Only in Japan Go — Transcripts
Summaries + full diarized transcripts
2022-05-28 · Ep 1197 · 56m

Nemuro City and Seaside Drive HOKKAIDO

HokkaidoHokkaido travelHanasaki LineJapan border reopeningRural convenience stores
Summary

Nemuro City and Seaside Drive HOKKAIDO

Overview

In this live stream, John Daub explores Nemuro City on the easternmost edge of Hokkaido during unseasonably cold and rainy weather. Unable to film outdoors due to the downpour, John takes viewers on a driving tour from the comfort of his car, showcasing Nemuro Bay, Bentenjima, and the quiet streets of this remote port city. He highlights the unique Russian influence on signage and discusses the local economy tied to fishing and the disputed Kuril Islands.

A significant portion of the broadcast focuses on the precarious future of the Hanasaki Line, a local train line facing extinction due to low ridership. John explains the crowdfunding efforts supported by furusato nozei (hometown tax donation) to keep the line running and shares his plan to ride the train with a special yakitori ekiben ordered from a local Taiyō convenience store.

John also provides crucial travel updates regarding Japan's border reopening scheduled for June 10th, 2022. He advises viewers on package tours, inflation impacts on flight prices, and the weak yen. The stream concludes with John checking into the Muroman Guest House, enjoying vending machine coffee and melon pan, and sharing personal reflections on privacy and judgment.

Highlights

  • 00:05:00 John braves the cold rain in Nemuro, noting it feels like winter despite being late May.
  • 01:07:00 View of Nemuro Bay and Bentenjima, with shrines and fishing boats visible.
  • 04:32:00 Driving through downtown Nemuro, observing architecture and Russian signage.
  • 11:02:00 Arrival at Nemuro Station, the terminus of the endangered Hanasaki Line.
  • 13:12:00 John ventures out into the rain to get hot vending machine coffee and tea.
  • 17:30:00 Explanation of the Hanasaki Line crowdfunding and ekiben delivery service.
  • 20:48:00 Tasting a sweet butter melon pan from Taiyō convenience store.
  • 37:41:00 Major announcement: Japan opening borders to package tours on June 10th.
  • 45:37:00 Discussion on furusato nozei supporting the train line and inflation advice.
  • 52:36:00 John's wisdom on privacy and not judging others' personal lives.

Timeline / Chapters

Japan Travel Tips

  • Weather Preparation: Even in late May, eastern Hokkaido can be cold (10°C/50°F) and windy. Bring warm layers and rain gear.
  • Japan Border Reopening: As of June 10th, 2022, package tours are allowed for many countries without vaccination proof. Independent tourism may follow by summer's end.
  • Flight Booking: Inflation is driving prices up. Consider booking flights now to lock in rates, especially with the weak yen (127 JPY/USD at time of recording).
  • Hanasaki Line: This train line is at risk of extinction. Support via furusato nozei (hometown tax donation) helps keep it running.
  • Accommodation: Muroman Guest House in Nemuro is highly recommended for English support and cleanliness.
  • Food: Look for local kaiten sushi (conveyor belt sushi) and crab specialties. Convenience stores like Taiyō offer local ekiben.

Japanese Language & Culture Notes

  • Seishun Juhachi Kippu (Youth 18 Ticket): A affordable train pass allowing unlimited travel on local trains for five days. John used this to explore Hokkaido in the past.
  • Ekiben (Station Bento): Boxed meals sold at stations. In Nemuro, some are ordered via phone and delivered fresh to the train.
  • Furusato Nozei (Hometown Tax Donation): A system allowing taxpayers to donate to specific municipalities in exchange for gifts or tax deductions. Used here to support the train line.
  • Russian Signage: Nemuro features signage in Japanese, English, and Russian due to its proximity to the disputed Kuril Islands (Northern Territories).
  • Kaiten Sushi: Conveyor belt sushi. Nemuro has famous shops due to its access to fresh seafood.

