00:00:01 John Daub: So here we are in Nara. Sorry guys, the signal's not the greatest here either. But I've been watching deer attacking people, and it has been pretty amazingly funny. You get to see the deer, and I've been attacked a couple of times, so don't laugh when I get hit. But they really aren't nice beasts. Look at that. They're going after that poor lady. Oh, it's over.

00:00:37 John Daub: You cannot escape. Look, her kids are just laughing behind. Look at the fear in her eyes, even with the glasses on. It's like, I've had enough. Beat it. Yeah, they're so cute. Great deer. Wow, such peaceful animals. It's not the case. I've seen them ravage little kids. Who does that? Deer. That's who.

00:01:14 John Daub: So this is the street. I couldn't get any signal down here. But you see, look at this deer with antlers. He's going to ravage that poor guy. And that's the shika senbei (deer crackers). You know what? You shouldn't really feed the deer here. I don't think it's nice, but they do it anyways. They sell. People got to make a living. There's even more deer in there. It's a deer park. Dear me, there's hundreds of deer.

00:01:56 John Daub: Monsters. And if you walk down there, you're at Todaiji, which is the largest wooden building in the world where the great Buddha is housed. And that's what I was filming today. You want to see what I filmed? Today, they cleaned the Daibutsu (Great Buddha), and special people get picked to do this job. Just brave souls who are used to doing it. And I was there with the media to film this for an Only in Japan main channel episode. It's hard to clean the eyes, they said. So, no, I didn't come here for the deer.

00:02:35 John Daub: I don't want any deer in this video. I had deer in my video once. Deer attacked me. I was giving the thing senbei. I was being nice, trying to spread the love around, give the deer senbei to the other deer. And that deer came around, this guy angry. He said, why aren't you giving me senbei? I said, because you're too big. You've got enough senbei. Give it to the little ones. No. Deer, he rammed into me, and Kevin was laughing. Don't know how to feel about that when your mate is laughing at you in time of pain.

00:03:14 John Daub: All right. If you can't manage deer, Leo will run rings around you. I can... Don't antagonize. Yeah, maybe it's deer PTSD. But look, I can go back to this area. And then we'll see if there's any signal. But right now, the kids know this from TikTok and stuff, they know if they bow, the deer bows. So they give them food. Wow. That's a little Bambi deer. Try doing it to the one with antlers, bro. Yeah, I probably got some deer PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.

00:04:21 John Daub: I didn't expect to get nailed by a deer. It changed my life. I thought they were creatures of cuteness. Look at these people over here. You think you're nice giving them food, right? Well, guess what? They're just going to follow you now and steal all your money. I'm not giving any stinking food to these deer. I don't have any to give.

00:05:03 John Daub: I haven't seen many attacks here. You know where the best place for the deer attacks are? This is where the buses just come and release tourists. And these tourists are like fresh, right off the bus. And they go and buy the shika senbei and they give it to one deer and they get swarmed. Hordes of them come and they start screaming. Like banshee screams. You can tell which country people are from by the pitch of the banshee. That's... I wanted to show you that. All right. Let's cross the street. Oh, I missed the light.

00:05:51 John Daub: There's a whole park of deer over here. Look at that. And there's some tourists. I'm sure there's going to be some attacks. Let's go over there and check it out. What's this? This rebel deer coming towards us. The maverick. Let's go over there. I see Brian Downey is in the house. Behave yourselves. I saw a deer almost get hit by a car. He just booked across this intersection. Obviously they're colorblind so they don't know if it's a red or green light.

00:06:37 John Daub: So let's wait for this light to change. What keeps the deer from attacking senbei sellers? They have these metal sticks that they use to scare and even hit the deer, which is not nice. I've seen them getting nailed. And these deer they know not to go near the senbei lady. She's got like tongs with spikes on them. Michael Sassano is here, aloha, 12:30 p.m. in Japan. Stop by the show thing guy nearby and grab a bite. Thank you. You know what? I'm gonna stop at Nakatani-do, say hi to Mr. Nakatani. He is the guy who makes the pounding mochi. I spent an afternoon with him filming that episode and he's a really nice guy.

