00:00:01 John Daub: Welcome to Yamagata. This is Yamagata Station. In this episode, I'm going to take you around this area of Tohoku, this really relaxed capital prefectural city of Yamagata Prefecture. There's some hotels, there's some restaurants, and I'll show you all around. Hello. People are friendly. What can I say? So let's go take a look around the station area. I came on this train. Let me give you a quick overview.

00:00:27 John Daub: Getting here from Tokyo Station, I think it's about two and a half hours. That is the Tohoku Shinkansen and the Toki (train). But instead of the Akita Red, the Yamagata Shinkansen, the E8 series, has a purple train. I thought that was really unique. It's kind of new. You see the purple and the green-blue now kissing. The purple's so sleek on the top and the front. It's really nice and it certainly stands out when it's going across the line. If you see it out in the countryside. And Tohoku Relax is exactly what I'm doing out here. Because there's so few people on the streets in this prefectural capital. It's crazy.

00:01:12 John Daub: But you know, I always love catching the Shinkansen. I got a lot of stuff. I got my drone, my camera bag, a lot of stuff I'm bringing out here. It's hard to film when you have a hot coffee as well. They did have a snack cart on the train, which I didn't realize. Here's the front of it. Very cool. The E8. It doesn't go that fast. So this train actually breaks apart at Fukushima. Half the train goes on to Sendai up towards Aomori. The other half cuts across to the Sea of Japan side going over to Yamagata. That's the purple one that'll connect and go up towards Yamagata, which is almost landlocked up here in Tohoku. Sakata is the city that's the port city. So it's got a little port.

00:01:53 John Daub: Look at the yellow-orange interior. I thought that was kind of neat. And the seats are nice. They seem a little bit wider and more comfortable than the other shinkansen. I was digging it. I really was. I like the bright colors. Here we are leaving Tokyo to get out here to Yamagata. I think it was about two and a half, three hours. I left at 4 and I arrived at 6:40, I think.

00:02:18 John Daub: So I got Hitachi-gyu, which is the hot Hitachi wagyu up at Ibaraki. Not too far away from Tokyo. This is a beef on rice. I guess you'd call it like a gyudon in a way. Hitachi. One of the biggest beefs in Japan. Maybe wagyu brands. I think it can compete with Kobe, to be honest with you. It's really good stuff. You almost have to get an ekiben when you travel on the shinkansen. But just happened that I hadn't had lunch, so I wanted to pick this up for sure. And of course you get some chopsticks with it. So it's a pretty cool experience to take the shinkansen here.

00:02:53 John Daub: Let me show you exactly where I am in Japan. Now this took about three and a half hours from Tokyo. You see where I am up there on the north. You go up to Fukushima right there and then you split. Half the train goes to Sendai, the other half goes to here, Yamagata. And that's where I got off the train. In this city, this is the prefectural capital. It looks really big, doesn't it? It's actually not that big. A lot of people live in this area. It's very residential. There are some businesses, some skyscrapers. But it's such a relaxed city. One of my favorites to rent a car and drive and get out.

00:03:37 John Daub: And I'll talk about it as we walk around the main street here. You can see it's built up. There are some restaurants and bars and stuff along the main street there. There are some alleys with bars and restaurants as well. It's good to ask a local or check out Google Maps and find out some of the places that might be worth going to. But you can see you don't have to travel far to get out to the countryside from Yamagata Station. I've been mushroom picking here in the autumn for delicious mushrooms for sukiyaki and lots of other stuff. But this is also of note, Yamadera (mountain temple), which is one of the most scenic temples with a thousand steps to get over the top. I did a video on the post office route here. That's like a 30-minute drive, less than 30-minute drive from Yamagata Station. Or you can take the train to get there. But I think it's a nice drive in order to do that.

