00:00:00 John Daub: The airport, this is inside Terminal 2 after immigration. Before I fly to the United States, I thought I'd take a few minutes—probably more like 20—to show you around Terminal 2 after passport control, immigration, and customs. There's a really cool shop where you can get just about every gift. You don't need to buy gifts before you go through security; you can buy everything after. This is Narita Airport Terminal 2. Today I'm flying to Dallas, then changing to Philadelphia, and eventually to New York City.

00:01:23 John Daub: There are people from everywhere—I'm hearing so many different languages. Alright, there it is, the one with all the neon lights. They call it Akihabara. There's an electronics store, and across from it all the snacks. They have just about everything. It's so popular, it's crowded with people. Hello everybody. Once again, for those joining me, I'm at Narita after passport control, looking for stuff to buy. I've already bought some snacks, but I thought I'd show you around this shop—this is after immigration, so if you don't know about it, you wouldn't shop here. I guess that's tax free.

00:02:17 John Daub: Alright, let's start from the beginning. Royce chocolate is definitely hard to pass up. This is the Hokkaido potato, like deep fried—crispy, not like french fries. Oh, Ginza French Pie—I've never heard of these before. There's a lot of new cookies coming into the market: raisin cookies, matcha green tea cookies, I guess a wafer with green tea cream inside. Oh, these are Hokkaido gifts. Sorry about the flashing light—the current is different in Tokyo. It's 50 hertz, so it doesn't work well with many cameras. But this is from Hokkaido, so these aren't just all from Tokyo.

00:03:43 John Daub: Oh, this looks good too. This is Kyobam—looks like a tire, but it's really a layered cake wrapped around. I like the display a lot. Ah, white and black. Oh, it's not KitKat—there's a lot of KitKat here and there. This is the famous Black Thunder. They're all famous. It's really crowded in here—wow, the line is so long. So this is Nihonbashi Monaka. These look good too. This is Hakuto mochi, really soft and chewy. Wow, I've never seen this before—ringo aji (apple flavor). Interesting, might buy some of this. I mean, this one I know very well: wasabi, high quality. And they have strawberry cheesecake. How much is this? Oh, 800 yen—that's pretty expensive. It's cheaper here, yeah, because there's no tax—tax free.

00:05:50 John Daub: Wow, that's a little bit cheaper—that's interesting. So actually, I think it's cheaper. It's hard to figure. Oh, these cookies—there's like chocolate between the wafers or something. I love the colors they use on the boxes. Oh wow, it's just so crowded—look, you can see the line of people. Everybody wants to buy their gifts here. Oh my gosh, it's too crowded. Okay, I got to regroup—I'm going back in for one more run at it. But it's pretty cool.

00:06:46 John Daub: I live from Florida—hi John, just wanted to say support you on Patreon very soon. Thank you very much. By the way, I have the postcard club on Patreon. I make my own original postcards, print out about 200 of them. We have about 75 people now getting postcards via Patreon for the postcard club. Next month it'll be yokan (Japanese sweet) on the front—I took it from above the table of all the really beautiful food. It's quite a spectacular view when you see it; it makes you hungry. So I put that on the next postcard. I'm going to go back in—I'm going to fight my way in. Here we go: tax free Akihabara. Are you ready? Let's do this. We're going in one more time.

00:07:34 John Daub: We have Japanese sake—very nice, very very nice. These are from Hokkaido: Shiroi Koibito (White Lovers). And oh, they got chocolate—usually it's just white chocolate with a very delicate cookie. You can see it here—they're so good. Now you can get them just about everywhere; you don't have to get them in Hokkaido. It's so crowded—how am I supposed to get through? It's like I don't give up easy. It's pretty cool they have these gifts—these are furoshiki (wrapping cloths). So it's pretty cool they have furoshiki here. Very nice. Thanks, Toby (crow). Hey Toby, I thought you were coming to Japan—now I'm going to the States, stateside.

00:08:56 John Daub: Kotsuko—I've never seen this before. These are from Shizuoka, from Mount Fuji, and there's a little anime to help promote it. Oh, there's cream inside. For anyone coming to the meetup in New York City, I actually bought some confections from the airport to give everybody—so hopefully I have enough. I don't know how many people are going. Oh wow, we got other gifts—they're really good at cookies here. I can hardly move. This is like the super variety pack—I've never seen anything like this. It's got like dorayaki (pancake sandwiches). They call it the super one: this is koshi-an (fine strained red bean paste), shiro-an (white bean paste), custard—wow, a little bit of everything. This is the Japan-an-to—don't know what it means, but 24 for 1000 yen, real cheap, not bad.

