00:32 John Daub: English speaker with occasional Japanese place names, food terms, and cultural words. Like they're making something up there, there's just some with fish. Oh, this looks like taiyaki (fish-shaped waffle) with cream, which I ate the other day in Kagurazaka. You can see they're making some other—maybe some mochi here, some rolling some stuff. Kanae Daub is actually waiting in line to get some bread at a bakery. There's a famous bakery here and the line looked like it was 10 minutes long, so we didn't want to show you nothing, so she's waiting in line. By the time I get there, hopefully she would have picked one up and then we can eat that together.

02:16 John Daub: What I like about this place is that you can also kind of get a look inside of the shops. You can see the artisans, the craftsmen making the snacks, making the okashi (sweets/snacks) right in front of you. That's kind of a neat point—a lot of them have windows and you can look in. So you're gonna get a chance to see lots of different kinds of food and sweets and snacks being made. This one here allows you to make your own senbei (rice crackers). You pay here—it's 500 yen—and then you stand in front of one of these grills and you can make your own senbei. It's pretty good. Hello there—it looks like that's what you can make in here. So it's kind of neat to do it yourself. I'm a DIY guy, so maybe we'll do this to end the live stream. I'm not sure yet—depends on the rain, because up there the sky looks ominous. We had some drops hit us earlier, but we're hoping that it can hold out for a little bit longer.

03:20 John Daub: I did find one manhole—this isn't the one I wanted to show you, but it has kind of a festive feeling to it. Underneath there's a fire hydrant, so you won't see them on the streets but you'll see them underground. The manhole covers point you in the way. The great thing about the Kashi Yokocho (candy alley) is that it's small—you can't really get lost. So I don't expect this to be a 90-minute marathon live stream. Oh, there she is—Kanae. All right, she's still waiting in line. Let's give her some time here and while she's waiting, let's take a look inside this window. Whoa, this looks so good—that's what we're waiting in line for. Maybe you can see it through the glare, but he's putting on some kind of chestnut icing on top of some freshly baked bread and I can smell it.

04:30 John Daub: Oh no, I guess he's putting it for sale now, just kind of to rest it up there, and here comes the next batch. A lot of the bakeries will specialize in one or two things, which allows them to make more of them. And then despite being a line that keeps increasing and has been already waiting for about 10 minutes, everybody gets one—they don't really sell out. So it's a lot of different baked items inside there. I'm not even going to attempt to film in there because yeah, it's tight. On the weekends it's really hard to go to tourist spots and relax. Kawagoe is a very popular day trip from Tokyo for Tokyoites—for people like me who live here—as well as tourists. So if you're visiting here and you have some time, go on the weekdays and not on the weekends. Just a little bit of advice—you can go on the weekdays but try to go early. I found that it gets really crowded between 9:00 a.m. and lunchtime at around 12 o'clock. All the restaurants were full—we had to wait for about 30 minutes before we could get lunch and we had to pay a little bit more at a pricier restaurant just because it would have been a lot longer if we didn't.

05:44 Kanae Daub: Can I go inside? Are you next? Tsugi no tsugi (next, next). Kind of getting there.

05:54 John Daub: None, what are you gonna order? A baguette and get me something sweet. Yeah, something sweet potato, something sweet. They're making something with icing like something that looks like this on top of the bread. Just—yeah, oshimono (topping). Get whatever is the popular stuff, which could be this. This is a han-nuri okashi pan (half-iced snack bread)—I don't think that's what that said. That's the name of this place. Kanae's almost there. Let me take you a little bit around the corner. We're not going to ruin this—I'm not going to take you down in there, but I'm going to tease you with it so you get an idea of what it looks like in here. It's worth coming to this corner.

06:46 John Daub: And a reason why I did not live stream this was that I could give you some space, and people who didn't join the first one have a second chance to join us in the second one. Now this is where the intersection starts again—this is another intersection and where the Kashi Yokocho picks up again. It's more of a traditional street—you can see steam coming out so you know they're steaming something good and a lot more traditional buildings. But it's very crowded in there—that's where we're heading in about five minutes.

07:32 Kanae Daub: Can you wait? I can't wait. I'm not even hungry anymore but we're gonna pack it in—we're gonna pack it in for you.

