00:00:01 John Daub: Greetings and welcome to another live stream in the beautiful city of Tokyo. I'm inside today, looks like it's going to rain. I got a doctor's appointment so I thought I would take some of your questions before then, make a really quick live stream connect with all you guys on this Thursday. It's crazy, the weekend's already coming up so fast. How you doing? Let's get right to it. You can also ask, this is a live stream, you can ask me in the chat as well if you have a question about traveling to Japan. Anything, I get a ton of questions. In fact, if you leave a comment, I can ask you a question.

00:00:31 John Daub: If you leave a comment in any of the live streams, if it's a question mark question, it actually comes up on the top. I can search just for those and I get this quite a lot. So the first question is the one that I get probably the most right here. It's always about the weather because people want to plan for their trips to Japan. How's the Tokyo weather like at the end of October or the first week in November?

00:01:05 John Daub: It's cooler than summer. I think you do need to have a jacket. It's pretty much like the same as in the United States. If you're looking at the weather in New York or the East Coast, it's very similar. We have four seasons in Japan. October, it feels like Halloween. You need to have a jacket, long pants. It's nice to have layers, have a sweatshirt or a sweater or a light jacket. You're probably going to be fine with that. The first week of November is pretty much the same. I would wear layers.

00:01:33 John Daub: I'm a fan of Uniqlo because of the underwear and the socks mostly, but also the HeatTech. You have one of those, you throw them in there, you can put that on with your shirt and your layers and it keeps you a little bit warmer. Unless you're doing a lot of stuff at night or early in the morning, the daytime weather is usually around 12 to 18 degrees Celsius. So that's about 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. You're going to get some cloudy days. It's the end of the typhoon season, so you're probably not going to get anything like that, but you're going to get some rain. You're going to get some wind, some breeze. So it's nice to have a windbreaker or a rain jacket. Just a suggestion. But in the most part, the weather is pretty nice.

00:02:33 John Daub: The autumn colors will only have changed in Tokyo at elevation. In order to see the colored leaves, you'll have to go to Takao-san (Mount Takao), probably more in the middle of November, and you'll see some of the most beautiful scenery up there. But Tokyo is pretty mild compared to, I don't know, it's not winter yet. So a pair of jeans, button down shirt, jacket. There you go. And maybe a layer along with that. We'll take some more questions from the live chat here.

00:03:03 John Daub: I did one about tickets in Japan, about reserved tickets. Some trains are all reserved. Some trains have non-reserved tickets. You can just hop on cars one through five or one through three. But the Tohoku Shinkansen, the express trains are all reserved cars.

00:03:33 John Daub: This question from Mr. Morijo is really good. How do ticket inspectors on Japanese trains know when someone's sitting in a reserved seat? They walk through the carriages so fast it's hard to comprehend. They have a device that allows them to see which seats are booked and which seats aren't. And they also don't check tickets all the time. They don't have to. Because if someone is sitting in that seat, most likely they have a seat reservation. They can kind of see when something is out of place. They also know where you're getting on the train to sit in that seat. So they know when a seat is empty that someone from Sendai is going to be getting on it, or someone from Ichinoseki is going to be getting onto the train.

00:04:33 John Daub: So if there's somebody sitting in a spot where someone coming on at Ichinoseki is supposed to be sitting there, they know that someone doesn't have a non-reserved seat or they're in the wrong seat. They'll confront you to try to avoid a confrontation later on at Ichinoseki when this passenger does try to get on and get to a seat. So these seating conflicts don't happen too often because the conductors know that stuff in advance. They have a device that allows them to look. And they're very experienced. They know when something's out of place.

00:05:03 John Daub: A lot of JR Rail Pass users will also get on the Nozomi trains, which are also reserved only and you can't use the JR Rail Pass on there. So they might lightly ask some tourists sometimes, but they make the announcement in English. "This train is a Nozomi train. Nozomi Express, JR Pass holders should not be on this train" or something like this. So it's very interesting. The bullet trains in Taiwan have overhead LEDs. There are some trains in Japan that have that as well. But I've found for the most part though, it depends on what area of the country and different trains have different systems. They're made by different manufacturers. Some are made by Hitachi. Some are made by Sanyo. Some are made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. So the different trains have different systems and each train company and each division of JR is going to have contracts to purchase those trains. The systems are somewhat different. They do have those LED lights too, but usually it's the conductor knows this stuff well in advance.

