00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody and welcome to Kagurazaka, which is a sloping street that goes all the way up this hill. And that's what we're going to be doing today too. In the winter, there's no trees, no leaves on those trees. Usually it's covered in the summer. It's a lot cooler, but it's cool naturally because of the winter chill. And joining me on this adventure is none other than that guy over there.

00:28 Peter von Gomm: That's me. Hey, I was just checking this out, John. There's a cosmetic surgery clinic.

00:36 John Daub: A what?

00:36 Peter von Gomm: There's a cosmetic surgery clinic here.

00:39 John Daub: Wow. And I was kind of racking my mind of things, something to get you for your birthday.

00:44 Peter von Gomm: Today's his birthday, guys.

00:46 John Daub: And what about cosmetic surgery?

00:49 Peter von Gomm: What would you like to change?

00:51 John Daub: Nothing. I'm fine. Why would you suggest that? I'm not that old.

00:58 Peter von Gomm: What?

00:58 John Daub: I thought you were 50.

01:00 Peter von Gomm: No.

01:02 John Daub: I might have thought that. That's hilarious. Let's not and say we did. All right, let's walk up the street. So Kagurazaka has a long history going back to the Edo period. Peter will fill you in on some of those historical notes.

01:17 Peter von Gomm: Yes. Well, actually, Kagurazaka is located where the outer moat was in the Edo era. The Edo era ended in 1868. And that was when feudal Japan kind of came to an end. And what we have in modern day Japan. Yeah. I understand now. So because this is on the outer moat, this was an entertainment area. And there were lots of geisha who were thriving in the Edo period. And we will see some of these geisha dwellings probably. The narrow alleyways of Kagurazaka as we walk around. It's a really cool neighborhood. And I work here often.

02:00 John Daub: Great food. And it's a really interesting place to walk around.

02:03 Peter von Gomm: Is that why you made me meet you here?

02:04 John Daub: Yeah, I was working here.

02:06 Peter von Gomm: Oh, really? It was convenient for me.

02:08 John Daub: It was convenient for you? Alright, then you're paying, right?

02:10 Peter von Gomm: Well, I'll cover your cosmetic surgery.

02:14 John Daub: I didn't mean for that. Thanks everybody for the birthday wishes. That's really nice of you. While he was talking, I'm kind of noticing all of the buildings around us. And there's no really big high rises in the Kagurazaka.

02:26 Peter von Gomm: No. But a lot of family businesses. There's more chains now that have been coming in for the last couple of years. But it is still a place that is very much smaller in scale. And you feel that walking.

02:37 John Daub: Yeah, no high rises. Lots of restaurants. As you said, there's quite a few chains that have popped up here. But fantastic food. In fact, one of my favorite ramen shops is just right here.

02:51 Peter von Gomm: Oh, that's it.

02:51 John Daub: Yeah, look at the people lining up for this. It's so good. It is so good. Thank you, Chan, as well. Thank you so much. Thanks, guys, for that.

03:06 Peter von Gomm: Gosh.

03:07 John Daub: Okay. So, I'm going to go to the restaurant. But it's a really good ramen restaurant. Not too expensive. I think under a thousand yen. And one of my favorites has the Zangie. Zangie?

03:17 Peter von Gomm: Zangie.

03:18 John Daub: Zangie. Is that the Hokkaido Karage?

03:20 Peter von Gomm: Right.

03:21 John Daub: Karage. That's right. On top of the ramen. It's so good. It's fantastic. I highly recommend that shop. Oh, look at the... I just noticed this because I have... That's Gigo. That's the... They bought out Sega World. So all of the Sega Worlds and game arcades are starting to show the Gigo.

03:44 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Loco. Loco. And it's just... I missed it.

03:44 John Daub: I'm not used to that, so I missed it. This building, this is... Yeah, isn't that colorful?

03:50 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

03:51 John Daub: Look at that. What kind of a... It looks like an Izakaya?

03:53 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

03:55 John Daub: Yeah, it's an Izakaya. They've got all kinds of different foods to choose from. They've got Zangie, Karage. And well, different types of... This is like a half a chicken right there.

04:09 Peter von Gomm: Oh wow, look at that gyoza. That's like Fukushima style in a spiral. And look at that hakata chicken skins.

04:18 John Daub: Ooh, yum. From down at Kyushu, they eat like this, I guess. Nice. When you come to an izakaya, you can just choose so many different types of foods. Love it, love it. I'm starving, man. They have such a massive menu. Where are we eating?

04:34 Peter von Gomm: How about right there?

04:37 John Daub: Right there. Or down on the end here, there's a cool place called the Canal Cafe that I was going to maybe take you to.

04:43 Peter von Gomm: Okay. It has a nice view of the canal.

04:47 John Daub: Interesting. Hence the name. Here they have some porcelain or tableware, which looks really nice. This shop's been here forever. Just make sure you buy this at the end of your trip, because imagine putting that in your suitcase for two weeks.

05:06 Peter von Gomm: I see Michael's in the house. Happy birthday, my friend. I wish I could treat you to a nice meal in person. Here's to the next best thing.

05:16 John Daub: Thanks, Michael. Yeah, you are here with us sort of virtually in person. I'm glad that you're joining us for this adventure. This is a kimono shop. Like, you find all, like, it's really an amazing mix of different kinds of shops. It's not like this is the butcher shop, this is the butcher street, this is the... they still have that in parts of Japan. This is just a mix of all sorts of different kinds of things.

05:39 Peter von Gomm: Yes. And they've made this. They've made the masks out of the kimono material, which I thought was really cool.

05:45 John Daub: Those are kind of neat, huh?

05:46 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. All very feminine, though, aren't they?

05:48 John Daub: I'm not sure I would wear, well, maybe the ones down here, but to be honest, I think we're not even wearing masks right now because we've moved from it.

05:56 Peter von Gomm: Well, we're outside.

05:58 John Daub: We're outside. People can have the option to and not, it's up to them. So another interesting point, you notice that people are walking down the middle of the street. Well, this is closed. This is a... it's a one-way street, but it switches direction twice a day.

06:17 Peter von Gomm: So right now, during the lunchtime, it's completely closed to vehicles. But from 1 o'clock, the traffic will be going this way, and then later on in the day, the traffic will be coming down this way. And it gets really confusing if you're on a bike or in a car trying to get to where you want to go. It can be a daunting experience.

06:37 John Daub: I'm already getting winded. I'm so out of shape. Because we are going up a hill, which is the name, Kagurazaka, I guess.

06:45 Peter von Gomm: Mm-hmm. Zaka meaning slope.

06:47 John Daub: Mm-hmm. Going up. I'm just kind of glad to see that they still have some of these mom and pop shops. I saw one down there that was selling stationery. I wonder how long they're going to hang on. But it really adds to the identity of the neighborhood. If you have all chain shops, it's not...

07:01 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, that's no fun.

07:03 John Daub: Eh, it's not that fun. It's not that fun, yeah. You want something. You want to see some people who've been part of this neighborhood for generations. And that's what we got here. Look at this old shoe shop. Bob's Fit Market.

07:19 Peter von Gomm: What's it called?

07:20 John Daub: Bob's Fit Market. All right, yeah. Rob's Fit Market. Bob, not a Japanese name.

