00:00:02 John Daub: Welcome to Fuji City! That in the distance needs no introduction. That's Mount Fuji! Look at how beautiful it is. I'm always just overwhelmed with the beauty of Fujisan. No matter where you are in Japan in this area, you can look up and see it—well, when it's not too cloudy. There's nobody around here, so I'm gonna take you on this live stream down Yoshiwara Shoten Gai (covered shopping arcade). This is a shotengai with a history going back to the Edo period. We're gonna go up and down here. There's loads of souvenir shops, loads of old shops going back generations.

00:00:51 John Daub: I've come here to film an episode on green tea—I'm pretty excited about that. After this, I'm going to a green tea shop that's in their fifth generation selling in the same spot. It's that kind of generational small business that really makes me interested in this city and this shotengai in particular. Let's look at the map first. This is the map of the Shoten Gai. It's not too big—about a kilometer long—but there are about 250 shops in this area. The history goes back to the Edo period, when it was pretty much just a trail back then. And that's Mount Fuji in the distance here—this is a woodblock print, ukiyo-e. It's completely changed from the Edo period. Now it looks like a city, which is Fuji City. So let's go—it's gonna be fun.

00:01:55 John Daub: I just arrived about 15 minutes ago, checked into the ryokan early—they know I'm coming here to film tonight. I'm hoping to get some good footage. I'm gonna take you inside this historic ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn, right here off the shotengai. It's still a little bit early—the shops are closed, but things will be opening up as we walk along in about 20 minutes. Shoten gai are covered shopping arcades all over the country, mostly built in the 1950s and 60s after World War II. This one is not fully covered—it just has it on the sidewalks here—but there are loads of businesses specializing in things like tea, clothing, butcher shops, or milk shops. Many have gone out of business, but places like Fuji City, they're still here.

00:03:01 John Daub: You can see the signs up on the Shoten Gai—of course they celebrate Mount Fuji. Yoshiwara Shoten Gai is what's written on there, with that Japanese-style cloud—it kind of looks more geometrical. That looks like a family business getting ready to open soon. Oh, this is a family textile shop—they're selling materials and things like that. Hey, Tasty Chronicles—contribution for the Kanae Get Fun. Wow, I love these little side streets as well. Looks like a temple over there—we'll try to go off-road and look around this area. We have about 45 minutes, but I'm already impressed with the manholes. It pays to look down—not looking for coins, you're looking for manhole covers.

00:04:13 John Daub: This is along the tactile guideline for people with visual impairment, and it's used more than we know. You can feel the pavement underneath your shoes—it helps you turn and cross the street safely. You'll find this all over Japan, and they do an incredible job keeping it in good shape. All right, we'll walk to the end of the street and make our way back. That's interesting—there used to be a theme park called Gulliver's Kingdom back in the 1980s that went under. They had a life-size Gulliver tied down to the ground, so from Google Earth or satellite, it looked like this massive man pinned down. But they ended up removing it and destroying the amusement park—now I think it's a soybean farm or something. It's a shame. During the Bubble Era in Japan, we saw the rise of so many unique amusement parks, and then when the bubble burst—especially after the tech burst in the early 2000s—a lot of them just went under.

00:06:08 John Daub: Just like with the pandemic here, we're losing a lot. It looks like this pachinko shop has gone under—they're looking for a new tenant. This could be my new office, right next to Club Night Queen. Toro Toro Porco! Contribution for the Kanae Get Fun. I'll be here for three days, so she's staying with her dad for that time, which is okay. I'll call at night and check in. And no, I will not be going home empty-handed. Look at that old building over there. Alright, we're going to have to go off-road. But the shotengai is really interesting—you can see up here they've put in some kind of glass so when it's raining, people can still shop.

