00:00:02 John Daub: Hello, everybody. Welcome to Tokyo. We are, in this episode, going to be talking to you about itineraries traveling around Japan. A lot of things that are going to help you with your trip in the future. And we have a Call in show. So right now we have a growing number of people populating the call in on our Discord server. So please, if you're watching live, definitely call in. In particular, I'm looking for people that are in Japan right now, people that are or just came back from traveling in Japan. Leo, show your bus. This is very relevant. Look at this bus. This is the Hato bus. This is one of the tour buses that leaves from Tokyo station on the Marunouchi side. Leo and I just went to the post office to deliver some more postcards there, and guess what? They were full. The Hato buses were completely full up. We were really shocked by that. And Leo was waving at all of the tourists. You want to say hello to everybody? Hello. Look. Hello. Ah, how cute is that? Leo won't be taking any questions this time, but I will. And he'll be off of this live stream in about 30 seconds. All right. Can I. Yeah, Leo's finished. Are you finished? Yeah. Can I just cut her hair? All right. Yeah. If. If you. If you just returned from Japan or you are in Japan right now, I'd love to hear from you. Go into the Discord server and check out the Fireside chat. Raise your hand, or in the Fireside text, let us know that you're. You're in Japan right now. And we'd like. Like you to. Like to ask you to share some of your travel itinerary, some of your trip with us to get a better understanding of what's happening right now on the ground around Japan. Because I think this kind of real time information is invaluable.

00:03:32 John Daub: Great. I just got back from Shodoshima, so we're waiting for some people to raise their hands in the audience here. I just got back from Shotoshima, which is an island between Shikoku and Honshu island, between Okayama and Takamatsu City, and it was incredible. And the flights were pretty full for domestic flying. When I came on the Shinkansen back from Okayama City, the Shinkansen was packed, and that's something I wasn't really used to. This is the Nozomi. It wasn't just tourists. It's actually for, you know, the domestic travel is 100% returned. There's now travel incentives for people who live in Japan to get up to I think it was 10,000 yen a day. But it also depends on the region and where you are residential. And you can get massive travel discounts. In fact, Kanai and I just booked a hotel in another prefecture in December for an episode I'm filming for the main channel. I'm bringing my family with me and they offered a 10,000 yen discount if we had three vaccination shots. So we ended up saving 20,000 yen off of the price of the hotel, which was incredible because it was quite a pricey hotel. It's the only hotel on this particular island. I can't tell you more than that. I think some of you might know, but it was really interesting to see how they incentivized getting three shots. Local government is doing this part of the Go to Travel campaign, I believe. So domestic travel is really back and it's exciting. And if you are visiting Japan, expect it to be more crowded than it was last year, which is a good thing, I suppose. But it's not as crowded as it was in 2019. Not even close. And that's a good thing. If you're traveling in Japan this autumn and winter, I believe it's going to be about the same. I know flights are very pricey still coming into Japan based on supply and demand. A lot of airlines have not opened up the routes yet. So the demand for those particular flights is high. So they raised the prices because I mean they're a business. Why wouldn't they do that? It's not subsidized by the government to get people to come to Japan. They're going to come to Japan anyways. So it'd be crazy to do that. So let's take some questions here. We have some hands risen ufo, Bob Peso. Do we have anybody who is ready to bring up here? Yeah, King Wong is up there. King. Awesome. And I know King is making a trip here to Japan pretty soon. How you doing, King?

00:05:19 King Wong: Can you hear me?

00:05:21 John Daub: Yes, we can.

00:05:24 King Wong: I'm actually right now in Japan.

00:05:27 John Daub: Oh wow. It's that. That was fast.

00:05:31 King Wong: Yeah. I've already been in Japan for like a good, I think five days now.

00:05:38 John Daub: Whoa. And you've been enjoying the weather?

00:05:41 King Wong: Yeah, the weather is good. And then I just left Tokyo yesterday to now I'm in Kawaguchiko.

00:05:48 John Daub: Oh, okay. Yeah. Near Mount Fuji.

00:05:51 King Wong: Yep. And today, yeah, we are able to see Mount Fuji and everything is good.

00:05:57 John Daub: Tell us you're looking at Mount Fuji right now?

00:06:00 King Wong: Yep. I'm looking at Mount Fuji right now while talking to you guys.

00:06:06 John Daub: That's crazy. That's crazy. It was. But on. Really? Are you really?

00:06:13 King Wong: Yes, I am.

00:06:14 John Daub: Oh, okay. I thought you're just saying that because I asked it. Josh Schneider. Thank you for the drink, buddy. So those first five days, what was it like coming into Japan five days ago, King?

00:06:31 King Wong: Actually, the entry process is very fast. I mean, like you have all the like and I still have the My SOS app then, so that actually helped a lot. And I do realize there is a lot of tourists in Tokyo and a lot of. I mean, it's just different. It's a lot more cashless payment. And then, I mean, things are just cheaper right now due to the exchange rate. So I'm really quite enjoying it right now.

00:07:09 John Daub: Yeah, I think outside of the city, it's still quite peaceful. Not as crowded, although the domestic tourists are a lot more enforced now because of the incentives to travel. But that's really great. So what is your itinerary for this trip? You spent the first five days here in Tokyo and now you're in Kawaguchiko. What are you going to be doing on this trip after Kawaguchiko?

00:07:39 King Wong: I'll be staying Kawaguchiko for the next three days. Then I will be heading to Kyoto for the next month.

00:07:50 John Daub: Month.

00:07:51 King Wong: Then I will be traveling throughout Fukui, Toyama, Kanazawa, Nagano, Yamagata, Aizu Wakamatsu, then come down all the way back to Tokyo to celebrate the New Year.

00:08:13 John Daub: Wow. So you're gonna be here for a couple of a few months. I'm really happy to hear that. You're hitting Aizu Wakamatsu and seeing the Sea of Japan side. That's pretty cool. What made you want to go on this side of Japan instead of sticking to besides the fact that you've been here before?

