00:04:00 John Daub: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Kanazawa. This is the Higashi Chaya (East Tea House) area. It's very quiet because it's 6:30 in the morning and most people are still asleep—if you're under the age of 70. This is a little plaza in the middle of it. I thought this would be a good place to start. This is where you get the gold leaf ice cream. It's closed. Not a lot of stuff is open right now. Good morning. You ready for a morning walk?

00:46:00 John Daub: We're going to take a look around this Higashi Chaya area. It's very important to point out that this is a residential area, so you should be really quiet. Right now we can hear the birds chirping all around us. We hear the nature. I don't want to disturb this neighborhood. This is a place where people live, so always be very respectful in this area. It's a tourist destination, meaning we like to come here, but people live here, so don't disturb them too much.

01:15:00 John Daub: I'm going to round the corner here, and we're going to talk a little bit about Kanazawa and this walk. This is the very famous walk that's in a lot of guidebooks. Maybe one of the most photographed streets in Japan. On the left and the right, you have the chaya (tea houses), and it's just birds playing here. Got to watch out for their droppings. We're going to walk through here. It's deserted, and it's also deserted because of the pandemic. There's just not a lot of tourists coming out here.

01:57:00 John Daub: Oh, check it out here. This is the gold takoyaki. That's pretty cool. Do you see that? The takoyaki and gold leaf—totally for tourists. Who would be crazy enough to eat that? Whoa, there's a bird nest in there. There's birds living in it. Hey, WRX Turbo. Thank you. Tony P., good morning. How you doing? Jeff Eng, good morning. Get yourself some breakfast. You got it.

03:24:00 John Daub: The hotel's not serving any breakfast because they've closed the breakfast area with the pandemic, so I'll put that to good use, my friend. Thank you. You guys are always looking after me. Thanks. And yes, I'll get something for Kanae before I get home. On the left and the right, there are alleys, and it's such an amazing view. It's a great place to walk. If you come after 9 a.m., typically there'll be lots of tourists already here, but if you come at 6 a.m., you're greeted by birds, lots and lots of birds.

04:15:00 John Daub: How you doing? What's your name, little guy? Is there any tea houses open now? No? You're on TV. Oh, I didn't like that. I didn't like being on TV. Tony, don't use the crow emojis. They're not crows. That was a crow. I passed several of them coming here. One of them looked up at me. I looked down at it, and we just knew—don't disturb each other's worlds. He backed off quick. It's my version. Welcome to Ilyas, a traveler. Thanks for joining. Love the look of the wood. Sometimes you'll see bamboo as well.

06:08:00 John Daub: This is a nice looking tea house as well. Hey, Shinichi, welcome to the travelers. Now, a lot of these are called chaya for those joining us. We're in Kanazawa's Higashi Chaya District. This region, this district is famous for having chaya. Chaya were places, tea houses where geisha were based. And Kanazawa had a lot of geisha called geiko here. And they still exist. I was able to yesterday go in and see some practicing, some being taught the skills of geisha at one of the schools. And I'm here to make a video about Kanazawa. And right now we're live. That's right. You're watching a playback of a live stream if you're not watching this live.

07:14:00 John Daub: Speaking of geisha, they call them geiko here. Foreigners just know them as geisha. But they do put on performances. Because of the pandemic, there's not a lot of tourists to watch them. Quite worried about it. Let's wrap around here a little bit. The streets are so quiet. This is the first time ever to be walking around in this area of Kanazawa and have the streets almost to myself. To ourselves. Look at this. This is an alley narrow way. We're going to pan left and right. I love the way that they've maintained that wooden look.

