00:00:00 John Daub: Everybody, how you doing? It's a beautiful afternoon here in Tokyo, but I'm inside editing the next video, trying to get a lot of stuff done. But it is a very important day, I think, to give you an update. Very important changes that happened over the weekend. To give you an update on visiting Japan. It is September 12th, I think. Yeah. Monday, September 12th, 2022. And I think that the situation is going to be changing a lot faster than we think it's going to be changing. Although I wanted to hear from you what you actually think is going on here because it's enough for me to do an update. Just the other day, when was it? September 6, the CEO of Japan East called for further easing of border control measures. He—this is from NHK World—when the CEO of Japan East Japan Railway, Fujisawa Yuji, says something, you probably should listen. But he's getting maybe a little bit frustrated with the way tourism is being handled. Because I know that there are industries within Japan that are suffering as a result of lack of tourists. And we're all wondering exactly when are we going to get back to everyday, normal life here? Probably not for a while. But foreign tourism currently requires a tour package in order to visit. And this tour package started on September 7th. I was at the airport just a couple of days ago and I didn't see any increase in tourism like 2019, of course. And I'm hearing from a lot of you, I'm getting some messages as well from those that have been booking their package tours. There are some people booking their package tours. This is enough for them to put it over the hump for them to visit. They got rid of the group package requirement and they moved to tour packages, to individual tour packages where you work with an agency to do it. The costs are exorbitant. And my advice to you two minutes into this live stream is don't book your trip yet. Don't book your trip yet. Things are changing so quickly. Don't book your trip yet. If you book it now, probably this fall, they're going to be making announcements that they're not going to be requiring you to do a trip that you don't want to do anyways. I understand that a lot of you might be addicts to visiting Japan and you want to visit this year. I also understand that in the world that we live in today, people want things right now. That's not Japan. People want things right now immediately. That never happens here. It's always slow. We still use fax machines. I mean really. So if you're looking for fast changes and you're living in the moment, you're probably doing it the wrong way. The way that Japan works is a little bit slower and they're going to do it a Japan way to start tourism, not the way that you want to do it, which is this fast paced, you know, Instagram stories, everything in 15 TikTok, everything in 15 seconds or less. Real world doesn't work like that. So if you have to book your trip now, you can book it, but you're only limited to a tour package. If you can wait just a little bit, wait just a little bit, we've got this.

00:05:00 John Daub: This is a comment which I thought was interesting. I think this was a Fuji TV show called The Prime where there's a news program. One of the deputy chief cabinets, Kihara san, was on there. Yeah, it says down there, Fuji TV program. I'll put a link to this article in the description. But it's in Kyoto News. It says Japan to remove entry cap in not so distant future. But what he actually says even more is in the interview on Fuji TV was that they will also seriously consider removing the package tour requirement based on the situation. And my guess is that if you don't book your trip now, they will change their strategy quicker. We moved from group tours to package tours in about two months time. I think it was like eight weeks or something. For the first month of that, almost no tourists were coming in. In June it was ridiculous. And then July we got a few thousand. What? And then August a little bit more. But it was nobody really was taking the bait here. And I say don't take the bait now. Just wait a little bit longer to book your trip. If you're booking a trip for November, I can't tell you what to do exactly. I sort of am. But I can't say don't book your trip. But like it's on the horizon. They have no choice. As you see, there's pressure coming from some really powerful industries to open this up. You're not alone. It's coming from within Japan. Like there are CEOs that I hear are like, what the heck are they doing? What are they thinking? Why is the government making these kinds of rules now? You can second guess it because the situation is getting better in Japan. The seventh wave is coming down now. Infections in Tokyo are like at 25,000, down to like 7,000 now, which is a pretty big decrease. The situation is a lot better now. You can second guess it and say maybe it's because they didn't have foreign tourists coming in that the numbers are going down. Finally, it's hard to say definitively what the results are of this entry ban, but we can say definitively that businesses are getting hurt. We can say definitively that people are losing their livelihoods, businesses are closing. There's an owl cafe that was in NHK World that was featured. The owner says that he had to go to crowdfunding to try to keep his business afloat, to pay for the insurance and the food for the owls and to keep it going. Said the majority of his business was inbound tourists. He's a business in Taitoku, which is just nearby me. And we hate to see any small business lose because of a government policy that is not based on science or doesn't make a lot of sense. You're not alone in that. There's a lot of Japanese calling for the reopening. So what Kihara san said in the interview was, we will review restrictions altogether. We have to carry it out in the not so distant future. Japan has already signaled that they're going to be doing these in steps, but they didn't signal how fast these steps are going to come. You just don't know. Now they give you kind of leaks and they kind of give you this sort of messaging that there's something on the horizon.

00:10:00 John Daub: We figured out that this group package tourism wasn't working pretty early on, and we—I've been living here for 13 prime ministers. I've been living in Japan, all right, 25 years or 13 prime ministers, whatever you like better. That's a lot of time. And you get an idea of this sense and the way that the things work here. Japan has rules. The rules often don't make any sense whatsoever, but we follow them anyways because this is what you learned in school. When you teach the schools, there's rules that you have to follow in the school uniform rules, the way you have to cut your hair. Rules? Yeah, like how high your skirt can be rules, you know, like it doesn't make—well, actually, that's probably a good one. But you don't question the rules. So I think it's at this point, the rules don't make any sense at all. And it's impacting Japanese businesses and people's livelihood. So you have to do that. It doesn't make sense to do the individual package tourism. I think that this is a tweener rule, like an in-between rule between the real opening and the soft opening. They had to put something in between, and they're still kind of testing it out. And as long as people don't book these, they're going to be considering what's next. It's just the way it is.

Hey, Vikram. How you doing? So my sense is they're signaling now. This came out this weekend, and that's a—this is a huge red flag. They already see that this individual tour package is not popular. So wait. And if you're living in the moment, you're one of these TikTokers that want their stuff right now, and you're like one of these people who swipe through a feed and you think, that's interesting. Stop for a moment. Put your phone down. Think rationally, for crying out loud. This thing is moving fast. All right? Two weeks is pretty fast. Now they can't just change the policy so quickly or else they'll lose face. It would be embarrassing for the Japanese government to make a policy and then change it within like two weeks. So they have to let this roll out, given some time. Let's let them save face and say, this is okay. The step is over. We get the picture. Let's move on. Right. I bet you the next one will be it'll be a step underneath just opening the damn thing up. And I don't know why they just don't do it now, other than they need to do it in steps. Because that's the rule. That's the way Japan operates. Easy to close down, hard to open up. Easy to—to—it's easy to slam the door, but they never just open it back up. It's never been like this. No rule. I can't imagine. I can't think of any possible rule that they just stopped because maybe there was an accident and they decided to change the rule. It's such a slow release of the steam. So for me, it wasn't really expected. But I can kind of see what steps that they had. The group package tour. I knew that they'd be holding the group tourists accountable. But what I didn't see when I predicted this, like a year ago, when they closed down after the Omicron started in October, November, what I couldn't see was that Japan as a country would have a higher rate of infection than the rest of the world. And that led to people thinking, look, if Japanese people can go to Hawaii and can go to Europe and can go to America, they're going to bring that stuff back the same as if a tourist who's American or European or Australian or Malaysian or Singaporean or Hong Kong or Filipino, they're going to be bringing that the same as if a Japanese tourist was coming here. It doesn't really matter. So why they're doing this in group package tourists, I guess the only explanation that I can think of at this point is because twofold. One, they need to have a rule, because Japan is a country of rules. They need to have a rule if it makes sense or not makes sense. And then you can judge it off of the rule and then change it. They need to be conservative, obviously, and they need to—and they need to make the citizens feel comfortable. And we see in the news how foreigners don't like to wear masks at all in all situations because of their personal freedom. They—because they—because they—but we feel in Japan, those people who don't want to wear a mask for their own personal freedoms don't give a damn about the people around them and how they feel. And in Japan, it's a community, a country of—where we do really feel a social pressure to make the people around us feel comfortable. Just yesterday, Rion, who's a YouTuber, he was doing a live stream at Tokyo station. And I was doing a live stream at Tokyo station. I didn't see him, but he saw me. In fact, he tweeted me that he saw me. He visually saw me. I couldn't see him anywhere. So I'm not going to go aimlessly looking at the chat. My viewers are telling me Rion is live over there. I'm not going to stop my chat and then go search for the albatross that might not be out there because people pull my leg all the time. But he's like, I didn't want to bother. Look, that's the way Japanese think. They don't want to—they don't want to make people feel uncomfortable. He didn't want to just come and show up in my live stream. That's a very thoughtful thing. Because he's—he's worried about the people in front of him. But like, Westerners would not hesitate and just go up and say hi. So I'm like, dude, you're a live streamer. You gotta go out there and you just stream it. Because what I've always said in my live streams is anything can happen. So you should have come and said hi. Don't worry. If it bothers me, just do it. I've never been bothered about somebody except for there's only one person, he's a YouTuber. He would always go live when I was going live and then come and interrupt my live streams and pretend like, oh, it was just an—it was just a coincidence. But it wasn't. That's the only person I've ever been annoyed at. And other than that, yeah, I don't mind. In fact, I had you found me cards. But the way that Japan thinks is that people care about the people around them and they think about that. And that's why they wear masks. Not for their own personal safety as much as it is—it just makes the people around them feel comfortable. So Westerners have just a completely different way of thinking. So I can only imagine that possibly Japanese politicians that are making the rules see the news and they have a fear that their constituents are going to feel uncomfortable and question them on why you let the foreign tourists come in who don't give a damn about Japanese culture, about the community around us, when we're all kind of still worried about what's happening because we're all getting sick right now. That's the only thing that I can, I can rationalize because that's not even based on science. It's based on how their constituents feel and the fears that they're doing. So, you know, again, after living here for so long, I can kind of understand why possibly they would do this. But I can't imagine the next steps, which are coming real soon. I can't imagine the next steps require you to register with an agency.

