00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody, we are in Ikebukuro in front of our favorite shop Rental819 where we rented motorcycles in the past. How you doing everybody? But this time we're going to just kind of talk about riding in Tokyo. Peter is with me, he's inside the shop talking with the manager in here. Taking a look at some of the most interesting motorcycles that they have available for rent. But some of them are actually out with clients. I want to talk about the price and what it's like to ride in the city of Tokyo. Peter is again a master of it. But we're also going to be releasing the documentary that we took last year, riding around Hokkaido on a motorcycle on YouTube on the main channel. Either today or tomorrow, I'm just kind of reconnecting some of the links there. So this is going to be a hype up video of that. It's going to look like this. There's the thumbnail for it right there. So look for this on the main channel this weekend. It's going to be a lot of fun to show you that experience. Hokkaido is just so perfect for motorcycle riding. But let's go inside. Let's go inside of the Red Soul 819 Ikebukuro and take a look at some of the motorcycles on offer here.

01:17 John Daub: Alright, here is Peter.

01:20 Peter von Gomm: Hey guys.

01:22 John Daub: Here you go.

01:25 Peter von Gomm: Hello.

01:26 John Daub: It's been a while.

01:28 Peter von Gomm: It has. How are you guys doing?

01:29 John Daub: I'm fine.

01:31 Peter von Gomm: I know you are.

01:32 John Daub: You're looking fine too. You've lost weight.

01:34 Peter von Gomm: Hey, well, I'll take that.

01:36 John Daub: So what do we got here?

01:38 Peter von Gomm: Motorcycles.

01:39 John Daub: I like that.

01:41 Peter von Gomm: We've got a very big selection of motorcycles right here in the heart of Tokyo. This is Rental 819, which is a national chain of rental motorcycle shops. And we decided to come in and show you guys some of the bikes and talk a little bit about renting a motorcycle, riding motorcycles in Japan.

02:00 John Daub: They get a lot of bikes here.

02:01 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, they got a huge choice of bikes. And I noticed, John, a couple of the bikes, or actually the two bikes that you rode in Hokkaido. The X400.

02:13 John Daub: Yeah, the 400X and the CB400.

02:17 Peter von Gomm: Oh, sweet. Is that it right there?

02:19 John Daub: This is the CB400. This is the Bulldor.

02:24 Peter von Gomm: That looks better than the bike I rode, though. I'll just be honest with you. It looks like a Batman bike.

02:30 John Daub: It's a little bit different. Actually, it's not the Bulldor. Yeah, it does look a little different. But it looks cooler.

02:36 Peter von Gomm: But yeah, you had two different styles. You had kind of a touring style, which was the 400X. Right. And that's over here.

02:49 John Daub: And also, you had the CB400. That's the one I learned at the motorcycle school.

02:58 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. And this documentary that we have, that was my first ride out on the streets. I was only on a track. A course, right?

03:05 John Daub: Right, right. It was pretty nerve-wracking. Here's a clip from the documentary that we took.

03:16 Peter von Gomm: Oh, I got to see this.

03:37 John Daub: Well, to rent a motorcycle in Japan, is it complicated? Is it difficult? And I want to ask you about driving, riding in Tokyo. It must be a lot harder than what we did in Hokkaido, right?

03:51 Peter von Gomm: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you being a new rider in a place like Hokkaido was perfect because there's not a lot of people, not a lot of cars, lots of foxes and other wildlife, but it's wide open roads so it's a really good place to really get your wings. But in Tokyo, yeah, if you're a new rider, you got to be... You have to be a lot more careful and there's a little more to worry about in the city, including parking and miscellaneous other logistics.

04:32 John Daub: Well, the roads don't go in a grid pattern. It's not like that. Tokyo's roads, in particular here in Toshima-ku, around Ikebukuro, it's kind of easy to get lost.

04:47 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, but most people use... Anybody who's coming here and renting a motorcycle is going to use a navigation device, your phone on your bike. And that's huge. It's really helpful. It's easy to get around. However, however, if you are renting a bike in Tokyo, riding around in the city can be a blast, but getting out of the city can be a little more daunting. So if you're a new rider, starting in the city can be extra challenging. If you are more experienced, it's a lot easier. But if you're a new rider, I would tend to want to start in a place outside of the city, another branch perhaps.

05:30 John Daub: I like that, to be able to take the Shinkansen or ride a train, get out somewhere, and then just jump on it from out there.

05:38 Peter von Gomm: Right, right. But then again, riding... Some people just want to get on the bike and ride. A lot of people just want to check out the city. You ride at Narita. In fact, you could probably rent these right from Narita, right?

05:51 John Daub: There's a shop near Narita Airport, right?

05:56 Peter von Gomm: A bike renter. They used to. They used to.

06:04 John Daub: Oh, is that right? It wasn't that popular. Oh, is that right?

06:16 Peter von Gomm: That's two. So there's no shop in Narita, but maybe it'll come back in the future. Haneda. Haneda not, but... Odaiba, yeah. There's a shop that they have in Odaiba, so you can get off of a plane and go straight to the shop by taxi, which is pretty close. Odaiba's like a 10-minute taxi ride from Haneda, and you can get on the bike. And a lot of people like to do that, but for me... And you're going over the Rainbow Bridge from Odaiba, which is pretty cool. That's one of my favorite spots in Tokyo to ride.

06:53 John Daub: Oh, yeah. It's an awesome view. It is pretty sweet. I've driven over it. I've never been on a motorcycle over it. I've only done it in the countryside. But, you know, before... We're going to be leaving the shop and walking around Ikebukuro, and I want to show you what the streets are like, as well as take some of the questions. We have Bradshaw Studio here. Hello, all, from Bend, Oregon.

07:14 Peter von Gomm: Oh, Bend, yeah. I've been to Bend a long time.

07:19 John Daub: Oregonian. Thanks for chiming in here. Any of these other bikes or their prices you want to... To show us a little, Peter?

