00:00:02 John Daub: Hey everybody, we're now live. I'm at Okayama Station and there goes Trevor and Ting and Cody. They're leaving and we're going to be doing an orientation video. No eki-ben (station bento) for you. Have fun guys. An amazing two days and two nights. Cody, Ramen Guy Japan. And those guys are doing it. Hey everybody, how you doing? I'm going to be giving an overview of Okayama Station as we say goodbye. We had an amazing time going around Kagawa Prefecture, which is udon country. If you like ramen, udon is better. That's what I say. But ramen is pretty good too.

00:01:07 John Daub: This is the entrance for both the Shinkansen (bullet train) and local trains. The reason they're rushing is because they have very little time to make their train. Oh look at them, they're going back and forth. They're going to love the playback on this one. There they go, they went the right way, and they're off. I want to give you an orientation of Okayama Station. My Shinkansen will be leaving in 45 minutes so we have some time to explore and learn a little bit about Okayama Station. If you decide to stop here, I hope this is a useful guide for you to be able to find your way from one side of the station to the other. I also have my Shinkansen ticket so you might be joining me onto the Shinkansen. Maybe I'll get an eki-ben. You might want to stay until the end of this video, and maybe we'll get on the Shinkansen together.

00:02:02 John Daub: Alright, so you're going to come out of this IC ticket gate and then you're going to see this up here on the top. There's two ways you can go: the east gate or Higashiguchi (east exit) goes towards Korakuen (one of Japan's top three gardens). If you go the other way, that's Nishiguchi (west exit). It's for the sports park or the NHK building, the ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel. But there's really not that much on this side, so you probably want to go to this side. So we're going to go this way first. This is the way you would go when you exit if you want to go to Okayama Castle or towards Korakuen Garden.

00:02:45 John Daub: Check out a map here just to give you some orientation of Okayama as well. Here's the station of course from all the train rail tracks going through this one area. And if you go straight down this road, you'll hit one of the best gardens in Japan. I've been here many times and highly recommend Okayama's Korakuen. Next to Korakuen is the castle. It's famous for being called the Black Castle or Crow Castle because it's a darker castle. But it's rebuilt and it's not as popular. However, the beautiful thing about this garden is that from the garden you can see the castle, and it makes a very beautiful backdrop to the garden. There it is, the Black Castle, Okayama Castle. We're not going to be going there. We're just exploring the station one day at a time. And you can see this side, the Higashi side, is a lot bigger and more built up. Let's go there right now.

00:03:50 John Daub: So Trevor and Cody and Ting got their tickets inside here, the kippu uriba (ticket office). And you can see there's a massive line because there's a typhoon coming in and a lot of the trains are going to be stopping. I'm okay because I'm going up to Tokyo. There's the vending machines for the Shinkansen where people are buying them at a rapid pace because they want to get out of town. How you doing everybody? Let's explore Okayama Station. Follow the crowd. We're going to go outside to the ekimae area (station front). This is the east exit or east gate. And we're going to come back in after you see the ekimae area, which is the station front. And then we'll walk into some of these stores where you can buy gifts and things like that, eki-ben.

00:04:42 John Daub: Over here, actually, I knew that they should have came out this way. But this is the Shinkansen platform, which is closer to the east exit. They probably should have gone in here. So maybe that's why they were running back and forth. That was Trevor James, the Food Ranger that you saw in the beginning of the video. Okayama does not have a subway. Okayama has streetcars and they have buses. And you can get one or the other. But I prefer the streetcars because you're above ground. It's like riding a train or a subway above ground. The streetcars are this way. You can see the sign above us right there.

00:05:34 John Daub: Hello. Oh yeah, that's me. That's my video. Hi, I'm John. Nice to meet you, Yoko. This is Yoko. Thank you for saying hi. You're from Okayama? Yes. I was in Ghana until March this year. Wonderful. Do you like it here? Yeah, sure. My hometown. I used to live in Okayama and Kurashiki as well, 20 years ago. A long time ago. So I'm very used to your videos. Thank you. That's very nice. So I wanted to say hello to you. Hello. You want a picture? Thank you. You're welcome. Have a good day. You too. Bye bye.

