00:00:04 John Daub: Welcome to Omagari Station. This is where we're going to be starting an amazing adventure around this town of Omagari. Famous for this, right in front of you, you are seeing a firework shell. And if it were real, it would be probably the biggest firework shell in the world times five. It is massive. In fact, Kanae Daub is going to go stand right next to it. She is dwarfed by the firework shell. And that's a nice picture. How you doing, everybody? Welcome to Omagari. And there's the yurikara (fireworks mascot). It's a cannon and a firework shell. It's crazy. It's on the community bus. You gotta love the countryside of Japan. There's also a convenience store and a cafe. This is where I got a fireworks-inspired coffee that had a pattern of it. You can see firework shells in the windows of the cafe. This is all about fireworks, Omagari. And we're gonna be taking you walking with us, or you're gonna be walking with me and Kanae Daub over there. We're gonna go down Fireworks Street. It says Hanabidori (Fireworks Street). Do you see it? The orange arch? And take a look at downtown Omagari. It's gonna be really cool.

00:01:33 John Daub: Omagari Station here actually opened in the year 1904. After World War II, it became part of the JR East Japan Network.

00:02:02 John Daub: What's he hunting? Kanae Daub, he's hunting. Oh, he's in a hunting position. Shh, shh, shh. Something's going to happen. He's going to pounce. Just leave it alone. Looks evil now. Okay, go, go, go, run. Get away. All right.

00:02:30 John Daub: So this station, Omagari Station, opened in 1904. So it's got some history here. The city itself, Omagari, wasn't incorporated until the 1950s, I believe. And then in 2005, it became part of Daisen. So the city is actually called Daisen. In 2005, about five or six towns came together to create one megatown. And I'm taking you this way. Look at that police station. It looks like the Wild West out in Wyoming, this one building all on its own. I'm taking you this way because I want to show you a passion of mine. I'm what some people call a manhole-r. And there's one over there. Hey, Madhata is here. The Madhata. And Eugene's here. We're now in Akita Prefecture, very far away from the city of Tokyo. And look at the weather. Surprised? It's just cloudy and the sun is popping through and there's not much wind at all. It's amazing how the typhoon is really impacting Tokyo. And it's not doing much anything here.

00:03:47 John Daub: Manhole! Wow! Hora! Nice. I found this one when we were walking to the hotel. This one really captures the city, doesn't it? It's water, forests, mountains and fireworks. Beautiful. It is. I like the details, the colors in it. And they painted it. And I wonder if this came from the fireworks manhole factory that I visited a few years ago. It's pretty. It doesn't look quite the same if you go to the one in the middle of the street. I think I saw Ervin Ervan here. We're not decided what to call Ervan. Right now on Discord, there's a debate raging on what his name should be. We'll find another one. That's what it looks like unpainted. Like the internet is speaking. Here's another one right here. It's a little bit safer. A lot of streets around here I saw are rusted over. And you get this kind of thing. It's kind of a brown look to it. It could be from the salt they use in the winter. I'm sure there's a lot of salt and sand on the roads during the winter when the ice and snow, which is very high here, I've been told.

00:05:13 John Daub: Now, Omagari is very famous for fireworks, as you have seen right away. You'll see fireworks on every single establishment in one way or another, whether inside or outside. There's something having to do with fireworks. Because four times a year, they hold fireworks. They hold what's called a hanabi taikai (fireworks competition/festival). Hanabi is the word for fireworks. Taikai means like a big competition, like a festival. And Omagari is one of the top three fireworks festivals in Japan. But they don't do their hanabi taikai once a year like most localities. They do their fireworks festivals four times a year. Four! And three of these were canceled this year, which leaves one! And that's the one that we're going to tomorrow. The Omagari fireworks festival. We're going down Hanabi Street. Kanae Daub's wearing her hanabi mask. Can you take a look at here?

