00:00:01 John Daub: Greetings everybody. Hello. In this episode, I'm doing a Q&A and discussing some of the things that might be on your minds. I was sick for the last couple of days, but I'm feeling a little better as my wife and son sleep and get better themselves. I'm out here just having lunch and going to go back and finish some work later today. I'm enjoying right now a yakitori bento, which I got at the shop here. This is one of my favorite places to come and hang out. There's a bunch of them I have here in Tokyo. This is the end of the line right here, right off the bridge from Monzen-nakacho. I'm here on the end, which is on the left side. Do you see there? Right on the end by the bridge. From this point, you can see all of Tokyo Bay, which is really relaxing. Tokyo Skytree is above me, but you can't see that from here. I'll show you a view of what I'm seeing right now. From this angle, there's the point that I'm off. I'm looking at the city. I'm feeling good though. So here we go.

00:01:18 John Daub: Some of the questions that I got were quite interesting. One of them was what happens on May 8th. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government of Japan, all the border control issues are going to be gone. Basically, it's going back to what it was like in 2019. Here's a post from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs right there. It says literally here on May 8th, all border measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic will be lifted. So what does that mean? I think that means you don't need to go to the border control office. You don't need to even have the Visit Japan Web information. I don't think you even need to upload your vaccines and all this other stuff. I think that all completely goes away as far as I know, because lifting the measures means that, right? However, caveat, I would probably still do it because you never know. At least until the 8th, 9th and 10th, until we totally confirm that they're going to drop this. But I haven't heard any information that they're going to continue it or that they're going to drop it either way, which is very confusing. So if you're planning to arrive here after midnight on May 8th, I would say that you probably don't even need to have this app. But I would have it just in case. It doesn't hurt to put it up there. And for the 9th and 10th, if you're planning to travel in these days as well, I think after this, you're probably going to be okay not having to do any of these border measure things that you had to do before. You're going to be just fine entering the country. So far, people have been reporting a really easy time coming into Japan. And that makes me really happy because it shouldn't be that hard. It isn't in any other country. But the lines are long because there aren't enough border patrol immigration officers to check all of those passports. And I think they're having trouble with the mass amount of people and these border prevention measures that they still have in place for the next month. It is creating lines and making it harder for people to get into the country. So it's a little bit frustrating for people depending on the time that your plane comes in. But people are shuffling through sometimes between 15 minutes and 3 hours depending on the time of day that you come in here.

00:03:53 John Daub: Vic, Vic, thank you. Nice to see you here. Some of the other questions that I've gotten, I will answer. And I'm looking at the chat right now so you can ask away here. Hazmat writes in here about Golden Week concerns. We'll be in country until the 6th of May. Yeah, if you're planning to come in between April 28th—I like to say a day earlier—and May 6th or 7th or a couple days after, this is the most peak time that Japanese like to travel domestically in particular. This is called Golden Week. Why is it called Golden Week? Because usually the weather is all sunny. It's almost the perfect time to be visiting Japan. Except for the fact that the entire country is sort of shut down for corporate work. And people are traveling. Now, this has changed a little bit over the last 15, 20 years. It's more staggered so the entire country doesn't completely shut down like it used to maybe 10, 15 years ago. Now, some people will stay on. And they have a new holiday period for those people that decide to skip the Golden Week and this summer holiday called Obon. And they have a Silver Week in September, which is less crowded and it's almost advantageous to travel then. So, businesses are operating a lot more than they were about 10, 15 years ago. But if you're coming to Japan at that time, be prepared for crowded trains. Try to make sure you can make reservations for the Shinkansen at peak times. If you're not leaving from Tokyo or Shin-Osaka, those are the two places where the train originates. So you can most often get a non-reserved ticket at those locations. If you're getting on the train somewhere along the line, it is standing room only for a lot of trains during that week. Just keep that in mind. Other than that, and getting a reservation online for JR tickets is really hard. There is an online site that you can go to. But if you have the JR Rail Pass, you're limited to just the Hikari. And I would say that you probably will do okay with the Hikari. They're not that much slower than the Nozomi. But if you're planning to travel during Golden Week holiday, just keep in mind. If you get here a few days early, try to get a reservation for a seat if you can. If not, get to the station 30 minutes early to get a non-reserved seat. Usually from Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, you will be able to sit. If you're not leaving from those places, it is not that easy to get a reserved seat. So thanks for asking that question.

