00:00:01 John Daub: I guess they're just earlier than any other time ever in the history of record keeping. The cherry blossoms are here. They are out. Or are they? Because I'm walking around the city now and I'm looking at the Somei Yoshino variety, which is the ones that are the most prevalent cherry blossoms in Japan. They're the white blossoms. And I don't see them at all. In fact, I'm wondering if maybe they released it a little bit too early. But there's some history behind it.

00:00:32 John Daub: And this announcement that starts officially the cherry blossom season, which happened on March 14th, the earliest on record ever. And every year it seems to get a little bit earlier. And it makes you wonder, is there something to this? Is there something with global warming? I'm not one of those people that are on either side of it. Of course, I think we have global warming. But it's not a political issue to me. It's a cherry blossom issue. So, or is it?

00:01:03 John Daub: All right, here is a bunch of Somei Yoshino trees. In fact, this walkway near Monzen-nakacho and Tsukishima Station is right here. This is sort of like a cherry blossom tunnel. It's so beautiful. But you can see, I don't see any blossoms at all. So did it really start? And the answer is yes. There is a tree called the indicator tree that the Japan Meteorological Agency uses.

00:01:33 John Daub: It's a tree that determines when the season has started. And there's 11 buds on the 14th of March. And that's how they decided. Let's take a closer look at this tree. And let me show you what the indicator tree looks like. So as you can see, just there's some color on the buds. And this is so beautiful. Yeah, cool. It is political. It's not everything is political. For me, it's just cherry blossom litical. Let's keep that discussion out of it. Although there could be something to it. Either way, cherry blossoms are here sort of. I mean, what do you think? Is it time? Have these bloomed? Do you consider this to be the start of the cherry blossom season? Because I don't until it's white. So I guess we're at the very start. And that's a positive thing. We're just so close to it.

00:02:48 John Daub: All right, here's a video from 2020. I walked around Yasukuni Shrine for the indicator tree. And in 2020, this was the earliest that it had bloomed back then, too. I think this was on the 16th of March, just a couple of days later. But on this day, 2020, I couldn't see many blossoms at all, although they had announced the cherry blossom season. This is Tokyo's index tree at Yasukuni Shrine. All 47 prefectures of Japan have an index tree, which determines when the cherry blossom season starts in each area.

00:03:18 John Daub: So Tokyo is usually first, but it doesn't mean that the cherry blossoms season starts all over Japan. It just means it started in Tokyo. And that's something I think that is really important to see here. I'm panning across that index tree. This is the most important sakura (cherry blossom) tree in Tokyo. This is a sample tree for the phenological observation conducted by the Tokyo Regional Headquarters of the Japan Meteorological Agency. And they cover up the tree's trunk and keep it nice and warm. And like, do you see any blossoms? In 2020, they used this to determine the season had started. But you have to really strain your eyes. You have to really love cherry blossoms to get excited about this. But back then in 2020, this was a reason to be excited because we really didn't have that many things to be excited about. They canceled the sakura festivals. There they are. They found 11 cherry blossoms. And I found four or five of them right there on the index tree back in 2020. That's how they decided. This is a very serious thing. Cherry blossoms, very serious.

00:04:55 John Daub: This is the first year also that we're going to have festivities. It's back on. Not only on the 13th, the day before the announcement started of the cherry blossoms, Japan announced the end of all masks. And tomorrow I'm going to be doing an episode talking a little bit more about this because Kanae and I have had some experiences with the end of masks in Japan. Now, it doesn't mean people stopped wearing them. I'll explain tomorrow. But the end of masks means in particular you do not have to wear one anymore anywhere. And no one can tell you to put it on, which is interesting. They actually have that in the information. I put it on Twitter of all places. But it is very interesting that it is announced like they make an official announcement.

00:05:43 John Daub: I still don't really see it. I guess I kind of do maybe. Like I'm straining. I think if you look at it long enough, that heat from the concentration on those blossoms might open them up. Now we're in an era right now. Hey, Carlos is here. Love your videos. We watch this in 2015. Whoa. I hope the cherry blossoms will still be around when we land in Tokyo. They're going to be around. They might not be in Tokyo. Well, some of them will be. But again, like the blossoms don't bloom in just one area. So if you're afraid that you're going to miss the cherry blossoms, you're not. You just have to go to a different area of Japan.

