00:03 John Daub: Welcome to what was probably the most incredible train station hotel ever. You're looking at it right now. I'm panning through it. Just the details of this room are incredible. I want to take you around not just this room, but the area, which is Koyashita Station. For those of you who saw the stream last night, you're going to be able to connect with this place on a completely different level.

00:34 John Daub: Last night, I arrived here at about 10:30 p.m. to a bunch of spiders and no humans whatsoever. There wasn't a soul around. It was so quiet. There's no check-in. It's a human-less check-in with just a code key sent by the hotel. I opened the door, came in, and was shocked at what I saw. Outside the window, you can see people waiting for the next train. Check it out. Look at the view. There's a screen here. But the train comes through a tunnel over there and then screams through here. We've had about four or five trains go by. At 6 a.m., there was a siren that didn't help with my alarm. It was supposed to go off at 7. But I slept in this bed because it seemed to be away from any bugs that might be in the window.

01:25 John Daub: Some of the personalities of this room—coming here at night is even more exciting. It looks like the marks of a century-old train. This is the train station here in the Japanese countryside. This is Koyashita. I'll put a link in the description so you can take a look at it. The room is a little bit pricey, somewhere between $200 and $300 a night. But you get electrical outlets—that's very important—and coffee. The reason it's so expensive? Supply and demand. There's only two rooms in this hotel, and they're constantly booked. Now, because of the pandemic, things aren't as crowded, so I was able to get this room.

02:11 John Daub: I came here on this Nankai rail pass. I got a two-day rail pass. So we're going to check out Koyasan today, hike a little bit. And I'm going back to Tokyo tomorrow. So it's a short trip, just scouting out this area for an episode that I'm thinking about doing, which is pretty exciting here. Tony V is here! Hey, Tony! Good morning, Jen. I'm watching together with my mother. Hey, Tony's mother! I just got out of the hospital. It's her birthday. Happy birthday! Hope you have a great day. You too, Tony. Hi, Mom. That's wonderful.

02:53 John Daub: After I get this coffee poured, I'm going to have a sip of it, and we're going to head out. I think it's boiled. It's good enough. Japan has these filter coffees like this. Oh, I made an awful mess. I respect wood! Ah! Tony's mom's watching. It's all good. Alright, let's go. Let me show you a little bit around the hotel room, and then I'm just going to go out.

03:47 John Daub: The bathroom is amazing in here. Check it out. I love the little touches. What makes this room really charismatic is the character that it has. All the old doors seem to be—even though they repainted this wall and added some new wood—some of the old wood and the characteristics of the old station. The daylight just looks different. This is from a train. This is the rack where we put the luggage on. There's a handle that you would hold on to, as well as a seat that's actually in one of the trains from the past. There's the heater on the bottom. The heat would come out and keep the seat warm in the winter. That is a really nice touch. They did not paint this wall. I like that. It seems like the old, original. This is the way that the wall probably was half a century ago, including this telephone here, which does not work. I tried it many times. It's okay. A little old-looking light. The chairs are really nice.

04:46 John Daub: On this side, you have half of the wall here. Check it out. New wall, new wall, old wall. I love this. So you can feel some of the history here, including when I opened this window. It has these old lock mechanisms. You have to screw it in, and that's how it locks, by screwing it in. Let's get some fresh air. Look at all the green outside the window. Oh, I hear a train coming. Must be because somebody's waiting over there. Also, look at how high the mountain goes. It's a beautiful day today. All right, there is a train coming. Let's watch the train come. I'm going to then, after this train leaves, take you to maybe a temple, which is nearby. I found it on a map. I can hear it coming. Can you hear that? It's screeching. This is right outside. I was sleeping right there. Here comes the train. That's amazing. I can't move the screen out of the way. That's the way it comes. And there's somebody getting on the train. One person over here. There aren't any ekiben. In fact, there's no restaurants at all.

