00:00:01 John Daub: We are here in Yuzawa. I just got off the Shinkansen. Everyone's getting off. A lot of people have skis because this is Niigata, a winter wonderland, and I'm here to film an episode.

00:00:14 John Daub: How you doing everybody? In this episode I'm going to take you around Echigo-Yuzawa Station and show you a little bit of what's around here. I just got from Tokyo to here in a little over an hour. Check it out, look outside the window—it's snow. We don't have this in Tokyo. Good morning Jason. It's really cold, you can see my breath. Alright, let's take a look at the Shinkansen.

00:00:57 John Daub: This is the Toki Express going towards Niigata. I came here on the JR Tokyo Wide Pass—10,180 yen, like $80 for three days of unlimited travel in the Tokyo area, which includes this place. It's a crazy deal. I could go back and forth like 10 times in three days for only $80. Gotta say goodbye to this train before we move on.

00:01:40 John Daub: I don't think I left anything on the train—it's too late now. Bye bye Shinkansen, I love you Shinkansen. Come back, I'll see you again in about six hours. That's a prerequisite—you must say goodbye to the Shinkansen. You can't just go to your gate without showing appreciation for the train that brought you here.

00:02:21 John Daub: I came from Tokyo about an hour and five minutes ago. Check it out, here's my trip from Tokyo Station to get here. This is inside Tokyo Station—it's not exactly exciting. Tokyo Station is pretty big. I could take the Tokaido Shinkansen from the Yaesu entrance that goes straight to it, but for the Joetsu Shinkansen and the other ones you have to go inside the belly of the station. There's no quick access. You can see the green Toki Shinkansen on the left—that's the Joetsu Shinkansen. Mine's a 704 Toki on the top, going towards Niigata. Non-reserved seats one through five, the rest reserved. If you're leaving from Tokyo, you don't really need a reservation—you can sit in non-reserved if that's the origin.

00:03:26 John Daub: Here I am, walking fast to my car number two, which is the one I always take. You can see the tall buildings around Tokyo. Going towards Niigata makes me feel like countryside, nature, good food, mountains, and the Toki Shinkansen. The view from inside the train is pretty good. It takes a while to get out of the metropolis of Tokyo—about 20 minutes after you leave Tokyo Station going by at a glorious 120 km/h, you'll see the next view, something like Saitama. It's so urban there, a lot of vending machines on the platform. Oh, there's the front of the Shinkansen. Can I say it's like a sexy train? Back to normal speed. Here's the fringe between Tokyo and Saitama—very little trees, hard to see nature. You don't see the mountains yet, but now you do, just 30-35 minutes later. It's so beautiful.

00:04:55 John Daub: For an escape, I have a rent-a-car to pick up in about 15 minutes. I thought it would be pretty cool to take you inside this countryside station and get a look around because every Shinkansen station is different and kind of special. This one is one of my favorites. Keep on watching till the end because you'll see why. This is such an empty station compared to Tokyo—like a big warehouse. You could put a Costco in here. Trains every 20 minutes or so, but not all stop here—there are expresses and locals. Echigo-Yuzawa is a pretty big station.

00:05:53 John Daub: I'm here to film an episode for the main channel. Actually, I wanted to film it next week, but the opportunity was right now. This is the JR Tokyo Wide Pass—good for three days of Shinkansen travel and all travel around. Such a cheap price. For double that, you can get the Tohoku-Hokkaido Rail Pass, and you don't have to be a tourist—you can be a resident of Japan, you just need a foreign passport. For the JR Rail Pass, you need to be a tourist—that one covers the whole country. They got some restrooms here, clean as we saw in yesterday's livestream. Just look at all the empty space inside the station—it's crazy. It is pretty chilly out here. Let's look out the window before we make our way to the guts of the station. This is one of the most fun stations for shopping. I hope some of the places are open. Oh, look at the mountains! Look at the icicles—it's beautiful.

