00:02 John Daub: Greetings everybody, welcome to Shizuoka Station. That is the Hikari bound for Shin-Osaka. Every night at Shizuoka Station, the Shinkansen blow by here at top speed right in between the trains. This train is going to be departing in about one minute. Two trains already blew by it on the other side. We're going to wait here and watch the trains go by because that's what we do. How you doing everybody? Welcome to Shizuoka.

00:29 John Daub: I thought I was going to be driving to Nagoya and spending the night near Chubu Airport for a location shoot I have tomorrow. But my plans changed. I'm going to be filming at 5 in the morning here, then drive to Nagoya. So I'm staying here for the night. What's really interesting about this city? Ah, the Shinkansen. Because every few minutes, the bullet train flies by here. It's just one of the coolest things.

00:54 John Daub: If you've ever been on the Shinkansen, this is going to be taken away. So I'm going to say goodbye to this Shinkansen. They only dock here twice an hour. The whole time there's no trains sitting here. Let's say goodbye to the Hikari train and these very sleepy passengers riding on the Hikari. Now you can use this train with the JR rail pass, but you can't use the Nozomi ones that zip by here, unfortunately. Some of them will be Hikaris that go by Shizuoka, but most of them will stop here because it's a major city.

01:31 John Daub: How you doing Henry? Hey Alex! This isn't the most popular train in Nagoya. It's the most convenient time for our friends in the United States. But sometimes you gotta hit times where other people are awake. Bye bye!

01:58 John Daub: The next train coming here is the Kodama 751 down for Nagoya. And that'll be here at, I don't know, just a little bit before 20:20. Maybe 8, 8:15pm. It comes a little early and sits here while the other trains pass it by. Did you see the captain of the train puts his head out the window as the train goes by? That's pretty cool. That's very JR. I love it.

02:26 John Daub: This train is gonna probably stop at Hamamatsu-chō next. That Hikari. And when it does, more trains are gonna fly by. So we're gonna see some trains going by here in just a couple of minutes. After the couple trains fly by, I'm gonna switch over to the other platform on the other side. And then see what we can see over there. That side goes over to Tokyo. It's about the same view. But you can look out the window. Which is interesting.

03:06 John Daub: Check it out. This is Shizuoka City here out the window. This is the side that's a little bit more quiet than the other side. The other side would be the main side of the station. This is like the quiet side. The thing is, I don't know the published times of trains that zip by here. So they just kind of go by so quickly. You can't really see them. You have to be here to catch it. And that's part of the fun of Shinkansen flyby catches. They come when you're not looking for them. And they shock you.

03:55 John Daub: There's Shizuoka and there's the T. There's a local train going by on the other side. That's the Tokaido line that leaves from Tokyo Station and goes to Nagoya. By the way, I was here a couple of weeks ago. And if you are a member of the Postcard Club here on Patreon, I will send this to you this month. The green tea harvest is right now going on in Shizuoka. And I took a picture last time I was here with the drone. With a beautiful location just about 20 kilometers from this spot here at the station. And I'll send this to you if you join the Postcard Club on Patreon. It helps support the show.

04:29 John Daub: But a train could be flying by here at any moment. I saw four trains already pass by. And sometimes you got lightning coming out of the top here. Sokenbicha changed the design of its teas. There's the Shizuoka tea here. And Hojicha (roasted green tea), which doesn't have a lot of caffeine. Maybe I'll get that.

05:31 John Daub: I like Hojicha. It's kind of like heated green tea. Burnt green tea a little bit. And the process gives it a little bit unique taste. But also removes most of the caffeine from it. Oh, that's so good. That's really good. Now I smell green tea in the mask. It's a pleasant smell. Alright, let's stake this out.

06:22 John Daub: I got a chance to try some confections that are made from matcha today. And it was really good. I'm filming the matcha harvest. Which is different from the green tea sencha harvest. It's the same variety of green tea leaves as matcha that they have in Shizuoka. Maybe a little bit different. But they cover it with a black tarp over it so it doesn't get as much sunlight. Which makes it sweeter. And the leaves are thinner. So I'm learning a lot about how to grow the matcha and what is different from it. I think it is slightly different. It's a slightly different variety than the sencha.

