00:02 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Ningyocho. What you see there is the famous clock here. And we have some action going on. Geisha on the right, delivery man on the left. Every hour this clock plays some music and gives you a little performance that's not finishing. It's a cute little clock. It's 3pm here in Tokyo and I am back. How you doing everybody? Welcome to Ningyocho.

00:29 John Daub: In this episode I'm going to be eating some soy milk donuts that are famous. I think it's called Tofu no Futaba. It's a really famous shop. I put a link in the description here. They've been around for decades. It's a small business. Usually you'll see the owner with a baby in her arms, which is also so cute. And that family really pumps out the babies because they always have a newborn. But they make tofu every day and they've been doing it for generations. I'll walk by the shop in this live stream. Let me cross the street, get into the... Let's go out here. We're going to try these donuts.

01:11 John Daub: I just got back from Hawaii and I want to share a message that I took at the airport to say thank you to everybody in Hawaii for the wonderful hospitality. You know, that aloha spirit is strong. And I was really happy to spend a few days in Hawaii. It was for filming. Half of this episode is going to be filmed here in Tokyo. The other half is in Hawaii. Konnichiwa, everybody.

01:44 John Daub: I want to show you here the intersection. This is the big intersection. This is Amazake Yokochō (sweet sake alley). That is a very famous... If you like oyakodon (chicken and egg on rice), that dish was born right there here in Ningyocho. You probably need a reservation or get here early if you're coming for lunch. It's kind of expensive, maybe about $20 for the dish. But it's still worth it too because they have the best quality chicken and rice and you definitely are moved by the experience, in particular if you've had this dish before.

02:20 John Daub: I did get home. The jet lag is bad. And the jet lag is real. It's only five hours, but it's enough to really knock you on your butt. I started getting sleepy around 2:30, 3 o'clock when I got to Hawaii. Brandy, Brandania, who's here. Michael Susano is here. How are you doing? Yes, I'm back. Brandy would drive me around and I would start nodding off around 2:30. It was overpowering, that feeling of drowsiness. And she did her best to try to keep me awake. She's, over there, there's some mountains. And I go, oh. I look around and then I nod right back off like I'm 85 years old. Those five-minute power naps powered me for another 30 minutes. But I made it through the film and it went by pretty quick. Michael was there as well to help me eat some of the delicious foods. And I ate a lot more than I thought I would.

03:15 John Daub: Alright, let's try these tofu donuts, or tonyu (soy milk) donuts. Make sure I don't spill it on the street here. That's an angle you won't see anywhere else except the live stream. I didn't even get to the beach except for the last day. It wasn't a holiday. So it says here tonyu, which is soy milk. And they make donuts from that. I've asked them permission to film. And I kind of got it, but I don't know how it would fit into an episode. They're so delicious. And if you are in the area of Ningyocho, stop in and buy some. You can get them in three packs for 380 yen or six packs for 580 yen. So you get a little bit of a discount on volume. But they're so good. Let's try it here. Maybe I'll find a coffee somewhere around here. Yeah, the diet's over. I've given myself one day grace period to try to get it out of my system. And then tomorrow I'm back on to the diet, whatever that is.

04:24 John Daub: Here's the donut. It looks like a donut. It tastes like a donut. But what I like about the soy milk donuts, tonyu donuts, are that they're lighter. And there is oil in it. But it's not a heavy experience. I think because it's using soy milk, does it make it healthier? There's no donut that is healthy, all right? Is it healthier than, you know, Mister Donut? Probably. But I got these because I know Leo also likes them. But they're lighter than other donuts. They kind of, like you can eat a couple of these and still have room for dinner. Or if you're eating them as a dessert, you'll still have room to follow suit. You'll still be able to sleep without doubling over in pain.

05:29 John Daub: I ate so much in Hawaii. You have no idea. The only people who know are probably Photo Luke Hawaii, Ron, Ron Dania, and Michael, and Nathan. They probably know how much I ate. It's crazy. Oh my gosh. I miss it so much too. I think you can make a connection with the place. And Hawaii is one of those places where everybody who goes there probably makes a connection.

