00:00 John Daub: Balance. Hello everybody, welcome to Tokyo. This is another travel update for the end of June 2021. I've been doing this since last year, January, when this pandemic hit. And I've been asked a lot of questions. When will travel return? When can I come back to Japan? When can I do all of these things? What's happening with the Olympics? What's going on with the vaccinations? What's going on with travel? And that's what I do. And this pandemic has caused me not to be able to do all the stuff that I wanted to do. And that stinks. But it's not going to be here forever. And I hope that these updates give you some hope that you will be here soon to hang it out.

00:38 John Daub: So I've taken some notes here. I've got a lot of things to go through in this. A lot of things have changed over the last 28 days or so, about a month since I last did a travel update. June, things are really starting to move fast because the Olympics are here in just—how many days?—25 days away. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The 2021 Olympics is going to be starting. That's pretty exciting.

01:04 John Daub: There's an election that's taking place here in Tokyo. So while we're doing this live stream, you're probably going to hear loudspeakers. There's construction. There's a lot of stuff that's happening for the Olympics coming up. So let's get through this. How are you doing? And anytime you can leave me a question in the live chat, I'll try to find it. But wait for a prompt when I'm looking for it directly. Construction already started. It's crazy. It's been loud.

01:31 John Daub: Brandania is here. How you doing? Aloha. How are you right now? And your son, always take care from Ian's king. We're doing good. I'll get to that in a second. I'll end with how the family is doing and everything as we work through the construction in the background. Let's just say it makes it a lot more exciting when there's a jackhammer not too far away. No, it doesn't.

02:00 John Daub: WRX Turbo is in the house. Thank you. I don't think it's going to be the same kind of travel as 2019. And I've said this before. I'm just going to reiterate again. When travel does restart to Japan, it's not going to be the same type of travel as we had before the pandemic. There's going to be restrictions involved. And the first people who come to visit will be rewarded with empty streets. It's oddly quiet in the tourist spots, because even domestic tourism is really low. So you have the streets all to yourself.

03:01 John Daub: So those that do come when tourism opens up and are able to get an entry visa, you're going to be rewarded with some pretty amazing shots of Tokyo or Kyoto or wherever you decide to go. A lot of the hotels are vacant. They're just waiting for tourism to return. So it looks like October is it. But there are a lot of things that can get in the way of that. Most notably, the—the Delta strain of this is something that we're watching very closely here in Japan right now. There were 68 reported cases of it in Japan. That doesn't seem like a lot. But experts are predicting that by the time the Olympic Games are taking place, this will become the dominant strain in Japan, which a lot of people getting the vaccines are coming down sick with.

03:59 John Daub: They don't need hospitalization, but it is very worrying right now. And this is something if it becomes so dominant that can affect the timeline for travel back to Japan or worldwide travel in general. It's the people that I talked to in the tourism industry. They're the most worried about that. And you know, the different types of strains and mutations. Despite the fact that you're vaccinated, it's something that you can transmit to other people.

04:25 John Daub: For example, the Olympic team from Uganda came to Japan. I don't know if anyone has been following the news. I think there were only eight people in their group, but two of them came down with COVID and they had already been vaccinated. And that I think the AstraZeneca vaccine and that has created a lot of questions about the safety and everything else of these games. Despite the fact that they were vaccinated, they still got sick, but they don't need to quarantine as long, meaning like they get over a lot faster. So I believe they can start to train again. And it was in the first few days of July. They can get back to training, but now they're in quarantine. But they were traveling around their host town for a while with this, and it wasn't caught at the airport. Another reason why tourism might not restart in October. There's still a lot of questions having to do with the new mutated strains. And within between now and then, another mutation can happen. We just don't know.

05:26 John Daub: So when people are asking me—and this is the most asked question to me—when can I come back to Japan? The answer is still like I cannot definitively say and nobody can because it is dependent on the situation at the time. This Delta, which Japanese is still calling it the Indian strain. WHO calls it the Delta strain. So I think Japan will get around to calling it the Delta strain. But this is something that has absolutely impacted the timeline. And we're going to see what happens over the course of the next few weeks.

06:03 John Daub: In fact, now experts say that the Delta will become the predominant strain during the Olympics. This is kind of scary considering there are only 68 infections and how quickly this is going to be spreading. The state of emergency—I wanted to kind of talk about this before we get back into it. Shout out to Matthew Norris. Thanks for joining us here. And Shane, we will get a chance to pot here in Tokyo one of these days. My friend can't wait to see you come in here. Or maybe can I and I will even come and visit you up there in the cold north of Canada. Looking forward to it.

06:39 John Daub: The state of emergency ended—it wasn't renewed on the 20th of June. Which raised some eyebrows because we knew that this new variation was already in Japan. So basically there are special restrictions, but it's not as strict as the state of emergency. The state of emergency—it was not a lockdown, but it had a significant impact on declining the numbers. This is all very relevant to travel and when you can come back to Japan. Japan has seen four waves of this. We are down at we're now at the bottom of the fourth wave. And over the course of the last week, we've seen a tick back up. This is very concerning.

