00:01 John Daub: Alright, we are here. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Karuizawa Snow Park. And there's a lot of snow. Well, there's snow. I noticed that in Tokyo, there's like no snow. There rarely is. It usually will melt within a day or two.

00:27 John Daub: We're going to go walk in here and take a look at the experience. Now, I got a two-hour pass for this Karuizawa Snow Park. It actually was two and a half hours, but two hours. I guess they give you 15 minutes for the rentals and stuff to get in and out. But there's the QR code if you're interested in taking a look at this. It's a fun place for kids, especially if you've got a family. But you can also do some skiing here. It's not at the same scale as some of the other places. But it's certainly very interesting. So let's go get Leo over there. So they're at that play area. That's Mount Asama, which is, I guess it's a sort of an active volcano. There's a lot of ski routes here at the snow park. Let's go get Leo and Kanai.

01:32 John Daub: Temperature, minus seven degrees Celsius. What that is in Fahrenheit, well under 32 degrees, which is zero degrees Celsius. For Americans, you just don't use the Celsius. I've been here so long, I'm sort of mixed up. I don't know, probably like 28, 27 degrees Fahrenheit. It's pretty cold, but it's sunny. And it just hasn't been a lot of snow. You can see it looks pretty quiet on the weekdays. Here's the patrol booth. I'm really interested to see if they have snow lessons for Leo. Places where the hills aren't so high seem really good for learning how to ski. So let's go get Leo.

02:08 John Daub: I'm going to take you in there, but you can get a lift ticket. I think it was 4,000 yen. Actually, the price list, we'll take a look at that maybe at the end. I'll put a link in the description. Online tickets are 1,000 yen cheaper than if you get it, but you have to get the online tickets the day before. Over there, you can see there's the ski lift, and it will take you up to the top. We're going to go get Leo. Take you over to the play area, the ski lift. It's not a really high one. You can see right up there. Somebody wants to see me go down that hill. You see the ski lift right there will take you up. Only one of them is working I guess because it's a weekday and there aren't that many skiers today. So it is quite quiet compared to Niseko. Totally different world if you compare it to Niseko.

03:06 John Daub: This is the play park where we're going and there's some rules here. Lift ticket required, so a ski ticket. Here's our ticket to enter. There's nobody here really to check it. This is cool though I think if you've got kids that don't know how to ski you can still do some fun things in the snow. The great thing is like right now Tokyo has no snow. It was only about a two and a half hour drive to get out here and we're in snow. You could just pick up one of these tubes you take it to the top and then you can come down the hill. You can see the snow and the snow is just like a little bit of snow and this is for tubing and that's for sledding on the other side. So we're gonna do some sledding while we're here in our two hours. We thought about four hours but I thought Leo's gonna get pretty bored.

03:58 John Daub: You can see the ski lift. Let's take a closer look. The play park is where I would have to go, rights and UFO Bob. That's really funny, you and me both bro because I am not a great skier although I have skied in the past. It's just nice to be here so we're gonna have a little bit of fun in this one. Surprisingly warmer. I guess it's because of the heat from the sun hitting us despite the fact that it's like minus. Let's go see if we can find Leo.

04:43 John Daub: I'm going to slide down this mountain maybe. Why not do it? Let's go try to find Leo. This is where the skiers come down. Yeah, definitely some Terrace House vibes for sure. Karuizawa.

05:07 John Daub: We went to the supermarket. I think it's called Tsuruya. There's a big supermarket here. They love their jam in Karuizawa. Check this out. This is the supermarket. Look at the jam aisle. It's like all jam. Jam, jam, jam. They had matcha butter which I'm going to try. Lots of different kinds of jams. It's pretty outrageous. They really love their jam. They're famous for the jams. So you got the apricot, blueberries are grown in Nagano. Lots of apples are quite popular. There's a lot of jams. They're quite famous in Nagano as well. So you're going to find a lot of jams. That's a lot of jam. Let's go find Leo. Oh, there he is. Over there.

06:03 John Daub: I'm glad he moved on because for the longest time we couldn't get him past this. It's just a wheelbarrow where he decided that he was going to like, despite the fact that we've come here to play, all he wanted to do was work, work, work. I'm like, dude, this is like that playing. But for him, this is playing. It's working, it's playing. And that gives me some hope that he's going to be a pretty hard worker. Leo! We couldn't get him away from here. I picked him up to try to go somewhere else and guess what he did? He just ran back here to play.