06:01 John Daub: Alright, now I'm going to take you around and walk around some of the alleys here in Ningyocho. But not on the Amazake Yokochō side. I'm going to keep these donuts here. Alright, if I leave it on top of the box, do you think it's going to be safe? It's my bicycle. Do you think anyone's, I don't think anyone's going to eat those. They've been tampered with. My mouth. It's like a half-eaten one in there. A donut you can sit on, there must be healthy for medical reasons. I think so. I think I'm going to take a comfortable seat. That's the clock there.

06:42 John Daub: Alright, I was watching some videos on the flights going to Hawaii. And believe it or not, there's a budget option to the United States now run by JAL. J-A-L is Japan Airlines. It's called Zip Air. That's run by JAL. It's a low-cost carrier. But they say it's not a low-cost carrier. But it sort of is because everything is an upgrade. And the food. You can buy amenities and things like this to enhance your experience. They use comfortable chairs. But it's JAL. It's just toned down. And maybe half the price. Next year, ANA. We say ANA. ANA is All Nippon Airways. That's the other of the Japanese carriers. That's maybe my favorite right now. But it's gone back and forth. That's the blue one. JAL is the red one. They're coming out with their own low-cost carrier that's not a low-cost carrier option to the United States. And that's called Air Japan. And that will be coming out in 2024. And so you got these two budget options going back and forth to the West Coast and to Hawaii and to other places. Which I think if you're going to save like a few hundred dollars, you can use that to spend here in Japan. So the reviews of Zip Air have been pretty good so far. For the cost. I think if you go with ANA or JAL, you're going to have an amazing experience. That's without question. But if you go with Zip Air from everyone that I've talked to and the reviews online, it looks pretty good. So JAL is doing a great job. And when it's run by Japanese Airlines, you know that they're going to do a really good job. It's going to be clean. It's going to look nice. You don't have the monitors and the entertainment system. You don't have like the drink services. But do you really need that?

08:38 John Daub: Check it out here. Here's some of the alleys. Let's walk. I also noticed that the gimbal was a little bit bouncy or shaky yesterday. Tell me what how your experience is with viewing. Because I think I'm going to upgrade the gimbal again. I think that we named this Gimpy. I think that's what we named him. But it hasn't been a really super smooth experience. And I don't like this Osmo 6. Or Osmo 5. They're too flimsy. And you can't do much with them. You can't charge batteries, for example. Or there's no USB port to charge output. And you can't leave on the bracket when you store it. Because it locks and it keeps turning on. So my recommendation is the Osmo SE. Which is much better.

09:31 John Daub: Look at these little stylish side cafes. This is Kanekichi [?], I think. Is that what the kanji is? And they've got a pretty nice menu here. Like really budget stuff. This is chicken katsu kari (chicken cutlet curry), half-paku (half rice). Buta rosu shogayaki (pork loin ginger stir-fry). Which is ginger pork. Look at that. That is so good. That's about less than $10. That's really affordable. So in the alleys of Ningyocho, you've got a lot of these really stylish cafes. I guess you could say. Like small restaurant cafes that are so good. They won't break the bank. Right now we're between Akihabara and Ginza. That's what Ningyocho is.

10:32 John Daub: I see Garrett is here. Thanks for coming, Garrett. It was nice to meet you too. Let me see if I can get the group photo. Here's a map of where I am right now. You just take a look. I'm in the dot. Ningyocho is pretty much in the center. You could see Ningyocho station. And we're right here in the middle of the street. That give you a little bit of an idea.

11:01 John Daub: Let me see if I could find the group photo from Hawaii. That was me on the beach. That wasn't Waikiki, was it? No. My gosh. That seems like a week ago. And was just a few days ago. It was pretty crazy. Alright. I'll get some photos out here. But here are all the gifts that came in from the meetup. That's a lot. A lot of really nice stuff came in here. Can't say thank you enough. I don't know how many people came. I just know there's a lot of people that showed up. You could see the group photo on the right side. On the left side here. There's everybody. The family. And you could see Diamond Head on the right side. It's so beautiful. We had a rainbow that was over there. You could see that on Instagram. The rainbow was a full rainbow that went over the city of Honolulu. And it was on the day I was. The last full day. I was leaving the next day. And they said it was a good omen. You could see the full meetup video from yesterday on Only in Japan Go.