00:07:22 John Daub: Now he's swarmed with tourists, different now back then. But yeah, he's got hands that are so fast you can't even see them. And I was filming like 4K at 120p, it's still blurring the hands like Bruce Lee hands making mochi. That's what makes it so good and fluffy and nice. I came here to film the cleaning of the Daibutsu, the Grand Buddha, and it was the most incredible thing I've seen this year because you have, I don't know, 230 people like that were there cleaning.

00:08:03 John Daub: Look, they just gonna cross the street. Look at this, it's a convoy. Even though it's a green light they obviously don't care about this poor car. Look at that, this is what you call gangster life. Gangster life. Sorry I'm not helping cars, blame me. Why the deer cross the road? Because somebody honked at it. Hey don't you guys know, excuse me, you're not allowed to cross the road on a red light. There's laws against this. Alright, it's called jaywalking and it's here I guess. This is your playground.

00:09:20 John Daub: Oh look at you, you can get attacked. Here we go, we get a live one. Oh yeah, get them. Did you see that? Jump up, tackle, tackle, get them. But you can walk, you know, have to walk faster than that. You're gonna have to walk faster than that. You're never gonna get away. You got to walk faster than that. Stay calm. You have to gallop. Yeah they're on his tail. They're gonna... oh oh let's go.

00:10:05 John Daub: This is not a park, this is an arena, this is an octagon. Someone is going to get... listen for screams, banshee screams. That's how you know it's a tourist fresh off a bus, never seen a deer before. These pigeons better watch themselves. Deer like corn, deer also like cash. I've seen them take money. They put their noses into people's purses and wallets and they pick out cash. I've seen it. It happened to me in Miyajima. It's another island, it's another place where these deer, they're just as notorious.

00:11:20 John Daub: Here in Nara... I know that look. Before, don't come to me. I'm the one who's gonna get you in trouble. You better run. That's what I thought. James, for your PTSD, thank you James. Let's see, maybe there's some ice cream that'll cool me down. Oh you have to also watch where you step. Okay, I'm listening for some banshee screams. Swarm, here comes this swarm. Hold on, let me pan around here. She's never gonna make it out.

00:12:20 John Daub: They're going to corner you. Look at this. They're swarming. Is this good behavior? Look at the pigeons are getting in on the action. Deer just tried to grab something. So I got this really beautiful fan from the head priest at the temple. Check this out. It's from Hashimura-san. He gave this to me. It's so nice. Look at this. So I'll show you the design on it. He gave it to me when I was leaving after the interview. And he said, this will keep you cool, John-san.

00:13:34 John Daub: But then you know what? A deer tried to eat it. It was in this beautiful envelope from the temple. And the deer ate the envelope. He put his nose in there and ate it. And that's when I got this. I had enough of this behavior. Look, there's a whole gang of them. Is Hello Hi 821 here? What do you call a gang of deer? Look at this. They're rough, battle scars just waiting for an attack. One person just set them off, a fuse like the anger inside them. James, you're right. Deer can be jerks.

00:14:23 John Daub: Look, I know they're cute and Bambi and all that. You know, that's just a movie, folks. This is real life. Look at those antlers. They got antlers for a reason. A gang of deer is called a herd, I guess. Many deer.

00:15:11 John Daub: Yeah, it's crazy. All right, here. Look, this looks like something's going to happen here. Here they come. Oh, they backed off. Backed off at the last moment. All right, let's walk around here. This is some good attacks over here. Back away. That's a big one. I wouldn't mess with the big ones. That one's got antlers, bro. Look, he's giving them little pieces. Oh, this could end badly. Look at the pigeons over there. They're getting in on the action.