08:36:00 John Daub: During World War II, Kanazawa and Kyoto—and I guess there were a few other places—weren't bombed. So they didn't have any massive fires to destroy the culture, destroy the history. So a lot of that is preserved here. And one of the things that you'll find with walking around Kanazawa is that the streets are crazy. They're all over the place. There's no grid system here. You are walking in the wrong direction to get to the right direction. This ball designates a sake shop—nihonshu (Japanese rice wine) in there—but they're closed. They got a sign here, probably about the pandemic. Hey, John T. Welcome. Welcome to the travelers. Hey, Jennifer French is here. Hey. Get yourself a cup of tea later. Thank you. I absolutely will. Raymond Centeno. Thanks for sharing this with us. Another place to add on my list. Definitely should be adding Kanazawa on your list.

11:16:00 John Daub: Reel them in now. No, he's just a human. No, no, no, no, no. Come back. Hello. I'm your friendly neighborhood human. Oh, there's another one. I have no food, just a finger. No, I'm not interested. How about you? Come to John. No, I've got five fingers. I'm your friendly neighborhood human. No, here comes your friend. It's very hard to blend into the cat world because I really love the streets, the alleyways here.

12:02:00 John Daub: I'm just going to walk down here for a little bit and we're going to turn around and go back towards the shrine. I'll show you a map. How are you doing, kitty cat? You doing okay? Do you like Kanazawa? I guess the cat only speaks Japanese. What are you doing? Oh, sorry, bro. Put that on my list of things I can't do. That deserves an exclamation point. Yowzers.

13:36:00 John Daub: You'll find lots of signs explaining some of the history here. And Kanazawa has a ton of history. This is an area known for, well, you could say samurai, but the samurai here weren't really samurai. I'm learning about this. I didn't know about this too much until yesterday. We call them bushi—B-U-S-H-I, bushi. And they're like samurai, but bushi didn't have a master. They just had the skills of the samurai without having the duties of the samurai. Hey, Irvan's here. Thanks, John, for the exciting cat tour live stream. Hey, this is not about cats. Bushi are just in here. I can't control the kitties, what they do.

14:34:00 John Daub: Ronin are different. Ronin are samurai that don't have a master. Bushi never had a master. Bushi are pretty cool. And Kanazawa had a lot of bushi. And I'm learning about that culture. They pretty much adhere to the same bushido, just different ways to live their lives. Again, I'm just getting into this part of the history here, but it's something that's more unique to Kanazawa. And I'm learning more and more about the differences that Kanazawa has. A lot of the Japanese cities—Japan's a small country but there's so many differences, just even slight differences in something that's the same that can be huge when you start to learn the history behind it. If you don't know the history and the question why, then you don't really see the differences that the Japanese see in these things. But for people in Kanazawa, you can see we're in places where people live. This is a city that's very refined and they are very particular in the way that things are. You'll see it in the cuisine—amazing food here. Yesterday I ate food that was presented hundreds of years ago to daimyo—daimyo cuisine.

17:02:00 John Daub: Hey Terry Caldwell, welcome to the travelers. Thanks for joining us. Just added in a new emoji as well. Oh there's a map back there. Let's see if we can find our way around. We'll head back. That's a cat on a leash—you're a prisoner dude. It's a house cat. Not very high on the list of people to greet I guess. It's all good. Good morning. We are here and I hear some water. Water is a very important part of Kanazawa. This here is Utatsu Jinja and let's have a look around. I'll see if we'll go down this street here and walk back towards the gold happy tea houses, but there's also some gold leaf shops here as well and garbage trucks. Whoa, it's a big truck. Let's go look at some water.

18:15:00 John Daub: Hey Alfonso Cruz, welcome. I was in Kanazawa in 2018—it's really beautiful, a must-go. Yeah, Gerald Augustin, as always love the content, John. Thank you, Gerald. Who smells like morning? Wasn't expecting that in my view. Beautiful area of Japan. It was really sunny yesterday and we had—despite this being the rainy season, June especially the latter half of June is rainy pretty much most of Honshu Island—but we had sun yesterday, very hot. We did about 15- to 20,000 steps apparently. One of the guys counted our steps. It's quite a long walk yesterday, but I was learning so much. I didn't have a chance to show you anything live but I got to get back to the hotel because we're meeting at 8:30 to continue our trip around Kanazawa for scouting. They want to show me some things.

