00:00:05 John Daub: Hello buddy, welcome to Motoyawata in Chiba Prefecture. Just on the outskirts, the fringe of Tokyo. I'm standing here in front of the JR Motoyawata station and for the next 30 minutes or so, we're going to walk around here. I'm going to show you what is, I like to believe, one of the most typical neighborhoods here in Tokyo or in Japan. It just feels like nothing has really changed that much. And here comes the Sobu line. The JR Sobu line which connects up with Akihabara and goes all the way to Chiba. That comes through here as well as the Toei Shinjuku line which is the subway, lime green, that goes from here all the way to Shinjuku. And on the other side there's the Keisei Yawata station which will take you to Narita airport.

00:00:49 John Daub: How you doing everybody? I just got myself a haircut. I've been coming to the same barber for the last 14 years. He actually passed away a few months ago which was really sad. But I knew everybody who was working there and I just picked up where I left off and got the next guy up. And I got a really nice haircut. It's a little bit further from where I used to live at the next station called Shinozaki. And I still come to the same guys because they're like family. You have to support your family and times are pretty tough. So let's get walking around here as the Sobu line takes off from the station. We're going to take off as well and go in this direction.

00:01:29 John Daub: Now there's a lot of shops here. They're like all the chains. It's really typical of what Japan looks like just about at every single station. So this is a good example of what you'll get if you move to a Japanese town. You have the pachinko place right in front of the station. This is actually the south side. We're going to be going to the other side which has a lot more stuff. It's a little bit bigger but they have a sauna.

00:01:59 John Daub: One thing to note is when you do come to Japan and you need a place to stay, you can't find a hotel. You can always go to a place like this. Sometimes they're near pachinko places because pachinko is a place that's really close to the station. But pachinko people will play until the last train and miss the train and then they can go in here and just hang out in a spa. Let's go take a closer look at this. It's usually really cheap to spend the night here. You just get a chair and you can sleep there. You can get drinks and even have capsules. Check this out. That's a typical looking capsule hotel. I mean, it looks like a fun time, right? You could use your own capsule. There's a place to eat and drink. You can have a bath, hang out with friends in a sauna. It looks like a pretty cool pool with a jacuzzi that you can hang out in there. And the prices are pretty cheap. Let's see here. There's a list. So there's some different courses. So I guess the night course is 4 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's like about 3,000 yen for a capsule. Not too bad.

00:03:16 John Daub: Lee Richard writes in here, is it COVID safe? I don't know. Maybe. Everyone's been vaccinated. At least two times in Japan, like over 80%. I think it's like 30% now. I've had the third shot. So if you need to stay, stay. If you don't, I don't know.

00:03:38 John Daub: So you got your post office box here. You got your McDonald's here. You have your pachinko places. You have your Mega Don Quixote in the distance there. It's like this is so typical of a Japanese station front. Hey, Vaughn is here. Buy something for the wife. You got it. Let's see if we can find a flower shop or something. Whoa, there's a line at McDonald's. Check that out. What is that? There's a New York burger. All right, let's go check this out. A New York burger? What? Is that what people are lining up for? Check this out. So it's a beef burger with pepper and cheese. And there's a grilled chicken burger with salt and lemon. It looks pretty good. So there you go. I guess people are in the mood to get some McDonald's. A little bit of America. Check that out. That animation is... That's you, Americans. I like that.

00:04:50 John Daub: Hey, Test Chonan's here. Welcome. I love these mom and pop shops here. I think it was about 13 years ago I did eat here. Run by a family. And you can see they have plastic models here. It's a soba shop. This bowl will run you. I think it's a little bit more expensive than 13 years ago. It's about $9 for that. Bowl of soba looks really good. It just feels you have the maneko-neko there. Come on in. That's right. Even the dentists, they have like their own mascots. Isn't that the coolest looking happy tooth? I like how they made the roots his legs. I guess it would be the bacteria would be his hands. I don't know. I'll leave it up to you to figure that out.

