Only in Japan Go — Transcripts
Summaries + full diarized transcripts
2019-12-16 · Ep 590 · 1h 14m

Tokyo's German Christmas Market Experience

TokyoChristmas marketsGerman culture in JapanFood authenticityWinter travel
Summary

Tokyo's German Christmas Market Experience

Overview

In this festive December episode, John Daub and his wife Kanae visit the annual German Christmas Market (Tokyo Christmas Market) set up in Shiba Park, directly facing Tokyo Tower. Sponsored by the German Embassy, the market features wooden stalls reminiscent of Nuremberg and Munich, Christmas ornaments, a Nativity scene, and German food and drink. The timing is noteworthy—John and Kanae had just returned from filming Christmas markets across Germany and Europe, making this the perfect opportunity to compare authenticity. The result is a charming, sometimes bumpy exploration: the Glühwein (mulled wine) is expensive and inconsistently made (one serving tastes suspiciously like lemon juice), but the sausages are solid, the atmosphere is cheerful, and running into Canadian expat viewers creates spontaneous, warm conversation. John and guests Zach and Sarah from Adachi-ku discuss life in Tokyo, Canadian beer culture, and the elusive Christmas spirit in Japan.

Highlights

  • [00:00:23] Stunning opening shot: Tokyo Tower rising behind the Christmas market entrance with German-style wooden huts
  • [00:01:38] Well-crafted Nativity scene at the entrance—"that's what Christmas is all about"
  • [00:05:52] John discovers glass ornaments and compares them to what they saw in Germany—no "don't touch" signs in Japan
  • [00:10:22] Meeting Ed from the Philippines at the information booth—he prepared for the show and was recently in Prague's Christmas market
  • [00:16:52] Ordering Glühwein and Kinderpunsch—John explains the Japanese cup-deposit system (no refunds, you keep the mug)
  • [00:28:14] The infamous Glühwein disaster: John's first cup tastes purely of lemon with no wine detectable—Kanai agrees; they suspect they were given lemon juice because they're YouTubers
  • [00:31:00] Meeting Zach and Sarah from Canada—teachers living in Adachi-ku, newly married, planning to stay past the Olympics
  • [00:35:05] Trying ultra-hot specialty hot sauces on sausages—John's eyes water as he tests the habanero and ghost pepper varieties
  • [00:49:12] Second Glühwein attempt succeeds—the Currywurst booth's version is sweet and palatable, much better than the first
  • [00:56:26] John reflects on the "no confrontation" culture in Japan and how he'd gently tell the bad Glühwein booth to fix their recipe
  • [01:03:12] Zach explains the Canadian growler tradition—2-liter refillable beer bottles for about $20 CAD
  • [01:07:22] Encounters a towering Santa on stilts who grabs people's hands, rings bells, and takes selfies—John is mildly creeped out
  • [01:12:10] Closing reflection on Christmas spirit in Japan after 15+ years, and Canadians explaining why anyone would live in minus-40°C Montreal voluntarily

Timeline / Chapters

Opening & Arrival (00:00–05:00)

  • Opening shot of Tokyo Tower framed by the Christmas market entrance
  • John and Kanae arrive at Shiba Park; John explains the market is sponsored by the German Embassy
  • They had just returned from Germany's Christmas markets—Nuremberg, Munich, Vienna, Innsbruck
  • Entrance features a Nativity scene and German-style wooden huts

Market Exploration & Shopping (05:00–15:00)

  • Walk through the long market walkway toward Tokyo Tower
  • Kiddie rides section (300 yen per ride, cheaper than Germany's ~500 yen)
  • Glass ornaments display—John notes no "don't touch" signs (unlike Germany)
  • Bambi ballerina ornament ("kind of creepy")
  • Matroshka (Russian nesting dolls) and German clay candles
  • Stollen (German Christmas fruit bread) display
  • Information booth staffed by Japanese and Filipino workers—notably Ed from the Philippines, who recognized John from the channel

Drinks & First Glühwein Disaster (15:00–28:00)

  • Menu board: Glühwein (apple and regular), Kinderpunsch, hot chocolate with strawberry rum
  • Price structure: 1,200 yen first cup + mug, 600 yen refills (mug not refundable)
  • John orders Glühwein and Kinderpunsch; compares to Vienna (€8 total) and Germany's deposit system
  • First sip: John and Kanai both taste pure lemon juice—no wine detected
  • John considers dumping it back and asking for a refund ("I can't drink this. I seriously.")
  • They meet Zach and Sarah from Canada while processing the bad drink

Meeting Zach & Sarah (28:00–40:00)

  • Zach (sausage-maker by trade) and Sarah, teachers living in Adachi-ku, married just months ago
  • They came to Japan 8+ months ago, planning to stay past the Olympics
  • Discussion of the Chiyoda Line commute, Toronto's Distillery District Christmas market, and Canadian beer culture
  • Zach samples the bad Glühwein and confirms: "No, it's more just like lemon juice in wine"
  • Trying spicy hot sauces from a craft hot sauce vendor—John tackles habanero and ghost pepper sauces
  • Discussion of German mustard preferences vs. spicy sauces

Sausages, Currywurst & Better Glühwein (40:00–56:00)

  • Sausage comparison: white and regular bratwurst, mustard condiments
  • Currywurst discovery—the Berlin-style sausage with curry powder and ketchup
  • Zach (a former sausage-maker) explains authentic currywurst has curry inside the sausage
  • Second Glühwein attempt at the Currywurst booth—much better, sweet and palatable
  • John declares the Currywurst booth's Glühwein "infinitely better" than the first
  • Discussion of poutine in Tokyo (Shimokitazawa has a spot), Canadian beer, growlers, Tim Hortons donuts

Life in Tokyo & Sapporo Plans (56:00–65:00)

  • Comparing living costs: Adachi-ku is cheaper than central Tokyo but more expensive than expected for Canadians
  • Fruit and vegetables are pricey near central Tokyo; John mentions shopping at Costco
  • Renting cars for Costco runs; international driver's license renewal rules
  • Zach and Sarah went to Hokkaido in August and loved it
  • John announces plans to film the Sapporo Snow Festival (early February) for Only in Japan Go

Santa, Atmosphere & Closing (65:00–74:21)

  • Giant stilt-walking Santa grabs hands, rings bells, and takes selfies—John finds him "slightly creepy"
  • Final reflections: Does this market feel like Germany? Is there Christmas spirit in Japan?
  • John has spent ~15 Christmases in Japan and still doesn't feel the same "twinkle"
  • Canadians explain why people voluntarily live in minus-40°C Montreal
  • Call to action: likes, comments, thoughts on the market vs. real German markets
  • Final cheers with Glühwein as German beer tent music plays

Japan Travel Tips

  • Getting there: Shiba Park is a short walk from Daimon Station (Toei Oedo Line / Toei Asakusa Line) or Onarimon Station (Toei Mita Line). JR Hamamatsucho Station is also nearby.
  • Best time to visit: Late November through late December. The market runs approximately December 1–25 annually. Weekday evenings are less crowded than weekends.
  • What to eat: The bratwurst (especially the white sausage) and currywurst are the most reliable items. Kinderpunsch is a safe, non-alcoholic choice for families.
  • What to order: Start with a sausage plate (two sausages ~1,000 yen) and mustard. For drinks, try Glühwein but be prepared—quality varies by booth.
  • Cost comparison: Drinks and food are more expensive than Germany (~$10–12 USD equivalent per drink), comparable to Vienna pricing. The cup/mug is not refundable in Tokyo—unlike Germany's deposit system where you return the mug for your money back.
  • Tips for foreigners: Don't expect the same level of confrontation if something is wrong with your order—staff may not主动告知 issues. In Japan, you may need to speak up politely but directly. No "don't touch" signs means you can handle merchandise freely.
  • Weather: December nights in Tokyo are cold (5–10°C / 41–50°F) but manageable outdoors. Heated tent areas are available if needed.

