00:00:46 John Daub: This area is very traditional and this festival is one of the rowdiest. You can see the police presence here. They're monitoring to make sure nothing outrageous happens and people behave themselves. I guess they're clapping because people behave themselves. It's making its way back, so just hang out for a little bit. They're gonna be making their way back now. Look at all the people coming this direction. This festival goes on until 9 p.m.

00:04:18 John Daub: For those of you joining me late, I actually posted this starts at 9 p.m., but that's when it ends. I started it right away as soon as I knew we had a chance to catch this festival live. It's gonna be coming back. You see the people making their way back for another run at it. We caught it at a pretty good time. Of course all the participants are wearing fundoshi (traditional loincloth), the traditional wear that people wear at festivals, especially in the summer. Today is not too hot. I'm not sure if you'd wear these in the streets of New York or London, but here in Tokyo this is rather normal.

00:05:18 John Daub: Okay, so I think that this group is finished and another group comes in and takes its place. I think that this is more professional in a way. There it goes again. Why did everybody go back? Is it a different group going in? You could see over there—that's where Torigoe Shrine is, right there. You see where the lights are in the center of the screen? That's Torigoe Shrine. We're kind of in the middle of the procession. They closed down the street and the omikoshi (portable shrine) will make its way up and down the street for about an hour.

00:05:48 John Daub: Now you can see a lot of the local people that live here. They've got really awesome views. Some of them staking out from their windows. You can't get a better view than that family up there looking down at all of us. They don't have to fight it down here at the police lines. They can just enjoy themselves up there. Even up there on the corner, they've got a really good view of the festival going on. Once again, for everybody joining, this is the Torigoe Festival that happens every year. The closest station is Kuramae, but Asakusabashi and Akihabara are not too far away.

00:06:28 John Daub: Alright, now the police have made sort of a line you can see here. It's hard to know exactly what they're doing, but I believe that they're trying to make sure that nobody crosses the line and everybody gets their chance to carry the portable shrine. In Japanese we call it an omikoshi. You can see in the distance just on the upper right of your screen—it's sitting there. And it's going to make its way in this direction soon. It is raining right now, so we have a lot less people out than normal. But typically this festival has a ton of people here watching. It adds to the noise level, but this year because of the rain, it's not quite as bad.

00:07:22 John Daub: You can see the police have taken a knee in the middle of the street. Alright, it's going to start now. Here we go. They've picked it up now. This is the heaviest omikoshi in Tokyo, making it one of the heaviest in Japan. Now it's making its way down the street. It's about 8:30 p.m. right now. And as it gets closer, I can zoom back in and we'll have a better view. But this is live from the streets of Tokyo.

00:08:01 John Daub: Here comes the next group. I believe that they separate the groups to make sure that there's no fighting. But apparently, from what I heard from my wife, there is some fighting. So that's why the police presence gets bigger and bigger every year. These guys look pretty tough. This looks like street gangs here. We've got the light blue and navy group with yellow headbands. All these are local groups from the different neighborhoods of this area. You can see behind me. The street that the procession, the omikoshi goes back and forth, is about 300 meters long, in front of the Torigoe Shrine.

00:09:02 John Daub: Alright, it looks like they're celebrating over in that direction. And then they're going to be making their way over in this direction once again. So we'll get another chance to see up close. But when I started the live stream, we had a really amazing view—close up of the madness that was happening. People were all trying to get a chance to hold on to the omikoshi or touch it, to be a part of it, to get close to God. Because the portable shrine is, in many ways, it is God. Abegawa-cho is an old town name. It's a very old town, the same as Kotobuki-cho.

00:09:51 John Daub: Alright, so just hang loose for a little bit. This guy's stretching—that means there's action going on. Now I've done battle at religious events. The Naked Man Festival about five years ago that I took part in in 2013 was a real battle. And that video is available on the Only in Japan main channel. We call it the Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Festival) in Japanese. I had a fundoshi on. I was pretty much naked. We were doing battle inside of the temple to get some lucky charms. I know what that sounds like, but it was actually an incredible experience. That took place in February. The temperature was minus three degrees Celsius. It's not the perfect weather to be naked. But this weather is a lot better.

00:10:45 John Daub: This looks like one of the priests from the Shinto shrine is coming down the street right now. They're carrying an umbrella out of a show of respect. If you look this way, the streets are now empty and available for the portable shrine to make its way down this direction. But slowly, slowly the police are moving the line closer to where we are right now. Everyone is just sticking their head up above the railings to take a look at the festival. And it goes all the way up. It's kind of a surreal sight.

00:12:44 John Daub: This is something that we celebrate, not just in this area, but every neighborhood in Tokyo, in Japan, has some sort of summer festival. This is one that is very famous in the center of Tokyo, especially in the shitamachi (downtown/older area), the lower area of the city. Once again, the closest station is Kuramae, and we're here at Torigoe Shrine. I put a link in the description as well as tagged this location, so if you are in the area, make your way over here because it's going to get exciting in just a little bit. You can hear the chanting. There it is in the distance. It's going to start making noise. It's making its way towards us, the omikoshi. It's right here.

