02:36 John Daub: Now I've been out in the rain and if I stand next to the fire, all the rain on my jacket starts to steam. It was pretty funny. I look like one big steam ball. Oh, it's starting to smell so good. But when we first put the fish onto the sticks, they were moving and that might have freaked me out a little bit. But freshness has its cost.

03:07 John Daub: So we're going to have this little dessert after drinking some brews at the local craft beer place and have some kiritanpo (grilled rice dumplings). And if you ever do come to Akita, you're going to want to have some kiritanpo. Now I noticed that down in the south of Akita that you don't find the kiritanpo cooked so much. It's a northern Akita thing. In south Akita where I was in Odate City, they really didn't have too much there. In fact, just one or two places had it. But up here they have it in more places. And if you go north, okay, to Odate, you might even get even more.

03:51 John Daub: Again, I do apologize if the signal is not strong. This might be under 720p quality, but I was just debating, do I bring you here or not? Just because the signal now on this channel, we just go with it. We go live, especially if there's something interesting happening and the elements, which is where we are in the mountains up in the very north of Tohoku, which is, I don't know, a few hours from Tokyo on the Shinkansen (bullet train). Joy, thanks for the update on the signal. Starting to smell so good. Hey, Fungus, USMC. I don't think those are Q-tips. But I can guarantee you they're quite tasty.

04:44 John Daub: Let's move the camera and I want to show you on the other side. Well, we come down here. Fire level. You can see the fish are really starting to grill. It's nice and warm down here. And slowly the kiritanpo, the rice dumplings and the... yeah. Behind are cooking as well, getting slightly brown, doing a little check a little bit of a turn here to the run. The smell is divine. There's cooking salted fish from the lake here, wafting towards me because the fan is coming in straight at my nose. Despite the mask, it's all coming through. In fact, my mask is steaming. My mask is steaming from the heat. It got a little wet out there. I just filmed and put on Instagram some really famous sites along the lakeside. And I just couldn't do that live because the rain was really bad if you're out there in the elements. But inside here where we have wafting salted fish and kiritanpo coming at us, it's a totally different story. You can hear the rain pitter patter on the top of the roof here.

06:57 John Daub: It is a freshwater fish. Tazawako (Lake Tazawa) is the deepest lake. I heard it goes as deep as 400 meters and it's not very big. Oh, nani? Oh, a char. Oh, I never heard that before. Hajimemashite (nice to meet you/first time). A char. White spotted char. That sounds right. So char fish. This is a char fish. Hey, so it's a char broiled, although it could be... maybe that's where the word charbroiled came from. I thought it was charcoal, but it could be from char fish. Charred char. So we're going to be having ourselves some salted char charred. Charred char. It looks really good. I can't believe just like five minutes ago these things were alive. Now, ten minutes ago they were alive on it and then sticked.

08:13 John Daub: See what Dracula did up there in Romania in Brasov up there in that area. He took his enemies and put them on a stick. It's a true story. This is a char charred char in Akita. And to my left in a pan is Akita kiritanpo, which is a dumpling put on a stick and grilled by fire. And now, oh, this is going in. This is important. Miso desu ka? (Is it miso?) Whoa, miso. Miso happy. This is homemade miso right here in this place in the shop. Oh, I can smell that sweet miso smell on there. It's kind of stinging the nose. It's a little bit acidic. It's a little bit sweet. It's so good. Very tangy, very savory. I'm not going to chug the miso. Who wrote that? Damien? You don't chug that. Nobody can chug that. She's closing it because she doesn't want me to chug that.

09:57 John Daub: And then down here. I'm going to put it down closer to the fire.

10:20 John Daub: Could be the fire. Maybe the phone's overheating. Could be the fire. The phone's overheating. Maybe I'm pretty close. Should be refreshing your screens. We should be back again. How's it look, guys? Still black. Okay, give me a second. How about now? Voice is back. Nope. Okay. All right. Sorry. I've been having some troubles with the YouTube app as well. Hopefully the screen is back now. All right. Uh-oh. The UFO Bob says still no good. How about now? Really? Still? Oh, my. I'm here. Do you see me? Houston, we have no more problems. Can you hear me? No. Still? Really? All right. Let's see this again. All right. We should be back here. No. All right. We should be back here. All right. It seems like... Hey! Where'd they go? We're back. But it's gone. Gone. Where are they? I'm still with... Fling around with the phone. I can't find... They're gone. Ah! Oh, they're over there. Sorry about that. Um... This signal is really bad here. And what makes it worse I updated to iOS 14 the new version and the YouTube app always the first couple of weeks there's always going to be problems with it so I really update right away okay okay.

13:14 John Daub: Kiritanpo better I eat already day let's eat in front of the fire where I can smell all nice and warm and smell a little smoky I like it I like it a lot hooray it's me I'm doing pretty good thanks for asking whoa she saw the skin was really slimy but it's all gotten cooked they they brought out the fish and put it in that that bucket over there and it was moving I I kid you not I like like 15 minutes ago it was moving and now it's all it's it looks like this we're gonna eat it.

