00:00:00 John Daub: Good evening everybody. Hello and welcome to Tokyo. I am going to be doing a director's take on the latest video on the Only in Japan main channel. This is the Kochi Sunday Market in Kochi City. Kochi is on the island of Shikoku. It's one of the furthest of the prefectures in Shikoku. It's not easy to get there. There's no direct trains. The best way to get there is to fly from Tokyo and it takes about 80 minutes, I think, from Narita or Haneda to get there. But it's so worth it. It's a really nice place and we're going to discuss it. So I want you to leave — think of some questions. If you've already watched the video, great. The link is in the description. If you do want to watch it, the video is here on the main channel. This is the Only Japan Go channel, so it's a different channel. But I guarantee you're gonna like this one. You don't have to be a vegan, even though it says "vegan" in the title, to like this. Because I'm not a vegan and I think you know that. So I'm not a vegan. So I think you can learn a little bit about the market and I put "vegan" in there because — let's be honest — most of my videos are about Wagyu and meat and a non-balanced diet. This is good to do something different, you know what I mean? It's good to just introduce something that's not just meat. So therefore our vegan friends and their friends can never ever say I've never made a vegan episode. I'm off now. I am completely vegan-free, which is great. And actually, I did learn a lot from my co-pilot in this episode. Kiara taught me a lot about the vegan diet. And while we were traveling, she was with me for a couple of days, driving with me in the car. When we did stay at Yokon, her meal was always vegan and mine was meat. And there were many times that the vegan meal looked better — which is sad for me because I never thought that was possible. But one of the reasons why is that the chefs will always prepare the vegan meal special. The result is that sometimes they look better than the meat meals or the normal meals that everybody gets. The vegan meals can be better. It's a challenge to the chef and they often rise to the challenge in Japan. So sometimes being a vegetarian or a vegan and having a hotel make a special meal for you can be pretty good.

00:03:00 John Daub: Hello. I see we got a lot of people coming here. This is a live stream. I see the chats coming in there. But I always do the first couple of — Alex chimes in with the first super chat. Thank you. Yeah, so I try to — well, the chefs will always prepare the vegan meal special. The result is that sometimes they look better than the meat meals or the normal meals that everybody gets. The vegan meals can be better. It's a challenge to the chef and they often rise to the challenge in Japan. So sometimes being a vegetarian or a vegan and having a hotel make a special meal for you can be pretty good. Can be pretty good. Hey, welcome to Aodo Aikido 1, his first live stream. Welcome aboard. Ramsey Silent, our moderators in the house. It's good to see a lot of very familiar faces here in the chats. Hello from Ohio. Oh, Susan, very good. "John is unleashed." That is true. I'm very much unleashed. Let me change the frequency of this light. Hopefully get a little bit of flicker in from the light. Yeah. So welcome aboard. We're gonna go over this video and I want you to think of some questions. I did get a haircut. Look, this is a live stream, I cannot not see this. I did get a haircut the other day. I've been going to the same barber for the last 12 years in Chiba. And now that I live downtown, it takes me 40 minutes to travel to get the haircut. But I don't have the heart to not go to my barber. I don't want to find a new one. I like the guy. I will travel an hour to get a haircut. So he does a good job. I don't even have to say anything. Look at this. Look at this. I don't have to say anything. He just cuts it and he shows me behind with the mirror. I don't know why. I'm not going to question him. He's a professional. And then I move on. I love it. It's great to get the haircut from the same place. Never mind that. Let's get on to Kochi. Kochi is a place they — I was invited to go there. So when I was thinking of ideas to do for Kochi, I said, "What can I do?" The Shimanto River is the first video that I made and we did another director's cut there. The Shimanto River is an S-shaped river, the longest in Shikoku, has delicious fish, lots of industry. It's a non-damned river — meaning there's no dam. So it goes from the origin all the way to the Pacific Ocean, free flowing, loads of activities to do. It's actually one of the most beautiful rivers I've seen in Japan. And I've seen some really pretty rivers up in Hokkaido. This one just had a natural color to it. And I think the locals and the industries in Kochi really protect that river. And that's Kochi. It's a very natural place. It's just a nice place to go. That might not be what you're looking for when you come here to visit Japan. Konbawa. I see. So the live streams — live chat going by — that might be what you're looking for. You might be looking for cities, you might be looking for restaurants, some vibe, manga, anime, subculture, things like this, geisha shows, Japanese culture. But actually Japanese culture is all about the connection with nature. That Zen that you're looking for, that peacefulness that exists in places like Kochi, you won't find it — well, you can in Tokyo, but it's not authentic. If you want to find authentic Japan, you go to places like Nagano, like Deep Gifu, you go to places like Miyazaki's mountains, or you go to Kochi or Shikoku. Shikoku and Hokkaido. I can't forget that. But Shikoku, especially — Hokkaido is very big, but it's got a lot of tourists already. Shikoku is just this pristine place with very few tourists. If you go there, you are always rewarded with something special. Because it is a special place. It's just because — you are the only tourists there, and you are special. Let's — that sounds even better. You are special when you go to Kochi because there aren't that many western tourists in Shikoku. There are tourists from Taiwan. Believe it or not, they go to Takamatsu. The reason why our friends in Taiwan love noodles, so they go to Shikoku for the Sanuki udon. So Takamatsu Airport in Kagawa Prefecture is actually an international airport because it has like one or two flights to Taiwan because people want to eat the noodles, they want to go directly there. That's cool. Kochi is a different beast, though. They have noodles, they have this, but they're very, very famous for vegetables. So in this episode — and by the way, if you are a Discord server, if you're a Patreon supporter at the samurai level — we're going to do a Discord with a question and answer at the end of this. So you might want to get into the voice chat on Discord. Anybody can do Discord for free. But I like to reward our patrons. Kochi Prefecture — I did end up eating my hat. Just — it was a different hat. I have more than one hat. Above me is Kochi Castle. I love this shot in the beginning. I — we got here late and there's a story behind this. Chara and I got here to this location late. We were driving the Shimanto River and it took forever to get from the last hotel from the origin of the Shimanto River to the city of Kochi. So we didn't arrive until 11. And the market is pretty vibrant from like 8:30 to 11. So we got there when it was kind of maybe at its peak and going down. And I had to film this really fast because I said, "Well, it's very far to come back to Kochi to film the rest of this." So we tried to film as fast as possible. So I found this place. I'm actually wearing the same shirt. There's my fashion sense for you, laid out. I love this shirt. L.L. Bean. So we filmed this really fast. I had these clip-on mics I'm using for the first time. Found this great spot, positioned the camera, action, boom. We got the opening done in like 10 minutes, which is actually a short amount of time. This market that we're on right now is the oldest outdoor market in Japan, over 300 years old. There's lots of things to buy, but there's also a lot of things to eat. And to help me out with this report is Kiara, who's been living in Japan for 10 years. Yeah, I have.