00:08:33 King Wong: I'm actually hunting for pictures. You see, I'm going to all these places for maybe one or two pictures, right? And then staying there for two to three days just for their pictures.

00:08:46 John Daub: I see. So Tokyo, and you're in Kawaguchiko, which is near Mount Fuji. And then you're heading over to the Sea of Japan, to Kyoto for a while, then heading up the coast of the Sea of Japan, hitting Kanazawa, Toyama, and then up into Fukushima. That's pretty amazing. And the autumn foliage must be absolutely perfect right now. What's that like?

00:09:15 King Wong: I mean, Kawaguchiko is at this peak right now. So everything looks cool. And then yesterday there's a lot of domestic tourists actually at the Maple Corridor.

00:09:26 John Daub: Ah, yeah, the Maple Corridor. Here's Kawaguchiko right here. This is the lake. And you're probably not near the Fuji View Hotel. And that side of the city or on the other side near Oishi Park. Do you. Are you sure you know that by the bridge? I guess you have to. Everybody goes over the Kawaguchi Bridge here to get around, but it's a pretty stunning view no matter where you are. I didn't pick a very good street view here. Great. And. And what's your fascination? What. Why are you heading?

00:10:08 King Wong: I'm staying right opposite the I think the Music Museum or something.

00:10:19 John Daub: Okay, the Music Museum. All right, got it. And I'm gonna look here. I think from this bridge you can get see here. This is Kawaguchiko and there's Mount Fuji in the clouds right there. So that's not a live picture, but this is the bridge that crosses Kawaguchiko. Just gives you an idea of where King is right now. And just imagine that while I'm panning around, all these leaves are on fire, like with color. It's just such a beautiful place. And this lake is one of the most iconic places to see Mount Fuji. Yeah, one of the most iconic places. All right, cool. What made you King? What made you want to go to Aizu Wakamatsu? King, what made you want to go to Aizu Wakamatsu?

00:11:14 King Wong: There's actually one picture that across, I think the train line going across a bridge, a snowy bridge. It's a green train line going across the beach.

00:11:28 John Daub: Okay.

00:11:32 King Wong: Just to take that picture.

00:11:33 John Daub: What's. I can't remember the name of the train line. And I was just there not too long ago. I did a live stream of it. Is that what you're talking about? That the train that goes from Aizu Wakamatsu towards Niigata. All right, good night, Leo.

00:11:50 King Wong: Yeah, I think that's one of the train line actually. But there's a part whereby it crosses a bridge and then I mean it looked magical during winter.

00:12:05 John Daub: Oh yeah. That was one of my favorite stops. I actually drove to that spot, which is a train. Otaku's like paradise. And you can watch that train cross. That train leaves from Aizu Wakamatsu. And let me just get you the name of this train line here. Tadami. The Tadami San Tadami Line. Yes, correct.

00:12:40 King Wong: That's the Tadami Line.

00:12:42 John Daub: Right. And it crosses the bridge right here. Yeah, it's in the. Here's the. Here's the spot. It crosses the bridge right here. And you can see this is the point where I drove the cart and I could take pictures from here. I actually got the drone up and got it crossing here in the middle of winter. It's just a beautiful place. There's the shot that King is talking about here. You can see right there.

00:13:20 King Wong: That's exactly the spot I'm talking about.

00:13:23 John Daub: All right, bye bye. Leo. Yeah. I thought he'd be asleep by now, but how could we tell him to go away. Take Godzilla? All right, well, think. Is there anything you want to share with anybody, King, about about itinerary? This is not your first time to Japan. Where should people go for their second time after they've seen Kyoto and Hiroshima and Himeji Castle? What's the one place that you'd recommend people that they just shouldn't miss out on? That's a hard question.

00:14:03 King Wong: Visit Toyama.

00:14:05 John Daub: Toyama? Yeah.

00:14:08 King Wong: Yes. I mean, you have, like, very good seafood. You have some of the best scenery over there, and the people are nice over there.

