00:00:00 John Daub: To Tokyo Station. That's right. We are now in the heart of the city of Tokyo. This is the major hub where the Shinkansen takes off and a lot of the trains go in all directions. Stop, and of course, that's Tokyo Station. That's where I'm at. How you doing, everybody? Long time no see. It's been a while.

00:00:17 John Daub: This is Japan's Golden Week. It starts officially April 29th to May 5th. This is the time where 35% of the country is on the move, maybe even more. I don't know how you actually take that survey to find out how many people are on the move. Maybe ticket sales, walkers. A lot of people are on the move. Mass migration. And I wanted to talk to you in this live stream about what are the holidays for Golden Week? Why is it called Golden Week? How do you celebrate Golden Week? Why is Golden Week at this time of year?

00:00:49 John Daub: And by the end of this live stream, you're going to have so much knowledge on Golden Week that it's going to blow your mind. And you're going to be on quiz shows like Jeopardy and get all of these questions right. This is what you watch for. And by the way, do subscribe to this amazing channel. Only in Japan, go! How you doing? I'm so happy to see everybody.

00:01:05 John Daub: So I'm starting here at Tokyo Station because this is the point where a lot of people take off. And we're going to be walking around the area, not going too much inside because, again, we are in a state of emergency here, which is not a lockdown. It's just people are asked to not travel outside of the city of Tokyo right now. But people are. And a survey by the Japan Times and NHK as well. We're asking people on the platform, why are you traveling at this time? A lot of people have elderly parents. They can't be left alone. This is the only time that they could get off of work to travel. So there's lots of reasons like this that people are having to travel during the state of emergency.

00:01:47 John Daub: And Japan's constitution allows them a certain amount of freedom where you cannot be told not to do something like travel. OK, so, yeah, it's a completely different situation this year. Now, Golden Week, again, I said starts from April 29th to May 5th. And it's every single year. Sometimes it'll start on the 28th. Sometimes it'll end on the 6th, I guess. It just depends on who you are and how your work allows you to vacation. But every now and then, companies will let you off a little bit early or it'll start on a weekend, which gives you an extra day.

00:02:22 John Daub: Let's get out of the wind over here. Sorry about that. The holiday yesterday was a very unusual one. I think we can get down here. Hide from the wind. Get down! We like to hide here. So yesterday's holiday, Golden Week has four of Japan's 15 national holidays. That's pretty crazy, right? So this week has four of 15 in one. It's like a mega holiday. And I'm glad that they put them all together. And there was almost a chance that it wasn't going to be. The history on Golden Week is really interesting.

00:02:57 John Daub: Showa Day was yesterday. Showa is the name of the period. Right now we're in the Reiwa period, which is the Emperor Reiwa. Before that, we were in the Heisei period, which is the Emperor Heisei from the 1980s to a couple of years ago. And before that, during World War II, was the Showa period, which was 64 years long, which is pretty darn long compared to a lot of the other reigns of the Emperor. Emperor Hirohito, which is a name that you know from World War II, was the Emperor Showa. And he was the one in charge through World War II. And he stayed in power after conceding to the Allies unconditional surrender.

00:03:43 John Daub: And I think I'm in an unconditional surrender situation here as I'm getting surrounded by pigeons like crazy. I'm not even zoomed in on them. This is how close they're coming. Hey, look, I've been good to your kind. I saved one from a crossing in Shimbashi a couple of years ago. Oh my gosh. They know it's Golden Week too. I got no food. I have no food. I'm talking about Golden Week. You guys, if you were gold, you could stick around. But you're silver. Silver Week's in September. Another story.

00:04:20 John Daub: Showa, the Showa Emperor has his day on April 29th every year. And this is a day not to celebrate the Showa era or the Emperor Showa. This is a day that the Japanese reflect back on the past. On things that were very serious in nature. And it's not a day of celebration at all. But we do take a holiday off. And that's important for everybody to understand. And in no way is there being any kind of celebration. Because Showa was a very controversial period because of World War II. And some of the things that happened. A lot of the things that happened in the first half of it. The second half was pretty cool actually. But the first half was bad. Alright. We know that. It's a holiday though.