00:08:28 Kiara: I'm the author of the Tokyo Vegan Guide and I help visitors find awesome vegan food all around Japan.

00:08:34 John Daub: Great. So we'll get a chance to eat a lot of different kinds of foods. So Kiara, I asked her to come on this episode. She's a friend of a friend who knows Kochi very well. And I thought that if I'm going to introduce something with vegan diets, I better bring somebody who is a vegan, right? And she's the only vegan that I know. There's probably a lot of vegans that I know, but I just don't know it. But she's — she's an author. She's a professional vegan. Is that a word? She's a professional vegan. I'm a professional omnivore. I say she's professional — wait, I say she's professional because she has a book about being vegan. So vegan restaurants in Tokyo. So I assume she's — she's a pro. Hey, Market Analysis. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. The market is the oldest in Japan. I like this. I like the history. Oh, I forget his name — Nodasan — who runs the market every Saturday night and Sunday morning. He's very busy talking and booking the market stalls. So I think you have to book that in advance. So there's always different people at the stalls. Sometimes they'll be one family might be there the first and the third Sunday and another family might be there the second and the fourth. Some people are there every week, so it rotates a little bit. Now Nodasan is in charge of it and he told me why and how this market started and was fascinating when we get in a little bit more into the episodes. But these stands are just such cute little stands and you can tell that they're very family oriented. And that's what makes it so attractive. It's different from the world that we live in. I said this once in the narration whenever they were setting it up. In this world today, we are so used to going to like mega superstores and it's a fun experience going to shopping malls, mega superstores, Costco, or shopping on Amazon. The way we shop is different than 20, 30 years ago and that's normal. The world evolves, you just — it can't be helped. But there's something said about going back in time and going through an experience like this. Of course there are farmers markets all over the world. This doesn't make this special. But what's special is that they've been doing this market nonstop since feudal times and it hasn't really changed that much. And that's what I shown in the pictures, right? I have some historical pictures sent to me from Kochi Prefecture. So that makes it pretty special, I think. And the menu, the foods that you can get there and the experience is very similar to what it might have been like 390 years ago. Believe it or not — I got that feeling, like this market is so much fun. I hope it never changes. That's it. That's kind of how I felt walking around there and I had to go back there. Mr. Das is in the house. Pro carnivore. Woohoo. I got nothing against — I got nothing against vegans or vegan diets. Actually I learned a lot. As I said before, sometimes it's good to eat vegan. Maybe just for like one day because I — I don't want to — I'm going to try the vegan meal on the airplane when I fly to the United States in a couple of weeks because I think I always eat too much and it sits in my stomach for 14 hours on the flight to New York. So I might try the vegan meals and see how that works. If I get really hungry, I might take my wife's food. But it should be — I think AV is here. "I like your videos." Thank you very much, from New Zealand. That was cool. Pro carnivores. I get nothing against that. I think you should eat meat, but eat less. Eat a balanced diet. I'm — I'm pro balanced diet. I'm an omnivore with a leaning towards good meat quality before quantity. That's what I like to say. It — this is the oldest market, 390 years, and it's one of the longest. I was really impressed. There's the castle from feudal times. But I was impressed with the length of the market which set up this hyperlapse that I did of the market. I just held my GoPro like this and I kept on walking with a timelapse on it. And I just kept walking and walking and walking and walking. And I didn't even get to the end. I kind of just stopped because I was — my hand was getting tired. I think we're getting to the end right here. And there was another section to the market. But the way that this episode worked was I had to stop in the middle of it and I wanted to make this interesting because, you know, Kiara has never done an episode of Only in Japan with me. She — I think she's seen it, but our styles are a little bit different. I said I think that she should preserve the way she does her style and I'll do the way my — I do my style and then we'll film each other and that'll be more interesting. And I thought that was a pretty good idea because there are foods that I can eat and then there are foods that she can't eat. And the ones that she does eats will definitely be vegan. So this is the formula for this episode. I had the tempura at this stand which may be the most famous in the market. It's homemade right out of the fryer — tempura, sweet potato, the satsuma imo potato. This was so good. This was so good. Miriam Perel — "Thanks, John. You helped us plan our trip to Japan." I'm happy to hear that. I've been getting a lot of people saying that they want to go to Kochi, but they're also — they're watching the show and finding new ideas that aren't in the guidebook. And that makes me really happy because I do this series usually when I go on location and I'm filming an episode for the main channel, like when I went to Hiroshima a couple of days ago. And I like to bring different takes on what I'm going to be presenting on the main channel so that those takes can be very useful to you. If you are traveling to Japan, maybe give you a different idea or look at something from diagonally instead of looking at it straight on, you can kind of see it from a new way. And that presents new ideas for you as a traveler. So that's sort of what makes the Only Japan Go channel fun for me — to get that feedback. Yeah, Star Wars writes in: "I love meat. And also there are many good vegetarian Japanese food out there. So I love both." I think you can love both. And I made this comment in here that I can surf all the dietary worlds if you are an omnivore. And I think carnivores can eat vegetables. I've seen very few carnivores that actually eat only meat, but I have met some South Africans that ate only meat diets and they lost weight and they were really muscular from it. So I guess there's something to be said about that. But omnivores can surf every single dietary group and that makes us very — makes it very cool. So don't be against vegans, don't be against carnivores. Just love them both, right? I don't know. I'm kind of — omnivores are the Switzerland of dietary world. I think this tempura and cut was so good. Battered and deep fried. Oh, man, what am I doing at midnight? Why am I watching this at midnight? This is torture. When they're golden brown, they'll sit to allow the oil to filter through. Look at the size of it. And put into bags that we sold right