00:04:32 John Daub: I'm actually here to go film the cherries. I'm going to a cherry farm. And we'll talk a little bit about that. But this station, unlike Shinjuku Station, it really does close pretty early. It's quiet. There's a shopping mall inside of the station as there usually is. So if you want to get some omiyage (souvenirs), some gifts, some things made of cherries, you can get that all in here. And they do have one Starbucks. Probably a bunch of other ones. A bakery, the Vie de France, which is always... That's been around as long as I've been here. Probably longer. And here's the omiyage, the gift shop inside of there. A lot of stuff made from rice, which is what Yamagata is famous for, as well as edamame is famous from here, as well as the Miyagi-Sendai region. Cherries, of course. All vegetables, to be honest with you. But again, it really is about the cherries. And right now, I'm at the cherry... The harvest season is starting right now. So I am going to check out the harvest, which is going to be pretty awesome. Maybe eat them right off of the tree.

00:05:40 John Daub: WRX Turbo is in the house. I got to turn the camera around and say, Hi, it's been a while. Nice to see you. Yes, you did miss a few, but I appreciate it very much. Welcome aboard as we cruise through the streets of Yamagata. Very famous for the sakurambo (cherry), which is cherries here.

00:06:03 John Daub: I've noticed an increase in public message signage telling you about the area and about things that you should do and shouldn't do. Manners. And a lot of it is in English. And I guess it is to help with foreign tourists to assimilate, more or less. So that there's a kind of a harmony between the locals and the visiting tourists. Because tourists want to do a good job of trying to fit in to local culture. If there's any audio problems, let me know. This is a live stream.

00:06:43 John Daub: This is the brand of rice that's really popular in Yamagata. It's quite good. You'll see just bags of that sold in the shops to buy as gifts. Welcome to Yamagata. That's cool. And of course, yokozou Yamagata. And of course, you have the cherry right there on top. And it's pretty cool. Carrie, thank you for the update on the audio. All right.

00:07:08 John Daub: I also want to give you an overview. Those that are watching probably might consider this as a hub to get to other day trip places like Ginzan Onsen. Why stay there when you can stay here? Why rent a car and really drive and check it out? There are some comfortable hotels here. This one is the JR sponsored hotel. Literally in the station. You can get in through there. The restaurant looks really scrumptious. It's called the Hotel Metropolitan. Right there. And this is what the room looks like. This is pretty swanky, wouldn't you say? It's clean. It's new. JR has done such a great job of these Metropolitan hotels. I've stayed at the one at Sendai before. Really comfortable. A lot of space. But you pay for it.

00:07:53 John Daub: I think the average hotel price here. So the average hotel price in Yamagata is way, way cheaper than Tokyo. Azao Onsen [?] is also good. Henry, thank you for that. I'll talk more about day trips and stuff as we walk along the street here. But it's way cheaper than Tokyo. Like a third of the price for a lot of this. If you book it a couple of months in advance. I checked this hotel out. It was 9,000 yen. Or what is that? Like $60 a night. Inside the station. You don't get any more convenient than this. Inside the station for a really brand new comfortable room. So I almost stayed there. But I'm only crashing for the night because I'm leaving at 6 in the morning. I don't really need a super comfortable place. So saving 30 bucks is kind of a big deal, right?

00:08:40 John Daub: The number one hotel in this area is right there. And we're going to walk by it right now. But don't put off like some of the other places that might save you 20, 30 bucks. That all adds up real quick. And the quality of the hotel, you can see that on the website. Or just use what I use here which is Google Maps. I just, I literally search just hotel and push search this area. And I get all of these locations here. So I'll zoom in. And you can see here's the station area. This is, there are so many options. And the competition creates cheaper prices. Again, I told you the Hotel Metropolitan. Booking.com had this for 9,000 yen. It's 10,000 on Google. Probably because it's last minute. Daiwa, the Daiwa Roynet Hotel right there, 9,700. I think it was 8,000 to 9,000 yen on Booking.com yesterday. Yamagata Kokusai Hotel is where I'm staying. I actually got that for 6,000 yen. Which is about 40 dollars. So you can see there's the prices within 250 meters. Or about five minutes walk from the station. It's pretty incredible the prices here.

