00:00:00 John Daub: The next station is Shin-Okubo. JY 16. The next station, doors will open on the right side. Hello everybody. We are on our way to Shin-Okubo. And it's crazy how quick the train ride is from Shinjuku. Wow. We're going to be walking that back and it's going to take us about 15 minutes. But I bet you it takes us close to 30.

00:01:05 John Daub: Ah. We've made it. Finally. This is Shin-Okubo. How you doing everybody? So in this episode I'm going to be taking you around. I wanted to start off on the train ride just to give you an idea how close it is to Shinjuku. It's only about an 18-minute walk according to Google Maps right here. Here's the path that we're going to be taking today. And I'll take you a little bit up past around Shin-Okubo, kind of give you a better idea of the area. And then we're going to take you around Shinjuku. And then we're going to walk back through the narrow streets to Shinjuku West. And it should be really interesting despite the rain. That's never slowed us down. You still got to get out there and see stuff. So let's say goodbye to the train and move. We have ourselves an adventure. As always let me know if the signal is not too good and I'll try to adjust it. Welcome to Shin-Okubo.

00:02:03 John Daub: Thanks to my Patreon supporters and everybody who has been encouraging me to come here. There's one of the entrance doors. There's the Shin-Okubo. I see WRX Turbo is in the house. How you doing? Not the greatest day for it. Bradshaw Studios. Thank you Bradshaw Studios. Let's get in there. Let's get down on the street. We're going to be taking that alley over there. But I like starting up here for a reason. Check this out. We have this amazing view right there. Check it out. It's wet but it's definitely navigable. It's also a colorful area of the city and not as crowded as the Shinjuku area. But we are very close. This is also a lot of accommodations. You see the Sobu Line on the other side.

00:03:03 John Daub: Alright let's go. Wow it's crowded. Because the Yamanote Line is coming every like 2 to 3 minutes. There aren't too many opportunities to get out cleanly. Especially if you stick around and like to talk on the platform like I do. This station had a renewal a few years ago, just before the pandemic. I can't remember when it happened. Wow it is more crowded than I thought it would be. I guess it's a lot of students that are letting out right now. Out and about. But it is raining and I found that even with the rain the tourist numbers are still really high right now. It feels so different than it did pre-pandemic of course. Wow. Alright here we are. Street level. There is the Yamanote Line making its way out of here. Our ride. And let's explore.

00:04:32 John Daub: First off I am going to take you to the left here. And go up this alley going up north. It's not really an alley. It's more like a street. You can go this way and there are some fine Korean barbecues. Some really fine Korean restaurants in this direction. Down this street here. But I found that sticking on the other side is a little bit better. Sticking on this side. That's what we are going to do. Wow. Look at all the people. This place has always been quite deserted. If this is a place you want to see you can give me a shout out here because you are a live stream. And I will try my best to navigate in that direction. Alright this is the main road we are going to be going down in about 5 minutes time. But we are going to take a roundabout way to do that.

00:05:29 John Daub: Here is the proposed route from Shin-Okubo Station. We are going to go down that alley. But let's go up north which is off of this map just for a couple of minutes to take a look at this area. Hang a right. Look at the McDonald's there. Now this neighborhood has a lot of ethnic food, restaurants, supermarkets as well. So it might be a good thing to come this way if you are looking for something for cooking that you can't find in a store for other Asian countries. You can most often find it here. It hasn't changed that much. I have to be honest. This neighborhood has not changed that much. That 100 yen store is still there. There is an Indian curry place. Arabian food and Turkish food. They have kind of like put it all into one. Wow it smells like another country in there. How awesome is that?

00:06:51 John Daub: People are pretty friendly around here. This is a yaoya (greengrocer). It says here the kanji and you get some fresh vegetables here. But there is a lot of different things. Oh look there is mangoes. Right in the center there. I am tempted. Oh it smells so wonderful. Spices. Oh look at that. There is another supermarket in there. It smells like India in there. Oh my gosh. Oh this is awesome. Behind me you can see there is another supermarket here ready to eat. You can get some stuff. I guess finger food. That is really amazing. It does feel like you are in another country here. That is so awesome.