00:14:20 John Daub: I would agree. I would have to really mention. I'd have to agree with you. If you don't know where Toyama is here on the map, I can bring it up. There's Kanazawa. That's Ishikawa Prefecture right here. Right next to Kanazawa is Toyama Prefecture. Actually, it's this one right here. And this is Ishikawa Prefecture. Toyama is just such a beautiful place. It's got the mountains. It really does look like Switzerland, I thought. And the Shinkansen line. There's a Shinkansen that leaves from Tokyo, goes straight through Toyama to get to Kanazawa. And you can find a lot of ryokan, a lot of onsen, a lot of places to stay, even if you're not a skier. It just looks so beautiful in the winter. Taking that Shinkansen through here. Oh, man. And there's the Kurobe. And the Kurobe Dam is up here, the Tateyama Pass, where the snow walls are like like 20 meters high. And you see these miniature they look like miniature buses going past these snow walls. It is one of the most amazing sites that doesn't open up until April, though. I have a live stream there on the Only in Japan go on this particular channel. But yeah, Toyama. Good suggestion, King. Thanks for calling. And hopefully I get a chance to catch up with you when you're back here in Tokyo. All right. That was great. Yeah. If you'd like to share your travel itinerary, I would love to hear it. Especially if you're in Japan or you just got back. I want to know a little bit more about that because I think that, you know, sharing the information is what these live streams are about. One of the places that I think that people neglect to go to, believe it or not, and I. I'm almost hesitant to suggest it is is Takayama in Gifu Prefecture. In fact, Gifu Prefecture is Stacked and Nagoya region. This is the center of the center of Japan is a place that not a lot of people. Not a lot of people go there. And I'm not sure why. I guess it's it doesn't have the same attraction as Tokyo and Osaka and and Kyoto, which is right. Right here near Osaka. And the Nagoya region is Stacked right now. They have the new LEGOLAND museum. They have this new Ghibli museum that just opened up. And just to the north of it, I want to show you a couple of places that you probably want to hit that's connected to a trip to Nagoya and why Nagoya is a decent hub. Inuyama is one of them. Inuyama has a castle. It's a castle. It's a castle town. It's also a street food paradise. See if I can. If I zoom out here. Here's the castle. It really is an incredible place to stay and spend some time here around Inuyama. And there's a there's a road with with a ton of street food that I found. That's that should be. Maybe I'll make an episode there. I was thinking of. Not that far away from Inuyama is. Up here is Seki City, which is known for its Hamono or knife sword making. And there's a sword making museum that is amazing. Let's see if I can find it here on the map. There's also the temple. This temple I believe is where they they have sword making. They. They used to make swords at the temple. And you could have see events taking place there. Seki is a pretty cool place, especially if the Hamono Festival or the Knife Festival is taking place. You don't want to miss that one. I think it is. I think it's coming up pretty good. But this is the one place. I don't know if I introduced this already. Mino City. Put this on your map here. Mino City is a place that is an old, like warehouse town. And you walk the streets of Mino. It really does feel like you are in the past. This is the kind of place that you're looking for. All right. We're all kind of. When you travel around Japan, everybody's looking for that place where time has stood still that you don't feel like, you know, you're in a touristy area or a theme park. This place, it looks like a theme park, but it's not. That's. I just loved walking around the streets here. Let me see if I can. I can pull up some pictures. Here's. Here's the. What I'm talking about. This is in Gifu. It's just an old street. All these buildings are converted into shops and cafes and restaurants. It's a pretty good alternative to places like Kyoto. Places that you know where you're looking for the history. Mino's got that here. Mino's got a lot of it. And it's. And these buildings are very well preserved. The festivals are very vibrant. I'm just showing you images from the Google Google Maps here. And at night, often they'll light up the streets. This might be, I think before the pandemic hit. Just to give you an idea. The city is. It's. It's pretty. Not. It's pretty easy to navigate. There's a few really good ryokan or Japanese traditional inns to stay in Mino. It's pretty reasonably priced. Kanai and I spent one one night here a couple years ago. Check this out. This is. I think this is the the back of one of the ryokan that you could stay at. It's a super friendly place. There is stuff to do. There's like bicycling and hiking, but you get a pretty interesting Japanese experience that's well off of the tourist path for most casual tourists. This is probably someplace you'd want to stay for your second trip. And it's just such a cute and quiet. I don't know if it's. It's pretty quiet place to stay. And the architecture, of course you can take a look at it right here is is that's what a lot of people are looking for over the years. It's. It's renovated. It's. It's got a lot more English speakers now. They're used to tourists and in fact they're. That here's one of the shops, shop fronts. They are very, very friendly, which is a very good contrast to Kyoto that is just too used to tourists, I think, and maybe even take it for granted. When you go to a place like Mino, you know that they really are appreciative that you came here because again, I think it is off of the beaten path. Look at that. That's really nice place. So that's. That's one of the places I think that's on. That you should put on your itinerary. And if you don't go a little bit further from here, you'll see. Hold on a second. Gujo, Hachiman area This is also. This has to be on your. I don't know why Gifu is not on more people's itinerary. I gotta be honest with you. The. The. This is like the water town, I believe. It's. It's got the these three, like three bodies of water going through it. And again has that field of the old world. Let me pull up some Google images here. Yeah. So you could spend a couple of like one night here, one night in Mino, and you get like such a beautiful vibe and a really great contrast to Kyoto. It's smaller in scale, it's friendlier, it's easier to navigate, and you get to know it better than you would. And the festivals are very vibrant if you're lucky enough to be there at that time. And the dogs dress up too. Wow. If you're lucky enough to find these two, they're probably resident dogs. The water is so crystal clear in the autumn. It's beautiful. You have a lot of dining options there on the river there. They're used to tourists as well. Again, like, not really on a lot of people's itinerary. And that's such a shame. So you have the Castle of Inuyama. So for this. This episode, I like to make a suggestion. You have the Castle of Inuyama. You could spend the night there. Spend a night in Nagoya. You could go inland to take another night in Mino City, maybe go some. Do some hiking. The food there was incredible. But the restaurants do close early. So if your ryokan offers dinner, take them up on that offer. There's probably not a better place to take dinner than at your traditional Japanese inn. Usually you get some fantastic kaiseki. Worth every yen. Then you continue up the train line and go up to the Hachiman. The goose. Hold on a second. Gujo Hachiman area I. I know I was. I'm gonna make a mistake. I got so many things in my brain right now. Yeah, it's all on this. All on the same train line too, which makes it super convenient. Here's the train. Train station. It's really, really cozy little town. That's what I'm talking about. This is the kind of the places that you're looking for that you're not sure where to go. I put that on your map of places to stay, especially if you've already been to Kyoto. If you've already been to these places, you got to spread yourself out. Shikoku, Kyushu, Hokkaido are totally different islands. Again, it's still Japan, but I think it's really slightly different culture in these places. UFO Bob, do we have anybody next that that wants to come up and talk? Well, sadly no.

00:22:12 Shane Saw: Wait a minute.

00:22:13 John Daub: We got somebody. Hang on.

00:22:14 Engwarth: We get.

00:22:14 John Daub: Now they're showing me that I'm wrong. Hang on. I'm just continuing to talking as we wait for somebody. If you can, in the fireside chat, give us a heads up on what you want to talk about so we can keep it relevant to travel itineraries and hotels. Hey, we have here Engwarth. Welcome aboard.

00:22:50 Engwarth: Hey, John. Good morning.

00:22:52 John Daub: Good afternoon.

00:22:54 Engwarth: Oh, good afternoon. My family and I are visiting Japan this December for two weeks. Been there several times already. Just want to ask for your suggestions about any places, like food places or I mean outside of the big tourist spots there that we have already heard about, but like you know, hole in the wall places where it would be great to have fun, you know, eat with the children and just have a great time.

00:23:30 John Daub: Yeah, that is a. That's a really hard question because there's so many places even here in Tokyo. Even here in Tokyo. I took Irvin, who is a viewer here, to one of my favorite Katsudon restaurants, which is a hole in the wall like it's hidden inside of Ginza tourists. There's never. Tourists almost never find this place. And you know, you can find places like that even in Tokyo. So that's hard. My suggestion, and this is what really makes it hard. Do you intend to drive it all in Japan?

