00:00:28 John Daub: Hey everybody, how are you? Let's turn the music down a little bit. Welcome to the beautiful weekend that we're having. I'm in Tokyo and it's not raining, blue skies, which is unusual for the rainy season. I hope this finds you all doing pretty well. In this live stream, we're going to be discussing the video that I made on YouTube on the new channel, the John Daub Only in Japan channel, and I want to talk to you about the Naked Man Festival, which is this amazing festival that takes place in the winter. It's pretty insane and intense and it's cold, but there's a reason behind it. I want to share with you the video that I made on YouTube. I want to go over the social media that we have for Only in Japan because it's a new channel and there's still a lot of questions, but I've started a new channel called John Daub Only in Japan and you can see the channels right here, including Patreon if you want.

00:01:16 John Daub: This month's postcard is right here, this is Kanazawa. So you can get all that on Patreon, patreon.com/onlyinjapan. But these are all part of my world and you're also part of my world. So thank you and welcome. We also have the Discord server, which we'll go to after we talk about. Welcome to Noboribetsu, this is one of the famous onsen (hot spring) towns in Japan. Now, I'm not here just for the onsen, I'm here for a festival. Japan has four seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall. And we're going to be talking about that video.

00:02:21 John Daub: This video was made in February. It was so cold at the time. But when I looked at it, seeing the videos of the... and there I am in Miyazaki. If you looked at the pictures for this Noboribetsu festival, you had to do it. It was so insane. And there's the animated opening. Alright, I gotta get out of here. This is awesome. That's right. That is Peter von Gomm's voice there. And I wanted to hook people, so right away I had to show the insanity of this event. And just images of dudes in Japanese thongs called fundoshi (traditional loincloth) is exactly what I think would work to get you to watch until the end. And then I showed a little bit of the wooden phallus, which is like a what moment?

00:03:44 John Daub: I like to start off with maps because if you don't know where I am, you can't place it mentally where I am. Then the video doesn't have as much meaning. So being able to see where this is in Hokkaido, see the volcanic influence that this town has, and why they have a great appreciation for the water in their town, and why this weird festival, which is like bizarre, is placed solely on their respect for water, which is how they make a living. A wasteland. The music is awesome. The sulfuric egg smell will linger, sometimes wafting towards the hotel. I remember finding this music, free music on YouTube, and we can use this royalty-free stuff. And I was like, whoa, this matches this wasteland video. This is wasteland music. And just worked so good to complement. Like, this place doesn't make any sense to me because just on the left and right of it are lush forests, beautiful places, loads of wildlife. And then there's this, which has nothing. It looks like a desert. It's so bizarre, especially in the summer because Noboribetsu is such a... like, Hokkaido is such a natural place.

00:05:12 John Daub: This is a guide, Yoshi. And I wasn't sure whether or not I needed this interview, but I always think it's good to meet local people when you're doing a video like this. And she's not from Noboribetsu, but from the area. And I thought that this was good to show... like, people do speak English here. It's a resort, and they're used to that. Yeah, the rotten egg smell. You can smell it right here. This is right in the square. And I love that they put this here. I guess this spring's been here for... it's a geyser. And the geyser isn't always exploding with water. But it most often is. Like, I think they said like 12 times a day it will explode for like 30 or 45 minutes, then go quiet again. But it's so loud. It is so loud. And if you've never seen a geyser, you can see it here. It's awesome. And it just splatters on the top of the roof there. And the steam goes up. And it's all over the city from this one park. It's an amazing scene. And that in itself is a reason to kind of go and visit Noboribetsu.

00:06:33 John Daub: But as you can see, I love talking with people. And naturally, just weird things come in, like the smell. It was as though that she didn't even think to mention that it smells funny. Because she's so used to it. That's the thing. Noboribetsu also has a lot of really good attractions. They have a bear park, which is really sad to visit. They have an Ainu museum, which is renewed, which is really beautiful and now a lot better than three years ago. And then they also have this, which is in the winter one of the only accessible attractions. Because in the summer, there's so many things to do in Noboribetsu as well. But in the winter, because of the weather, it's not as good. Because of the snow, it's dangerous to go hiking. So you can't take advantage of the natural world so much, except for this. This is the Oyunuma River and it's slippery as heck. I fell down there. But the water temperature was amazing. It was 40 degrees. It didn't make any sense again. You take off your shoes right here and you walk in. And you can walk over to the waterfall. And it feels good in between your toes. There's no rocks in there. And it's just weird. It's so warm. Why is this warm? This warm river in the winter, to me, was just really amazing.

00:08:06 John Daub: In Only in Japan style, I like to make and produce these videos in segments. And I have a foot bath segment. I have an opening segment, map segment. And now this is an Oni segment, where you can learn about the Japanese oni (demons/trolls). When I think of devilish stuff, I think of rock music. Like really hardcore, Ozzy Osbourne type level, Iron Maiden artwork things. So for me, this seemed to match the oni's image. This oni, also, when I hitchhiked in 2003, was something that takes me back to 17 years ago. So I've done this for almost two decades now, pouring water on them. I got permission to film in the public onsen. And this took like two days to get the right person to say yes and beg him, please let me film for 20 seconds. I need this for a scene in the video. And they let me film in there when people were in there. They said a guy came and he goes, excuse me, YouTuber is going to be filming. Is that okay? I hope everyone's okay. Nobody said anything. And then I brought a camera in. So people really didn't care too much, which was interesting.

