00:03 John Daub: It is really cold. This is Tsuchiyu Onsen. This is an onsen town and it is minus whatever. All I know is that it's snowing. You can see behind me a river runs through it. This is an onsen river because you can smell the rotten eggs. It has that sulfur smell to it. But in this onsen town which is in Fukushima—I put a map in the description—you have a lot of shops which you can see behind me. There's some yokan as well. Some hotels. The rapids are pretty cool. This is all hot water coming out too. There's some steam as well. It's kind of loud here. But it's snowing. This is the first snow of the year here. And it's cold. This is an onsen town. And when you say that, that means you're probably on vacation or here to relax. But no, I'm here to bring you a story. Now, we're going to have a quick walk through this onsen town and help you.

01:09 John Daub: The first person to help me out is Shige who's over there. There he is. Shige, it's cold. It's cold. It's cold. At times like this, Tsuchiyu has hot spring eggs. It's delicious. Have you ever been to Tsuchiyu Onsen before? Yes, I have. I've been there many times. There you go. If you're a Fukushima citizen, Tsuchiyu, Takayu, and Iizaka are some of the best spots.

01:45 John Daub: Really? Well, we're going to figure that out. I could tell you one thing. It's just like one of the coldest spots. But Shige found... He's been here before is what he was saying, and it's a really good spot. And he's taking us into this onsen tamago (hot spring egg) place which I want to introduce you to really quickly. Onsen town. Yeah. Here it is. Here it is. Here it is. Oh my god. If you've been watching this show, you know I love these hanjuku tamago (half-boiled eggs), baby. These are onsen tamago. Ah, can't leave the door open. Konnichiwa.

02:35 John Daub: This onsen tamago shop, you have all these different gifts here, which is pretty cool. This is the way grandma used to make them. Oh, they have stuff that you can try here. Check it out. Oh, yeah. Do you have a cell phone light? This is what I'm talking about. That's the half-boiled eggs, and they put a stick through it. It's just congealed enough that it looks like this. It's so awesome. Oh, thank you. Hot tea. Yes, please.

03:33 John Daub: Ah, onsen tamago. It's not a smoch. It's a lightly smoked egg. Ah, sophisticated. Oh, nice. Oh, do you have onsen tamago? Yes, this one. This is the half-boiled egg that was boiled in the onsen. Half-boiled egg. Onsen tamago. Can I try it? In Japanese, this is hard yolk. White. It's very soft. Ah, hard yolk and soft white. Please try. Oh, really? Thank you.

04:23 Shop Owner: It's very hard to recommend this to an important customer.

04:27 John Daub: You don't eat eggs, do you? Oh, it's really hard. The yolk is really hard. Alright, let's eat this. This is the egg. Oh, really? Yes. Just cook it messy. Onsen tamago. Very, very nice. It's got dashi (broth) in it. Oh, dashi is the sauce for the egg. A little bit of sauce. Oh, this is so good. Thank you. But Shige, try one of these. Little smoch. Smoch. Yeah, smoch. Itadakimasu. Shige is the smoch man. I don't know what that means. It's still hard. Oh, okay. Still hard. Kind of hard. It's childproof. Shige proof. It's not Shige proof. Oh, wow. It's still hard. Ton ton, ton ton. Excuse me. Please put the shell in here. Thank you.

06:04 Shop Owner: Smoked from the outside. You put the smoke in this shell. And with the power of the vacuum, you put the smoke inside. Please trust me.

06:23 John Daub: Okay, thank you. Cute. Wow, there are so many souvenirs. All of them are delicious.

06:30 Shop Owner: The most popular one is onsen tamago. The reason is... I'd like to show you our original onsen. Cooked in an onsen. Yes, yes. If you have time, I'd like to show you. Our original onsen. I've smoked it.

06:54 John Daub: Wow. Itadakimasu. Thank you. Itadakimasu. Show me. Wow, yes. That's just kanjiyo [?]. Look at that beautiful egg. Oh, man. Let's see that happy face. Mmm. It's just salty. Oh, it's already in there. It's salty.

07:15 Shop Owner: Yes, it's salty and the smoke is stuck inside. So from the onsen, it's naturally salty. The flavor from the onsen is the minerals are added inside the egg.

07:28 John Daub: That's crazy. Happy face Shige and his onsen tamago. It's paradise. It's perfect. Tamago paradise. That's what this shop is. Happiness. Ii ne. Ah, subarashii. Eh, kono mise nan nenkan?

07:47 Shop Owner: Ah, koko wa ne. Showa yonjuu da iku ne. Tashi Showa yonjuu kyuu umareta.

07:57 John Daub: About 45 years old. Yeah. Yonjuu sansai. A no, senkyuuhyaku nanajuu yonnen umareta. When did you come to Japan? This shop is about as old as me. Haha. I'm sorry. 40 something years old.

