00:00:00 John Daub: Hey everybody, check it out. This is the Great Seto Bridge. We're about to cross. This is so exciting. On the other side of the tunnel, you're just going to see it. Wow! Oh man, I've always wanted to drive over this. I'm going to take it really slow in the left lane and kind of describe to you the things that I see left and right. Oh look at the bridge! It just goes on and on to the left there. Wow! I keep under the speed limit. Speed limit across the bridge is 80 kilometers an hour.

00:00:40 John Daub: Again, I apologize if anybody was following on the accidental vertical live stream. But this Seto Ohashi Bridge was finished in, I believe, 1987. And it connects Honshu with Shikoku. It's such an amazing bridge to look at from a distance. Different styles to it. Anytime you connect one of the four major islands to another, it's pretty cool. I think this live stream is only going to be about 30 minutes long. But for me, this is so awesome! How you doing everybody? It's now about 4pm, 4:15. I'm finally crossing into Shikoku. I'm on a driving trip from Kansai, from Kyoto across to Shikoku. Wow! Check it out! Oh, this is so beautiful.

00:01:47 John Daub: And you can see, I don't know, you have to be a little bit higher, but you can see the Seto Inland Sea. It's so beautiful between Honshu and Shikoku. I'm just taking it really slow, folks. On the right side, the sun is coming into my side and it's so beautiful. I can glance over to my right side and see it glistening. One of the most beautiful areas of Japan. Now this is a double-decker bridge, so I wonder how you get underneath it, but apparently you can ride your bicycle or there's a trail that'll take you across the other side. I've never done that, but it's certainly something that I would love to try.

00:02:24 John Daub: Just you know the Akashi Kaikyo Ohashi is the other bridge that'll cut across to Shikoku that's closer to Kobe. This is right next to Okayama. In fact we might even see a sign that says welcome to Kagawa Prefecture right there on the left side, the green one. Kagawa Prefecture is the prefecture on the other side that we'll be hitting in Shikoku and we'll be leaving Okayama. I'm gonna just take it really slow. I'm not in a hurry. This is so cool. All right this guy's a little bit too slow. I think he's doing 60. I'm doing the speed limit. Here comes another set of bridges up ahead. Oh there's a parking area on the bridge. All right this is cool so maybe I can stop. Whoa look at the cliff on the left side. Oh there is a parking area. Okay we got to go to this parking area because it's usually easy on, easy off. Let's go.

00:03:51 John Daub: Let's take a look at this. Oh this is so cool. All right I'm turning to the left. We're getting off at this parking area. Maybe there's gonna be like this cool angle of the bridge. 8.8% slope, just take it real slow. Now you can see sort of the inside, the underneath the bridge. There is another trail. There's no cars on there. We're gonna go underneath the bridge. We're looping to the other side. Oh this is so worth it. This reminds you of the wraparound to get up to the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo but on a much smaller scale. Wow this is an engineering marvel, this bridge here. Okay we're at the parking area. I'm gonna take you out. We're gonna take a look around the parking area maybe get a snack and then get back on and drive over to Shikoku.

00:05:01 John Daub: Due to bridge repair work the passing lane is restricted. Thank you for the information, Navigator Lady. This is nice. I'm so excited. I think just being outside it makes me excited, being outside of Tokyo. All right, so this tells you to the parking area, the P. Let's go over there, and we can even walk around and get a pretty nice view of the bridge. Let's go do that. Oh wow, there is straight ahead some sort of observation area. So I'm going to just cut across here because there's no... In 1.0 kilometers, due to bridge repair work, the passing lane is restricted. You don't say. She likes to repeat herself, the navigation lady. I do appreciate the effort here. Wow, all right, I'm parking right here. Oh, it's so bright. Okay, I'm going to turn off the engine.

00:05:57 John Daub: I'm going to get the gimbal, which I think is in the back, and then I'm going to put you on the gimbal, and you're going to come with me. I'm going to show you. It's not Umi Hotaru. This is a different place. Stay right here. It's in the back. All right, I'm going to flip you a little bit, but after what happened in the last stream, you might probably be used to it. You ready for the flip? All right. Gentle, gentle. And we're on. Wow. Wow. Hey, Michael Sassana's here. You need to stack up on some snacks and beverages. I do. I still got like two hours of driving ahead of me, including going through a mountain, and I think I'm not going to make it in time for the sunlight. Brandania's here joining us on this trip. That's so cool. And Spike021, it's nice to have you here too. All right, up we go. This is so amazing.

