00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, I wanted to give you an update on those that have plans already to travel to Kanazawa, which is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture. Very close, the biggest city, to Noto Hanto, Noto Peninsula, where the earthquake on New Year's Day happened here in Japan. For the last few days I've been covering this topic. It's been important to do that, I think, because there's a lot of misunderstanding even today. I've seen the headlines from the international news. I know I've mentioned this before, but they're saying Japan will have another earthquake. And this is a fact because Tokyo every year has on average 1,500 earthquakes. So I want you to, you know, a lot of you don't live in Japan, you don't have to live through the earthquakes like we do here. 99.9% of earthquakes we never feel. We don't know, alright? And then there's the big ones over Shindo 4, 5, and 6 that do happen. 99.99% of the time we don't have those earthquakes.

00:01:01 We don't have those earthquakes. But earthquakes are not a bad thing. If the earthquakes did not happen, then we would be building up that pressure on those tectonic plates and having very large ones. So having earthquakes is, I mean, ask a scientist about this stuff, which is why I'm a little bit upset about the international media building up a lot of, it's not just miscommunication, misreporting, it's just kind of fear mongering in a way. But I'm happy though that there is some good information coming from the news reports from the international media. I'm going to do my best to explain to you from the side of Japan that I live in and that I know for the last 25 years living here. Somebody who has interviewed a lot of experts on earthquakes, volcanists, seismologists, and earthquake engineers. Just about four months ago I interviewed two of those at Tokyo University, University of Todai. And for an episode that's coming up really soon. So I know a little bit about this information here. But yeah, I'm not an expert, so to speak, but more so perhaps than the international media. Kanazawa is open. I want first of all everybody to understand that the Shinkansen is running. Okay, so if you do have a trip to go to Kanazawa, the first thing you should do if you have not already been contacted by your hotel for an imminent trip to Kanazawa, give the hotel a call and just check up on it. In particular, if your reservation is in the next two weeks. The reason why I ask is because as I said yesterday, there were about 100,000, perhaps even more coming people that are displaced evacuees from their homes, in particular Noto Peninsula. I talked about 30 minutes ago with the Kanazawa Tourism Association for about 10-15 minutes. I was on hold for some of it because they didn't have the information.

00:03:01 They had to ask somebody higher up to get this stuff. I took a bunch of notes here. And let me relay this information to you. The first thing that you need to know is that Kenrokuen, which is one of the top gardens, is closed even right now. There's a live stream on YouTube where you can see there's nobody walking around. They're checking again on the integrity of the bridges and the places where people walk to make sure that there's no danger. So there's still and they don't know when it's going to be reopening. The museums are closed. Kanazawa Castle is closed. So a lot of the attractions will be closed if you're thinking of going to Kanazawa. So I want you to know that first of all, not as much stuff is going to be open.

00:03:49 Oh, Omicho Market. Sorry, Omicho Market. I did a live stream at Omicho Market. It's a really great one. It's not very far from the Kanazawa station. That is Omicho Market.

00:04:01 It's open in the morning. So you can go there. You can get some street food. You can get breakfast. You know, it's a really good market that is open according to the Tourism Association. So there are things to do there. You can walk along the Higashi Chaya part of Kanazawa, which is where the old Geisha tea houses are. I asked them specifically if those tea houses, some of them were closed. And she said they're still assessing the situation. Some of the older buildings might still be closed but most of the businesses are open so if you want to get street food and you want to go into Kanazawa and get a lot of them are open up for business again. Um, again, like Kanazawa, unlike Tohoku which had—you know, there was the TEPCO Daichi disaster—it was hard to get up there and there were a lot of roads that were closed. The tsunami made it really difficult to get into some places. Kanazawa is a big city that is on the Shinkansen line, so they're not having any supply problems, which is really good because they're going to be able to get supplies from Kanazawa into Noto Hanto, Noto Peninsula. So there's a lot of things that are closed in Kanazawa and they're not sure when they're going to reopen. Not at this stage, anyways. Uh, this is what I was told from the Tourism Association about 30 minutes ago.

