Izumo Shopping Street and Japanese Street Food Adventure
Izumo Shopping Street and Japanese Street Food Adventure
Overview
In this Thanksgiving Day 2021 live stream, John Daub ventures to Shimane Prefecture to explore the area surrounding Izumo Taisha (Izumo Grand Shrine), one of Japan's most sacred and ancient Shinto shrines. After flying from Tokyo—a quick 70-minute journey—John reunites with his friend Dean, who has a car, and local guide Yuki, who provides insider knowledge of the area. The group explores the charming shopping street leading to the shrine, encountering an impressive variety of regional street foods and sweets. The original plan to visit Okinoshima island was canceled due to high winds, but this forced detour reveals a richer experience: sampling nodoguro fish on a stick, matcha choux cream, and the legendary Izumo soba served in three stacked bowls. The video captures the spirit of domestic tourism's revival in Japan and the unique culinary traditions of this storied region.
Highlights
- 00:03:30 — Driving along the rugged coastline toward Izumo Taisha, spotting the massive O-Tori gate and discussing the shrine's proximity to mountains and sea
- 00:05:36 — Arriving at the Grand Torii, marveling at its scale against the cars and discussing the ongoing construction that will eventually allow vehicles to pass underneath
- 00:14:48 — Discovering nodoguro (noroguro), a prized blackthroat seaperch from the Sea of Japan, grilled on a stick for 600 yen
- 00:19:45 — Dean accepts the challenge to eat the fish's eyeball and describes its bitter, juicy texture in a memorable eating contest moment
- 00:24:36 — Finding Izumo soba displayed in its famous three-bowl stacked presentation called warigo soba
- 00:27:27 — Yuki explains the legendary story of Inaba no Shiro Usagi (the white rabbit of Inaba) connected to Izumo Taisha
- 00:29:44 — Attempting to enter Takenoya, a 100+ year-old traditional ryokan, with Yuki attempting Jedi mind tricks on the staff
- 00:34:59 — Tasting matcha choux cream from a street stall, with John describing its perfect balance of buttery crunch and not-too-bitter matcha flavor
- 00:48:11 — Spottng a matcha-colored car and lamenting that car manufacturers don't offer this beautiful green option
- 00:57:54 — Eating Izumo soba at a counter-style shop, learning the ritual of adding shukō sauce and eventually pouring soba-yu (cooking water) to create a final hot soup
Timeline / Chapters
00:00–00:10 | Arrival at Izumo John mentions Thanksgiving and introduces the trip. Dean is driving; they discuss the weather and stop to clean sand off the windshield. They approach the Grand Torii of Izumo Taisha, commenting on the open spaces after Tokyo.
00:10–00:14 | Meeting Yuki John's ear mic malfunctions. Dean catches up. They meet Yuki, who will guide them at 2 PM. Discussion about the 70-minute flight from Tokyo and domestic tourism boom.
00:14–00:23 | Street Food: Nodoguro Fish They encounter nodoguro (noroguro) fish on sticks. Dean buys two for 600 yen each. Discussion about the fish being from the Sea of Japan and available only on the west coast. Dean accepts the challenge to eat the eyeball.
00:23–00:29 | Exploring the Shopping Street John notices increased street food compared to four years ago. The wind is cold and strong. They pass Matsue and discuss proximity to Matsue Castle. Yuki finds nodoguro again.
00:29–00:34 | Takenoya Ryokan & Hinomisaki They discover Takenoya, a traditional ryokan over 100 years old. Yuki attempts to enter for a tour but is denied. John sees manhole covers featuring Hinomisaki Lighthouse.
00:34–00:41 | Matcha Sweets & Coffee Street vendor with matcha choux cream (shōku kuriimu). Dean buys matcha and cafe latte. John describes the pastry in detail—the buttery crunch, balanced matcha flavor, and creamy texture. Discussion about Izumo being famous for green tea.
00:41–00:52 | Red Light & Matcha Car At a red light, John jokes about Squid Game. They spot a matcha-colored car at a dealership and debate whether car makers should offer this color. Dean takes John to see Izumo Station briefly.
00:52–01:03 | Izumo Soba Experience They return to the soba shop. Yuki negotiates for outdoor eating. John explains Izumo soba's unique three-bowl presentation (warigo). They order and eat, learning the ritual: add sauce, dump leftovers to the next bowl, finish with soba-yu.
01:03–01:11 | Finishing the Meal & Wrap-up Dean finishes his third bowl with spicy garnish. John drinks the soba-yu soup. They pay and thank the shop. John previews the 2 PM live stream that will go inside Izumo Taisha.
Japan Travel Tips
- Getting there: Fly from Tokyo to Izumo Airport (about 70 minutes). Domestic travel was booming in late 2021—car rentals at the airport sold out. Alternatively, take the famous Sunrise Izumo overnight train from Tokyo Station, which terminates at Izumo.
- Best time to visit: Late November was cold and windy; bring layers. The shopping street has both indoor and covered outdoor areas.
- What to eat: Try the nodoguro fish on a stick (600 yen), matcha choux cream, and the regional specialty Izumo soba served in three stacked bowls. For a full meal, expect to pay around 1,000–1,500 yen for soba.
- What to look for: Izumo's shopping street has traditional confectionery (meibutsu), chopstick shops, and regional sweets. The manhole covers feature local landmarks.
- Navigating the shrine approach: The Grand Torii is very close to the main parking area. Construction was ongoing to allow vehicle passage underneath. Walking is also possible via the traditional approach.
- Restaurant restrictions: During the pandemic period, some restaurants did not allow entry. Street food and outdoor eating offered better access. Call ahead or check current policies.
- Cash vs. card: Yuki didn't have cash; John did. Some smaller vendors may still be cash-only, though cashless payments were becoming common.
Japanese Language & Culture Notes
- Izumo Taisha meaning: The name Izumo (出雲) means "coming out from the clouds." Yuki explains the region has significant cloud cover, making the name fitting.
- Warigo soba (割り子そば): Izumo's famous soba is served in three stacked bowls. The origin of this presentation is unknown even to locals, but John notes the "reveal" factor of opening each layer adds ceremony to the meal.
- Nodoguro (のどぐろ): Known as blackthroat seaperch or "Thai fish" locally. A prized catch on Japan's west coast (Sea of Japan side). The name "nodoguro" comes from the dark throat area of the fish. Commonly grilled on skewers or served as sashimi.
- Inaba no Shiro Usagi (因幡の白兎): The legendary white rabbit of Inaba, a famous story connected to Izumo. The rabbit helped Okuninushi no Mikoto and was rewarded with ointment. The story also connects to nearby Tottori's coastline, where rabbit statues can be found. Moral: always help rabbits.
- Soba-yu (そば湯): The hot water left over from cooking buckwheat noodles. Poured into the final bowl to create a light, nutritious soup. Rich in vitamins from the soba.
- Chain store integration: In historical areas like Izumo, chain stores like Starbucks use subdued colors and modified signage to blend with the traditional streetscape.
- Shukō (iquet): The soy-based dipping sauce for Izumo soba. Added gradually as you work through the three bowls.
- Regional symbolism: The orange-red garnish (daikon with carrot) represents local Shimane produce and seasonal coloring.
Food & Drink Guide
| Item | Japanese | Description | Price | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nodoguro on a stick | のどぐろの骨付き網焼き | Grilled blackthroat seaperch on a stick with salt, bones edible when fried | 600 yen | Street stall | John's first entree; buttery, salty, crispy tail |
| Matcha choux cream | 抹茶シュークリーム | Matcha-filled pastry with buttery, crunchy exterior | ~200 yen | Street stall near coffee shop | "Not too matcha, not too bitter"; highly recommended |
| Cafe latte | カフェラテ | Coffee with milk | ~300 yen | Sunaba-affiliated stall | Good on a cold day |
| Izumo soba (warigo) | 出雲割り子そば | Three stacked bowls of cold buckwheat noodles with shukō sauce, daikon | ~1,000–1,500 yen | Counter-style soba shop | Unique eating ritual; noodles are firmer than Tokyo/Nagano soba |
| Soba-yu | そば湯 | Hot water from cooking noodles | Included | Added after finishing noodles | Reduces saltiness, adds vitamins, makes a warming soup |
| Zenzai | ぜんざい | Sweet red bean soup with mochi and matcha | — | Confectionery stall | "Easy to eat," not overly sweet |
People
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John Daub — Host and narrator. Warm, curious, and playful throughout. Embodies the "only in Japan" spirit by trying the nodoguro eyeball, comparing matcha to a "booger," and making Squid Game references. Provides context for viewers about Japanese food customs and travel logistics.