away to waiting customers. They weighed it too and make sure everybody got the same amount almost every Sunday. And yes, they have a lot of regular customers. There's always a line here. There is always a line. These are cheap and these are good. They have something in that batter that gives it like this mochi — mochi could even be mochi powder in the batter, I don't know. But with that potato, it was just so springy. It's such a — such a delicious, delicious experience. The reason why this isn't vegan is because the batter has eggs in it. And I think maybe even milk. So vegans can't eat it. Right. Which is a shame because they do have vegan batter. But this particular chain uses eggs. The eggs does give it more of a cake-like taste around it. And that dough — it gives it like a mochi consistency. I just said that. So when you bite into it, it's like biting into a little bit of mochi. And then you have the sweet potato with the natural sugars — the natural sweetness goes a long way. I like — I like the scene where I talk to Kiara. "Be healthy and yet it's so right. I'm sure you don't want one? Not vegan friendly. It's John friendly." I love the look where she just — and I cut this in later. And the — she just continued to — I just said, "Kiara, just look disapprovingly at me." And she did it. So of course, like, I only have one camera. So it's not like we had two cameras shooting it. She did this afterwards. The magic of editing. You don't know this sequence. It doesn't really matter. I can edit it any way I like. So after I did this and I talked to her, I said, "This is going to be so funny. I got to show your face, disapproval of this." So when she did look, it was perfect. And she kept the disapproving look a little bit longer — meaning I think that she felt it. I think she might have disapproved. But that long disapproval worked with the second cut. I wasn't going to add the second cut. I said, "No, this is too good. Just have her keep looking." Fuming, disapproving. And it worked out so good. So that came — that was — this is one of the funniest parts of this video. Well, we'll find something for vegans next. The market has hundreds of options. Yeah. Next we go for something easy. And this is a staple of the market — yuzu. It's a citrus fruit and tomatoes in the summer because tomatoes are in season and markets like this only have seasonal vegetables. Supermarkets will have tomatoes all year round. These kinds of markets don't, unless they're grown in a greenhouse. Those that I showed you were like amazing tomatoes. They're like $40. They'd be a hundred dollars in Tokyo, just so you know. But they had two kinds of tomatoes here. One of them was sweet like a fruit and the other one was more like a vegetable, more salty, kind of an acidic taste to it. Both of them were really good. And in the summer, Japanese often eat cucumbers on ice, on a stick. I don't know. It's — it's like Americans — when you go to the state fair, everything is deep fried. In Japan, they'll just eat raw vegetables. So seeing a tomato on ice is nothing unusual. These tomatoes are really good and they're pretty inexpensive. And if you like tomatoes, if you like tomato sauce, eating it raw like this — if you eat a supermarket tomato, you can be disappointed. I don't think that they might look red, but they seem to lack flavor when you eat them. From a farmer who grows them mostly organically — I say mostly because I'm not sure if they're organic or not, I just kind of assume that they are, but they might not be — the taste just explodes. There's something different about it when it's grown like the way they used to grow it 100 years — they're not as big, but they just have so much flavor. And that's another reason to go to Kochi. You might taste your vegetables again. I think a lot of countries — I don't know — in the US where I live, where I grew up, it was hard to get really fresh vegetables. They always came at the supermarket and they were always kind of — they're vegetables, but these are like — it's a different. Like peaches, mangoes in Japan. Fruits and vegetables in Japan, grown in Japan, they have a different flavor than the ones in the US, which — I mean, you can get good fruits and vegetables in the US but not at the supermarket. You have to go to someplace special. Even in Japan, you can't always get good fruits and vegetables in the normal supermarket. Laundry Sevens — thank you. Laundry Sevens. Yeah, I just heard Purple Heart, Purple Bandit 79 writes in: "I just had cucumbers and Tajin for breakfast." Very nice. Actually, that's a nice breakfast. Little flavor there. And Faze Life, how you doing, Faye? Super chat. Thank you. Hit the like button. That's right. Thank you for promoting that. Yeah, definitely hit the like button. It's like gasoline for me. Durian is the king of fruits. That could be true. Any fruit that has spikes on it and if you throw it at somebody, it will probably kill them is the king of fruits. It's like a lion in the jungle. Those teeth. Speaking of teeth, Kiara was just enjoying this tomato a little bit too long when I edited this. Sure. "Try different varieties when you're here." When I edited this, I didn't know how to edit this because it was cringy — like she either she's playing this up too much, or she truly is enjoying this tomato too much. And that is worrying to me. I hope she's not watching. I hope she is. It's not — it was just — it was hard for me to spin it, like how do I do this so it doesn't seem too cringy? All right, we're gonna just play up the "she's really enjoying it" section. So the editing — I sped it up and kind of made it look like it was really long. And it was before she said, "Oh my God." And then it sort of worked out okay, I think. But tomatoes is a vegan food, of course, because you can just — you know — eat a vegetable. I like how this guy did it. He — I didn't plan this. He just kind of walked up and talked to her and said, "Number one in Japan. The best tomatoes in Japan." Perfect way to end that scene. We had to stay with Kiara. I keep pronouncing her name wrong. Kiara wanted to eat inaka sushi, which is very famous in Kochi. Inaka sushi is vegetable sushi. Vegetarians are okay with it, but for vegan friendly, you can't have dashi in it. Dashi — meaning is a fish broth. Fish broth is used to enhance the flavor quite often. And this is an inaka sushi. This is myoga, which is ginger. These — this is a potato root, potato stem. This is take, which is bamboo. It's so good. I mean, a lot of people are thinking, "No, I want to have fish. Sushi is fish." You're completely wrong. Whoever told you that has no idea. There's all kinds of sushi. All right? Sushi is not just fish. This is inaka sushi, a kind of sushi using vegetables. If you live out in the mountains, you're not going to find fresh fish. There's no reason to — so you can just get a bed of rice and put it on there. And I think that's sushi, I think. And it's really good. It's just different. Okay? The flavor is there. If you put a little soy sauce in it, it's there too. But sometimes they'll put eggs in the maki zushi one. You see this in the roll. You have to watch out. Make sure