00:00:03 John Daub: Hello everybody and welcome to Okayama Station, the prefectural capital filled with lots of people and me. This is the JR Station. How you doing everybody? In this episode, I'm going to be taking you around the station area at night. This should be a lot of fun for all of us because I haven't been here in ages. So it's going to be some changes, I think. This is the entrance to the local train line here. You get a chance to see the platform maybe tomorrow as I make my way back to Tokyo. So this is a short stay. Good evening, Kelvin. How you doing everybody? We're going down now. The left side here is where the Shinkansen entrance is to Okayama Station. This is the main side of the station here. This is, I believe this is Higashiguchi going down here. And this is where we're going to be seeing Momotaro. Here's the Shinkansen entrance right there.

00:01:21 John Daub: Hey, Mary is joining us from Idaho. How you doing? Going down the steps here. Now to the left is one of my favorite statues in all of Japan. No, it's not the Godzilla statue. This is the Momotaro statue. And every time I go to it, it reminds me of my first time in Japan, my first day in Japan, because this is the first city that I stayed in. Oh, there it is right there. Right there.

00:02:00 John Daub: This is the first city that I stayed in when I came to Japan 25 years ago. And this is actually the month of my Japaniversary. This is my 25th year here in Japan, believe it or not. And I don't believe it. It's half my life. And this statue is where I first came that first night. And you can see it right there. Wow. Wow. That's the Peach Boy with his monkey, bird and doggie friend in front of Okayama Station. It has not changed in 25 years. As long as I've been here in Japan, this statue has stood here erect and green and powerful and friendly. How do you look powerful and friendly? You carry a sword and you walk with a dog. Awesome. Very cute, isn't he? There's a sword and his monkey friends.

00:03:32 John Daub: All right. I'm going to take you. Here's the station back here. And what I'm going to do is, I haven't walked around this town in ages. It is a weekday night. And I want you to get an idea. This is the center. This is a prefectural capital of a very populous prefecture here in Japan, Okayama. This is the main train station and it's like empty and it's not even 10 o'clock at night. Comparatively to Tokyo, this place would be so packed with people. Shinjuku or Shibuya. It just goes to show I haven't seen any foreign tourists here as well. So it's not a place that I think.

00:04:18 John Daub: Cross the street over here. Go through the jungle. Ah, yes. I remember this tree was home to thousands of birds. I don't know if you can hear it chirping, but they're there. Rondania is here. How you doing? Are we going to cross the street? I'm going to take you to a place. If you've ever watched the Only in Japan series. I know you have old channel. I'm not saying that you should go and watch it. The first episode I ever made was in 2013 for the naked man festival and I stayed at a capsule hotel here. I had no budget, no money. I had a friend named Kevin who came with me to film me. This is really nice. I paid for Shinkansen down there. I didn't have any budget to pay him and that I remember and humble beginnings. I'm going to cross the street here and I'm going to take you to that capsule hotel, which is still freaking there.

00:05:48 John Daub: Japanese construction. They all have these lanterns. I love. I always wanted to get one of these for my apartment. They're so bright, but they don't sell them at Ikea. You got to get them somewhere. Are we going to go down the shotengai (covered shopping arcade) and it's got a big peach there. Look at that. Now. This used to be a lot more bustling than it looks. It's so quiet down here and it there they've torn down many of the buildings that used to be on the left side, including a net cafe that I remember booking my around the world ticket in 2002 at. We didn't have smartphones. We had net cafes was about a thousand fifty yen for one hour plus a coffee or a drink. It's typically the price for net cafes. This is the capsule hotel.

00:07:00 John Daub: Is it any good? Not really, but it's been here as long as I have. That I hear it's called a sauna and capsule Hollywood and I just want to show you really quickly. I mean, it's not a bad place. They've got the capsule room. It this is probably the same picture from back then. It's got a relaxation corner just lounging where you can get a manga and read. You can take a nap in these chairs here. When you enter you're given a yukata. So you get a change at this locker room. You're given a yukata key and inside here is a yukata, which is like pajamas and you wear that. So everybody's clean wearing clean clothes. You're not bringing the outside into here. It's like entering into your house and you got to go up there. But the price is about 3850 yen and you can probably get discounts and coupons for it as well. Not many people pay the full price, but you can get deals. I think I paid 3000. I think I paid either 2800 or 1000 yen less than that 13 years ago or 10 years ago when I stayed there. Yeah, maybe about so it's gone up about a thousand yen. I think I might have had a discounted price. Also when you check in they might be able to discount the price if you're coming in later at night.

