00:00:00 John Daub: This is another Tokyo travel update, Japan travel update for April 2021. I try to do these every month or so. I've been doing updates since January 2020 when we were kind of concerned about what was happening over in China with this and how it impacted travel to Japan. And now we're almost over a year into this and I still give these updates. I want to thank everybody for encouraging me to keep this up until you can make it back to Japan. I am here with some news and some updates. This one is just a routine one, I think, because not a lot of stuff has changed. You still can't come to Japan. The vast majority of you, there's policies in place and we'll talk about that as well.

00:00:50 John Daub: But currently, I want to start off with the situation here in Japan, because what is happening here domestically also impacts when you'll be able to make your way to Japan. Yes, that is Totoro in the background with some ducks, I understand. We just had a baby and got a lot of presents from people and I appreciate that. This is a live stream and you can check out all the comments coming in from all around the world from people that are very interested in coming here to Japan. So right now we're kind of at the start of what we believe to be a fourth wave and it looks really bad.

00:01:24 John Daub: The UK variant is very strong here right now, especially in the city of Osaka, which has seen a very high uptake, more than the city of Tokyo, in fact, and that's quite worrying. So on April 1st, the governor of Osaka called for a strict, not a state of emergency, but for stricter measures, which were allowable in Japanese law, according to a change in February 2021. Japan has a lot of freedoms in its constitution following World War Two that prohibit things like penalizing people for not following the rules in this way. It's there for a reason. And these rules in times of crisis like this make people in the West question what Japan is doing because you can't have such strict policies. But that's just in the constitution of Japan. It's not something that a lot of people want to change it. There's a political debate going on, so I don't want to get into that.

00:02:32 John Daub: But for the most part, when the government says to do something or gives a notice, the majority of people, almost everybody follows what leaders tell them to do in Japan. And that's what makes this country really special in many ways. So the rate here in Japan has not been as bad as in the West, whether you want to debate on testing numbers and all this other stuff. I live here and it doesn't feel like it's as bad. It's just as somebody who is a resident of Japan over the course of the last year plus during this pandemic. So the numbers are the highest in over two months, which is very concerning to me and my wife and her son because we had thought that maybe we'd rounded a corner. But I also suspected that there would be another wave.

00:03:24 John Daub: So Tokyo has logged over 500 people per day. It was a lot lower just a couple of weeks ago. This might be attributed to the cherry blossoms. It might be attributed to the end of the state of emergency. Osaka state of the emergency ended earlier, and this may have prompted people to just start to celebrate a little bit too early and go out. And then the UK variant of it is quite prevalent in Osaka right now in Tokyo. The numbers are sort of staying aligned and now they're starting to go up again and it's something that's very concerning. And we believe we're at the start of a fourth wave. Just everybody seems to on Japanese TV this morning talk about that.

00:04:18 John Daub: I want to talk about the vaccine a little bit here in Japan. I think a lot of it, if it continues to travel to Japan and I will get to the question that's on everybody's mind. I know what it is. The vaccine is sort of like this card that we play that will help us get back to travel more quickly. The realization is that in Japan we did not have a domestic maker create a vaccine. We're very reliant on the international community on the companies that have manufactured and found a way to make a vaccine. Japan is not one of those countries. We're like we got lapped here in Japan. Let's be honest. Japan because of the past does not have and some troubles with making vaccines does not have the capability to make vaccines like they used to be able to in the past, which is a big shame.

00:05:12 John Daub: But they're ramping up the domestic ability to do this for future pandemics. So it's all about getting enough supply for right now. And then in the future, learning the lessons from right now and apply this to the future so that we don't have any supply chain problems ever again because we here cannot stand it. And we're quite upset at the slow rollout. The vaccine has been here for over seven weeks and one million of the 126 million people in Japan have been vaccinated. That's a ridiculously low number and not acceptable by any standards. And a lot of people are quite upset. I think they gave out 9000 in Hachioji. I saw on the news there were about seven to 9000 doses available and they were booked through appointments on an app in 90 minutes.