00:07:35 John Daub: All the Canadians are going, "Hey, what's wrong with you, mate?" We got snow—we don't have it in Tokyo right now. I don't want to go to those mountains, but I can because I have a rent-a-car. Jason, do you have snow right now? Canada is a massive place—there's snow somewhere. Tokyo was pretty warm. Alright, let's go out the ticket gate and I'll show you around.

00:08:27 John Daub: You can transfer directly to the JR trains right here—just take a right or exit to the station on the left. There's the Joetsu Line, which will take you to the Sea of Japan side, and the Hokuetsu Express Line, which will take you to the center of Niigata—that's the direction I'm going. Oh, and they do have the ramen broth drink still—pretty unusual from Ippudo. If you get a chance, it's one you might want to try. All right, let's get going.

00:09:28 John Daub: It's still too early—all these stands are closed. I'm shocked and not shocked—I didn't time this right. They have sasa dango (bamboo leaf-wrapped mochi with anko), which is the best. You've got to pick up a pack of this—yomogi (mugwort) with red bean paste in the middle, wrapped in a leaf that has an amazing flavor. But all these booths for gifts are closed—they'll open in an hour or so. What a shame. At the end of the street is Kokoland, with hundreds of vending machines giving out different sake from Niigata Prefecture—500 yen gets you five coins to try five different ones. It'll cost a lot to drink all of them, but you probably don't want to miss your train. One of the gifts they have here: knives and steelware from Tsubame-Sanjo, where they make the best teapots, knives, even swords—been doing it for centuries. They also sell bags of rice from the Uonuma region—some of the best rice. More to carry on the Shinkansen, but I don't think the prices are different from the supermarket. Why buy it here? I guess it's about having it from the origin.

00:11:53 John Daub: This is the visitor center—they got like a Mont Bell outdoor store in here. Makes a lot of sense—they didn't have this before. There's also an onsen (hot spring) in this station—crazy. An actual hot spring you can soak in. If you have an hour before your train, spend 30 minutes in the bath. If you're skiing—which is why a lot of people come here, not me—you can soak before getting on the train. Or get a bowl of udon or soba right here inside the station—that smells really good. There's a noodle stand, and a couple of stalls starting to open. This is the ramen vending machine—just started up in a couple stations around Japan. I might try this on the way out tonight. It looks like it takes a little while, but that means ramen 24/7, no human needed. Can't be that good, can it? I'll try it when I come back.

00:13:40 John Daub: Nothing open—well, that means I gotta do a second livestream, which is totally fine. Definitely a chill in the air. I hope this car has snow tires—I'm in deep trouble if it doesn't. Why is there a piano? Anybody can walk up and play—JR put it here between 9 and 6pm. Another reason for Leo to take piano lessons—I wish my parents had forced me. Echigo-Yuzawa has one of those iconic Shinkansen station looks—like a big warehouse where the Shinkansen passes through. In winter with all the snow, makes sense. No trains coming in because there are so few of them. Let me find the Toyota Rent-a-Car—there you go.

00:15:05 John Daub: You can get buses from here. Not a lot around—mom and pop shops shut down at 4pm. If you're going out for nightlife in Yuzawa, call ahead because there's just not a lot. But it is really pretty around here. Alright everybody, that's all I got. I just wanted to share a little bit of Echigo-Yuzawa Station. I've done a livestream here before—if you want to see what it looks like when it's open, check the Only in Japan Go playlist. There's a thousand videos where I take you around Japan live on location shoots to share a little bit of the trip. Yeah, I better go get the car—fingers crossed it has snow tires. Pretty sure it does because there's snow all over. Thank you Echigo-Yuzawa—it's early but I'll be back. And I'll be back with you too if I find something interesting between the main channel episode and the edited one, because it's so special to go outside Tokyo. I'm coming back for you—that looks so interesting. Alright, see you everybody. Don't forget to click the like button.