07:18 John Daub: And it looks like because it had been declining since then, it's just now that we're seeing upticks, we could be in a pretty tough situation when the Olympics happen. And it's not impossible that we have to go through another state of emergency before the Olympics. Let's just say that the next three weeks are going to be pretty eventful. I don't want to say exciting because that can be misconstrued as a positive thing. It's going to be eventful, dramatic. But I don't think that the games are going to be cancelled.

07:53 John Daub: Gosh, somebody asked me, do you feel for it or are you for the games or against the games at this stage? I'm neither for or against it. I'm really exhausted is what I am. I'm not for it. I'm not against it. I'm exhausted. The mission according to Kyoto News of the Japan Olympic Committee, the JOC is not so much for the national team to win gold medals, but to ensure the safety of the event. So I think when you know, and this is what makes it difficult because I keep getting asked this question, am I for the Olympics or against it?

08:31 John Daub: You know who's asking me? Japanese friends are asking me. And I respond to them that I'm neither. But look, I just—for me can't understand why these couldn't be delayed for another three months and we could be at better vaccination rates where we could even maybe have the stadiums more full and feel like it are the Olympic Games. It just feels like we rushed this and I know that we have to get this done and we need to move past the Olympics to—I don't want—this is my conundrum for me. I don't want to postpone the Olympics and have this looming for another year or another six months. I actually just want to get this thing out of the picture so that Japan can heal as a country. It's this big thorn that's in the countryside right now that we just need to get out like constipation that's been here for a year because of it.

09:27 John Daub: You know the rollout—this is so many things have been suspended because I don't know there's been so much focus on the Olympic Games. If we can get past it, I think Japan is going to be a great place to be. Japan can start to regroup and tourism—it's better for tourism if the Olympic Games take place now, I feel because look, I don't—I think we need to move on from this, right? Does anybody else agree? You can leave me a comment if you agree or not in the live chat. This is the live stream. I do appreciate the feedback. That's how I feel. So I'm not forward or against it. I just want to get it out of the way.

10:03 John Daub: Am I excited? Yeah, I got messages from viewers on Patreon that told me they've been watching the track and field events—some of the qualifying events for the Olympics. It's gotten us a little bit excited and what I said many months ago when the Olympics start to get close, people are going to get excited again and I feel that a little bit and I don't know what I'm going to feel like by the start of the Olympic Games. Probably excited but it's just a shame that I'm not excited now or haven't been excited all year about this so much.

10:39 John Daub: I really love the live stream live chat that's going on right now. If you're watching this in playback, check it out. You're hearing the opinions of people right now. It's really amazing and I appreciate it. We have one of the best communities on the internet. So everybody's keeping it pretty clean and understanding non-political and all that. All right. I want to get back to this because for me travel is what this is all about. And the reason why I talk about the Olympics and vaccination is because it is linked to it. Japan—it seems very likely we'll have vaccination passports coming out.

11:17 John Daub: Dave in Osaka, stay safe in Tokyo, John. You got it, Dave. Thank you so much. And I'll tell you about my own vaccinations in about five minutes from now as well as how the family is doing. Maybe 10. There's a lot to talk about. Japan is considering—actually I believe it's going to happen—vaccination passports where we have a document from the government saying a paper document saying that we have had our vaccinations, which will make sure that we can travel abroad. I don't know if that will mean that you can come to Japan. So Japan is opening it up for us to travel. But I'm not sure what they're doing to make travel to Japan easier. So to me, there's just a little bit of confusion.

12:13 John Daub: Like, will your country have vaccination passports? Is this an international thing? Should the WHO make vaccination passports and get involved with this? Should there be one app or should there be many apps? Should there be a global association that consolidates all of this in a database? I don't really know. All I know is that Japan is right now making their own passports because this is what they can do right now. And perhaps that data is shared with other agencies to make an international database. I'm not sure. But a lot of the airlines are also thinking about it, too. Will this be a requirement for you to come to Japan? I think what's going to happen if we hit herd immunity in October, which is what the data shows, by then we'll be okay and be able to reopen.

13:04 John Daub: But there are going to be people who have not been vaccinated that don't want to get vaccinated but still want to travel to Japan. What happens in this case? It might be that those who aren't vaccinated have to do 14-day quarantine or have to do a longer quarantine. Or we're not even sure if you'll even be able to be admitted in. Right now, the best course to do is to, if you want to travel, is to get vaccinated. If you don't, then I can't really see how that works.

13:28 John Daub: But the 14-day quarantine at a government-run facility is what some people that are coming back to Japan are doing. The buses are covered in plastic. It's pretty surreal. Some of the YouTubers that had to do it have already posted videos on it. It's pretty surreal. And you have to stay there for a set amount of time. There's an app that actually will track you, and they call and confirm that you are still there. And if you don't pick up your phone, which is tracking you, then you will get fined and get in some big trouble.