07:41 John Daub: You the tourist—the traffic just doesn't stop. It's coming from this direction, it's coming from this direction. So that's really interesting. You could sit outside the cafe too—a really nice little resting area, I think bicycle parking. I came by bicycle but it's about 40 kilometers away from central Tokyo, so it's a little bit of a hike. Kanae should be on her—let's see, I'm gonna spy inside the window here. Oh yeah, she's making her order. Kanae's making her order—we're spying. All right, she's next—she's right now making the order so we're about 30 seconds too early.

08:40 John Daub: I love bakeries where the bread comes out piping hot fresh like this, and if it's sweet, all the better. Maybe shove a piece of A5 wagyu in that baguette, huh? Oh, there she is—did you find something? She's eating something. That's awful—she's got something. What? No, she's eating something—it's not fair. I should have waited. I should have been the one to wait in line and I gave her the gimbal. Did she buy it, eat it, and then buy another one? That's what—that's so that's a John move. I would buy two, eat one, and say oh I only bought one and I'll be like this—I only bought one. That's something I would do. She's learning the techniques.

09:50 John Daub: All right, let's give her a little bit of time. Across the street from this Rakuraku bakery is another bakery. I guess they just own this whole block but this one looks really nice—it's a brand new building. And a lot of the buildings here look like that—they're new but they've been redone. This is a sandwich parlor, I guess—you can order sandwiches with the bakery bread and that's a pretty neat idea. This one—there's nobody waiting at all. Oh, Kanae and I should have gotten a sandwich right here. Look at that—looks pretty good. They have vegetarian sandwiches as well. Look at that—there's even the coveted fruit sandwich, which I think that I would really love to eat right now. Oh, that minchikatsu sandwich looks really good too. Minchikatsu is like a breaded hamburger and then deep-fried hamburger with egg. Do you see that? Between bread and lettuce. Honestly, minchikatsu is just amazing. And this is a juicy roast beef sandwich. So yeah, this bakery is making me happy and hungry. And Kanae is paying right now. All right—I see her paying. You see her right there? That's her head turned not to us—she's wearing the same jacket as me, just a woman's size.

11:43 John Daub: Once again, for those joining us, we are in Kashi Yokocho. David, we just ate—we just ate. She's coming out right now. That's good. Lunch is pretty expensive, actually—I was surprised. But we're very happy and it's a nice little day trip. So far, we've been having a great time. I'll see if I can put the link in the description, but definitely check out the playback on the YouTube channel. And if you want to watch the episode before this, because it'll give you all the information you need on how to get here. Walking that long shopping street was quite an adventure. Oh, and hey David, everybody else—we're going to be going back to that vending machine, the sake vending machine, and see if we can get some shots of it. Here she comes—oh, she bought a lot. Kanae bought a lot.

12:47 John Daub: You bought a lot. What is this? What is this? I have a bit—you want to show? You want to show? Yes—let's see, what you got? We want to look at the happy face. A mini baguette—that's yeah. Oh wow—okay, what was the one that they had? This sweet one—oh, this is sweet one. Okay—oh, just bread. It's happy—two breads. Wow—okay, very cool. And this one is for me—yeah. Oh my God—inside. The smell's so wonderful—it smells so wonderful inside. I like it—I like it. You like in a different—yeah.

13:44 John Daub: We don't have smell-o-vision yet, so we have to go by the feeling like oh, that's what it is. All right—check out this bread. The first snack is bakery, but look at this piece. What is this? Fig? Ichijiku (fig)? Yeah—this is a fig, fig inside this bread. So me thinks this is going to be a pretty good bite here. All right—let's try it. Yay for food. Mm—very nice fig. Yeah—you try. That's what you're eating—how many stars? Five out of ten—ten out of ten. Okay—oh yeah. All right—we're going to watch our carbs. Good call—I saw the chat. We're going to take you now down to the alley.

14:58 John Daub: So we wanted to stop at the bakery—we knew there was going to be a line. So we'll try to avoid the lines but still show you some interesting stuff. But this place is a kid's dream come true, this street, because it's all snack foods and little teeny things and everything like that—big stick. Everything is like 200 or 300 yen—it's super cheap. So it gives you a chance to try lots of different things, lots of little different snacks from Japan. And that's the theme—has impact. You can't miss it. Whoa—the warabi mochi (bracken starch mochi) is sold out. That's what was sold out—this is a very soft mochi with kinako (roasted soybean powder). Gone—darn. Next time, we'll be back for you.

