00:00:03 John Daub: Welcome to Tokyo Station. That's the Japanese flag. And we're in front of the Marunouchi (丸の内) entrance, which you can sneak in right there. That's the center of the Marunouchi exit. I prefer over here, which is the south exit. And in there is where you can validate your Japan Rail Passes as well. And there's a Rugby World Cup clock. Hi everybody, John here. We're live at Tokyo Station and we're gonna be riding the Shinkansen, the Joetsu Shinkansen to Niigata today.

00:00:37 John Daub: I have my ticket right here. Check this out. Usually I'm rushing to the Shinkansen, but it says here on the left side on the top, Tokyo to Niigata. That's what the arrow is pointing to. August 15th. The ticket price is 10,778 yen, which is about $95 with the exchange rate. The seat number is row 4, seat 17. Sorry, car number 4, row number 17, seat D. And the bottom is magnetic, so you put it through the turnstiles.

00:01:12 John Daub: And joining me on this episode is Hana. Hana, great job. Hana helped me with the Tokyo Blue Ramen episode, eating Tokyo Blue Ramen, which just went up on the main channel this morning, about an hour ago.

00:01:39 Hana: Unfortunately not, because I'm vegetarian at the moment.

00:01:43 John Daub: At the moment? Wait a second. You ate meat last year, right?

00:01:48 Hana: I did. I was pescatarian for like a year.

00:01:51 John Daub: Pescatarian.

00:01:51 Hana: Yes, which is fish, but no meat. And then this, I think November, I became vegetarian. So I could not eat the Blue Ramen, unfortunately. But through you, I tasted it and it was yummy.

00:02:07 John Daub: All right. When you change back to a chicken vegan, you're going to have it. Anyways, let me give you just a quick tour around the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. Usually we will start off at the Yaesu side. And this time we're on Marunouchi, which is different. This is the old original front built in, I believe, 1914 or 1912, somewhere around that time period. They have a clock. And this is the countdown to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. How cool is this? Three hundred and forty four days, eight hours, forty eight minutes and thirty seven seconds. So there's already a countdown in front of the station. So that's kind of cool.

00:02:55 John Daub: Hello. Where are you guys headed?

00:03:00 Cleave: Oh, really? There is a typhoon coming. I'm actually doing this live.

00:03:06 Melissa: Yeah, we were just.

00:03:07 Cleave: Oh, I just saw it.

00:03:09 Melissa: Oh, wow.

00:03:12 Cleave: We watched lots of your videos and planned a lot of our trips around your videos.

00:03:15 John Daub: Oh, thank you. What's your name?

00:03:16 Cleave: My name's Cleave.

00:03:17 John Daub: Cleave? Melissa?

00:03:18 Melissa: Nice to meet you. Where are you from?

00:03:20 Cleave: Canada, British Columbia. Just up north. We're like 12 hours north of Vancouver. By Alaska.

00:03:26 John Daub: I apologize for the typhoon. I think it should go by pretty quickly. So you're stranded, sort of.

00:03:34 Melissa: Just for a day.

00:03:37 Cleave: Stranded in paradise. Yeah, as long as the weather held out.

00:03:40 John Daub: We had a downpour when I came on the taxi to get here about 15 minutes ago, so the weather's pretty weird right now. What do you think of the Japan summer?

00:03:46 Cleave: Very hot. Very, very hot. We're not used to this. Yeah, it's usually around 20 degrees where we're from. In the summer.

00:03:55 John Daub: Oh, I would die for that. Bring me 20.

00:04:00 Cleave: Usually about three feet of snow in the wintertime, and minus 40.

00:04:06 John Daub: What have you seen so far in Japan?

00:04:08 Cleave: We went and tried some wagyu last night.

00:04:11 John Daub: Oh, wagyu, yeah.

00:04:12 Melissa: We tried to go to the one place that you posted, but it was all full, so we went just down the street to, what was it called again?

00:04:20 Cleave: I have no idea, but it was delicious. It was amazing.

00:04:22 John Daub: You barbecued it yourself?

00:04:24 Melissa: Oh, yeah, yeah. Yakiniku. I think that's actually what it was called.

00:04:29 John Daub: Very good. Very, very good. So now we're just making up plans. It's like, what to do today? There's so many options. What to do today?

00:04:36 Cleave: Well, actually, I've watched a lot of Japanese TV shows.