00:06:37 John Daub: Let's go take a look down Hanabi Street. This building right here though is quite interesting. Before I take you down Hanabi Street, I just want to show it to you. It's quite unique here. So on the side of this, I guess it's a bank or something. The top part of there has fireworks on it. You can see there's like lines in it. But if you walk past it, gradually the image changes. So you have a bunch of fireworks right now. It's like magic. And as you walk past it, it will explode into a different image. Look! It's disappeared! Where'd it go? Wow, that's so weird. Look, it's changing. Wow. And now it just turned into one big one. Pretty cool, huh? What is for lunch? Eh, what do you want for lunch? It's a good question, Irvan. Udon, maybe. They don't have any kiritanpo (grilled rice sticks) here. We have to look for that. Alright, let's get away from Omagari Station. This is the JR station. We're going to walk around to the other side and take you down Hanabidori. Because that's where all the excitement must be.

00:08:06 John Daub: Omagari Station has 2,000 average daily passengers. That's not a lot when you think about Shinjuku Station's millions, but it gives you an idea. The population is about 39,000. That's not a big town. You can see here's a gift shop. Omiyage (souvenir). And do you see the way that the chocolate manju (steamed buns)? The package is shaped like a fireworks cannon. That's kind of neat. And then they have more gift packages here. What is that, senbei (rice crackers)? Yeah. That's pretty nice. That's a nishakudama (double ball shell), right? Yeah. I can tell by the size. The shakudama (ball shell) is the one that people bought. Yeah, the Kickstarter supporters, we had about nine of them buy a shakudama. This is a nishakudama, double the size. This is a massive nishakudama. Imagine how big the yonshakudama (four-ball shell) was, right? Very big. All right, this is Hanabi Avenue. Hanabidori. And we're going to take a look down this street.

00:09:47 John Daub: But what is cool about this underpass is that you get to see the area's mascots. Whether they're creepy or not, I'll let the internet decide. So this looks like a fireworks shell. And that's his head and he has fireworks exploding on his cheek. And there's a cannon and another baby bomb. A baby fireworks shell. So this is the yurikara (fireworks mascot). And you can see them. They're all taking a bath down here. So maybe they'll be at the festival tomorrow. Maybe. I really hope so. That looks funny. I'd like to meet them. It's da bomb. All right, let's get down here and walk Hanabi Avenue. The buzzing center of town. Wow. Yeah. It's going to be a really, really funny livestream. Things have really mellowed out here.

00:11:01 John Daub: So this is Route Inn. This is the luxury hotel for Omagari. I stayed here the first time. We're not staying here because options are slimmer. But Route Inn is, yeah, it's a pretty standard. In any other town, it's a pretty standard hotel, like an upper hotel. It's a chain. But in Omagari, it is the top hotel. Oh, shabu shabu. You want shabu shabu? Oh, no, no. There's, if you want udon, there's a place that we had udon just up the street that was so good. Yeah. I ate it last time I was here filming for the production episode. Everything has little fireworks on Hanabi Street. You can buy a hanabi poster in here. It's very cool.

00:12:10 John Daub: Basically, Japanese towns outside of urban areas are kind of like this. A lot of them are mom and pop businesses. Probably have not changed since the Showa period. And you can find some really interesting things inside there. This is Yamaguchi. And yeah, toy shop, omochiya (toy shop). Doesn't look like it looks family owned and doesn't look like it's changed much over the years. Oh, this looks like a sake and a, yeah, omiyage gift shop. And you can see the fireworks on the side here. Interesting. They do have umeshu (plum wine) in the shape of a firework shell, which Kanae Daub is going to get for her papa. She said. Here's a, here's one of the udon shops, I think. Oh, it's over there. Yeah, this one, Kanae Daub. Yeah, they had really good udon here. Yeah, we ate lunch here last time. Yeah, maybe we can get some lunch there. They had, I think I got a katsudon soba set. Yeah, let's check it out. The menu. Got a katsudon. Oh yeah, I remember you sent me tickets. Yeah. WRX Turbo's here. Let's rev this up. Tempura. Lunch time is until 3. 11 to 3. Last order's at 2, though. Oh yeah, that looks good. Whoa, that's pretty cheap, too. Do they have kiritanpo? That's what Kanae Daub wants. That's duck, though. Kanae Daub doesn't like duck. I got that one that sat there. They had sushi. Looks like fireworks. They put the sushi in the shape of fireworks. Look. The title is, why the star mine? Oh, that's a star mine right there. And this is a mega fireworks. Look at that. It's awesome. That's $100, though. That's nice. You want it? Okay. Hey, Brenda. At this rate, we're going to be getting that $100 sushi plate. We're going to end up trying that fireworks sushi.

