just about people who come from there. It's about people who just look sick everywhere in a lot of public places. Now you see temperature meters showing people's temperatures. And if you're a little bit hotter than if you register in their limits, then somebody comes and talks to you from a distance, I believe, and we'll recommend that you go and be tested. That's starting to happen.

01:03:04 John Daub: About the cherry blossoms, go back and take a look at the live playback, the playback. But we don't know yet. The reason why this is until the 15th of March, the shutdowns is so that they can see if the trend starts to turn around. And if it was successful, if it is my gut feeling is that this will probably continue if not just for another month. This is my gut feeling. And it's shut down a little bit longer, but I also don't think that they can keep the cherry blossoms open. I mean, the festival part of it, the blossoms will bloom no matter what it's nature, but the part where you celebrate under the trees, probably not going to happen. I'm traveling to the supermarket, probably a good idea not to hoard food, but to buy enough for the next three days. If you are in Japan, I went to Costco, and I did hoard a little bit, but I had a car. Mike Chen and Peter von Gomm came with me. We did a nice live stream. I went there to get supplies. I kind of had an idea that this might happen. Doesn't hurt to have six bags of coffee. This is like, I have like three kilograms of coffee in my apartment, so I'll be fine. And I believe the toilet paper is back on the shelves. The madness is over. The news has reported not to hoard it. It doesn't make sense.

01:04:28 John Daub: Our wonderful moderator Nasha brought said something pretty interesting. It's like, why does Japan need to hoard the toilet paper anyways? Like almost every toilet has a washlet, right? With a stream of water that cleans you. What do they need the toilet paper for? Huh? Are they going to just wrap it around their heads? Don't know. So I think that the toilet paper hoarding will probably stop, right? Makes sense. Costco was a madhouse. If you're thinking of going to Costco, Japan is not just bidet, a washlet sprays in a different direction. My friend, you're going to learn the hard way.

01:05:16 John Daub: Now I came here just to show you the life. If you're joining us right now, I was at the sign showing that Disney is closed for right now. Tonight, I will be riding a bicycle to go meet with her father for dinner. We are not going out to restaurants. We are limiting our, we're not riding public transportation. I rode 13 kilometers to get here, which was an eventful day and I'll have to ride 13 kilometers to get back. Yeah, most of these streams are being unmonetized. So this is very much about me communicating with you and showing you what it's like and answering your questions. That's why we're doing this. Stay safe, everybody. If you're in Japan, the hotline for JNTO keep, they're updating it like twice a day. It seems like they have an update for March 1st, which is very promising. I sent them an email earlier this week for a request to talk with them. They have not replied yet. Which is okay. But what they did do is they started to communicate with travelers worried about coming to Japan. And I don't know if that was because of me writing them and calling them three times or what, but they listened to whatever it is and now they have an update and pin the link to this video in the playback for you.

01:07:00 John Daub: I'm going to have to ride back. It's a long way home, but yeah, do take care of yourself and seriously consider whether or not this is the right thing for you to do to come and travel to Japan right now. Nobody's very few people are going outside the traffic, even on the highway. Usually this is jammed right here. It's very easy to drive in that road, right in front of Tokyo Disneyland. That's pretty amazing. Actually, it doesn't happen a lot.

01:08:11 John Daub: I'm gonna walk over to the side. I'm gonna take a thumbnail for this video, but I'll take you one more time to the Tokyo Disneyland entrance. Do subscribe. I'll give you another update in about three or four days as new developments happen this week. I expect Monday morning, the news to be all over this to report what has happened over this weekend and give us a full update on Japanese news. I often watch TBS Hito-bito because I've been a guest on that show about 10 times, talking about inbound tourism to Japan. It's a live show. It makes me nervous as heck to be on there knowing that millions of people are watching. Live, but we have like 3000 people watching live here, so it's okay. I've had my practice live TV. Here's the entrance to my home station for those that have been watching for a while. I'm kind of just taking you around the station area because there's nowhere else I can go. The monorail for Tokyo Disneyland is working. It's going every 10 minutes. It looks like nobody is really getting on and off of it. I've been hanging out outside the station and nobody gets on and off, but they still running it. I think that there's some people still staying at the Sheraton hotel and some of the hotels around the area, but I expect that the resort cancellations and all that to happen.

01:09:30 John Daub: The park is closed right in front of us is the walkway to get into Disney. I'll take you to that sign and that's where we're going to end the live stream. This is my home station, the JR station where people get off. There's you can see the signs for Tokyo Disneyland, all the attractions, DisneySea. It's all closed today. So is Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. And you know, Tokyo Disneyland is an indicator of the country, just like how McDonald's is for food on the prices of the Big Mac. When Tokyo Disneyland closes down, that's sort of a big deal. And I want you to take that into consideration when you decide for your travel plans and whether or not you should be to Japan or not.

01:10:24 John Daub: Don't take my dream away. The next update, I'm thinking of going central and then talking with travelers that are still here to see how they feel about being here at this time. Stay away. How long does it take before the air is clear? Dude coughing without a mask. Is this what the world has come to? I'm gonna quickly if maybe if I cringe, just be careful, everybody. That's it. Thanks for the questions. I will never see Tokyo Disneyland this quiet ever again. I want to be back here. Let's go here when this thing's everything gets better. That's an indication that we're back. See everybody.