07:26 Peter von Gomm: I wonder... Bob. You know, after World War II, when the GIs came from the U.S. and started the occupation, a lot of Japanese took on Western names. Because they were doing business with the American GIs. And it was just easier for them to know, hey, let's go to Bob's place. Right, right. Let's get our shoes cobbled at Bob's Shoe Market.

07:49 John Daub: Did they say that back then?

07:50 Peter von Gomm: Maybe.

07:51 John Daub: Cobblers?

07:52 Peter von Gomm: Cobblers, yeah. There was a 7-Eleven in my neighborhood in Portland when I was growing up. And it was a Vietnamese family. And they took American names. And their names were Homer and Susie.

08:07 John Daub: Really? That's cool. Homer and Susie.

08:11 Peter von Gomm: Homer and Susie. What would be your Japanese name? Have you been... Bob.

08:15 John Daub: Bob? Really?

08:17 Peter von Gomm: Peter moves to Bob to be more... No. Now that doesn't make sense. Oh, look at this. So actually, Kanae's going to get me a cake.

08:24 John Daub: For your 50th?

08:25 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Do I dare even tell that story?

08:29 John Daub: Tell it, dude.

08:30 Peter von Gomm: It's hilarious. All right, I woke up this morning. Everyone on Discord knows. I woke up this morning and I had in the window... Can I show them? I woke up these massive... If you've got the picture... I've got the video.

08:41 John Daub: Yeah. It's precious.

08:43 Peter von Gomm: I was only somewhat disturbed for like five seconds. I think it's hilarious. Then it became really funny. She put in the window...

08:51 John Daub: Don't tell them. Show them.

08:53 Peter von Gomm: This.

08:56 John Daub: It's basic math. I mean, like what?

09:02 Peter von Gomm: Oh, you have the video? Okay, hold on. All right. Ready?

09:05 John Daub: Yeah. Just pan back in. We don't need the audio because it's more... Okay, hold on. You just like...

09:12 Peter von Gomm: What? What is that? Like, really? I'm not that old.

09:18 John Daub: And it was just... It's an honest... So, you have to talk to your wife, dude.

09:22 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, I did. I get... Apparently, I mentioned something about it, but she got confused. We were talking, but not about my actual true... Which a lot of people don't know.

09:35 John Daub: They do now. They do now. One of the great things about this neighborhood... Oh, the alleys off of this...

09:44 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. I mean, it's... It's a lot of people. Yeah. It's Main Street. That's where things really come alive.

09:47 John Daub: Yeah. And we'll go down. What's the only way down on this one?

09:49 Peter von Gomm: You can kind of zigzag through.

09:52 John Daub: Yeah, sure. There's some really cool... So, we'll loop back around this way. Before we get off there, I wanna show you what the entrance looks like. And a lot of you might recognize this. So, the closest station is actually Itabashi. And Kagurazaka has a station over there.

10:10 Peter von Gomm: It's famous for five streets coming together. And there's the... And there's the massive gyoza.

10:18 John Daub: Massive gyoza. Yeah. massive gyoza. You had one of those gyoza, right?

10:24 Peter von Gomm: I did about seven years ago.

10:26 John Daub: And it weighs two and a half kilograms. That's like five pounds of meat and gyoza skin. Yeah, two and a half kilograms. I ate that like six, seven years ago. About 75% of it, maybe.

10:43 Peter von Gomm: And so I saw the price in the window. Ichimaya, almost $100.

10:49 John Daub: Thankfully, the price hasn't gone up over the last several years. It's still the same price. Inflation hasn't hit that shop yet. It was 9,600 yen, which used to be $100 on the exchange rate. But now it's cheaper. It's like 70 bucks. Well, yeah, if you're coming from America.

11:04 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, for Americans, if you want to get it.

11:06 John Daub: However, if you do go and get that massive gyoza, which every YouTuber, it's like their rite of passage, must do this. I was one of the first, thank goodness. Just the wrong channel. You have to order it at least a day in advance. So you better call them or stop in the shop. I would say two or three days in advance, to be fair. And yeah, in the summertime, to have all that ground beef, let me just tell you, it weighs in your gut. Did not go down well.

11:35 Peter von Gomm: Well, no, I ate it in July. In fact, my skin was so oily afterwards. And I tasted it in the shower. It was coming out through my skin.

11:44 John Daub: Notice over here, here's another little tidbit for you. This is le picolos. So, les picolos, I guess. There's a lot of French restaurants in Kagurazaka.

11:56 Peter von Gomm: And the reason for that is there are French international schools in this area. There's at least two, I think. So the French community lives in this area. Not exclusively, but there's a lot. And so you see these little restaurants, snack places that are French.

12:14 John Daub: Yes, the little bistros are awesome here. And here's an open plot of land. That could be... Your OIJ...

12:22 Peter von Gomm: Office.

12:22 John Daub: Yeah, studios right there.

12:24 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, bonjour.

12:26 John Daub: Mais oui. We're already starting to see a lag. If the signal goes bad, just let us know. We're going to do an about face. I think this is sort of a dead zone as well.

12:38 John Daub: Another really nice izakaya. Here's another alley. Look at this. Maison des Poupies. The poop, the house. What is that?

12:48 Peter von Gomm: Maison des Poupies. Anybody have a French? French translation for poopie?

12:52 John Daub: No.

12:54 Peter von Gomm: Poupee. Maison. House. Grape Poupon? I don't know. Let's just move on because... House of poopie. Poopy house. I don't want any part of it.

13:05 John Daub: So yeah, these side streets are really interesting. And nighttime is especially captivating in this area. The side streets, all the lights. It just has a really cool atmosphere.

13:19 Peter von Gomm: Vibe.

13:19 John Daub: Cool vibe. A lot of cafes as well. The French culture does come through. The joie de vivre. And there's a couple of places Kanae and I sat when we were dating. We would come here every now and then. There's a little romanticism to this neighborhood.

13:36 Peter von Gomm: A Poupee is a doll.

13:37 John Daub: Thank you. Oh. Doll house. You wanted it to be poo, didn't you? You really wanted it to be that.

13:43 Peter von Gomm: I don't know. Here's a nice snack shop. Look at this. Pastries.

13:46 John Daub: Oh, this is the one I think. Chicalicious. I like New York.

13:51 Peter von Gomm: It's from New York.

13:52 John Daub: Oh, yeah. Chicalicious. I like American cakes. And then this is one of the shops. There aren't that many that have it. Wow. Do they have big cakes in there?

14:00 Peter von Gomm: Not really. No, there's small ones. They have a... they've got a full, but they're small. Full small cake.

14:06 John Daub: I might stop in on their. I don't like the Japanese cream cakes. Chicalicious. Oh, man. It looks good. I want icing, butter. Yeah.

14:17 Peter von Gomm: I want the bad stuff.

14:18 John Daub: We like rich butter frosting. Yeah. I mean, you know, with sugar, you know.

14:24 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, we went through this with Kyoko from my birthday. It was the shortcake. They love the shortcake with strawberries and cream.

14:29 John Daub: Yeah, I'm not a fan of shortcake. No, man. You want to have something with some... Body.

14:31 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

14:32 John Daub: Heavy.

14:33 Peter von Gomm: Volume. WRX Turbo is in the house. All in one line.

14:42 John Daub: There's the UFJ. Mitsubishi UFJ Bank. It used to be Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ. They changed their name about a dozen times since I lived here. It used to be Tokai Bank. Tokai Bank when I was in Nagoya. Now it's MUFK. Yeah, the UFJ brought a bunch of banks together and then Tokyo Mitsubishi bought UFJ, but they didn't want to change the name. So it was Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and now it's MUFK.