00:05:09 John Daub: Actually, the Showa day was called Greenery Day for a while. And it was taken away from Showa because of the controversy. This is another part of the history that a lot of people don't know about. Greenery Day, I believe, is on May 4th. And that day is very special because the Emperor Showa loved gardens. So they gave it Greenery Day. But actually Greenery Day was on Showa Day. And they moved Greenery Day in 2006 to May 4th. And Showa Day became April 29th again. And that gave us an entire week of vacations which is pretty awesome. So I'll talk a little bit about Greenery Day in a second.

00:05:54 John Daub: The other holiday is Constitution Day which is May 3rd. That's the day that the Japanese Constitution went into enforcement. Meaning it had been ratified and gone through all the steps. And it started on May 3rd, 1947, I believe. I got a little bit of history on this. This is interesting. Constitution Day is coming up. So this is very newsworthy. Listen up. Get your pencils out. This is important.

00:06:20 John Daub: Showa Emperor announced his surrender to the Allied Forces. And over the next two years, Japan and the US, especially General Douglas MacArthur, was very much involved with the drafting of the Japanese Constitution. Which was ratified August 24th, 1946. By the House of Peers on October 6th. Then the Privy Council on October 29th. Then promulgated by the Emperor on November 3rd, 1946. And by the Emperor Meiji's birthday, it came into effect on May 3rd, 1947. So that's why Constitution Day is celebrated on May 3rd.

00:07:06 John Daub: Now, the Prime Minister at the time. This is kind of an interesting story. The Prime Minister, who is Shigeru Yoshida, wanted to observe Constitution Day in November. What a blockhead. Because that was already a holiday. So it made people work more. This guy obviously did not really care about getting elected. Look, if you want to stay in power, you give the people what they want. More holidays. Alright? I'm very, very passionate about my holidays in Japan. Don't take it away from me.

00:07:39 John Daub: Paranoid with all these pigeons around. You never know what they're going to take away from you. Some of them will just go into your pockets and start taking cash. Buy stuff at the stand down the street. So, he didn't get his way. That Prime Minister did not get his way. And he ended up, you know, with a loss here. The people won and we got a special day, which is May 3rd. Alright? We connect that with Greenery Day on May 4th. We have Showa Day on the 29th. We usually have a weekend. And then the 4th of the 15 holidays is Children's Day, which is also AKA Boys' Day.

00:08:16 John Daub: And Boys' Day is Tango no Sekku (Boys' Day), which is what it's called. It's very ancient. All the way back to the 8th century, I believe. The Nara period is the history. Let's go walk about because these birds are making me nervous here. You guys are different! I can tell from your head patterns. I know you're... Are they mating? Dude, come on. This is a public space. You know what? You can't win with these...

00:08:53 John Daub: Alright, so, Children's Day on May 5th. Which is, I guess it's like a special day for Cinco de Mayo. And it's a special day for Star Wars fans. Or is that the 4th? I don't know. That's not a holiday here. Alright? Star Wars is nice and popular, but it's still not a holiday. Okay? Children's Day is one of the 5 sacred festivals called Go-Sekku (five seasonal festivals). Do you know what the other ones are? Does anybody know? Write. This is the live stream. So you can write in with what the other 5 are. I'll give you a hint. It starts with Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival), which is on March 3rd. So March 3rd. Then Children's Day. Then Tanabata (Star Festival) on the 7th of July. And then on 9-9 there's another holiday. I always forget about that one. On 9-9. Yeah, so you guys can write in here.