that's tofu and not egg. Second, you have to ask and make sure that there's no dashi for vegans. I love dashi. I can say, "Extra dashi. Give me extra dashi." But these farmers will make the inaka sushi the night before or the day of. So usually they'll put a little bit of dashi. This one has dashi support. Poor Kiara could not eat this. Hey, kimchi sushi — there's vegetable sushi. It's good, you know, it's good. Vegetable sushi is interesting. It's just different. I think it's something that you should — you should try different kinds of foods, different kinds of sushi. And I filmed this scene where we're doing back and forth. I don't know what we were talking about, but it just seemed funny. She points at me, I point at her, and then she points at me. And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm kind of guilty of that too." I don't remember what we're talking about. So I just narrated over it. This next one is inaka sushi that I found on another day. All right, listen, we got 20 minutes ago, I told you we got to this market late. We arrived at 11 AM. This presented a challenge for me because I want to tell the story of the market. There's not enough time in two hours to do that for my shoot. There's a reason why I only make a main channel episode like once every twice a month or so. It just takes a long time to get the story. You have to research it and make sure you've got the shots. If you can't produce a good story, don't put it on YouTube. That's my philosophy. Other YouTubers — you know, they can make the story really quickly — good for them. I can't do that. I want — I'm — I want it to be really good so that it can stand the test of time and the scrutiny of a million people. So be it if they watch it. So I went back to Kochi about a week later. I think it was one week or two weeks after this. I can't remember. And I set it up so I would get interviews and be able to talk with the people. And I would go the night before, spend the night, and wake up at 4:30 in the morning because that's when the market starts to set up. Around 4:45, the farmers come there. So I woke up at 4:30. I got my camera. I was like a zombie. Went out at 4:45 and it was still — and it was bright. Because in Japan, the sun rises at like 4:40 in the end of June or July and the summer solstice. The longest day. And the farmers were already there setting up the shops. The stands are coming up there. And what was surprising was that the people who were setting up the shops were all — like, the majority of them were senior citizens, many of them in their 60s, 70s, 80s. And there was even some ladies in their 90s, like small ladies that couldn't stand up straight. But they were working their butts off to get the stands going and make sure that they could sell. You know why? Because they love it. For them, this is a chance for them to get away from their local area and come to the big city and meet people, talk to people, see old friends, and have some fun. So when you do talk to them, they light up. They kind of love that discourse with the customer because they've been doing it for decades, especially for non-Japanese. It kind of gives them, I don't know, a different kind of energy from that. This one — this inaka sushi was so good and we couldn't find it at 11 AM though, two weeks before. But I got this at 8:30 in the morning and it was half sold out. I mean it was halfway finished and by 9:30 it was gone. This guy's sushi was so good. And you can see how colorful that the vegetables are. No coloring in this. This is the normal color of myoga, I believe. He said there was no preservatives. He said there was no dashi. He says he ferments them, he makes them without dashi, and blah blah blah. And I took them at face value and it was really good. The shiitake mushroom was a great touch. All of it grown locally. This is konnyaku, which is like a potato gel, which is a very good dietary food. But it was really good. And Kiara could not eat this because she wasn't there. I had to wear the same shirt to make it seem like it was the same day. But this was two weeks later. I'd gone back to eat this. And I'm glad that I went back too, because it made the episode better. Not only did I film this, I also filmed the interview. And I met Nodasan and I got to meet the old ladies and the market scene. And I filmed this on the second time I went back. So Kiara was not here when I film — 90% of the time it's just me, there's no cameraman, so it's me filming like this. And then I'll put the camera on a tripod and film myself, get the scene. So I'm talking to the camera and I'm talking to the guy. Now we're looking at boshi pan, which is a hat bread. This is only in Kochi. It's really, really unique. And I've been to Kochi before and I never noticed the hat bread until Kiara told me. She goes, "Yeah, have you ever tried boshi pan?" I'm like, "Boshi pan? Hat bread?" She goes, "Yeah, you got to try this." And when I did, I said, "This is the coolest thing in the world" because, I mean, it's like food that you can wear, right? So I had to feature this in the episode because it's only in Kochi. Mr. Das writes in: "All Hail Hon Maguro." I can — I can put my hands up in the air for that one because it is really good. You can check out the Hon Maguro episode I made in Aomori when I fished it out of the ocean — or somebody else fished it. But I felt like I — it was me doing it. This hat bread, sometimes you can find stuff inside of it and it's so good. If you can get one with cream or custard. With custard. It's surrounded by custard. It's surrounded by grilled custard. And if they have custard inside, it's like the perfect — it's like paradise. Your hat has custard in it. All hats should have custard in it. No, it's not big enough. And it did look like one of those Revolutionary War hats from the 18th century. But it's still hat bread. It was still really good. It was really good. Would go great with hot tea. This would be — I wish they had this in Tokyo. Only found in Kochi Prefecture in every bakery, supermarket, and convenience store. They need this in Tokyo. Kiara is back and found a good one. I mispronounced her name. I love this old lady. She's here almost, I believe, almost every week. So if you go there, you're going to be able to find her. You gotta try her mochi. It's 70 yen. How is she making money? It's — it costs double that to get a pet bottle of tea out of the vending machine. She's making something that'll fill you up for 70 yen. Handmade, you know, it's gonna be good. I — oh, did you see that? Hold on a second. I just noticed this. Do you see in the corner here? That's my business card. Only in Japan. I gave it to her before I filmed. So if she has a question, she can contact me. That — there's my card. I just noticed that she put it underneath the stapler. This is azuki red beans and mochi covered in kinako roasted soybean powder. It's only 70 — the ladies were a little bit jealous, like, "Oh, we wish we could be filmed too. Why aren't you — why don't you come over here and talk to us?" They're selling yuzu aid, which is the lemonade made from yuzu, not lemons. 70 cents for one. How does it taste?

