00:00:00 John Daub: Hello everybody, I'm live from Yonago City in Tottori Prefecture. This is kind of far from Tokyo. I came here yesterday by airplane. Let me show you on the map right here. I'm down there. So it's about a 70-minute flight from Tokyo. You can see the red mark is Tokyo and I'm down on the other side of Japan on the Sea of Japan. This area of Tottori is famous for vegetables. Japan has some of the best vegetables in the world I think because of the volcanic soil that they have here.

00:00:42 John Daub: And this festival is famous for the vegetables in Daisen. Now I'm kind of early for the festival but I'm going to take you inside where they've started some pretty cool performances. So if you like Japanese traditional music you're going to like what I'm going to show you in a second. Now Daisen is considered the Mount Fuji of the West. It's half the size of Mount Fuji but it kind of looks like Mount Fuji. So I'm going to go into the convention hall here. Yeah we get some yuru-chara (Japanese mascots). Let's take a look inside here. This is Sankonbushi. So they're kind of doing like a comedy and musical act. There's a bunch of media here as well. So it's a pretty big event.

00:01:52 John Daub: Now this event is taking place in Yonago City. Vegetables from Daisen which is the mountain. We're going to be eating some food. Real food because I'm starving. Let's take a look at what he's doing. They're bringing something in. He's talking about the prefecture and all the stuff that's found around here. The rice. See, it's right here, the rice.

00:03:03 John Daub: Wow. This is yakitori from Daisen. Daisen has some of the best chicken in Japan. I'm already getting really hungry. That smells so good. We'll be back. This is supposed to be a vegetable fest. It's a vegetable festival, right? It's supposed to be vegetables. Oh, look at that. Cotton candy. That's pretty cool. Watagashi. They have mango flavored. That's crazy.

00:05:01 John Daub: Oh, they're playing the music. Sankonbushi time. Let's check out some of this Sankonbushi music and then we'll move on. Playing a story. Found a victim. He's from the crowd. Let's go ahead and see some food. Oh, they're doing mochi. Check it out. Very cool. There's a lot of that going on here.

00:10:04 John Daub: So this guy behind me is Tsuesugu-san. He's from Yonago City. Yonago, Tottori. He's showing me around a little bit. So it makes it easier if you have staff with you, right? This is a pretty fun event. So far it's started out pretty good. Hey, good job. Tottori. Good job. So this is staff from the city, from the prefecture here today. This is a big event. And you wouldn't see where I'm from, I don't think vegetables are celebrated like this. This is all a celebration of vegetables. And yeah, they take a lot of pride in their farmers in this area of Japan. Again, this is really far from Tokyo. This is a 70-minute flight. Or if you take the train, it's like eight hours by train. And I'm talking the Shinkansen.

00:11:13 John Daub: So let's take a look at some food and some yuru-chara. And maybe we'll try some stuff. Oh man, look at this. They got the grills going. Wow. A little bit of everything. Wow. This is Maegana Bucho. Maegana is the character's name. And this is yakisoba. So everyone, you guys are from different shops, right? We're from different shops. So you guys are from different shops. Wow. Got some yakisoba. Whoa. That's not vegetables.

00:12:12 John Daub: Oh, jeez. They're taking him in to make a steak out of him. Bye. Torimo. It's delicious. It's good. Good to hear. It's a nice steak from Kojiro. From Daisen. Oh, from Daisen. They're making steaks over there. Be careful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you so much. Thank you.

00:13:34 John Daub: It's a mountainous area so it has a big impact when you see it. It's also famous for having a lot of vegetables like negi (leeks). Look at that! I'm going to start buying some stuff in a second but I want to show you around before I start to buy stuff. This is the traditional food of this area. There's something in here, right? It's rice. Rice? It's fried rice with sauce. There's rice inside of that. That's quite good. I'm going to come back. We're going to take a quick look around and then I'm going to start eating and then we're going to go to the station. There's more events happening over there. Unfortunately, the typhoon is approaching. If you can see up here, the other way. The weather is really looks like it's going to be there's a typhoon coming in so I'm trying to get this live stream in before the typhoon hits. The wind is picked up. You can see the flags going. So if I go out here, we're going to lose the audio maybe. Last year there was an earthquake. This year there's a typhoon. So there's always some excitement around this festival.

