00:00:01 John Daub: Hey everybody, how you doing? You see the cherry blossoms? They're just about ready to bloom. So I'm gonna take you around the park and we're gonna take a look and see how close we are to the actual cherry blossoms blooming. I have this gimbal with the stick so I was able to take you up there to the top of the tree. So we're live. This is a park in Tokyo. This is Shinozaki Park, my local neighborhood park. I'm gonna take you around and we're gonna take a really close look at the cherry blossoms, the sakura (cherry blossoms), and find out what the status is.

00:00:42 John Daub: Today is actually, believe it or not, the first blossoms in Tokyo have already opened up. The first location normally, typically, even in this area of Japan is at Yasukuni Shrine. The news reported yesterday that because we've been having really warm weather in Tokyo, the cherry blossoms started blooming. That's really cool because I'm really in the mood and I can't wait anymore. I've been waiting for a very long time and as you saw up there, they're just like right there. This park is really famous for having beautiful cherry blossoms. It's not Yoyogi Park. It's not Ueno Park. It's my local park and one of the places that I like to go when I'm doing hanami (cherry blossom viewing).

00:01:49 John Daub: When we do hanami, I like to come to the local places and meet with my neighbors and people who've I've seen in the years in the past, but also it's more intimate. It's not as crowded and I feel a little bit closer to nature. This park is tagged in the description and there's lots of different parks and lots of different neighborhoods all throughout Tokyo. When people ask me where is the best place to see the cherry blossoms in Tokyo, the answer is always gonna be to me my local park or a local place or a neighborhood with just one tree. Thank you, Mr. Bricks for the super chat. I appreciate that. The best time to go to visit the cherry blossoms would be probably next week.

00:02:28 John Daub: As you can see, I'm gonna put the camera up one more time for everybody. Nasha Varad's pretty excited about that. I'm gonna extend it really high and give you a bird's eye look at the cherry blossoms, okay? Here we go. You see it? I'd say it's like a week away. No less than that, maybe three or four days away. Check it out. You can already see the pinks are starting to come out of it. The green blossoms have bloomed and we're very very close.

00:03:21 John Daub: Let me turn the camera around and I'm gonna take you up into the trees. We're gonna go about two meters higher than me and take a look and you can see it's very close. The reason I turn the camera around is because the background, the sky is bright. It's hard for you to see the cherry blossoms. There you go. So we're very very close. Yeah, they're just about to come out. It's pretty cool because I'm a huge cherry blossom maniac. I love this time of year because I can kind of put everything aside for a week and just relax and enjoy nature even in the city.

00:04:31 John Daub: This one's not too far. It's not too high up. It's really nice. Let me see if I could zoom in on her. There you go. Come on iPhone 7, get it. Usually the iPhone 7 can pick it up. Yeah. So leave in the description a place that you like to go. If you are living in Tokyo, you visited Japan before, put in the comments where have you been? What parks left a really good impression on you? I'm not gonna eat them. Roscoe Roxo, is that you? Yeah, I'm not gonna eat the cherry blossoms, but you can eat the cherry blossoms. They're pretty much a part of the cuisine. They pretty much pickle them and you can preserve them, dry them. You can put them in a cake. I've seen them on cupcakes. I've seen them in bread. I've seen them on cookies. I've seen them in senbei (rice crackers). I've seen them in liquor. And I'm gonna drink a bottle of liquor with a cherry blossom in it next week. We do some hanami, some cherry blossom viewing parties.

00:05:44 John Daub: But I didn't just want to bring you an update of the cherry blossoms. Although that's the main purpose of this. Here's another one you can see. Oh, that's a beautiful shot now. Come on iPhone 7, get that focus in there. Yeah, you can see they're just very close. And the pink is starting to come out. Do you see? The pink is really starting to come out. We're gonna see those white blossoms. They look pink now, but when they open up, they get white.

00:06:32 John Daub: Mr. Bricks, I got something else for you. So I'm gonna go to another side of the park. But first before I do that, I got here a champagne glass. Typically when you come out here and you look at the cherry blossoms, you usually have a drink. And I'm sort of a high-class person, at least I pretend to be. And when I do, I like to come with real glass, which usually sometimes ends up breaking, creating a disaster to throw it away, and you have to recycle it, I guess, because it's glass. I'm gonna put this down for a second and get the tripod up here. So we're gonna do very quickly, show you this weird drink I had. If you know what Pocky is... Pocky are these sticks with chocolate on it or sometimes they have different flavors on it. So Pocky has created this Acai Tea. It's made by Kirin. Kirin is the company that also makes some pretty bizarre products.