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Dean — John's friend and driver. Provides navigation throughout the trip, participates in food challenges, and engages in playful banter with John. Shows genuine enthusiasm for local cuisine, especially spicy condiments. Takes the infamous eyeball-eating challenge in good stride.
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Yuki — Local guide from Izumo. Speaks a mix of Japanese and English, providing cultural context including the Inaba rabbit legend. Helps negotiate outdoor dining at the soba shop. Demonstrates local knowledge of regional foods, ryokan, and the shrine's status as a national park.
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Irvin — Mentioned as sending "pocket money" (two nodoguro fish as a gift) from overseas. Covers the cost of lunch, which John acknowledges with gratitude.
Key Takeaways
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Izumo is more than a shrine town — The shopping street has evolved significantly, with increased street food options despite the pandemic. Regional specialties like nodoguro, matcha sweets, and warigo soba make it a food destination.
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The warigo soba ritual — Eating Izumo soba is an experience: three stacked bowls, gradual addition of sauce, and finishing with soba-yu. The ritual elevates a simple dish into something memorable and distinctly regional.
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Domestic tourism revival — The flight was full, rental cars were sold out. Japanese travelers were exploring their own country enthusiastically in late 2021.
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Local guides add depth — Yuki's explanations of the rabbit legend, the national park designation, and where to find specific foods transformed a tourist visit into an immersive cultural experience.
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Street food culture — The variety and quality of street food near Izumo Taisha rivals larger cities. The matcha choux cream, in particular, demonstrates how regional confections can rival restaurant desserts.
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Practical access — Izumo is accessible by air (70 min from Tokyo) or the scenic Sunrise Izumo overnight train. The shopping street connects to Izumo Station by bus or a short walk.
Notable Quotes
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00:19:50 Dean (after eating the eyeball): "It's bitter and it was way more juicy than I expected. The eye was surrounded in like a juicy fluid."
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00:22:04 John: "Maybe it'll help my vision. I'm gonna drive a little tomorrow, maybe, so use it."
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00:28:25 Yuki: "Always help the rabbits."
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00:35:28 John: "We're going to exchange the sand that we picked up into some Izumo sand that they're going to give us. And we could take that home with us. So there's some pretty cool things there."
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00:38:21 John: "I can taste the butter. I can taste the matcha. I can taste the cream. I can dissect it. It doesn't just taste like sugar. It tastes like... That's a mark of a really good confection."
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00:48:05 John: "I've seen British Racing Green and stuff. I've never seen, hey, matcha. I think they should make matcha-colored cars, right?"
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00:49:02 Yuki: "Izumo means... out of clouds."
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01:07:19 John: "I hope my slurping noises are transmitting well. Because they're very purposeful as a soup. As a sign of my appreciation for the food."
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01:08:52 John: "I find that [soba] fills me up but maybe you get hungry a little bit quicker than you would after like bread or rice."
Related Topics
- Only in Japan Go: Izumo Taisha shrine exploration (upcoming Part 2 live stream)
- Japanese regional soba traditions (Nagano, Tottori, Tokyo variations)
- West coast Japanese seafood (nodoguro, oysters, fish on a stick)
- Street food culture in Japan's smaller cities and shrine towns
- Traditional Japanese sweets (zenzai, warabi mochi, choux cream)
- Japanese ryokan culture and architecture
- Manhole cover tourism in Japan
Search Tags
#only-in-japan-go #izumo #shimane #izumo-taisha #izumo-grand-shrine #warigo-soba #nodoguro #japanese-street-food #travel-japan #shimane-prefecture #japanese-soba #matcha-sweets #taisha #traditional-japan #shinto-shrine #live-stream #november-2021 #thanksgiving #domestic-tourism-japan #takenoya-ryokan #inaba-no-shiro-usagi #okuninushi-no-mikoto #soba-yu #shuku-sauce #seafood-japan #food-adventure-japan
Full Transcript
00:00:44 John Daub: It's kind of neat to see the wide open spaces after being in Tokyo.
00:02:17 John Daub: But Dean has it on the map. We're gonna show you a little bit more about Japan's parks when we get to the parking area.
00:02:54 John Daub: Wow! We were here last year, weren't we?
00:02:56 Dean: Yeah! It's been a year.
00:02:59 John Daub: It's kind of neat to see the wide open spaces after being in Tokyo.
00:03:06 John Daub: 300, let's turn left.
00:03:10 John Daub: Looks like it's raining too. This isn't the most ideal weather.
00:03:12 John Daub: And the windows are all sanded up.
00:03:14 John Daub: Let's give them a wash, shall we?
00:03:20 John Daub: Turn left.
00:03:22 Dean: We will not.
00:03:23 John Daub: Yeah, Dean is taking us on a special trip.
00:03:26 John Daub: Now there's the O-Tori, which is a very large torii gate. That's also an entrance into Izumo Taisha.
00:03:33 John Daub: We were going to take a walking route, but some of the shops were closed on Wednesday. So we decided to go kind of a roundabout way. But this way we can share a little bit of a different view of Izumo Taisha because we do have a car.
00:03:52 John Daub: I actually really like this rugged coastline that we're driving along.
00:03:54 Dean: It is nice.
00:03:58 John Daub: I'm glad that we have a car too because it's so windy and chilly outside. The weather difference between Izumo here in Shimane and Tokyo is kind of significant.
00:04:08 John Daub: Oh, there you can see the water for a little bit, right? We're really close to the sea.
00:04:11 John Daub: Hey, Jennifer French, how you doing? Thanks for joining us on this Taisha adventure, this Izumo Grand Shrine adventure.
00:04:26 Dean: Turn left.
00:04:27 John Daub: It's a little chilly.
00:04:31 John Daub: Alright, we're coming up to the Grand Torii now, the big O-Tori. And it's quite a sight. You can see on the left side the mountains here. I think Izumo Grand Shrine goes all the way up against those mountains on the left side.
00:04:49 Dean: It's just two minutes away.
00:04:51 John Daub: Oh, really? The parking? Oh, the O-Tori.
00:04:53 Dean: Yeah.
00:04:54 John Daub: It's so close, right? In Baikal. Very convenient.
00:04:57 John Daub: This is a drive-through of what looks like suburban Japan. Turn left. Traffic signal. Wow.
00:05:10 Dean: In 600 feet, turn right.
00:05:11 John Daub: This would be pretty cool to...
00:05:13 Dean: Turn left.
00:05:13 John Daub: I'm actually ignoring everything that our car is going to say.
00:05:18 Dean: You're ignoring everything that the navigation is saying.
00:05:18 John Daub: All this open space is... you can feel how important that this town is, Izumo, to Japanese people.
00:05:26 John Daub: Kanae and I, we actually got married at a shrine that was connected to Izumo Taisha.
00:05:36 John Daub: Oh, there it is! There's the Grand Torii right there, the big O-Tori for Izumo Taisha. The sign even says Izumo Taisha.
00:05:42 Dean: The O-Tori for Izumo Taisha. Oh, this is awesome.
00:05:44 John Daub: Dean, are we going to drive underneath there?
00:05:46 Dean: We are going to drive very close to it.
00:05:49 John Daub: I think at the moment, because they're doing road works, we can't get under it.
00:05:58 Dean: All right, the parking lot is 500 meters away.
00:06:01 John Daub: You can hear the sand crunching on that window.
00:06:09 Dean: Oh, wow.
00:06:09 John Daub: Yeah, if you see the cars blow it, you can get the perspective of just how tall that is. So, it looks like they're doing more construction work. The road will connect underneath there going on. But I know that when you're walking to the shrine you shouldn't walk in the center. Which could be a problem for the cars right going underneath the Torii that there's... Eventually that bridge will be finished and you can go underneath there.
00:06:38 Dean: Yeah, I assume for at least the drivers they're allowed to drive through it, right? Yeah, that's pretty cool now. It's okay of your mirror. Oh, here's a shopping street.
00:06:40 John Daub: This is look at the trees beautiful close to here. The parking lot is straight ahead and to the left. I believe you'll see this is also where the bathrooms is. I know this because I was here in 2017 after I was hitchhiking on that trip and stopped here for a very short while.
00:07:15 John Daub: But the shrine itself is so close up to the mountains and the sea this makes it a perfect place. Izumo, which is the Mount Fuji of the West is also a pretty close drive from here, but it was interesting when we came in we had two airports pretty close to each other.