00:09:37 John Daub: This is the start of the festival. Here, just listen for a second. So this year's, 2020's Onsen Festival was really subdued compared to years past. They usually have a lot of events. And this year, because of the coronavirus, it just was starting at this time. We didn't have social distancing and things like this. So yeah, everybody was required to wear a mask. And I had a mask on too when I was filming this, which is a good thing. But we just didn't know a lot about it then. And they didn't know whether or not to. And also this official from the city, we didn't know whether or not this was going to continue. And the decision not to cancel happened about a week before. And I was really glad that they didn't. Because it was really early on in the pandemic. Setsubun (seasonal division festival). Do you see them throwing the soybeans? Setsubun is a holiday celebrated nationwide where the father of the house will wear a devil's mask. Or the man of the house. And then the kids will chase them throwing beans. And it's a way to, there's lots of meanings. But I think it's like a way to purify and get rid of the bad and evil spirits. And purify yourself. And start over.

00:11:22 John Daub: This is where I go in and wear a fundoshi. This is exactly, I look forward to these. I look forward to these because they're a challenge. It's a real pain in the neck. And this is not a view that... I remember coming in like, whoa, okay. It's real again. Another naked man festival. And this fundoshi is very different than the ones that I've worn in the past. The one in Okayama and the one in Miyazaki were different. Miyazaki's was like a Brazilian bikini, see-through one. And this one was all the way up to here. So it offered a little bit more warmth, which I think everyone was really happy about. And it also taped up the beer gut, which happens when you don't go out too much in the winter. That happens when someone throws hot water on you. Or cold, hot water and you get cold real fast. You're gonna scream, man. It's intense. Fundoshi naturally loosen up in the rear, but it takes some time. It's really in there. I remember, it just seemed natural for me to lift up the flap and take a quick look. And what I saw was a disaster. You don't want to look underneath there. I couldn't let the camera angle. I had to zoom past that a little bit.

00:13:22 John Daub: They didn't give me a wedgie like they did in Okayama. I guess they didn't need to do that. The guy who put the fundoshi on me had been doing this for decades. And he does it in a more polite way, thank goodness. Because nobody needs that level of pain. Now we got the booze flowing. Do you see that? That is the sake. And the old timers bring it. And every single religious naked man festival, the priests and the monks, they tell you at temples and shrines, do not drink sake. We want you to be pure in mind. But you can't tell the old timers to stop drinking. And if they give you sake, you kind of have to drink it. So I only had about three, four sips. I'm not insane. It's cold, right? But I think it's good to feel a part of the group, to do some of the stuff that the group does. But make sure if you do participate in a naked man festival, don't drink too much. Don't drink before the event. Don't drink after. And once you put your fundoshi thong on, you're not going to the toilet again until it's done. This one was only about 45 minutes. But I think we had this on for about an hour before we started, though. So maybe it's roughly about two hours you have to have this thong on.

00:15:09 John Daub: Um, this is great to see the young guy. And if it wasn't for peer pressure, I don't know if anybody would have done it. But many young people take part in this festival. Peer pressure in Japan, like if your boss tells you you gotta do something, then you gotta do something. And it's great that he came out. And I know he loved it. He had fun. In these naked man festivals, you kind of huddle up. Is that a snow angel or snow demon? I'm still trying to figure that out. But you would huddle up with the group. And you'd go like this. And you yell that word, washui, washui. It's a way for the group to come together as one. And I learned this years ago. We yell that because every single person is individual. But when you yell it, you feel together as a group. And it's important to take care of everybody in your group. So washui, that's the meaning of it. I thought that was interesting.

00:16:18 John Daub: This, alright, now I'm in battle mode. This is battle mode. Because you have to have this thinking. If you're not in battle mode, you're going to freeze out there. You have to have this energy and maintain this high level for the whole period. If the moment you let down, it's over. The start of it was almost comedic. Listen to the music. It was just cold. I really was screaming like a girl. There's no way to avoid it. Look, these dudes, and look at that guy running. Did you see that guy sprinting? Ah, that was so funny. This is Narita-san with the camera on a snow bank getting this view. And he did a good job. He wasn't used to the camera, but he did a really good job. Very cool because right now they're gonna throw snow on me. Spectators welcomed us. Why are they throwing snow? We're already cold. Why would they add to the coldness? This was much colder than the one in Okayama, the first one. And way colder than Miyazaki. Hokkaido is like Japan's Alaska, okay? It's like Yukon, but not because Yukon is way colder and so is Alaska.

00:19:10 John Daub: This water was hot. This was our savior. And our downfall. Alright? So the water keeps you warm, but when you're wet, you cool off so fast. And my hair was actually iced up. Okay, here comes the screaming. This is my favorite part. That scream was for real. Screaming was a way to keep me warm. Alright? When you scream, you generate a lot of heat. And you feel that passion, you know? That you're in, look, you remember that scene from Full Metal Jacket? Show me your war face? That's my war face, man! That's it! You gotta show it! This is battle! You have to believe in this, okay? I believed. I believed more than anybody else. I don't know why no one else is screaming. I wanted to win. I was ready to go and tackle the people. But I didn't know the rules. But I figured I would do it. I would follow everyone's lead so I ended up not tackling anybody. Which is good.

