00:10 John Daub: Hey everybody, this is the outside of the Imperial Palace. This is the Kitahanebashi-mon (North Gate), which is the side entrance. I'll give you a quick look at where we're going. This is the outer wall of what used to be Edo-jo (Edo Castle). It was called Tokyo Castle for a couple of years after the Meiji Restoration. We're going to go inside and take a look and see anything about the history that we can learn. This place, this park, is closed on Mondays and Fridays, so do take note of that. We're here on a Sunday.

00:55 John Daub: Hello, arigato. You have to take an admission ticket when you come in. It tells you the time, please get out by 4:30pm and return this when you get out. So they know how many people are here. Pretty cool. Don't lose that. This happens to be the wall where Edo Castle was built. This is the wall that was situated on top of. This is all that's left. And Edo Castle, I'm going to show you the map in a second, but I printed out what Edo Castle used to look like. And you can see right here on the base of the castle, that's the wall right behind me.

01:35 John Daub: Not a lot of it has survived, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about the history as we walk. Take a look at the map of the park here. This is the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, they call it in English. And you can see we're here at Kitahanebashi-mon, which is the North Gate. And this is where the ruins are. Yeah. So this is what the castle used to look like. But it was destroyed by fire, like most castles. They're made out of wood. And when old buildings in Japan burned down, it was sort of normal. You kind of expected it, whether it was lightning or fire or something happening in the kitchen. Things in Japan, they were made out of natural things like stone and wood. A lot of the history did not survive, either because of earthquakes and fires and natural disasters, or because of...

02:41 John Daub: This park, I come here at this time of year almost every year. And it's because they have ume (plum) blossoms, before the cherry blossoms. They bloom in the gardens around what used to be Edo Castle. But instead of showing you just the flowers, which we're going to do, I thought I would bring you around here and show you a little bit of the history of the city of Tokyo. A lot of you who don't have a lot of time might not make it to the ruins of Edo-jo, Tokyo Castle. So I'll do that for you in this live stream. So take a look around. We're going to go actually up there onto the base and get a view of the garden and the surrounding park.

03:28 John Daub: So let me run down the history first. Edo Castle was built, I believe, in the year 1457 by a man that I introduced you to in a stream a few days ago, Ota Dokan. And the castle grew when Ieyasu Tokugawa became the shogun. He united the country. A lot of the daimyo from all over Japan had quote-unquote embassies or offices here around the moat, around the walls, inside of the walls. And they would do kawari (alternate attendance). They would do commerce and business. And Ieyasu's government would be able to communicate with the daimyos all right here at the castle.

04:09 John Daub: Now that ended, of course, when the Meiji Restoration took place, which was 1868. And that's when the shogun and everybody had to vacate the premises. They had an eviction notice. They had to leave because this area turned into what is now the residence for the emperor, who lives just over yonder. We, of course, cannot go into there. And so we can't knock on the door and ask for a cup of tea or anything like that. But he does reside over there. A very highly respected person in Japan and somebody that we respect. And I have a lot of respect for the emperor too because in moments of great trials for the country of Japan, when the politicians fail, it's the emperor who can step in. It's that sound of reason. And he can step in and unite the country. And he's done that several times. So he gives a speech during New Year's, I believe, as well. And it is an honor when you get a chance to see him when he's out and about. They make royal trips.

05:22 John Daub: But what used to be Edo Castle here is now just ruins. So the shogun was evicted in 1868. And then just five years later, I think it was 1873, there was a big fire that just burned everything down. And what was left was ruins. And then because there was no need for a castle anymore, they never rebuilt it. So I'm going to go up here and take a look at the view from the base of the ruins. Japan has lots of castle ruins. But this one is sort of significant because of the history behind it. Because this is where Tokugawa Shogunate was positioned.

06:20 John Daub: There are little pieces of history, maps, and information. In English, too. This is the Edo Castle Honmaru Goten Palace. So the shogun was here, or he lived here. This is where it was. The Tenshukaku donjon base. You can see. People seem to really love to rub it. It's rubbed till it's gone. But we're here. And from this mark, this is what you used to be able to see. I can sort of close my eyes and imagine just the view of all of these wood buildings and roofs with smoke coming out of it. People cooking things and fires happening all around here as commerce and trade and people were buying things. It was just an active, active place inside the walls. And this is the view now. What you have over here is Otemachi, Marunouchi. Down there is Shimbashi. Tokyo Tower is over here. And there's a lot of office buildings. So commerce still takes place just in more modern structures with air conditioning.

