00:00:13 John Daub: Hello everybody from Hama-rikyu Gardens in the center of Tokyo, near Shimbashi, pretty much on Tokyo Bay between the city and the bay. It's a beautiful traditional park. And these two people know more about it than me. We're back online. It's like a double feature today. We just came by boat from Asakusa to Hama-rikyu Gardens. And what a beautiful place. If you come to Tokyo, this is a must-stop if you're into gardens and trees and that wabi-sabi (imperfect aesthetic) thing.

00:01:07 John Daub: Let's eat dango! Joji got some dango. So what are these again? Show us. Oh, Peter, if that goes in the lake, it's all over. You're not even supposed to jump that fence. Your daddy is silly.

00:01:26 John Daub: Okay, I want to give you a tour around Hama-rikyu Gardens in the center of this lake. You can see the urban setting—we're in the center of Tokyo. You're going to get a lot of high-rise buildings and this really tranquil place in the center. It's about 240 yen to get in—about $2.25 for admission. In the center of the lake, across this bridge, is a very peaceful tea house where you can get matcha tea served with Japanese confections. If we have time, we'll walk through there and give you a look inside. Right above the tea house, you can see Tokyo Tower, so you have a bird's-eye view from up there down into the park. It was a couple days ago—Peter and I on Friday were up on the top of that. They just renovated the top of Tokyo Tower; it has a new, modern feel, not like the 1950s feel it had just a year ago.

00:02:25 Peter von Gomm: Shall we take a walk around?

00:02:33 John Daub: When is the surgery? When are you performing your surgery, sir? I need some gloves to perform your colonoscopy. Hey now. Basically right now, this is the beginning of March, and at this time of year the pollen in the air is just really, really bad. It's really windy today. And the dango—oh, and Joji has some festival food. This is mochi, this is yakidango (grilled rice dumplings). And this is sanshokudango (three-color dango).

00:03:13 Peter von Gomm: So what is... Sankyo dai? What's inside the sanshokudango?

00:03:26 John Daub: Three, two, one. The answer is... Nothing. We don't know. Dick. What's inside? It's mochi and... No, what's it made of? It's mochi. Yeah, these are festival foods... Sweet red beans? Sweet red beans. No, they're not. Really? Wait, are you serious? I think so. You're giving him the wrong answers. There's no anko (sweet bean paste) inside. Okay, there's one way to find out. Bite into it. That's sangyo... That's like dango sankyo dai. Don't you remember the song? Dango, dango, dango—dango sankyo dai. You know the song? That was before he was born; that's 1999, that song was popular. You had to have been here 20 years ago. He's not 20 years old yet.

00:04:17 John Daub: It's a beautiful park. There's a tea house in the center. We're gonna walk through there, give you a view of what it's like from the inside. The wind is quite strong because we're just about to start blooming right now. The pollen is awful, and some ume (plum) blossoms that we've seen in the past. It's the kind of imperfect perfection.

00:04:45 Peter von Gomm: So, what I would like to point out, if you would stop here for a second... Can you take the... Do you really have to wear the surgical mask? It's kind of creepy. Alright, how's that? It's still creepy. Half creepy? Yeah, or a little bit more. But if I start sneezing all over you, forgive me. That's fine.

00:05:02 John Daub: Alright, so if you pan this way a little bit. What's great about this is we're in a central part of Tokyo, but you have these skyscrapers all around. It's an interesting contrast to the natural beauty of this park, which was the land of the Tokugawa Shogun—was their villa. They created the park at the end of the 1940s after the war. They developed this into it. And it's a beautiful space.

00:05:43 Joji: Can I eat it?

00:05:44 Peter von Gomm: But yeah, so bite into this one and show us.