00:06:04 John Daub: And a lot of the senior citizens, because it's for 75 and older, have no idea how to use an app. So it was a big disaster. And this is very, very worrying because they can't get the supply enough to vaccinate the same way that the U.S. is doing it. Or other countries that are very, very successful, like Israel, for example, which is, I guess, the very successful case of how to roll out vaccines. Israel, I think everybody's almost everybody's vaccinated and it's an amazing success story over there. We don't have that here. We just don't have the supply. And look, Japan has a Japanese way to approach situations and you can't get angry about it. Everybody knows about it. They have a way to do it themselves. They'll find a way to do it. But it's always slower than the West.

00:07:00 John Daub: Japan is very high tech in many things, but we still have fax machines and still a lot of people read newspapers. So as progressive as many people in the West think we are here in Japan, we're also a very traditional culture that just takes a long time to change. And we're very top heavy in the senior population and very light on young people. Thank goodness we have a son because he's going to be one of those charging forward to help Japan and the world. We set our hope as proud parents. So that's what the vaccine. I don't know when Kanae and I will be able to get a vaccine. In fact, I'm guessing it's not going to be until like next year. I just assume I hope for the best and I assume the worst.

00:07:58 John Daub: So again, for the Olympics, probably a good chance that we at this rate, we don't see any vaccination. I'm pretty sure that Tokyo is going to be extremely upset if people are not vaccinated before the Olympics start right now in the news. There's a huge roar of unfairness if Olympic athletes get vaccinated before like a mother gets vaccinated, for example. I don't think Japan has that many Olympic athletes. I think it's maybe a thousand or so. I don't know what the best course of action is. I know the Olympics is, I'm somebody who's been a proponent of the Olympics. But if this means, you know, a lot of people that need to get the shots can't get it as a result of it, then no one's for that here. So it's a big political issue that I don't want to get into, but just understand that they're talking about that here in Japan.

00:08:56 John Daub: And the one thing that we won't tolerate here is the Olympics, this sport that's supposed to bring people together, becoming something that tears us all apart because of vaccinations or because of risk to the population for business purposes. This is not what the people want. We're looking for a safe and fair way to do things, and it's up to the people in charge to do that. And we have not seen a great job with that. Anybody I'll take questions at the end of this, by the way.

00:09:31 John Daub: Oh, they had a couple other things in the news in Japan here before we move on. Haneda Airport has a new test center for rapid 15-minute COVID test results. You can get them for 1800 yen. It's privately run inside of Narita and Haneda Airport right now. And it's mostly for domestic travel here. It was opened up as a result of the state of emergency ending in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago in Osaka about a month ago. But I think that with new stringent measures probably coming into place in Tokyo, I might not be able to leave the city unless it's for work related businesses. So no vacations, which we didn't plan anyways, to go outside of the city of Tokyo. But this is probably going to be slapped on us really soon. And it's not a bad thing. We shouldn't be traveling. We're not traveling in a wave.

00:10:33 John Daub: So that's the domestic travel situation. Flights are still going. There are less of them than there were before, but they're still moving. The airports are not as crowded, but there are people who are traveling the Shinkansen. When I rode that on April 3rd and coming back home, I'd say it's at 30 to 40 percent occupancy. So 60 percent of the train is empty. At peak times. And it's even more empty at unpeaked times. So people just aren't traveling, which is a good thing. Not as a state of emergency. Just families are naturally themselves worried. So they're not going out and traveling as much.

00:11:15 John Daub: So the domestic travel has been deeply impacted here. And, you know, the new measures to close businesses, I think now restaurants have to go back to the old rules of closing at 8 p.m. every day. Instead of 9 p.m. It has an economic impact on the community. Just last week, we heard that at Don Quixote, this is big news for a lot of people. AKB48 has removed the signs from the Don Quixote in Akihabara where they have a stage, a place where they perform. This is big news because it just shows the power of not having tourists here has or domestic travel. There's not a lot of people attending. They just don't have the money to do that. So I believe it was a Chinese game maker now has bought the advertising space on that Don Quixote in Akihabara. Maybe this is something that I go and check out tomorrow. But I thought that that was quite interesting because AKB48 is Akihabara 48. They pretty much own Akihabara, these 48 girls. And now they don't. Such as the world changes with this.

