00:00:04 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Hirome Ichiba. This is one of my favorite Japanese food markets. You can see there's the tataki right there. This is the bonito fish. Hold on a second, I'm behind the line. They're going to be adding some of the dry grass. He's lighting it up there. And this is how they cook tataki here in Kochi Prefecture.

00:00:31 John Daub: Oh, he's putting it into the fire. This is one of the most awesome dishes in Japan. Look at this. Anything that requires being soaked in fire. You can feel the heat even though they're behind the grass. He's adding some more straw in here. The reason is to cook this bonito fish, to sear it on both sides and add a little bit of that flavor in there. Oh, look at it. The oils are starting to dance a little bit. They want it to stay pink on the inside though.

00:01:23 John Daub: And next he cuts it up there in the back of the market. You see it's kind of blackened on the outside. And then there's a beautiful red color on the inside of this. It's one of the regional dishes of Japan here in Kochi Prefecture that you definitely want to eat. This is so exciting. I've already bought it. Right there is my platter. Let me show you a little bit of the market before I sit down here.

00:01:59 John Daub: I'm going to take you on a tour after I finish eating and trying it out. But they have something for everybody here. This is one of the most prolific markets. They have just about everything. They have vegan food in here, Japanese food, all sorts of really delicious stuff. I came before the lunch rush so that there's still some open tables here.

00:02:24 John Daub: There's one of the most famous shops here where they cook the tataki. They have several shops around Kochi City, so you don't have to just come to the market for it. But it sure is a lot more fun here. A lot of people will be drinking sake and eating here at night. In better times, it's a lot more vibrant. This restaurant here has some models of shimono. There's some katsu, is that oyakodon? And then there's some katsu curry. So they have all sorts of different kinds of cuisines here. Everything looks so good.

00:02:55 John Daub: So let me sit down and have some of this tataki. When you walk around Hirome Ichiba, please wear a mask to cover your nose and mouth. Check this out here. These look really good. They call this a tataki onigiri. And it looks more like sushi, doesn't it? But they call it an onigiri. And you can see it's a piece of that bonito fish that you just saw being seared. You can see the outside of it, the searing of the fish, and how it stays pink on the inside. It's just so good. I always get it with salt.

00:03:41 John Daub: And you can see there's some rice underneath there. A little bit of garnish, green onions and negi and garlic, and you can dip it in some olive oil. This is the typical tataki. Darkened on the outside, seared, pink red on the inside. Wow, oh my gosh, this is the best final meal in Kochi. Kevin Riley loved this. This is maybe his favorite food in Shikoku.

00:04:20 John Daub: Now this is aosa nori tempura. Aosa is like this green stuff that you find in the Shimanto River. It is seaweed, but they tempura it, and it's got an amazing consistency that I'll do my best to describe as I eat it. Alright, let's get going because I can't talk too much with my mask off out of respect for the other customers here. So I'll have to put my mask on and talk after I eat this. Let's give this a try. It's aosa nori tempura. It's a kind of river seaweed.

00:05:11 John Daub: I'm going to try this now. Yeah. Here we go. I love it. Ow, this is just a little bit of salt on top. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna dip it. Alright, check it out. This is the onigiri right here, a little bit of salt on top. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna dip it in the olive oil.

00:06:44 John Daub: So there's a slight crunchiness with the salt on there. But of course it breaks apart pretty quickly. And that salt just oozes over. It kind of melts all over the fish and gives you such an umami taste. It really brings out the taste of the tataki. Without the salt, it's also quite good. But you can eat it with tare or ponzu, a little bit of a vinegar sauce with some citrus. That's quite good too. But I just prefer salt because I want to taste the charcoal taste around it. The garlic also brings out the taste quite a bit.