00:05:46 John Daub: The Sukiya. Every neighborhood has one. Kanae likes this better than Yoshinoya. Hey, Chan Chan is here. Have you seen any Hello Kitty Gotouchi train stations anymore? I haven't. I haven't seen them much at all. But then again, I haven't really traveled that much. I'm usually in and out of the stations a lot faster than I was a few years ago. But that can change. Let's cross the street here.

00:06:23 John Daub: So this is a Mega Don Quixote. And these Donkis are opening up all over the place. If you don't know what a Don Quixote is, what? Of course you do. Don Quixote is the shop where they pack everything in there. And out here in the countryside, this is often like the Kmart. This is the shop that's like the budget shopping shop that's everywhere in Japan now. They really boomed in the 1980s after the bubble. When people had less money, they were really doing pretty well because people got really frugal really fast. I guess we can have a quick look to see what they got in there. It's not just a Don Quixote. It's a Mega Don Quixote. Actually, I think this was a supermarket about 10 years ago. Yeah, this was a supermarket and it changed to a Don Quixote after that went out of business. I remember coming in here and getting some food. But these Mega Don Quixotes are everywhere now. I bet you they put one in Akihabara where some of those buildings have gone out of business. They already have one in there, but makes sense to have two. Starbucks has a Starbucks near Starbucks sometimes. Real estate's cheap. Don Quixote wants it. So I'm not going to go inside, but I'm going to just give you a quick look to see what's going on in the Don Quixote here. Discount stuff. That's pretty cheap for some Dove.

00:08:27 John Daub: All right, let's cross the street. I'm going to go see if that Seiyu is there, which is the Walmart of Japan. Now, Motoyawata is a very livable city. This is a place where people settle down and live. I mean, the center of Tokyo, that's where you go and work. When you finish work, you come and live in a place like this, which is where I used to live. And now I live in the center, which is close to the train station. So I could jump on the Shinkansen anytime I need it.

00:09:04 John Daub: All right, we're going to go in this direction. I'm going to see if the Seiyu is there, and then we're going to cut across the tracks to the other side of the station and show you some of the back alleys. The alleys are really interesting. Again, a lot of the businesses haven't changed hands. They're family-run businesses. I don't know if that's still the case because the situation has changed so much because of the pandemic. But I'm going to go see if that Seiyu is there. It's not what it used to be.

00:09:44 John Daub: I just released almost two videos back-to-back. Ginzan Onsen. Let me know if you've seen that episode and what you thought of it. Kanae and I went there in 2022, but I had footage from 2020. It didn't snow in 2020. I was so disappointed. You need that magical falling snow to make it magical. So when we went back in 2022, I found a hotel that was available. But they required me to have another person with me. So I asked Kanae if she would bring Leo up, and she said yes. So we filled the room. She got on the Shinkansen, and it was pretty expensive, but it was so worth it. We got a room overlooking the river. The meal was incredible. I highly recommend that you watch the video if you haven't already. It was just released about two days ago. And it's doing pretty well. And I also released a video on Kochi Prefecture. So I've been doing a lot of stuff that's non-food related. So the next episode, which is coming next week, is on Yonezawa beef. It's on wagyu and how they grade it. It went into the processing plant. So it's going to be really interesting to see. Get more details on how our food is sourced. I really love that topic. Going onto the farms and seeing how everything is made. And I've got a lot more episodes like that coming up.

00:11:09 John Daub: Alright, the Seiyu is here. I said Seibu earlier, but it was Seiyu. We don't have any where I live in Tokyo. But Seiyu is partnered with Walmart. And about six or seven years ago, I remember walking into the Seiyu. And I was like, whoa, they got Reese's peanut butter cups. And it was the only place in Japan that had Reese's peanut butter cups. So the bicycle parking is free for an hour. Then you have to pay 110 yen. I'm just going to take a quick step in. You can see it's so much more spacious than other supermarkets in Japan. They got a lot of space in here. Oh, I love Pondering. Wow, it's so spacious out here in the countryside. I don't know. Is this the countryside? I guess we would call this the suburbs, right?

