I wish more vending machines existed where you can sample foods and drinks at these small quantitied so you know what to get a bottle of. Scotch would be a brilliant candidate for that.
Totally agree. I don't like most sakes, so I usually avoid buying even small bottles. A vending machine would be perfect to sample and find a nice one.
Oh gosh yes wouls be brilliant to sample scotch before purchasing. Cost so much buying a normal size bottle and feel waste of money if i bought one that I really dont like and you just have to finish it...
I live in a wine area (Walla Walla, Washington, USA), and wine tasting is a big thing here. You can try wines before you spend money on a bottle or two. And it’s lots of fun!
My former colleague's partner's family is from northern California not far from the Napa/Sonoma Valley areas. He said those vineyards are also big on tastings to get customers to try and then buy who later drive on unfamiliar winding roads, resulting in a sometimes treacherous journey back home.
The spaghetti had me so curious that I had to look up the different kinds of adaptations on Italian food you find in Japan. Really fascinating! I love how cultures adapt foreign foods to better suit local tastes.
I have watched many of your food tours but never did I expect to hear an old Canned Heat song playing in the background ! The unique flute intro gave it away almost immediately. Great blues-rock band from the late 1960s.
Your channel re-connects me to those lovely years when I was stationed in Yokosuka, and I immersed myself into everything Japan, and had such great Japanese friends. Eating, sight seeing, playing Go, playing Judo, Asahi Dry, great jazz music, visiting Akiahabra, even trout fishing on Fuji-San. Cheers.
I never liked sake until I had hot sake. It's delicious and the flavor changes as it cools down. I also always note that coffee has become common in Japan. When I was last there - a LONG time ago - you had to go somewhere catering to International travelers to get a cup of coffee.
I'm usually shocked at how inexpensive the meals are and how much food you get for your money. Also, I can't even imagine finding a hotel in a city here in the US for a quarter of that price. I wish I understood the disparity. Thanks for taking us along! I would love to try those pork cutlets. Num!
I knew I couldn't be the only one thinking that lol A hotel for around $45 in the US would be the most disgusting place you ever saw but these places are so nice.
Simply because Yen is extraordinarily undervalued at the moment. 1 USD = 60 Yen ought to be the appropriate exchange rate considering Purchase Power Parity.
Greetings from the United States. The Sake machine looks very interesting and a great way to find out which Sake is on to purchase.. Please keep making your interesting videos.
I fast two days per week, I used to avoid watching your vids on those days but now I realised it’s fine! I can enjoy the food vicariously through your experiences. Thank you for always posting :)
I have family that trace their ancestry to Niigata, so it was already on the list to visit, but now even more so! Surprise tarekatsu AND sake sampling sound like a great way to spend an afternoon! And yes, curry. Always curry. Kampai!
I love this style of video. This account is a treasure and I look forward to your videos more than I look forward to new episodes of any show on Netflix. Thank you!!!
Kampai! --the tarekatsu especially was amazing, and it was so good to see a golden sort of curry. The spaghetti looked truly fascinating, as did the cake. and my, that rice at breakfast must've been amazing for you to completely ignore the rest of breakfast!
I need to remind myself to hold off on watching videos with delicious looking food when I'm a bit hungry cause I've been drooling from the pasta to the katsu don.
Solo Travel, I love the videos on both of your channels. I lived in Japan for 11 years, and your videos bring back good memories of my travels when I was there. Thank you.
Omg I think I would of crawled or fell out of there with all that sake, you should get a discount for all the good things you do that promotes japanese culture, thank you for sharing your day
Thank you that was so interesting. I have learned so much about Japan I didn’t know. I feel like with the food and the transport I am enjoying a private tour. Thank you.
We looked more into Niigata after seeing your video and visited this place. Tasted the bus station curry rice, Masachan tarekatsu don, they are all sooo good and not to mention the interesting sake vending machine haha Thanks for sharing with us :)
I only had a glass of iced water for the toast😢😢 I used to make wine at home from all sorts of fruits. One year a friend who grew strawberries had a bumper crop and gave me a bag full. There wasn't quite enough fruit to make a gallon of wine so I looked in the store cupboard and decided to use rice to supplement the fruit. Thinking this was ok because sake is made from rice, I let my 'strawberry sake' ferment for a few months and then bottled the beautiful rose-coloured liquid. Opened a bottle on Christmas day and realised it was the best wine I had ever made!
