00:00 John Daub: Greetings! This is another travel update. It is now November 30th, 2021. It is one day away from December and the holiday season, I guess for me, has already started because just the day before yesterday, we launched some amazing shakudama (firework shells) No. 10 size over in Yamanashi on the base of Mount Fuji. If you missed that, check it out. It was the last live stream before here. I'll put a little link here in the description. Each one of the fireworks was dedicated to something from one of our viewers in the community. Each one, they were not cheap, but they were large. So if that doesn't get you in the holiday spirit, I'm not sure what will. But I can tell you this, this update is not going to get you in the holiday spirit. This might neutralize that feeling a little bit.

00:57 John Daub: You already know by now there's a new variant called Omicron—it's a crazy name and a scary name—and this has thrown a wrench in a lot of people's plans, especially students that have been waiting for months and months to come into Japan. I'll try to explain why. I got a ton of questions about this and I didn't know whether or not I was going to address this at all but there were just too many questions and too many people asked me to do another travel update and let them know so that they could plan accordingly and I'll do my very best with the news that I have here. First of all, thank you so much for watching everybody. If you want to, you can leave a message or comment on the bottom of this if you're watching this in a playback and I'll try my best to answer it. Ervin is here, how you doing Ervin? I hope you're still in warmer weather. It's getting a little chilly here in Japan.

02:02 John Daub: Let me just go over some of the news that we do know right now. Japan closed the border yesterday as a very quick reaction to the news of the Omicron variant and they're waiting for more information to know the severity, the transfer, how quickly this transfers—a lot of different information we just don't know yet. So Japan's reaction is always going to be different than the rest of the world and everybody who's very upset about this, I completely understand because it just suddenly came out of nowhere. But it's not something we haven't been planning for too because we knew that this was possible to happen, right? So this shouldn't be too much of a curveball. It's just like the timing of it kind of stinks because it's right up against the holidays. Japan has enacted the travel ban. It means that Japan has now been in the government's hands. Japan started accepting 3,500 international students and workers into the country, and that was raised to 5,000 per day. And this just started like a month ago. And it was starting to churn, and people were getting back into the country slower than we'd hoped, but it was happening. And then the brakes were halted because of this.

03:23 John Daub: And look, Japan is always going to be a country that doesn't take any risks. This is just, like, I've been talking about this for two years and longer. Japan doesn't take risks. Japan doesn't care about, like, just bottom line. They don't take risks. So this isn't a surprise. When the dollar tanked and the yen spiked two days ago when this news was released, do you know why? Because Japan doesn't take risks. It's just historic. Brandania, thank you. It's nice to see you here. So you can always count on Japan to be the one to take the least amount of risks and to close the borders. Chan is here traveling from the trunk restricted as well. Probably. Unless you're the only trunk that might be non-restricted is one for Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan, who also was traveling by trunk, Chan. And he did okay. He got where he wanted to go, I guess.

04:30 John Daub: Joking aside, I put a link in the description here and I want you guys to take a look. If you're really serious about, I don't know, if you were serious about coming into Japan as a worker or somebody who is coming here to study, please get your information from reputable sources, not just me. I don't know if I'm a reputable source. I get my sources from the things I hear from people in agencies as well as the news. I put two links in the description that are definitive places to get news from Japan. One of them is a reputable news agency called Kyodo News. They have an English site that gives you the latest on Japan. I've been getting my news from there for a long time. There are others. Asahi Shimbun is one. Newspapers in Japan are very reputable. They pretty much stick to headlines here. There's a link in the description to the latest news stories. And every day they've been posting COVID-19 updates on Kyodo News. So you get an idea of what's happening, what people are talking about in Japan. It's been a great resource.

05:37 John Daub: The second one is directly from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called MOFA. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the one that sets up the policies, sets up the entry procedures, sets up immigrations and customs enforcement. They've been updating their website pretty good. In fact, just on the 29th of November, it was updated. There's a link in the description of this video where you can go check it out. On November 29th, I have it all printed out here. Japan strengthened the border enforcement measures to prevent coronavirus variant Omicron B.1.1.529. They're very specific. Currently, foreign nationals, people who are willing to enter Japan, need a visa newly issued by embassies or consulates or consular offices of Japan for Taiwan, Taipei Kaohsiung offices of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, here referred to as Japan Overseas Establishments and countries, regions depending on the purpose of their entry visa. So they go over a bunch of other stuff that you need to know. And they're going to be updating this like they always do like very, very often. So go to that website and get your information from there. Second thing you can do is also contact the embassies and consulates directly. Send them email. Don't just send them once—send them like Shawshank Redemption. Keep sending them information. Be polite because once you get angry it's off the table—you're just an unreasonable person. Be polite, they will get back to you as soon as they possibly can.