Food & Drink Guide

  • Melon Pan 20:48:00: Sweet bun with a cookie crust. John tries a butter flavor from Taiyō convenience store.
  • Vending Machine Coffee/Milk Tea 13:12:00: Hot drinks purchased to warm up during the rainstorm.
  • Yakitori Ekiben 17:54:00: Grilled chicken skewer bento ordered from Taiyō for the Hanasaki Line train ride.
  • Crab 50:09:00: Signature food of Nemuro. Season starts next month (June).
  • Kaiten Sushi 35:44:00: Planned dinner. Famous local restaurant with a Tokyo branch.
  • Beef Stew 33:14:00: Served at Coffee and Restaurant Dorian Nemuro.

People

  • John Daub: Host and creator of Only in Japan Go. Driving and narrating the tour.
  • Kanae Daub: John's wife. Mentioned regarding their wedding vlog and relationship dynamics.
  • Leo: John's son. Mentioned regarding his wave style.
  • Peter von Gomm: John's friend. Mentioned in banter about motorcycle rides and relationships.
  • Michael Sassano: Live stream viewer. John thanks him for a super chat.
  • Chan: Live stream viewer. Interacts with John during the vending machine run.
  • Nagoya John: Live stream viewer. Says hello during the stream.
  • Taiyō Store Staff: Convenience store president and son. Interviewed about the ekiben service.

Key Takeaways

  • Nemuro is a quiet, windy seaside city with unique Russian cultural influences due to its geography.
  • The Hanasaki Line is in danger of shutting down; local crowdsourcing and tax donations are trying to save it.
  • Japan began reopening to package tourism on June 10th, 2022, with independent travel expected later in the summer.
  • Inflation and the weak yen make booking travel sooner rather than later a financially sound decision.
  • Local convenience stores in rural areas often provide essential services like fresh ekiben delivery to trains.

Notable Quotes

  • 00:05:00 "This is not the best weather to stay on the east side of Hokkaido. Oh my gosh, it's cold."
  • 05:00:00 "The Shinkansen is too fast, to be honest with you. And you don't get to know the local stations."
  • 16:57:00 "I'm a YouTuber for small businesses."
  • 21:51:00 "The good thing about live streaming hitchhiking is if I was abducted, you would know live."
  • 43:51:00 "I'd say it's 70% chance that the prices go up and 30% chance that the prices down right now."
  • 53:12:00 "To judge people means that you are perfect or better than them. And that's almost never the case."

Related Topics

  • Hokkaido Train Travel
  • Japan Border Reopening 2022
  • Rural Convenience Stores in Japan
  • Furusato Nozei System
  • Nemuro Crab Season

Search Tags

#only-in-japan-go #nemuro #hokkaido #hanasaki-line #japan-travel #rural-japan #convenience-store #guest-house #train-travel #japan-border-reopening #vending-machine #melon-pan #kaiten-sushi #furusato-nozei


Full Transcript

00:05:00 John Daub: This is not the best weather to stay on the east side of Hokkaido. Oh my gosh, it's cold. I gotta get back into the car. I just thought I could maybe do it outside a little bit. It's so like... It feels like winter here. It is late May, almost June, and I can't believe it's this chilly. The rain is coming down. For the entire day it's been really wet.

00:40:00 John Daub: And I was thinking, what should I show you today? Because I want to show you a piece of Nemuro. This is such a beautiful small city on the extreme east side of Hokkaido. The only thing I can think of is that I'll show you a little bit of the seaside here. I couldn't even do that. But I'll take you in the car because it's drier in here than out there. You can see right here... How you doing? This is Nemuro Bay. This is where I am. And this is Bentenjima.

01:07:00 John Daub: This small island has a shrine on it. A lot of the boats will come into the port here. There's a couple of shrines around here. That's a shrine and these are actually post office marks. So it's not a shrine. It's a post office. I can zoom out a little bit and you can get an idea. Nemuro is very much a seaside town. And we're getting that weather right now. The easternmost point of Japan is just about a 20-minute drive from here.

01:41:00 John Daub: I could take you out there but the signal is... There's like no signal out there either. I can't check into the hotel yet for another 20 minutes. So why not just hang out together? And I'll show you Nemuro by car. How about that? Because even if you have an umbrella, it's so nasty outside. Alright, there you go. This is a lot better.