00:18:00 John Daub: Now, I'm going to go to my Patreon here. I have a lot of direct messages coming from Patreon supporters, and I got one just about 30 minutes ago. And by the way, I'm going to have some call in via Discord. So if you'd like to join in, I will take some of your calls and we can talk about this a little bit. I want to hear from you if you're considering—if you're in the live stream here, you're going to be able to see the link for our Discord server. Please sign up for it. You can—you can jump in to a chat room. Our moderators are going to set up—can you say set up a chat voice chat room? I think they can just do it anyways and then go in there and we're going to take some phone calls and I want to hear about your trips. If it's not about traveling, please don't call me and ask me telling me I'm having a good hair day or something. I don't—or what Japanese food do you like? That's not what we want. Stay on topic here. So I want to hear from you about where—what your thoughts are on this new policy and if you can wait a little bit longer and you can express your frustration with me as well, I'm happy to hear it because I feel exactly the same way. And it's kind of cool to be able to talk with you through Discord like we've been doing. But yeah, we got 15,000 people on our Discord server. It's growing pretty quickly and I'm really happy that our community is growing here. Okay, I'm looking for the email here. Deanna. I got an email from Deanna recently. Deanna wrote in here: "Hello, I'm—I'm sure you know this, but the current new rules are bad. Capital bad." Yes, I can extend my Hokkaido stay, but the hotel costs are double and approved with an approved agency. And now I'm told we must purchase insurance in case of COVID. It's costing quite a bit for three extra nights. I've missed six days, six Japan visits since COVID. So I'm—I'm paying a premium to book the tour package. And if you only have the time right now and you really feel that desire to come, you can come. I'm not going to tell you not to come, but I'm telling you that if you're—if you're thinking of booking a trip that's not interesting to you, don't do it. Just hold off a little bit longer. It's the price to pay with a Japan addiction. I love that. I love that. And I really enjoyed this Yaesu livestream, the one from yesterday. Thank you, Deanna. What I can say is, and I'm getting a lot of reports from Singapore, King Wong has been giving me updates on some of the costs associated to it. Right now, if you were to book an individual package tour, like an unguided individual package tour, I think, why would you do that? It will cost you a premium, maybe three times more than if you just booked it like a trip with Ana or one of the other airlines and booked your hotels yourself, you're probably going to pay three times more, is apparently what they're saying. And I got another report on Instagram from a direct message that some tour agencies are allowing you to book with them, but they're saying that you have the flexibility to just do what you want. It just depends on the tourist agency and maybe the person you talk to. But they could also be lying to you just to get you to book with them. But the costs are kind of the same. They just want—they just want the money. Maybe this is just a really selfish grab for cash. I don't know. But again, like if Deanna is not wrong in wanting to come to Japan right now, if you've been waiting for years and years and this is something that you have the money and this is an attractive enough, then you should just come right now. You don't want to miss the autumn season. Maybe. What I'm saying is 18 minutes in. What I'm saying is Japan to remove entry cap in not so distant future. If they remove entry cap, they're removing the tourism thing, the package tour thing. They're going to remove the package tour things sooner than later. Okay. It's because of the pressure. I can see it. I have a crystal ball. I can now—I can see it. I can—I could taste it. I could taste airlines. And speaking of which, we used to get airlines coming flying overhead all the time. And for the last two and a half years it's been so quiet. Listen, nothing. It's just literally the air conditioner which is on because it's kind of humidity—man crazy, right? We haven't had airlines coming over central Tokyo international flights for the longest time. And that's how I can kind of gauge—are tourists actually coming back? The answer is not really no. Because I don't hear the planes. We used to hear them overhead all the time. It's been so quiet, so quiet this whole summer. Although I wasn't really here the whole time. But you get the picture.

00:22:00 John Daub: Get the picture. Is that Michael Sasano? Hey, Michael. Hi, John. Been waiting for your updated travel to Japan info. Seems so confusing with the many changes going on. Hope things will start to get easier for foreigners. Thank you for the info. You're very well, Michael. And I'm always glad that you're you join us here. Let me, let me read a little bit of this as I set up going to our Discord server. We have a live chat here going on. Thanks moderators for putting this up. It's the OIJ Fireside Chat. See here, I can show it to you. So we got—we got it open. It's the OIJ Fireside Chat and you can just listen in over here too. But if you do come in and talk, yeah. Make sure you have your questions ready. And keep it on point. I want to hear about your experiences—about your trips being booked here, why you're not coming or why maybe you are coming. I think this is really useful information because a lot of you are all thinking about the same things. We want to go to Japan. We want to come right now. But we—we have some hurdles in front of us and I'm telling you those hurdles will be removed sooner. All right. Japan is reviewing the border control policy keeping the daily—and this comes from Kyoto News 21 hours ago—Japan is reviewing the border control policies of keeping entry daily entries below 50,000 and will remove it in the not so distant future. A government spokesman said Sunday. It doesn't make any sense to have 50,000 a day anyways. They're not even hitting it. They're not even coming close to 50,000 people coming into Japan. Why even have a cap? There's no tourists. Very few tourists are taking this package tour thing. I don't even think we're really getting over the last cap that they had. Why have caps other than you really need to have these rules in place? Because this is Japan. That's the way they think. That's with the way they do the things. Doesn't have to make sense to us or to anyone. Actually, the government will simultaneously relax other restrictions. Oh, this is—this is from 21 hours ago including a visa requirement—I like—and requirement to travel on a package tour when it completely lifts the daily cap on the overseas arrivals. So the requirement to travel in a package tour if they remove the daily cap of 50,000 a day, which they're not even coming close to, that they're going to remove the package tours. According to Kyoto News. And I saw the Kihara comments on Fuji TV as well that he said—I was listening to Japanese. I can understand about 90% of it. 90. Some things, some—some words I don't know but I'm like nodding my head. I'm going wow, wow. They put him on the spot and he had to—he had to show his cards a little bit. "The country's strict hold on simultaneously dropped the requirements for package tours when it completely lifts a daily cap on overseas arrivals. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said in a Fuji television program. The country's strict COVID-19 border controls have been gradually eased—gradually, very gradually—but have been in place for more than two years. Just recently the daily entry cap was raised to 50,000 from 20,000. If you're going to jump that much, why even have them anymore? And inbound tourists were allowed to travel on tours without a guide. Ooh, rule breakers. 'We will review restrictions altogether,' this is from Kihara san. 'We will review restrictions altogether. We have to carry it out in a not so distant future.' So not so distant could mean a lot of things, but I'm guessing within the next six weeks. I think in the not too distant future in Japan, time in my brain is in six weeks. And if more CEOs like the head of JR East Japan comes out and puts pressure, it could be three weeks. But the Japanese government, as I just said, is not going to lose face and say that they failed. They'll give it a little bit of time. A little bit of time. You have to give it a little bit of time. But less time is better than more. So please, let's keep pressure on them. 'Japan has seasonal attractions and fall and winter. We know there are a lot of people overseas who want to come to Japan.' This is from the Deputy Chief Secretary Cabinet Secretary. Okay, this is very high official. 'Japan should not lag further behind in attracting foreign tourists, especially at a time when the Japanese currency's weakness is making the country an attractive destination.' He added, look, I think they were banking that because the currency is 142.5 to the dollar, which levels we haven't seen since Heisei 10 or 1998. When I first came to Japan, it was at 147 to the dollar. It's crazy. That's enough of an attraction for you to get ripped off by a tourist agency because of the rules. I can't— I disagree. I think that your freedom is priceless. I think your freedom is priceless. So take it—take that. "Japan should not lag further in attracting foreign tourists." Right? The entry cap has been raised in stages since March to reach 20,000 into June. It sounds like they're doing the responsible thing, but why don't they base it on science instead? You know, especially at a time when the Japanese currency's weak—list. Hold on, here it is. Here's the punchline. The entry cap has been raised in stages since March to reach 20,000 in June. Although all foreign tourists in Japan are still required to obtain visas and—to ask to wear face masks during the trip. Why do they even need to say that? I guess what I was telling you is so dead on. There's just this feeling that foreign tourists always think about their own personal well being and they never consider that of the people around them. But what I'm saying as a response to the Japanese government is the vast majority of tourists, or I'd say like 90% of them, are very much interested in Japan and actually consider the feelings of the people around them because they're repeaters to Japan. Like Deanna, like a lot of you have been to Japan before. You understand some of the complications and the rules. It's not a mask mandate, but you understand that when you travel to Japan, like you—everyone is being looked at. And when people break the rules so blatantly, like Paul Jake, or Jake Paul did when he did his vlogs here 10 years ago, it seems like—like ages ago. And he was just such a bag that made a bad impression on people like me who've been living here for ages. I was grouped in with people like him because we're foreigners, and that hurt, especially YouTubers. He put YouTubers back three years because of the way he acted. It was huge for people like me. And I have no—no love for—maybe he's changed. I don't know. People change. But his actions created so many problems. So when tourists come here and they do something like that, it creates so many problems for people who live here because we're all judged same in every country, really. It's—foreigners are all grouped together, whether you live, you know, maybe not in your community. But on the whole, when I travel to Hokkaido, people don't know me as living here in Japan until I open my mouth and then say a few words. But I hate it. I hated getting grouped in. When I said YouTuber, I couldn't say it with pride. I said now it's okay. But back then, I had to say I was—you know, NHK world reporter or something in order to get access, because it was on the major news what he had done. All the stuff going to the suicide forest and just—you know, just banging cars and being disruptive to people and just being a real bad guy for laughs. Too—with whom. In 2021, just 249,900 foreign visitors came to Japan. So that is used to be 30 million. 2021 was 245,000, the lowest figure since comparable data became available in 1964 during the Olympics. So for 50 years, this is the worst tourism numbers in Japan, dealing a heavy blow to the country's travel industry. I'm surprised if a business is still in business. They're really hanging on tight. That had been—or maybe not as tight as they probably should be. That has been buoyed by inbound tourism demand during the pandemic began in 2000. I've already been fielding emails and messages from viewers and people who love visiting this country that people have already made their trips to Korea. People have already gone to Singapore, to Thailand. People are already traveling to other countries instead of Japan. And the government is losing—they're missing their big opportunity to open the border, for crying out loud. And I feel the same frustration.

