00:00:01 John Daub: Hello, greetings everybody, welcome. I'm at home in Tokyo and one of the questions that I keep getting asked by a lot of people is, is Kyoto worth visiting? I've really been tough on the cultural center of Japan, at least that's what many people consider it to be. It's one of many, I think. But I'm going to try to answer this question today with maps and show you some images from there, as well as talk to a resident of Kansai, Kevin Riley, who has been on the show many, many times. Unfortunately, Kevin can't join us live, so I have an interview queued up where we talked about it. He goes to Kyoto maybe once or twice a week. He's doing tours in that area, so hopefully this could be something that's really useful to everybody who's considered going to Kyoto.

00:00:49 John Daub: I haven't been to Kyoto in a little while, but I find myself there quite a bit because of the nature of the job that I do. Bringing content about Japan, it's hard to not go to Kyoto. But the point that I've been making over the last couple of months, in particular since tourism started in November of 2022, is that tourism there is just really concentrated in Kyoto. So almost a full year. And what we've seen is a lot of people are not going off the beaten path to go to other areas. Thus, I've been trying really hard to try to find other areas that have an amazing amount of Japanese culture for you to go and visit. And I think I've done a pretty good job of it.

00:01:37 John Daub: I'll do you one better. Is Kyoto good to live? Really? Well, let me know the answer to that if you live there. I'll give you my feedback as much as I can as somebody who's been to Kyoto many many times and talked to people who did live there as well. Kyoto has always been a popular tourist destination. Let's look at this VTR that I made here and I'm going to show you the map of what Kyoto is beforehand.

00:02:06 John Daub: Kyoto is, this is Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) and you can see it's nestled on the side of a hill in what looks like a wooded area. It's a really beautiful location. There's a bus stop not far away so tourists can get there quite easily by bus. But if you pan out you can see what Kyoto City really looks like. It is all urban in the center. There's the castle, Nijo Castle right there. Heian Shrine is a little bit to the left. You know there's dotted places to some temples and shrines in between there. This is the river. There's Heian Jingu Shrine, the orange shrine, which is a very cultural aspect. And then there's Higashiyama which is where Kiyomizudera is. Higashiyama ward.

00:03:00 John Daub: This is Ninenzaka which probably is the most, one of the most crowded areas besides Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. There's not a lot of other attractions around Kinkaku-ji, which is why it might be so crowded at the time. But the Ninenzaka stairway which you can see going up here has the really old buildings and it's such a beautiful area to be. But look at those narrow alleys. The roads are not very wide and they get congested full of tourists especially in the late morning and early afternoon. You can see some really pictures. There's Yasaka-no-to Pagoda (Hokan-ji Temple) which has in the background that beautiful scene where people walk in yukata (lightweight summer kimono). You want to try to get a photo there. But the Higashiyama region probably the most popular in Kyoto as well as Kinkaku-ji. And Arashiyama, maybe not as crowded over there, but again the places that are popular you can see that the roads are very narrow. So it leads to congestion.

00:03:58 John Daub: I don't know if congestion is, you know, your thing, but that's not what I think of when I think of traditional Japan and that, wow, the harmony, the Zen that you're looking for, you know, when you're like at peace with a rock garden or something like this. Yeah, that doesn't happen very often unless you have special access to go into the places. Kevin and I went to Kyoto the last time was about four, five years ago. This is Ninenzaka, the stairways that I just showed you a second ago. This is from 2014 actually and you can see even in the fall how narrow it is. And this is before the tourism boom. Okay, now it's maybe tripled this in the peak times. It's kind of uncomfortable. That building is now a Starbucks. It was before just a regular cafe.

00:04:52 John Daub: This is Kinkaku-ji as soon as it opened. This is like 6:30 in the morning, I believe. It was ridiculously early. We went and still I ran, got in a position and you can see the people behind me were coming so quickly. The Golden Pavilion and this is like five minutes later, all the school and then the tours came in. Of course, it's kind of fun. Here come even more tours. This is like 10 minutes later and I wasn't around. I didn't stick around for 30 minutes later. I was, Kevin and I were like out of there really quickly and this is I think 15 minutes later. And you can see it is not a pleasant place to be unless you get there first thing in the morning. So if you want to do Kinkaku-ji and you have any, there's nothing else you want to do in the morning, get there as soon as it opens.