00:07:46 John Daub: Yeah, this is a, we call them service areas or parking areas. Service areas are usually much, much bigger. I like the accessibility for wheelchairs to get up here too. Well done. Glad we stopped. So from this angle, we can see we still got quite a ways to go, don't we? Look at the boat going through there. I should call it a ship. Hey, Irvin's here. How you doing? And Marty's here too. I'm glad Marty got his package. Three weeks. That's wonderful. Shikoku on the other side. It's a whole other island. Looks like mini Australia. You can see the trucks going across the bridge right there. I don't know what's underneath there. I guess they use it during busy times or something. But you can see the Seto Inland Sea here. It's just beautiful. Very strong currents go between the two islands here. And that ship is set for somewhere else.

00:09:40 John Daub: This bridge is made up of a bunch of other bridges. It's all connected though by the highway. This is the map here. And this kind of lays it out for you. This is just kind of describing where the things are. But it'd be nice to have some information. Oh, here's the full scope of it. So we started through the tunnel there, through this live stream. And we went across that one and this one. And now we're in between here on this island. And then that's how much we have to go. And then there's Shikoku on the other side, which is a nice live view right there. Pretty sweet. All right, I got a long way to go. So let's go over to this service area real quickly. I think the car is okay over there. Look how lonely my Toyota RAV4 is hanging out in the back there. I think it'll be fine. Let's go. Hey Raj, the new traveler. Welcome. You've unlocked some cool emoji. There's the spiral we came on. Do you see it? Very nice.

00:11:10 John Daub: You cannot see the car. It's limited to about 40 kilometers an hour based on physics. Lest you spin out of control and over the side. All right, mask on. Let's go get something from the vending machine or investigate what they have on offer. It is pretty nice inside the RAV4. It's got more space, which is what I wanted. I kind of wanted to experience something really nice because it is a long drive. We should, when we are inside areas around people, we're still wearing a mask. All right, here's the service area. It is a nice day. I picked a pretty good one. The next four days are going to be beautiful. Live streams all aboard. Tomorrow morning from Iya, I'm going to show you the valley, the center of Shikoku. Tomorrow morning is going to be beautiful. Try to get up early for that.

00:12:19 John Daub: I guess these are the cables that are inside of the bridge. That's pretty massive. Yeah, this is the cables. Looping on that bridge are this thick. That's a cool shot. So those cables up there that connect the bridge are that thick. Nice. All right, in we go. Service area just for a little bit. Is that the mascot? Yeah, it is. Screenshot. His name is Wataru. And of course, you need some Shikoku anime action. Nice. I really do love this channel because it doesn't feel like I'm alone. I can feel all you guys here with me. We're entering Sanuki udon country. That's the Kagawa area on the road to Kochi, where I'm driving from Kyoto to Kochi, then Shimanto as my destination, Nakamura Station, which is the center of Shimanto City.

00:13:46 John Daub: All right, they do have some restaurants. Let's just see what's on offer. The name of this place is Yoshima. It's a pretty nice service area. Did Nightbot just take out Saya? Weird. It's a takomeshi, octopus rice. Nice. All right, I don't want to take you too far in. Just give you a quick look around. So in the service areas, they usually have an area with information right here. So you get the traffic updates, local information. And then there's always a gift shop where you can get confections and whatnot. Some udon. Wow. A lot of udon. It's pretty cheap too. It's 750 yen for this massive pack. Oh, hey, I know these. Hey guys, this is the daimyo package that I sent. These tarts from Shikoku. They're on the way to you. So very cool. I'm kind of glad to see these. I might pick up one.