14:12 John Daub: So you can't leave your phone behind and the app says you're there. They will call you to confirm that you're actually there, which is crazy and pretty thorough. Considering the fact that people have jumped out the window down the fire escape to get out and then try to get back—you've got the phone call and stuff, you're getting caught. I don't know. The safest course would be to get vaccinated, but I'm not going to tell anybody what to do. This is something that you have to make a decision on yourself. I'm going to get vaccinated. Those that don't, I have no opinion on it whatsoever. I just think this is probably best for our family because of what I do. It's easier for us. It's easier for me to continue to make content for YouTube if I'm vaccinated. And that's the course I will take.

15:07 John Daub: You have to talk about this sensitively because there are a lot of people that are that have feelings on both sides of this. And it's not worth getting into a battle about. It's not a political issue to me. I'm fully vaccinated. Hoping a vaccine passport becomes a thing. Right. And Tony P.—my thing, Tony, is that your packages get to Minnesota, my friend. So including your postcards. Maybe the postcards need a passport. I don't know.

15:28 John Daub: Will Japan require the type of vaccine administered to tourists enter just like the Saudi? They prefer Moderna or Pfizer. Joy, I'm not really sure. I don't think that there's going to be—I'll tell you this. What I've heard on the vaccine is that they will put the vaccine that you were administered on the passport. That will be on the passport. So when you enter into Japan, I don't know how they're going to what they're going to do with that data, but it will be there. If you were administered the AstraZeneca, that will be on the passport. Some people don't want an mRNA vaccine or going for the Johnson and Johnson. That will be on your passport in Japan. But J&J has not been approved here for use. I think it's just Moderna and Pfizer. And maybe AstraZeneca has been recently approved. I haven't checked the news yet. No matter what, stay vigilant for you and the family. Happy 100 days for your son, Jeff. Jeff, you beat me to the punch. I want to talk to you—talk about this at the end. Jennifer French, thanks for the vaccination updates in Japan. You're very welcome.

16:26 John Daub: Jennifer, that's a good segue for this here. So Japan has administered 41 million as of today—41 million first doses of the vaccine and 13 million are fully vaccinated. That's 10 percent of the population. Maybe 11 percent now are fully vaccinated. That's a drop in the bucket right now. That's not nearly enough to make me feel comfortable about the Olympics starting. But where we were six weeks ago when I went to Yoyogi to the vaccination center and a few weeks ago when I went to Otemachi, where the Japan Self-Defense Force is administering at a mass vaccination site, we were not nearly at the numbers we are today. We are beyond one million per day being vaccinated in Japan. It is a dramatic swing from like a sluggish start. It's so bad, too—let's get the vaccines out. So 41 million people have had one dose. That's a third of the population. Most of those people are over the age of 65 because Japan is very over 65 heavy in the population. Younger people make a minority here. So that's a good thing. But the high risk people now are between 20 and 45. I guess I'm in that, too. So I think it's we really need to vaccinate those people in the high risk areas ASAP.

17:46 John Daub: So 10 percent of the population fully vaccinated in Japan compared to the United States at 46.6 percent, which is with an India, which is just 4 percent. So if we're looking at the spectrum, India needs to become more fully vaccinated—four percent of over a billion people. That's quite low. And the United States at 46.6 percent is pretty good. Just to note, though, if this is a metal, the U.S. was not even winning, not even in the top five, I believe. The U.K. is near 50 percent. And Chile in South America and Israel are the only countries over 50 percent, according to Our World in Data. Chile is surprised to me. Chile is doing such an amazing job down there in South America. Fully vaccinated over 50. This number two right now behind Israel. That's pretty amazing.

18:45 John Daub: Yeah. So that's where we are in terms of the vaccine of in terms of the pandemic. There's about 800,000 people who've been infected and 15,000 approximately 15,000 deaths. Super low. If you compare it to other industrialized nations, we have about roughly more a little bit more than less than half more than half of the less than half of the population of the U.S.—about 126 million people in Japan, but only 15,000 COVID deaths. So that's still a lot. So it's still relatively low. But I don't I don't know anybody here who still wants to take any chances at all. We definitely want to get that get back as soon as possible, which is very much related to domestic travel and international travel.

19:29 John Daub: Now I'm going to pivot now to some news in the Olympics. I see I see Yaya Wang here with the Israeli flag. They're doing pretty good over there. I get one of my best friends here is from Israel. And he was telling me—he said, look, he's home. His whole family is vaccinated. Everybody that he knows, all his friends are vaccinated. It's like Israel—it's like opening up. But they do have worries over the new strain. But it's they're doing pretty darn good over there. He hasn't been vaccinated here in Japan. He's the only one in his family that has it because Japan is kind of a little bit sluggish with it. And I'm going to get to get through my own situation in about one or two minutes.

20:08 John Daub: I just want to go over some of the news because, as I said, the Olympics is the thorn in the side of tourism here. This is what I believe. I believe we just need to get past this Olympics. I think it's going to be fun. I'm not for it or against it right now. I just think we need to get past it. And seeing how they run the Olympics is a good indicator, a good indication of what perhaps they're going to be doing when tourism does start up again.

