00:02:00 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to the arrivals at Haneda Airport. I think a flight from New York is just coming in and we're gonna see who comes off because these people are like celebrities in my mind. Yeah, check it out. This is the arrival board here. 640, it is now—what time is it in Japan? Oh, okay, 720. So this flight must be quite late. I don't know if anyone is coming over here. So it's 720. So who just arrived here from Istanbul?

00:30:00 John Daub: Some arrivals here from Taipei just arriving and from Dallas-Fort Worth just arriving. That's really late. So I guess it's taking a little bit of time to get through. And then these here are not quite arriving yet. This is from Honolulu and Manila and Seoul and Hong Kong and Los Angeles and all the places around the world. This is super exciting. I kind of wanted to come. I just arrived in from a domestic flight.

01:04:00 John Daub: I took the free shuttle bus here that took forever from Terminal 2 to get here. And now I'm here just to check out what the vibe is like. Did it change on October 11th? Because from midnight tonight, from midnight on this day, foreign tourists could come back to Japan finally after a two and a half year hiatus, a suspension, a blockade. And yeah, it's kind of a cool situation. So let's walk around the airport and see what we can see here.

01:34:00 John Daub: This is going to be interesting. Again, like this is just a live. This is a free format for those here doing the currency exchange. Just a little bit of a note here. The exchange rate is so much in your favor right now. I think it's 146 to the dollar right now. It's crazy. Let's see what the rate is that you actually get, though. Hold on a second. So that's for the Great Britain pound and dollar. So that's what you'll get at the exchange booth. That's interesting. 143. So you're getting three yen less, which is pretty fair.

02:11:00 John Daub: That's still crazy. Good for your favor. So I can't believe that you're getting 143 to the dollar exchange booth. That's notorious for taking massive commissions. That's craziness. All right. They got here. They got here. You still got to do social distancing. Check it out. Okay. Just changed here. Uber taxis got signs telling you to take them. So the signage is all back. I don't think it ever left, though. So wait, then I'm going to be getting home here.

02:43:00 John Daub: You take the monorail. Oh, the monorail is this way. But I don't see anybody getting off of the flights here. Oh, here come some people. Wow. That's interesting.

03:38:00 John Daub: Hey, where are you guys arriving from? Where are you coming from? Okay. I'm trying to figure out which flights are coming in now. Okay. Thanks.

03:54:00 John Daub: So that flight. It's coming from Thailand. How awesome is that? That's the Bangkok flight there. Boom. Check it out. It's kind of interesting to see. So the Bangkok just got through. They arrived at 7, at 630. The flight actually landed at six o'clock. So it was early. And it's now 730. So it's taken about an hour to get through for some people. Maybe it's the luggage. That could be it. Let's wait around a little bit. And maybe we'll ask some people where they're coming from. But yeah, everybody's got masks on. Let's check out a message here. Strengthening the quarantine for preventing. Yeah. So there's little messages but all this keeps changing over.

04:53:00 John Daub: She writes a message board, come here again and write "Only in Japan" and see if anyone comes. I want to be the first person to welcome you to Japan. We're writing the front of the arrivals. This is where celebrities get this service when they come here.

05:12:00 John Daub: I'm pretty sure that you have to sign a document still saying that you should probably wear a mask in crowded indoor places like the airport. But if there's nobody around, nobody can report you, I guess. Nobody's going to report you at all, in fact. It looks like backpackers. Where do you think they're from? Let's go ask. I guess we can go and ask them. Let's go stalk people here.

06:14:00 Passenger: Sir, which flight did you just get off of? From where?

06:20:00 John Daub: I'm trying to figure out if... From JFK.

06:25:00 Passenger: Yep.

06:25:00 John Daub: Oh, wow. Welcome to Japan.

06:31:00 John Daub: Wow, so they're from JFK. So the New York... Wow. This is really good information. So the New York flight arrived at 5. That was two and a half hours ago. Oh, my gosh. So I guess it just depends. It's taking a long time to get through the procedures. But apparently, it's supposed to be a lot more streamlined, but it's still taking...

07:02:00 John Daub: Let's see when that New York flight arrived. Wow, that New York flight arrived at 4:40. And you can see it's now 7:30. And arrived at 4:40, so almost a little less than three hours. That's crazy. So it's taking some time for people to get out, depending on the flight, I guess, and the procedure. But they could have also... I'm not going to ask people's vaccination status. That's just rude. But it could also depend on your status and the documentations that you have, too. So I wonder.

07:51:00 John Daub: Here comes a couple of people coming out of the airport now. Yeah, a lot of them look like... I don't know. Non-Japanese, I guess. Let's go over here and have a little talk. It's interesting. Here comes a couple of other people just exited. They look like backpackers.