00:31:32 Kiara: Oh, it's super soft. You can tell it's homemade mochi.

00:31:38 John Daub: And there's a kinako —

00:31:40 Kiara: The soybean powder on the outside is also nice and sweet and kind of adds this flowery texture which makes a nice balance with the soft mochi.

00:31:49 John Daub: It is not easy to describe food. To be a food vlogger is not easy. I remember when I was — when I was shooting Tokyo Eye for NHK and the director told me to eat this and then make a comment. It's the most unnatural thing to eat it and to show the emotion in your face. Because nobody does this. But if you don't do it right, it comes — it's very hard to get it right. I — I don't really think about it anymore. But when you eat something, you have to show something without saying it in your face. Mike Chen is really good at this. Mark Wiens does the — you know — like — like — like he has a Mark face. So the — everybody has a way to show their emotion when they eat the food. But unless you really practice it in front of a camera or you don't know what you look like. And sometimes we look awful when we eat. We just don't — it's just not a natural thing. Kiara was really good at it. I thought. I don't know if she's ever food vlogged before. Really good at it. And I thought she did a great job. That kinako powder — it can get on everything. It's not easy to do. Talk about food after you eat it. Try doing it and — and look at yourself. It's never — it never comes out good. It never does. Her Japanese is so good, Kiara as well. And it was fun to talk. It was fun to listen to her talk with the old ladies. I gotta be honest with you. A lot of times, I couldn't understand what the old people in Kochi — the senior citizens, the — the better generation, I should say. I couldn't understand what they're saying because they're speaking a regional dialect. So I got the gist of everything so I could converse okay. But they have like a special intonation and some special words. So when we did the translation, me and Kanae were doing it together. Kanae couldn't understand a lot of the stuff that they were saying. We just kind of guesstimated and I think it came out good. You can kind of get an idea what people mean by the context and the situation. But Kanae was fine with it. Wow. Homemade mochi is awesome. What a sense of humor. She goes, "Look, homemade. Homemade mochi is always good. And when the customers come to eat it, they love it so much they'll come back for more. So please come back for more." Look at that. She's already making the sales. So I watched her, I filmed her, I filmed her eating it, so I had to get one too. Red beans give us sweetness. It's heavy and one could fill you up or provide a happy ending to a — why should she get to eat it and not me? Gans only? It's great to be able to — so good. Multiple dietary worlds. I — I reject that. This is vegan food and only vegans can eat vegan food. No, if you can't eat it, too bad for you, but I can eat it. All right, never mind that. Let's move into the history corner. Now. This picture came to me from Kochi Prefecture. And it's really hard to find historical videos — historical stuff like this. It's not always on the internet or it's never clean, but I got a really nice image from them. And you can see Kochi Castle, I believe, right here. So it's not too far away. But this is a different street. It's maybe two streets away from — I know where the street is. This is where the streetcars are. But it's two streets away from where the market is today. And this is way back, like mid to late 1800s. And you can see everyone's got kimonos on, but they're — they sell and they don't have stands the same way. But everyone's selling the same stuff. You can see them selling vegetables, everyday life stuff is what they told me. And the market doesn't look any different — just the shoppers down the middle and the people selling on the side, everyday stuff. And the castle's right up here. It's hard to make out. That's one of the reasons why the director's cuts are good. I can point out stuff that is different, but it was nice to have this photo and they gave me some other photos. This is what it was like during the Meiji era. Now — this is only I could only get a scan from a book that they gave me. But you can — you can just make it out enough that — like it looks like Tokyo and Hiroshima and all the other cities that were heavily bombed during World War II. Kochi was especially heavily bombed because it's right on the coast of the Pacific. So it's very easy for bombers that are coming from Saipan or from Guam to come to Japan and bomb Kochi. Some of the bombers came the other way — I believe they were — they had landing strips in China, and they would — they would depart from China and then bomb the Japanese — the Sea of Japan side. So — but a lot of the bombers were coming from the Pacific side, so Kochi was like an easy target. So it just got flattened. Very few buildings survived. But this is the street where the market is, and you just couldn't — it doesn't even seem like there's — you could even live here. It looks like a wasteland in 1944, '45. And little remained, but the market roared back. Hey, Adam. Hey, John. I'm glad to finally be able to join the live stream. Welcome. Been watching it for years and I'm gonna give back. Yay. Thank you. Especially since I don't always remember to turn off ad block. That's all right. You can — you don't have to watch all the ads I put. I might put a little bit more in the — in the live streams because they're an hour long, so you can put more than one — more than three, but one every 15 minutes, maybe. So you're gonna see more ads in the live stream. But I appreciate — I appreciate it. Thank you for the thought. This is not Nodasan, and he's a really nice guy, and I watched him interact with all of the farmers and walking together with him sort of made the farmers talk more easily to me. That was one of the — one guy or — one favors I've asked of him. I said, "Would you just spend some time with me and walk around and introduce me to some of the interesting things with the market that would take me" — I think — I think I learned this when I — when I did the report in Aogashima a couple of years ago. That's the — an island in Tokyo that has a volcano in the middle of it. You have to stay in a place for a while before you build the trust of the people to get to know them. And that's when you start to discover the stories. Stories don't just come right away. Now a lot of people will watch my videos and then go and get the story. But in order to be — to be the originator and to find the story, you have to go on location and spend some time there and get to know people. When people get to know you, that's when they — they feel relaxed and will tell you something that will raise eyebrows or something that you think can be, "Wow, this would be a great story to put onto the main channel or onto YouTube." And that's how I find a lot of my stories. I'll go to places and spend time there. I didn't have time to — this is only once a week, the market. When it's done, it's done. This is the second time that people saw me, so some of them remembered me. But when I walk around with him, everybody knows him and I'm the guy with him. So people opened up a little bit more so I can find the stories. That's — that's one of the reasons why the main channel is special to me because it's a place where I can cultivate a story. They aren't the same stuff you're going to find on every other channel. So when somebody gives a suggestion, "Do something that another YouTuber has already done." It's like, "No, I'm not — I will typically, not always, but I want to find an original story and cultivate it." Like the udon story in Shikoku. The neighbor to this — I went into an udon shop, found the lady, we talked for one day and then I came back and she gave me the story. She sat down with me and introduced about her family history and how people eat udon and it made it such a better episode. Try another YouTuber should try to imitate that. Then they can't. That's why I make it. You can't copy what I do. Ha. I can have some fun with this. So Nodasan was — it was very good to get his insight. He introduced me to another side of the market, but he also opened up the people in the market. And that I think makes a better episode for you. When you watch it, it come — the people come through better. And so when I show you the next shots — when I show you the next shots after this — it seems more, I think, after you've met this guy and you know a little bit of the history. When I show you these shots here, I think they mean more to you because now you have — you've journeyed with me and you also are seeing this market open up with me like I did with him. Now I show you this. Now I show you this. Before the sun breaks, there are already several farmers setting up for the market. You know about the people working hard. Now you see it and now you have to believe it. Most vendors seem to be senior citizens, some in their 90s. They work hard like this every day. And Sunday is an important day. Not just to sell their goods, but to socialize with other people and see old friends. Look at that. They drive like that from the countryside. Nobody goes to McDonald's. They got the market. There's the potato stand. That's the potato stand setting. The street is closed down on one side to keep people from having to cross the street. Often, I think — I think when you watch this, you start to feel the vibe better. Because by the time you get to this part of the video, you see what it's all about. These two minutes of just cuts of them setting up at five in the morning — it's perfect. And yeah, I'm so happy that I went back just to get this shot of the lady jumping to put the COVID — the tarp onto the — onto the truck. Little things like this — like right there. I love these little teeny things that people would do when they're putting the covers on the — on the stands like this, because it's quite sunny on this day, so either that or it rains and the covers — but to see the people working hard, doesn't matter how old you are. You just get up and you do what you got to do. And that's the spirit of Kochi. They're very, very tough there. Actually, the old ladies are tough everywhere. I gotta be honest with you. The — the generation that grew up after World War II or during World War II are pretty tough here in Japan. A lot tougher than the young people here that I was — I was gonna say pluck their eyebrows and dress a little bit — don't — don't want to — you know — you know what I mean? They're tough. The older generation, ton of respect for them. They wake up early, they stay, work late. They work their bodies and they're built like — like pieces of metal, like this lady's — and — like, tough. You know, she just works. And she's still got a sense of humor. Sellers bring goods that they grow or make themselves. They love. He's a little bit younger. Customers come back for that good feeling. She's a little bit younger. And this made me feel really good because not everybody — not everybody is a senior citizen here. What I — I also saw was that there were people who were very, very old, and then there were people that were young. And you can see that the next generation is starting to either come back to Kochi from living in Osaka or Tokyo, but they're starting to go back home because they don't like the lives in the cities and start the way that their grandparents did, open up shops. But they do it differently. They do it with style. They do it in a way that the younger people are attracted to. So I have a feeling that this market — not this bunton fruit, but this market is going to become really popular in Japan once again, especially in the city of Kochi. Young people are going to want to wake up and go to this market because it's just going to become cooler, all right? It's just going to become — it's going to have the same stuff that everybody needs, but it's going to be cooler. And I — I think it's already cool. But I can see this market with the younger people coming in. They're going to innovate and make it better and better and better. And it'll never go away, that's for sure. The market's 390 years old. It's never going away.