00:08:00 John Daub: Oh you got some takeaway stuff. A shami burger. What do they got? Let's take a look. Oh you can take away biryani. How awesome is that? Samosas. Oh. Samosa chaat. Oh pani puri. What? I haven't had that since I was on Chowpatty Beach in Mumbai. And yakitori. That is a little unusual. But the other stuff seems to fit in. And you know what? If they had a masala dosa I might get that. Wow. Okay. Let's see what else we can get here. It is too early just to jump into the food isn't it? Oh that's right. Hey Michael is here. Alright let's see what we can find Michael. I will give it my best to grab some street eats.

00:09:00 John Daub: We are going to take a left here and just wrap around and go back down that main street. So if you are watching live give us a minute as we just look around the neighborhood a bit. This looks like a dead end. I don't think I can go this way. Here is the thing alright. This part of Shinjuku. The streets kind of wrap all around. There is another Pakistani restaurant. There is a Pakistani restaurant right there. It is very easy to get lost here and I encourage you to do that. Because it is a lot more fun to travel around Japan lost. And you discover stuff that nobody else does. And who knows you know a lot of people say you have already done this before. You have already done this walk. But the thing is every couple of years Japan especially Tokyo things change, evolve. New things come. Old things go. And that is I think pretty critical information for a lot of you who are coming to visit here. It is also nice to see the old hoods. Old neighborhoods.

00:10:14 John Daub: I am here in Shinjuku for a reason. Not just to show you Shin-Okubo. And we haven't done a Shin-Okubo street view I think ever. I know I came here once for a live stream in like 2017. Maybe. I am pretty sure I walked from Takadanobaba to Shinjuku through here. But this is the first time that I have been specifically in this neighborhood. Oh there is the green Nasco. You can see it more clearly walking back the way we came. That is a really good place to get basmati rice I have heard. You can also get it on Amazon but it just seems a little bit better to support local businesses here. I don't know. I might pay more just to do that. But it is a hike to get out here. You can smell grilling meat. Of course everybody knows the Korean barbecue. Bulgogi. It is very famous. Not just in Korea. It is here in Japan. Japanese love Korean food but they kind of mess around with it. And change the flavor where kimchi becomes kimchi which is more of a not as spicy variety of it.

00:11:43 John Daub: There is Shin-Okubo station. You can see the umbrellas are out in force so I have to watch my eye. I have a raincoat on so I have to watch my eye. I have no intention to use the umbrella unless it downpours. However, you do have to watch your eyes because it is so crowded now. You get an umbrella to the eye. It sort of hurts. Oh, that is a nice shot right there. That is the new Shin-Okubo station. Alright, let's go down the street here. Red light. So from this point it is about a, Google says it is an 18 minute walk and they are pretty accurate with the maps. You can put a location one place to the other. It is about 2 minutes on the Yamanote line. But I always say walk the city of Tokyo because it is just so, so interesting.

00:13:05 John Daub: Here is another Asian market. They have got halal food as well. Wow, they have got coconuts down there. There is papaya. Wow. You don't see that in the Japanese supermarket. Interesting. Alright, it is lunch time which would explain the smell of grilling beef. Yes. That is a nice looking guitar store too. Thai restaurant there. Now I got a little bit of spiciness. So there is a little Thai corner here. The menu looks really good as well. Let's see what we have here. Okay. This is the Tom Yum soup as well as green curry. Prices are pretty reasonable as well. There is Nepal. You got the coolest flag. It is not shaped like a flag right there. So Nepal is being represented. You get some momo which is like a, I guess you call them dumplings. Sort of like gyoza. Man, when I was in Tibet and Nepal, that is all I ate. Momo and buttermilk tea and occasional beer.