Japanese Language & Culture Notes

  • Glühwein in Japan: Called gurufuin (グルフワイン) or sometimes karappu wain (ホットワイン / mulled wine). The market uses katakana spellings on menus, which can make ordering confusing.
  • Kinderpunsch (Kindergarten punch): Non-alcoholic spiced fruit punch, popular at German markets for children. John notes Kanai drinks it because she doesn't do alcohol. This term is borrowed directly from German.
  • Cup deposit system difference: In Germany and Austria, you pay a deposit (Pfand) for the mug (~€2–4) and get it back when you return the empty mug. In Tokyo's market, you buy the mug outright—it's included in the first-drink price. This is a significant cultural difference John highlights.
  • No confrontation culture: John observes that in Japan, people generally won't tell you something is wrong to avoid conflict. He contrasts this with his own more direct style ("Larry David mode"), noting he would politely but firmly tell the bad Glühwein booth to fix their recipe.
  • Christmas in Japan: Christmas is celebrated as a romantic couples' holiday (think KFC Christmas dinners and strawberry shortcake), not primarily a family or religious holiday. This creates a different atmosphere than European Christmas markets.
  • Touching merchandise: Unlike German Christmas markets where signs say "don't touch" the fragile glass ornaments, Japan's markets generally don't have such restrictions—reflecting a cultural expectation that people will handle goods respectfully.

Food & Drink Guide

ItemJapanese NameDescriptionApprox. PriceLocationJohn's Reaction
Mulled wine (first)グルフワイン (Glühwein)Spiced red wine, hot¥1,200 (includes mug)First drink standTerrible—tasted like pure lemon juice, no wine detected
Mulled wine (second)グルフワインSpiced red wine, hot¥1,200Currywurst boothMuch better—sweet, palatable, enjoyable
KinderpunschキンダープンシュNon-alcoholic spiced punch¥1,200 (includes mug)Drink standsKanai's choice—she drinks it exclusively
Bratwurst (regular)ブラートヴルストGerman grilled sausage¥600 eachSausage standsGood, familiar taste, similar to Nuremberg
Bratwurst (white)ホワイトヴルストWhite sausage¥600 eachSausage standsJohn ate this for breakfast in Germany; recommends with mustard
CurrywurstカレーウурстSausage with curry powder & ketchup~¥800Currywurst booth"Weird"—ketchup is unusual; currywurst should have curry inside the sausage
Hot sauce dogSausage with habanero/ghost pepper sauceVariesCraft hot sauce vendorExtremely spicy—John's eyes water; jalapeño version is more manageable
Potato pancakesジャガイモケーキGrated potato pancakesListed on menuFood stallsMentioned as a favorite from Germany; not seen at this Tokyo market
StollenストレーネンGerman Christmas fruit breadListedBakery stallDisplayed but sold out

People

  • John Daub — Host, American expat with 30+ years in Japan. Provides对比 commentary between German markets and this Tokyo version. His warmth, humor, and willingness to try weird food drive the episode.
  • Kanae Daub — John's Japanese wife. Misses Germany and European Christmas markets. Drinks Kinderpunsch exclusively (non-alcoholic). Enjoys ballet-themed ornaments and currywurst. Shares John's curiosity about the market.
  • Zach — Canadian guest, recently married, teacher in Adachi-ku. Former sausage and meat maker—he knows his sausages. Provides valuable comparison perspective and confirms John's suspicions about the bad Glühwein. Plans to stay in Japan past the 2020 Olympics.
  • Sarah — Zach's wife, also a Canadian teacher in Adachi-ku. Warm and friendly presence; tries the currywurst and gives opinions on Canadian beer and poutine.
  • Ed — Filipino staff at the information booth who recognized John from the channel. He and colleagues prepared for the show and were recently visiting Prague's Christmas market. John gives out "find me" cards.
  • Antonio, Alex, Dominique, Marty, Brita, Heiko — Live chat participants who contribute throughout (hot sauce recommendations, validation about Glühwein, tips from Germany).

Key Takeaways

  1. The market is visually authentic but taste varies: The wooden huts, ornaments, and Nativity scene closely resemble German Christmas markets, but the food quality—especially the Glühwein—is inconsistent and sometimes badly executed.
  2. Price is higher than Germany, similar to Vienna: Expect to pay ~¥1,200 for a Glühwein with a mug you keep (no deposit refund system). Sausages are ~¥600–1,000.
  3. Cultural differences in service: No "don't touch" signs, staff are Japanese, and the Japanese tendency to avoid confrontation means you may receive a subpar product without being told.
  4. The market works as a cultural bridge: For Kanae and others missing Europe, it's a satisfying substitute. For tourists, it's a way to experience a European tradition without leaving Tokyo.
  5. Spicy hot sauces are a wild card: The craft hot sauce vendor offers habanero and ghost pepper options that will challenge even heat-loving viewers.
  6. Christmas spirit is different in Japan: John reflects that after 15+ Christmases in Tokyo, he still doesn't feel the same twinkle—it's a different cultural experience.
  7. Expats are everywhere: Running into viewers like Ed and Zach/Sarah reminds viewers that Only in Japan Go has a real, engaged community.

Notable Quotes

  • [00:01:53] John Daub: "This is what you subscribe for. This is a Christmas market in Tokyo. So this time we are in Tokyo, we are in Japan. And this is only in Japan, sort of, because Christmas markets are also in Europe."

  • [00:06:30] Ed (to John): "We prepared for your show, but we prefer a trip to Japan by watching your show."

  • [00:28:32] John Daub: "She just squeezed a lemon because we were YouTubers. Maybe she asked me if it was a YouTuber, and then maybe she gave me lemons."

  • [00:32:41] Zach (after tasting the Glühwein): "No, it's more just like lemon juice in wine."

  • [00:35:26] John Daub: "The kids are trying the spicy, spicy ones. They're like, 'Nobody.'"

  • [00:55:38] Zach (on authentic currywurst): "The currywurst that I know is when actually making the sausage, you actually include the curry spice in the sausage."

  • [00:56:33] John Daub: "And in Japan, we avoid confrontation. So typically we won't tell somebody that something's wrong just to keep the peace. Whereas I will tell people. It's abrasive, but it works and it fixes a lot of things."

  • [00:59:38] John Daub: "Poutine is like really, really amazing. It's like cheese curds on French fries smothered in gravy."

  • [01:12:44] John Daub: "It's depressing. I don't know why. Maybe it's because you're not with family, but you just don't feel Christmas spirit in Tokyo the same way."

Related Topics

  • Only in Japan Go: Germany Christmas Markets series (Nuremberg, Munich, Vienna, Innsbruck)
  • Only in Japan Go: Sapporo Snow Festival
  • Only in Japan Go: Oktoberfest in Tokyo (Hibiya Park)
  • Life as an expat in Tokyo neighborhoods (Edogawa, Adachi)
  • Winter travel in Japan
  • Canadian expat life in Japan
  • Craft beer culture in Tokyo vs. Canada

Search Tags

#only-in-japan-go #tokyo #german-christmas-market #shiba-park #tokyo-tower #christmas-market #christmas-in-japan #germany #gluewine #gluewein #glueweinintokyo #kindergarten-punch #kinderpunsch #currywurst #bratwurst #german-food #winter-tokyo #adachi-ku #canadian-expats #tokyo-life #expat-japan #festival #street-food #hot-sauce #poutine #tokyo-tower-christmas #minato-ku #travel-japan #kanae #onlyinjapango #live-stream


