00:03 John Daub: Hey everybody, I'm in the countryside in Tottori Prefecture. This is called Hoki-cho, or Hoki town. This area is called Fukuoka because Fukuoka Shrine, which I introduced just the other day, is up there. Behind me, believe it or not, is actually a restaurant. Or is it? It's so windy out here. It's an interesting story. We're actually filming this for NHK, and I remember walking by this place. It says here it's a shokudo (casual dining restaurant), but it does not look like any kind of shokudo that I've ever eaten in. So we're gonna go inside and show you what they have.

01:53 John Daub: You gotta take your shoes off. Whenever I take my shoes off, I put them in reverse and back them in so I can jump right back in, and I wear slippers. The slippers you can get off the shelf here. It's just like a school. In fact, it used to be a school. You can see up here it says first grade, second grade, ni-nen-sei (second-year students), yon-nen-sei (fourth-year students). There's a map of Japan. This area we're up on the top right there, and in the back is the restaurant.

02:49 John Daub: It says yonensei (fourth grade). They sell soba in here. Nice and warm in there. That looks delicious. That's a bowl of delicious countryside soba. It's about 700 yen, handmade soba with tofu and the dashi (broth). You see with the wasabi and the leeks on top—you put that into the bowl underneath it and eat it. So good. The menu is right there on the wall. They have doburoku (unrefined sake), which I introduced yesterday on Instagram. They also have beer for 500 yen, doburoku, which is a kind of Japanese sake, and amazake (sweet non-alcoholic rice drink) for 200 yen.

05:23 John Daub: When in doubt, order soba at a place like this—they will always have homemade soba. Now I want to introduce this to you: amazake. You can see pieces of the rice floating in it—it's kind of cool to look at, almost like a lava lamp. This has no alcohol in it. They make it right there in that brown building. Inside there is the brewery to make doburoku, which is a more simply made Japanese sake. Doburoku keeps the grains of rice in it—it's pretty much whole and only takes 30 days to make. Amazake takes about a week and thus has no alcohol in it. If you can't drink alcohol, amazake is a good substitute because you get kind of the flavor of it.

06:46 John Daub: They've taken the doburoku and added some oil—you can use this for nabe (hot pot) to make soup. This would be really good. They have a family size. The reason why we're here right now is for this: tomorrow this festival is going to be taking place here at Fukuoka Shrine in Tottori Prefecture, not so far from Yonago City. You can see here these are all the legs of the octopus, and this is the head. They toss this dude around this pole and he's got to hang on for dear life. They're just tossing them around. I really don't know what's going on with this, but tomorrow, if we're lucky, I'll be able to live stream a little bit of it. I might even participate—I'm on standby for that.

08:17 John Daub: Once again, I introduced this the day before yesterday. This is Fukuoka Shrine, where we're going to be filming the ritual tomorrow. You write your prayer on the back of this and take it to the shrine—there's an octopus on it because the shrine worships the octopus. Everything is for sale, including the doburoku. It's not sake—it's this, and it looks like nigori (cloudy sake) but it's not. There's a hole in the top because it's got a lot of gas in it—it's very fresh and the hole lets some of the gas out so it doesn't explode. You can see it's milky, just like the amazake, and it's actually alive in there, 16% alcohol, very strong. One small bottle is 900 yen, a big bottle 2100 yen.

09:31 John Daub: In this interesting building—is it a school or a restaurant? It's a restaurant but it used to be a school. There's a painting of the ritual that I'll be going to tomorrow. It kind of looks like kids on a playground, just they happen to be in fundoshi (traditional loincloths). Apparently you just hold on for dear life, and they keep flipping you around the pole. I guess you can go eight times—that's lucky because octopuses have eight legs. Eight times around anything is a lucky number here. This was made by a 95-year-old man who takes pieces of paper, rolls them up with glue, and creates this thing. From a distance it looks like a painting, but up close it's just glued-up paper—really cool. I've never seen anything like this before I came here.

11:07 John Daub: Crazy old men do crazy stuff, but in a good way. When young people come in and see this, they love the colors and design, and then you see the amount of work it requires—this probably took months. Even the soccer ball down here—every little detail. It's a lot harder to make than it looks. This is a small countryside town where not a lot happens except tomorrow.

