00:00:00 John Daub: How you doing everybody? Welcome. It's now the 15th of August. It's the Obon (Bon) Holiday. Officially from Sunday, August 13th to Wednesday, August 16th. That means we're still in the Obon Holiday here in Japan and tomorrow will be the day that everybody starts to return. The 17th, everybody goes back to work.

00:00:45 John Daub: The good thing about this typhoon coming now, if there was a good thing about any typhoon, was that most people were off and didn't have to go to work so there wasn't pressure to feel like you had to go to the office.

00:01:00 John Daub: Now you have more of a challenge I guess because this is the time where everybody actually goes back to their hometowns and travels. This is the first time back after the pandemic so it's a lot busier than normal coupled with all the other international tourists that are here. We had something of a perfect storm.

00:01:20 John Daub: What made this typhoon in particular quite challenging? And here I'm going to put it up on the map here. This is last night. You can see the eye of the storm just looked pretty darn scary when it was coming in.

00:01:35 John Daub: The thing that was challenging about this typhoon is that it's moving so slow. It is moving at the speed of a bicycle coming in. It's like 10-15 kilometers per hour coming in and that's not very fast. That's what I can do on my bicycle.

00:01:55 John Daub: So you can play this again here. So you can see it's moving quite slowly and when it moves slowly like this, this also means that a lot of rain is going to fall. You have a boat chugging by underneath there. A lot of rain is going to fall in one spot and that creates a lot of other challenges.

00:02:15 John Daub: I've got a graph here that I got from NHK that sort of highlights this. What happens is that you get landslides on the top left. The top right is you have flooding. The bottom left you have flash flooding, in particular these canals or waterways.

00:02:35 John Daub: The mountains will collect all that water and very quickly it'll start to overspill, take over bridges and wipe away cars and sometimes getting into houses. And the third one is tidal waves from the storm surge which is possible on the coastal cities especially in Wakayama, Kochi, Shikoku, things like this.

00:02:55 John Daub: So these three things make typhoons more dangerous. Thanks to NHK for making that. That's something you should be thinking about if you're out hiking, you're out in the countryside, your hotel's on the side of a hill. Landslides are an issue everywhere around Japan.

00:03:15 John Daub: A lot of rain creates some scary looking landslides. I should have showed that. I'm not sure if you can see it. For those of you who downloaded the Atami landslide of a few years ago, it's horrifying what that one was. They could happen with earthquakes too. Earthquakes also loosen the ground.

00:03:35 John Daub: So you have typhoon and an earthquake and you have a big mess. Right now it's cutting through the center of Japan. This is the latest from 1:35 PM, just about 20 minutes ago.

00:03:50 John Daub: The satellite you could see it is hitting now the strongest winds. The eye somewhere in Osaka or just passing Osaka in Kyoto Prefecture. It's like Kyoto is not just a city it's also a prefecture maybe near Maizuru and if you can see it's definitely staying away from Daisen.

00:04:15 John Daub: Mount Daisen is on the left side of the heavy rain. Daisen is the highest mountain and it protects Yonago City from typhoons and in this case it kind of did that's also where that crazy terrifying Bridge roller coaster bridge is in that area.

00:04:30 John Daub: But it's now going out to the Sea of Japan slowly which is creating a lot of problems in the countryside we're not going to see that and for a while I think because it's the Obon holiday we're not getting a lot of reports as usual on the news.

00:04:50 John Daub: It's just a little bit slower to get the information as a result of it also because trains are delayed roadways are delayed it's local news is depending on social media posts and feedback from people that are in the areas which is always you know accurate but that's a storm right now in its current state.

00:05:15 John Daub: So if you are in Kyoto and Osaka let me get rid of this that's what you're right now you're probably not having a great time but if you're in Tokyo it's not too bad Tokyo's not too bad there's some wind you can see the clouds moving by but if you look at the sky it's blue and that's always good.

00:05:35 John Daub: You could even have a view from the Tokyo Skytree which is crazy I was expecting this to be completely covered in clouds but there was a high pressure system that was also sticking around that forced the typhoon to go more westward so Tokyo ended up not being hit very hard.