07:25 John Daub: WRX Turbos in the house, thank you so much, WRX Turbo for the shakudama that we launched the other day—that was really cool. I'll send you some pictures from that too. Review on restrictions of new entry of foreign nationals—this is also a link in the description. Since November 30th, 2021, the government of Japan decided the suspension of review on restrictions on new entry of foreign nationals and on restrictions on activities after entering into Japan for persons with a vaccination certificate of COVID-19 by new measures for border enforcement. So basically it doesn't matter if you're a foreign national—you're a foreign national. You've been vaccinated or not, anymore it seems like you're going to have to do a quarantine and it's going to be like two weeks. The acceptance of application forms from responsible persons to the ministry in charge and issuing screening certificates will be suspended until December 30th, 2021. From November 30th, 2021 to December 31st, 2021, new entry will be denied under this measure. So there it is—it's in black and white literally right here and I think the website might have some red in there too but you can check it out, the link is there.

08:24 John Daub: Basically what Kishida-san, who's the prime minister, like Australia is taking a 14-day or 15-day break until December 15th—they've suspended their travel, they've extended their travel ban. Okay until December 15th—they were going to reopen pretty recently to Japan which would have been great news because I think packages would have restarted to Australia but that's been suspended until the 15th and a wait-and-see approach. Japan is stricter—Japan goes one month because they know that if this is—they think worst case scenario and I think the West has glimmers of hope maybe and this is just a difference of culture. Japan takes no risks—they go to the worst case scenario and they prepare for that. The West might be all right, let's wait two weeks and then see and make another announcement. That's good but that also confuses the public too although I'm quite confused with Japan's approach so I'm not giving them a pass on that.

10:05 John Daub: Will this hinder your travels around Japan? I'm selfishly wanting more content as I'm stuck, Lisa. Oh, I don't think so. So the purpose of this kind of travel ban is to make sure that you're not going to be able to travel to Japan and you're not going to be able to travel anywhere. The only reason the Delta was going to be able to get you somewhere is because of this travel ban. The reason the travel ban is to just slow it down—it has it's not going to stop it. I bet you this is going to get everywhere just like the Delta did. But the purpose of this travel ban and the reason to act fast is to slow it down and prepare and try to monitor and reduce the risks, reduce the number of cases. That's the best they can do and that's the only purpose of this. There's no way to stop it right unless...

10:51 John Daub: What irritates me with this is blaming tourists or foreigners coming into Japan and spreading this. That's not the case. It's actually VIPs and businessmen who have exemptions that have been getting sick abroad and bringing that back into Japan. So just for the record, I'm pretty sure that that's how the beta came in here. This is how probably COVID initially came in here. It's from business people who go out and maybe a little bit more carefree and they have VIP exemptions or working for big corporations that have lobbyists that allow them access into Japan. It's not from casual people. It's not from even tourism as much. So that's something that irritates a lot of people. And it's not just other foreigners. Japanese are quite irritated by the policies as well. The lobbying has been very strong from businesses, business associations to get people. Hey, it's a live stream. And I hope everything's OK. So the lobbying from business associations has been so strong. And this has caused great change, but also at the expense of just normal people, because I'm not a businessman and I don't need these extra restrictions while they get a pass. They're the ones spreading it. Just putting it out there. Prime Minister Kishida. It's not us. It's them.