00:14:36 John Daub: There is the Shin-Okubo post office. Speaking of it, I was just, the reason why I am here in Shinjuku is I just sent off the postcard for this month. Check it out here. This is the famous scene from the movie, from Shinjuku. I sent out, what was it, a few hundred postcards. I always like to send the postcards from the area if I can. But what was cool about this shot, for the postcard this month, Godzilla is next to Mario and the two of them are like doing battle. And I had to send it from, the guy at the Shinjuku post office was, kept looking at it because I always hand them to them because I separated them by country. And he was looking at it and he kept pointing to the Godzilla with a smile like I was a tourist and I didn't know what that was. I was like, yeah, I know Godzilla. But he was, he was proud and he showed me it's gonna have a Shinjuku postmark on it. So that's kind of cool to do.

00:15:31 John Daub: But more than that, and you can still get them, I'm still sending these postcards. I put on this month, the, check it out, sideways here, but this is the Pokemon, I can't bring it this way. This is the Pokemon game stamps. And I actually have these Pokemon game stamps on this month's postcard. So if you're interested, you're gonna get one of these 10. All of them are pretty cool. This month, I've been saving this for a couple of years. Which one do you get? I don't know. It's fate. It's your destiny.

00:16:04 John Daub: All right, we just passed here a, that looks pretty good. What is that? Oh, this is a Thai Vietnam bar restaurant. What? Actually, it's got all of the Asian countries, like from Southeast Asia, including India, South Asia and Southeast Asia. There's Singapore, China, Korea, Malaysia over here. Thailand, Vietnam, India and Nepal. So I guess you get a little bit of everything. You can go around the world in one restaurant. Well, around South Asia. Wow. Let's get a closer look at the menu here. Man, you know, Malaysia, I would say it's, it's hard to pick. All the food is so good in Southeast Asia, but Malaysia is just so darn good. Vietnam as well. What am I saying? It's all really tasty stuff here. And then Nepal, where are the momos? Oh, here they are. Steamed momos. And that sauce is so good. I can't remember what it is. I think it's a curry sauce. But Malaysia, this is Singapore, Malaysia together. Singapore chili crab. Whoa. Wow, look at this. And Vietnam, the prices are pretty good. All under a thousand yen. That is very good.

00:17:29 John Daub: All right, let's keep on walking. All right, I don't have the smell of grilling meat. I think that street that I showed you at the beginning of it might have more Korean barbecues. Here we're seeing a really, really amazing Thai vibe to it all. Here's another Thai restaurant here. Get a quick look at the menu. Really amazing vibe here. Thailand, yeah. Hey, Katayama's in the house. Thank you, buddy. I think I will before I get back and start to edit. Just putting in the subtitles to an interview. There's an asento here. No, wait. They say it's an onsen? It's 2,000 yen to enter, and you can stay for up to eight hours. So you could actually just sit there and check this out. You could just enter the bath for eight hours and just stay here overnight and relax at the sauna. And they show you some of the beds here. If you want to stay and get an actual bed, you have to pay another 1,200 yen. But 3,200 yen and you get a spot to crash in and you can go to the bath. And there's places to sit and work. So that's like a, if you missed the last train option, that's really good. Looks pretty clean in there. You never know. But a lot of these places are in areas like this. They're a little bit older. Manga kissa or manga cafes are also highly recommended.

00:19:10 John Daub: Look, there's a Korean restaurant, barbecue, with pictures of the guests up there. A lot of happy faces. Oh, chijimi. Oh, wow. I can smell it now. Yeah, this is an awesome neighborhood. So let's take a look back at it. Here you see, it's very colorful. Malcolm says you would watch out for those places. I used to stay at those places. It's okay. But I wouldn't go there with a lot of suitcases and baggage and stuff. I know the CEO of this company. I interviewed him and hung out with him for a while. He makes these boxes. You put in 1,000 yen and you can get perhaps a camera. I think Eric Sir Six got a camera out of it when he was doing it. But he put in like 10,000 yen, I think, in his video.

