00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Echigo-Yuzawa part 2. I came here so early in the morning, there was nothing really going on, and then I thought I would come back in the afternoon, and guess what? There's too much going on.

00:00:11 John Daub: Check this out. I don't remember this from before. There's a footbath in front of the station, and I spent some time actually soaking in it, but because of the time I have to go to catch the Shinkansen, I can only show it to you because I gotta catch the train here. Check it out. It's kind of cool. There's a bunch of people, mostly non-Japanese that are soaking in it. That's so cool. Actually, it's so warm because it's a nice feeling. And we have snow all around here.

00:00:44 John Daub: How you doing? I actually stayed at this yokan right across the street from the station a few years ago, and it was a pretty nice place. They have a private bath on the balcony just right there. So that might be a recommendation if you're just looking for a quick place to stay. Lots of people. Lots of shops around here. I rented the car, which is just... Check it out here. Right there, the Toyota rental car is literally across the street from the station. That was so easy to get in and out of the highway. Almost no traffic.

00:01:17 John Daub: The streets here... Be careful if you do walk around the backside of Echigo-Yuzawa Station. Although it does seem like an onsen town, it is very much a street, and I've seen some close calls from people who want to stand in the middle of the street. So, without further ado, I want to take... This is my dip, and now let's go for a sip. Inside, there is a place to get Japanese sake. This is one of my favorite stations.

00:01:48 John Daub: So you're going to have to put the two together. The first livestream where nothing was open, and then the second livestream where everything is open. And then we'll go to the train platform, because I got a feeling I better get... I have a non-reserved ticket, so I better get there like 10 minutes early. So I'm not even sure how much of a sip I can take. Whatever it is, it's going to be fast. I'm going to go to the train platform.

00:02:05 John Daub: This is the last stop on the train platform. I don't even know how the signal is going to be good either, because there's a lot of people. This is the time where hotel check-in starts, and hotel check-out was around 11 or 12. People were still lingering around, so it gets a little crowded at this time. But it was nice to be in the snow. Before I go inside the station, check it out. This is the drive. Look at those mountains! That was my drive for most of the trip. I had this beautiful blue skies and the Japanese Alps all around me. It was just stunning to drive. And I'm filming an episode for the main channel, so I couldn't show you that. We'll even talk about it. It's top secret. So let's go inside.

00:03:11 John Daub: Echigo-Yuzawa Station. Let's see what we can do. Maybe grab some Japanese sake or something. If the signal's bad, let me know. There's a very good chance that this thing's going to break apart. Look at this. There's people. First of all, this is a huge difference from before, right? All right, this is the Shinkansen entrance here. We're going to be running back here in about 5 minutes or 10 minutes. 10 minutes is my limit.

00:04:02 John Daub: One of the go-to gifts is the sasa dango, which I have in my bag. I'll show you that in a minute. This is also where I got kanai, a gift about 4 years ago. A copper coffee pot. Say that like 10 times. I'll see if that store's still here. But the Tsubame-Sanjo region is very famous for this kind of metal works. Oh, there it is. Is that it right there? Yes, it is. Check it out. They still got them. Whoa, that's the same one I got for kanai like four years ago. Except they raised the price by a thousand yen. It used to be 3,500 yen. They got some really nice stuff. Look at these metal cups here. I love it.

00:05:06 John Daub: All right, let's go inside the Kokoro. It's open. Where they have hundreds of sake. And you too can be like this dude. Drunk and happy. Oh, it smells like sake. Here's a place to put your bag there. Here's 500 yen. Thank you for your service. Hokusetsu. Wow, that's expensive. All right. Sorry if the quality is bad here. Oh gosh, it's so good. That is one of my favorites. Hokusetsu YK35. Polished down to where 35% of the rice is still there. So it's just the starch and it's so pure.

00:07:21 John Daub: If I insert money, will it improve connection? Probably not. We're like so deep. Hold on. I don't want to drink shochu. That'll mess me up. This is Koshinotsuru Genshu. Oh, this is three coins. Mitsu. This is Kakure Shibori Tatete. Two coins. There's a lot of people here. Sorry, and we're deep in the place. All right, Kanpai number two. That was sweeter. This was good too. They put a list. So there's a list up here of the top 10. And Koshinotsuru Premium. I didn't get that. But before it used to be one coin. For one shot. Now it's like three coins for certain ones.

00:09:16 John Daub: All right, let's get out of here. Thank you. Oh my gosh, my bag is so heavy. There's the whole set. I guess you can buy that. How cool is that? They also have these cream cheese tarts. So I was thinking of getting this for our Daimyo supporters. That might be a really good idea for this month. These are, I think it has like Japanese sake. No, but sometimes it does. All right, maybe I'll get that here. It's so crowded right now. The signal in there is hideous. Sorry about that. If it wasn't good, but I had and I can only get two shots. Of sake. One of them was a Hokusetsu, which is one of my favorites. And the other one was, I can't remember, but I filmed it. So I got a copy of it somewhere.

