00:00:28 John Daub: Toyosu's really grown. Every time I come here, I'm shocked at the progress that this is making. This is all a man-made island built on trash, I believe. Let's cross the street here, and then hopefully the buffer will get better. There's a park underneath that blossom tree that has finished up where we can start this challenge.

00:01:15 John Daub: But seriously, I was going to get this. This is the Ichigo Daifuku (strawberry daifuku) Pie at McDonald's, and they didn't have it yet. The poor girl. I got up there, and I said, "Y'all have an Ichigo Daifuku Pie, please. Hitotsu onegaishimasu (one please)." And she goes, "Sorry, it hasn't come out yet. We don't have them." I said, "What? I've seen it all over." And they said no. So I was very confused about what I should do. I thought there was... There was no start date on the advertisement. It just said, we've got pie. And I guess you don't. Just the wrong pie.

00:02:00 John Daub: All right, this was like a nice enough area. All right, how's the buffering now? Hope it's a little bit better. It's a beautiful day. Tomorrow I'm going to be heading over to Fukushima. I'm getting a rent-a-car. I'm driving up there to see something for the main channel episode. I will keep it top secret because you'll find out tomorrow.

00:02:35 John Daub: All right. It says, uh-oh, hold on a second. I'm not sure we can even sit here. It says here, no party. Is this a party? Is this considered a party? I guess they have a beer sign. I don't have any beer, so I would say no. I think there's some tables over there, though. It's a tough one. Let's just do it here. No partying. So keep it simple.

00:03:10 John Daub: McDonald's in Japan, as far as I know, is a good place to go. As far as I know, it does not sell beer. Do they? I don't think so. All right. Here we go. So I'm going to get out the two burgers here. McDonald's still serves them in paper bags. I've seen that the other fast food shops in Japan are killing it right now. Burger King's got some pretty interesting stuff. They have a new matcha pie out.

00:03:55 John Daub: Oh, by the way, I got dessert. Because I promised you guys mochi, especially on Patreon, so I ended up getting a... Matcha mochi from Famima (FamilyMart). So we can try that, too. And this is it. This is the challenge. It doesn't get any... It does get better than this, actually. This is what the... I don't know. It's just a beautiful afternoon here.

00:04:30 John Daub: All right. We've got two burgers here. Here's where the challenge starts. Which one's going to be better? I don't know. Honestly, I really don't know. This is a cheeseburger, and this is a spicy burger from McDonald's. I can't tell you which one is better. Which is why we're doing this challenge here. So it's going to be really interesting.

00:05:00 John Daub: All right. Let's start off with the McDonald's one because it says, Supabi (Spicy) Beef Burger. Really? Well, I'll be the judge of that. Looks pretty basic to me. What? All right. So they have some sort of spicy sauce in there. Check that out. I wonder how that's going to go down. I think I needed something to wash this down. All right. Itadakimasu (let's eat). That's pretty good. The sauce. I see Brandania's here and Michael Sassano. Thank you, buddy.

00:05:45 John Daub: The sauce is good. There's some vegetables. No cheese. It's interesting. It's like they mixed like kimchi sauce and mayonnaise. It's a spicy beef burger. I've never seen McDonald's have something like this. They didn't have the Ichigo Daifuku. I'm under pressure. I mean, look at the line at McDonald's. Look at this here. So I'm under pressure to make that order. I'm at the register. There's people behind me. There's people waiting. People all around me. I didn't know what I wanted. I just wanted that Ichigo Daifuku pie. So I was in a bind.

00:06:45 John Daub: All right. Let's go this one. This one is a microwaved cheeseburger from Famima. But I might be surprised. In fact, you might be too. The bread looks good. It's somewhat wet down here. It does look like a processed meatball. There's no sauce. It's just literally cheese. Oh, wait. There is some ketchup and mustard. Impressive. Most impressive. The bread has some good mochi-mochi springiness to it. That's something. All right. Down the hatch.

