00:00:01 John Daub: Hello and welcome to Tokyo. This is one of my favorite spots in the city. This is Toyosu Gururi Park. It's a place where you can see both Tokyo Skytree and Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge, and the entire Tokyo Bay. It is also completely and utterly empty, which goes against yesterday's live stream talking about the overcrowded over-tourism or tourism pollution—a topic that was in the headlines yesterday and took a lot of heat from certain people. Maybe the most talked about live stream of the summer. There's a ship leaving over there too.

00:00:29 John Daub: In this episode I wanted to talk about how it's still going to be hot—Dulce is here, I see the comment—but Japanese summer is effectively over even though there's still three days left in August. Yesterday there were festivals: Bon Odori, several of them held in Tokyo, one in Roppongi Hills, one at Hibiya Park that anybody could come and join with the music going. Half the people were in yukata (light cotton kimono). Half were just in shorts and a tank top like me enjoying the summer. Those events are done, and once the last weekend of August is over, people start going back to work and it is completely empty. This is a spot where you'd have a ton of people here sitting, eating bento—this is lunchtime, enjoying themselves. There's not a soul here. This is absolutely crazy. And that's Odaiba in the distance. Do you see the Fuji TV building and Rainbow Bridge?

00:01:30 John Daub: There are some college kids here that are quite loud—more power to them. They should enjoy their last remaining days of freedom before they get back to studying. It's really funny like that. Even the beaches are probably shutting down right now because the jellyfish are really bad in Japan at the end of August. There's just not enough money being made to justify keeping the beaches open. Even though the weather is hot, people just aren't going the same, and you can't really go in the water with the jellyfish—you're going to get stung. Even here I saw some jellyfish in Tokyo Bay, Tokyo Harbor. So yeah, basically summer is effectively over.

00:02:32 John Daub: So how did it go for you? For Japan it went extremely well in many respects. Yesterday's live stream was based on headlines from Prime Minister Kishida, who's going to try to tackle over-tourism this fall. And it's going to be a monumental job because I think a lot of it has to do with the municipalities, the regional areas, and not so much the national government. There were over 400 comments on that video yesterday. A lot of those comments I think is something the government can learn from. Some people got angry at some of the comments, like "you're going to be shoulder to shoulder with other sweaty Americans." As an American myself, I have to point out: everybody is sweaty. It's not just one particular nationality. Just because they said it doesn't mean you can get totally offended. There was one person who was totally offended. My response was, what doesn't offend you? Because it's August. Everybody is sweaty.

00:03:32 John Daub: Summer has been good. One of the things from yesterday's live stream: it's been dominated by the golden route. The "new golden route" takes you to Tokyo, Nikko, Hakone, then to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, maybe Himeji, and then Hiroshima—everything included, which are sometimes optional. But the new golden route is the Hokuriku Arch Pass that JR has, where you can go to Kanazawa and loop around the Sea of Japan to Kyoto. Kanazawa and Shirakawa-go (UNESCO World Heritage)—if you see the pictures of Shirakawa-go, you're gonna want to go there too. It's a stunning place, and they've had experiences with overcrowding as well. Here's the new golden route from JNTO, the Japan National Tourism Organization—the branch of the government giving information to help with over-tourism, or tourism pollution. This is the Hokuriku Arch: it goes up and down from Tokyo, cutting through Nagano, Karuizawa, Toyama, Kanazawa, hitting a couple of places—Shirakawa-go not on this one—then Tsuruga. A lot of these places are just on the route that you could stop off at. Itoigawa is an interchange—not that much there, but I remember hitchhiking through it and it was nice. You can see Shin-Osaka, Kizugawa—that's one of the onsen (hot spring) towns in the Kansai region. Omi-Hachiman, which is where Omi Beef is. They're doing a good job of trying to promote more than just the usual tourist attractions.

00:08:05 John Daub: But yesterday's livestream didn't say don't come to Japan. The summer has been dominated by tourists who did come to Japan, and it's not locals that are getting upset—it's other tourists. Overtourism is not fun for tourists. You don't want to go there and be shoulder to shoulder with other people that are not from Japan. You just don't get an authentic experience of what Japan is by doing what everybody else is doing. The point is to go to places that they're not going to, to have a different experience, a more Japan experience. I don't think you get that in Kyoto to the same respect as you did 10 years ago, just because of the overcrowding. You end up leaving a little bit frustrated, to be honest. And you can understand why the laws are there. We had tourists like paparazzi trying to take pictures of geisha or maiko (apprentice geisha). And that's an industry—they're trying to do their job. There's a privacy law where you can't take somebody's picture and post it on the internet without their permission, like Instagram. You can't focus in on their face. So they put signs saying no photos. There's tension on the local side, but there's tension on the tourism side too.

