00:00:29 John Daub: December 16th, 1707—so it's been a little over 300 years since the last eruption. If you do the math, Mount Fuji is probably due for another one real soon. Joining me in this episode is that lady over there reading the map—it's Kanae Daub. Hello, hello, hello again. Have you been to Fujinomiya before? First time. No, that was Fujiyoshida. Yeah, we came through Fujinomiya earlier this year—we didn't stop here, we stopped at the waterfalls. Fujinomiya is the city with the biggest height difference of elevation in Japan. What is the highest elevation city in Japan? I guess it is—it's the city at the highest elevation in Japan. Maybe—I don't know, that's kind of weird.

00:03:17 John Daub: We did a livestream here at Shiraito-no-taki (Shiraito Falls)—the Shiraito waterfalls, which is so beautiful—back in April or May last year, right before the state of emergency hit. And we're here before another state of emergency, which is probably gonna start—the where set starts on the 9th or something. This is the map here of Fuji—né, we're here before the state of emergency hits. This is something about local values and local traditions. Let's go to the 6th floor—okay, it's pretty cool. And it's like old 1950s low buildings—there's some mom-and-pop shops, so we can go check that out. What should we do first, shrine or city? All right, let's do the city first. Yeah, let's see the city—we'll be back.

00:04:26 John Daub: We've got a pretty good clear view of Mount Fuji. It's supposed to be sunny today, but unfortunately it's not a completely beautiful blue sky. It is a little bit colder. Yeah, that over there is—I don't know, there's a couple of shops over there—looks like some beers, some tables. But because of the pandemic, we're trying really hard to stay away from everybody. Look at that old vending machine over there—what is that? Cigarettes—tobacco. Wow. Here's the shopping street here in Fujinomiya. Wow. Oh, there's the Tokaido Line—oh, it just went by on the tracks there. This brings so many memories.

00:05:10 Kanae Daub: That's it—see that Aeon over there?

00:05:15 John Daub: That used to be a Jesco or Sati, and now it's an Aeon Mall. I used to go shopping there 20 years ago—that was my supermarket. So my apartment was in that area, and I used to work in a school down this street—used to teach children. Oh, look at this beautiful creek here—do you see this? It goes past the shrine—so peaceful here. I loved living here. Oh, there's a crow—I just freaked that pigeon out—that's why it started booking. I think, you know, as a tourist or visitor, probably you don't need to spend a lot of time here. But who am I to tell you what to do? If you like what you see, you might want to spend a night or two. But Fujinomiya has a lot of history, and there's a lot of places.

00:06:13 John Daub: I think if you rent a bicycle, you can see so much of it too. But the main attraction is undoubtedly right there—Mount Fuji. And you have a famous food in Fujinomiya—it's yakisoba. Believe it or not, yakisoba (fried noodles) is the famous food of Fujinomiya—Fujinomiya yakisoba, very famous. I don't know why. Even when I lived here, I asked, and people didn't really know why. Like, it's famous. Jennifer French loves yakisoba—I know. They do have really good—maybe it's the pork—they put strips of pork in there. Maybe it's the cabbage—they have really good vegetables in this town. Look down the street there—do you see? There's another shrine just down the alley there—really beautiful. I lived on that side.

00:07:24 John Daub: Brenda Mixi—happy new year, John and Kanae. Nice hairdo, Kanae. Ah, they like your hair—enjoy, something on me. We're gonna go back around, and if we see some street food, we're gonna pick it up. Okay, I love these little streets. Remind me—I remember when I was walking down the street 20 years ago. I loved the fact that when you compare the street with Tokyo, it has these low buildings. A lot of them used to be old warehouses—some of them are still around. A lot of them were destroyed—I don't know, from earthquakes or something over time. And they just put in ugly square buildings. But sometimes you'll see the original warehouses, which is really nice.

00:08:08 John Daub: This is the Kanda shotengai (covered shopping arcade) in Fujinomiya. I don't know if the school that I worked at is still here either—I'm kind of looking. I don't remember if it's still here exactly where, but I don't think it was too far away from the shrine. Because on my lunch times, I used to get a bento and go eat at the shrine—it isn't nobody there on the weekdays. It's because it's New Year's, and everyone's here for prayers—it's a little bit crowded. Whoa, I remember when they built this—this is about 20 years old, this building here. I think it was like a sake shop or something. Oh yeah, that's right—is it? Yeah, it's a sake shop. I remember when they built this thing 20 years ago. I don't remember—I just remember that they were building stuff.

