Tokyo's Secret Gourmet Town: Juicy Katsudon in Arakicho, Shinjuku

00:00:04 John Daub: So this town behind me is called Arakicho. And in this live stream, we're going to be showing you a secret gourmet town here in Shinjuku. Now, it might not be secret at the end of this. And this is the first of four live streams that we're going to be doing in Arakicho. So I hope that we have a lot of fun. I'm starving. And it's fortunate that I'm here in a gourmet town, because we have lots of options. But over there, my friend is waiting, and I'm going to introduce you to him, and we're going to find a really nice place to eat. Behind me is Arakicho. We're going to see some more. We're going to see some more from this town. But first, let's go meet my friend. And there he is. Hey, David. How are you? Very good. All right, so where exactly are we, David?

00:01:17 David: Yeah, that's Yotsuya Sanchome. That's about 10 minutes.

00:01:30 John Daub: Good. I can see that. I can see the metro station here, so it's very easy access to get to the secret gourmet. And over here, I guess we're gonna be going this way or this way. It's down here, right?

00:01:40 David: Yeah, to our left, we're gonna go down this street that has lots of bars and restaurants. It's the main street.

00:01:49 John Daub: That's a map. Oh, this is awesome. Oh my. So I can already see loads and loads of restaurants here.

00:01:56 David: Yeah, it's only just one part. This is only the restaurants on the Main Street. Like 100, 100 different places.

00:02:03 John Daub: A hundred? Wait, hold on. 100?

00:02:08 David: Yeah, 105. There are 105 places listed. That's only the main street. And then all the side streets have a bunch more, and it totals to about 300.

00:02:18 John Daub: How. How did I not see this? How did I not know about this town? Is there a reason why. Why is this place so secret?

00:02:26 David: It's. That's a good question. But we're trying to find out, trying to get more people to come here, right?

00:02:40 John Daub: This is David. Let me do a proper introduction. This is David. He. He's with Tadaima Japan. And if you want to get more information on this, you can check out Tadaima Japan's website. And there's articles on this, right?

00:02:56 David: Yeah, I write articles. We're a whole team of people visiting places and writing articles about the different bars and restaurants here and telling you where to go, what is it they do, and how to enjoy the places In English.

00:03:08 John Daub: Is this a hipster town?

00:03:11 David: Yeah. I guess it would be, sort of. I mean, it used to be quite a popular place. Drinking spot for people that worked in TV media back in the 70s and 80s.

00:03:27 David: Should we go?

00:03:28 John Daub: Yeah, let's. Let's check it out. So notice this street is off of the main avenue here, and it gets a lot quieter. It was pretty loud up there.

00:03:44 David: So once you venture into the side streets, like a different world. And so forth. Is much more lively in the evening. But lunchtime is also good here. We're gonna have lunch.

00:03:51 John Daub: I am starving. I see here a lot of restaurants as well. Are these. This is all part of Arakicho.

00:04:04 David: That's right. Yeah. Mostly Japanese food. A lot of kaiseki ryori restaurants.

00:04:22 John Daub: Traditional Japanese cuisine. Kaiseki ryori. Very expensive.

00:04:29 David: Sushi shops.

00:04:32 John Daub: Oh, cool. Yeah, I like how she's putting on lipstick. No, no, no, no. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought that was lipstick. She's eating sushi. Oh, I thought that was lipstick. Oh, that's so cool. All right. And you can see right now this is a sushi place. Looks very good. But we're not. We're not going here, right? Just a quick shout out to Gretchen. Thanks for joining us, Gretchen. We'll. We'll eat this for you. Okay, so Gretchen in Arizona is watching.

00:05:16 David: I hope it's warmer in Arizona than it's here.

00:05:19 John Daub: I'm pretty sure it's warmer in Arizona. It's pretty warm in Arizona. I think it's like 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Let's leave the main street. We're going to dive into.

00:05:36 John Daub: Oh, this is so cool. And it's gotten really quiet. It just looks like this. David. This looks like the Japan that I like, the Tokyo that I searched for. It's like the old traditional streets. Very, very small alleys, very secretive. I'm surprised we got 4G signal here. Yeah. Feels like we're the only people walking down the street. Although I saw a guy with a cell phone, however. Yeah, it's like time has sort of stood still here. Oh, and there's even more. This alley seems to go on forever.

00:06:04 David: Places on the ground floor, on the second floor, there are like three or four different restaurants. There's like sake bars on the second floor.

00:06:20 John Daub: So I mean, I love Japanese sake.

00:06:24 David: And so you've got the small bars that seat maybe 10 people at max maximum. 10 people. You got to reserve for the ways you won't get in.

00:06:40 John Daub: Oh, so is this. Is this place crowded? You said it was secret.

00:06:42 David: Surprisingly, yeah. It was the people who know.

00:06:56 John Daub: But you should make a reservation. A popular place for the popular places.

00:07:00 John Daub: Oh, it's Tonkatsu. Boom. This is going to be awesome. And that was in the thumbnail for this video, that Tonkatsu. So I'm really looking forward to this. And at night, what is this neighborhood like?

00:07:29 David: It's really funny, but because a lot of the shops are on the ground floor and they have these wide storefronts, you can actually look inside and see people drink, eat, and they're very, very intimate shops.

00:07:50 John Daub: So you get. You get glimpses of life.

00:07:53 David: Jazz bars. Music bars. So you have music coming out. This is a fun place to go to. I've been there recently. We've got articles on that place too.

00:08:06 John Daub: Science bar. You can check out an article on the Tada Majapan website of what it's like inside. Do they serve. Do they serve the drinks in Erlenmeyer flasks?

