00:00:01 John Daub: Hey everybody. Welcome to Tokyo. This is Nakano Station. Very cool. And in this episode, we're going to be taking you from here down to Nakano Broadway and around. This is one of the most interesting neighborhoods in all of Tokyo. There's a lot of things to see and do and eat as well. And if you are in the anime manga crew, there's also a lot of collectibles, used bookstores, things like that. We're going to be exploring the streets. But it's not just me today because I don't know this neighborhood too well, but I found somebody who does.

00:00:37 Matt Alt: Oh, I know this neighborhood very well. You know how like pandas live in like bamboo forests? Yes, I live here. I live here.

00:00:45 John Daub: I always thought you would be living in like Akihabara. Why here?

00:00:48 Matt Alt: No, no, no, no, no, my friend. So this is an interesting misconception. People think Akihabara is the center of otaku culture in Tokyo.

00:00:57 John Daub: It's not.

00:00:58 Matt Alt: It's not. This is. This is the real one because. But actually there's a little bit of a twist. This is more aimed at Elder Taku. Old Taku, would you call them? So this is mainly a place where—

00:01:08 John Daub: You just made that up, didn't you?

00:01:09 Matt Alt: I know I did. Old Taku is a word. Old Taku is a word. So this is mainly for the older otaku who remember stuff like Mazinger Z or Devilman or Macross or Yamano. Akihabara is for the more cutting edge modern anime and manga. So we're here in the... what would you call this? The classical otaku area of Tokyo.

00:01:27 John Daub: That'd be one way to put it. And I think for those that are looking coming here for the manga, anime, video game culture, there's more places than just Akihabara. In fact, Ikebukuro also has been a place that's booming with the otaku culture. The maid cafes—

00:01:41 Matt Alt: Well, actually there's this place called—

00:01:42 John Daub: Or Just Girls. I know that they're famous for the love hotels.

00:01:45 Matt Alt: Otome Road. Otome Road. Yes. There's a place called Otome Road in Ikebukuro, which is where all of like the butler cafes are. And like yaoi, like you know, those—

00:01:55 John Daub: Kind of butler maid cafes for boys. They're for girls.

00:01:58 Matt Alt: They are for girls.

00:01:59 John Daub: You can go if you're a boy.

00:02:00 Matt Alt: I know, but you can. I'm into guy stuff. Like robots, you know, like grown up stuff.

00:02:07 John Daub: I didn't. Did I say that loud? One of the reasons why I wanted to also do this live is Matt. He's a... He's a famous author. And NHK. Yes, we both did NHK programs in the past.

00:02:21 Matt Alt: Yes, we did.

00:02:22 John Daub: Yes, we did. He also started a YouTube channel. It's called Mat Alt.

00:02:26 Matt Alt: It's called Alt. Mat Alt. Wait a second. I can show you. I actually... I downloaded this. I downloaded this.

00:02:32 John Daub: Look at this.

00:02:33 Matt Alt: Can you see that?

00:02:34 John Daub: Oh, yeah, I can see that right there.

00:02:35 Matt Alt: Mash that subscribe button, people. Mash it.

00:02:38 John Daub: Well, don't do that. Don't. Don't encourage property destruction. Okay, on your own keyboard, lightly tap the Mat Alt channel button. He had 855 subscribers here. We're trying to get him over a thousand, which would be beneficial to his career.

00:02:53 Matt Alt: We can do it. I think if anybody can do it, you can, John.

00:02:56 John Daub: Well, it's your channel.

00:02:57 Matt Alt: It is my channel, but your influence. You're the one who convinced me to do this in the first place.

00:03:02 John Daub: Really?

00:03:03 Matt Alt: Yes. I blame you.

00:03:04 John Daub: So if you get stalked and destroyed, it's my fault.

00:03:07 Matt Alt: I blame you, Pikachu.

00:03:10 John Daub: I take the blame.

00:03:11 Matt Alt: No, you actually were my sensei Credit.

00:03:13 John Daub: I guess that's another way to do it.

00:03:15 Matt Alt: So which way you want to go?

00:03:16 John Daub: Let's go down in this direction. This seems to be the most exciting place. But let me show you on the map exactly where we are to start off here. Tokyo. Well, west. This is west of Shinjuku, so a little bit outside of the center, Yamanote, part of the city. It's about what, like five minutes from Shinjuku, like two stops on the Chuo line. Yeah, I came here by the Tozai Line, actually, which is the subway line. You can connect from Iidabashi, change there, or even in Monzen-Nakacho. You can catch the Toei Line and make it over here.

00:03:44 Matt Alt: Easy to get to. Yes, very easy to get to.

00:03:46 John Daub: This is the area. It doesn't look so inspiring. What is that weird Onigiri looking building?

00:03:51 Matt Alt: That triangular building is Sun Plaza and it is an arena. There was like a... There's a big stage in there for concerts and stuff. It's a really cool, funky looking building. Unfortunately, it's coming down. They're taking it down.

00:04:03 John Daub: Was that built in the '73, wasn't it?

00:04:06 Matt Alt: I think it was built in the early 70s. Yes. And it's kind of an iconic, not just Nakano, but Tokyo structure. And a lot of people are really sad.

00:04:12 John Daub: You can see that in the center of your screen, that covered hamster tube looking thing. That is Nakano Broadway. That's the shopping street that leads to Nakano Broadway.

00:04:21 Matt Alt: Not the video game arcade.

00:04:23 John Daub: Yeah, not the video game. But these shotengai are quite famous. But it's not just there. It's in the side streets of Nakano where you get tons of these old school Showa era feeling which is getting knocked down around Tokyo for the earthquake proofing stuff. But we're gonna get a look of all of this. And Matt actually has a speedrun through here on his channel.

00:04:43 Matt Alt: Yes, I do. We'll be doing another one today. But yes, I do have one up on my channel.

00:04:47 John Daub: Yes, we will be doing another one today.

00:04:49 Matt Alt: About this on my newsletter too. But let's talk about it because this is a really historic section of Tokyo.

00:04:55 John Daub: Yeah, I typically go this way.

00:04:57 Matt Alt: Yeah, I know. I avoid the arcade.

00:05:00 John Daub: But for today I want to point out I love this oyaki place.

00:05:05 Matt Alt: Ah yes.

00:05:06 John Daub: Oyaki are these... Well, we could show them real quickly.

00:05:10 Matt Alt: They're like... They're like pancake sandwiches. Is that what you would call them?

00:05:14 John Daub: Yeah.

00:05:15 Matt Alt: So there's a lot of names for these things. Imagawayaki is how I used to know.

00:05:19 John Daub: Yeah, yeah, yeah. These are so good. And they have different flavors. They're sweet. I had... I've had the custard because it's just all out.

00:05:28 Matt Alt: Oh man. They have hidden pastry cream.

00:05:30 John Daub: Yeah, custard. It's affordable. They have mango cream today. So maybe we'll come back and do that when we need to power up for some like get a sugar rush.

00:05:40 Matt Alt: Oh yeah.

00:05:40 John Daub: So here we are in the shopping arcade. This is actually... There's a lot of shopping arcades in Tokyo, but this is a particularly long one and big one. It looks... You can hear from the music they're gearing up for their local festival.

00:05:53 John Daub: Well, this taiyaki place, it has white peach. Is that shiroi momo? It has a peach flavored custard there. This is the same chain in Asakusa. So I think it's not as special. But I noticed Matt something weird.

00:06:10 Matt Alt: What is that?

00:06:11 John Daub: A lot of this stuff was closed here. And it's 11 o'clock.

00:06:14 Matt Alt: Clock. Yes.

00:06:15 John Daub: What's going on here?

00:06:16 Matt Alt: You know, I love Tokyo. I love Tokyo to death. But it is not a great morning town. Most things don't open until much later than you would expect compared to America. Right. Even things like coffee shops and diners. But here in Nakano it's particularly true. So we're a little bit before lunch. So the restaurants are opening up. But Nakano Broadway, the otaku section won't open until noon. Maybe our stamina will last until then. Maybe it won't.

00:06:43 John Daub: Maybe it won't. I'm noticing a lot of English menus now. I haven't been here in a couple of years.

00:06:48 Matt Alt: Huge tourist draw now.

00:06:50 John Daub: Yeah. Since... Since that age where we couldn't travel. Dare I even... I say it, I've noticed they've really. There's even a Uniqlo here. This is new.

00:06:59 Matt Alt: Well, new... New in the last five years.

00:07:01 John Daub: Yeah. I've noticed a lot more in English. A lot more things geared towards more interest. And this is where things get interesting. Off of that—

00:07:09 Matt Alt: No, do we have to do that?

00:07:10 John Daub: We gotta do the side street.

00:07:11 Matt Alt: Those are great. So Nakano has been here for a very long time. I've been coming here for literally decades. But even I didn't realize just how storied this place was. It used to be a black market right after World War II. And that's why basically all of these stores morphed from being black markets, which were all over Tokyo after World War II, because there wasn't enough food and supplies to go around. And then a lot of those black marketplaces turned into shopping streets of which this is one.

00:07:41 John Daub: I could smell the ramen soup stewing.

00:07:44 Matt Alt: Don't make me hungry, man. I'm gonna have to bail out and get some ramen.

00:07:47 John Daub: I'm getting hungry too.

00:07:49 Matt Alt: So... Yeah, it's just got a funky, like, Showa vibe to it. Showa being that period from end of World War II until 1980.

00:07:56 John Daub: Bradshaw Studios in the house. Thank you. Bradshaw Studio. I saw that. Yeah. 1989.

00:08:03 Matt Alt: Well, you can really... This is what Japan was like when I first came here. You had a lot of this kind of design, this kind of shopping arcade. A lot of nostalgic to me. Sorts of places that are serving things like imagawayaki, which we saw earlier, ramen and stuff like that. It's not really cutting edge, but that's the cool thing about it. It's real. It's like this is where people live.

00:08:25 John Daub: Hey, look what's out. Steamy burger.

00:08:30 Matt Alt: Aren't you a little old for fast food?

00:08:32 John Daub: Well, no, age has nothing to do with it.

00:08:34 Matt Alt: It's actually pretty good.