00:06:32 John Daub: We were out at Haneda in 45 minutes, writes in here Gary Johnson. That's good to hear. So 45 minutes seems to be about the medium time. I've heard people get out in 15. Alright, let's try this yakitori bento. Yakitori is grilled chicken, skewered chicken. I can smell that charcoal that they grill it on. Mmm, this is good. And you can see they have the Japanese leeks, the negi (green onions), just slightly burned, which is the way I like it. A lot more flavor that way. They opened on the bed of rice. In Japan, they'll put like egg, like grated egg. I love this. It just adds like another texture to it. Not much flavor, but a really good texture to it. Let's go over some more questions. Itadakimasu. Thank you, Jason. Yeah, the grill flavor, the char-grilled taste is always something that I really love with yakitori. And anything that they grill in general, even wagyu, that's another way to eat it through the yakiniku on char-grilled. It gives it another complexity to the taste.

00:07:53 John Daub: Now, Noah writes in here, "Hey, John, I was just accepted into the JET program." Congratulations. I don't know where you'll be placed yet, but do you have any tips or advice for adjusting to life in Japan? What a great question. Congratulations. I wasn't able to get into the JET program. I'll give you the story after I give you some tips. I think I might have even said this, but I'll probably tell it again in the future too. But I'll go over my JET story, which is quite entertaining. So the tips are, I think it's good that you don't know where you're going to be. I think it's better not to be in Tokyo for your first assignment, so to speak. I don't think working in Tokyo, again, it seems like the dream place to be. Or any city, even Kyoto. It's better to be put really deep in the countryside. Why? Because you're getting a better experience. Things are cheaper anyways. And I think you learn Japanese a heck of a lot. And you learn Japanese a lot faster too. The friends that you make outside of the city, there are fewer resident foreigners in these smaller towns that a lot of JETs are placed in. So you make some pretty good friendships. But the problem is that if the quality of the person is bad in the small towns, the other foreigners, sometimes you don't want to hang out with the foreigners in your town. I've had towns where I did that. I've had to move 16 times as a teacher to smaller towns most often. And yeah, there was sometimes like there was this one Irish guy who was just obsessed with sleeping around. And he was a little bit odd. So I was successful at it. And where was that? I think it was in Toyohashi. Nice guy though, but just not somebody I would want to hang out with. You get the picture, like just people with different personalities that you probably wouldn't be friends with at home. But in Japan, you would be friends with. So you just keep that in mind. So you might not have a great selection of friends if you live out in the countryside. But the friends that you do make will be quite close. And you'll make more Japanese friends in the countryside, I believe.

00:09:53 John Daub: I highly recommend that you learn katakana and hiragana. Make flashcards. I picked it up in about 36 hours, the katakana alphabet. I was just doing it on the Nagoya subway because I lived in Nagoya at the time. And I would just go over like ai ue o kaki ku ke ko. And I was able to, while I was riding the subway, I would look around and I would be able to see the katakana on the sign. So it very much stuck in my head. I think I got that quicker as a result. But you can even start on the airplane. By the time you're finished with your training for the JET program, you'll be able to read menus and get around. So I think that's critical to be able to understand your surroundings to enjoy it better. Especially if you're not in the city. Just start to learn the grammar of Japanese. Don't learn the romaji one. Another reason to learn hiragana is because if you can learn the way that the alphabet works, you learn Japanese at, I say, twice or three times faster than if you're trying to learn it with Roman letters. So it just makes a lot of sense to do that. Try to get a, you know, gosh I don't know. One of the things when I moved to a new town was I quickly settled in by getting a new cell phone number. Getting my utilities set. Get the residence card as soon as possible. I think you get that on arrival now to Japan, which is really convenient. I think the JET program does a pretty good job of making sure that you get all of that taken care of. For men and the shirts, I would bring your own shirts. Make sure you bring, especially if you've got wider shoulders. I have a little bit wider shoulders than Japanese so it's hard to find shirts that are my size. I would bring maybe socks if your feet are over 27 centimeters. Some Japanese shoemakers don't make shoes over 27 centimeters. So if you have feet over 27 centimeters, which is like a 9 and a half, bring extra shoes because you probably, I mean you can still buy it here but it's harder to find in Japan than it is to, than you think. Just the makers aren't, they don't make those sizes. Even the big and tall ones. Your selections are like scarce. So I hope that that helps.