07:46 John Daub: So once again, this place burned down in 1873 or 1875. I'll put a link in the description for the history so we get it right. And definitely read the comments because there's a lot of history buffs that will leave some comments behind and give you additional information. The stuff that I'm not going to be able to supply to you because yeah, I live here. I visited this several times, but I'm definitely no history major. I do appreciate the history around me. All right. We're at the top here. Let me give you a quick look. People from all around the world, I hear a lot of languages that are not Japanese or English.

09:00 John Daub: So Dan asks me—it's a good question—Dan asked me about non-Western hotels in Japan, in Tokyo. You know, the Okura Hotel is one of the most... and that's not too far away. That's one of the more famous Japanese hotel chains that they still have tatami rooms in there. But most of them are Western. I think if you leave Tokyo and you go to what's called a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn), you'll be able to find a very traditional Japanese experience. And that usually comes with two meals. And a ryokan is about 14,000 to 22,000 yen or about 130 to 180 dollars a night. That includes two meals and a beautiful room, amazing service. And I have two videos that I made last month on that experience. And lots of live streams actually showing you some traditional rooms. I can't really recommend anything in Tokyo. Probably it's going to be up near Ueno, Asakusa, this area. If you want to find something traditional down in Shinjuku, Shibuya, this area, Shinagawa. It's all very Western. So you're going to want to stay up in the north of Tokyo or get out of Tokyo.

10:46 John Daub: Now a lot of people have... It's hard to say what the exact height of what Edo Castle was. But a lot of people say it was about 50 meters high. Here once again is a picture of it. I knew they wouldn't have one. So I brought one with me. They say that the castle was about 50 meters high. And it was very impressive. And if you can imagine, all of the buildings around were no higher than maybe 5 or 10 meters high. Like two stories at most. So this was a very impressive structure in the center of Tokyo. The center of the city. What was at that time called Edo and changed to Tokyo in the 19th century. So for most of its history, this was called Edo. And for most of the history, the emperor was not situated here in Tokyo but down in Kyoto. Which is why you'll see a lot of really impressive temples and structures there.

11:42 John Daub: So let me take you back down and I'm going to show you some of the park. I do appreciate everybody who might be correcting some of my history. Again, look down in the comments after this livestream. You'll be able to see some extra information people are always adding in. Which makes this stream so useful. There's a samurai on the hunt. I don't think he's from around here. So this open area, I like to come... Once again, this park, this garden is free to enter. It's open, I believe, from 9am to 4:30pm is the last entrance. And it closes at 5. You have to be out of here by 5. And they have security guards that come and will kick you out. Because I've been kicked out before. You know what I mean? Because I would sit here on the grass and fall asleep after doing a job or something. And the security guard would come and tap me on the shoulder. And would wake me up and then I would leave and catch my train. This grass is more like hay but it's really soft. It's very closely cut. And since we're just coming out of winter, the grass looks not so green. But in a few months it'll come back to green. That doesn't stop people coming here and relaxing. Artists drawing pictures. It is a really beautiful day. The weather is about 19 degrees Celsius, which is roughly 60ish Fahrenheit for everybody in the US.

13:56 John Daub: You're gonna see in this park, which is famous for the ume blossoms, this here. That is not a sakura tree. That's not the cherry blossoms. They're not out yet. But they're getting closer and closer. That is an ume blossom or plum tree. They bloom about a month earlier than the cherry blossoms. There's many, many varieties of cherry blossoms. They bloom at different times of the year. So they're usually staggered between... You'll see some blossoms at the middle and end of March. And then you'll see some blooming a little bit later into a week or 10 days into April. So if you come to Japan, you'll always be able to find cherry blossoms somewhere. Let's go take a look here. That might be a cherry blossom. This is another variety. Usually there's a little sign. Don't touch it too much. Very delicate there. Smells great. And this tree is not at full bloom. It's still got some buds on. I hear a lot of Chinese language. A lot of Chinese here today.

15:29 John Daub: Last time I was in the park, it was maybe two or three years ago. And there weren't that many non-Japanese. And it's kind of amazing. It's cool to see everybody coming from all around the world. I'm pretty sure that Japan is going to be ready for the Olympics. And this is sort of where this picture was taken. Once again, everybody who's joining. This is Edo Castle. And I believe this is maybe close to the angle that we can see. The base right there is in the center. And that's where Edo Castle, called Tokyo Castle for a couple of years after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. So everybody who's studying Japanese history might get a kick out of that because it doesn't exist anymore. But it sort of does. It's the ruins. The ruins exist. And it's sort of cool to come here. I've checked it out. I don't have the same kind of excitement like, oh, it's a ruin! It's a castle! But it's not there. So it's not as exciting. It is worth a visit, especially if you're into Japanese history.

