00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to the city of Tokyo. This is Tsukishima. I'm back after three wonderful days filming in Kochi Prefecture. I don't know if you saw those live streams, check them out. But the photo that you see up on the top here, let me enlarge it. This is Tsukiji Market. This is the old fish market used to be where you saw the fish auctions and you can see all the people spilled out on what is a street that cars are supposed to be able to drive through. And they do drive through just really slowly not to hit people. But a lot of people are driving through.

00:00:31 John Daub: A lack of crowd control has created this havoc and it shouldn't be like this. And local authorities, this is a big issue that people are talking about all the time. It's been in the news today. It's crazy, right? This is just a normal street in Tokyo that again is supposed to be able to ride your bicycle and drive through. You can't do it anymore. So this word over tourism has now really become a part of the conversation here in Japan. Mainly because locals are getting frustrated and it's not their fault.

00:01:01 John Daub: The local municipalities in particular don't have solutions to the incredible number of tourists that are all of a sudden coming to areas including Kyoto, which doesn't make sense because they should have answers for this. Kyoto being the world famous city where everybody wants to go. But we've seen over the last couple of months in particular where prices on things that we really loved like the JR Rail Pass has increased. A lot of it has to do with over tourism. And just yesterday, I think it was yesterday, there was an article showing that Prime Minister Kishida is going to be drawing up measures, this is from the Japan Times, to combat over tourism.

00:02:01 John Daub: And it made me think like, how do you combat over tourism? And then I started to look at the things that Japan has been doing. And in this episode, I'm going to be talking about what exactly is over tourism? And what are the solutions? And I want to hear from you. Who is watching? Leave me comments. And again, there's a live chat going on here. So I want to hear what you think if this will impact your trip to Japan. I don't think that this is going to really impact Japan too much because people are going to come anyways.

00:02:31 John Daub: Here's the article. He was in Naha recently and it said here that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday that his government plans to draw up measures as early as autumn to combat over tourism, which surges of visitors have negatively impacted the daily lives of local residents. This is probably mostly Kyoto talking about it, but I'm sure there's some Tsukishima residents here too. At a time when the number of foreign tourists to Japan is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing concerns about issues caused by the concentration of tourists is an important task for the government. Really? Kishida told me. I don't know if it's important for his government. But the thing is, the Prime Minister's poll numbers are way, way, way down. He's very unpopular here in Japan.

00:03:32 John Daub: So I guess he's coming up with things domestically that might improve the relationship with the people here because opening up Japan to tourism kind of his fault. People, some people feel which is misplaced. I got a lot of things that I want to show you here. This is not a new problem. In 2019, the discussion for over tourism started 2018, 2019. And just recently, there was, I think they've already done it. But Kyoto has banned day bus passes. Now a lot of people who came to Kyoto came to Japan relied on those bus passes to get around because it was just so easy. You just would put it through and like just touch it or something you'll be able to get on.

00:04:02 John Daub: Now you could still use your Suica card or your Pasmo or your Icoos IC card if you can find them. But those cards have been also impacted by over tourism where tourists don't return them, they take them home, and there's not enough in the supply chain system to keep them going for everybody. So there's lots of little issues like this that's really impacting people's experience. The good news. This is the end of the summer. So I'm guessing that things should get a little bit lighter, right? Maybe because just this month, Chinese tourist packages, package tourists from China just started to come to Japan. And now we're seeing a lot of people coming in the summer traffic for holiday.

00:04:32 John Daub: Students that were visiting here in holiday, that will be over. But a new traffic wave is coming. And it makes sense that Japan is trying to find a way to address this. I just wonder what those things are. So I was actually right. Carrie wrote in here something good. We can look at what other countries have done and see what they've done to address it. And if you're coming to Japan in the autumn, this might impact your trip. So let's take a look at it. I actually put a link in the description of this video where you can take a look at what I'm going to show you right now.

