00:00:00 John Daub: So you turn to your left and you look out the window and you see everything flying by. You're on an airplane, but you're on the ground. That only means one thing. You're on the Shinkansen. And this is the Hokuriku Shinkansen bound for Kanazawa from Tokyo. We've just passed Omiya. Hey everybody.

00:00:20 Kanae Daub: She needs no introduction at all. Yay, Shinkansen!

00:00:26 John Daub: And we're going to be doing an ekiben (station bento) unboxing. This is one of my favorite ekiben. This is the Tokyo Bento. What makes this so special? It's hard to say. I think it's the ingredients. A lot of the dishes come from different areas of the city. It was like $16, $15 for this boxed lunch. That's kind of really high. But what makes this really good is that a lot of the ingredients are from all over the city. So it's kind of a special one. We're going to unbox this on the way to Kanazawa. It's a really beautiful box. It looks like it's made from wood, but it's just plastic paneling. It is well made.

00:01:15 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

00:01:16 John Daub: We're on the Shinkansen. Check it out. It's just amazing to me we can live stream from inside a train going 300 kilometers an hour. We're basically a bullet being shot through the air, but we're on the ground. Mind blown. Anyways, let's get to it.

00:01:44 John Daub: Alright. Go ahead. Can I unbox yours? Let's see what's inside this thing.

00:01:51 Kanae Daub: Do it.

00:02:00 John Daub: Alright. There's chopsticks that came in it. I love that box. One of the reasons to buy this is you might want to keep the box. You put your sandals in here. This is the best sandal box ever. Do it. Wait, wait, wait. Countdown. 3, 2, 1. Alright. Do it now. Look at the presentation in there. You can tell they made this with a lot of love. They put this together well.

00:02:37 John Daub: Are you ready?

00:02:37 Kanae Daub: Yeah, I'm always ready. Go ahead.

00:02:38 John Daub: Aww. No, wait. No, I'm not ready. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. So, show us what you have on top here.

00:02:45 Kanae Daub: 10 of these now. This is Meiji period. You see the cars? Maybe in the 1920s.

00:02:55 John Daub: I believe that the facade of Tokyo Station was built in the teens. I think it was 1913. The back will tell us. But it's a postcode that you can send, and some information on the bento. My hand is there to block John.

00:03:13 John Daub: Okay. So we're gonna go over this information bit by bit. Alright, go ahead, Kanae. Let's try it. I'm gonna save mine. We can eat this later. So we're gonna eat half of Kanae's. We'll share this one.

00:03:27 Kanae Daub: I don't wanna eat with all these people watching.

00:03:30 John Daub: Well, I do, but, you know.

00:03:33 Kanae Daub: You don't know? I don't know.

00:03:36 John Daub: Right away in the box, you can see it's triangular shaped. It's separated. And this is kind of a unique way. Usually, ekiben will have squares in it or they'll be divided into three. This one has a really unique design. It's beautiful. You can put it on the floor. It's okay. Good job. So inside the center there is a mighty piece of salmon. You see that? Aw, man. And then there's a sweet egg, tamagoyaki (rolled omelet). And it says Aoki on it, which is Kanae's maiden name. Look, Aoki's on there. That's your name.

00:04:19 Kanae Daub: The name of the shop.

00:04:23 John Daub: So explain to us, what's this?

00:04:26 Kanae Daub: Is that a rubber ball? An eraser? Keisuke gome? This is an egg? No, this is mochi (rice cake).

00:04:34 John Daub: She doesn't even know. She's Japanese. Okay, over here we have kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), which is pumpkin. I see renkon (lotus root), some pea pods. So where's all this from? Can you explain to us?

00:04:49 Kanae Daub: I try. I do my best.

00:04:54 John Daub: That's right. Do your best. Wow. What is it?

00:05:01 Kanae Daub: I can open it. Oh, you open it up? Oh, you got a mashed up umeboshi (pickled plum).