02:15:00 John Daub: So let's drive around the city. It's gonna be fun! It's all gonna be fun! What can I say? Alright. By the way, the wiper is gonna be going. So you can enjoy the relaxing and therapeutic sound of wipers and rain. Let's get going. This is so crazy. It's really coming down. So that's Bentenjima here and the sea. And actually, the Russian-occupied islands... Illegally occupied... Show my face of displeasure. That is not too far away from here too.

02:27:00 John Daub: So I'm gonna drive here through the city of Nemuro and you're gonna get a look and see what it's like. So there are some fishing boats here. Yeah, there's some fishing boats here. Crab season is coming up next month. Looks like he's a fisherman. That might be his boat. I think it isn't. If I stop the wipers, look how... It is really strong waves. This city is quite windy too. When I was here a month ago, it was very windy as well.

04:32:00 John Daub: Alright, let's go for a ride here. We're gonna leave the port area and now swing around into the city. And you're gonna see the buildings, the architecture. It's different than in other Japanese cities. It feels like a throwback from about 30, 40 years ago. A lot of cement buildings. But it's changing though. I was here once a very long time ago. I can't even remember what year it was. But I had something called the Seishun Juhachi Kippu (Youth 18 Ticket).

05:00:00 John Daub: It's a train pass that allows you to take the local train for five days within a certain period of time. And it's about $20 a day. And you can ride as many local trains as you want. And I would ride the local trains around Hokkaido to get to know the country. It's a really great way to do it. The Shinkansen is too fast, to be honest with you. And you don't get to know the local stations. Gosh, it's raining. You know what? Let's go straight. I'm kind of curious. We'll stay straight and go a little bit along the seaside here. See what we can see.

05:45:00 John Daub: And then we'll go into the city for the last 10 minutes of the live stream. It's a cold, wet day. What can I say? There's not much that I can show you. The guest house I'm staying at is really nice. Whoa, look at the lighthouse! That's kind of neat. You see that in the distance? The rain is making it focus! It won't even focus on the lighthouse out there. It's where the ships will go past there to come in. Gosh, it's so nasty, isn't it?

06:33:00 John Daub: I can't imagine if we were riding on motorcycles right now through Hokkaido. I don't want to imagine how nasty and wet and cold it is. Hopefully, when Peter von Gomm and I ride motorcycles through Hokkaido, through this area, it's a lot warmer. And the weather is a lot better. Because I can't imagine riding for hundreds of kilometers in this. Alright, you've seen the port now. Let's go up to the city. Nemuro City is pretty interesting! I thought it was pretty interesting because it's just such a different kind of a city.

07:21:00 John Daub: That's the main post office on the left side. And this is one of the main streets, actually. You can see it's not as big as Tokyo. Of course not. It's like a small prefectural city. A sub-prefecture, I guess you could say. It's not as pretty in the rain. But that's what we got to work with today. There's a 100 yen shop over there. No traffic, virtually. It's very quiet. A lot of signs are in Russian. I guess there's a connection, whether or not we like it or not, to Russia.

08:18:00 John Daub: Because this side, the east and the north part of Hokkaido, the closest country to it is Russia. The territory of Vladivostok and the Kuril Islands, which has been, after World War II, occupied by Russia. And there's a lot of debate on it and it's going to rage on for years and years. I don't think it's coming back to Japan, unless Japan really does something to win it back. But those possessions have a lot of fish. There's a lot of minerals. There's a lot of natural gas. A lot of stuff on those islands that is very valuable.

08:56:00 John Daub: On the right side, you can see there's an Aeon Mall. That's maybe the main shop for Nemuro. There's not a lot of shopping centers. So when people go shopping, they go to Kushiro or Nakashibetsu, another city that's near here. The airport for Nemuro is not in Nemuro. It's in Nakashibetsu, which is about a 75- to 80-minute drive from here. I think that's the city hall on the right... On the left side. Yeah. So we're going to take a right here. And I'll see if I can take you to the station.

10:11:00 John Daub: There it is. Nemuro Station. 300 meters. The windows are fogging up. Oh, look at the wind! You can see it on the street. It's really coming down cats and dogs now. Let's go to Nemuro Station. So this is downtown Nemuro. On the right side, it's hard to see, but that's the city hall. And the city hall sign is in Japanese, in Roman letters, and also in Russian. Cyrillic alphabet. I think it's pretty interesting.

