00:01 John Daub: Just a quiet little neighborhood in Tokyo, not that far away from Ginza with the cherry blossom petals falling in the breeze. That little teeny shop right there, age 3 [?], where the gentleman is waiting, has a menu outside with about 30 different kinds of deep-fried bread. I didn't even know that deep-fried bread was a thing, but it is. It is a thing here in Japan. And that shop has made it so. In fact, I think it was more like TikTok and social media has really played this up. Now, I went in there and I bought a bunch of them. One for Kanae. And we're going to go over there and try them out.

00:44 John Daub: You know, I asked the lady when I was waiting in line, like, it's kind of unbelievable that first of all, you have a line for this. And 90% of the customers are foreign. I thought that that was really interesting. I think it's more like 100% because I talked to everybody in line and nobody was Japanese. Everybody was speaking English. But right now, there's no line. And that's kind of surprising for this shop. TikTok and social media can really make it.

01:13 John Daub: Look at the koinobori (carp streamers). I guess once the cherry blossom season ends, we start to get into this, which is part of Golden Week. So in one month time, you're going to see these flying fish [carp] everywhere. Koinobori is what they're called. And this is the windy season in Japan. I have one in my house as well for the balcony. Apparently the only one in my neighborhood. But you're going to see these in particular around the countryside. This place is quite popular.

01:39 John Daub: Here's the menu for it right here. I think I got a video showing it to you as I was waiting in line. A lot of people were kind of sizing this up to see what they wanted to get here. The interesting [thing] is after you order it, you go outside and you line up there. That's what it was like about 15 minutes ago. They give you a number like 23 was my number and they'll say nijūsanban (number 23). So it's good to maybe speak Japanese and you say, OK, nijūsanban. I think they speak a little bit of English and they bring out your order and then you can come and eat it in this park with the koinobori, which is quite interesting here. Here's here. I got my number 23 here. There's a viewer that was watching as well.

02:24 John Daub: I got some pictures inside. They're making it. They're putting some cream inside there. They had blowtorches going. They had all sorts of things on the menu. Again, there's like 30 of them. And the reason I'm doing this is because I was just curious. This is in my neighborhood and I didn't know about this until about five hours ago. Well, I was just searching for things in my neighborhood and I'm like, what? So this thing is here. You can see this deep-fried bread. So, OK, well, you know what? I'm going to go check it out. And I was surprised to see how many tourists that had come out to see this. So let's go try it out.

02:58 John Daub: So I'm going to find a place to sit while I'm doing that. You can check out this map. I think there's a bench over there. This is where I am. It's pretty much in the middle of Tokyo, between the Sumida River and Tokyo Station. So you can walk here from Tokyo Station, but 15 minutes. It's Ginza. Now you can see the river, the Sumida River and Tokyo Station on the right side. I pan around a little bit to give you a nice view. It's deep in there, so it wasn't easy to find. So Google Maps helps a lot.

03:34 John Daub: All right, let me get into it here. We're going to make this kind of a short stream. But again, like when stuff like this hits the Internet, it's kind of interesting just to go and try it out and be like everybody else for an afternoon. I can't eat Kanae's, but I got a box of four of them. It seems like it's melting. Wow. All right. So this one is just cream. Apparently it's just a dollar. I didn't really look at the price tag here, but it's we'll try this one last.

04:19 John Daub: This one I want to try here. This is kinako mochi. Kinako is roasted soybean flour and also kuromitsu kinako cream and kinako roasted soybeans and kuromitsu is black honey. So that's going to be my dessert after I eat this one first here. So my lunch is going to be, I think, not that healthy. This one is the one I show in the thumbnail. This is a yakisoba and egg. Just look at that. That's kind of. There you go.

05:15 John Daub: Itadakimasu. Oh, it's got that congealed egg in there. OK. You know what? I got to show you the side. So that is deep fried. There's a lot of butter on it or oil. I don't know exactly what it is. It's certainly not healthy. This is why I guess you don't come and eat [for wa-] 50 yen each. So I can see why the Internet is going crazy over this. But I have to be honest with you. I mean, it's good, but it's not that special. Honestly, it's not that special. That's a lot of money for it. Four hundred and fifty yen for one. You can get a donburi, which is, you know, like a lot of food on rice.

