20240305_Tokyo_Tourist_Prices_Out_of_Control_wazlk1AlLS0

00:00:01 John Daub: Hello everybody. So I wanted in this episode to talk about some of the tourist prices that have seemed to be going out of control, in particular at a market in Toyosu that is famous for tourists. No question that place is going to be expensive, not just for inbound tourism — we call foreign tourists to Japan inbound tourism — but to Japanese tourists as well. And we're going to go over this. I've noticed the email and the comments coming to me from people all over the world, in particular those that are already in Japan going, "Wait a second, this seems a little weird. Why is it so darn expensive for food? Is it normal to pay $100 for a kaisendon?" And the answer is no.

00:01:01 John Daub: Like, I saw this and this is from a new market here. Let me just bring this up here. So there's a place in Toyosu, a brand new market. It's a really nice place, I mean, this is what it looks like. It was completed about a month, one or two months ago. It's like the construction area. Toyosu market, which is the new Tsukiji, has been going on for such a long time. Senkyaku Banrai is what it's called — Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai. This area has restaurants in there that are, you know, they basically — it's next to the seafood market, the fish market of Tokyo. So everyone's going to think that it's a lot fresher. The reality is that it's kind of the same stuff. Every single restaurant, every single sushi chef in this area goes to Toyosu market to get their seafood. Everything is fresh. It doesn't matter if you're 100 meters away from Toyosu market or 10 kilometers away, or even 50, for that matter.

00:02:02 John Daub: Restaurants are getting their things shipped to them, or sushi chefs are going directly to the market, into the basement, into the market area to buy the fish that they need. I've been down there. Anybody can actually go in there. As long as you're going there to buy, there's a security guard — you're a buyer and then they'll let you in. But a hundred dollars for a kaisendon? A little bit much, you know. I went to my supermarket and I bought this here. Check it out — this is a sushi plate. It's a really good one. It's from my local supermarket. It's got ten — how many? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven — seven pieces of sushi, six plus a tamagoyaki. It cost me 1,980 yen, or approximately — I don't know, like six dollars. Here, check it out. Here's the price tag and lens here. It's a beautiful sushi platter, and that's how much it costs. It's not a hundred dollars. So yes, you're getting a tourist price. Yes, you're getting ripped off. Yes, you probably know that too.

00:03:03 John Daub: This is coming to me because I found these articles online and I'm not sure if you're familiar with them. These are shared with me — the first one was this one here, from Sora News 24: "Beware of the rise of overpriced inbound don at tourist spots in Japan." I just told you — inbound means foreign tourists. Don means a bowl of rice, like a donburi. And the article, you know, it goes over this in pretty good detail. I got it, I have it right here, I'll scroll through it with you. We can talk about it: "Beware the rise of the inbound don." And they went to this particular tourist attraction and they found a bowl for $120 of seafood. And it made everybody question, in particular people who live here in Japan. You can see you get a kaisendon, which is like a katsudon, right there. That's usually about $7 to $8 for that big portion. So if you're paying $100 for a bowl of rice with seafood on it, you are crazy. But I think — or you're not really thinking correctly, I think, because you don't know the prices. Or you're just really rich and you want to enjoy your time there. The money is worth it to you if you're enjoying the atmosphere there.

00:04:20 John Daub: You can see it looks like a beautiful place, doesn't it? Look at the exterior of it. But this is the one in question. This is like — what is it — the Emperor Kaisendon. That is not worth 18,000 yen to me. I don't see how or why anybody would actually pay that. The article goes over this. Then I found — like, wait a second. This goes beyond just that article, okay? There's more. Time Magazine picked this up not too long ago — I think this was about two weeks ago. The writer from Bloomberg. "Tourist boom making seafood bowls too expensive for the Japanese." And, you know, the booming number of foreigners are driving up the prices of restaurants. It's from February 21st. Local wages struggle. They're going to come up with the broader rise. Look, this price here — 6,980 yen or $46 for a sashimi-topped bowl of rice at Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai, a new retail complex in Tokyo's Toyosu area. It's made fresh seafood from the adjacent fish market, which was moved from the famed Tsukiji Auction building in 2018. A similar kaisendon meal made with slightly lower quality ingredients can be had for 1,000 yen. The price is about $1,500 yen for a serving. I don't know about that. I just know that that's a lot of money. And I don't know if it's worth it, but locals are not paying that, okay?

00:06:01 John Daub: I guarantee you, if you go to Fukushima or you go to other places, it's going to be sort of expensive because of the cost, but definitely not that much. In January, 2.7 million people visited the country, up 80% from a year earlier. So there's a lot of tourists coming here. It's now 150 yen to the dollar. Are restaurants trying to take advantage of the tourists? I don't know. I think — and let me give you my take here. We're five, six minutes into this video. I don't know. I'm going to put it to you like this. Two things. One, costs in Japan really are going up. That means that when I go to the supermarket, as somebody who's lived here for 25 years, I've seen the prices go up and down and up and down, but inflation has been sort of deflation — meaning the prices have never gone up. In fact, prices in a lot of things over the 25 years I've lived here have been going down. And it's only over the last three years that we've started to see prices inch up, and now it's starting to go like this. And I don't know if it's because of tourism, if it's because of the weekend, if it's because of the cost of gasoline. I think it could be all of these things are driving up prices, but not to the extent that I'm seeing right now, what you guys are paying for this stuff.