00:14:55 John Daub: Okay, we got some croquettes. That's also interesting. These are croquettes or kind of they're made from potato. There's so many things. Vegetables. Do you have any grilled onions? I have grilled onions. Apples. You don't have them here, right? You can eat them. Really? Can I eat them? Here you go. This is a Daisen apple. It's a little big. These are really big apples. I have a feeling this is going to taste like an apple. Nochi, thank you very much. Oh, it's good! Thank you! Tsunano. This is a Tsunano sweet apple. So the variety of apple is different. Tsunano.

00:16:01 John Daub: Do you see what I see? Look at that! It's like a miso menchi katsu croquette burger. Really? Yes. Do you know what it is? I can read it. Oh, really? You can read a little bit. And this one is a broccoli. So broccoli is very famous in Daisen. Daisen is famous for broccoli. Broccoli is famous. How delicious is broccoli? It's delicious. It's delicious? It's delicious. It's delicious. It's a new street. It's the world's first street. And this is negi, which is very famous in this area as well. Can I have one broccoli croquette, please? Yes, please. So I'm going to try the broccoli croquette.

00:17:02 John Daub: Oh! It's 150 yen. Oh, that's okay. Here you go. Thank you. Wow. Wow. Okay. I got it in my hands. Oh, look at the little mascot they have for it. Thank you. Thank you. Yay. There's the croquette team. So here it is. So it's deep fried. Looks like it's made of potato, and it's got broccoli in it. So it's deep fried. So let's give it a try. Not bad. Okay. Oh! Kudu, thank you very much. I'm having a wonderful trip. Look at the broccoli in there. This is so fresh. Oh! This is so good. I'm never going to be able to. I'm going to be so full at the end of this.

00:18:27 John Daub: Oh, they got more stuff. It's okay. Lots of vegetables here. Potatoes. This is another kind of potato. These are the potatoes that we know, and this is another like a mushy potato. So these are the potatoes that we know, and this is another like a mushy potato. So this is negi. Negi is very famous in Yonago. Yonago negi is the most delicious. From Daisen. You can see it's very famous in Yonago. It's the best. It's the best. You can see it says here from Tottori. This is Tottori-ken. Hokuchou. Hokuchou. From this town. They even write the town that it's from, right? Hokuchou. So all these vegetables, this produce comes from the town here. Wow. And you can see the beautiful team. Beautiful. Beautiful people. Beautiful people from the town make all these vegetables. I love negi.

00:19:46 John Daub: Eh, kore karai desho? Karai karai desu. Karai karai desu. Karai karai desu. I'm fine with karai. Karai means spicy in Japanese. I'm fine with spicy stuff. Okay. O miso. O miso mo. Arigatou gozaimasu. Arigatou gozaimasu. Wow. Yeah, jibiru. Wow, so we have miso here. Wonderful. This is all miso. Miso is like a fermented bean paste that's salty. It tastes so good. I can see. It's soft. And this is what you put in miso soup. This is the base of it, so. It's very nice. You know how to explain things. That's right. You know. That's right. Thank you. Wow. What's this? Mugi haita? Yes, yes, yes. This is rice. Rice. Mugi miso. Oh. Oh. You can see inside the miso they put some barley and rice. Mugi to daizu to yasai. Oh, yasai. And there's vegetables in there. This is interesting. It looks like something a bird left behind on my hand, but we're going to give it a try.

00:21:05 John Daub: Let's see here. Oh, it fell. Yes, yes. One more time. Sorry. Sorry. No problem. Okay. I kind of dropped it trying to push the camera. So, here we go. Let's give it a try. It's good. It has a lot of flavor. It's got a lot of flavors. The miso, you can't really eat miso by itself, but when you add in other stuff, enhances the flavor. And miso's got like this kind of sweet and salty taste. Oh, thank you. He gave me a wet tissue. So, this is miso. It's got like this sweet and salty taste to it. When you eat it, you definitely know this is miso. This is miso. Wow. This is delicious. Thank you. And they all make this local here. This is all local.