00:16:24 John Daub: But anyways, the deer are famous here. So it's one thing that you can see. But I prefer nature and hiking and trying to get away from these deer. I'm telling you. If you've ever been to Nara before, you'll know that not only do they attack kids and stuff, but they leave all this poo around. And it's just nasty. That guy just stepped in it. Oh, that's so nasty. He stepped in a big pile of poo. He didn't even hesitate. He just stepped in it and just kept on going.

00:17:12 John Daub: Frank writes in here, I was promised blood. I saw some. I'm waiting for that one girl to come back. I think she was from Hong Kong or something. She was speaking Cantonese. And she screamed like a banshee. Right around everybody was there. And it looked like a deer like this one, just a little teeny teenager. But that banshee scream, I can't get out of my head. These deer here are a little bit less bloodthirsty. I do apologize. You're promised blood. There's no signal in that area. This is too peaceful.

00:18:29 John Daub: But you know, I think for kids, it's kind of nice to come here. But just keep in mind that these deer are ruthless. They want food. And if you have little kids, you better pick them up and make sure that they're safe because these deer do have antlers and they're unpredictable. And I just got a feeling like if Leo were to come here, it would be somewhat dangerous. Everybody knows the bowing from like TikTok and stuff. You're supposed to make him bow and then give him the food. Not you bow and then give him food. Somebody tell him. Oh, there you go. Doing it wrong. Oh man, I'm stressed out. I gotta get out of here.

00:19:22 John Daub: All right, let's go. I gotta go one mile hike to, where's that big pagoda? I wanted to show you back there where all the shops were, but there was just no signal. I had to start this a little bit later. But it was a pretty good shoot. I filmed yesterday in Hiroshima. I got some great shots. I backed that all up. This morning I got a chance to... oh, mic is down. Really? OK. Mic should be OK. This morning I was filming this, the cleaning of the Daibutsu. It's pretty cool. This is the end of it though. It was a lot more interesting when there were people all over it. Reminded me of like an anime or something. Or a Fraggle Rock or something in my childhood memory. Seeing all these little creatures on this big creature. Like Gulliver's Travels.

00:20:46 John Daub: So that's gonna be a main channel episode. Maybe I can edit this one a little bit quicker. I want to show you where Nakatani-do is. Nakatani-do is where the mochi maker is with the fast hands. Let's go get ourselves some mochi, OK? What do you guys think? You in for this? Click the like button if you're in. We are in Nara right now, which is the prefectural capital of Nara prefecture. A prefecture is a state. Japan has 47 of them.

00:21:44 John Daub: One thing that I love about Nara is that it feels like it's not a city. It has a small town feel to it. And Todaiji, the largest wooden building in the world, houses this massive Daibutsu or Great Buddha. Just so beautiful. But two hundred years after they built that Daibutsu, there was a massive earthquake here in Nara. And it shook the head off of it. The head fell onto the ground. And they had to repair it. I asked the head priest in the interview, wait a second. So the head rolled off of this very heavy, massive Buddha. It's like 20 meters high, like 60 feet. How the heck in the year 1000 did they build it? And how did they get the head back up there? And they said that they had to bring in sand and create a pyramid. And then they rolled the head back up. And they took it up off of the mounds of dirt. I thought that was really interesting.

00:23:08 John Daub: And then they could put the head back on by rolling it up and using manpower and wheels and stuff, I guess. That's how they got the head back up there. And then they removed all the dirt around it. This is a beautiful pagoda. These things are earthquake proof too. They have a pole inside that helps to stabilize them. The design is part of what they used in the Tokyo Skytree. And they used it for that technology to earthquake proof the highest freestanding tower in the world using the technology from the pagoda. Episode on that coming as soon as I get finished editing the darn thing.

