00:00:08 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Koya-san. This is the Okunoin Cemetery, a very famous cemetery where Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, is in muso nyujo (eternal meditation). It's about 1.8 to 2 kilometers that way towards the main cemetery. I just walked from there. They didn't have a signal so I wasn't able to live stream anything from the main part of the cemetery. This is what they call the Omotesando (main approach), the main street or path that goes there. As you can see, it's very well made with even blocks, which is rare when you go to really old ancient Japanese sites like this.

00:00:52 John Daub: I'm going to show you a little bit of the entrance of the cemetery from the town, where a lot of the shukubo (Buddhist temple lodgings) are, and give you a feel of what it's like. But I think you should discover this more on your own. You can see buses going by. There's a road nearby. This is pretty much the entrance from the town that most people stay in. You feel enlightened here. It's just so relaxing to be among all this green, all these trees, and these massive cedar trees. Some of them go up endlessly to the sky.

00:01:44 Paul: Yeah, how are you?

00:01:46 John Daub: I'm fine.

00:01:48 Paul: I'm so lucky. You know, I commented on your video a couple of times. I want to meet you. I'm living in Osaka. Whenever you're coming, please let me know. And here you are in Koya. I'm feeling good. I really like it. I've been watching your videos for so long.

00:02:04 John Daub: Okay, cool.

00:02:07 Paul: Now it became such an awesome trip for me.

00:02:10 John Daub: Yeah. Here we are.

00:02:12 Paul: Yeah, I have a YouTube channel too. So I make some videos sometimes, and I'm always watching you. And you're walking all the way to the end of the cemetery?

00:02:19 John Daub: Yeah. You know it's quite far.

00:02:24 Paul: Actually, I don't have any idea, but I just want to go.

00:02:30 John Daub: Okay. Just walking?

00:02:33 Paul: Yeah, I have all the stuff inside my backpack. I think it's going to rain. Yeah, so I can stay wherever I am. I don't really care.

00:02:42 John Daub: You don't really care. That's the best way. Just do it. Just go and do it. And what is the plan? I'm just showing people around the town right now, a little bit of the Okunoin Cemetery. This is just the entrance. There's no signal over there to live stream. And then walk over into the town, look at some of the shukubo, and we're going to go back to Tokyo.

00:03:04 Paul: Okay. Yeah, very cool. What's your name?

00:03:06 John Daub: My name is Paul.

00:03:08 Paul: Paul. Yeah, I have a YouTube channel called Paul Blocks.

00:03:12 John Daub: Okay, Paul Blocks. Check that out, everybody. I might have some You Found Me cards. If I do, it's deep in here. I do. Here you go.

00:03:26 Paul: Yeah, thank you so much.

00:03:33 John Daub: How you doing, everybody?

00:03:34 Paul: Yeah, I was watching his video for a long time, you know. And coming here. And I was thinking that because it's raining, so I was thinking I change my plan a little bit. I will go to somewhere else. But someone told me that even if it's raining, it's awesome vibe. It's really happy.

00:03:53 John Daub: This should be really beautiful in the rain.

00:03:55 Paul: Yeah, and thank you so much. I'm really glad to meet you.

00:03:57 John Daub: You're welcome. Have a good trip.

00:03:59 Paul: Yeah, thank you so much.

00:03:59 John Daub: Be safe.

00:04:00 Paul: May I take a picture with you?

00:04:01 John Daub: Oh yeah, sure.

00:04:13 Paul: Well, if you ever come to Osaka, is it possible to meet me too next time?

00:04:17 John Daub: Maybe. You never know. Just keep giving me a call. Usually I'm quite busy. But Instagram, Patreon, Facebook. Just give me a try.

00:04:29 Paul: Okay. See you later.

00:04:30 John Daub: Thanks, Paul.

00:04:31 Paul: Bye-bye.

00:04:33 John Daub: Oh, that's nice. He's got a very heavy backpack. That's a really far walk, too.