07:01 John Daub: I have 300 and something kilometers per hour probably. If you are impatient and can't wait, click the like button. It's like pushing the elevator button. It makes the elevator go faster. It'll make the shinkansen go faster. Oh, here it comes. It takes your breath away.

08:02 John Daub: Back in the olden days, like 19th century, I heard that people put pennies on the railroad track and the trains would run over it. And it would make the pennies really long. I wonder how long the shinkansen would make a 1 yen coin. I'm going to try it. I'm curious. Right? Oh, here it comes.

08:46 John Daub: That wind comes from the shinkansen that you just felt. And here comes the Tokaido line. Local train line coming on the other side. Oh, it's such a beautiful sound.

09:03 John Daub: Chan writes in here, am I going to go find the Tokugawa statue? No, I'm not. I'm tempted. And then I said no. The reason why is because I know it exists. It's kind of a dark and creepy place. Don't you think? I don't think that's right to do the same live stream. Gotta innovate. This is innovating. How many people hang out on the shinkansen platform?

09:34 John Daub: Now it's easy to do that when you have this. The cheapest shinkansen ticket available. 150 yen or a dollar. Almost a dollar. Just a dollar fifteen or something. This is a platform ticket for Shizuoka station. It allows you to come in and do what I'm doing. Like hang out with the shinkansen. And who wouldn't want to do that? I'm just looking at the headlights there. It's not a shinkansen, but I think it's a local train. Yeah, going on the other side of the station.

10:08 John Daub: Yeah, platform tickets are available. Sorry, that's my receipt. I always get a receipt because I lose the ticket. I still have a receipt. This only allows you for two hours. So you can't stay for more than two hours. But why would you want to? Except that it's really cool. If you're waiting for Dr. Yellow to go by, which is a very special train or something, that's kind of cool.

10:40 John Daub: Alright, this is the Kodama train. It's going to depart at 20:21. Hey moderators, what time is it? What's the time right now? I don't have a pocket watch. I don't see a clock on the platform either. Oh, there's one right there. Alright, it's 8:17. So I can maybe show you inside the train for a second. And then get out before the doors close and I'm trapped inside. And have to travel to Hamamatsu, which is the next station.

11:30 John Daub: It's an Aussie narrator. So here comes the train. The Kodama is the puddle hopper, we say. It's the one that goes from puddle to puddle, like a local train. And it takes longer. I'm hesitant to say it takes a long time because it's still a Shinkansen. And still goes by quicker. But it's about 30 minutes longer to get to Nagoya, for example. Or to get to Kyoto. If you want to take your time and be in a less crowded train, the Kodama is the way to go.

12:09 John Daub: It's still a pretty cool looking train. Look at that, Mama. Oh, beautiful. Super pure event. Thanks for the coins, buddy.

12:34 John Daub: Actually, I was going to be I considered staying the night at the Lego Park Hotel in Nagoya. But I'll need a little bit more coins than that. It was about $200 US to stay there for one night. And I'm kind of glad I didn't because I had to cancel the hotel I booked there and I'm not going to get the money back. It was about a $35 loss at a cheap hotel, business hotel. So I'm kind of glad I didn't. I said I'm staying here.

13:08 John Daub: There's a lot of open trains. See, the Kodama is the way to go. There's loads of available seats. And it's a much more relaxed ride on the Kodama. It just takes longer. So let's follow these peeps onto the train and pretend like we're going somewhere for a second. I'm scared to get on the train now because I only have a minute. Hold on a second. I just got on the train and got off. I got on and got off because I don't want to be trapped down there. The doors could close at any moment so I don't want to be trapped down there. Except you don't play games with public transportation.

14:12 John Daub: Alright, the cool thing that I noticed the longer you hang out on the Shinkansen platform you see up there, there's wires that the Shinkansen of course uses electricity in. It's not a DC. It's a diesel engine or anything like that. But when the Shinkansen flies by here there's sparks that come out of the electrical thing. At night you can see them. It's pretty and pretty cool.