00:07:22 John Daub: If you're going to a tourist spot, expect to pay tourist prices. That's not something that's new. It's also something that Japanese have been doing for a very long time. If you're going to a beautiful location, you're going to pay through the teeth for the privilege of eating this kind of food, okay? It's just part of the experience. I don't know. But that's why when I do this show, I often will tell you, look, go to the supermarket and just get your food. Look here. So I went in to — this is my local supermarket here. And you can see — this is a maguro don. That was $3.99, $3.98. That's $2 for that. This was $3.98. That's like $2.50. That sushi is $7.98. That's about $5 for that sushi, okay? Here's some maki sushi. That's $1.80 for that maki sushi up there. So what I'm trying to say to you is that — and this stuff, I'm pretty sure it's all coming from Japan. Let me see the label here. Yeah, I think it's all domestic stuff. Is it premium? I don't know. But in Japan, you know, you're going to get the best of the best here.

00:08:31 John Daub: Kaisendon here. Let's take a look at the just normal donburi. This is one with like broccoli and deep-fried breaded pork — katsudon. And you can see there's some bell peppers. 380 yen. What is that? $2.75 for that. And that's a pretty big bowl. That'll feed you for lunch, okay? This is at the supermarket. This is meat and tofu don. It's really good. Tofu is not for vegetarians. We meat eaters eat tofu here too. So tofu and meat, $2.50 for that. There's a — kaisendon. Tempura with a beautiful sauce on there. It's real kind of tangy, salty, sweet on a bed of rice. $3.80 — 380 yen. That's $2.50. That's so cheap, okay? So the point is — the point they're trying to make is, okay, Japanese people at home are not paying this. You're paying this because you're eating the food in a really delicious spot. And some businessman saw the amount of foot traffic that they were getting, and they realized that if the prices were too cheap, the lines would be really long, and they would actually make less money by charging a lower price than charging a higher price. The people who really wanted to buy it, they would sell less, but that would also mean the people that wanted to pay the premium for it, they would make more money because there was no line to wait there. These are like the things that the business decisions they have to make. And it's not the greatest thing.

00:10:07 John Daub: If you go climb Mount Fuji, for example, there's vending machines as you climb Mount Fuji. As you go up Mount Fuji, the vending machines would get more expensive and more expensive the higher you got, because the cost to bring that — now you can understand that. But this is right next to the fish market, which is right down the street from my supermarket. And those are the prices. So to me, it's a little bit odd. The second reason why this stuff might be out of control is because it's the fault of people like me, like influencers. I don't call myself an influencer. Other people call me an influencer. I'm a storyteller as far as I'm concerned. But influencers or people that are making content like this — "I stayed in Japan's most expensive hotel room." Or "What's it like to live in a $3,000 a month micro apartment?" Or "This is the most expensive ramen in Japan." Like all these most expensive type of stuff. Everybody sees it. "Wow, this is what you get for this price." Of course the price is inflated because of people, YouTubers and influencers who want to eat the most expensive, the most eye-catching crazy dishes, which is fun.

00:11:22 John Daub: Over the course of YouTube, I've learned a couple of things. One, the kinds of content that will have the highest chance of going viral — curiosity. You must have some sort of hook that makes you want to click and see more. A price that's exorbitant does that. And these people at this new market, they know that. By charging 18,000 yen for a bowl of ramen — or a bowl of fish on rice, sashimi on rice, whether it's premium or not — is going to catch a lot of Instagrammers and media attention. Just like all this free press about this amazing place. Not only do you see the images of this overpriced kaisendon, but you're also seeing the images of this beautiful place that you can go see. So I think it's sort of also the fault of us, but also the intelligence of the businessmen on the other side. They're smarter than the influencers because they know they can get that price because there's going to be people like me who are going to buy it. I'm not going to buy it, but there's people like me who make content like me, or they try to make content like me and they do the same kind of stuff. And it's your fault because you click on it and you watch it. And if you want to see somebody eat a $300 bowl of seafood on rice, that's — you're also fueling this as well. I don't watch that kind of content. I'll be honest with you. I see it come on there. Boy, that's an interesting angle, but it's not original anymore because everybody's talking about how something is super expensive. "What is it like to rent the most expensive or the smallest or the big" — like, this is a curiosity thing and it gets people to click.