00:20:23 John Daub: There's a lot of routes from here to take. We could go straight. That looks like it's possible. Or we can go underneath the Yamanote tracks. But that's why I kind of brought a map with me here. It says, I think it says just keep going straight. Oh, no, no. Right here. Okay. Right here I kind of have to take the turn. It's very easy to get lost here. I also, let me give you, a bird's eye view of this area while I can. This is, there's, you see Shinjuku on the left side going over that new skyscraper in Kabukicho. And right in the center of your screen, although it's hard to see, that's Shin-Okubo. Yeah, right there. And there's the station that we came out of right there. It might be the other side of it. But that gives you kind of an overview of the neighborhood. It's very close to Shinjuku.

00:21:28 John Daub: Let's go underneath the track and take a look at the street really quickly before we go here. This is a new store. It's Korean beauty products. What? Edo honey. So you can get some Korean beauty products. Never seen that before. New shop. We're going to go underneath the tracks here. Just take a quick look. See. What's this? Oh, this is the hotel. Shinjuku North Hotel. That looks really clean and renovated. But the thing is, it reminds me of a love hotel. So, I'm not sure if that's my kind of place. It has the style of a love hotel. I don't know. I think it might be just a normal hotel. This alley is super cool looking. Check it out. It's right underneath the Yamanote line, but you have graffiti or painting on it. And makes it very colorful. Here comes a train.

00:22:45 John Daub: It does look like a love hotel. Pass. You can tell if it's a love hotel because it'll tell you the prices for stay and for rest. And typically, a love hotel is, what is it, two hours? Two to three hours for a stay and then overnight. Usually, the, the, so for rest and the stay is overnight. That's usually from, let's see. I haven't stayed there in a long time. I don't know. It was like 9 or 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Okay. So, now you can, now you can really see it, okay? There's the, the new skyscraper that's a huge entertainment center for Kabukicho. And there's a Korean barbecue right there. It's right there in front of us. And if you go back towards Shin-Okubo, there's some really nice restaurants in this direction. Shall we go back to Shin-Okubo Station? It seems like, almost like a waste to go to Shinjuku. You've seen that so many times before. Let's walk back up and see the other side of the Shin-Okubo Station because I think we should do a very thorough look around the neighborhood here.

00:24:08 John Daub: The 2D Cafe. Brought to you in 2D. Thanks to YouTube's high technology. Now in 1080p. You know, to me, Korea is a, is a place of amazing street food. So, I'm guessing that street that I showed you earlier. So, let's go take a look and see if we could find some tteokbokki or something. Oh my gosh, those are so good. They're like mochi and very spicy, delicious sauce. I've gotten that when I was in, I used to have a special friend in Korea. She's a little weird. She wasn't the same person in Korea as she was back in the USA. Met her at Ohio State. Big change.

00:25:09 John Daub: Korean cuisine most magical moment. Oh, I like that. If you're looking for a magical moment, we have found your place. It does look like more fun. This is definitely not in the style of Japan. Look on the roof. They have these tables and bubbles. How cool is that? Like that is, they don't do that kind of stuff in Japan. I think the eating experience in Japan is so traditional, kind of boring sometimes, honestly. There's not a lot of street eating. And even these outdoor barbecue plate, the outdoor eating is not that, is not that popular anymore. Like that's all old Showa era stuff. The Nombei yokocho in Shibuya. There's the Omoide Yokocho, another alley here in Shinjuku. These are like old style, no doors. Just go in and eat. Kind of feel the urban area around you. You don't get that a lot anymore. There's a place in Ginza right near Yurakucho Station. There's Okachimachi and Shinbashi. Those areas are very famous for that. You don't find it on the other side of the station, which I didn't show you at the beginning.

