Japanese Abandoned House to Cafe Akiya Bank
Japanese Abandoned House to Cafe Akiya Bank
Overview
John Daub travels to the historic town of Kumagawa in Fukui Prefecture, located along the ancient Saba Kaido (Mackerel Road). This route was once a bustling highway during the Edo Period, transporting fresh mackerel from the Sea of Japan to Kyoto. Today, the town is experiencing a revitalization through the akiya (abandoned house) bank initiative, where old properties are renovated into modern spaces.
John explores a specific building that was an abandoned house just two years ago and has now been transformed into "Soul's Coffee," a combined cafe and shared office. He interviews Coco, a former Tokyo resident who moved to Kumagawa to work and live in the renovated space. Together, they tour the Edo-period structure, highlighting the preservation of historical features like horse stables, wood floors, and water pumps alongside modern amenities like Wi-Fi and coffee roasters.
The video captures the peaceful atmosphere of rural Japan, contrasting it with the busy cities of Tokyo and Kyoto. John walks the historic street, learns about local history from a neighbor, and enjoys regional specialties like kinako ice cream and saba sandwiches. The episode serves as both a travel guide to Fukui and an inspiring look at how younger generations are breathing new life into traditional countryside towns.
Highlights
- 00:00:00 John introduces the Saba Kaido and the renovated akiya building.
- 00:50:00 Meeting Coco, who lives and works in the shared office.
- 02:48:00 Discussion on the historical traffic of the Saba Kaido during the Edo Period.
- 06:04:00 Touring the former horse stable now converted into a cafe.
- 09:01:00 Demonstrating the working hand pump for water in the kitchen.
- 14:15:00 Exploring the steep staircase and second floor with low ceilings.
- 21:28:00 Viewing the town from the second floor window.
- 28:14:00 Meeting a local neighbor/historian who shares stories about WWII and the town.
- 31:03:00 Tasting kinako ice cream from Marushin.
- 38:35:00 Coco discusses preferring life in Kumagawa over Tokyo.
Timeline / Chapters
- 00:00:00 Intro to Saba Kaido and Akiya Bank building
- 00:50:00 Introduction to Coco and the shared office
- 02:48:00 History of the Mackerel Road
- 06:04:00 Inside the cafe and former horse stable
- 09:01:00 Kitchen tour and water pump demonstration
- 14:15:00 Second floor exploration and views
- 24:39:00 Walking the street and meeting locals
- 28:14:00 Historical stories from a neighbor
- 31:03:00 Ice cream tasting and local food discussion
- 38:35:00 Q&A with Coco and closing thoughts
Japan Travel Tips
- Getting There: From Tokyo, take the Shinkansen to Kyoto, then a local train to the area followed by a bus or car (approx. 1 hour from Kyoto to Kumagawa).
- Best Time to Visit: Late summer to autumn offers pleasant weather, though winters are cold with snow.
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi is available in specific renovated buildings like the shared office, but 4G signal may vary on the street.
- What to Eat: Try the saba sandwich (mackerel sandwich) at local roadhouses and kinako (roasted soybean powder) ice cream at Marushin.
- Accommodation: Look for newly opened hotels or renovated akiya stays in the area; some open on specific dates (e.g., October 14th mentioned in video).
- Etiquette: Remove shoes when entering traditional buildings or homes. Respect private property while walking historic streets.
Japanese Language & Culture Notes
- Akiya (Abandoned House): Properties often available at low cost through "Akiya Banks" but require renovation and residency commitments.
- Saba Kaido (Mackerel Road): Historical trade route used to transport fresh mackerel from Obama City to Kyoto during the Edo Period.
- Edo Jidai (Edo Period): Historical era (1603–1867) when this road was a bustling highway for merchants and travelers.
- Yadoya (Traditional Inn): Lodging houses that provided food and sleep for travelers along the route.
- Kinako: Roasted soybean powder often used in sweets, paired here with kuromitsu (black sugar syrup).
- Sosukatsu: A Fukui specialty, thin pork cutlet served with sauce, often over rice (don).
Food & Drink Guide
- Saba Sandwich (Mackerel Sandwich)
- Where: Roadhouse about 1km from Kumagawa town.