00:06:00 John Daub: There was some wind last night a little bit of rain but nothing like it was uh I could even hear the rain but you know I had friends tell me that it rained a little bit but nothing like it missed Tokyo pretty much so everybody in the area can sigh a breath of relief.

00:06:20 John Daub: But you just cannot tell with storms uh which direction they're going to go in particular when they're moving that slow this is the scene and I think this is really significant I came back from uh from Tokyo there's not a lot of people in the station I thought there would be more that was yesterday.

00:06:45 John Daub: I thought there'd be more people at Tokyo Station a TV camera had filmed me coming out from Nagoya from Nagoya there weren't a lot of people that got in so my assistant Emmy and I were coming back from the shoot in Hiroshima where I was making an episode on the atomic bombing down there.

00:07:15 John Daub: I was interviewing a survivor a fantastic story by the way she's like my hero after listening to it it's like I could have spoke with her for days about and about other things besides about what happened in 1945.

00:07:35 John Daub: But when we're coming back from it and there was an urgency to do it from Hiroshima to about Kyoto the train was very full from Osaka to Nagoya the people just started getting less and less and I didn't expect it I thought it would be more crowded but people were just staying put.

00:08:00 John Daub: And uh from Nagoya back to Tokyo the train was 70% empty which is weird all right because when I was going to Hiroshima it was people were standing which it's hard to understand but people heeded the warning and they're serious about it you just cannot tell.

00:08:25 John Daub: So the loss of life is going to be almost maybe zero who knows somebody always you know gets injured in a typhoon no matter what but a loss of almost no loss of life would be a huge huge thing here um Konami is with a game maker I guess they have an office here yeah so that that's the update here.

00:08:55 John Daub: I don't want to get too much into it I don't want to spend a lot of time on it I think this is the view this is the last thing I want to show you and I'll ask you answer some questions I I'll go over some of the questions that I had in the last one here.

00:09:20 John Daub: This is the view from Shin-Osaka Station I'm just arriving look at the sky look at the sky and this is the Umeda Sky Building ironically you're going to see that coming to view it just looks ominous doesn't it like the whole weather is coming down hard on Osaka.

00:09:45 John Daub: And this is the shinkansen tracks I'm pulling into Shin-Osaka uh I was glad that I left Hiroshima at the right time I believe this morning trains were suspended from Shin-Osaka but the ones going up to Tohoku were in service.

00:10:15 John Daub: Yahoo News published a list of some of the lines that are closed in the Kansai region and there were about 16 of them including the Sanyo area in Tottori and Shimane they're also shut down or suspended just as a precaution as this storm starts to head to the Sea of Japan.

00:10:45 John Daub: And curve its way up going towards between Korea and Japan and eventually hitting Sakhalin near on the west coast of Hokkaido and the second leaving Russia on the very north of Hokkaido there's the Umeda Sky Building with the clouds there.

00:11:15 John Daub: I'm sure it's seen worse but you know it's not easy it's not easy going through a typhoon Osaka's had some bad typhoons over the last few years so they're used to it but you really you can't really ever be used to it.

00:11:35 John Daub: They hit you don't know how strong it's going to be you don't know how the winds are going to react there's a lot of construction that's been going on too so that's always a concern so during the typhoon season they don't do as much construction.

00:12:00 John Daub: That's maybe why in the winter they're doing more construction because there's less chance of a typhoon rolling through more long-term construction seems to get done in the winter then it does in the summer.

00:12:20 John Daub: All right some of the questions that you might have if I'm going back to the live stream that I did three days ago this was about 800 kilometers off the coast that's how slow it moved.

00:12:40 John Daub: If I come in September is my flight be cancelled I don't know I don't know if your flight is cancelled or not you're gonna have to talk with your airline and I say be patient and continue to watch the news.

00:13:00 John Daub: Do you know I would say like Tokyo is pretty much like Florida in the sense that we get hit with typhoons like Florida gets hit with hurricanes hurricanes originating in the Atlantic Ocean typhoons originating in the Pacific Ocean cyclones originating in the Indian Ocean.

00:13:25 John Daub: So now you know the difference between the three so when the news calls a cyclone a typhoon a cyclone that's you definitely in the Western News from somebody writing from the Atlantic side of the United States.