00:09:00 John Daub: It was really hard to build buildings here—you had to get a commission and talk with the local neighborhood—the neighborhood commission. And because there was a foreigner—an Aussie who lived down the street—and he built some kind of cabin or something right on the street for business. It looked like it was made out of wood, and it took him forever to get permission to do what he wanted to do. Animal—what is that? Something going on there. I'm looking for my—that says Kodomo Eikaiwa. That's where I was working—Kodomo Eikaiwa. Is that Amity? You work there? I don't think that's the name of my company. Is that say Amity? That's not Konichi—I worked for Amity, which was a—it's a lot of cute, a lot of families will live in here, a lot of kids.

00:10:03 John Daub: We're looking for manhole covers as well—I used to live in this town, now I don't anymore. Wow, they're like others are doing ping pong in there—it's interesting. I remember this booze shop. Oh, they do sell something. All right, that's not—that shop has changed, and I don't think that's what it was. I can't remember some things—I remember some things, I don't. My memory's a little fuzzy. How you doing everybody? It's John and Kanae—K-N-A-E. And we're on a walk in my old neighborhood—this is Fujinomiya. And we came to Fuji to film—I had to film some insert scenes for an episode I'm going to be uploading later on this month. It's a good one about green tea. And before we head back, I wanted to walk—we wanted to do hatsumode (first shrine visit of the year)—do a New Year's prayer. Because there's not a lot of people here, and take just a quick look around here. So I thought we would share that together.

00:11:26 John Daub: How you doing? John lost the Super Chat from our friend from Australia—but let me know what it was. Yeah, Akapen Sensei writes in here—Kanae is my wife, John's wife. It's good to remember—it's very good. Yeah, that's right. Brandania is back again. It's like it could be karate. Yeah, I don't—I guess the school that I worked in is gone. There's a Sanuki udon place—yeah, it's a chain, but it's from Kagawa in Shikoku—it's a good one. That wasn't here 20 years ago. I think I lived—I did not live far from here. But I know that if you take a right quick soon, you get to go to Fujinomiya Station. So maybe we'll be going in that direction.

00:12:40 John Daub: It's a little Apollo—I don't know, where did it go? Where did the school go? I guess I opened that school for the eikaiwa chain—for the English language school. She's been running her academic language chain—I opened that school for them. And if it went out of business, that'd be really sad, because I worked pretty hard for a couple of months to help them set that up. Now the rent here is usually not as high as Tokyo, for example. I remember my apartment was one big room with a kitchen. And I guess there was—inside the big room were these shoji (paper screen doors) that made a little room inside of the corner with tatami that I used as my bedroom. And I remember I would open up my window in my kitchen, and I would have a view of that—which is now behind that building. Hold on a second—I'd open up my window, and Mount Fuji was this big. Do you see it? Every day I woke up to that—it was crazy.

00:13:53 John Daub: So shall we cross the street? Can I—let's cross the street. There's the Fujinomiya bus—the city bus is there. This is Chuo-dori—Fujisan is right in between there. We're going to be circling back around. There's Mount Fuji right in the center of your screen—we're going to circle back around, walk just a little bit more. Ah yeah, okay—now I know. Let's go down this way. Can I—this yeah, this takes you to—this is the station, the ekimae (in front of station) shopping street. This takes us down to Fujinomiya Station. Wow, that is amazing.

00:14:54 John Daub: It's so blurry this way. I think I used to—I lived down in this direction, so I never came to the shopping street to get back to my apartment. But I didn't leave Fujinomiya too much on my weekends—I would just stay home and read, because the view was so good from the house. I didn't have to go anywhere to enjoy Mount Fuji. Look at these shops down here—buildings are a lot lower, no really high buildings. And these here—this one in the ekimae, that's a new one—that wasn't here 20 years ago. The Lonely Canadians—I usually buy Johnny's, and I'm like, oh my god, I'm gonna go to beer. So here's one for Kanae—Kanae doesn't drink, but she will take it. So I and I will put that to good use.