00:24:04 Engwarth: No, we're going to have fun using the subway system.

00:24:09 John Daub: Okay, in that case, yeah, I, I think if you're driving in the in the Japan and going to the countrysides, you're going to find a wealth of amazingness in the Michi no Eki system, which are roadhouses. I guess you could translate that. But it's michi no Eki in Japanese. Michi being road and eki being station, like road stations. Inside of these places you have like all local restaurants. There's no McDonald's or Starbucks in these places. It's all locals that do this and they have local produce and they usually have a couple of restaurants in there that are amazing eats. In fact, you don't even have to go to the. Even if you're just driving on the highway system. All of the service areas, the SAS, there's two stops on the highways, the service areas called SA and parking areas which are PA on the maps. The SAS or service areas always have restaurants and almost always they have some sort of food challenge or regional dish and that's famous in the city. But you don't have to go all the way into the city to do that. You can eat it on off of the highway, which is pretty incredible in terms of places like what. Where in particular are you, are you thinking? Because my gosh, I know a lot of city hole in the wall places in the cities. If you just use some subways.

00:25:35 Engwarth: Yeah, I could just imagine. Yeah, we're staying at the Ginza area and doing a bit of research. Saw a couple of places already from fellow YouTubers there and some of your recommendations from previous videos. I don't know. Just looking, just thinking really far. I mean, where can we go? You know, off me, not necessarily off the beaten path or hole in the walls.

00:25:54 John Daub: Well, my first suggestion would be if you're in the Ginza area, just try walking down Ginza corridor. This is a place that's along the. Almost everybody really enjoys the experience of walking along the Yamanote line, especially in the evening. If you're coming in December, it gets dark around 4:30. So like the sun starts setting around that time. So the ambiance is incredible walking around there. And I'm not sure where you're from, but the jet lag might be setting in around that time too, if you're coming from North America. So the the that Ginza corridor is someplace you should probably check out. There's a lot of. I think they're more family friendly. There's one place that is decked out. I don't know if it's still in business. That's the thing. There's one place that's all decked out like it's the Edo period. I believe it's like a tofu restaurant, but they have a ton of other stuff and it was super family friendly. They give you these little rooms that look like you're going back in the time to the to another era. Usually there's like a garden attachments and there's this red bridge with this fake canal that you can walk over it. Let me see if I can find the name of this place for you. I'd highly recommend going going here. Here's Ginza.

00:27:18 Engwarth: Oh, perfect.

00:27:19 John Daub: Yeah. Let me see if I could show. So here's Ginza right here. Ginza Station, Yonchome. This is the big intersection. Chuo Avenue goes by right here. That's Higashi Ginza over here. And this is the Yamanote line, Yurakucho. So from Ginza Yonchome, Ginza corridor is is just this way. This is where there's an old. I think it's an elementary school where they made the kids dress up in Armani suits. It was in in the news quite a bit. Like what? I guess they get a lot of money here. This corridor goes all along the tracks. It's really close to Ginza Yonchome. And if we look at the restaurants here. Let me see. I think I can pick it out if I see the name of the restaurant. You can see it's just loaded with restaurants you see here. Tons and tons of restaurants and they're all really good dining options.

00:28:14 Shane Saw: Wow.

00:28:15 John Daub: Yeah, a lot of them might. I'm just worried if any of them have gone out of business here. I believe on a second. And I can. Thank you so much. Let me. I'm going to get to the some of the questions here. I believe it was this one right here. Tofuro. See if I can pick up. Yeah, this is this one here. I believe it's like a tofu restaurant in theory, but they serve just about everything in there. They have a like a bridge inside there. It looks like it looks like you're inside of the Edo period. Everybody that has ever come to visit me and I'm in the Ginza area, I'll take them here just because I'm almost positive they're going to have a pretty interesting experience. For food. The fish is extraordinary. You know, you have soba, udon. All like all sorts of Japanese cuisine in here. Sometimes you'll get these. Yeah, these these rooms that are really nice to to sit in. And if you make a reservation in advance, just call in in advance. That they can usually set you up in a really nice place. And the experience, I think is second to none. Here's the corridor walking down the restaurant, you can see it's it's pretty cool inside there. And that's the external part of the shop. So it's an. I think it's a nice restaurant to Go in there and it's called Tofuro Ginza Corridor Shop. The other place there's an Almori. Almori? Was it Almori? I think it was. No, hold on. Akita. There was an Akita dining nearby. And this. I cannot. I. I have to recommend this to everybody. I did a live stream. I think I did a live stream here. This is really close to to Ginza again. Here's the Ginza Yonchome, the main intersection. Here's the Yamanote line. Here's. Here's Shimbashi station. And here's the Akita dining. Naga. Naga. Namahage Ginza. You know why this place is awesome is because the Namahagi are there. You get to meet these ogre monster scary people and they will scare the crap out of your kids and that's going to be great. They scare the crap out of me. This is what they look like. They actually roam inside the restaurant as you're eating and you're getting authentic food from Akita. Like you don't have to travel to Akita to get really good. Well, they got really good sake, but they have really good Japanese cuisine and it's tourist friendly, which I like. They have English menus. The staff usually can speak English. This is Kiritampo, which is a regional dish from Akita. It's like these amazing rice dumplings and a soup. Usually there's. I think you can get with pork or with beef. It's just so good. Local. The local chicken is outstanding there. So you have some chicken dishes which will blow you away. The. The inside of the restaurant is very Japanese style. So I. I cannot recommend this enough as an experience for people to come and then get to know Akita prefecture a little bit. But they have shows in the evening where the Namahage come out and they start and they start coming to your table and it's it's real immersive in the culture. So that was. That's kind of a hidden gem in in the Ginza dining region. And it's quite affordable too. I don't think these are these are not, you know, five star restaurants where you have to dress up. They're very friendly in in that sense. Because Ginza can be a pretty, you know, luxurious restaurant area. The sky's the limit for for dining in there. Thanks for asking that question. I hope that's helpful. Helpful to you. Shane Saw is here. How you doing today?

