- So we've been living in Japan for almost four years now

but most of our videos are around the Tokyo area

and we don't really get to explore Kyoto enough.

- So when we got an email from The Mimaru Hotel being like,

"Do you guys wanna come out to Kyoto and stay in our hotel

"and explore our neighborhood?" we were like

(funky violin music)

- Of course! - Heck yes!

- So today we're gonna show you a little video

about what we like to do in 48 hours in Kyoto.

(jazzy bass music)

- So we're at Takagi Coffee and this isn't one of those

places that we normally recommend, where we're like,

it's modern, it's new, it's got this, it's got that.

No, it just feels like a kind of local, comfortable, diner.

The kind of place that I go to on like Saturdays and

Sundays with my best friend Jackie.

And it was like a little greasy spoon where they would make

just like eggs and things that you could make at home.

- This isn't a modern cafe, I think the aesthetic stopped

at like 1978.

- They opened in 1976, so--

- Really, that's it, they kept the same vibe

It has an awesome vibe.

- Lovely.

- There's a lot of smoking in here

a lot of salary men here also but it's got a good

kind of home diner feel to it.

- And I also love the fact that it feels extremely polite.

When you go to visit diners in North America

there's almost like a joke feeling of people being like,

"What do you want," and there's like cigarettes falling

into your food and you're like "It's gonna taste great."

Here's the opposite, everyone's polite and lovely

and wearing really beautiful uniforms and bow ties.

It's just like going back to a polite time period.

- Nobody's been rude to me yet, like where's the sass?

Where's the attitude?

I ordered, you're not allowed to have any of this.

- Okay.

- I ordered the hot dog set because I know when you see it

you're gonna be like damn I wanna try some.

- I ordered omurice and a comforting omurice.

This sounds like it's gonna be amazing.

- This place seems like the perfect place to get an omurice.

- Yeah, I know.

(sensual music)

- Martina got the omurice set, I thought I'd be adventurous

and try the hot dog set.

- Yes, what did you get?

- I mean, I got a hot dog bun with four different wieners

in here and some gravy put on it and some iceberg lettuce

and a fork.

How do I eat a hot dog with a fork?

Mmmmm.

- Is it a sausage, is it a hot dog?

The world needs to know Simon.

- It's not bad.

(laughing)

I'm actually disappointed that it's not bad,

I was expecting this to be a lot worse.

- And you're European so you're quite picky.

- [Simon] So one of the reasons we're recommending

this place is because we found a lot of coffee shops

don't really open that early.

A lot of them open around 10 a.m.,

and if you're coming here and your jet lagged and your awake

at seven, come here, get some decent coffee.

It's got toast and it's got sausage. (laughing)

- Everything you want from a diner in Japan.

- It is pretty smokey here.

- All right tally-ho snuffmuffler, we're leaving.

- Stop trying to make snuffmuffler happen,

it's not going to happen

- Could be snuffmuffler.

(enchanted music)

Now this is gonna be, you know, high level of hipster

Martina coming out here, but one of the things that we

really love to do in Kyoto is to just get lost in very

noisy intersections because that's real life and for real.

You just wander around and it's very different than being in

Tokyo because the buildings don't go extremely high

which means you can't see past all the streets.

So you'll be walking

and then you just turn a corner and you go,

"Oh my god, there's like a little temple here."

And it's like this little tiny bit of ancient Japan nestled

in between an apartment building lump a modern motorcycle.

So I really have to say just get lost in Kyoto between

destinations when you're walking.

If it's raining, if it's snowy,

you're gonna find something amazing.

(lofi music)

Well this place was extremely difficult to find.

- [Simon] It's not on the main street, it's hidden behind a

parking lot.

But this place right here, Weekenders,

is a gem of a coffee shop.

- Also, I'd like you to notice Exhibit A,

Dan if you could just pan around here to, yup

- When we recommend places for you,

these aren't easy to find, these are hidden special gems.

And this coffee here is really damn good.

- [Martina] I know it's great.

- [Simon] I'm really enjoying this latte.

- [Martina] The espresso is beautiful.

- It's built out of this old looking house and they have

really modern style espresso drinks.

You know, with like the clean glass looks and...

- I know what you're trying to say.

- Well what's that aesthetic called, is there a name for it?

(upbeat music)

- We went for one coffee shop which was like old-school

diner feel and now we're going to a place that is updated

and modern, doing hand drip coffee.

I'm sure you're looking a sexy food porn shots of this

as we speak.

(lofi music)

(bubbly music)

Tanuki.

I think I like swings so much because I don't feel my body

on a swing.