15:06 Peter von Gomm: MUFK.

15:07 John Daub: MUFK. MUFK. They dropped the Tokyo. More good restaurants down there.

15:12 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, the alleys are full of them. There's also a shop here that has an incredible selection of cheese.

15:20 John Daub: Can't be as good as the cheese. I'm releasing a video in the next couple of days in Hiruzen from a guy who's a cheese master on the GO! Channel. It's an edited video. You'll enjoy that. It can't be as good as that, but I'm sure they got a better selection than the supermarkets here because there's just not a good cheese selection in Japan.

15:40 John Daub: Supermarkets. This is Akagi Shrine here, by the way, on the left.

15:50 Peter von Gomm: Akagi Shrine. This was built in the Edo era by a wealthy immigrant from Gunma.

16:03 John Daub: It's a neat shrine. It's a nice shop. I'm guessing it's sushi because of the right there.

16:11 Peter von Gomm: You figure? Look down here. Show me the alley here.

16:15 John Daub: Oh yeah, there's even shops. The alley here is like half a meter, maybe one meter wide. There are restaurants down there.

16:25 Peter von Gomm: That's really cool. So, like I said, as you can imagine, at night time, just the shop lights are on and it's just, it's really cool.

16:34 John Daub: I haven't been here since the pandemic hit. I'm not sure if it's because it's on the other side of the city for me. I live on the Sumida River side, that area. Tonkatsu sounds good too. Look at this.

16:47 Peter von Gomm: Oh wow. It's a nice looking shop too. Look at that. They have oysters as well down there.

16:52 John Daub: Kaki. If you'd prefer tonkatsu for your birthday lunch.

16:58 Peter von Gomm: What does that other place have? This is like a standing bar.

17:04 John Daub: I want to sit. Oh, here it is. Yeah.

17:07 Peter von Gomm: It's seated. They're just paying.

17:10 John Daub: This is a cafe. They have them in Tokyo Station and around Japan, a couple of them. Paul.

17:16 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. I think it's Paul or something.

17:17 John Daub: It's a French bakery. It's French. And you can sit inside and sip coffee and it looks elitist for Americans.

17:26 Peter von Gomm: Good bread here.

17:27 John Daub: Paul makes good bread. Yeah, but it is great bread. A little pricey.

17:31 Peter von Gomm: The olive bread is really fantastic.

17:33 John Daub: You've had that before? Oh yeah. It's really pricey.

17:36 Peter von Gomm: Well, comparably.

17:38 John Daub: Yeah.

17:40 Peter von Gomm: It's good stuff.

17:42 John Daub: I mean, once in a while, it's nice to have good bread.

17:47 Peter von Gomm: Oh, for sure.

17:49 John Daub: And it's not easy to find good bread. It is not. You want to have, your bread should be heavy, right?

17:56 Peter von Gomm: Right. See, Uber Eats approves in there.

18:00 John Daub: Yeah. I haven't been, yeah, I would sit here in the table in the corner if you can get it. You can get a coffee. This is before the Starbucks invasion too. Now, Starbucks is in every corner in Japan.

18:09 Peter von Gomm: I've been in Tokyo since 1889, that shop says, from Paris. This is a confection shop for Japanese.

18:20 John Daub: Now, the slope is going down a little bit.

18:22 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

18:23 John Daub: Well, I want to take you up the street here to, I think, the best snack shop in Kagodazaka area.

18:31 Peter von Gomm: Oh, wow. So, yeah, it's fantastic. They are kind of like a high-end Rice Krispie treat.

18:39 John Daub: What?

18:39 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Wait till you see it.

18:41 John Daub: Oh, wow. And they've got samples, free samples. Whoa. I like that.

18:45 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. They have, coming up here, they got, that's a creepy doll. Let him out of the plastic. Let him breathe.

18:56 John Daub: Oh, my gosh. And put clothes on him.

18:58 Peter von Gomm: It's cute. It's cute. I don't know.

19:01 John Daub: He's in a bag naked. That's a bad example for kids. I know, right?

19:05 Peter von Gomm: You're supposed to keep plastic bags away from babies. Imagine, they're influencing the next generation. Another Tonkatsu on the left.

19:12 John Daub: Oh, that does look good, that one. And there's a... It looks like an Indian up there.

19:17 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, sometimes you gotta look up to notice these restaurants, bistros and whatnot. A lot of good chefs will start off in small shops and eventually as it grows, get into different locations as their reputation expands. I know a lot of chefs, you wanna be in the area where people are buying that kind of food and this is very famous for the French cuisine. Actually, take it like that. It's not a Thai.

19:41 John Daub: It's a massage place. It's not a restaurant. Okay. This is...

19:44 Peter von Gomm: Well, everyone needs a massage sometimes.

19:51 John Daub: This is a cool shop. It's being renovated. They're selling... What's in there?

19:57 Peter von Gomm: Like wooden figures. You don't see like crafts so much anymore, but...

20:09 John Daub: Here's the baby's reaction to seeing his friend in that plastic. Yeah. That might fly out of the plastic. Montana house. Is that Hannah Montana?

20:22 Peter von Gomm: What happened to her?

20:23 John Daub: Hannah Montana? I don't know. I don't know that name.

20:26 Peter von Gomm: Really? It was a Disney thing.

20:27 John Daub: Is she a musician? I don't know. Hannah Montana? They don't make that show anymore.

20:35 Peter von Gomm: What an adorable little girl.

20:40 John Daub: The street's opening up a little bit and I guess from the slope there, we move on to more of a neighborhood feel, but it does have a throwback to the old Showa era. You could see that whenever you see the hair... The...

21:02 Peter von Gomm: Poles.

21:02 John Daub: You don't see barber poles very much anymore. Oh yeah.

21:07 Peter von Gomm: We're going to go up across the street here.

21:10 John Daub: Yeah. This is the one busy crossing. I found... Hey, are you still doing Homicide Inc.?

21:21 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. I've kind of scaled it. I'm working on a new podcast right now. I'm developing it. Some more Peter Van Gom Japan is your deal right now.

21:31 John Daub: Well, at the moment, yeah.

21:31 Peter von Gomm: So I'm developing a new series, podcast series. That's going to be quite groundbreaking.

21:39 John Daub: Ooh.

21:40 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Just like Homicide Inc. was groundbreaking. Stay tuned for that.

21:44 John Daub: Wow. It's going to be a huge project, but I can't give any more details about that yet. We're moving up to Kagurazaka Station about 300 meters from here, 280.

21:57 Peter von Gomm: If you do look back, I guess this side of the street is a little bit more refined in a way. Going up this slope, you got the trees lining it. And here, we still do. So I go back for a second.

22:13 John Daub: Yeah. Going back to what I was talking about, how the streets close. So between 7-2400... Midnight.

22:19 Peter von Gomm: ...from noon to midnight, you can't go that way on the street. Traffic's coming this way.

22:24 John Daub: So... Every now and then, somebody tries it and gets arrested.

22:28 Peter von Gomm: Right. And then from midnight till 12 PM, you can go that way.

22:33 John Daub: Interesting. Yeah. There's a lot of rules for non-Tokyo residents. They're gonna get in trouble.

22:40 Peter von Gomm: Oh, yeah. I got stopped.