16:54 John Daub: My question to you. Is there anybody out there that's going to be coming for the cherry blossoms in Japan in the end of March, in the beginning of April? I'm going to set up an event on Facebook. So anybody who wants to come out and meet, probably meet either in Yoyogi Park or one of the parks around Tokyo for a little bit. You can come out and say hi. It's really a special time of the year. I'm going to try to make some time for you. Not quite sure of the date, but it'll be either in the beginning of April or the end of March when the cherry blossoms are at a peak time. And I made a promise to everybody that if our Patreon page, where supporters will help to support me financially, if we reach 300 supporters and hit a certain mark, then I would do 30 streams in 30 days. And so far I've done four in like three days. So we're doing pretty good with this. I'm going to try to do a live stream every day or maybe two in one day and take a break. But there's going to be 30 live streams this month. That's good timing. You know why? Because we got the cherry blossoms here.

18:02 John Daub: I'm going to walk around the park now, kind of let you take in the ambient sounds. It's not that big of a park. Once again, it's free, and it's in the center of the city. So it's worth coming around for a look. I'm going to walk around the park now for a couple of minutes. Just take in the ambient sounds and enjoy it. Once again, that's where Edo Castle used to be. And now it's here. It's gone ever since 1873. They never rebuilt it because the power of government was out of the shogun and there was no purpose for the castle. And then during World War II, the entire city of Tokyo was pretty much destroyed. And yeah, there was nothing to build. There was no resources to build the castle that nobody ever needed. And you know, Tokyo government, I guess maybe one day they will recreate Edo Castle because it would be an amazing attraction or an amazing sight to see in the city. It's a pride of the city of Tokyo, but there's just not enough resources or there never really was a reason why people wanted to rebuild Edo Castle. Osaka has a castle, but they had better luck than Tokyo. And because Tokyo was the power where the government's power was located, it was a symbol not to have the castle and to move on after the Meiji Restoration. Osaka is a city of merchants and Tokyo is a city of political power.

20:20 John Daub: Oh, English announcement. She says there's an event at 3:45pm in English. That's pretty interesting. They never had that before. English announcements. Did you hear that? They usually say it twice in a really slow, clear voice. The city of Tokyo has a lot of speakers around. You'll see that. And when there is a tsunami or an earthquake or some sort of natural disaster, they'll put out an alarm. That's a good thing. I heard during the great Tohoku earthquake in 2011, March 11th, and we had a lot of announcements for tsunami warnings or what to do. And they would announce on these speakers that are all over the place and they use it also to notify you when things are closing or for information sometimes. Or they test it out with sirens every now and then to make sure they're working.

21:14 John Daub: So, we're getting into a place where this is where the garden of Edo Castle used to be. It's still in existence. It's not quite as big and as grand as it used to be because Tokugawa Ieyasu, he spared no expenses. He really went all out when he created the garden. And this is still the same path, the same road. You can see some of the walls still exist as we're coming down from where the castle was situated into the gardens around it. Now, the walls, the moats. The moats of Tokyo Castle, Edo Castle, they went around the city. Actually, Tokyo Station, which is right now, was inside of the moat way back when. It would have been inside of the moat. But today, there's no real reasons to have a moat anymore. So, Tokyo Station is outside of the moat. Wow. There's Otemachi and Tokyo Station is over there. Right there. It's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful day in Tokyo. You can see we've just left the castle moat, the inner sanctum of Edo-jo, and we're outside. And I believe there was some ume blossoms to the left, or they might have finished. Oh, there they are. There they are. Do you see them? We're going to walk down there. That's one of my favorite spots in Tokyo in the end of February.

22:47 John Daub: Let's take a look at this map for those who are joining me right now. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in all around the world. Stone wall between Bairinzaka slope and Shiomizaka slope. Interesting. There's a lot of restoration going on. So, in an old site like this, I see all over Japan, they're always finding ways after earthquakes or before earthquakes to try to find ways to protect the castle or the cultural artifacts or heritage here. I mean, it's important that we don't lose any more to earthquakes. That's a Japanese kid. You can tell because he's speaking Japanese. Long time no hear Japanese language. It's pretty funny. I'd say about 75% of the people who were up there at the castle ruins were either Western or from China because I heard about 50% of the language was Chinese, which it's hard for me to tell if it's Cantonese or Mandarin, but it was definitely not Japanese.

