Eating Raw Horsemeat Sushi in Kumamoto, Japan 🇯🇵

Eating Raw Horsemeat Sushi in Kumamoto, Japan 🇯🇵

Good afternoon from Nagasaki, where I’m about to leave this city via the Japanese bullet trains. Yes, the Shinkansen. This is going to be my first time taking a Shinkansen on this trip to Japan, guys. Normally, I’m taking these kind of regular trains to get from city to city, but today, a bullet train, a Shinkansen. Actually, two Shinkansens, because to get to Kumamoto, where I’m going, it requires me to go half an hour north in a Shinkansen, half an hour east on a regular train, and then half an hour south on another Shinkansen, guys. So, two different bullet trains I’ll be taking today, and yeah, I’m staying here right next to the train station so it’s going to be easy. Although, my train is leaving in about 20 minutes, and I don’t have a ticket yet, so I better get my butt into gear. I have all my stuff packed up and ready to go, actually. I just need to, yeah, I’ve got some drinks to drink. Ah, we’ll make it down. There’s plenty of time. We’re right next to the train station. Okay, yeah, okay. Arigatou gozaimasu. Okay, express checkout, nice and easy. So, the hotel will have my credit card on file. Any charges or whatever, they’ll just charge it to that. I don’t have to go through the whole process. So I just entered my route again on Google Maps and it says there’s significant delay on the Shinkansen, the Kyushu Shinkansen, so I don’t know if that’s my first train or my second train or what Shinkansen. Okay, I guess I get my ticket here first. So they have a seat map, so I’ve tried to find one on a window, and one not sitting next to anybody, like this. So this is for the first two trains. When I get to this station, I’ll have to buy another ticket for the next Shinkansen, but this one is 5,400. I think I might have goofed up. The ticket’s got tomorrow’s date on it. It’s got tomorrow’s date and it’s got today’s date. I don’t know. I think I’ve got… We’ll see if it lets me through. Yeah, well, it let me through. I think I’ve got… I’m 50-50, guys, I’m 50-50. Well, this is my train, the 1345 on track 12. And this is our train right here. I’ve checked my ticket and it’s right. It’s today, it’s today. I don’t know what the tomorrow date on the ticket is. Maybe like that’s your last chance to exchange it or something, but I need to get a selfie in front of this, guys. Wow, look at it. Check it out, guys. Wow, check it out. The aerodynamics, guys. this is my cabin here. 2 and seat 13A. So I’ve booked a window seat, and with nobody sitting next to me, so should be nobody sitting next to me the whole journey. Because, yeah, we’re at 8 minutes to go, guys. I just booked the ticket. So these seats are nice. It’s all wood. Like this. And this is super comfortable. Cushions. And nobody behind me, I think. Yeah, so I can give it a recline as well. Nice and comfy, guys. I think you can actually eat on these trains. There’s a canteen service. These little airplane style tables. It’s nice. Should be gone in a few minutes. So apparently, the Shinkansen line, that’s having significant delays right now. It’s not this one that I’m on right now that’s going north. It’ll be the one that’s going south, so when I get to that point. I haven’t booked a ticket for that train yet. When I get to Shin-Tosu station up here, then I’ll try and find out what’s going on with that. Maybe I’m just better off taking the regular train if the Shinkansen is delayed. Well, that was fast, guys. You don’t really get a sense of how fast you’re going most of the time because you’re going through a tunnel. And you don’t get much of a view because most of the time, when you’re not in a tunnel, they’ve put up barriers, I guess, for the sound for the residents of that area. Now I’ve got two minutes. Ah, this is my train right here. Wow, that’s a really easy connection. I’ve literally got two minutes to get onto this, car 5. Okay, and I’m in seat 11A. I don’t think I’ll be getting my suitcase up there in this one. I have a luggage rack. Useful. Thank you for riding with JR Kyushu. This train is the Relay Kamome Limited Express bound for Hakata. We will be stopping at Kurohoku, Saga, Shin-Tosu, and Hakata. And I’ve just seen through here you can get these kind of seats. I don’t know if they’re a higher price or what, guys. I’m here looking for a toilet, and none of these are taken. You get a nice wee, if you’re travelling as a family or something, that’d be lovely. It’s like your own wee booth kind of thing. Let’s check out the bog then. Oh, it’s tiny. This one’s tiny. But clean. That’s the most important thing, guys. It’s clean, always in Japan. You’re almost always guaranteed a clean toilet. It’s good. And these actually fold. That’s really cool, guys. These actually fold open. If you bought a bunch of food at the train station, you could come and munch it all here on your journey. I actually prefer this train to the bullet train, guys, because the view isn’t obstructed. You can get the nice view for the little samurai houses and all that, through the countryside. With the Shinkansen you’re always in a tunnel or always blocked by the barrier. I never know how to do this. I think there’s supposed to be a sensor. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Guys, so the next step is to take the next Shinkansen, but I don’t have a ticket for that. I don’t know if I should have bought a ticket that went all the way or not. I was kind of worried about the connection because there’s a Shinkansen in like one minute, which I probably wouldn’t be able to make. And… yeah. Anyway, I need to exit here and then get another ticket. And Google Maps is still saying there’s significant delays on this line, the one I’m about to take. It doesn’t say what means significant. For Japan it might mean like five minutes or something. I don’t know. So I don’t know if I can see any info up here. Yeah, this one. 15:14 It doesn’t say anything about a delay. 15:14, going to Kumamoto. So, that’s in about 25 minutes time, so I got time to chill. Buy my ticket. Maybe even get something to eat. There’s a family mart right there, guys. I’ll get my ticket first. Okay, so they have the green car. Maybe I should try that out. So, that’s like a first class. I wonder how much more it costs. It’s a small cabin. There’s only 24 seats tall and these ones don’t have anybody sitting next to them, so I’m going to buy one of them. Okay, 5000 yen it costs. So, the normal one was like 4000, 3900 or something, and the first class is 5000. It’s only for like 35 minutes or so, so I’m paying an extra 1000 to travel in a wee bit more luxury for 35 minutes, but I want to have the experience, guys. I want to see what the green cars are like, if it’s much better than the ordinary one or not, so I’m going to do it. Issuing ticket now. Please take your ticket. Got my first-class ticket. Now, to get some first-class food from the family mart. Ah, okay. I got two of them. They’re salt grilled salmon steaks. They’re lovely. I’ve had them before. Super nice. Arigato gozaimasu. Some proper food. I’m plenty of eating it here than on the train actually. Kind of messy food like this. I’ll just use this as my table. VIP table right here. I’ll enjoy this beautiful, juicy salmon steak. You can just tell by the color of it that it’s good. The brighter and more depth that the color has, the more nutrients are in it and the more it tastes good, guys. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Another one. As DJ Khaled once said, “Another one.” Lovely jubbly. Yeah, you can eat well from these convenience stores, guys. It’s not all junk food. There’s some good stuff. Now, my train is in three minutes, so I better get a move on. Oh, I thought the train would be here already. It’s literally leaving in two minutes. I guess it just flies in, stops for like one minute, and then flies back out again. Unless that red thing underneath it means about the delay, guys. That’s probably what it is. It’s probably the delay. The significant delay that might only be five minutes because Japanese people would consider that significant. In the UK we’d just consider that normal. We’d consider it completely normal. In fact, we’d be surprised if the train arrived on time. Yes, here. Wow. Wow. Okay, another selfie. Another Shinkansen selfie. I’m in car six so it’s back a bit. That’s two. One car is massive. That’s two. That’s three. I better rush because this won’t be stopping for long. Oh, way up there in fact. I didn’t even see that section. There’s a whole other section way up there. I think I better just jump on. I think I better just jump on now and then pull it up. Here we are here. So, I mean, it just looks like the chairs are a little bit better than the other ones. Not much. I’m just going to bring my luggage in here, because yeah, the chances that anybody booked that seat in the last ten minutes are pretty slim, and if they did, then I’ll just move it. Oh, we’re going fast. The top speed of this is 260 kilometers an hour, guys. Like 200 miles an hour. Okay, third train journey of the day complete. Well, the journey isn’t complete, guys. I still have a 20-minute tram ride to get to my hotel, so yep, off we go. And look who’s here to greet you when you arrive. It is Kumamon. Kumamon is the city mascot for Kumamoto. He is this cute black bear that is quite famous in Japan, actually. You see him around a lot in other cities, guy. Very cute. Yeah, if I get a souvenir from this city, it’s probably going to be like a plushie or something of Kumamon. That would be nice, guys. Ah, in fact right here, is a Kumamoto souvenir shop, and they’ve got, I guess some local delicacies, and they’ve got Kumamon. Should I, right now already? I’ve just arrived, should I get myself a souvenir or should I get to my hotel? I think I’ll get to my hotel first before I start buying souvenirs actually. I just got to find where the trams take off from. I’m pretty sure it’s not far. In fact I see a tram right there. So that’s probably… it’s not really a station or anything, it’s probably just a stop, a tram stop, and it looks like there’s people standing so I don’t know how much fun it’s going to be, but lugging this suitcase on it and all that. Yeah, I’ve taken the trams in Nagasaki. You Kind of have to hang on. You Kind of have to hang on to the circle thing and all that. I don’t know how I’m going to do this, guys, but