00:12:27 John Daub: So the test centers in Haneda are very welcome. So you can get a rapid COVID test for 1800 yen or about $18 at the airport. This is something really good right now. Osaka is the most impacted place, but I would say Osaka right now is probably the place that has the most is hurting the most right now because of the new variant. Kyoto University Hospital on Thursday, this is yesterday, performed the world's first living donor lung transplant on a patient who lost functionality of both her lungs due to infection of COVID. So they were able to do a lung transplant on a living patient, which is incredible news. So, you know, in this medical advances, applause to Kyoto University because I think that that's really groundbreaking what they've done.

00:13:35 John Daub: The operation took 11 hours transplanted part of healthy lungs from patient's husband and son to replace her failing lungs. So family members gave parts of their own lung to help mom. This is amazing. And both donors are in stable condition. The patient who is in intensive care is expected to be discharged in two months. According to Kyoto News. So that's kind of a good story where family stepped up to save mom and she's doing well in a situation where COVID had knocked her down and we were able to find a way to fix her back up. That makes me really happy to hear.

00:14:17 John Daub: Yeah, you can get the at the airport. You can get the PCR test as well, but it'll take a day for the response. I believe and the rapid tests. They're not as reliable. But I've been taking rapid tests before I travel just so I know for sure at that time that I'm not at any risk of infecting people. So you can get PCR tests from vending machines and four or five locations. Sometimes they're sold out, but they are restocked and you can also get rapid tests at places like Matsumoto Kiyoshi for I think about 3500 yen or $35. You can get a 15-minute test which I take before I travel. And I try to take when I come back, but it's hard sometimes to find those too. But supplies have been increasing which is good news.

00:15:08 John Daub: I want to get now to just yesterday. I put in a tweet about how the Olympics brings people together and I received some responses that I didn't expect from a lot of you a lot of people internationally that are trapped or can't get here to Japan. Some of you, including one person from Holland who last December had sold everything changed their lives to get ready for a move to Japan and has been on hold for over a year now which is awful. There's a lot of you that are thinking to come here to Japan. I don't have any good news for you. I just know that there are some people that are making it in that have the exceptions. I talked with Thomas on Patreon who I believe is from the UK coming into Japan as a teacher and he'll be making his way soon.

00:16:07 John Daub: But I know that they told him there's a backlog of issuing new visas because every COE or certificate of eligibility was canceled in March 2020 because of the virus and new ones are being reissued for people with special exceptions. Teachers and professors and government jobs are in that whether it's fair or not. I'm not sure. I don't think it is. I think there has to be a safe way to do this. But Japan is not the only country to be doing this. I have Japanese friends that are also put their lives on hold and losing money waiting for eligibility to enter other countries to it's a global problem. Some countries like the United States are a little bit easier if you have the proper documentation to get into.

00:17:01 John Daub: But there is a Twitter organization. I'm going to show it to you here. I would say it's a Twitter organization. But the students workers spouses of stranded. I'll put a link in the description. I've been student workers spouses stranded outside of Japan is @strandedoutJPN. It's a place where they're raising awareness. If you're also stranded. You might want to check this Twitter out and give them some more followers because if groups can have more likes more followers more impact they can have individually. We don't really have a lot of power to make changes unless you're some massive celebrity. But as a group you really do have more power to impact change. I'm not sure if it will do that but I just know it can't hurt. And I do know that there is a lot of power in numbers. Now they have fourteen hundred and twenty five followers. So it might be good to give them a follow.

00:18:11 John Daub: I talked with the person in charge of this. And he wrote in the purpose of the group is to make the voices of all of us be heard. Raise awareness on our situation and try to call out officials diplomats associations to get attention and make them help us eventually. And I think that's a really good point. Like I said, we've all heard this before, but maybe you can get some kind of response from the government with this. I mean, it's a great question. Well, you know, for the thing about the vaccine and the idea that there's a lot of people who want to take the risk. What do you say to that? I think that that is a good question. You know, it's a really good thing that there's a lot of people who want to take the risk, because it allows them to make progress.

