00:04:00 John Daub: Greetings from Hiroshima Station. That's right, that's exactly where I am right now. There's the station sign. And I'm on the south side. How you doing everybody? I'm going to give you an orientation of Hiroshima Station. I'm going to walk through it from this side of the exit to the other side, then to the Shinkansen tracks and give you a look at this new station. It's been renovated inside. It's a lot different than it was 20 years ago, of course. And just two years ago when there was still ongoing construction.

00:31:00 John Daub: So, the best way to get around Hiroshima, after you've arrived at the station, is by bus or streetcar. Now the buses are a little bit cooler because of the air conditioning. They're harder to get around. The streetcars though have become a lot more English friendly. They'll tell you the destination on them. Let me go to one right now. This one is going to Hiroshima Port. You can see up there because it says it in English. And the ones over there. You'll be able to find one that goes to Miyajima. It takes about 45 to 50 minutes.

01:16:00 John Daub: I love the streetcars. It's part of Hiroshima's identity and they go right in the middle of the street. I came by taxi to the station from this road. And it cost me about 950 yen to get here by taxi from the center of the city. It's about a 25-30 minute walk. So you probably want to grab a cab or ride the streetcar. If there's three of you it makes sense to grab a taxi. It's about $10 to the Atomic Bomb Dome from here by taxi. That's a lot faster if you jump on one of those. So let's go inside the station.

01:58:00 John Daub: It does look a little old on the outside. I don't think they renovated this part of it. Across the street, there's a massive APA Hotel. And then there are these places. I remember when this building opened, they had a Mitchan okonomiyaki (Hiroshima-style savory pancake) restaurant on the top there. So you can grab one at the station before you go. And this one is brand new. It's got a big camera shop on the base of it. So if you need wires and batteries and anything for your trip, you might want to do it at the big camera shop there before you move to the countryside. The bus schedule is also posted right here.

02:42:00 John Daub: Like all places in Hiroshima, there is some history here. This is Hiroshima Station in 1945. You can see around it, there really wasn't a lot except for the main building, and I think they built around it. It says here Hiroshima Station was about two kilometers, 1.9 kilometers from the Hypocenter. The station yard roof and the waiting room located in the front of the main entrance was destroyed as a result of the first atomic bombing in history. The station was engulfed in flames and totally destroyed, killing and injuring large numbers of travelers and station employees. Due to the untiring efforts of the employees who survived, the restoration process was soon underway, and the Ujina Line was back in operation on August 7th, one day after, and the Sanyo Line was partially opened on the 8th, two days later, providing refuge for survivors and the transportation supplies. So that's a really nice story. There's a bronze statue apparently somewhere to commemorate that, and I believe that they've built this structure around that building, so it's still on the same site.

03:43:00 John Daub: If you do want to go underground to that big camera shop to the other side, go underground. That's what I mean to say because crossing the street here is really hard, it really is. This one is called the Asei Shopping Mall, up there the blue sign, and this is where we got some nama momiji (fresh maple leaf-shaped confections) or these confections. They're in the museum at this other place that she definitely wants. I also got the daimyo presents here. So if you're a daimyo supporter on Patreon, I just lugged it. I put all of them into a locker. So let's go inside the station towards the Shinkansen.

04:20:00 John Daub: The inside has been renovated. There was a long construction for a very long time. It's never easy to renovate a major rail station anywhere, but I believe that it's done. So if you're looking, okay, this is another way around. So if you're looking to, oh, there's some lockers. I'm going to show you how to use the lockers too. I helped two people from Indonesia, or were they from Malaysia? I can't remember. They had a lot of trouble learning how to use the lockers. There's some street food in the station. I'll show you that right now.

05:15:00 John Daub: Oh, check it out. That's the nama momiji that Kanae Daub made me get, but I bought it from the shop directly. The Nishiki dough. See that? All the blue ones. The blue boxes are what Kanae likes. They have a shelf life of only 10 days. So I had to get one with a longer shelf life. Now there's a Hiroshima momiji as well. You can grab these on the south side of the station. You can also grab a bento from 7-Eleven, but I highly recommend that you get it. I'm going to show you how to use the lockers. I'm going to get it from a bento shop instead. Some onigiri (rice balls) and stuff. These are Hiroshima fish cakes. They say it in English. Oh, these are famous from Miyajima. I had these in Miyajima.