00:08:36 John Daub: Yeah. What they... They have this new... What is it like, Anko? Yeah, it's Give me pie and a custard shake.

00:08:41 Matt Alt: It's kinako.

00:08:42 John Daub: Kinako.

00:08:44 Matt Alt: So kinako is like that... What is it? Roasted soybeans?

00:08:47 John Daub: That's right. I'm just saying because it's... It's a seasonal thing.

00:08:50 Matt Alt: And, you know, I do go. That actually reminds me a lot of the... I love their breakfast sandwiches. I don't really eat there for lunch or dinner, but so they've got like—

00:09:01 John Daub: A matsuri background music as well.

00:09:02 Matt Alt: I can hear Matsuri is coming.

00:09:05 John Daub: Is it?

00:09:06 Matt Alt: It is. That's what these... Lateria... That's what these—

00:09:10 John Daub: Sorry, I'm like... I'm talking over you. Koala March is a really famous confection. Like—

00:09:17 Matt Alt: Like a candy, a cookie.

00:09:18 John Daub: Like cookie. Right. With chocolate in there. And they have Koala March yaki. Oh, my goodness.

00:09:24 Matt Alt: So these are... These are the imagawayaki, but made in the shape of the koala, I guess it's famous.

00:09:28 John Daub: It's sort of like taiyaki.

00:09:31 Matt Alt: Wait a second. That's a koala. Is this cultural appropriation?

00:09:33 John Daub: I don't know. I don't know. Nice to see you guys in the live chat.

00:09:41 Matt Alt: So how many of you listening, watching, have actually been here? That's what I'm curious about.

00:09:47 John Daub: Is this for Halloween or for the chiropractor's shop inside?

00:09:50 Matt Alt: This is somebody who got stuck in here after a time.

00:09:52 John Daub: I think it's for the chiropractor stuff.

00:09:56 Matt Alt: That's somebody who didn't survive the knock on a Broadway experience.

00:09:59 John Daub: I'm seeing Halloween stuff all over the place. What? I love Japanese bakeries, but they've done something with the melon pan here. I love it when they... They have... I like melon pan, but it's so much better when they put a filling in.

00:10:15 Matt Alt: This is maple.

00:10:16 John Daub: Yeah, this is maple syrup.

00:10:17 Matt Alt: I love these. These are really good.

00:10:19 John Daub: Yeah.

00:10:19 Matt Alt: You want some sugar in your sugar?

00:10:20 John Daub: Oh, this is so... This is so sweet. But you take a bite in there and it oozes out a maple syrup. So good.

00:10:28 Matt Alt: This is... This is... I love you. Coming here with you is so interesting. I'm so jaded. I come here all the time. I don't notice the little things. It's really fun bringing somebody new into the mix.

00:10:37 John Daub: My nose picked it up, so.

00:10:39 Matt Alt: But don't pick your nose. Not on camera, anyway. So these are the side streets.

00:10:43 John Daub: It's mostly like after 5pm that this street becomes more—

00:10:47 Matt Alt: Nakano really comes to life at night.

00:10:49 John Daub: Right. And that would be... Actually, we should take the thumbnail image at this intersection so we'd be able to get both the shotengai and... That'd be pretty cool.

00:10:58 Matt Alt: Yeah.

00:10:59 John Daub: There's some more suits. This is kind of a new place. But a lot of these businesses have been here for decades.

00:11:04 Matt Alt: Yes.

00:11:05 John Daub: And you'll still in business. This one looks new.

00:11:07 Matt Alt: There's like one for like what do you call sukudani? Which is like that kind of preserved little fish and stuff like that and a sweet sauce. There's all sorts of traditional food foods here.

00:11:16 John Daub: Oh yeah, they get kakiguri. Look at that one with a kapha.

00:11:19 Matt Alt: That looks like a kapha.

00:11:20 John Daub: Yeah. I've seen these on trucks here for—

00:11:25 Matt Alt: The last is a crime prevention warning character. And it's been around for decades. The cops use that, I guess. Sergeant Kabuki man.

00:11:33 John Daub: Yeah. You see them on the sides of trucks as well.

00:11:36 Matt Alt: Yes.

00:11:36 John Daub: Like it's just kind of—

00:11:37 Matt Alt: Look, don't steal. Don't, don't... Theft.

00:11:39 John Daub: Right. There's a... Yeah, that's pipo-kun.

00:11:41 Matt Alt: You know who that is? That's Pipo-kun. He's a famous... He's one of the mascots of the government.

00:11:49 John Daub: We'll be going down here as soon as we're gonna go inside the shop in mall for a little bit. But things don't open until 12 anyway. So we're just gonna give you a kind of a taste. A taste of it. Right. Brandania is in the house. Aloha. Thank you. Mahalo for that. Now again we're here.

00:12:04 Matt Alt: Some shoes. Can you buy shoes in this country? I can't buy them here.

00:12:08 John Daub: It's weird. They don't... They skip my size after size 10. They go to size 11 and size 12. They skip the halves.

00:12:14 Matt Alt: I know. Yes, yes, yes. You took the words out of my mouth. They don't have half sizes. It drives me crazy.

00:12:19 John Daub: It's really annoying.

00:12:21 Matt Alt: This is—

00:12:21 John Daub: This is a chain restaurant, but they have all you can eat naan bread. Have you ever eaten inside of here?

00:12:27 Matt Alt: Yes.

00:12:30 John Daub: If you go to the lunch here, you will leave here full because as you can have like 6 naans if you want, which no one can eat because they're massive.

00:12:36 Matt Alt: Is it possible to overdose on carbohydrates? I think so.

00:12:39 John Daub: It is right there.

00:12:40 Matt Alt: By the way, this is the Matsuri. It's happening next weekend.

00:12:45 John Daub: Okay. All right. Okay. So that's why they're playing the Matsuri music. I know there's a reason they'll be bringing—

00:12:50 Matt Alt: This is called an omikoshi and they'll all be carrying this and bringing it in. It's part of a Shinto shrine.

00:12:56 John Daub: It's late though, isn't it? Usually it's in the—

00:12:58 Matt Alt: Yeah, this is... Normally they do them in the summer, but you know, there's all sorts of festivals with all sorts of like traditional times of the year and stuff like that. So this jinja shrine obviously set it up for that period.

00:13:10 John Daub: Yeah, you know, I think with the sizes in Japan, they are different from in the West. So if you are coming here to get clothes, this is something definitely you have to consider. Like, I'm at medium size in the US I used to be like extra large in college, which is weird. Maybe it's just because the style in the '90s... Cat cafe?

00:13:30 Matt Alt: Yeah.

00:13:30 John Daub: Actually, it's not a cat cafe, it's a cat store.

00:13:32 Matt Alt: Can I just say, this place is called Peas first, and it just always seemed like a bad name for a pet shop.

00:13:40 John Daub: I thought you could stick your hand—

00:13:41 Matt Alt: Through the glass, the cats will shred it. Cats will shred it.

00:13:47 John Daub: There are cat cafes here, though.

00:13:49 Matt Alt: Oh, for sure.

00:13:50 John Daub: Is that expensive for a dog? It's like usually like two or three thousand... Is that normal?

00:13:55 Matt Alt: Did you have dogs growing up? Did you have dogs?

00:13:57 John Daub: I did, but I don't remember ever paying anything for them.

00:13:59 Matt Alt: We always... In America, I grew up in Maryland, and we always got them from the local, like ASPCA... What do you call it? The pet shop shelter.

00:14:05 John Daub: Right.

00:14:05 Matt Alt: And then you have to pay for like, you know, shots and stuff. But here they're all purebred in these places and they go for like, I'm talking like two, three thousand bucks for a puppy or a cat start.

00:14:14 John Daub: I've seen them going way higher and I... I can't figure out why.

00:14:18 Matt Alt: I love cats and dogs, but I can't imagine spending that much money on one.

00:14:23 John Daub: There's so much breeding going on out there. I bet you if you just go out to the countryside, you can get them for a fraction of the price.

00:14:28 Matt Alt: We're here, man.

00:14:28 John Daub: Oh, this is the Not Going to Broadway.

00:14:31 Matt Alt: Oh, yes, you're right. We should go off to the side.

00:14:33 John Daub: Off to the side, the side. And start here.

00:14:34 Matt Alt: Officer Friendly.

00:14:35 John Daub: Is that what his name is?

00:14:37 Matt Alt: I just called him that.

00:14:38 John Daub: It looks like John. And if I stand next to him, it'll be John and Ponch.

00:14:42 Matt Alt: Do we... Do we... Do we match him?

00:14:44 John Daub: What are you symbolizing there?

00:14:47 Matt Alt: I don't know.

00:14:47 John Daub: He's gold, so he's not clean shaven. So this is at the entrance of—

00:14:55 Matt Alt: Nakano Broadway. You, my friend, have a choice. We're either walking down these side streets or we're going to go into Nakano Broadway proper and start walking around in there. The world is your oyster, friend.

00:15:05 John Daub: Let's go on and not go to Broadway for a quick walk through. And then we'll come back, like five minutes or so.

00:15:13 Matt Alt: I am hot and this is a minute. So believe it or not, John, this Nakano Broadway... There's... This is another shopping complex, but there's actually like an apartment on top of this. And it used to be, for a very brief time in the 1960s, the tallest building in all... All of Asia for like a moment.

00:15:34 John Daub: Wow.

00:15:35 Matt Alt: Not anymore.

00:15:36 John Daub: That's so weird. This is tourist trap heaven. Whenever you see strawberry daifuku out of season, you know you're in a tourist trap. Strawberries are not in season right now.

00:15:48 Matt Alt: So there's... There's a bunch of fun things about this place. The basement, which I'm sure you know about, is full of like clothing shops for old people. And then there's this crazy ice cream shop that serves—

00:16:01 John Daub: Me. That was one of my big viral videos back in the day.

00:16:03 Matt Alt: That's like the last vestige. The basement here is the last vestige of the old black markets. Of course, it's not a black market anymore, but it has that feel.

00:16:14 John Daub: Oh, my goodness. Speaking of carbohydrates—

00:16:19 Matt Alt: We can't afford to gain any weight at our age. And being hotshot influencers especially. This is the entrance to Nakano Broadway, which was used to be the tallest building in Asia.