00:22:01 John Daub: And this is Daisen G-beer. I know Daisen G-beer. You're doing great. G-beer, you're doing great. Iwata-san isn't here, is he? Iwata-san isn't here. Iwata-san. NHK is here with us. Iwata-san. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Oh, you're doing it! I'm John. Wow. You can see this is Daisen G-beer. They use the water, and they make the beer here. It's one of the original Japanese craft beers, Daisen G-beer. They started about 20 years ago. And I featured this at an NHK show about three months ago. Yeah, in June. And Daisen G-beer, you can see all the ingredients, a lot of the main ingredients come right here, from here, especially the water. Which is some of the best in Japan. I'll get you a beer. Later. I'll get you a beer. I'll get you a beer. Thank you. Thank you. Which one? Which one do you recommend? The Yonago the best. Okay. Thank you. So I guess we're going to have a beer after all. Thank you. Let's taste this here. This is the Yonago. Yonago. So this is this beer. 7% alcohol. It's kind of lighter. Daisen G-beer also has a pilsner. And this is the Weizen. Which is kind of a German white. This is the best. This one is very famous. It's won a lot of awards. We'll try that later. I have a feeling I'm going to be here for like two weeks. I got a feeling I'm going to be drinking a lot of beer. I'm going to be drinking Daisen G-beer. Cheers!

00:24:07 John Daub: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is no ordinary beer. Like when I had it, it was really refreshing. But now it's really complex. There's so many different ingredients with beer. Beer is like wine in many ways. I mean at least a craft beer can be. I can't explain it. It has too many flavors. It has so many different flavors. It takes you on like a ride. So you drink it, you start here, and then you're going like this. All over your taste buds in your mouth. Yeah, it's you can taste wheat. It has some wheat in it I can taste. Very fresh. But Daisen has the best water in Japan. That means you get some of the best beer in Japan. So we're going to be drinking a lot more. Thank you. Thank you very much. Iwata-san will be coming again. That was good. I wasn't expecting to drink a beer. Look, thankfully it was just a little bit. So let's go take a look around. There's a lot more going on over at the station. Because of the typhoon coming. I'm sort of rushing the live stream a little bit. Kieran is here, but you know, I like Kieran. However, you have to go with Daisen G-beer when you're in Daisen, in this area. Because that's the local beer. That was so good. Beer time! By the way, it's like 10:30 in the morning here. Just so you know. That's why I was kind of hesitant to drink a beer. It's pretty early. I apologize for the wind, if there's any wind noise. I'm out here in the elements. It's a little bit windy out here.

00:26:13 John Daub: Okay, there's some more stands. Let me show you what's happening. Alright. So this is bread and tea, coffee. Let's just take a quick look at what they have here. This is like the coffee corner. Wow. A stew. A stew. Wow. So they make a stew here. And this is hatomugi (Job's tears). Wow. They've got all sorts of different kinds of foods here. Look, she's making something on the waffle iron. Wow. Takoyaki? That's not it. It's bubble waffles. Bubble waffles. Awesome. Look at that. These are like bubble waffles. I think it's going to take a little bit of time to go. I smell curry. Oh, curry! Curry! Oh. I knew I smelled curry. There you go. I mean, I'm not going to leave here hungry. So let's take a look over at the station. I'm going to be in this area for a while. At least until past November. Into November. So Yonago, this is maybe my sixth time here in the last three or four years. And I come here a lot, especially in the summer. There are so many wonderful festivals. And yeah. This is my first time in the fall. Right now the leaves on the trees are just changing in Japan. You can see the color. There's some orange spots. Shacks of orange in the trees here. So we're getting pretty close to fall. Yeah, I want to get some of that curry. I see some of the comments coming in. The curry looks really good. They're making mochi in there. I think they're finished! We missed it! We missed it! I apologize for the wind noise if there is any. We're going over to the station. It's about a one minute walk. Maybe two. Two if you run. But this really is a big event. I'm kind of shocked. This is just for vegetables.

