00:00:04 John Daub: So right now there is a typhoon that's coming here to Japan, and we're on a family trip, and most of everything has been canceled. We're eating at a service area. Kanae got the udon noodles, and Leo is sharing that here. Leo's got his own. And the service area does a good job of — I guess protecting everybody with these plastic shields all around us.

00:00:37 John Daub: I'm going to eat one last gyoza, and then take you outside and I want to just show you the situation and talk a little bit about why September might not be the best time to visit Japan. But first, we need some Utsunomiya gyoza. This is the last one.

00:00:55 John Daub: Ah, nice. That's his first gyoza. He likes it.

00:00:59 John Daub: Mikey likes it? No, he doesn't. That's usual. Leo is a gyoza boy.

00:01:04 John Daub: Oh, he did eat it. Yeah. All right, let's go outside here.

00:01:08 John Daub: Ah, Japan's service areas are really awesome. This one is an older one, but you can see — it's good enough. That's good lunch. Not too far away from Utsunomiya, and you can see the hills here. The typhoon is coming in. We've been getting warnings on our cell phones. Everybody's phone has been ringing announcing a level-four warning for landslides, because there's just been so much rain.

00:01:46 John Daub: The Typhoon 14 came through here a couple of days ago and hit Kyushu very hard. And then Typhoon 15 is already here. It's going to be on the 24th and 25th, which is impacting Japan's Silver Week holiday. This is like a new holiday where people don't want to take breaks during the summertime. They usually save it until September, so that's what they're doing.

00:02:16 John Daub: I'll take you inside of the service area for a second for a look around. But yeah, September might not be the best time to visit Japan mainly because of this typhoon. It has been nonstop hitting Japan, it seems like for the second half of September. And there's even another one coming in a couple of — look at his hot dogs. Even Typhoon 16 is on its way to Japan.

00:02:48 John Daub: We don't actually name the typhoons after the names like they do in the U.S. We do it by number, even though there are international names nowadays. That's like the international weather service doing that. Japan still does it by number. And you won't see the Japanese news giving typhoons by the names that you see in your international news. They just do it by Typhoon 15.

00:03:20 John Daub: Typhoon 16 of 2022. Typhoon 17 of 2022. That's the way it works. Those hot dogs look kind of nasty, although that one could be a snake. What do you think?

00:03:35 John Daub: So in Japan, typhoons will be hitting anytime from like June, which is rare. In fact, they could hit at any time of the year, but they very rarely hit in the winter. Most of the time, they'll be hitting in September and October, and we've gotten like two or three already.

00:03:56 John Daub: And this is — it seems like it's never ending right now. It'll be coming in October as well. So when you do decide to make a trip to Japan, please, please consider the typhoon season and possibly give it an extra day of time. Meaning if you're coming back, don't start your work the next day. Go back a day early, because if your flight is canceled, it gives you some leeway.

00:04:28 John Daub: Because flights are often suspended in September and October, or delayed, because of typhoons. That, especially if you're leaving from Osaka or down in Fukuoka, you're going to get more of them than here up in Tokyo. But we do get impacted quite a bit. How you doing? Is that Kelvin in the house? Thank you. Yo, what's up, Radania? Always love having you with us.

00:04:59 John Daub: All right, I'm gonna take you inside for just a little bit and we'll go inside of this service area. Now this one's near Utsunomiya, so it's very famous for gyoza, which is Japanese dumplings. All right, let's go buy Kanae and Leo some time here. Guess who's in the house? That's right — WRX Turbo.

00:05:19 John Daub: This area of Japan is also famous for its strawberries. So you see strawberry soft ice cream. Look at that. Oh, man, it's not even strawberry season, but I guess because this place, Tochigi, is so famous for it, you'll see it everywhere.

00:05:41 John Daub: So usually you'll have a gift center — lots of umiyagi, or gifts, that you can buy. That includes boxes of the local ramen, which is so cool.

00:05:54 John Daub: In the back there, they have gyoza. Lots of gyoza. Wow. It says Utsunomiya Gyoza. It's like a whole refrigerator of gyoza. Wow. Utsunomiya is very famous for this.