19:40:00 John Daub: I'm not sure where you would buy that but we can ask this cat. I don't think my pronunciation of Worcestershire is any good—it's very hard in cat language. He's still watching me. That cat looked rough. Look, there's another cat waiting for us at the top of the steps. Dude, morning is full of crows and cats. And that cat's prego, but probably from that cat. Shy guy. Let's take a quick look—it's a beautiful temple. Wow, peaceful. Mostly for the cat. Cat's still here. That was supposed to be a joke. Backing off. Okay, step away. All right, we're stepping off. I'm so sorry. Just forget I was here. Just stop looking at me. I'm not gonna say anything else. Obviously different dialects. Okay, just get outta here. I was saying it's not like I speak fluent cat. Come on. All right, let's go where that garbage truck was. Make our way around.

23:57:00 John Daub: So Kanazawa is a city of water. That's pretty. The city itself, if you look on the map, it's between two rivers and those rivers flow on the left and the right of the city bringing in fresh water from the mountains. You can tell when you look at the map why they would put the city here. What a beautiful shrine. When you walk into the shrines, never walk down the center. Always stay on the left and the right—the center is reserved for kamisama (gods). It's a good tip for you. Welcome to the thousand people waking up early enough to join us on this Higashi Chaya District. Dear Mudes O'Sullivan, welcome to the travelers. You're all traveling with me. Look at that little doggy.

25:26:00 John Daub: This is not an easy place to drive. The streets are very narrow and a lot of these roads they're actually for cars too, and it's hard to know that. So when you're a tourist and you're walking around here, do be careful because cars—now that they're battery powered—they're so completely quiet and they'll sneak up behind you. But people are too polite to honk. Speaking of honking, how about if you like this kind of neighborhood walks, hit that like button so I know that I should do more of these morning walks. Maybe nothing's open that I can buy but I'll stop by a vending machine if we can get to 555 likes. Looking for a triple five here. If you're watching, you have control over me now. I will stop at a vending machine and get a drink if we get triple five. I've had my running shoes—I'll go for a run too. Abs Fatboys here, long time no see.

26:48:00 John Daub: I'm turning now to show you one more time. We're going to be walking back to the main street. This is the famous road where you get a nice view of all of the tea houses. Do you see this? It is a very beautiful view. And in the morning, as I was saying, it's pretty much deserted. There's a patch of blue sky, so it looks like we're going to have a nice day. But I think there's afternoon showers because we are smack dab in the middle of the rainy season right now. So it's pretty nice to have the street to ourselves. It looks like a gas-powered light. That's a good touch. You know what? There's LEDs in there, but I bet you it was gas-powered a long time ago. It gives it a different kind of a glow. Crowbar Reed and Vivian Lem, thank you. Welcome to the Travelers. You guys have just unlocked some pretty wicked emoji.

28:15:00 John Daub: These are all chaya or tea houses where geisha or geiko would entertain the bushi or samurai class. But yesterday's dinner was amazing. I've got to find a way to make this a story. They served me food that they served 400 years ago to daimyo or feudal lords. The only thing I'm lord of is my office. I don't really have much power over anything. So I'm not sure why they served me such delicious food. But I can tell you one thing—even the Japanese that were with me were shocked at what the chef was bringing out. I'll put something on Instagram. That was me. Hey, I'm trying to communicate, people. Or birds. They look pretty happy.

30:20:00 John Daub: Higashi Chaya. That's the east tea house district. You can see there's all these temples. Do you see the temple marks? There's a lot of people standing there. And I like the fact that they maintain this and they're not trying to get into political correctness. This is a manji or a traditional sign representing temples. And these are the torii gates that represent shrines. I would not be overly sensitive. This has been here for thousands of years.