00:09:54 John Daub: If your image of going to Kyoto is to sit in a garden and have perfect Zen relaxation with nature in Kyoto proper in the city center—that's a fantasy. You have to go out to the outskirts of Kyoto to the lesser-known temples and shrines, and you will find that experience—maybe at certain times of the day as well. But it's not the reality anymore. I just want you all to know that. Before you come here, you have to have the facts. That's what I do here—I have to have the reality. Read the comments of the people who just got back from Kyoto. This summer has been super interesting. I see Michael Sassano is in the house. Snack time from Toro Toro Poco and me. Keep cool and comfortable. Thank you. I'm trying to keep cool. I got my tank top, trying to enjoy the last couple days of my summer. My schedule is different than Japan's—my summer goes all the way up to Labor Day, I guess. I'm still American after all. My summer will go up until November actually, because that's when I stop wearing shorts.

00:11:07 John Daub: The day after tomorrow, I'm getting on the jetfoil and going to one of Tokyo's islands for one night, two days to make a main channel episode. I've been filming more than I've been editing—it's just been a super busy summer. If you wouldn't mind in the comments below, leave me notes on your summer. Did you come to Japan? How was your trip? Leave us notes down below, and I think other people reading it will benefit. Or reach out on the Discord server—we have about 16,500 Discord users over there actively writing back and forth about their experiences, sharing pictures and what's happening on the ground here. A lot of my research comes from them. I'm like, wow, it's crowded this year.

00:11:52 John Daub: I'm going to show you the Skytree and Tokyo Tower in a second. But before that, I want to give you a piece of information that was in JNTO. It came out on August 16th, and I think it is very significant. The Japan National Tourism Organization reported that the number of Japanese overseas travel is about 2.3 million—approximately, of course more than last year, but it's almost 50% less than 2019. So the exchange rate is so bad, the yen is so weak—Japanese tourists did not leave the country. Usually it's about 20 million people. That means those people stayed domestic and traveled more, which is a part of the frustration. Japanese tourists that were traveling—a million of them were really frustrated because this came to the front. I think the Japanese government should have seen this coming—they expected more Japanese to travel, but the reality was they did not. They stayed in Japan.

00:13:09 John Daub: When tourists don't prepare to get off the Shinkansen a couple minutes before the stop, they get up at the last minute, and locals couldn't get off because tourists decided to get off when the train stopped. That created some issues and some unhappy people—and those unhappy people are also voters. Here are the numbers of foreign tourists who came to Japan for the summer. Korea leads the way with almost 626,000 visitors in July—so by far, you want your neighbors to visit. With China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, that makes up the vast majority. But there's one country above them all that made a huge stride: my country, America. Finally we had over 100,000 visitors from the United States visit Japan, which is awesome. That means there's going to be over 1.2 million per year as an average, and that's a wonderful thing. I'm starting to get to know Japan. More people are coming to visit, and that makes me really happy. When I first came here in 1998, nobody visited me—including my parents and family. I've got loads of cousins and nobody has visited me in Japan. It wasn't a very attractive place to visit in the 1990s or even the 2000s. Japan didn't start to blow up as a place to visit until social media came and started to show pictures of the beauty that I'd already known for 20 years. So hey, I enjoyed all of this for half my life before a lot of you started to make your first trips here. And I'm here to welcome you too. Thank you for coming and considering Japan as a trip.

00:15:25 John Daub: The prices are going to rise next summer—this is a guarantee because of supply and demand. More hotels are being built, more tours are being started, there's more flights. I just saw the news where Air Japan, which is ANA's low-cost carrier—this is crazy. ANA, a one-way trip from Tokyo to Bangkok on Air Japan is just a little bit over $100—15,500 yen, that's like $108 with the exchange rate. Even in yen, that's cheap—one way to Bangkok for 15,500 yen. Are you kidding me? You know how many Japanese are going to be leaving Japan to go to Thailand now? Peach Aviation might even be cheaper, but Air Japan and Zipair (JAL's low-cost) will be ramping up in 2024. So you're going to see even more tourists coming, which is why I was not sugarcoating yesterday's live stream. People need to understand the reality and that changes are going to be happening. Japan right now was not ready for the tourism restart in the same way.

