00:01 John Daub: Hey everybody, welcome to Shukunegi. This is on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture. It's a very small fishing village, a traditional place. They preserved it so well. I'm going to try to take you down some of the alleys, some of the really narrow streets. I was here like five or six years ago and there wasn't a signal, so hopefully I can take you in there. But I did want to bring you to the bay here, the water side, and show you right away.

00:30 John Daub: This is an experience you can do. It's probably the best place on Sado Island to do it, Shukunegi. It's the tarai-bune (tub boats). These are old traditional boats, like tubs, basically. And they take you out and there's a really unique way to row them. They'll take you around the rocks and back. It's one of these really cool experiences that everybody has to do when they come to Sado Island. They also do this in Ogi where the Earth Celebration is taking place right now. This is the middle of August, so that means Earth Celebration.

01:08 John Daub: Here comes another boat that had been out. I did this, gosh, a number of years ago. It's a lot of fun. It's really chill. Actually, I think I'm going to be doing this tonight. It's one of those experiences you definitely have to try when you come here. So I've been here for now three days. How you doing? Check it out. So this is where we are exactly on the map. This is, of course, you see Tokyo down on the bottom there. And there's Niigata. The island there that looks like a buttercup. That is Sado Island. And I took the ferry a few days ago. Now I just happen to be here on the end of the island. You can see Shukunegi's town information center right there. But that's the taraibune, the tub boat. And that village just right now at the bottom of your screen, that is where I'm hoping to take you to give you an idea.

01:55 John Daub: Again, what is beautiful about this village? If you see what's around it, first of all, it's all like smashed together in this one area. There's just rice fields right there. There's rice paddies all around and forest. It is such a natural place. This might be one of those fishing villages that experiences that you're looking for in Japan.

02:13 John Daub: Now, here is what it looks like right now. I wanted to share with you in case the signal is really bad. This is what it looks like in there. We're going to walk through here together live. Hopefully it works out. But I took this about three minutes ago before I started the live stream. I walked around some of the old wooden houses. But what is great about it? All the houses are made with like the same wood. It really is a village, isn't it? And there's little bridges going over a canal. It's really easy to walk. I like the fact that the paths here. I've been in fishing villages where they were even narrower than this. It's very comfortable where you can walk past people. And on a day like this, you know, on a weekend, on a Sunday, I would expect it to be more crowded. But it's not actually. It's pretty chill. There's a community center over there.

03:11 John Daub: What I'm going to show you is not for everybody. But it's pretty unique. But they're putting out like very, very old performances from the Edo period. And like this one really struck a chord with me. It's really interesting. You can see I think this has something to do with fertility. And it's a dance between a man and a woman, maybe a fisherman. I'm not sure. But he dropped something and he finds it. But the dance itself was extremely unique. And like you have to think of it in terms of the 18th century because fertility was a big deal back then. So I really appreciated the cultural aspect of this dance. It's over there at the community center. Let's walk over to that direction right now. See, it's always really interesting. The culture is interesting. You never know what you're going to discover.

04:21 John Daub: So let's take a look here. We're going to try our very best. I don't know how this is going to go. Here's the information. So I'm going to cross the street. But you can see this is the entrance. This is the entrance to the town. But what makes this really awesome is like the door to enter is right there. Look at it. So I think that they did this to kind of take the sound and the visual aspect of the parking lot away and kind of make it feel more secluded. So they put this kind of wall here, which is so cool.

04:53 John Daub: Oh, you know what? Before we go, I can show you quickly what I did. So I also went to Hokusetsu, which is the sake brewery here. It's most famous because this is one that's I guess it's backed by Robert De Niro, who is not the most popular of actors these days. He says he's getting into politics so much. But it's interesting to see some of the pictures of Mr. De Niro here, somewhat tipsy. I found these up on the top of the counter in front of there. It's really nice. And he's been here to Japan many times apparently to work at the sake brewery. And yeah, I did buy a bunch of sake here. What I loved about this place is they have a vibration method that they do with it that they discovered makes the sake better, less potent, but still high in alcohol. And it's smoother. They discovered this on the ships that when the ships are vibrating and there's bottles in there, it tastes better than when it wasn't on the ship, always constantly like vibrating or moving. So they have these machines that can do it as well as play music. So Hokusetsu. It's certainly going to the distance to make pretty interesting sake.

06:20 John Daub: All right, let's get out of the parking lot area and try our very best to discover the beauties of Shukunegi. You see they have some festivals going on. Oh, this is next week. Look, they got the fireworks festival next week here. That's going to be really beautiful. And the arts as well. This is on September 29th. Look at that. Even the toilets look ancient here. Toire. All right, let's go take a look. I have no idea how the signal is going to be, but we're going to give it a try. I'm doing it at 720 because I know it's not going to be an amazing signal.