00:05:46 John Daub: We were the first one at the gates. I had a special permission to film in there at the time, but the problem was that they wouldn't let me in. They made me go with everybody else. Oh, I wanted to show you Kurama Station. This is on the Keihan Line and this is also Kyoto. So this is about a 30 minute ride on the train away from Kyoto City and you have onsen (hot spring), you have uncrowded streets and that actually is Kyoto. This is the side that I wanted to show you. So when I'm referring to Kyoto, I'm not referring to this. I'm referring to this, which is Ninenzaka. So it's a big contrast between Kurama, which is I think everybody should go to.

00:06:31 John Daub: Kyoto's got an amazing countryside in the fall in particular. The Keihan Line runs through this momiji (maple leaves) tunnel of color. Just the trees are so beautifully lit up at night too. The train is also crowded because it is Kyoto. But it's one of those train rides, if you love Japanese trains, that you should not miss. But going to Kurama, there's onsen there. It's a great place to stay. Not as many accommodations, but you have that old world feel that you miss in the city of Kyoto. And when you go and you stay in Kyoto, you're staying in that urban area. There's nice places, don't get me wrong. They're machiya (traditional wooden townhouse), they're very stylish, they're very expensive, but they're in Kyoto and it's congested in there. You don't just have the tourists, you have all the also the local residents.

00:07:20 John Daub: Christian writes in here, I was just in Kyoto last week during my first visit to Japan. It was beautiful. I like how close surrounding cities are. Nara was my favorite. I'm glad that you had a good time in Kyoto, but you don't have to stay in Kyoto. In fact, you could stay in Nara or you could stay in Osaka, which we're going to talk to with Kevin Riley. And if you want, Anpanman, who is our special guest today behind me. He doesn't talk. Just sort of sits there creepily, especially at night. You know, you always think he's gonna come to life and attack you at night, but he stays there. Doesn't move.

00:08:02 John Daub: Kyoto is maybe not the best place to stay, but a place that you can go and do day trips from. There's lots of different ways to do it. But the bottom line, let me just get to it because I want to get everything that you need, the information, in the first 10 minutes. If it's your first trip to Japan, by all means, you should visit Kyoto. I think that it would be a waste not to, unless, you know, you didn't really care so much about museums and temples and shrines, which you can get tired of pretty quickly. I think you can do Higashiyama on a day trip, which I think it really encapsulates the Kyoto experience. You can do Kiyomizudera, which is the water temple. It's a beautiful, beautiful on stilts from, you know, 1300 years ago or 700 years ago. I can't quite remember the history. I think it was, yeah, 1300 AD.

00:08:51 John Daub: And then there's, you know, Kinkaku-ji, which I think you really don't need to see. If you see the picture or the thumbnail, I think you've seen it. It's nice to see in person, maybe. Then there's Arashiyama, which can be a second day trip. But you don't really need to stay in Kyoto. I think it makes more sense to stay in Osaka, where there's good nightlife and it's an easier access. To get to Nara, to Himeji, to Hiroshima, even to get from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo. When you get on the train, usually the trains originate at Shin-Osaka, you can get a seat. This is particularly useful if you have the JR Rail Pass and you can't ride the Nozomi. You have to get a seat reservation or juseki, which is unreserved seats. It's always good to be at the origin. When you, by the time you get on Kyoto, you know, it's a little bit harder. The pickings are slimmer, let's just say.

00:09:41 John Daub: So I hope that that's kind of useful. I hope that that's helpful. It's useful to you to understand. I would say that if it's your first time, you do have to visit Kyoto. You don't have to stay there. All the things like the cuisine, the food, you can get geisha action in Kanazawa, which isn't quite as crowded and might be more friendlier because it's a smaller city. And it's not a city in the sense that Kyoto is. Kyoto is quite a sprawling urban asphalt jungle. It's not what you think, except in the Higashiyama region. But if you're trying to get from one attraction to another, it's not that easy. You're either staying in the Higashiyama area or you're going through this asphalt jungle on a bus. And the public transportation is not that great. But that's why I said maybe it's good for day trips.

00:10:25 John Daub: You know, if the attractions are opening at 9 a.m. and you have jet lag, get on a train, go to Kyoto at 5 a.m. from Osaka, get on the first train there, see the empty streets from 6 to 7:30 or 8, then go to Kinkaku-ji or go to the temple before it gets really crowded. And get the heck out of there at 10:30. Go back to Osaka or Himeji Castle, which is also going to be really crowded. Or go to Nara and spend the night there instead. Or go to Hiroshima and spend the night on Miyajima, which I think is the best place to stay if you have a chance in a night. Miyajima is incredible because everybody does Miyajima as a day trip. And I think that's a big mistake because the island comes to life at sunset when all the day trippers go away. You want to be on Miyajima and Hiroshima.