00:08:22 John Daub: So I got the champagne glass and we're going to open this together. This is for you Mr. Bricks because I'm not going to eat a bud. That's like destroying nature. I will eat the cherry blossom maybe during the hanami for you okay. So we're going to have your revenge because I will eat a blossom but I won't eat a bud. It's like eating a baby. Let it grow a little bit. Alright here we go. The weird Pocky Tea, it's acai flavored which is a berry and it's supposed to be berry nice too. Just made that up. Alright let's give this thing a try. Happy sakura season everybody.

00:09:10 John Daub: Oh that looks milky. Oh my. Alright. Oh my, it's really milky. Okay take a look on the other side here. It's got a weird flavor. This is like a normal drink from a vending machine. It's acai flavored Pocky. And Pocky makes those chocolate sticks. Alright let's give this a try. To the start of the hanami season. May you bloom in style and look as beautiful as you do every year. Oh hanami tree sakura tree. Sounded better than it really was. Okay cheers everybody. That's weird. This is technically it's tea. It says kocha (black tea). Do you see here the last two characters? This is very weird. On the front side it's extremely sweet. And it has a kind of a berry and chocolatey taste. And then on the back side you taste that bitterness of the tea. And they've somehow destroyed your taste buds by dividing it up and conquering all corners of your tongue. And it's surprisingly good.

00:10:56 John Daub: I'm usually disappointed with these trendy drinks. But this is the Kirin Acai Yogurt Tea, made by collaboration by Pocky. Alright one more. Oh hanami trees sakura trees and the hanami season. Bloom shall you bloom upon thy blooming branches and show thee the white canopy of spring and thee. Cheers everybody. It's not Pepto-Bismol. It looks like it. But to the cherry blossom seasons and the fun and festivities to follow. Ah. Mmm. Very very good.

00:11:47 John Daub: So now before I end this live stream, gotta clean this up. Not break the glass. This is the extension stick for my DJI Osmo number one. Not the new one. And it was a pretty useful stick. It extends about two and a half meters or more. And gets the gimbal up. But on the downside, it was ridiculously expensive. So this is a cherry blossom area. You can see there's a lot of trees in here. And in a week it's just gonna be filled with people with blue sheets drinking and barbecuing. You're not allowed to barbecue technically in the city of Tokyo unless it's a registered barbecue place. So you can't just light up a fire because there are fire laws. But some people do.

00:12:38 John Daub: Thanks Mr. Bricks. I'm becoming a fan of you too. I appreciate all the support everybody. This show is pretty much funded just by everybody giving super chats and for everybody on Patreon. It's been huge. There's some flowers over there. So I'm gonna take a look at some of those trees. They look like they're pretty much bloomed. And then right to the right of them, there are some more very mature cherry blossom trees. They're probably really old. And I'm going to show you my favorite cherry blossom tree.

00:13:18 John Daub: It's hard for me to tell because I like to see her in her full glory. And right now she's somewhat naked. That's not a good look for any tree. She's doing her best. Alright, let's start over here. These might be ume (plum) blossoms. I'm never really sure of the variety because I'm not a botanist. But I play one on TV. That's not a good phrase to use here. This is really beautiful. There's many varieties of cherry blossoms. Thanks for laughing, Boris.

00:14:05 John Daub: So this cherry blossom, it could be ume or it could be another variety of the cherry blossoms. I apologize for the wind noise. These have bloomed and they're at the end. You can tell because the green leaves are starting to pop out of where the blossoms were. Yeah. These are also younger and the younger trees seem to blossom earlier than the more mature trees. I'm talking about sakura in particular. But they're very beautiful nonetheless. It was the last month I was at the ruins of Edo Castle. Oh, see, I told you most of these... They actually put the variety of the tree on here. This one is the Cerasus Kanzakura Kawazuzakura. So it is a sakura tree. Kawazuzakura. Very cool. And it's finished.

00:15:15 John Daub: So everybody who's been waiting for the cherry blossoms, some of these varieties have bloomed already. It's not a secret that if you want to see the cherry blossoms here in Tokyo, you have to get here at the right time. And the right time is starting right now. Alright? For everybody who's joining this live stream right now, the cherry blossoms started blooming. Yesterday was the first television report at Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo that they started blooming. And I'm talking about the Yoshino variety. Here though, the more mature trees, they're just still buds. As you can clearly see. But if you look carefully, right here, you can see that it's just starting to open up. A little bit of pink, but it'll be white when it comes out.