00:04:47 John Daub: All right. So this area, when I was just standing at the entrance of it, it's so impressive. I'm going to walk about 10, 15 meters or 30, 40 feet from here and show you all these massive cedar trees and just the stone. The colors of the stone and the trees are almost the same. But it's the moss and that greenness with the gray that really stands out. So let's turn this around here to the other side. Seriously, it's supposed to rain today. I do hope that Paul stays dry. And it is actually for a summer day—we're at elevation. It is kind of chilly. Now I'm turning the camera around. This is the entrance to Okunoin Cemetery's Omotesando. You can see it's just a stunning view with the stone and the massive cedar trees. This one here, maybe it got hit by lightning—I'm not sure what the story is, but it's got a metal top to it, which is pretty neat. No, I didn't bring an umbrella. I'm not as far away from my home, but it is a little chilly and there's some wind coming in here.

00:06:49 John Daub: All right. So this is the town here. We're going to kind of leave the cemetery, walk into where some of the shukubo are—many of them are. And shukubo, I'll be talking to you a little bit about that as I've now experienced one. A really nice one too. Hey, Shane. Welcome. Shane, I dedicate this view of trickling water to you. And Mary, thanks for being an insider. Welcome. All right. Let's get moving. Let's say goodbye to the cemetery. It's really a beautiful place. It's a beautiful bridge and area. Let me show you the map and maybe for about 20 minutes I'm going to take you into town before the rain starts coming down. I can smell the rain now. Loads and loads of hiking opportunities. Bring your shoes if you do come here and loads of fresh air. This is where we are right now: Ichinohashi Bridge, Okunoin, which is the main cemetery. This is an important cemetery because this is where Kobo Daishi is.

00:08:10 John Daub: This will take you in about 1.8 to 2 kilometers towards the main part of the cemetery where Kobo Daishi, who is the founder of the Shingon Buddhism sect—founded in the year 816 by Kukai, who Kobo Daishi's name was Kukai. He became Kobo Daishi after he passed away and is in muso nyujo. You can pay your respects. But if you want, we're going to be walking down this street in this livestream. I'm going to be going past all of these temples. Many of them are shukubo, temple lodgings. This is the main Kongobuji, the main temple. And I met with one of the head monks yesterday to talk about anything that I can do to help with an episode—that was really a good meeting. We had for about an hour; we talked about things that we could do. I stayed last night at Jofuku-in, which is right here, and this is where we had a prayer for our community—said thanks to the contributions of all of your super chats. It's pretty awesome; you can see that in the playback. So we're gonna walk this main street now. From here to here there's a lot of things to see in the middle, including these phone booths in the shape of temples. It's just a really cool place to come—that's Koya-san right there. Oh, tourists. Let's get moving. Can you also smell the rain?

00:10:05 John Daub: You'll see a really interesting contrast of new temples and old temple. This one looks like it's been renewed or something, but it's a really interesting one. A lot of these temples are right next to one another. Many of them have signs in English to let you know what they're called. Because there's so many of them, it's very easy to get temple fused—which is another word for confused. Like, which way do you go? It's hard. But if we compare this to an experience, this is why I've been telling people: if you're coming to Japan, you have to stop and get away from the cities and spend more of your time out in the countryside and see scenes like this. This is what many of you are looking for in Japan and you just don't know where to go, maybe. Koyasan is one of the great places that's pretty close to Kansai, and another reason to fly into Kansai Airport instead of Narita or Haneda in Tokyo. KIX is what people call it—Kansai International Airport. K-I-X is the international code. Oh, I just felt a raindrop. All right, I think we're going to be okay. It's about a 15-minute walk.

00:11:26 John Daub: Well, up there in the mountains, do you see this? So you could just walk around. The more you walk around Koyasan, the more you start discovering things. The further you get away from this—which is the main area, this is where we're walking—the further you get away, the more you start to discover things and get away from other tourists. But at this time, Japan just started a Go To Travel campaign, and I'm not part of that. I'm not interested in traveling for tourism—this is what I do for a living. Okay, here's the name of this temple here: Jōshin-in. So a lot of the temples will have English and Roman letters so that tourists can also understand. Again, the reason why they have shukubo, temple lodgings, is for mostly pilgrims. Here's another one. You can see the temple. Temples usually have signs in English as well: Sekishō-in. I think that's another shukubo. You can stay there.

