00:06 John Daub: Greetings, welcome to... that's Mount Fuji. We just happen to be driving in a rental car from Tokyo to Nagoya. We're stopping at this rest service area and why not just do a quick live stream, bring you with us and show you Mount Fuji. Kind of not the best weather. We don't have blue skies, that's for sure. But I think that the clouds make it look so mysterious, doesn't it?

00:31 John Daub: And driving here from Tokyo on the Tomei Expressway (東名高速道路, Tomei Kōsoku Dōro). How you doing everybody? There's Kanai, she's driving with me. She got a chance to drive on this trip. But driving from Tokyo on the Tomei Expressway, that whole trip from Odawara down to this area, so beautiful. It's almost like a video game as right in front of you is Mount Fuji. It's an incredible driving experience. That right there is our Toyota that we're renting.

01:02 John Daub: But I thought I would bring you a couple of live streams from the Mount Fuji area and show you this really interesting rest area. We call them service areas in Japan. There are parking areas and then there are service areas. Service areas are more like full-on rest stops with a lot of services and restaurants and shops. Parking areas are pretty much just a restroom and maybe a convenience store. Those are the trucks. I thought it was like thunder and it looks like it could be raining. But the weather's not that bad. We're supposed to clear up later today. This is why I'm actually filming on this day. By the time we get to Nagoya, it should be really clear weather.

01:39 John Daub: So I want to take you inside of the service area. Ashigara. Welcome to the Ashigara service area. I don't know if we can actually film here, but we're going to take you around here. One of the things that I thought was really interesting was right here. You can see Mount Fuji right there. Check this out. They have like a little library kids area here. And you can sit here and wait in footbaths. This is so only in Japan. Look at these footbaths. And there's a shop over here, a cafe where you can get a coffee or something and just relax in a footbath. Isn't that just the coolest thing? I've never seen this before. This is so Shizuoka.

02:46 John Daub: I bought some bread at the bakery so I can show you that. It's kind of interesting because it's shaped in the size of Mount Fuji and we put it towards that. Like, I wish we had more time, but we got to get moving. Could you envision you and your family taking off your shoes and socks and just having a coffee and a foot bath? That's so Mount Fuji. So we'll get a chance to see Mount Fuji, but you can see how quickly it's behind some clouds, how quickly the weather changes here. Typically, it looks like that in the winter. Let me show you a little bit of the service area and then we got to get on our way. And you're coming with us, too, because we'll be down in Nagoya in about three hours.

04:00 John Daub: They have a lot of restaurants here. Here's some Mount Fuji snacks. That unagi pie from Toyohashi is famous. Dr. Fish, like you put your feet in the foot bath and then the little fish will clean all the dead skin off your feet. It's kind of nasty. But yet that's so cool. The service areas here have always really clean restrooms. And then there's the sign. It gives you an update of the highway situation. Ashigara, that's the name of the service area. Sometimes so I guess the touch map, but it'll give you some traffic updates and let you know where you're going.

05:00 John Daub: I found this really interesting on the other side. Check this out. You're going to smile at this one. There's a One Piece vending machine. And then over here is a Pikachu vending machine. It's a Pokemon vending machine and you can get like Pikachu goods. Everything is a little bit expensive. It's like 1200 yen, but it comes out right there in that really big dispenser. It's like key chains and little teeny dolls.

05:55 John Daub: Not a lot of people here this morning. These are ohagi. These look really good, too. But we got some stuff in the car. And then here they have all of these gift boxes. This is sometimes I'll find really good stuff for our Patreon supporters. Things that have a longer shelf life that I can send across. Like these big cookies with Mount Fuji on it. I thought these looked really interesting. It's kind of a mochi with azuki red bean paste. And I like the guy on the front of it. He's really enjoying it.

07:11 John Daub: Whoa. Check this one out. This one has like eggs in it. It's a tamago cake. It's an egg cake from Mount Fuji. And they show you the real eggs that they put in there. Yeah, egg cake is inside a custard cream. White custard cream. So then we get all sorts of goodies here. And you can find little dolls here with some of Mount Fuji hats and things like that. It's pretty neat. There is over there in the distance a Starbucks if you want to get some coffee and some other restaurants, places to sit. But we're trying not to sit around.

08:15 John Daub: Oh, look at that. That's like an ice cream daifuku. Yeah, it's a daifuku. Looks really good. Japanese rest areas are awesome. Service areas or rest stops. There's a FamilyMart here. And then this bakery. We bought a bunch of stuff here. Check it out. Do you see this right here? Those are Mount Fuji danishes in the shape of Mount Fuji with maple and custard inside. Look at these meronpan. Inside of these meronpan are custard filled with all this goody. It almost looks like a boshi pan from Kochi. These are $2 each.