06:19 John Daub: Let me get a sip of this coffee. I respect wood. It'll still be warm when we get back. The temple is not that far away. And then it makes filtered coffee. Have to treat wood carefully. Respect. No coasters here. You know what? It'll still be there when I get back. There's a ticket here for breakfast at another station, but I don't have time for that. So it's a little breakfast ticket. I like the way they did that. This ticket—you can take the ticket out. It's like a special ticket that you spent the night here. And then this is the breakfast coupon, which looks like the same design, the same shape as a normal ticket from ten years ago. Now, everybody's cashless. You just touch the card. All right. Let's get out of here.

07:34 John Daub: Beautiful toilet and an amazing bath that I had last night in this tub. Enjoyed myself and even have a rain shower. But I tried to wash the tub to be polite. And then I sprayed myself because that shower turned on and my back's all wet. So don't tell anybody. I brush my teeth there. Oh, there's the fly. There's the fly from yesterday that I shooed out. See, he's okay. Somebody called me a killer. I wasn't. He survived. I got to turn off the Wi-Fi. Hold on a second, guys. I'll be back in a second. All right. We're back.

08:28 John Daub: I'm a little bit nervous to go outside the door. And I'm sure you were too, bug friend. We both did not want to go outside this door. But we're going to. The code I remembered. It's a five or six digit number. I'm not going to tell you. I'm scared to go out this way. I don't see any webs. I think the door might have got it. All right. Three, two, one. Just Indiana Jones this. Ready? Three, two, one. We're good. All right. Let's go check out this area here. It's nice. It's very rural. And you can see a river runs through it.

09:41 John Daub: So I guess someone is cleaning. There wasn't any staff when I arrived here yesterday. So this is where I came last night. And it was really, really dark and kind of spooky. But when I woke up this morning, it's a beautiful place. Look at this. I slept here. It's like a pilgrimage hotel. People would spend the night here. And it's connected to the train station. I guess it would be a creek. That's the fire department or the police station. I'm not quite sure which. But it's a very nice place here. I walked over this way. And there's a hair salon according to Google Maps. But the air is fresh. It's morning. The air is crisp. It's going to be a really humid, hot day today. Blue skies. Could you ask for anything better? Not really.

11:12 John Daub: I shouldn't have walked on this route. I'm sure the spider webs have gone through here. Oh, there's one right there. Okay, go on the main road. The car is probably spider alley. If I was a spider, I'd make a home there. I'm not afraid of spiders. Jennifer French is here. There's a little something for towards dinner. Thank you. It will be used. Check out that dude having a drink. That could be you if you come here. Wait for the car. Here's a post office. It's a really nice post office. It's an old post office. That'd be pretty cool to post the postcards from there. Let's go check it out. Just do a little walkabout.

12:10 John Daub: Now, I got to get out of here at around 9 o'clock. We're going on a trip. We have my train at 9 o'clock. So not to look at the old buildings. I'm underneath the railroad. Oh, this is amazing. Just got to be careful. Let's just walk out here to the clearing and we can go. We'll see what we can see here. Hey, Shane. Thank you. Welcome. Good morning. The Beatles are here. I could use some earplugs. I should have known that they were going to have some weird alarm. It was a siren this morning. How cool is that? Look at that. You can climb this hill and then you have to stop. There's a railroad crossing. And look at the stone wall full of moss. I'm not used to this countryside thing at all. Don't touch the moss. Touched it. Let's go to this clearing. See if we can find a temple. Maybe a stone temple.

13:55 John Daub: Whoa. Look how clean the water is here. That is some clear water. I thought there was a spider web. I seriously am going to have nightmares about spiders when I get back to Tokyo. Kanae is going to ask me, so how was your trip? And I'll say spiders. Oh, this is such a beautiful area. Hi, A2. What's going? Yeah, this looks like my backyard. Scrambles Hachi is fighting it out as Pear Man is not making an appearance. But the Fox Dog Man. Oh, we found a friend. I found a friend. You want to see? Click the like button. How you doing? It's the most entertainment you've had all day. He doesn't want to play. He can't play. He's all tied up. I want to untie him, but probably we become best friends and I won't be able to get rid of him.