00:13:01 John Daub: But when it comes to prices, these marketers and businessmen and entrepreneurs, they see that and they know that influencers have a big impact. And if you're showing the prices like 18,000 yen for a kaisendon, which is like $120, right? They're like, well, that's crazy. People, normal people are going to pay that too, because they think that that is sort of the price. And without explaining to them that it's not — it's not normal. All right. I will take some questions about this. I think this is a great topic and I want to say thanks to — I get dozens of messages from people to go over this topic. Look, I — we noticed this last year when we saw some English menus that had different prices than the Japanese menus. That is not — that's a rare occurrence, this rip-off does not typically happen. But the things that are happening at that market in Toyosu — that's Japanese tourists are paying the same as the foreign tourists. The thing is that 90, 95 percent of the people there are foreign tourists. So I'm not sure why, I'll be honest with you. My wife and I, we would go there once and we would never go there again, just out of pure curiosity, just like the foreign tourists there. And we live here and we know it's a ripoff. And we know like, okay, you can go and stay there and there's an onsen — a hot spring bath. It replaces the Oedo Monogatari, which is — I have a map of the area. This is where it is in relation to — there's a Toyosu market, there's the Senkyaku Banrai. It's still a construction zone here. That's the bridge that took us to the Olympic Village. And there's a Toyosu fish market on the right side, and that's the La Vista Hotel, which is a beautiful hotel.

00:14:47 John Daub: You can see — the Oedo Monogatari taps their volcanic water hot baths from there. So it is a real onsen. But you can see here it is a pretty nice area. It's now a place where a lot of tourists are going because of the Toyosu Market. I still think that Tsukiji market is pretty interesting, but if you go to Tsukiji market — which no longer has a fish market, it's famous for street food now — you're still gonna pay a lot more. Those wagyu beef sticks — that's not real A5 premium wagyu beef, okay. They write Kobe beef, that's not even Kobe beef. All right, that's just wagyu, and you guys don't know the difference. But it's not really a rip-off if you just want to try Japanese wagyu beef, and if you're willing to pay 2,000 yen for a stick of beef that probably costs about 300 to 400 yen — you know, that's good for the entrepreneur, and that's good for you because you get to experience it. But because an influencer went there and did it, don't make that the reason why you did it. I just say — we're the — in a way, people like me are the problem sometimes, not the solution. Sometimes we're the problem and not the solution. It's true. You have to be honest about the situation here.

00:16:18 John Daub: I want to promote places out in the countryside, not so much in the city, because I think Tokyo and Kyoto and Osaka have enough tourists. So for me, it's about helping entrepreneurs and business owners outside of the city of Tokyo whenever I possibly can. A reason why I went and did that on the street — the naked man festival, three days ago. I'm still kind of recovering from that. Going into water, I had to take a bath, ice bath, and run around the town for — I was like three hours in this thong. It was a very relaxing experience. We're doing like chants, going around in a circle, or something. It was kind of fun. There, here I am in the ice bath. It's kind of a dark picture. Yeah, that's about one degrees Celsius, or 33 degrees Fahrenheit, something like that. It was kind of a fun time — just above freezing. But I like to go out to the countryside and find these experiences, because that's where I think the heart of Japan is. It's not here in Tokyo. But if you go to that new market in Toyosu, you can get an experience like you are going out to the countryside. So for a lot of tourists that are coming here that don't have time to go out there, you can experience a lot of things at that market. Don't get me wrong, it's going to cost you money. To get out to the countryside, it's going to cost you money — time is money. So if you want to get a shortcut to the countryside, you can go to the countryside and you can do that. And if you're not interested in going to the countryside, that's not a great idea, but if you want to get into a Japanese experience, this place could be a pretty good idea. All right, but you're going to pay for it. And locals like me — and a lot of tourists are raising their eyebrows like, that's a lot of money. But you know that now. So you can go there just — have your lunch at the supermarket like I do right here. Where'd it go — right here. Get your — get this lunch, bring it with you, eat it there. I think you can bring in food from the outside, eat it up.

00:18:07 John Daub: Actually, on the roof of the Toyosu market. All right, here's a little information. So Toyosu market has been here for a while, but I'm going to pull this up again and just show you one more time here. On the roof of the Toyosu market, right next to this place is a garden. And you can eat. You see it? It's on the bottom of your screen. We're going to pan around here. You can go up there by stairways, right there on the right side. Do you see it? That's all a garden on the top right. You can go and sit there and eat your lunch, right? Bring your own bento or buy something from a supermarket at Toyosu, which is one or two stops on the Yurikamome line — which is the monorail to get there. And just eat your lunch there and save some money, if you want to. Or along the river, that red brick walkway on the right side going around the canal there. So these are like little things. Like, that's what I would do. And this is going to be my lunch. And I want to say Michael Sassano — thank you for always giving the super chats. I might have purchased my lunch with that. It's staying healthy. It's good stuff.