14:39 John Daub: Alright, let's say goodbye to this Kodama and then we're going to see a couple more flybys. For those joining us who are hanging out at Shizuoka Station this train will stop off at Kakegawa because it's a Kodama local Shinkansen. But the Hikari will stop off at Hamamatsu I believe. After that is Toyohashi and Mikawa-Anjō and Nagoya Station because I used to live there. I used to live in Nagoya. Bye bye Shinkansen. I could have been trapped in there. You see my shadow? My shadow is inside the train. That would have been scary. All my stuff is here. I guess I would just go on the other side of the platform.

15:55 John Daub: Let's go to the Tokyo side of the platform and bother the people there. There's the train guy who always pops his head out to say hi. Let's go to the other side before a train comes. This is fun. Another train came on the side. I might miss another train speeding by. This is the Kodama going to Tokyo now. Dag nabbit. I should have waited a second.

17:16 John Daub: From this window here we got a view of the local train platform. You can see the peeps taking the local Tokaido line. Not a lot of people are going. This is in the direction of Shin-Fuji which is the next stop. The train number 5 is Kodama 748 bound for Tokyo.

18:06 John Daub: So the purpose of a platform ticket I use this point a bit. It's not just to check out the Shinkansen. Usually you'll get platform tickets. I know Saya. Don't get trapped. One of the reasons for the platform ticket is to greet people. I've had a lot of friends come. Foreigners visiting from abroad. I think a train is coming. I get these vibes that a train is coming. If someone was coming to visit me for the first time and they're not used to the station or used to the country it's always nice to get a platform ticket and meet them when the train comes off. You know which car they're on. 6 or 7. You can wait by the door so when they get off the train they're not disoriented. You're right there to help them. I've done that a lot of times with my friends that are coming to Japan for the first time. I would meet them on the platform instead of in the station. You have to pay $1.50 to do that. Or ¥150. But it's worth it I think. It feels good when you get off the platform and there's somebody you know is there on the platform. That just feels really nice, doesn't it?

19:22 John Daub: There's a high possibility that a train is going to pass us. As we say goodbye to the Nozomi. What's this here? Is that the vendor shop closed? Or dear, where would I get my last minute beer? That's an issue. It is closed.

20:17 John Daub: Alright, get ready. From this side we're going to see some trains blow by. It's always cool to see them looking out the window. I don't know what they're looking at. Making sure no passengers get crushed. I don't know. Shizuoka's got a train. It's one station where they don't have safety guards here yet. But I bet you in the next year or two they're going to have that. The stations are putting them in. It just takes a little time here. I don't think anyone's ever fallen off of the track. So I can see. Oh, in the middle of the night you'll see on the Japan rail lines you'll see cargo trains going through. Especially on the Tokaido.

20:55 John Daub: So that movie Bullet Train is coming out with Brad Pitt. Hollywood movie on July 2nd I think. And I'm reading the book right now and it's actually pretty good. But the way they portray the Bullet Train in the movie, in the trailer doesn't get me so excited because it looks more like a European TGV or something. I don't think they could use the name Shinkansen maybe because nobody knew what it was and Bullet Train had more impact. Or there's a trademark on it from JR. I don't know. But I think Shinkansen just means New Super Express Train or something.

22:19 John Daub: There's a Hikari that's just stopping. So this will be going towards Nagoya and Osaka. But I think we're going to see the trains blow by this train. You can always tell if there's going to be blow-bys or fly-bys. If there's tracks in the middle here this is a four lane highway. So I don't think it's going to be very long before the next ones fly by here. We're going to be ready. Whether it's coming from Osaka or if it's coming from Tokyo we are in the middle. We're in position. So we're ready and staked out. I hope you have your drink in hand. If it's a morning coffee please hold onto it and don't spill it on yourself. Because it's hot.

23:13 John Daub: Hey, Britannia's here! Aloha! What time is it in Hawaii? This isn't a good time for my audience to stream on the whole. Because this is... YouTube tells you times where nobody is watching and that's not true because obviously we have people watching. So I'm really happy about that. But somebody from the UK said, John, you never stream at times that's convenient for me. So I had to stream at a time that's convenient for almost no one except for Hawaiians. I'm looking left and right. I'm waiting. I'm waiting for this. This is really exciting. I think the train will be coming any second. I don't know if it's coming from the left or the right. What do you guys think? Is it coming from Tokyo or coming from Osaka? The next one. Any bets?