00:12:25 John Daub: Shout out to Donald Paul. Thank you for being a traveler. Welcome, Vic Vic from Canada is here. It could be. Maybe has to do with the pandemic. I'm not really sure. I just know that a lot of things have changed, but people are getting used to living with it more, which is one reason why I think Japan is more comfortable with opening it up. They just allowed 3,500 students to come in, then 5,000, and then they moved it up to 7,000. So there's a lot more comfort now with the situation with the booster shots out than there were a couple of months ago. So it's just a case of being patient. And now we see the numbers slowly declining here. So hopefully everything will be better. And tourism can restart, maybe following the cherry blossoms.

00:13:21 John Daub: Well, look at this karage. What? Right on the streets. Big karage. 85 yen for one. I might have to get that. I'm not even hungry, but I might have to. So if you go straight in this direction, it will take you to a shopping mall called Colton Plaza, which I put on a map. I'll link in the description. You can take a look at the area. I used to walk to the shopping mall because they got a ton of stuff over there. Uniqlo, Muji, everything is over there. There's my barber. They've got one barber pole. I like it. They're not too obnoxious. They're doing OK. Not as many customers, he said, but they're doing OK. Again, I've been coming to the same guy for like 14 years.

00:14:27 John Daub: All right. We're underneath JR Motoyawata Station right now. Raymond, you are. Listen, buddy, you got to go back and get some. I think the karaoke does look really good. Feels like a festival when you buy it on the street and eat it outside. All right. We walk around the town. Sometimes it's worth it to stop and take a look at the community message board. They still have these in Japanese towns and they put in all the events that are going on. Some of the things that are happening, some maps. This is one to show you where the cherry blossoms are. Cherry blossoms are going to be blooming where they have it. This is Ishikawa City. Here's Motoyawata Station where we are. So there's a bunch of cherry blossoms going in this direction. We're now crossing to this side of the tracks, though. So you'll see a lot of community. There's a festival. There's a lot of community information on these message boards. There's several of them around each town within the suburbs.

00:15:36 John Daub: Look at this. This narrow walkway people are going home to. I love it. It's just so typical Japanese. They're so typical like Japan suburbs. Look at this red road here. The manhole covers have bonsai trees on them. That's really nice. Ishikawa. There really aren't a lot of people. I got on the subway and so I was on the subway to come here. I think there were three people riding on the whole thing. So traveling is definitely a lot quieter. I'm getting a haircut. I haven't had a haircut in like three months. So I needed to come here and chop it down. Feels a lot better now.

00:16:49 John Daub: In a couple of weeks, I have the final episode for Tokyo Eye. Which is crazy. I can't believe that the series has been running since 2006. So I needed to get a haircut so I could look slightly more presentable. I believe we're filming that, yeah, in a couple of weeks. And I'll see if I can put some pictures on Instagram, share that with you. It's been a pretty long ride with that series. I haven't done it as much for the last 10 years really every now and then but there was a time where I was on almost every week. I think they did over 600 episodes of Tokyo Eye. It's one of the longest shows on NHK World. It was just super successful and I believe they were thinking of ending it around the Olympics but because of the Olympic delay it just and the need to keep promoting about Tokyo they kept doing it and I got a chance to get on a couple of episodes but it's been a while. I've been doing it mostly remotely. Look at this restaurant here. Is it a restaurant? I'm so honored to be able to join the team for the final episode too. I'll be in the studio for that. That means something, right? It is a restaurant. Look at this building. I'd love to eat some yakitori up there with Kanae. The last time I ate here though in... I think it must have been with Astro Boy who's one of the viewers here, Australian friend and we had some beer and izakaya food about five years ago. His daughter was a lot smaller now she's like an adult now. It's a different world. Hey Angel Forever's here. Let's start buying some stuff. Let me stop at a vending machine tea shop here. Different kinds of pots and cups. I love these cups. Look at these cups designed on them. It's a little pricey, it's like 100 bucks for one pot but these are the kind of shops where you know they're gonna have the good stuff, right? This is a green tea shop.