00:13:21 John Daub: So you'll find these signs everywhere too by the Koya Tourism Association about how to prevent the spread of it. And we're being extra careful: wear your mask, wash your hands, gargle. I don't know about the gargling, but I've been gargling anyway. Eko-in—name of the temple. This is pretty quiet compared to... I thought I saw a cat. Think about it: this is summer peak travel season. Usually these streets are quite crowded with people. Now we don't have many at all. Welcome to Paul, new traveler. And King Wong's in the house. I think I'm going to have to stop at that vending machine. Thanks, King. I could use a drink. Let's cross the street here in a second. They also have lots of different kinds of snacks and things. That looks really good. Parfait. Try to support some of the local businesses. That looks comfortable. Look at this—it's kind of like a jinbei. Some traditional-looking clothing. Maybe this is monk wear. I could wear that. You can see there's a lot of traditional shops. This is why I like to come to the countryside. I mean, you can see this in some places in Tokyo. It's just not the same because it's not surrounded by all the green and the trees. And there's this peacefulness in the air, wafting scents of incense.

00:16:02 John Daub: All right, King. What do we got here? The usual suspects. This one looks interesting: Otonano Peach. I'm not sure. A little vitamin C. Oh, the wind is coming. You know what? I'm going to book. I want to show you stuff before the rain comes down. It's a beautiful little scene. No clear lattes. Nothing at the vending machine. I was kind of uninspired. Everywhere you're going to see Koya-kun. You see Koya-kun? He's the yuru-chara (mascot) of Koya-san. By the way, if you were seeing the chant this morning, I gave them a really nice donation—10,000 yen to give us a prayer. And they gave us a really nice prayer at the morning chant. They said "Only in Japan community" in their chant, which is awesome. They said my name because I had to give them my address in Tokyo. And we wish the entire world and our community good health and safety during the pandemic. So the chant was pretty amazing. I just like walking around. The thing with the path here though is that there's a lot of cars. And there's Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon sect. You can see Kobo Daishi—usually statues of him everywhere. You can tell it's him because he looks like that in all the statues. So pay your respects to the founder. And he really—Kukai, Kobo Daishi Kukai—so his name was Kukai, and then after his death given the name Kobo Daishi. He really put together an amazing place here. It's impressive just to walk the streets and see 1200 years after Kobo Daishi this town is still flourishing. And that is impressive. So much so that if you walk around the cemetery, you'll see that a lot of major corporations have given money to this town because of its importance in Buddhism. And you can see that in the cemetery—it's quite amazing the company names that you'll see who have built this.

00:18:56 John Daub: Alright, once we get around this corner, we'll say goodbye to the cars a little bit more. That's kind of neat. Hey, Jake's here. I have a question about the Buddhist and maybe Shinto custom of cleansing both hands and the mouth. Has that changed? Yes. All of them have been shut down, Jake. You can't find the hand washing or the gargling. The water has been turned off and it's emptied. So instead, you'll find this. Sometimes you'll see alcohol pumps instead. If you're tracking where I am, I'm at Henjokoin. They have alcohol pumps instead. See? So before you enter, they ask you to maybe wash your hands with something stronger. Holy Purell. That's one way to say it. Well said. But in order to stop the spread, they've taken countermeasures.