00:05:47 John Daub: That's the boat; now it's leaving to go to the dive boat. We should have stayed on it. Bummer. Well, hurry up and bite into it because this guy moves in slow motion. Joe, do you do it for the camera? I call him Slow Joe. Slow Joe? Really? Is everything slow? Is he a slow swimmer? Show us. Bite into it. So we can see what's inside. There's nothing inside it. There's nothing? No, it's a... Ah, okay. All right, you've been outsmarted by a kid and John. That's why he didn't have an answer. He didn't have an answer because there is no answer. Gosh, Peter. Can I have a bite too? Peter. What's the pink flavor? The pink is supposed to be sakura (cherry blossom) and... I guess it's... The green one is... Oh, what is the kusa (grass)? Um... I forget what the green is. It's a grass. It's not matcha. It's the grass. Okay. Um... I can't remember it. This one doesn't really have much of a... It's very lightly sweetened. Yeah, well, dango is never supposed to be overpoweringly sweet. It's supposed to be subtle and refreshing. Indeed it is. Yes, it is. So you would wash it down really nicely with a cold beer. That would be nice as well, but I was thinking some hot matcha. Yeah, absolutely.

00:07:13 Peter von Gomm: You know, the kusa is a little bit different than the traditional tea houses here. I don't know if we have time to do it. I gotta run through here. But maybe we could go through here and take people to where there's some flowers, and then cut the stream. They do have a nice manhole cover inside the park, which I... Really? I'm always impressed. I'm a manholer, yeah. I have a card collection of manhole covers.

00:07:34 John Daub: I won't touch that. Manholer? Covers. Manhole covers. What... Where? What's the purpose of having a manhole inside Hama-rikyu Gardens? Well, there's a sewage drainage system, and they use the covers as a pleasing way to show some art—urban art made out of metal. You didn't watch my manhole episode? They all kind of blend into one after you've seen several dozen of them. Just kidding. I did see, maybe the trailer of the manhole one. All right, I don't remember making a trailer, but... I'm thinking of a different YouTuber. You're thinking of another YouTuber, yeah. Thanks a lot, Peter. It's all right. I'm used to taking abuse from him.

00:08:18 Peter von Gomm: So this is the Otsu Taikobashi (large drum bridge). And we're going to walk across it to the tea house. Now look at this reinforced handrail right here. See that? It's just a string here. It's not the wabi-sabi, though. I guess so.

00:08:49 John Daub: Peter, why do they make the... Why do they walk away like this? Why doesn't it go just straight? Why do you have to take a left and a right here? Do you know the answer? Let's ask Joji. Do you know? Joji, do you know why? Why is this... I don't think Joji knows.

00:09:12 Peter von Gomm: A lot of people... It's such a beautiful day today. The weather is... It's not hot. It's not cool. It's not cold. It's the perfect spring weather to be outside in a place like this, enjoying some matcha and desserts. You can see people have a little bench there where you can sit and look over the beautiful pond—not a lake. Don't drop that plastic. Put it in the backpack. Here, Joji. Look at that. Peter being a papa. Yeah. So I'm not quite sure. It's just part of the style, I guess. If you don't have to walk straight, maybe you take your time a little bit more. You should never rush being in a garden. So basically just do the opposite. Just do what I normally do.

00:10:09 John Daub: You can see you actually have to get a reservation and just sit in there. We don't have time for that. And you have to take off your shoes to go into the tea house. It's interesting. Culture. Yeah, it's a beautiful place. It is a very nice place. Have you been inside here?

00:10:26 Peter von Gomm: Yeah. In fact, I was telling John earlier. I did a NHK program about tea house, I think. And we did some tea. We did some filming here in Hama-rikyu Gardens. And I'll see if I can dig that up and share a link to it. Yeah. We did an NHK Tokyo Eye here about many years ago. I don't remember how many years ago it was, but a long time ago.

00:10:54 John Daub: Let's go find some flowers. Yeah, we need to find some flowers. This is a short stream. So you want to show them your second little snack here? This is your yakidango. So what's inside yakidango, do you think? There's nothing inside. Oh wow. Are you just playing this, aren't you? You really know. I don't play. You're just playing with us to make us look like impatient fools. It's the same. And we'll take a bite and show it. Be quick about it. Yeah, be quick about it. There's nothing inside. Everybody's commenting—they know the answer except for Peter. Okay, bite it. Just a bit. But there's something inside there. Yeah. Yakidango. Oh gosh. Oh my gosh. Cheesy. Yummy!