00:05:08 John Daub: Where's that from? You need an explanation in order to... She wrote about rice. Okay, that's about the rice. So this rice is from Akita. It's called Akita Komachi. And also, this one is organic rice.

00:05:40 Kanae Daub: Organic rice.

00:05:41 John Daub: Is it vegan? I guess it is. It's rice. The bento isn't, though. There's fish in there, but they put ume (plum) on it. And this one is shibazuke (Kyoto pickled vegetables). It looks like nasu (eggplant).

00:05:56 Kanae Daub: Nasu? Shibazuke? That's an eggplant.

00:06:00 John Daub: Where's that from? It doesn't write. Looks like hieroglyphics to some people. And this one is mochi? Wagashi (Japanese confectionery)? Daifuku (mochi with sweet bean paste)? There's anko (sweet bean paste) inside. That's strange, though. Why do they put the mochi next to the fish? Because this seems like dessert, no? Isn't this dessert?

00:06:23 Kanae Daub: Well, it's dessert, but sometimes we put together. But I don't want to mix the flavor, so...

00:06:30 John Daub: This one is salmon with koji-zuke (koji-pickled). Yeah, you might want to take that out. Okay, what else you got in here?

00:06:40 Kanae Daub: Should I show?

00:06:46 John Daub: Show the whole thing. This should be a screenshot. I put salmon, and this one is...

00:06:52 Kanae Daub: Kinoko (mushrooms)?

00:07:02 John Daub: Ah, kinoko, mushroom. Wait, is that... Did they put a dandelion in there?

00:07:14 Kanae Daub: Not a dandelion. What's that yellow thing? Oh, the kiku (chrysanthemum)? Kiku is Japanese flower.

00:07:21 John Daub: You can eat that dandelion flower. And this one is beef. It's bamboo. Beef and bamboo. That looks good.

00:07:37 Kanae Daub: It's maybe sweet taste. Sweet sauce and sugar, sweet taste.

00:07:42 John Daub: This one is kinpira (stir-fried vegetables). That's a gobo (burdock root), which is a root. I love that salad with some sesame in there. Oh, man. Kinpira is good. You get that at izakaya (Japanese pubs) sometimes, and as a free table charge snack. What is it?

00:08:05 Kanae Daub: Satsuma-age (fried fish cake)?

00:08:06 John Daub: Yeah, that looks like satsuma-age from Kagoshima, but they make it here. Yeah, deep fried. That looks good. All right, let's try it now. This is kabocha.

00:08:16 Kanae Daub: Yeah, that's pumpkin from Mexico. Pumpkin. Mexican pumpkins. It's boiled. Let's try it. I'm gonna start from egg.

00:08:44 John Daub: Yeah, I always go with the egg first, too. All right, do it. Eat it. I just ate some of the delicious face, no?

00:08:56 Kanae Daub: I'm not gonna do it. It's good.

00:08:57 John Daub: It's good, right? Looks good. Nice balance. They put some dashi (broth) and... You want?

00:09:09 Kanae Daub: Uh... I'm okay. Actually, I wasn't that hungry, to be honest with you.

00:09:16 John Daub: All right, what are you going for next? Try that... How about the rice? What's up to you? You decide. You are the boss of your bento. It's good, yeah. You know, it's funny, though. For me, just plain white rice is really good. I don't know why. After I'd been living in Japan for about 10 years, I started to appreciate really good quality white rice. You think it doesn't have flavor, but the more you eat it, the more you can recognize it. And it's just so good. Just white rice. I remember I used to teach children, and I would ask, what are your favorite foods? There was this one kid. He was kind of a dork, but he was only six. He goes, white rice. And I think he said that because he liked to use a color and a noun to show off to the other kids. Like, some kids would say pizza, some would say sushi. He'd go, white rice. But I guess he was really into it, and now I understand. It just took me many years to understand that six-year-old.