00:26:28 John Daub: So those joining us, welcome to Shin-Okubo. This is the station that I showed you in that Google Maps about five minutes ago. Waffle-Kan. I have a friend with the last name Kan in India. What is this, an Indian restaurant? Indian waffles. Well, it's certainly pretty bustling here. I guess that used, this used to be the station, but now it's become a very long time. But they moved the new station onto the other side. And definitely needed improvements. I remember walking through there when I was older. I'm pretty sure they had a station side, a station on this side. Bustling. Alright, let's see what we can see. Maybe there's some kimbap. There's the Paris Mickey on the other side, which is what? I'm not sure. It looks like there's a purikura upstairs. Or is that a cafe? I don't know. Korean restaurants are so cute. Look at that. Wow, you can't even walk on this street because it's so crowded.

00:28:10 John Daub: I could go for some chicken. There's nae-nae chicken. Wow. Alright, there's that hot dog. There's some street food right there. I'm getting hungry now. Wait, Katayama. Michael, this is... I think I'm gonna break down in a second if I don't eat something. Alright, so we have another... There you get the typical yakiniku, the grills inside there. It looks like it's already full. They're turning people away. They're turning people away from this restaurant. When is lunch time? Always, I would say now since the tourists came back here, you gotta get... If you wanna go to a place that's popular, you need a reservation. If they don't take them, you have to get there early. And it's just... It's part of now... the way things are. This boom is gonna be here for a long time.

00:29:17 John Daub: Oh, this is like some sort of a Korean... Is it? Yeah, like idol thing. Guess who's in the house? Start with a B, end with an A. Bratania! Welcome. Aloha. Oh, I did... I used to have a yakiniku group on Facebook. I had to end it because I was... I kept losing money on it. Because if people didn't show up, they'd still charge me. We used to... I think we had a couple of... Five or six hundred people in the group. Forty-five to fifty people would show up every month. And it was a lot of fun. That's how I was able to see my friends once a month. That's why I did the group. So we would meet once a month. Meet being M-E-A-T. And we came to this area a couple of times. I don't see that restaurant, but I know we had the party on a balcony because it's hard to put forty-five people in here in a restaurant. Sometimes they don't take reservations for that. Or they say, please come earlier. Oh, okay. I think it was that one right up there, but it's changed. Some of the restaurants have changed hands here. There's a FamilyMart, but it doesn't... It looks... It feels a little bit different than FamilyMarts in different parts of Japan. Because this is Shin-Okubo, baby.

00:30:35 John Daub: Wow. I guess you get to eat Korean food that looks like that. Interesting. Is that the place? No. I think we ate once here. And they gave us a really good deal. And I think there's a couple of other restaurants up above... Over in this direction. I can't remember. I started that group in 2010. And we ended it in 2017, I think. So it was a good seven-year run. Let's go. Korean cosmetics are really popular in Japan. There's some more over there. What's that called? That's right. Myeongdong. I think... Is that one of the places? This Dong-chan looks like... Looks familiar to me. Oh, yeah, the building's up there. It looks very old. You have to look up past the second or third floor these buildings have restaurants going up seven eight floors sometimes absolutely i think that this is the street this looks really this is new look at the menu oh my gosh look at the cheese oh here's some tteokbokki it's a little pricey usually it's uh like a couple hundred yen and on the street oh looks nice in there i can't admit i haven't been uh to this area in a very long time

00:32:55 John Daub: there's a little shrine in there you're not allowed to go in there to drink they have signs they know what this neighborhood is famous for look at this massive Korean supermarket there's a lot of people going in here wow the Soul Ichiba it's called the Soul Market and you can see there's people who are from the vending machine getting some street food what are they making oh yeah look they've got tteokbokki here get a mozzarella hot dog a cheese ball what do you guys think um a sweet potato dog a bacon bacon egg what i don't know what to get oh that looks good the honey red bean i think these um is this one here i wonder how long does it take to get one how long does it take to get one let's walk around first because there's more there's a tornado potato check it out they take a potato and they make a tornado out of it that's pretty insane i got a thousand yen here let's take a look it looked like there was a bunch of a bit of a line there i can't not get something all right check this out here so first i think this looks like a