00:16:18 John Daub: Let's put the superchats to work and pick one up. This is chestnut flavored for autumn. You know what? I'm going to try the Seto lemon. Actually, I can try them. I don't have to buy a big pack of them. I can just buy them one by one. Thank you. What do you want to eat? I want to eat this. Do you want to eat this? No, no. I want to eat this. Thank you. Alright, thanks guys. We can try one in the car before we take off. Let's see if we can get a coffee. I'm kind of craving something to go with it. Here's the vending machine corner and yeah, they got a coffee machine here. Check it out. They got weird chips. There's some Mos Burger chips. Bunch of other stuff. Alright, let's get a coffee here. Kilimanjaro blend. Mocha. American. That's me. Alright, I'm doing the American. Big and jumbo. Yep, that's American. I'm going to go black.

00:18:47 John Daub: It's too late. You can pick the strength of the coffee. It's just normal. That's a shame. And you can add the cream and the sugar levels. It says it's going to take 47 seconds. It's true if you want to. Here are the coins. I might change. Mocha, Kilimanjaro, and other coffees. They do have a cup noodle machine here too. How do they put the top on? Alright, let's get out of here. There's an ATM here too, by the way. I'll show you the ATM later. Oh, this is hot. For our Daimyo supporters, just so you know, this tart is the exact one I sent you in your Daimyo boxes this month. I think you're going to like it. It's kind of cool to see it connected with this livestream. I might have planned it that way though. Alright, back out we go.

00:20:25 John Daub: Let's walk to the car, which is like... You know what? My dad used to park way out here. He said it's easier to get in and easier to get out. But you have to walk 500 meters to get there. It's only like 100 meters. Carl Lewis can do it under 10 seconds. Gosh, this coffee's hot. They do make it like an amusement park. Check out the sign. It looks like Welcome to the Service Area. It is an amusement park. If they had a Ferris wheel here, it would be a lot more fun. Some of the service areas in Japan have Ferris wheels. So, I'm putting you back on the dashboard now so you get a chance to take a look at the rest of the bridge. This sort of makes up for the really awful vertical livestream that started. Don't know why, YouTube app is just funky.

00:21:36 John Daub: Joy, you got that right. I could use the exercise sitting in the car all day. Hey, look at the hippie van. Alright, let's go around it. Gosh, I envy that dude. That looks like one of the trucks that picked me up three years ago, four years ago when I was hitchhiking. He lived in Gunma. He was going from Kyushu to Gunma where there was a Brazilian settlement that he was going to go stay at. He had everything in the car. It looked like he lived in the thing. It was awesome. He picked me up and took me from a service area in Yamaguchi to Hiroshima City. We both took a look at the Genbaku Dome and then I spent the night and then went on to Miyajima. Oh, I should have taken the trash out. Forgot about that.

00:22:39 John Daub: Route 4 is pretty nice. Look at those tires. You can kick them and they won't fall apart. If I put it back here, it'll be okay. There's the Route 4. It's a sweet ride. Can't pick the color. It just came like that. You guys hit your head there. Off the gimbal you go and onto the holder. Hold on a second. Okay. Let's try one of these tarts. This is a taste of... You know what? I'm going to drive over to the side here because it's really bright. You can get maybe a view of the bridge in the background. No, you can't. It's a little bit better. I'm going to try this one here. It's the one that I sent to our Daimyo supporters. It's chestnut tart. Hold on a second. I have some alcohol. Oh wow. It's soft. Check it out. Oh, this is nice.

00:24:19 John Daub: I love Japanese confections. They're just not... They're sweet but they're not overly sweet. It's perfect. I think if it's too sweet, it wouldn't go well with something like this. The coffee, nice bitterness. Oh, that's nice. I appreciate the Super Chats guys for the pick-me-up. It's nice. They still got a ways to go. Road trips like this, they're just so special, aren't they? It's a shame I don't have anybody with me. Kanae and Leo are back home. Kanae still has work to do. I'm sure we'll do this again as a family in the future. That is so perfect. I'm going to eat the rest in the hotel tonight. I got to put the lid on. I know what's going to happen if you don't put the lid on. Let's get out of here.