00:27:18 John Daub: This whole livestream is not a complaint, though. It is an appeal to you to be more patient because we have the writing on the wall now and the—not to book your trips with this package tour garbage unless you really want to. It's fine, because it might be exactly what you would have done anyways. Don't book it and just let the government see the bad numbers and just open this up so you can travel the way you want to travel. All right. I don't go to a cheeseburger restaurant and that's not a bad—it's like going to a Chinese restaurant and the chef comes out and says, we only have burgers. It's like, that's not what I wanted because—but you're hungry and you have the burger anyways, and it's the worst burger that you ever had. Although I've seen some of the burgers at the Chinese restaurants, and they were actually maybe even better than they can be. Pretty creative. Makes you wonder. So that might not be what you want. If it's not what you want, don't book it. I know you want to come to Japan, but if it's not the trip that you want, don't book it and send a message. That's the strongest way to make this—to expedite this and get this back to what we want. That's all I can say to you. It's easy for me. I'm here—Thailand, to meet those strange ladies. All right, let's go to the phone line here. We got some questions in the Fireside chat mods. There's a link for the news article. All right, thanks. Thanks, guys, for that. Let's—let's go in here. Wow, we have a bunch of people and it's increasing pretty quickly. Cool. Hey, UFO Bob. Hey there, Peso. I gotta be invited here? I accept. Thanks, guys.

00:31:25 Zaf (Caller from Dallas): Hey, John.

00:31:28 John Daub: How's it going? Going very well.

00:31:33 Zaf (Caller from Dallas): We've got tons of people and tons of questions.

00:31:36 John Daub: I see that. I'm gonna put the microphone in between us, so maybe it's a little bit better. If you want to, you can raise your hand. You can raise your hand in the live stream. I guess it's somewhat similar to Clubhouse, although I haven't done that in over a year. We have Tim C here. How you doing, Tim?

00:32:00 Discord Moderator: The icons in the upper right hand for the phrasing. Your hand.

00:32:09 John Daub: Yeah. There's a request. No request to speak yet. We have 50 in the audience. 51. It's growing pretty quickly. Tim, welcome aboard. If you have something to add, let me know and we will start to cue this up. And I'm very interested to hear from you what your thoughts are on this situation. And my crystal ball—am I just being ridiculous, Amy? All right, Tim. Tim's not in this—in a speaking mood here, are you, Tim? Let's get somebody else in here. Hey, Zaf, how you doing?

00:32:48 Zaf (Caller from Dallas): Hey, how's it going?

00:32:49 John Daub: Yes, you are on.

00:32:53 Discord Moderator: All good.

00:32:54 Discord Moderator: All right.

00:32:56 John Daub: Okay, cool.

00:32:58 Zaf (Caller from Dallas): If you don't mind if I speak my thoughts and then I do have two questions for you all, if that's okay.

00:33:04 John Daub: Sure. For one.

00:33:06 Zaf (Caller from Dallas): So I come from Dallas and, you know, I've been planning this out since July with—with my friend. I'm just like, you know, feeding in this information. I'm always like, listening in. I'm checking it every day and all this other type of jazz. And, you know, it's—it's utterly frustrating, but I think with the recent measures, you know, it's a—it's a—I always say it's a step in the right direction, but it's not particularly where we want it to be. And so here's come—here comes where my questions come from. So mainly I'm gonna recite from what Taro Kono said where he said he's going to take the PCR test, which he did—which they did.

00:33:53 Discord Moderator: Sorry.

00:33:53 Zaf (Caller from Dallas): And then they took—took it to 50k, which they did. And then they said the final step is, you know, the visa waiver. So in your eyes—and you know, I also kind of want to know if everyone else thinks of this too, but in your eyes, do you think that we're at the final step?

00:34:14 John Daub: I think there's one more step in between then what Alex Kerr wrote in the Nikkei Asia. If you haven't already, you might want to check out that article. It's—he's been here for 50 years and has slightly more experience with the bureaucracy here in Japan and the way things work and put up so many valid points. I think that there might be one more step, but it's really, really hard to see what that would be. Maybe they keep the—the visa requirement in place, but open up the country. I think they want you to maybe fight for it because then you understand, you appreciate it a little bit more maybe. I think though that the—the biggest issue right now is a worry within Japan that tourists that do come here—not that they're going to bring in the virus—they're just going to make people feel uncomfortable, you know, like in groups, talking loudly without masks on, crowded trains and things like this. And I can see that actually happening. But that's not a reason to keep people out. Maybe it's a reason to, you know, educate a little bit more. And they're just finding ways to balance out the demands of the vast majority. The majority of Japanese don't really care if tourism comes back or not. And the reality is that there's a lot of prefectures that would were kind of tired of the over-tourism because Japan went from like almost no tourists were coming to Japan—it was like really low on the list—to 30 million a year competing with France and Italy and other countries—is that for the top spot? So you know that—that happened really quickly. So I think that Japan's going to initiate one next step and then I think—I'm not sure how quickly it's going to come, but it's going to come quicker than we thought. They're just going to give it up. But I know that the visa thing might be that next step. They'll open it up to anybody. But you need to get a visa and go through some kind of a filter and that might be enough to get people to start to come. And then when you get the visa, maybe you're given some information or I don't know—I really—it's hard to see but I'd say we're at the—I see the light at the end of the tunnel a lot clearer.

00:36:39 Zaf (Caller from Dallas): Yeah, I do see it too. And one thing I did like note is like also checking how the other countries are—mainly most of Europe is like open up at the current point. You know, you got UK, you know, France opening up as well and a lot of those places are like very tourist heavy. And you know, I hate being a person that likes doing comparisons but you know, I compared it to like other tourist heavy places like like, you know, Mexico and you know those—those places been open up for a long time. But you know, understanding how the mindset is—it's very slow to like go through and you know, I do have a second question and with that second question, with the entry cap being what it is right now, do you see them in my words, say like milking it out or dragging it out per se—like do you see that like happening before they go up to that next step?

00:37:39 John Daub: If the audio is—is—is worse, let me know here. I—I don't—I don't think that the—the next step is there's no more cap and it doesn't really matter. I don't think they get close to 50,000 a day coming in. And I just do think that I just saw a comment coming in through here that if there's a visa requirement, I'm not going. I'll say like for Japanese going to the US you need to register online for what's called an ESTA. They make Japanese do that. So Japanese aren't—can't—can't just arrive in the USA and go through. I think they're going to do something like this so they know who's coming through a little bit better. And digitally I don't think there's going to be—I don't know if they're ever going to go back to the way things were because even the mail service has gone up to like—you need to pre-register packages before you send them. Now you need to pre-register before you come to a country with the government. So that visas are all going to be like E-visas anyway. So it's kind of the same thing. So to go back to your question, I don't think they're going to reduce—they're going to do any more caps. I don't think the caps make any sense. I think they're just going to open up the country, but how they do it, I'm not sure. Did that answer your question? I kind of got lost within myself there. I think we lost him. UFO Bob—did I answer the question? Sometimes I get—yes, I get ahead of myself sometimes. Yeah, there's a bunch of you raising your hands in here. So we'll try to get through—through them a little bit quicker here. Baba Cola, how you doing?

