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Our journey wouldn’t have been so intense
without Support from our partner VMP-Auto.
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They’ve added Something new to their
vast line of products called “Valera”,
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a penetrating lubricant
with unique Properties,
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which effectively breaks down rust and Serves
as a replacement for its various counterparts.
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Fasteners seized up? Valera to the rescue!
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Hi there friends! This series came to mind
when I first realized I wanted to make videos.
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But it took me an excruciating four
years to make this happen.
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If it wasn’t for VMP-Auto, who I’d like
to thank for backing this little adventure,
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if it wasn’t for Denis Goyman
who provided his cameras,
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LCM, who lent me their drone,
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and if it wasn’t for the support from our
sponsors – Autospot, Veterok club and 1XBet
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– this series would’ve never even been produced.
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We were able to make it happen
after all, despite some technical difficulties,
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I mean, I can’t seem to avoid them...
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For example you will be seeing a few
glitches throughout the first episode,
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due to us losing all our material from day
one and having to restore it afterwards.
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We weren’t able to recover everything, unfortunately.
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This is only relevant when it comes to the first episode,
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footage from episode two will be glitch-free, unlike the sound.
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We have our GoPro 5 to thank for that, since it
doesn’t seem to be compatible with my stabilizer.
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As a result you will be hearing
a droning noise in a few places.
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I’ve been doing my best to remedy this
issue, but I couldn’t get rid of it completely.
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Anyway, enough about
our technical difficulties,
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what matters is that we had
a truly awesome and interesting trip.
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Hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.
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In the words of a certain well-known dude –
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welcome and join us in this journey
of discovery. Let’s get started!
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- Hey there guys! You’re watching “head and head”
- Two heads, yep.
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- Today we find out how to survive
in Tokyo with 100 dollars.
- For the two of us.
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Yep. In truth, our situation is quite different.
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Thankfully, this isn’t “heads or tails”,
you’ve tuned in to BMIRussian.
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However, we are indeed flying to Tokyo, to find
out what Japanese car culture is all about.
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- Alright, people, “just” nine hours and we are in Tokyo.
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While we board the “Dreamliner”, aka the Boeing 787,
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I’d like to extend a big thanks to Julia
and other people working for S7 Airlines,
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for getting us good seats and access to the
airport’s business lounge, all for free,
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f course. For anybody who’s interested,
here’s a short review
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of our flight with Japan Airlines in coach.
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It isn’t comfortable sleeping, only
because the seats don’t recline far enough,
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otherwise everything was great.
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Zero issues with ventilation and
lavatories, food and drinks are top-notch,
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plus they have a variety of
decent alcoholic beverages,
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a reasonable amount of which is
included in the price of the ticket.
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A nice multimedia system is available,
even offering a choice of films in Russian.
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Let’s not forget about that
nifty automatic window tint.
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Anyway, this long flight wasn’t
an ordeal by any means.
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After a short night, at 10:00 AM local time
we landed at the Tokyo Narita Airport.
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Ok, comrades, we’ve made it through the last 9 hours,
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and right now me and Victor Mikhailovich,
together with another traveler
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who tagged along with us
in the luggage compartment,
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and who happens to be paying for everything
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– we’ve all made it to the Narita airport in Japan,
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now we go through customs,
hopefully with no issues,
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and after that we end up in Tokyo.
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We spent quite a bit of time at the airport, due to us sorting out our tourist JR passes.
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Anyway, it was too early to go
to the hotel, since registration in
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Japanese hotels begins after about two o’clock in the afternoon.
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We decided to leave or belongings
there and take a short stroll.
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After all, we are staying pretty much in the center of Tokyo, in Shimbashi.
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Ok, so my thoughts after spending
about half an hour in Tokyo.
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First of all, it’s really clean. No bottles
to be seen, no wrappers, no nothing.
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No cigarette butts either.
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Since we’re on the subject:
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Japan is a paradise for non-smokers,
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given the fact that smoking on
the streets is prohibited in Japan.
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Nobody around is smoking.
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There are designated areas for smoking,
where you can light up.
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Plus you have the curious combination
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of skyscrapers and lots of trees.
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My next impression is that it
s really quiet around here.
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For some reason traffic is muted
and doesn’t bother you at all.
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Which is cool. I almost forgot to mention –
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Tokyo even smells different.
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It may sound amusing, but I’m telling you.
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When you go down the smaller streets
– you pick up a lot of different scents,
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but no exhaust gases or trash among them.