11:02:00 John Daub: Here's the station right here on the left side. We're going to take a left and go around Nemuro Station. I'm going to film there at the ichiba (market). We just passed it right there. That's going to be one of the things in the main channel episode. There's Nemuro Station straight ahead. Nemuro Station, famous now. It's not a big station. It's a very small station. But at least there's a station. A lot of the stations on this train line don't have a station at all.

11:54:00 John Daub: I'm going to back in. The best way to do it. We'll stop here for about five minutes before we go on our tour. I drove through this for 120 kilometers from Kushiro this morning. It hasn't stopped the whole time. So I couldn't take the drone shots that I wanted to. But this morning I did get a melon pan, which is good. Actually, you know what? Do you want to come with me? Shall we go and get a vending machine drink? Let's get a coffee or something. There's no cafe around here. Do you want to get a vending machine coffee with me? Let's do it.

13:12:00 John Daub: I better get the money out in advance. This is crazy. Oh my gosh. I don't want to go. Let's do this. Please click the like button. I need some love here. This is brutal. Let's go outside. See, maybe they got hot drinks. Any drink. Let's go. Oh my gosh. They got a vending machine inside. Bones all wet. They still got hot drinks. They got hot coffee here. Oh, that's nice. They got hot tea. Let's go for the milk tea. Oh, rainbow. Let's go rainbow coffee.

15:02:00 John Daub: Let's get out of here. Goodbye to the car. It's a little shaky shaky. Oh my gosh. Holding my breath. I don't know why this isn't rain. There wasn't snow. I see Michael Sassano's here. Thanks, Michael. Is that Chan? Chan, here's a little towards the hot drink. Thank you. Chan, Michael Sassano. Hi, Chan. Get something. My treat. Thank you, Michael. Ah! All right. So, this have a nice train. You know what? You can't say have a nice day. Not with this. It's have a nice train.

16:22:00 John Daub: We're not going to see any sunshine today. So, this is the only rainbow that you get. It's a good one. Was it that cold? Yeah, it's cold when you're wet. Let's just say this, okay? If I take a shower, I'm going to turn that spigot more towards the hot side. This is more towards the cold side. So, anyone who's ever taken a cold shower, this sort of feels like taking but with your clothes on. It stinks. It's not my preferred way to do things.

16:57:00 John Daub: Okay. So, we're going to drive a little bit more around the city. I think I could take you to the guest house. That might be interesting. You can see where I'm staying tonight. It's a great guest house. I stayed here before. In this episode, I'm featuring the Hanasaki Line, which is a train line that is probably going to go extinct. Hanasaki Line, the ridership has gone down greatly, especially during the pandemic. And it's just... They're in the red, meaning it's taking a loss every year. So, JR Hokkaido, they don't have the funds to continue to do it.

17:30:00 John Daub: So, they're crowdfunding the Hanasaki Line. The residents of Nemuro don't want to lose it. But I don't know how long they can keep that going. So, I'm talking with local residents. I'm talking with the city officials. I'm seeing what they're doing to try to maintain this Hanasaki Line. And maybe by introducing it, you guys learn about the Hanasaki Line and you might want to even ride it. So, that's my hope.

17:54:00 John Daub: One of the people that I interviewed today, which I could do in the rain, was they have these ekiben (station bento). Because there's not a lot of gift shops and stuff here, you have to call in advance by telephone and you can order your ekiben and they bring it to you fresh to the train. So, then when you get on the train, you have a hot ekiben. So, I tried this service and I called this convenience store chain called Taiyō (Sun). Taiyō is a convenience store chain. It's kind of part of the Seicomart, which is a Hokkaido brand.

18:41:00 John Daub: And they allowed me to film and they said that they were happy to have you film. So, I filmed in their convenience store. I met the president and his son and his son gave me an interview to explain why they started to sell these ekiben here, the yakitori ekiben. And they're working with JR Hokkaido with this. And I ordered one and tomorrow I'm going to ride the Hanasaki Line for the main channel episode and film it. And he's going to drive the ekiben from his convenience store to here where I'm going to pick it up and then eat it on the train. A steaming hot yakitori ekiben, which is going to be pretty exciting. Hopefully the weather is better than this.

