00:00:00 John Daub: Tokyo. This is another one of our Only in Japan travel updates during the pandemic. So many things have been happening over the last year, and one of the things that I promised on this Only in Japan Go channel was to give you updates as frequently as I could that were relevant to travel to Japan. And we've had some new developments over the last couple of days which I think are worthy of reporting to you today. As a lot of traveling is not a good thing to do right now.

00:00:33 John Daub: This is the middle of pandemic and Japan has closed its borders. In fact, about 48 hours ago and a little bit before that, they discovered that people coming from the United Kingdom to Japan had been infected with a new strain of COVID-19. And just two days ago or yesterday, the news had broken that somebody from South Africa had entered into Japan with a new variant of COVID-19 from there. So there are two new strains in the city of Tokyo.

00:01:04 John Daub: So this has worried a lot of people. And just recently, all travel for non-residents of Japan or as non-citizens of Japan is ended. So if you are planning to come to Japan for whatever reason, this probably this winter, you're probably not going to be able to do that now because of the new shutdowns, the emergency shutdowns, I guess we can call that. If you look at the thumbnail of this video, you'll see that my wife and I were in Narita Airport in June, six months ago, and nothing has really changed.

00:01:39 John Daub: The images that they're showing of Narita Airport now are pretty much the same. No flights really coming in at all. And the ones that are are pretty much empty, just returning travelers or returning residents or citizens to Japan. If you aren't a resident or you're not a citizen of Japan, I'm a resident, you would not be able to enter into Japan right now. This is a result of those new strains, but also a surge in cases here in Japan and all over the world.

00:02:11 John Daub: Japan's every day we seem to be hitting a new record or a new high, which is a very worrying thing. However, the more I travel around the city of Tokyo, the more I see that people are still out and about, people are still going about their daily lives. And this is a very unique wave. This would be considered the third wave according to the news media here. The first one was in March and April. The second one was during the summer and then it dissipated.

00:02:42 John Daub: And then the third one started around the end of November and it just keeps going up and up and up. And if you look at the lines and the trends, this one dwarfs the one in March and April and May, which really, really worried a lot of people here in Japan. People were staying at home and the situation, we were shut down. And now despite it being maybe eight or ten times worse, people are every day going about to markets. You'll see the streets in Shibuya and Takeshita Street and Harajuku and Ameyoko Market up in Ueno in Okachimachi is kind of full of people.

00:03:21 John Daub: Everyone is wearing a mask and adhering to the laws, but still it's a little bit worrying. So in this update, I want to give you some information about what's going on with travel in Japan and what the situation is like here. What's the rollout for the vaccine going to be like as well as Hatsumode, which is the New Year's holiday. Again, Japan does not celebrate Christmas. It's not a national holiday. But our holiday here in Japan starts, I think, kind of today and tomorrow, which is where the government, not the government, a lot of businesses start to shut down and things really slow down for the next week.

00:04:03 John Daub: And this year is of course going to be a lot different than in other years. I've also asked my Patreon community to submit some questions that they had about travel. So I'm going to be able to answer some of those that have come in over the last hour. So buckle in for a very, I think not too long, I want to say that now, not too long of an update. Let's look at the situation here in Japan because to understand in these snapshots of time where we are, it's kind of important for you to plan your trip coming to Japan because we still just do not know if you can come in the spring or the summer.

00:04:43 John Daub: I get some questions about will there be any cherry blossom festivals this year? I'm inclined to say no, but we'll get into this. And I think the numbers I know, peso, writes in not too long. I'll try to keep it brief. The numbers don't lie. And so if we look at the numbers, we can kind of understand where Japan is a snapshot in time. So here are the numbers right here. Right now there are 224,488 infections or cases of it. And there was an increase of 2,400 in the last 24 hours.

00:05:16 John Daub: So the numbers are going up. Severe cases reported right now in Japan are at 661. This comes from NHK, the fatalities are 3,338. We had 51 yesterday. So it's relatively small compared to the rest of the world, but it's still on the increase, and that's not good. And the outpatients, people who have recovered and are back home is 185,321. So most people are going home just fine. But then again, this is the problem here. Right now, the occupancy rate for hospital beds is at stage four.

00:05:49 John Daub: Do you see that red color there? In Hokkaido, in Tokyo, in Aichi, which is where Nagoya is the third largest city, and in Osaka and in what looks like Kochi as well, down in Shikoku Island. And stage four is worrying because if you do get seriously ill, there's not a guarantee that there's going to be a place for you. And this is the same thing that's going on in California, but all over the United States. We saw this in Italy and in Europe in March and April. Really tough situations. Stage two is infections are gradually increasing in tandem with a growing burden on the medical system. Stage three is infections are spreading rapidly, leading to a concern about problems with the medical system that is the majority of the country right now. In stage four, and you can see it is the dark pink here. Stage four is the public must prepare for an explosive spike in infections.

00:06:54 John Daub: Sorry, spike in infections. Measures should be taken to prevent the medical system from failing to function properly. We're in stage four in one, two, three, four places right now, and probably in more in the next couple of weeks. So this is a worrying thing for me, for the country of Japan, as we see this explosion. And it doesn't feel exactly like the same sense of urgency as we had in March, April and May. This is now my opinion here.

00:07:24 John Daub: I still see in Ginza, people are out shopping. We still see in the shopping areas around Tokyo, despite the fact of not any foreign tourists here. We still see a lot of local people out and about. There's always a few people who aren't wearing masks, but for the most part, I'd say 99.8% of the people have masks on. A lot of them have their noses sticking out. People aren't wearing it properly in crowded areas. And that is somewhat worrying.

00:07:54 John Daub: One of the biggest concerns of my friends that I've talked to Japanese friends is that there doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency with the government to shut things down and people are not feeling that urgency. So they're still going out to supermarkets and they're still going out into crowded streets. This is not so much criticism of the new prime minister but it's something that maybe Japan is having a tough time balancing with where do you have the economic impact and then you have the health impact.