00:07:28 John Daub: Alright, I'm gonna eat the rest of these a little bit later. Let's go for the aosa tempura. This is the aosa nori tempura. Okay, this is interesting. So it's quite crunchy. And that's a disappointment because typically this should be mochi-mochi, slight crunchiness and this mochi-mochi spongy consistency inside of it. That's what Kevin and I love about it. But this one's a little bit too crunchy. Maybe because it's not hot out of the fryer.

00:08:51 John Daub: Michael Sassano, loving the live stream. The tataki looks amazing. Here's a nice beverage to complement your meal. Let's see what we can do after this. Nice to see you again. Deserve a sake to go with that tuna. Actually, it's a good idea. Next up is the tataki, the normal tataki. It looks like this. So let's just try it like sashimi. This is how it's normally eaten. There's five pieces in a small size, seven in a medium, and I think nine or eleven in the large one. So you can order different sizes. The olive oil is just a little bit more of a flavor enhancer, but it's pretty good as it is.

00:09:41 John Daub: Bob Joe, I do have a glass of water. But let's see if we can find something a little bit stronger right after this. We'll keep this live stream going. This is gonna be fun. So the tempura in the middle, it's got a little bit of that mochi-mochi sponginess, chewiness in there. But I think it's too crunchy for it to be good. I guess everybody has a different way that they like the aosa nori tempura, but highly recommend you always get this as a starter or something along with your meal. It's fairly healthy besides the fact that it's deep fried. It's seaweed. The tataki is so darn good. There's three pieces, so I should enjoy this in a minute or two. And these are onigiri, aka sushi it looks like to me. I guess they don't use rice vinegar, so maybe it doesn't qualify as sushi.

00:12:01 John Daub: I think I prefer this. I like it with some rice, but you can also get the tataki in a bowl of rice. That's another way to eat it. But if you don't want the carbohydrates, you can just go as is. You cannot go wrong. Hey, Sana from Georgia. My mom loves the show. Well, I love your mom. I'm so happy that she's watching. All right, let's finish this up here. The lady sitting next to me left so I can be a little bit more open since there's nobody within a three to five meter radius. So I can talk a little bit now.

00:12:56 John Daub: Next up, I'm going to take you around this market. Maybe we can find some sake. Mr. Das, where's the craft beer you keep talking about? Good question. Let's find out. Oh, the fire going. Jersey Dubs 2000, I knew I mentioned this before, but if you are peckish after that devilish Myojin Maru tataki, the karaage at Chibiki Kara Honpo there in Hirome is to die for. I saw some really good karaage. Alright, let's see if we can find that. Irvin, I counted my toes now. Happy. Irvin, I'm just happy you're here, brother. Maggie Chang, love watching your videos, live videos. Thank you, Maggie, I'm glad you're here too, sharing lunch with me.

00:14:49 John Daub: Whenever they start burning that fire, it attracts you like a bug to a bright light. I want to go over there and just hang out around the fire. There's some bouqet. How about that? I'm gonna dip it really deeply into this. I don't think it's olive oil. I think it's more of a lemon or yuzu. Wow, with that lemon it's such a more complex taste. A little piece of garlic slice with a little bit of lemon and some negi green onions adds more complexity to it. That's either a good thing or a bad thing. Vegetables, game over. I'm not gonna lick the plate.

00:16:35 John Daub: When we're done, we got to take this with us, make sure we leave the area clean, cleaner than we found it. Have a lot of respect for the cleanliness of Japan. Always leave a place cleaner than you found it. I do highly recommend stopping here for your meal, but there's lots of other stuff. I heard there's karaage, so let's go check it out. There's the aosa nori tempura up there and that's really popular too. There's croquette. Oh my gosh, this looks so good. They even have takoyaki 10. Is it deep fried takoyaki? That is genius. Why didn't I think of this? Takoyaki, oh yeah, they should deep fry takoyaki. It's like it's been cooked and then cooked again.