00:06:46 John Daub: Wow, that was nice. So Yoko stopped to say hello. What a nice person. Sometimes people are a little bit too shy to ask for photos. So you should be nice and say, would you like to take a photo? It's just a nice thing to do because Japanese fans don't often ask, but they want one. Okay, so let's get back to this. That was nice. The Okayama Korakuen and Okayama Castle. You can see the signs are right up there. So it's very easy to get around. They don't just put it in English. They put the icon right there. It's in Chinese, Korean as well and English. So you want to take those streetcars. Just take the streetcar bound for Higashiyama for both of them.

00:07:40 John Daub: So let's just take a look and see what that's like, that situation. And then we're going to walk around. I'm going to show you some of the things in the ekimae area. There is a ticket uriba here as well so you can buy your tickets here or you can just pay with an IC card like a Suica or ICOCA on the buses, the streetcar entrances. Here we go, so if you're going towards Higashiyama you want to take buses. Everything's in Japanese on this side. Higashiyama and Korakuen bus number one will go there apparently, Noriba 1 the first one. So you want to go to the first platform Noriba to get to the castle, that's easy. So that and the first one is right up here. On the streetcar platform is up ahead there so you have to go up to the road a little bit get to the street side streetcar platform or you can go underground. Underground if you want to cross the street the safest way is to go underground and you get back on the other side of the station. That is a way also to stay dry because yesterday when I came through here it was raining pretty hard.

00:09:24 John Daub: Take a look here, there's Okayama Station and all its beauty. It has the outside of the exterior of the station has not really changed much in the 20 years. This is the first place that I came to in Japan. I arrived from Kansai Airport and just the English school that hired me picked me up and brought me on the Shinkansen at night. I was so out of it after the long flight with a change in Detroit and I think it was Northwest Airlines I flew. We came here, I think I got here at like 11 p.m. and they put me in a tatami room and I was so disoriented, I was jet lagged. I woke up at four in the morning and I was like I'm in Japan, this is so cool, there's a tatami room, you can smell the tatami. I opened the window and on the other side of the station I could see all the neon lights which were in the front of Okayama Station. This is the other side and that was my first view of Japan. And when I stayed on the other side at a hotel I kind of could relive that memory 21 years ago. Your first time to Japan is always very memorable, the lights, the smells, the air seems different in a different location. But this station has been renovated now and it's really beautiful.

00:10:43 John Daub: Getting around from one side to the other is through the main entrance which you see right here. So if you want to get to the other side of the tracks and you're walking you want to walk through the station. It says here the East West access way so it's very easy to see, Higashi Nishi East West access way through Okayama Station. You can't go, there's another secret underground crossing way that I used 21 years ago but it's very narrow and it's through the shopping mall and not a lot of people know about it except for locals. That one I just showed you is the best one right here by the fountain. This is the most famous character from Okayama and I always stop here for a second because this was in the first Only in Japan main channel episode. That's Momotaro (Peach Boy). He's a Okayama character who battled the demons on the island with his monkey friend, dog friend I guess, and the legend of it. This is why he's Momotaro or Peach Boy and that's the reason why Okayama's peaches are also very famous here. People are so polite they don't want to get in the way of me filming. The story of it I think you should Google it, it's better than if I tell it to you. But stopping here and seeing him is paying homage to him because he's also on the manhole covers here.