Thank you! The food looks good! I wasn't aware the ginger can be eaten straight. Vernors ginger ale is the only ginger I am aware of. I learned something new. Thank you!
Go to the grocery store and buy a piece of raw ginger. Most major supermarket chains should have it. It's a twisted looking brown root. Scrape off the brown outside with the edge of a spoon, and then grate it like you would hash browns. If you think it might taste too strong, soak it in tap water for an hour. Then add it to soup (chicken is great for this) or use it as a condiment for Asian food. Actually, it goes great with anything!
That tokusei katsu looks awesome but then again so did that chestnut cake, now I have a sweet tooth thinking about it. Even though the size of that room was cramped, for thirty dollars within the city, that's not too shabby. Thanks for posting Solo, loving both channels.
Agree. The room looked great albeit small. The only thing that gave me pause was the comment about the mattress being too soft. But hey, good location, clean room and bathroom, for thirty bucks, I'd put up with a soft mattress for one night.
I was there Niigata!! 🍶This is a small museum established on the premises of Echigo-Yuzawa station of the Joetsu New Trunk Line where you can taste almost all sake produced in Niigata Prefecture, an sakaburo (sake bath).
pork cutlets and the pork curry are the ones I would like to try. The spaghetti looked like something I would make on leftover night so I probably would not try it. Also I usually don't just drink alcohol without food. The spaguetti reminded me of pizza with mayo and corn on it.
i think i like japan from the water on the ferries , much more relaxing but the food looks much better on land, i think the best way is take ferries and get off and look around and get back on the ferries. go to all the different places on land thats nice to see and in joy than back to sea to relax in the nice cabin and snack on vending machine food and drink.
Great food tour. I've never tried this type of spaghetti either, but I too would give it try. Would definitely try the chestnut cake also. For 4100 yen, you got a very nice hotel room and bath. Sorry the mattress didn't fit you, but I'm sure you made do. It must require a hollow leg to eat six pork cutlets . . . with rice. Did you get to keep the sake cup? I really liked it . . . would definitely find use for it. Thank you for taking us along on your journey Will see you in the next one. Stay safe and take care. 😊
Who would have thought great curry would be found at a bus station?!! Chestnut cake for most Americans, is an acquired taste I've found. You either like it or you don't as some are bothered by the grainy texture. Wow!! 6 pieces of pork cutlet in one bowl??!! I would be elated if I had that many pieces in my dish. For the price you paid, you definitely got your money's worth and then some!! I don't know that I could have eaten all those pieces at once. The tasting sake is an awesome idea. I wish they had something like that here in the States. I take it the all-you-can-eat buffet wasn't great as there was no description. Ouch. I would definitely try the curry and the pork cutlet set. Now, I need a snack at 11 pm at night. Thanks, STJ!!
The sake museum is truly amazing I would like to try it out someday... A mouth watering episode today makes me hungry in the middle of the night 😂😂😂...
I was planning to go to Niigata back in 2020, but then the pandemic hit. But I will finally be able to go in a couple of months. Cheers, solo travel Japan
I visited Niigata in 2019 and stayed in the Bandai area. I found the loop bus very handy for exploring. Also fun to take a limited express train up the coast just for the scenery.
That's a lot of katsu! Curry looks interesting even though it was lighter colored than expected. The spaghetti looks very unique. The sake vending machine looks like a fun thing to check out. Coffee looked good, I'm not a huge fan of chestnuts so I'd pass on the cake.
Oh my word. That tarekatsu had so many pieces of pork! I am thankful they didn’t have a specialty of deep dish “pizza” with strange little fish that look like bean sprouts.