00:08:20 David: Exactly.

00:08:22 John Daub: I just wanted to say Erlenmeyer flasks. I don't know why.

00:08:31 David: And wine and all that. Flask test tubes and what else? Beakers. Measured beakers.

00:08:46 John Daub: Beakers of booze. Bring it on. I like how they're hanging the laundry out. This is so. This is so local. Yeah. Look at that. Oh yeah. You can watch. Wash your hands at the door. Like a shrine. This is so local. And this is Shinjuku. Shinjuku Ku. This is Shinjuku Ward.

00:09:02 David: This is inside the center of the Shinjuku world.

00:09:12 John Daub: Okay. Wait a second. That looks like Godzilla's tail made a little opening in the cement. You can see on the side of the street. It's just a hole in the wall, but they put a door here. Brilliant. What's this place called?

00:09:56 David: It's Kakushi. Hidden Bar.

00:10:00 John Daub: And you can see Arakicho, the Japanese kanji, on the side there. Very cool. It's a magic bartender. Oh, I see. And if you can't find the entrance, the magic is on the other side of the curtain there. Very nice. Yes. Okay, shortcut. Follow David. There's just a smell. You mean this one? Secret alley. Should we whisper? And we're now going towards the Tonkatsu restaurant. If you're hungry, stay. Just stick with us for a couple more minutes as we make our way to the restaurant. Just wanted to give you a glimpse of this neighborhood and a little park here. Very nice. It's. You know, this is not my image of Shinjuku. Shinjuku's image is a buzzing, bustling salaryman. Crowded, loud town. Yet the ward is mostly like this.

00:11:26 David: Exactly. Yeah. This place is a bit unique because it's crammed with more bars and restaurants than any other neighborhood. Similar neighborhood.

00:11:36 John Daub: Did you hear that? This neighborhood is crammed with more bars than any other neighborhood. I wonder what it's like at night. Wait, we're gonna be here at night, right?

00:11:50 David: It's just. It's historical reason. I'm gonna go right here, actually. This used to be a residence garden. And nobody. Nobody lived here, actually, except the Lord.

00:12:14 John Daub: Just. Just the Daimyos.

00:12:18 David: But when they finished with the whole feudal system about 150 years ago, then this garden is no longer needed.

00:12:38 John Daub: So this used to be a garden here, is what you're saying.

00:12:43 David: That's why there's all slopes. This is the. After that was an entertainment area for geishas. Tea houses. Geishas, where you came for fun. And then it became a place for bars and restaurants.

00:13:20 John Daub: Wow. 50s and 60s cool. And this is. This is it behind us. And it's now just really quiet and at night. Okay. And look at this little secret. This is pretty cool, too. A little secret entrance on the side of the steps allows you to go in. And I love this little. This tree here. Very nice. This is, you know, this is the experience. I think so many people that are coming to Japan look for, and then they don't discover it because they don't know it exists. And. And I think not a lot of Japanese people know about this neighborhood, too. Just locals. People who live in Shinjuku or in this area know about this neighborhood. It's not something that's been publicized a lot, which is why when David introduced this area to me a month ago and said, hey, let's do some live streaming here, I was like, yeah, because we got a secret place. Anytime you say the word secret, I'm like, what? And what we have here is hopefully. Oh, okay, okay. This isn't the restaurant, but it's still really cool. I mean, what.

00:15:00 David: This is very unusual to have a pond, a real pond, in the center of Tokyo. Yeah, this used to be much bigger. Now this is all that remains is this little pond here with the koi or car.

00:15:30 John Daub: I can't believe that this exists. A pond like this in Tokyo, like in the center. This is inside the Yamanote line. I mean, I know places like this exist, but I'd never seen it so quiet and without any tourists or people. And maybe it's because we did have some rain this morning. Maybe that's scared away the people. But why is it so quiet? I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it.

00:16:05 David: If you're familiar with Ieyasu Tokugawa.

00:16:10 John Daub: Yeah. The last shogun of Japan. There you go.

00:16:16 David: There you go. Apparently, he came here in the past to wash his whip. The horsewhip. Oh, this is called pond of the whip. It's got a historical connection to.

00:17:00 John Daub: From the last shogun of Japan.

00:17:02 David: Yeah, he used to come here.

00:17:04 John Daub: And we have some carp, some koi. All right, let's get to the restaurant. We gotta hurry. All right. Because we said 1:30. Right. Last order. All right. Oh, oh, okay. Okay. I'll smile if there's food involved. I'll smile real big. You better believe it.

00:18:00 David: To let us eat after one. After the last order.

00:18:03 John Daub: Yeah. A little motenashi. Very, very cool. Okay, one more.

00:18:33 David: One more staircase to go up.

00:18:35 John Daub: Okay. Here is the Tadaiman ryokan. This is a ryokan. That. That's. Well, we're going to see this later, right?

00:18:56 David: Yeah.

00:18:57 John Daub: Yeah. Okay. But this is a place where people can stay and get to know the neighborhood better. And we're going to look at it in more detail later on. But here it is very cool. The sound of silence. Laundry. Laundry day. Yeah, this is pretty cool.

00:19:44 David: Blackstones come from the old Yotsuya Sanchomi tram station.

00:19:50 John Daub: Really? So they just recycled it, took it from the tram station when it ended and made a tram. Right, Trolley. I think in this neighborhood you could really get a slice. Or you can feel how everyday life is in the city of Tokyo for residents. Most of the people, they don't work here. This is where they live. And it's sort of neat to be able to see that. Oh, this is it, right? Finally. I can smell it. Nice. Oh, I gotta go. I gotta pull all the way back to get this in. Oh, this is so nice. This is an old Tonkatsu restaurant. What's it called? Suzu. Yeah. Suzu is quiet, right? No. Or is it cold? I forget. Shin is new, right? Let's ask him.

