00:00:00 John Daub: So here we are in Okinawa. This is Manza Beach. In this episode I'm going to take you around this area and then we're going to go over there where we're staying. That is the Intercontinental Hotel and I'll walk over there and show you a little bit of the lobby and the beautiful places. We're actually staying in that room. I think it's the one right there. And I can show you what that looks like if you're interested. It looks like this.

00:00:31 John Daub: It's pretty nice in there. Spacious enough. Balcony beautiful. Leo likes it. Kanae likes it. View, can't complain. With the rainy season we had wind coming in the day before yesterday and it was so peaceful. Nice to sleep but it sounded like a typhoon. Here's the view from the balcony. I thought the view was really nice. This is looking down on us. We're on the left side right now. That's Manza Beach. That's up here and it's about an hour from the airport. You've got to drive up here on the highway. It's a nice drive. If you get up to the aquarium it's another hour to get up to there.

00:01:18 John Daub: This is the day before yesterday when we first arrived. There's the public beach over there and I think you have to pay a little bit to go to that one. But it's just a really nice hotel. You can walk around there and I found this little private beach here. And we're going to try to find that beach again in this live stream. Let's see if we can find this little teeny corner where you can... You're not supposed to go swimming here which we didn't. But you can just kind of film it. Looks like a private beach like Gilligan's Island or something.

00:01:51 John Daub: And a question to our Hawaiian friends. Is this a pineapple? I don't know what this is. We found this when we were walking around. Maybe somebody knows. I don't think it's a pineapple. Alright let's get off of the beach and go towards the hotel. There's also a cafe where you can go and get a hot dog or something over there. We didn't. We have this all you can eat lunch... breakfast and dinner.

00:02:20 John Daub: You know what? I really don't like buffets but I don't like buffets. It's just too much. Four meals of buffets. Diet over. Starting tomorrow. Tonight. Crazy. I'm going to do a live stream right after this at Kokusai Dori (international street) which is in the center of Naha. It's this really interesting shopping street. I've never been there. A lot of you have told me to make sure I do a live stream there. So that's what I'm going to try to do. A lot of food over there. I'll tell you what. I'm not that hungry. I haven't been hungry since the first buffet. What are you supposed to do? The food looks so darn good. You just have to eat. You keep eating. Buffets are dangerous.

00:03:12 John Daub: Shout out. I am planning to go to Hawaii in June. To film an episode or two there. Sometime in the middle of June I'll be in Hawaii. Hopefully before the kids get there. Apparently it's high season because once kids finish school they go to Hawaii. The prices jack up there. Just looking for hotels. You can tell. It's crazy. Shout out to everybody who's helping me find a hotel by the way. I was going to stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Waikiki. Because I have an IHG card. And I was a Diamond Elite member. But I'm going to stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Waikiki. I don't know if that makes such a big difference. It's all like budget hotels that start at like $200 a night. It's crazy.

00:03:58 John Daub: This hotel, I don't think it was that pricey was it? I think it was like $175 a night. But it's sort of a resort. So it is very much worth it. Plus two meals. Dinner and breakfast. That's just insane. Can I get it off of Rakuten Travel? Justin Perez says, I'm in Waikiki right now. Really? We'll stay there for a month and I'll be there. Yeah, people have been telling me that Prince Waikiki is quite nice. Especially if I'm going alone. I'm not staying at the Hilton Resort. Why would you do that without your family? I can't believe you stayed at a resort. I can't believe it either. So I'm not going to do that. I'll save it for... There's a walkway that will take you all the way around. It's almost like a jungle walk there.

00:05:03 John Daub: It's been a pretty good experience here. The staff has been amazing. Most hotels, it can be... The room could be lousy. Elevators could be slow. You have good staff there working. It can really improve that situation quite a bit. Rooms are good. Food is great. The staff is excellent. Location perfect. Hey, you know what? It's been a perfect couple of days. Never mind the rainy season. Oops, I was just to recommend the Hilton Hawaiian Village. You can recommend it all you want. I'm going to save that for a family trip. Or our second honeymoon. I don't think you just go to the Hilton for a normal vacation there. It's really pricey. But it's worth it if you have the time and the cash.

