00:00:00 John Daub: It's midnight, it's Tokyo, and we're live in the city. I'm here looking for a snack. Boy, I'm hungry. The one great thing about Tokyo is that it's open pretty late. Usually you can find places open well past midnight. And for a hungry guy like me, that's a good thing because I am craving something sweet. Basically, I'm on the prowl.

00:00:30 John Daub: Okay, so there's a Yoshinoya behind me, and that's open 24 hours. But I'm not a big Yoshinoya lover. There's a Don Quixote and a Family Mart. And over here is a McDonald's. I'm not really in the mood for that either. I don't particularly like fast food. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just don't feel like it. Today they have the American Deluxe Barbecue Burger. That doesn't look too bad, actually. Look at that big piece of bacon sticking out of it. Whoa, and they put an egg in there. Very nice. I'm not in the mood for that.

00:01:21 John Daub: So this is the time when the last train is going by. A lot of people are getting off work, leaving the train station right now. Ice cream? Something sweet? Unless I find something better, I don't know. Oh, this used to be a Natural Lawson's and now it's just a Lawson's. It says they have vegetables, yasai (vegetables), and kudamono (fruit). So it has vegetables and bananas, I guess fruits.

00:02:06 John Daub: Alright, you know what? Yeah, it's well past midnight. I'm not supposed to film inside of a convenience store. So the best thing to do is to be polite and don't film anybody. We're just going to have a quick look around, okay? Just be on your best behavior, because you're not supposed to be filming.

00:04:02 John Daub: Alright, let's try another place I know. It's pretty quiet. Oh, they still got the flavored water. This one is morning tea flavor. That's not especially good. Corn soup. That's something. They turned on the heater on these, so usually they're cold and today they're heated because it's winter. It's not that cold for Tokyo.

00:04:45 John Daub: The supermarket at my station is open until 12:30 at night. It used to be open until 1, but they found there weren't that many customers when the trains stopped. The last train pulls into my station at 12:30 at night. And that's about what time it is right now. Alright, there's a 24-hour supermarket right there, that's open. But you know what? They don't give you bags in the supermarket. You have to bring your own eco bag. That's a problem because I don't have one. I think I'm looking for something different than supermarket food. This one's called Big A, discount. No, that's not a snack. That's more like shopping.

00:05:55 John Daub: Okay, there's a 7-Eleven this way. You guys gonna stick with me for a couple of minutes? Yeah. Alright, let's go to the 7-Eleven. That matcha Haagen-Dazs looked really good back there though. And the McDonald's, I haven't eaten McDonald's in a couple of years now. But that American burger that they got with the big piece of bacon and egg in it looked pretty good too. I'm just not hungry for that. Midnight snacks, it's a weird thing. You have cravings. You know, like werewolves, vampires like blood. Werewolves like whatever they eat. And then me, I eat sweets. Really sweet stuff like doughnuts and cake, pudding. And cake with pudding in it.

00:06:54 John Daub: Here's a beer vending machine. But it closes at 11 o'clock. Or is it? I think maybe it's still open. This is an old school one. I want a beer. It's Sunday night, you know. I'm still working. Yeah, I'm alone. It's kind of spooky out here. You know, Tokyo is one of the safest cities in the world. And this is one of the... I'm considered in the center, but it's... Here it is, 7-Eleven. But it's sort of on the outskirts. I'm closer to Chiba than I am the center. The closest major stop from where I live is Akihabara.

00:07:46 John Daub: Well, thank you, Toby. Thank you for the super chat. I'm just pulling up right now to the 7-Eleven. This is a new one. It just opened up a few months ago. Look, there's nobody here. The entire parking lot is empty. Oh, my word. I don't think anybody knows that there's even a convenience store here. Oh, this is a big one. Technically, like I said before, you're not supposed to film inside of the convenience stores. And I don't want to get in trouble. But I'm hungry, and I'm live streaming, and you know what? These storms collide now. And I'm going in there. I'm doing it. Because I'm hungry. And Toby gave me a super chat to get some food. And that means something. That means you got to go and do it.

00:08:54 John Daub: This is something I like to point out. 7-Eleven is really kind of cool because they have an ATM that takes every bank card. And I first moved to Japan in 1998. You couldn't use foreign ATM cards. You had to either exchange the money or... Yeah, there was a Citibank. It was the only foreign ATM. Nowadays, you can get your money out of any post office or 7-Eleven ATM. And that's sort of cool.