00:20:10 John Daub: Jimmy writes in here, stay hydrated. Yeah, I'm going to have to find a cold one en route here. Tom Servo writes in here: I hiked the Choishi Michi Pilgrim Trail up to Koyasan last year and stayed in a shukubo. It was the highlight of my trip. Hi from Vancouver. Awesome. Daniel writes in: Hi, John. First time watching stream virtually with non-Creative 11 GF. Wishing you the best of luck with the new channel. Thank you. It's going pretty well, Daniel. The BF—oh, GF and BF, now I got it—are contributing to the Snack Fund. You got it. And then of course the Irvanchain back and forth continued at the start of it. I saw you guys there. That's beautiful. Juwan from West Covina is watching too. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Here's a little stand selling some—I think something made of potatoes. Maybe we'll go in for a closer look. Yaki mochi. I can get behind that. I can get behind some yaki mochi (grilled rice cakes). What do you guys think? If you want some yaki mochi, click the like button. We should get the 500 likes if you want to get some yaki mochi. It's up to you now. If you want yaki mochi, click like right now.

00:22:28 Vendor: Hello. Is this yaki mochi?

00:22:29 John Daub: Yes, it is. How much is it?

00:22:34 Vendor: It's 100 yen.

00:22:36 John Daub: Oh, please. Here are yaki mochi and yomogi mochi (mugwort rice cakes).

00:22:41 Vendor: Oh, is this freshly baked?

00:22:43 John Daub: It's all freshly baked.

00:22:44 Vendor: Oh, is that so? You can eat it after it's cooled down.

00:22:47 John Daub: Oh, I see. Yes. Then I think the recommended one is yomogi. I think it's white.

00:22:52 Vendor: I like yomogi. Yomogi has more flavor.

00:22:56 John Daub: Oh, then I'll have yomogi.

00:23:02 Vendor: Okay.

00:23:17 John Daub: America. You live in Japan, right?

00:23:22 Vendor: Yes, I live in Japan.

00:23:28 John Daub: Oh, I see. I was in Japan just now. This year was tough. Yes. I might not be able to go back to America. Thank you very much!

00:24:17 John Daub: It's quite good. I would live in a smaller town. Mugwort! Yeah! You can see the influence of Buddhism in many different forms. That looks more like the Thai version. And Japan has it here as well. And you can see a shout out to the pilgrims. Many of them dress like this when they walk around Shikoku. They have the hat on to shield them from the sun. And many of them will hike for three months to circle all of Shikoku. Alright, let's give this a try. This is yomogi yaki mochi. And he was grilling these. And I asked him, can I get one that's yakitate (freshly baked)? He goes, they're all yakitate! We made them today! And I said, well we gotta eat them all today too. Before I go back, if they're good, I'm gonna get some more. And I'll get some for Kanae before I go back to Tokyo. Mmm! Oh man! It's chewy like mochi. It's got some red bean paste. Slight—I think it's rice flour. And then inside, it's got that very moist, chewy, and this really light sweetness to it. A slight sweet bitterness, which is the yomogi. Really nice. So soft. Mmm! Yes, that was homemade. Made with love. Now I will have to take some back for Kanae.

00:26:38 John Daub: Now, to get around, you have to take Nankai. You can do it directly from Kansai Airport. Or you can take it from Namba, which is very close to Dotonbori in the center of Osaka. Nankai is the only train line that runs here. Because at the end of the chanting, the monk showed us a picture of Matsumoto-san, who is, I believe, the founder of Nankai Railroad—which is one of the key people for the success of Koyasan today. So we can say thank you to him for allowing us to have access to this town. I was talking with Ruth and these signs are in English. So you can find it as a shukubo. Wow, that's so old looking. Very old. Because of the Go To campaign, a lot of people are traveling. So there's a lot more people—when I was talking to Koyasan area people. And look at this nice little alley. Let's get off the main street and go a little alley walking. There's a bell right there. Because of the campaign, a lot of people are here. It's not a lot lot, but there's a lot more than in the last few weeks. It's mostly people in the area. I've been looking at the license plates of people driving. Many of them coming from Nara, Osaka, Wakayama, Hyogo—the local areas.