00:09:02 John Daub: What's the price for a massage in Japan? I don't know. I don't ask my wife what she charges me a kiss. No, I know what she charges me. I have to do it too. So I get the massage. I must return it or else I get in deep trouble. That's the price you pay. It's not easy on the thumbs. Like massaging the trees really tough.

00:09:25 John Daub: Here's the Toyoko Inn over there that bright light right here is a Toyoko Inn. That's a good chain for hotels. This okay. I think the next street over and here's a bicycle parking lot for the station. You wouldn't park. The great thing is in around Japan people don't usually park in front of the station anymore. There's these designated places to park your bike that are typically free. Or you pay after about two or three hours. This hotel was not here. I moved to Okayama the first place. I wouldn't say moved. I did my training as an English teacher in this city. So my first experience was like mind-boggling because of the jetlag. This city was so I don't know. I guess it's so Japanese. It's totally changed. Not that it's not Japanese. But I mean this like they had neon lights in front of the station. They don't have that anymore. It's really toned down used to be like these neon lights that would go on and off and make patterns with the logos and stuff. I think this is where the net cafe was that I booked my round the world ticket. But of course that business is gone on 2002. I worked for an English school named Eon. For the children's division as we walk down this haunted alley and it does look kind of haunted.

00:11:07 John Daub: Look at this. This is a Vietnamese restaurant like everything is really new. This used to be a daiya if I remember correctly. Now it's not something else. This restaurant is called Moby and there's like nobody in there. It's like empty. Wow. There's nobody in there. Wow. Interesting. Welcome everybody. This shop looks like it was this is a ramen shop, but they're closed. Like how do they closed? How are these shops closed? It's not even it's just a little bit after 10 o'clock. Man Tokyo is so unique in that way. It's like a 24-hour city that closes at 1 a.m.

00:12:41 John Daub: The drink options are pretty much the same except this is a half liter of water. It's like a 20-year-old Coke for 120 yen. Interesting. You can see there's some izakaya down the street here, but for a prefectural capital, this is so quiet. So quiet. Let me just go down to the end of the shotengai. Then we're going to cross the main street and I want to show you a satellite map of Okayama Station. We're going to be going back to the station to head into the other side. One of the things that I want to do tomorrow morning with my Japaniversary is film some locations for a main channel episode talking about my half life here. Half of a life.

00:13:18 John Daub: Okay, check this out. So there are some people in here. There's a chef, a sushi shop here. Slice of life. We have an izakaya, a couple of them over here. They look really nice. I like the windows. You can see inside. Get a feeling. Look at this retro looking izakaya. Oh, this is great. This is a great izakaya. Look at that. And they're waving at me. I hope they don't make me go in there because I'm not drinking any booze tonight. That is a really nice ambiance to it. It looks like the old Showa period. Maybe because there's an old black and white TV right there. Look at that. Throwback. There's the Oriental Curry on the right side.

00:14:20 John Daub: I got this new light here. Let me try it out. It's a gimbal light. Tell me if this makes a difference. A little bit. There you go. This is actually maybe the highlight so far is this Showa era restaurant. Actually, I think if I had started this an hour earlier, I might have gone inside. But because I got to get some sleep, there's no way it's going to happen. Somebody take note. Next time I come to Okayama, I got to go here. I got to go here. Because it's a good place. Because they're waving at me. People are saying my face is brighter. That means it works. This is the DJI gimbal light. For better or for worse, makes you look younger too, I guess. I'm going to turn this off because it also brings attention to me. People staring at me. I'm not used to that. Yes, I am actually. We're back on the main street. While we're waiting for the light. Look, they have these trams here, streetcars. There's no subway in Okayama.