00:07:37 John Daub: We have Izumo Airport. Where everybody just turn left I think go around. This Trans Am. There's a Dodge.
00:07:44 Dean: That is a... yeah, not very Japanese.
00:07:46 John Daub: No.
00:07:47 Dean: No.
00:07:48 John Daub: So we're gonna be stopping here everybody and shopping and eating and seeing what they got. There's a lot of stuff to buy even just right here. Check it out. There's some street food.
00:08:00 Dean: That up San Bay. Get some rice burger.
00:08:04 John Daub: Get some rice burger? Yeah.
00:08:10 Dean: Said why'd you... Okay, we're...
00:08:17 John Daub: I don't want to get out of this warm Carlo a game. Hotmoon is here so Brandania earlier. Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you have a good trip. Good night from West, Virginia.
00:08:27 Dean: Jennifer writes it. Hey guys get something warm drink kanpai you got it we're gonna yeah we're absolutely gonna get that you haven't had your coffee yet have you.
00:08:32 John Daub: I haven't no that's not the parking okay good keep going until you see there it is this one yeah i think so okay p2 parking you're like a local john all right to get to izumo taisha you see another tori gate right there that's where you go underneath that and you get into the um shrine here i'm pretty sure we can find some parking right looks full it's busy today isn't it it is national travel in japan is it's really booming.
00:09:13 John Daub: I know a lot of the rent-a-car places from izumo uh airport didn't have cars right that's right i see a spot i'm going for it yush oh you're handicapped no and i'm going the wrong way.
00:09:28 Dean: It's a disabled parking okay we can't do that and you're going the wrong way oh no okay sorry about that we're not parking here.
00:09:38 John Daub: No we'll find we'll find a place if not i'll have to leave that up to you oh it is it's full full oh do you want to if you want to jump out i can catch you up okay yeah all right we'll catch i'll catch up with you yeah i'll be there in a sec okay all right dean is going to catch up i'm going to take your mic you'll get it back all right you'll get it back when you come.
00:10:09 John Daub: All right see you dean see you very soon how do i get out of here i'm trapped come back wingman.
00:10:28 John Daub: All right so this is you okay yuki will be our showing us around izumo taisha at two o'clock and it's really good to have some local inside information and knowledge.
00:10:52 John Daub: All right let's let's move on in here the flight from tokyo is not too far it's about um i don't know nanajipun yeah maybe about 70 minutes from tokyo to to fly here i have dean's mic you hear me in stereo.
00:11:21 John Daub: I'm so hungry yeah so and we can arrange your uh sober restaurant oh you can do it i know we can't arrange yeah so okay how about a straight food absolutely absolutely i'm in on that so we we were trying to go into one of a soba shop they have a very unique soba here called izumo soba it comes in like three bowls i it's just a lot of food so unfortunately we're not allowed to go into any of the restaurants but we're going to try to find some street food and who knows it might be some soba all right this is it wow.
00:11:57 John Daub: This is i haven't been here for four years.
00:12:03 John Daub: Oh that's a totori coffee shop sunaba coffee very famous kind of like you know totori prefecture was the last place to get starbucks coffee in japan before that they had sunaba which was a local brand uh suna meaning sand.
00:12:42 John Daub: It says she really long time yeah oh it's it's kind of flopping down yeah i have to do it so can you uh pinch it and then clip it on the pinch so what's up uh decent it's all right but can you hear me i think so i don't i can't hear you i could i could hear you just fight because you're standing right there you made a friend yes i did should we go to the should we go to the start from down here and walk back up?
00:13:19 Dean: Yeah, should we? It starts from there, right?
00:13:22 John Daub: And then come back up this way slowly. You want to go and check out that rice burger, don't you?
00:13:28 Dean: Oh yeah, I do.
00:13:30 John Daub: How about street food? Oh, you found some?
00:13:32 Dean: Oh, over there.
00:13:33 John Daub: Oh, okay. All right, you know what? Whoa. Local knowledge.
00:13:39 John Daub: What's this? Kawaii, isn't it? Kawaii. I'm really impressed. I don't think there was this much street food before four years ago. It looks like it's really increased, but there aren't any foreign tourists coming in at the moment. So it's just domestic tourism. But over the last few weeks, domestic tourism in Japan has really increased.
00:14:02 Dean: The flight we came on was full.
00:14:04 John Daub: Oh wow, the wind is super strong. Dean, are you cold in that jacket?
00:14:09 Dean: You know what? Even in this, I can still feel a bit of the cold.
00:14:12 John Daub: Yeah, the wind is cold, right? It's cutting through.
00:14:22 John Daub: So I put my last layer of protection on.
00:14:27 Dean: So you remember this area quite well?
00:14:30 John Daub: I do.
00:14:35 Dean: Whoa, Matsue.
00:14:37 John Daub: We are so close to Matsue and Matsue Castle. Good memories.
00:14:44 Dean: All right, Yuki's got something here.
00:14:48 John Daub: So, nodoguro is here. What's here? Nodoguro. Nodoguro is a fish. Oh, same as Japan.
00:15:01 John Daub: This is nodoguro. Okay.
00:15:09 Dean: That's a really beautiful fish. You brought your wallet?
00:15:11 John Daub: I did.
00:15:13 Dean: I don't have cash.
00:15:14 John Daub: I do. Because it's the cashless generation, right?
00:15:19 Dean: No, this is present from Irvin. Thank you, buddy. Two fish?
00:15:28 John Daub: Yeah. Two fish. I think that's more, buddy. Here you go. Pocket money.
00:15:41 Dean: I hope it's hot. I'm like kind of shivering. Is that it right there?
00:15:48 John Daub: That's it right there. This is... Is this from Lake Shinji?
00:15:52 Dean: I know from Lake Shinji. From Japan Sea. From the Sea of Japan?
00:15:56 John Daub: Sea of Japan, yeah. Okay. It's not from Lake Shinji, which is another beautiful lake. What's the name of this fish? Nodoguro. Nodoguro is the name of the fish?
00:16:02 Dean: Yes.
00:16:04 John Daub: I think that fish has had better days.
00:16:06 Dean: Thank you. Look at the spike through it.
00:16:13 John Daub: You're not hungry, Yuki? A little bit.
00:16:20 Dean: I don't want to make you jealous.
00:16:22 John Daub: Can I keep my pocket money, John?
00:16:26 Dean: How do you say nodoguro in English?
00:16:28 John Daub: I could try and find out. It's kind of Thai.
00:16:30 Dean: Oh, Thai.
00:16:30 John Daub: Okay. Yeah, it's kind of Thai. Like a Thai fish, yeah?
00:16:33 Dean: Yeah, like a Thai fish.
00:16:34 John Daub: Wow. There he is.
00:16:38 Dean: That's... You want me to tuck in?
00:16:40 John Daub: Can you eat the eye?
00:16:43 Dean: Can you eat the eye? Oh, yeah, sure. Really?
00:16:45 John Daub: Yeah, you can hold it. You recommend that?
00:16:47 Dean: Yeah. The lips too?
00:16:49 John Daub: Maybe not the lips, right? I think you can eat the lips. Everything but the stick.
00:16:56 Dean: Paul, would you eat everything? How would you eat everything?
00:17:01 John Daub: How would you feel about having to eat the whole thing? And Dean is going to challenge and eat the everything. Do it, Dean.
00:17:07 Dean: Am I? You go first. An eye?
00:17:10 John Daub: Well, I'm holding the camera. I got all the power.
00:17:17 Dean: Mm. That's good. See that?
00:17:21 John Daub: But you got to be careful, right? Because that's quite sharp. It's a little spiky.
00:17:26 Dean: Yeah, spiky.
00:17:28 John Daub: Note, Unknown Chronicles, we're not going to eat the styrofoam. Who wrote that?
00:17:35 Dean: Oh, you can even eat the bones because they're so brittle.
00:17:39 John Daub: Yeah, when it's been in the oil for a while, I usually go tail first because it's tail first on the stick.
00:17:46 Dean: The tail's crunchy.
00:17:47 John Daub: I don't have a tail.
00:17:49 Dean: It's got good calcium.
00:17:50 John Daub: Oh, wow. So they've dipped it in salt. So of course, it's got a really salty flavor.
00:18:02 Dean: It's been gutted. So there's no guts.
00:18:12 John Daub: A honey more? No, you can eat it. That's a big honey though. I just...
00:18:28 Dean: Forgive me.