00:15:47 John Daub: We didn't actually find any street food yet—we had a convenience store sandwich for lunch, which is not good enough. So we'll have to do better on the way home. Oh, you—yeah, you did find amazake (sweet fermented rice drink). Oh, we got to go back there. Okay, let's go—show the station, and we'll circle around and go back to the—go back to the shrine. Because there seems to be some good street food now. Taxi stands—this is interesting at the station. There is sometimes a queue, but sometimes you have to walk to the taxi stand. And this is the actual taxi depot, and there's not a lot of cabs in there. We drove up, and the reason why I'm doing this livestream—oh, they just closed up. What is the shop here? Fukudaya? Fukudaya Honten—oh, pickled stuff. They were here 20 years ago.

00:16:48 John Daub: Vaughn writes in—buy a snack. Let's see what we can find. They had food stands back at the shrine, so we're gonna circle around from the station, head back to the shrine. This is good exercise. We're gonna—we have about a two-hour drive to get back to Tokyo. Uh, in a couple of hours we're gonna be heading back—probably not stopping anywhere, just straight back to Tokyo. Probably. That is an old sign. Oh yeah, that's—they called the kitchen Totoro—that's cute. A little cafe. Air to the Run is here—oh my oba-chan (granny) confirms that Shizuoka has the best green tea. Make sure to enjoy some. Actually, Ito En—which is the big pet bottle green tea makers—is here in Shizuoka.

00:18:01 John Daub: Sorry about that—the Wi-Fi automatically connected to some Docomo street free Wi-Fi, but for some reason I thought I turned it off. But we're back. Fujinomiya Station has changed, Kanae—this does not—this overpass was not here 20 years ago, at least not that I remember. It's very blurry—it could have been. But that's Fujinomiya Station. Yeah, this is the station—I don't think we need to go up it. But Fujinomiya Station is really, really not that impressive. All right, let's cross the street—there it is. That's what you get—Kuretake? Interesting—could stay there, it's a new place. All right, back up, back up we go. But this time we're gonna go—we're gonna go in the back streets and make our way there from a different route. So probably back at the shrine in about five minutes. It's good to get some exercise. Happy New Year too, if I haven't said that to those tuning in for a while.

00:19:16 John Daub: There's Mount Fuji on the right side—Mount Fuji just looks over the entire city of Fujinomiya. It's blessed with an amazing view of Fuji, and it's cursed every time it erupts—which is thankfully hasn't been for over 300 years. Last time was 1707—the next time, scientists say pretty soon, maybe possibly. I don't want to be in Fujinomiya when—baka hatsumode. Tank—encourage us to keep it up—we are doing our best. Well, let's check this out for a second.

00:20:21 John Daub: Sell the prints—I was there, yeah, in February—that's in the trailer for Only in Japan. I took pictures there and was filming. Look at the snow on there—Mount—that that is not the snow that we have today. I guess he sells one print for two dollars and fifty cents. Oh, there's Dr. Yellow—do you see that? That's Dr. Yellow—that's the train that checks out the integrity of the train line, train tracks. Wow—he must have stood there for hours trying to get that. Wow, there's some snow—that's where we just were. Um, Obuchi Sasaba—can I? Yeah, yeah—that's where we were just before. So we kind of hit a lot of the sites. Oh, there's the waterfalls that we were at before—beautiful.

00:21:08 John Daub: You know, any picture that has Mount Fuji in it—you can take a boring scene like this field, you put Mount Fuji in the background, it becomes an amazing picture. Although with the hat—yeah. You get some weird like meteorological activity going on with Mount Fuji. Shane—these would make awesome postcards. We actually took some good postcards—I actually have this photo, so I could turn that into a postcard. But it doesn't have that kind of snow on it though—it didn't have that kind of snow on it. Let's keep going—some good postcard ideas for sure. El Samurai Azteca—welcome to the Insider. Little Snoopy action going on there—appreciate it, Peter. Thank you, Peter, for coffee or tea break—since you can't have a beer, he doesn't have a drink. Thank you, Peter—we're gonna get that at the—we're gonna support the local food stands at the shrine.