00:10:00 John Daub: That's Tokyo Station, the entrance there. I don't see when I compare it to last year. There were less people last year. This year there are some people traveling. But typically at this time of year, this place is packed. You can't even see the ground. That's not true. But it's just filled with people. Now it's not. A lot of people are heeding the warnings. The people who are traveling usually have a great need. They're not going for vacation. There might be a few. But if you see them, stop them and I'll ask.

00:10:45 John Daub: So those are the four major holidays. Showa Day, April 29th. Greenery Day. Constitution Day. And Children's Day, which is on the 5th. Those four days with the weekend, they make up Golden Week. And at this time, everything stops, man. I don't think there's anybody around here. Everything stops. It's good and it's awful. If you have to stay at home, it's still good. It stinks because I got like packages that are waiting at Narita that are not moving. And I got stuff coming in and I got, you know, places that I want to go to, but it's all closed. You know, it's Golden Week is a mixed bag.

00:11:20 John Daub: If you're on vacation at an onsen resort or something, it's perfect. But if you're stuck at home, it's not that good. Some places are open. Department stores are. But during the state of emergency, there's not a lot of people out and about at all, which is probably good. And a lot of these places are closed. So, it's not that bad. And I think it's a good thing that they're closing early as a result of the holiday. There is a Silver Week. Thanks for asking about that. Silver Week is in the middle of September, I think.

00:11:48 John Daub: Why is it called Golden Week, people? I'm asking you right now. I'm coming through your TVs and your smartphones right now, asking you why is it called Golden Week. Three, two, one. All right. I thought it just had to do every single Golden Week. Quite often. Look at the sky. It's unbelievable how often it's just perfectly sunny during this week. Now, there'll be some rain showers. They go away and they leave you with some of the most beautiful skies. Perfect weather. Almost no humidity whatsoever. Very little wind. The wind starts to pick up a little bit more at this time of year. It's golden out here. The sun is golden. It's awesome. So, this is why I thought it was golden.

00:13:10 John Daub: They didn't name it after the sun. Actually, I'm the one that should relax. All right. They named it after... So, the Japanese Constitution came in 1947, right? In 1947, after the Constitution, people had a lot more free time. It was a holiday. And they found that people went out to the movies quite a bit. They were going to the movies all the time. In fact, in 1951, a certain movie produced by Daiei, which was a movie company, had broken records on sales of tickets. So, the managing director of Daiei, Hideo Matsuyama, dubbed this Golden Week in 1951. Of course, he took advantage of the fact that they were selling lots of tickets to make it into a movie-going thing. Golden time. Golden Week. Boom.

00:14:37 John Daub: So, that's why we got Golden Week. And he also dubbed Silver Week, maybe. I don't know exactly why the story is. You'll have to wait until September for that one. Right? All right. Let's keep going on a walk. During this time of year, I got more to talk about, man. I got lots of stuff. So, this time of year, because everybody is traveling, typically, it's also the most expensive time of the year to travel. Now, the Shinkansen tickets are the same, but you have to make reservations months in advance if you can on a typical year. Maybe not this year.

00:15:24 John Daub: If you want reserved seats, especially on the Tohoku Shinkansen Hayabusa, you need to have reserved tickets. And there's the Shinkansen right there. Not a lot of people at this time. It's pretty quiet for Golden Week. But typically, it was standing room only on the Shinkansen at this time. Like, I remember I had to travel to Aomori one year in 2005 and was literally standing room only. And it was the worst trip. It was three and a half hours of standing. And I wasn't even in the car. I was, like, standing. I'll show you the secret entrance here. I was standing in between the cars by the toilet for three and a half hours, and I paid full price. It was awful. But I got home, which is important.

00:16:02 John Daub: The platforms on the Shinkansen, the platforms are so crowded, too. But what impressed me the most is that in Japan, people here are such good travelers. There is very little chaos. Everything is so orderly. It's amazing. Especially here for the Shinkansen, people line up. There's a line for the first train, the second train, and the third train. There's staff to help guide people so confused people don't jam up the platform. It is amazing how orderly it is. If you compare Golden Week with Chinese New Year, I've been to China not during the New Year, and it was insane.

