00:00:16 John Daub: Hello everybody, it is a Tuesday afternoon and I'm here in Yurakucho. I wanted to show you today a secret spot that I go to often. Oh, Shinkansen! This is a secret spot that I come to to watch the trains go by. I'm going to be going to a different location. I'm just showing what it looks like from the ground. This is Yurakucho Station, which you can see right here. And above it all is this ledge here, this cafe restaurant where I'm going to be having some lunch, maybe a cup of coffee.

00:00:50 John Daub: From there, you get an amazing view of the city. Best of all, I don't know why, but this restaurant, this cafe, there's like nobody in there. I do feel bad and like to throw them business. Whenever I have a business meeting or people that I want to meet, it's a secret spot that I go to. So I'm going to go in here, get some lunch. Then we're going to take a look at some Shinkansen and watch the trains go by as they float from Tokyo Station to Kyoto, Osaka, and beyond. Let's go inside.

00:01:29 John Daub: So here is my lunch. We had some audio problems, but the Shinkansens are going back and forth. I'm going to have some pasta. This is why I like to come to this cafe. I come here for business meetings. Today, I'm here for lunch and for some Shinkansen watching. As the trains come, I'm going to turn the camera on and let you take a look at the amazing view that we have from up here.

00:01:55 John Daub: Once again, this is a restaurant up in Yurakucho called Corti Bueno [?]. I come here a lot for business meetings because it's often just empty. It's not that I feel bad for them, but it's a space that is way better than a Starbucks. You get a really good lunch. This lunch cost me about $8 with a coffee. The deal can't be beat. Best of all, amazing view of the Shinkansen. As soon as the next one goes by, I'm going to show you the Shinkansen coming. Itadakimasu ("let's eat"). Very good pasta.

00:02:47 John Daub: From my seat, I have an amazing view. You can see the Yamanote Line coming through Yurakucho Station. That's coming from Shimbashi to Yurakucho, and the next station onwards is Tokyo Station. From this spot, the Shinkansens are going quite slow, taking their time. That's really awesome because you get a really nice view of it. Oh, here comes the Shinkansen. Perfect timing. Oh, it's a beautiful train, isn't it? Look how long it is.

00:03:47 John Daub: I come here for train watching as well, like I am today. Usually the Shinkansen is about 14 cars long. You can see the Saikyo Line and the Yamanote Line going in the opposite direction. It's pretty cool to be train watching. You can see on this side of it the Shinkansen train line, and I'll be eating my lunch. The trains take off from Tokyo Station every 10 minutes, so there's going to be a lot of trains coming in each direction. There's always something fun. I think that is the N500. Check it out. This one's coming from Kyoto, final stop Tokyo Station. So it's starting to slow down before it comes into the station.

00:05:15 John Daub: This lunch set is $8. They have one with a salad, which is a little bit more expensive, but I'm kind of in a hurry. I have a meeting at 1 o'clock. So I'm going to eat and go and enjoy some Shinkansen action. It's just a really beautiful day in Tokyo. Very fair weather, sunny, warm, chill in the air. If you have any questions, definitely hit me up here. If you're making a trip to Japan, by the way, I'm going to be doing a meetup during the cherry blossoms in, I think, Yoyogi Park or Yoyogi Park [?]. I haven't quite decided the location, but I'd like to hear your feedback. Leave me a comment below and tell me when is a good time for you to meet up, if you're going to be in Japan in the beginning of April or the end of March.

00:06:30 John Daub: I'm waiting for the next train to come. This area is called Yurakucho. It's a really cool area because it's sort of between Tokyo Station, Tokyo Marunouchi area, Shinbashi, and Ginza. Sitting in the middle of it is Yurakucho, and on the other side is Hibiya Park. Yurakucho is the closest JR station to Ginza. So if you have a JR Pass and you're taking JR trains only, you're going to want to get off at Yurakucho. Ah, here it comes again. Let's stand up for this one. Nice. Every time I see the Shinkansen, I just want to hop on it and take a trip to Kyoto or to Osaka. Even take it all the way down to Kagoshima. Why not, right?