08:35:00 Passenger: Hey, did you just come from New York?

08:37:00 John Daub: No, we didn't come from Taiwan. From where?

08:40:00 Passenger: Taiwan.

08:40:00 John Daub: Oh, Thailand. Okay. The Bangkok flight. All right. Taiwan. Thank you.

08:45:00 John Daub: Oh, wow. That's cool. So they're from Taiwan. So let's come over here. The side. That's interesting. So the flight, it seems like it's taking a lot of time for people to get out, like about two hours. So you can see Taiwan came out, Thailand came out, and New York just came out. I guess it really depends on your vaccination status, how long you're going to be taking to come out of there.

09:29:00 John Daub: Hey, Guide CG, thank you. How you doing?

09:33:00 Caller: Hi, John. It depends on quite a lot of factors.

09:34:00 John Daub: Exactly. That's really interesting. Hello from Thailand. My brother will go to Japan tomorrow and me and my family go in December.

09:44:00 John Daub: You know what? If you're from Thailand, they could be on this flight if this is 24 hours later, maybe. That's super interesting.

10:02:00 John Daub: Sorry, the camera. I got all this other luggage to wheel around, so it's kind of hard to balance all this. Let's go over to the other side here. So the tourist information is open and that's interesting. But the camera is not. The good thing is that people are all wearing masks and that's pretty respectful. I shouldn't be surprised. Everybody entering comes out wearing masks. Again, you shouldn't be so much surprised at that.

10:43:00 John Daub: One of the criteria is that you do have a smartphone. And when you do come out, here's some of the options. There's Anyfon Japan, a mobile center. I've never heard of these particular companies. There's the big three, four. Rakuten's a player now in the market here. But I guess I can't. I could sit here. I can kind of sit down a little bit here. But it's pretty interesting to see all the people that are coming into Japan. They look exhausted. They look super tired. They look really exhausted. And yeah, there's so many factors into it.

11:38:00 John Daub: It is my advice to you. If you are coming to Japan, just keep in, download the MySOS app and just make sure all your documentation is done. And you know, I'm not, don't ask people's vaccination status. We're kind of beyond that. But in Japan, it's still kind of a big deal to have at least three shots. And it will get you through the airport. But apparently, it doesn't matter anymore.

12:22:00 John Daub: Yeah, in general, I think that the process is a little bit better than when we first arrived in June. It was really hard. But recently, it's starting to get, well recently, I don't, this opened up today. So, I'm guessing. That over the course of the next couple of days, this policy, we're going to see if it's successful or not. Right? I'm kind of excited. It's just, I thought that there would be more people here. Who also thinks that there, you thought there were going to be more people here? I thought there were going to be more people here. I guess I was wrong. Maybe it's just starting. I don't know.

13:09:00 John Daub: Let's walk back here. I'm not sure. I'm actually going to just go to the monorail. It's not as exciting as I thought. Oh, those tags said JFK. All right, let's go to the monorail. I'm so exhausted. I just thought this was going to be crowded like it was some, like going to a concert or something.

13:39:00 John Daub: For those joining us, this is the arrival at Haneda International Terminal. Here's the criteria. They ask you to temperature, wear a mask. So everywhere's been taking my temperature as well. Before I enter, they do a check. 37.5 degrees Celsius is the point where you have a fever that they won't allow you into places if you have a 37.5 degrees centigrade temperature. So you might want to keep that in mind if you're American because you're using Fahrenheit. Yeah. Please wear a mask inside the airport facilities is actually written there. Please frequently use hand sanitizers. Please keep the distance. Use operations like self-check machines and leave space between yourself and other passengers. In the elevator, they're asking you to keep some space on the escalators and elevators. That's really hard to do, but just basic precautions. Nothing has really changed that much.

14:56:00 John Daub: So the flight's coming in. Taiwan from Taipei came in around the same time as the New York flight. So we've met somebody from Taiwan. Somebody, a couple people from New York that just came out. And then from Thailand, which is a, they were out a little bit faster from Thailand. And Istanbul, I haven't seen anybody coming out from there. I'm looking at the luggage tags as well. People are just tired. Yeah, I just, I feel like I don't want to bother them. And at the same time, I want to give them a high five and say welcome to Japan. But they should have an official greeter, I think, at the airport. Like an official, you know, you made it. You survived the process. But that's not the case.