12:20 John Daub: Let's walk down here. Take a look around. I think it was like 50 people or so. And it wasn't really a big notice. A lot of people who wanted to come just couldn't come. And we probably could have 100 people. If we'd done it on a weekend. So we're thinking if I come back I might do a barbecue on a weekend. Or somebody will do a barbecue and I'll show up. I think that's the deal. This little French bistro, Chez Andre. That looks so good. You can tell if it's expensive by the price of a beer. 750 yen for a glass of beer. So that's fairly pricey, huh? But that's okay. Because it's French food. Here we got some. Is that a soba restaurant? Yeah, it is. There's a soba and an udon restaurant here on the corner. And this looks like a chicken restaurant. Because I noticed that kanji on the top being chicken.

13:30 John Daub: This soba is so cheap. It's 400 or 500 yen. That shop right here. But the menu is listed in Japanese. And I think it's a good idea if you guys memorize before you come in here. Hiragana katakana. But also the kanji for numbers. You see this? This means 400. This is 4. This means 5. Go. 500. This is tanuki udon. And this is tsukimi (moon viewing), which has an egg on there. And this is just a kake udon. Just 400 yen. That's so cheap. And then there's tempura. Tempura is 580 yen. So it's good to know the kanji for numbers. It's also on the clock. This is 6. You'll see this for Roppongi. 640 yen. Knowing the prices. Knowing the kanji for 1 to 9 will help you a lot. And the circle. This is a circle. It's maru. And that's a zero. But it's a different kind of... It's a perfect circle for zero. And inari sushi is just 100 yen. You see it on the left. And this onigiri is 130 yen. So it's good to know the price. Know a little bit of the kanji.

14:37 John Daub: Here's an izakaya across the street where the beer is pretty cheap. Buta bara tempura (pork belly tempura). Wow! I love that! That is like a really good cut of... That's like the pork belly. 700 yen for that tempura. Oh my gosh! You see that? It's hard for us who don't speak Japanese. If you have a flight that is over 3 hours long, you will be able to study katakana, hiragana, and 1 to 9 in kanji. And know that when you hit the ground. There's no excuse. All you gotta do is make flashcards. In fact, you could probably print out... It's so easy! All you have to do is print out the list before you get on the airplane. And you get to the airport. You just cover it up. By the end of it, when you arrive, you know coffee, pizza. You can order stuff off of the menu. It's pretty incredible.

15:31 John Daub: All you have to do is to study it on the... I don't understand Japanese. Well, nobody does if you don't study it. I'm just saying that to understand the writing system, you finished half of learning how to... The other half is really hard. But the first half of learning how Japanese works, it's not like Roman letters. It's not A, B, C, D, E. And you can't study. These survival Japanese. And say that you understand Japanese. Because if you're thinking in Roman letters, you're thinking the wrong way. You have to think in consonant-vowel. Like, ka ki ku ke ko, a i u e o, ka chi tsu te to. You start thinking like this, that's half of Japanese. Then, maybe an overstatement. But it comes a lot faster. Because then instead of learning one letter, you're learning the syllables. And it's a very phonetical... If you see katakana hiragana, it's a phonetical way. And you can understand the pronunciation a lot better.

16:32 John Daub: You should sell the flashcards. I probably should. But you can get them for free online. All you have to do is write katakana flashcards. You'll probably get it. Somebody probably made a PDF where you can just print them all out. I made my own. It took me 20 minutes. And I had studied katakana and learned it all in one day. And for the next 2-3 days, while I was going around the Nagoya subway, I was able to see it and remember it. And if I wasn't, I was able to pull out my list and I would say, that's a ka. And I would look at it and say, there it is, ka. Oh, now it's stuck in my mind and it never left. And then that's how you build on it. And if you can learn that, then your experience in Japan is so much better. It's so much richer and better. If you can just understand a little bit how it works. And if you can speak it just a little bit. And you speak it, your pronunciation is way better if you understand how the consonant, how the language flows. It's not as hard. Because if I can do it, you can do it. It took me a day. And you probably get a little, if you're interested in Japan, you've seen some movies or anime, you kind of have an idea what it sounds like. And it makes it a little bit easier.

