00:02 John Daub: Alright, so we have arrived at Mt. Takao. Oh, it's on the way to Tokyo already. Wow! We have arrived in the countryside. Good morning, everybody. I left at 4:39 in the morning. I'm still asleep. It's now 5:45 in the morning and I have about 20 minutes to get to the train that's going to take me to the mountain base.

01:01 John Daub: Mt. Takao is considered Tokyo's mountain. It's 599 meters high. It's the most visited mountain in the world. That's what they say. And here is a tengu (long-nosed goblin). Wow, that's a long nose. I came on the Chuo Line from Tokyo Station, the 5:39—the first train that leaves Tokyo Station. I'm going to the top of Mt. Takao to see the Olympic rings, which are there until August 8th. I figured they're not going to be there much longer, and I want to figure out why they put the Olympic rings at the top of Mt. Takao. The only way to figure it out is to go there.

01:35 John Daub: A lot of you are going to take JR here and you're going to need to change trains to get to Takao-san-guchi Station (Mt. Takao base station). Watch this stream—we'll figure it out. I'm not lying about the time. I arrived here at 5:45. It takes about 75 minutes to reach the top of Mt. Takao. So it's not a major hike. You could catch a taxi—about a five- to ten-minute ride—but the train's pretty easy. It's a three-minute train ride from here to the mountain trailhead. Transfer to the Keio Line right here. It's pretty easy—all you have to do is go from the JR train and stay in the station to go straight into the Keio Line. The first Keio Line train to Takao-san-guchi is at 6:10. So I have about 20 minutes. Let's explore Takao Station for about 10 minutes.

04:10 John Daub: Good morning. This city of Takao looks like they got a lot of stuff here. At least there's a lot of things pointing in that direction. When in doubt, there are vending machines. Oh my gosh, I'm so tired. Look at this—they're just opening up the kiosk right now, getting the newspapers ready. That's really early. Let's try to find a coffee. If not, there are convenience stores at the Takao Station. Hang in there because I'm going to take you onto that train and we're going to arrive at Takao-san-guchi Station together. Then my mountain climbing begins. This is the JR station. There's some stuff here—McDonald's straight ahead, a Daiso. So if you need batteries or something before your hike, you could do that here. Just not at 5 in the morning.

05:43 John Daub: I couldn't sleep on the train. I was just kind of worried because this isn't the best time to be traveling. But time is against me, so I have to go and do it. Thankfully, there were only about three people on the entire train for most of the ride because nobody wakes up this early. There's a McDonald's—interesting. What, they don't have breakfast? It's a Hawaiian burger menu. Looks closed. I'm just going to skip it. Didn't want McDonald's anyway. I'll be tasting that all the way to the top. They just had coffee there. Oh, there's a Mos Burger! It's closed. Whoa, they got graffiti here. Now this is still Tokyo. The Chuo Line—this is the end of the line for the Chuo Line, or one of them. Don't think Takao Station is your terminus if you're going to climb the mountain. You need to change to the Keio Line, or you could take the Keio Line directly all the way there.

08:01 John Daub: The Keio Takao Station and JR Takao Station meet, and it's not very far. It's pretty much just right here—is the trailhead, the start to the hike. So I just gotta jump on this train. You can take a taxi, and you can see there's already a bunch of taxis on the other side—when I say bunch, I mean two. He's waiting for you. I thought about coming here at midnight and setting up my tent, then leaving at 4 a.m. for the hike. But I figured this is better—just wake up early. Follow these people to the Keio Line. Oh my gosh, I need a coffee. Here comes the Keio Line right now. Keio Line is also the Toei Shinjuku Line, which is cool. I used to live on the Toei Shinjuku Line, which means I could just take the train from my old home and not change at all. It would take me to Takao-san. No, I'm not a morning person at all—unless I finish editing in the morning, and that's when I go to sleep. When I hear the crows, I know it's time to go to sleep.

10:16 John Daub: That's my cue. Let's jump on this Keio Line to Takao-san. My eyes are so heavy. The JR and Keio Line vending machines are together. If you're using a Suica or Sugoca or Icoca or one of the other IC cards, not a problem. Here's the Yamanote Line in the center—the circle. The Chuo Line is this orange line that went straight out to here. That's where I am right now. It's kind of far—about $10 to get here by train. The air smells so much fresher here. It's nice to be out in the countryside. I don't have a lot of bags—a camera, a tripod. This is for a main channel episode. I'm going to try to get done before the train leaves, so I'm going to go to the closing ceremony. Afterwards, I'm going over to Odaiba and plan to meet up with Amanda again, who is an NBC6 Miami journalist. She's reporting for NBC affiliate in Miami, and she's going to tell me about her experience on camera for the main channel episode of coming into Japan and what it was like to be inside the venues during the Olympics. It's going to be interesting. I'm looking forward to interviewing her.

