00:12 John Daub: I'm here in Tsukishima, a famous place for monjayaki (もんじゃ焼き), which is a type of okonomiyaki (お好み焼き). A lot of people like to call monjayaki Tokyo's okonomiyaki. It tastes really good but doesn't look that good on the grill. But we're not here for that. We've come here on a mission for one of the viewers who recommended that I come to Tsukishima to eat what I have in this bag right here. So I'm going to show you what it is and we're going to go to the shop and get one that's hot. This is called—see the label here, it's kind of scrunched because I threw it in my pocket—it's Yakitate Menonpan Tsukishima QA, the name of the shop. Tsukishima QA.

01:00 John Daub: Those kids are insanely loud. This area of Japan is famous also for having a lot of families. A lot of people, there's another mother. This is what we're here for. This is a menonpan (メロンパン). This cost me 180 yen and this is what we're going to go get right now. I'm going to take you down to Tsukishima. This is called Monja Street and we're live. The Only in Japan channel is only live streams. And this is what Tsukishima Monjayaki Street looks like right now at around 5:50pm on a March evening. It's really nice out here. It's kind of warm. The smell of monjayaki is in the air. You can hear, you can smell the grilling all over the place. And there's about, I don't know, about 40 shops, all of them are grilling.

01:54 John Daub: We're going to walk past some of them right now. But our main mission is this. We're going to get one of these menonpans, and we're going to get it hot. Oh man, this is good. But it's been sitting for a couple of minutes so it's not fresh out of the oven. When you get it fresh, it's totally different. But Tsukishima has a lot of trendy little shops. Let me zoom out a little bit. I think they're selling chocolate in there, freshly made chocolate. And here's a coffee shop. And I can smell the coffee. It smells so good. It's a coffee bean shop. It looks like an importer shop, right? She's measuring the coffee into bags. It's actually really cool.

02:57 John Daub: Oh man, this is good. I'm going to get one more for you. But I had to actually buy this for the thumbnail so I'd have something to show you so you knew what menonpan is. Now most people know what it is. There's nobody here yet. You can grill. This is a standing yakiniku (焼き肉) bar. Check it out. You can stand there and grill your own meat and get served drinks. And when you're standing, the turnover is pretty fast. That's really cool. There's nobody here yet. This is a really nice place to live. As you saw and heard, there's a lot of kids living in this area. A lot of mothers, young families live in this area. It's also a little bit pricey.

03:53 John Daub: Now this is the Yakitate Menonpan Tsukishima QA. But they also have another shop, which is the Tokyo Menonpan. This is a chain shop. And they make good menonpan. And Peter von Gomm and I had the menonpan here. You remember? We had this yesterday. This is the Menonpan Tsukishima on the pillar there. The big menonpan right there on the wall. These are pretty good too. But we're going to support a local business. And that's where we're going. And while I'm walking, I'm going to take you past some of the best monjayaki places in the city. We're not going to go in because these are all local businesses. And it smells so good. You got all these smells like coffee, flowers, grilled meat. Really good.

04:47 John Daub: I'm going to put this away in the bag. We're going to get a fresh one. Because menonpan is good when it's cold, it's okay. You need a hot drink to go with it. But when the menonpan is hot out of the oven, and you touch it, and it's warm, and it's hard on the outside, and you take a bite in it, and then the steam comes out of the bread. That's what I'm talking about. That's what this place is. That's why I came here. And that's why one of the viewers told me that I have to come to this one. And it's right here. This is Monja Street. The sun is just setting here in Tokyo. And you can see the lights up above here. Above the street are a lot of houses. People live up here above the street. There are smaller houses. And then recently, these really big high-rise mansions have come into Tokyo. So the rent here is quite high because people want to live here.

