00:01 John Daub: Welcome to Nagoya Station. It's been a while since I was in the city where I grew up in Japan. This is the first place I lived in this neighborhood. It's nice to be back. I came here to film a couple of episodes. I'll tell you a little bit about it as we explore Nagoya Station. This is one of Japan's biggest cities. I believe it's the third biggest. It's a pretty big station. It's been redone—in my mind, it's newly redone, but it's like 20 years old now.

00:30 John Daub: The towers you saw up there where the station is underneath, as well as the Meitetsu (private railway). I think there's a couple of other lines that connect here. I always took the Meitetsu when I was living in Okazaki in 1998. They've changed a lot. Check this out—you can just see there's so much construction going on over there. New buildings that didn't exist the last time I was here. Every time I come to Nagoya, I'm just so surprised at how modern it is, how cool it's getting.

01:00 John Daub: Nagoya is a place that's often passed up by tourists because it's not Tokyo, not Kyoto, not Osaka, not Nara, not Himeji. You don't think it has any real big attractions, but it does. It's got food, it's got people, it's got Legoland, it's got a bunch of other stuff that's worth a look. I'm going to take you today. There's somebody singing down there—they're not that bad.

01:34 John Daub: I'm taking you from here, the outside of glorious Nagoya, to the Shinkansen platform. We're going to get the tickets together—at least we're going to try to. Last time I think I showed you my credit card number and got in a little bit of trouble. Hopefully I can do it without showing you my credit card number. I've got to get my ticket to get on the Shinkansen—you're coming with me. This is in 720p because I don't know how bad the signal is going to be. It doesn't matter. We're going to have some fun today. I hope everybody's doing well. Let's go check it out. Time to go inside.

02:09 John Daub: When I first came to Nagoya Station, it really wasn't anything special back in 1998. It got revamped when the Expo came here in 2004, I believe. I remember in 1998 they had signs for it: "The Expo is coming to Aichi 2004." I'm like, that seems like a long time away. Then it came and went. Now it's 2025—what the heck happened? That's really weird. It's really beautiful—they did such an amazing job. In fact, there's an elevator that will take you up to the top and there's an observation deck. I believe it's free. I used to see the Shinkansens going by there. There's a hotel up there—you can even go to the lobby and get a really amazing view of Nagoya.

02:49 John Daub: If you go this way and maybe a little bit to the right, you'll get to Sakae, which is the nightlife district.

03:01 Ellie: Oh my God, I'm two minutes away. I'll come say hi.

03:05 John Daub: Well, I think you found me. You started live streaming when I was like two minutes away at the post office.

03:12 Ellie: Oh, okay. So that was you writing in here, Ellie. How you doing?

03:15 John Daub: Good. Pretty good. I'm the person that collects tons of IC cards from around the country. I've posted in your Discord.

03:22 Ellie: Do you have them all? Including the Kumamon one from Kumamoto?

03:25 John Daub: Yeah, like 130 total, is it?

03:27 Ellie: There are 130? Mostly local, like small bus companies, but sometimes your Discord's a nice source for English language people who are interested in Japanese transit.

03:41 John Daub: Well, that's a really fun little community. We aim to please. I don't know if I have a You Found Me—I might have one. It's worn. Wow. This is the last one—it's worn and has a lot of character. I like it. Yeah, it has those bent corners. It's been somewhere. It's been through trials and tribulations. It's been through all 47 prefectures—you could say it like that.

04:04 John Daub: Ooh, fun. Nice. Hey. All right, Peso's saying, hey, Eli, right?

04:09 Ellie: Yeah, yeah. Where are you from?

04:11 John Daub: I'm from the US originally. I live here.

04:14 Ellie: Oh, okay. Yeah, I live two stations down that way, but I'm meeting a friend at the station.

04:19 John Daub: What a coincidence. Yeah, I'm literally just here. I didn't make it to one of the post offices by me before it closed by 5, but the central ones are always open till 7, so I was like, well, swing by.

04:29 John Daub: Is Jerry's Uno still here, the taco place? I used to go to a place called Jerry's Uno. There used to be three of them.