That "Italian" definitely isn't, just like "Neapolitan" (spaghetti with catsup, sliced sausage, onions and green peppers) definitely wasn't invented in Napoli. But that's Japan for you--lots of meticulously prepared, authentic Italian cooking upmarket, lots of... unique adaptations downmarket.
Sake. I'd definitely go for the sake. It would be nice to have more than one flavor available at one time (I'm used to a bottle every great blue moon or so).
All the food looks so good. I'm sure that soft mattress was no problem after all that sake 😁. I laugh every time you say the word curry just because you never get tired of it.
When I lived in Misawa, the shrine near my home had a New Year's ceremony each year. The weather would be cold and snowy. The people at the shrine would share warm, sweet, white sake while ringing a huge bell. They invited me to join them - it was a special experience I will always remember! Was there any white sake at the tasting machine?
As I'm eating a bowl of garlic and spring onion rice, with soy, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco flavoured sriracha (absolutely delicious 😋) and Solo-san says, @18:35 🍚RICE IS SPECIAL🍚 twice rice! And right you are 🤘🥰🤘 I would definitely like to try the sake in Niigata 🍶
Thank you for sharing your food and travel adventures! I'm curious at the sake vending machines was the sake served warm or cold? Enjoy your evening! JoAnn Sigby
I would like to try the tarekatsu - but a smaller dish (you have a big appetite!) I would also like to try the sake. I've been at wine bars featuring machines like that. It's fun. And yes, I'd like to try the Niigata curry too.
At this rate, my friend, you should get a medal for promoting Japan through your channel
I wish more vending machines existed where you can sample foods and drinks at these small quantitied so you know what to get a bottle of. Scotch would be a brilliant candidate for that.
Totally agree. I don't like most sakes, so I usually avoid buying even small bottles. A vending machine would be perfect to sample and find a nice one.
Oh gosh yes wouls be brilliant to sample scotch before purchasing. Cost so much buying a normal size bottle and feel waste of money if i bought one that I really dont like and you just have to finish it...
I live in a wine area (Walla Walla, Washington, USA), and wine tasting is a big thing here. You can try wines before you spend money on a bottle or two. And it’s lots of fun!
My former colleague's partner's family is from northern California not far from the Napa/Sonoma Valley areas. He said those vineyards are also big on tastings to get customers to try and then buy who later drive on unfamiliar winding roads, resulting in a sometimes treacherous journey back home.
Funny to hear "Going up to the country" as you eat. I usually expect jazz/lounge music :)
The spaghetti had me so curious that I had to look up the different kinds of adaptations on Italian food you find in Japan. Really fascinating! I love how cultures adapt foreign foods to better suit local tastes.
Fascinating, yes, but the GODDAMN ITALIANS ARE SCREAMING WITH HORROR!!
I've had some and most are NOT good. IF you are used to the standard versions, but if you have been eatting cheap spaghetti then you should be fine
I like that idea, too. For people visiting another country, it helps to remember such things.
There’s absolutely nothing Italian about what he ate lol even the coffee being sold there is not Italian
The tarekatsu looked amazing,I also LOVE Japanese ceramics,that bowl with the single tomoe motif was beautiful.
I have watched many of your food tours but never did I expect to hear an old Canned Heat song playing in the background ! The unique flute intro gave it away almost immediately. Great blues-rock band from the late 1960s.
Niigata-style tarekatsu looks so delicious!
I visited those sake machines about two months ago. Defenetely one of the highlights of my trip
Your channel re-connects me to those lovely years when I was stationed in Yokosuka, and I immersed myself into everything Japan, and had such great Japanese friends. Eating, sight seeing, playing Go, playing Judo, Asahi Dry, great jazz music, visiting Akiahabra, even trout fishing on Fuji-San. Cheers.
I never liked sake until I had hot sake. It's delicious and the flavor changes as it cools down. I also always note that coffee has become common in Japan. When I was last there - a LONG time ago - you had to go somewhere catering to International travelers to get a cup of coffee.
I had my first taste of Sake many years ago and it was warm. It was really good!!
Very strange seeing a Costa Coffee sign. I had no idea they'd made it all the way out there!