15:57 John Daub: All right—let's get back to the thing. You can see here—they call them like penny candies, things that are really cheap: 10 yen, 20 yen, 50 yen. Nostalgic candies from the Showa era—it's like a candy from the Kanae era, maybe 40, 50 years ago. Stuff that Kanae's papa ate when he was a kid. Yeah—he ate all this junk, I guess. Look at the flowers—that cute little kid's giving grandma some change for some candy. That's like very early 20th century, right? Where the candy's in a glass jar and the kid's looking at the glass jars. This one, they're making the candy in the back of the—it's hard to see. You can't see back there, but that's the factory. And they make the candy, put it in little plastic things and plastic wrappers, and you can get it and eat it. Everything is 110 yen—10 yen because the tax went up to 10%. So it's 100 yen and the tax is included into it. Things like lollipops and little bags of candy—things that you can just try. There's some things for 200 yen over there, but everything's pretty reasonably priced. Awesome place to buy gifts. There's the bell tower—that's the bell tower that we saw earlier.

17:33 John Daub: The trip continues as we go down Kashi Yokocho. It does feel like the old Showa era, right? With the old granny taking money from the customers just like they did 50 years ago. Now everything's by IC card and pay by credit card. This is supposed to look like sweet potatoes and they do, but it's really just sweet potato fugashi (crispy sugar bread). Fugashi is like a crispy bread type of thing with sugar—made with black sugar. And it's that bread that's inside of these—do you see? Those long baguette-looking things—they have long fugashi. That's a long fugashi—you can see them here on the wall as well. Oh, you're not allowed to film in there—all right, be careful. But these fugashi are super big and they're 350 yen, like $3. In there, he's doing amezaiku (candy sculpting). Do you know amezaiku is the Japanese art craft of candy making? And I have a video on that as well. But it's like a throwback to the Showa era 40 years ago.

19:09 Kanae Daub: Where were you last night? I was here. Are we allowed to go and show the amezaiku? Yeah—a little bit?

19:13 John Daub: All right—we'll show you a little bit of the amezaiku. Amezaiku is such a really cool thing—it's like when you would make animals out of balloons and stuff. But she's going to blow it—what? How cool is that? So she made the bubble and now he's going to make something out of it. It's the artistry of making candy the same way they did make animals out of balloons and twisting them. You could do that with candy here in Japan and they make amazing animals and objects. This one just looks like a bubble—look at that, that's candy. It gets hard—interesting. That's an easy one. What's this one? Japanese plant—this one? It's a cookie—ago (jawbreaker)? It's a cookie. So these are little snacks—aji (horse mackerel)? Yeah—salty on sticks, great for beer. There's a sweet potato ice cream. Hey Jaehyun, how you doing? Gabrielle Thomas—hello from USA, Indiana. Look at that—so it's the purple and the white would be yokan (sweet bean jelly) and sweet potato. What a mix—okay. Wow—nama imo yokan (fresh sweet potato yokan). That's a great flavor.

21:14 John Daub: Again, more candy—you can see everything was $2 for a bag. Oh that's what you bought from before—Kanae's got a sore throat so she bought some okashi. Some—yeah. Oh you bought that one—yeah, it says for your throat. See these are—these are the ones that I bought. Oh, ishi-yaki imo (stone-grilled sweet potato). Oh this is so cute—that looks really good. Butter—but it doesn't use butter. Oh there's no butter? Yeah, no butter—wow, just paste? So that's grilled, rock-grilled sweet potatoes in a package for less than $4—430 yen which comes out like 390 or something.

22:06 Kanae Daub: What is a yokan?

22:09 John Daub: Yokan is—how can I say? Is it made from the red beans but cooked? It's kind of like smashed up beans but pure and harder—like cake? Yeah, it's like a cake made out of it. It's very heavy and semi-sweet to sweet depending on the kind of yokan. You can add some additional flavors to it—it's really good with green tea. Yeah, it's good with green tea, traditional Japanese. It's hard to explain it but—yeah. It's made from the same sweet beans that we have everything but it's like purified and you don't taste the beans, like the skins of the beans. It's all—it's good. Yokan—Y-O-K-A-N.

