00:00:00 John Daub: Welcome to Nijo Castle. This is a place I've never been in Kyoto and I thought I would take you with me and explore this historical place. It's a place filled with tourists and I feel not that special being here. But we're gonna get some tickets here. Entry for adults is 600 yen and this is going into a machine to get a ticket. Everything is vending machinized. One ticket, adult. You're very welcome. So there you go. That's what the ticket to Nijo Castle looks like. Not bad at all.

00:00:48 John Daub: Uh oh. Can I get in here? Yay! Thank you. We were in! I can't believe they let me in! I'm at the castle! Alright, check it out. Nijojo. Or just Nijo Castle. Because jo in Japanese means castle. So it's weird to put Nijo Castle Castle. Doesn't make sense. But you know what? So we're gonna have some fun!

00:01:25 John Daub: Whoa! Watch your step there. Somebody else tripped that thing. Watch your step. It's an old place. Learn how to walk again. Alright, this is the entrance. And I'm going to learn about this together with you. Here's the entrance. And I'm gonna put my ticket away. Once again, the back of the ticket isn't really exciting either. It says Kyoto City. And the front, 600 yen entry. It's a little bit cheaper for kids. And it's 500 yen if you got a group.

00:02:02 John Daub: Whoa! Check this out. It's made of gold! Wow. Alright. Oh, there's a guided tour. Well then, if I take the guided tour, what do you need me for? This is pretty nice. They got it in many languages. They have Japanese in green, German in yellow, Spanish, French, Korean, Chinese, and English. I think I'll just go for the English. Nijojo Castle, a World Heritage Site. Welcome. I need a yellow flag too because I'm taking 225 people with me. That's how many people we have watching the livestream right now. I have more than she does. And it's increasing fast. Oh, I want to say hi to the two people from Indonesia that said hi to me. Very nice couple. They didn't want to come in here because they're going to find lunch. But it would have been fun to have some company.

00:03:18 John Daub: This is the guard's house. And for the next about 30 minutes, we're going to explore this area together, okay? This is the bansho, the guardhouse. Although a guardhouse is depicted in this location, it was built in 1626. The current structure is known to have been built in 1663. So basically this is old, okay? And the brochure has lots of information. I'm going to read you the basic history of Nijo Castle. Nijo Castle has witnessed some of the most important events in Japanese history in the 400 years since it was built. The castle was completed in 1603 on the orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogun, the former and first shogun of the Tokugawa family. Tokugawa shogunate from 1603 to 1867. Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan after a long period of civil war and ushered in a period of over 260 years of peace and prosperity.

00:04:16 John Daub: So basically there's a lot of stuff here. And he commissioned Nijo Castle to be built. And there's Tokugawa Ieyasu on his seat cushion, very comfortably sitting. And there's some of the history of the castle. Some of it you can find on Wikipedia. I have no wide angle lens today. So we're just gonna give this a go. Alright, now in Japan when you go to tourist sites it's very intuitive. Meaning it will point you in the direction to go. So if I decide to go right it will be just pretty much a toilet and a rest area. And all these other beautiful things. But if we decide to go to the left we will go the usual route. Which will it be? Okay, we're going to the left. Hey Gretchen, looks like fun. Thank you! We are gonna have some fun at the castle.

00:05:23 John Daub: So I'm gonna be here for about 30 minutes before I head back. But I'm gonna show you now a map of Nijojo Castle. They called it castle twice because it's so nice. And she's explaining to a group of people in Japanese the history. She's very happy about it. I don't need the explanation. Alright, so we just entered through the Higashi Ote-mon (East Main Gate). And we are now here. Basically we've gone about 20 meters. So we're gonna enter through the Karamon Gate and into the inner sanctum. We're gonna walk through here, through the garden. We're gonna go up and then over the moat. You can see the moat has only two ways in. So we're gonna go in through the Honmaru Yaguramon, which is the gate there. We're gonna take a look on the inside. And then we're gonna end the livestream right there. So, join me, won't you? While we go through following the red arrows. Because that's what we do here. We follow the rules.

00:06:40 John Daub: And this is what you can expect if you too come to Nijo Castle. This is gonna be a lot of fun. Alright guys, follow the crowds. Because in Kyoto you're a part of the crowd. It's an amazing mix of Japanese and foreign tourists. And 312 wonderful people watching live right now. Whoa, check that out. That is really beautiful. Just very beautifully adorned with gold. And it looks like stuff I've seen in Nikko actually. This kind of style. Nikko is a beautiful day trip from Tokyo.