00:07:20 John Daub: It's kind of reminiscent of 1950s shopping streets in the U.S., and then the shopping malls came in during the 1980s and put those out of business. But in Japan, they're still really interesting—you never know what you're going to find, like that right there. I think it's an ashtray. The future is bright for you, R2-D2—a little bit smoky, too. I don't know what shop this is, but looks like it's a music shop or something. They do have international fashions and food here—only on a shotengai would they put the two together. Things open up at around 9:30, 10 o'clock. Alright, let's go off-road here—I see loads of temples and shrines on this side road. I saw a temple at the last alley, now we have a shrine, and I think we're going to get some really nice views of Mount Fuji from this direction.

00:09:04 John Daub: You guys heard the crow—it's always a little bit freaky. They're always watching—they know what we're up to. Probably Toby's watching in Minnesota—they feel his presence. The dark side is strong in that one. This is such a picturesque little shrine here. Right there on the ground—do you see it? I've never seen a painted Mount Fuji manhole cover like this one. It's like psychedelic—anyone have a black light? We need a black light to see this one. That is awesome. Why is it purple? Man, this town is cool. They do paint them like this, and they have to request that it's painted in this color. I'm a manholer—meaning whenever I travel, I'm always looking for manhole covers. You can get manhole cover cards from the tourist office or city hall usually.

00:10:50 John Daub: He'll bugger off in a second—I told him I'm bigger than him. Stay, keep to yourself—just don't call your friends. What a small, very picturesque shrine. Never walked down the middle here. Let's look around the back. Boy, that one's really angry—he's calling his buddies. Beautiful. Let's see if we can make progress. Oh, there's a prayer—here we go, I got five yen. Awesome. Do you all know how to do it? Ring the bell. I threw the money. Bow two times—one, two. Clap. Pray—for love and safety for all, and quick ending to this pandemic. Bow. And we're done.

00:13:12 John Daub: He's really angry, that crow—Gregory. Do not do that—that's the dark side. Just stick to normal good things—peace and love. So don't encourage Toby or Gregory—Gregory must be one of the disciples of Toby's. Typically you would wash your hands, but in a pandemic, most of the water at shrines is closed down. The side streets are really nice. A lot of people don't like the ugly telephone lines, but I kind of like it—it tells you where you are. They didn't put it underground because of earthquakes and the difficulty of repair. Oh, he's gone—he saw me coming. He's setting up for an attack. Crows have been known to attack people who taunt them—monkeys too. Alright, let's head back to the shotengai.

00:14:34 John Daub: Here's a normal-looking manhole cover—it's not quite as nice. It's a lot better when it's purple, huh? I love the purple one—I got to go back there. We'll see what we can get at the vending machine. This is quite a large shotengai. Oh, here's the radio station—now this is the only place where I got information about the shotengai. You can see them broadcasting, but not right now—they do a lot of community things, bring in high school students and other locals. That's pretty cool. This shotengai sort of is the center of Fuji City—I guess Fuji Station is also pretty central. Shin Fuji, the Shinkansen stop, is a little bit outside.

00:16:01 John Daub: This shop sells chocolate, antiques, and things—you really have to diversify if you're going to make a business out here. This looks like the end of the shotengai, but there appears to be some sort of train crossing over there—it's a big intersection. If we look back this way, you can see we walked quite a ways. Whoa, this is a five-road intersection—how cool is that? Hey, John Kimura, keeping us fed—arigato gozaimasu, thank you. There's Mount Fuji just peeking over—it's always looking down on us, 3,776 meters high, with snow up there right now. I kind of wanted to go this way and check out the train crossing—there's a station that gets you here, but I came by taxi from Shin Fuji Station, which took about 10 minutes and cost 1,300 yen.

00:17:54 John Daub: Tokyo taxis start at 400 yen, but taxis here started at 600 or 680 yen—don't think there's as many people, so it's good to support the local economy. Cheryl and Pete—great video, John. When are we gonna see Can I? We miss her—she's been so busy, had a dance recital with her students on Sunday, and planning that took a lot of time. She's taking some time off and relaxing, but she has students to teach—she's been quite busy the last couple months. We'll have her back on soon—she's doing well. Here's the station—really old station here. This is Yoshiwara-honmachi Station—got a little mailbox. By the way, I'm sending the last batch of Australian postcards from Fuji City, so maybe you'll have a Fuji postmark, which is pretty cool.