19:29:00 John Daub: I wanted to take drone shots in this. Obviously, you can see it. That was not possible. I got to turn the heater on. All right, let's try this. And he gave me a melon pan from their convenience store bakery. It's a small local convenience store chain called Taiyō. And there's three or four of them in the Nemuro area. And I love that story of local businesses. I love to support local businesses as a small business owner myself. I'm a YouTuber for small businesses. And my keitai den (mobile phone bill) was right here.

20:17:00 John Daub: So, it was nice to interview them and to see them making the bentos and then bringing them and selling them at the train. So, tomorrow I'm going to get a chance to get the bento from his shop. And I'm going to eat it on the train. Nagoya John is here. Much love, John. Just saying hello. How are you doing, Nagoya John? This is Leo's way. Leo waves not like this. He does like this. So, I do that too now. But Taiyō-san gave me a melon pan. He said, here you go. You have to try this.

20:48:00 John Daub: I'm going to try it with the coffee. Oh, that's nice. It's got a good butter flavor to it. Mmm. Fresh. Oh, yeah. It's a sweet butter melon pan. That's nice. Azi in Asia. Question. Have you ever made a vlog where you thought this is really dangerous and were worried? That could be the day I got married. Probably the scariest vlog I did was I vlogged the announcement that I'm getting married the day of the wedding. And my wife didn't know that I was going to do that. And I don't think she looked too happy about me live streaming it. That was the scariest. I think I thought I was in danger.

21:51:00 John Daub: Urban. Not a good day for hitchhiking. If I saw somebody on the road, I'd pick them up though. This is not a hitchhike day. I think I was more scared about live streaming the wedding day than I was about the entire hitchhiking live streaming. The good thing about live streaming hitchhiking is if I was abducted, you would know live. And at least one of the thousands of people watching would call the cops, right? Would if you would call the cops, hit the like button right now. I wanted to see if there's anybody who would call the cops. Oh, one person. Oh, thank you. One person.

23:15:00 John Daub: Anyways, you can see the my wedding announcement video and you can see my wife is not happy in the background of it with her entire full dress and this headgear, which weighed like a bowling ball on her head. But it was a happy day after. And then we watch the live stream video like every year. So it's kind of a funny thing now. At the time, it wasn't. Good question. Always check with the wife to be. She's in charge. I'm just there. Weddings are not too many guys dream about a wedding. You know, more of a day for the bride.

24:06:00 John Daub: I'm glad my friend Thomas said, show us the coffee again, please. It was a wonderful town. I'm glad I'm staying here for two nights. Just my worry is how am I going to film the main channel episode if it's like this the whole time? Yeah, my wife is Japanese. Can I someone who doesn't know you here? There's a cake shop nearby called Montage. Just saying. There's also a supermarket. Yeah, I saw them down the street. Actually, there's a fish market. I'm going to be filming in tomorrow. I got access to film because the crab season is starting and crabs are very famous here.

25:01:00 John Daub: So I wanted to film the crabs to insert into the video. Do you have a camera? Wet weather covers? No. The Sony A1 is weatherproof iPhone and GoPro. The places where I have to use weather proofing stuff, I just use the GoPro because it's waterproof. Thought you were married to Peter. Ha ha. You know what? He would be the wife in that relationship. Just saying. If it was true, he would be the lady. The way he's always combing his hair and thinking about fashion and stuff.

25:48:00 John Daub: Are you actually in Japan? It's kind of blurry. What do you think? I would disagree. Peter von Gomm would definitely be quote unquote man. Peter is the wo-man. All right. Let's not contemplate about this made up relationship. How do we even get here? All right. Let's just talk about Nemuro, which is what's most important. Patrick writes in Who is Peter? Thank you for breaking this.