00:19:38 John Daub: Motoyawata is a really old town. It has an old feel to it like a retro feel but it's renewing too so I think in the next five six years maybe it'll have a little bit different vibe. Every five years you can see there's some sorts of changes like upgrades. I guess you would say patchwork. The whole thing won't renovate all by itself like the whole thing. It's like done in patches and that gives it some more characteristics, right? There's like half the road is green and half the road is red. What's up with that? You can really feel Japan in a town like this just walking around the bicycle parking lots like this the sounds the street crossings the cars that talk. Astro Boy, I think this is where we ate wasn't it? I think it was this place. It's some cold beer. Well, the Mexican place is still there. All this is good news for the entire world.

00:21:08 John Daub: Alright, this is the main front of the station. You can see the Express trains going by. The Narita Express goes through here too, I believe. This skyscraper wasn't here when I moved away from the area. It's a residential building and you can see it's quite high. In this direction you get to the Keisei Yawata station which is where you'll connect up with Keisei that's taking you to Narita the airport. Keisei is the Oskosa subway line. So connects between Narita and Haneda airports there is a train line that'll connect both of them. But it'll take you quite a long time unless you're on one of the super expresses. Oh it looks like they're pumping out the sewage. I thought that was Gumby for the longest time, right? It looks like Gumby but it's a cactus and I've eaten here a few times. They have the best tacos in this part of Tokyo. I think they still might. Why do I have the feeling that at any moment they're going to release this onto the street? That's nasty. I don't want any part of that. It's all pricey for a taco but when the options are almost non-existent, that's a pretty good price. It's cheaper than flying to Mexico or Hawaii.

00:22:45 John Daub: Alright, let's take a look now at the station front on this side. It is really quiet. I think we can find a vending machine on this side around here too. Oh there's a Gindako maybe I'll get some takoyaki this place is new too. Wow there's some new places look at this they're serving some kind of bentos here this guy's really happy wow he's a very happy man here check it out he's got his own plastic model interesting. This is the Tsutaya I used to rent my videos here but Tsutaya went out of business at this location up on the second floor it was a station away so I was always not always but sometimes have to pay quite a bit. Wow what is that what is that chicken soup looks like that's fish and we're gonna have to try it because it's bizarre. All right I got my Suica card oh it's hot what is this.

00:24:42 John Daub: All right let's go over to the side here and they have a manga kissa too this is a place where you can stay for the night pretty cheaply probably the cheaper option than the capsule hotel on the other side. There's a Gold Gym and a 100 yen shop in that building wow all right let's try this here. What is this it looks like it's kind of a chicken white chicken soup I don't know. Chemicals in a can writes in shockingly blair what all right let's try this here. It smells funky it's interesting I should have shaken it up all right you know what it's not bad but I'm gonna have to pass on this I don't think it has a lot of sodium yeah I think it has too much sodium in it yeah yes drink it then shake it this makes a lot of sense here all right I'm gonna have to get rid of this but I'm gonna put it away for now let's just say that it's like drinking a soup it's a kind of a thick salty soup so you can see there's an Excelsior Cafe here.

00:26:53 John Daub: There are a lot of station fronts as well we'll go around and see what kind of takoyaki they have. I might take some takoyaki back to Kanae she loves that that's a good present yeah PTG if I had listened to you I would have probably been a lot better off go for tea stick to the things you know but I'm a curious person I like to get off of the beaten path every now and then and be punched in the face by a salty drink so I guess you saw that panda waving at you wow. It's so different with these skyscraper high rise buildings here there's a Saizeriya up there as well. Let's see what they got here we got two things to take a look at we got the Ginza Cozy Corner where they have a bunch of cake goodness let's see what they got here that looks really good there's a line all right now this is my final destination which is takoyaki and what can I say I'm a sucker for takoyaki I think most people are. The winds picked up here sorry about that oh there's a line wow they got the negi the negi mayonnaise this is always a favorite here the mochi cheese mentaiko which is like a spicy fish egg but you can't go wrong with the good old-fashioned normal takoyaki let's see let's see how long this takes what they got like bentos here what's that about they make bentos they used to have a stand in front of the shop on this side but I guess they changed it where you got to go inside the store and they're like oh they're like the shop a little bit actually I think I might have a point card.