00:12:25 John Daub: The Only in Japan intro is being worked on. I saw that if you're a supporter on Patreon and you're on Discord you've already seen the images of what it's going to look like and it's pretty amazing. Alright across the street and this is really important to point out there's a new Bic Camera. I say that it's important because if you've lost a cable or you need some wire to charge your phone or computer you can get everything right across the street. If you're going deeper into the countryside you want to make a trip into Bic Camera because there's not really many options outside from Okayama Station until you get to like Hiroshima or go up to Osaka and Kobe. This is another shotengai (covered shopping arcade) across the street you see with the peach above there that plastic peach. If you walk down there you'll find some cafes and restaurants, some izakaya (pubs) at night. There's a capsule hotel that's the capsule hotel I stayed at in the first Only in Japan episode like in 2013. That capsule hotel still there, it's like a capsule sauna and you can stay for like 20 or 30 dollars a night, it's pretty inexpensive.

00:13:39 John Daub: There are lockers in here of course, you have everything that all the other stations have. But over the last 20 years it's the exterior on this side hasn't changed much but the inside is completely different. You can see those they're like retro windows on retro paneling on the side of the station. There's some lockers right here as well as a post box. I don't see any of the manhole covers around here, huh that's a shame. Oh there's a Momotaro is on top of the mailbox. Hey how you doing everybody welcome aboard once again there's Momotaro he's cute because he's a boy who loves peaches who battles demons. Do not let the cute exterior of Momotaro fool you though, he's extremely tough and will battle you to the end. He's on top of a post box here there's some lockers. And if you need money change it's right there to pick a locker. You can pay with your IC card which is cool like a Suica or an ICOCA card. In Okayama they use Osaka's ICOCA, it's not Suica but the system is the same so you can use both cards all over Japan. Kitaca is for Sapporo but they're all in the same system. Suica has a penguin right and ICOCA is this duck.

00:15:19 John Daub: Alright so the first thing you do, let me find one that's available. They're all locked, what I can't even show a demonstration. You would put your stuff in the locker push this down it activates the monitor you pay and it will automatically lock it's as simple as that. Michael Littleton so glad I found your channel thank you Michael I appreciate that. Let's go towards an eki-ben and we're about to go and buy that right now. So that's your orientation for this side of the station this is the east side. Time to go to the west side so we're going to walk through Okayama Station one more time and I'm going to show you a little bit of the other side as we say goodbye to this side.

00:15:53 John Daub: Hey Miguel's here. Miguel hi John is a five million to seven million yen a good salary in Japan? Yes it's very good. Can a person or a family live comfortably in Japan with that amount of salary? Yes they can live very comfortably. Rent should be about I don't know in Tokyo maybe 200,000 yen a month for family in a 2LDK two living dining kitchen. So you could be fine the most you would spend is maybe 30 man (300,000 yen) a month maybe for the whole family it depends. And that's a good salary. English teachers will probably make about two to three million yen. If you have a family you want four or five maybe it's pretty safe. That's about 50,000 US, 5 million yen's close to 50,000 United States dollars that's pretty good here. 60,000 is better and 70,000 is even better than that.

00:17:55 John Daub: There's a lot of people who are scrambling to go back because of the typhoon that's hitting Japan right now. It's gone past Okinawa and starting to make its way up here and there was talk that the Shinkansens will stop at 4:30 but I was able to buy a ticket at 5:40 so we got about 40 minutes left before I have to jump on the train. We started this live stream with Trevor and Ting from the Food Ranger Channel and Cody from Ramen Guy Japan jumping under their train real quickly because they're going down west to Hakata Fukuoka. Oh no I could smell that Belgian waffle oh that smells so good. This was not here 20 years ago in Okayama this is such a beautiful walkway.

00:18:41 John Daub: When you ask a question like how expensive is Japan I really don't even know how to answer that because I don't know where you're from and I can't have nothing to compare it to. It's I believe in many ways it's cheaper than the United States because you don't have to tip but it's also more expensive for some things and more and less expensive for other things. Eating in Japan can be much cheaper than the United States but it can also become more expensive than the United States just the price ranges and what you want will determine it. A bowl of ramen costs anywhere between like 400 yen for a very simple bowl to 1300 yen or 13 dollars. One beer costs about 500 yen or five dollars at a restaurant and 200 or 250 cents from a convenience store in a can. That's the Toyota Rent a Car where we got a car. The wind's starting to pick up a little bit there's the hotel ANA Crowne Plaza there's an NHK building on this side.