00:09:26 John Daub: We're going in here. You all got to be really quiet because I don't want to get in trouble. And I'm the only customer in this whole 7-Eleven. I know they're going to bust me. But that's life. Oh, thank you, Captain Dirk. You know what? There is a cocoa, but it's on the other side. And I'm too hungry. I don't think I'm going to make it. I need to get something sweet. They got a good bakery in here. We're living dangerously. Catherine has it right. We're living dangerously. Okay. Let's do this.

00:10:46 John Daub: It's like dried ramen. I found one thing that I really like. Look. I did something wrong. Like I broke the law. Lawbreaker. This is what I was looking for. It's like deep custard. Whoa. It's called the... The shūkurīmu (choux cream). This is 7-Eleven. It's called the shūkurīmu. Because it, you know, like shū (choux)... Oh, there's a customer. Alright. We're going to try this shūkurīmu. I'm going to go across the street. I'm still hungry after this. I'm going back for more. I almost got that coffee. I saw that, Catherine. That coffee in there.

00:14:50 John Daub: So let's try this. I actually have a tripod here. So I'm going to do the... Put it down here. Okay. You guys still there? Up here. Alright. This is what I'm talking about. This is the shūkurīmu. Now, there's this thing I just discovered. They're called shūkurīmu, okay? And shūkurīmu is like a puff pastry. I thought when they said, oh, we have shūkurīmu, I thought they meant like cream that you clean your shoe with, like shoe cream. But it's actually this. And this looks really good. 7-Eleven makes their own sweets. The seven sweets. So it has Hokkaido cream and it's premium. That's a word that they use a lot. It has... Oh, yeah. This is what I'm talking about. It's premium. So it tells you here what's inside, okay? This here is vanilla beans. It says here there's vanilla beans and there's a layer of vanilla and then there's the custard cream here. Oh my God. This should be illegal.

00:16:17 John Daub: Smells sweet. You can find the hole too. This is where the hole where they put the cream in and when I first started eating these shūkurīmu. I would just suck the cream out of the hole until there was no more cream inside and then I would just eat the bread, the cake around it. But it's kind of disgusting and I don't think that's something I'm going to share with you. But if you're 12 years old, you can suck the cream out of the hole. Okay. Here we go. You see that? Oh, yeah. Nice. This is awesome. Okay. Cheers. Oh my. Yep. Vanilla. I definitely can taste the vanilla. Midnight snack run is awesome. This is way too cool.

00:17:25 John Daub: Here's the best part. On the way home, there's another 7-Eleven. Literally in my neighborhood, there's a convenience store every like 100 meters or 300 feet or something. Tokyo on a Sunday night is pretty much deserted. So good. This one's for you guys. Look at the cream in there. This can't be good right before you go to bed. Sabrina, thank you so much for the super chat. These are going towards more midnight snacks. Oh, man. So good. Johnny needs more. Johnny needs another shūkurīmu. That was so good. You know what? I'm going to go get some more. There's the 7-Eleven right there. Remember? We just left the 7-Eleven. Up ahead, there's another one. You see it right there? Why did they put it so close?

00:19:10 John Daub: Thank you, George, for the snack run super chat. This is cool. Oh, my. That shūkurīmu is so good. I don't know how many times I can say that. But I can keep saying it until you get tired of it, then you just stop watching this live stream. But it is. This is something about the custard and they mix it up with Hokkaido cream. Oh, it's just so rich. I'm slightly full from that too, but we're gonna take a look at this 7-Eleven and see maybe there's something more. Now, did you see that Haagen-Dazs in there? 7-Eleven has this like Japan-style Haagen-Dazs only 7-Eleven seems to have it. I've never seen it in the supermarkets. And it sort of has like the sweet flavors of Japan into ice cream and the normal Haagen-Dazs is more like plain macadamia, vanilla, cookies and cream. And then 7-Eleven has like these outrageous flavors. I don't know how they do it, you know, just 7-Eleven can do anything.

00:20:26 John Daub: Alright, here we are. I can't believe there's another 7-Eleven like a hundred and fifty meters away from the last one. It's crazy. Sumo 7-Eleven. Ikkyū-san (Ikkyu the monk). Alright, we're back. What else should I get here? Mix, have you tried the chicken in konbini (convenience stores)? What's your favorite konbini store? You know, I tried the chicken but the problem... I'm glad that you brought it up. The chicken is actually really good. But the problem is I stopped eating it because it's loaded with chemicals and after I eat it, it's so good that the taste stays with me for like a few hours after I eat it. And so I stopped eating the convenience store chicken like the karaage (fried chicken). They usually put the karaage on a stick or in a little paper cup and they're so good. But you know, it's pumped full of chemicals and you burp it up. No, I decided not to go back to the convenience store chicken. But I do like the convenience store nikuman (steamed pork buns).

