How to Spend a Day in Kumamoto, Japan – What is This Bear Mascot?!

How to Spend a Day in Kumamoto, Japan – What is This Bear Mascot?!

It’s a beautiful Saturday. We are continuing the Kyushu Grand Tour road trip. It’s day three. We are in Kumamoto. Yo, this is pretty. I wish I learned this. Yeah, right. Very famous for the little bear mascot. What’s he doing? Probably the most famous city mascot. Right. Let me tell you, we’re going to meet the bear today. So, we’re starting off strong here, guys. We’re here at Kumamoto Center. This is the headquarters of the entire city. And supposedly we can meet the bear himself. I mean, if we don’t, I’m going to be very disappointed. Oh, he’s not on stage now. There he is. The Kumoto bear. Look at this. I want that, man. The Kumamoto monkey. Is he 50? I want the monkey, dude. Dude, Kumoto, the branding of this city is crazy. So, it’s like it literally is like the most popular city manager. Look at him dude. He’s at the gym. Look at him sleeping. Look at this guy. He’s doing some work. Sweeping the floor. What’s he looking at, dude? This is kind of creepy though. Those eyes. This is an important picture. Oh, that’s a great picture. There you go. Look at your leg. You look looks thin and handsome. Like a king, dude. You look good, dude. Oh yeah. There you go, baby. Wait, wait, wait. If you guys don’t know, this is the Kumamoto Center. This is like I think it might be like the city center. So, they have a bunch of like a little merch and stuff and you can actually get some food. I think the bear comes out and dances throughout the day. Dude, look at all these little Kumoto things they got. Like, I want that doll. These are all the branding. That vintage Lea doll. That looks so cool. So, this is all the places the Kumoto Bear has been in the world. So, like he’s been like he’s been to New York. I I honestly think like I always wanted to be a mascot, dude. Look at him on in Thailand. Yeah. Singapore, dude. Like Kuma, Australia, Shanghai. Very iconic for Japan. Yeah. But for America, Benny the Bull. Spain. Benny the Bull is my favorite. You can draw him. Yeah. Draw a cute kumon illustration. All right, there’s Cook leaving his mark. Looks like Five Nights at Freddy’s. Oh, it has AR. Look, you can dance with him in augmented reality. He’s like on the stage. [Music] [Music] That’s funny. Okay, your Kumamon is fat. He looks like Homer. It looks depressed. He looks like he just had a long day at work. He looks kind of sad. It’s those eyebrows. This guy can’t stop promoting himself everywhere. There you go. Nice. So, he’s on stage at 4:30 to 5. Can we make it back here at 4:30? I feel like we got to see him. Like, you want to see him walk around, right? All right, let’s make an alarm. Moshi mushi. Oh, hey, how do you feel? How’s do you feel like my Japanese has gotten better this trip? I feel like it’s gotten worse. What? All right, guys. So, we’re headed now. We’re on our second destination of the day. We’re going to Suenji Jojen Garden. It used to be a garden for the around like the outskirts of the castle. There’s a there is a Kumoto Castle. We all know how much we love castles. That house is freaking awesome. Look at that modern house with all the lighting. You think that’s a one house? Yeah, it’s one house. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That’s a That’s a sick house even in LA. Yeah, I can use that whole top floor to be my my toy room. Dude, look at that threetory with the rooftop. Dude, imagine if you had a pool up there. Wow, what a nice house. That house is I don’t know. I have no idea. Kumoto real estate, but all I know is that I love Japanese efficiencies. Oh, you know, maybe it’s still being built. Yeah, it is being built, dude. A little parking connected to that. I thought Yeah, this is just one house. All right, guys. We’re going into I think it means the before the water. Oh, we got to pay to enter. Ooh, 400 yen. Nice jacket. Yeah, I like jacket. Oh, here’s the suggested routes. So, it goes station to castle to the garden. That’s us. Oh, gourmet book. Oh, kumoto. Should we take this ramen? Full. So, castle. Castle. I don’t know what that’s trying. This is We’re going to go there. This is the walking street near the castle. We’re going there after. This is where we are now. Square and the arcade. We’re