00:11:46 John Daub: Let's take a look around the park. There's a brand-new building. I don't know what it's for, but apparently you could have a wedding or take pictures in here, or a scenic place to dress up in your kimono. Did we ever get an answer why the walkway has a curb in it? It just looks better. Yeah, I think so too. I think in a Japanese garden you want to stroll, you want to take your time. And if it was just a straight path, it would take less time. You don't want to rush. Take your time, take in the scene. I love these little outlets here. Peninsula. I don't know what you'd call it either, but it's a little land in the middle. You see straight in the brand-new-like tea house. I guess it's the tea house. I'm not sure what it is, but it hasn't been painted or stained. On the left there is another tea house. These look private but they're brand new. So construction has not ended. Building things and stuff. And the more they have these traditional structures, the more Japanese feel you get to it. Before there weren't really that many buildings. They're gearing up for the 2020 Olympics. Oh, you think this has to do with the 2020 Olympics? Yeah, this is one of them. Yeah, there's a little bulldozer. This is the tea ceremony. Tea ceremony is not an event. Are these the things you tell Joji to confuse him?

00:13:42 Peter von Gomm: My dad used to do that. He would tell me outright lies, and then I would believe him because he was my dad. And then I would get all the answers wrong in school. Okay, let me point out—explains a lot.

00:13:55 John Daub: The roof up here—it's called Gassho-zukuri (thatched roof style), which is the traditional Japanese thatched roof. And you see this in areas of Nagano like Shirakawa-go, which is just an amazing little town. All of the ryokan (inns) or minshuku (family-run lodgings)—the places you can stay overnight—are these sort of traditional thatched-roof dwellings. And they're so beautiful. They're waterproof. But look at that—isn't that cool? It is. You can smell... Is that cedar? I guess it's a kind of Japanese cedar or hinoki (Japanese cypress). A hinoki? Yeah. It's beautifully done. It's all brand new. I wonder how much that cost to build. Is there a worker in there? I don't know. Akahashi-san? Oh, stop it. It's a beautiful roof. And this is a brand-new building. I guess when you come to visit, this will be a little bit more worn in. But it's nice to see it in this state. What if they come tomorrow? When they come tomorrow, they'll see it in this state. Right? You're the smart aleck, huh? Over there. You don't know when they're coming to visit. I don't know when people are coming to visit.

00:15:08 Peter von Gomm: This here is another tea house. And this one is not open either. It's still under construction. But let's have a look inside. The tatami mats are fresh in there. And I love—you can see our reflection. It's hard to see inside, but the tatami mats are there. Let's see. It's a little dark. But if you look at the front, it's a place where you can sit out and take in the sunshine. And they have these shoji (paper screen doors) that they'll close in there if they want to keep the heat in. Traditional Japanese houses were always cold in the winter and hot in the summer. And there's just no way around it. It would be in the spring and the fall that they were the best seasons. But it's nice to see these traditional buildings in the heart of the city. Just above it are all the skyscrapers. This is Hamamatsucho in Daimon. And over there is Shiodome, Shinbashi.

00:16:14 Caller: So bloody bricks. Thank you very much. He says he is the biggest fan. Bloody bricks. Yeah. We have viewers who are... He's freshly released from penitentiary. Freshly released Bloody Bricks. Thank you.

00:16:31 Peter von Gomm: Japanese buildings really lack insulation. Right. As I was saying—cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Right. Although... I would say... Yeah, probably. These kinds of dwellings also are not very well insulated. However, I would argue that in the summertime it's cool in there. Yeah. Because of the fashion. Right. So the thatched roof—it keeps the heat down.

00:16:55 John Daub: We just stumbled upon this, right? It's pretty cool. Yeah. The beautiful blue skies today here in Tokyo. We are going to take you around a little bit before we end this live stream. I have to go back towards Shinbashi and the Yurikamome line to get back. I got another video on the main channel coming. As do I. As does he. Well, what video are you releasing? Well, mine—well actually ours. Joji's and mine. A Joji's in it this time! Yeah, the next one will be a father-son episode. Oh, careful! Hey, why don't you get out of there? Stay on the path. Are you alright? We are doing a video on a really cool park in Ikebukuro. And we had a blast there. We go there actually after his swim class every week. And they've got a great Western-style breakfast, which is hard to find in Tokyo. And it's a cool spot and you're going to like this video. So plan on that. Within the next week it will be finished. Within a week. You slow-baked your video. Well, but I may be throwing in a vlog or something.