00:19:12 John Daub: We're going to see this more and more because again, the yen is 150 to the dollar. Are Japanese purposely ripping you off? I think that there are some people that are doing it and then some people that aren't. I think that a lot of the prices are at places where you get 95% tourists. You all are going — I don't want to say y'all — many of you are going to the same places that everybody else is going to, which is why in this channel I try to tell you where people are not going. And sometimes I go to the places where people are going because I know that more people are going to watch that. And of course that helps us support the channel, but I'm supported on Patreon. Thank you everybody on Patreon. The postcards will be sent out in a few days and I really appreciate the support there. So I can't afford to go out to the countryside and make this kind of content, but it's not as popular as the stuff that everybody is searching online. But I think it is essential because Japan has been really good to me. And the purpose of this channel is to promote — is to share my experiences, and also my love of Japan, which is not really here in Tokyo, besides my family. It's more — don't worry, I do like Tokyo. I love Tokyo. But I also love the countryside more and I know that the heart of Japan, the soul of Japan, resides out there and not in the city. Where you can find a lot of things in the city, you find the soul of Japan out there in the countryside. Warmer people, more delicious food, which is true. The vegetables are definitely a lot fresher. Everything is much, much cheaper. And I think you get that traditional experience and that connection with nature. Everyone talks about Zen. They come to Japan looking for Zen. They go to the temples and the shrines and they go to the wrong places and they don't really find it. You go to a temple, it should not be a line to go in. All right? You're supposed to go and walk around and feel that connection with nature that you cannot do if you're going in the city to these temples and shrines. Don't get me wrong. This is the third time I've said that. I think it's a good experience to go there. But it's not the experience. That's what I'm trying to say.

00:21:16 John Daub: All right. I said I'm looking at the chart. I saw some really good questions go by here. And let's see here. Not gonna lie — I want sushi. I would go to a chain. I got minor food poisoning from — you go to a place that's — look, I like to — I don't know if you could follow me on Google Maps, but on Google Maps I like to write — I like to give reviews. All right? I like to give reviews. There's a lot of places that are not good and there are a lot of places that are really good. You can see the reviews of the places on Google Maps. I like Google Maps because it's — the map is a pretty good navigation guide. It's one of the best. But you can also click on it and see what people have written recently. And before you ask me what hotel I should stay in, why don't you go to Google Maps and check out the area that you're interested and click out the reviews from people like you that have stayed there and see what people have written. See what they're saying about the service, about this and that. Now, there's going to be 5% of the people that are negative about everything and 5% of the people that are positive about everything. So you get rid of the fringes and you look at what's in the middle and that's usually the truth. Right? That's at least — that's my way of thinking here. Are you a local guide on Google Maps? I am. I think I got like — I'm a six or seven star guide. I have some pictures that have been viewed like a couple hundred thousand times. I'm not as huge on Google Maps, you know, because I mostly focus on YouTube and stuff, but I think it has a huge amount of value. And whenever I get a chance and I see a local business, I like to promote them on Google Maps. And I said, look, I don't have time to make a YouTube video, but this is really great. Do you mind if I introduce your restaurant on Google Maps? And like, I've never had anybody say no yet. So I take a picture of the food. Sometimes they'll take a picture like this and that shows the friendliness of the place. And I try to give a very honest review of the places that I go to. I can see why some places you might get food poisoning because I don't think — this is really hard to say. I've had food poisoning about four or five times, like really upset stomach where I had to go to the — once I had to go to the hospital. A couple of times I just vomited and got it all out of my system. And then a few times I just felt really, really hungry — I felt really sick after eating. And I learned my lesson. If you go to a ramen shop and no one's lining up outside at lunchtime or dinnertime, you know that's probably old stuff in there. Okay? If you're going to a sushi shop and you don't have a line of people going in and out, quite frankly, I would be a little suspicious. The stomachs of people out in the countryside sometimes are a little bit stronger than yours because you're not also used to the foods in Japan perhaps. So that could be also an issue, something to think about. But a chain like Sushi Zanmai is the sweet spot. And at that Tsukiji market where you're not paying through the teeth for something, I think you're getting a really good value and extremely — I think it's good quality sushi. It's a sweet spot. Where you're not paying for the high-end stuff and you're getting something way better than Genki sushi or the 100 yen sushi stuff. It's like that sweet spot where the sushi chef is making it. You know, makase nigiri sushi. It's really good. And the menu is really — they got everything on there. That's my always going to be the go-to. Not a sponsor of that, but there you go.

00:24:44 John Daub: You can tell the ramen shop. Japan also — everybody has this image that Japan is an honest place. It is more honest than most countries. But there's also this expression: business is war. And Japanese take business more seriously than I think we do in the West in that sense. And you saw this like — because of the way that — the work ethic in Japan is extremely high. People work — and I'd say the workers in Japan are maybe the most competent in the world. They're not — maybe they're not at the highest end, but they will continuously do things until it's perfect or until it's good, or work together as a team for the goal of the company probably better than maybe Westerners who are more thinking about themselves. These are general things. Very general. But I also know in business, there's a lot of underhanded stuff that happens here. And it is absolutely not 100% honest. And you will get ripped off and you will get screwed. Hey, I had to restart my old channel for a reason. That's all I'm saying there.

