00:09 John Daub: Welcome to Niigata Station. That 509, 1509 is a 309 Toki Shinkansen to Tokyo. That's what I'm going to be riding. So we have approximately 20 minutes or so to do a live stream of Niigata. Hey everybody, I'm in Niigata Station. I thought this would be a great opportunity before I head back to Tokyo to introduce you, to orientate you to Niigata Station. It's a different station. This is definitely not Tokyo. Here is the entrance.

00:38 John Daub: There should be Mariko-chan on the side of the bus for Kei's Denki. You see here loads of taxis. This is what the outside of Niigata Station looks like. Those that used to live here in Niigata, there might be some English teachers, expats that were in the area before. This is what it looks like today. I know what it's like. I'm very nostalgic for the places I used to live in. Every time the station area, the station front of every station is usually the most important. Lots of businesses, lots of things to see and do here. Lots of restaurants. Here's the entrance. Here's the other side, the taxi stand. The other side of the station also has other businesses that you can go and enjoy. But there's also inside the station a place where you can drink all sorts of Japanese sake. And I already featured this in a main channel episode about four years ago in another area of Niigata. But Niigata is very famous for Japanese sake. So let's go take a look around and maybe even find that sake place. But I want to introduce you to Niigata Station.

02:15 John Daub: There's rice wrapped up in these leaves. It's also very famous in the Niigata area. Here's some more omiyage (souvenirs). This is a Niigata omiyage. So always have very interesting gifts every single region of Japan. Edamame. Check that out. Edamame with some, it looks like white anko or something mixed in there. It looks really good. Inside this building, CoCoLo (station complex) is where I believe you can find rice. The sake.

02:53 John Daub: Let's look right now at the train lines that go through Niigata Station. Right here. If you compare this to Tokyo, absolutely can't do it. Because Tokyo's got a bazillion train lines going through here. But what you can see is right here, that's the center of it all, Niigata. And the stations are not in English here because you don't need to have it in English. Most people are Japanese on this side of the country. But if you do go to the tickets area, you can see the tickets are all in Japanese. Choose English. So there you go. You can get it in English including charging your Suica card or getting limited express Shinkansen tickets right here. You can get the Joetsu all the way to Tokyo and buy it from this vending machine. It's the same price as this ticket I have right here. So you don't have to worry about the language so much. Ticket ordering in English. That's right Jim. Or if you want to you can wait in the window but I always go to the booths because it's faster. Alright let's go inside at CoCoLo. Ready? Let's see what we can find. Oh delicious desserts. Now every single department store has a depachika (basement food hall) or a place where they sell food. This is also true of this place.

04:15 John Daub: So we're gonna go take a quick look at and find this Japanese sake drinking place. Oh it looks like a supermarket here. Hey Adrian's in the house. Really enjoy your content. Thank you Adrian. I appreciate that. Oh it's a Japanese sake. Japanese bakery. See what they got here. Oh this looks really cute. It's a heart bread. Alright let's get out of here. I came here for it. We're going to go check out the booze. Oh takoyaki. Oh yeah. They're not fresh though. It's usually they're making it. Okay let's get out of here. We have 20 minutes to explore this station. Niigata is the terminus for the Joetsu Shinkansen. There are many Shinkansen. I know there's a bullet train. You say bullet train in English but in Japan there are many bullet trains. There's a Tokaido which is the main one that goes from Tokyo down to Osaka and to Fukuoka, Hakata. Then there's the Tohoku. There's the Joetsu which is this one that comes to Niigata and there's also the Akita Shinkansen, the Nagano Shinkansen. There's a ton of other Shinkansen lines and the Sanyo Shinkansen line, the Kyushu Shinkansen line. So it's a different world and now the Shinkansen goes all the way up to Hakodate which is really cool.

05:57 John Daub: Dr. Zark's in there. Alright we're gonna see. Let's check out the Shinkansen. Let's go. Let's go. See if we can buy something. Shall we? Okay look at this. So we're now crossing to the other side of the station. That's interesting. So these are some local trains from Niigata. Where's this headed to? It's hard to read but this is a bridge that goes over the top of it. In Tokyo Station there's a connection underground. So oh there's a Shinkansen platform. Alright and they're building something new in Niigata Station. Be interesting what they have in a couple of years because it's always changing. Yes Difference Engine I am on my way back home. I spent four days on Sado Island at the Earth Celebration and I was kind of scouting it just to get an idea of what Sado Island's like. I filmed a lot of stuff so should be a lot of fun to get that content back home and start editing it.