06:02:00 John Daub: This one has cheese in it. Oh, that looks good. Cheese tarts. Wow. You can get a full one. Kanae would love me if I got that. But I got her momiji. And then here you get some ekiben (station bento). This is a Hiroshima Carp, the baseball team's ekiben. And it's funny. It looks like a baseball in there. That's an onigiri, I believe. That's pretty funny. It's about $11 for that bento. Carp bento. It's interesting.

06:46:00 John Daub: All right. Let's go around. There's the entrance. Now we're going to go up the stairs into the north from the south side up to the Shinkansen platform. This is the slowest escalator in the history of escalators. It's so slow. Hey, Kiki. Get something for you and Kanae. All right. I'll get her some cheesecake. Will that do, Kiki? Island always says get Kanae some flowers so I'm always on the lookout for something from the other side of the country.

07:32:00 John Daub: It takes four hours to go by Shinkansen from Hiroshima to Tokyo. The ticket costs 18,000 yen about 160, 170 dollars. Exchange rate is fluctuating a lot. We're at the top of the slowest escalator in the history of escalators and this is the brand new Hiroshima station. It's really beautiful. This exit to the Shinkansen is huge. This is the noriba (waiting area). This is for the main train station. Typically, the Shinkansen is the one that goes to the Shinkansen station. I could get in on the from the first floor but they changed the station so that you had to come upstairs to get it down. I like that though. It makes it feel different.

09:03:00 John Daub: Let me take you to the other side of the station. It's not a big, big station but it's a major hub for so many people visiting Japan. This is the north side now. So, we've just come from the south side. The south side is the main exit. That's the one that you're gonna wanna take when you arrive in Hiroshima because that's where the streetcars are. That's where everything going towards the city departs from. If you come to the north side, the only thing here is the Peace Pagoda and going back to the mountains and there's also places the airport limousine bus towards Hiroshima Airport leaves on the north side as well as some highway buses that'll leave from here but the other side is everything to the city.

09:43:00 John Daub: Now, I showed you the entrance to the local train line. It was huge. This is the Shinkansen line entrance. It's separate but equal and you can see it lit very bright so you know where to go. Don't go to the local trains. Go to the one with the massively written Shinkansen on it. That's how you know you are at the right place. I'm gonna take you right up to it. Literally in the center of your screen. You cannot miss it. Shinkansen. And these people are getting off.

10:16:00 John Daub: Oh, I gotta buy my ticket. Why don't we do that too? Alright, I'm gonna buy a ticket before I get some cheesecake. Alright, let's pick a train that I should take. Now, this is the Sanyo Shinkansen. The Tokaido Shinkansen goes from Tokyo to Osaka, then from Osaka to Hakata, is the Sanyo Shinkansen, so I'm gonna get on that. There's a 606 leaving from Tokyo. Why don't I take this 606. I have two massive bags for my Patreon-supported daimyo. I need to find some lockers asap. I send packages every month. They're massive bags of momiji. There's I believe there's eight momiji different flavors in there. They're so heavy. I don't know how I'm gonna livestream and take the momiji on to the shinkansen, but I'm gonna try.

11:39:00 John Daub: So I'm gonna share with you this Hiroshima to Tokyo ticket experience. All right, I'll take the one on the end here so I don't disturb anybody. I'm not gonna use my credit card like last time. I already changed the number. I bought the tickets in Kanazawa. All right, I will buy juseki (reserved seat), but I know how to do this in Japanese, but you don't so I'm gonna change it to English. Let's see if what the reserved situation is like. Shinkansen reserved seats. Typically from Hiroshima I want to get non-reserved, but let's see. See Sanyo Shinkansen. Do you see here Tokaido? Sanyo? So we're going to Tokyo. I'm going now today.