22:41 John Daub: Oh, and this is a... Oh, man. Nikuman. Should we get one for the street?

22:45 Peter von Gomm: Sure. Do they have takeout?

22:47 John Daub: Sure. Yeah, of course. All right, here. I can... Well, it's your birthday. I'll...

22:52 Peter von Gomm: Well, I can treat you a Nikuman.

22:54 John Daub: Okay.

22:55 Peter von Gomm: All right, just surprise me.

22:56 John Daub: All right. Do you need the change? I'll surprise you with no change.

23:01 Peter von Gomm: How about that? What if it's more than what I just gave you?

23:04 John Daub: It won't be.

23:04 Peter von Gomm: Are you sure? I'll be sure to get the... All right. Nothing too chemically. I want, you know, like a good-tasting one.

23:11 John Daub: Shoot. I've lost my mask now. Where's the... You want mine?

23:15 Peter von Gomm: Slightly used.

23:19 John Daub: Slightly breathed in. It's like sharing diapers, right?

23:27 Peter von Gomm: That's what some people call them.

23:28 John Daub: Well, this is... I didn't know about that until some people started to call them that. Like, what? You don't have a mask? I've got... Yeah. I got a backup.

23:35 Peter von Gomm: No, no. I've got plenty. Trust me. I just forgot where I put it.

23:39 John Daub: I carry wads of them.

23:46 Peter von Gomm: All right. Peter's gonna go in, and I'm gonna walk in. I can't see Peter from all the way outside, but you should be able to hear his audio.

23:51 John Daub: Yeah. As I butcher the Japanese language. This place is called 50 Ban. Goju Ban. I'm gonna get one that'll give John the runs.

24:43 Peter von Gomm: [ordering in Japanese]

25:05 John Daub: We're just going to share one, right? We're just going to share one? Break it in half?

25:22 Peter von Gomm: I tried to turn off my mic to see if it was any better. Maybe you're hearing me on the street and Peter inside the shop. But he hasn't ordered yet.

25:34 John Daub: A nikuman looks like this here.

25:44 Peter von Gomm: It's quite good.

25:46 John Daub: It's just a steamed bun with some good stuff in there. I think you can get it just about anywhere. But for some reason, we walked by one and you can't say no.

26:05 Peter von Gomm: Kagurazaka. It's written in so many different signs and different ways. The neighborhood is more than just that slope there, but the street is still going up. Here's Peter.

26:40 John Daub: Thank you. Here's the 1,000 yen bill. Thank you for the 600 yen.

26:54 Peter von Gomm: All right, I got a nikuman.

26:57 John Daub: A nikuman?

26:59 Peter von Gomm: Wow. And it's pretty hot, so let's walk. It'll cool off a little bit.

27:05 John Daub: I saw like, like colorful ones. What was the deal with that?

27:09 Peter von Gomm: Like a pink one? Well, we had the piri, which is kind of spicy, I think.

27:15 John Daub: Oh, yeah. some spices in here's the High-end rice krispies shop right here. Karinto, azabu karinto. It's so good. Should I get some? Absolutely. Yeah. All right. You want me to hold your nikuman?

27:30 Peter von Gomm: Here's some more coinage.

27:32 John Daub: Okay, how much are they? I'm not sure.

27:35 Peter von Gomm: We'll check but. What's great is in the winter time. They have a Special one that they stopped selling in March Because uh, it's chocolate covered so it starts to melt. All right only available in the winter the cooler seasons.

27:50 John Daub: Okay, I'll get one of those and they might have samples too. Let me take a look here.

28:12 Peter von Gomm: No samples. Peters behind glass. Looks like there's a line. high quality rice krispies treats.

28:21 John Daub: I Thought rice krispies treats as they were were pretty high quality. It changed. It's not that it's now Karinto. It's not the things. It's all cutting though now.

28:31 Peter von Gomm: Oh, okay. So let's we scrap it. Yeah, that's weird. It's disappointing.

28:40 John Daub: I rid of the rice krispies treats. Yeah. What do you know? Like they were like it they look like rice krispies, but they were that's okay, which is bad. But it's not still yummy. It's not my not what I wanted.

28:53 Peter von Gomm: Karinto is right this. All right, moving on.

28:59 John Daub: Still got nikuman. Well, uh. That that shop was always really busy. I wonder why they changed.

29:09 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, it's not busy now. Look at that.

29:16 John Daub: Yeah, there you go. I guess we can Change back. We're starting to see some. Oh, thank you. We're starting to see some different kinds of shops. Like these discount shops and stuff. That's not on this the street the slope coming up. It's more like a high-class kind of a feel to it. But once again when you go down the alleys. That's where things come alive. and actually. This might be where that cheese place is let's walk over here.

29:39 Peter von Gomm: Oh really? Yeah, look at that, um. Koji samurai. construction samurai worker carrying a sword. At the end of it working for the dark side. He's a postage delivery guy John.

29:48 John Daub: You can tell from the color of his lightsaber what side he's on.

29:52 Peter von Gomm: There is also a real good donut shop here.

29:53 John Daub: Well, what are you eating? You're supposed to give me half. I'm just tore off a piece.

30:03 Peter von Gomm: Here rip it in half.

30:07 John Daub: You're eating and I'm walking what well, yeah, what do you think I'm just what's kind of falling apart. Here you just tear off with your hands they clean. Yeah.

30:21 Peter von Gomm: She was Louise you got all the guts.

30:25 John Daub: No. That looks healthy.

30:30 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

30:34 John Daub: So it's a bit for your samurai friend up here. We're gonna need it to pass.

30:45 Peter von Gomm: Hmm, right good. So this has nita in it, which is Japanese.

31:08 John Daub: It's basically a steamed dumpling.

31:11 Peter von Gomm: Mm-hmm.

31:13 John Daub: Oh, look at this. So this is the vending machine system for this ramen place. This is interesting. Instead of a ticket, you'll get a piece of plastic.

31:22 Peter von Gomm: Oh, wow. And the plastic tells you, like, if you have a blue one, that means rice. If you have a yellow one, just normal ramen. This is negi ramen if you have a red one.

31:33 John Daub: And it's like a typical, it's like an old cigarette vending machine converted into a, actually, it's not lighting like this. You're just getting the rave lighting thanks to the frequency of the iPhone.

31:49 Peter von Gomm: Interesting.

31:54 John Daub: Let's go around the corner here. Soin Holistic International.

31:59 Peter von Gomm: I'm down with that.

32:00 John Daub: Look at that house. Really beautiful tree. Can we even pass here? Can we pass here?

32:06 Peter von Gomm: I think there's a cake shop, another little cupcake shop that I stopped in last time.

32:46 John Daub: Last time I did a live stream here, I think it was 2018 or 19. Yeah. I went back in to see if that was popular. It had almost 250,000 views, the live stream for Kagurazaka. So it's nice to redo some of this stuff. Check out that LCD, LED, is that LEDs or?

32:54 Peter von Gomm: LED, yeah. You don't see that, like, off of a building with- Hira-hira face. With laundry hanging outside.

32:56 John Daub: Oh, it's a beauty salon. Hira-hira face means like a shiny, sparkly face.

33:02 Peter von Gomm: Hey, Time Worm Tractors. Thanks so much for the birthday wishes, everybody. It's a special day.

33:22 John Daub: Steve O'Dwyer's request to ride together, Peter.

