00:04 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Kochi Castle. There's a tour group and we're just ahead of them and we're gonna really giddy up and get in front of them. Because I don't want to be behind a tour group, do you? That there is Kochi Castle as I said. And it's a real treat to be here and get a chance to show you this before I head back to Tokyo in a few hours. We're gonna do this real quick and don't let that ruin it though. If you do come to Kochi definitely take it slower. We're gonna miss some stuff, but we're gonna have some fun doing it. It's a beautiful warm late spring day, almost like summer.

00:37 John Daub: So I do have to say that it has been a hike to get up here. It's like rocky climbing the steps and if you're not totally winded by the time you get to the top, you're in pretty good shape. The one thing that you do have from up here is a really nice view looking back at the city. So before we go in, here's Kochi City. But guess what? We're gonna have a better shot from up there. That's right. We're gonna go up to the top of Kochi Castle and try to make it back down in about 15 minutes or less. Can it be done? Oh, you betcha.

01:26 John Daub: Okay, out of breath. I'm not in good shape. I do like the sign welcoming everybody to Kochi Castle. I don't know if the signal is gonna be okay, but we're gonna go for it anyways. It's 420 yen or about four dollars for adults to go in over the age of 18. Under the age of 18, they are free. That is awesome. Are you ready? I know it is very cheap.

02:05 John Daub: Welcome to the inside of Kochi Castle. Watch your head. You really do have to watch your head. I think it's about 177 centimeters. Three centimeters more. I'm three centimeters over. Like five foot nine. You probably will just brush your head. All right, here we are. More steps. I knew it. Oh, it's really nice.

02:54 John Daub: Now this is considered one of the twelve treasures of Japan, national treasures with castles. I believe there are only twelve castles. Don't ask me to list them all. Hey Remco, thank you. This is one of them. It's a national treasure. It's in really good shape. Built between 1601 and 1611. Why am I so winded? Let's go inside. Oh, of course, there's the vending machine. Of course, there's a vending machine. Hey Remco, this is for you, buddy. Thanks for the super chat. It exactly covers the ticket. I think Ramsey Silas chimes in. Thank you.

03:45 John Daub: All right, take off your shoes. Make sure no outer footwear. Hey, Javier, thank you. All right, let's do this. Oh, I love the protection. I was born in 1974, therefore, I shall use 74. See you soon. Let's do this. Oh, back in this way. Okay, so don't lose your key. Konnichiwa. All right.

04:25 John Daub: One of the reasons why I can film in here is because photos are okay. I love this one. The route. You could possibly go the other way, but let's not and say we did. I don't have a lot of time. Honmaru Palace (main keep) is what this is called. And as I said, it was built in—oh no, hold on. This history is different than Wikipedia. In 1873, Kochi Castle and its environs were designated as a park by the Meiji government at this time. Actually, the castle was in use until 1868, which is when the Meiji government took over.

05:39 John Daub: I'm so glad we're in front of them. And they look like they're going to take forever to climb the stairs, no offense. The usual route. No, I've gotten lost. Thank you for your help. Oh, okay, we went too far. If I was a ninja, I would have been assassinated. Wow, look at that beautiful kimono. I love this. They've kind of added like a walkway, and if there's nobody here, it's really relaxing. Get this. I feel like a samurai walking. Like I'm in a kimono running with a sword. I'm attacking. I'm gonna get the daimyo. It's a lavatory.

06:52 John Daub: Castles in Japan are kind of the same and we might lose the signal a little bit. But they always have artifacts, things that were found during the renovations and excavations of the site around the castles. If you do come, definitely take a closer look at it. Here's during the rebuilding of it a long time ago. I remember the scaffolding was a lot different back then. They used like bamboo. Definitely not as stable as before. We're kind of going straight to the top. This is a really nice... Hey Jesse. Thank you. Oh thank you. I'm gonna need that. I'm getting so thirsty. I'm driving real quick to the airport after this.