00:07:29 John Daub: The Shinkansen should be going in the other direction, arriving at Tokyo Station in a couple of minutes. You can see the reflection on this side too. Ah, it's so cool. Here it comes again, speeding by and here comes the other train going the other way. If you've never been to Japan, you've got to come and ride the Shinkansen and get a JR Pass. That's the N700A series, the faster Nozomi train. You can hear the thump, da-dun, da-dun. You can see just how much cooler looking the Shinkansen is compared to the other trains. From here you can see the platform above and all the people walking underneath it, which is just so cool. That's what makes this restaurant such a deal. This is a 700 yen, $8 pasta meal.

00:08:55 John Daub: I ordered my coffee after the meal. I said shokugo (after the meal). So I get a coffee after this. The staff is really friendly, and you don't have to tip in Japan. The service is really good and you don't have to tip anybody. I used to feel guilty the first time I came to Japan and I didn't have to tip. I said, this service is awesome, I want to leave you 20% and you can't do that. Oh, look at the shape of her. Looks like a duck's bill. There's the 700. Beautiful. This is an amazing spot to watch the trains. Yeah, Jim, I think Buggy is really generous today. I've seen the Super Chats. Thank you, Buggy. And thank you, Jim, for moderating this. There are two moderators, Jim and Nasha Broad, and I'm really happy for their help. The chat's running nice and smooth.

00:11:20 John Daub: From up here, you can also hear the sounds from the JR station. Starbucks has a really big brand and appeal. I think I got pretty good coffee but there's just something about the view you can't beat up here. I put a link in the description to let you know where I am. Finished, maybe one more. Waiting for the trains. Now that I get the coffee, I can take some questions from you because a lot of people have been asking questions about visiting Japan. I'm starting to get crowded, I'll ask for the coffee. I hate taking up space needlessly because I think there's gonna be more people coming in for lunch. I'd rather get on my way before the lunch rush.

00:13:38 John Daub: Buggy the clown, answer my question. This is a cafe restaurant that I come to for business, for non-profit organization, gym and relaxation, business meetings. I come here to watch trains and if I just want to escape the city. You have one of the most beautiful unobstructed views of the train rolling out of Tokyo Station or rolling into Tokyo Station. On this curve here you get to see a really unobstructed view of the Shinkansen, the whole train as it curves around into its final approach to Tokyo or as it starts to accelerate leaving Tokyo Station. And you get a beautiful coffee. That's a nice looking coffee. We're gonna drink this coffee and then I'm gonna be on my merry way. Until then, let's enjoy some Shinkansen.

00:14:55 John Daub: To get from Tokyo, thank you Buggy for the Super Chats, I'll see if I can answer your questions. Buggy, why did you originally move to Japan? My dream is to live there. I want to live there but don't have the confidence to go to school to get a bachelor's degree. I originally came to Japan in 1998 to work. Finished college and I wanted a job where I could make money to travel more. A friend of mine who studied Japanese in college, he was my roommate, he encouraged me and said, you gotta come to Japan, man! Back in the late 1990s, Japan was not a really impressive destination to go to. It was expensive, it was weird, we didn't know much about it. So I decided to take him up on the offer. I came and taught children English and I loved it. Saved up so much money that I was able to travel around the world five times, backpacking for six months on each contract. After each contract, I got a bonus, took the bonus and my savings and blew it all traveling.

00:16:23 John Daub: I came in 1998 for that reason and I stayed with the same company for seven years. After my first year, I taught near the Nagoya area in a city called Okazaki. After Okazaki, I started working for the head office for the English school chain. They'd send me for three-month jobs to different cities around Japan. I moved 16 times between 1998 and 2004. After 2004, I said, you know what? I think I'm going to really stay here. I hitchhiked the whole country, learned the language, really love it here, so used to the lifestyle. Started my own business in 2005 and since then, I haven't looked back. I've made some progress, had some really great work connections, love to make videos now for clients and help promote Japan. It's become a job of mine. By the way, Yahoo is still really big in Japan.

00:17:47 John Daub: I've been to Okazaki. Okazaki is the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was the last shogun of Japan. My apartment when I first moved to Japan was 50 meters away from the well where the bathwater was drawn for his first bath. That was hundreds of years ago, but it was still pretty cool to live so close to history. In America, we don't have a lot of history there. Many of the things are built, especially out in the West, just 100 years ago or less. Buggy, do you ever think they will make it easier to get work visas in Japan without having to have a university degree? I don't think so. You're going to always need a university degree because there's a huge demand. A lot of people want to come and work here. Having a university degree is sort of the minimum.