00:05:33 John Daub: Right here. But I'm going to run through this as quickly as possible. This is from I guess it's like a Konkatsu site. Minna Konkatsu site that's written in English here. I'm going to push record and try my best to go through it. It'll keep me honest. I'm not actually scrolling. But it says here what is over tourism? Here is an easy to understand explanation of causes, remedies and actual example cases. I share this because it's the only article that I could find that's Japanese based that talks about this issue. And I think it's going to be talked about quite a bit more.

00:06:02 John Daub: In English to help you understand. And this comes out of Kamakura. All right, let's start it. I just pushed the play button. So it's going to scroll up here. The impact caused by the new coronavirus for the tourism industry is significant. So this is an old article rather. So we can saw the shrink in it. But this is something that they've been talking about. What is over tourism? Direct translation is excessive tourists refers to a state in which the extreme concentration of tourists has great negative impact on the daily lives of the people here. What happens when over tourism becomes severe? There are very specific changes.

00:06:33 John Daub: It basically things like parking violations, noise pollution, garbage problems, vehicles going in the wrong place, just a lot of congestion like I showed you in the beginning of this. Furthermore, the experience that the tourists can get such as dirty streets, buses are full. It becomes a bad experience for other tourists as well. Over tourism is caused by the number of tourists exceeding the upper limit of the tourist destination can accept. Mount Fuji recently started to throttle the number of people who could climb it. Meaning if you didn't get in at the start of the day to climb Mount Fuji, it meant that you were not going to climb it at all that day because Mount Fuji had reached its limits.

00:07:04 John Daub: The more tourists that went on there, the more trash that they had, the more toilets became over full. These aren't pipes running down the mountain. I think they have to bring the poo down. So that garbage and everything just became too much for the infrastructure that they had for it and in particular on the Yoshida route. So the tourists were throttled this year and it made for not a great experience for a lot of tourists because there's not a mechanism to let you know when not to go. Right. How many people have come there? You should have like a oh in two hours. We're going to be ending kind of a deal, but they didn't have these kind of mechanisms and it led to some frustrating people.

00:07:34 John Daub: So Japan is clamping down on over tourism and you're trying to find ways to do it. It's interesting. This article suggests and shows some of the things that they have done in today's day and age where information can spread everywhere by everyone. It is no longer possible to contain information that does not escalate too much. Meaning an influencer such as me introduces a beautiful place to someone such as you. All of a sudden a mass amount of people are going to be going to that spot and this can create some big problems.

00:08:04 John Daub: My first experience with this was in the year 2015 when I introduced a capsule hotel that was mostly for business travelers, but they were starting to gear up for tourism. I introduced in the video and viral and the manager ended up having now when I went back and talked to him. He said that it's almost all foreign tourists and more issues came up. He almost was regretful that I introduced the place because it brought more problems such as larger suitcases. There just wasn't enough space to accommodate tourists that came there because that's not what a capsule hotel is. It's not a tourist attraction. It's a place for businessmen who have very little luggage to crash just literally spend the night in a capsule wake up and leave, but tourists were spending like two weeks there with their big suitcases.

00:09:06 John Daub: There's no place to put it and created a lot of problems. I'm to blame, but you know, we didn't know about this so much back in 2015 2014 when social media was just really starting to increase. I want to show you another issue. This is by the way the postcard club. This is this month's postcard. If you want to support the channel you can get this. This is them cleaning the Daibutsu (Big Buddha) at Todai-ji. And I bring this up because Todai-ji has been a victim of over tourism.

00:09:25 John Daub: In 2019 they caught Chinese tourists that had put some sort of vandal, like vandalized it with some sort of oil rubbed on the wood which was really disgusting and that created problems. And then this image I'm going to show you right now. This is what happened just a few weeks ago where a Canadian tourist, I know I'm surprised too, actually took his fingernail and drew a cat into very old wood. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and any kind of vandalism like this is a very old thing. Of course it's going to reflect poorly on Canadians, North Americans I should say. But reflects poorly on foreign tourists overall and this is a thing where there's just too many tourists where they can't watch everybody.