07:52 John Daub: Alright so this is a really nice model of the surrounding areas and life back in the 17th century was a lot harder. But it looked like people seemed happy. Didn't they? People seemed pretty happy in the 17th century. Oh look at them. They're conversing before he whips out his sword. He wouldn't do that. It's a lady. No wait. That's a dude. It's hard to tell. They have the samurai nets. Look over yonder. I see a beer vending machine. The crowd has come. This is what I'm talking about though. The steps are basically a ladder. It really is steep. Oh. Watch your step. It's nice to walk around the inside. Very slippery wooden floors. So if you have socks on, be careful. Watch your head. Bow.

09:34 John Daub: Alright here we go. That's not the usual route. Hey Dr. Zark. Ladder energy fund. People are coming down real slowly. Awesome. Alright a little TV action. Whoa. We're getting up here. Check it out. Oh this is gonna be nice. I'm really stoked. We're just about there everybody.

10:30 John Daub: So I think we're on the fifth floor now of the castle. We're getting up here a little bit. But the stairs are quite steep I think because it keeps ninjas away. Do not quote me on that. It's just a feeling that I have. If I were a ninja I would not be able to get up them that quickly. Oh we're almost there. We're almost there. Has anyone ever been inside of a castle? Which ones have you been into? Write in. Leave a message in the comments below and definitely hit the like button. I might take you all the way to the airport. Kochi airport is about a 45 minute drive away.

11:21 John Daub: Ah. This is it. This is awesome. I'm inside the castle top. Uh this is awesome. What a view. What a view. Look at this. This is the entirety of Kochi. The city of Kochi is right in front of us. And from this point it's amazing. They have not built any tall buildings to hurt the view. Oh my god. This is the tallest place because it's on top of the castle. This is the top. All right, we're on the top. All right they got bad weather. Of a mountain, kind of a hill. It's not a big castle but it is a very well maintained castle.

12:18 John Daub: All right let's look over here they have trolley cars here in Kochi and I drove when I came. When I drove into Kochi from the Shimanto River I came on that road. I remember looking to the left just a little bit and going and there's Kochi Castle because this is the only road from which you could see and the road shares the center with uh trolleys. You can see that between the buildings there's a chinchin densha (streetcar). Awesome it's a 360 degree view and we don't have that much wind today that makes it a little bit better. There's some koinobori (carp streamers) with the Japanese flag flying over the prefectural building I believe that's a prefectural building. Free parking yes. We had free parking at least I believe I haven't left they might make us pay. This is the courtyard and this is where we entered again the Japanese flag flying in the center flying high. You can see from all of those homes in the background the top of the castle with the flag it's very nice. Look at these guys he's got some friends down there to take a picture that's awesome.

14:06 John Daub: All right let's go to the other side. Wow what a view. This is awesome. The last time I was at Kochi Castle was in 2006. I took a ferry from Tokyo to Tokushima which is on Shikoku island. It took about 15, 16 hours to get there and I brought my bicycle with me from Tokyo. And as soon as I got to Tokushima I started riding my bicycle and I went south and all around the entire island of Shikoku. It took a few days, actually like more close to a week because I went slow. This is way back in 2006. With my friend Robin and uh we stopped in Kochi Castle for about a night because we camped outside the station. We camped outside the train station I think it was over there and that was a pretty funny experience back then. 2006 I thought you can camp just about anywhere and you can if you set up your tent late and you leave early usually it's never a problem.

15:24 John Daub: Oh we got some of the artifacts I didn't take show you down here. If you look on the side of the castle really cool ornaments sort of similar to the one in Nagoya. No it was like a dolphin in Nagoya Castle. I like the fact there's grass growing in the roof eco-friendly. It is a really nice view. Just one more panorama view from here and we're going back down. Hey Psybeam's got a dragon dragon emoji. How old is this castle Shadow Man? It was built between 1601 and 1611 and it was in operation as a castle until 1868 when the Meiji government took over. That's when it ceased to be a castle to protect the daimyo or the overlords or whoever was the resident there.