00:22:04 John Daub: The steamed buns, the steamed dumplings and they put either... There's three main, four main kinds that they have at the convenience store. One is the nikuman which just has like stewed pork inside of it. It's like the normal Chinese nikuman steamed dumpling. The second one is the pizzaman. The pizzaman has like it's a steamed dumpling but they put pizza cheese, the cheese and tomato sauce in it. The third is the karēman (curry bun) and they put curry inside of it and it's kind of yellowish orange color. And then the fourth one I think is the azukiman (red bean bun) and they have the red bean paste. That's a dessert one. Dessert one. Alright, I'm liking this idea. Let's go see if they have a nikuman. Okay, again, and I'm not gonna film a lot in there. So just bear with me. Okay, just if I have a chance to show you something I will but you know, I might not turn the camera around.

00:24:00 John Daub: Nikuman is gone. It's taking so long. Oh, really? It's okay. Sorry. No nikuman. No nikuman. Alright, let's see if there's something else. He says it takes 40 minutes to cook it. Hisobapan. This looks pretty good too. Alright, this is gonna be cool.

00:25:56 John Daub: I had no nikuman. He said I asked him, I told him I said do you have any nikuman? He goes no we're all out. I said so it's over. He goes yeah, it's over but we can cook it. But it takes 40 minutes. And I'm not waiting 40 minutes. I bet you he would wait 40 minutes for nikuman. That's um, who is that? That's a sumo wrestler who's from this area? He lives in my area of Tokyo. I forget. He's a yokozuna. Alright, let's try this now. I'm gonna... There's a good place to unbox this right here. I got this stand this Osmo is pretty cool. Alright, that's not too bad. That's better than before had it like aimed up at the traffic light. Nice, alright now this. This looks super cool and it looks super chemical. This is no better than the chicken.

00:27:11 John Daub: Funwari maple. Oh my I made a mistake. I thought it said pudding. I read it too quick. It's not. It's not. Alright. This is so bad. It looks like you think it's melon pan (melon bread), right? It's not melon pan. I totally messed this up, but it's okay. We're gonna take a bite out of it. This is total chemical. Oh, it's shin hatsubai (new release). This sticker, it says shin hatsubai. It means it's a new product. Yeah, it is totally maple. Oh my gosh, it's total, all chemical. But, you know, it's past midnight and I'm not a gremlin, so it's okay. You see that? You think it's maple? It's not. It's just, it's really light bread. And, alright, let's, here we go. Do you know what that is? Oh, it's like, it's like gelled on there. That's maple. And, um, I thought, I thought it was pudding. It's not pudding. It's worse. It's margarine. I'm not kidding you. That's margarine. What the heck? I can't eat this. Oh, dude, this is margarine. Can I put, can I take it back now? Is it too late? Oh, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What's wrong with people? Can I trade it? Is it too late to trade it for something else? You know what? I'm just gonna put it away. Thanks, Toby. Thanks for buying me that one. Toby sent me a super chat. I got, I made a mistake and I bought margarine maple bread. I thought it was maple pudding. Why would they put margarine in that? Ugh. I lost my cravings for...

00:29:45 John Daub: So that concludes the midnight snack run. The Tokyo midnight snack run. It's just sort of fun. So, normally, I'm out here because normally I'm editing videos in the middle of the night. Usually until about 2 or 3 in the morning because it's so quiet. I can focus. Look, see how the city's all shut down? I love it. I don't wake up and, sometimes I go to bed when I hear the crows. That means the sun's coming up. And hear, ah, ah. That's when I know it's time to stop editing and go to bed.