00:16:41 John Daub: I remember I was waiting in line for a train in China, a night train. Then they opened up the gate, and I was going around the wall. There were people in China. They were climbing over this wall to get to the train before everybody. Seriously, it was like Spider-Man. I'd never seen anything like it. I was first in line. I got there, like, hours before. I was one of the last people on the train. They just went over the wall. There's a Beijing Station. And remember when I got there, the people had piled up suitcases on my seat. And I said, this is my seat. And I had to... You could call the conductor, but what's he going to do? There's no other place to put the suitcases.

00:17:38 John Daub: Actually, I don't remember exactly what happened. I just remember I was really angry. I think I eventually sat down somewhere else. I guess the train conductor guy put me somewhere else. I was really upset. But it was insane. You never have that here. You never have that here. In fact, I remember boarding a plane in Chengdu to go to Lhasa in the year 2000. I love the stories in China. And I'm not complaining. It was such an amazing experience. I was in Chengdu. And we were about to board the plane. As soon as they let us on the runway, people started to run. People were running to the plane. They're on the runway and they're running to the plane.

00:18:22 John Daub: And I was with five other friends from the UK. And we were backpacking at the time in 2000. So what are they running for? Oh, crud. There's no assigned seats. It's first come, first serve on the airplane. As soon as we got on the airplane, we had to sit like bada bada, which is like in different seats all over the plane, which is pretty crazy. And then, like one minute later, everyone started smoking. China was one of the last to ban smoking. And they still had the tobacco. They were putting it into the armrests of the chair, you know. Back then, they were... So we took off and it was like... We went into the clouds. And inside the airplane, it was a cloud. It was like we were going straight through the clouds. Like literally, I could hardly see. And my eyes really hurt when I got off of the plane.

00:19:11 John Daub: But for me, it was like... I don't know. It wasn't a long flight, but it was freaky. Like I don't think in my... And I grew up in the 1980s. I don't remember smoking really being big on an airplane. Only in China. So when you compare the two countries, Japan is so different. I kind of... It was pretty gross to have all that smoking. But you know what? I thought it was a pretty unique experience. It's a pretty funny story. I didn't complain too much. I did at the time. But afterwards, it's kind of funny though, right?

00:19:45 John Daub: Hey! Actually, wait a second. Hey, come back here. Can I interview you? You have golden wings. Is that your natural color? Or did you do that for Golden Week? Hey! You know what? I wanted to interview you and now you're just walking away. Your friends didn't walk away like that. I don't want to talk to you. You're not even gold. If you come up here, I'll talk to you. You can interview. Here, you got to come up here though. Really? No? No interview. If he comes back, I'll let you know.

00:20:29 John Daub: So there you have it. Japanese travelers are very impressive. The way they line up. The way that you get where you're going. And there's not a lot of stress. There's a little bit of stress. But you have to wait. Alright? Golden Week is a time of waiting. This is a time where I would line up and wait forever. And eventually get to your destination. But you know what you're in for because there's a line. It's not chaos. To me, that's really an amazing part of traveling in Japan. Just so relaxing and so orderly. And it's so predictable. Right? Especially the Shinkansen. It's so predictable. Airline traffic also. The passengers during Golden Week for airlines. It's also very, very crowded. But it's very, very orderly. And just works. Because everybody understands the situation. It just works really well.

00:21:25 John Daub: Let's walk back over towards the entrance here. So I'm taking you around Tokyo Station a little bit so you get an idea of what Golden Week is like in 2021. It's different than all the other years. I got a couple more things to say. Of course I do. So I was talking a little bit about this week. Now we all know this in Japan is the week where we get off from work. And we get to travel around. Oh, check it out. There's Naomi Osaka. She's a Louis Vuitton girl. Do you see it? She looks pretty good in that. I figured she wouldn't be wearing something boring like the model on the left side. It's pretty colorful. I like it. I like the hair. Very serious look.