09:10 John Daub: And then I thought that this looked really good. Look at this karepan. Marugoto ebi karepan. And just really quickly, this one has eggplant in it, this karepan. And then this one here really quickly has the shrimp tail sticking out of it. That is so cool.

09:39 John Daub: Outside of the service area, you'll see here, well, the convenience store just is, it's a little bit more spacious. But they have vending machines here as well. Here's a list of the restaurants. Oh, there's a Lotteria here. And there's a takoyaki place, Kanai. You can see outside. And there's Mount Fuji for those that are joining us a little late. It's not the best day for it. And probably in about 30 seconds, it's going to be completely covered in the clouds. But it's nice to get a quick look at it. This is one of many service areas. This is the Ashigara service area. The restrooms over there, it's very spacious, a lot of space for you.

10:24 John Daub: Oh, what is this? Look at that egg. This is so delicious. Mount Fuji healthy chicken eggs with that delicious mineral, high mineral egg yolk. Look at that. It's orange here in Japan because of the minerals and the, I guess it's a variety of chicken. That's $10. And these are like outdoors. So that's kind of good in the pandemic age that we live in. You can get it and eat it outside. Maybe we should have done that, but we're on our way out. Here's the takoyaki.

11:43 John Daub: Did you want a hot dog, Kanai? It's like we're back in America. That is a good looking hot dog because it comes with a beer. And these are because there's a lot of drivers. They have zero, Asahi Dry Zero, which is no alcohol in them. It's kind of quiet outside. It's still early. It's like breakfast time. These hot dogs are plump and juicy. That's not even a hot dog. Mount Fuji soft cream. That's a hot dog. That's a Rusby. That looks like Mount Fuji with snow on top, blue and then white cap on it. That's nice. That's a good idea. Wow. That looks so good. Is that gyu-tan? Oh my. It's like torture. Look at the way that they put the mochi wrapped around the stick like that. That's awesome. And then this is a more like a potato mochi, right? American dog is the only one. No, they're corn dogs, but they call them American dogs here.

13:01 John Daub: Just some trash cans here for those that are interested in the service areas. I'll probably do a longer episode on this someday. Trash, people separate their garbage and they put it in. Everything is so clean here. Newspapers and magazines. You can pour your unfinished drinks in there and then there's even a place for the caps. Do you see? They recycle the caps separately and there's a little hole where you can put the cap in there. How cool is that? It's a different kind of plastic. And there's the Starbucks right there. I did get a coffee. Guilty.

13:41 John Daub: Well, if we get the 500 likes, I will show you. I'm always trying to see if we can get... That's a new one. Really? Is this a new one? Look at this. That is a yaki imo or sweet potato. Daigakuimo Frappuccino. That's bizarre. That's not what I got. Too much sugar.

14:40 John Daub: And here the restaurants typical. This is actually a smaller one. There's a service area that we might stop off on the way back that has a ferris wheel gōdansha (観覧車, observation wheel). So that'll be pretty interesting and possibly Patreon daimyo supporters might be getting a gift from here because there's some good stuff in there. Little doggy so there you go Mount Fuji. We're gonna now drive for a couple of kilometers and take you with us in the car as we make our way to Nagoya. It's nice, it's a nice day, it's supposed to clear up. Yes, definitely smash that like button, encourage me to do more service area rest stop videos. There's a lot of green around here. Oh there's a dog walking park over here. Yeah there's one dog right there very nice. Any questions on service areas at Mount Fuji because now we're going to get into our Toyota and Kanai's going to take the control of the stick.

16:08 John Daub: Andrew Sage I work at a US-based but international software firm that currently does not have a Japan office. Hey could they sponsor a certificate of eligibility? That is possible you have to ask them. You have to have somebody in Japan, you have to have somebody in Japan based in Japan to get certificate of eligibility unfortunately I don't know. But if they do open up an office even if there's a CEO I work with a lot of companies that have started up new Japanese businesses here in Japan. Usually they'll install a CEO first and that CEO will help to set up work in Japan which also means giving a certificate of eligibility. He has to register as the torishimariyaku (取締役, director) or the daihyō torishimariyaku (代表取締役, representative director) the president of the company after the articles of incorporation are done. You can take that and use that to start to get certificate of eligibility at the immigration's offices but not before that unfortunately. Thanks for asking the question.