07:26 Peter von Gomm: Well, so they've got quite a selection here. They've got touring type, like the Type U road, which is over here, the 400X. And 125ccs they have, as well. They've got 125 scooters. You've got... There's a shop next door where they have their scooters, scooter selection.

07:47 John Daub: Oh, wow. So you can rent 50ccs and you don't need a motorcycle license for that.

07:52 Peter von Gomm: That's right. If you are interested in riding a bike around Tokyo, you can use your international driver's license and get a 50cc bike or scooter. They have electric bikes, too.

08:04 John Daub: Oh, cool.

08:05 Peter von Gomm: Oh, yeah. These are becoming quite popular. These are electric bikes here. You also need a car license, right? Because it's...

08:16 John Daub: What kind of license do you need?

08:18 Peter von Gomm: 125ccs. Small-size.

08:21 John Daub: Oh, okay. So you do need to have a motorcycle license to ride these e-bikes, but it's pretty cool they have these. This e-track. Where is this e-track? E-park? What?

08:32 Peter von Gomm: Chiba? Ebina store is in Indore.

08:36 John Daub: Ebina, Kanagawa.

08:41 Peter von Gomm: That's right. Ebina store is in Indore. And Hakone is outside. Oh, I want to go there. Biker's Paradise is next to it. Hakone. Wow.

08:49 John Daub: You can rent there. Okay. I can ride there.

08:59 Peter von Gomm: So this is... Yeah, both of them in Kanagawa. Hakone and Shizuoka and Kanagawa. Ebina is an interchange.

09:10 John Daub: Very easy to get to. Nice. That sounds fun.

09:18 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Everybody knows Ebina because that's when the... I know. I know Ebina quite well. After traffic jams.

09:25 John Daub: This e-bike is... That's a lot of bikes. Bike is just electric bikes. Okay.

09:32 Peter von Gomm: Photo look Hawaii. Aloha. Nice to see you here, buddy. And they also have some of these auto. These are automatic. At the shop.

09:46 John Daub: I had no idea. I mean, either. This would be a blast. There's another place that I'm going to check out next month in Nagano.

09:55 Peter von Gomm: What's the link to... Okay. So it's even on the... They even... Oh, it's for rental 819.

10:06 John Daub: Wow. Okay. Wow. So they do a lot more than just rental bikes.

10:12 Peter von Gomm: Tracks. Indoor, outdoor tracks. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. And electric bikes. But yeah. So they have quite a selection here. They've got Ducatis, the Diavel, which is a beast of a bike.

10:24 John Daub: Holy smokes.

10:25 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. And they do smoke. What are these for? Is that for the engine cooling or something?

10:30 John Daub: Oh, those are the speakers, Peter. Or for the missiles. Inside it opens up.

10:36 Peter von Gomm: But lots of touring stuff and just sport bikes, things to kick around town and just get out for a day ride. Lots of variety to choose from.

10:49 John Daub: I noticed that they have rentals up to like four hours, which is interesting. Is that usual? That's like a love hotel. You're basically paying for a... Short period of time.

10:56 Peter von Gomm: Well, the Ducati will give you a lot of love, John.

10:58 John Daub: That's true.

11:02 Peter von Gomm: So four hours. So you get hit with the first four hours. Yeah, four hours, eight hours, full day. Eight hours, you're paid 20 bucks more. For this particular bike. The other ones are a little bit cheaper. So the rental prices are reasonable. Can you rent a helmet? It looks like you can also rent the helmets. Helmets are an extra 500 yen for a day.

11:22 John Daub: And optional things are like the smartphone holders. So you might want to bring your own, but they're 500 yen for the whole trip, right? For the rental. And if you break a motorcycle part...

11:35 Peter von Gomm: Well, only you would know about that.

11:36 John Daub: Yeah, I do. It's not too bad, but I wouldn't recommend it. The replacement parts required.

11:43 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, but there you go. So let's go show everybody the streets here and talk a little bit about the documentary. Oh, by the way, I just want to show, this is an automatic motorcycle, right?

11:52 John Daub: It's a scooter. Scooter. This is a 125? Yeah.

12:01 Peter von Gomm: Okay, yeah, 125. So this is a 125. I learned this in the motorcycle school, but I noticed that there was no shifting necessary, right? Well, they have some bigger bikes. I think actually this... This is also an automatic, right? Shifting...

12:22 John Daub: It's a VCP, so there's no gear. Okay, so this is kind of like a hybrid motorcycle scooter, so there's no shifting. Wow.

12:30 Peter von Gomm: Or like a thumb shifter? Okay, it's like a thumb shifter.

12:42 John Daub: Oh, wow. Yeah. These things haul. It's a big bike.

12:46 Peter von Gomm: This is 650?

12:48 John Daub: 1100.

12:48 Peter von Gomm: 1100? Yeah, it's 1000cc.

12:57 John Daub: Oh, okay, so 1000cc. That's for big boys, Peter.

13:03 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, I can't ride that.

13:06 John Daub: So you... It's impossible.

13:08 Peter von Gomm: So there's different classifications of motorcycle licenses. You got the chugata, which is up to 400cc, and then you have from 400 on, which is the ogata. So I'm limited to this one here, which is a 400.

13:19 John Daub: Yeah, which is plenty.

13:23 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, that's... I could pass you a couple of times on the trip, which you'll see in the documentary. When I was tying my shoelaces.

13:15 John Daub: No, I think you were hauling. I just was hauling a little bit more.

13:19 Peter von Gomm: Should we head out?

13:20 John Daub: Yeah, let's do it.

13:26 Peter von Gomm: Okay, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you.

13:30 John Daub: What time is it?

13:32 Peter von Gomm: 6.30.

13:34 John Daub: So they're open from 10 to 6.30 and... Are they open every day?

13:39 Peter von Gomm: Monday.

13:44 John Daub: Oh, yeah, and they have a holiday. Monday they're closed.

