00:00:00 John Daub: Welcome to Yusuhara in Kochi Prefecture. Look at the beautiful mountains here. 7:30 in the morning. There's still some mist around the hills. Good morning. I'm going to take you around this area for the next 30 minutes or so. I have to because there's a breakfast happening right where we're staying, this beautiful place right in the center of your screen. It's got a thatched roof. It's always been like that, but it has been renovated inside one of the old buildings. Part of this renovated town. It's got a story to it. And I'm here to discover more about the story of Yusuhara and how it changed.

00:01:05 John Daub: A lot of the small towns around Japan are suffering from depopulation. It's not growing at all. This is one of them too, of course. And they found a way to kind of make it a very inspiring place where you'd want to start up a business and maybe even raise a family. I'm gonna film for the main channel episode and for this episode I'm gonna take you down the street and just show you around. I think there's some really amazing places to see, some of the architecture, the designs. A lot of it uses wood. Hold up, I wanted to show you the hotel I was staying at. This is, I believe, like the hotel with some French name—Marunouchi Yusuhara [?]. Very newly done rooms, not even sure how much it is because it's just part of my trip here.

00:02:10 John Daub: Let's take a quick look-see. I'll show you the thatched roof. I was like, that's true, it's really just like that side to the building. It's pretty incredible. Here this town is called Yusuhara. And that over there in the center of your screen is the library designed by Kengo Kuma. We will be walking by on this episode. There's the side entrance because the hotel is closed right now. I have to go in through here. I only came to take a look at the name of the hotel: Marunouchi Yusuhara. That's the name of the hotel. And just electronic and electric battery charger for electric cars here. That's pretty modern.

00:02:50 John Daub: All right, let's go across the street here, take you up some of the buildings. Where's the covered bridge? I wanted to take you to the covered bridge too. Hey, cookie ninjas in the house, nice to see you. Brontania, always love having you join me on these live streams. Well, that's not it, but maybe if we go down here we can get a quick look-see. There is a really beautiful covered bridge, like something from lost in time. That's what I love about this town.

00:03:36 John Daub: Now the roadway that I showed you just 20-30 seconds ago is super wide now, but it used to have a lot of metal poles and houses really close to each other. The street was quite narrow, maybe like this one with logging trucks going back and forth. The poles were to keep the logging trucks and the logs from spilling and destroying the houses if that were to happen. Because you could see there's a lot of trees here, so I'm sure there's a lot of logging back in the day. And those poles were not very pretty either. Neither was the fact that the street was pretty narrow. So it took a monumental task politically and monetarily, I guess. I'm trying to dig that out. To move all of that so that they could make a wider street, which is so much more beautiful and attractive in the 21st century to people who want to come and visit. So I think that this might even be a model.

00:04:53 John Daub: Wow! I'm so glad I came here. Check out this bridge. The wood here. Heisei 19. So that was like 2007. I came here Heisei 10. That was 1998. Wow. Oh, there's the covered bridge in the distance. Do you see that right in the center of your screen? I'm going to get the drone out and take some footage for the episode here too. I did it before, but now I'm going to do it with the newer drone. Look at the way that they, look at the top of the bridge here. Just logs they use. Beautiful design. And on the side here, you can see there's a, I don't know how they made it. Is this a Kengo Kuma bridge too? But the art is so beautiful.

00:06:52 John Daub: I actually have taken drone classes and the required time to get a license, but you also know you don't need a license to fly in Japan. Just depends where. Oh, look, there's a kaki (persimmon). Check this out. In the winter, all the leaves fall off, but the kaki stay on, or at least they haven't been picked.

00:07:22 John Daub: All right, up we go towards the... Ohayou gozaimasu. Ah, America. Yes, I live in Japan. Hahaha. It's a little cold, isn't it? Ah, it's a little cold. He asked me where I was from. I told him America. It's easier to say that than explain. Yes, I live here in Tokyo, but I'm just visiting to film a trip. That's too long. Just keep it simple. Where are you from? America.

