First Day in Japan’s Ramen Capital 🇯🇵

First Day in Japan’s Ramen Capital 🇯🇵

It’s your man in Japan. I’ve just arrived at Fukquoka International Airport. Ready to start a new adventure, guys. And I need some new currency. So, first mission is to hit the ATM. Okay. So 100,000 yen acquired. A,000 yen right now is £7 or about £520 British. So bear that in mind for the rest of the vlog, guys. 1,000 yen, 7 bucks. So well, that’s quite a lot actually. I took out the maximum, which is usually like two or three hundred bucks, but I guess 100,000, that’s $700. I’ve just withdrawn $700. Japan is a cashbased society. So I’m probably going to need a bunch of cash. Something I’m not going to need is one of these, a SIM card because I’m using SY eSIM on this trip. So that’s one thing I don’t need to worry about, guys. What I do need to get though is one of those stored value cards for using the subway and all that. Uh, in fact, what I’m going to do now, since I’m at the international terminal, I’m going to go to the domestic terminal with the shuttle bus because that’s where the actual subway is. So, um, that’s going to take me into Hakata, which is where I’m staying, and which is the famous place in Japan for ramen. Yes, it’s like the ramen capital of Japan, Hakata ramen, the tonkatu ramen. It’s very, very famous and very, very delicious. Um, yeah. That is uh one of the main reasons to come to this city, Fort Walka. It’s not really a place that’s on the tourist beaten path. As you look around, you will see is 100% Japanese people. I’m the only uh gajun they call them. I’m the only gajun here. And yeah, this is my third trip to Japan. I’ve been to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, all the tourist hot spots before. So, I’m going to skip those places on this trip. I’m in Kyushu, the island on the west of Japan. And I’m at the north of the island, Fukuoka. And yeah, I guess that is the shuttle bus there, maybe. See? Well, if it was the bus, I’ve just missed it. It says to enter the bus, I have to go through that way anyway. But yeah, guys, apparently Japan right now, they’re facing a lot of over tourism. They’re packed with tourists. Well, I don’t see any tourists here in Fukoka, so that’s good. I’m avoiding all that. I’ve seen a lot of videos of Kyoto where you can’t even walk down the street. Literally, you can’t even walk down the street. It’s just packed packed with tourists. So, uh, yeah, apparently it’s even even the Japanese are getting annoyed. It’s just, uh, the over tourism is causing so much problems. Apparently, hotel prices are through the roof. Every tourist place is just, you know, rammed with people who probably behave a lot less politely than the locals. So, you can imagine what they’re thinking about that, guys. So yeah, I’m just trying to find shuttle. Ah, okay. I see here the sign is that way for shuttle bus. That’s where the other buses are. And this is where the shuttle bus is. See, I probably would have seen this if I wasn’t vlogging. A lot of you guys, you’ll make comments like, “Did you just walk past the sign? You walk past the sign? Are you blind?” Well, no. My attention is on you guys. Like, at least half of my attention is on you guys. So, that’s a thing. Yeah. This is taking me to the domestic terminal uh for the subway for the Chica Tetsu. [Music] Airport. Okay, we’re here at the domestic terminal and I guess that’s the subway down there. So, I need to get myself one of those stored value cards. That shuttle bus was free by the way that connects. It’s about 3 minutes. 3 minutes ride. Easy enough. Easier would be to take a taxi straight from the international terminal to my hotel. It wouldn’t be that expensive cuz it’s only apparently 8 or 9 minutes taxi ride away. But it’s like it’s still way too early for me to check into my hotel. Check in time for my hotel is 1:00 p.m. and it’s probably like it’s 9:25 right now. So, yeah, like uh thing about Japan is they stick to the rules, you know? So, if check-in time is 1:00 p.m., check in time is 1:00 p.m. Like, I don’t think they’ll um just let you check into the room at this kind of time. like some hotels in the west will. Some will charge you, some won’t let you. If the room’s ready, they’ll give it to you like that. I don’t think it really works like that here from what I’ve read. Anyway, so um yeah, I’m taking my time, guys. I’m taking my time to to get my to get to my hotel and I’ll take care of business by buying the local transport card. Now in Tokyo it was called a sua card but every region has their own version of a stored value card but when you buy it in one region you can use it in the other regions apparently. So I need to get the fork walker version of a speaker card. Uh I don’t know if I can buy them from those machines. Look at this. The guy just pops out. He just That’s cool. The guy just pops his head out to help you there. Uh maybe I’ll Yeah, maybe I’ll get that guy to help me. We’ll stand in this line. Oh, there’s an information girl as well. Ah, she speaks English. She’s talking to them in English. I think this is just for tickets. I don’t think I can buy the actual card here. Yeah, I see like people are using coins and stuff. I want to buy the card like a card. I can buy the card here. Yeah, this one here. This hat at card. Okay. Just a different design. Ah, these are all the different ones. But it’s this one. You can buy this machine. Ah, this only for uh for Kyoshu or I can use an all Japan. Japan. Ah, okay. I can buy from this machine. English. English. Yes. I card. IC card for 500 deposit. Uh includes 500 deposit. It’s a refundable. Okay. But only in Fukuoka city. Only in Fukoka. If you want to get the ref to get the refund. Ah okay. Okay. How much you charge? Uh yes. 10 10,000. All of it. It’s too much or what? Uh you can use for the convenient shopping as well. Oh, like 7-Eleven. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ah okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I will use it then. 10,000. and department is most of the shopping area. Ah, okay. Okay. This is my car. So, I just tap. I don’t need to buy the tickets. I just tap. Ah, okay. Thank you so much. Have a good day. Okay. Thank you. Okay, that’s good. So, I’ve got $70 on this card. And now I don’t have to bother buying tickets, guys. So, no cues, no waiting at those machines. I can just Let’s see if it works. Just going to go straight through here and tap it. at there. Oh, easy. I don’t know how much that cost. Maybe I will find out at the end how much it costs, guys. Okay. Um, subway line. Okay. I haven’t checked the map, the root map or anything. Hopefully, this takes me to There’s a map right there. Takes me to Hak Hakata station. It’s the main station. That’s it there. Right there. So, this is the Hakata Hakata station. The main one. And it’s absolutely huge. And my hotel is like right there. It’s somewhere around there. So, it’s going to be really convenient for getting around, guys. Okay. So, yeah, I think it’s just one line. So, I guess I’ll just take this station. This one. Okay. Everything’s going smoothly. There’s so many friendly, helpful people that speak English as well. This is great. And the airport. I was straight through the airport. So, a tip for you guys if you’re coming to Japan on the airplane, they give you these. It’s an immigration form and a customs form that you have to fill out. Look at this. All this you need to fill out, but you can do it ahead of time online and get a QR code that you just scan. So, that’s what I did. So, I saved a lot of time at the airport at customs and immigration. So, definitely do that if you’re a foreigner coming to Japan, guys. But yeah, all going nice and smoothly so far and it’s only two stops. We are here on the airport line at Foka airport and this is Hakata station right here. Look how everybody waits for people to get off before they themselves get on. In other countries I’ve been to, guys, you haven’t seen that. It’s all been a freefor all. It’s all been dog eat dog. But here, it’s a very uh civilized, polite society. You can feel even in a situation like this, you can feel nice and relaxed. You know, there’s no hustle and bustle. There’s no fighting to get on and off, you know. It’s just nice, guys. Nice. There we go. Nice and calm. Nice and easy. Now, just need to find my way out of this massive I’ve seen it on the map, guys. You’ve seen it on the map. This a massive station. I need to find first I need to find the correct exit and then make my way to my hotel. Maybe this will help me. Or will it now? Hakata gate is the other one. I need like the east gate. Yeah, this one. Okay, good. Actual on Google maps, it shows you the it shows you the actual gate. So, that’s good. And even from here, you can take the shankanzen, the bullet trains to other cities. So yeah, this is a massive, massive station. So I’ll be arriving at my hotel 3 and 1 half hours early. I’ve got a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C, guys. So we should be good. Plan A is maybe they’ll let me pay. Sometimes these hotels, they let you pay like a,000 yen an hour to check in early, but usually that’s only for like one or two hours. Otherwise, you need to pay for the whole previous night. So that’s plan A. Plan B is to leave my bags there and go exploring and plan C if I’m too tired cuz I just had an overnight flight, guys. So, yeah, I’m actually trying to stay awake until the evening so I don’t get jet lag. But, yeah, I’m pretty I’m pretty wrecked right now. Plan C is to leave my stuff at my hotel and go stay in a uh get like a 3-hour package for a capsule hotel and just have a we nap in a capsule hotel. But yeah, like I said, it’s it’s not really a good idea to avoid jet lag. You want to stay awake until kind of what your proper bedtime should be. And that usually sorts you out. So, um, trying to figure out I think I’m I think I’m out this way or this way or maybe even this way. But yeah. Okay. I think it’s this way. Let’s see how much it costs actually the that ride. So that’s two stops. So we’ll get an idea how much the if I had to guess I would say probably like 200 would be like a dollar a 140. So let’s see how much it costs. I think it tells you 260. It cost 260. So that is um Oh wow, my brain’s not working. I’m usually I’m usually pretty decent at maths. I think that is like $1.90 or something like that for two stops. So, definitely not as cheap as other places in Asia for transport, but uh yeah, taking subways and buses and stuff here is going to be a lot cheaper than taking taxis, that’s for sure. Oh, Family Mart. I do love a good Family Mart. You get amazing snacks in the convenience stores in Japan, guys. So yeah, the mini bar