05:50 John Daub: But one of the benefits of living here is that you have supermarkets. You live in the center of the city. Again, you can walk about 20 minutes to Tokyo Station—20 minutes means walking. And you're living in a quiet area like this. And you have unlimited menonpan. So enough talking. Let's go attack this thing. So here's the shop. Menonpan Tsukishima QA. So this is a local business. And you see he's baking this. They're constantly turning over the menonpan. And they have here apple pie. This is a choco pie. This is a sweet potato pie. This is an apple pie. And this is the menonpan. And you can see it is just steaming hot. I mean, and the turnover is fast. I'm surprised there's no customers here. They also have hard menonpan, which is a snack. You can just eat it like chips. These are pretty good. And everything is about $2. One menonpan is about $1.50.

07:29 John Daub: So I'm going to watch them a little bit. And when he takes out a new one, I'm going to demand a hot one. Yeah. This is pretty cool. Thank you, Steve, for the super chat. I appreciate that. I'm getting hungry. I just ate one. So I want to show you a little bit of the shop. A lot of famous people have come here. All of these things that are signed, they're all from Japanese celebrities that have come and enjoyed the menonpan. And they have this really neat music that is cute. But the longer you stand here, the more annoying it gets. But it's cute, you know? You see, a lot of TV has been here. So as we get more people watching this live stream, I'm going to go and eat it. Oh, he's setting them out. Look. He's putting the sugar on the menonpan. Oh, that's awesome. Thank you, Nathan. All right. This menonpan is on Nathan that I'm going to eat in a second.

08:43 John Daub: He's pulling more out. And they put it in the oven for about 10 minutes, I think. And then they come out hot. That sweet top on top of it. Oh, man. I got to stop talking about it. They also serve ice cream here. A lot of people who come here to eat will get a menonpan after they've had a monjayaki. Just like that happy ending, you know. And I'm going to have a happy ending right now. He's baking them. I want to get one that's fresh out of the oven. Do you see? I'm waiting for that one right there. I want that. Steven's super chat is going towards that. And then I want it like so piping hot that I can't stand it. And I burn my mouth like I do a takoyaki (たこ焼き). So here's 1000 yen.

10:01 John Daub: [inaudible] She ordered three of them. [inaudible] Was it good? It was good. I ate it for about 30 seconds. How long have you been running this place? About 10 years. 10 years?

11:24 John Daub: I just lost count but they're from Yokohama and they came from Yokohama just to eat monjayaki. So this street is very famous even in Tokyo. He said just another minute and he's gonna take it out. Oh yes! So we're live in Tsukishima right now. I put a map in the description. This is the Monjayaki Street in Tsukishima. So check out the map if you want to come here. This is the Yakitate Menonpan Tsukishima QA. They've been here for 10 years making hot menonpan and I like to support the local businesses so this is definitely one of them. All right, we're just moments away from getting a hot menonpan so editor Eday writes that he's obsessed with the live streams. Well I'm sort of obsessed with showing you stuff so this is gonna work out well. No way I just noticed this on this like 1980s board they have a menonpan. Oh okay wait I'll show it to you later. Awesome.

14:02 John Daub: The top is hard. It smells good. Take a bite. You see the steam? You see the steam? It's steaming, but you can't see it. It's really soft on the inside when it's just out of the oven. Hard on the top. Golden brown on the bottom. And, you know, it tastes good if they put cream inside of it or ice cream or custard. They've done that before. Oh man. They got some too. As soon as it comes out of the oven, all the customers start coming. You can see. You can see the customers start lining up as soon as the new ones come out. So I'm going to finish this menonpan and then I'm going to take you on a little tour of this area before I end this livestream. You know, monjayaki is really famous here. And I think you should eat that when you come here as well. But definitely stop off here. It's open until 10pm. This is not a sponsored video. This is just advice. Do it. Don't go... You can go to the Tokyo Menonpan, but this one is a local business. So I kind of like that.

15:49 John Daub: I'm going to show you the digital menonpan that they made on the little 1980s flash screen. I don't know if you can hear the crunching. That's perfect menonpan. It's warm. Hey Mitch. Welcome aboard Mitch. Kanapi is writing that I eat so fast. You better believe it. You know why? Because you gotta eat it while it's hot. I hope you're getting hungry.