00:11:10 John Daub: So I mean, are you doing it wrong? I don't know. But it's your vacation. It's your trip. You've done the research. You can figure it out. And when people ask me for itineraries, I tell them quite simply, I don't know who you are. I don't know what your budgets are. I don't know where, you know, I live here too. So I'm not always the best person to ask advice about in particular for Tokyo. But when it comes to Kyoto as a tourist, I would not stay the night there because it's so crowded. It's so expensive. There's taxes there. I don't think the nightlife is that great. Although that there's, you know, some really nice alleys. I mean, more than one night. I can't see why that's the thing. There are better places to stay.

00:11:55 John Daub: And I think Kurama might be one option as well because they do have onsen. They do have countryside. They do have that rural feel. But things close really early. There's no nightlife. You're basically stuck in the hotel. Osaka opens it up a lot more. And I'm going to play the interview. That's the answer. Sir Lance Gio writes in here at night. Life is better in Osaka. I cannot agree more. Just the nightlife. The people are friendlier in a sense that it's more casual. There's a lot of standing bars. There's a lot of bars. You don't have to stay in Dotonbori. You can find places around Osaka Station. It is so old school and so much fun. Osaka, in many ways, is really authentic.

00:12:34 John Daub: Of course Kyoto is authentic. But I think if there's so many tourists there that they cater to that. Osaka does not cater to tourists. Osaka is a city. It's just what it is. Tokyo might a little bit, but Kyoto definitely does. If you're going to minpaku (private lodging), bakudai, fire ramen, they like, they, everything's in English. They cater to tourists because all you see around you are tourists. There's no locals there. That's Kyoto. You know, the attractions, they're made for mostly international tourists now, or at least they're very used to it. And of course, Japanese domestic tourists, kids will go there for class trips. You'll see a lot of that.

00:13:30 John Daub: Kyoto is a laid back place, but it is serene. Kyoto is, it is a laid back place in places. You know, if you're going to Gion, you can sit on the riverside. You can sit and have a bento, or you can buy some beer at a convenience store. Don't get me wrong. I mean, you can find places to really relax in Kyoto, but with tourism returning and the attractions becoming more and more crowded, it's not that easy to feel it. And I mean, if you're going from attraction to attraction throughout the day, you're going to be exhausted. You will be.

00:14:05 John Daub: And I don't think that, I think you can get a very similar experience in Kyoto. I think that, you know, if you're a passenger of Japan to the West, it's my job to introduce some of those places to you. And I think, you know, if you watch Only in Japan Go and the main channel, um, you'll get a feeling that the beauty of Japan lies not in its cities, but in the countryside and Kyoto is a city, at least the center of it. There are beautiful temples and shrines. There's some must visit ones. I think Kiyomizudera, you know, you should probably visit there's a, you know, Kinkaku-ji, I think you can skip it. It's just a golden pavilion. And it's so hard to get to, it takes so much time and there's nothing really in that unless you're maybe it's on the way to Arashiyama, but you know, there's a lot of traffic between you and Kinkaku-ji.

00:14:57 John Daub: Let me just put it like that. Um, there's a lot of places that I was just in Kochi and I think I showed you a drone video. I don't know if I have it queued up here. I showed you a drone video of, of this. And I think, you know, it was absolutely stunning. All right. There's, there's, there's a little bit of music there, but I wanted to show you, like, you can find the beauty of Japan outside of Kyoto. It exists. And there's nobody here. I'm on this perch on a cliff on the end of Kochi on Shikoku prefecture, overlooking the Pacific ocean. This is my view. This is a drone shot slowed down with, uh, um, AI software in 8k. I, it'll bring in an episode pretty soon.

00:15:42 John Daub: I mean, this is what you're looking for in Japan, right? You don't get this in Kyoto. Well, you have to go outside of this. You have to go to the city center to get something like this, but in Kochi, my gosh, you get it almost everywhere. It's just pure nature. It, this is what Japan is, uh, at least in, in my mind. And this is what I would hope you would experience, um, as a tourist. You guys want to keep watching this one? I guess I can show it to you a little bit more. That's a stunning shot with the sea in the background. I think that's what you're looking for, right? I, I would think so.