00:07:37 John Daub: Alright, welcome to Nijo's castle area. We're inside of the gate now. Google does an amazing job of telling you the peak times, when not to come and when to come. And it'll tell you live how many people are at locations. So it gives you a pretty good indicator. Right now, this is one of the least popular times to visit the castle. People are listening to me thinking that I'm explaining the history, but I'm not. I'm just walking around. And to your left, you'll be able to find a woman in a dress that looks like a kimono. Alright, that's sort of a neat dress. So this here would be the Ninomaru Goten Palace. Which is available on Wikipedia for more information.

00:08:40 John Daub: Well, actually there are places where you get some information. So let me give you a quick intro to this national treasure. The Ninomaru Goten Palace was built in the beginning of the Edo period in 1603 by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu who brought 130 years of civil war to an end. The palace served as the shogunal residence during the visits of the imperial capital of Kyoto. So this was the residence of people who visited the Shogun basically. Looks nice. Oh, you have to take your shoes off to go inside. Check that out. Take your shoes off. I don't want to do that. I'm not going to take my shoes off. That guy's sitting there. He's protesting.

00:09:51 John Daub: Now we're going to the garden. This is more what I'm interested in. Seeing some of the outdoor beauty. They seem to be preoccupied with this lady working hard at weeding. Very, very meticulous. Very carefully picking every single weed out so it looks beautiful. That's the kind of grooming that I need personally too. Alright. This is all that you will see as well when you visit Nijo Castle. And you can learn from my mistakes. It's a beautiful pond. I like that rock for a little rocky bridge. It's pretty nice.

00:12:06 John Daub: Oh, I can hear the sound of running water. It's really nice. Oh, there it is over there to the left. Now we're going to be crossing the bridge over the moat into the castle area. This is still on the outside. Alright, guys. If you like this castle tour, click that like button. I promise it will only do good. It will keep me going for a little bit longer because I'm expected to stop this in 30 minutes. Maybe we're going to talk to some people on the inside. But I want to get on the inside first.

00:13:26 John Daub: You can only press the like button once. If you press it twice, it un-likes it. Just saying. Alright. It's the one thing that you guys can do on the other side besides leave comments that I can see the progress of. Well, you know, just ask and the second for likes can actually increase likes. I'm liking your liking. Alright, here we're going to take a left and walk around. My goal is to get in. Oh, it looks like a city in the distance. You see that? It looks like I'm going into some medieval Japanese city. This is pretty cool. Somebody's calling me. I can't pick it up. I'm live. Who's calling me? Stop it. That's not a good time.

00:14:38 John Daub: Alright, this is now the moat. To the right, it goes around the outer moat. And actually, the outer moat's really beautiful. If you've been to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, you can see the moat there. But we're not allowed to climb the embankment. But I will lift the gimbal up so you can see the moat. So you don't have to climb the embankment. So all the kids out there that are only three feet high or like a meter and a half, I'm doing it for you right now. Once again, everybody, this is Nijo Castle or Nijojo. And that's the moat. And this is one of the two access points to go inside of the castle area. And we're gonna do that right now.

00:15:27 John Daub: Professor Del writes in, Hey John, I'm going to Kyoto tomorrow. Just got a hotel in Osaka. Hey Professor, awesome. Actually, the weather could not be nicer. It was raining a little bit yesterday, but it's just been cloudy today. As you can see, the sky above us is not the most beautiful day. But it does keep the heat down. And yeah, we've had really good weather. So welcome to Japan, Professor. Thank you very much. Whoa, that looks good. So they have a tea house on the inside. But right now, you guys are on the outside. So we gotta do something about that. We've walked through the palace, past this garden, and there's the rock bridge. And now we're going to make our way across the moat into Honmaru Goten Palace.

00:16:38 John Daub: Alright guys, here we go. Over the bridge. Moat. Whoa, check out the door. These would keep out hordes. If you came to attack Kyoto, you'd have to get through this thing. Check it out. That's built like a tank. Whoa. These doors have been here for at least five centuries. Right? I think I did the math right. It's pretty amazing. Bronze doors, scorpions, right again. A rusty tank, writes Glenn.