00:26:02 John Daub: People are not 100% honest with you. People are not always going to return your wallet to you. I think Japanese return the wallet to you because if they walked past it and didn't do it, they would feel shame or guilt. And if they did pick it up, they'd return it to you because they feel someone might have seen them pick it up. And if they put it in their pocket, someone might report them to the police. So there's a fear. So they would try to send it into the police station. I think that the society, in particular with the old ladies, have hawk eyes and are always scouting and watching for troublemakers and reporting them. So I think that this keeps — it's not just that Japanese are honest. It's because it's part of the culture of shame and fear. This is something I've talked about in the past. And you know what? The longer I live in Japan, the more I unconsciously am doing the same darn things. And I don't even know why. Right? When I go home to America, the reverse culture shock is real for me. I'm not Japanese. But I'll be saying thank you. And I'll be doing little bows at the convenience store at the 7-Eleven in America. I'll be on the telephone talking and I'll be going like this — and I don't know why I'm bowing. Like, what the heck? It's just — unconsciously, you're doing these types of things. So you start to understand, like, oh, I see this wallet. Well, someone probably saw me now pick it up. Well, I better take it to the police station and do the right thing, because the risk of getting in trouble is a lot more — like, I start to think like people do here as well. But I'm not Japanese. I can kind of understand that. My point is that in business here, it is not — it is not honest 100%. People are here to make money. People understand that reputation is more important in Japan, though — which is, I think you don't see a lot of underhanded stuff and bad business practices because reputation is very important. But at the same time — yeah, probably a lot of companies are fleecing tourists. Not fleecing, but they understand that tourists are willing to pay more than locals because tourists have a lot more money. And locals in this market aren't buying much or anything because wages have been stagnant for far too long.

00:29:12 John Daub: A lot of international companies — I don't know. An example could be Sony. I don't know if Sony workers have gotten wage hikes equivalent to what Sony makes by selling things in the North American market and bringing that money back to Japan, which is probably a huge windfall because now they're making, you know, like 30 or 40% on a camera that they wouldn't make here. In fact, those same cameras that they sell in America, they raised the price here in Japan. So it's super expensive now for everything. If I wanted to buy a Sony camera, I would probably just buy it in the US because they don't make English menus here. I still like the cameras that have English menus. But I found that the yen is weak. They raised the price on certain things that they would sell in America because they can do that, but they raise it like 40% on some things. So, you know, we're getting really hit hard in Japan without having our wages go up. So, you know, I think that a lot of these tourist attractions — if tourists stop coming to Japan, they would dry up really quickly because there's not a domestic demand for a lot of the things that you like. Tsukiji market, super popular, 90% tourists or higher. If you don't come, Tsukiji market is done. All right. If you don't come, Kyoto goes bankrupt. If you don't come, probably Dotonbori goes bankrupt too because I don't see a lot of Japanese going to Dotonbori. Right? Except maybe on the weekends, they're not exactly buying the food along the street there. Most of them are probably going to the side streets where they can pay, I don't know, 30% less on the same darn things. So I've seen in the course of the last year this taking place. Yeah. It's not for me to make the prices. It's not for me to call that this is a rip off. It's up to you whether or not you think that the price — Bradshaw Studios in the house. Thank you, Bradshaw Studio. I see that. I appreciate it. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to pay that price. And if this meets your desire, then it's not a rip off. If you like to eat your kaisendon in that atmosphere and you want to pay 100 times more — hey, what's the problem with that? Nothing. I wouldn't do it. That's all I'm saying. Unless, you know, you guys made me do it, and you don't make me do it, but I'd want to if somebody did. You know, they forwarded me the money like, all right, let's go buy it. I'd say, okay, well, I wouldn't normally have done it because it's not valuable, but it is valuable to somebody to go ahead and do it. So I'd probably do it because I'm hungry. And, you know, in a sense, the food would have been sponsored by somebody because it's live. But, you know, YouTubers, as I said, some of them are maybe part of the problem of this — which is not a problem for some. Even Costco now is more expensive. Holy smokes. You are not joking. I went to Costco. I remember they had these prepared foods in there like lasagnas and burritos and wrap sandwiches and stuff. It is 40% more expensive, and I still buy it because it's just — it feels like I'm an American when I go in there and I see these massive portions, and I will buy. I don't buy a lot, but I'll end up buying like one or two of them for dinner for the next three days. You can't — I'm stuck up on that. But it is definitely 40% more than it was a couple of years ago. Costco is absolutely more expensive than it was, but everything has gotten more expensive. Beer prices have gotten more expensive. Meat prices have gotten more expensive. So, you know, egg, milk — it's, you know, milk used to be one liter. Now it's 900 milliliters, and it's more expensive. So that's just sort of the way they're trying to get the consumers to buy.