00:16:19 John Daub: I showed that earlier in another live stream. But those types of places exist in the countryside of Japan, and there's loads of them. And I think if you have a JR Rail Pass, it's worth traveling to get to those destinations. Spend your time to get there where you feel it. You're immersed in the local culture. Um, you're rewarded with the effort to go to these places with something like that. Whereas Kyoto, I think it's, it's just too easy to get to perhaps.

00:17:20 John Daub: You don't need a license to play a drone here, but you need to register your drone. You need to know how to get online. Um, you get a registration number, um, and you have to follow the rules, which is the, uh, 30-30-30-150 rule, 30 meters from buildings, people, cars, and no higher than 150 meters. That's the maximum for recreational drones without a permit. Okay. Um, if you're in the middle of the Pacific ocean, that's a different question, but we get thunderstorms coming into Tokyo right now too. So there's a, there's a lot of really beautiful places. Um, so I, I want to point out though, that Kyoto is more than just, uh, the center, which is that the urban, uh, sprawl here, right? Kyoto is a lot more than the urban sprawl. Kyoto is, um, a prefecture. It's one of 47 in Japan. And it has a lot of space. It goes all the way to the Sea of Japan. Um, and, uh, it has Uji, it has, uh, um. It has a lot of attractions out in the countryside that are worth it. But this central Kyoto is so crowded. There's a lot of temples and shrines in history, but I don't know if it's worth it. You're going to have to make that call.

00:18:05 John Daub: Let's now talk with the master. This is Kevin Riley. He's lived in Kansai for as long as I've lived in Japan. He's been here maybe a year longer than me, and it shows maybe. We've both got white hair. I showed you a little bit of video before when we were a little bit younger. I think I might have that to queue up after this. But I want you to listen to the interview and let me know what you think in the chat. I'll be reading along as we watch this play.

00:18:41 Kevin Riley: Kansai, which includes Kyoto. How are you? Great. Yeah, you're on the move. The question here today is, Kyoto, what's it like visiting Kyoto after the pandemic? Because you were there just recently with tourists. You were taking them as a guide, right?

00:19:00 John Daub: Yeah, I was just up there a couple of days ago again. I think with the Chinese tourists, they're starting to return now.

00:21:01 Kevin Riley: Tourists from China never really focused on Kyoto. They were all over the country, maybe for shopping, maybe to eat. They didn't need to go to Kyoto. So we did see them, tourists from mainland China. But now that they're starting to come back, I get a feeling that Kyoto is going. It's going to get a little bit more crowded with that. But I always wonder why Kyoto? There's so many other really amazing places to go. Or if you're going to stay in Kansai, you can make Kyoto not your base, right? Because the accommodations are way more expensive in Kyoto.

00:21:39 John Daub: Yeah. Where would you recommend in Kansai to base out of? I think I know the answer. Yeah, you know the answer. But yeah, no. It's so much better in Osaka as well, right?

00:24:06 Kevin Riley: Shinsekai, where they made, it's a big sword and knife center. They also made guns in the Meiji era when they got rid of the samurai, right? This is the big weapon zone of Osaka. Right, yeah. A lot of history. Great places.

00:24:36 John Daub: I always tell people Tokyo is a good place to fly into. But maybe Kansai is even better because the Kansai region is stacked with attractions. Not just Kyoto. I'm talking like Nara, Wakayama. We have Koyasan nearby. Which is a real authentic, if you're looking for Buddhist, what's it called, that cuisine. Shojin ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine). Yeah. You have that. It's actually quite good. You get a chance at a really authentic experience at Koyasan, which is not on a lot of people's radars for some reason. I think that's more of a cultural experience in Kyoto in many ways because you're more in the countryside.

00:25:48 Kevin Riley: And he's booked solid for the next year. The next three months, I think. Or you have some spaces available? Yeah, there's a couple of places.

00:26:01 John Daub: Calendar. Are there places that you take around Kansai? Where do they want to go the most?

00:28:27 Kevin Riley: Oh, yeah. For first-timers coming to Japan for the first time, you recommend it. But are we in agreement? Like, it should be maybe a day trip rather than trying to spend your vacation in Kyoto?

00:29:18 John Daub: Place. I think markets that are just as good as that place. But it's just got the name recognition. And it's not as good as other places. In Kyoto but oh yeah it's more authentic and you have a ton of street food more anything goes anything goes i love it yeah you can sell croissants and really good ones in a fish market why not i think fishermen the last thing they want to eat is fish.