13:53 Peter von Gomm: Monday.

13:54 John Daub: Which makes a lot of sense.

14:03 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Thank you very much.

14:10 John Daub: Thank you very much. Thank you. That's cool. Thank you. That was nice of them. We didn't... This isn't... This isn't like a sponsored stream or anything. We just really like this place. We just literally walked in and Peter's like, can we film in here? And they're like, okay. That's rare in Japan to have that kind of... Usually they want permits and your flight plan, your filming plan and all that, but that was nice of them.

14:36 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

14:37 John Daub: But this is a great overview because, you know, whenever you travel around the world and you have a motorcycle license, I think that's another way to see a country and buy a car. And something that I think is really cool is that Japan's roads are really well maintained. So getting around Ikebukuro is kind of hard, but again, you need a Navi system, 100%, right?

14:56 Peter von Gomm: Absolutely.

14:57 John Daub: See Brantani's in the house. Is that Eiken? Eiken is here as well. Hey, actually, Eiken, I just saw your bike in there. He rented the Ninja 250- Oh, right, which is actually in this shop right here.

15:12 Peter von Gomm: So I told the staff about you that... Yeah, we were talking about Aiken earlier, right?

15:20 John Daub: Yeah. But they didn't remember you. Oh, they didn't know? He rented it from here? Sorry. Ikebukuro. The same bike is in there, yeah.

15:26 Peter von Gomm: Oh, wow!

15:27 John Daub: Why don't you go show them real quick? He knows it. He has pictures of it.

15:35 Peter von Gomm: But, yeah, the streets, in the city, all the signage of course is in English and Japanese. But when you get into some of the smaller towns, you occasionally come across signs that are not in English. But for the most part, signage is user-friendly and is in English.

15:54 John Daub: Yeah, I like that. And after you have ridden around for a while, you get used to the placement of the kanji above and then the English romaji, Roman letters below. It's quite easy. The highway is in green, you know which direction to go, train stations. They have a white box around it. The icons, once you get familiar with the icons as well, you just see them and boom. You don't even think about it anymore. You know how to get back to Ikebukuro station?

16:19 Peter von Gomm: It's that direction. Is there a more interesting route?

16:24 John Daub: If you wanted to go see Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, that's interesting. But it's a bit of a walk. Is that the Phantom of the Opera guy?

16:32 Peter von Gomm: No.

16:34 John Daub: It wasn't? Phantom of the Opera? Was that Frank Lloyd Wright? You mean the... I think you're thinking of Chaney or the actor? I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know either. It's not Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect. Famous architect. Maybe he did more than that. I don't know.

16:48 Peter von Gomm: Look at Sho... Oh hey!

16:50 John Daub: Oh yeah! People can do more than one thing, Peter. Look at Shohei Ohtani. He can hit home runs and strike out people. Get a close up of my eye roll.

17:05 Peter von Gomm: That's pretty creepy.

17:10 John Daub: So here we are. Ikebukuro. It's crossing into the right here. Nicholas Lazak is in the house and he said to get some donuts. There goes my diet. Nicholas is here. He's a donut fetish. Nicholas speaks.

17:49 John Daub: I wanted to show everybody as we're walking down the street here. I want to show you the documentary. This is the trailer for the release that's coming hopefully tonight. And Peter, you're going to have a version of it on your channel as well, right?

17:52 Peter von Gomm: That's right.

17:53 John Daub: Popular shop for... Oh yeah, there's a lot of people waiting here. Kaki Gori? Yeah.

17:58 Peter von Gomm: I'm sorry but I never get excited about shaved ice. I'm not going to wait in line for shaved ice.

18:06 John Daub: Alright, here's the documentary trailer. Enjoy. Pump up the sound here.

19:53 John Daub: Alright, that should give you a pretty good idea of what you're going to be seeing pretty soon. I noticed that the comm units that we had were able to record the audio and we were able to use that in the documentary which I thought was really cool because they have this old CB sound to it which you can't really fake in editing. I mean you could but it's just better when it's raw like that.

20:31 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. But you had the jerry rigged that, didn't you? Well, it was a very, very laborious editing procedure.

20:38 John Daub: Yeah, tell me about it.

20:39 Peter von Gomm: So, but yeah, as John mentioned, we have we're both going to be releasing a version of Adventure on our respective channels and Florida Leaf. That's cool.

20:56 John Daub: Mine will be strictly motorcycle. It's only the motorcycle part of the Adventure. Is it unseen footage from Yamamoto-san? There's a little, that's in there. Yeah, we didn't use a lot of the footage that he took for his video. I've all new music. I made a rock and roll version so it's quite different. It's a different edit, different commentary, some different shots. Different people?

21:24 Peter von Gomm: Music's different.

21:26 John Daub: I was unable to do that. I tried with AI to get you out of it but it didn't work. So you're in there.

21:31 Peter von Gomm: I knew that would put a smile on your face. I want to be in my own video. I always wanted to be on your channel. You never ask me. You're always on this channel but you never invite me on your channel.

21:45 John Daub: I feel a little bit hurt.

21:48 Peter von Gomm: And then John will have the entire Adventure on his version of the video. I did cut out the Kickstarter stuff which is irrelevant. Us jumping in a lake. Stuff like that.

22:03 John Daub: Oh, right. We never did that. That was never done. That is one yellow umbrella. Um.

22:22 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Fox pox. But also, yeah. We. This originally was a Kickstarter backed project. We had hundreds of kind people that backed us. And this was already a year ago. Can you believe that?

22:32 John Daub: Yeah. It's crazy. We left on July 28th. Last summer. On this adventure. And then spent many many months editing. And no kidding. And fulfilling our promises to our backers.

22:52 Peter von Gomm: Well we're using like seven cameras. Five different audio inputs. It was.

23:00 John Daub: It was pretty. Yeah. Pretty tough one. By the way. Everybody doesn't know. This is Rikyu University that we're walking through. Right? So you can see all the kids studying or not studying. It's a nice building.