- Price: Not specified.
- John's Reaction: "Incredible," "One of the best saba sandwiches I've ever had."
- Timestamp: 03:30:00 (Mentioned)
- Kinako Ice Cream
- Where: Marushin restaurant in Kumagawa.
- Description: Ice cream topped with roasted soybean powder and black sugar syrup.
- John's Reaction: "It's just amazing," "It's so good."
- Timestamp: 31:03:00
- Amazake
- Description: Sweet non-alcoholic drink (sometimes contains slight alcohol).
- Timestamp: 26:30:00 (Mentioned)
- Sosukatsu Don
- Where: Yoroppa restaurant in Fukui City.
- Description: Thin pork cutlet rice bowl.
- Timestamp: 40:19:00 (Mentioned)
People
- John Daub: Host, exploring the region and documenting the renovation process.
- Kanae Daub: John's wife, accompanies him on the trip (referred to as "Kanai" in transcript due to ASR).
- Coco: Works and lives in the renovated shared office/cafe. Originally from Tokyo, worked in Singapore, returned to Japan.
- Neighbor / Historian: Local resident who shares historical knowledge about the town, WWII evacuation, and local geography.
Key Takeaways
- Rural Revitalization: Younger generations are moving from cities to countryside towns to renovate akiya and start businesses.
- Historical Preservation: Renovations keep original features like wood floors, stables, and water pumps while adding modern comforts.
- Accessibility: Kumagawa is only about an hour from Kyoto but offers a completely different, peaceful atmosphere.
- Community: Locals are welcoming and eager to share history with visitors.
- Akiya Bank: Provides a mechanism to acquire abandoned properties at low cost, often with conditions to live there and renovate.
Notable Quotes
- 00:00:00 "This was an akiya (abandoned house) bank house that's now been changed into a workspace, a shared office, as well as a cafe right here."
- 02:48:00 "During the Edo period, which was about 200 years ago, this was a super highway. This was filled with people."
- 07:45:00 "You can just feel the history. You can smell the history. I smell the coffee, too."
- 14:50:00 "This is where Totoro would live."
- 21:28:00 "I hear no honking, no cars, a few people. All I hear is that potato washer."
- 38:48:00 "I like to live with my family. But now I prefer staying in Kumagawa. It's more relaxing."
Related Topics
- Akiya Renovation Projects
- Rural Japan Travel
- Edo Period History
- Fukui Prefecture Food
- Shared Office Culture in Japan
Search Tags
#only-in-japan-go #fukui #kumagawa #akiya #saba-kaido #japan-travel #rural-japan #cafe #renovation #edo-period #kinako #ice-cream #shared-office #kyoto #obama-city
Full Transcript
00:00:00 John Daub: This is one of the stops on the Saba Kaido (mackerel road). How you doing? Look at this beautiful street that we're on. Almost nobody's here. Why aren't you here? So we're going to take a look at this building that's right here and discuss what this used to be. This was not too long ago an abandoned building. This was an akiya (abandoned house) bank house that's now been changed into a workspace, a shared office, as well as a cafe right here. Check it out. They're building it right now. And all of this is going to open on October 14th, three weeks from now. And what you have right here is a potato washer.
00:00:50 John Daub: Oh, yes. The water will wash them automatically. All right. So we do a jikoshoukai (self-introduction). That's kind of up there. And this is Coco. And you are working here and living here. Yeah. Yeah. I'm originally from Tokyo. And I worked in Singapore for seven years. I came back to Japan last year. Your English is perfect.
00:01:21 John Daub: All right, everybody. Check out right here. This is again the Saba Kaido or the mackerel road that goes all the way this way towards Obama City, which is where I was hitchhiking. There's some live streams there from two and a half years ago. And if you follow this road all the way past Kanai, it'll take you to Kyoto. And during the Edo period, which was about 200 years ago, this was a super highway. This was filled with people. Literally everybody was walking. This is the place to be. This was just crazy with traffic. And all of these houses had businesses and yadoya (traditional inns), just places to sleep, places with rice.
