00:00:08 John Daub: Hello and welcome to Echigo-Yuzawa station. We're just pulling in on the Joetsu Shinkansen. Many of you who've ridden the Shinkansen, the bullet train here in Japan, probably have those old nostalgic feelings of what it's like to exit as the Shinkansen now comes to a complete stop and the doors automatically open. Three, two, one. And here we are. Look at the countryside outside. Hey everybody, this is the Only in Japan Go channel. This is Hana with me. How you doing? And we're at Echigo-Yuzawa station for a little bit of an adventure to show you around this station built in 1925, which is quite a long time ago.

00:01:01 John Daub: We're going to show you the front of the train before it takes off. We'll show you the train departing. The train is leaving right now. And then after this we're going to take you on an adventure around one of my favorite countryside stations, Echigo-Yuzawa, here in Niigata Prefecture. Take a look around. All the passengers are getting off, going to their destination. A lot of ryokan (traditional inns) here. Here's the sign, Echigo-Yuzawa up there. See, I told you I really was here. This is a sign to prove it. And in about 30 seconds the train is going to depart and we're going to start our adventure.

00:01:45 John Daub: Hana and I came on this, the Tokyo Wide Pass. Do you see this? Residents of Japan as well as foreign international tourists can get this pass. And it's three days of unlimited Shinkansen in those three days for 10,000 yen or like $95. It's a steal. And we love it. Alright, here goes the Shinkansen. This is the Joetsu Shinkansen that goes towards Niigata. This one is pink and purple. But this is one of the newer Shinkansens, I think built in the 1980s. When one of the Prime Ministers from Niigata made a promise and said, I'm building a Shinkansen for my people. And he did. He followed through on that. And we have the Joetsu Shinkansen. It's a long, long train. Let's follow it out. Here it goes. Oh, she's a beauty. I love the Shinkansen. It's so quiet now with it gone. So quiet.

00:02:54 John Daub: Welcome everybody. How you doing? This is Hana. Her channel is Hana Victoria. And you have a new video coming really soon, like within a week definitely. So she's helping with this episode. We're in Niigata for a top secret mission for the main channel. Top secret. Don't tell anyone. Just 400 and some people watching. Alright, let's make our way out of here. Oh, the air is so much cooler than Tokyo. And it's so fresh. You can tell the air is different here.

00:03:33 John Daub: Now the Joetsu Shinkansen that we came on, a ton of tunnels. In order to make your way here from Tokyo, you go through like a third of the ride is tunnels. And so you don't have reception. So there's not a lot of internet that you can do. But you should turn your internet off, kind of enjoy the ride a little bit. Get an ekiben. If you look on Instagram, I put in, I got a chestnut rice ekiben, which is pretty good. Very delicious. And this sign says here, welcome back. I don't think I was gone. I live here. I love this place.

00:04:06 John Daub: Rich Masters writes in, hey John, get your wife something nice. Maybe some fruit. I'm lucky. I might be in Tokyo for Christmas. Hey! That's awesome. I will. I'm getting a ton of omiyage (souvenirs), including if you're a Patreon supporter, a daimyo level, I'm going to get your stuff here. And Echigo-Yuzawa Station on the way back. So we're going to find some good stuff. Thank you so much for that, Rich. I really appreciate it. So does my wife. It's just for her.

00:04:39 John Daub: Alright, we're going to exit on this pass here, the Tokyo Wide, which is cool. This is as far out as you can go. Now we traveled almost exactly 200 kilometers. And you can see in here there's a NewDays. There's a convenience store inside of the ticket area. So if you do come in, you can get your bento inside. You don't have to get it outside in the station if you don't have time. That's a beautiful looking E7. Look at that. Oh wow, look at that luxury. The Grand Class. Never mind the green car. They've moved up to the Grand Class. Some pretty hardcore. Beautiful looking one. And this is a new shinkansen called the Genbi. Just a different style. I like that. Very futuristic. The future is now.

00:05:31 John Daub: Alright, a lot of people come here on passes. And 1135 is in the house. I went to Sapporo Snow Festival in February because of your video. And I had an amazing time. That's great. I love Sapporo. There you are. Alright, let's show them our pass. That's so easy with a pass. You just show them. I can't get a Japan Rail pass. I can only get this. Because Japan residents, they can't get a Japan Rail pass. But for some reason you can with this. You just need a foreign passport. And I got that. And we got this.

00:06:19 Hana: Check this out.

00:06:21 John Daub: You see this? Right outside of the station. Boom. You're inundated with this amazing Niigata culture in food. And all the way to the left and the right. And there's the visitor center there which is very good. A lot of English speakers there. You see that up there? If you're going to the ski resorts and stuff, I believe everybody last year when I came in the winter, they were taking their skis that way. So I guess you can. There's the Joetsu Shinkansen line and there's also the local Joetsu line that comes through here.