00:18:09 John Daub: Oh my gosh, I can't even eat anything anymore. I'm so stuffed already. Ellis just counted to nine. I got some Japanese food because of you. Have some more great food. Ellis, brother, thank you. Much love to you guys. Can't wait to visit you if we can make it over there. Oh, is that a buntan? Let me check out this piece of fruit here. They have these really big, what is that? Is that a buntan? That's a massive piece of citrus fruit. And they have some mikan here. My gosh, all I can smell in my mask is garlic. Whoa, look at that maguro. That is some deep colored maguro.

00:19:36 John Daub: Oh gosh, I love these food market episodes. Maybe I'm gonna get a second wind and get hungry again. I gotta look for that craft beer. Mr. Das is here, that means I gotta have a drink. It's mandatory. Look at this, this is the karaage place because they sure got some good stuff. Whoa, look at this karaage, holy smokes. This is red. I gotta get one of these. This is a red one, which means probably spicy. Can I just get one? Oh my gosh, can I just get one? Alright, I'm gonna ask him if I can just get one because I don't want to eat a lot of stuff right now. Oh, they're black edamame.

00:21:07 John Daub: One minute. Alright, she's nuking it. That was the quickest one minute in the history of time. Mr. Das, I can confirm there is brew. In fact, there's every kind here. It's pretty cool. Alright, let's try this out here. This is a red karaage, this is just special for you guys. Shimanto River in Kochi Prefecture has some of the best not just fish and unagi around there. The soil is fertile, the livestock eats so well. So the chicken in Natsuosa region too, the chicken is so good. And you can always see everywhere they have like this fire for the tataki in the market. It's awesome. You just walk around the market and you get fire.

00:22:03 John Daub: Alright, let me try this out here. This is a red karaage, holy smokes. Oh, it's burning my hand here. Oh, look at the sauce on that chicken. Oh my gosh. Alright, I'm gonna try this here. Does red mean spicy? Whoa, that's spicy. That's such good chicken. Oh my gosh, that's spicy. Oh my god, that was so spicy. It's been censored, live stream censored. Oh my god, that was perfect. That was perfect for you and for me. I like spicy food. You know what I need is a beer. Alright, let me throw this away and let's see what we can find next.

00:24:21 John Daub: So a jockey is 550 yen, Asahi 550 yen. That's in my price range. Whoa, hey Mr. Toss, check out they have Tosa craft beer yuzu. Wow, I'm going to start working here soon. Oh my god, okay. It's 10 bucks for this though. Alright, I guess it's gotta be done. Let's take a look around. They might have it on tap. Ooh, this is cool. Alright, let's see if I can find it on tap first. I want to show you the whole market, so let's have a little walkthrough. It's quite small, but it's really large. Konnichiwa. You can have some fun.

00:25:22 John Daub: Alright, this place has sake. And they have beer on tap. They have highball on tap. What? Alright, here's some Japanese sake. What do you guys think? Should I see if they can give me? I don't want to get a whole bottle. Oh, this looks good too. Hey! Oh yeah, up on the top, I met you on the top of the mountain. Oh, you found my channel? You're on the channel now. You cannot hide. Hi guys from Kochi City. Yeah, I'm from here. And we met at Shikoku Haru, the top of the mountain. Yeah, 1,600 meters? Yeah, it was cold yesterday. What are you doing here? Oh, I'm just came to work in the arcade. Okay, working at the tourist center. Yeah.

00:26:25 John Daub: Alright, but yeah, I was watching your channel. Oh, thank you. Oh, he's in the Hirome market. Best market in Japan. Yeah. So did you eat sushi? I had the tataki and the tataki onigiri. Right. And I had red karaage. Very spicy. Yeah. And next I'd maybe try some beer or sake. Yeah, you should. Do you have a recommendation? You should drink Nihon sake. Yeah, Nihon sake. Any particular one? Sake, huh? Yeah, there's a lot of sake. We got some good information. Look at this. This is how it's done. Oh yeah, so this is the Japanese sake. Yeah. And we have only spicy one. Oh, like karakuchi. Yeah, karakuchi, so-so. Yeah. We don't have like amakuchi so many. Yeah. Good personality. Hard. Kure is good. So spicy.