00:15:40 John Daub: I want to show you a little bit about this city here so on the left side of the bottom of your screen this is Korakuen which is one of the big top three gardens in Japan it is stunning it's a strolling garden meaning it's not like a rock garden or anything it's one that you'd walk around and you feel at peace it has a beautiful view of what we're gonna zoom down into in a second which is Okayama Castle right there it's called the black crow because you see it's got black paneling on the sides and along the river and it's about a 25 minute walk that's where I'm staying at the hotel in that building there it's about 25 minute walk from Okayama station and this is the other side that I that I was on when I took this but on the front side of the tracks on the other side that's where we started the live stream with the Momotaro statue and you can see it's pretty much a straight shot if you want to walk from the station to the castle and Korakuen it's about 23 minutes from the Momotaro statue that we started at straight down this street straight down this street just keep going for like 20 minutes you'll see the castle and you'll see the entrance to the park on a hot day like it has been over the last couple of weeks in Japanese summers here it is not the best so the best thing to do rather than walking which is good if it's not in the morning you're gonna want to take that streetcar that you saw going by there that'll be the best way for you to get from the station to there and you can hear a slice of Japanese do you hear that in the background all right you hear that in the background that's so Japan so the cuckoos or the kaku for people that are visually impaired or blind you can know which side of the street is green because it changes so this one is going this direction and then the cuckoos will change pitch and go the opposite direction so people that are visually impaired will know when to cross the street without somebody telling them sometimes there's just nobody there so that's a good thing I see Goku 95 is here and celebrating along thank you so Alex thank you Alex to see nice to see you here buddy.

00:18:50 John Daub: One of the great things about Okayama do you see this in the center of the street is that you can see the city center of the street it has a canal that runs through here it's close to Kurashiki which is considered I don't know like a kind of a canal city like the Venice of Honshu Island a lot of trees and a lot of parks and that's a good thing and it runs straight through the center of the city now this side alley on the other side of the main street is where the entertainment is and I wanted to wait about 20 minutes into the live stream to bring you through the city so I'm going to go ahead and get going and I'm going to scroll through here in case I do get lost I do have a map here so we're on where it says Niko Ichi we're on this side of the street right now down the bottom we were on the other side of the street see the capsule hotel now we're on the Niko Ichi restaurant and we maybe look for that this site also has a lot of hotels there's a lot of bars izakaya and thankfully people so it certainly feels a little bit more a lot more social. It's really cool right now.

00:20:04 John Daub: Today, the weather, I see some people are asking about the weather here. So today when I was riding on the Shinkansen, you could see this is supposed to be Mount Fuji. And you can't see Mount Fuji anywhere. I think I posted this on Instagram. That's Mount Fuji. So this is my view coming down from Tokyo. Not very exciting. So the weather was really bad. Before I checked into the hotel, they told me that 30 minutes before I came, it was a downpour. It was really awful outside. In fact, you could see here, this is at sunset. You could see in the background there. I was filming the cuckooing. The background, the sky was so dark and then purple. It was weird. Like a storm is coming. Kind of weird. I also saw this. I think you guys know. I don't know what this is. These are the Okayama peaches. The white peaches are very famous here. They're usually quite expensive. How much is that? I think that was like 20 bucks for two peaches. But they're probably the best peaches that you'll ever eat. And the Shine Muscat grapes are pretty good and pretty expensive. There's nothing cheap about that. But it tastes good.

00:21:44 John Daub: So there's the other side of the street. Where we were. We're just going to walk through here. But I wanted to show you. You could see that there's a ton of entertainment options here. Including ladies of the night. And that frog. That is a karaoke I know very well. Torikizoku. That's one of the cheapest in Japan. According to my friend Simon Martin. Who I haven't seen in two years. I used to go there quite a bit. This smells like Italian. I can smell garlic and olive oil. I put the camera down because there weren't such friendly looking people. Look there's a uranai-shi. A fortune teller on the right side. And this looks like a yakitori restaurant. Check this one out. Up there. They got all the yakitori. The menu are on these chochin lanterns right here. It smells great. Now I can smell some grilling chicken. So I've got all sorts of cuisine. It certainly makes me hungry. Wafting grilled meat. Now I smell some soap. Which doesn't fit. Where'd that soap come from? These people are washing their hands. Look at this place. It's spilling out on the streets. I love that. They've just totally opened it up. That looks so nice.

00:23:59 John Daub: So this is a certainly different vibe from the station front. Which is basically closed. I guess a lot of the salary workers. You know that would be in Shinjuku. They might go to places like this after work. But I don't see people in suits. He saw Trio. Let's see what we can find buddy. This is the Boston Steakhouse. Which. Has an American flag that makes me feel. Very patriotic. I have my hand over my heart. I pledge allegiance to the flag. To the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I guess we memorize that. I don't know. Does any other country make you take a pledge of allegiance every day? Only America. Thomas is here. Thank you Thomas. And Satrio. We'll go and find there. I saw Laura is here from Ecuador. We'll see you soon Laura. I might be in Hiroshima when you come though. We're gonna find out. Hopefully I get a chance to see Laura. But yeah this is live Tweedle.