12:13 John Daub: All right, Marshall Ellis. Has there been any cases of Delta or Omicron that, you know? Oh yeah, Delta is everywhere now. So Marshall, that variety has been around since before the Olympics came in here. And Japan effectively beat it. I wouldn't say beat it like down to zero, but we had like seven cases in Tokyo. We have almost no COVID in the city. It's like five, 10. It's like single digits right now. That's why this coming up. This is something that the prime minister seriously wants to clamp down. And I'm saying, please clamp down VIPs, too. You can't let people get a carte blanche and just free pass to go in with three days restriction and then make everybody have 14 days because those are the people who spread this. Right. I don't mind staying in a government hotel. Actually, I do. But I don't mind it if everybody's doing it. No line cutters. Prime Minister. No line cutting. And that means you, too. Politicians sometimes don't follow the rules, nor do some YouTubers try to.

13:14 John Daub: So stay tuned for more information. I will be on Twitter tweeting updates as well. If you don't know, my Twitter is twitter.com/onlyinjapantv. And I have contacts at a lot of the government associations, government travel networks who I talk to and get periodic emails or forwards. I'm able to let you know some information. I asked some of my Patreon supporters questions that they might have before I get to Twitter. And some of them are: Are you still planning to visit the US? Yes. And I plan to go—we're flying direct. We weren't going to take any flight changes inside of the continental United States. Thank you to Japan drew 84. And I think I saw a couple other people start to follow me on Twitter. I appreciate that. We have a direct flight into New York from Tokyo flying a Japan carrier, which is pretty good with maintaining a very sanitary plane environment. I've flown them domestically for the last year and a half during the pandemic. And they've done a really good job of making sure checking temperatures and making sure that everything is orderly.

14:42 John Daub: Samuel rates in here. How are you? Do you think this will affect 2023? No. This will not affect 2023. And don't jinx this. So we're still planning to visit until we get other information or until a flight is cancelled or until there's an announcement saying that I can't come back. I'm not a Japanese citizen. I don't know if I can return. So I don't want to be separated from my family. If there's a chance of that, then we'll just cancel the flights. But until we know more, it's not a reason to jump to conclusions. And this is another thing. Don't panic. This is just a speed bump. And we all have to just go a little bit slower during the speed bumps. But the speed bumps don't last forever. And the speed bumps are not walls either. This is not a wall. At least we don't know it is yet.

15:36 John Daub: Chan back at the start, I was told that only people who were obviously sick with COVID were tested. Does Japanese government provide free testing for all now? Everybody is tested with PCR tests upon arrival into Japan. You have to wait seriously for like three hours for your test results to come back. They have 30-minute testing when you leave. But what people have been telling me is when they enter Japan, it's like three hours wait. You got to take it. You got to take a test upon entry and then you take another test. I don't know if you're a three-day quarantine person after three days, if you're a 10-day quarantine person after 10 days and if you're clear, you're clear, then you can go in. That's the procedure. So on arrival, you take the PCR test. Have you heard if new hired JET program teachers are allowed to enter? They are allowed to enter if they are chosen and they have the visa and they have been cleared to enter. Japan was allowing 3,500 people a day and then they up that to 5,000. And then yesterday they cut that to zero. So it's there's a blanket ban right now until December 31st until they figure it out. Australia's ban is until December 15th. Japan goes to December 31st. Just the different ways that the countries do their business.

17:01 John Daub: I'm used to this though. This is no surprise to me. Nagi, oh come on Japan. Yeah, I hear you that. But again, like, I'm not that angry unless they separate me from my family and they've done that. But Japan has the oldest population in the world. This is not an excuse although it might come off as one. It probably is an excuse. Japan's population is the oldest in the world. I think it's 46 years old is the average age of Japan. So there's a lot more fear that people that are older—average age 46. Right. There's a fear that people are breakthrough infections. People are older. They're going to get sick and die. So they're going to take more precautions than a younger country. India's average age is 23 years old, which is half of that of Japan.

17:56 John Daub: King Wong. Hi John. First of all, how are you doing? I'm doing pretty good. Thanks for asking. Everything good? Yeah. My question is that given the situation now, do you think Japan is going to be reopening in March 2022? What's your prediction of when it will open? I have seven-week trip. Whoa, King. I hope we get a chance to see you in Japan and really hope to come. All right. Let me go through this. Nobody knows. All right, King. Nobody knows. The prime minister doesn't know. President Biden doesn't know. Nobody knows. Except maybe, you know, the powers to be up in the sky. I don't know. I can't give you a definitive answer. I could just tell you that I don't think just because a variant has come, they're going to stop the plans that are months away. They didn't stop the Olympics. Japan really needs tourism to return domestic tourism, too. And there they were going to release the Go To Travel campaign again, reissue that. But they pulled back again because we're just not sure of this variant. When the WHO issues a warning, Japan listens. All right. They take action now. After a year and a half, they learned. You have to shut it down. New Zealand was the same way. Right. New Zealand just shut it down. Nobody's coming in here for a while. And New Zealand had a great situation. No COVID. It was like living in 2019 again.

