I just just left the post office.

Sorry, I was talking with the staff here.

The manager who I come quite often to to the Tokyo station post office.

You can see Tokyo station is just across the street right there and I was discussing about the mail to europe right now.

A lot of it has been canceled due to the lack of just flights being canceled there and I wanted to give you the latest information I'm doing at a time that is also more convenient to our viewers in the european union and on the other side of the of of Russia.

So I hope that this information can be a little bit helpful to some.

I just every month I send a few 100 postcards to Patreon supporters who watch and support this series and it's been a little bit challenging to do that.

I have a list here of yesterday Um this is, it says here on March eight you see on the top there the United Kingdom, Finland France, Germany, Monaco like Belgium.

These are some really big countries that get a lot of mail were was stopped here.

You see on the, on the left side uh there's a circle, it says that there is mail going there by air and then on the right side you can see there's now an ex and there's no mail going to England and France and Belgium and Germany, so that means that I have to hold on to the postcards until the international mail opens up again.

I checked the departures board at Haneda and Narita airports.

And the flights to paris the flights to Frankfurt flights going to continental uh, europe are have been canceled.

A great deal of them.

Now.

According to Japan, post mail is still going to places like Switzerland.

I think Holland, the Netherlands still has male but there's like an asterix saying that it could change and be canceled tomorrow.

So don't send the mail because we don't know the situation.

We also have, I also have viewers in Ukraine and of course the mail, there has been um canceled or suspended and they're not sure when it's going to restart.

Of course not.

We're not sure when flights are going to be able to go.

A lot of the flights that depart from Narita and Haneda, they go right over Russia and right now because of the war that's going on over there is really impacted male.

Um, in fact, mail everywhere has been impacted rates have gone up and in june I got a bunch of announcements that have to do with the male.

Starting in june um, small packet mail doubles in price.

It used to be, I don't know you could send up to like 100 g and it was just a couple 100 yen.

It starts at $24 or or 2400 and which is more in line to what the United States charges for international airmail.

Um, that starts at one kg.

So it doesn't matter if you're sending a small small packet starting in june you can send up to a kilogram for 22,400 yen.

Which is really challenging for me.

Also, E.

M.

S.

Changing is changing its prices and and and that's getting a lot more expensive.

So the mail services all over the world are really suffering.

This is the postcard for this month.

You can see it's the snow monkeys from Nagano.

I went there to film this episode is gonna be dropping I think next week where I take you and and watch the monkeys relaxing.

I have some really beautiful stamps on here.

This is kimono kimono fashion stamps.

They're kind of cool.

I'm gonna be sending these two viewers in the United States.

Canada Australia.

Um Singapore, Hong kong Philippines.

There's certain places I could still get it.

I think I have a few viewers in africa and a few viewers in south America.

There are also getting a postcard sent to them.

But unfortunately male is not going to be going to europe.

I'm just going to hold on to it.

But don't worry because I've been holding on.

I've only got two postcards to India to Saudi Arabia to Romania.

There's like about seven countries that have been holding on postcards for over.

I think India for over two years and there's several backers that just keep on as a member of the postcard club and I can't say thank you enough for that.

I just feel really apologetic that I can't send these out if I did.

There's a very high likelihood despite it not being on that list.

I showed you that it will be canceled and suspended.

And if I'm sending a postcard there's no return address so I'm not gonna get that back.

Do you have any questions As I pan up, this is the Tokyo Central Post Office.

I'm like a regular customer here.

I come here several times a month.

They know me.

I I go in there, they just smile and says, oh you're back.

Some of them watch only in Japan too.

So it's that it's not too bad.

Yoko son writes in here.

It's a two year old per leader here in in uh, in Germany.

So the gas prices are going up right now.

Every everything is going up and it's just a really challenging time And Uh, Tokyo Paul 3 60.

Thank you.

And I know that um, you know, because we do have viewers in Ukraine, I hope you're waking up to um, to safety and you know, we're all really here in Japan.

It's, it's on the news and we're all talking about it and we just got some refugees coming in to Japan a grand total of like eight, not a lot, but there are some Ukrainians who have family in.

Japan, Japan has opened the doors to them and hopefully there's a lot more where they come here because it's pretty cool.

Um, to have some faces here that are different.

We just don't have any international tourism whatsoever.

Then he's saving steven.

I, I know that your package is in transit to now.

The packages we sent are already there.

So I was able to send some of the fireworks.

I'm panning around Tokyo station right now.

I was able to send some of the fireworks Kickstarter rewards before that this happened and a lot of them have, have already arrived into europe and the countries.

So those packages are not impacted, but the ones that are starting from yesterday, not going to be able to go to europe at this time and the suspension, it's not, it's not determined for how long, but it is a temporary suspension.

Male male E.

M.

S.

Packages to Canada are also suspended currently.

So R E M S to Australia and Australia also has small packets suspended.

But I'm guessing that that's going to change since Australia has opened its door to tourism recently.

You're seeing a live picture of Tokyo station right now.

So I just wanted to give you an update if you have any questions on this mail, I'll be checking it over the next 24 hours, just leave a comment down below and I'm happy to answer you Jonathan.

Hey Jonathan in Singapore writes in here.

I got the fireworks starter package in Singapore.

I hope everyone got their packages.

Um, we, we had to make just a little asterix on there, we ended up losing about $2,000 from that project because I don't even know why I'm smiling.

I'm just happy that I was able to get the packages out before they shut it down in Europe.

Um because we had to send them by DHL because Japan post wasn't sending them and we couldn't have the packages sitting because the Japan fireworks association needed to get those packages out and they were in charge of sending it.