00:14:01 John Daub: Alright, now everyone is starting to move towards Torigoe Shrine. Little by little, the police, you can see, are separating the people with the crowd. I don't know why the crowd would jump in here. But I know that each group is different, separated by their colors. Over there, they have a different colored yukata (light kimono) on. They're gray over there on the other side. At any moment, a fight can break out too. They're known to happen, so if it does, we'll be here live to cover that.

00:14:49 John Daub: We've got a front row seat here, everybody. It's just going to be a couple of minutes now, and it's getting closer and closer. And when the portable shrine, the omikoshi, makes its way really close to here, you're going to feel it. You're going to feel an amazing amount of energy. And this is, we would say, part of being so close to God. But I think it also has to do with just being close to a thousand people who want to be a part of the omikoshi. So, you can feel that, which is what I hope you can through this livestream. I'm in a very crowded place, so I apologize that the signal is not as strong as it can be.

00:15:25 John Daub: But I also filmed this last year, so you can get another point of view, another angle of this from a livestream I did on the Only in Japan Go channel, right here last year. Alright, now it's starting to get closer and the energy is building up. The omikoshi is just in the center right of the screen. You can see it going up and down in the distance. It's getting a lot closer. Station 240, thank you for the update. I appreciate hearing that the signal is okay, because I want to make sure that you see this as clear as possible. Because it is very exciting when the omikoshi goes by, like it did when we started this livestream about 15 minutes ago.

00:16:39 John Daub: So, the police are making announcements, trying to keep the peace between the different groups. Each group gets a chance to carry Tokyo's heaviest omikoshi. And it's just completely filled with gold. We can hear the chanting now as it makes its way closer and closer to where we are. And it should be going back and forth on the street. This is the first of many passes that they'll do. This is how I'm filming this. I'm just leaning over the ropes here. And they're coming right for us. This is very cool.

00:18:17 John Daub: Here it comes. So right now we're live in front of Torigoe Shrine in Kuramae. The police presence here is very, very heavy. Kanae, you want to say hello?

00:19:08 Kanae Daub: Yes. Hahaha. Kanae is here.

00:19:14 John Daub: Alright, here it comes. You can see it bouncing up and down. It's telling everybody to move up a little bit. You can see all that energy and dancing around the shrine, carrying it up and down, up and down. It's very, very heavy. Now you're starting to feel the excitement, at least I do over here. It's hard to know if this transfers through the camera, but the feeling down here in front of it is just amazing. The amount of energy. It is definitely a power spot.

00:20:42 John Daub: Alright, here it comes. Last time when it went by there was no police presence and it was quite close. This time there's a lot of police separating the crowd from the omikoshi. Alright, here it is. It's very close now. Wow. Alright, so that group has brought it this far. And you can see the leader on the left side there, kind of conducting it like an orchestra. It's a different group now, right? Yeah, they're all changing. Yeah, so every group is changing. Everybody gets their own next turn. So it's time for the next group to take over.

00:23:02 John Daub: At the end the group let out a roar, and it was to celebrate the ending of carrying the omikoshi—this heavy, golden, portable shrine all the way the distance to here. And now they're gonna pick it up again. But it's pretty neat to be right in front of it. It's now situated approximately 5 meters away from us, so it's quite close. On the top, I showed this to you yesterday in the street food episode. But you can see on the top there, it's solid gold—that bird on the top. It's very valuable. And if I pan down you can see all of that gold plating. That's what makes it very, very heavy.

00:23:50 John Daub: Now the leader... Ah, the leader, yeah, the next one's coming. So we have a typhoon warning here in Tokyo. There's a typhoon that's apparently on the way. We're not sure if it's gonna hit Tokyo, but it's been raining all day. And this has caused the crowds not to be as much. Mostly local people are out this time. But still, there's a really nice buzz and a nice energy, a nice feeling in the air here.

00:24:21 Kanae Daub: What's that street?

00:24:22 John Daub: What?

00:24:23 Kanae Daub: That street.

00:24:23 John Daub: This street?

00:24:25 Kanae Daub: Kuramae Bus Street. Ah, the street? It's on the way to the shrine.

00:24:29 John Daub: Huh? It's on the way to the shrine. Oh, oh. It's like this. Like this? Yeah. Yeah, everybody!

00:24:51 John Daub: See the chōchin (paper lanterns) are now making their way towards the shrine. And the omikoshi will make its way down the street once again to the end, and then make its way back here. And it does this several times until every group has had a chance, changing hands. And around 9 p.m. the omikoshi makes its way back into the shrine grounds, where it'll stay for another year until the next festival, 365 days later. Yeah, the omikoshi weighs a lot, David. This one is the heaviest one in Tokyo. I'm not exactly sure of the weight, but when I have all the information I'm gonna put it in the description for people to check out, so get more information on this amazing festival—one of the oldest that originated in the Heian period, which started like way back, I'm talking like 1200 years ago.