00:02:23 Coco: They use the Yado River here. Also, this is a tributary off of it to help transport heavier things to Kyoto, which is where the emperor lived. That's where a lot of the commerce was in the Edo period. But Kyoto was still very important.
00:02:48 John Daub: So we're going to take a look inside over here. I want to show you is Soul's Coffee, right? I just heard nice things from her. Oh, I see. Way to Kyoto. Yeah. So in Edo period, many horses here. Yeah. So even humans couldn't go to the other side. It was so crowded. You couldn't cross the road. There were so many people you couldn't get from one side to the other. There were so many horses back then transporting not just mackerel, saba, but it was called the Saba Kaido because mackerel was you get that from the Sea of Japan. Kyoto doesn't have any sea. That's how crowded it was. And look today. There's like nobody, just a potato washer. Do you see anybody? I don't see anything. This would be great. This is like Totoro's town. This is where Totoro would live. Right here is Soul's Coffee. It's very... and over there is an ice cream shop, which I heard is so good. And we just had a saba sandwich at the roadhouse about one kilometer away from here. The bread and the saba I put on Google reviews was incredible. Just the quality of the goods is going up. And you can see that because a lot of people are coming back in here.
00:04:25 John Daub: Now, the reason why this place is renovating, it's having a revitalization is because, you know, I think it's a generational thing, too. About 20 years ago, people were in their 70s and 80s. And this was just deteriorating really badly. In fact, if we just walk a little bit over there, you'll see some houses that have just collapsed on itself. But now the younger people are coming in from the cities. People are seeing opportunities here and they want to take over what their grandparents did to make it beautiful again. And you're seeing the love that they're putting into it. The buildings here are very well done. A lot of them were akiya, meaning abandoned houses that they could get at a discount just work with. And it's such a beautiful area. I see this in like two or three years being a huge tourist attraction just because it's so authentic. And if we put in some stylish businesses here, some good food restaurants that don't serve Edo period food from 200 years ago, but that have been renovated and look clean, it's going to be really good. Yeah. And when does the hotel open? Also the 14th. Yeah, there's a hotel. We were supposed to stay there, but it's not quite done. It's all right. But you can see they put a lot of love into the cafe. The floors are all wood. They're painting it, staining it. So if you do come to visit, it's going to look a lot different. How you doing? Hey, whoa, working hard. This is going to be a cafe. And right over in the corner, they have a coffee roaster. Check that out. Going to be roasting the coffee. So the coffee smell is going to go out into the streets and just be incredible, I bet.
00:06:04 John Daub: Yeah, this part of this house, it used to be where the horses were back in the Edo period. People would come off the Saba Kaido and they would bring their horses into here. Right. And this seems like a really good place to put a cafe. The size is really nice. I guess you can drink at the bar. I'm not sure how the system is going to work, but maybe some tables, some sandwiches. I can see this is pretty cool. I see it's pretty good. I want to start a coffee shop now. Sounds like fun. So Coco, what else can you tell us about this building?
00:06:50 Coco: So this was the Edo period building. Edo Jidai. But the base is old. Everything was kind of new, though.
00:07:10 John Daub: I love the roof here. So have a quick look inside. We're going to go inside this house. Now, what did this look like a year ago? How was it a year ago? It's a little different, isn't it?
00:07:29 Coco: A year ago, the shared office opened last year's April. So it's been one year. One and a half years.
00:07:45 John Daub: Wow. Let's go inside. The place is coming. Whoa, look at that clock. Look in here. You can just feel the history. You can smell the history. I smell the coffee, too. I can smell coffee and history in here. Right there, that's the horse stable, which is now a cafe. It's pretty cool. They've got beautiful glass doors where you can walk between one and the other. This is the perfect shared office, too, when you have a cafe right next to it. You're going to have coffee smell every day forever. Yeah. Yes, there's Soul's Coffee over there. That's where the coffee is coming from. That's the smell. They're working with the coffee here. Beautiful shared office. Yeah. Handpicking the beans. That's what Soul's Coffee is famous for. Should we go here first? I want to show you here. All right, let's take a look in here. This is one of the only buildings with Wi-Fi right now, so we have a really good signal.