00:19:59 John Daub: These are really good questions. Robert asks, any tips on moving and wanting to stay in Japan? Wanting to live in Japan isn't enough reason to actually change your life and come here to move. A lot of people discover that Japan isn't exactly the fantasy land paradise that you might think it may be. When you come here and live and become a resident, you have a responsibility as a resident beyond anything that you've ever done before. I feel more responsible for my actions for the community than I did in the United States. If you're interested in getting a job, you're going to need to get a Certificate of Eligibility. In order to get that, you need an employer to recommend you or hire you and give you this form, which you can only get in Japan from a company. With this form, you can go to the embassy and get the visa.

00:21:18 John Daub: Don't come here and try to work illegally. One reason to come to Japan without the work visa is to look for a job or company. You have to have a skill that's in demand right now. Although the population is declining, students until a couple of years ago were having a really hard time finding entry level positions. There's going to be more of a demand for highly skilled workers, but for jobs where Japanese people can do those jobs, I don't think it's going to be possible unless you get married or something. I can't condone that either. I've been here single, non-married for 18 years and doing it properly, getting work visas, contracts, paying my taxes. As a long-term resident of Japan, I feel like I have a big responsibility to the country and my community more so than I did in the United States.

00:22:42 John Daub: It's not just moving to Japan. It's kind of changing the way you think about your community and the people around you. That's what makes Japan such an amazing place and a safe place for a lot of people. It's not going to be ideal for everybody. You can't make Japan like your own country. One of the biggest mistakes almost every expat has is that they try to think of Japan in the prism of their own country. Why don't they do it the American way? Japan has its own original way. If you want to live here, you have to live here and do things the way that they do it here. When in Japan. Learn Japanese. When you come to Japan, you have to change the way you think. You think more about the community and the people and your company and your clients, more than yourself.

00:24:31 John Daub: When are you getting some wheels? I think I'm going to be renting a car really soon. It'll be my first time driving since getting the license, which is scary because I should be driving a lot more. Saeed, do South Asians blend in well with Japanese? Japan is an Asian country, so more and more I'm seeing a lot of people from Nepal. I'm seeing a lot more faces that look more like me. You blend in well if you make an effort to blend in, assimilate, learn the culture and learn the language. That's really the key to it all. South Asians, especially from Nepal, have always had a really big community here. Here it comes, here's the last one, everybody. Shinkansen watching from Yurakucho.

00:26:07 John Daub: You need a degree to live in Japan? Not unless you're here to get a degree. If you have a work visa and you come here. I just left and paid from the restaurant. This is the top floor, the entrance to the restaurant that I was showing you before. Here's the lunch menu. It's an amazing deal, just 1,000 yen or about $7-8 for the weekday lunch special up here. You can get a pasta set. The courses go up to about $20-25, but you get a lot of food. The lunch service is until 3pm, which is good to know because I love to come here and just chill out. The balcony is still empty. I hope that information is useful.

00:27:00 John Daub: You've been asking a lot of questions about living and working in Japan. It's really something that you should consider, how your life is going to change if you do that. Just because you're a fan of manga or anime or trains or Japanese culture or history, that doesn't mean you move out here and change everything in your life. From my experience, somebody who's been traveling a lot and had a lot of international friends in college, I'm sort of a chameleon. I could probably live just about anywhere. Oh, that looks good. There's some good restaurants here. That's okonomiyaki (savory pancake), roast beef okonomiyaki. I've never seen that before. That's like $15, and they put roast beef on top of it. Insane. Black Angus beef steak from Australia, 9,000 yen a gram [?]. Pretty cheap. Interesting. I get distracted when I see food.

00:28:35 John Daub: Now I'm back out here in front of Yurakucho Station. It's not quite the same down here as it was up there on the balcony. I was up there, right there on that corner, looking down on all these people and now I'm amongst them. Pretty cool. I actually did a livestream from here about 10 days ago, showing you the international forum of Yurakucho and walked all the way to show you a really beautiful view of Tokyo Station. Check out that livestream if you want to see more of this area. That's not a CIA owned cafe. It's a place because it's elevated and so far off the ground, I don't know if people even know there's a restaurant up there. There's some amazing restaurants here, and a lot of good restaurants in the basement of Marui department store. They have a Starbucks here up on the top, but why go to that Starbucks when you can go to that cafe. $8 to $10 meal overlooking it on a beautiful afternoon like this. You would be crazy not to go there.