00:31:41 Shane Saw: I'm good. Hi, John. Good afternoon. I'm actually visiting Japan next Month for about two weeks. So far, I've only got. I've got two hotels in Tokyo. I'm still considering, like, venturing out, but I'm staying in Asakusa and Shinjuku. And I'm just a solo traveler, but I have a friend who's Japanese from high school, and he'll be over there for the entire month.

00:32:10 King Wong: Wow.

00:32:12 John Daub: Wow. So most of your itinerary is just here in Tokyo?

00:32:17 Shane Saw: Yeah, I don't have anything, like, explicitly planned out because I kind of want to go more with the flow. But I. I have considered, like, going out to, like, Hakone for, like, day trips closer to Tokyo.

00:32:40 John Daub: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. How about staying in a Japanese gyokan? Is that something that was interesting to you?

00:32:48 Shane Saw: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'll try to get my friend because I don't want to really go to Ryokan alone.

00:32:54 John Daub: But yeah, it's good to go and with another person because it can be kind of a lonely experience if you're traveling alone. The ryokan is the attraction, and I don't know to have that alone, I guess. You know, it can be a good experience if you're there to take pictures and stuff, but you really want to have a friend to eat dinner with. But, you know, I've traveled to Ryokan alone, and this is a question I've gotten recently. I find that you might be invited to other people's tables, and people are. You can meet people in the bath that will talk to you, and, you know, if they can speak English, if you can't speak Japanese, will be very friendly because they're also on vacation. And I've. I guess, yeah, I've always been invited if I was alone, especially if they had kids because they wanted to learn to speak a little bit of English or something, or if the kids are learning English. They were very friendly to solo travelers. That was pre pandemic times, though. So I don't want to discourage you because some ryokan might not take solo travelers, but a lot of them will have smaller rooms that are available for solo travelers, so you just have to ask. Not all of them will, though. That's really interesting. So Hakone is on your list? Apart from Tokyo and Hakone, is there a place that if you had more time further out, that you'd be interested in visiting?

00:34:16 Shane Saw: Like, not specifically. I just know I'll probably end up coming back to Japan in the future. So there's so much to do in Tokyo is kind of my mindset.

00:34:26 John Daub: Yeah, you could probably spend, I don't know, years here because I live here. There's just literally an endless amount of stuff. And the thing with Tokyo and my love hate relationship with the city is that, you know, after two or three years places that you love probably changed enough that make it, that keep it pretty fresh, but which is a sad thing but also a part of the life here in the city. Businesses usually don't stick around for more than five years. There is a constant turnover, especially in the restaurant business. So places that you loved, they will reinvent themselves. Just like the vending machines changing the drinks every season. You have shops coming in and leaving. Even if they are successful, people just have varying degrees of what they want to do, what is success and what they want to do with their lives. And that makes it pretty exciting too. There's no end to the excite, the adventures that you can have inside the the city of Tokyo. Thanks so much for calling in and sharing that. We'll take one more question from, from anybody I can. I want to say thank you so much. I'll get in touch with you on Patreon and see if we can get. Iken has created this holder for this particular gimbal and I'm pretty excited to try that out near the NHK hall, the Zelkova Road. I'm after secondhand plates, bowls, etc, you know, if you're looking for secondhand stuff there's a lot of, of flea markets that take place. My go to website because I write for them is tokyocheapo.com I know the owner, we used to work together before he started tokyocheapo.com he's a good guy. I think they're both called Greg but Greg Lane is one of the, the creator of the website and that, that has been, you know, it's not about just cheap stuff. They actually have really good guides and we've been putting it together for about 10 years now. They have guide books that they sell on Amazon digital stuff so I can't promote them enough because it. I know that they're honest and good people there because I work with them. So that's why I can recommend them. I don't know the other people, they're not, they're not, not pushy about it either, which is what I like. And all this stuff, all the information is free. The festival schedules that they put on the website is great and they have pictures and lay it out for you how to get there. So if you're looking for secondhand stuff and Flea market stuff. They have it. All that information is there because it is Tokyo cheapo, meaning it is budget stuff. We have Corona in the house. How you doing?

00:36:48 John (Caller): Can you hear me?

00:36:49 John Daub: Yes, I can.

00:36:50 John (Caller): Oh hi, I'm John as well actually.

00:36:54 John Daub: Hello John.

00:36:55 John (Caller): And planning a three week trip in March. Actually it's my third time in Japan but one of the things I'm doing slightly different. First also doing a solo travel and I'm going to Gunma. I'm planning to rent a car there for about like that's probably about two or three days there. And I noticed that it happened to be the vernal equinox day in Japan. So I was like not sure what's actually open or what's closed or open during that time. If I can even rent a car on that day or not.

00:37:29 John Daub: You can rent a car. I don't think there's a problem. There's so many rental agencies available. I always use Toyota to rent a car. I don't know if they're the best or they might be the most expensive. I don't know. I have a business card with them so I get a little bit of a discount. But they have an English speaking hotline where you can actually call in in English and reserve a car and pick everything up and everything is done in English. And they have special tickets for the back of the car that say you're a tourist. And I always like to put that on there even if I'm not a tourist because people are just friendlier to you. They actually wave sometimes like they know you're not from around here. So they might be a little bit more careful knowing that you don't, that you might be lost. So I don't think that that that holiday. The only thing I'd be concerned about is that things might be sold out or busy because during the holidays a lot of people are traveling domestically at that time. And things like rental cars. I would make sure you book at least a minimum of one week in advance for any rental car on the weekends and for holidays especially if you're looking for a particular car. They often don't have what I'm looking for if I'm booking a day before.

00:38:47 John (Caller): Yeah, I wanted the Toyota Mark X from your recommendation from years ago, but I don't think they have them anymore.