00:32:19 John Daub: But I can leave you with this here. I like to be positive. It's hard to see that in this, but a lot of the manufacturers in particular are keeping the prices lower and they're making less money because they know that if consumers stop buying, they'll make less money. By them making less money, it's better than making no money. So they're right now, a lot of them, they can't raise the price as much as they probably need to, to make the same money that they made three or four years ago. And I know that they're making less money, but they're still making money because they're also smart, knowing that if they were to raise the price too much, then the market would go away completely. And I know that in Japan, a lot of producers, in particular those that rely on materials and ingredients from abroad, are making less money. Then there are the companies that are international and they're making way more money. So there's two types of companies right now in Japan. And these companies that are domestic, that are probably — they're hurting. They can't hire more people. They can't really increase the wages. And they can't really increase the prices to compete with the weak yen and the higher ranges because then their market will collapse. There's a lot of industries right now that are at this point and they're going to need some big help in the next year. And they're very in tune with the domestic market like tofu makers. A lot of the soybeans come from the United States and Canada, which I'm guessing have probably gone up in price, but they didn't really raise the price of tofu much. Those tofu makers are probably hurting fairly badly.

00:34:07 John Daub: There's — gosh — a lot of the — there's a ton of industries I can get into. I know that the five — I — one of the things that I did was a Kickstarter for the fireworks makers. I know that the fireworks makers are hurting because the prices of all the ingredients — these are stuff that they make the fireworks with. Almost none of it comes from Japan. Almost all of it is imported from other countries. And some of those ingredients have gotten really, really expensive. So the cost to them to make those fireworks has gone up. To put on those fireworks shows, they have to charge more money. But they're — they can't charge what they used to charge. They can raise it up a little bit because it's understandable, but they can't raise it up to the prices of the ingredients that they're coming in to make the same money that they made three or four years ago. So they're making less money because if they raise it too much, cities, organizations — they're not going to have fire. They're going to just order less fireworks. So they're not going to have any fireworks performances anymore. The market will collapse. So, you know, they're really in a tough, tough situation. And I know that because I — I know so many of those fireworks makers. We did one in Nagano where it was the Alky Factory. That's the name of the factory that we worked with in Nagano. And we put on a show on the banks of an area that was impacted by a flood that came in through there. The money from that Kickstarter all went to the fireworks association, who I've been partnered with for a very long time. And they purchased this to put on an amazing show that the mayor of Nagano was there and thanked me for helping out the community. I was on Nagano TV with him. He said, John, come over here. So I ended up going for — for Kato Shicho. So I went over there and I was on the news talking about this. And, you know, when I talk with the fireworks makers, they said, we can see that the ingredients are starting to go up. And just recently, I think Yama — Yamauchi was the other fireworks maker and — Yama — Nashi prefecture that shot off the Shakodama that kicks off the fire. The Kickstarter had to have the mega shells and then had the fireworks festival. And we — and definitely he was feeling a lot of pinch based on the ingredients to make them. So, you know, over the course of the last year in particular, it's been pretty hard and I can see it getting worse before it gets better.

00:36:40 John Daub: I would go all out all the time living in Japan. That's the other thing. And this is the thing. I'm happy to see that comment at the right time. When you go out to get a bowl of ramen, in Tokyo you can see that it really is — the price really hasn't changed too much. That's because there is an equilibrium. There is a price point where everyday workers that have not had a pay raise, or get bonuses for that matter — they used to get bonuses in a lot of companies. There's some companies, in particular some marketing companies, that haven't given up bonuses since the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapsed. There are some companies that are somewhat black. They're just getting like three, four thousand dollars a month, which is okay, but to their American counterparts they're making like 40% less for probably working more hours. They don't have the same kind of dispense. They would eat out a lot — in particular unmarried dudes, they eat out all the time. But there's a point where they'll just go home and eat 100 yen ramen over rice or 100 yen curry rice, you know, and just make the rice at home or microwave it. Then paying 15 for a bowl of ramen — and there's this. And if they start and if these ramen places start to lose their customers, just 20 of them, that's a huge thing to cover the cost of the ramen shop. So they have to keep the price at this — raise it a little bit but not to a point that they would lose. They might lose five percent, but there's a price point where they would lose 20%, and that's huge. So foreign tourists — you're probably gonna get the same price as everybody else, and I think that that's great. It's a good deal. But there are other places where they're 90% tourists — where there are not those business people that are going in to eat. And this is the point — those places that you're going to are made for tourists, not just Japanese domestic tourists going there, but mostly for international tourists. Yeah, you're going to get fleeced a little bit. But that also ensures that the place probably has very high operating costs. Those places also probably have workers that need to be paid better, and also they have — high costs for other things. To make it, this thing went up over the last two years, so I'm sure it wasn't cheap. So they have to make those costs back. But it's up to you whether or not you want to pay for it. That's the point.