00:19:01 Dean: Don't eat the big ones, but it's pretty good. It is really good, yeah.
00:19:14 John Daub: So this was, how much was it?
00:19:18 Dean: 600 yen.
00:19:20 John Daub: 600 yen. About $5.50 for our first entree, fish on a stick.
00:19:31 Dean: That's not bad at all, no?
00:19:33 John Daub: No, no good at all. Which is a Thai fish. Can you eat this in other places in Japan?
00:19:43 Dean: Another places? Yeah. I guess only on the west coast.
00:19:52 John Daub: Oh, yeah. Nihonkai. Yeah, it's my favorite sport. Nihonkai.
00:20:01 Dean: Yeah. So Sakai Minato and...
00:20:06 John Daub: Maybe even in Niigata?
00:20:10 Dean: Yes. Yeah? No. Niigata and Fukui.
00:20:17 John Daub: So you're gonna read the eye or what, John?
00:20:23 Dean: To read the eye or not to read the eye?
00:20:26 John Daub: To read the eye. Yeah. I'm making sure I don't swallow any bones.
00:20:31 Dean: What?
00:20:45 John Daub: I'm chewing on it, it's not all going down. I feel like I shouldn't be eating the bones.
00:20:52 Dean: Some of them, I don't... It feels like if I chew it, I'm gonna crack a tooth. Okay, no. But there's a lot I didn't make.
00:20:58 John Daub: Yeah, didn't make the cut.
00:21:01 Dean: Didn't, yeah.
00:21:17 John Daub: Oh my gosh. You're gonna eat the eye?
00:21:21 Dean: Do it, Dean. I think I can eat the eye. I'll be your best friend if you eat the eye.
00:21:30 John Daub: Eye candy. I think somebody wrote in the chat.
00:21:42 Dean: Do it. Do it. Just do it. I don't know.
00:21:57 John Daub: It happened. And you got it.
00:21:59 Dean: Yeah. It's bitter.
00:22:03 John Daub: It's bitter. Well, you are what you eat. Maybe it'll help my vision. I'm gonna drive a little tomorrow, maybe, so use it.
00:22:30 Dean: Did you eat both the eyes? Yes. You did not show me. Prove it.
00:22:35 John Daub: Just one for your left and one for your right.
00:22:40 Dean: Uh-oh.
00:22:41 John Daub: All right, do it on the count of three. Three. Cheers. Two. One.
00:22:58 Dean: Ah, I'm so glad you could. Poodah.
00:23:02 John Daub: Mine exploded like any poodah. Yeah, you see? That's the juicy bit I'm talking about. The eyes have it.
00:23:18 Dean: All right, you know what? I'm done. I'll deal with that. I feel more powerful, though.
00:23:46 John Daub: It has an unusual aftertaste. It's a good aftertaste. Is it? Well, it's done, so that's good. All right, moving on. By the way, it wasn't bad. It was quite good. The fish was amazing, right?
00:24:01 Dean: It was. It was. I have to give it credit.
00:24:07 John Daub: Okay, yeah. I'm going to have a craft beer. You want to have a look down here? That might do it. Mr. Das in the house.
00:24:49 Dean: All right, let's have a look and see. The rain is starting to come down, too. Oh, are they oysters? What's a golden bowl?
00:25:08 John Daub: This is also noroguro don. So they have the fish in a... Is it sashimi?
00:25:22 Dean: Yeah, sashimi. Sashimi don. There's some oysters here, some kaki.
00:25:28 John Daub: Oh, my mask smells like noroguro. Mm.
00:25:49 Dean: So, Izumi, what's your favorite fish?
00:25:52 John Daub: I think the Izumo Grand Shrine is a national park, Yuki.
00:25:54 Dean: Oh, yeah, oh interesting, oh a national park. Okuninushi no Mikoto. Kawaii.
00:26:04 John Daub: Okuninushi no Mikoto. Oh, yeah. It's a local character. It's a copyright character. Just keep moving.
00:26:41 John Daub: Oh, look. Mochi. And anko. Yeah, mochi and anko bean paste, red bean paste, and it's like a matcha, right? Interesting. So, it is called zenzai.
00:27:08 Dean: Oh, zenzai.
00:27:10 John Daub: Yeah. Oh, this is hot, ishou? Yeah. Yeah. That's good for a cold day like today. It is very nipply here.
00:27:46 Dean: What do you got? Oh, there's Izumo soba, but tabedarenai no koko ni sui. Really crowded.
00:27:56 John Daub: Is this... Can Izumo soba be street food? Maybe no.
00:28:04 Dean: All right.
00:28:05 John Daub: I can show you what Izumo soba is. You see there are three bowls here. One, two, three. I don't know why it comes like this, but the bowls are stacked.
00:28:54 Dean: That's stacked soba. That has a name, right? This box. Is it called warigo?
00:29:05 John Daub: Yeah. This is also called warigo soba. Warigo.
00:29:20 Dean: What's the meaning to stack the bowls in three different layers?
00:29:27 John Daub: Nobody knows. I've asked before. It's just the way it comes. It seems more special though, right?
00:29:47 Dean: It definitely does. Yeah. Every time you just keep opening another layer. Yeah. There's still more. It's just you get a lot of volume of soba for the money. I think it is an amazing deal.
00:30:27 John Daub: This is the end of the street. Should we go back the other way or see here? There are a lot of souvenir shops. These are the kind of gifts maybe that you're looking for. Japanese patterns.
00:31:20 Dean: These are actually books. I like this covered area too. It looks like a very traditional market here.
00:31:43 John Daub: If we go outside, we can see it's starting to rain a little bit. I'm sorry. All right. I'll pinch this here and then clip it on there.
00:32:20 Dean: Now, I remember the Starbucks had a story. They couldn't use the green sign so strongly. They had to adhere to the local rules. More subdued colors to try to fit in with the neighborhood.
00:33:07 John Daub: The same with convenience stores as well and chains. You sometimes see it in historical areas of Japan, right?
00:33:18 Dean: Right.
00:33:18 John Daub: I like that. They'll change the colors and style to fit the neighborhood. So from this point on, it's the walk into the shrine.
00:33:51 Dean: Yeah. So join us in another live stream. We'll be here at 2 p.m. and we'll take you inside of Izumo Grand Shrine and Yuki is going to guide us in through there. He's going to do his best in English and we have to translate some of the stuff over there.
00:34:24 John Daub: Can we go in? Yeah. All right. Let's find some more street food. Something hot.
00:34:41 Dean: So ryokan?
00:34:42 John Daub: Ryokan, yeah. Okay. So we've got a traditional Japanese hotel that we can go and have a look at.
00:34:59 Dean: Oh, okay.
00:35:02 John Daub: I am in on that because it's cold.
00:35:12 Dean: Hey, Yuki-san. Yuki, what is the story of these rabbits?
00:35:19 John Daub: Usagi no hanashi?
00:35:22 Dean: Ah, yeah. Arimasu ka? Inaba no shiro usagi.
00:35:36 John Daub: Wow. Inaba no... Yeah. So Okinosh helped the rabbit on the way of his trip. So because of it, he got married with beautiful Diary.
00:36:22 Dean: Wow. Yeah. I heard that the rabbits jumped on sharks.
00:36:37 John Daub: Oh, yeah, right. Is it right? From Okinoshima.
00:36:45 Dean: Ah, yes. So the place we were meant to be in the national parks is where the rabbit started its journey. And he hopped on the back of many, many sharks to get to the shore. But one of the sharks got him, right?
00:37:22 John Daub: Yeah, right. And got his skin. Yes. And so he was a prince or okoninuchi, the man who helped him, helped the Rabbit with some ointment.
00:37:48 Dean: Yes. Yes. And because he helped the rabbit, he gets to marry the beautiful princess.
00:37:55 John Daub: Yeah, we're a princess. Yeah. Moral of the story? How do you... Yeah, what is it?
00:38:09 Dean: Always help the rabbits.
00:38:11 John Daub: Always help... How do you know all this, Dean?
00:38:17 Dean: I've been here before.
00:38:19 John Daub: I see. Yeah. I just remember this very interesting story. You know, it's a very unique story. And I remember that when you go down the coastline of Tottori, there's many different statues of rabbits around here.
00:39:02 Dean: A different statue? Yeah, I saw like this rabbit statue. I saw some of them on the beach.
00:39:29 John Daub: Yeah. So... Yeah, look at the babies covered from the elements too. It's really a symbol of Tottori.