20:36 John Daub: And I'm seeing like they have they have here—this bothers me a little bit. They have different tiers for nationalities of athletes coming into Japan right now. This comes from the news from the Nikkei, which is a very reputable news agency. 12:16 PM. The Indian Olympic Association sent a letter to Tokyo organizing committee complaining stricter current of COVID restrictions against Indian athletes and those from other countries aimed at stemming the spread of the new variants is unfair and discriminatory. Discriminatory. According to local media, this—this is a very reputable source—the Indian Olympic body says that given Indian athletes have been fully vaccinated and will take PCR tests every day for a week ahead of their departure for Tokyo, being barred for interacting with anyone from other countries for three days upon arrival is highly unfair. And it's hard not to agree with them, right? I mean, they're fully vaccinated. They're having PCR tests a week before they go. And they have when upon arrival, because they're from India, they have a special procedure. Is it discriminatory? In a way, I kind of think it is. But I'm not the one making the decisions or a scientist or know the risks. I'm sure they're assessing the risks. This might be overturned because of this letter. But as somebody who's half Indian and somebody who hopes to see more Indian gold medals in the future, it can happen. I don't like—I'm not really happy about this. And I don't think anybody who—and Indonesia is in here as well. And we have a lot of Indonesian fans, so viewers. So it's not—I don't know if it's fair or not. You can sound off on this. But they have a special procedures for certain nationalities for athletes. Don't think it should happen for tourism. It looks like that's going to be something that they initiate. I bring it up because it's probably tangent to the country opening up in October, November. So that is sort of a big deal.

23:05 John Daub: The emperor also showed hesitation with the Olympics and showed some concern—is the best word for it. And when the emperor speaks, we all listen here. He's super respected and he's somebody who's on no side. I feel he just speaks for everybody. And I think that's the most important thing. And that always makes a lot of sense. The emperor—a lot of respect for and showed concern. And that worried a lot of the politicians because that's not helpful. But that's why I respect—why I have a huge amount of respect for the emperor. It's not about being helpful to the political process or something, but about having the pulse of how the nation feels. Japan on the whole does not want this to happen. Japan is—even I'm not for it or against it. And that's a big deal because I'm a huge Olympic fan.

24:00 John Daub: According to—and this comes from Nikkei as well—an opinion poll conducted by Nikkei finds 22% of respondents think it is reasonable to hold the Olympics with up to 10,000 spectators or 50% venue capacity. 22%. 33% said the game should be held behind closed doors. 37% answered the game should be canceled or postponed. That's more—4%. Only 4% supported holding the games with full spectators. 30% of when asked about this, 30% of the people said don't hold the Olympics. And the other people said, okay, tone it down a little bit. That's kind of a big deal. Imagine I can't imagine another country where the Olympics was so controversial being held as it is in this one.

24:48 John Daub: So on this channel, I'm going to be taking you to the Olympic venues. I will have had my first dose of vaccine. And if I can get it—my first shot tomorrow—I will have had both doses and be fully vaccinated and be able to take you on the venues without any worry or less worry. I'll still have a mask on, but I'll be able to take you around the venues and because it will take some time to get the immunity. But I'm very curious about the vibe of the people of Japan and the citizens of Japan about this Olympics while it takes place because it is so popular. Does the opinion of people here change if it does and people become excited and we don't know? I don't see infection spikes and we see that this has become a really safe Olympics. This will impact the way tourism continues into October and November. If it goes south the way that people are concerned about, then it's going to impact tourism in October and November. Do you see where I'm going with this? So the live streams that I do during the Olympic value will be taking the pulse of how Japan feels about tourism returning. This is a big litmus test in my opinion.

25:56 John Daub: I'm planning to hike with Kevin Riley. You are one lucky person if you do. The emperor is a figurehead like the Queen of England. Mostly so, yes. That's very much true. But just like the Queen of England, when they speak, people listen. In Japan, everybody listens—almost everybody. It's different. It's more powerful, I believe. From my own experience, living here for 23 years. I stand up, I listen. It's always very spot on and very balanced. I never felt like the emperor was taking a side. Which is incredible. As someone American where everybody takes a side, it seems.

26:56 John Daub: No alcohol will be served at the venues. A good thing. Organizers wanted to serve alcohol. It was quickly going—the WTF was spray painted on the wall of the Japan Olympic Committee. Why would you do that? And now it's safe. No alcohol.

27:18 John Daub: The governor of Tokyo has been hospitalized. Governor Koike is somebody that I thought has shown really good leadership. I can't think of anybody who could have done a better job than Governor Koike. She's been doing updates in English as well. Which is incredible. So you can go to the Tokyo website and you hear the governor herself of Tokyo doing it in English. To me, that's huge. For not just other travelers, but for expats living in Tokyo. If you want to hear the Governor Koike's updates in English, I can put a link in the description. Or one of our moderators can find the link and add it to you. But it's pretty incredible. I can't think of anybody on the Tokyo website to hear the Governor speaking English. She can also speak fluent Arabic. Which is pretty incredible. It also means she's probably more open-minded and has a better finger on the pulse of the world. Because she can absorb news in English as well as in Japanese.

28:18 John Daub: Alright. You know, I talked about the Olympics. I talked about the vaccinations here. Now I want to shift over to—how Kanae and I are doing. And maybe take some of your questions here. If there's time and there's still some interest.