I'm usually shocked at how inexpensive the meals are and how much food you get for your money. Also, I can't even imagine finding a hotel in a city here in the US for a quarter of that price. I wish I understood the disparity. Thanks for taking us along! I would love to try those pork cutlets. Num!
I knew I couldn't be the only one thinking that lol A hotel for around $45 in the US would be the most disgusting place you ever saw but these places are so nice.
Simply because Yen is extraordinarily undervalued at the moment. 1 USD = 60 Yen ought to be the appropriate exchange rate considering Purchase Power Parity.
Love love love your food channel!❤️❤️❤️😋🤤 thank you for sharing with us!🙏😊
Kanpai! Here's to your dreams! Thank you for always making me smile with your videos.
I love Sake. Seeing Sake vending machine makes me more excited to explore more about Japanese culture.
"I excavated tarekatsu!" - what a find! And how thoughtful the restaurant buried the surprise within what already looked like a delicious mountain.
Greetings from the United States. The Sake machine looks very interesting and a great way to find out which Sake is on to purchase.. Please keep making your interesting videos.
Great video today, Being from Texas, I was so excited that you went with the Cowboy Sake. Safe travels and look forward to our next dining experience.
I fast two days per week, I used to avoid watching your vids on those days but now I realised it’s fine! I can enjoy the food vicariously through your experiences. Thank you for always posting :)
I have family that trace their ancestry to Niigata, so it was already on the list to visit, but now even more so! Surprise tarekatsu AND sake sampling sound like a great way to spend an afternoon! And yes, curry. Always curry. Kampai!
I love this style of video. This account is a treasure and I look forward to your videos more than I look forward to new episodes of any show on Netflix. Thank you!!!
Kampai! --the tarekatsu especially was amazing, and it was so good to see a golden sort of curry. The spaghetti looked truly fascinating, as did the cake. and my, that rice at breakfast must've been amazing for you to completely ignore the rest of breakfast!
I need to remind myself to hold off on watching videos with delicious looking food when I'm a bit hungry cause I've been drooling from the pasta to the katsu don.
What a great video! Love the sake vending machines, so unique. Thanks again for another wonderful video and food tour❤
The Tarekatsu looks fantastic, I could imagine the smell as you ate.
I especially want to try that tonkatsu pork dish. That looks yummy. The sake samples look awesome. Thanks for taking me along.
Solo Travel, I love the videos on both of your channels. I lived in Japan for 11 years, and your videos bring back good memories of my travels when I was there. Thank you.
Omg I think I would of crawled or fell out of there with all that sake, you should get a discount for all the good things you do that promotes japanese culture, thank you for sharing your day
Interesting sake experience, and the dinner looked fabulous, thank you for sharing ❤
You still had 2 Sake coins left!!
Oh I had five but I edited them out (I felt it was too long)
Another great video! The spaghetti looked, interesting... And they serve Costa coffee! Amazing.
Thank you for sharing this. I always enjoy your videos. I also love the music choices that are played at the places that you visit.
I like unfiltered sake. So good and smooth.
In Ireland we have a delicacy called "3-in-1". It's like curry rice with chips (French fries). I think you'd like it!
Kanpai!
I'm starting on dinner as soon as I comment your video, because now I'm hungry.
And yes, definitely the curry!
That tarekatsu don looked soooo good! Mouthwatering. A big bottle of sake to it, and I would be in heaven! 😅
Thank you that was so interesting. I have learned so much about Japan I didn’t know. I feel like with the food and the transport I am enjoying a private tour. Thank you.
We looked more into Niigata after seeing your video and visited this place. Tasted the bus station curry rice, Masachan tarekatsu don, they are all sooo good and not to mention the interesting sake vending machine haha
Thanks for sharing with us :)
I only had a glass of iced water for the toast😢😢 I used to make wine at home from all sorts of fruits. One year a friend who grew strawberries had a bumper crop and gave me a bag full. There wasn't quite enough fruit to make a gallon of wine so I looked in the store cupboard and decided to use rice to supplement the fruit. Thinking this was ok because sake is made from rice, I let my 'strawberry sake' ferment for a few months and then bottled the beautiful rose-coloured liquid. Opened a bottle on Christmas day and realised it was the best wine I had ever made!