00:08:29 John Daub: And trying to balance these two is a very, very difficult job. And that's going to be the biggest challenge of Suga's administration. We have a new prime minister from a few months ago and he's doing the best job that he can possibly do. But there doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency, at least that's what my friends are saying with this, which is worrying. Japan halted the new entries to the country and there were flights and there was a little bit of tourism trickling in.

00:09:02 John Daub: In order for you to be a tourist, you had to have a PCR test 72 hours before departure and you had to be tested again upon entering into Japan. And if you pass those, you didn't have to go through a 14-day quarantine period. But what we are noticing and what is the most worrying thing right now, because Japan is one of the countries that has reacted the strongest to the new variants of COVID-19. They've reacted extremely strong and extremely swift, shutting down travel and tourism from the whole world.

00:09:35 John Daub: All right, they just shut down everything and said we're not allowing any travelers in. So basically at this stage right now, Japan is cut off from any tourism at all. They don't want anybody coming in. They've halted everything. So even if you had a visa or travel visa or whatever, it's contact the embassy and then see if you can change it. Because for the month of January and this is going to go on until the end of January, they stated now, but I got a feeling that this may continue even longer until January 31st.

00:10:12 John Daub: There is no international tourism into Japan. And if you were a tourist in here, you're probably coming from Singapore or a few other priority countries with this PCR testing. This will go on until the end of January to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variants. And as its first case of a variant spreading in South Africa was confirmed following that new strain in Britain. So both of them are here. The government will also require Japanese citizens and foreign residents coming from regions where new variants have been detected to submit negative virus tests within 72 hours of departure and undergo tests upon arrival from Wednesday through the end of January.

00:10:58 John Daub: So it's already started. The Health Ministry on Monday said a woman in her 30s who had a travel history to South Africa tested positive for the new strain first detected in the country. So that's very worrying. And now they're contact tracing to see who she had contact with to try to limit its scope here in the country, as well as the people who had brought in the strain from the United Kingdom and the Japan, they're really trying to contact trace to make sure that that's all kind of cooped up again.

00:11:32 John Daub: They tested negative 72 hours before their flight. They tested negative upon arrival into Japan, and yet they still had it. So we're learning that the temperature, and we already knew this, but it's starting to hit Japan even harder. Just because you're negative with your PCR tests even twice does not mean that you do not have it. And not showing a fever and signs does not mean you're not infectious. And even though we knew this in Japan, I think the procedures that we have in place are kind of worrying where you just do a temperature check and you wash your hands with alcohol.

00:12:14 John Daub: And for the most part, that will really, really substantially stop the spread of it. But the best is just not to have people infected to go out. And if you're not sure if you're infected or not, just stay home for the next month, which is probably what I'm going to be doing as much as possible. The Health Ministry on Monday said that the woman, she's in her 30s and right now she's in the hospital. I believe she's in a special unit where they're still kind of investigating this.

00:12:47 John Daub: The prime minister told reporters Monday that the new restrictions are meant to protect our citizens' lives and livelihoods by taking measures in advance. So Prime Minister Suga stepped up and he quickly did this again. The US News, I believe it was NBC, reported that Japan is the country with the strongest measures following these new strains, which makes us here in Japan feel a little bit better. But the fact that it got in at all is worrying.

00:13:18 John Daub: Business people and students from Taiwan and 10 Asian nations, including mainland China and South Korea, with which Japan has a special scheme to ease travel restrictions, are not affected by the latest measures. So apparently business people and students are okay. So if you're from Taiwan, China, South Korea, you should be able to get in. These would be our neighbors. So the measure is pretty much just for the Western world because it can't be contained as well.

00:13:49 John Daub: I don't, I don't really know, Prime Minister Suga says that viruses do not take a break during the year end and new year season. I would like to ask for citizens to cooperate as we return to life as normal as quickly as possible. Prime Minister Suga also canceled his New Year trip, which is kind of a tradition with the prime ministers, to Isei Shrine on January 4th. So that's been canceled. Nationwide halt to the campaign called GoToTravel has also been enacted and Japan stands to lose about $3 billion in potential spending from now through January 3, which is a lot of money.

00:14:30 John Daub: And the nation was already observing, according to the news, a 73% drop in revenue compared to last year. So it's going to be a tough year for everybody. And as we know that this is going to hurt Japan a lot, ending the GoToTravel campaign financially. A lot of the news that I get, if you're asking the sources, are Kyodo News, which is English, and NHK, which has now started publishing the numbers more frequently on a special page. And I put the link to the description to the new pages in this video.

00:15:04 John Daub: I want to talk a little bit about Hatsumode now. So before I do that, this is the graph to show you the three spikes. This is on the Kyoto News. You can see between March and April, there was the first spike. Between July and September, a second spike. And then starting around the end of November, it just kind of skyrocketed. And you can see the numbers are quite worrying. If people were freaking out in March, they should really be concerned more.

00:15:35 John Daub: And there's this is. You can go and take a look. The link is in the description if you want to go take a look at this. The yellow line is the number of infections. Okay. And also the testing rate is also in here. Many people criticize Japan for not having testing as much or it being easy to get tested. It's kind of hard to get tested just about anywhere unless you pay more to get the tests. But yeah, the infection rate and the mortality rate, they're kind of working together.

00:16:08 John Daub: So I would, I wouldn't say that these are inaccurate because Japan's not doing as many tests just because of the rates seem to be on par with the rest of the world. The Kyoto News also has a really interesting graph that shows the progression of the situation using this bar chart and the time you can see there's August and then September, and then you can see in November it really starts to grow. And that's where we are again. Japan is in.

00:16:38 John Daub: I would, it's, it's not, it's not easy to say in a better situation than a lot of people, a lot of countries right now. But it's a situation that could easily just get out of control because you cannot contain this as easily as people have thought. Now, Hatsumode is a period of time starting on the 1st of January to about the 5th or the 6th of January. The sun's coming in here. Can I get out of the sun? It's kind of a cloudy day here in Tokyo where people line up for hours to go in and pray, to do New Year's prayer.