24:25 John Daub: I think Kariban for Shin-Osaka on the other side there. That's strange. The train is departing before any of the Nozomis flew by. That's rare. Skip rates in here. Left side. The Shinkansen is so beautiful.

25:07 John Daub: It is such an experience to ride it. I remember my first time shocked at how smooth it was because I've ridden on a lot of the trains around the world. A lot of European trains. And the Shinkansen, I thought it was on an airplane because it's just so darn smooth. And now it's out of sight. Hello from Guam! Nothing on the left side. Nothing on the right. We are now waiting for those joining us. Waiting for the Shinkansen on the left side or the right side. We don't know if the one from Tokyo or the one from Osaka will be the next one to cross at top speed. But whichever way, we're ready and in position.

25:55 John Daub: There's lights. I see a direction. Toro-poko is in for snacks. If the signal holds out, I'm actually on is it 4G or Wi-Fi? We can go into the station and check it out. But last time I was in the station, the signal was really bad. I would say it was like 4 megabits per second. You've got Minecraft quality going on there. So I think it was a little bit not ideal. We'll see what we can see. And then maybe I'll take it down into the station and then you can get an idea. Maybe not. I don't know. I kind of just like being on the platform. You have two hours with this ticket. Platform ticket. I don't know what happens if you overstay. I've never overstayed a platform ticket. I think they think that if you can't pick up your friend and get what you need in two hours, then there's something wrong with you. That's why they put a two hour limit on the platform tickets. So just know that there is an expiration time. It's two hours from the moment you clock in.

28:00 John Daub: Left side! Let's do it. A one-two punch from the right side. That came from Tokyo going to Osaka. The next one is coming from Osaka going to Tokyo. I figured this was going to be a super express. The Nozomi that flies by before the other train. Oh, there's a light on. Always guys, one note. Always stay off of the yellow line. This is for the people with visually impaired that can't see and it should be safe for them. But it's also a line to step back. Take a step back from the yellow line and never stand on that. Because it's a safety hazard and considered rude and not nice.

29:18 John Daub: See, second breakfast is here. So tomorrow I'm actually driving at 5 in the morning to film the green tea harvest. The matcha harvest. And then I'm going to be going to film in Nagoya near the airport. And I'm going to be doing maybe two or three live streams tomorrow. I'm kind of excited about that.

29:48 John Daub: Alright, here comes a non-super express train. It's coming in too slow on the right side. Oh, they put the high beams on. I think we should go to the other side. I got a feeling on the other side, the train is going to blow by. I don't want to miss another blow by. I can't see if that train is in the way. Alright, we're back onto the other platform. The Kodama doesn't come here until another 10 minutes or so. Please stand behind the yellow line.

31:56 John Daub: It's got to be coming from this direction. I'm guessing because the next is the Kodama from Nagoya. From Tokyo going towards Osaka, which means it's coming from this direction. I'm ready from whichever train, whichever direction it comes from, I'm ready. Larnie really misses Japan. Don't worry, I think Japan's going to be open sooner than later. Like now. I'm already talking with people that are getting ready here. For the Paris tourism to resume. That's pretty exciting.

32:51 John Daub: I am staying in Shizuoka tonight. I cancelled my hotel in Nagoya and I'm staying here because I gotta wake up at 5 in the morning here. I changed my plans. Tomorrow's supposed to be a sunny day. I'm [filming?]. I'll wake up early enough. Toku Texas cosplay. Go see Shin Ultraman with Peter von Gomm. Well, we ate the Shin Ultraman burgers. I hope the movie's better than the burgers. We did a live stream on the Ultraman burgers. That was actually fun about two weeks ago. That was pretty fun. Hey, that means second breakfast! If the country opens, that means you guys can come to Japan finally. I don't know, I've been talking with you guys ever since the pandemic hit and you were in Mexico at the time. Hopefully you guys can make it here. Finally. It's crazy. I can't believe Japan's been closed for two and a half years. It's mind blowing.

34:15 John Daub: Which direction is it coming from? I don't know which direction is it coming from. The left or the right? Why don't you check the schedule? The schedule? Oh, here it comes. I don't need to. It's right there. Go! Feel the power. You can feel the power. Did you see the sparks flying? Wow. Turbo. That is WRX Turbo. It's in the house. On the train, flying by at high speed. Oh my gosh.