00:26:35 John Daub: Believe it or not, Asakusa Senso-ji, which is just about a kilometer away from here, was founded in the year 700, so around then. So, this area of Tokyo is definitely one of the oldest, having much of the history. And here comes the line of police officers. I'm not sure why, are they protecting it? What are they actually doing? I think they're like protecting the line. The police should have their own festival. That would actually be kind of cool. Is that a chōchin there? Chōchin? Is that a chōchin? The police have their own lanterns? I don't think so. I'm sort of just making fun, but they do have their own chants and they're very organized, the Tokyo police force.

00:27:47 John Daub: Alright, so we're getting a report that the bird on top is a phoenix, a Japanese phoenix. And it's called the hōō (phoenix). Alright, now there's nobody in this area. And the police are closing it. So it's not going to be making its way back here. This is it. So the police are saying we can actually go underneath the ropes now. And it's not going to be coming back this way. So pretty much I hope that gives you kind of an inside look at what the Torigoe Festival is like, what a summer festival in Japan is like. This one is really famous. And if you're in Tokyo at this time of year, I think this is a good one to go to because there's not a lot of people who know about it.

00:28:52 John Daub: Now before I end this livestream, I'm going to take you back here and show you some of the street food. So I'm just going to show everybody the street food for a minute. I mean I could show you this festival going on for the next like 45 minutes, but I think you kind of get the feeling of it. Let me show you going underneath the ropes here, what the street food is like here—just do a quick walkthrough. I show this during the daytime, but it might be a little bit different at night. I know that about two hours ago when I walked through here there was nobody because of the rain. And now it's gotten very crowded.

00:29:48 John Daub: So just walk with me. Let's take a look at some of the street food. And I think at this time of night people aren't really eating. But what I like about going to these festivals at night is that the lights really light up and you can see the canopies. Each one has a different color. This one has a light blue and a red and a yellow. The lights really illuminate. And with the wet streets it does even look even cooler. So last time Kanae and I we ate like a lot. And you can see that live stream from yesterday in the Only in Japan Go channel.

00:30:34 John Daub: Many of the shops are starting to clean up actually. This is the butatama yaki or yakitama buta—it's like reversed. They don't got anything on offer right now. And this one is the ikayaki, the grilled squid. He's cleaning the grill, so it looks like they're just about done. But it is kind of neat. This guy is selling karaage (Japanese fried chicken). They're getting rid of the soba. This was also in the stream yesterday—this jambo soba, 500 yen for a big size, 600 for a massive big size. So this is very good.

00:31:20 John Daub: This is Hiroshima version okonomiyaki (savory pancake). You can see they still got some here with bacon. Let me get a little bit closer. But the problem is that it's been sitting there for a long time. I walked by here an hour ago and I think those are the same ones that have been sitting there for an hour. So I might not be having anything to eat. We had a bunch to eat before we started this live stream. But it's pretty cool to walk through a market or a street festival at night, despite the rain. A lot of people. This is the end of it. Tomorrow everything will be gone and the street will look like a festival never happened. Many of the people making sure that the area was cleaner than it was before they got there. And that's sort of the Japanese way of doing things.

00:32:10 John Daub: Alright they're grilling right here. Woah. He's there grilling. He said oishii (delicious). It's really delicious. How can you say no? It is actually hard to say no. These street stands—there must have been about 300 of them. They go three alleys deep. Oh now he's making them. Alright I wanted to get this as well. So this is like okonomiyaki on a stick. These are 400 yen. He's starting to make them. These are really good too. It's the only stand where there's like people around it.

00:33:16 John Daub: So this is okonomiyaki on a stick. You can see the fried eggs on the left side, starting to simmer up. And when you make Hiroshima style okonomiyaki the egg is quite important. So I guess this is like Hiroshima style. Oh no he puts the egg on top of it. Wow. Oh man this is good. Oh man. Oh he's got—they made an order to carry out. Wow now that is actually a bargain—400 yen for that. Oh man I might have to get this and film this for the next episode. The Only in Japan main channel's next episode is okonomiyaki. Kevin and I talk about—we compare Hiroshima vs Osaka's okonomiyaki. That's one lucky woman taking that home.

00:34:44 John Daub: So he's got egg whites in the distance there—you see that? Very cool. So I hope that you like that, that sort of you get a feeling of it. This festival is every year right?

00:34:54 Passerby: Yeah every year. Every year.

00:34:57 John Daub: Every year you come to this festival?

00:35:00 Passerby: Yes of course.

00:35:02 John Daub: Oh yeah we came here last year so see that every year. And there you go—there's the last stall or stand. If you like to call it. That one says okonomiyaki from Hiroshima but there's like nobody there. They're pretty much done for the night. YouTuber! That's right. They've identified me. Yay.

00:35:27 John Daub: Alright. So from that we're gonna end this live stream. Thanks for joining us on this adventure. I hope that you felt the feeling of what it's like to be in a Japanese festival as they close up shop for the rest of the night. There's Kanae's sister and her boyfriend and her father and the whole family. Alright everybody, see you next time. It's been the last 20 seconds looking at the Hiroshima okonomiyaki stand as they close up shop for another year. Bye bye. Well then make sure you like, subscribe, and leave a comment.

00:36:04 John Daub: Okonomiyaki. I like it.