07:10 John Daub: I love these station walkthroughs. Every time you go to a new area of Japan you get to see inside of the station a lot of the culture of the area. And Niigata has a lot of its own culture. Here I can give you a quick overview. This is when you got the station on the map. So we were here, this is where we started the live stream. I walked outside showed you this area and now we're on this bridge crossing to the other side. And this one looks like it's brand new so I'm excited to go over there. Niigata is right off of the coast. This is, you can see that's Sado Island. That's where I went to. It looks like a butterfly. This is where the last four days of live streams were and this is the city of and this is actually out there further. They've cut the map so it looks closer than it really is and this is Niigata City. It's off of this Shinano River and we are where? Here, Niigata Station. So a little bit of orientation. The seafood and the sake in Niigata are exceptional. This would be like the Bordeaux of Japanese sake if you were to compare like that.

08:21 John Daub: Alright, CoCoLo is the same place as the Ichikoyuzawa sake booth so I'm guessing that it's gonna be somewhere around here. CoCoLo Plus, Omiyage, Gourmet, Museum, Sports. Alright, let's I think we're gonna find it in here. Alright, so this set of the station is a little bit newer, a lot wider and get this there's a big camera electronics store inside of the station so if you're looking for an SD card or something you can get that right here. That's pretty crazy. Oh there it is right there. Do you see that? So there's a big camera selling alcohol and electronics. Wow! Bic Camera in Tokyo as well. It's a pretty big electronics shop.

09:53 John Daub: Was it in there? I think it's in there. This is this is the let's go let's go take a look in here. This is the restaurant con. So let's look at the restaurants that are in here really quickly. Just take a quick look around you can already see on the map. Interesting. That's a Japanese looking restaurant right there. Look at the entrance to it. Looks like a festival. Alright and this one looks really good too. So there's a ton of places to grab a bite to eat before you get on the Shinkansen and I like that. The soba looks so good. Do you see that? Mos burgers represented inside the station and I've been in here. Oh that's a mean onigiri. Oh geez. ATMs. These are the 7-Eleven ATMs. So it will take Western ATM cards.

11:03 John Daub: Alright this looks like it's just I'm talking about. Look at all these different Japanese sakes here. They're all represented. One of the sake breweries I went to is the one run by Robert De Niro. And it was really good. Alright that's not it. Let's get out of here. I told Kat I would be I would meet her but I can't find out where she is. Alright let's go let's go over to the other side here. Yes so we did an amazing amount of live streaming on Sado Island. Go back over the last couple of days to take a look at it because it's not a kind of place that that is high on people's destination lists when you come to Japan. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima. I get it. But I think the trips that you remember the most when you come to Japan are those side trips to the countryside. Those places are more meaningful because you're really getting into the Japanese culture. You're really getting an amazing experience.

12:52 John Daub: I'm still looking for that booze place. Ponshu-kan (sake pavilion) something like that. Alright let's take a quick looky see. Alright let's keep going. Alright we're now walking through the heart of the station. Hi John from the Dallas Fort Worth Texas area. How you doing? Nice to see everybody. South Carolina, Southern California. If you want to write in where you're watching from. That was pretty neat last night to see everybody during the taiko presentation performance last night to write in their locations. It's always a good time to call you out and participate in the live stream in the chat. And you can see if you're watching this in the playback the live chat to see where everyone's watching from. It's kind of neat. Wow look at this big kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi). This is a sushi place. Whoa and these sushi places you can see underneath there they always serve a lot of Japanese sake because this is Niigata. Beer is good but in Niigata you want to drink sake.

13:47 John Daub: I know that's a good combination. It's a good competition. You can see here the timetable. There aren't as many trains so maybe four times an hour they're leaving. So each line, each row is that hour. 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock. There aren't that many trains. This is the Hakushin line in pink, the Echigo line in green, and on the left side is the Shinetsu line. And trains, this is the east entrance. Trains are not very frequent in Niigata because the population isn't as high as it is in Tokyo.