00:06:26 John Daub: Like my favorite time is April 20th, which is when I go to Hirosaki up in Aomori. That's when they bloom there. And they're at mankai (full bloom), which is considered the full opening of the cherry blossoms. Right now, they're just starting. It is just so early. And it's not until, I guess, a week after that you start to see that there are so many more blossoms on the trees. And then I bet you for 10 days from now, it'll still be looking good around March 28th. And then by April 3rd, I think they're gone. April 3rd, they're gone, pretty much. It is really pretty. This isn't a time to celebrate yet. It's just a time where you get excited now. And people are talking about it. It's on the news. It's on Japanese TV, everyone's talking about the cherry blossoms. There's a schedule that they announce like three or four months in advance, which kind of predicts when they're going to be coming. But it's only up to Mother Nature. Nobody predicted that it would be this early. Now, it is the earliest on record. Now, we don't know. The records didn't go back a thousand years. But it would be really interesting to know if at any other time in the history of Japan have the cherry blossoms bloomed early.

00:07:44 John Daub: Now, of course, they bloom early in Okinawa. That's Japan. Weather's a little bit warmer down there. And there are different varieties of cherry blossoms. I made an episode just a week ago at a beautiful Kanzakura tree, which is the pink ones. Those are already bloomed and finished. So, if you came in early March, you hit the cherry blossom season perfectly too. Just depends. But when it comes to the festivals and the celebrations, those happen next week. And whether you're here in Japan or you're not, and you booked your ticket a year in advance, you might miss it. But you'll miss it in Tokyo. You can still go to Fukushima. You can still go to Yamagata. You can still go, in fact, anywhere else but Tokyo, they'll probably be still hanging on to the trees a week later. Because Tokyo just has this extra urban warmth to it, I think. And especially on the rivers and where these blossoms are blooming, there's a little bit more sunshine.

00:08:42 John Daub: In fact, I see right there. Hey, pigeons! Ha! These guys are here. I see a couple already bloomed. Look at this. This is the Somei Yoshino. I found some. There's one right there. Do you see it? Right in the center of your screen. I saw another one. There's a couple that are open. Oh, right there. Yeah, right there. Do you see it? Somebody starts singing, Sakura, Sakura. Wow! It's true! It really did open. Okay, so I guess it's official. This tree has started. This is so early. This one's easier to see because it's got the dark bark behind it. Do you see that right there? That's so early. I have not seen them open this early in my neighborhood here, around this area. This is crazy.

00:09:54 John Daub: This means that this tree, the song goes like this. Sakura, Sakura... I can't remember. Because it's been like three years since. Are they in formation? Is that attack formation? You're in attack formation. I didn't know who they were dealing with. Let's walk down a little bit here. Hey, I got no food for you. It's on me and Leo make... What are you doing? Chase each other around the house it seems to scare everybody including Leo. Oh look at this okay let's get... Whoa that was close these are the anti-Toby's. Oh wow hey I'm me roll you can get banned for calling for attacks. How dare you you want them to attack me that they could from above that's the best way the bombing raids it has happened before I have been hit. I'm reading the chat these are the Somei Yoshino variety I found this right here this means that it is on it is real so this weekend we're going to see some people out there on the blue sheets enjoying themselves and I might be one of those people too this is wonderful.

00:11:39 John Daub: Wow ah this is breathtaking I'm just standing here I'm sharing a moment with all of you on the other side watching this do they smell like something I don't think this particular variety of cherry blossom has a smell no I'm like really really deep breathing in okay let's try it again maybe I'm not doing it deep enough there's no scent I think I smelled myself though I deep smelled myself you can try to smell so deeply I did that with wine once the guy said you put your nose in the bottle and you really take a deep breath I couldn't smell what he was smelling so I kept deep breathing in and I kept doing it deeper then I coughed myself up it has opposite effect you know don't try to smell too deeply it doesn't help learn as we go along here deep smelling so there's no odor to these they say odor it's no scent to these is an odor a negative thing as I have this is a wonderful odor you know I never heard that before how do they taste I'm not gonna pluck it up there that's like that's like a this must feel like law against that these buds have been all winter working hard to pop out now and some youtuber picks it and eats it no that's it's like Godzilla from the sea you know just comes up and picks up humans and doesn't even eat them just rips them up I'm not gonna do that.

