00:02 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Tokyo. This is Ginza from the top of the Ginza 6 building and we get a look down on the beautiful intersection. This is Ginza Yonchome, which is one of the most famous intersections in all of Japan if you take away the Hachiko Scramble. It's a nice look at it. And if you look up at the sky, you will see unfortunately clouds and fortunately not raining. But this is the reality when you come to Japan.

00:34 John Daub: And we didn't expect it to happen in May. This is the earliest that tsuyu (rainy season) has happened here in Japan in the last 10 years. And it's earlier than I can remember it here in Tokyo. Tsuyu is an inevitable period in Japan where the rain will just come down. It needs it actually. It really fills the reservoirs with water so that we have water through the hot summer season. August is a little bit drier than other times. We also have typhoons that come in through here and right now we have one that's on its way, which I'm going to introduce you to this information too. So if you travel in Japan, you're not going to want to miss this one.

01:37 John Daub: But I thought it'd be nice to start from here, just give you a little bit of the view. Now the rainy season has already started. When I left Okinawa about two and a half weeks ago, the rainy season had started then the day we arrived and it came down hard. And over the last several days in Tokyo, we've had rain. And I started to question whether or not it had already started because it just looks and feels like the rainy season. In Japan, the rainy season means that the weather kind of chills off. I have a jacket on. The rain, the water just makes it cooler. And there's this cool breeze that comes along with the rain. So the temperatures, despite it being June, and the reputation of Japanese summer is that it is super hot and humid. It's true. But the rainy season is an exception where it's not.

02:07 John Daub: It kind of cools down. The humidity is still quite high. But you probably definitely want to have a raincoat and some rain gear. If you're coming between like the 5th of June to the second week of July, be ready for rain here in Japan. It's not a bad thing. It means that the flowers are more beautiful. There's a different color to it. You got a glow off of the streets in Tokyo. I kind of like it in a way because it breaks up what's going to be a really hot summer. But this year is just the earliest on record. You can see this chart here that I got from NHK News. It shows you that the rainy season has already started in Shikoku. It started in Kyushu. It started in the Chugoku region, which is the Hiroshima, Tottori region. And that also includes Kansai. You can see there. So we've got rainy season in Kyoto. Now, Tokyo is not actually listed as being in the rainy season.

03:09 John Daub: I feel it. So I'm proclaiming it before the Japan Meteorological Agency [?] does it. I'm going to say rainy season today. It just feels like rain. Actually, maybe a few days ago. But it's the earliest on record to have it in May is just bizarre to me. But more than that, we got something else coming here. What do you know what this is? This is a typhoon. I think this is a super typhoon that is in the Pacific right now. It hit Guam really hard. Guam, of course, United States Territory. It's come towards the Philippines. I think it hit the northern part, but a lot of typhoons do. It goes in that direction. Then it goes up straight to Japan. And it always seems like Japan is a big magnet for these typhoons. No matter what direction you think they're going, they eventually end up going to Japan one way or another.

04:11 John Daub: And we have here a super typhoon, which you can see. And this map here from NHK World is on a trajectory to go to Okinawa and southern Kyushu around the 9th of June. It'll be in June. I think that just means 9 a.m. That's where it is expected to be in the 24 hour time period. It's still called Mawar. We don't call it that. We have a number. We still don't use names for typhoons in Japan. We use the number system, which I think is a lot better. I never understood why we name typhoons. This poor guy named Mawar is going to be scarred for life if this thing does some damage. So it's not the greatest thing in the world to have a typhoon named. I like the Japan number system better. But this typhoon will be coming through here and just raking Okinawa and going up towards Japan. Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Kyushu. So that's going to be really harsh weather.

05:12 John Daub: It just adds to the rainy season. Typhoon season is anytime from now all the way until October. In fact, I would say September and October are the highest frequency of typhoons that are some of the strongest that hit Japan. A lot of flights get canceled at this time. So if you need to get back the day before, I would definitely recommend that you plan that. Because there's a good possibility that you might just be stuck. So if you give yourself 24 hours extra in case the flight is delayed, you'll be a lot safer as a result.

05:54 John Daub: To get prepared for the rainy season, you don't really have to pack anything different. I brought you here for a reason. If you just look over in this direction, that's the biggest Uniqlo in the world. And you can get everything here. You see that white building in the center of your screen? You should get raincoats in there for like 15 bucks or something. So you'll be just fine if you don't come here prepared. But if you do, you'll be ahead of the game. The rainstorms can happen at almost any time. But you just look at the window and you know, because it's usually gray in June. That doesn't mean the whole trip is going to be like that. It does mean that there's a high chance of rain. It's probably a good idea to bring a sweatshirt as well.