06:52 John Daub: Leo's gonna do it. Leo, you're next. Dozo. Hello, hi. Check this out. It's like this amusement park where he's gonna get swung around. This is his first time doing something like this. Come by, Leo. Let's see if he has any comment. He's getting strapped in right now.

07:38 John Daub: It is cold. I'm really cold right now. So we're gonna see Leo go round and round and see what happens. Hold on tight. Leo, hold on tight. Where are you, Leo? Hold on, Leo. He's going. He's strapped in there. Whoa. Look at Kanai's going there too. Look at Kanai. Leo, ganbare. He's giving the international war cry. Look at that. I can't even keep up with him. Ganbare, Leo. Fight. Now he's smiling.

09:55 John Daub: All right. I don't know how long this is gonna last. Okay. It's slowing down now.

10:05 John Daub: Michael says, Aloha, brother. Looks like a great day for snow time with the family. Cold weather calls for three cups of delicious hot chocolate. Mahalo. I might have to jump through the elephant to get there. Jump into the empty tube for first person POV. Can I do that? Yay. We'll see if I can do that.

10:31 John Daub: What's this one over here, Leo? Oh, wow. Oh, there's ice there. All right, Leo's gonna go in this dome. All right, go on in there. Are you cold? You're gonna go skiing tomorrow? Maybe. Oh, there's another ski lift over here. I didn't notice that. There's another ski lift over there. Leo made a friend. Leo jump on that metal part dad get it get it it is so cold. Yeah well I don't think you can hear it so well because of the mic's Mike is pretty good with that. There's a big swing on the top there. Do you guys know the strider bicycles? You can get a strider bicycle and the kids can ride down there. So we're gonna try that. You see that kid's got a bicycle so it's a bicycle without pedals they call them striders and you can go down there so we might try to do that as well. And then I'm gonna go down that mountain I think we did a goal. You have to have a goal in life I guess it's a good one.

13:50 John Daub: I think I showed this in the beginning where exactly we are for those that are just joining us. I'll run this through really quickly if you just see this before and you want to see you can just skip ahead it's only about 30 seconds long. From Tokyo it's about an hour and a half drive, two hour drive depending on traffic, two and a half hours you're probably a lot for that's Mount Asama which used to be a volcano that overlooked in the early 90s and it's still there today so it's a very famous city. John Lennon came here with Yoko Ono way back in the day so you'll see pictures of them in town. This is the Karuizawa Snow Park which believe it or not is not in Nagano it's in Gunma. I kind of made a mistake it's in Gunma. This is what it looks like without the snow. A lot of golf courses in the area of course usually is the case with some of these snow parks but it's got some pretty good hills here and from around the end of November till about April there's snow here. So you can see a lot of snow here because we're up at elevation I guess we're like about a thousand meters up or something like that. We're staying at an onsen, we're staying at a hotel that has a private bath in the room and tomorrow I'll show you that. You can see we're not that far away from Kusatsu, it's just 30 kilometers away from Kusatsu Onsen so Karuizawa very convenient and you have Joshin'etsu-kogen National Park I think that was the one with the snow monkeys not too far away so definitely a lot of fun.

15:26 John Daub: In front of the heater I'm jealous my fingers are starting to get a little chilly. All right they're out of there what's next. Let's go see you know what's great we do have a signal here the upload download speed is pretty good out here in the middle of nowhere and you know what's great about this on the weekday everyone's at Tokyo Disneyland and stuff there's like nobody out here so we really spread it out. This place is not famous for the skiing as much and it's so empty and I saw the lines at Niseko and Hokkaido crazy long here there's like nobody well not nobody but it's a lot more relaxed let's just say. They have a katsu curry inside of the clubhouse I guess you'd call it a clubhouse. What's next oh do we have it no oh should we get katsu curry you hungry it's lunchtime. I gotta go down the snow mountain. Say hello hi. Hi you don't want to say hi yeah snow so there's kind of like a powder it was snowing yesterday so we did get some. Let's go to the jidohanbaiki to the vending machine. I guess you can ride double right there they're riding double. All right let's go down this hill. I sort of promised it therefore we're going to do it. Leo might be difficult with it. Oh that guy was coming down real fast. Maybe we're lucky to get a big-time skier coming there. Somebody just took a dive. Let's see if we can see a big-time skier coming down and then we're gonna go down that. I'm gonna slide down the mountain for not this one another one. Let's but let's see if we get a big-time skier and nobody's up there all right let's go up to the top of the mountain you probably get a better view from there beautiful day here in Nagano or Gunma. It's weird Karuizawa does that have a snow park in Nagano or in Gunma it's very close to Gunma border. So what is that I guess they make a big snow. Oh here comes the big time skiers whoa I say big time because they're bigger than me. I wish I could ski Jana skipa let's go up this mountain all right.