00:23:37 John Daub: Your mic is making thumping noises. Okay. I took the mic off just if you're wearing headphones, heads up. The volume has changed a little bit. I apologize. I think if it's making thumping noises, maybe the battery is dying. That's one of the things I don't like about road mics. You might have to get rid of it. You might have to get those DJI mics. Sorry. All right, let's make our way down here and I can take you. Nakatani-do is only about five minute walk from here. So if you're in, click the like button and power me up because I'm really in pain. This bag is too heavy and I've been carrying it for the last two days. I'm going to sleep so well tonight.

00:24:45 John Daub: The good thing is that there's not as many deer on this side. The bad thing is that there's not as many deer on this side. So there are some here and then there's the main street. We're going down right here. Let me tell you something here. This lake that you see on the left side right now in the center of your screen, they light this up with about a thousand candles that go all the way around. It is one of the most spectacular things that I've seen at night besides fireworks. It's just so beautiful and peaceful. So if you're staying, I stayed right here. You guys want to see where I stayed right there. That white building. That's the tourism information center, which is also an inn.

00:25:40 John Daub: Hold on a second. I think I could bring in the video I took of the room. It was a pretty nice room. I was really surprised. Here's the room. This was 4,700 yen. Like $35 for a night. No breakfast. At least I don't think so because I left at five in the morning. Bathroom was so clean. There's a public bath that's quite large in the basement that you can go and chillax inside of. But yeah, this is where I stayed last night. And it's in a good location. The view is not that good, but it's a good value.

00:26:51 John Daub: Here's last night. This is the street I'm taking you down right now. Just so you know. This is last night and it's so vibrant, this street. They shut it. It's like semi shut down so you can sort of walk along it. There weren't a lot of traffic. There's some plushies, deer plushies. You know what? You use that for like target practice by a couple of those. I'm just saying target practice for, you know, like Nerf balls and stuff. Look at that lady right there. That's not a real lady. And then look over here. Look at this beautiful stairway with candles. Like this whole area had all these candles all around it and just made it feel a little bit romantic. Of course, you know, you have chain coffee shops here too.

00:27:48 John Daub: All right. If you walk straight down here, you'll get to the JR station as well. So I just walk 15 minutes this way and I'm at the station. So let's do this right now. Let's go see some mochi. Now Nakatani-san, we don't know when he's going to be making the mochi. He doesn't say, but usually like 9, 11 and 1. So I'm not sure what time it is, but he makes it on the odd times and he makes a lot of it. And usually they'll sell out. He doesn't do the show all the time. And they have these glass walls here that they didn't have before. And the glass doors, especially during COVID era were for his protection, which is smart, but it was not as good to film when the doors are closed.

00:28:47 John Daub: But I think there's a couple of good things with that. One, the air conditioning inside keeps it cool for him. And two, protection because he's so popular now. Look at this. This is the main street. Look at the alley just turns into like a residential place. It's a real chill. There are a lot of like small hotels, family run that you'll find in the alleys, a lot of Airbnbs. So it's worth to check in online for other options besides the hotels. This street has an APA hotel, which is pretty front and center. There's loads of restaurants. Even the gachapon are Nara themed. You even get a compact fan for 300 yen.

00:30:08 John Daub: It's quite a long walk. I think it's much better at night. All right. I think we're here. Yeah, this is Nakatani-do right here on the corner. All the people lined up. You see that? Do you want to know why? Is he there today? Yeah, there he is. I think this is where I spent some time watching the pounding. I filmed it on this just fresh in. The next show is at 1:30. Getting all the customers to move in. There's a long line for this. Is it worth waiting for? I guess so. Last night there was no line at all.

00:31:34 John Daub: No line. But now it's a... I guess I kind of do have to go. I get something for Kanae.

00:33:05 John Daub: Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. No. Please stop here. Please take your time. Thank you. Thank you. It's still warm! It's still warm! I'm gonna cross the street here after this car. It's still warm! It's so soft it's gonna drip down my hands it feels like. We scored some Nakatani-do mochi. Itadakimasu. Wow. Oh my gosh it's so soft and so delicious. Mmmmm. This is so good.