00:25:34 John Daub: I can actually... Hold on a second. I'm going to put this GoPro and get some shots driving, right? Where can I put this GoPro? I'll try to... Maybe I'll upload some of these shots to Instagram later. Stop and record. Cool. Let's go! Where do we go? Ponsan, which is the main road. Auto lock's. Nice RAV4. Nice. It's not the same. Leo and Kanae should be here. I know you guys are here, but it's not the same. I can't hear you. I have to activate the Discord server. Oh, go ahead. Actually, I have the right-of-way. Sorry. Ponsan. To Shikoku. One way. Do I have to go through the ETC again? Really? Okay. I don't know. What do you have to pay to do this?

00:27:23 John Daub: Okay. I don't have to pay anything. It's just checking. Oh, you're going to see the loop-de-loop now. Now we got to loop all the way back around. That beep was the sound of... Usually that beep is the sound of money being taken away from me. But this time, just a check. Just kind of saying, hey, we know you went through there. Shikoku. Oh, that's what it's for! The train! Did you see that on the left? The train goes underneath the bridge. That's so cool! Sun in your eyes. Oh! If you squint, you'll be fine. HDR does a pretty good job on the iPhone. Shikoku and Honshu. That's sort of a big deal right there, that sign. Nobody behind me can take it slow. Oh, look at the view! This is the greatest bridge ever. Alright, off to Shikoku!

00:28:50 John Daub: Shikoku means four countries. Question! Can you name the four prefectures of Shikoku? You have 30 seconds. Everybody in the live chat. The four prefectures of Shikoku. Go! Who's first? Say them all in one post. California's not in there, Irvin! You have to put all four of them in one post. Alright, we got a winner there. I can't see it because I gotta look on the road here. I think that's Daniel D. Well done, Daniel D. Starting from this prefecture, Kagawa, Ehime, Kochi, Tokushima. And tonight, I'll be staying in Tokushima. I'm entering through Kagawa. Kagawa, this prefecture's claim to fame is the Sanuki udon.

00:30:00 John Daub: Sanuki udon is really thick noodles. Thick wheat noodles. And I love it. They put tempura on top of it. The soup is made from dashi broth. And it's super cheap here. Like, you can get them as low as 180 yen, I've seen them for the basic udon and dashi. You eat it in two minutes or less. I see people, they slurp it. They don't even chew. They just swallow the noodles whole like snakes. I don't know why they do that. They're crazy. It's a skill. My favorite shop in Zentsuji, the owner told me, we call it shinkō hitotsu. You have to eat it within one traffic light. Traffic light turns red, eat your udon. Traffic light turns green again, you have to be finished and move on. That's how quick people are supposed to eat their Sanuki udon in Kagawa. In Sanuki udon country.

00:31:02 John Daub: What a beautiful experience this is. Look at that. Sticking wall. There's a car that was going way too fast. I think the signal cutting out means that we're in Shikoku. I guess it's like we just moved into Shikoku land. So I guess Shikoku has a different area and maybe the signal changed. I don't know. It's a whole different world that we're in. Just drive nice and smooth and don't worry about the signal. Oh, looks like we're going to be going through some tunnels. So you might lose me but this I think there's one more bridge after this. Hold on. Yeah, there's a small bridge that we cross over then we're on the mainland. This is like a man-made island, a dock for some of the big ships.

00:32:26 John Daub: I'm just going to stay in the right lane. The trucks are going a little bit slower than the speed limit. The speed limit is 80 km per hour here. I'm doing a little bit over 80 now past the trucks and then I'll swing back into the left lane. Nice and gently. Driving in Japan is a real treat. I know a lot of Americans are going to be kind of wary about driving on the left side but you get used to it pretty quickly. Just give it some time and after about 15-20 minutes you're okay. But it does take a little bit of getting used to. I was used to it naturally because believe it or not, the way people walk in Japan is they walk on the same way that people drive. Mentally, I would be walking on the left side just like the traffic patterns were on the road. That sort of got me going. These cars really go fast. That kind of mentally set me up for driving. So when I got behind the wheel it wasn't too bad. I was kind of mentally there.

00:33:46 John Daub: The problem is when I go back home to the United States I might take a left turn into the wrong lane just because I'm so used to turning the other way or a right turn. Those are the toughest. I think you just get used to it. Just give it some time and your brain adjusts. Wow, look at that sign! Confusing. I'm going a little bit over 80 now. That car is going a little bit faster. I think they give you a little bit of wiggle room. Sakai-da City. And Marugame! This is where the Marugame udon chain is originally from. We're entering into Marugame City. How cool is that? Wow, my arrival time is now 7:15pm. Which is not ideal. What are you going to do? Keep straight.