00:25:22 John Daub: Alright let's walk down the street. To the end of the street here. We're at the station. One thing I found that was odd. Takashimaya which is a big department store chain. Is out of business here. Or at least it was closed. Which I thought was weird. Do they still do the pledge of allegiance? I hope so. It's kinda neat that people are still doing that. And I did that everyday for the first 40 years of my life. It's warm enough where you don't need to have doors closed. I think that's kinda cool. But close enough. Here is the best. They have their doors closed. But you can see this ramen shop does not. Boo Boo Monster. Smell the grilling meat. Here's a Chinese restaurant. It says Shanghai Gyoza. I love that. It looks really new. And open doors like that. Super inviting. You can smell it. It's about 10-15 right now in Okayama. This is Takashimaya. And this blew me away. I used to live here back in the day. And this was a big deal. But now it's like out of business. And I can understand why.

00:27:22 John Daub: We're gonna be heading back to Okayama Station in about 5 minutes. We're on the other side of the street here. There's some underground passages that will get you there. And when I first got to Japan, I started to learn about the Japanese culture. I learned about the pachika and how to get around certain stations and these really narrow mazes underneath. And now you can go right through this station just directly. But 25 years ago when I came to Japan, the easiest way was through the secret tunnel on the right side. And I know it's still there because I was in Okayama last year. And I walked through there and the nostalgic vibe of me just on instinct till they get to the other side. It was pretty cool. It was pretty cool, I have to admit. Because it takes me back to my first days in Japan. Walking down the streets of Okayama. Oh yeah, check it out. There's the Momotaro manhole cover. You can see his monkey and doggy friend with his flying attack pigeon. Some of them are colored. Some of them are painted in with a special plastic-based paint that does not deteriorate over time. It stays in there. All the manhole covers are... well, not all of them. Most of them have Momotaro.

00:29:00 John Daub: I did have a nice bento coming in. Check this out. This was an unagi wagyu bento. Or was it wagyu? I can't remember. That was my lunch today. Pretty good. Left Tokyo Station on this beautiful baby. And it took about, I don't know, it was like 3 hours and 20 minutes to get to Okayama. I think it's something like that. And then when I got here... I can't show you that video. There's a Don Quixote. That wasn't here 25 years ago. Wow. I'm gonna go this way. So this street here looks very interesting. There's a... Oh! That was here last time. And I was blown away. There used to be a Sega World in there as well.

00:30:10 John Daub: Alright, click the like button if you want me to go down here. Just for like a couple of minutes, okay? You gotta click the like button. Actually, with this app, Prism, I have no idea. There's no cars coming. Kind of a real laid-back vibe. I'll hit the like button anyways. I can't see how many likes there are. But this is a... With Takashimaya out of business... Oh, gross! Bwah! Ugh! Really? I saw something I didn't like. I'm not gonna tell you what it was. Some people know. Or assume. The Tweedle knows. Some people know. Well, that bug... Thankfully, that bug was dislodged. And I'm okay. No problems. Look at this. This looks like... I don't know. It looks like Kuala Lumpur. They're like Singapore or something. On Orchard Road or... Something. This is not... This does not look like... Oh, it's an Aeon Mall. That's why. Uh... That's why. It's an Aeon Mall. Looks nice. I guess we can walk... Walk... Can we walk in there? But Aeon has... I guess they've resurrected what is... Was kind of like a run-down street. Was aging not well. But this looks beautiful. There's some nice-looking restaurants up there. This is one heck of a long... Long light. Wonder what that is up there. We got some people from Singapore and KL. When I walked around KL, there were these massive stores. Massive places. They were all... Everything looked so brand new and beautiful and bright. So it reminds me, like, white. Reminds me of KL and Singapore. And for those that don't know, KL means Kuala Lumpur. Because we got some... America is just waking up right now. So we have people on... East Coast. And those on the West Coast, UFO Bob, you're an early riser. Well, you catch the worm today.