00:45:24 Kiara: And this here is a yuzu drink. It's just fresh water, yuzu, and a little bit of sugar. So if you come to Kochi, you absolutely have to try these. They're one of the local specialties.

00:45:35 John Daub: Yeah, this is really good. All of the juices and the foods and the snacks. We found a lot of farmers would — and this was a yuzuan. I didn't show eat this because I was already at like 16 minutes. But I bought — she's here every week, this lady. So I bought a yuzu on. I think that's her grandson — her son, I talked to, talked to him for a little bit too. But she makes these things like pancakes and inside of them is some jam. So good. So I got this one made of citrus fruit jam instead of like a marmalade. And I — I didn't show it on there, but it was really good. I think it was like — I think it was like a dollar. It's — it's just so cheap. They also have all sorts of vegetables and the farmers will take their own vegetables and then make chips out of them and then they'll package it up. These are all locally made stuff on their farm and they do a good job packaging it. But it's just so good. Little chips. Yep. They're vegan friendly too. It's been a long day. Before going, you have to walk up to Kochi Castle. A lot of people who — who I did do a live stream when I was there filming, walking inside of the castle. The signal was not so great, but I did. If you do want to see that, there's a — another live stream about a month and a half ago that you can go and see there.

00:47:10 Kiara: I think the email —

00:47:11 John Daub: Yeah. The music is a little bit upbeat. Usually I use Japanese music from a company I buy it from. They produce very good music. And I don't know — I — I like jazz a lot, but I — I kind of want to do it differently than the way other YouTubers do it. I want to make it fun, upbeat if I can. But I think when it came to the end, that music just seemed to fit because it's the end and I want to give it a positive vibe. And I think after you've been watching the story evolve and you see the fun faces and you can see that at this farmer's market — this market — historical market, you can have fun. It should be upbeat.

00:47:52 Kiara: Mochi. That was really something special.

00:47:54 John Daub: It did look good. I like that. Inaka sushi. I did like this. Actually — this is kind of a lie. I really — I mean it's not a lie — I did like this. But if — if my brain was working better, I would have said the — the tempura potato because they were just too good. I said this because I wanted to just upset her because she couldn't eat it because the dashi. That's me trying to get under her skin. It didn't work. It backfired. Because I would have totally rather have introduced that mochi potato again. That's the most popular item in that market. I think it's pretty cool that the bamboo looked like — and the hat bread. How could I choose? I lost from the beginning. There's no way I could — there's — it's a losing situation. All of it was good — egg, but I also liked it because you couldn't eat it. I just want to get on her skin.

00:48:49 Kiara: So you get to eat all the food.

00:48:50 John Daub: I can — I got to eat a little bit more than you. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't things for people that have vegan diets. Of course.

00:48:57 Kiara: Yeah. And we showed a bunch of them today. But there's also a lot more.

00:49:01 John Daub: So she introduced — so every Sunday they have different things. So Kiara introduced a little bit about the vegan choices, but I thought it took the episode too far into the vegan world. And knowing my audience, I didn't think that you wanted to go there. I thought that this is a perfect amount of vegan for all of us. So I kind of cut that out a little bit. I think it was about 45 seconds where she gave some other options, but I don't think that they were — they could be applied to this market. I think they were more applicable to Tokyo. So it didn't quite match — it wasn't just because there was — I didn't want to get too much into the vegan side of it because I didn't get too much into the carnivore side of it. You know, I didn't want to go from one or the other. I wanted to keep it down the middle like I do with all the episodes. And I did cut that. And I don't know — I was thinking, well, maybe I could use this. Youtubers always want the episodes to be longer, but if the information is not really relevant, then you don't really need to do it. And this is the challenge that all editors have. What do you cut? And I had to cut that because it just wasn't — was not there for me. Maybe it was for you. If you're vegan, you probably wanted to see that. I can tell you what she said: "Always check, go online, check the reviews on Google Reviews to make sure that they're doing it vegan," things like this, etc., etc., etc. Now for about five minutes, I'm going to go into our Samurai voice chat and say hello to our people here. What is the — is it the what button? Is it for talking? Can you hear me? Hello? That was the tilde. Huh? I tricked myself. Hello? It's not even easy to do this. So we're gonna — if you're in a — if you are a Patreon backer, go into the — the Samurai chat and we're going to talk about — you talk about this thing. I'm trying to find a way to get to the voice and video. Push to talk. Oh, it's a cap lock. Okay. Cap lock. All right. And then escape. Can you hear me now?

00:51:36 Discord Member: Good morning, John.

00:51:38 John Daub: Oh, hey, there you are. Okay. There's UFO Bob. Oh, there you are. Okay. I — I have the push to talk. My hand-eye coordination just not working at midnight. How you all doing? Silence of the Lambs. Some lambs in here. Very quiet people.

00:52:02 Discord Member: Pretty good. But I got in late. I overslept.

00:52:06 John Daub: What time is it right now?

00:52:11 Discord Member: It's 8:30 in the morning here in California.

00:52:14 John Daub: Oh, wow. Oh, okay, that's not too bad. And I think it's 11:30 in our — in the east coast, in New York. Yeah. Our friends in Hawaii were probably still in bed. Aloha. Good morning from California. Hey, Megan, any questions on the video? What you just saw — concerns little things that you found that were very annoying, cringeworthy, or something that made you feel really happy. I loved it all.

00:52:55 Discord Member: Yeah, that's how I felt. It was one of my favorite episodes. But you know, I love the countryside and I love Kochi.

00:53:04 John Daub: Yeah, it's hard not to fall in love with Kochi. It's just such a nice contrast to Tokyo and — and the entire circuit that a lot of tourists will — will go between Tokyo and Osaka and Kyoto and Hiroshima. There's some countryside in between there. But usually if you're going to make a week or 10-day trip, I would say two days of it should be spent somewhere that's not on that circuit, just away from people. I know you might want to see the temples and the shrines. You might want to see the city, the subcultures. You might want to go to the Peace Museum in Miyajima. I get that. But you should go like to Takayama and Gifu, or you should go to Kochi, or someplace else just for a couple of days or maybe three days, two nights at a Yokon and experience the countryside. Right. I don't know.

00:53:47 Discord Member: I couldn't agree more. And I also get the feeling that people in the countryside are a lot more open and receptive to being friendly to foreigners only because it's unusual for them to see foreigners. So they're less surprised or — I don't know — not surprised. But it's something they're going to be interested to know about too.

00:54:11 John Daub: Right. Yeah. Out in the countryside, especially places that don't see a lot of tourists, they're very curious about you. Maybe they feel shy because they can't communicate, but people will try. I think there's something with that omotenashi feeling. A lot of people will try to be good hosts as you as a traveling — as a guest. So they do try. But I know communication is one problem out in the countryside. But I think if you like — you shouldn't be afraid of that. You shouldn't be afraid that I might not be able to communicate. You get by. People have been traveling the world for centuries and they have amazing adventures. And if you're afraid of the communication problems, then you're gonna miss an amazing adventure, I think. Right, Jim? That's right. I knew he was listening.