16:04 John Daub: Okay. I remember I was hiking Easter Island back in 2003. Look how clear this was. And I was hiking. I hiked around the entire Easter Island in three days and a dog. We found a dog about two days in and the dog followed us for over a day. It's pretty cool. Then we got to the town. I guess the dog had been banned by the town. The dog had been banned by the town because we got close to the town and the dog wouldn't go into the town. Wow. It's just so clear. I want to get to the temple. I guess I can go up the road here. It's a little bit dangerous. It said the temple was three minutes away from the station. All right. Let's go up this road here. Let's give it a good five minutes. I'll give this five minutes and see where this path leads.

17:26 John Daub: Would I move to the countryside? Yeah. You know what? I might. There's something really nice about it. I know there's something nice about visiting. Look at the rooftops here. And I forgot my mask. I should be wearing a mask out here. But there's nobody. Oh, I have one. I have a backup mask. But if there's no people around, just dogs, we're good. All right. We're behind the station now. That's where I spent the night. Okay. I think this is it. It was just a three-minute walk. It's a temple here. I can smell incense. What a view.

18:47 John Daub: Adrian Head. Greetings from Worcestershire. Chicago Africans here. It's nice to see so many friends here. Interverted Otaku. The weather's nice. We've had an amazing amount of rain this year. And yesterday was cloudy and today is so sunny. And I'll probably get the drone out today, get some shots. Just going to walk around this temple. If you look at the Google map of Koyashita Station, you'll be able to see exactly where I am. Probably follow this on Google Maps as well. Little street view. There's the train platform. It's a little bit of a walk. And this rock has been here for a thousand years maybe. I don't know. It'd be cool if it was. That tree might have been here for a thousand years.

20:19 John Daub: Thanks, Benji. After all the hiking tonight, trust me, we're going to have a massive meal and some drinks for sure. Oh, that's beautiful. Praise. Let's just bow. Show some respect. The trees are beautiful on the left and the right of it. Look at that. And there's water here where you can wash your hands, which is traditional. Somebody this morning had already swept this area. So it's nice and clean. Anything that falls from the trees or from nature, they'll clean it up. There's a stone lantern. That looked more like a shrine than a temple. And maybe this is a temple. Okay, this is a temple on this side. So sometimes shrines and temples go hand in hand. Kyoto, there's a mix of shrines and temples.

21:45 John Daub: This is the home of the Shingon Buddhism sect, which I believe was around the year 800, 809 or 816. And you can see that in the history books. Good morning. Beautiful, beautiful day in the Japanese countryside. You have views like this. Green nature. I like the fact that they painted this like a bright red to make it stand out a little bit. So it's not just this monotonous green. It gives a little bit of color. Like the torii of the temple. The gates. It's striking. And this is what you subscribe for. For these live streams out here in the countryside. Unexpected adventures.

22:41 John Daub: That right there is the only vending machine in town. And it was off last night. But it's on today. I guess they turn it off to save power, maybe. Not a lot of people buying vending machine drinks at midnight. One of the vending machines is quite nice. It's a little bit more expensive than the one I just saw up there. It's more inviting than the spiders. People live here. So when you are walking around after like maybe 8 or 9 p.m., you want to be very, very quiet and respectful of the people here. I like it. Really taking good care of it. There's like a local love to the station. I like this. And you can drive underneath the station. My room is just above here on the other side. And you can drive underneath my room. How cool is that? Koyashita Station.