17:07 John Daub: Let's see if I can read the board for you. Yakitate—out of the oven that means—Menonpan. That's what I just ate. Tsukishima. [inaudible]. Pairasu. Good. Hoiaru. There it is. Look at that. The digital menonpan. Did you see it? Alright, let's thank the people for letting us film there. They're really nice people. And right next to it. Check it out. So here's the shop and there's an alley. So it really is a quiet neighborhood. If I just walk straight here, it just gets so quiet and silent and dark. So this street is really, it's a special street. I've been coming here since I arrived into Tokyo 13 years ago. That was my first time. I never came to the Monja Street until I moved to Tokyo. But I've been in Japan for 20 years. Gochisousamadeshita. Oishikatta. Arigatou gozaimashita. That was awesome.

18:38 John Daub: Why don't I take you down that alley to the middle of nowhere? Or do you want to see people eating monjayaki? Let me show you what I meant. This is why I love Tsukishima. We have just walked like 15 seconds and we're in the middle of nowhere. This is where people live. These are called nagaya (長屋), really old row houses. You can see here. It's a little bit dark. They're really old row houses. And it's part of the history of this area. They're actually a fire hazard. And if a fire ever did come through here, probably the nagaya would be a dangerous place to live. So people are extra careful with heating and living and gas and everything. And here's the back alley. It's so quiet. Konnichiwa. The alley goes on. If you keep going this way, it'll take you to the Sumida River (隅田川). But we're going to walk back towards Monja Street now. I just wanted to take you around the block to give you an idea of what this neighborhood is like.

20:31 John Daub: You can see the alley between the nagaya and the Tsukishima. The long row houses. It'll take you back to the Monja Street, which is just that bright glow at the end of the alley. So Dennis writes in here that he had an ice cream menonpan. And it was not that good. Hey now. I think it depends on the menonpan and the ice cream too. Menonpan ice cream would sound good, but I don't know. I think the hot menonpan and... You know what? It's better with whipped cream. Like really fresh Hokkaido whipped cream. Oh my gosh. Stop it. They don't serve it there. But some of the places like Asakusa Kagetsudo (浅草かげつ堂) [?], they'll cut open the menonpan, put in custard or cream in there. And then you have like this blast of sugar. And if you're like me and your eyes go big like this when you have sugar, you know, I've been doing eyes like this since I was a kid. And never stopped. And I'll probably when I'm 75 years old, I'll be going like this. Because I'm highly addicted to sugary foods. Probably bad for me, but you know. You only live once.

21:40 John Daub: So I'm going to take you back to the one just... Once again, people... I mean, this is a really nice place to live. There's lots of trendy little cafes and bars here. Check it out. Check out this bar. This is just a scene from the street. I love it. Coffee and wine. Look at that. No way. That's a combo and a half. Coffee and wine. Do you see that? Who came up with that combination? It's a neat looking place. Now that is an idea. Coffee during the day and wine at night. This character here says wine. Very, very nice.

22:44 John Daub: So, when I first moved here to Tokyo, all the shops along the Monja Street... And we'll probably do another livestream where we're eating monja. I'll bring some friends. It's kind of pathetic to eat alone. Where are you guys, huh? But more and more, the buildings started to get more stylish. Check it out. So, I was just going to walk past this building, but you can see it better from a distance. It's really stylish looking. And you can see inside the windows all these pipes. That's the ventilation. That's where the grilled meat... This is, I think it looks like a yakiniku place. Korean barbecue, I think. Korean nikubar (肉バー) is what it's called. Niku (肉) means meat in Japanese. And the smoke goes up through these pipes and then up outside inside of these vents on the top of the roof.