00:08:03 John Daub: All right, that's the blue car that we rented. It's a Nissan. Never driven a Nissan before. I have to say I do prefer Toyotas. It's the sweeter ride. All right, up we go. Hey, Vaughn's in the house. Let's see what we can find. Maybe there is something for breakfast. See some manhole covers there. Grabbing a shot of the manhole covers. They're all like that here. They're beautiful. And I believe this is the old Kabuki theater manhole cover.

00:09:10 John Daub: Let's see if I can take you to this building. It's up there, up on the left on the hill, the Kabuki theater. This is the theater that inspired Kengo Kuma to go wood. He was doing mostly cement. Oh, look at this. It looks like children's art just right leading up against the door, as they're leaning up against the side of a building. Kengo Kuma was doing mostly cement work. It was pretty good work. But it wasn't until...

00:09:47 John Daub: Oh check it out, there's the library. I've already done a live stream here so I'm not going to focus too much in there but I might take a quick look-see inside if it's open. You can see here that the streets away from the main street are a lot narrower and this is the way it was back in the day but the main street was so trafficked by logging trucks. All right let's go, let's stop in and do a quick look at the library but I want to wrap around and definitely show you that Kabuki theater.

00:11:03 John Daub: You know when Kengo Kuma comes in and designs a building for you it puts your town on the map. So this building I don't even think we can go in, I don't think it's open yet. Everything in here is made of wood. Check this out, you can see inside the window there's a wooden-made gachapon (capsule toy) machine. Check that out. I think it looks like wooden paper, there's some rips up there but never mind that, it's still pretty cool. If you want to see the inside of it you can take a look at the live stream I did there about two and a half, three years ago. And the inside is just incredible. This is probably one of the most beautiful libraries that you've ever seen, although libraries in other cities have been done very beautifully as well. But this one is pretty special too and it's almost worth it for architecture buffs to come here just for this, to see what he's done with books and his love for trees. You could see part of the ceiling which is no wasted space, he takes advantage of that in the design. It's incredible.

00:12:37 John Daub: But the public library is still closed so I'm going to wrap around. This building is pretty interesting too, I'm not quite sure what it is, I think it's a public building. The city hall, the town hall is also a very impressive building but everything seems like it has been renovated. There's a couple of old buildings that haven't been renovated but for the most part the town has been renovated. And this renovation, this beautification I guess you would say, modernization because it was renovated for a reason, makes it a much more attractive place for people to move in, become taxpayers and help grow the population rather than shrink it. And that's a model that I think a lot of other towns around Japan need to take.

00:13:35 John Daub: And if you don't already know, on the main Only in Japan Go channel I started a live stream that's gonna be playing a little bit, I think around 26 hours from now, where Alex Kerr, who is a professional and expert in the revitalization of old towns, will be reading excerpts of his book Lost Japan which he published about 20 years ago. I'm really looking forward to that. He's somebody who's been here for so long, I think like 50 years. I've only talked to him on the telephone a couple of times but looking forward to meeting him. Very well-known author of books about Japan and any Japanophile who's done their research has come upon Alex Kerr's work. And if you're on our Discord server you'll be able to ask him some questions. If you've read the book, get that on Amazon right now and start reading. You'll have some questions for the next few days and then I'll see you guys in the next video live stream tomorrow. Very special to have that opportunity. Only in Japan Go.

00:14:40 John Daub: All right let's try to find that Kabuki theater. I think it was up so why don't we just see where this takes us. I get lost I'll just jump on the map. This is the iPhone 12 Pro. I would be using the old 13 Pro if Apple had sent it to me. Yeah I'm gonna be complaining about that for the end of time. It's been stolen from my mailbox. I don't think they believe me. I'm going to return it to Apple because I just don't want it anymore. They've made the experience so bad. I don't want the iPhone 13 Pro anymore. It just makes me sick to think about that. You can keep it Apple.