24:13 John Daub: Here's a map and some of the local things around here. You can see there's the bridge that we walked underneath just a second ago. And there's a temple that we walked up to and a shrine next to one another. Yeah, a shrine and a temple together. And if you hike around here, you'll find even more beautiful things just here. But you have to take—you can hike or take a cable car. And I believe we're taking a cable car today. We just don't have the time. And I want to scout this area out. Okay, so there's four walking trails here. This course is five kilometers, 2.8 kilometers or about like one and a half miles. This is 10K or about five point eight miles, maybe. Four point six kilometers, which is about two point nine miles, maybe. And it has listed out in Japanese the routes, the distances between the stops. And then here's another map. Gives you an idea of the area. Look at the wilderness. There's a couple of stations away. There's a waterfall. Very nice. The train goes through this tunnel.

26:05 John Daub: Alejandra, I live vicariously through you. You're very welcome. Michael Sassano, just in case you need this to share a side super drive with your spider. Hey, Michael, don't bring up the spiders. Leave them be. I'll drink the beer. I'll give them the can. They can hang out inside. Sounds like a plan. Wow. I could have snagged the Wi-Fi from my room. That's the room right there that we were looking at in the beginning of this live stream. I was looking outside that room. Could be snagging some high quality Wi-Fi, but I got a massive 4G plan to do these live streams. This barn or house has definitely seen some action. And I think if there were ever a spider, it would be in there. You could find a lot of insects inside this house, I think. Whoa, you can. Yes, you can. Why are Japanese countryside spiders yellow? I don't know. There's some weird varieties of arachnids here. But a lot of personality to this town. I love it.

27:40 John Daub: So there's your room if you decide to stay here. I would highly recommend it. It's an amazing room. Spiders are a little creepy at the door. But if you don't bother them, they won't bother you. Glad you survived the great spider swarm last night. They were swarming indeed. They were all over the place. All right. Let's go back to the room. I'm pretty much packed and ready to go. I'm so happy to welcome a lot of new members. Havo, Javo's here. Traveler, welcome. Wow, that's Mothra. Tasty Chronicles, you were right. Is that a leaf or is that a moth? That's a mini Mothra. Like locking, it's going to keep them out, right? Lock the door and the inner door. I'm now in my own special world. Smells like coffee. Oh, it's nice. And a message to Tony's mom. It's dried. Okay, we're good. Nobody knows what happened there except for you guys. My coffee's done.

30:16 John Daub: Okay, you know what? I'm going to have to put this on the table. I'm going to put this plate here. I respect wood. Ah, no. Coffee on the floor. No coasters here. A train just came. Let's check it out. Is anyone getting off? One of the trains just came. That's a great shot of the screen. Screen, move out of the way. If you get further, you can see it. Nobody got off. Coast is clear. How's it going? Oh, here comes a train. It's coming from the other direction. Whoa. Outside my room window. Captain can see me, the pilot, engineer. I do have a coaster. I made my own. Don't worry. I respect wood.

32:16 John Daub: So I'm here to take your questions about this wonderful stay for the next couple of minutes. And then I got a book. I have somewhere to be. We didn't even get to 500 likes. That's ridiculous. Who are you people? It's not a ghost train. There was a conductor. I saw the conductor. Nice warm coffee. Colin for food rights in here. Beautiful area minus the insects. Having breakfast as well. Coffee cheers. Hey, you know, insects. This is their world. We're in their world. Respect the insects. That's what I say. If you don't hurt them, they won't hurt you. And in fact, I didn't even kill a mosquito. I killed nothing unless I stepped on something. But it wasn't my fault. They shouldn't have been there. Although maybe I shouldn't have been there. Really? Think about it. This is their world.

33:14 John Daub: Oh, and Lyon-Elson Chua. Nice view from the room. It's a very nice room. I'm really happy. I actually didn't pay for the room. But I will review it. I will give a review on the room. It's a beautiful night. And the air conditioning was a blessing because it was so humid last night. And then this morning, I woke up at 6. There was a siren. That's what those earplugs are for. They can't turn the sirens off. And that kind of made the experience. The room is somewhere between $200 and $300. It seems pricey. But let's be honest. This is a luxury type of room. You have a luxury bathtub. It's very clean inside. New linen. Big beds. This is not normal for the Japanese countryside. This is actually very, very rare and special. So the demand for these two rooms. There's another one which is smaller. This is a bigger room. It's quite high. So you're going to have to reserve this. Even at this price, reserve it in advance. And if you do stay for a night, you're going to have an amazing experience. You're going to wake up to the countryside. It's an amazing thing. And after Kanae and I have been in pandemic hell for several months, this is very nice to be out here. Very nice indeed.