00:10:44 John Daub: So in the end stuff like this happens and like now they got to put in video like CCTV and have security guards and monitor a thirteen-hundred-year-old site and that's not right either. Right now in Shigi they have a massive problem and the thumbnail of this video that you saw is in Nara where this was actually taken. Nakatanidou is one of the most popular mochi places. Maybe you've seen the guy who's doing like this with his hand a thousand times per second pounding the mochi. He has a problem where the tourists are all watching the show but it's still a road and he has to hire somebody.

00:11:18 John Daub: Now he has hired somebody with a glow stick who gets people to back off and line up properly or else it reflects poorly on his business. Nara is doing it right. That's probably the best solution to that but I'm finding that Shigi does not have that yet and for me again like here's the video it's perplexing to me that there isn't a way to get the people to the sides because they're just too many of them in particular in front of some of the really popular really famous street food. And the other thing is that littering has become a massive problem there's going to be always a little bit of litter but when you have this many people in one place it becomes a mega problem and there's just too much trash at the end of the day.

00:12:01 John Daub: Residents and this is a place where people live they don't like it and you can understand why they don't want to change their culture either so it's almost like having your cake and eating it too but there are no trash cans but the restaurants and the shops should be taking responsibility for it there should be a place to get it but because the lines are so long they can't actually make it to the front to throw the stuff away so a small percentage of people just throw it on the street and it's got sauce on it it's really nasty the crows come in rats come in and you have other issues that the community doesn't like and it's hard to battle so what do you do about it?

00:12:38 John Daub: Let's go back to that article that I brought up again I put a link to it in the description here and it's just it's not a well-written article but it does there's a lot of typos which probably shouldn't happen but not in a print article but it also brings up a lot of issues and a lot of the solutions that Japan is thinking about so when Kishida-san talks about the solutions to over tourism I think he might be referring to articles or ideas from something like this so let's go over some of them.

00:13:13 John Daub: Kanazawa had an issue with street food in particular tourists from one or two countries would litter quite a bit so what they did was they banned street food in Higashi Chaya (East Teahouse District) which is a very popular area of Kanazawa you could not eat your you could buy the food but you had to eat it inside the store they weren't like food stands so this cut down on the amount of traffic on the street made it more peaceful it made sure people stayed in the shops but it also it kind of killed the feeling of fun there I'm not sure if they still do that but you know when you have to eat takoyaki inside of a shop you know what's air-conditioned that's not too bad it kind of ruins the experience when you're like told you cannot eat outside but that's the reaction to over tourism something like this.

00:14:11 John Daub: This is talking about the local impact buses are full not welcomed by locals locals just get angry that you lose that loving feeling and it's gone gone gone oh so what is the reason behind it it's just a misunderstanding it's a lack of communication I think from the government or municipalities but also a lack of control right things can get out of hand with social media really quickly so how do you deal with it well limit the number of tourists you see at the bottom here limit the number of tourists and how do you do that well in order to do that right now Japan is raising the price of stuff for tourists in particular things that tourists use like the JR Rail Pass right so the JR Rail Pass we saw the price is going to increase extraordinarily high in October.

00:14:47 John Daub: I believe it's not just because it's a direct result of the fact that the Tokaido line is just overly crowded all the tourists that buy the JR Rail Pass they're all riding the Tokaido line and for better or for worse this is creating an amazing amount of traffic that is putting pressure on people like me who want to ride the Nozomi want to ride the Shinkansen for business and I can't do it because there's just too many big bags and I can't get off the train in time because in popular places like Kyoto or Shin-Osaka there's too many people on the train you only have a minute they tell you to stand up and get ready to go but tourists don't do that they stand up at the worst time so then you're trying to get ready to leave the train and you can't get out and this is a problem for people like me.

00:16:01 John Daub: This is how you can understand like I can't get that JR Rail Pass so I'm all for raising the price you think that I'm gonna be honest with you I don't I think it was too good of a deal all right let's look at some of the comments here and then we're gonna take oh wait hold on let's go over all of the solutions divide the tourists by cooperating with neighboring municipalities that makes a lot of sense but how do you do that I'm not sure this is the one where they're going to talk about operating accommodation tax by allocating tax revenue for measures to accept more tourists such as making physical so that the idea is the taxes that they collect in Kyoto go back into improving the tourism infrastructure to help ease the pain.

