00:00:09 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture. This is on the west side of Fukushima, that is Tsuruga Castle. This is a beautiful castle here with a lot of history. We actually have a guide that's going to tell us some things in English. How you doing everybody? She started already and I was like, wait, you know what? I should be live streaming this because this is really good information to share with everybody. Let me just show you this map here so it gives you an idea of what the castle looks like. Tsuruga Castle is the name of it in English. Right there it's written in English. But that's the name of this castle, not Aizuwakamatsu Castle.

00:00:51 John Daub: And it does have a very long history, very interesting history. There's a moat around it. Right in the center is Tsuruga Castle right there. I love the fact that these maps are bilingual, trilingual in fact. And we have about 20 minutes so it's not a lot of time. But I think it's a pretty good opportunity to see a Japanese castle with an English guide. You can already see the walls are here. And the guide, hey Danny, thanks for that. The walls are narrow here and because the enemy had to come in here, they had to make these turns and that helped with the castle's defense. Just little teeny details of it are so interesting. And a nice day here in Fukushima.

00:01:38 John Daub: Oh there's our guide over there. She keeps talking about the enemy. She's got a lot of stories about the enemy. It's nice to have an English guide. But these walls here, like everything has a purpose to it, including little cracks where she said like archers were in there, like sniping the enemy that went by. Some evil stuff going on here. Alright let's go take a look at, let's go find our guide.

00:02:23 John Daub: Oh does this have some history too? For the success of business and prosperity. And when they come, this flag is an offer tree. So they buy this flag and they pray for the happiness of the family or success of the business. This red flag. Ah the red flag there. Red for blood. Because the enemy would come here and there would be battles to the death. So they picked red for blood. I don't, I just made that up to spice it up a little bit. So Ando-san bought this flag and offered. Ah Ando-san. Do you know Ando-san? No I don't know him? Just checking.

00:03:12 John Daub: So I'm going to give you the full inside story. Everything that I say is suspect, so you might want to double check your facts. But if she says it, you don't have to double check it. She's an actual guide. So it means something. But ah so now we have, we have some people watching here about Tsuruga Castle right here. What are some of the things that people should know about this? We missed your, missed your information in the beginning.

00:03:38 Guide: Yes. This Tsuruga Castle was first built 630 years ago. But it was just a small building without castle tower. But this style building was completed 430 years ago. And at first it was five, seven storey. But later there was the earthquake. It got damaged and remodeled into five storey. And this foundation was built 400 years ago. Ah. They put the stones and made. And this is original. But it survived the big earthquake 400 years ago.

00:04:15 John Daub: Wow. How big was it? The magnitude?

00:04:16 Guide: Magnitude 6.9.

00:04:20 John Daub: 6.9 400 years ago.

00:04:22 Guide: And it killed tens of thousands of people died. Yes, it killed.

00:04:25 John Daub: Wow. 2,000 people.

00:04:27 Guide: Ah, 2,000. Yes.

00:04:29 John Daub: Yeah. It's awesome. I mean not, not awesome that they died. Just awesome that there's this kind of history. You know what I mean.

00:04:42 John Daub: We did see some tourists here. There's not a lot of tourists cause there's no international tourism in Japan. Which is why I'm really proud to be able, happy to be able to bring you here. And share with you a little bit of one of the castles of Tohoku. There's a model here that might be the mascot. This looks really cool. Is that a mustache? Or is that a gate? I don't know. It's kind of funny. I'm gonna, um, I got my fingers crossed that the signal's gonna be okay. We're not allowed to film in the inside of it, but I will maybe cut the live stream and get, and take you straight to the top. Um, which is pretty cool up there. You get a nice view of the city of Aizuwakamatsu.

00:05:27 John Daub: Is this the tallest building in Aizuwakamatsu? Still, even today?

00:05:34 Guide: Five stories and it's still, stood on the foundation. So I think this must be the tallest.

00:05:40 John Daub: Wow. And you can see the good, nice observation deck here.

00:05:46 John Daub: Were there any big battles fought here?

00:05:48 Guide: Yes. In 1868, there was a very big battle between the old shogun side and the emperor's government side.

00:05:57 John Daub: Oh, like Takamori Saigo kind of a.

00:05:58 Guide: Takamori Saigo is the emperor's side. And, and they fought with each other and the emperor's side came to this place. Yes. And in 1868, they've got, they've got attacked.

00:06:13 John Daub: Wow. It's a year of the Meiji Restoration.

00:06:16 Guide: Yes.

00:06:17 John Daub: Who won?

00:06:18 Guide: Yeah. Actually, emperor's side won. So one month later, they put a flag saying surrender. Oh. But they never burned it. But later in 1874, new, new government was afraid this would be the anti-government base.