17:55 John Daub: Josie is here. Hey, John, is there a place I can store my luggage for a few days before going on Shinkansen and Tokyo Station? You can store it at your hotel. When you check out, you can ask them if you can store your bag here for a while and maybe even pay them a little bit more. Some of the places will do that. I can't remember, but I think there was a left luggage place inside of Tokyo Station. But here's the deal. Here's a little secret, okay? You can use takkyubin (delivery service). And have it sent to your other hotel. Even inside, write this down, even inside of Tokyo, you can send something just one block away. And maybe it's going to be like $10. But you can also write when you want it collected. And you can say, I want it collected, if you're leaving on a Sunday, I want it collected on Wednesday. I want it delivered on Wednesday. They'll store it for you until Wednesday and then deliver it to the next hotel lobby on that Wednesday. So, you can take your suitcase to your hotel front desk or to a convenience store. They'll give you a slip to fill in. If you don't know how to do it, I would do it at the hotel because they might be able to explain to you what to do, what the forms mean because they're in Japanese and help you write out the address. You can do it in English, too. And you just circle the time. You write the day that you want to collect it. Up to, I think, about a week. And it'll store it for you with the delivery charge. It's kind of a shortcut. And you don't have to go searching for a locker. And if it's kind of large, you don't have to find a way it fits into a box. And it's pretty comparable in price to store something for that amount. And you know it's going to be safe and then delivered to where you want to go. Shh, don't tell anybody. It's our secret.

19:58 John Daub: It's back at the clock. I really didn't walk anywhere. I'm just walking in a circle. It says Ningyocho Ramen across the street, too. Alright, that's about it. I don't have too much more to show you. The alleys here are really fun. If you keep walking in this direction, you get to Suitengū (Suitengu Shrine), which is one of the great... In fact, you can see it through the trees. Do you see it? It's one of the famous shrines here in Tokyo.

20:34 John Daub: Yeah, I did return. You can see here I returned to rain. There's my flight back in. Look at the weather. This is yesterday. And then today it's sunny, but the wind is up. And then tomorrow, it'll probably rain again. I don't know. This is the rainy season. It's unpredictable. I hear it's raining in Hawaii and sunny here now. So, the sun followed me back.

21:04 John Daub: Alright, let me see if I can get the message really quickly that I took in Hawaii for everybody. Oh, here it is. Everybody in Hawaii that came to the meetup, and everybody in Hawaii in general, this has been an incredible three and a half days of filming. I got everything done that I think I needed to get done. I think the editing starts on this episode, but it was just a really special time, and I'm glad that I got a chance to come here and gather more information for future trips to learn more about the 50th state as an American. I thought it was pretty important to do it, but as somebody who's lived in Japan for 25 years, that's also another reason to come to Hawaii and get to know this pivotal state, which is between Japan and the United States mainland. Anyways, thanks guys so much for that, and I will see you in the livestream pretty soon. I don't think it's going to be here. I can't get enough good Wi-Fi signal for it, but I'm always going to try. See you soon.

22:11 John Daub: That was yesterday. I got some good sleep. I slept. I couldn't wake up. Right now, Kanae's sister is giving birth. I arrived back home at a good time. So it's exciting with the family, and I'm waiting to send my GoPro. There's a reason why I'm here. I'm not in Ningyocho just to show you a livestream. So my GoPro broke the 11. It's been awful, this GoPro 11 Black. And the form that they gave me to send it back in for a replacement only uses UPS, United Parcel Service.