00:39:44 Dean: Yeah.
00:39:46 John Daub: Tottori, yeah. Takenoya with the beautiful trees. See, that one is ice cream and this one is ofuku yaki.
00:40:03 Dean: Oh, that's like a... John hasn't managed to spot the ryokan because he found ice cream.
00:40:15 John Daub: Yeah, I did. Oh, where's the ryokan?
00:40:18 Dean: Right here.
00:40:19 John Daub: Oh, this is it right here. Can we go in here? Takenoya?
00:40:36 Dean: Takenoya. Yeah, some of the... How old is it? Some of the few kanji I know, but they also conveniently wrote it in English.
00:40:50 John Daub: More than 100 years.
00:40:52 Dean: There are a lot of tourists who do come here from abroad, but just, you know, as I said, right now, there's no international tourism to Japan.
00:41:19 John Daub: Okay, we're going to get a look inside of here.
00:41:24 Dean: Okay.
00:41:25 John Daub: Okay. Okay. All right, we're going here. We're not officially invited, but... Shhh. Yuki's going to scope it out for us. You think he's going to get in? Let's see.
00:41:54 Dean: He's using his most polite techniques. He's using his Jedi mind trick. Please let these people in.
00:42:16 John Daub: Registered tourist hotel by the government. Japanese style. They mean you no harm.
00:42:37 Dean: Oh, he did the Jedi mind trick. Did you see the waving of the hands?
00:42:44 John Daub: Does he have the power? Power.
00:42:52 Dean: Is he Jedi or is he a Padawan? He's got Yoda colors. No?
00:42:57 John Daub: We can't enter. We can't enter. Yeah. We can film outside. Okay. All right. From the outside. So let's have a look at the outside. It's okay. You have a good effort. I saw you waving your hands, too.
00:43:38 Dean: It's a beautiful building.
00:43:39 John Daub: Do you know the history of the history behind Takenoya? I think the answer was no. Okay. That's what Wikipedia's for.
00:44:05 Dean: No! People come and tune in only in Japan for information. I thought we were going to Okino Shima today, so I didn't actually do much research, but Takenoya is a... It's a ryokan, so you can stay here. It looks kind of expensive.
00:44:39 John Daub: It looks expensive. But... I bet. Because of the location, right?
00:44:47 Dean: Yeah. The location is absolutely beautiful. Two minutes from the shrine?
00:44:49 John Daub: Yeah. Tonight we're staying at the Izumo Royal. Yeah. Royal place. Another hotel nearby, I think. I'm not really sure, actually. We haven't been to a restaurant because of the high winds. We thought we were going to be in Okino Shima, but because of the high winds, we are not.
00:45:30 Dean: The manhole covers are really nice. Oh! Is this...
00:45:34 John Daub: Yeah, Mino... Yeah, Hinomisaki. Yeah, Hinomisaki. Lighthouse.
00:45:39 Dean: Oh, this is Misaki... What's this called? Hinomisaki Lighthouse.
00:45:44 John Daub: Oh, Hinomisaki! Yeah. That's right. Is that a national park?
00:45:54 Dean: Yeah. It is also part of a national park. Can we go there tomorrow?
00:45:57 John Daub: Yeah, sure. Okay.
00:45:58 Dean: We're going to go here tomorrow then, because I'm... I like manhole covers.
00:46:06 John Daub: I'm a manholer. And this... Yeah, as a representative... We're going to see if the... If tomorrow, join us in a live stream, we're going to see if... Hinomisaki looks like this. So just mentally take a digital mental picture. Click.
00:46:31 Dean: Okay. We're going along. Rich, I counted the seagulls as well. Hey, Dean, you want to run a kimono?
00:46:44 John Daub: We can walk down the street in a kimono. Not today.
00:46:51 Dean: Yeah, it's kind of chilly. Kind of chilly. Get cold ankles.
00:47:02 John Daub: So here's this banana joint. Lavi-lavi. Oh, yeah, check it out. He's in a hot bath.
00:47:41 Dean: That is really cute, though.
00:47:43 John Daub: I'm not sure... It looks like ice cream, though. It's kind of like chilling out.
00:48:01 Dean: What is it? I don't know. Is it pudding? Is it ice cream? Ice cream. Ichigo milk.
00:48:28 John Daub: Ichigo milk. Yeah. You want in on that?
00:48:44 Dean: Olam, Darbright's in here. Darn it. My mental pictures are analog, but you get the nice brain structure.
00:49:14 John Daub: You get some interesting smells, right?
00:49:17 Dean: Yeah. What do you smell, Dean? Something smells good.
00:49:26 John Daub: It smells like it's like a grilling, like a yaki, something, grilled rice or senbei or something. Do you think it's a yaki?
00:49:50 Dean: I think it's that burger that we saw earlier. A rice burger.
00:50:01 John Daub: I know. So when you go to a lot of tourist places, like Iizumo here, you'll see a lot of really traditional Japanese food that looks like warabi mochi with matcha powder. If we can. But we're going to cross the street in a minute.
00:50:34 Dean: Let me take this out. What is this here? Is that street food? Shoe cream.
00:51:06 John Daub: Cream puff. I can use one of those. But with matcha inside. Yeah. Can you get one? Yeah. Let me see if I can. Well, they got coffee too. Do you want a coffee? Do you want a coffee? Do you want a coffee?
00:51:41 Dean: Maybe later. Here, you want some cash?
00:51:48 John Daub: No, I can pay with a super. Oh, okay. Yeah.
00:52:03 Dean: Hey, look, they got a matcha. What are you going to go for, man?
00:52:29 John Daub: Whoa. Matcha fondue? I thought fondue was like something with a stick that you would dip it in. That looks amazing, right?
00:52:55 Dean: Yeah, that does look amazing. I know that's good. I don't even have to try it. Look at the goose.
00:53:00 John Daub: Yeah. Is that real or is that a plastic model? That shows you how good the... I think that's plastic. All right, get that. Yeah?
00:53:18 Dean: Yeah.
00:53:19 John Daub: All right. You want the coffee or...? Yeah. I could use a coffee. Is it a Sunaba coffee? Because I only drink Sunaba in Tottori.
00:54:10 Dean: What is this? What is this? This is coffee. So Dean is going to get a coffee.
00:54:24 John Daub: Ah, cafe latte. And he's going to get some of these really good looking matcha shoe creams. We're going to try that out here on the streets.
00:55:06 Dean: Once again, those who are joining us at 2 p.m. Japan time, which is like 1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, I'm not sure if that's right with the daylight savings time, might be different now. We're going to take you into Izumo Taisha, into the grounds there. And Yuki is going to try to explain to us some of the things there. And we're going to exchange the sand that we picked up into some Izumo sand that they're going to give us. And we could take that home with us. So there's some pretty cool things there. Some of the things that I didn't even know about, and I'm sure a lot of people in Japan might not know about, that we're going to be trying out. This is the advantages of having local knowledge and why you tune in to Only in Japan Go, because we are on the go here in Izumo.
00:56:20 John Daub: I heard that we can have soba. You know about it?
00:56:28 Dean: All right, let me just go across the street here and just take a look at a couple of these shops because they look pretty interesting here. Maybe. Shh. While Dean is doing that, I'm looking here. This is Izumo Taisha Meibutsu. Famous stuff from Izumo. So what do we have here?
00:57:16 John Daub: This looks like a manju. So everywhere that you go around Japan, you're going to find some really unique things that represent the area. A lot of places have very... Now there's Dean outside. A lot of places have really special things. There's a lot of special foods that are... I don't know. When you buy them as gifts and they're representative of the place that you're visiting. And there are thousands of different of them. And I like to send these to Daimyo packages to our Patreon supporters all around Japan. Might get something from here.
00:59:20 Dean: This is a chopstick store. It's interesting. Again, they probably put this here because this is where tourists will shop and getting special chopsticks as a gift from Izumo Taisha, Izumo Grand Shrine. That's kind of a nice gift.
01:00:02 John Daub: Ohashi. JKO Adventures writes in here. Absolutely. I come bearing gifts. What is that big smile behind the mask? I can see the smile behind the mask. Somebody might have something.
01:00:33 Dean: One cafe latte stir. Okay. And one matcha. Yes. With a bit... Can I squeeze it?
01:00:56 John Daub: Hold on. No, no. It's too hard. It's too crunchy. Oh, it's going to work. Ow!
01:01:13 Dean: You know, this looks like a... How cool is that? This looks like a samosa. In India, we get these pastries with potatoes called samosas.