00:07:30 John Daub: That's not too bad. I'm fighting myself. I don't know if the bread is good or not. The meat has a... I don't know. It's like the processed meat that you saw... You get in high... In an elementary school. In the cafeteria maybe. I can't tell if the bread is good or not. I don't... It's springy. It's got some weight. I think the McDonald's burger wins.

00:08:15 John Daub: All right. Let's pick up the McDonald's burger again. Yeah. Yeah. The McDonald's sauce is good in there. The beef is... It's just different. It feels like there's more than just beef in there. And then the Famima burger. I think it's been processed with other stuff, bread crumbs or something. I don't know. It's juicier. The McDonald's one's more rubbery. You know, like a McDonald's patty? But that sauce is so good. That wins.

00:09:00 John Daub: If they had a spicy burger at Famima, I would have gotten that. So there you go. That's it. It's the end of the livestream. No, it's not. It's not. We still got the Daifuku to go. I could change my mind. You know, every bite. As this thing gets less soggy, it gets... You know, when I'm at home, I never put ketchup or mustard on my burgers. I might put cheese and I'll find some fancy steak sauce or something, but I never put it on there.

00:09:45 John Daub: But whenever you eat out at a fast food place, it's always on there. You know what would have been good? Pickles. McDonald's always puts a pickle in their burgers, don't they? They used to. No pickle. No onions. I don't know. I rarely eat at McDonald's, so I can't tell you if McDonald's Japan is better or not. But a lot of people will say that McDonald's Japan is better than McDonald's America. You can see just how busy it is. They were really, like, it's crazy. They take a lot of net orders, too. So people just come and pick up their order.

00:10:45 John Daub: I thought about that Samurai Mac, but no. Stick with the basics. I learned that the hard way. You know? The trendy stuff never is good. In fact, if you watched the last video I uploaded on my main channel, if you haven't seen it yet, please do check it out. I think it's one of the best on the channel, maybe. I don't know. It's the world's oldest hotel. How did it survive so long?

00:11:30 John Daub: And in there, we learned the secret on how the CEO, the 53rd CEO, maintains a business, and it was pretty simple. Just don't go into trends. Keep it simple. And through the challenging times, you're going to be okay. If you invest in trends. Someone left a comment on that video and said, you know what that hotel needs? Helicopter rides. I go, yeah, no. You know how much a helicopter is? You invest in that kind of stuff, it doesn't pay off.

00:12:15 John Daub: And there's a helicopter helipad not too far away where people can go around Mount Fuji. So what do they need at the hotel? It's in a canyon. It's quiet. It would bother me if I heard a helicopter. I want a helicopter. The sound of the river, and that's it. They can take the TV out of the room too. You got a book. Or a computer. And then I've got Netflix.

00:12:55 John Daub: I haven't tried the Filet-O-Fish there, but maybe that's next. They actually had a fish burger at Famima and the Filet-O-Fish at McDonald's. So that might be interesting. But again, I was under pressure. I got up to the line, they didn't have what I wanted, which was the Daifuku pie. This thing here. Like I wanted this, they didn't have it. Look how good that must be. Everyone's been telling me to go try this, but it's so new. It's not new. Look on the top. It says new on the photo. It said new, but when is it new? I don't know. It's disappointing.

00:14:00 John Daub: Keep it simple and change the onsen (hot spring) water regularly. Yes. YS Tang knows that there was an onsen hotel that didn't clean it and it had Legionnaires' disease and people were getting sick. Apparently the guy didn't make it. He was dishonored. It's an awful story. That's a hard one. Let me be honest. Wolf burgers suck. They both stink. Only the sauce. The winner is the sauce. That's it. I'm not a fan of McDonald's Japan.

00:14:45 John Daub: All right. I thought I would take you to Tokyo Bay. Yeah. So let's see if we can find something to drink over yonder. And if not, that's okay too. And let's walk over to Tokyo Bay. I'll try not to put the bag on the mic this time. We're on the move. Don't try to find me. I don't think I have you found me cards. I'm packing my bags and I changed everything out. So don't try to find me unless you're en route. Yeah. Spicy sauce was good. I wish they just sold that. I'd buy that spicy sauce. Kimchi mayonnaise or something. I don't know what it is.

