What's Entry'to Japan like NOW

00:00:03 John Daub: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Tokyo. There is the Shinkansen going by. Not at fast speed because it just is starting from Tokyo Station. This is Yurakucho and I'm here today with a friend of mine who's visiting Japan and is going to report about the situation at the airport. How do you do?

00:00:24 Danny: Hi. I'm doing well.

00:00:25 John Daub: Good. I was also talking to them. This is Danny. He's visiting from. Would you say Montreal, I guess? Yeah, from Quebec. And he's been in Japan for about three days now.

00:00:37 Danny: Yeah, two days.

00:00:38 John Daub: For three days. And he's suffering greatly from jet lag. What time do you wake up and go to bed? What's your routine like now?

00:00:47 Danny: I wake up at 2am — no, my day start. Yeah, my day starts early.

00:00:54 John Daub: Your day starts at 2am and right now you're about to go to sleep. So we picked you at probably the worst time. Well, Danny has very valuable information for everybody because he just arrived through at Narita Airport, which is where a lot of people come through. And the situation is always changing. And I think it might be a good time for a very quick travel update. If you take a look here, this website is the — what is it? The Japan Web. It gets called One Second Japan Web app. Yeah, the Visit Japan Web app. This is where you would register your vaccination certificates and stuff. It's right on you, right there. You didn't have that though. So tell me about your experience at Narita Airport from the time you get up. You flew Air Canada. Yeah, I'm so sorry. That's like the spirit air of — are they good with this?

00:01:51 Danny: It's not the worst.

00:01:51 John Daub: What's the worst?

00:01:54 Danny: I transat. Maybe. Okay, well, maybe it's the worst.

00:01:58 John Daub: What was it like as soon as you arrived in Japan? What happened?

00:02:05 Danny: You just arrived at that place and you split youth with the color. It's blue, red and yellow.

00:02:13 John Daub: Blue, red and yellow. Okay.

00:02:15 Danny: I don't remember the color. But if you don't have the app, it's the same thing if you not have the vaccine.

00:02:22 John Daub: Right.

00:02:22 Danny: So you go with the red.

00:02:25 John Daub: So if you're unvaccinated, you're red. You go to the red line.

00:02:28 Danny: And if you vaccinate it and you have the app, the app, it's okay if you are vaccinated. If you don't have the app, you're red. You're red.

00:02:38 John Daub: What? So even if you're vaccinated, you got to go to the red line. So all these people get shuffled into the other direction. Basically it makes a lot of sense to register even now your vaccination on the web. Yes, right?

00:02:51 Danny: Yes.

00:02:52 John Daub: So you're red. Okay. You're not blue. My experience was last year I came back in the country, I was in and out in 20 minutes. That's Haneda. It was crazy. What about you? As the Shinkansen goes by here — if you go to the red, it's not that much a problem. You just have to go and you scan a QR code and you just have to fulfill some information. Your name, the address, where you are staying, the phone number. It took me two minutes after it gave you a QR code. And you go to see someone with this code, your passport and your country vaccine proof. And after it's okay, you can go.

00:03:39 John Daub: It seems like a lot of work, but it went faster than you explained it.

00:03:43 Danny: Maybe it took me about five minutes.

00:03:49 John Daub: How long did it take you to get through the process to the luggage into Japan? Like, "yay, I'm in Japan." From the gate to the — more than two hours and more than two and a half hours. What?

00:04:03 Danny: Yeah, I was supposed to arrive at my hotel about 6 or 7pm but my flight was delayed to one hour. And without the thing in Japan, I arrived at my hotel at 10:44, [at night].

00:04:24 John Daub: Didn't you arrive at midnight at 10:44? At 10:45 you arrived at your hotel?

00:04:23 Jeff: Yeah.

00:04:24 John Daub: Wow, this is a very long — I did not realize that it would take you two and a half hours to get through the airport.

00:04:32 Danny: There were so many people.

00:04:34 John Daub: I think that this is the deal here. By the way, if you're visiting right now in Japan, you're in Tokyo, you can come and see us. Do you have the cards? I have a stack of "Found Me" cards. Well, actually Danny has the stack here. You get one too, buddy. And I want to hear from you, maybe share your experience with us. I want to hear what it's like at the airport because a lot of people are coming into Japan now have the same kind of questions here. Is there such a thing as French Canadian? That has nothing to do with Japan. But Danny is the only one who can answer that. Is there a French Canadian? Is that real?

00:05:07 Danny: Yes, yes, we exist.

00:05:10 John Daub: You exist. Yeah. So your first language was French?

00:05:12 Danny: Yeah, French.

00:05:14 John Daub: And your English is pretty good. I can understand it fine. So it took two and a half hours to get through the airport. And how many people were — when you come in, you have a — if you have the app, you're Blue, right?

00:05:30 Danny: You go straight to the gate after you go straight.