00:19:03 John Daub: Hashtag kickstarter but that's not the right way to do things as we're seeing here obviously because there's hundreds of thousands if not millions of people that are waiting or have waited or have moved on from this. People have been waiting for and have their lives on hold students cannot study or have to wake up at 1am to follow class workers are unemployed and have been waiting for months without income families are separated from their loved ones it's a terrible situation. Please comment on the youtube video and i'll pin you on the top but you know groups like this it's really good because i don't get a lot of information from the outside looking in i don't know too much about your situations and i don't know what i can do but i'll tell you this i have been talking with people that are in the travel arena that are also in the government arena and when i do i do bring up certain things like make it easier for us to understand the procedures they change so often i'm very confused about what is actually the right procedure to get into japan again.

00:20:14 John Daub: Like i don't know if i could actually travel to visit my family at christmas time because i don't think i would be able to get back in i don't understand the procedure it's still really blurry the lines are too gray and i put some links in the description of this video that might help you so you can check that out from the ministry of justice which is in charge of immigrations and the ministry of foreign affairs which also has a say in this those are two of the industries ministries parts of the government the federal government here in japan that make the decisions on policy for this and maybe they're not working together maybe they don't care as much but again i don't want the olympics to be something a reason why we can't have a clear message where they're thinking of the olympics more than people who are separated from their families.

00:21:07 John Daub: Just to call out you know any officials that there's a lot of people out there that are wondering what they should do not people some people are frustrated some people are angry everybody is understanding that this is the pandemic they just have been waiting a very long time for a procedure or news for information on what they can do at this stage. Calling the embassy also helps all right wherever you are in whatever country you're in if you're trying to get a visa and trying to get here to japan call the embassy let them make sure you talk to somebody let them know write letters to the embassy shawshank redemption this every week write a letter to them i'm telling you if you continue this and you're positive about it and not really angry or upset but you have a positive and saying you understand this you just want to know please here's a self stamped envelope with my address send me a reply don't give them a reason not to and then maybe just maybe we'll be able to break through and find a clear way.

00:22:17 John Daub: And they'll make the policies more easier to understand because i honestly i don't understand them i wrote in here there is an exception entry to four nationals with special circumstances and i do know i met people who have come in on these special circumstances and they're basically it says they're currently all four nationals who wish to newly enter japan need to apply for a visa except for those with the re-entry permit please note that due to the impact caused by covid 19 pandemic the visa approval project procedure may take longer your understanding and cooperation are greatly appreciated so they're trying their best and don't express your frustration to that poor person who's trying to apply for a visa and they're trying their best on the other end because they're not the ones making the policy just remember that okay take care of the people that are trying to help us and they'll do more to help you i've learned that that's always the case.

00:23:04 John Daub: For nationals who are entitled to enter japan there's a list in the link that i put in this as those with the special exemption circumstances are required to apply for the appropriate visa at the embassy so you have to reapply and there's some links here you also need to have a certificate of negative test result i also put a link in the description for that information as well this information came out on was updated on april 8th so it's pretty recent. Again it's not what a lot of people want to hear i just know that it's really really bad. Faisal 007 writes in here what is the situation of rough sleeping in japan and what age group you feel is more affected by covid and did affect this social dynamic. Right now a lot of the people that are getting sick are in the 20s 30s and 40s younger people a lot of them.

00:24:03 John Daub: I think gosh it's a hard question i want to get into this at the question and answer section of it i guess we're there already but you know i had an assumption and i think a lot of people did too in the government that most of the transmissions were not happening in public transportation. There's so many procedures and everybody's washing their hands and everybody has masks or one or sometimes two masks on people that are sick or staying home there's a great understanding compared to a year ago but it's when you get into restaurants or izakaya (Japanese pub) and it's not really the owner's faults we really don't know how i think japan just doesn't know how to do this in a political and in a diplomatic way that everybody wins.

00:24:46 John Daub: But i noticed this when i was on the shinkansen a few about a half a year ago i saw some they were turning on the train and they were wearing their masks and they had snacks and beers and they started to talk like there was no pandemic at all seriously i don't know these three guys all i know is that they're loud they're talking as though it's some kind of party and they should know better they look like they're executives at some company they got on the train in fukushima coming back to tokyo probably tokyo i don't know so i leaned over to them and said look i don't know you guys can you please put on your masks i feel uncomfortable. So they did for a bit. After about 10 minutes, they had to drink their beer and they never put their masks back on. I guess they were drunk. I don't know. But this is the problem.