00:15:45 John Daub: Oh, yeah. Look. They had that. They had the tables here. Yeah. LaLaport (shopping mall) 's got some good restaurants in there. What's the big deal about partying? Oh, check it out. They got ping pong tables here. What? That looks pretty cool. Better bring your own paddle and balls.

00:16:30 John Daub: So this side of LaLaport came about right before the Tokyo Olympics. About two, three years ago now. It's got that feel of they expected a lot of people and then nobody came kind of feel to it. You know that feeling? I do because I was here during the Olympics. And nobody was around.

00:17:00 John Daub: All right. Up at the top here, you get a start to get a view of Tokyo Bay. But the reason why there's no skyscrapers in the fort in the background there is because there's nothing there. It's just Tokyo Bay. Best one. It's on the Yurakucho line and the Yurikamome line. Now Odaiba is there, too. But this one's more feels like more of a Japanese residential shopping mall. And I'll show you what I mean as we walk around.

00:17:45 John Daub: First of all, you get a ton more space. We don't come here that often. But when we do. Leo likes to run around. Great for kids. Again, this area is a very family friendly place. Looks pretty, pretty different in the spring, doesn't it? Seaboat does make a stop here. So that's a big plus. If I was going to move somewhere, it's not real land. This is a Gomi Island (trash island). I guess that's not a big deal, but maybe it is. I don't know how you feel about it. Let me know in the comments. Would you live on land? Would you live on trash?

00:18:45 John Daub: Why are the trees propped up? I don't think they are. I think they might be new. Maybe they are. It looks stylish. I rented a car. I'm driving up three and a half hours. Somewhat. No, that makes me want to go for a story that's all about one tree, right? There's a story behind it. Aha. There. I guess you could say that this was very Odaiba vibey. Which is different, though.

00:19:45 John Daub: All right. Let me tell you a couple of things that you can do around here and make an afternoon of it. I think if you're spending two or three weeks in Japan and if you're spending maybe too much time in Tokyo and you realize it, that I think you should spend a day. Come out here and let me show you why. If you can find a place and there's a drawbridge up here that's up, but you can ride all along the coast all around this manmade trash island. I've taken you a couple of times there. Yeah. Yeah.

00:20:45 John Daub: It's a nice little dollar view of Tokyo Bay and there's a Rainbow Bridge. Do you see it? There's a Rainbow Bridge in the background there. Oh, my gosh. It's so beautiful. That point. It's do you see on the bottom of it? There's a path. Do you see that path there? That is the best. I mean, it's so long you could walk it, but I think it's better if you have a bicycle riding along it. And it's so nice. Really relaxing to ride around here. Bring. Buy a bento from this shopping mall. There's the bridge that's up. You can still go around it and sit there and eat your bento watching the boats go by on the end of the Toyosu Park there. I think it's called Green Park [?].

00:22:00 John Daub: Oh, there's a Shohei Ohtani 10 years ago. All right, let's come out here to the Tokyo Bay side and I'll get out this mochi for you. Can I told me just now? I got a message to get her something at Starbucks. Really? She said there's a Snoopy's Cappuccino or something. Gosh, donkey has bicycles for $100. They certainly do. I think you can do better than $100. That's like that's like 13,000 yen. You can do better. Just rent it for five $5 a day. You're not going to be taking it with you.

00:22:45 John Daub: Wow, this does look nice. All right, let's get this Daifuku out before it melts. It's nice. They have these like picnic benches set up for people like me and you. Just do it over there. Hey, let me. All right, let's just sit down and try this real quick. All right, open it real carefully here. Wow, that is some green color. That is some green color here. Check this out.

00:23:30 John Daub: Well, that is that is very sweet of you, Brondani. Thank you. I will. I will have to get her. She also asked for cinnamon rolls. So there you go. And this is for you, Brondani. I dedicate this one to Brondani. Oh, that's a lot of matcha powder. Really? That's mochi. OK, you say so. Oh, my gosh. Nigai nigai (bitter, bitter). That is so bitter. That is so bitter. I mean, it's slightly sweet, but that's a lot of bitterness. Just like some kind of creamy mousse inside the middle. You see the matcha mousse.