15:44:00 John Daub: Alright, when you do come out of the arrivals, there is a tourist information center right to the right here. If you go to the right side, stay to the right, you get Keikyu (train line), which is the train that will take you to Shinagawa. And then eventually it turns into the Asakusa Line, which is Toei. But we're going to go to the left. I want to take the monorail today because I don't know why. I think the monorail just feels like it'll be less crowded. I don't actually need a ticket.

16:32:00 John Daub: I just have to get my Suica (IC card) out. Sugoka. I think I have to charge. Yeah, I'm glad that I had to charge it. I only have 328 yen on my card. So let's put in here. Let's put in 5,000 yen. If you wish to charge other items, please press that item. Charging completed. Please be careful. The ticket is... They didn't even count the money. I know it's all there. All right. So my Suica card is charged.

17:45:00 John Daub: This is interesting. Here, check it out. A welcome Suica. I don't think I can get that. Hold on a second. The card restoration date is 28 days from the issue. Remaining balance cannot be refunded. This card cannot be reissued. All right, decline. Canceled. That's interesting. Go towards number two, Hamamatsu-cho. Yeah. I feel like I just arrived in Japan. Wow, I just arrived in Japan.

18:43:00 John Daub: I'm coming to the city by the international terminal. All right. I think the train is just... I just missed it. Ow. Hey, that's my monorail. Stinking monorail. When's the next one? I should've taken the Keikyu now. Okay, it's in like seven minutes. That's alright. You guys gonna hang out with me for seven minutes as I wait, we'll sit in the front. Maybe we get a view. I think it's mostly empty.

19:40:00 John Daub: So my final prognosis is I just was my expectation was that the entire Haneda arrivals would be like a party zone. There would be a lot more people. I thought it'd be crowded with foreigners like first-timers and shorts and stuff. I thought that there'd be more backpackers. I was wrong. It's kind of normal people people look tired. Here's the reality. People are just really tired and they just want to get to their hotel and shower. They look like that. I guess so some people's faces. They really look like they just wanted to get the heck out of there. They just wanted to get there and they wanted to leave the airport. You can understand that that makes sense, right?

20:38:00 John Daub: Makes sense any last questions if you do ask me now because I'm about to go. Will the plane ticket prices go up during the holidays? I don't know. It depends supply demand and the cost of airline fuel, which I'm guessing probably yes. And probably will go up with gas going up. I bet you so will the price of the airline tickets? If you get it early you might lock it in but then again, I'm not gonna tell you to do that because it could be cheaper. Dude in more flights opening up. I just know that not all the airlines have opened up the old routes. They're trying to find ways to hedge their bets. I guess because the flights are not going completely full a lot of them were doing route those routes just to do mail and business travelers. Prices are already rough up according to Calvin. So thank you for that.

21:31:00 John Daub: When is the best time for lower flights? I don't know February seems to be the cheapest. Because it's the low season so skiers a lot rejoice to that the days are shorter. When are you flying next and to where I might be going back to Kyushu? I'm gonna do and I'm definitely going to Kochi in December so there's a flight there, but I'm gonna be editing for the next while. I'm gonna be editing tomorrow Leo and I have a day. What can I goes to work? So Leo and I will get reacquainted.

22:08:00 John Daub: By the way, I told me today and viewers of the show like this Leo was talking to a pigeon today? And I had a moment of pride. He was at a sandbox a pigeon came close and he was talking and pointing to the pigeon to do something. I don't know what he was saying, but take pride in that. We talked to the pigeons another tidbit of information for viewers of regular views of the show American Express. And we said after one year the insurance company said that they will refund the total of the stolen phone because we have a police record and everything and we have proof so they will refund the entire number that still doesn't let Apple off the hook because they're negligent in many ways. But I'm just glad that Amex gold card might mean something. Because we originally told that they would only give us 10,000 yen or 8% now they're gonna cover it. but I'll believe it when I see it so that's a little bit of good news mostly empty maybe it's a time of day I don't know it's oh today is today a holiday I can't remember it was yesterday holiday.

23:24:00 John Daub: Yesterday Monday was a holiday in Tokyo I've been away in Kyushu for so long I just don't remember. I've got a 12 pro I want I ordered the 13 pro it never came and I don't have a 14 pro because you can't get them I'm not gonna have them delivered to my house and make the same mistake. Apple does not let you choose the type of way that's the way you can get it shipped all right.

24:03:00 John Daub: I'm gonna be quiet now out of respect for protocol but I'll let you ride for a couple of minutes so thanks so much guys and enjoy the ride for the next few minutes or so bye-bye international terminal after my long flight from Kagoshima feels like I've just arrived to another country the big city thanks Johnny thanks everybody for watching and I'll be back with another update tomorrow as I edit like crazy to finish a lot of work. Mata ne!