00:04:38 John Daub: I've walked all over this area in the live stream. You get a nice view from up there on the fifth floor. You see that opening there, looking back at the station? The Imperial Palace is right there. There's a nice burger place there, the Kua'aina Hawaiian Burger. What else is there? Everything's running through my mind. You could visit Taira no Masakado's grave. He was beheaded in Kyoto, and his head flew to Tokyo, and anybody who disturbs his grave is cursed. That's over there, about 500 meters. I think you did a video on that.

00:05:10 Cleave: I did do a video on that. Yeah, so I'm like, oh, I recognize that. That's not too far away, and Yurakucho is just over there. That's maybe a little bit more fun.

00:05:18 John Daub: Okay, cool. But that's what I always do. I messaged you on Facebook before we left. If you look through your messages, if you want to go for dinner, I'll buy you dinner one of these nights.

00:05:27 Cleave: Oh, cool.

00:05:28 John Daub: Well, we're headed to Sado.

00:05:30 Cleave: You're not going to Sado, are you? No. I don't think so. You're not taking the Joetsu Shinkansen, are you? No. No. No.

00:05:37 John Daub: Oh, well. Well, it was a pleasure to meet you.

00:05:38 Cleave: My pleasure.

00:05:39 Melissa: Nice meeting you, too.

00:05:40 John Daub: Nice to meet you. Hope you get to Hiroshima. Take care.

00:05:42 Cleave: Take care. Bye.

00:05:44 John Daub: It's always nice to meet people who are watching the show. Right, Hana? Where are you back there? Hana, where'd you go? Oh, there you are. I'm here. There she is. That was awesome. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I don't respond well on Facebook, actually, if you're watching and you're trying to contact me. Probably Instagram is the best, or Patreon, but there's just too many messages coming in. So I do my best.

00:06:09 John Daub: Do you want to get a bento? Ekiben?

00:06:12 Hana: Yes.

00:06:13 John Daub: Boy, I think they have vegetarian options. Well, we're going to figure this out. All right. So we're going to Sado right now, which is in Niigata. It's an island that has so much natural beauty, and it's separated from the mainland, because you got to get there by ferry. Of course it is. But I'm just so excited to explore that area. And we're just a two-hour Shinkansen ride away on a ferry ride.

00:06:51 John Daub: In we go. All right. The signal might not be so good in here because there's a lot of people, as you can see, welcome to Tokyo Station's inside. We're going to go to the Shinkansen platform, but first try to get an ekiben. I apologize if the signal gets a little weak inside here.

00:07:12 John Daub: Hey, Cheryl Phillips. You need a beer to stream smoothly. To stream smoothly. Thank you. I think I might grab one, actually. I was up till about 4 a.m. editing the Blue Ramen video just to make sure it was perfect, and I released it at 8 a.m., so I had about three hours of sleep in between there. Oh, did you see that? The Tokyo Banana is sponsored by the Tokyo Olympics. That's crazy. Tokyo Banana is a banana custard cake sponsored by the Tokyo Olympics. I think if you pay them, Tokyo Olympics will sponsor anybody.

00:07:56 John Daub: This shop right here is a famous ekiben place. It's not so far into the station. We're going to go take a look in here. It's going to be extremely crowded. Probably the signal's going to die, but let's just do our best.

00:08:11 John Daub: So, Hana, we're going to grab. Oh, look at the choices of ekiben. It's on the wall. You can see some of the amazing things, just like a museum, but you can eat this museum. That makes it even better. Look at that. Oh, look at the ikura bento. I so want this one. Ikura and salmon bento. Oh, Jim. Yeah, I'm going to get some sake for sure. We'll do a live stream on Japanese sake. How's that? All right. Let's get in here. We got to try to get an ekiben. Hana, my bag's so big. I'm getting body checked. Where'd Hana go? Oh, that's a self-heating bag. It's a self-heating bento. Do you see this one? This one is a Kobe steak. It's probably not A5 quality, but you can pull that string and it self-heats. That's awesome, but that's not what I want. I'm trying to eat healthy.

00:09:08 John Daub: The best bento, though, is the Tokyo Station bento. That's the Shinjuku bento right there. Oh, man. It's like there's too many choices. Hana, there's too many choices. I don't know. I'm panicking. I don't know. That's what you need a ranking to tell you what to buy. I need to be told what to buy. Somebody tell me. That girl's got a Shinkansen bento. It's shaped like the Shinkansen. Wow. This is crazy. Hana, do you see a vegetarian one?