00:27:34 John Daub: Do they sell it here only by the bottle or is there one where you can get like glass? Because I think I can't drink it whole. You can drink this one. It's kind of small. But this one is big. Oh yeah, those are big ones. Are you strong? Strong at 11am? Maybe no. But I try my best. Yeah, you should drink Japanese sake. Okay, yeah that's a good recommendation. I'll try some karakuchi. Yeah. You working now? Yeah, almost. Okay, alright thanks for saying hi. Bye bye. That's cool. So that's sort of the vibe in Kochi. Everyone is super friendly here.

00:28:18 John Daub: Let me tell you a story. The first time I came here, of course it was in a better situation. You come here alone. Everybody knows you're not from around here. And you sit in there. And everybody comes and says hi and talks to you. You almost instantly make friends. And in Tokyo, it's very hard to do that in the city. There's something very magical about going out to the countryside to a smaller city like Kochi. And locals coming to say hi to you because they don't see foreigners very often. I'm talking about from Western countries especially. Because you can see you're not from Asia. You know, you're from a very far away place. There's something really magical about stuff like this. And this is what you're looking for in Japan. You can interact with really friendly people and drink and eat and share your experiences. I love that about Kochi. I guess this is one of the reasons why I keep coming back here.

00:29:22 John Daub: Oh wow, there's Shimanto unagi. That looks really good too. Wow, it's unagi. It says don't eat and walk. They're making announcements. Alright, so let's go try that beer. Oh, look at all the sake here. See, I just want one cup. This is Ryoma Sakamoto, a samurai who really was a peacemaker. Brought people together. Really great story. You'll see him everywhere in Kochi. Alright, let's go get that toast of beer for Mr. Das.

00:30:25 John Daub: Please be seated. I'm very sorry to bother you, but we would like to ask that you wear a mask and keep your seat number. Once again, we would like to ask that you... Alright, should we try which one should we get here? We have this one is rice? Kome? I think that's really rice. This one is buntan, which is a big citrus fruit. This one is the normal beer. And then we have yuzu, which is a citrus fruit that's very popular here. What do you guys think? I'll give you 30 seconds to figure it out. And Champagne Sumo right in here. Have something to drink, please. Oh, you got it. Okay, that decision is easy. Got the toast of beer. You got it, Mr. Das. Alright, we're going to yuzu. It looks like the whole world is saying yuzu.

00:31:31 John Daub: Hello. Please keep your seat number. Yuzu beer, please. Tosa beer. Do you have a name? If you don't cooperate, the staff will be in trouble. Yuzu... This one is better. Oh, there's a yuzu beer? Yes. I'll have a yuzu beer. Okay, I'll have this one. Hey, Mr. Das, they have it in nama. Nama yuzu beer. I gotta go for this. Whenever it's nama beer, I go for the nama beer. It's just so good. Oh my gosh. And this means I can go and get some sake too. Not Yama, nama. N-A-M-A. Nama means draft beer or raw beer. From the tap. Right, thank you Raymond.

00:32:49 John Daub: Alright, Mr. Das, this is for you. This is Yokocho Hirome Ichiba. This is the lunch rush for today. This lunch rush is ramen and half-chawanmushi set. The price is 700 yen. Please come to Sulin. Oh, ice cream. We are now selling Maltoku lunch. Fried dishes from documents and fish. This is a Martha gerakot set. You can see yuzu. Thank you very much. I would like to order a chicken namban set meal for 1000 yen. I would like to order a chicken namban set meal for 600 yen. If you are looking for a set meal, please come to Shinbido. I can eat here. Awesome. I would like to order a set meal for the guests who come to the store. There are various items here.