yeah, I’m pretty sure that is the tram I need. Oh, man. Thank you. Okay, good. We’re going in the right direction. No problem at all, guys. Nice and easy. Four different vehicles. Two bullet trains, one normal train and one Kumamoto City tram. No bother for your man. Even the light is green for us. And we’re right next to some shopping arcade that we see in every city in Japan. Has one of these, guys, the covered shopping street. So my hotel is going to be, I think, around the corner somewhere from this. And they have a lot of pachinko going on here, guys. That is the popular form of gambling here in Japan. If you’ve ever seen those machines where the wee balls go down and bounce off things and scatter down, that’s what they play. It’s kind of like a grey area legalized gambling. Basically, gambling’s supposed to be illegal, but they play pachinko for like tokens or something, and they can take the token somewhere else and exchange them for money. So it’s basically like they’re gambling dens, guys. And they’re very popular. And they have a CoCo ICHIBANYA here. Coco Curry House. I still haven’t eaten it on this trip. This is my favorite Japanese curry, guys. It’s the, all the fried goodness with the fruity porky Japanese curry. This is the kind of typical setup. Usually I get all the toppings. Usually I just have a plate loaded with toppings, guys. I’ll get like vegetable curry, and then I’ll get the add-ons like the pork cutlet and like fried chicken and all that. But it looks like this one is like wee booths, yeah. Might try that later on, guys. I should really be trying the local food in Kumamoto. I don’t know what that is actually. But yeah, things like that. The Coco Curry House is like more general Japanese food. You’ll find that anywhere in Japan and McDonald’s. You’ll find that anywhere in the world. Pretty much, won’t you? Maybe I should see what interesting local Japanese things they have. In every country they seem to have something interesting. Like in Dubai and Egypt they had like McArabia, which is like a flatbread. Some kind of like chicken patty in a flatbread. It was really nice. Kind of like yogurt sauce and all that. So I wonder what you would get in Japan. I don’t even know what you would get. What, a sushi burger? I don’t know. Maybe check that out as well, guys. So my hotel should just be around here. Should be like right here. In fact, no, I’ve gone too far. I’ve actually gone too far. Okay, I’ll cut back. I’ll cut back that way. I’m too interested in the different culinary options to be concentrating on my location, guys, one mission at a time. Let’s get checked in for the hotel. Ah, that’s it. Ahead of us. Candeo Hotel, yes. Let’s check out the gaff then and see what $75 a night gets you in Kumamoto. Oh, that’s nice. Japanese style. They tell you need to take your shoes off here. This is the area. Like every Japanese house has an area for taking off your clothes. Your shoes. And then you’re supposed to change into slippers. So I’ll do that. Right now, guys, I’ll put on my Japanese slippers. These are the wrong way. Or maybe they’re uni, yeah. But this is my $75 a night room. And this was the cheapest room that they had. I guess because it has this, and most people wouldn’t want that. They had other rooms where they had like a more… it looked fancier, but for me it didn’t look comfortable. It was like a stool and kind of like a loungy area and stuff. That’s what your man wants. A proper desk and a proper chair so he can set up his laptop and be all comfortable. Right in front of the TV as well. This is nice. This is like their cheapest room. Like I said, I’m paying $75 a night. And yeah, a tip for you, guys; if you’re booking hotels in Japan and you’re travelling solo, is make sure you select that it’s going to be one person staying there, because yeah, this room it was only available for one person, and if you selected two people, they only showed you the higher category rooms. And even then, for the same room you pay more for two people staying in the room than one. The only other country I’ve been to where they do that is Germany. They charge more or less depending on how many people are in the room. In most countries the room’s the room. You buy the room. Doesn’t matter how many people are staying in it, but yeah, that’s a tip for you, guys. You’ll end up overpaying, because by default, when you do hotel searches online, whether it’s on Google or one of the booking sites, by default, it’s always two adults. That’s the default. And even, a lot of times I just book that when I’m booking a hotel in other countries because it makes no difference. But yeah, here it makes a difference in Japan, so that’s a good tip for you, guys, who are travelling solo to this country. And now, let’s check the room. There’s nothing much to check out. It is the bed and the desk. Nice and simple. I guess this is going to be… I can tell this is going to be a tiny bathroom. But let’s check it out. Airplane bathroom, I’m sure, where it is… Hang on, I guess I need to do this. There we go, okay. Ah, it’s not too bad. I’ve had smaller than this, guys. I’ve had smaller than this. Yeah, we’ve got the Japanese toilet, as always, and yeah, this is Kind of what I’m used to. It’s almost a big step down from the corner suite at the Mari at Nagasaki. That was brilliant. I really enjoyed staying there. That was fantastic, but yeah, I’m sure I’ll be comfortable here. I’ll be even more comfortable once, I think you guys know what I’m about to say, I’ll be even more comfortable once, is it here? Yeah, once I stock this up with your man’s own goodies. Your man’s own goodies right here, guys, yes. Absolutely essential to having a comfortable stay in a hotel is to have a well-stocked mini bar with your own stuff. Your stuff that you particularly like and you’ve bought for the real price at a convenience store. None of the hotels I’ve stayed in in Japan so far try and sell you their overpriced junk. They always give you an empty fridge, which I appreciate. I don’t have to take all their junk out and hide it for my whole stay, you know, like they do in some countries. They try and make you buy like a $10 Coke. No, no, no, no. You want the real price Coke Z. Not the overpriced, sugary Coke, don’t you? So we’ve got the Coke Z, we’ve got the milk tea, we’ve got the green tea, we’ve got the protein milk, we’ve got the vegetable juice. Oh yes, these are nice. Surprisingly, these taste surprisingly good, guys. The vegetable juices from this brand, Kagome. So any of the vegetable juices that Kagome make taste nice, which is surprising. And, yeah, grapefruit juice for the vitamin C burst. We’ve got the cacao, 72%. These are nice. They’re little cubes. They’re really good for snacking. There’s a few brands that make them in this kind of… there’s only in Japan I’ve seen this, where they make them in cubes. There’s one called Liberia as well that make them in cubes. They’re really nice and I’ve been to Lawson who have… in some of their stores they have something called Natural Lawson where they have a whole rack of natural snacks like these mixed nuts, maple flavor, chocolate oatmeal flakes. They look nice. Sweet potato chips. They look nice. Chocolate almonds. Oh, wow. Yeah, they look nice. And edamame chips. So these are made from those peas. You ever been to a Japanese restaurant and they give you those peas in a pod type of little snack thing? Well, those chips are made from them. And I’ve got what’s quickly becoming one of my favorite Japanese snacks. The one satisfying bar. Banana flavored. So this is, it’s like a banana cake. Oh, it’s all nice. It’s all like cakey texture and just mmm. Oh yeah, I always feel good after one of them, guys, so I’ve got a bunch of them. And yeah, just the usual snacks that I normally have. And this is one of the best noodles. It looks very simple, eh? The cup noodle. But this is one of the best noodles, specifically the seafood variety, in my opinion. Yeah, it’s a good one. The toppings is a lot. You’ve got a lot of toppings that kind of like rehydrates and you feel like you’re eating some proper noodles, not just like some cardboard or whatever, eh? Like you’re doing some instant noodles. But yeah, I’ve got a well-stocked mini bar, so your man’s nice and happy. And he’s also happy with the Wi-Fi because he did a speed test and this is what he got, 89 megabits down and 110 megabits up. So that is brilliant. That’s about three times faster up and down than I had at the Marriott in Nagasaki. So, yeah, it’s surprising because this hotel is a big hotel. There’s like 45 rooms on every floor, and there’s like… yeah, there’s like six or seven floors. There’s like 300 rooms or something or so of the hotel. Usually how it is, the bigger the hotel, the more they have to like split up the Wi-Fi bandwidth between each guest, and yeah, usually you actually get a faster connection staying at like smaller boutique hotels. But this is a big hotel and they have big Wi-Fi speed, so that’s good. And these pajamas that they’ve given me. I wonder why they just randomly gave me some pajamas when I see other people walking around with them when I was out filling my minibar. I’ve seen other people in the hotel. They’re going up to the spa. That’s what it is. So I’ve got some information about it. Here there’s like a… yeah, there’s a spa open from 3 p.m. and then it’s open all night until 11 a.m. the next day, yeah. And the sauna closes 2 till 6 a.m. But it’s like a place for men and women to go naked and just soak in like hot spring water or something. They’re separate. There’s like separate rooms. There’s like a separate men’s section and a women’s section, but I think most foreigners wouldn’t know what the etiquette is and everything, so they’ve given like a whole thing here. Guys, I don’t know if you can read that, if the text is too small or whatever, but if you’re ever wondering how to do it, you’re supposed to go in your pajamas, and then you take your pajama and towels. You’re not allowed to take any phone, camera, any food, anything like that. Then you have to strip off and just take your face towel to cover your whatever you’ve got between your legs, and yeah, that’s it. You take that off once you get inside. You clean yourself first. You take like a shower, and then once you’re all clean, then you go in like the hot spring bath with like everybody else, and you kind of just soak there. And