00:09:49 John Daub: All right. Why don't you go and try to find that? I'm taking my stuff and I'm going to try to find something here. I like the artwork on this. This is high quality kalbi, which is grilled beef. Look at that. All right. We're going to have to get out of here.

00:10:08 John Daub: Hey, everybody. This Shinkansen box is just something I want to show you really quickly. Check that out. That's pretty funny. And there's the Hello Kitty Shinkansen bento. Look at that. You can see what's inside. I kind of want to get that, but I have nothing. I don't know where to put the. Oh, there's the 500. That's the E7 series bento. All right. Hana? Hana's asking for a vegetarian bento right now. All right. He's saying maybe he's apologizing for not having it. Hana, no. Nakata? Oh. Let's go to the other bento place. This is driving me crazy. Okay. Yeah. This is. Bail. Bail. Let's get out of here. Somebody body checked me. Everyone's got luggage. You're supposed to leave your bag with your wife. Hana, where are you, baby? You're supposed to leave your bag out here.

00:11:27 John Daub: Luckily for us, Hana, they have bento inside of the Shinkansen platform. That means we're going to get taken care of the old-fashioned way before this store existed. All right. The Joetsu Shinkansen, everybody, is. I believe the Tohoku one is the green one, and they might be connected. Yes. This is the Yamagata Tohoku Akita Hokkaido Joetsu. Boom. I found it. That's the one we're taking. And our ticket leaves at 11:44, which is in 20 minutes from now. Oh, I see it right there. It's a Toki. Toki to Niigata 11:44 platform 23. 10 car, baby. That's the way we roll. 10 cars. Although, there's one with 17. That'd be rolling better. But 10 means it's faster. Hey, David, thank you. And Zato 17, I believe. Yeah, Zato 71. Thank you very much. And David Liu. Much appreciated. We're going to go get a bento right now, David. Let's get out there. All right, Hana. There she is. Shin Kansen. Looks like a duck, like a masked duck. I'm getting hungry. Stop it. Everywhere I turn, there's food on the plate. This is the sweet penguin eating curry rice. What? This is insane.

00:13:03 John Daub: This way? The blue one is the Tokaido Shinkansen. And that is so much more highly trafficked that they put all the rest of the Shinkansen together with the green one. So if you're not riding the Tokaido Shinkansen, Tokaido goes to Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima. Everything else is green. So that might help you find it. So let's put this ticket in. There's always a staff member to help if you get into trouble. Shinkansen time. So it's been validated. Platform 23. Let's do this. Jim, we're going to get that sake in Niigata, but I've got to find that bento right now. Vending machine. Swing. Okay. Platform 23, this way. That lady's carrying a baby baggage. This way. Hey, we got an escalator. But we're in car four, and this has cars 10 to 1. So it starts at 10 and goes backwards to 1, so 4 is going to be towards the front.

00:14:28 John Daub: Shinkansen! When was the last time you rode the Shinkansen?

00:14:32 Hana: Be honest. Two weeks ago.

00:14:35 John Daub: That's pretty honest. All right, lie. Say it was last year, and you haven't ridden it forever. No, you don't have to do that. That's funny. All right. On the platform, you're going to be able to find some delicious bentos. Don't worry if you do not get one. Oh, Shinkansen! Shinkansen, do you see it? I see it on my shoulder. There's one on the left and one on the right. Ours is on the left. Awesome. It's got a pink and blue streak on it. Joetsu rocks. See what I mean? Do you see that white sign straight ahead? That's a chain of the same shop that everyone was waiting in line for, and they did not know that one exists right here on the platform. Ha ha, but I did. Yeah. If you want to, let's plug Hana's channel right now, Jim, while we're going there.

00:15:27 John Daub: Hana has a YouTube channel, Hana Victoria. And you are a guitarist and musician and songwriter.

00:15:38 Hana: Oh, yes. Yes, I am. I call myself to be. Humble YouTube channel.

00:15:44 John Daub: When was the last time you uploaded a video?

00:15:47 Hana: Um, Don't Get Mad at Me, a couple months ago.