Full Transcript

00:00:23 John Daub: Very, very, very, very unusual, but so cool. Right in front of you you see the Tokyo Christmas market sign 2019 here in Shiba Park. And above it, do you see that that red, orange and white striped tower is Tokyo Tower. You saw that, right? It's a German Christmas market in Tokyo. Right next to Tokyo Tower. It's it. And this market is sponsored by the German Embassy. Surprise, surprise. We're back in Germany. And this is Kanai. She missed Germany and the markets over there in Europe. So we decided to come to Tokyo's market to see how authentic it is. This is what you subscribe for. This is a Christmas market in Tokyo. So this time we are in Tokyo, we are in Japan. And this is only in Japan, sort of, because Christmas markets are also in Europe. Look at that. And so we're going to walk around this. They even have the stars. We saw that in Germany too. These stars, these ornaments on the trees here. It's so surreal because it is pretty authentic feeling in a way, except that there's no many German people here. There's even a Nativity scene which is nice. It's just unusual to see here in Japan. Look at this. It's a. It's a very well done nativity scene right in the beginning of the Christmas market. That's what Christmas is all about. That and giving and being kind. There's nothing I don't. There's nothing we don't like about Christmas. It's just a good feeling. And you can have that here in Tokyo at least. It's pretty close to being of kind, being the same. Check it out. It's a long walkway all the way down going towards Tokyo Tower. And on the left and the right you'll see markets like wooden huts like you would see in Nuremberg or in Munich. Very similar. It is, isn't it? It's very beautiful. These are very similar to the huts that we saw at the markets in Nuremberg, isn't it? I didn't know that we have a Christmas. Well, they have it in Hibiya usually, but I. I don't know. This is also where they've been doing that, the Oktoberfest, which is another beer festival that they have here with no, which is not in October when they do it here in Tokyo, it's like in May. There are about a dozen Christmas markets are on Tokyo, I believe. Oh, check out this train. So they even have little kiddie rides. And if they have kitty Rides. Kanai, you know what that means? That means they've got kindergarten punch kinda punch kinda panchi. So you can drink it because Kanai doesn't drink alcohol. Thomas is English though. I think 300 yen a ride. It's cheaper than Germany. It'd be like 3 Euro, which is like 500 yen. Right? Germany is a little bit expensive. A little bit. Especially. Especially Munich. Oh, look at this. This is the ornaments. Can I. I think that there's one that you're interested in, right? Kanai likes the bat. The ballet dancing ornaments here. And these are. These are the same ones that we saw in Germany. Yeah. Wow, look at that. These are the same ones. And you can see in the live streams when we were in Germany, the same was made out of glass. Usually in Germany they had signs that said don't touch. Kanai, you just have to follow the signs. Don't break the rules. Because in Japan. Oh, that's it. Look at that. Oh, that's so freaky. It's a Bambi ballerina. That's not so cute. Actually. It's kind of creepy. Wait, does Bambi have two legs or four legs? It's like two. It's kind of. It's weird. I don't know. Oh, look at the glass slippers. This is Cinderella slipp. Yeah. I see some more ballet ballerinas. Can I. Are you interested in that one up there? Look, I can see her Breakfast at Tiffany. Pointed legs. You see them? Yeah. How much are they? Is it more expensive here than in Germany? What? Hey, Antonio's here. Happy holidays, Antonio. It's. It's about this. A little bit more expensive. About 20. More expensive than Munich? Actually it's pretty expensive. Let's just say that it costs a lot because they have to bring it by plane, which has gasoline. It's a tax. It's more expensive than Germany. So we're going to be comparing prices. But more than the prices is the feeling. Do you feel like Christmas is here in Tokyo? Because one of the things that Santa. One of the things that's always been a problem Santa is that I. I just don't have the Christmas. Oh, he's like really puffed up. He's all air. That's not real Santa. I can't talk to him. But one of the. One of the problems that I've always had with Christmas in Tokyo that you just don't feel it. Maybe it's the. The feeling of globe vine. The smells, the foods, the unity. People coming together. Maybe. I don't know, but I'm starting to get it at these Christmas markets. Like this. These are Russian. Well, these are rush. These are like these Russian capsules. But the ones where you put the. The doll and the doll and the doll inside of the doll, you know what they're called. But I think even in Germany, we saw different nationalities, different kinds of crafts from around Europe at the market. And I thought that was pretty neat. Oh, there's the plushies. They always have these at the German markets. And they have a stand with scarves and hats and gloves. This here is more ornaments. I can smell the food. Oh, these are glass. Glassware. Let's take a slightly closer look. Oh, that's pretty. Nice. Oh, thank you. JP Writes in the dolls are called matroshka. Oh, look at the little teeny Santas on there. Thank you for the information. Okay. And they sell these here. People can come and look and buy. In Germany, though, they put signs saying don't touch, but that's okay in Japan. I don't think people break them on purpose. Not that they do in Germany. It's just. It's really. It feels the same in a way, except the staff is Japanese, isn't it? What do you think? What do you think? I'm speaking to everybody in Germany. Does this feel as though it could be authentic to you? Again, this is sponsored by the German embassy, but it looks like Japanese staff is working at the booths. It just seems a little unusual, but it's in a good way. Yeah. Oh, these are candles. They made by German clay. Oh, German clay. Okay. Oh, look at that. That's the. That's what I was talking about. Oh, these are the stolens. These are the German German cakes in German bakeries. Very nice. Oh, it's. These are sold out here. This stolen honey. Ah, Hachimitsu honey cake. Yeah. And here's the information booth. There's a nice ladies who will give you information, and none of them are German. I wonder, did they speak German? You should ask them. Can you do it? I bet you they won't. Oh, hello. Oh, thank you. Nice to meet you. Good to meet you. What's your name? Philippines. Oh, hi, Ed. How you doing? Merry Christmas. Yeah, we prepared for your show, but we prefer a trip to Japan by watching your show. Wow. Oh, great. Awesome. Weren't you in Prague last week? Where? Weren't you in Prague last week? Yes. Okay. There you go. We missed. We missed Christmas market, so we came back okay. There you go. It's so good to meet you. It's nice to meet you too. Oh, yeah, sure. Please, please, please. Yeah, right in the middle. Thank you. You're very welcome. It was so good meeting you. Nice to meet you, Ed. Merry Christmas. Oh, wow. I. I ran out of the. I. I gave all my go find me cards. Ed. Ed. I'll see you again, Ed. It's fate. It was nice to meet Ed from the Philippines. Wow. Okay, so this here in front of us is. This is a. I don't know. I forget all of the names for the things, but it's competing with Tokyo Tower for my. For my. My vision for the site. And so beautiful. And it looks like a little windmill on top of it. I'm sure we're gonna get. We're gonna get people in the chat telling me exactly what this is, but it's. It's massive. And inside of it, all these little characters are going around and around, and the more you drink, the more. The faster it gets, maybe, or the slower it gets. I'm not sure. It says here the sign on the bottom says Holzkuntz. I don't think that that's what that is. But there's the company that makes it. Kanai and I are gonna be here just for another. For like 30 minutes or so. Yeah, we're gonna do a short one. We've already done Christmas markets all through Europe, but this is Japan now, so you get a chance to compare after seeing them for a week. This is the food. And Kanai has been missing those Nuremberg sausages. Right. And I've been missing the Glub wine, I think. Oh, the potato pancakes. The potato pancakes. Oh, yes, yes. All right, let's look at the prices. Oh, look at that. All right. So, Kanai, what does the prices here mean? This is hot. This is Glub wine. This is apple glue Vine. This is apple. So I see the big stick of cinnamon on top. That's a Kinder punch. And I can drink that. Some kinder punch. So we got it wrong because we didn't see it in katakana over there in Germany. Oh, wow. Strawberry rum, hot chocolate. That's weird. In a good way. So what are these prices here? I have to order 15 of them or. Yeah, first aid. Yeah, it's like. Oh, the first one, so you have to pay 12, 1200 yen and you get the cup and the drink, and then the second one is 600 yen. So the cup is 600 yen. That means that it's not deposit. It's not deposit. I want a deposit. I wanted my money back. I don't want the cup. Can I give the. Get the money back? No. Everyone from Germany is going about this. All Europeans, like, I don't want the cup. I got one just like it. Also, you can buy only my cup. I don't want the cup. You don't want it? I want my money back. They won't. You have to buy the cup. I got no choice. Oh, my God. Okay. Well, it is. Dutchman, goes to Japan, writes in. That's Takai. Expensive. It really is. But I mean, yeah, I. I think a flight to Germany is more expensive. I would know. We did that. We went to Vienna, which is Austria. But four sausages for about $10. A little bit over $10. Eight sausages for a little bit over $20. So that's like, what is that, €16. And that's about €8 for four sausages on the expensive side. Cheese dog. Cheese dog. Just the bread is 200 and the dog itself is 6. $6. Okay. But Antonio goes in here. I dare you to try something you haven't tried. Weird food. All right, I'm in. I'm up for that. I'm up for that math. Thanks, Antonio. Cool. All right, let's try something. Let's try something we haven't tried before. Can I. All of this? I. I haven't tried any of this before. Danish, wild berry, apple. Kuhen. Kuhen is a cake that's rolled on a roller. That's weird. What is that? Sausage? Sausage with minestrone in it. All right, this isn't too weird, but. Yeah, Antonio. Antonio gave us something. Let's take. Let's take a quick look around, But I. I think there's a line, so. Whoa, that's a lot of sausages. You get that whole plate for about 8, 18 Euro, I think. Sausage. Sausage land. 22. A plate of 22. That's what it's called, the sausage Rondo. What do you guys think? They got fried chicken? Yeah. Hey, Goku95's here. Glue vine and later and food for later. Okay. All right, Alex is here. So we got to get some glue wine. Antonio and Alex have spoken. All right, I gotta get a glubvine. I have to. It's for science, right? It's for science. Can I. This is science. We have to see and compare it with the. With the glue vine in. In Nuremberg. All right. What's interesting is that not all the places have glove vine. In fact, this one here, it's weird. They have beer and when I was in. In the Christmas markets, they did not have beer, but this has beer. This is a beer tasting set. I guess if in Japan, people like beer more than the lip line, I think, but there's a green beer. What is up with that? The green beer is. What. What is the green beer? Can I. I can't. I can't see. Blue lychee. Blue lychee beer. I don't think that's German. That sounds more like, I don't know, lychee. I always eat lychee in Thailand. Ginger honey beer. All right, we'll have to come back with your dad and then drink all that. But Antonio said to try something weird, so I might try that. That weird beer. Right, Antonio? So I might have to go back for that. It's really interesting to see the German food that's on offer here, because it's not. It's not the same stuff. It's like this. It's a stereotypical stuff that you would think. Think at a German market, but they have it here. Oh, here's mulled wine, glue wine. All right, this has glue wine. And it's first set is. Oh, my word. It's a. It's €10, guys. It's €10 for one. All right, we better try one. That's like €10. Okay, we're just gonna do it. This one might be. Must be good, because it's. It's more expensive. Yeah, I'm gonna get glue wine. Thanks, Alex. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. Ah, is there. People are. People are lining up. I know, Alex, it's, like, not cheap, but it must be good, right? I mean, if it's gonna be. It's gonna be €10 for a blue blind. And the mug. And the mug. It's got to be good. It better be good. My expectations are sky high. You want a pretzel? They got pretzels. Can I. I don't know. What do you want? All right, we're gonna go for it, guys. We're gonna go for it. This hut seems to have a lot of food as well, so if we're gonna wait in line, we're gonna. You want the kind. Or do you want. Or do you want to get the kinder punch? And then I'll get a hot cocoa. Oh, no. Kinder punch for Kanai this time. She's going hot cocoa. That's all right. You are drinking exclusively kinder punch. Actually, she was a kinder punch queen. Even the kids are like, you're drinking A lot of our punch. Oh, wow. So I'm looking for the potato pancakes. Do you see that on the menu here? No, they have shrimp on the menu. They have a gratin soup goulash. I did not see this. And I did not see this in. Yeah, kinder punch is glue vine without the alcohol or it's just like punch with no booze. Kinder meaning kids. Right, child, this is the glue vine tent. I don't see the potato pancake. So you want a hot. Hot cocoa, Hot ginger lemonade. All right. Seems like healthy. All right, so I'm gonna pay and you bring the drinks and I'm gonna go look for the food. Okay. Because I think we have to wait for a while until. Until we go. All right, we're next up. One glue vine and then one. And you want a hot cocoa. I have money. No way. Let's. I go. I go for the big notes. They have change. I think if you give a hundred euro, that's different. If 110,000 yen is normal here in Japan. Everybody. Everybody has that group vine. 800 yen. That's. That's what? That's five and a half euro. That's pricey. My friend Tom would definitely not be. Might be getting this. He was. Well, he searched and found €2 Lubwine. Only. Only Tom can do something like that. Yeah, you can go back and the proof is in the Innsbruck live stream. Oh, you want to go for that hot honey milk? Okay. I'm excited. It's. It feels weird, though. This is shrimp pilaf, Alex. Is that normal? Hey, Ms. Veritates. God bless you too. Merry Christmas. It's nice, no? Yeah. There's no garlic shrimp in German Christmas markets. Christmas market shouldn't smell like garlic. They should smell like spices and fried delicious meat and should be bratwurst. It's not sausages. They should put it in a bun. Like a really good bun. What am I doing with my hand? All right, let's. She's explaining. This is the mug that we get. Yeah. You have to buy the mug. Ah, they gotta get rid of it. When we were in Vienna, the mug was €4 and the globe vine was €4. Right. So that was €8 in Vienna, right? Yeah. So it's actually about the same as Vienna. I know. Dominique is here. Hi, Dominique. Hey, Dominique. Guess what? They don't have any of the chili liqueur either. There's no extra kick. Dominique. Sorry. They don't have the good stuff here. We have to come back. They had beer in Innsbruck. Oh, okay. That's good to know. So not all of. Not all of the markets have had beer, but. Hey, Alex, check this out, guys. They have. They have green tea, hot green tea latte for. For three euro. All right. Whipped cream's another. Another hundred yen. Okay. Here, you can take it. Oh, that's a good vine. She's stirring it in there. Oh, cinnamon inside there. Nice. Are you. Too bad. Hi. All right, here it comes. All right, so we're gonna figure this out right here. Kanai is getting the glue vine and her hot drink. We're gonna go look for the food once again. Usually we. We had things in. In lots of bread, but here the sausages just come in trays. That's different. This is more of a Japanese style for German cuisine. Just try different kinds of sausages with French fries. I don't know. It's unique. You know, I would really like Spatzel. We had that in Innsbruck with cheese. So good. Why are there. Is that mussels? That's like a Belgian thing. Those look like mussels. This must be the Belgian. Belgian area. Although the. The Christmas markets and. Can I. You're waiting. Can I? Okay, I'm gonna go this way. I'm going this way. Ah, okay. All right. So we're checking out the food here. You might want to watch the playback and check out the opening to this market. It was pretty interesting. They had a nativity scene and lots of Christmas ornaments and things like this. It's a good entry. So when you walk in here, you can feel a little bit of the holidays in the stuff that they're selling. And then at the end of it, you get the food. Look at this. Corn soup, minestrone sausages with cheese all over it. Whoa. I did not see this in Germany. I did not see this in Nuremberg. This one's cheaper. This club vine is different. This is cinnamon kauri, teizukuri, kinda panchi. Oh, this is this kinder punch. Homemade kinder punch. And then the Glub line is cheaper than the other place. We should have got it the other place. Maybe this one's better. I guess each one is different. Oh, this is the. This is what we got in Germany. These are like bratwurst. That's what they have right on a bun like a hot dog. That's more authentic. But they don't have the German condiment squishies. So one sausage. Okay, Sausage set. You get two of them for 700 yen. What sausage? One is 600 yen, two is a thousand, and you have a regular and a White. I'd probably get the. Oh, that's a good looking beer. Yay. Yay. Oh, okay. Check it out. Whoa. We are the first company to introduce those hot sauces from United States. Wow. That's. But that's not German. No, but those are all natural things. Okay.