00:05:35 John Daub: And so it really does probably — it seems like it's much faster to have the blue, but then you probably join with the reds again.

00:05:49 Danny: Yeah, all people come at the same time at the same place.

00:05:53 John Daub: It sounds like a football game, right? You have the red team and the blue team. The red team is a visiting team and they got to go off to the worst dugout. It seems real complicated.

00:06:01 Danny: But after that when I arrived to the gate they also ask for the app. So if you don't have this app for the step two, you have to fulfill another document. It took three minutes but you have to do this again, give to the person. It's just more easy if you have the app, you just go through this.

00:06:23 John Daub: The Visit Japan web app, I think it is, or something like that, and you can register. I think it's not even an app anymore. It's on a website now. Because the app kept on crashing and there were privacy issues, I think. So they changed it over to the web based thing. At least that's according to the digital minister, Taro Kono. It's Kono Taro because it's Japanese. He's on Twitter. He's hilarious. He has an English Twitter handle. One of the few Japanese politicians that does stuff in English and he will share his experience inside the Japanese diet. Sometimes he's very high level ranking official. It's hilarious. Like the food that they eat and stuff. He'll share with that. But he's also in charge of the app and he realized it was a total failure so he changed to web based one. So following him might be really useful to get information on the digital world in Japan, which is not great. Hopefully Kono san will be the next prime minister. I'm hopeful too. I think he'd be really great. But I think Kishida san is doing a pretty decent job right now. Even though he's not too popular, he's getting stuff done which is rare. So maybe if he sets up a great situation for Kono, we'll have a golden age in Japan once again. Do you know any of these people?

00:07:43 Danny: I don't like politics.

00:07:44 John Daub: I don't like politics at all. I just know that I want to know what's going on around me sometimes. This is Yurakucho station, everybody. Joshua Skidmore. Thank you, Danny. Do you drink beer?

00:08:01 John Daub: No. So it's coffee. Do you drink coffee?

00:08:01 Jeff: No.

00:08:01 John Daub: No maple syrup? No. We'll find the vending machine here. I want to give you this really quick update. There's a great website and a shout out to Inside Kyoto. They have been a really great source for so many people on the entry policies here. Inside Kyoto has it. I actually circled it up here on the top, but it says that if you are boosted with a COVID vaccine, you do not need a negative test. If you aren't, then you need a negative test. But I'm not sure because you're also vaccinated. So if you don't need a negative test to get on the plane, but you need a negative — so I'm not really quite sure on this. So the site here wrote that information here. If you're right here. If you're boosted with the COVID vaccine, you do not need a negative COVID test before flying to Japan. If you are unvaccinated or not boosted, you need a negative COVID test. So that's something if you are not vaccinated you want to watch out for. But I have a feeling that's going to change because I think that this is just me and now my opinion. I think that in America everybody has gotten it like once or twice or been vaccinated three or four times already. Probably Americans and probably Canadians too. Have the strongest immune system back to Canada because they let it run wild. Right. And Japan probably has the weakest because we were, I don't know, kind of weak with that. It's like China has a very weak immune system from having a zero Coronavirus policy. So maybe it's not a big deal anymore.

00:09:32 Danny: Canada, we didn't wear a mask for a long time. Yeah, they have few cases some time. My cousin have a Covid last week for three days.

00:09:44 John Daub: Your cousin? But was okay.

00:09:46 Danny: One or two [vaccine shots].

00:09:49 John Daub: Yeah, I had it too. It was not great. But I got over it. It's not something that you want to catch.

00:09:55 Danny: Technically, the COVID was still forever. Technically.

00:09:59 John Daub: Right.

00:10:01 Danny: New.

00:10:01 John Daub: New normal.

00:10:02 Danny: Yeah.

00:10:02 John Daub: So let's walk over to Big Camera. I'll take you around a little bit. I gotta take you on a little tour here. Maybe we can find some street food. Joshua Chat to work here. The trains are going above us so you can get a feel for the vibrant Tokyo audioscape here. Yeah, so I was, I was really happy that you could make it to Japan and get here in one piece. But you said that the jet lag has been really tough.

00:10:28 Jeff: Yeah.

00:10:28 John Daub: So — so you've never left, traveled before?

00:10:33 Danny: One time with school in New York City.

00:10:37 John Daub: Okay. When? Like many years ago. In 2007. 2007. Wow. So you don't have a lot of experience traveling, but this is the first time to have jet lag. How bad is it? Is it very bad or kind of —

00:10:53 Danny: Yes.

00:10:53 John Daub: You feel bad.

00:10:54 Danny: I'm not used to that right now. It's okay. But lately, this afternoon I will be tired. I know that.