basically going to hit all of this today. Okay. Okay. This is like the perfect tour. The sun’s going to go down in like 3 hours. Let’s go. Hi. Yo, we need these books in every city we go to. Yeah. You know what’s crazy is we don’t we never look, but actually all the train stations have these books. If you guys don’t know Chad Cook, our second half of the Double Dragons here, he is our local historian. When you travel, he loves to get into culture and he and shrines and favorite gardens. Yeah. Could you tell us a little bit about the garden we’re in right now? I’m super educated about this garden. This garden, the name escapes me at the moment, though. Uh, if only my nihongo was better. Could you tell us a little bit about the garden real quickly since you’re so knowledgeable? Hold on. Let me just refresh my memory. All right. This garden. So, in 1776, they planted all the grass from the early edo era. Oh, okay. Okay. Now, it’s not in the gourmet book. Oh, let me tell you something. So this is the uh Sui Zenji Jojuen garden. Okay. It’s known as the graceful garden of feudal lords. What does that mean exactly? I don’t know. Okay. So in 1632, Tanatoshi Hosogawa, the third generation of the Higo Hosokawa clan, Whoa, not the second, the third one, became the first lord of the Kumamoto domain in the Higo Hosokawa clan. Whoa. Whoa. Okay. So afterwards he built a Buddhist temple named Sui Zenang Ji to the southeast of Kuamoto Castle for the priest who came from the Rakanji temple in Oita all the way here. Are their husbands here? Tatashi also built a tea retreat called Sui Jenji Oaya at the same place. That’s here. It was the beginning of the Sweet Jenji Jojuen. Didn’t you know that? Now I do. The Join. This mount is actually so cool though. Look at that. I really want to go climb on it and roll. You know what I do? Roll down it. I think it’s a grave though cuz in Korea we have those above ground graves. So it’s like a it’s like a version of the pyramids. Oh, but they So they bury the the king or whatever with their treasures. I think it’s just a mountain. Really? Yeah. I want to bet I bet you that’s a that’s a grave. Well, first of all, let’s just soak in the moment cuz the point of this garden is to stroll. That’s what it’s stroll and being tasteful. Yo, this is pretty. It’s nice. They’re like bonsai trees. Look at this bridge. That bridge is old. It is old. I got a song to go along with this. [Music] They got a little tree growing out of that rock right there. Where? Oh, that’s cool. That’s cool. So, here is a Izumi shrine of the town of burned down. And this shrine is uh believed to have power for business prosperity, academic achievement, and good matchmaking and general well-being. Oh, a little little B. Okay. Uh for me, as I’ve said before, a lot of shrines kind of all are similar. So, always really well kept and beautiful. You got to wash your hands and clean your cleanse yourself before entering or before going up. Look at this view, dude. Look at that with the toy gate there. Oh, big koi fish in there. Oh my god, it feels huge. Well, quick look over here. Jeez, look at that. It’s so big. It’s coming out of the water. It’s a golden koi. Yeah, it’s coming out of the water. It’s so big, dude. The golden koi. I want to see the ones that have human faces on them. You’re going to bite your finger. What if one of them just smashed a bird? Be awesome. They’re gathering. I think we’re going to feed them. Dude, so that’s a very clean looking pigeon. Wait, look. He’s looking at me. Do you see that? Hey, what are you looking at, buddy? Hey, dude. That’s a That’s like a freaking ghost core. Look at those eyes. And this garden’s nice, chat. Any garden any garden lovers? It’s cool. Cool. It’s a coin purse. I know who needs this. What is that? What? Ghost. Whoa. His name is Kinta Kinta. Kinta. Kint. But also at the same creepy creepy quiet. That’s our adventure at the Sweeteni Garden Market. Dude, there’s Kumoto everywhere. Look at that hat. Look at that bullshi. That is a kumoto bi. Should I get a kumamoto bull? I don’t think it’s going to fit in my head though. That is cool. Should I get it for the stream? Dude, that hat is sick. Yo, chat cook is kumamomotoed out right now. The hell of kumo. I need a shirt now. I mean, it matches your shirt, which is actually pretty good. We’re