00:16:34 John Daub: And I think from what I've seen online, they haven't changed inside there.

00:16:37 Matt Alt: It looks like it's got a red carpet entrance.

00:16:38 John Daub: I've always wanted to go in there, but you need like a key. So do you want to go downstairs? You want to go upstairs?

00:16:42 Matt Alt: Let's go upstairs just for a little bit, give people a taste. Mandarake is upstairs, right?

00:16:46 John Daub: Take this one. Take this one. It's got the best background.

00:16:49 John Daub: The Daily Chico, which is the ice cream place, is downstairs. I don't know how the signal is. And the reason why I'm live streaming now is because I don't know when it gets more crowded, how the signal is gonna be with more people, so might as well.

00:16:59 Matt Alt: This whole building is like a Faraday cage.

00:17:03 John Daub: Michael, Susan is in the house. How you doing, brother? If they still have the ice cream shop outside, grab one and enjoy one. I'm not sure if I'm gonna get an eight... Eight story ice cream. Michael, you give me more credit.

00:17:19 Matt Alt: You need to be on a dais. You need to be on a date.

00:17:21 John Daub: Absolutely.

00:17:22 Matt Alt: People are already—

00:17:22 John Daub: People are already waiting, and they're waiting—

00:17:24 Matt Alt: To sell their stuff. That's what's going on here, because this... This man... I've never actually been in here this early. This is the Mandarake where you sell all your stuff to make the money that you spend at Mandarake.

00:17:35 John Daub: This is Mandarake where they... Okay, interesting.

00:17:37 Matt Alt: So you can see everything's closed here right now. But Mandarake is special too. This is the Mandarake that deals exclusively in Sentai Power Ranger toys. This is really awesome. These are all vintage manga in here.

00:17:50 John Daub: Oh, wow.

00:17:51 Matt Alt: And if you'd like a Rolex, do I have a shop for you.

00:17:54 John Daub: Okay. I'm not gonna go over there. She's staring at me.

00:17:57 Matt Alt: Look at all these yokai.

00:17:58 John Daub: That's pretty cool.

00:17:59 Matt Alt: Yokai. But this isn't a yokai Gantor. This is Tetsujin 28. Look at this guy.

00:18:04 John Daub: This is pretty hardcore.

00:18:05 Matt Alt: I take a picture, but I'm like running out of... I'm running out of battery.

00:18:10 John Daub: That's pretty cool. I'm sure a lot of you have been here before. It's interesting, you know, on this channel to revisit places and see how it's changed, because nothing stays the same, really, in Tokyo. And in fact, sadly, a lot of places that you love or are beloved end up getting cut down because of progress.

00:18:34 Matt Alt: This is really cool. And they changed—

00:18:36 John Daub: They've really gone the distance on this. Now. Nakano is also famous for being the most densely populated city in Japan. Nakano is itself a city because Tokyo is actually a prefecture. Tokyo became a metropolis, I believe, after World War II.

00:18:57 Matt Alt: That's a crazy statistic, by the way. I had no idea.

00:19:00 John Daub: 21 per km... 21,000 people per km. Kilometer. And a km is less than a mile.

00:19:06 Matt Alt: And let me tell you, on a weekend, you can feel it. This is, by the way, this is the guy who founded Mandarake. That's his caricature.

00:19:13 John Daub: Interesting.

00:19:13 Matt Alt: So he started Mandarake here in the early '80s with just one shop, which I believe was this one. And then he expanded over the years. It's been here since the '80s. It's kind of like a combination of Walmart and flea market for all sorts of like fan manga, toys, what have you.

00:19:32 John Daub: Yeah, I've gotten permission to film in there in the past with Patrick... Oh yeah, Galbraith. We did some interesting—

00:19:39 Matt Alt: Was he dressed like Son Goku?

00:19:41 John Daub: No, but he brought his A game with us. He was on fire. He was on fire.

00:19:46 Matt Alt: He really... When the camera's rolling, he turns in. He is a Super Saiyan.

00:19:50 John Daub: You can see the collectibles here now. This was also when Matt and I made an episode about Japanese toys and this was Wakaki-san's like, enemy, right?

00:20:00 Matt Alt: Oh, really? Is that how this works?

00:20:01 John Daub: Remember they, like poached all his goods?

00:20:04 Matt Alt: Well, not this store, but yes, yes. The Mandarake people would go because they would... They would go around Japan trying to find stuff.

00:20:11 John Daub: Right.

00:20:11 Matt Alt: You know, because, you know, there's a limited amount of vintage stuff. You know, it makes sense. There's only a certain amount of like used things around that survive.

00:20:18 John Daub: We can go back down, right?

00:20:19 Matt Alt: Yeah, we can go back down.

00:20:21 John Daub: Keep wrapping.

00:20:22 Matt Alt: We can... We can actually go down. There's a—

00:20:24 John Daub: Okay. I'm not sure how the signal is for you.

00:20:26 Matt Alt: No, we don't have to go to the basement, but I'm saying we can go—

00:20:27 John Daub: Go down here.

00:20:28 Matt Alt: No, there's another staircase over here. This one goes up. You want to go—

00:20:31 John Daub: Let's go down.

00:20:32 Matt Alt: Okay.

00:20:34 John Daub: There's... There's just more Mandarake upstairs, right? They kind of own this.

00:20:37 Matt Alt: Yes. And actually I kind of think that the upstairs is the best one.

00:20:43 John Daub: Oh, really?

00:20:44 Matt Alt: Well, that's where all of the super, super, super premium vintage stuff goes.

00:20:48 John Daub: Okay. Yeah. In that sense. Yeah, yeah, they were, they were very nice. They allowed us to film in there and also into the toy store as well. Well, which—

00:20:58 Matt Alt: Well, when, when I was a kid, when I first started coming to Mandarake in the '90s because they also had an outlet in Shibuya. They still do, actually. They were really, really, really strict about not letting anybody take pictures of any kind.

00:21:11 John Daub: Yeah.

00:21:11 Matt Alt: But now they've opened up a lot. You can't really film inside a shop, but you can take pictures with your smartphone.

00:21:16 John Daub: Oh. It took us a long time to get access to film inside of there because TV can do it sometimes too, so—

00:21:23 Matt Alt: Well, when I... My very first, just to point out—

00:21:26 John Daub: Like to get professional camera gear, there's only a couple of places in Tokyo, which is weird.

00:21:31 Matt Alt: This is stereo.

00:21:32 John Daub: Stereo. But the Fuji Avex—

00:21:33 Matt Alt: Yeah.

00:21:34 John Daub: Is not gonna Broadway. So if you're looking for like I remember I was looking for the Sony FX... Sony... Was it FS5 or something back 10 years ago. And this is the only place I could try it out. Yodobashi, Camera and Bic Camera didn't have those professional grade cameras. It's all just consumer stuff, which is interesting. Japan makes a lot of it, but there's not... There's more places to buy it in the US than there are in Japan.

00:21:58 Matt Alt: Well... Oh, wow, look at... This is cool. I've never actually seen what... How they painted their—

00:22:03 John Daub: Their shutters before.

00:22:05 Matt Alt: Yeah. This is amazing. So these are all soft vinyl characters, like soft vinyl toys.

00:22:11 John Daub: And vinyl was '80s, '60s. Right. Okay.

00:22:15 Matt Alt: So the very first Japanese characters, toys that came out based on like the Ultraman series and stuff, those all started in the '60s. And they're made of soft vinyl, the same material that like baby dolls were made out of. Because, you know, kaiju, they're kind of... They're living things.

00:22:28 John Daub: They are.

00:22:28 Matt Alt: They live in my heart.

00:22:29 John Daub: Anyway, how many... How many subscribers do you have on your channel? We're also here to get maps.

00:22:34 Matt Alt: Oh, you want me to check?

00:22:36 John Daub: Well, I want to try to get you to a thousand so you could live stream or something.

00:22:39 Matt Alt: Oh, is that... Is that... Is that what unlocks that?

00:22:42 John Daub: Yeah, I think you get some benefits when you get to a thousand. Hello, subscribers. I can't believe you don't have a thousand.

00:22:48 Matt Alt: I've gotten ten... Well, I just started like two or three weeks ago. You know, I'll get up to a thousand quick enough. I got another 10 subscribers. Thank you. Okay, keep mashing that button, people.

00:22:59 John Daub: Mash it little by little.

00:23:01 Matt Alt: Exactly.

00:23:02 John Daub: What do you think we should do? Should we go—

00:23:04 Matt Alt: There's an arcade over here which we can walk out through and then come around through the side streets.

00:23:08 John Daub: Or should we show them the Daily Chico? I don't know. I don't think I'm gonna get it. But is that down here?

00:23:12 Matt Alt: Right, it's down here. All right.

00:23:14 John Daub: Let's just—

00:23:14 Matt Alt: There's like a bunch of places selling granny panties and then—

00:23:18 John Daub: That's a dirty word in some places.

00:23:20 Matt Alt: It is not. It is not. Here we go. This is like the... This is the place that's changed least from like 1965, whenever this place opened.

00:23:30 John Daub: Oh, wow. I turn up the tripod.

00:23:33 Matt Alt: How are you? How are you doing? Oh, wow. Look at this.

00:23:38 John Daub: I haven't... I have not been here in ages.

00:23:40 Matt Alt: It's smelling good. I'm smelling some—

00:23:43 John Daub: That's the chai and the curry. Oh, my goodness, no—

00:23:45 Matt Alt: I'm getting pretty hungry.

00:23:47 John Daub: Yeah.

00:23:48 Matt Alt: So this place is open because old people have been awake since five in the morning. And me, let me go down this way.

00:23:56 John Daub: Yeah.

00:23:56 Matt Alt: See, is this what they're talking about? The densely packed humans per square kilometer?

00:24:00 John Daub: They're all in here. There's a lot of like secret shopping places in Tokyo. This might be one of them. Not a lot of people make it down to the basement. And you can see it's very active.

00:24:12 Matt Alt: Well, because this is an actual supermarket. Vegetables, fruits—

00:24:19 John Daub: This is a slice of everyday Japanese life. So I think for residents of Nakano, this is more where they would get pretty good deals, I think.