33:22 Peter von Gomm: Oh, yeah? I gotta keep my skills sharp as well, don't I?

33:26 John Daub: Oh, yeah. You need to- Is that something you can get rusty on, riding?

33:32 Peter von Gomm: No, not really.

33:35 John Daub: It's like riding a bicycle.

33:37 Peter von Gomm: Your training kicks in.

33:39 John Daub: What's so funny?

33:40 Peter von Gomm: Oh, you saw the documentary. Training kicks in.

33:46 John Daub: Yeah. I think for a lot of people that just want to wander around Tokyo, this is one of the best wandering places that you could find, right?

33:53 Peter von Gomm: Absolutely. It's a fun wandering neighborhood.

34:03 John Daub: You got the trees on the sides of the road, everybody nature around them, even in the center of the city. I think I got some street food from here too last time.

34:22 Peter von Gomm: Hey, Peter, we can take that money and get something from here. They have some sakura mochi. It's early, but it's not.

34:28 John Daub: Do you think ... See if you can get two of those.

34:31 Peter von Gomm: All right. So we're not going to have lunch or what?

34:33 John Daub: Oh, we are right after we get to the end of the street here. Excuse me while I blow my nose. It is so good.

34:86 Peter von Gomm: Now you're second in line. Hurry up, sir.

34:88 John Daub: Thank you.

34:99 Peter von Gomm: Got to put on his mask. Do you have any ... Do you have a request?

35:09 John Daub: What is that? Do you have a request?

35:10 Peter von Gomm: No request? All right. Let's get a couple of these.

35:23 John Daub: Onegaishimasu. Oh, thank you.

36:01 Peter von Gomm: Hey, everybody, thanks for the happy birthday wishes. I see they're coming in a lot now. I appreciate it so much. Thank you.

36:13 John Daub: All right. DeKarren, thank you. We got to go to Golden Guy now.

36:15 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, that'd be cool. When was the last time you were there?

36:17 John Daub: I have never been to Golden Guy.

36:18 Peter von Gomm: Are you serious? Never.

36:19 John Daub: In 23 years, I've never ... It has never been to Golden Guy. I didn't go for a very long time either. This is dorayaki.

36:28 Peter von Gomm: Oh, they didn't have the sakura mochi yet?

36:32 John Daub: Oh, I didn't ask about sakura mochi, but it might be a bit early for that. It's right there on the sign.

36:37 Peter von Gomm: Oh, All right. Well, I can go back and get one. Want me to grab one of those?

36:39 John Daub: Why don't you give that to Kanako? I'll grab one, and I'll get a sakura mochi.

36:45 Peter von Gomm: That's all right. Maybe next time. Oh, it's right here.

36:49 John Daub: Yeah, yeah. We can ... It's okay. Wait for the sakura. It's only a month away. But before the sakura, we might even get a chance of glimpses of the ume blossoms that are budding right now. There might even be some variants of it that are out, so I will try that.

37:13 Peter von Gomm: This looks pretty good though. I opened yours for you. Here.

37:22 John Daub: What'd you do to it? Sushi roll.

37:24 Peter von Gomm: No. If you don't know what he's talking about, don't watch a video I made last week. It might ruin your sushi experience for a while.

37:34 John Daub: There's a supermarket here. Oh, look at this. Interesting. I like supermarkets. You can go in there and get a bento or something and take it to the park.

37:54 Peter von Gomm: This is good.

37:55 John Daub: It's a happy dog. See that doggie over there?

37:56 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

38:02 John Daub: Happy dog. Yeah, it's so cute. I'm going to go get a dog. Bringing joy to everyone that comes in his path. That's what dogs do.

38:15 Peter von Gomm: Mmm.

38:16 John Daub: It's good. And there's cream inside there.

38:18 Peter von Gomm: Oh, yeah. Look at that. Thanks, guys. Thanks for buying this for us. Thank you.

38:27 John Daub: How much was it? Um, there was no change.

38:32 Peter von Gomm: It's all right.

38:40 John Daub: It's a good dryaki, and it's like more of a waffle. Are these girls twins? They look like twins.

38:50 Peter von Gomm: It has more of like a waffle consistency than it is a dryaki. It's a pancake, right?

38:53 John Daub: Because of the rivets in it. Those are ridges. Are ridges? Not rivets. Ridges.

39:00 Peter von Gomm: The sakura mochi is out. Look at that.

39:08 John Daub: Oh, yeah. And the leaf, you can eat the leaf, too, right?

39:12 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, it's salty. Um, sakura mochi always has a little bit of salt in it.

39:16 John Daub: Want to go down this one? The street?

39:17 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, we can try. Let's wrap around. The alleys are a part of it. Check it out. Here's a tourist map. And you can see, uh, from the start to the finish. It might bend down here. Tourist map for the tourist map. Yeah, lots of restaurants and shops here all listed on this map. But you can see down the main street, a lot of these are down the alleys here. So you gotta get up on the main street and go down the alleys to really get and see Kagurazaka to its fullest. And now we're all the way up here.

39:55 John Daub: Whoa! Mochis of the four seasons.

40:00 Peter von Gomm: Okay, I thought that was a B. Of the four seasons.

40:07 John Daub: Do you know all the mochis? Are these all the mochis that you can get? Yeah.

40:12 Peter von Gomm: Mugi. Oh, yuzu mochi.

40:14 John Daub: Hagi no mochi. Hagi is a type of fish, isn't it?

40:17 Peter von Gomm: No, hagi is just the beans, like in a meatball.

40:20 John Daub: Oh, okay. Hagi ball. Yuzu?

40:22 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, I was just saying it looks good. Anzu.

40:25 John Daub: Mugi. This place rocks.

40:32 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, it does.

40:39 John Daub: We're dining with Derek. Hey, Derek! Mochimochi?

40:42 Peter von Gomm: Stop it. How old are you, 12?

40:47 John Daub: How old are you, 50?

40:50 Peter von Gomm: No. At least I can say no.

40:54 John Daub: It's hard for you. You have to admit it.

40:57 Peter von Gomm: 12. I have to lie. 12 is a good age. I remember when I was 12, all those pimples coming out every time you eat a dry yaki.

41:06 John Daub: Yeah.

41:11 Peter von Gomm: I was going to take you to a very special donut shop. Whoa.

41:13 John Daub: It's in walking distance. Jack and the Donuts? No.

41:14 Peter von Gomm: No creme brulee? No creme brulee. This place blows that out of the water.

41:18 John Daub: Whoa.

41:21 Peter von Gomm: And it's a, you can't sit down. It's all takeout.

41:26 John Daub: It's called Donut Mori. Mori is like a forest, right?

41:28 Peter von Gomm: And that's the lady's last name. She and her husband run it.

41:33 John Daub: We're four minutes walk. We've got to go there.

41:36 Peter von Gomm: Oh, really? A playground.

41:37 John Daub: Let's take a quick look. It feels like I did this in the last live stream.

41:40 Peter von Gomm: You're not with Leo. Leo wasn't even born. I don't think I was even married when I did the last live stream here.

41:49 John Daub: Okay, we're going to turn left here. I want to go back. I just want to see the playground.

41:53 Peter von Gomm: No, you can play in the playground, but then we're going to go left.

41:56 John Daub: Oh, look, they got the little teeny ones that Leo can sit in. Because if he doesn't have a seat like that, see, there's the kids in it. He needs to have like a seat swing or else he falls down.