00:33:19 John Daub: So I used to work for a company called Eon. Amity Eon. Eon has its headquarters. And so we're down here. We started in front of here. We walked down this alley, past this old capsule hotel, across the street, showed this park. And we walked down the alley of Entertainment District and Nightmarish. So we're all night walkers. People walking at night. We crossed the street. And now we're down this main street here. We're gonna walk around the Amity building, the Eon building and go back. But I believe down the street was the skyscraper for Eon, which has its headquarters here. It's an eikaiwa, English language school that has not aged well. And, yeah. All I have to say about that. Not Amityville. Amity. Amity is actually how we say that in Japanese. This does look so pretty. This is a really nice place. This is so modern. Honestly, this is not... My image of Okayama is a natural place because I think of Okayama Prefecture, the state of Okayama. But the capital city always felt a little bit run down. But now I see the station has been renovated, in particular the other side of it. Like completely renovated. There's a Muji Hotel there on the right side.

00:34:40 John Daub: Why people live in Okayama? Well, because it's actually... I think it's one of the sunniest places in Japan. It's got amazing food from the sea, the Seto Inland Sea over there. Oh, here's one that's colored. I can think of a ton of reasons why. Look at that. How dare they block the manhole cover with plants and stuff. I like how they gave the monkey a red face like he's sunburned. There's a lot of reasons why you'd want to stay here. One, if you lived in Okayama, you'd probably want to be near the Shinkansen terminal so people can get in and out of the city. It's a good hub. It's between Hiroshima and Osaka, so there's a lot of convenience there. Not far away from Kobe either. Himeji Castle. A lot of history. There's many universities. At least I know of one, the Okayama University. There's also... Hold on. Do I need the light? I don't think... I don't think I need the light. I don't need the light so much. Another reason is... If you like lemons, they have some of the best lemons in the Okayama, the Seto region, Okayama and Hiroshima. I can think of a lot of reasons why you'd want to live here. It's a city. It's got a lot of stuff. But it doesn't have that bustle of Tokyo. It's more laid. It's more relaxed. And that's not a bad thing. We're just a couple of minutes from the station. And look. It's like fresh air. And it's chill. You know? It's got everything except people. Which is good.

00:36:48 John Daub: I did notice they have great lemons here. Oh my gosh. Lemons, they put some sort of chemical on the outside of it so they don't go bad quickly. You have to make sure the lemons don't have that chemical on it because it's not too good. But the Okayama lemons, because they're domestic, they're fresher. So they don't put that chemical on it. It keeps it from spoiling. Alright, look at this. You just go a little bit away from the Aeon Mall and there's like nothing. It's dark down there. You know what? I can't. Let's go back to the station. This is too much. Too much. I'll take some of your questions though. I'll happily take some of your questions. I found this. Like I don't know why this asset's not coming up. But this was when I came into the station. I came into the Okayama. There's this big sign that said, Welcome to Okayama, the Land of Sunshine. That was really cool. So I took a video of it, but it's not coming up on this thing here.

00:38:18 John Daub: Oh, there was one thing that I wanted to talk to you guys because as we walk back to the station, we have a little bit of time here. I can't find it. I can't find it. I can't find that. So I wonder where it went. I downloaded the picture. It's probably like really far in my photo queue. But on September 9th and 10th, if you're coming to Japan, we're going to be going on a bus tour. And we have, I believe, almost 10 people signed up. The limit is 30. So we have another couple of weeks to go before the signups end. I think we're going to get there. But, for those that want to go, you can meet me at Tokyo Station at, I think the bus is, when was it? Like 8 in the morning or something. And then we're going to go to Nagaoka, get on a bus, and then go to the Katakai Fireworks Festival where they launch every single year two yon-shaku-dama, which used to be the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest fireworks shell. It is massive. It's 420 kilograms. It is the largest annual fireworks shell launched to this day. Honda-san makes two of them. And he also has six san-shaku-dama, which are just a little bit smaller than that, that his father is the creator of. And we're going to get in. If you come on this tour with me, you're going to get a chance to meet Honda-san. He's going to come and talk to our group. And also we're going to have tickets for the festival. And we have a hotel that's really nice with an onsen that we can soak in afterwards. And the next day we're going to be taking a look at the birthplace of Japanese koi, which are carp, right? Which is in the same... Which is in the city that Katakai is a part of. It's going to be an amazing two days, one night trip. I've never done anything like this. So I'm hoping the minimum number of people is 10. So I think we're close to that. We need it because or else we wouldn't... You know, the trip would... It just doesn't make any sense. That 10 people that rent the bus. But yeah, it's just a special thing because I have this really strong love of fireworks. A lot of my childhood memories, a lot of my memories in Japan have all been based on fireworks. And in the summer, it is the best. September is the fireworks season's just about done. This is maybe one of the last ones for the summer, even though summer is over. But my gosh, you're going to get a chance to see that shaku.