00:17:09 John Daub: And we're finding that a lot of the temples and the shrines, some of them have closed. But we were looking at the Sensoji Temple which is in Asakusa. This is one of the most popular places to go for Hatsumode. And they have closed down or suspended the operation of sales and things on the side, I believe from the first to the third.

00:17:39 John Daub: So these three days which had the heaviest amount of people coming for prayer are closed. But apparently you can still go there for prayer. They're limiting the number of people that can go in. So I'm pretty sure that there's going to be a line and it's going to be very controlled. And my advice would be not to go to places that are very well known for having lots of people. Try to avoid, you know, Sensoji, Meiji, Meiji Temple, Meiji Shrine, which is in near Harajuku and Shinjuku.

00:18:12 John Daub: You want to probably avoid the big ones where there's a lot of people. Instead, go to your local shrines, go to your local temples and then you can pray there. And I think it's going to be a lot quicker. It's a good way to spread the prayers around. One way to put it, a lot because of the worry of infection. A lot of shrines have started to accept—I wouldn't say a lot, but there are news reports that some—that's the way to put it. There's news reports that some are accepting credit cards so you can go online and donate your prayer money to the shrines via credit card.

00:18:43 John Daub: I think the first one was in Ibaraki, which is very well known for having a drive-through culture. You can have drive-through ramen, drive-through sushi, and now apparently we're getting close to drive-through prayers and you can do that in the safety of online. There's also some shrines that are giving online services meaning you can watch the New Year's online services without leaving your house.

00:19:20 John Daub: And that I think is a pretty good thing. So a lot of innovation in a place that you would not see it in. Faith is starting to come as a result of this at times where Japanese would traditionally and typically go in for prayer. My wife and I and I can talk a little bit about my opinion. My wife and I, we've been planning to go to a couple of shrines to pray. But because of this third wave, we're probably not going to be doing that. But there are some shrines and temples that we can go to locally that we will hit probably after the first couple of days.

00:19:58 John Daub: But again, I think based on just the situation that we're in around the world, it makes sense not to go out and just to stay home and to just do what we would normally do at home somehow. So we'll discuss the safest way for us to do this to protect her family. And this is what it's all about. Some of the other news here, there was a Japanese politician who recently died and this has been in the news nonstop, which was kind of shocking.

00:20:28 John Daub: And he had been sick for a little while, showing really bad symptoms. And before he could be tested he died on the way to the hospital. And they did a test and they discovered that he had indeed had COVID-19. So I think the combination of this third wave, some recent deaths, the new variants and strains coming into the country has really worried people to the point where I am guessing next week the country will be silent outside like it was in March and April.

00:20:59 John Daub: I don't think you actually even need a shutdown. People are just worried now and we're going to see markets really close down. And I guess Kanae and I are going to be here in January. For the first two weeks of January I don't really have too many plans to leave Tokyo except for one trip by rent a car that I have to go to film videos. But I don't intend to get out in any populated places. There's no schedule for any shutdowns in Japan except for the ban on all foreign tourism.

00:21:32 John Daub: I'm going to take some questions now from Patreon and some of the chats because I know that a lot of people have been asking me nonstop when they can come back to Japan. I got my ear to the ground as much as possible talking with tourism organizations again, I've been working with, I have connections in the airlines here. I've got connections with railways here. I've got connections with a lot of the tour travel agencies and tourism groups here and try to listen to different ideas and plans and directions from different prefectures around the country.

00:22:10 John Daub: And I'll share that with you now through some of the questions here. Amanda writes in from the US. Any talks on whether or not there will be Hanami parties in 2021. Hanami is the cherry blossom viewing parties. And I responded to Amanda, that I don't think that this is my opinion here right now, no international tourism until the end of January 31st and even then it was extremely limited. And I do not think that there's going to be any tourism into Japan until after the cherry blossom season.

00:22:44 John Daub: May maybe, but certainly not until June until the vaccine is distributed domestically on a wider scale because the Japanese government is very, very—it's very important that they protect their citizens and residents. So we want to feel like we have been protected before we start to allow any foreign tourists. I think this is pretty logical, right? So I know this and Amanda following, I was just wondering if I can live the experience vicariously through Japan YouTubers if there is any kind of cherry blossoms and I have permission to film in a dangerous situation if it has been suspended.

00:23:24 John Daub: And I will ask and bring this to you in a virtual way. I totally will because Only in Japan Go this year has been, I guess the theme of this mobile live streaming channel is to try to give you the experience of traveling here in Japan with me without having to be here. Because I know that a lot of you had to cancel and a lot of our support comes from people who had to cancel the trip. So I will do everything that I can to take you with me until you can make it here yourself and you can live vicariously through this show because I would be very, very happy about that.

00:24:04 John Daub: Thank you, Amanda. Brenda writes in here. Is that Kanae in the thumbnail? Yes, it is. We went to Narita Airport in June to take a buddy to the airport who was going back to Canada and we got a chance to do a live stream around Narita Airport if you want to. That live stream is available on Only in Japan Go back in June. I'll post a link to that in the description.

00:24:35 John Daub: Jenna writes in here. Have you heard anything about vaccine passports for travel next year? I have not. There's still not a definitive date on when the Pfizer vaccine will be coming to Japan. A lot of people in the media have been saying March. And then there was a new date that said it will be approved by the end of February. So it's not approved for use here in Japan yet. So we're seeing the rollout in the UK and in the USA and a lot of people are getting the vaccinations. My friend Scotty Strange Parts received the vaccination.

00:25:06 John Daub: I think it was a Moderna one because he's on an Indian reservation, which is a high risk place, and he was living with people that were at high risk. So when they offered him the vaccine, he of course said yes. So Scotty got the vaccine. And it's kind of for me when I'm starting to hear friends getting it, I'm starting to see that we're getting closer and closer to a possible end to this. So I don't know anything about the passport, the vaccine passports. As soon as I do, I will do another update because that would be a significant piece of news information for you to know.