00:26:12 Zach: Yeah.

00:26:14 John Daub: So for vegan. Yeah, for the people take care of food. Okay. Oh, wow. It's all different kinds of sauces. And you can try this if you buy the. The craft hot dogs.

00:26:28 Zach: Yeah.

00:26:32 John Daub: Oh, okay. So main business is hot sauce, but right now. That's pretty smart. That's pretty smart. Like just selling hot dogs here. That looks like the ones in Nuremberg. Right? We were just in Germany three days ago. Four days ago. Yeah. So look, we can try some of this hot sauce here. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Well, we're gonna have some glue vine and come back for sausage. All right. Yay. Merry Christmas. Wow. That was nice. He. He also watches only in Japan. Yeah. Which one is the alcohol? Do you remember? Because this could. This could go wrong. What if it's me who's picking kanai up off of the street? Oh, you got the different color. Oh, that's not fair. All right, Frost to you out there. You hit my phone. I never actually hit it. Kanai. That's sour. That's a different recipe. Oh, yeah. You see, it's good. Do you like it? It's not in my top 10. It's strong. Like it, I think. You know what? Whoever made it, they went crazy with the lemon. Kampai Trust. They went crazy with the lemon. They squeezed like six lemons in there. It tastes like I can't taste the wine. I just taste lemon. This doesn't count. I have to have another one. RJ Writeson. Is it authentic? The answer is authentic to wear. If you're talking about lemonade with. With alcohol, this is what this is. Actually. I can't taste honey. You can't taste honey? I can't taste wine. I think she might forgot to put the. Hon. Forgot to put wine in here. No, I can. No. What does it taste like? It's milk. Can you try? Oh, that just tastes like milk. So she just gave you hot milk and she gave me. I don't taste any wine. Dominique. There's no wine in here. And I don't even think there's an alcohol. I think she just squeezed a lemon because we were YouTubers. Maybe she. She asked me if it was a YouTuber, and then maybe she gave me lemons. Nice meal. This is good. One of the best lemonades I'VE ever had. And it was an expensive one, too. It was. How much was this? A thousand, right? No, this one is really expensive. This is an 8 Euro lemon juice. I can't drink this, Antonio. There you go. I didn't want this, but I. I got something with it I've never tried before. Hot lemon juice in a mug. Oh, my gosh. Japanese glip vine is. It's not in the. No, no, no. Maybe that's why they have the beer, because the glip vine is. No. What is the recipe? They're using it. Whose recipe? The funniest. Oh, I can't drink this. I seriously. Can I dump it back in and maybe get my money back? Oh, my God. Let's try a sausage here. You. So you want the sausage or you want a sausage plate? I think this looks more. More like a Nuremberg. Right? So then we. Yeah, so let's get a sausage here. So why don't you get two sausages and then we can. Yeah, yeah. White and regular. We can switch. Oh, hello. Hey. Merry Christmas. Wow. I forgot my find me cards. Do you forgive me? I'm so. I'm really sorry. I was, like, patting my pocket. Yeah, yeah. So where are you from? What's your name?