34:38 John Daub: Ken Ko writes in. Hope this buys you a baked pastry. It does. I'm going to get something when I get on the Shinkansen going back to Tokyo from Osaka Station with that. I do appreciate all the support, guys. It's huge. Honeymoon would be really nice here, actually. You know, the city is nice, but I think you. As someone who's been on a honeymoon, you want to go to a place where you don't have a lot of distractions. And you can focus on talking and each other and whatever else you're doing on a honeymoon. This is the kind of room where you could do that. I didn't do that last night. Irvan writes in. The hesitation was Irvan just gave me a super chat. Thank you, Irvan. That's support. That's the greatest kind of support. I appreciate it. Know that hesitation had nothing to do with anything. I was so tired last night. I came in and I just fell asleep pretty much. Sure. It's just no wink wink.

35:47 John Daub: Steven. Several baked pastries. Yes. For this jumping spiders. Don't say jumping spiders. Two words that should not be put together. But as you were very nice, they were welcoming, but they can't communicate other than looking suspicious. So spiders are given the benefit, not giving the benefit of the doubt. We should be kinder to spiders. Have you had? Has anyone ever been bitten by a big one? Unless you're like a wolf man spider from Australia. There's a very red back. The wolf spider. I had one of these massive. I remember I was hauling wood from a house in Sydney as a part time job. I picked it up and this big ass spider crawled across me and then jumped off and it was massive and it didn't bite me. I could see the fangs and I never did that job again. I finished the day barely and I left and never did that job again. You were doing part time jobs in Australia. Everybody was in the year 2000. 1999 2000 during the millennium. I was there. Amazing stories I have from Australia.

37:02 John Daub: Taste Chronicles for your bug repellent. Hey tasty. I saw Mothra outside. Did you see that? You have to watch the playback. Woke up obviously bitten by a spider. Humongous jaws. That happens. Huntsman spider. That's what it was called. Ando. Yeah. I had a huntsman on my arm. They're harmless. Why are they so big? Why do they have fangs? Think about that. I remember in the morning that you'll see them on cars to stay warm or something because the cars in those—I don't know—or in shoes. I don't even check my shoes. I probably have smushed up spiders in my shoes. I don't know. No room service. There's a breakfast ticket. There's no restaurants. Pretty much when you come here from Osaka. You're going to want to bring some food with you. That'd be the way to go. But not a lot here to do except for camp. And the whole idea of this is I think you kind of want to escape. There's temples and shrines and hiking. And this is a place where you can connect with nature.

38:11 John Daub: My buddy Kevin Riley always comes out this way to Nara to Wakayama. And he loves the wilderness. Osaka is a city. But you have to remember you don't have to go that far before you're in the woods of Wakayama or Nara. These are very wooded areas. And if you're coming to Japan for the first time, spend two or three days away from cities. Stop going to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima. Stop it. Come out to the countryside at least for a couple of nights. This is where you start to see that old Japan. You start to feel the traditions and the culture and the history. You don't really get that much in the cities. You just see a bunch of other tourists. You don't now because there are no tourists here. But when you're here, they will. Because if you can come, then others can. But others can't, so it's just us. And you're here with me because you're a subscriber.