00:13:45 John Daub: Right so typhoons originate the Pacific Ocean now it could originate in the Indian Ocean and wrap around into the Pacific then it is perhaps a cyclone I don't know I think Indonesia if Satrio is here in Indonesia might get hit with both cyclones and typhoons.

00:14:15 John Daub: But I think that the typhoons typically come north so I'm not sure there you go cyclones originate in the Pacific too okay perhaps maybe it's a South Pacific thing I don't know but I've never heard of a cyclone that hit Japan at least not reported in Japan they're always called typhoons.

00:14:45 John Daub: Even if it's a cyclone then I guess everybody cyclone is in other words a generic term every storm that has hit India for example is a cyclone so let's put it like that every storm that I've ever seen hit India and India does get hit with storms that originate on the west of Australia and in the Indian Ocean when they get hit they call it a cyclone.

00:15:20 John Daub: So it was a weather channel that I learned this from I don't know but those are the basically every storm that hits Japan is a typhoon that's what we call them here it's like cyclones have one eye whatever all right never mind about that.

00:15:45 John Daub: It's true though cyclops cyclone cycle bicycle bicycle okay I get it but let's just stick with the definitions here a typhoon is what we call it in Japan all right end of story you don't call a cyclone a hurricane I've never heard a cyclone being called a hurricane but in India I hear them called cyclones every time so I'm gonna stick with that.

00:16:25 John Daub: If you're coming to Japan I'm just gonna reiterate the end of June there's a possibility of a typhoon that's all you gotta do you don't have to panic July August September and in particular October typhoons can hit often and they could hit any part of Japan.

00:16:55 John Daub: They could be weak tropical depressions just make a lot of rain or they can be strong like this one and the one that rammed through Okinawa and then came back again from where I'm laughing because it's not supposed to do that but that's the point you can't predict the weather so it is up to you.

00:17:25 John Daub: I'm just giving you information that you need to know but I can't give personalized information unless you're on Patreon the sponsor of today's episode this month's postcard comes from the Buddha cleaning at Todaiji in Nara.

00:17:55 John Daub: I was there with the media to get a chance to watch I think there about 200 people they're cleaning the great Daibutsu of Nara and this postcard will be sent to you by supporting me and this show on Patreon.

00:18:25 John Daub: And on Patreon you get a chance to meet Emmy who is my assistant who is also working really hard and thank you Patreon helps me to set up so much of the shoots that I do at these postcards are going out tomorrow by the way when Obon finishes so they're on they're gonna be on the way.

00:18:55 John Daub: I just shot that last week too it's pretty quick pretty fast the typhoon it never really hit here and again for those of you that left early probably a smart choice you just cannot make that if you but the advice that I gave you before stands.

00:19:25 John Daub: Between you don't have to worry too much in June but I would say July except August September and October if you need to be back on the day go back a day early so that you can have a rest day or a possible typhoon day whether your flight is cancelled.

00:19:55 John Daub: Typhoons don't stick around for more than a day so the flight is only going to be suspended for a day and you'll be able to get a flight the next day most likely so you have a day safety day I would go back if you have to get back on that day.

00:20:25 John Daub: Now if your day is extended by another day and you can call off of work because you're stuck in a typhoon all the power to you you get another day in Japan November there are possible just like June there's a possibility of a typhoon in November there's a possibility of a typhoon even in January okay.

00:20:55 John Daub: They just don't happen very often or they don't come up here because the waters are colder they don't survive it's like going where there's no food humans don't go there so the November chance we had what was it Hagibis there was a typhoon in 2019 that hit really hard in November.

00:21:25 John Daub: I don't know if you guys remember that it created hell in Nagano with flooding that was where the Shinkansens were flooded and I did a there's a town in Nagano that was flooded just off of the side and we did a fireworks project in 2021 was it 2022 2021 to help support them.

00:21:55 John Daub: So I think there was about 700 people who backed our Kickstarter to shoot up fireworks in this town we put all the money to help one of the local fireworks makers to use some of the fireworks that they were making and make some shakudama.

00:22:25 John Daub: We also threw some money to give some money to Yamanashi to shoot up some shotengan dama which are these number 10 size shells and we had was it like 15 people sponsored the shells which is awesome including Nightwolf and there are a lot of 10 size shells which are also really cool.