26:46:00 John Daub: Rain shell for your Alpha 1. Do they have that? Irvin, we have not talked in ages. We need to talk more. That 135 lens has been a monster for the channel. I've been using it for opening shots, too. You can tell. Yeah, that's the 135. But that particular spam bot is fierce. So if you are the person with naked HD, we've got you and we will ban you. But we enjoy you before we ban you. But if you keep this up, you may be banned for life.

27:43:00 John Daub: Um, this is pretty good. Melon pan immediately writes in here. It's Peter. The walk. The rain here is not warm. It's freezing. This is a darn good melon pan. Tastes like a butter cookie. Oh, my gosh. It's coming down strong. All right. Let's go for a little ride here. I'm going to see if I can take you to the destination here. This is not the rainy season. This is just a freak incident.

29:16:00 John Daub: Little police station. Oh, I know from there. I know how to get there. So let's just get there. If I get lost, Chan can guide me. Chan, I'm going to the Muroman Guest House. M-U-R-O-M-A-N Guest House. Okay. I get lost. Please guide me without you. I will be living in a ditch somewhere lost in a... I can't even see outside. Which city was it that I was lost? I couldn't find the statue. Oh, that was... I don't know.

30:44:00 John Daub: I just saw Panda over there. That's like a wrestler. I heard that this was a local wrestler. He's 200 centimeters tall and he wrestles. He's a, his name is I Am Giant Panda and he's a pro wrestler. That's what I've been told by locals. Yeah, this is going to be a really hard shoot. If it doesn't clear up tomorrow. I'm kind of lucky. I don't have a lot of things that I need to shoot for today. But tomorrow is one of the main filming days and I'm going back to the airport in Kushiro tomorrow, on Monday night, so I don't have a lot of time.

31:46:00 John Daub: Somebody has seen this panda wrestler. Yeah, he's from Kushiro, I believe. Oh, Chan, I think that's your cake shop. That's the city hall on the left side right there. Nemuro City Hall. The city hall sign is in Russian, too. One of the three languages. That was really bizarre. We're going to make the next left. All right, let's go down. Wow, look at the hill. I had no idea Nemuro was a really hilly city here.

33:14:00 John Daub: This is kind of the old section, and this is the parking outside of the Aeon Mall car garage. There's virtually no traffic. See that yellow building on the left side? I ate at this cafe and it was so good. They had this really good beef stew. I think it was this one here, or the next one. Okay, sorry, not this yellow building. Oh, this white one here. It's called the Coffee and Restaurant Dorian Nemuro. It was really good, and they have this really amazing beef stew. And I got a beer there, and it was a pretty good dinner, and the owner came and talked to me. They've had that restaurant open for, I think he said, 40 years or something.

34:44:00 John Daub: It's the downtown area. There's a lot of ramen shops, restaurants, small local businesses, very few chain shops here in Nemuro. I remember walking the streets here last month. I think it's this one here. I'm going to make a right. There it is. Oh, awesome. I do remember. Okay. I did it without navigation. This is it. This is the guest house. So they have parking here. That's pretty convenient.

35:44:00 John Daub: So tonight I have to stay in a dormitory because that's the only thing they had available. But tomorrow there's a Japanese room that opened up. It's a single room that I stayed in before, and that will be really comfortable. But there's a nice kitchen area with a table that I can edit videos at. And at 6 p.m., I'm going to eat dinner at a restaurant that I'm featuring, a kaiten sushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant. I got a permit to film inside there. I don't think I'm going to do a live stream there, but I might just do it. It says it's 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It feels a little bit chillier than that, but the wind is coming out real strong, and the rain is cold.

36:36:00 John Daub: So it feels colder than the 50 degrees Fahrenheit that you guys are seeing on the weather. The wind is blowing from the northeast at 23 miles per hour, 37 kilometers per hour, and the humidity is 100 percent. Jeez. What are you going to do? This is the guest house, Muroman. See right there. This is the most highly recommended place to stay in Nemuro, I believe. A guest house. It's clean and new. Everything in the bathrooms are clean. The person who's running this place speaks English. And it was very nice. And gave me a lot of good information. So I gave them a good review on Booking.com, and I'm here again.