00:06:52 John Daub: Hana couldn't eat on the train. You couldn't eat on the train because you're a vegetarian. It's a new thing. I'm not like starving or anything. But you can eat soba. Yes. Soba noodles. Yes I can. And soba noodles are famous in Niigata because this is where they grow a lot of buckwheat. Yeah. I love soba. She loves soba and vegetarians can eat it. And guess what? I'm a meat eater. I can eat it too.

00:07:22 John Daub: Oh, sasa dango. I bought some sasa dango last time we were on the Shinkansen. These are also fresh. These are dango. Do you know what leaf that they're in? Banana leaves? Not banana leaves. Banana leaves. You can smell it. It's so nice smelling. It has mochi inside of there. And we're going to get one right now. I don't know. Maybe I should get one right now. Let's start off and use these super chats for good, not for evil. Tom Higgins writes in, get a drink for Hana. She's a hard worker. Oh look at that. From Tom, dad, and Isaac's son who watch. Hey Tom and Isaac, thank you so much. Hana doesn't drink alcohol. Yeah. I do. And we're about to go to the vending machine, the sake vending machine as well. And we're going to get Hana some soba. Yes. And you can see what local soba is. But first, I'm paying this forward. We're going to get a sasa dango. Yes. Yeah. We should get one because you can just get one if you want to.

00:08:30 John Daub: All right. Let's put her in there. One sasa dango, please. Okay. What kind of leaves do you use? Sasa leaves. Oh, sasa. Yes. That's why it's called sasa dango. Here. This one too. Right? Yes. Wow. It's about 60 yen. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So we got a sasa dango. Push the button. We got a sasa dango. Awesome.

00:09:22 John Daub: I'm going to eat that. Actually, Hana, do you want to eat that? Are you a sasa dango girl? Oh, yeah. I'm a dango girl. Any dango girl. All right. We can split this one because these are hardcore. Yeah. Sasa dango. I'm going to put my bag. You're going to try the sasa dango. Seriously? Yeah. Seriously. We're inside of the station. I'm hoping that the signal holds out because sometimes in Niigata, we will lose the signal.

00:09:46 Hana: Can you hold this for me?

00:09:47 John Daub: Yes. Give me a place. Ooh. Sasa dango. Sasa dango. It's still warm. Feel this. Is it really? Feel this. Just touch it. Whoa. It's warm. Can you feel that? Can you see the heat rising? You can see the heat. It's a sasa dango. All right. Let's unbox it. Hana's holding the camera. Yeah. I won't drop it. No one drop you. Look at that. This is pretty fun. Ooh. Boom. So this is a sasa leaf. Mm-hmm. And that's what they call them sasa dango.

00:10:30 Hana: Whoa. Oh my gosh. You've never seen this before? No. What? Whoa. All right. We lost it. Uh-oh. Shoot. Oh no. Because we're in a bad area. Let's move. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Whoa. Just bring it. Okay. Just walk. I'll just walk. Is it better now? Um. Still loading. Okay. That's it.

00:10:58 John Daub: All right. We're live again. Sorry the signals are going on and off because we are inside of the station. This is a sasa dango. You can see the consistency of it. It's green just like the leaf. And I'm going to give Hana half. Whoa. So, man, it's really stuck onto that leaf. Look at that. Oh, it looks really good. That's mochi, pounded rice with anko (red bean paste) inside. All right. Here. Because we have two leaves, I'm going to rip it off and give half to Hana. Sounds good. Sounds good. It's because it is. Whoa. All right. You can take the big one. Okay. Thank you. All right. I got the camera. Do it, Hana. Whoa. Shotgun it. All right. I know. I did a good job, huh? You did a very good job. I'm proud of myself. Okay. Mochi is pounded. It's special pounded rice. It's still warm. That's what makes it so good. Mm. I'm okay.

00:12:00 John Daub: And Sadaaru writes in, the leaf is also fragrant. So you. All right. Sorry, guys. The stream is going in and out a little bit. So we're just going to show you some stuff while we can. Try to get a good signal out of this. Push your refresh right now. Push the refresh. Do it. All right. See right here. This is the sasa dango. Inside is some anko red bean paste. It's a really, really delicious and fresh out here in Niigata. This is another reason why I think you should come to this station.

00:12:49 John Daub: I remember getting the Tokyo Wide Pass. Just before I pass, I had an extra day because it's three days unlimited. Right? Yeah. It's three days unlimited. Yeah. And I came out with the extra day and I just came here. Oh my gosh. I know. Really? I spent about four hours here. I ate lunch at one of those places. What? I came in here. I bought some gifts. I went to the sake vending machine and I had another five shots. And then I went to the onsen because they have an onsen bath here. So let me try this sasa dango. One bite. It's really good when it's warm like that. Oh, you didn't finish it? Eating it little by little. You got a shotgun it. One bite. And bit slowly. Yeah.