00:20:06 John Daub: You can see the road that's crossing through Okayama in the back it's just redone. This was a little under construction a little bit last time I was in Okayama now it's such a beautiful side to the station. All the construction all of the renovations have been redone in Okayama Station and the end result is this beautiful walkway connecting both the sides. I used to be an AEON teacher I used to teach for AEON Amity which is an English school and the training center was right there behind there. So my first days in Japan were spent right there and they've knocked down most of the buildings. I don't think the building I stayed at there is still standing but I remember staying in a tatami room in that block and looking back at the station and going wow I'm in Japan. And so much has changed since then it's like a different life as it's a generation ago. So once again this is not the side you want to go to if you're going to Korakuen Garden which is one of the top three gardens in Japan or Okayama Castle which is next to Korakuen Garden yeah you want to go to the side we just came from.

00:21:22 John Daub: Alright let's go back on we're going to go inside of the station and get an eki-ben because I gotta eat something on the train right. If you guys like these station tours hit the like button and encourage me to do more because the more I travel around the country the more I want to stop and give you overviews of the station so when you do come here you get an idea of what it's like. A lot of the stations though are consistent in the way that you buy tickets are consistent in the way that there are stores and convenience stores and things to buy so each experience each station gives you an overview of all of the Shinkansen stations in Japan. Cobra Bee Bob thank you for contributing to my eki-ben much appreciated. And I like to do these live streams because they're also like a memory in a point in time because I figure in five years this station will have changed even more. You will be able to compare the videos.

00:22:22 John Daub: Here's my Shinkansen ticket. This is Okayama to Tokyo. It cost me about $160. Car number 13, window seat, row 12. I get into Tokyo at 9:03. Got that, Kanae? I'll be home at 9:03. That's better than 11:03. So we were two hours early because we're gonna see a little bit more. Alright, this is 7-Eleven here right before you go into the station and they you can buy eki-ben and drinks as well inside of here. Check it out. Toothbrushes if you need something for travel they got you taken care of and then right in front you have the drinks this the soft drinks you have all sorts of goods.

00:23:32 John Daub: Eki-ben. I prefer not to get my eki-ben from 7-Eleven. I prefer to get them inside at a bento shop and you can see in front of us you see that store right in the middle of your screen? That is a bento store also one that you can buy omiyage (souvenirs/gifts). So I'm gonna take my ticket now and we're gonna go in. Okay let's do this. Amy Meow Cat. That's okay I will absolutely do that. It's been validated. Fluffy Cat, nice stream. Have you ever done a stream from Shimonoseki? I'm planning to go to Shimonoseki for something special. I'm not going to tell you what, but I'm working on it right now. And Karina Palma, thanks for the live streaming, John. You rock. Thank you, Karina. You guys have just fulfilled my eki-ben dream. I appreciate it. Let's go find something, either an omiyage or something for Kanae.

00:24:40 John Daub: Let's get something for Kanae, and we're going to get an eki-ben on the train, see what we can find. If you look back here, this is the central exit to Okayama Station. On the left and the right, underneath the clock, you can see, and we still have 30 minutes, so don't worry. My train leaves at 5:42, so we have good time. You're not going to see a Shinkansen run unless this live stream goes way long. The Sanyo line is what goes between Osaka and Hakata. Sanyo is also a famous electronics company, right? So I think there might be some relationship. I'm not sure. But there's also a train that cuts across to the Sea of Japan, which you see right here. That line is called the Super Inaba that goes to Tottori, across to the Sea of Japan, which is really cool. And the Shinkansen trains are on the other side. Let's go get snacks. Grab something for Kanae.