00:25:38 John Daub: A lot of it is being spread at restaurants and izakayas after hours because people remove the masks and they think that the social conventions and the pandemic has stopped when they're eating. So now the strict measures in Osaka that are in place, they have put on the forefront that when you're not eating, you must put your mask on. And if you don't follow the rules, the restaurants must kick you out or they will be fined, which is part of the new law that was changed in February. So this is something that was in the news just today. The fines are not as strict as under a state of emergency, but I think they're 30% less, but there's still fines. But more than that, what really keeps people in check here in Japan are the social disgracing, which is you get your name in the newspaper or you get called out by the media, which is actually worse than being fined. Losing face in Japan is a big deal, which means losing your reputation, which means losing your business.

00:26:44 John Daub: Nicholas Lazak, thank you. It isn't the same without the Okapi stalking. Nicholas, alright. Okapi is actually in with Leo right now. So I don't know. Technically, I did not give Okapi to Leo, but in reality, I think he likes, Okapi likes Leo and Leo likes Okapi, so that's why he's not here. Instead, you have three ducks and a Mr. Potato Head. Because I think the baby is freaked out by Mr. Potato Head. I know I am, a little bit. You know, he's on patrol. Okapi is protecting the people who need it the most.

00:27:33 John Daub: Yeah, so that's about all that I have here. I do appreciate the information that I got from the Twitter, the tweet from yesterday. I just didn't have a great number of understanding. But like a lot of people, I can learn if we have a discussion and I keep voicing your opinion out there. Again, it's a, here's their information so you can maybe join them and share it. Share your stories and this might help. It's a pretty specific group. And I appreciate them commenting and letting me know how they feel.

00:28:16 John Daub: David R. Hi John, so I'll take some of your questions about traveling to Japan. I know that there's a lot on your mind. I got some questions also from Patreon supporters. David R. Hi John, thanks for doing these updates. Do you think the population and government would be willing to have vaccinated tourists in prior to widespread use of the vaccine in Japan itself? David, I'm not really sure. I know that there's been talk in Japan about a vaccine card. This was in the news really big in Japan about three weeks ago. And I haven't seen it recently because news of the fourth wave has been more and some of the policy changes. And explaining that to the public have been on the forefront of the news recently. But I think vaccine cards in Japan, more paperwork is better. I'll be honest with you. The more documents and paperwork you have, it doesn't even matter if it's even relevant sometimes. It's more impressive looking.

00:29:20 John Daub: So I would say that having, being vaccinated might play a big part in being able to travel anywhere again. But I don't think that that's going to be, it's hard to see right now. I think we're in, and this is what I responded earlier in the tweet. Right now, we're in like a twilight zone. We have the Olympics coming in a few months. Which, you know, the president, the CEO of Rakuten says, I don't think we should be having. Right now, even I, because we're in a twilight zone and there's so much unclear points. I'm not even sure. And I'm a proponent of it. If this should still go on. I don't know. Because we just don't, we don't have a clear vision of what this is going to look like. But I think that vaccine cards might play an impact. So hold on to any documentation that you can. Any numbers. Any certificates. Any number of the vial. I don't know what it is because I haven't been able to get my own vaccine. But any proof that you have might be required in the future. So just hold on to that for sure. Thank you, David R.

00:30:23 John Daub: Sprayden the Wonder Weaker. I was hired to teach in Japan but cannot gain entrance into Japan. But you said teachers were allowed. What can I do to help my company get in? According to the exception, it's not every teacher. But if your company can explain that there is a definite need for you to come in and replace someone who is left. Because their business relies on you to be there. Then you have a legitimate case under the special exceptions to receive a COE for access to Japan. There's a waiting list and there's backlog and will take some time. A lot of time. But you will be in the process. And people are coming in as a result of this. So you have to prove that there is an essential need for you. If you can, you can come. You have to do the 14-day quarantine like the people who are here who have done it. But that's the information that I have. Again, I think you have to contact the embassy. You have to contact your employer. And you have to make sure that you're on the same page with this. And have that documentation. In the link. There's a link. In the description of this video, I put some places where you can get that documentation. A lot of it is in English too. And that might help you with your employer. So I hope that that helps.