00:22:14 John Daub: So we're making our way there. Look at this family business. Oh no—yeah, oh one, oh yeah—one, oh yeah. Wow, they have the latest fashions here—very cool. I like to see the shops like this that just don't change—they don't have any doors, you just kind of walk right in. All right, so we're going back to the shrine here. I like what they've done here in Fujinomiya—you look down, and they have it in English as well. You can see Mount Fuji's in this direction—which is true, story—it is, it is right there. So let's check out the World Heritage Center—really? Let's check that out. All right, hang a left down the shotengai.

00:23:06 John Daub: So this is a different street now—this is a—wow, this looks like Showa era (1926-1989) because of the—I think it's the electrical lines above, and this covering on the top here, the left and the right. And then the businesses here—they don't look like they've changed their signs for a long time either. Anything that you want? Oh, this is the famous—is that? I think on this street there's one of the famous yakisoba places on the street. I remember walking down here to get back to my apartment a couple of times. And the thing is, I don't remember my address, so I don't actually remember where my apartment is. So I'm just—maybe it jogs my thought. What could you do with a beer can? Or is that a chuhai (canned cocktail) can? It's pretty cool—that is really cool. Can you do that? Can I? Do you know how to do this? Asahi Super Dry—oh, sorry, I stopped it there. You go—that's awesome.

00:24:19 John Daub: Cool arts and crafts—it's so simple, just a coat hanger and a beer can. Who's gonna try to make that? Click like and subscribe to my channel, and I'll see you in the next video. Like if you're gonna try to make that. John Wakamatsu's in the house—buy some tea or something to drink. I think we're getting the hint that we should buy something to drink here. And Cheryl MP—great to see you and Kanae traveling. Please tell her how much we like her haircut. Thank you—thank you. I got the bangs—I told her that she looked good with bangs. She looked good with anything. So she was like, what should I get with my hair? I said anything's fine—how about bangs? She got the bangs.

00:25:10 John Daub: All right, let's see if we can get a drink—walking down this way. I'm shocked that the English school that I helped to start up here is gone. It's a chain, but they'd open a new branch here in the year 2000, and it looks like they probably just moved to another area. Yeah, Ham Solo—you don't want to play with fire. They're just saying it's got tractor beam by UFO. Bub—whoa, this is a toy store. I don't remember this. Oh, that's the Oriental Curry mascots—slightly offensive. Yeah, this is from the 1960s, and you can see slightly not good. It's the mascot for one of the curry—Oriental Curry company. It's pretty cool. Yeah, so they do have some gifts in here. You know, I'm not offended, but something that could be. I thought that said AC/DC building—that would have been really cool. It didn't—they forgot the—they forgot a D. Kokusai (international)—kokusai. Yeah, international cram school—interesting.

00:26:45 John Daub: A lot of people here in Fujinomiya do study English—it's crazy. I remember when I lived here. Oh, was it one of these apartments—mine? I wonder. No, no, no, no, no. I think I lived off of this street—I don't know, my memory is not very good. Here's a community eikaiwa (English conversation class)—this is a community English school. This is, I guess, what the sign was for in the front earlier. Um, it's still kind of New Year, so a lot of the shops are closed because of that. KT—love it from Hong Kong—thank you, number one fan. Oh, look at this—Yawaya, it's like a family-run vegetable shop here, and they have some hoshigaki (dried persimmons) in the front down here.

00:27:53 Kanae Daub: Let's get one.

00:28:11 John Daub: Oh my gosh, Kanae—are these from local? Um, local one? Yeah, from Yamanashi. Do they have any from the—[?]

00:28:12 Kanae Daub: I'm not sure if I can eat it. It's okay. Let's try it.

00:28:45 John Daub: Oh, America.

00:28:53 Kanae Daub: I used to live here. What? 20 years ago. 20 years ago? I used to live nearby. I'm a teacher of English. I live in Tokyo now. So you're an ACC teacher? Eon Amity. You know Amity? Yes, I know. My grandson is there. Oh, that's great. When I opened in 2000, I was working as a teacher there. Wow. So she remembers the English school, and her grandson is living there. That's really cool. Wow.