00:06:13 John Daub: It's like a lemon milk — and you see ice cream and other confections sometimes made from it. Lemon milk is sweetened. It's so good. It's like a Utsunomiya soul food — more like Tochigi Prefecture, I guess.

00:06:31 John Daub: Here's the eating area. Oh, there's a satellite map of — maybe they'll show the typhoon coming in. So they've done a good job of putting plastic shields around. This came around 2000, when — you have to return your tray. I should return my own tray.

00:06:54 John Daub: So the gyoza that we got — we got from these vending machines here. So the way that the service area works is pretty cool. You can select what you want, you get a ticket, and then you give the ticket to the guy, and then they call your number.

00:07:15 John Daub: If you just look at this map, it looks like chaos. This is a map of Japan's highway system. We're on the E4. So here's E4. So here's E6. Where's E4? I guess it might be this one. This is Tokyo here, so it can't be. There's the E6. Oh, here's the E4 up here.

00:07:38 John Daub: So we're somewhere around here. Where's Nasu? Well, oh, we're right here. Up here. See, it'll tell you if there's any big traffic. And so far, it looks like coming into Tokyo, just these areas here have a lot of traffic — the red areas.

00:07:55 John Daub: Look at Leo in his high chair. So there you go. It's kind of neat. They just walk it around there. There's a lot of — there's a lot of umiyagi that you can buy. And I think I might get a box for some friends back home.

00:08:13 John Daub: But I wanted to show you a lot more of where we were going — the Nasu area of Tochigi. But it just simply wasn't interesting, and we kept getting rained out of all the places before I could do the livestreams.

00:08:33 John Daub: I'm very — I'm very aware of what happened on yesterday or the day before yesterday. I know that Japan is open, all right? I know that on October 11, Japan is going to open. I know this information. I haven't been able to do an update because the timing couldn't have been worse. We decided to go on this family vacation a couple of months ago. So the result is that, like, when they announced — they're like, wait, I'm about to get in the car. There's no way to do a travel update, not with your family like this. That's just crazy. So I'll do one tomorrow.

00:09:10 John Daub: And I'm waiting for some more details from MOFA. Actually, over the last 24 hours, I've gotten like hundreds of emails. I haven't counted them all. It's got to be like 300 emails from people on Instagram, Facebook. Please don't mail me on Facebook. I rarely check that. Just regular email through the form on OnlyInJapan TV. And I can't answer your questions. I don't know how many vaccination shots you'll need. I don't know if you need to have health insurance. I would hope you would have it though, because what if you get sick here?

00:10:02 John Daub: There's a lot of things that you should need to think about, but they haven't really announced or given the details of it. So if you book your trip in October for coming to Japan, please keep in mind that you might have to do stuff. But I don't think they're going to have a vaccine mandate, meaning you must have had a shot. You just need to get a PCR test before you leave. So it's like old-school Japan rules to enter the country. So I think that's just what it's going to be.

00:10:46 John Daub: But if you decided not to get the vaccination, at this point, it really doesn't matter whether you're vaccinated or not. But Japan will reward those with three vaccination shots, which in itself doesn't really matter because that third one was so long ago. I don't think they're going to make a fourth one a requirement yet. But if you haven't been vaccinated or only have two, then you require to have a PCR test when you arrive or when you leave.

00:11:25 John Daub: There's a way and a system to do it, but October 11th is quite far off. So to do a travel update as soon as they announce it, it's just basically reiterating the news. Let's give it a day or two. I'll do something tomorrow, but I want to give it a day or two or a couple of days to see what kind of policies — what is the reaction to the announcement? Because I think they just announced it and see what sticks, and then they make the rules up afterwards.

00:12:03 John Daub: I'll tell you right now that a lot of the travel agencies are in chaos because they didn't — a lot of them didn't even expect this. I think Kishida-san met a lot of foreigners when he was in New York, and he just decided, you know what? I think it's fair for them and their families to be able to come to Japan anytime. I'm gonna do this. And he seems just — he just did it.

00:12:34 John Daub: I think that's what happened, because it's just utter chaos in the travel world to get ready for this. Like, you're jerking people around, dude. But we don't care, because it's open now. And that's all good news for everybody. There's not much more I can say about that.