00:11:05 John Daub: If you're looking around right now, I'm noticing that there's a lot less people wearing masks now. On March 13th of this month, they dropped the requirement or just — it wasn't a requirement. They just changed the rules. They just said, like, you don't need one. And so I'd say like a third of the people aren't wearing masks outside. And it's growing and that's kind of a good thing. It feels like it's more like back to normal. But, you know, people that are wearing masks, that's really good too. People can do whatever they want. And I think that that's the way to go. You have to find a way to get back to normalcy.

00:11:49 Danny: I took train many times and yeah, the most of the people wear a mask, but there are lots of people don't wear mask in train and.

00:11:58 John Daub: Right. It's really changed a lot. I still wear masks on trains, though. But if I'm holding Leo, he'll take it off.

00:12:01 Danny: Not me.

00:12:01 John Daub: Not you. It's all right.

00:12:03 Danny: They are so Japanese. Don't wear this.

00:12:04 John Daub: Yeah.

00:12:04 Danny: Nobody bother you. I say I wear your mask. People do. They think. And that's it.

00:12:11 John Daub: Nice to see Bradshaw Studios here. Thank you. And I see Rondania is here as well. How you guys doing? The cherry blossoms, we might be able to see a couple of them. There's one I want to take you to. Towards Hibiya Park. I want to show you Godzilla. Are you a Godzilla fan?

00:12:34 Danny: Not really.

00:12:34 John Daub: Yeah. Well, after this, maybe you will be. I want to show you guys yesterday as we're walking. This was last night. This was last night as the sun was setting with the cherry blossoms. This might be the last full day with them at full bloom like this because they're all starting to fall really quickly. So that might be the last full day for the cherry blossoms. And it seems like we're at the end of it. So maybe we'll have a good day tomorrow and then that's it. Look at this. This Baden Baden, this German stand took over for the vending machine corner. What? Danny, this is news. Oh, do you remember the vending machine corner? It's gone. It's a Baden Baden stand which is in Germany.

00:13:33 John Daub: That's odd. It looks cleaner. Yeah, it's a hopbrow house. What? They made it a hofbrau house. How cool is that? I guess it's kind of cool. I don't know, I'm somewhat split. I'm drinking way, way less than I used to, so it's not something I get excited about. But nice to have a sip or two. The Starbucks cherry blossom menu probably ends in April. I know. It's not around much longer. It's funny, you know, the cherry blossom trends. It's really funny. They actually start in February. Like in February you start to see cherry blossom confections, food. The beer cans have cherry blossoms on the side of it. So it gives you like this feeling. I guess it's right after Valentine's Day the cherry blossom season starts, just like Halloween — Christmas starts the day after Halloween here in Japan. And recent and last year it started right before. So it's funny like that.

00:14:46 Danny: It's kind of like that in Canada too. After Halloween starts.

00:14:49 John Daub: Christmas. Yeah. Get you in the shopping mood, get some eggnog, the hard stuff. This place, this area has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. You see if you look up there, that's Hibiya Midtown, which is a brand new skyscraper. They have a pretty good food court down there. There's a couple of good bakeries, there's a Caldi, you know, the usual suspects, but I like it. For those of you that don't know, the Imperial Hotel, which is the one that Queen Elizabeth stayed at, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe honeymoon there. It's gosh, all the famous people typically would stay at that hotel. It's going through a 10 year remake. It's going to be renovated. It's going to take 10 years and it's going to come out looking even better. And right now I think a lot of the celebrities when they come here don't stay there because it's a little bit dated. Feels like the old Showa period. They need to modern up a little bit. Probably a good thing, but I kind of like that old Showa feel. It makes you nostalgic for the past, but can't live in it. To avoid the crowds, which weekday? I'm not sure what that means, but I'd say Tuesday to Thursday. Just avoid. Did you see that limousine? Look how long that limousine was. You never see limos like that. Because people in Japan don't want to show off, so they will travel in much smaller cars. Even the emperor doesn't want to show off wealth. So you don't have limousines like that. But that was a massive stretch. Probably like a Western VIP.

00:16:40 Danny: Gosh.

00:16:40 John Daub: I saw a couple of Rolls Royces and Bentleys. Ginza's pretty amazing right now. I just shocked at the amount of people that are around here. There it is. You see him?

00:16:51 Danny: Yeah. Is that supposed to be bigger?

00:17:00 John Daub: Well, when real life it's bigger. But this is just a baby. If you feed it after midnight, anything can happen. Oh, hi. Yeah, it was really fun. That's the sound that I chase Leo with going around. He took my hat. It's uncomfortable. He stole it sometimes. Sometimes he doesn't give it back when he went to bed. I stole it back. It was mine to begin with. Yeah, this is a really nice area. There's some good restaurants in the back. But you know, the restaurants underneath the tracks here, there's the Keihin Tohoku line going by there. The restaurants underneath here are quite famous. This one is a — I think this is Taiwanese. Tim Holan is so good. They have like dumplings, dim sum. There's the whale playing Otto. A man called Otto. Haven't been in the cinema for a long time. Japan is, you know, I remember when I first came here, the prices for movies was the most expensive by far. It was like five or six dollars at the cinema in the US. My mouth dropped. I said, you kidding me? 18 bucks to go watch a movie. And they were really old cinemas back then. There weren't — going to the movies just wasn't part of Japanese culture.