00:12:10 John Daub: When I applied for the JET program, I was at, I actually got an interview, which is a big thing back then. In 1998, when I applied, there weren't a lot of JET school openings like there are now. There's a ton more but there were also a ton more people applied. Back then, it was very few. So just Japanophiles, like people that were really, really like, I guess it's like the western dudes who thought they were Japanese kind of thing. Like that they really wanted to, those are the people that were at the interview. And I was the odd man out because I didn't know that much about Japan. But that makes me the perfect person to kind of go in this kind of a job. But I was in the interview and I was first of all intimidated in the waiting room because everybody looked like they were like Georgetown graduates looking for their first job in Japan. Japanese majors. They wanted this experience. They were more set up for this than I was. So I finally got into the interview. You know, I had on my suit. I bought the suit especially for this as well. They sat me down in the middle of the room Japanese style. I'd never ever heard of this kind of an interview style. They had three old dudes behind a desk and I was in the center of the room, very vulnerable like. And then they just shot questions at me. And I was just a kid. I was quite nervous. I'm sure that my answers were not ideal. But I'd like to think that I almost got the job. But yeah, I didn't. So I found another way in. I went to a private school called Amity Aeon. And they set me up. It was probably the smartest move. I think I had a better experience through that. I got to understand more of the corporate Japan way of life through it. And that set me up better than if I had done the JET program. But the JET program is great if you can get into it. Anything you can do is great. I think it's a cool experience especially if you've just finished college and you're looking for your first time job. But don't try. Don't extend after that. After you finish your first year of JET, my advice to you is to try to find a real job. You can extend if you want to. But try to parlay that because nobody takes English teaching experience abroad seriously on a resume. I'm lucky. I don't need a resume. I'm not looking for a corporate job or acceptance into that vein of life. But if you are, having that on a resume is not as helpful after the age of 23. So I'm just going to put that out there. I've had discussions with employers and HR departments. Now that I'm almost 50, it's not as useful as you think. It's a good first step and that's it. Yeah. It's basically where kids go to screw around for a year. That's the thought. It's completely wrong. You can work hard at this job and it has a lot of purpose. But HR departments, a lot of them, see going to Japan for English teaching as screwing around for a year or two. And those who stayed as screwing around for too long.

00:15:18 John Daub: I remember going in 2003 and I used that as part of the experience. I applied for Deutsche Bank. I met a VP in Munich and he encouraged me to apply for a job. I'm not sure what I was going to do there. I have a degree in economics. I remember sitting down there and I really wasn't qualified for anything that they were doing despite having a degree in economics. Because I just had been an English teacher for too long. And that experience wasn't something that they took seriously. So, yeah, be your own boss. In Japan, it's very easy to start a business. So, it's something maybe you want to consider. You do have to change the purpose of your visa, perhaps. But the specialist in humanities visa, especially if you get a three-year one, it's quite broad in nature. And you could even start a business as a specialist in humanities. You don't have to change the visa. Only if you're making money. If you're making more money as an English teacher, then that becomes your main job and that's what you declare as your visa. So, even if you were doing something like sales on the side, you could do that as long as you're making the most money based on what your visa says that your job is. Which is very specialist in humanities, international services visa. They might have changed it over the years, but that's so broad in nature.

00:16:51 John Daub: Really silly question. It's in [Tegatashinato?] drawing in gaming. Sorry if I messed that up here. Do you know where to get secondhand fashion or traditional clothing there? Yeah. The first place that I would check, a lot of them are going out to. So, there are a lot of, Asakusa probably is the best place to go to start off with. Because there are a lot of, the sizes are more for Westerners. And there are a lot of kimono shops that rent out the kimono for Westerners, right? And they wear them for a few years. And then afterwards, they're the ones that, the rental kimonos go to the, these shops that are all around Asakusa. And you can get them usually for 2,000-3,000 yen, which is a real steal. But you could rent them for, I think it was like, they set it up for you for like 10,000 yen or something. You could walk around with your hair done and everything for 10,000 yen. It's a pretty good business. But those shops have hundreds of kimono or yukata or kimono for you to try on. And when they age a little bit, that's when they sell them and they go into the bargain bins to get rid of them. There are other places like secondhand shops. But I would say the tourist centers are probably the best places because they have sizes that fit you. Right? They'll have the longer ones. Because Japanese aren't over 180 centimeters tall, 6 foot. It's going to be hard to find that size. So, Asakusa might be the best place. Kyoto as well. Because they have a lot of kimono. They have a lot of traditional rental shops.