00:13:41 John Daub: For those who are tuning in right now, we are 199 kilometers away from Tokyo. We've just exited from there, which is where the Shinkansen comes in. And we have about 45 minutes more to show you some more of this wonderful station. We lose the signal in there. I'm afraid to go in here. But we're going to do it anyways. Inside there is a sake vending machine area. But first, let's go over here and take a look at some of these soba. That's where we bought the sasa dango. It was like $1.25 for one. So cheap. So good.

00:14:23 John Daub: Boom. Oh, this is sukemen. This is with koshihikari rice made out of koshihikari. Interesting. You get everything from a vending machine here. So, sukemen. Sukemen is an option. But Hana doesn't eat meat. So, we deal with soba. That's a beautiful shop, though. Look at it. Wow. Very nice. The sake vending machine, we're going to try there. It's at the end of this station. But I'm just worried about the signal. So, as we go in deeper and deeper, we might lose you. But I will get you back. So, stick with us. Hit the like button. If you're all in on this Japanese sake vending machine. And I'll put in extra effort. So, let's see if we can get the 250 likes. Because I need some likes to drink some sake. It's five shots for 500 yen. I'm going to get five. I get five shots. And Hana gets none. Because Hana doesn't drink. You have a sip? Yeah, I have a little sip. I don't know if I want to give you a sip. It's all or nothing. It's all or nothing.

00:15:40 John Daub: So, inside of the station, I'm going to show you some of the gifts. But they also have a sushi chef. They have sushi restaurants. They have soba. They have udon. A lot of the fresh ingredients from Niigata. The stations are pretty cool. Because this is a place where they highlight the local ingredients. If you're driving in a car, they have a place called michi no eki (roadside stations). Thank you, Londres. Londres Evan writes in. The michi no eki are called like highway road stops. And there, you can get a taste of the local foods. As well as just like some of the culture.

00:16:13 John Daub: Oh, there it is. You can't see it from this angle. You see the dude? Yahoo! Got alcohol. I got sake. He's really pumped up, isn't he? That's where we're going to go. So, you get a better signal here. So, we need to get to 250 likes if you want me to booze inside of there. Kakigori (shaved ice). That's a pretty little shop. And we've just walked down this corridor here on the right side. And now we're going to take you into the sake. But first, I need to get to that. Hana and I need to get to that 250 like. So, it's up to you. Audience participation in the livestream chat. If you're watching the playback, you can watch as we fight to get the 250. Before we go there then, and here's a sneak peek. We're going in there. We're going in right there. Right there. I'm going to show you the onsen.

00:17:17 John Daub: Alright. It's done. It's done. That was quick. See what I mean? It's more fun. You guys have decided that I will go and drink some sake with Hana. You decided. If you didn't click 250, I would have done it. I might have done it. We have some viewers like Dr. Zark. And there's a couple of the viewers will override. And then I have no choice. That's good looking ramen. That's a good looking ramen. That's a miso ramen right there. Whoa. $7.50 for that. I'm going to take out beer as well. Do you see that symbol right there? Those who've come to Japan know exactly what that is. That is onsen. And this onsen bath is 800 yen. So the price has gone up about $7.50, 800 yen to go in. And you can soak in the onsen at the station. You don't even have to leave the station.

00:18:16 John Daub: Look at these. These are locally made products. This is the kind of stuff I was talking about that I want to sell on an Only in Japan store. Yeah, if you want me to get in the onsen, you're going to get. We got to get like a thousand likes. There's no way I'm going to take this camera in. The mythical thousand like live stream that never happens. One day, one day we'll get close. All right. Let me take you in. We're going to go the back way into the Japanese sake. This is called the Ponshukan, right? Ponshukan of Niigata. I love it. This is the onsen cafe where they use onsen water to make coffee. Hey, Rainy has just supported, sponsored our. Let me see. Do I have it right here? Yeah. So Rainy has just sponsored our. Thank you, Rainy. There it is right there. Your Super Chat. This is what we're going to be using to drink 500 yen for five shots. So thank you very much. Much appreciated. It's nice when we have somebody sponsor our little adventures here.

00:19:30 John Daub: I love this. Check it out. This is like a really countryside looking feel to it. You could find this maybe in upstate New York going around the hills of the Catskills or the Adirondacks. You'll find shops, maybe not exactly like this, but it has that kind of charm to it. Wooden floors, all the products. There's some soba right there in front of you. And there's a place over there where you can take a look at sake glasses. So let's come back because first we have a mission. Right, sir? We're on a mission, sir. Ramsey silent. Thanks for the reminder, everybody. Oh, it's right in front of us. Sake. I'm hoping the signal stays with us as we go in. We're not that far away. Free samples.