00:19:22 John Daub: I don't think this is a kaya. You know, Danny, if you come here and walk at night, this is a really nice place. All the smoke will be billowing out from yakitori being cooked underneath there. Yes. So if you come back here at night, it's really scenic. You can feel, I don't know, you really feel Ginza. This is the older side of it, the Yurakucho Hibiya side of it. I'm walking around to give you kind of an idea. So basically just to sum up this here I put a link already in the description. This is from MOFA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And if you are coming to Japan, you're going to want to bookmark this website because this has all of the up to date information from the source. So you can, you know, these YouTube videos, sometimes they become somewhat obsolete after a month or so. Which is why I don't like to do Japan travel updates anymore. But if you need the latest information you can get it from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Health Welfare. Health, labor and Welfare, which also has guidance on the immigration policies for this current situation, which I think is going to be over soon. I think they said in May they're going to be downgrading this to the common flu, which means it's basically nothing. Although we all know that it's not. But you know it is. It's not. It's complicated. It's like a relation we're going to have to live with. It's complicated. So that's the website. That's the website here. The only country that has trouble, I think it might be China and a couple other countries. That trouble just — it's more challenging to come in here. And China has reinstated. I heard from a friend of mine, Scotty from Strange Parts, will be reinstating my Chinese visa. I have a 10 year Chinese business visa. I don't even know how I got it. Oh, I do. I gave a speech there 10 years — five years ago. So. That's such a hard thing. It's politics. I love China, but I don't like the Chinese government. Can you say that? I just like China is such an awesome country. Just the political stuff is garbage in la. Both sides. I say that the US too. The political stuff is so bad for me in a way.

00:21:37 Danny: They have to — China, you have China. The people, they are the most adorable.

00:21:40 John Daub: And they're having — they work hard and they will have families. They want the best of their kids. I have a lot of friends there and. They just have a tough political situation because they have one leader.

00:21:59 John Daub: And that's it. Just ride this for a day in the shotgun position. You see that in the front. That's where you want to be. That's kind of cool actually. That's kind of cool. Imagine being on the second floor. Do you think they'll wave at us if we — let's see if anyone will wave hello. They're going somewhere. I want to join. Can I get on the bus too? Bye. Bye. I got one little wave. We got one wave. I saw one — one of the grannies there. Whoa. That waved at us. That was nice. Yeah. Welcome to Me Writes in here. Once you get to Narita, it's easy. I think it — I think right now, here's the real situation. So according to Japanese media, because I kind of watch this in the morning, I don't read the newspapers anymore. A lot of people do here. Fukuoka airport is really in bad situation. They laid off so many workers, and then all of a sudden they can't — all these tourists started to come in because the border open and they still haven't able to get back up to 100%. So there's just not enough people staffed at the airports to get in the rapidly increasing flights into the country. So that leads to longer queues, especially for foreign visitors. But if Kanae, Leo and I come in, we can go to the Japanese line or I have a special entry. I've got a special line for me, people like me. So we can go into there and we get out really quickly. But for the other process, it does take a lot of time. So depending on —

00:23:50 Danny: Depending on the number of person.

00:23:52 John Daub: Right. You could get trapped and have to wait for several hours. So my advice is use the restroom on the plane before you get off, if you can. Maybe. This is Tsukiji. This is where — of course, of course Sushiro is down there in the basement. You're not allowed to take cameras or even go there to take pictures. He'll come out and yell at you, which makes a pretty good picture. I shouldn't say that. I shouldn't say that. Don't do that. Sorry. Poor guy. I hope he's retired. He'd be like 100 now.

00:24:43 John Daub: I think the documentary was a blessing and a curse for him. He was already pretty popular. I don't think he needed tourists. But it gave a really great insight into the work ethic and how they do that.

00:24:53 Danny: I thought that.

00:24:53 John Daub: This is so interesting. Danny. Hold the presses. Loteria is a fast food chain I've been to once in 25 years, and I probably won't be going ever again. But they have upped their game. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you their version of the Gohan Burger. That's right. This burger has — what looks like a half baked egg, but that's just American cheese and seaweed on the top with rice. I'd eat that, but I won't because I don't eat luxury. I don't know. It just looked — even the one time I had it was kind of sketchy. You know what all the different options you have in Japan. I don't think Loteria is high on my list. Although you did, Danny. You get once — one time get out a free card to eat McDonald's. That's it?

00:25:41 Danny: Yeah.