23:20 Peter von Gomm: It is. I like the red brick. I was thinking. Yeah. This could be like Purdue University. Right. It's got that all the bricks. Kind of Ivy League feel doesn't it?

23:28 John Daub: Yeah.

23:31 Peter von Gomm: Wait a minute. This is the Ikebukuro Library. What?

23:34 John Daub: Oh. This is the city library.

23:36 Peter von Gomm: That's right next to the university. Yeah. It's basically the same.

23:40 John Daub: Funk Dat writes in here. Please I need help. Sold all my bikes in Cali. Moving to Yokohama. In August. My family's there since April. Can you do a video detailing the cost of motorcycle ownership in Japan?

23:50 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

23:51 John Daub: Oh. Thank you. And back to you. And his whole channel is sort of dedicated to motorcycling mostly. Right. He sent me a message and I. And I. Funk Dat you got it. Yeah. Thank you. He sent me a super chat. And I commented in there. I missed the last time you gave me a super chat. But thank you very much for that. And I wrote a response to your question. So you were asking about parking. Paying for parking. Blah blah blah. For bikes. It's a lot. As I mentioned in the beginning. It's not easy finding a parking space. When you're going around town. Finding a rental parking space is not cheap. However. It's anywhere from a hundred to you could pay two hundred dollars a month to park your motorcycle.

24:31 Peter von Gomm: But it's. Is that in Yokohama?

24:33 John Daub: Well it might be a little bit cheaper in Yokohama. But there's bargains out there. But you know. Ask at your local state office. They always have the connections with landlords that are renting parking spaces for cars and motorcycles.

24:54 Peter von Gomm: That's a lot of bricks. That is a lot of brick. Brick. University.

25:03 John Daub: Brings back memories. It is Ivy League. It is. Yeah.

25:14 Peter von Gomm: It is Ivy.

25:20 John Daub: Yeah. Rikyu is a pretty good university.

25:26 Peter von Gomm: If I. If you went to university here. Where would you want to go?

25:32 John Daub: You seem like a Meiji guy.

25:34 Peter von Gomm: Meiji. Waseda. Todai is a bit. I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't think I'm a Waseda guy. Maybe I'm more Todai.

25:41 John Daub: Todai. I'd go for the top.

25:47 Peter von Gomm: You. You're.

25:50 John Daub: What?

25:52 Peter von Gomm: Actually I would like to go to And I want Joji, my son. To go to What's the one in Yotsuya? Oh. Sophia. Sophia. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good school. That's a nice stained glass detail on there. That's cool. Yeah. Well Sophia is a religious. It's a Catholic. University.

26:09 John Daub: So he's gotta. He's gotta learn some stuff. Right.

26:13 Peter von Gomm: I mean you're not going to church every Sunday are you? To Mass?

26:17 John Daub: In our hearts. We say grace before dinner.

26:22 Peter von Gomm: Do you? Well you say itadakimasu.

26:24 John Daub: No. He does it in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Oh does he? Joji does? Yeah he does.

26:30 Peter von Gomm: Wow. But it's all. It's all memorized. He has no idea what he's saying. And it's all. It's just the sound.

26:38 John Daub: So.

26:47 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Okay. That's what he sounds like.

26:55 John Daub: I just saw the Godfather part three and where he says the part where. That's a great shot. The influence. The influence is why. It does not penetrate. Why don't we cross the street here and look. Do we let the film in the university? I feel like. We'll just go up to the first arch there. Oh my gosh. It looks like. Shouldn't you feel. You should feel smarter when you go to a university.

26:58 Peter von Gomm: Why do I feel dumber? I feel like. I'm not worthy.

27:03 John Daub: You aren't. But entering these gates you will have a sudden rush of knowledge.

27:07 Peter von Gomm: Really?

27:09 John Daub: Imagine riding your motorcycle through here. The gates are wide open. Yeah. Let's do it. You can do a prank like that.

27:21 Peter von Gomm: This is cool. I've never been here.

27:24 John Daub: This is really, really nice. Oh you've never been?

27:27 Peter von Gomm: No. I've walked through here a couple of times. I had friends who went here. I actually taught English to kids that were studying here. It's kind of a neat place. There's quite a few foreigners here.

27:40 John Daub: There are. Two.

27:42 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Well no. I'm seeing some girls down here that are not. Oh the foreigner girls? Yeah. That's a cool campus. Nice. This gives me the creeps. Looks like a sight of a crime.

27:55 John Daub: Alright. Let's get out of here.

28:03 Peter von Gomm: What's that movie with Johnny Depp from Hell? Looks like something that happened. Back in Jack the Ripper. College campus. Lots of co-eds.

28:15 John Daub: Well you know when you're near a college campus, there's going to be some good food. And I'm getting hungry. Oh right.

28:20 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. I can't eat. What time is it?

28:24 John Daub: I can eat after 12. You're 10 minutes past. Oh 12-10?

28:28 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Oh okay. I'm doing that intermittent fasting. I'm keeping on a schedule.

28:33 John Daub: I can only eat meat. And donuts.

28:35 Peter von Gomm: How about donuts with meat inside?

28:37 John Daub: Alright. That might be okay. I'm not supposed to eat any carbs. It's just meat and cauliflower and stuff like that. It kind of works but. Boring.

28:48 Peter von Gomm: A little bit but if you use a little bit more salt that's okay. Garlic. Ginger.

29:03 John Daub: What's this over here? A wedding chapel? What is this?

29:07 Peter von Gomm: Well after the kids graduate they come right into marriage after they meet their. Show them this.

29:21 John Daub: So for those who are interested in parking cars in Tokyo. Alright. Take a look at this tower here. Yeah that A lot of people wouldn't even know what that is. That's a parking garage. It's crazy right? It's all automatic. I guess there's two and two right? It works like a merry-go-round.

