Here is a brief Patreon-only video diary from Sakai, Japan. I shot an upcoming YouTube video during my wanderings today, and will do so tomorrow. Knees willing.
Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFjYRLkgLUM
2025-11-05 07:53:01 +0000 UTC View Post
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/kZfiu_dW6Hw
This week's video is a bit shorter than usual. But it's about a subject that's especially unique and, well, weird.
The Japan Series (baseball finale) has ended. My team, the Hanshin Tigers, lost in a cruel and heartbreaking way. Sympathy please.
You may have noticed several 2025-11-01 11:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
This early link to the extended ad-free version of my Drive-in Daruma vintage vending machine video is exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. It's 41 minutes long and includes the early morning train ride, the long walk from and back to Shinonome train station, a lot more drama from the place being closed when I arrived, more about the games and machines inside, and the surprisingly successful checklist.
The newsletter about this video will ...
2025-11-01 01:46:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Complete game (short as it is) from the retro Drive-in Daruma.
2025-11-01 01:44:21 +0000 UTC View Post
After eating vintage vending machine food, I thought I was ready for Tetris.
2025-11-01 01:43:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Of course the Drive-in Daruma retro game center had this classic video game. And of course I played it.
2025-11-01 01:43:29 +0000 UTC View Post
I'd never heard of this game but I tried it when I saw it at Drive-in Daruma. How did I do? Well...
2025-11-01 01:42:53 +0000 UTC View Post
Did I play this game? What even is it? I do not know.
2025-11-01 01:42:34 +0000 UTC View Post
A fun game of flipper-less pinball at a Japanese retro game center. (Two games, in fact!)
2025-11-01 01:42:12 +0000 UTC View Post
The entire video of my Galaga game at Drive-in Daruma. Not bad eh!
2025-11-01 01:41:50 +0000 UTC View Post
I was a bit confused, but I think I mostly figured it out...?
2025-11-01 01:41:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Complete game footage of Pac-Man from the Drive-in Daruma retro game/vending machine center in Kyōto, Japan.
Several other complete videos of the games I played this day available in my Raw footage videos playlist on Patreon. In case you have a lot of free time on your hands or just dig watching old games.
2025-11-01 01:40:23 +0000 UTC View Post
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/95VDbw2wma0
The prefecture of Nara, Japan is very mountainous and there aren't many people. The actual city of Nara is a big tourist draw of a city, of course, as are its surrounding cities and towns. And visitors shouldn't miss them; they're great.
But the southern half of Nara Prefecture doesn't have any train lines, and hardly even any buses. But there are a few....
2025-10-25 11:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
This early link to next week's video is the extended ad-free version, exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. It's 12 minutes long and includes the bus ride through Arashiyama to the temple.
Extended, ad-free video →
To be honest, this has only a very tiny bit of extra stuff in it – the short bus ride. Otherwise it's the same video as the public o...
2025-10-25 03:31:19 +0000 UTC View Post
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/w0vcA6N7eCg
I found something unique and mostly unknown in a small town called Kaibara, Japan: an ancient tree beside a river that grew a single gigantic root across the river to the opposite bank.
So I went to see it for myself. And I also, as usual, was surprised by how much other stuff there was to see in the town.
The tree is called
This early link to the extended ad-free version of next week's video is exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. It's 43 minutes long and includes exploring many more streets and paths in town, marking further bonus items off my checklist, and the whole long tragic tale of how I got left behind by my bus and had to breathe the valley air even more.
Watch here:
https://youtu.be/jCGRB96VU5g 2025-10-18 06:31:54 +0000 UTC View Post
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/Ik5pg8nfTEk
Oh boy I've got a really good video for you this week, if I do say so myself. Another train line that turned out to be highly unusual and full of fascinating stops. This time, it's the JR Kakogawa Line.
Before we get into that, though, let me thank everyone who tuned in for my live strea...
2025-10-11 11:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post
This early link to the extended ad-free version of next week's video from Kaibara, Japan is exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. It's 30 minutes long and includes the story of Nagayamon gate from 1714, my impromptu guided tour around Kaibara, the story of a legendary 6-year-old haiku poet from the town, a nationally popular 1920s-era song said to be inspired by Kaibara, and my stroll around the quiet residential streets of the town and its compelling mix of buil...