24:05 John Daub: So, it's a really nice place to be. This is nice. Check it out. So, the garden has all different kinds of trees. And in the distance, there's a building. Really nice. Let me take you to the plum blossoms over there. On the left is the old wall of Edo Castle. Oh, I see Gretchen's in the house. Hey, Gretchen from Arizona. I'm glad you can join me. This is definitely a special treat. We're outside of the palace here checking out these ume blossoms and now here you can see it all really opening up. You can see some of the blossoms have either fallen. It's actually just starting to blossom. This one—look at this—this is pretty good timing. Oh it smells so good. There's an official app that's free. They never had this before either. I guess if you want to find it you could push pause on the video and scan that QR code. You get it—I guess it gives you free information about the place. And there's always professional photographers out here taking pictures because this is a really beautiful corner. Just a preview of what we're gonna be getting in about three weeks from now. I'm surprised they don't tell you the variety of tree. This doesn't say the variety. You have very beautiful. I like that with the castle wall in the background. It smells so nice.

26:56 John Daub: The only way to describe this smell it would be to say blossomy, flowery. There's not too many words that I can use to describe the smell other than it smells like a garden and it smells really nice, better than the smog that I had walking over here. Wow look at how beautiful it is. This is definitely a different variety of cherry blossom. I do apologize that the resolution is not perfect. It's a live stream—it's not perfect. From the city center we're kind of down into the bottom of the moat. Hopefully the signal will get a little bit stronger. This one is pink. Once again i'm sorry i can't tell you the variety. I thought there would be usually there's a sign on the tree. We don't have that here. Really beautiful. That's right—in Japanese we'd say utsukushii (beautiful). It's beautiful.

28:35 John Daub: I've confirmed this is ume, ume blossom. I wish we had some music but maybe just the ambient sound is enough. It's 19 degrees Celsius today, mostly sunny. Not as many on the trees. Let me make it to the other side—we'll do one more pass. Here's a view of this entire corner. I like to come to almost every year. I come here but this it's been a couple of years since my last visit. Here's what it looks like. You see there was a patrol officer that just went by. So this corner kind of starts here and wraps around like this and it's just really beautiful. And the thing the reason why I like the ume blossoms is that they bloom just a month earlier than the cherry blossoms and it's just like the prelude to what's to come. And if you're watching this live with me right now this is what's to come. It gets much much much cooler and better and you're gonna be shocked. Well I did live stream this last year but you're gonna be shocked when you see the city in about three weeks from now. So I hope you do subscribe and get those notifications because it's just gonna be absolutely mind-blowing some of the places i'm gonna take you like last year. I wasn't here in Tokyo to bring you to the more beautiful places in the city and this year I'm gonna stream from as many as I possibly can. Sometimes in the middle of the night when we have the place all to ourselves. I'm gonna bring some really bright lights and just make the experience come to life for you.

31:03 John Daub: There's a little bug on there. You see that? Is that a tentomushi (ladybug)? Tentomushi is a ladybug we would say in Japanese. I think it's a tentomushi, a little ladybug on there and everyone will come and take a picture. They'll reach as high as they can to get that perfect blossom up there. This is as high as I can reach. That's about it. So there you have it. This is the garden. This is a very short 30 minute live stream. I'll stream for a couple more minutes, but the history of Edo-jo for those who are joining us, this is the old Tokyo castle Edo castle.

32:14 John Daub: And just to put a ribbon on this all the reason why Tokyo does not have a castle is that the castle was built in 1457 by Ota Dokan who I introduced you to in a stream a couple of days ago at the Yurakucho to Ginza station walk—you got to see a statue of him. He built this in the 15th century and the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu resided here when he was the Shogun. This is a map of the area. It's officially called now in English East Gardens of the Imperial Palace. And when the Meiji restoration occurred in 1868 there's no more use for Edo castle. So it was abandoned the Shogun was asked to vacate the premises. He was evicted and five years later it burned down and it was never reconstructed because of just the timing of it all. There was no need for a castle because the Shogun was out and there was no time to really rebuild it and when the war came during the aggressive years yeah, there was no money to rebuild the castle even though there's a lot of pride in it. Then World War two came and demolished everything that was in this area except for maybe these stone walls that you can see to my left and right.

33:45 John Daub: And to this day now after World War two during the reconstruction there really wasn't much need to rebuild a historical structure. People just wanted to get housing. They needed to get homes. They needed to rebuild roads and bridges and that took priority all the way up to the 60s and 70s. And then in the 1980s during the bubble era. Well, people are just having fun. They're rich for once, right? They had money. I think was like one dollar was ridiculously cheap here in Japan. And there was no need to really rebuild the castle either then but I think with the 2020 Olympics I think it is a little bit sad not to have that reminder of the past not to have a Tokyo castle there and just have the ruins. In a massive city like Tokyo not to have that as its identity whether it was during the reconstruction where maybe the occupation didn't want to have any symbols of the past and wanted to leave it the way it was either way. I think it's sort of a neat way to come here and see what used to be of the city of Edo and with the walls that we have around here you get kind of that feel of what Edo was probably like a little bit of a feel of what Edo probably was like a hundred and fifty two hundred years ago. Just pretty cool.