00:21:07 David: We'll ask him. The owner's name is Suzuki.

00:21:10 John Daub: Suzuki. Ah, okay. Oh, yeah. The rain's the. The rain's good. This is good. That's a good sign, everybody. It was rain. We had thunder right before. Very historical looking restaurant. It's closed, but it's open to us because we called in advance. Seriously. Okay. All right. So maybe I'll go. I'll go in the end. Okay. YouTube out. If we wanted tea, hot or cold,

00:22:37 David: you want to use the hanger?

00:23:01 John Daub: A lot of people can speak English here today. But we can see down here. The chef. But we'll talk to him later. We'll talk to him later. Wow. So here's the menu. Yeah. America. Oh, wow.

00:23:57 David: That's his father.

00:24:00 John Daub: Okay, this is his father.

00:24:06 David: This is back in the 1950s or 1960s. This is Showa 33.

00:24:18 John Daub: Showa 33, which was 1958. Wow. Look at the neighborhood's really changed. You can see.

00:24:37 David: You can see us again. So we should. We should order some food.

00:24:41 John Daub: Okay, let's order the food.

00:24:42 David: We have some time to check out the menu. Let's order some food. Don't I know what I'm going to get. Oh, you do? All right.

00:25:00 John Daub: What's your recommendation then?

00:25:06 David: Well, if you're a first timer here, you should go for the one of the katsudons. They have three. This is their speciality is. I mean, katsudon, which is a rice bowl topped with pork cutlets, deep fried pork cutlets and an egg.

00:25:44 John Daub: You're reading that right off the menu because it happens to be in English. They have the menu in English.

00:25:51 David: Very cool. So the one. The most famous one is the second one, which is crispy batter pork cutlet with soft pork inside on the bowl of rice or just simply in Japanese, kake katsudon.

00:26:19 John Daub: That's right, Yeah. I recommend that Kake katsudon.

00:26:26 John Daub: Okay, I'm gonna try the kake katsudon then. All right. So I'm pretty excited about this actually. I think I have a wide lens. Maybe we can use it.

00:26:50 David: Okay, we'll change this.

00:26:53 John Daub: All right. I'm starving. Now I like the fact that they do have an English menu. It makes it very simple. This costs 1200 yen and they make it for fresh right in front of you. And I'm guessing that with this window, with this window here, there's. This is where the oil is, right?

00:27:38 David: That's right, yeah. They're going to be frying it right there.

00:27:41 John Daub: This is where the window is. So that means on the other side is the oil. Am I right?

00:27:47 David: Don't drop the camera in the oil.

00:27:50 John Daub: I am right. Yeah, right there, down there. And this is the end of the lunchtime. So they've done a lot of frying over the last couple of hours. So yeah, I put this.

00:28:08 David: So this is a, say, a family run operation. So the, his Suzuki son, the owner, his, his father used to do the same shop and his, his son is now in charge of cooking and his wife is also helping.

00:28:40 John Daub: Oh, that's his wife.

00:28:41 David: That's right. Yeah. This is a family, family, family affair here. Yeah. And they've been making ton cuts here for 60 years.

00:28:52 John Daub: 60 years.

00:28:53 David: 60 years. So it's since I guess the World War II, 1950 or something.

00:28:59 John Daub: So that means it's, it's going to be really, really good.

00:29:04 David: It is good. You would not, I've been here many times.

00:29:11 John Daub: You would not bring me here if it was not super good.

00:29:14 David: I wouldn't dare. And I'm kind of like, I, I love Tonkatsu. So I'm a bit picky about it.

00:29:27 John Daub: Is that, is that the chef right there?

00:29:29 David: No, that's Hotte, one of the lucky seven gods. God of fortune.

00:29:44 John Daub: I'm just saying that's a really cool sight. Check out, check out the, on your, on your ride. There's a picture of the, the Suzuki size.

00:30:02 David: Check it out.

00:30:03 John Daub: Let's check it out right here. Very cool. Oh, there they are. This is the shop that we're in right now. Thank you, Deborah. And you can see a big bottle of beer which we're going to pass up for now because it's lunchtime. But for some people that wouldn't stop them. This being a booze town and Entertainment. But I like to see how it's still in that picture. It very much represents what we have behind us, which is like just a local shop run by a family making really good tonkatsu. And I'm starting to smell the tonkatsu. I'm getting super hungry.

00:30:52 David: In front of you. Got the.

00:30:56 John Daub: It is gone. Wow. So now they're. They're breading the pork cutlet. Everything is fresh.

00:31:15 David: I wonder if everybody knows what tomcats there is. Exactly. But it's. It's breaded with crumbs, flour, and egg.

00:31:31 John Daub: Right, Crumbs, flour, and egg, and then thrown in oil.

00:31:37 David: The pork comes from Ibaraki prefecture, which is famous for its pork.

00:31:43 John Daub: Oh, wow. That looks so good.

00:31:47 David: I hope your camera is fastly secured.

00:31:49 John Daub: It is. And I'm getting really hungry. Whenever I see anything boiling in oil, I just start drooling. I hope my drool doesn't go into the oil. Arigato. Wow. And everything is made right here in the kitchen. I like that. Right in front of you.

00:32:20 David: Everything's fresh and everything is quality. The rice is from Niigata.

00:32:28 John Daub: There's the rice cooker. I see that there. Now he's cooking up the onions for the. I bet that's for the katsudon.

00:32:35 David: Yeah, that's for your katsasi. That's service for your dish.