00:06:17 John Daub: Maybe if the new channel reaches a million subscribers, we'll go there to celebrate. That's a good way to do things. A channel about Japan and you go to Hawaii to celebrate. That's just perfect. Because that's a lot of people here in Japan. They love to go to Hawaii. And I guess you get kind of that vibe coming to Okinawa. It does look like it's low tide. Alright, let's move on here. I told Kanae, I gave her two drink tickets that I got from the hotel. And we're going to get these non-alcohol pina coladas. I hope she understands what I'm saying. She understands that she has to say non-alcohol. I don't have to drive for three hours. So if it were, I would just take a few sips. But I hope she remembers.

00:07:06 John Daub: So I have permission to take you around this hotel for like 25-30 minutes. Because we are on a family trip. And you shouldn't be walking around live streaming. But we also want to share with you this experience. So after you get from the beach, you can wash off the sand. It's polite to do that. Sounds like some sort of performance going on. Oh, yeah. I think I can show you that video. Oh, there's Kanae. Did you get it? Pina colada?

00:07:57 John Daub: That's one of my favorite movies. Top five. Steve Martin, the Jerk. He has to get a drink with those little teeny umbrellas in it. So when I go and get mine, I got to get a drink with that umbrella in it. I have to look at the camera and go, be somebody. Right? That's the best way to say it. That's the best scene in movie history. I don't know. There's a lot of them. Alright, let me take you on the walk around here. We can go say hi to Kanae real quick. Is that Hawaiian music? Wait, did you get a pina colada? Oh, we use the ticket for this? Oh my gosh. Isn't this free? Okay, well, that's pretty good. I'll be right back.

00:09:04 John Daub: Alright, let's go move it. Let's get moving. It does feel like Hawaii. Is this the warm up to June? You know what? A lot of people are saying Karate Kid here. Let me give you a little bit of background here, okay? Number one. Karate Kid is not called Karate Kid in Japan. Karate Kid is called Best Kid. Best Kid. It's not even Karate Kid in the Japanese language. It's the Japanese title of Karate Kid, alright? Number two. It wasn't even filmed in Okinawa. It was filmed in Hawaii. In fact, the whole Okinawa scene in part two is filmed in Hawaii with some B-roll cut in. Number three. Because there's not really a big connection with Japan at all, nobody really knows about that movie here. It's not very big. In fact, you could go around and say, have you seen Best Kid? And probably people are going to say no.

00:10:08 John Daub: Nobody recognizes me as Ralph Macchio here, okay? Just point that out. I don't know if Brandani is here. And Jason, stop conjuring the Karate Kid. Carrie's doing it too. Oh my gosh. What is that? That is not a pineapple, is it? Is that a pineapple? Alright, let's go look at this point here. I don't think it looks anything like Ralph Macchio, really. Look, I grew up in the 80s. My childhood was scarred by Daniel LaRusso. If I ever meet him in person, he's going down. He took away the best years of my life. Just kidding. Sort of.

00:11:16 John Daub: Welcome to Okinawa. Wow. It's a beautiful sea. No, I'm not going to do no crane stance. What are you talking about? What are you talking about, Leo? It's supposed to be Willis. But he starts laughing when I do different strokes, quotes. Alright, this is a really cool little roundabout here. I'm not sure if there's even any signal. But I'm going to take you around and then we're going to get a quick look into the lobby of the Intercontinental here. It's just a beautiful place to stay.

00:12:13 John Daub: Great thing about being this IHG member thing and having a, I don't know, I stayed there quite a bit when I was traveling. They allow me early check-in and then a late check-out at 2pm. Which is almost like a full day. Since our flight's at 7pm, we're staying here until like 2pm. Wow, with the sun! This is so beautiful on this point here. Yes, it is the birthplace of karate. Indeed. Wow, this reminds me of the Galapagos with these volcanic rocks here and this beautiful water. This is in the Galapagos back in 2003. Spent 10 days scuba diving and a boat tour around there. But it was called the Amigo. It was the budget tour. But it was pretty darn awesome. We had a great guide and 7 people who were in their 20s, so there's a lot of booze.

00:13:27 John Daub: Check out Izakaya. Welcome drink. Which we saved till the last day. Oh, okay, it wraps all the way. We're back at the hotel again. Here's that secret beach. No! Yes! The tide is low! What? I filmed this not too long ago. It looked like this. And now it's totally different. Alright, I'm glad I took the video earlier. Because the tide has gone out and it looks completely different. That's there and this is now. That's not as romantic. Nor is pretty. What has the tide brought in? What has the tide left behind? It's like you guys are staying here too. Shout out to Kaliya Lea. Hey! Thank you. Welcome. Welcome to Okinawa.