00:06:03 John Daub: This one came from yesterday's live stream on the new prime minister. There are some videos from like about 10 years ago where the prime minister, Takahiro Saito [?], is doing like she's singing songs on live TV, Japanese TV. They're pretty incredible. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, that is her. And I think it was 2016. So there are some clips of the prime minister where she's just being a cool person. I like that stuff. It comes back to show you that this person is just a normal person.

00:06:33 John Daub: But there was a comment that she made recently about she was saying work, work, work. And she was talking about herself, not about the workers in Tokyo. A lot of people are overworked. A lot of people at places like these massive advertising agencies or corporate jobs. They're working 70, 80 hour weeks. A lot of them are obligated to go out drinking with their bosses too because that's just the system in Japan. The boss doesn't get, if the boss wants to stay away from his wife and go out drinking, he's going to have drinking partners from the company. That's just the way it goes.

00:07:03 John Daub: I worked at places where that was also the case. And I was young and single, so that was easier. But nowadays, I probably wouldn't want to go out drinking with my boss. I want to just go home and get, my wife's probably cooking dinner or something. Maybe it was my turn to cook. But that comment was about her, that she's going to be a hardworking prime minister and she's going to do everything she can to work for the people of Japan. And somebody needs to right now because there's a lot of work that needs to get done. So for me, I didn't take it as like that she was not telling other people that they should be working, working, working as well.

00:07:50 John Daub: As I said in yesterday's live stream, a lot of the national holidays that were on Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays were moved to Mondays to make for three day holidays. So it seems that Japanese workers have like two, three day, have two, four day work weeks every month. Now, every industry is going to be different. You might have to work on the holidays. It just depends on your job. If you're full time, part time corporate. But there's a lot more three day holidays these days than there were 10, 15 years ago because of the way that the government has structured this to try to give more people time off.

00:08:31 John Daub: I really do appreciate the questions on this. I've been here for a long time. So I like over a generation now, it seems so I kind of have a feeling of what things were like in 1998 and then what in before the digital era really. And now in the digital era, that shift with Japan and how it's affected from that generation to this generation. It's fascinating. The stuff that I've seen in Japan over the years, I get some amazing stories. And I think that's what's going to eventually come out when we do these live streams.

00:09:07 John Daub: Speaking of digital stuff in Japan. One of my favorite politicians in Japan is Kono Taro. Kono being his last name first, that's the Japanese system here. He's on Twitter. What are some examples of Kono Taro? He is the digital minister. At least he seems like he has been a digital minister for like 10 years. He went to Georgetown University. He speaks English quite well. He's on like the foreign media quite a bit talking about things with the government. He's been under a lot of the prime ministers, which is a good thing and a bad thing because you also take the good with the bad when a prime minister has a corruption scandal. Sometimes the candidates in the cabinet will get dragged down. But he's always been in like the top five prime minister candidates in the last elections, but not so much in this last one, which is odd to me. I've always found him to be a fascinating person.

00:11:03 John Daub: And so I will show you some of things where Kono Taro in English is just being himself. This is one from six days ago. "Of course, we still use Apple II plus in Japan with or without floppy disks." I think he's playing a game right there. But this is a joke on how Japanese systems often are stuck in the 1990s or 1980s. I thought it was pretty funny, but he's the digital minister. He's the one who's trying to get Japan into the 21st century here. And he still like little things like this. It pops up in his Twitter thing there.

00:11:36 John Daub: Here's one from a while ago. Actually, this is from last month. I guess he was traveling abroad and he found a super dry store and he's Japanese. So he knows about Asahi Super Dry. So it's a very strange shop, at least for the Japanese. So like, I mean, I get the humor. This one comes from last month as well. A cardboard drone at a defense industry exhibition. Like, it's just kind of funny because he's because of who he is. It's the digital minister. And he's here highlighting the cardboard drones. These are, of course, going to be very effective.

00:12:19 John Daub: He seems to like to do this a lot. And I didn't think about this until I saw his Twitter. So every time I get on the Shinkansen as well, I like to get an ice cream. Almost every time. You always get the ice cream on the Shinkansen. It's great. But they come rock hard. So freaking hard. All ice cream comes out, especially if you eat it not in the summer. And he's found a way to do that. He gets a coffee along with his ice cream, which is so genius. And he puts the ice cream on top of the coffee to melt it a bit. So this politician has found the solution to getting rid of the rock hard ice creams on the Shinkansen.