like I say, men and women they have like a separate section, so you don’t have to be embarrassed or whatever, guys, but yeah, that’s me, nice and settled into my room. We don’t have much of a view. It’s just a view of the other buildings, but yeah. Oh, the sun’s starting to go down, guys, maybe I should get out and have a wee bit of a look around, or a wee bit of a munch. Now, you guys may have noticed the amazing hands-free shots that I’m getting in this video, guys. And you’re probably wondering what is the device attached to my chest right now. Tell us all about it Dale. Tell us all about it. What is that little device Dale? No worries, I will tell you all about it, guys. This tiny little camera, tiny wearable 4k camera is the latest technology from Insta360. It’s called the Go Ultra, and it’s like the big brother for the Go 3s that you’ve seen me use in previous vlogs to get these shots. This is the Go 3s right here. So I’ve got the big brother now on your man’s chest. The Go 3s is this size and weighs 39 grams, and the Go Ultra is this size and weighs 53 grams, so it’s not that much heavier and not that much bulkier, but it packs a lot of extra performance. For a start, the Go Ultra has a 1 over 1.28-inch sensor. That is huge for a camera this size. Much bigger than the one on the Go 3s, and it can take in 200% more light. The more light a camera can take in, the more light the sensor can take in, the better the image is going to be, especially in low-light conditions. So this is a powerhouse in low-light. It’s also got a bigger battery than the Go 3s. The Go 3s on its own outside the pod can last for about 30 minutes, and the Go Ultra can last for about 70 minutes. But the biggest thing for me is that… oh wow look at this, look at this train here, guys. Wow, that’s like a classic, it’s like a classic tram actually. Yeah, the biggest thing for me is that the Go Ultra can record in 4k at 60 frames a second. So I’m filming this vlog with the Ace Pro 2 at 60 frames a second at 4k resolution. So to get the seamless footage integrated into my vlog from the Go Ultra is great. It just matches so well. The picture quality matches everything. Even the field of view. The Go Ultra has a 156-degree field of view, and the Ace Pro 2 has a 157-degree field of view. So, they’re almost identical. I still have the Go 3s. I think this is going to be useful in some situations like when I want to hide this, when I want to be discreet. I’m going to find a way to like integrate this into my backpack strap. You know, if I’m in somewhere like Delhi, or somewhere where there’s a lot of scammers and I want to expose them or whatever, I don’t want them to know that I’m filming, I would use the Go 3s for that. But for these point of view shots out and about in the city right now, yeah I’m going to use this one. The big brother, the Go Ultra, guys. So if you’re interested in this camera, I suggest you go check it out at the Insta360 online store. You will get a free gift if you scan the QR code on the screen, or click the link in the description, guys. Go check it out. It’s the latest technology. This has just came out. You get this, you’re using the absolute cutting-edge technology action camera. It’s an incredible device. There’s nothing else like it on the market right now. Go and check it out. Online store, guys, Insta360. Thanks to them again for sponsoring this video, and thanks to them again, Insta360, for making yet another incredible device that helps me as a travel vlogger get the content that you guys want to watch. Oh wow, this shopping arcade is bigger than I thought. I thought it was just this street and it ended here. There’s a whole other section down there. This is a nice thing in Japan, eh? It’s like you’re in the street, but it’s also kind of like you’re in the mall. You get the best of both worlds. You got like, you’re covered from the elements, but you still feel like you’re, I don’t know, you’re street shopping. It’s pretty cool that they do these in every city. Ah, this looks good. The Dan shop or maybe that’s a different one. I think that’s on the second floor. That’s something else, but this one’s called Meat and it’s just meat. They just sell meat, guys. It’s a steak restaurant like hamburgers and chopped beef and a bit of veg on the side. Yeah, that looks good. Might try that out. I wonder if I can get some Wagyu there. I still haven’t had Wagyu on this trip. Guys, got somebody filming with a professional camera there. He’s probably filming something, some B-roll for some TV show or something like that, guys, but your man’s got the professional cameras as well, hasn’t he? Right here, you don’t need all that bulky stuff, guys, you can roam around freely and get high quality video with this kind of tech that I’m using. You are here. So maybe I should just walk up this way. There’s the whole Kumamoto Castle area up there. I think it’s probably too late to go in and visit that now, but I can see it from the outside at least, guys, and then maybe go check it out properly tomorrow. And this is Kumamoto Castle ahead of us, right here. It’s all covered in scaffolding, guys, so apparently there was an earthquake in 2016, and it’s still being restored from that event, and yeah, the restoration is going to take decades. So the castle itself, that would have been a restoration because almost all castles that you’ll see in Japan are restorations. Very few of them survived. All the earthquakes and all that, a lot of them were built with wood. You know, it’s not like the castles in Europe that were all stone. A lot of wood was used in the construction of most Japanese castles, so this would have been a restoration and it was destroyed, and now they’re restoring the restoration. Yeah, as you can see, scaffolding everywhere. Apparently, this was a turret. Yeah, it’s all scaffolding, guys. And then the parts that aren’t covered in scaffolding are covered by the trees. I can’t really see anything from down here. Yeah, I don’t know if that’ll be worth coming back to tomorrow to check out or not. I mean, there are parts that look like they’re being properly restored and all that. If I can get into the castle grounds, it might be nice to have a look around, but for now, the rain has started. So, I’m going to head back to the shopping arcade where it’s all covered. I’m going to make use of that cover. And if you guys were wondering what happened to my Go Ultra. Did it fall off my chest? No, I don’t think it could fall off my chest. The magnet is so strong, guys, it’s made for action sports like snowboarding, BMX bicycling and all that, guys. No, it’s in my pocket charging up so it’s in the action pod. So, as you can see it’s very, very pocketable even in its house. Yeah, this is the action pod here. This is like the house for the Go Ultra. Magnetically clips to my chest and is super strong. It takes a bit of force. It also securely snaps into its house right here, the action pod, and then that gives you a more action camera, traditional action camera kind of experience. Like the Ace Pro 2 it has the flip screen here so you can… you can pretty much use this like the Ace Pro 2, and the image quality is like, now it’s practically identical with this 1 over 1.28-inch sensor, guys, you could really just use this. I could film a whole vlog just with this, the Go Ultra. It’s that good. And that’s the, a little rubber thing they’ve put on, a little handle that makes it very comfortable to use, to hold like this, even selfie style, guys, just pressing your thumb against that it looks nice and secure, so you could really use this as a… as your only action camera actually. Personally, I want to film all my videos on the Ace Pro 2. I think that’s the goal, the greatest action camera of all time, but the way I’m using this is just as the point of view camera, guys. Get some of those POV shots right here. All right., I’m going to give this a try, the meat. I don’t know if I can get Wagyu or what, what I can get in here, but I’m sure I’ll get something interesting, something tasty. Okay, thank you. I was worried he was going to make me sit at the counter. I don’t like that. You get people sitting next to you rubbing shoulders. Oh they do have Wagyu right here. It’s expensive but they have it. Wagyu Kumamoto Akashi. [Japanese]. I don’t know. This is Wagyu, right? Same though. They’re large. And it’s nice that in these restaurants they always give you free water and free refills as well so you don’t have… if you don’t really feel like paying money for a drink, you can just drink the water. It’s nice, clean, clear water. It tastes clean anyway. It doesn’t taste like tap water, but even if it was, it’s like Scotland. You can drink the tap water, no problem at all. I’m not going to do you any harm. Japanese tap water. A rare sight, a Scotsman eating a salad, and a Scotsman eating a salad with chopsticks no less. That’s a very rare sight. The soup’s nice. There’s chunks of meat in there. Lovely. It’s like a beef soup. Wow. Okay, so it’s beef on a bowl of rice. It’s like sliced and grilled very thinly. Let’s see. Oh, oh wow. It’s so juicy. It’s absolutely covered in peppercorn, ground peppercorn, and it’s all like, it’s all like charred. Oh wow, oh wow, it’s as delicious as bacon. Yeah, it’s like the same shape and texture as bacon, and it’s same strong umami taste. Yeah, they gave me the sauce, but it definitely doesn’t need it. This definitely doesn’t need any sauce. I’m going to make short work of this. I wish I had like twice or three times as much meat on the plate. This is the large one as well. I don’t know. Let’s see what this sauce is anyway. It says butter soy sauce. So it’s like a soy sauce layered with butter. That’ll be nice on the meat. Let’s give it a go. Like I said, it doesn’t need any sauce, but I’m sure it’ll be delicious. Butter soy sauce. Oh, yeah, it tastes like 50% melted butter, 50% soy sauce. It’s too good. It’s too good, guys. What a great decision to go for this rather than McDonald’s, eh? In my mind, there was like about a 30% chance I was going to go and eat at Mickey D’s. And all the juice from the meat and the butter soy sauce is soaking into the rice, so even the rice is nice, guys. The rice is nice. There we go. Another bowl of scran. Demolished by our man. Didn’t even leave a single grain of rice. Okay, guys, it is now night time and it is also now dessert time, isn’t it? I don’t know if they had desserts in the steak restaurant. I think just steak and all that, but yeah, I’m sure I’ll find something nice and sweet around here. And if I don’t, there’s always the Family Mart ice cream section, isn’t there? Oh wow, there’s even a Sri Lankan restaurant here. Sri Lankan, Jani Sri Lankan Kitchen, up the stairs. Wow, I rarely see. I see loads of Indian restaurants when I travel. I rarely see Sri Lankan ones. So that’s good. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten really authentic Sri Lankan food. I’m pretty sure the owner of that one would be Sri Lankan. Just like in Fukuoka, I met a Sri Lankan guy who owned a restaurant there. So, yeah, maybe if I get a craving for Sri Lankan food, I’ll go visit there, guy. But right now, my mind is on sweet food. Sri Lankans aren’t really known for sweet food. They have good curries and other things, but desserts, I can’t even think of a Sri Lankan dessert, guys. These guys sell, looks like the Thai Yaki. Hello, Thai Yaki. Okay, I think I got the original one. Red bean, adzuki. Please wait for about 6 minutes. Oh 6 minutes, you will make now? Okay, okay, it’s not ready, okay. Can I take video? It’s okay? Okay, he’s making my one fresh. Wow, the adzuki. There’s so much. Yeah, I like that. It’s all filling. That’s the batter. Yeah, it’s quite simple, okay. Arigato gozaimasu. 21, okay. That’s where they’re grilling. Oh, and they do something else. I think that’s wafer. It’s like an ice cream sandwich they make. That looks good as well. Maybe tomorrow that’ll be dessert. That one right there. Green tea, ice cream and red bean. I really love this stuff, the red bean. Adzuki, it’s really nice. Okay, it’s my one, okay. Arigato gozaimasu, okay. Oh, so hot, so hot. Okay, thank you, okay. Oh wow, I’m going to have to let this cool down. I think, yeah, I might need to take it back to my room. By the time I walk back to my room, it’ll probably be just cool enough to eat. And they have a Taito station in there. I think it’s all just claw machines. I don’t think there’s gachas. I don’t really like the claw machines. I think they’re rigged. At least with the gacha you’re sure you’re getting something. You don’t know exactly what you’re going to get, but you’ve got a good idea of one of like a dozen things that you’re going to get. But these things, yeah, I just feel like they’re just going to steal my money. I don’t know if they have any. Oh, they have a few gachas there. I don’t know if there’s anything interesting. Yeah, it’s all cutesy stuff for chicks. Yeah, maybe up the stairs. Okay, I’m going to go munch this first and then come back. That place is apparently popular, Saizeriya. It’s like an Italian themed restaurant. I see that everywhere in Japan. And I see this everywhere in Japan as well. So what do they even have here? They have Hawaiian burgers. Huh, that’s the special on a Japanese McDonald is Hawaiian burgers. Three different ones. Oh, that looks good. It’s like, you kind of get them in the Mos Burger as well. It’s got actual full shrimps all the way through it. Yeah, that looks decent. And that one with the thick egg on top. Mmm, yeah, they all look good. I got to try a Japanese McDonald’s before I leave anyway. Mmm, that’s the way to do it. Enjoy your Japanese snack, with a Japanese Coke Zero in your Japanese hotel room. Not putting up with the humid weather, not putting up with other people, not putting up with you guys complaining because, oh, you’re eating and walking at the same time in Japan. Don’t you know? That is a crime. You can be executed for that. That’s what so many Westerners who have never been to Japan want to tell me. I’ve never had a Japanese person tell me off for walking and eating something, guys, only self-righteous Westerners that think they know better than people who’ve actually travelled to the country they’re talking about.come on, guys. Shape up. And the shape of this is a Tai. That’s why it’s called Taiyaki. And Tai in Japanese, it means red seabream. So it’s a type of fish. If you Google what a red seabream looks like, it looks like this shape. So they make them in this shape. If you saw this dessert and thought, oh, a fish dessert, that’s horrible. There’s no fish in it. It’s just the shape. It’s just it’s named after the red seabream. So the ingredients were very simple. She had a batter mix and she had like a bunch of the paste, the adzuki red beans, and that’s all she made it with. Oh, even in my own place I’m making a mess. And you know, I’m using the tissue box to elevate my camera. Oh, my god. Okay, no more messing, guys. No more messing. I’m going to get this straight in the gob. Mmm, oh, it’s all warm. Mmm, oh. And the red bean paste, it’s not too sweet. I feel like this is healthy. I feel like this is, I could eat a bunch of these. Oh my god, she’s not put a bunch of sugar in it at all. See, this is the type of food you should eat in your hotel room. You know the reason why it’s bad manners to eat food walking down the street in Japan? It’s because you get crumbs everywhere and you’ll mess stuff up. If you’re eating food that you can eat cleanly, or drinking juice that you even like, I’m not going to spill that walking down the street, so nobody cares. But something like this, if I was dropping red beans on the floor and everybody was stepping on them, yeah, that’s a bad thing to do. That’s bad manners. But thankfully the messy ones, I bring them back to my room. Oh, yeah, it’s not too sweet. But it is just a little bit sweet to be a dessert. And, yeah, the pastry’s all like wafery. It’s got like a crispy outer bit and kind of all soft and chewy on the under bit. And 300 yen, about $2, about £1.50 British or so. Yeah, that’s pretty good, if you ask me, yeah. But the only thing that could make this better would be some ice cream, but that shop did sell some ice cream type dessert, so, yeah, another day. That might be for me. But now what’s for me is, I’m going to get back out and have another stroll around out there, since I’m so close to all the action, all the shopping arcade and stuff. I might see if I can pick myself up another wee souvenir. And it is now evening, guys. It’s 9 pm and your man is back out exploring. The weather is a lot cooler. It’s a lot more comfortable walking around the streets at 9 pm than it is in the afternoon. I’ll tell you that for sure, guys. But I’m still using the Go Ultra right now, even in the dark. I think it should be able to perform no problem in this kind of low light environment. But there’s a way to make it perform even better. There’s Pure Video Mode. So I’m familiar with Pure Video Mode from using it on the Ace Pro 2. It basically uses an installed AI chip in the camera to enhance your image on the fly. So now the Go series has this ability with the Go Ultra. It has the AI chip installed. So I’m going to stop recording what I’m recording right now, and then I’m going to turn on Pure Video. And you guys tell me, can you see a difference at all? Can you see a big difference or small difference? I’m going to do a 360. But this is Pure Video Mode turned on. Night time shots are normally really difficult filming on an action camera, but you know, with features like this, the Pure Video Mode, it makes life a lot easier. That’s for sure. And I’m back into the shopping arcade, which they’ve actually lit this all up as well, all the way down the shopping arcade. It’s almost like daytime, so here I don’t need to use the Pure Video Mode, but I’m looking for gacha machines. I want to add to my souvenir collection, so I’m looking for the gacha machines. I’m pretty sure I’ll find them. Some of these places are closing, but I’ve seen there’s gacha machines outside of shops, so surely they’re available 24 hours a day. In fact I see some right there. In fact, right there. Let’s see what we’ve got here then. We’ve got all sorts of cute stuff and dinosaurs and Super Mario. But it doesn’t say Super Mario. It just says question mark. But that looks like Super Mario World colors. I don’t know. I don’t think it is. I don’t know what you would get from that. Curious George playing different sports. And then Pokemon cards. Yeah, you can gamble on getting a good Pokemon card. All these cutesy things. Hello Kitty. Well, coin purse or something like that. What do we have here? Some One Piece. Keychains. Hmm, more playing cards. I don’t know what that is. Everything else looks super cute. And then we’ve got this, like totally different to the rest of them. I don’t even know what that is. I wonder if they have more up the stairs or if that’s just they’re selling toys and stuff like that. They just have these gachas outside. Hmm, I’m kind of curious as to what is in here. If it’s like knock off Super Mario World things or what. It’s just a question mark. I translated it. This says what will happen and this says I don’t know. So, I don’t know. It like a trick? Is it like a tactic to get you, you know, you’re so curious that you just have to buy one to see what’s inside? Is it like that or what? It might be working on me. I think I want to try it, guys, okay. Their tactic worked on me. It’s tiny, whatever it is and it weighs nothing. What is it, a piece of paper or what? I think they’ve… oh my god, it’s a piece of bloody paper or something. I think I’ve got shafted. I think I’ve got absolutely shafted. I got bloody gacha scammed. I got gacha’d. Let’s see. Oh my word, there is something in there, but it’s tiny. Oh, that is rubbish. That is the worst thing I’ve ever gotten from a gacha. It’s a tiny little thing in a keychain. I don’t even know what that is. Wow, $2 on a something that’s probably worth like a penny. I’m going to throw this here. Ah, these are all crane machines. Ah, this is more like it. They’ve got the latte, almond, macadamia, all the snacks. It’s not the actual snacks. It’s like a keychain version of them. They also look tiny. They also look tiny, but that’s something I would actually like as a souvenir. And anything else? Interesting. No characters that I know of. I don’t even know what Little Border is. I guess some kind of snack. Some kind of Kit Kat thing. I just want the ones that I know what they are. You know? Okay, I’m going to get myself one of these. What is that? 400? Oh, my god. And there’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5 different ones that you can get. I want macadamia or almond. I want one of those. Those would be