00:25:37 John Daub: Suede writes in here. Has any mom and pop stores you go to shut down because of no tourism? Yes, a lot of them in Akihabara have closed down. And as I walk around Chuo-ku, which is where I live, the Chuo Ward, which is the central ward in Tokyo, as I walk around here, lots and lots of shops have shut down. I'm finding the more I go off into the alleys, I see more of them shut down.

00:26:11 John Daub: Places that I didn't go to too often anyways. But in terms of places that I go to, I see more limited hours and I see people teetering. And we talk to some of the businesses. There's a butcher shop that we go to and they're teetering. And they said that it's not good. Sales are way down and it's because of that, it's harder to get the supplies as well. It's everything is kind of out of funk. So they're having a tough time and they sell some of the best wagyu beef for yakiniku and stuff. So it's—everybody is hurting and there are local, local butcher shops, so hopefully they can survive this.

00:26:45 John Daub: Swayed people are safe. But the economy here would have suffered badly if people couldn't travel. Yeah, we're seeing here because of the lack of tourism. And Japan had really, really focused in 2018 and 2019 into international tourism. Inbound tourism, we call it. The lack of tourists. And we have—we had like again in January, we're gonna have zero.

00:27:16 John Daub: All right. This is probably going to be the lowest month of all. I don't know how places like youth hostels, capsule hotels or guest houses that were catering to tourism places in Kuromai or even there's a train hostel that one of the viewers had recommended that I go and help support. But there's really nothing I can do with them because the Japanese tourists don't really, not really too interested in staying in some of these places, but they're doing their best to try to stay afloat.

00:27:49 John Daub: The ones, the youth hostels or guest houses in Kuromai that are staying afloat or in Asakusubashi or in that area of Akihabara that I took you to a few days ago, they're staying afloat because they're selling food or have some kind of bar or services other than guests, like hotel services, and they're able to stay afloat with that. I don't see too much more stimulus coming. Just the government of Japan doesn't have any money, just like the United States.

00:28:20 John Daub: I don't know where the money's coming from and we have to pay back anything that we take now. So it's going to be really hard. It's something that is in a lot of minds of people here, the responsible thing to do. We got to keep these businesses afloat. But I don't think that a stimulus is really going to help if they were so reliant on foreign tourism. It's going to be really hard. Everybody has a livelihood and I'm doing the best.

00:28:50 John Daub: We're doing the best. Kanae and I just support local businesses and to make sure that they're taken care of as well. So I probably on Only in Japan Go will take you in and try to support more local businesses so they feel like they're getting more—I don't know, they have to feel like they're doing something right. Something is better than nothing and we got to do more.

00:29:22 John Daub: Dawn and family write in here. On a recent stream, can I mentioned her top three places in Japan? I believe it was Kanazawa, Miyazaki and Okinawa. Any plans to visit Okinawa in 2021? Depends. I'd like—I wanted to go. I wanted to go in the fall but didn't and I wanted to go this spring and not sure. All right. They celebrate the cherry blossoms at the end of January too and that would have been interesting. They go to a cherry blossom party down in Okinawa, but I doubt seriously they're going to be having any celebrations at all down there.

00:29:52 John Daub: I've seen some YouTubers go down there. Tabby Eats went down there recently, my friend Greg from Life on from went down there to finish off a documentary that he was doing. So I don't know, but Okinawa is one of the places that I have not featured on Only in Japan Go. I've been there many, many times, but I have not featured it on any Only in Japan Channel, actually. So you'll see me featuring Okinawa in 2021 for sure. For sure. I'll find a way.

00:30:23 John Daub: And I told supporters by the end of 2021, you will see me on a beach somewhere. All right. I will find a way to show you that we've overcome. Brandy says keep staying safe. And Tony, has the Japanese government done enough to protect the elderly population? Do you believe they should do more to protect them? I believe, I believe we should always do more to protect the greatest generation. I don't know if they've done as much as they could or if they could do more, but I know that first of all, most of the politicians are of that generation and I'm sure that they're thinking very seriously on what more that they can do.

00:31:06 John Daub: The rollout to how the vaccine is going to be going was published in the Japan Times about four days ago. And everybody over the age of 65 is in the category to receive the vaccine first. It's going to go on a priority based. We're probably not going to see a chance to get it until June, which means, I believe, that they are prioritizing people that are in homes for senior citizens, people who need assisted living and people that are at high risks.

00:31:37 John Daub: I don't know. I'm not, I'm not really sure if they're not doing everything that they can do. But I believe strongly that the Japanese government is very much cares about the life that we live, the lifestyle that we live here in Japan and trying to protect it. And when they close down the borders, I know that they're doing it as a way to protect us. And when they keep the borders open, I knew that they're doing it because they're trying to keep the economy going so we have money to buy food and pay our rent.

00:32:13 John Daub: So there's—it's a hard balancing act for the government. And Prime Minister Suga, I'm very, very hopeful. He's a smart guy, he's a caring guy. He's from Akita Prefecture, a place that I love. He's been in government for a long time. Whether that's a good or a bad thing, I don't know. But I do know that his heart is really into protecting the livelihoods of Japanese families here. And who am I? I'm just some YouTuber. Okay. So I say that facetiously because I'm not a moor a husband.

00:32:46 John Daub: I'm a resident. I'm a community member. All right? I'm a lot of things, but Saya M. Welcome a new traveler. Rocket John, thank you. Betty C. Thanks for doing all the travel updates. Hoping to come back to Tokyo for a visit sometime next year. Thank you, Betty. It'd be nice to see you here. Mani San writes in here. Can I move from Australia to work in early 2021? I don't know if you do have a work visa. I'm guessing it depends. I can't guarantee that.

00:33:17 John Daub: Of course I can't. But my crystal ball has been fairly accurate. And I would say that I don't think that until about April, maybe until—I'm thinking that the shutdown is for foreign tourism will be extended through February. I'm just guessing. All right. But I'm pretty sure that they're going to extend it because there's a lot of fear and once you close it, it's harder to reopen. It depends on the situation and the vaccine and everything else.