00:09:52 John Daub: And if I zoom out a little bit more, you can see out in the countryside. There really aren't a lot of options. When you start getting to like places like Zao or Zao Onsen. Then you're getting into higher priced places like the ryokan (traditional inn). Which includes two meals.

00:10:09 John Daub: So if you're staying at a hotel like this. You're staying at like a western type of hotel. With maybe a Japanese twist to it. Depends. I'm going to show you my hotel in a second. But if you go to a ryokan. A traditional Japanese inn at Zao Onsen. It is a very traditional Japanese experience. I highly recommend it. You get half board. Which is breakfast and dinner usually included. So the price reflects that. About five to ten years ago. The typical price was about 14 or 15,000 yen. Or a hundred dollars a night. With meals. That's a good deal for what you get. A beautiful tatami room. Excellent service. Usually run by a family. I highly recommend. You have to stay at a ryokan at least one night. So you can wear that yukata (light kimono). You can feel what the Japanese hotel stay is like. And Zao Onsen is a really great place. It's about a 30 minute drive from here. If I had time I'd go. Actually I considered staying there. But I got here just about a couple of hours ago. Riding the Shinkansen. Right? Check it out here. I just came here a couple of hours ago. So I didn't really have a lot of time.

00:11:20 John Daub: Here's the train pulling into Yamagata. About two hours ago. That E8 is pretty badass I have to say. Look at the bugs it smashed going through the countryside here. I'll show you what it looks like. Getting out of the city of Tokyo. And going out of the countryside. This is my welcome. This is so awesome. Why don't I live out here. Someone slap me. Please. Why don't I live out here in beautiful Yamagata. This is so perfect. The sun was just setting behind the mountains. Look at the rice paddies. They just planted them. The taue (rice planting season) which is what we call rice planting season. Just started or ended in this particular region. It's so beautiful out here. I'm kind of jealous for everybody walking around here. And check it out. Here is the prefectural capital. There's nobody here. Imagine Shinjuku at this time. Completely packed mostly with tourists. Not one tourist is walking the streets here. Not one. Just locals. Some of them look kind of tough.

00:12:29 John Daub: There are a couple of kids over there. They look like they could. If I got them one on one I could take them. But if they ganged up on me. They'd definitely take me down. I wouldn't go out without a fight. What am I talking about? It's a long trip here. You got some izakaya (pub) bars on the second floor here. On the first floor is a Mister Donut. We're going to walk right by there. Joy I'm not going to fight anybody. But if I did. I wouldn't bet against me. Anyone seen Karate Kid?

00:13:14 John Daub: Alright we're going down the escalator here. There really aren't a lot of trains. This is the schedule. Check it out. These are my options. There's only 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 trains after 2pm. So these are my options to return tomorrow. There's not a lot of trains back to Tokyo. Not Shinkansen wise. Alright here we are. The main street. Route 16. Going down here. They have problems with bicycle parking as well. So you can see where to park your bicycle. Don't just leave it out on the streets. And I noticed there aren't any bicycles parked out here on the streets.

00:14:01 John Daub: People are. There are a lot of plastered people. I walked by a group of Japanese businessmen that were coming out of my hotel. And I almost got drunk off of the fumes. Of whatever they had for dinner. It was like. If I lit a match. It would have been a total destruction. Total destruction. Man they drank a lot. So we're going to say goodbye to the station here. There's Yamagata station right there. The sign. This side has a lot more to it than the other side. Henry. Total destruction. That's how much alcohol fumes were in that. In the lobby. In the area. They walked by me. Imagine if we were in the elevator together. That's why they put no smoke in there. There's smoking signs everywhere.