00:28:58 John Daub: Jim, the sun is behind the clouds. So this alleyway, this small alley has taken me to a small street now. And we're in the back of Koya Town. The last time I was here, it was a very long time ago. And everything is like the first time again. What I love about the cemetery that I went to and this is that everywhere there's this really pleasant moss. They respect moss here. I like that. Moss is nice. I used to have a friend named Jim Moss. Last name was Moss. He's a good guy. His hair looked like moss—he had a lot of hair. John Kimura is here. Kanai is going to get a lot of mochi now. Compliments of Mr. Kimura here. Hey, Urze. Hope things are back on track as soon as possible. Looks like a really beautiful place to stay and live. I think so too. I'd love to spend a month here. Look at the walkway to get to the door of that house. You have to walk across this little bridge. They're just pretty much shacks built over this waterway. Okay, let's keep going. So there are houses behind the temples. And I think it's possible that some of the monks—they might not all be living in the temple. All I know is that the wind is picking up. And I think that the rain is going to be starting soon. We've been pretty fortunate not to have the rain. Look at that. You just enter into this. You enter in and you're greeted by this massive tree.

00:32:06 John Daub: Koya-san has to be on your list because... Sorry about the lag. It seems like we're in some congestion here. I'm going to try to make my way out of it. You can see Koya-kun is wearing a mask. Make sure you wear a mask too. If Koya-kun can do it, you can too. He's cute. That is not shojin ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine). That has katsukare (cutlet curry). Alright, we're getting closer and closer to the center. There's some vending machines. We'll check that out to get that drink. Cross back over here. This looks like a little convenience store. I'm always afraid to go in there because I don't want to worry anybody by going in there. 7-Up—I don't see that a lot. I remember one day we were looking for Sprite for like 2-3 days. We couldn't find Sprite. Eventually we found it. What is this? 5-minute coffee. What's the story behind that? This is hot soup. Spicy konsume soup. That sounds interesting. You know, I don't know. There's nothing that makes me go, hey, get that. There's yogurt water. It's yogurt and water. It's kind of nasty. Been there, done that. What's this that they're selling in here? It's like some kind of confection.

00:34:33 John Daub: Alright, I think there's another shop up ahead. So if you are thinking about coming to Koyasan, consider this your introduction then. Just a quick overview. The bus stops—it's good to make sure you know your bus stop. The bus stops intermittently along the route here. So you can get off en route. But if you're taking the cable car to the top, you can only take the buses. So try not to bring too many suitcases too. The buses are not made to carry massive suitcases. That roof is pretty low. Intermittently—that's a good word. It's at Takano, the post office for Takano. So I guess this area might be called Takano. Oh, chocolate sounds good. I've walked at least... Oh look, I can wash my hands. I had mochi on my hands. We're returning... I'm returning back to Tokyo tonight. So we have walked from here. We started here. We've walked all the way to here. Very cool, huh? So moving pretty good. Hey Marty's... Oh no, Marty. Love for Shane and Irvonne. Only Marty would give a super chat for Shane and Irvonne. Marty, you're funny. I'm happy to say though that Marty's box is on the way to Australia finally. I can get sea mail there. Koya-san approves. Koya-kun. Lockers. Interesting. So guess pilgrims need to keep their luggage locked up. Crime does happen. You think even in a place like this, you could leave your camera right in the middle of the street and nobody would take it, right? But that's not always the case.

00:37:23 John Daub: WX Turbo's back again. How you doing? Let's go just take a quick look-see in this direction, okay? I'm getting raindrops. The bus is packed. There's that Nankai bus I was telling you about. Irvonne. Oh no, look, there's a lot of love going on. Irvonne's chat is for... What is this? Listen. What is that? Wow. We're like, it must be noon. The bus is revving to the beat. That was interesting. Did not expect that. It looks like there's some kind of VIP there. I was gonna walk this way, but now... That looks like one of those really expensive Toyota cars. So I guess they've gone in there for confection. I guess we can take a quick look-see. Who is that? President of something somewhere? I saw police officers taking someone somewhere. But that's interesting. A lot of VIPs will come here to pay their respects. Koyasan is a place of... I guess it's like the Vatican City in a way for Buddhism in Japan. This is a nice looking coffee shop too. It looks like it has some history. Look at that sign there. All right. Let's keep on going. I don't know who that is. I'd love to drive that car though. I wanna drive that car. Toyota Century. Yeah. I better move on because I don't know who that is. That could be anybody. Anyways. Moving on.