00:29:48 John Daub: I'm trying to find out where my apartment was around here—this is vaguely familiar. I think maybe it was down here. But I know that the English school that I worked at was on that main street over there. I don't know. So we're going to keep going around here. I don't know which supermarket was mine. Thank you. This way to the shrine. I'm starting to remember stuff—I'm pretty sure that I bought vegetables from her 20 years ago. I'm pretty sure. I know she doesn't remember me, and I don't really remember her. But she remembers the school, right? That's something. I am having flashbacks, man.

00:31:05 John Daub: This is the... This kind of... These kinds of small towns don't really ever change much, you know? And that's the beauty of it. It's like a... If you grew up in Fujinomiya, you come back 20 years later, it's still kind of the same. That's the beauty of it. And Tokyo changes all the time. Some things are the same, but here it's almost all the same. People have been getting haircuts at that barber shop in the center of your screen probably for like three generations. That's Japan, right? The father, the son, and then the father, and then the son, and then the grandfather passes it all along. It's all part of the heritage. All the shops have this card in the front on the wind chime. I thought this was nice too. It's the World Heritage Center. I didn't see that—we didn't go past it. But we're back at the shrine, everybody—so it's good news. It's good news.

00:32:13 John Daub: Once we get to the end of the street, we're gonna crack open that hoshigaki. Hoshigaki—I said it's a very popular one. She had a good recommendation to Kanae. No way—they got a cinema, Kanae! What? There's a cinema! I had nothing to do. When I lived here, we didn't even have like a Tsutaya for videos. I had to get VHS back then—incredible. I'm kind of freaking out right now. Yeah! Because that's where I would go shopping. It was like a different train—it wasn't an Aeon, but that's amazing. I guess... Hey look, I found Supercuts! So you can get a haircut there? No, I don't think I actually cut my hair in Fujinomiya. I think I went to Fuji City. They had this place where they would cut your hair, and it was like a factory. You would get passed down this assembly line of haircut—it was pretty cool.

00:33:30 John Daub: I'd never seen anything like this except here in Japan. You would sit down, and they would wet your hair, and then they would ask you to move to the next chair. Then the guy would cut your hair. You'd move to the next chair—then they would shampoo you. You'd move to the next chair—then some guy would shave your neck. Then you'd move to the next chair—there was like a face shaver. He would shave your face. I'd never had that done to me before except here in Japan. Then when I left, everybody would stop what they're doing to thank me. I guess this is Wakimizu? It's Wakimizu, right? Really? I think you can drink this. Fuji-nomiya has really good water—it's all coming from Mount Fuji. That's good. The waters of Mount Fuji.

00:35:02 John Daub: Somebody wrote, did you hear a flush? That was not toilet water. Somebody wrote that—how dare you! For those who don't know... We're back to the shrine. There's some food stands over there. Kanae wants some amazake—I'll get some amazake for Kanae. Hey, Gina Reinhold—have a great trip and be safe! Thank you, Gina! Thank you, Gina! Let's sign a cross—you probably should have crossed the other way. I was really interested. You can see another torii gate (shrine gate) over there. The sun is starting to set—it looks beautiful. They're playing enka (Japanese ballad) music—something happened here. It must be a memorial to somebody.

00:36:04 John Daub: I've been to a lot of these little markers, Kanae. They have some kind of enka song that symbolizes a period or something. Or the writer of the song used to live in Fujinomiya. But they have this song playing on a loop. There's a speaker there—do you know? I don't know. Hold on—I'll push the button and then run away from copyright music. How do I know this is here? Because I used to live here. Run away, run away. It's kind of cool. Push that button and you get music! I might have pushed it a few too many times in the past. It's pretty cool. Speaking of pretty cool. I like how people just live here—they live among the... Ruining the mood. Ruining the mood—Big Brother is always watching. That's right—there's Mount Fuji over there.

00:37:35 John Daub: So let's go back and get a good view to the 1300 people who are watching. Thanks for joining us on this wonderful walking tour of Fujinomiya—a city I used to live in 20 years ago. I'm having flashbacks. It's true—it's a beautiful city. One of the most livable cities—I would say like top 5 places that I lived in. Of the 16 cities I lived in in Japan, Fujinomiya is in the top 5 for sure—top 3 maybe. Hiroshima is number 1—I just love living in Hiroshima. How about Tokyo? Tokyo is in my top 16. Okay. Happy New Year, Michael Turner. Colin for Food writes in here—hello John and Kanae. What's your favorite place for day trips at and around Fuji-san?