00:20:56 John Daub: But the rules are simple. He got the headband. This is what they call a cavalry war. And two, three people carry one dude, like a horse. And you try to capture the flag. And the meaning is if the red flag captures, the water temperature increases. Which is good for the onsen. If the white team wins, then the amount of hot spring increases. And that's good too. So it's like a win-win. And then this happened. Like, this is an omikoshi (portable shrine). So for those of you who don't know, this is kami-sama (God). You see he's wrapped up. Put on the same thing that you would carry an omikoshi with. So you have to treat this, it's not just a wooden object. It is a fertility god. And it's going around this steaming hot, the cold weather and the hot water is the reason why it's steaming like this. Which is incredible. It adds this mysterious smoke. And it's been like this every year. But the fertility god is very important for this town. Because the population is decreasing. And they know that. And it's kind of really nice that they add this to the festival. It looks weird to everybody. But it's perfectly normal. Really.

00:22:46 John Daub: Nobody stayed. This is awesome. Nobody stayed. We all just ran. And there's my bottom. That's like one of the only times that it gets air time. I was freaking. I've never been this cold in my life. This is, I'm not faking this. It is so cold. You're soaking wet. And it's probably like minus ten or even less. The temperature's certainly gone down. And it's worse than a freezer, okay? You're in a colder than a freezer without jackets wet. And naked. It's awful. But I loved it. This is also a good feeling. To thaw out in the bath after it's done. It's a great feeling. Because you finished something. You completed something. And I didn't understand exactly everything at this point. But just know that I completed something significant. That's how I felt. And it was a very, very good feeling. And I have this euphoria. This really warm glow and feeling. I really think that it's important to try these kinds of local festivals. You might not understand why when you watch it. But there's always a historical background to everything that you do in Japan. That's Japan. That's Noboribetsu. This is the kind of festival.

00:24:42 John Daub: So you can see like I'm really feel good after doing this festival. Getting warm again. The body lives off of these kinds of shocks, I think. You have to shock the body sometimes. And I was shocked for a long time. Not just from the pain. But that was a real scream. And this is the ending of the first episode. Now, this is the first episode. So it's only going to get better from here. That's what I'm telling everybody. The second and the third episodes are pretty good. But it's going to get better and better with time. And I think that's really what we can take away from this. I wanted to start off with something that had a lot of impact. And was different than other Naked Man festivals that I've done. This is that story. A bizarre one. And the purpose of me starting Only in Japan. I've already been over this. But after 2011, there was a lot of misconception about not just Fukushima. But about Japan in general. And the show's purpose was to try to show Japan and correct some of those western misconceptions.

00:26:01 John Daub: Like this octopus tentacle thing where people are trying to get away from the world. And people get off on that. Like I've never seen that. And like maid cafes and stuff. They're not that normal actually. Or people dressing up and walking around in blue hair. That's cool. But it's not the norm. And it's kind of like very weird and conservative Japan. But the subcultures. The counterculture to what is the norm. The norm in Japan is so tight. And so conservative. The counterculture is so bizarre. That's what's amazing. Because of the high level of strictness of the society. The subculture or the rebellion is even more massive. That rift creates the Japanese subcultures which makes it awesome. The kind of thinking. The thinking is radical in Japan because of the strictness of general society. That's what I love about this place. And I'm somewhere in between. Just watching it all. And it's awesome. This is the... I don't think it's weird at all. I just think it's just part of Japan. And it's always been like that. That's less the norm in Japan. And more the norm in Akihabara or Harajuku. You know, yeah. You won't see people outside dressing in goth or cosplay. People don't really do that normally. They do that for maybe cosplay events. But you don't see people walking around in cosplay. But foreign tourists do that. Which is cool. But that's not normal. And this festival is not normal. Alright? This festival is unique. I think so.

00:27:45 John Daub: When you come to Japan and you travel somewhere. And you have an opportunity to take part in something. Something bigger than yourself. Some kind of festival. You have to do it. And I said this in the end of the video. You will never feel closer or have a better understanding of Japan. Until after you actually participate and see what it's like. And it's not just in Japan. Even in your own country. After you participate in something. You really have a better understanding of it. There are so many naked man festivals in Japan. It's not just Noboribetsu. It's not just Okayama or Miyazaki. I've been on a naked man festival on three of the four main islands of Japan. There are actually hundreds of them. And there are local ones that even Japanese might not even know about. And that's what makes this really cool. They called it the Noboribetsu Onsen Matsuri (Hot Spring Festival). And this actually is only rooted in history going back 40, 50 years. In the 1970s, I believe. And the reason why was because in the 1970s, that's when this onsen town started to really grow. And they wanted to make sure they never forgot. This is what I love about Japan. They didn't want to forget what was really important to their success, which is the water. Which is the blessing of the water from the volcano that comes to their town is why they have jobs and why they have success. And they didn't want to forget about that. So every year they do this festival in a religious way. Because when you wear a fundoshi thong, it is a sign of purity saying that you're giving your body as it is. And as one man said, every year he feels renewed. It's a way to get rid of the impurities. And I felt like that at the end. I felt so alive.