00:15:22 John Daub: Alright. That lady right there. That's walking past us. She's been out here for about 45-50 minutes. Trying to get people to go into her izakaya. There's just not a lot of people out here to get into the restaurant. So she's actively trying to get people in there. But she just takes one look at me. And doesn't even. Doesn't give me a chance. Needless. What she doesn't know is that I can speak. Pretty good Japanese. If you were to challenge me, I might even go in.

00:15:54 John Daub: This is the Comfort Inn. Which is not a bad hotel. It's reasonably priced. It looks like two stars. But look. It's really close to the station. Across the street though is the number one hotel. It's brand new. I remember when it was under construction last time I was here, I think. This is the Daiwa Roynet Hotel. Here's what the room looks like. Probably best case scenario. That might be the corner room. But it's really spacious. Big windows. It looks really nice, doesn't it? That might be the suite. My hotel room. The Kokusai Hotel. It's dated. That's why I paid 40 bucks for it tonight. This is what you get. You know what I like about my room? It's comfortable. I'm used to it. It's a clean business hotel. 40 bucks a night. You know. There's a desk there. TV. There's a place to plug my stuff in there. Everything looks clean. The lighting's not too bad. It's dated. But it's not, you know, as good as the Daiwa Roynet Hotel. But the staff is professional. Check-in was super easy. The bathroom is clean. For me, this is comfortable. I've been in Japan for a very long time. No problems whatsoever. It'd be tight for two people. But for one, 40 dollars a night or 6,500 yen, I think, is a pretty good deal, I thought. I could have gotten cheaper.

00:17:33 John Daub: This is really important now. Alright. Bookmark this. Or get your number two pencils out. When you book a hotel out in the countryside, in particular, whatever you do, and you find a good deal, okay? You're looking at it and you see, oh my gosh, there's a place for 4,000 yen. That's like 25 dollars. I gotta book it. Nine times out of ten, it's a smoking room. And if you smoke, that's not, it's a good thing, right? You get a discount. But if you don't smoke, and I don't smoke, it really is not comfortable. The pillow smells of smoke. Your eyes hurt because it's like baked into the walls. And when you leave, you smell like you smoked as well. That's one of the, I don't know why they even have smoking rooms. It seems like they could just easily go out into the hallway and smoke. Smoking in bed also is not really good. But this is Japan. And we're still top heavy with the older generation that they like that kind of stuff. And on the countryside, those mostly Japanese businessmen are staying at these places. So they want that kind of stuff. But they don't sell as good, especially to internationals. And my God, I ended up, I almost pushed the button to get a cheaper place. And then it was all smoking. I double checked. Sometimes it doesn't say smoking. But my spider senses say, oh, that's smoking. It can't be that cheap. There's a catch. And then I found one that literally said non-smoking. I even took screenshots of it. You can call them to ask. Just be careful with smoking rooms. Some of you might have stories on that. If you do get screwed and get a smoking room, you can sometimes get a pillow, a fresh pillow. Ask the front desk. Little things might make it more comfortable for you.

00:19:25 John Daub: Look at the cute mascot here. I would say the Daiwa Roynet looks like a four-star hotel. But the price is about 9,000 yen or about $65 a night. All right. That's really cheap. One of the, oh, look, Matsuya. Kanai prefers Matsuya over Yoshinoya. Let the debate to begin. Here's a local takoyaki highball shop. Looks like you can get takoyaki takeout. There's a place across the street that is hopping. There's a lot of people a little buzzed over there. That's an Okinawa restaurant, if I can read that correctly. You can hear it's buzzing with music.

00:20:17 John Daub: I want to take you across the street, though. I want to show you something of the Daiwa Roynet Hotel just a little bit. That, the restaurant that's connected to it has come highly recommended to people that might be here. One of the things that you want to do when you are in Yamagata, if you're not staying in a ryokan, you want to try the local wagyu beef. Oh, my. The local wagyu beef is so good.