22:57 John Daub: Oh, look at this. Gold scorpion. This ramen looks good. Wow. Look at the goma (sesame). That's sesame. Do you see this? Gold sesame don don noodles with braised pork belly. You can get it spiced up from one to five. Give me five, baby. It's 1,150 yen. It's like $8. Oh, my gosh. This is a find. And there's a wonton men, like a gyoza thing. They specialize in pork belly. Whoa. This is why the alleys are so good. It's like, boom, it's right in your face. Pork belly sesame ramen.

23:40 John Daub: Okay, so GoPro gave me a slip to send it in for free. And the slip is for UPS, United Parcel Service. They're not in Japan. So trying to find a place to send it is impossible. I thought that the kuro neko or takkyubin, you know, you could take it to some of the partner shops. You can't. They won't accept it. So there's a place called Mailbox Etc. here. They say it's open till 6. But for some reason, there's a sign in there that says they're closed until 4. So I don't know what to do. So I went live because I felt a little lonely and needed some companionship. Because I was with Brandy and Michael, like, every day. I miss them. I didn't know what to do. But I don't have my GoPro 11 because it's busted. And here's the mailbox, etc. I'm seeing if maybe they came back early. Okay. It's open. It's open again. But they had a sign here that says we're not open until 4. And so I've been waiting for a very long time. This is the only place, there's maybe four of them, where you can send things UPS. Or you can have them pick up. But I don't want that. You want to know why? Because you've got to register with UPS and give them all your information. It's ridiculous. In order for them to come and pick up something, even though they don't have an office anywhere, they want you to put in all your private information. They even wanted my birthday. It's like, what? Were they going to send me a card? I don't want to give UPS my birthday. I didn't even give Wikipedia my real birthday. This website, celebritybirthdays.com, asked me. I told them my birthday was January 1st. So on January 1st, there's some people who wish me happy birthday. You don't want your birthday out there.

25:38 John Daub: Whoa. I like these small sizes. Here's a chocolate parfait. Oh, look at this kakigori (shaved ice). I'm not a big fan of shaved ice. But this has matcha, azuki red beans, and mochi. That's 1,000 yen. That looks pretty good. Looks like a family business here. Anmitsu is what it's called. A lot of these local businesses, you can tell because they're in these old buildings that have been around for generations. And I think you get this really good touch. Then there's the Ginza Karen, famous for suitcases. Here's another ramen place. Tonkotsu. That's really good-looking pork cutlets there. Wow. Wilson has been to Anmitsu. It's amazing he writes in here. Thanks for the review there. That's helpful. It's hard to know if a place is amazing or if it's just average. It does look amazing. This is Daikokuya. This is a famous bargain place. I think it's like a pawn shop. Right? I think they like pawn stuff.

27:07 John Daub: All right, everybody. It looks like it's open, so Johnny's got to go. I'm not getting it, but if I did, I would be curious. There's melon cream soda. Trust me. It looks better on the outside than it tastes. It's not that good unless you like pure sugar. In that case, that's a drink for you. I've been to Ningyocho before. You can go take a look at some of the older streams, but I think I might do a main channel episode because the history of this area is pretty amazing. This is one of the areas I think that a lot of people overlook, and you shouldn't. It's got a vibrant Japanese entertainment like stage and theater. It's like off-Broadway. If you think of Kabuki on Ginza, Ningyocho is off-Broadway. But it's pretty close. It's like one or two stations away. It's on the... You can get on the Hanzomon Line, which is Suitengū, or the Hibiya Line to get here. But it's pretty close to Akihabara. See, there's a station right there. That's the Hibiya Line entrance.

28:33 John Daub: All right, I'm home. I'm back. I'm editing. So we got a lot of work to do, starting with the box to send to GoPro, which is right there, and those donuts, which are still there. Nobody touched them. That's success. Yeah, this gimbal is shaky. I'm going to get another one. I'm going to send this back to DJI. It's not working well. It could be better. All right, everybody. Aloha. How do you get the Hawaii out of me? I don't know. I've still got Waikiki beach salt in my ears. I keep finding salt all over the place. All right. See you, everybody. I'll see you again in another livestream tomorrow as I take you to another part of Tokyo or wherever the heck I'm going. I'm not even quite sure yet, but I'll be editing videos for the next few days, hopefully get another episode out.