00:25:55 John Daub: Omiyage is the word. Omiyage means gifts. And in this shop here, you can buy lots of little gifts. So let's see what we can see from Okayama. The stuff in the front is usually the biggest. This one is mochi and anko (red bean paste), I think. And this small sample box for 10 is 865 yen. Whoa, look at these crepes. Look at these crepes. That's a thousand yen for six. I think Kanae would love this. Like Japanese anko crepes. Nice. That looks really delicious. There's some grape chocolate. Once again, peach is very famous in Okayama. So you'll see Okayama gifts with a lot of peach taste on here. There's some peach pudding. There's Momotaro, which I showed you. Okayama on cookies. These are some maple cream pancake cakes. Oh, look at that. Maple cream pancakes in packs of eight. One box of these will cost you 972 yen. It looks really good.

00:27:37 John Daub: All sorts of gifts here. Here's some mochi. Kibi dango (millet dumplings) with cream inside and anko red bean paste. Kibi dango is really fun. Check this out. Here's some ichigo (strawberry). Ichigo yumeji. This looks pretty good. Oh, wow. I thought mango was famous in Miyazaki, but they're famous in the Seto island area. They grow mangoes as well. So they have these mango like little cakes. Look really good. You can get one. It costs $2.50 about for one of these. They're down here in the refrigerator. They won't last until I get it back to Tokyo. Oh, these kibi dango. Okay, let me go over here. These are cute. The Okayama kibi dango sets are really cute. Kibi dango is like a little bit of mochi with anko in it. Oh, wow. Some jelly. This is what I'm talking about. They still have the end of summer. Summer starts peach season, and Okayama is most famous for white peaches. Do you see that? They smell so good. But they're a little bit pricey. That box up there on the top costs $60 for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight peaches for $60. But they're really good. You can see the white peaches in the picture behind them.

00:29:32 John Daub: That'd be a good gift for Kanae. Got to work on it. I'm still looking. Jelly. They have some sake in the back, but Kanae doesn't drink alcohol. This is interesting. Look at this. Here. This is peach. Peach nectar. This is organic peach nectar. It comes in a really nice box. And one bottle is about $8. Actually, that's a pretty good gift for Kanae. There's also peach liqueur and grape liqueur. I think I'm going to get this for Kanae. Is that alcohol? No, that's not alcohol. That's just peach juice. I think she'd really appreciate that. Like really premium peach juice from Okayama. Oh, this is sake. Sorry. This is peach nigori (cloudy) sake. Whoops. Nigori means like a cloudy sake. Sorry, Kanae. You can't get that. Kanae doesn't want one of these peach plushies either up there. Alright. Oh, that looks pretty good. Roll cake with Japanese red bean paste. And there's some chestnuts in here. This is the autumn season type of thing. Chestnuts or kuri (chestnuts), marron are famous in this time of year.

00:31:09 John Daub: One way or another, I'm going to get Kanae some. You'd probably think that's just a gift. She doesn't like the cakes too much. And the sweets. Okay, let's go into the Shinkansen platform now. This is still the Sanyo Line, the local line. Let's go into the Shinkansen platform and maybe we can find something for her inside there. We're inside the station now, but we haven't entered into the Shinkansen. Inside the station, inside of it is the Shinkansen terminal. Or you can come in the entrance that I showed you before. Right now, we're going to go towards the Shinkansen. So I have to put my ticket through here once again. And there's another omiyage store. Look at that, on the other side. So let's go through here. Remember that, everybody. Platform 23 and 24 to Tokyo. 21, 22 to Hiroshima and Kagoshima. Towards Fukuoka.

