00:03:00 John Daub: Hello everybody, we're at a food court. Oh my gosh, this tsukemen (dipping noodles) is so heavy. Let's get outside. I found a table right outside the shopping mall. We're gonna eat this together while it's still hot. Look at that soup. Oh my gosh, I'm so hungry. There's Tokyo Bay in the distance. What a lunch we're gonna have here.

00:39:00 John Daub: Oh man, I've been dying for some tsukemen. Look at that. That definitely has to be an ajitama (marinated egg). There's some seaweed, there's some chashu (roast pork) in this really thick soup that we dip it in. And of course, the noodles are a lot thicker. They're different than udon, but they sure look the same. It smells the same. How you doing everybody? Oh my gosh, this is gonna be great.

01:14:00 John Daub: Now, I forgot my tripod to make things more complicated. I got two paper cups and I think this will stay. We're gonna find out. Let's get eating. So tsukemen is like a cousin of ramen. Everybody loves ramen because almost everybody loves ramen. There are some people who don't because it has so much flavor. It just bursts through your palate with paradise. And you can have good ramen and then you can have great ramen. And when you have great ramen, you definitely know because it is honestly mind-blowing and changes your world because you've never had that taste before. Like all these flavors.

01:45:00 John Daub: And that's the reason why I think some of you might be coming to Japan as often as you do just for ramen. I'm serious too. I'm not being silly about that. That's a pretty big call. All right, I think it's gonna hold here. That should be fine. That dog disagrees. Is this gonna be okay? I tried to put some weight in it. Oh, come on, cooperate. I'm doing my best here.

02:24:00 John Daub: Tsukemen is a breakfast of champions. Now, I actually prefer tsukemen to ramen. I know that sounds pretty crazy, but there's something about the dipping that I just really love. The best way to do this here, I'm gonna just show you the soup. Now, every shop has a different way to do this. That's another reason to try more of it. Katsuobushi (bonito flakes), that's these fish flakes on the top, and then you can see the noodles. It's a really deep umami, which is the sixth sense. You see it dancing because it's shaved so thinly. This is the hardest food in the world, katsuobushi, which is bonito fish flakes. Enough talking, let's get into eating.

03:22:00 John Daub: Just one more time on the noodles. The thing with tsukemen is, quite often, you can upgrade the soup size at no additional cost. It costs almost nothing to make this stuff, so just ask for it. You could ask for omori (large size) at some shops, and they'll just give it to you, or extra large size, and I usually go for that because more noodles, right? Who doesn't want more gluten in their diet? All right, this is gonna be so great.

04:02:00 John Daub: [Technical issues with stream quality; moving tables for better signal.] You know what? I'm not going to stand for this. If it's low quality, then it's a failure. Let's go to the other side. I'm not going to stand for low quality. Let's take this to the other side of the food court here. This is the table that I ate with Kanae Daub last time, and it's on the other side of the building. Thank goodness. I wonder what it was that was giving it such awful quality.

07:44:00 John Daub: Itadakimasu (let's eat). So, I typically make a mess of it. I'm sure that there's some people that are a lot cleaner than me. But stick it in there. It's so good. Tsukemen is always going to be my favorite choice. I love the richness of the soup. Although, you know, you never complain with ramen. Tsukemen is just my preferred dish. Here's the chashu steak. Let's take a look at it. It's pretty thick. You don't have to eat this all in one bite. I tend to do that, which is crazy. Look at how thick it is. Let's cut open the egg. Look at that. Holy smokes.

09:41:00 John Daub: I just wanted to share my lunch with you guys. Kanae Daub is working. Leo is at daycare and I'm editing. And I got a bicycle, so I rode to another part of town to get some lunch. I'll take you inside a little bit to look in the food court. That's a wonderful ajitama. And it brings a little bit of the taste of the soup in there. So there's this saltiness. Oh man. So this food court is in Toyosu. It's called Lalaport (shopping mall). And I come here every now and then. It's like a 15 minute bike ride for me.

11:03:00 John Daub: Is tsukemen something that you can get in other countries? I'm sure it is. I know that ramen is a pretty big dish everywhere now around the world. It's not as good in some places. But you can find it more. One thing that Japan does really well is soup. And noodles. You know, when I think about it, I can't think of anything that they do poorly with food. Japanese cuisine typically is salty. It's not spicy. It's not sweet. It's the overwhelming taste that you get is salty. So it's not uncommon these days for people to ask for less salt. But usually there's a reason why it's that salty. Like they've come with a recipe and they've slaved over it.