19:10 John Daub: We've just summited we're at the summit not too late to start yeah I actually made an NHK video on skiing for NHK World back in 2010. Hold on here stay right here guys I'm gonna stay right here for a second I gotta zip up I made a video with NHK Tokyo Eye and Hakuba before it was really big Aussie ski place it's gotten a lot bigger over the last 15 years but 15 years ago I did a episode there and I tried to ski I wish that that episode was as good as it is but I didn't find it but I crashed and I got beat up like Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only how many times I fell down body blows man it was really harsh. Hakuba was a different world back then they have kind of an over tourism problem now it's just like too many tourists in Hakuba same as Niseko. All right let's go down this one here. I promised you a slide down the mountain I think we reached a goal if not I'll do it anyways. This one looks really dangerous maybe I'll go down with a sled all right ready this is this is it's still kind of scary this is gonna get in my pants isn't it all right three two one oh oh oh something didn't feel right there well it's nice and smooth still got up in my jacket and stuff got up all in my business no way Leo's going for another round mama you going it's okay I'm too late I'm too late they started without me oh my god it's in my pants Leo he's doing he's getting more comfortable he's in a new position it's got to be better with a tube he's in a relaxed position hahaha he's going around and around yeah are you getting hungry Leo looks hungry.

22:30 John Daub: Wait there was wadabiki if we get it online right the day before a thousand yen sen yen wadabiki right sigoin yeah all right so we'll ask and see if they have lessons at this school over there oh those those guys are big time whoa they go right to the back to the ski lift and go back up again. Leo's living large he's living the good life red's rights in here he is and you know what kids under four are free so he was free they only dinged us it wasn't so bad I think it was like 3600 yen for two and two hours but they gave it extra 30 minutes so that's pretty good it's what is it 25 bucks I make yen so it's careful John you're getting older hey now ask her I don't think he wants to get out is it so one more time no I can do it with the camera I get it I okay all right first person view we got it done okay oh this is crazy so now I can watch Leo there's you guys are getting first person first person Leo I'm just sit down sit down so what's that so what's that this is awesome leo sit down so what's that awesome we're going like it's like five miles an hour but feels like 50 to me bye mama bye mama It's fun! There's Kanai! Chan! Weeeeee! Wow!

26:10 John Daub: That's the greatest thing I've done all week! Leo, high five! Leo, touch! You did good! Leo, touch! Good! Good! Jonathan and Peter are here! Hey, Walter! That was fun! It's just a kid's ride, but it's a little bit scary! A little bit scary! He went right back in it! There's no rest! He went right back in it with his friend! Walter, you have no idea! Yeah! Should we do the sled? Should we try to sled once? Go down the hill? That Strider one looks like a good idea! That's a little bit scary, as some of the people were saying. He's having fun over there. I'm going to go see if I can try that over there before we go. Alright, I'm going to watch Leo for a little bit. We'll go up here. I guess you guys like that first person, huh? That was a lot of fun! They could probably double the speed, but then that would really scare me. It doesn't take me much to get me screaming. If you saw the last video I uploaded on the main channel here, if you've seen that one, that's all I did was scream there. Going into ice water and then getting hot wax put on me. Thanks for commenting on that video, by the way. We got a lot of comments in there. Whoa! By the way, adults can do this. Just in case you were wondering. Okay! Totally worth it. Arigato! Or as a foreigner I met once 25 years ago in his first time moving to Japan, he said the words arigato. Sounds like some sort of pasta. I didn't have the heart to correct him. New English teacher. So for months he was saying arigato. It is what it is.