00:31:20 John Daub: Thank you. They're putting the toppings on now. Oh, extra sauce. Please take your order. Please leave your order. Wow. Did you see that mochi? I got some bad news. This thing spilled in my bag. How did I know that this was going to happen? I think I ate the takoyaki here last time. Alright, you know what? I'm going to go to the same place. This is interesting. Ow. I smell like chicken soup. Inferior chicken soup. It happens. Alright, let's take a look at this takoyaki. I got a report that Kanae does not want takoyaki. She said she doesn't want takoyaki. She's already eaten. I have a salty bag. Hey, NXC. Thank you. Our friend in Hong Kong. We will dedicate this takoyaki to our friends in Hong Kong. We will not dedicate this white soup to anything. Except the rubbish bin. Itadakimasu. Whoa. Did you see when she was putting on that mochi? It was insane. It came out of a squeeze tube. I've never seen that before. What is on there? That's the mentaiko. Some of the spicy fish eggs. There's pieces of seaweed on there. Lots of sauce. What? I got only six pieces because I knew that this mochi was going to be insanely heavy. And I was right. Oh. Itadakimasu. It is mochi. It's crazy. Let me show you. It's like mochi consistency. But I think it's potato and mochi together. It's like a hybrid. But boy does it look good. Mmm. Every time. It's not that hot. I think these have been sitting around for a while. It wasn't too bad. It doesn't have that intense heat inside of the balls there.

00:36:31 John Daub: I'm watching Tokyo Marathon on Sunday. I didn't even know they were holding it. I usually try to apply to it. I'm so weirdly weird for it too. Art of War HD. Appreciate it. That is one hot ball you got. David J. JSC. Thank you. These are the hot, slimy balls. Hey, I see Katrina Johnson. Thank you, Katrina.

00:37:19 John Daub: So we're getting lower on stock. If you're considering buying the Hitchhiking DVD, please do so soon. I think there's some extras at my parents' house. We've been shipping out quite a number of Blu-rays. The Hitchhiking Blu-ray from 2017 is on the Only in Japan store. The link is store.onlyinjapan.tv. They're sent from the US. They move pretty quickly if you're in the US. If you want one, get in on it soon. There's only a limited number of those. Oh my gosh. There's two left. Oh my gosh. That one was a hot one.

00:38:42 John Daub: I like this Gindako because just their normal takoyaki is really good. But they always have something interesting. Like a new seasonal topping. It's just like all the convenience stores all the fast food restaurants here. You need to innovate. You need to have a new flavor to get people interested. People will walk by the shop and go, huh? And get some to go in to try something new. And there's a good percentage of those people that'll just buy takoyaki for the family to take it home and then you end up making a big sale. Another reason why they have point cards is because every restaurant, every shop wants to encourage regulars. With some of these chains, there's a lot of regular customers. I can use that point card anywhere in Japan. Tig writes in here, I wish people bought me lunch at my job. I wish they did too, Tig. I'd love to send you one of these. How do I do that? How can I make that happen? Just send me a picture. I'll send it to you and you send me a picture when you receive it because I'm curious to find out what it looks like on the other side. Actually, I'm not that curious. It's going to be a big, hot mess.