12:32 John Daub: They do have some kind of coffee. Oh, is it worth getting? This looks like hot coffee in cups. Interesting. They also have snacks—there's cake, some brownies, onigiri (rice balls), and more drinks. What time is it? Do we have time? All right, let's go upstairs—I can check the clock. We got about eight minutes. There's a 6:10 up here, so we have some time. Let's get a 6 a.m. coffee. Does it take Suica? It does. Oh, that's pretty gnarly—the G thing. Gnarly A and F professional—what does that mean? Cafe latte, cafe au lait, the blend. This is Guatemala, Colombia, Tanzania, and Brazil all together. You know what? I'm gonna go with the hot one—W rose double roasted. But I want it to feel really harsh. Okay, about 27 seconds—it's a countdown timer. This coffee's on second breakfast. How you guys doing?

15:15 John Daub: Let's get up to the noriba (platform). This is to Takao-san-guchi. I do have a little bit of water—I should probably get another bottle. We have six minutes. I promised if we can get to 500 likes, I will take you with me all the way to Takao-san-guchi Station. So click on that like button. You got to be careful which one—they have the same time, 6:10 and 6:10. This one says Takao-san-guchi, and this one says Shinjuku. If you go the wrong way, you go the wrong way. But here's the thing—this is the train I used to live on. I used to live on the Toei Shinjuku Line. This turns into the subway. Kind of getting a little nostalgic for home—the other home. Look beyond the trains. The train is in the way, so I have to board this train to see the outside. Wow, this is countryside, man. Beautiful.

17:13 John Daub: I am wearing a Tokyo 2020 shirt for this climb. Look, folks—this is my Olympics. I get to climb a mountain. This is my Olympics today. And here's the deal—I expect to be home for lunch. That's not bad coffee. Now, if they put the Olympic rings on the top of Mt. Fuji, then maybe I would have gone to visit Mt. Fuji. But the Olympic rings are on the top of Mt. Takao. Mt. Takao has more visitors than Mt. Fuji does—three million plus, I believe, which is incredible. It is the most climbed mountain in the world. If you didn't catch it when I started this livestream, I'm pretty excited. It smells like the countryside here. Oh, these are country pigeons—very polite. Just like a lack of people. I'm digging this compared to Tokyo.

18:31 John Daub: The train ride from JR Takao Station to Takao-san-guchi Station is three minutes total. I want to make sure we're going in the right direction because we want to sit in the front, which I think is this way. Yeah, it's this way. So let me get my mask on—there's some people. Sit in the front car because you get the best view from the front car. Oh no, there's a tunnel—that means I can't take you the whole way. The tunnel is going to cut off the signal. But people are stretching—this is a serious mountain. They have mountain hiking wear. I just have shorts and old shoes. Takao-san is a climb that even kids can do. I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it—my knees hurt.

20:32 John Daub: If I separate myself from the people, should be okay. Here's the train back to Shinjuku. This train should be here any moment—it's going in this direction. So if we sit in the front, we might get a chance to see Takao-san. Now that we're going to lose me in the tunnel, but I will take you all the way there because number one, I love you guys, and number two, you clicked the like button, right? There's a cemetery right in front of me as well. Wow, I smell like trees and air. I haven't left Tokyo in ages—even though this is Tokyo. I'm not supposed to leave the prefecture in a state of emergency, so I didn't leave the prefecture. I also came very early in the morning to reduce any risk of getting sick, which makes sense. If this is the most climbed mountain in the world, people are going to be starting to climb around 7 a.m. So if I start before 6:30, I should be good. And when I get to the Olympic rings, I want to film it without a crowd.

21:52 John Daub: Hey, that pagoda is under construction. Humidity is like nil right now—that's another reason to leave the city. The humidity in the city is so bad—it was like 70-80%. Now it's down to like 15% or something. It doesn't feel that humid—nice and cool. Apparently the train is coming—here it comes. You want to sit in the front. The guy's still stretching—should I be doing that? Oh, this train is arriving. So this is a straight ride for those riding it all the way. I had to change because I took JR. Just keep in mind you're going to lose me for a couple of seconds. It takes three minutes to get to Takao-san-guchi Station, and you're with me to the end of the tunnel. Starting to wake up a little bit—left at 4:39 train from Tokyo Station here. All right, here we go. Let's see how long you're going to see me. The signal will come back on the other side.