12:55 John Daub: I can show you on the map. That's not Australia, by the way—that's Shikoku, the fourth largest island in Japan. There's Honshu, which is the big one we're on; Kyushu in the very south; Shikoku, which looks like mini Australia; and Hokkaido, the second biggest. We're up here—there's Yonago and Mount Daisen. We're right in between the two, in the valley. That's where we're filming. I'm going to be here for another couple days. Tomorrow is the festival—right now it's Sunday in Japan. On Monday, I'm filming the last scenes, and Tuesday we might have extra scenes depending on the weather. Then I return on the 23rd back to Tokyo.

15:06 John Daub: This is the doburoku—you can see them making it. Looks very much like Japanese sake, but it's actually stronger, 16% alcohol. One bottle is a little bit pricey. Konnichiwa. Ah, it's ready. I kind of wanted to try some amazake—it's 200 yen for a glass. Then please give me an amazake glass. I want to try some amazake. I got to try a glass of the amazake—it's made right here locally. I'm the kind of person that likes to support local businesses, and this is a local business.

17:11 John Daub: Thank you. Arigato. Amazake. Wow, that looks so good. Check it out. This is amazake, what I showed you earlier. It looks like just rice porridge, but it's so good. Zake is the kanji for sake. This could be like Korean makgeolli, but no alcohol. So is this a school or a restaurant? I'm still confused. Cheers. That's so good. It's so countryside Japan. When you're in the countryside in Japan, eat soba, drink amazake or doburoku, and just look for a nice view and relax. That's the best thing to do.

18:38 John Daub: Now it's October and the weather's gotten kind of cold today—it's a little bit windy, chilly, about 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 Celsius. But we're in a valley, so suddenly it can start raining. Yesterday we were filming, it was sunny, and then all of a sudden within less than a minute it got dark and started to downpour. I put video clips on Instagram stories—you could see just like the snap of a finger, cats and dogs falling from the sky. It was beautiful but got really cold. In October, if you come to Japan, pack a jacket. Right now I have a thick outer jacket with a shirt and t-shirt—layers are good.

19:46 John Daub: If I get a chance tomorrow, I'm going to take you to the tako (octopus) festival—one of the most unique, weird festivals ever. I thought the naked man festival was weird, but this one is unique, in a good way. Now you can see the pieces of rice stuck to the glass—so it's very healthy. It's because they're using the ingredients they make with Japanese sake—something in it that's really good for you. In the last couple years, amazake has been booming in Japan. You wouldn't find it at supermarkets before, but now you are because it's supposed to be good for the body. It's very chunky, but sweet—amai means sweet, so sweet sake. To me, it feels like eggnog without the heaviness, just a sweet soupy drink.

22:20 John Daub: This is all going to be in a Journeys in Japan episode for NHK World, broadcast at the end of November. If you're watching these live streams, you're going to relive it in the full episode—they're editing it, I love that. We're leaving now, so I'm putting the slippers away and saying goodbye. This is something Akari-san will never forget. Thank you. Was this a restaurant or a school? Well, we learned a lot—it's a restaurant now.

23:35 John Daub: This is from another point of view, for everybody who's joining me. This is where I was filming from over there a couple days ago—you can see in the center of the screen that's Fukuoka Shrine. I was panning from this direction towards you, and now we're looking back the other way. This is a countryside vending machine—they didn't turn the heater on, they're all cold, so I'm passing on the drinks. There's our blue van again, and this is the place we were just inside. If you come to Fukuoka Shrine in Tottori Prefecture, hit this place—it's the only restaurant in town. That's the way we like it. Alright guys, I hope you enjoyed that—just wanted to share a little piece of the story.

25:00 John Daub: Hit that like button if you like countryside livestreams. Tomorrow, if we've got time—I'm here for NHK to film this episode—but I might sneak in a livestream around 24 hours from now with some pretty much naked dudes. I'll see you guys later. I'll try to give advance notice on Patreon and Instagram, but I just wanna go live if I have a chance. Have a good day and night wherever you are—I'll be here a couple more days with more countryside livestreams. Bye-bye. Have a closer look at the restaurant we were just in. Get ready to say goodbye and roll to another scene to produce the show Journeys in Japan.