00:13:04 John Daub: This is the car we're driving. Hey, Kelvin, how you doing? Always nice to see you here. See where that security samurai is? Right next to that small car is ours. This is the RAV4. This is the one that I'm driving today. Kanae was driving a little bit with her dad in the front seat, because she gets — it's so scary when she's driving. I can't say anything, but I have to say something.

00:13:35 John Daub: So it just gives her stress. I don't want to be her teacher, but it's so stressful to drive with Kanae because it's like a death wish. I don't have that wish, but I figured since her dad's coming, he could sit in the front seat. And I'm just going to keep my trap shut, and I'll have a happier marriage. So I'll be driving from the way back. But she drove for the last 30 kilometers, and it was scary.

00:14:09 John Daub: You have to — you have to be quiet. She asks questions, and then if I respond, she doesn't want me to respond because it's not — it's like, "Be safe." And something. I don't know, it's — I can't win. So it's better if I sit in the back seat and keep my mouth, my trap shut. All right, live longer, live happier. Let her dad take some of the pressure now. It's her — it's her dad's fault now. It's not me.

00:14:39 John Daub: Well, we're gonna — I'm gonna drive back really slowly. Don't worry about it. You can already see here — the 25th, the 15th typhoon is starting to roll in here. Let her dad do all the talking. Exactly. I'll keep my trap shut with Leo in the back, and we'll just kind of cross our fingers and pray. The clouds here are quite low.

00:15:11 John Daub: This area of Japan is so beautiful, too. If you had never been to Nikko or Nasu — Nasu is where we went. It's an onsen area. We stayed at an onsen resort. We're able to take baths in the morning and at night and feel a lot more relaxed. It's really a beautiful, beautiful thing. And I think with your family, when you live in Japan, you want to spend a night or two.

00:15:43 John Daub: We were going to spend two nights, but we're kind of glad that we only spent one, because the traffic has been awful because everyone is setting the travel at this time, especially when it's cooler now. You want to go to the onsen more. But yeah, this is Japan, and we're waiting for you to come back. This is what Japan looks like with no tourists. Very few tourists, but there would be very few out on the roads anyways.

00:16:13 John Daub: So before I sign off here — this is a short livestream — I want to ask you all if you have any questions for the travel update I'm going to be doing. Go to Twitter, and then you can ask me a question. Just ask @OnlyInJapanTV or @OIJ — Only in Japan. And I'll add your question to the travel update. I know there's some things I don't think of, and it's really good to have feedback from you guys, what you're thinking.

00:16:46 John Daub: A lot of the questions were: Do I need health insurance? Do I need to have three vaccinations? Do I need this? Do I have to do that? Can I book the trip now? Can I still book a tour? Why, yes. So all these questions, we'll answer in the next two travel updates, which will probably come pretty quickly, but I'm aware of it.

00:17:24 John Daub: I'm lucky that it's not raining right now. Again, for those joining us, one reason why we had to stop was — we kept our cell phones, they kept ringing because we got landslide warnings. Level 4 landslide warnings. To be careful — the size of the mountain, the typhoons and the heavy rains are pretty dangerous themselves in the winds. But it's afterwards — the landslides — it really loosens the earth.

00:17:57 John Daub: And we have a lot of problems with that. And that's scarier than the typhoons themselves. Japan, you know, it's got a lot of mountains like the ones you see right in front of us. So you have to be very careful, especially when you're in an onsen resort. So I'm kind of glad we're going home. Just this typhoon is just killing the spirit of a holiday. Yeah.

00:18:27 John Daub: So tomorrow I'll be back online and do a quick travel update more properly for those that have been waiting for it. And then next week, we're gonna look at the details of the October 11th opening, examine that, and that should be the one that helps you the most. So look for that on Only in Japan Go.

00:19:04 John Daub: Thanks for subscribing, everybody. This is the all-livestreaming channel, so don't complain about the quality so much — just a little bit. Thank you, Jim. All right, guys. See ya. We'll be back again really soon. I got that spammer, too. There. [laughs] History.

00:19:27 John Daub: Thanks, guys. Look at all the traffic on a weekday. It's never — oh, I guess it is a Saturday. It's never really this crowded.