00:25:42 John Daub: Well, you can actually eat whatever you want. But I'm just —

00:25:47 Danny: I would like to try it. No, I'm not being —

00:25:51 John Daub: I'm not being a food snob here. Well, I sort of am because there's so many more things to try than just McDonald's. But McDonald's in Japan is pretty interesting to compare with McDonald's at home. So I have nothing wrong with it. But don't eat all your meals there because the menu is easy. Yeah, try —

00:26:11 Danny: I tried McDonald's in the US and it's awful.

00:26:14 John Daub: Is it different in Canada?

00:26:15 Danny: Yeah.

00:26:15 John Daub: Really?

00:26:16 Danny: In US each time you bite in your Big Mac or take a fries, each time it looks like you take £20. It's — it's so heavy.

00:26:28 John Daub: It's —

00:26:28 Danny: It's hard to say.

00:26:30 John Daub: Do they have poutine in McDonald's in Canada?

00:26:34 Danny: Yes.

00:26:34 John Daub: Oh, are you serious?

00:26:36 Danny: What for us? Poutine. But they have a lot of —

00:26:39 John Daub: But they have poutine. Yeah, that's something. Look at this wasabi burger they got as well. And the teriyaki burger looks like they have — that's smart. They put a like an onsen egg, half boiled egg on there. That looks pretty good. That looks pretty good. Hey, if anybody is here in Japan, you can't make it to meet us, then you can write here in the chat. Tell us your experience, and I'll read it aloud because I want to hear from you. What was it like for you to come in and enter Japan over the last couple of weeks? How has it changed? And if you've been here in the last couple of years, you were here last year and again, how was it different? What was your experience like? What is it like at different airports? What is it like at Kansai and Haneda right now? We pretty much walked around the entire — we started at Yurakucho, which is — hold on. Here. And we walked. Sorry. No, I don't know. Where am I? International Forum. So we started from Yurakucho, which is here. We walked underneath it, and we walked all the way around this direction. That's pretty cool. So let's walk a little bit further and we'll go over to the — are you okay with time, Danny?

00:27:49 Danny: I'm in vacation. I'm not busy.

00:27:53 John Daub: Oh, you're on vacation. Well, that's true. I'm not on vacation. I'm just actually right now I'm recovering. If you haven't already, please do check out the latest episode on Only in Japan, the main channel. This is the episode — I just uploaded it. Last night I went to bed at 3:30. I kept on tweaking it and tweaking it and tweaking it. The historical — I learned so much from this, the oldest business, because experience matters and yeah, they're the most experienced. So this is a pretty interesting episode. Check it out and leave me a comment. I love the — the first day. I always read the comments. So if you're gonna insult me, do it in the first day because I will definitely, definitely read. Might not be there when you go back, but it'll be funny for me. I don't take any — you can try to even get personal. Actually, I think with all of the blacklisted words, it won't even go through. But I have never — I don't think I can't think of a comment that I've taken personally. So I don't get — what is it, offended? Is that the word? I just — what? I just move on. Let it go. Let it go. Life's too short. So is that car — let it go. I hope it's not copyrighted. Yes. Can you get the Wi-Fi? Does it work? I'll try. Danny's right now trying to get the Wi-Fi. Do you have to pay? Because the payphone is — you think in a payphone you have to pay for the Wi-Fi but it says it's free. It's not very good business.

00:29:58 Jeff: It does.

00:29:58 John Daub: Oh, wow. It does. Interesting. So you connect it to the Wi-Fi from —

00:30:08 Jeff: No, no, it doesn't work.

00:30:09 John Daub: Oh, you have to register. So you go to Safari and then they make you log in and they — you can put a fake password.

00:30:22 John Daub: You put in a fake password. This is a famous statue. This building had been under construction, but you can take a look at it. It's the naked cupid whose bum is facing the richest intersection in the world. For a time —

00:30:45 Danny: I think this girl. Look at him.

00:30:46 John Daub: Wow. I was telling Danny earlier when we walked at lunch, you want to see what we ate for lunch, everybody? Let's see if I can — oh, I forgot to — I forgot to put that video on here. Maybe I can drag it in. There it is. Let's take a left here. Oh, there's the mochi place. How's the signal, everybody? Usually it's a little bit lousy in this corner. Jason, is the signal okay. This is Wako on the Yonchome intersection. I come here all the time because I live near here. So it makes a lot of sense that I'd be here the most. Please recommend accurate weather forecast in Japan.

00:31:45 Jeff: Google.

00:31:47 John Daub: What do you mean? I really want to help people, but that makes no sense. Is an institution. The Ricoh building. And it seems like it's being renovated. I made news with this last time. Signal is good now. Okay. Because I wanted to show you our lunch. So good. Is it playing? Oh, there it is. Okay. Did you like the katsudon?

00:32:43 Danny: Yes.

00:32:44 John Daub: The only other person that knows where this place is is Irvin. I took Irvin there once. I think he liked it. Yes. You can get a brown Porsche. I saw that comment. There's a French Canadian is not French. That's important to notice, to point out, but basically it's the same. It is the same. Well, the languages — it's the same difference between us English and British.