00:24:30 John Daub: Oh, my gosh. That powder makes it bitter. I guess that's what I was looking for. I don't know. I know that matcha is bitter, but that's a lot of bitterness. I'm torn. This is not something I would get again, but it is the matcha season. We're starting to see a lot of matcha has really high caffeine content. I'm going to put this away. Save it for later. I'm not bitter about it. I'm not bitter about it. But it did taste like a smack in the face.

00:25:15 John Daub: You need moisturizer on your hands for your dry skin. I do, Lance. I need a lot of moisturizer. It is gets dry in the winter and the humidity is starting to come back. Definitely from December, like around December 15th to March 15th. It is super dry in Tokyo. And then from June until the middle of September. It's super humid. Like you don't need moisturizer. In fact, I could just sell the oil off of my body into a jelly tube. So I could preserve that and then use that in the winter.

00:26:00 John Daub: I guess they sell those jelly tubes up in the Muji store [?], which they have inside here. Squirt it out. You get the little teeny ones so you can take the toothpaste. You know, they come in the really big tubes and you can put it into the little teeny tube and then you can take it out. And then you can travel with that. You need to do that.

00:26:45 John Daub: Check it out. These people here are doing Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) and we don't have a lot more days to do that. That's nice. That's nice. Serious problem. Gross. Tonight I'll be sleeping in the car because I have to wake up at 5 a.m. So it doesn't make a lot of sense. Actually, I will leave. I will leave tonight. Drive up to Fukushima. Sleep in the car. And then start filming from 5. I'm going to sleep in the car. So it's going to be a really interesting trip.

00:27:45 John Daub: I have an interview with people from the city hall at 10 a.m. And then I'll probably film until 12. Then I'm going to another site and I plan to do a live stream. Hey, Jeff. Is that Jeff? Jeff, it is beautiful outside. Here we go. This pan is brought to you by Jeff. That's too close. Here you go. Yeah, you know, 1000 Sakura trees up in Fukushima and do a live stream outside of Tokyo with the cherry blossoms. To give you a sense. I'm not sure if there's even a signal. So we will see.

00:28:45 John Daub: But if there is, I will do a live stream from Fukushima's one of the most beautiful spots. I saw this when I was driving back two years ago from a job. I was filming the Melody Road episode. Do you guys remember that? That was that was last year. I was filming a scene at Fukushima. If you haven't seen that, I think that's one of my favorite episodes. It's they put grooves in the roads and the highways.

00:29:45 John Daub: And if you go down the road, you'll see the road. If you drive over it at the right speed, it creates a melody. And I met with the founder, the man who created it like 45, 50 years ago. He showed me his creation because the first one was up there in eastern Hokkaido. Then I filmed the town that plays Country Road. Thank you, Jeffrey. They play Country Road. That's a song that says I only know the one verse. Country Road. Country Road. West Virginia. Country Road.

00:30:45 John Daub: Well, if you drive over it, it plays that song without the lyrics. So it doesn't matter if you do know it or not. But if you do, it's probably from West Virginia or your big… Was it John Denver? So when I would film that, I was driving back to Tokyo. I remember seeing on the left part of my eye. I'd never seen just this beauty from the highway. I'm looking. I just looked in that direction, I was like, holy macaroni, Batman, and I pulled off at the next rest area and I put a star on my Google Maps.

00:31:45 John Daub: And then since then, I've always wanted to go back there. Of course, the cherry blossom season was a year ago, and now we're back one year ago since I filmed that episode. And yeah, I've got to make my way out there, and I'll take you with me tomorrow if there's a signal. I should be there somewhere between 11.30 and 1. It's about 30 minutes away from the tree that I'm going to film, and then I'm going back to that tree for the night.