14:36 John Daub: Alright I'm looking hard for this booze place. Oh this is a Japanese sake store. So the sake stores in Japan they often will put the sake in boxes like that. And if you're lucky at the station you can find them pre-packaged in boxes where you can try little bottles of everything. I like this. This one's for $18 and this one's for about $25. This is a set of five and a set of three. It's a pretty good deal. Eki-ben (station bento). Let's see what they got on display here. The Niigata Gyuton Bento. That's beef. Very nice. Then you got the Wagyu bento. Whoa. That looks pretty good. You got the Wagyu bento and the Gizami [?] wasabi de taberu Niigata Wagyu Yakiniku bento. That's a long name. I was looking at this one. It has wasabi in it. And on the left side that looks like a potato or an egg. I'm not quite sure. This is a weird bento. Yuki Daruma bento. A snow daruma. It's an ugly looking daruma but let's be kind. It's made of snow. Which one is the most popular? This one? The shrimp senmai shirashi. That's this one. That looks pretty good too. It has some unagi in there. Nice. I just ate lunch. I'm not hoping for more lunch. But I could get something for the train. What time is it? Anyone has a time? These live streams can go long and I could miss my train. Oh my phone is right here. Why doesn't the YouTube app tell me what time it is? Alright good. We have 10 minutes. I don't want to miss this train.

17:17 John Daub: Alright I can get some booze or something right? Alright let's do this. Let's do this. Let's get something for the train ride back. We're inside. Alright I see refrigerators. We're looking for sake or something. I'm just going to drink on the train. This is nigori sake. Oh no this is amazake (sweet fermented rice drink). How wrong I am. I love amazake. This is sake with very little or almost no alcohol. And you can see it's got pieces of the rice in there. Very healthy for you. Kanai doesn't drink alcohol so I always get her amazake. I have a bottle for her in my bag. Once again the variety of sake in Niigata is like so much bigger than in Tokyo. Because people drink it. Even the beer is a little bit different. They have some really good. The H-GO beer company. Flying IPA. Do you see that? These are all really good beers of local craft beers. But I definitely need to get a drink here. Oh here it is right here. This is a good IPA. Let's see if we can find some. Oh look at the line it's so long. What? Alright here's some onigiri. That's a big onigiri isn't it? Chicken. Chicken nanban. That looks really good but I'm not hungry. These wrap sandwiches have been getting popular in Japan. Tortillas are not a big deal here but recently you're starting to see them more in Tokyo. They can charge a high price for something that's so cheap.

19:26 John Daub: Oh these are kibi dango (millet dumplings). So let me get some of these dango. I think I can get some of these dango as a gift. And I wanted to get some sake. I want to get some sake. And a kibi dango. It's not that easy. These ebi crackers are really flavorful. Alright kibi dango and some sake. Oh I found some that's been refrigerated. There's some sake down here. Which one's good? I don't want to drink a cup of sake. I feel like an alcoholic. Alright. This looks like fun beer. I'm going to try this. Okay. And I'm going to get some kibi dango. These are kibi dango. I'll show you on the train. Alright let's get this. I gotta get the train. It's 5.09. Sorry 3.09. So I have about... Oh Buzz Lightyear. Hey Buzz. How you doing? Feeling good? Hi. I'm going to get you a drink. I'm going to get you a drink. Thank you. How much would you like? This is $1.38. $1.10 please? $1.10. Thank you. Thank you. $1.10. 100 yen and my change was 62 yen for 62 yen. There you go.

22:18 John Daub: All right, everybody. Are you ready? John has food. John has beer. John has time very rare to have all this free time. As you can see my train is at 3.09 not 3 p.m. Gym. And I have nine minutes. This is too rare. This is way too much time for me. Where's the drama? Ah somebody just said that the sake place is on the second floor or not the third floor not the second floor. I should have gone up. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna bring you the excitement. We're gonna take a look at the train. Police officers are in pretty good shape here. Wouldn't you say? She's a famous police officer so she's signed here. Her signature's on her leg. So we're on platform 14 the Joetsu Shinkansen. Let's do this. Follow those people.