00:33:48 John Daub: I'm guessing by March we'll see some changes. And if I guess you might need a vaccine card or something. And I think within the next 60 days, a lot of things can change in the next 30 days. But within the 60 days, everything will be set for the direction of the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, which is another thing that I'll talk about more in the next travel update. I hope so, Manny. I hope so. Katayama. I'm waiting for drive in kabuki theater. That would be pretty interesting.

00:34:20 John Daub: I'm kind of surprised that Japan has not gone back to more drive-in movie theaters, or the US for that matter. But I do know that Demon Slayer, which is an anime that a lot of you might follow—there's a Netflix series that you can watch which is really awesome. It's a really cool anime. And it's one that Kanae won't watch Walking Dead, but she'll watch this. I guess it has something to do with it being an anime. And zombies that are animated are not as scary, which I disagree—they can get quite scary.

00:34:53 John Daub: That broke records for cinema goers that beat Spirited Away, a Ghibli movie just yesterday, I believe passed the record for grossed revenue. So that's income. So that was quite an amazing feat. Definitely check it out. I guess if you can't go to the cinema now and it's not in the west, it'll probably get there really soon. But if you haven't seen Demon Slayer, I believe it's on Netflix. It's a pretty cool anime.

00:35:23 John Daub: There's a lot of really good ones. I think Japan Sinks was a really cool anime too. I couldn't stop watching that one. I think we watched it in like 48 hours. We were done with that whole series. Let's look back at some of the questions here. Tig writes in here. Thank you for the info. Would love to see a tempura cooking episode because we got to stay in. Actually, we're coming up with new ideas for Only in Japan Go because we cannot stream as much in January because I'm not gonna be going out.

00:35:57 John Daub: There will be some maybe Instant Pot episodes, some perhaps some Kanae's Cooking in the Kitchen episodes and maybe some other episode ideas. Another indoor camping, one or two of those, perhaps, I don't know. But for the most part, January, we're going to be staying in and just trying to stay safe. Dan writes in here. Best wishes for 2021. John and Kanae, thanks for the updates. Thank you, Dan from Canada and paper Eating rock. Ooh, that's a Rex's paper joke.

00:36:29 John Daub: Keeping up the great work. Peace, brother. Thank you so much from the US I believe. I really appreciate the support, everybody. Michael Sasano writes in here. JAL stopped their flights from Hawaii to Japan until March 2021. Have you heard the same in Japan, Michael? That does not surprise me. I haven't heard about the routes that are closing, but again, Hawaii is a very, very popular one with Japanese. And to hear that being closed really is worrying to me because we had even considered in November before this third wave came of possibly even going to Hawaii and sneaking a trip in there—that's off the books now, I mean, that's not going to happen.

00:37:13 John Daub: Apparently, just because there aren't—that route seems to be closed. Thanks for sharing that information. I'm going to do another travel update in the next, in the next two weeks as more developments unfold. Again, I'm not—I do reports, but I'm not a journalist, but I am using sources that are vetted. So I'm doing this as a favor for the channel because a lot of you are interested and I know that you canceled your trips and I also know that it's really hard to get information from Japan to you and you watch this for that.

00:37:51 John Daub: So I'm doing my best to do predictions here to help you plan. Our Chong. Stay safe, John. We're going through our second wave at the moment here in the Tri State area. I hope to be back in Japan next year, but once it's safe, of course, of course. I hope you can make it here too. Brandonia. Keep, keep staying safe. Looking forward to indoor camping. That was fun the other day. I tried to stay. I tried to catch Santa Claus.

00:38:22 John Daub: Naba writes in here. Oh, Naba—zoo traveler. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And photo Luke, Hawaii. Thank you for the report updates. Stay safe, John and Kanae. We miss Japan and we miss you too. We miss Austin. We miss you guys visiting. Yeah. I will now take general questions here. We have 1500 people watching, so I will extend this for a couple more minutes. I want to stick to the point here. Again, if you're watching this and it's a little bit longer than normal, it's because it's a live stream and I'm trying my best to answer as many questions as possible.

00:38:57 John Daub: Just to reiterate for the 1500 people that are watching, about 48 hours ago, Japan shut the borders down to all international travel coming in. If you're a resident or you're a citizen of Japan returning, it's okay, but you have to have a PCR test 72 hours before you go and submit to one upon arrival. And I believe you should be quarantining for two weeks anyways. But I'm not sure if the seven or eight people who came back from the UK and came up with the new variant and the one person from South Africa that came with a new variant from there, how well they've contained that.

00:39:37 John Daub: And I believe right now the authorities are tracing, trace and confirming who they've been in contact with to try to reduce the spread of this within the city of Tokyo. I know that they're doing everything they can. I got an app actually that is pretty good and if I'm in contact with somebody who has it, it notifies me. But I don't think a lot of people actually have this app installed. And an app is not valuable until people actually install it and use it.

00:40:08 John Daub: So I'm guessing maybe only 10% of the people in Japan have installed the government's coronavirus tracing app, which makes it almost useless. But I do have that installed, which was a condition of me working as to make episodes in other regions of the country just to make sure that I take every single precaution that I possibly can. Saya writes in here we are in shelter in place from 10pm to 5am in California. Is Tokyo doing the same now that it's stage four?

00:40:39 John Daub: Tokyo is home for me. I miss it so much. I'm really, I'm really sad to hear that you're missing your home, Saya. No, we're not in lockdown and I don't think we're going to be. People are pretty responsible again. I've been walking around a lot, staying away from the crowded areas, not going into the middle of it, staying a distance. I was in Ueno on Christmas Eve, the day before Christmas to see the chicken, you know, because Kentucky Fried KFC has a tradition of having chicken.

00:41:12 John Daub: They had prepared very well of social distancing and spacing it out. They closed the inside of the restaurant to anybody eating. But I did notice that Ameyoko and I stayed at least 200 meters away from there was packed shoppers and this is something that worries me a lot. A lot of people who don't need to be out shopping are going out to shop. I guess the urgency or the signals from the government are somewhat confusing and I think over the next week we're going to see it.