00:06:36 John Daub: All right. So it was demolished.

00:06:39 Guide: The castle? Yes, demolished. Because of fear? Fear, yes. Meiji government feared.

00:06:44 John Daub: Wow. And this, this was demolished. This was built in 1965.

00:06:50 Guide: Oh, 65. The 60s. Yes. So the roof was originally red like this before? Yes. From the 17th century, it was original color.

00:07:01 John Daub: Ah, and why was it red because of the blood from all the battles.

00:07:05 Guide: I checked too many books, but they didn't. Maybe red was very rare, so special.

00:07:11 John Daub: Yeah.

00:07:23 John Daub: It's pretty cool to get inside information on this. There are some things inside there. And also, it's a work time. Sometimes, they do this pattern. Food is to eat, and then food is to burp and eat. Hey, Benjamin Nowakowski is here. Humor is awesome, John. Have some sweets and drinks. I'll keep it real. I am curious, and I do have a very, very heavy sense of imagination. And I have been in this castle a couple of times before. It is a really nice castle to go into, especially since from the observation deck, you do get an amazing view. There aren't too many taller buildings. This is the tallest structure still in the city.

00:08:04 John Daub: This city, Aizu-Wakamatsu, is famous for so many things. Sauce Katsu (sauce cutlet) is one of my favorite things. It's like breaded pork cutlet with this amazing tangy sauce all over it on a bed of rice. It's awesome. But they also have some really good Japanese sake here, which is extraordinary. The quality of the sake here in Tohoku is incredible. People are wasted all the time. I mean, how could you not be?

00:08:29 John Daub: So we can't film inside, right?

00:08:36 Guide: Yeah.

00:08:38 John Daub: Oh, we get coronavirus checks. Okay. Konnichiwa. Wow, it's 37.1 degrees. Wow. It's probably because it's hot. It's 37.2 degrees outside. 37.7. Oh, yeah. It's kind of hot outside. So I was 37.1 degrees. Hey, look. Waribiki (discount). It's got a discount here. Cool. So it's about $7 to enter for adults now. It's on sale. Cool. Oh, with the tea room. Oh, cool. Get you some tea. Oh, wait. No, it's... Oh, this is with the tea room. So all of these together is 730 yen. But one entry into the castle itself is 520 yen for an adult. And if you're a kid, it's 150 yen. Kid at heart, not acceptable as currency. You must, if you're a kid, look like one, not act like one.

00:09:39 John Daub: No problem. Oh, stroller yard. So that's kind of cool. So that means Leo can come here, my son. He's like three months old and learn about how to wield a sword. Oh, you can dress up as a samurai in here too. They even have the wigs that looks like you shaved your head. I remember I came in here and tried the armor. It's awesome. Here's the ticket and what it looks like here. That's cool. Tsuruga Castle entrance ticket. Oh, hey, it's a discount at 410 yen. Hey, very cool.

00:10:21 John Daub: I visited Matsumoto, Himeji, and... Hikone Castle. Hikone is a beautiful castle near Lake Biwa in the center. Well, maybe visit Tsuruga when I'm allowed to visit in 2025. I think it's going to be a little bit sooner than that. I'm doing fine, everybody. How are you doing? How are you? Do you have time?

00:10:40 Guide: About 20 minutes. Then, I'll be back.

00:10:50 John Daub: All right. So I actually have to do another filming, but... Oh, yeah. So from the outside, it's a little bit... The observation deck, we can film again. From the 5th floor. From the 5th floor. Okay. So I'm going to cut this up and go directly to the 5th floor, and then I'll fill you in on the information. So give us about two minutes, and I will livestream again from the top. Is that okay? Okay. Hey, John Haynes is here. Hey, John. Hey, John. And Tom Servo. Thank you so much, Tom. All right. So I'm going to cut the livestream, and I will bring you back in about two minutes from the 5th floor. I move pretty quickly. I can move pretty quickly. Yeah. They're like ninja ladders, so it's very hard to climb up without falling down. But we want to respect the laws here, so... Because there are samurai with swords that will probably destroy us. All right. Even the entrance of it looks like it's going into a cave. That's a tough entrance. All right. I will see you in two minutes. Just hang on, and I'll be back.

00:11:56 John Daub: Welcome. We are back. Thanks for hanging on. We had to go through some floors that don't allow filming. To bring you up to the castle. We're now on the 4th floor, right? 4th floor, right? Strong woman. Yo, this is the Yae-san. Niijima Yae born... This is a very strong woman. This lady could destroy us. Yeah, I am panting because it was quite a ride. Quite a run.