07:14 John Daub: Ohama. So it explains some of the history of Shukunegi. Someone has their laundry out. Can I? Yes, please. All right. Fingers crossed that the signal holds. If not, I apologize. Right. You can kind of feel it inside of here. I know this signal is probably going to conk out, but I'm just going to be quiet. You can hear the sounds of the background of the village.

07:52 John Daub: It's narrow, but it also feels very intimate because you're right up against the buildings here. You can hear a bee buzzing in the background. Let's go around to the canals here. See what we can see. Very few tourists, which is certainly a plus. My audio is here right now. If you're just joining in, I'm letting you soak up the ambiance, the atmosphere of it without having to talk over it. Which is something I tend to do, but maybe you can even hear the wood cracking.

10:57 John Daub: This is a model house inside there. I'm not even sure if the signal is working. Look at the old post office here. Post office sign. Check it out. Check it out right here. There's French cuisine. What? Lunch menu. That's pretty affordable. 3,850 yen, which is about $20, $24. You could say that. Seasonal soup, homemade bread, appetizer, grilled pork or a local fish. It's a full course. There's a little bit more, I think. Interesting. And they have dinner here as well. So you can eat in that old house. That's gotta be really nice. It's an old post office from the year 1910 or Taisho 10, which is 1921. Sorry. Taisho 10, which is really old. Yeah, old post office. It's funny that the post office is in the center of the town, far away from the ocean, the Sea of Japan. Beautiful little town.

12:54 John Daub: Beyond Travels, I haven't eaten lunch yet. So I think Ruth and the team, we're going to go somewhere for a bite. She's already made a reservation somewhere. Here's the canals here. But having the water in front of your house and not just a well is kind of nice. If you need to get water, it's always a fresh running water here. I noticed the houses do have running water now. I can hear the music from the event that I was showing a little bit of before a few minutes ago. Again, you know, culture is culture. It might not make sense to our Western minds, but when it comes to fertility, Japan is certainly in need of that old Edo period encouragement, so to speak.

13:54 John Daub: I'm going to take you around the community center here. Hey, John Lopez is here. It's nice to see you. I'm going to take you right here. This is where Ruth is and a couple other new friends are inside there watching and their performance looks like it's finished. So good timing there. But it's a really relaxing place. We drove in the parking lot just right up here. I can show you a map of the village just to give you some bearing on where we are. They've done a lot of renovations since the last time I was here. We have the main road. We're presently here. And I believe we walked out. I don't know. I guess this is where the tub boat experience is right around here, right? Because there's the parking lot. And we walked up here and through here and along here. So I can take you a little bit to this area. Why don't I take you here? And then the parking lot for where our car is, I believe, is up here. Let's just have a little walk around.

15:49 John Daub: Kanai and Leo are with Grandpa right now. So they're doing okay at another hotel. Let's walk in this direction. I'm not tired at all. I'm doing okay. I think I'm just whispering because I don't want to disturb the neighbors. The houses are just really close together and really... It feels like they're on top of me. So I don't want to disturb anybody. I'm a little bit more with the tone of my voice, perhaps trying to be respectful. Trying. That's a slice of Showa. Showa era. Even the TV. People do live here, apparently. And I guess you could stay here. This is a machiya. Yamashita Machiya. So, yeah. You can stay in Shukunegi, which I guess this would be a pretty darn good place to spend a night or two. Because you really are in it. And you saw that there was a nice French restaurant. I say nice because it looked nice. I don't know if the food is any good. But certainly for a lot of people that are coming to Japan, this might be one of the experiences that you're looking for. So it's nice to share this through this channel.

17:50 John Daub: The Earth Celebration takes place in the middle of August every year. They're going to have their 40th year milestone, actually. Which is pretty cool. But I'll be going to the finale tonight. I'll record that. And tomorrow, I'm going to be going to the finale. I'm taking the ferry back. And I'll try to play some of the from Niigata Station or something, I'll play back some of the video that I took. So you can hear the sound of it. But if you're on our Discord server, if you're a Patreon member, there's a community where I've been sharing the videos with everybody. To get a chance to feel what the event is like.

18:24 John Daub: Alright. The performance is letting out. So this is a great place to end the livestream. Anyways, I think this is a fun walkthrough. I think you got a feel for what Shukunegi is all about. And if you're coming here for Earth Celebration, you're going to love it. You're visiting Sado. You got to rent a car. It's about 15 minutes from Ogi or about an hour from the ferry pier to get here. And you could be in the middle of a fishing village that is lost in time. Which is really cool. Alright, everybody. If you have some questions, let me know in the comments below. Anytime. I'll be trying to do as many livestreams as I can while I'm here. But I'm also very focused on enjoying myself. And I'll see Leo and Grandpa and Kanai in a couple of hours at the Earth Celebration. And if you're here, they'll see you too. So maybe I'll see you around. Mata ne.