00:10:32 John Daub: Brandania is here. Hey, walking tour. My treat. Nice hot bowl of ramen. Thank you. I'm going to be dashing to the train, Michael. So I'll have to pick that up later. Maybe I'll get an ekiben on the train. But you can see here. This is absolutely a must stop. In fact, if you just want to get out of Tokyo and experience this, something is good at that Tokyo Wide Pass that I had showed you before. It's like 10,000 yen or about $80. Us for three days of Shinkansen travel in like the Tokyo influenced area. And this is the farthest you could go. And you're pretty much in snow country out here. So it is such a deal.

00:11:19 John Daub: There's also some restaurants and the last thing I want to show you before I go to the Shinkansen terminal. Just some there's some really good restaurants here at the end of the hallway. Here is a bath. Like a really good onsen where you could soak for like 30 minutes. And that's at the end and take a left. And I've done that before. And I'll do that again. But not right now. John's got it. Oh my gosh. I'm starting to feel those two shots. I could feel them.

00:12:15 John Daub: Check it out. Look at the soba. Look at how beautiful that is. They just put like each bite really nicely on. The tray so you could pick it up so easily with your chopsticks. That's it's all about you can see there's people in there eating. It's quite crowded right now because everyone is heading back home from ski trips. Check out this katsu don and oyakodon. Oh man, look at that ikura. It's such a different atmosphere when it's crowded compared to this morning. I like the lights that they put here. It almost looks like snow falling the LED lights above. This is sasa dango. You can get them frozen. Do you see this? I'm going to open one up on the Shinkansen platform. My train is at five something.

00:13:15 John Daub: Now some dude he slept in here. He thought it was like a capsule hotel. This is just a place to work with a desk. I guess you could sleep in there. Here's the vending machine for ramen. But the thing is there were so many people lined up when I got here. It's too crazy right now. This is the ramen booth. Where there is one person a lonely person eating on the left there. Oh, there's nobody there now. I'm kind of out of time. So they have these ramen Yokai. I believe this is a non-Japanese company. But these Yokai Expresses have been making ramen out of this machine here. And the reports are that it's pretty good. They have one inside of Tokyo Station. I think I might just go do the one at Tokyo Station. Because I got to run. But these vending machines. Produce some pretty good ramen from all reports.

00:14:23 John Daub: Is that Ippudo? Yeah, there it is. I guess that's Ippudo right there. The tourists know it. The locals eat the local stuff. The guy was giving us a peace sign. How awesome. Here's the Tokyo Wide Pass right here. Valid for three days of unlimited Tokyo area travel. Which includes this station. Which is an hour away by Shinkansen. So you have that ability. Now I got to go get my non-reserved seat here. Sometimes you have to stand. I have no intention to stay. Okay. 506 is the next train. Platform number 14. Okay, this way. Let's go.

00:15:25 John Daub: If you need a last-minute gift. Usually after you go into the Shinkansen place. They have a little place with all the little all of the main gifts. And that would be it right there. Newsday. But I'm good because kanai only wanted sasa dango and I got her the sasa dango. There's a lot of people coming now. Look at this. Yeah, the instant ramen is getting so good. It's not freeze-dried. They have it like sometimes kind of fresh. So you have to boil the noodles and make everything yourself. But the taste the quality differences light years different from the freeze-dried one. All right, it's coming here. The non-reserves are cars 1 to 3. This is car number 16. It's a 10 car. So this is a this is a 10 car and this is number 5 and number 4. So I'm in the right direction here that outside.

00:16:58 John Daub: Why am I going back to Tokyo? All right, kanai and Leo are at home? Well, the non-reserved is really crowded. There's a chance. I might have to stand. That's the risk you take when you go with non-reserved. Echigo-Yuzawa. Hey there, Tokyo Paul live. How you doing? Nice to see you. All right, there you go. I'm going to wait in line here and there's a chance. I might not be able to get a seat but them's the brakes when you go non-reserved and you don't get on the train at the origin, but I didn't know when I was going to be back and this is the thing if you have a reserved ticket and you're not sure what time you're going to be getting to the train platform. It's pretty much the same. Probably not a good idea to get it. So I only get it when you need it, right? It's only an hour so I can stand for an hour, but I can't stand it for more than that. Hours my threshold.

00:18:54 John Daub: All right, we're going to wait for the train and then sign off which is in 10 minutes from now. Can you guys keep me company for 10 minutes? Is that okay? All right. Yeah, please do so. You can put your bag there and it becomes a place marker. That's how people do it in Japan. I never understood that people put their bags their backpacks their wallets on a chair at Starbucks and go get their drink on the first floor. That makes no sense to me because that that would be gone in any other country mountains. It's pretty outside. I wish I was a skier. Let's see here. I might have another video. Here's another another view from the car. That's all I had like a drive.