00:16:31 John Daub: I don't think that that's what's happening because they've been collecting this tax for a while now and I'm not sure what investments Kyoto is making but I don't see the transparency and this is always a problem when government accepts taxes of any kind a lot of it doesn't go to the purpose that it was intended to so I mean I'm not seeing it I think Kyoto should not be if they have this tax Kyoto should not be complaining at all they should be using that money in order to improve the flow of tourists to alleviate this kind of problem.

00:17:01 John Daub: This one is interesting to promote hands-free tourism most tourists visiting Japan are traveling individually it's not packaged tours traveling with a lot of luggage on your own requires a lot of space on trains. I'm doing this I'm telling you to bring less bags to pack day packs leave your send your bags by takuhaibin (courier service) the courier services from hotel to hotel the night before you check out take the things you need for the day and send your main suitcase to the next hotel it'll arrive the next day do things like that and help to alleviate this because there's too many tourists in particular from Western countries that love to wheel suitcases everywhere.

00:17:47 John Daub: The Asian countries a lot of them won't bring the suitcases they're on package tours but that's not exactly a hundred percent fair there are Asian tourists that are also wheeling massive suitcases the suitcases look bigger if they're really short too I just waited that out there the bigger people with massive suitcases those suitcases don't look so big do they so I think that this is a good thing this helps alleviate some of the pressure that is felt from over tourism especially for people like me a local.

00:18:14 John Daub: This one is weird the international certification system I guess the GSTC which is the minimum items to be observed effective system okay perhaps this is important for places like Tsukiji because they're so over-the-top crowded this is just a photo look at that there's so overcrowded they don't have any regulations on these local vendors to do more than they need to do and this creates a lot of problems either tourism association or the neighborhood association for Tsukiji needs to step up and do something or the vendors need to step up and do something or the city is going to do it and if the city does it it's going to be worse for the vendors whenever the city does anything they really lock it down just like Kanazawa locked down Higashi Chaya with street food that's not something that any people want.

00:19:25 John Daub: But this one was interesting here so this is from April second and the news is that Kyoto to abolish one day bus passes to combat tourism and you know I couldn't quite understand how the bus passes combat tourism so I went in deeper. Hey Jersey Girl here from Utah I carry a plastic shopping bag in my tote bag to hold my garbage until I can find a garbage can you need that in Japan the problem is you can't find those plastic bags easily because you can't get in convenience stores unless you ask for them and they will charge you five yen about three to five yen for each one of those bags that there's less of them available switches not a bad they cut down a plastic but you can find a trash can is no place to put your trash so ask for a plastic bag at the convenience stores when you get something like when you get here something then at least you have a bag to put it in thanks for the tip thanks for sharing that.

00:20:12 John Daub: So I went in and I wanted to read a little bit more about this one-day pass. So here's what we got here on the right side. I'll read from the top. The supported routes will get you around pretty much to the major tourist attractions. There's a subway in Kyoto, but it's not very good. It doesn't drop you off in convenient places and you have to walk quite a bit. But the subway is a more effective manner to get around. The issue is that when there's so many tourists on board, this is a valid issue. I want you to see it from the side of the residents living in Kyoto.

00:20:53 John Daub: Kyoto residents, the ones that live in the city center, a lot of them are over the age of 65. It's just a fact of Japan that we have a lot of people over the age of 65. And a lot of them have more energy than me, just to put that out there. It's true. But the issue is that a lot of them don't. And they can't find seats on the bus anymore. In particular, priority seating where tourists are sitting there or kids are sitting there and they're not giving up the seats for the local residents that need it. And that's an issue. So they can't ride the buses. They can't even get on the buses. And sometimes they have to queue up for the buses for hours.

00:21:37 John Daub: If you look at Kyoto Station, the queue for the bus can be as long as 45 minutes to get on a bus when they probably could have been on a bus for an hour. They could have gotten a taxi and been back in time if they just spent a thousand yen instead of trying to wait for the bus. But that's maybe the issue with the day bus passes. People were reliant on that too much when there were other manners to get around. You could still use your Suica and Pasmo card. But it says here, unfortunately, though, the pass seems to have become too convenient for travelers and in the process, an inconvenience for locals. And so the city government has announced that the Kyoto one day bus pass will be abolished. Haha. Take that tourists. Seniors one, tourists nothing.