00:32:38 John Daub: Yeah, I know. I like katsudon. I like it a lot. Yeah. Sorry, that was. That was more for my pleasure than yours. Oh, and he put a little bit of dashi in there. Very nice. Oh, it's. It's. It's perfectly deep fried. This is awesome. And now we get. We got the egg. I'm eating this for all of you. Oh, yeah. All right. That's the part you don't need. And here comes the. Here comes the breaded pork cutlet. This is awesome. Oh, my gosh. I've never been so hungry in my life. I skipped breakfast for this. I can just watch this all day long.

00:33:48 David: You got a good zoom? Yeah. Look at that.

00:33:50 John Daub: Wow. So it's been in there for a few minutes now, and it's just getting more. More and more delicious. Where's its brother? Its little brother went walk about its little brother when Walkabout. There it is.

00:34:10 David: So worried about your camera.

00:34:12 John Daub: It's on there. It's on there. All right.

00:34:19 David: So I've been here many times, but I've never seen the tonkatsu fried up so close. Because I've seen it.

00:34:30 John Daub: It's because I want to get close to them. I want to feel My food. I put my hand in the oil too, but I have a feeling that would not end happily. I can't gnaw on my hand. So if you want us to eat this, you better hit the like button. Let's get the 500 likes. Slam that like button, and we're gonna chow down on this for all of you, because this is just way too good for. For it to have just 200 likes on this video. Come on. Oh, man, this looks so good.

00:35:07 David: Well, that's amazing.

00:35:11 John Daub: Oh, yeah. Here it comes. Here it comes. Here it comes.

00:35:25 David: Do you think you can eat everything?

00:35:27 John Daub: Oh, I can. I can eat all this.

00:35:30 David: Big, big portion, big size. Look at the golden color.

00:35:38 John Daub: Oh, the coloring is. It's just really nice.

00:35:43 David: It's really. It's sakusaku, as they say in Japanese. Crispy and crunchy. Yeah.

00:35:54 John Daub: Failed offerings is right. We must get the 500 likes. We are. Well, well, well, short of that. But we have some time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's yours. Oh, you're so lucky, because that came first.

00:36:21 David: Well, I'm gonna come get my city.

00:36:24 John Daub: Okay, David's getting ready. He's massaging his stomach. I'll be sitting right next to David. Yeah. Okay, let's check it out.

00:36:40 David: It's not gonna last long.

00:36:42 John Daub: All right, here you go. Everybody take a screenshot. Boom. That's for your Instagram. Very nice, Very nice. And you get miso soup, rice, and some otsumami, some pickles.

00:37:02 David: That's right. Yeah.

00:37:04 John Daub: So

00:37:07 David: salad. And this is. This is really a great miso soup. It's very chunky, very rich.

00:37:21 John Daub: Don't start yet. Hold it, hold it, hold it. Okay, here comes the good part. I have to show you this. This is why katsudon is one of my favorite foods. I'm whispering now because. Because it's just something so holy to me. It's just very, very important. Nothing beats a good cut stone. This looks really, really good. Oh, man. You know what's going to happen, right? You can sense it. Oh, I have never been in my life so happy. Except maybe my wedding. Sorry, honey. The first thing is I have to describe the smell. It's absolutely delightful. It's like a little bit of the salty dashi to it. Some egg, and that breaded pork cutlet. It's just. Although it comes locked in like this with the lid on it, but I'm gonna open it up right now. Just.

00:38:42 David: You can get. And many Katsu shops. This one's really good. But you. You can get it in. This is unique.

00:38:47 John Daub: To the shop, Right.

00:38:48 David: This katsudon is their speciality, and people come here for the katsudon.

00:38:55 John Daub: This is the kake katsudon. The kake katsudon. Again, the price is about $12 or $11, depending on the exchange rate. Right there, the middle one, Kake katsudon. And now I'm going to unbox or unlid. Unlid this kake katsudon. Are you ready? Wait, we didn't get the 500 likes. Smash that like button. All right, here we go. Three, two, one. Oh, wow.

00:39:44 David: Do you want to switch?

00:39:45 John Daub: No, I'm not switching. This is mine, all mine. I might let you look at it a little bit longer before I devour it. Let's get a little closer. Oh, there's a little bit of hapa on the top of it. What is that? Do you know?

00:40:03 David: You're asking me?

00:40:04 John Daub: Yeah, Some greens or hapa. We see some leaves. You can see the onions that were cooked in the egg, and it's all simmered in kind of that salty dashi that they use. And then on the back of it is the tonkatsu, or breaded pork cutlet. And usually the egg is cooked in with the breaded pork cutlet, but this is the kake, which means on top of it. And then all that's put on top of the rice, and it's just an amazingly beautiful dish.

00:40:39 David: We got two more variants of this.

00:40:41 John Daub: Oh, yeah, there are two other. Two other ones, but my stomach can only handle one. We got miso soup. We have some pickles on the side. Very nice. And some more garnish here. And we have the complimentary green tea.

00:40:56 David: If you want some more, we can get some more.

00:40:58 John Daub: Oh, yeah. This is the meal. I think. This is the meal that I've been waiting for all back here, this way, this way. All day long. Down, down, down, down, down, down, down. Oh, yeah.

00:41:28 David: All right.

00:41:32 John Daub: This is a shibori. Cannot forget cleanliness first. You always get a hot towel. First bite. I'm gonna start ahead of you.

00:41:54 David: Let's hear David's reaction. We're, like, in suspense. I think we could tell by your face what. How good it is.

00:42:05 John Daub: I just want to continue enjoying it.