00:39:20 Baba Cola (Caller from Hawaii): I'm doing great. Thank you for having me.

00:39:22 John Daub: Well, thank you so much for calling in. How—how can we help you today?

00:39:27 Baba Cola (Caller from Hawaii): Well, mine is just more of a kind of like a statement in regards to this whole traveling situation. I'm a small business owner in Hawaii, so I know like—even for it's a—it's a franchise with a major corporation. So even with going to Japan with the other corporation in Japan, it was tough to get a business visa process. There was a lot of complications and bureaucracies in that. So finally in October, you know, I am booked on the first half of my trip, I'm booked on an actual tour package to Hokkaido, so I'll be returning there. But then on the second half of the trip it's basically I'm self-guided—it's that interesting self-guided tour because because I'm already booked on the first half, they just extended out—which is what you mentioned before on your previous livestream about having the agency extend the visa application. So basically that's how my application is going through. But yeah, and then you know, in terms of Hawaii, actually a lot of the Japanese companies have been doing heavily promotions of their actual services in Hawaii. So I'm thinking that's kind of helping to pressure the government because right now in Hawaii we were only at around 5% Japanese tourism, which is really, really unfortunate for Hawaii. It affects us big time. So with the three Honu planes—because Japan bought those three—or ANA bought those three Honu planes and those are not cheap. And Governor I signed the bill to help pay for the remodeling of the terminal for ANA. So there's a lot of heavy investment from Hawaii to do this. And even our governor went to Japan to kind of petition for a special exemption for Hawaii because of the amount of money Hawaii has put in Japan. So I think it's going to get there. It's just that—you know, Japanese are a little bit more cautious. You know, I'm a yonsei—so I'm a 4th gen—so so a little bit more cautious. But you know what, they'll eventually get there. It's just that I know in the Western philosophy it's a little bit more, you know, quick, quick reaction. But we have to remember that in Asian cultures it tends to be like Ieyasu Tokugawa—I'll wait till the cuckoo bird sings.

00:41:44 John Daub: Yeah. Sort of the way it drives people crazy. But the longer—you know, if you are—you know, Japanese or Japanese American and you know the culture a little bit or you've been living here for more than half your life now, it's still frustrating. Even for Japanese it's frustrating but you learn how to be patient and it's just the way it is. But in the TikTok world that we live in now where things are like fast and you lose—you lose interest pretty quickly—it's—it's doubly so for people especially when they fall in love for Japan. But I'm—I'm kind of like—I don't know too much about the situation in Hawaii, but I—I do think that Hawaiians are more in tune to the way that Japan works. Not just based on the—the tourism that comes from Japan to Hawaii, but also vice versa from Hawaiians who come to visit Japan. There's just a really strong connection. So you would think if there was another step that this visa free—quick entry would be limited to certain regional areas at first and they would do a dry run to see if everything works okay. I can see Australians, Singapore, Hong Kong, maybe Malaysia and Thailand and Vietnam and—and Hawaii and Guam. I can see that happening—like residents from those places and then two weeks later, maybe they open it up to the rest of the world. But I know that—like there's a huge love and respect for Hawaii here in Japan and vice versa. And it just—you know, with the amount of investment—this is—this is what's killing me too, because everyone is getting ready for this tourism boom to happen, and we just are not getting the signals that are clear enough from the Japanese government to plan for it effectively. Another reason why you should reconsider booking under this current scheme. It's not enough information to plan your trip. And question to you guys is if they do—if you did book this trip, this unguided individual package tour, and then two weeks later, they changed it—they changed the rules to like, hey, you guys can just—you know what, just come in the country. You don't have to register anymore. How would that make you feel? So my warning to you—is that what Kihara san said? It's like saying, hey, don't buy the iPhone because the new iPhone is coming two weeks later. They never say that. Apple never says that because there's always a couple of grandmothers who don't realize that and just go out and buy it anyways. The prices usually go down too, on the older models as well. And I can't recommend the Apple iPhone 14 Pro because I haven't received my Apple-ite 13 Pro yet from Apple. It's almost been a year. Take that, Android. Let's go next to—who do we got here?

00:44:38 Discord Moderator: Tim C. Tim C. And if he doesn't speak up, I've got his question here before me and I can give it to him.

00:44:43 John Daub: Okay, cool. All right. Why don't you just let—why don't you just let me know Tim C's question here?

00:44:50 Discord Moderator: Okay. He's asking—I think he's asking what I'm going to eat for lunch. That's a very difficult question. I didn't hear anything. Mufaba, was there something—

00:45:16 Discord Moderator: Oh, you—yeah, you didn't hear me?

00:45:19 John Daub: No, you went blank.

00:45:22 Discord Moderator: All right. He's asking, if you go through a tourist agency, does that mean your options for accommodations are limited to what the agency agency gives you, or can you tell the agency the specific hotels you want to stay in?

00:45:39 John Daub: Yeah, that's a great question. I think that first of all, the hotel that maybe you wanted to go to might not even be here anymore, first of all. Second of all, they might just be completely booked with domestic tourism, especially the really popular ones, because if you don't book three months in advance, you're not going to get a room in some of the most popular places like Ginzan Onsen, Notoya or some of the ryokan and Kanazawa or Kyoto. They're just—they're always booked. But the tourist office—like, hey, we got somebody who'll pay double, triple the price—they might be able to find you something. Bottom line is that it's hard to tell because I think from what I read in the rules, you do have that flexibility and to do that. And the travel agent just makes the arrangements for you—explaining, maybe acting like a mediator between you and them. I'm not sure. I haven't received any messages saying that people couldn't get the accommodations that they wanted to or they couldn't go to the places that they wanted to go on this individual guided package tour. But to be honest with that, I haven't heard of too many people that have actually taken the bait and gone along with that. Usually the people that are coming here are business travelers that have gone like—like our friend from Hawaii who was able to book a trip to come here and then go up to Hokkaido more on his own time. These business visas usually set up by the companies. It's a lot of hoops to jump through. Or if you're coming here to visit family, the foreigners that are here—they fall to like 98% between those two. Not the expats that are coming here, but the actual international visitors are visiting family or business travelers.

00:47:27 Discord Moderator: I'll briefly add. Sorry for butting in, but I'll briefly add a bit of context to what the community has been talking about on Discord.

00:47:35 John Daub: Oh, please.

00:47:35 Discord Moderator: Because with these self-guided—yeah, because with these self-guided tours, there are certain agencies, as John has said, who are willing to sort of provide you with the contact point and the ERFS certificate. And what I noticed with at least one or two of these companies that are being discussed on our Discord community on the trip planning channel is that they basically just let you input whatever hotel you're staying in the first night and basically lets you off the hook outside of that. And you can book that yourself. It can vary by agency, but these one or two are specifically allowing you to do it on your own.

00:48:15 John Daub: Wow. So once you get in, you can pretty much do what you want.

00:48:20 Discord Moderator: Exactly.

00:48:24 John Daub: Interesting.

00:48:24 Discord Moderator: Which—yeah, it makes things sound like a rubber stamp process, but that's what it sounds to me.

00:48:29 John Daub: What I was telling—interesting and very tasty. What I was telling everybody in the last livestream was that Japan is a country of rules. Yeah, we all know that. But within those rules, you can sort of bend the rules to get what you want. It doesn't—don't take it as—if you don't follow the rule, you're going to jail or this is it—you know, within those set of rules, there's ways to get what you want. You just have to be a little bit creative and think about it. And the travel agencies want your cash, so I bet you you can wheel and deal with them. Maybe not on the price, but you can find ways to make it cheaper by your accommodations and whatnot. And then afterwards and say, look, I'm going to be for three weeks. I really don't know where I'm going to want to go after the first week. Can't you give me some flexibility? And right now the reports I'm getting is that—yeah, some of the places are doing it—just depends who you contact. But it's not all bad. But I'd say it's—it would be a heck of a lot better if we could get rid of—you know, some of the—the walls. And it just seems like that the writing is on the wall that they're gonna tear down—tear down this wall. All right, who do we got next?

00:49:43 Discord Moderator: We have our next question asked, I think Rebel.

00:49:46 John Daub: Oh, Rebel. How you doing?

00:49:49 Rebel (Caller): Hello, John.

00:49:50 John Daub: First time caller, long time listener.

00:49:54 Rebel (Caller): Yeah. Eight year veteran of traveling to Japan.

00:49:57 John Daub: Awesome.

00:50:00 Rebel (Caller): And two observations and a question.

00:50:04 John Daub: Sure.

00:50:08 Rebel (Caller): First observation, when I see these walking in Tokyo videos, it just kind of annoys me to see a lot of young people walking around unmasked, partying around—yeah, you know, and that—you know, hearing the context of we want foreigners to be masked, but everybody else in Shinjuku is just doing as they please.