14:16 John Daub: Outside it looks like this let me just give you a little view here look at how beautiful it is this is maybe the worst possible day to be here but this is the high season for autumn and seeing the beautiful autumn colors the foliage is absolutely stunning but we've come on maybe one of the worst days too because of the rain I love the rain too but it's just different when you're in it outside it's not quite the same temperature's not too bad maybe about 10 degrees 11 degrees.

15:39 John Daub: Very nice so this is our snack for right now check it out we have charred char this is iwana (char) fish right from Lake Tazawako it's got some salt on it that's the white that's on there iwana in English is char and this is kiritanpo and it's a rice dumpling that's had miso paste on it you saw that live as we cooked it on a fire and there's some pickles here looks like some daikon very very good garnish with it daikon desu ne (it's daikon, right) all right let's give this a try daikon itadakimasu (phrase said before eating).

17:04 John Daub: This is the kind of street food that I like. It's not a little stick. It's a big stick. And this is because of the hot fire. This keeps it... You need more distance from the fire. So let's try this. I'm not going to burn my mouth. I've been doing this to try to cool it down a little bit. Itadakimasu. It's not a drumstick. Look at that. Dr. Newman. It's rice. Alright. Itadakimasu. Wow. This is actually not mochi. This is just rice that's been put onto a stick and been grilled. And wow is it so good. It's a sweet miso sauce on it. Very savory and it gives an added complexity to the rice. Really, really good.

18:21 John Daub: It's a live stream. She asked me she said when is this going to broadcast? And I said right now. So this is iwana fish. And we're going to try this right now. It's pretty long. But you can eat everything on here. You can eat everything on here. There's bones in it. There's some bones inside. The middle but you can eat the head. Oh, like this. Oh, okay. It's pretty. It's alright. It's so good. There's a little bit of salt on there that brings the meaty flavor out. Wow. It's so good. Mmm. The rice is also good.

19:37 John Daub: There are a lot of iwana in this area. Yes, there are a lot of iwana in this area. It's delicious! I'm asking if these fish are from this region. Yes, it's a lake fish. It is an ugly fish. It makes me feel good to be around a fish that looks this bad. This is countryside food. This is so good. I often ask myself why do I live in Tokyo? Why do I live in the city? When you have food like this, it's hard to justify living in the city. Because you can eat this well. Often. It's delicious. I'm full. So good. The salt around it really brings out the taste of the meat. But there is also the charred taste of being on the coals like that. So close to it. The smoke gets in there a little bit. Adds that roasted complexity. Every bite. The skin is a little bit more sweet. Bit harder the meat is juicy still and that salt is so good on there caked on there.

20:50 John Daub: Makes me think that this is like the dessert the kiritanpo now they will usually keep this out keep this on the fire and then cut it and put it in the soup and this kind of a kiritanpo soup the rice soup is so good as well and it's so hearty it's like the soup is in itself a massive meal all right this is a daikon pickle and you get these sometimes with the like on the side it's another flavor for the palate that brings out the taste of the food that you're eating with it and this is great with the miso wow that daikon pickle had been smoked so it has some smoky taste it's a smoked pickle it's kind of like like a smoked cheese taste to it without the cheese i guess it's healthy healthy cheese eating that with cream cheese which is really really good so you can mix it up a little bit but the daikon pickles have an amazing crunchiness to it you add that complexity so whoa soup thank you oh thank you that now it smells like soup here.

25:17 John Daub: The mushrooms that are in this soup up on the mountain here how cool is that it is a miso soup with the mushrooms picked from the forest here this will warm you up straight straight your whole core gets warm and on a day like this yeah we need some mukitake mushrooms um just yesterday i'm sorry last week i was in the in the woods of Yamagata picking mushrooms as well and i i saw some mushrooms i thought we found purple mushrooms that you could eat i saw a bunch of mushrooms i had never seen before in my life and that's the great thing about coming out of the countryside you start to see stuff some weird stuff happen out here like twin peaks well nani kore oh this is the pickles so this is the smoked pickles daikon awesome well yong hyakun dake yasui chan and this is the nameko mushrooms picked this morning you can see that they're still fresh so these are nameko (nameko) mushrooms picked this morning and you would put this in miso soup kanai if Kanae is watching that she's going like bring this home so i can make some miso soup but i don't think it's going to last more than 24 hours whoa you you buddy iburi daikon (smoked daikon) and this has been preserved and smoked so you can see that they probably hang it inside hang it long inside of a smokehouse and it starts to take in the fire flavors of the smoke ah that's what i just ate this is awesome wow i'm gonna buy that wow.