00:22:21 John Daub: Honestly, I don't think that you need to have a bus pass to get around Kyoto. You can rent a bicycle, walk, get a taxi, take the subway. There's lots of other ways. And if they diversify it, then I think it takes off congestion on the buses. So in a way, I think it does work. Kyoto Station said that in the morning, the lineup for the bus whose route includes the stops are Kiyomizu-dera (Kiyomizu Temple), Yasaka Shrine is often so long that those who join the line at the back might have to wait for three or four buses to come through before there's enough space for them to get in. They pack them in too. And that's not comfortable for locals. And they shouldn't have to do that.

00:23:14 John Daub: Such crowded conditions aren't new, which makes me wonder what Kyoto has been doing all this time to fight over tourism. Is it a new thing? I don't know. Why is this an issue now? It shouldn't be something new. But the banning of the bus passes, I think, will help to alleviate that a little bit. But if so many tourists come that is uncontrollable, that's where the federal government or the national government comes in and where Kishida-san has a problem. Tak-178 is here. I will be coming to Tokyo after a long time. I hope that my less touristy methods of travel can help alleviate that.

00:23:46 John Daub: I think that's the problem. You know, I want to point this out to you. I'm not telling you that it's your fault. I'm just trying to give you the reality here on the ground. Actually, in a way, I am saying it's your fault. But what I'm doing is trying to give you solutions that might help you have a better experience in Japan. And understanding this side of Japan, the local side, will help issues that could possibly become more of an issue. And it's important, in particular when you're going to a country, you know, in a high season where things are really short, where fuses really are shorter.

00:24:35 John Daub: Jay Jersey Girl also writes in here, I put some items in plastic shopping bags in my luggage. That is smart because I know it's hard to find garbage cans in Japan. Bring them from home. A lot of people will put the garbage in a bag. In particular, if you're going to Tsukiji Market, you know to be ready for it. And then you can just carry it out. You carry it back to your hotel and you throw it away there. Or you can take it to a convenience store and usually they have receptacles inside.

00:25:13 John Daub: Yeah, so we're seeing more and more of this. The headlines for the other media here. Japan is rammed with tourists and Chinese visitors aren't even back yet. Like that's, that was a few months ago. Here's one from the Wall Street Journal. Japan decides tourism pollution is worth it as money floods in. That's the other word to over tourism, tourism pollution. I thought that was interesting. I mean, I don't think it's, this is a view of Hachiko Scramble about 20 minutes ago before I started this live stream. And you can see like it looks the same. And Shibuya Scramble is as popular as it gets, you know. Asakusa is more crowded than Shibuya right now. I think people just spend more time there.

00:26:22 John Daub: But you can see as they cross the street, this is nothing new. This is, they've had this since 2013 when the tourism boom started. Right? And YouTube and social media started to really start to come together. And I think that's what's really show the beauties of Japan. I admit to have played a small part in that along with a bunch of other really talented creators. But that's our job. That's what we try to do here. That's every single location around the world has is going to have these issues here. And I think you're going to find more places start to add taxes that you don't like. But the purpose of the tax is to help with the solutions for tourism.

00:26:57 John Daub: But the thing is, again, these measures will take some time. But we will not see, I have not seen how these taxes are really helping to alleviate it. Because if this is still a problem, and 2019 was so crowded, so crazy, and you could see the trend line going all the way, 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19, just like this of tourists coming in. But why in a country that is like, you know, Toyota, they have people always looking for issues and how to fix them, which makes Toyota one of the great car companies in the world, that thinking and mentality is part of Japan, why local governments are not doing that is beyond me.

00:27:59 John Daub: And there's no real checks and balances between is this money really being used for the purpose that it is intended to? Or is it going to other things? I just don't know. But I can tell you this. In Tokyo, there's free Wi-Fi just about everywhere. A lot of the phone booths have been turned into Wi-Fi places. And I believe that comes from the taxes that you pay when you come into Japan. There are more information offices with speakers of English now than there were in 2017. That's a good thing. So I can see the money being put to use there.