00:30:33 John Daub: Like after I participated in the Nebuta Festival in Aomori. When you dance for two hours to the music, at the end of it, you feel so alive. And those are the reasons why participating in festivals is an amazing cultural experience. And that in itself is a reason to come. Never mind what you look like. If you're too big or you're too skinny. Nobody cares in Japan. Nobody is pointing at you. To the warriors out there. Only you are. And the same when you're in a bath. Going into the bath. It doesn't matter what you think you look like. Nobody is going to be pointing at you. Because we're all the same. And this is the thinking that Japan has. That maybe Westerners can't comprehend. We're all the same. We're all equal when we're naked. And that's the feeling that people have. We've never saw them as being not equal. Everyone in that group there. And it didn't matter that it was a Westerner. We were all equal. We had that feeling. Whether it was a company president. Or the lowest kohai (junior). We were all at the same level at that festival. You see? That's what I like about it. And then when we change back into our clothes. Then maybe it's a little different. Slightly.

00:32:00 John Daub: There's so many amazing festivals in Japan too. I haven't even scratched the surface. The thing with the festival is. It's very hard to cover them. Unless you have a team of people. With the cameras getting wet. There's no way. To get perfect audio. Or to get perfect video. Close in a water festival. It's impossible. Unless you have expensive cameras. And a professional production. That's why you don't see a lot of YouTubers doing this. And making good videos out of it. How many have you seen doing a naked man festival? Successfully? I don't think that too many can do it. It's very, very hard. And the editing is hard. To try to fix the colors. Low light. Things that are not the way things happen. It's not easy. If you go to the Sapporo Snow Festival. Make sure that you book like two nights at a hotel in Noboribetsu. Stay in a cheaper hotel in Sapporo. Save your money. Use that at an onsen resort. It's amazing. If you do not spend time at a Japanese onsen resort. You can get a free onsen bath at a hot spring. And you come to Japan because you're afraid to get naked in public with other people that don't look at you at all. It's insane. Because you feel so good afterwards. You're going to kick yourself for not having gone into a public bath.

00:34:02 John Daub: I spent my first year, year and a half. And never went to one because I was like, I don't want to get naked with a bunch of strangers in a bath. I felt like this for the first year and a half. And then there was a situation where I had no choice. The only bath was a public bath at a hotel, a guesthouse I stayed in. So I walked across the street to the public bath. I took a bath and I soaked in this big bathtub for about 20 minutes. And it felt so good. I got hooked right away. I said, why don't I take more baths? Why have I been taking showers? It was the greatest feeling in the world. And you can get over the cultural hump, so to speak. And then once you do that, then start doing what Kanae and I do, which is we rent a car or we travel to onsen as part of our vacation. We literally travel to hot spring towns and that's our vacation. We'll spend two or three days there. That's the amazing thing with Japan.

00:35:00 John Daub: Do you have any questions? I will take some of your questions. While I do take questions, I'm going to be hitting our Discord server, which has a few people in here. There's Peso, UFO Bob, and Nosh Abroad is here. Hey, how you doing? I don't know if I can hear you over there. We're trying to do an audio check. If you have any questions, you can also write in on the chat as well. Did you not own your own original channel? Carlos, I'm not really going to talk about this. I think I've explained it more than enough. We're all in this together. Yes. That's when you're in a festival. You're all in this together. That's the feeling that we need to have. I think that feeling resonates not just in the festival, but in any community. Is there some lagging? Yeah, maybe there is some lagging. I often wonder what creates the lag. It could be just so many programs opened at the same time. I've ordered a new computer, so that should be here next week. I'm going to go ahead and do that. How come the real Fazi, some people write Kanae's name as Kanye. It's spelled K-A-N-A-E. There you go. That's how you pronounce Kanae Daub's name.

00:37:07 John Daub: All I know is that the Discord is running just fine. How you doing, everybody? So I can't hear the audio here. Even in Discord, I can't hear audio, which is weird. Maybe I have to turn on the settings. I don't know. It's always kind of... Alright. I guess we can't really do a conversation, but I guess we can do a wave. Peso's there. We have some technical difficulties here with this, but it's nice to see the community here. We have a wonderful Discord server, and we need your boost. So if you're a Discord user, do come over and give us a boost, because we use our server quite a bit, and we really would appreciate a Discord boost, because we have, I think, 31, and we need to stay over 30 to keep our server strong. So maybe we can get a few boosts out of this. If you do boost, you have a chance at winning a postcard, and this month, I'm bringing back the postcards, free postcards for boosts. So if you have a good chance to win. Discord boosts are very helpful. Thank you, HelloHigh821. Absolutely. And boosters have their own chat room on Discord, too. When you boost, you get boosted, too, in your level.

00:39:04 John Daub: Do you know any foreign programmers in Japan? Is it viable to try to find a job over there? Yeah, you know, that's a hard thing. I think the first thing that you have to do is make sure that you can speak Japanese. I want you to think like this, alright, because I know some programmers here. Polling on Discord, right? Thanks, Nosh Abroad. There's some polling on Discord, which I think will be pretty interesting on the logo design and on naming and things like that. So if you want your voice heard, you can come over to Discord server and give your opinion on the direction of Only in Japan, as well as be an insider or a traveler by joining on the YouTube channel. That makes a huge difference and it helps a lot, especially since the new channel has like no... It was just like monetized a month ago. I made a grand total of $84 this month on the new channel, which is a lot different than what I did last year. So I know I'm not complaining, but actually it's really awesome to be starting over and not have the same kind of... I guess my motivation on the new channel is a little bit different now. I don't feel like I need to get subscribers. I just need to make good content that feels good. That feels really good.