00:33:13 Danny: But in the language it's kind of different. The accent is different and sometimes the words. But it's the same — France between us and British. English, French and English.

00:33:25 John Daub: If there's a war between France and England, do you root for France? Because the queen is on your money, right? Yeah. So who do you root for, the French or the British?

00:33:40 Danny: I prefer British.

00:33:44 John Daub: Take that, your French. I take — we take your language. I'm using it like an Indian accent.

00:33:50 Danny: I'm just like, technically French Canadian.

00:33:54 John Daub: I can't do it.

00:33:55 Danny: French Canadian as much — as much same like British than like French. We have more connection with British in a way.

00:34:04 John Daub: Okay. That's so interesting. If I hang around Kanae for a long time, it'll start to come back. Maybe. But if I do an accent now, it'll either come out Southern or Indian because I talk to family and — and take that British. Take that French. We don't need you. Sorry.

00:34:32 Danny: Try to talk another language.

00:34:36 John Daub: Okay. Oh, wow. Thank you. Where are you from? Oh, wonderful. Welcome. Yeah, nice. Nice job. Yeah. Do you have a card?

00:34:54 Jeff: Yeah.

00:34:54 John Daub: Oh, yeah. Wow. Hey, how you doing? Nice to meet you. Jeff. Oh, yeah, yeah. Jeff gets a card too.

00:35:01 Jeff: Yeah. Thank you.

00:35:02 John Daub: Did you — how long have you been in Japan now?

00:35:06 Jeff: I literally got here this morning. Wow. From Bangkok. Flew in from Bangkok.

00:35:12 John Daub: Well, here we're live. You mind telling us — tell us about your experience. What was it like coming in?

00:35:22 Jeff: Wasn't the greatest. Coming in through Haneda this morning. Now they've had this system in play for quite some time, but I had the two scan — two QR codes and the — yeah, yeah, I think that was a better idea.

00:35:33 John Daub: Thank you, Jason. See if we can get a better signal over here. This is our eyes and ears on the other side. I appreciate that. So the situation was — it took a long time to get through.

00:35:50 Jeff: Yeah. So I mean, I would have thought that would have had a bit better together by now since the system's been in place. Immigration, the immunization one, it's not even a case QR code anymore. It's just a little link that says you're okay to go, but they still need it. I noticed a lot of people that were missing the vaccination page.

00:36:11 John Daub: Right.

00:36:12 Jeff: So they got herded to another part of the line. Yeah, herded to another part of the line. If you had the two QR codes and the vaccination, you're fine.

00:36:20 John Daub: Did you meet up with those people that had the blue and the red later on?

00:36:25 Jeff: No, I pretty much had all mine. So we got shuffled through. The priority is given to anyone in the wheelchair, essentially, which is fair.

00:36:35 John Daub: So what was the total time in an hour?

00:36:37 Jeff: Oh, about an hour and a half.

00:36:38 John Daub: Wow, that's Haneda.

00:36:40 Jeff: Yeah. So we — we flew on a — a flight, by the way.

00:36:44 John Daub: Good airline.

00:36:44 Jeff: Yeah, first time I flew Good Airline. Got here at about half an hour early, which is great because it took us extra hour and a half to clear. So yeah —

00:36:55 John Daub: That's it.

00:36:58 Jeff: But I would just advise anyone just get your QR codes together, get that immunization one, register it on the website. Register on the website and get that — get the result page even though it's not a QR code. So don't worry about it. If you don't get a QR code, what was the other thing? And when you get to the desk, have your QR codes ready because the line was like 10 deep. So if you can imagine — it was — I'm sure you've been through your — your — native — before, right? It weighs in the now about 10 times. There was only like 12 officers this morning processing internationally, which I thought was rather unusual.

00:37:35 John Daub: Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:37:37 Jeff: So yeah, and yeah, just make sure you have those codes.

00:37:40 John Daub: So if you have that, you get — get there pretty a lot quicker.

00:37:43 Jeff: Probably, yeah, yeah.

00:37:44 John Daub: There's a lot of people who fumble around with the paperwork when after a 14 hour flight or 10 hour flight — the last thing you want to do is to fumble around with paperwork. You have it all ready the moment you get off the plane. When I came off, people met you when you got off the plane to shuffle you into the ready —

00:38:00 Jeff: It was you step off.

00:38:01 John Daub: So you want to have it when you're on the line, queue to exit, have your stuff together.

00:38:06 Jeff: Yeah.

00:38:06 John Daub: And then you shove it to them and they'll shuffle you right out the door.

00:38:09 Jeff: No, literally like an army camp. Oh, the other point — the other point. Yeah, the other point. Just to note when you go through passport control obviously collect your bags but what they don't tell you properly is that you meant there's another scanner near the custom store.

00:38:25 John Daub: Oh, okay.