00:50:25 John Daub: I think you're seeing it the wrong way. The guidelines are—they're not rules, but they're guidelines. When you're indoors, when you're on public transportation, places that are poorly ventilated—when you're at a restaurant in particular, these have been places that Japanese scientists have deemed to be where it's most transmissible. When you're outside on the street, you don't need to wear a mask. You just need to social distance—unless you're talking quite loudly, then you should wear a mask. But you don't have to wear a mask when you're—you know, walking around by yourself, not talking to anybody. That's a little bit of an overkill. And I believe Japan had a significant amount of people that died from heat stroke, heat exhaustion this past summer. It was really hot because they—they felt guilty about not wearing their masks, despite the fact that they're living in the countryside and there's nobody around them—they just didn't want to see—the sun is always watching you. There's always somebody who's watching you and people can feel that and you feel a sense of guilt. But—you know, not everybody feels the same way. So I don't get annoyed when someone's not wearing a mask outside riding their bicycles. There's a lot of Uber Eats drivers that don't wear their masks when they're Ubering around on their bicycle. And I completely understand that you wouldn't wear it in your car if you're by yourself. But you see Japanese doing that. So there is a line—I don't know exactly where that is—where you wear your mask and you don't wear your mask. In public transportation, you wear your mask. Anything that has public in it that's indoors or confined probably should wear your mask. If you're going to be talking to a lot of people or you're going to be talking in a crowded space, maybe you should wear your mask—even in the live stream—I'll pull the mask down when I'm talking to the camera, but when the camera is off, I'll put the mask back on because I can feel that it might make people uncomfortable, especially when I'm talking. But when I do talk, I—in particular, I try to talk towards the street instead of towards the sidewalk with people—like little things that are going on behind the scenes. So I can understand both—both—both sides to it. But yeah, that's sort of what's going on with the mask rules. Just it's kind of common sense stuff. Outside, it's not that transmissible—it's if at all. But when you're in inside places in particular—like airplanes, public transportation—you know, nobody wants to be doing it, but we think about those around us. And I understand the frustration. Thanks for that and bringing it up. It's something maybe we can give more guidance on to people so they kind of understand what the other people are feeling—what's it like in their shoes, not just in yours. I don't want to wear masks. I'll be honest. I went back to the US—I loved it. But when I came back to Japan, I could understand the Japanese point of view of it too—why take the risk? We don't mind wearing the mask as much—or I just feel better because I don't feel guilty. So there's—you know, everybody has a different way to look at it, but the rules—the social rules are still in place. And by the way, people are wearing masks less and less in Japan. Outside you're starting to see that more and more. But again, in public transportation and situations, you see most majority people still wearing them here. Who do we have next? We've got two people in the chat.

00:54:06 Discord Moderator: Yeah, go with eslink.

00:54:07 John Daub: All right. Mr. Eslink. Hi.

00:54:10 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): Hello. Good afternoon. Hello. From Mexico.

00:54:13 John Daub: Hey. Hola.

00:54:15 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): I just applied for my year in my ERFS visa thingy and it came through through an agency. They just wanted to know the lane number and the hotel number. When it came out two days later, it was a little more expensive than I wanted. It was about 200 bucks.

00:54:32 John Daub: Okay.

00:54:32 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): And I just did my E visa today and it should come in. So it was a little more expensive than we want—people. But we've been waiting to come in since we—since the last two years. So I think this process was manageable. And if you can afford it and you've been waiting—so we're gonna do it. And it was easy. So it's—he didn't ask for other accommodations. They'll let me do anything I want at the end of the day. I think what you mentioned—I have some—just another rubber stamp that they want to do.

00:55:03 John Daub: So yeah, I'm breaking in—so the moderators don't put you back in the audience quite yet. I have some—some follow up questions. And if anyone has any questions in the live chat right here that you want to ask eslink about his experience booking one of these package tours, just write it—you have about—you know, 30 seconds to do it. But—so how long is your trip to Japan going to be?

00:55:24 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): Mine's going to be mid November to mid December.

00:55:27 John Daub: Okay.

00:55:28 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): I'm doing enough time to get—I'm an American citizen, so I'm doing the E visa through the United States. So I'm going to have—I'm going to travel from Mexico. I'm about two hours away from the border. I have to go all the way to the embassy and actually pay the visa because they don't do online payments. I'm surprised because of that.

00:55:47 John Daub: They're working on that. From what I've been told, they're working on that. You know what? On Twitter, leave a comment to Taro Kono. He's the digital minister, and he's pretty cool. He speaks English fluently. Georgetown graduate from the US. So leave him a comment about that. His Twitter is pretty funny too in English. He's pretty frustrated as well.

00:56:11 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): I'll get on and get it and write to him, but I think it's just a rubber stamp, and I think they're three to four weeks ahead until they're gonna fully open it up. Yeah, just a matter of time.

00:56:23 John Daub: I think so too. I wonder—how would you feel, briefly, how would you feel if they changed the policies before you make the trip here?

00:56:32 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): Well, I already paid, so I can't—I can't say I'm not waiting, but if it's to get in—I've been waiting with my wife for two years to get in. And it's gonna be—it was gonna be our anniversary trip, so we're about a year late on that. So we're ready.

00:56:49 John Daub: That's how I feel too. You can't—you know, life is short. Here's an opportunity. You just have to take it. Somebody's asking here in the chat, how did you find the agency that you—you booked through?

00:57:02 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): Well, I just went on Google and put the ERFS certificate, and there's a couple of them that popped out. But the interesting part—you have to fill in your email, and then they'll send you a link because you can't see it right away on their website. They'll send you a link, and then you just click on the link and it just lets you go in—you fill in your number, your passport—just got to make sure you put your correct date, the correct passport, and then you just pay online. I was a little bit hesitant because this is the first time I see—I'm like, okay, there goes $200 to the drain if it doesn't work. But they came through.

00:57:40 Discord Moderator: Yeah.

00:57:40 Discord Moderator: I've also seen concerns from our members saying that they forgot to put in their middle name. They've put their date of birth incorrectly—like the month before the day or day before the month.

00:57:50 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): Yeah, you can—you can email them back. And I think do you think he changed that? And when they send me the certificate, they say if you need anything else—even mentioned to me, if there's even embassies that want a schedule out and they're even willing to send you—like—I guess a fake schedule or something at that end, that will get the embassy to say, okay, he's actually booked up with us.

00:58:13 John Daub: So that's good.

00:58:14 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): That's how they mentioned it to me.

00:58:16 John Daub: Sometimes it's not too bad to have an intermediary. And if the travel agent is good, then that—that could take a lot of pain out of the experience as well. Dylan writes in here, don't forget, the consulate is not open weekends, and it's five business days. Thank you, Dylan.

00:58:30 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's usually what it is. So I'm gonna have to be making my way to Houston in a couple once I get the approval for the visa. And then we gotta work on my wife's visa here in Mexico because she's from Bolivia, so it's a big hassle anywhere you look at it. So what—we're waiting and we want to go.

00:58:49 John Daub: Oh, cool. Well, when you did get here, share some of your experience here on the Discord server because we're all really interested in see how your trip goes and how the entry—especially entry into Japan goes with all the changing policies.

00:59:03 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): Well, we'll keep everybody posted.

00:59:06 John Daub: Yeah.

00:59:06 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): First of all, I need to get the visa approved. And we're happy because of that.

00:59:11 John Daub: I'm sure it'll go okay. And it seems like you found a pretty good travel agency to work through, despite having to pay extra few hundred dollars for it. But—

00:59:21 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): And it's worth it. So if you can afford it, of course—now you got to wait a little bit more.

00:59:26 John Daub: Yeah. And you'll hit the beautiful autumn leaves as well and take advantage of the exchange rate. So that's might work out pretty good in the end.

00:59:34 Eslink (Caller from Mexico): Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's—that's—we're excited. Getting more for a dollar, so it should be worth it.

00:59:40 John Daub: Exactly. Thank you so much for calling in. We got nine Merlin engines in the house. How you doing? Good. How—how—how can we help you today, sir?

01:00:02 Link: Link answered pretty much most of the stuff I was gonna ask.

01:00:05 John Daub: How big of a pain in the—

01:00:06 Link: —butt is like applying for the visa process?