00:40:35 John Daub: This is central Koyasan. Central Koya Town. And you can see there's a little bit more foot traffic than usual. People from the area have come. The restaurants are open. There's traffic. It's kind of stressful to have all these cars. When I left the area, I left this morning to go on a walkabout—no cars at all. So let's pan to the right and enjoy the nice plant life. Rijo Simon writes in here: Is rural Japan a pleasant place for non-white foreigners? Curious because would love to do this. Absolutely. As somebody who's kind of a latte colored, I'm fine. Color doesn't really play a part. And you know what? A lot of the people out in the countryside are latte. All I know is that people working out here are working in the farms. They all look like me. So they probably look like you. And if you're asking me, then you've had some tough times, man. No, the countryside is fine. In fact, as long as you have a pleasant... You don't have a booming voice and you're quiet. You don't have a lot of hand gestures. Nobody's ever going to be offended by you. Just smile. That's what I tell everybody. I've never found color to be too much of an issue. Sometimes stuff happens. It doesn't matter what country you're in. There's not that nice people in every country. The one thing I tell people is, if you do have a bad experience, that's not an example of the entire country, okay? That's an example of a really bad person. So they exist everywhere. Everybody has a different upbringing. Everybody has a different lifestyle. Different parents that have taught them different things. Just take it as it comes.

00:43:12 John Daub: I think I can go into the store and get something to eat. Something to drink. Thunderbeard's here! Your videos make it easier to wait for the next trip. I could watch this all day. I hope you guys can make it here soon. It's kind of quiet, too. Oh, that looks good. Oh, that's curry udon! Bring it! Oh, it's all cold coffee. I'm actually starting to get a little chilly. These have an interesting sub-name to it: Japan Craftsman Craft Coffee. Hey! See, that's what I'm talking about. Look, I'm the same color as the Café Latte. Kind of a... I'm like a Café Latte, sort of. What do you think? Actually, I'm more like a sokin bicha. You can go to the Japanese vending machines: what color am I? I'm more of a Café Latte. This one here. See your color here. Should I go for this one, then? This is the same color as me. We're bros. Alright, I think we should go inside and get a drink from the store. But I don't want to freak anybody out, you know? Alright, let's go ahead and see if there's anything in here. There's some interesting drinks here. There's Meiji Mount Rainier Coffee. That sounds good. Salty Caramel. Alright, I'm gonna go with this. Although that Wanda Coffee, that guy looks pretty grumpy. Let's go with that one. Thank you. Something sweet. Salty Caramel. Mmm. That was good. Salty Caramel. The shop owner's watching me drink, too.

00:47:36 John Daub: Alright. Let's get my mask back on here. There's lots of places where you can go shopping around this area. This is what I would call the center. So what you would call the center here. There's lots of shops. This would be an omiyage (souvenir) shop. I guess we can have a quick look-see. This is Koya-kun. Let's go take a quick look-see. Maybe we'll get something. Let's see what we can get for Kanae in here. Looks like Koya-san potato pies. There's not a lot of selections. This is tofu. Whoa. These are like tofu boxes. Or Koya-kun towel. I could go for some of these. Nice. Alright. Not many things today. Whoa. These look so good. With mochi inside. Kusa dango (grass dumplings). Mugwort mochi. The sky has gotten so dark. So we're here in central Koya-san. Watermelon. Gotta go back for that. Whoa. This is an umeboshi (pickled plum) shop. Check out the umeboshi. This is sour plums, pickled sour plum. Your grandmother would like this. Umeboshi. And here's pretty much the center. Jofuku-in, which is where I spent the night, is that place straight ahead. Some of the rooms have this view looking down the street. I think actually Ruth's room is the one right there on the corner. Very, very picturesque. And this being the center, if you turn to the right, it's all trees with a temple in there. And we're gonna walk in there to end this live stream.