42:15 Peter von Gomm: Okay, we've got to come back here. All right, we're going up the street. This is Shinjuku Ward.

42:20 John Daub: I didn't know that. I thought this was still like Choda or something.

42:24 Peter von Gomm: Choda?

42:25 John Daub: Like Yoda?

42:27 Peter von Gomm: Choda Ward is in the center. The prefecture he touched was.

42:32 John Daub: That should not be in your repertoire of voices. You should stick to your...

42:36 Peter von Gomm: You don't like my Yoda?

42:37 John Daub: No.

42:41 Peter von Gomm: Can you do Leia?

42:43 John Daub: You're a real voice artist. You could do Leia. Unfortunately, she's passed away. Otherwise, I would consider it.

42:48 Peter von Gomm: Carrie Fisher is, but Leia lives on. Do Leia?

42:54 John Daub: If I heard it, I could probably do it.

42:56 Peter von Gomm: That's hard. Can you do Luke?

42:58 John Daub: It's like Yoda's so... Yoda's easy.

43:01 Peter von Gomm: You want a challenge.

43:04 John Daub: Who's that?

43:06 Peter von Gomm: Chewbacca.

43:08 John Daub: Chewbacca, that's right. Let's see. Can you do Harrison Ford?

43:09 Peter von Gomm: I can do his dark helmet guy. Solo? The guy with the dark helmet.

43:15 John Daub: Okay. Can you do the Ewoks?

43:21 Peter von Gomm: I'd have to hear it. I don't remember how the Ewoks sounded.

43:27 John Daub: Evidently, you can. Yeah, what is that? You didn't even have to change your voice to do it. When I was growing up, Ewoks was the most popular Halloween costume. Some parents went the distance and actually made them look like Ewoks.

43:44 Peter von Gomm: It was right from the George Lucas movie set. That's cool. Those are parents that either had a lot of money or they really loved their kids.

43:49 John Daub: There's a nice pottery shop. It's the Force, John.

44:03 Peter von Gomm: Do you think you could do it without Google Navigation?

44:05 John Daub: Luke would turn his off and do it by force.

44:09 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, that's what Luke would do.

44:11 John Daub: You're using navigation. Luke didn't want to use it, you remember?

44:16 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. He should be able to get to the more he's on us. He was also living in how many years in the future? Well, he... So he had a village backed up in his... He prescribed to an ancient religion called Jediism.

44:31 John Daub: Good for him.

44:33 Peter von Gomm: I'm not Luke.

44:37 John Daub: Obviously. It says here's another French. French Ramen.

44:41 Peter von Gomm: What? What the heck is this?

44:41 John Daub: You can't put French in front of Ramen.

44:44 Peter von Gomm: They did.

44:45 John Daub: Well, that's not... Brazen.

44:46 Peter von Gomm: Well, it looks very pretentious.

44:48 John Daub: I like it.

44:51 Peter von Gomm: Really? I... I like anything pretentious. I think if it doesn't have a Michelin star, it can't be a French Ramen.

44:58 John Daub: Well, this guy's going to hit that... Yeah. Oh, that's close.

45:03 Peter von Gomm: Oh, man. That was close. Oh, really? This is a really hard... Millimeters. I just missed it. I have millimeters. What the hell? He's in a rental car. He doesn't care.

45:13 John Daub: It looks nice inside. Yeah. I like... This might be... Maybe I'll take you here for your birthday lunch. White salmon. Look at this. This is high class. And the price is the same as normal Ramen.

45:22 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Let's go here. It's probably micro-sized.

45:25 John Daub: That's... There's always... That's all right. We had... We're having snacks. We had dinner. We had donuts. If I'm getting a birthday lunch out of this, I'm not going to a place that's 900 yen.

45:33 Peter von Gomm: I'll get you two of them.

45:35 John Daub: Okay. It looks like you're going to have to. And so you can get a salmon meshi as a kind of a side dish. That's enough for you. You need to be watching your weight.

45:45 Peter von Gomm: It's true. Everybody else is.

45:49 John Daub: Watching your weight. But first, we need a donut since I'm watching my weight.

45:53 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, let's get donuts. Before lunch, we have to have a donut.

45:56 John Daub: Oh, God. Why do we... These street food episodes can be really hard. I'm going to go get a donut. Hard on your waistline. Well, I'm not doing the midnight snack runs like I used to, which is not much at all because of that. I just can't eat at midnight anymore, right? It has to be a real special occasion. I have to fast, not eat anything all day, and then eat at midnight. I can't even be awake at midnight. My body doesn't work that way.

46:26 Peter von Gomm: I'm fading out by 11 at the latest.

46:28 John Daub: So we're at the top of Kagurazaka. I think that the station would be parallel to this street to the left here.

46:30 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. So Mori shouldn't be far. Here's the shrine. It's just up the road. I believe this is a signal dead zone inside here, too.

46:38 John Daub: Well, I was wrong. This is Akagi. This is Akagi Shrine.

46:42 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. The other place is different. Different one. I wasn't sure either.

46:45 John Daub: Don't take it hard. It's a nice shrine. You can walk up there and give 5 yen and pray, or 50 yen if you want to pray.

46:56 Peter von Gomm: You want to have a coin with a hole in it.

46:58 John Daub: A coin with a hole in it, yeah. It's more auspicious.

47:01 Peter von Gomm: It sure is.

47:02 John Daub: Okay, we're going to keep going down here. Turn right.

47:05 Peter von Gomm: Oh, really? We're close to it. Look at that fire truck. It looks like a van. Where do they put the hoses?

47:13 John Daub: In the back. That's Kagurazaka Station right there that we're passing. Here comes a fire truck. So, as you can imagine navigating this in a car, as we saw that car earlier, the streets are very narrow. It's hard to get around driving. Lots of one-way streets. Lots of streets where you can come up this way, you can only go left.

47:38 Peter von Gomm: But I need to go right. And then, so you have to go all the way around and come back. It's a real pain in the rear. And it's so disorienting too. You don't know which way. If you have to go around, you're completely lost. You don't know anymore what's, unless you have a navigation system.

47:51 John Daub: Sorry, I got a call from Joji. Hey, Jojo.

47:55 Peter von Gomm: Joji. Yeah, you home?

47:59 John Daub: Okay. I'm with John right now. We're doing a live stream. You can see us on YouTube.

48:08 Peter von Gomm: Jo, did you say a bad word?

48:09 John Daub: No. Okay, don't do it. Are you, did you get lunch? You had lunch at school, right?

48:17 Peter von Gomm: Okay. Florist shop. Where?

48:23 John Daub: Where are you going to play? That's a florist. Look at that. Beautiful shop.

48:28 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, that's fine. That's fine.

48:37 John Daub: A little bit at the game center, but mostly in the park.

48:40 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, for a split second.

48:45 John Daub: I was trying to tell you he's doing something responsible. Just bring your phone with you and I'll give you a call a little bit later. Okay? My battery's almost dead here. Okay.

48:59 Peter von Gomm: Five is fine. Okay. Okay. We'll have dinner together.

49:03 John Daub: Okay. All right. Bye. Be careful.

49:08 Peter von Gomm: He's going to a game center?

49:09 John Daub: Yeah, he's always trying to be sneaky. He'll mention it.

49:13 Peter von Gomm: Okay. Bye, Dad. I gotta go.