00:20:50 John Daub: Yamagata-gyu. Gyu means cow, ushi. It's basically beef, right? So, Yamagata beef, Yamagata-gyu, it's really good as it is, right? But the premium Yamagata-gyu is Yonezawa brand. Just like you can get Hyogo beef, I believe, but that's the prefecture, but Kobe beef would be Yonezawa. The prefecture's top brand. So, Yonezawa beef is what you want. Although, Yamagata beef is not bad. Yonezawa would be the brand that's, you know, I think it's only A4, A5 graded wagyu. So, it's only the top stuff.

00:21:28 John Daub: My rented car is already closed. They close at 8 p.m. So, I got here before 7:30 and I got the car rented, parked in a parking lot, so I can leave here at 6 in the morning. This place inside of the Roynet, this royal dining, the Daiwa Roynet, came up pretty highly recommended. A lot of the international visitors that came here got Yonezawa-gyu, Yonezawa. And the kanji, it's pretty cool here. That means rice. So, Yonezawa is a beautiful little town. Oh, it's got it in English here. I highly recommend it. You have to try the local wagyu and rice when you're here with some sake. So good. So, this restaurant looks like it's still open. Let's see the prices maybe. It is a little pricey. I think you get what you pay for. Trying to focus past it. Okay, good. So, you can screenshot that. It's like about $150. You can get some cheaper courses here for shabu-shabu is not too bad. That's about $65. So, you're going to pay a little bit for it, but you would pay for it anyways. It looks like it's really good. Again, it looks really clean inside of there. Kind of swanky. Different from Tokyo, right? It's different than Tokyo. We even got the old phone booths here. You don't see a lot of these anymore. In about 5, 10 years, I don't know if they'll... They'll still have them because if there's any problem with the cell services, which is always a possibility, EMP knocks out all digital stuff. Everyone's going to be trying to make phone calls there. So, I don't think you're ever going to get rid of those green phone booths, but it's comforting to see as someone who's been here for 27 years. It's a long time.

00:23:24 John Daub: You'll see that inside. Inside of the convenience stores around the station, they also have Yamagata gifts and stuff. That's kind of nice. You can get all the cherry confections. I think I'll probably get some of the... For anyone who's a Daimyo supporter, for June, I'm going to see if I can get some Yamagata stuff. Namely, this. I will put this... I've done it maybe about three years ago. I have a bag of it here. This is really good. This is the Oshidori milk cake. Anyone have this before? It's like a Yamagata thing. Oshidori milk cake. They have a cherry flavor as well, but I think the original is just as good. I can crack one open if you guys are interested. I think it's pretty healthy too. Probably. Let's crack one open.

00:24:37 John Daub: I feel bad about... A lot of these restaurants are pretty much empty. They don't get a lot of tourists out here. You know? So if you go off of the beaten path, you will be rewarded if you get off of the beaten path. Going out to a place like this, you'll be so warmly welcomed. You might not understand all of it, but if you just get a Google Translate, you give it some time, you work it out, you write down your allergies, it works out really good. And you have one of those only in Japan experiences that separates a place like Kyoto, which is just overrun with tourists. You'll get something like that here.

00:25:22 John Daub: It's like a stick of gum, right? But it's milk. It's good. Yeah, you know, I think the cherry flavor is interesting. They also have pear and some of the other local stuff, but normal milk is so good. That's an actual... It's not like white chocolate. I can't even describe it. It's like a sweetened milk, but it breaks apart so well. It's got a nice crunch to it. You can crunch it up and put it on top of ice cream as well.