00:35:04 John Daub: If the navigator wasn't telling me where to go I would have no idea. The difference was I think with the RAV4 here, I didn't have to... The navigation system was a lot easier to do. Everything was touch. It's a touch panel on the car here. The changes from Japanese to English was so simple. Easy to find in the menu. Very intuitive. What the heck? I just got on and paid 1800 yen to ride that bridge. What? They just New Jack City'd me. New Jack Hustler. Oh, it says 1800 yen. I think the lady just got it wrong. I don't know. It says to go straight here. Don't go to Marugame. Or Matsuyama. Matsuyama would left would take me to Ehime. We're going to go straight. After this loop.

00:36:16 John Daub: If you're having fun, click the like button. Encourage me to do more driving livestreams because it's pretty cool. Having fun. It'd be a lot more fun if Kanae and Leo were here. Nothing against you guys. Just the way it is. Turn slight left. If you get to this here, just stay the course. This is Route 11. In 300 meters, turn right. In 300 meters. If you are American and using feet, good luck. One meter is about the same as a yard. More or less. 100 meters, 100 yards. 100 meters is a little bit less. 100 yards is a little bit more than 100 meters. Turn right at the next traffic signal. You got it. It's kind of a shame that I'm getting here so late because I really wanted to see the gorge. I might be able to. The drive now that I have to go is so beautiful. It takes you through a gorge and I'm hitting it at night.

00:37:48 John Daub: So I might wake up super early and then just drive back up and down it and do a livestream. Or at least record it because I know there's not going to be a signal. So I'm hoping by you watching this drive you feel comfortable a little bit more deciding to rent a car when you come to Japan. I don't think it's that complicated. You can see there's very little traffic and it's pretty comfortable. The roads are quite wide. They're very modern. The signs are both, you see the blue sign there, both in Japanese and in Romaji, Roman letters, so you can find the places that you're going to. And the navigation system is in English. So you don't really have much problem. I think if you're on the border you can see the navigation system is all in English there.

00:39:00 John Daub: It's really comfortable to drive and if you have a family of four this is probably the way to go. You can put your luggage in the back, not have to wheel it around, go straight to the hotel. And out in the countryside, hotels have parking lots. It's so nice to just go straight to your location not have to go through stations and buses and stuff. But with this trip, if you have a rail pass, you can either wait to activate it later or if you activate it, you can take the train across to Shikoku and then rent a car here. But I highly recommend if you're going to get around and see the sights, renting a car is just the way to go. It's just so comfortable. So the sun has set. The sun is down. We are so late. That means we're having fun. I got lost in Osaka, I gotta be honest. I didn't know where I was going. I took a low road when I should have been up on the Hanshin Expressway. I was down on the local road and that took like an hour to fix it. I might have said some four letter words. Duck. Goose.

00:40:23 John Daub: If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. I really appreciate it. This drive to Kochi is so much fun and I'm glad that you could join me on this trip. We just missed the light here. I gotta drive now to some country roads. It's gonna require some super duper concentration on my part. I had maybe about five hours of sleep. Not ideal. I wanted to show you this before we leave. You see that? Do you see the FamilyMart? Right in the center of your screen. Look how big that parking lot is. That's so easy to get in and out. No parallel parking. That's what I'm talking about. It's so chill driving in Japan. Once you get out of the cities, it's really nice. Getting a license is certainly worth it. One of the greatest things that I've done here getting that license and freeing myself from the bounds of train travel. Which means I can travel around to Shikoku and do this episode.

00:41:26 John Daub: Click that like button. I'll see you in another live stream tomorrow morning at Iya. If there's something cool about the ryokan that I'm staying in, I might go live stream it. I'll stream from the room if there's something really neat to give you a tour of what it's like to stay at this lodge. Have a good day everybody. Have a good night if you're in Australia. Just two hours ahead. Singapore an hour. Thank you for watching. I'll see you really soon.