00:00:00 John Daub: Hey there little guy. How you guys doing? Oh! That's a fight! Fight! Start off with a fight here. Here you go. Have some cabbage. Yeah. Hey everybody, I am on Okunoshima, otherwise known as Rabbit Island. See, sometimes they're just not hungry. Would you want some here? Oh, you're so cute. I'm gonna go talk to some of your brothers and sisters now.

00:00:30 John Daub: Sometimes, the rabbits just aren't hungry here. This is my third time on Okunoshima this year. I've been filming for the main channel and edited video to get a better understanding about what makes this island special. I know a lot of other YouTubers have done it, but nobody's really explained who takes care of these rabbits, where they really come from, and what is the connection to its dark, deep past of World War II. So, yeah, we kind of know a little bit about that, but I was just talking with some of the rangers, and I kind of dive deep in my main channel episodes. The foreign media kind of has a lot of the facts wrong about the island. In fact, a lot of people don't even know that, including people in Japan. So, it's kind of an important episode, I think, to make this with the staff here, the rangers here on this national park.

00:01:19 John Daub: Yeah. But you can see, oh no, they're coming after me now. The last time I was here, there were not as many. Actually, the last time I was here was with Leo, and he was way too young to be... Oh, stop following me, stalker. I kind of want you to follow me. I've got cabbage. But the question that I received from a couple of people were, like, is this a really touristy island? Is this just a place like a theme park? And the answer is, not really. I wouldn't call this a theme park. It's more like a weird place because the rabbits here are very tame, and yet they're wild. They live in holes all around here. But if you just get close, they come after you.

00:02:25 John Daub: This is brought to you by Brandania. In the spirit of Brandanimus. There you go. Let's go find some more rabbits. No, you know, it doesn't feel like a tourist attraction, but yet it sort of is. I don't know, it's really hard to explain. You know, and the longer I stay here, the more I kind of realize that's sort of its problem.

00:02:52 John Daub: Rabbit Island, or Okunoshima, it has the image, especially internationally, as being something of a theme park, like a rabbit pet cafe that's an entire island. But that's so far from the truth. This is an actual national park with very few staff members to take care, to clean up the trash. They just don't have the kind of budget that a theme park has, or the volunteers or the staff to maintain it all. So the more popular that this island becomes, and the more tourists that come here, the more issues and problems that they have. And the more I talk about it with the staff, the more I think I can do a lot of good with this episode on Rabbit Island. Because, my gosh, I don't know. YouTubers, I don't know why they don't just contact the office and try to get somebody to give them more insight and understanding into the island. They said that no YouTubers had ever contacted them before, which I find hard to believe, considering how popular this place is.

00:03:50 John Daub: A little bit of autumn foliage is still around the island here. It is quite beautiful. So are the rabbits. But I know another hiding place where they are. And it started, this white stuff came from the sky. I thought it was sand. It actually was snow. It was snowing here this morning. It's crazy. Yeah, I guess, I don't know why YouTubers don't, again, like, I'm not complaining about it. But I always think that YouTubers, if you just contacted in advance, the story gets way, way better. Right? So, we've got a pretty darn good story here.

00:05:10 John Daub: There aren't a lot of visitors in the winter, and yet, winter is the best time to visit. Because it's too hot in the summer. The rabbits don't want to come out at all. In the fall, it's okay. But in the winter, it's cold and there's not a lot of food. So they come out to try to get more of it. And you can see they're eating a carrot here. That's kind of a big chunk of carrot.

00:05:43 John Daub: One of the issues that I've been hearing from the staff is that people leave behind the food. So when they're done with it, when they're done with the food, they just dump it all out at the port. And that's creating a huge problem. And the staff is actually, when I went around walking around the island with them, for people who dumped the food on the ground, they would pick it up and throw it away. It's not good to leave food by the roadside too. Because then the rabbits get hit by the bus and the cars if they're sitting there. It just creates a lot of little problems for them.

00:06:21 John Daub: It is a beautiful island, isn't it? And this is what I love about Hiroshima Prefecture in general. The Seto Inland Sea is one of the most beautiful spots. I guess if Peter von Gomm is watching, he would agree with me on this. It is just so scenic and it's so peaceful. I don't know why I ever... I guess I do. I used to live in Hiroshima in a little town called Yohogawa inside of the center of Hiroshima City. And it was so easy and so nice. The food was good. The people were friendly. And then I left and went to... I moved to Tokyo. I guess if there was more work in Hiroshima, I probably would build a house here. I really love this prefecture. And by the way, the tower here... You see these electrical towers? That one in the distance is the highest electrical tower in Japan. So, hey! There's something more than just bunnies. There's actual... the highest electrical tower in Japan.