00:30:16 John Daub: Little culture thanks Kevin uh we'll come down and see you sometime real soon again this is if you want to check out kevin's channel kuma's kitchen.

00:31:00 Kevin Riley: You're sheltering under a tree okay all right we'll let you go thanks kevin that's it all right it seems like that yeah that we're at the end of the video there.

00:31:11 John Daub: So uh Kevin Riley uh we lost him there so that his feedback is really important because he's somebody who lives in osaka he he takes people to kyoto uh other foreign visitors that are coming to kyoto and he's like oh coming there and he's been doing it for uh several months now i think since the tourism started back in 2022 and yeah he says it's quite crowded in particular nishiki market he said is a is overrun right now and there's options in in osaka for markets that are better now it's it's a good market that they have there but markets aren't exclusive to kyoto that one in particular i would avoid right now i don't i don't know you can go there check it out and leave it's it's pretty much in the center near gion anyway so it's worth taking it out what do you think on paman yeah he's with us here i got a couple of questions here thanks guys everybody.

00:32:09 John Daub: We have here daniel kevin and john the collaboration we've been waiting for again i i'm hoping to go down daniel to see kevin uh in the next couple of months i've just been so busy and with his him doing the tours as well he's quite busy during the day too and it's hard to to meet up but i've got some great ideas to do down in kansai so i'm looking forward to that and i'll be looking forward to having kevin back on the show maybe even this fall right there's a couple of uh ideas where i'm working on permits to get for filming and amanda wrote in here that she visited kyoto last week and enjoyed it very much makes makes a change from tokyo and osaka people need to step outside of their comfort zones i agree with you there i think people need to see what they want to see first of all but i think if you're if you're going to really enjoy japan.

00:32:59 John Daub: I think that's a good place to be and it's not it's not even to me the biggest dimension it's like a place that i almost avoid now because maybe i've i've seen it more than a lot of people i admit but i i if if anything from this series i hope that i can encourage you to maybe spend less time there and to spend more time somewhere else that probably will appreciate your business or appreciate your visit more and you'll probably get a better experience friendlier people just different cuisine japan is not the biggest country in the world by far it is not big but it is big to me because i see the diversity within that country the 47 prefectures the regional dialects the regional cuisine you can eat your way across japan and it'll be different kinds of foods or so many different variations of it that it will just blow you away with so much uh um different like you don't expect that because japanese cuisine is not just sushi it's not just uh you know beef bowls it's not just this inside of it the the diversity of food is insane and then you have westernized japanese uh western food that's been japanese and it like having spaghetti in japan in itself is an experience.

00:34:20 John Daub: I in fact i'm looking for if you're italian and you're coming here i'd love to do an episode with you to take you to one of the most japanese italian dishes in the world it would be interesting to get your point of view because Italian food is like everybody loves Italian food almost everybody lost the sound really I don't I don't know why I'm getting some some your audio is very low I don't know what I can do to help you guys out here um apparently people can hear me just fine so I don't know yeah I hope this is was useful for you I want to I want to answer your question so if you have some let me know right now I didn't have time to set up anything on the discord server but I want to try to I want to point you into the direction of our discord server because this is a place where we do get a lot of back and forth and I'm not the only person that can ask you questions you know I mean like answer your questions there's a lot of other people that can do that too.

00:35:51 John Daub: So let me see what you got here the poll answer i also asked a question for the q a here and i didn't get any responses that i can see it says what's a good alternative to kyoto that's in the live chat right now and i haven't seen um i haven't seen any responses to that it should be pinned to the top of it and we did a poll and it seems like the majority of people said that kyoto is a must-visit place and i agree with them it's just how you visit kyoto is something you should consider a little bit more kyoto is a must-visit place but that doesn't mean that you need to stay there you can do day trips there very effectively the issue with kyoto again is the overcrowding the over tourism and the lack of public transportation that makes sense it's not the easiest place to get around also saka's public transportation is incredible you have subway lines that will hit everywhere and a diversity of public transportation there's the subway there's the jr above ground there are private rail lines as well there's like several options to get to nara to get to himeji to get to kyoto from osaka.