00:32:45 John Daub: I have a press pass. Apparently, it's so crowded, you need a press pass. So I have a press pass. You get a little armband you get to put on there, and nobody messes with you. So you can film and not get in trouble so much. Yeah. John Denver. He also... He also sang Colorado Rocky Mountain High. Oh, I like that song. Yeah, they got to make that into a melody road.

00:33:30 John Daub: The CEO, he was one of the nicest people that I met. He has a construction company up in Shibetsu, which is on the very east coast of Hokkaido. It was really far to drive out there. It's a shame I lost so much money on that episode because it only had like 60,000 views, which meant I probably made like $100 off of it or something from ad revenue. But it doesn't matter. The story was just so priceless. I might change that thumbnail.

00:34:15 John Daub: But it's such an amazing story. And I think I always wanted to go to that side of Hokkaido, and they gave me a reason to do it. But I'm really excited about tomorrow to be able to go and see that spot again. And I'm hoping that we have the blue skies like we do today because that would change. That's a game changer for the cherry blossoms. It's supposed to be cloudy. I don't know if the weather forecast will be that or not.

00:35:00 John Daub: The tree that's in question is at full bloom. And the other ones are at full bloom. So it's going to be just stunning. I'll see if I can get the drone out in some areas. But you're not allowed to have it at an event like this. So I'll have to look to go and check it out. We'll be there next month for two weeks. That's great, Billy. You might be able to catch cherry blossoms up in Hokkaido, though. They're still blooming in May up there.

00:35:45 John Daub: All right, everybody. Thanks for watching. I just wanted to bring you with me. It's been a couple of days. It's a beautiful area. I'm in the middle of Tokyo. I've got to go get Kanae. So, Brandani, I'm getting her Starbucks over there. You see the Starbucks in the distance? That's where she's getting her Snoopy frap and some cinnamon roll waffle thing. I don't know. She knows. If I don't come back with it, I'm in big trouble.

00:36:45 John Daub: And then there's the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. If you ever watch Forrest Gump, it's a real company. They've got shrimp, all sorts of shrimp. I've never eaten there. Has anybody eaten there? No. Apparently, it's all shrimp. So, yeah, that's a thing. Happy April. I didn't do an April Fool's joke or anything like that. I guess this whole channel is a big joke. I don't know. I'll just have fun.

00:37:45 John Daub: All right, I'll see you tomorrow as I drive up. Maybe I'll do something in the middle of the night. I don't know. We'll see what happens. But if there's a story, I will go live and bring it to you. And we're going to go see another part of Japan tomorrow. And then the day after tomorrow, there are plans to go to Japan. It's time to go to see maybe Kawaguchiko. Or to go to see the cherry blossoms in another area. To go see Mount Fuji. We're not sure yet.

00:38:45 John Daub: It just depends because Leo is a little bit sick. But if he's feeling up to it, I might get that rental car. I still have it for another day. And then drive over to Kawaguchiko and Yamanashi Prefecture. And maybe see something and then drive back at the end of the day. And I got a ton of editing. Next episode is the chicken farm. Japanese chicken farm.

00:39:45 John Daub: You're not allowed to go to the chicken farms anymore because of some avian flu, but I got a permit to go into the chicken farm and I filmed them making chicken nanban (fried chicken with tartar sauce), which is my favorite, top five favorite dish in Japan. And I went to three chicken nanban restaurants and the chicken farm, so that episode is pretty much done. The chickens are so cute. They were free-range chickens running around. There's a lot of them underneath the tent there, but they're just, they were so cute and they were young, and they're food. But it's cool to see a chicken farm.

00:40:45 John Daub: The chicken farmer was so friendly. He said, next time I come to Miyazaki to call him and we'll go out to dinner. I guess it'll be beef because I'm sure the last thing he wants to eat is chicken. All right, and Ed Q is here raising chickens. Awesome. All right, everybody, have a good day, have a good night. See you from Tokyo Bay. Thanks for watching. Yeah, be careful. If the chickens are too cute, people would get turned off eating them. Well, maybe they should. Until you smell it roasting and you want to have it again. See you later. Matane (see you).