00:18:35 John Daub: Right, Nico. 2021 writes in here, Google used clothing in Tokyo. You can find stuff like that. If you're looking for more traditional stuff like kimono, yukata, I would say Asakusa is the best place. Because they know what tourists want. And the prices are pretty competitive for being a tourist area. They just want to get rid of that because now that the tourism has resumed, we're starting to see shops are buying some new kimono and yukata. And the old ones are getting put into those recycle bins there.

00:19:12 John Daub: Leo writes in here, traveling to Japan second time at the end of May to June. Best area to stay in Tokyo. I'd say Asakusa. Again, I think I've said this several times before. The reason why is because this is a neighborhood where you kind of want to live in. For me, Shibuya is a place you want to visit. Asakusa is a place that you want to live in. So, I think that the hotels there are a little bit cheaper perhaps. They're more homely. And at night and in the morning, there's more stuff for you to actually do, I think. And at night, there are a lot of like bars and restaurants that are smaller and more, I don't know, like authentic. The other ones, I found Shibuya in this area. People like to stay in Shibuya for some reason. I think that that's sort of the wrong way to think. Those are the places you go to visit. They're kind of loud and dirty. Dirty is not that dirty in Japan though. I would recommend going to Asakusa. We're staying in the [Stanmachi?], this area of the city, Ueno. Even Asakusa-bashi. Ryogoku is a great neighborhood to stay in because you'll see sumo wrestlers all over the place. And you typically only see it... You see it a lot more at the times where you wouldn't go as a tourist, like in the morning or in the early evening and stuff.

00:20:27 John Daub: So, Gaza writes in here. I'm traveling on Sunday the 15th. Sorry. I have a question about the fast track here. I'll try to answer it in the Patreon Q&A. Sorry about that. I saw the notification come up here. What do you think about living in the Ochanomizu, Ueno area? I like it. You know who lives in that area? I shouldn't name drop. There's a lot of people, friends of mine that have moved in that exact area. Especially around the Ueno Park area. It's quite nice. And you have the zoo there. You can get an annual pass and just stroll through the zoo every day if you wanted to, which is kind of neat. That's a nice area. I also like this area, the Chuo-ku (central ward), which is in the center along the river. Also Toyosu is a new area, which I think has a lot of high-rise apartments. But it's got a shopping mall right there, a couple of really good supermarkets, and a home center, which is huge. It's a huge home center, and it's really good to have that nearby. So Toyosu is on the Yurakucho line and the Yurikamome line, which is the driverless train that goes around. So that's a good place as well. But Ueno is wonderful. And the prices are cheaper comparatively to certain other areas around Japan.

00:22:01 John Daub: I have a six-hour layover at Haneda. Is it worth going into the city for a bit? Maybe? From Haneda, six hours. I mean, it just depends. If it's going to take you two hours to get out of the airport, that means it's going to take you an hour to get back in, minimum. So it just depends. If you can get out quick, you might even be able to make it to Shibuya. But I would get in the monorail, and then I would take taxis instead of the subway, for example. Try to prevent getting messed up. You definitely need to be careful. You might want to get into the gate like an hour before your flight because you don't want to mess around with that. Six hours is cutting it pretty close. I think if things are normalized after May 8th and they have more immigration agents, I think it's a safer thing to do. But I think if you have eight hours, that's a little bit better. Six hours might be okay. Three hours is... I don't know. It's not worth even getting out of the airport. Because Haneda, there's not a lot around there. You have to literally get on the train and go several stops to get anywhere. Even a taxi would take quite some time.

