00:00:00 John Daub: Alright, we've just arrived. Leo, how you doing? Kanae is there as well. And I wanted to share with you one of the most beautiful sights that I've seen. Now you know why this is an icon of Japan. Check it out. Just, it is stunning at this point. This is Lake Motosu. It's not a big lake, but honestly, it's a beautiful spot. And it even gets lovelier.

00:00:40 John Daub: Let me take you on a very short walk down here. There's tons of tourists coming. I guess this is a holiday here in Japan. Wow. Could you get a better view than that? Thank goodness for 1080p. Kanae, Leo, and I went and took a photo down there just a couple of minutes ago. This is the end result. Granted, it's very hard to get Leo to smile at all, and Mount Fuji is blurry. I don't know why I had it on portrait mode, but I can fix that in post.

00:01:29 John Daub: Lake Motosu is such an incredible place. I've never been here before. This is the only one of the Fuji Five Lakes that I haven't been to. When we drove past it from Fujiyoshida yesterday, I was like, we're coming back here because the weather looks really good. Oh my gosh. Alright, I'm going to take you to the point.

00:01:53 John Daub: There's a bunch of motorcyclists in here. Let me just show you on the map where exactly I am. It's pretty crazy. There's Tokyo on the right side, Yamanashi on the left. We just passed Mount Fuji, but this is the Koan camping ground. We came through a tunnel, which is 550 meters long, to this very spot. And this is right near Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. Fuji-Nomi is over there by the Pacific Ocean. If I pull out even further, I want to show you the proximity to Mount Fuji here. There she is, Mount Fuji, 3,776 meters high.

00:02:41 John Daub: We're going to just pivot around. So this is the view now when I show you Mount Fuji in relation. There it is on the left. You can see what we're looking at. We're at an elevation and we're looking across the lake to Mount Fuji. And in November in particular, November is a really pretty month to be here looking at Mount Fuji. I don't know what it is about November, but I think the lighting is always good. And if you're on the other side, there's another lake where you get the diamond effect. That basically means at sunset, there's like a diamond tip to the summit of Mount Fuji.

00:03:21 John Daub: So we're going to come around here. Now it's coming into view. Check this out. Oh my. Right across the lake. It's a beautiful warm day as well. You can see loads of people. Cars just stop, they snap a photo and then they go back on their way. Feast your eyes on that. Lake Motosu in all its glory. The afternoon sun just about to disappear behind that mountain. I timed it perfect. Of course, this summit is much higher, and it's going to be looking really nice for the next couple of hours. But we're going to lose the sun where I am right here in about 20 minutes.

00:04:17 John Daub: Let me take you in a little bit closer using the zoom lens of the iPhone 14 Pro. Here's the main lens. No boats on here. I guess it's a national park. Down there, there seems to be some camping. Would this not be the best place to camp? Now we're going to have to go in full zoom. This looks like the best place. There's a canoe. You could do some adventure stuff. And it's warm enough to do it. It's about 20, 22 degrees Celsius, which is very pleasant, mid-70s maybe. At night, it's going to get much cooler.

00:04:56 John Daub: But you can see, this is going through what in the west you would call Aokigahara (suicide forest). Not the greatest name. It's just a forest. It's got not a great reputation. This side of the mountain, Mount Fuji's got a little lump on the left side. I think that's from an eruption. Every time it erupted, it created lumps. I used to live near Numazu, and you could see the lump of Mount Fuji from the 18th century eruption, which was the last time it went. It was like 1707. It's been a while. Record-breaking warmth for November in Japan for the next few days.

00:05:51 John Daub: Actually, it might be better from this side. So this is the kind of view that you would get if you came out to Japan and you know, motorcycling. There's a ton of motorcycles coming in here. This is such a beautiful spot to be. Mount Fuji with pimples. It's better than me with pimples. They say that it could blow again. I think in Tokyo we would have an interesting show, but for the people here, it would not be so wonderful.

00:06:24 John Daub: The JVlog is here. Nice to see you. And we have our friend, the personality of Brick Wall, right in here. John, would you rent a camper van and bring the family on a camping trip someplace cute and interesting? I think I would. I wanted to this year, but Kanae is not really into camping. I'm 100% next year. Because of the indoor camping that I had to do a few years ago, I still haven't been able to go proper camping, which is something I've been dying to do. And this year, this summer blew by so fast. I just didn't get a chance to do it.

00:07:00 John Daub: That's a dozen thumbnail pics. For the next millennium, I've got beautiful thumbnail pics. But historically, when we look back at this live stream in 100 years, I don't know what the weather is going to be like then, probably the same. This is just going to be one of those moments where I remember in person. I might even be here in 100 years. But soaking in the warm sun right now, my face can feel the warmth of the sun looking at that. It's just really, really nice.

00:07:37 John Daub: Everyone in Europe, enjoying 8-degree weather, which is definitely not what we're experiencing right here. If you look to the side here, this is surrounded by mountains. Again, coming to Mount Fuji is always going to be a treat unless you can't see it. And I've been blessed. Every time I come here, I've almost had really pleasant views of it. I can't think of too many times it was obstructed. Now, I used to live in Fujinomiya 20 years ago. I lived in 16 different cities, and Fujinomiya, I lived at the base of Mount Fuji for about 6 months. And there were times in the summer where I just couldn't even see Mount Fuji because of the haze, the humidity and the haze in the summer. It would completely look like you could see blue sky, but the haze was reflecting the blue sky and it was just completely gone. I was only 10 kilometers away from the peak of Fuji. So it was weird. It's just because when you live in a mountain that's so high, that impacts the weather around it. It truly impacts the weather in the town that you live in if you're on the base.