19:46 John Daub: But I would say May 2022 is safer and the weather's better. Right. But if you're staying here for seven weeks, yeah you know, I'm pretty sure Singapore and Japan will reopen by then. But again, like if new variations come like Omicron, we're seeing right now how Japan reacts to this. They are quick and they are long. L-O-N-G. They shut down for a month when Australia is two weeks as we collect data. Japan doesn't care. One month. And they follow the rules, too. I don't think they're going to lower this. The rule is set. And that's it. It's why risk making it less now? One month. I think that's pretty harsh. My personal opinion, which doesn't really matter. I think it's pretty too harsh. I think they should have done 14 days and let's see, because it might be that vaccinated people are OK. They just get sick. Vaccinated people are OK. Breakthrough infections were high in South Africa because less people were vaccinated. I don't know. Just I wish they would have done it like that. But they didn't. Australia did. Australia is reopening on December 15th at present. Japan, December 31st.

21:08 John Daub: D-Real selects. I can't believe you weren't first. Long time viewer here. Long time question asker. I know that. Many questions sometimes, but not today. Really? Oh wait. There's five questions and they're all not related except for how's the family doing? Pretty good. Leo's getting bigger. He was crying during the fireworks, but he's fine now. Sometimes we think he has dreams of fireworks exploding all around him and that might make him cry in the middle of the night. So sometimes we don't get enough sleep and we have to wake up at 9 p.m., midnight, 2 a.m., 5 a.m. And then again at 7. Other than that, we're fine. What's the general public sentiment of the border control policy? Shoganai (can't be helped). Nobody likes it, but it's shoganai. Shoganai is an extremely good expression to learn. It just means can't be helped. Out of my control. Shoganai. It's just the way it is. That's the reaction we saw on the news today. There was a foreign teacher who came to pick up teachers that were supposed to come in. She was interviewed on Japanese TV. They asked her and she said, we're very disappointed because we were supposed to get some new teachers in, but they weren't able to board the flight. So we have to wait and see them and waiting a very long time to come to Japan. Now they have to wait until January 1st at the minimum.

22:33 John Daub: What are the expats already in Japan feeling? Nobody is happy. I think the expats feel the worst because they have more of a connection to the outside world. Whereas Japanese might travel, but not as many people have families outside of Japan. We do. We're worried. We're concerned because again, we don't know if we're going to be able to get back into Japan. At least I don't because I'm not a citizen of Japan. Will the government encourage more localization? Will the government encourage more local travel to make up for foreign visitors? Yes, eventually. Just we're going to have to do a wait and see. They said two weeks. So I would say by the middle of December before we leave, they'll have more information. But probably in seven days, we start to hear more leaking of information like trickle of how bad this is. We just don't know. How many ducks do you have left? Actually, they're tied up and they've been rounded up and put in a basement. They're scary. And if they came to life and animated, they would attack my good friends here.

23:41 John Daub: But that is something by choice that can somewhat be controlled. This is something that is out of control and we don't know what the impact is to the society on a greater scale. There's a difference. But your point is well taken. Traffic accidents too. More people from that than from this. But this is something that's in our control. This is something that's out of our control and something that's new and it's going to frighten a lot of people and people are going to be concerned. Everybody should be concerned. We just don't know yet. That's the thing. You know, there's like when the government says don't panic. There's a reason maybe to think that they might not be telling the truth. Is it just me? Maybe. I don't know. I'm not panicking. I'm concerned. So looking like quarantine in Japan is going to stay at 10 days or even go back to 14 days? I think it's going to go back to 14 days for everybody for one month. So Kunai and I are preparing for 14 days. We got to go to Costco and get supplies for 14 days just so we have some nice stuff in the house that we can survive and live a little bit better. So we're preparing for 14 days quarantine. We're preparing for 30 days. We're preparing for three days at a hotel.