28:36 John Daub: We're doing pretty good. Ryo celebrated his 100 days alive. He's actually a little bit beyond that. But we went to the shrine the day before yesterday. We dressed up in kimono. Which was a little bit expensive, but not as much as I thought it would be. Tom, thanks for joining as an insider. I appreciate that very much. Yeah. But it was a pretty cool cultural moment for us to be able to share that with the family. And it brought us all together. I didn't really understand what was going on. We went to a local shrine to be blessed by a Shinto priest. He gave a prayer towards the altar. And you could hear him chanting. And he mentioned Daub and Ryo and Kanae. And I could hear my name inside of his chant. That felt pretty cool. The recommended amount of donation for this blessing was 5,000 yen. I believe that's what we paid. I thought it was really good. And it made me feel good to have that blessing. It's always good to have a higher power on your side. I have no complaints at all. And when Ryo grows up, I want him to see the pictures of this and know that we really did try to straddle both American and Japanese cultures. I want him to grow up understanding both cultures. So this is a very significant thing. We're still under COVID protocol. So we had masks on. We took them off to take the pictures and all that. And it was quite hot the day before yesterday. But it was cool.

30:10 John Daub: The 100 Days Festival is really significant because it's his first meal. And although we didn't actually feed him the food, we kind of pretended to do it. There was a procedure that we had to follow. A pattern of the food we took. There was a fish, rice, some shrimp. There's like certain things. So we had to feed him like rice, fish, rice. I forget, like some sort of salad and rice and then fish and then fish and rice. I forget how it goes. But there's a way to do it. So we followed it to a T. And he didn't eat any of it. That fish looked pretty nasty. That fish looked evil in life and death. So he didn't eat any of it. So that fish is now sitting in a garbage bag down there. It just had to be. Salad is healthy. You know, I thought we should do at his 150th day an American rite, which is, you know, fake eat pizza. And I will eat that pizza. Pepperoni, of course. It's the American way. Extra pepperoni.

31:19 John Daub: Purple Cat Audio writes in here, thanks for the stream, John. These are always helpful and informative as always. Glad you and the family are well. We are doing awesome. Yeah. So that was really cool. And I like to dress up in the kimono. I don't know if I put some of the pictures on the Discord server. You might want to check that out. But, yeah, Kanae had a yellow kimono, which is very good for summer. I had a more traditional black kimono. Because I'm foreign, I'm already pretty colorful or different. So I just go with the traditional when it comes to Japanese kimono. That's how I pick my colors, black and white. And Rio had—I want to say thank you. I can't remember the name of the supporter. But we had a supporter during our wedding shower—not a wedding shower, baby shower on Amazon list bought us a kimono for Leo with little Mount Fuji's on it. It's super cute. And he wore that to his celebration. I want to say thank you. I forgot the name of the supporter who did that. But really appreciate it. All of the things that we were giving. We're still working on getting the thank you notes to everybody. Making up a postcard, I believe. And really appreciate it. That was cool. And that's over with. And, yeah, that was the highlight of the last week.

32:40 John Daub: I am slated to get the vaccine. I want to talk and pivot now to my own vaccination process here. I know that some other YouTubers have done that. Some of them have gotten vaccinated. Some of them were able to get the ticket and go to these self-defense force and get the vaccine there ahead of schedule. I live in Chuo ward. Our ward is a little bit slower than Sumida, which is not that far away—which got their tickets like almost a month ago. The vaccination tickets in Japan is this special ticket that has a number that allows you to make reservations to get it. Without the ticket, you can't make a reservation. I found a clinic that allows me to make a reservation without the ticket. But now I got an email from them and said if I don't have the ticket when I go there, I can't receive the vaccination. The tickets for Chuo Ku, which is where I live, was sent out yesterday. It's not that far away—it's down the street. So, in theory, it should arrive today. Which means tomorrow I can take that ticket and get my vaccination. However, I called the city office to confirm that they sent mine specifically. And they told me that the vaccination tickets will arrive between the 29th and the 30th—July 1st. And I said, so wait, there's a chance that my ticket might not arrive today? Even though it's down the street where you sent it? And he said yes. And I said, how could that be? And he didn't know. So, there's a chance that my vaccination ticket won't come here on time for me to go to get my vaccination. And then I will have to be vaccinated after that ticket arrives. And it seems like the waiting time is about three weeks. So, unless there's a cancellation, so it'll take me three weeks before I can be—maybe three weeks to a month. So, I'm really hoping I get that vaccination ticket. That's been my process. Unless you get that ticket—Kanae got hers because she has asthma, which is a special condition, to get vaccinated a little bit ahead of time.