00:35:05 John Daub: pachinko place i thought it was maybe a massive like a complex for a shopping mall or something but it's actually a pachinko place that's just that's a shame and you can see a little bit further down here it keeps kind of going on but i think that the Korean town goes away a little bit so what i'm going to do is take you down this alley here next to the Lawson's and we're going to go see what we can see here so let's go down here and we're going to see what we can see here i i always say be adventurous get lost go down alleys in japan you won't get mugged usually and you might discover something something pretty cool i don't think i've ever been down this alley and i've been to a lot of alleys let me know if the signal goes away or if you have any problems with it again this is a live stream and if you are in the shinjuku area it is really worth coming out to this direction here's another asian supermarket korean dining oh man that's the one question i'm going to ask you guys is what is the most popular food in japan korea in this area it's the most popular cuisine that i haven't had enough of in the last few years because of the pandemic korean food i think it's time to get on a on a plane and fly over though but if you walk through here you don't have to flights to korea are typically really inexpensive

00:36:40 John Daub: so i'm already way off of that map i showed you i decided i'm not going to shinjuku i'm going to stay right here i think the oedo line might even connect up close to here i think there's Higashi-Shinjuku but the rain is starting to come down a little bit more here another cosmetic shop wow you know I think the the pig you see him all over in Korea I've seen I've seen the pig okay finally a chicken I've seen more pigs in this area than I did cows or chickens and finally to the right here to the left here I thought I saw a chicken yeah they do look very much quote unquote quote Korean I mean because this is Korea I've had these big strips but that's not chicken that's pork what the heck is that it's soul tiramisu should I try that I've never seen that before wow it keeps on going and going and check this out there's like this um small corner full of restaurants what this restaurant they had one we walked coming back in this direction I think I made the right choice not walking to Shinjuku and sticking with the Shin-Okubo theme here oh and they have a pretty good lunch lunch menu set here I gotta bring Kanae out here gotta take her to the honey cafe where else would you take your honey I don't know what this soul tiramisu is they have an original blueberry I guess it's just tiramisu in a cup but they seem to have a lot of them check it out there's one with a cookie on there you know a lot of people say should should you know there is somewhat of a rivalry between Korea and Japan but I have to be honest with you I don't think the people here really care that much about that I think it's more political stuff here I know that everybody all of my friends in Japan the Japanese friends love Korea and vice versa people in Korea they really love Japan and every now and then something might pop up politically but they're both very nationalistic countries in their own ways and people ask me about them and I ask when people got angry and said I'm not going to visit Japan I'm going to Korea when the borders were closed and I said that's fine I think people are like okay Korea is a really pretty is a really nice place too to visit I think that there's a um I don't know you know what I think it's the last I haven't really seen Korea much in the last 20 years but when I was there I felt more you could feel more East Asia feeling I think in Korea than I did in maybe it's because of the street food culture maybe it's because of the street food culture the eating outside culture the eating out culture I felt more of that than I did in Japan Japan is like a subdued in some ways Korea Korea is more like I don't know it's just more dare I say even like more fun especially because of the I think mostly because of the street food it's just more vibrant in a way or maybe it's because the grass is greener on the other side and I live here and I see a different side of it but as a visitor Korea is awesome what do you have to say about that live stream? what are the differences and how do you feel about about that which one is better to visit and can you visit both on the same trip I think it's a pretty good idea and I'm gonna throw China in there too because I was I backpacked through China oh check this out UFO hey UFO Bob I found your chicken dish I wonder if UFO Bob is here all right let's get let's get something from this I can't come here and not order something from this shop something let's get one of these um look they got ham cheese kimchi cheese okay just get a honey