00:22:55 John Daub: Who sponsored a star mine, which is like a double star mine or something. It was one of the most beautiful fireworks made with the original charcoal color from the Edo period.

00:23:15 John Daub: And you know that's all as a result of a typhoon. So we take it quite seriously here in Japan. That's why there's almost, when you look at like Bangladesh and a typhoon hits, you have thousands of people, millions go homeless, thousands can lose their lives in it.

00:23:45 John Daub: In Japan, we have like one or two souls lost, and it's because of the preparing and the seriousness in which we take it, because we've seen it too many times before. So there you have it.

00:24:10 John Daub: If you're traveling in November, just keep an eye on the weather. You know if a typhoon is incoming because you'll see it in the Pacific. But everybody should have that bookmark, July, August, September, and October. Just look for the typhoons to give you an idea of whether or not perhaps you should change your flight. It's a high possibility.

00:24:45 John Daub: I had a flight canceled. I was supposed to be in Kagoshima a few days ago. But the other typhoon canceled my flight there and back. So I had to, I knew that the flight was going to be canceled. It was obvious, but they wouldn't refund my money, Skymark.

00:25:15 John Daub: JAL refunded my money with a 1000 yen charge, and if I waited, I would have gotten it for free. I said, you know what? I just want to cancel because it's a pain in the neck skymark wanted like 5,500 yen and they would have canceled the flight or it's free if I waited so I waited and they canceled the flight and I got the cancellation for free.

00:25:55 John Daub: So just a little heads up with booking flights. Some of the local low-cost carriers are really not nice Lead and it's hard to get them on the phone You have to do it everything by internet or you're gonna wait for an hour, which is basically every US carrier I think unless you have a platinum card.

00:26:25 John Daub: John's too woke for me. How so? How can I be woke? I'm anti woke man Hardly get any sleep. I was not awake last night. I'm too woke meaning like what I had this I didn't have two cups of coffee this morning I don't know what you guys are referring to.

00:26:55 John Daub: I'm not confused I am staying a little sleepy though Yeah, so there you go and if you have any questions about it leave it in the comments below I don't know someone said I was woke... like what?? Leave it the comments below and I will answer them as much as I can or the community will.

00:27:25 John Daub: Go to Discord we've got people that are visiting here in Japan. We've got 13,000 people on our Discord server and People have been talking back and forth about what to do accommodations helping each other And that's what I kind of envision for the Discord server.

00:27:55 John Daub: So if you are traveling in Japan or you're a resident Japan We have an expat group There as well if you're a Patreon supporter, we have a smaller group there So you can talk about where the post if the postcard arrived or what if the stamp what stamp you got because I usually will pick you know cool 84 yen stamps, which are Always pretty unique compared to the other ones.

00:28:35 John Daub: So you know, it's a good community on Discord We're it's similar like the Thorn Tree of Lonely Planet 20 years ago if you guys ever use that where people that are on the road can talk to each other more quickly than if you were to be I don't know like Bumping into people at a guesthouse and that's sort of a cool thing with Discord.

00:29:10 John Daub: Never term woke should never have been invented It's a target for everything. I don't worry about it If someone calls you a name, don't worry about it You Don't know them Chances are they're wrong There's no such as it they might be right in the end.

00:29:40 John Daub: You know, you just have to you know, someone calls you name you shrug your shoulders smile. Don't say anything and just move on Nobody cares. You know first of all, if you show that you care too, by the way, it makes it just worse So I got other I get out. I got bigger problems than someone calling me a name.

00:30:15 John Daub: Must be the current America. Yeah, it's something going on in the US It's it might be a problem. It might not I don't know I live here. So there you go It's not something we talk about and you know what politics is not something that is That we should focus on 24/7 turn off the TV news turn on YouTube Travel look at this Skytree, it's pretty cool.

00:30:55 John Daub: This is TV Do hit the like button and leave me comment You let me know where you're watching from if you are in Japan, you can comment and share your experience in particular If you are in Kyoto, what's it like being? In the typhoon if it's your first time What went well for you and what didn't go well for you?

00:31:35 John Daub: I'd like to hear from you and I think everybody would and I'll pin that comment at the top If there's a good one that I think everyone should read The bus tour to Niigata. That's something I'm doing for the mega shell fireworks festivals.