00:17:39 John Daub: Alright, now guys, we're on the inside. On the top left, you can see a wooden building. That's pretty interesting. Gonna find this out. Now, wood buildings usually didn't have a very long life in Japan. Either they were hit by lightning, or burned down from a kitchen fire. One way or another, something with fire would bring it down hard. I'm getting a feeling that's not an original structure, but we're gonna get a closer look as we make our way up to the inner part of Nijo Castle here, to the palace. So, Aikida George writes in. Hi, John. Hi, right back to ya.

00:18:28 John Daub: The Honmaru Garden. This garden was reconstructed in 1896. The emperor personally supervised the layout from the top floor of the Honmaru Goten Palace. And records show that these instructions included even what was to be planted where. Originally, the Honmaru Goten Palace stood here. It was built in 1626 by the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu. After this building was destroyed by fire, it was replaced by the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. There you go. It's always destroyed by fire. So it looks pretty new. Everything's destroyed by fire in Japan. This castle's making me hungry.

00:19:25 John Daub: WF4L writes in. Oh, okay, hold on. Here's the palace. We got a hello from San Diego. How you doing? Check it out. So this is the center of Nijo Castle. Right in the middle of Kyoto. In fact, if you guys do a Google Earth or Google Maps, you can see where I am right now, which is pretty cool. Google Earth is good because you can zoom right in. And I'm waving now at the satellite, taking pictures of the Google from Google Earth. Hey, Google! Can you guys see me? If you're looking down from Google Earth, I'm waving at you from the wooden building. Anybody see me?

00:20:17 John Daub: Gretchen writes in. Any vending machines with monsters in it? I know you're just teasing. There might be some monsters in there. Alright guys, check this out. Here we go. Enough of me. So this is where things get interesting. For those who want to take the non-usual route, they will go to the right, while most people will be going to the left. Which way should I go? I'll give you five seconds to chime in. Four, three, two, one. Alright, I've decided to go to the left. Wait, the right! Wait! Alright, we'll go to the left.

00:21:11 John Daub: The gimbal's dying. Why would the gimbal die? This is the brand new DJI. I balanced it before we started. Alright, we're on the inside, so we don't have that much further to go. But it is really beautiful. There's the wooden building behind me that you see. And there's what seems to be like a city here. So it really is like a city within a city. Which is why the moat was here. This was a very special area for the Shogun who had this commissioned in 1603. Very cool.

00:21:58 John Daub: Alright, everyone's going this way now. Please do not walk on the lawn. Everyone's going to the right. Well, I'm going to go this way first, because I gotta go see what's over here. Which is basically some rocky steps. This could be the Philadelphia Art Museum. The base of the keep tower. Nijo Castle is thought to have been relocated in 1626 from Fushimi-jo Castle, which is to the south of Kyoto. With five roofs, the internal structure consisted of five stories above ground and one story underground. The roofs were apparently covered with copper plates in the shape of roof tiles.

00:22:39 John Daub: Alright. I stopped reading after four sentences. They gotta put the information in four sentences or less. John, I love your videos. Hey, Luke! Was wondering if you have any plans to showcase Tochigi at all in the future. I do! I might be going to Utsunomiya in the next six weeks. That's my timeline. Alright, I might go to Utsunomiya. I used to live in Utsunomiya and I did a homestay in Tochigi City back in 2002. So I know Tochigi very well.

00:23:20 John Daub: Alright, the air is rare up here. Whoa, they're making out. Don't do it, dude. Alright, it's a beautiful view of the city. How did you know? It's a beautiful place. I'm gonna just pan down for a second. Get a little bit closer look at that building. That's interesting. You see the... it looks like that the building on the left is flickering, but with my eyes, my human eyes, it's not flickering at all. Must be some light in there creating some sort of weird effect. But Kyoto, even when it's cloudy, it's very beautiful. And Kevin Riley and I were at Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion, a few months ago and we both loved it more when it was cloudy. So it's days like this that are actually more impressive to me than on sunny days. And you can see the clouds are moving pretty quick. There might be another typhoon coming in. I haven't gotten to check the news in the last couple of days. But I haven't checked the weather recently, so that's gonna be very interesting.