00:20:22 John Daub: Hana, what's that? What's that? Brownies. Chocolate brownies. All right. Why don't you try one? Can you eat that? Yes. Can I? Yeah, do it for the people. Sure. Hana's going in for the kill. These are locally made brownies. Go for the big piece. Okay, I think I got it. It's nice. Oh, you didn't show us before you ate it. Oh, food vlogger foul. It's okay. Sorry. Good. It's moist. Moist? Five out of five? All right. It's the number one gift here, and it costs about $10 for a box. That's pretty good. It's pretty good. I like how they rank it so then you know what to get. One, two, three. They put them in big numbers. Oh, it's chocolate brownies. Oh, it's sake chocolate brownies. There's booze in there, so they kind of tricked you, huh? They kind of tricked you.

00:21:28 John Daub: This guy's having a tough day. She's having a tough day. I love this place because. Oh, there he is. They've moved him. Hana, they've moved him. He's over here now. This guy's passed out from drinking too much, but look at that smile. Do you see that? He's using the bottle as a pillow. He is. This is awesome. We're going to go down. That's going to be me in about five minutes because we're going to go inside right now, and we're going to try this. Pictures are okay here. I like that, that they write that you can take pictures. The system is 500 yen. You get five coins. I've been here before, and there's a main channel episode on this. Definitely check it out. You get five coins. Put one in. Put your sake cup in there. Push the button. It comes out. Drink it. Enjoy. It's as simple as that. There's a place to put our bags, which we're going to do right here. I'm hoping that the signal stays in. It's good. You can put our bags down here. If the signal kicks out, stick with us. We'll find a spot. Just don't jettison. That means leave.

00:22:53 John Daub: Here's a list of the top sake, top eight for April. Wow, can you read some of that? I see Kubota's number three. I know that one. Anything from Sado that we had before? Koshino Kanbai. Some good stuff here. They'd have it in English right next to it. This is Koshino Umeshu (plum wine). Hakkaisan Umeshu. Hakkaisan is number eight, but these rankings change from time to time. What? Wheat yeast? That sounds very interesting. All right, let's go try this out. Follow the 500 yen. I'm so excited. This is going to be fun to do this all together. Just pray that the signal stays in place.

00:23:57 John Daub: Here you go. Thank you. Here's a special coin. Oh, that's cool. Are you okay? Yes, I'm okay. Then, can I put this in the rental cup? Thank you. So we got the cup and we got the coins. Oh, yeah. This is exciting. All right, Hana. Yeah. You can help us out here. Okay. What's first? Oh, wow. What's first? There's so many to choose from. This is insane. There's over 100. I remember I tried counting. 100? I got to 100. Lost count and then I gave up. Oh. Let's go with. Let's see if I know any of these brands. I judge by the label. That's not a good thing. You're not supposed to judge a book by its cover. I know. But how can you not? I mean, if it's pretty, I will take it. Hokusetsu? Yeah. Is this a good one or is it one of their. Umeshu. I think we tried it when we went to the brewery. Umeshu? Yeah. Oh, is that the one? Yeah, that's the one. That's not the one. It is. That's the one with the oak taste to it? Oak taste. There was an aged Umeshu. Oh, wow. All right, let's try it. So you put it here in the circle so it hits. It hits. It hits. All right, put the 100 yen coin in here. All right, now push the button. Do it, Hana. Do it. This one? Yeah. Okay. Ooh. I'm going to give it. That is so cool. So that's Umeshu.

00:25:51 John Daub: It tastes very similar to the one that we had in Sado last week. Two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. Kanpai. I didn't say kanpai. Sorry, kanpai. Kanpai. It's good. Go ahead. Oh, okay. Thanks. Just a little bit. That's pretty good. That is good. Smooth, right? That's good. It's really smooth. I like that. It was smooth. Yeah. All right, you can wash your glass off down here. Okay. I only had a little bit. You only had a little bit. I want these two. Oh. Okay. That's so many here. I don't know. Okay, Hana, pick one out from the top. What's the number one on the list? Queen of Tacos. Try 100. All right, we're going to try 100 for Queen of Tacos. 65. All right, I want to clean the glass a little bit. So Umeshu is different than sake. We want a pure taste. One, two, three. All right, here we go.

00:27:00 John Daub: All right, we're looking for number 100 for the Queen of Tacos. Hana, did you find number 100? The Queen has spoken. Wait, 101. It goes from 97. Wait, what? Wait, what? Queen, we're having problems with this numbering system. Do you see what? Do you see our dilemma, Queen? It only goes to 101. Does that count? What? What? Hana, can you ask the dude? Yeah. Oh, there is no 100, Queen. 100. 100 is in the matrix. 100, remember. All right, we're going for 101. I've had this before. This is the Shirataki Brewery. This is brewed here in Yuzawa. It's a full body dry, karakuchi (dry). And yeah, I like the fact that they put. It's a Junmai Daiginjo, so it's going to be pretty good. And I like the fact that they put the information there. Okay, Queen of Tacos says 102. All right. All right. And then, I'm going to try the other one. You've got to listen to the Queen. All right. Sorry. We're due over. This Inomata Brewery, established in 1890, brewed in Itoigawa, which is on the coast. So it's not too far away. It's got 50% booze, and it's an autumn special. Very cool. It's a Junmai Shu. Autumn special. Here we go. Dun, dun, dun. Three, two, one. Oh. It's got a little. It's got a little bit of color to it. It's hard to say just on a visual test of it. Hana. Yeah. Button me. Button you. Okay. Got it. Hana, push the button. All right. Kanpai. Kanpai. I'm going to hold up judgment until Hana has it. Whoa. It's very. It's not fruity. That one's not fruity. Whoa. It's dry. It's dry. It is dry. That one is not fruity. It's got a. Whoa. It's got a really balanced. It's got a really balanced taste going in with a slight, I don't know, bitterness. Bitterness. Yeah. A tone. Slight bitterness to it. Yeah. And then it dissipates really quickly off of the tongue, which I like. Very, very little alcohol taste. But it's bitter. It's not sweet. Yeah. Very different from the Umeshu that we had, which was more sweet. Indeed.