00:24:26 Matt Alt: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is where you would shop if you lived here. Around here. This would be your grocery store.

00:24:31 John Daub: This is Seyu, right? Yeah, this is—

00:24:32 Matt Alt: Yeah, this is an actual like—

00:24:33 John Daub: Actually, I believe Seyu and Walmart are tied up together.

00:24:37 Matt Alt: I love how the Seyu sells like creatures here. They're not to eat, but they're just—

00:24:41 John Daub: To pet. Pet your snake. Don't get the wrong idea here.

00:24:59 Matt Alt: You have a dirty mind, my friend. So here we are. We're coming to the end of this. There's actually much more of this. We took a kind of turn somewhere.

00:25:10 John Daub: Oh, these are pretty affordable bentos. That's 420 yen.

00:25:13 Matt Alt: Oh, wow. That's a great price.

00:25:14 John Daub: $3.

00:25:15 Matt Alt: That's a great price.

00:25:16 John Daub: Holy smokes. That tendon is $3. Less than $3 for that.

00:25:21 Matt Alt: Even though it's mystery meat, I would totally chow down on that. Well, I mean, we don't know where it came from—

00:25:25 John Daub: Well, in Japan, you could... Even the worst is probably true—

00:25:29 Matt Alt: It's totally true—

00:25:29 John Daub: Oh, they have white peaches for 450. That is ridiculous.

00:25:34 Matt Alt: This is good prices.

00:25:35 John Daub: Yeah, that's ridiculous.

00:25:37 Matt Alt: ¥9.80 for a... Oh, that's a taiyaki. I thought that was a... That's actually a melon.

00:25:41 John Daub: I was looking for the watermelon. Okay, here we go. This is where the Daily Chico is. Over here.

00:25:45 Matt Alt: There we go, the Daily Chico.

00:25:48 John Daub: Bring the memories.

00:25:49 Matt Alt: Oh, I've never seen... This is the shop and this is the parking lot. Here we go, my man.

00:25:55 John Daub: The Daily Chico right here.

00:25:56 Matt Alt: You're gonna tackle this. Are you gonna tackle this ice cream?

00:26:00 John Daub: But we might be back here. There you go. I haven't seen the owner in a long time. It's still here. They raised the price to a thousand yen, which is probably—

00:26:08 Matt Alt: Do you think he overdosed on a large ice cream cone perhaps?

00:26:11 John Daub: Probably. But you can see it is quite large.

00:26:16 Matt Alt: A hand for reference. Look at this. Look at this.

00:26:19 John Daub: It's beautiful.

00:26:20 Matt Alt: It is. It's a thing. It is a thing.

00:26:22 John Daub: I think it's seven... Seven layers, right?

00:26:24 Matt Alt: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Yes.

00:26:26 John Daub: For Windows, he said. For Windows 8, he got a sponsor from... From Windows.

00:26:30 Matt Alt: Is that true?

00:26:31 John Daub: And they had an eight level eight tier ice cream cone as a sponsorship from Windows for Windows 8. But they do eight sometimes.

00:26:39 Matt Alt: So what does Daily Chico refer to? Who is Chico? Anime characters—

00:26:45 John Daub: Is this him?

00:26:45 Matt Alt: This is him.

00:26:46 John Daub: That's not the owner.

00:26:47 Matt Alt: I'd like to think it's him. So they actually have Broadway trading cards. And this is the character—

00:26:54 John Daub: I haven't seen the owner since... He only came because I asked to film here. But that's what it looks like. It's pretty ridiculous. The thing is, you can't really eat it in the summer because it melts too fast—

00:27:08 Matt Alt: Right. Right—

00:27:08 John Daub: So you have to eat it... You have to eat it in the... In the fall and spring.

00:27:14 Matt Alt: John... John... Come on, man. The real trick is to bring your girlfriend to eat it. To bring your girlfriend to eat it with. So you can both kind of challenge yourself to finish it before it melts. Isn't that the whole point?

00:27:25 John Daub: I guess so—

00:27:26 Matt Alt: Raises the Japanese birth rate—

00:27:28 John Daub: So this is just like made right in the kitchen here.

00:27:30 Matt Alt: This is Korean food—

00:27:31 John Daub: Holy smokes—

00:27:32 Matt Alt: The prices are good. It's great—

00:27:34 John Daub: The prices are out of sight. Good. Wow—

00:27:38 Matt Alt: You haven't just come back from America. I can attest to that. We were burning through money at restaurants. Wow—

00:27:44 John Daub: Look at this. Nikkumiso—

00:27:47 Matt Alt: Shumai—

00:27:48 John Daub: Shumai. Look at those nikumans. Those are so good.

00:27:51 Matt Alt: I know—

00:27:52 John Daub: This is hotate or scallops. I've never seen that before.

00:27:56 Matt Alt: Oh no. They're good. Those are really good—

00:27:59 John Daub: Scallop. Chinese scallop... Shumai. All right. Let's get out of here. Go. Let's go to the alleys. Now. This is a husk... This is a... So we're able to see Mandarake, Daily Chico. Go into the basement. See some really fantastic food deals as well. We also learned that Nakano Broadway does not open until noon.

00:28:18 Matt Alt: Nope. Like many things—

00:28:18 John Daub: Yeah. It's a late night town.

00:28:19 Matt Alt: Here's a... Here's a staircase. If you want to do that—

00:28:22 John Daub: Go up and out.

00:28:23 Matt Alt: Let's check it out. As we used to say on Japanology Plus... Actually, my very first... When I was on Japanology Plus, my very first episode was filmed here. Nakano Broadway with Peter.

00:28:34 John Daub: This is also good to note. Like in Japan, separating your garbage is really a thing. But people do... If you're going on vacation and leaving for two weeks and you're out of the garbage time, people do bring their garbage.

00:28:47 Matt Alt: Bad move. Bad—

00:28:47 John Daub: Well, I might have done that a few times just because of... I could not... It couldn't be helped. What are you gonna do? Trash day's on Wednesday, and you're leaving for a month on a Tuesday? Yes—

00:28:56 Matt Alt: That can be a problem—

00:28:57 John Daub: So I've got a little bit of garbage, and I'll toss it at like a convenience store. If it's a little bit... It's tolerated, I think. But you can't go with big garbage.

00:29:05 Matt Alt: You can't go to town—

00:29:06 John Daub: It's a conundrum.

00:29:08 Matt Alt: It is a conundrum. It's a paradox, even. So here's the question. Do you want to go out the way we can in through the outdoor, or do you want to go through the arcade? The arcade. Arcade full of video games. I think we should come back into the arcade.

00:29:21 John Daub: The arcade is where it's on the side. Okay. All right, let's come back for that. We'll do that. We'll do a little separate. Let's go to the streets. So you can already see, folks don't do it. They're out of season. Strawberry daifuku. The strawberries are most likely from Thailand.

00:29:42 Matt Alt: You're gonna get... You're gonna get in trouble for disrupting their operation—

00:29:42 John Daub: It doesn't make sense. It's a seasonal thing, so you can—

00:29:48 Matt Alt: Already see more people on the road here—

00:29:49 John Daub: Oh, yeah. We go right, or we can go left.

00:29:51 Matt Alt: We want to go left. Let's go left. So one of the characteristics of Nakano is that off of the main shopping street, there's all of these finger like tarikuchi.—

00:30:03 John Daub: Bring it—

00:30:04 Matt Alt: And they're full of torikatsu. You... You have food on the brain today—

00:30:11 John Daub: Well, my Ivy sixth sense—

00:30:13 Matt Alt: You do—

00:30:14 John Daub: It's called smell. That's one of the five—

00:30:16 Matt Alt: Don't... You don't want to be smelling too deeply in the alleys—

00:30:18 John Daub: I think you could get... Look at this. Mega unagi don—

00:30:22 Matt Alt: 2,500 yen—

00:30:23 John Daub: That is cheap. But the thing is, I don't want to... You can chew on this, but I think that could be farmed Chinese unagi—

00:30:29 Matt Alt: Oh, I'm sure it is. Unagi are actually... Eel are actually kind of not endangered, but they're not being caught in huge numbers anymore—

00:30:38 John Daub: You definitely want to ask where's the unagi from?

00:30:41 Matt Alt: Is that like, where's the beef from?

00:30:42 John Daub: The commercials. I remember I stopped eating farmed unagi from China because I got an allergic reaction from antibiotics that they dumped into the water. Had too much penicillin or something in there. I broke out in a rash. I was like what the heck? I haven't seen this since—

00:30:59 Matt Alt: Oh, oh, have we had my mid cafe? Yes—

00:31:04 John Daub: Kudoneko with a C. Sorry John, it's closed right now.

00:31:07 Matt Alt: Have we had my parasite story? Have we talked about this? I got a parasite from eating sashimi—

00:31:12 John Daub: Are these the stories that 50 year olds tell each other?

00:31:15 Matt Alt: No, those are like, oh my knee hurts. Oh my back hurts—

00:31:18 John Daub: It's the Philippine lounge—

00:31:20 Matt Alt: Catching a parasite is not—

00:31:21 John Daub: We got a lot of people from the Philippines watching. What is a Philippine lounge?

00:31:26 Matt Alt: It's a pub, man. Not a sex club, but like a hostess club. It's like a hostess club—

00:31:31 John Daub: Oh, okay—

00:31:31 Matt Alt: These are all hostess clubs. See? Girls cafe. Anytime you see the word pub, it means it's a girls like hostess club kind of thing—

00:31:39 John Daub: So these are like plastic models that have been covered and have been sitting here for the last two decades... 50 decade. Yeah. That looks like old school plastic food too—

00:31:50 Matt Alt: Yeah, yeah, the good stuff—

00:31:50 John Daub: Version 1.0 made with the—

00:31:53 Matt Alt: With pure virgin petrochemicals—

00:31:55 John Daub: They've been doing that since the 1920s, I heard—

00:31:57 Matt Alt: Well, yeah, they were using wax back then. So the original fake food was all wax—

00:32:01 John Daub: Yeah, yeah. I was filming one of the... I think Iwasaki, one of the original people doing the models for food—

00:32:11 Matt Alt: So we're... We're in a kind of... Man, it's hot out here. Today is supposed to be hitting like 34—

00:32:16 John Daub: It's not that bad actually. The... That edge of summer is gone. It's hot, but the humidity is not nearly... Well, you're wearing long pants. Well, because I always—

00:32:26 Matt Alt: I'm a grown up man—

00:32:27 John Daub: Yeah, I dress like I'm still in junior high school, but I'm comfortable.