35:07 John Daub: They say that you're as smart as the friends that you hang out with. Well, I hang out with trains. And they might not be smart, but they're powerful. Thomas the train. Isn't Thomas pretty smart? Trains can be smart too. Yeah, the sparks. You have to I don't know if you can see it. Maybe you need a 4K camera, but yeah, the signal. I checked inside the station from off of the platform under there. The signal is almost non-existent. So, I think I'll just have to stay on the platform. But tomorrow, I'm going to be doing a few live streams. If I can, I want to stop in my old stomping grounds. My first town in Japan. It's the one you always remember 20 some years ago as the Hikari bound for Tokyo takes off here.

36:06 John Daub: A town called Okazaki, which is a castle town where Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in Okazaki Castle. And I live 50 meters across the street from the castle. And I might stop there tomorrow on the way back to Tokyo and take you with me. Which would be pretty cool. What do you guys think about that? And then we can do some street food and whatever we can find walking around Okazaki for, I don't know, 45 minutes or so before I go back to Tokyo. Kanai is waiting for me. It's about a 4 and a half hour drive from Nagoya to Tokyo. So, it's a long one.

36:52 John Daub: Any questions? Oh, I don't know. I'm gonna probably get convenience store for dinner. I don't know. I might stop off at a ramen place. I'm not sure. Ramen makes me full. But I woke up at a little bit after 5 am and I got stuck in traffic near an interchange called Ebina. There was an accident. Oh! That's it. Mr. Da says it's never too late for ramen. Once you hit like a certain age, it might be too late. That just sits there. But if you've been drinking or something, then you can say. You say it like this, it's never too late for ramen. That's the way you have to say it. You have to be slightly inebriated to get away with that.

38:05 John Daub: It is hard. You know, I don't drink a lot anymore. I have maybe one Asahi. And I'm always thinking of Mr. Da's there. It's nice to see him again here. I don't have more than one anymore. Maybe just two or three times a week at most with dinner. And that's it. But when I first came to Japan, and I think anybody who comes, if you're in a working culture, office job, you're probably going out drinking every night. You just have to be careful to take care of your health and know when to say no. Not overdo it. Especially if you're doing it every night. A lot of people do do that. That's not good. I would recommend you don't do that.

38:53 John Daub: I think we've exhausted this livestream. We've gotten a chance to see from both sides of the platform trains going by at 300 km per hour. They go faster at a station up in the Tohoku Shinkansen actually goes faster. And I filmed that for our main channel episode. Have any of you guys, have you all seen the monkey episode that I uploaded? The edited video? I filmed it in 8K. It's pretty, it's a pretty good episode. But it's gotten a lot less views than normal because no one's watching winter stuff. I don't blame them. It's chilly. But, uh, I'm glad I'm here.

39:48 John Daub: But I do have an edited episode of the Shinkansen. And took me two weeks to make that and I had to go to random stations to film the Shinkansen going by to insert that to make it look like I was on the train as Peter von Gomm and I were on the train going by. But I actually filmed that over the course of two weeks little by little. So then we have B-rolls of the trains flying by. And because I couldn't fly a drone, the Google Earth Studio did a really good job of making it look like we had a drone flying around the station.

40:25 John Daub: Not good to talk over the announcement. I'm mindful that a lot of people watch the live streams to hear the sounds, the nostalgic background sounds, so I know that it's not always good to talk over some of these things. So you just have to let it ride as the Shinkansen rolls in. Look at her!

41:29 John Daub: I saw that comment. That means soon. The train will be departing soon. This is the Kodama bound for Nagoya. So the final stop is Nagoya. Interesting. I wish I was getting on this train, but my hotel is just down the street. So I gotta go back in a minute.

42:07 John Daub: Oh, I think that the train is gonna go by. If a train blows by, maybe we'll see the sparks. I'm gonna focus on these here. Look for the sparks flying off of the train. I'm gonna go back in a minute. Hey, Garrett writes in here, get one bento. Let me tell you something, Garrett, around this time at night, the bentos are sold out. Bentos are brought in the morning, and again, a little bit around lunchtime. And then they don't bring anymore. And around 5pm, they start taking them off the shelf, because they have a shelf life. And they don't want anybody getting sick. So at this time of night, there's no bentos available. I checked before I got onto the platform.