12:36:00 John Daub: There's no right or wrong way to eat your food. There's the way that you like it. And that is always going to be the right way. So when you go into a sushi restaurant and you ask them, could you please cook the sushi? It's raw. That's a little odd. You don't go into a vegetarian restaurant and order a steak. If you don't like raw fish, don't go to a sushi restaurant. But there's always ways that the chef will recommend that you like it. But the way that Japanese eat their food is not always going to be the way that you like it. Altering it, adding ketchup to it—my French friends didn't like the white rice, so they put soy sauce on their rice. We looked in shock as they drowned the rice in soy sauce. They were happy. And how can you tell them you know better? You can't. If you're happy, that's all that matters.

14:39:00 John Daub: That's why they have Have It Your Way at Burger King. A customer's always right. Usually. Generally, the Japanese do not mess with food like the French. They respect the ingredients. In general, I think that the Japanese chefs put their reputation into it. And if it's a chain shop, they put some thought into the food that you're getting. They want to make sure that you are getting the best. So to alter that, it's a little odd. But if you want to use a fork or a spoon and you don't want to use chopsticks, it's okay. If you want to put ketchup on a Wagyu steak, it's a little odd, but it's okay. It all comes down to putting butter on your rice. The reason why they don't do that in Japan is because the rice sticks together. When you use chopsticks to eat Japanese rice, it sticks together. But when you start to put soy sauce or butter on it, it starts to fall apart. And then you need a spoon. Furikake (rice seasoning) is something they'll put on rice here, but it doesn't break the rice apart.

16:36:00 John Daub: Everyone's entitled to their opinion on the way to eat food. I've learned that the way that I eat it is not the best way, and not the way that other people should eat it. A lot of chefs have come to that realization with foreign tourists. But with Japanese though, they'll just follow along because the chef's reputation is in his food. So you don't want to mess too much with that.

17:43:00 John Daub: Food courts in Japan are pretty much like everywhere else. You'll get a number on a buzzer and when your food's ready, it buzzes and you go and pick it up. Some places will have vending machines where you can get the ticket. It's faster that way. When you get the ticket after you pay for it through the vending machine, give the ticket to the staff. And when it's ready, they'll call your number. But typically nowadays they do everything with these hand buzzers.

18:24:00 John Daub: The one way that you shouldn't eat tsukemen is to dump the whole soup onto the noodles. I've seen people do that. It's weird. But once again, you can do that if you want to. The reason why you don't do that is because the soup has a secondary purpose. After it's done with the dipping sauce, you can go back and put some tsukemen broth on it. And it makes it into a soup that you can drink. It makes it less thick. So that's one reason why I love tsukemen. But if you like sludge, by all means, you can just eat the sludge. There's no wrong way. Seriously no wrong way.

19:39:00 John Daub: The cost of this was 1,150 yen. Which at the exchange rate is like $7. That's pretty crazy. $7 for this. That's insane. Tomorrow I'm going to be doing a livestream on inflation. If you were to come to Japan, the exchange rate is in your favor. There's no doubt about that. Even if it's at 130 or 140 to the dollar, it doesn't matter. It's still a bargain. The issue is the prices have gone up on a lot of stuff from October. And I'm starting to notice it more. Things that I buy are noticeably 15% more expensive on the whole. Inflation has certainly hit Japan.

21:12:00 John Daub: If the dollar kept on getting stronger, and the Japanese banks did not intervene to the tune of like $50 billion just to temporarily lower the exchange rate, inflation would be out of control. We've also lost a couple of companies as a result of this inflationary pressure. One of them recently is a candy maker. Sakuma Drops—they've been making candy for 100 years. And they couldn't keep up and they didn't want to raise the prices, so they folded. When inflation is pretty controlled, it's predictable.

22:11:00 John Daub: I'm going to eat the sludge as is because I'm in a stream. Very sad. The ingredients, the sugar, all the stuff that they were using was just harder to get and to maintain the quality. They just closed. And in Japan, you don't really lay off workers. I ate the noodles too fast. All I have is sludge. Check that out. That's what it looks like. But it's so salty good, I have to eat it. I want to pick up the bowl and just drink it. It's more like oozing down your throat. Gosh, that was so good. I'm just thoroughly satisfied.

23:36:00 John Daub: I'm going to bring back some donuts for Kanae Daub, I think. She's going to hate me because she's on a diet. I'm going to take you inside now. Food courts in general in Japan are really cool because the quality of the food in there is usually quite good. Prices are reasonable if you compare it to other restaurants. It's fast, which is important. And yeah, you can eat outside sometimes. And this is nice. You can see the weather behind me right now in Tokyo. It's cloudy, about 17, 18 degrees Celsius. So it's not too cold. But because it's November, you can't wear shorts.