00:32:33 John Daub: Oh, Kanae loves these kind of stuff. But fish cake might not be the kind of cake that she likes. These are like deep fried fish cakes. They're famous in Hiroshima, Miyajima as well. I think also in Kyushu too. But I'm going to pass that up. Usually, they'll put the most popular omiyage in the front. What do we got here? Oh, that looks really good. This is a sugar and small red beans. Mochi. That looks really good. I think these are like manju (steamed buns). Like little manju. Kanae might like that. Or these anko crepes are really popular. What do you think? Oh, man. I think Kanae would be happy with anything I bring her. But I want to make sure I get her something good. Hey there, station chief. We both wear hats. Demi-glace, demi-katsu-don. That looks pretty good. Isn't this a pretty eclectic mix? You have pancakes. And above there, beef curry. Rice and pasta. And then a katsu-don, katsu-curry. They really serve everything in that cafe. Alright, there's some peach juice here. Kanae would love peach juice. That's a little pricey. Alright, that's option A right now. What else we got? I'm not buying our gift from 7-Eleven.

00:34:41 John Daub: Eki-ben. Let's go to the eki-ben and see what we can find for a quick meal on the train. Oh, there's the kibi dango in that advertisement. Eki-ben. All sorts of delicious looking eki-ben here. Look at that. This has like a little bit of everything. This one's sold out though. This one has some fish cake in there. That's sold out as well. They're all sold out. There's not a lot available. These are sold out too. Check this out. What? Sold out. Hey, Benevale. Drinking food fun. Thank you. I'm gonna find something delicious. That's still available and we're gonna get it. This one looks good. This is yakiniku (grilled meat) with some mushrooms on there. Matsutake mushrooms. That's $12. This one's a mixed meat bento. That's available. What else is available? Some sushi. There's really not that much left. The Shinkansen. Even the Shinkansen bentos. The Dr. Yellow train bento is sold out. There's not a lot. Let's ask. There's like a traffic jam here. This one looks pretty good. This is the dashimaki (rolled omelet) and anago (sea eel). Let's get that. I said dashimaki anago, please. Because the anago one is sold out. That's number three, number one. There's not a lot. $12. Please give me a receipt. Thank you. Alright, I got it. Thank you guys. Thank you for the eki-ben. I appreciate everybody.

00:37:29 John Daub: Alright, let's turn our attentions now back to Kanae's gift. I've given it some thought. A gift should be, you should put some thought into your gifts, I think. We didn't get a chance to see Okayama Castle. Now you have seen Okayama Castle. Right there. I think I'm pretty funny, huh? Who am I talking to? Alright, let's get Kanae these crepe, anko crepes. I think that's the best that we can do. Anko crepes. What do you think? Or should I get Kanae a six pack of juice? No, that's chuhai (canned cocktail). Alright, let's give this a quick look inside again. Oh, I got it. This is, she's gonna love this. This is exactly what she wants. This is peach jelly in peach canisters. They have this in Tottori and it's nashi (pear). This is peach. I'm gonna get her a box of two. Thanks guys for the super chats. This is what I'm gonna get her. I already know right away that this is what she wants. Instant. She loves this and we should put it in the refrigerator and eat the peach jelly out of the peach. That makes her so happy. That was easy.

00:39:02 John Daub: These kibi dango are really cute. Check it out. Whoops, sorry, my bag fell there. And there's Momotaro. That's the Momotaro gang that I showed you outside of the station. Put it back. That's 300 yen. This is something that I think I can get for the, um, for my daimyo (Patreon supporters). I think I can buy this for them. Alright, I'm gonna think about it because I can get it at the Okayama store. They have one in Tokyo. Oh, these look good too. These are eggs. These are white chocolate eggs with red sweet bean filling or potato. Sweet potato filling. Oh man. I gotta, I gotta get out of here. Not just because I gotta make the train, but because I'm gonna buy everything. Oh look, they have these. This is a lemon cake. That looks really good. Okay, I'm gonna get one. Oh wait, I can get one of these crepes. Just one. Alright, let's try this on the platform then. What do you guys think? Let's do it. This is fun. My train is at 5:42. So I have some time. There's Momotaro and the Seto Bridge that we just crossed. If you saw the livestream, which was like planned very poorly, where Trevor was operating the gimbal for the first time, we crossed that bridge.