00:40:33 John Daub: I got some amazing episodes coming up. I'm working on the Kanazawa one as well as our fan shout out video the viewers made it sent us their videos and I've been putting that together and we'll probably release it very early in the next two or three days and then at the end of the week we'll get another video maybe on Kanazawa or on another topic that I made but I want to get the videos out at least once a week compared to two times a month before it's gonna take a little bit of time to get to the pace going but once the machine starts pumping out videos then there's no end to it it's just part of the job and part of the fun and I'm gonna be on the road quite a bit for the next year hopefully Kanae can be coming with me. $84 dollars is a good start actually. And I have our community to thank for that. A lot of YouTubers can't make anything for a very long time it takes a long time to build a community it really does and I'm very fortunate to have the Go community the live streaming community that I built as well as the people that are finding me from the past content that I made before. As you know I was the creator and producer of that show I wasn't some kind of talent I did everything I gotta keep telling people this because people don't understand what I was doing over there I did like everything you know it's hard work so I'm happy to start over.

00:42:41 John Daub: I don't think that there's any reason if a content or an episode is made I'm somebody who feels very strongly there's no reason to do the same topic if it's been already covered on YouTube why would you do it again however with that said if there's a way or an angle that's different different approach to it then I would consider that but there's no reason for me to go back and do the exact same thing that I did before. It doesn't make sense because that content is already there. It's nice to revisit places, but unless the story is elevated or pushed ahead, there's no reason to do that. For context, $84 is roughly 8,400 yen. Yeah, it's a good meal. So think about that. Yeah, I appreciate it very much, but this is my job. I don't do anything else except for YouTube. So that's not true. I do have some clients that I make videos for, but it's not a significant amount. This is my job. It's different. If your salary is $84, that's not that good. Hello, Vandenberg family in Canada. Stay warm. It's actually warm in Canada now. I know because the Canadians are saying minus nine degrees Celsius. Are you kidding me? It's minus 50 in Yukon. This is like summer to you. So stay warm or cool.

00:44:40 John Daub: John, you're moving forward with your new channel. It's a great refresh feeling of your content. My family and I enjoyed the first episode. Thanks again and keep up the good work from Mr. Jimmy. Thank you, Mr. Jimmy. I appreciate that very much. Easy to scream when someone throws water on you in subzero weather. It really is. It's easy to scream. I thought you work on NHK. You know what? I wouldn't even, I don't consider that a job. I consider that like, it's like when I have free time, I do it. And it is a job, but I'm not an employee. They don't pay my health insurance. It's a freelance job. So they call me when they need somebody. And if I can go, I go. Okay. So if the topic's interesting, I help out. I have a lot of respect for everybody at NHK World. I love doing the show. It's so much fun, but it's not a lot of money. It's not a lot of money for the time that you put in. It's basically like beer money or something. So I appreciate being able to be on the show. Unless you're like an employee or a regular on a show, then it's different. But thanks for asking that.

00:46:12 John Daub: We have, there's an NHK episode coming up. In three days. I'll be in that, I filmed an episode of Tokyo Eye two, three days ago, and they've already edited it, and it's gonna be on NHK World in three days, right? That's crazy. Two days, 18 hours and six minutes in a studio. And again, maybe like 100, 200 bucks or something. You know, it's not chopped liver, but it's not something that you can pay rent with. But it's a good job. Because in the beginning, when I started, I told you have to use your experience, your resume as a way to get access to get filming. So being a reporter on NHK is actually a good thing. It builds trust with people knowing that if this big TV station trusts you, then they're going to trust you with their content. Because getting access also means that this company is giving you their reputation and trusting you to make good content. And that's hard to do when you start off doing YouTube. It's very hard. My name is degree no yodo 8232 writes in and minus nine degrees Celsius. Yeah, it's not that cold. Only the Canadians laugh, right? Only the Canadians would laugh and maybe some of the people up in Lapland and Finland and Russia might be laughing but very few people can say these extreme cold weathers are normal.

00:47:54 John Daub: Did you cut Chris Peppler's hair? No, actually, when I got there, he'd already gotten a haircut. So he was fine. He didn't need my clippers. Although, you know, I did suggest that next time he wait until I come. We have so much fun. Like, when we make a show at the studio. It is a lot of it's actually really hard work, we have to study the script and go over the way we're going to be talking to each other. And then there's like five cameras in the studio. Okay. It's in a green screen room. There's about 20-30 people watching you. So it's a live audience and you're in a chair. And you have to react naturally to the navigator, to the host. It's not something that you can just do without practice, I think. And the first couple of videos that I did for Tokyo Eye, I was really, really nervous. And then it just kind of goes away. You just be yourself and trust that people trust yourself, I guess. It just takes a little bit of time. NHK, yeah. Look, NHK is the biggest channel in the world. It's amazing, but you also, the reputation is very important. And it's hard to get into NHK. Some people say, can you please recommend? I can't do that. I don't know you. So unless you know somebody, you would never recommend somebody for a job that you don't know. It's very hard to do that because when you recommend somebody, you are connected to that person. And then if you become a psychopath, then I'm a psychopath. You see how this works?