30:54:00 John Daub: During feudal era, chaya establishments offering sake and geigi entertainment—geigi meaning like a geisha entertainment, geiko—could be found in the neighborhood of the temple. This is the place where the Kaga clan established the Kaga clan. The Kaga clan was a group of neighborhoods which served as entrances to the castle town of Kanazawa and were located by the Asanogawa Ohashi, which is a bridge, and the Saigawa Ohashi bridges on the Hokuriku Kaido road. In the year 1820, these entertainment districts were officially authorized by the Kaga clan. And together with the Nishichaya District on the opposite side of the Saigawa River, the Higashi Chaya District was officially established here and became the liveliest part of the castle town. Lively, but not right now. Although the feudal system has since given way to Kanazawa's modern government, this Chaya District has retained its traditional atmosphere. It's a true story. I like the Nishichaya District. There's an east side that not a lot of tourists go to. And on the east side, it has a completely different feel. And if there's too many tourists on this side, go to the east side because it's pretty nice.

32:03:00 John Daub: Alright guys, soak this in one more time. We're going to be leaving this area. But I'm going to pan around and show you this incredible Higashi Chaya avenue that's completely deserted—except for a guy who's sweeping up. I've enjoyed many gold leaf ice creams right here, just never with nobody here. It's kind of creepy in a good way. Hey, Katayama's in the house. I shall leave those cats alone. I'm sorry, sir. They weren't leaving me alone. They were eyeing me. That one cat had evil eyes. Did you see that thing? It was totally not me. They started it. This looks pretty good cuisine. I'd eat anything right now. I'm pretty hungry. Oh, it's a katsudon on the left. Katsukare. Everything is 925 yen, it says here. Oh no, for the teishoku, okay. It's pretty good.

33:52:00 John Daub: Kanazawa's a great city to explore by bicycle because everything is about 30 minutes away—30 minutes walking, alright? So if I take a left at the shingo, the red light there, it's 30 minutes to get to the castle and Kenroku-en. Kenroku-en is a very famous garden. It's one of the top three gardens in Japan. The other one is in Okayama and in Mito, which is just north of Tokyo. And if you're here for February, for the ume blossoms, it's so beautiful there. They have hundreds, if not thousands of ume trees. And in February it's a little bit chilly, but people are out there drinking and being merry. Just having fun.

34:40:00 John Daub: We're still light of that 555 likes. Very shocked at you all. Didn't like this content, apparently. That's an eclectic mix of characters. And the robot scratching the baby's nose. I found Waldo. Didn't take very long. 35 minutes in. Sean808 and Katayama, welcome. You are now a traveler. Although you were travelers before that. You're with me. Kanazawa is famous for its gold leaf. That's not a completely gold statue. It's been leafed. And we couldn't go into them, but maybe in the future I'll be able to take you. They do have an amazing gold house in one of the shops that's been there for centuries. It's just closed right now. But I'll try to take you in there.

35:52:00 John Daub: That's the main road. And I want to wrap around to a vending machine because we got the 600 likes and you guys just bought me a drink. Much appreciated. Enjoy something from the Lindt Cafe near the station. They have a Lindt Cafe near the station? I'm learning from Zeigichiban. Thank you. Yeah, I'm going to get something. I gotta take the Shinkansen at 4 p.m. today. So this is where we have the Asano River. They call it the Asano Gawa. But in English, it's just basically Asano River. And I walked over this bridge. We're going to go down towards there. I'm going to show you the river before we cut off.

36:38:00 John Daub: But this is where we walked today. We walked here and this is the street that I showed you, the really nice street with all the birds chirping. And then we walked this way and around to Utatsu Jinja. And we walked almost up to here—Junji Temple. And it's a pretty good walk. But if you keep going, there's so many temples that I didn't explore because I didn't have time. Gotta get back. Startin' my day. People are so happy to see me. Just any traveler, they're pretty happy about it. Here's a quick look-see at some gold confections. And I'm going to be exploring this even more. See, that's gold on top of that custom vanilla cake. And there's some gold leaf ice cream. You know you want it. You getting enough gold in your diet? How you doing? Some gold pudding. This main street's not that quiet. Also, be careful on the main street here. It's pretty narrow going. Lots of cars are going by real fast.