Your channel is always so enjoyable! Thank you.
Thank you! The food looks good! I wasn't aware the ginger can be eaten straight. Vernors ginger ale is the only ginger I am aware of. I learned something new. Thank you!
Go to the grocery store and buy a piece of raw ginger. Most major supermarket chains should have it. It's a twisted looking brown root. Scrape off the brown outside with the edge of a spoon, and then grate it like you would hash browns. If you think it might taste too strong, soak it in tap water for an hour. Then add it to soup (chicken is great for this) or use it as a condiment for Asian food. Actually, it goes great with anything!
Great video so interesting and you make laugh with your favourite curry, thank you
"What's Niigata? ...Curry." I laughed so much at that xD
“I’m still very full.”
Stops for a piece of cake!!!
This is a great video. Thanks for posting it. I love all your videos.
Aaaahh that sake tasting looks so interesting!
That tokusei katsu looks awesome but then again so did that chestnut cake, now I have a sweet tooth thinking about it. Even though the size of that room was cramped, for thirty dollars within the city, that's not too shabby. Thanks for posting Solo, loving both channels.
Agree. The room looked great albeit small. The only thing that gave me pause was the comment about the mattress being too soft. But hey, good location, clean room and bathroom, for thirty bucks, I'd put up with a soft mattress for one night.
The sake place looks interesting! I might have to visit niigata next time since i love rice and curry too!
I was there Niigata!! 🍶This is a small museum established on the premises of Echigo-Yuzawa station of the Joetsu New Trunk Line where you can taste almost all sake produced in Niigata Prefecture, an sakaburo (sake bath).
The chestnut cake looked so good.
pork cutlets and the pork curry are the ones I would like to try. The spaghetti looked like something I would make on leftover night so I probably would not try it. Also I usually don't just drink alcohol without food. The spaguetti reminded me of pizza with mayo and corn on it.
Tarekatsu looked amazing!!! Love the channels
i think i like japan from the water on the ferries , much more relaxing but the food looks much better on land, i think the best way is take ferries and get off and look around and get back on the ferries. go to all the different places on land thats nice to see and in joy than back to sea to relax in the nice cabin and snack on vending machine food and drink.
The pork curry and the pork cutlet dish looked amazing! I think I was drooling as you were eating them!
Great food tour. I've never tried this type of spaghetti either, but I too would give it try. Would definitely try the chestnut cake also. For 4100 yen, you got a very nice hotel room and bath. Sorry the mattress didn't fit you, but I'm sure you made do. It must require a hollow leg to eat six pork cutlets . . . with rice. Did you get to keep the sake cup? I really liked it . . . would definitely find use for it. Thank you for taking us along on your journey Will see you in the next one. Stay safe and take care. 😊
I thought hearing Going Up The Country by Canned Heat, playing in the coffee shop was funny. It's the first music that I've recognized in your videos.
Awesome video STJ/FT, I am, truly, enjoying your wonderful adventures... Thank you, very, much for all your amazing Japan content...
4:08, sounds like everyone is enjoying the curry 😊, all you can hear is spoons scraping plates, too happy eating to talk.
Who would have thought great curry would be found at a bus station?!! Chestnut cake for most Americans, is an acquired taste I've found. You either like it or you don't as some are bothered by the grainy texture. Wow!! 6 pieces of pork cutlet in one bowl??!! I would be elated if I had that many pieces in my dish. For the price you paid, you definitely got your money's worth and then some!! I don't know that I could have eaten all those pieces at once. The tasting sake is an awesome idea. I wish they had something like that here in the States. I take it the all-you-can-eat buffet wasn't great as there was no description. Ouch. I would definitely try the curry and the pork cutlet set. Now, I need a snack at 11 pm at night. Thanks, STJ!!
The sake museum is truly amazing I would like to try it out someday... A mouth watering episode today makes me hungry in the middle of the night 😂😂😂...
