00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody! We're in Ginza and we're going to be eating something really sweet, something that I really love when I come here to Ginza. There's a famous shop on the corner of the big intersection here. That's right, Kanae is here. Why are you drinking green tea? That's right because we're gonna get sweets and we need something to drink. She's paying by Suica. All right, let's do this. Iemon. It's right on the corner here. Where'd she go? There she is. Hey everybody!

00:00:53 John Daub: So this is just gonna be a short and sweet livestream. Sweet because we're hungry. This is called daifuku (big mochi with filling), what we're gonna introduce you to. It's mochi, which is glutinous rice that's been pounded. It's a dessert, a confection. Usually for daifuku we take the mochi and wrap it around some red bean paste or something. Here we are. This is the main intersection. And this is the shop that I want to introduce you to. It's called Akebono, and it's quite famous in Ginza. Akebono has loads of daifuku. Daifuku galore. Just lots of balls. They almost look like eyeballs. They're just perfect for Halloween. Kind of creepy.

00:02:09 John Daub: What do you like? Let's get it. Ah, that's good. I want to eat it. It's kind of translucent. You can see sort of the inside of it. That's an autumn daifuku with chestnut (kuri) in the middle of it. Usually they have strawberry. Strawberry is really good too. I'm excited about this daifuku time. So Kanae's gonna get the daifuku. I'm gonna wait out here. Let's go out here and wait for a second. Alright, it's gonna be fun. I'm gonna put the tripod on and we're going to take a look at the inside of it as well as eat this thing.

00:03:11 John Daub: Daifuku is an amazing little dessert snack. I've been eating these since I came to Japan 20 years ago and this is just a treat because I'm taking a break today to enjoy the outside. Kanae's gonna get the daifuku and we're gonna eat for you right here. This is pretty exciting. She's next in line. Now, daifuku comes in various tastes. There's always some unique filling in it. For autumn, they're putting in chestnuts. In the winter, it's strawberry season in Japan. Yeah, strawberries are in the winter because they grow the strawberries in greenhouses. The reason why is because under the cool temperature the strawberries can ripen over a longer period of time and when it ripens over more periods of time the strawberries are sweeter. That's why Japan makes some of the sweetest dessert strawberries in the world.

00:04:17 John Daub: Alright, Kanae's paying. Here we go. I'm like really starving for this. Dai means big, fuku means fortune. Daifuku means big fortune. Therefore, we're gonna have some fun with this thing. Now, we bought two kinds of them. One of them has the chestnut in it. The other one has what looks like an apricot. She got it. Yay! Woohoo! Thank you, Joe. Enjoy the daifuku. Sponsored by Joe. Alright, here we are. It's kind of like jewelry. It's like a treasure. Big fortune. Are you ready?

00:05:42 John Daub: Let's go. This is gonna be pretty good. Alright, Kanae, tabete mite kudasai (try eating it). Which one? Apricot? I wanted the apricot. Alright, go ahead. Good? Alright, show us the inside. Misete kudasai (show me). Woah! So you can see the green, the red bean paste, the anko (sweet red bean paste). On the top of it is an apricot, which the color is very autumn. It's kind of orange-brown looking. But the mochi around it looks so good. Is that sugar? Amai desu ka (is it sweet)? It's sweet but fruity.

00:06:35 John Daub: Alright, here we go. Oh, check it out. So they've actually, you can see there's a layer where the daifuku, the apricot is, between the apricot and the anko is another layer of mochi. Interesting. Mmm! Oishii (delicious)! It's tasty! I like it! That apricot, there's only one piece in there. It's just enough to add to sweetness. The red bean paste is a little bit mild but sweet, but it's not overly sweet. So on the top you have an amazing sweetness. On the bottom you have a mild sweetness. It's a really good mix. I've never had an apricot inside of a daifuku, but daifuku when you have the strawberries are ridiculously sweet. Amai desho ichigo to (super sweet with strawberry). So this one is even sweeter, but the red bean paste really balances it out. So it's very well done. Akebono, this is good. Only for autumn.

00:07:51 John Daub: Thank you very much! And then from Dianza ZZR, tabete (eat)! In Japanese, we are going to tabemasu (eat)! Alright, I can eat this one. Merci boku! I shall have some daifuku! By the way, we're thinking of going to Paris for December. We might be in Europe in December this year, so we're gonna make a trip! Oh my god, so good! You can see the orange cones right there. Right now, Ginza Chuo Dori is closed. Every weekend, they close the streets. We like to come here, kind of like our backyard. Green tea. Cheers! Alright, one more to go.

00:08:56 John Daub: Hey John, I'm here in Kyoto, coming to Tokyo by the end of October. Awesome, Renee! Thank you! I'm saying thank you to Kanae because she's picking it up. So this is the kuri (chestnut). This is shin, right? So shin means new. And new is because these are new chestnuts that were just picked from the trees, so it's supposed to be fresh. Alright, do it. She's attacking it. She's turning away out of shyness. Alright, show me the insides. Look at that! Ah, look at the chestnut! Ah, no way! It looks almost like a sweet potato. It looks like a baked potato. So wrapped around this mochi is red bean paste, anko, and in the middle is a brand new chestnut.