hunt, your man’s own mini bar hunt is going to be a good one this time, guys. Hopefully uh hopefully when I check into the hotel, it’s just an empty fridge and then I can fill it with all the all the goodies from a 7-Eleven or Family Mart, right? Hopefully I’m going out the This is East One. Yeah. See, my attention is on you guys, guys. So yeah, I think as long as I go out an exit that says east, I’m all good. Wow, this place is massive. There’s all sorts going on. I think I just need to get out and then just start following Google Maps, guys. I think I’ll just get out. I’ll just get out here. Yeah, this doesn’t this doesn’t really help me. I’m kind of all enclosed. Okay, let’s figure it out. Yeah, apparently it’s just up there. So, I did come out the I did come out the right gate, guys. Chitsu. I’ll need to remember that. Chitsu gate. I can go up this way. And the weather right now, I’ve just checked it, is 22° C. It feels harder than that when the sun is directly on your man. 22C. So that means it’s going to get even hotter in the afternoon. It’s probably going to get to like 26 27. So yeah, nice and sunny. Like I said, taking a taxi wouldn’t have cost that much. I think probably just like 2,000 yen or something. But yeah, the weather’s just reasonable enough that I can do this kind of stuff. Slept a big old suitcase to my hotel from the train station and all that without getting all sweaty like I would in I don’t know, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, pretty much everywhere else I’ve been recently, guys. Uh yeah, it’s nice to be in a city where you can just walk around like this and uh still feel still feel kind of fresh. Guys, I don’t know how how I’m going to be feeling at midday or 1:00 p.m., but right now it’s uh yeah, it’s just nice enough. A little bit of a little bit of a breeze. And look at this clear sky. Not a cloud in the sky at all, guys. Beautiful. Oh wow. Well, I’ve been the wrong way. I thought I was going straight up to my hotel. That’s where I got out there and uh I was going straight up, but I was actually going that way. So, I’m going to do the full triangle. I’m going to do that. Okay. Like I said, I got plenty of time and I’m not getting into a massive sweaty mess, so it’s all good. And I’m still feeling nice and relaxed from the, you know, civilized civilized metro system. Nobody barging on and off and all that, guys. It’s peaceful times on this trip, on this adventure, isn’t it? Peaceful times. Here we are. Hello. I have reservation. Okay. Oh, keep luggage. Uh, okay. Check in what time? 1 p.m. 1 p.m. Okay. So, keep luggage. This uh Okay. Self locker. Locker. Ah, self locker. Okay. Ah, okay. Two box. Two boxes. Oh, okay. and I use this QR code. Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you for using one more. And one more. Yeah. Hopefully it fits. Oh, okay. Oh, it just fits. I think just about. Okay. Good. Then push the door. A receipt is being issued. Please be sure to take the receipt. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. So, I ask you scene. There was no question about are you checking in early. It’s not. It’s you’re leaving your luggage just like that. So, I’ve got I think it’s like 3 and 1/2 hours. What is it? Oh, it’s 10 10. So, I’ve got 2 hours 50 minutes. Actually, it’s not too bad. About 2 hours 50 minutes. So, I need to choose between plan B and plan C. Should I go for a we explore or should I go to a capsule hotel and have a rest? I’m 50/50, guys. I know you’d want to see me go exploring rather than just lie down in a capsule for 3 hours, but uh h I don’t know. I’ll walk for 5 minutes and then decide, guys. Oh, there’s a Lawson nearby. That’s another one. You got the 7-Eleven, you got Family Mart, you got Lawson. I could do with a drink, actually. All right, that’s how close we are. Oh man. So, it’s literally just up there from the uh the station. I walked all the way up there and then all the way back down there. Oh my god. Oh. Okay. Get myself a a drink from here. Oh, this is going to be good for the mini bar hunt. I like these, the UFO noodles. They’re actually one of my favorite type of instant noodles, guys. So, uh, yeah, some of them have got all the we egg sandwiches there, little oniri things, little triangles of rice with stuff in the middle like salmon and all of that. That’s good. And all sorts of little meaty treats. pastrami, spicy saus sausages, fried chicken, grilled bacon, grilled fatty pork. Oh, wow. I think I’ll I’ll actually take some of this and uh a drink. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Matcha Doko. Oh, look at this. Oh, I want everything, guys. I want everything. I’m going to have my bacon and a drink for now. here. Hi. Oh, there. Okay. [Music] Okay. Hi. Okay. Thank you. Oh, they don’t give you They don’t give you a bag. Okay. They don’t give you a bag, but they give you some chopsticks to eat it with, right? I do remember the last time I was in Japan, I was getting stuff out the the Lawson at 7-Eleven and all that, walking around, eating it, and then I had nowhere to throw away my garbage. Like, they don’t have trash bins here in Japan at all. You have to find like another 7-Eleven or another Lawson to throw away your junk because uh yeah, look around. There’s no uh there’s no trash bins like there are in other parts of the world. I’m going to find somewhere to sit and eat this. I don’t see any benches either. Could do with a bench, guys. Maybe I’ll have a we look on the map to see if there’s a any green area like a park or anything like that. So, I’m here. So, that’s the capsule hotel that I’ve got saved on the map. It’s down there. There’s a park there as well. And a park there. That looks like a bigger a bigger park. Let’s see. Nakahi Park. Less busy than usual. That sounds good to me. You Japanese or I’m Japanese. Ah, okay. Yeah. He just asked me if I’m Scottish. I thought it was so random, but he must he must be a viewer. He just asked me, “Are you Scottish?” Yes. Yes. I’ve seen your videos. Ah, so you live in Fukoka? No, I’m the tourist here. Ah, okay. Where are you from? We live in Chiba. Chiba. I don’t know. Where is it? Narita airports. Narita. Okay. Away from Tokyo. Closest. Tokyo. Close Tokyo. Okay. So, this first time here or you’ve been before? Yeah, we’ve been before. Okay. So, he’s going to give me recommendations, guys. Recommendations for Foka. We’re going to ramen restaurant here. Ramen restaurant. Ah, okay. Good. So, that’s what it’s famous for, right, Hakata? It is. It is. It’s for the tonkatu. Tonkatu. Yeah. Okay. I’m looking forward. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m looking forward to tonkatu ramen. I’ve had obviously tonkatu ramen before, but never in Hakata. It’s going to be like the best one is going to be here, right? Yes, exactly. Yeah. So, I’ve said already saved on the map many ones. What is the one you’re going to? Iso. Iso. Okay. Yeah, that’s the famous one, right? Yes. Yeah. That’s the one where if you go in the afternoon, there will be like a big queue. I think so. Yes. Yeah. Maybe even now there will be a big queue. Yeah. So, I’m I have to make a queue until like until it opens. Ah, okay. Yeah. 11:00. Oh, so you’re going to go now and wait till it opens. Ah, so you go like minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Like 45 minutes early. Okay. Because if you go at 11:00 when it opens, there will already be a queue. Okay. Strategy. Okay, guys. Okay. So, that is the thing to do. What else you recommend to do in Fukoka apart from eat ramen? I don’t know. Just only eat ramen. Okay. I can I can do that as well. Well, I can I can I can spend like a whole week eating ramen. That’s okay. It’s okay. I can do that. What is your name? Takuma. Takuma. Okay. Dale. Okay. And you? Akari. Akari. Nice to meet you guys. Okay. I will see you around Fukoka. Okay. Enjoy. Enjoy your ramen. Okay. I’ve found my park. And it appears to be just a patch of dirt. Yeah, there’s but there’s benches and shade, so that’s good. Yeah, it looks like there’s uh it’s just some kind of gravel area for What are they doing? What are they doing? Like it looks like a sport. Oh, like he’s got I think they’re doing rugby. Yeah, they’re doing rugby on this on this gravel. Yeah. Okay. Oh, and soccer not allowed. Why are they so racist against soccer? Like, why can’t you why why can’t you kick a a football around there? I I don’t understand, guys. Anyway, going to chill here and let’s see how a Japanese Cog zero tastes. Oh, slightly different to a regular Cog Zero. Yeah, sometimes they taste a bit different in uh it’s a bit of a lighter taste, guys. Sometimes they taste different in different countries. Anyway, this grilled bacon, apparently, it’s microwavable. You It’s supposed to be microwaved. Or maybe you can eat it cold as well, but uh yeah, I would have asked them to microwave it if I knew. I thought it was a cold snack, but never mind. And oh, that’s in Japan. So this is a very interesting thing about Japan. When you see a picture on the front of a packaging, the product looks exactly the same inside. It’s not like in the West where you see this glorious picture and it looks amazing and then you get the disappointment when you open up the package. This uh let me uh get my chopsticks and show you this. Uh yeah, as you can see, they always match, guys. It’s apparently it’s the law. It’s some advertising standards that they have here. Like it has to be the same size as well. Let’s not litter despite there being no trash bins anywhere. Uh I’m going to have to do as the Japanese do and take my trash home with me. That’s what they do, guys. They when they’ve got trash, they just keep it with them all day and then they take it home. It’s kind of It’s not that convenient when you’re a tourist and you’re out and about all day. uh you know it’s uh but whatever if I’m carrying a bag it’ll be all right but yeah like it has to even be the like the size and everything kind of like has to match up with the the packaging. So look at this some nice some nice big chunks. It’s like a it’s like a gammon steak guys. That is like a a gam steak. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And that’s nice to eat cold as well. M convenience store food in Japan. They’ll never go hungry, guys. So this hotel, I didn’t book the package that includes breakfast because yeah, I I don’t want to eat some buffet breakfast that’s like a zoo. Everybody’s scrambling for the food. Sometimes it’s just the drags that are left in the tray, you know. No, no, no. I’d rather just go to local convenience store and munch on this kind of stuff for breakfast. And to think there’s a lot of trash packers and digital gonads in Thailand right now eating their cheese toasty from 7-Eleven thinking they’re cool when they could be in Japan eating grilled bacon from what was it? Was it Lawson? You could be you could be munching on this guys. Cori oishi bacon this. Yes, your man has been playing dual lingo learning some of the local lingo guys. I think it’s important in Japan. Although I’ve been surprised so far a lot of people I’ve interacted with at the train station, the hotel, they do speak English, which is surprising. Japan is known for uh you know like most people 99 99% of people that you bump into are going to be able to speak English. Even that guy even that tourist from Tokyo he spoke perfect he’s he spoke better English than me. Actually he spoke better English than a Scotsman. So um but yeah still even though I’m surprised I’m going to try and pick up a few words while I’m here. I think at some point at some point it’s going to come in helpful guys. And what also came in helpful today was my eim my this in the 7-Eleven. We’ll give it a go. And it’s 11:00 a.m. exactly, and that’s when all these restaurants start open. They’re already forming cues. So, this one apparently is an awful pot restaurant. I looked up Hello. I looked it up on Google Maps and it says it’s awful pot. And uh it’s like a cooking kind of like a hot pot cooking thing, you know, where you’ve got like the like grill pan in front of your table or something like that. I think you just shove stuff into your pot like that. Uh but it’s awful. Not awful as in bad, but awful as in off a l awful. And uh it’s going to be awful if I have to carry this around, guys. So, we’ll see if I can just Usually, they’ll have a bin inside. I can pretend that I bought it here, even though it says Lawson on it. Uh oh, yeah. Here we go. See, here we go. Uh hm. Is it combustables? What is combustable? Does that mean it’s going to go on fire? Well, I see chopsticks there, so it must be that must be what it is. And maybe I’ll buy something out here since since I use their facilities. Oh, wow. I think uh that looks good. Yeah. Uh matcha tea latte right there for 185. [Music] Okay. So, it said 185 on the thing and then it was 199 at the till. Maybe they add the add the tax or something. Let me just check that. Yeah. 185. Oh, yeah. And then in brackets it’s it’s another price. So I think it’s like with and without tax. So 200 yen $140 for a matcha tea latte guys. Now I think what I’m going to do is there’s a tourist spot. Well, it’s actually a religious spot for the local Shinto Shinto people. The Kushida shrine. It’s one of the most popular tourist spots also in Foka and it’s only one subway ride away. So, I’m going to uh I’m going to check that out right now. Okay, let’s give this one a try. The Matcha T Latte 7-Eleven. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. That is tremendous. The matcha is really strong. It’s a really intense matcha flavor. And the milk is like a cream. It tastes like It tastes like a cream rather than a a latte. And very sweet as well. Well, this must be like a million calories. Let me see. 163 calories. That’s not too bad. 163 calories. You could have one of them every day. Especially when you’re walking around like your man, eh, going on adventures in this city. Okay. Nice and easy. Again, we have a choice between an east gate or a west gate, guys. And I want the west gate because it tells you all the important places that are at each gate. And that’s where I’m going to the Kashida shrine. So, I need the west gate. Ah, that’s it. That’s it there. This is the Kushida shrine. There’s no sign in English, but on the map, this is the Kushida Shrine. So, now I need to work out if I need to take my shoes off or anything like that. I’m wearing long pants for once, guys. For once, I’m wearing long pants. So, that’s not a worry. Uh like I don’t know if it’s the same as the temples in India and all that where uh they want your knees to be covered. Some of the Buddhist temples, this is not Buddhist, it’s Shinto. the Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka in Myanmar, Thailand was like that. I mean there’s plenty of people there’s I’m seeing a few foreign tourists now. There are people wearing shorts. There’s even women practically showing our practically showing everything. So yeah, we should be fine. So this shrine, I really don’t know anything about it other than it’s very old. It’s from It dates way back from to the 8th century from 757 AE AED. That’s the currency of the UAE. Not AED. A ad guys from 757 AD. This uh has been a Shento shrine. I was hoping there’d be some signs in English. I was hoping I’m not one of these vloggers that reads about the place on Wikipedia and then comes here and pretends like they’re a a know all presenting to presenting to you the information they just learned 2 minutes earlier as if they knew it all along. No, we’re going to figure this out together, guys. If there’s any signs in English, otherwise we’re not going to figure anything out. We’re just going to have a look around. So, what’s this? Let’s see what’s going on here. H. So I think were they putting something in or taking something out? Ah, it’s like he took something out. So I think it’s like a uh you give a hundred yen and you get a written oracle, which means it’s like a fortune telling thing. So uh I don’t have I only have 10,000 notes. I don’t have any change at all cuz I’ve been using this. So I don’t have 100 yen to give them unfortunately. I think it’s on a trust basis. You put in a coin to here and you get your fortune. But yeah, I don’t have any change guys. Uh so people are doing people are doing prayers here. So I wonder if these are actually if these are tourists or these are actual Shinto people who are uh doing a prayer in front of this. What is it? All right. There’s like there’s some kind of priest or some kind of priest there doing the He’s got his back to the people who are praying. So that’s what’s going on. That’s what’s going on here. I want to get my fortune I want to get my fortune told, guys. But yeah, I don’t have any any way to get any change. H. Will I get changed from a vending machine? What happens if you put 10,000 yen into a vending machine? How many coins does it spit out? Does it spit it all out in 100 yen coins or what? I don’t know. Yeah, it takes coins up to 500 and then it takes,000 yen notes. So, I don’t know. I think I need to go to a 7-Eleven. That’s what I should do. I should go to the nearest corn beanie. That’s what they call a convenience store here, guys. A convenini. A convenience store. I should uh that’s what I do in Thailand anyway. When I’m walking around with 10,000 bat notes and nobody wants to accept them cuz I’ve never got change. Taxi drivers and all that want to even if they do have change, they want to tell you they don’t have change. So, normally if I’m only carrying thousand bat notes, I’ll go into 7-Eleven and buy a a bottle of water for 12 BAT. And their policy is that they have to give you the change for it. Okay. It’s not like these mom and pop shops that would just scowl at you if you tried to do that. So, I’m going to try the same thing here, guys. I’m going to try and find a con beanie and break up a 10k knot. Ah, the con beinis were everywhere until I really need one, guys. Yeah, there is a family mart about 3 minutes walk away. Maybe I can also get myself some sunblock. I’ve left my sunblock in my suitcase. I’m trying to stay in the shadows here. I can actually feel I can actually feel my skin burning literally, guys. Even at this temperature, what is it now? Like 25° or something. Yeah, 25°. Even at 25 degrees, I’ll get sunburned within half an hour. So, yeah. Hopefully, I can get some at the Family Mark. Oh, wow. This is a whole shopping arcade here. This would be good if it was raining. Look, it’s all covered. It’s like uh there was a street like this I remember in Osaka that was very popular with tourists. And like I said, I’m seeing a lot of tourist. Maybe I’m in the tourist zone right now near the shrine and all that, but I am starting to see some white faces, guys, some gajun. So, let’s see if I can find a This looks like they probably aren’t going to have a lot of kind of stuff like sunblock and all that. Yeah, I doubt it. Is this the stuff? H Oh, yeah. Oh, wait. Here we go. I think this is sunblock. Ah, here we go. 1,000 yen. It’s like a spray and it says it’s SPF 50. So, that looks good. It’s just like a It’s the consistency of water. So, that’s perfect. Actually, I’ll uh get myself some of this. Lots of frozen stuff here. So, my hotel apparently there’s a microwave in the hotel that you can use. So, even better for the all this convenience store food, guys. Man, look. I’m looking forward to the mini bar hunt, guys. Playing beef jerky and sliced beef tongue snacks and shredded smoked shredded dried squid and dried squid arms. I’m going to get so much random uh tasty snacks, guys. Look at all this stuff right here. Rice crackers, sesame rice crackers, soy sauce flavored, moist rice crackers, Korean nori flavor. Oh man, I want to try everything. I don’t know, but I’d have to stay here for like a year. I’d have to stay in Japan for a year to try like every little snack that they have, guys. But uh yeah, I’m going to drop a,000 yen on this just now. Thank you. This one. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. See how helpful people are. They’re trying to figure out which which bin to put it in. Okay. Mission complete. Oh, I paid for it with my with my card. I was supposed to be getting I was supposed to be getting bloody change, but uh I had Yeah, initially I was coming here to get change and then I had the idea to get the sunblock and then that made me forget the first mission. Okay, we’re going back in to get a Coke Zero after we get covered in this. Oh wow. This is proper greasy stuff, guys. I think I even got some in the lens. Hopefully it’s not I give it a wipe. Hopefully it’s not smudged. But I feel all uh oily. I feel like feel oily and greasy now. What is this? Coca-Cola plus what it is. Plus what? I think that means zero calories. Let’s see. Yeah, zero kal. Zero kal. Coca-Cola plus what? I don’t know, but I’m going to try it. Oh, [Music] [Applause] well. Okay, thank you. Thanks. Okay, so I have There should be a 100 coin in there somewhere. Yeah, I think the I think those are hundreds. Yes, mission complete. I have 100 gen to go and get my fortune, guys. And I also have a new drink to try. I’ve never heard of this one. Coca-Cola Plus. Plus what? I don’t know. I’m actually going to going to Google what this is. Okay, even better. have asked chat GPT what Coca-Cola Plus is and they’re saying Coca-Cola Plus is like Coca-Cola’s healthier, more functional cousin. It’s a food that’s officially been labeled as a food for specified health use by Japan’s Ministry of Health. So, it’s like uh a health a healthy coke. They’re actually saying it’s healthy. I say that Coke Zero is healthy. And a lot of you guys are like, “Oh, asparame or sparame. Oh, oh, oh, you’re better off eating the sugary one, drinking the sugary one.” Of course you’re not. That’s absolute horse manure, guys. But they’re saying the Japanese, if chhat GPT is to be believed. They’re saying that Japan’s Ministry of Health have actually said that this is a health food. And apparently, it’s been designed to help reduce fat absorption and regulate digestion. And the secret weapon is indest indigestible dextrin, a type of dietary fiber. So there’s some kind of dietary fiber has been added to the drink. So uh the idea is that if you drink it with meals, it helps block the absorption of some fats and sugars in your food. It tastes similar to Coke Zero, but slightly different. Well, the Coke Zero that I tried earlier was slightly different to the Coke Zero I normally have in other countries. So anyway, let’s give it the the taste test. It tastes exactly like the Coke Zero. No different at all. No different um Yeah, no different in uh texture. fridge tastes, feels everything like a Coke Zero, but apparently healthier, guys. H I guess I I guess I’ll be having that one then. I guess I’ll be having that one from now on. And you guys can’t you guys can’t tell me that it’s not healthy because Japan’s Ministry of Health. Who do I believe? The the the not alls in the chat or the Japan’s Ministry of Health. I’m going to I’m going to go over the Ministry of Health, guys. And now I’m going to get my fortune for 100 Japanese yen. 70 cents. Is that what my fortune is worth, guys? 70 cents. So, there’s 100 yen. And just pick yourself. Let’s make it random. A good old shuffle. And let’s see. Fortune slip. Let’s see what they’re saying. It’s in a we sealed envelope right here. Let’s get into the shade. Otherwise, my fortune will be getting baked to death. Oh, guys, I win. Very lucky. It says that my fortune is very lucky. So, that’s good. Fortune, luck will be acquired with consistent study and good behavior. Well, who am I going to study being a vlogger? Who am I going to study? Who am I going to study that’s better at vlogging than me, guys? I don’t know. But apparently with if I consistently study, luck will come with it. And if I dream big and keep my head down, an expected person will arrive late late or never. H well, are they talking about like a a wife or something like that? Hopefully it’s never. That’ll be me very lucky if the expected person never comes, guys. Uh lost article. The latter is left hard to be find. Travel. Make haste. So, it’s telling me, well, I’m already traveling. That’s why I’m here. So, I have made haste. Conflict. Victory comes to those with modesty. H. And there’s a whole uh a whole bunch of stuff. Employment. Hopefully, that remains us. Never employed, guys. I can’t imagine any situation where I would have to be employed. You will gain help from super your superior. I think that says it’s kind of faded out, but it says you will gain gain help from your superior. I think that’s assuming that you’re employed and it’s giving you advice or uh fortune about your employment. Well, I don’t have any superior when it comes to vlogging, guys. So, nobody’s going to give me help. There’s something here. Oh, I think this is your fortune. Ah, that’s the thing. You’re supposed to you’re supposed to make a wish and then tie it to this and then maybe your wish will come true. So, I’m going to wish for something right now. Want to wish. Okay, I’ve wished for something and uh I just need to tie it to this. There we go. Nice. My good fortune for a bomb. I think you’re supposed to do a prayer here. Like you’re supposed to do this. Ah, here there’s some instructions. Yeah. To international travelers, feel free to take as many photos as you like. As part of the experience Japanese culture, please consider bowing once to the deity as a greeting. So, you’re supposed to bow. Actually, it’s fine whether you choose to make an offering or not. Why not make this a memorable part of your trip? Yeah. So, they’re just telling you to bow. There’s something in here. I think that’s like another fortune or something. Oh, yeah. It’s like I think like another 100 yen or something like that. So I’ll queue again so I can bow. I’m going to copy what they did. They they bowed. I think I did it right. I think so. Tried my best, guys. Tried my best. H interesting. So, yeah, this is the main religion, Shinto. I don’t really know anything about it. I think it’s just only Japan that exists. And it’s like an ancient religion. I need to find out more about it cuz there’s probably like a a bunch more of these uh kind of places. I think that’s it for the for the shrine. You just come and uh you do a we prayer and you get your fortune, guys. Yeah. Okay. And right outside the shrine is Canal City, which is a huge mall. That sounds good to me right about now, guys. some bacon in the sun. So yeah, apparently this mall there’s a top floor called Ramen Stadium, which is like a huge food court where there’s like just loads and loads of ramen stalls. So I’m in the Ramen City of Japan. Maybe I should get my first ramen, my first haul of ramen right about now, guys, in the mall. Nice and air conditioned. Here we go. Ramen Stadium, fifth floor. And the escalator has taken me here on the third floor into Muji, which is kind of like a clove shop where everything’s kind of plain, no logos, and it’s these kind of kind of pastely colors. Guys, I like this kind of stuff. I don’t like logos on my clothes. I’d rather have the, you know, just the plain colors, nothing going on, just nice and simple. So, that’s nice. I’m familiar with this shop from Thailand, but in Thailand, they don’t have a supermarket section like this with loads of we snacks, even more than you’ll find in the 7-Elevens and all that. There’s absolutely tons of snacks. Maybe I should start the mini bar hunt right now, guys. Here. I’m probably going to just get a basket and buy a ton of stuff. Even frozen sushi. I’ve never seen that before. Frozen sushi. Yeah. Oh, wow. Cereal cookies. They look good, don’t they? Raisin and fig cereal cookies. 290 yen. Hokkaido milk. Cocoa Donut Halls. Hokkaido is the northern region of Japan that’s famous for its milk. Some of the tastiest milk comes from Hokkaido. Salted mandarin orange peel chips. H very interesting. Tea ball deni white chalk and cranberry cookie. Oh yes. Oh yes. Sakura cat’s tongue cookies. Oh man, look at this matcha bum coaching. It’s that kind of soft kind of cakey stuff. Matcha and chocolate cake. Oh man, is your man going to get fat here? Oh, dori yaki. Matcha. Oh my god, that is I love a Doriyaki, guys. The Oh, they’re we ones as well. How much is that? It’s only like three bucks. Odd. Three bucks for a big pack of matcha dorayaki. Wow. Chai. Honey berry bum coaching. Oh my word. Like I said, you couldn’t try everything. You’d have to you’d have to live in Japan for years to try all the different snacks. Like, how could you possibly There’s so much variety of stuff. Beef belly curry. Oh, it’s like an actual curry that you heat up. Beef belly. Wow. North Indian style egg curry. Wow. Yeah. Look at the size of this. There’s There’s so much pretzel, sour cream, and onion. All sorts of berry mix. What is wolf berry? Never. Some of this stuff I’ve never even heard of in my life. Wolf berry. What is that? Banana and wolf berry nut mix. Oh, it’s we packets. That’s good. That’s good for taking away with you. You know, just a we packet in your bag. That is good. Black bean, almond, cheese, and fig mix. Now, that’s good. But I like the we portions like that. I think I’ll get some of this. The wolf berry. What are the wolf berry? They look like goji. They look like goji berries. Oh, yes. Fantastic. What do we have here? Oh, more curries. Different curries. Ka curry. So these are Indian prawn masala curry. That’s all Indian. And that’s Thai green curry. Genki one guy. Yeah. Wow. Loads of curries. What do we have here? All sorts of pumpkin chips, sweet potato chips. It’s just a nice portion size as well. Apple chips even that they have. I like the look of these. These mixed vegetable chips. Doesn’t that look nice? Some kind of like peas in there. Carrots, pumpkin. Oh yeah. What is it? The pack is 250 calories for the pack. That’s just a nice we snack, isn’t it? That’s just a nice we snack for your man. Tomato and salt candies. Japanese lolly with plum. Oh my word. I want to try everything, guys. Seedless soft dried plums. Yeah, I want to want to try the whole store. Right. Okay, this is going to have to do for now. Otherwise, I’m not going to have enough room in my bag. I’m going to have to carry this all around with me until I get to my hotel. Uh, they’ve even got a we cafe area there. Okay, I’m going to stop looking at the food before I start putting more stuff in this basket. I’m going to pay for this and then go upstairs and get my ramen. In fact, I can’t resist matcha chocolate coated strawberries, guys. Okay. Yeah, just one more. There’s just one more item. That’s okay. Okay. Came to 2,700 yen. Okay. I’ve just tried to use a foreign credit card. Let’s see if that works. Oh, it worked. Fantastic. That’s good. Now I know I can use my credit card here. Brilliant. Well, I’ve made it to the fourth floor, which is also Muji. They have two floors here, but I don’t know where the fifth floor is. There’s no way up to the fifth floor, which is the Ramen Stadium, guys. Yeah. So, this canal city, there’s supposed to be a canal that goes right through it. Guess that’s it right there. But where’s the fifth floor then? If this is if this is bloody four, how do I get to it? Yeah, that’s where we are. And that’s where we want to be. There’s some entrance to Ramen Stadium. And that’s the Ramen Stadium there. All these are Ramen restaurants. So, I’m just trying to find the way up. They’re making me work for it. They’re making me work for a ramen, guys. Ah, here we go. Fifth floor. Ramen Stadium. Okay, so this is the Ramen Stadium here. Some of the restaurants are half empty and other ones there’s a big queue. Uh looks like this one you ah you choose your ramen from a vending machine and then you just give them the ticket. So there’s no hassle. You just uh Yeah. Do they have it in English as well? Maybe, I don’t know, but it seems to be the system in all of them. You can uh use the machine. Oh, yeah. And they do have English as well. Okay. So, I just need to choose what restaurant I want to eat at. This is It