00:12:28 Guide: Niijima Yae was born to a family of artillery instructors. Despite being a woman during that time, she mastered the use of several firearms.

00:12:38 John Daub: Awesome.

00:12:38 Guide: She even fought in the Boshin War using guns. After the war, she moved to Kyoto and married Niijima Jo, the founder of, really, Doshisha University.

00:12:49 John Daub: I know that university.

00:12:49 Guide: She also became a nurse and was awarded a medal for her efforts.

00:12:52 John Daub: Awesome. That's a strong lady.

00:12:58 John Daub: So in the Meiji era, people used guns, not swords, right?

00:13:03 Guide: They used guns. But actually, in the 16th century, 17th century, we used guns. But it's very old type. Ah. The guy came to Japan in 16th century, but it's very old style. But the Meiji government used the state of the art, Western.

00:13:19 John Daub: Right. Yes, it was much stronger. Oh, yeah. I saw in the Tom Cruise Last Samurai, they had like machine guns.

00:13:27 Guide: Yes, yes, yes.

00:13:28 John Daub: Is that true?

00:13:29 Guide: Yes, it's true. I think so.

00:13:31 John Daub: Really? I'm not so sure about the machine gun, but yeah. At some point, it's based on the true story. All right. Tell me honestly. Was that movie accurate? Did you see the movie and was it a good movie?

00:13:41 Guide: I think it says about the agony of the samurai.

00:13:47 John Daub: So agony of the samurai having to change and give up their status as a samurai.

00:13:54 Guide: Yeah. So in a sense, it's true, but it's a drama movie, so it made to more interesting.

00:14:01 John Daub: That's right. Yes. Yes. I thought it was a bad movie when Tom Cruise wore his boots to go to see the emperor on tatami. Oh, yes. You remember that? He had his boots on and he went in to go see the emperor. You have to take your boots off, Tom. I mean, not even the producers told him that. I'm not sure that that really happened.

00:14:37 John Daub: Hey, WXRTubers in the house and welcome Air to the Run. It was nice to see Tom with Koyuki. Koyuki-san was very, very beautiful. Thank you, John. All right. We're inside of Tsuruga Castle in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima. And now we're going up these. These are not ninja steps. So they built these steps in 1960.

00:14:48 Guide: Yeah.

00:14:52 John Daub: Yeah. So it's a little bit different than the original castle. They had wood steps probably. So this castle did okay in the earthquake 10 years ago.

00:15:10 Guide: No damage.

00:15:11 John Daub: Before it was beautiful.

00:15:16 Guide: And after the wall got damaged.

00:15:18 John Daub: Oh, the walls. So there was some repairs to the castle after the earthquake 10 years ago.

00:15:29 John Daub: All right. We're at the top of the observation deck and this looks beautiful. Look at this. Oh, we got some wind to make your audio experience even better. Whoa. Wow. So you can tell it's not Edo period anymore. This is all these concrete buildings. Yeah. So the view from up here, it's different.

00:15:57 John Daub: But this building, is this an original building here?

00:16:01 Guide: This is the dojo.

00:16:11 John Daub: Oh, cool. Yeah. Thank you, Robot Tayaki from Awesome. Michael Sasano is back in the house. Thank you for taking us to Wakamatsu Castle tour.

00:16:28 Guide: You're very welcome.

00:16:29 John Daub: I actually did naginata (polearm) in here with some old ladies. Yeah. And they kicked my butt. They were tough old ladies. They were tough old ladies. Yeah.

00:16:37 Guide: So women could do naginata here in Aizu-Wakamatsu. It was very famous.

00:16:42 John Daub: The female samurai, there was such a thing. They were really brave warriors, the ladies of Aizu-Wakamatsu. So there's a lot of history with some women kicking some butt here.

00:16:56 John Daub: So let me take you around. I'll take you around a little bit from this observation deck. And if we have some more history, I will... We're at the top of where we were. I started this live stream right there. If you have any questions, just let me know. If you don't remember, you're gonna watch the playback. I showed you that map and we walked up here. Now we're on the top of the fifth floor. How cool is that? I'm gonna pan up now from where we started the live stream and give you a better view. But if you do come to Tohoku, definitely put Aizu-Wakamatsu on the map here. Because like for me, this is... They call this Samurai City. There's a lot of history in this town. And the sake here is worth it just for that. I came for the sake, but the history surprised me. Can I say that? Yeah, I came for the sake, but the history surprised me. Some people come for the history and the sake surprises them. But in the end, the food is amazing here. Just something... I guess because there's rice paddies all around. You can see just on the other side here, loads of rice paddies and mountains. And it's cooler here compared to Tokyo. It's a little bit cooler.