01:01:35 John Daub: It's nice and spicy. This one is not a samosa. It is filled with matcha cream. A choux cream.
01:01:58 Dean: Oh my gosh. Dean. Look at that. That is a thing of beauty.
01:02:03 John Daub: Oh wow. Right. Mask. So I don't get too messy. Just do it.
01:03:15 John Daub: That's really good. The pastry is a little bit like a pie on the outside.
01:03:31 Dean: Yeah, it's a little crunchy, right? Buttery.
01:03:33 John Daub: Yeah. I'm going to feed you. Are you going to feed me? Are we on that level yet where we can... Oh, you can. It's romantic. Just don't smash it in my face because that's what I would do.
01:04:08 Dean: Oh, excellent balance. It's not too matcha, not too bitter.
01:04:22 John Daub: It's not too sweet, right?
01:04:23 Dean: Right. And the crunchiness is just... The creaminess is not... It's not like a lot of air in that cream.
01:04:37 John Daub: Looks like I got a big matcha booger. You know when it's good when it's stuck on the nose, right?
01:04:45 Dean: Yeah, you can eat that for lunch. Eat for a couple of hours.
01:05:00 John Daub: A lot of the Japanese sweets, they're not overly sweet, right? So we say here, tabi yasui, right? They're very easy to eat. Not too rich. I think that's a mark of a good chef. They put it together where you can taste the natural ingredients. And here I can taste the butter. I can taste the matcha. I can taste the cream. I can dissect it. It doesn't just taste like sugar. It tastes like... That's a mark of a really good confection.
01:05:48 Dean: Yeah, agreed. This is good stuff.
01:06:06 John Daub: Oh, that's good coffee.
01:06:13 Dean: Any coffee would be good coffee.
01:06:14 John Daub: It is really cold out here. It's really cold.
01:06:22 Dean: Yuki stole yours. It's gone. Yuki, you took mine.
01:06:32 John Daub: Go ahead, Yuki. Do you want to eat? Here you go.
01:06:46 Dean: Thank you. It's good.
01:06:47 John Daub: It's good? Yeah. But with that comes responsibility. How do you describe the taste? What's good?
01:07:11 Dean: This bowl. No, this shukuri. A little bit bitter.
01:07:18 John Daub: Yeah, a little bitter. And good matcha. But it's good. It's good. I like that. Is Izumo famous for matcha?
01:07:40 Dean: Yeah. It's famous for matcha tea, Japanese tea.
01:07:50 John Daub: Are there geisha here? No geisha. I'm from Japan. I'm a neighbor here. I'm just saying that because probably people wondering. It looks like a street in Kanazawa or something.
01:08:20 Dean: You might get a geisha walker. Higashi Chaya. Kyoto.
01:08:24 John Daub: Yeah, like Kyoto or Higashi Chaya in Kanazawa. You kind of feel like there could be a geisha sighting all around. All you're going to see is two dudes. And. And Yuki here. Three dudes.
01:08:54 Dean: We visited Soba. We visited.
01:08:59 John Daub: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. How about Soba for lunch?
01:09:05 Dean: Oh, we can eat it? We can go? Yeah, we can go.
01:09:12 John Daub: Oh, really? We can eat and we can film.
01:09:15 Dean: Oh, really? Yeah. We can film. Wanna go? Wanna go? Wanna go?
01:09:27 John Daub: Bum, bum, bum. Oh, okay. Here, take this. Yeah.
01:09:41 Dean: All right, let's do it. I wanted to show the.
01:09:42 John Daub: Yeah, we're gonna visit it. Yeah. There's a train station here too, right?
01:09:53 Dean: Yeah. I don't think we have permission to film in the train station, but. Last time I came here, I came by. I took the train to. Sorry, hitchhiked. But I went to Yonago by train because I wasn't feeling too well.
01:10:32 John Daub: And I took a bus from this street that took me to the train station, which is about 15 minutes. So if you do come on a JR rail pass, the Sunrise Izumo train stops in Izumo, right? I think if you take the overnight train, the Sunrise Izumo, which is the last night train, it has the name Izumo in the train name.
01:11:07 Dean: Really? Sunrise Izumo, right? Have you ever ridden the Sunrise Izumo?
01:11:14 John Daub: No, I've not. Really? No. It's a night train from Tokyo Station leaves at 10 PM. You can sleep on the train. I've never ridden a night train.
01:11:34 Dean: Yeah. Are you kidding me? I've never ridden a night train.
01:11:37 John Daub: Oh my word. You craziness. I haven't lived. You have not lived.
01:11:56 Dean: Cuties. The rabbits. Yeah. Let's, let's try to cross the street because the wind probably is pretty strong on your mic here.
01:12:06 John Daub: Yeah. Okay. But the point is there's many different ways to get here. We flew. It's about a 70 minute flight. But that night train, the Sunrise Izumo, which is so famous, it's one of the last night trains. That's not a luxury train. That's something that you can afford. That is, that terminates here, I believe in Izumo because this is the final station.
01:12:42 Dean: Is it the place we visited before? That's what the train is named after. One of the most important Shinto shrines.
01:12:52 John Daub: Izumo Grand Shrine. It's right in front of us. All right. So, hey Dean, if you say anything, they can hear you on the mic, right?
01:13:05 Dean: Yeah. I was, I was telling some secrets.
01:13:07 John Daub: I could tell. I can't hear you, but they could hear the mic. So if you whisper like that, that's real.
01:13:22 Dean: He is real. All right, good.
01:13:31 John Daub: We're back here where we started. We were trying to get permission to film in here and I think they lobbied really hard. We couldn't get it before, but now we can.
01:14:13 Dean: The thing is, I didn't bring the tripod here. So we have to wait.
01:14:22 John Daub: Oh, you can buy them as a gift. Okay. So this is, this is like, they said to me standing Soba, but I think it's more like stool Soba, you know? So like bar counter Soba.
01:14:51 Dean: Okay. Which is pretty rare.
01:14:55 John Daub: Yeah. I left the tripod in my bag in the car, so I'm going to have to handhold this. I'll help you.
01:15:06 Dean: Yeah. I can eat one handed. I can clap one handed too. You know that?
01:15:25 John Daub: I saw food. I saw Soba. That shoe cream was so good though.
01:15:48 Dean: Oh my gosh. I could bathe in that.
01:15:51 John Daub: We're kind of doing, doing food in reverse, aren't we? Yeah. We did the dessert first.
01:15:59 Dean: Well, you know that noroguro was a good appetizer. Fish on a stick. Nothing like eyeball it.
01:16:09 John Daub: I'm going to have to do that in the morning. I seriously needed. One much more stress every time. I really did need a beer to go, go down with that. I think.
01:16:46 Dean: Unfortunately, it's full.
01:16:49 John Daub: Yeah. It's very full. I was just cleaning off a space here. So you are going to join us for lunch.
01:17:12 Dean: Lunch is on us and, and Irvin. Thank you, buddy. Lunch is on Irvin. Thank you. Yay.
01:17:28 John Daub: We got a team in making negotiations right now.
01:17:31 Dean: Yeah. Yuki's negotiating hard.
01:17:36 John Daub: Oh, really? Oh, really? All right.
01:17:48 Dean: Okay.
01:17:52 John Daub: I wonder if there's an alternative location for eating soba.
01:18:07 Dean: Mantequinas. Mantequinas. All right.
01:18:13 John Daub: Oh, is that okay? Oh, absolutely. Please. All right. So we can eat here. Hey, that's something. Here, have a seat. Isn't that cool?
01:18:26 Dean: Yeah. All right. Yeah. So we, we have a choice. We can eat right here.
01:18:34 John Daub: Yeah. We, we can, we can. They can serve us outside so eat us out. We're going to eat outside the shop which gives us more flexibility to talk. But one thing we don't want to do in the age we live in is to make other people feel uncomfortable. And I also think it's better to be out here because we... If we are talking, you know, we want to be... Anyway, in Japan, talking in restaurants loud and it's easy to bother other people where you wouldn't really be concerned about that back in the UK or in...
01:19:40 Dean: Five to ten minutes.
01:19:41 John Daub: Okay. Oh, sure. Okay. Okay, we can order. I think you can move around in that time. Yeah, I'll move around and show people a little bit around. I can take them down to the station, near the station, and show them that and come back.
01:20:10 Dean: All right, I'll order. Okay, give me your microphone so then we don't hear you ordering.