00:31:09 Zach: I'm Zach.

00:31:10 John Daub: I'm Sarah.

00:31:10 Zach: We're from Canada, just north of Toronto.

00:31:13 John Daub: All right, Zach and Sarah from Canada. Where. Where are you staying? I guess where. You're nearby.

00:31:17 Zach: Actually, we live in Adachiku.

00:31:19 John Daub: Okay.

00:31:20 Zach: Yeah.

00:31:20 John Daub: Oh, very cool.

00:31:21 Zach: Yeah.

00:31:21 John Daub: And what do you do?

00:31:22 Zach: We're both teachers here.

00:31:13 John Daub: Okay, great. Great. Kids?

00:31:25 Zach: No.

00:31:26 John Daub: No, no, no.

00:31:27 Zach: But just married.

00:31:28 John Daub: Oh.

00:31:29 Zach: Yeah. I teach.

00:31:30 John Daub: Oh.

00:31:30 Zach: I teach again. Sorry, you teach adults?

00:31:33 John Daub: Am. Oh, and you teach kids? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to teach kids. It's tough. It's a lot of energy. Yeah.

00:31:38 Zach: It's fun, though.

00:31:39 John Daub: It is a lot of fun. A lot of fun. But those kids will suck the energy out of you. But it's fun. It's fun. I did that for seven years. Kept me young. Kept me young, actually. Yeah. Well, welcome to the market. Are you hungry?

00:31:55 Zach: Yeah. We're gonna get some. Like some sausages or some beer.

00:31:59 John Daub: Now. I talked to these guys. We're gonna try a sausage here. He actually makes. This company, makes hot sauce, but they're selling sausages, so we're gonna. We're gonna. We're gonna try two sausages here. And this. Be careful with the glub wine. Sometimes you can taste. You don't taste any wine, but you can taste the alcohol. It's very unusual. I don't think that's mulled wine. No. Do you want to try it? Sure. Okay. All right. This is just for test. I need a second opinion.

00:32:35 Zach: No, it's quite sour.

00:32:36 John Daub: Is that. Do you taste any wine?

00:32:38 Zach: No, it's more just like. See, it's more like lemon juice in line.

00:32:41 John Daub: I know. Should I tell them? Dominique, Should I say something? I always. I trust Dominique. He's. Yeah. I don't know. I can't drink it though. I don't. It's harsh, right?

00:32:54 Zach: It's pretty sour.

00:32:55 John Daub: I thought because it's more expensive. Maybe it's because it's more authentic. Oh my gosh. Okay. All right. No, no worries. We'll. We'll douse it with chili. Chili sauce. All right. Can I. Let's try two sausages. Can you get one white and one. Which one? You can pick. Yeah, you get two. Two for a thousand and one for six hundred and nausea's here. Aren't those. Aren't the refreshments you're looking for? Get something better. The good thing is I don't have to pay for the glass again. Yeah. Usually it's a deposit in Europe and you get your money back, right? But here you have. Have to keep the glass, right?

00:33:36 Zach: I saw the washing station.

00:33:37 John Daub: Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna have to wash it, actually. The citrus kills everything in it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I think you just. A little bit of lemon. Did somebody just put the whole thing in there? It's very suspicious. Very suspicious. Yum.

00:33:57 Zach: Wait, how's it compared to the mold one in Europe?

00:33:59 John Daub: Oh, it's just nothing. This is just. Every time I eat, I drink it, I cringe. I cringe hard. I'm like. I'm like looking. I say how. I don't know how I could forget my find me cards. I know. Nauseous. Like, how could you not forget to find me cards? Yeah. Ridge and Heiko. You would not like this. You'd be shocked at this glip vine. You'd be shocked at the glipvine. I don't have any. No, I'm supposed to carry them. It doesn't count. How long are you in Japan for? Oh, wait, you're. You're living here, so.

00:34:37 Zach: Okay, I'll find you again.

00:34:39 John Daub: Yeah, well, hey, you know, we're not going anywhere, so it shouldn't be too hard. So. Adachiku, that's. What's the big station there? I used to live in Edogawaku, so it's just north of. Oh, okay.

00:34:52 Zach: Isaac.

00:34:54 John Daub: Okay. Yeah. Edogawa Katashika and then Adachi. That's where all the license plates are from, Right? Adachi and Shinagawa driving centers. I know that because I drive. Yeah, you see a dodach everywhere.

00:35:06 Zach: One of the taxis have the license plate.

00:35:08 John Daub: Do you like it up there?

00:35:09 Zach: Yeah, it's fun.

00:35:09 John Daub: Yeah. Yeah, I like it. Not. I like living in Edogawa away from the center. It just felt more like home to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:35:19 Zach: We're on the chora line, so it's easy for us to get into work.

00:35:22 John Daub: Oh, right. That goes up. Up towards Ibaraki. What's the end station called? Yeah, you can go to Abiko and Tsuchida if you keep going straight on that. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Yes.

00:35:38 Zach: We've been here for just over eight months.

00:35:40 John Daub: Okay. Yeah. Oh, good timing. Right there, the cherry blossoms. You're gonna see all four. Ah, she's calling. Oh, yeah. We want to go spicy. Spicy sauce. You want to try the spicy sauce? Oh, yeah, sure. Habanero. What is. Which one is the hottest? Oh, we're going straight to that then. Really? Yeah, because. Okay. Yeah, go for the hottest. Because then that means it can only get better. Can you. Can you put it on? Kana, you can put it on. Sorry. We're gonna try this nosh. I'm dedicating this to you. And the next glob vine. I put it on there. Generous amount. That's not enough. Maybe it is enough. Okay, okay. All right. Yan had two. I put it directly on the tongue. I only have lemon juice to wash us down with. Oh, lemon juice. And the spicy sauce, is it. It's like stuck in there. You can try spicy curry. Oh, That's eye openening. That is. Eye opening. That is. That is. That was different. Try it. Kanai. Do it, do it, do it, do it. Maybe just go for the normal ones from now on. You don't have to go for the spicy ones. Oh, oh, but it's really good. Actually, I like that spicy one. It's starting to calm down. From. From pain comes pleasure. It's just the only thing I have to wash it down with this pure citrus fruit obliterates. And milk helps. Kanai. Smart. She's got milk. Let's try something semi spicy on the hot dog, right? Hey, yeah. Jalapeno maple. That sounds interesting. Yeah, do it. Hey, Brita and Heiko, do they have spicy sauces on the bratwurst? Maybe half and half. I'll eat half and you eat half. So they have mustard, but do they have spicy sauces? Brida and Heiko are from the north of Germany, so I haven't been to those Christmas markets. Side beam roots? No, not. Not a little, no, but. No, we prefer only mustard. Yeah, maybe. Let's go traditional mustard. I don't want to ruin the white sausage, which I usually eat for breakfast in Germany. Can I put all Kana? You put all the sauce on there. Rita writes in. There's no spicy sauce. All right, give it. Give her here. Is that the spicy kanai? You put a lot on there. You really didn't. You didn't hold back. You didn't hold back. That's a lot. That's kind of crazy. Which one is this? Jalapeno and coriander. One cools and one burns. All right. Jalapeno is better than whatever I ate. Whatever it was, it was like a ghost pepper. That sausage looks weird. Thanks. Thanks. That sausage looks weird. Oh, my gosh. I have confidence. It does. It has a weird shape to. It is. That's really good.