looks like there’s a big queue, but it’s actually empty inside. The queue is just for the procedure of uh buying your ticket. It is lunchtime. It’s like4 12 or something. Oh, it’s like almost 1:00. So, yeah, I can get my ramen and then go check into my hotel. I just need to choose my restaurant. Deep chicken noodle. We’ve got this one. I don’t know. Don’t know what that’s called. We’ve got another one. I don’t know what it’s called. Tonkatsu or ramen. Oh, this one’s got a big queue. All these people are waiting. Should I just Should I join the queue? Let’s have a look. Oh yeah, it looks it looks pretty popular. Probably have to wait like an hour for that one. H I don’t know. I think I’m just going to go for this one because hopefully that doesn’t say it’s closed. There’s no queue or anything, but I don’t know what that says. Maybe it says it’s closed or something. I’ll translate. Currently fully booked. Purchase a meal ticket first. Ah, okay. So they’re telling buy a meal ticket from here and then line up. Yeah. Line up where? On the left column it says. Ah, okay. So this is for the machine and this is for the ticket. Okay. Do you want to go first? Uh, thank you. Yeah. Um, okay. So, yeah. Well, this one’s the most expensive, so hopefully it’s also the best. I’m going to try this one. And I should I’ve got my own drink, but I should probably buy one of theirs. Some oolong tea to go with it. Okay. Please insert money. Ah, so you actually pay for it up front. You actually pay for it here. Please wait. The ticket is now printed. Oh no. I gave it a 10,000. Oh man. Is now printed. Oh wow. I thought he was going to spit out coins. I thought he was going to spit out coins. I thought I was putting in a,000, but I put in 10,000. Oh my god, it’s like $70. Okay, so I’ve been given two tickets. I think one’s for my drink and one’s for my meal. Okay, you guys. No. Okay, now I need to wait somewhere. Do I wait here or do I just stand around? I don’t really uh Ah, maybe this is maybe this is the wedding. Ah, I think this is the wedding for this one. Yeah. Okay. So, that’s to buy the ticket and this is the this is the queue. Okay. This this for the here. Yep. Ah, okay. There we go. Okay. Okay. It wasn’t too long. I had to wait. Okay. We’ve got a little uh a little corner here. It’s good for a good for an introvert. Okay. Just chill here in the corner. Thank you so much. Uh Miso. Huh? Miso. Miso. Oh, okay. Thank you. The restaurant was called Miso. I asked what the what the name is called. Miso. So, look at this. Oh, wow. This looks tremendous, guys. Check it out right here. Oh my word. This uh Yeah. special ramen. Look at the size of the the seaweed sheet. Oh my god. Check it out. The noodles are in there somewhere. There’s noodles in there somewhere, guys. But it’s all topping, isn’t it? Look at the meat. Okay, guys. Noodles first. Let’s give a taste of the noodles. The texture is so nice. They’re like kind of eggy, kind of a little bit chewy. And I’m tasting the broth already. Normally, I need to get a spoonful to get a good taste of the broth, but oh my word, look at how creamy that is. Can you even see, guys? How creamy. Look at it all on the top. It is uh it’s like a a porky, meaty, very umami, salty savory broth, but creamy as well and cheesy. It’s like a There’s a bit of like a Parmesan cheese taste there. Maybe there is some Parmesan. Yeah, it’s a bit cheesy. Bit parmesan cheesy. Wow. This What do they even do with this, guys? I think I need to break it up. there. Like that. More manageable. Just looks like pure bacon. Pure meaty bacon. I’ve already had bacon today. This is my second my second helping of bacon. That is incredible. That tastes like Have you ever had pigs and blankets? When you get a sausage and you wrap it with bacon, it’s the exact taste of that. There’s no sausage, but it tastes like that. Tastes like I’m eating like sausage and bacon together. Incredible. What the other toppings are? I think mostly vegetables and all that, guys. Added more flavor. And there’s an absolute ton of noodles in there. Like, look how big this bowl is. That’s stuff of noodles. As you can see, that is uh that’s going to fill your man up. Now, the way to eat this is you’re supposed to kind of like slurp it like you’re supposed to make the noise to show that you’re enjoying it. And that’s uh it’s not considered a rude thing at all. You’re supposed to give it a good old slurp. There’s definitely cheese in there. Well, it’s the first time the first time I’ve had a bit of a a cheesy ramen. That’s absolutely packed with flavor. And the ulong tea is the opposite. They’ve need no sugar or anything like that. It’s very plain, which I appreciate. some balance. There’s little pieces of minced pork in there as well mixed through the broth. I like these I like these kind of meals that have all these different toppings. You keep discovering ingredients as you eat it. That is uh yeah, all these little shredded pork is uh kind of at the bottom. I’m just digging digging down into it now. There’s also I think that’s ginger. All sorts of things going on there. I think that’s ginger. So much going on, guys. But the highlight is definitely this is some of the tastiest bacon. Way tastier even than the the bacon I ate earlier. And it is now quart 1. So I can check into my hotel, guys. Fantastic. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to finish off this bowl of ramen and I’ll see you when I get to the hotel. And I got the top floor. That’s lucky, isn’t it? So nobody above me to make noise. That’s a nice one. Let’s check this room out then. So, it’s going to be pretty small cuz it’s a single room. So, it’s a single bed. Yeah, it’s like a little shoe box room, guys. But that’s a lot bigger than some of the rooms I’ve been looking at in Fauca. So, this is 15 square m. And some of the rooms I’ve been looking at are like 12 square m for a single room. So, this is actually bigger than uh what you’re generally getting in the city. And it’s a lot cheaper than you’re generally getting in the city, especially near the train lane, the train station. This is 90 or $93 a night. So yeah, for the double room equivalent in this hotel, I think it’s like $150 a night or something just for like a slightly bigger room with a a bigger bed, but that’s even uh it’s uh that’s not bad. That’s like a one and a half of a bed, I would say. That’s not even a single bed. That’s like a one and a half of a bed. So I mean, I’m pretty happy with that to be honest, guys. For the money, Japan isn’t cheap for hotels. Space is at a premium. in this country. So, uh yeah, you’re paying usually like a h 100red bucks for what you’re paying for like 20 bucks in Bangkok. You’ll pay like a hundred bucks somewhere in Japan, guys. But yeah, this room tour isn’t going to take very long, is it, guys? Let’s see what technological Japanese stuff we have here. We have light switches and we have a USB and yeah um a lot of the hotels I was looking at they didn’t have proper desks so this one has a proper desk. A lot of them it was uh yeah like nothing like that or they just have like the little cube stool or something. Your man needs a proper working desk for a working man to work at his laptop doesn’t he? And what else do we have here? We have hair dryer and something a machine that does what? I wonder. It’s a humidification air cleaner. So, it’s not a dehumidifier. It’s a humidifier. I guess the air must be dry here. So, this is to put water into the air. H. And it says an air cleaner. So, it cleans the air for you guys. And there is AC as well. That’s good. I think I actually need the AC. Please touch the screen. Is it all in Japanese? I think I need to see. It’s 25° right now. Your man needs it to be How low does it go? It only goes to 19. Are you kidding me? Yeah, it’s 25.5°. It’s uh for a Scottishman that’s hot. For a Scotsman, that’s way too hot. Like, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at that. So, it’s good that it’s got AC. And imagine the bathroom is tiny as well. Oh, it is. And it’s uh every single hotel I looked at, like literally 100% of them, there was no separate showers. The Japanese, they love a bath. So, they won’t just have like a shower. They’ll always be the shower above a bathtub, which you know, like it’s one of my pet peeves, guys. I don’t like that cuz when I’m in a hotel, I generally just have the shower. I don’t want to sit in a bath. But, h I don’t know. Like uh that’s a nice deep one. E like I don’t know uh if I was out adventuring maybe I could get some bath salts or something and soak my legs in there. It might be nice. But um Oh yeah. And this as standard in Japan a technological way to wash your bum. A Japanese toilet. You can I think that’s your bum there. The little uh it’s the shape of your bum. So there’s a bday and a spray. I think the Bday is for a woman’s front bum and that’s for, you know, your man’s back bum there. I think that’s what it is. That’s like kind of like pink color there. So, uh, yeah, if you’re a man and you do that. Yeah. Well, you can just use your imagination. We don’t need to go into details, guys. Uh, that’s interesting. E, I think no matter how cheap a hotel you stay at in Japan, you’re going to get a fancy Japanese toilet. Usually they heat up as well. So you get a nice, you know, in the middle of the night you come and you need to sit on the toilet or something. It’s all It’s all nice and heated. That’s cool. Yeah. So this is my room, guys. Let’s see. Do we get a view? I’m on the top floor. It’ be nice if I get a view. I imagine not. Otherwise, this would be this would be open. Let’s see. We got two of them. That’s good. So it’s I think it’s a blackout. So Oh, that is good. Yeah, it does block out the light. Yeah. So, there’s no view. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have this frosted window, would they? I wonder what this looks out onto. Uh I I guess I’m not going to know because it’s locked. I think I need a key to open that. So, it probably probably some not very nice view out there. But, uh yeah, that’s where I’m staying. Where’s my fridge? Is there a fridge? I’m thinking about the mini bar situation. And surely this is a fridge. Oh yes. Okay. So we get, let me see, we get one bottle of water. So yeah, the mission now is to fill this fridge up, guys. I’ve already got my snacks from uh the Muji, but I need some drinks. Bingo. Bango, bongo. We’ve filled the mini bar, guys. Well, not really filled the mini bar. Filled the top of the mini bar. And yeah, this is half empty. I think if I filled this, it would cost me about $200 or $300, guys. Uh, so I went to there’s a Family Mart actually pretty much inside this building on the on the bottom floor on the back side. So I went to the Family Mart and got the Yakal, sugar-free Yakal. This is like a probiotic like fermented yogurt, fermented milk drink. I’ve got this has to be eaten by tomorrow. It’s a fresh oniri with salmon inside it. So, it’s rice covered in seaweed and in the middle is some chopped up salmon. And I’ve got all these protein drinks. Um I Google translated while I was actually in the family mark to make sure none of these were coffee cuz I was suspicious that one of these might be coffee. I got all the four flavors they had. But it’s like banana, cocoa, chocolate, and cocoa chocolate or something like that. They’re all like banana or chocolate. And then we got some of these vegetable juices here. It’s got broccoli in it and carrot. I bet that tastes absolutely amazing, guys. This one’s got even more stuff. It’s got like tomatoes. It’s got bloody red cabbage, red onions, and stuff like that. I bet that tastes even better, guys. I bet it tastes amazing. Some mineral water since they only give me one. Got some green tea. They do give me green tea, guys, but I would have to make that. This one, sugarfree, um, no sweeteners or anything. It is just literally the green tea, but ready made and nice and chilled. And we’ve got the Coca-Cola Plus again that I had earlier. And all this stuff is the stuff I got from Muji earlier on, guys. I’m looking forward to them. The Doryaki Dorian’s favorite snack, but a matcha version with a aduki red beans inside. Oh, I do love a Doriyaki, guys. I’m looking forward to all of this. The matcha chocolate. I should put some of these in the fridge. Keep them nice and chilled. That’ll be nice. A nice chilled matcha chocolate. And I got these from the family mart as well. So these are extras. I got the smoked quail eggs. M. They look nice, eh? I got the cheese cod snack. So, it’s like a kind of Yeah, like it’s kind of like dried cod and in the middle it’s like cheese, like a sandwich. They call it like a fish cheese sal. Yeah, that’s good. I’ve had them before. And I got some salmon jerky. That’s nice, eh? Like a high protein snack. Some salmon jerky. Yeah, looking forward to trying that. I’ve never tried salmon jerky before. And they do actually give me a freezer in this one. So, I got myself a little sweet treat for whenever I feel like it. I can get myself a nice ice cream cone straight from my freezer and can even put some ready meals in there because on the seventh floor of this building, there is a vending machine room that has a microwave. So yeah, I could have stuff in my freezer there that I could just even like the fresh ready meals, I could have them in the fridge and just go down and microwave them myself in the hotel. So yeah, that’s nice and handy, guys. But yeah, I’m dead on my feet. So yeah, I mean if I’m slow with my words and all that, it’s because I’ve been awake for like a day and a half and I’m trying to avoid jet lag. And like I said earlier in the vlog, I think I said it anyway. I can’t even remember. I don’t even know what day it is. To avoid jet lag, you got to stay awake until the proper bedtime. That’s the best way to do it because it’s like if I checked into this hotel at 1:00 p.m. and fell asleep like I really felt like doing, I would wake up at like 10:00 p.m. or something and then I’m on opposite world. I’m on the vampire sleep pattern and I’ll never get out of it. I’ll just stay on I’ll just stay on that sleep pattern for like a week or two and then you won’t get any vlogs. And uh yeah, my experience of uh Fukquoka in Japan will be different. I’ll just be I’ll be living the nighttime lifestyle rather than uh being out and exploring during the daytime in the summer which you know summertime isn’t the time for having the vampire sleep pattern is it? Right. Okay. Did a speed test on this and that is what we got. 190 megabits down and 180 megabits up. So that’s fantastic cuz your man’s filming this in 4K 60 frames per second at a high bit rate. So when I export this YouTube video, it’s going to be absolutely muckle. As we say in Scotland, muckle. It’s going to be massive. It’s going to be huge. So uh yeah, getting this muckle 4K video up to YouTube should be no problem with that kind of speed. I was wondering about that because a lot of times you go to some of these so-called very developed high-tech countries and you stay in a hotel and you get like three megabits up or you get like oh they say we’ve got fast internet and it’s like 20 megabits down which isn’t even fast but then the upload speed is like 3 megabits. You know it’s asymmetrical like that. They give all the bandwidth to the download and none of it to the upload thinking most people are just going to be like streaming videos watching YouTube and stuff. They never think about your man who needs to upload his vlogs to YouTube. They just think about the consumers who are just leeching, consuming the content. They’re not thinking about the one who’s creating it, guys. But this hotel, they’ve got the 50/50 split. 190 down, 180 up. It’s pretty much a 50/50 split, guys. But yeah, what was I saying? I was saying something about staying awake. That’s it. Yeah. Uh yeah, I’m going to try and stay awake. And the way I’m going to do that is by continuing this vlog. At least by making this vlog, it’s given me like a reason to stay awake cuz I need to finish the vlog. Don’t I guys? I’m going to finish the vlog by going for some street food. So, apparently Fukoa is famous for yatis which are like street stalls that open in the evening like the foa ends. the citizens of Fukuoka, the, you know, after they finish their office job or whatever, they go and they sit in these little stalls. A lot of them are by the riverside near where that canal city is. It’s kind of like, I know, a few minutes walk away from there. So, they all open at like 6:00 p.m. I quite fancy having a we light meal at one of them to end the day, but uh yeah, if I stay in this room any longer, I’m going to fall asleep. So, I need to get out. I think I’ll actually go back to the canal city and maybe just go for it’s huge. It’s more than more than like I seen when I I just went to the Muji and then to the Ramen Stadium. Uh I might go and buy myself some otaco otaku nerd type toy like a a one piece statue or something like that. Something some kind of like otaku souvenir uh from the canal city. And then uh yeah, I’ll go over to the yatai and get a munch, guys. Right, that is the plan, guys. That is the plan. Let’s make our way back over there. And I’m going to walk the 20 minutes there to Canal City rather than take the train. Again, guys, look at the shade that your man can walk in and feel nice and comfortable. Oh, yes. At this time of day, it’s going to be no problem walking around, guys. So, we’ll get the two strong legs into gear and make our way to Canal City from here. Actually, I see a shop here called Book Off, and they say they do like trading cards, plastic models, toys, even PCs and stuff. Maybe I can uh find something interesting in there. Oh, wow. It’s a tax-free shop. So, if you spend more than 5,500 yen and you show your passport and you’re a tourist, they’ll take off the VAT right there and then. It’s not like Thailand where you have to fill out a form and then claim it back at the airport. They will actually deduct it from your total at the tell. But if you don’t have your passport on you at all times, there’s a way where the same system where you do the QR code for the customs and immigration. Once you land and you get the landing sticker in your passport, you can scan it with that website and get another QR code that you can give to the stores when you spend more than 5,500 and they’ll use that QR code to deduct the tax guys. But uh yeah, 5,500 that’s like it’s like $40 or something. So anything over $40 you can get 10% cheaper like in big in big shops. It’ll have to be like a fairly big shop for them to have the ability to do that. But look at this. Plenty of plenty of cool stuff in here in the book of store, guys. Even iPads and all that. Is that a good price for an iPad? I don’t know. You tell me, guys. Is that a good price for a iPhone 12 mini? That’s like $250 or something like that. Uh, don’t know if that’s good or not. Okay, what am I going to get out of here? Some K-pop cards or what? Oh, these are like all the K-pop dudes. It’s like little trading cards or something like that. And that is pretty lame if you ask me. Where’s the Where’s the Pokemon trading cards, guys? Bloody K-pop. K-pop nonsense. Oh, there’s Wii Kirby’s. That’s cool. Yeah, the original Kirby game when the Nintendo Entertainment System NES was a classic. Yeah. Okay. I want something like this. I want something like this. Or little Mario Karts. Oh, wow. Look at that. How much are they each? 5,000. That’s only like $3. $380. $385 or something each. Yeah, that’s cool. Little Mario Kart. And that’s a good souvenir, you know, cuz it’s like it’s not something bulky like that. You can Doesn’t matter how much space you’ve got left in your suitcase, you can easily have space for for that. Um, where are they on the shelf? H Oh, look. A we Donkey Kong or it’s a Diddy Kong. It’s a we did Diddy Kong as well, just randomly there on its own. I’d like to have like a if if I could get like a set of a bunch of the characters like this. Oh, these are keychains. Oh, well. Yeah, I think I want the carts, but I don’t see them actually uh on the shelf. You know what I think it is? I think they’re secondhand and they’re being like resold. I think that’s what it is because uh yeah, some of them there some of them are different prices. Like that one’s 1,100. maybe how collectible it is or how rare it is or something like that. So, I probably have to ask to get these, but I wouldn’t mind having uh just like these two, the Wario and Mario. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, like that. It’s good. That’s nice. Bubble wrapped them for me. Just had to pay again. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, that’s good. Hook off. I think I’ll come back here. There’s It’s huge. It’s huge, guys. You could uh if you’re a nerd, you could uh have a great time in there. Oh, I love this place, guys. Cocoa Curry House. Coco etcha. It doesn’t look very appealing on the pictures. I remember seeing this a lot in Thailand. They’ve got branches of this in Thailand and I remember seeing pictures of it thinking that looks absolutely ming, doesn’t it? It doesn’t look very nice at all. Doesn’t look very appealing. And then one time I tried it just out of curiosity. Years after the first time I’d seen it and oh my god, it’s delicious. Yeah, that Japanese curry, it’s uh tremendous. And of all the Japanese curries that I’ve ever tried, the Coco Chabanya one’s been my favorite. So, when I went to Osaka, I was there was one near my Airbnb in Osaka, and I was hitting that up quite a lot, and it was fantastic, guys. Now, this is Canal City right here, but it’s 5:30 p.m. and those yaties open at 6:00 p.m. Maybe I should just go straight to the yaties because I don’t know if it’s like one of these. You see all the popular restaurants and that they have cues outside them before they before they open. That that is atrocious in this peaceful city. some little punk is uh making that kind of noise pollution. That’s atrocious. But uh I’ve even lost my train of thought because of that, guys. But yeah, maybe I should go maybe I should go early to these yaties in case uh there’s a queue. Those restaurants open at opening at 11:00 a.m. had cues from like 10:00 or 10:30. So yeah, maybe the 6:00 p.m. yatai have cues starting now. Let’s uh see. Yeah, Nakasu food stalls. So it’s actually on a kind of like an island surrounded by two rivers, the the Naka River. It’s by the Naka River and another river. So the Yeah. In the Casu Food Stos, it comes up on Google Maps as tourist attraction. So yeah, probably tourists are going there. It’s probably going to be busy. So yeah, I’m going to I think I can cut through here to get there. And I just enjoyed the fountain show at the canal, guys. I’m just telling you about that now because when I was filming it, there was a lot of commercial loud music. So obviously I couldn’t audio. Just include that audio. So now you’re getting this audio of your man 30 seconds later telling you about it as he makes his way to the yaties. For once I came out the correct exit, guys. It’s over that bridge. Yeah, I shouldn’t really be crossing the road here, guys. Slightly slightly breaking the rules, but it is a single lane road. And that’s something I wanted to check out, the Gundam base. So, there’s some flagship Gundam store. I see these Gunpla Gundam models a lot. And I’ve always had the idea that I might get one one time and try it. It’s like it comes as like a set and the plastic and you have to snap bits out and use like a razor blade to cut off all the little extra bits of plastic and then sand them down and then glue them together and everything and then all your hard work gives you a nice beautiful Gundam model at the end of it and it’s like a hobby. Some a lot of people just collect them. So, um, yeah, if I was going to start doing that, that would be the place, wouldn’t it? The flagship Gundam store, the Gundam base they call it, in the canal city. I love how peaceful this this place is. Apart from that one car, that one noisy car. It’s like it’s like a city, but it’s like fairly subdued, quiet kind of city. What’s this? A Pokemon trading card vending machine right here. One piece card game. What’s that? 800 yen. That’s like Yeah. $3 for a pack. H. Maybe I’m up for this. One of these. Which one will I go for? I don’t know what any of this stuff is. Oh, there’s one piece card game here. There is Kirby there. There is Oh, there’s a some kind of Pokemon or Pokemon spin-off kind of thing there. H, what would be nice? I think I think the One Piece one. This one or this one? Well, this one’s only 500. So, yeah, I can just shove 500 coin in here. And is this even switched on? I don’t see any lights or anything. Oh, yeah. There’s a light there. Okay. Just making sure that I don’t get jipped. Okay, I’ve fished out a 500 yen coin from my pocket. $3.50. That is I calculated that one wrong. I said that was like three bucks. That is like uh $560. That’s like $560 for that one. And this one is like $3.50. So, let’s go for it. 500 yen in. And ah I choose one. What? I don’t know. What am I choosing? Is it just random? Let’s see what I get. Let’s see what I get, guys. Something came out. Oh, it’s not even in a a proper box. It’s in like some H. Did I get a Did I get a knockoff or something like that? This doesn’t look very official to me, guys. It’s just a normal uh cardboard box. Let’s see what we get in here, guys. This is what was inside. I get two cards. They’re in plastic kind of sleeves. So, I got this. I got this guy with his horse worth zero points, I think. And then I’ve got this creepy looking creepy looking character right here that’s worth 7,000 points, I guess. Okay. And it’s some kind of or some kind of game or something like that. I don’t know. I’m not going to play any game with anybody. I’m not going to go to one of those like thing while the tacos and sit and play some kind of Magic the Gathering. Some kind of Magic the Gathering type game, guys. I’m going to uh just keep them as collectible. So, maybe uh get some more in the collection. Take back with me like a dozen or a couple of dozen of them, guys. Now, where will these uh street dogs be? Somewhere around here. down this way apparently. Yeah, every vending machine. I’m kind of interested. Is there going to be anything interesting guys? I remember in Osaka I was getting the milk tea from the vending machine and they were coming out hot. I was thinking I’m going to get like a and it was I was there in like October, November. So, it was so nice once I realized that they give you it hot sometimes in like a cold morning or something. I would just get a a milk tea and it’d be nice and hot. I see this is this is why I need to allow myself more time than I think it’s going to take to get to places cuz side quests guys and distractions. Everything’s interesting when you’re in Japan. That’s the thing, eh? Everything Everything is interesting. Ah, there’s the yatai there. They’re on the other side. I’m on the wrong side. I came out Canel City and I walked over that bridge, the trading card machine and then came this way when what I should have done was come out there and go right there. Guys, I did after all take the exact not just the wrong exit but or the wrong direction but the exact opposite wrong direction. But it’s all good. That’s when we find stuff like the trading card vending machines and stuff like that. You never know. When you get lost, what you might find like a cold sugarfree arrow gray tea. Lovely jobly. Lovely jobly. And I’ve made it with 10 minutes until they open. It’s 10 to 6:00 p.m. Oh, some people are actually eating and drinking already. So, some of them open earlier. But this will be my third Japanese meal of the day, guys. I actually had for my business class meal on the flight over here, a Japanese breakfast. So, this will be my my third one. Uh, what do you have? Ramen barbecue. Oh, yakuri. Oh, good. Yakuri. Oh, that looks good. Barbecue yakuri. M. Yeah, I’m I’m up for that. Ah, okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I’m just going to The first one The first one that I come to, they have uh yaktori, which is like a grilled grilled chicken. It’s a type of uh kushi yaki. Coco it means here. Okay. Oh, menu. Okay. Just drink menu. Drink menu. Okay. Uh, [Music] yaktori. I don’t know if I ordered or not. She gave me she gave me the uh she gave me the menu. Uh, yaktori barbecue yaktori to ulong tea. Okay. So, this is my yaktori here. I think it’s more than just the grilled chicken. It’s a bunch of a bunch of different stuff. Yeah, that’s what I’m getting. Okay. It’s just what I want, guys. And I’ve been eating all day as well. It’s like I was eating in the I was eating in the airport lounge a lot. I was at the airport like 3 hours early and I was eating a ton in the airport lounge as well. So, I’ve been eating a lot all day. Uh but when it’s just grilled meat, you know, I can uh easily manage that. Okay, my yaktori has arrived, guys. So, we got a sausage, chicken, different type of sausage. Looks like intestines there. And that looks like Looks like some of that there. All sorts of meats. Oh, it’s like 50% fat. And this one, it’s not too doesn’t look too appealing. So, I’m just going to get this one down the throat first. Or second. It’s hard to chew this one. It just tastes like It just tastes like skin, though. It tastes like a chicken skin, but that’s definitely like some kind of intestine. And another sausage. This one looks like maybe a chicken sausage. Oh, wow. It’s so soft. Yeah. I’m not sure. I think it’s minced pork. Tastes more like pork, but it’s so soft and so flavorful. So full um so full of seasoning. I can’t That’s why I can’t tell what kind of meat it is. I think it’s pork. And this this is chicken. This is this is yaktori. Again, it’s super soft. Making making really short work of this. And this looks like some kind of organ like liver or something like that. Oh, it’s liver. It’s like the I had it in Turkey in uh Antalya. The gir they called it. It’s not my favorite, but it’s healthy to eat liver once in a while. Full of vitamin A. have this one. I tried to I tried to save the best for last. I think this is going to be the the best one. The fatty that fatty meat. Yeah. It’s like tastes like bacon. Tastes like that bacon I had earlier. The the big thick chunks. Golong tea demolished yaktori kushi yaki demolished I think yaktori is specifically the chicken one otherwise it’s the general grilled meats and grilled anything is on the skewers is kushi yaki these are the these are the cushi and yaki is grilled Okay. Got to pay the man. Pay the man. Here’s money. It’s 150. No. What’s this? What’s this? I don’t know. Doesn’t want that one. This one. Ah, okay. It’s a different one with a hole in it. He wanted was the 50. Okay. Thank [Music] you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that was nice. Oh, nice and light as well. Didn’t even feel full. Just uh the meat was so so tender. Every every stick was so tender, especially those sausages. Oh, wow. I didn’t even have a chance to I just accepted the first one that I came to, guys. But I think they all sell the same kind of stuff. They have this kind of steaming steaming stuff there. It looks good. Yeah, I think they’re all They’re all basically the same, eh? Oh, but this one’s like a I think this one’s like a hot pot kind of thing. Yeah. Ah, it’s okay. I just ate. So, yeah, this is really a nighttime thing. I’ve got here early, but you can see how popular it is already. So, uh maybe the actual time that these are popular, you have to queue. But I didn’t. It’s probably only like 6:00 p.m. now. Let me see. Yeah, it’s 8 minutes past 6. So, yeah, I think this is the time to come. It’s nice sunset by the sunset by the river, guys. But, uh yeah, I’m going to call it a day. Well, I’m going to try and stay awake for another few hours, but I’m going to call it a vlog, guys. I’m going to bid farewell to you guys. And yeah, hope you enjoyed this first adventure in Japan. There will be more to come. So, see you on the next one.