00:10:41 John Daub: All right, what's next? Salmon is hard to pass up right there in the middle. Whoa. Yeah. I love a good salmon. It's juicy. Very juicy. It's amazing that... Well, these are all... I don't think that fish was caught in Tokyo. It was just prepared in Tokyo. All right, hold on a second. Let me flip that around. That's a nice-looking piece of salmon. iPhone XS is doing a great job picking this up. Very nice. Okay. Very juicy. Good? Five stars? Very nice. Salty? Really? All right, give me... Let me... Can I have some? That's just sweet. I've never had salmon like this. It has some... Yeah, koji from the sake, Japanese sake. There's some kind of leftover of sake in the barrel. It's kind of like a pulp. It seems like they've added some of that in there to give it kind of a... It's interesting. It's very Japanese tasting now. I like them. I'm impressed. I eat this bento almost every time, and I'm always impressed with it. Every time is like the first time with this bento.

00:12:26 John Daub: All right, you want to try something else? One more thing? How about the age? The... Ayu (sweetfish) from Kyushu. Because the lady's coming with the cart. Look. And I want to snag a coffee if she hasn't.

00:12:41 Kanae Daub: Oh, yeah. Hot coffee. She's got hot coffee.

00:12:47 John Daub: Okay. Sorry, sorry. Oh, you didn't show it to us. That's all right. So this is a deep-fried fish cake, right?

00:12:56 Kanae Daub: Yeah. Yeah. They're really best in Kyushu, but...

00:13:05 John Daub: You're liking that. I like it. It's good. What do they put in there? Like, long... Oh, yeah. So it's... It's a sauce. Yeah. So usually, they'll mash it up with fish and add in other ingredients. And this one, they add in renkon, so there's a crunchiness to it. Yeah. Kind of... Yeah, renkon. It's gotta be. Hey, guys, I can't see any of the chats again for some reason, so I apologize if I'm not responding to any of the questions now. I'm just going auto mode. I wanted to show us the renkon. I always love lotus root. This is the last one we'll show. I'm going to show you the lotus root. I think you have to experience the Tokyo bento yourself. Renkon is one of the most delicious vegetables on the planet. It's like... It looks like Swiss cheese, but it's not. It's like a cross between Swiss cheese shape and a potato, but it's not a potato. It's renkon. It's weird. I'm whispering, so I don't want to disturb the other passengers, but it's very interesting. Oh, hey. Crunch it. Do it. Yeah. It's good. I love renkon. I love it. Man, I could eat renkon all day.

00:14:28 John Daub: All right, we're back. The good thing with resetting is I can see the super chats now, and I can see your chats. I guess we're going in and out. We're entering the countryside. So, Sailor Lumos, thank you. Philip Dore, thank you very much. And David Kimura. Hi, John and Kanae. Train ride. Hey, David. Thank you. And Philip, appreciate it. All right, what's this one here? Bamboo and beef. Oh, that's the bamboo and beef. All right. Awesome. Do it.

00:14:59 John Daub: Kanae, you're going to be a food vlogger. You can do it. Oh, it's rice. All right, you want a coffee?

00:15:14 Kanae Daub: Coffee? I'm okay. Do you want coffee?

00:15:20 John Daub: Yes, please. You want a size L? Just one? No. Oh, I don't need it. No! You can get 90 yen. Oh, I'm okay. I'm getting a coffee. One, please. I got myself a coffee. It was 390 yen, which is about $3.50. It's not too bad. It's hot. And that's what's important. All right. By the way, I'm really tired. I went to bed around 3 in the morning. Sorry about the lag. Yeah, we're moving. We're moving very fast. Okay. Oh, we got calls of black screen. All right. Okay. Hold on a second. All right. We're back. We're live. Thanks, UFO Bob. All right. We're good. We're now traveling really fast through the countryside, going through Nagano. So we won't have much time before we hit the mountains, I believe. But we're going to live stream for a little bit longer. We don't have too much to show you except for one final thing. It is an amazing view. Check it out. So this is, we're still in Saitama. And I believe we're going through Tochigi and Nagano. That's really, really beautiful. That's not so beautiful. We're going through a lot of tunnels. We're on the Hokuriku Shinkansen towards Kanazawa. Kanae has one more thing to eat. And it's going to be this mochi.