06:37 John Daub: But I mean, it's fun. And looking at the menu, if you look at the menu here, there's like 30 of them or something like that on the menu. I'm taking it down. I'm going to save that one. Good girl on there. All right. Let's go in for the kuromitsu and honey. Oh, I think onigiri might be the way to go. In here. All right. It looks basic. It's basically this same sandwich. Deep-fried bread. Here you go. The kuromitsu, that black honey has kind of gone into the oily bread there. Hmm. That's good.

07:56 John Daub: You know, this is interesting. So your diet's gone out of the window if you're eating this. So that hundred yen one is just whipped cream and the bread. And I guess that that might be the way to go. So is it worth it? 150 yen for the toppings? I think so. It kind of makes it. If it was just cream, it's just basically deep-fried bread with whipped cream, which actually sounds pretty good. But with the toppings there, perhaps it makes it special. I'm just saying. I don't know. I might just prefer a doughnut. They've got themselves a racket going on here. It's good. It's a good idea.

09:02 John Daub: Oh, no. Look. The egg. I didn't even notice it. It exploded. Oh, that's not a good area of my pants to do that either. Oh, my gosh. I don't think I have a towel or anything. Look at the cherry blossom petals for a second because I have a issue here. I got some water. Maybe we can wash this away. OK. I want to make sure the bench is clean first of all, for the next people. All right. So that's done. I'm just kind of smooshing it in and washing it away. All right. I think I fixed it better on your pants than on your. Yeah. Thanks a lot. You have to go back for that one.

09:54 John Daub: This is what we got here. I just kind of washed it away with the water bottle and I kept the chair. This will dry in the sun. Pigeons. I hope you are not judgmental. All right. You're the only ones who saw that. And that person over there. OK. All right. I'm going to run and take this all back to Kanae now. It's kind of interesting to try this here.

10:40 John Daub: You know, Tokyo has been going through like this right now. This kind of a weird boom where there's a bunch of food and it's not Japanese food. It's like, I don't know, they're innovating stuff that might be popular for social media, like taking all the things that they were supposed to do to make it special. In a way, confections and things like this. And they're doing it. Pigeons and 300 and some viewers. Absolutely. We have more pigeons than we do viewers right now.

11:13 John Daub: But I've noticed in Tokyo in particular, Harajuku and Omotesando area, like donuts and pizza. And they're taking all these foods that Westerners know and they're like coolifying it. And this is in Ginza. This is my, you know, very close to where I live. Now that this is interesting. But I don't know. It's fun, but it's absolutely not Japanese food and it's not a Japanese thing. And it's just unique. And I don't know if this is something that you're willing to try. If you are in the area, you might want to stop by. I still prefer donuts. I think over this I could see the price. But for 450 yen, this is a glorified donut.

12:02 John Daub: But I'll tell you what. They got a line out the door. So I don't think they really need. I think the price is right. It's the market price for this. I've never seen. That's pretty. Look at this. So that's some blossoms on there. I haven't seen anybody who has done something like this deep-fried bread with cream and toppings, but they're doing it. So one last look at the shop here. I guess onigiri. I don't know what it's called exactly. They do a pretty good job of making the menu exciting. And they change the menu. They add stuff to it, which makes it pretty interesting.

12:51 John Daub: But it's just a little teeny shop that just sort of popped up. And I don't know if this company is a local business or what, but the staff working there like a bunch of young people. So I'm guessing maybe not glorified deep-fried bread. What are you going to do? You just got to try it. I mean, if it was in Japan, would be a little bit different. But if it was in your neighborhood, I think you would try it, too.

13:22 John Daub: That's all I got for you today. It's such a beautiful day. And you see this sunny blue skies. Cherry blossoms are sort of hanging on. I got a chance to talk with some visitors to Japan while I was waiting in line myself. And that was kind of nice to talk about where they're going. One gentleman from Canada came six months ago and he got to see not just the autumn foliage, but also this. He timed it so perfectly. And yeah, there you go. So little slice of Tokyo for today. If you liked it, hit that subscribe button and join me in another adventure. That's what I say for the main channel, but I'm working on the next video and I'll see you again tomorrow with another episode that's not cherry blossoms. Enjoy the last few seconds just kind of dangling in the wind as I process some deep-fried bread and cream in my gut. Oh, gosh, Kanae's going to like this, though? I really think she's going to like this. My Tanya Joy, you knew I was going to say it. Raymond as well. I had to.