25:03 John Daub: So I'm guessing that the US it's just a matter of time. I'm guessing that the US is going to have this too and Japan might not and they're going to have to be really strict from people returning back from the United States. We have no plans to do any meetups in New York City. We have no plans to meet anybody outside of the family. And I mean that except maybe David and DVD and Dry Dry One. We might see those two because we're doing something together with the Only Japan merch store. I was hoping to go down to three days or 24 hours. Say right now. We're just going to wait and see it might do this might be nothing. This might be, you know, just fine. We don't know yet. So I wouldn't say that things are going to be bad in next year. I just say this is a wait and see.

25:55 John Daub: Well, the Japanese hospitals with Japanese hospitals not being reliable sort of true. I have not taken care of my medical issues here in the US before I visit there. So I think I won't be going there probably until next February. Even then I really don't want to go if quarantine is that long. It's a waste of time if I can't go any further for two weeks unless you order Uber Eats and get Japanese food every day. It's actually pretty good. My feeling is that a quarantine can go down to six days from four people then tourism has a chance. But why would you wait two weeks if you can go to Thailand and it's like three days or something or less right or the US? There's no quarantine and you can just get a PCR test. I don't understand how Japan's going to compete. And I think that's why Japan will change because if nobody's coming here and they can't compete, they're going to have to change and the change will be gradual. Change is gradual. But when something like this happens, it's instantaneous. It's instantaneous and it's hard. I always use this as an example. Some dude flew a drone onto the roof of the prime minister's house. Right? This is when drones are sort of new. Next day. I believe it was the next day. Japan said no more drones like you need permits. You need that. You can't fly drones in the city. No drone flying. And then they gradually slowly eased restrictions. This is the modus operandi. This is how they work. Boom. And bring it back because it's less risk.

27:38 John Daub: Betty writes in here. Is it safe? Is Japan Post still suspending international shipping? Yes. Since I can't go to Japan anytime soon. I enjoy ordering stuff from Japan from mom and pop sellers. So do I. Actually, hold on. I have on the balcony. I have this is. Who is this for? Actually, this is Joanne in Canberra. Joanne, this is your box. It was returned to me. In fact, I have eight boxes here on the ground. Joanne, including mango Kit Kats, half-baked soft senbei, which I love. Taiyaki, a box of taiyaki, which is just amazing. I can't even eat it now. These are going to be sent to you, Joanne. And I can't because of the suspension of Australia and the US. I believe that that suspension is attached to the holiday. They just don't have enough flights and they don't have enough capacity to deal with this on the Japan side. Not so much in the US and Australia side. And I believe flights were going to start in December. Packages would have started. Now we're not quite sure. So it looks like this might take us into January and then packages will resume again. It's as much Japan Post as it is the other post offices. But USPS is in a really bad situation right now. I hope that you're going to be able to order stuff from Japan again. The other countries, Europe is fine. UK. I've never stopped mail and I'm so impressed. Canada is going to be okay. European Union is okay. Just Italy doesn't allow letters right now. Italy is in a tough situation. But the other countries except Romania, other countries are okay. So, you know, if you order it by DHL, which is very expensive for mom and pop shops, things are still moving a little bit. But that's not an option for me. DHL is $100 a package. And I got to send a big box and then maybe distribute it. That's something we might be planning in 2022. But I still have to send my supporters boxes because I just love to do that. It's like a way for me to share stuff that I love with people that are watching the show. And that will return. Look, you know, it's just a speed bump. And right now we're just learning about it and we don't know where it's going to go.

30:04 John Daub: Now, let me look at Twitter here and see if anybody has sent me any comments on Twitter. I'm a teacher at a university in Japan and I feel so bad for students. I know, I understand not allowing tourists, but I really feel bad for my students stuck overseas. You completely understand. I just nothing I can tell you other than we're going to get past this and then everything will be open again. My worry is just are people still going to be interested in Japan after this? The thing that you have to understand is like I've said this already before. I've lived here for 23 years. I'm used to it. Nothing really surprises me because I know how the system works mostly. And it's, you know, everybody comes here with rosy eyes and sees how amazing Japan is. And it is an amazing country. It's been so good to me. And I love this place. It's my home. But it doesn't work the way you think it works. Japan works the way Japan works, not the way the United States or Europe or Australia works. They have their way, their system, their system of justice. A little bit scary. I don't do anything wrong, so I'm fine. You're guilty until proven innocent. It's not what I chose, but that's the system. If you come here, you abide by the system. That's the way they work here. The same with the travel bans. The same with their approach to things. That's just the system.

