00:00:00 John Daub: This is a live view of Tokyo the day after a yellow sand or Asian dust storm. That's what they call it. It happens every March. The winds blow up the sands from the Gobi Desert and jet streams across the Yellow Sea and Korea to Japan.

00:00:20 John Daub: Yesterday we really couldn't see much of the sky. It looked like this. You can see the sand had gone through. Usually it hits Fukuoka quite hard. Osaka, Kyoto, Okayama get hit pretty bad. Tokyo just north of there. I think Kansai gets hit a little bit worse than up here in Tokyo.

00:00:45 John Daub: But yesterday was a rough day. My throat hurt so bad yesterday. There were warnings telling you not to go outside. That's how bad it gets. And the news had some helicopters going up. This is what it looked like according to the news here. Let me pull this up so you can just get an idea.

00:01:10 John Daub: This was less than 24 hours ago I believe. You can see it's just panning across the city. I don't know if it looks so yellow. It just looks really dusty. But it certainly wasn't breathable air yesterday. The news tells us to take in our laundry. Don't leave the laundry outside. This sand, Asian dust gets all over the place. You can't get it off.

00:01:35 John Daub: And it gets into your lungs and stuff. It really hurts. So yesterday was a tale of two cities. It seems like it's okay today. But there is some dustiness. I can still feel some dust in the air or pollen. And it's really sapping the energy out of me as well.

00:02:00 John Daub: It's been all in the news over the last couple of days. But in particular from the last 24 hours. Deputy weather officials say airborne yellow sand from China's desert region is being observed across Japan. Meteorological agency officials have constantly been observing the skies visually.

00:02:25 John Daub: That's not hard to do. They confirmed yellow sand over Osaka at 6 a.m. on Tuesday. That was the day before yesterday. Visibility there was initially more than 10 kilometers. But it dropped to 8 kilometers by 9 a.m.

00:02:45 John Daub: This wreaks havoc on the airlines coming in as well. Could be a reason why flights could be delayed. Weather observatories in much of the Kinki region of western Japan and northern Kyushu also confirmed sand particles.

00:03:05 John Daub: I was talking about 2005. And I think this is an image from the satellite here. And you can see there's Korea on the right side and China on the left side over the sea. You can see what is called yellow sand or Asian dust on the move in 2005. I believe that's the satellite image.

00:03:30 John Daub: So that sand gets all over the place. Gets all over cars and windows and laundry. And then it's gone. And your lungs. And then it's gone. And right now it seems like it's passed. But it's certainly going to be coming again.

00:03:50 John Daub: This is something you should consider when you come to Japan as well. Because these things are awful. The live view of Mount Fuji. This is about an hour ago. And it looks like it's just fine over there. You can still get views.

00:04:15 John Daub: But here's the other thing. After February, the views of Mount Fuji get a lot worse. You start to see the haze in the air. That's pollen. A lot of that is pollen between you and Mount Fuji. And there's also a lot of humidity from the heat as well. And the snow melting from Mount Fuji.

00:04:40 John Daub: So the reflections off of that could hide it. So I think we're getting into the season where it's going to get a lot harder to see Mount Fuji for those that are coming to Japan.

00:05:00 John Daub: But a live view of Asian dust, China and Mongolia. That's right, Skip. But for the most part, Tokyo skies today are okay. But my throat is killing me. I don't know if it's a cold or what.

00:05:25 John Daub: You know what's really interesting? I don't know if I have this here. But Japanese news did a report. And they were talking about how the impact of... Let me see if I can pull this up here. Is this it here? Maybe this is it. Let me see.

00:05:50 John Daub: So they did a report on... Let's see. Did I bring this asset in here? Okay, let me see if I can add this here. So they did a report showing how the dust particles make an impact. It's interesting.

00:06:15 John Daub: So the dust in the air hits the pollen and cuts the pollen into smaller pieces. So then the pollen... It's easier for the pollen to get into masks and stuff. Yeah, there it is. The yellow dust going through Japan. I thought they had more information on it. There's a graph.

00:06:45 John Daub: There's a graph showing how the dust cuts up the pollen. The dust is fighting the pollen in the air. They made these really funny graphs. They made the pollen, which is bigger than the dust. Yeah, the pollen, which is bigger than the dust. And then the dust hits the pollen in the air.

00:07:15 John Daub: There's like a battle. And then the pollen breaks up into pieces because the dust is stronger. And then that really impacts people's lungs and their allergies. So that's what they said. How you doing, everybody?

00:07:35 John Daub: So let me just show you over here on this side. The cherry blossoms in most of Tokyo still in popcorn mode. The weather is expected to get quite not nice this weekend. Not quite sure what. But it's going to get to about 70 degrees or something like that Fahrenheit. 23, 24 tomorrow. It's pretty warm right now. I got shorts on.