00:09:01 John Daub: Yeah, let's go in here. Oh, rice. This is a kitchen. What do you call this in Japanese? This is a stove. A cooking stove, and you'd have a fire underneath here, and this is where you would cook rice and steam it in here. Yeah. You'd put the wood in there, close it, and it'd get really hot, and you'd have traditional... Oh, yeah. We do have lights here. Let there be light. Oh, very nice. And I like this. Kanae, you want to do it? This is a hand pump for water, and it works. Very nice. Let's touch the water. I'm going to touch it for you. Easy. It's moving. Oh, it's nice and cold. I love this. This is great. Look at that. And the water is really clean. It's coming again. You can drink it. Yeah, you can drink it. It's a little bit metallic, maybe from the pump. It's good. You can drink the water. There you go. Very nice. I like this. I like the style of it all. Keeping the naturalness of it, the dark wood, earth colors, earth tones in here. It's very nice. Here you can cut, cook. Wonderful. So this is the kitchen for the cafe or anybody, for the shared office?
00:11:12 Coco: For the customers. Oh, so this is also a yard for the hotel, yes. You can stay here.
00:11:19 John Daub: How cool is that? Actually, not in this building. Oh. Yeah, we have the hotel. Oh, okay. It's on the other side of the street. Okay. Not in this building, but you can also cook. Yeah. Come on over across the street and cook here. I like that. So you're kind of living the old way too by doing that. It's not just... Everything is so convenient these days. It's nice where you have to go... Is there like a benjo too? Like the outhouse? Yeah. Is it like an outhouse? Outroom? Yeah. That's inside, right? Yeah, it's inside. Okay. I've been in places in Nagano in the countryside and they have like a benjo, which is like a toilet out separated from the house and you have to go out there. No, we don't have that here. That's good because they were very cold in the winter. Yeah. Sometimes you'd see... We're going to make rice here tomorrow. Oh, we're going to make rice here? Yeah. Oh, I'm looking forward to that. Tomorrow we'll be making rice here. Kanae and I are here for tonight and tomorrow so we get a chance to look around some more. Very cool. Can we look into the shared office?
00:12:40 Coco: Yes, sure.
00:12:44 John Daub: All right. I like it. So what do you guys think out there? Do you think you could live here? Ice Cream writes in Trekaris and Joshua Del Moral, have you been to Japantown in San Francisco? I have not. Let's go inside here. You got to take off your shoes. Very good. Beautiful wood floors. It's a nice mix. Look at that stairway. Do you see the stairway over there? Are we going to look at that next? Ah, you knew it. Roasted coffee. Yes please. Mike Taco writes in, yes please. Coco loves the smell. This tatami room is big. This is like three times bigger. It's bigger than my apartment in Tokyo. That's right. This is, you can smell now coffee and tatami mixed smell. There's our bags right there. This is the most pleasant smell in the world. You have the naturalness of the tatami with that deep acidic coffee smell. I like it. So this is part of the shared office?
00:14:09 Coco: Yes.
00:14:15 John Daub: Okay. Works off. Chilling out. Yeah, chilling out. Okay. I could use that shared office all day long. Look at this. Oh, that's probably like Edo Jidai 100 years. These rocks have not moved for a thousand years in my imagination. Leading to, there's a hill behind here and there's a temple up on the mountain. What's the name of the temple up there?
00:14:47 Coco: Shirahige Shrine [?].
00:14:50 John Daub: Shirahige Shrine. Okay. We also have temples, but it was the Shirahige Shrine. Wonderful. Yeah. That's just my guess. It's nice. Very good. And so this was a year and a half ago you moved in here. And two years ago it was Akiya Bank. Two years ago this was Akiya Bank, an abandoned house. And so the rent is very low probably. What? Do you want to say? Is that public? I don't know. Yeah. I need to ask my boss. It was very like, I heard the price and I'm like, what? That's really low. That's crazy. That's crazy low. But Akiya Bank is supposed to be here. Safe for 50 bucks. Wow. That is some hardcore safe. I'm not going to touch anything there. But this stairway goes up to the second floor and I like built into the stairway are these little cabinets. I like it. What do you put inside here? The secrets of the office. Anything like paper, books. Yeah. That's where the hamster would hide if we had a hamster. You can see. It would be inside the closet. A second home inside the closet with a little hole in the corner. You see the hamster pop its head out. That's a good thing I don't live here. That's what I would do if this was my office. This is a really great staircase. Let's go up it. It's very, very steep as well. It's very steep. They're big steps. Can I go? I'm going up on an adventure. All right. Come on. Let's go up. Oh, yeah. The feel of the creak of the wood underneath your foot feels really good. Watch your head. Just watch your head. You got it. That's one thing. In the older houses from the Edo period, everyone was really short and they were built for people with shorter... Look. Unless I move, I can't move. I cannot bend over. I cannot get through this door. Are you okay? Can you walk freely? I'm fine. But I cannot jump. You can't jump. Where's the nearest hospital? Yeah.