00:15:41 John Daub: All right, check this out here. We're on the top of a hill. The higher we go we get better views looking down onto the town. That's a pretty nice house. Joey says rant away. I'm not gonna rant. I should just do an iPhone what happened livestream later on. So it's actually pointing to a public toilet. That's interesting because one of the things with visiting towns like this, tourists, you can't find a public toilet anywhere because there's no convenience stores. But here, look at the colors on that mountain. I think we've hit the koyo (autumn leaves) or the changing of the leaves at the perfect time. The drone shots are gonna be so beautiful.

00:16:46 John Daub: Von that lol is telling, I think you know, I should tell you all about that iPhone story when it comes to some kind of conclusion. Like to give Apple the benefit of the doubt that they'll do the right thing. They didn't make anyone sign for the phone therefore they cannot confirm that I received it or didn't receive it. So they think I received it. So I think they're calling me a thief. Japan Post put it in a locker. When I got back from Nagano and the fireworks, there was nothing in the locker. End of story. I don't think I'm going the right way, but it's pretty cool. Wow! Kochi has had zero infections for a while. When one person gets infected, everybody panics and goes into super stay-at-home mode here. Whereas in Tokyo, we're so used to this. It's a pretty good situation here in Kochi, and I don't want to be the one to ruin it. So we're taking extra precautions.

00:18:35 John Daub: I think this is the area. Okay, look at these buildings here. I came out of this really cool road, path I guess you'd call it. And I found this thatched house here. Oh, it's not open. Here's some pictures of the residents. I like that they did that. They should put more pictures. Spider. This is Izumi Kakehashi Residence, jutaku (residence). One of the six Shishi Patriots of Yusuhara. His residence was moved in 1998 to the site where the Todotaro Yoshimura residence formerly stood. Interesting. I like the pictures. That guy looks pretty serious too. Alright, your house is closed, but the thatched roof is very much like the hotel that I'm staying in. So I'm guessing if you came here during the Edo period, you came to something like this, and it's pretty thick.

00:20:10 John Daub: Thank you, Joy. Let's keep this livestream a joy. No need to talk about anything but what's right in front of you. And it is like fireworks. With the gas station, Idemitsu, right in front of us. Alright, let's try to make it back to the hotel or else I'm gonna miss breakfast. It's very possible that I get lost. Alright, I'm still looking for this building. This is the old Kabuki theater, I believe. I think it might be there. Okay, yeah, I think we're pretty close now. My memory is a little foggy.

00:20:59 John Daub: Okay, look at this. They put some signs and they've added English to it. That's huge. That's really huge. That's not in English though. Just the water running down the hill. Alright, I wanna go explore up this mountain, but we just don't have time. If I miss breakfast, I don't wanna leave Kiara, who's joining me on this trip, all alone for her breakfast. So I'm gonna start making my way back to the hotel. They've harvested the rice. But the field is still pretty. When I get the drone up there, I'm sure it's gonna be really nice to see these empty fields in between all of the buildings. That looks like a castle in the distance, but it's not.

00:22:14 John Daub: Alright, here we go. Boom! Found it. This makes this a successful stream. I didn't get completely lost. I believe City Hall is on the right side, and it's beautiful. Oh, you're gonna love what they've done with the City Hall. This is the old Kabuki theater that is on the manhole cover. Check it out. Manhole! Hola! And now... Don't ask me why I do that. And then, here's the actual building right there. Boom. This is the building, the design of it, the old Kabuki theater that inspired Kengo Kuma to go wood.

00:22:50 John Daub: I don't know if he'll ever admit it. I met the master a few times, actually, with an NPO that I was working with. He was also a part of it. Got a chance to even go out for drinks, and we didn't talk about work. Maybe that was a bad thing. I wish I'd asked more questions. I think we talked about girls, drinks. I talked about everything except what I probably should have. But it wasn't job, you know, you're after work. Last thing you wanna do is start talking about work. And anyways, we were having drinks. We're not supposed to be talking about work unless it's a work meeting. And I don't think it was. Just the boys going out for brews.

