00:00:09 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Fukushima. This is the Tadami River Bridge down there in the center of your screen. It's a special moment because in about 5 minutes, a train is going to cross this bridge. We're in one of the best places to see it and you're going to be joining me! Because this is Only in Japan Go and you come with me when I make a video like this. For the next 5 minutes, you're just going to be looking at a bridge. But don't worry, I'll put a chapter marker so you can get right to it if you're watching this in playback.

00:00:46 John Daub: The signal is pretty strong up here. This is the middle of Fukushima, the middle of Japan. I was in Spa Resort Hawaiians, which is on the Pacific side, and I drove 2 hours into the mountains and the view is completely different. Look at it. It's absolutely beautiful. After the train goes by, I'll try to take you around a little and show you this. But the Tadami River Bridge in this area is so beautiful.

00:01:18 John Daub: I'm also filming this in 8K. It's a popular spot for people who love trains, so we got a ton of people who come. But today, just a few people, which is actually maybe better that way. I'm putting you down on the tripod so you don't miss it. There you go. So you guys got an amazing view. We're all kind of geeks. This is the beauty of it all. You're watching the snowfall in Japan from your TV right now.

00:02:09 John Daub: Just for transparency, I'm also flying the drone right now. We have an operator with me who's also helping out. But I'm holding the screen so you can see from the view. I got some really amazing shots. This is going to be the postcard for the postcard club for those that are supporting on Patreon. I'll make this February's card for sure. Wow. Look at that view. And I'm filming it on 8K with the other camera. Okay, so we got to wait for 4 more minutes. This is so much fun. This is the ultimate train geek adventure.

00:03:04 Caller: It's the advertising agency. Do you know? It's the NHK Korea Japan in December. NHK Korea Japan. Oh, Korea Japan. Yes.

00:03:17 John Daub: I've been on the show before.

00:03:19 Caller: Oh, really? Yes. I was on the show last December. Yes. After the COVID-19 pandemic, I got a ranking. I got a survey from foreigners. After I got the ranking, I got the second place. The second place. I got the second place in Japan's fashion industry. Yes. The second place. Number two.

00:03:54 John Daub: Ah, it's so beautiful. Look. Wow.

00:04:04 John Daub: Come, come! The lighting looks great! Hurry up, Tenshoo. Tenshoo, go! Only 3 minutes left! Go, go! Look at the lighting on this after 3 minutes.

00:04:25 John Daub: There's some very light snow going on here, falling. Oh, it's so beautiful with the reflection. The sun is bringing out the shadows and the reflection. Now the sun is moving away from that spot a little bit, but it's illuminating the foreground a bit. This spot is only accessible by car. Kuruma de ikeru ne (you can get here by car). So you need to have—we have a rental car—but it's hard to come if you're coming by train. So this is really special for me too. I don't get out here to see such a beautiful sight. Now the sun is hitting us. Sunrise, ne? It's amazing.

00:05:58 John Daub: We're about one minute away, everybody. One or two minutes. I'm recording this at 8K, and I'm also recording this on the drone. I think it's 5.1K or something like that. Wow, this going to make an amazing postcard. The anticipation is part of the excitement. I got here an hour ago, just to put it in perspective.

00:06:51 John Daub: This is not a Shinkansen. This is the Tadami-sen (Tadami Line). This is going from Aizuwakamatsu to Niigata, right? Yeah, Aizuwakamatsu to Niigata, the Tadami-sen, crossing the Tadami River, which is pretty sweet. It should be coming any moment now. I'm a little bit cold and hungry, but this is so worth it. I've got the Mavic 3 in action right now. I'm going to put it in motion just moments before the train arrives. I think I'll be able to hear it a little bit, so I've got to be quiet right now, which is hard for me to do. The train won't be going too fast. It's a local train, so I'm guessing around 40 kilometers an hour, 50 kilometers per hour.

00:07:38 John Daub: We're just about a minute away from the train coming. There's four other people here with me. In the summer, this spot is incredible, too. There's a lot of people who come out. But in the winter, with the snow surrounding it, it's just so beautiful. And there's a very, very light snow falling. You can't really make it out in the video, but if it was snowing some more, it'd be a little bit more dramatic. But I'll take this any day, as long as it's not raining.

00:09:20 John Daub: Wow. I accidentally pushed the stop button, but I still got the video. That was pretty cool. I'm so excited. The drone is here now. So here I can show you a shot. I'm following it on the drone here. So now you can see, I think that we're going to see the train going by from here.

00:10:18 John Daub: So the train has crossed the bridge, and now you're looking at a live drone shot. Before I bring it back, I still have 24 minutes left. I can say goodbye to the winter train. The drones are pretty good in this cold weather. The Mavic 3 has a runtime of 43 minutes. And in the cold, I think I can get a pretty good 30 minutes, 35 minutes before I get scared and have to bring it back. They don't run very often in the countryside. You'll notice that trains in Japan run maybe once an hour, once every two hours. You don't get a lot of them. So that's why it's kind of special to sit around and wait for a train. Why wait on the platform when you can wait for it from here? There's the bridge for those that are joining us right now.

00:11:18 John Daub: Is that the train or not? Oh, there's the train. It's going over another bridge. I totally messed that one up. It went over this bridge here. All right, be warned. You learn from my mistakes. All right, I got to bring the drone back here.

00:12:45 John Daub: Thanks so much for watching. This is the live stream. This is the Tadami River Bridge and the Tadami River Gorge. And this is the Tadami Line from Aizu-Wakamatsu going all the way to Niigata. These are the kind of streams that I just love to do. Just sharing with you an experience. It's cold. So I'm off now.

00:13:34 John Daub: Tomorrow I'm going to be going to Aomori. I'm going to be in Aomori City. So you're going to see two live streams of me eating in Aomori City and join me on an adventure. I'm going to be on an adventure in Tohoku tomorrow. I'm taking the Shinkansen from Sendai in the morning. So see you then, everybody. Have a good day, good night. By the way, tonight I'll be uploading the Hawaiians video that I took in 1080p onto Only in Japan Go. Have a nice day. Take a look at the bridge for the last couple of seconds. See you, everybody.