00:17:26 John Daub: The second floor, again, everything is made of wood. So we have to be careful of fire, I'm sure. It's something to consider. Beautiful windows. I'm just going to pan around a little bit so you get an idea. I'm going to go up. Ninja proof. It could be. Yeah. I think more and more when you see the deals and how expensive it is to live in Tokyo, coming out here and finding an akiya, but you have to fix it up and you have to live here. If you get an Akiya Bank apartment or house, you take it over, you have to fix it up and you have to live there. You can't just keep it as a second home. That's one thing. I did a live stream in Kobayashi City, where we went over some of the akiya houses, one that a person had just moved into that week. And they have to live there. And it was over a hundred year old house. Oh, it's closed. These are like... I guess you have to turn it. These are old style. Oh, it's locked. Oh, that means locked? It's open? Oh, it's just, I'm just not strong enough. I'm just afraid to break it. Wow. Look at this view from the second floor. I do feel like a ninja. It's a nice window and you have a beautiful view of the town. I could see like cats hanging out here. Little neko (cats). Koneko (kittens). Just sitting on the roof going meow. That's what we need here to make this a Totoro town. That's what it looks like right here. I have to bend over to get the shot, right? It's pretty low, this window. I'm on my knees. I guess that would make me a cat and Kanae would be the owner. But it's pretty nice view from the window here. I like that.
00:19:38 John Daub: Basically, the thing with these older houses in Japan on the countryside is in the winter, you're cold. It's very cold. How was the winter last year? Was it cold?
00:19:50 Coco: It was freezing cold. Lot of snow.
00:19:57 John Daub: And in the summer, it's just so hot. In the mountains, I guess there's not as much wind maybe. It's cooler than Tokyo, right? In summer? It's a little bit cooler than Tokyo, but it's still hot. It's hot everywhere. Not much insulation. I guess it's better than it was in the Edo period. Probably smelled bad in the Edo period. Horse smell, I think. All right. This, there may be less people now. But smells good. Smells a lot better. I think in the Edo period, it was so many people, it probably smelled like the restroom and the horses everywhere. See we think about how amazing it was, but sometimes having so many people and horses is not the best thing. But we could use some more people here. That's for sure. So let's, oh, I love this window here too. Eh, sono mama deshita? Was it like this? Kono mama. They kind of renovated a little bit. Yeah. This looks like it is a little bit new. I like the earth colors, kind of like a matcha green. You can slide it open. Whoa. What is that? That's insane. Look at this beautiful view looking over Kumagawa. This is crazy. How, that's why you live here, huh?
00:21:26 Coco: Yeah, exactly.