00:41:17 John Daub: Look at the cop car over there. It's got it. It raised its siren. It's a... What do you call it? Lights. So if you are in Japan and you would like to come, I put a link in the description of this video where you can sign up and you don't have to pay. You don't have to pay right now. It's 70,000 yen. That includes the bus, the hotel, the tickets for the event. I think it's two or three meals in there. And everything is... It's pretty much sold out because the event is coming up. So the prices were a little bit higher to get things. Because this is like... Not a lot of people go out to the countryside like in this area just for tourism, unless there's this festival, which is the Katakai Festival, which is incredible. This is a city that has a history of fireworks so much so that their manhole covers have fireworks on it, including the san-shaku-dama, which was the biggest fireworks in the world until his son made the yon-shaku-dama, which is four... Which is the... Ten times... San-shaku-dama is 30 times bigger than the shaku-dama. And the... Hold on. I forget how it goes. The yon-shaku-dama, it's just massive. They can't make a go-shaku-dama. It would just destroy the entire village. So that's... Don't even go that far. It's too crazy. I don't know too many... I don't know many other YouTubers that have ever done a bus tour before. I don't know. It's gonna be a lot of fun. And if... I didn't see that one before. It says, let's keep Okayama clean. The newer ones have these plastic covers on it that are cheaper to make, but they don't look the same as the other ones with paint on it. So I still like the fact that they have these manhole covers.

00:43:16 John Daub: It's something like a field trip. And everybody, according to Iri-san, who is my connection with the fireworks... the Japan Fireworks Association, everybody gets a hapi, which are these Japanese robes that you wear at festivals. And we're gonna make up a bunch of them, and whatever's left over, I'll probably sell on the Only in Japan merch store. We only have one item. I don't know. Maybe he put... Actually, maybe he put some of the other stuff from the Kickstarters on there. But I have a Shopify store. Merch. But these hapi are gonna look pretty cool. Now, they're not the super thick ones, but they're pretty nice. If you're wearing them in summer, you don't want the super thick ones anyways. So, there's that. But, you can get some... There's the Momotaro. That's still red. You don't want to cross the street on a red light on a live stream. Then they got you. Did I do that already? They already got me. There's the Don Quixote, open 24 hours, which is convenient. Probably the only thing that's open 24 hours, except for a couple of clubs down that road that look like they're gonna be open till 5 a.m.

00:44:49 John Daub: Okayama is very much... Okayama Station is very much an underground station. They still got a ton of places, restaurants, things that you can get lost in. Places you can get lost in. Look at this. Here's the bicycle parking lot. This is quite... This looks like the entrance is big enough for a car. What? But it's only for bicycles. But it's so wide. You could put a car in there. Right? Look at the... How... Bicycle parking lot. Look at that wind chime to keep you cool in the summer. That's for bicycles. And do you see this on the center of it? It's a conveyor belt that will help you bring your bicycle up. It pulls it up safely. So, you want to keep your hand on the brake and then... You can walk up the steps here and your bike will be pulled up on the conveyor belt. 5 a.m. to about 1 a.m. Interesting. Very interesting. And it's free. Really? There's a price list over there. It's free if you go shopping. You can get... You can even park your motorcycle up to 125cc. And I think it's monthly commuters park here mostly. One month passes. What is it? 3,000. 3,300 yen for a one-month pass for bicycle. It's not too bad. You always have parking here. The thing is that if you do park your bike on the street here, nobody does it first of all. I love that about Japan. Everybody follows the rules so it keeps the places like here free of bicycles. But, you know, there is bicycle theft here. And also, there are city officials that will tag it. And when they come back around, if it's still there, they carry it away in a truck. And you have to pay to get it out. And that, my friends, is not convenient.

00:47:19 John Daub: Can I get over there? Lost. I come in Japan for my honeymoon in September. Any suggestions on where to go? Well, not really. Japanese probably go to Okinawa. I think Kanazawa is pretty nice. It's chill. It's small. It's comfortable. It's got a castle. It's got one of the top three gardens. You can get some beautiful pictures. Dress up in a kimono. That's what I did with Kanae. If you ever watched the video that we made called 400 years, what Japanese food was like 400 years ago. My wife Kanae and I, we got dressed up in kimono and walked the gardens, which is absolutely stunning. We went to dinner in kimono, which is awesome. You can do stuff like that in Kanazawa. Kyoto is a little bit crowded. A lot crowded. I don't recommend Kyoto unless you just have to go. There's a couple of sites. Do it as a day trip from Osaka. Kevin would agree. If you want culture, you can get it in Kanazawa. You can get it in Kamakura. You can get it even in Tokyo. You don't have to get it in just Kyoto. It's really overrun with tourists right now. I have not heard. People like it. I think the Gion Festival is going on. So that's one thing.