29:37 Peter von Gomm: Yeah that's right. That's how mine I have one of those. I rent one of those for my car. And it goes in and it just shuffles them around. They go like a ferris wheel.

29:56 John Daub: That's crazy. Yeah. Japan makes the use of space.

30:06 Peter von Gomm: Oh wow.

30:07 John Daub: I remember I did I had lunch in that restaurant there a long time ago. There's some good restaurants on this side of Ikebukuro. We're only on the back side of Ikebukuro. If you've never been here before. West exit. The west side. If you've never been to Ikebukuro before it is one of the big hubs of Tokyo. Especially if you're going out to the west. Get this video here. Hold on. That's Ikebukuro station and you can see we're on the back side which is on the back side right there. Not as much stuff. Now if you go over to the right side here where you have to cross over the tracks to get there. There's more like shopping malls and stuff right? Or no hold on. Now the back side is in the back side. Sorry. Are you filming my back side? No no I'm showing the Google Earth. And there's the the Seibu department store which that used to be the biggest department store in the world. The Ikebukuro Seibu.

30:48 Peter von Gomm: Really? Yeah it's massive in there. You can get lost. In particular underground coming out of the station.

30:56 John Daub: Here's a nice wedding dress. You in the market for it?

31:03 Peter von Gomm: That is a wedding chapel over there. So this is where you. They bridal salon.

31:09 John Daub: Wow. She certainly needs to see a hair dresser. Where did Kanae get her dress? Her wedding dress? Ginza somewhere. Yeah?

31:22 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

31:23 John Daub: We had ours made in Vietnam. Geez. That makes sense. Well it did. You get to keep it right? It did. Well yeah we got to keep it. But there's more of these fleur de lis. What's the deal with that? Is that the Rikyu symbol? Yeah I think it could be. On here.

31:44 Peter von Gomm: So yeah we went to a shop in Harajuku where they had these beautiful dresses. Super expensive. And we're like we are not gonna pay for it. They have like semi-rental. It's got like a semi-rental where you. Ah yeah. They cut it to fit you but you give it back. And it was like four grand or something.

32:10 John Daub: So we were going to Vietnam and she heard that you can have dresses made really nice dresses. Really nice. Same materials. The same stuff. Yeah totally.

32:23 Peter von Gomm: So what I did. I was really sneaky. I took pictures when she tried on the dress. And I took some pictures front and back. And side. And then we took those pictures to Vietnam.

32:36 John Daub: And soon after that they kind of shut down any photo taking. Oh because of what you did?

32:42 Peter von Gomm: Well I don't know if it was because of us or us and other people. But yeah.

32:48 John Daub: But she has this beautiful beautiful dress. Silk. And she still has it? So she can rent it out to people. She still fits in it. Make the money back.

33:03 Peter von Gomm: Yeah I had suits tailored in Hoi An in Vietnam back in the year 2000 including wool jacket which I had for 15 years before it fell apart. The workmanship wasn't exactly top notch at the time. But it looked really good for the first two years and held up pretty good. Fast fashion. But yeah going to Vietnam and getting tailored there is a really smart idea. Especially if it's something that was going to cost. But you got to do your research and find a reputable tailor. Yeah that's the other thing. Because there's a lot of shoddy ones.

33:41 John Daub: I had some suits made in Thailand and they were ridiculous. So I just threw them out when I got home.

33:51 Peter von Gomm: Yeah I had some bad Thai suit experiences. You have to try.

33:56 John Daub: So there's all kinds of restaurants around here. There's good ramen. Look at that air pump. Can you use that for motorcycles?

34:12 Peter von Gomm: Not sure.

34:14 John Daub: It also doubles as a stand for old drinks. Right.

34:22 Peter von Gomm: Yeah Peson is what they do. You go to get a bunch of bulk orders. I guess I could get the only in Japan t-shirts made in Vietnam.

34:36 John Daub: Yeah. Go there and do it myself. That'd be fun. Or I want to get the hats tailored. You can't find a good haberdasher in Tokyo. Yeah.

35:04 Peter von Gomm: Why don't you do semi-rental t-shirts?

35:06 John Daub: Dude, no. You want to make money don't you?

35:11 Peter von Gomm: Well I don't want to wash them.

35:14 John Daub: Well you hire somebody to do that.

35:17 Peter von Gomm: Oh. Semi- Oh welcome to Japan. Would you like to rent a t-shirt?

35:24 John Daub: Why don't you just buy it?

35:25 Peter von Gomm: Hey I'm just throwing it out there.

35:27 John Daub: Okay well. I reject your idea.

35:34 Peter von Gomm: That's cute. A bear with a yukata. Yeah.

35:42 John Daub: Kawaii. Let me take the people in. 3, 2, 1.

36:07 Peter von Gomm: Welcome.

36:08 John Daub: It's kind of like Ted. That wasn't worth the zoom. That wasn't worth the zoom.

36:23 Peter von Gomm: Look at this. You can see how much the apartments are as well.

36:28 John Daub: I like walking by. If you see these building layouts and stuff. You can see the layout. This is the LDK living, dining, kitchen room. There's a kitchen. Two bedrooms here. The bathroom. And this is. You can buy it for about $260,000 for that.

36:48 Peter von Gomm: Or a mansion. They call it mansion. Mansion is a condominium.

36:54 John Daub: It's basically a condo. And it's a little bit dated too. So. Look at this one. Quarter of a million dollars for that. A little pricey. But then you're in the heart of Ikebukuro. This house is 1.6 million dollars.

37:06 Peter von Gomm: Oh.

37:07 John Daub: And it's not very nice.

37:11 Peter von Gomm: I know. It's way overpriced. That house? Yeah right here in the upper left.

37:22 John Daub: Oh yeah. One point. Well no that's. With the exchange rate now it's more like a little. Just a little bit over a million. But that's not a nice looking. Well 1.2 million. I would take a little bit of a tear down. And just build what I wanted to.