00:41:45 John Daub: That's why I'm going to be doing another travel update within the next two weeks. I believe over the next two weeks the government's going to be a lot clearer in its messaging as this spikes and these new variants give people a lot of concern. I've been trying to stay delicious noodle rights in here. I've been trying to stay optimistic for 2021. Please do, please do. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. All right, we have, the vaccine is here.

00:42:15 John Daub: We have treatments for this. So it's a lot different situation than a year ago. A lot different. There hasn't been a new case in Singapore for months. It's so frustrating that we can't travel. Richard. I believe that's a good thing then. And I know that Singapore is a very small country that's populated and these things can like—it's how quickly they can go from we feel like we're okay to the numbers are really, really high and we have to stay at home and contain this.

00:42:47 John Daub: But I'm glad if it's true that Singapore doesn't have any cases. I'm glad to hear that, you know, but the rest of the world is not doing too well. I think Japan has. This comes from Ramen Lever. I think Japan has to open tourism. But how many businesses are suffering? But how businesses are suffering once COVID vaccine is there? I have a feeling Japanese might be a little hostile of Chinese people. I don't think so as much as you might think.

00:43:18 John Daub: I think that Japan, Korea and China always had this weird political dimension that goes back to World War II. But for the most part, I believe that there's some factions in government and a fringe amount of people that are really upset. The majority of people in Japan really didn't care that much whether they're here or not. Japan is seeing the economic results of China's economic prosperity coming here. The tourists are sometimes harder to manage because they're new to tourism in general.

00:43:51 John Daub: But Japan really appreciates, and I'm pretty sure because especially the tourism industry, how much China tourism meant to Japan, because 70% of Japanese tourism, tourism to Japan came from China. So I'm not sure that that's exactly the case. I think there's always going to be a little bit of tension. But if Chinese tourism does return to Japan, I believe it's going to be welcomed. Also, China has their own vaccine, Sinovac, I believe it's called.

00:44:22 John Daub: And everybody in the US is not hearing about this. I heard about this from friends in Singapore. Florence told me this. Singapore has three options for the vaccine. The Pfizer, I think there's a Pfizer one. There was another one that wasn't Moderna and I don't think it was Sputnik, the Russian one called Sputnik and the Chinese one called Sinovac. And Sinovac is one that we don't hear about in Japan either. But China has its own vaccine and it doesn't need the same kind of refrigeration as Pfizer.

00:44:56 John Daub: So I don't know they had more time to work on it perhaps, but they do have their own vaccine. Whether or not I would take it, I'm not sure. I'm waiting for version 2.0, maybe, I don't know. But if I had—if I had the option to take the vaccine, I would take it. You wouldn't—you just do it, take it. I think it makes sense. A lot of people writing in here. I miss Japan. I feel that. I feel you.

00:45:27 John Daub: Chris writes in here. The misrepresentation is classic. Probably Sinopharm. The vaccine is called Sinopharm. Okay, M.J. thank you. Oh, so you took Sinopharm. Good. I don't think that—I think I'm pretty sure that it's going to be just as potent as good as the other three, where it comes from. You know, a vaccine is a vaccine. And I back in 2000 and when was it? 2001, before I started a trip to Africa. I actually got the yellow fever vaccine and a couple other travel shots in China. And it was super cheap and it was fast, and I believe it worked because I didn't get sick.

00:46:02 John Daub: So I have no problems with taking the Chinese version of the vaccine. It's just not going to be offered in a lot of places. I wish I had some hot oden. I know we just had hot oden two nights ago at Kanae's father's place. We had a hot oden and it was really, really good. I'll tell you what, the taste of hot oden has not changed. And when you do come, probably next winter, it'll still taste pretty good. I think it will be longer.

00:46:34 John Daub: So there's some pretty good comments coming in here. Rose writes in here. I think it'll be longer for countries to let US Citizens in for tourism because of how much Covid they have. What do you think? I don't know. I know that I am American. All right, I'm so I'm—I'm somewhat biased. I would like to see my family come. I would like to see my friends come. But as a resident of Japan, and if you ask me where my heart is, that is such a divided thing.

00:47:05 John Daub: But right now my family is here in Japan, my wife's family. So I want to do everything that I can to protect them. So I would say no to allowing the US to enter until the situation is under control. And with the vaccine, I believe we're getting closer and closer to that. People just need to stay at home a little bit and try to get those numbers down so it's more controllable. Especially now with the holidays here. It's supposed to—we're supposed to be suffering through this a little bit and taking a sacrifice.

00:47:40 John Daub: We're supposed to be sacrificing for the good of our families through this. So no Christmas parties, no meetings, nothing like this. It's really hard time. And we had to do Christmas through Skype and FaceTime. So, yeah, I don't know when I can go back to the US to visit. I'm guessing maybe after the Olympics, perhaps Kanae and I can travel again to go and visit family. But it's all up in the air.

00:48:11 John Daub: Skype is still a thing. I still got—it's because I got Skype credit. I bought like Skype credit. So I have Skype out money in there. Manila does zoom. It's interesting. Same. No reunions. Sheena writes in here. I think, I think if you're feeling if you're feeling like you're making a sacrifice and you're not seeing your family, you're probably doing the right thing right now. And I say probably because I don't even know. I don't know. But for us, we're making a sacrifice.

00:48:43 John Daub: We're not seeing our families. So it hurts. And that's hard. But with the way that the thing, the direction is, as I showed you in the Kyoto News, it's just like this right now. So. And families are apparently, according to—according to Abi, fams are—fams are overrated anyways. So you don't want to hang out with your strange uncle.

00:49:14 John Daub: Matthew writes in here, Olympics in 2021 is never going to happen, in my opinion. I'm—I think it's going to happen. I think that it'll be televised and there's a lot of money to lose if it doesn't happen. But with the vaccine being rolled out, the only reason it wouldn't happen is if there is a mutation and it's something that's just out of control. And the athletes, I—I don't know if athletes are gonna, are not gonna want to, are gonna feel uncomfortable traveling. I've flown in airplanes and I felt fine with it. If we can get this third wave under control and the vaccine works, I don't see why we wouldn't have the Olympics.