04:37 Ellie: The only good Mexican food I've ever had in Japan is by Osu Shopping District (shotengai/covered shopping arcade). It's called Sayulita. They have a food truck that's been going around for a while, but they opened up their own restaurant.

04:48 John Daub: Have you been to Cesare, the pizza place?

04:50 Ellie: I have. It's very good. Eli knows. Baccerio Uno Cesare. Yeah, that dude won the best pizza chef in the world. He's Japanese. He went to Napoli and he won it. And he opened up a shop, and he said, all my pizzas will be 500 yen. And he has brick oven pizza that comes out. It's the best pizza chef in the world, like maybe 10 years ago now. It's in Osu Kannon. It's amazing. That's where Jerry's Uno used to be. It was the only place you could get foreign beers. So I'd get like a Samuel Adams at the taco place. Jerry's Uno, I guess it's gone.

05:26 John Daub: All right, well, it was really nice to meet you.

05:28 Ellie: Yeah, nice to meet you. I'll let you go on, get your— I didn't even see the topic, but have fun buying— Nagoya Station.

05:35 John Daub: See you later, Ellie. That was pretty cool. What a way to start. Okay, let's go inside here. Welcome, Pedro—you also made it to a live stream.

05:47 John Daub: And I love this deck. It's great where you can see people, all the people of the Mikawa region here. I'm so proud of them. I've lived everywhere. All right, this is one of my favorite escalators here. I love this escalator because it takes you down to what is now the new meeting point. From this escalator, you can see just the beauty of Nagoya Station. And that clock is where a lot of people will meet up. So they'll meet you underneath the clock at Nagoya Station. That's what they're talking about, that beautiful gold clock right there. And you can see it's a really beautiful, newly done station here.

06:51 John Daub: All right, let's go get our ticket for the Shinkansen now and walk around a little bit.

07:03 John Daub: John, you just got 150 gifted. Really? Aiken, thank you. I see Aiken is here. I'm scrolling back. I had Eli here. I wasn't looking at the chat very much. Patrick, are you in Argentina, or at least you are for now? Thank you, Patrick. It's great to see you here. My man doesn't see me gifting 150 memberships. Patrick, I see it now. You're the man, Patrick. I'm always happy to see you. I'm glad you could join us for this trip here. That's pretty awesome, 150 memberships. That's freaking awesome. All right, it's gotten really busy. That's why it's also 720p. This is the worst time, but I was working today. I was up with the Japan Post Office in their orientation for the Mount Fuji Summit post office climb. So that was about four and a half hours of listening and experiencing what they go through.

08:14 John Daub: Now, in this direction, there's convenience stores, restaurants, places to buy gifts with Takashimaya, which is the big department store on the right side. That's sort of the anchor to all of this. Nagoya is famous for its Cochin chicken, and you can see right there represented the chickens. You'll see a lot of things made from eggs and chickens because it's just so good, including the sandwiches. Wow. That's a beautiful looking fish sandwich there, fruit sandwich there. I'll have to get an ekiben (station bento) now. Patrick has made sure that I don't leave here without an ekiben. Here's another entrance to the JR line. I want to go from the main side. This is like just a side corridor. Let's stay in the center. But you'll see for the Shinkansen, there are vending machines just about everywhere to get a ticket. Let's go get ours at the main entrance.

09:20 John Daub: Wow, Nagoya. You can feel it. People, you know, it's just different. Nagoya is just so different when compared to Tokyo and Osaka. You can feel it. Most of the non-Japanese that you see are either English teachers or they're working for Toyota—at least that's what it used to be 25 years ago when I was here. This is the escalator where everybody meets. You can see people hanging out underneath there. It's really cool.

10:05 John Daub: The subway lines here—there's the Sakura-dori Line and the Higashiyama Line is the one I ride the most. That'll take you to Fushimi and to Sakae. So that's the one that's most useful, I think. Alright, let's work our way towards the Shinkansen tickets here. Try to get me back home before I fall asleep. I am getting really sleepy because of the jet lag.