00:21:28 John Daub: That's why people come here. I hear no honking, no cars, a few people. All I hear is that potato washer. I hear potato washing. He's very close to Kyoto, but totally different. Yeah. Right? Just only one hour. One hour to Kyoto, but Kyoto is so big. When I think of Kyoto, I think of the city actually. There's buses. It's very hard to get around. You know, Gion. Actually, this feels like what I would want Kyoto to feel like. And it's not Kyoto, it's Fukui. That's just weird. You don't have to go to Kyoto to get that experience. Just come to Fukui. Come to Kumagawa. Just the new Kyoto. That can be your new motto. We're Kumagawa, the new Kyoto. Listen to the way the wood creaks underneath feet. I like that. It feels good. All right. Let's go down. Watch your step. This is very, very steep. More Kyoto than Kyoto. I like that. Kyoto still has the charm though. Watch your head. This is, ah. I've already hit my head. So far today, I think it's about four feet. Four times I've hit my head. Yeah. You have to be very careful. Ah, that cicada, you can't hear cicadas. It's the end of summer, right? Oh, yeah. It's good. Nosh had a good saying. The cicadas are kind of gone right now. Kanae and I have a little bit of time and we're going to take you down the street here. Just show you what you're missing because the air is so fresh. First of all, I have to say that I can't believe this morning we were in Tokyo. We took the Shinkansen to Kyoto and then Kyoto we changed. We did a live stream and then we were here in 50 minutes on the local train and then it was like a 30 minute drive. So it's not that easy to get here, but I think there's a bus and you can get here and you're rewarded with just peacefulness. I think this is an experience people are looking for when they come to Japan. So you're going to walk a little bit up and down the street with us. We're going to go off of WiFi. The 4G signal is pretty strong here. So I'm okay going off of WiFi.
00:24:39 John Daub: David Kimura, snacks and drinks. Yeah, that might happen. Kanae, soft cream, do you want to eat? David Kimura says we have to eat. Yeah. It has kind of problem. What? So it doesn't have a WiFi. So she said she can buy for you. Oh no, no, it's okay. I'm going to buy and take away. So we can eat later. Oh, okay. Oh yeah, sure. Then put on Instagram. No, no, I don't need a WiFi. I have 4G. Oh, okay. It's strong. Actually, no signal inside. Oh, no 4G? No 4G inside of the store. No. So I can have one message. We'll see. All right, David, we're going in there, but not right now. We'll take a rain check. Which do you prefer? Kinako or? Kinako? Oh, I like kinako, roasted soybean powder. Yeah. Kanae, what? It's kind. I'm going to, David, we're going to get some stuff, though. We're going to make it up. We're going to get her back. Revenge. Which phone do you use? We're right now using the Docomo 4G device. They're going to be the first to have 5G in Japan as well. We're set for that. But this is a pretty cool experience. The WiFi might start ending and we might go on to the 4G so there might be a little bit of a snag. If the signal ever goes out during a live stream, just refresh your browser and it should be fine. Yeah, Coco is so nice. We got a comment from SNZ. Coco is so nice. She's very nice. All right, we're off of the WiFi now so we're on 4G right now. Ah, sake shop. Very nice. Look at this old sake shop. Oh, wow. Kanae, you might want to refresh your browser, everybody. We've gone off of the WiFi and onto the 4G. Look at that. Very beautiful. Old building sake shop. Look at the cups in there. I just want to drink. But Kanae, you're the best. You don't drink sake. She's always looking for stuff for her papa. I drink amazake (sweet non-alcoholic drink). Amazake is non-alcoholic or sometimes it has a little bit alcohol. Just a little bit. I think you're going to be more impressed when I turn around and show you the road back. But it kind of opens up here. You can stay here. Spend a couple of nights just going up and down the street, walking around, rent a bicycle and go out. Ah, look. Coco's coming back with ice cream. Coco's got ice cream. Just chill out here, listen to the water, relax, put your WiFi away, put your computer away, and yeah.
00:28:14 John Daub: Guide. He is my neighbor. The one who went to the market. Yes. How is it? Now live. Live. I am watching the 600 people at the guide. There are all this bending. Bending? It's a curve. It's a curve. There's a canal in Shikubai [?]. There's a common gate there. Or when there was a war, there was a gate that was blocked. It's a place that gets in the way. The story of the Kako River [?] and the Yumi War [?]. It's a story that's over 400 years old. What was the situation like during the war? When was the war? World War II. Everyone was there. From the city, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, etc. The new ruins were all destroyed. There was a big city with air raids. That's how... World War II. My nephew lived in a house next door. Oh. My aunt came from Kyoto. My uncle came and my husband stayed in Kyoto to work. My wife and children lived in Kumagawa. The population grew rapidly. Oh. From the 17th to the 25th century. The 17th century. So they moved here. They moved here during the war. Yeah. This is safer than the cities. It's interesting, right? So during this... Oh. It was a manju shop. Oh, manju (steamed bun). This was a confection shop before. This is where everything was. There was a kiln on the edge of the river. A kiln? Yes. They used to bake bread and manju. It was like a bakery. They had all sorts of things they were baking here. It's just changed a lot since World War II. I guess during the Edo period, it had a lot of traffic and went down. But during World War II, people were flocking to the countryside. And there were these... people would live here out of the cities because the cities were quite dangerous. And then after the war, people went back to the cities to rebuild. And then this kind of deteriorated. And then it seems like it's back.