49:14 John Daub: Go to the game center. Bye. Yeah, so you know the trick. I did the same thing. Or you tried to camouflage what you really want to do by making it not sound like a really big event. Like, yeah, I think we're going to go play in the park. He does that. And we might go to the game center.

49:31 Peter von Gomm: Well, it's actually the opposite. We might go to the ... We're going to go to the game center. We might go to the park. That's the truth.

49:37 John Daub: So a lot of these ... Oh, here it is here? This is it right here. So a lot of the streets when there are slopes like this, they'll have these donuts carved into it. Not because the donut shop is there, but because of ice. So if there is ice, you have some grip.

49:53 Peter von Gomm: Usually the ice ... There'll be places that aren't icy.

49:56 John Daub: Well, see, I thought they made that just for the donuts.

49:56 Peter von Gomm: You did not.

49:58 John Daub: There's a path leading to the donut shop. Yeah. People were commenting on the coolness of the street. So ... Okay, so this is Donut Mori. Okay, we're going to need a mask, right?

50:05 Peter von Gomm: It's all outside. Are you going in?

50:07 John Daub: Yeah, we can both go in. Okay.

50:11 Peter von Gomm: And they only allow one person at a time, but since you're streaming ... And I talked to the lady before, and I told her I wanted to introduce her shop. So come on in.

50:20 John Daub: Let me check with her, Mori-san. Okay.

50:38 Peter von Gomm: Ooh, they look good. What a treat. Literally.

50:34 John Daub: Wow, that's awesome. Hello.

50:41 Peter von Gomm: Hello.

50:38 John Daub: So I'm streaming live with a friend on YouTube. Can you introduce me to the donut case? Yes. Can I?

50:49 Peter von Gomm: I talked to Mori-san the other day.

50:52 John Daub: Oh, yes. Can I? Yes. John. Johnny. Come on in and show the donuts.

51:00 Peter von Gomm: Okay.

51:04 John Daub: Oh, they look good. Hello. Does the donut taste change every day?

51:09 Peter von Gomm: No, it doesn't change. The ones that are standard are the ones that are available.

51:13 John Daub: Oh, okay. And now, until the 14th, they're available on Valentine's Day. Oh.

51:18 Peter von Gomm: And there are also chocolate-based donuts.

51:19 John Daub: Oh, I see. Wow. These are for Valentine's?

51:21 Peter von Gomm: Yes, they're standard.

51:24 John Daub: Okay. So they have regular donuts that are here all the time, and then they have some special ones. Wow. Wow, that looks good. That looks really good. Look at that. White chocolate and cassis?

51:38 Peter von Gomm: It's got cassis sauce on it.

51:41 John Daub: Wow, that's amazing. What do you want, John?

51:42 Peter von Gomm: The caramel walnuts.

51:44 John Daub: Oh, I see. You want one of those?

51:46 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. One caramel walnut and...do you want to get something for Kanai?

51:52 John Daub: I'll come back.

51:53 Peter von Gomm: Okay. And some cassis.

51:56 John Daub: Yes, I'll take that. Yes, two of those.

52:00 Peter von Gomm: I better get...yeah, I'll take your cassis, too.

52:03 John Daub: I think I can carry it in my bag. Okay, so I'll take two of these. Thank you for one.

52:21 John Daub: Wow, this is not matcha, it's pistachio. Can I use a card?

52:25 Peter von Gomm: Yes, you can.

52:28 John Daub: Thank you. And... Thank you. And the raspberry and raspberry.

52:49 Peter von Gomm: Yes, thank you. Yes, those look good. Those look really good. I've had those, both of those ones. And I think one of the chocolate ones.

52:59 John Daub: Thank you. Here you go. Oh, look at these. Thank you. Thank you. What's up? Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you.

53:16 Peter von Gomm: Thank you. This is not a cool little shop.

53:18 John Daub: That's so cool. Yeah, I love the building, too.

53:24 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, I was just showing that here, it's really neat. Sorry, my mic was on the other side of the thing here. You should hear me okay now. My bag moves around a little bit.

53:35 John Daub: It's about $3 a doughnut, still pricey but it looks good. Oh, they're real good. Let's just be honest here, this is a really cool looking shop in front of it. Let's get our doughnuts out. We could get a screenshot around here. This is pretty cool. You don't get a little teeny shack, old looking shack on the side of the street with donuts in it.

54:02 Peter von Gomm: So you can send us a screenshot on Instagram or on their Discord server, send this to us. It's a husband-wife operation. The woman that was in there now is not the owner. She's one of the staff.

54:14 John Daub: All right, show everybody your donut. They're on the street here. Okay, watch, here comes your fire truck. Fire truck. Okay, we gotta do it quickly.

54:25 Peter von Gomm: Okay, where are you shooting from? I don't know, from here right in the center. Get the house in the background. Maybe. All right.

54:30 John Daub: Does this work? Do these look good? You're blocking the house.

54:32 Peter von Gomm: You're blocking the... What did you sound coming down here? I don't know, you're blocking the house. Well, I can't see you. You usually swing around the other way, don't you? Here, look. Let me see. Here, you stand and I'll just get you.

54:40 John Daub: All right, all right. Careful, behind you there's a car coming. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

54:45 Peter von Gomm: That's just something. Hey.

54:46 John Daub: Okay. That car was coming out there. That's crazy.

54:51 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. All right, we'll just turn around.

54:54 John Daub: All right, come on over here. Yeah, the street's kind of precarious.

54:57 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, stay out of the center of the street here. Watch this guy. I hope he sticks to the side.

55:02 John Daub: Yeah, I know. Keep an eye on him. Guy's whipping through here. All right, I'm more concerned about the Oji-san than I am this selfie here.

55:14 Peter von Gomm: Street here. Maybe you can send that to us.

55:21 John Daub: All right. Are we eating this for dessert or we eat it now?

55:25 Peter von Gomm: I'd like to go. Are we gonna go to that French? It's up to you.

55:27 John Daub: It's entirely up to you. We'll eat one. Let's eat canaille in half and I'll give her this one because she likes the nuts.

55:37 Peter von Gomm: She likes pecans actually.

55:38 John Daub: Oh, okay. But I have to be specific when I say nuts.

55:41 Peter von Gomm: Oh my God, it's my birthday.

55:43 John Daub: Geez.

55:44 Peter von Gomm: It looks yummy.

55:48 John Daub: Here, hold this. Yeah. Now let's take a look here. This is a cassis.

55:55 Peter von Gomm: You don't say.

55:56 John Daub: Syrup kind of sprinkled over the top of the white frosting. Oh my goodness gracious, that looks so good.

56:04 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, get your fingers dirty.

56:06 John Daub: All right, I guess, how do we do this? How do you cut this in half?

56:08 Peter von Gomm: Well, we already know your hands aren't clean. So just take a big chomp of it. Hold this.

56:17 John Daub: All right. My hands are clean. What are you talking about? Wait, wait. That's me. That's showing me.

56:33 Peter von Gomm: Look at the surgical precision. Wow, look at that.

56:40 John Daub: Oh my goodness gracious.

56:42 Peter von Gomm: Oh yeah.

56:43 John Daub: Well, okay. Thank you. You want to, here, I think I might have a wet towel in my pocket.

56:49 Peter von Gomm: Oh really? Wow. Would you have a wet towel in your pocket? Is that a wet towel in your pocket?