00:05:23 Um, there are a lot of aftershocks that are still continuing in Kanazawa right now. So if you do go to Kanazawa, they—you can't predict when a big earthquake is going to happen. As I told you, 99.9% of earthquakes are harmless in Japan. The infrastructure is made so that it will withstand quite strong earthquakes. Tokyo Skytree, for example, the world's tallest freestanding tower, is capable of withstanding a magnitude 9 earthquake. Or like they may have made it because of—it's quite extraordinary, the architecture behind the Tokyo Skytree. But Tokyo and big cities like Kanazawa really are prepared for this type of thing. Um, so magnitude four or five earthquake is not really going to be something that even the locals worry too much about. It's when you get into magnitude seven, which is what we had a couple of days ago—you really feel it and it's scary. But the aftershocks typically are nowhere near that intensity. But you just really never know. But even after the Great Tohoku earthquake of 2011, no earthquake after the big one that was magnitude nine, Shindo seven plus, nothing got to that same level. Although we did have several really large ones that were in the magnitude of seven, I believe. Nothing that was as devastating as that initial one. So that's something that you need to know—there are aftershocks still going on in Kanazawa right now. You're going to find out that you're going to feel those earthquakes. But the hotels are taking people and there are tourists there right now. So this is something that you need to know.

00:07:09 Um, other things that I took notes—I wrote it—I was writing stuff so fast I can't even read my own handwriting. Um, oh, volunteers. So I asked them about if there are volunteers—I put a link in the description of this video here. So if you're thinking about volunteering—Ishikawa Prefecture, right here. This is for the—Ishikawa—this is in Japanese, so let me explain it to you. Ishikawa Prefecture—this is for their kenmin—prefecture is a state in Japan. There are 47 prefectures or states in this country. Ishikawa is the prefecture for Noto Hanto. This is the prefecture that was—and Toyama—were really heavily impacted by the earthquake. Noto Peninsula is in Ishikawa Prefecture. So this is the website for Ishikawa—this is their volunteer center website. I asked because I know a lot of you are asking me about this, and this is something I'm interested in doing as well. When they need it. But right now, the message is that I translated this for you—please don't call. Please don't call the city halls and the municipal offices right now. When they do have volunteer work or volunteer opportunities, they will let you know on this website. And I put a link in the description of this website in this video. So go and bookmark that and maybe check in once a week. And when they need volunteers, in particular if you're living here in Japan or visiting at that time—yeah, it might be a good thing to go up there. They're probably going to need some help, in particular caring for some of the elderly there and helping them move things.

00:08:48 Yesterday we saw an NHK—the land shifted 1.3 meters up at Noto Peninsula, which is a crazy distance because of that earthquake. It was a very shallow earthquake. So it did—[coughs]—you know, of course quite devastating damage to it. But this is right now where the center of the volunteer stuff is going to be—at the Ishikawa prefectural site. It's not in the tourism one. And here's the message for anyone who's Japanese and who can read this, but they're asking please—the volunteer information will be on this page, and don't contact the city hall asking to volunteer right now. They got a lot of other stuff—the prefectural hall, a lot of other stuff to do as the first responders are still right now going into Noto Hanto and trying to help people. So it's still really early. But I know that our community has a really big heart. It's—it's—I bet you we got a lot of people from this community that go to volunteer up there.

00:09:47 Um, let me run down a couple of other things here. This is going to be a short one on donations with something that—oh, and by the way, in a link in the description, I also put Foreign Volunteers Japan—this is a group on Facebook that me and my friend Mike utilized quite a bit after the Great Tohoku earthquake in 2011. There really wasn't anything set up for foreign volunteers at the time, not that we hadn't had any too many massive disasters like this. At the time, when social media was starting to come up in 2011—Facebook, I guess throughout 2008 is when it really started to explode on the scene. So 2011, this group came about—uh, several months after, I believe it was a couple months after. And it was a great thing because it organized a lot of people that were still here in Japan. I put a link in the description so you can go and join the group or get information from the group. And again, if you're thinking about volunteering or donating—this is a site with residents of Japan and not just foreigners, but also Japanese residents are in here as well, with moderators that are giving really good information right now.