00:29:55 John Daub: SunnyvilleNZ writes in, I have a bottle of Daishin 23 I'm waiting to open. Good. That's a good one. Thanks for the video. Good. I'm glad. Daishin 23 is one of our favorites. What's the number one on the charts here? 65. 65. All right. Check right there. 65. Queen of Tacos. There's no 100, but there's a 65. This one is called Shirataki Brewery, also from Yuzawa. Oh, that's from the same one as the other. The one we almost got. This one is a Junmai Ginjo. Yeah. It's a little bit more on the light side. A little bit on the light side, and it's an easy drinker, so I think should be pretty good. This is what the coins look like. It says pon, kanji. These are limited edition coins, he said. I guess some people do take them home. And here we go. This is so much fun. Like smell. Apple-like smell. Yeah, like a sweet scent. All right. Button. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. There we go. It does. I hear the smell. It has like a really light, fruity smell to it. Kanpai. Kanpai. Wow. That has a lot of personality to it. There's a lot of stuff going on in my mouth with that one. That was a good one. There's a lot of complexity to it. I do get some apples. I do get the apples. There's some acidic stuff going on around here. A little bit of bitterness, a little bit of dryness. Yeah. I think it's like the alcohol bursts like a firework. Yeah. It evolves in your mouth. It starts off light and then gets more complex. Okay. Like the alcohol. Right. It says that it's light. Yeah. But there's a burst of energy in it. Yeah. So highly recommend. This is a good one. A dry, light body.

00:32:16 John Daub: All right. Next up. What was on the list? We have two more coins. 110. Yeah. All right. Let's try this. 110. I have to go. I think it would cost. If there's a hundred and. Let's say there's 130 in here. How much money would that cost? You can only get five for five. That's 130 yen. It cost you $120 to drink every one of them. What was the number? 110. 110. That one with the bird. Oh, the bird one. Yeah. Let's do this. Okay. This one is. Excuse me. Excuse me. This one is the second ranked one? Yes. Second ranked. Koshino Tsuru Premium from Koshijima Brewery from 1845. Let's try this here. This is a dry, full body. Junmai Ginjo. Wow. So there's a little bit of acidity. 1.5. 15.4% alcohol. Man. All right, Hana. You're going to push it? Yes. Do it. Wonderful. Jennifer's been here before, I'm pretty sure. All right. You're going to do it first? Oh. Ladies first. Yeah, ladies first for this one. Describe the smell. Describe the smell. We're going to see if it meets your. It is fruity. Fruity. Okay. All right. Kanpai. Kanpai. It's a look of uncertainty. My mouth. Wow. Okay. Do you need time? You need time for that one. All right. Kanpai, everybody. She kind of needs time for that one. It's all right. All right. Queen of Tacos, right? It's a walk responsibly. Spicy. We're going to get some soba next to wash this down. Here we go. I like that. Yeah. It starts off. It's got a very strong taste. It starts off on. On the. Sensation is on the top of your mouth. Yeah. Right? And it stays there for a while. It's still there right now. It lingers. It's a pleasing taste that lingers. Like the dashi. The um a little bit of the excess um rice there's the bitterness of the old sour rice that I think lingers it's a good one it's a countryside taste as you can see in the corner the passed out statue.

00:35:01 John Daub: We've got one more Hana what do you think should you go to number three i mean number 55 that's ranked third um i'm gonna go i think we should go with number six which is 21. this is one of my favorite sakes of the area Echigo Tsurukame i love Tsurukame um this is a local one not too far away from the station and uh this is a yeast a wine yeast i'm kind of interested i never had a wine yeast before Hakkaisan everybody knows Hakkaisan's one of the most famous ones and Koshino Kanbai which is this is Koshino umeshu Koshino Kanbai is one of the most famous companies as well i love Koshino Kanbai but let me try let's try something different this 21. Echigo Yuzawa yeast getting a little yeasty 21. i found it but first over here you have different salts of Niigata you can try them and on the other side you can try different kinds of miso and this is free you just put the miso in your hand and you can try it it's kind of neat to add to the palette miso is something that's good to eat with uh sake i think it's pretty neat it's pretty neat i'm starting to feel that booze i'm glad i'm not driving.