10:44 John Daub: Look at this. They have these work pods—you know, some people were calling these like sleeping pods. Like Japan is really weird. They have these sleeping pods. They've got desks in here. The purpose is to actually work. They've got internet connection and stuff. You would make a reservation online and you'd be able to get some work done in a quiet place. And it actually works out cheaper than going to a cafe if you don't want to buy coffee. And it's really convenient in and out. I did it once for the channel to try it out. The Shinkansen is in the back. You can see the sign. Just follow the sign—it says Shinkansen on the top there. Really easy. This whole stream has been brought to you by our good friend Patrick. Thank you, Patrick.

12:00 John Daub: The lockers are really nice, really cool. They work really well, too. So all you got to do is take your stuff in there. They're kind of expensive—500 yen. They used to be like 400—this used to be a 300 yen locker. It's 500 yen now. So you put your stuff in there, one, two, close it. Three, push this down, hold it. Four, go to this panel, confirm that this is your locker, touch it. There you go. I see card or cash. Maybe you pick your Suica card. It's 500 yen. You touch it here. And your IC card is also your key. So don't lose your IC card or the receipt that comes out of it. And then when you come, you touch your IC card again and it'll open it up. Pretty cool. That's kind of new. Those lockers didn't exist a few years ago, I think. It's new to me.

13:10 John Daub: Man, Nagoya is famous for this miso katsu (miso cutlet)—breaded pork cutlet, deep-fried breaded pork cutlet, crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside with that tangy miso sauce. So healthy. Not really, but yes, it's good. You know, you don't eat it all the time just because it's healthy. You eat because it tastes so darn good. Some places do it better than others. Here's the entrance to the Shinkansen. I love the artwork. This is a bank, but you can see they put in all the things that represent Nagoya. There's the pasta. This is from Nagoya Castle, this dolphin-looking dragon. On the top of the castle, you'll see this symbol, and it's very famous for Nagoya. There's the miso katsu right there, where's the kishimen (flat noodles), which is ebi onigiri (shrimp rice ball), ebi-ten onigiri (shrimp tempura rice ball), anko toast, which might be that coffee chain. I don't know about the gorilla—I'm not sure if that's famous, but the zoo. Is that the Higashiyama Zoo? You see the confections made from the design of the Nagoya Castle up there. Yeah, Nagoya Station really has changed. It's just so nice.

14:39 John Daub: Let's go get the Shinkansen ticket. I just have to do it so you don't see my personal information. So you can see there's a lot of trains going to Tokyo. They put the schedule here. These are all going to Tokyo—the Nozomi. Nagoya to Tokyo confirmed. Oh, I forgot—the price is more expensive because of the reserved ticket. So it's about 800 yen more expensive to get a reserved ticket. I always get an official receipt, which is called a ryoshusho (detailed receipt). So 11,000 yen is about $70, which is pretty good. I did it without you seeing my credit card. So that was a big success.

17:02 John Daub: Now, here's some inside information. I got my ticket here. This is the receipt and this is the ticket. And it'll say in English here, it's going to the Tokyo area. So I could actually get a connecting train from here. But yeah, if you do miss your train, you can just take the non-reserved, but try not to miss your train. Let's take a look a little bit on this side here. Nobody saw my pin. They make sure your trains are everywhere here. It is 16:20 and my train was 16:41. So we got 20 minutes. Oh, sorry—we're going to Tokyo. So we got this one, the Nozomi 442 to Tokyo, platform track number 14. So then we got a little bit time maybe to buy an onigiri or get some food here. So let's do it.

18:25 John Daub: Let's take a very quick look at the other side of Nagoya Station here. It's really not as nice or built up. You can tell there's a big camera over there. There's a bunch of hotels as well, but it's certainly not the same as the other side, which will take you down to the center. Let me show you on the map really quickly where we are. I should have done this in the beginning. Nagoya is between Tokyo and Osaka—probably closer to Kyoto than it is to Tokyo for sure. It's in Aichi Prefecture. That's Nagoya Station right there. You can see the Shinkansen stops there as well as a lot of other JR lines and the Meitetsu line, which is a local line. It'll take you to Inuyama Castle, which is really beautiful, and all the way up to Okazaki and Toyohashi and Anjo and Nishio. I got a video on that. There's the station where we started right there—this live stream. This is the way towards Sakae, which is the entertainment district. Around this time the bars start opening. I've sort of outgrown it. But the science museum is not too bad. But you can see that the TV tower was the big item in Nagoya—the castle and this. And the TV tower. It sort of looks like all the other towers like Sapporo TV Tower, Nagoya TV Tower—they all have a TV tower that looks like the Eiffel Tower. It's kind of cool. And that's Nagoya. That's pretty much the city.