00:26:22 John Daub: Food loaf is here. When I went to buy a bento at Yokohama Station in 2024, I took one with meat from Yamagata. I know that bento, but because for some reason I had John's voice in my head saying, Yamagata. How is it? Yamagata. Yeah. I know the exact one. I've had that before. It was sold out at Tokyo Station. That's why I got the Hitachi beef one. There's a place with all of the beef bentos. It's usually there. It was gone today. I know exactly which one you're talking about. It's really good. Yeah. If you're a Daimyo supporter, I send packages to people through Patreon. You get a postcard as well as a care package. This month I sent out sakura mochi puffed. Those are so good, the sakura mochi. Kinako mochi is the one I usually send, but they have a sakura mochi flavor this month. I was so good. I picked up a bunch for our supporters here. I got some Tokyo milk cookies with some cream inside of them. What else was inside of there? This month's package was pretty neat. The sakura green tea Kit Kats, which were pretty good. Brandy and I walked around and we found those there. I think it was like a matcha latte or something. A whole bag of the Kit Kats and some of the kinako (roasted soybean flour) black thunders, which are awesome. It's got a little... Kinako kind of like a roasted soybean, sort of like peanut butter, but it's got a better taste to it, I think, than peanut butter, believe it or not.

00:28:05 John Daub: There's something about the kinako across the street here because I got nothing to lose. I'm going to keep this short because I want to get to bed. I got to wake up at like 5:30, 6 o'clock at the crack of dawn and get the drone up and get some shots. Look at this pizza place. This is swanky. Pizzeria and Bar Logic Yamagata. Somebody Google that. That looks really... If I was here one more night, I would get... Oh, look at that. They got like a brick oven pizza in there. I would stay here and eat there if I had one more night. It's empty. In Tokyo, all these places are packed. All these places would be like packed in Tokyo. And here there's like... There's one couple in there. One couple in there sitting in the front. That place looks so cool. It goes up to the second floor... Three floors. The top floor is closed. I guess they get busy on the weekends. But I... It smells like pizza. I'm craving it. Like I would go in there and eat if I had one more night here. But I got to head back around 4 or 5 o'clock tomorrow. Oh, you can see the brick oven there. Wow. That's pretty cool. That's very cool. Getting hungry. Getting hungry.

00:29:40 John Daub: This is not the greatest time to do a live stream. I'd say most... Most everybody in the US, maybe some people on the East Coast, everybody else... We're talking Europe and Australia and Singapore. Hey, Diana. We got a lot of people in Singapore watching, which is great.

00:29:57 John Daub: Do you have to get a drone permit? You have to register your drone with the government. So you get a registration number. I can't remember if I paid for it. I did it a while ago. But you have to register your drone now with the government. It's not that hard. It used to be really painful, the process. It's not that hard to do now. When you enter into Japan, they kind of give you a lot of information. But don't fly your drone in Japan without registering your drone. Maybe you can get away with it out here. But you really need to do that. And also to download the maps and know where you can't use it. Because now they have equipment to track you. And they will find you and find you and find you. And you don't want that. It's not... What's worse than the fine is the police will waste your time. So you're going to end up spending like 12 to 24 hours waiting. It's really bad. No one's had a really good experience sitting there getting fined, going to the police station, and then sitting there for like 12 to 24 hours. It just... Because the bureaucracy just takes forever. That's worse than the fine. Alright? You're ruining your trip. So don't do that. Just register your drone. It's not too hard. And be mindful of where you're flying.

00:31:15 John Daub: But I took lessons with a helicopter pilot who... Who did helicopter scenes for TV. So I used to work with TBS... I directed a show for TV here in Japan in 2008. It's like a lifetime ago. It was a series for DHC, which is a cosmetics company here. But they also did English language books. And we... I think we made how many episodes? Like it was like 50 or 60 episodes for late night TV as a sponsored show. And I was the star and the director and one of the producers of it. It kept me afloat before I did YouTube. And that was also the time I started to learn how to fly the drones. And one of the... The cameraman from that was also... Was friends with a guy who used to do the helicopter... Like the day before the drones, they had to use helicopters. He was a helicopter pilot for video for TBS. And he would do also Fuji TV and NHK and some of the other ones. They made pretty good money. But he... The writing was on the wall with drones in Japan. Like everyone's gonna be... Gonna have a drone. So instead of, you know, getting knocked out of a job, he started to teach drone use. And I think it was 50,000 yen. I took his classes. I didn't really need to do it, but I... I kind of did actually at the time. Drones didn't have GPS very good back then. That's why you got the crashes. Now with GPS, drones are almost perfect. You don't really lose them anymore. But back then, you really had to have skill in order to do it. So I was glad to do that. And you get accredited. I don't know if it's a license or not, but accredited. It was BS Fuji. I did several shows for BS Fuji. I did a lot of stuff for Japanese TV back in the day. Between 2006 and 2012, I was somewhat active on Japanese TV, including NHK. Not so much anymore.