00:38:55 John Daub: I. They still have them at some of the places, but I can't. That was years ago. I would recommend the. I call it the Rise R A I Z E. Some people call it race. I don't know. You know it's. It's weird. It looks like rise to me. So the Toyota Rise, which is a Mini Su, a small suv, it gets pretty good gas mileage. Better than the Mark X. You're above ground which is nice and it's a super comfortable ride. It fits me, Leo and all of our luggage in Kanai. And we love that car. It's a little bit more. I think it's a couple thousand yen more than a Prius. No, I think it's online is almost the same as the Prius but the gas mileage is not too bad. I think it's 20, 20 kilometers to a liter which is really good I think. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. And the navigation systems, the map, the navi on there is usually better than in the cheaper cars. So upgrading a little bit, you seem to get a lot more out of the car experience driving wise. But the Toyota Aqua is not a bad ride either. I kind of like that's Kanai's favorite car to rent actually.

00:40:01 John (Caller): How easy is it to gas up at a gas station without knowing too much Japanese?

00:40:09 John Daub: Most of the gas stations,

00:40:12 Shane Saw: some of

00:40:12 John Daub: them are self serve and some of them are full serve. The full serve ones are very easy. The first thing you have to know is make sure you remember which side of the car is the gas. The gas tank is on. That's kind of really helpful because if you pull up you might not understand when he's telling you you're on the wrong side. So usually on the dashboard, the gas, wherever the gas light is, that's the side that it is on to tell you if you how much gas you have. I'm not sure though. I always check before I rent the car on the rise. It's usually on the left side. You almost have to, you don't almost don't have to say much at all. I usually use my credit card when the guy comes around, I say man than M A n T e n man than manten means fill it up, means full tank. And he goes okay. And he'll take your credit card, he'll swipe it and return your card. They fill up your tank and then he'll bring the receipt for you to sign and that's it. You can go on your way. While they're doing it, they always clean the windows. Always. They clean the mirrors, the windows, the car. It's like full service, 1950 style which I love. There are some self service places you'll. It'll say Serufusab and you probably learned that really quickly as you're driving around. And in those cases you have to get out of the car and use your credit card and pay at the pump. You can use cash as well, I believe, but it's almost self explanatory on how to do it. But if you don't, there's always a staff member there who will come out and do it for you if you get lost. Almost always. That's been my experience. Yeah.

00:42:23 John (Caller): Thanks, John.

00:42:24 King Wong: You're welcome.

00:42:24 John Daub: Do you have any follow up questions or I guess what to do in Gunma other than like to hear from you?

00:42:34 John (Caller): Chance for other people to ask questions too?

00:42:36 John Daub: Yeah. Okay. Oh, thank you so much. I'll address Gunma right now. So John Michael, thank you. It's nice to see you again. Have you been to Niigata, Japan? I'm going there on December 2nd and 3rd. I'll be doing some live streams in a very northern area of Niigata. Hopefully there's some snow, so that'll be here on Only in Japan. Go 2nd and 3rd of December. I'll be there. So there you go. WRXR WRX Turbo is in the house and Fernando writes in here. Do you know if Tokyo Station offers overnight luggage storage for big bags leaving early in Osaka next day and don't need it for one night? I believe there is a left luggage place within Tokyo Station. Let me do a Tokyo Station live stream this week and address some of the questions because I'm getting a lot of that. I don't know if it's moved or not, but I believe that there's a left luggage place near the Nihonbashi side of Tokyo Station on the Yaesu Nihonbashi exit of Tokyo Station. I think there's a left luggage place there. There's some pretty massive luggage lockers there as well. But let me, let me look into that and I'll do a live stream this week at Tokyo Station and try to put that all together because I kind of want to know how. How things have changed now. The tourism is back, they're starting. They didn't have a need for that. So they might have gone out of business or closed. So I think they're restarting a lot of the tourist infrastructure. There also should be a left luggage place by the bus, the highway bus terminal where. Which is also on the Yaesu side of Tokyo Station. So I believe, I believe so. But let me go back and find it. That's a great question. Then to talk about Gunma. What's there to do. Yeah. You know, when I think of Gunma, my first. My first impression is hiking. All right. I mean, the outdoors and hiking, it's just such a beautiful place. There's got a ton of mountains there. Gunma also has some skiing, so it's a place where you can do some of that. Maebashi is the capital of Gunma, and I always enjoyed walking around there. It's a pretty big city for a regional prefecture. So I always thought that Maebashi, if there was a prefectural city I could live in. Maebashi is a very livable place. It's got a lot of restaurants. It's very clean and very well organized. And they've done a good job of renovating the downtown area. It's a lot different, a lot better than. It's almost better than Utsunomiya, which is the Tochigi prefectural capital. I don't know. It's a hard. That's a tough one. Gunma's claim to fame for me and the reason why I go there is for hiking and for Onsen Minakami. Onsen is Takaragawa Onsen. Minakami is. The station is so nice, especially in the winter. And it's. It used to be really hard to get a reservation to stay there, but you definitely want to do it at least three months in advance if you can. But sometimes you can find a place with a month before. But it's very popular because it's popular with foreign tourists. And I might have something to do with that because I did a video on there and then it exploded. Yeah, thanks a lot. A lot of Thai tourists go there, so they have. I believe they had Thai speaking staff there. And it's really promoted in Thai travel literature. But Takaragawa Onsen, it is beautiful. They have an outdoor bath along the river and it snows in. The bath is one of the most peaceful and beautiful baths in the snow. And usually from around December 20th, I can't say for sure, but December 20th it starts to have snow. But in January, February, March, there's snow there. On November is just too early. You got the autumn colors. But I'd say like December 20th, you're probably safe. It doesn't matter. Autumn foliage or snow is so beautiful outside. To be naked in the bath there and yeah, you got to be naked. And it's a co ed bath, by the way, so you can hold your towel in front of your privates. If you're a woman, there's an actual brown gown that you can wear. So you don't expose yourself and you don't have to wear it. But in Japan, nudity is, you know, we're all born naked and it's not a big deal so much, you know, just different culture. So I usually will go, you know, out there and I just put my towel in front of here and there are women around, you know, it's not my problem. So no one's got cameras and things like that. Although I did, but with permission from management. Gotta ask about that before you take pictures. That's all I know about Gunma. I hope that that's helpful. I also walked across it or I rode my bicycle across it going from Pacific to the Sea of Japan. And it's just such a beautiful place. And driving is wonderful too. Takasaki is also an interesting city as well. That might be bigger than Maebashi, I'm not sure, but that's where the Daruma Bento is. And there's a lot of history in Takasaki City. Revel. This is our last question here and I'll go into the live chat and answer some of them as well. Thanks guys for the super chats. Appreciate it. What can I do for you today?