00:32:32 Matt Alt: This is true—

00:32:33 John Daub: I like everything has English as well—

00:32:36 Matt Alt: Oh, we're about to walk one of my favorite restaurants. Do you want to see? This is one of my favorite restaurants over here on the corner. So this restaurant's theme, I call it... It's that it's kids food for adults. Check this out. Here's... You'll see what I mean—

00:32:51 Matt Alt: It's all like Napoleon spaghetti and like omu rice and like the sweet Hayashi rice—

00:32:58 John Daub: Is this your comfort food now?

00:33:00 Matt Alt: It is comfort food. It's like... But basically look at this, look at this. This place is great. I actually really like this. But it's basically like kids food for adults. That's really what this is. Even though they wouldn't accept beer. Beer is not for kids—

00:33:12 John Daub: Unless you know what me—

00:33:14 Matt Alt: But it's great—

00:33:15 John Daub: It does look good... Omukare plus yaki cheese. Grilled cheese on top of the omelette rice. How much is that? That's like... Everything's like a thousand yen.

00:33:23 Matt Alt: Oh, it's all under a thousand yen. It's like 900 yen from a... To like spend 10 bucks here. You really have to work—

00:33:30 John Daub: Yeah. That looks amazing too. Omu Hayashi... Hayashi rice has a... Is it like a ketchup? Curry sauce or something like that?

00:33:39 Matt Alt: It's like ketchup. It's like maybe so. One of the other things I like about Nakano is that there's like a lot of kind of like there's a mix between these old school sorts of restaurants and really cutting edge one. And we're about to come up to one up here. That's like ramen mixed with French cuisine. Like, did you see Spider-Man up here?

00:34:00 John Daub: What's going on?

00:34:00 Matt Alt: Spider-Man's up there. What do you... He's around. He's protecting the town—

00:34:04 John Daub: Oh, I think there was some sort of anime DJ place that Patrick took me to on the left here.

00:34:10 Matt Alt: That makes sense. I think it's on the right, actually—

00:34:12 John Daub: Is it on it? This is... I'm talking like 12 years ago—

00:34:15 Matt Alt: Yeah—

00:34:19 John Daub: Friend. Do you know Kai? Kai O'Donohue? He's Hawaiian. He's a pretty cool guy. Him and Patrick were the ones you introduced me to—

00:34:29 Matt Alt: I can only... Patrick must have been bouncing... Bouncing off the walls in here probably—

00:34:33 John Daub: I thought it was in... In here—

00:34:35 Matt Alt: Are you a fan of Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads? Because they're here. They... They like to keep a low profile. That's why they painted themselves on the shutters. No, but I think this bar really likes—

00:34:48 John Daub: Well, he was certainly... He certainly set some trends. Like, remember as a kid we were told to stay away from him because he ate a head off of a bat—

00:34:56 Matt Alt: Yes, yes, yes—

00:34:58 John Daub: Remember, all the parents are like, you better not listen to Ozzy. He ate a head... He ate a rabid bat—

00:35:03 Matt Alt: Look, it's how I feel right now. This is not—

00:35:05 John Daub: You have way too much energy. We'll sit next to him and show me—

00:35:08 Matt Alt: This is like... So this is like me in the summer. Me in the summer in Japan—

00:35:13 John Daub: It's like this—

00:35:13 Matt Alt: Do you know who this guy is? This is Ashita... No, Joe. This is—

00:35:17 John Daub: Oh, it's an anime character—

00:35:18 Matt Alt: Manga. 1960s boxer. He's kind of like Japan's Rocky—

00:35:24 John Daub: Okay, so he's like Naoya Inoue, the monster, the heavyweight—

00:35:29 Matt Alt: Yeah, well, he's... Except I think he's super lightweight, but—

00:35:31 John Daub: Super lightweight. He looks it, but bigger than me—

00:35:36 Matt Alt: So the English version of this manga is just starting to come out now. Even though it's like 50 years old—

00:35:40 John Daub: Interesting—

00:35:41 Matt Alt: It's called Tomorrow's Joe—

00:35:45 John Daub: What are some other things about Nakano that make you like it more than, let's say, Akihabara? Besides the fact that, look, Akihabara has sold out. I feel like it's all new buildings. There's too many tourists here. There seems to be a really, really good balance of—

00:35:58 Matt Alt: Nakano is not touristy. There are a lot of tourists here, but the place is not touristy. And that's the big difference between it and Akihabara—

00:36:06 John Daub: Right—

00:36:07 Matt Alt: In my book, anyway—

00:36:08 John Daub: So which book is that? Pure Invention—

00:36:10 Matt Alt: The book. Yes, exactly. Pure Invention. How Japan Made the Modern World. While you're mashing that subscribe button, that's his book—

00:36:15 John Daub: Also—

00:36:16 Matt Alt: Pick up my book. You can check it out. There's a link on my channel. There's a link in my newsletter, PureInventionBook.com. Are you remembering that? Are you furiously writing that down?

00:36:25 John Daub: PureInventionBook.com... Oh, Naoya Inoue, the monster. That's right. I remember watching him fight. This dude is a killer. So we're for those that are joining us right now because we got some more people coming in here. This is not gonna... I came here on the Tozai Line, coming out from the underground, from the subway into the JR station. The Tozai Line and the Chuo Line actually are connected here—

00:36:47 Matt Alt: Yes—

00:36:47 John Daub: So it's a really good gateway to—

00:36:49 Matt Alt: Get subway to... To... Not subway outside—

00:36:57 John Daub: And it's not gonna know if you don't know... Is just west of Shinjuku. So it's one of the 23 wards of Tokyo. It's the most densely populated with some history going back to... All the way to the 15th century. I think some samurai battles were fought here—

00:37:13 Matt Alt: Well, and then during the war, it was... There was a school for spies. They were really into spies here—

00:37:19 John Daub: Now that's interesting—

00:37:20 Matt Alt: Yes. That was pre... That's during World War II—

00:37:24 John Daub: Famous for Nakano Broadway—

00:37:25 Matt Alt: Now famous for Nakano Broadway—

00:37:26 John Daub: Are they waiting for ramen?

00:37:27 Matt Alt: Yes, they are. And so like, the thing I love about Nakano is the side streets have side street streets. It's like capillaries, like, you know, like kind of stretching out through your body. And the deeper you go on these side streets, the deeper cuts you find. There's a place around here that only opens at night. That's a bar that only serves vintage liquor—

00:37:48 John Daub: Really?

00:37:48 Matt Alt: They buy like 60 year old bottles of gin and whiskey and the whole place looks like it's, you know, it's all vintage liquor—

00:37:55 John Daub: That's pretty cool—

00:37:56 Matt Alt: And so when you get like a martini, it's made with gin from like 1970. So places like that. This is what Nakano is all about—

00:38:03 John Daub: I'm doing fine. Writes in here. How are you? I'm doing fine. I was reading the chat. I see the weather looks pretty good here—

00:38:11 Matt Alt: It's hot, by the way, but... Hello. Just... I just want to say one thing—

00:38:17 John Daub: Go ahead—

00:38:18 Matt Alt: If God forbid, this place ever comes down, I want to get this sign. Look at this—

00:38:24 John Daub: Oh, that's massive—

00:38:25 Matt Alt: Look at the sign. This... I want this—

00:38:28 John Daub: The Broadway—

00:38:29 Matt Alt: On Broadway. It's like the old song—

00:38:33 John Daub: You're a musical fan—

00:38:34 Matt Alt: I am a musical. Wasn't that George Benson who sang that song on Broadway? It was a big hit in the '80s. Anyway, Broadway—

00:38:41 John Daub: I'll say. Oh, here's the entrance to the city—

00:38:42 Matt Alt: It's another entrance—

00:38:43 John Daub: Okay, so I know where we are now. Do we want to keep going in this direction?

00:38:47 Matt Alt: Well, there's not much more to see here. I think we should probably... What time is it? What time?

00:38:50 John Daub: Where's that American Run bakery?

00:38:52 Matt Alt: Oh, that's way, way up there. It's called the Soul Food Market or something—

00:38:55 John Daub: Yes, I'm dying to go there. I wanted... I always wanted to talk with the owner there. He also makes a good Thanksgiving meal, I heard—

00:39:02 Matt Alt: Yes, and he makes great, great, great carrot cake and other cakes. Yes. But check this out. Check this out. So look at this. This is French style ramen—

00:39:13 John Daub: This is why you took me here? Your stomach—

00:39:15 Matt Alt: Look at this. It's like bouillabaisse—

00:39:17 John Daub: It's like—

00:39:21 Matt Alt: It's like... Look at this, look at this. It's so unbelievably rich—

00:39:26 John Daub: They had another... They had another branch of this in where?

00:39:30 Matt Alt: France?

00:39:30 John Daub: No, no, no, that place near Iidabashi. The street—

00:39:36 Matt Alt: That makes sense—

00:39:37 John Daub: They had a branch of this there as well. And it was somewhat overrated—

00:39:42 Matt Alt: This place is great. It is so rich—

00:39:46 John Daub: David, Dave writes in here. Hey, John. Ellis and I were just talking about adding Nakano Broadway to our trip. We definitely should. It's been a fun tour so far. Got to see Joe—

00:39:56 Matt Alt: He's there. Half an hour till things open. But let's go into the arcade, shall we?

00:40:00 John Daub: Because this year I don't think we're allowed to film, but we can say that. I don't want to take a chance—

00:40:05 Matt Alt: Well, you know what we could do? We could walk through it. We can walk through—

00:40:07 John Daub: Walk through it quickly. And I'll be disc—

00:40:09 Matt Alt: Be discreet—

00:40:10 John Daub: I don't want to bother anybody—

00:40:11 Matt Alt: We'll try to be less flamboyant, though. We usually are. Yeah. Keep it down at your waist—

00:40:16 John Daub: You're the one with the flamboyant shoes, bro. Tuck for your Donkey Kong shirt. Really?