00:20:40 John Daub: All right, the Shinkansen coming on this side is a later one. But the thing is there's only a Shinkansen like once every 30 minutes or so. The last one was 40 minutes ago. So that's why there's a build-up of people. Wait a second. So there's a train to Tokyo. Eight minutes later. I don't see what the difference is. This one goes to Takasaki Omiya and the other one goes. Let me see here. Takasaki Takasaki Omiya. Okay, this stops at more places. This one's more direct. So this one goes faster. So if you're not in a hurry, you have a choice. If you wait eight minutes, you can take this one, which is going to be a little bit. You see there's two trains here. One at 506. The Tanigawa is an express train and the one at 514 is a slower train, but both of them. So I'm not sure if it's worth it to take the other one because it's there's a good chance that could be full too. But you see the left one has a non-reserve to three only and the other one has non-reserve for one to five. So there's more seating available in the Toki train. It's a tough call. Okay, I'm going to go with the Express. I'm just going to go Express. When in doubt, go Express. I think I hear the train. There comes a train rolling in.

00:22:54 John Daub: Carol wants to go on a train ride with me. Well, sure you can go on a train ride. You happen to be in Echigo-Yuzawa right now. I'm happy to. See you there. Sit next to you and have a conversation about what's in my pocket. A sasa dango. This is what I was talking about. This is mochi wrapped in a sasa leaf and it's got anko red bean paste in the middle. It's so darn good. Oh my gosh. I want to eat it now, but let's see if I can if I can eat this really quickly. So you can there's a string that you can pull to open it up. You see that? All right. I'm opening. It up right now. Can't see it because I'm I'm two-handed here. Here's the mochi. It's made with a yomogi, which is mugwort. It's a kind of weed. And there's the red bean paste in there. Oh man. It's just so so good with the coffee or something or green tea or anything hot. The train should be showing up in about three minutes.

00:25:47 John Daub: Now there goes that train. I really wonder if I'm going to get a seat here. This is what I'm looking at. This is my my scene in this direction. It's kind of not exciting. You're waiting in line with me. You won't have to wait much longer because in a minute the trains coming. At least you don't have to stand on the train. If there is no are no seats. So even on a weekday ski season, it brings a lot of people out to the to Niigata and this Shinkansen line is more like a ski line in the winter. It's just everyone has snowboards and skis and winter gear so it can get quite crowded. A lot of these are oversized luggage. So I'm not sure I guess it just qualifies because oversized luggage. I think it can't be more than a certain certain length. I think these might exceed it. But what are you going to do?

00:27:34 John Daub: But Chan you can't I guess Chan could you know climb in the overhead racks because you're used to being in a trunk. But I I'm living here cannot do that. However, I will tell you a quick story. Okay, it's got to be quick because the train is coming. It was December 31st. I was riding a TGV train in Europe from. From Brussels to Paris and I had to get there because it was New Year's Eve. My friends are waiting no seats. They told me I couldn't get on so I got on the train. There's no place to sit. So I sat on the luggage rack like in between the cars. I wasn't hiding or anything. I had a Eurail Pass. So the train conductor walked by me. Okay, I saw him stop like he saw something and then he backed up like in reverse then looked at me. It was like this guy in his you know, late 50s. Not a nice guy. He said no no no like I even started speaking rapid French to me. And I said I gave him my Eurail Pass and says look I just don't have a reservation and he said okay, you're going to have to you know, get off the train. Well, the next stop was Paris. So it was okay. In the end. He I don't know I got in some trouble. He took my passport. I he told me to sit down and he took my passport and the guy sitting next to me was an international lawyer and he told me goes did that train conductor. Take your passport. I go. Yeah, it says then you got him. He's not an officer of the law. He's not allowed to confiscate passports. I said really so the train conductor came back and the lawyer took over and a lawyer leaned over and said, excuse me. Are you a law enforcement officer or customs official and he said no and he said well, you have no right to confiscate this man's passport. Please return it to him and the conductor refused to do that. So we all three of us went back. Into the conductors pretty good to have somebody advocate for me in the end. I got my passport. The conductor said he was going to call the police and run. Oh, here comes the train. I was missed it. He told me he was going to call the police when we got to Paris. He never did. It was just an embarrassing situation that you wanted to save face. The lawyer said there's nothing he can do. You had a Eurail Pass. You just didn't have a seat and I didn't really understand but I'll never do that again.

00:30:07 John Daub: There's no place to sit. This is the most crowded train you're ever going to be on. The train is free. All passengers with a seat and a seat permit please use it. Please exit the train at the next station. Please arrange your luggage after the train leaves. Please wait until the train is over. We will soon depart. Wow. What's the last train number? Oh, then. Please arrange your luggage after the train leaves. 8 minutes and 58 seconds. It's about 10 minutes late. I'll be sure to change my luggage and go home. Wow. There's no place to sit. Alright this is the best we're going to get. There's no place to sit and I'm just going to have to stand for an hour. I'm not sure if I've ever been to Paris. There's no line. There's no line. There's no line. There are people who line up on Twitter. There's no line. There's no line.