37:34 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Yeah okay. The thing is once you build a house in Japan it loses the value. Nobody wants to buy it.

37:43 John Daub: You won't do semi rental t-shirts but you'll tear down a brand new house and rebuild. That does not look brand new. Does that make sense?

37:52 Peter von Gomm: That does not look brand new. It was.

37:55 John Daub: It looks like a bubble era house. From some eccentric millionaire. The new houses look like the bubble era stuff. Looks like Blofeld's house from the 60's.

38:09 Peter von Gomm: Yeah all those Austin Powered furniture.

38:15 John Daub: Well I can smell the ramen across the street. And Indian too.

39:00 Peter von Gomm: Yeah it's like a curry ramen mix. I smell curry and I smell ramen. Look at them. They work together so well. We had some curry ramen in Aomori right? Yokohama.

39:20 John Daub: Yokohama Ramen. Yokohama Mama.

39:32 Peter von Gomm: And there's Tobu. So we're basically in. This is the front of Ikebukuro Station here.

39:42 John Daub: Used to be a good Katsudon place I knew well. I used to work in this area. That ramen shop you took me to which is a chain really good.

39:54 Peter von Gomm: We uh. It's got one right back here. That's uh. Quite good. Skemen.

40:12 John Daub: Oh right yeah. The uh. It's a black sign with gold letters. They've got one right back there.

40:21 Peter von Gomm: Tetsu?

40:22 John Daub: No no I'm not. There's a couple of good chains.

40:28 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Carbo load for the day of sitting and editing. That's what I need to do. Get a real carbo load going on.

40:48 John Daub: They're building another massive skyscraper here. Seriously. I'm not gonna be able to recognize even Ikebukuro in about a year or two.

41:05 Peter von Gomm: Here's the map here. So rental 819 was like for the motorcycle rental place was like way out here. We just walked past through Rikyu so it was it's like off the map isn't it?

41:24 John Daub: Off the charts. Probably better because you wouldn't want to run a motorcycle right at the station getting out of here would be take for ever because of all this traffic lights. But that's part of the adventure. Bikers are adventurous. Adventurish.

41:50 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. So.

41:51 John Daub: Shimizu. Oh yeah. I did the TV commercial for Shimizu.

41:56 Peter von Gomm: Yeah you've done the TV commercial for them. I'm gonna contact them for an episode I want to do as well. They do a lot of dream projects which are really cool like thinking outside the box.

42:11 John Daub: I like that. This place is known for this building in particular. Do you know the one I'm talking about?

42:20 Peter von Gomm: It's the Sunrise 60.

42:22 John Daub: This is the tallest building in Japan for a little bit I believe right? Where are you looking? Right here.

42:30 Peter von Gomm: Oh okay.

42:30 John Daub: That was the tallest building in Japan for a while. 60 uh. Is that the Sunshine City? Yeah. Sunshine 60. 60 floors high. They don't have a lot of tall buildings because of the earthquakes. But now that they have the technology to do it. Now better.

42:51 Peter von Gomm: Where are you seeing? Look at this umbrella. Whoa. That's interesting. It's like a heat shield from a space ship. It's like an oil slick.

42:57 John Daub: Yeah. As a kid I remember being fascinated with oil on on the ground you know. Staring at it. The prism colors. Yeah like wow oil's awesome. But. Slugs do that too. Slime from slugs and snails.

43:20 Peter von Gomm: This is the This is the metropolitan side right?

43:25 John Daub: Yeah. And that's the theater over there. So I've been in a couple of I've been to a couple of performances including Kanae's dance performances. She's performed on stage there a few times. It's a big theater.

43:44 Peter von Gomm: So she had like I don't know like a thousand people clapping for her.

43:48 John Daub: Wow. Now you always yell out Bravo!

43:51 Peter von Gomm: She gets embarrassed because she knows who's yelled it.

43:56 John Daub: I'll stand up and go Bravo! I don't say encore. That's a little bit.

44:02 Peter von Gomm: I'll try that. Oh yeah well okay. You put her on the spot. Obviously she's not going to dance again.

44:13 John Daub: Bravo isn't putting her on the spot?

44:15 Peter von Gomm: No that's just like a some word that means good job or something.

44:21 John Daub: Okay. But if you yell encore and then you get people chanting it she's got no more game. One more dance. One more dance.

44:31 Peter von Gomm: Maybe she could improvise something but not with a thousand people watching.

44:37 John Daub: I know. No I would not be able to go home if that were to happen.

44:44 Peter von Gomm: Good beer.

44:46 John Daub: There we go. Beer and live stage. This is where I got my first hub card when I was in 2006. I collected enough points for a 20,000 yen coupon but I didn't use the card for one year and two days. I walked in there.

44:57 Peter von Gomm: Yeah it's nice and cool coming out here.

44:59 John Daub: One year and two days and they wouldn't give me the coupon. I'd saved it for 12 years. For which shop?

45:08 Peter von Gomm: Hub. Oh the Yeah to collect the points for it. So I will never go to the hub ever again.

45:21 John Daub: So you didn't turn the place upside down?

45:23 Peter von Gomm: No I didn't. I just walked out and said I'm never coming back. I haven't been back to the hub in about five years. I'm a better person for it. Let me put it to you.

45:38 John Daub: To be honest the hub is a generic. The hub is just grub.

45:48 Peter von Gomm: Yeah it's basically not nice.

45:53 John Daub: Well there are rules Peter. They didn't say it's good for one year and two days. It's good for one year. So you're going to tell a customer that's been saving up for 13 years because of two days? No. Tell them that? They can see it. They can see it on the card. It says 2006 for crying out loud and it was a 2020 or 2018 or something.

46:12 Peter von Gomm: I haven't saved for 13 years man.

46:17 John Daub: There's nothing good at the hub that you can find. You can find everything that's in the hub at other places like Devil's Craft.

46:25 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. And you can get much better food.