00:13:01 John Daub: He's actually he does them in all these different directions, too. This is from earlier in the year. I think he's upgraded. He understands now that heat rises. So probably a good idea to put the ice cream on the top because the heat rises. And four months later, he's learned his lessons and how to make it more efficient. It's a very good trait for a digital minister, I would say.

00:13:22 John Daub: Here's another one. This is the governor of Aomori Prefecture. He's very famous for having his jackets with manga. I believe that might be him. Is that him? That's an anime character of him? Like the lining of his jacket which you never see is really fun. That is such a great idea. I think I'm going to get on to this as well. But you have to find somebody to design these for you and I don't think it's exactly the cheapest thing. So if you ever have the chance to meet the governor of Aomori, ask him to open up his jacket because you're guaranteed to have a pretty good story if you do.

00:14:06 John Daub: So those are just some of the funny things that you will experience if you follow Taro Kono on X. Like a different insight into Japan culture from the eyes of a politician who has a pretty good sense of humor, I think.

00:14:25 John Daub: Let's see here, got some more questions. How can you get a rail pass if you live in Japan? Japanese residents can't, Japanese citizens can't get any rail passes except for the Seishun 18 Kippu and sometimes there's some regional ones. Because I'm an American citizen, there are some passes and this happened during the pandemic too because they wanted to get more tourism to Tohoku, but they wanted to also utilize residents that lived here in Japan because there's like over a million foreign residents in Japan. Why not give them the chance to be tourists as well and get them out into the countryside?

00:15:06 John Daub: And JR East has a JR East Tohoku Pass, which I can get. I love it. They also have a Tokyo Wide Pass that residents can get. You don't have to be a tourist and you can jump on these passes for 30,000 yen, get five days of unlimited travel on the Shinkansen through Tohoku. So it's a really useful pass. Not all the JR passes are possible for residents of Japan, foreign residents of Japan, but this one is. The Tokyo Wide Pass also allows you to use the Shinkansen up to about Echigo-Yuzawa. It's about an hour and a half, hour and 20 minutes you can use the Shinkansen. So there are some passes that allow you to do this. It's up to you to go and search the JR website. You can find the ones that might work for you, but at least it gives you some options before buying a full ticket. If you're going to be traveling for quite a bit in a certain area, there might be a pass for you. These are always changing quite a bit. But the Tohoku Pass and the Tokyo Wide Pass, they're two passes I've used quite a bit. I think the Tokyo Wide Pass is 20,000 yen for three days or something. So you could do weekend trips out to Niigata or Yamanashi, for example, using express trains, which is really cool.

00:16:23 John Daub: Oh, this one came from... This is not a flattering comment. This is a translation of it because it was in Japanese. For you guys that have been watching the channel, you know a little bit more about me than some of the Japanese livestreamers that come in here. So the issue with nuisance streamers in Japan or just foreign streamers that are bad has come up quite a bit. And this Japanese streamer, this was written in Japanese, thinks that I'm a nuisance streamer. I was livestreaming on the Resort Shirakami. It was my second time to livestream on the Resort Shirakami. But JR East knew I was doing it because I was there filming an episode for them. And I was doing it on the Resort Shirakami. So yes, I had a permit to film on the Resort Shirakami.

00:17:11 John Daub: But this Japanese viewer who doesn't watch the show didn't know that. So is livestreaming being done with permission from JR? Obviously, they answer the question themselves. JR doesn't allow livestreaming on YouTube. Oh, really? What's the difference between nuisance YouTube and unauthorized streaming? Nuisance YouTubers disturb the people around them. That's why it's called a nuisance stream. A nuisance YouTuber, a nuisance streamer is someone who disturbs the people all around them.

00:17:37 John Daub: Even when I was on this train livestreaming, I put the camera down when I saw people. I didn't stream people directly. I let the people know in the carriage on the left side and the right side that I was there to film. I'm very polite with the way I do this. I've been doing this for a very long time. JR does allow it. I did a series of livestreams during the pandemic because we couldn't get permission to do a lot of... I had a contract with JR to do episodes in the Tohoku region. And we had a lot of trouble because the pandemic hit. And in order to fulfill the contract, we just didn't have enough time to do edited content. So JR asked me to do livestreams. And I was able to do that.