00:50:05 John Daub: You don't need acting skills. You just need to be relaxed and be yourself and have human skills. Just have a human skill. Be yourself. Have fun. That's all you got to do when you're on TV. Have fun, relax, and be yourself. Everyone saw that show Joker, right? The movie Joker. Don't do that. But be yourself. And that's all that matters. People see that. What's next on your agenda, John? David, thank you for asking. On the agenda next week, I'm going, while I'm editing, and I just ordered a computer so I can edit on the road. Which is really important. I'm looking at the two new video cameras, the Sony A7S III and the Canon R5. And I'm not sure which system to go to. I'm using a GH5. I love Panasonic, but they haven't really done anything with micro four-thirds in a long time. So I might go to either Canon or Sony now. I'm not sure which one. But I'm going travel-wise to Osaka next week. To meet with my wife. And I'm going to be traveling with a train line that has a very interesting story. And it's something that I really want to do. And it's going to be taking me into the countryside. Not the city of Osaka, but the countryside around it. And I want to do more Kansai-based videos. Not in Tokyo. Kansai-based videos that are not Nara, not Kyoto, but something maybe Wakayama or Mie or Hyogo or deep Kyoto. Kyoto is actually quite large. Show you different types of places within the Kansai region. And this opportunity is pretty neat. So I'm taking the train on Tuesday, the Shinkansen. I know it's not the best time to be traveling, but it's a job. So I got to get down there and scout this out.

00:52:00 John Daub: When I come back, I'll upload the next video on Friday. So we're trying to get this once a week going. Next week after that, I'll be going to Shiga Prefecture for a job. We've set this up already. I've made the appointments and the access has been granted. So I'm looking forward to getting out to, again, the countryside of Kyoto. Shiga Prefecture is just... It's like an eight-minute train ride from Kyoto. And not a lot of people know about it. It's on Lake Biwa. Biwako surrounds it. And it's part of the Sabakaido (mackerel road), which is this important route from the Sea of Japan all the way to Kyoto, where the mackerel or saba route, the fish got to the emperor in Kyoto coming on this route, as well as all the goods traded. It didn't come across the Pacific. Most of Japan's trade came from China and Korea and the countries on that side of Asia. So the Sea of Japan side, Niigata, Obama, these ports were extremely important. Things would come to Niigata and travel overland to Tokyo. And that's what made Tokyo a little bit safer. And then when Tokyo opened up, then through Commodore Perry, then more trade was coming in through Yokohama. But a lot of the trade was coming from China in the ancient times. Obama port, like a thousand years ago, was one of the biggest in Japan. Now it's just a small aged town. Obama means small beach in Japanese. It doesn't have the same meaning. But it's funny though that they embraced the last president. There's no Bush city or Clinton city either. But there's just an Obama city. That's kind of funny.

00:54:06 John Daub: Look, there's so many things in the works. And I spent the last six months planning out and waiting for shoots. And so many shoots were canceled in March, which is a reason why the channel was kind of delayed. So many shoots were canceled in March and April and May because of the pandemic. It wasn't until June and this month that I could try to get through. And I was able to travel again. And locations allowed me to film. And now that that's open, I can do that. Will you upload another Shinkansen video? As I said, maybe. I'm not going to tell you about it yet. And this is a Yeti microphone. And I have it put on the desk here. The reason why is because it's easy to use. It's easy for me to narrate the videos now. I can just go, whoosh, pull the mic down, and then I can narrate over the video and get it out much quicker. It's a great mic, the Blue Yeti. Very good mic for podcasting or talking. Thank you for recording how Japan is right now and the information you have done for us, Japan. John, I'll have another travel update in a week or so. But after I travel to Osaka, I'm going to be able to give you an update of what Kansai is like. It's a little bit different than in Tokyo. And to be able to show you what the Osaka area is doing right now, maybe even catch up with Kevin if I can. That would be really cool, right? See Kevin at Kuma's Kitchen down there. Then I think that's a different way to give you an update about Japan.

00:56:14 John Daub: Kansai Airport is actually a very good portal into Japan. A lot of people come in through Haneda and Narita, maybe because it's cheaper. But if Osaka's Kansai Airport is cheaper or the same price, consider flying into Osaka because the Kansai region is way, way more stacked with attractions than Tokyo. Tokyo's overcrowded and overpriced. Kansai region is so much more spread out and it's very ancient, lots of history. Forget Kyoto also. You can go to Kanazawa. You can go to another region that's not that far away from Osaka. There's a lot of old places. Kyoto does not have a monopoly on it. Kyoto was just way too crowded, I think. So Kanazawa, I felt, has always been like a breath of fresh air because they were not bombed in World War II and a lot of those old wooden buildings are still preserved there. The old tea houses, which are extraordinary and not nearly as crowded as Kyoto. But Kansai is a good place to fly into. And if you've flown into Tokyo before, try flying into Kansai. Or even Fukuoka for that matter because Kyushu also is a very amazing place to travel around. My first flight to Japan was Northwest KLM flight from Detroit to Kansai. And I had to change planes from Newark then in Detroit. And I was flying the Detroit route quite a lot because that was the best route to get to Japan. It was the cheapest. Sometimes you have to make a change in order to get a better price. And why not save a couple hundred bucks, right?