00:40:14 John Daub: Alright, I got some live streams coming this weekend. But because I've been editing and releasing a lot of videos, I haven't had a lot of time to go and travel anywhere. And I want Only in Japan Go, this channel, where I take you on the road with me and you get a chance to see what it's like behind the scenes or an area that I'm filming. So you can join me and travel around Japan. But because I'm just home editing and some of my shoots won't be starting up again until the middle of March, there's not a lot of stuff to bring you. I'm going to try to wash out the soup stock.

00:41:12 John Daub: Alright, there's almost no trash cans in Japan. So always take your trash back to where you got it. That's the best way. This here they can take my trash if you eat it there they'll take your trash right now I gotta throw that soup away so there you go this is kind of a mini adventure there's a lottery ticket booth right here it doesn't say what the jackpot I think the jackpot is 3.5 million yen so there you go this is the Motoyawata station area I hope this is fun for you we walk from the south side to the north side and I'm going on Toei Shinjuku line to go back home I guess I could take you there it's a long walkway to get to the Toei Shinjuku line a lot of these businesses in the left and the right were really hurting because there wasn't a lot of foot traffic but I guess in the last few months it's picked up a little bit this connects with the JR Sobu line and the Toei Shinjuku line which is the subway line the city-run subway not the metro but the Toei there's two subway lines in Tokyo.

00:43:48 John Daub: Oh I didn't know they had a Sony Plaza here Sony Plaza was a shop where you could get some like foreign influence stuff like Pop-Tarts and Cheetos and things like that now with so many other places and here's the connection to the Toei Shinjuku line now with so many new stores and mail order again when I moved here in 1998 there was no online shopping it was yeah you had to go into Nagoya I lived in Okazaki I had to take the train for 45 minutes to Nagoya and then I would be able to shop for western foods and things like this there wasn't a McDonald's in the town of Okazaki at the time but I don't think I ever really ate there I don't think it was a McDonald's the only western food I could get was at the Hard Rock Cafe and they had nachos and now nowadays there's so many more options besides just Hard Rock Cafe but 20 25 years ago that was the go-to place there weren't a lot of options it was Jerry's Uno in Nagoya which made really good tacos you had Hard Rock Cafe McDonald's that's about it they had a Taco Bell back then it was a test shop but everybody kept going to that Taco Bell looking for takoyaki because taco in Japanese means octopus wasn't Mexican here it just confused the locals so it went out of business but it came back about five years ago that Taco Bell in Nagoya I don't think there's any history on it before my Taco Bell's first failure in Japan but it was in an area called Fujigaoka in Nagoya and Fujigaoka is like the Ohio of Japan it's the center where it's like the very typical Japanese thought it's not Osaka it's not Tokyo it's in between and it's a place where a lot of test shops go Fujigaoka Nagoya in general is a really big test place because it's kind of between the two.

00:46:24 John Daub: Alright this looks like my train we have a couple of minutes here's the network it is massive look at the city of Tokyo's subway now the big thick lines here are the Toei lines run by the government there's four lines Oedo line Mita line Asakusa line and the Toei Shinjuku line here and then the thin ones are Metro and these are the connecting points here there's the Imperial Palace and Tokyo Station in the middle and I used to live right here it's the next station but I've since then moved to the center.

00:47:08 John Daub: Alright everybody thanks for joining me I really appreciate it Michael Sassano must get train food find something oishi Michael Sassano I gotta get home buddy I gotta get home all right you know what I'm gonna I don't know if I'm gonna do a midnight snack run but I'm gonna be doing a Q&A and I'll get some stuff and we're gonna do a Q&A with some goodies I think we might do 20 questions or something fun tomorrow I think a lot of people have a lot of questions about Japan as well about when it's opening up and I haven't done an update in a while so I'll try to update you I also like how they put where you which train car you should sit at to get closest to the exit so if you need an elevator you'd want to be in car 7 if you're getting off at Motoyawata so these sign boards will help you get off without having the least amount of walking which helps uncongest stations it's really useful all right everybody I hope you enjoyed it Michael thank you so much for that last second super chat I will get something for the next live stream I promise have a good day everybody I'm getting on board.