00:30:04 John Daub: I can take you just a little bit further. I got to walk to the next meeting over near Hibiya Park. This is also the area where the vending machine corner is. Remember I introduced you to the vending machine corner? That's here too, so is Yoshinoya. The owner told me that because of the 2020 Olympics and the laws on public smoking, the vending machine corner might go out of business or they might get rid of it and put in a trendy cafe. That would be really sad. You can see the no smoking on the street signs. The smoking laws are really strict right now. This is Chuo-ku (central ward). That's the Imperial Palace area.

00:32:13 John Daub: I'm really hoping they don't close this vending machine corner. It's just sort of part of the culture of Tokyo, one of these places that's still alive from decades ago. It's a place that's really friendly where you can come and drink with locals interested in just talking with other people. If it ever closes, I'd be really sad. Oh, it's still there. You can see people waiting for the lunchtime rush in front of this restaurant. This is the vending machine corner that I featured in the vending machine episode five years ago, and then again with Jennifer in a livestream on this channel a few weeks ago. I'm glad it's still here, but I don't know for how much longer. They've put signs all over the place because the city is really busting down on them. I can't blame them. I'm not a fan of smoking, and the laws for smoking in Japan have been some of the most relaxed in the world. You can still smoke in restaurants and public places, but now they're tapping that down before the Olympics.

00:34:35 John Daub: Let's cross the street. I'm going to take you to one last place before I end this, crossing over right now to go towards Hibiya Park. You can see how it's really opened up over there, between the park and the Imperial Palace. There's Ginza Station one way, Hibiya Park the other way. We're sort of right in between everything right now. This Freshness Burger has a really nice window and comfortable chairs. Sometimes we'll go in there and wait because it's a pretty good location. No! They did not. They took out the small Godzilla statue that used to be right here. They're renovating the area and took out the statue. This area of Yurakucho is like the walk of stars where Japanese stars put their handprints. Godzilla used to be right here in front of a Tim Ho Wan [?]. Godzilla, come back. This is one of the first cinemas in Japan. Yurakucho is famous for having a cinema culture.

00:38:04 John Daub: That's a disappointment. Whoa, this is new. They finished it. This is the Tokyo Midtown Hibiya Building. It's a massive skyscraper, brand new, just opened. It's been under construction forever. There's a cinema here, where the first Toho Cinema was located. You can't go in yet. It's newly opened, but not yet anyways. Soon. I've been waiting for this thing to finish because the area was under construction so bad for a couple of years. There's these stairways here, all brand new. My meeting is at the Imperial Hotel, just about 100 meters away. I have not been here before. Most people in the city haven't been here yet. It just opened. This stairway is the first time I've seen this because usually there was nothing to cross the street or get around. Now you can actually go up here.

00:40:26 John Daub: You get a nice view of the moat around the Imperial Palace. There was an English guy who went swimming in there one year and they arrested him and deported him. I know he was English because all the Japanese telling me about the story were saying how crazy people from England were. It's a nice little view of the intersection of Hibiya. You can see the moat around the corner. After this intersection, it turns into Hibiya Park, one of my favorites. It's like Central Park but not very big, really in the center of the city with a pretty good history to it. I don't even want to leave up here. Tokyo Midtown Hibiya. It is very quiet around here. Oh, Shinkansen, starting to pick up speed. You can see the trains between the buildings.

00:42:16 John Daub: Alright, so that'll do it for us. Thanks for joining me on this adventure. As we discovered not just a really cool place where we can enjoy the Shinkansen and have a really pretty inexpensive lunch, but Godzilla no longer exists here in Yurakucho. The statue has been moved, probably to be placed somewhere else when the construction is finished. For the meantime, if you want to see Godzilla, you gotta head to Shinjuku where he's taking over a hotel. There's a Godzilla room, a Godzilla bus. I think Shinjuku is Godzilla Town, not Yurakucho. The city of Tokyo is always changing. There's always something new and exciting to see and do. Thanks again for subscribing to the channel, for being a part of the adventure, for joining me each time. I'm trying to do 30 livestreams in March to bring you the city of Tokyo and anywhere else I might be going. See you again everybody. Enjoy the soothing sounds of construction. Bye bye.