12:46:00 John Daub: Okay, here are the times here. This is 606 and 617 this gets in at 813 this long. All right I'm gonna do this one. Let's see what we got. Green car if only I had the money. Normal people see window or aisle window or aisle. Window. Return to the previous screen it says here any seat. Okay or select from seat map. Oh, I'm selecting. The ones with the zeros have the least occupied so that gives you an idea. You can see here. I'm gonna go with twelve. This is oh look. There's a lot open. Oh you see this. No joke ok. This is why seat reservations stink. They're all gone on this side. Everybody reserves the window seats.

14:33:00 John Daub: Purchase outbound ticket only my tickets outbound and inbound confirm. 19,080 yen what that's pricey all right here we go I'm not gonna show you my credit card I promise. Put the card in it's confirming all right push my pin number all right that's secret receipt receipt always get a receipt. Push it ten times and make sure it's good oh don't show the card to the customer okay I'm gonna show you my credit card coming out I learned my lesson it prints like five tickets we're safe it's an English and really loud voice thank you very much everyone's looking at me now yeah English is my native language nothing I can do about it okay goody goody so what we have here is a ticket bound for let me flip the screen here we have a ticket for 16:17 which is for 17 we use military time here it's bound for Tokyo it cost me about a hundred and eighty dollars it's crazy.

15:59:00 John Daub: Oh hello ah wow ah hi hey wow thank you that's very kind yeah you live here in Hiroshima oh good day. They live in Australia. Actually, I'm live. I'm introducing Hiroshima Station for a lot of tourists. What time do you come? I used to live in Yokogawa. Oh, really? This is my backyard. My second home. It was nice to see you. Come again. Oh, yeah, please. You're welcome. It was nice to see you. Bye-bye. That was nice. They saw the Sanuki udon episode. They live in Australia, but they're Japanese. That's very cool.

17:31:00 John Daub: Let's go down now to the north exit. Now, my bags are downstairs. I am dreading to go and get them because they're so heavy. There are 17 boxes of momiji with 8 of them in there. And Miyajima's mochi confection. And then there's the... There are 18 of them in there. And it's like 20 kilograms of momiji for the daimyo. So if you're a daimyo supporter, you're going to see your goodies here. With a shelf life of about one month. It's specially packed for you. That up there is the Pagoda. The Peace Pagoda. Almost nobody was up there. I took a taxi there yesterday. Sorry, two days ago. And got a really nice view from the Peace Pagoda of the city. It doesn't show you all the way to the Atomic Bomb Dome. It shows you the other side. But you can see Carp Stadium where the baseball team plays.

18:43:00 John Daub: So there you go. This is the north side. Downstairs is where you'll get the taxis and the buses. The highway buses and the buses to the airport. You'll get them down there. So let's go back in. So you've now seen both sides. The information office is here in the back. It's a new one. It's really nice. And they speak English in there. Because they speak English in every information office in Hiroshima. Because this is a massive tourist hub. There they are. The ladies of Hiroshima. These ladies will guide you to all the attractions.

19:24:00 John Daub: So I have about 20 minutes before I have to go inside to get my bag. So what I'm going to do now is to get an ekiben. And I don't know if I'm going to do that now or later. If I do it later, it's not now. So I better do it now if I can. I don't want to carry it. That's the problem. And I don't want to get that bag yet. So we have 20 minutes. I'm going to go down and get a cheesecake. Which is for me and Dr. Zark. And for our super chatters. And maybe Kanae gets a piece. She'll get a piece. She'll get my piece. I'm going to get most of it actually.

20:12:00 John Daub: You can get tickets here at the ticket window. But I'll tell you something. It's always a line. I always prefer to get my tickets from the vending machine. These are the local train tickets. I'm so impressed with Hiroshima Station's upgraded local line local entrance. You have no idea. It seemed like I was in the 1960s. I lived here. This station was so old style. This is a 21st century station now. It's very cool. Local line. Where I used to live is just one stop away from here. Yokogawa. The next stop towards Miyajima on the Sanyo Line. There's the Sanyo Line right there. Towards Miyajima and Iwakuni.

