00:03 John Daub: Welcome to Shin Kobe Station. This is the Shinkansen station for the city of Kobe. It's on the Sanyo Shinkansen line that goes from Hakata—well, actually from Kagoshima, Hakata, which is Fukuoka—and eventually to Shin-Osaka, which is the station in Osaka.

00:21 John Daub: Hey everybody, how you doing? I just spent 24 hours here for an award that I picked up from a company I work with, so it's great to be back in Kobe just for a little period of time. Last night we did a midnight food run. Today we're going back to Tokyo, but I thought this was a good opportunity to introduce you to Shin Kobe Station. That is the city of Kobe up there, and for those watching, you might be wondering what's the best way to get to Shin Kobe Station.

00:48 John Daub: Actually, from Sannomiya, it's to walk. It's only 1.5 kilometers or like a mile, so it took me about 15 minutes to walk from Sannomiya Station to here, and I saved a few hundred yen. Taxi will take about 10 minutes and cost about 1,000 or 1,200 yen. It's only 5 minutes difference between walking and actually taking a taxi because of the traffic lights. There is bus and there is subway, but if you're just going to Sannomiya, I recommend just walking. Here's some secret information: on the way, there are about five or six very, very good bakeries, and Kobe is very famous for its bakeries, for its cheesecakes, because it has a European influence to it.

01:32 John Daub: This is where a lot of trade was happening. The Portuguese came in through Kobe, so they have a history of baked goods, and it shows because it's so delicious. I have in my backpack actually a bunch of them, so let's go inside Shin Kobe Station and check out this building that was built in 1972. And it doesn't look like it's changed much over the decades. Now, most of the Shinkansen buildings have been renovated, and Shin Kobe does not look like it has been renovated much, which kind of makes it look a little bit retro. There's nothing wrong with that. I kind of like it, in fact.

02:15 John Daub: Let's follow in here. All right, here's the entrance. The good thing about this station is that it is smaller, and it's very easy to navigate. So if you're in a hurry and you take a taxi, you get out of the taxi—you're straight there. This is where you enter. Usually, if you're on a tour group, a lot of people will wait here. It's easier to pick up people in Shin Kobe than Shin-Osaka. So some tour groups will start here. The window to get JR tickets is right here, and it's a lot less crowded than Osaka Station, Shin-Osaka Station.

02:53 John Daub: And here are the vending machines to buy tickets. I just bought mine. Here's the ticket right here. It costs to get from Tokyo to Shin Kobe about $100—$140, $130, depending on the exchange rate. And it takes about 2 hours and 40 minutes. This ticket will take you from Shin Kobe here to Tokyo or Shinagawa within Tokyo City, which is on the end of that arrow. And I bought it with a credit card at one of these machines. Very, very easy. I think it took six button pushes, and I had the ticket.

03:32 John Daub: Before we go in there, let's explore the station area, because I have some really interesting stuff here. Again, like, Kanae asked me to buy her a cheesecake. So I'm gonna do that. So let's go get a cheesecake. I saw one that had vanilla. I'm guessing that's the one that she wanted.

04:03 John Daub: Oh, that's the cheesecake I think she wanted. This is the vanilla bean cheesecake. Alright, I better get one of these.

04:16 Staff: [inaudible Japanese exchange about cheesecake purchase; frozen for travel]

05:11 John Daub: So they're giving me a frozen one, so it'll last for three to four hours. That's really nice of them. By the time I get home, it'll be ready to be eaten. It looks so good. Look at the topping on that. This is what Kanae wanted. I asked her, what do you want? Do you want flowers? No. Cheesecake.

05:35 Staff: [inaudible Japanese]

06:01 John Daub: Then I'll take the black one. I'll give it to my wife. Thank you.

06:26 John Daub: Alright. I tried to be eco and not get the bag, but then I learned that you really should have the bag. Without it, it's hard to carry it. Now, in general, I said this last night in the Midnight Food Livestream, but people in Kobe and Osaka are generally a lot nicer. So you have a lot of gifts in here. Many of them are Kobe-based. Cookies and cakes and chocolates. They're really delicious. And you can usually get these on the platform, but there's more choices if you get them here than if you get them on the platform. That's typically the way to go.

07:17 John Daub: Now this sandwich looks really interesting and I might snag one for the trip. Nick's Kobe Meat Shop has a shop here and they have these sandwiches. And I know everybody likes to get that in Tokyo at that famous shop, but I gotta tell you, a lot of people that have eaten it are not really satisfied because it's so expensive in Tokyo. Here you get really good Wagyu sandwiches for a lot cheaper. I wouldn't say a lot, but it's way cheaper.