01:00:13 John Daub: That's hard for me to answer directly because I've never had to do that myself, except in 1998 and again in 2004. In general, it just takes time. I don't think anything moves very quickly in Japan, but especially if you have to go and pay at the embassy, that right now is the policy. Until they get the website or the E visa going for the US and Canada and the rest of the world, you have to pay at the embassy. And that just takes a little bit of time—I'd say—paperwork is very important in Japan, more so than in other countries, because there's sticklers to it. And if you make a mistake with the paperwork, it could set back your application days. That's another experience that I've had in the past with dealing with Japanese bureaucracy. You have to read the instructions and the paperwork carefully. If it asks you to write in bold, all capital letters, do it. Don't—you know—write in lowercase because that's your style, man. Yeah, you have to follow the rules exactly. Because it just—it makes things just go by so much quicker if you do. So other than that, I don't see—I don't think it's as painful as it was maybe a couple of weeks ago. It's getting better. And as we exchange information back and forth, especially here on the Discord server and the Only in Japan Discord community, we exchange information back and forth—it becomes a little bit less painful because we're talking to people who've already done it, who can tell us the pitfalls and the places that make it a little bit more challenging. But as we heard from a friend in Mexico, you just go online and if you find the right travel agency, the process is a little bit easier. Maybe that's one of the benefits to paying a few hundred dollars more for that service, but without it—we also talked to a business traveler who did it himself, and it can be a very arduous experience. It just can almost take the love out of travel because of all the paperwork that you have to do. These policies are changing very quickly. So it's very hard for me to say what they're going to require in two weeks from now. My friend Peter, boy—he had to get his PCR test despite the fact that the Japanese government announced in advance that they were going to get rid of that. But he had to buy it anyways because he—he was two days early right before for coming back. I think he came back just—was it a week early? I can't remember. We'll take a couple more questions. Here we have Martha. Oh, in the house. How you doing? Sorry—hello, hello. Hi. How are you doing today? I can't hear. So, Martha—yeah, if you have a question, you can type it in the fireside text as well. Or we'll come back—come back a little bit later. We have poke951. How you doing?

01:03:29 John (Poke951): Good job.

01:03:29 Discord Moderator: Doing good. My name is John.

01:03:32 John Daub: I've been watching you for several years now. I really appreciate all the videos that you posted. Thank you. But—so I—I have two questions for you.

01:03:44 John (Poke951): So I—I know. Oh, God. I know—I know—

01:03:49 Discord Moderator: Oh, God.

01:03:49 John Daub: I can't remember the other person who was speaking to not too long ago about the es—

01:03:56 John (Poke951): ES or ERF certification. I know.

01:04:01 John Daub: Or Lisa, I remember you said something about an old video—that it lasts like about a year or something like—

01:04:09 Discord Moderator: —that and then it expires.

01:04:10 John (Poke951): Right.

01:04:11 John Daub: Okay. Yeah.

01:04:14 John (Poke951): Okay.

01:04:14 Discord Moderator: Okay.

01:04:14 Discord Moderator: Okay.

01:04:15 John Daub: So should I go ahead and do it now? Because what I plan on doing is I plan on—or at least hope I can go—like at the beginning of January in order to go into—

01:04:28 Discord Moderator: —Japan and all that.

01:04:29 John Daub: And it's gonna be my first time. So I'm a little bit nervous. I just want to make sure I get everything right. But I'm just trying to follow along as best as I can—like listening—

01:04:40 John (Poke951): —to—like the news and all that—

01:04:42 Discord Moderator: —watching you and all that.

01:04:44 John Daub: All right. Dylan is telling me that it lasts for 90 days and not for a year. So that's something that you should consider. Yeah—not a year. These policies are changing so fast. This is why I'm—I'm very skeptical in telling people, please come to Japan right now. This is a great opportunity for you to do this because the policies are changing so fast. And we have on the writing on the wall from the minister, Kihara san, who said on Fuji TV and a news program this weekend that in the not too distant future—which to me I take as being six weeks from now—within six weeks, they're going to be reassessing and then getting rid of the travel quotas as well as probably the visa statuses and the requirements. I feel bad from the embassies. The embassy workers have to work triple time to try to get all this stuff done in their own way. A lot of them might be bankers who are used to finishing work at 3pm, right—they work nine to three, and now they're pushing papers like crazy. I'm sure that this unneeded step is really hurting the embassy's ability to do really important stuff. But—you know, I—if your trip is—if—bottom line is—if you have to travel and—and the way that the time is allowing you, you have to travel on these package tours because of this is when you—the only time you have a vacation—you are so set on coming to Japan—you don't have the flexibility like I have as somebody who lives here because I'm not—I'm not traveling to Japan anytime soon because I live here. Then I—you know—you're going to have to do what you have to do and take the trip. But I'm telling those that are a little bit more flexible—that are waiting for the ideal situations—don't pick a package tour or a situation that you're not comfortable with because you think this is your only chance. It's not. It's changing quickly. Don't give up. It's the light at the end of the tunnel. It looks bright. It's so bright, it's blinding. I can't see anything—which means I don't—I can't see my crystal ball. Yeah. 90 days from Dylan. Thanks for that. We can take a couple more. We got Ginger Ninja here, by the way. Just really quickly—this is the postcard from the top of the Tokyo Skytree. I'm sending these tomorrow from the top of Skytree. So if you want to support the channel, I appreciate it—go to Patreon and join the poster club. If you do it within the next 24 hours, I will send it from the top of the Skytree. I was going to go today, but I didn't—tomorrow. Ginger Ninja, how you doing?

01:07:23 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): Hello, can you hear me?

01:07:25 John Daub: I can.

01:07:26 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): I'm doing well. How are you?

01:07:29 John Daub: Getting hungry.

01:07:32 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): I just came back from Japan yesterday. I went the visa route. I was just gonna speak like someone asked about how difficult the visas are and it is a bit of a—bit of a pain with all the paperwork and everything. I was going to ask you, do you think it's possible that by the end of this year that there's no restrictions, no visas required and you can just enter as pre-COVID, or is that more of a next year possibility?

01:08:04 John Daub: It's hard for me to say that it's going to be like 2019. My thinking is no. But I believe that the next step will be one that's very much more attractive than what they offer right now.

01:08:15 Discord Moderator: Probably.

01:08:16 John Daub: Maybe they keep the current situation for the rest of the world and they only release it to five or six countries or they—you know—they—they gradually open it up. I think that's the safer route for the constituents that are—you know—as I said—the vast majority of Japanese don't care whether tourists come here. In fact, they kind of like having quiet streets—especially the Kyotoites. Another reason why I don't like Kyoto. Go to Kanazawa. It's like a mini-Kyoto. But the—the point is I—I don't—I don't foresee a—just get on a flight and come to Japan by the end of this year. But I—I do see it by spring of 2023—all conditions being good. And I do see this year an easing that makes you comfortable and is very close to exactly what you want. But there's probably going to be a hurdle or two right now. There's a lot of hurdles. Actually, I wanted to talk with Ginger Ninja more about his experience because he just came back from Japan. So if you want to—you can raise your hand—we'll bring you back in here. I'm kind of curious about the process and I'm sure that some of the viewers might have some questions. While we're waiting for that, how about—do you have a question? Hey, John, can you hear me?

01:09:46 Discord Moderator: Hey, love your channel. I had a very serious question about a very serious issue.

01:09:49 John Daub: A very serious issue.

01:09:51 Discord Moderator: When Japan gets rid of the entry requirements and there's no visitor limit, will there be enough takoyaki and taiyaki for everyone?

01:09:59 John Daub: I think at first they might have shortages—pretty much like the microchips and all the electronics that we want right now. That's a good question. You know, I—it's actually a quite serious question. I know that a lot of the food suppliers here—they are supplying for a shrinking population right now. So I don't think—I think if we come—a lot of the suppliers for restaurants have gone out of business as a result of lack of tourism because there's less eaters and they just couldn't—they had so many losses based on their surpluses of food and stuff. Many of them have gone out of business. So it's going to be really hard to get it back up. And this policy that they have in place is hurting them because they can't invest their money into a strategy that might not be there. They—they can't take a chance like we can on visiting Japan. And the rules won't change. Again—this is why I'm so happy we have an ambassador from the US Embassy because he can push for things that the US businesses need to get their businesses done. So this question goes beyond just the takoyaki, but my answer is—I think in the first couple of weeks we might see some shortages—we might see some food shortages. And that's another reason why Japan has probably structured this reopening in these micro steps so that it is less of a risk—but they need to do these micro steps in shorter distances. Meaning like—okay—say that we're going to do this for a month and then we're going to do this for another month and we're going to do this for another month. Because if they are opening up slowly to help businesses prepare for this mass opening—they're doing an awful job by not forecasting this out to small businesses so that we have enough takoyaki and delicious foods and yakitori and all the good stuff. Imagine you come to a restaurant and everything's sold out except for seaweed and rice. How they ate—you know—50 years ago or 60 years ago when after—you know—before the occupation—is pretty tough. Thanks for the question. Ginger Ninja—can you tell us a little bit more about your trip and the process for you to come in? What was it like to enter Japan with—with the My SOS app? And was it painful and challenging?

01:12:26 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): Is my audio better now? I just put your phones in.

01:12:30 John Daub: I think we can hear you. Okay.

01:12:32 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): Okay.

01:12:33 Discord Moderator: Yeah.

01:12:34 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): So I've never really traveled before, so that was another factor that may have made it more difficult. But the My SOS app was actually surprisingly easy. And like going through the airport and security and all that was insanely quick—like I think after I landed—like walking to the security and all that took longer than actually going through all the security in that—in terms of like the paperwork and all—I think it was easier than I thought it was going to be. Like I printed off so many documents. I read every single little thing because I was like so scared I was going to like stuff something up. But yeah, I think if you—if you do it diligently and make sure you're following everything—it's not too difficult.