00:14:51 John Daub: Brandenna, what do you mean? Pandanus fruit? Pandanus. Never heard of that. I just see one word. Oh, panda. That's what I was talking about. Alright, let's walk around. Oh, look at the waterfall. The one thing I haven't done yet here is swim in the pool. Because why would you swim in the pool when you have the ocean, right? Singapore is pretty beautiful too, but you know what? It's just different. Do you want to go to the beach? I'll drink some habushu (snake liquor). Habushu is good. They got some strong booze here. Stuff with snakes in it. I don't think I'm going to have that on a family vacation. So, just going to stick with fruit juice.

00:16:01 John Daub: We had lightning yesterday as well. One lightning bolt struck over there and the whole hotel shook. So the rainy season is eventful. Kanae, you ever heard of pandanus fruit? You know what this pandanus fruit is? Brandani asked me to get some pandanus fruit. Pandanus? Is Leo sleeping? He's getting a massage. Wow. This is how you do it on vacation. Very nice. Temperature is perfect. It's not hot. It's not humid. There's a breeze. Alright, I'll be back in five minutes. Let's go into the hotel. Wow. And the pool bar is open.

00:17:17 John Daub: Pandanus fruits are eaten by animals including bats, rats, crabs, elephants, but the vast majority of species are dispersed primarily by water. Native to eastern Australia. Thank you. Thank you, Christian. What I loved about this is, see this restaurant right here, you can eat on this terrace and it was really nice, especially when it's raining, you still get the view of the hotel. It's such a perfect place. And here's where the buffet was for the last three meals and then there was one, let me see if I can bring this up for you. I think it would be really cool for you to see this.

00:18:02 John Daub: There's this one where there was a show and the show had a shisa (Okinawan guardian lion statue). Do you know what a shisa is? It is like the protective god of Okinawa which looks like a lion and a bear. At least the one that was dancing looked like a bear. Let me see if I have that here. There's the buffet from the first night. You can see, not so... didn't I take it? The shisa. You can see here Leo was really getting into the show here. And it's really great that they have this show. It's great that they have a show here that was included pretty much in the price. We were all pretty happy.

00:19:28 John Daub: We got this trip through Rakuten Travel and even though I'm an IHG member it was still cheaper because apparently there's still this thing where if you show you've been vaccinated three times they give you a discount. Even though this era is done but we took advantage of it because you could. And when we got here they didn't want to see our vaccination certificates because it was over so they said just show us your driver's license. So it's like okay. Boom. Discount. Dinner and this buffet was included for all two nights for like $25 which is weird. And then the hotel price which was cheaper than what I would have gotten through the IHG app. So yeah. Maybe it's because it's the rainy season. That could be the reason why. But it was a pretty interesting experience the last couple of days and nice to get away for sure.

00:20:23 John Daub: Here's what the buffet looked like. You can see Leo does not like his picture taken so sometimes he just tunes out and says stop it. But he's smarter than we are. Put your cameras away and just enjoy. That's what he likes to say. Are you finished? He's going back home? Okay. Alright big guy. Give dad a touch. Alright I'll see you back in the room. Alright so there you go. There's a tour of let me show you on the inside just a little bit. See Michael Sassano is here. Nice weather there and it's raining here in Oahu. Thank you for showing us the soothing live stream. You're very welcome and thanks for joining us here. Let me just show you on the inside.

00:21:25 John Daub: It's such a beautiful place. The best thing for Leo were these elevators that go up and down on the inside. There are the elevators. Those two columns in front of you. Yeah we gotta get a Blue Seal ice cream. So we're going to take a shower. Leo's gonna take a nap. Pack up and then we'll try to get a live stream at Kokusai Dori in Okinawa in a couple of hours. Maybe 3pm Japan time. Hey touch. He goes no. Why? What? What? Hey give me those Okinawa cookies. Like there's these really good cookies that we can get from the shop here.

00:22:31 John Daub: Alright everybody have a good day. Thanks for joining us on the stream going through here. I will close this out with the most peaceful view that I've ever seen. Which was just standing in front of the aquarium here in Okinawa and watching as the fish just glided by at this speed. Especially that whale shark and the manta ray is all going together. It's peaceful. I know aquariums seem to be controversial to some people but I have to be honest. Aquariums are pretty awesome and I know some people are controversial. I lost subscribers showing an aquarium. Like what? It is what it is. So it's a good place to learn about fish. So that's what we did. Alright have a good day everybody. I'll see you back in on International Street in Naha and then back in Tokyo tomorrow.