16:19 John Daub: You can see the steps now it is not easy to hike up here it is a little bit of a hike and we started from street level. Every Sunday you can just see between the trees a little bit there's a market that runs outside the castle every Sunday. It goes for one kilometer it's the oldest market in Japan and it's the longest I believe one kilometer long. Um again every Sunday it's been held here for over 300 years so if you are in Kochi you want to check it out. Konnichiwa if someone ever looks at you always say konnichiwa. Here's the ticket for those who are thinking to enter it's a gorgeous ticket too.

17:09 John Daub: Uh I think all the castles are reconstructed except for a couple of them. Himeji seems to be an interesting castle to be honest and um there aren't that many. The thing is the castles, Japanese castles they're very because they're up on high positions usually they're the first thing struck by lightning. And these things are made of wood so when they get hit by lightning more often than not they just went ablaze and a lot of them burned down. Um not many castles didn't have any kind of reconstruction. I don't think there aren't any. All the castles have had some sort of reconstruction over the years or a fight over the four or five hundred years of history. But you know reconstructed castles the thing is all of the structures undergo renovations um and renewal. Anything that's made out of wood there's nothing that's like as old as the European castles. These are always constructed out of wood or they're constructed out of stone so they last a lot longer. In Japan it was wood was the main material except for um the stone around it so a lot of the castles are made of wood. So you can see the walls of the castles that are ruins you can still see the stones around it the base of the castle the walls of the castle but the castle itself in many places is just completely destroyed.

18:47 John Daub: David Kimura it would be nice if they rent out rooms tonight in a castle. Check out the live stream I did I think yesterday last night in the room. I thought that was just like a castle I had windows on the left and the right of me it was really an amazing room. So there you have it. I'm gonna make my way down. It's pretty cool. If you do like these castle tours, click the like button and leave a comment below and I'll know to do another castle tour. I'm on my way out to go back to Tokyo.

19:13 John Daub: No the tour is not finished. At any moment I could trip and fall. Boy, there's a queue to get up here. Having socks does not help. They're so slippery and the wood is just so polished down. Very easy to just slip. You have to go slow. If you're in a hurry, just if they were fireman poles, I guess you could go down the pole. Hey, Dr. Zark, thank you. Dr. Zark, we just went to the market. Actually, the market is going to be a main channel episode. So we're going to have a chance to see the market in glorious HD size instead of a live stream. So I hope that that's okay, doctor.

20:50 John Daub: We're back down. Deguchi. So the castle is something that you can do pretty quickly and you can do it pretty easily. It doesn't take a lot of effort. It takes a lot of time, especially if you shotgun it like we did. But it is nice for only four dollars. And there are some souvenirs here. That cost as much as the entrance to the castle. There's a Ryoma. Ryoma is a very historical figure in Kochi. And one day I shall tell you the story. There's not enough bandwidth in the world to tell the whole story. I love these keys. It's Japanese style keys.

22:11 John Daub: Hey, Team Capri. I'm going to go to the castle. Oh, you remember. Well, no. Actually, I was going to see if Peter von Gomm would come along with me for the ghost story. It's actually one of the scariest stories. Every castle has a ghost story. The reason why I didn't do the ghost stories. I've done a lot of research on this story, and it's just a scary, scary. It's scary. And it's so scary that people. The government of Tokyo believes in the story and they are scared of it, too. You know what? Summertime is a better time because it doesn't get as dark as early. So let's wait until that's where we just were, by the way. Kochi Castle. I wait a little bit longer and I'll see if I can go Peter because I don't want to do it by myself. There's a curse involved and I don't want to upset any of the any of the. We're back. I told you. How dare you? The ghosts. The ghosts are real.

23:26 John Daub: Anyway, thanks so much for watching this live stream. I just wanted to share a little bit of Kochi Castle with you. If you do come to Kochi or Shikoku, it's worth coming here. Dogo Onsen is one place up in Matsuyama. And if you come around a little bit further, Kochi Castle is one of the best in Japan and a place you have to visit as well as the Shimanto River. Don't forget all of the live streams I did. Go back and watch them if you haven't. And I'll see you next time, everybody. Bye.