00:07:44 John Daub: Here are the bunnies. They just kind of will come out. If you just walk there, they'll come out. They'll investigate. And they move quickly. And then they move away. Rabbits are so friendly. And there are some rules to this island. One of them is if you're feeding them, don't get your fingers nearby. Because rabbits have really bad eyesight. They don't see like we see. They see like it's all blurry, like somebody put toothpaste in your eye or something. You basically had better watch out because they might nip your finger by mistake. And that was one of the worries when my son Leo came here last week. He did get nipped a little bit, and he was crying. Didn't break the skin or anything. But it was scary for us as parents. Like, oh crap. We are bad parents. We let a rabbit bite the kid. But it happens a lot. You just have to be really careful.

00:08:44 John Daub: What they love the most is cabbage I saw, and greens. That's way too big. Careful. People don't know though. And that's one of the issues. And that is the biggest challenge of Rabbit Island. This is not a theme park. It's a national park. But they have a hard time explaining the rules. And then kind of like nobody will check to make sure you're not... You have to self-police I guess. But the rangers will...

00:09:15 John Daub: Oh, hey. How you doing little guy? How you doing? You want some cabbage? I got a little bit for you. I'm standing in all of your poop. Is that what that is? I thought this was rocks. Oh, I'm like in a big pile of poop. Ugh. Come on. How am I going to get that off my shoes? You can have some cabbage too, sir. Have some cabbage. Just a little. Help you grow and have nice fur. Cabbage good. Look how happy he is with that cabbage. Look at that. He's so happy. You like my cabbage? Cabbage good, isn't it? He couldn't even see that I'd moved away. Boy, your eyesight is bad. How old are you? Sorry. Here you go. Look at this rabbit standing up on his hind legs. All right. Here you go.

00:10:29 John Daub: Let's see some of your little thumper friends here. So is it a tourist attraction? I think some people want to make it into such and then some people don't. And you have to be respectful of those that don't. So that is going to be the biggest issue. And if this place gets more popular, there's going to be people who want to create this into a tourist attraction because there's money to be made. And there's going to be both people who want to preserve it as a national park and really make sure that the rules are strict and adhere to. I think the perfect answer is maybe somewhere in the middle and a balance of it.

00:11:39 John Daub: There's only one ryokan on the island, which is a traditional Japanese inn. It's an old one, but it's actually nice. I've always had a good stay. This is the third time I stayed there. One time at the camping spot that's run by the traditional Japanese inn and two times inside of the ryokan because it's just too cold to camp, although there are campers here, which is crazy. Is it a tourist trap? No. It's still a national park and still a natural place. And there's not hawks and people trying to sell you stuff all the time. At the port, there's the place where you get tickets, but they do sell souvenirs and stuff, but actually the money that they make from this, I see that they've invested and put back into making sure that you get the information about Rabbit Island, which is actually a good thing, protecting the rules and whatnot. So there is a balance between the business aspect of it, where they do want to get tourists to come to Hiroshima Prefecture and attract people here, but also the idea that we want to educate and make sure that tourists who do visit do the right thing and make sure that they're not bringing cookies and stuff, hot dogs, things like this. This is really bad.

00:12:58 John Daub: There's a bus that'll take you back and forth from the hotel to the pier. That runs basically when the boat runs. Let's go over here and then we're going to do it. So I'll be really curious to see in five years how Rabbit Island is doing, but since tourism has just restarted, I think it's kind of a priority to get people to understand what's going on. Whether or not to feed the rabbits, I guess it's up to each person, but if you do, maybe don't do that. That's too much. That's not good. I'm not a policeman. I'm not going to tell you what to do. But that's way too much. Yeah, you shouldn't be doing that. You have to protect the rules here. They're going to be full. Don't leave any food behind.

00:13:54 John Daub: It doesn't smell bad. You know, the rabbit poop doesn't have a bad smell. It doesn't have a good smell. But I did notice that when I got to my hotel room, this is really good to point out. When you get to your hotel room, make sure you take off your shoes. In fact, I'm still kind of confused. Why Westerners still walk inside their house with their shoes on? Do you know what's on the bottom of your shoes? Oh, my God. It's awful. And when I walked into the hotel, I remember walking out and I said I walked into the room and I remember I just kind of sniffed my shoes a little bit. It was not good. The bottom of it did have rabbit poo on it. You don't want that tracked into your house, right? Or the hotel rooms. And I worry that potentially, there's Westerners who do wear shoes inside the tatami rooms. That's just nasty, man. You got to make sure you keep the rooms clean for the next people.