00:19:30 John Daub: Here's a map—you get to meet a lot of people from another generation. I think she's either selling shoes or throwing shoes—there's a gas and stove store, a vegetable store, a beer store—that guy's got a whole case, he has a lot of friends. That's the shrine we went to, an electronics shop selling air conditioners, a guy who sells bicycles with a bicycle pump—they made it with the real faces of the owners. He's selling groceries and pharmaceuticals, and there's a farmer selling his daikon radish—very cool. Wow, this station even has gachapon—train gachapon, sushi. They do have rules with riding the train: hand disinfection and wearing a mask is very important right now. That's kind of neat—boy, this anime is killing it, that devil ninja anime on Netflix. The Fuji Marathon is quite popular, still taking place at the end of this year—the ladies' marathon too.

00:21:33 John Daub: Here's a train coming in—maybe we can see it. WX Turbo's here—hey, how you doing? Welcome, Craig Kawaguchi. I shall get a beverage. Feisal 007—is Studio Jubilee Museum closed? I believe it's open, but it was closed for a very long time. We're gonna get a train sighting—that's pretty exciting. Oh, here it comes—Shane's excited for the train. It's a one-man train, meaning the conductor does everything—he's taking the tickets as passengers get off, collecting any extra money. Pretty quick when people know the routine—it makes his job easier. It goes right between buildings through neighborhoods—that's really cool, one of the advantages to building the train line before the houses.

00:23:25 John Daub: Mike D—top of the morning to you. It's a pretty nice morning—a little bit warm, was really chilly yesterday in Japan, but it's warmed up today. Hopefully over the next few days we'll have sunny weather for drone shots of Mount Fuji for an episode I'm making here—I'm so excited to film. Ken Rutley, welcome—Dragon Dark Fire is reading my mind, I could use some breakfast. My interview with the tea shop is at 10:30. By the way, the speed limit is 40 kilometers per hour through local areas here—so when in doubt in towns, just go 40. The top of Mount Fuji—let's move on back to the shotengai with history going back to the Edo period. I don't think the shotengai really started to come together until the Showa era.

00:24:54 John Daub: This looks pretty good—isakaya Lala, whoa, it's got Filipino food—Philippines, very awesome. Wait a second, is this really sponsored by Amazon? This seems like something borrowed—do you receive packages here? Amazon's doing really good business—they've opened up a bar here, that's pretty amazing. I love that—as somebody who owns the trademark for Only in Japan, I know people try to imitate what I'm trying to do and get pretty creative, just a little bit different. I'm usually okay with it—the only reason I registered was so others can't legally make money off what I'm trying to do. Cost about two thousand dollars, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do that. That one looks pretty close to the Amazon logo, I don't know. Whoa, nabe—I love nabe. I'm looking for places to eat.

00:26:58 John Daub: In about five minutes, I'm going to walk past the location where I'm staying for the night, which in itself is a pretty historical place. This yakitori looks delicious—I know my friend Dean Newcomb is coming, and he's gonna be filming for one day with me. Dean was in a couple live streams and an Ibaraki episode with wagyu a couple years ago—a good friend of mine. Yeah, he's gonna ride a bicycle—we're gonna ride up to Mount Fuji tomorrow morning. It's not that far—they have battery-powered bicycles that allow you to go up the hill like there's no hill at all. We're gonna probably kill that battery really fast because going up Mount Fuji takes a lot of power, but I'm pretty excited. Anyways, it's gonna be a fun morning tomorrow. Dean is a model—he's been in many commercials, and if you've been in Japan, you might have seen him on a wall, poster, or in the station. He was in some live streams about a month ago—we went down to Daisen together, then Tottori.