00:49:50 John Daub: Okay. I don't see why. I don't think we need to have a bunch of tourists coming in here to have an Olympic Games. I think it's a—it's an event that brings people together and we need something to have hope. In 2021, I did with my community, with you, we did a fireworks festival. I'm working on the video right now, the documentary on how we did this. But we did, we had an event and it gave us a lot of hope. It gave me hope for something to look forward to in 2020.

00:50:21 John Daub: And in 2021, I think that the Olympics is—I mean, there's a lot of problems that could happen as a result of it, but I see it as something that's a hopeful sign that we're getting to the end of this. So I really, really hope that they do not cancel. If they do, then it's a sign that things are not back to normal. So I don't see why anybody would be hoping that they don't hold the Olympics. All right? The Olympics is for tourism. I don't agree.

00:50:52 John Daub: I think the Olympics is something that kind of brings the world together, but it's become too commercial. It's become too NBC, too America, too much on the commercial side. Maybe we could take a step back from that and it just becomes a competition of athletes. I would like to see that and not try to make personally—the Olympics should not be a huge moneymaker. Shouldn't it be more like an NPO perhaps? I don't know why they do that. But the Olympics is important for us to find the new crop of athletes, to find new role models, to find new people that inspire us.

00:51:30 John Daub: Every time I watch the Olympics, I'm inspired by the stories and by the stories of the Olympians. And I want to put it to you just straight up, when you say the Olympics should be canceled, I want you to think about the Paralympics, okay? A lot of the athletes that have been preparing for the Paralympics, they don't have, like, these big, massive contracts. They don't have the same opportunities as the other Olympians. I would not want to see them lose their opportunity to compete in the Paralympics.

00:52:04 John Daub: This is something that a lot of the community looks forward to, all right? And the Paralympics is a reason why the city of Tokyo has become more and more accessible for this. So I want the city to continue to look at the Olympics and the Paralympics and make it more accessible, not less. So when you say the Olympics should be cancelled, I want you to think about the Paralympics, which is two weeks. I believe it's two weeks after the Olympics, okay?

00:52:35 John Daub: So for me, I'm more excited about the Paralympics than the Olympics, actually, because of the technology. I have some friends who are that are running electronics companies, tech companies, and there's a lot of stuff advances that I'm really excited to highlight as a result of the Paralympics. So for me, that would be huge, a devastating blow to have the Paralympics canceled. I don't know about the Olympics, but they should at least keep that then.

00:53:06 John Daub: All right, just keep that in mind when you say that. Okay? Deadly Raver writes in here. I'm donating for the thumbnail alone. If a picture's worth a thousand words, that look on your face is worth at least five bucks. Thank you, Deadly Raver. And that was a shocker to me. That was in June, and it hasn't changed. There's still, apparently there's still a lot of people that have to quarantine. I don't know exactly what the situation is, but it's worth looking into.

00:53:37 John Daub: After we get a little bit into January, what is it really like at Narita Airport. And I might call them and see if we can do some of the procedures as they also start to think about ways to bring people back in for 2021. Right now they're in shutdown. So some really great questions here. It would be great to see an NFL Olympics team, actually, Travis, I would love to see that. But we know that the US would win, so. Although I would like to see an Aussie rules Football Olympic venue.

00:54:10 John Daub: Okay. Because that's a tough, tough sport. Rugby is pretty tough too, right? I saw some hits at the rugby World Cup that if that happened in the NFL, like, the players union would probably sue. There's some rough stuff going on in rugby, man. Man. And skateboarding would be canceled too, as a sport. So we don't want to see skateboarding canceled. What NFL teams do I support really? I don't think anybody cares about that. Look, I went to Ohio State, so, you know, the Browns and the Bengals always have a place in my heart.

00:54:46 John Daub: Even though, you know, they don't win that often. Though the Browns are doing looking pretty good. Yeah. The Eagles when I was a kid, maybe the Steelers, Philadelphia teams, Pennsylvania. This area. Not the Jets or the Giants. I could care less. NFL. Okay. There go Bucs.

00:55:20 John Daub: Jennifer French. Collaborations. That's interesting. I collaborated with Life on from Greg on an onsen video on the new channel. You're gonna check that out? I do. I'm working right now on the videos that a lot of you had sent. I received 64 video submissions saying Only in Japan. And I'm making up the video today to be released. And I'm filming the opening of the video tomorrow. And this will be for release on the 30th or the 31st so that we can wish in 2020 together. This has been a big year, and I'm going to address my thoughts for the year on the 31st.

00:55:53 John Daub: Despite there's no shutdown in Tokyo. So I'm still thinking of going outside on the 31st, but not into populated areas to try to stay away from people. But there is value in bringing people with me and being really safe and trying to show people the telling people the right way to do things or. And if I can't do that because sometimes I don't do things the right way, learn from my mistakes. Because, you know, Kiki—who's one of—who's a big supporter had told me that I touched the front of my mask too much. And I make a lot of mistakes too, which is true.

00:56:28 John Daub: Despite, you know, I just leave my house and I'm riding my bicycle and not in contact with people. Habits are hard to break. So Kiki had pointed me in the right direction and I really appreciated it. And teaching people the right way to take it on and off your mask, despite the fact that I'm not in a crowded area. It doesn't really matter. It's all about setting up good habits. Yeah. Any last questions here before we end it at the 1 hour mark? Peso, you were right. Peso, you were right.

00:57:04 John Daub: I don't have any—I just get—I just sent a message to Tabby Eats, to Shinichi, who's a good friend, wishing him a merry Christmas. I don't have a lot of connections with other YouTubers too much. But, you know, Greg and, and you know, Simon is doing well. Simon and Martina over in Canada seem to be doing pretty good. They're staying safe. Simon is going on a short holiday. He's a good friend, but he's staying really safe. You know, everybody's doing—everybody's doing okay in the community. Nobody's come down with COVID that I know of. So it's always something that I'm worried about when I see live streamers going in the crowded areas.