07:48 John Daub: We're in a new era, so a lot of the places are selling these Reiwa certificates. On the right side is Heisei. That's the period that ended, and there's the Reiwa which is the new period. So it's neat to see some of these being pick-up gifts at the station to take home. We're in Reiwa 1. Over here is a bento shop. And you can see they're cooking bentos. Eki-ben (station bento). So you can take it with you.

08:27 John Daub: Look at that octopus popping out of there. This is a Kobe Beef Sukiyaki Bento. That looks so good. Check it out. And that's only 1,300 yen. Made to order. These bentos are made to order. You order it, they make it, you eat it on the train. Oh my word. I think I might have found what I want to eat. That's Kobe Beef that they're putting on there. It's sliced really thin, which is fine. Usually they put sauce on it, so it doesn't matter if it's Kobe Beef or not. You can't really tell the difference. When you eat it with lots of sauces, it kind of takes away the flavor. You want to eat it with just a little bit of salt. But it doesn't really matter. I mean, it's Kobe Beef. You eat it because it's freaking Kobe Beef.

09:54 John Daub: This bento is 1,300 yen. That's ridiculous. Oh, no, it's 1,500 yen. So it's about $15. Should I get that? And then this one is a steak bento. It's not Kobe Beef, but it still looks really good. Oh, man. Here's the one with the octopus sticking out of it. Hipparidako-sake (octopus and salmon bento). Wow. Just for visual impact, octopus makes a big impact in any kind of dish when it's technical like that. This looks so good. Oh, this one is a Kobe steak bento. And it's so cheap. This is about $12 for that. And the one next to it is a meishi, but this is Arima-gyu (Arima beef), which is another area. This is also Kobe Beef Katsu. So they've taken Kobe Beef, breaded it, and deep fried. And I don't know if that would be worse or better. I don't see why you would deep fry Kobe Beef. It doesn't make sense.

11:31 John Daub: Hey, thank you, Joshua. And thank you, Remco. We will absolutely be getting an eki-ben because I'm not going on a train without an eki-ben. But my problem is though that I'm always presented with a dozen choices. I can narrow it down to four. And it seems like I gotta go with Kobe Beef because I'm here in Kobe. And I don't normally eat Kobe Beef when I come to Kobe. I just don't do it. There's so many other things to eat. But these are the choices you can see here. And we're down here by the meat. Look at that big chunks just popping out of there. And these look like two little boats. That looks good too. This is the Rokko Mountain Bento. Mount Rokko is the mountain above the city of Kobe.

12:33 John Daub: What do you guys think? While I'm thinking about it, let's walk around a little bit more. Let's go to this end of Shin Kobe Station. My Shinkansen is leaving in about 15 minutes so I have some time to take you around a little bit. I like these because if you can get oriented on the stations, you can tell whether or not you want to stop here. And if you do, you can make your way to the next point of interest really quickly.

12:55 John Daub: Here's a sign to point you in the way. There's only one real exit because the station, Shin Kobe Station, is up against the mountain, Mount Rokko. So you can't really go the other way, which makes it easy. There's one exit. So you can hit the subway, the Hokushin Kyuko Line, which goes to Arima Onsen. That's one of the best onsen in the Kansai area. And then there's JR Highway buses, Nunobiki Falls. There's a baggage room where you can store your bags, a rent-a-car. Toyota Rent-a-Car was nearby. And then there's the lockers and an ATM. So it's pretty. It's a small station. If you compare it to Shin-Osaka, they're like totally different worlds.

13:54 John Daub: Alright, let's pick up a bento, go in and check out the trains. I know there's some people who say, Yeah, you went to Shinkansen Station, you didn't go see the trains? Forget the gifts. Forget the bentos. Get to the train! Oh wait, check it out. You can get more Kobe beef. You can just buy Kobe beef here. Check it out. So there's lots of it available in the station. Oh, that's interesting. Oh, here's the Hello Kitty Shinkansen. Hello Kitty Shinkansen goods. Hello Kitty stops here. Oh, look at the pet bottles! They're shaped like the Shinkansen. What? That's awesome! Do you see this? I should get one. But they're like $4 for a bottle. You slap Hello Kitty on anything and you can just jack up the price by three times. People will buy it. That was a cool find.

15:17 John Daub: Alright, let's go for the Kobe Steak Bento. Kobe Steak Bento, please.

15:33 Staff: [inaudible; 1250 yen]

16:00 John Daub: For business expenses, I always get receipts. And you have to do that for taxes. Bentos are always a business expense for me. Because they can be. Oh my god! Check this out! Look at the egg on it! And it's sold out! What? This is insanely beautiful. And that katsu on the left side, and the karaage, the chicken on the right, it just looks so good! I'm happy with my purchase. I'm not having second thoughts, maybe a little bit. But, for now, let's just get out of here. I've got cheesecake, I've got a bento, I've got Kanae's present, I've got mine. I'm ready.