00:17:45 John Daub: It just seemed like a lot of places, in particular Kyoto, were not prepared for tourism. They've been collecting taxes to make sure there's no over-tourism for years—a thousand yen if you spend over 20,000 or 50,000 yen per night at a hotel, and the tax dollars are supposed to go back to help with this issue. I don't know where it goes. Here's the view of the tree from this point—do you guys see it on the right side? And now I'm going to zoom across and show you why this view is so awesome, and why nobody comes here to eat a bento. Now in the center of your screen you can see Tokyo Tower—it's kind of small, but that's the bay right there. You can see all the buildings and construction. I like to come here with Leo and Kanae and we eat bento here, relax for about 20 minutes, then go back to work. You can see the Rainbow Bridge and get an amazing view of Odaiba, all the boats coming in and out going to the Tokyo Islands. The day after tomorrow I'll be taking a jetfoil out to Nijima, which is going to be pretty awesome. Shout out to our Patreon supporters for that one—it's like a Patreon-funded summer trip whenever I go to the islands. Thanks guys for the support on Patreon.

00:19:34 John Daub: If we summarize the summer, we cannot ignore the amount of typhoons that came through and hit Kagoshima and Okinawa—one went past Okinawa and did a 180 and came back, which I don't think we've seen before. We had typhoons through Osaka and Kansai, and one we thought might come up to Tokyo—a lot of people altered their plans as a result. Staffing shortages are taking their toll, especially hotels getting fresh sheets in the rooms—it's getting more difficult. It wasn't just hotels—there really was a shortage of staff all around the country, in particular outside of Tokyo. It took longer to clean the rooms, sometimes not enough hotel staff to serve the food. They did a really good job to compensate though, but people were overworked. For the people in the hospitality industry here, I salute you and thank you because I traveled quite a bit too and had amazing experiences.

00:21:27 John Daub: There were a lot of shortages, but I found a lot of people from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, even the Middle East working jobs in Japanese hospitality. Not only was their Japanese way better than mine, their grasp of Japanese culture probably was better than me too. They went to school specifically to learn this—they were the top of the crop. I had a guy from India who served me at check-in. We spoke in Japanese—his Japanese, although somewhat accented, was really good. He spoke in keigo (honorific language), which was amazing. He got down on his knees, made sure he was eye level with me, brought a welcome drink without his finger in it—did everything so perfectly. I was going to be really light on him, but he was better than some Japanese at hospitality. If you're being served by somebody from South Asia, be aware the service is going to be on the standard as if it were somebody Japanese. As somebody who's half Indian, I'm quite proud of that too. I told him in Japanese and English when I left that he did an amazing job, and I filled out the survey. He wanted to stay in Japan and become higher ranking in his hotel—that really melted my heart. Young people don't want these jobs, so when I heard he really cared about the hotel's hierarchy and wanted to be part of it long-term, that's fantastic. People from abroad in the countryside who want to stay and grow—they might even inherit the entire hotel and become CEO.

00:24:22 John Daub: Kamen Rider writes: Do you think more tourists are going in autumn? Yes. Are the beaches open in autumn? They're open, but there's nobody—no lifeguard. Surfers do it, but keep in mind the Pacific Ocean rip current is really strong—more than the Atlantic. If you're not a strong swimmer, be really careful—understand before you get into the ocean. Talk with some locals. The seas are much rougher in winter than summer. I try riding out to the Tokyo Islands in winter and you're going to get seasick—in summer it's calmer unless there's a typhoon. Pacific—not so pacifist.

00:25:30 John Daub: Kay Fo writes: Should Kyoto be avoided? No, personally. I'm going to do a live stream tomorrow about this. I was really tough on Kyoto yesterday, and rightfully so, but my point is there's too many people making that their choice without research. If it's your first time visiting Japan, you should go to Kyoto—there's no doubt. Don't not go because I personally don't like it. YouTubers are influencers—if we say something, it impacts travel plans. When I tell you not to go to Kyoto, my hope is people still go but go to other places too, or rethink just going to Kyoto. Rethink your itinerary. It is overcrowded—if you go to Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), you're in a line 400 meters long. Think about that before you go—maybe make it a day trip instead. Get there in the morning, then take the train out and spend the night in Kanazawa, now part of the golden route. Or go to Shiga Prefecture to Omi-Hachiman and have a wonderful Omi beef dinner from the source—there's craft beer there run by Aussies or Kiwis.