00:39:20 John Daub: Thanks, Michael. At least for Kyoto, they get students on school field trips, yeah, because it's a historical place. Let's see here — the amount of grams we used to pay — I'm going to ask for any questions here. I have about one or two minutes before I'm going to end this here. I'll be staying in Tokyo for a big part of my trip, mainly because the infrastructure — I don't like hotel hopping. A lot of people, if you have a rail pass, you can use that. Tokyo as a base to go from place to place — you know, but I, for me, I'm somebody who likes to support the countryside. I would rather stay at a place — you know, if I can, that in a ryokan that is a family run. I think that they probably need it a little bit more than the hotels here in Tokyo. But if you're a tourist here, I'm sure maybe that you don't want to think that far. I do because I live here. You know, I'm a — I consider myself to be a small business too. So I don't — I want to try to promote other people that are, you know, starting out in this area. So if I went to Toyosu, the new spot, and said it was a pure tourist trap — you know, going in, you know that. So, you know, if you don't want a tourist trap, go to the countryside. That's what it's based on.

00:40:41 John Daub: After you know — is it still hard to find places that take credit cards over cash? Scott, no — everything convenience stores take credit cards. In fact, you can just touch now — you touch your credit card, almost on a lot of stuff. Food trucks, more and more of them are taking credit cards. I'd say it's about 20% of the food trucks now, but that's going to increase over the next year. It's pretty crazy. So they're probably going to charge 5% more to cover the costs of the credit card charges. But whether you use a credit card or not, everyone's going to have to pay those extra charges. The food trucks are really cheap, but I can see that the cost starting to go up. I was talking with my friend who runs a Brazilian churrasco food truck. It's really good. Miracle Kitchen is the name of it. And he was telling me he gets a lot of meat from Brazil because it's, you know, Brazilian food trucks. And the cost to import it from Brazil have gone up significantly. Also because the Brazilian chicken and certain things have become quite popular in Japan, so naturally the demand is higher, so he's paying more. And he says he's gonna — he's afraid to raise the prices again because there's that point where people just stop buying from him. And he's selling meat, so he has to find a sweet spot. I always get the stuff — I always get the premium otsumami bento, which has no rice. It's just meat with a little salad on the side.

00:42:05 John Daub: Credit card spots are still hit or miss? Most convenience stores — look, if you could — I don't know what time point you're talking about, but if you compare 25 years ago to today, it is not hit or miss. Credit cards are everywhere. You can actually use your foreign ATM card to get cash out. When I lived here — when I came here in '98, you couldn't do that, except at Citibank. Locate, you couldn't even do it at the post office if you wanted to get money out from an ATM. You could get cash — it was not about getting cash. It was about getting cash at the post office. You had to go to a city bank, ATM, only in the cities. I think Nagoya had one. Tokyo had two or three. You had to go to the airports to get out cash from an ATM, or you would change money at a bank, which would take you an hour because you had to sit down, get a ticket, wait, and then they'd have to stamp everything to give you your cash, and it was a real pain in the neck. You only found those really quick exchange windows at the airport. So we would tell everybody, if you wanted to get cash, get it at the airport. That was 25 years ago. Now you can go to 7-Eleven. Trust me, it is really convenient. Is it as convenient as the United States? No, but it is way more convenient than it was three years ago. That's the point. I can pay by credit card in every single taxi in Tokyo. I couldn't use a credit card in any taxis in Tokyo 10 years ago. Most of them — well, that's not true. There's like one or two. But they always had a problem with the machine to take your credit card, so you always had to pay with cash. So even if they took a credit card, they wouldn't be able to transmit the signal, and you'd sit there for 10 minutes, and it's like, sorry, it didn't go through. You have to pay by cash. So, yeah, Tokyo is extraordinarily much better than it was. I pay — all right, my everyday life, I use my credit card for — I use my credit card for 95% of everything right now, because I get the points back, and I can track all my purchases, and it's very convenient. The credit card — it's automatically taken from my bank account at the end of the month, so it's not really credit. It feels more like a debit card, but I think it's Amex. But, you know, Japan has changed. I go to the butcher shop, I pay with credit card. I go to the restaurant — even the local places, pay by credit card. I go to get a haircut, I pay by cash. I pay by cash. Because I know that they didn't raise the price. See, this is the way I think. I don't know about you guys. I know that they didn't raise the price because they don't want to pass it on to the consumer. But if I pay cash, it's better for them, so I will pay cash in that situation, just because I know — because they're a small business as well, a barber shop. But I could pay credit card, I think. But supermarket, always credit card. Every supermarket, always credit card. Plus the point card, if I have it. Usually it's Kanae's, because she uses it. So, hope that helps. Apple Pay is not really big here yet, but it's growing, so we will see.