00:15:50 John Daub: All right, so on this trip, you're going to have to write a song. Because we want to see more from the Hana Victoria channel. Actually, if you want to sing a song about Sado, that'd be pretty cool. All right. Let's do this. This bento part has been brought to you by you for your beautiful super chats. Thank you, everybody. Woo! Ah! Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I lost my hat. I'm putting my bag down here. Do you think it'll be okay?

00:16:25 Hana: I'm sure it'll be okay.

00:16:26 John Daub: I can be out here. Oh, no. We want you inside to pick a bento. Ah, it's nice and cool in here. The temperatures just went from 35 degrees Celsius to like 15.

00:16:38 Hana: What? That's vegetarian.

00:16:40 John Daub: Yeah, that's it. No, no. There's dashi in it.

00:16:41 Hana: No way. No, that's only if you're vegan, I guess.

00:16:46 John Daub: I don't know. So, there's no meat in it. But, Stephen Tice, thank you very much.

00:16:50 Hana: You're welcome.

00:16:55 John Daub: And Tokyo Station, by the way, is very accessible to everybody. Isn't it?

00:17:00 Hana: Yes.

00:17:02 John Daub: What do you. Anything? If you close your eyes and think it's vegetables, does that work? Oh, they even have one of these Shinkansen boxes here. Oh, that's a Nagoya castle. Right? That's a Nagoya bento. Miso katsu. Oh, miso katsu! Oh my gosh. Look at that. Oh, what? This is the ikura bento with wasabi. Oh, that looks good too. I don't care what it is. Just give me a bento. I can't decide. Hana, you pick for me. If you could eat a bento, what would you eat?

00:17:32 Hana: I would get this one because this one has many, many different types of things that you can try out. Oh yeah, it does. It has 30 different little foods that you can try. So I would probably want to explore all different, you know, tastes.

00:17:52 John Daub: 30 things. Balanced bento. Yeah, so it's healthy too. It's healthy. But it's not healthy enough for you to eat because you're a vegetarian. What else can you eat?

00:18:06 Hana: Cookies. Onigiri.

00:18:11 John Daub: Oh, let's get some water. Looks good too. Peter. Should I get a beer? Oh my gosh. We're starting to trip off with the beer. Okay. I should. I gotta do it. All right, let's just do one, okay? We're gonna do one. One. One. One. One. One. One. One. Three. But how many cups are you getting from there?

00:18:46 Hana: Three cups.

00:18:48 John Daub: Spread. I'll give you the change tomorrow. Tomorrow? Okay. It's 520 yen. Can I have 1 yen? It's okay. 20 yen? Yes, 20 yen. Here's your change. Here's your receipt. Official receipt. Here's your change. You can have the business card. It's okay. If you give the 20 yen, you get 500 yen back, which limits your change. It's an old lady trick I learned from the old ladies. Hana, is that our train leaving?

00:19:29 Hana: No, it's the next one.

00:19:30 John Daub: I've had so many close calls before. You don't want to know. You know what? If you watch this, you probably do know. It's not a beautiful sight to see John running for a train. Is it a train? Is there something that we can get you? Oh! We have 15 minutes. Can you go get coffee and I'll watch the bags?

00:19:57 Hana: Sure, yeah.

00:19:58 John Daub: Hana is also my assistant, right? So, assistant, go and get two coffees.

00:20:05 Hana: Yes, sir.

00:20:06 John Daub: Here's 1,000 yen. What size do you want? If it's a grande, you'll need more. No, I'm a very generous boss. You can get an upgrade. Look at this. I will take the normal coffee, just black. Yeah. Whatever the middle size is. Yeah. Right. Alright. There she goes. Wonderful assistant. She saved my life many times this summer. I cannot thank her enough. Look at her. Very diligent, fast. Proud of her. She's done a lot of really good stuff. And actually, she did the first initial edit for the Blue Ramen video. Now, I polished it and made it my own. But she did a really good job, I thought, of doing that. Definitely check out the Blue Ramen video and you'll see some of the magic. That was a tougher one to edit than it looks.

00:21:12 John Daub: So, we're going to watch the train come in. I'm going to put the bag to the side here. There's our bag. I travel with this bag. It's filled with a drone, GH5, batteries, there's a tripod, stabilizer, light. Everything is in there. It's crazy. And I also have a backpack on there. But, that's the way I film. I don't film light. I film heavy. So, do you see this train on the left side? It's the Tokaido Shinkansen. The Tokaido Shinkansen goes to Hiroshima, goes to Osaka, Kyoto, and then the terminus is here in Tokyo. If you have a non-reserve ticket, you're always going to get a seat if you start in Tokyo because this is the origin. Which makes sense. Oh, I missed the train coming while I was explaining. It happens. This is our train. This is our ride. The Toki bound for Niigata.