00:15:08 John Daub: Whoa, look at those dragonflies. What kind of noise do they make? Do you see them? They're like one was on top of the other one. What are they doing? Wow, look at this car. These are all the gachapon (capsule toys), I think. They collect it. It's all inside their car. Yeah. Oh, they're taped down, so even if you brake hard, they won't go flying. Very nice. I approve. The whole dashboard is like a museum. Do you see that? The whole dashboard is like a museum. That's awesome. If I buy a car, a real one, that's what I want my dashboard to look like, like a museum. You want to make a zoo? I want to make a zoo, yeah. But I want to go over a step further and build cages for them and stuff because they can't have freedom inside the car. Would you give them freedom? I guess so. They're not real animals. I like Curious George. Maybe Curious George you can put. He doesn't need a cage. He's got the yellow hat. Man, is this his friend? No convenience stores or 7-Elevens? You can see that? What is that? That looks like fireworks. That's a firework shell with a cannon. Yeah, that's a shakudama. That's the size. That's what our supporters ordered. Yeah. That's a shakudama size. And it's a cannon. And I guess it's to keep cars from doing something bad. I don't know. I'm not sure exactly. But we're going down Hanabidori and we're looking for trouble.

00:17:37 John Daub: Now, every time that they held the Omagari fireworks festival, which is tomorrow, there's almost a million people who come to watch it. But this year is very special. We're not going to have a lot of people coming to this event because of the pandemic. That's why live streaming it is really the best option. So if anybody's thinking of coming here, probably best to stay home and watch it live. Yeah. Only Omagari residents, the citizens of this area can come. But I've been invited. Kanae Daub and I have been invited by the town to bring you this special fireworks festival because we bought our community bond, a lot of it. So we are here to bring you the story. And it's kind of neat. Oh, there's a super cool thing. Supermarket. Oh, this is where all the life is. We just walked this whole street. Oh, look at that. You get, you always, when you look at the photographers, you always get like a slice of life as they do the portraits, right? Look at that. The two kids living Omagari life. They look pretty happy. It's nice. Family pictures. Very nice. I approve.

00:19:07 John Daub: Hey, Matt. Matt Engstrom's here. How's the weather? By Kanae Daub, her wagyu beef. You remember. And if it's on me, oh, you got it. Have a great rest of the week and weekend. Wish Peter von Gomm and his family are there too. Yeah, they couldn't make it. I invited them, but they've gone over to camping, which is a shame. But maybe next year I might do this again. He's actually, Peter von Gomm's voice is in the music. He does like a Disney-esque like welcome to Walt Disney World opening for Only in Japan. So big shout out to PPG and thank you for doing the opening. You're going to hear it tomorrow in the live stream when the festival starts. That's going to be taking place 6 to 8 PM Japan Standard Time. And 6 PM is like 5 AM New York time. And it's like 2 AM California time, I think. But yeah, I think not too long after it starts, I think ours is, we haven't decided yet, right? What time is Only in Japan's part? We're going to know today, so I'll be able to put this in the event 24 hours in advance. We will get the programs too. Oh, we're going to get the programs. So we're going to show you. Only in Japan, hanabi program. Oh, right. So every fireworks festival, there's a program. There's kind of a listing, something with, yeah. And like you would get at a baseball game or a sporting event. There's a program and we're in the program, Only in Japan community. We say that. Banzuke (ranking/program). About the hanabi program, we called banzuke. We're in the banzuke. It's awesome. So I'll be able to show that to you and share with you our banzuke entry.