00:42:07 David: Oh, sorry. I'm. I'm the. The. I'm the vlogger here. So we're gonna focus in on. On this right now. This is the kake katsudon once again. It's really, really good. And now it's mine. Hours. I'm eating this for all of you too. Oh, man. Oh, man. Check that out. Oh, look at that.

00:42:34 David: Show you the tonkatsu as well. Perfect. Not too thick, not too thin. Very crunchy.

00:42:50 John Daub: Perfect.

00:42:54 David: Oh man. Very soft. The water. This place was full.

00:43:03 John Daub: Yeah. Oh, so this place is usually full.

00:43:10 David: Well, I come here anyway for some reason. I'm gonna get lost. I always get the last seat.

00:43:18 John Daub: You're right about the miso soup. It is chunk. Just so you can see in here. Usually miso soup doesn't have such, you know, big pieces, but it's very filling. They turned her away because she came after 1:30. It's a good call and rushing here.

00:44:04 David: Yeah, it's mini two o', clock, I think. I think, you know, if you come a little bit after 1:30, they'll let you in. It's pretty kind here.

00:44:25 John Daub: Now these bowls are the perfect size to hold in your hand. You see how I'm doing it like this. So you don't have to attack it like this. I attack it right like this. Okay. This is how I bring the bowl right to me. It's, it's. You get total control this way. Oh man. And typically with a good katsudon, the egg will still be a little bit runny. I guess the wetness of it gives it a little bit of consistency.

00:45:12 David: It's a very simple bowl to eat. You just dig. Anyways, the tonkatsu is you gotta. Either you, you pour. Actually I'm going to do it this way.

00:45:24 John Daub: You pour.

00:45:31 David: So this is the soup out of

00:45:35 John Daub: the way, but it's the tonkatsu sauce.

00:45:38 David: Normally you pour the sauce on top of the. Can you see it? There you go. A little bit. Not too much. Otherwise it'll overwhelm the flavor of the poor.

00:45:52 John Daub: Right. You don't want, you don't want to. A good balance between the sauce.

00:45:56 David: Yeah, I, I, I, I cheat because I, I, I, I poured in this little bowl here which had the pickles. So I can just dip it.

00:46:02 John Daub: Oh yeah, you're a dipper.

00:46:04 David: That's right. But you can also pour it on top and then eat like that.

00:46:08 John Daub: See what, what I do is I just, I, I drench it and then I, I curse myself for drenching it. But I still enjoy it.

00:46:16 David: The.

00:46:29 John Daub: What's the best way to eat it? Oh, with salt. Just eat it with salt. Oh, with soy sauce. As you like. As you like.

00:47:01 David: Always thought dipping was the right way to do it, but no, no. So either way is fine.

00:47:05 John Daub: You can enjoy any way you like and eat it while it's.

00:47:25 David: He knows greetings in many languages. He Surprised me.

00:47:40 John Daub: Good enough. Good in target. Good in taga franco. Any. Any challenging ones. Mongolia go. Not nothing in mongolia. No. Fantastic. So everybody's welcome here. Awesome. Showing us stuff. Okay. I like it when they start showing us stuff. A trip advisor. Oh, so there's foreign. Foreign customers coming. Wow. The foreign customers are. Are increasing. So that's why we have in English menus here. You can say kake katsudon or crispy batter. Pork cutlet with soft pork inside on the bowl. Rice. Bowel rice. Tab and bow to iwa iranai. Bowel means something different. I don't want to just kind of. Yeah. Not maybe the best word for that. Keep it. I like bow rice. There's nothing beats a good bowl of bowel rice. The picture. Yeah. Says a thousand words. Bowl, bowl, bowel, bowel, bowl. Yeah. A little bit different. Yeah. This is. This, this is not a bowel rice. But I will say it's a kake kataron. But it's a little different. But we understand the meaning. We know it means bowl of rice. Bow rice is pretty cool too. Are you finished?

00:50:12 David: Well, yeah. While you were chatting, I was working away on my tonkatsu. I was wondering if you want to try a piece called the tonkatsu.

00:50:20 John Daub: You just want to be a piece of mine. That's how it works, right? All right, go ahead. I'll give you the corner.

00:50:28 David: Okay. Let's. Let's trade. I'm going to take a piece of your. Crispy. Crispy with the. There you go. You have a piece of my. Go ahead. Take the big piece.

00:50:38 John Daub: Sure.

00:50:39 David: Or a small piece.

00:50:40 John Daub: Okay. You're gonna eat this mustard?

00:50:42 David: No, go ahead. Yeah.

00:50:43 John Daub: Are you serious?

00:50:44 David: Well, I like the pure taste of tonko.

00:50:48 John Daub: Do you see this mustard? This mustard is insanely spicy. What's it called? This is called karashi. It's a super spicy mustard. I don't even. David doesn't eat this because he doesn't want to ruin the taste of the tonkatsu. Okay. Guess what, David? I don't even eat this on the tonkatsu. I just eat it like this.

00:51:28 David: Wow. Few seconds of silence.

00:51:38 John Daub: Yeah. I love. I love raw wasabi and Karachi. And it makes me a very, very, very, very strange person. And at the same time, it's just so good. I. It wakes you up. You know what, Gretchen? Forget the Red Bull. Forget the monster karashi. This is the next, Next. What do you call it? Energy drink. Forget the energy drink. Just eat spicy mustard. And you're like woo. Like eating. Like eating wasabi.

00:52:14 David: There's Some left if you want.

00:52:15 John Daub: I'm good. That was really good.

00:52:22 David: Notice I'll let you eat. But opposite of the counter is little guides to ordering rice. So they. They really are very. They don't want to waste rice. I. I'm. You know, if you. If you find difficult to. To eat a lot of rice.