00:58:18 John Daub: I think Kansai should be a place that you should consider. And taking the Shinkansen down there, you don't really need a Shinkansen if you're in Kansai. They have a Kansai pass. And if you have a week, you can spend a week and be completely fulfilled and satisfied with the Japan trip just in Kansai without coming to Tokyo. That's an important message. I love Tokyo, but you don't have to come to Tokyo because Tokyo is not Japan. Tokyo is Tokyo. It's the big city. Japan's heart and soul is out in the countryside. It always will be. And I'll try to show you a little bit more of that again. I don't know if Kyoto is cheaper to stay because they have taxes now for tourists. That's another reason not to stay in Kyoto. And to stay in Shiga, for example. Kyoto has an extra tax on hotels there because there's so much demand to stay in Kyoto. There was before the pandemic that they just slapped the tax on to try to get people to stay elsewhere. If you stayed in Kyoto one night, that's enough. It's a nice place, but there's so many more beautiful unexplored places that I hope to introduce you to over the series. This is just because I've been living here for 23 years and I know a little bit about how to make a good trip out of this, out of your time, depending on how much time you have. Maybe in the future, because as the fall comes and we start thinking about trips next year to Japan after the pandemic, it might be good to talk about that, some itinerary live streams where you can submit questions and I'll give you suggestions. Seems to be what a lot of people are looking for that.

01:00:13 John Daub: Hey, John, did you ever have a YouTube plaque before? Yeah, I got two over there. In fact, that was a Patreon postcard club. I sent the 1 million subscriber plaque to everybody. Again, I'm the creator and producer of Only in Japan. You know that, right? I stayed at the Pocket Hotel. Interesting. I think if we can get to that, if we can get more subscribers on the new channel, I'll have a third plaque. How about them apples? And the plaque's just going to read my name. Just keep it simple, man. Keep it simple. Kanae is teaching. We're going to be going out to the post office. We have to send some packages to our supporters. We have all the goodies to send to them. So that's going out on Monday. So we got to fulfill that and I have some editing to do. There's a lot of stuff. There's no end to the work. I'm not getting a lot of sleep these days. Do people get sick from the cold temps during the festival? No, you know. Nobody really gets sick. I don't think that catching a cold has anything to do with the temperature. It just has to do with the virus and catching it from somebody, I believe. But everybody was in pretty good health. I think that that's one of the things. Like if you're not in good health, you don't participate in a festival.

01:01:46 John Daub: The festival is free. If you want to participate in the Naked Man Festival, any Naked Man Festival, you must contact either the temple or shrine or the city tourism office. They'll set it up for you. In many Naked Man Festivals, it's free. The city will pay for your loincloth. It's not a big cost. But sometimes there might be a 500 or 1,000 yen, $10 to pay for the equipment. I didn't pay anything for mine. But there weren't a lot of people participating. And they were very happy to have more people come. I don't think there's a lot of spots. So if you can't participate, go and watch because it's amazing to watch this. Participating in it is a hardcore thing. You have to be good in health. Alright? You can't back down. You can't say, oh, I won. You're in it to win it if you go and you start this. Also, you have to... I guess it helps if you speak some Japanese. But even if you don't, people are pretty friendly. And you probably should know the rules a little bit. Try to learn about the history as much as possible before you participate. Knowing the background of it is extremely important. And because knowing what you're doing... I was just screaming. But I knew part of the background. Even the locals, a lot of them didn't even know why they were doing it. I asked them, why do you do this? They go, I don't know. We just do it. That's the best answer too. But in the end, it's all about feeling a part of something that's bigger than yourself. And after it, it's really easy in Japan and right now in the world to feel alone.

01:03:33 John Daub: Just the other day, we lost somebody, an actor. I think participating in these kind of festivals where you have no expectation other than to just have fun is really good for your soul. Alright? I think we need to have more festivals like this. It's good for your soul to be surrounded by really good people who are all equals that are just there for one purpose. Survive? Fertility? I'm not sure. But we survived. And it was a lot of fun. And I think that... Look for those kind of opportunities when you come to Japan. And Tokyocheapo.com is a website that has an amazing festival and event listing. Not a lot of people are seeing Tokyocheapo.com right now because no one is coming to Japan because tourism is like really low. But they have an amazing... And the name of it is kind of weird, Tokyocheapo. But the site is really, really well set up. And you can see the event pages. And I'm writing articles for them now. To try to build up my audience. They have good readerships over there.

01:05:02 John Daub: I have about three minutes because I got to get back to work. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, HelloHi821. Patreon questions. Here we go. Oh, the internet. I think it's the internet problem. We've had the internet going on and off because people are at home watching Netflix and Hulu and all the other streaming services. That's why I stream in 720p even on the Wi-Fi because the internet's... Wow, it's not even coming up. Wow. Is it lagging? I think it might even be lagging. Do bathhouses allow people in wheelchairs? That's a hard one. I don't know. If you have somebody to help you, I'm sure it's okay. You can't go there alone because the staff just is not... Most of them are elderly and they can't help you. But if you have somebody who can help you, I think it's fine for you to go to a bathhouse. At hotels or onsen? Call ahead and ask them. But more and more as we get closer to 2020, resorts have become much more thoughtful about people with disabilities. And I think that you're going to find more chances now than just five years ago to be able to enjoy it. And that's a good thing because with the 2020 Olympics, one of the best things that happened was that there was more attention put on everybody. And when I say everybody, that means people with disabilities that really in Japan were ignored. And with the Paralympics coming, that attention came at a great time. And we're seeing more ramps, more elevators, more access for people with disabilities. So I think that it's a lot better than five years ago. Just always call ahead. Just call ahead. Before you make a reservation, just to check and make sure. And they'll also... The hotel will appreciate the heads up because they want to give you the best service. They want that call ahead because they want to give you the best service possible. And they want to make sure that they have everything ready for you. And that's a good thing too. So most of the places will speak English. Or you can send an email in English and they'll have time to send you an English reply. If they don't reply, then you know that that's probably not a place to stay.