00:28:33 John Daub: Philippines is really representing here—getting the feeling there's a really happy population of people from the Philippines. Nice to hear from Ken Rutley—is it Halifax, Ken? Have a nice day, thank you. Here's the taxi company where I got my taxi from the station—they have a little office on the shotengai. People are getting older in Japan, and gift shops have opened up—this is awesome. Taxi companies are here because a lot of older people call and ask for taxis—they're always ready. People don't get taxis from this location—they call them in the neighborhood and take people to the station. Check out this gift shop—they have a bunch of gifts. Wow, look at that Mount Fuji bag—how cool is that? It's shaped like Mount Fuji—Mount Fuji toilet paper, oh stop. Corona toilet paper, Mount Fuji calendars—this is the Fuji-san paradise of gifts and goods for family members. Look at that cat's hand chopstick holder—interesting. Mount Fuji hat—it looks like the London hat that Joey wore in Friends, but Fuji version and knit.

00:30:20 John Daub: Look at these cups—when they're upside down, they look like Mount Fuji. Toy shop Kimura—it just has that 1960s family feel to it, doesn't it? You can go in here and check out the latest toys. Hit the like button and I'll get something to eat—it's all about the like. Oh, there's that ninja anime on Netflix everyone's watching—Easter Bunny English School, that's a nice name. Looks like a shop on Oxford Street in London—interesting. This is where the thumbnail was taken—you can see Mount Fuji is right up there, that Panasonic. If you go up to one of these buildings, you get a pretty neat little view. Hey, gimbal—if you do that again, you're gonna get a name.

00:32:04 John Daub: Right there is a really nice shot. Mount Fuji was closed last summer because of the pandemic—no one was able to climb it, which might be a good thing. Gives the mountain time to rest—millions of people climb this volcano. It's good to give it a rest and clean it up a little bit. I think this summer when it opens up again, it's going to be really nice. This is Shizuoka Prefecture—Shizuoka is such a beautiful area, so natural and wide open, and Fuji City is kind of in the middle of it. Look at this old mailbox—I should send the Australian postcards from here, that'd be pretty cool. Marty would like his postcard from this one. You don't see too many family-run shoe shops—I wonder if they know the latest fashion. Guess this is it—really nice.

00:33:27 John Daub: Oh, this is awesome—this is a high school uniform shop for the local schools. You have to be a registered dealer—here are the schools they serve, listed with bullet points: high school, junior high, elementary. Uniforms are a little bit pricey. Which one do you like? This one looks like an anime series—this boys' one looks too much like a business suit. The ones in the back look more like an anime series. I don't know if I want my kid wearing something like this—maybe not, don't want him to look like a salaryman. I want him to think outside the box. It's got no head. Oh, there's a department store—this is Ton Boy, and they sell all the latest fashions. I like that red shirt up there—I think Kanae would look great in it, in the yellow jumper. You should check out—this is my neighborhood for the next couple days, so my hood.

00:35:16 John Daub: Frank Einstein's here—thanks, Frank. G Man Three-Fold—I'm pretty good. Everybody, you never know—we're definitely in the middle of a business trip to buy some Red Horse on the film. What's a Red Horse? I'm curious now—I did have some friends send me a Filipino package with goodies, they got some good stuff. Met this vending machine here—don't see anything unique, looks like the usual. This looks good—this is a nabe restaurant, so Dean is coming tonight, we can eat there. Nabe restaurant looks good. Where I'm staying is coming up really soon. Here's the butcher shop—no, it's a pastry shop. Oh yes please—what do they got here? Oh yes, there's some kuri—that's chestnut-flavored desserts. Wow, that looks good.

00:37:11 John Daub: Interesting—I haven't passed one convenience store here. This area is run by mom-and-pop shops—not one convenience store, not one national chain on this street. I love it. Always look for little teeny symbols—something interesting. Just look up and look down, and you find some weird unusual things like that up there. Here's where I'm staying—this is my ryokan. Wow, he's making soba—oh, he's the guy who let me in my room, awesome. He's making soba—how cool is that? Or is that udon? No, that's soba—nice, looks like a big pizza. Nicholas, we're on the same page. Tonight if we have time, I'll take you on a little room tour, give you a look at my accommodations. I'm really excited about this place—it's a really nice historical place run by a family.