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- Most importantly you shouldn’t go onto...
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- Yes, it’s critical not to go onto...
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- Streets with Chinese cafes.
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- Yeah, the Chinese cafes. We went
by and they are quite poignant.
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I myself am not a fan of
Asian food, Chinese especially,
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but... This is just... It’s unbearable.
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As for our meals, in the
meantime we’re keeping it simple.
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We had a couple of burgers
at a local fast-food joint,
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while Victor tried out a nice looking but
almost completely tasteless beverage.
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Then we visited a store to
grab something to drink...
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\- Check it out, heterosexual tea.
- Yep.
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After that we headed on
over to our hotel to check in.
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This is a pretty typical room in
an average priced Japanese hotel.
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It’s quite cramped, but you get all the amenities.
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A TV, a fridge, a vault,
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a pretty large bed,
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over there you have an alarm
clock plus lighting controls, next to the bed.
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Here we have an air conditioner,
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and the favorite gimmick of
every tourist visiting Japan –
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a fully electronic can.
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We’ll figure out how to use the damned thing later.
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A sink, and a pretty substantial shower cabin. Yo!
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We live on the eighth floor. I wanted to open
the window and show you what’s beneath us,
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but you can’t do that. Apparently
it’s for preventing suicides.
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This is the widest you can open the window.
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That’s pretty much the entire view from up here.
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And now we get on with our
first proper walk around Tokyo.
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- Victor Mikhailovich has bought
himself a bunch of weird sh*t.
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- You aren’t gonna get anything with that attitude.
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- What the hell is that?
- From the looks of it, these
are rice cakes with marmalade.
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- He’s going to eat it now. Go for it dude.
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- I ain’t sharing with you.
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- I thought this was churchkhela,
but it doesn’t look like it.
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- Well? What do you think?
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- These are sweet red beans.
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- You can have it.
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Right, so basically it’s just
a sweet snack, but it’s pretty doughy. I’m not a fan.
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- This is actually a rice cake,
so it’s made from rice dough.
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With some red beans on top.
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- Anyway, so you tried some food,
and I’d like to try a drink.
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- This is mighty tasty!
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It’s some sort of milk product,
like a milkshake. It’s very similar.
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- Exactly, you could very much be right.
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- It’s actually delicious.
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I approve, get some of this.
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So yeah, we’ll be paying pretty close attention
to the strange Local foods and beverages,
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since everything is so unusual in Japan
in this regard when compared to Europe.
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You have no idea what you’re buying
and what you’re going to feel on your tongue.
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Meanwhile we’ve made it to our first attraction.
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- So our first destination today
s the famous electronic district Akihabara.
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Judging by the amount of people living here...
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It seems like we picked a good place to stay,
since our neighborhood is nice and quiet,
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it’s actually just a couple of subway stations away from here.
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But here there’s quite a bit more people around.
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Here’s what’s up.
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Akihabara in fact doesn’t consist solely of electronic stores.
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FYI – prices in various spots can vary
almost threefold for the same device.
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So you’ll have to do some searching.
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There’s also a bunch of
awesome cars driving around here.
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No, we didn’t go to Roppongi,
which is the prime location
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when it comes to these things, but nonetheless.
What you see here is just a small fraction.
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Also there is a bunch of anime-themed stores around here.
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With Japanese girls of
various degree of attractiveness
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and varied amount of clothing luring you in.
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Some of them look just as a certain song goes –
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mini-skirt with a cut-out in front, and also in the back.
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We decided to visit one of these
stores and do some undercover filming.
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- Well this is interesting. Some girls up for sale,
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those must be phone numbers at the bottom. Let’s go.
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The “air” naturally escalates as you go upstairs.
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The first floor showcases what can be read by anybody.
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The second floor is a tad more serious, it’s
all about love, romance and stuff like that.
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The third floor contains soft erotica.
We made it to the fourth floor.
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- What the f**k...
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Yeah, you should definitely buy it.
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Sorry for not really revealing anything, this is
YouTube after all, and children can be watching.
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Believe me when I say it’s pretty hardcore.
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- The fifth floor’s probably all about
some brutal sex or something.
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Now this is far out. Titties.
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Yep, this is definitely beyond us.
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After Akihabara we decided to visit
another famous place, right next to the subway.
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- Victor Mikhailovich is surprising me
with his knowledge of Asian culture. What’s this?