00:41:24 John Daub: Alright. I'm gonna go to the bathroom. See ya. You don't have the peach flavored Kit Kats, do you? No, we don't. Ah, too bad. Thank you. They don't have any, I asked if he has any peach flavored Kit Kats and they said no. Sorry guys. No peach flavored Kit Kats. I did find this. They do have local Okayama beer. If you're interested in that. Doppel seems to be the name of the company. But I don't think that they're, it's famous for it. That's interesting. Look at these gachapon (capsule toy) figures. You can buy, you can just buy them. You don't have to go through the thing. You have the, you don't know what's inside of it. But one of these trains, that looks pretty cool. 500 yen for gachapon ball. I'm gonna get a beer on the platform. Ah, sumimasen (excuse me). Let's go get a beer on the platform then. Excuse me. Excuse me. If you happen to get by people, you can, instead of saying gomennasai or sumimasen, which you can say, I like to say shitsurei shimasu (excuse me for disturbing). Like it's kind of rude. I'm getting through. It's a good way to politely get past people. You say, ah, shitsurei shimasu. Shitsurei shimasu. You can get past people.

00:43:21 John Daub: Alright, non-reserved is this way. Bentos! I already bought it. Sorry. Can't get my business. They're closing. They've sold out the bentos. Whoa! They're sold out of bentos. I got one of the last ones. Hey everybody, if you like these station live streams, click the like button. We get to 300 likes, I will unbox the crepe, the crepe one. Alright? It's up to you. 300 likes. And I'm gonna open up this crepe thing that I've been showing you at the gift shop. Nice and cool up here. Feels good. Nice. Nice wind up here. We're 30 likes short of 300. So my train is 5:42. That's the second one. We're gonna get a chance to see the train coming right now. Hey guys, the Shinkansen's coming right now. You're gonna see the Shinkansen coming. This is gonna be pretty cool. This is the one at 5:33, so we're early. It's coming right this very second. The anticipation is killing me. Here it comes! Ah, you're so beautiful! Where you going?

00:45:50 John Daub: This is one of the few stations that don't have guard rails to open up. I'm sure they're gonna be working on it. They still have the old system. Oh, look at the driver's popping his head out the window. How you doing? This is the N700 bound for Tokyo. It's gonna be leaving in about one minute. So the stop to get in and out of the train is about a minute. I once tried to get off the Shinkansen, buy something at one of these shops, and get back on the train, and I just made it. Do not try that. It's dangerous. So you have just until the time of all these people get on the train, and then they're gonna close the door. That's how fast it moves. It's a whistle stop, right? Literally. And then he's back on the train. Right now I just bought something and I'm running back on the train, and I just caught the door, and then it closes. Oh, this is an extended time. I'd love to do something in Nagoya. I just have to find a topic that's worth it. There's a ton of stuff in Nagoya, but they're micro things. Something big. But that's the cultural home of pachinko. But the museum closed down, and the first pachinko parlor has kind of like been changed up.

00:47:32 John Daub: We're gonna say goodbye to this. I'm gonna go get a drink because we got so many nice super chats. I think I deserve a brewski. I don't know. What do you think? There she goes. Country road. West Virginia. Country road. Na na na. Alright, let's do this. Crepe. You guys did it. I promised it. We got it. Boom. The wind is really picking up. I'll put my bag here for a second, and then we're gonna go. Alright, I promised you that I would show you this crepe. So that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Street food. This is a delicacy in Okayama. It's crepes filled with anko. Red bean paste. And I'm gonna do this right now because I asked for 300 likes. We got 300 likes. I should've asked for 400. Serves me right. It's very soft. Very soft. I felt bad because I was teaching Trevor how to use the gimbal on the bridge while I'm driving. So that was an awkward situation, but I'd scheduled a live stream to show the Seto bridge about an hour and a half ago, and I did that. Here. Look at that. It looks really good. I love the texture on it. Mmm. It's good. That would be good with coffee.