00:21:06 John Daub: And this is the, looks like another main street. This is the big intersection of Omagari, it appears like, because there's a lot of people hanging out here. We're going to go investigate. What is that house over there? That brown house. Just pan around here. Up above. Up above, you can see the mascots are on these signs. Oh, they don't play music. In the out in the countryside, they usually will play some kind of music that's for firemen. What do you call that song? That means you better hurry up when they do that. I forgot that thing. It's the main drag right there. There's people hanging out in the corner. Coming through the rye? I don't know. All I know is that song is everywhere. It used to be 20 years ago when I came to Japan. Gradually they're getting rid of it. The traffic signals don't have the same. They just have the chirping birds to make it universal. But I like the tunes! Keep the tunes, Japan! What is this shop? This is an okashi (confectionery) shop. Omiyage shop. I think I panned the camera in there. Nobody was in there. Run away.

00:23:08 John Daub: This is the main parking area. I promised you an exciting livestream and that's exactly what you're going to get. This is the life of the city here. What else can we show them? What else is Omagari famous for? Fireworks! Yes! Okay, I know. I can show you a picture. Many people who have come to Omagari say that this is the best fireworks experience they've ever been to. Apparently, it's really, really large. This is a picture stolen from Instagram. Check it out. It's kind of wow, it's really bright. But you can see we don't have food stands this year. But you can see how incredible they go to the next level here and there's an artistry to the fireworks in Omagari. This is going to be yeah, Su, I am vlogging this live. Tomorrow, 6 to 8 p.m. There's fireworks on the chairs. If you sit there, do you explode? Try to sit there. Three, two, one. Oh, that's a good picture. Hi, I'm from Omagari. Lovely. Hi, I'm Forrest. Forrest Gump. Would you like a box of chocolates? I don't know. I might have watched that movie more than I know. I've watched it more than one time. Sorry. Do you know what these poles are for? For snow. All the Canadians are probably looking. We got those. Then you know how high the snow is or something. I think when the plows come in through here, it really piles up the snow. I can't even imagine what winter is like here.

00:24:54 John Daub: We're very lucky. They told us for tomorrow's fireworks festival, they told us that we have to have they told her to bring a down jacket. It's so cold at night. It's on the riverside. The place that I think I put a link in the description? I'll show you. I'll put a link in the event page, the event stream. And you can see where exactly this event is taking place. There's nothing around there. It is very I wouldn't say it's a lake effect because there's nothing around there. It's just some mountains and a river. And it's just open. So the fireworks are so clear and easy to see here. And you don't get that in the city. And even in some of the towns, there's buildings and trees and there's no big clearing. This is a big clearing. And that's one of the reasons why Omagari is such a popular place for fireworks festivals. There's space for everybody. That looks like a little cafe. I thought that was a what is that? It looks like a spaceship window. I like that. Kanae Daub, they got burgers. Wow. Gotta get the wagyu though. We're gonna go get some wagyu. Maybe for dinner. Oh, there's a yakitori restaurant right there. Awesome. Hey, Marty's in the house. Marty found the fireworks hanabi super sticker. Tom and Serva, welcome. KC and Jenny, welcome. Both of you. We have to get some wagyu. Thanks to Matt here. Those bentos are good. How was your bento, eki bento (station bento)? It was good. Did you eat the sukiyaki one? I had the miso katsu one. And that's why I'm still not too hungry because we had the massive bentos.

