00:02 John Daub: Hello again. So I'm in Okutama, the countryside of Tokyo about an hour from Shinjuku. This area of Japan, this area of Tokyo is really famous for having beautiful scenery like the river behind me. So in this episode, the reason why I'm here is to use and introduce this bicycle.

00:21 John Daub: It's called a denki assist (electric assist) bike or electric bicycle. It has a battery and this battery lasts several hours. It's halfway done now. One of the reasons why you need a bike like this is because in this area of Tokyo, there's lots and lots of mountains. You can see there's also a control panel on the bike. This is quite common around Japan.

00:52 John Daub: If you've rented these denki assist bikes or battery boosted bicycles, which is what I'm calling them, you turn the power on by holding this down. There's a power mode, an automatic mode, and an eco mode. Let's go for auto. And I guess it's made by Panasonic. This one in particular. It's got what looks like a little motor down there, which is pretty cool.

01:29 John Daub: So I thought I would give you a little tour by bicycle of the area and then kind of explain about this bike. Right now the battery is on this denki assist bicycle. And each time I pedal, there's a little bit of a boost. So when I'm going up a hill, it's like cutting butter with a hot knife. It's so easy to climb a hill. I'm going to turn the camera around now and you can see I'm going up a hill.

02:08 John Daub: I'm going up a hill and it's so easy to ride the bicycle when you're going up a hill. Because every time I pedal, there's a little bit of a boost given to me by the battery. Believe it or not, I'm in Tokyo all by myself riding. Not that many people. And down there is the river. Really beautiful area of Tokyo.

02:33 John Daub: This one's cooking something really good. You can see this mountain here. There's some really weird shaped mountains. And I'm going back the way I came. Because I'm still kind of working. I'm making an episode for Tokyo Eye, which is an NHK program. And I'm using this bicycle a lot. And I had about 10 minutes to show you a little bit of this, not only the area, but this denki assist bike.

04:08 John Daub: This battery boosted bicycle. And if you're in an area with hills, you need to have one of these boosted bicycles. Because it's just so easy. Right now, again, I'm going up a hill and it's like I'm not riding anything at all. Like I don't have a hill in front of me. It's like I'm going downhill the whole way. This is awesome. It just makes riding fun.

04:47 John Daub: If you've been riding a bicycle for all of your life and you have to put a lot of effort into riding a bicycle, this boosted bike is like half machine, half you. It's like a cyborg. And that makes it kind of a fun experience and more fun if you have hills. Because if you don't, you need a driver's license to rent a motorcycle in Japan. If you don't want to rent a motorcycle, this is a pretty close second because it takes a lot of the pain out of riding around. Yeah, thank you assist bicycle.

05:18 John Daub: Ah, this is a beautiful place. I'm so happy to be out of the city for a long time. I'm going back after the scene. They're now filming a soba scene. Maybe they're still making the soba. Maybe I'll have some time to show you. They're making their noodles. A lot of people come here for hiking.

06:00 John Daub: I was filming in this cafe here, which had a really unique noodle. Safety first. So let me show you the other side really quickly to the bridge. And then I'm going to see if they're still filming the noodles. I didn't want to get in their way. Alright, here we go. I love the sound of the running water.

06:59 John Daub: So let's see if they're still making soba. Soba is made from buckwheat noodles. Buckwheat being like a wheat. Some people have allergies to it. But this guy's making a different kind of noodle. What this noodle is, it's not buckwheat, but it's mugi (barley). So I got a chance to try it in the show. It's really mochi-mochi kind of stringy and rubbery. So it has a really good consistency to it.

09:29 John Daub: Here's the thing. He makes the noodles fresh in his shop before eating every day. And it's really good to see this because when you have somebody who's making the noodles fresh at the shop instead of buying them from the store, there's something special about that. There's something special about having homemade food, right? Home cooking kind of thing. And when the noodles are being prepared fresh like this, it just tastes better. And I got a chance to eat that before. And now we're filming the last scene of the show.

09:59 John Daub: I'm going to film the last scene where we get a chance to see him make the noodles. And you can see I have my bicycle here as well. It's okay if it's not locked. Always lock your bicycle. But I'm standing in front of it, so it should be fine. Oh, now the camera guy is going inside. This is the director.

10:25 John Daub: The shop is called Sobataro. And I'm still wearing the bicycle helmet. It's called Sobataro in Okutama. And he's been making this noodle because there are six main noodles in Japan. This is one of them. Not buckwheat. This is mugi noodles, barley noodles. It's one of the easiest to make. He's been making this for about six years. And he's showing us how to make it for the show. And then we're going to cut in the scene that I took before when I was eating the noodles downstairs.