00:36:26 John Daub: This is Tsurukame uh wine kobo i've never heard of this before this is a a unique one it's a junmai ginjo but um as i said what did they say they called it a a wine like a wine yeast yeah it's very unusual all right put her in there we're gonna try wine yeast which is interesting and Tsurukame is one of my favorite local breweries it's uh one of my top five sakes whoop there it is all right it's kind of kind of a color to it just light it's not full white on here button okay are you ready for this yeah wine yeast kanpai oh wow i've never had anything like that in my life wow whoa i know oh my gosh i know it's like sour a little bit do you taste that there's a little bit of sourness in there it's a little bit of sourness oh my god and a bit bitterness there's a sweet sour bitterness it's all over the palette um it's it's definitely all natural i love uh Tsurukame because they always do a good job of keeping um like i don't know the essence of the sake it's not too smooth it's got really good character to it i think the more sake you drink and the name is cool but this one and i it just kicks my butt this one is really it's a hard hard to drink but it's a really good sake it's a really harsh one right cowboy yamaha i guess it's like if you're a cowboy and you're riding raw high you ride raw hide without a saddle that's what it feels like all right it's got a very a much higher acidity and 18 almost 18.5 alcohol level so cowboy yamaha is a tough one you tough can you conquer no you're looking a little tipsy some color in you yeah you're getting a little red there yeah really yeah i'm always crossing the line yeah so she's always bruh she's blushing.

00:38:52 John Daub: Um like once again like if you don't know which one to get there's a list of the top 10 at the door so you can just check that out and that sort of will help you but i think you should spend some time here take a look at some of the different sakes read the labels and try it what i love about this system is that you get you get an idea of the metrics of sake and but the more you taste the more you start to get a feeling about japanese sake you can't just do it on buying one bottle from Japan you have to try different ones and that takes a little bit of time. Alright DHC brewery that's a the cosmetics company which means Daigaku Honyaku Center which is a translation company but they also dabble in alcohol these days. Interesting maybe next time. Oh this is my favorite one here this one you can get in Tokyo as well and it's just it's just a pretty good classic it's a little bit high in the acidic so it's got good character personality to it it's one of my favorites. Alright very good let's return the glass. You didn't want it? Zero alcohol tolerance as well. The bullseye. Okay. Oh ho. Alright good finished. That's wonderful. I love I love this the Ponshukan sake tasting so we'll just leave we can just leave it there. We can just leave it there for a couple of minutes I think yeah let's go did you see the soba shop in there? In there? Yeah. No I didn't see a soba shop that's weird.

00:40:46 John Daub: Here's the you can see the omiyage on this side alright on this side but this way where the guy's saying stop in the name of love you get a lot of different kind of gifts on this side here especially Tsurukame. This is the one I was just talking about you can buy really big bottles of it right here you can get a massive bottle of Echigo Yuzawa, the local sake for twenty five dollars that's the 1.7 liters like a two liter bottle almost it's pretty big and they have different ones too so that's oh this is the one we just just drank isn't it? Tsurukame. It's from this company. The rice and the wine yeast is from this company I just love the labels I wish they put that on a t-shirt. So cool. I could wait for it. that me too when they put the sake ball out that means they got fresh stuff so let's walk around here for just a little bit because on the right side there's a um a sake glass collection that you can buy from which is really cool i i bought several sake glasses and then i lost them i don't know where they went they're so small koshihikari rice is also something really cool as a gift that you can buy they come in these um what do you call these uh furoshiki (wrapping cloths) yeah let's get these these furoshiki which you can keep these towels but inside is rice koshihikari rice um it's a nice gift it's a nice gift.

00:42:21 John Daub: All right this is the area where you can pick your own sake glass and i came here and filmed actually with NHK a long time ago introducing this area so i remember and one of the masters come out and show me but they're all handmade here in this local area and each sake glass has its own character personality but you pay for it it's about 30 for this one but once again you can see there's the artist's name on the bottom and they're all handmade um so you pick one you pick a sake glass that fits your personality and i love i love these because it's also a nice way to support local creators this is the Ponshukan do you see the kanji on there this is the company that we just had the sake from so if you want to buy the same glass that we were trying to buy we're going to buy the same glass that we were drinking at the vending machine you can buy them right here there's tons of them it's pretty cool here's the pictures of the local creators that made the glasses it's very cool so you can buy also you would pour the bigger bottle into here and then from here you would pour it into the sake glasses so each one of these um do you know what they're called i can't remember the name oh these are called ochoko smaller ones are ochoko but i don't know the ones that you pour it in yeah this one is about a fifteen dollars but it's rough inside it's it's got some texture to it it's got that wabi-sabi (imperfect beauty) it's imperfect but it's perfect you know i like that uh deep design to it there's some coffee cups if you if you if you want to go something different you can get a coffee cup if you don't drink sake that might be nice to take home but some pretty pretty pretty nice gifts simple this is about ten dollars for this one nine ten dollars this one's got some cracks in it do you see i like that that design this one's only three dollars and fifty cents about three dollars in there it's pretty nice what'd you find that does this fit your personality i don't know it actually says hana in the back hanabusa i don't know what that is hanabusa isn't that one of the shinkansens the hayabusa sorry not the hanabusa it's true.