00:31:03 John Daub: Yes. Right. Corndog wrote in the years 42 to 50. Thank you. He is a historian. And that makes me really happy because... Yeah. I'm reading a guide. I have to eat this ice cream. It's so good. It's starting to melt so fast though. Kinako is roasted soybean powder. It is awesome. That's like kuromitsu (black sugar syrup), black honey, and roasted soybean powder. It's just amazing. There's more stories. Stories. There are more stories. There's a lot more. I just want to keep reading it. I have a headache now. I'm just a kid. That Ledon and I. We're writing. I can't take it. I think it's better to eat this. But it's like... I've never experienced it before. It's a little... But is it better than eating it, isn't it? Try it. It's delicious. Yeah. But... In 20, in 30 years, I want to be that guy. I'm going to have some stories. I'm not even going to charge. I'm going to just tell stories. Half of them will be made up, though. I wouldn't do that. History is history. But I think I personally would like to record more people's personal histories. Like Mr. Seiichi, who is her grandfather, was 98 years old when he passed away. Just locals. She's cooking. Thank you. Nice to meet you. I'm the chef. Now we know who's cooking our dinner. So we're going to have this experience, and then maybe Kanae and I will film something. This ice cream tastes so good. You have an uncle. Yeah, I have a nephew. There goes my diet. So this ice cream is from a restaurant, Marushin. It's really good. I'm going to put this here. Yes, please. Thank you. I'm going to take you now just to the river here. The street goes on for one kilometer. I'm going to be back ice cream. Actually, Kanae, can you grab my ice cream? Oh, sure. Thanks for waiting, everybody. Not all history is true. It's possible. This is a road now, the highway. You can see the cars going on. And this was the highway. The pedestrian highway. They built this one next to it, which is good. Actually, some of the things about the streets, this is very similar to the street Shibamata, the town in Tokyo. I did a Street Food episode on the main channel back about 20 years ago, there were the telephone and electrical poles were lining the street. So the street is already not too wide. You can see. They took the telephone poles and moved it outside, right? The poles are now out on that side and they're off of this street. And that makes this a lot better like it was back in the Edo period. So that's kind of an important thing. The whole walk, this whole Kumagawa town, the old Saba Kaido, it's about one kilometer in this part. But you could still today walk from Obama City from the Sea of Japan all the way to Kyoto if you wanted to. My friend Dean Newcomb did that, I think a couple of months ago. He said the signs were not so well marked, but people said, oh, you're able to walk on that. So that's all changing. I think this is an amazing attraction. This is a place where I would like to spend some more time. What am I doing in Tokyo? I'm not sure. I don't actually have to be. Although I like Tokyo, but this looks really nice too. I could see myself living in one of these houses, right? Looks safe. There's kids playing on the end of the street there. Not much to do. The spiders are big. Daishibu. The spiders are pretty big. Yeah, like I saw one this big, Kanae. You okay with a big spider like that? Yeah. What if it crawls into your ear when you're sleeping and lays eggs? Yeah, it's a pretty big spider. You okay with that? Oh my goodness. Then you wake up and you have little baby spiders all over you. Spiders don't eat humans. You didn't see the same movies that I saw. Whenever you have old wooden buildings, you got spiders. Spiders love old wood and they just sort of live in it. I'm serious. Yeah. They live in the woods. There's a big spider web here. Where is she? I always call spiders she. Where is she? She's probably in the corner waiting for Kanae to walk through there. But yeah, old wooden buildings are home to a lot of spiders. Hollywood OC, Schwing. The manhole covers are pretty nice here. I'm not going to take you the whole way. I don't want to spoil it for you, but I do recommend that you do come out here and just get off of the beaten path. There's a lot along the Saba Kaido. There are a lot of places similar to this. A lot of walkways. Some of them are in good shape. Some of them are not. Fukui in general has... It's not a place... I've only been here three times. I've been to Obama City, Tsuruga, Fukui, and Katsuyama, which is where the dinosaur museum is, but I haven't been too much into the center of the prefecture. This is a nice chance for Kanae and I. Because Kanae's friend invited us out here. She invited us out here to just explore a little bit and get to know the area. Do you have any questions? Any questions for Coco? This is Coco question time. You have to answer in Singlish. We have some Singapore residents. Obama City has nothing to do with the president. It means small beach in Japanese. The o means small. And then hama is beach. Hama, bama. When you have o, it turns to a b. It's Obama. Are you single? These are the wrong kinds of questions! What? Where did you grow up?