00:30:20 John Daub: I've been working on the next Only in Japan episode. It's about Japanese wagyu. And I filmed it at a wagyu ranch in Tottori. And I filmed at a wagyu restaurant. And I went behind the scenes and watched them cut it. And I got to barbecue it and eat it. And I kind of explained the principles of itadakimasu (I humbly receive). Which is important. I guess since I'm eating it. And I didn't say itadakimasu, which I probably should have said. Because there's a lot of meaning behind that word. It's giving thanks. It has a really deep meaning to give thanks for what's in front of you. The food that you're eating. And if it's meat, it's giving appreciation to the life of the animal. I had no idea. I've been living here for almost 20 years and I didn't know how deep the word itadakimasu was. It actually is. I just thought it's something like you say for grace, right? But, you know, when you said grace at a dinner table, I'd never really felt it. Until I went to Tottori and I filmed this. I went and saw the wagyu at the stable. At the ranch. And I played with the wagyu. They're so cute, they're so smart. And then I went to the restaurant where they serve that wagyu and had to wrap my head around eating the cattle that I just gone and played with. And the way that the Japanese do that or somebody who's a rancher does that is by not being a cruel person. This is like every farmer, really. It's by giving thanks for what's in front of you. And I don't think if you can be a meat-eater and not have appreciation for that meat without going and meeting that animal, this is really deep. Without going and meeting that animal and then trying to get yourself to eat it, it's really really hard to do that. And I did that in Tottori. It wasn't the same animal that I met. This is one he said it takes about 30 or 45 days the meat is refrigerated before they actually serve it so it's not like they serve it right away. It takes a while but I still had to wrap my head around it and I didn't really want to eat the meat after I played with the animals. But the restaurant owner taught me very deeply the meaning of the word itadakimasu and I could wrap my head around it a little bit better but still it was pretty deep. This is one of the deepest episodes I think that I've ever done.

00:33:25 John Daub: And it's taken a while because I've been on location. I was in Fukushima for like 10 days and I was in Tottori for two weeks and I was in Ibaraki. I've been traveling non-stop all through November and I'm working on this episode right now. I'm going to be doing a lot of work right now in my apartment which is over there and I needed this midnight run. This is fun so we're gonna do some more midnight snack runs I think this is sort of cool just so I can get outside of the studio and do something, try some food. And it's just gonna read the labels next time because that was pretty nasty. Toby you want me to send this to you I can send this to you it has an expiration date for five days I think which that in itself is not really good. When you're eating at midnight you don't really care you just eat it's like gremlins right remember gizmo eat after midnight bad stuff happens.

00:34:31 John Daub: He's asleep alright you see over here all right there this is also near my house this is about 50 meters from my house and it's Matsuya and Matsuya has these really great beef bowls. Toby is it is this is this guy let's I bet you someone will chime in and let you know who Toby is I don't want to go through the story again Toby is legend yeah Toby's legend he really is. Alright that's Matsuya and Matsuya has what what is called a beef bowl or gyūdon (beef bowl). Look at the menu this one is a kimchi gyūdon wow this looks pretty good too I should eat in here. Alright next time we're going here. $5.99 that's cheap and look there's the premium gyūdon here 308 that's three dollars and fifty cents this oh my word that looks so good why didn't I get this this one has that hanjuku tamago (soft-boiled egg) I like oh it smells really meaty curry rice as well very nice. Alright I'm coming back here there's one dude okay midnight snack is over Toby I'm sending you a message I'm sending you a message I'm sending you a message I'm sending this to you I think I think you gave me your address before so it's coming your way buddy margarine maple bread.

00:36:20 John Daub: Alright so I hope everybody else is doing well I haven't live streamed for a few days and I'm gonna be doing a lot more oh and actually tomorrow I'm gonna do a live stream just to introduce a new project I'm doing it's not really project it's something I've been doing something on patreon called the postcard club and a lot of people have been asking me to sell merch. Hello hello can you see me I thank you Marcus coffee for the bad taste out of your mouth. Alright you know what Marcus you got a buddy alright let's go to a vending machine right now. You know what happened I'm near my house now and the my Wi-Fi cut in and took over the 4G signal and I lost everything so what I'm gonna do is go to a vending machine right now and get a coffee to get that awful awful taste out of my mouth it's so bad look it's like Toby the crow swooped down and did one in my mouth blah sorry Toby I apologize not really.

00:37:56 John Daub: Okay there's a machine over there we're gonna we're gonna put Marcus's super chat to good use do you see it over there but now that I switched the stream everything is backwards it's weird YouTube guilty here we go see here what what what drinks do we have that can erase the awful memory of margarine maple bread. Alright this is tea this is hot tea Oh Jūrokucha (16-blend tea) I like this one. I'm gonna get this one that's nice yeah I appreciate that the super chat that's really nice. Alright so this one is hot it's not 13 blends of tea this jūrokucha so it's actually pretty good they do have black coffee right here but let me see here got a bunch you know what I think I got I got my oh no this vending machine doesn't take it doesn't take I have a Suica card this one doesn't take it.