00:48:54 John Daub: They got these share bikes. A fleet of them. Look at that. Osaka is for fun indeed. And for food. It's Japan's kitchen, they call it. So you got a lot of really great restaurants in Osaka. And the price is right. It's usually much more reasonable compared to Kyoto. Accommodations in Osaka though might be a little bit high. But Kyoto is just ridiculous right now. And it's hard to get the good places that you want to stay at. Everything is booked. Kanazawa is where it's at, man. I'm not just saying that. It really is an amazing city. That a lot of people. It's not on the golden route. Which is this route that most tourists take. Between Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Himeji Castle and Hiroshima. And then they go back home. Kanazawa is not on that circuit. So without. And right now Chinese tourists aren't in Japan. So you kind of got a pretty good experience if you go to Kanazawa right now. Most tourists that went there. I would say like it was a higher percentage came from China. Because it's on the Sea of Japan side. But those that went there. Who had an adventurous heart would go there. But since the Shinkansen line opened up. There are more tourists than before. There's a big camera on the right side. That's sort of new. Maybe 10 years ago. I can't remember. I think that was here 10 years ago when I came to do the Naked Man Festival. At Saidaiji.

00:50:35 John Daub: You can find deals in Kyoto. And there are you know Airbnbs in some local places. You don't have to stay at a chain hotel of course. You know machiya. You can find some pretty good deals. But I remember before they opened up Japan. We were thinking very seriously to go down there. Because once the tourists came. It's going to be really crowded. And sure enough it's just not comfortable. To go to sites like Kinkakuji. The Golden Pavilion. If you don't go there in the first 20 minutes. Just don't go there. It's just too crowded. It's not comfortable. You're shoulder to shoulder with everybody. Looking at what's supposed to be a peaceful site. You just don't feel that Zen. There's other gardens. Not like that. But again. If you're going to go to the Kinkakuji. It's on the other side of the city. The best thing. My best advice to you would be to. Get there 30 minutes before it opens. Queue up. And you're going to feel a little bit of it. For about 10 minutes. Until the crowds overwhelm you. And then by that time. It's over.

00:51:44 John Daub: We're going up the escalator to the Shinkansen. Through the station. I'm going to show you a little bit of the other side. And the reason why is because it's been highly renovated. It's different than what it was like 25 years ago. When I came here. Very different. Shinkansen terminal. In fact, Okayama. Every time I come through the station. It's hard for me. To get in my head that this is Okayama station. Because it's been renovated since. The first time I came here. My view of Okayama station is just so much different. Than what you guys will see now. All the shops are closed on the left side. I actually put in an order for. At a local shop inside here. For the daimyo packages. So I always try to get local regional stuff. For my Patreon supporters. So I ordered a like a. A box of. White peach mochi. From a local confection shop. So I told her that I want. How many I wanted. Which is quite a bit. And she's they're going to have the order for me. So when I go to the Shinkansen. I just carry it. It's going to be nice. So I carry back. The daimyo supporters. Goodies. Tomorrow on the Shinkansen. It's got kind of a. Shinagawa station feel. Digital signage. Coming down the walkway here.

00:53:32 John Daub: So. There's the local train. This is West Japan. So it's. It's called the Sanyo line. And the local Sanyo line. Goes all the way down to Shimonoseki. Which is the endpoint of Honshu. And then crossing underwater to get to. Kyushu. And this line. I believe goes to Shimonoseki. Local train. I like it. It's got like that old world vibe. That train. I'm going to. Maybe I'm not going to. Maybe tomorrow morning. So tomorrow morning. If you guys want it. Let me know in the comments. If you're interested to seeing Korakuen. Which is one of Japan's three top gardens. I might have a. Time in the morning. I just missed the train. I might have some time tomorrow morning. To take you to the castle. And the garden. But I'm going to. I have a shoot from 9 a.m. That I have to go to. I want. That's why I'm here. I'm not here for live streaming. But. It'd be pretty cool. If you're interested. I can wake up. Maybe 6 a.m. Walk down. To the garden. Go inside there. Without any people. We could take a look at Korakuen. Kind of have a little bit of an adventure. I haven't been to Korakuen in 10 years.