00:18:13 Joji: I need some poo poo.

00:18:15 Peter von Gomm: No, Joji, don't say that. We're live. This is live. We don't say that. Joji has to do number two. You can say number two and number one, okay? Okay. Can you explain which one is which? Number one, you don't have to wait very long. And number two, you got to wait a little bit. I like to know how long I'm going to wait so I ask. Right. Number two is what we do when we... Hopefully we're at home. We don't like to do the material. Alright, we're in a beautiful garden. This is not the kind of conversation topic that we want to do. Joji is young so it's forgivable. We are not and that's not forgivable. The general public won't forgive us for that.

00:18:55 John Daub: Here's an older tea house. This is one... I think I've been in here as well. This one's not on the lake but sometimes that's a good thing. You get the little flies that come off of the pond. They attack you in there and the mosquitoes in the summer. This one's a little bit... Let's see what it says in English. The building, Nakajima-no-Ochaya, is a paid meeting facility. Okay, so you can have your meetings and stuff in here. Oh, so if you pay... And here's the prices down here. Oh wow. It's not too expensive. This is a really good idea. So you can get three hours. You can rent this for three hours for 3,600 yen. This is actually... Hold on a second. I might do this. Up to 25 people. We can have like a YouTube meetup here. Yeah, but wait a minute. That's really cheap, isn't it? It is extremely cheap. So you can book a three-hour block of this building for about $30. This would be ideal for a YouTube meetup, I think. Let's check into the details. That could be per person. It doesn't say that. No, that is not per person. There's no way. Well, you don't think it's going to be booked out 24/7 if it was that cheap? I might live here. I might rent it. It's subsidized by the government, I think. This is Nakajima-no-Ochaya, okay? Is the name of that building. Wait, what do I... No, there's no way that that... Peter, that can't be per person. They're not serving any food or drink. Right. It's just... But three hours for 3,600 yen? Yeah. Yeah, you can get rental places this cheap in the city. It's subsidized. A place like this? Yeah. Wow. Because it's all subsidized by the government. Let me repeat that. All caps. Wow.

00:20:36 Peter von Gomm: Is the explanation point one or two? Infinite. Infinite. So when do we stop? We don't. You don't stop the... The explanations do not end until the stream does. I get to go like this until the stream does. Stop the explanation points. It's beautiful. It's like the beautiful blossoms. Spring is such a beautiful season. It's rebirth. Right, Joe? Can you flap your wings and fly away? I'll get... He's flying. He's flying. He's flying. Look at you. You've created a monster. Joji the fairy princess. Come back. Look at his long twiggy legs. Like pretzel sticks.

00:21:19 John Daub: Wait, Bloody Bricks really likes to say he's a fan. Oh, thank you, Bloody Bricks. Can we just call you BB? Yeah, double B. Double B. B squared. B squared. Glad you're along for the tour. Yeah. Oh, in the distance, that's this... Now we're starting to get to the point where we walked through here coming from the boat. This is... I don't know what these yellow flowers are, but I've seen them in other parks, including... I can smell them too. Yeah. Kasai Rinkai Park, which is the park near Tokyo Disneyland. They also have this there. Kasai Rinkai Park is also famous for having the biggest Ferris wheel in the world. I think they used to. I don't know if it still is, but it's a massive Ferris wheel. That's 700 yen to ride it. It's not bad at all. And we have great views from the top. We have a woman in a traditional kimono. It looks like they're taking their wedding pictures here. There's a photographer chasing them. Let's chase them down. We can get a picture. See the moat here. The water is very low right now. It is low. Imagine them filling that back up. Somebody told me... Actually, I saw the pictures at... He said he saw the pictures. In Kichijoji, the park there—Inokashira Park—the lake is completely drained. That's weird. Where you can take rowboats and stuff in that. All drained. They may do that periodically to clean the...