00:28:29 John Daub: At busy places like Ueno Station, Tokyo Station, Shinjuku, we're finding staff is getting English lesson training. So they can, I remember when foreigners, you know, Westerners who couldn't speak any Japanese would try to talk with Japanese staff, and they would just get like this. And it was just, you couldn't communicate at all. Now I'm finding that staff can speak, can answer simple questions that are common of foreign tourists almost everywhere in Tokyo. That's a result of them learning English and having training. And I think that that's a really good thing, a result of the tax dollars.

00:29:13 John Daub: But where do you go from there? Do you need more? Do you need tourism police? Do we need to hire people that are ambassadors for municipalities to help alleviate or get people to go in different directions? They really should do. What are some ideas that you think visitors would need to do? Do you think Japan gave this problem serious thought? It seems like they didn't have any plans in order. They had plans, but I don't think they were effective plans. And to me, it's curious that they haven't had solutions for this. This is not a new thing.

00:30:02 John Daub: Changes won't impact interest from a group of people watching an Only in Japan stream, but it may make people who are deciding between Japan and somewhere else choose to go somewhere else. That's true. But I think that Japan can afford that because it's just too much. There's a point where you're past the point of saturation and the money coming in is great, but then the majority of the money coming in is not enough. And that's not the point. The point is that the money coming in to the country comes from industry, comes from the people who are living here, the 129 million people in Japan. I think that's the population now. It's going down.

00:30:48 John Daub: You know, that's where the majority of the money comes from. And you have to make sure the majority is kept happy, too, as we try to accommodate the minority or the tourists that are bringing money into here. So I think it's going to be a balance. The experience that tourists are having because there are so many tourists is not good right now. I think if you're going to Kyoto, you're not having a great experience. You are shoulder to shoulder with other sweaty Americans from different areas of the country, which if you want to meet other Americans is a lot of fun, but you're meeting other tourists and you're so packed in like a can of sardines. Is that really what you were expecting and coming here to Japan? No.

00:31:29 John Daub: So I think there would be benefits to trying to get people to go elsewhere or kind of wean out the kind of people that want to just go to Kyoto and stay three weeks there. When you could go to Kanazawa, where you could go to Takayama or go to Wakayama, go to Koyasan or some of the other places that don't have the same amount of tourists. I mean, I would hope that your experience in Kyoto was so bad that you would do that. But tourists don't do that. They just stay there. I don't understand.

00:32:11 John Daub: I feel that the whole tax thing, only tourists likely going to make people protest. I did a couple of days ago where the English menus, some restaurants have English menus, and it's very rare, but they will add different prices onto those English menus than the Japanese menus. I discovered that twice in my 25 years here, so it's not prevalent. We're on the Japanese menu, so it goes both ways. They just forget to update it, so it's quite often an honest mistake. But the issue is not that. The issue is that there should be one menu, and the English menu should be combined with the Japanese menu into one.

00:32:58 John Daub: It should not be separate, because then it reduces any issues, risks with misunderstanding. And the surcharges, the taxes, the final price should be listed on there. You should see the price and then the price with the tax. And they do that on the Japanese menus at a lot of the family restaurants. You know what the final price is, with tax and without tax. They used to do this when they rose the sales tax for the first time about 8 or 10 years ago. And since then, there's a lot of misunderstanding with service taxes. There's no tipping in Japan, but some restaurants have a service charge.

00:33:26 John Daub: The service charge can be a 300 yen hors d'oeuvre, a complimentary dish. And the service charge is a seating charge. They charge you 300 to 500 yen for that. Sometimes 1,000. Some bars will charge you a seating charge. They charge that to locals too. But how do you know it's not listed anywhere in English? So that's where the miscommunication comes in. And I think if Kishida-san wants to do something to alleviate issues, it's not just with the locals. It's with the tourists. They also have to know that there's going to be a service charge and there's going to be a seating charge. Things like this. They need to know. And clearly, it should be mentioned on menus.