2025-10-11 05:41:09 +0000 UTC View Post
This early link to the extended ad-free version is exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. It's 60 minutes long and includes extensive walks around both Yashirochō and Tanikawa, info about other stations, a look at the tricky train schedules, a close-up look at the Kakogawa river, more from Nishiwakishi station, and many more details and scenes from this ride.
Watch it here:
2025-10-04 11:01:58 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's video is going to be a live stream here: https://youtube.com/live/ilJwO-1jftA
Of course it's not possible to find a time that suits everyone, but I hope you can join this one. It's 8:00 pm in the Eastern Time zone in the U.S. (9:00 am Monday for me.)
As such, this week's newsletter will be a bit short because anything I have to say will be in the live stream. But for what it's...
2025-10-04 10:30:42 +0000 UTC View Post
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/PhLxHlWRaKQ
This week, yet another reminder that even when you think you know what to expect when visiting somewhere, things can go sideways. A whole new world can reveal itself when you're anticipating something else entirely.
So it was, when I rode a cable car up Mount Rokkō in Kōbe, Japan recently.
See, I thought this was going to be a si...
2025-09-27 11:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostHi!
Usually this is where the link to next week's video would be. But there isn't a link because there isn't a regular video; next week's video will be a live stream. (More info about that will be coming soon.)
I've been wanting to do a live stream for a couple months, and I was sick for a few days last week and didn't have a chance to go out and explore anywhere. Thus, the live stream scheduling decision was kind of made for me.
Hope you can join me for the live stream; I t...
2025-09-27 08:04:42 +0000 UTC View Post
What a night! This early link to next week's video is exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. This extended, ad-free version is 39 minutes long and includes the many train and bus mistakes I made getting to the cable car in the first place, my experience barely leaving the Garden Terrace, and my journey back to the train station after descending the mountain.
Extended, ad-free video →
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/jhGEMHMIqI8
I've got a really fun train ride for you this week. It's from the Meishō Line, a rural JR line in Mie Prefecture, just east of Nara.
The Meishō Line has had a very rough life. Several times over the decades, it has faced crises and threats and natural disasters, and each time it seemed like the line would be abandoned and the tracks to...
2025-09-20 11:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
This early link to the extended ad-free version is exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. It's 54 minutes long and includes more from the stations, neighborhoods, and rural communities; the tale of a rare 16th century Buddhist carved stone near Isegi station; more from on board the trains; and a complete look at the scenery and places I saw along the line.
Watch here →
2025-09-13 13:02:41 +0000 UTC View Post
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/_Avh32e_0RY
Greetings once again from a central Japan that's finally, sort of, becoming perhaps slightly less hot and humid than last month. A bit.
In my latest wander, I return to the Hankai Tramway that runs between the cities of Ōsaka and Sakai, to the south. I've long wanted to do a more comprehensive video about the tram line itself – I've explored parts of ...
2025-09-13 09:27:58 +0000 UTC View Post
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/77APYyLLvSc
Time for a nice relaxing ferry ride! At least, that's what I thought when I was leaving Takamatsu to return to Ōsaka. What an adventure it turned out to be.
The Jumbo Ferry company runs a ferry service between Takamatsu and Kōbe. The ride takes almost five hours and goes through the Seto Inland Sea, including a stop at...
2025-09-06 11:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
This early link to the extended ad-free version is exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. It's 28 minutes long and includes the other side of the tracks: a warehouse full of beer, a reverse river, older streets as grungy as they are tidy, and some surprising checklist finds.
Watch it here:
The newsletter about this video will be published next week. ...
2025-09-06 02:32:19 +0000 UTC View Post
This early link to the extended ad-free version is exclusively for Travel Lovers, Travel Partners, and Travel Masters. It's 36 minutes long and includes lots more context and details about the amenities and features on board the Jumbo Ferry, tales from the shuttle buses on either end of the journey, and more scenery and images from the boat and the sea views.
Watch:
The newslett...
2025-08-30 12:12:53 +0000 UTC View Post
▶︎ Watch the new video → https://youtu.be/P9hhuO9Y1Hk
A bit of an unusual theme for this week's video – not a train or other transportation, but a close-up look at a controversial and tragic building: the (former) Kagawa Prefectural Gymnasium.
First of all, I have to give thanks to the AI chatbot ChatGPT – that's where I learned about this building. (In a recent video diary I discussed ...
2025-08-30 11:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post