42:55 John Daub: So that's good to know. If you're trying to get an ekiben (station bento) for dinner, you might still be able to find it at some of the regional places and at Tokyo Station, where there's just a lot of people. But your choices will be limited to whatever's left over. And there's not a lot. Often the ekiben are gone by 5pm. So if you're getting on the train at 10pm, you might be able to get one or two bentos that are not popular. But quite often, you don't get any. And you just have to get a bag of chips and a beer. It's the sympathy, the bachelor's sympathy dinner. Or pathetic dinner. Pathetic.

43:39 John Daub: I'm just showing wires. It's not so interesting. Look at the... This is another reason to take the Kodama instead of the Nozomi. The train's empty. There are still available seats. That's a reserved car. If you're riding with a JR Rail Pass, it doesn't cost any money to get a reserved ticket. But sometimes, the reserved trains are more crowded than the non-reserved.

44:26 John Daub: Let's see if a train is going to blow by here. I found during the pandemic, a lot more people were reserving the tickets because they didn't want to sit next to somebody. So they tried to space it out better. That's the train on the other side. They're pulling in. I found that the reserved ticket seats were about 80% full. And the non-reserved seats were about 20% full. It worked the opposite way. So if you wanted to social distance, you would go to non-reserved because people didn't want to take a risk. They wanted to make sure they had a seat that was away from people. In that event, everybody thinking the same way, they all got to sit next to everybody. Ha!

45:14 John Daub: I'm going to get my wires again. How did that happen? About 30 people get to look out the window and watch John with a stick and a camera live streaming. It's not so entertaining. Some people are waving, filming you and filming me. Alright, let's say goodbye to the Kodama. And then say goodbye to me. I don't know, what do you think? Is 45 minutes too long to be hanging out on a platform? What do you all think? Randania, do you forgive me? Am I cool? Cool thing to do? That's me. That's how I do it. I go right until the last second. No, it's fun. Katayama writes a no. Is that no, it's bad? Or no, it's good?

46:39 John Daub: So, we got, when I first came to Japan, there was a lot of confusion. We're talking to people with saying yes and no. They would say yes, I don't. They would agree with you with a negative. So if they didn't say, they don't want to go, they would say yes. And I mean, yes, I want to go, but not, it became a real confusion because Japanese is the opposite of English. So, that's why it's better to stick with Japanese or English.

47:14 John Daub: So this part of the livestream is sponsored by our friend WRX Turbo. Every time a train goes by, say turbo. And hit the ceiling. And if you're not tall enough to do that, then hit the person next to you. Do it in a loving way. Brantani is going, weeeee! This is going to be so much fun when everybody comes back to Japan. I remember I would just, every time I got on the Shinkansen and waited for a train, almost every time, somebody, especially at the major stations would come and say hi to me. And that made me feel so good. To have friends all over the place. For two and a half years, it's felt really, I don't know, it's just lost that loving feeling. It doesn't feel the same. It feels like normal. Not normal. What was normal was when everybody was being, you know, was here to say hi. And now nobody's here because you can't come here. But that's changing.

48:37 John Daub: This is Shizuoka Station, everybody, and yeah, I think that's about it. I'm going to go back to the hotel because I have a very early day tomorrow. It's 9 o'clock, my bedtime. So, yeah, I better get home. I have to wake up at 5. That's 8 hours of sleep if I go to bed now. I know I'm not going to watch the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial playback. Addictive. It's awful. It's like watching a, I don't know, I feel bad watching it and yet I cannot look away.

49:22 John Daub: Don't forget your bento. Thank you. One for the road, guys. Thanks, everybody. Have a good day. Have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow. We're going to be traveling to Nagoya tomorrow. If the weather's good, maybe I'll do another livestream from the green tea fields. But we're going to have another stream day tomorrow as I film for the main channel. I'll be back to Tokyo tomorrow evening. Long day of driving tomorrow, so John better get some good rest. Bye from Shizuoka. Thanks, everybody, for joining me. That was fun. Don't forget to hit the like button and check out that monkey video on the main channel. Good night, everyone.