00:22:12 John Daub: It's always so much fun to bring you live onto the platform and show you these trains because I, myself, I could ride this a hundred, a thousand times and I'm always going to be just in awe of the Shinkansen because you know, we don't have this where I'm from. Which is now here, which they do. It's just weird. Alright, now they're going to be cleaning the staff. Do you see this? This is JR East. Japan Rail. And they take, they're so fast at cleaning the trains. Maybe we'll get a chance to take a look at them. Flip the seats around and then clean, clean the cars out. Joe A. Pace. John, thanks for showing us so much of Japan. Thank you, Joe. I appreciate you joining us on this trip. It's a lot of fun to have 700 people join us live. So I got, this is my, my live streaming bag. Gonna have a backpack. I just bought it. And then I have this as my travel bag. That's Hana's suitcase. She travels like a typical traveler. I carry all my stuff. I probably should get something with wheels. Over there is the, I believe that's a, um, is it the Akita Shinkansen? I always get this one wrong. Yeah, this is the Tohoku Shinkansen. This one's going to Morioka. There it is, right there. I love the color of this one. So the color determines which.

00:23:51 Hana: Oh, did you get it? Oh, you were so fast!

00:23:54 John Daub: You knew exactly where to go, didn't you? Yeah. Because you were here two weeks ago. Ah, ha ha. I actually got Shin-Yokohama that time. Oh. Yeah. She got off at Shin-Yokohama, so you didn't get off here. No. Alright, that's just coincidence. Coincidence. This bento looks good. Is this what I got? No. That one looks good. I always get the Tokyo Station bento, which has ingredients from around the area, um, the traditional historical areas that made that certain food. It's a pretty good bento. It's usually on the platform here. Alright, let's do this Hana. Okay. You got the hot coffee?

00:24:35 Hana: Yeah. Any coffee? I'm not fussy. I'll take it. Hot, cold, ice, on the rocks, whatever, whatever you have.

00:24:54 John Daub: We're going to do this. Thank you to everybody for, uh, sponsoring this one. Do you have my ticket?

00:25:01 Hana: No. Oh.

00:25:04 John Daub: Can I just leave? Oh, hold on. I'm on car number four. Don't worry, we have time. I'm always, hey, John Rudge got a a, uh, animated emoji. Cool. Yeah, I'm on car number four, and we have five minutes, so if I did drop my ticket somewhere, I'll be able to go back and scour the, the floors. I didn't drop it. I gotta, I gotta put, oh, I probably put it in my wallet. Right now, my wife, Kanae, is just laughing. She's laughing hysterically at home, because I always do this. Like, lose my ticket. Do you ever lose your ticket?

00:25:41 Hana: Be honest. No comment.

00:25:48 John Daub: Hana's very responsible. She never loses anything. Um, that is not true. I am human.

00:25:52 Hana: You have lost your ticket before? My ticket? Yeah. No. Not my ticket. No? But, my phone, yes. My wallet, yes.

00:26:06 John Daub: So, pretty much as bad. There's a, Chiara the vegan. She ate vegan food in Kochi and loved it. And she ate better than me. How are you? Awesome. Yeah, we're ready to go. So, we got a good, good crowd of people here. Alright, there's, look at the staff. They're wearing hats. That's pretty cool. They're the ones who clean the train. Ah, I gotta put this bag down. So, what we're gonna do is, I'm gonna get onto the train, and I'm gonna do a bento unboxing. Because, because. Because. Uh, and then, uh, Yeah, I'm curious, and I'm sure you are too. We bought the bento. Thanks to your super chats, we're going to take that and I'll open it up inside the Shinkansen. Master Senpai, JJ, love watching you live. Can't wait to go to Japan in October. That's a really good time to visit Japan. When's the best time to visit Japan, Hana?

00:27:07 Hana: Oh, yeah. Fall.

00:27:09 John Daub: Fall. Because it gets cooler, and it's, but, October. See, I wear black shirts to hide the sweat stains. Uh, we got the camera this way. So that's, that's Dan from Drum Talk TV. And you're going there for the taiko drums, right?