01:13:28 John Daub: Right?

01:13:28 Discord Moderator: But—

01:13:30 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): Yeah—like I wasn't—like I was saying in the chat before, the lady at the embassy kind of told me to lie on my application because I was going to visit my girlfriend, but we've been dating for four years and she was like, your documentation is a bit weak. Just say that you're getting married—which was eh, I don't know. But like especially like in Australia when you've been dating that long—we haven't been living together but like it sort of counted as like when you've had that long of a serious relationship—it's—it's—it's counted as marriage or whatever. Especially if you'd lived together. But that was the only thing that was a bit odd and I think an outlier that—like—no one else would really experience. But what you were saying about the visa applications—where if you stuff something up—well, that was interesting because they have an email address. Because I'm from Australia—this—I don't know if this is Australia only, but—like—where you can fix your documents up and resend it and you don't have to book another—

01:14:34 Discord Moderator: —or anything—which is good—but it just— it'll delay the application a bit.

01:14:39 John Daub: Yeah, thanks for adding that in there. We saw—I saw in the chat somebody else had mentioned—so you can—you can fix that up without having—without being penalized. That's not always the case in Japan, by the way. All right. I remember taking a ticket, waiting in line for hours, and I missed my spot by—by one second, and they made me take another ticket instead of—and had to wait for another couple of hours. It just depends. But I'm glad they have this out because I'm sure it prevents a lot of headaches and angry people and more work down the road. It's more efficient.

01:15:12 Discord Moderator: It's not always the case with other countries either. Like with the US I got turned back at the embassy that cropped out the white part of the paper in my application form. But with Korea—with a Korean visa—they just told me to just fix up the photos and come in back in 20 minutes.

01:15:29 John Daub: So it can also be depending upon who you actually talk to—which official and which person. It's just sometimes it's a lot more complicated. But in general, Japan sticks to the rules very closely. But within these rules—which stink, and I think most people do agree with it—it's maybe just a rule because they have to have a rule that you can bend it a little bit and sort of find a way that works for you. That's always been the way that I've gotten through Japan. I don't break the rules. But you could find a way to kind of within it to navigate and get what you want, or at least a compromise that makes you happy until they change the rules that—you know—become advantageous to you.

01:16:08 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): Yeah—that was sort of my view on the visa application—because it's like you have to be a de facto partner or engaged or like—married with kids or whatever. I mean—when I—pardon?

01:16:22 John Daub: How can you prove that, though—you're engaged?

01:16:24 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): So—like that's the thing is—like when I called them up—because I made sure I checked beforehand—they're like well—we have those—those rules because otherwise it's too hard to prove. So then I spent—I said—well—if I'm able to prove the relationship—like—is that okay? And they're like—we don't know if it's possible without like living documents or whatever. So I was like—all right—I'll prove you wrong. Which is my view—I spent like two weeks doing like a 25 page document—like going over our relationship—how we met—why Japan's important because she's half Japanese and she's—she moved there earlier this year so I was going to visit her—and yeah—to get to the embassy. And then she's like—oh—it's still weak. And I've gone through all this effort doing like this proper report and like overview. And she was like—just change this little bit and say that—make it a bit more serious. Say that you're going to get married and like—you need this last step or something. So I was like—oh—okay. But even then like that—I got my visa approved like five days before my flight—which was very nerve wracking. And then after that it's like—oh—you need to get through the PCR test. And I actually got a sore throat—I think tonsillitis or something—I don't know—over the weekend. So then I'm like—so like—if I get an—if I'm positive—then like any accommodation I book—like some of the Airbnbs are only partial refunds—have to push my flight back—the visa—like the visa—I can still use the visa—but it's just like it would be such a pain and I'm so glad that they got rid of that PCR thing—but I know I'm just like so frustrated with the rules overall. And I just checked the embassy now—this in Australia—and they have no bookings available for these applications. Like they're completely booked out. So to me that's very frustrating because I want to go at the end of the year and it's like—well—if I can't even book—make a booking for a visa—like—how am I supposed to get in?

01:18:23 John Daub: Another reason why they're probably going to get rid of the—thanks for sharing that. That's kind of big information. I didn't know about that. If people can't book to get the visa that want to come to Japan and Japan's counting on tourism and want to get those numbers up—that's kind of a massive failure. They have to get to this E visa thing. So I bet you Australia is going to get this E visa. Everything will be online soon—just the payment maybe at the embassy. I don't know what they're going to do—but it's a massive failure on their part and I'm sure that the government officials are like—let's get this thing—this all electronic—for crying out loud.

01:18:57 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): But I didn't have to pay for my visa. Is that like—

01:19:01 John Daub: Yeah, you know, I don't—meant to be paid for—I think for some—some nationalities or for some people there are costs associated with the visa. I'm not really sure myself—but from what I've been told is that some nationalities need to pay for the visa and to do that they have to physically go to the embassy or there's some sort of fee associated with it. I'm not sure. Some nationalities don't have that. I believe Australia might be one of those that don't have a—have a fee or—or—yeah, I don't know. But you didn't go—did you go through an agency or did you go—

01:19:33 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): You did right yourself—almost in myself—it was very interesting flying to Japan versus flying back—like I had to go through—yeah—the visa application—all this paperwork and that and make sure I had a folder with everything I need to get into Japan. And then flying back—it was like nothing—like I did no checks—no My SOS—just the ticket—my passport and like—I'm good to go.

01:19:59 John Daub: Yeah. Alamri20 writes in here—do you have to book a flight in order to get a visa?

01:20:09 Ginger Ninja (Caller from Australia): That was another weird thing is I had booked it already as like a sort of a birthday surprise gift to her—thinking the borders would open because—like I've been watching your channel and it looked promising. And then we had the massive COVID spike and on one end—like the embassy was like—oh—like it's good to have your ticket book because that shows like you're serious and like it helps you the case. But then when I had my interview at the embassy—the lady was like—oh—you already have your ticket booked—like—like sort of like I would have waited. So you don't have to have it booked—but I don't know if it's better to have it or not—like over the phone and like from what I was reading—like the sense that having it booked—like shows like you're more serious nor guys or whatever. But then at the—when I was at the embassy—they sort of were like—oh—I would have waited—like the rules are unclear—like they were sort of unclear as to the rules as well—because they keep changing—which is another reason why I think she helped me out is because like they—I think—yeah—so a lot of people want people to like come to Japan. So the people at the embassy were very, very kind. But no—you answer your question—you don't need your ticket booked.

01:21:20 John Daub: Okay—you don't need to get booked. What I did in the past because I've had—I've been the countries where you needed to get like a hotel booked and everything in advance—sometimes they just honor if you have a reservation and you haven't paid yet too—if that's also a case. Usually they'll hold the reservations for 72 hours. So before you go in—you could make a reservation—hold it and print that out and said that you have this—and they're not going to call ANA to even confirm that usually. So thanks for sharing the information, Ginger Ninja. That's all really good stuff and I appreciate the time and sharing that. Yeah—yeah—go ahead.

01:22:01 Discord Moderator: We have a question that's in the Fireside Chat that kind of relates to the questions that were just being answered and should I go ahead and go with it?

01:22:09 John Daub: Yeah, please.

01:22:11 Discord Moderator: So this is from Dachian. This person says, my partner and I are looking to go to Japan in December. I'm half Japanese and would like to bring him along to get marriage approval from my grandparents. I haven't seen my Japanese family in 10 years. Japan doesn't recognize partnerships, only marriage. For the relatives visa—so we would need a courthouse wedding and they wanted a full itinerary, pre booked flights, hotels, etc. And we could still get declined. So potentially a huge loss of dollars. Plus I need to formally re-register for my citizenship, which I thought was automatic. Ridiculous requirements like I need to get a family register from the place I was born in Japan, which can only be done by someone in person collecting it—issued the last three months—et cetera. Or do I jump on the package tour? But they might not accept our carry as it would say stay with family—visit family. If I wait too long, they might die and I might not ever see them again. These rules are too much. We want your thoughts.