37:41:00 John Daub: So I'm going to do a Japan travel update probably on Sunday, which is tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow night from this room. And there's a lot of questions that a lot of you have about coming to Japan. And we saw in the news this last week that Japan is opening up on June 10th. They've announced it. You know what? Japan is opening the doors June 10th to most countries. And for the majority of countries, like I think it was like 80 countries, you don't need to have any vaccination proof. This means that those in the Philippines, you don't have to worry that you had only Sinovac. You can come with... It doesn't matter what vaccine you got. That's really good news.

40:51:00 John Daub: And a great number of the people do not need PCR tests or quarantine. It's just open border. However, I think that June 10th is not for tourism, like open tourism. It's for package tourism. And I was on the Japanese news program yesterday, a telephone interview. But they only used a very little bit of what I gave them, mostly about masks and how Japan's policy on masks is unclear. If it's not a mandate and it's not a law, a lot of Westerners might not want to wear a mask. So you're going to get some misunderstandings there. Because there's never been a mask mandate in Japan.

41:36:00 John Daub: But June 10th, Japan will start to have those package tours, the experiment to start. And if everything goes well, then they're going to open up the country in... It could be as soon as July. It could be as soon as August. So I'm going to guess maybe the end of the summer. So if you're thinking about booking a flight, a lot of people have been asking me about this. All I can say is that inflation right now is running rampant in everything. A lot of it has to do with the war.

42:16:00 John Daub: But I would call JTB, HIS. Those are the two biggest of the government-backed tourism organizations that are probably doing it. If you wanted to come here in a package tour, you didn't mind. But if you wait for about two months, I bet you the country will be open by then at the latest September. Depending on how this test goes and there's no massive spikes or people... There's more hospital occupancy and whatnot. That's going to be the criteria.

43:14:00 John Daub: So... That is so good. I would recommend that you... If you book your tickets, you can exchange them in case you can't come. But I would consider booking it. I'm not saying it's the right thing or the wrong thing to do. But you're locked into a price. My feeling is that inflation is going to make all the prices go up. I don't know what the demand is going to be to come to Japan, but demand also pushes prices up. Right now, there's not a flight, so the prices might be high just because of... There's not a lot of flights.

43:51:00 John Daub: Maybe if they add more flights, the prices come down. I'm not sure, but... I'd say it's 70% chance that the prices go up and 30% chance that the prices down right now. But it's hard to see. With inflation, the trends... Inflation usually doesn't just stop right away and roll itself back. So it makes a lot of sense maybe to book the trip and lock in the price if you can do that. Also, the yen is 127 to the dollar right now. So you might want to change some dollars into yen. Because I don't think it's going to get any better than that.

44:30:00 John Daub: Japan has been a problem with deflation. Meaning prices were going down. Alright? If you invest money at the post office or into a bank, the rate that you would get was like 0.01%. And the rationale behind that was that if you invest in the bank, people's money, because it's deflation, it was like what they were holding was losing value. So unless you did something with it, you were losing value. But if you did a post office account with 0.01% interest, you wouldn't be losing anything. And you would actually be gaining just a very, very little bit.

45:37:00 John Daub: What's your itinerary for the rest of this trip? Tonight I'll be filming at a kaiten sushi restaurant that's famous here in Nemuro. They actually have a branch in Tokyo, one. It's quite famous and very good. And then tomorrow I will be riding the train and filming that. In Tokyo, you could use your tax money instead of giving it to the government, you can buy goods from local rural areas that help support their economy and it deducts that from your tax. I'm not sure how furusato nozei (hometown tax donation) works, but they're using the furusato nozei to help to fund and keep this train line going.

47:23:00 John Daub: And so I'm very curious to learn more about that. And the city staff on Monday morning will do that. And then after that interview, I have to get in this car and drive to Kushiro, which is about 120 kilometers. And along the way, I have to get some drone shots and footage of the train going by. Because I couldn't do it today because obviously the rain, the drones can't go up there. I have to do my best to get those shots or else I'm not going to have a finished episode to edit when I get back to Tokyo.

47:48:00 John Daub: I got to come all the way back here for drone shots and filler video because this has to be a dramatic experience that moves you with music, drone shots from the sky of trains and beautiful scenery in the background for you to buy into this fantasy. That's true. It's not even a fantasy. It's real life. That's what I kind of want to get with this. There's animals, deer, foxes, other wild boars, things like this running around in the marsh, which is very famous in this side of Hokkaido. So I want to be able to present that information to you too.