00:52:40 John Daub: Yeah.

00:52:40 David: Then you can order according to this little chart here. One to five. I don't know if you can read it.

00:52:48 John Daub: Yeah.

00:52:49 David: So five is for. So normal.

00:52:53 John Daub: The normal way.

00:52:54 David: Amount.

00:52:55 John Daub: Normal amount. Yeah.

00:52:56 David: Four is just a little bit less than normal. Three is hambur half.

00:53:05 John Daub: Yeah.

00:53:06 David: Two is kanari kuname. So two is just a little. And number one is maybe not worth. Even worth ordering rice.

00:53:19 John Daub: Yeah. Just such a small amount. Maybe like two grains, please. So the first is normal amount of which is this. In the. In it. And it tells you if you just want less rice. This is what you would say. That's pretty. That's pretty neat.

00:53:37 David: Yeah. Because your rice is under the kake

00:53:42 John Daub: just a little bit. Chop the little bit. Just a little bit less. That works.

00:53:51 David: This is really good rice. This is from. That's right. Yeah.

00:54:00 John Daub: I did a rice episode. That's how I know. Oh. So while we're eating, David, you can tell us a little bit about what we're gonna do today. This. I'm talking while I'm eating. I'm sorry, but it cannot be helped. This is the first of four live streams. And the next live stream we're going to do is introducing that ryokan. And one of. One of the things that I liked about this ryokan is that you can be a solo traveler and stay there. Normally you have to get the. The room for two people, but at this ryokan, you can just be on your own. And that's kind of rare.

00:54:42 David: So it's a real con inside Tokyo.

00:54:45 John Daub: Yeah.

00:54:45 David: Usually you would have to travel the countryside, the mountains or onsen area. Here you can experience the ryokan in the heart of Tokyo. And it's very well located because it's in the Shinjuku ward. So I'm basically close to everything.

00:55:03 John Daub: Yeah, you don't quite. This might. Is this the only ryokan in Shinjuku? There's not that many.

00:55:10 David: There might be some other ones here,

00:55:12 John Daub: but there's a few of them. One.

00:55:13 David: Another one.

00:55:15 John Daub: There's not many.

00:55:16 David: So this one's also unique in that. What you said earlier is that it's really targets solo travelers, but also couples as well. But you can have your Japanese style tatami room. For one person.

00:55:30 John Daub: Wow.

00:55:31 David: It's actually modeled on ryokans from the past. So the modern ryokans have become quite big. Affairs are very wide and spacious. So. But this road kind is more for the traveler, which we all are actually, in a way. So it's very kind of convenient, but we'll see it later on.

00:55:57 John Daub: So this Arakicho, it's mostly Japanese customers or western or everybody.

00:56:02 David: You know, up to now it's been open for about half a year and they've had about people from over 50 different countries.

00:56:10 John Daub: Wow.

00:56:10 David: Yeah, very, very international Japanese guests, but. But also from other countries in Asia, Europe, America, all over the world.

00:56:20 John Daub: It's like a crossroads of Shinjuku.

00:56:23 David: Yeah, well, you know, this, this. It's located on the old highway, actually. So in the past, this, this used to be the Tokaido, which went through Shinjuku.

00:56:35 John Daub: All right.

00:56:35 David: Past Shinjuku Goen. And this used to be a shukuba, which is like a post town.

00:56:42 John Daub: Okay.

00:56:42 David: So the last post town before you reach Nyambashi, which is the center of Tokyo. So people from the west of the country would travel in along this old road. This is like the time of samurai 200 years ago. And they would. This was the last stop. People would spend the night here and then the next day.

00:57:12 John Daub: Yes. This actually used to be a resident. So just. Just next to this area opposite Shinjuku Gyoan.

00:57:24 David: Basically back when the. The geisha were here.

00:57:26 John Daub: That's right.

00:57:27 John Daub: I want to ask when. Suzuki san, right? Yes. I want to ask when. When the neighborhood changed. I mean, when did this place. He's the best person to ask. Yeah. When did this neighborhood change from being a place where geisha entertained customers and was more traditional to becoming like a restaurant? Izakaya Nightlife. Because this is a gourmet town now. It used to be an entertainment town. So we had geisha roaming the streets. This was not roaming, but they would be walking the streets.

00:58:21 David: What happened to your kake katsudon? It's gone. Yeah, he's polished it off.

00:58:26 John Daub: I started late, but caught up real fast. See what happens when you talk and not eat. And one of the things that I always do, and this is something that's important, you eat every grain of rice.

00:58:40 David: That's true. And finish your miso soup.

00:58:42 John Daub: Oh, yeah, that's. That's my happy ending right there. Boom. Every grain of rice. Don't look at that.

00:58:50 David: Of course. A long way to go still.

00:58:52 John Daub: Oh, we don't have that much time, man. David's playing catch up. David's playing catch up.

00:59:01 David: The best for the end.

00:59:03 John Daub: Keep the best for the end. I saved the miso soup, and you saved this. Actually, these pickles have a little bit of coriander I could taste. Really?

00:59:13 David: Your tongue is more sensitive than mine.

00:59:15 John Daub: I guess I've been taught well. Well, I could just be completely mistaken. No, no, it's coriander. We say in There you go. Put it in. I was wrong. It's not coriander. Cucumber. Cucumbers.

00:59:50 David: Cabbage.

00:59:51 John Daub: Cabbage. I was wrong. But. By the time it gets over, I will be done with all of this.

01:00:16 David: This is also. Do you know what this is?

01:00:19 John Daub: Rickshaw.