00:50:32 John Daub: Ruthie went for a walkabout, but she left so early. When I woke up, she's gone right after breakfast. Right before breakfast. I saw her at breakfast and I didn't see her again. We're supposed to meet up at around 1:30. That's Koyasan University, I believe, right over there. This would be an awesome place to study, wouldn't it? Yeah. There's the temple where I stayed, for my shukubo. And we're gonna walk across the street over here. Take a quick look-see. As these guys with lightsabers let us go. Can I get in? Yes. Please wait outside. Yes. Thank you. Take care. He's got a lightsaber. That's so cool. I wanna get one of these lightsabers. Japan had them first. Where do you think George Lucas got the idea? He might not admit it. It came from Japanese. He's saying, are you crossing the street? Not—a little bit different. Almost cleaning up the drink. Shane, Marty, and Irvonne. Three amigos. It's a good movie. All right, I'm closing. I'm putting that coffee in there and closing my bag. Give me a second. Ah, gimbal. We're back. Three amigos. Unstable the gimbal. Chelsea's been acting up lately, too. All right, let's go inside. Follow this family. Keep two, three meters away. Even though it's a Buddhist temple, I still never walk on the center. I don't know why. I'm gonna go in. Kami-sama in Shinto shrines never walk down the center. Always walk to the left or the right. The center is reserved for kami-sama. And if you do it, people will tell you, don't walk down the center. Also, people don't step on this, too. They always step over it. They never step on it. Whoa. Welcome to history. Check this out.

00:54:07 John Daub: This extended version is brought to you by the three amigos, Shane, Irvonne, and Marty—spanning three different continents, too. No, wait—US and Australia. I can smell the incense. It's so refreshing. The smell of walking around Koyasan with all of the temples and all the incense being burned—it is wonderful just to smell. But when you have a mask on, you only smell yourself, which is not ideal. But there's inside of here, you can buy omamori (protective charms) and certain things. They help to support the temple. I always recommend that if you spend some time there to buy something from the temple, like a little amulet or something to protect you. It's a nice gift to give to somebody else or something to keep for yourself, especially if you're going to be traveling. Somebody once gave me a necklace of St. Christopher for traveling. They have things like this, same kinds of amulets inside of temples and shrines that you can buy. Some are known for it as well. Like Sakai City in Nishi-Osaka is known for bicycles. So for bicycle safety, you can get amulets that will keep you safe for bicycle trips. Because Sakai City is famous for Shimano bicycle parts like the brakes and stuff. Shimano, I believe is the name of the company, comes from Sakai in Nishi-Osaka. Pretty cool, huh? The mascot is not a mushroom. It's Koya-kun. Koya-kun is the mascot. Oishi-x. It's very nice here. All right, let's go through these doors. The rain's starting to come down a little bit. We've lucked out. I didn't think we'd be able to go anywhere before the rain hit, but because we can go inside. Let's just have a quick look-see. Because of social distancing and stuff, I'm probably not going to go in there. It's kind of too crowded, I think. People should be staying two meters away from each other. It's very hard. People don't do that sometimes. I'll leave going in there for your trip here, okay?

00:57:19 John Daub: Did everybody see Tokyo Eye? I was in Tokyo Eye yesterday. It's on demand on NHK World right now. Tokyo factories and the coronavirus and how they're coping and battling it in their own way. John and Chris talk from the studio as they show Tokyo Eye changes its shifts from tourism to battling COVID-19. I'm proud to be a part of that amazing show on NHK World. Check it out on demand now. Yeah, we reviewed a face shield and the world's thinnest rubber band, which is being used to make masks. It's pretty cool. I kind of snatched a couple of those thinnest rubber bands and gonna give them to Kanae. I don't know what she's gonna use it for. All right, never step on this, step over it, but don't step on it. Yeah, I'm talking about, whoa. Ramsey silent will not be silent. Thanks man, you got it. I'll get something for Kanae at Osaka station on the way back. Or I'll buy it from here. It's got more symbolism. Good call, man. Good call. Never come home empty handed. And I gotta go back and get some mochi. Jeff Roberts, thank you. And Robin Smith, coffee on me, you got it. I'm gonna drink that on the Shinkansen, okay? I just had a coffee. I'm gonna get one on the Shinkansen for sure because I'm gonna need that extra pep to stay awake. And somebody asked about this here. This is good. Somebody asked about this. So before you go into temples and shrines, they have a place where you can wash your hands, but they've removed all the ladles because of COVID-19. So everybody kind of knows that you can come here, but nobody's washing their hands anymore unless you bring your own. I guess somebody does. So, right, Ronald, the little air washing.