17:04 Kanae Daub: Oh Kanai you gotta take the stick here I'll pass it over to you.

17:09 John Daub: On the inside all right into the Toyota we go say goodbye to Mount Fuji. I don't think we're going to get another shot of it. No, you can sit over there. There's your last shot of Mount Fuji. It's a creepy eye cam. How you doing? All right. Toyota is very easy. Just push the power button. That's the ETC card, which is an easy pass. That's stuck underneath there. You see it? There's a little slot and it automatically takes the tolls. It's right there. Automatically takes the tolls. Kanai is not driving because not yet. You can take the camera. You can turn the picture this way, Kanai, if you want to. All right, let's go.

18:15 John Daub: I just pulled it naturally. Yeah, good. All right, on the move. It's on. It's so quiet. This is it. It's so quiet. Okay, Siri. Safety, please. Safety, please. You got it. I think it's... I guess it's not the most logical way, but I guess we can go out this way. Okay, here we go. Bye-bye, service area.

19:05 John Daub: Speed limit on the highway, 80 kilometers per hour, folks. We do not want accidents. Both eyes on the road. Hands at two and ten. And it tells you the other way around what you can do. You can stop, drop, and roll. Stop. Let's get back on the highway. We got some driving to do. We are approximately... Oh, wow. Our arrival time got way worse. 1:30 we arrive at our destination. You must yield, truck. 126 kilometers away from our destination. Acceleration. There's no acceleration. Welcome to the Tomei Expressway, everybody. Thanks for joining us.

20:27 John Daub: We are on the slow lane. Yeah. Do not drive on the right lane. Police are there, and they will get you. We saw a lot of police officers... I saw a traffic jam on the Tomei Expressway. It was like 30 kilometers long because of an accident. And I felt so bad as we were passing them at full speed. So hopefully, that does not happen. Any super chats? Somebody have a question?

21:21 John Daub: No, who is that Brad? Who wrote that? Oh, no we're not there. We get there, it is a 10:15 in the morning and we arrive at our destination at 1:36 according to the navigation. And, can I show Mount Fuji if you can? Oh, you're right. Can you see it? I can see it. Oh, I can see it. It's Mount Fuji but it's difficult. Oh, I see some blue sky. It's a good sign. It's hidden, sorry.

22:16 Kanae Daub: Personality of brick wall.

22:21 John Daub: Yeah, it's a little cloudy. Mount Fuji is completely covered. They can't see it anymore. Just cloud. Yeah. In about 30 seconds, it'll be out of the clouds too. Actually, you'll probably get a good view out of my side window. In like 30 seconds. 2.0 kilometers. Turn left. You can zoom with your fingers. I do my best.

23:35 Kanae Daub: Oh, I hear. It's top of Mount Fuji. Nobotoke Kanai. No, Nobotoke Kanai. I've never climbed it.

23:52 John Daub: Yeah, how many times? I've been there three times. Three times? You wanna do it again?

24:01 Kanae Daub: Yeah.

24:02 John Daub: But I will for the show. 1.0 kilometers. Turn left. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for watching. We're gonna be getting off here and heading towards Shizuoka. Shizuoka. Have you climbed the Mount Fuji before?

24:25 Kanae Daub: No.

24:26 John Daub: Kanai hasn't climbed it, but I have climbed it three times. And each time was not a lot of fun. It was really hard work. Turn left. And you get, because it's over 3,000 meters, 3,776 meters high, you can get altitude sickness over 3,000 meters. And some people do get massive headaches.

24:52 John Daub: Run along the road for more than five kilometers. Somebody said, um, please? I spy with my little eye, something beginning with E. With E? I don't know what it means. I don't know what that means. All right, folks. Thanks so much for watching. Hi, John and Kanai. It's been a while since you two streamed live on a trip together. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Oh, that truck just came in from the scuba. Just put his butt in there. All right, folks. I'm going to focus on the road. Thanks so much for watching. You can see Mount Fuji so clearly, Kanai, now from behind. It's crazy, crazy pretty.

25:47 Kanae Daub: Yeah, now, oh, truck coming.

26:00 John Daub: Now we can see Mount Fuji. Wow, what a view. I can't see it. Very clearly. I got it out the rear view mirror now. It's nice for the end of live streaming. Yeah, we'll try to do another live stream when we get to Nagoya or the destination. We'll see you a little bit later on and definitely tonight, possibly a midnight snack run. I don't know. I'm not going to make any promises, but anything is possible because we're on a road trip. See you, everybody. See you.