00:34:32 John Daub: I ordered a chicken namban set meal. They gave me a shibori for a nama beer. Kanpai. That is so good. So just so you know, yuzu (citrus fruit) is the most sour citrus fruit I've ever had raw. It's double the sourness of a lemon. This is so good in the beer. Any kind of sweetness in the beer is dulled and there's this really nice lingering citrus. It's such a good balanced taste with beer. Now lime and Corona is very popular and lime is a little bit sweet, right? This fits beer so well, the yuzu. It's more refreshing. The reason why I don't like Sprite is the sugar sweetness. Well, this of course is just beer, but that yuzu brings the beer to another dimension. Maybe it's the bitterness that hits, but there's a refreshing bitterness to it. This would be great in the summer or anytime.

00:36:32 John Daub: I guess they pour fresh yuzu in like this and then put it inside of the beer. Mr. Das, thank you. This is the greatest thing in the history of the last five, six days. I was going to say it's a hard one, but Das, kanpai. Rate it. This is the best nama beer I've ever had. It's so perfectly balanced. I prefer this over just the normal. Over a normal nama beer, a normal Kirin or Asahi. This is so much better. It's like a Corona with a lime, but Corona is a light beer. This is better. And maybe because of the yuzu. I'm totally serious. I drink a lot of Corona, especially in Mexico when I was in college and we went on spring break to Cancun. This is better. It's fresher.

00:38:05 John Daub: I think the Tosa craft beer, I've actually had that before because there's a Kochi store in Tokyo, in Ginza. And I've bought the yuzu Tosa beer in Ginza before. So you can get it in Tokyo actually. But this I think is only in Kochi. That's sort of why I went in this direction. John Doe, you gotta come. I'm gonna go to the Tosa beer store just to try this beer. When people say why are you going to Japan? Go because I want to try a yuzu beer in Kochi. That's a great reason. Tosa beer is not for toasters. You have to be careful with that one. Iki ikI. Mar writes in here, iki iki. So iki iki means chug. So you say iki iki iki iki.

00:40:16 John Daub: That's how we do it. Okay, hold on. Let me see if I return the glass. Okay, there's a place to return the jockeys here. And there's a shibori. The tops here are combustibles. There's recyclables here. And then the towels. Where do I put the shibori? Alright, I'm going to give it to the lady. There's a lady who goes around cleaning the shiboris. Hashiru-san, o-shibori wa doko? Arigato gozaimasu. That's so awesome. They just go hai and take it. Hey, look, stuffed katsu. Yeah, that's right, Raymond. Let's go the back exit here.

00:42:18 John Daub: Hey, I found the motherlode, Mr. Das. Here's the motherlode. I think they do pretty good business here. It's a lot of beer. So they politely asked if I would film outside instead of inside the market, and I said sure. Let's see what we can find. So this is Hirome Ichiba. Again, I'd say one of my favorite markets in Japan for food. I don't know if it's street food, but you can eat ramen outside here in the back of Hirome Ichiba. It's got some history here. And there's a Sunday market here in Kochi that is awesome. Every Sunday starting at around 5 in the morning, people from the countryside come in and they rent a booth in Japan's longest street market, which is approximately 1.3 kilometers long. It's about a mile long. And you can get all sorts of amazing street food. Kevin and I had a street food episode there. You can check that out last Sunday, and that's available right now on Only in Japan.

00:43:53 John Daub: The chicken shrine is right there. They actually have chickens that are walking around. Cheryl MP, my mom likes watching you. Regards to Kanae and pick up something for Leo. Hey, mom. You got it. I'm going to the airport in about an hour, so I thought that this would be a great way to end our Kochi trip. Alright, I'm just going to take you to the chicken shrine and then we'll see what we can see. I want to see if those chickens are still there. What do they do with those chickens? The last eight days have been really special.

00:44:36 John Daub: Ah, peace. Did you see that? It gave me the peace sign. Yesterday's episode was why the Japanese do the peace sign, and he gave me the peace sign. Did you see that? Awesome. REO's got it. There you go. People are just cool here in Kochi. If that's not a reason to come to Japan to meet the guy who does a peace sign. Alright, here we go. This is the shrine yesterday. I brought you here, but I just want to get a quick look-see. Maybe if there's somebody around, I can ask them what are the chickens doing here? There's never anybody here though. How do they not go out into the streets? Are they trained? Look, they're just hanging out here. Hey guys, remember me? I'm that guy from yesterday. You remember? Hey. I think I'm one of them.