the ones I would actually buy in the supermarket, if I was buying a snack, so let’s see if I can snag myself one of them. I’ve got a 40% chance. If it’s fair odds of getting one that I want. So let’s see. 40%. How good does your man run? Does he have the run good? No he does not, of course. I’ve got the strawberry chocolate. There we go. It’s actually, it’s actually quite realistic. It’s, yeah, it’s not bad at all. It’s a nice feel, a nice shape to it. Yeah, okay. That’s kind of nice. I’d like to get a few more of those ones. Let’s see. Almond or macadamia? Let’s go for almond. What happened? What happened? It stole my coins. What the heck? I got gypped. I just put in four coins. Yeah, look, there’s four coins right there. Is it empty? I mean, I see some. I see three still in there. Don’t know what happened. Two, three, four. Oh, here we go. I got it. What one did I get? Ah, I got the chocolate one, the chocolate cookies. Oh come on. How did I lose 240 percenters in a row? Yeah, this one is thicker, guys. It’s a nice big thick one. No diddy. Okay, I’m going to try one. One more time only. One more time only I’m going to try this. What one did I get? Ah, I got this one. Oh my god, oh my god. So I wanted these two. I played it three times and I got the three that I didn’t want. How bad do I run, guys? How bad does your man run? It’s okay. I’m saving my luck for the poker tables. Getting rid of my bad luck here. Yep, it’s the bloody chocolate wafer, right here. So that is my whack, guys. That is my whack. The chocolate cookie one is twice as thick as the other two. But yeah, not what I wanted. Yeah, I think I’m better off just going into a shop like this and buying a souvenir. I can see how much it costs. I know what I’m getting. I mean, the gachas are fun and all, but when you specifically want one item, they’re frustrating. Sometimes, it’s just, you’re happy with whatever you get in some of them, and that’s fine. Those are the ones to play. You’ll never be disappointed. Now, I see Kumamon right here. Do I get myself a wee Kumamon plushie or something else Kumamon related, like socks? These are cute, aren’t they? For women’s though. What’s the difference? This one’s for men’s and this one’s for women’s. I think the plain ones are for men. Keep it nice and simple, and the ones that are all over the place. What happened there? They’re for women. Oh, this is cute. A little fridge magnet. Little mini one there. That’s nice. Yeah, I think I’m going to get this one. He fell down. He fell to me. He wants to come home with me, I think. So, I think that’s a sign that I should be taking him. Kumamon. Make sure he’s in good condition first, yeah. Okay, I’ll get him. Hi, arigato gozaimasu, okay. Local souvenir acquired. Job done. That’s how to do it, guys. No more messing around with those stupid machines. Anyways, I’m going to go get some well-deserved rest, and when it’s daylight, I will be back out exploring. I’m going to go to the castle, I think, first. And that is exactly where I’m going right now, guys. It’s 4pm. Yes, 4pm. I think I’ve got another hour until the castle closes, so leaving it late. But as you can see by the ground, it’s been raining all day. It’s literally just stopped. I guess, I could have come here and hung out, but I’ve been hanging out in my room, waiting for the rain to stop. And what is that? Some dinosaur? I think it’s a dinosaur being attacked by a man. What’s he doing to it? Oh, it’s like a balloon or whatever. But yeah, the castle’s about 15 minutes’ walk up this way, and apparently, you can get some interesting kind of local foods there, including horse, sashimi, raw horse. That’s a Kumamoto specialty food, apparently, guys. I still haven’t checked this out. This nice-looking mall here, Sakura Machi, Kumamoto. There’s a big old inflatable Kumamon up there. Might go and visit him later. Okay, we should be here. Where are we? On the map, you are here. Ah, Sakuranobaba. That is where apparently you can get the street food and all that. That must be in there. And then this is the whole castle area. So, yeah, I’ll first take care of my stomach, guys. Have some horsemeat. Let’s see if we can find the horsemeat here. Is this it or not? Oh, this is a dessert thing, Karifuwa. Looks interesting. Maybe that’ll be my dessert for after the horsemeat. Let’s see. Ah, I see right here, horsemeat and then sushi. A local specialty and horsemeat curry bread. But it looks like they’re closed. I think it’s just this little stall. Unless they’re selling it in here. Ah, here. Open? Still open? I want the… Sushi only. Only sushi? Ah, everything else is sold out. Okay, yeah, sushi, please. Ah, it’s one of these, okay. Like the ramen shops. You can choose, okay. One is two pieces? Ah, okay, I understand. Thank you, yeah. One is one portion, which is two pieces for 600 yen. Okay, and I have a ticket. Now it’s quarter past four already, 16:15. So, do I give this to you? Ah, he’s making. That’s the horsemeat sushi right there. Okay, and I give you the ticket? Okay, arigato gozaimasu. Oh, okay. Arigato gozaimasu. Okay, so no chopsticks or anything. I don’t know where I’m supposed to eat this. I guess just over here. But this is the horsemeat sashimi. Yeah, and it’s raw. Or horsemeat sushi, because it’s raw. It’s just minced. It’s like minced horsemeat. You can see there. Just looks like when I buy minced beef. It just looks like that, like raw. Oh my god. Okay, guys, let’s give this a go then. Yeah, I don’t know how I feel. I think so far I haven’t worried about getting food poisoning on this Japan trip. This is one of the few trips I’ve taken where my stomach has been perfectly fine the whole way through the trip. But yeah, I don’t think I want to eat it with the seaweed. I think I just want the rice and the meat with some kind of sauce on it. Let’s go for it, mmm. That doesn’t taste like anything. It just tastes like the rice and the sauce, and the meat’s very not flavorful at all. Yeah, I thought it was going to taste weird, but yeah, it doesn’t taste weird at all. It’s nice actually. It’s nice. So, yeah, my first time ever trying horsemeat. I get a lot of negative comments from people when I ride a horse. Oh, animal abuse. The poor horse, the poor horse. Well no, I’m eating a horse, guys. What are you going to say about that? Huh? If you get mad when I jump on a horse’s back, what are you going to say about me stuffing my Scottish face with horsemeat? I’ll take the trash back to the vendor. He has a bin outside. I believe that says. I can’t read Japanese, but I believe that says only if you buy it from here. And this shop sells Ikinari dango, another specialty of Kumamoto. I think it’s like a mochi, but apparently, they put like a slice of sweet potato inside. I think this is them here. There’s all sorts of varieties here. I’m trying to… The flavor is in Japanese so I’m trying… That’s sweet potato. I think I’ll get that one. It’s like a sweet potato dough. Hello. Curry, okay. Where are you from? Sukottorando. Sukottorando? Kumamoto specialty, Ikinari dango. Okay, good. Inside sweet potato, on the way. Okay, nice. Yeah, this is sweet potato layer, okay. It’s hot? Yeah. Really? Okay, good. It’s 300. 300 only? Okay, it says 350 for this one, 350. No. You give me for 300? – Yes.
– Okay, thank you. Service okay. Arigato gozaimasu, okay. Oh wow, very hot. Thank you. Okay, that’s good. I got a discount and a hot. What’s it called again? Ikinari Dango. Ikinari Dango right here. Oh, right away I can tell the texture is different from a mochi. It’s like, yeah, it’s more a sticky kind of dough. I’m going to split it open, guys, so we can see inside. There we go. Oh wow. Yeah, it’s like a thick slice of sweet potato. In the picture it looked like it was all mashed up, but it’s like an actual chunk, a sliced chunk is the bottom layer. Got the red bean paste on top, and then it’s like a sweet potato dough. Mmm, and not very sweet at all. It tastes healthy. You’re mostly just eating sweet potato in a thin layer of dough, and then the red bean paste, which isn’t a very sugary one. Mmm. Apparently, this is a breakfast food in Kumamoto. So I guess that’s why it’s not too sweet. It’s like people eating it for a like breakfast, not for like a dessert, you know, not for like a sweet. Mmm, ah, yum, yum. Now it’s 4:30, guys. Ah, some museum in there. Yeah, I want to get into the castle. Don’t know if I need to buy a ticket or what, or even if I’m too late. I think it closes at 5:30 and it’s 4:30 now, So, I mean, I should be fine. I don’t know if I just go up or there’s like a ticket office somewhere. Nope. But loads of man, I could come back here and just eat. That’s the main reason to come here I think. Amongst the local specialties, okay. Full of energy, your man, after the horsemeat and local treat, guys. Ah, ticket. Kipo. Kipo? Okay, they’re talking about the repairs. That was the 2016 earthquake did this. So, that’s what they’re doing now. They’re repairing all that right there. Says the corner of this stone wall collapsed during the 2016 earthquake. All the fallen stones were collected. So, yeah, they’re just putting back together the jigsaw puzzle right now. And this is how much it costs to get in. 800, I guess. School hall. There’s castle and the castle museum. I don’t need the museum. Just want to come and see the castle. Arigato gozaimasu. Okay, okay. So yeah, about $5.5. It’s not too bad, is it? For a historical site. Just over 5 bucks. Oh wow, beautiful. Like I said earlier in the vlog, most of these castles were using a lot of wood in their construction. That’s why most of the castles that you see in Japan these days are reconstructions. They’re not like the stone castles in Europe that have just stood there for hundreds of years. They’ve given me the 400 years of history Kumamoto Castle. So there has been a castle here since 400 years ago. Oh wow, check out that right there. That is beautiful. I wonder if you can get up that. What do you think, guys? You think you can get up that or not? Guess we’ll see. I think most of the castle, the grounds and all that is inaccessible right now, after the 2016 earthquake. The whole complex was closed after the earthquake, and I think only like 4 or 5 years later they started opening parts of it. So I don’t know what it’s like now, 9 years later, but apparently, the whole reconstruction of this, the whole plan to fix everything that was damaged by the earthquake is due to finish in like 2045 or something, like another 20 years or more. I can’t remember. It was decades when I read about it, that the whole plan was to restore all this. Yeah, and they’re saying there was another earthquake in 1889 that damaged the castle. So it’s multiple earthquakes and then multiple reconstructions or restorations. Hopefully by the time they fix all this, there’s not another earthquake that destroys it. Japan is quite prone to earthquakes. Yeah, people were small back in those days. The passage of darkness. Yeah, not accessible. I think this is just going to be like a tour of the outside of the castle grounds. I think that’s what it is. I don’t think you can actually get inside any of these buildings. I’ll be surprised. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if I can get up that. That looks like the main event right there. I guess that was some sort of palace or something, in the middle of the castle grounds. Look at it. It’s absolutely stunning. And there is a way in. Oh wow, oh yes. 1830, final time to enter the castle tower. Ah, so, I thought this whole thing closed at 5:30. That was according to Google Maps, but looks like you can come here a bit later. Maybe it’s like a seasonal thing. Like in Nagasaki that atomic bomb museum was open an hour later during June, July, August, so it might be that. Looks like I’m going the wrong way. Me, or them? Somebody’s on the wrong side. I don’t know if it’s me or them. I’m on the wrong side. Oh wow. No AC in here. Are you telling me that the ancient Samurais 400 years ago didn’t install AC units in this place? What were they thinking? So, we’re on the first floor. Ah, it’s just like a they’ve made it just like a museum. I was thinking there was going to be like some original stuff. Like how it would be back in the day, but they’ve just kind of turned this into like an information thing. They’ve made a framework model. 1 to 10. I think that’s the scale. 1 to 10. And they made this in 1959, yeah. This is a tenth the size, wow. And then we’ve got the modern-day model, which is a 3D model on a touch screen computer. Yeah, that’s how they showed you it in 1959. This is how they showed you it in 2025. And another model here, Old Jordan model. They keep seeing through old photos from 1877. So that was what was there in 1877. So, that would have been before one of the earthquakes and that would have been rebuilt after that. And then 2016. Same old story. Ah, and they’re saying this is a suspended toilet. So it’s just basically like a hall. We’re on the high floor, but this would have been a toilet and it would have just dropped down to whatever was below that. And going up onto the second floor. Still looks like we’re in a museum. Most of the info is in Japanese, so it’s kind of… Yeah, I’m using my phone to read some of this when they’re translating, but I mean, yeah, I guess I should be reading the guidebook that they gave me, actually. This thing. Ah, this is like a map of what it would have looked like. I guess these are like people’s homes. Around about the castle area. Like that. Yeah, and the modern version as well. It’s the armor of Hosokawa Narimori. 10th Lord of Kumamoto domain. Back when Japan was a feudal society. Wow. Okay, third floor. Ah, they’re telling us about the modern era. What is this? Shachi ornament from the main keep. So these are more modern. These were installed in the main keep in 1959. It’s saying 1960s reconstruction. Yeah, this castle just seems to always be under reconstruction. Yeah, 1927 restoration of Uto turret. They’re saying 1877, the keep in flames. I guess it got burned down. As they’re saying here, excavated articles indicating the fire’s intensity. So they can tell by these scorched wood and stones how intense the fire was. I didn’t know that. I just thought it was just earthquakes. So earthquakes and fires. Apparently, destruction of the castle town by fire, wow. Yeah, like I said, this seems to be just in a constant state of being restored and reconstructed. It looks like there’s maybe one or two more floors we can go to on this tower. This is a model of how it was damaged by the earthquake. Yeah this is model from 2021. So we’re showing the damage from a 2016 earthquake. How it looked at the time. Yeah, you can see it’s destroyed the base. So that’s why they had to shut down the whole building. It would have been totally unsafe. Okay, one more floor, I believe. The fifth floor. No, there’s an extra one as well. So we’re on fifth, and there’s something up there as well. I wonder if we get a good view from there. I haven’t had any good views. All the windows are kind of shut and all that. I don’t even think there’s anything here. Wow, wow. Did the Samurais install an elevator? Wow that’s weird, eh? Yeah, it’s just the elevators. Yeah, you’d think they would want to restore it to like original, what it would have looked like in the day. And maybe put the museum somewhere else, you know, like that. But yeah, like the whole internals is just the museum. There’s nothing like, you can’t get an idea of what it would have been like for the Samurais who were like living here or whatever. But it looks like this is a… like a panoramic spot right here on this gloomy day. Guys, you can see a lot of reconstruction going on down there, at that part. Oh wow, look at the roofs. So beautiful isn’t it? The tiles. I wonder if some of them are original, original tiles. Oh yeah. I wish it was kind of open air. Like I said there’s no AC, so it’s kind of uncomfortable. It would be nice if there was like a breeze coming through. Yeah let’s have a look from the other side. Yeah just more. There’s a whole section there being restored. Maybe that’s one of the turrets. This is the end of the tour, I guess. Arigato gozaimasu. And I’m going to go back down the old-fashioned way, not with the elevator. I’m going to go down the Samurai way, with your two strong legs, guys. Yeah, Uto turret. Uto turret before the earthquake, after the earthquakes. Earthquakes, so multiple earthquakes in 2016. It says in 2017 Kumamoto mayor, Onishi Kazufumi, made restoring the castle’s two main keeps a priority, declaring that they would serve as symbols of the city’s recovery from the 2016 earthquake. Yeah, that’s right. So when it’s finally all restored, it’s like, that’s it, we recovered. We had a major disaster, but we recovered. And then hopefully, fingers crossed, it’s quite a while before the next major earthquake. I think it seems like once every one or two hundred years, they’re getting hit. And all the cool places like this, they’re all out of bounds. Like this is the kind of stuff I like to explore. Like when I was in Izmir and I went to the Agora, if you guys watch that video, and it was like all this kind of stuff you could like run around and you could kind of feel, you get a sense of what it was like back in the day, to be part of it all. But here, you don’t really get that feeling here. Yeah, you don’t get to… you’re just kind of like an observer. That’s what I would say. You feel more like an observer than part of the history when you’re here. But eventually this will all be opened, I’m sure. Where am I going? I think this only leads to toilets. Okay, that’s why there’s nobody here at this part. There’s a whole other big building right here. It looks like it would be super fun to explore in and around, but it’s all out of bounds. So your man will head back to the foodie area to see what other local specialties he can scran. And apparently this area, where they have all the restaurants, and street food, and all that, this was the original marketplace for the castle, and for the town, the castle town. It’s now still, 400 years later, serving as a place where people can buy sweet local treats. That’s what I’m after, guys. It’s absolutely roasted. The humidity is super uncomfortable. I need something refreshing, sweet, cold. Yeah, and all I can see is horsemeat, and like dumplings and stuff like that. I need like, I need something like that, an ice cream. Is this horsemeat as well? I think this is like horsemeat in like a bun. Yeah, it’s not what I’m up for right now. I need to be refreshed. Ah, so they have these. They’ve got all sorts of stuff in it. Kind of after… what else? It’s like a frozen yogurt with honey. Oh, that looks good. Hmm, yeah, that could be good. Or, oh wow, there’s like a melon dessert and drink there. You can get ice cream inside a melon for 2,000. That’s like $14. Get ice cream in a… yeah, these are expensive in Japan, the melons. This one, it’s on the menu. Melon. Melon, half size. Half size, yeah. With ice cream, yeah. Where on the menu? Not on the menu. Ah, that’s it, okay. Oka, yeah, I want this one. 2,000. 20,000, oh my god, oh. 2,000, okay. They’ve got TikTok. Oh, wow. Arigato gozaimasu. I lost my game. Oh, wow. Wow, so good. Okay, where do I eat? Spoon? Spoon, yes. I sit. Ah, the bench. Okay, I will sit here on the bench. Okay, arigato gozaimasu, okay. Wow, check this out. Half a melon with ice cream and fruit. That looks amazing, right now, guys. Oh, wow. Okay, I guess I need to start with the ice cream, mmm. Oh, the ice cream tastes like melon as well. It just looks like vanilla ice cream, but I’m tasting the, like the rock melon, mmm. And it’s all fresh fruit as well. It’s like fresh orange. You can see it’s fresh banana. Maybe the cherry is like a… the cherry looks like maybe it’s glazed. Nope, that’s a fresh cherry as well. Wow. Try and dig into the melon while I take the ice cream. Mmm, oh, wow. Just what I needed, guys. Summertime snacks in Japan. Mmm, oh. For everybody that complains when I walk and eat, imagine if I was walking and eating this one. What kind of mess I would get into. Oh, my god. Thankfully I’m outside the shop. I can hand them all this back. The shell and all that. I don’t have to walk around with half a melon shell, struggling to find a trash can. Mmm, mmm. Cleared the bowl. Demolished. I cleared the shell, in fact. The shell bowl. The shell bowl shaped, the bowl-shaped shell. That was brilliant. I just, where do you want the spoon? Okay, Arigato gozaimasu. Gave him the spoon, but the rest of it when I shove in here. Ah, you can rent costumes. I didn’t realize that. I should have done that before I went to the castle. Yeah, you can wear like all these costumes. I think they actually have like proper ones. Like samurai. You can dress like a