01:20:18 John Daub: You've been cut off. All right, see you in five minutes. Cucumbers. All right, let's go.
01:20:44 John Daub: So I'm going to take you now to the station because, to be honest, I don't know how this station works. The bus stop is over there, right? It's about 100 meters, right? The station.
01:21:14 Dean: The bus stop? Yeah, yeah.
01:21:17 John Daub: Izumo Station. It's not JR, it's a different company, right?
01:21:27 Dean: Yeah. There's kind of a little bit of history behind that station. It was really cool looking. It's old.
01:21:43 John Daub: It's a really pretty looking shop. We're taking you all over the place. I actually... I actually wanted to start at the end of the street and work our way up, but you know what you do? That's a matcha looking car.
01:22:17 Dean: Look at that matcha-colored car. That's awesome.
01:22:23 John Daub: I want to drink that car. You never see that option from car makers. I've seen British Racing Green and stuff. I've never seen, hey, matcha. I think they should make matcha-colored cars, right?
01:22:50 Dean: It's a nice color, Fu-chan. Right. Fu-chan, sorry. It's a nice color. Wow, curry bread. What is this?
01:23:11 John Daub: Oh, is that famous, Yume? Maybe not. Maybe not. If you don't say yes right away, I understand by reading between the lines.
01:23:40 Dean: Maybe not. Maybe.
01:23:44 John Daub: Is there history with this street? Was this always a shopping street?
01:23:49 Dean: Yes, yes. From the old days. Like Edo Jidai. Edo Jidai, maybe.
01:24:03 John Daub: I could see samurai walking up this street with their katana after battle. Actually. The meaning of Izumo is, I believe, for love, right? Izumo.
01:24:25 Dean: Out of clouds. Izumo means.
01:24:35 John Daub: Out of clouds? Yes.
01:24:38 Dean: Wow.
01:24:40 John Daub: Makes a lot of sense because there's a lot of clouds here. So it's a very, very special shrine. I've been here. This is, I think, my third time coming here to, or fourth time to come here to Izumo Taisha over the last many years.
01:25:18 Dean: There's some more traditional food. There's Izumo soba. And there's zenzai, which is another mochi and sweet anko.
01:25:41 John Daub: Not too sweet. A little bit of sugar. You'll see a lot of these confections here. Red light.
01:26:13 Dean: This is like Squid Game. Don't move at all. Do not even move.
01:26:22 John Daub: It's Squid Game. Mitoko Taro? Netflix? No, no. Nothing? No? So yeah. Red light. Don't go. Green light. Go quickly. It's kind of a game. Okay, go quickly. Okay.
01:26:54 Dean: Oh, there.
01:27:04 John Daub: Look at that. See? Yeah, there's even more street food. There's that beef sandwich. Shimane beef.
01:27:21 Dean: Wow. All right. You know what? I'm going to have to get that.
01:27:25 John Daub: Wow. Where's the station? Eki? Isn't it here? Koko? Achi? Sachi?
01:28:05 Dean: Eki at? Arui kana? Nai? Arui kana? Na, chizu ni ariso.
01:28:30 John Daub: Dean is waiting at the shop. The soba is ready. The soba is going to take about 10 minutes. So I don't want to just, I think that's it right there, that brown building. I don't just want to sit in the shop because there's also, you know, a lot of people joining us here live. So I'm taking you to the station. I just want to show you where the access points are. This is one of them. Now the bus dropped me, dropped, picked me up here and took me to Izumo JR, JR Izumo Station from here. This is the Izumo, Izumo Taisha Eki. This is the Izumo station. This is my station. It's right before Izumo Taisha Eki. I think I can, I can show you a little bit inside of here, but isn't, it is an old station and it's got a heritage of industrial modernization seal. So I know it's very significant. I can show you just a little bit in here. These doors are, I can only go in this one. This one door. So I just want to give you a quick look. See, it's got really high ceilings.
01:30:00 Dean: I mean you don't you don't expect it when you come in here. Hey Dean just sent me a message come get your soba.
01:30:14 John Daub: Alright Dean. I'm on the way. Check this out here. So this is the train station. It's a private line, I believe but you can get a train. Almost up to Izumo Taisha. I know right? Fuchan it's full of character.
01:30:38 John Daub: Alright, let's go Dean said the soba's done. Hey, Yuki-san, in the chat Dean said soba. Oh, okay. I got it. Come here, come here. Work off that choux cream. You know when they say five ten minutes for food. Sometimes it's like one minute. Seems like we just ordered.
01:31:36 Dean: Funny Dean's watching wait run John run. Glenn.
01:31:46 John Daub: What if I fall down? I better be careful. There's things blocking the way too.
01:32:04 Dean: Glenn you're supposed to say slow down. Okay, I'll run.
01:32:21 John Daub: I got some soba. Cute. Okay, we're almost there Dean. We're almost there. Um, I wrote my nose is running.
01:33:01 Dean: He's got a matcha color jacket. I think matcha is the color for 2021 out of shape.
01:33:20 John Daub: Thank you. No, no good. Oh, Tommy's speaking. I had too much.
01:33:32 Dean: No, don't go to a fish on a stick.
01:33:39 John Daub: Goal is in sight. Shall not stop until mission complete. My mission complete.
01:34:22 Dean: Kill the bird I.
01:34:27 John Daub: Know the not a good on my mask now Dean. Oh, it's warm. I guess over awaits. Oh, wow.
01:35:06 Dean: You really ran are you sure the comment? Yeah, I saw the comment and I booked.
01:35:29 John Daub: Here take your mic back buddy talk really quietly. Okay, respectful now this.
01:35:51 Dean: And you're having this for the not first time, right.
01:35:57 John Daub: Oh you never have it are yama the kid is. Yeah, well some of the only.
01:36:16 Dean: このこの style to not tell. That's on so much. It's a touch he got home.
01:36:38 John Daub: Oh Ismall. Dosh Dosh to cook. Oh yeah.
01:36:44 Dean: Tabitha. It's a gina level.
01:36:49 John Daub: Oh I did you don't come to me and also stuck it all hi what are the.
01:36:59 Dean: You pour the sauce on the bottom.
01:37:01 John Daub: Ah, so this will slowly... It's not going down? It's gonna run... So you put the sauce here and it runs down slowly.
01:37:13 Dean: Really? After you finish eating, you pour the sauce.
01:37:19 John Daub: Ah, to the next level. You have to defeat the boss first. Are you the boss? Or is she the boss? So she's gonna bring some sauce, I guess, right? Someone's the boss, because I'm hungry.
01:37:49 Dean: Actually, already there's a sauce. Oh, okay, the sauce is here. Okay, okay. That's right. You're trying to trick us, right? Good joke. No soup for you. I'm sorry. It's okay, it's okay.
01:38:31 John Daub: It's okay. Itadakimasu. Then we go. Watch Dean go first. This is nori, seaweed, and spring onion, and maybe ginger.
01:39:00 Dean: Okay.
01:39:27 John Daub: Dean, you don't have to go quickly. This is not wanko soba. Have you done wanko soba? That speed is important there. This is a different kind of challenge.
01:39:47 Dean: 201. Wanko is like dog. Wanwan. That's good. That's gonna be quite a lot.
01:40:17 John Daub: Yeah? You wanna switch around?
01:40:20 Dean: Okay.
01:40:28 John Daub: Not the... No, no, no. Switch me around, baby. Okay. All right, let's give this a try here. The bowl is quite shallow. It's not too deep. It's not too deep. Let's mix it in here. It looks like there's some mentaiko. Is that?
01:41:21 Dean: The noodles here are a little bit firmer than the soba back in Tokyo and the soba in Nagano.
01:42:04 John Daub: I think. It's a little bit firmer. It's springier, too, I find, that it's got a different consistency. The soba that I had before was also easier to chew. This one requires a little bit more chewing.
01:42:24 Dean: Mm.
01:42:43 John Daub: The dashi. Right? It's suyu, dashi. What's more? Suyu, dashi. Suyu, yeah. OK.
01:43:18 John Daub: Mm. Mm. It's quite good, too. Not very salty. It's got more of a natural flavor to it. But it might be some of the water that they cooked the soba might be in there, too.
01:43:50 Dean: One bowl, two to go. It's not that big.
01:44:00 John Daub: So they're asking about, which is quite interesting, it's cold, right? Yeah. This isn't hot. Cold.
01:44:20 Dean: Actually, if you want hot soba, you can get it on the menu.