00:22:56 John Daub: See, we're getting close to the flowers. I knew he was going to chase the birds away. I knew he was going to do that. That's what I would do. Joji, we got a lot in common, my friend. Not much. No, what does that have to do with it? How much does it cost to be his friend? I don't know. Well, Joji is a good actor. He is. And I think there was a pretty solid idea from somebody's comment about him doing his own channel. Because he has a natural knack to act. And I witnessed this last night—not for the first time. What kind of acting are we talking about here? He's a method actor. A method actor. He acts when he tries to be forgiven for his sins. Forgiven? What sins? Well, he was... Crying for more ice cream? Seconds? Yeah, it was the sin of selfishness last night. Oh. And then... Joji, show us your pout. How do you cry? No, he's not gonna do it on camera. But in the end he was outside just pouting, just standing by the door. Just pouting. Like that? For about 20 minutes. A little chip off the old block. I've seen you crying a few times for something or other. But he... I said, let's take a bath. Let's go. And so then he comes inside and he's like, I'm dying. I'm dying. Why are you laughing? Joji, why are you laughing? I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. He's laughing at that one. What else did Joji say? The final scene—it was like something out of Shakespeare. Yeah? He's literally just crawling, crawling down the hall to the bath. Were you, Joji? Admit it. I was impressed. I'm impressed. I was impressed. Yeah. There he is down there.

00:25:08 John Daub: Alright, we've come up to the yellow flowers. It is really beautiful. It's more beautiful if you have hay fever and sneeze and you have mucus flying all over. Oh my lord. Did you smell that? Yeah. Wow. The wind is coming right into the microphone and it's blowing lots of floral smells. A word I picked up from yesterday's livestream—floral is a way to describe flower smell. Oh gosh, it's very strong—the pollen from here. Oilseed rape—rapeseed flowers? Yeah, these are the rapeseed. Okay. This field was sown with oilseed rape on October 27th. That's from the Hama-rikyu Gardens administrative office. You can see them, but there's so many. They're sowing what they reap—they're reaping what they sow. Like they're sowing the seeds. There's a lot of dust and stuff blowing around. Yeah. And... Where are the bees? Over there. Oh, I don't see any. A lot. You're just making that up. Alright. Do you make stuff up or do you tell the truth always? Look in the camera and tell us the truth to that question. Do you make stuff up or do you always tell the truth? Sometimes make... stuff up. Yes. And why do you do that? Why would you do that? Tell us the secrets. Why? Because. You're taking the fifth? Yeah. You're taking the fifth. Yeah. No comment. Smart boy. Don't admit... You never admit everything on... Especially when there's a camera on you. Oh, there's a bee. There's a bee. Where? Oh, he's right. Come on. But Joji, you're right. Good daddy. No, don't... Good daddy. Did you hear that? Somebody wants to be grounded from video games indefinitely. Yeah, Joji, you're gonna get it. So there's a lot of floral smells. It's a beautiful, beautiful garden. When the sun comes out—right now it's covered with the clouds—the sun comes out, it really brightens the yellow field. It's absolutely stunning. I'm stunned. Peter's stunned. You're stunned? Yep. Stunned. He's got his mask of... Well, I know I look like a fruitcake, but it's just... It's really windy today, and I've got work coming up, so I don't want to...

00:27:44 John Daub: Alright, guys, so there's Hama-rikyu Gardens. I think this gives you a pretty good overview. It's worth taking a stop and visiting if you're in the area. It's not very far from Shimbashi and Hamamatsucho, which is the JR Yamanote line. You can get off on the Oedo line (circle subway line), which the station would be Daimon—Daimon Hamamatsucho. That's right. Yeah. And Shimbashi—one stop from there. And the next stop. Alright, so... We'll be performing surgery as soon as this livestream ends. On Joji? On this guy. Get that. I don't think so. Alright, thanks everybody for watching this. I gotta take off. Appreciate it. It was a fun time. Fun afternoon. Cut. Yeah. See you, Joji. Bye, guys. Alright. He is a method actor. Look at that. The mutant turtles. Bye-bye, everybody. Alright. Bye, guys. See you, guys. Bye. Take a bite. Quick one. Bye-bye. Oh, you gotta... Oh! Push to the camera. Very nice. See you, everybody. Thanks for the super chats. Double B. B squared. Appreciate it. Now this stuff.