00:00:06 John Daub: Welcome to Kyoto, the middle of nowhere Kyoto. I'm here scouting a location. This is Kurama Station right here. It's kind of pretty, it's pretty cool to have 4G signal here in the middle of the countryside. But this is the end of the line for the Keihan Railway. I think it's called the Eizan line (Eizan Railway). It's very countryside-ish. It's like, I don't feel like I'm in Kyoto actually.

00:00:35 John Daub: Kyoto to me is a city place where you take a bus everywhere and it's crowded, congested, and then there's temples and shrines in between it. Here in this part of Kyoto, it's just like you're in a completely different place. And it smells of soba. I can smell the salty, delicious countryside smell of soba simmering probably at a shop down there. But I thought it would take about 10 minutes and just show you around this area of Kyoto because not a lot of tourists go around here.

00:01:05 John Daub: So let's come to this area. It's famous as having also one of the only onsen in Kyoto. A lot of people ask me, where do you go to an onsen, a hot spring when you go to Kyoto? This is where you would go, the end of the line, the station. So let's go take a quick look at this at Kurama Station, which I have right here. There's actually a map. They gave me a really cute map of this area so I can look at it. And the illustrations are so cool. It makes me want to explore more.

00:01:37 John Daub: So this is the map. It's a map of the station. And this is the end of the line. And that's where you saw the tengu, the big-nosed masks here. What I love about this station that you're looking at right now is that it has moss on the roof of it. Look at this. Cultivating moss on the roof of a train station.

00:02:03 John Daub: And in about one minute, another train is going to be coming here and taking people back to the city of Kyoto, which is about 30 minutes on the train from here. It's not very far. Let's have a quick look inside of the station before the train comes and then we'll get a shot of the train pulling in.

00:02:20 John Daub: Once again, this area is called Kurama. And it has an onsen. It has a temple. It has just like that entire Kyoto experience without all of the crowdedness and the lines and tour buses. It's a really natural place. I'm kind of digging this area a lot. Check it out. I can hear the rain falling. And that's sort of a big deal.

00:02:43 John Daub: When I go to Kyoto, you really can't see the sun, or the sky, especially since it's so dark. Ginkakuji or to Kiyomizudera, it's just so crowded and loud it's the opposite of what a shrine should be. Listen to the sound of the door ah that's a good sound I love that sound the sound of rolling wood and glass on the window here.

00:03:04 John Daub: Here's the inside of the station this is Kurama Station it's pretty simple people wait here for just a couple minutes before the train comes and I'm going to show you some of the history. This station is about I think they said that this line is about 90 years old and you can see some of the earlier trains are not quite the same style this is called the wanman or just one train car and the train that's going to be pulling in in a minute is way way more stylish than these but it's still pretty cool and you can see these one little trains rolling through the countryside.

00:03:46 John Daub: And to me this is very much what Japan is whenever you leave Tokyo you want to come out to places like this and you can see the train tracks and the train tracks are all the same and this is just the other side of Kyoto I would like to say the other side and you always find these stamps here you can stamp your ticket with the railway stamp let's take a look.

00:04:09 John Daub: He said that the train was coming I love the sound of that so in this live stream I'm going to show you this train coming in and then we're going to take a look at the temple and then just a little bit of the area around the town there is an onsen here for those of you who have been asking me where do you go to an onsen? Here is an onsen in Kyoto you take this line all the way to the end I'll put the information in the description and you can do day trips here you don't need a reservation you can just soak in the onsen.

00:04:43 John Daub: Here comes a train we timed it just perfectly this train is awesome because look at the big windows on it do you see that they have these really big windows on the train and it's known for going through the countryside and getting these awesome forested views and these people are coming they're newbies I've been here for 20 minutes I think I can show you the window from this side look at that.

00:05:19 John Daub: And it's not really this is a really not an expensive thing to do. The hum of a oh there's two cars on that that's not a one-man I came on that train one that looks just like it so now I'm gonna take you to the town a little bit and show you some of this area around the Kurama town there's a really really nice peacefulness to it that I just love and right now with the rainfall in it there's something special about it's falling just a little bit but there's something special about that sound oh there's my umbrella I forgot my umbrella it's still there all right.