00:55:03 Discord Member: Kochi is on my list of places to go to. That Miyazaki.

00:55:07 John Daub: Ah, yeah. I love that Kobayashi. That city up in the mountains in Miyazaki. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's a great place. Any — any questions? It's a pretty quiet group. Would you eat? What?

00:55:33 Discord Member: Well, I want to know about driving in the countryside now. Now when you were in Kochi, you rented a car, correct?

00:55:41 John Daub: Yeah, yeah. I actually was — sort of — I — I got a really good deal from Toyota Rent a Car. And they said if you show the logo in the video, just drive by it. I mean, I don't know — it's — of course you're gonna do that, right? So they gave me a massive discount on the car. So I rented from Toyota Rent a Car — an automatic car, a little bit of power. And that was so worth it. Because Kochi and the countryside in Japan — you can take trains. And unless you're going to be staying at a ryokan in one place, it just pays to have the car and to have the freedom. I was surprised I didn't spend that much in gas because most of the cars are so fuel efficient. So I never refilled the tank during four days of driving around Kochi, which is pretty amazing. I didn't refill the tank and I wanted around the entire prefecture.

00:56:32 Discord Member: And for somebody like myself, who would be using an international driver's license, do you think it would be that difficult to be able to drive in Kochi and the surrounding area?

00:56:43 John Daub: That's a great question. You know, if — if you're coming from the US, they drive here — we drive here in Japan on the other side of the road. That was my biggest challenge. But I've been in Japan so long that people walk on the same side of the road that they drive — okay. Just like the flow of human traffic is on the left side and then people will walk on the — on the right side. So mentally, I was sort of already there. Just when you drive, I think that the laws are a little bit different. It does — it is good to go online and just study some of the laws and kind of mentally — this is what I did before the driving test. I would close my eyes and mentally imagine driving on the left side of the road and how I would turn left into the left lane and how I would turn right and how — how it would be different and possible problems. And I think you should do that before you rent a car. Just kind of see if you're mentally prepared to do it. Because it isn't easy to drive on the other side of the road. It feels wrong. It does — yeah.

00:57:46 Discord Member: That was my fear of driving was because I remember when I rode with a friend in Japan and it freaked me out for a while — to be in my mind was the wrong side of the road.

00:57:58 John Daub: The great thing about Kochi is that there's places out in the countryside and a lot of countryside places where the — where the roads are just one lane. And when another car comes, you either have to back up into a special side of the road where the car could pass, or — you know — or the other car will go backwards and then you'll pass at the pass. So sometimes it doesn't matter if you're on the left or the right side of the road. There's only one. One side. That made it easier. But yeah, you know, I think it's something you do have to get used to. You can — the best way to get used to it is just to rent a bicycle for the first day or two and just ride the bicycle with the flow of traffic and you can get kind of a feel of how people drive in Japan. And if you can kind of do that, it makes it easier for you to imagine when you are behind the wheel, the steering wheel on the other side — or right along with the taxi. You know, take a taxi a couple of times and you can kind of get a feel of what it's like. The best way to experience it is to just do it. You can't really simulate it. All you can do is just do it and you get — it's like riding a bicycle, but you start using a different side of your brain with — when you drive on the other side, it can be dangerous. There are actually — because there are more accidents, I think, because of foreign tourists driving on international driver's license in Japan than ever before, the data showed. But you know, they're not like — they're just little teeny accidents. I don't — none of them are like casualty type of stuff — like bumps and things like this. Just — it uses a different side of your brain. Definitely. Yeah.

00:59:38 Discord Member: So when you rent a car in Japan — for a foreigner who speaks English, do they have people who assist you or do you have to work through it in Japanese?

00:59:50 John Daub: Most of the rental car companies at tourist points will — will have an English speaker there. And in the one in Kochi, there was one lady who could speak English. So if — if need be, she could communicate with me. They also have devices to make sure that you can understand if you have questions. But more than that, all of the forms when you do rent a car are also in English. So you never really have a problem filling in the forms. I think it's pretty standard. Toyota Rent a Car is connected with Hertz Rent a Car, which is a very well-known chain in United States and other places around the world. Hertz is pretty big. I think the other car agencies — it's one that's connected with Budget, so they have partners and because of that they also have very similar forms. But once you get in the car, you can change the navigation system to English and you don't have to worry about talking to anybody until you return it. Once you're in the car, you're in the car. All you got to do is drive. The gas stations are a little bit of a challenge because the system is not that hard, but it's different a little bit. I don't know because it's in Japanese, you have to put the credit card and it's a gas pump. I think for 90% of the people who drive, you'll be able to do it. But if you live in New Jersey or some of the states in the United States where everything is full serve, you have to get out of the car and pump your own gas. And in Japan in many places — and that could be a challenge for some people, not everybody. Yeah.

01:01:23 Discord Member: John, that really gives me more confidence to give it a go.