00:54:53 John Daub: There was the Naked Man Festival. The first video I ever put. On YouTube. That's not true. I had other videos. Well before that one. But the first. Edited only in Japan video. Was. Yeah. Had included scenes from that place. So. If you're. If you're up for it. We got some. A lot of yeses here. All right. So. I'll try to get up. And then we'll do like a 30 minute stream. Around Korakuen. If the signal is there. Fingers crossed. And show you. A piece of Okayama. This is the. This is. Garden is worth getting off. The train. If you're going to Hiroshima. To go and see the castle. With the garden. Just for. Just for that. Take in a little bit of Okayama. See the Momotaro statue. Then go to the. The. Garden. It's one of three Japanese gardens. There's Kenrokuen. And. Kenrakuen. And Mito. Which is just north of Tokyo. And then there's. Kanazawa. Which has. Kenrokuen. Which is. The. One of the. Three top gardens in Japan. Okayama. Kanazawa. Mito. Mito is great. In. The. Middle. Of. February. To the. Middle of March. When the ume. Plum blossoms are out. It is stunning. And the Imperial family is known to go there at that time. Just for that thing. It's a strolling garden. And you see those. Early blossoms. In the chill. It feels really good. To do that.

00:56:21 John Daub: Tweedle. I save all the live streams. They're on the channel. Hold on. I can use my light. How's that? Wow. That's bright. So. We've got that. And. So tomorrow you get a chance to see the castle. The. And. The garden. The castle is not that interesting to go inside. And I think it's really hard to film in there as well. So. I'm just going to do the garden. And then maybe take a look around the castle. And then come back here. It's a 25 minute walk to get down there. And 25 minutes back. That's an hour and a half. I think. Can I do it? Can I pull it off? I think so. If I leave it like 6 or 6:30. It should be okay. So. See you. See you. Question mark. Yeah. You know. The. This light is really convenient. This is where I did my training 25 years ago. It's so different. They've knocked down everything in there. It was shacks 25 years ago. And I remember in the middle of there. I was in a building. They put me in like this. This strange room on the fourth floor. And I could look back towards the station. Okay. I could look back towards the station. And. All this was just neon lights. Like the old school neon lights and now this is a hotel and they've taken away that Showa era vibe it was so bright like all these amazing neon lights i thought it was so cool now it's just well it's this which is modern japan back then it was like uh you know like 1960s japan but i was it was 1998 so awesome and this side there's a Lawson's down there which is where i got we often get bentos to eat just around the corner there's a Lawson's or is on the other i'm not sure maybe about just where the traffic light is and if you take a right here that's where the secret underground passageway that takes you through these like retro shops i believe it's still there but tomorrow morning i'm going to find out because that's a fun way to get to the other side of the station but that's it there you go okayama station is it a hopping place for at night not really but there there is some stuff to enjoy there is some nightlife and you can make your own fun by walking around those live stream there you go any last questions before we uh tune out from okayama this is fun i gotta get i gotta get the bed they upgraded me i always stay at ihg hotels whenever i can because they upgrade me i'm i'm staying inside of here and i get like a standard room which i think it would be a good place to stay in the night but i'm not sure if it's a good place to stay in the night but i'm not sure if it's a good place to stay in the night but i'm not sure if it's a good place to stay in the night it was a 8 000 yen but i got so many points like you can knock that down and then i got there and they upgraded my room and they gave me free breakfast and i don't even eat breakfast so like would you like points no i don't want any more points then would you like a free breakfast i go okay so you get free breakfast so i get coffee and you know some runny eggs i think they're gonna have some good stuff in there it's the a crown plaza because i haven't if you have an a a credit card you get triple the points it all adds up so i'm gonna go to the next one all right everybody i'll see you tomorrow um this will be fun and uh it's been a long time since i did a live stream if if there's a chance to do a live stream on the shinkansen we'll see what we can do um i i thought about stopping off in oh in hiru in osaka to see kevin on the way back but i don't know when i'm going to be done with the filming and i have all the daimyo stuff to carry back so it's not going to be super convenient oh yeah they got some kind of uh dinosaur thing going on there i don't think it's going to be too convenient to do that do you want to see the uh you want to