31:34 John Daub: There's a lot of misunderstandings. There's a lot of things that you don't understand going on behind the scenes. There's a lot of things the way Japanese think. Let me put this out to you. I found that everything in Japan is like backwards to the United States. And this was the biggest mind melt for me to overcome to be a resident here. Most of my friends, in fact, all of them that I came here with 23 years ago are gone. I'm like the lone survivor. Everybody that was in my group, everybody, all my friends, they're gone. I have a lot of new friends. Peter's still here, but I didn't know him until about 10 years ago. Peter von Gomm. Japan, Japanese language is backwards. We say it is a ball. Japanese say ball it is. Stop lights, traffic lights. We have them like top to bottom. They do that too in Japan, but they also do it sideways. What's that about? Japanese drive on the left side. Sure, Europeans are fine with that. But in the US, it's like what? So there's lots of things that are just completely backwards. The way that they walk on the other side of the road. The way they do things. We're trying to use less paper. They're wrapping everything six times in paper here. So everything just seems backwards to me. And you have to kind of understand that. That's the way that they do things here in Japan. They have their way. You can't get upset about it or frustrated. You can get frustrated. But I don't get frustrated anymore. I get frustrated for like five minutes and then I'm like, okay. I can't do anything about it. Smile, be happy because there's a greater chance that people will feel guilty and help you. Then if you get angry, then no one will help you. They want to get away from you. If you feel not fine, but you're kind of happy, kind and gracious and understanding. You put the pressure on them because they feel guilty about the situation they're putting you in. Things happen. You'll get what you want. You get angry. You probably won't get what you want. You can get a little bit angry and then pull back. And then you can get what you want because they feel guilty. Guilt is a very big thing. So with the international community putting up the borders in Japan looks like a bully. That makes them feel guilty. So they change the process.

34:04 John Daub: Japan rarely breaks their own rules. People follow the rules. Rule breakers doesn't happen too often here. Guilt is a big thing. Closed businesses is just another collateral damage to keeping the population safe. It is, again, Japan's average age is much, much older than the rest of the world's and they want to protect that. We're going to get through this. It's just what's left afterwards worries me. Train free count 12. John, thank you for the advice on travel. I hope to visit in 2022. Keep up the good work. Thank you. Never had to get travel insurance, but nowadays it is a must. Yeah, absolutely. I live here for more than two decades from Philippines. I love the system here in Japan. If you've been here for that long and you decided to stay, then you have to love the system. I mean, I have a good life. I had a good friend who worked at NHK and he was always trying to change the system and you can't change the system the way NHK works. It's not efficient. It's backwards. It's weird, but it changes slowly, but you can't push it because if you do, then you are that nail standing up and you get hammered down. So I don't mind the system. It keeps us safe. It's worked for me. I'm living a pretty good life. I'm happy way more than I am upset or frustrated.

35:51 John Daub: I think people, you know, keep to themselves. Privacy is everything. I'm not 100% in agreement with it, but everything is pretty good, but it's not what you might think it is if you don't live here for 20 years, right? So if you're watching this and you're upset, it's probably not. Japan is not what you think it is for what we and America. I'm talking to Joe have seen for two decades of living here. The system is different. It's strict. There are societal rules. I tell foreigners who I should say people from abroad who come here that I'm working with YouTube. If we go to film, I have to tell them, like, maybe keep your voice down and I keep my voice really loud, too. But I start to see reflections of Japanese society in the way that I feel. Seeing that the people around me that from abroad don't know. I don't understand that, too. So I understand when I get criticism for being too loud or something, because when I watch angle, I was too loud. But when you're around it, you understand that people don't understand the rules. And that's important. As a tourist and a visitor, you are a guest. But in order to be a guest, you have to get here. And right now you can't. So if you do come to Japan and you're a guest, once you get in, people are really—not everybody. But the vast majority of people are very hospitable. It's called omotenashi (hospitality spirit). It's a spirit of giving and making you feel really comfortable even when they don't want to. They'll fight that and they'll show you a happy face, even though probably they're not that happy.