11:45 John Daub: So I'll go back and show the back. And then we'll go back and show the process. Stretching out the barley noodles. This is barley or mugi. So it's different than soba. It's got a different texture to it. It's nuttier. It's springier. A little mochi-mochi to it. This is like soba, but it's not soba. It's made with a different ingredient. Buckwheat is soba. This is mugi, which is barley. Barley is a totally different ingredient. It's a different grain. So he's making barley noodles. And he's stretched it out. So it started as just a ball and now it's really big and long.

17:19 John Daub: He's doing pretty good working in this small space. Whoa, he's got the soba knife. Those are pretty expensive. But that's a soba knife. So this is not soba. This is barley noodles. But he's using a soba knife to cut it. And that's okay. So now this is the part where he cuts the noodles and then he puts it into the tray. Cool. The butcher of Okutama. Oh, that's so satisfying. So precise. 0.5 centimeters wide for each noodle. He can just do it on instinct on the measurement. Just a rhythm and instinct. That's awesome. Noodles for 10 people. Good job.

20:03 John Daub: So this episode started with the bicycle. And for those tuning in right now, this is the bicycle, the boosted bicycle. I like to call it the battery boosted bicycle because it has a massive battery on it. The battery is just about dead on it. But once again, you can see there's a motor. I showed people in the beginning of the video this, but we were at that soba place for a long time. And every time I pedal, there's a boost to it. So going up a hill is super easy.

20:35 John Daub: I rented it from this company in Okutama, Trekking [?]. So I recommend them. The guy is so nice. And on the top, you can control the amount of power. You turn the bike on. And this tells you the level of assist. Power mode, which is for when you want hardcore power to go up a hill. Auto, which is probably the best. And eco mode if you want to conserve the battery. There's the light as well that you can control on the front of the bike.

21:09 John Daub: And I'll upload this video as it is so you can take a look at what it's like in this area. It's really, for Tokyo, it's really forested, really beautiful. One hour from the city center from Shinjuku Escape. And I've been here for the last two days. Just enjoying the filming and working. You can see, once again, this is the bridge I crossed in the beginning of the video. And there's the river that's there. And it eventually dumps into the Tamagawa River. Tamagawa is near Kawasaki and where Haneda Airport is. So this is the origin, one of the origins of where the water comes that dumps into where Haneda Airport is. And then goes out to the bay, Tokyo Bay, and then out to the Pacific. And it comes from all these beautiful mountains that are surrounding me right now.

22:01 John Daub: Yesterday there was some rain, so the river is a little bit more active than it was yesterday. But this morning, it's more like in the middle of the night. Safety first when you ride a bicycle. Boosted bicycle. Everybody, definitely try it when you come to Japan or at least ask for it. It's worth paying, I think it's an extra $8 a day to rent that bicycle. So I definitely recommend it because if you have hills on the course that you're going to be riding, you're going to want that. If you don't have a license to rent a motorbike, this is a very good option as well. It's not as fast as a motorcycle, but takes a lot of the pain out of going up hills.

22:42 John Daub: And when I was on Hachijojima, which is an island out in the Pacific, there's not a lot of buses in this area. I think the schedule is one bus every 90 minutes. But if you have one of these bicycles, you don't have to wait for the bus. You can always be on the move. And that's sort of why I rented one the first time a couple of months ago in Hachijojima. Lots of mountains, lots of hills. And having one of these boosted bikes really saved the day because it would have been a pain in the neck. Especially in the summer when it's so hot, like a sauna out there. But now the sun has set and I can start to hear some of the crickets. And it's really nice. Look at that hill. I have a boosted bike. I can do this so easy.

23:34 John Daub: Yeah, thank you so much for the super chat. I got one super chat in here. Let me see what the question was. Nasha Broad, always love hearing from you. DJI makes bike mounts for the Osmo. This is right. This is true. I don't use the bicycle a lot and I found that the accessories for the Osmo aren't very good. This pole that I have that I use, this extension pole, you can sort of... I use this pole to try to give some more distance because I don't want you to see me really close up. I think that's weird. So I use this extension pole. For $70, which is what this thing costs, it wasn't a very good buy, I think. It does enhance. You really need it for the Osmo. You need to have the extension pole to have this distance between us. But it's not worth the price that I paid for it. So I'm not too high on the first generation of Osmo accessories. Hopefully, they'll have better stuff out there. But the bike mount is something that I would get if I was doing more bicycling. And I think next year, I probably will buy it because I'll be doing more livestreams from bicycles.

24:47 John Daub: You know, and Peter von Gomm has his motorcycle. So my buddy Peter von Gomm and I are probably going to do a couple more motorcycles around Tokyo episodes. It's pretty cool. I don't like riding on the back so much. I'd rather be in the driver's seat. But what can I do? I got to ride in the back. All right. So thanks, everybody. Again, I was here at Sobataro. And Hikawa International Fishing Spot. Have a great day, night, wherever you are. Bye-bye. It was fun, wasn't it?