00:29:13 John Daub: So I put a link in the original description for this video. You can see where Yonago is on the map. It's the president of the television company here. BSS? I did a BSS show last year. Was it last year? Two years ago. It's hard to remember. Time just flies! So, uh, yeah, Yonago is a 70 minute flight. Because it goes straight over the mountains. By train it takes like 8 hours. And it's quite far on the Sea of Japan. This is Negi Parade. Look at this. Wow, that's a lot of negi. Wow, that's a lot of negi. Wow. This is a mascot for the area. That's a lot of negi. That's a lot of negi. You can see just all of the negi that they have here. This is crazy! That's a lot of negi! That's a lot of negi! Wow! Wonderful! Look at how... Wow! Wow! Wow! Is that okay? Is that okay? Yeah, this is a leaf. Can you eat this as is? It's a bit spicy. It's a bit spicy. We're grilling the negi. That's negi-yaki. That's something I don't see everyday. That's pretty cool! So the grilling, the leeks, these are what we call in English leeks, but we call it negi here. They're a little bit different. You can see. You can eat it like this. So I'm going to take a leek here. Stop it! Max, I saw that comment, Max. Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Today is the first time we're eating the local food, Hokkaido and Iwate. We're trying it out, and everyone is making it together. So you can see. I see. You can see how the yokai are enjoying it. This is the Gegege no Kitaro yokai enjoying some negi. Because Sakai Minato is nearby. Thank you! Bye bye, negi! We'll be back! He said bye bye! Did you hear that? Very cool!

00:32:13 John Daub: Alright, so this is Yonago Station right over here. This is sort of a landmark. Again, I apologize for the wind noise. Yonago Station. People watching in Tokyo know this is far away. This is quite far away from Tokyo. Osaka is much closer. Actually the closest city on the Pacific side would be Okayama, I think. Okayama is closer. It's closer. So we're making our way to the station. There are some pretty big tents over there. But the wind is starting to pick up! There's a typhoon rolling in. Some of the public transportation. The buses here, they run maybe once an hour. There aren't that many buses. The buses are. There aren't many buses, right? There aren't many buses. If there weren't cars, it would be a bit of a hassle. That's right. Now I'm in the process of getting my Japanese driver's license. I've been living in Japan. In Japan you cannot use an international driver's license. You need a Japanese driver's license. Because I'm American, I have to take the driving test. And that's not until next month, which means I don't have a car around here. Which means I'm a hostage. I can't go anywhere.

00:33:37 John Daub: Wow, there's some dango. Wow, that's a big dango! It's big, right? That's a big dango. This is all mochi. Wow! That's amazing. It's a live broadcast. Wow! So you get 5 for 400 yen. Look at that! It's still hot! Look at it steaming! Wow! Wow! I'm looking at 600 yen right now. This is Ichiyoshi's product! You're alive! Yay! Wow! What is this? It's a strawberry. Wow! That looks so good. They call it the Yoshioka Jewelry Box. It looks like jewelry. Look at that! It looks so good. Thank you! You're welcome! Wow, Yoshioka! Very cool. We got crepes here. I gotta start eating some more. I'm still kind of processing that croquette. I have to pace myself. Wow! What is this? It's Mochi Mochi Potato. Mochi Mochi Potato! Karikawa gyoza. Wow! That's an unusual gyoza! I've never seen one like this before. Wow! Look at that gyoza! That gyoza has some really interesting stuff inside. The outside is crispy. I see. I'm going to go eat a lot. I'm sorry. See you later! That's karaage. That's really good too. Like chicken. I gotta pace myself. Oh my gosh. There's more food! It's all food! This is crazy! Oh yeah, the yonegi! Oh yeah, the yonegi!

00:35:44 John Daub: So I featured in the yuru-chara episode I did for Only in Japan. About two years ago, I came to Yonago and they introduced me to the yonegi. And I showed you just about five minutes ago. Do you remember? I showed you the negi. The big leeks, the green vegetables. They're here! The negis! Kone... yonegi! That's a yonegi! Things are going to get a little weird from here on out. You see, all the way up to the stalk. Now, what is really interesting about this yuru-chara is, you see like the. It's all puffed up, right? It's because there's a miniature generator inside. That puts air in that makes it poppy. You can see. It's pretty cool. That boy's up to no good. It's really. Hello! Hello! Just a happy face. Yay! And then over here we have the character. Do you remember we were showing some of the chicken? This is the mascot for the chicken in the area. The yonegi mascot. He doesn't want to go. Kawaii! Wow, look at that kisser. There's a new sheriff in town. And I'm shooting chicken! That's like. He's shooting his own kind. Did you see that? So this is. Yonegi. One of the yonegis. And then in this. In the baby carriage is the mascot's baby. Negiko. Negipo. That's the baby. There's the lucky father. And there's the baby. And they put him in a stroller. How crazy is this? Kawaii! And what is this? A star. A star. That's the cutest thing in the world. Every mascot should have a baby with a stroller, right? It just makes it so much cooler. But this is how much negi means to the area. Negi is very, very famous in Yonago. And Daisen. Yonegi is yo meaning Yonago, right? And negi meaning. Well, negi. Look at the sheriff in the background. The chicken has duck lips. The chicken has duck lips. He's dead. Wow, that's a big bird. Skinny legs. Oh look, he's getting. He's going for a ride. Very cool.