21:54:00 John Daub: David Kimura, can't you just mail the goods to your home? I could. But I want to bring them with me. I want to send them tomorrow. I want to send them right away. If I send them home it might take two days to get to me. I'm sending them to our daimyo right away. Alright, I'm getting a small cheesecake just because. Oh man. My wallet's stuck to my pocket. It's so hot. Dr. Zark, I hear you, and you are now getting something sweet. Got it. So, I only have a fiver. So I'm gonna get a small cheesecake for Kanae, and I'm getting a small cake for me right now. For us to try it. Just to make sure that it's good. Because we have to confirm. We have to confirm that this is good enough for Kanae. She's very particular.

23:11:00 John Daub: Konnichiwa. I'm getting a 12cm size Basque cheesecake. And one piece. This looks so good. Oh, it's only 201 yen. Oh, that's better. The ice only lasts for 2 hours, and it takes 4 hours to get to Tokyo, so I have to pay another 100 yen for extra ice. But it's worth it. It's worth it. He's buying a bento. I get 3 back. It's a lively area. Baseball bento. It's just marketing. I'm thinking there's got to be like an okonomiyaki bento, but I think if you go inside, see more bento variety. I think I'm going to go inside. It's 260 yen per slice. And this is my hand. So they're not very big. They're not very big, but we're going to try. I think it's like 2.5 bites. John's size. Kanae's size is like 20 bites.

25:33:00 John Daub: There you go. There's an Instagram. Hey, Christine, thank you. Greetings from Switzerland. I wonder how good the Swiss cheesecake versus the Japanese cheesecake would be. It's got to be good. These are Basque cheesecakes, so that means it's from Basque, which is Spain. These aren't even Japanese. We live in Tokyo, so this is really exotic for us, I guess. Cheesecake comes first. I'm really tired. This is a long, long day. I got up early to film. I did the opening to the show. This Hiroshima episode, I really wanted to be good. It also requires a lot of archived footage that's probably decommissioned, so should be available for people to use.

27:10:00 John Daub: Now, I'm pretty comfortable riding the Shinkansen for two hours. Two and a half is a stretch. I'm okay when I get off. It's just one hour too long than my comfort zone. I'm really itchy after about two and a half hours, three hours. That last hour is hard. It really is. So I want to show you something interesting besides a piece of cheesecake. She's really packaging it up pretty good. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get to it. I don't know if I can get to the one little piece. I should have had them separate. So packaging it, it's like five minutes. This is the best packaging job ever. Check it out. Another bag. This will be six bags I've got to carry to the Shinkansen.

28:18:00 John Daub: Once again, all of you should know Hiroshima Station quite well now. Typically, you know what? I would say that you could fly to Hiroshima might be a better option. The problem is that Hiroshima Airport is so inconvenient. It takes an hour to get there. And you figure it takes another hour to get to the airport plus another 30 minutes to check in and stuff. It's probably faster, just faster to take the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Fukuoka is another story. Fukuoka is probably faster to fly. And Kagoshima, you better fly because it's so much cheaper. It's like $70 on Jetstar to get to Kagoshima. It doesn't make sense to go by Shinkansen unless you have a rail pass and you just feel like riding a train for 7 to 10 hours.

29:21:00 John Daub: Now I'm going to take you to the lockers. The lockers are interesting because they're different. I started this live stream telling people that there are some people from Indonesia that they couldn't figure out how to do the locker. And in the end, a staff guy came and he thought he was supposed to help me. And I'm like, I don't know. I know how to do this. But they don't. And then he helped them out. I wanted to help them out, but I also had to start the live stream. So I told them how to do it. And then they said, oh. And then they went to do it and I guess they couldn't do it. But we're going to do it. We're going to do it right now. I've got a ticket. I'm going to show it to you right now.

30:38:00 John Daub: So now we've done a pretty good job seeing it all. Alright, this is awful. I might have to end the live stream right here. So we're going to give you all the locker prices right now. Hold on a second. Oh, that feels so good. This is what was on my back. Alright. That's my normal luggage. Now I'm going to open this and things are going to get a little freaky. This is the ticket. Do not lose this. Okay. It's got a QR code in here. It's 500 yen or about $5 for this. And this is required when removing your bags. So you don't want to lose it. That's my stuff in this locker right here.