38:05:00 John Daub: What? This looks so good. Indian curry. That doesn't look like anything I've ever had in India. I've never had katsu kare in India. What? This does not look like Indian curry. My relatives, if they saw this, they'd be like, what's going on with Japan here? They even have a mascot. That's very nice. Let's take you to the bridge here so you can get a look at the Asano River. Many of you who have been to Kanazawa are really reliving through this video because I know that many of you... Here's a vending machine. Nothing good. There's another one a little bit further. A lot of you have had to cancel your trips. Many of you were going here. Let me just tell you this—the locals here will be so ecstatic when you do come. Ishikawa Prefecture does not have a lot of infections. In fact, they've had zero for a very long time. I think that they're ready for tourism perhaps here.

39:34:00 John Daub: There's a vending machine at the end of this bridge. I'm going to get something there. They do have some bicycles here. I think you can rent them for the day and then just drop them off and take them from different spots. Tokyo has something similar but just a different, slightly different system. I'm really glad that they have this rent-a-bike system where you can just pick it up and go. This is one of the two rivers that straddles Kanazawa on the left and the right. This is Asano River or Asano Gawa. The blue sky is starting to break. It's beautiful. We have mountains all around Kanazawa as well. If you ever look at Kanazawa from a tall building, you'll be able to see the surrounding areas. You shouldn't be flying drones here. I'm going to be back in Kanazawa in about 10 days. I'm going to be bringing a lot more camera equipment to film the episode. People enjoying the park there. This is such a beautiful place. This is a beautiful scene just right here.

41:13:00 John Daub: The Terrace House Soba Shop is maybe Karuizawa? I don't think they did one in Kanazawa. You're getting the Zawas wrong. It's beautiful, right? There's a vending machine and there's some signs here. That's the Higashi Chaya District. I hope you enjoyed this morning walk with cats and birds and one wacky human that thought he could communicate but just got stared down and creeped out by cats. I'm more of a dog person. Simple and loyal. I like to lick stuff. Let's go get a drink.

42:19:00 John Daub: What is a Kentucky Fried Chicken vending machine? Pretty weird. What are our offerings? Umei salty. Salty ume water. What? Really? Pretty bizarre. Hey, Ramsey, Shakir's here. Dinner on me and Yun Kanae. And one beer! Awesome! Thanks for that. Arigato. Yogurt. What? Dude! Okay. This one's high on my list. Lychee and yogurt drink. What else I got? The typical Boss coffees. And yes, Tamily Jones is doing well after over 30 years of being the Boss pitchman. He's still the Boss in Japan. The Japan Pepsi. It just says Japan Cola. It's not any different. This is Kyoto Green Tea. It's also pretty good. What do you guys think? It's between the salty ume water and this yogurt lychee drink. With salt. It has salt in it. Okay, I'm just gonna have to go with the lychee here. I don't know. It's hard. It's a tough call. This one doesn't have an IC card. I have to use cash. It's 100 yen. Toby Machine. It's green. Salt, grapes, lychee, lemon, and grapefruit. Sounds like a morning cocktail to me.

44:52:00 John Daub: Who said that? Walk further. You didn't even say please, man. Look, if you want people to do stuff for you, you should use the magic word. Please. Commands are not appreciated. Even when I speak to the cats, I say please. Everybody knows that. It's all sugar. Salty. They weren't joking. It did say salt. It's true. It's true. Walk further, please. Where am I gonna walk? This is the end of the road. What, you want me to walk to the castle? Really? I can walk to this intersection. Does that make you happy? This has nothing to do with Higashi Chaya District. I gotta change the title now. This is the Higashi Chaya District and Walk More Now. Who wrote that? We are your manners, sir. Love and peace. And walking. Oh, I can cross the street. Oh, I missed it. Gotta wait now. It's a good looking bakery on the corner. That's the direction of Higashi Chaya.