23:34 John Daub: The wind's picking up. We're pretty much on the sea. This is an island right off of the sea. It's still Tokyo. It's about a 20 minute walk from Tokyo Station. Maybe 30. Some really high class sushi places here. Some really nice restaurants off of Monja Street. But you've got all these little alleys. These are the places that I love. These views. There's the gas counter. And the electrical outlet. And you can see all of the telephone lines above it. And these small alleys. They're very scenic. This is the gutter where they put the cement over it. I mean, this is just breaking down what you're seeing here. And at the end, that's somebody's mailbox. It's pretty cool. I think it's hard to beat this area for like a scenic walk. And I think if you have a day in Tokyo where you just want to relax, this area is really amazing. Tsukishima.

24:42 John Daub: What I would do is I would get off at Kachidoki or Tsukishima Station. That's the station over here on the Oedo Line. Walk down this street around 5pm. You know what? Forget that. Go to Tsukishima Station. Walk around Tsukuda around 4pm. Watch the sunset. Then come out here at around 5, 5:30 before all of the crowds of people come. Crowds of people has quadrupled. These are all office workers that are coming to get some dinner as a group. For a nomikai (飲み会). Because this street is really famous for office workers to have a party. So walk around there. You can see the Sumida River with the boats going through there. And have a really nice time. You can have a drink on the riverside. Then come down here and walk through here to get dinner. Have a monjayaki. Look. Wow. Another really stylish standing bar. This here means sake (酒).

25:48 John Daub: This place has really changed over the last couple of years. Now we got people inside the standing yakiniku bar. Very cool. Now monjayaki is very similar to okonomiyaki in the sense that you prepare everything on the table in front of you. You do it yourself. But very few non-Tokyo people know how to cook monjayaki. In fact, a lot of Japanese people can't cook monjayaki. I mean it's just something that people don't order outside of Tokyo. Although it's on the menu sometimes. We'll do another live stream on this. But I'm sure there's a lot of videos that will teach you how to make monjayaki. M-O-N-J-A-Y-A-K-I. That's how you spell it.

26:44 John Daub: Outside of the station. This is where we started the live stream. The sun has gone down. And this is the Tsukishima Monjayaki Association. They have an association. So there's so many restaurants and so many places on the street. They have to organize everything in a place and they sell goods and things like that. You can buy monjayaki set and make it at home. So what does monjayaki look like? It looks like that. Oh, monjayaki. We're going to save that for another live stream. I just wanted to bring you out here and eat the menonpan, which is so good. And now we're back. We're back at the station. So that's a little tour of the Monjayaki Street here in Tsukishima. Hope you enjoyed it. I hope you can find your way here. And if you're in Tokyo visiting, you might want to check it out.

27:51 John Daub: Peter von Gomm and I, we're going to do a live stream in Tsukuda, which is a very scenic place. There's a bridge, a really red bridge that's very scenic that they film a lot of TV dramas in this area. Because it's a quiet scenic place where the buildings are a little bit older. So you can do more historical pieces in the Tsukuda area. Tsukuda is spelled T-S-U-K-U-D-A. Look for Tsukuda Bridge. That's a highlight. And I think, I don't see a lot of American tourists going to Tsukuda. But I see a lot of French tourists going there. Because I think it's been written in the guidebook. Because it has like this more authentic feel of what Tokyo used to be like about 30 or 40 years ago. And those apartments that I walked by with you about 10 minutes ago. Those nagaya. N-A-G-A-Y-A. Nagaya are really old row houses that still, they're still made out of wood most of them. And they're probably fire hazards. But they still exist.

28:52 John Daub: So if you're interested in the history of Tokyo, this area Tsukuda and Tsukishima has a lot of that history. I believe 100 years ago this used to be where the prison was. But I'm not sure. I'm not sure the history of it. Because that's one of the reasons this is an island separated by a bridge where the bad people were. But that's what you do. You put them on the other side of the bridge. So there you go. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions leave it in the comment below. Definitely subscribe. And we will be doing more live streams bringing you areas around Tokyo. I hope to do another one tomorrow. See you everybody. There's Tsukishima Station. That's pretty bright.