00:40:03 John Daub: There's some food. They got some food. Let's see here. Oh right, okay. So there's a line because people are waiting for free crab soup. But I don't want to wait in line. See the guy's holding. This is the end of the line in Japan. Everybody lines up really, really nice. Excuse me. You can see there's where they're getting the free crab soup. You see? And the guy. And this guy with the sign, he informs everybody this is the end of the line. Wait here. So. The system is really good. I want to get the crab soup, but I don't want to wait in the line. They're delivering crab soup for free. Oh. Yeah. Everyone is waiting for the soup. It's like the soup. If you've seen the Seinfeld episodes, the soup Nazi is really. No soup for you! Because I cannot wait in this line. Whoa. Whoa, look at that! That's a big crab in there. Wow. The crab soup. That's a big soup. That's why they're lining up. It's huge. I'll get it with my own hands. This is a. A crab don. A crab on rice. That line. No wonder the line is so long. They're waiting for the crab soup. They're giving all. Trekaris, thank you. Pay someone to wait in line for you. I want to. I have to end the live stream. My battery is getting low. But this is amazing. And everybody for free is getting a big crab leg. This is kind of crazy. I've never seen this. They'd never do this in Tokyo. That's a big crab. That's expensive. These people are insane. I think this is the crab from. This crab is from the Sea of Japan. This is from the Sea of Japan. This is from the Sea of Japan. If you're following my hitchhiking on Instagram, I put a picture from the Japanese crabs from the sea. I think it was in Fukui Prefecture, which is not too far away from Tottori. It's a couple of. One or two prefectures up. But the crab in this area is so good. You can see down there. I just. I don't want to wait in the line. And Trekaris, I don't think that was enough to make people wait, to be honest. Wow, he's like walking by with. Look at crab and. Wow, should we take his? Trekaris, maybe I can just buy his. What do you think? I can just buy his, huh? I want to show you something. Oh, okay. They got something to show me. Let's go inside the train station. Wow!

00:43:31 John Daub: I made a big line with the green onion. Okay. Alright, alright. I think you might have just already seen it, but first I'm going to show you what Daisen looks like, okay? Daisen is the mountain. Oh, there it is on the right. This is Daisen. Mount Daisen. And it looks like Mount Fuji because it's just so big. It just juts out of the skyline out of nowhere. It has that shape to Mount Fuji a little bit. You can see, right? It kind of reminds you of Mount Fuji, right? So they call it the Fuji of the West. Daisen. And. Yeah. It's a festival, as I've been telling you. So of course, of course, they made Daisen out of negi. And it kind of looks like it. You can see the white caps, the snow on the top. And you can see how it gets darker. They even put broccoli, which is famous in this area. Wow! Now that's a mountain. It would take a really hungry person to climb that thing. Wow! I made it with 12 people. What? It took them like 10 hours to make this. Oh! Alright, one last look at Negi Daisen. You won't see this anywhere else. I mean, it kind of looks like the mountain, right? Yeah, they kind of did a pretty good job. I can see it. Look behind me. What's behind me? More yuru-chara. Alright, let's check it out. So these are the mascots from another local area. Momo-chan and Yakkun. Ah, cute! Look at their starry eyes. What have they been drinking? Touch! Touch! I like the little ribbons on the. Wow! And here comes their friend. They've entered the station. With baby on board. It's so funny. This is normal for Japan. This is like normal. This is everyday life. And every mascot has a friend to help them around. This is the yonegi's back in town. This is my station. Yonago. Don't forget the baby. Everyone's getting the big kids here. And the middle school kids are drinking green tea. Okay, so we got some high school kids here. These are junior high school. Junior high. It's free but you can drink it. You can drink it as much as you want. What are you doing now? I'm serving the kids with free toys. Oh! That's amazing. Really? Yes. Teacher. Teacher. Tea ceremony teacher. Tea ceremony teacher. Wonderful. Shall we try some tea ceremony tea made by junior high school students? Yeah? Let's try some high school junior high school tea. Wow, they're making the tea. Hello. Oh look, they are doing it. Look. It's amazing. They're making matcha tea. Look at the dedication and the focus in those eyes. They're really focused on their job.