06:50 John Daub: We can come over here because it's a very popular picture place. This is the roof of Ginza 6. It's a really great place to kind of chillax. You can get like a coffee, iced coffee or something in the summer and you can just sit here and talk about life with a friend. So I'm here to answer any questions that you might have about the rainy season or something like that. But this time of the year in Japan I don't mind it too much. It just rains a lot so you just have to be prepared.

07:42 John Daub: Uniqlo, live in Tasmania and your sizing there too small for me. 3XL. Really? I think they go up to 4XL to be honest with you. I once bought my father a 4XL sweatshirt because he's got really long arms. It was big in some areas but it was good for the arms and they don't have tall sizes in Japan.

08:01 John Daub: Dimmy DM writes in here, when is Hawaii? So this has no relationship to this by the way but I'll be in Hawaii June 11th to 14th and we're planning a meetup space or an area to do that that's convenient. It's my first time to go to the Aloha State that I think was the 50th state. Was Alaska the 50th state and Hawaii was the 49th? I can't remember but I'm pretty excited about it.

08:33 John Daub: Okay here's the thing with the larger sizes for Uniqlo if you're looking for a raincoat for the rainy season for example, there's a floor in this Uniqlo store that in the back they have an area that has big and tall sizes which I thought was really convenient. The thing is here, if you can't find something and you just don't want to spend your time searching around and in shops and if you're not in Tokyo, because this is a big deal, this is a problem out in the countryside, you can't find clothes or something that might be your size, you can order it on amazon.co.jp and send it to your hotel and usually arrives within 24 hours. Alright, you can just go online and usually it's a lot cheaper. You can order it off of Uniqlo's website as well and have it delivered. It's usually there within 48 hours. If you order it, I've had things delivered to me from Amazon in 12 hours or less so I'm not going to spend too much money. Raincoats here, if you look at it, and if it's Prime and you have a Prime account, probably can get it the next day, and that's really helpful to know. If you don't want to go gift shopping, you can have everything sent to your hotel as well. I've had things sent to me to a hotel when I'm traveling around Japan if I can't make it to the shop, or I just have it sent to me back in Tokyo so I don't have to carry it under the airplane.

10:02 John Daub: Some good questions here. A lot of people are asking about Hawaii, so why don't we do a separate episode on this since I want to keep this on tsuyu. In fact, if you're still watching this and you just wanted information on rainy season, you can usually watch the first 15 minutes and then I'm sort of out of information for you at that stage. Jennifer asks a great question. When does the rainy season typically end? This year it's going to end a little bit early. My guess is that it ends before July. I don't think that the rainy season just extends because if it starts early, it usually ends early in my 25 years of experience, which is just like a micro dot on weather. But in 25 years, it's typically about five to six weeks long. And the last week is usually it starts breaking towards sun. In Tokyo, the rainy season is between June 10th and mid-July 20th. You can assume it's going to be rainy season. So if you're going to climb Mount Fuji in July, it's going to be wet. Like you better bring a raincoat and rain pants and a rain hat and rain underwear, rain pack. Just bring rain stuff. I've climbed Mount Fuji in July before and it was not wonderful.

11:45 John Daub: You're an Aussie. We'll claim him. Really? Hey. I'm an honorary Canadian. Jason dubbed me. Gave me the blessing. Did you upgrade your camera quality? Looks great. This is the Prism app for the iPhone 14 Pro. So it looks good. As long as the bandwidth upload is six megabits per second, it looks pretty good in HD here. I changed the color profile a little bit to look more vibrant. Maybe that's it.

12:04 John Daub: You know, I don't think you should avoid the rainy season. If you have to travel in Japan in June, just come. Hokkaido is not in the rainy season, for example. So if you were to go to the north of Japan, you wanted to get some sunshine, you felt a little depressed here, just go to the north and you're out of it. And then when the rainy season hits Tokyo, just go to the west. We don't say south. By the way, Japan is curved like east to west. You don't see that, but it's curved east to west. So Kyushu is west. It's west of Japan, by the way. Osaka is west of Tokyo. Just the way it's shaped. Maybe a little bit south, but it's more west than south. Just so all of you kind of take note. So nobody in Japan will refer to Osaka as being south of Tokyo. It's west of Tokyo. Hiroshima is west. Far west. So if you want to get away from the rain in Tokyo when the rainy season is here, you probably want to go to Kyushu. If you're in Kyushu in the rainy season, you probably want to go to Tokyo. So you can plan your trip like this. And it does work out pretty good.