34:55 John Daub: Who knows, you know after the 2020 Olympics with all of the tourists coming the tourist numbers to Tokyo have quadrupled if not like four five or six times more we might have interest in rebuilding Tokyo Castle one day. It would stand as you can see right up here 50 meters into the sky a high towering castle just like Osaka but bigger because this is Tokyo and Tokyo does it big when it does it. That's the city of Tokyo with the Olympics coming. It is exciting. I'm glad I made a live stream. But I made a video on the main channel where you can take a look at the construction of the Olympic Stadium which is happening right now. You can see the whole shape of the Olympic Stadium and that right now, I guess would be pretty close to being the castle of Tokyo because it is pretty much in the center of the city and it is an amazing structure designed by Kengo Kuma and his associates. Who I hope to meet really soon because I got a chance to meet with Kengo Kuma a few months ago really nice guy really tired guy from working a lot, but I would like to hear his take on his design.

36:07 John Daub: Last look at the map here. Once again, this is the Honmaru or the grounds that we were in earlier this is where the castle was located and these are the gardens and we this is where the ume blossoms were Bairinzaka and I'm now right. This is where I'm getting out. There's more gardens that you I think you can go into if you want to see they these these aren't that that's where I showed you looking here. You can see the building here. There's more gardens. I want you to come and explore that yourself. I think I should leave something for you to want to come back. Make sure you keep your ticket. This is what I took when I got in here. So I'm gonna give it to the man right now and we're out of here. Thank you very much. It's free it's free. They're not from around here either so that's the experience.

37:17 John Daub: That's the experience and this is a really beautiful time of year. Things start coming back to life. You see the duckies going around the moat. It's still pretty quiet. It's a Sunday afternoon. There's not that much to see it's a wonderful place for a stroll though. It's a place where you can relax. It's quiet in here. It's really a big contrast if I walk about ten five ten minutes this way. It's really loud and really you can smell the exhaust from the cars, but here it's a natural place. It's like Meiji Shrine. Well, if you go to Meiji Shrine, you're one moment you're in the center of Harajuku, which is a really loud bustling place the next moment everything just goes quiet and it gets dark and all around you is a canopy of evergreen trees and it's just a power spot. You know Meiji Shrine is sort of a really special place and so is this.

38:20 John Daub: Kitamaru Koen (Kitamaru Park) is where the Budokan is that's where the judo and karate events will be taking place. And that's where I saw Eric Clapton do an unplugged concert a few years ago, which is so cool. He was here with who is he he was Eric Clapton and another Eric I think. Gosh, that was like ten years ago. This is another entrance that you can come into. I choose to exit this way because I'm a rebel. Thank you very much. And here's the drawbridge and you can hear already I didn't have to walk for ten minutes I just had to walk for one minute and I'm already you can tell how quickly the sound changes and we're back into the city.

39:20 John Daub: I do have to say since I'm here and this live streams they always seem to kind of go on a little bit longer. I say they are the loop around the Imperial Palace is breathtakingly beautiful. It's quiet in most parts. It's really cool. Everybody goes this way. You can see them running and it's five kilometers exactly five kilometers. I believe you can run around the Imperial Palace. I've done it many many times my friend Joseph runs and practices the marathon. These people are leaving the course but you'll be able to see just tons of people here will do the loop and running around the if you're a runner or you like to exercise you come out come out here in the morning and you really get a sense of the city that the local vibe by running around with I guess it's like a few thousand people are out here running the five kilometer loop do two loops through ten-k and you can go on even till you drop. I would run but I've actually hurt the bottom of my foot and I've been off of running for a few months actually which you could see reflected in my eating habits and lack of exercise but I should be back running this month. You do have to be careful or else the runners will hit you they come pretty fast they come in large groups but it's good.

40:51 John Daub: So one last look back at where we came from the link in the description will tell you exactly where I was it's open from 9 a.m. to last entry at 4:30 p.m. you have to leave by 5 take a ticket don't lose it and it's free it's free check out the old Tokyo castle for free bye everybody thanks for the super chats time to get some cake and coffee and thanks Patricia thank you Kula onion Joash Carlos Deborah everybody bye bye.