00:48:14 John Daub: Okay, let's try some. So you sit down and I guess they bring you some tea. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Alright. This is pretty cool. This is not normal. We're inside of the JR Yonago station and they have this little tea room corner. This is a tea room corner. This is pretty cool. I've been to this station many many many times and it's just like just like today. And the instructor is telling them how to serve and how to make the tea. So it's pretty good to get that kind of instruction. Tea ceremony is something that. Thank you. Please put your feet on the table. Oh, my feet? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So we got this. Take this out. Like this. Oh, cut it in half? Okay. I'm getting a tutorial. And then you chow down. Wow! Is it good? It's good. Okay, let's try it. Okay. That's pretty convenient. Alright, this is like made from bamboo. Chop it in half. Okay. Mmm, delicious. What does it taste like? It's like a pear. It doesn't taste like anything? It's like an apple pear. It has the taste of Japanese pear. Oh, pear. He didn't know the word. Hahaha. It's so good. Thank you. It has a Japanese pear taste. It's called nashi (Japanese pear). Thank you. I should use two hands. Wow. Wow, that's matcha. How would you like? Matcha. So they just made it, the students. Very cool. Alright, let's try this. Alright, here we go. Matcha. I don't know how to drink this. Hahaha. I don't know how to drink it. There's a certain way to drink it. The last one is the one I finished drinking. Oh, the last one. Here you go. It's good. It was delicious. It was delicious. It was delicious. Thank you for the food. Thank you for the food. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. It was delicious. So the taste of matcha is. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is real Japanese culture. We're like getting the real Japanese culture here. So, matcha, the taste is really bitter. And it's got that foam to it which I really like. But it's bitter. It's got tons of caffeine in it. I'm probably not. I'm gonna be hyped up all day like this.

00:52:33 John Daub: Okay. Okay. Alright, do you wanna see the children's land? Let's go take a look at the at kiddy land and then we're gonna end the livestream. Or maybe I'll end with some food. Maybe. Can always end with some food. So the kids over there. So anyways, about the matcha, that's pretty cool. The junior high school students are learning how to make do the tea ceremony. And one way to learn is to prepare it and just keep doing it and do it and do it. Now doing it and then drinking it, it's probably better to give away the tea while they practice, right? So it's good to come to an event like this. Everybody wins. So they get to practice the tea ceremony and we get to drink it. And they get to practice serving the tea to the customers which is also. this little detail is important. The way that you serve it, the way that you present it, the way that you turn the cup. These are things that are beyond me a little bit. I probably should take some tea ceremony lessons to be honest with you. I've been here way too long not to know enough. That's so cool! Is that Sunrise Izumo? No way! Sunrise Express! JR has like made a little train thing. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Whoa! They have the sounds as well. That's Sunrise Izumo! Bobby Boy, thank you very much from Canada. No, I'm not paid by anybody to come here. This trip is totally because I came here when I was hitchhiking and I promised some of my friends that I would be back. And what I wanted to do instead of just going and making a video on an area for like a couple of days, I wanted to go and live there. And I'm trying to test out this theory that it has. If I live in the area, I'm going to make better content. I'm going to learn more about it and then find more original stuff. Stuff that other people aren't introducing on YouTube and that's why I'm here for an extended period of time. Oh look, I guess you can go in and out through here. This is pretty cool! And then, I think I might be too big for this. Wow! What happens if you push the button? Self-destruct button. Oh look, that's pretty cool. Very cool! This is right in front of Yonago Station. The event for this. This is all a celebration of vegetables! So. Yeah! Very cool! The first time. One of the most popular videos on the Only in Japan channel is the Sunrise Izumo. It's the Japanese night train episode I did a couple of years ago. It leaves Tokyo at 8 or 10 pm Tokyo Station. It arrives in Yonago around 8:30 in the morning. And it's the last sleeper train. It's the last everyday used sleeper train in Japan. So. I highly recommend if you're in Japan and you want to take a sleeper train, try that one. Sunrise Izumo.