00:59:53 John Daub: All right, and that's about it. I'm gonna take you to Jofuku-in, which is where I spent the night. We can cross the street over there. These guys with the lightsabers are doing their job. Good job, guys. Come back to Koyasan. That was a pretty amazing walk. And we've gone, we've seen most of Koyasan, the town area, which is a World Heritage Site from 2004. This whole area, because it's a place that's been here since the beginning, became a World Heritage Site. And that's pretty cool. It's protected. And I think it should be on everybody's itinerary. And I'm here to scout this out, so I will be back. That's the bell that we heard this morning. They were ringing this bell at like 2 a.m. too. That's all cool and all that, but I didn't get as much sleep as I probably should have. The Rokujoin Kane Bell. This bell was built in 1618 by the feudal lord Fukushima Masanori. It's a very famous bell. An important retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in memory of his mother. Oh, that's a nice mama story. The bell was recast by Masanori, a son of Masanori in 1630. It is rung at even hours every day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Somebody was ringing something at 2 a.m. They really like bells here. It's very easy to get around here. Everything is in English. And almost every shukubo—look at that old post box—almost every shukubo has people in it. People who speak English. It's fascinating.

01:01:39 John Daub: Jerry Patorne, 551 horai for you and Kanae. Oh, how did you know? Somebody's been here before. Jerry knows. And it's right off of the Shinkansen platform. You better believe it. I'm gonna get some butaman or something, shumai or something there for Kanae. Kanae's getting all, she's gonna be loaded up with goodies. She's gonna get all the goodies of the region. That's funny that he knew. I always stop there. And when I came into Osaka a couple days ago, there was nobody there. So I'll be able to get some of that. I'm sure they're gonna be busier today. 551. That's funny. 551—it's a magic number for Kansai. So there you go. I hope you enjoyed this live stream from central Koyasan. If you liked it, click the like button so you encourage me to keep making this kind of content and subscribe if you want to join me on these lives. If you're watching this in playback, if you subscribe you'll be able to join me on this trip. Look at the cars go this way and people go this way—how nice is that? Good for pilgrims. I don't know if I'm going to do another live stream from Osaka but if I do, maybe—I've done so many from Osaka Shin-Osaka Station before; it's not anything new. But just might be for fun. But I will report to you tomorrow about the conditions. Tokyo's situation has been getting worse and Kanae is very worried about the situation. She's in Tokyo right now. I don't know if I'm going to be able to travel again for a while. We're going to see what shapes up over the weekend and I'll give you an update on travel. This is very important especially for people who are living here in Japan—either on Friday or next week very early to let you know about the situation here in Japan because it's changing so much. Over the course of the next three months and if you're thinking about coming to Japan in the fall and in the spring if it's possible, these travel updates will keep you up to date so then you kind of have an idea of what the shape and situation of Japan is and where it's evolving from. That's really important I think if you're going to be traveling here even in the near future. These travel updates I think have some value and it's also reminds me of where we came from in about two, three years when this is over with. It's going to be interesting to look at these travel updates and remember how tough of a time that we had and how many people had to cancel their trips because of it. And I'm sorry if you had to cancel yours but until you can make it, I'm here for you. So thanks so much for becoming a member, for supporting today, and I'll see you in the next live stream really really soon. Bye everybody.