13:43 John Daub: The rainy season is always going to be not the greatest time to travel. But there are advantages to it. It's not overly hot. It's a little bit cooler during the rainy season that's a good thing because the summer heat can really soak the energy out of you. Anyone who's been here in August knows you just know it's like going out in a sauna and your shirt is wet all the time you can't stop it. The air conditioning is on so you're either getting a dry throat from all the air conditioning or you're just getting drenched from sweat from being outside. I try to keep the windows open as long as I can tolerate it and then the air conditioning's got to go on because people in Singapore come here and say it's worse than Singapore. Singapore is hot and humid but in a pleasant way. I guess I don't mind it too much.

14:43 John Daub: Hello from the Netherlands. I'm starting my holiday in Osaka and ending it in Tokyo. That's a pretty good plan. I always tell people coming here if it's your first time I'll give you a pass but I highly recommend that you take a side trip away from the cities. Take a side trip away from the usual route. It's just like I don't like Kyoto. I say go to Kanazawa. Spend a couple days less in Kyoto and then go to Kanazawa for two days instead and you have a better more relaxed and culture feel to it. Just the crowds are hideous right now. People are somewhat frustrated. Takayama is a good side trip. A lot of places that you can get away. Go to the smaller towns that have some attractions and you'll find a better experience and a lot better pictures than going where everybody else is going to Himeji Castle. I can see why you would do it your first trip but come here get that out of the way and then the next trip focus in on Kyushu or Kanto or Hokkaido or Tohoku.

16:02 John Daub: Ian's here hello from Singapore. I can't help but agree with you John on the rain comparison. I see Michael Sasano is here and Brandania hey guys I'll see you guys in just a couple of weeks. Almost there Dutchman. Okay so it looks like Dutchman is on the way. Hold on do I even have cards with me? Oh my gosh you better hurry up I want to go home before the rain. I do have some with me you have to find me though I can't go to you you come to me this is the way it works. It is nice up here really cool breeze. And they have a lot of restaurants and cafes in there up on the top floor. There's a Tsutaya bookshop and there's a really nice like a Starbucks Reserve that makes these special drinks I guess you could say special overpriced drinks or you can go to a vending machine and you can bring it up here it's either or it's all the same.

17:13 John Daub: Alright that's all I got for you. This is supposed to be a short one I gotta get back I have a lot of stuff to edit before I get to Hawaii. I want to have as many episodes as I can to be released. I've got a favor for you the new episode has dropped here it's called the world's greatest cherry blossom tree just one tree and it's a thousand years old or more a few years old they don't know the exact date but this one tree is just a spectacular thing and I spent a day there kind of getting the history of it interviewing the tree preservation society to learn about how they take care of it and what a tree means for the town. It's a fascinating look at Japanese culture and how they protect this one tree and how the town rallies around it has made attractions out of it and they even have a manhole cover that celebrates it and of course I take you there in a very fun mini sketch in it. And if you would leave me a comment there if you've already watched it let me know what you thought of it and if this is a place that you would want to go to or does this redefine what you think of the prefecture of Fukushima because it is quite far away from where the disaster took place and you just don't get any kind of impact at all.

18:38 John Daub: I believe that the one thing on this town that was interesting is I did some research and I found out that the Tokyo Electric Power Company because of the way that they handled the disaster and for three years after that they didn't have tourists coming and so they lost a lot of revenue because this one tree not only is it a beautiful thing that they take care of for generations it's also a source of income for so many businesses that brings in a tourist and they lost a heck of a lot of money they didn't get that back so I believe they sued the power company I'm not sure if they won or not but it was interesting how many enemies the power company does have. Nobody seems to like a lot of utility companies I wonder why. Could it be something from the Simpsons perhaps Mr Burns.

19:42 John Daub: Vasily loved the episode thank you. Yeah I hope that nothing happens to that tree as well it'll be around for another thousand years I think. Okay yeah that was this is really good I think the questions were good and I made the episode based on your feedback so not a lot I think a lot of you might be ready for it. But I see the sun has come out believe it or not look at there's even blue skies. I thought it was gonna rain today you just it's very hard to predict the weather. You can see the top of the Tokyo Skytree right there and then this is a Chuo-dori [?] very famous intersection here in Ginza if you can see down there perhaps somebody you know I don't know maybe you do live view.

20:33 John Daub: Alright everybody have a good day have a good night I'll see you in the next live stream maybe tonight maybe tomorrow really soon.