35:04 John Daub: My group is between 40 and 59. Which is the second group to get the vaccinations after the 65 and above. Which had some groups of like 75 and over. Because actually, on the paper, there's actually a third, they said write your age—in most countries, there's two numbers. Like in Japan, there's three numbers because it goes up to 100. There's a lot of super centurarians and people over 110. So, yeah, there's a lot of people writing 100 as their birth date, as their age, which is crazy. Mine is not there yet. So, that's where I am right now. I might get vaccinated if I go check the mailbox and it arrives in the next few hours. If not, I'm SOL, which means I gotta wait another three weeks. Which stinks. I don't even know what they're gonna do with the vaccine—but I was reserved to get because I can't take it. Which is such a waste. But, as I said in a livestream not too long before, Japan listens, sticks to the rules. They don't deviate to the rules or make special exceptions, except in this case for Kanae who has asthma. So, you gotta stick to the rules. The rule is no voucher, no shot, despite having an appointment. And they took my appointment. Those are the rules. So, it's frustrating. But, I'm not angry. It's just the way it is. I learned a long time ago—

36:24 John Daub: This is probably the last thing before I take questions. I wanna leave you with this. When you come to Japan, don't ever get angry. There's nothing you really can do about it by getting angry. The best thing you can do is be understanding. Explain your situation. And sometimes by them feeling guilty, they'll make a special exception. But, they won't do it because you're feeling angry—ever. Anger is this emotion that automatically puts a wall up in Japan. So, on arrival, if the procedures are difficult or changed or something you don't like, don't get angry. Stay calm and try to reason with it. And maybe they'll find a different solution. Anger is the first emotion that puts a wall in front. That's my Mr. Miyagi, right? Alright, from here I'll take some questions.

37:21 John Daub: I don't know, Peter, if I will ever be a super centenarian. I don't know if I'll make it. I don't think I have what it takes. I like my pizza and doggie too much. Next Twitch stream—everything's actually set up for it. I explained to you a little while ago, we had someone in the family who was quite sick. And we're dealing with that. It comes in waves. And the last few days have been really tough. But I will definitely be getting back on Twitch. Definitely. There's no doubts about it. I've already seen some Twitch streamers that are out on backpacks doing stuff. Twitch is a platform that might even be more better suited than YouTube for live streaming. Because the YouTube app is still in the Stone Ages. But I'm not complaining. That was just kind of a complaint. Twitch is Only in Japan TV, I believe. Twitch.com slash Only in Japan TV. Thanks, Nightbot. Yeah.

38:25 John Daub: Michael Sassano, hi, John. Has Japan been preparing for the new variant being vaccinations are not ready for children under 12? I don't feel like—we're ready for this new variant. And that's a big problem. And I hope—my feeling is that there will be a state of emergency. The politicians have their advice. Okay? They can't win on this. If a spike happens because of the new variant, what do you do? Do you call a state of emergency during the Olympics? How can you not? If there is a spike like this as a result of a variant that is super contagious, how can you not call another state of emergency based on the state of emergency they've called in the past? I'm glad I'm not a politician right now. So I don't know what's going to happen. And I don't feel like we're prepared enough for it. I don't think we know what's going to happen. Australia is in a spike. Other countries are in a spike. Rob CD. And a big shout out to Rob CD who shouted out me. I got a chance to say hi to him. I believe he was in the middle of a stream and I was in the middle of getting back to my family. And yeah—I came home and started to watch his stream. And the quality of it is really, really good compared to my iPhone live stream. So I need to up the game here. I realize that. So I'm looking into ways to try to make the streams a lot better. And a big shout out to him. The quality of his streams are pretty darn good. And he's got a rig to do it. And that's pretty cool. That's really cool.

40:10 John Daub: I don't know if the different variants are more contagious or not. I just know that we're not really prepared for it. I don't know if it is. Okay. I really don't know for sure. We have 68 cases as of last Friday. In one day. I don't know what it is today on Tuesday. A couple more questions here. My family is in there. They're doing baby stuff. You really want to see that? Not now. They just fired healthcare workers at a major hospital in Texas who refused to be vaccinated. I saw that. I don't know. Frank. I can't understand why. Maybe a little bit. But in the face of a pandemic, it's tough not to get vaccinated. But look, if people don't want to do it, then each institution has to make determinations on what's best for them as an institution. And look, sometimes the job is not for everybody.

41:07 John Daub: Look, I was at an English school. This is the only way for me to reply to that. Because I did see the news. I was at an English school. I was at an English school where the teachers were at a job where they were being paid $15 for 40-minute lessons. That's not a lot, considering the school was charging $70 and then paying the teacher $15. So the school wanted to form a union. But I never joined that union. The reason why was, look, if you're not happy with the wage, then find another job. Or start a business and find the entrepreneur in yourself and compete with them. If your employer is getting $70 and you're getting $15, then you're getting $20. If you're getting $15 of that, there's probably a market for you to undersell them and charge $50 and you keep it all. So why don't you do that? Instead of fighting for a union for what? They're not going to be able to give up a lot anyways. So the same thing is, maybe that hospital was not the place for them to work. Find another one that is the place that's acceptable. You can't start your own hospital. But maybe there's another job that you can do, traveling nurses or something like that. I don't know. It's just sometimes it doesn't work out for everybody. I'm somebody who left the channel with 1.35 million subscribers that I created because of legal junk. I didn't like it. I'm better now. Those nurses are probably going to be happier too.