00:27:04 John Daub: Just take a quick look at the shop here. Oh, look at that bowling pin. That's the happiest bowling pin I've ever seen. It's saying, hit me, hit me, hit me if you can. That pin is so big. I think any little bowling ball I hit, I'm just gonna hit it and bounce off. That's the thing. When you compare these countryside restaurants with Tokyo, there's just so much parking. Look at that. It's so easy to go in there and park. But when you drive, you can't drink. Looks like a good yakitori restaurant. Let's have a quick look-see at the river and then we have to go back to the hotel. The Hanabi Association people are coming to meet us. So we had about an hour to show you around. And I think it's kind of neat to spend an afternoon looking around. Oh my god. Get away from the city and just get an idea of what we're going to be doing tomorrow. Now this is, I don't think this is the, this goes around to the river, but it's, I believe, a pretty nice view from here. And you can start to see after we get out of the town how natural Akita Prefecture is. It's so beautiful here.

00:28:35 John Daub: Japan was the first country that I, the first place that I came to and experienced blacklight bowling back in 1998. It's like, what is this? They took bowling to another level. It became like a, not just a game of bowling, but was more than bowling. It's like next level bowling, bowling from the future or something, I thought. So this connects with the, that's the fireworks museum. And I did a live stream there not too long ago. And this is fireworks park. And last time I was here, the rain was so bad, we couldn't see anything in the sky. Looking out of the window, it was really bad weather. But it's funny that Tokyo is experiencing a typhoon. And we're out here in the middle of Akita. Literally, this is the middle of Akita. And the weather is fine. The weather is fine. Maybe we should cross this street and then head back to the hotel. Crazy. Why is the weather nicer here? There's no wind. Tomorrow's supposed to be cloudy. Beautiful river. Oh, this side is really nice. It is a very nice little town. There's a lot of akiya (abandoned houses) that we walked past as well. A lot of businesses that have shut because of the pandemic. Not a lot of business going on. There wasn't a lot of business to begin with. And over the last six months, it's been really, it's hit Tokyo really hard. But it's hit the smaller towns of Japan especially harder. And that's you know, I'm really happy that our community was able to come together and raise some money to bring the fireworks festival here. It's a good thing that we did, you know? It's a really good thing.

00:31:23 John Daub: This is not the eye of the storm. Somebody wrote this is the eye of the storm. No! We're not the eye. Are we? Yeah, Japan is in deflation. Which means that if you go to the bank, and it's been like this for 20 years. I went to the post office. I was going to open up a savings account. But the interest rate, I think, was 0.001%. Which means typically, I don't know, like, what's the point? But the deflation. Sorry about the wind. Beautiful. Hey, Michael Turner. Welcome. Really enjoy your vids. New member. Is in Japan roughly the size of California? Roughly. I'm not really sure. California is pretty big. But it being an island, inside of Japan, there's so many different cultures. It still takes quite a long way to get from one side to the other. From Tokyo by Shinkansen to get here was, I think, three and a half hours. So it's quite big. To get down by Shinkansen to Okinawa, to Kagoshima, takes, I think, seven hours to get to Hakata. And then another three hours. So ten hours on the Shinkansen, I think, to get to Kagoshima. From Tokyo. So it's quite a hike. It's a much larger country than it looks on the map. To me, Japan always was a small country and then I lived here. It's really big. I mean, it's not well, you know what? It actually puts America in perspective, doesn't it? How massive the United States is. When you think about how big Japan feels to me, even after 23 years. How big is America, right? It's huge. Europe as well. Very big. These continents. The US is massive. Australia too. Imagine, what is it? 24 million people in Australia and all that space. Wow. Most of it's desert. Spiders and stuff. Snakes and it's kind of a dangerous place, Australia, isn't it? I don't know what I'm kind of psyching myself out. Australia. Love Australia. They're coming in the spring down there. Lucky. I miss summer already.

