00:02 John Daub: Hello, welcome everybody to Chomeiji (長命寺, temple of long life). This is a very popular attraction here in Shiga's Omi region. There are 808 steps that hikers have to climb to get to the top. It's quite a long way and I'm actually almost at the top. I have like another 20 steps or so. There's an amazing view of Lake Biwa from up here in this fourth century temple. How you doing everybody? It is a beautiful hot day in Shiga prefecture and I'm taking you to Chomeiji which is such a beautiful place.

00:40 John Daub: Let's go the final steps to the top. It's one of 31 temples on a special pilgrimage here in Kansai. So there's a lot of pilgrims who come and take this hike. And of course climbing all these steps does tire you out. Here look at this three-story pagoda. Very beautiful here. From the top this beautiful view of Lake Biwa in the distance there. This is in the middle of Japan and I put a map link in the description so you can take a look at the Google map in this video's information.

01:27 John Daub: Here's a pole designating this as the 31st temple of this in the Kansai region for this long life temple. Chomeiji actually means long life and there was a politician in the fourth century. I believe this story goes a long time ago a politician came here he goes I want to live a long life and it came true. Apparently that dude lived for 300 years here. So this is known as the temple of long life and the trees look like they've had a pretty long life. These are amazing Japanese cedar trees. How you doing everybody? Good morning all excited for another live stream.

02:20 John Daub: Thank you. We're pretty high up. They had some sort of event here. There's Kevin in the corner. Do you see Kevin right there? He's here with Hiro owner of the Mio Guest House and we're going back to Tokyo but I thought I would bring you one more natural scenery because I don't know if I'm going to be able to leave Tokyo again and the situation is getting a little bit challenging so I thought I would bring you here for about five ten minutes. Beautiful beautiful temple. Breakfast is really good. Hit the spot. I don't have that much time. We've got to go back to the station in about 15 minutes but oh more steps what all right let's just do this just shotgun it.

03:46 John Daub: This way it's like you know coming to these old temples it's very much like Indiana Jones. You feel like you are so far back in history. Sometimes in the jungle they have these temples. Whoa that is so awesome underneath the pagoda here. What we can go inside. I can't do this. This is where they come to ring the temple bell. I can't ring that bell. There's no way. Kevin can do it maybe. And you take the rope there and you just launch that stick into the bell. No I can't do that. Hey Mike. Mike Roy Lance. Hey how you doing?

05:20 John Daub: I thought you took your shirt off. I thought you had your shirt off. I thought we were going to do a video. Where you going? I'm following you now. That's a Hiro and Saori from Mio Guest House. I can't believe there's a signal at all up here. So if this conks out you would have seen a little bit of green. It's hot. Look at how fast they are. Hey Meg. How you doing everybody? Really good exercise. Whoa oh I didn't expect this. What?

06:38 John Daub: Look at this view. What are you giggling at Kevin? Oh yeah the roof stopped the stone. If there was an earthquake that would be bad. Let's not talk about that. Wow. Wow what a view. That is Lake Biwa. Japan's biggest lake. Pretty darn awesome. We got all of Shiga prefecture in front of us. Look at the green in the distance. A prayer to the temple.

07:29 John Daub: Temple up there all in front of us that's wonderful look at this it's gonna pan around as I am taking the shinkansen I'm gonna be extremely careful try to sit in a car with no nobody in it again not a lot of people are actually riding the shinkansen so it's sort of safe i had to come for work just soak this in guys oh there they are up there mountain man oh it's deep yeah i don't know why my knees have been hurting lately look at the what ah the stone okay so we're now above the roof here misty it's inevitable thank you bradshaw studio i saw the great irvan is checked in all right obviously some signal problems up there the boulder is blocking all the signal but beautiful view of the lake here.

09:51 John Daub: Hey welcome back i'll take you over to the to the main Chomeiji temple which means long life the story is that a priest asked for long life he wanted to live for and he lived for 300 years a politician seiji ka oh yeah yeah yeah evil people get to live that long that's right kevin yeah that's the number to beat longest man ever to live 300 years although if you watch indiana jones in the last crusade that dude was in there for like a thousand years true he looked at two you could be that man protector of the grail whoa kevin strange spider web above me i almost went right through there you be careful because you're you're like six foot six foot a thousand i always get that in front of me clear the path except for my head is he right here i was gonna have a he quit have a spider web sunglasses or something on there.

11:00 John Daub: All right let's go to the the main temple now just for a quick look see and i'll take you down the steps a little bit it's a long way it's so worth it though you know the the present for you the surprise for you the the award reward is to an amazing view if you uh do ever climb mountains it does feel good to reach the top 808 steps or you could get a taxi you could get a taxi there's so many old people uh there are a lot of taxis here definitely if you're interested um you can go over to the discord server discord.gg only in japan uh we could definitely use some more nitro boosts and we're also looking for moderators so get in touch with the hell hi 821 and he'll hook you up with the the moderator job maybe some chanting okay are you guys ready for some chanting jim will explain chelsea's acting weird chelsea's acting weird all the time.

15:09 John Daub: Hold on a second. Alright, we're back again. Do I put those incense in here? So I take these incense and I put them in there, right?