08:12 Shop Owner: In your time, I would like to show you our original onsen. Please come around outside.

08:16 John Daub: Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. Exclusive. New home here. Okay. Choba, denshi chotto daki aru ne. Denshi wa 5% garae. 5%. Daijoubu. Wow. I'm up against it now. My battery is at like 5% and she wants to show me her onsen. Hahaha. This is an onsen town. Stuff like this happens. Oh, I'm so excited.

08:40 Shop Owner: Here is my Japanese inn. Onsen. Ii desu ka? Hai, onsen desu. Chotto, kabun 2-3 pun daki. Chotto takute.

08:52 John Daub: Okay. You gotta take off your shoes cause that's the best thing to do. Oh, exclusive. Kono chikoku. Ah, okay. Behind the desk. Shige, come on. Wow. Here is, here is my onsen. Wow. Please look down here. Wait. Shige, come on. Kono oyu doko kara? Shika kara. Underground. This is in the house and it's just coming, there's a pipe that leads just in the ground. That's your treasure. Yeah. So, sono onsen tamago kokoni.

09:31 Shop Owner: In old days, my mother used to put this basket and put in the eggs and in the hot water. In old days. Ima shinayone. Koujou de.

09:51 John Daub: They have a factory but in the old days they used to put the eggs in there. That's awesome. Arigato. Shokan shite kudasai. Arigato gozaimashita. Gochisousama deshita. Hajimemashita. I've never seen that before. And that's. Kure, uchi dake dakara. Ah, that's your house. Yeah. That's so cool. Yokatta shite itadakita. Arigato gozaimasu. Sugoi yokatta. Yoko sou. Yoko sou de kudasai mashita. Thank you. Thank you for showing us around. Arigato gozaimasu. Arigatou. Arigatou gozaimasu. I'm going to put the link to that store in there. I'm so happy that she showed us around. I actually have five percent battery left so we're going to have to end this live stream because it's just really cold. Look at the Onsen Town. The store shops are glowing onto the really cold white bluish streets. It's a pretty nice feeling. I know it's a Nippoli [?] for me and Shige. We're in the middle of the street now. They have a pretty good manhole!

11:01 John Daub: Manhole! Where? Oh, over here. There we go. I love it. You just look down and see. Look at the happy people. What's this? Kokeshi (wooden dolls). These are kokeshi. They used to be dolls in the olden days, but now they're just a symbol of nostalgia. You can see the faces of the dolls. Very cool. That's in a manhole! It's in the middle of the street. Look at that. Crazy! Crazy! I made a manhole episode, and ever since I made that manhole episode, I've been a manhole tourist, or what we call a manholer. That's what the official term is. People who go manholing are looking for manhole covers. So that's it from the Onsen Town. I just wanted to show you that, because we're out of batteries. Someone asked, why am I screaming? Because it's a manhole! Where is it? Right here! Where'd it go? There it is! I found one! I've never seen that one before, so I get excited when I see manhole covers from around Japan. It's a way that each Japanese town or community can summarize that area's attractions in a manhole cover. And that's really cool how they do that in such a small space. So this is Tsuchiyu Onsen. Tsuchiyu Onsen in Fukushima. The link is already in the description. Check it out. I'm going to be here for tonight at a ryokan (traditional inn) and an onsen. I'm going to eat dinner. I'm filming that for the main channel. It's going to be pretty awesome. So thanks everybody for joining me on this mini onsen tour. Onsen towns are a reason to come to Japan, especially when it's snowing. It's pretty cool and really cold. Alright everybody, have a nice day. Shiggy's going in. Into this shop. Oh, I don't know. There aren't many batteries. Hello. Are your shoes okay? Wow, I see. There are a lot of them here. That's a doll that was on the manhole cover. I can't end this right away. I'll give it like 30 seconds, okay?

13:13 Shige: What's this called? This is a kokeshi. Kokeshi. When you were a kid... You played with it. Kids used to play with this because they didn't have dolls. Can you sit on it? Oh, it's so... Look at that. Now they're very nostalgic. They all have different expressions. Handmade. Yeah, very cool. This is also a coffee shop. Hello. We get to say hello. I'll put the link in the description of this place. Shiggy, thank you. I didn't have much time, but I'm glad that you showed me this place. It has a lot of history. History here. Yeah, this is a coffee. You can drink coffee here, right?

14:09 Shop Owner: Yes. It's closed now. It's always okay. So you can get coffee as well in here. See? But now it's closed. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Shiggy. Thank you. He found that place because of the manhole cover. It was on the manhole cover. It's right here. Shiggy, he knows. He's Mr. Fukushima. He knows this place pretty well. That's on the manhole cover, and that's what we're just looking at. So cool. All right, everybody. I got like no battery left. Thanks for watching this live stream and enjoying me on this Onsen Town tour. Description in the link. Link's in the description. Check out the Instagram page. I'm going to put some photos from here on here. And see you next time.