24:42 John Daub: I'm on the other side, but the signal might have gone too. Thank you for the convenience store money—I'm going to put that to good use and get an onigiri or two before I start the climb. Wow, I don't know how pixelated this is, but it's really beautiful—this single line wrapping around a mountain. If you like the view, click that thumbs up. Another tunnel—it's a small one. And we're here. This is the entrance to Mt. Takao, which is 599 meters high. Don't worry, there's a cable car, but it doesn't open until 9 a.m. So I'm going to have to hike it, but I might cable car it back. I just have to be back around 12 o'clock, which is cool. This is like a half-day trip. It's short and sweet. Let's see if we can find a convenience store real quickly, and then I'll start my hike.

26:24 John Daub: Get your Suica or Sugoca card—this one's from Fukuoka, I believe. Wow, the sun hasn't come up over that side of the mountain yet. We're deep countryside. Oh man, I love the smell. It's Hinoki wood (Japanese cypress)—like the Japanese wood smell. And maybe it's coming from this onsen (hot spring). It's the Keio Takao-san Onsen. So I can soak in a bath on my way back home. This is awesome. I've been smelling my own mask for an hour. It smells like Hinoki Japanese cedar—such a pleasant, very aromatic smell. The trains going back to Shinjuku are pretty regular. So I can go back by the Keio Line or JR Line. But because of the early time I left, I had to take JR because it's the only train that leaves at 4:39 in the morning. This is a nice station—made of wood. Even the sign is made of wood. It says this is the way to Takao-san-guchi, the entrance.

29:00 John Daub: Again, the most touristy, most climbed mountain in Japan and maybe the world—I believe the world. They have really renovated the station since the last time I was here. There's nothing open though. There's a couple of really nice museums as well. Not a lot of people up at this time. No, they do not have a Starbucks. There's a konbini (convenience store) 500 meters to the right. I'm going to the right of the station—that's where the trail starts. I'm going to cut it off here because I'm making this as an edited video episode. I'll try to get this up by the time the closing ceremonies are going. I haven't uploaded anything on the main channel for a very long time. So this is exciting, and I'm going to get back to the schedule of two a month. Have some water—may need to stay hydrated if you're going hiking. I absolutely will. Let's go do that right now—get water for the hike.

30:57 John Daub: See, I'm using change, so it makes my hike one gram lighter. They even got little teeny bottles of water—why? This is half the size and 10 yen per 100ml or something. I'm going to get a little more for double the size. People are a lot better dressed than me for hiking. I do not play the part. I intend to get my shots and get out. If Kanae and Leo are not here, it's not the same. I'm not here because I want to be here—I'm here because I have to be. Although the more I see the mountain, the less I'll want to leave because it looks like a lot of work. I'm just kidding—I'm just out of shape. What can I say? I have to hike up to the top, which is 599 meters high. That's where the Olympic rings are. I'll put a picture on the Instagram page and maybe Twitter as well. If you're following Only in Japan TV on Twitter and Instagram, you'll be able to see the rest.

32:32 John Daub: Trail 1 is 3.8 kilometers—takes 90 minutes for me. I walk fast. Trail 6 is 90 minutes. Trail 1 or Trail 6? Everyone says take Trail 1—you can't go wrong. It's purple—I like that. Thanks so much for watching. Takao-san—maybe one day I'll livestream the whole thing. But for now, I want to focus on the main channel episode. Now you understand if you go to Takao-san by JR train, you gotta change to the Keio Line. You can use this video as an asset—change your life, save you from pain and hardship. If you want to discuss this, go to the Discord server. I'm glad I didn't come here to camp—it doesn't look like there's a lot of nice places to pitch a tent. There's a trick museum—that looks pretty cool. The whole reason of coming in the morning is to beat the crowd—which means I gotta beat that guy.

34:21 John Daub: Is this Trail 1? Trail 6. Okay, I'm winning right now—just keep straight. I didn't bring any bells—Japanese hikers like bells. I'm getting winded already. I don't know if I can do this. I haven't left the house really—just riding my bike around. Oh, this is the trick museum—wrong way though. Thank goodness for that coffee. Here's the cable car—and I might be coming down by cable car, but I'm definitely not going up by it. Let's pick the right trail. Here's the trailhead—it's massive. Trail 1 is this way, Trail 6 the other way. They got soba shops here—you can watch them making it in the window. I remember it was pretty good. Nothing's open, but they do have shops up there and public restrooms. Again, this is the most climbed mountain in the world.

37:38 John Daub: I'm going to psych myself up—I can do this. Looks steep. Psyched up—I'm going to go. I think that's more work than the actual climbing. There's the cable car—I'm coming down by that if I finish my shoot by 9 a.m. Look at the trail—it's like paved, so it's pretty easy for kids. There's people who run up to the top—they stay in shape. Click the like button—I'll see you on the other side. Maybe I'll livestream on the way back, the train going back to Tokyo. Until then, I'm going to get all sweaty now. See you later—going to go see the Olympic rings on the top. Those guys are beating me.