00:36:50 John Daub: And the reason why and i know jennifer doesn't get i know jennifer does oh we answered in chat okay thank you saya i know jennifer french doesn't get um jennifer of Osaka but Osaka is a is a just a city but it's it's got such a strong region it's a strongest regional city wow we got some really strong lightning here Osaka is this is the strongest regional city in Japan with culture I think it's got interesting cuisine that's different than other places as well Osaka does cuisine better they call Osaka the kitchen of Japan for good reason because a lot of the marketplaces they have amazing fresh seafood they got the Inlet C there and the food there is just incredible they have access to some of the best farms and beef matsuzaka beef Kobe beef they're all right around Osaka so this is a place where you're going to eat maybe even better than in Tokyo you also have less crowds maybe but you have a lot of I always thought Osaka was more was friendlier and it was easier to talk with people than in Tokyo where everyone's a stranger in Tokyo because everybody comes from everywhere and people are a little bit more standoffish.

00:38:08 John Daub: Osaka ns are mostly Osaka and you have this more friendly nature when you go out drinking for example people just have a better sense of humor I I thought and it's more relaxed than Tokyo that's for sure it's not a boring place I've never had a boring time in Osaka ever there's just so much amazingness to that to that city I hope that this is useful again I'm trying to go back and look at the questions there's some good ones here DB writes in here my wife's family lives in the countryside in Japan and I enjoy just staying at home and being there just doing ordinary everyday things going to the market going out to eat the one thing we did on our bus tour was that we went to this is the bus tour that that that I had we just finished this we went to the regional supermarket on this bus trip just we just before we went to the station with 30 minutes and the guide said let's stop off at the supermarket and that might have been the one of the most fascinating aspects of it because the supermarkets in there in the countryside are a little bit different than in Tokyo they just bigger and they have different stuff and I thought that was interesting and everybody who went to the supermarket got some stuff I think it might have been cheaper than buying it at a gift shop but I think that's a good good thing to do on these trips.

00:39:34 John Daub: And you know I'm talking with Edie San who helped me with this to see if we can do more of these bus trips in 2024 and get some feedback but I want to thank everybody that came to the bus trip this last week it was it was a really fun time Osaka is more relaxed than Kyoto I think so with the people yes I mean are you relaxed for attractions yes there's different it's a it's a city it's a bustling city but there's more space in the sense that I mean they're used to having a bunch of people Kyoto in the narrow alleys of Ninenzaka it's just I don't I've never felt I felt relaxed and I went to Kyoto maybe 20 years ago and now since tourism really boomed in 2013 and onwards I have not felt the same Kyoto I don't know because there's always been pretty crowded though but you don't get that same feeling unless you really get out of the city center or you start quite early in the morning which is my suggestion wake up at 4:35 o'clock and then walk the streets at that time and you have the city almost to yourself that the photographers are out there though they're smart.

00:40:48 John Daub: But Osaka the people are pretty laid-back the people are funnier I think there's a huge difference between Kyoto and Osaka you could tell because the escalators the Osaka's want to stand on the right side and walk up the left Tokyo stands on the left and walk up the right Kyoto is just confusion because the Osaka's are on the right on the left side a right side and the Tokyoites and the rest of the country's on the left side so I'd say Kyoto is more in tune with Tokyo than Osaka and I always felt like Osaka is just a special place in Kansai Wow I always thought that Kyoto was was not as didn't have that same Kansai vibe because they have somewhat an elitist feeling like we are Kyoto we're better than you type of a feeling I don't know.

00:41:40 John Daub: So if you ask me if this is a place that you want to live I would say it's not for me but I don't know I think it would be for some people and it's just a city so in the city there's a little bit of everything for everybody but if you're gonna live in a city that's not for you I would pick Osaka for sure that that's just like a no-brainer Nagoya is also me I lived in Nagoya for three of my 25 years in Japan and Nagoya is a very livable city it's got everything in one area but if I had to pick between livable cities I would pick Hiroshima or Nagoya because I loved living in Hiroshima and I lived in Hiroshima for about two years so I loved living in Hiroshima that was one that's probably my favorite city to live in in Japan because there's so much sunlight the food is always great and there's so much food is good the people are friendly and there's such a condensed city it's like Shinjuku Shibuya Harajuku all this in one like confined down Hondori and it's close to it's on the Shinkansen line it's so convenient you can get the Shimonoseki and catch the night ferry to Korea would you go there and eat you can come back on on Sunday night you know there's a lot of things you can do from Hiroshima I loved living there.

00:42:48 John Daub: There you go I hope that's useful leave me a comment below in the playback and I will see you in the next video bye bye you in the next live stream probably tomorrow as I get to work on editing another video bye bye.