29:22 John Daub: Those look fun. What are those? Sometimes correcting people. Sometimes some advice. Even if someone's making a big mistake and you know they're making a big mistake, it's always better not to correct people. Just let them go. They're having a good day. You don't need to be a know-it-all and show off all the time. Let it be. Let them keep making the mistakes. That's how you make friends. Just let people be. Except that they got like cilantro or some kind of parsley in their teeth. It's hard to let go. Oregano. Sounds like oregano. Arigato. I don't correct people. I typically won't correct people. Except for Peter von Gomm. Oh, there's a nice view from up here. I would let people know if their fly was undone. You know what? I don't think I would. Because then that would be admitting that I was looking down there. Sometimes it's better to let sleeping dogs lie.

31:07 John Daub: Let's see if we can grab one of these sleds and I'll take you down first person. Because I think we hit our target. I already did the butt slide down that yama. Let's see if we can do one of these sleds here. Snow racers are prohibited to sled children under seven who need to ride with an adult. Alright, I am on a sled racer. And as a reward for all of those super chats that came in, let's do a first person down the hill. First person. Are we ready? This could go totally wrong. Oh my god. Oh my god. I'm going to do it again. Leo, I'm going to do it again. That was awesome. That dude is doing something over there. Some kind of zip line. He went back to the wheelbarrow. Yeah, that was awesome. Leo, come on. Leo, dad is driving the sled. You want to do it again? Oh wait. See there's a zip line over there. You can go up here and then you sit on the yellow orange ball and you zip down. There's another one. There's a bunch of them. I don't know if I could do that one handed though. I've done dumber stuff before. Look at this one right off the side of a cliff. I'm going to do it again. As I see here. In Japan, his life is just having too much fun. We're going to do the sled again but I'm going to try. My butt is on this. I don't know if this feels like it's probably not a good idea. Alright. Oh! I went right over that cliff. Alright. I'm not going to do that. That ball looks like I'll slip right off of it. I went right off that cliff though. Not really. I mean, I probably would survive but I'm just going to keep it to myself.

34:55 John Daub: This is really great because we don't have any snow in Tokyo. So this really makes up for the fact that kids got to play in the snow. I don't want Leo growing up and not knowing what snow is like. I remember meeting tourists from Thailand that had never seen snow. They came to Japan and their eyes were so wide. They had no jacket on. It was hilarious and funny and amazing at the same time. So at least once a year he's got to go play in the snow. So that's what this is. Right? Now you're addicted to adrenaline. I totally am. I was doing pretty good until I made that stupid goal of saying I'll do something if we get super chats and people did it. And then now I'm hooked on adrenaline. Alright, let's do it again. But this time I'm going to do it proper like Leo, you're going to do it! Where'd he go? I'm going to do it proper through the tunnel. Alright, ready? We're going to go through this tunnel, which is the way you're supposed to have done it. Adrenaline. Yeah! We can do this! Can we get a countdown here? Drum roll please. 5, 4, 3, last time I almost crashed. No, I did crash. What am I talking about? Maybe I could slalom. Dude, oh there's a person doing the zip line. Alright, here we go. Oh! Picking up speed. It's not really good steering! Ah! I think I tore my ACL. I would know if I did. I don't even know what ACL stands for. It's just something you hear with athletes. Let's just say I might do that again. They have on the other side inner tubes that you can do.

37:27 John Daub: You know what would be even better? Tim Cook if you're watching this. He's not watching this. Why don't you put like a wider lens on the front of the phone? I think that would be a lot better. Or put two cameras, right? Maybe it's time to get a Google Pixel. Or a Google Android phone. Nice ride bro, writes in Ryan H. Thanks Ryan. Oh hey! Leo's on the swing! Okay, I can push them. Alright, let's go push them. Thank you. Leo! Sit down, I'll push you. You want to do it? This one? You can use the green one. That's a little scary. But you know how to do it. He knows how to do a strider. He has one. Okay, I'll do this one, Leo. Come here, Leo. This way. Mama, you do it? We do it together? Alright, Leo. You go first? Alright, it's race, okay? Leo vs. Dada vs. Mama. Hey wait! You have to wait for the gun! The starting gun. He's already started! He's cheating! I'm gonna get you! Alright, you go. I'll film you. Use your butt. There you go. Alright, push yourself. You can sit back a little bit. Oh wow. I can't hear you scream! I think Mama won. She can crash into the sign! She crashed into the sign! Leo, Dada coming now! Geronimo! Do people still say that? Wait, I have to do the wide lens. Okay. Coming to get you, Leo! Oh! I think in terms of how we looked by doing it, you looked a lot cooler. So you win first place with that. But in terms of speed, Mom, I think, well technically you're disqualified because you ran into the sign. How'd you do that? He wants to do it again. I told you you're gonna wanna do it again! Now Leo's hooked on adrenaline.