00:31:48 John Daub: Sania Mamliva. Are there many COVID deniers and anti-vaxxers? There are some. I don't think there's many. But there are people who just don't want to wear masks anymore. And you see them. And you stare at them. But I don't think they care. But I think there's so many more people that are wearing masks that it's not as harmful. But it is scary to be around people that don't think we're in a pandemic. I think people change once they meet. They know they have a family member who has gotten it. And then they change their tune really quickly. But in Japan, we haven't had a lot of people that were infected. So a lot of people don't know anybody who has been infected. Therefore, you know. It's mostly younger people.

00:32:39 John Daub: Nomura mai. That's for Totoro. I don't know how to give this to Totoro except to buy him a friend. Okay? So we might have to buy him a friend. I appreciate that. I'm trying here to get in some of your questions. There's a bug in this that doesn't allow me to see all of the Super Chats, by the way. It's still here. So I apologize. If you do, I'm looking now. I'm looking now at the normal feed here. Some of the questions. People are not getting vaccinated like they should in my city. Again, like the vaccine's been out for seven weeks. They vaccinated a million. It's just it doesn't seem right that they're so disorganized. It doesn't seem like Japan. I don't understand how this could be running so inefficiently. But I'm not surprised. I'm surprised and not surprised. Because Japan has a Japanese way. I guess they want to do it the way that makes the best sense to the bureaucrats. But it's in practicality. It's not working.

00:33:45 John Daub: Why the rubber duck? Raul, when my son was born, I received ten of them. And then hold on. Wait for it. And then I received. Do you see this basket? I received like about a thousand of these from benevolent trolls. From benevolent trolls? I received about a thousand of these. Yes, they it's very if you do all thousand at one time, it's a very loud noise that disturbs the neighbors. They are small but very powerful. I did not ask for these moderators. It's only a waste if they go unused. They might get used. So if you do meet me on the street, you might get a You Found Me card. Plus a rubber ducky. Okay. It's now become a symbol of Only in Japan Go. They all independently squeak. Each one is slightly different. See what I have to deal with? Sometimes benevolent trolls. I'm not trying to duck the question. Tell me, ask me the question.

00:35:31 John Daub: Leave one at every location I visit. John was here. He was squeaky toy. That's not good for the environment. Jennifer French. Where did you find that? That duck doing a dad dabbing duck. When we're allowed to travel again, you should hide them. Don't kill like a duck hunt. Oh, this could be fun. I'm trying to get here to questions here in Australia. 20 million Pfizer and AstraZeneca only for people over 50. We're on the 1A front of a 2B 60 and 70 for medical conditions. Yeah, you know, and Katayama writes in here. What's the point of trolling you if we're not going to be if we're not doing it in a benevolent way? I know where these ducks came from. You know what? I should troll you now because I know where you're from to saying that's about all.

00:36:42 John Daub: That's about all that I have here. I'm looking for some questions while I'm waiting for them to come in. I did find by the way the gum. We did have a blueberry chips unboxing. I did find the gum. So for dime your supporters on Patreon, I will be sending a stick of gum with the potato chips so you can try both. And perhaps you'll have better luck with that. I'm not as good at finding the similarities between blueberry gum and blueberry potato chip. Blueberry gum potato chips is pretty interesting. The earthquake alarm is very scary. It's one of those noises that gives shivers down people's spines when they hear it.

00:37:27 John Daub: Kelly Sun writes in here. John, my brother was planning to continue study in Japan since last year, but until now, I think the situation is not getting any better. Is there any chance in next year to continue study? Thanks. A legitimate question. I'm a very optimistic person. It's my weakness. It's one of the bad points of me. I'm too optimistic. All right. I thought that by the end of spring that we would have more tourism and that doesn't look like that's going to be the case. And look, the reality is that I probably because of the Olympics, it's going to keep people from coming here sooner because we have the Olympics here. And they have the international community, everybody watching them and they want to do it safely. And also because the Olympics are so unpopular right now domestically, there's a lot of political pressure not to let anybody in.