Tanukis.

(light music)

- I'm very excited for this place here, this is

Gontaro Okazaki.

My friend who's a super otaku for udon,

he loves udon more than anything else, said that we have to

eat at this place here in Kyoto because

not all udon is the same.

Tokyo udon and Kyoto udon

have very different tastes. - Different beasts.

- I think one of the things about Japan that's no neat

is that you feel like you might know one area really well.

Perhaps you've been here a couple times and you're like,

"Oh I know Japan I don't need to have udon again."

But you do because every region just has something so

lightly different.

- Kind of like how Texas mexican food and L.A. mexican

food is very different Mexican food.

The udon here is gonna taste much different than what we're

used to, gonna call it you-don.

- You might've called it you-don

- The you-don, here comes our beer.

- Cold beer.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Hai.

- Isn't this lovely?

- They just got such a nice outfit on.

- Yeah.

- Simon's like I didn't notice because I'm a boy.

- No, I noticed!

- Did you see her shoes?

- That I didn't notice, I have never noticed a woman's

shoes, that's not just because I'm a man, it's because I'm

so tall that from the distance you can't see peoples feet.

- From a distance, you guys can't see this but we keep

distracting and looking over because the sun is setting.

And it's cutting through these clouds behind us

and we just had a sun shower where we heard the rain

glittering down upon the trees beside us,

I'm like this is nonsense. - Right above us.

We got the mosquitoes nibbling our ankles below us.

- Nibbling gently at our ankles

- We got this beautiful house here.

- What a nice balmy, 33 degree, October 1st.

Kampai!

(funky music)

Itadakimasu - Itadakimasu

- I'm going in for my shrimp

- Oh look at that.

Beautiful, steamy noodles. (slurps)

So this here is a tentoji udon, this is a Kyoto specialty.

It's tempura udon with scrambled egg on top.

The egg is super soft and silky and it just has a very home

cooking kind of feel to it, yum!

This is so different.

- [Martina] So good.

- Wow, so much sweeter, the noodles when it comes

to Kyoto udon are a lot softer.

From what I've been told

you're not supposed to chew them as much as it's supposed to

have a good throat feel.

There's a Japanese word for it that I don't know.

Also the broth is super sweet compared to what Tokyo

broth is like.

It's not like candy but it just tastes a lot sweeter.

- They do like mirin or when they do miso soup it always

seems to fall a little bit on the just sweeter side.

- [Simon] Yeah.

- But the throat feel thing, it's a real thing.

You just put it in your mouth and then you swallow the

noodles whole and it's supposed to be soft enough that you

can do that, one shot, no chewing.

- How'd that feel?

- Felt very warm.

- It's very warm.

- I still feel a whole warm mass of udon noodles making--

- You feel the warm as it works it's way down your throat.

- I feel it warming, yes I do.

- There you go. - Yes.

- This house to me feels almost kind of like a smaller

version of that Kyoto Kitcho house we went to.

This feels like we're part of a different land right now.

This doesn't feel like Tokyo whatsoever.

- Can't hear you over the sound of the truck.

- I said it feels like we're part of a different land.

- Oh I see.

- It's very

- Tranquil

- Very historic.

(low funky beat)

♪ Never really knew that you could dance like this ♪

♪ She makes a man wants to speak Spanish ♪

♪ Como se llama, bonita, mi casa, su casa ♪

♪ Shakira Shakira ♪

- You see how it looks?

Just testing out the camera angles, this is the kind of

difficult thing, you have to figure out when filming.

- Especially with me because I'm a big boy, I shake

everything when I move.

- Oh my god Simon, how are you doing that?

When I walk around I'm just like

din-din-din-din-din-din

and you're like nein-nein-nein.

See look at this.

- I'm a big boy.

- We've been through this before,

look at my eye level, nips.

- Stop staring at the nips, you pervert.

- You're so pervert I can pick you up and squeeze--

- [Martina] Bork bork, bork bork.

Oh no, snuffmuffler's angry

- [Simon] Bork bork.

- Come here big snuffmuffler.

Good job, snuffmuffle.

Little muffler of snuffs.

Oh yeah, get on top, hi-yah!

So we're going to be sticking in today and just making

like a nabe hot-pot miso because there's a kitchen in our

hotel room and you know that we're really into cooking.

So there's like tons of stuff you have to do after vlogging

and unloading and dumping and everything sounds like

a washroom joke but since I'm in Kyoto I'm gonna kind of

indulge in the local miso.

It's so easy to make a hot-pot

so unfortunately there's a lot of stuff that's sold out

already, boredom.