16:45 John Daub: So here's the ticket that I bought earlier. If you want to learn how to buy a ticket from a vending machine, I have two live streams showing you how to do that. Hey Neil Duncan, thank you. Any chance you can send the bento to Australia? There's always a chance. I would never say 0%. Alright, so I'm looking to take this 12:06 train. So that gives me 11 minutes.

17:22 John Daub: Now, inside of the station, there's not as much stuff. So once you've paid, and you've gone in, there's a cafe and you can get some bentos. But there's not much. This way takes you to Shin-Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo, okay? If you were to go the other side, it would take you to Kagoshima and to Fukuoka. We don't want to go there. We want to go here. So let's make our way up. I love these station live streams. This one is so simple though. So I've taken a non-reserved ticket. And the reason why I did that was because, see, when you're in the middle of the line, if you're not at the origin point, this Shinkansen I believe originated in Hakata. It's going to be harder to find a seat. But I know in about 10 minutes, when this train arrives at Shin-Osaka Station, like 80% of the train is going to get off. Not many people go all the way on to Tokyo. It's quite far. You just fly instead. So I'm hoping by getting a non-reserved here, I might be a little uncomfortable for 10 minutes and as soon as everybody gets off, I'll be able to snag a seat right by the window. And then I can chow down on this bento.

19:00 John Daub: Alright, here's the platform. Again, not much here. It's really quiet. And you can see, as I told you, when you entered, you were right up against the mountain. So this side is right up against Mount Rokko. It's at the base of the mountain. And if you go on the other side of the platform, you have a really nice view of Kobe City. I remember I got off the Shinkansen and I looked out the window and you can see all the way down to the bay, to the harbor. Non-reserved is this way. So let's do that.

19:37 John Daub: Now you cannot use the JR Rail Pass on Nozomi trains. This is something I should point out. There's maybe one or two Hikari trains you can take every hour. You can't take the Nozomi trains. Those are once every like 10 minutes. And only residents who don't have passes, who pay full price, can do that. And I hate paying full price, but what can you do? There's the city of Kobe on the other side. This is pretty neat. To get off the train, I always stop and just look out at the city. It's a beautiful view because we're at the base of the mountain.

20:28 John Daub: Now, it was around 2003 that the trains all stop here at Shin-Kobe. But there were a lot of stories and I think there might be some video of the rare occurrence where the Shinkansen will pass through Shin-Kobe at high velocity. And of all the stations in Japan where the trains are going at high velocity, and you want to see them pass by, this is the best. Because there's no separate track for the train to sit. If it ever happens, I might just come here. The train whizzes through that tunnel at full speed. Meaning it's going like 300 kilometers an hour down these tracks. There's no track next to it, so it's very close. The passing train going at full speed. And then on this platform, the wind just knocks you down. They don't have, I think all of the trains now stop at Shin-Kobe. But it used to be that there would be one or two that would just continue straight to Shin-Osaka and pass through here. And whenever you see a Shinkansen pass at full speed, it is really cool. Because it just blows you away. Kids love it too. I've seen kids on the platform when I'm watching on it, they're like cheering and everything because the train's going by at full speed. It's fun to see.

21:44 John Daub: Now, Kobe has a very famous Chinatown. So its culture is very diverse here in Kobe. And you can see that booth is kind of fitted in a Chinese design. So they probably sell Chinese chintsu. But Kobe's Motomachi Chinatown is really cool. A lot of good food. Kobe's got some really good food. But most of it is western influenced. Or non-Japanese influenced, I should say.

22:22 John Daub: We're waiting for a couple of minutes. There's a 7-Eleven inside. A mini 7-Eleven on the platform. So you could snag a snack if you were on the platform. You didn't have time for one, you could get something. But I've got a tea. And on the train, usually they'll have a person selling coffee. Here's another ekiben shop. See, they don't have the same kind of choices. It's very limited. So they do have the popular bentos on the platform. So if the train stops here for 3 minutes, if you have 1,250 yen ready, you can jump off, get the bento, and jump back on the train. That's something I would totally do. You literally have a minute. You have to be the first one off, and then you have to get right back on. Just slap the money down and say, Kobe no steak bento! Get it, and run back on the train. I think you can do it on time. But it's not easy.

23:34 John Daub: Here he comes. Are you guys ready? If there is a seat available, then maybe I'll keep live streaming. I have the tripod ready. This could get a little messy. We have 600 people watching, and I hate to let you down. I want to show you what this Kobe beef bento looks like. I won't be able to speak too much on the train. But let's see what happens. If it's crowded, then I won't be able to talk, and it would be rude for me to do it. I've been known to push the limits a little bit.