00:42:15 John Daub: i think we have to wait our turn here well it's kind of cool here look at as well it looks like a blood bank it seemed like a really nice supermarket check it out it's really clean inside so i'm trying to get japan one of these days jeff jeffrey you can see the rain outside there's umbrellas oh wow those are the those look like the cookies from squid game look wow i can tell you one thing they're made fresh see what else they got here so i think this is the one that i ordered honey and then they had ham so what a lot of people get this one like the bacon you know what it is wow it's it's right there the waiting just makes you even more hungry they're certainly fresh handmade look at that he's literally putting honey in it the one thing you want to you don't want to do is eat an undercooked anything so i'm gonna say take your time this is better than watching paint dry at least you can eat the end result i'm not sure in korean but i'm not sure in korean i'm not sure in korean yeah or true i can't move on because i'm waiting i think i think i'm here finally waiting i don't like to do that this is why i sometimes don't want to get street food when there's a line you just never know there was no line when i got the ticket and all of a sudden you to the back and there's a line. They hide that from you. That's actually pretty good business, smart business. All right, let's move on to the end of the street where I could possibly eat this. Hello. Who is that? Someone looked at me, said hello and walked by. That's interesting. Oh, it's so hot. I don't think I could eat it if I, if I wanted to. I'm going to have to let it cool down a minute. Oh, it's so hot. That's why he put, he put like, put tissues around it.

00:48:56 John Daub: So for those that are joining us right now, this is Shin-Okubo. This is a very unique area of Shinjuku. I see Arthur Vandelay is here. This is a, welcome. This is a very unique part of Shinjuku. Just, just one station. I guess you could say north up from there. It's about a 15 to 20 minute walk from Shinjuku's west side. And it's a very, very famous ethnic neighborhood. We started in Shinjuku in the early 90s. We started off looking at the other side of the station, which had a ton of Thai, what was it? Thai, Vietnamese, some Korean restaurants on that other side. And there was one restaurant that had food from all over the place. But we also went up to another side of the street on the other side of the station that had four or five Indian supermarkets all selling really good stuff. And most of them had halal written on them, if not all of them, that require halal. You have that option here, which is totally cool. Following these ladies with the umbrellas. Oh yeah, sure. Thank you. You're welcome. That was nice. He's gone. That's so cool. I would share this with you, but it's so hot. It's burning into my hand. Wow. Look at the sweets that they have here. Honey bread, carbohydrates and sugar. It's part of the diet. It's a very, very popular diet.

00:51:31 John Daub: I'm supposed to, I'm not supposed to have that as part of my diet. No sugars, no carbs. I guess if you're on a diet, don't come to Japan. Don't go anywhere. If you're on a diet, stay in your house, go to work, come home and you'll never have to be tempted to eat honey bread. Oh wow. Copper. It sure is a vibrant place here. All right. So we're going to get some food. Alright, let's let's give it a go. It was burning into my hand. That's good. Of course I knew it would be. It's very mochi mochi kind of springy to it. Buttery, salty. And you can see there's like a cinnamon honey oozing out of there. That's a good spot. Yeah, you know what, street food. At least to me. Takoyaki's nice, but my gosh, this is like pure sugar. Oh my gosh. Oh, it's oozing out. Oh. Diet is over. It was never going to last. It's still super hot in there. Because I'm a man walking around town holding a stick and talking to magical friends on the other side. Diet is more than over. Thanks a lot, Jera. Thank you for that. Well, I can rebound from this.