38:01 John Daub: So for foreign residents of Japanese currently outside of the country, can we still return in December? Left for a short trip for family reason? Yes. This is something and this is also talk about this as I look for Twitter here. This is something that is very much on our minds because we're traveling to the United States in 10 days time and we're going to be staying for a couple of weeks. Right now, according to the link that I have in the description, please check that out. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That is the source. You can come back if you're a Japanese citizen or a resident of Japan. When this first started in 2020, residents of Japan, even though you were a foreigner, you could not. Nobody could come back to Japan. This was the scariest time. You can have family here. Families were separated for a long time. That's how Japan shuts down and they don't break the rules. And then until they assess the situation and then lighten it up. But right now, foreign residents and Japanese citizens can return from abroad. I don't know what the situation is going to be like in two weeks, which worries me. But according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you do have to do a quarantine and certain countries right now, if you're coming from the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and the seven countries in Africa and a couple other places, you have to stay in a government hotel before. I think you could just go straight home in a taxi. You can't take public transportation. Now you must stay in a government hotel for I think it was three days and from African countries that were affected. I think it's for the entire 14 days you have to stay at a government hotel. So they have different procedures for different places. But look, travel is so connected. I don't know how they could like somebody who came in from Africa to Canada. They got in fine. And then they traveled a couple of days later to Japan. How do you assess this? I'm not sure. So it's something that I don't know. You know, it's an imperfect system. There's lots of holes. But the reaction to this is to do their best to slow it down. And if they can do that, then we'll be fine.

40:12 John Daub: Because as I said, like Tokyo has like seven infections of the COVID today. Like it's single digits in Tokyo. It's almost like we're so close. Everybody is still very vigilant and wearing masks, not social distancing as much. But people are very careful and we still around. But feels like we're at the end. And then this came in. So 14 days. But if a test is negative after five, six days, you spend the rest of the quarantine at home. Yeah. Thank you, Joy. Is that for the Philippines? Philippines also closed its borders to this virus is 500 times more spreadable than Delta. Adney, we don't know that yet. I don't know. How can it be 500 times more? What does that mean? Because I think that Delta would like it doesn't matter if you're wearing a mask. It jumps. It jumps onto you like it. Please. I don't understand how it could be 500%. I think that's conjecture. So let's see what happens over the next week. We'll probably have a lot of information. The news is all over this because everybody's watching its ratings.

41:22 John Daub: Almost happened to Guam to this dignitary claimed he was okay and doesn't need to be quarantined. He was arrested. Exactly. I think that VIPs nobody should escape the rules. And we had DJs who came in here and had business contracts were able to get like a 24-hour quarantine or something while families that have been waiting for months couldn't get in. I was upset too. But Japan is a country of rules. Asterix mark from VIPs. It doesn't always apply and that is a problem. That's a big problem. Turn to Twitter. Actually, I don't see any tweeted questions. I'm sort of new to Twitter. What a city. I get some comments here. And some suggestions. Some of them obscene. That's not so nice. What? Really? Oh, come on. We can do better than that. The tweet and comment section is unbelievable. They have no idea. Okay. You know what? Never mind Twitter. Don't tweet me anymore. You know, it's pretty bad. I feel violated reading Twitter. I'm sorry.

42:58 John Daub: So there you have it. That's the best that I can do right now. Japan is closed until, for those who are joining us, Japan is closed until December 30. I can turn an update into 45 minutes of somewhat entertainment. A Twitch stream is coming soon. I was doing this because of the fireworks festival and other stuff. I just had no time. All right. 86L Land Cruiser. I hope you didn't just follow me to troll me. Write me something kind. Yeah, Twitch, I'll be back on Twitch probably this week like ASAP because I just didn't have any time or bandwidth left to do anything extra. I need to film the main channel episode to get the Kickstarter because there's nobody helping me except for one person at the Japan Hanabi Association. It's just me doing it this year. So it's been a lot of extra work. Kanai's taking care of the kids, so taking care of Leo. So it's just been me. Only use Twitter to see pet videos. Daniel, I will do that. PMX, cite your source. Oh, so somebody's coming in here. Yeah. Don't, we don't, it's too early to tell on all the information on Omicron. Just, I can tell you the fact. Japan closed its border. It will reopen. It'll be assessed. And right now, it's not, nothing has happened. It's not happening until December 31st.