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I flew to Fukuoka, which is known as the ramen capital of Japan. Having already visited the main tourist hotspots of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto on previous trips, I was glad to find a direct flight to Fukuoka International Airport and skip those busy areas on this trip.

I keep hearing reports of over-tourism in Japan, but in Fukuoka that doesn’t seem to be the case. When I arrived in Fukuoka, it seemed like everyone in the airport were local Japanese people.

Since I arrived 4 hours before my hotel check-in time, I took the public transport from the airport. A free shuttle bus to the domestic terminal and then a $2 ride on the subway to Hakata station, the main railway hub of the city.

A nice lady helped me buy a Hayakaken card, which is a stored value card for using public transport and paying in konbinis (convenience stores). I was familiar with a the SUICA card in Tokyo, and this is the Fukuoka equivalent, but it can be used on public transport in any region of Japan.

When I arrived early at my hotel I was able to use their self-service locker system to store my luggage, then I was homeless for a few hours until I could go back and check in.

I used that time to go for a wander, getting familiar with this clean and peaceful city, then a visit to Kushida-jinja, a Shinto shrine that’s existed since the year 757 AD. It’s a popular tourist spot in the city, but I couldn’t find any signs in English that would explain about the Shrine or the Shinto religion.

I was able to get my fortune told in exchange for a 100 yen ($0.70 USD) donation, and I think the predictions and advice were worth about what I paid for it.

The shrine is right next to Canal City, which is a big mall with a lot of cool stuff. I bought so many interesting Japanese snacks from the Muji shop there, then visited the ‘Ramen Stadium’ on the top floor which has about a dozen different ramen restaurants.

Some of those ramen restaurants had a long queue, and I wasn’t in the mood for that, so I just chose the restaurant that seemed the quietest. Not usually a good idea if you are looking for the best food, but after a long travel day that included and overnight flight, I just wasn’t up for queuing.

The grilled pork ramen I had was a miso ramen, rather than the tonkotsu ramen that Hakata is famous for, but it was intensely flavourful and delicious, so I made a good choice to get that one.

I was finally able to check in to my hotel after 1 PM. $90 USD per night got me a 15sqm shoebox single room. Space is at a premium in Japan so that’s about as good as it gets in that price range. Despite being small, the room is very clean and comfortable and the location of the hotel, right next to Hakata station, makes it easy to get around and explore.

As I walked from my hotel back to Canal City, I found a shop called ‘Book Off’ that sells second hand electronics and collectables. They had so much interesting stuff, but what caught my eye were the Mario Kart toys and I bought a couple of them as souvenirs. I have a feeling my suitcase is going to be pretty full by the time I leave Japan.

I ended the day with some kushiyaki (grilled meat sticks) by the riverside at a yatai. Yatais are small street food huts that are popular in Fukuoka and are even seen as a symbol of the city.

0:00 Fukuoka Airport
5:35 Buying an IC Card
9:36 Riding the Subway
14:04 Arriving in Hakata
19:28 Family Mart Snacks
33:42 Matcha Tea Latte
36:22 Kushida Shrine
41:39 Shopping Arcade
48:17 Fortune Telling
51:09 Shinto Prayer
53:48 Muji Japanese Snacks
1:01:08 Ramen Stadium
1:10:21 Hotel Room Tour
1:24:31 Mario Kart Collectables
1:31:23 Canal City Fountain Show
1:33:24 Trading Card Vending Machine
1:38:10 Yatai Street Food

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