00:38:34 John Daub: Colin for Food—we're going to put that to good use right now. Kanae knows a place where she can get some amazake. Is it closed? Oh no, it's closed. It's closed? They close at 3. They close at 3 o'clock? That can't be true. C-Hex, thank you—hello from Vegas. Can't wait to get back to Japan. I did—if you become an Insider, I just released travel notes from the last time I came to Mount Fuji City. That's in the Insider level if you do join here—I published that last night before I came here. So some pretty good pictures and stories about this area. Kanae, that kind of stinks—that was going to be your drink. What are we going to do? It's closed. Alright, maybe the yatai (food stalls). Is it still open? The yatai are open—let's go to the yatai real quickly.

00:39:48 John Daub: Alright, this is now turned into a stream that you're really going to want to watch. We could go over there, but why would we when we can go over here? Because it's a better view. Over in the distance, just to the right, about a minute from here are some food stands. Let's put that to good use—some of these Super Chat money. Kanae needs a drink. It's closed. Oh, here's this chart, Kanae—the bad years and the good years. Am I in a good year or a bad year? I'm not mentioned, so I'm neither good nor bad. But Kanae, you're up there—34 years old, 33 years old, 32 years old—second tier. No? Nothing? I'm 62. Oh, I thought that said—you're... It's 63. Oh, 63—okay, you're safe. Sometimes you have a bad year and they publish it—that's so cruel. Isn't it? That's so cruel. I'm sorry, you're gonna have a bad year—the prophecy says. We say yakudoshi (calamitous age)—yakudoshi. Yeah, your yakudoshi is yakudan.

00:41:36 John Daub: Let's go to these food stands here. I guess we have to go—we have to go around. There are some street food over in this area. Let's cross the street now to get them street food. Oh, look at that—Shizuoka-ken, that's the... Looks like Mount Fuji—it's very cool. It's pretty. I'm looking at this hilltop—wow. This is like Christmas—all of these are not possible in Tokyo—very cool. So what do you want, Kanae? We have the hoshigaki, so maybe we should get some amazake. Takoyaki (octopus balls). Oh, you're gonna get takoyaki? You know how dangerous that is for me—I don't think I've ever eaten takoyaki and not lost skin from the roof of my mouth just from burning it. Gina—way, way, way, very, very kind. Not too kind—thank you, Gina. She is—I agree.

00:43:11 John Daub: I Super Chat, you Super Chat—I don't know how to do that, I'll raise you. Oh, here's some karaage (fried chicken)—deep fried chicken. I had some in the car—that's right, I can't eat it again. You can't double up the karaage—they'll fight down there. Two chickens, different areas. Oh wow, look at that—that's the strawberry—that's like candy strawberries. Oh yeah—spaghetti. Is that spaghetti? Oh, soba (buckwheat noodles), soba—soba sticks. What do you think, Kanae? What do you think? There's jaga—some butter potato. Yeah, it's a hard choice. See that steaming crate over there? That is steaming—steaming potatoes. Oh, with butter—oh nice. Little bit too excited for steam. Oh, here's the Fujinomiya yakisoba—do you want to try Fujinomiya yakisoba? Yakisoba, no. Okay—you want to try? I'm okay, actually. Why are you okay? I'm kind of okay.

00:44:35 John Daub: I'm looking for a drink, mostly. We had like a sandwich and karaage right before we came here. But oh, that looks good. Oh, is that... Oyaki (stuffed dumplings). Yeah, yeah, yeah—with custard inside. Oh what... Well, let's get something—we have to get something. Italian... What's Italian... Oh, that's the spaghetti—that wasn't soba, that was spaghetti. There's no beer and I'm driving, so that's not possible—that's the problem. There's no coffee here either. Tonkatsu sando (pork cutlet sandwich) from Turkey—Turkey. That's pretty cool—they have the turkeys representing. Turko nama mare—interesting. Yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) is here, Kanae—okonomiyaki (savory pancake), yakitori. A lot of good choices. No? Potato.