00:32:00 John Daub: I'm working with a Friend of mine Edie's son who's part of the was part of the Japan Fireworks Association? She's the one who's coordinating everything because she knows everybody there makes it so much easier And we have I think 16 people were past the halfway mark, but we only have about three days to go.

00:32:35 John Daub: So if you're on the fence, you can leave me a comment right to me or I believe we're accepting credit cards now. I think I didn't know that you sound was gonna do like international wire transfers They're quite complicated.

00:33:00 John Daub: So I said let's get a credit card option. So I believe we have that now there might have been some issues now, but You have to have to have people pay my credit Card it's just so much easier like international criminals use wire transfer like transfers of $10,000 or more something this is just a you know a Few hundred bucks or something.

00:33:35 John Daub: What is it? I think it's 77,000 yen with the tax so I don't want anyone paying international transfer fees if we don't have to so there's a credit card option And if you didn't get a notice and you did sign up originally just send me an email and I'll respond to you You should have gotten it by now.

00:34:10 John Daub: But we had I think we have a 15 16 people signed up now and my goal is 30 but if we get 20 we're gonna have a pretty happy and very Relaxed bus tour, which is perfect Yeah All right questions.

00:34:35 John Daub: I'm in Tokyo right now was supposed to be in Osaka, but I cancelled that plan as a typhoon was coming They're pretty smart. I don't think it would have been really hard day in the rain to be trapped in Osaka right now but it seems like it's starting to pass there and you know you're probably gonna be able to go tomorrow.

00:35:10 John Daub: Mombasa Kenya Wow I've been to Kenya in 2001 there's a while ago beautiful place Nairobi was a little scary though a little scary some parts when is lunch in Ginza again? Ervin let me know I've been I've been away a lot though.

00:35:40 John Daub: Wow Qatar awesome we got some views from all over the place when are you gonna start to sell the Katakai fireworks happy Asatria because we have less people going there's not gonna be that many but I will get in touch with you directly because I know this is something you're quite interested in.

00:36:15 John Daub: And quite frankly I'm probably gonna make another set of happy as well because I think that they're pretty cool looking because I have I have one now from the last fireworks project so but I'll be in touch with you I'll try to save one for you.

00:36:40 John Daub: What English weather news can I follow I'm here I if I'm there Asahi Shimbun has an English newspaper Kyoto News KYODO has been a pretty good source of news I think you've it's Sankei Shimbun Sankei newspaper S-A-N-K-E-I has an English news but I know Asahi newspaper has an English news.

00:37:20 John Daub: The Japan Times usually has a paywall after a couple of articles but and I'm not a huge fan of their reporting but they're there for over a hundred years and have a long history and yeah some people I know support them it's good that they're around let's just say I'm glad that they're there.

00:37:55 John Daub: There's also a Tokyo Weekender for magazines Tokyo Cheapo is you know that they're one of my friends I've known the founders of the company for a decade more than a decade so I go with them Raymond Centeno did I hear happy codes for sale Raymond all right I'm gonna go with them.

00:38:30 John Daub: Make about 10 extra cuz I think I know who's gonna buy them hahaha I'll see wait. Look like Ralph Macchio get an extra one yeah I look yeah then Ralph Macchio cuz I'm younger barely Ralph looks good Ralph looks good yeah.

00:39:00 John Daub: 1984 for me was not at not my happy time I walked down the hall in the school. and kids would be doing like crane kicks stances what was gonna do kick back if they already doing the crane kick then that that was my move so how do you counter that Miyagi stopped making movies so you know had to bring in that little drum it's hard anyways.

00:39:40 John Daub: It is hot another typhoon could be on its way I don't know so if you're asking me for advice on your I get about I think I responded to about 50 Instagram Patreon and messages some to my email and I tried to respond the best that I could.

00:40:15 John Daub: But I don't know if your trip is gonna be cancelled in October I can't tell you if your flight is safe from Narita we don't know which direction the typhoon is going I can tell you be informed be an informed traveler and look at the weather between those months and you won't have any problems with the weather.