01:23:18 John Daub: Gosh—when you put it like that—you don't wait. All right? If you need to go—you go. You find what you do—whatever you need to do to go. And one of the reasons why this is so important—this live stream for a lot of you—is that there are people that are—that are getting through this bureaucracy that are getting through these procedures to make their way to Japan—whether they're bending the rules a little bit or they're—they're just paying for the package tours—I can't tell you which is the best route for you—except to say that if you are worried about seeing family members—and of course—I was the same way too—because—you know—I've got family members that are up there in years. And we had planned to go—we had to cancel three—about three or four times to go back to the US—you know—you have to—if you think the timing is right and you know you can afford to do the package tour—then just do that. But my point is that the flexibility—if you have the flexibility and you can wait—wait—because we know that there's procedures that are so frustrating. Kihara san over the weekend just laid it out and said—we're going to be in the next—not too distant future—changing the rules again. These rules have been changing very fast for the first two years since 2020 when they initiated this—there was no change, really. If you were outside Japan when they closed the doors—you couldn't get back to your job—you couldn't get back to your family. If you were a business traveler—and you were in the US for business—when they closed the doors—you were trapped there for a couple of months until you could work out with the embassy to come back. It was bad. We had separated families and we had people dying and they were trapped. And the situation was awful. The government didn't budge. Do you remember when the Diamond Princess—probably the government wants to forget that—but for the longest time—they—this is how stubborn the government can be. For the longest time—they wouldn't report the—the Diamond Princess as part of the coronavirus infection numbers. Does everybody remember that? NHK would have an asterisk and go—and 1,000 people from the—from the Diamond Princess or 570 people from the Diamond Princess—they—they didn't want to put that in the numbers. They're so worried about it. It's frustrating and it's—it's—dealing with the government can be frustrating. They're not going to bend the rules just because one person is complaining. But if they're getting pressure from VIPs and company CEOs and people that are losing their livelihoods or workers are being—you know—the vast majority of Japanese might not want tourism to continue—but if Japan is losing tax dollars as a result of companies like JR East having to lay off workers—that's a big deal to the government and they rethink their plan. Maybe it's a little bit more important than the wishes of some people that are in their 80s—living out in the countryside—that don't see tourists anyways. Most of the towns in Japan never see a tourist. All right? The reality is most tourists stay right here in Tokyo—Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima—up that golden route—back and forth. Right—you don't see a lot of tourists out in the countryside. So—I mean—all I can say is that if you have a family member and you're worried about them—you just do what you got to do to go. But just keep in the back of your mind in that decision that it could change as early as within six weeks again. And I get a feeling that it's going to—but I can't definitively tell you because—again—this is something more urgent than what some YouTuber says. Okay—I feel for you there. Yeah—that'd be the worst thing—to lose a family member because—and—not be able to see them one last time because of this. You have options now. In 2020—there were no options. That was one of the reasons why we were scared to go to the US—despite the US being open and we could return—we were not convinced that Japan would not close the border again like they did—shutting us out of our livelihoods and our families on this side. We're past that now. Japan is not going back to the way things were in 2020. Japan is not initiating states of emergency—despite very high infection numbers. We're not going back down that road anymore. This is all positive. It's just not exactly what we want. It's not on par with other countries—but it's changing fast—and Japan will do it in a Japanese way. Thanks for—thanks for writing that in the fireside chat. I have one last question here for Shane. 34. How you doing? Or not. Oh—there he is. Yeah—good. Oh—so you want to listen to me through the Discord and not through YouTube—because there might be about a 45 second delay depending on where you—

01:28:37 Discord Moderator: —are in the world.

01:28:41 John Daub: So how can I hear—how can we help you today? All right—

01:28:56 Shane (Caller): I just—

01:28:57 John Daub: I'm coming there in the 24th—

01:28:58 Shane (Caller): I've got a visa in Australia through to go visit my brother—

01:29:04 John Daub: He lives in Tokyo there. And—and—

01:29:14 Shane (Caller): And also—

01:29:17 John Daub: Can you turn down maybe push mute on your computer?

01:29:22 Shane (Caller): Sorry—I'm gonna have to go—

01:29:23 John Daub: My audio is terrible. Oh yeah—we can hear you clear on this end though.

01:29:34 Discord Moderator: Yeah—maybe just to interject for a minute—we can come back to Shane just at the end—I guess—just going to a lighthearted question that has been asked on the on the fireside chat by a member named Jackie. This person said they have a trip booked for December. Fingers crossed restrictions are lifted. But would you recommend exchanging to Japanese yen in the US right now due to how strong the dollar is?

01:30:01 John Daub: Heck yeah. Kanae asked me this this morning because my dad gave her like a thousand bucks for Leo or something for Christmas and she said should I change this? Yeah—change it. Now we're at 25—we haven't seen this level in 25 years. Yes—sure—the yen might go up to 150 to the dollar. We heard that the Bank of Japan would probably interject and do something before it gets to that point. So we're at—we're at the verge where you know things are going to go up or down. It's at 142.5. Yeah—change your money. Anything above 135—change your money. Anything over 140—change your—don't even ask. Change your money. It might go up—but this is the limit. This is incredible—we haven't seen 140 to the dollar since 1998. So answer is—if you have US dollars and you want to change it—if you change it when it was 125 to the dollar—you got a great deal. If you change it to 135—even better—it's still a great deal here—it's insane—you'd want to change your money—it's right—I don't know—I don't think the yen is going to stay weak. But the Japan doesn't want to increase interest rates either on par with Western countries because that would encourage Japanese to save as well. And the last thing we want are Japanese people to save their money. We want them to spend their money. Japan wants inflation. Okay—we had like deflation where costs are going down. The biggest issue with Japan economically is that if you have—if you have prices going up—wages for these workers are not—and that's the biggest worry—whereas everything gets more expensive and Japanese companies—despite making more money because of the exports and collecting the US dollars—are not giving workers more money to help offset the increased living costs. So for the Bank of Japan and the reserve here—it's—it's kind of a conundrum where they don't want to raise interest rates. And that's really the main driver between—you know—why the yen is going to stay probably weak for a while. Japan doesn't want to raise its interest rates. So I can't imagine it's going to get below 130 by next year. But—you know—this stuff is so fluid—it could change based on—you know—the Bank of Japan making a decision tomorrow. Who knows? Change—my gosh—change your money and don't lose it if you're changing it to cash. Shane—how are your issues with the audio here? I don't think we have any hands raised in our audience anymore—so I think we're good with that.

01:32:40 Discord Moderator: No, John—so—and I had asked him to correct his audio on the chat—so I suggest that we just go ahead and—

01:32:52 John Daub: Yeah—we could hear Shane pretty good—he was going with his mate on the 24th or something—but I couldn't hear the rest of it. I do think that there's going to be some hurdles to coming to visit Japan if you come—right now—I'm recommending that if you have flexibility in your schedule—don't come to Japan and send a message that this is not good enough—which will help to speed up the process. But from what I heard in Australia—appointments at the embassy are all booked. So it seems like this is the capacity that Japan's government is okay—comfortable working with. If the capacity to accept visas—which is the requirement to come in Japan—is all at capacity and they can't increase that—these numbers are the best that they can do. I don't know if the Prime Minister Kishida knows that. The embassy in Australia—in Sydney—I believe is booked solid. Yeah—Canberra—right—thank you—is booked solid. And they can't get more travelers. So why you're never going to hit that 50,000 quota if you can only serve—you know—100 people a day at the embassy in Australia. So what is that? That's not a lot of people. Maybe that's your bottleneck. Prime Minister Kishida—you're—well—you're welcome. Let's get everything digital—for crying out loud—and let these people get to Japan who really want to go through this package tour deal. But the writing's on the wall—everybody. And we're closer to the end—in the beginning—you don't—you don't have to go look back too far just to remember how bad it was in 2020—this—this live streaming channel—I was on top of this at the end of January 2020—before I went to Hokkaido. We could see that this is going to be a big issue with travel to Japan. And since then—for the last two and a half years—I've been doing these travel Japan travel updates to try to help you out—and I've never gotten more messages on people who want to book their trips—they're just confused and they're not sure what to do. My advice to you is join us on Discord—it's free to sign up. We have a community of 15,000—a lot of you are making the trip to Japan and you're also sharing your experiences in our trip planner. And the conversations there are very enlightening for me—as well as somebody who lives here—I don't have know as much about tourism because I live here. But reading your accounts and getting your feedback and your messages are great—I appreciate the messages through Instagram—but this is what Discord is for. And we became Discord Partners a few days ago—which is really cool—we worked pretty hard to try to get that. And I was happy when we finally did. So we're going to use this Discord server a lot more. I'm in there quite a bit—as much as I can—saying hi to you—introduce yourself—we have an introduction tab—tell us where you're from—it's a very friendly—warm community—and I believe it's a place where you're going to be able to get up to date information from other travelers about their process and their experiences coming to Japan. And I hope it's a resource for you because it's a resource for me already—as I learn about your struggles and your trips. I'm gonna get some lunch. I'm thinking what I should eat now—I'm pretty hungry. If you do have questions—you can leave them in the—in the chat—in the comments below of this YouTube video—or jump over to Discord. I'm really happy to welcome you there—and get your postcard of the Tokyo Skytree. That's me on the outside strapped in—I'll be sending this from Skytree in probably 16 hours from now. Even the back shows me scared to death—look at that—oh my gosh—that's me right there holding the Insta360—watching them wash the windows—that's crazy, right? Oh—this is a great part too. So thanks so much for the support—and I'll see you in—in the next live stream tomorrow possibly—Peter will be with us. Hey, Jason—I see Jason from Canada's here. I'll see you tomorrow, everybody. Keep putting the pressure on there. Write to Taro Kono on Twitter and let him know how hard the process would be and to start to digitalize this stuff. Bye, everybody.