00:23:33 John Daub: This is the Sumida River. I like to sit on this side, too. There's the end where I'm often sitting on that side. Kanai did a dance there about five years ago for us. I'm sitting on the other side today of the river, and you can see Space Boat and all the others coming in. And the sunlight is better from this angle. Although today there is none. Great questions today so far. Let's see what else we got here. Can I get to Japan with only a 72-hour free COVID test? After May 8th, you can. You don't need it anymore. There's no more pandemic controls after May 8th. Prior to that, you need to follow the rules which are on the MOFA and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). I'll place that up there again so you can read it. This is a screenshot from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs telling you the provisional measures from right now, from April 5th. And then two paragraphs underneath there, the actual measures for May 8th. And as you can see, May 8th says that they're getting away from everything. So that's good news. There's no test needed. I have a yakitori bento, which is not too shabby. And a Ito En tea.

00:25:30 John Daub: There is a sumo season. In the summer, there's the Grand Sumo Tournament. I believe that's in Nagoya, right? I used to live in Nagoya. And I remember, like this is like so long ago. I don't know if any of you remember Akebono. He was a Hawaiian. American. He was from ozeki (sumo rank). And I went with a friend of mine. And we were outside. And he walked by and said hello. He saw the Americans. Back then, there weren't a lot of Westerners there. Nicest guy in the world, Akebono. But when you go to these tournaments, you could actually leave the seats and walk down behind the seats and stuff and see the... Like walk among the sumo wrestlers. Like the main... The good ones. They're not like young trainees. They're professionals. They're massive. That's not fat. Whatever you see on TV with your own eyes, when you see it, it's different. It's even more impressive. It's crazy. Akebono is one of my favorite sumo wrestlers from the past.

00:27:40 John Daub: Somebody asked me, which city is better to visit, Kyoto or Tokyo? I thought I would... Unless another question comes in here, I might answer this one really quickly. It's like comparing apples and oranges when you say which city is better, Tokyo and Kyoto. Right? Tokyo doesn't really have a lot of history remaining anymore. It's not like saying which is better, New York or Chicago. Those are two cities that are about the same age and it's completely different. Kyoto has a lot of old buildings still remaining. A lot of the history was there. It's the old traditional place. Everything within the city there is a new mix in with old, but there's a lot more historical parts there. And the transportation is really harder to get around Kyoto. It's almost painful in a way because the subway is very limited. You need to grab taxis or a rental bike maybe. Things aren't so close as you think. It's quite a distance to get from Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion), the golden pavilion, all the way to Kiyomizudera (Pure Water Temple), which is on the other side of the city. There's no real way to do it with subway, so you have to take buses. And the buses are usually crowded or they can be sometimes quite hard to navigate for first timers. So Kyoto is that kind of a city. It's very cultural and you have a different experience. Tokyo is more of a, I guess it's an urban experience. A lot of the things are new here. Everything was, a great deal was destroyed in the fire bombings of March 10th, 1945. The result is that you have very little old temples and shrines in the city center. Not a lot of it. There's a lot of new temples and shrines that were rebuilt, but nothing with the same kind of history and character of Kyoto. Also around Tokyo, there's not as many like big day trips. So for people that are coming into Japan, I highly recommend flying into Kansai Airport unless you can get a deal for Narita or Haneda. I don't understand why people would fly into Tokyo unless you have business here because Kansai is stacked with the attractions and do a day trip or two to Tokyo unless Tokyo is your main thing. The Kansai region has Nara, the deer, the temples, has Kyoto of course, has Himeji Castle. It's closer to Hiroshima, Osaka, which is a, the urban experience, which is somewhat similar to Tokyo. The food might even be better down in Kansai than in Tokyo. And I'm sure Kevin would say yes to that. So uh, it seems to make more sense for your first trip to Japan to fly in through Kansai unless you have like a massive deal to come into Tokyo. You can come here, you know, on a Shinkansen trip for a couple of days. Around here there's Nikko, there's Hakone, there's Kamakura. It's not really a lot of attractions that are the same top notch as down in Kansai, which would be on your top 10 list. The ones around Tokyo are like top 25 maybe so. Or your second trip, you know. The first trip would probably be better going through Kansai. And I recommend everybody go down to Hiroshima. The G7 summit, all the leaders are going down to Miyajima next month. Or is it this month? It's coming up soon. And they're closing down Miyajima for three days. But never mind that. I'm telling everybody who comes to Japan should make the trip to Hiroshima to see the Peace Museum and to see Miyajima the island where the G7 is going to be going. You're going to get more news about that real soon. It is one of those places where you don't forget. And the pictures are probably the most memorable that you will take from Miyajima and Hiroshima around there. It's the only place that's ever gone through an atomic bomb. And you feel that history. So I used to live in Hiroshima for a couple of years while I was in my, of my 25 years in Japan, Hiroshima was two or three years of it. I lived there twice over two periods of time. So. And uh. I love that place as a place to live. But to visit I highly recommend everybody go and do that.