00:08:05 John Daub: One tree's got some popcorn on there. But it's not much. And the cherry blossoms certainly have a long way to go before they're full bloom. I'd say about four or five days. That's actually a long time.

00:08:25 John Daub: And then next weekend, not this weekend, perhaps we have a good cherry blossom festival in Tokyo. And then they blow away and they're gone until next year. At least in Tokyo. You're going to have to travel around to see them.

00:08:50 John Daub: Christian, I am a weatherman. I live amongst the weather. So I'm a weatherman. But the point is, though, that if you're traveling to Tokyo and you're into Japan and you do have hay fever or allergies, consider the Asian dust as well.

00:09:20 John Daub: Because it is really, really, really bad on your throat. It's bad on your lungs. It's bad on everything. Check this out here. Since I got you all on the live stream, I've noticed this increase in these. Look at the lonely boat out there. Topless. Looks like a platoon boat.

00:09:50 John Daub: These are they're doing cherry blossom tours. I think they're a little bit early. I don't see too many blossoms, but the older ladies and gentlemen that have some free time are out there taking these tours from around Japan and Tokyo. That's kind of neat. It's good for the economy. I guess most people taking these are Japanese.

00:10:25 John Daub: The buses have been going underneath the river quite a bit. So I got a chance to see a couple of people and wave to them. It's kind of nice. But this one is going to Monzen-Nakacho. The cherry blossoms over there are about three, four days away from blooming as well, like into full bloom.

00:10:55 John Daub: But as you can see, the sky is not too bad. It looks a little yellowy around the Skytree, but the upper stratosphere looks clearish. This side does not actually look quite hazy with the space boat on the way.

00:11:20 John Daub: Should we wait as someone who lives in the in the in a desert? This air quality is just a Wednesday for me. I know. I think the dust from the desert combined with the pollen from western Tokyo, it just creates this perfect storm of destroying your immune system and your body. It's just really horrible.

00:11:55 John Daub: We're now just watching here for no apparent reason other than for our appreciation of space boat, which looks like a space boat, not actually a space boat. I give it that name. Think of this as a Himiko. I'm not sure. Should be here any second.

00:12:25 John Daub: Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. There it is. Wow. Spaceboat. It's got that remember used to have in the 1980s in the back of the Cadillac limousines. They had those telephone receivers. Looks like they got one on space boat as well. Go spaceboat. Dive down deep.

00:13:00 John Daub: You know what? You should pick up the speed and make some waves that you could take out those kayakers right there. Ha ha ha. It's not that funny. You know what I talk about. It'd be funny though just if you see the waves on there. Some of them look like they're taking classes or something.

00:13:35 John Daub: It's funny to see them on the river. I've seen those jet skis. You have too in these live streams. They are going super fast on the Sumida River. They come around the turn right there to the left. They come around super fast. And, I mean, you could run right into a boat. Haven't seen it yet, but somewhat scary.

00:14:15 John Daub: All right, everybody. That's all I got for you. Just keep in mind the Asian dust is here. The season has started. Yesterday was a particularly bad day, but I would assume that over the course of the next couple of months, it's going to pick up again, and we might have some more flare-ups.

00:14:50 John Daub: I guess that's how you could say it. If the wind is over there, it's going to impact over here. That's just sort of the way it goes. All right. They were unimpacted by the waves. Look at that. The pirate ship's here. It's like the pirate yakatabune (house boat). Wow.

00:15:25 John Daub: I could just watch. I could just watch these boats all day. It's called the Izanagi. A lot of these have all-you-can-drink and all-you-can-eat plans. You can book them online or on the Internet, but yakatabune is what they're called. Going up and down the river.

00:16:00 John Daub: Yeah, this is a pirate ship. There's more? There's another ship coming. Look. It's a busy day. It's another eating cruise on the Sumida River. Lunch cruise, I guess. Right. David Chow. Right. It's in a space boat. It looks like a Jules Verne, the Nautilus. It really does.

00:16:40 John Daub: I think that's why I keep on calling it a space boat, because it's like a science fiction thing. If you look to the right here, there's a couple of other boats. That one is a tourist boat. So the yakatabune, some of them have open windows. Some of them don't. They're air-conditioned. It just depends.

00:17:20 John Daub: I'm sure the open boat is a lot better, but in the summer when it's August, I'm guessing you probably want to have that air conditioning. Look at that. That looks like a pretty small boat, like Dexter's size. You know, the slice of life. It's a little bit bigger than Dexter's boat. It's a nice boat. It's pretty. What do you guys think? There you go.

00:18:00 John Daub: All right. All right, everybody. I'm going to get home, have some lunch. Thanks for watching. If you have any questions about Asian dust or yellow sand or allergies, leave them in the comments below. I think it's something that could impact your trip, but it's good to know.

00:18:35 John Daub: It's good to know, and that's today's live stream. Bye. Matane. We'll do some cherry blossom streams from Tokyo maybe next week. Peace out. I better just stick with matane.