But um, we went way over budget on the sending of it.

So if you didn't receive your package, please let me know, I don't know what we can do to help you out with that.

Um because we don't, as I said, we're like under budget, but any package that has returned to us, we're going to make an effort to try to get that package to you, probably get in contact and see how we can resend it.

Um I think we had a deal with DHL because we had kind of a volume of packages to send out, but DHL is really expensive um to use those services, we just don't have a lot of options.

Um, but the post is going up everywhere, so it's not just um, you know, the suspensions, the uncertainty, it's, it's hit really hard and it's something that's weighing on my mind very heavily because I know um this channel is greatly funded by viewers who are so, um, like these postcards that I'm sending out, they're nice postcards.

So don't worry, can I?

And I have a space in the house to keep them until mail starts up again and you're going to get all of these postcards in one blast or I'll separate them because I know MJ in United arab you a got like 10 postcards before you a closed its door again.

So MJ I'm still holding on to your postcards buddy because I know the mail going to U A e to Dubai is not happening right now.

It's suspended once again.

Um, there's also inflation, rising prices Daniel, it is such a really, it's such a challenging time.

Um, the prices are starting to rise here in Japan to gasoline prices are going up right now.

Um, the prices of everything in Japan, you can see them noticeably wasn't like this the same as in Japan in the United States, but we're starting to see everyday prices going up and everything is, this world is so connected that we feel the impact here in Japan that you're feeling in other places, the prices of gas, the prices of food, the prices of heating, I couldn't believe how much we paid this month for, for gas and electric.

Um, it's just everything has gone up.

I didn't know that electric was dependent on international sources.

I, I don't know why, but the electric bill really went up.

Maybe just, we maybe with leo, we're using more electricity because we have a young baby.

Um, and thank you to kill paul for helping to pay for our electric bill buddy.

I would have stuff off on the way back home.

I'm getting gonna go back back home because I have to give leo a bath, I'm in charge of that.

Um, and I'll pick something up for, can I get some apple pie at the, at the uh, new york restaurant that they have on the other side of Tokyo station.

That's always nice.

Leo is a big power consumption consumer.

D real selects.

He's a big power consumer.

I gotta glen, I gotta change that emoji to, that's when he was so young.

We've got to get someone get some changes here.

Yeah, let's not discuss some of the, I don't want to discuss the war too much.

Um, that's happening over, over on the other side.

This is a channel on Japan.

I know we have really strong feelings and I see those images to Japan is playing its part.

Um, doing what it can mostly following the US lead on this.

But I'll give you an update at the proper time when things start to move a little bit more in Japan.

I think this next week coming up, we're going to hear some more news um, out of Japan, not just on travel, but on a lot of things and at that time will give you an update on the situation here in japan, not just for travel but for a lot of things and try to answer some of your questions tomorrow.

Uh we're doing a day trip to somewhere so can I leo and I are doing a day trip, so we'll try to take you with us and show you another area of Japan uh tomorrow.

So uh there'll be a couple of live streams which should be a lot of fun.

Uh how are you and the family doing?

Uh juju B's 21.

We're doing fine.

We're just, we're hanging in there, ticket prices are going up right now.

A lot of the flights are going empty, the capacity is down because a lot of them just have mail.

A lot of them are flying with male so they don't want a lot of passengers, they're, they're filled up with male underneath there.

So they're doing okay.

But they're the flights again from Narita and Haneda airport.

The and a flight to paris has been canceled and the one to Frankfurt was canceled.

So I saw that cancelations down the board cut the on flights that are going across europe right now because of the uncertainty of the war going on Ukraine.

A lot of those flights go over Russia and we just don't know right now so it's safer to cancel those flights.

So um a lot of people are scrambling right now Japanese who had business and and reasons to go over to europe just can't make it there and neither can the mail.

So that's just an update to our european viewers and a few that are still awake in, in the United States, probably on the west coast.

I've always enjoyed the in country overnight ferries.

You know, there's a lot of the transportation um, episodes that I can see myself starting to do.

Um, now that the country is opening up a little bit more.

Um, I can, I think Japan is seeing the, although the rates are quite high still here of infection with the third booster shots going up pretty quickly right now I can see Japan starting to, to open up to domestic tourism and they've opened up more to, to students and business people coming in.

They've raised it from 3500 to 5000 to 7000 really quickly.

So I can see the talk more on international tourism starting maybe after um, this spring.

So I'll do, I'll do a more general update.

We just right now it's kind of a gut feeling based on what you hear on tv, but the analysts are talking about on the tv news and then what Prime Minister Kishida is talking about and his basically his demeanor when he talks about this, you can get kind of an idea if he's optimistic or pessimistic about the future and where travel in the direction that it's going, it's going, I'm watching this from Sweden so I appreciate that you thought about us.

Absolutely.

I'm holding on, we have about 15 Swedish supporters that get postcards.

So I'm going to be holding on to two.

We we and and it's all over Sweden too.

We have supporters in Uppsala, Stockholm in certain areas down in Malmo and even Gutenberg.

So we have backers all across Sweden which is great and I'm gonna hold on to your postcards, I apologize but they'll be they'll be in good shape hanging out um, in john's house in Tokyo.

I am foe is he a good prime minister?

I think he's a competent prime Minister.

I don't know, I never met him but um he's, he's very, he loves Japan very much and he's doing what he thinks is best and you can't fault him.

Um whether I agree with him or not.

So he's doing his, his good job.

I think there will be some some good younger prime minister's coming after Kishida, it's too early to tell for the next coffee.