going to get a snacky poo real quick, chat. Ooh, what if we got that ramen she recommended? That sounds good. Is it close to here? I mean, we could just go back and eat the the specialty ramen. It’s a pork and chicken ramen, I guess. She recommended this one, right? Yeah. Kokut. Okay, I’ll find this. We’re getting on the bus, guys, cuz the wheels on the bus do go around. We got seven stops. Yeah, us. It’s a mini bus. They must have known Cook was coming. There’s the castle. It’ll be fast. Hello. Kumo. I think they’re waving at my hat. Maybe they Oh, they’re waving at your hat. Yes, dude. Your hat’s going to get a lot of positive attention. I look like Kumamoto right now. You know what you start saying? You can start saying oish ski like you like. Okay. If you catch him looking and smiling ski, he likes it. He likes it. Nice. Hi. All right, guys. We made it. This is recommended by a local kumoto homie at the at the at the garden. Dude, this place been open since 1957. Hell yeah. Kumoto style adds in chicken to the broth and thicker noodles. Chicken broth and plenty of garlic. So, garlic, chicken broth, and thicker noodles. Right. Wow. [Music] Dude, this looks awesome. Picture. Yeah. Look at that, guys. By the way, this whole set is only like This ramen is like seven bucks. Not that bad. It’s chicken, pork, garlic broth. Interesting. I don’t like your interesting. Fried black garlic. Very interesting. [Music] I want to add something. It’s a little bit lighter of a broth. Different, right? But I like I like lighter broth. I mean, I like this. This is I’m happy about this because this is different than other ramens I’ve had. I thought it would be just like tonkatu, like a little different, but it’s a lot different, which I like. Wa! The egg is good. The egg looks awesome. I mean, that egg I’ve never had an egg like that. Let me try this egg. [Music] Oh, yeah. Wow. I’ve never heard an egg like that in a ramen. Like it’s it’s a heavily marinated one. It’s just soy. That’s all it is. Really? Probably soy and some green onions. Different soy, guys. That is so good. It tastes like It tastes like a garlic ioli in egg form. The bazar has come alive. Yeah. This is We’re This is like the shopping area. I think it’s called like Sasha Sash Dori. Sashibo Street here. Giza Dori. This is like a big uh you know typical covered arcade shopping area, but this is actually really big. It goes all the way down. It like curves around. It’s a huge area. Pretty thriving. Way more activity than Nagasaki. I hear him. He’s dancing. Kumalon. Oh, let’s go. It’s time, dude. Look at Cookie. So happy. Come on. [Music] What are you doing? What’s he doing? Wow. Whatever. What in the world? He’s angry. Sumo. [Music] What the heck? What is that? Wait, he has an action cam, a handy cam, and a cell phone. Oh, it’s a uh Kumamoto super fan. Maybe you guys doesn’t know in Japan like every single thing in Japan will have like a crazy population of super fans. I think that they are one. Look at that [ __ ] That’s the setup. She’s all the Kumoto stuff. Look how close we are. Bye. Come on. Byebye. [Music] Cool. We got to see Kum. We got to meet him. What do you think? I mean shorter in person. Yeah, shorter in person than I thought. Shorter in person. Still very kawaii. Kawawaii kawaii. What do you think? Oh man, I’m going to tell you I am fired up right now after meeting jazzed up after meeting Kumamon. Like I mean come on. What’s better than that? I think we can end the day here. I think I’m done. Yeah. Okay, that’s it. Thanks for hanging. Look at this guy. The original pyramid head. No way. Yeah. So this is the uh the feudal lord’s castle. This is him, I think. Dude, what a hat. That is actually the sickest bosshi I have seen in Japan. It looks like someone took his samurai hat and just like used like MS paint and pulled it. This is Kato Kiomasa from 1562 to 1611. So this is about 400 years ago he died in 1588. Kato was awarded half of Higo province. He was awarded half of Kumamoto Prefecture and took up residence in the original Kumoto Castle. While Lord of Higo, he constructed the present Kumoto Castle, now regarded as one of the three most admired castles in Japan. Really? This is like the father of Kumoto right here. Dude, look at that freaking Bshi. Is it the guy that made the garden? Yeah, I think so. Dude, that