00:45:06 John Daub: And over here you have some glass glass ones and they put some color into it to give it more personality i showed one that was similar to this a couple of days ago in an instagram post this one is about twenty dollars and you can see it's got just some beautiful flowers paintings inside of it it's a really wonderful sake glass and it's a good gift to buy from Niigata in sake country hey jim get a bottle of Tsurukame on me thanks actually i might i think i'm gonna get a small one because we're gonna be here for a couple of days it'll be something for me to drink in the hotel room we're also coming back i'm also coming back here to go back to tokyo on uh monday tuesday tuesday morning right tuesday morning whoa and these are the the best of the best they come in their own little box check that out it's a nice one the prices can go all the way up to a hundred dollars and here's some coffee mug coffee and tea glasses made out of glass special Niigata glass here's a little cafeteria what are they serving koshihikari wow they have like all kinds of onigiri check out these different kinds of onigiri that's a massive onigiri that's 2 000 yen that's 20 dollars for that onigiri you can choose five ingredients to go inside that's pretty cool and you can see there's an example of some of the ingredients this one looks good the spicy miso so there's a guy eating i don't want to disturb him too much um Niigata also has its own soy sauce oh you can see there's some pictures of them making big onigiri oh it's so big! yeah it's so big! Niigata also makes their its own soy sauce there's a lot of local soy sauce breweries i guess you'd call them and i don't know really what the difference is i guess it's one of these things just like sake that you have to taste test and you get a chance to taste test different kinds of soy sauce to see which one you like better and this the flavors are go from light to really heavy really salty really dark um it's just something you have to try and see which one that you like and then when you do find one one you like usually you'll stick with it by a few bottles and order it online or you make another trip back to Yuzawa Echigo Yuzawa to uh eat more but i love these kinds of markets where you get a chance to look around yeah.

00:47:43 John Daub: All right so amy we didn't get a chance to try number 75. it is a good year though sorry about that amy and Hakkaisan Osusume thank you yeah Hakkaisan is always going to be good but i think everyone's had Hakkaisan before so it's such a popular one abroad here's some of the soy sauce bottles That's kind of neat when the soy sauce comes in a nice reusable bottle. It's pretty cool. And here's some miso as well, some countryside miso. I'll probably get some of these for Kanae because she loves to make good miso soup. I like it when they have some of the, what do you call, kobo, some of the stuff left behind in there. Because you could taste the ingredients if they're fresh. That's really good. I think. Whoa, that's a massive bag. You have to have a big family to make that, to work that off. Yeah. Alright, kind of a chill, chill music in the background. Me like. It's a nice vibe.

00:49:10 John Daub: This is the Niigata mascot. Do you know what, what's his name again? I always forget his name. Some English, English gentleman. Or is he Belgian? I can't remember. Could be French. Why Niigata has a French? Belhi. Belhi? Belhi. Where's he from? Oh. Uh, Slovakia. He's from Slovakia? Yeah. Why do they have a mascot of Niigata? So they have a Slovakian mascot for the Niigata prefecture. I don't ask, don't ask questions. Just accept it. This is, this is weird. I guess you fill this with something and it makes something. Uh, dry fruits mix. But why isn't it full? Pon-shu. I guess you put the sake in here or something. Yeah. That's what it is. Oh, okay. It's like a sangria, but. It's like, oh, like a sake sangria. Interesting. Interesting. There's our friend again. One of his buddies. Advertising onigiri on the other side. And then in here is where you'll get some of the Niigata sake. A lot of the sake inside of this shop here is local stuff from the area. And, uh, I can't believe it. What is that sake? Sadogashima. Sadogashima. Oh, that's a good one. Hokusetsu. Yeah. Kubota. Ah, kore. This one. So we really, we really liked this one. Do they have the, um, oh, there it is. The 35. This is the sake. Oh, they do have it. This one is the sake that Robert De Niro likes. This is Robert De Niro's favorite sake. He's one of the backers of this, of this, uh, uh, of this brewery. So I, when we went to the brewery tour, Robert De Niro's pictures, he's like kind of wasted. Oh, that's so true. I can imagine your pictures in there and he's drinking and he's like, he's got his wasted face on there. Yeah. It's pretty funny, but he, this YK 35 is so, so good. Highly recommended. It's pricey though for 500 milliliters. Oh, this is 720 milliliters for 5,000 yen. Very pricey, but it's worth it. Um, if you have the cash, I, I don't right now, but I highly recommend. Yeah. And you can buy lots of local sakes. Yeah. And when you buy the sakes from this origin, they just taste different. It tastes better when you buy sake from here.