44:33 John Daub: I live here. I'm a resident. Kanai's a citizen. Leo, a citizen. They can go to the United States and come back. We can go to the United States and come back. Travelers, workers, students cannot enter Japan right now unless there's some sort of waiver. And we don't know about that. And if you can, then there's going to be pretty strong quarantine. 14 days at government hotels, it seems, unless you test negative for, you know, a PCR test. The good news is that the PCR test can pick up this variant. So, that's very good. The PCR test can pick it up. Maybe there is more defense for this in the vaccines that we took. I can't get a booster because I got my final shot in July. So, I'm still a little bit early. I think it's like four and a half, five months right now. So, I don't know if I'm going to get a booster or not. Jari writes in, nobody knows about the variant enough, so it's too early to discuss. Exactly. I think it's addressed. We're noticing your concerns. Japan is closed until December 31st. Australia until December 15th. You can see the difference of the two styles. Japan slams the hammer. Australia taps it. Which system is better? I don't know. It's just different cultures. Japan, this is Japan's modus operandi, which I used to watch a lot of CSI and Special Victims Unit. They slam it down and then they release the valve. Australia might tap it, and then they'll extend it but Japan slams it and then eases it it's just two different ways so maybe it opens up earlier I don't know but do follow me on Twitter I might not read your tweets as much but I will be posting updates there so that you get it as fast as I get it.

46:24 John Daub: Thoughts on naturalizing as a Japanese given the uncertainties? I don't think I ever want to give up my American citizenship. I'm very despite you know some people who might not be happy with theirs I'm pretty happy with mine and like Japan's has a very powerful passport so is the United States American. That's my advantage to being in Japan. I help Japan the most by not being Japanese but I don't know what the future holds you know I'm not against it either. I think that the borderlines and passports don't have the same kind of meaning as they used to. You can buy a super powerful passport for I think it's like $80,000 or something now from a Caribbean nation if you watch YouTube so if you're like I think a guy from Yes Theory who's Egyptian bought a passport from a Caribbean country and became a citizen there and now he can travel the world visa-free so what does the passport actually mean anymore I don't really know but Japan is my home. I think it's nice to keep our options open we could go move to the United States we could move to India I have a citizens and overseas citizens of India card which allows me to work and buy property in India too I don't know how India's economy could be in 20 years it's the strongest country in the world so because democracy who knows and I love Indian food I was force-fed it when I was a kid willingly only in India who knows there's John's Jeff Japanese is good enough to pass the passport to a foreign country and I don't know if it's pass the citizen test no my Japanese is not great it's conversational at best and I understand what's going on around me I can get the gist of a newspaper I get scripts from TV shows and I can read them and I know how to respond so my Japanese is conversational but I make mistakes I'm not perfect I get criticized all the time from viewers and that's fine I should probably study more I never went to a Japanese school I studied from books and old ladies seriously I went to school I studied from old ladies I probably should go to school.

48:45 John Daub: Hit that like button uh and then I will if we get over a thousand likes I'll do another update uh sometime in December and update you from the United States and let you know how it was like what it was like to travel from Japan to the United States I'm going to do another live stream from the US side to let you know that information which will be a pretty good update because it'll be like I will have done it right so I'll have a lot more first-hand experience doing it um the Japan MOFA website is easy to access and has complete travel information a clean game thank you for checking the MOFA site that is the definitive source once they say it there the news picks it up so if you want the information before the news check into the MOFA website and Maya Vardaman thank you for following me on Twitter TS1109 thank you too I see all the notifications bye for now I gotta go and give Leo some lunch and uh edit the next video which is on fireworks for the main channel I take you inside of a Japanese fireworks plant exclusive access to see how they make those big ones um thanks again everybody I'll see you probably tomorrow in another live stream as I take you around maybe the Christmas lights because they are up here in Japan and I am in the festive mood Omicron you can wait a day as I you know take some beautiful scenes around the city of Tokyo with you live tomorrow.