00:28:20 John Daub: How is Tokyo November through February? It's all right—Tokyo is fine. But this year, because the yen is weak and more than half of 2019 Japanese travelers stayed home, there were a million more Japanese on the Shinkansen this year than 2019—that's significant. This fall is going to be crazy. Please make your reservations three months in advance, at least if it's a popular area or hotel for fall colors—you're not going to find a hotel. Non-Japanese are going to have slimmer pickings because they don't book as far in advance. Independent travelers are spontaneous, but it's hard at peak times—November is peak peak. It's easier to predict fall colors than cherry blossoms, so people book November 18th and 19th and Kyoto is sold out. After fall colors, December to January is low season—easy to get around unless you're a skier.

00:30:52 John Daub: Traveling with kids in Japan for the first time—what does kids mean, how old? If under three, it's going to be tough—you want a bigger room. Check the size of the room before you book. Never argue with your wife unless it's your favorite t-shirt—that should be understood. Check that your hotel is near a playground—this city has them even in Roppongi, Shibuya. You can improve your trip quality by booking near one—use Google Maps street view. Book your first two nights at Tokyo Disneyland—the rooms are great size, cost-effective, close to the city. Families: make sure room size is adequate—16 square meters is small for three, you can't walk around. Consider taking taxis instead of public transport—it might inflate budget, but you've paid for the flight—it's marginal for a family, so much easier, less stress, air-conditioned. Grab cabs whenever you can, stay away from public transport at peak times. Kids get jet lag too—have a plan B. Japan's safe—you could play at playgrounds at 4 a.m., just keep noise down. A lot of hotels like Holiday Inn have play areas inside.

00:35:06 John Daub: Me and Leo's summer has been really good. I haven't been home a lot—I've been away traveling: Nara, Hiroshima quick, back to Nara, then back for a few days, then Hiroshima again. I didn't have much time to edit, so not a lot of main channel episodes, but that ends soon—four episodes coming out from here to end of September. Japanese hotels cater to singles or couples—families have a hard time because of room size. Onsen do a good job with couples or families—some prioritize romantic trips with kashikiri (private rental) baths, great for tattoos; some have children's menus like chicken nuggets and smiley-face fried potatoes. Breakfast in Japan is at 11—most bakeries don't open until 10 or 11. For breakfast, take your hotel plan, convenience store, Starbucks, or local kissaten (Japanese coffee shop) with a 500-yen coffee breakfast set: toast, jam, scrambled eggs, coffee—one coin, ridiculously cheap.

00:38:31 John Daub: Yesterday we had Indian food carryout—Leo had cheese naan, I had to get amakuchi (mild/sweet curry) because he doesn't like spicy, but it was still really good. I've been intermittent fasting: eat only between 12 and 6, sometimes 1:30 to 5:30—chicken, broccoli, avocado. Hungry first few days, then got used to it, added gym 2-3 times a week. Lost weight but gained some back eating tortillas and bread in Kochi. What chain gym? There are 24-hour chains for about 7,000 yen a month—50 bucks. I do 35-40 minutes: run there 3.5-7 km, workout, run back.

00:43:00 John Daub: [windy audio issues noted and fixed mid-stream] Summer's been good—I've been really busy filming all over the country. Going back to Kagoshima next month. They knocked down the International Ferry Terminal on the other side and they're building parks—you see the excavators. The park behind has an amazing slide—if you have a kid, come to the end of the Olympic Village right here, Harumi Village area—bus 45 from Tokyo Station. That's where Olympians stayed in 2021, and two years later it's still not complete.

00:47:42 John Daub: Thanks so much for watching—sorry for the windy opening, I thought the mic was going. I'll be back tomorrow to talk about why you should or shouldn't avoid Kyoto—maybe get Kevin Riley's point of view, he lives there and takes tours. If it's your first time, don't avoid—I'd regret it. Instead of three nights, do one or a day trip. People are too easily offended, especially my countrymen over "sweaty Americans"—it's true, everybody's sweaty. There's a jetfoil—that's what I'm taking to Nijima in less than 48 hours, 90 minutes out. Excited for this trip. Have America's top-selling beer, Modelo from Mexico—Mexico makes good beer. See you tomorrow—we'll talk Kyoto. Leave questions in comments or Patreon DMs. I wasn't sugarcoating yesterday on purpose—Kyoto is too crowded, consider somewhere else. Have a good day. Stay cool.