00:13:51 John Daub: Bart writes in here congratulations on your son's birthday thank you Bart and thank you to all of you I saw the comments we got hundreds of comments from everybody around the world and I want to say thank you to everybody for the warm wishes we feel that on the other side here and he was born on the day that the cherry blossoms came in season this year it's kind of nice that Leo was born during the cherry blossom season so I yeah I really appreciate that warmth because the last few years have been really hard I have to be honest with you and it feels like we're coming out of this a lot stronger and I'm really happy for the community that we have and thank you to everybody because we you know it's it's been it's been two years I still remember that day you know we got so much love and support from you guys many people from around the world I still haven't said properly thank you to everybody too um I missed it on the back of this tree here so thank you yeah.

00:14:55 John Daub: And we had a wonderful time at Tokyo Disneyland you can take a look at that episode I did yesterday to show you our experience at Tokyo Disneyland it's changed and you can even see some of the start of the new park the extension to Tokyo Disneyland that they're making they were going to do like the sky but they changed it up again I'm not sure but it's exciting and I couldn't meet up with Carrie Jason she went to Shibuya I was in Shinjuku but I had to get home just to do a quick live stream and do some work to go and then go pick up Leo from school maybe I'll see Carrie tomorrow hey Jeff Kennedy do they still have candy with cherry blossoms they do they do in fact they have farms that have cherry blossoms uh harvesting and uh they're a special variety and they salt them and they use them in confections but you can also see them in candy and stuff they make powder out of it too and they use that powder into confections that's where you get the pink color from it even though these blossoms are white but you can see they start off as green and pink buds don't they it's beautiful it's life you know.

00:16:10 John Daub: And in two weeks these blossoms fall off and they leave us and then they come back again the next year and that's um that's life really that's youth you're young and beautiful and then it dies and you fall down but we come back young and beautiful next year I don't know but they say you know yeah youth is short and for these blossoms it's so it's about two weeks luckily for me it's been almost 50 years so there take that.

00:16:52 John Daub: The wind's picking up here I'm just gonna take a quick look here and then we're gonna end the live stream thanks so much for watching everybody I'm glad that you all can join us tomorrow I'll be in uh the I guess the Ginza area and we're gonna take a look in at the mask situation I'm gonna give you more insight and talk to you about my experience about going maskless in Japan I think you know it's a great thing that they've ended that like as a rule as an announcement because everything has to be announced in Japan there's never any mandate but it's been weird I want to talk about my experience tomorrow about this maskless on the trains maskless in the stores etc because everybody is thinking about it here in Japan and it'll be the final word on it this Somei Yoshino tree has a long way to go yeah you can see they are blooming so this is just the start there's just like one on this entire tree too like his buddy over there how nature is amazing look at all they're just buds and then there's like one or two it's beautiful.

00:18:21 John Daub: I hope you guys are seeing this in beautiful 1080p we never had this um until just a few months ago we started 1080p streams beautiful you can kind of feel it the way it's shaking there's a cool breeze today yesterday was hot the day before was cold it's supposed to be warm tomorrow this weekend is going to be the start of it if I can I will take you somewhere for some night cherry blossoms and we can do this together because the festivals are going to be back this year and this is super exciting this is the time to be alive this is all really positive energy that I hope I guess I could give it to you guys through the camera but um next week is going to be a week of cherry blossom festivals we haven't had this in like three years 2020 2021 2022 2023 it's now three years we're in now and we're gonna finally have food stalls, people without masks. We're gonna have you know see smiling and laughing and drinking and eating and partying and fun. I think the world deserves this just a little bit right right click the like button if you think this is right.

00:19:44 John Daub: Yes, we need to put a cherry blossom on that tugboat and on the barge. Alright, everybody. I can keep live stream for an entire hour. I'm not going to check out another one of the episodes that you only do at Go Channel main channel episode coming just putting some finishing touches on it. Got a couple of them coming out of March. Damn Tom Scott for getting an episode out before me. How dare you exact almost the exact same theme. It wasn't in English. How did he do that? I don't know. Happens happens.

00:20:31 John Daub: Alright, see everybody. Yeah, and that's right. The postcard club. If you can, these the postcards are out. In fact, I sent these last week. They've already arrived in Canada in the US and I think in Switzerland, we had somebody say they arrived. So yeah, go ahead and get yours to celebrate the Tateyama Alpine Route (?). See everybody. It's a week away from the madness, but for some of us, it'll start tomorrow.