00:40:16 Zach: Yeah. The zakaria is quite nice.

00:40:22 John Daub: That's really good. The jalapeno is not as spicy as whatever I ate before. I. Seriously, I could not close my eyes. You eat all John. Oh, sorry. I gotta give you half. Thanks. Brida. Yeah? Eat only half. All right, switch. You ate more than half. Just like 60%. Because I ate 65%, so I still got an extra five. I ate more. She doesn't. Doesn't recognize the size difference. Okay. This is the same mustard at the German. At the German market in Nuremberg, there's a pretty good sausages. I don't know. And the name of the beer is Carlsbrau. They have a peach wiesen and Hell's Helles reason and Carlsbrau herpels. Wow, that spicy sauce was so spicy. It's funny to see that the Japanese are trying it and they're like, no. They try a little bit. Like, no, impossible. The kids are trying the. The spicy, spicy ones. They're like, nobody. I ate all the sausage. What am I gonna do now? In these situations, there's only one thing that you can do. Load it up with chili sauce. If you eat the sausage, you can't just let it be. Yeah, you gotta go deep. You gotta. You gotta dig deep. Pineapple, too. Oh, that looks spicy. Said it was spicy. I don't know what it is. Asamu, what does that mean? Oh, It's a different spice. It's a spice that. There's one that just makes my eyes open this big and it hits A different. It burns a different part of the mouth. Maybe that's first contact. Oh, my.

00:43:58 Zach: Ground zero.

00:44:06 John Daub: I like this. I like to shop. Okay. We're gonna try some more glue. Wine Nosh wants us to explore, so we're gonna do it because I can't let this slide. This is bad. This is not pleasant. Oh, man. What are you up to tonight?

00:44:28 Zach: We're just actually exploring around here. We came here for the market. Yeah.

00:44:31 John Daub: Oh, hi. Good.

00:44:37 Zach: We traveled for the first three months, so we've been in Tokyo since June. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:44:47 John Daub: How long are you here for? Just for a year.

00:44:49 Zach: Our visa is good until March.

00:44:50 John Daub: Okay.

00:44:51 Zach: We're hoping to stay long, longer.

00:44:52 John Daub: Oh, yeah, yeah. Past the Olympics. Yes. Did you get tickets? No, I. I gave up with the tickets. I said it's not worth it. Didn't get it the first two times. And I'll get in somehow. Yeah, yeah. You can always sneak in.

00:45:09 Zach: Yeah. Maybe a scalper somewhere.

00:45:12 John Daub: I'm media. Yeah, let me in. I'm media. Can I get one of this? I'll make one of these armbands myself. Homemade media. Yeah.

00:45:19 Zach: Yeah.

00:45:19 John Daub: I think security will be too tight, though. Yeah, I'll try that. Anyways, maybe for the.

00:45:26 Zach: Maybe marathon, go up to Hokkaido.

00:45:29 John Daub: Yeah. They moved the marathon for the Olympics up to Hokkaido. For those that don't know because of all the stuff I was preaching and it might even be my fault. I was the one, like, banging my fists and go, how could they do the marathon in Tokyo? It's too hot. And then they listened to me and they did it.

00:45:42 Zach: Yeah.

00:45:43 John Daub: Oh, my gosh. Do you think they watch? I think they did. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Mayor Koike, I apologize. Seriously, I cannot take credit fully, but, I mean, come on. It's really hot. Yeah. Even at 4am yeah. Yeah. It's very, very. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sweating. You can't stop. Summer was hard, right?

00:46:06 Zach: Yeah.

00:46:07 John Daub: We're in Canada. Toronto.

00:46:10 Zach: Just went to Toronto.

00:46:11 John Daub: Very good. Do they have Christmas markets there?

00:46:13 Zach: They do, actually.

00:46:14 John Daub: Yeah.

00:46:15 Zach: The Toronto Christmas Market is an area called the Distillery District.

00:46:19 John Daub: Oh, Distillery District. That sounds hard.

00:46:21 Zach: Hard liquor, originally for, like, a distilled whiskey and stuff.

00:46:25 John Daub: Okay.

00:46:25 Zach: And they have all the historical buildings still in the area.

00:46:28 John Daub: Is that where they still distilled it for Capone? Right. And they brought it across the bridge. I saw that Untouchables all came from Canada and the Mounties got them. Yeah.

00:46:37 Zach: Sleeman Brewery.

00:46:38 John Daub: Yeah. Yeah.

00:46:40 Zach: Actually, there's one sake brewery in that area as well.

00:46:42 John Daub: Oh, really? Yeah. Is it good? Yeah, it is. Good.

00:46:45 Zach: They do a lot of first press

00:46:47 John Daub: Arabashiri Sake, I think, because Canada has really good water up there. My. My feeling would be, you know, very clear, fresh water. So that must make good beer and good sake and good, good water. Good water. Good water.

00:47:02 Zach: Yeah. The name is Sake Brew is actually Izumi Izumi.

00:47:05 John Daub: Is it? So if you're in the Toronto area, try Izumi Sake and put down in the comments. What do you think of it?

00:47:11 Zach: Yeah. Arabashiri first press.

00:47:15 John Daub: Wonderful. I think we're gonna try the Gline here. Let's try the cheap stuff. Maybe the homemade one was not good. Yeah, so I. I can. But where there's a washing out station. I can't. I can't drink this. I would. I'd try to down it, but I would get sick. Oh, good God. This is not gline. This is not gline. It's lemon juice. Wait, let's. I'm going to ask. Oh, gosh. Oh, there's a line. There's a line. All right, I'm gonna. I'm coming here. You have no idea how spy sour. It's just. Oh, this is what the ones that look like in Germany, they have. They pump it out, right? Except if you miss, it goes right on the ground in Germany. In Japan, they catch it and then they put it back into the pump. But they might have a same menu. Oh, really? Oh, no, the glue vine's got to be different here. I'm gonna ask them. Like, seriously, where's the. Where's the. Where's the lady who is Instagramming? I have to ask her if it's. If it's any good in these kinds of situations, you. You turn to your community and you ask the people there if it's any good. It looks good. All right, we're going to try one more globe vine here. That sausage is so good. Oh, you could smell. You could smell the sausages. Oh, baby. Wow. Really? Captain Anarch. Hey, John, if they have curry worst there. God, curry worst. Yes. That's a Berlin thing. I learned it from Alex, from Dimitri. I think Dimitri told me the currywurst was Berlin thing. So do they have curry worst? They have it, yeah. All right, we're gonna get it. Okay. We're gonna get it. You want a curry urusto? It's very famous market. Oh, okay. Yeah, they have a curry or cheese. Okay. Curry or cheese? Cheese. Wait, so it's. It's just curry sauce on it? It's not actually. Is that what you're looking at? Curry usto. Is that German. They just put, like, a bunch of curry sauce on top of regular sausages. Is that the same thing? Captain, does that look like the one you had in Cologne? I want to make sure it's authentic. If it doesn't look the same, I won't get it. Here, we can try. This is Kyw. Oh, they have a kinder punch here. Oh, they got the kinder punch. Oh, there it comes. Whoa. That's it. Did you see it? That's got to be better. That's got to be better. Oh, that's much, much better. Oh, that's sweet. That's sweet. Is that currywurst? Is that the same thing? Captain? So, Captain, that's currywurst right there. This. This glip vine is so much better. It's sweeter than in Germany, though. But it's not sour. This is. This is palatable. This one's so much better. This is so much better. It's. Seriously. I don't know what that booth was like. Someone's gotta say something. Someone's gotta Larry David these people. Someone has to Larry David them. Just look them in the eye. Look them up and down. All right, there's the table run. That's what the old ladies do. Oh, no. Somebody put their stuff there. All right, we can go in the middle here. It's nice to sit down. Today I went. Have you been to Shimokitazawa? It's. It's. Yeah, it's not too far away from Shibuya and Shinjuku on the Odakyu and the Inokashiro line. Yeah. All right, guys. It's. It's really dark, so you can't see what the currywurst looks like. But this is an iPhone 611 Pro, so maybe you can see a little bit. Not really. So I hope. Captain, that's sort of similar to what it looks like. It's nice.

00:53:46 Zach: Those are ketchup on there.

00:53:47 John Daub: Is that. I don't know. I don't know. We're gonna find out a little bit. So. Yeah, if you want to, you can try.