Boshi is sick. What a cool statue. All right, so this is the old school. This is the shopping district. Old I think it’s like probably redone, but it’s repurposed into like a touristy shopping snacky c. Okay, dude. They have freaking kumon uh tayyakis. Oh, we got to get one, right? Thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, bosshi ski. Dude, look at how cute. I got a little Oh my god, I got a kumon tayyaki. She said you are kumon. Oh, it’s a wedding hall, dude. Look at the wedding. Look at Look at the Kumamoto. The king Kumamoto. What the heck one? Oh my god. We got the image, dude. Wait, they have a kumo at the shrine. Oh, the wedding’s already happening. Dude, the brides the brides little gowns and hats, see the white one, are so sick. And look at this, chat. Look, they made it, dude. That is cool. That is a very beautiful looking castle and it’s very high up. Damn. Let’s go. This is our cute little uh Kumoto Tayaki. Look at that. Kumamoto Tayaki at Kumoto Castle. Dude, look at this. Look at this image, chat. So cute. We’re going to try one new place, guys. This is the uh Yatai streets, which is Yatai is like the place very famous Fukuoka. Little street stall foods that are street food stalls that are outside Fukuoka. But I guess they have a little street of I don’t know if it’s really yatai is just like a street of street food. We’ll find out. Let’s do it, baby. How touristy is this place? This place Kumamoto. Oh, it’s not. There’s all locals. Oh, this is Yeah, this is cool. Kumoto Food Stall Village. Dude, this looks sweet. Oh, we saw them earlier. Wait, did we see them earlier? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Uh YouTuber, [Music] can you guys please hi to Taco? Say hi to Taco, guys. All right. Good day. Nice to meet you, Taka. Cheers. Cheers. over there. So, what’s the most fun thing at night time in Kumoto? Let’s eat. Let’s eat beer. Let’s eat. Let it be. Ah, as you wish. As you wish. Nature. Nature. Nature. No thinking. Smart. All right. No mind. Yeah. No mind. Just watch. Byebye. Thank you. Thank you. See you soon. Taka just taught us a very valuable lesson. Taught me. I said, “Ta, what’s the best thing to do?” He’s like, he said, “Basically, he said, stop thinking and just go live in the moment.” Basically, just said, “Let it be.” Yeah. Let it be. Like don’t stress. Yeah, just let it be, bro. When in Kushu, do as cushu. Cheers. That all right, chat. We’re here on the Yatai street. This place starting to liven up. Eats and drinks. And Cooks had two drinks. So they’re dancing, too. Tickle melon fans and cream soda. There come from the wedding, dude. So, every place will have some specialty. This place has a squid. Yeah. Every little location has something. There’s like a typical is some chicken. This is basi and some seafood. Oh, this is the famous uh lotus root stuffed with the uh stuffed lotus root fish, right? Fish eggs from here. Yeah. I I would love to just hang out here. There’s some Italian food. This place has a lot of good food. Dude, this is where you just post up with the boys. Oh, meno. Mando lotus root. Wait, is this the sake vending machine? Yeah. Wa. Shall we? This is a great place to have a drink. I’m okay. But that’s cool. Sake vending machine. 70 cents per shot. That was a nice spot. I like that spot. I’ve been a lot of like Yoko Chos in Tokyo, all these like the really touristy like food places. That place, every place had like good food. That first spot was pop. Like that that yoyoza was tasty, man. You know, Tokyo has a lot of places like that they call like Yoko Cho, whatever they always call it. To be honest, it’s always like these touristy like overly dressed up places with like food, but I could tell that every one of those locations like look like they like actual chefs making really good food. Yeah, it’s because the Japanese have higher standards than the foreigners. The foreigners like, “Oh, destiny I’m eating the ramen. Oh, totally oi guys.” And it’s like not that good. So they they’ll just upcharge upcharge and like oh my god they’re so foreign friendly. So all the foreigners come and it pushes the it pushes the locals out and the locals don’t even want to come no more. You know what I mean? Whoa. Look at this guy. Kumamoto. Oh streamer. Kumaman streamer. Where? Who’s streaming? He’s not streaming. Oh Kumamon. Kumi Kum Kuman. Kumo Kum. Oh, come on. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Starting. Thank you. Oh, that smells good. Ooh, what was that? Is that like a deli mju? What is that place? Gyoza. Oh, that’s a Gyoza restaurant. Isn’t that a chain? I feel like I’ve been there before. Gya Noni. Yeah. Wait, this might be the one I had with water before. Is that our dinner? Is it famous from? Yeah, this place is actually really good. I’m down to go here and study. This place is good. So, when I went to this place in Fukuoka a year ago, the local person told me that’s like really I remember being like really cool. Like the young like cool hip crowd. Yeah. Do you like the young hip crowd? Cuz I am young and hip. Thank you. Oh, dude. This is the way to live. Good health. Yeah. No, this place is good. That’s good. Ooh, that’s good. It’s zesty. Yo, this got hella This This is packed with flavor. All right, what do we got here? We got some gyozas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Spicy chicken. Spicy boiled chicken. Do I put some cilantro on here? I mean, I don’t know. Wa. I like it. Spicy. Is it really spicy? Not really spicy, but it like It’s on It dances on your tongue. Uh, [Music] that’s going to be good, dude. Oh, you smell that? Smell it. Smell. Smell. Smell. Oh my god. Wow. I can’t wait. Warm myself. It’s a fried chicken with like Taiwan spicy flavor. I think the flavor is going to be really good though. I think he’s going to like it. I think he’s going to love it. It’s very cookie flavor. I know. I know the flavoring. Do you ever think this is the best timeline you can ever experience? Yeah. That’s why you’re here, man. All the other ones are dead and you’re not in that timeline for a reason. You know what makes one of You know what makes my timeline my favorite timeline? What is that? Water. Water. And I’m not a dependent person. I’m a very independent on happiness person. Yeah. She has my timeline. She watching right now. I don’t know. Before I met water. Yeah. And after I met water and mostly before. Yeah. I’ve met a lot of ladies in my life before and after. I’ve not seen any girl that I’ve ever known ever come close to water brings me. [Applause] So, what is the ring? Hey, Dustin. Yo, guys. We out here. We in Kumad and it’s boy. [Applause] Aina [Music] good boy. Good boy. Good boy. Good boy. Good boy. Good boy. Bad boy. Bad boy. Good boy. Good line. We hope that you guys enjoyed the stream. Day three of the Kyushu Grand Tour Double Dragons Edition road trip, baby. We’ve gone from Kuka to Nagasaki and now we are in Kumoto. That’s the Kumoto energy we need. Hello. That’s what we need, guys. That’s what we need right there. Appreciate you guys being here. Much love. Thanks for hanging on day three of the uh grand tour. See you guys tomorrow. See you. Oh, the kids are still doing it. Oh, they’re still doing it. So, this is pretty cool, chat. Uh, anyone just watching this, we noticed this morning Sunday activities in Kumoto in the big shopping center. They have like 10 different stations of kids learning like long valuable things. So like they have like arts and crafts, but not just normal like they’re like sewing. They’re what over there like have mechanics here teaching the kids like to fix the car. Like kids bumping out dance and like so cool. I wish I learned this. Yeah, right. Then I can fix my dad and Sunny. I mean, you’re going to have these girls counting cash. Yeah, girls counting cash. They’re doing makeup was another station. It’s like home economics, but even better. Yeah, electronics. Electronics. You see that? Yeah. They’re working on circuit boards and batteries, dude. Dude, what a what a great education system that this state the city government has for their kids. I get to see how this works. Oh no. Guys, I need one of these. So, he’s putting in the number. I think this is all automated. Yeah, the number pilot. I don’t think we saw this cuz we were off stream when we came here. But Chad, look at look at this building. I want to show you guys this building. I think it says there’s like 60 or 64 cars inside. Look how tall it is. It’s like 10 stories high. Holy crap. I looked when I got the car, I looked inside. There’s two cars on each side, front and back. There’s four cars per level and it’s like standard 