42:36 John Daub: Maybe Japan is trying to escape the zero-case trap where Australia and New Zealand are finding themselves in. Maybe. Maybe. I don't want to speculate because I don't know exactly what the trap is. I just know that New Zealand had zero infections for a long time. They were doing really good. I don't know how they're doing now. My bro works in that hospital in Texas. Brandon writes in. And Brandon is a long-time viewer, I believe. So thanks for sharing that. Yeah, I don't know. This is going to be an age where people are very comfortable—What's the trap? Writes in. Yeah, I'm not sure. New Zealand is still at zero. There's going to be an age now—I think over the next year where there's people who don't want to get vaccinated, people want to get vaccinated, and the comfort level is similar to the way the masks work. And look, if you're vaccinated, then you should be okay, right? I think that people should worry the most of those that are unvaccinated. They should take care of their health even more. And they should be doing that anyway. So we will see. But tolerance is the best way to go and never getting angry but just going the other way. In Japan, we avoid confrontation, and I'm more Japanese than I think I am.

43:57 John Daub: One last question if we try not to get on political stuff here. Why do you think that they might relax travel restrictions after the Olympics? Do you think they might relax travel restrictions after the Olympics? I believe that they will because they have no choice. Number one, they're thinking about the safety of this country. But if they were thinking about the safety of this country so much so, probably we would not be holding the Olympics at all. With that said, the fact that they have no choice. Do you think that they will have the Olympics taking place at all? Chan Manasilasen, have you considered doing a collab with Ladybeard? I'm a big fan of Ladybeard's too. So maybe. I could see that happening one day. Talk about original. Big fan of Ladybeard and what he's doing with his brand and just making it fun. It's cool.

44:58 John Daub: So. I could see where they kind of separate. But after the Olympics, the fact that they're making an exception for the Olympics and trying to hold it as safe as possible—doesn't that make you seem like they need tourism? So they're probably going to bring tourism back and make it as safe as possible. Doesn't it seem like that would make sense? Right? Japan needs tourism. People are hurting. I was just looking at JNTO. I love JNTO. Because they gave me a job. But I love JNTO. Check this out here. They already have a website here—COVID, the new normal travel in Japan. We hope to welcome you back soon. They have a website from this. All right. JNTO should be working more with Only in Japan. Can I? John Daub. Can I say that right now? We love JNTO. Because they've had resources on what's open and what's not open. Who can get visas? Who can't get visas? All this other stuff. They've been a bang up job, I guess I would say. Is that a UK term? Yeah. You can even look at it in your English level—whether it's UK English, Indian English, or American English. I watch it and I sometimes take global English. I can't see the difference.

46:23 John Daub: So it's like they're ready for travel, man. JNTO is like, dude, bring it. And I'm pretty excited too of travel returning. I need you to come back. I'm bored. I need you here. All of you. I want to see—I need a beat up ASAP. I need to get vaccinated and I need to go to Ameyoko and get some cheese dogs with you. Now. As soon as possible. All right. My crystal ball says October, November is possible. It just depends on the variants. Again, like things can change again. A new mutation can happen. So we will see. I just don't know. The Olympics could bring something in. We don't know. There's a lot of concern here. If you have a ticket to come in November, so much volcano. Yeah. That would. Yeah, that's been pretty huge too. And a shout out to UpRod in Japan for making a pretty cool music video out of that. Right? Look, it's very good for Japan. It's good for Japan. I'm in favor of it. Look—I can't definitively say when travel is going to be returning to return to Japan definitively.

47:50 John Daub: If you have a ticket to come to Japan in November, I highly recommend that you get travel insurance because it will cover your ticket. If there's some sort of cancellation, things can change so quickly in this world. In November, you could be in a flight. When you arrive here, the policies could have changed for the better or for the worse. So I highly recommend that before you travel, you get some sort of travel insurance. Highly recommended. It can be a Japan company before you travel. November seems—I don't see why you wouldn't. But a lot of things can happen between then and now. I do believe that even if you're vaccinated, what we're seeing with the Indian Olympics, I showed you the Indian Olympians. I showed you this. They still had to get a PCR test and they still have to do some quarantine. Despite that—despite being fully vaccinated. If this is might be something that tells you that tourism will travel will return in October and November, but there'll be special conditions to it. It won't be the same kind of tourism as you thought it would be. Okay.