01:44:25 John Daub: It's just different. But for izumo soba, they show you the way to eat it here. So you have three bowls. You put the suyu on, and then you dump the remaining stuff onto the next bowl. And then you dump whatever's left in the last bowl. And I guess then you eat the bowl. Ha ha ha. So I guess the idea is that as you go, it becomes more and more flavorsome, yeah? This orange stuff in the middle was daikon, which is a radish. It's great. It's daikon. It's good daikon. I guess they put in, um.
01:45:46 Dean: Why is it orange?
01:45:50 John Daub: Orange daikon? Yeah, why? I guess it is suyu. Suyu, no. What about the color? Why is it so orange? Because it's a cherry color.
01:46:14 Dean: Mm.
01:46:15 John Daub: Yeah. Carrots?
01:46:19 Dean: Carrot, yeah. I think I guess it is a carrot.
01:46:26 John Daub: 50-50. Ha ha ha. I'm not sure. I think it's a, maybe it could be also a mix. There's a little bit of a spiciness to it. Daikon is a Japanese radish, and there's a bite to daikon. You eat it, so there's a bite to this. But that orangeness to it, I could see that it could be mixed in with carrots or something. The local produce of Shimane is really good, so it doesn't surprise me that it's not a Japanese dish. There must be some symbolism behind that.
01:47:21 Dean: But, you know, I didn't really, I didn't really research much about Izumo because we thought we were going to Okinoshima today, but when you have dishes like this that have like a procedure or a way to eat them, it really does make it fun and highlights the regionality of Japanese cuisine. Where soba, I guess, you know, it's kind of a plain food maybe. But it's a Japanese dish. It's more fun to eat when you add things like this, three dishes on it, different, dump the one on, left over one on the next dish. That's like only in Izumo kind of thing. So that makes it pretty special to try it.
01:48:15 John Daub: This is, um, this is hot tea, but I believe it's made from the water, right? Oh, I wonder if it's soba tea.
01:48:37 Dean: Yeah. Fuckwake tea. Go ahead, Dean, you can take down the rest of yours. In one hit. In one hit. Can you do this in 30 seconds or less, both of them?
01:48:58 John Daub: Can I say no?
01:48:59 Dean: You can say maybe.
01:49:01 John Daub: I failed the last food challenge, didn't I, with you? Right.
01:49:10 Dean: Yeah, on the old channel, right.
01:49:14 John Daub: That was a good mouthful. How does this compare to other soba that you've had before? As you were saying, soba pops up pretty much everywhere you go, right? So when you travel in Japan, I tend to feel every time I ask, hey, what's famous here? They always say, the soba's famous. And as you were saying, there's like, there's subtle details that make each of the soba different.
01:49:58 Dean: Nice. You ever had soba with duck?
01:50:00 John Daub: With duck? Camel? What? Really? You had duck? No. You know my wife will kill you. She is against eating duck.
01:50:16 Dean: Oh, really?
01:50:17 John Daub: Because you get all these little varieties of soba and, uh. I eat duck, though. The duck is good. Yeah, it is good.
01:50:28 Dean: Yeah. Duck for dinner tonight?
01:50:29 John Daub: What do you think? I can't eat it when I'm at home.
01:50:39 Dean: So that's my leftovers.
01:50:43 John Daub: Oh, you have this. So this is, you're going to dump that onto the next bowl, right? Right. Which already has the sauce, but now it has double the sauce, right?
01:50:57 Dean: Oh, yeah.
01:50:58 John Daub: This is soba. This is soba yu. Soba yu. Soba yu. Yeah. It's just a soba, hot water from the soba, the thing that's left over. You can pour it into your dishes. Oh, wow. Okay. After you eat it. Oh, right. So then it'll make like a tsuyu soba soup.
01:51:44 Dean: Yeah, like, yeah.
01:51:46 John Daub: Oh. That's going to be awesome. And this is soba tea?
01:51:53 Dean: It's just tea. It's just tea. Okay. This is soba yu. All right. So I'm going to do it with the last one. All right, Dean, attack.
01:52:12 John Daub: Attack. I think I'm winning, by the way.
01:52:17 Dean: There you go. See, that's all you have to do. Make it a competition and Dean partakes.
01:52:23 John Daub: I'm playing.
01:52:41 Dean: It's a good meal. You know, when you're actually hungry, of course you will.
01:53:04 John Daub: What time you got?
01:53:11 Dean: 1.15.
01:53:14 John Daub: All right. Getting close to school. I'm going to stream number two. Yeah, we are.
01:53:28 Dean: All right.
01:53:30 John Daub: And we'll be back in one minute. I wanted to try that meat burger though, Dean. I guess, you know, what do you... What about starting the next one with the burger?
01:53:57 Dean: Yeah, right.
01:53:58 John Daub: I think though you have to, you really do have to try the Izumo soba when you come to Izumo.
01:54:31 Dean: You almost done?
01:54:32 John Daub: I hope my slurping noises are transmitting well.
01:54:43 Dean: Oh, yeah.
01:54:44 John Daub: Because they're very purposeful as a soup. As a sign of my appreciation for the food. Those are only slurp hot foods.
01:55:07 Dean: Oh, no. I just made that up. I hope that's not true.
01:55:14 John Daub: How would you eat it without slurping though? I'm just so used to... I know. Right. Bowl number three. All right. So now we take the soba no yu.
01:56:07 John Daub: Well, and it makes a little soup there and you can drink this and it's nice and hot.
01:56:32 Dean: That's really refreshing. The suyu is that it's... You'd pour on it originally. You'd pour it on the soup. It's quite salty. This one's not as salty though. When you add the soba no yu, it really brings down the saltiness so you get more of a...
01:57:00 John Daub: The leftover, the water that the buckwheat noodles were cooked in leaves behind a flavor of its own. So when it mixes it's... It's meant to be very healthy as well.
01:57:24 Dean: Yeah. A lot of vitamins.
01:57:26 John Daub: Yeah. Good for you, right? Good for you. Good health.
01:57:41 Dean: Soba. No calorie.
01:57:43 John Daub: Dean, I'm a competitive man. I'm going to say... Have you won?
01:57:53 Dean: Yeah.
01:57:53 John Daub: I haven't even started my third bowl yet.
01:57:57 Dean: Are you kidding?
01:58:03 John Daub: Lightweight. See, for the last 18 months, all I have been doing is eating a lot. Food is like an extension of my stomach.
01:58:32 Dean: Training.
01:58:38 John Daub: What's this one you're eating? It is like pepper. Is it good for this? It actually works. Dean's going for the spicy hot stuff. This might be the fuel he needs to complete the mission. All the other racers have crossed the finish line. Dean remains last, but he will do it in style. Or he will do it his way.
01:59:17 Dean: Not too spicy. Just give that. No? Good balance. A little bit. A little bit.
01:59:34 John Daub: Now, if you take the cap off and eat all of the spices like that, I will give you 500 yen.
01:59:49 Dean: 500? Dollars?
01:59:50 John Daub: Yen.
01:59:51 Dean: Yen. Euros? So, would you do it for that? You wouldn't do it for that either, so it wouldn't matter.
02:00:04 John Daub: You already woke up. Can I slip into the bowl? Is that cool?
02:00:20 Dean: Maybe for Bitcoin. Sean is right. Sean is cheering you on. Go, go, go. All right.
02:00:29 John Daub: Well done. Not good? That is really good. Refreshing. Soba is such a light meal, right? I'm still kind of hungry, but I'm satisfied. Like, I could eat more, but if I didn't I'd be okay.
02:01:04 Dean: I find that fills me up but maybe you get hungry a little bit quicker than you would after like bread or rice.
02:01:13 John Daub: I think so. Let's get out of here. Should we pay?
02:01:23 Dean: Oh done.
02:01:24 John Daub: Oh okay. Thank you. Thank you for the food. Satisfied. Satisfied. Satisfied.
02:02:04 John Daub: Alright everybody. So I hope that this gives you a pretty good introduction of the things that you can see here in Izumo. Now we started the live stream by taking a bag of sand. Do you remember? I remember. Right? And if you're just joining us, we took a bag of sand. So we're going to be taking a bag of sand at 2 o'clock in about 45 minutes. Join us as we meet here. We're going to meet Yuki right in front of here for part two of this Izumo Taisha. Izumo Grand Shrine stream here which is actually a national park, right? Yeah. And here. So we'll take you inside of the Izumo Grand Shrine and Yuki and Dean and I will guide you through here. And we're going to see what we do with that bag of sand that we started off with. See you in about 45 minutes.