00:40:20 Matt Alt: You can't wear a Donkey Kong shirt and not—

00:40:22 John Daub: Is that what flamboyancy is in the 21st century?

00:40:25 Matt Alt: I actually fit in and knock out—

00:40:26 John Daub: A dress like this—

00:40:27 Matt Alt: You're the one sticks out, man. Here, here, here, here. After you. Just carefully do this—

00:40:36 John Daub: We're just—

00:40:36 Matt Alt: If they catch us, they're going to rip your head off with a... With a UFO catcher claw. Would you like to spend way more money than it would cost just to buy some cup of noodles to win some kind of noodles?

00:40:48 John Daub: It's weird that they have potato chip bags and stuff, but it's like what people want in their everyday lives, I suppose. You know, they used to put... They used to put like games on the first floor, but now it's all like UFO catchers—

00:41:01 Matt Alt: Well, but think about... Think about that. Think about why. The reason being that you have a game in your home. But most people don't have UFO catchers on their phones—

00:41:08 John Daub: I guess so. Or there's somewhat addictive and there are... There's a bunch of addicts. But I get no pleasure from UFO catchers. I just... I learned... I went to an academy and how to cheat and how to get them, but—

00:41:19 Matt Alt: Oh, did you do that too? We filmed that for Jack in Saitama—

00:41:22 John Daub: Yeah, I took Bob Worley. Do you know Bob?

00:41:25 Matt Alt: I do not—

00:41:26 John Daub: But... And my friend Alan... Alan Welch. Three of us went out there. I like anybody who we all failed and passed miserably—

00:41:34 Matt Alt: Passes the US... Say it right—

00:41:36 John Daub: We got to get out of here—

00:41:37 Matt Alt: Yeah, let's get out of here. We can go back through there if you want. We can go this way back onto the main drive. Need to cool down, man. I'm overheating—

00:41:50 John Daub: All right, all right—

00:41:50 John Daub: We saw Murder Hornet Soda. So that was... I don't know if the signal was any good, but they do have some games over there—

00:42:00 Matt Alt: They do big, big kind of cabinet style games—

00:42:03 John Daub: My favorite was House of the Dead—

00:42:05 Matt Alt: Yes—

00:42:06 John Daub: The original one back in 1998. I played it with all my 100 yen coins and was able to get quite far—

00:42:12 Matt Alt: Quite far, John, come on, man, we can play this—

00:42:17 John Daub: Those are the original. And back then, I don't... We never—

00:42:24 Matt Alt: The drumming game they have, they go—

00:42:27 John Daub: Yeah, let's get out of here. The signals are too good... They never... They never had those kind of games in the US at the arcades. No, just Japan had done it. And we're talking like back in the 1990s when I got here, it was like next level video games I'd never seen before. Big screen TVs and stuff. 100 yen... And that was a lot of money back then—

00:42:47 Matt Alt: You would dump 100 yen because you know, at one point it was like 98 yen to the dollar or something. That's like paying four times the amount that I would have normally paid for a ridiculously high... They were always 100 yen here too. Actually, this is a funny story. When Space Invaders first came out in Japan, so many people were playing it in 1978, '79, they had a shortage of hundred yen coins—

00:43:11 John Daub: That's a good looking faux shop. People been asking me about that. You're going to get all sorts of international cuisine here as well—

00:43:22 Matt Alt: Yes—

00:43:24 John Daub: Because a lot of immigrants have settled in Nakano—

00:43:27 Matt Alt: We met one just before we started—

00:43:29 John Daub: Yeah, from Bangladesh, right? Al—

00:43:30 Matt Alt: Al from Bangladesh—

00:43:32 John Daub: Well, I think he's more Japanese now. He seemed... He looks like he's been here for a while—

00:43:36 Matt Alt: I'm trying to walk in the shade. It is just pounding out here. So is the idea that we are killing time until Nakano opens?

00:43:44 John Daub: No, we're just kind of walking back to the station to get some yaki... Yeah, put it in. I'm pretty sure that the anime DJ episode I filmed was down here—

00:43:52 Matt Alt: That could be—

00:43:53 John Daub: But I believe again, like, I also believe that things go out of business real quick—

00:43:58 Matt Alt: Yes—

00:43:58 John Daub: Is this Jiro?

00:43:59 Matt Alt: No, no, no. It's... It's called... I don't know how you pronounce it, Pig Mountain—

00:44:04 John Daub: Yeah, I saw that. Butayama Tong san—

00:44:08 Matt Alt: Like, wait, is it probably Butayama?

00:44:10 John Daub: Yeah. I didn't think that was the actual name. All you can drink for 821 yen on sale—

00:44:15 Matt Alt: Yeah—

00:44:17 John Daub: What do they take? Like kegs that are stale and they—

00:44:19 Matt Alt: I think... I think there's some kind of extra charges in there. We're about to walk past my favorite pizza place in Nakano—

00:44:26 John Daub: Oh, wow—

00:44:27 Matt Alt: Tototo. Not to be confused with Totoro—

00:44:30 John Daub: Okay—

00:44:33 Matt Alt: I shouldn't even tell anybody. I want to keep this place to myself. See Tototo, it looks new. It's like a fusion pizza place—

00:44:39 John Daub: Don't come here, everybody. Matt did not just introduce Tototo—

00:44:43 Matt Alt: It's good—

00:44:44 John Daub: That's a pizza place—

00:44:45 Matt Alt: It's great. It's like fusion—

00:44:47 John Daub: It's okay. That's why it's like one of these artsy fartsy places—

00:44:50 Matt Alt: It's great though. It's not too expensive. It's like... I really like it. You can get like unagi or—

00:44:54 John Daub: Actually, yeah. The menu is not... Is pretty affordable here—

00:44:58 Matt Alt: No, totally. We're gonna come back here and eat. But they have things like sardine and sardine pizza. The pulled pork one is great—

00:45:07 John Daub: Oh yeah, that looks really good—

00:45:08 Matt Alt: We can come back here. Teriyaki corn—

00:45:11 John Daub: What's... What's Rolf mean?

00:45:12 Matt Alt: Rolf. Where did you see that?

00:45:14 John Daub: Ralph bx. He just joined as an insider—

00:45:17 Matt Alt: I don't know, but... Hello—

00:45:19 John Daub: Trying to decipher—

00:45:23 Matt Alt: Side street here. We can walk in the shade a little bit—

00:45:25 John Daub: I used to buy used camera equipment like tripods. The other one over there, again, a good place for used stuff. Right?

00:45:32 Matt Alt: So we're already seeing people line up for Rob Ramen—

00:45:36 John Daub: Lining up for ramen... This... This tonkatsu looks amazing—

00:45:45 Matt Alt: We can come back here for lunch too. Now I'm getting hungry. We should eat lunch—

00:45:51 John Daub: Yeah, I'm just supposed to be fasting until noon—

00:45:54 Matt Alt: Are you really? Are you on like an interval? What's that called?

00:45:56 John Daub: Intermittent fasting—

00:45:57 Matt Alt: Intermittent fasting—

00:45:58 John Daub: I last ate at 6:30pm... Yeah, you're—

00:46:03 Matt Alt: A better man than I am—

00:46:04 John Daub: I actually feel more energy when I'm... I don't feel hungry hungry, but I feel clean and limber and free when I don't have food. So I've been skipping breakfast for a long time—

00:46:16 Matt Alt: Oh, wow. Okay—

00:46:17 John Daub: Just black coffee—

00:46:18 Matt Alt: Coffee. What are you from Long Island?

00:46:21 John Daub: I just... It's just a habit. It's a bad habit—

00:46:24 Matt Alt: It's not a bad habit. It's cute—

00:46:26 John Daub: Coffee—

00:46:27 Matt Alt: Coffee—

00:46:29 John Daub: So was that with that SNL skit with Mike Myers, isn't it? Coffee talk with—

00:46:36 Matt Alt: Yes—

00:46:36 John Daub: I forget. Was it Mike Myers or... Probably. He's great—

00:46:39 Matt Alt: God, it's been so long since I watched Saturday Night Live—

00:46:42 John Daub: I mean, I missed the old Saturday Night Live. Way better than the new stuff—

00:46:46 Matt Alt: Just like you... I've been living here for like 20 plus years, so it's like we miss out on American pop culture. Like, although we have the Internet now, so—

00:46:53 John Daub: Yeah—

00:46:54 Matt Alt: So we're back on the main street here. So this is called Tanuki Koji, which is Tanuki Alley. Tanuki, you know, like raccoon... Well, a tanuki is a raccoon, is part of the bear family. Tanuki is part of the canine family. It's an animal that's indigenous to East Asia and Japan. They're actually seen as tricksters here in Japanese folklore. In Super Mario, he had a tanuki suit. In Super Mario 3 they like transform. They do all sorts of stuff—

00:47:27 John Daub: Interesting. This is Matt Alt. If you're just joining us right now, he is about how many subscribers away? Like 100 subscribers—

00:47:35 Matt Alt: Let's just see—

00:47:36 John Daub: Getting away... Getting a thousand subscribers. He's an author and a reporter for NHK... Well, we both used to be reporters, but NHK World. But now he's a YouTuber so just started. Just started the channel—

00:47:48 Matt Alt: Subscribe, please—

00:47:49 John Daub: There you go—

00:47:50 Matt Alt: Alt Metal—

00:47:51 John Daub: Is that like a James Bond thing? That's how you remember it? Yeah. Let's see. So let's see if we can get him at close... Closer to a thousand—

00:47:59 Matt Alt: Let's do it. Now that you... I didn't want to be pulling out my phone during a—

00:48:02 John Daub: Well, what kind of content are you making basically?

00:48:04 Matt Alt: So I'm actually, I'm... I'm doing a lot of stuff that's at the intersection of pop culture, politics, anthropology. So, like, I love covering stuff that comes up in the news that's a Japan angle and giving you a deeper cut on it. I love toys. I talk a lot about Japanese toys and movies and anime and manga. It's just the cool place to be if you want a deep dive on Japanese pop culture. Kind of like my book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World available at bookstores everywhere—

00:48:32 John Daub: Jw, thank you so much. You know, it was just funny right before we started the stream, you were talking with the inventor. Can I say that?