23:02 Kanae Daub: Oh they got beer here too—it's 20 yen. No, I'm good—no, no, no. You drank? I drank that one, yeah. Do you want to try the ice cream, Kanae? Yeah—we ate. Oh, where'd they go? Yeah, we ate a lot of food. You drank? We'll see what we can find.

23:24 John Daub: Right here is also a lemonade stand—fresh squeezed lemonade. There's 20 seats inside so you can sit in there and kind of enjoy. Smell—I can smell the lemonade. Ah yeah, it looks like a chain and people are waiting for something. Over here he's making something—let's see what's up. A taiyaki—oh, with custard. Oh yeah.

24:07 John Daub: What is that, Kanae? Do you want some o-senbei (honorific rice crackers)? Rice crackers, yeah—so he's selling senbei. They look like they're broken up in there—freshly made senbei. Very cool. Oh, this one is taiyaki—Kanae, you gotta get a taiyaki. No, because you have to get one because I ate one yesterday—it's only fair. They have cheese, anko (sweet bean paste). Look at all the kinds they have—right here. Kanae, wait—they have potato anko and anko and a little bit of a—and cream. Oh, cream is good—cheese, chocolate? Yeah—which one? Imo (sweet potato)? Potato? Because we are in Kawagoe. Oh that's true—in Kawagoe, usually you get the potatoes. Alright, let's do it, Kanae—just one. Oh that's the line? What? Alright, get in the line quickly, Kanae—yeah, better get in it quickly and then we'll decide. That's a long line—alright, you stay in line, Kanae. I'm going to go just walk around with all of our friends here.

25:34 John Daub: So let's go to the end of the street now—I'm going to go to the end of the street. We'll walk back and when we come back, Kanae will have a taiyaki in her hand. I'm not making her do all the dirty work—if I give her the gimbal then this is actually harder than what she's doing. So it's all good. Here's the end of the street. As I showed you in the beginning of this video, I'll just live stream the candy alley—it's just basically a square, one block. And all the shops are around the block. So right now I'm on the end of the street and I'm looking back at candy alley—that's what it looks like. Very well kept or renewed old buildings from the early 20th or late 19th century because there was a massive fire in Kawagoe in the year 1893 and they rebuilt it in this warehouse style. But what is really unique about this town is that it retains the old charms of what the Edo period was like—that's why they call it Little Edo. And it's become a huge tourist attraction. And it's filled with snacks, mostly from potatoes—Saitama has some pretty good potatoes, I guess. Satsumaimo (sweet potatoes)—everyone is buying one of these okashi. They're really long sticks you take—a lot of people can find a place to sit, eat a taiyaki or an ice cream or some fried potatoes.

27:25 John Daub: Look at this building up here—this is why you come to Japan, to find places like this. Personally, I try to get out of Shibuya. Oh look at that unagi (grilled eel)—that looks better than the one that we had for lunch. We didn't have unagi, but they had it at the restaurant we were at—it's about $32 for that unagi set, kind of pricey. Let's see what they got in here—the unagi is down at the end of the street. You see he's the chef right now—he's grilling unagi. Oh man—I love unagi. There's just a really delicious fattiness to it and flavor in the sauce—all of that put together, it's delicious. So here they're putting, I think it's sweet potato like sweet potato bits with some kind of natural sugar on it—looks like French fries. Interesting—smells sweet. Kenpi (sweet potato sticks)—Kawagoe kenpi. Kind of looks like French fries, but they're sweet and hot.

29:11 John Daub: All right, let's go check up on Kanae—Kanae, you did it, you got it. Perfect timing—we were just making our way over to you. It is—let's hang out on the side here, I guess just kind of hang out right here. They're all friends—all these shop owners are good friends. Yeah—there's no place to escape, you have to eat it here. So let's see your taiyaki—taiyaki is always shaped like a fish because that's tai (sea bream). Tai is the name of the fish—do you go head or tail? Do you eat the head or do you eat the tail? Head—you go head first? That's what I did yesterday. All right, do it—not yet? You're taking hamster bites—you have to bite the way you want to bite it though. Now squeeze it and let it all ooze out—that's what I would do because I'm 12 years old. It's hot—it's good. Oh yeah, there's the potato—yeah. I'll give it a bite—she takes proper bites. That makes my bites not proper—hot.