00:15:00 John Daub: I remember watching Seinfeld and Friends episodes back in the 80s and 90s and 2000s. And I'd see them put their shoes on the sofa. They'd sit down and go sit on their bed with their shoes on. And after living in Japan for so long, I'm just shocked. In fact, if I go into a house in the US, if somebody invites me in and they say, oh, no, you can keep your shoes on, you better believe I'm going to keep your shoes on because I'm guessing that their floor is filthy. I don't want to say anything to be rude. But after living in Japan, I just don't understand why people don't take off their shoes off when they go inside in the West. I can't not take off my shoes. I just feel bad.

00:15:49 John Daub: Hey, guys, I got some cabbage. You got to share it. Hey, you got to share it with your friends. Little bit at a time. A little bit goes a long way. I'm going to share some with your little buddy here. Probably your enemy. Are you guys enemies? Oh, my God. They're all swarming. A mosh pit.

00:16:32 John Daub: You want to go through the camera and go live with Brandania? Want to go? You want to go to the Philippines? Live a joy. We can arrange that. I also one of the things I'm going to go back now to the visitor center, which is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, by the way. There have been cases where rabbits were so cute that they were kidnapped off of the island and people try to take them home because they're super cute. I can understand that. You think you can take them and say, oh, I've got a nice warm house and they can have food every day. That's not the case. They want to be here with their family. They actually like being free on the island. They're not in a zoo. This is the perfect ideal situation for a rabbit. You get an entire island. There's just very few enemies. There are crows and there are shishi, which are wild boars. And those are the only things that really, really are dangerous for the rabbits here.

00:17:43 John Daub: This is the camp spot here. This is the port number two where the ferry comes in most of the time. It only in the morning does it come here to terminal number one. Here and this is the information center and the poison gas museum. And then this is the ryokan kind of the traditional Japanese inn right here. You can walk along all around the island. It takes about 45 minutes. It's about two kilometers around. And in the edited episode, I'm going to go up here to the top and the very top of the mountain. The island is not huge. Like Miyajima is ten times bigger. But for rabbits, it's pretty huge. It feels huge. I think if you're an animal lover like I am, this is a must visit because it's just such a weird place. You have these rabbits that are sort of wild, but sort of tame. They're not afraid. I guess they are tame. They're not afraid to come and say hi to you, just like pet rabbits are. But also they're not indoor rabbits. These rabbits are outside. So it is a very unique situation.

00:19:41 John Daub: Forty five minutes doesn't sound huge. I walk fast. It's not that big, but it's not so small. Forty five minutes is not that much time, but it could be smaller. These are rabbit ears. I guess if you put your head in here, you can hear very well. You can hear anything. What's up? Doc.

00:19:56 John Daub: Yeah, there is cat islands here in Japan. Yeah, there's a lot of animal sanctuaries or parks like this. There's the foxes up in Yamagata as well. So, you know, there's the bear park in Noboribetsu, which is kind of a sad area. That's where I met Toby (crow). And then there's Rabbit Island. And this is always going to be a special place.

00:20:23 John Daub: Now, these rabbits aren't here because of the poison gas experiments going on in 1929. 1945. They're here because of four different reasons. And then we're not quite sure which one is the exact answer. It could be because of that. But it also could be because they wanted to make this a rabbit tourist attraction. So they could have just released a bunch of rabbits here. That's probably the most easy to understand answer. But it's a nice place for kids and families to come. And you do get a chance to see rabbits. You can get some exercise. And it's a nice day trip if you're in the area. But definitely. It's very far from Tokyo. It takes about four and a half, five hours to get here. It's very hard as a day trip from Tokyo. You kind of need to spend the night somewhere close, maybe from Himeji or Hiroshima. If you're in this area, this could be a day trip. And make sure you come in the morning because the time does fly by.

00:21:20 John Daub: All right, everybody. Thanks for watching. I'll be back. Depends if I have time. I might do another live stream because in Fukuyama, there's a castle that I wanted to show you. That's right next to the Shinkansen platform. But I'm not sure if I'm going to have time. My focus right now from the moment I stop this live stream is to finish the main channel episode, which is what I'm going to do. So have a good day, everybody, from sunny but very, very chilly Okunoshima. I'll see you in another live stream. Back to Tokyo in, I guess, in about five hours. I'll be heading back home. See you. Here's the visitor center. That's where I'm going to go meet with the ranger right now.