29:36 John Daub: And by the way, just everybody, Peter and I decided that we're going to upload the Kickstarter video to YouTube because a lot of people will be going to Hokkaido for motorcycling, and I think after everybody has had exclusive access for quite a bit, then it might be time to put it on the main channel, slightly abridged. I'll put the credits for Patreon backers that made that possible on the video, and seeing the results of that might determine whether or not we're going to do another Kickstarter for a big project like that, which is what I like to do once a year.

30:11 John Daub: Oh, one other thing. Should I tell you guys now? So should I tell you? If you're interested, on September 9th, 10th, and 11th, this is the first time I'm going to be doing an Only in Japan tour. This is a real thing. Today we had a meeting with Iriya-san, who is my connection to the Japan National Fireworks Association. So I know the team there, the chairman of this association. This is every single manufacturer of fireworks in the country. And Iriya and myself and Kanae had a meeting today with Hayashi-san, and we're going to do a tour. This, to Katakai, which is the biggest fireworks festival, the biggest firework exploded festival in Japan, and maybe the world, annually. He's going to do the Yonshakudama again, which is the largest firework in the world that's done annually. It's 420 kilograms, and we're going to take, I think, about 30 people with us that want to come. This is a non-profit experience, because we're just trying it for the first time. We're going to keep the prices low as possible. We're still working that out, but it includes a hotel, it includes all your food, it includes transportation from Nagaoka Station to Katakai. Maybe we're going to the Koi, the carp museum, and have professionals explain to us about carp, the culture behind it, in Ojiya, which is the birthplace of the koi. It's where they breed a lot of them. A lot of people say it's the birthplace. I can't confirm that. They say it. So, September 9th, 10th, and 11th. I think it might be just the 10th and 11th, but we're narrowing it down, and we've got a really good accommodation. All of it's booked already. Japanese-style onsen, Japanese cuisine, and I'll be there with Kanae and Leo, and we'll be on the bus, too, I think. We're working out the details. I don't know, it's probably going to be, I don't know, like a few hundred bucks or more, because it has the hotel and the transportation, but it's a non-profit type of thing. Now, don't bring any junk food. We've got enough from Hawaii.

32:36 John Daub: You know what would be really cool? Just come and join us, especially if you're in the area, because this is an outside of Tokyo experience, I think one that I think you'll really like. It's a reason to go to Niigata. Which is, you know, you probably need a reason, but yeah, the 10th and 11th. You can send me a message on Instagram if you're interested. Send me your email, and then I'll give you first dibs. But we only have about 30 spots for this tour, one bus. And if it works out, I'll be doing more tours to try to get people to go out to the countryside. Because this is one of my goals since I restarted Only in Japan, to help you see outside of the beaten path. And sometimes we just got to get our own bus, and we got to go to places that the other buses don't want to go. And this is one of the things. I don't want it to be a touristy thing. Although, you know, you're on a bus with a bunch of other tourists, but there's ways to do it where you're not stopping in at like tourist restaurants and stopping in at tourist gift shops and stuff. I want to go local. I want to take you to where the grannies are, right? So, that's what we'll do. And I want to give you enough time in advance so that if you decide that you want to do this, that you could book your trip now and still get a pretty good deal on it. You can consider Zip Air maybe, save them a couple hundred bucks, which you would pay for this entire trip. I want this to be a success, so we do this again. More on this coming soon, but this is the release, and for the 400-some people watching, there you go. If it were July, August, I know, but the Katakai fireworks festival is in September. So that's... And it's a little bit off season and a little bit cooler and more comfortable. So, it works out maybe a little bit better. I know a lot of people are coming in September for that exact reason. They want to avoid the summer. If I did it in the summer, we'd probably have a thousand people. Maybe. All right, everybody. I'll see you in the next live stream. Enjoy this bush. The parking area bush. Bye-bye.