23:36 John Daub: I don't come to Niigata that often. I mean to Niigata station. Um, Echigo-Yuzawa if you're coming from Tokyo, you kind of stop in the mountains. That's the reason for you to come to Niigata. So to come to Niigata city is pretty unique for me. It's not something I do quite often. Um I did buy our my Patreon supporters the daimyo. I bought your goods here in Niigata and I'm bringing them back. Um so some of my friends who are probably waiting at the train right now we're nice enough to bring it. Oh, here we are. The train's here. I wanted to get you uh rolling into the station. Oh, well. All right, let's do this. I'm in car number six. This car number four. Would you guys want to see the front of the train? All right, let's get to see the front of the train. I'd like to see the front of the train. The signs are so awesome. Shinkansen. The nose will open up to connect with other trains by the way. I've seen that. Let's go. Look at the lines on her. I just love it. Oh Shinkansen come to John. You're so beautiful. Lines on her. All right, there's a place to buy bentos as well Niigata bento, but it's closed or out of business. I'm not sure which. All right, I gotta get to car number six. Ah, she's making the announcements. She's the one making the announcement. You're so small now lady. Oh train okay. Boom check it. 6 618a for the Toki for Tokyo baby. This is a game I like to play. Number 18 618 seat A window 328 3 minutes to go. Please be careful at the station. When you leave Niigata Tsubame-Sanjo Nagahoka Kawagoe Ueno Tokyo. Where are they? Where is everybody else? Number six. Oh my friend Ruth and Chiara are not on the train. Where are they? Is this the right train? 309 number 618a yeah. Nobody's here. Maybe I'm on the wrong train. All right guys. I thought I was in the wrong spot. Just we had different tickets in different places. So welcome to the Joetsu Shinkansen. John is fine. John is happy. John is saying goodbye to Niigata. So there you go. I'm a seasoned traveler. It's true story.

28:10 John Daub: You guys want to see this kibi dango. It's not a kibi dango. Let's take a look at what I bought here. Train's starting to move. This is mochi. Fresh mochi. And in the center of it is red bean paste. It's so good. Thank you. Yeah it's really good. Sasa dango (bamboo leaf dumpling). Yeah. It's filled with red bean paste. But takes some of the flavor from this leaf. It's not a banana leaf. It could be a bamboo leaf maybe. But takes some of the flavor of it. And it's really good.

30:51 John Daub: This is a character for Niigata. This guy. And this is the toki. The toki is a bird famous for the island where I was and one of the birds of Japan that was extinct but has been brought back. You can find them on the island. This is a beer. I know. It has cartoon characters on it. But it's a beer. This is Japan. It's gonna be good. Niigata characters. It's a craft beer. Here's some more characters of Niigata. See some of the characters of the Niigata on the craft beer. It's pretty neat. Very German beer. Tastes like a German pilsner. Very German pilsner taste. I can't bite everything. Enjoy the view a little bit before we end this live stream. I believe we're gonna be going through some beautiful scenery on this trip. Right now we're going at about 270 kmph. We're gonna start to pick up speed once we get out of the more of the city center. But I love coming out on the Shinkansen. Here go. Here are all the Niigata rice fields. Do you see that? I did buy an omiyage for Kanai. I bought her some amazake as well as this sasa dango I'm gonna bring for her. And I got her some chocolates. And I wonder what other thing. Some kaki jelly. And a fruit that's very famous on Sado Island. So she's gonna like that. And I shouldn't say because if she watches this live stream she's gonna know what the present is. That's alright.

33:50 John Daub: Cesar's got some takoyaki. Oh no, which is he at takoyaki? I'll try to get some takoyaki this week then. Let's do a takoyaki run. But all this down here are the rice paddies. And it's getting to about the end of summer. October is the season where they harvest it. And all this green that you see turns to gold right before they harvest the rice. Stuff that's just filled with rice paddies. And this is only about 5-10 minutes from the station right? Wonderful. Beautiful agricultural prefecture with some of the best sake because they got some of the best rice and some of the best water coming from those mountains and the Japanese Alps which are that way. We're going to go through the Alps. So in about 15 minutes from now it's just all tunnel. So this is a good opportunity for me to show you what the Joetsu Shinkansen is like on the Sea of Japan side on the Niigata side.

34:59 John Daub: I enjoyed my time on Sado Island. It was a lot of fun. But I will be back in November I think to film more on Hodo [Kodo] which is the taiko group because they have a pretty unique lifestyle. And I'm interested in that. I think they have a very successful recipe for how they conduct their business and how they make apprenticeship work. And I want to thank all of our Patreons for the support that allows me to travel around Japan like this, so thank you very much. I'll be trying to find some more stories that are compelling that kind of takes in and get some really great ideas. It's going to be nice to get back to Tokyo. I've been away for four days and start to edit some of the content that I've been filming. So there's going to be a new episode this week. And I think there's going to be one episode a week for a while now because I'm just starting to edit it now. The next one might be either a Dakar one or an amusement park one. So we'll see. But lots of really good content. So leave me a comment below. Let me know where you have traveled. What episodes you're interested in seeing. Where you'd like me to go to next. And a lot of the ideas that I film are from you. So I really appreciate that. The community that we have. If you're not on the Discord server definitely join us there. It's a chance for us to have a 365 day a year 24 hours a day a place where we can talk. See everybody. We're stopping at the next station already. Tsubame-Sanjo.