00:00:00 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Akita Prefecture. You can see from the window of the Akita Shinkansen, we are pulling into Omagari. In this live stream, I'm going to give you a look at Omagari Station, which is very famous for fireworks, hanabi (fireworks). How you doing everybody? Welcome to another live stream. I haven't ever been to this station. This is the first time at Omagari Station. So I'm pretty curious about it, but I've heard that they have some fireworks inside of the station where you can see that they've made. This area is very famous for fireworks manufacturing. So I'm kind of excited to give you a tour of this Shinkansen station and this station, which is pretty much in the center of Akita Prefecture.

00:01:00 John Daub: I'll put a link in the description to a map where you can find this, but not a lot of tourists will get off here except for a fireworks festival or something like that. But we're pretty local as you can see outside the window. Completely different environment than Tokyo. I'm going to be spending the night here too. Midnight snack run. Is anything open at midnight? I think there's only one or two hotels too. Interesting. So we're just about to stop and exit. In New Liger. Hey Richard. Sending some greetings from Canada. Thank you. And HGN California. Mark Ruffalo. That could be me. Or he could be me. Or I could be him.

00:02:18 John Daub: Alright, the door is about to open. What a beautiful entrance. Hey! We're here! Omagari! Omagad! Beautiful! So I guess we gotta go this way. So we're gonna take a bus. We're gonna take a quick look around the Shinkansen station. As well as say goodbye to the Shinkansen which is going straight onward to Akita. It's funny though. We came in this way. It's gotta go in reverse to get out of here. So that's a pretty special thing that we're gonna see. So the E6, which I believe is what this one is. That could be wrong. Looking back at this beautiful looking Shinkansen now. Seems sort of out of place here out in the countryside. But she's gonna be pulling away going back the way she came to get on her way to Akita.

00:03:34 John Daub: Thank you for the beautiful ride. Boy that nose looks a lot dirtier than when I showed her when I left Tokyo. Some of these bugs really didn't make it. I guess it's hard to at 300 and something kilometers per hour. Hey Jeff Angus here! Thanks for the lunch money! And John Kimura. Ahmi87. For drinks just for you. And some Sydney Australia. And Jennifer French. Here's something for a snack. Alright she's starting to pull away. There she goes! Thanks for the ride! It's kinda sad. Now I really am stuck here. I can't go anywhere. Bye Shinkansen. TTFN. Tata for now.

00:04:36 John Daub: But let's take a look at Omagari Station really quickly. There's not a lot of action in the station as you can see. We just kinda hang out. Let's go take a look at the inside and see what's around this area. As Ide-san and Hayashiya-san are waiting for me. Eh? Is this the exit already? There's more? I see. That was kinda shocking. So basically we're already at the exit. So we need the ticket. So that's Ide-san and Hayashiya-san from the fireworks association. This is the ticket from Tokyo. It's quite expensive. But 16,000 or 17,000 yen to get here.

00:05:41 John Daub: So this is the Shinkansen entrance to the station. So you gotta go through this extra door to get into the Shinkansen. The Shinkansen seem to leave every 30 minutes or so. It's hard to see the sign cause the frequency of the voltage here makes it hard. The red one, Shinkansen, is the Akita Shinkansen. The green one is the Tohoku Shinkansen. The two are joined until Morioka and then they separate. That's good information to know. We're gonna go up and then around. And then explore into Omagari station. Thanks so much for joining us everybody. How ya doin'? Always everywhere.

00:06:26 John Daub: Yes, it's about 160, 170 dollars from Tokyo to get here. It's actually a little bit cheaper than the Shinkansen. It's actually cheaper to fly. And there is a Go To Travel campaign where everything is 50% off. But you have to book the tickets 30 days in advance. And we weren't even funded for this fireworks project. Which is what is bringing me here today. I'm gonna be filming the manufacturing of the fireworks. Because this city is famous for it. And it's one of the only places this year that is making fireworks. All the other fireworks manufacturers are suspended. Except for Omagari.

00:07:05 John Daub: Did you see that? They got fireworks here. I see our members found the fireworks emoji. Oh, I need the ticket again. Where's my ticket? So the Omagari festival. This one is where we're going. I'm gonna be doing the Only in Japan festival here. That's amazing. Look at all those bright lights. I'm so excited to talk with them and see what we can do. And it doesn't come back. We're out. Fireworks.

00:07:51 John Daub: Konnichiwa. Konnichiwa. Hi. I'm John Daub. Thank you very much. Good to meet you. Is this the Shinkansen? Oh, is that so? I'm going now. This is a model of the Shinkansen right there at the entrance. It's not a very big station. That's it. There's no stores in here. No shopping. No souvenirs. It's basically that. They do have a digital vending machine. It's kinda cool. And this very long walkway. See up here the fireworks posters. Omagari Fireworks Festival. Very cool. I'm kind of excited about this. Kind of is an understatement. Whoa!