46:55:00 John Daub: If you're joining us right now, I have left Higashi Chaya and somebody said walk more now. Alright, so I gotta... No, I don't only read Super Chats. The proof is in the pudding. I just read your comment. Not a lot of the comments make any sense to me. People are talking to other people. You want me to just read comments? You think this is a Q&A? This isn't a Q&A. A live stream is not a Q&A. Alright? I'm waiting for the light so I can cross here. Just because you ask a question doesn't mean I have to answer it. Ha! It's actually true. I get a lot of questions. Very few answers. Creators gotta create, you know? Gotta create.

48:09:00 John Daub: Have you ever had an earthquake live on stream? You should avoid one this morning. The Ring of Fire has been on stream for the last 24 hours. Yeah, I've had... I've been in some massive earthquakes in my time. Of course, the one on March 11th. But being on camera with one—no, I don't think that's ever happened. You know, while all of you are watching, the biggest complaint on this channel is, why is your content so long? I don't like it. I said, well, because people get the notifications 30 minutes in, and then everyone who's watching live wants me to keep going. That's why it's so long. I'm not complaining. See, that's why I've been surrounded by crows on the street. And when you're surrounded by crows on the street, you can turn to the dark side. Just ask Hello High 821.

49:13:00 John Daub: Now, when I was walking this way this morning, there were crows everywhere. Now it's a little bit busier. This is the way to the station, by the way. And when you do walk, you don't have to stick to the main road. You can go on the left or the right and go through an alley, which is a lot quieter. But if you do, you'll find some pretty interesting architecture, like this building on the left side there. Brick. And another brick building. These look like warehouses for merchants 150 years ago, Meiji, Edo period. Now it's a Chinese restaurant called Mei Mei, but it's pretty unique architecture. Hey, Florence is here. How you doing, Florence? Keep up the good work from Singapore. I gotta make my way to a shrine. I can do that finally for you and your family. Thank you so much. The masks that I got were from Singapore, from Florence.

50:39:00 John Daub: Hey, KK's here. I joined at 25 minutes and I appreciate long streams. There you go. Mr. Kumar appreciates the long length of the streams. You see that? Even my dad said that the videos were too long. He's like, why are your videos too long? So, were you complaining? Talk to the customer service rep about that. Bradshaw Studio is now an insider. Hey! This month we're giving all of the membership fees to MPO Florence. Actually, that's the name of it, Florence. It's named after—it's just MPO Florence. And they help kids who are not doing well here, parents who are struggling taking care of their families and newborn babies that are disadvantaged.

51:40:00 John Daub: Kanazawa is a pretty chill city, huh? That way would be going towards the garden and the castle. But I'm staying at a hotel near Omicho—Omicho Fish Market, Omicho Ichiba. And in the morning it's pretty vibrant, but I think they're pretty much closed down because of the pandemic, which is a shame. But I'll probably go there when I come back in July. Should be opened up and I'll be able to get some fresh sashimi. Because when you're on the Sea of Japan side, you gotta have the sashimi. Forget all the other foods. Go for the sashimi. Go for the sushi. It's so good here. Soba is not part of the culture of Kanazawa. I'm gonna recycle this here. It's too salty for me.

52:40:00 John Daub: Hey Kristen! I like the morning tour live streams. More please. You have been heard, your vote has been registered, and I shall do more. Because it's so peaceful and quiet in the mornings, isn't it? And just up ahead, about 500 meters is a big intersection and then you turn right to go to the station. So there you go. I hope this live stream is useful for you and you enjoyed it because I really did as well. I'm gonna be in Kanazawa until 4 p.m. I might be doing another live stream at a very inconvenient time for most people in the United States, but hey, Europe rejoice. Because that might be a good time for you. You just find stuff on the street sometimes. You didn't expect that. If it's public on the street, then there shouldn't be any problem, right? I'm starting to like this city. I hope you do too when you come. Have a good day everybody.