00:17:19 John Daub: Hey, Nina. Nina Melito. Thank you. I will, actually, I might get that Asahi. We might want to get a little bit closer to Kanazawa. All right. Hold on a second. I don't know if we have a signal in here. I'm waiting for it. We're inside of a tunnel. All right. Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. We're really deep in there. Is there still a signal? That's impressive. It is. I guess we're on.

00:18:06 Kanae Daub: Can I do it? Oh, my gosh. It's beautiful. All right. Can I do it? Eat the mochi. Eat it while you can. Nice. All right. You can see. Which is a word, we say. You send your uncle?

00:18:43 John Daub: Yeah. Stephanie, is he sending some from Oklahoma? Hey. This mochi is sponsored by Oklahoma. All right. Let's get one more. Mr. Das is in the house, I see. Welcome aboard. Chewy, yeah?

00:19:09 Kanae Daub: Yeah. I like it. I like it. I like it.

00:19:20 John Daub: Die-hards that survive tunnel gate. We just went through a series of tunnels that were so long. Thanks for sticking in there. We've just arrived in Karuizawa, which is, wow, look at the fog on the mountains. We're kind of in the middle of the mountains in Nagano now. Oh, there's the outlet center. This is the parking lot for the outlet center. They have a massive outlet center in Karuizawa in Nagano. So, we're in Nagano prefecture now. Awesome. We went through a bunch of tunnels and we arrived in another time zone. We're in another world in Karuizawa. Wow, how cool was that. Oh, you saw Kuwana Burger? No way. Hey, this is what Adidas and this is where Terrace House was, right? Terrace House. You can go to the Terrace House. It's at an outlet mall. Yeah, it's a huge outlet mall. It's a big outlet mall. Refresh your browser if it's black. We've been through... There's a Nike outlet. It's pretty crazy. But we're... We went through a series of tunnels and I'm just standing there with my finger on the phone going we need a signal, we need a signal. But now we got a signal. So yeah, this is Karuizawa. A couple of things I want to show you with the Shinkansen train here. The first one is unlike the other Shinkansen trains, this one has two electrical outlets, which is really cool. This one is in the front for the aisle seat, and then Kanae has one on her side here underneath by your leg. You have an outlet right there.

00:21:15 Kanae Daub: I didn't know that. You didn't know that? Well, I ride the Shinkansen a lot.

00:21:20 John Daub: So there's two electrical outlets, which is pretty cool. And then the trains are just slightly different. I think this one's a little bit smoother than Tokai Shinkansen. I don't know why. Maybe it's because we go through tunnels a lot, but color scheme is different. It's got a little bit of gold on it, and I think that's representative of Kanazawa. So the colors are a little gold finger action going on here. So I think that has to do because gold is very famous in Kanazawa. Hold on, let me say goodbye. Alright guys, I just wanted to say goodbye. I wanted to take you into the train. We're now leaving Karuizawa. So say goodbye to Karuizawa. Karuizawa. Moving now very quickly towards Kanazawa. You gotta go through Karuizawa to get to Kanazawa. It's a tongue twister. Well, tons of shopping malls. It's gotten bigger. This is a beautiful shopping mall in the mountains. You're surrounded by peaks and clouds. I've been here many times. This is Karuizawa is famous because this is where you escape the heat of Tokyo's summer and you come out here. It's an hour on the Shinkansen. So that's it from the inside of the restroom. Have a good day. Have a good night where we are. Hope you enjoy this unboxing. Click the like button if you like these. I keep adding unboxings. We might do one coming back. Kanazawa.