49:05:00 John Daub: Any last questions? I personally am rather a fan of foxes. Dinner on the menu is Sushi Michael. And it's fresh. It's one of the best kaiten sushi restaurants. I'm kind of happy to be able to introduce this to you in this live in the main channel episode. So there'll be a lot of like if there's a train video and he has to be some food in there too. But I want to introduce you to Nemuro and it's hard to do that at this time of year. This is before the crab season, but after the winter season, which is the best time for birdwatching. Winter is the best time to do that here. And most of the foreign tourists who come to Nemuro come here for birdwatching.

50:09:00 John Daub: When does summer weather arrive? I think never. I think maybe for two weeks in August, maybe. This is so far up north. I have to level with you. My room got bright at 3:30. Okay. And unless you have blackout drapes, you start waking up at like 4:30 because it's so bright here. Because we're so far up north compared to Tokyo. What's a signature food in Nemuro? Crab. They have two kinds of crabs. Well, many kinds of crabs in Hokkaido, but Nemuro has those like smaller hairy crabs and Sapporo side has those big king snow crabs.

51:52:00 John Daub: That's the she remembers me from last time. That's the guests that are checking in. She's like, Oh, you're back. I'm like, Oh, you're back. I'm back because this is one of the best places to stay in Nemuro. All right, guys, that's been a lot of fun. This isn't the live stream I expected to do. I thought I would show you Nemuro in a different way, but we still have fun. We still can find a way to have some fun. John crab or lobster. I'm going to say crab. I feel bad for the lobsters. There's not so many of them. And that the whole boiling thing alive. I'm just not into that. But that's how they're cooked.

52:36:00 John Daub: By the way, I'm not going to comment on the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial. I've been watching it in the background. I just think it's not good to get into other people's stuff. We all have our own private lives. And you know, bad stuff happens in them. And it's not good to comment on other people's private lives. Because one day, your private life is going to become a disaster. And you don't make friends by being that person who gossips about other people's private lives.

53:12:00 John Daub: But with that said, it would be great to see Jack Sparrow again. Right? I have to say that though, but it's true. The one thing that I've learned the older that I get, the more it's not your place to judge and make decisions about people in their private lives, because it's just, you know, nobody is perfect. Everybody is human and everybody makes mistakes and everybody's messed up and everybody's got problems. And that includes me too. And to judge people means that you are perfect or better than them. And that's almost never the case.

54:06:00 John Daub: We need to all remember. Like, you know, I'm a person. It's not worth getting upset over or take offense over things. You just have to let things go and move on. And that's the way I kind of roll. So I don't have anything to say about that. Although I would be cool to see Jack Sparrow. Dad wisdom. In fact, yeah, that's I'm this is good practice for when Leo gets older. Leo if you're watching this 20 years later, Toby would gossip. I know. And that's why Toby is Toby. And he's from Hokkaido. So this is his area.

54:47:00 John Daub: Toby could be flying around here take a big duty on the windshield but the joke's on him because rain. All right um yeah ari will put that away thanks everybody i'll do another live stream tomorrow i want to do something every day but i want to also do a travel update and your input's really really great and i appreciate it um because uh i want you all to start planning your trip to come to japan because i want you to come out here so when i rent the riverboat that we have a full riverboat and we have a little bit of a party that'd be a lot of fun because i've been looking forward to that for like two years to get a yukata boonie and sail go down the the river with uh with you guys who are here in in tokyo for uh i don't know maybe just just a couple of drinks or maybe we have some food on there i'm not sure what we'll do but um maybe even the space boat if we can get it but uh yeah that'll be the best meetup ever that's like that's when we know we're back right all right everybody have a good day have a good night i'm gonna go in and check you guys out and i'll see you guys in the next video bye and then uh start to edit the video uh plan tomorrow and then i'll go to the kaiten sushi i don't think i'm gonna do a live stream but if i do you'll know because this is the live streaming channel bye bye everybody stay warm and dry talking to myself

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