00:10:18 John Daub: Alright, we're gonna find out which one wins. In order to find out though, I must eat the daifuku. I love these because they're heavy. Check that out. We lost a warrior today. We must give thanks for his sacrifice. Here we go. Mmm. Oh, wow. It's mochi. A lot of chewing. You can smell the chestnut. Kurii nioi desho (smells like chestnut). It's very nutty smelling. It's fresh. A little bit stronger because of the freshness of it, I guess. Chestnuts are soft. It's a soft nut when it's been roasted. Very good. I like it. Just kind of a crunchiness to it. It's unique because in daifuku, it's usually very yawarakai desho (soft). But this daifuku with the chestnut... She ate the chestnut! She ate all the chestnut! That was my piece of chestnut! Awww. That's alright. Mr. Suastikas gave us a super chat, so I'll buy another one. It's alright. Thank you.

00:12:14 John Daub: Yeah, it's just a little bit nutty to it. But the thing with the chestnut is it's seasonal, right? I know why they did it because it's aki (autumn). But I kind of prefer the apricot. Which one do you like? Actually, I like the apricot one. So, Kanae's going to apricot. I'm going to apricot. The chestnut was also good. But it's just a very small difference. You know what? I'll get my hand on any daifuku. You put a daifuku in front of me, I'll just take it. I don't even care what's inside of it. Just eat it, right? What's your favorite daifuku? Strawberry. Strawberry daifuku. Why strawberry? Because it looks nice too. Ah, the visual is important. Yeah, the visual is nice. I can feel a spring. Ah, spring. So, the strawberry, the sweet strawberries start coming out in the winter, but in the winter it's so cold, you're looking forward to spring. So it's sort of, you know, that fruity taste. Spring's around the corner, I guess.

00:13:24 John Daub: And when you sink your teeth into a strawberry daifuku, which they do sell at this store, it's going to be probably as soon as fall is over, probably around December. The strawberry, it's the most delicious, right? Maybe. Yeah, the apricot's good, and I think that they know the reason why they have the apricot is because people like that sweetness to it, and the kuri is not as sweet. But with that apricot also on sale, ah man, that was really sweet. I like that. That was satisfying to me. But for me, personally, I like the strawberry as well. But I also like other, I like creamed daifuku. Do you ever have the creamed one? The creamed? Custard, or something. Oh, no. I'm not a big fan. I'm not a big fan of the custard. You put custard in anything, I'll eat it. Donuts, cake, tacos. Custard is too sweet. Yeah, custard's a little bit sweet, but if you're American, yeah, you can put that on toast. You can do anything with custard. You could shave with custard.

00:14:45 John Daub: Little Boomer writes in. What about mustard? Now, mustard daifuku, ah? Can you daifuku? That's a question for this shop. One day when I meet the owner, I'm going to ask Mr. Akebono. Can you daifuku anything? Can you make anything into daifuku? Can you wrap anything in mochi? Could you wrap mustard, wasabi? Could you, how about niku (meat)? Meat, like a meat daifuku. No? It's just like a nikuman (steamed meat bun). Maybe you can't daifuku everything. There's an expression, what can you sushi, right? Can you make sushi out of a meatball? What can you daifuku? I'm curious. Yeah, I think sweet potato daifuku sometimes. Sweet potato daifuku is good. What can you daifuku? What can you wrap in mochi? Jam? Any kind of jam is good? Natto (fermented soybeans)? That'd be interesting. There's a million view idea. Anybody want to try that one? Daifuku with chili sauce? That's like, yeah, the Thai chili sauce would be really good. Oh man. Thai flavored daifuku. Now we're talking. A little bit of coconut maybe? No. Pineapple would be good if we had an aloha theme to it. Nutella would be good.

00:16:14 John Daub: Well anyways. This is Akebono. On top of it is another cafe. We're going to have one more daifuku. Next to it is the Belgian waffle chain Manneken. Oh, is that for me? Oh, no. You can have it. You can eat half then. You took more than half. Oh, that's all right. I'll just buy another one. Daifuku. Because you care. It's a big fortune. And this one at Akebono, she ate most of it and the chestnut. But you can get it here. It's a big intersection. And on the weekends, it's a really nice time to visit. The street is closed. You can see all the pedestrians walking across there. It's very relaxed and chill here. This is kind of, I guess it'd be like a street food. Daifuku can be considered a street food.

00:17:10 John Daub: All right, guys. So if you're in Ginza, if you're in Tokyo, get yourself a green tea and grab yourself a daifuku. Let's get one more quick look at it before we end this live stream. Eh, this isn't daifuku. What is this? Monaka (wafer cake with filling). Ah, monaka. It's got like a kind of a shell to it. And inside the shell, they put in this monaka red bean paste with pieces of chestnut in it. Oh, man. It's suwa suwa (crisp). And I love the presentation. And you can buy boxes of these. The reason why I think they sell these, daifuku does not have a very long shelf life. It's like a couple of days. These are, I think about two weeks. Ni shukan gurai desho (about two weeks)? Daijoubu (okay). Itsu kiru (when does it expire)? Nishukan gurai (about two weeks). So you can't really sell daifuku and take them home because they expire in like a couple of days. They're fresh. But these you can probably keep around for a little bit longer.

00:18:22 John Daub: So I just wanted to end the live stream by taking a quick look at the daifuku. Everybody thank you very much. Can I thank you for appearing? Thank you. We did the Mickey Mouse soap yesterday, so you can check that on the channel. That was fun. That was your soap. I was just having fun with it. There you go, everybody. There's daifuku. If you come to Ginza, check it out. Akebono.