00:40:55 John Daub: And maybe have a ticket that allows you to change the date having flexibility can be quite useful if you need to get home at a certain time and consider maybe leaving a day early and coming back a day late so that you have that one day buffer in case your flight does get cancelled then you won't be late for work.

00:41:35 John Daub: Don't want to see you get fired just because you decided to come to Japan land of typhoons earthquakes volcanic eruptions landslides flash floods and really strict people who follow the rules it's true story i got stories to tell you another time.

00:42:10 John Daub: And tell everything one uh teach me some small Japanese no i dodged five typhoons makes it sound like it was a physical event yeah and a shout out to Maui uh we did this last time but all of you are watching the news we're following that here in Japan we know what's going on and it's tragic.

00:42:50 John Daub: Because Japan and Hawaii and Maui the islands have a very strong connection and we're hurting as well here there's a lot of Japanese Americans and Japanese that are in Maui as well you don't ask people either age i'm not 69.

00:43:20 John Daub: Who wrote the news today i'm not 96. i'm not 96. i'm not 96. i'm not 96. i'm not 96. i don't like that moderators hold on 96 all right of course i'm not 96.

00:43:45 John Daub: When is typhoon season usually did you not hear me do we even do we have that how many times you supposed to do it do i have that graphic here i'm not sure i don't see it here's the rainfall right now this is about 20 minutes ago.

00:44:15 John Daub: You can see it's they're getting nailed in Kyoto Prefecture right now. Tottori, Hyogo, that's north of Kobe. You can see, for me, I can see Japan clearly. Osaka would be on the bottom right.

00:44:45 John Daub: You can see there's like a scrunchie. That's Osaka Port. And they're still getting hit with some rain right now, probably high winds. But a lot of the water right now in the countryside, and that's where a lot of landslides happen.

00:45:15 John Daub: So really, let's hope that everyone's going to be okay. Luckily, these are not highly populated areas. That area is probably Tajima. I hitchhiked through these areas, so I know them quite well.

00:45:45 John Daub: Tajima, like Tottori City up north there. Maizuru, which is in Kyoto Prefecture, it's a port city. Probably Fukui is going to start getting hit as it makes its way up.

00:46:10 John Daub: And these are areas that have a lot of abandoned houses, a low population. Many older people. And it's worrying when this goes here. Al Minox, right in here from Denmark. Wow.

00:46:40 John Daub: I keep seeing this Australian YouTuber popping up every now and again, making horrendous claims. Oh, I know who that person is. Yeah, let him do it. No one is watching him. And there's a reason why. Why are you watching that anyways?

00:47:10 John Daub: There are hundreds of really nasty people out there. You don't know. That's the life of it. It's called life. Let him. We know who he is. I saw him at the Sapporo Snow Festival. And we were really nice.

00:47:45 John Daub: So if he's saying anything mean, I can't understand why. My wife said hi to him. I gave him a You Found Me card. I even plugged his channel. We're very simple, very nice to him. I can't figure it out.

00:48:15 John Daub: Some people will bash you to make money and to get attention. Some people just didn't get hugged by their parents. They have issues, mental problems. It's actually a serious thing. So leave them alone and let people... People have issues in their lives.

00:48:50 John Daub: And before you yell back at somebody that's being stupid, maybe it's better just to walk away. All right? And this is somebody who is probably younger than this person who should know a lot better. Just walk away because they probably have mental problems and at a moment's notice, they could... Some people could be violent.

00:49:30 John Daub: It's not... Everyone has different issues going on in their lives. I do too. I know that. I feel it. And it's very complicated. That's why road rage, some people will lash out. Unless you're an angry person by the way, by nature, you have to let it go.

00:50:00 John Daub: And just understand people got other things. Let it go if you can. Sometimes you can't and then, you know, they go away. Turn your back and walk away. It's not worth it.

00:50:25 John Daub: Well, because you have issues going on in your life that does not give you the right to attack others. Absolutely, you're right. You don't have the right to attack others because that's really awful. But people do in this society and you have to learn to walk away.

00:50:55 John Daub: And I've been attacked as much or more so than anybody else. And I've had stalkers as well. I would walk right past the police station, walk in there and say there's a person that's been following me for a little bit.