00:47:18 Peso: Hi, John. I'm former military here, so all my attorneys are going to take me to Yokota Air Base for my lodging initially after I get there in a week's time. And I bought the seven day Japan Railway ticket. So I'll be going up north to Tohoku to visit Hachinohe and then I'll be running back down south to Osaka to check out the new Nintendo World.

00:47:50 John Daub: All right. Wow.

00:47:53 Peso: And then. And in between, I've got two nights at the at two different Disney hotels, so I'm doing both parks.

00:48:00 John Daub: Oh, okay. Wow. That's a pretty good itinerary.

00:48:03 Peso: So that, yes, it's kind of revenge because I haven't been back since 2019.

00:48:10 John Daub: Revenge tourism is back, baby. Yeah.

00:48:14 Peso: And I did want to highlight one little aspect of my transportation is that I would like to encourage people to start to use the buses.

00:48:23 John Daub: Right.

00:48:25 Peso: In addition to the usual orange and white limousine service, I'm taking the KQ bus from Haneda to Tachikawa to pick up the Omi Line and then I'll hook up with the Fusa Station for Yokota Air Base.

00:48:41 John Daub: That's the best way to go. The bus system is something that a lot of people don't try at the airports but can be, well, way more convenient depending on where you're staying. And your final destination for the day is Right?

00:48:54 Peso: Yes. Typically, they will fan out from the airports and they will terminate at a railroad station that's in the neighborhood that we need to get to.

00:49:04 John Daub: And if you have a lot of luggage, that's way better than going through the city of Tokyo and catching the train at Shinjuku station, which is really not great for for rolling bags.

00:49:16 Peso: Yes, absolutely. KQ Bus has an extensive network and they run roughly every hour or less that I've seen on their schedule at a decent price. Really? Like $13 or less?

00:49:29 John Daub: Yeah, it's very reasonably priced. And I think it's really easy to. I think it's good to research, make sure you know what, which bus you're taking before you arrive. But upon arrival, it'll take you about five minutes. There's an information center. They'll point you in the right direction. There's a vending machine to get the ticket in advance. And the queue to get on the bus is always very well run. There's somebody there in the queue to ask you where you're going. They put a color seal on your luggage so it doesn't get lost to make sure that it goes on the right bus. I've never had an issue taking the bus, and in fact, it's always been a little bit more comfortable than taking the trains because you don't have to roll the bags on and off from the airport. It's just so easy to get onto a bus the way that they set it up than going down into the basement to get the trains. I think the bus is way more comfortable. If you've got a family, it might even pay to get a taxi. But the buses. Bus systems, in terms of convenience. But the bus systems, again, it's very environmental friendly and it's very, well, well run. I always thought what this is, you're a repeater. So this is your. You've been to Japan before. Where's a place in the in the country that you think people should visit that they don't know about?

00:50:40 Peso: Well, you know what, you've talked a lot about Tohoku. And I was once stationed at Misawa Air Base in the region. And there are lots of places you can fan out and see culture very inexpensively. And everybody's very friendly up there.

00:50:56 John Daub: The air base is up in Aomori, right?

00:50:59 Peso: It's near Aomori. But Misawa City is its actual location in Aomori Prefecture, though, is what I'm saying.

00:51:07 John Daub: Yes, yes. It says way up there in the top of Tohoku. Right.

00:51:11 Peso: And it's a. You know, it's a whole different vibe. Of course, the time I'm going next week, it's going to start to snow. But that's okay. I'm good with that. They have, you know, lots of little temples and shrines you can visit. And if you don't mind the drive, you can go over to Hirosaki and see Hirosaki Castle.

00:51:31 John Daub: Oh, and that's a definite must, especially in in the springtime. And every time I go and I try to go to Hirosaki for cherry blossoms, which is at the end of April, which is a month after Tokyo up there. About a month after Tokyo it starts to bloom. So when people ask me what's the best time to go for the cherry blossoms, I say if, if you're thinking about coming in March, Tokyo. And if you're thinking about coming in April, Hirosaki, it is the best experience ever. And every time I go, we I. You'll see people that are foreigners and you think they're tourists. They're not. They're from the base and they're so friendly too.

00:52:13 Peso: Hirosaki also puts on a very nice winter festival too, with their own sculptures.

00:52:18 John Daub: Hirosaki is one of those places in Tohoku. It's like you have to add that on your itinerary in the fall as well. It's famous for the apples, which is on the manhole covers. So you're going to have amazing apple pie that might compete with the best that America has to offer. Because the apples in Japan are just absolutely amazing. Going to an apple farm and picking your own right now is something like, I wish I had the time to go and do that. I think I'm gonna miss the apple season just by a couple of weeks. But.

00:52:45 Peso: And John, if there's one more thing I can piggyback on about car rental.

00:52:49 John Daub: Sure.

00:52:52 Peso: Like you've said, take a car and rent out in the outer areas. Tokyo Zombie for the brave or experienced like myself who've lived there. But everyone who wants to rent a car should get an international driver's permit from the AAA of their local area. They. That's what they for for visiting tourists.