56:57 John Daub: Why is it still wet? How old are you? I don't need it now. I'll need it later.

57:01 Peter von Gomm: All right. Itadakimasu.

57:04 John Daub: All right. I guess I don't. I thought I had a wet towel. Wow. Here's a used tissue. I'm good. I'll lick my fingers.

57:13 Peter von Gomm: Pretty good?

57:16 John Daub: Let me walk back up this way. Yeah. This jelly that they sprinkle on it gives it. It's got a nice, like, deep fruity, acidic taste, like a blueberry.

57:44 Peter von Gomm: In there, I love it.

57:54 John Daub: Oh yeah. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Come on. I have to go back. I don't think one donut will appease Kanai, but I've got that 50th birthday mistake to play to in case I get in trouble.

58:18 Peter von Gomm: There you go. I only played that card once.

58:19 John Daub: Hold that against her. I didn't at first because I knew I could play that card later.

58:29 Peter von Gomm: Careful.

58:35 John Daub: All right. Shall we go back? Let's go back to the station and then we'll sign off. Can't believe we've been doing this for an hour.

58:42 Peter von Gomm: Wow.

58:42 John Daub: Oh man. That is so good, isn't it? That donut. That's too good. Holy moly. It went straight. It went straight to the love handles already established.

58:50 Peter von Gomm: See that. Oh my gosh.

58:51 John Daub: You could see that? No, you cannot. I've got six layers of clothes on.

58:57 Peter von Gomm: You mean you wish you could see that?

58:58 John Daub: No. Is that what you're trying to say? Well, I saw plenty of that on the Hokkaido trip. Trust me. You can't unsee that stuff.

59:04 Peter von Gomm: Who's already seen the documentary? How many stars do you give it? You can leave it in the comments below. I want to know, what is your favorite scene of the documentary? What's your favorite scene? You have a favorite one?

59:16 John Daub: Yeah. The... The... The... I like the hot spring waterfall. Mm-hmm.

59:22 Peter von Gomm: It was pretty good in Shiretoko National Park. Kamuiwaka.

59:27 John Daub: Yep. Kamuiwaka is an incredible place. I like eating the melons and meeting Melon Kuma at the end. It was good.

59:37 Peter von Gomm: Peter got bitten as well.

59:38 John Daub: He took my head off. He did. You can hear John in the background saying, get him. Get him. I can tell you which parts I didn't like. That drive to Nemuro, the sixth day was really rough.

59:52 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Because of the rain as well. It was a long drive. Long drive. We were lost. And my favorite scene, thanks for asking.

60:05 John Daub: Yeah, I know. I just feel free. Is when we were riding to Niseko.

60:09 Peter von Gomm: And actually, our friend Norm said the same thing. He liked that scene where it's just the drone shot that goes for almost 30, 40 seconds.

60:16 John Daub: Oh, that curls down the road. Yeah. Yeah. That was a great shot. Great shot. That's from Yamamoto-san took that, right?

60:22 Peter von Gomm: Right. Yeah.

60:27 John Daub: It was perfect. Yeah. Thanks for backing that documentary. And I made a really good video out of it. It's over an hour and a half long. 11 days with the stretch goal. We had Hakodate at the end.

60:42 Peter von Gomm: Mm-hmm.

60:43 John Daub: Kesa Redad writes in here, five stars. Thank you. And Pesa wrote in the link to the Donut Mori. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Thanks. Yeah, they definitely check it out. They don't make a lot of them either. It looks like they're very... They're selective.

61:03 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. They have their set flavors, and then they have some special ones.

61:08 John Daub: I like how Komodo Soba is a chain, but I like how they really make it easy for you, especially if you're a foreign tourist here. That looks like it's duck in the center. Wow.

61:21 Peter von Gomm: That's a pretty good chain shop for soba.

61:26 John Daub: Fujisoba is another one, right? This is Kagura-zaka Station right here. Yeah. It's one of the entrances. They've really decked it out. This is an old one. This is an old night show era building, but with the Kengo Kuma-looking woods in the front, makes it fit in the neighborhood a little bit better.

61:37 Peter von Gomm: Bitter? Better. Parquet.

62:03 John Daub: So a lot of these places are open only in the evening. They're more of night clubs. Wow, look at that coffee shop. That is so retro.

62:12 Peter von Gomm: Right?

62:20 John Daub: That looks like it's from... What is it? Sandwich. Sandwich.

62:02 Peter von Gomm: Sandwich.

62:05 John Daub: Sandoichi. Sandwich.

62:09 Peter von Gomm: Sandwich.

62:10 John Daub: Wow. And they got some pretty good deals too. Kisa-ten. That's probably been around since the 1950s, huh?

62:18 Peter von Gomm: Definitely smoky inside.

62:20 John Daub: Probably. Although Tokyo... Didn't Tokyo enact like a smoking rule in some of the cafes?

62:26 Peter von Gomm: You can't smoke in any cafes.

62:27 John Daub: Yeah. But there's kind of a... There's a loophole. Supposedly if... If... There's only one person working at the establishment it's okay to smoke inside but if they have a staff working with them from two or more people you can't smoke inside.

62:53 John Daub: Looks like you're doing a commercial for Family Mart welcome to Family Mart ladies and gentlemen.

62:53 Peter von Gomm: Hey I heard it I walked into a road stop roadside stand yet two days ago when I was driving around Ichigo Yuzawa and they had the Family Mart jingle then didn't didn't didn't didn't didn't didn't I was like wait you're not Family Mart is I thought that was trademarked we're something right but they were able to use that so so who it was a it was like a one-off mom-and-pop.

63:16 John Daub: yeah I thought that was a lot let's go up to the station that I usually come out with here and just show you the top of Kagura's a car before we end this livestream here and maybe wrap it up there yeah I just this day I usually come out of this station here but you could start off where we did which is at the bottom of this hill which is Ida Bashi right and it looks like this if you didn't join us in the beginning of it this is the base of the hill yeah so it's a straight shot all okay so it's a straight shot as you're saying yeah you can't you can't hear the Peter doesn't I can't hear the audio over what unless we kill that audio I see yeah son Don Delica bong out what is that.

64:21 John Daub: I head shop bong out bong it bong it must be England like UK English what's got a French flag okay could be French not sure that that's not American English that means something else in there bong out yeah and such big font too my gosh they really want you to fall because when you're bonged out you can't see things real clearly apparently that looks like a bakery get some more street bakery street food get the munchies this is the place to come I'll stop it but it's ready place bone Revere over there another another bistro that's a tea salon interesting might have to bring up bring back more than just a doughnut now so there you go Kagura Zaka has a pretty chill place pretty cool place the the vibe of this does change at night but during the day that Street is closed from 12 to midnight the the as a calibration that's one side of the street is closed from 12 to midnight the the the street that we just showed you the video and it's a pretty cool place to walk around if you want to get lost in Tokyo for a few hours this is a really highly recommended place in Shinjuku Ward I think there's five train lines that go through Ida-bashi right.

65:46 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Lickin' your fingers like Sushiro.

65:50 John Daub: Gross. All right, see you everybody. Have a good day. Thanks for joining us. And happy birthday to this guy. 50, man. Can't believe it. 50 years old. It's a mistake.

66:00 Peter von Gomm: It's a mistake.

66:01 John Daub: All right. See you everybody. Bye.

66:05 Peter von Gomm: Taxi driver. Taxi thought I was flip.