12. I don’t know. And there’s like four six cars here. Yeah, you can see there’s like 50 cars stacked vertically. It’s really cool. That is crazy. So when you stand in there and look straight up, you can see like like a all full of cars. It’s really cool. Okay, so when this opens up, we can go in there, right? Uh yeah, he’s There it is. [Music] Holy crap. That is cool. For anyone curious, there’s a storm basically coming through this evening. It’ll be this evening and tonight. And so, a lot of cloudiness, a lot of rain. So, we decided not to go to the volcano mountain stream today. We’re going to put that on the back burner for one more day. And we’re going to head out tomorrow. So, we’re staying in the city for one more day. We’re going to do a book off, little out of the city tour today. Hanging out. Yeah. Book off with parking. Yeah. I already feel it. This is going to be slim pickings. What do we got here? We got some big arts. Ultra man’s Oh, we got this. This is the cheapest one I’ve seen. 20,000. Our second stop of the day. Hard off. 13200. I think that’s like the going rate. Look at that. Kumamoto Castle. There’s no guarantee. Kind of like its own like Yeah. Use it for parts. If you want to fix yours, you have like Oh, I need that button. Let me buy this. Oh, it’s like a It’s like a scrapyard. Yeah. Holy old laptops, dude. Jesus. What? That is vintage, bro. Dude. Oh, look at that. That is wild. Look at this. Jesus. Yo, this monitor’s got a DVD drive in it. You know, weird Al Yanovich. Yep. Love it. Hand goes inside here. [Music] I mean, I think I’m listening to like for the [Music] Wait, what the heck is this? Japanese Turtles 3 Blu-ray. Look at this box cover. What the heck is going on with Michelangelo? I hated this movie. Let’s see what we got. Ninja Turtles 3 Blu-ray, Japanese, and uh Disc Drive Mario 2. Potentially our final destination of the night. Are we going to find some treasure? Yay or nay? What the hell is this place? This place is huge. It’s just a It’s a It’s a It’s like a super bazar, right? So, I think I think it has like a mix of everything. What the heck? Holy cow. Wait, what? What the heck is this? This is like a game center book. What is happening? What is this? This is literally like a mix of a book off. Every every off you would want. Plus Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, there’s there’s games. There’s UFO catchers. Look at this. What the heck? I feel like I need to get this, guys. What is that? It’s a It’s a Gundam Warship, and it’s 7-Eleven version. What? That’s what it looks like if you build it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in my life. 50 bucks. Look at this. You could put inside here a freaking Gundam. You could put a Gundam, a 711 Gundam inside it. [Applause] This is the most rarest thing that I’ve seen today. Is it pre-built? Chat, please tell me it’s not. Oh, score. Perfect. New. Let’s go, baby. Nice. Congrats. Hey, man. I could sell this and make a 100 bucks. That’s pretty good. I would do that. All right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is the end of today. It was a little rainy day and we have found a little bit of treasure. I mean, I got uh Mario 2 for the disc drive, Ninja Turtles 3 on Blu-ray. Damn, you you did get some treasure. Yeah, I mean, treasure is subjective, right? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Like, well, most people’s trash is your treasure. Thanks so much for hanging out, Jake. You have any last words? Yeah, thanks for hanging during the Kushu Grand Tour. I know you guys have not all subbed today, but I’m sure that you’ll do it all next time on Cook Street. Yeah. So, tomorrow we’ll continue on. Tomorrow we have Big Mountain Volcano Adventure. Good night, everybody. Good night, Chad. Bye. See you tomorrow bright and

Day 3 of the Kyushu road trip! & @CookSux and I are in Kumamoto! in today’s video our mission is to meet the famous bear mascot of the city, try out different food and experience everything this city has to offer! enjoy the video!

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My name is Jake, you might know me as jakenbakeLIVE – and I am a live streamer on Twitch.tv. I am primarily known for my outdoor travel and exploration content – primarily in Japan.

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