46:29 John Daub: So we are kind of at the end of our walk aren't we? Unless you're going to do a dance in the middle of the street. In front of a thousand people? Yeah. And you're going to yell encore?

46:41 Peter von Gomm: I am going to yell encore and then you can do the break dancing worm across the street.

46:46 John Daub: I'd like to see you do the worm.

46:47 Peter von Gomm: That was my move back in the day. I did that in a club in Prague in 1997.

47:02 John Daub: And then I threw up all over some guy and my three Dutch friends that were with me backpacking grabbed me and got out of that bar in Prague and it was on the museum avenue there right in the center. I remember that. And we went to our one dollar a night youth hostel.

47:23 Peter von Gomm: A buck a night?

47:25 John Daub: It was a dollar a night. How much was the beer? The beer was 30 cents.

47:31 Peter von Gomm: Prague back in 1997 was pretty cool. I went there back then too.

47:38 John Daub: Yeah it was a good time. I was doing the worm. And then some Czech guy wanted to fight me because he said that He's the one that does the worm How dare you come here and upstage me.

48:00 Peter von Gomm: No it was like some of them There was some like anti It was a German guy. He was anti-American and he wanted to fight me. And then my friend who's Dutch He's over 200 centimeters tall and then he came over and just went like this right into the guy's face. It was over.

48:27 John Daub: I didn't have to be a big guy when you have a friend like that. Eric, if Eric is watching He's not a violent person but he looks like he could be.

48:45 Peter von Gomm: That's enough. He drank a lot of milk and cheese when he was a kid apparently. He's a real big tall guy.

48:56 John Daub: You wouldn't want to mess with him. But I don't know. Can you do the worm show?

49:04 Peter von Gomm: I'm not going to do the worm. I was going to say you should do the worm.

49:11 John Daub: Right across here. I don't know how to do it.

49:16 Peter von Gomm: Well wait for the green light. I know you know how to do this.

49:20 John Daub: It's like this. What were you doing on the train platform? That was the divorce shuffle.

49:32 Peter von Gomm: What was that?

49:34 John Daub: No, it's the running man forward with the train tracks.

49:40 Peter von Gomm: Okay.

49:41 John Daub: Remember? But you're getting that. Yeah, with that here. That was in the video we did. We took the Shinkansen. We had a party Shinkansen. It was a little bit of a trip. Compliments of JR.

50:00 Peter von Gomm: Thank you. That was a fun trip. Any last thing you want to tell us?

50:14 John Daub: We got Carrie laughing on the other side. Anything you want to tell us about riding motorcycles in the city of Tokyo? A couple of tips that you think would be useful for people?

50:27 Peter von Gomm: Well, like I said, for a new rider it can be very daunting. Even for an experienced rider riding in the city. But it's a very safe place to ride. I've had a lot of friends that ride in other countries. In the US, Canada, Europe. It's a different world here. People are so polite on the roads as well. And they're aware of bikers. So there's always an element of danger when you're on a motorcycle. But I would say that Japan, Tokyo is a safe place to ride.

51:06 John Daub: The greatest thing that your savior is having a navigation on your bike.

51:12 Peter von Gomm: Hook up your phone and just use your map. And you can see the map. Some of the bikes have USB plug-ins too. So you can have it charged the whole time.

51:28 John Daub: And there's a helmet law here. You have to wear a helmet. I would wear a helmet anywhere.

51:33 Peter von Gomm: Hey!

51:35 John Daub: A little racket.

51:40 Peter von Gomm: But yeah, it's a...

51:43 John Daub: Oh my gosh, lady! Really? Get some rubber tires.

51:55 Peter von Gomm: As you were so rudely interrupted, I apologize, sir. Please continue. Take care of her later.

52:05 John Daub: But yeah. What do you mean by that? Rubber out?

52:08 Peter von Gomm: I just watched the Godfather.

52:13 John Daub: Yeah. What other tips? I've been riding here for 23 years.

52:26 Peter von Gomm: And I've... I really enjoy riding around the city. I love riding in Japan. And I feel safe on a bike here.

52:35 John Daub: You ever been in an accident?

52:37 Peter von Gomm: I've never fallen in an accident. I've fallen, but I've had like a car kind of rub up against my scooter. Not fallen, like an accident fall.

52:48 John Daub: You've never fallen over like I did three times in a documentary?

52:51 Peter von Gomm: Not three times, though.

52:53 John Daub: Within 20 minutes.

52:56 Peter von Gomm: Well, two times within 20 minutes. It was all on the first day.

53:01 John Daub: Within 20 minutes, twice. And then the third day, you dumped it.

53:06 Peter von Gomm: I did? Where was that? That was when we were leaving Toyako.

53:11 John Daub: Oh yeah, I suddenly forgot. Oh, we were riding around the loop. But then the rest of the day was fine.

53:23 Peter von Gomm: Well, yeah. The problem that you were having was you were putting on your front brake which throws you off balance when you're going slowly. So you use your rear brake.

53:34 John Daub: That was the issue. Here's a picture of Peter riding with the kickstand on. Is that the wheelie? Zoom it.

53:51 Peter von Gomm: See the bugs in my teeth?

53:53 John Daub: No.

53:55 Peter von Gomm: I see you on a kickstand having fun.

54:02 John Daub: Yeah. How'd you get over there? I walked around.

54:13 Peter von Gomm: Hungry and thirsty.

54:16 John Daub: Alright, thank you. We'll go find a donut now.

54:24 Peter von Gomm: Oh, that Ringo shop, the apple pie Ringo shop's over there.

54:27 John Daub: I could use a coffee for sure.

54:30 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Coffee sounds good, too.

54:36 John Daub: Bugs? Maybe some bugs for lunch? You're so used to them, Mr. Motorcycle Rider. Tokyo doesn't have too many of them. There's no vending machine with bugs.

54:52 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, I saw that.

54:54 John Daub: Used to be a good katsudon place just over there. I'm up for anything. Coffee and food.