00:48:39 Matt Alt: You can?

00:48:40 John Daub: Yeah—

00:48:40 Matt Alt: No, I was on the phone. You were on the telephone—

00:48:42 John Daub: So Matt's pretty well connected here as well. He's talking with the inventor of the Walkman on the telephone—

00:48:47 Matt Alt: He's been fixing in Japanese. So Mr. Ohsone is a guy who was one of the lead engineers on making the Walkman at Sony back in the 1970s. And I interviewed him for my book Pure Invention and we became friends and we still in touch. I'm actually in touch with most of the people who I covered on Pure Invention. Like the... We were in touch with the guy who invented karaoke for a long time until he passed away. For instance. Lots of people—

00:49:14 John Daub: These cakes look great. Look at that fun one—

00:49:17 Matt Alt: Oh, man. How can you cut into the brain of that bear and eat it?

00:49:20 John Daub: I can do it if I'm hungry enough. But the Momoyama is really good. There's two kinds. It's a sweet potato momoyama... Wow—

00:49:29 Matt Alt: Oh, yes—

00:49:31 John Daub: Jason still has his Walkman—

00:49:33 Matt Alt: That's cool, man. Keep it. Keep it. That's literally piece of history. I had to buy one for my book. I don't have mine anymore—

00:49:39 John Daub: You notice they definitely put the aitama just for the impact. Without it, it just looks like a boring bowl of noodles with it. It's something special and it certainly tasted... Look, they got the credit cards. The touch credit cards on the vending machines—

00:49:51 Matt Alt: Now... Can I just say... Can I just say I'm not really into ramen places that have like any kind of technology attached to them—

00:49:58 John Daub: I want—

00:49:59 Matt Alt: I wanted to be a grumpy old guy behind the counter. Are you... Are you buying?

00:50:03 John Daub: I just touched it. Now run away—

00:50:05 Matt Alt: Run. Run. Is this like a doorbell dash? What did you call that?

00:50:08 John Daub: Oh, he's... He's pouring a beer. Who's drinking a beer at 11am? I want to be that guy's friend—

00:50:13 Matt Alt: It's Japan, baby. I actually took a walk at like 6 this morning and there were a bunch of people drinking beer in the park. I think they just gotten off some night shift or something—

00:50:21 John Daub: Wow—

00:50:22 Matt Alt: Or maybe they're just alcoholics—

00:50:26 John Daub: Wait—

00:50:26 Matt Alt: My favorite shoes. You're always making fun of my... My... My orange shoes—

00:50:30 John Daub: I didn't make fun—

00:50:31 Matt Alt: I just said they're gonna switch to these. I'm gonna switch to these just to... Just to impress you. Look at that. Actually, there's orange ones. Except are they caillou like you? Those are heavies like you. I don't think we can find any shoes—

00:50:42 John Daub: The slippers are really good. The tatami sandals. I've had a couple pairs of those—

00:50:48 Matt Alt: Would you like some Japanese whiskey?

00:50:50 John Daub: Okay... Oh, you're telling me. This is a good place to get niche up. They stopped making that Suntory whiskey, didn't they?

00:50:55 Matt Alt: Yeah, it's like a big problem. They... They over popular... Well, they oversold it in the aughts and like in the... In the teens of 2010s. Now there's not enough to go around—

00:51:06 John Daub: So we're making our way back to the station right now. We've done a pretty good circle. Oh, look at these baby clothes with the curry rice. Oh, there's a Shinkansen. I can't believe that they're ending the Dr. Yellow. I guess it's just not necessary—

00:51:19 Matt Alt: I would totally, totally rock that shirt if I could get it in my size, man—

00:51:23 John Daub: Dr. Yellow. You can get anything on Amazon, actually—

00:51:25 Matt Alt: Is Dr. Yellow like a... Like a training—

00:51:28 John Daub: It's the one. They check the integrity of the tracks and usually goes back and forth once a week to check and see if the rails have warped in the heat—

00:51:36 Matt Alt: Not the moral integrity of the tracks?

00:51:38 John Daub: No, not that kind of integrity. No. But the inside is a lot of analytical, computer stuff—

00:51:44 Matt Alt: Yes—

00:51:45 John Daub: There's one dude who's sitting in there and analyzing everything—

00:51:48 Matt Alt: That's pretty cool—

00:51:49 John Daub: Yeah. I've been working on trying to get access into it, but it's—

00:51:51 Matt Alt: That must be tough—

00:51:52 John Daub: JR Central... No, JR Hokkaido and Kyushu and Shikoku, they're a little... Lot more laid back. JR Central is tough, man. JR East is even easier. Why don't we go down this—

00:52:03 Matt Alt: This side street? Because there's a lot of used camera places on it. So this is... We're right near the opening of Nakano Runway. And this little alley right way is really well known, by the way, this... This food is great too. This, like preserved—

00:52:24 John Daub: Oh, yeah—

00:52:25 Matt Alt: These are all preserved things. So these are like preserved squid, preserved little fishes, preserved maguro. This kind of preserved food was much more common—

00:52:32 John Daub: It's healthy, too—

00:52:33 Matt Alt: Well, it was common back before refrigeration. I... I think this is... You sprinkle that on bentos and stuff—

00:52:40 John Daub: It's probably something. The color, a little bit of flavoring—

00:52:44 Matt Alt: Probably shrimp flavor—

00:52:45 John Daub: Yeah, they've really modernized it. You can see there's again, there's like alleys within alleys—

00:52:50 Matt Alt: Yes. It's fractal. It's fractal—

00:52:50 John Daub: Oh, this is where they... My used camera store—

00:52:51 Matt Alt: Exactly. That's why I brought you here—

00:52:53 John Daub: Did you?

00:52:54 Matt Alt: I brought you here—

00:52:55 John Daub: I haven't been here in 15 years, I think—

00:52:57 Matt Alt: And here's 7-Eleven. Soon to be Canadian—

00:53:00 John Daub: Okay. Yeah. These smoothies are really good. I had a couple of them this summer. Usually I don't buy the sugar stuff, but these are pretty good. You gotta get them in the freezer in the back, and they have a special machine that mushes them up right there—

00:53:15 Matt Alt: Wait, are you saying it's like a Japanese slushie?

00:53:18 John Daub: It's like they don't have Slurpee. They don't have Slurpees here. But it would be like a healthy Slurpee. I guess—

00:53:23 Matt Alt: They also don't have Slim Jims—

00:53:25 John Daub: Snap into a Slim Jim—

00:53:26 Matt Alt: Exactly. You got to be... Was that Randy Savage?

00:53:29 John Daub: Yeah, he's—

00:53:30 Matt Alt: This is an interesting thing here. This is called Nakano Brick. Do you see this? This is The... This used to be a Suntory bar. Suntory would run bars. And this is one of the last remaining ones. This has been here since the 1960s. And if you want like a highball, which is whiskey and soda, this is a great place to get it—

00:53:47 John Daub: It looks like it comes right out of Germany when, you know, in World War II they were allies, right? So a lot of the beer and there's a lot of German influence in the... In some of the Western cuisine. And even a lot of the words came from German. And they're in Katakana. I'm like, that's not English—

00:54:04 Matt Alt: Like German—

00:54:05 John Daub: Yeah. Arubaito means part time job—

00:54:09 Matt Alt: And actually I think a lot of doctors—

00:54:11 John Daub: It's funny that they have lockers outside like this all over the place—

00:54:15 Matt Alt: And some of them are actually being used—

00:54:17 John Daub: Yeah—

00:54:18 Matt Alt: Oh, here. This is funny. I want to show you this. I want to show you this. This is... I always laugh when I go past this. It's the adult... It's the adult entertainment establishment that took its name and its font from a certain popular American sitcom—

00:54:41 John Daub: Are you kidding me? Can they do that?

00:54:43 Matt Alt: They did. Is that legal? They'll be there for you, apparently—

00:54:50 John Daub: They'll be there for anybody who pays—

00:54:55 Matt Alt: One of the fun things I love, like the little, like the little details in Nakano are great. Like little things like this people put like little manga inspired up—

00:55:04 John Daub: It is pretty cool walking around the streets and looking at the facades. It's the stuff that's not obvious. I think. So, yeah—

00:55:13 Matt Alt: You really need to look up—

00:55:14 John Daub: You need to look right there. You got to be looking up and around all the time at your environment. Use your nose. In Japan, you have to use your—

00:55:23 Matt Alt: Nose or don't because it can sometimes get a little—

00:55:26 John Daub: In the summer maybe. Yeah. I smell just fine—

00:55:31 Matt Alt: Why don't we curve off to the left here?

00:55:34 John Daub: I was... I was gonna end it, but—

00:55:36 Matt Alt: Okay, yeah, please, please, because I'm a little bit hot—

00:55:40 John Daub: Hungry—

00:55:40 Matt Alt: Oh, yeah. I'm about to melt—

00:55:41 John Daub: We have to figure out more lockers down there—

00:55:43 Matt Alt: Are we gonna have... Are we gonna have the kids food for adults? Are we gonna have the fusion pizza? Are we gonna have ramen?

00:55:49 John Daub: Not sure. I usually just eat meat. Something I can... My gut can process. Your teeth—

00:55:59 Matt Alt: There are meat places around here, that's for sure—

00:55:59 John Daub: I've been cutting down on the carbs. Anything with sugar. I... I see somebody said, you know it. If you want to... If you want to stay healthy and avoid like cancer and all this other stuff, don't eat any glucose... I said, any—

00:56:12 Matt Alt: Any—

00:56:12 John Daub: That's rough. How about just a... Really trying to cut down—

00:56:15 Matt Alt: I actually think it would be easier to quit heroin than sugar—

00:56:18 John Daub: Sugar's really bad. It is. It's really hard, but I can't... I can't. The thing is, though, I like those old disposable cameras. It takes 72 hours to really kick it. If you can stay away from all—

00:56:29 Matt Alt: Sugar, caffeine that way, right?