00:33:25 John Daub: Do I have anything else to show you here? Not really. Just, I do think the trip here on the E8, which is the new Shinkansen train, I guess it replaces the E3 [?]? The E4, E5? That was the red one? I haven't seen that one as much. But maybe that one is the one that goes up to Akita. I don't know. This one goes to Yamagata. I think it's worth it.

00:33:52 John Daub: And one of the reasons I like to do this kind of stream, like, I want to encourage you all to get away from Tokyo as much as possible. Everybody... Japan has an overcrowding problem, but it's not out here. This is why I wanted to show you this tonight. The overcrowding and over-tourism problem is not out here. It's on the same path that everybody else is going, that you're seeing on social media over and over and over again. And unless people on social media start to show places like Yamagata City as a potential place to stay, you really don't know what's there. There's risk to it. I'm taking the risk out of it. If you stay here, you're going to have a pretty good experience, in my opinion. I think you're going to see some amazing things and meet people that are really... We started the livestream. People saying, hello, hey. People are really friendly out here. The sake is better. If you drink sake, the water is better, too. You have Zao Onsen. You have Yamadera. You have the cherries, the vegetables, the meat. You've got everything that's right here. I smell that pizza. Oh, my God. It smells so good. Oh, brick oven pizza.

00:34:54 John Daub: There's no reason to do Kyoto for the fifth time. What are you doing? I know that you love Japan. If you're doing Kyoto for the fifth time, stop it. Turn around. Go up to Tohoku, especially in the summer when the days are longer, and look for an adventure. Rent a car. It's really easy to drive out here. I know you might be nervous about driving on the other side. Get fully insured, which is like $10 a day, for full insurance. And drive the highways and see stuff. Stop in nature. Go to local towns, and you're going to be blown away by the hospitality of people looking at you like they've never seen a foreigner before. That still exists in Japan, but you don't do it when you're in Kyoto or Osaka or Dotonbori or Himeji or going to the same places over and over again. That's my speech. I don't know. Anybody sold? Anybody sold?

00:35:53 John Daub: I could see myself making it. I'm making a bar out here. Sendai is not far away as well. You could go to Sendai and take a local train out here in about an hour, I think. And you could stop at Yamadera, which is one of the top sites in Tohoku that you've got to go and stop at. And that's really close to here. So a lot of the tourists that are staying here, if they do stay here, they're staying here to go to Yamadera first thing in the morning. And it's good to go first thing in the morning. There's no people. You feel that connection with nature that you wouldn't get in Kyoto. I'm telling you right now. This is an amazing adventure. It's a little bit chillier up here, which is great in the summer when everyone is sweating it out in August in Tokyo. Tohoku typically is about 5 or 6 degrees cooler. And in the mountains, maybe even more so. So there you go. That's my pitch.

00:36:47 John Daub: What kind of driver's license do you need? I have a Japanese driver's license, a gold Japanese license. So I'm a good driver. But if you get the international driver's permit, make sure you get the right one. The one usually by AAA is good. Just check it all out before you come to Japan. There's an IDP. There's one that's from Europe, which is not accredited that people have trouble with. I think it's like $10 to get an international driver's license. You need the Japanese translation that's in the international driver's license. It's just law. That's why. It's just law. So they don't want to break the law. So if you don't have it, they're not going to rent you the car. So it's $10 to get it. You don't have to take any tests if you're an international tourist. If you're a resident of Japan, you need to have a Japanese license after your first year. So if you've been in Japan for a year, you can use an international driver's permit. But after the first year, you've got to get a Japanese driver's license. I learned that the hard way. I learned it the hard way.