00:51:25 John Daub: The police officer will pop his head out and that person would walk away. I'd stay there for a couple of minutes. I'd probably talk about baseball or something with the officer who was probably happy to have a little bit of a distraction.

00:51:55 John Daub: I'd look out there, nobody there, and I'd walk home because I don't want this person to see where I live or walk in a different direction. Because I've watched too many spy movies. Make sure there's no tail. And then I'll walk home.

00:52:25 John Daub: Yeah, but... No, but you don't have the right to attack anybody but at the same time, you have to be the adult sometimes and understand that you don't make things better by fighting back either.

00:52:55 John Daub: There are times to pick a fight and there are times to walk away. And the times to pick a fight maybe are 1% of those 99. One out of every 100. Where it's basically self-defense. There's no... In Japan, this is a country that avoids confrontation.

00:53:30 John Daub: Nobody will shove you and try to instigate a fight that's Japanese. And if they do, that's like a very rare situation. Just walk away. Nobody wants confrontation in Japan.

00:53:55 John Daub: I've now been here in this country so long that I'm the same way. You won't see me getting in a fist fight. It's just not worth it. I'll be the one that doesn't get deported. I'll be the one that doesn't spend four days in police custody as they question me.

00:54:25 John Daub: I'll be the one at home eating a pizza to get back to work. Something like that. So there you go. Greetings from India. Would you recommend traveling around Kyoto in buses or trains? I'm going there in October.

00:54:55 John Daub: Sure. Kyoto is a prefecture. Are you talking about the prefecture? I'm guessing that you're not. So Kyoto is a prefecture. And Kyoto prefecture, the train, the subway is not very comprehensive. You pretty much need it all in one pass. Right? And if you get that, you shouldn't have any problems.

00:55:35 John Daub: I'll tell you this. You can ride a bicycle to a lot of places in Kyoto. There's a lot of traffic. It's not made for bicycling. Kyoto is actually a city. You figure that out really quickly. You can walk to a lot of places as well.

00:56:05 John Daub: You can walk from Kyoto Station to Gion, for example. Or walk from Kyoto Station to Kiyomizudera. Or to Ninenzaka. Maybe not to Arashiyama. You probably need to take a train and then you can walk places.

00:56:35 John Daub: Public transportation, because there's a lot of traffic in Kyoto, the buses get congested quite a bit. I don't know. It's a tough call. That's why I don't like Kyoto, though. I'm not a Kyoto guy. I've been there. I don't need to go back there anymore. I'm done.

00:57:10 John Daub: Unless... I don't know. I'd rather go to Shiga or to Fukui or to Mie, one of the surrounding prefectures, Kogoku, than I would to Kyoto City. Or go to Kyoto Prefecture. And there's some onsen up there. You know? It's nice.

00:57:45 John Daub: Alamodux rights in here. Okay. Really? Alright. I'm sorry to hear that. Well, thank you for that. I don't want to give any more attention to a person who is toxic. So, thank you. Not at all. No need to apologize.

00:58:20 John Daub: Look, I've been doing this for a long, long time. I've been doing TV since 2008. And I've been doing YouTube since 2012, 2013. So, quite a long time. Nothing bothers me.

00:58:50 John Daub: Now, when you have a really good community of people, why would you ever be bothered by one or two? Love is where it's at. It's true. Stay positive. And anybody who is... This is advice that I've learned in my life.

00:59:25 John Daub: Half of my life here in Japan, half of my life in the... The one thing that I've learned. This could save your own life. I'm serious. We all have friends in our lives. Family as well. And some of them, usually a small portion, are toxic people.

00:59:55 John Daub: Their cancer is to you. They hold you down and hold you back. And I know you can't separate yourself from family. Sometimes maybe that's the best option. But you can from your friends. You can have friends that are toxic.

01:00:25 John Daub: And if you have toxic people that are keeping you back, holding you back, filling your head with negative thoughts, just negative people in general, they're not your friends. They're actually your enemy. And you separate yourself from them.

01:00:55 John Daub: So, you can hang out with people that you don't agree with. Most of the people I hang out with, they don't perfectly agree with me. In fact, I prefer if they don't agree with me. It's more interesting. But they're positive people.

01:01:25 John Daub: And they're people that inspire me, encourage me. And I'm somebody that didn't have very high confidence when I came