00:32:19 John Daub: The wind just picked up over here. Sorry about that. Alright one last question. Let's see what we got here. Haha. Maybe I spoke too soon. I don't see anything here. Hanabi (fireworks) in the summer on Miyajima Island is spectacular. They always have flowers blooming on that island. You go inland you can find just about anything here. Any good places for Japanese opera? I've never heard of Japanese opera. You mean like Kabuki? Yeah there's Kabuki-za and there's a couple of theaters. There's a theater almost in every big prefectural city. But yeah Kabuki is worth getting tickets to if you can. That's a really great cultural experience. But in terms of just normal classical music Japan is maybe the worst place to go. Because they don't give any discounts to young people. It's so expensive. And it's so hard to get tickets to classical music. It's almost a shame. And I don't think people... They don't foster an appreciation for classical music for young people here in Japan which is a shame. Like no free events in the park. It's really hard to see the same kind of culture that we have in the west with that. I was one of the things I was disappointed. I wanted to go see an orchestra perform here. Because I like to just sit. And when I was at Ohio State I would go to see the Columbus Symphony Orchestra every now and then. I would get cheap tickets as a student. And you'd be able to sit up there and just for a couple of hours you'd unwind and just listen to the music. It's different when you're there. And I can't do that same similar thing here.

00:34:04 John Daub: Am I able to travel back from Shibuya to Kyoto and Osaka with my JR Pass? Yes you are. As many times as you like. As long as the pass is valid. It's about an hour and forty five minute trip to Kyoto from Tokyo. On the Nozomi. Maybe a little bit more than the Hikari. Maybe two hours. Any Japanese gardens you would personally recommend as a must to visit? It depends where you are. I can't think of any that you would travel specifically for that garden. And I appreciate the gardens. The reason why is because you probably if you're in Tokyo. Tokyo's got some really beautiful gardens. But if you're in Kyoto there's the rock garden. I can't remember the temple. It's on the tip of my tongue. But. It's so crowded now. It's not really the same kind of experience. The bamboo forest I guess is something that a lot of people like to go to. But I'm not sure that that would be a special trip for me. You know. I don't know. Okayama, Kanazawa and Mito are the three cities with the three top gardens. And they're not cities that are usually on people's itinerary for their first trips. Kanazawa might be the closest. Okayama is a stop through. And I would say maybe that's the easiest to visit. If you're going to Himeji. It's one stop on the Shinkansen pass there. On the main Sanyo Shinkansen. So you can stop off at Okayama and do the castle and garden. In fact you don't even need to do the castle. You can just do. Is it Korakuen? And I can't remember the other one. That's a nice strolling garden with the castle in the background. Makes for some nice pictures. But it's worth maybe an hour and a half visit. And then that's it. Get out. And go to Hiroshima.

00:36:02 John Daub: Is Kobe a good city to spend some time in? Not really. If you have to pick and choose your schedules. There's some history to Kobe. But a lot of it is newish. And like the Portuguese and you know like 16th century maybe. And some of that was lost in the earthquake of 1995. You can see some of the history of the earthquake. There's a place on Kobe Harbor. That has some of the ruins from that earthquake. Which was historically interesting to see. And to remember. But you know if you're going for Kobe steak. There's no advantage to eating it in Kobe. I just put that out there. I don't really see the advantage. And Kobe beef doesn't make it better. It's just a brand. And it might be something that you've heard when you were in your home country. But in Japan Kobe beef is not the most popular beef even. It's Matsusaka. It's what we consider number one. Number one over Kobe beef. So I mean it's just branding. And if you know you grew up seeing Michael Jordan wearing Nikes. I can understand why it would be special to wear a pair of Nikes. So I'm not going to say don't eat Kobe beef. But there are over 250 wagyu brands in Japan. And it's almost impossible to tell the difference between an A5 grade Kobe beef. And an A5 Akita beef. All right. So. I can't really differentiate much of a taste. There might be something. A different umami. But unless you eat wagyu all the time. It's not worth making the trip into Kobe for that. Unless you want a picture eating Kobe steak in Kobe. But I can understand that. Like why wanting that.