00:37:58 John Daub: Now you maybe want to visit Tsuruga again. Oh, I love Tsuruga! Small, little, cool, peaceful town in Fukui, man. With the Shinkansen now. It's pretty awesome. Alright, my hotel is this way. So I want to have another one of those milk cakes. But I've got to stay in shape. I've got some really hard hiking episodes coming this year. I'll be outdoors and out of Tokyo a lot for the main channel the rest of the year.

00:38:38 John Daub: It's dark off of the main street. Look at this. I also noticed that parking is a bargain. All night parking in this area. I parked here. How much do you think it costs? From 7pm to 7am. How much? This is Japan. You would expect it to be a little pricey. But no. It's crazy. ¥1000 rates and carry. ¥1000. ¥1000 seems to be what everyone wants. Okay, here we go. ¥500. From 6:30pm to 7am. And there's a spot nearby that says ¥400. That's crazy. In Tokyo, it's like four times that. ¥500 all night parking. You know how much that is? That's $3.50, right? $3.00. It's too cheap. It's crazy. So I parked there. The hotel. I did my homework. I asked the hotel, so how much is your parking? No, no, no, no, no. He asked me if I had a car. And I said yes. And he said, do you want parking? And I said, how much is it? And I knew how much it was. It was ¥900. And I said, but the parking's ¥500 across the street. And the guy said, yeah, but you can come and go here. It's only once you park, you have to pay ¥500 each time. You can come and go there. And I was like, I'm sleeping in late in the morning. So I'm going to park over there. And he said, yeah, I probably would have done the same. So he's a pretty cool guy. Check this out here. ¥700 to ¥700. ¥400. I believe that might be just kei cars (light vehicles). But that's cheap, man. That's like $2.80 for all night parking.

00:40:58 John Daub: This is where you drive a car. Because look how wide the streets are. If you haven't driven a car, don't rent it in Tokyo. Rent it out here. And you're going to get really used to driving a car. And you're going to get used to driving on the other side of the road. It is a little bit nervous in the beginning. But from here, you can get quickly onto the freeway. And once you get on the freeway, you get used to being on the other side of the car. And you quickly get used to it. And then your brain just kind of switches over. Like when you're walking, same with driving, although the stakes are higher. But just don't speed and be cool, man. It's all good. How much would Tokyo be? I don't know. All night parking, ¥1,000, I would say. Some places outside of the center might be ¥700 to ¥1,000. So you can find cheap places as well. They just want to get the spots filled all night. You know, in places where people don't stay the night. But this is really cheap. Japan's a car culture, man. Japan's a car culture. We have the Shinkansen. We have the trains. It's convenient. But out away from the cities, on this side, it's a car culture. You have a car. You have access. You can see a lot more.

00:42:13 John Daub: All right, everybody. I got to get to bed. I hope this is interesting to you guys. Let me know what you think. I'm going to do some live streams tomorrow out into the countryside. At least one out in the Yamagata countryside to show you around. Maybe I'll show you the cherry farm. I don't know. But I'm blessed to have an opportunity to go and see, I think it's like a 500-year-old cherry tree. I don't know what I'm going to see tomorrow. But I'm looking forward to it and I leave at 6 in the morning, so I better get some sleep. But yeah, Yamagata station. I think it's worth using this as a base to see maybe Zao or, especially in the winter, it's hard to get a place there. Or Yonezawa or Ginzan Onsen. Why stay there when you can stay here? Ginzan Onsen is pretty pricey and it's really, really hard to get a place now. It's a, what is it, 45-minute drive from here or something? And I think they limit the amount of tourists that go to Ginzan Onsen now. So it's changed the culture there a little bit. But I got to go. I'll see you tomorrow in another live stream. Make sure you hit the like button. Leave me a comment what you thought about this. And looking forward to seeing you guys bright and early. See you. Good night.