00:22:34 John Daub: We're going to go this direction here. I got a couple more things to say. So in 2000, I was looking back at my ticket prices for this episode. How much did I pay for a plane ticket? This is also the most expensive time, as I was saying. And I was going to Bangkok during Golden Week time before the year 2000. The plane ticket was 110,000 yen or over $1,000 for a round-trip ticket to Bangkok. Now, if I'd taken that ticket a week earlier or a week later, it would have been 38,000 yen or about $350. Okay. So the prices go up 300% during Golden Week. That's not even the worst part of it.

00:23:24 John Daub: Anybody here that's coming to Japan. If you are thinking of traveling during Golden Week, not during a pandemic, you must make a reservation three months or more in advance. There's nobody around here. Three months or more in advance. Seriously. I made my reservation for Bangkok in January four and a half months before. One, because I was working a job at an English school. That was the only time I had off to go. I had no other choice. Two, there weren't a lot of choices for airlines either because a lot of the good ones were taken. I had to fly China Airlines, which goes through Taiwan, not through China. It's a stop in Taipei. It was actually cool. I spent a night in Taipei and had a pretty good time.

00:24:39 John Daub: But people pay it because that's the only time that they have off. It's pretty crazy. So if you are coming to travel here during Golden Week, you must make reservations for three months in advance. But if you know for sure, book it as far as possible. Six months is fine. Six months is safe. Book it. Seriously, book it. You won't be sorry. And if you cancel it, pay a little bit of a fee. But if you don't, you won't have a choice. You'll have nowhere to stay. Forget 90 days. I would say 120. Four months? Yeah. As far in advance as possible. If you can book for the next year, do it. I'm talking about popular places too. Ginzan Onsen in Yamagata Prefecture. We booked that three months in advance. And we were only able to get that because of a cancellation. She said that usually they book six to nine months in advance there. And you can't book online because it's always booked. So you have to call. It's crazy.

00:26:38 John Daub: The last thing I want to talk about here is, so we have the Showa Day, Greenery Day, Constitution Day, and Children's Day. Greenery Day is the last thing I want to talk about because this is the weirdest holiday of them all. It's like shrubbery day, greenery day. I remember when they said, why do we have a holiday? And they said, oh, today's green. Happy Greenery Day. Nobody says that. They should. This is a time where we celebrate nature. We celebrate green stuff, right? And even at Tokyo Station, we have some nature here. Are you going to have to hide behind so we get the wind? Let's hide by nature. Look at that. Look at that pigeon. He's building a nest. Or is he trying to eat that piece of straw? Or is he looking for a Starbucks frappuccino to put that in? I don't know, but he's turning on the other pigeon. Triggered. All right, dive down here.

00:27:41 John Daub: Greenery Day is also a slightly controversial day. This goes back to the Emperor Showa as well. And it was moved to May 4th from April 29th. So after the Showa period ended, the Heisei period, we all knew that Emperor Showa was very controversial. They wanted to move on from that. So instead of calling it Showa Day, they called it Greenery Day because Emperor Showa really loved gardening. That holiday was moved in 2006 to May 4th. And it's a public holiday. And I don't know what you do on this holiday. But I think it's a great day to have a barbecue or to go out into nature. A lot of people go. So I think the Emperor's tomb is in Hachioji in Tokyo. And a lot of people go there to pay their respects to the Emperor.

00:28:40 John Daub: World War II was a very bad time in Japanese history. I don't think nothing good was happening in the 1930s and 40s. And from 1947, the Constitution came. And Japan, which we like to do on Constitution Day. The one thing that older Japanese people do tell me is that this is the day that they remember that they're a pacifist nation. Oh, you can hear the Shinkansen. Listen. Shinkansen's departing. Yeah, the older generation that was alive during World War II when I first came here, I do remember that they did mention that they're very proud of the Constitution because it's a pacifist Constitution. Meaning like we got all this freedom. And this marked a huge change in Japan.