00:46:29 John Daub: We're making friends. Try to talk with the wildlife, you know? Looks like I insulted them. Could be a different dialect here. I'm not sure. Alright guys, you can stay over there. I apologize. I like it how all the different colors of chicken, they come together. This is the most diverse chicken group ever. You guys are an inspiration. Peace. Live together in harmony. It's beautiful. And some of the ones that are not trained yet are getting their training here. They have a chicken school maybe. I can't speak chicken, but I don't know what variety these chickens are. They seem to be of a different variety. My mom grew up on a farm in India, so there's lots of chickens there. Whenever I go and visit, I try to talk with all the wildlife there. I could do a really good elephant.

00:48:22 John Daub: Wow, you got a... I wonder what it's like at 5 a.m. here. I'll bet it's really loud here at 5 a.m. Alright, let's get out of here. I'll be back here next time, okay? Maybe in the spring. See if you guys are here. Take it easy. I'll be back and coach you guys later. I'll bring some food next time if I can figure out what chickens eat here. Corn maybe? There's one right there. Are you an outcast? You know, try to eat. To be on the same level as the wildlife you can make friends with them. I can be a little intimidating maybe my accent or something a little off. These are Japanese chickens, don't know if they understand English. It's true. I think they're just shy because in Japan people are a little bit shyer. Could be. Cats are pretty cool.

00:49:59 John Daub: Alright, look at this manhole cover. You don't see too many that are in color. This is a beautiful one. Now these are the naruko (yosakoi clappers) for yosakoi (traditional dance), which is a really cool dance here in Kochi. Those are the paddles used for yosakoi dancing. You can get them at some of the souvenir shops for a couple hundred yen. They're kind of neat. I can speak really good elephant and monkey. They think I'm one of them. Hamster too. I can just make a squeal like a really high pitched squeal. Kevin was teaching me a little guinea pig. He's got one guinea pig now. Cat is I can speak pretty good cat. That's me. You have to think you're one of them. If you believe you're one of them then they start to believe you're one of them. That's how you connect. You have to believe it.

00:51:56 John Daub: Okay but who knows, I might buy some and bring them back. That is the best mannequin ever. Dad, look at that mannequin. It looks kawaii. The store owner was showing the highlights of that mannequin. She's even got a little belly. It's like what? That's pretty crazy, the details. Alright, we're gonna end this with the creepiest mannequin I've ever seen in my life, one that will make you reassess mannequins and living among them. This is another one of the shops that I showed you inside of the Hirome Ichiba. They also have a really long line at dinner time but make excellent tataki. You can see the fire coming out of the window from there as they grill it. Starbucks Japan has their chocolate and strawberry drink. Looks pretty good. Now I gotta get back to the hotel to catch the taxi to the airport, which is right there.

00:53:34 John Daub: Kind of worried Leo hasn't seen me in eight days and for his eight months on earth that's quite a significant amount of time. So I wonder if he recognizes me. One thing I won't do is bring this mannequin home to Leo. This will freak him out. Speaking of things that freak me out, what the heck dude? Really? There's some weird stuff here. So you got like a fundoshi looking thing going on there. Faceless. Alright, is it up here or the next street over? This is called a shotengai (covered shopping arcade). Kevin and I were here last week but this is my last chance to get a look see at this really awesome market. Really nice area of the city. What's with the chickens? These meat biscuits, the best biscuits I've ever had. That's a strong statement. They use like this kind of sweet bean oil. Look at the mascot, she knows her biscuits. These are only in Kochi. Yeah, naruko, thank you Jersey Devs 2000.