00:08:54 John Daub: Now, on this side, I call this the backside because you can see there's nothing here. There's no towns. There's not much here. And this is that forest, you know. That's why people go in. It's a beautiful forest. It's got loads of wildlife in there. There might even be some bears. But yeah, it's a beautiful area. Just a little spooky from all the stories that you might hear. But honestly, this is where you soak in nature so much.

00:09:32 John Daub: Bruce Airwright's in here. Stayed in the hotel there in April. Very kind staff. That's the view on the 1,000 yen bill, by the way. Really? It's been a while. They changed the currency when I first got here. Is it? Holy smokes. Is that why people are... Wait, that's not. That is. Are you kidding me? What did you guys tell me? Is this it? Let me ask somebody. Is this it? I didn't know that. I'm surprised. Thank you. I just confirmed. This is the view on the back of a 1,000 yen note. Holy smokes. Thanks to the viewers reporting this out. That's stunning. I had no idea. Did you guys know that? Kanae didn't. Kanae lives here. She didn't know that.

00:11:04 John Daub: I guess, should I change the title of this episode to the view from a 1,000 yen note? I can't even see it. Is it this way? It's this way. There's a new thumbnail right here. Is that it? Someone want to send me this? Send me this thumbnail? How do I do it? Right there? I had no idea. I'm living... Everything's backwards here. That's pretty incredible. Anyways, it is a pretty cool thumbnail. That's kind of a cool little tidbit. Thank you guys for telling me. I had no idea. I came here when the currency was different in Japan. I think it was the 5,000 yen note that had Mount Fuji on the back. Now it's the 1,000 yen note. And they're changing it again next year. So it won't be around for much longer.

00:12:14 John Daub: Awesome. Thumbnailed it. All right. This is a cool park. There's a tunnel that we just came through. Beautiful stay. Check this out. This is the view from the world's oldest hotel, Hōei-kan, where we stayed last night. Look at the autumn foliage around there. I took this with the drone. We stayed on the third floor, which is one down from the top. And got a chance to talk with Kawano-san. And he gave us a cake. And he was so kind to us. And we just love him and the staff there. I know a lot of viewers were there too. So I want to say we'll be back at Hōei-kan. Here's our photo in front of there. That might be the better picture than the one of Mount Fuji. Leo looks somewhat happy. I can Photoshop that and do some AI and give him a smile.

00:13:17 John Daub: So it was a pretty short... That's it for the stream. I'm going to walk back to the car. But this is a pretty cool experience, I think, to come out. Just to drive around, ride around, whatever, with Mount Fuji. There's the tunnel I was telling you about, the Nakanokura Tunnel [?]. And after you get to that other side, you get to this spot. It's like you can't even see Mount Fuji for the longest time. And then boom, you come out of the tunnel. It's like, bah, Mount Fuji right into your face. It's awesome. Look at this. This is the road that you have to come through. Do you see that? There is a 360 tunnel. I've never seen a tunnel that was in a 360 spiral. Have any of you? It was crazy. And then you're doing all these lefts and rights. And Kanae and Leo were asleep. And I was starting to feel a little drowsy until I hit the tunnel. And then I finally got to the other side. I'm like, bam, we're here. Motosu. And then we tried to take a family photo. And Leo was like not cooperating because he just woke up and was a little cranky. And he brought his rabbit stuffed toy with him. And it looks kind of weird, but that's okay. I can Photoshop that. I can even put a smile on the stuffed rabbit too.

00:14:35 John Daub: He doesn't do anything with AI. I don't even need to film anymore. He just does AI. I want an Only in Japan video where I'm at Mount Fuji flying through there reporting about its glory at 3,776 meters. Go. And maybe it'll make an episode. Who knows? All right. There you go. There's the peak. We're going to get one more view as I get back to the parking lot. They even have restrooms here. 360 loop tunnel. Gosh, Japan. Engineers here are amazing. Oh, is that a drone? That is. I'll have to get my drone out and do some droning. But legally, you're not allowed to drone. There's more than one drone. You're not allowed to drone here legally. But where else are you going to drone? Nobody really cares.

00:15:54 John Daub: How was this spot? Would you say top 10? Yeah. Did you know that? It was on the back of the... You live here. So yeah, I actually didn't know about the... What are you eating? I'm eating bread. Yeah? I want some of that bread there. You got bread too? Yeah. I didn't get any bread. It's all right. I'll stop off at the service area. They got bread there.

00:16:31 John Daub: All right, everybody. This might even be better with the trees here. One last look as we break the plane and look at Fuji-san from the backside. And it's so much more natural than looking at Shin-Fuji from the other side, looking from the side that the Shinkansen goes by. This side is just better because there's nothing there. That's what makes it special. That's what makes it Lake Motosu. Oh, soak it in. I want to say thanks for watching. Thanks for being here for this. Again, this is the back of the 1,000 yen note. I had no idea. That's crazy. You're welcome, Saiya. Anytime. Love you guys. See you.