00:11:11 There are a couple of sites already taking donations. Um, I'm not going to get into donations—I'm not creating an Only in Japan donation thing or anything like that. I think that there's already some really good organizations doing that. And to be frank, that's not for—someone—I don't think that's something that I want to do. And I've been asked by some viewers already, and a lot of other viewers that are Japanese viewers that commented on the video the last couple of days—was the Yahoo—and Yahoo is a thing in Japan. Everybody, it's owned by SoftBank. I know in the United States Yahoo does not have the best reputation, but in Japan it does. And the best site right now—and it appears to be Yahoo at this very moment. This is the site. I'm hesitant to put a link to the description—everything you need to have a Yahoo Japan email, and this is how they verify you. But they've already raised about 10 million dollars from 702,000 people. You see down at the bottom here—702,478 people have donated. Um, that's about roughly $10 million. And this volunteer—this donation site—is going to be on for another 87 days. I'm hesitant to put a link into the description. I think you can find it yourself. But this is the one that most Japanese, as you can see, are donating to right now, as well as the Red Cross, which is always collecting donations for the next disaster when they want some of the first people in there, as well as Second Harvest, which is a food bank. And according to Foreign Volunteers Japan, one of the staff from there was thanking people for listing that link, and I think they're going to be making food runs up to Noto Peninsula, which is very important.

00:13:30 The Tourism Association said that there's—please stay away from Noto Peninsula. Don't go into those impacted areas. It is a beautiful area in Noto Peninsula, but right now it's a disaster zone. And it's one where first responders are there right now. They don't want cars, tour buses, all this stuff up there. They don't want to have to deal with tourists in this region right now. Not at this time. I—it's hard to say when it's going to be bouncing back. But this comes from Ishikawa Prefecture and the Kanazawa Tourism Association.

00:14:00 I hope this is useful information. I translated another donation site—Japan Platform—into English. This is another one—Japan Platform, which was on the Foreign Volunteers Japan website. And they're also taking donations, and they list out what they're going to do with the donations. There's a couple of other donation sites that are on the Foreign Volunteers Japan site. So it's worth checking out and do your homework on this. It's still really early, but I know that these are organizations that are reputable—if they're on the Foreign Volunteers Japan website, they've been vetted, and their moderators on that site.

00:14:57 I'll take a couple of questions if you have them before we cut out here. I'm just very thankful that our community is interested in this—in helping out. Um, Air to the Ron is here. Arigato. Thank you. It's nice to see here, as well as a lot of our community in the house here. Um, yesterday and the day before was quite a busy live stream. Bradshaw Studios here. Thank you. About 300 years ago, the Cascadia fault erupted, causing the earthquake. Yeah, you know, people in California, people that are impacted by earthquakes—they're not surprised by this news, and they can see through the media's ignorance, not knowing. But for me, I think it is important to not be upset at somebody who doesn't know about Japan, the geography of Japan, how big Japan is—to understand that Japan is about the same size as California. It's quite large, so an earthquake that happens in one region—it's a regional thing. It does not impact the whole country. And I think a lot of people know that. The sensationalism you can see from media—which I showed you yesterday—is pretty off the charts for some of the sites. So the reason why I think it's important to educate people on this is because if you just don't know about earthquakes and you just don't know about Japan, and there are a lot of people with big hearts that want to donate—if you're not informed or not educated on it, there'll be a lot of fake donation sites coming up from places that have been impacted that you won't even know the geography about. And they end up making millions and millions of dollars from scams. And I think that this is important—to avoid those. And I will be donating, of course, to the Yahoo site and volunteering our time if that is something that will be really helpful, because we really love Kanazawa. We did a video on Kanazawa on this new channel—I started a new channel in 2020 because the old channel we had some contract conflicts. As a result of it, something that I should not have done in the first place, but I just restart the channel over again. And was very happy to be able to work with Kanazawa, based on my reputation, to get access to very ancient food. And they were so hospitable. I got a chance to meet with the geisha there. I got a chance to go and access places during the pandemic because Kanazawa City invited me to go there. So I'm super grateful to them. I know that they're very good people. I've been recommending Kanazawa as like the alternative to Kyoto because Kyoto is just so crowded. Kanazawa has a culture of geisha, has a culture of tea and excellent cuisine. It's a very deep culture—samurai culture—and it's a historical city that visitors who go there really fall in love with. And now they're in—it's the pivotal city where a lot of the volunteers and a lot of the supplies are going to be going through as they get ready to help rebuild Noto Peninsula—their little brother up to the north.