00:38:35 Coco: In Tokyo.
00:38:38 John Daub: Do you like Tokyo or Kumagawa? Where is your heart? Where does your heart lie?
00:38:48 Coco: I like to live with my family. But now I prefer staying in Kumagawa. It's more relaxing.
00:39:02 John Daub: Do you have a lot of friends here? Sorry to interrupt. Not a lot of friends. But yeah. I have some friends here. Where do you go for entertainment if you want to? Do you go to Obama? Or do you go to Kyoto? Or do you go to Tsuruga?
00:39:25 Coco: Kyoto. Kyoto for fun. Yeah, Kyoto for fun. It's very easy to access to Kyoto. Yeah, from here.
00:39:35 John Daub: How far is it by rent a car, would you say, if you rented a car? One and a half hour. An hour and a half. That's not too bad. From Kyoto to Kumagawa. I think it's a pretty good drive as well. There's lots of scenic things. There's places to stop off. We had, again, the saba sando (mackerel sandwich). I put it on Instagram. It was amazing. The bread was just fresh out of the oven, heated up to the same temperature as the piece of fish that was in there. One of the best saba sandwiches I've ever had. I don't think I've ever had another saba sandwich. I think it was the best ever because it was the only one. But everything's clean. You can drink the water. There you go. Is there onsen here?
00:40:19 Coco: Onsen? Not here in Kumagawa, but Obama has. Yeah, Obama has.
00:40:27 John Daub: I've been to the Obama onsen. Fukui has onsen, basically. Yeah. Fukui has some onsen. Fukui has good sake. Fukui is also famous for not just saba, which is mackerel in Japanese, but also for sosukatsu (thin pork cutlet). Sosukatsu don (sosu katsu rice bowl). Have you had the sosukatsu don in Fukui City at the... What is it called? Yoroppa restaurant? You know what I'm talking about, right? I love that place. In Fukui City, there's the Yoroppa. How come I know that? Come on. You know who you're talking with? I had two of them. One in the morning, one in the evening before they closed. It's really good. Wow. Yeah, very good. All right, guys. Thanks so much. Once again, the map is in the description. Look at those trees. Beautiful 4G signal. You're getting this in high definition, so you know you can use the internet, but you shouldn't. You should not be using WiFi or the internet when you come out here. You know what you should be doing? You should be relaxing. And in just a little bit, I bet you the sun is going to go down behind this mountain, and then the lights are going to come on, and then you'll see the city in a different way. Maybe at night. Who knows? But you got to be here to do that because I'm not streaming tonight. We've done two today already, right? Can I? Yeah. See you tomorrow. Thanks for watching, everybody. If you have any questions, leave them down in the comments below. Hit the like button because I need to be encouraged to do good stuff. And yeah, if you're interested in akiya houses and stuff, I have another live stream as well. If you have any questions about Kumagawa, you can leave the comments below and Coco will help me answer them because I have lots of questions too. Somebody said bad stuff. All right. I'll go back to my ice cream. At this point, I just have to drink it. I don't even have to scoop it. Just drink it. Is there a school here? That kid's out of school. Oh, it's 4 PM. Oh, it's late now. You're late. Yeah, it's 4 PM. It's an elementary school kid having fun. He's looking at the ice cream store, not having any in mind. Maybe a bite. See everybody.