00:08:57 John Daub: Kankou go anai! Wow they already have some goods as well. There's a lot of stuff. So inside of the gift shop here we can take a look at some of the Omagari stuff. I want to show you the outside of the station. There's a big firework outside. Honda-san shakudama miserarenai yone. Tsukuranai. Chotto zannen (a bit of a shame). So Honda-san's not making any more shakudama (fireworks shells) to show us for the video so we have to film that here. They got look at this fireworks cookies. Look at the fireworks on the cookies. That's awesome. That's a good pattern for the towels. Some more fireworks senbei (rice crackers).

00:09:56 John Daub: These are the fireworks. These are good presents. I'll have to bring back some fireworks goods to kanai (wife). Fireworks rice and tea. There's some fireworks sake (rice wine). Yeah. Fireworks sake. This is the good stuff. Shake it up. Whoa! This booze is made. Check this out. This is umeshu (plum wine) but the umeshu is made to look like a firework shell. That's awesome. Oh this is awesome. This is where you go to if this is the center of Japan's fireworks production. And you I'm seeing it like look at these fireworks neck ties. I gotta get me one of them. Look at that. This is hardcore fireworks. No hanabi (fireworks). No life.

00:11:06 John Daub: I gotta get me one of them. And like they have these masks. These are fireworks masks. I gotta buy one. Kanai you want one? I'm getting one of these fireworks masks. Wow okay I gotta get me a hanabi mask. That's awesome! The DVD here is over $100. I should have charged more. Wow. I guess I know what the postcard club is going to be for next month. Fireworks. Wow. These Kaneko-san no sashin (photos)? We need sashinsha (photographer). Hitsuyo da ne (necessary, right?). Oh, look at that. Oh my god, fireworks festival. Last year's. So, it's shakudama, da ne (fireworks shells, right?)? That's what a shakudama looks like. That's what eight people bought for the Kickstarter project. This big one. It's massive.

00:12:20 John Daub: Look at these magnets from fireworks. Fireworks jam. Fireworks honey. It's not really, but honey. Fireworks t-shirts. Fireworks sweatshirts. Awesome. Oh my god. Hanabi. That's just that's all it says there. These are pretty sweet. If you don't know it's fireworks, this is like somebody threw mustard on your shirt, right? People like who threw mustard on you. Still pretty cool. Oh, here's the fireworks shells. These are bad ass. Look at that. These are empty, but the fireworks shells look like this. This is a number four and a number three. I believe these are number threes. You can put these on your mantle and these are number six. Maybe no. Hold on. The number fours. Yeah, number four and number three. 800 yen for that. It's not too bad. It's awesome. I want to get myself. I want to get me a hanabi towel. Look at these hanabi towels.

00:14:13 John Daub: Hanabi mask. Don't you buy it? It's cute, isn't it? It's cute. Oh, this is a round one. Is that a different pattern? This is also. Oh, it's a hanabi type. There's a hanabi here too, and there's a hanabi here. Wow, that's nice. Hanabi, which one do you want? This one or this one? This one. Hanabi. No life, no hanabi. There's a hanabi mask, but it's a mask. Masks? Look. What's that? What's that? No home, no life. But she's beautiful. That's not even a human, that's like a dummy. I thought that was a mask. Well maybe I'll just get one and then ask Kanai and buy it when we go home. I'll just get one for now. Here you go. I'll get two then. I'll buy Kanai's mask now. Here's your receipt.

00:15:41 John Daub: This is a mask upgrade. You can't order online, right? I can't. I want to order online right now. Sorry, they don't have any internet orders. I believe you have to actually come here. They don't have internet orders. They don't do internet orders. Sorry. That's funny. I'm going to take you out to the front of the station now. And show you what it looks like. I think it's going to be pretty cool. These are cool too, these books. Thank you very much. Here you go. Thank you very much. There's some good stuff in here. So this is an uchiwa (fan). And these are really... That's a black one. Oh, so you can take a picture. And then put it on this. That's awesome. This is like next level. Next level uchiwa. So I'm sending them to the Kickstarter supporters. So they have the different years. 2017, 2018.

00:17:36 John Daub: This is a uchiwa train. The train will depart at 12 o'clock from Akita station. This is a train departing from Akita station at 12 o'clock. There's a big firework in front of the station. So I came here. Fire. You're going to get lunch? Yeah. Alright, we're going to get some lunch. But I want to show you the exit. The exit is downstairs of the station. Really quickly. There's really not that much here. Here's the station. It's so clean. Look how clean the station is. And the area is quite flat with some mountains in the background. Which makes it perfect for shooting off fireworks. Because you can see from a very far distance. You can see from a very far distance the fireworks.