01:01:28 John Daub: Don't be afraid to go on an adventure. Just — just do — just make sure that you feel prepared and you feel up for it. Don't ever put yourself in a situation if you don't — if you don't see yourself up for it. But definitely driving is — it is — I'm excited about it now, which I wasn't even after I got the license, but after I did it a couple of times. UFO Bob — it's fun. It's a lot of fun. David Kimono, thank you very much to help with the live streams. Very much appreciated. Right now I'm on WiFi, so — but the 4G is paid. Thank you. Any other last questions? We have Zarlo, Nosh, Megan, Jim, Goku 95, and I'll Beach. I know that's not Albig — that's Joanne. But any last questions? Jim? Nothing, nothing deep. Probably not today. No. I think I'll let you off the hook this one time, John. It is after midnight. I could be — I could say anything. So thank you, Jim. We'll do it — we'll do it at the end of the month. Patreon live stream or something. But it's nice to see all of you here. Thanks for joining us for the Discord chat and we'll do — we'll do this again soon in the next director's cut because another episode is going to be released very soon. Very, very soon. Any hints? Ogasawara scuba diving. That's not a hint. That's basically everything. That's not much of a hint. The Ogasawara scuba diving — that's sort of everything, right? It's been — it's been fermenting there for a while, but I actually was — the video was ready to release back in March, but there was a section of it where I — I guess I can tell you — there's nobody watching, just 300 of you. But there's a section where I was holding a penguin — a turtle. It was — it was gonna die. It was sitting in the sand and then it was gonna die. So I — I picked it up and I put it in the sea because I wanted to give it life. I didn't want to see it die. But that's — that's wrong. And I'm not allowed to touch anything of the marine life in that area. It's protected. So when I showed it to the Ogasawara Prefecture, because I got in trouble with the last video I did in Ogasawara — I went inside a place, a World War II place, that I shouldn't have gone into. They said, "You know, just — just show it to us and we'll see — to make sure the video was not going to have any major problems where you get in trouble." Okay. But I got in trouble for that scene, so I had to cut it. And now it's okay. So it's — it's ready for release. It's just — I think it was better to release it in the summer anyways than to release it in the fall. I think more people are thinking about the beach and swimming than then in the winter. So it's — this is a really good one too. I kind of like it because it's different. There's sharks, there's shipwrecks. There's World War II history. There's the great depths up to 40 meters. There's amazing marine life — turtles, manta rays, dolphins. I've never done an episode like this before, so I'm really excited to release this one. It's taken a lot of time to edit it because I've never done anything like it — add the music, add drama. It's not just scuba dive videos. I put — you know — music and a story together with it. So hopefully you like it. I don't think there's anything — there's ever — I don't think there's ever been anything like it before made because no one has taken the time to put — there probably has. Everything's been done before, but I took the time to put it together to make a story narrated. And that's sort of — it's unique. I think you're gonna like it. So there's your hint. Good night. Good night, John. Good night, John. All right, I signed off. So that's our Discord server. Very quiet today. I didn't — I don't think I gave much warning or heads up, but we do have the Ogasawara video. I'll run down some of the ones that we have. Oh, God. A video — I went to the Sanrio Puroland with Jennifer last year and I've been sitting on this episode for a while as well. I also — I take this — the Hello Kitty Shinkansen. Other YouTubers have already done this, so I don't — I did this because a lot of people were asking me to go to the Sanrio Puroland and I never went there. So I thought this would be pretty unique experience. It was, but it's — I'm — I'm — this isn't going to be one of the better episodes. It's just something that's — that's nice to have, I think, in the Only Japan series on the whole. So there's that and then there's the Aoshima episode that I've been making. I think you all know that that should be released on August 1st, and I want it to be kind of special. And then there's going to be some Olympic episodes, I think, because we're at the One Year to Go. Speaking of which — speaking of which, I have about — about 15 postcards left out of 200. So if you're interested in the One Year to Go Olympic postcard with the stadium — that — this was taken last about two weeks ago — I can send that to you. You have to be on the Patreon supporters and you get a Tokyo stamp, which they don't sell anymore because I got — I got 200 of them with the logo and the mascots and that's coming to — I sent them today. But if you order it, I will put it in the mail for you. So just so you know, because when I promoted — because when I promoted this last time, we had about 15 people sign up, so we're at the end of the line. I might end up selling all of them. I've never sold out of a postcard before. So if you're interested, you can sign up for it. You're automatically charged, I think. And then you can just — if you don't want any more postcards, you can stop or just change your pledge if you want. Why am I even saying that? It's awful business. But I — you know — I make all sorts of postcards. Some of them are artistic, like the capsule hotel or the castle during the cherry blossoms. So they're all original designs. I've been doing this now for almost two years on Patreon, so I do appreciate the support. Other than that, I — I don't really have too much more to share with you. I'm — I really want to make a trip up to Hokkaido in the next week, but Kanae and I are going back to the United States to visit family on at the end of July and we'll be back here on August, in the beginning of August. So we'll have a week off. But — but I — I'm — I've got an idea that we can do with Kanae to make live streams in the United States and make it Japan based. So it's not off the Target. So I want to keep the live streams going even though we're not there. I think we're going to do some survival Japanese to try to give maybe once a day — maybe make up a lesson that Kanae and I can do together to give you some ideas if you do come to Japan, some survival Japanese. And if this goes well, this might end up turning into another series where Kanae will be your teacher, maybe. Because I think that has a lot of promise and she has got a lot of ideas that'd be pretty cool. So even though we're going to be in the United States, I'll find a way to incorporate something with Japan. There's also a supermarket that has Japanese goods where my family lives. So I might go and do a tour there and just show you a supermarket in the United States that has — and what kind of stuff they have that might be interesting. And maybe we'll get sushi from an American supermarket in the countryside. I don't know. But there's lots of things that we can do to kind of give you another idea of it. But keep the streams going because — you know — YouTube is a thing where if you stop doing YouTube for a while, the algorithm just kills you. And I'm doing this now full time, so I got — whatever I do, I have to keep it up and it's not always easy. But I have unlimited ideas. So it's not that hard either. It's just — they have to be relevant. Nosh writes in here: "It might be interesting to see how many made for export — yeah. How many made are exported to the market." I think that'd be really interesting as well to see what gets sent to New York. Not everything gets there, just certain products and they're different. Sometimes they're changed a little bit. So I think that might be a good main channel episode. So we will see. I — I think, I think there's a lot of possibility with that. I actually wanted to film Yoshinoya in the United States but Yoshinoya went out of business a couple of years ago in New York. So they don't exist. So that ruined my plans. But anyways. Okay, cool. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. This — these types of director's cuts are free format. They're mostly for you. So that you have some idea about Kochi Prefecture — Kochi. Just to put a ribbon on this and end it. Kochi is best visited by low-cost carrier. From Tokyo, you can get very cheap flights on Jetstar, which is safe. Don't worry. Jetstar is an Australian-Japanese airline. Jetstar Japan is Japanese run and they do a really good job. I think Qantas has like a stake in it. But Qantas is one of the safest airlines in the world. So I mean — it's like JAL is good. So you can fly from Narita to Kochi sometimes for as low as $40. Okay. And if you want to check in a bag, you got to pay another $15. And you know there's upsells, so maybe it ends up being about $60, $70. But that's so cheap. It's cheaper than getting a rail pass. So you can fly from Narita to Kochi and then rent a car. And it comes up being maybe a little bit cheaper than the rail passes. But you have the freedom to go and do it if you've already done the rail pass — like, like our friend Renz from — you know who I'm — he knows who I'm talking about. He has like 50, 50 rail passes because he's been doing this every time he comes to Japan. Maybe you want to try something different because a car is a different way to see the country. And there's so much more out there that you can't get to by train. And definitely if you drive a car, you are off the tourist track because 99% of tourists do not rent a car because they're scared to death. I know that you aren't because you watch this series. If you were scared to death, you wouldn't be watching this series at all because I'm a scary person — scary good. So questions — leave them in the comments below. I really appreciate all the support. It's great to see so many people every week. We've got new people joining the channel all the time. We're getting close to 150,000 subscribers which is just insane for a live streaming channel. So I appreciate the support and see you maybe tomorrow because I got a couple of ideas. We have a — a midnight food snack run coming up as well. So don't worry, those who've been missing that — we will, we will take care of you. Thanks everybody. Have a good night. Good day in the United States and catch you next time. Maybe tomorrow. Good night. Good night. Sleep.