31:35:00 John Daub: The way you put your stuff in there is you find an available locker that has a green thing in here. Put it in there. When you close it, it'll start the activation. Alright. Push this down. On the screen here, it will light up and tell you the number. Do you see that? Okay. Lost. Push English. If not, push this. You can either pay by Suica or you can pay by cash. If you want to pay by cash, this locker here will cost you 500 yen. You pay here. Coins. Notes here. And then out of this printer will come the receipt, which is this. When you're finished, you take this and you put it onto the scanner like this. And then this will open up and you cannot close it for free again. You're going to have to pay. That's how you do it.

32:34:00 John Daub: This locker is 500 yen. The one underneath it is 700 yen. And the smaller ones are 400 yen. So it's about $4. And we have a borderline. So if your wife takes this one and you take this one, this would be a wall between you. Therefore, this could be a problem later in life. How deep do they go? Pretty deep. The 700 yen ones, check it out. You can get a suitcase in there with wheels on there. This is a big one. I have 10.5 shoes. 28.5 centimeters. So that's about 32 centimeters maybe. It's hard to say. These also go back pretty far. See here. If I put my hand in there, it takes my whole arm.

33:40:00 John Daub: It's time for me to open this now. QR code. Get my bag here. Hey now. I want to take it out. Come on. Take it out. Come on. Oh, this one. Not this one. Ready. Whoa! It auto-opened. I pushed the wrong button. You can keep your receipt. It's a souvenir. Or use it for bubble gum so it doesn't melt in your pocket. Daimyo presents. Oh my word. This is going to really stink. Tripod. This is why. How am I going to carry this? How am I going to carry all this? And the gimbal. I'm already struggling.

35:27:00 John Daub: I took the 417 train. Alright. Let's see what we can do here. This isn't going to work. It's working. But I've lost all feeling in that arm. This is the most ridiculous looking sight, I think. Taking YouTube to the wrong level. I would say higher level, but higher level is supposed to be more fun. Well, more work. If you do miss the train, it's okay. You can just tell them. They'll give you a new ticket. It's not like you... They want to make sure you get to your destination. You'll have a seat. I bought the reserved ticket just to make sure that I have a seat. And I can sit down. I'm sure that it's not sold out on a Monday. Oh man, I'm in pain. Oh, this stinks. Is that guy looking at me funny? He's looking at me funny. How dare you? I still see you.

37:36:00 John Daub: Get my Shinkansen ticket out. It's in my other pocket. No! No! Alright, I gotta put this down. Dr. Zark, the cheesecake weighs a ton. Is that your fault? It's just a cheesecake. Alright, let's do this now. Are you ready? We're going to the Shinkansen. I'm gonna find an ekiben before... We're gonna do this. Take no prisoners. I'm not. I don't have any space to take the prisoners. Did you hear that? All you Cobra Kai-ers out there, I don't have any... I'm not taking any prisoners. I don't have the space. You know what I'm doing? I'm leaving the prisoners behind. They don't deserve to come to Tokyo. Alright, here we go. Ready? It's in pain. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. Thank you. I couldn't do it. Somebody help me.

39:00:00 John Daub: We're in, everybody. It's still under construction a little bit. Towards Tokyo, but I need an ekiben. Oh, I'm in pain. The 617 is leaving. Alright. That's the next train. Do we have time for an ekiben? What time is it? Is there an ekiben area? Oh my gosh, there's no ekiben. Alright, I better just get up there. Alright, let's get up there. Let's do this. This is cars 11 to 16. I'm in car number 12. So, yeah, this could work. No! It's stairs! Oh my gosh! Why? Why? I get 10 minutes. Okay, I'll be careful.