01:08:15 John Daub: How many more frozen naked festivals are there in Japan? Hundreds, Marty. Hundreds. How was your outfit given to you? It was just kind of given to me. And the guy put it on me. I didn't ask for it. They asked me my shoe size. I said 28, 29 centimeters. And the tabi (split-toe socks) shoes came. Good question, Clifford. How hard is it for you to put on and wear the cloth and belt? It's very hard to put it on. You need somebody to put it on for you. Just like a kimono. And it's very easy to keep it on because it's on tight. So I've never seen anyone lose their fundoshi. That'd be pretty funny. Do you feel like filming these types of spiritual festivals takes a bit away from your experience? A little bit, but I'm having fun. Whether I'm filming or not. That's who I am. I'm not acting. I'm having fun. And that's all I care about. So I don't think it's a big deal. I don't think it takes away. I think it maybe even enhances it because I'm sharing it with you. So in a way it's giving me another purpose to enjoy the festival. That's why I'm holding a GoPro because I know that I need to have a camera from my perspective. Great question, Amanda.

01:09:42 John Daub: I'm curious if warm weather, warm water was a blessing or a curse. It was a curse. Curse. But it's better than cold water, which is a bigger curse. It was colder than Okayama. I think when you ran through the water, it was about the same temperature as the outside. Water gets down to like zero. But the temperature outside was minus two. So the water was like the same temperature as the air, which is cold. But it was a curse too. My gosh, that was a tough one. What did you feel was worse? The initial feeling of cold or as you went out or the cold you experienced after briefly feeling the warm onsen water. It got colder at the end by far. There was a little bit of a shock when I went outside, but it wasn't that much. It was when the guy threw sake at me that I knew that this was going to be a really tough time in the beginning. And once the festival started, you can stay active. But once you stop, it gets cold really fast. You have to keep moving and screaming. Alright. I screamed to stay warm for survival.

01:11:00 John Daub: Did you keep contact details of any of the other guys? A few, but I don't know. We were like just guys and you just go, hey, see you next year. I don't know. Like, hey, you know, let's keep in touch and be good friends. You can try that. But I think the connection was good. I think the connection that we had was at the festival. And this year was different, though. That's a good question. But because of the pandemic, we were asked by the township at the end of the festival not to go out drinking together. Normally, we would all go out and get toasted. But we decided at the end of it, let's not do that. We're not going to go out to restaurants. And anyways, Noboribetsu closes really early. But somebody always has like a restaurant open. Not this time. Because of the pandemic, we didn't really have that. So therefore, I didn't really do too many meishi (business card) exchanges. Is the festival open to foreigners? It is. I did it. But again, I think it's good to speak Japanese or have somebody who can help you. And make sure you ask in advance. I think it's a great thing to do. This one is very local. And maybe I was not the first foreigner to do it. But there weren't that many before me. A lot of people watch. But not a lot of people participate. You have to be pretty tough to participate.

01:12:36 John Daub: Are there other events besides this one in the festival? There are. Noboribetsu has about 10 different events. The summer one is also quite big. But I think that's going to be canceled. They have one at the volcanic crater lake. The caldera. Lake Kuttara, I think it's called. There's an event up there as well. It's really nice. But a lot of people come here from the Sapporo Snow Festival. And that's important. It's close enough to make it a day trip. But I recommend that you come. You stay at Noboribetsu instead of Sapporo for a night or two. How hard would you think it will be to participate in these with little or no Japanese? I think it will be a lot harder. Because I think it's easier if you've seen the video. But again, I think you need to make a connection with people. And if you can't speak any Japanese, it's going to be really hard. Study Japanese. At least some phrases or lines. And be ready. Or come with a friend who's bilingual. And can help you a little bit. You'll get more out of your experience. Because if you don't understand what people are saying to you, it makes it harder for people. Like imagine if somebody who didn't speak English came in to a festival in the U.S. And like this guy only speaks Thai. I don't think it makes it harder to make friends. So you have to think about it the other way. It's better if you can speak Japanese. I can speak enough. My Japanese is far from perfect as many of you know.

01:14:24 John Daub: Thanks so much guys for watching. I really appreciate it. I know that the signal might be going. But I got to get back to work. I appreciate all of the support here. I got some more live streams coming tomorrow morning. Maybe a midnight snack run tonight or tomorrow or in Kansai. So we got some stuff. Next week will be a pretty active live streaming week. Because the last two weeks I've been holding back more editing. But get ready for some live streams to come back. As well as some 360 videos on the new 360 channel. And Only in Japan is going to go full on in August. Like hardcore on the road. Because that's my job. To bring you to Japan. Because you can't make it yourself. That's what I'm going to do. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I appreciate it very much guys. Have a good day. Have a good night. Wherever you are in the world. I'll be doing Twitch live streams as well. Maybe tonight. So it's been a while on Twitch. But I appreciate the support there as well. And good night or good day. Wherever you are in the world. See you from Tokyo, Japan.