39:18 John Daub: It's a huge room. It is pretty huge. And the little touches, as I said before. The unfinished wall on this side and the finished part of it makes it very luxurious. The old windows, the clasps on there have to screw in and out. The old poles here from the original station, it looks like. It's really, really a great touch. They painted the ceiling and left the pole here, the support pole in its original condition. A wonderful little touch. And, you know, it is a little bit pricey, but the demand is high. And you are living in history. And if you like trains, you don't get a better view than the station outside your window. Okay? It's awesome. Train bench, too. Yeah. You saw that. It's nice.

40:11 John Daub: All right, guys. This is a lot of fun. I'll see if I can do another livestream from a location that is really beautiful today. I want to share with you this. This is a scouting trip for me. So, basically, on this time, I'm in my mind thinking of episodes that I want to cover in this area. This hotel has a story. This room has a story now because I spent the night here. But I'm always looking for stories. Now, I'm not looking for, I don't know, like vlogs. I'm looking for stories that connects with you emotionally. That connects with me. And I'm always looking for that. And today, I think we're going to find some really good ones. We're going to hike up to Koyasan. I've got my camera here. And I'll take some background videos. But it's kind of neat to share this experience. So, when this episode does drop, you were here with me when I filmed it live. That's why you subscribe.

41:17 John Daub: Yeah. Kevin, I did call him. I said, Kevin, how's it going? He goes, it's hot as hell. That was his email. All right. Talk to you soon. I hope maybe I get a chance to see him tomorrow. But he's in Teradacho, kind of the other side of Osaka. And I'll be heading out to the Shinkansen. But I haven't seen him in like six months because of the pandemic. It'd be great to catch up with the King of Osaka, Kevin Reilly, Kuma's Kitchen, Ghosts of Tsushima, which is an island between Korea and Japan from Nagasaki. And yeah, who knows? The pandemic is making it hard, but I could go there. That'd be pretty cool. And spend two or three nights on the island away from the ghosts. But there's a lot of old temples and shrines on that island. And you can get there by ferry from Nagasaki. Maybe I'll do that. But I got a pretty full schedule. It'll have to be the week after next. But who knows? Anything's possible.

42:18 John Daub: What's for dinner? I don't know. I'm trying to get through lunch first. What's for lunch? I just joined your membership budget. I'm Bobby Hawk today and would like to say it's good to see that it's cheap and affordable to buy membership. Thank you. Yeah, you know what? I think it's like 99 cents. And I think it's just something special. And should be affordable for everyone. That's the lowest. I would have gone lower if I could. But what happens is if you do become a member, you unlock emoji and some extra posts inside of the community tab. And with the uncertainty of YouTube, you can't do that. So, I think it's just a little bit something extra, I think, to keep the channel secure. Because you never know. We had demonetization gate once. And we had ad revenue gate where it just all dropped suddenly. And you can't control it anymore. This is a job with zero security. Okay? Anyone who says that this is not a job, you have no idea. This is fun. But this is also editing and finding stories. It's hard work. Respect the wood.

43:32 John Daub: All right, folks. That's it. I'm going to be getting on the train, checking out another area in this part of the world called Koyasan. And then I believe we spend the night here. And then tomorrow we head back to Osaka. If you're interested, click the like button. If we can get to 1,200 likes on this video, it's up to you now. If you can get to 1,200 likes, I will show you the next hotel room. Okay? If you don't care about this, don't click the like button. But it's up to you in playback now. If we can get enough likes, I will show you where I'm staying. It should be a pretty nice hotel as well. It's about sharing experiences. And I want to show you what it's like if you can't make it to Japan, what it's like to be here in the countryside. Heads up, I have a Kickstarter that is making my own fireworks festival in Japan. And that's going to be dropping this week too. I think I finished the video and everything has been approved. So when that starts, I'm going to introduce it to you. Probably in the next few days. But buy from one of the most amazing hotel rooms in Japan, I think. Inside of an old station, Koyashita. Link in the description. Thanks, guys. Check out the view. That's a station. See you in the next live stream. And James, thanks so much for signing up as a traveler. Irvan and Shane, you guys are pretty crazy. Crazy good. Much love from Koya. Later.