samurai and all that, yeah. Nah, I missed a trick, guys. I missed a trick. What are these? Castle colors selection. It’s just the same castle with different colors as the base. I think I’ll pass on that, yeah. I’m usually a sucker for the gacha machines, but they look kind of naff to be honest. Yeah, there is more food I could try back there, guys. I might come back tomorrow when I’m not vlogging and try some other stuff, but for now, I’m going to head back to my hotel, chill for a bit, and then I’m going to go to the Japanese McDonalds and see what local treats they have there. I’ve seen some stuff on the menu that looks interesting including the shrimp burger. I’d seen that in the window yesterday. So, yeah, I’m going to give that a try. But first, I had to visit Kumamon. I thought this was an inflatable thing. I thought it was inflatable. I think it’s just like a… what is it even made of? Yeah, it’s so furry. It’s something solid. Some kind of like plastic or something, but I’ll get my selfie with Kumamon before I go back to my hotel, chill for a bit, and then we’ll go get ourselves a Japanese Mickey D’s. Baby please. And it’s now evening time. As I head towards the Golden Arches, this shopping arcade has become pretty lively. It really kicks off during the evening here and the Mickey D’s, it seems absolutely packed, but my plan is just to get my food to take away. My hotel is literally just around that corner right there, so no need to. Oh, there are plenty of tables and all that, but yeah, I’ll take it back to my hotel. Don’t know why those guys are queuing because this seems to be… or maybe it’s like, I don’t know, but nobody’s using this, so I’m going to use it. Language, English. That’s the one that I fancy right there, the garlic shrimp. So it’s got like actual shrimps through the… it’s like a cutlet, like a shrimp cutlet. That’s the one that seems interesting to me. Oh look, you can get it with edamame, the Japanese. Should we do that? Should we keep it healthy? I was about to hit the fries, but the Japanese green peas you can get it with and Coke Zero as well. And let’s see if there’s any desserts. I see some here. A McShake lemon squash, a McFlurry Luke strawberry. So Luke is like a type of chocolate. A cheese and bacon. So that’s a savory thing, a cheese and bacon potato pie and a milky pie. I think I want a sweet one. All right. Okay, that’s good. So that’s about 1000 yen. $7 for that, for a meal and dessert. That’s pretty decent. And we have this one here. They call it the samurai mat. It’s like a soy sauce, soy sauce egg and bacon. That looks good as well. That might be the one I get next. Okay, Arigato gozaimasu. Okay, Japanese food acquired. Well, American food, Japanese variety. A Japanese variety of American food, guys. But it is acquired and now I’ll be taking that straight to my hotel room. Okay, let’s get this scran absolutely munched. Ah, they give you paper straws here. Come on. I thought the world had been through a phase where everybody used paper straws, and then they decided they were useless and they went back to plastic straws. But apparently not in Japan. They’re still using paper straws here. Ah, yum, yum. But this is the garlic shrimp burger. So if this is anything like it is on the packaging, it should be like full of shrimp in the inside. So I’ll take a bite. Mmm, oh wow, mmm. Oh that is good, yeah. Let me just split that right open, guys. Yeah, there’s full shrimps. It’s just full shrimps in there, in this kind of cutlet thing. And the sauce is banging. It’s like a little bit sweet, a little bit garlicky, a little bit maybe lemony as well, mmm. And yeah, it’s like, yeah, it’s actual full shrimps that are in there, not some minced up junk, you know. Actual full shrimps. Mmm, proper, mmm. And to think there’s people back home eating a fillet of fish at Mickey D’s, thinking that’s good, when they could be in Japan eating the garlic shrimp burger. Mmm, mmm. Absolutely annihilated that burger. Wow. I could eat that again, and again, and again, and again, guys. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Tremendous. Now, I’ve went from such a delicious burger to something looking way too healthy for McDonald’s. It’s nice and hot. They gave me a little spoon. No doubt this will be made of wood, so I’ll taste the wood. Yeah, it is, of course. Paper straw was the biggest clue, that I was getting a wooden, yeah, so it’s like, you know, when you suck on one of those ice creams and you get to the wood and stick part and it’s all like, mmm, you taste the wood. It’s going to be like that, isn’t it? But it’s just sweet corn and peas. They’re Japanese. Oh yeah. Oh, they’re nice and soft. Mmm. Oh, it’s all like a, mmm, I don’t know if they’ve added butter or anything like that, but it’s all juicy and tasty, mmm. Yeah, it tastes like, if you get like a buttery corn on the cob, it’s like that. I kind of want to go back there and try the Samurai burger. The one with the bacon, and the egg, and the soy sauce all over it. But maybe I’ll save that for another day, guys. And unbelievably, you guys have just witnessed a Scotsman demolish another salad. I think that’s two salads demolished by a Scotsman in one vlog. That’s unheard of. Absolutely unheard of. But what’s not unheard of is a Scotsman devouring some deep-fried sweet thing like this. It’s not quite a deep-fried Mars bar, is it? It’s a deep-fried Milky Pie. Everybody loves a Milky Pie. That’s what she said, guys. Let’s see. It’s about pink. This Milky Pie are a bit pink. Oh, it’s split open down the middle. I’m going to make a mess, but I’m in my own place so I can clean up the crumbs, guys. Let’s just see if we can get a clean break down the middle. Oh, wow. Oh, it is all milky. It just looks like condensed milk. Kind of marshmallowy textured condensed milk in the middle. Mmm. It’s not like marshmallow. It’s like thick cream. It’s like thick, sweet, milky, milky cream. Oh yeah, look at that. Oozing out the Milky Pie, right there. That’s a delicious sweet treat after a delicious savory treat, with a salad in the middle. I think that’s a good meal, guys. And if you were wondering about the crazy angle, the crazy top-down diagonal angle I was getting in this scene, well, of course, it was from the Go Ultra. Up there, I’ve magnetically attached it to the coat hanger, there. So, the Go Ultra can attach to things magnetically. So, it’s like you find something metal, and you can just slap it against it and get all sorts of shots, you know. Like, I could get, I don’t know, like stick it to that piece of metal there and get like a bird’s eye view. All sorts of things. I was experimenting with this. So, they gave me these like coat hangers, but there’s one for like an air freshener. I can even… Oh! Okay, yeah. Luckily, this is an action camera so it’s not damaged. As you can probably see right now, it’s still getting good footage. Oh, my god. Yeah, like when you do stupid stuff like this, you got to be a bit careful. But I’m trying to be, I think, outside the box and innovative. I’ve got this like magnetic, tiny camera. I’m just thinking of things to slap it to. Normally I’m slapping it to my chest. Guys, you’ve seen I’ve been using the magnetic pendant all during this vlog, right here. So, yeah, that goes under my t-shirt and it just slaps on. It’s so strong. It’s like, argh. It takes a bit of strength to take it off and it can twist as well. There’s also another little thing, like if you want to attach it to some… oh, god. Yeah, the magnets are so strong. You can’t even… oh, my god, oh my. I need… There we go. Need two hands. Yeah, it’s made for action sports really, yeah. It’s an action camera. So, yeah, it has to stay strong when people are using it for whatever they’re using it for. Snowboarding or whatever. But as a travel vlogger, because it’s so tiny, I’m trying to find ways to help me take shots that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to take. Like, you know, I’m trying to… It lets me be a bit more creative with the shots, you know, rather than just what I’m holding in my hand. With the Ace Pro 2, I do have the multi-mount right here. So this is the multi-mount that comes with the Ace Pro 2, and you can do some cool stuff with this. But like, yeah, it’s no comparison to just being able to slap that against anything metal. Let me try that again. That’s why I was trying to just like hang off of that, and then that’s metal, so I can like get a bird’s eye view from that. That’s something I was experimenting with. Like that, and get a bird’s eye view like that. I probably should have taken the air freshener out. But yeah, I’m just trying to be creative, guys. I’m giving me more shots. And this is the multi-mount that I use with the Ace Pro 2. I can use this to get some good shots with the Ace Pro 2. It’s just, it takes a little bit of extra setup, you know. It’s like, there’s a bunch of different axes and stuff. Like this, it turns into a tripod and it has like a hook on it. So I can like hook this to things. So I’ve done things before, like hook it to a TV like this, you know, and just hook it to a TV and get the Ace Pro 2 connected there. But yeah, I mean, it’s a whole lot more effort than just finding something metal and slapping it. Oh my god, see that. I don’t recommend doing that one, guys. I don’t recommend doing that one. But yeah, anything, anything metal that you can find, yeah, you can have fun with that, guys. So, yeah, I recommend, if you’re a travel vlogger, or even if you’re not a travel vlogger, even if you’re just trying to capture memories, this is so tiny that you can just take it out with you, without, you know, the need to take out a bulkier camera. This really just fits in your pocket so easily, you know. My phone’s already in this pocket, and it just… I mean, it’s just a tiny little extra thing to carry. And the camera on its own can last for 70 minutes’ worth of footage. So if you’re just casually going somewhere and taking video with it to capture your memories, to capture your day or whatever, it’s the perfect little device. It’s so powerful for how tiny it is, guys. So I recommend you check it out. The link is in the description and you do get a free gift if you follow my link. So thanks again to Insta360 for sponsoring another Dale Philip vlog, and thanks to the Dale Philip viewers for watching another Dale Philip vlog. And I will see you on the next adventure.