00:25:27 John Daub: Oh, hello! Yeah, I'm John. How did you know I was here? Oh, sure, yeah. Wow. I can't believe it! Okay. Alright. Let's take a picture! Nice to see you! Where are you from? Brazil. Whoa! That's a long trip. We see you there. Yes, I want to go to Brazil. We want to go to Brazil, right? I'm actually live streaming this. Oh, sorry. Only in Japan Go. There's no one really watching though. Hey! Oh my god! That's nice. How long are you here in Kyoto? Yes, three days. Oh wow, okay. We use your channel to tour in Kyoto in Japan. Whoa, really? We're running Fushimi Inari in the morning. Oh, so you went before the crowds? Yes. Oh, so, so. It's still kind of crowded. But before most people. Alright, high five for that. High five, good, yeah. Thank you so much! You're welcome. Nice to meet you too. I'll see you in Brazil. Okay. Or in Tokyo. Are you going to Tokyo? Yes. After here, I'm going back to Tokyo tonight.

00:27:03 John Daub: Alright, that was pretty cool. Sorry guys about the lag. I'm learning that Kyoto does not have a very good 4G connection or there are just too many people using it. There could be a lot of pocket Wi-Fi routers on Docomo's signal, but I've seen that Docomo's 4G LTE is not as good as the other ones. Softbank is a little bit better in many parts of Kyoto. This morning when I did the Kyoto Tower video, is Kyoto Tower worth it? After 20 years, I went up there for the first time and I don't know. But there was a lot of lag up there and the signal was kind of on and off. But that was really cool to meet fans from Brazil! That was awesome! So I'm really happy that the videos seem to be useful for a lot of people. That makes me really happy because that's sort of why I do it.

00:28:12 John Daub: Lord Crayon! Want a replacement Smooth Q? Yes, I do! I kind of like the DJI Osmo 2. It's nice, but I would prefer my Smooth Q. But I'll make do with what I have. I don't want to waste. I bought it because I needed it. I couldn't get another gimbal, another Smooth Q, but I look to live with the city too. So I'm happy with this for now. You know, in January, this has nothing to do with the castle by the way, in January, all of the new gimbals and technology get introduced at CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. Shout out to Linda, who I missed this last time. She was in Japan last week. At that show, you'll see a lot of new gimbals coming out. So I can wait a couple of months. But I do miss my old gimbal.

00:29:10 John Daub: Zato71, thank you so much for contributing. I'm going to be using that tonight because I'm going to film one more time in Pontocho, which is a really beautiful alley in Gion. And that's part of the episode that I'm making down there. I can't tell you exactly what it is yet, but I will release this to Patreon supporters who probably know. Some of them might know, because I did a question and answer with them telling them the plans for this month. So they knew that I was coming to Kyoto a few weeks ago. Alright. I guess you have to exit this way? Alright. After this, I'm going back to Gion. So anyone who's stalking me, I'll be going back to Gion. Just saying.

00:29:52 John Daub: Oh, by the way, last night we saw seven geisha walking around Gion. And if you just walk around at night, they just suddenly exit. You just walk around Kyoto. The Gion area. At night, they weren't... I know many of them were not maiko. They were above maiko. They were proper full-on geisha. Because they were walking with somebody who was holding their stuff. They were not maiko. But they walked out at night and you could see them. Probably going to geisha shows. I don't know. But they were full-on geisha and they move fast. Like, they're there one second and gone the next. If you're not already taking a picture, you've missed your chance. So I didn't get a chance to get any photos but I'll tell you something, okay? You can see the geisha from the front and it's pretty nice. But the most striking part of the geisha is at the back. Where at the neck where the makeup sort of connects with the skin. It's really stunning and I prefer from the back. That's the beauty, I think, for me. So I get a lot of back shots because I just was never quick enough. You have to literally have your camera out and get ready to smash the record button. I just need a battery to let it run. Or the SD cards because I have to keep all the memory.

00:31:22 John Daub: So this moat looks like it's kind of algae-ified. But moats were not meant for swimming. Or bio-fuel. They were meant for just keeping people out. And this looks like it does a pretty good job. We're having a lot of fun. Actually, the algae is the same color as this oxidized bronze. I think that's the proper word. Kanai's not going to be happy when I do that. She doesn't like it when I put the ring down. Alright, and this is the other side. So we're almost out of here. 30 minutes right on target, guys. Awesome.