24:24 John Daub: There was a guy, a YouTuber, that went to Shibuya Scramble. And on the Scramble intersection, he and his friends brought a bed out. And they tried to film a scene where he was on a bed. So they did it for 15 seconds, and then when the lights started changing, they picked him up and started running off, but they spilled him onto the ground where he got hurt. That YouTuber was arrested for something. Hiderigami, which is a TV show, called me two hours ago to interview me about the YouTuber who was not arrested, but the ranking, my top five Tokyo ranking list of places to visit, which is cool. So it'll be on the Japanese news in about an hour. But it's been big news in Japan. This YouTuber who tried to film on Shibuya intersection, and then he made a scene and hurt himself. And now they're going to probably crack down on YouTubers or stunts done in the middle of the intersection as a result of this. Because it just made an outrage. A lot of Japanese were outraged by it when they saw all the public endangerment to film something for social media.

25:36 Announcer: Please return to the areas at either end of the cars. This train will be stopping at Shin-Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Shin-Yokohama, and Shinagawa. Before arriving at Tokyo Terminal. This is car number one.

26:04 John Daub: I prefer car number two. Where is this thing? She announced it. This is what it feels like to wait for Shinkansen. So if you're on the Shinkansen, this is what it feels like. There's not really much to do. Just kind of listen to nature. By the way, that's not a real bird sound. It's a speaker. The lengths that Japan goes to relax people on the platform. Do you hear the bird?

26:56 Announcer: Hikari, no entry.

27:04 John Daub: This is car number three. Let's go a little bit further down. If you ask me, I prefer car number two. I don't see it yet. Here it comes. I came through the tunnel. I was looking the wrong way. I'm glad that fate had me going this way. Look at it coming through the tunnel. That's awesome. There are some seats. This might be possible still. Hey, Michael Kelly. Can I get in on that cheesecake? Maybe.

27:56 John Daub: Alright, guys. There's Shin Kobe. I hope you liked this episode. I might continue this in a couple of minutes. I'm going to see what the situation is on the train. I'm going to sit down. I just don't want to be rude and talk, so you might not hear me speaking loudly anymore in my, you know, loud American accented voice. Oh, yeah. It looks quite crowded. I might be able to snag something somewhere. If not, I'm going to say goodbye, but you'll see by the length of the video where we are. Stick with me, okay?

31:44 John Daub: Alright, stick with me. The tunnel is about two minutes.

35:27 John Daub: The verdict? Good bentos or something more local. Unless it's one of those bentos that I think is cooked right before you eat it. And there's something about a cold steak, which is not really good for ekiben, and the idea is nice. The execution is not good enough. No, the bento's gotta be... the meat's gotta be hot, I think. Or else it doesn't really represent what Wagyu is. Cold Wagyu is... eh. It's alright. It's okay.

37:27 John Daub: Thank you very much. In four minutes, we'll be at Shin-Osaka. Shinosaka is, um... The word Shin, S-H-I-N, Shin, means new. So this is New Kobe, Shin Kobe Station. New Osaka, Shin Osaka Station. And it was new because it was the access point for the Tokaido Shinkansen or the Sanyo Shinkansen. The Shinkansen line from Kagoshima and Fukuoka to Osaka is called the Sanyo Shinkansen. And then from Osaka it changes to the Tokaido Shinkansen. So the two lines are same but different.

38:17 John Daub: Should I get a hot coffee? They'll be back. Oh, here's the city. Alright, good. We got the city coming. Oh yeah, this is the Thunderbird train. The Thunderbird train goes from Osaka to Kanazawa. And now we're gonna go right past Osaka City and we're gonna end it in Shin-Osaka. It's a pretty neat episode we did here. Here's the city. Oh, there's the Umeda Sky Building. Do you see it? It's kind of a ways from the Shinkansen. You can see it in the center of the screen. It's that building right there.

39:15 John Daub: If you guys like these Shinkansen videos, give this video a thumbs up. That's a great shot of the Umeda Sky Building. Look at that. I remember going past this in 1998 and going, Whoa, Osaka is the future. Any city that can make a building like that is awesome. Look at that. It's great to share the view with you. Osaka's an awesome city. I gotta come back here quick. Kevin Reilly's somewhere in that population of people over there. Now we're coming into Shin-Osaka Station. And then it's time to say bye-bye. I think I could snag a seat on the other side. Thanks for watching everybody. Hope you enjoyed this. Leave a comment below. Share a story that you've had in Japan. I'll see you in the next live stream.