00:38:24 John Daub: Just why were business travelers giving give the reason why we have the UK variant is because Japan had exceptions for business travelers and business travelers brought that in. It's true. It came from Brazil. There were business travelers that were in the Amazon and brought back a Brazilian variant. And then there were business travelers from the UK that brought in and they didn't follow the rules when they came here because it's all in the honor system. So they have cut those exceptions based on political decisions that it just was. Why give anybody an exception? Which means Singaporeans, which had an exception, were not allowed to come in for that. However, some people are still allowed to come in. Students are not. This is a huge, huge thing. And I expect that those that have been waiting for a while, I expect them to address this issue sometime in the next couple of months for sure.

00:39:18 John Daub: April 1st starts the new year in Japan, the new fiscal year, the new business year, the new school year. And we're seeing like there's almost no international students there. And the ones that maybe have were still here had continued. I don't know. But they need to have those international students there. It's just part of makes the university very special. So I can only assume that they're going to address this sooner than later because the new year, new school year has started. When that information comes, I will tweet it. I will discord it. I will announce it in a live stream and in the next travel update for sure. My guess. And again, it is a guess from talking with people in the travel industry because I do travel quite a bit into other prefectures. I work with prefectures. I work with organizations. October is a magic month. This is what I hear. Airlines will be coming back on doing more international stuff. It's following the Olympics and the Paralympics, which I'm actually more excited about. I've said this so many times. I'm kind of really excited at the Paralympics. And I could care less about the normal Olympics. I just want to see the Paralympics.

00:40:35 John Daub: The it seems like October is a big, big date to mark on your calendars. It could change. A new variant could come in. We could find that Japan decides that we're too slow with vaccinating the local population that they want to lay this until later. I don't know. But seems that everybody is gearing up for October return to tourism. With that said. Probably this is going to come with a lot of caveats and asterisks marks and they'll be quarantining. There'll be requirements of cards and vaccinations. I know it's probably an overkill and not necessary, but it's also not a popular thing to let people into the country. And we probably won't have any normalcy until 2022 is my guess.

00:41:28 John Daub: But Cookie Ninja, how's the weather during Sakura season? It's been warm. I got shorts on. Not sure if I should travel during the summer. I'm not sure if I should travel during the Sakura season or the autumn season. The best time is May. But if you do travel for Sakura season, I would skip Tokyo and come in April and then go up to Tohoku. Right now, the JR East Rail Pass Tohoku area is here. It's 20,000 yen for five days of unlimited Shinkansen travel, which is awesome. That pass was probably I believe it'll still be here next year. So if I'm going to make a decision on the best time to come. I'm going to come in the middle of April and don't do cherry blossoms in Tokyo. Do them up in Tohoku where it's cooler. But it's warm weather down in Hiroshima. It's warmer down in Kyushu. But you have the option to go to Tohoku for the cherry blossoms. I think that's smart. May is the best weather in Japan. It's warm. It's not humid. It's sunny. And you don't have the cherry blossoms, but you have longer days. So just my two cents.

00:42:37 John Daub: And Howard, Howard Hanzawa, thank you so much. Thank you for the informative session, John. We are all looking forward to the day when we can travel to Japan. Best wishes to you, Kanae, and the birth of your baby, Ryo. Thank you. We're still not sure if we should call him on his American birth certificate Ryo or Leo. In Japanese, his name is in Kanji as Ryo. But in English, it could be Leo. Even though in Japanese, it's pronounced Leo for Leo. I don't understand. But that's sort of the way it is. I don't know if we should write it R-I-O, which is a pretty cool name. Or if we should write L-E-O, which is maybe the equivalent to the Kanji. So it's, you can chime in and let me know.

00:43:29 John Daub: I do intend to catch up with Kanae after we kind of catch our breaths and the baby is taking a longer sleep. He's now three hours between feedings, which allows us to sleep a little bit more. But when we both feel a little bit more refreshed, I want to talk about our experience here with having a baby in Japan. And you get a chance to talk with Kanae and ask her questions that I can't answer. Was it painful? Yeah. I can answer that one. She might say no. You can ask.