00:32:15 John Daub: This is Nijo Castle. I hope you've enjoyed it. That is that building you see in the distance. Does anybody know what that is by any chance? What are your guesses? What is that building? That white building with the black roof, half cement, half wood. Anybody know? Amber, nosh. You guys have been here, have you? That's the restroom. And next to it is the convenient vending machine area. It's camouflaged in brown. You guys want a drink? Let's see here. What do we got? The usual suspects. Coca-Cola. The Kyoto edition of the Coca-Cola. The special Kyoto can. It's pretty cool. Peach water. That's interesting. This one has DHA, which is an energy drink. I've never seen this before in my life. And then there's some Coca-Cola's green tea right now. It says so in English, so must be true.

00:33:40 John Daub: Alright, I really don't. I don't think I need a drink. I'm actually curious about this peach water. How about, what do you guys think? Let's go for the peach water. Look at this, there's buttons on here. How does this work? Alright. Check this out. It has a, it's like eating it. Look. It's chewing. It was chewing my coins. Alright. Alright, who wants to push the button? This one or this one? Which one? Oh wait, it's 150 yen. I'm still short. Sorry. Let's do this. This peach water has been sponsored by Joe. Joe Cisneros. Thank you Joe. This is from Yamanashi, which is the prefecture next to Tokyo. Let's give this a try. Joe's getting some thank yous.

00:35:11 John Daub: We are going to make this tree next to the vending machine, the most famous tree in Kyoto for the next five seconds. So I open the water. Yeah, they don't take the Suica. Alright. Peach. Really? That tastes like peach nectar. Seriously. Like, wow. There's sugar in it. Why do they gotta put... It's lightly sweetened. It tastes like peach nectar, but they put grape sugar in it. I don't know. Did they have to put sugar in it? Just a little bit of peach essence would have been nice. But I'm trying to avoid sugar. Alright. So there we go. Grape sugar in the peach drink. So if you're looking from Google Earth right now, you can see this from the sky. I've already waved to the Google satellites before. So if you're looking at me from Google Earth, I'm waving at you right now.

00:36:39 John Daub: But this right here is the bridge from the moat. And now I'm making my way back to the entrance. In order to do that, you have to walk all the way around the moat again. So we've exited here. We've done a pretty good job. We entered through here. We walked around. There's the rock bridge. Then we entered into the inner sanctum of the shogun. We walked around. We can't go to this area. Excuse me. And now we're here at the vending machine toilet area. So we're gonna make our way around. I gotta go all the way around back out to the exit.

00:37:22 John Daub: And so while I do that, just for fun I'm gonna take questions. Any questions about Nijo Castle? Be very specific. Because I will answer it... Oh! Oh! Gimbal! Why are you doing that, Gimbal? You should be balanced perfectly. Alright, hold on a second. Yeah. Gimbal should be okay. So far, DJI is not getting high marks. It's too much machine. The Zhiyun Smooth Q was much better.

00:38:10 John Daub: Tokugawa was the first shogun. Ieyasu Tokugawa. He's the one who united, brutally united Japan. But sometimes they need a strong hand in Japanese history to make things happen. Just like Prime Minister Abe, Shinzo Abe, who's the Prime Minister now. He rules with an iron fist and gets things done. So you have to respect him for that. Although a lot of people in Japan are critical of his methods. He does get stuff done here. Been a while since I was able to catch a stream. That's from Rib Crush. How you doing? Elijah Thompson. Does sakura blossoms grow in that area? They do. But it's more beautiful near Higashiyama. Higashiyama is very famous for it. As well as Arashiyama, which is about 8 kilometers that way. That way is Arashiyama. That way is Higashiyama.

00:39:08 John Daub: Any area accessible for those with special needs. I did see one lady with a wheelchair. I think that if you take a look here, it is a little rocky, but that shouldn't stop anyone from a wheelchair. You can just push a little bit harder. But if you're okay with what I'm showing you, the ground, then you should be okay. Especially if you have somebody to push. But it's going to be a little bit bumpy. They do have ramps and everything looks like it's flat. Except for that area with steps, you can get around everywhere. This is a strolling castle. First of all, the reason why it's pretty accessible is because most castles are built on the top of mountains. Like, for protection, right? This one is a flat land castle. Matsumoto Castle in Nagano is the same thing. It's not in the mountains. It's down on the flat area of the town. This is the same thing. Which makes it more accessible. Don't wear high heels. Although I did see a couple of people from China wearing high heels. They could be from Taiwan. I don't know the difference between Mandarin. No, wait.