25:01:00 John Daub: Tomorrow's live stream is about inflation. This live stream private because it didn't go the way I wanted it to. All right, let's go inside. I apologize if the signal goes bad. This is one of the best tendon (tempura rice bowl). It's a shop in Nihonbashi. That's 1,200 yen for that. I got to eat that again.

27:04:00 John Daub: I have to make my reservation for the Colonel's Christmas chicken. You get a pie with that. And a plate. It's a commemorative Merry Christmas plate from Kentucky Fried Chicken. You have to make the reservation by December 11th. Look how big that bucket is. This is what the Christmas bucket looks like. That is massive. 4,480 yen. That's crazy. But with the exchange rates for you, that would be like $33. I think something like that. That's not too bad.

28:30:00 John Daub: This is a new gimbal. It's lighter. And I dropped the last one down the stairs at Aoyama-itchome Station a couple of weeks ago. This is the view of Tokyo Bay from Toyosu from Lalaport. You can see right over there. Those cranes are at the Olympic Village, which is still a disaster zone. It's still closed down. They still have tarps. They still have ramps over the buildings. What is taking so long? It's been over a year and a half since the Olympics. That Olympic Village zone is still like weird. It's supposed to be a place where people move in to live. And we have not seen that yet.

29:37:00 John Daub: You make a contract to take over the apartments at the end of 2020 and the Olympics are delayed. I'm sure that's a breach of contract. It's already a brewing scandal. The cost of the Olympics was not worth it. But after I don't feel so bad now because when you see about the World Cup that's happened, and how much Qatar paid for that—my jaw dropped. It was $280 billion. That's a lot. A quarter of a trillion dollars. For what? A World Cup event for a month? That's insane. That's such a waste.

31:20:00 John Daub: It reminds me of that movie Brewster's Millions. Have you ever seen that one? If you haven't, you have to. One of Richard Pryor's best movies. He's given 30 days to spend $30 million and if he can do it, he gets $300 million from an uncle that he never met. He wanted to understand how hard it was to get rid of money. Can you imagine? Money is not always a good thing. A little bit. You just never take more than you need.

32:27:00 John Daub: This is the flyer that I took. Oh look, there's a discount ticket. But it's ridiculous. And then if you don't order it a month in advance, you can't get the chicken on Christmas day. But the bucket looks good. And that plate, we could use a new plate. Double fromage—it's a meat pie and then like a fromage cheesecake. Eight pieces of chicken and all this for 4,200 yen. I think that's not a bad deal. Costco chicken is really cheap in Japan. Try riding the subway with that in your bag. It's going to smell like roasted chicken.

33:57:00 John Daub: I'm glad that I could share my lunch with you. This is tsukemen. And yeah, if you do come to Japan, I know that you all want ramen. But I always look for tsukemen because it's more fun for me. The noodles are bigger and it's separate. And sometimes you can get more noodles added to that soup and that thick, rich broth turns into a soup. If you add in some of the tsukemen broth— at the counter, they had these and sometimes on the table at the tsukemen restaurant. That picture is after you finish— you can add that in there. I believe it's the water from the boiling noodles or something. Tsukemen tsuyu (dipping broth). But it's quite good. And it really balances out the soups. It makes it more palatable because it is really salty.

37:13:00 John Daub: If you haven't already seen my latest video, how green tea is made, definitely check that out. It is, I think on the internet, probably the most authoritative video guide going into the factory— step by step. It took ages to make that one. I know it's not going to be a big draw for people because it's not as exciting and glamorous as a big steak, but I think it's a real strong part of Japanese culture. Understanding green tea is definitely a part of understanding Japan. And for me making that episode was such a great experience to learn about that process. That's one of the great things about this series. I'm learning about this stuff just like you, which is really awesome. A lot of YouTubers are taking you on experiences, but I want to bring you a story, something that is new from an angle that is different and unique. That's what makes that edited channel so good. But the channel won't grow without more content, so I'm gonna have to make some compromises.

39:30:00 John Daub: Shout out to everyone from India that's watching. Thanks for being somewhat civil with the Wagyu videos. There were some people that were a little upset about every time I post a Wagyu video because cow is god and there have been people protesting. But the majority of people are very understandable about that. They don't quite understand how well the Wagyu beef cattle is treated in Japan compared to the rest of the world. Whether you don't eat meat or not, I think doing that is a really good step if you're not in the extremes.