20:23 John Daub: Alright, let's just go inside. We can get everything pretty much inside, right? Let's look at the bento shop first here. Why not? We have 17 minutes. This is the ekiben station here. So around this time there really aren't as many bentos. They stopped making them because they have expiration dates on them. You're gonna see miso-katsu right here. There's more than one kind of miso-katsu. This one's more expensive. Nani ga chigau? (What's different?) This is the Nagoya bento. It's 1,300 yen. So that's about $10 for that one. That looks pretty good. Should I go for that? There's ebi-fry (shrimp fry), shrimp, miso katsu. It's got everything in here—a Cochin. All right, let's do it—the Nagoya bento.

22:09 John Daub: I stopped drinking alcohol. I just get tansansui (sparkling water). It's almost like alcohol, but it's not. There's some anko butter toast—that looks good. Maybe some mino. You know what? I don't need the snacks here. I got a pretty good bento. Excuse me. A bag, please. A card. A touch. A receipt, please.

23:05 Staff: Is Nagoya bento quite popular?

23:17 John Daub: Yes, everyone has it. There's everything, right?

23:18 Staff: Yes, there is. A receipt, please.

23:35 John Daub: Hello. How's the food? Thank you for waiting. Thank you. I'll take it to the cashier. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I got an official receipt. Once again, I did not show you my credit card number. That's a big success. I still remember the time that I did. I very quickly deleted it. Nobody used it. I canceled the card, though. I remember. Here's my ticket. We're going in now to the Shinkansen. Do you guys have any questions about Nagoya Station? I think that's pretty much it. Meitetsu is outside. There's never a reason to get nervous about Japanese stations. If you look up here, the signage is so good. The Aonami Line and the Taiko-dori side right there. You get the subway and the Kintetsu is all in this direction. The Meitetsu Line, which is the one I used to take, is in this direction. So it's very easy. It tells you where the coin lockers are. All you got to do is just go straight.

24:52 John Daub: Patrick, you are breaking the Internet, bro. Thank you. Heartfelt thank you. That's so awesome. We have 150 new members. That's awesome. Link your credit cards and Apple Pay. I actually did, but I just keep forgetting to use it. Platform 14, they said. I feel like I'm way too early. It's no fun if I'm not running for the Shinkansen. So let's go into the waiting room. Just take a quick look, see if the signal holds out. I'm impressed. So they do have gifts here. Now, my wife's not in Japan, so I don't have to buy omiyage (souvenirs), but this will give you a hint on what they do have here. I told you the Cochin chicken is very famous here. So the pudding is good. This is Country Ma'am cookies made of Hyorin pudding. So it's kind of an egg-flavored pudding. Uncle Toast is famous—very famous. Here's the ebi-senbei (shrimp crackers). There is a Starbucks there and another place to get a bento. So I could have gotten my bento inside of here. They had Spam musubi as well. So my Shinkansen train is 442. Here it is—442, platform 14. It's as simple as that. Japan is just so easy.

27:26 John Daub: Look at that—they have a big slice of wagyu. That is pretty. It says yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant. I'm regretting that I didn't just get a yakiniku bento. My train is not even for another 10 minutes. This is the earliest I've ever been on the Shinkansen platform. For those that are smokers, you can see that they do have smoking sections, but no longer. Japan used to be a place filled with just cigarette butts—it was really nasty. When they got rid of that and made smoking restricted, the stations got really clean as well. I made an episode on that at Ueno Station a couple of years ago. So you can go to the—now they have dedicated smoking rooms and it's just so much better for everybody. So my train is not the first train, but the second, the third train. You'll see on the ground here—they have these places where you want to line up. They do in Tokyo because they have so many trains. They'll have the first train and then another line for the second train. But how it's so orderly is how Japan works so well. They get the cameras to see as well. Everybody's staying safe and off of the yellow lines. Somebody will watch it with a microphone and then tell you to move back from the platform, I think. Nagoya doesn't have—oh yeah, they do. They have the doors that close. Here's that guy that will tell you to stand back and he's looking up at the monitors to make sure that everything is safe. The little things that you don't notice when you're a tourist. I kind of picked that all out here.