40:19:00 John Daub: I said take no prisoners. I hope you know what I'm going through for you guys. I hope you know what I'm going through for you guys. Oh! These have some... There's a lot of love in these boxes. Usually there's a place to buy an ekiben up here on the platform. Car number 7. Car number 11. I'm halfway there. Car 12. Alright, let's do this. I'm gonna leave my bags there. Nobody's gonna steal the bags. Car 12. I think I'll go to the other one. Weird foreign people. They don't know what I'm doing. So now, number 12. The souvenirs are too hard. There are too many souvenirs. I can't help it. Momiji. Where are you from? Tokyo. America. You're from America? No, I'm from Tokyo. I work in Tokyo. I work there, so I need souvenirs.

42:18:00 John Daub: Alright, they have ekiben in here. The problem with 7-Eleven is that the problem with 7-Eleven's bento is that they have all these chemicals in there. It's okay. I want to buy ekiben, but I wonder if it's okay. Oh, I'll go buy it. I'm sorry. It's 17 minutes. 5 minutes. 5 minutes? I agree. He said you got 5 minutes. Okay. Alright, this is a typical this is how I do it. Run! I tried to buy an ekiben going to Hiroshima on the train. It's always better to buy it before. Alright, here we go. Konnichiwa. This unagi (eel) bento looks good. Oh look! They have the carp bento. Oh, it's got a chicken wing in there. I'm going for the momiji bento. Looks good. Momiji bento. Do you have beer? Beer is on the other side of the train. Oh, on the other side. Oh, you want me to bring it? Oh, okay. I need a beer. I'm getting a big one. I earned it.

44:49:00 John Daub: I did it! I even got an official receipt. It's coming! Do you hear that bell? So on the platforms, they don't have many options, but they do have some options. So the momiji bento is mine. See that in there? Boom! Hey, if you guys want to go on the train, we need 350 likes. This is so weak. You have two minutes, no, one minute to get to 350 likes, and I'll take you on the train. If you fail this mission, you're not coming on the Shinkansen. Hurry, everybody. We need at least 350. I should have said five. I should have said 500. That was fast. Alright, I'll take you on the train. Thanks a lot.

46:10:00 John Daub: This is fun. So, daimyo, this is your momiji. Here, check it out. So these are coming. You know where it comes from now. These are coming to you. I only have 17, so anyone who signs up, there's only one extra. Alright. This train has 16 cars. Car 16. It was at the front of the train. And car 16. Ah, 16. No, it's over there. Tokyo is not over there. Here? Here? I'm in a panic. That's right. 4:17. Here. 12. I was panicking. 7, 10, and 15. They're announcing something, but I wasn't listening. Ah, good. I'm not on the wrong platform. I'm okay.

47:15:00 John Daub: Alright, the train's coming. You guys wanna see? Now, they don't have the new doors for safety reasons, so they do have people on the platform. There's a lady there, just to make sure that nobody does anything crazy. But I think in the next couple of months, Hiroshima Station is gonna have the sliding doors that all the other stations have, but they just don't have it right now. Alright, are you ready? The Shinkansen is coming. Which way is it coming from? Is it coming from this direction? Is it coming from this direction? Or the other way? Ah, here it comes! Here it comes! Here's our ride, everybody. Ah, she's a beauty. The Nozomi. Shinkansen! John is going home, everybody. Kanae is waiting. For her cheesecake. With an extended life ice pack.

49:10:00 John Daub: Alright, let the people getting off get off. I'm gonna let everybody else get on first. I just have too much luggage. It's a safety. Always let other people on, and then you can go find your seat. When you stop like this, you don't have a lot of time. So I'm in seat 14A. So let's go there. Alright, now I gotta grab these and find a home for these. Oh my gosh. I'm crazy. I think if I just leave it there, we'll be okay. This is going over here. There is AC. I'm melting. This is crazy. Oh, there's that Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium. Check it out. Do you guys see this? It's a beautiful stadium.

51:52:00 John Daub: I'm melting. You're crazy, but we love the way you did this. But we love you this way. I have my own way. Don't ever lose your ticket. I'm melting. Put it in there. Put it in there. Alright. I think we took live streaming to a completely new level today. It's a new level. By the way, see guys, we're gonna get cut. This is a long tunnel. The lag is because we're in a tunnel. There's no way.