00:10:21 John Daub: Oh, I love this one—this is so good. This is a Hokkaido cake—it's a bombe (layered cake), you see all the layers. They roll a cake on, then put on a layer of white chocolate and cocoa, marbled it on there. It's so good and sweet—I think it's sugar. I've had this many times before—really good. I'm keeping my eye on this one. There's no way I'm gonna get through this line. Hello. Oh, I got past them all—now we're talking. Let's get away from the flickers. This is Royce chocolate again, from Hokkaido: matcha almond chocolate—very cool. I love the design; the packaging is awesome. This costs 1000 yen. Here we have Hokkaido yaki cheese—this is grilled cheese crackers from Hokkaido, doesn't look bad. I like how they're all appealing by putting little decorations in a diorama—that's cool.

00:11:58 John Daub: Alright, so these are pressed shrimp chips—ebizukushi, 2000 yen. Look at the way they've pressed it—they've put the shrimp through a press and made a chip out of it. It says sweet shrimp—now that is cool. You can see the shrimp head and whiskers on it. Thank you, Ellis. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Von. The senbei (rice crackers). These are really good gifts because the impact of a flattened shrimp chip is just awesome. Six pieces and two cups for 2000 yen—I guess that's reasonable. You can get even more for 3000 yen.

00:13:24 John Daub: Now these are really cool: o-tabe (hand-pressed rice cakes), cinnamon and matcha o-tabe. I think these are very popular in the Kansai region—you can see it's cut in a triangle, inside red bean paste. There's a better shot. These are chewy—I love these. One reason I like it is you can get 10 in a little box like this and it's really cheap—so an incredible gift. This one has different flavors, but at the airport they've put everything in four languages: Korean, Chinese, English, Japanese. I don't think they need Japanese—everybody knows what this is. But 500 yen for that volume makes this a really good buy.

00:14:25 John Daub: It's really crowded—sorry, I'm tight in here. Oh, this is the Hiyoko—famous from Yokohama. Look at the way they dressed it up: they put custard and anko (red bean paste) in it, white anko. And look, they've dressed them up in little kimono—that's awesome. Haha. Oh, I know these—these are Hiyoko Sand (chick-shaped cakes). They're really good, but these little chicks with white bean paste inside—sweet, good, and cute. This makes a really good gift—I like the packaging too. You get nine for 1000 yen, like $10—a really good deal. Oh, there's the KitKats again: wasabi cheesecake and rum raisin.

00:15:42 John Daub: Oh, I saw Toby. So you're stateside—I saw Toby chat a little bit ago. Toby, going back to the States to renew your license? Dude no, I already have... Alright, I'm going to get my license for sure next time—guaranteed. I'm taking the Japanese driver's license test—failed the last two times. It's really hard; you have to know the laws of Japan driving. They're not testing how to drive, but that you know the laws—and it's the most impractical test around. I didn't sleep the last two days—haven't slept in 48 hours, so I look tired. But don't worry, I'll get lots of sleep on the airplane—we'll be fine.

00:16:38 John Daub: You know what? I've got a little time—don't know if I can make it to the back. You see the back of the shop? Loaded with booze and interesting stuff—I can't get back there, too crowded. And they're giving out free samples—look at that lady handing out free food. Why don't I do that? Freebie tour—what is this? Free food. Oh, it's delicious—a simple dish. Looks like somebody got there first. Oh, that's this one: chocolate sandwich cookie with coffee cream, sweet chocolate—that's a good deal. I'm going to have to come back for that. Alright, getting to the back.

00:17:52 John Daub: This is mentaiko (spicy cod roe)—really good on rice. Cool they have this, but can you bring it into the US? Looks prohibited like dried squid—I love this too, but have to declare it. This one has a sweet taste. Alright, made it to the back—this is pretty cool. So we got umeshu (plum wine)—never seen this before, like pus in there? Oh, different kind of umeshu—sorry if I grossed you out, not pus. Never seen anything like that. Whenever they write English on it, it's unattractive—I want authentic. This one has ume inside: 2400 yen, about $20. This bottle's got dragons—$100, says Fuji, Fujiyama, Mount Fuji sunrise—$40, not bad. Oh, Hakkai-san, one of my favorites—this is Ginjo, $17, but you can go premium. That looks like a genie lamp—$100, little pricey.

00:20:01 John Daub: We have Kubota—I like this brand: Junmai Daiginjo, top tier, 5000 yen, normal price. Actually not bad—you pay about 5000 yen outside duty-free. Gozenshu (brand?)—friends at the side have a shop here too, bottle 5000 yen. Alright, I gotta go—my flight's leaving. Means I've been live streaming way too long. Thanks for sharing that experience with me at the Akihabara duty-free shop—they seem to have every snack imaginable, and every traveler has found it because the line is immense. Would take forever; come way in advance or maybe better to buy outside.

00:21:10 John Daub: Yessss! Going to gate 75 for my flight to Dallas—changing there. Doing a meetup in New York City January 21st, a Thursday—Facebook event page, would be awesome to meet you. I have about 36 little eggs I bought—oh I better go, final call. 36 little eggs—so I'll see you later everybody, gotta go—final call, bye bye.