00:53:15 John Daub: They expect that, yeah, you have to have an international driver's license. There are some countries where that might not be the case. It depends on the on this, on the treaties that they have. I think Korea might be a country if you have a Korean driver's license that might suffice for Japan. But in general I would anyways get a international driver's license. That's been translated your license into Japanese, I think it's like 10 bucks. When, when I first came back to Japan in 23,003, I had an international driver's license and I drove on that illegally. Residents of Japan are not allowed. Are only allowed to drive on the international driver's license their first year in Japan. If you're a resident and you're renewed and you're in your second year, you have to get a driver. Japanese driver's license. You can't use international driver's license. But if you have. If you're coming in as a tourist, international driver's license, it's just so fun to have that option. Especially if you're. If you're renting the car outside of the city and you're. You're a little bit. Let's say you're a little bit nervous about driving in Japan. If you're going to Sapporo from the airport, that rental spot is so countryside, it's like there's no cars around. This is a great place to to get used to drive. But if you're picking it up outside of Tokyo Station, it's a mess. You're going to really be stressed out picking it inside of a city. But if you've never driven in Japan before, but it's. You get used to it after about 15 minutes. In fact, Somthi, who's a Patreon supporter of mine, has been emailing me. He's renting a car from Hiroshima and driving it to Shikoku to Kochi I think right now. And he said after, after he'd rented a car before. And he said after about 15 minutes he just got used to it. It's not. It's not too, too different to be driving on the other side of the road. Just some things to think about.

00:54:46 Peso: Gotta watch making those left turns into

00:54:47 John Daub: the right lane, left turns in the right lane. If you start thinking about it or riding a bicycle around a little bit before, that helps to get used to a little bit. But yeah, that's the only thing that scared me. But that's a good experience driving the car in the countryside because you see so much more of Japan that way than you can't on a train which is just limited to the tracks. Cars can go all over the place. And Japan is a car culture. It's a train culture, of course, but it's also very much a car culture. We have a Honda, Mitsubishi, Toyota. Think about all the car companies. Nissan here based in Tokyo. Japanese love their cars and the roads are some of the best to drive on. In the world. Yeah.

00:55:30 Peso: Well, John, thanks so much for entertaining me, but I have one last request of you. When you make a. When you do a programming, would you cover a mom and pop hobby store?

00:55:41 John Daub: I'm actually going back up to see my friend in Nobody Betsu to cover his toy museum, and he has a Mom and Pop toy store. But I think more mom and pop shops out in the countryside would be great. They. They've been just hesitant because of the pandemic. We're just not quite out of it where people feel comfortable, especially if they're older and it's hard. They want the business, but they, they're. They're afraid of giving access to do stuff like this yet. So I'm guessing by the the spring of 2023, Japan will be like, maskless and going, I just did a tweet on this. It's like, I don't know. People are still kind of afraid once tourism opened up. But I trust me, as soon as 2023 hits, things are going to change. I'm going to even force it if I have to, because it's like enough is enough with this. But people are. Because tourism just opened and it's like thrown at a lot of localities right now. Just suddenly happened. There's a little bit of hesitancy, but I will be doing a lot of mom and pop shops and getting back into that for sure once the start of the year comes, because they need the most help, I think, of all of the places.

00:56:53 Peso: Yes. Well, thank you very much, John. And shout outs to Peso over there.

00:56:59 John Daub: He's here.

00:57:02 Peso: Yeah, we talk another channel, so it's good to see him.

00:57:05 John Daub: Best to you, too. All right, guys, take care. John, thank you. Thanks for calling in and talking. Yeah, we're live. We're taking questions on the on the Discord server. I'm gonna try to do this once a week, so if you're watching this in playback, it'll be great for you to join us and to talk about your itinerary. Every time we do one of these, I want to introduce you to a new area in Japan that might be something that's off of the beaten path so you can get something valuable out of it. And this time, the Hachiman Gujo. The Gujo Hachiman area and the Mino area and Gifu Prefecture. Certainly places that don't get enough of attention, but probably should. Thanks so much. Thanks. Thanks. Moderators. We have hello, high 821 peso and UFO. Bob, do you guys want to add anything before we sign off here.

00:57:53 John (Caller): Probably just on the rental car situation. I just hope my license, my country's license gets accepted by Japan in the coming years.

00:58:00 John Daub: Right. Do you have an Indonesian license? Yeah, I do. I am getting an Australian license in the next few months. I just have to do the test. So hopefully that will bypass the whole bs. Yeah, it is kind of crappy. It's like this treaty signed decades ago and, and it really needs to change that. Especially considering Indonesia has the world's youngest and population and, and one of the an economy that's just going to get stronger and stronger. We're going to need more visitors from our neighbors. So hopefully they change this up real fast. Do not underestimate Indonesia anybody. It is every time I go there. People are just so young and, and, and ambitious and I, I. In the next 15, 20 years, I cannot see, I can't. I can't not see that country just growing. And, and we'll see more Indonesian travelers, India as well around the world maybe even less Chinese travelers and more Indonesian and Indian travelers. I don't know the way that the balance of the economies are gonna. It's gonna look in 20 years. But I can't, I just can't see Indonesia staying, not growing over the next 20 years. Thanks so much. Thanks guys so much for hanging out with me this afternoon. And I hope this is really helpful to you. Again, I'm not doing these travel updates travel updates anymore because it's not necessary. But it's really important to to keep in touch and address what the next need is is to finding the next spot in Japan that could make your trip even better. And we've. I'm just so humbled meeting people in the streets that are telling me how useful that this is. So that encourages me to keep it up. One hour. That's pretty good. Thanks Peso. Thanks UFO Bob. Thanks. Hello. Hi 821 for everything. Hello. I 821. We're making some changes to the Discord server. We're about 16000 strong. Melanie, I didn't eat your snacks. Thank you for sending me UK snacks. I appreciate that. That's been keeping us Thai sweet chicken chips. Wow. That's been keeping us energized here behind the scenes. Kanai and I. And thank you everybody again. I'm gonna be doing a Patreon Q A this week so if your Patreon supporter we'll have a smaller group of people people. And tomorrow we'll be back probably another street walk and a video release early access tonight. For those who are looking forward to a Main Channel episode. Finally. That'll be available to you this evening. See, everybody. Have a good day. Good night. Yeah, it's a good night, depending on where you're in the world.