39:41:00 John Daub: The video that's been triggering people in India— can anybody tell me one video on the main channel? It's been going viral because the numbers are skyrocketing. Hint: when it comes to worldwide pollution as a country, Japan is number 94, which is at the bottom of the list and that's a good thing. Japan is one of the least polluted countries in the world. The air quality is reasonably good. India is number five, one of the worst polluters in the world. I've been to Delhi, I've been to Mumbai— it's gotten worse. They banned fireworks during Diwali, but the PM level goes up really high. So I made a fireworks video. What's the big deal? Japan has the least pollution in the world, one of them. Why is it transferred into onto the video that I'm making and people telling me that I'm an awful person and Japanese shouldn't fire fireworks at all? We don't have that kind of pollution anymore here. I honestly don't understand. Some of the viewers in India take it too far and it's upsetting. But if you read the comments, it's been going viral in India as a result of people upset with fireworks. There's like an anti-fireworks group in India and they really hate that video. So it doesn't matter. It's true. It's driving the views up and the watch time is through the roof. Thank you to our Indian viewers. I don't care if you like it or don't like it, just watch to the end.

42:47:00 John Daub: India is probably the most exciting country for internet usage in the world right now because the US everybody's already on the internet. India for the most part is almost there too, but the usage of people new to the internet is like this. Because of smartphones and new technology, people didn't have access to laptops and computers. Apple products in India are even more expensive than here in Japan, which is crazy. A lot of YouTubers are seeing an explosion of viewers from India, which is really exciting. But with that there's a lot of people don't know that the world outside of India is different. There's different values and cultures and ways to approach life. That newness is really interesting to see in the comments— people transferring their values over. This could be said about the United States as well for people who don't leave the US much. We see the transfer of the culture. We don't get those kind of comments from Singapore, from Europeans, from places where there's more mixture of cultures and a little bit understanding that your neighbors are different.

45:01:00 John Daub: If you'd like to be a subtitler for the main channel, I would love to have you. It's a volunteer position. On our Discord server we have a group where we're subtitling now in other languages. We want to make all the videos accessible. And I want to keep making videos that teach— like about green tea, how beef is raised, how fireworks are made. Things like this, a really deep inside story. Having that subtitled in other languages opens up that learning experience to the rest of the world because not everybody can speak Ohio English. That's what this is— probably Columbus, Ohio State English. I have a different accent than my family members. I've been in Japan for 25 years.

46:34:00 John Daub: Toyosu is a pretty cool place. If you just go straight here there's a home center which is probably the biggest in Tokyo. And there's a Yurikamome line (driverless train), the station's right there. And right underneath us is a Yurakucho line, which I often take. I came here by bicycle. After I get Kanae Daub something sweet to eat back home, the next video I'm making is about the Wagyu Olympics. How does Japan decide what the top brand of beef is? I've always wondered this. Five years ago I just missed the deadline to get a media pass to cover that event. This year I went to Kagoshima and I filmed the heck out of the Wagyu Olympics. This event where they gather kuroge Wagyu beef cattle from all across Japan to compete in the ultimate competition called the Olympics for Wagyu or Zenkyu (All-Japan Wagyu Competition) in Japanese for short. It was a fascinating five days— going to the auction where one cattle sold for like three hundred thousand dollars. The winning cattle sold for that amount of money, which is insane. A thousand dollars per kilogram of this Kagoshima beef. I kind of believe that Kagoshima was the champion of the Olympics this year. The next Wagyu Olympics will be held in five years in Hokkaido. The video I'm editing is going to be a really interesting look on how they come up with that judgment on the number one Wagyu beef brand in Japan. It's been a fight between Kagoshima, Miyazaki for the last like 20 years. Oita prefecture also was very strong this year and Hokkaido had a pretty good showing as well. I was the only YouTuber there. Pretty cool, huh?

49:24:00 John Daub: To avoid distractions, one final note— I know a lot of you are asking to buy me coffee or to meet up with me. It's really hard to do that because I'm so head down right now editing. Depending if I know who you are I might come out and say hi, but it's really a struggle because now that tourism has returned, if I did that I wouldn't get anything done. So if I don't reply in the way that you want me to, I really apologize. The requests have been off the chart over the last couple of weeks and I just can't do it. I'm going to do some more meetups once a month.

51:14:00 John Daub: Thanks everybody. This is just a fun live stream walking around, talking and trying to share my lunch without a tripod. A lot of challenges but that's what makes this live streaming channel really fun. If you look at the tea video that I just uploaded you'll see that I made a mistake— I spelt factory wrong. I forgot a T. The centering is off as well because of the missing letter. When you make a mistake, it makes it an original and one of a kind. So you have to look at the bright side.

52:20:00 John Daub: All right, everybody, back to work, back to editing. Finishing up the Kickstarter trailer. Hopefully we'll have something out to you ASAP. Peter's gonna take a look at the work I've done on it, and then we'll release that to you. See you, have a good day. Good night, everybody. Tomorrow, live stream about inflation. What are the really good things that you can do to help people? What's the real cost for you if you do come to Japan right now? Is that the sun setting? That's crazy early. Bye.