27:21 John Daub: That would be cats and dogs in many ways this would be the perfect day to be in a situation like this right with with the in front of a fire with warm warm fish lonely canadians thank you you tonight i'm going to be drinking you join me in my in my um yokan room at the onsen i bought a couple of the beers from from there and we'll we'll have a little powwow inside of the traditional japanese room that i'm staying in tonight hey james boardman's here you totally need smell-o-vision i'm pushing it your way james and the lonely canadians thank you so much for joining the travelers welcome now i know that the signal might not be perfect but i am pretty deep in akita done um we'll try to get some better signal for for tonight and for tomorrow i'll show you some of the mushrooms inside of here it looks almost like dumplings but this is a mushroom it looks like a hotate (scallop) but it's not it's a mushroom.

29:11 John Daub: Anything on a stick this long it's got to be good robert you don't slurp miso soup you slurp ramen you drink miso soup different i can understand you can you can try to slurp it welcome to japan robert that's really good miso here all the miso that they make is is here they make the miso here that's what makes it good i think i'm going to buy some of those pickles the rice has been grilled for about 15 minutes and it starts to get hard on the outside of it so you have different consistencies in the middle, it's a moisture kind of a, not mochi mochi, but it does have a very soft consistency, but not as chewy because it's not mochi. It's actually just rice. But on the outside, by being in the fire, it has made it a little bit harder on the outside. And that sauce is baked onto it. That's what's really good. It's that miso sauce. Mmm. You can use it as a javelin, too. Wow. Some more pickles. Mmm. That one has more of a vinegar. Mmm. It's a pretty good taste. It's not smoky like the one before. And this is just a normal one. Mmm. Wow. I love the pickles. Rice, fish, pickles, soup. So good. It's just a meal after a meal. And we have another dinner coming up. It's like, at least it's really healthy food, and that's important. But, like, traveling to eat is one of the biggest reasons to leave Tokyo, I think. There's so many, like, the local ingredients, the local flavors, it's so different. Japan is maybe the size of California, right? But when you travel around, each region has such a very unique cuisine and culture in their own. And they maintain that, and the recipes pass down from generation to generation. And they might have been making the same miso recipe for hundreds of years, you know? Mmm.

32:59 John Daub: I'll show you for those joining us really quickly. Hey, Ramsay's Silent. Thank you. Thank you. For the pickles, because that sounds fantastic, and you can bring them home to Kanae. You got it. All right, I'm going to bring a whole stack of pickles now. Thank you. Thanks, Ramsay Silent. You can see the miso has been baked on there. And this is what it looks like without the miso on it. So you can compare the two. It's a homemade recipe, this miso. Mmm. It kind of seems simple to make, right? You just need a big stick and cake on that rice and let her bake in front of a fire. Now, I guess if you had some chocolate, we could make some s'mores, maybe. Kind of nasty. It would be a lot of fun. You know, maybe it wouldn't be bad. Maybe it would be good. Ah. Everyone, are you cleaning your ears? I know that. That cotton swab. I want to see. So, it's a big size. It's a big size. I told her that a lot of people say it looks like a big Q-tip. We say mimikaki (earpick) for the ear cleaners. I don't know. We get a little bit of a laugh, but it does look like a mimikaki a little bit. Mimikaki for your palate. Or a vampire spike. Seriously, they're kind of long. Probably... You probably could use that. Mmm.

34:52 John Daub: Alright, I hope this is interesting for you. Um. One second. There's no fish. There's no fish. I already ate it. Ah, there's cocoa? Wow, they're here. Whoa! Whoa! Thank you. Thank you. That was my meal. That's awesome. That's why they bring it in here. And then they... Cook them. That's fresh. I told you. Then the vampire steak comes in and then you cook them. What a meal. Wow. I am 100% completely satisfied so far. This has been pretty cool. I'm so happy that you guys are joining me. Click the like button. Show me the... Encourage me to do some more. Maybe tonight I'll take you to the onsen. Despite the rain. I'm going to come out here and bring you with me. Now, a lot of you in the U.S. are probably going to be going to bed after this one. But when you wake up in the morning, I'm going to try to... Go to the onsen. Which is an amazing white water onsen. Nyuto Onsen. And if I can't, I'll try tomorrow morning as well. If the weather clears up, maybe we'll get another chance to go in there. But I want you to see and experience the onsen. The Japanese onsen here. And see how special it is. So when you do come to Japan, you do take the plunge. Because a lot of people are a little bit iffy about, you know, taking it all off and getting in there. And some people are like, I don't have the body for it. Nobody really cares. It's about feeling good. All right? Just keep that in mind. So I hope that you enjoyed this. I'll see you again, maybe later today. But definitely I'm going to do a couple of live streams tomorrow. And jumping on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo around 3 p.m. So that's going to be a lot of fun. Shinkansen is always really good. Gochisousama deshita (phrase said after eating). Arigato gozaimasu (thank you very much). Keep warm, everybody. Thanks, Joko here. Thanks for signing up. Ches 14. Gonzo. Thanks, Gonzo. Fungus USMC. United States Marine Corps. Vic Vic. Peter New-New-New-New-Yin. Sorry about that. Rod to the Air. And Jeff Fang. Thanks, guys. See you later.