00:53:54 Zach: Thank you.

00:53:55 John Daub: I don't know if Kanai meant to. Yeah, yeah. We can share. We can share. Oh, wow. Save the planet. Kanai. You got 4. 4 plastic. The Internet's gonna be upset. I think they recycle. Yeah. I don't know.

00:54:22 Zach: I get the curry powder.

00:54:24 John Daub: Yeah.

00:54:24 Zach: But the ketchup is kind of a weird.

00:54:28 John Daub: I don't know why they put ketchup on. Honest. It's weird.

00:54:33 Zach: More curry, less ketchup.

00:54:36 John Daub: It's. It's like the senses are off. The. This is a German market sponsored by the German embassy. And it's pretty authentic in its appearance, but the taste of the stuff is like way off. Is it me or is it the food? I'm not sure. Could be the chili pepper messing with my system. It's different when you have 400 people with you.

00:55:14 Zach: So actually back in Canada, my job before coming here was actually making sausages and meat. Oh, wow.

00:55:23 John Daub: What makes it curry worse? Just put curry on top of the sausage.

00:55:26 Zach: The curry worse that I know is when actually making the sausage, you actually include the curry spice in the sausage.

00:55:32 John Daub: I think that's what it is. The curry worst curry is inside of the sausage here they just take like hot dogs and they put curry sauce on top of it. Captain. I don't think it's the same. It's a Japanese style. Someone's got a Larry David. Them too. Just really tell them the truth. Sometimes people don't know and until you tell them. And in Japan, we avoid confrontation. So typically we won't tell somebody that something's wrong just to keep the peace. Whereas I will tell people. It's abrasive, but it works and it fixes a lot of things. I do it gently though, right? I do it gently, very gently, and with a smile. Excuse me, sir. This wine is very, very bad. It tastes like you sprayed a lemon into it and I can't drink any of it. Please change your recipe. Maybe someone should. Can I see your recipe? Did you have a recipe? No, I said it was really nosh. It was really bad. It was. Thank you. This is our first dinner, though, because Kanai is making dinner tonight. What are you gonna make? I'm gonna get nikkudo food. Tofu and pork. And I'm gonna put hakusai stone. Looks kind of like this vegetable. Cool. Oh, have you made that one before?

00:57:18 Zach: No.

00:57:18 John Daub: No, you didn't make.

00:57:20 Zach: No, sorry,

00:57:23 John Daub: I don't. I don't know. Yeah. Panay's original recipe. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you don't need to see Tokyo Tower up there, which is. Which is unusual for. Although it does look like a very Christmassy color. If it was green, it looked like a Christmas tree. And now you can see Kanai. Why do you like the curry worst? It's weird. To me. It's just like something that I think a kid would like this, right? It's just a bunch of French fries with chopped up hot dogs. And they put some curry powder on it and then they put ketchup, which is weird. I don't Think, Captain, that that's what you were. That you had in. But I'm not sure. It's a little weird. I will tell you this definitively. The glub wine is way, way, way, way better. Way infinitely better. Oh, that's it. Marty writes it. That's all it is. So Marty writes in that. This is the same in Germany. It's this

00:58:41 Zach: powder on.

00:58:43 John Daub: Yeah, it's good, I guess. Bratwurst with curry. With curry ketchup and curry powder. Okay. All right. I should knock it then. All right, I won't. I'm not going to complain. Just a glip bine then. It's very good. Curry wars. Because I haven't had it before, so I can't. I don't have a point of reference, but we did have. Have poutine. Do you have that in Toronto or is that just a Quebec thing?

00:59:13 Zach: Yeah, there's a few chains, actually.

00:59:15 John Daub: That was really good. Why don't we have that in America? Poutine, Americans, everyone listening. Poutine is like really, really amazing. It's like cheese curds on French fries smothered in gravy. And they put other stuff. Sometimes meat, sometimes meat. Pork pulled pork. And you just. It's like a salad. And it does have vegetables, potatoes. I found a poutine restaurant in Shimokitazawa. Oh, yeah? Yeah. It's not very big, but it has it on the menu and. Yeah. John. John. I forget the name of the shop. It was in the live stream in the first couple of minutes. It looked pretty good. So you can get it here. You can't get poutine in, in. In Shimokitazawa.

01:00:02 Zach: We'll check it out.

01:00:03 John Daub: Yeah. Now, it's not the same size. It's Japanese size. Yeah. Yeah. But it looked really good. I, I guess the cheese curds are quite important. It's harder to get here. You like the poutine? Did you eat it all? I think I ate it all, but I honestly, small size poutine. And then after she ate the regular sizes, look, I ate it all. I'm like, yeah, I hear you, I hear you. Oh, it's nice.

01:00:44 Zach: Do you have a chance to go

01:00:45 John Daub: to Toronto at all before I went to Ohio State, so we would go to Toronto to get beer.

01:00:50 Zach: Nice.

01:00:51 John Daub: Because it's 18. 18 is a drinking age. So am I allowed to say that? I guess I'm now 45.

01:00:59 Zach: So it's 19 now.

01:01:00 John Daub: Actually, it's 19. Back then it was. It was 18, I believe. We were always worried if they would catch us In Detroit. But Detroit had a lot of other problems, I think. So we come over the bridge and then no one. No one said, hey, you kids got beer in the trunk? No one ever said that. We just kept driving back to campus and then we were heroes. And we wouldn't get the cheap stuff. We'd bring like the Molson's. Molson's. The Golden Molsons. I forget the Molson. The good stuff.

01:01:27 Zach: Yeah.

01:01:28 John Daub: Not the. Not. Not the. Not the watery stuff. No, no. But Canada has pretty good beer. I don't think they have cheap beer, do they?

01:01:37 Zach: We have some cheap beers.

01:01:38 John Daub: Yeah. Some. Some are better than others.

01:01:40 Zach: Yeah. My favorite one is called Steam. It's like a pilsner.

01:01:46 John Daub: Oh, bags.

01:01:46 Zach: Yeah, yeah.

01:01:48 John Daub: Cheap. Pretty cheap, yeah. Good. Okay. Okay. Because we were at a craft. A craft brewery. Do you drink the craft beers too?

01:01:59 Zach: Yeah, yeah.

01:01:59 John Daub: We were at one in Idabashi near up above Ikebukuro the other day, and for lunch for two with craft beer, it was like $60, like almost 7,000 yen. That's a lot. Yeah, the craft beer, like drain your wallet real fast. So the cheap beer talk is actually pretty good.

01:02:21 Zach: Yeah.

01:02:22 John Daub: Yeah. Beer is definitely a lot cheaper in Canada than in Japan.

01:02:27 Zach: Most breweries actually can go get a.

01:02:31 John Daub: Oh, when he got up. When that dude who's leaving got up, all the weight was on this side. I almost flipped because I. I'm sitting on the edge of the bench. So whenever you're on a bench, just be careful because you might get like. Did you ever see the Three Stooges where they jump on the thing? Or is that cartoons? You're gonna get launched up to the top of the Tokyo Tokyo Tower there. So watch. Watch where you sit. That's slightly scary. Yeah, There you go. Yeah, Nice.

01:03:02 Zach: Yeah. One thing we miss from Canada is most breeze can go to and get a growler. So it's like a big 2L glass bottle for like 20 bucks.

01:03:12 John Daub: You have to drink it before it gets warm. But I guess in Canada you don't have to worry about it getting cold.

01:03:16 Zach: No, not right now for sure.

01:03:17 John Daub: Not right now.

01:03:18 Zach: Right.

01:03:18 John Daub: Yeah, that's the only. The only reservation I have with the big beers is you have to drink it quicker cuz gets warm.

01:03:25 Zach: But usually you can bring it home, throw it in the fridge. It'll be good for about a week, though. It doesn't usually doesn't last that long.

01:03:31 John Daub: Wow. Two liters, like that's like big, right?

01:03:34 Zach: Yeah, it's like probably that wide, that

01:03:36 John Daub: high, and you hold it like this

01:03:38 Zach: it has like a big, like a small little like handle.

01:03:42 John Daub: See, because you know, in Japan here we have. We have been beer, which is 633 milliliters, right. And people don't drink beer from the bottle like, like we do in the United States. I love drinking it from the bottle. I prefer it to the cans. But I remember when I first came to Japan, I would crack open the big 633s and I would drink them like the bottles. And everyone thought I was weird. And I said, well, yeah, I'm not the weird one. You're the ones making 633 milliliter bottles. That's what I thought. But actually it's been beer. They're made to be poured for your neighbor and then he pours your beer and you pour his just like sake. You're not supposed to like shotgun the beer like that big. But they sometimes will make a smaller 333 or 500 milliliter, which is easier to hold but confusing for me at first. Yeah, growlers.