00:18:31 John Daub: So I'm not sure what you're referring to, but I did have permission to promote a train that was 75% empty. Because they want to get people to go on that train. I didn't livestream the performance because I think that that's something that JR should check out before. There's a shamisen performance on this train. So I'm very careful about when I'm livestreaming in public places to try to minimize people that get into the livestream. But even TV media, you know, you're going to get people in the background. It's sort of a gray area. If somebody feels uncomfortable, then that's when you might do something about it. But as long as you're not zooming in on people and focusing on them, then it's not really an issue to be livestreaming out in public.

00:19:25 John Daub: And if somebody does complain, I think it's on the person who's doing the livestreaming that needs to take it down or to blur out faces if somebody complains. It's something that you should take seriously. You don't have a right to film out on the streets. But it is a free place for you to film. Alright? So it's a lot of gray area. And if anybody ever experiences somebody who feels uncomfortable because I was livestreaming, I almost always turn it off. Sometimes I'll talk with them and we can work it out. Or I'll turn it off. Or I'll film it down. Or just leave it and delete it later. I've done that so many times in the past.

00:20:09 John Daub: I think Japanese that are watching this should realize that not everything is a nuisance streamer. And not everything is done without a permit. And not everything is done in a way that makes you want to vent out and be angry because a foreigner is livestreaming. Just because a foreigner is livestreaming in Japan doesn't make you feel uncomfortable. It's not something that you want to make them a nuisance. So I thought maybe that would be good to address a little bit in this livestream.

00:20:33 John Daub: I'm going to turn it over. I don't have a lot of time. I have about five more minutes. But I wanted to take some live questions here before I get out. So are there any questions or comments? Yeah, don't be Johnny Somali. Trust me. I'm the anti-Johnny Somali here.

00:21:07 John Daub: If you have a permit... If they know that you're filming on the train. So they knew I was filming on the train. I had a guy following me when I was in Akita from JR too. So it was a coordinator. So I said, do they know I'm filming on the train? And they said yes. I said, do you want to come on the train? And they said no. I said, you have a pleasant ride. Actually, I had four tickets. One for the organizer from JR.

00:21:27 John Daub: So how many days do you recommend staying in Osaka? It depends what you're doing. I'd say two nights is more than enough. I think it depends what you want to do. If you want to see the countryside, then maybe one or two nights is good. Same with Kyoto. I think there's a lot of other places that are better. Osaka is a very unique city, but it's still a city. You can go to Kyoto. You can go to Kanazawa. Kanazawa has become very crowded as well.

00:22:12 John Daub: Last question. What do you think about the risk of natural disasters when it comes to living in Japan for life? It's something that you're going to have to live with. You're going to have to prepare for. I've got a bag at the door that allows me to just take it and get out. And a big earthquake could happen at any time. You need to be prepared for it. And it's going to happen if you do live here. Just a fact of life. It's not going to be great, but you're going to get used to them. And you're going to get used to how to be safe when they come. Or as safe as you possibly can because you can't run away from an earthquake.

00:22:44 John Daub: Is crime on the rise in Japan? I don't think so. I think it's being reported better. Hope you and the family are well. When I have traveled to Japan each winter for the last seven years but decided not to go this year for many reasons, I have an ice cold Asahi for me. I'm sorry that you can't make it though. Yeah, it's nice to come in the winter. I think it's not as crowded at this time. The beginning of December is a really great time because you seem to have more space to do stuff. Not a lot of tourists are here. But I'm sorry to hear that you're not making it this winter. But I will be here and I'll be live streaming and taking you along.

00:23:22 John Daub: Thank you so much. And we're doing real well here. Illumina ads, no questions but at least one of my goals before the timer is up. Thank you. I don't know if we're going to reach the goal this time, Illumina ads, but we're getting pretty close. Anyways, guys. Thanks so much for watching. I'll be back with another live stream. I want to take you on a street view walk again. A lot of people love those. And if you have any questions, leave them down below and I'm going to do another Q&A soon addressing the things that come up when I'm live streaming. And one of them will be about traveling to Japan because we got so many people coming for the fall. Make sure your trip is nice and safe. You can also direct message me on Patreon and join the postcard club which I really do appreciate as well as the daimyo where I send packages. I'll be back with regional stuff inside. I appreciate it. See you soon. Nice, short and sweet. Bye.