30:49 John Daub: It's basically the batter is basically like pancake batter and inside of it is like mashed up sweet potato. I think it's a little bit of sugar in there too. But my problem with the sweet potato is sometimes it seems a little bit too dry—you need it with a drink or something. They did a good job making this creamy, but I probably want to dip it into more sugar—like a sugar syrup. Yeah—because I've got a sugar problem. All right, I'll go for one more—one for the road. Do you know the taiyaki song? Yeah—we have taiyaki song.

31:28 Kanae Daub: Jodi, my bites are rude, she said.

31:37 John Daub: Jodi—is that the opposite of proper? I mean, you're not wrong then—grotesque would be better. I wouldn't take offense to grotesque—rude though, that's a tough one. Oh, this is the spices, right? He's making the spices—Japanese shichimi (seven-spice blend), right? Shichimi is so good—it means seven spices. Yeah, the way you want to make it—more spicy, he can put. Oh yeah, more spices—which one do you want? He'll mix it the way you want to mix it—yuzu smell, he can put more yuzu smell in there. Good—it's 500 for small and 800 for large. That's pretty good—she said it smells so good. So you like it, Kanae, huh? Yeah—taiyaki makes everybody happy. Taiyaki makes life better—you cannot hold a taiyaki and not be happy.

32:46 John Daub: Oh, they're making taiyaki—see them, how cool that is. Whoa, look at the cheese chunks that she's putting in there—it's potato? Oh, that's the potato? Yeah—oh, I love this job. Just make potato pancakes all day—one for me, one for you. It's a nice job—yeah. I'm not leaving Kanae behind—why is everybody so worried? Like I'm doing something bad—everybody, the internet's always thinking that I'm abusing you. Crazy—leaving her behind.

33:58 Kanae Daub: You are—no, no. I don't know—you are.

34:06 John Daub: Right, the Italian bombshell knows exactly—right, Kanae is capable of taking care of herself. I'm going to walk through the alley now without annoying you by narrating stuff—just take it all in yourself. I think you get the point.

35:15 Kanae Daub: I'm going to go—well, I am. You go first—you first. Oh come on—yeah. Okay, I'll go first—I'm going to take care of myself. You go first—oh, the ticket is going to come up one. I'll go—I'll go. Okay—we will go. Okay—oh okay, I'm going to go. Come on—come on. Okay—can I just leave him alone?

36:02 John Daub: I still got to find the manhole cover, can I? I want to see the manhole cover—the old one that's been painted. All right, we're clear—that is an amazingly comprehensive view of Kashi Yokocho, right? We did everything, like we went back and forth twice. So now you know what you're getting into if you come this way. There's some pretty good candy—a lot of it's cheap, much of it is 100 yen or less. Taiyaki was like $1.50, 150 yen—yeah, yeah. So everything is pretty reasonably priced. But just keep in mind, on the weekends it's pretty crowded, right? Yeah, I recommend to visit on weekday—if you can come here.

37:08 Kanae Daub: Is it your first time in Kawagoe? Yeah, me too. Oh, koi (carp).

37:17 John Daub: So you can tell—excuse me, is there an earthquake coming? No, I don't know how they react to earthquakes. When the earthquake comes, do they go crazy? What do they do? I'm not sure—hold her hand, John. Mark, don't tell me what to do—don't tell me what to do. Look, see? She won't do it—not on camera. That's nice—this is a really pretty canal. That's so fun for the fish, I bet, to have the water running like this—yeah. It's probably like a party—these guys all know each other. Oh, there's a kappa (mythical water imp). Ah, kimoe (cute?). Yeah, kappas are—they steal little children and drag them into the river. It's a kappa—no, they're totally evil. Somebody put five yen on his head—he has a unagi. Oh, he's holding an eel—yeah. Yeah—they're talking? They're talking—they're talking. Oh yeah, look at this—it's a kama (sickle) on your left side. Oh yeah, look at that—kama, kama, kama, chameleon. You come and go—I'm demonetizing myself. All right, so you're supposed to give him five yen.