00:45:56 John Daub: Ah, Kanae, there's your potato—you want a potato? It's made by these gangsters-looking... Look at the... It looks like Nosh Abroad—it's kind of... No? I timed out Nosh Abroad yesterday—it's pretty funny. He asked me what color is a mirror—I thought that was trolling, timed him out. What do you think, Kanae? You have to eat something because you're too thin—eat something. What do I want? Okay. Takoyaki is always good—especially when it's fresh. I try to make a song out of everything. If you don't like this song, you don't like this livestream—it'll stop. My wife is getting takoyaki. Looks really good—smells really good. Are you going to get the fresh one or the ones that are already sitting there? Wow.

00:48:07 John Daub: Wow—they're cooking beef over there—it smells so good. It's a mixture of cooking meat and takoyaki sauce—it's a very, very delicious. This stream has no mods—there are mods here. And by the way, we also have a Nightbot—Nightbot will mess you up. You just try to say something political, Nightbot will get you. Right, Nosh Abroad? Is it true, right? Nightbot will get you—don't test Nightbot. Seriously, I'm telling you right now—Nightbot also bans you. Go ahead, try it—you're going to get banned. And don't taunt Nightbot. You got it? Nightbot is totally wiping out half of the... I'm trying to eat behind here. Oh, we can't? Back in the car? Yeah—really? Because of the pandemic, we can't eat outside. Alright, interesting.

00:49:24 John Daub: Alright, let me show everybody—let me show everybody the... Oh, they're eating behind there—these two secret kids. Hey, look at that pigeon trying to get some free... Look at him, he's trespassing. Did you see that? He went inside the booth. Oh, he got shooed out—he's trespassing. Did you see that? He went inside there—he's trying to grab some yakisoba. Alright, we're not allowed to eat outside—so we gotta take it back to the car. Luckily, the car is like right there. Alright, last view here—I'm going to be quiet for a few seconds and just soak this up, okay? Because it's awesome—soak this. Soak it up. And the water rushes this way—and you can see it making its way. I guess that's the water that I drank, maybe? I don't think so—I think it came from the ground, but... It's beautiful—I love this town. I want to live back here again.

00:51:07 John Daub: Alright, shall we go to the car? Because they're not allowed to eat outside—I think that's another reason. They're going to have problems selling the food if you can't eat it around here. But makes sense. Here. Alright, did we get anything to drink tonight? We didn't... Oh, we got some stuff in the car. You know another thing that I love about Fujinomiya? Parking is free! Haha! I just went to—I went to go visit a friend of mine yesterday, and I had to park the car. And it was 12 minutes for $3—they didn't even go to a full 15 minutes—12 minutes for $3. That was insane—that is definitely not something I want to... So basically, our stay visiting our friend yesterday was a lot shorter because I'm looking at the watch, go... Cha-ching, another 12 minutes. Cha-ching, another 12 minutes. You do... If it was 15 minutes it would be easier—12 minutes though is really not wonderful.

00:52:11 John Daub: Alright, we're back at the car now. Shane—isn't that a lot? $3 for every like 12 minutes in central Tokyo? Insane. Oh yeah. This is what we gotta do—because of a pandemic, we have to eat in the car. Really? I'll pop the window open so that the 4G signal can ooze in. I'll pop the window open so that the 4G signal can ooze in. Will it stay here? No—how do I do this? Alright, you gonna prep the takoyaki? Yeah. And we have the hoshigaki for dessert. Yeah, I hope we can eat outside soon. Yeah, oh, oh—eat outside soon. Yeah, that would be ideal. The navigation system does have this shrine—they call it Asama Taisha here, but it was like a Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha (Mount Fuji Main Sengen Shrine)—that's kind of really long. Let me show the takoyaki—I think I did a good choice. You did.