00:34:21 John Daub: It's the doorbell gachapon. Mmm. I'll throw this in the rubbish bin. That was wonderful. I'm so powered up. He's yelling cars coming cars coming. So the green color is not matcha. It's yomogi (mugwort). It's a little bit bitter but it's got a natural sweetness as well. The powder is kinako powder (roasted soybean). He's gonna be put on the show with his speedy hands at 1:30 and I'm not gonna be here. What time is it Jim? What time is it? Hello hi, 30 minutes. You forget about it. I'll be back. Hey be back.

00:35:42 John Daub: You know why I'm scrambling? Because it's starting to rain. I bought three for Kanae, Leo and I'll have another one when I go home. I got the dessert. I want to shout out Michael Sassano thank you always for the super chats buddy. I'm making sure I get something back for everybody. But I've noticed over the last couple of years in particular since the last time I was here, like five years ago, so many changes have happened at that intersection and this is what I'm talking about. This is where we're gonna head and maybe I'll just keep on streaming until I get to JR station who knows.

00:36:22 John Daub: But there's a shop that takes up the corner and it looks really stylish like it doesn't fit into my image of Nara which is from 25 years ago. But I love... I'm sad with change but I also love it because change is inevitable and it's a nice stylish cafe what can I say. I would drink a coffee there. But tonight the street with brick you see down here is really really nice to walk down. I arrived from Hiroshima. I got here around 7:30. So Nakatani-do was closed and I walked it with this backpack is killing me. I walked it the one and a half miles to the hotel and it was... I'm glad that I did because you see a lot more when you're walking. Look at that there's another alley filled with shops and taxi. There's no bus there is but not for me.

00:37:36 John Daub: Look at this Lawson's. What's Nara? Nara is a city. Look at that it's right in here Lawson's. Welcome to Lawson's. It's got like this blending in color. I like they do that with the convenience stores. Sometimes they'll get rid of the bright colors. But I don't think they needed to do that in this neighborhood because I see a lot of bright colors. Or it can be a reflection of how the neighborhood has changed over the years. Yakiniku place there's a sushi place bunch of restaurants here. And I have myself a three and a half hour train ride back to Tokyo. Yay.

00:38:35 John Daub: It would be so funny if a deer was lurking in the shadows of the alleyway. You know what's scarier? I can see them in the daytime but lurkers are lurkers they're still scary. A lot of people are dressing up in kimono from the station and that's kind of a neat thing to do walk around in kimono. But I noticed that if you're Asian and you dress up the westerners all think that you're Japanese. I thought that was funny. There's two people from China dressed up in kimono and they're getting pictures from some Americans. I thought that was funny they didn't know that they weren't speaking Japanese but the yukata were very cute so can't blame them.

00:39:39 John Daub: This is the cafe it looks like it's in an old civic building which it is what is that a gymnasium? And then you're gonna see we're gonna walk by this this is a really nice new cafe. Nara-nico is the information center so it's not a cafe it's the information center but it's so nicely done looks like they just finished doing it. Cafe Etranger. I could see myself having a parfait in there one day. Look at the little deer on the parfait. Rice cookie soft serve cream that's so cute. Nice sofa. I'm so sweaty I don't wanna no way I could sit on a sofa without feeling guilty that my sweat will ooze into the fabric that's the state I'm in right now.

00:40:54 John Daub: Um so I'm here thankfully we're not too far. Right here that's where I got the mochi. So I walked a little bit and we walked through this park which is where the deer attacks were. I started the livestream right here near the Nara National Museum and this spot has no signal that walks up to the Daibutsu at Todaiji. So this map gives you a pretty good overview and if you walk even further you can go hiking it's a really beautiful hike in the mountains and there are very few tourists there probably better signal in there than it is here but we're almost at the station.