I really wanna try the sake vending machines when I come again
I was planning to go to Niigata back in 2020, but then the pandemic hit. But I will finally be able to go in a couple of months. Cheers, solo travel Japan
The tarekatsu looked so amazing. We do not have that here in the US. I am terribly jealous.
I visited Niigata in 2019 and stayed in the Bandai area. I found the loop bus very handy for exploring. Also fun to take a limited express train up the coast just for the scenery.
That's a lot of katsu! Curry looks interesting even though it was lighter colored than expected. The spaghetti looks very unique. The sake vending machine looks like a fun thing to check out. Coffee looked good, I'm not a huge fan of chestnuts so I'd pass on the cake.
Oh my word. That tarekatsu had so many pieces of pork! I am thankful they didn’t have a specialty of deep dish “pizza” with strange little fish that look like bean sprouts.
That "Italian" definitely isn't, just like "Neapolitan" (spaghetti with catsup, sliced sausage, onions and green peppers) definitely wasn't invented in Napoli. But that's Japan for you--lots of meticulously prepared, authentic Italian cooking upmarket, lots of... unique adaptations downmarket.
Love to try the curry with Sake
You didn’t show us all the things you had for breakfast. Rice is special but the other things are nice too. 😊 Great video. I am so hungry.
Sake. I'd definitely go for the sake. It would be nice to have more than one flavor available at one time (I'm used to a bottle every great blue moon or so).
I have to admit, I was not expecting to hear Canned Heat in the background of a Japanese coffee shop. :)
The tarekatsu looks amazing! I couldn’t eat that much of it, but I would definitely have to try it.
A toast to perfect curry! 💝
All the food looks so good. I'm sure that soft mattress was no problem after all that sake 😁. I laugh every time you say the word curry just because you never get tired of it.
I can't beleieved you ate so much. Specially rice. How can you stomach make it.
When I lived in Misawa, the shrine near my home had a New Year's ceremony each year. The weather would be cold and snowy. The people at the shrine would share warm, sweet, white sake while ringing a huge bell. They invited me to join them - it was a special experience I will always remember! Was there any white sake at the tasting machine?
That tarekatsu don looked amazing!!!! Can't wait to try it out someday
As I'm eating a bowl of garlic and spring onion rice, with soy, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco flavoured sriracha (absolutely delicious 😋) and Solo-san says, @18:35 🍚RICE IS SPECIAL🍚 twice rice! And right you are 🤘🥰🤘
I would definitely like to try the sake in Niigata 🍶
The chestnut 🌰 pie 🥧 looked great, was it as good as it looked.
Tonkatsu looks so juicy....it must be nice.
Now i want to try the rice of Niigata too😋
I knew that curry rice would be in another video
I would like to try the curry, I'm not one for it myself. Yet watching you makes me want to try it. Thank you.
Always fun and interesting.
Even your chestnut cake had spaghetti on the top! I want to try curry with that ‘special’ rice.
The pork cutlets looked so delicious! ❤
That tarekatsu looks SOOOOO good!!
Make me want to try the curry 🍛
It's such a pretty sake cup! 😮
Oh my where do you put all that lol the cake and curry looks amazing.
Kampai 🥂ChEerS 🍻
Lovely...❣️
Keep safe always 😷👍✌️
Curry is awsome!, though I just go for mild curry I enjoy East Indian curry
You should of had Sake while eating
Thank you for sharing your food and travel adventures! I'm curious at the sake vending machines was the sake served warm or cold? Enjoy your evening! JoAnn Sigby
I would like to try the tarekatsu - but a smaller dish (you have a big appetite!) I would also like to try the sake. I've been at wine bars featuring machines like that. It's fun. And yes, I'd like to try the Niigata curry too.
Domo arigato, Solo-san!
This wouldn't be a Solo Travel video without a mention of the word curry .
now thats my kind of place, a wall of sake vending machines and a pocket full of coins, happy days.
Oh, I want to do the sake wall!!! Do they carry you out??? 🤣 🤣 🤣
Thank you for your video :)
タレカツ食べてみたーい❣️
Quite nice 👍🏻