40:56 John Daub: Oscar! Leo, this way! You're right, you're right, I'm wrong. I thought they were going up the wrong way. Yeah, maybe. It's just possible now we're hooked on adrenaline. A lot of you are watching and it's nighttime. This is what it looks like on the other side of the world. This is so cool. I'm just shocked at the internet how it can bring images from Japan live. From the mountains of Japan live while you guys are on the other side of the world. Isn't that just the coolest thing? This is the best technology. UFO Bob and I, we chatted about this. We've come, everything's come so far and so quickly, right? Used to have to have a van with a satellite hookup and stuff and now I just got a phone in my hand. It's cool. Yeah, this is a zip line. That dude's gonna do it. Whoa! That was a lot of fun. Ah. Leo, do you like the green bicycle? Is it better than your red one? He wants a pink one? Alright. Oh, the red one? Actually, technically that's red. The pink one is next to it. That's cool. If you ask Leo, what's your favorite color? He says, rainbow. He likes all of them. Go dude. This way, Leo. You have to go through here. You have to go through this tunnel or else you're disqualified. Like, Mama didn't even start under the tunnel. And then she crashed into the sign. You gonna do it again, Mama? I did it three times. I think I tore my ACL.

43:34 John Daub: Lift your feet, Leo. Don't say that. He's gonna go down much faster. Alright, Leo. Mama! Don't crash! Oh, she's gonna crash again. Wipe out. Alright, Leo. Do it. But be safe, okay? Remember, defensive driving. I guess he wouldn't remember. I just said that for the first time right now. It's true. Defensive driving, always important. Look at how responsible he is. I can see he's responsible. He worries about his personal well-being. Yeah, don't tear your OIJ. Well done, UFO Bob. Look at it. Oh, the last second. There he goes. I get it. He did it. He lifted his legs and went down. You know what that means. Now he's getting used to it. That means tomorrow there's hope. Maybe he's ready for some ski lessons. I think he's getting it. So I'll build him up tomorrow and then he's gonna be doing that tomorrow. Is that how it works? See that hill right there? Do you think he could do that tomorrow? Do you think I could do that tomorrow? I don't know. I've skied before. We usually go to Niigata. Kanai's father is really good at skiing. Leo, you gotta go up this way. You could try to go up that way. You're gonna learn your lesson. Sometimes you gotta learn, Mama, the hard way. I'll catch him if he can't make it. See? Sometimes. Remember what I said? Sometimes it's better not to say anything. See? Sometimes you just zip it. Flies open. Hey, I wasn't looking there. Just saying.

46:10 John Daub: Wayne, for the bandage fun. If I tore my ACL for real there'd be like an ambulance coming here. I would've heard a pop of a biker just reporting to stories. He's gonna go from here. Leo has a Red Strider, one of these bicycles. These bikes are great. I'm from the era from the 80s where we had tricycles. We had training wheels. Those are actually really bad for the kids. By doing this they learn balance really fast. And then he could ride a bicycle probably by 4. He could probably ride a bicycle now but the reason we don't do it is because he wouldn't be responsible to ride in the streets in a bicycle yet. So. It's probably a good idea to kind of slow it down a little bit. Even though he's probably ready for the bicycle. And he's got his 4th birthday next month and maybe we'll start doing with the pedals a little bit. But mentally I think kids always have to, you know, you gotta let them go. You gotta learn for themselves. If his fly is open I will not tell him it's open. If he's got oregano in their teeth Arigato. His teeth. I'm not gonna tell him to I'm just gonna let it be. I don't wanna be a know-it-all. I don't know anything.

47:35 John Daub: Alright everybody that's all we got for you. That was a lot of fun here. Thanks for watching.