00:34:18 John Daub: On the Japanese menu, which it should be. And on the English menu, which is more than just like, they're trying to do a kindness to tourists by giving them an English menu. It's more than that. The English menu is your menu. It doesn't matter if it's in Japanese or English. It has to have the necessary information. Just like the Japanese menu, by law, should be there. You want to put in your policy. If you're going to charge something, people should know. On the menu or at the door. So you know not to go in. Or go in. But if you want to fix that, that should be a law.

00:34:48 John Daub: But this is where we are right now. And I hope I know that those of you that are coming in the fall might not see this. But in 2024, we're going to have more tourists. I think Japan's going to hit 40 million tourists. Which will put them in the top five. I think Japan will be in the top five tourist destinations next year. They've got Fukuoka's going to expand their international routes. JAL has Zipair. Japan Airlines has Zipair. And ANA has Air Japan. These are two low-cost carriers that are going to be starting operations. Zipair is already running from several routes.

00:35:32 John Daub: So you're going to be able to travel to Japan super cheaper. I don't know how much cheaper than just regular JAL or ANA. We say ANA in English. In Japanese we call it ANA. So you're going to be able to travel cheaper than ANA and JAL. And even American Airlines on Zipair and Air Japan. Which is the subsidiaries of the other companies. That's going to bring in more people. And they're going to go to routes. I think open up other airports. Like Sapporo can take more international flights. Fukuoka could definitely. Nagoya. You'll see more routes open up. More tourists coming in. And hopefully this gets you to go to other places besides just Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Himeji Castle and places like this.

00:36:13 John Daub: This tax and these raising of fees is going to be an issue next year. And you're going to see it. And I'm not apologetic. Please subscribe. Because I'm going to make sure that we can not hold them accountable. But just when we see something good happening. I want to point that out. Like if I see something that is a new service that makes your experience better. I want to point that out. Not just the points where like oh it's bad and overcrowded. It looks like this. That's good too. But I want to show you when something good is happening. And I think that there's a lot of good happening behind the scenes. A lot of small rural towns working really hard to get you to go there. And they're coming up with original ideas.

00:37:05 John Daub: And I'd like to focus on this on my main channel and on this channel over the next couple of weeks. Over the next year. Cobra Bebop is here! Hey! Will they raise the taxes and fees on hotel rooms until less people start going to Kyoto. So if I already mentioned this. Just got here. So the fee and tax for Kyoto hotels is I think it was not too much. I think it was like 300 yen or something. Or was it 3% of the bill? I can't remember. But there's a Kyoto was the first place I believe to initiate a tax on this. I have a feeling that they'll probably raise the tax if the tourists keep on coming like they are.

00:37:41 John Daub: You can't book any of the locals. Tokyoites can't book hotels in Kyoto because so many foreign tourists are going there. And that's the market. That's the way it should be. But if you're visiting from abroad, maybe there should be less incentives to get less people to go there. I don't know. I don't have the answers. And I'm hoping that maybe you guys in the comments can suggest to the government better answers so that they get it right and not, well, screw all of us. Including themselves sometimes.

00:38:20 John Daub: Overcrowding. This comes from Animal Chatter. Overcrowding is not all over Japan. Sure, there are busy places, but it's part of the experience. I like going to a place that's popular, but it's not fun. In the summer, when it's hot. It's not fun. Shoulder to shoulder on a Kyoto bus for 20 minutes, it stinks. Literally. But it's uncomfortable and it's not fun. If you have a crowded temple, shrine, you're waiting in line for an hour, you get on a crowded bus, you go to a hotel where the services are less because there are demanding customers who can't speak the language, and you're frustrated all the time, that's not a great experience.

00:39:01 John Daub: Little things that have added up as a result of over-tourism will impact your experience going to places like Kyoto. It does. It's a reality of the tourism. Knowing that, when you book your trip, spend less time in Kyoto. Spend less time in Tokyo. Go out to places that aren't crowded. Go early. Wake up earlier. You know, you got jet lag, no excuse. Be the first one in line at the Skytree. Why wait three hours? You know, things like this. Use your head.