00:23:43 John Daub: Alright, there's the city hall. Check it out. There's the Kabuki theater from this angle. So if you do come and walk up here, don't miss it. It doesn't look that inspiring from a distance. But when you get up close and if you go inside—it's not open yet, it's a morning walk—you will be inspired when you get up, when you take a look inside and see how much work they really put into it. And this is predating, this is like during the logging era. That's why a lot of things are made of wood. Because that's part of this town's DNA. The inside of the city hall is absolutely beautiful too. And I believe, I don't know if this is designed by Kengo Kuma. It might be. Because this is where he changed his designs, like his thinking for designing. I believe he might have done a lot of work here because he wanted this to be a model. And to have his design along with that Kabuki theater.

00:24:42 John Daub: But that's City Hall. And if you know anything about Japan and you've been here for any period of time and you've traveled around, you'll know that a lot of the City Halls are just these concrete structures that are completely ugly. Like really not inspiring at all. In fact, it's the opposite of inspiring. It's de-spiring. It makes you want to, I don't know, depressed to see the buildings sometimes. The old post-World War II buildings.

00:25:18 John Daub: Alright, I'm going to make a right. And I believe that takes me back to the hotel. People are so friendly here. In Tokyo, no one says hello to you. There's a tunnel. And if you ever take, I put a link in the description to the map. There's a tunnel right there. If you go through that tunnel, you're out of the town. So this is very much in a valley, this town here. Look across the street. Bonga. This is an Indian restaurant. That's so awesome. Oh man. I definitely want to come back here one day. I'm going to hit Bonga one of these days. Indian restaurant at Yusuhara. There's some street art here. Does he hold a baby? Or a doll? He stole Leo. You give us back our Leo. It kind of looks like Leo. Leo! How did you get in that picture? This is from hundreds of years ago probably.

00:26:38 John Daub: Yeah, Banksy's going to do some work. Do it here. Do it on this post office. That'd be a federal crime though. Even the post office is very nicely done. There's some wood on the side of it. It's brand new. Everything has been thought out. But I'm happy to end here. Good morning. I'm happy to end on the street here because you can see how wide this street is. And it wasn't like that. If you look at the old pictures, the houses came up to the road. So it was just a road. And there were these steel poles on the side of it that absolutely made it look uninspiring. And now they found a way to get people to move their houses back. So all these houses are pretty new. And it's just such a beautiful walk.

00:27:30 John Daub: And I think that if I was going to pick a town, Yusuhara in Kochi might be one of the places I would settle down in. It's just if people care this much about their lifestyle. And you can see one of the residents out there cleaning up. Another reason why Japan is so clean. Between dawn and like 7am, locals will clean up their own area. It's just beautiful. Good morning. I like these little pinwheels here. Ronald exactly right. See some trash? Pick it up. If you see it, it becomes your responsibility and your duty to clean up the trash. And not everybody in Japan feels this way. But enough of the people here to make it clean like this. This is autumn. I don't see any leaves either. People seem to be sweeping up the leaves too to make it a very clean place.

00:28:49 John Daub: Alright. Back at the hotel. Any questions? That's sort of the Yusuhara walk. And I think if you do the same thing you can see it takes you only about 30 minutes. But because there's so many cafes and restaurants, so many little secret places that have been built for your enjoyment to explore in this town, you probably could spend a good day or two here just relaxing. If you've had a really long hard arduous journey, this is one of these places that you chill. You just stay for a while and talk to people. Because everyone is so friendly. Everyone's going to say good morning to you. And this is the hotel that I'm staying in. And you could stay here too. It's a pretty good hotel.

00:29:40 John Daub: Thanks everybody for watching. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. And I'll be back with another live stream, maybe tonight. Who knows. But definitely tomorrow, 26 hours, I'll be with Alex Kerr. Make sure you click the reminder button on that live stream. You don't want to miss that one. If you're curious about Japan and the renovations and its future and its past, you're going to want to ask Alex Kerr. He's the master. He's somebody that I ask for information. So see you then everybody. Bye from Yusuhara.