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- Behind me you can see AKB48,
it’s a well-known Akihabara band,
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consisting of 48 singers. They also
have a café and a souvenir shop.
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- Do all 48 of them still perform?
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Look how many there are...
- The band actually fell apart...
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Here’s where Victor is wrong.
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The band is alive and well, and the
amount of participants is just mind-boggling.
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Our very own Mirage, Laskovyi May
and Strelki have nothing on them.
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Google it in your apare time.
Anyway, today’s final destination is known
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all around the world,
partly due to Hachiko’s statue.
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However, car nuts know it thanks to this...
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- Oh sh*t dude, so many people...
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Right, guys, now we try
making our way through Shibuya.
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See if it’s any fun or not.
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The square next to Shibuya station,
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which was reconstructed for the third
installment of the “Fast and Furious” franchise,
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is renowned as the world’s busiest
intersection, and for good reason.
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And it’s Friday evening, so everything
is flashy, noisy, in other words –
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this is Tokyo as everyone imagines it to be.
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We’re probably a bit too tired
to give it a proper assessment.
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- As quiet as it was in our “hood”,
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as it were, it’s just as noisy here.
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Apparently it’s a lot of fun,
but we’re just a bit tired,
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I mean, we’re pretty sleep deprived, so...
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Yeah, we’ve checked out Shibuya,
walked around the place a bit,
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and now it’s time to head back to our hotel.
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Tomorrow we’re going to
Ebisu early in the morning, or “EbIsu”,
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as mister Kosharnyi calls it.
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There you have it.
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#eveninggatheringwithvalera
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- Victor Mikhailovich is trying to figure
out how to open a Japanese Kettle...
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You’ve almost got it! Yeah, we outwitted the thing.
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(we filled the kettle, but for some reason water is barely pouring out)
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- Why’s the water barely coming out?
(we filled the kettle, but for some reason water is barely pouring out)
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- Why’s the water barely coming out?
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- Maybe it’s so you don’t overfill your cup.
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- Me and Victor Mikhailovich, being two heterosexual males,
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will be sleeping in the same
bed over the next six nights.
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- Now I see, Mikhailovich!
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- Here’s the thing. When you
book a hotel in Europe, for example,
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it makes no difference –
one big bed or two small ones,
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but that’s not the case in Japan, two separate
beds cost twice as much as one large one.
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We actually got a good discount for this room,
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afterwards we were, like, maybe we
should book one with two single beds?
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We had a look – and even one
single bed cost somewhere
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around 100 thousand yen as opposed to 50.
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That’s why we’ll be sleeping here,
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being the two straight guys that we are.
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Now we unpack our food.
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We bought ourselves a bunch of weird sh*t.
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I got myself some booze,
and since Victor doesn’t drink...
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- You’ll be drinking for the both of us.
- Well, yeah, I mean no.
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I’ll be drinking with the third
participant of our voyage,
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who we haven’t even introduced
to you yet. His name is Valera.
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I’m not sure about his sexual orientation, since
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He... Immediately frees up thread.
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But without him I’m not sure whether
our trip would’ve even been possible.
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Right, let’s unpack.
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- C’mon man, you can’t pour tea from a pot or open a cake?
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What’ve you got there?
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- Looks like some sort of gingerbread.
- I’m probably not gonna like it anyway.
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It’s got some kind of doughy filling.
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What else you got?
-
Some people unpack Chinese gadgets from Aliexpress
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like that, while you’ve got some piece of sh*t.
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- You’re definitely not going to like this.
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- Thanks a lot.
- These are your favorite red beans.
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- You can have it.
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Here we have some kind of bun.
Victor says it’s pineapple.
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Looks like this is what I’ll be eating today!
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- Strong zero. Ok, so we’ve already
had some heterosexual tea today,
-
and here we have some strong zero. It’s good.
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Seriously, you don’t even feel the alcohol.
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It’s just lemonade. Well, it obviously
does contain some alcohol,
-
but you get the impression of drinking lemonade.
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Give Valeriy Aleksandrovich some,
if you don’t want to join me.
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Valeriy Aleksandrovich, this one’s for you.
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Keep yourselves clean and lubed.
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While some drink tea, me and Valera are boozing.
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The next episode of Dreamroad:
Japan will be all about automotive culture.
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We won’t be going to Ebisu,
but we will embark on a rough trip
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to a certain other legendary
track called Twin Ring Motegi.
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We’ll also be visiting Honda’s museum, where
I’ll be filling you in on the history of the brand.