00:56:04 John Daub: Alright. One piece of information that a lot of people don't know in Japan. Once again, this is Yonago Station, right? And Yonago has this statue in the front. Can you see this? This has a meaning. This statue has a meaning. Does anybody know what this means? Is there anybody out there who knows what this statue is? So if you know the kanji for Yonago in it is kome or rice. That's a piece of rice! And they put this out in the middle of the station. You can see Welcome to Yonago right here. But rice is important. Vegetables, produce, it's all really important to Yonago and this area. Daisen. It's a big mountain in the area that provides all of the water, provides all of the fertile soil for all of the vegetables. It provides so many things. It protects it from typhoons. The typhoons aren't as strong because Daisen knocks down a lot of the clouds. And that line for the crab soup has not gotten any shorter. I was kind of hoping, but no. It's still pretty long. We got Sergeant Chicken out here with the duck lips. Wow! This is a new one. What the heck is that? Eh, dare? JR mascot. Sunrise Izumo mascot. Eh, Goton. Yakumo. This is the JR mascot. It's a train. So, everything needs a mascot in Japan, mind you. This is the train, Goton. It sort of looks like the train that we saw back there, right? Very cool. Look at the hand. It looks like a big wrench. It's a wrench that fixes trains. So this is also for fixing the train. You can see it's a wrench. Very cute. And just in case the tracks don't go out, he's got wings to fly away, I guess. Very cool. Is this... Oh yeah! Run away! Run away! Run away! Did you see? Did you see? Sneaking up on me? That was a lot of fun.

00:58:50 John Daub: Okay, so I've gotten a chance to try a lot of foods, even beer, in the morning, which is crazy. But this festival is a lot of fun. There's lots of stuff to eat, lots of stuff to try. Kiriten. Okonomiyaki. Wow, this is like pizza. Local pizza. This is how Japan makes pizza. Shrimp and mayo pizza. I love that. Wow, he's making karaage. Is this karaage? Wow! It's herbs. Oh. Yes, yes. It's good because it has herbs in it. So he puts in this karaage. These herbs, it's not your normal karaage. This one has herbs and lots of other stuff in it. Oh, yes, that looks so good. Ah. So we're eating the chicken, the chicken mascot back there. It's pretty funny. The chicken mascot's walking by and they're eating chicken right here. It's not really, that's not nice, is it? Lots of meat being grilled. Big. Wow. Just, I like the sounds of the festival, right? I like the sounds that you hear the music, the feelings that you get being surrounded by a lot of people. If this was Tokyo, you probably couldn't walk. There'd be so many people here. Which is another reason why I like this area of Japan. It's not as crowded. It's a lot more relaxed. Mind you, it's not as convenient to get around. There's no subway here. There are buses, but they're irregular. You need a car. But this is a sort of freedom that you get. The streets are not as crowded as.

01:01:41 John Daub: He's a lifesaver. He's a man who protects you. Nice to meet you. Just on V. Don't know. Hello. Let's pose the same. So that's what I was saying. This is really, it's just, the people are so friendly and relaxed compared to Tokyo. Tokyo, it's all, I don't know, I always feel a little bit more stressed out because of all the activity around. And when I come out to Tottori or to other places around here, I feel so much more relaxed. I might be getting hungry again. So this livestream's been going on for an hour. So I'm gonna cut it right here. It's been a lot of fun. You got to see quite a bit. We started at the convention center. The station is right in front of me, right here. And we started the livestream in here. This is the convention hall. It's all located pretty much in front of the station. And there's one of the Aeon shopping malls here. That one's kind of an old one, but it's a nice one. So I'll be here for a couple of weeks doing livestreaming and making episodes for Only in Japan. So I'll be in touch. This is not the end of the livestreams. We're gonna have one maybe almost every day. So something's happening here. Maybe not later today because the typhoon looks like it's gonna hit us. The clouds are moving really fast. So wherever you are in the world, have a good day, have a good night. I might go back and try that crab soup. If I do, check out the Instagram. We'll have some photos up there. See ya everybody. Bye bye!