00:06:06 John Daub: Oh they're letting the people in under the train check it out you can get day passes here to just take the railway but we're going this way it's now time to explore around the town a little bit so my friend Shingo is here and he's actually gone to the onsen to try to get permission. I've never been to this part of Kyoto 20 years living in Japan I've never been to this part of Kyoto and it's really refreshing it's nice to get out of the city.

00:06:47 John Daub: Hey guys there's the tengu with the big nose it's kind of a cool thing to see part of the countryside. This isn't going to be a very long video I'm here literally to scout the onsen and I'm going to be doing a little bit of a walk around the town just to take a look but I've been on the move for the last three weeks it's just my schedule's been crazy busy and I haven't been able to do a live stream but it's nice to be able to bring you someplace outside of Tokyo.

00:07:25 John Daub: Now this is called the Eizan Railway Eizan Railway is made by Keihan which is a very affordable railway you can go from Osaka to Kyoto and it's like half the price of JR or something. Kurama is the station here this is the last station and it's located just off the countryside railway which is just so killer I'm having such an amazing time here just walking around and looking there's no city there's just no crowds there are some tourists here but they're very very very few compared to the rest of Kyoto.

00:07:59 John Daub: Up there I'm just trying to get you oriented a little bit up there we've left the station which is right here and I'm going to walk just a little bit up this road and show you the temple that's Kuramadera which is a Buddhist temple up there it's got a lot of history. This area is famous for the temple it's famous for hiking and it's famous for the onsen and you can actually stay here it's about 15,000 yen I think a night about 140 to 160 dollars depending on the season that you come here to stay and yeah it's you don't have to take a bus you can just take the train.

00:08:33 John Daub: It's a little bit warmer than normal today usually February is quite cool but Kyoto is warmer than Tokyo and today we've got rain just love the sound of the running water just soaks into your brain and relaxes you after being in Tokyo for the last couple of weeks really really beautiful water coming through here I love the way that check it out the water is just kind of stuck on the branches just kind of getting ready to drip at any moment do you see that any moment that one of these drops is going to fall.

00:09:32 John Daub: Like right now if you just stop and look a little bit you can find beauty and nature all over the place just a little thing like raindrops soaking on the end of a branch it's just really beautiful and I guess the way with the lighting the way the lighting is right now. iPhone focus focus you get the picture it's kind of blurry but it's really pretty the sound of running water is much better than the sound of my voice so I'm going to take you to another place with some running water and maybe let that sound soak in for you guys too.

00:10:18 John Daub: So why don't you write in where you guys want watching from what part of the world are you in so these are that's where the smell of the soba was coming from that that warm salty noodle smell that was coming from I think from that shop there South Carolina India Thailand Kansas City Canada wow. Oh now I got the smell of a fire burning wood that's like a really for me like the Adirondacks up in New York kind of smell in the winter chimney smoke smell oh there's one guy in there looks like he's working I don't want to bother him deep focus on the job at hand look at that old post box too.

00:11:19 John Daub: All right soak this up guys the sound of running water from the temple above that's really nice. You can park your car here for 500 yen. Chushajo means parking lot. Alright so my friend Shingo's gone this way to scout the onsen but I love it after it just rains and it's a little bit warmer than usual so you see in the forests above the trees above it's starting to smoke like the clouds or steam I'm not sure what that is but it looks really beautiful and feels like you're in the countryside when you see this steam coming from the forests on the mountains above. You call them hills. Very beautiful.

00:12:25 John Daub: Alright we're gonna go really quickly up here and show you just a little bit of the temple. Hey Leslie thank you. Greetings from Yuma. Nice to see you. Thank you Gretchen as well. Nice to see Gretchen. Jim writes in how are you John thank you for streaming you're welcome it's been a while since I've streamed but it's nice to be back this is back season in Japan as well and life is quite busy right now but once March hits I am released into the wild once again to bring you loads and loads of episodes we have four episodes coming on the main channel by the way driving episodes with my friend Dean Newcomb in Ibaraki Prefecture.

00:13:39 John Daub: Kind of winded. You can see on my back here this is my scouting unit I've got a couple of cameras tripod there it is tripod the video is gonna be for this probably gonna be playing in March sometimes okay this is beautiful there's the entrance to Kuramadera you can see this beautiful roof it's 300 yen to go in I still got a I'm still scouting and got to go work so I thought maybe I would just show you quickly there's no drones here.