00:45:15 John Daub: What's your favorite non-Tokyo prefecture for food? That's too hard. Let's just say Kyushu Island and Hokkaido Island are amazing, but I had some amazing regional dishes. I always liked — I used to live in Fukushima. I know we know about what happened back then, you know, 13 years ago, 14 years ago. I still think it's got some of the best food, produce, meat, the peaches, and it's Tokyo's bread basket, like vegetable stand. Ibaraki, Tochigi, and Fukushima. So I loved it. Yeah. Niigata has some of the best pork, the best beef, I would say hands down, down in Kyushu. Best seafood up in Hokkaido. Kyushu's got it all. Hokkaido's got it all. Best meat, chicken, beef, pork, Kyushu. No question. Vegetables, Kyushu. Very good. Tohoku, pretty good. Hokkaido, seafood, absolutely. Milk, absolutely. It's all regional. Osaka is interesting. You'll find a lot of restaurants, but it's cheap. It should be cheap. And it's maybe the only place in Japan where you could possibly bargain at places, because that's part of their culture to kind of bargain a little bit. And you're not going to get a lot off. You might get like 100 yen off or something. You're not going to bargain too big in Osaka. But you still can a little bit. They're pretty creative with the food. But I don't know if they have the freshest ingredients in Osaka. I'm just going to say that. Unless it's octopus, because the Akashi area is very famous. That area around there is very famous. The onions come from Awaji Island. Awaji has some of the best onions in Japan. Wakayama has some pretty good vegetables. Hyogo, there's Kobe beef nearby. But I think Osaka is famous for being cheap. And they have really good food. But I don't know if it's — maybe it's cheaper because it's not the freshest. I'm not sure. But it definitely has the reputation of being Japan's kitchen. That's for sure.

00:47:31 John Daub: You can buy good kitchen knives in Osaka. In a little town nearby. Near Sakai City. They've had a history of making knives. And they have a history of making swords. And then after the Meiji period when samurai went away — after the Edo period, they turned to making guns. So they had — there's a pretty smart merchant town. So they made guns for a while, and now they went back to kitchen knives and stuff. So they have that pedigree. Like 15 generations of making swords and knives down there. So it's a good place. Seki. Seki is a city down in — up in Gifu. Also up from there. It's also really good. Okayama has a culture of making swords as well. There's a couple other really strong places for that. You can buy them in Tokyo at — what is the kitchen area called? Gosh. I've got so much stuff stored in my head. It'll come to me. Or someone will say right here. There's a kitchen place near Asakusa. That you can get everything in there. Someone will put it in the chat. I — I didn't — it's — it's like in my head here. I am doing a trip to Hokkaido. Sorry. Kappabashi. Right. I don't know — the mythological creature. I am doing another trip this year to Katakai, which is where they have the Yonshaku Dama. I saw Honda-san, who is a friend of mine. He's the guy who created the biggest firework shell in the world. And he's still — he's the only one who launches it up. Not one but two every single year. It's crazy. We plan to do the bus trip for that in September.

00:49:11 John Daub: Just a note here before we leave. I updated the thumbnail for this video. You probably want to check it out. I think it's one of the best cherry blossom stories — the history of the cherry blossoms. Very important. I changed it to "National Monument to 1,000 Years Old." I kind of changed the thumbnail a little bit. But if you haven't already seen this, please go check it out on the main channel. It's youtube.com slash atmarkonlyinjapan. And — I went in there and I filmed this one tree, which is over 1,000 years old. From morning light to sunset to night time, when they illuminate it. And show how it turns pink and then white. It's only a Takizakura that does this. It has pink blossoms that fall, and then the white blossoms come out — no, the pink blossoms turn white. And then they all fall in this amazing flutter because it's such a massive tree. If you are in Japan, probably one of the top spots to go to — just to see one tree. I thought it's a pretty good story. I released it after the cherry blossoms, so it only got, you know, kind of a few — not many views. But I changed the thumbnail. It might be more engaging. I don't know. More people are watching it now because I changed the thumbnail. Sometimes that's all it takes.

00:50:25 John Daub: All right everybody. Thanks so much for watching. If you have any questions, or you have an experience that you want to share about getting inbound don — paying too much for food, or anything like that, or an area or location to avoid — I'd like to hear from you. Write it down in the comments below. And that also helps a lot of people. The Discord server — it's a free place where you guys can go and share that information. Share pictures of food. Share pictures of places to avoid. Share stories that you have of Japan. And get advice. If you're asking me for the advice and I don't answer it, you go to the Discord server. There are people right now traveling in Japan that are monitoring this, that'll probably be able to answer your questions right away. So that you'd be able to help your own trip. And it's again — it's Discord. It's this free social media. And I think we have one of the best communities on YouTube. So yeah. Our moderators do a very good job there. All right everybody. I gotta get back to work. And eat this sushi that's been sitting out now in the heat for — it's actually not too hot for the last 45 minutes. It's still good. Thanks everybody. And I'll see you in the next episode tomorrow. Matane.