00:29:33 John Daub: So I don't think the younger people quite get it. But for the older generation, our grandparents or great grandparents for some of you watching because I'm older than you just slightly. The Constitution Day is a big deal to remember where Japan came from. Japan's Constitution. And I think it's a good time to remember the freedoms that we do have in Japan. Yeah. It's true that the criminal system here is harsh. And I would not want to do anything bad ever to be involved in it. Other than that, it's pretty cool here. I mean, I can drink a beer outside and walk around town. Europeans might be going, yeah, yeah, I could do that in Germany. But it's actually true here in Japan where people do that, you know. Can you do that in Germany? I don't know. Just remember that they had beer at McDonald's, which is pretty cool.

00:30:26 John Daub: So Constitution Day is a day where I'll probably drink a beer outside because I can. That's a really good way to celebrate Constitution Day. Go outside and drink a beer because I can. That's about it, folks. That's all that I have. I hope that you can use this knowledge towards Jeopardy or any quiz show that might win you some money. It's very useful.

00:30:53 John Daub: Donation to the We Missed You livestream John Fund. Hey, thank you. Thank you. That reminds me of my friend at university. I guess I can tell this story. Oh, look, love. Love is in the air. Love is in the air. Love is everywhere. Do it again. Love is in the air. Oh, did you see that? Love is in my mouth. In your mouth. Whoa. I guess they're thinking about it. Now they're on the move. Somebody came. You ruined the moment. Love is everywhere. Hey, that was you. Did you come back for the interview? Oh, my gosh. He remembered me. This is where we end. We're just ending the livestream now. And he came back. That's the golden. That's golden boy. Tyler. That's you in pigeon form. I don't think she wants it, dude. I could stay here all day and just hang out with the pigeons are so interesting. Where are they all going? Oh, pigeon feathers. My mascot.

00:32:20 John Daub: That's about all that I have. I will tell you this one story. Reminds me, though, of a friend that I made when I was in university. Ohio State. I was one of my majors. I have a degree in English literature and a degree in economics. And I remember getting off of English class and I went to Long's Bookstore, which is where you would go and buy your books. And there is a homeless guy and he quoted a poem to me. And it always stuck with me, said out of the jungle and into the light. Give me a dollar for pizza slice. And so I gave him a dollar and I gave him a lot of dollars over the years because it's just funny. And he was kind of fun to talk to. That's when pizza only cost a dollar for slice, too, which is pretty interesting.

00:33:25 John Daub: But I told him, I said, you know, slice and light don't rhyme. So it's not, you know, it's not much of a poem. It's like into the light for pizza slice. I said, you know, you should maybe come up with something more expensive than pizza slice. Maybe ten dollars might be better. So we had a conversation about it, poetry and stuff. That was a lot of fun. And I had a great appreciation for poetry after that. But I also made a new friend. So that was pretty cool. So take care of the people. If you see somebody who's in need, please help them out because this is a tough time for a lot of people around the world. I just share that with you.

00:34:06 John Daub: I did go back to Ohio State a long time ago, but I found that I could not find him. So I guess he made enough money to buy a house or something. I don't know. He's good at quoting poetry. All right, everybody. Have a good day. Have a good night. If you have any questions, leave them down below. Oh, by the way, I will be on Discord if you want to talk about it. I'm going to be on Discord in about 30 minutes and we can talk on there. It's discord.gg/onlyinjapan. And I'll be in there taking phone calls for a little bit when I get back home. It's going to be a lot of fun to talk about Golden Week holiday or whatever you want to talk about. See you there really soon, everybody. Thanks so much for the support. See you tomorrow. Probably people are on the move. It's Golden Week. It's Golden Week on the move.