01:00:20 David: Rickshaw, yeah. So the street the restaurant's on is called Shariki Mon Street. They used to pull these things up and down for carrying goods. Oh, let me show you to the lord's house.

01:00:42 John Daub: I win. You lose. I'm 12 years old. But that's okay because it's a lot more fun. All right. This is the rickshaw that we were talking about. And I. I guess it would have been about 100 years ago that we would see this. Oh, you broke it.

01:01:00 David: I shouldn't have done that.

01:01:04 John Daub: That's all right. But I think we get the point. The driver is a little bit tired, or maybe he had too much entertainment. But the point is that this is a sort of place where. This is a very historical place. And Suzuki San is going to soon. I guess they also have to eat, right? Yeah. We're well beyond closing time, so I'm so thankful for. For Suzuki San letting us stay here. So ram silic silence also has got it right. We are 30 likes short of 500. I know. I don't know what happened here, but. I know. I don't know. I know what happened here. This. This is done. A done deal. Oh, man. I have. I'm very, very Manzoku. Manzoku means satisfied, right? Manzoku. I. You know, there's certain foods that you eat that are so good, and you have, like, miniature religious experiences. I say that because, like, ramen is one of them where you finish a bowl and you just sit back and you go, wow, you have found God through food.

01:02:17 David: Food.

01:02:17 John Daub: And that's a really good feeling. And this katsudon kake katsudon was really. I. I very rarely have a bad katsu don. Actually. Although this one was. Was very special. I very rarely have ever had a bad one. It's just. It's a. It's a tough food to get wrong. And it's. It's probably it's in my top five of Japanese foods that I just love Donburi in general, which is the whole on a rice category. Donburi. Love it. Tendon katsudon oyakudon. Don Don. I got him laughing too. That was funny. Yeah. It's a bad joke, Sammy. When you hear a bad joke, you just go like that. This summer it's cold. That means bad joke. I. I'm. I'm full of them. And we're here all day. We got. We get an entire day to ruin with bad jokes. But.

01:03:23 David: Well, I'm done.

01:03:23 John Daub: Oh, you finished?

01:03:24 David: I don't know if it's satisfactory.

01:03:27 John Daub: We can forgive you cuz we have a lot more to go and. And dinner time. We're going to be eating meat. Meat. Yeah. I.

01:03:37 David: What score would you give that?

01:03:38 John Daub: I'd say six out of ten. Finishing it is. Is only five out of ten. You give it. It's a good effort.

01:03:45 David: But yeah, I'll try better in the future.

01:03:48 John Daub: It's all right. Now if you want a 10 out of 10, you have to lick it. But that would be considered rude actually. But there's no rice. There's some half grain. Half grains are acceptable. You can let that go. Full grains of rice. No, we can't do that. Oh, your history. Yes. Yeah. Oh, okay. I put this here. No. Meiji was. In a kunate. Okay. When the Daniel left, Before there was the great earthquake. Earthquake in 1911 I think. But before that.

01:06:14 David: Like 200 was it geisha or geisha?

01:06:18 John Daub: Wow. 200 geisha used to reside here. And around 1910 it started to change. Most of the center of it was that pond that I showed you that David and I showed you previously. And it was around 1910 it started to change and the restaurants started to grow from around that pond. This is being. That was when the daimyo from the Meiji era had to vacate. During the Meiji? Yeah. The shogun and the daimyo and the feudal era ended in the Meiji Restoration. And at that time, that's when the daimyo left this land. Then became a place of. For geisha entertainment.

01:07:04 David: For entertainment people to have fun and drink and enjoy the company of the geisha.

01:07:09 John Daub: Yeah. And then around 1910 ish. It started to change to more. More of a restaurant era. 30 years ago it change. Everybody's here.

01:07:52 David: Restaurants from all chicko.

01:07:54 John Daub: Let me say more international cuisine now Czech Republic.

01:07:58 David: There's also speciality restaurants.

01:08:39 John Daub: So about 30 years ago when the Heisei period started, there was the Meiji Taisho Showa and now this era from seven years ago is called the Heisei era. I came in Heisei 10, which was 1998, and now we're in Heisei 30. And it was in Heisei 0 about then that the area changed and the restaurants became international. This is around the 1980s, right? Heisei started around the 1980s. 1989. Yeah. So it was 1989, it started to become more international. Now we have cuisine in Arakicho from lots of different countries, including Czech, you said. We have a Czech Republic restaurant, Chinese restaurant. Restaurants, of course, Japanese Tonkatsu.

01:09:26 David: Vegetarian restaurants.

01:09:28 John Daub: Vegetarian restaurants. So yeah.

01:09:30 David: So it's a lot of these. And a lot of these places are not so only old, but they're also new places. New places recently, like people, young people come here to start restaurants and bars. It's a very popular place to do that.

01:09:44 John Daub: And then this is what makes this a gourmet town. That's right, gourmet town.

01:09:48 David: It's got this history of.

01:09:50 John Daub: So you don't. That's. I also noticed when we walked here, there's no McDonald's, no fast food in Arakicho. It has. I think the reason for it being a secret and a success is because it stayed true to itself. It didn't sell out to like chains. There's no chain restaurant. There are some chain restaurants, but not really fast food. Like burger restaurants. Most of it is. Is very soul, I would like to say soul based kind of cuisine.

01:10:41 David: They're run by one person or family.

01:10:45 John Daub: Family. Family. Family run businesses like. Like this Tonkazu restaurant is owned by a Suzuki family. Yeah. Wow. For 60 years the Suzuki family has been running this Tonkatsu restaurant.

01:11:01 David: It's wonderful little house like restaurants. Very cozy.