00:18:32 I really don't have anything more to add to this. This isn't exactly how we wanted to start off the year, but this is where we find ourselves. I'll be doing normal live streams from tomorrow, but I'll try my very best to keep you up to date with the things that are going on through our Discord server. Discord is a place where we can communicate effectively as a community of people that really love Japan, people that are on Discord sharing photos, sharing information. This is the place, the crossroads, so to speak, of travelers here in Japan. We have about almost 20,000 people on our Discord server. And we have some amazing moderators—many of them are here moderating this live stream. And I know that they're on there quite a bit right now moderating. But this is a place where we'll be getting—giving some information. We might even start a group on the Discord server for Ishikawa and the Noto earthquake in particular, just to give some information and keep things accurate.

00:19:38 You know, I'm—I'm one of the jobs that I've had in the past is reporting for NHK World. And NHK has a really good reputation—a journalistic reputation—and I take that quite seriously. And when I was able to work with them, the one thing that we did as a team when we made the episodes of Journeys in Japan—you know, we did it right. We got the information and we passed it on to the best of our ability, using local knowledge, facts, not just searching on the internet, but interviewing people, talking with people. And this is my series, Only in Japan. What I like to do—there's a reason why I have interviews, which are detrimental to the YouTube algorithm, I think. I think you should hear from the experts. I think you should hear from the people, the locals, the Japanese people themselves. So that's why I add in interviews, and a lot of YouTubers don't because the engagement on YouTube videos just dies when you see somebody in an interview on YouTube. But that's just such a valuable thing, because the knowledge that they give you—not from me as a creator, but from them directly—is so much more powerful. And I think that that's something that comes from my background with NHK World. I really love being able to do that and present another person's point of view, from a local resident living there, or an expert from Tokyo University on earthquakes. That's what I do. You know, I don't just do this—I will do that. And right now, all those experts, all those people—they got really important things to do right now. So I hope this is useful.

00:21:25 Again, I see Ramsey's silent is here. How you doing? For my birthday, please smash the like button. Oh, that's so nice. Yeah, please—let's give Ramsey's his birthday present to the viewers, and slam the like button here. Thank you, buddy. I should be sending you something. Ramsey's is a very good friend and always keeps me thinking about—um—who—and Ramsey's was never here. We're not supposed to talk about Ramsey's silent, so he's—but I'm glad to see here. Um, tortoropocos here. Any other anyone remember the North Ridge earthquake? So we have some people asking questions on this topic in particular. Was there anybody in Kanazawa right now? Leave me a comment below in the video. And I think that this information is great to share in the comments of this video too. I'll be back to normal programming tomorrow, but again, we'll see how the situation plays out with this. It's just such—it's just so early in this disaster.

00:22:35 You know, I tomorrow I'll be meeting with my friend Mike, who I volunteered with. He was the person I never went without him. He was the person I always went with, because he was going so darn often—um, like a huge, huge heart. And I'll be talking with him and see if he has anything to add, or something that he wants to—that he can help you with in terms of tragedies. But just be wary and realize that a lot of people are taking advantage of at this time—in the early days of a tragedy. It's awful. And it's hard—it's hard to know who to trust, because if you want to help out, the best places are accredited places. And you're not Japanese, so it's really hard to know for sure. And I'll do my very best to just kind of sort this out for you and help you out and let you make a decision based on that. But right now, when it comes to donations, the vast majority of Japanese that I talk to are using Yahoo Japan. And you have to start Yahoo in order to donate—I'm pretty sure, but I'm not 100% sure on that yet. I might have an old Yahoo Japan email address, but we probably donate through Kanai. So that's the way to go.

00:23:59 I hope you all are doing well. And yeah, please keep your prayers coming to the people up in Noto Peninsula. There's still places with power out—I've been told some places without water, places without gas. Places that are probably—in particular for the elderly—that need some help. And you know, if the situation changes or this valuable information, I'll be back to let you know. But this is the last time for that—I'll be doing a stream like this about this Noto Peninsula earthquake. Thanks.