00:37:56 John Daub: Japan celebrates a lot of holidays. And one thing that they did was they moved a lot of those holidays to Monday to make a lot of three day weekends. When I first came to Japan they were like bada bada like all over the calendar. And now they're like. There's a lot more three day weekends which is better for the economy. Sometimes four day weekends. They've done a good job of that to try to because Japan's economy was so bad for so long the last decade and all that. They found ways to stimulate it. Which is good. Just like I hope that the US gets rid of daylight savings time. I think that would might even stimulate the economy. I don't know. We don't have that here in Japan. It's kind of annoying. I forgot that now it's 13 hours different to New York. It used to be 14 hours. So when I call I have to be mindful of the time difference.

00:38:44 John Daub: What do you got? I said one more but I just want to keep going a little bit. Ice Tray writes in here. Who am I to step off of the beaten path? An adventurer? A traveler? Adventure? Just not on the adventure path. Just coming to Japan does not make you an adventurer. It's leaving the track. I get cherry blossoms flying at me. Just leaving the beaten path is an adventure. So if you're traveling don't come during golden week. Excellent advice. I tried to avoid it. The caveat the asterisk mark is don't come to Tokyo or travel during if you come to Japan it's okay but just get out of the cities and stay in the countryside and wait it out and that's fine. Like go up to Tohoku. It's not that crowded even during golden week but prices will definitely be sometimes double or triple because of demand which is normal. How is the Wi-Fi from hotels? Excellent. I haven't had too many bad situations with the Wi-Fi but it is getting better. I'm only swinging the camera around because we have a visitor.

00:40:25 John Daub: Golden week is the time between April 28th and May 5th and this period is a time where Japanese typically have a holiday and everybody the entire country goes on holiday at this time. So this is a time to avoid. The other holidays are Obon which is in the second week of August and after Obon there's Shogatsu (New Year's) which is the New Year's holiday. Probably a good idea to stay away from Shogatsu but it is an interesting cultural time to be here. Space boat is now gone. Space boat has left the river, the building. Sakura is all gone. Yeah if you look over here these are sakura trees. It's all gone.

00:41:25 Aiken: Hey I'm going to go to the beach. Aiken's here. Aiken hey. I was looking for you. It was great meeting you finally John. Riding a motorcycle in Tokyo was pretty easy compared with my city. Google Maps. Sally needs to improve though. It's not too bad. Yeah they've set it up pretty good.

00:41:45 John Daub: I don't know about riding in Tokyo. Yes, the Shutoko (Tokyo expressway). Maybe not so much. The most stressful I've ever driven, the most stressful place I've ever driven in the world is the Tokyo Expressway. But getting around the city is not too bad. Yeah if you stay away from the expressways the roads are pretty wide and it's not too stressful. I'm glad that you had a good experience. I wanted to ask you how to attach the bracket for the thing but I think I figured it out. I've been playing around with it Aiken so I should have that. I'll try a live stream with the bicycle soon. The flowers ice tray are on the ground. Here's one right here. It's a little bit hard to get it out. I've got the petals and they fly away around me. Not a lot remaining. I was in Fukushima about 10 days ago and it was peaking there and now it's gone up to Aomori and it's a week earlier than normal in Aomori so the Hirosaki festival will be starting this week I think. By Friday, Saturday they'll start the festival which is crazy early. And then it moves up to Hokkaido.

00:43:14 John Daub: Thanks for the questions everybody. I'll see you in another one. I'll do a live stream tomorrow. I'll try to find something interesting to share with you but because I was sick I took yesterday completely off and tomorrow I'm still working on a chicken episode. I took off time from that. Shut down the computer. I couldn't even move yesterday but I felt pretty good today. Yeah. What? We got a visitor. So until tomorrow have a good night. Thanks for staying up for me on the east and west coast. I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for the questions guys.