00:55:31 John Daub: Apparently the Hirome karaage place Chibiki Kara is closed for business. It's okay, I'm sorry to hear about them being closed. But that's funny, I was kind of looking for them but they're not around here obviously. Tataki is a big part of the culture here. You can see it on that billboard over there. Alright, our final destination is the scariest mannequin in Japan, at least to me. We are moments away from seeing this mannequin that scared the crap out of me yesterday. Last week I walked by it with Kevin at night and was like whoa. I bet you every night it's trying to break out of that place. Alright, okay I think I see it up there. I think it's above that building with the green in the center right there, kind of the blue green thing. It's around here. I just remember it was a really old looking window. Alright not that one. A little bit of construction.

00:57:10 John Daub: Oh here it is. Oh the shop is closed down but look up there. Like at first I didn't notice it. I did a double take and I said what is that? Creepy. I didn't know they made... I think that baby ate the heads off of the other ones. Jose writes not creepy at all. Are you sure, Jose? Have you been here at midnight before? Can you prove that it does not come alive and start banging on the windows at people, sticking its tongue out like the Exorcist, walking down stairs in this weird crab-like position? Can you confirm that? I think the baby ate the heads off the other ones. It's true. John Doe, hey we cannot confirm nor deny cannibal. The baby that knows that the heads are alive is a real old baby Chucky. I'm gonna get out of here. It's creeping me out. The mannequins here pretty hardcore.

00:58:42 John Daub: Alright, the last thing I want to show you is this really cool area that I've been walking through every night that I'm here and I didn't get a chance to go in there. I guess it's because of the COVID protocols and stuff. I want to be really safe, not go into places I'm not sure about. But this is an added bonus. Thanks to everybody coming here and joining me for lunch. I had a lot of fun. Make sure you click that thumbs up button so you let me know how you're doing here. Bye bye. Yeah. That's the Kochi spirit. Spirit of Kochi right there. This is why I tell all of you strongly don't stay in Tokyo. Get the heck out. I'm going to meet some cool people out here. This sign is a neon sign and it looks so pretty at night. This is the 55 Ban Dori Street place. Kochi 55. At night it is way better. But these alleys look like they've got a really long history going back to the Showa era. Just this alley. Alleys in general are super cool.

01:00:06 John Daub: I think you could spend a couple of nights in Kochi just eating, hanging out and getting a vibe and talking with people and learning about one of the coolest places in Shikoku. Look at this alley. But look how clean it is, right? Look how clean this whole area is. Any other major city, it'd be like a disaster. This shop here is really happening. That's just cool. No one's going to take any of this. They just leave it there and it becomes part of the city. It's awesome. Alright, let's keep moving this way. So have I sold you on Kochi? What do you think?

01:01:17 John Daub: The last thing is I want to see if you guys are interested in... We're outside. These neon signs at night are so cool. Alright, the last thing I want to ask you before I head back to the hotel is last night I took 8K video of the castle, which is right there. See Kochi Castle right in the center of your screen there. That's 8K video of a projection mapping of flowers on the castle. What do you guys think? Should I upload that or is that something you're interested in? Let me know in the comments below and click that like button and I will definitely put that 8K video up. I think at night with the A1, the Sony Alpha 1, it's going to be some really pretty footage. God, there's so many places to eat here.

01:02:21 John Daub: If we can get to 550 likes, I'll take you right now to a parking garage that serves gyoza. They're not open right now, but I'll show you where it is. If we get 550 likes right now. Like you have 10 seconds. 550 likes. I will extend this live stream. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, oh we're almost there. 3, 2, 1. Oh, we did it. Okay. Alright, I'll keep going. I got to keep walking anyways. I can't believe we just did that. We got like 100 likes in 10 seconds. Alright, let's go. So there's parking garages all over here, but there's one in particular where a company since 1970 has been making yatai gyoza. And yatai gyoza is so good. Yatai are these food stands that they have all around the city.