01:11:46 John Daub: There are no, not delicious restaurants. Everything is good here. That's a rule. It's the rule. It's like the golden rule from Arakicho. If your food stinks, you can just go to like Shinjuku Station. If you want to be here in Arakicho, your food has to be like good. And it's the golden rule. Golden rule, Right? Did I get it right?

01:12:12 David: Top notch natural selection. The weak restaurants get weeded out.

01:12:16 John Daub: Yes. So the weak fail in Arakicho and only the best survive. Because this is where the Daimyo lived and this used to Very, very traditional, very historical area in Shinjuku. No, no, no. It's not really a secret place. Although maybe you've never heard of it and I didn't hear about it for a while, but it's not. It's not really a secret. It just doesn't have. As you can see, the streets wrap around and it's easy to get lost in this maze back here. And that's. Maybe it keeps people out just by fear of getting lost.

01:13:21 David: Maybe it's very small, so it's easy to miss as well. Yeah, it's like three, four streets. A lot of restaurants, but in a very small area. So you can walk right past it if you stick to the main street.

01:13:32 John Daub: Yeah, yeah, it's easy to miss. 400 shop here. A 400 shop. Oh yeah. Packed. Packed. David's over here. By the way.

01:13:48 David: The voice you've been hearing. There's no.

01:13:50 John Daub: No face there. He is right here. You're still here.

01:13:55 David: Oh, that's.

01:13:55 John Daub: That's. Oh, you have a map. Yes. Okay. This is map I make. Oh, you made this? Oh, hand drawn map. Okay. Oh, it's not really that it looks big because there's so much detail in it, but it's not that big really. There's the pond. There's the pond that we went to in the beginning. So it was very important that we gone there to start right there. And we are now down here. Right?

01:14:20 David: We're here.

01:14:21 John Daub: Yeah, here.

01:14:22 David: There's the. The park is here.

01:14:23 John Daub: Right. We're there. Okay, we're here. And the pond is right there.

01:14:26 David: Staircase. That's where the Ryokan 9 is.

01:14:29 John Daub: Where Ryokan is. Oh man, that's awesome.

01:14:39 David: Yeah, that's the one I told you.

01:14:41 John Daub: Okay, So this. Yeah. So these three streets are the main streets that cut through it. So it's very. If you go down this street, you'll totally miss it. So it's very easy to miss if you miss these three streets.

01:14:58 David: That's the Shinjuku, Doris.

01:15:00 John Daub: Yeah.

01:15:00 David: And then the Shinjuku go and is.

01:15:02 John Daub: Oh, Shinjuku go in the park. Ah, wow. Yeah. Good job, Kira. Now cheese. Very good.

01:15:19 David: We should be. We should get going. Yeah, we should pass their closing time.

01:15:22 John Daub: Yeah, it's way past their closing. Thank you for having us. I'll put a link in the description so you can find this place so it's not secret anymore. And I hope you do come here and make eat some cut Katsu. Don't try the Kake Katsudon. It's very good. Oh, look at this. The old telephone. Oh man. All right, I'll pay him back after. I will. So I'm really happy that David's here. David. David is. Is part of Tadaima, Japan. And I'm gonna put A link in the description later on. But this whole day he's showing me around an area that I didn't know about in Shinjuku. And I'm kind of really. I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. We're going to have four more lives. Three more live streams. This one is over now. We're going to three more live streams. The next one, we're actually going to go to the ryokan that he. That it's. It's. Ah. So we're actually going to go to the ryokan in the next live stream, which starts at 3:30 Japanese time. So give us a little bit of time. But I want to thank you very much because this was an amazing. So far from what I've seen from Arakicho, it's an amazing little like little town inside of. Inside of Shinjuku. Oh, there's more. Ah, okay.

01:17:05 David: This used to be part of the old daimyo. Daimyo residence, right? Kanimaru Inari Shrine. The.

01:17:13 John Daub: So the daimyo was a feudal lord that was like underneath the shogun. Maybe like the next level. The shogun was here. And maybe there was like a vice shogun. No, no, no. There was a daimyo and the daimyo were the feudal lords of an area. And the daimyo lived here in Arakicho.

01:17:30 David: Not only restaurants, but also shrines.

01:17:31 John Daub: Right? And there's also shrines that still exist today. There's probably a long history to this one too. Yeah.

01:17:37 David: What's between here since. Since the Edo period, huh?

01:17:40 John Daub: Yeah.

01:17:40 David: This is a really old one.

01:17:41 John Daub: Oh, look at the steps. You. So you. You can walk up? Yeah, yeah, walk up. Just to take a quick look here before we end. It's a small little shrine right next to.

01:17:54 David: Do you know how to pray? The shrine?

01:17:56 John Daub: I do, but. Okay, we don't have. We don't have to do that right now because then I have to explain it all. But it's nice to be up here and wash your hands before. Although that water looks like it's heavy. Better days, the tap is off. That's okay. It's. It's. It's neat to walk. It's neat to. To walk around an area and then you see historical places like little shrines right on the corner. That's one of the reasons why I have been in Japan for so long. And it's hard. Hard for me to leave because it's. It's now it's just a part of who I am. And when I walk past these things I don't care if I've been here for. If you've been here for one year, one week, one year or 20 years, when you walk down around a corner and then you see a little teeny shrine like this next to an amazing Tonkatsu restaurant, and then you see all these houses and people living around it, that's the kind of atmosphere that just draws me to this neighborhood. So, David, thank you for part one. This has been a lot of fun. And we're going to show you the ryokan next. So see everybody. Thanks for joining us. The last 20 seconds. I'm going to dedicate that to the Suzuki's Restaurant right here in the corner. Nice.