00:56:30 John Daub: Yeah. But caffeine... I think you have a withdrawal. Sugar... It's more like mental. I don't know what it is. It's got hooked in your brain after 72 hours. And in particular, if you could get through a full week, you don't even crave it or you see it. And it's not like anything different than you've done this—

00:56:48 Matt Alt: I haven't done this—

00:56:48 John Daub: I weaned off sugar last year—

00:56:50 Matt Alt: Oh, wow—

00:56:51 John Daub: From March to about almost all of last year. And then I went to the US and I... I messed it up again—

00:56:58 Matt Alt: Look, it's the All Capsule toy store. Gachapon—

00:57:00 John Daub: It's pretty cool—

00:57:01 Matt Alt: It's really cool. If you'd like a bunch of trinkets you're gonna display once and then throw away, it's a really great place to get—

00:57:07 John Daub: That's a problem in our house. I just got one from the Tokyo Metro. They had all the glow signs. You could push a button and a light would come on. And takoyaki, cha cha cha. They often have some weird flavors. My advice: Just go for the full on normal takoyaki. Or if you see it with cheese... That usually works out pretty good—

00:57:31 Matt Alt: Takoyaki with cheese. Wow. Is that like a Royale with cheese? From Pulp—

00:57:33 John Daub: From—

00:57:33 Matt Alt: I don't know. What's a Pulp Fiction?

00:57:36 John Daub: I heard Rakuten Mobile wasn't doing too good—

00:57:39 Matt Alt: I actually have no idea—

00:57:42 John Daub: They're pretty cheap and they're disruptors, so I hope they don't go out of business—

00:57:48 Matt Alt: I'm blissfully unaware of these things. I buy a phone like once every five years and forget about it in between—

00:57:53 John Daub: Yeah—

00:57:53 Matt Alt: For me, buying a new phone is like doing my two taxes. It's just like something I only do under duress—

00:57:58 John Daub: And here we are back at the station, and I noticed that they've done a ton of changes. Just even this roof above us is new, right?

00:58:06 Matt Alt: Oh, yeah. They've been doing a lot of construction work. I think they're rebuilding the station building. Because this... This station is pretty old—

00:58:10 John Daub: Yeah—

00:58:11 Matt Alt: And so they're kind of reforming it—

00:58:15 John Daub: Yeah, it's been around for a while. This came in 1951, I believe, the Tosei line in '63, right before the Olympics. And I think that square building was '73 something around that—

00:58:30 Matt Alt: And then 2023 you get these—

00:58:32 John Daub: Big buildings and now it's just completely—

00:58:34 Matt Alt: They're building all these giant buildings—

00:58:37 John Daub: Yeah, it's... It's starting to look more like Shinjuku. It's the neighboring ward—

00:58:41 Matt Alt: Hey, man, I was into Nakano before. It was cool—

00:58:46 John Daub: Ellis, I see that you're here. Enjoy a drink on us. Matt shirt is awesome. All right. This is for you, Ellis. Full on Matt shirt—

00:58:54 Matt Alt: Jump man. Not Mario—

00:58:56 John Daub: Jump man—

00:58:58 Matt Alt: Look at this—

00:58:59 John Daub: Where's Mario?

00:59:00 Matt Alt: Mario—

00:59:00 John Daub: Is it like a "Find Waldo" here is called Wally—

00:59:04 Matt Alt: He's not Mario. He's Jumpman in Donkey Kong. He didn't become Mario. Mario Brothers—

00:59:10 John Daub: Good information. But why is "Where's Waldo"? I guess my son said it's not Waldo, it's Wally—

00:59:17 Matt Alt: You know why? Because waru... If you... If you type that in Japanese, warudo. And waru sounds like bad guy. Waru. Waru. So I think that's my guess—

00:59:27 John Daub: That's an interesting way to put it. It was funny. Like, no dude telling my son it's "Where's Waldo?" He's like, no, no, Wally. Wally—

00:59:35 Matt Alt: No dad—

00:59:35 John Daub: No dad having an argument. I lost because it... It is Wally in Japan. It says in katakana. I'm like, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Yes, well, thank you, Alice and David as well. We're going to go and put that to some good use. But I think Nakano is one of the places that everybody should come to visit. In particular, if you're going to Akihabara for the manga anime, I think you're making sort of a mistake. These days a lot has gone out of business there and it's the businesses that came and replaced it are really touristy—

01:00:04 Matt Alt: It is. And also it's about age. If you are over about 40 years old, you'll probably find more stuff you like here. Like Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebops—

01:00:14 John Daub: Right—

01:00:14 Matt Alt: Dragon Ball, that kind of stuff. That's more of the classical... Well, it's not classical to me. It's kind of... That's actually fairly new to me. But what you might consider classical anime, more of that stuff—

01:00:23 John Daub: I don't get it. Because it's cheaper here. It's way cheaper than Akihabara. Yes. Probably not just to stay, but the food, just the street food... At least 30% cheaper—

01:00:33 Matt Alt: It's not as touristy, and it's just five minutes. Are we contributing to the downfall? Are we contributing to the downfall?

01:00:40 John Daub: Don't come to Nakano. Is that what you're saying? This is Matt's hood. Stay away. Stay away—

01:00:44 Matt Alt: This is my favorite place—

01:00:46 John Daub: That's the international symbol for come. All right—

01:00:49 Matt Alt: People go like this when they let... Because I remember, I used to be... If you try doing this, like, Japanese people won't come. You have to go like this—

01:00:58 John Daub: Yeah—

01:00:58 Matt Alt: You know what I'm talking about—

01:00:59 John Daub: All right. This is right that. Fingers up—

01:01:01 Matt Alt: I'm trying to say, no, no, Stay away, stay away—

01:01:05 John Daub: Because it's my favorite place internationally. It's so interesting. I remember going to Bulgaria, and in Bulgaria, this means no, and this means yes. Really? Yeah—

01:01:14 Matt Alt: Oh, that's confusing it, isn't it? That's very confusing—

01:01:16 John Daub: All the guidebooks say, be careful, because if you go like this, this means yes, and this means no. Wow—

01:01:20 Matt Alt: That is very—

01:01:20 John Daub: In Bulgaria—

01:01:21 Matt Alt: That is very—

01:01:22 John Daub: Love Bulgaria, by the way. It was one of these countries that's kind of under the radar—

01:01:26 Matt Alt: I love their yogurt—

01:01:28 John Daub: Bulgaria. That's one thing. But the people, for me in Bulgaria, I really like the people. I want to go—

01:01:34 Matt Alt: I'd love to go, actually—

01:01:34 John Daub: Wasn't there a Romanian Bulgarian?

01:01:36 Matt Alt: There was a Bulgarian sumo wrestler, wasn't there?

01:01:38 John Daub: I think so. Yeah—

01:01:39 Matt Alt: Yeah—

01:01:39 John Daub: Yeah. Pretty good food, too. I think it's underrated—

01:01:44 Matt Alt: Absolutely—

01:01:44 John Daub: And the wineries in Romania were actually pretty good. Look at you—

01:01:48 Matt Alt: And food—

01:01:49 John Daub: I went to Romania, and when it was not cool. I don't know if it's cool now—

01:01:52 Matt Alt: But it was 1997, Romania—

01:01:55 John Daub: There wasn't a lot of... They just opened up visas to Americans—

01:01:59 Matt Alt: Oh, wow—

01:02:01 John Daub: Came down and stuck. Yeah. And only Americans can go in there because George Bush gave a speech or something. And then they said, okay. So I remember taking the train from Budapest on a Eurail pass going into Romania. Everybody got off at the border in Hungary, and I'm the only one on the train—

01:02:16 Matt Alt: That must have been—

01:02:17 John Daub: I get to Romania, people with AK-47s got on—

01:02:19 Matt Alt: Yes—

01:02:20 John Daub: First the guy walked past me. He was shocked to see anybody on the train. And he goes, what? Then he said, passport. And I gave him the passport. Oh, a merican. And he's getting a really big smile. So he took it and got it back on. And then I got the next station full with everybody from Romania because the borders were still pretty harsh back then. It was really, really funny. And I loved it. Dirt road in the main town of Cluj Napoca, from the station, like, wow, this is authentic—

01:02:49 Matt Alt: I'm really impressed. You managed to love it. I managed to link Nakano to Bulgaria and Romania—

01:02:55 John Daub: Absolutely. But the both of them are very authentic places. And—

01:02:59 Matt Alt: Yes. Oh, I see what you're saying—

01:03:01 John Daub: And it is. It's pretty cool here—

01:03:03 Matt Alt: Okay, I'm melting. Let's go get lunch—

01:03:04 John Daub: All right, everybody. Thanks for watching. If I have a favor for you to ask here, go over to Matt's page here. Matt Alt. Matt—

01:03:12 Matt Alt: Thank you—

01:03:12 John Daub: On YouTube. Thank you. He's an author. He is a talent—

01:03:17 Matt Alt: He is an influencer. He loves—

01:03:20 John Daub: He's new to YouTube. That's why I'm asking. But the stuff that he does is pretty good. And he's got a lot of insight that you won't get on this channel. Because I'm not into anime manga that much—

01:03:27 Matt Alt: I go a little deep dives—

01:03:28 John Daub: Yeah, you go pretty deep into it—

01:03:30 Matt Alt: So please stop by—

01:03:32 John Daub: Thank you. And you'll be one of the first thousand. Yes—

01:03:34 Matt Alt: For the first thousand viewers—

01:03:35 John Daub: I know you're gonna get to 100,000, but it's eventually—

01:03:39 Matt Alt: With your help. With your help—

01:03:40 John Daub: No, you remember John—

01:03:41 Matt Alt: You're the one... You're the one who tricked me into becoming a YouTuber. I was just a writer—

01:03:46 John Daub: I had to trick you—

01:03:47 Matt Alt: You tricked me. You're like a tanuki—

01:03:48 John Daub: Wow. I'll take the credit or the... It's my fault. Anyways, thank you for watching, and if you have any questions, you can leave a comment below. Join the postcard club on Patreon. I've got this month, the world's largest firework shell from Katakai—

01:04:05 Matt Alt: Oh, wow—

01:04:05 John Daub: Gonna be on there. I had square watermelons last month, so there's some cool postcards coming out real soon. Soon. And I'll see you in the next episode. Matane—

01:04:13 Matt Alt: Matane—

01:04:15 John Daub: That's my line—

01:04:15 Matt Alt: Matane