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I travelled from Nagasaki to Kumamoto by Shinkansen (the Japanese bullet trains).

Actually, my whole journey was one Nishikyushu Shinkansen, one limited express train, one Kyushu Shinkansen and then a local Kumamoto tram. It sounds like a long and stressful journey, with 4 different trains, but it was very fast, comfortable, and the connections were easy.

I stayed at a hotel that’s right beside the main shopping arcade in Kumamoto. Every city in Japan has an area like that, with pedestrian-only streets that have a covered roof. You get a lot of the benefits of shopping in a mall, but still feel like you’re shopping and eating in regular streets.

I stayed at ‘CANDEO HOTELS Kumamoto Shinshigai’ in a $75 “business room” that had a massive desk. This was their cheapest room, and was only available for 1 person staying in the room. Their regular rooms were more like $100 – $120 a night and didn’t have a proper desk. I was pretty pleased to have gotten more for less, as the large desk was the most important feature for me.

After exploring the streets of downtown Kumamoto I enjoyed some Wagyu beef. I thought I was ordering a steak meal but it turned out to be a rice bowl with thinly sliced Wagyu on top. Not what I was expecting, but it tasted incredible and I cleared the bowl pretty fast.

Back out in the Shimotori shopping arcade, or ‘shotengai’ as these areas are known as in Japan, I went hunting for a sweet Japanese treat for dessert. I found a stall selling Taiyaki, which are the fish-shaped cakes that are a popular street food in Japan.

It’s a simple food, just a chewy pastry with something sweet inside as a filling. The original filling is the azuki red beans, which I love, so that’s what I went for. The ladies at the stall made my one fresh, which I think is the best way to enjoy this snack. All warm and soft.

I went out in the evening to do some souvenir shopping and ended up in a gacha (Japanese capsule machines) shop. My luck wasn’t great getting the exact items that I wanted, so I left and looked for a proper shop where I could just buy what I want. And what I wanted was a cute Kumamon plushy. Kumamon is the mascot for Kumamoto city and is well loved all over Japan.

The next day I visited Kumamoto castle, where I enjoyed some more local delicacies, such as basashi, sushi made from raw horse meat. Yum yum! And something a bit more appetising, the Ikinari Dango, which is like a mochi but with a thick slice of sweet potato inside. It’s a local specialty of the Kumamoto Prefecture.

The castle grounds were interesting to explore but the main building has been turned into a museum, rather than being decorated how it would have been back in the day. Not everywhere in Kumamoto Castle is accessible as they’re still repairing it from the major earthquake in 2016, and it’s going to take many years until that work is complete.

Back in shopping arcade area, I tried some unique items from Japanese McDonald’s, including the Garlic Shrimp Burger, Milky Pie, and edamame salad.

0:00 Leaving Nagasaki
2:27 1st Shinkansen
4:55 Express Train
10:54 2nd Shinkansen
14:23 Kumamoto Tram
18:21 Kumamoto Hotel
35:44 Wagyu Beef Bowl
41:21 Japanese Taiyaki Dessert
49:19 Gacha Capsule Machines
56:20 Kumamon Plushy
59:47 Raw Horsemeat Sushi
1:02:57 Ikinari Dango – Kumamoto Dessert
1:06:44 Exploring Kumamoto Castle
1:21:37 Melon Ice Cream
1:26:46 Japanese McDonalds

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