00:51:46 John Daub: All right, let's get our luggage and go see if we can find some soba. There's some Hakkaisan, the, uh, Hakkaisan right there. Yes, it's legal to bring it back, sake back to the States, but there's an allowance. I think you can only bring like, like two bottles, two, two large bottles back to, uh, the United States. I always, or, or you can bring one really big one. I always bring a big one. If I can, not always, but if I can fit it in my bag, I'll bring a big one. Cause these are cool bottles. These ones here, these they're cool to bring for gifts, but they're really big. That's a really wicked bottle, isn't it? Hey, David Kimura is here. Actually, David, this is Hana, not Kanae. That's Hana. Hello. That's Hana. We're, we're on location in Niigata right now. All right. Let's get our bags out of the, out of the booze zone. I have my bags here cause they were heavy. I love that. I love this place. I'm telling you, you can spend an entire day here shopping and looking around and you leave your bags here.

00:53:24 John Daub: All right, let's go back into the dead zone where there's no, no signal. Let's hope that's in here. Now, outside of these doors, you enter in where there's some local sellers. Uh, they're also selling goods. This is where we got the Sasa Dango, which is a very highly recommended. Can you take this one maybe? For those joining us right now, we came here. Oh, I'll pick it up again. We came here on this, the Tokyo wide pass. It's kind of like a Japan rail pass, except this one is only for a very limited region. And Japanese residents can get this pass. You don't have to be a foreign tourist to get it. But for the Japan rail pass, you have to be a foreign tourist. And Hana and I do not qualify. You could, I don't know. Could you? Do you have a? Yeah, you might be able to. I don't know. I can't. I got an address, a foreign resident. Do you have a residence card? You're here on a tourist visa, right? A Japanese pass. Oh, you got a, she's got a, she's by a dual citizen. Yes, dual citizen. So that means that you could do it. Oh, metalware. So you can find some pretty cool looking cups, huh? There's some copper, copperware as well. Actually, that's a really nice coffee mug. I might get that. Kanae, what do you think? Kanae, if you're watching, tell me what you think. I might get one of these for you. It's 3,780 yen. That'd be good for, for, she likes coffee. She, but her coffee is like half milk though. Oh, you're the same way? Yeah.

00:55:02 John Daub: Oh, it's almost two. All right, let's go. All right, so we're not gonna be able to hit the Soba restaurants over there, but I hope that this gives you a pretty good overview of Echigo Yuzawa Station, which is the purpose of this live stream, to take you in here, have some fun, enjoy some sasa dango, show you that the dead zone is right here. And now we're gonna go and meet, um, meet someone who's taking us to our location shoot from the station. Hey, Faye's here. Get it for her, John. Thanks, Faye. I will, I'm coming back here when we leave on Tuesday. So I'm gonna see if she, if she can use it and I'm gonna get it. It's cool. Wow, there's a Niigata Coca-Cola. What? Niigata has its own Coca-Cola design. I did not know that. I did not know that. It's always something, always looking for something. Always learning something new, you know, always learning something new.

00:56:04 John Daub: So that means because I'm gonna be leaving on Tuesday, that means Tuesday is gonna be a, um, so Tuesday is also gonna be a, another live stream on the Shinkansen probably. Eki-ben. And then we'll probably do two or three live streams on location in the, in the town that we're going to, um, which is pretty cool. And there's a festival tomorrow. So yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on. Yeah. So click the subscribe button, hit the like button if you want to see more because we're gonna have a ton of local foods and festivals to show you tomorrow. Um, yeah, you don't wanna miss anything. Also if you're interested in, um, uh, what was I gonna say? So you can, if you, if you're not seeing the live streams, I put them in the Instagram stories, but make sure that when you, in the notification pal, it's on always, not personalized. A lot of people don't understand. If you, if you have it on personalized, it's on always. If you have it on personalized, you'll miss some live streams. And I always feel bad when some people tell me, oh, I didn't, I missed it by five minutes. See, cause your notification wasn't on always, it was on personalized. And I don't know, it's personalized. Doesn't pers, doesn't really personalize it in my experience. So there you go.

00:57:18 John Daub: It was a pretty fun time. We got a chance to see a little bit of Echigo Yuzawa and the next Shinkansen is going to be coming in, which means that our hour is up and it's time for us to move on to the next city. But this station, I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now. This station is going to be a blast. This station is so awesome. Onsen, restaurants, amazing gift shops with local products, selling sake and sake cups. All you can drink sake place like with 160 vending machine thing, pipes. Where do the pipes come from? They're like all over the, all over the prefectures coming here. There's restaurants outside of the station. There's hotels nearby. It's really amazing. So Echigo Yuzawa station, leave a comment below. See you all in the next live stream. Bye bye from Echigo Yuzawa station.