00:57:39 John Daub: I'm always really worried, like, maybe you shouldn't be going to Universal Studios Japan. Maybe you shouldn't be going into the middle of the tamboori on Halloween, things like this. But nobody that I've heard of has come down with coronavirus, which is good. Can I travel from Dubai? No, I, I can't even send airmail to my—to MJ right now. MJ, I know you're watching, buddy. I can't even send the postcards to MJ and I have like seven of them.

00:58:10 John Daub: So MJ is going to get a massive mailbox full of postcards in the coming—in the coming year. Right. And I do miss—I do miss meeting up with people. I—we—the last time I saw MJ was in Ginza. Right. Much better time on a beautiful balcony. That was a fun time. Better times. Yeah. Cool. So I'm gonna do another update. I'm gonna share with you the end of year on the 30th and the 31st, and I'm still gonna be doing daily uploads until January and then Only Japan Go is going to kind of slow down.

00:58:43 John Daub: Okay. Because in January I think it's time I shouldn't be traveling. So we're going to go back down into like stay at home mode and I'm going to be working on edited videos because I have a lot of videos for the new channel and if you haven't already subscribed at YouTube.com/johndaub is the new channel. A lot of you might be seeing it in your suggested videos, but you're not subscribed to the new channel. So you might want to go over there and take a look.

00:59:14 John Daub: I have about seven episodes now that you can watch and we're going to be increasing the library of edited videos on the new channel greatly in 2021 as I have about 6 in the can that I can edit and upload. One of them is an earthquake video, another one is a sushi video. I have the video from up in Hokkaido, two of them that I filmed last February that I'm going to release in January and February because now it's winter time. So I do have a lot of videos in the can that I can upload and I'm going to be trying to do that once a week.

00:59:51 John Daub: So go over there and support the main channel and encourage me, but Only in Japan Go. I will continue to give you updates. I will continue to take me with me—take you with me on location shoots. I will continue to share our lives with you here in Tokyo and give you information. This channel is the reason why I feel really connected with the community that we've been growing since 2017 before mobile live streaming became a thing. This is a mobile live stream nonetheless.

01:00:23 John Daub: 720p it's not the greatest, but the technology is always going to continue to evolve and it's not a reason for me to stop as many more people complain that why isn't this 4K? This technology will eventually catch up and by that time we'll have the best live mobile live streaming channel on YouTube Japan. Jennifer French Go Bucks and Saya writes in thank you for mentioning about the Paralympics and accessibility in Japan. As a person with disability and knowing Japan needing more education and accessibility, really appreciate it.

01:00:59 John Daub: You're very welcome. And there's a lot of a lot of other people that have been telling me more about how important it is for Japan to modernize for better accessibility. And we're getting there. We just have to keep shining a light on that and I'm pretty sure that the message is getting through. I've seen more changes in the city of Tokyo's infrastructure in the last two years than I've seen in the first 20, 22 years of me living in Japan, which is an incredible leap forward.

01:01:32 John Daub: So we just have to keep encouraging Japan to take steps for that. Twitchy from California. Big thumbs up. Thanks for that. And Lisa. Oh, any chance of an emergency preparedness video? We did—Kanae and I did something like that a couple of—couple of months ago, I guess after an earthquake. I put together an earthquake kit and we showed that. We bought that on Amazon and I'm doing one actually. I've already finished filming and the edit is just about done.

01:02:03 John Daub: That'll be uploaded in January. There'll be a video on earthquakes and I'll be doing some other episodes on disaster preparedness. So that's a good topic to cover because we don't know when the next one's going to hit. And there's more with a volcano erupting now in Kagoshima. It's on a remote island. Don't worry about it. Kyushu is very prepared for eruptions too. Not like Mount Fuji, but you know, Sakurajima erupts like once a month. All right.

01:02:33 John Daub: Down in the city of Kagoshima. So they're ready for eruptions. But being—being understanding more about the natural disasters of Japan is important and there's not enough content on this. So you're going to see over the next 2, 3 months more content on natural disaster preparedness. As we get to the Olympics and as tourism returns. It's good to keep an eye on that. It's good to keep an eye on this. A lot of eruptions also over the place, including my hunger as I erupt. And Japan Sinks was an anime that—

01:03:08 John Daub: That focused on Mount Fuji erupting. It's a pretty—if you haven't seen that anime, it's really good. I thought that's one that made me love anime more. Japan Sinks. The worst case scenario where Japan just sinks from an eruption. It's awesome. Let's see here. Desert. When did I ask John? I—I don't know what that means. I'm watching Japan Sinks tomorrow. You should. I'm envious because I'd love to watch that again. I'd love to watch it again with fresh eyes.

01:03:40 John Daub: I was hoping they'd do season two, but where do you go after that? Japan is a series of volcanic islands. Writes in hello. High Indeed. So you have to understand that this is probably the most dangerous country in the world in terms of natural disasters. Right before you come and I think that plays a part in Japanese culture in the way we live our lives here.

01:04:11 John Daub: Thanks so much for the questions and the support. Click that subscribe button. Hit that like button. If these updates are useful for you again, I'm going to be taking extra precaution now that we're hitting a new high every single day. Tokyo is reporting more infections and it is worrying and I know that the government is doing the best that they can possibly do to keep us safe and the first was to stopping all travel and I will keep you updated on the situation in regards to that. Leave a question below in the comments. Tell me your thoughts.

01:04:41 John Daub: Would you be interested in traveling to Japan after the vaccines roll out? A little bit more in 2 weeks? 3. 2 months? 3 months in the summer. What are your feelings on the Olympics? Leave me a comment below. I do read those and I do respond and I appreciate it very much. Keep it professional in there. The Discord server is where this conversation continues. So hit us up on Discord. It's free and 24 hour chat about Japan. A lot of people sharing photos, Japanese lessons.

01:05:13 John Daub: The situation in Japan is constantly updated on the Discord server. So thanks so much for being a member of that 10,000 strong over there. See you later and I'll be on Twitch probably tomorrow, the day after tomorrow for a long time to see Twitch livestream. Bye bye everybody.