00:39:27 John Daub: Alright we gotta find another vending machine alright I know where there's one alright here's one this is a keyring vending machine and this one takes um oh no this takes T-point cards but doesn't take Suica that's messed up so it takes another point card that's weird. How they always do construction in the middle of the night as well you see the construction what are they doing I live next to the station and I'm always suffering because they have construction going on around here it's another reason to work in the middle of the night. Alright I'm trying to get rid of that bad taste there's this Harry Potter hole secret hole in the wall I'm afraid I might lose the signal if I go in there you see do you see that between the buildings is this secret it's the secret passageway oh my gosh it's dark you see me oh my gosh I hope I don't step in something. Alright here's the other end only in Tokyo can you do this like go between buildings at one in the morning vending machine I told you I'm a changed man I just teleported to the other side no Pasmo there's no Suica I can't use IC cards there I'm gonna buy the drink with my IC card this one has gotta have it.

00:42:01 John Daub: Looks like it's a Christmas tree Oh come on I'm really this is the year 2017 you guys got it Coca-Cola has to really up their game because this is ridiculous um okay what the heck is this? Kiwi Fanta! Alright, I'm game. Kiwi Fanta only. It's all abra Fil esperanto. Kiwi Fanta? Never heard that before. Anybody interested in Kiwi Fanta? What do you think? And then there's this. This is a new tea. I haven't seen this one before. Kiwi Fanta. Alright, that looks right. Feels right. Whoa! This looks crazy. I've never seen this one before. Kiwi? Really? Alright, we're going to have to try this, huh? This is washed away the margarine bread.

00:44:06 John Daub: The margarine has a plus E. What does a plus E mean? Alright, hold on a second. Kiwi has 1.5 percent of vitamin E that you... So it has 1.5 percent of the vitamin E I need in my diet. I could use some vitamin E. Never mind the other vitamins. We're going straight to the E. In Japanese, E is ii (good). We say E. E means good. So, this is good. Kiwi good. One hand it. That really hurts. Okay, hold on. Ah, yeah. So quiet. It's like one... Well past one a.m. Oh, dude. Tastes like kiwi, but... You know, kiwi's naturally sweet. You don't have to dump in all this sugar. It's not bad, but... It's really, really sweet. It feels good knowing that I'm getting one and a half times the amount of vitamin E I need in my diet. Because after that margarine maple bread... I need some vitamins, I think.

00:45:45 John Daub: I appreciate all the superchats, everybody. Thanks for that. And, uh, this is really fun. These midnight snacks. I thought I would just try it out and see if it works. And this is something I can take you on a trip. Because I like doing these live streams. It's because I'm bringing you with me on these little mini-adventures. Yeah. Like a midnight snack run is something that I don't want to do alone. So it's pretty cool because there's 630 people joining me on this. And that makes it a lot more fun, doesn't it? Okay, I'm back here. Again. So, kanpai (cheers). Some kiwi for all of you. Thanks for that.

00:46:30 John Daub: So, I'm gonna get back to work. There's a new Only in Japan episode coming. If not in the next hour. By tomorrow morning. And, uh... I hope you enjoy it. That took a long time for me to make. There's a bunch of episodes coming over the next couple of weeks. So, it's gonna get a lot of fun. Because it's December. Thank you BSFatboy for the super chats. I appreciate the super chats. You guys are very kind to me. Alright, so you know what? This is really cool. This is fun. So I'm gonna do some more midnight Tokyo... Some Tokyo midnight snack runs. This one was a kind of an experiment to see how it would go. And, uh... We're gonna keep doing it. Because it's fun. I don't know about this Kiwi Fanta. But... Um... It's Fanta.

00:47:28 John Daub: So while these construction workers work through the night. I will also... Thank you Stephanie. For a future midnight snack run. Thank you. That's definitely gonna come in handy. Because... I think that... Matsuya. The gyūdon place. Is where I'm gonna head next time. And I'm gonna ask her if I can film in there. So then... I don't have to sneak around. Like a spy. But you know what? That sort of makes it more fun. So thanks everybody. Um... Toby I'm sending you this margarine bread. I don't know if it'll clear customs buddy. But... Uh... I do appreciate this super chat. Thanks everybody. Have a good night. See you next time. Probably tomorrow. Haha.