01:04:38 Zach: Yeah.

01:04:38 John Daub: They don't have Tim Hortons here, do they?

01:04:40 Zach: No, I haven't seen it. No.

01:04:42 John Daub: No. That'd be nice.

01:04:43 Zach: Yeah.

01:04:44 John Daub: Not even near the embassy. You think they put it.

01:04:47 Zach: Yeah, in like a small little kiosk maybe.

01:04:51 John Daub: Starbucks is everywhere. Where's Tim's?

01:04:53 Zach: Yeah, I missed the cheap donuts. Actually, donuts here is quite expensive. I'm missing the 80 cent donuts.

01:04:59 John Daub: Yeah. Even Mr. Donuts is like 200 yen for the good stuff. Like 180 Krispy Kreme. Like double the price. Yeah, it's not the same. It's not the same. It's not that expensive living here. What do you think of the living room costs in Japan? Is it like, like for the rent?

01:05:17 Zach: It's not cheaper than we thought. Like compared to Toronto.

01:05:20 John Daub: Okay, that's Adach is a little bit cheaper.

01:05:22 Zach: Yeah, it is.

01:05:22 John Daub: Yeah. Yeah. Rent is cheaper and groceries are

01:05:28 Zach: for the most part. Some fruit's definitely more expensive.

01:05:31 John Daub: Fruits and vegetables, you're closer to Iaki, which is like a fruit and vegetable basket for Tokyo. So for Jon line, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty pricey. We, we moved down here not too far away. That's. It's impossible. The supermarkets are so expensive on this side. So we, we. We go to Costco a lot.

01:05:52 Zach: Okay.

01:05:53 John Daub: Costco's nice.

01:05:55 Zach: Do you have a card to go to Costco?

01:05:56 John Daub: Yeah. Okay. But I only. I don't go as much as I should. I always wonder, like, is it really worth it? And then

01:06:05 Zach: guess yeah, we have a membership for us, but for us, they take the train and try and like call everything back. Is a lot.

01:06:12 John Daub: I rent a. We rent a car now. You can rent a car for. For three hours. You can go to Costco, get your stuff, and then return the car. And it's. And it's cheaper. So do you have a license?

01:06:23 Zach: International license.

01:06:24 John Daub: Okay. Yeah. Then you could probably rent the car. But your second year, your Internet license cannot be renewed and you have to get a Japanese license. Okay. So yeah, renting a car is pretty. Pretty fun here. Maybe not in the city, but we

01:06:37 Zach: were in Hokkaido in August for a full month and we rented a car to go all the way around.

01:06:41 John Daub: Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, cool. Are you going up to the snow festival this year? That would be nice. I don't know. Maybe we will. It looks really cool. Yeah, it's one of the best in. In Japan. There's a lot of stuff going on and the street food is awesome. Something. Yeah, it's like all seafood, crabs, scallops. Like the scallops are like this big and the crabs. Yeah. So we're gonna go. We're gonna go this year on February 5th to 7th, we'll be in Sapporo. I'm gonna film for. For only in Japan. I already have a Sapporo Snow Festival episode though. Kind of renew it a little bit. It's nice. And then go up to Hokkaido in winter is. I think it's either summer or winter. Well, actually all seasons. Hokkaido is pretty unique. Do you ski?

01:07:30 Zach: Yeah, we do.

01:07:30 John Daub: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

01:07:31 Zach: And crush cross skiing as well.

01:07:33 John Daub: Oh, wow. Okay. You can do that in Hokkaido. You can't do that here.

01:07:38 Zach: No, not too. We were trying to find. Cuz we have some time off at New Year's. Trying to find some place to go skiing that's not too busy.

01:07:44 John Daub: Yeah, you would have loved it. Last year we had something called Snokio. We weren't here here. It was snow. Had a lot of snow. And they called it Snowkio. I don't know why. I guess a lot of snow. Yeah. Who called it Snowkio? I think it was. I think Martina. Martina might have called it snow. She called it snow. Maybe. I forget where I heard it, but everyone started calling it Snowkio and it. Whoa, he's tall. That's a big Santa. Hey, Marty. Ah, Brita. Brita. Okay. There's no B in glub wine. Okay. I've been saying glub wine. Yeah, it's glue wine. Okay. Glue on. Wait, I've Been saying glub wine. Is. Is. Is this big, tall Santa in Germany, too? I don't know. Can. I'm gonna go say hi to him. I. I'm going to take my glue wine. Glue wine. Glue wine. I keep messing that up. I'm going to go this way. You want to say hi to the. The freaky Santa? I can't get out. It's, like, all wedged. Whoa. No, he's. He's so tall. He's walking so fast. Wait, where are you going? Wait, I'm behind a traffic jam. Oh, he's on stilts. That's why I want to get a high five. He grabs people's hands and then yanks them. And then he rings the bell and takes selfies. I said I'm a little bit creeped out now. Slightly creepy. I don't know. What do you think? Would you touch Santa? That Santa. I don't think that's the real Santa. All the kids. The kids know that. The kids are saying that's not the real Santa. The kids know that that's not the real Santa. I think it's too tall and not kind of. It's very tough to get in here. So what did you think of this Christmas market, everybody? Was this worth the experience? Is this something that you would be interested in coming to? We were going to do it for 30 minutes, and we went on for 70 minutes. Last year's get out of hand. I like the way Japan does it, though. They even have. They even put it indoors. You can't have. People don't like to eat outdoors in Japan. In Tokyo. I don't know why. I guess it's warmer maybe inside there. But they have a little indoor tent with, I guess there's like heat lamps in there or something. But I prefer to being in the great outdoors and does have a very festive spirit to it. It feels a little bit like a circus kiss. Right? Do you feel like. Does it feel like Germany? Do you. What do you think? How would. How would you compare this with. Compare. Can you. Can you compare this with. I like this atomoso here. But food is. Seems like better. The food is better. All right, let's go out here where the light is. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cheers, big ears. It's hard to get out of here. That is Tokyo's Tokyo Tower. So this. The lady had to scoochy out. She scoochied out. Yeah. So I. I do think that you can get some of the Christmas spirit in the background. We do hear some Christmas music that. That sounds really Nice. I like that Christmas into. In Japan. This is my what, 21st Christmas in Japan or something like that. It's ridiculous. No, it's more like 15. Because I go back home every now and then. But it's depressing. I don't know why. Maybe it's because you're not with family, but you just don't feel Christmas spirit in Tokyo the same. Same way people don't have the same twinkle in their eye. I don't. I like Christmas. Yeah. Here in Japan. Yeah. But because I was born. Cuz you're born here, it's different. I don't know. The Christmas other country. Yeah. Before I go to. That's true. But listen, you know, I think if you're born there, that's different. I ask people, how the heck could you live in Montreal? It was minus 40 or something. I couldn't, couldn't feel my face. After just a minute outside, I couldn't feel my face. And I, I asked people to meet up in Montreal. Why would you live here voluntarily? Because it's different. We were born here. We were born here. It's okay. I was like, if you could choose, wouldn't you pick Florida or something? Yeah, this is sort of, you know, Florida. Imagine going up north. Hey, it's true. Canada is very cold. Even the north of Hokkaido. I remember I said, yeah, it's minus. It's minus 10 degrees Celsius. It's so cold at night. Right. And then the Canadians chime in. He goes, that's not cold. That's not cold. Minus 10. You can still feel your phalanges. No way. You can go gloveless at minus 12 at minus 10. So there you go. That's the Christmas experience. I hope you enjoyed this. Definitely give this a thumbs up because we want more likes. We should. I should. I forgot to hold the audience ransom for likes for food. Want to do that next time? It works. It does work. And yeah. Leave a comment below. What do you think of this market? Does it compare with the other markets in your. In Germany that you saw in your hometown? Do you have a Christmas market? Does this have the same kind of cheer and spirit? What do you think? Leave me a comment below and let us know. I'm really curious to hear your thoughts and we will see you in the next live stream because it just got even more festive. It's like a German, German beer tent Christmas song. It's a German beer tent Rudolph. Right? Bye bye.

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