00:44:10 John Daub: So, Jeff writes in Rio. It does sound like R-I-O, but it's not. It's R-I-O. Yeah. He looks like a Rio. I don't know. Would he be teased in school because Rio is close to the city of Brazil and Rio? Look, I think a lot of kids have more, I don't think you would be teased with that name. All right. And he could be teased for the city of Rio de Janeiro, but that's a pretty cool city. It's got a vibe to it. Maybe not right now. But it's got a pretty cool vibe. I have friends whose daughter's name is London. I know, does anybody make fun of Paris Hilton? I don't think it's a big deal. I think more kids, and he could use his middle name if he wants to. You know, his middle name, it will be James. So, Rio James. That's just, together, that sounds pretty cool. There's a lot of weird names that I think that, you know, everyone's adding a one. I don't know why to the names. I don't get it either. So, but bullying. Yes, they do make fun of Paris Hilton, but for other reasons. Count on Vela to add in a little bit of humor for the other reasons. I don't want to know what they are.

00:45:33 John Daub: So, there you have it. I do, I will keep giving you these updates. The next one, it will be in May. I don't think I need to do these weekly anymore. Leo is a pretty cool name either. He's a pretty cool name too. I think, I'm a fan of Leo Tolstoy. That's the Russian author from War and Peace. And I read a lot of his books at Ohio State when I was studying for the English major that I had. One of two. English majors alone is not as valuable as having an English and an economics major. Double degree. Cost the same. Why wouldn't you get two for the price of one? You just had to take more credits. That's all.

00:46:11 John Daub: Toby Leo James. Look, do not put that T name in there. Although there's nothing wrong with any people with that name. Just not associated with my family. These are the stragglers. I think, alright, and to be perfectly honest with you, these travel updates are getting harder because I'm a positive person and it's hard to confront the negative aspect. Because if you can't travel, that's a negative and I'm not, I don't like that at all. But it's important, I think, to keep doing this. Did you make it to the stream tonight? Yeah, I'm glad that you can make it, Brenda. And by the way, Brenda, I believe we got a package from you. Thank you so much for that. And thank you to all the diapers. They're on the floor here. They're on the floor there. Thank you for those. I appreciate it. And we have more diapers for when he's a newborn than we ever needed in the history of diapers. If I was smaller, I might start wearing diapers. I'm not wearing them around just for experimental purposes, but I wouldn't fit.

00:47:25 John Daub: Everything is going to be fine, Cobra Bebop. I believe you. Joseph, Esteban, welcome, new traveler. Appreciate it. We're very close to a new emoji for the travelers. On a positive note, because we're in a fourth wave, I thought that I would go out later and then just go and see how it's being impacted. There's no curfew or anything, but just take a look around the city at night again. Just to see how, although there's no state of emergency, what's the result. Tokyo, I believe today or Monday or maybe on the weekend. On the weekend, we'll declare not a state of emergency, but something different. Because to be a state of emergency, you have to be at a level four. And we're not there yet. I think we're like level three. But they want to do something which is before a state of emergency again, which makes sense because they just stopped the state of emergency. So we will be. We'll be ready for that. And I'll keep you updated. I'll take a trip to Akihabara again really soon, too.

00:48:26 John Daub: If you do like these updates, click the thumbs up button. If we get a thousand thumbs up, I know that this is stuff that you really want me to continue to do. And I'll keep my ear to the ground and listen for more information. And if you do have anything you want to ask, you can tweet me, askOIJ on Twitter. Hashtag askOIJ. Or you can go to the Discord server, discord.gg slash only in Japan. We have a really good community in there. A lot of people are living in Japan, too, that can answer your questions. And yeah, let's see here. So you can see this is our only in Japan community on Discord right there. You're welcome to come in and join us. We have a category for many things. These are our Patreon supporters. But we also have one for COVID and food and all these things. All right, everybody. Have a good day. I'll see you in the next live stream, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. I'll give you an update as soon as I possibly can. Thank you, Joey. Thank you, everybody. Everything's going to be fine.