00:39:35 John Daub: In Kyoto, hotel tax depends on the cost per night. Under 20,000 yen, it's 200 yen. 500 yen for over 50,000 yen. Over 50,000 yen, it's 1,000 yen. So it's fairly reasonable. Lynn writes in here, even though I am Japanese, I would refrain from visiting Kyoto. I've been there like 50 to 100 times. An uncountable amount of times in my 25 years here. For work. For tourism. Because I live not far away from it. And I only go there if I have to. I love Kyoto. I had a great time in April when I was there this year. I think everybody should visit Kyoto. But I also think you should not spend so much time there. There's other places. And if you're a repeater, there are other places that are even better. You just have to watch the show.

00:40:38 John Daub: I showed you a place yesterday. Can I show this to you guys? Click the like button right now. If we can get to 500 likes, I want to show you something that I showed my Patreon supporters that blew me away when I first saw this drone footage. But it's going to completely blow you away. So let's see if we can get there. Alright, this is the clip here. I slowed this down. I filmed this in 4K 30p. I used Topaz Video AI. I slowed it down to 120p. And I made it 8K. So I could do something like this. This is actually 720p though. This final rendering from the 8K AI based rendering.

00:42:19 John Daub: This is the stream from three days ago. Please go back in the channel and watch this. It's only six minutes long. But I show you an amazing find. No people. You see that entrance in the top right? You go through a jungle to get here. This is what I'm talking about. This is why you are mistaken if you think that Kyoto is the best of Japan. It's not. There's so much beauty. Now watch this as I pivot to the seaside and you see the Pacific. The mighty Pacific from Kochi. Oh my gosh. Look at that. And then my silhouette as we hit the sea. To me, this shocked. Wow. That is amazing. The parallax of the drone going around. This is Japan. This is what I want you all to see. That's the experience. But it's not in Kyoto. It's elsewhere. And you have to find those places. And you have to work to get there. And you're rewarded for that. And that's what it's all about.

00:43:24 John Daub: You go to Kyoto, it's low hanging fruit, my friend. You're going to get other people who are taking advantage of it. This is reality. Please do sign up for the postcard club. Right here. This is this one's postcard. Next month, I think I'm going to remember a train. The postcard, I believe it's going to be the Hibakusha (A-bomb survivor train), which is the atomic bomb train. The train was bombed in World War II. It was pretty much destroyed. But it was fixed up and back on the line. And after that, it was destroyed. And after 80 years, it's still running on the line. This is one that was bombed and it was just a couple hundred people. Everybody died on the train except for one person from the bomb. And that train is still in use on the streets of Hiroshima. That's the postcard for next month.

00:44:23 John Daub: I want to show you that train and share with you that experience in an episode coming up. At the end of September, that episode will go live on Only in Japan main channel. And Kyoto is bankrupt. I know. That's the irony, right? You can't have your cake and eat it too, my friend. But you're going to try. Hey, everybody. I want to say thank you for watching. And if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I'll keep looking at these issues. And it's good to discuss this because when you do come to Japan, these are going to be some of the issues that you face when you are here.

00:45:00 John Daub: And if you do come to Tokyo and you want to get away from the crowds, come to this street. This is also my backyard. This is Tsukishima. It's turned into a pedestrian street. And on the left and right are monjayaki (Tokyo-style savory pancake) restaurants. These are like okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake), the Japanese pancake places. But it's the Tokyo version of it. And don't worry. You don't have to make it yourself. The staff will do it for you. And you'll have an authentic Tokyo experience. And there's not so many crowds here. It's so much more relaxed. Come in the evening when the lighting is different. And it's just a really cool vibe. This is an island in Tokyo. So you can get here on the Yurakucho Line. And I recommend it. Put it on the list.

00:45:40 John Daub: Alright everybody. See you again in another livestream tomorrow. As we end this summer, I can't believe we're like at the end of it. This is the best backyard ever. I'm so happy where I live here in Tokyo. Best backyard ever. See everybody. Here's the station. And I think this is exit 7. So you can walk straight there and enjoy some monjayaki tonight. What do you think? See everybody.