00:14:31 John Daub: I guess somebody tried but inside is very beautiful this is one of the reasons why you want to come to this area to see temples and shrines but also to see temples that don't have any people there that's one of the tough things with the ones in Kyoto they're so overcrowded full of tourists snapping pictures and you come to a place like this that's just completely natural and it's so quiet you have it all to yourself that this is Kyoto to me this is what I think Kyoto should feel like when you come to visit countryside mountains trees nature Kyoto is about the natural world you can taste it in its cuisine the kaiseki of Kyoto is made with natural ingredients that are seasonal right now we're in winter.

00:15:23 John Daub: Check it out do you guys see do you see this the water runs down the chain from the roof well it goes way up there look at that where's the end there it is yeah there's a little catcher for in the end it's beautiful the chain kind of brings the water down peacefully instead of it all just coming down in a stream it'll trickle down and it's trickling down to here so it kind of brings the water together to one spot it's kind of a good idea and it's pretty to look at aesthetics are important here in Kyoto.

00:16:24 John Daub: All right I'm really impressed with this area I think I'm gonna come back here tomorrow to do some more filming when it's not raining but this is what I do before I film it Only in Japan episode I will go around to the areas and scout it out and look at shots come up with ideas to make a story and I'm finding a lot of ideas here I just love the moss. I mean what YouTuber will just like start filming moss it's pretty cool isn't it it's nice to see growth on stone something cold and dead like stone has life on it to me that's sort of has a meaning behind it I guess like Moss Burger right.

00:17:14 John Daub: Glenn's got the idea Moss stream yeah that was like even this parking lot has moss on it check it out this little parking garage has some moss on it how cool is that life without moss it's not life at all just a gutter but with moss it's a mossy gutter it's beautiful only in moss you guys.

00:17:52 John Daub: It's been a long time since I've live streamed it's been a while thanks guys for joining thank you everybody all right I'm going now to another area on this railway to scout a place that's famous for ramen this is going to be an epic episode I'm so happy. So to either tonight or tomorrow main channel episode is going to drop just to give you a heads up it's going to be about drive-through cuisine because Dean Newcomb and I rented a car and we drove through and ate sushi and ramen and a bunch of other stuff so that's going to be dropping tonight I believe or tomorrow just depends because I have to release it from Kyoto.

00:18:35 John Daub: Ah it's a nice view so if you want me to live stream again from Kyoto hit that like button I'll try to do another live stream and bring you a piece of Kyoto that nobody has ever brought to you before that's a really stylish looking shop I like that just out of nowhere they have a little bit of sophistication to them it's not what you would expect from the countryside but yet again exceeding expectations is what Kyoto is all about you need a little magnets and gifts as well look at that it's pretty neat get a magnet for the refrigerator or a coffee mug look at that how many of you would buy that what do you think.

00:19:37 John Daub: All right my scouting is complete I'm going to take you now back to the station sorry we're losing the signal a little bit so I found this booth that has some dango check it out some mountain food I'll probably get this for the main channel look at that big was that ohagi made of mochi manju all right so let me take you back to the station we're gonna say bye bye because that's what we do on railway from Kyoto to here is just about like I think it felt like 30 minutes to me so I went from the city of Kyoto to here by train and it's like it's a different world.

00:20:42 John Daub: It's like oh that's where the smell was coming from it was coming from this place it's coming from right here this is where the oishii soba is probably located. So there you go we're back at the station there's the big tengu and the Kurama Station the place of history this line going back with a history of 90 years. If you're in Kyoto you probably want to check this place out kind of get off of the beaten path.

00:21:08 John Daub: Gretchen writes in moss is beautiful and as scented as beautiful as Japan yes yes that's a good way to put it Gretchen. Steven Weber writes in grab a snack for the train thank you actually I'm gonna use that for a bowl of ramen I don't if you don't mind I'm gonna put a picture of it on Instagram Only Japan TV is the Instagram page so you're gonna see some ramen on the Instagram page I'm out of breath all right have a great day have a great night I'll try to live stream again thanks for oh 231 likes cool so I'll do another live streaming Kyoto again thanks for sharing some time with me today and enjoy the rest of your day wherever you are in the world goodbye from Kurama Station the countryside of Kyoto the onsen town of the city this is the city of Kyoto.