00:49:51 John Daub: The next level is 500 likes. And that's up to you. If we can get this up to 500 likes, I will show you the eki-ben, maybe. The only reason I won't show you the eki-ben is the train might be too crowded and I don't want to be disruptive because the Shinkansen starts in Tokyo or Osaka, and it's easy to get on there and do it because we have some time from the beginning. But in the middle of the train, the line, it's harder to do because usually there's other people around and you don't want to disturb people, right? Oh wow! Why didn't I do that? I could have gotten the eki-ben on the platform. These are still available. Oh wait. No, these are sold out too. Whoa! This is the Kodama bound for Shin-Osaka. The Kodama stops halfway. How much is it? 521 yen. Thank you. Oh, he's getting a premium. He got a premium beer. Alright, you asked for it. I got it done. Now I gotta get to car number 13. I have a reserved seat, so there's no reason for me to rush. But the Kodama train, this one on the left side is leaving at 5:56, so we can't see that one go. Country road. West Virginia. Country road. Those are the only words I know. There she goes. Bye there. Shinkansen Kodama.

00:52:38 John Daub: Alright, car number 10. Oh wow, look! Hey everybody! Check it out! There he is on the platform. Ah! Ah! Push the button! This is 7-Eleven right here. 7-Eleven's on the platform. Oh, here comes my train. You're gonna see it behind me. Flying by me. Let me know when the train comes so I know when to turn around. Okay? I gotta walk towards my train. This is car 11. I gotta go to car 13. Somebody tell me when the train comes behind me. Okay? I don't wanna miss it. Do you see it? Let me know. Car 12. Car 13. Ah, here it comes! Here it comes! Shinkansen! Da-dum! Got the headlights on. Oh man, it's beautiful. PMX, thank you. I'm row 12, so I wanna get in. Get on here. It's a reserved seat, so I'm pretty cool. I mean, we're not gonna have... I don't have to fight for a seat, but somebody might have... I might have to drop you on the seat for a second while I get situated. Okay? So, don't panic if you fall onto a seat. I'm saying that because I'm holding you. You are inside of a telephone. You people. So don't panic. I'm gonna do my best to bring you the eki-ben unboxing, but just be calm. Car 13, row 12, C-A. Car 13. Alright, everyone relax. Be cool, okay? Don't make any noises because you don't wanna be a rude foreigner. Be cool. Follow this guy. Be cool.

00:55:19 John Daub: Oh no! Someone... I have to sit next to two other people. There's no way I can do an eki-ben unboxing, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna wait until the train leaves. See if there's two empty seats I can sit in for a little bit. I'm gonna do the unboxing really quickly and then move to my normal seat. Okay? Oh man. I'm next to two other people, but I got the window out. That's not ideal. Alright, let's do this. Sorry. Do the best that I can. Alright. Give me a minute and I'm gonna unbox this. This is the eki-ben. Oh, we didn't even get to 500 likes. You guys have to get to 500 likes. No, I'm not gonna do the eki-ben unboxing. What? It's at 360 likes. You gotta go to 500. I'm not gonna... What? The community didn't put the effort in. It's crazy. 360 likes. It's crazy. Let's get our like count up. Come on. You guys gotta get me out of here.

00:57:54 John Daub: Okay. I'm gonna go to the next one. All up to you with 100 likes short can't see me in it to get to 500 Lisa it says something true you can't like it more than once very true but like it quickly because we're gonna go through tunnels and you're gonna lose me check it out this for you but I want to just just just to show you because we've got tunnels and stuff this is clear as it's gonna get it looks as good as as it's tastes as good as it looks I've never had it before but I know it's gonna be amazing I just want to say thank you so much this is an anago dashimaki bento and it's really really it smells really good too oh man get close to it look at that dashimaki tamago (rolled egg omelet) egg so daughter you're very welcome.