00:34:15 John Daub: This happy bowling pin is where we leave you. Really good. I'm going to go get some lunch with Kanae Daub and we have to get ready for the meeting with the Hanabi Festival people. We're going to the factory? Factory? Does that mean I should live stream again? You have some meetings. I have meetings. Interviews. Oh, right. I thought it was interviewing on the day of the festival at the Hanabi Festival. At the hiroba (plaza), the event place. All right. We'll figure it out. So it looks like we got some meetings. Probably going to have a dinner with the fireworks manufacturers to celebrate. Last time, I think he took me out and then he paid as a gift for the payment that we gave to him. It's a very Japanese cultural thing, but I'm just really happy that they finished the fireworks. They got the music that I prepared from Only in Japan Music. Peter von Gomm put in the opening. You're really going to love it. I know it's the middle of the night in the US, but if you wake up for a midnight snack to use the restroom or something in the middle of the night, just turn on Only in Japan. You'll see some amazing fireworks at one of the biggest fireworks festivals. All of them were canceled this year. This is the only one that's taking place. They were either canceled or suspended. And I know that a lot of people will say, no, you're wrong. I'm not wrong. It's true. Oh, my God. It was not canceled because it's one of the big, big threes and people could social distance. We're getting back into the city. I like these masks. Fireworks. Yeah. Good morning from Norway. Awesome. Guys, click the thumbs up button if you like these town walking live streams. And if you are ready for tomorrow, it is almost time. I'm going to try to do a night walk and see what else there is around the town. I'm not sure on that one, but I want to hit as many time zones to share a little bit of that fireworks feeling. And then I'll try to do a live stream of the festival and why we're here with everybody. We'll try to find something interesting. And then tomorrow, of course, I'll be doing a live stream as we prepare and set up on the riverside, setting up all the cannons. I'll be there live streaming to show you what's going on there, how they set up for it. But that's also going to be part of the documentary. And then at night is the main event. And then on Sunday, Kanae Daub and I go back home to Tokyo? Pretty exciting stuff. Then we're live right now. Ben PTG legs doing better. Somebody said I just like destroyed all the capillaries in my leg. And it's after three weeks, it still looks kind of gross, but it's getting better. I can walk around. OK, and it doesn't hurt when I sleep and things like that. It's getting better. I appreciate you asking about it. And I've been resting up getting ready for today. Tomorrow is the big one. I like this. Kushi Zaru. Zaru means monkey. And there they are. I'm guessing that they drink a lot in this town. I'm guessing that they drink a lot. Fireworks town living on the edge.

00:37:55 John Daub: All right, everybody, have a good day. Have a good night. Thanks for joining us for this. What is a short live stream? But oh, my God, he's got a lot to offer. I think if you're coming to Akita, you can come to. All right. I want to leave you with this. Fireworks is like the cherry blossoms. They go up into the sky. They explode and then they dissipate and they're gone. It's just a moment of beauty. And a lot of tourists come to Japan for the cherry blossom season for hanami (cherry blossom viewing). There's also hanabi, which is fireworks. And that's another reason I think maybe to come up here because they have these festivals four times a year. And you can come in the winter, spring, summer, fall. Hang out in Omagari. And see the festival. And guess what? It's free. And you can feel it. I don't know what's going to happen next year. But in 2021, 2022, 2023, just keep it in your mind because this is a pretty cool town to hang out in for a couple of days. You feel like you're in deep Japan, obviously. And yeah, they could probably use the help and be really appreciative if you did come check it out. Most of the people who do come to Omagari Fireworks Festival are like English teacher JET program people who live here. But if you make the trip with a JR rail pass, I think it's going to be worth it because everybody who's come to this fireworks festival says this is the king of all the fireworks festivals. And this is my first one. And we have our own fireworks in this fireworks festival. Only in Japan is representing. So see you, everybody. Hey, Katayama in the house right at the end. Catches is nice. Andrew Fort Worth. Wayne, welcome. Catch up with you, Katayama, a little bit later. Nighty night.