00:41:35 John Daub: So let's go down Sanjo Dori Street. Dori means street. Here's the dashi vending machine. Yeah I always thought this was funny. Don't drink this it's dashi that's why it's 750 yen or like 5 bucks. Alright I'd like to see a tourist drink one of those. Well it's a $7 drink let's try it and drink tastes like salty fish soup stock on its own it's good in soup and other stuff. Mountaineering the mountains also have deer but they are less aggressive yeah. The deer when they see you will run away which is what deer are supposed to do but not these deer they come to you beg for food and then attack you. They look into your eyes and they can sense fear. If they sense even one remote little piece of fear they take you down and they shake you down even if you don't have any crackers. I've seen it!

00:42:45 John Daub: We got about half a kilometer to go so let's just finish this off let's finish what we start. Let's take this oh I see the trains over there you can see the JR Nara station. Actually Kintetsu might be better walk a little bit. The Kintetsu station is to the right so with this heavy thing on my back I think Kintetsu might be better to go to Kyoto. I can't recall. Hold on stop the presses WRX Turbo is in the house welcome nice to see you here.

00:44:00 John Daub: This street is also quite nice it's very clean and will take you straight to the JR station there are some restaurants brand new shops it's a little bit wider from this part here and that's pretty much it. Nara is a wonderful little town to visit. I think if you're going to the Kansai region if you're going to Kyoto I say you're probably better off here in Nara spend the night here than you do in Kyoto just do the day trip to Kyoto maybe. I don't know but with that said I think Kyoto is better in the summer between the times of 5am and 9am you can do a lot and see a lot and walk a lot and then the rest of the day is going to be really crowded.

00:45:08 John Daub: Hi John from Mount Holly, New Jersey wow Mount Holly Route 73 isn't it? I haven't been there in a while it's Route 70 I forget that's Stokes Road 541. This is far you better stay hydrated. I downed a bottle of water right before here. Alright I don't think I'm going to make it in the stream I gotta check to make sure Nara is the right one. Nara Station up above Nara Station. I do go back to Ohio I wanted to go back this Christmas so maybe I will but nothing is open it's the holidays so nothing is really open.

00:46:03 John Daub: Alright everybody my backpack is killing me I'm sorry I can't do it anymore 45 minutes with this thing on and the sweat is real it's like going to places you don't want to. Luckily have a change of t-shirt for the Shinkansen when I get on there. Union New Jersey what exit on the turnpike God bless you all thank you hello from Hollywood really? That's pretty cool. I am cooking inside this black t-shirt and it's not pretty. Alright everybody thanks for watching. I guess Nara is... I'll try to do some more videos from Nara this one is a main channel episode that's coming as soon as possible and I'll see you back in Tokyo.

00:46:50 John Daub: But my trip to Kagoshima by the way because of the typhoon has been cancelled. I was going to actually be on a plane to go to Itami to fly from Osaka that's the domestic terminal to go to Kagoshima and I had two nights at a fishing village to film an episode there but it got cancelled because of that typhoon it backtracked. Alright everybody take care one last shout out here if you are in Japan you might want to check out Kodo here. I'm going to have Kodo on the show on Wednesday to talk about the Earth Celebration and they still have some seats available here's a QR code for them so you can if you take your phone out and you go to Earth Celebration you'll be able to get some tickets. I can't believe they're not sold out yet when I heard that I said I gotta share the news I want them to be sold out those people work really hard outside of Kagoshima it's one of the summer events if you're in Japan you gotta go and see.

00:47:54 John Daub: The fact that you can go camp on the beach it's really cheap the most expensive thing is probably the tickets for the event which run you I think 4000 yen or something but they got a lot of those seats left it's an amazing you don't have to be close to the stage because those taiko drums are loud you feel it in the core of your gut. And also the Only in Japan bus trip we have just a few more days to fill that bus we had 3 more sign ups thanks guys I think we have enough to still do this thing. Alright see you from Tokyo as I sweated out here I'm sweating somebody get me a taxi I'm gonna walk this I can finish it bye everyone.