00:27:29 Dan: Yeah.

00:27:32 John Daub: Right. We're gonna go be, we're gonna be seeing some amazing taiko drums. Um, but it's so hot right now. You can already see the sweat beating up. This is also a, a sweat hiding shirt. You did that on purpose, right?

00:27:44 Hana: Yeah. Yeah, that's. We all do that.

00:27:48 John Daub: We all do that. I'm ravenous. I'm hungry. Um, I woke up at, I had about three hours of sleep. So, I actually do have eye concealer on. You know, to be transparent. Why, why, I don't even have to, why do I admit that? I have eye concealer on. Because my eyes are so black from lack of sleep. But, the job is, we love the job. That there's Niigata. And the Niigata, the middle kanji in the middle of the screen, right on the right of the red box, um, that means new. But in, in the, in the front there, it also means ni, right? Shin, Shin Osaka, Shin Nagoya. But it also means like, ni, when you use it with this kanji. I don't know why. Kanji's really complicated. So, what, what does gata mean? Like bird? I don't, type? I'm not sure what that kanji means. But it means new something. New lands? Not sure. I'm sure somebody in the comments is gonna let us know. This will stop four times, I believe, till we get to Niigata. I know it goes through Nagaoka, and, um, uh, Echigo-Yuzawa, one of my favorite stations. There it is. Ueno, Omiya, Takasaki, uh, Echigo-Yuzawa, Nagaoka, uh, I missed that one in Niigata. I live here. I better know. I better know.

00:29:12 John Daub: What time is it, Hana?

00:29:17 Hana: 11:38? I wanna run into the front of the train. Um, oh, you got, you got something sweet! What is that? I didn't know it was gonna be that fancy. Can you switch with me?

00:29:31 John Daub: Um, sure, actually. No, no, no. I just, I just wanted to see what she would say. No, I'm not switching with you. That's too sweet for me. I'm just being, I'm just being a pain in the neck. Alright, I'm gonna go take everybody to the front of the train. Um, do you mind taking my bag?

00:29:48 Hana: Yeah. In, do you know what seat I'm in? I'm in row 17, seat D.

00:30:02 John Daub: Okay. Above and beyond the call of duty, Hana is always there. Alright, I'm taking you, I'm taking it to, oh, but I wanted you to take a picture with your camera for the thumbnail. We gotta do a thumbnail for this. Uh, they're gonna open up the train. I think we can just leave this stuff here. Come on. Let's just do it. Japan's safe. No one will ever take your stuff. If they do, what are they gonna do? Run away with my, my 20 kilogram bag? Impossible. This train doesn't look like it's full. Hey, there's Ruthie! You're live! We gotta bend down. Alright. That's my friend, Ruthie. She was in an Enoshima onsen livestream about last year. Which is an awesome stream. It's an onsen where you can overlook the sea to Mount Fuji. Highly recommend Enoshima Spa. Alright. Where's Hana? Let's run! Make it dramatic! This beer is gonna be so shaken. I love the front of the Shinkansen train. So you have the, you have your camera?

00:31:09 Hana: I do! Alright, let's get the screenshot. Okay. Let's do this. Ah! My hat! Oh wait, let me get my Shinkansen just came in. Look at dad is, dad is teaching his kid about trains. I love that. Alright, Hana, take the picture from here, the front of the train. Turn the other way, turn the other way! Alright, that's good. I think we're good. You guys, you guys see, get enough of the train? Here's the end, here's the nose of the beast. It's a beauty. It is a real beauty. Oh, they opened the train! Hurry, Hana! Our stuff's sitting in the middle of the train station! Run, Hana, run! We could miss the train! I've done, I've never missed a train! But I always have done it dramatically! They're waiting for us, those people! Oh my gosh. Oh man!

00:32:31 John Daub: Car four, seat seventeen D. Alright, let's do this, everybody. Follow Kiara. She's, she's author of the Tokyo Vegan Guide. Available on Amazon. Running out of, forgetting everything I want to say right now because I'm just tired. That's a nice tag on her bag. Um, if it's lagging, try hitting the re, um, refresh button on your browser when you're watching live streams. Sometimes that helps. Alright, you ready, everybody, to enter the Shinkansen? Three, two, one. Alright. We're behind the last seat in the car. I know these things. We're seventeen seat D. Oh, mama! Sorry. Green car, yellow car, brown car.