00:38:26 Jeff: So because that was thing everyone was just joining the queue like myself to go straight out the door or if they want to do a random check, that's fine. And they were just — what happened was the girls were telling us to go back because there's another scanner. It's a self serve scanner.

00:38:44 John Daub: Right.

00:38:45 Jeff: And then some people are holding it up because it didn't go through properly. So they're reactivating the code in front of the machine which they should step aside and you know, other people have got the code, just scan — can scan.

00:38:55 John Daub: Right.

00:38:55 Jeff: Yeah. So yeah, on a off note — November 3, 2019 is when I last saw you.

00:39:03 John Daub: Wow.

00:39:03 Jeff: Yeah.

00:39:03 John Daub: So down there I look older, fatter, grayer.

00:39:07 Jeff: Oh, we all do. Yeah, don't worry about that. By the way, I want to get an order of business out of the way. That was a super chat. That was long over.

00:39:15 John Daub: Oh, wow. Well thank you.

00:39:18 Jeff: Yeah, better in person. I wanted to get you something.

00:39:20 John Daub: Look at gold. Thank you.

00:39:24 Jeff: I mean anyone — most of Asia will know what the packet is, the significance of it. So yeah, no, long overdue. I wanted to get something for your little one but unfortunately I just ran out of time.

00:39:34 John Daub: That's all right.

00:39:36 Jeff: They got us working spoiled.

00:39:41 John Daub: That's great. I've been trying to do a meetup as well but I just — at that last episode I uploaded, nearly killed me.

00:39:48 Jeff: Oh, it's been two years. Yeah, I can imagine. It's a big following, man.

00:39:52 John Daub: World's oldest hotel. That was. You can see it right now if it's — if you are online.

00:39:58 Jeff: No, I can imagine. So what is your plan for this trip this time?

00:40:00 John Daub: You know what, honestly, when I came here it was booked at short notice work last few weeks of work was so busy. I did not plan anything. I even — I got that fed up of like how long it took. This morning I left — I left the airport straight away not thinking that I didn't have change any currency. And most of the places open that check.

00:40:21 John Daub: Right, right.

00:40:22 Jeff: So I haven't even — still to now haven't organized money change or my SIM card yet. So. Wow. Yeah. So bit embarrassing but you get on —

00:40:35 John Daub: the Shinkansen then you're going to travel around a little bit.

00:40:38 Jeff: I've got a pass, but I haven't finalized. I wanted to go down to — they're not very forgotten, right? South.

00:40:51 John Daub: Remind me, remind me, remind me on the south.

00:40:54 Jeff: No, no, no — right. No, no. Last city on the —

00:41:00 John Daub: Oh no, Osaka?

00:41:04 Jeff: No, no, no — like right, south, right?

00:41:08 John Daub: You mean west.

00:41:09 Jeff: No, no, south. Right at the end.

00:41:13 John Daub: Okinawa?

00:41:15 Jeff: No, that's our —

00:41:18 John Daub: Okay, that's on the island of Kyushu. That's actually west Japan. They would say oh yeah — Japan looks like north to south. But it's actually — yeah, east and west. I was confused too. I still don't — I still think of the same way. That's why I know what you're talking about. People say south and thinking like yeah, no, no, no.

00:41:38 Jeff: I think one thing I did, I made a mistake last time was I relied too much on the rail pat pass. And you spend so much time on train — you get into that thing because you think the trains are free right as you're going along and booking left, right and center. But you don't really get time to see the places.

00:41:52 John Daub: I don't like the Shinkansen in the sense that it's too fast. And I know that a lot of you probably think that that's crazy, but the more you ride it, the more it feels like an airplane. You're just commuting from one place to another after your tenth time riding it. But it is really cool. However, it just goes by. It's fast. You don't really soak in the stuff — where the local trains you can. Yeah, I like to open up the window sometimes there's nobody even on the local trains. And you can stick your head out the window, which — don't do that. But if you did and there's nobody around, no one would know me.

00:42:19 Jeff: What you're teaching the kids at home.

00:42:20 John Daub: John, don't do it. Don't do it. I — I didn't do it.

00:42:24 Jeff: No, no. I mean there's all different types of weird shape and sizes of the trains here in Japan. May as well just explore them all. Not all about going on the bullet train.

00:42:35 John Daub: I think for some people, including maybe me — my first couple of years here, I want to extract every single yen out of that. Every penny if I can get it. And the Shinkansen is the most expensive, so I would take that to extract the most out of that.

00:42:53 Jeff: Well, that was the thing — that was my mistake.

00:42:55 John Daub: I know who you are.

00:42:55 Jeff: Yeah, that was my mistake as well. So, I mean you don't get the — yeah, the opportunity to explore where you're going.

00:43:03 John Daub: Exactly. Yeah, I think that that's well said. You haven't — are you filming too?