48:57 John Daub: So my feeling is that April 2022 start to look a lot more normal. We don't even need—we don't even know if we need boost shots. So I don't know. This is what's the FSC? Is that even a word? Vaccines? I don't know. That's all related to travel. When you got it. Your vaccine is all related to travel. Joe S. Writes in here being vaccinated will probably be probably a new requirement in healthcare in Texas. I think so. And this sort of makes sense. But look, I can understand why some people might not want to. But if you don't want to, then you have to understand that there might be some things that go against you. And if you're really concerned about it, then that's cool. I just feel like for travel that might not be something that you can do. But I would—it's a shame that I would—I would not be able to give you a you found me card. I would hope that there'd be a way around that. So you think it will matter what vaccine you have in my country. We have Sputnik. It's too early to tell. But like for me—I don't think that there's any difference. You take what you can take. Okay. You get what you can get. Sputnik is—has I think it has a pretty good, pretty good rate of—you know, I think it's one dose, right? It's more of a traditional vaccine. I just know that the vaccine passports will have the vaccine that you received on it. And it's too early to tell whether or not the country that sees that vaccine that you arrive—I don't want to say the word discriminates. But isn't that kind of what it is? Well, we'll group you by what you receive. I don't know yet. I would hope not. It's my—if you've had the Sinovac one made in China or Sputnik or whatever you could get. Why should you be penalized for that? Because you got vaccinated. So I don't know. I don't know. Just never trust Sinovac. Never trust—but I—you can't say that because your iPhone was made in China. All right. You shouldn't be discriminatory or look down on a place based on that. You get what you can take. And if you are, if you do have it, the chance of you being hospitalized is a lot less. And that's important to me. It's just simple.

51:22 John Daub: I'm holding out until I know which Japan will will allow for travel to Japan. Thomas writes in here. There are a lot of people here in a poll that was taken in Japan—a significant amount of people are holding out for Japan made vaccine. That won't happen until 2022. They're holding out for a homemade vaccine because they don't trust things that were made abroad. There's people like that, too. It's a freak—it's a free—it's a society that has a was a Junin title was an expression. Ten, ten, ten people, ten colors. It means like different strokes for different folks. That's how we are as humans. So I don't know. I don't think anyone should be penalized because you took the vaccine that was available at the time because the CDC in the United States says take what's available. Whether it's Johnson and Johnson or whatever. That's what they said. So how could you be penalized for it? I don't think that that's right.

52:21 John Daub: I thought that your wallet, not your phone—that was your one. My phone. I like this cover here. So it's kind of cool. Texas protects the home screen. Suspy John, I'm just as positive as you are right here right now. Whenever you are, I'm completely understand with you—understand with you and your deepest concerns about all of this. Thank you, Justin. I am concerned. And I want you all to come here. So for me, I'll be less concerned if I'm vaccinated. I'll give you a big hug when you arrive. All right. That's all. I just want to say in the JNTO video I did, I slashed this with a samurai sword. A real samurai sword. I slashed this. So I'm looking forward to introducing to you the video that I made. So in the future. It's pretty cool.

53:15 John Daub: If you haven't already joined our Discord server, we're talking about this in the Olympics right now. And I'll be doing live streams daily as much as I possibly can from the venues around Japan. With that in mind, a lot of it will be on how does this impact travel in October and November. So I hope that you tune in for the live streams on Only in Japan Go. Just a little bit of information—I haven't produced any videos on the new channel because I've been taking care of the family. It's very hard to settle into editing, to focus on editing. When I've had a chance to, I've been able to go on live streams. Take trips. But I haven't had a chance to focus in on editing a video yet. So none has been done in June yet. A new video is coming in the next few days if I can just finish off—one that I produced up in Hokkaido last year. That was one that was in the tank. So I'm just trying to polish it off so I can get that up to you. I want to have one up in June if I can. So I apologize for not having a video up. But I want to communicate to you that more content is coming up on that channel. And a regular schedule is absolutely going to be happening. Twitch as well.

54:27 John Daub: Thanks so much for the patience and understanding as you deal with family health problems. I have tickets here for September. And should I get them canceled? I don't know. Two things that you should do. One, always confirm with the embassy that you can get the visa or you will have access to get the visa. Second, confirm with your airline before—as I said—as soon as you possibly can and often. What happens if this ticket is not allowed in? Make sure you perfectly understand with the airline ticket if you can get in or not. Make sure the hotels that you booked are fully refundable. We just don't know if September is going to be safe enough. I don't know. Because according to the data, if Japan didn't get to a certain level, they won't be able to get to herd immunity. And I don't see tourism resuming. I don't see people returning unless there's some sort of herd immunity within Japan. I think it will be more difficult. It's a wait and see game. I believe that they will because we have over a million getting vaccinated every day. And October will be over 100 days away. So it seems likely. Yeah, check with your airline. ANA has been moving my plane tickets since March 2020 and still allowing me to move dates without charge. So yeah, I'm really happy to hear that. Work with your airline on this. And also call the embassy if you're in a country that requires a visa. If the embassy doesn't respond, keep calling them. Keep sending them emails. Persistence is the key. Shawshank redemption that. I almost said a bad word there. But use Shawshank redemption that and get in there. All right. Any questions? Leave them in the comments below. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for the lives, for joining me in this and sharing with it. I do my best with these travel updates. If there's anything that I made a mistake on, write it in the comments below and we'll rectify that. I will pin the comment to the top because I want you to have the most up-to-date information as I possibly can. Talking about it also means we're very much in tune with it and that this helps you with planning your trip.

56:38 John Daub: Thank you so much. Hopefully I'll have a livestream tomorrow after getting vaccinated or another story saying what happened with it. See you next time. Have a good day. Have a good night, everybody. And thank you to Crimson Emperor for joining the travelers. I appreciate it very much. Stay safe, everybody.