01:03:24 John Daub: This is nabe yaki ramen, by the way. The shop is closed. I think it might be because of the pandemic or something. I've never tried this before. It's something that I wanted to try this time, but just don't have the time. Nabe yaki ramen. Look at that. It's not open. Okay, I'm taking you there because we hit our target. By the way, you can just keep clicking that like button if you want. Oh, look at that. They're doing hoshigaki (dried persimmons). They're drying persimmons to make their own hoshigaki. That's awesome. Only in the countryside do you see that, but we're in the middle of Kochi City.

01:04:20 John Daub: Alright, you got to come when this gyoza place opens because it gets crowded. It's top secret. It's between here, Hirome Market and Kochi Station. And on Instagram last night, I uploaded some stories from here. You're going to love it. It is so awesome. This looks like love hotels back here. At night in this area, you also get some pop-up shops, places that look like tents that you can go in and eat. Right now I'm tasting garlic. What a lunch that was. Ocean Discovery, my son Colin is 12 years old and loves gyoza. Always going to love it here. There are certain places in Japan that are famous for their dumplings, for gyoza. Utsunomiya near Tokyo is one of the famous.

01:05:26 John Daub: Hold on a second. This is the cheapest vending machine I've ever seen. That's 50 cents for each one of these drinks. What? So these big Olympic Coca-Colas are 90 yen. That's super cheap. That melon soda is 50 yen. White cream soda. I'm going to pass on that. I've never seen a 50 yen vending machine before. Alright, it's one more street up. So I'm going to make a left here. And then you're going to see the parking garage. Again, totally top secret. I didn't show you where this was. You discover this on your own. I don't want to be the one that created a lot of people going here and making the line longer. It's a very local thing I think. Hey, Mix is here. Enjoyed your Kochi series. Take care on your way home. Thank you. I'll share some stories on the Instagram from the airport. If I can give you a look inside, maybe do an Instagram live stream.

01:07:11 John Daub: Alright, here it is. The parking lot gyoza. You can tell there's this street in the middle and in the middle of the street there's a little park between the left, the right and the left lanes here. So that's how you can figure it out. And actually on the Instagram feed, I put a link in there so you can see where it is. Do you see in the center, this parking garage right in the center of your screen. It's covered. That's it. These are all parking garages. You wouldn't think that this parking garage is one of the most popular places in the city of Kochi. Right now as I said there's nobody here. But at 6:30 p.m. come here and you're going to be shocked at the picture on Instagram stories. I believe it's still up. They pack it away and they put it all away. It looks like this. It's so clean.

01:08:14 John Daub: Look at all the beer that they served last night. It's so vibrant. You hear steam coming up as they steam those gyozas. They also make some ramen in there. That's the main shop I believe. And they use the parking garage. It's just way better outside. And yatai gyoza, this would be a yatai stand. It's so cool. Again, it's about a five minute walk from Hirome. You can see the Ichiba and the shotengai that I showed you. So it's totally worth it. But I haven't seen any tourists here. And I've eaten here about three times. So parking garage gyoza. Yeah. Kevin and I tried to come here, but the line was all the way back here. One hour to get in. So we just gave it a pass. I ate here last night. I got here five minutes after they opened and we were able to get a spot, me and Ruth. So that was pretty cool.

01:09:21 John Daub: And here's the thing. If you take this road and you make a left, it takes you straight to Kochi Station. So there's that. I can't explain why this looks like Miami, but it kind of does. This area. But that's the deal. There you go. That's Kochi. Any questions? Leave them in the comments below. Thank you so much for joining me. This is so much fun. Didn't get any sake, but we did try some yuzu beer, which is pretty darn good. Thank you, Mr. Das. Thank you, Ellis, Irvin, everybody. Michael in spirit, WRX Turbo. Kochi. Yeah, I'll be back here making an episode on the edited channel. Main channel right now. Sunset is this way. It looks so much like my image of what Miami would be like. Take care, everybody. See you in Tokyo on the other side.