00:16:13 John Daub: This tree in particular, I really love. This is my favorite cherry blossom tree. It is a pretty good tree. A mother of cherry blossoms. A mother sakura, I think. It's just really really big. And it goes up pretty high. It's been in this park for hundreds of years, I'm sure. I'm just speculating, but I'm probably not that far off. And when it blooms, it's just tens of thousands of blossoms. You can no longer see the inside of the tree. It's just covered in white. And for everybody who's watching this, I'm gonna come back here in a week's time. Okay? Mark my words. Just put a big check or write it down. Take a note. I'm gonna come back here at night with a light. And I'm gonna illuminate this mama. And I'm gonna show you why this bare naked tree is my favorite of all the trees.

00:17:19 John Daub: Thank you, Kyle Newcomb. It's been marked and noted. Thank you all for noting that. This tree is my favorite tree. I'm having a lot of fun out here. I just wanted to show you before I edit this live stream, this is gonna be a short one. This is what a cherry blossom tree looks like without any blossoms. And in a week, I'm coming back here. And I'm coming here with LED lights. I'm just gonna come in with like a studio of lights. And I'm gonna just show you and sit here and enjoy the nature of my favorite tree. And give some respect to a matriarch. Or a patriarch. I don't know if it's a male or a female. I'm just gonna say female. Because I know I have a friend named Sakura and she is a she. So I'm gonna say it's a sakura tree. So they're all she's maybe. But she is a mother of cherry blossom trees. A beautiful, beautiful tree.

00:18:10 John Daub: I love trees. I found the largest tree on Aogashima. The oldest tree. Gave it a big hug. And ants got me. A lot of ants on there and spiders. But gotta show your respect to nature. Mother nature. And she's got a lot of babies. As you can see. Tons and tons of cherry blossoms that are just budding right now. You know, it's exciting. For me I'm totally stoked being here. Because there's a chill. There's a warmth in the air. There's a little bit of a chill. But there's a breeze. And there's a warmth in the air. And that smell is the smell of spring. Which is basically a lot of pollen that makes people in Japan sneeze. So people get sick again. And the subway is filled with people's mucus and sneezing and masks. And it's kind of gross. But that's spring to me.

00:19:04 John Daub: It's a beautiful park. And before I end this stream, it is a beautiful park. And these are cherry blossoms as well. They also have in the center of the park a lot of places to play baseball. And I was doing a cricket stream yesterday. And showing that that's a place where a lot of people do sports. And a lot of places in Tokyo also have inside the parks baseball fields where people can play. But the thing is with these, they're always booked. And it's very hard to get it available. That dog is taking them for a ride. That's awesome. This is not a little league. This is like a men's league. These are dudes my age. I could totally play in this league. I could play with these dudes.

00:20:22 John Daub: I'm going to go over here and we can take a little look. You want to watch? Home run. It's debatable. That was pretty close. That's another thing with spring in Japan. That means baseball. And a lot of the kids that have been trapped inside playing video games are forced by their parents to go out there and play baseball. Although most of them really like the experience. There's always something going on. And you can hear them complaining to their mama.

00:21:58 John Daub: So there you have it. That's the status on Tokyo's cherry blossoms. I hope that this is useful for you that are coming to visit. A lot of people have been messaging me. If you're interested in the meet up that I'm going to be doing at the cherry blossoms, that's probably going to be taking place sometime next week. And go to the Facebook page and get updates on everything. Instagram. And the Facebook page will have an event page. And you can sign up to come to the event. It's nothing special. It's just us hanging out. I'm not bringing gift bags and stuff like that. I know some people have these really elaborate meet ups. Pretty simple. We'll just have a good time. And if you're visiting in Tokyo, I really appreciate you making the time to watch the show. So I think it's nice that if you're visiting my city and I'm here, that we have a chance to meet up and have a drink together or something. Whether it's a very strange Pocky pink acai drink like this or it's a beer. I'll be here.

00:23:00 John Daub: Go to the Facebook page. The event's not up yet. It'll probably be up sometime tomorrow. And we can meet up if you're in the city. That'd be really fun. So everybody, I'm going to leave you with the last 20 seconds. Just a final note. Most of the cherry blossoms are about a few days away from the show. I'd say four days away before you really start to see the city bloom up. But the first blossom has already bloomed at Yasukuni Shrine. Just a little recap. So I'm going to leave the last 20 seconds looking at the tree trunk of a very old sakura tree where the cherry blossoms bloom out of its base. It's pretty cool. Check it out. All right. These things will blossom here. And gets all white just on the trunk of the tree. It's kind of unique. Thanks everybody. See you soon.