00:34:04 John Daub: Have you ever, wait, Ruth, have you ever ridden the green car?

00:34:09 Ruth: Yeah. Yeah. On the Shinkansen. Oh, I love it! Because they have a plug on every seat.

00:34:21 John Daub: That's my justification for doing it. Nice. Very nice. Okay. I have to remember that. You can juice in the green car. The green car is a juice car. That's what I, that's my takeaway from what Ruth told me. Thanks. Welcome to the Shinkansen. Now you can relax for a second. I look at the mom with the baby. Oh, yeah, thanks. Nice coffee. I, actually now I'm glad it, I didn't say hot. Thank you. Straw. Straw. Alright. Is this a green straw? I like the green ones. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. I just, I was kidding. I wasn't really kidding, actually. I would've preferred the green straw. High five making it this far. We made it this far. Yay. Alright. Now let's take a look at this bento now. Before we get to the tunnels. No.

00:35:30 John Daub: Alright, this is not a, this is a weird cocktail. Here. There's beer and iced coffee. I don't know too many people. Hana. Vegetarian. Is that vegetarian? We need a beer with that. Look. Should've gotten a beer. Okay. It's alright. You can have this if you want. No? Alright. And I got water. Always get water. Cause you never know. You never know. The train will be stranded somewhere in the middle of nowhere. You can't live without water. Alright. This is the bento that we got. It's called the 30 item balance. Alright. So we're gonna unbox this baby right here, right now. I don't know if I'm gonna try it because I'm sweating all over the place. Here we go. Let's do it. Amazing. 30 item balanced bento. We're doing this right now. This is really happening. 3, 2, 1. What do you see? Woah. This is pretty cool. On here on the top, usually there'll be information and taped to it is chopsticks. Which I need. To catch, to practice my karate skills and try to catch flies like Mr. Miyagi taught me in the first part. If you can catch flies with chopsticks, then you can do anything. That's what Mr. Miyagi says.

00:37:11 John Daub: Alright. It's a beautiful bento. This one is, looks like it's rice mixed in with a little bit of ginger on top there. Tons of vegetables. I like this. Maybe I should ask Hana if she wants these veggies. But usually they're cooked in dashi, which is fish soup stock, so that's not ideal. This is a sack made out of tofu. And you can stuff it with something. So I'm not sure what's in there. And tied with a piece of. Sorry. We were in a tunnel. And uh. The one thing you have to remember, I forgot. This is my phone. From Tokyo Station, I usually take the Tokaido Shinkansen, which means we go to Shinagawa. There's no tunnels. But when you go Tokyo and you go north, you go through a tunnel to get to Ueno Station, you lose all connectivity. So live streamers, beware. If you live stream, you'll lose signal. The last thing is another rice. So lots of carbohydrates for energy you don't need when you're exercising in the train. That doesn't happen. Piece of fish. That's really interesting. What fish is this? Um. This looks like. This is a red fish. Red fish. It's a red fish, everybody. That's good. I like it that they wrote in the ingredients. There's 30 things in this bento. So very neat. What does it taste like? You're gonna have to find out when you come, because we're gonna go through a tunnel really quickly. Yeah, Red Snapper. Andrew Johnson. Thank you. Let's say it's Red Snapper. Red Snapper. Could be Red Snapper. Yeah.

00:38:43 John Daub: So, thanks everybody for watching this fun experience. This is the Joetsu Shinkansen to Niigata from Tokyo Station. I've taken this maybe 10 times in my life. I can remember that because I don't go through that often. 10 sounds like a good number over the last 20 years. Hana. Hana. I'm just signing off. Hey, can you do that again? Go back in and pop out again. Okay, hold on. 3, 2, 1. No, no, no. I'll call you. Okay. Hana. Huh? Alright, thanks Hana. Alright, we'll do more in Sado, okay? Maybe we'll do the ferry rides. If the typhoons come in, it should be really bumpy and fun. Alright, see you. And see you, all of you. Thanks so much for joining us. Click the subscribe button. And if you like these bento unboxings and shinkansen trips, definitely hit the like button because this is how I know. The last one had like a ton of likes, so hit the like button and we'll try to do another one of these. Maybe from Niigata going back. I'd love to do a tour of Niigata Station, actually. That'd be fun, right? Niigata Station. It's a big one. Bye bye from the Shinkansen. In a tunnel.