15:55 Staff: Yeah, you take it, light it, stand it. Where do I light it? I'll put another one. 100 yen. Yeah. You can choose. 100 yen. You can choose the ryouki, senzoku, etc. For health. For health? For family.

16:26 John Daub: Oh, okay. We better do two. Health and family. We better do it for everybody. Hey, Irvan, this is for you and everybody, okay? Let's do health and family. Koko? Yep. Alright, guys, this is for all of you. Health and for good health and a healthy family, okay?

17:43 John Daub: Okay. The signal is weak. The spirit is strong inside there. Sorry. Let's see if I can get this. This connection is a little bit better. Hold on. Is it any better?

18:29 John Daub: I'll take you in to see the incense one last time and then we're going to take you down the steps. I got to get back. Incense. The incense I put in there for all of us is for good health and protection for our families, okay? So if you're watching this, then our community is safer, right? We're on the right side. Pilgrim. Oh, yeah, he's been walking the whole pilgrimage. He's got a stick, a hat, and a LSU hat. He's got a LSU tiger's bag.

19:32 John Daub: Oh, this is for the pilgrims. Do you have a reservation for Mio Guest House?

19:43 Pilgrim: I have one.

19:45 John Daub: What's that? Well... So they have some... Even if it's the day after tomorrow. Oh, the day after tomorrow? Yeah. Oh, okay.

19:53 John Daub: Yeah, I just asked Hiro and Saori who are running the guest house Mio. Mio Guest House. They have some reservations from people living in Japan. A couple from Taiwan. Okay. They're from Taiwan and living in Tokyo are coming down to stay there. So that's nice. But yeah, not a lot of people in the area. Look at this amazing three-story pagoda. Mary O. Thank you. And WRX Turbo. Always nice to have you on board here.

20:31 John Daub: It's important to take care of each other and I appreciate so much the support of the community here. Thanks, guys. We're getting close to a thousand channel memberships. Members. I'll announce that real soon. It's a big milestone. I'm really grateful for everybody joining me on these trips. I know that a lot of you just can't make it to Japan. And I really am happy to be able to take you on these adventures to different regions. And hopefully as the situation improves in Japan, I'll be able to go even further. Go down to Kyushu and maybe up to Hokkaido.

21:24 John Daub: Now most of these hand washers are closed because of the pandemic, but this one is open. And it's a good thing. The area doesn't have too many problems with infections. So I'm being extra careful though. And I know that people are a little bit worried about out-of-towners. So Kevin barely goes out. He's always in the wilderness anyways.

21:47 Kevin: I go where there's no people.

21:48 John Daub: You go where there's no people. Yeah. Look at the door. This natural like moss growing on it. Such a fertile area.

22:08 John Daub: Back down 800 steps. Yeah. I didn't take any video for the video for the main channel either. I'm just live streaming. It's crazy. I gotta get my priorities straight. New channel. New channel. By the way, this is a... You know, August we'll have one a week. That's good news. Four times a month.

22:48 John Daub: Donor inscription. 350 yen. 350 yen. Oh. He donate. He donate 350 yen. 350 yen only. Dake? But long, long time ago. Wow. Yeah. That's... That's a lot. That's a lot. How much is this? How much is this? This is so interesting.

23:12 John Daub: 100 yen. A long time ago, 100 yen was a lot of money. This person donated just 350 yen and got a stone. This one donated 100 yen and got a stone of equal size almost. That's incredible. And they're up there more. 100 yen. It says 100 yen. 500 yen. 500 yen. Today, 500 yen is worth $5. But about 100 years ago, 500 yen was like worth enough to get your own stone. That's interesting. Notice these appreciation for donations to the temple. They put these stones in hundreds of years ago. 50 yen. Only 50 yen? 50 yen. This? This person gave 50 yen, which is value 50 cents. And he got a stone hundreds of years ago because the value of 50 yen was like a fortune. 50 yen must have been like $5,000 or something. That's so awesome.

24:18 John Daub: Hey, William Self. Welcome. Traveler. What's this? What's this? What's this? Gocho. Gocho. This is Gocho. I was here. No, no, no. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. Yeah. Great thing with staying at Guest House Mio is Hiro knows everything. From Omi Hachiman. Omi Hachiman. He knows this town. All right. Oh, look at the tambo (rice paddies). Tambo. Whoa, Kevin, go get it. Sometimes they like fingers. Not this one. It's because you look like a robber. I wouldn't get on your finger. Where's your finger been?

25:23 John Daub: All right, folks, this is the end of the line because I already checked. There is no signal down here. Thanks so much for watching. These are the 800 steps to the top. Check it out. I recommend that you do come if you're in the Kyoto area. This is such an amazing little stop. Omi Hachiman is an amazing place for you to come and visit, not just because of the town that we showed you this morning, but because of places like this, there are no tourists. Look, you have the whole walk to yourself. Eight hundred and eight steps to the very top and you get a chance to see all of Lake Biwa. It's a very rewarding hike. Stay in shape. Work off that. But I hope that you do come. Yeah. Shiga is the neighbor to Kyoto, right? Kyoto's neighbor. Yeah. Kuma's Kitchen. There you go. Less robber. Now the dragonfly will get on your finger. Thanks, everybody. We're headed back to Tokyo. He's going back to Osaka. See you next time. See you. Nobody down there.