00:53:51 John Daub: Alright, alcohol hands—wipe. Now eat it—are these chopsticks? What are they? Oh, takoyaki—and we have a view of Mount Fuji. Sort of trees in the way. Is it atsui (hot)? Is it atsui? It's warm—it's warm. I ate—whoa, I can smell the bonito fish flakes. That's katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)—the flakes here is the hardest food in the world, is Japanese—it's petrified fish. People eat it—it's awesome. Alright, you can go first—ladies first. I'm chanting the wrong—I said don't. Hot? It's hot—good. It's not so much hot, so you're okay. I guess you gotta stab it—oh, that's gonna fall on my jacket. Gotta touch my nose to turn the camera around.

00:55:28 John Daub: Takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, piece of octopus, mushy—a little bit crunchy on the outside from being grilled—cannot complain. That, my friends, is an amazing street food. And I didn't burn my mouth because it had been cooked about 10 minutes ago and been sitting there for a while—perfect temperature, still warm but not hot. Nekojita (cat's tongue)—that means somebody who burns his mouth easily and cannot take hot foods. I got it right outside my window—a gigantic torii gate, orange color. We call it—there's a name to that color—vermilion in English, I believe. And shu-iro (vermilion) in Japanese—which is the color of the sun. And it's usually at Inari shrines like Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto—the Ten Thousand Gates is that color. I love that color—and that color is part of the Only in Japan logo. Actually, it doesn't always come out because of the HTML color codes—I don't know why it doesn't come out like that. But it's really good.

00:57:07 John Daub: Oh, there's more for me? You ate most of it—I approve—very good. Oh, we got the hoshigaki—we can split one, we don't have to eat both because I'm kind of full now. We tried to get some amazake, but they closed the shop. And we're not allowed to eat at the yatai. So what I do have is what we bought at the convenience store—it's bottled water from Mount Fuji. I could have just put the water in the pond there and got the same thing, maybe. Minami Alps—this is Mount Fuji water—same thing. Ah, taste of Fuji. Wow, these things look like—I don't know how you would describe these. They came in a pair—it does not help its looks. We can share—let's take the one that looks like it has—is this sugar? There's some sugar on it—sometimes they have a little bit of sugar on it, sometimes they're natural.

00:58:47 John Daub: But grandmas all over the country take the persimmon—kaki (persimmon)—from Yamanashi? They take the persimmons and dry it up and let it dry—they hang it up to dry like this. And then they become dried fruits. And all the grandmas everywhere in Japan have these hoshigaki. It has vitamins—a lot. Yeah, a lot of vitamins—vitamin kaki—vitamin K, potassium. Alright, I'll give it a go first just in case it looks a little suspicious to some—Westerners would think this looks a little suspicious. It's her recommendation—she recommended it, yeah. Oh yeah—look inside, it's like a candy almost. This is all natural, but it's very much like candied inside there—it's so sweet, not sour at all. It's so sweet—delicious. Delicious—good choice.

01:00:03 John Daub: So there you go—Fujinomiya experience for a day trip for us. It was a lot of fun. Those that are watching, click that like button so I know that you like Fujinomiya. Don't click it for me because I can be cringy often—click it for Fujinomiya. Click it—click that like button for Mount Fuji because Mount Fuji deserves a thumbs up—I think it's for them. And click it for the free parking. It says it has a payment—how do you do this? It's not free—yuryo (fee), right? Yeah—who do I pay? How do I pay? I don't know—you'd think it'd be free. But then I would stay here all day like I did—we stayed here for like an hour. Click like for the kaki—the hoshigaki.

01:01:01 John Daub: Alright everybody, we gotta get out of the road again. Thanks so much for watching—we drove earlier, you might wanna check out that livestream. Definitely subscribe—new video coming on the new Only in Japan channel. Definitely check that—we have 88,000 subscribers. So we're getting close to 100,000—I used to have 1.35 million, but 88,000 is a pretty lucky number. It's a good way to start the new year—double eight, triple O. Sorry—double eight is good. Alright, have a good day everybody—matane (see you later). Happy New Year. Do the last 10 seconds of this white car leaving us—heck with that. Last 10 seconds of Mt. Fuji from a car window—what other YouTube is gonna show you this? Obstructed view of Fuji. Romilani—happy New Year to the both of you. And Kanae's too cute haircut. Thank you for bringing Japan to the world when we were in lockdown, especially in the US. Hope to be in Japan in October—that would be a good time. Don't burn your mouth—don't burn your mouth off, kid.