00:43:11 Jeff: Oh, I'm — I'm — no, no, I'm useless. I'm still learning. I think if I call my channel, it would be called Bro Breaking Gimbals.

00:43:19 John Daub: Breaking Gimbals. Actually that would be interesting. That's an interesting name. I don't think you'd have DJI sponsoring you or Insta360.

00:43:30 Jeff: No, I definitely wouldn't get sponsorship.

00:43:31 John Daub: Oh well, you should — you should do a rehashed advice based on your knowledge.

00:43:37 Jeff: From what?

00:43:37 John Daub: Like people who want to take a gimbal to Japan.

00:43:39 Jeff: Oh, right. Okay.

00:43:41 John Daub: And then — you — I can't keep up with the gimbal culture because it's changing so darn quickly. The Insta360 has this new AI looking gimbal thing that I'm probably not going to buy because I just got this thing.

00:43:53 Jeff: Yeah.

00:43:53 John Daub: But it's just fascinating to see the directions that it's going. We haven't even reached the end of it. I thought we had. Apparently there's more. Yeah, I think — is that the Apple — the Apple Store is out of business too?

00:44:07 Jeff: No, I think we're just walking right past.

00:44:09 John Daub: Yeah. You know how I feel about them. No, they never gave me my phone. But American Express, after one year of fighting them, I thought I was fighting everybody. I was even fighting some of you.

00:44:22 Jeff: There will be a time.

00:44:23 John Daub: Sorry.

00:44:23 Jeff: You just gotta let it go.

00:44:25 John Daub: You gotta let it go. So I let it go. And then after I let it go, American Express said that they would reimburse me for the purchase. American Express would have done it, but Japan Gold doesn't. They said you have to upgrade to platinum. I said, well, so how much is the platinum per year? It's a thousand dollars. That's as much as the phone. So I'm not a big fan of that or American Express Japan. It's like they really shake you down here.

00:44:55 Jeff: We're not going to start protest out here.

00:44:57 John Daub: Is this actually a burrito?

00:45:01 Jeff: Is this a temporary?

00:45:03 John Daub: No, the one over there is — they tore it down.

00:45:07 Jeff: All right.

00:45:08 John Daub: Yeah, they tore it down. It just serve — picketing. I — I don't have a sign. I need to make a sign. I'm not the type. I would do it passively aggressively on a live stream. That's my stuff, my style.

00:45:23 Jeff: John, honestly, I would not know how to use this thing. I'm practicing as I go along. I only just bought a few —

00:45:28 John Daub: Better than the one I have, actually. So you have the OM-5.

00:45:32 Jeff: OM-5.

00:45:33 John Daub: Yeah, this is better than this one, I think because the battery's better. You can charge out of it. I can't do that with this.

00:45:37 Jeff: All right.

00:45:37 John Daub: And the battery is already after one time — it's almost done. This thing is okay. Lasts forever. So you have a good purchase.

00:45:45 Jeff: I think it's the old story. If you keep it simple, it will use.

00:45:48 John Daub: Exactly. Yeah. And it does a great job of stability. This one's better than the five that I have. I'm fine.

00:45:55 Jeff: I'm terrible at stability. Yeah, no, you actually — you know what the funny thing was? So I went to them. I think it's the last day is today or tomorrow, I think.

00:46:04 John Daub: Did you see Peter there?

00:46:08 Jeff: No, he's in — he's in Bangkok at the moment.

00:46:10 John Daub: Was there? Yeah. Oh, I think Peter — Peter was there.

00:46:17 Jeff: I had a little — I had a bit of a Facebook joke this morning. Why — why tell — we're going to buy a new car. So she tells me, oh, I think you should go to the Bangkok photo show and have a look at the — have a look at new cars. Take some pictures of the new models. Now, knowing me, I only heard part of what my wife said. Models. Okay. So I got all these photos of models.

00:46:43 John Daub: I think that might be half of what Peter is filming for his channel. He does one on the Motorship every year and it usually does pretty well. His motor shows in the past, like a million views and stuff. So he does a pretty good job with that. This is a really famous toy store, by the way. The Haku Incan has a lot of history. So if somebody asked me, where do I find Legos and stuff, it probably here would be the place in there for some toys.

00:47:10 Jeff: How's that sort of a feel of that toy shop in Home Alone?

00:47:13 John Daub: Yeah, it feels like the old school cool toy shop. So that's about it here. I wanted to say one more time here, plug the new episode, which is available on the main channel right now. It is about 14 minutes long. And you will learn a lot of Japanese history in there and see my experience staying there with my friend Joe Hatab, who's with me. So thank you, both of you, for sharing your experience.

00:47:42 Jeff: Thank you. I'm not going to hijack your channel any further. Did that last time.

00:47:50 John Daub: No, no. Actually, this is really good information. I appreciate you both sharing it with us. I'll see you another episode tomorrow. Everybody stay safe out there.

00:48:00 Jeff: Take care.