00:18:01 John Daub: It's about 5 degrees Celsius. For every 5 degrees Celsius, it's 9 degrees Fahrenheit. So 32 is zero. And then 9 degrees is... 41 is 5 degrees. Oh, hell yeah. Is that works? 5 degrees Celsius is 41 degrees Fahrenheit. 50 degrees Fahrenheit is 10 degrees Celsius. 59 degrees Fahrenheit is 15 degrees Celsius. Do you see how it works? It's pretty easy. Angel Forever 59. Thank you for the live tour. I still need a castle in person. It is cool. Now, a lot of them are reconstructions. This one is a reconstruction from the 1960s, but they made it in the original colors, meaning they preserved the original colors of the roof here, which is red.

00:18:44 John Daub: And our guide doesn't know exactly what color it is. I don't know exactly why the red color is... Why it was done in red, but I'm glad that they kept that as a little detail. It just makes it special. Maybe it's from the iron. It looks like it was made from iron that rusted maybe. I can't think of any other way that this could be red. It looks like it's made of metal. So the roof is made of iron. Maybe that's why it was red. Iron powder. So that's what makes it red probably. The iron... Yeah. It's made of iron with water rusting it a little bit. So that means if you take bow and arrow and you try to shoot this castle, it would just go boink, boink, and just bounce right off it. That's awesome.

00:19:32 Guide: Yeah, burn it.

00:19:38 John Daub: Ah, so we discovered the answer. We just made history here. We discovered the answer. Yeah, I'm a student of iron. I love how they used iron on the roof here. I was gonna say, there has to be a reason why it's red. Good job, Ronald, for that. Adding iron. Look at this courtyard here. I don't have too much more time, but I really am happy that I have a chance to share with you. Now, I made a video here for the old channel, Spy Story, and I ran through here at top speed, escaping women with naginata, like long swords. And I came around the corner, and I was huffing and puffing here with a fake finger gun. That was kind of funny. Just, you had to be there. But yeah, the view from the castle is still worth it, just for $4. Or just watch Only in Japan Go. It's free.

00:20:36 John Daub: I'll tell you really quickly before I go, really quickly. Tonight, I made a reservation at the onsen (hot spring) for 11 p.m. I'm going to take you into the Japanese bath. We got access to do this. I've been waiting to bring you live into a famous Japanese hot spring for a long time. This town has amazing hot springs. It's called Higashiyama Onsen. And there's a couple of really, really amazing ryokan (traditional inns). I'm staying at one of them. The rest of this group is staying at a cheap hotel down the street. Be careful. We're getting a little bit of the VIP service, which is really cool. But I'm going to take you in the bath with me at 11 p.m. tonight, which is 10 a.m. on the east coast of the United States and 7 a.m. from California. So I hope that you guys can tune in for that. And I'll do a room tour for insiders to say thank you for all the people who are members of Only in Japan Go. I'm so appreciative for travelers and members who make this channel. I don't know. I'm able to do more stuff because I have a little bit more as a result. It's much appreciated. And maybe I'll do a Q&A from our Patreon supporters in the room. It's always cool when you're in a yukata (light kimono), you know, Japanese style and showing you the room with some sake in the room. It's like you're here with me hanging out in Japan. That's kind of the way I want it to feel like because I'm by myself. So you guys are my friends. Kanpai and Leo are back home.

00:22:16 John Daub: All right. So there you go. That's what the castle looks like here. It's cool to be up here at elevation. You can feel the wind. It probably kept you cooler, too, in the olden days. It must have been like a furnace up here. Fukushima just bottles in the heat in the summer. All of Japan from July to August is so humid, so hot. It's oppressive. You're going to see this in the Olympics, like why they made the Olympics in July and August. I have no idea. 1964 was in October because of the heat. So we're going to find that out. You all are going to find that out. NBC is going to find that out. The whole heat thing is going to become NBC's worst nightmare.

00:22:59 John Daub: 3RickG just wanted to say thanks for the vids. Thank you. I love all your content. It's great. I'm just so happy that I can bring you here just for 20 minutes or so. Okay. All right. So we're going to finish up here. Thanks so much for watching, everybody. I hope you enjoyed the tour of the castle here in Aizuwakamatsu. I'll see you in the next live stream. Probably tonight. Maybe for lunch. We have an awesome lunch. Definitely subscribe. I might just go live instantly. But tonight at 11:30 p.m. Japan time, I'll be in the onsen bath naked. Just fingers crossed that this camera doesn't pan down or something because you can't wear anything in the onsen bath. Bye bye from Tsuruga Castle. Aizuwakamatsu Fukushima. Angel Forever 59X. Thank you again. And WX Turbo always appreciate all of you guys. Make sure you click that like button. See you next time.