55:02 Peter von Gomm: So you like the tigers this year?

55:06 John Daub: I do not follow American baseball. So what the heck?

55:14 Peter von Gomm: A friend of mine sent it to me. Steve. He's probably watching.

55:22 John Daub: Oh, okay. If I send you the hat, you're gonna wear it, too?

55:27 Peter von Gomm: Sure. Well, not that one. Not a used one.

55:30 John Daub: Well, you wouldn't want this. It's got mold inside.

55:33 Peter von Gomm: I'm just kidding.

55:35 John Daub: No, it's not. I am. Or am I?

55:43 Peter von Gomm: So we'll have our videos coming out. Our Hokkaido motorcycle adventures coming out in the next couple days.

56:01 John Daub: So please look for them. We will put our respective links to each other's channels.

56:08 Peter von Gomm: Oh, we will?

56:09 John Daub: Yeah.

56:10 Peter von Gomm: Okay.

56:11 John Daub: Absolutely. All right. And yeah, there'll be different edits, and we hope you enjoy both of them.

56:26 Peter von Gomm: And consider getting a motorcycle or an RV when you come to Japan.

56:30 John Daub: Oh, right. We should mention the RV, because the motorcycle is a little bit expensive. That was also a thing. We did have a lot of good trips. And talking about the RV, we drove around most of Hokkaido with it.

56:50 Peter von Gomm: It's sometimes more comfortable than sitting on a bike, because the distances in Hokkaido are so wide. Here you are driving it into the Ainu Kotan, which is in... There it is. Lake Akan.

57:08 John Daub: This is just a beautiful place. This might have been my third time. I was 17, plus windchill factor, put it like minus 50. I was on the lake, and I couldn't feel my face. This is from the documentary. Summer is a much better time. But even in summer, we had... This is July, and we had sweatshirts on.

57:38 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, the architecture was unique. It just didn't seem like Japan to me here, when it shouldn't, because it's a traditional Ainu culture.

57:50 John Daub: Right. So we got into this a little bit with some of the dancing, and we visited the Ainu Museum with permission. They gave us access to film some of the culture there, which is a fantastic place to see it.

58:14 Peter von Gomm: Yeah, the RV part of the trip, which was five days, we were ready for that. After being on the bikes for six days, and then being able to relax a bit... The last day in the rain, which is tough.

58:30 John Daub: Yeah, yeah. So being in the RV, it's a different experience. And check out Japan CRC, is our friends that have a national chain of camping cars. They call them camping cars here in Japan. But another unique way to see the country. And with your family, you can get a camper. There's a video on my channel of me and my family in Nagano.

58:54 Peter von Gomm: Stuck in traffic the whole way home?

58:55 John Daub: Well, no, the last day... I remember you called and said the traffic jam is from Nagano to Tokyo. It was. Eight hours. It was a terrific trip back. So pick, choose your days. That was golden week. Choose your days.

59:14 Peter von Gomm: Oh no, that was Obon.

59:15 John Daub: That was Obon. Yeah. But yeah, camping, there's all sorts of RV parks throughout Japan.

59:26 Peter von Gomm: And another cool thing is, as you'll see in this documentary, is the... Let's cross the street here. The Michi no Eiki, which are the roadside stations. You are allowed to park your camping car there.

59:38 John Daub: Oh right, yeah.

59:39 Peter von Gomm: This is the artwork from Artist Dakota. For the park. This is the postcard for the people that backed the project. I thought that's just great and it kind of summarized. We did put a bear in there, didn't we? No, maybe there wasn't a bear in the design. I can't remember.

60:00 John Daub: We did see the bears. We saw bears. Saw bears. In Shiretoko, which was amazing. That was one of my dreams. And we came around to Bend and here's a mama and two baby cubs crossing the street. That was pretty freaking awesome.

60:18 Peter von Gomm: That was amazing. That was amazing.

60:20 John Daub: That was awesome. I had to get the camera out, all shaky footage, try to stabilize it in post. That took like three days, but it turned out watchable.

60:32 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Beautiful bears.

60:35 John Daub: And actually, what was cool about that is when we were at the rental motorcycle shop in Sapporo, I was talking to the guys there about seeing wildlife and I said, well, we want to see some bears. And the guy said, he goes, I'm from here. And I have never seen a bear when I've been out riding on my motorcycles. And we saw bears. Luckily, it was in the RV. I can't imagine seeing the bears on the motorcycle and having them chase us down.

60:54 Peter von Gomm: Well, actually, when we were there. Holy smokes.

61:00 John Daub: Yeah. He told me that some guy got munched by a bear just prior to us. On a motorcycle?

61:08 Peter von Gomm: I don't know if he was on a motorcycle. But he was out walking on one of the roads. And the bears got him.

61:14 John Daub: Yeah, the bears are, especially in Hokkaido, they will attack.

61:18 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. Especially if there's a little one around. And if they have a melon in their name.

61:23 John Daub: Melon kuma. And that's in the documentary, too. I don't have any clips from that. Darn.

61:30 Peter von Gomm: Well, we'll have to watch the documentary.

61:32 John Daub: You're going to have to watch it. That was awesome. It's coming for free to everybody on YouTube. It's been a year. Big shout out to the 700 plus supporters on Kickstarter that made this possible. We wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys. You're at the credits at the end of the documentary. And I'll try to have this out tonight, this weekend, so you guys can all celebrate it.

61:58 Peter von Gomm: Yeah.

61:59 John Daub: Thanks for watching. So long, guys. Bye from Ikebukuro.

62:06 Peter von Gomm: Hurry up and do the dance.

62:10 John Daub: No, that's not the one. The worm. I think they want to see the worm. I forget. The hammer time. How does hammer time go? Like this. You do it. And then you do the thing. I basically was.

62:26 Peter von Gomm: I'll film you doing it. No, don't touch it. Don't be shy.

62:30 John Daub: Bye.