29:45 John Daub: Now as the Shinkansen goes, look at that funky building up there. He's announcing the next train that's approaching. It should be coming right now. I see it—there's one right there. There's a train coming from this direction too. Hey, Bryant Vu from the chat told us he lives in Nagoya. Dude, I gotta do a Nagoya meetup. I kind of regret not having more time here today. Here it comes. This is such a cool shot here. This is Japan to me—a slice of it. That's a thing of beauty right there. Did you see that? Carrie says I have eight minutes. So what I do with the eight minutes that I do have, I look at my ticket and I say, well, I'm in car 14, row 17, seat A—so I got a window. So 14 is this way. So let's take a look at the snack store. See what they got at the snack store on the platform. All these streams that I do at the stations become historical live streams because stations change in 20 years. People are going to be going, "So that's what the old Nagoya Station looked like."

32:00 John Daub: One thing is always have a touch—always buy things with your Suica card. This is a very narrow station. I'm going to go to the next store here. People see the line and then they just bail. But they do have bentos here on the platform as well as gifts that you can get. I'm on the next train and I'm on one more car up. NAGOYA—I love you. I do miss living here. Web one, thank you for the membership. Matt Patrick's 150. That's amazing to me. Oh, check this out. Patrick, I don't have to go to platform seven—there's kishimen right here. Kishimen. And they make it fast here. So you could eat this in five minutes or less. You get it at the vending machine and you just get it. And they have the coffee vending machine here so you can get the Dr. Yellow blend. And it takes about two or three minutes. So just remember that before you pay for it—it comes out hot. I've done it a couple of times. But we scored the kishimen. I don't think I got time to get it. That's really cutting it close. But they have the cool kaki-age (oyster fritter), which is this right here. Kaki is oysters, right? Kaki-fry. This looks really good on top of the kishimen. Kishimen are flat noodles—that's what makes it different than regular udon. The kaki-age kishimen is sold out though. So you gotta get the miso kishimen, which looks really freaking good. Or the ikaten (squid tempura) is sold out. And you can get a nama beer (draft beer) for 520 yen. Pay it all with your IC card—transportation card.

34:53 John Daub: All right, here comes my train. Guys, this is it. I'm not going to miss my train home. I love you all, but I want to go home. I woke up at 3:34, four o'clock in the morning from jet lag. I want to go home. You could see there's the towers over there that we came out of that building. So we walked underground in this station to get here. And there's the Meitetsu right there. It makes these weird jingles. You are home, just not at Tokyo—that's a fun way to put it. I guess that could be right. All right, I'm on number 14, so we're going to see. Oh, here comes another Shinkansen—bullet train. They're coming from all directions now into Nagoya. Beautiful. We had a typhoon come through here, so it was raining—no wind, but it really dampened the morning, and it turned out to be a pretty nice evening here. I came here for one reason, to film the Fujisan post office, and also I got a chance to try the escalator sign. I don't know if you guys saw this before. If you remember that, when the episode comes out, you don't know what it's for yet, but you remember it when it comes out. So seat 14—row 17's right here. Patrick, say bye to the kishimen. Look at the dudes having it right there at the stand—that looks really good.

37:07 John Daub: All right, everybody, this is it. I literally rode the escalator all day—I kind of did. Patrick, you're the best, brother. Hope to meet you in person one of these days. But I'm going to be polite. The train looks quite crowded. We're going to cut off here. Thanks for watching, guys. I hope this gave you a good overview of Nagoya Station. See you in the next live stream. Mata ne (see you later) from Tokyo.