00:18:55 John Daub: And let's go down to the front of the station. And in October, actually, lighting up fireworks is much much better in the fall than it is in the summer. Do you know why? The sky is actually clearer. The humidity is gone. So when the fireworks explode, all that smoke goes away a lot quicker. And it's just so much clearer because there's no humidity. Well, there's really not that much here. This is countryside. Whoa! What's that? It's not 5 shakudama, right? That is the biggest fireworks I've ever seen in my life. Whoa! What's this? That's a fireworks shell. This dwarfs the 4 shakudama. It's not real. But this is the front of Omagari station. And it's very famous for this. Fireworks. How cool is this?

00:20:06 John Daub: Hey, Marty's here. Marty, I like that one. Let's read what it has to say here. Omagari Hanabi. National fireworks competition is held here in Omagari. Artists representing the peak of Japanese fireworks from all over the country compete for the coveted title at Omagari Hanabi. Personally firing their own displays. That's us! Each team puts forward their proudest work at the prestigious national competition. With the Omono River running in the foreground and sweeping mountain ranges in the distance, the riverbank seating is an ideal location to appreciate the overwhelming display of light and sound. Annually on the last Saturday of October, but for us it's October. This is awesome, this is where we're having the Only in Japan fireworks festival from Kickstarter. We picked the best place, didn't we? And look at this. Look how massive it is. That's awesome.

00:21:04 John Daub: I'm gonna jump inside and then get shot out of a cannon. It's my dream. Wait, that doesn't have a very happy ending, does it? It doesn't, does it? Alright, we're getting into this car here. So I'm here on official business to film the production and manufacturing of the hanabi, the Only in Japan fireworks festival and it all starts right here in this city. After all of that Kickstarter funding and after all of that work, we're finally here in Omagari to start the filming and the quest to fulfill the Only in Japan fireworks festival legend. And that's Omagari station. It is pretty nice. It's very quiet, but it is a Shinkansen stop. And I hope that this was informative.

00:22:13 John Daub: Hey Nathan, how you doing? Put some distance between you and that giant firework. Yeah, you better believe it. I'm going to need to... You know how far away you need to get to get away from that one? That's massive. Look at the local bus come by. How cute is that? Tony Pei. Whoa, there's really nothing here. I wonder what we're going to have for lunch. It's just, they call this Hanabi Avenue. That's Fireworks Avenue this is called. I love the names. I wonder do they have any manhole futa (manhole covers)? Manhole futa aru? Manhole futa. Zettai hanabi desho (definitely fireworks, right?). Yeah, we gotta go eat lunch. I think they're waiting for me. I'm looking just real quickly for a manhole futa. Just like five seconds. If there's gonna be one, it's gonna be like right around here.

00:23:16 John Daub: They don't have any manholes here. What? I don't see one manhole. Do you? There's no manholes. All right, this is gonna have... Well, there's one here, but these aren't the right ones. They gotta have a fireworks manhole cover. That's gonna be awesome. All right, I'll find it. I'll put it on Instagram. All right, Only in Japan TV is the Instagram handle. I hope that you liked the Omagari. The Omagari station episode is pretty interesting. I can show you here for like 30 seconds. Hold on before we go. Here's a map just to point out where we are. Maps are always important. It kind of puts a face on the area. Akita. Boy, we traveled pretty far today.

00:24:11 John Daub: So we're here. There's Akita city up there. That's where Oga Hanto is. Where a volcano imploded on itself. That's what it means. There's Akita city right there. And then Omagari is right here. So we're pretty much in the middle of it. And there's Hachiko, the Akita Inu. The dogs are very famous here in Akita prefecture. And we're here in the center. And you can see the big fireworks right there. That's where we are. So better get to it. Eh, are? But now it's somewhere else. Ah, okay. Then later. Alright, I will find a fireworks manhole cover for later on. But we have to go and eat. And I gotta start filming because it's kind of what I do. That's Hayashiya-san. Yay. Oh, this one? Alright, goodbye from Omagari station.

00:25:06 John Daub: Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you in another livestream. Maybe a little bit later tonight. Welcome, Noah, to the Insiders. And Russ Rhodes, I know this place well. What? I went there four years ago to share with UBS a place called Hikiya near this place. The station. Interesting. A place to go... A hikikomori (social recluse) transition to help them interact with others again? Interesting. Not a lot of people come out this direction but it's nice to know that somebody else did. I'll leave you the last 5 seconds looking at this big firework and hope that it does not explode in the next 5... 4... 3... See you soon, everybody. One.