00:54:01 John Daub: All right, there's signs, no smoking, no littering, and if you are a smoker, just keep in mind one thing. Ronald writes in here, you can do it, really. Keep in mind one thing. If you go to these wards, which are the cities within Tokyo, where you can't smoke, mine is one of them. And the police, I saw them fine somebody yesterday for smoking in a non-smoking area. There's that. All right, here's one more time. The video. I'm going to go to Shinjuku of the area just to give you a look here. You see, I'm going right over Shinjuku, and the center of your screen is where I am right now. Right now in the corner, right there. So, there you go. What do you guys think? Is Shin-Okubo your type of town? I like it. I'm glad that you guys, you know, I'm only out here because, one, I had to send the postcards to Shinjuku, and two, because everyone's been telling me, go to Shin-Okubo, you will not regret it. You got to show us Shin-Okubo. And, well, here I am, and I'm glad that I did. Very cool.

00:55:46 John Daub: This Shin-Okubo is a two-minute, two minutes from Shinjuku on the train. Here's a map. I was supposed to walk it. I did not. 17 minutes walking and about two minutes on the train here. This one, yeah. I know the other map. I have two maps of it. Yeah. So, it's a pretty easy station. Go left, go past Riko supermarket, make a quick left, right, and that's it. That's how close it is. Very cool. I was on Japanese TV last Friday. You can see there's a, that's me on the Hirobi News program. I go in every couple of months, talk about inbound tourism, tourism, the places people like to go. And they can hear me butchering the Japanese language on YouTube right now, if you want. No, I will not put a link in the description, but I'm sure somebody else will. It's on our Discord server. You might want to check it out. Oh, there. Oh my God, it's very embarrassing. I don't think they bring me on to talk for my skills in Japanese. But it's always a huge honor. And I'm glad that I get a chance to communicate with the, with people in Japan about you guys, about people visiting Japan. What are some of the new sites, the new trends. Because that's what I do.

00:57:32 John Daub: Alright, we're underneath the Yamanote Line right now, going towards the station. And I'll show you that. I am getting, feeling a bit of a sugar high and having some regrets. For what I have done. I've been pretty good for the last week or so. This keto diet or keto, I'm not sure how you say it. Mostly meat and no carbs and sugar. Did a pretty good job with that. Until today. Thank you. Was it worth it? Yeah. That tasted pretty good. Nostalgic. Reminded me of Korea. And it should have. Whoa, she has, she has SHIT on her hat. She wrote SHIT on her hat. Whoa. Cool. So here's the station and it looks chaotic of course. Shin-Okubo Station. It's pretty crazy. I don't think it, I don't think it, it feels like a, oh it is a weekend. That's why. Don't, it's a Saturday. I forgot. I thought today was like a weekday. Oh, I'm so messed up. I've been just editing with my head down for so long. I don't even remember what day it is.

00:58:55 John Daub: Alright, well I gotta go into the station. You guys want to come with me? Let's finish up on the platform. It is crazy. I'm so crowded. I mean, I didn't know that Shin-Okubo was such a, such a big tourist attraction. I guess it is. Things, and that's why I, I'm really happy to bring you to new areas, to bring you to old areas that I've already done before because they're always changing. Fascinating. Sometimes the place is no longer the place. Sometimes the place is no longer the place and the place that was the place.

01:00:00 John Daub: Alright, when this train leaves we're gonna have a pretty cool view. It was pretty cool. And there you go. Thanks everybody for watching. We had a lot of fun walking around the Shin-Okubo neighborhood. We've seen, I saw a lot today. It's raining. You could stay inside on a day like this but we, we did not and we had fun and I'm glad that you guys joined us. Leave me a comment in the description. I'll see you in another video. Little footnote, that was my train. Little footnote, we'll be going to Okinawa on Wednesday or Thursday and so I'll be taking you to another part of Japan. Really soon. It's gonna be pretty cool. It's been a long time since I was on the main, main Okinawa Island. I usually go to Ishigaki-jima so I'm looking forward to this. Yeah, Kanae and Leo are coming with us. And so are you. Which is why Only in Japan Go exists. So you can come with me and share live because yeah, Okinawa is pretty cool too. Matane.