00:39:01 John Daub: Sugiyama Fruits—is that a fruit shop? Awesome—oh my god, I'm gonna see if I get permission to film in there. That looks like a luxury fruit shop—imagine a shop just for fruit, respect. Here's the competitor's taxi—another taxi, Noriba, but all the taxis are gone. Interesting—here's the area barber shop. Again, there's like one of everything here—that's a nice-looking barber shop. Oh, this coffee shop would be really nice—could use one right now. Not too many cafes open—I do like the streets empty, quiet, peaceful. Could you live here? What do you think? John Wakamatsu's in the house. Here's a sign for the Yoshiwara—says the Yoshiwara inn is this way. Alright, let's wrap around—why not? We're gonna go off-roading. How you doing, everybody? Mount Fuji is this direction—I'll take you, we'll end the live stream wrapping around.

00:40:46 John Daub: That seems to be the end of the shotengai—oh, somebody's coming this way. I want to show you right here—there's some history. This area once was, during the Edo period, pretty much just a strip with water on both sides that people would walk through to get to Mount Fuji. Today it's that shopping street. I saw some more pictures with the history—they actually had photographs, but I wasn't able to get it for the live stream in time. Check out that old ramen shop on the corner—really beautiful manhole covers of Mount Fuji you'll find in Fuji City. I do see Mount Fuji—you can see just the peak over that building, that's how high it is. We'll wrap around here—looking for another historic hotel.

00:42:06 John Daub: Eugene Hubbard wants me to keep going—therefore I shall. It's a little cosmetic store—hello from the Philippines. You know, there's so many Filipinos here—I've seen two Filipino restaurants, it's awesome. Might have to check out one tonight. Nikku and Booze—that's the name of this place, might have to check out. I think my list of places to check out is growing. Is that Disney or a love hotel? I don't know what that is—there's Mount Fuji over it. Boy, this and the Amazon bar make this such a classic live stream. What is this place? Please tell me this is a love hotel. It's kind of like a snack bar where you can go get entertained—nothing like that. Interesting—look at the little towers, guess they're minarets, except there's nobody in there praying. I don't know—I think they serve alcohol in there. This place does not exist in the Middle East, just guessing. Japan's image of Arabia is this, maybe.

00:44:36 John Daub: Alright, let's go down this street now—I'm curious. Before we end the stream, we gotta go down here—just waiting for the traffic light. Everything has Mount Fuji on it. Who else is singing a Disney song in their head right now? It's a whole new world—no, under the sea. Look at this—it is a complete—what is this? No way—this is all like little snack bars. This is so theme-parked—what? These aren't open yet—these are late-night snack bars, like a lady serving customers drinks and food. That's basically what a snack club is. Wow, I did not expect something so wicked. What's up with this? Guess we might have to do a midnight snack run around here, huh? Well, there you go—the back of it is a cemetery, and if we look past that, we have a really nice view of Mount Fuji.

00:46:49 John Daub: Thanks so much for watching this live stream—I didn't know what to expect. This is my first time coming to this shotengai. I actually lived in the neighboring town called Fujinomiya about 20 years ago, and it's kind of nice to be back in the area filming for the next few days. But I have an interview at 10:30 for some green tea here. Hit the like button—if we can get to a thousand likes, maybe I'll come back and live stream a little bit more from this area. I know a lot of you are staying at home, which is good—I gotta work, therefore I've gotta come here tonight. It's part of the job—yeah, I'm making an episode on green tea here. Have a good day, everybody—I'll be back a little bit later. I intend to do a few live streams from here. Hit the subscribe button if you're not getting notifications—unsubscribe and subscribe again, or check out Patreon or Instagram. I put the notifications there in the Insta stories—that helps you not miss one, because when we're live, you're with me here in Japan. See you everybody.